Submitted by admin on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 2:53pm
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Last week we began looking at what is involved when we talk about the call of God. What does it mean to say that God "calls" us? And what difference does that have in our everyday lives?
We saw that God's call is simply his invitation—God invites us to come. He invites us to come to his banquet, to his kingdom, to have a relationship with him: God "has called you into fellowship with his Son" (1 Cor 1:9, NIV); "he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son" (NLT).
In fact, the Bible tells us there are a number of wonderful, significant things God invites (or calls) us to: his grace, hope, purpose, excellence. Today we're going to look at God's invitation to hope.
But before we look at God's call to hope, I want to answer a question someone asked me after last weekend. He said, "How did you connect God's ‘call' with the word ‘invite'?"
It's a good question, because many think of God's "call" as something that is decided for us—not something offered to us. Many think it's imposed on us—not something proposed to us.
Here are three reasons why I think God's call is best understood as God's invitation.
First, Jesus pictured God's kingdom as an invitation to a banquet or a wedding feast (Luke 14:15-24; Matt 22:1-14), which some choose to ignore.
Second, the dictionary definition describes an invitation. The original NT word translated most often into English as "call" is kaleo (you can see the English word stems from the Greek). Vine's Expository Dictionary defines kaleo: "used with a personal object, ‘to call anyone, invite, summon' ...used particularly of the Divine call to partake of the blessings of redemption..." A related word is klesis, which Vines says is "used in the NT of that ‘calling' the origin, nature and destiny of which are heavenly (the idea of invitation being implied)... used especially of God's invitation to man to accept the benefits of salvation..."
Third, this idea of an invitation to the world is consistent with what we know about God's plan of salvation...
- That God loved the world (not just some, but the whole world) so much that he sent his Son (John 3:16);
- That he gave his life as a sacrifice the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2);
- That Jesus came to his own, but his own did not receive him (John 1:11); that is, he called them, but they refused to answer;
- That Jesus wanted to gather the people (like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they were not willing (Matt 23:37);
- That God "is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent" (Acts 17:30);
- That the Lord does not want any to perish but wants all to come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9).
The Bible is pretty clear: God loves the whole world, and he wants to save the whole world—so his invitation to come is to everyone everywhere in the world.
However—and here is an amazing thing!—God doesn't always get what he wants! He wants everyone to repent and be saved, but many do not repent and many are not saved! That's why Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt 22:14)! Many are invited, but few accept the invitation.
God calls you; he invites you. He extends his grace to you so you can have the ability and the opportunity to make a decision. God doesn't coerce you. He doesn't override your will. He doesn't turn you into an automaton. He doesn't make you to be a preprogrammed, unthinking robot. God invites you; he calls you to come.
God invites us all to enjoy his love, his grace, his blessings. And today we will see that God invites us to have hope; he invites us to live a life of hope.
Eph 1:18 (NASB) — I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling...
(NIV) — I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you...
(CEV) — My prayer is that light will flood your hearts and that you will understand the hope that was given to you when God chose you...
God invites us to a life of hope! And yet it seems we get so wrapped up in earthly matters and temporary problems that we often forget about our great hope as Christians.
So Paul wrote to believers in Ephesus and he said, I'm praying that you'll be able to see in a whole new way so can really know the hope of God's call...so you'll know the hope he gave you when he called you.
So that you will know what is the hope of his calling...
We can know things on different levels. We can know about something—the basic facts of the matter; we can understand something on a deeper level to know how it works; and then we can experience something to know it even more intimately.
For instance, we might hear about our missionaries, the Larsons, who work in a place called the Dominican Republic. We learn some basic facts about their mission. But then we read a book about the DR and gain a better knowledge of the country, its history, its people, its culture. Now we know it on a whole new level. But then we get on a plane and travel to the country—we breathe the air, we taste the food, we drive the roads, we learn a little Spanish, we meet the people, we trade dollars for pesos. Now we've experienced the DR in a way you can't just by reading a book.
It's the same way with hope... God wants us to know the hope of his calling—and to know it in ever increasing levels! To know about hope—hope for this life as well as hope for eternity. But even more he wants us to experience hope. He wants us to live in hope. He wants us to breathe the air of hope, to taste the hope he gives. God wants more for us than to simply know about hope! He wants us to experience hope, to live by hope.
Here are three things I want you to know about the hope of God's calling.
1. Hope is essentially an eager expectation; it's anticipating that something we strongly desire will happen; it's expecting and looking forward to something good happening.
Hope is not merely expecting something; it's anticipating something good. Because you can expect something bad to happen—and that is not hope at all. We dread the idea of going to the dentist office; we dread the visit from the tax auditor; we dread the bill from the repair shop.
It seems to me that "dread," where someone anticipates bad consequences or awful circumstances, is the opposite of "hope." Both contain the idea of expectation, but one anticipates blessings and comforts while the other anticipates pain and sorrow.
We need hope. Hope keeps us going. Hope gives us confidence. Hope helps us look beyond our present circumstances.
2. God calls us to live by hope in the here and now.
People today are starved for hope. We've seen it in the news as throngs of people who have lived for decades under the suffocating rule of Omar Kaddafi have seized a desperate attempt to overthrow the dictator. They risked their lives in hopes of changing their lives. We don't yet know how many have died, but they risked everything for the hope of finding something better.
So many have very little hope for their future. Many feel hopeless about being able to fix their lives, hopeless about their future, hopeless about escaping their troubles. In the heat of trials and troubles, hope can easily evaporate. Difficult circumstances or painful setbacks can strangle hope. When a doctor says, "cancer"; or a bank says, "foreclosure"; or an employer says, "layoff"; or a spouse says, "divorce"; hope can die.
Words like that suffocate hope; words like that threaten to cut off the air that hope needs to live. When hope is gone, people have trouble getting up in the morning.
The Bible says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick..." (Prov 13:12). People who lose hope become heart-sick. People overwhelmed with life's harsh realities can become sick in their souls.
When hope is gone, it's hard to face a new day. People drowning in despair need a breath of fresh hope to get through the day.
That's why the psalmist has a heart-to-heart talk with his own soul and says, "Why are you downcast, O my soul? [Why are you in despair? (NASB)] Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God..." (Psalms 42:5, NIV).
The psalmist knew that he needed to turn his eyes to God, not to his troubles. He knew that hope in God was the answer for despair in his soul.
This last week ABC News told a tragic story of Dave Duerson, a former NFL player who lost hope. He had been a star athlete with a stellar career on the football field, playing in four pro-bowl games and on two winning Super Bowl teams. But years after he left the game, he began to feel the effects of old injuries. He felt his brain suffering the consequences of a number of concussions. Adding all that to his financial troubles, legal difficulties, and relational problems, Duerson lost hope. He saw nothing but problems in his future, and despair took over. Last week, at the age of 50, he took his own life.
People who are in despair and without hope need to know that God calls us to hope! We are not called to despair or to dread; we are called to live in hope—in eager anticipation of what God is doing in us and for us.
The Bible says "greater is He who is in you that he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4) We can live in hope!
3. God's call offers hope for eternity.
We don't need to live in fear of current events. We don't need to be afraid of end time prophecies. We don't need to worry about government failure or economic meltdown. This old world is coming to an end—so what? God's got a better one coming!
God invites us to come to him. When we come, he gives us hope for something better to come. He invites us to a day when we will sit at the marriage supper in heaven. "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!" (Rev 19:9, NIV).
God invites us to hope—where we're able to see beyond the troubles of this life. Where our perspective is changed and we're able to look forward with eager expectation to God's promises being fulfilled in us. Where we're able to anticipate the blessings and joys of eternal life.
Hope helps us to see something supernatural, something more than what we see right now in the natural. Hope helps us see that God's invisible reality can overpower the present reality we see. Hope helps us look forward to what God can do with our future.
Over
100 years ago, a tornado struck the prairies of Minnesota. Many were killed,
hundreds were injured, and one small town was almost demolished. In the midst
of the disaster, an elderly British surgeon and his two medically trained sons
worked almost around the clock for days aiding the stricken, bandaging wounds,
and setting broken limbs.
Their heroic work did not go
unnoticed. Their excellence as physicians and their selflessness in the service
of those in need created a following among the tornado victims. The doctor and
his sons were offered financial backing to build a hospital, provided that they
took charge.
The men agreed and in 1889 founded a
clinic that soon attracted nationwide attention. Their little clinic grew. The
city was Rochester, Minnesota. The elderly doctor's name: William W. Mayo. His
sons: William J. and Charles Mayo.
Today we all know about the Mayo
clinic. It is known worldwide as one of the premier places of health, healing
and excellence in medicine. Back when that tornado hit, however, if you had asked
the people at the time, they would have said it was all about death and
destruction, an unqualified disaster.
But with the perspective of 120+
years, now we can see that the tornado was really about life, help, and
healing. Hope helps us see a new perspective—that God is bringing something
good despite the troubles we find ourselves in.
Ultimately, hope points us to eternity. "If only for this life we have hope in Christ," Paul wrote, "we are to be pitied more than all men." (1 Cor 15:19, NIV)
Read God's Word and you will see hope all through it! God wants us to know about hope. God calls us to hope for eternity; he invites us to live lives of hope.
Romans 8:18-25 (NIV) — 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
A week ago Time magazine's cover story read: "2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal." It's about computers, artificial intelligence, and the Singularity movement—bringing humans and machines together.
It's amazing what some people will do to avoid the call of God! They put their hope in the genius of man—his intelligence, his inventions, his creativity—just so they don't have to deal with the invitation God gives to them.
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling..."