 I want to start a series today that will be called Answer the Call in light of going into the fall, going back to school we want to kind of refresh our mind a little bit of what is the calling of a Christian on this earth what does God call us to do? A lot of times we call God but it's God who calls us also and we love when God picks up the phone and answers every prayer God also loves when you pick up your phone and answer his request mmm that's a mic drop right there and so but today we're gonna focus on that if you have your Bible I'm gonna open to Matthew chapter 4 verse 19 and 20 and it says the following and he said to them to the disciples follow me and I will make you fishers of men they immediately left their nets and followed him someone say amen so Jesus calls his disciples he says follow me and I will make you fishers of men the Bible says and immediately they forsook their nets and they followed him now in the beginning I just want to lay a little foundation to say this there is a general calling of God on the life of every Christian and each Christian has a specific calling that's in the context of the general calling and many times people always ask about things like what does God want me to do with my life where does God want me to be involved in in the church and in the society and I think God really doesn't mind what you do whether it's in the church or in the society that's why Paul says whatever you do do it unto the Lord that's why Jesus says a wise man built his house on the rock Jesus did not say what kind of a house a wise man should build he was saying make sure whatever he builds whether a skyscraper a duplex or a foreplex or a condo or a trailer make sure it's on the right foundation so God doesn't mind whether you go into politics or you go into the working for the government or you go working you know for a daycare or you're going working for a fast food restaurant or you work in the ministry God does not put too much emphasis on that he puts emphasis make sure whatever you do you manifest the kingdom of heaven whatever you do that your identity is not based on your paycheck on your education on the compliments accolades and awards it's based on the blood and the Jesus Christ who is your foundation can somebody say amen let's put our hands together for the Lord your identity is in Jesus Christ whether people get healed or they don't whether people you know Jesus told the disciples when they cast out demons he says don't rejoice that demons leave when you command them your identity is not an exorcism your identity is that your name is written in the book of life whether you got promoted or demoted your identity is not based on that it's based on who you are in Jesus Christ and Jesus says that is more important than the career and the calling that you have a specific calling that you have what is the general calling for each Christian I believe it's outlined in these two verses you can write this down or you can remember these three F's it's the follow it's the forsake and it's the fish everybody say this with me say follow forsake and fish follow means Jesus you have number what calling as a Christian is not to save the world is to follow God can somebody say amen Jesus did not call disciples to preach he called them to follow he didn't call them to lead he called them to follow Jesus called you your number one calling if you want to hear what God is calling you to do and this is what he's calling you to do follow me follow me not just believe in me demons believe in tremble but this is not helping them following him means your life begins to follow him I believe that following Jesus can be outlined in two words devotion which leads to devotions devotion is your heart given to God devotions is the time you spend with God and these two things they go together following Jesus means my heart is given to Jesus my whole life is given to Jesus and as my heart is given to Jesus that is my devotion to Jesus that devotion changes and solves a lot of problems in my life and answers a lot of questions do I sleep in on Sunday? devotion decides that no I don't why because I'm devoted to Jesus do I give my tithe or do I just go buy new Jordans devotion decides that no I give that to Jesus why because Jesus is the one I'm devoted to if you are devoted to Jesus many complicated situations get sorted out quickly if your heart is devoted to Jesus can somebody say amen? out of devotion to Jesus you build your devotions devotions is the time you spend with the Lord whether it's reading three chapters a day one chapter a day praying 15 minutes a day to an hour a day whatever the time that you spend with the Lord that is devotions but devotion is a heart and life given to God when I was younger I thought that devotions are very important and I still believe in that but devotions don't necessarily signify your devotion to God for example there are times I don't spend time with my wife like yesterday I saw her at 6 in the morning and then I saw her at 10 in the evening she had already some things planned with some of the leaders in the church and I went to preach now when I did not spend time and a day with my wife I did not get divorced I didn't remove my ring by 6 p.m. and said because I haven't seen my wife I'm no longer married when last weekend we went for three days and I was in Kansas City see when I was in Kansas City and I was not there with my wife I did not lose my marriage because I lost my fellowship many people live in guilt and shame if they miss a day or two of prayer and they begin to guilt trip themselves and they say my relationship with God is broken no it's your fellowship with God that is right now going through trials but your relationship with God is not based on the time you spent on the life you gave I don't remove my ring if I did not see my wife for a day or for a two I am still married and I don't feel guilty if I don't spend time with her but I do miss her and God doesn't want you to feel guilty if your life got busy you're a mother you're a businessman or you're in something in college and you maybe a day went without prayer you know maybe a week went without prayer and you look at yourself and you say my relationship with God is no good no no no your fellowship with God you need to miss God not feel guilty but miss God because God wants you to follow Him which means devotion a heart given to the Lord and devotions at times spent with the Lord now if your devotions has not happened for three months when you do need to see a marriage counselor if you didn't spend three months with your wife and you don't want her then now we have a marriage problem can somebody say amen and so following Jesus is number one calling of a Christian when you follow Jesus the second calling that will happen to you and I if you follow Jesus is you will forsake some things you will have to forsake who you follow determines what you forsake who you follow determines what you forsake if you follow Hollywood you'll forsake the church if you follow Netflix you'll forsake your service if you follow other things you will forsake the Bible but if you follow Holy Spirit you'll forsake your sin see Jesus didn't call disciples and say drop your drop your nets drop your boat he says follow me and they recognize we can't drag this with us we're gonna have to forsake this if we're gonna follow Him and so my message to you today is not forsake your sin my message is this follow Jesus and you'll quickly find out you can't serve the devil and follow Jesus at the same time one is gonna have to be let go because somebody see a man Lot's wife quickly found out if you wanna follow God and you're still holding on to your past you will not be a people of salt you become a pillar of salt you know what pillars pillars don't move there's a lot of Christians there is no movement in their life their spiritual life is as dead as Lazarus no life there whatsoever they feel like something is missing and this is what they say about their life I am stuck yeah Lot's wife can relate to you because God didn't call you to be a monument He called you to be a movement there's one thing people say about our church all the time our church is more than just a building it's a movement you walk in and there's stuff that is happening why is there stuff happening? it's because when we seek Jesus in prayer and fasting when we follow and then we continue to forsake our tradition we forsake the past we forsake the good old days and we press into the future God will grant us to see a movement instead of become satisfied to be a monument if you found your life is spiritually stuck are you looking back? are you looking to your past? are you dragging some nets and some bows? why do you need the boat if the one you follow walks on water? why do you need to drag your past sin? why do you need to drag your past? you will be pushed you'll be pulled if you don't follow Jesus you don't need to forsake anything why forsake your boat if you don't plan to follow the Messiah? sometimes people come up to me and they say you know how do I tell my homosexual friend they need to be straight and I said why? I said what do you mean why? then everybody I'm like if a person doesn't follow Jesus if a person did not give their life to Jesus Christ there is no need to forsake their sinful ways if they're going to hell let them at least enjoy the journey you have no business telling people to subscribe to rules they didn't subscribe to the Lord they shouldn't be going around preaching you're not going to, we're not preaching you know heterosexual Christianity we are preaching first Jesus and when you follow Jesus then he will, his word will begin to change your life or you will begin to forsake certain things you shouldn't be forsaking your sin if you're not planning to follow Jesus why go to hell in suffering? at least live it up so when you're there you know why you're there I had this conversation with a young man in the lobby in our church he came to me and he said Vlad is it wrong for me to smoke? I said for you no and he said and I knew this young man so I'm not usually like the harsh with people okay but I know him he's just a troubled kid but he didn't surrender his life to the Lord he comes to me and he says why is it not wrong? I said bro you're on the way to hell I'm like come on you know that God knows that you know we all know that what difference does it make? if you went to hell as a smoker to hell or a non-smoker if you wanted go do it I was like at least if I would be you going to hell I would live it up I wouldn't be like you trying to cut different habits why? I'm like see you're not following Jesus you don't have to do what we're doing I'm like because I follow Jesus I can't drag my stuff but you don't follow him I'm like bro live it up he looked at me with this big eyes he said oh MG through few little colorful words I can't believe you're saying this and I was like listen you don't go to heaven because you don't smoke I'm like there are a lot of people in hell who are non-smokers I'm like that's not what saves you it's not being straight against you to heaven it's not being clean to get you to heaven it's Jesus and when you follow Jesus you will then forsake that's why don't focus on forsaking focus on following and forsaking will come easy I didn't focus on forsaking my single life or my parents I fell in love with my wife and leaving my parents was a joy until I learned that you have to pay bills then I started to miss them but if you are there trying to convince yourself how you're gonna have to leave your sinful past you don't have to if you don't have no one to follow who you follow determines what you forsake if you follow Jesus you will forsake maybe not right away but you will forsake your whole life if you follow the devil you will forsake Jesus it's just a matter of time and I want you to see the third the third general calling is not only we follow not only we forsake but I want you to see this Jesus says I will make you fishers of man what touches me is Jesus didn't promise to make us into good people the world is expecting Christians to be perfect and Jesus didn't say I will make you perfect he said I'll make you fishers of man that tells me that Jesus looks in the scope of eternity and he sees the importance of seeing people come to know him and miss eternity in hell is more important than make Christians into perfect people we are perfected as Christians but only Jesus is perfect and he promises if you follow him and you forsake sin that something will be about you and guys and this is the challenge that we see in our generation Jesus didn't say if you follow me and forsake sin you will become righteous you will become holier than thou he says you will be concerned with other people who don't know me that tells me if in my heart my heart does not beat for souls if my life is not intentional about seeing people come to know Jesus I have the audacity based on the word of God to question the genuineness of my following Jesus if you can quote scriptures and you pray a lot and you fast a lot but your life does not have a concern and intention to see people come to know Jesus I have the right to question that genuineness of your following Jesus Jesus doesn't want you make you into a religious nut he's looking for spiritual fruit and the spiritual fruit is intentionality about people who don't know Jesus that's why I'm asking if you're believing in Jesus if you're following Jesus if you've been forsaking your old ways and we have a fall season coming up that you take the step because Jesus wants to make you into a fisher of man you might not be able to you know go fish the whole ocean but Jesus wants to be a person that goes into the world and pulls the hurting people out of the world and brings them to Jesus Christ and how many of us know you don't sit in your house and pray for the fish to come in your house you go where the fish are at and that's exactly why these host groups are so important because you go to where people are at not hoping for them to come where you are at amen the first that I want to read to you in continuation of this is Joshua 4.8 it says the following but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of people melt in fear I however follow the Lord somebody say followed I follow the Lord my God wholeheartedly so on that day Moses swore to me the land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and your children forever because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly I want you to see something in the scripture Joshua and Caleb they followed God and because Caleb followed God in general he followed God God did not lead him into a graveyard he led him to the promised land and after he followed God generally God specifically showed him his peace of pie in the promised land, the mountain many people are asking God to reveal to them specific calling when they haven't fulfilled their general calling from God it's like going to CBC without GED you're going to CBC and you say hey I want to get my bachelors and they're like do you have a GED I don't care about GED I need a bachelors did you finish your high school I don't care about high school is for losers I need a bachelors and what will they tell you they say no no you can't do it like that you can't just go and into CBC you need to have that foundation and when you follow Jesus forsake your sin and you focus on getting people saved God will begin to reveal to you your mountain in the promised land your specific calling will become clear when your general calling becomes your goal your specific calling will become clear when your general calling you become busy about it I love the fact that following Jesus didn't bring Joshua following God didn't bring Joshua into nowhere it brought him to the promised land it gave him a mountain and it gave him a blessing for the rest of the generation means talking about generational blessing when you follow Jesus it's not going to make you more religious it will bring a blessing on your life I'm not saying stuff because you can get stuff without blessing but if you get blessing and stuff comes in the stuff doesn't become the main idol the stuff becomes something you enjoy because God is someone you worship because somebody say amen now the part of this message that I want to focus on toward the end right now is this is Caleb Caleb the word Caleb in the Bible original word actually means dog so if you ever call your child Caleb you just call them a dog Caleb actually means a dog his parents called him a dog I think they got too many dogs in the house they called him a dog now I want you to see something in Caleb's life that is very similar to the dog now America is the country that has the most dogs per capita we are a dog loving country I want to share with you five lessons you will learn from the dog concerning following Jesus the first lesson I want you to write down is this is the dog is always near his master there's something that I've seen about a dog and something you see about Caleb as God says he fully followed me a dog dog's number one joy is to be near his master he can play with the toy this morning as the dog was eating started to eat the moment Lana passes by drops the food and literally the whole idea is to follow the master the dog's number one quality is this is that he always follows and is near his master when we release the dog where he sits is always by the door my wife's room his number one joy is to be around his master could you say something about that yeah it's very interesting because if I get up from the couch he will get up and go after me even if he's very tired in the evening his eyes get so red and he barely moves for a puppy he has to be tired to be like that but if I get up from the couch he will get up and follow me if I go to my room because he's not allowed there he sits by the door and waits for me until I come out he knows this the garage opener now and so when the garage opener begins to open that's it stands by the garage door and I scream a little I bring I bribe him with sweets and with other things which we cannot do he won't move his head just a second because the owner is coming his obsession is not toys his obsession is not the tricks his obsession is not even playing his obsession is always one it's his owner and that's why God said to Joshua he says you wholly followed me you were like a dog you were interested in me I want to tell you something guys is this is before this little creature came into our house this little creature the first question I asked my wife is this number one can you afford him? number two can you afford to maintain him? number three do you have the time because I'm like from what I hear these guys need time and she says yes and there was the decision that was made see I want to tell you something about God is that God is the one who is fascinated about you you existed in God's mind before you existed in your mother's womb God decided to create you he looked at his heaven schedule and he says will I have the time will I have the resources to be with these humans and God is fascinated about you but see because God created you God wants you to have a desire and have him as your obsession that's why God came to Abraham and he says I am your exceedingly great reward that's what David says God you're my hiding place you're my refuge God wants to be your number one passion see sometimes we unlike a dog we will leave God if somebody gives us a bone if you give us a small toy and we will abandon the presence of God but God wants you to learn something today this is your number one calling is this to make Jesus your obsession one of the reasons this dog doesn't work is because his number one passion is his master and the master whom he worships takes care of all his needs his organic food his shots his haircut who happens to be a lot more three times more expensive than mine every single thing is provided for this dog and the only thing this dog does enjoys the company of his master actually he wasn't hired for work he was brought in for pleasure you were created for God's pleasure you were created because God enjoys your presence see we say I love your presence God says I love yours more God enjoys your presence God enjoys you he didn't create you some people say God created us because he needed somebody to worship and really God created you because he wanted you because he found pleasure in you and what I want you to learn is your number one calling today is to enjoy God is to fellowship with God and to be near him to me this four-legged creature is just a reminder if he can enjoy somebody as boring as me how much more I can enjoy someone fascinating as God can somebody say amen come on let's put our hands together for the Lord number two is what my wife already has mentioned is dog will go where you go not only Caleb was fascinated with God but Caleb did not follow the promised land Caleb followed the Lord and when he did not enter the promised land and end up in a wilderness for 40 years because of some naysayers you don't see Caleb dropping the mic and say God why do I have to go and suffer for other people's mistakes Caleb says my passion is not the promised land my passion is the presence of the God who promised the land see God wants you to be the person that goes after him where he goes and if you have to go through the valley you go through the valley because God is there with you if you are on a mountain top you go in on a mountain top because God is with you see many of us we are chasing our dream Caleb was chasing the presence because if you're chasing your dream you will quit when it gets hard when you're chasing the presence when things get hard you're never alone you're always with him and God will always bring you to your dream that's why God says he'll fulfill the desires of your heart but see your number one passion has to be his presence because only then your desires can be trusted your desires can be trusted if God is not your passion do you go where he goes when it's hard or are you the person who leaves God when things get easy are you the person who has your instinct is this you're really chasing a breakthrough you know many of us in here the first cars that many of us gave to people we stopped seeing them in church when they got a blessing of a car many of us here today we experienced that many people they come to know God they really are not after God they're really after God because it hurts and the moment it stops hurting and you no longer see them in prayer you no longer see them in anything God doesn't want you to follow success or follow him in failure God wants you to follow him whether you're successful or not successful Jesus didn't say follow me until I make you popular he said follow me through the valley follow me through the cross follow me through the resurrection follow me when you're famous follow me when you're not follow me not your dream but me I will get you to your dream and I will keep you in your dream but I am the one you follow not your dream I know the popular teaching by Oprah Winfrey follow your heart the Bible says don't trust your heart because your heart is wicked above all things you follow God with your heart don't ever follow your heart it's like following a wheelbarrow you're the one leading it follow the Lord with your heart can somebody say amen? the third lesson we learned from the dog that applies to following God is dogs walk by a scent not his sight he can say something about that there's very interesting statistics that we found that dog's sense of smell is from one thousand to ten million times stronger than humans so from one thousand to ten million times his nose can detect from one thousand times to ten million times better than your nose trust his nose yep he has from one hundred twenty-five million to three hundred million sand glands compared to five million for humans only so we have five he has one twenty three hundred million up to three hundred glands in his nose yep and the last one is the part of the brain that controls dog's smell is forty times larger than human one so one thing we probably have seen this dogs sniff that's why they are in the airports that's why they detect heroin that's why you can look at the bag and you will never see drugs a dog doesn't have to see it he sniffs it it's interesting because they went into the promised land and the ten spies saw giants joshua sniffed victory how did he sniff that victory because see when you love the presence of God and you follow God you become like God and God doesn't move is not moved by what he sees God has a spirit and through his spirit what happens is that God looks at things through his spirit and so you begin to look like Moses he looks at Egypt and he sees Egypt is popular but see Moses is not moved by his side Moses has a scent the Bible says he saw something in his spirit that Egypt is going to collapse and he says I'm walking away from this this is going to go down where did he see that he sniffed it when you walk closer to God one thing that's going to happen about you is that your spiritual senses are going to be so much stronger than your physical side other people will see a medical doctor you will see a great physician other people will see a calamity what you are going to see you are going to see a victory in that thing and you will say you are crazy you said the problem is I've been hanging out with my Alpha and it robbed off on me and he has sharpened my spiritual senses and that's why the Bible says a righteous man doesn't live by his side he walks by faith like the joke says poke your neighbor in your eye in his eye and tell him that we live by side by faith but don't do that you are as a Christian you live by your senses by your spirit man instead of by your side you can somebody say amen and number three number four I want you to write this down dog enjoys small pleasures in life because he doesn't stay mad for more than 30 seconds you can hit your dog in the face you can hit him in the back and I've done all kinds of already when he would bite me and I was like just hit him push him off he would go walk off you can see he's upset only for five seconds you come around and you put him a boner thinking which theological school he went through to learn the fruit of the spirit of quick forgiveness many of us literally something happened to us and for 20 years mad face sour face you're still reliving that no wonder you can't enjoy your life because you harbor unforgiveness instead of being quick to forgive your happiness is your choice and it's dependent solely on your ability to let go of what people done against you Jesus taught his disciples if they reject you he didn't say create a book compile on your feet he says learn to shake things off because your peace he says let it come back to you their dirt let it stay with them with us is the opposite we collect their dirt and let him take our peace if somebody stole your peace take it back from them your ability to enjoy life is not dependent on your circumstances the dog doesn't care about the stock market he doesn't walk around being afraid where his next food is gonna come the only thing he does is this wigs his tail puts his tongue out walks around the happiest being ever and the problem is this without education without a job without so many other things happiness is a choice and is dependent on your ability to let go of the offense and the last thing we're gonna come to prayer is dogs can be trained a potential of every dog is within him and that potential can be pulled out by this process called training dogs have the brain size of a two-deer toddler but they can be trained for example this sheep that you just witnessed he doesn't do he doesn't have a lot of training but he knows that he can party in the house so in the morning at six o'clock he will squeak to take him outside after outside he goes back in he knows how to open doors he knows how to sit down but that's about it if you train him he can do a lot of tricks he can do a lot of things you have to understand one thing is that because of your calling God's goal in your life is not just to pamper you God's goal is to train you and the Bible says Jesus learned obedience by the things he suffered obedience is a learned trade it's not a gift you don't get obedience you learn obedience you don't get disobedience you learn disobedience love is a skill you develop it's not a gift you receive a hate is a skill you develop it's not a gift you receive you don't become hateful you choose to become hateful by participating in the life of hate by being trained in that in Romans it says this it says that and we know that all things work together for those who love God see everything in your life is not gonna be good but if you love God there's two requirements we follow God and number two if you're called by His purpose God says this everything in your life will be used for your training if you don't love God and you're not called by God's purpose then everything in your life will always need an explanation you will be mad if some things happen that you prayed for that didn't happen but the beautiful part about being called is that even the bad things the things you don't have explanation for even the setbacks and limitation none of it ever goes in waste it is used for your training the years we went through as a church you know where we didn't see breakthrough yeah it seemed like it was a waste but it's not a waste if we have a vision because every single thing we do God uses it to train us and nothing is worse than receiving your inheritance when you're not prepared for it Prodigal son can give us a testimony when you get something you were not prepared for it doesn't last in your life King Saul couldn't endure the kingdom because he got pushed into it David got prepared into it why did Esther not lose her crown like Vashti because Esther worked for it for years before she became a queen why did Moses endure till the end of his life serving God is because for 40 years he was prepared in the wilderness why did Abraham is the father of many nations because for 25 years he was prepared for that God is not just interested to bless you he wants to prepare you to live in that blessing as somebody say man everything that happens in our life does not happen for a reason but it can be used for a purpose people who come to you if your loved one died and says it's for a reason that's not true God never intended death there is no reason but if your love God and called by his purpose he will not even waste those disappointing moments he will use them recycle them for your good they don't have to be good but he can use them for his purpose because somebody say man thank you for watching this content I hope this was a blessing to you if you're like me and you like to click on things click on this subscribe to our channel and the content will come to you every time we post it and remember the best is yet to come