Our Mission and Calling

Well, happy Sabbath, everybody! Y'all, we're coop forward to the conference at the beginning of the month. See, like, the things are, again, coming on us very, very fast. It won't be long before it'll be warm and we'll be complain about how hot it is. You know, so, so anyway, hopefully, hopefully it won't get too hot, though, in, in, in this area. That's one of the nice things about the bay area, isn't it? The temperatures tend to be moderated by the fog that creates sort of where the air conditioning system.

I guess that's why there are eight million people who live here, you know, and people would like to, more people would like to live here, probably. Let me ask you a question here to begin the message today. What is from birth you wasted entirely your life? From the time you were born, I mean, you wasted your, your life in all manner of useless things.

You ignored work. You know, it's like a full-letter word to some people. You practice every sin, possibly by a human being, like to say, wine, women, and song. Or if you're a woman, wine, men, and song. And you did it just every day of your life, either that's what you did in your life. Let me ask you this. Do you think that would be a crime against God for you to do that? To live your life that way? To live a purposely unfulfilled life, I think, would be a crime against God.

Because it is a, in fact, something contrary to the creation that God made when he brought human beings into existence. Because God created human beings for, as we have said many, many times before, you know, from this very pulpit, that God has a transcendental purpose for mankind.

That all human beings are created for a great purpose, to be a part of God's family. And our allies are to prepare for that, that future that we're going to have. Now, I mentioned about, again, what if you wasted your life? You know, what is God's view of you now, and what you've done with your life? That you're considering your own fulfillment of your mission and calling their life. Again, fulfilling this transcendental purpose that God has for all of us to be a part of this family.

I want to talk about, in the course of this sermon today, I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks in a sort of jail that came together this week. Is, are you living, are we living our calling and mission in life? Are you living? I'm going to make it personal to you. But again, anytime I am up here, I'm talking to myself as well, but are you living your calling and mission in life?

How are you doing with it? Well, most of us wonder, well, why did God call me? Did God look for anything when He decided He was going to call you now at this time? How is it possible that you could be seated here in the midst of God's people today? Well, we know it says in John 6.44, it says, no man could come to me except the Father draw him. So, somewhere along the line, we caught the Father's attention, didn't we? And that's why we're here.

And there's no other way in which a person, in fact, can be here with God's people, unless they're being drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ. And by being drawn to Jesus Christ, we're naturally drawn to His Church. Look, because Christ is here. Christ is the head of the Church. We are told in Revelation that He walks in the midst of the 7th door of the candle sticks.

And so, He's white and reviled in the Church. So, that's why the Church, again, is very important. It comes to be drawn to Christ. And so, the Father in Heaven, brethren, thought about you, particularly you, before you were drawn to Jesus Christ. He did not do that capriciously. He didn't do it just like that. He thought about you. He had a place for you in my room when He decided He was going to draw you to Christ, a place in the Church.

Because it says He places in the Church as it pleases Him. Now, let's go over to Ephesians, chapter 5. We just, of course, observe the Passover, which looks to the sacrifice of Christ and what Christ did for us.

But here, Paul says in verse 1 and 2, we'll just look at these two verses, therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And so, we're told to imitate God. And so, that's our paragon that we are to imitate. We are to walk as dear children in our lives and fulfilling that mission that God has given to us. And we're still in a walk in love as Christ also has loved us. So, as we live our lives, as we walk with God, we're going to walk even as Jesus Christ. Walk and walk in love because Christ loved us. Love should be, in fact, the finest. But Madison gave Himself for us, and so He gave Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smell of aroma. And so, He was like that sacrifice that Aaron and his sons and the priests put on the altar of God that ascended to God. But Christ was that sweet-smelling incense in the nostrils of God. And so, Jesus Christ, brethren, gave Himself for us to call us. And so, a great big Christ, brethren, has been praying for you and me that we could be called into the church today so that our sins could be forgiven. And Christ, again, made that possible. But God saw in you, brethren, traits that He desired within His church. Now, there were traits that He put in us through His own creation of us. And those traits, by the way, some of them latent, He would have to develop through the Holy Spirit, which would take time. And how does He do that? He does that by allowing us to go through trials in our lives. He wants us, brethren, to be people who are on a mission in our lives and according. And there is an end to the road here. There's a, you know, a ribbon across the finish line for the future. This waste does not go on forever and ever for us. It is, again, a lifetime that we spend in striving to fulfill that mission and that goal in our lives. But we should be on a definite mission. It is a mission of God. I want to talk to you, brethren, about this. I want to talk to you about what it means, brethren, what it means to be, in fact, somebody who is seriously, purposely walking according to God's laws. It is on a purposeful walk, on a purposeful mission in life. You know, how were God's people supposed to be? How are God's servants supposed to be? Sometimes I think, sometimes our brethren don't grasp these things as they should. Sometimes I've been very disappointed, brethren, in what I see people not doing in their lives. I remember when I came into the church, brethren, there was a lot more. People had a lot more to get up and go. A lot more of them and vigor. Of course, we were all younger in those days, weren't we? That may have had something to do with it. But I remember when people would come to church, though, and they would have their Bibles with them, and they would have a milk pad, and they would be writing down things, but then we're hearing. And they were really earnestly wanting to live a certain way of life. They wanted to hear all about it.

They wanted to hear all about it. Somewhere along the line, you know, we've lost that. Sometimes I see people come to church, they never have a Bible. I guess they got it memorized, huh? No, I don't think so. But what are the characteristics, Brethren? What are the traits of a true sermon of God? I don't mean that you've got to have a notebook, write down everything everything the minister says, everything in the congregation. It did an idea to write down at least a few Iluists that were presented on the Sabbath and the Holy Day so that we could give an answer to somebody who says, hey, what was the message about? Well, I don't know, but I had a good sandwich.

You know, not such a good idea of doing the Days of Unleavened Bread. But what are the traits, Brethren, that we ought to be heaven as God's servants? When I get five traits, I want to talk about here today with you. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on each one, Brethren, but I think they're very important traits. Number one, Brethren, is the service of God are deeply loyal to God. They're loyal to God. It's like in a marriage, you know, you think about, you know, a wife or a husband are faithful, aren't they? They're loyal to them, aren't they?

You know, when maybe he's turned on his head, you know, his wife's not out for it with somebody else. Or when she's turned on her head, he's out for it with somebody else. But God is a jealous God, the Bible actually says that. But God's servants, Brethren, those who are on a mission of life, a purpose of life, are loyal to God. Let's go over here to 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18. It's wonderful when you propose to your wife, men, that you said to her, you know, I love you. You know, you were like the rising and the setting of the Sunday. Your lips, you know, are so wonderful to me. And, you know, I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Then he pauses a little bit and expects maybe he'll say a few things about it. And she says, eh, thanks. She doesn't say anything about loving him or caring for him. That's what you call, I guess, an unrequited love, isn't it?

But sometimes we can be that way to God. God says, I love you so much, I'm going to lay my son on the line and he's going to give his life for you. I give you my early-begotten son, just for you. Do you love me? God says. Then again, what is our answer? What do we do when we turn for God? What did Israel do? Well, you know, Israel was involved in demi-dowing with every notion that came along. Every god that came along, they seemed like they were calling away from God so easily. In 1st Kings chapter 18, verse 20, the other he was contending with the prophets of Baal, he was contending with King Erhad and old Jezebel. What a name, Jezebel! But anyway, here in verse 21 of 1st Kings 18, an Elijah came to all the people, these are the people of Israel, and he said, How long will you falter? They claim two opinions. If the eternal is God, follow him.

They'd bear them and follow him. But the people answered him not a word.

Well, you think after God delivered Israel from Egypt and he performed all these miracles with that, you know, the rowling cry from Elijah, the people said, Yes, Elijah, let's stand for God. Let's just whole nations stand for God. Let's throw these bail lights out the door, you know. But of course, that's not what happened.

Well, he said, you know, they're like that woman who's told by her, you know, feature made. I love you so much. But she said, Yeah, thank you.

They sent out a word here. But now it's going on. Then Elijah said to the people, I alone am not the prophet of return. But those prophets are 450 men.

It is amazing, isn't it? We think here in the Oakland congregation, we have a lot of elders. But really, we're a few in number, aren't we? You know, we've got just a few elders here. Look at all the prophets of Baal right here in the Oakland area. You probably couldn't number them. I mean, they've got every variety, too. They've got men, women. They've got, I'm talking about ministers, of course. People claim them to be ministers. You've got probably the transsexual ministers. You've got all kinds of the variety, women ministers.

Whatever is here in the area. Of course, all of those contrary to God's law to begin with. But here, in this case, you know, God reveals through us what is Him, includes that Elijah thought he was the only one. Actually, he wasn't the only one, was he? Because there were other prophets. There were other servants of God. Remember, there were true servants that were preserved during this time. But Elijah, for all practical purposes, seemed like he was the only one. But God told us, look, I've got 7,000 people who haven't built their need of Baal. So there were other people. But, you know, they weren't vocal, apparently. They weren't to be heard in this particular case. But what we find here, in this particular situation here, He says, how long are you going to falter between two opinions? If God is God, then serve Him. If it's Baal, well, then serve Him. Of course, in chapter 18 here, we find what happened here. But it became very clear that Baal worship was of no value whatsoever. You know, the prophets of Baal, as we know, they were crying out to Baal for, you know, things. They were throwing themselves under the altar. They were cutting themselves. They were, they were, you know, to their false God when nothing happened. And all Elijah does is lift up his eyes to heaven and pray a spat prayer. And, boy, there's a, you know, what is an atomic fire that consumes the entire altar, not just the sacrifice, but the altar itself. Apparently, the stoles, everything were just consumed. It was gone. It's like it's been beamed up, you know, in the starship, you know, or something like that. But, you know, I'm just giving a little tricky here on you. But I don't know what God did. I have no idea what He did. He can do whatever He wants, of course. So, the prophets of God are deeply loyal. There's that fence study. You can't sit on the fence. And God's servants, brethren, can't sit on the fence. He can't say, well, I think, you know, I like United Church of God. But I like this, this group over here, too. You know, it's either one or the other. You've got to get off the fence. You can't do work in two different places. You've got to get involved in the church and what's going on. Having on the governments of involvement is God's people. And by that, I'm not saying that there are other people. Even as Elijah didn't know, I'm sure there are many people that are God's people. We just don't know them all. God knows His own, but you're no expert. I'm no expert about that, but I know you are the people of God. I know that. And I really believe it very firmly. But we see that Elijah didn't sit on the fence. Of course, he paid the price of him and ended up running from Jezebel and other things. He was ostracized in the Kingdom and chased down and whatnot. But God always protected him. I think that that's another thing that's very interesting that we stand for God. We apply ourselves and build loyal to God as the service of God, living a purposeful mission in life. Let's go to John 5. John 5. To show you again, not only, brethren, do we see again the loyalty in Elijah, we see some kind of loyalty in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ did not come to seek His own. In verse 19 here, in John 5, in verse 19, He says, So He was deeply, deeply loyal to the Father. He was loyal to God. In verse 30, let's notice over here. Again, He says, I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me. So Christ set an example, brethren, for all servants on a mission is to be loyal to God no matter what. And so, brethren, if I can get across this one point to you, loyalty, brethren, is very important if we are on a mission and we're going to fulfill our calling in life. Don't think you're going to fulfill your calling if you're not loyal. If you're not loyal to God. You're not consistent, in fact, in that loyalty. Over in John 13, we're going to take a lot of time with this because we've already covered this in messages, certainly the Passover. But here in John 13, John 13, we're going to take a look at this. Now, in verse 21, remember that Jesus was saying that night of the Passover, he said in verse 21, and when Jesus said these things, he said, he was troubled in spirit and testified and said, most assuredly I say to you, one of you will betray me. One of you is going to betray me. You see, if that streak of loyalty is not there, brethren, is that trait of loyalty, we will betray eventually. The time will come when we will turn our backs on God. It happened to Israel. It can happen to us, too. But verse 22, then the disciples looked at one another perplexed about whom he spoke. Now there was room on Jesus' bosom, one of the disciples, whom Jesus loved, and Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom he spoke.

And then, laying back on Jesus' breast, he said to him, Lord, who is it? And Jesus answered, it is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I dipped it. When I dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now, after a piece of bread, Satan entered him, and then Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly.

So, they're asking, did they allow him to pass over here? When he took that bread, and he had those bad intents in his heart, it was a signal for the devil to enter Judas. And Judas becomes, rather than the epitome that Jesus was of loyalty, he became the epitome of betrayal.

So, that is important. First of all, always make sure our heart is right when we protect the Passover for it, because if it's not, you know, we do it all, disobey God in that way, and we're not protecting of that Passover with a right heart. We have even intent that our heart, in other words, Satan can enter in and begin to take advantage of us. And again, we could follow the example, unfortunately, set by here the epitome of disloyalty, the epitome of betrayal, Judas Iscariot. But of course, we want to be like Christ. We want to walk in his steps and be, you know, following the epitome of loyalty. Another great brethren, that those who are on a mission, in a calling, those that are not fulfilled that mission, is number two, if you're writing them down, is a servant of God fouls instructions. A servant of God fouls instructions.

Well, anciently, God found the one man, somebody who could foul instructions.

And he was so faithful, and what he did, he was called the father of the faithful. And you know the story. In Genesis 12, I'm not going to go over there, but in Genesis 12, God told a man named Agram, who dwelt, by the way, in one of the most modern areas of the world at the time, and he dwelt in Ur of the Calavines. And that was a modern city, by the way. It's Greece, it had sewage, it had, you know, places to live. But God told him, he said, I want you to go to a place I'm going to show you. As you know, God asked him to go to the land of Canaan. Now, Canaan was not such a place as Ur. Canaan would be a place where you'd have to grow intense. Different world, different lifestyle. How many of you like to camp out, by the way? I mean, that you really love camp camping out. Some people say that their idea of camping out is a bad holiday land. But some people are not keen on camping out. Well, Agram was going to have to do a lot of camping out. Different world all together. But God said, I want you to leave your family and go to this place. And of all things, Abraham's an equivalent with God. He just simply did it. Now, in Genesis 17, I'm not going to go there, but just in verse 1, God said to Abraam, He said, I want you to walk before Me and I want you to be perfect.

And He said, if you will be perfect, I'll make you the Father of nations, many nations, many peoples. So we have these promises that God made to Abraham if he was faithful. And how did He prove, by the way, that, you know, He was faithful? Well, God says, walk before Me and be perfect. Walk before Me and be perfect. And we find a little bit later, as in Genesis 26, verse 5, that God said, because Abraham obeyed my voice, He kept my commandments, statutes, and judgments. So He observed God's law. He walked in God's laws before God. That's what it means to walk before God and be perfect. And, you know, over the course of time, God began to look at Abraham. He changed his name, you know, to Abraham, the name of the Father of nations, many nations. In fact, His wife's name was changed as well. But later, God was going to test him.

In Genesis 22, you know, God was going to test him. In verses 1 through 3 there, it talks about how did He said, I want you to take your son, whom He had promised to him, Isaac, and I want you to sacrifice him. You're taken to a place in sacrificing. You know, He was taken to bow to Uriah, from what we understand, the place where the Dome of Rock is, in fact, right there. You're in Jerusalem. And that's what I want you to sacrifice him. And what did Abraham do? Again, he followed instructions for what God had said.

And he took Isaac and he went to a place, and he fully intended to do what God had said. Now, you can read a little bit over in Hebrews 11 in verse 9, and it says that when he was asked to do this difficult thing, it would have been a very, very difficult thing to sacrifice your only son, that you'd waited all of your life. You know, by, you know, here Abraham was a hundred years old. He was older than that at this particular time, because Isaac was a, you know, probably a young man, maybe 16 or 17 years of age at this time. And of course, Abraham's, you know, son, he loved greatly. God wanted, I think, I think God wanted Abraham to know what it's like to give your son, to fear that, that loss. And, you know, here we see the scene in Genesis 22, how he raises his knife he's going to to sacrifice his son. And God tells him, no, don't do it, you know. But, but in Hebrews it says that on the way he was committed to do it, and it says he concluded that God would raise Isaac from the dead, because of what he promised him.

And so he realized God was in charge. And we know after that, we, there in Genesis 22, God said, now I know. Since you have not withheld your only son, I can bring to pass all the things I've said about you, Abraham, to make him into, you know, a great people, many nations, many kings that would come out of him. There's the Bible talks about for him and his wife, Sarah. And so you see a servant of God, we see this pattern all the way through the Bible. A servant of God follows instructions, follows instructions.

Now, you know, I mentioned to you about first grump.

The first grump, by the way, in the movie, he's sort of a, he's, what is the word, mentally challenged to be, you know, we've got to be careful because we've got to be politically correct today in what we say. But he was very challenged, very slow type of individual, had a lot of good qualities, never as screwed in him. But he was very slow and he was very, very challenged. But, you know, the whole movie, by the way, the parts of it are not good, but, but the whole movie, basically, he is always falling into great accomplishments.

He's a fictitious character, obviously, but it's an interesting story. But one of the things that was so interesting is, is when he went to Vietnam and he was decorated for, you know, going to Vietnam and he, and he had his lieutenant, was it lieutenant Dan that asks him, you know, talks to him and he said, how in the world did he, you know, we do all that. And he said, Lieutenant Dan, he says, I just did what you told me to do.

I think there's a lesson there for us, isn't it? Because when it comes before our great, queer God, as we stand before God, we're a lot like Forrest Gump, aren't we? We're a little more than we chose when it comes to dealing with our great creator.

And so all we have to do is do what he tells us to do. And things were very well for us in our life, but when we start concluding, God didn't know what he was talking about, or then we're very bit in trouble. We're here in 1 Samuel chapter 15. But the last 6,000 years, though, brethren, the story of man is, in fact, deciding God didn't know what he was talking about.

And that's what has gotten man in trouble so much. But in 1 Samuel chapter 15 over here, and we use this example quite often, but I think it really demonstrates this point rather well. In Samuel also said to Saul, the Lord sent me to an oat and kill over his people, over Israel. Now therefore heed the voice of the words of the eternal, in other words, foul his instructions. Follow what God says. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel. See, God's a great judge, and he's very fair. Amalek treated Israel very badly. And God is the judge. He's the one that makes the judgments on people, and he judged Amalek, and he punished. How he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt, the most vulnerable time of Israel's existence. Here there were people coming out of Egypt that did not have weapons. You know, all they had was probably hand tools or whatever that were used to farm, which would probably not help them at all, in fighting with Amalek, which was more developed. But it's something he said, now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they had, and do not spare them, but kill both men and women, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. You know the story in the account here. You may wonder, well, why would God want, you know, little children to be killed? Well, because of the way that oftentimes people's like this are. We knew what was going on in some of the schools over in the Middle East, among the Arab world, we would be shocked. We really would. We're little kids, brethren, are being taught in the Muslim religion to hate Israel, consider them monkeys, consider them, you know, Western done, basically, it's all right to kill them.

And not only that, they're taught to kill Christians. Everybody was not a Muslim. In fact, if you are Muslim, if you're not a faithful Muslim, you killed them.

And so this is the mentality that Amalek would have had. But because Israel did not follow God's instructions about some of these people, they were a continual form and the side of Israel. Better to just put it behind you than they always have to be dealing with. That's why, of course, over in Israel right now, today, there's a big problem in the Middle East because Israel didn't take care of following God's instructions, the way he said. And we know how that Saul didn't follow instructions. And because he did not follow instructions, let's go over here to verse 26. Verse 26. Notice in verse 26, But say to Sibesol, I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of eternal, and the word has rejected you from being killed over Israel. Do you get what he's saying here, brethren? If we reject God's instructions, if we don't follow instructions, God will reject us. Now, the man who rejects kings, he rejects us if we reject the knowledge he's given to us.

And it says, And as Samuel prayed around the door, a Saul seized the edge of his womb, and it was torn. And so Samuel said to him, The word has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and his giving it to a neighbor of yours who was better than you. Better than you. And of course, that neighbor he was talking about was none other than David. And David took care of business. And you know what happened? Israel became so huge, it was of course by the time of Solomon, it was a huge empire and influence in the world.

Often unnoticed, in fact, by historians, by the way, of how powerful Israel had become when God made him that way. But David was somebody who obeyed God, who fulfilled God's instructions. What God said. Well, let's go here to 1 Kings chapter 13.

We're only a story, by the way, of Jeroboam, about how Jeroboam during the days of after the death of Solomon, and when Rebaam became king, that Jeroboam became the leader of ten nations, a really king through the north. And as we know, God wanted him to be, in fact, the king.

Rebaam was going to mount an attack, in fact, on Jeroboam to burn them down. But God said, no, turn back, this is what I want. This is necessary.

Maybe there was a thought that perhaps the Judah could be saved. And it was for a time, because remember, Israel went into captivity before Judah did. But 1 Kings chapter 13 here, just to give you a little more background on this. And so what happens is Jeroboam, to keep people from growing down to Jerusalem and having their hearts turned to King Rebaam and back to Judah, is the institute that says a feast in the eighth month. And he set up a calf worship in two places, one of which was Bethel. And God sent a prophet to prophesy against Saul. And he told the prophet, he said, I want you to do this. When I send you up, I don't want you to eat or drink when you're there, or on the way back. He said, I want you to go up one way or go back another. He said, I do not want you to eat or drink. And so that was the instructions the prophet was given, to not eat or drink. And in chapter 13 here, of 1 Kings, I'm in Chronicles, that's not going to do any good, is it? But in chapter 13, verse 1, And behold, the more of God went from Judah, so it says to Bethel, by the word of the return. Again, he was told not to eat or drink, go give the prophecy, come back another way. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. So here's Jeroboam here, who has misled Israel, who's tenacious to the north, to worship a calf. He says, in fact, a calf walked him out of Egypt. If you can read the story. Then he cried out, his prophet cried out, against the altar, by the word of the eternal, said, O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord, Beholdeth child, Josiah, by name shall be born to the house of David, or in you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places, who burn incense on you, and those bones shall be burned on you. A terrible prophecy! And that was going to happen to this evil Jeroboam. And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign, which he told us spoken, Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out. And so it came to pass, which came Jeroboam, heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar, and there fell, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, and said, O rest him! And then his hand, which he had stretched out toward him, withered so he could not turn it back to himself again. And you know the story about how Jeroboam asked the guy here in Creek God that he be healed, and he was healed, here in the story. In verse 6 it talks about that. Verse 7, And then the king said to the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward. I'm going to give you a big reward. Come, come, home with me. But the man of God said to the king, If you were to give me half your house, I would not be with you. Nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. See, he got the instructions right, didn't he? He got the instructions right, don't eat in this place.

And so it was commanded by the word of the word, saying, We shall not eat bread nor drink water, but are returned by the same way. And so the woman of the land did not return by the way he cared for Bethel. And so here, you know what happened here is he got along the way, and there was a prophet that came to him and said, Well, you know, an angel told me that you should come and eat with me. Now, what does this tell you here? Well, it's possible this was a, you know, a righteous prophet. We don't know, but probably not. But, you know, he could do that. But obviously, if he had an angel appeared to him, there was a lion angel, which would have been a demon, they would have told him. But what happened is the prophet of God, who had said, you know, to Jerobo, I can eat in this place, should have said all along the way until he got back, in fact, to Judah, that he could not eat or drink. But because the prophet told him, whereas he turned around and with this man, he ate and drank, then along the way, he was attacked by a lion. They killed. And just an interesting story, if you haven't read through the whole thing. But I think it just really, again, shows very clearly here what God says we should do. You know, what was such a, you know, a parent's story, too, is here, this lion that had killed him, and the man's donkey stood by his body in the road on the way. And this prophet had told him to come and eat with him, had him buried in Bethel, and asked his sons to bury him there as well. But I think it just demonstrates very clearly, brethren, that a man of God follows instructions. God's particular, isn't he? If he tells you to do something, you'd better do it. There's a reason for it.

Well, perhaps if a man had done what God had told him to do, the lion would not have been there. He would not have carried with a prophet that said an angel had told him to come and eat with him, that he would have passed by, and he would have returned home safely.

So, you know, God gave him the instructions. But a true servant of God on a mission follows instructions. Now, you know that Jesus Christ over in John 17, verse 4, what did he say in his own life? You know, because he was sent on a mission. In John 17, verse 4, he said, I have glorified you on the earth. As he was praying to the Father, I finished the work. So the Father sent him to my work. He was sent with instructions to do his work. He says, what you have given me to do, the one that I've completed my mission.

I followed your instructions. God, I'm now ready to be offered up and to return to you. And so, by the way, I think a very important point here. If I can get this across, this point here of a true servant of God on a mission that has a calling follows instructions.

Number three point here, if you notice this again, it's all through the Bible. In fact, I'm going to spend a lot of time on this particular one because it's all through the Bible. I mean, you'd have to be blind not to trip over it. Or if you were reading through the Scriptures. Is a servant of God on a mission and has a calling is diligent in fulfilling his duties. He's diligent. He not just fulfills his duty like so many government workers.

It's like there's one worker, I don't know what you heard about him, but he climbed into some place, a jet aircraft, recently. And I don't know whether he fell asleep or what happened. He's making a cell phone call with somebody saying, so I'm in the airplane.

Apparently, he's beaten on the airplane to get out, you know, but it's amazing how people can can do some of the dumbest things. Not too diligent, huh? It's not a good idea to fall asleep in a dangerous place. Our airplane is going to go, you know, 35,000 feet in the air.

Not a good idea. But it seems like that people are, you know, today are not so diligent. But the sermon on mission is very diligent. Let me give you just a few examples. Again, this whole thing could be made under a sermon itself. How about Joseph? Very diligent. Young man, probably one man who was that way. He was the second in command in all of Egypt, because he was diligent. It seemed like everywhere he went, he was really a go-getter. There was a book we used to read when I was in Ambassador College called The Go-Getter. How many of you have ever read that? You were an ambassador, too, so that's probably where you read it. But Joseph was a go-getter. That's an interesting story, the go-getter story. That was read to us, by the way, by Dean Blackwell in class. It was like Dean Blackwell's story time. He didn't start reading the story to us back in those days. How about Daniel? He's another example of a diligent man. Again, from a very young man. Not only him, but he's associated with young men that were that way, too. Shadrach and Abednego were exactly the same way. Very diligent. And what happened to Daniel? He was second to command again in two empires, and his three friends, too. They were elevated quite high and were very prominent in those empires as well. Now, Jesus Christ himself, Jesus Christ himself, from the time he was 12 years of age. We know, at least, he was very diligent. Remember his time he had gone down for the Passover? And, I guess, he lost track of Jesus on the way back, and they looked and, you know, our year-end bird, and they found out Jesus was not with him. So, he went back, searching for him, looking all around, and then we were finding him. Was he throwing rocks and the book down with children? No, it wasn't, was he? But he was conferring, he was talking, you know, to the doctor's law. He was talking to those who were religious figures, probably people who had some knowledge of the Scriptures. He was talking to them, telling them things, and they were, of course, telling them things. Then, when his parents come and say, where have you been? They're looking all over creation for you. He said, well, you seek me. Did you not know that I must be about my father's business? Very early age, you see. This was his mentality. He was a good reader. Well, brother, are you a diligent person? You know, what if we read the Scriptures about Christ, by the way? And you came to this one Scripture about, and it was Christ's custom to get up with a crack of dawn and go out and pray. Instead of crack of dawn, by the way, it said the crack of noon. Wouldn't be really inspiring, would it? But when you envision people who are leaders, they're go-getters. Remember, General Carter, I didn't particularly think he was the greatest president. But, you know, he made this statement. He said, I can get up at nine in the morning, he said, and be rested. Or I can get up at six in the morning and be the president. Well, there is that difference, isn't it? Somebody said, go-getter, a diligent person.

You know, our lifestyle, again, should not be to waste our time, but to be diligent about the time that we have, that our time will be fulfilled. So how careful are you about your time, brother? Well, God has made no promises to you or me that time will serve us. Sometimes time runs out on us. Are you using the time you have, whether you're older or younger, to make the most of your calling? To be a go-getter, to be diligent. Number four, number four thing, and a very, very important thing that's out, is the service of God who on a mission kept themselves from being corrupted by the world and those around them. And, you know, you can be somebody who's protecting yourself and keeping yourself from the world without being weird. You don't have to have an attitude of, don't touch me, or walk on, you know, old shelves around me. You don't have to be that way. I don't think God, I don't think Daniel was that way. He was probably around quite a few pretty, pretty greedy people through his life. I can't imagine he'd work for an in-government position where it wouldn't be pretty gritty sometimes, probably every manner evil that he saw. But we as God's people, if it were to be service of a mission, then we have to keep ourselves uncorrupted from this world. Let's go over to Genesis 6. Genesis chapter 6 over here. In Genesis chapter 6, in verse 8, Genesis 6 and verse 8, We know the world became quite corrupted during the days of Noah, prior to the flood. But Noah had so much grace in the eyes of the Etrum. He felt grace in the eyes of the Etrum.

And it says, this is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, a perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. You get that one statement there? He walked with God. Now, what does it mean to walk with God? Do we already cover that? What did Abraham do to walk with God? He kept his commandments, judgments, and statutes. And that's what Noah built, too. He walked with God.

And how do you keep yourself from the world, by the way? You walk with God, you won't get corrupted by the world. And Noah had that trait about himself, and he kept himself uncorrupted from the world, from the society that was around him. But verse 11, notice, And the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence, like the world is today. Christ said, As in the days of Noah, so shall it be, and the days of the coming of the Son of Man. So God looked upon the earth, verse 12, and indeed it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. See, it was their way that they corrupted. But Noah himself walked with God. And whether we are going to keep ourselves from this world, and being tainted, and spotted by the world, we've got to be separate from this world. Over in John 17, John 17 over here, Jesus says this, in John chapter 17, he says this about the modern-day church today, as he said it about the church in 31 A.D. in that period of time. But in John 17, verse 14, he said, I've given them the world, and the world is hated them because they are not of the world. Why? Because they're living by the Word of God. They're walking with God, even as no libid, even as ill-octed, and all of the servants of God. And it says, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. See, Christ was not of the world. He was not of this society that is out here. And it says, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, whether you should keep them from the evil one, keep them from Satan. But they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth. So it's through the truth of God that we're kept clean. Then uncorrupted is God's people. And so, it's important for those who are on mission, have a purpose in life, they're going to be a part of God's family to keep themselves unspotted from the world. Over in James 1, 27, you can just write that one down, but it says, pure and undefiled religion before God. And the Father is this, to visit their friends, their riddles, and their trouble, and to keep their own self unspotted from the world. There are similar things that can corrupt us in this world and society we're living in. And parents have got to be careful with their children. They send them back to school. They come back with some federal ideas they get in some of the classrooms of today. You know, two moms and two dads and all kinds of stuff that people are having to deal with when their kids come home from school. Evolution. We really have to teach our children about what is the truth. You know, otherwise, again, our children become corrupted right under our noses. And it's happened to people. And of course, you've got to watch out also what you allow your children to watch on TV. Particularly today, people utilize the TV as the babysitter for their children. What a bad mistake that is. You know, they're all saying, garbage in, garbage out. If we put garbage in a kid's mind, what do we expect them to do? Our kids would tend to mimic what, in fact, we allow them to learn. But Christ's example was not to be a part of the world. Well, He showed that Elijah was not of the world either. He was not of the world at this time. No, he was not. And all of the servants of God were separate from the world. In fact, when David wrote, he said he did not keep company with those evil doers.

He did run with those kind of people. But he had friendships with people that were godly. And we need to, again, keep our friendships to that. Frankly, all else, there's nothing more of the acquaintances, aren't they, in the world?

I think the friendships in the world are very ephemeral, short-lived anyway.

He's shown so dramatically. Number five, number five here, is that servants who are on mission that have a calling, brethren, have one quality that is so important. I was talking, by the way, to a gentleman at the gymnasium where I work out. And he's probably, I would imagine, he's probably a little lower than I am. But, you know, he walks a marathon every day. Every day.

I tell you, my hat was off to him. I couldn't believe it. He does a lot of treadmill. That's even more incredible to me. But he's dedicated to that. But I noticed when he came in, through the gym, he was a pretty good ton, by the way. He's a big guy, you know. But it seems, I look over at him, he's still walking his 26 miles a day, and he gets better and better. Swakes, you know, every time I see him. And I'm sure his health has really made a big turn, turn around. But you know, how do you do that? How do you do that? Takes a lot of grit, doesn't it? Got to grip your teeth, get up and do it, every single day.

Well, you know, what it takes, brethren, to fulfill a mission and a calling is this one thing. Endurance. Endurance.

We got to do like, only a forest cup. Well, how did you do it? I just, I just followed your instructions. And the thing about a forest cup is he wouldn't give up. He would not give up. He kept following instructions. And of course, we know, the whole following is a fictitious story, but, you know, a very interesting story. And for us, brethren, all we have to do is endure.

Endure to the end is what Jesus said. He didn't endure to the end. The same is going to be served. Now, I've often remembered why, you know, I'm still around, quite frankly.

There's been so many others through the years, I'm talking about among the ministry, that have so much ability, so much talent. It's just incredulous, some of the people that have passed through the work. And that's interesting. Maybe it describes what they do. They just pass through the work. They're gone now. And the only claim I think I could have is I just endure it. I intend to have endured to the very end. I told you when I started this race, I told God that when I gave my life to Jesus Christ, I said, God, I don't know if I can make it across the finish line, unless you help me. But I will promise you this, even if I have to crawl across the line, I'll do it. And so I made that promise to God. So that's why I'm here today. And I'll be here, God willing, and something else doesn't happen. I'll be here until the end, hopefully with you, as you endure to the end. And by that, I mean, if something didn't happen, I hope I don't die between now and then. But I guess if I do that, I then endure to the end, right? But we already endure to the end, brethren. And Jeremiah, by the way, the prophet was given a job in the very early age, and Jeremiah didn't think he could do the job. So God said, I've made you a prophet today. And probably one of the greatest prophets that ever lived was Jeremiah. No one liked Jeremiah. But, you know, God told Jeremiah, though, once you start on this building your background, He said, I'm going to make your head full of it like that.

And He told him, in fact, I'm going to send you to people willing to listen to you. How do you like to start a job like that? In reality, sometimes that is what the ministry is. The ministry is talking to a lot of people that don't listen. Now, of course, you're different, right? You and I are different. But God told Jeremiah, look, don't be dismayed, because I will tear you in pieces if you get dismayed. Now, in other words, I'm going to hold you accountable. So, but once we start and embark on this, and I embarked on this about 1968, God says, don't give up. Endure to the end. There's no middle ground to that. You've got to endure to the end. And Jesus Christ was an endurer Himself. Let's go over to 1 Peter, 1 Peter, chapter 2. Now, God is calling people where these traits, brethren, these five traits, I'm going to give them to you again. Number one, those who are servants of God, who are calling on our mission are royal to God. They're royal to God, they're royal to the laws of God, and royal to the church, in fact. They're royal to one another.

Number two, they follow the instructions.

God says to Ver it, they follow the instructions that God has given. Number three, they're diligent and fulfill their duties. And number four, they keep themselves from the corruption of the world. And number five, they endure to the end. They're endure to the end. It was God going to do with all of that. He was you and me, but what is He doing? Again, let's go to 1 Peter, chapter 2, where we're here. 1 Peter, chapter 2, and down in verse 5.

Here, Peter says, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house. You see, if we have these qualities, we're going to be solid stones that can be set in the house that God is building. And not only that, it says, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And verse 9 says, for you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy motion. His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him and call you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Who wilt with not a people, but God has molded us and He's crafted us, brethren, such that we are now the people of God who have not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And, sir, beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims of stone from the flesh and lust which war against their soul, having the conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you, as evil viewers, they learn by your good works, which they observe glorified God in the day of visitation. So, brethren, let's make sure we are people. There are a mission, a purposeful mission and a purposeful calling. You're living in one of the most exciting times in the history of mankind, in the history of humanity. Well, brethren, you have an amazing from God.

God has called you out of the world, He's annoyed you for a job, for a mission, for a calling.

And if you follow that calling, He's going to preserve you. We see that again through all of the servants of God, from Lot, who was preserved, from Sod of Gomorrah, and all of the servants of God that were preserved, of course, is another example of the one who was faithful in God, preserved many times. And God will preserve you and bring you on into His kingdom. And brethren, that's why you've been specially selected by Almighty God. So, brethren, live and be. People, there are a special mission and calling, because that is our mission. That is our calling.