Today on Bold Steps, Mark Jobe explains how we can walk worthy of our calling.
Because we have a call. We need to live what our calling is. You already have everything that you need to live up to that call, so do it. You already have everything that you need to be able to raise to the level of expectation that God has upon your life, so rise up.
Welcome to Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe, senior pastor of New Life Community Church and president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, living up to your God given calling and purpose. And Mark, today you're going to show us how, no matter what we're going through, we need to walk worthy, don't we?
Wayne, some people believe that there are some believers that are called and others that are the non called I guess. But this is written to the Ephesian believers and he says to all of them, all of them including us, walk worthy of your calling. And then he goes on to unpack what it means to walk worthy of our calling. And so I just want you to know, if you're listening today, you are called. Now listen to this message so that you understand how to live out your call.
Yeah, it is a high calling, isn't it? It is. Yeah. All right, let's get started. The message comes from the book of Ephesians chapter four. And here's Mark job.
I don't know if you've ever walked out of your house.
Some.
Morning, and your wife looks at what you're wearing and she says, uh, uh, doesn't match. There's something about when you see someone wearing something that obviously doesn't match, that draws your attention in a negative way because it seems incongruent. It's like, whoa, Who put that together? It just doesn't match.
It doesn't go together. I grew up in a many of you know, I grew up in the country of Spain, and I came one year to the US when I was in high school and I was 15 to go to a school, and they happened to have a special event, a prom or something of that nature. And in order to go to this event, you needed a suit. And I didn't own a suit. I didn't want to own a suit. I didn't like suits. But my grandfather said,
you need to wear a suit to this event. So he dragged me out to the store and I bought myself a suit, uh, for the event that I was going to. But I just was kind of dragging my feet on it, and, um, I decided I wore a suit, but. But I wore my, um, my white gym socks. with, uh, you know, with red stripes on the side there. And that that's what I wore with my suit. And I was sitting there at this event, and my friend looked over and said, hey, bro, you can't wear those kind
of socks with that suit, man. It just doesn't match. It doesn't match. It brought his attention right away. Like, you know, you can't do that now if you're in a gym outfit, you can wear that. But if you're in a suit outfit, you have to wear that which matches with it because it just doesn't seem to go together. And what the Apostle Paul is saying is that you have a calling upon your life and that your walk, the way you live your life, needs to match your calling.
And if it doesn't match your calling, then people around you will notice you not because they're attracted to the message that you're proclaiming, but they'll notice you because they'll notice you in a negative way. They'll notice you in a way that says, hey, they claim to be this, but their lifestyle is that it just doesn't match. Do you realize that most people aren't as impressed by what we say we are as by how we live our life?
Most people don't notice the label that you wear. You can call yourself a Christian, and most people don't really care that much about what you call yourself. But what impacts people is if your life is different, if it's lived different, if your life is different than the norm, then it makes sense to them. And many non-believers tend to be turned off by people that claim to be Christians, but their lifestyle doesn't match at all their claim of Christianity.
Now when Paul says, I urge you to live according to. To live worthy of the calling that you have received. I want to clarify that, because many people seem to think that there are people that are called and people that are not called. Uh, some people think that only those people that are going to be missionaries in Africa are going to be pastors or going to be evangelists, or have some sort of ministry that those are the called ones and that everybody else. Yeah, they're believers, but
they're not really called that. There's a division between those that are called and those that are not called. And I want you to understand that that is a huge misrepresentation of the gospel, because what the gospel teaches is that every one that names the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is called everyone that we're all called.
If you have proclaimed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, if you consider yourself a Christian, call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, that you have a calling on your life and it's a high calling. So why don't you turn to the person beside you and tell you I'm called? Go ahead. Turn to the person on the other side and say I'm called. Alright, I want you to know you're called. Now that you know you're called. I want you to understand that you're calling oftentimes determines the expectations.
I have an 11 year old son. He's in sixth grade right now. His calling is to be a sixth grader in my house. So my expectations of him are a little bit lower than they would be someone older, because that's his calling right now, right? And so I don't expect that he gets a job and helps pay the light bill. I've been tempted to move in that direction, but no, I don't expect that of him. I don't expect that he drive a car right now. I don't expect that he know how to fill out his tax
return forms. I don't expect that he know how to do trigonometry. Why? Because he's 11 years old and he's in sixth grade. So my expectation go along with his calling. His calling right now is at a sixth grade level. So I have expectations of a sixth grade level upon his life. Now, when someone is in office, for example, the president of the United States and the highest political office that you can hold in this land, we have higher expectations of someone like that. Why? Because the calling
determines the expectations that we have on someone. When someone is living out the calling of being a married man and has kids and is raising them, then I have a different set of expectations upon that man than I would upon a single man, a single young man. Why? Because he's living out his calling. Part of his calling is to be a husband and a father. And so the expectations are different. Why? Because the calling determines the expectations. And in the same way, Paul is reminding the believers
that we have a calling on our life. And it's a high calling. And since our calling is high, then our expectations need to be high. We don't have a low calling. We have a high calling. Now, what he's not saying is that you have to try to be worthy of the call, because you are already worthy of the call. Because we have a call, we need to live what our calling is. You already have everything that you need to live up to that call, so do it.
You already have everything that you need to be able to raise to the level of expectation that God has upon your life. So rise up. You have all that it takes within you. He just told us in our previous verses that we read last week in the previous chapters, that you are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, that you have everything that you need, all the power of God, that you need to be what God has called you to be. So now be it. So live worthy of
the call that you have received. And then he goes on to explain what it means to live worthy of the call that we have received. And he In essence, he tells us that there are two tests that make us that help us understand whether or not we're living worthy of the call that we have received. One has to do with our character, uh, how we live, our attitude. And the other has to do with whether we are peacemakers or divisive people, whether we're bridge builders or whether
we tear bridges down. So the first one, I'll categorize it as this. It's the attitude towards leadership or what I call servant leadership. He tells us in verse two what it means to live worthy of our call. And he says this. He says, verse two, be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Aren't there certain verses you just wish you could kind of scratch out of the Bible. This is one of them.
This is tough. A verse he gives us for attitudes that every person that's called by Jesus Christ should have. And these are not easy attitudes. Believe me, these are some hard attitudes he's calling us to live up to. I'm going to give them to you. And again, these are not optional. These are required of people that are called by God to live up to your calling.
Mark will be back to explain these attitudes in just a moment. So please keep listening to Bold Steps with Mark job. But right now we want to take a moment to tell you how much we appreciate that we get to hear from you.
Yeah. And Wayne, we love hearing from our listeners. And by the way, we read every comment. We pray for the prayer request. It's just so great to know what God is doing in your life. But you can reach out to us via our website. Bold. Oh, that's bold steps. You can share a Bible question, a prayer request, and we'd love to hear testimonies as well. If you have a testimony of what God is doing in your life, especially related to this ministry, we would love to hear it.
So remember go to our website or you can call by dialing (312) 329-2011. That's 312329 2011.
Thanks for mentioning that, Mark. Here's a question a serious question that comes from Dan. He says it's a question that's been troubling me. Why did God make us? Since God is complete and needs nothing, why did he make a creature that he knew would reject him ahead of time, resulting in eternal punishment? For example, I wouldn't get a pet that I knew wouldn't be obedient and then punish it for eternity. This is on my mind because I have a parent who died recently not knowing if they
were saved. Thank you.
Yeah, Dan, thank you for your question. And you're right in the fact that God is self-contained. God did not create us because he needed us. He was self-contained. Uh, has no need. He's, uh, not like us human beings that we have needs. He doesn't. He's immutable, so he never changes. And it's a bit of a mystery exactly why God did. However, theologians down through the centuries have said that, you know, God, uh, just like a parent has children. In the same way, God uniquely created us
as his children. We're different than angels. Uh, we're different than animals. We are made in the image of God. And so God made us unique. He took a risk with that. And there's a unique love that God has for us as well, just like a parent would have for a child. And I guess, Dan, I would answer the question about if God knew we were going to
blow it and fall, why did he create us? You know, I have three children, and my wife and I knew that when we had our three children that they would not be perfect children, that they would disappoint us, that there would be heartache sometimes. But that's part of the risk of loving God could have created robots and pre wired them to only do what he wanted, but he didn't. He created us in his image and he gave us
free will. The free will part is our ability to choose to serve and love him without being predetermined or wired to do so. It's a risk that a loving God took, but he took that risk on us and we've blown it. But he's also redeemed us. And so it makes the story of our creation even more compelling that the God of the universe would know that we would hurt him, disappoint him, but yet he would love us to redemption and restore us into his presence. And, um,
there are certain things that are hard to understand. Isaiah 55 says that God's thoughts are way above our thoughts, and his ways are way above our ways. And there are certain things that only in glory will fully understand. But God is too good to be unkind, and he's too wise to be confused. So if I cannot quite understand his hand. Spurgeon had said, I can always trust his heart.
God is love. Thank you Mark. Well, once again, go to our website, npr.org. If you'd like to contact us, you can also email your question or comment to mark bold steps at Moody's, or give us a call and leave your message on that line that Mark mentioned. (312) 329-2011. Now let's get back into today's Bold steps message walking worthy. Once again here's Mark job.
Number one he says be humble. Be completely humble. Now, when I say humble, most of you aren't really excited to be humble. Most of us do not really value the attitude of humility highly. It's not something that that fathers often tell their sons. They don't say, son, I want you to be humble. It's not something that coaches tell their athletes, hey, I want you to be humble. It's not. In fact, in the Greek and Roman culture,
it was looked down upon to be humble. And I think part of our reticence to accepting humility and celebrating humility is that we don't really understand what true humility is. For example, some people think that being humble means that you have an inferiority complex. That being humble means that you're going to be Like a mat that people sort
of dust their feet off of. Uh, some people think that humble means that you can't look someone in the eye, that you kind of walk around hunched over, looking at the ground all the time. And when someone greets you, you kind of look up at them and kind of shy away. Uh, some people think humility means being shy or being timid or not being able to voice your opinion or not being assertive or not being able to to speak. And some people think if I'm humble, I'm
going to be someone's doormat. If I'm humble, I'm going to be stepped on. If I'm humble, I'm going to be taken advantage of because we have not quite understood what humility means. Jesus was humble. And yet, do you remember when Jesus entered into the temple? He turned over the tables of the money changers. He got a whip and he drove everybody out of the temple. And he said, my house, My house shall be called a house of prayer.
But was he humble? Yeah. He acted in humility. The Bible tells us that Moses was one of the most humble people on the face of this earth. Yet Moses challenged an entire nation, and he brought the most powerful man in the world at the time, whose name was who was a pharaoh. He brought him to his knees. He challenged the powers and authorities that were there. And he led almost 2 million people out of slavery into to look to a new promised land. And yet he
was a humble man. You see, humility has to do with you understanding your proper worth before God and before men having a proper view of yourself before God and before men is the definition of humility. You don't think more highly of yourself than you should, and you don't think more lowly of yourself than you should. You understand who you are, and you're comfortable and confident in who you are. You see what happens when. When you do not understand who you are and you're not humble, then
you have to try to project an image. Uh, when someone is proud, they're not humble. And oftentimes what happens is, if you don't understand who you are and are confident who you are, you have to try to make sure that people know who you are. You walk into a room and you think, oh, people don't really know what I've done or who I am. So you're Impulsively driven to hand out business cards with big titles on them. And when you talk, you have to tell people who
you know and what you've done and what you've accomplished. Why? Because, well, they don't really know. I need to. And you want to sit at the best place in the front. Place where everybody can acknowledge you. That the seats of importance. Why? Because you have to make sure that everybody knows who you are and what you've done and how you are. Why? Because you're you're not confident in who you are. You're
not comfortable with understanding who you are. You see, when you're humble, you're not driven to try to show everybody that you have value. When you're humble, you know you have value. When you're humble, you already know who you are. You don't have to prove that you're somebody because you know that you're somebody already in God. When you're humble, you don't have to take credit for everything because you can share the credit. Why? Because you're already you already
know that you're somebody in God. You're comfortable with who you are. You're not trying to secure a name. You already know your value because you're humble. You understand that.
Learning what true humility looks like. That's the takeaway from today's message with Mark Jobe. You're listening to Bold Steps, and if you missed any of the messages from his series called When You Believe. Let me invite you to catch up right now by visiting Bold steps.org. And we have a special bold step gift available for our listeners. It's a book titled envy a Big problem you Didn't know You Had. I love that title written by our guest, pastor Mike Fabros.
Yeah. And by the way, many of you are familiar with pastor Mike because he's on the radio. He's written several books. He's a graduate from Moody Bible Institute and actually on the board of directors as well. And so love pastor Mike and his ministry. I was, uh, thinking about this topic of envy and how oftentimes we just don't consider ourselves envious. Pastor Mike, if you were to help someone self-diagnose whether they have envy, what would you point to? What should they be looking for?
Well, I would start by saying, are there any people in your everyday world that you just find yourself erring on the side of being critical when you really shouldn't be and you think, well, why am I not happy applauding their success? Right. This is hard, but we need to look at the people that we are critical of.
And if you look hard enough, you often find it's because I'm really envious of what they get that I don't have what they've accomplished, that I haven't been able to accomplish, that they make so much money, so much more money than I make. There's a lot of reasons that we, um, just spring into gossip and criticism and just talking behind people's back in a negative way, and usually we can start to realize what's happened. Is something
really between me and God. It's really not between me and them.
Pastor Mike, are envy and jealousy interchangeable?
Not really. Um, there's a kind of jealousy that's appropriate in the Bible, right? God says he's a jealous God in Exodus 34. There's a time for you right to rightly in your marriage. Be jealous if there's something threatening that relationship. But envy is always seen as something wrong in Scripture, and we're never to envy anyone. And what envy is, is taking a jealous feeling when I have
no right to feel jealous. And now I start to have a a bitterness toward that person for accomplishing or achieving or securing something that I haven't been able to. And Jesus tells parables about this. You've got to be careful in your own heart to guard your heart against this kind of envy, because it is different than jealousy, because sometimes jealousy can be appropriate.
That's great. So there you have it, pastor Mike Fabares. We would love to get this book into your hand. It's called a big problem.
You didn't know you had. Envy. Thank you, pastor Mike.
Of course. Thank you.
His book is available to you when you make a donation of any amount to support bold steps, just call us at 800 D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639. Or give online at Bold Steps, or send your financial gift in the mail by writing to us at bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Today, we also want to say we're truly grateful for our bold partners by committing to giving a monthly gift. You're not only investing
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It's a great way to stay connected, inspired, and focused on the path God has for you. Sign up today at bird-stamps.org. I'm Wayne Shepherd, thanks for joining us today. Be sure to come back next time when Mark addresses the next three points on Walking Worthy. The message comes from our series when you believe everything changes and you will hear it right here Monday on Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.