Why Vocation

Have you ever noticed, that a lot of the ways that we talk about work or think about work are really aimed at not working. So think about it, like there was a song from some time ago, that actually summed it up pretty well, at least looking at it on a day by day basis. Let me give it to you. You're gonna finish it for me, you ready? ♪ Everybody is working for the Weekend ♪
Yeah, weekend. Why are you listening to that? By the way, stop it. I thought better of you, but you knew it. Everybody's working for the weekend. So what's the idea there? Everybody's working, in order not to work. That was kind of the idea, right? We're working so that we don't have to work. Or we plan out our vacations because we want to work so that we don't have to work, right? I'm working so that I'll have some vacation time, okay. Or, retirement, I'm working in order to quit working. That's kind of where we end up right? Even, it's funny, it's almost like there's this underlying assumption when it comes to the idea of work, that it's a necessary evil, that we just have to engage and do. Because we wanna be able to not work right? Even if, in fact, we really like our jobs, the way that we talk about liking our jobs, still underscores the fact, that it makes it seem like work is really not a good thing. So somebody that really likes their job says, "I haven't worked a day in my life." What do they mean by that? What they mean is, is that the idea of work is actually bad, but they're not having to experience that. So as a result, it's all good. So you'd almost think that maybe this idea related to work is that it's not particularly enjoyable, and all of that. But when we look at the story of God, right at the very beginning, that's not exactly what we see. And so if I could take you back into the book of Genesis, we're gonna look in chapter one, and in chapter two for just a few moments, and then we're kind of gonna build on that, as we move along today. I want you to see what God did at the very beginning of the story. It says in Genesis one beginning at verse 27, God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God, He created them male and female, He created them. And God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful, and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." And then what we find is that in chapter two, God says, Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, "You're free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat from it you will certainly die." The Lord God said, "It's not good for the man to be alone, I will make a helper suitable for him." So when you look at these two passages of Scripture what you see is this, is that God created human beings, male and female, He created them. And in creating them, He gave them a job. Many people call this the creation mandate or the cultural mandate, and it was this, it was I want you to increase and multiply be fruitful and multiply and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule. So He told them to do this male and female, husband and wife, Adam and Eve. And He planted them in a garden, planted them, that was cool. Planted them in a garden, He put them into a garden, I didn't mean to do that. Sometimes I just do cool stuff. It's just accidental, right? When you're accidentally cool, you're just cool at that point, right? Tell that to my kids, they need to hear that. So they were in a garden, and what were they given a commission to do? To work it, right? They were there to work it. And so what you see is, you see that actually work, preceded sin and the fall. You see from God's very design, at the very outset work was a part of it, before sin entered in and made everything a mess, God had actually designed life in such a way for human beings that they were actually going to work even though sin wasn't present. So that means that work actually has an inherent dignity associated with it, that there is a sacredness all by itself in the idea of work, because it's a part of the divine design of God, for humanity and for humanity's flourishing. And for the earth's flourishing. That's important for us not to miss because when we start reading about this cultural mandate to be fruitful, and multiply and increase in number, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over it, this is the job that He has given us. Now when He talks about increasing in number and filling the earth, what's He filling the earth with? Well, more image bearers, right. They're gonna reproduce, and they're gonna have other children that are gonna be image bearers of God. And so what that means is that the earth was going to be filled with people who were bearing the image or the stamp of God. And this would be about God filling the earth with His glory. Because it's to His glory, that these people are really made in the image of God. And He says, what I want you to do is I want you to subdue the earth. And when we hear that word subdue, we kind of think maybe it's a violent term, like, we'd hear it in wrestling matches, I'm gonna subdue you, even though they don't talk like that, right? I'm not sure that's in their vocabulary. But nonetheless, right, subdue is not really a violent term as it's used in Hebrew, it actually is communicating that they were supposed to care for the world the way that God cares for it. Or maybe you could say it this way that they were supposed to make something of the world in the creator's name. That's actually what they were commissioned to do. And so Adam and Eve worked in the garden, and they were there to help the garden flourish. But here's the thing, some of us have a wrong idea, because we often look back when the world gets crazy, or when work gets crazy, or whatever, you may just go back into your mind and think to yourself, "I just wish I could live in a garden like Adam and Eve, I just want to eat some fruit and walk around naked." Right, and we just, we kinda think, "I just wanna get the world away from me, and I just wanna be in my garden. And I wanna just hang out there. And that's what I would love. I wish I could just do what Adam and Eve are doing." Here's the thing though, keep this in mind that Adam and Eve were not meant to stay in the garden. That's not where they were meant to stay. Because the creation mandate, the cultural mandate is actually different than that. Because it says this, what does it say? "Fill the earth, and subdue it." Not just the garden, but actually the idea was that they were supposed to extend the growth of the garden, so that they and humanity and the world would be able to flourish. That was the mandate that they were actually given. They weren't supposed to stay in that place. And so, what we see here is we see that God, what He has done in Genesis is He makes human beings in His image to both relate to Him, to be in relationship with Him, and to represent Him in the world. And then God calls them, human beings, to work. And this is a part of the divine design. And so when we read in Genesis one and two, what we find out is that God made everything good. Like He made everything, everything was good. Every day that He creates, He ends it by saying and it was good, and it was good, and it was good. And then He creates human beings and says, "They were very good." Right? So God created everything good, but then sin as we know entered in. And what sin does is it messes up everything. Sin breaks things, including, how we understand and experience work. In fact, when we get to Genesis three, we see the consequences of what happens when sin enters into work. And you hear God explaining to Adam what this is going to look like. And in fact, I've highlighted some phrases there so you can see it. To Adam He said, "Because you listen to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' Cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you. And you will eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you will return." Did you hear some of those phrases right? Sweat of your brow, thorns and thistles, cursed is the ground, like you're hearing all of these things, all of the sudden, in this story, work got hard in a hurry, didn't it? All of a sudden now when we're looking at work prior to it was different than that. And now when sin enters in, it messes everything up. But the beautiful news is that God had a plan in Jesus, to restore and to recover what sin had begun to ruin. And so when we see Jesus enter the story of God, what we see is that Jesus is called by the Apostle Paul, the second Adam. And the reason he's called the second Adam is because like the first Adam was given a cultural mandate to fill the earth and to fill it with His glory and to subdue it, right? This and to rule, that Jesus would ultimately be the fulfillment of that very thing. The first Adam had a bride to work alongside of Him in fulfilling that mandate. But guess what? The second Adam, Jesus also had a bride, to be able to work alongside Him, called the church. And that church is called to work and to serve alongside of Him, so that we can fulfill what He's called us to fulfill. So it was no wonder when Jesus gave this great commission that we referenced last week, and that we'd read about in Matthew 28, when Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore I want you to go and make disciples of all the nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you. And I will be with you, even to the very end of the age." When Jesus was making this statement, do you know what he was doing? He was restating the cultural mandate, of Genesis chapter one. Because what Jesus is now doing is saying, "We're going to fill the earth with disciples of mine. We are going to see the glory of God cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." This was always God's design, and now Jesus is saying, "We're going to see that that's fulfilled, and my bride is going to work with me to see this accomplished." And even though in the time that we're living in right now, it's a little up and down, a little messy, and we don't always do it perfect. And the bride's dress is a little grimy, and our makeup's not very good or whatever, right? There's coming a time where the bride will ultimately be purified when Jesus actually returns. And He's going to bring new creation with Him. And when Jesus brings new creation with Him, and a new heaven and earth a restored humanity is going to be the case because of belief in Jesus Christ. And now what is going to happen is that Jesus, the second Adam, along with His bride, the church, are going to, listen to this, rule, and reign together and work together. Now, what I don't know is what work looks like in the new creation. I don't fully understand or fully grasp what the idea of work looks like. Because new creation is so new that we don't have a category for that. We don't even understand what we're talking about when we talk about that. We don't even have words to describe it. And the only way I know how to talk about it is is to say what it's not. I know that there'll be some jobs not needed in the new creation. They won't need any doctors, not one. Won't need any counselors, not one. Won't need any electricians, because the lamb is the light. Right? There's a lot of things, we won't need any lawyers do not say amen to that. We have lawyers in our church, we love them. There's gonna be a lot of jobs that we won't have that, but we will work because this was always a part of the divine design. And this is a part of what will be restored and recovered, ultimately. So with that story as a backdrop, what we need to understand is the idea of, vocation. Because when we talk about the word vocation, most of the time when we say it, what we mean is, work. But vocation is bigger than the idea of work. And I need you to understand that it includes work, but it's bigger than that. Let me explain. See the word vocation actually is from the Latin vocare, which means to call. So that's what the word vocation means, to call. It's actually about, listen to this, vocation is about calling, more than it is just about work. And I need us to understand that difference. You see, for many years in the life of the church vocation was only reserved for priests. In other words, they were the ones who got called into service. And they would go contemplate and pray, live wherever they lived, and do all that kind of stuff. That's what they did. But when the reformation occurred, what the reformation thinkers and writers helped to recover from the scripture Was the idea of the priesthood of every believer. That we together as the Body of Christ are a royal priesthood. That He has selected from us, He's called us priest and kings unto God. And that means that as priests and priestesses, in this priesthood of believers, that what we do, whatever it is, can be and should be sacred. Whatever the job, whatever the role, you see, in the older times, they believed that, the clergy had the first order call, they were called to do the work of the ministry, and that everybody else had just like a secondary thing. You're a cobbler, you're a baker, you're a candlestick maker, right? You're something like that. And those were like second tier, the clergy were here, and everybody else was here. The reformation turned all that in a different direction. And basically helped us to see this. No, no, we're all priests of God. This is a priesthood of believers. And as a result of that, all of what we do is sacred, whether it's my job or your job, we are made to actually represent God, in whatever it is that we do. See that's an important truth for us. Because, the idea of vocation, is something that we need to understand because it's the idea of calling. And calling is used in the Bible in a couple of different ways. I really like how the author Os Guinness, frames that in his book that's entitled "The Call". He talks about a primary calling, and secondary callings. The primary calling, he uses a capital C. And the secondary callings, he uses a lowercase c. Here's what is meant by that, the primary calling is not to some thing, listen to this, it's not to some thing, it's to someone. This is the great call of the Bible itself, that call that says God is calling to humanity to be reconciled to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. The one who died in our place who rose from the dead, and the only way that we can be reconciled to the Father. This is the great call, of the Scripture. But then there are secondary callings, assignments, that when we get called to God in salvation, that now we have secondary assignments, we've got additional things that we've been called to do to work for the glory of God. So that means that vocation, is not the same thing as work it's bigger than that. Or maybe I could say it clearly and simply this way, vocation does not equal occupation. It's bigger than that. So in other words, listen to this, you can retire from an occupation. But you cannot retire from your vocation. Because that is calling. That's not just a job, right? So vocation includes our occupation, but it's not solely defined by it. Now, to be able to better illustrate that I've got a friend of mine, I want to join me on stage. Those of you who have the CrossPoint campus may know, Pastor Bob Grabau. Wonderful friend, Bob, good to see you. You can have a seat. Many of you see him, in the atrium at the CrossPoint campus because he's taller than you. And you can't miss him and he sees over everybody. I always say that Bob, operates in the atrium like a lion operates on the Serengeti plain, he's always just, he's looking for prey. And if you're new, he spots you and he's the most welcoming person that you'll ever run into in your life. Like, we love Bob. Now it was about a year or so ago, Bob that you came into my office and we talked a little bit about, you basically started a conversation, regarding retirement. 

Pastor Bob Grabau: I didn't like the word retirement because it sounded sort of like you're getting old, And not working anymore. But, a friend of mine came up with the term, vocational modality. Changing your vocational modality.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: That's fantastic.

Pastor Bob Grabau: Same thing, same purpose in life, but a vocational modality .

Pastor Jerry Gillis: Yeah, so when he said that, I kinda just went with it, cause I said, "So we're having retirement conversation? You wanna talk about retirement?" And he's like, "A vocational modality." And I went, "That, let's talk about that." Which something was stirring in my head when he said that, and I thought it was great. Now, obviously, that was about a year ago. And those of our staff of course know and any of the people that you're working with here at The Chapel, some of our volunteers that you serve with, they all know that you retired last month, kind of in terms of the occupation here. But that you're still around, obviously, basically I told him a couple of weeks ago, "You might as well just put your name tag back on Bob, cause you're still out there doing what you were doing when you were working here." But what I realized when I was talking to you Bob, is that, I realized you had an understanding of vocation, that's bigger than just the idea of occupation. Tell us a little bit about that.

Pastor Bob Grabau: Yes, it really started quite a long time ago, I was working in the corporate world, before I joined the staff here at More. I've had staff here at The Chapel. And when I left More, it was really very interesting, because, that was a final cut off. It was a final end of that part of my life. But during that number of years, when I worked there, I realized that I had a purpose. And the purpose was not just to work, doing business things, but the purpose was to encourage and be with the people that I was working with, and people we met along the way, and just give them encouragement and answer questions, and I prayed with people during that time period. So the purpose, was really to fulfill the mission of the church, which I dearly love the mission of this church to give people multiple opportunities. Every man, woman and child. Opportunities to see and hear the gospel. And that's what I was trying to do in my vocational life at that time, trying to do the right thing, be an encouragement to people around us. And it's true of everybody, no matter where you are, where you're working, you have these opportunities, to be an encouragement. Hebrews 3:13 says, "Encourage one another daily while it is yet today, so that you do not fall prey to sins' deceitfulness." And I kinda hold on to that verse simply because you can't outgive God. The more you encourage someone else, the more He refills you, the more He gives you to give. So that purpose was always there. And it just took a very different form while I was in the corporate world. And I was really very, very blessed to make the transition out of the corporate world and to have a calling here at The Chapel.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: Yeah, it's rare that somebody retires two times, right? You retired from your job there in the corporate world. And then now you've retired here, but you retired from an occupation, but not a vocation. And the great thing is, is you did that the first time.

Pastor Bob Grabau: Yes.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: You retired from an occupation, but not your vocation. And then you've worked here for 20 years, and then retire from this, but you're retiring from an occupation, not a vocation, because God has called you to bigger, He's called you to purpose. He's called you to that, and you're still fulfilling that. So which is an encouragement and I think a challenge to all of us, and from kind of where you are in your journey right now, how would you challenge us as a church to think about, maybe not everybody's in this spot of contemplating the end of their working career, but many are. But how would you challenge us to think in terms of what you've learned through this journey?

Pastor Bob Grabau: Well, through as the recent series of message Pastor, that was really very, very encouraging to me, particularly the one where it talked about your purpose and assignment. Three or four weeks ago, I thought that was, that really struck me and certainly, all the other messages too on parenting and marriage. But that one in particular, really struck my heart and I said, "You know what, I still have a purpose," The application of that purpose is going to be different. And I was thinking about many people that I know here at the church, and probably all of you, who are working, or you have parenting responsibilities, or teaching school, anything that we do, anything that we do on our daily, five days a week, there's a purpose in that. You're fulfilling your job requirements, for sure. But the real purpose is that you are there God placed you there. God gave you that place so that you could be a special witness and testimony. That perhaps Pastor Jerry or none of the staff, people here would ever have the opportunity to speak. To those people or to answer those questions or to give them that kind of encouragement. John Piper wrote a book, a number of years ago which I read and it was "Don't Waste Your Life". And I thought that's a good thought too. Write in the title, Don't Waste Your Life. Find those areas, and it's true of all of us. I'm really privileged to say that each one of us has gifts, gift set and my gift set here, was I think used in a way that I really appreciated the opportunity to use it. I worked with the prayer partners, the ushers and greeters, the hospitality people, and it's so important that each one of us represents Christ in a way that we can. And it was certainly true here, because we had the opportunity, people coming to the church, hearing great messages, worshiping together, and we have a chance for those of us that lay people to serve in various aspects of the ministry. There is a place for everyone, a place for everyone to serve. If you have a dream, if you have a goal, if you have an inspiration from the Holy Spirit, pay close attention to that. Think about it, contemplate it, contemplate on it and really work through what you might be doing in terms of fulfilling your purpose, both in your occupation currently, and also here at the church. The other blessing about the chapel is that there are plenty of support people, the ministry staff is so wonderful here Jerry to answer questions and be available if we need help, in our occupation and our purpose. So I would say to each one of you, just pray about it. Be prepared to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to you, and guiding you so that you can make those choices of life. I call them chapter changes or vocational change. But whenever those opportunities come along, that you'd be in touch with the Holy Spirit, and become more Christ like in your own walk, and be that witness and testimony of Jesus Christ in the lives of others in your occupation, in your church, in your neighborhood, wherever you are. It's a great privilege, isn't it to serve the Lord and serve him with gladness?

Pastor Jerry Gillis: Well, that's a great challenge for sure, yeah, Amen. It's a great challenge and an encouragement. And I'm grateful to see that, I mean, you and Sonia are still here. You're still planted, you're still serving, you're still doing all that. Bob has been such a good friend, to our ministry, a good friend to me personally, and I value the 20 years of service that you've had here. When we were eating dinner this week, I was telling Edie about some of what we were gonna be doing. And she just piped up at dinner and said, "Everybody loves Bob. Every, I don't know anybody that doesn't know that man that doesn't love him." And that's just true. Because you're just a you're a Godly man. You've been a faithful servant here. So, would you join me in just saying a big thank you to Bob Grabau, for his time of service, Here at The Chapel.

Pastor Bob Grabau: Thank you Jerry, thank you.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: Amen, Bob brought up something that I think was tremendous for us to think about. When he talked about the difference between, call and assignment. He actually talked about that just a moment ago. And he's not using like loose language. This isn't made up language. This actually comes from the scripture itself, the idea of call and assignment. In fact, when Paul was writing to the Corinthian church, he used both of those phrases, he was talking about calling, but he also talked about assignment. And he was trying to help them understand that, "Hey, God knows where you are when He calls you to Himself." Right? I remember when I was a college student and I came to faith in Jesus at the age of 19. I mean, I was fired up like I was, but I was kind of ignorance on fire. But I was fired up, right? I didn't know anything. But I was fired up about Jesus. He changed my life. Everything was new. I was like, "Aah!" And that's basically when somebody asked me what happened? "Aah!" That's pretty much it, right? I didn't know anything. But I'm at the University of Georgia. And the first thing that I thought because I came to faith in the Summer between my Sophomore and Junior year, I started talking to people who are more mature in their faith and saying, "Hey, do I need to just like, do I need to drop out of UGA and go to a Bible college or do something along that line?" And they're like, "No, no, no. God knew right where you were. Right where you were when He called you. You need to stay there and live that out." Oh okay, well that's what Paul was actually saying to the Corinthian church. Listen to what he said in First Corinthians seven. He said, "Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them. Just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised." Talking about like the difference between Jews and Gentiles. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing keeping God's commands is what counts. Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. So Paul is actually talking about this idea of God, he uses call two different ways here in this text, which makes it a little more thorny to work through. But he's talking about, "Hey, God knew where you were when he called you to Himself. So you need to wherever you are, live out the reality of Jesus in whatever place or station that you're in." Because God knew that in his sovereignty, right? And in fact, God is gonna give you what you need to work that out. Because just a handful of chapters later, in First Corinthians 12, listen to what Paul writes. He said there are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord, there are different kinds of working, but in all of them, and in everyone, it is the same God at work. So here's what he says, the Spirit gives you gifts to fulfill this, Jesus, the Lord will actually entrust you with a ministry. And the Father God will determine your domain or your assignment or your sphere of influence, in whatever that looks like. See, all of this is important for us to remember because God is at work doing something, He's actually trying to work this all out for His mission in the world. Because you're a part of that, you are. And when God's working out His mission in the world, He's calling us first to Himself. But then He wants us to operate and live out of that call to Himself, so that He can give us the assignments that He wants and fit those assignments, to the gifts and ministry He's designed for us. I've got another friend that I wanna bring out. Pastor Deone Drake, you guys know him as well. He's gonna come and join me here. And as he comes, Pastor Deone, as he comes, please have a seat sir. It has been a very, very unique year for Mr. Drake. To say the least, right? Why don't you give us a little bit of context for what this year has been in your world?

Pastor Deone Drake: So last, March, April, in that timeframe, I sat down, with my brother Dave, our counseling Pastor, I get first dibs because, he's my brother. And I said to him, "How would I know, if God, was directing my steps to leave employment at the chapel?" Now, I've been here for 37 years, so, even asking that question is a big one. And, began to ask that question. And he gave me great, great, great advice, great advice. He really did. And, so I began praying and thinking about that along that line, and then middle of July, and moving forward, I had a significant health issue. Which I'm very, very grateful for because, hopefully you'll see in a couple minutes. Where God began to put all the pieces together through that. But I ended up in at Gates for six days, with an ICH, which is an Intracerebral Hemorrhage, and had a whole lot of a host of things going on because of it and in following. My sugar went totally out of control for three or four weeks. Jerky arm motions, involuntary movements, loss of energy. Had the cataract surgery, last week, saw a whole bunch of stuff just beginning to just...it was like, if I didn't laugh about it, it felt like I was falling apart right in front of my eyes. And that really, wow, it puts you on pause, right? It puts you on pause.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: So I mean, that function, it wasn't a stroke, but it functions similar to one, as you said,

Pastor Deone Drake: Right, right.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: And so, what we did is we created some space, over the course of some months, to be able to recover, to think, to pray, to work through a bunch of things, because, a lot of what was going on in your heart, as we learned over the course of this time. A lot of what was going on in your heart had to do with fit and wanting to actually dial in, on what God had actually made you to do. Right?

Pastor Deone Drake: Right

Pastor Jerry Gillis: And so, eventually, we got to a place in our conversations where, together we submitted ourselves to the reality that, the best way to cooperate with the Lord, was not going to be in a staff role. And that was hard for me to embrace. And that was hard for you to embrace. But we determined that we wanted to, we wanted to cooperate with what God was doing. In His sovereignty.

Pastor Deone Drake: Absolutely.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: And while yes, the condition kind of initially was gonna be prohibitive for being able to do full time work and all of that kind of stuff. That's improving. And we're continuing to pray that that's going to be healed. And you're gonna join me in praying along that line, Amen? Amen. But the bigger issue was really some of the things that you were working through in relation to, in relationship to what God had made you to do. Tell us a little bit about that.

Pastor Deone Drake: So I came home from Seminary in December of 1983. And four or five weeks later, I sat in our green room with our founding pastor, James Andrews. And he said, "Deone, what do you think God has called you to do?" And I said very clearly, I can remember this conversation, "God has called me to write, and God has called me to teach in a Bible Institute." And, yeah, He made it very, very clear what He'd called me to do.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: Yeah. And you've been able to do some of that.

Pastor Deone Drake: I have.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: But, there have been other responsibilities that you kind of, felt like you were working against the grain, so to speak. Maybe, of what how God had ultimately designed you.

Pastor Deone Drake: Right.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: And so, we kinda came to some of this understanding, Deone actually shared with our staff team on Monday, and it was tremendous, we actually recorded it, so that our whole staff could be able to hear it. And he shared some kind of through the process of submitting to the Lord, listening to His voice, trusting His sovereignty, and all of this. And of course, we were sitting in there together. He shared some challenges with our staff, not his challenges, but challenges to us. Some of them came from challenges he experienced. But we're sharing some of those, and I really wanted him to share a few of those. He's kind of whittled it down a little bit, he shared a little more in our staff meeting maybe but to summarize that for you, because I think it'll be both an encouragement and a challenge to your life as well.

Pastor Deone Drake: So as I speak, I think it's important, that I don't discredit what God has done in my life, and through my life, over 37 years of employment here. I know that God has been able to use me in the teaching capacity that I cherish. I'm not, I'm not discrediting any of that. I'm not, I don't wanna dishonor what God has done. But I do wanna speak to you about where I was, and where I put myself so that it can be a help to you in relationship to the message, that we're hearing this morning. Somewhere along the line, I became driven. And when you're driven, you kind of have a tendency to forget about your calling. Now, I don't think I need to tell anybody or give a definition of driven. Especially in terms of vocation. I think we all know what that means. But being driven means that you are actually in pursuit of something that cannot satisfy. Could be a whole lot of things. I'm driven at work because it's going to give me this. Or hoping it's giving me this. I'm in pursuit of something. For me honestly, a good thing became a God thing and therefore became a bad thing. I was driven to be a hard worker, a work ethic is really valuable. I'm grateful for both of my parents for giving me that. But I became driven by this, "I want people to know what a hard worker I am." And so I became driven. And I lost sight of call. And I think maybe there might be some of us out there that who might do the same thing. So let me just give you these two things. Now I know that if you take this to the Lord, the Lord would probably give you a whole bunch more that's applicable to your life. Driven people, will try to manage their lives. That is quincentental me. Trying, since I was a child, to manage my life. Let me tell you something real clear. You can't, you can't. And I really believe, that, that's what August in my life, the physical in my life was doing. It was saying God shouting with His big megaphone, "You will no longer be able to manage any part of your life." And I couldn't. Everything was out of control. I mean, everything as far as physical and even some in some ways mental. I couldn't control. And God was saying, "You can't, and you won't, and I can't let you" And so through again, my brother coming alongside of me and helping me emphasizing the sovereignty of God was so huge in my life. And I saw, I saw it, first of all in him. I mean, it's got to be the sovereignty of God when God can actually put something on my heart. And I never have a conversation with you about it. Just cause it wasn't the right time. And he's having the same kinds of prayers, about it. And we come, we come together for the same conclusion. Only God can do those kinds of things. I saw it in the piece, that He gave to my bill paying wife. As I step out, I realized this is not right now a step to something better. It's a step to something unknown. I'm okay with that. Abraham did pretty good with that, leave where you are, and go to where I'll show you and God never showed him. Which means basically throughout his whole life, he was wandering. I'm okay with that if God's the one that's leading. Because driven people don't understand that, God doesn't drive He leads. So important for me. And when I decided, he's absolutely right. There's some hard conversations, right? 37 years in one place. When I decided that I was going to obey what God was saying to us. And I decided that I was going to do my very best to honor Christ in this. Everything opened up. And day after day after day, God has convinced me of my grace of His grace, excuse me. Sometimes in the most seemingly small things, but they're huge. So ever since we made this decision, that this was parting time. God, almost every single morning has brought to my mind, a hymn that I sang when I was growing up in church. Now the reason it was a hymn because I'm old, right? Its what we do. I'm thinking myself, "Why is He doing that?" And then the tears came, because I realized the reason He was doing that was that God was saying, "Deone, I've been with you since you were a child, I'm not leaving you, I'm not forsaking you, I'm with you, I have this, you can move forward." If you are driven, yield, to the sovereign purposes of God. You see, God is my ultimate employer. God has used the chapel for 37 years to be so gracious to me. In providing us an income, but God is my employer. I can trust Him. And as Reggie prayed earlier, I have been young, and now I'm old, never seen the righteous forsaken nor His children begging for bread, right? So I'm grateful for that. There's one other thing I want you to see about being driven. Driven, driven means, that you will neglect your inner life. You have to. Because, what is important to you when you're driven is everything on the outside. And you will neglect the inner life and what happens. And my goodness how many times in ministry are we warned about this, let alone where where you are, that you will develop two tracks to ride, your inner life and your outer life, your private life and your public life. And something has to give, you cannot run parallel tracks. And if your inner life is not driving your outer life, again, you're headed for a wreck. And what God said to me was, in His incredible grace, "We're gonna stop this train before crashes." And He gave me this pause that Pastor referred to. An opportunity for God to do some physical healing, but more importantly some spiritual healing. And in His grace, He is calling me back to the very two things that He called me to do way back 37, 38 years ago. But more importantly, He's calling me back to Himself. John 15, "I'm the vine you're the branches stay remain in Me, so that you can bear fruit." I mean this honestly, if I never make a dime, in vocational ministry again, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. As long as I draw attention to Jesus. No one has said this more dearly to me, than my son and his very first message here. Here it is.

Pastor Jonathan Drake: You know what? I'm young. But I've come to a conclusion, early on in my life. And that is if no one ever heard the name, Jonathan Drake, again, I'd be okay with that. I'd be okay with that on one condition, that all that they saw, was the name of Jesus Christ. That His name would be great. Because a love, that is grounded in truth, will become famous.

Pastor Deone Drake: One more thing and I'm out of here. 19 years I've worked for Pastor Jerry. Most good conversations we've had, maybe some difficult, because of me. I've never ever, ever, and I mean, never ever have I ever received anything from him that was not surrounded with a whole bunch of grace and a whole bunch of humility. It's my joy to know you Pastor, thank you for everything.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: Hey, I want you to know. I want you to know as well, the likelihood is, and still remains open, Deone's teaching and something that we're doing this upcoming week actually. We may see him yet again, preaching on a Sunday here at The Chapel. He and Pat are still, this is their church home. Their church family. It's where they're gonna be. We talked about some other things for the future, but those are for another time. But, that we're thinking about, as God brings this along. But I want you to know that I love you.

Pastor Deone Drake: I love you too Pastor.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: The Church loves you as well. Thank you. We honor you, and we thank God for you.

Pastor Deone Drake: Thank you folks. You're kind, thank you, thank you Pastor.

Pastor Jerry Gillis: Thank you guys. Grab a seat, I'm gonna rush through the back end real quickly. To kind of tie this up for us because what you heard, by the way, from both Deone and from Bob, just them sharing their hearts was a real challenge and an encouragement to me and I hope to you as well. To really see God's activity in the lives of people. What I want you to remember, is that ultimately this is about God's mission and God gets to do with us what He wants to do with us. However He determines He wants to do that. And so, if you want to jot this down, I know you have to write real quick and you just stood up. And now you're like, "My stuff's all a mess Jerry stop doing this to me." The caller, calls us to follow Him in every sphere of our lives. Including our work, because it's a part of fulfilling His mission in the world. Now you may not be able to fully write that down, that's why we have a thing this new invention it's called the internet, you can go back to thechapel.com and watch this message. But I wanna remind you of a couple of things before we're gone. The Apostle Paul was trying to teach us something, when he was teaching us about calling. That it should have listen, we ought to work from a place of calling that God's called us to Himself and that's gonna affect every arena of our lives. Paul said this in Ephesians 4:1, he said, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you," listen to it, "To live a life worthy of the calling, you have received." This calling is a calling in grace that God Has given us through His son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we could now be, through the forgiveness of Jesus death on a cross, on our behalf, in His resurrection, from the dead and our faith in Him, we could be reconciled to God. And through that place, we now live a life worthy of the calling, the grace that we have received. And when Paul says that in Ephesians four. Do you know what happens in Ephesians four, five, and six? He says, "This ought to affect how you are in the church. This ought to affect how you are as a neighbor. This ought to affect how you are as a husband or a wife. This ought to affect how you are as a parent. And this ought to affect how you are in your work life. Whether you're an employer or an employee." That's what you actually read in Ephesians chapter four, five and six. Because this call that He has given to us ought to affect everything. In fact, I think Jesus said it as clearly as it could be said, and you actually see the primary call and the secondary calling when He called Peter and Andrew. Listen to what He said. Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee and He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. And they were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. Listen to what Jesus said, "Come follow me." Jesus said, "And I will send you out to fish for people." Isn't it beautiful that you see the primary calling. Jesus says what, come do what? Follow me. He says, "I want you to follow me." That's the primary call, it's a call to Himself. It's not to some thing it's to some one. And then He says, "And I'm giving you an assignment. And I'm gonna make you guys, who fish for a living, I'm gonna make you fishers of people." Now, isn't it interesting by the way, that He knew exactly what they did, and He was going to take what they did and He was going to use it in His purposes in the world. He didn't say that, He didn't say to Matthew, the tax collector, that He was gonna make him a fishermen of people. He didn't say that to him. He said it to fishermen. And do you know what? Listen to this. He knows what you do. He knows where you are. And He knows what He wants to do with it. Maybe you're a, construction worker. Jesus would say, "Come follow me, and I will make you a builder of people." Maybe your doctor Jesus would say, "Come follow me, I will make you a physician of the soul." Maybe you're an artist. Jesus would say, "Come follow me, and I will teach you to paint on the canvas of the human heart." Maybe you're a musician. Jesus would say, "Come follow me, and I will teach you to play the rhythm of God on the souls of humanity." I don't know where it is that you are, but I know this, is that the one who calls us He calls us to Himself. And then when we say, "Yes!" He has an assignment for us. And He wants us to be used for His glory and for His purposes in the world. The caller, calls us, because He's trying to use us in His purpose for every man, woman, and child. So no matter what it is you do, may what Paul said, be true of us in Colossians three. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Let's bow our heads together. We'll be dismissed in just a moment, but, if you're here and you've never before entrusted your life to Jesus. I would really encourage you, If you're here at this campus to come right across the atrium into the fireside room. We'd love to talk to you about what it means. To be called by the caller, Jesus Himself. Because He loves you. And He wants you to know forgiveness of sin and new life in Him. And then He wants to give you an assignment. Maybe you just need to pray with somebody. You can come by there, come right by there, we'd love to be able to talk to you. Father for those of us that are here that know you and believe you and follow you. I pray that we would surrender everything that we are to you. That we would recognize Holy spirit, that you don't drive, you lead. And that we could operate and live out of the great calling to be reconciled to God in Jesus Christ. And that we we'd listen very clearly to your voice. As you desire to sanctify our work for your glory. I pray you would help us all to be in service of you wherever that is and whatever that looks like, that in any sphere of our life, we simply say, "Lord it is yours." So God would you help us, to be people who even sanctify our occupations, even though our vocation, our calling is bigger than just what we do. May everything we are and everything we do, be used for your glory and your purposes in the world. Of men, women, boys, and girls hearing, and seeing the beauty of who Jesus is. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.