 I'm going to be looking at Romans chapter 1 verses 5 and 6. That's going to be our text. I'm going to teach the text and from that text I'm going to spring out and actually give you a few things here to talk about with this title that I've entitled this message. I am called. What does that mean? So, let's go ahead and read verses 5 and 6 of Romans chapter 1 as Paul writes. He says, though or through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. You know, I will never forget my first baseball uniform. As a member of the Blue Jays, a Pee Wee team that I played in Walnut, I grew up in Walnut, that was where I pretty much had my childhood. I remember that day. I remember just wearing that uniform. And that first game was amazing because as you're going out in the field with your teammate, there was this sense of belonging. You know what I mean? It's a kid. You know, here I am in this baseball team. That's my first baseball team and just that first game with people around you and the cheering and all that. And you just felt very proud wearing that Blue Jays, that dark blue outfit with a number on my back just gave me that sense of belonging. And I was thinking about that. And I'm thinking, you know, with tonight's message, it kind of reminds me of what I want to share with you tonight because as Christians, and we see here in the Bible, the Bible declares that you and I belong to God. All of us here should have a sense of belonging when it comes to our relationship with Jesus Christ. And the Psalm 103 says this, and I love this. He says, Know that the Lord he is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people in the sheep of his pasture. What Psalm 100 verse three says is that we belong to God because he made us to be his very own people. It's like God has put a stamp of ownership on you. He owns you. You belong to him. That should bring a wonderful sense of belonging. A lot of people today are wondering, you know, they're confused, they don't have a sense of belonging. You know, people struggle with that. I don't know where I belong. You know, perhaps it's in your family unit. You know, maybe you're the outcast. You're the black sheep, I guess, if you will. And you're like, I just don't belong here. Maybe it's at work or maybe it's among friends. And people struggle with that. But as Christians, we really shouldn't struggle with any sense of belonging because it's very clear in Scripture that we belong to God. And that's pretty cool that we actually belong to him. And Paul says here, something very interesting here in chapter one, verses five and six, he says that we are the called of Christ. What does that mean? The called of Christ. That's what I want to look at. I want to just kind of look at this term, this phrase, and find out what does this really mean? As Christians, we talk about our calling. I'm called to the mission field. I'm called to go out and serve in another country. Perhaps I'm called to be a pastor. I'm called to be a youth minister. Whatever it is, we talk about our calling. What is God calling me to do? What is my call here? Well, I'm not going to talk about that tonight. That's not what I'm going to do tonight. But what I'm going to share here tonight, not necessarily our calling as Christians, but what I'm going to do here is look at basically what Paul said here about the called of Christ. As we continue this series in knowing our identity in Christ, we all have a calling from God to function as different people. That's what I want to talk about tonight. The call that you have from heaven to be different people. And we're going to look at this here in a moment. But if you remember when Jesus was walking on this earth, he said to his disciples, follow me. You remember that? That phrase, follow me, is filled with so much meaning. Because it's not necessarily speaking about literally following behind Jesus. When you think about follow me, like if I tell my little four-year-old honey, follow me, she'll be right behind me. That's not really what Jesus meant when he said, follow me. There's a lot more to that phrase when it comes to the meaning behind it. It's a command. It's a command that makes up our lives in Christ. It's who we are. Because everybody here follows someone, something. Friends, popular culture, family, some of you maybe follow selfish desires and some of you will follow God. We all have that choice. But when Jesus was on this earth, while he was on earth, he presented two very different approaches to life. And he said this. He says, either you deny yourself or you live for yourself. Either you embrace the cross or you ignore the cross. Either you save your own life for your sake and the world's or you lose your life for his sake and the gospel's sake. Two completely different ways of doing life. That's the choice everyone has. And that's why when we talk about Christianity, we're talking about a life that is a high calling. It's a high calling. Let me give you an example. Ephesians chapter four, verse one, this is what it says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. It's like, wow, interesting. Paul says, I beseech you. I beg you to walk worthy of the calling. Now that right there says a lot, doesn't it? That means that, well, being a Christian is a high calling. And he's encouraging me. He's begging me to walk worthy of that calling. Well, what is that calling? What does that mean? It says in Philippians 3, 14, Paul says again, I press towards the goal for the price of the high upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Again, we see that same description of the Christian life as a high calling. That's what I want to talk about tonight. That's what I want to kind of see here as what Paul said here. But before we get into that, I want to look at the text of verses five and six, just to be fair to the text. I just don't want to springboard. There's preaching, different kind of preachings. There's a preaching called springboard preaching where you go to a text and you just read it and you springboard off it and never come back to it. I kind of don't like that. So to be fair, I want to go through the text and kind of stay within the text, but I'm going to also give you some things here about what this means to have a high calling. What's our responsibility? So let's look at verse five. Paul says, through him, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. Paul says, he received grace and apostleship. Paul recognized that his calling was a work of God's grace. It wasn't his own work. It wasn't his own ability. It was the grace of God. And notice what grace is. Grace is getting what you don't deserve. That's what grace means. Grace is getting what you don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve, which is judgment, right? So the grace of God is saying, listen, I am going to bless you even though you don't deserve it. That's getting something that you don't deserve. And that's what Paul is saying here. Paul didn't deserve to be an apostle. If you remember, he persecuted the church. Paul had a hatred towards Christians and yet God in his great mercy and grace, he saved him and called him to be an apostle. And the word apostle means someone who's been sent forth. That's what it means. Now all of us here don't deserve to be on God's side. You know that? All of us here really have fallen short of the glory of God. Before we were even Christians, we were totally against God. Some of you here probably hated God, hated Christians. I used to make fun of Christians before I was a Christian. I remember that very clearly. I used to make fun of John 3.16 all the time. I remember one time driving with my friends in a car, going to the beach, and we were just messing around and I was just flashing John 3.16 to them and we're laughing and whatnot. Little did I know that that would be the verse that I would actually memorize when I got saved. I used to make fun of Christians. I used to think Christians were these clean, pretty people. They never sinned. They were perfect. And I understand now why the world looks at us and they think, oh, you guys are perfect. You guys think you can know it all. No, we're not perfect. We know scripture. We know what the Bible says. But we're not these people that, you know, that we don't ever err on things and stumble on all that. But we were born in sin, went against God, but because of God's great mercy saved us. For those of you here tonight who are born again, you are now in the grace of God. Because he saved you. You don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. None of us deserve it. But because he loves us. John 3.16, you know? For God's love of the world. That was the whole motivation. The object of God's love was the world. And because of that, he gave his only, he was the giver. He, it wasn't like you and him say, hey, send a savior. I need to be saved. No, he chose that. He actually sent his son to down the cross in the midst of a sinful world. So we see here that Paul was a recipient of grace. He understood that all of the things he did, his life was all about God's grace. Let me give you an example. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15.10. I want to read this with you. 1 Corinthians 15.10. I love the way he put this. He put it very well when it comes to the grace of God in his own life. 1 Corinthians 15. Let's go to verse 9, actually. Listen to this. Paul says, for I am the least of the apostles who I'm not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Here it is, verse 10. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, again, but the grace of God which was with me. Isn't that amazing? He says, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And that is the same message that I would say of my own life. And it should be the same message you say about your own life. You are where you're out by the grace of God, right? It's not a work of myself, I conjure up this stuff. Jesus showed Paul grace not only by choosing him to be an apostle, but also by empowering him for his mission to give him the power. So basically, without grace, no called person has any hope of fulfilling his or her calling. It's the grace of God. So Paul says this here in verse 5. And notice what he says, though. And he also says this, going back to Romans. Through him we have received grace and apostleship. Notice, for obedience to the faith. It's interesting because here we see clearly that the gospel calls for obedience. The message of the gospel is not something you just hear. It's something that God wants you to act upon. You have to obey the message. The message is put in a way that says, you need to get right with God. What are you going to do about it? It's not a message that you just tell people and leave it open-ended and just walk away. You're calling them to make a decision right on the spot. That's exactly what the apostles did in the book of Acts. Notice in Acts chapter 3 verse 19, here's the gospel. Repent therefore and be converted. That your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Did you see that? Repent therefore and be converted. That's the message that we give people. When you share the gospel, that's what you're sharing. You're actually putting that person on the spot to make a decision right there, to get saved, to get right with God, to repent, to get right with the Lord. That's the message. Never walk away without getting some response. Even if they say, no thank you, that's okay. At least they have been given that response, that chance to either say yes to God or no to God. And all of this, notice, hangs on the name of Christ. Notice this obedience, notice he says there in verse 5, he says obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. What does that mean? The name of Jesus, who Jesus is, his reputation, his character, what he stands for. That's what he's saying here. You know, practically speaking here, our lives bring honor or shame to those close to us. I mean, that's pretty much what it is. I mean, as a parent, a parent whose reputation is in the community is good, brings honor to the family. But a parent, so let's say, while a drunken parent brings them embarrassment and shame to the family. A young person who stays away from trouble and is respectful, brings honor to his or her parents while a young person who hangs out with the wrong crowd brings shame to his parents or her parents. So in like manner, when it comes to name, we who bear or wear the Christ's name bring him honor by our obedience or shame by our disobedience. That's the responsibility that we have. As you go out to work tomorrow, are you bringing honor to the name of Christ or are you bringing shame to the name of Christ? It's all based on your obedience. How obedient you are to Christ or disobedient. So here's where we get into our text. Notice in verse six, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ, the called of Jesus Christ. The Christians in Rome were called to belong to Christ. That's what he's saying here. Such call involves both privilege and responsibility. Privilege and responsibility. Belonging to Jesus Christ is not only a serious thing, it is a privilege. Now let's get into this. What is your responsibility? What is my responsibility? Since I am the called of Christ, since I belong to Jesus, there's a responsibility that comes upon me. What does he expect of me? What is my general calling as a son or daughter of Christ? Well, I'm going to give you seven things here from this text to which we are called as Christians. First is that according to Romans chapter eight, verse 28, I am called according to his purpose. I'm called according to his purpose. Listen to this. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. Now that's interesting. The called according to his purpose. What is God's purpose to which we are called? That's what I want to answer here in a moment. We are called to be conformed to the image of his son. Did you know that? Verse 29 of chapter eight of Romans says it clearly that we have been called to be conformed to the image of his son. What does that mean? You hear it all the time, right? As a Christian, we're called to be conformed to the image of Christ. What does that mean? Well, let me define the word conform. The word conform means to comply or it means to be similar in form or type. That's what it means. So here it is. What God wants to do, listen carefully, God wants to mold you and shape your life and to comply with the nature and will of Jesus Christ. That's what it means to conform to the image of Christ. See, a lot of people think that to conform into the image of Christ means we're gonna be walking on water. That means we're just gonna be walking around and just flashing miracles and whatnot and calling fire from heaven. That's not what it means. I know some people think that being conformed to the image of Christ means that we're gonna be exactly like Jesus in the way that he performed all these things. No, it doesn't mean that. I mean, yes, we do have gifts, healing. I believe in healing. I believe in the spiritual gifts and whatnot. And yeah, God will use us for that. But here, what we see here, the purpose is to be conformed to the image of Christ. It means that God wants to mold me and shape me so that my life can comply with the nature and will of Jesus Christ. God wants to use you and move through you so that your words and actions reflect the grace of Jesus to all. That's what he wants. That is his purpose for you. That's the purpose that Paul says here that we have been called according to his purpose. That's what it means to be called according to his purpose. Now, in order to be conformed, there's some things that you have to do. And here's where it gets really hard for some people. You have to accept that your own objectives, your own desires, and your own ideas and ways of doing things are gonna be set aside now. You have to set those aside to make room for God's will, to make room for God's will in your life and for God's plan and God's objective for you. See, it's hard for God to work in our lives when we have our own agenda. It's hard for God to work his will in your life when you are the one trying to call the shots. It's not gonna work. Jesus is not gonna be fighting you. It's not gonna be one of those things where it's like, okay, let's go 50-50 here, Jesus. He wants to literally control your life. That sounds scary, doesn't it? If somebody came to you and says, hey, listen, can I control your life for just today? What would you say? No way. I wouldn't control my life. Listen, you can trust God. You can trust God with your life. And this is what we see here is that God's plan and God's objective for us will come into play when we lay down our agenda. We put it aside and say, God, what is your will? What do you wanna do? That's what he wants. See, self-sufficiency keeps us from being open to the will of God for our lives. We do not experience the fullness of what it means to be a Christian when we try to do things ourselves. That's not according to his purpose. Remember the story of the young rich ruler? Remember what happened to him? I mean, this young guy was wealthy. He basically thought he had it, going with God, he kept all the commandments and whatnot and Jesus kind of exposed them and said, you take your money, sell it and give to the poor and he couldn't do it, right? He left, he walked away sad because he was wealthy. The sad thing about him is that here, this poor young rich ruler couldn't let go of his money and because of that, he couldn't experience the fullness of what it means to follow Jesus. So the question is, what are you holding on to right now that God has been trying to take away from you? See, if you're holding on to something in your life right now that is hindering God's will in your life, then you're not experiencing what it truly means to be a Christian. You're allowing an obstacle in your life and that obstacle is preventing God from coming in and fulfilling his purpose in your life. And it's until we surrender and allow God to say, God, come on in, let's do it, then we're gonna experience the fullness of what it truly means to be a Christian. And I believe a lot of Christians today are not experiencing that fullness. I mean, Jesus said that we're to have life and enjoy in full. A lot of us don't experience that because I think we have stuff in our lives that we do not wanna let go. Perhaps it could be hatred, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, whatever it is, we don't let go of it. And that hinders, unfortunately, our walks with him. So the first thing is that we see here, to be called of Christ means that we are called according to his purpose. The second thing is that I am called to be a saint. Not great. That word saint is very religious, isn't it? The connotation of it, you know, when you talk about religious, you think about the Roman Catholic Church, right? I was raised a Roman Catholic person, did my confirmation and all of this stuff, I did my confessions before, you know, this door and this is another priest on the other side. I did all of that stuff. And when you think about saints, and that's the first thing that comes to my mind, in the Roman Catholic theology, the saints are in heaven. According to the Bible, the saints are on earth. You guys are saints. You're like, really cool. That's right. In the Bible, the saints are on earth. In the Roman Catholic teachings, a person does not become a saint unless he or she is canonized by the pope or a prominent bishop. In the Bible, everyone who has received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is considered a saint. You're either a saint or an ant, right? And we see here that the word saint comes from the Greek word hagias, which means consecrated to God, holy and sacred. It still has a very powerful definition, but the idea of the word saint is a group of people set apart for the Lord and his kingdom. That's what the word means. The word saint just means to be set apart for God's purpose, for him to do his will. See, Christians are saints by virtue of their connection with Jesus. You know, Christians are called to be saints, to be increasingly allow their lives daily, their daily life to be more closely matched to their position in Christ and who they are in Christ. And that's why the Bible says not to love the world because we're supposed to be separate, right? We're set apart. John 17, Jesus prayed and he said this. He says, the world hates them because they are not of this world, a saint, somebody who's been set apart. You know, to be set apart means that, practically speaking, means that God has his hand on you for a specific purpose. Think about that. God has his hand on you for a specific purpose. Every person here who's a born again Christian, God's hand is on you right now for a specific purpose. Well, Robert, I don't know what that purpose is. Well, have you asked? Have you sought the Lord? Have you asked them, Lord, what is my purpose? What do you want to do in and through me? But he has his hand on you. I love that. It brings security in my life. Don't you think it's just a sense of security that God's hand is on me right now for a specific purpose? That's how attentive God is to you. He's not just going after the Greg Lorreys and Billy Graham's. Don't think that way. Just us, people, we don't have to be a Billy Graham to feel like, okay, God is in me now. No, he's with you now. Doesn't matter who you are, what you do, what your trade is, your career, his hand is on you. You know, today the world has a desperate need for people who are different. And people in the film industry, not only that, but just in the entertainment industry, you know, with all the different people that are out, singers and musicians, they want to be different. They dress different, right? That's what the world wants. They want somebody different. Miley Cyrus, right? Very different. But you see, she's got a lot of followers because she's totally different. She's not your typical Disney channel person anymore. You know, years ago it was Lady Gaga. I mean, these people, they want to be different and the world is looking for different people. Listen, they have different people in this world. They're called Christians, saints, because we're different. But they don't accept the different kind of people we are, but we are very different. What we need is people who will carry their faith into the office, into Congress, into society, the school, to the home. We need people to be different, even if it will cost them their social popularity. To be different. Be different at work. Don't be like that guy that's gossiping all the time. Don't go there. Be different. Stand out. It's okay. God's on your side. Don't take care of everybody. But be different. If you go to school, college, be different. Stand out for Christ. Stand out for truth. Just be different out in society. You're not shopping. You know, there's many times that people will try to carry conversations with me that I don't even know who they are. And they carry these conversations about the person that's taken too long and checking you out and they start tearing them down. It's like, I don't get into that. I'm like, dude, come on, you're relaxed. I mean, just be different. And people will look at you like, wow, you're weird. But that's all right. I'm a saint. Tell them that. I'm a saint. I've been set apart. I'm different. Well, we see that not only are we called according to his purpose, we're called to be saints. Thirdly, I am called into the fellowship of his son. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1.9. Paul says, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. This is a huge privilege. We are called into the fellowship. We are called into communion, enjoyment, and participation of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Christ has invited us into fellowship. He's invited us to hang out. He's invited us to fellowship. Listen to what John said. 1 John 1.3 says, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. We've been called into the fellowship with his son. Jesus wants to hang out with you. He wants that. You remember what he said? Come to me all who are weary, have you burdened? He says, come to me. That's an invitation. He says, hey, come to me. That's an invitation. You're not asking him to come to you. He's asking you, come to me. When you're weary, when you're stressed out, when you're bummed out, listen, come to me because my yoke is lights. And he says, I will give you rests for your souls. That's an invitation that he gives. And a lot of Christians don't take that invitation. I don't think you Jesus, I'll take care of this one. If Jesus says, come, go. That's an invitation. That's part of the fellowship that we've been called into. We've been called into that fellowship with Christ's. And I think it's a privilege for us to even have that. You see, the Spirit of God will encourage us to fellowship with Jesus because he wants to fellowship with us. He wants to speak to us. He wants to hear from us. That's what he wants. Kind of like what happened with Mary and Martha. You know, the story, I won't go into it too much, but you know, Martha was the busy one doing some good things. There was nothing wrong serving Jesus. But Mary had the best seat in the house, right? And Jesus made it very clear that Mary has the best spot right now. She is at my feet. What? Was she talking? Listening. Listening. Part of our fellowship with Jesus is not just, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. It's hearing him. It's just sitting down and just having silence and just waiting on God to speak. And the Lord has ways to speak to us even in those moments of silence. Whether it's a thought that comes to your mind, perhaps it's some kind of nudge in your heart. Maybe it's a scripture that comes to your mind. God begins to speak to you. Listen. As part of the fellowship that we have with him. God wants us to know him, just like the song we just sang, I surrender, I want to know you. He wants us to be with him. He wants to spend time with his son, Jesus Christ. John 17.3. This is what Jesus said in a nutshell. This is eternal life. That they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. What is eternal life? Eternal life is that they may know you, the only true God. Fellowship. Understand who God is. Are you satisfied with the knowledge that you have of Jesus right now? Are you like totally just satisfied? You know what? I'm okay where I'm at. I don't really need to dig into the Bible. I just, I know Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. I'm okay there. Listen, there are times, I mean, I went to Bible college and I would love to go back to school. I was telling my wife this a few months ago. I said, you know, we have children now and all that, so I can't go anywhere now. But anyway. I would love to go back to school. I said, I would love to go back and study more biblical theology. I have a library, a pretty good library in my office and I have all these books and I get so overwhelmed. I'm like, what book should I read? Because you know, for me it's like I start a book and I go like 10 pages and I'm done with it. I go to the next book and if you go to my library you see all these bookmarks and all these different books. In fact, I just bought three books just this week. I get hungry. I want to know more of God. I'm not satisfied with what I know. I want to know more. That's part of the fellowship. See, fellowship with Jesus is not just sitting down telling him, oh Lord, I need this, I need that, help me with this. It's, I want to know who you are. Who are you, Lord? I mean, yes, I know you're my savior, you're down on the cross and all, but there's more depth to you. And I want to go deeper with Jesus. I want to study him more. I don't want to get to a place where I'm just satisfied with what I know of God. You know, and that's what we've been called, as Paul says, we've been called into the fellowship of Christ, meaning that we have that ability, that privilege to come before the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace and help in time of need. It's for us to get that understanding of Jesus. And that's what happens when you spend time with Christ, is that he begins to reveal himself to you. As you read the Bible and you go through scripture, the Holy Spirit has a way to open up your mind, to understand him more. That is amazing, isn't it? That's rich fellowship. It's so easy for us to go into prayer, and I'm so guilty of this. You just spent five minutes or so, six minutes, just to quickly brush through, just get a little high five Jesus fist bump. I gotta go to work, see ya. I'm guilty of that. And I'm like, I try to challenge myself. It's like, I want to spend more time with him. As there's new years coming up, you know, I don't like doing New Year's resolutions because you know, they say like 90% of the people that start with New Year's resolutions don't even keep them by the third month. So it's like, I'm not into that. It's like, I want to do it now. I don't want to wait until 2016. How, tonight, how about tomorrow, right? I have that ability. Jesus is not saying, okay, I'll see you in 2016. Well, where they started off? Well, there, okay? Jesus would say, no, start now. Don't wait until 2016. Yeah, you two weeks away from the New Year, start now. And we see here that this is exactly what he's calling us. He's calling us into that fellowship with Jesus Christ. But not only that, notice another thing, is that we've been called by the grace of Christ. I am called in or by the grace of Christ. Galatians 1-6, listen to what it says. Paul says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel. Now I shared a little bit about grace at the beginning. And I'm gonna brush through this here real quickly. But Paul here was astonished that the Galatian believers were being seduced by a false doctrine, by false teaching. And rather than moving forward in the grace of Christ who died for them and suffered in their place, they were in danger of him, of quickly removing themselves from the grace of Christ. Finding another way. And there's always that temptation. There's always that temptation to add more to the gospel. There's always that temptation to add more to my walk with Jesus. You know, we're called in the grace of Christ. We are called to rest in his grace. But sometimes because of human nature, we wanna do a little bit more. We wanna add more to our salvation. It's like we're not satisfied with the grace of Christ. Ephesians two, eight and nine says, for by the grace of Christ, you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So I would say, rest in the grace of Christ. Another one that we have is that we've been called to liberty. Galatians five, 13, for you brethren have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. We've been called. The gospel proclaims liberty, not bondage, liberty. There are three ways that we experience freedom in Christ. Freedom from the law, freedom from sin, and freedom from fear. There's no fear. Perfect love casts out fear because fear has to do with torment, right? And because of that, because of the love of Christ, I have no fear of judgment. That when I die, I'm not worried about, oh my gosh, God's gonna judge me, what am I gonna do? It's gone. There's no fear of judgment. And the Bible says that we have not been appointed to wrath. So there's no judgment that I'm gonna go through. Now the only thing I'm gonna go through, and Christians are gonna go through, is basically that judgment of rewards, right? What, you know, basically weighing out your motive, you know, why you did this and all that, what was your motive? You know, that the mercy of Christ, or that reward time. To some, what will get rewards, others will not get any rewards because they did it with the wrong motive. Your service to Christ. If you're doing it like, oh, I'm gonna do this because I gotta do it, my wife wants me to serve. Listen, you're not gonna get a reward. She's gonna get it. Because Jesus is gonna weigh out your motives. And the Bible even says that at that time, there will be some that will be saved that's going through fire. I don't want to have anything to do with that. To be honest with you, I don't really understand that section in scripture. All I know is this, is that fire burns. Now I'm gonna go through any flame. But there'll be some crispy critters up in heaven. I don't know, I guess, you know? Bro, what happened to you? Man, what happened? I blew it. Well, we've been called to liberty. We are no longer held by the Old Testament rules and regulations. We are no longer slaves to sin. We've been set free from fear, from fear of judgment. And people who are not following Jesus is funny, think that their lives are free to live any way they want. They're like, oh, you Christians are held in bondage. You know, for me, I can live any way I want. I'm really experiencing true freedom. No, you're not, you're in bondage. You're enslaved to your sin. I'm no longer there. I've been set free. Now you think you got freedom more than me, but in reality you don't. You're still drinking and you're drunk. You're still doing drugs. You're still promiscuous. You're doing all these things that you're thinking you're free, but you're not, you're damaging yourself, you're destroying yourself. See, I've been set free from that. I'm not into that anymore. And that has saved me in so many ways. Sin is still their master. Our freedom does not mean that we are free to sin as we please. Because I know sometimes we look at that like, oh, we're free. This is great. Our freedom does not mean we are free to sin as we please. Freedom is the essence of being a Christian. It is the fundamental basis of all Christian living that I'm just set free. Christianity is freedom. Christianity is totally freedom. So Christian liberty then is to take all that Christ provides, be free from having to fulfill any legal code to please God, being free from the frustration that says I can't make it. Because sometimes Christians will get frustrated. I just don't think I can do this Christian stuff. It's so hard. Listen, you've been set free. God is not looking down at you and saying, oh, you gotta do these things for me to like you. Listen, you've already been in the beloved, you've been saved, you're in Christ now. Just baby steps, God will help you. But sometimes people think I can't do this. Have you ever had, have you ever had a conversation with somebody that says I just can't be a Christian? It's hard. That's what the freedom here does. It frees us from the frustration that says I can't make it. I've been set free. Being free from an external set of legal rules that I have to keep, I've been set free from that. Because now I have the choice to do wrong or right. See, before I needed the law. See, the law is what killed me. The law says, oh, you are a liar. Oh, you are a fornicator. The law killed me. That's what Paul says. The law is what revealed that I am a sinner. Now I don't need these external laws to govern my life. It's the Holy Spirit in me now. This says stop doing that. Hey, what did you say? And the conviction sets in. It's not an external law. It's an internal law. It's the spiritual law. Isn't that awesome that we have the Holy Spirit in our lives? Seriously. I mean, you think about these things. I mean, you think about, you know what it is like, right? When you're like, you're being tempted. And there's that, and there's that, that nudge in your heart, that feeling says you're gonna go there, aren't you? You wanna go there, right? And all of a sudden you get this sweaty palms and your heart starts beating. You know what that's like. That's the Holy Spirit saying stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. You blow through all those red flags or all those stop signs that the Holy Spirit gives you and you fall into sin. Hey, that was your fault. That was your fault. Well, here we see that Christianity's freedom. We're free to just function in the overflow of the work of the Holy Spirit inside of my life. That's the freedom that we have now. God doesn't have to say, hey, don't forget. Here's a law right here. You just broke it. No, he says, you know what? I got my spirit in this man. I'll take care of him. That's the freedom that we have. I don't need the external laws to stop me from doing wrong. I have the spirit of God who restrains me and convicts me of my wrongdoing. So we've been called to freedom, liberty. Another thing here is we're coming to an end. We have been called out of darkness. 1 Peter 2.9, listen. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. This is very clear in scripture. I mean, I'm not gonna even spend much time here. I'm just gonna give you a few verses here. John 8, 12, Jesus said, he says, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life. Ephesians 5, 8, for you were once darkness, but now you are light and the Lord, walk as children of the light. You know, our generation today, I believe, is marked by pseudo-Christians who are dabbling in darkness. Instead of being called out of darkness. And that's hard sometimes. It's very difficult. The question is, well, why did God call us out of darkness? He called us out of darkness so that we can bring glory to his name, not a black eye, but glory to his name. The world will see our lives, how we conduct ourselves as we live among them. And as Jesus said, let your light shine so men can see your good deeds. God wants people to see, hey, this is the life of Christ in that person. That's the witness that we bring to a world that is dying in sin. We become a light to them. So Christians are to live in a way that is diametrically opposed to this world system and culture. That's what it means to be called out of darkness. And lastly, we are called a child of God. We've been called a child of God. That's a very, very cool designation or position. First John 3, one, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. That's another call that we have. We've been called a child of God. Now, if you were to ask a person on the street, especially a religious person, is everyone a child of God? Most likely they'll say, yes, everybody's a child of God. Have you ever had that discussion with somebody? Oh, we're all children of God. No, you're not. We're all offspring of God. We're part of his creation, but to actually be a child of God, that's something special. I can't say that all children in this world are my children, but I have two children that are mine. But I can't claim that to anybody else. You'd think I'm a freak if I did that. That's my child, that's my child, that's my child, you know? But it's not like that. Listen, this is what it says here. This is what Jesus said, John 1, 12, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. It's a right that God gives us. You don't choose to be a child of God. It's designated, it's actually set for those who are born again believers. We're all offspring of God, but yet a child of God is that person who's received Christ's. And the rewards of being a child of God are immeasurable. As God's children, we are part of a big family, a church, we were promised a home in heaven, which is huge, and we've been given the right to approach God in prayer, which I shared earlier. So let me conclude this. You are the call of Jesus Christ. That's exactly what I just kind of explained to you, that as Christians, you are the call of Christ, what it means to be the call of Christ. We went through seven things, that the Bible clearly communicates to us that we are being called to. So the thing that you have to understand as we come to this conclusion here is that God loves you. You belong to Him. Remember that. You belong to Him. You are His now. That's what it means to belong to Christ. That's what it means to be the call of Christ. He will work in you what is pleasing to Him. You don't call the shots anymore. I know we're tempted to do that at times, but nothing here will separate us from His love, from His work that He wants to do in our lives. He's called you according to His purpose. You are called a saint. You've been called into fellowship with His Son. You are called to liberty. And He's called you out of darkness. And finally, He's called you a child of God. That is who you are. That is what He has given you. So how do we respond to that? Listen, be blessed and accept it. Understand that position that you're having Christ. That's what it means to be the call of Christ. That's who you are. As you walk out of this place, that is who you are. That's what you're gonna represent out at work tomorrow. It's your school, at home, wherever you go. You are a very unique person. A very blessed person. And God wants to use you to show the world the benefits that you've been given by Christ because you've received Him. So don't ever, ever forget that. It's a privilege to be a Christian. It's not only a serious thing, it's a privilege to be a Christian. It's not just something you just become just because you have nothing else to do. Listen, there's so much that goes behind that. And the first thing is that Christ died on that cross for you. That's where it started. So walk out of here confident, excited, feeling privileged that you are a saint, a child of God. You've been called according to His purpose. And listen, go show that off to the world.