sermonette: What Is Your Calling Worth?

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 27-Mar-94; Sermon #121As; 19 minutes

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I bet you did not know that North Carolina is basketball country. It is either Carolina or Duke or N.C. State or Wake Forest. Some even cheer for Clemson. Some even cheer for South Carolina. Then of course there are the smaller schools. But the NCAA Final Four is coming to Charlotte this next weekend. And it is going to bring thousands of fans and millions of dollars to the Queen City.

But maybe you did not think about it this way: It also brings about 50 college basketball players. And even though they may belong to the four best teams in the nation, only a handful of them will be drafted to the NBA.

A few years ago, I heard the odds of a young man making it into the big leagues. They compared favorably, or maybe I should say unfavorably, with winning the lottery. Even college players, the ones that are good college players at a big school, have much less than a 1% chance of making it. I believe it is in the hundredths of a percentile. The odds are equally low for the other professional sports like baseball, football, and hockey.

Now, thinking about that, what were the odds that God Himself would call and choose you, particularly? In the past, I heard figures like 1 in 50,000. That is taking a membership of about 100,000 and putting it into about 5 million. You get 50,000. But I am not so sure that is quite accurate. That is assuming everyone in the church is called and converted.

But the numbers really are not as vital as the concept—that God picked you personally, one out of about 5 billion people. And maybe you can even think of it as one in however many billions of people have lived on the earth through the 6,000 years that man has been here.

Now why? As it says in Romans 11:33, God's ways are past finding out. We do not know. He does say in I Corinthians 1:26-28 that He chose the weak, the base, and the foolish to put the wise, the mighty, and the noble to shame.

It does not say a whole lot for us, does it?—being the weak, the base, and the foolish. But there must be something, some little bit in you that He likes. You know, His election is really not random. He saw something there that He could use. John 6:44 (we know that scripture; Mr. Armstrong used it all the time) says He specifically draws those whom He wants to be part of His Son's Body.

Romans 8:28 says that He calls us according to His purpose. “Everything works for good for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose.” He has a reason, a place, a job that we need to fill. He sees in us—in each of us—a kernel, maybe just a small fragment, of something that He can use for His and our glory, eventually.

So our calling is no small thing. We have attracted the attention of the one Being in the universe that could make a difference; that has the power, the ability, and the wisdom to do what is right all the time. It is a priceless gift when you come down to it.

Let us go to II Timothy 1, verse 9. It would be an interesting study if you have the time to go through all the verses that have the words “chosen,” “called,” “calling,” “elect,” and “election,” to just see all the different ways that the apostles use it, and give an idea of what we have been called to.

II Timothy 1:9 Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

I wanted to emphasize that it is a holy calling according to His purpose, and grace. It is a gift. It is something that He deemed wise to do, and He just gave the call. We had really nothing to do with it. That is a lot to live up to, this priceless gift. And it takes work.

So, what we are going to look at today is maintaining our calling.

Just quickly, because there is a lot that could take many sermons, but I want to go over some high points.

First, let us read the first clause in II Peter 1, verse 10. And we will see a command here to do just what we are doing today.

II Peter 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure.

This is something we have a direct command to do. But is this not a bit of a puzzler? Think about it: Does not Romans 11:29 say that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable? That they cannot be taken away? Is this a contradiction that on one hand, the apostle Paul says that our calling is irrevocable, and on the other hand, Peter says that we have to make it sure? Well, no, not really. I should say not at all. It is not a contradiction. As with most spiritual things, as in most spiritual agreements (and that is what our calling is), God promises to do His part and then we have to do our part on the other hand.

Now He always does His part perfectly every time. His calling was right on the money. But the combined effort of what we have to do after He does His part is part of the agreement. If He does something, we do something in return.

So what Peter is saying: Do your part in making this calling an election sure.

II Peter 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.

That is a pretty confident thing to say. So what are these things that we must do? How can we be sure that we will never stumble?

The answer is quite simple to say. It may be not simple to do, but it is growth—bearing fruit.

He ends this epistle, if you will remember, with, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” It is a theme through this whole epistle of growth and maintaining your calling.

But we are going to see how that Peter is a little bit more specific in verses 5 through 11. Let us read that right now. These verses are what has been called a ladder of virtues. So we will just read that now:

II Peter 1:5-11 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence [notice he says that twice about being diligent about it] add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins [that fits in right with the season where we are]. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now this ladder of virtues is an ordered list of things to do. You will find these all through the Bible. The fruits of the Spirit is another ladder of virtues. And because most of the people did not have a Bible to read, did not have something written down that they could refer to, the apostles made these lists up where they can memorize them. They used tricks of language puns and other things so that they could list these things, keep them in their head, and refer to them quite often.

Then what we have here verses 5 through 7 is one of those lists. And we will just go quickly through them. I do not want to give a whole lot of definition to these, but just to get the idea of this building process.

I did not mention this yet, but this word “add” here in verse 5, “add to your faith,” means “generously supplement.” So that means take the faith that you started with and generously supplement virtue, and then generously supplement knowledge, then generously supplement self-control, and on and on and on until you get to love.

Now that is what we start with. It is our conviction that what we hear and read in God's Word is true, and we have set our minds to follow it. That is our first conviction that what we have here is the Word of God, and we are going to do what it says.

Virtue:

This is a rare word in the Greek New Testament. And it means “operative excellence.” It also has the idea of courage to it. And one commentary I looked at says it is “living in effective service; doing what is right and good, no matter what obstacles may come up.” That is where the courage part comes in. It is living what we have been convicted of in the faith.

Knowledge:

This is practical understanding of God's way of life. It is the wisdom that we build to do God's word in everyday situations—things that we have to face every day. And part of this is learning to judge how to manage these situations that come up.

Self-control:

This may be better translated, something we all have trouble doing, “self-mastery”—being able to master yourself. The Greek literally means, “The ability to take a grip on yourself.” It is the middle point (the way the Greeks and the Romans thought of it) between extreme asceticism on the one hand—taste not, touch not, that sort of thing—and extreme indulgence—the lust of the flesh—on the other side. That is, being able to hold these two warring forces in one's life at bay, and do the right thing—mastering yourself.

Perseverance:

That is hupomone, which comes up quite often in the New Testament, meaning, “steadfastness or patient endurance.” To put it in a picture, it is “A courageous acceptance of everything that life has to throw at us,” while going in hope toward the Kingdom of God at the same time. You not only bear what you have but knowing that it is for good.

Godliness:

This is piety, but not just piety in a monastic sense where you go into a monastery. No, it is practical piety—“always giving both God and man the service they require or deserve.” What that means is to following God's will in every matter.

(A lot of these link up with other ones which are very similar.)

Brotherly Kindness:

This is interesting. It is nurturing one's personal relationships; cultivating one's family, friendships, associations, and obligations; always seeking to draw other people closer.

Love (agape):

This is love in its highest sense. It is sacrificial outgoing service. It is doing what is godly and righteous, even if it means that we will be hurt by it. It is caring for the other as much or more than yourself. And, I think, we understand the idea of agape love.

And these are not only to be worked on. Peter here says that these things are to be ours. They are supposed to be part of us, and they are to abound. We are not just to have a little of these things. We are supposed to be overflowing in these things.

Now, that is not an easy thing to do. You know, these apostles, they really gave us a lot to think about. It is a high standard, yes! But it is something that with the power of God we can attain to, or at least strive toward.

But on the other hand, he says if you do them, you are promised—an absolute guarantee—that you are going to bear fruit. With the pain and sacrifice that it takes to do them, something good is going to come out of it.

We know that! He said very succinctly here, “You will never stumble.” And what is even better is that it says in verse 11, “For so entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom.” We see that if these things are followed very strictly and diligently (there is that word!), that we will make it into the Kingdom of God.

But that brings us back. Where did this all start? Our calling! None of this would be possible, none of this striving toward the Kingdom would be possible unless we were given the opportunity to be a part of God's Family.

He chose each one of us to mount this ladder of virtues, and to climb toward the perfection of character, and toward entrance into His Kingdom.

So my question really is, today, “What is that opportunity worth to you? How much value do you put on your calling?”

Yes, our offerings to God are a way to express our gratitude to Him. And in this case, I would like to draw your attention not to some of the other things that He does for us, but just the opportunity we have to be a part of His Family now. This is a chance that we have living in this age under Satan the Devil. We have a chance to be a part of a better resurrection, because He has called us now to fight against Satan the Devil and his demons, and all the pulls that are around us at this time.

He says in Hebrews 11:35 that we are called to a better resurrection—the first resurrection is better. God says so. And we have the chance to give thanks for that in a monetary way. We no longer give offerings of meat, and fruits, and those other things that people one time gave under the Old Covenant. We give it in monetary terms now. But we can make a token effort to show our joy over that precious blessing of having this chance to be His firstfruits, right under Jesus Christ.

He is the firstborn. And we are His brethren. It says in Colossians that He is the firstborn among many brethren. We are those many brethren. We are His younger sisters and brothers in that better resurrection.

Our offerings show God where our hearts are, and what our attitudes are toward Him. I do not want to take away from that. It is a personal thing, something between you and God only. Only you know how much that means to you. Only you know what your calling has done for you, where you would be now if that had never happened.

So, how much is your calling worth to you?