Text: Exodus 3:1-10 BURNING BUSH 1. You have a message January 2-3, 2016 ***** We re starting a three-week series today called Burning Bush - Living Out God s Purpose For Your Life. Please turn with me to Exodus 3. When I was a kid, I never really thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Sure, I dreamed of how cool it would be to be a baseball player. But I never really thought that was what I would actually do. I never stressed about it. I figured that when the time came, somehow I would know what I was supposed to do. But I know a lot of adults who are not sure what they want to be when they grow up. Even though they re making a living, they re not sure what they should be doing with their lives. Maybe some of us here today are in that boat. We may have a job, but we re not really sure if we re doing what God has called us to do in life. Are we living out the purpose for our lives? If someone were to ask you today, What is your calling, how would you answer them? If you don t have a clear answer to that question, you're in the right place. We re going to learn about that for the next few weeks. Each of us has a unique calling. Even if we're not crystal clear on exactly what our calling is, we have one nonetheless. Sometimes we hear about pastors having a call to ministry. But it's not just pastors who are called. Everybody is. But how can we discover our calling? Earlier in the service, we read Exodus 3:1-10, about Moses hearing God speak to him from a burning bush. We might think, I wish God would speak to me that clearly. I don t even need a burning bush. God could speak from some burnt toast or even an email. Just tell me what I m supposed to do. The good news is that we don t need to hear from God in a burning bush like Moses did in order to discover our calling. In fact, expecting and waiting for a burning bush moment may actually hurt our ability to discern our calling. God s calling is rarely an instantaneous event, even in Moses life. Moses story starts before the burning bush, back in Exodus 2. His Jewish mother had to give him up at birth in order to keep him safe. An Egyptian princess ended up finding him and raising him as her own. So Moses became part of the nobility, even though the rest of his people were slaves. When Moses grew up, it hurt him to see his people being mistreated. One day, he saw an Egyptian official abusing a Jewish slave, and Moses tried to help out and ended up killing the Egyptian. As a result, he had to flee to the desert, where he worked as a shepherd for 40 years. One day, while Moses was tending the sheep, he saw a bush that looked like it was on fire but wasn t being consumed. When he went to investigate, the Lord spoke to him, saying that he was God and was sending Moses to Pharaoh so that the Jews could be set free.
As we look at the example of Moses story, we will see that a calling from God has at least three distinct elements. R.J. Scherba pointed me to Tony Stoltzfus work 1 on finding our calling. He puts it like this: Life Message + Role + Audience = Calling Let me tell you what I mean by each of those parts that make up our calling. The Three Parts: 1. Being part (Life Message.) Each of us will have a Life Message which is about our being -- about what we are like - our character. This is one part of Jesus character that you are called to represent more than any other. It will show up as a theme in your life. Moses trait was humility. The Bible called him the most humble person ever. That was the character trait of God that he demonstrated the most. And the theme of his Life Message was Freedom for the Jews. That was a theme of his life even before he met God. (It was what prompted him to kill the Egyptian slave master.) We can see examples of a Life Message in other famous people. Mother Teresa s Life Message trait was kindness, and her theme was Serve to the poorest. Billy Graham s trait was integrity, and his theme was Jesus saves. But it s not just famous people who have a Life Message. Each of us does. You and I have a Life Message. If you re unclear on what that is, come on back next week. I'm going to focus the whole message on how to discern what your Life Message is. For now, you can ask yourself, what part of Jesus character do you show the most? What stirs in you most deeply? That s a clue to your Life Message. 2. Doing (Role.) Another part of your calling is a task you perform, a role you do. It's an activity. This is what people think of most often when considering the idea of a calling. What am I supposed to be doing? What will make me say, I was born to do this. This doing part is one component of our calling, but it s not the whole thing. Our role is simply the channel for expressing our Life Message. In Moses life, his role was to be the Leader and nation-builder for Israel. Now, he also had a few other roles during his lifetime. For awhile, he was a noble in the Egyptian royal family. And then he was a shepherd. Those roles weren't final, but they weren t a waste of time or a detour from his true calling. Those roles provided important background for what God ultimately called him to do. Your role might be the job you're paid for. Or it might not be. And you may have a variety of roles as you express your Life Message. Two weeks from now, we ll spend the whole message talking about discovering your role. 3. Focus (Audience.) This is the core of your calling -- to express your Life Message to other people through your role. Your calling is to influence others, and your audience is the group you focus on. For Moses, his audience was the Jewish people. That was who he served by expressing his Life Message through his role. For Mother Teresa, it was the poorest of the poor of 1 The Calling Journey; Tony Stoltzfus
India, and then later the whole world. That was the group she expressed her Life Message to. Our audience might be primarily our kids, or it may be high school athletes, or terminally ill people, or business leaders, or young men without fathers. The point is, your calling is given for the benefit of others. Like Rick Warren says in Purpose-Driven Life -- it s not about you. Writer David Brooks says, Commencement speakers are always telling young people to follow their passions. Be true to yourself. This is a vision of life that begins with self and ends with self. But people on the road to [character growth] do not find their [callings] by asking, what do I want from life? They ask, what is life asking of me? How can I match my talent with one of the world's deep needs? It is can be fulfilling to pursue your calling. But self-fulfillment is not your call. If you make self-fulfillment your mission, you will end up empty. As Jesus says in Matthew 10:30 - Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. So our calling is not just one specific, preordained task we are to do. It s not that there is one prearranged route I m supposed to follow or I ll miss it. Your call is to embody a unique facet of Christ s character through the channel of your role or task. In other words, to be Jesus in a unique way to other people. Eugene Yoon's story is a current day example of a calling experience. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/on-the-road-one-mans-long-journeyto-help-a-stranger-walk-again/ That s an inspiring experience, isn t it? If you look at it closely, you can see the three elements of call in Eugene s experience. Life Message: Eugene had an inner desire to help someone else in a major way. He felt this even before he knew who he was supposed to help. All he knew was that God was calling him to help someone in a life-changing way. Then he found his Audience: he found the paralyzed man. That was who he served. Role: he became a hiker who communicated through social media. It s how he expressed his message. Notice that it wasn t his job. In fact, he had to quit his job in order to accomplish his calling. This was an inspiring experience. But it s a little too simple to say that Eugene s calling in life was to help that injured man walk. It was his calling at that time, but his calling goes well beyond one man. Eugene is only 28. Most likely, he has many years ahead of him. My guess is that Eugene is going to express his Life Message to help change someone s life in other ways in the future. The three parts of our calling don t come together all at once, and they usually aren t clear at an early age. We don t just go to a seminar or retreat and find them. They develop over time. Consider a woman I know named Ann. God has gifted her with a high level of compassion. Her Life Message may be mercy for the hurting. She worked for years as a nurse, expressing that Life Message to those who were hospitalized. Then she went on to volunteer for Hospice, expressing that message to the dying. Then she led a support group for grieving people at church. Her Life Message is working out through different roles and audiences.
Or a guy I ll call Scott. His Life Message is about giving direction to young men who don t have any. He does this through coaching football. His primary interest isn t winning games. It's building men. You don t have to quit your job to do something heroic. You can express your Life Message in many different ways. But no matter where you are, there is a foundational step we need to take in order to receive our calling. To discover your calling, you must commit to know God. We might think that the burning bush was a big deal because that was where Moses learned about what he was supposed to do. That wasn t the most important part of the burning bush experience. The reason the burning bush was so important was that was where Moses first met and heard God. The first thing God did through the burning bush is to tell Moses who it was who was speaking to him. God introduces himself to Moses. Exodus 3:4-6 Do not come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 6 Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. The most important thing Moses needed in order to fulfill his purpose was to know the God who was calling him. God says, Take off your shoes -- God is showing Moses that He is holy. Moses is going to need to know and experience that God is holy if he is going to be able to lead the Jews to become a holy nation. God says, I am the God of your father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses needs to know that God has been at work creating the Jewish people for centuries. Until we commit ourselves to knowing God, we will not find our calling. The point is not just knowing about God, but knowing God in a personal, experiential way. That's because our calling is built on our Life Message, which is a unique expression of the character of Jesus. Until we have the character of Jesus growing in us, we cannot find our calling. And that character grows as the Holy Spirit lives in us. And that only happens when we know God. And the calling we will get will be to serve the purposes of God and other people. In order to do that, we need to know God. Why does God even call us to a task? He created the world without us; He could have chosen to run it without us. One of the reasons God chooses to involve us in what he does in the world is that when we work together with him, we will get to know him better. Doing the task God calls us to brings Jesus into our working life and expands our relationship with him. So at the start of this year, let me ask you: what will you do differently this year in order to get to know God better? If your relationship with God is going to change, it will be because you are doing something different this year than you have in the past. Consistent worship attendance is certainly an important part of getting know God better, but it's not enough. Meeting with him daily through prayer and Bible reading is vital, too. We want to train you in how you can grow closer to God. If you have not already taken the "Following Jesus" class, I urge you to sign up for it today. If you have not become part of a small group, that is another important avenue. Maybe you ve never done something like that in the past.
Then again, you won t change your relationship with God without changing your routines. When you follow Jesus, you will fulfill your call. This is a liberating promise. Can you name God s purpose for your life right now? Don t be too stressed out if you can t (or too sure of yourself if you can.) What we see as our life purpose might be very different from what God sees it to be. It may look so different from heaven s point of view that we might not recognize God s purpose. I think we would be surprised if we were to see our life s purpose from God s standpoint. Some of the most mundane and routine parts of our lives would take on more meaning than we know. And we may overestimate the eternal significance of what we consider to be the most important activities in our lives. Here is God s promise: Romans 8:28 says, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. God will use everything in our lives toward the purpose he has for us. The good news is that if you follow of Jesus, you will accomplish his purpose for your life. You don t have to worry that you can t name that purpose at the moment. As you pursue knowing Jesus and make yourself available to him, you will be fulfilling God s will for your life whether you know it or not. That s because as you follow Jesus, you'll develop his character. And one part of his character will eventually stand out more than others. So you may not be able to name your Life Message today, but it will be growing in you anyway. And as you follow Jesus, he will lead you to express that character in practical ways. You will find a role. You might not recognize that you have an audience, but as you follow Jesus, you will love and influence others anyway. It s helpful to understand our purpose. I hope this message series helps you do that. But in the end, what matters most is not that you know your purpose. It's that you fulfill it. And if you are following Jesus with your whole heart, that will happen.