What, has God called you to do?

Welcome to week 3 of our Renew Together series and campaign. Across these 3 weeks you will have been praying, seeking the Lord and reading his word regarding his call. Because we want to be where God wants us to be right?! Perhaps you’re exactly in the right place. Perhaps God has something new for you? We won’t know, if we’re not asking. I trust *the Holy Spirit will have been ‘speaking’ to you, and leading you (John 16:13; Gal. 5:25), and things will be beginning to be clear for you.

Just to recap our series:

• Week 1: DECISION – Knowing Gods call
  • 1 Peter 2:9 God has called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
• Week 2: INTENTION – Embracing Gods Call
  • Week 2 was taking the fact we called a step further, because we’re called to something. Neville took us to Eph. 4:1 …I urge you to live a life worthy of the callingyou have received.
    • And Vv. 2-5 give us a general sense of what our calling looks like and things we must be intentional about… being gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. So that’s what we do as called Christians.
  • In week 3 – because we are talking about Gods mission – this is where our decision and intention materialises into Action: Stepping out, into Gods call

Remember calling is not us dictating to God what we want to do and hoping he fits in with my plans. Calling is saying just like Isaiah “here I am send me” and being willing to go and do what God shows you. Calling is giving your life, to the purposes and plans of God. It is saying to God “the page is clear God you fill it in. You show me what I must do for your glory and my good”

If you’re a Christian you’re called, and we know we must be prepared and intentional about our calling, because were called to do something; what is that ‘something’?

As part of Gods calling on you he will have placed you in certain places, locally, nationally, internationally, and put certain people around you, or placed you around certain people, as (or if) you’re led by him! But the one common thread across all we do – in the mission God has set before us – is the calling to share the gospel. In other words, calling is coupled with Gospel sharing!

And, the reasons why we all step into Gods calling are summarised beautifully by the apostle Paul in Romans 10:10-15. 

The context for our passage is that Paul desperately wanted Israel to be saved. But at the same time he grieved, because if Israel doesn’t believe in Jesus there is no salvation (See 10:16). Because, belief in Jesus is the only means of salvation (See Rom. 10:1).

Paul loved people, and he desperately wanted to see them in a saving relationship with Jesus, and he realises the church – then and now today –  has a role in this as the…messengers who bring good news.

We may think Romans 10 is an encouragement for the church to send out missionaries. Instead, it is Paul saying God has already. Then, it was Paul, the apostles, and the NT church. Today, it’s you and me.

People, Hamiltonians, NZers, can only believe in Jesus when they have heard about Jesus. And people can only hear about Jesus when we step into Gods call, and present the Good News…

Making Roman’s 10 crucial to understanding how people are saved and our role in people being saved. Like Israel in Pauls day, there are people today, in 2025, who haven’t called on Jesus because they haven’t believed in Jesus, because they haven’t heard the truth about Jesus.

To whom will you be the “feet of Good News”?

If Paul were writing this today about non-believers in New Zealand what would he say?

• People must believe in Jesus
• People must be told about Jesus to believe
• We must be the ones to tell people about Jesus

That’s the calling we are to step into!

1. People must believe in Jesus

 John 14:6  Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

Acts 4:12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.

I get emails about all manner of things. Why don’t you focus on this, how about taking this seriously, why aren’t you making a priority regarding the many issues of the day. Matters of housing, health, culture, the economy…global warming. All important, and some are desperate matters. But it has occurred to me, without any dispute, the #1 pressing matter is for people to believe in Jesus.

I’m not making light of serious issues in the world, but they will be sorted, by God, in the fullness of his kingdom; they have an expiry date! People believing in Jesus, or not, affects their eternity. If we’re in any doubt about this, the Bible makes it to us:

Heb. 10:27 There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies.

Matt. 7:13-14 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

People must believe in Jesus…then…

2. People must be told about Jesus to believe
   Rom 10:14b “…how can they believe without hearing about Him?”

You can only believe Jesus is Lord, by hearing the message that he is Lord.

Drop a few verses down and look at Rom. 10:17, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

Salvation in Christ requires people to hear and then to respond to the Good News.  So what is the message that people have to hear in order to believe? The Good News! Now the Good News is not doing kind things for people or simply being a nice person.

The Good News is not just saying Jesus loves you – as true as that is. There is only one Good News, but there are many ways to explain it. I particularly like these four memorable points: Creation, Fall, Redemption & Restoration

Creation – God created everything good, and humans as the best thing in his creation

Fall – God gave us free will so we could love, but we used it wrongly, and that brought sin, selfishness and suffering into the world

Redemption – but God loved us enough to provide a solution through the person and work of Jesus on the cross.

Restoration – Now if we believe in the person of Jesus and are willing to confess our sin and admit our need of him, relationship (that was broken in the “fall”) is restored with God. Then we join God in his greater plan of restoring people’s lives, and also the entire creation.

It’s vital we remember the person of Jesus and his work is always the focus of the Good News. Here’s a simple analogy: imagine we’re sitting in a courtroom and to his horror the judge looks down on his own son as leading to be tried for a terrible crime. Now can the judge just let his son off, because he loves him? No he’s got to see justice is done, right! So he slams the hammer down, pronounces the sentence, and then does something amazing!

He walks over and he says to the guards, “take me, I’ll take the punishment for him” and he’s lead away while the son – who committed the crime – stands there a free man.  This is like what God has done for us in Jesus. We are separated from God because of our sin and deserving of punishment. But God loves us. So through Jesus, the punishment that we deserved was taken when Jesus died on the cross and came back to life. And as a result we can now be forgiven and restored and made right with God, if we would turn to him and follow his ways.

So Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration it’s a very simple and useful summary of a life changing message. [1]

That’s the Good News that people need to hear and, respond to in order to be saved.

We know through the work of Arotahi and our mission partners there are places in the world that are more receptive to the gospel than others. I know we draw conclusions about receptivity to the gospel here in NZ. In either case how we anticipate people’s responses is not a factor in our calling for gospel sharing.  

A person’s response to the Good News is not our concern. That is Gods concern. Our concern is to reach people with the gospel who are yet to know Jesus as Lord.

What people are around you, in your work place, in your circle of influence who must hear about Jesus?  Do they know what he has done in your life? How will they hear unless you tell them?

As I move to the final encouragement let me say the message of Rom. 10 will only mean something to you, if what Christ has done, means something to you. Because our motivation to speak about Jesus is directly connected to how much Jesus means to you and what he has done for you.

Made soberingly clear in the vision that William Booth – founder of the Salvation Army – had, of a great stormy ocean in which the world’s multitudes were drowning. In his vision he saw a great rock, representing the Church. Many had climbed onto it, escaping the danger of the ocean. Some were at the water’s edges helping rescue the drowning, and a few were even diving back into the waters to save the drowning. But many on the rock had no concern for the drowning – consumed by their own priorities. It was inconceivable to Booth that the saved had no compassion for those drowning before their very eyes. Many people gazed toward the ‘mainland’ from where they believed their Saviour would one day come to rescue them from this rock…when all the while Jesus was in the stormy ocean behind them calling to them to come and help him help the people! He said “Look for yourselves. The surging sea of perishing souls rolls up to the very spot on which you stand.”^[2]

People must be told about Jesus to believe…and finally…

3. We must be the ones to tell people about Jesus

Charles Hodge said “First and most pressing duty of the church is to call all men and women to hear the gospel”^[3]

There’s around 100 people in this room. If we all decided today to Reach One person a month – speaking to them about Jesus – that would be 1200 people in a year. Reaching One person a week, would be 5200 in a year!

If the question on our minds is “what needs to happen for FBC to continue to grow?” or if you’ve ever prayed about this, the answer is you, reach one!

Listen again to Rom. 10:14b, 15 And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Make no mistake, God is the one who does the saving work. However, these verses clearly teach that we are part of Gods saving plan for those yet-to-believe in Jesus Christ.

What makes your feet beautiful is the act of bringing the Good News.  And listen to what Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:18-20 And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

How do people hear about Jesus? He sends you and I – Christs ambassadors – into the world entrusting us with the “message of reconciliation”, who “plead” at every opportunity placed in front of us saying to people, “Come back to God…”.

Did you notice God makes his appeal through you? You’re speaking for Christ, when you speak the gospel!

And there’s more you need to understand, when you speak the message of Jesus, it’s his gospel, that has the power of the Holy Spirit in behind it. And what happens then is the domain of God. 1 Cor. 3:16 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. Our task is stepping into Gods call and being faithful to speaking about Jesus.

“Ross, the scriptures talking about those who preach, surely it’s for those who stand behind the pulpit”. You know one of the greatest tools in the enemies’ toolbox is convincing Christians today, that gospel sharing is someone else’s task. It’s for the gifted evangelists, or the paid people. So invariably, we delegate the task. No. Paul is not talking about an exclusive role, or any defined gifting. He is simply saying, speak the message of Jesus; something we are ALL called to do.

Let today be the day we reconcile our fear and ask the Holy Spirit for renewed courage.

Week 3 of RT is about God calling us to step into his calling to be where he wants you to be, doing what he wants you to do with a priority of sharing the gospel.

To do this we need to:

• Feel the grief of people lost to an eternity without Christ
  • (Matt. 23:41) Jesus looked out on Jerusalem and wept
  • We have to feel the weight of what it looks like for people to be separated from God for eternity.
• Pray for courage
• Believe in the power of the gospel to save people
  • 1:16, For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes….
• Believe that Jesus died for those people
  • John 3…
• Feel the love of Jesus for those people
  • Are we going to play it safe, or jump in the stormy ocean…?

It’s the role of the Holy Spirit to help us with these 5 things. When we understand that the message of the gospel is literally Good News, we can’t help but tell others. We can’t wait to share it because we feel grief, we believe in the gospels power, we believe Jesus died for all and we feel the love of Jesus.  If we are fearful, lacking courage or have allowed the enemy to convince us of other priorities, the Holy Spirit will help us…if we’re willing! We must be the ones to tell people about Jesus. US!

Reverend Harper of Glasgow pushed toward the upper deck of the ship he was on, holding his only daughter, Nan, and his sister-in-law clinging to his coat. The ship was the Titanic and it was going down. “Get the women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats!” Harper cried. Then placed his daughter into a lifeboat, then turned back, knowing he would die with the others left behind[4].

Harper had been on his way to preach in Chicago, but would never preach, from a pulpit, again. With his last breaths he swam from person to person, pleading.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!” He called to a young man clinging to a piece of timber, “Are you saved?”  … “I am not”, replied the young man. Harper took off his life jacket and gave it to him. “Here, you need this more than me.” The man protested. But Harper insisted, “Don’t worry about me. I’m not going down, I’m going up!”

Separated by the current, Harper called back to the man, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved!”. A few moments they came into contact again. Weakened by hypothermia and barely alive, Harper pleaded again, “Are you saved now? Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved!”

Of the more than 1500 people who went into the cold waters, only six were rescued, the young man, one of them. Four years later[5], at a reunion of survivors, he testified he had been saved twice that night: once by the lifeboats, the other time by John Harper.[6]

You know a cold sea surrounds us too, except with 1000’s of souls destined to a lost eternity. This is the reality if our Bibles are true.

We give so much attention to our physical lives, when our priority is our eternal souls. Are we hearing that, today? The ship doesn’t have to sink before you take action. We each need to wrestle with how much value we place on the human soul. We must go into our Monday and Tuesday…with a renewed sense of what our calling is. John Harper was the young mans “feet of Good News”.

To whom will you be the “feet of Good News”?

Where you’re called to might be unclear, what you are called to do is abundantly clear.

• People must believe in Jesus
• People must be told about Jesus to believe
• We must be the ones to tell them about Jesus

Step into your calling today and Reach One!

[1] BWC #1 – Ep2: What is the Gospel?; BWC #1 – Ep2: What is the Gospel? (1338) BWC #1 – Ep4: How to share the Gospel – YouTube

[2] From “The Only Thing”. RESOURCE: William Booths vision summarised [as summarised in That Leaders Might Last, by Dave Mann (Imprint Media, 2010)].

[3] From: How Can They Hear? – Archive – Truth For Life

[4] His daughter Nana (Annie) survived, and his self-sacrifice is corroborated by multiple eyewitnesses who said Harper was preaching in the water

[5] While the full details of that meeting remain unverified…

[6] A Titanic Story – John Harper; The story of the Glasgow minister who sacrificed his own life to save others on the doomed liner TITANIC HERO THAT TIME FORGOT | Glasgow Times; Titanic’s True Hero: The True Story of Reverend John Harper – Charity’s Place Blog; John Harper’s Last Convert | Moody Church Media | Articles | Moody Church Media; God’s Man on the Titanic | Effectual Grace