Isaiah 6 - Answering the Call
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good morning C3 Church how you guys doing this morning listen I'm not Pastor Gene my name is Tony Johnson I am not the lead Pastor I'm a volunteer here at C3 Church but our pastor is away celebrating uh his daughter's birthday and so uh we hope that they have a great time in which Sophie a very happy birthday um so while he's doing that he asked me to speak and I am honored to be up here honored and somewhat overwhelmed at times to be up here listen uh who knew it was time change weekend by the way did anybody know that my phone knew I'm thank God thank God my phone knew your phone knows I remember the days and this ages me but I remember the dates when you didn't have a phone that updated automatically and you had to set your clock before you went to bed and then everybody had an excuse why they missed church right because they're like oh I forgot to set my clock there's no excuses anymore you have a smartphone it knows exactly what time it is and it stays the same and so no more excuses for time change Sunday so I know we're all going on a little less sleep so I will try to talk fast if you listen fast um and we will be out of here and up to food in no time so Pastor Gene is supposed to be in the New Testament uh as he transitioned over into New Testament I was very excited about that because I love the Old Testament um and then last week he throws a curveball we do not plan our messages where I'm like hey what are you speaking on this is what I'm speaking on he kind of lets me have free reign on that right only he touched on Isaiah chapter six he looks at me like the day before I record my message I'm done recording because we do a pre-record I come out and I'm talking to him he's like hey man what are you preaching I'm like Isaiah chapter six as a matter of fact you may have been there for this conversation he goes yeah so am I and I said what you're supposed to be in the New Testament man so we're going to touch on a different aspect of Isaiah chapter 6 and what Pastor Gene spoke about last week he spoke about judgment a great message if you didn't get a chance to hear last week's message it is in the app I encourage you to download and go listen to it so today we are going to discuss something that Christians so-called Christians live their life looking for they seek it they pray for it some may run from it the call of God on your life the call of God on your life the call of God is truly a powerful thing in our life it provides us with a purpose and help us understand how we are to serve God so my question is sometimes why isn't it clearer why when God Saves us doesn't he just provide like give us an assigned course he's like this is what you're going to do this is how you're going to do it right I am a very non-signed guy so I've told you the story right my wife uh got tired of me throwing the clothes on the floor and so she bought a hamper that didn't help I continued to throw the clothes on the floor because I need a neon sign that tells me this is what you are to do and this is how you are to do it like I'm really good at following orders and so sometimes when we have to figure out what things are on our own we're like huh I don't really know what God wants me to do I don't really have any idea of what he wants me to do in my life and so we spend days sometimes months in prayer and we come to church and we're looking for how God wants to use us where he wants to plug Us in at and oftentimes we're looking so hard for that special call that special anointing that we miss God's purpose for our life we miss God's purpose for our life because we're like oh we're seeking so hard for that what am I supposed to be a pastor am I supposed to serve in children's ministry am I supposed to do that am I supposed to do this and oftentimes we miss what God has for us and so we are going to one of my favorite chapters of the Bible I think I say that every time I preach but Isaiah chapter 6 is where we're going to spend our time in Isaiah chapter 6 is the ultimate Old Testament picture of a calling of God see the Old Testament is on this grandiose scale like when you get when when Isaiah gets the call of God it's incredible and if you read the Old Testament it's so visually like you just imagine as you're reading it what he's standing before and as we get into it I'm really excited about this chapter so as we get into it you're going to understand when I read it I can literally see Isaiah standing there looking at this huge Throne of God with these Amazing Angels creatures surrounding and worshiping God and I can imagine that in that moment he feels as small and as sinful as he's ever felt in his entire life and yet he's willing to answer the call so let's look at Isaiah chapter six we're going to start with one and two uh it was in the year King Isaiah died that I saw the Lord he was sitting on a lofty throne and the train of his robe filled the temple important note here Uzziah is the mo sorry uziah was part I was a good King he led Judah to many military victories and expanded judah's Kingdom and influence so when we see this we see first it was the year Uzziah died we need to understand who he uziah is and if really to be honest with you Pastor Gene does a great job in this and when he walked through this in the Old Testament and then Chronicles so go back and listen to those but just to give you an idea this is a big deal that King Uzziah died King Uzziah was known to be a good King and we're going to get to how he died so it's shocking it's taking him off course here that's why it starts with it was in the year King Uzziah died how often do we remember things by what happened how often do we remember years by tragedies that happen by dates oftentimes the month September comes up and you don't even have to talk anymore and most people understand what you're going to go to there are dates and times in our life that are remembered because they're shocking and they're burned into our brains and this uziadine is a huge deal Isaiah starts with it and we go back to Second Chronicles we're going to see why in second chronicles 26 6-8 Uzziah declared war on the Philistines and broke down the walls of gath jabneth and ashdod then he built new towns in ashdod area and other parts of fellatia God helped him in his Wars against the Philistines his battles with the Arabs of ger by the way these names are fantastic and his Wars with the munites that was bad the me unites paid tribute to him and his Fame spread even to Egypt for it to become very powerful look at this his expanse his influence this is a great king everybody in Judah can look to this King and they're thinking yeah man we've got the guy this is the guy he's leading us his influence he's expanding he's expanding our influence yes we've got a leader we've got somebody we can get behind it's not very much longer in the Bible anyway in second chronicles 26 16-21 literally eight verses later we see but when he had become powerful he also became proud which led to his downfall he sinned against the Lord his God by entering the sanctuary of the Lord's Temple and personally burning incense on the incense altar Azariah the high priest went in after him with 80 other Priests of the Lord all brave men they confronted King uziah and said it is not for you Uzziah to burn incense to the Lord that is the work of the priest alone the descendants of Aaron who were set apart for this work get out of the sanctuary for you have sinned the Lord God will not honor you for this Uzziah who was holding an incense burner became Furious but as he was standing there raging at the priest before the incense alter in the Lord's Temple leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead and get this the last part of King uzziah's life when azeriah the high priest and all the other priests saw the leprosy they rushed him out and the King himself was eager to get out of this because the Lord had struck him so King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died he was separated he would have lived in isolation in a separate house he was excluded from the Temple of the Lord all of this because of sin and so when we see this when we see this this statement by Isaiah in the first part where he says it was the year King Uzziah died it was not an expected death it was not an honorable death if you were he didn't die the way he lived the way he followed God and expanded his kingdom he didn't die that way he died shockingly and in sin and so this shocked Isaiah it's probably mourned there were probably people mourning the loss of their King trying to understand why what happened but then in the immediate verse what we see is this you see this it was the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord he was sitting on a lofty Throne understand there are shocking things that go on in your life there are things in your life that will happen that you don't understand you don't know why you think there's no purpose to but here's the thing God is where he was then he is now and he forever will be he's on the throne God is in control see we oftentimes as Christians and I listen I am guilty of it I am in law enforcement I like to control situations when situations get out of my control things go bad and I don't like it so for me to for me to use serp control is like somewhat of you can ask my wife it is a hard thing for me to be like okay uh yeah God you can definitely control this if you do it the way I think it needs to be done right and so here it is Isaiah is telling us in the year King Uzziah died the sadness God was still on the throne he's still there somebody's going through something today you need to know God is still in control there is a God who is still in control who loves you who is sitting on the throne today oftentimes we look at life and we talked about listen I have spent the last week and this will be a lot of my message unexpectedly God put me in this weird place I spent the last week in Crisis Intervention training and this is where we learn how to be more lovable police officers this is where we learn how to deal with people in crisis mental uh behavioral things like that and so there is one word that circulated throughout all the videos and I mean just amazing amount of body cam footage where people were constantly stating I'm broken I'm lost I don't know what to do I don't know what's going on and they're crying out for help and if they only knew that there was a God on the throne who was in control and who loved them so that's what we start with in Isaiah and that's not even the message that was totally free by the way so now we're going to get to the real message you're like bro he's 10 minutes in and we're not even to the message yet don't worry like I said I talk fast so here we go we're going to move on to Isaiah chapter 6 5-13 okay we're gonna move there so open your Bibles then I said it's all over I am doomed for I am a sinful man so understand he's seen this right before this we're going to get to that in a minute then one of the seraphim flew to me with the burning coal he had taken from the altar of a pair of tongs he touched my lips with it and said see this coal has touched your lips now your guilt is removed and your sins are forgiven then I heard the Lord asking whom should I send as a messenger to this people who will go for us Isaiah said here am I send me and he said yes go and say this to the people listen carefully but do not understand watch closely but learn nothing hard in the hearts of these people plug their ears and shut their eyes that way they see they will not see with their eyes nor hear with their ears nor understand what their hearts and turn to me for healing then I said Lord how long will this go on and he replied until their towns are empty their houses are deserted and the whole country is a wasteland until the Lord has sent everyone away and the entire land of Israel is lies deserted if even a tent a Remnant survived it would be invaded again and burned but as a tariff benth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down so Israel's stump will be a holy seed listen Pastor Gene talked about the Judgment I'm going to kind of let that go with him but I want to talk about the first part so I want I want you to see Isaiah's response to God's call first of all understand let's get the visual again because when you get the visual Isaiah stands before this Mighty throne and he sees God up on this Throne his Veil covers the entire Temple which lets you know he is the king of all Kings he's sitting there and then he's got these seraphim these angels that have six wings that are flying around the temple and they're saying holy holy holy and two of their wings cover their eyes because they're not worthy to see God and two more of their wings cover their feet because they're ashamed no God should look at your feet no King should see that and then the other two are used to guide them around and all they're doing is saying saying holy holy and they're not saying it to God they're saying it to each other because they're giving each other saying do you believe how holy this God is he's so holy and Isaiah in that very minute look what he says he said I am doomed the the KJV which I love says I am undone everything that I believed about myself I see this is no longer for I am a sinful man I have filthy lips and I live among a people with filthy lips so what do we know need to know about this first of all we need to know that Isaiah identifies his sin he instantly Sees God and he identifies as Sin what could keep me from serving God I have filthy lips I have filthy lips how can I ever tell anybody about you for what's come out of these lips nothing beautiful can come out of them again he's undone Isaiah saw God in all his glory he saw all these amazing creatures which by the way if you saw these seraphim today we would worship them as human beings we would say whoa can you believe that there would be people that would worship those beings today there would be people that would bow to those and they were and they were worshiping God God wanted Isaiah to see how powerful he was and so he saw all these amazing creatures worshiping God in humility and obedience and his response was not one of Joy it did not make him feel better it identified his sin it is completely the opposite of what the world says about you feeling good about yourself see when you encounter God it's not this amazing encounter that's like man my heart is filled with joy I'm a flutter no it's identification I'm not worthy I'm a sinful person I'm full of sin I can't believe that this God would die on the cross for my sins he didn't feel better about himself he identified his sin because he's in the presence of a holy God what else did he do immediately expresses his desire to serve so can you imagine the Lord's talking he says then I heard the Lord asking whom should I send as a messenger to these people who will go for us Isaiah says Hear My send me and he said yes go and say this to the people listen carefully but they do not understand watch closely but they learn nothing Harden the hearts of these people plug their ears shut their eyes that way they will not see with their eyes nor hear with their ears nor understand what their hearts and turn to me for healing notice when he says here am I he doesn't ask God what do you need what's the message see sometimes we pray for God's guidance as to what we're going to do we're like hey God what do you want me to do and then God says I want you to do this and you're like but but God how do you let's let's hold on I'm not good with children hold on I'm not good with kids I can't serve in the children's ministry hold on I have stage fright I can't get up in front of people hold on I can't greet people at the door because I'm just not a naturally happy person in the morning right by the way just a just a quick glance into my life three days without soda so everybody who thought the energy was about soda understand this is how I operate on a regular basis all right so but we we give God a lot of butts we're like but God no Isaiah didn't say hey God uh what message would you like to send yeah uh hard in their hearts that's uh so this is not a good message I think there's somebody else God I don't think this one's what you want me to do no he didn't he didn't even ask he said here am I send me send me his desire to serve was above anything else he said here am I send me listen I've identified my sin I've identified my sin but I I still want to serve you send me and then God gives them the message and listen here's the deal he doesn't say never mind nope he continues on he does ask this question he says uh Lord how long is this going to go on and the Lord replies until their towns are empty their houses are deserted and the whole country is a wasteland sounds like a good sounds like a great deal until the Lord has sent everyone away and the entire land of Israel lies deserted these are his people and it says they'll be invaded and burned the only thing that's going to be left is just as an oak tree leaves a stump when it's cut down so Israel's stump will be a holy seed so there's there's some promise at the end but understand Isaiah obeys even knowing that he's going to go back to his people and he's going to give them a message of judgment nobody likes to give bad news it's never easy to give bad news I know in our in my profession people think it's easy for us to give bad news it's not it's not easy to come back and give somebody bad news can you imagine going back to your people back to the people you grew up with let's picture let's say you live in let's say you you grew up here in Naples and everybody knows you and like you're the guy and like you walk around and then all sudden you say all right God here am I send me and he's like all right you've got to send this message huh how long is this Gonna Last unfortunately it's gonna be a while basically what he told Isaiah is you'll never see the end of this judgment that's what I say you're not going to live long enough to see the end of this and again Isaiah obeys Isaiah knows and accepts he'll be rejected by friends family and his Nation based on this message yet he does not waver listen often some of you guys know that my wife and I worked in a children's student Ministry we ran the children's student Ministry and part of our responsibility was recruiting volunteers now if you want to know a difficult job recruiting volunteers for children's ministry is not easy let me explain why so I'm we give you this great sales pitch and that's what it is it's like hey man God wants to use you you look like you're hey man you look like you love kids kids love you but then you got to take them into the children's ministry and you're just hoping for the good day you're just hoping for the day when all the kids are sitting in their seeds quoting Bible verses and it's like oh yeah I want to do this but it's often not the good day you get right it's often the day you get where the kids are like hanging from the ceiling and like the teacher's like please sit back down we want to learn about Jesus and they're like running around the room yelling they've got goldfish going everywhere and they're you're like oh uh it's not always like this and oftentimes you have turned you have people turn and run I remember one time man we were in the student Ministry and I run a very active student Ministry and we had a dodgeball court and so from six to seven before we begin at seven people we would have students walk from public high schools and they would walk to our church and then from six to seven we would just hang out and play basketball we would eat some food play dodgeball listen to music and then all everything would begin at seven but they had nowhere to go so they would just come early and so I had this one volunteer man she was ready to serve and you had to open these two double doors I wish you could see this because I can still see it happening in my mind she had to open these two double doors and he walked into this huge room about the size of this um that would have that had all these things dodgeball court Cafe basketball whatever and so you're walking these two double and I just I was excited I needed a female volunteer I was low on volunteers at the time and she walked in and somebody threw a dodgeball and it ricocheted off the wall and it just nailed her right in the face and I was like I was like first of all are you okay are you all right and then she looks at me she goes I don't think I can do this I don't think God called me to help you with your students and I'm like that's fair that's fair you got hit in the face with the dodgeball it happens right things go wrong Ministry is with people people are messy I can't even imagine people ministering to me right there are times I talk too much I'm loud like I I interrupt sometimes so can I can't imagine ministering to me but there are often times we step back from the call of God because it's not comfortable it's not what we thought it would be it's not glorious but it is the call of God so why is this chapter important to us Isaiah chapter 6 because it happened so long ago and I don't think maybe I don't think anybody's going to go home tonight and have all of a sudden a vision where they're standing before a large throne with seraphim if you do you are awesome and that is lucky I don't think it's going to happen it might I wouldn't necessarily tell anybody in this day and age there could be problems but what I'm saying is why do we need to know this because our response to God should be the same when God calls us when he Taps us on the shoulder we should have the same response as Isaiah when we become before God the first thing we should do is identify sins what keeps us from serving God and then we should seek forgiveness for those sins first John 1 7-9 says but if we are living in the light as God is in the light then we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin if we claim we have no sin we are only fooling ourselves and we're not living in the truth but if we confess our sins to him he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness the Bible tells us right here that we are to ask for repentance we are to ask for forgiveness and we are not to say we have no sin boy I wish I could say that there are people that are getting there they live a very Godly life and and they have got things under control there are times that I wish I could say that I lived a life of no sin but unfortunately on a daily basis I'm reminded that I have sin and on a daily basis I ask for forgiveness now here's the deal with forgiveness right to ask for forgiveness is not like Lord sorry for that get back with you and then continue to live in that sin that's not seeking forgiveness can you imagine for those who have kids I have kids I have three of them you know there are times you know when your kid is truly apologetic truly sorry when you when they've done something wrong you can tell because they're really sorry and they change their behavior right their behavior changes they've they've seen that they're like oh Dad Mama right I shouldn't do this anymore I've disappointed them I'm going to turn this way and I'm gonna go the opposite way I'm not going to do that anymore that's true forgiveness in a Christian Life when you ask for forgiveness of something it's not like hey God can you forgive me that and I continue to walk the same path it's hey God I got sin I I really don't want to sin anymore Isaiah says I'm undone I'm doomed it's not just what have I done wrong no no I am a sinful man what does he do you turn away from that sin the seraphin comes down with the with a with a heap of burning coal and places it on his lips and burns away that sin those sinful lips where would we need the call where would the cold go in our lives if we identified the sin in our life that keeps us from serving God are we truly asking forgiveness are we just saying sorry and I want to kind of continue to live like I do and here's what's important when we serve God we represent God which is why it's very scary to get up here it's very scary to get up here it's very scary to stand in front of teenagers it's very scary to stand in front of children the responsibility of the fact that you represent God we should take serving God so serious that we beg for forgiveness from our sins so we're not leading others astray by the way we're living now here's the deal I'm going to throw this in as a quick note and this is not going to come up on the slides we ourselves are forgiven when we seek it why would we not Grant forgiveness to others Matthew 18 20 21 and 22 says then Peter came to him and asked Lord how often times should I forgive someone who sins against me seven times and the Lord says no not seven times but 70 times seven and then he goes into the parable of the king that forgave the servant from thousands of dollars worth of debt and because the servant begged and pleaded God Lord please forgive me for this debt I owe you have mercy on me and the King has mercy and shows this servant Mercy but then as soon as he receives his Mercy the servant goes and tries to collect money from his servant and then gets upset when that servant can't pay when he throws himself at the mercy this servant was forgiven and yet he didn't forgive others the same way he was forgiven we ask for forgiveness we receive it we should be willing to grant that forgiveness you walk around with an unforgiving heart and let me tell you serving God will be hard to do you will not be able to serve the Lord and hold grudges against people it won't work we are not to be that way we are to forgive because we ourselves are forgiving so what else should we do besides identify our sins and seek forgiveness we should desire to serve God the god who's on the throne and the one who forgave us of our sins first Samuel 12 24 says But be sure to fear the lord and Faithfully serve him think of all the wonderful things he has done for you why would you not want to serve somebody who's done so much in your life then listen there are times when we are tired when we are frustrated when things are not going our way that the only thing you see your tunnel visioned and the only thing you see is what's wrong I only see my problems and we don't see the blessings that that God is providing with us we don't see it because all we see is what's wrong what's happening what's going on listen it has been a tough beginning to the year for myself and I am working through this myself and let me tell you I'm there with you it's not easy there are times when you just want to just want to stay tuned in to all the negative because it's easier there are times that we want to say where are you at God why is this happening could this not be any different and we want to ask that question and we forget all the wonderful things he has blessed us with we Overlook those things but God truly has done wonderful things for you first of all if you are saved in this room today which means you have accepted the fact that Jesus Christ came down from heaven died on the cross of your sins rose again three days later and is in heaven preparing a place for you uh you have one thing to be Uber excited about you are not dying and going to hell I know that word is not said a lot from our pulpits anymore Pastor Gene says it a lot which is one of the reasons I'm here but there is an eternal punishment for not accepting Jesus Christ as your savior there is an eternal judgment that you have been freed from by accepting Christ as your savior that's something we should want to serve God for he gave us Eternal freedom from death can you imagine what else does he need to do nothing nothing we are so easily like easily made Happy here on Earth so easily like somebody buys you something you're like oh man that's awesome man you're you're the guy you're the guy right and then the next person buys you something oh this is awesome you're the guy God out does anything you can have here on Earth by dying on the cross for your sins there is nothing that he needs to give you more everything here is temporary he gave you something that was permanent why not serve him why not serve him I gotta ask the question if we're not willing to serve God where is the disconnect are we sure we understand the gravity of salvation it just is it just a prayer that we prayed did we truly mean it did we understood did we understand what it meant when we prayed that prayer do we understand what it meant did we have a moment where we came before God and realized everything he had done for us and how unworthy we were and the fact that we're dying and going to hell did we have that moment because if we did when God asks us to do something we should have no problem doing it so not only should we desire the God on the throne and the one who forgave us but we should serve God for the right reasons and it won't matter what God asks you to do that purpose that call that amazing thing we've been waiting on Colossians 3 23 24 says work willingly at whatever you do as though you are working for the Lord rather than people remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as a reward and that Master you are serving is Christ work willingly at whatever you do as though you're working for the Lord everything we do is for the purpose of God everything we do is a call we are to live christ-like and I'm about to get into that in just a minute but it doesn't matter what God asks us to do but you don't understand I'm not comfortable doing this that God ask you to do it and by by what I mean by what did God ask you to do it is do you see a need that needs to be fulfilled and you think man somebody should do that hahaha that might be a sign that it's you there's an old robot movie that I love it's called robots and it's a cartoon I have kids so I have an excuse for watching cartoons I would watch them anyway but it's called robots and the the big phrase is see a need fill a need our pastor used to see I used to say a task scene is an assignment given do you see something that's that the church needs have you ever walked into the bathroom be like man this just doesn't look as clean as it should be I need to talk to the pastor about this our first response right I need to phone up Ed like admin this bathroom's not clean it's going on there's not enough envelopes in the back of the chairs there's no pins who's doing this there's no children's ministry nobody's in there this week who's doing this we need more singers up on stage whose responsibility is that the food's not what I thought it should be who's supposed to do that see we're waiting for a call and God's sitting there going hey man you see all these things you could do some of these it's not out of Realm listen don't I'm there with you there are times that I sit there and I sit and I go to Crystal I'm like man can you believe and before the words come in my mouth I'm like never mind never mind there are certain things I do not do in a Christian Life and I got to be honest with you right I don't pray for patience because then God's gonna give me patience and I know God he has a sense of humor it's going to be the hard way so you're gonna have to learn patience this way I mean I have three boys I've already trying to learn patience and now I work in law enforcement that tests me even more but those are the things right the second thing I wouldn't do is be like hey why is this this way because it's God tapping on the shoulder be like hey I think you can do that I think you can do that listen why so what do we do and why what's the Practical part of this right well here's the deal answer the call answer the call stop waiting for a throne room experience to answer the call Church was not meant to be consumed it's not the movies I thought about this so my ending of this message has changed completely let me just tell you God keeps in my toe sometimes I had this message all written this is different than a recording because I was sitting there watching Creed Three the other night boxing movie and I was sitting there thinking as I'm eating I think I was eating sliders and drinking a soda and I'm sitting there like oh this is a great movie and I'm just taking it all in and I'm like oh man it's a great I love being I love theaters I love theaters because I get to sit there and eat I got a screen that's massive and I'm watching a movie and I don't have to do anything not anymore you don't even have to go stand in line to get your food we ordered our food from an app on the way to the movie and they delivered it right to my seat that is service let me tell you it was great that's not what church is supposed to be we're not supposed to come in sit down look at the big screen and then Lord what do you have to give me today what what listen James 1 22 23 says but don't just listen to God's word you must do what it says I like again going back to the KJV it says be doers of the word and not hearers only be doers the word and not hears only otherwise you are only fooling yourselves for if you listen to the word and don't obey it it's like glancing at your face in a mirror you see yourself walk away and forget what you look like but if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard then God will bless you for doing it we're to be doers notice that verse did not come up on the screen on purpose because we've gotten so so consumerized with this church thing western church has become I come in I sit down on my seat I sing my three songs I listen to the pastor I don't even open a Bible or an app it's up on the screen for me I don't even have to work at it at all it's just like a movie I get to come in and find wherever I want to sit gives me the best view and get a shake couple hands see how people are doing say I care for them but do I really again do we really care for somebody we only see an hour a week and then don't talk to throughout the week is that really what it is listen we're to be doers we don't need a great Throne Room call because we are told what to do we're to be doers the word of God is right here you can get a big Bible a small Bible but the word of God is fully written and you can read it and you can know what you're supposed to do now are there specifics in life I agree God will call specific people to do specific things you may receive a call from God you may get a tap on the shoulder and says he wants you to preach and you'll be like I'm not good in front of people overcome it but what I'm saying is what are we doing right now on the smaller scale are we serving God on a regular basis do we see needs around the church that we could fulfill are we involved in our community that's the question why are we waiting for a call when we have the word listen why do it though why why because we should do it out of love for God and out of love for each other Matthew 22 36-40 again not on the screen teacher which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses Jesus replied you must love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul and all your mind let me ask you this if you love somebody with all your heart soul and mind wouldn't you do anything for them we take that vowel and I mean listen when we get married we take the vowel that says yeah For Better or For Worse I forget what they are it's been a long time now um there's something sickness and health yes that's a good one if you're poor or not poor I don't know something like that right we take that vowel and we mean it sometimes right we mean it but there are times when it becomes difficult and the only thing that holds your marriages together is your love for God and your love for each other sometimes listen marriage is not easy that's why it ends a lot of the time and so what holds it together your love for each other what holds your relationship with God together your love for God you're supposed to love God with all your heart soul and mind and listen uh let me re-read the first part teacher what is the the most important commandment it's not even a request God doesn't say will you love me today no it's a commandment you're to love God with all your heart soul and mind is there a question about what you should be doing probably answered right there the first and greatest commandment a second is equally important love your neighbor as yourself the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two Commandments love your neighbor as yourself let me tell you there's no qualification as to who your neighbor is in this verse your neighbor is everyone anyone you come in contact with you're to love them you're to love them fully John 15 5-8 says yes I am the vine here the branches those who remain in me and I and them will produce much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing verse 8 says when you produce much fruit you're my true disciples this brings glory to my father listen let me explain love for one another is directly after love for God so what is the world lacking today true love biblical love listen we get to do I get to do a lot of exciting things uh people off after often ask which are the calls that stick with you the most they want to know right they want to know like what's the most exciting thing you're doing and one of my co-workers is in the room and she's been a part of some of my more exciting calls as recently as I think was that Friday last Friday last Sunday we had some guy that had allegedly stabbed somebody and there's like you know me and another deputy we had to run 20 yards guns out like we got this guy on the ground that's exciting that doesn't stick with me that goes away my first ever call for uh our Emergency Response Team we go to server warrant uh at a place here in Naples I'm on the back perimeter behind a rifle thinking nothing's going to happen I mean we're just going to serve this guy we're going to take this guy to jail then all of a sudden you hear shots being fired as he's shooting at the door at us you hear us shooting back through the door you hit the rounds clicking on the back of the trailer that are coming back through and they're calling going for cover and I'm sitting behind cover with my rifle and I got a big smile on my face because I am zoned in and might why are you smiling Johnson I'm like because this is awesome I am in a movie right now this is cool those don't stick with me those are fun the ones that stick with me and I've told this story before day two of fto day two of training come out of the academy prepared ready to go day one was exciting day two first call four o'clock over in Immokalee First Call to go to a school there's a student that has made some suicidal statements I go in to an elementary school not what I expected I sit down with a third grader this little girl she sits down and she had drawn this picture but on the picture it says I don't want to live anymore and I sat down across from this eight nine-year-old girl and I was like what's going on and she's like I don't understand why God made me different I understand why I look different so I just don't want to be here anymore nobody would care and I sat there and I'm fighting back the emotions because I'm a cop I'm there to provide guidance I'm there to be a rock I'm there to be law enforcement but I'm fighting back my emotions as I look at this innocent little eight-year-old tell me that nobody cares about her and then I look at this innocent little eight-year-old as I load her up in the car and take her to be Baker acted because that's the way our world responds to that and I couldn't help but think she doesn't need Deputy Johnson she needs children's Pastor Johnson she needs Christian Johnson she needs anybody that would sit there and put their arms around her and tell her listen God loves you and he made you the way you are for a reason and he is there for you right now that's what she needed we don't need a fancy call we don't because we live in a world with broken people who are looking so searching desperately trying to find the truth and trying to understand real love and here we are sinning in church today knowing a God that provides the truest of love the purest of love why do we need a call we have the Bible we have God's word and listen here's the good news the good news is we can all change it today this can all change today this is not something that's a 12 step program because back in my day discipleship was a 12-step program it was literally like Alcoholics Anonymous they gave you a little pamphlet for each baptism learning God's word how to study God's word and he had like these 12 and every week you met and you went over one of these little bookings you're shaking your head because you've seen them and that's great there's nothing wrong with that but do you know that you could start discipleship today do you know you can go up and put your arm around somebody be like hey man God loves you let me tell you about them let me tell you who he is let me tell you why I love him let me tell you what he's done in my life you can start discipling somebody today you can answer the call of God today Pastor Gene often goes to it but it's a great thing you can be out to lunch today if you're not staying in the cafe for later you could be out to lunch today and you can have the worst waitress of all time she could give you attitude she could not refill your soda she could spill things she could bring you the wrong food you have pickles on your burger you order without pickles she could do all that still tip her and a lot you know why you never know why she's like that you don't know what's going on in her life see the call of God we often think is this mysterious thing but really you know what it is you know what it boils down to it's really simple Jesus said it can't do any better love God with all your heart soul mind and then love your neighbor there's no other call needed the question today as you leave is will you begin to live the Christian Life without the fancy call thank you guys so much have a great Sunday.