Fighting God's Call — E.A. Johnston

My message today, friends, is not for everybody, but we can still learn a lesson from it. When I say my message is not for everybody, I mean this. My message is entitled, Fighting God's Call, and it's about what a person goes through when they fight God's call on their life to ministry.

The Misery of Resisting God's Call to Ministry

Whether it's a call to the mission field, or a call to the pastorate, or a call to any kind of service to King Jesus, and you refuse for whatever reason, I can promise you this, friend, if God has put a real call on your life to preach the gospel, and you fail to do it, you will be the most miserable human being on this earth until you surrender to that call.

I can promise you that. I've seen it time and time again. I was having lunch with a businessman who kept getting fired from his various jobs, and he was distressed, and I asked him a question. I said, tell me, did you always set out to be in this particular field of business?

He looked down at the table, and he confessed the following to me. He said, when I was a younger man, God called me to be a preacher, but I fought it because I didn't want to be poor. I wanted to make a lot of money, so I pursued a career in business.

Here was a man who bucked God, fought the call on his life to preach, and now he's a miserable failure in business and can't keep a job. I know of another man in a similar situation. I was at his office one day, and he was down in the dumps as he was going through a terrible divorce.

I asked him, tell me, have you always done what you're doing now as an occupation? He looked me in the eye, and tears filled his eyes as he related the following story to me. He said, I had a call on my life to be a pastor, and I answered that call for a brief time and was a pastor to a couple of country churches, but I was starving to death, and I didn't want to be poor.

So I went back to school and majored in business so I could own my own business and make lots of money. And as I sat listening to his sob story about how his wife was leaving him and taking all his money to boot, I thought, here's a sad case of a man who fought God's call on his life and lost.

Jonah, Excuses, and Delayed Obedience

How about you, friend? Has God ever put a call on your life to serve him in full-time ministry? Has God ever called you to the mission field, but you were like Jonah and ran in the other direction? How did it turn out for you?

Or did God put a call on your life to be a preacher, and you keep coming up with excuses that don't hold much water? If you haven't answered the call to preach, how do you know you'll even be alive this time next year, and then it's too late, your life is over, and you fail to be God's choice servant because of excuse and delay?

The Need for a Genuine Call to Ministry

Listen to me, dear friend. Not everyone in ministry today has a call of God on their life. I'm afraid there's too many professionals in our pulpits today who should never have been hired to fill that pastored in the first place.

I was being interviewed on a Christian radio program, and the lady host told a story which I will never forget. She said that years ago she had a job where it was required of her to telephone pastors and ask them questions for a survey, and she talked to over 1 ,000 pastors all over this country, and she said she asked each one of them the following question, how they came to be a pastor.

One man said he liked to be in front of a group of people, and being a pastor fit that capacity very well. Another man said he wanted to contribute something to his community and do some good, so he became a pastor.

And each man had a reason why he chose to pastor it for an occupation, all except one man. A black pastor from the South said that the reason he was a pastor was because he felt he had a call of God on his life.

One man out of 1 ,999 decided on their own to become a pastor. One man had a genuine call of God on his life, and he answered that call. Listen, brother pastor, you can only do so much with money and manpower, for if God's smile is not on your life through a genuine call to ministry, then you have no business serving in that capacity.

You're doing more harm than good. That's why we have so many churches in this country today that don't preach the true gospel, because the man in the pulpit is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He wasn't appointed by God to serve in that capacity.

He's trying to build a church on human terms with human efforts and damning people in the process. On the other hand, a God-called man in the pulpit will have the attending power of the Holy Spirit upon his life and ministry, and eternity be impacted by that man's life and service to his God and his generation because God is the force behind it.

Now I'm going against the grain of the modern pulpit in your day and mine, friends. I won't have too many invitations to come preach because I make too many pastors nervous of what I have to say, but I'm speaking the truth here right now.

Samuel Hears and Answers God's Voice

My message today is entitled Fighting God's Call, and my text can be found in 1 Samuel 3. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 1 through 10. Let me read this passage to us at this time.

Here now is the word of God. May the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word. And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days.

There was no open vision. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I.

And he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I, for thou callest me. And he said, I called not. Lie down again. And he went and lay down. And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for thou didst call me.

And he answered, I called not, my son. Lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me.

And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth. Let me ask you, friend, how many times has God called you? How many times have you heard his voice calling you to be his servant, and you still haven't answered that call?

Perhaps it's time for you to say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Listen to me, dear friend, you can't buck God and get away with it. If you do, you'll be the most miserable human on the face of the earth.

Personal Testimony of Surrender and Richness Toward God

Fighting God's call on your life will be your biggest regret. Now some of you don't believe that, but I'm speaking the truth. I fought God's call on my life for years, and although I looked happy on the outside, on the inside I was miserable.

I was a successful businessman, and I made a lot of money, and I didn't want to give that up to be a poor preacher of the gospel. Now I'm flat broke, but I'm the richest man in my town today because I'm following God's call on my life.

I'm rich toward God. I wouldn't want to stop preaching the gospel for a hundred million dollars. I must do what God has called me to do, and that's to be a preacher of the gospel of the Son of God. I wouldn't want it any other way, friends.

Rolf Barnard's Struggle to Surrender to Preaching

Let me take this time to read you a story about the evangelist, Rolf Barnard, and how he fought God's call on his life to be a preacher. You will find this interesting. I learned about it when I was writing the biography of Rolf Barnard, and I want to read you a little from that book at this time, friends.

Here now are the words of Rolf Barnard. I knew that being saved from me meant I would have to be a public preacher, and I did two things to try to handle that situation. I became an infidel by day and a prayer by night.

By day, I got so bitter, I got so miserable that I had to find a refuge. I had to crawl into the dust just to get a little peace. So I found out there wasn't any God, I said. I organized an infidel club in my college.

I had 300 young Baptist college students to join. By night, I would pray to God to save me. I was an orator in those days, college debater, college Shakespearean actor. I was a big shot in those days.

I was the most prominent man on the campus when I organized my infidel club. I led a lot of people to hell. I have you to understand that. I had a scholarship in the best law school in the world. I have you to understand that.

I had the offer already of a junior partnership in the biggest law firm in Texas when I was out of school. You wouldn't catch me preaching, being a little old hitchhike preacher, living on cornbread and water, and everybody cursing me and talking about me.

Now, there was never a day in my life that I didn't want to keep out of hell, but I wasn't going to preach. I was cursing God by day and begging God to save me by night, but I ain't going to preach. For five years, I tried to get God to save me, and every time I said, I will not preach, I don't care how little it is.

If that is where your rebellion heads up, it must be crushed. If not, there is no salvation. I know what it is to pray and cry, seek and everything else. This easy belief stuff to get somebody to cry a little bit and make some kind of profession and call it salvation is deception.

You must be willing to surrender your all to the Lord Jesus Christ and do His will. Christ must be revealed to you. That is salvation. One Sunday, I locked the door to my room and threw my Bible down on the floor, and I buried my face in it and said, Lord, whether you save me or damn me, I will preach from now on.

I shall never forget when I was ordained. I remember my dear friend, who's now been in glory many years, preached the ordination sermon. I was just a young fellow and, of course, knew everything, therefore knew nothing.

I was full of vim, vigor, and vitality, and I thought that if they would just turn me loose on this old world about a year, I'd have the whole outfit converted. And there I was. I remember that preacher standing up there, and among the things he said were, Son, you don't know what you're getting into.

You are yet able to believe, but there will be nights when you walk the floor. Your wife can't comfort you. Your loved ones can't comfort you. The heavens will be dark, and you will want to die. You will never know what heartaches you are letting yourself in for.

You don't realize the opposition of Satan or the absolute depravity of men, even good men. I want to remind you of one thing, Rolf. Always be as narrow as the Bible. Don't be any broader than the Bible, and preach the word.

The Fruit of Obedient Ministry

Well, friends, that is Rolf Barnard's story about how he got to be a preacher, and I'm telling you now that that man was used to God in mighty powerful revivals during his 40 years of itinerant preaching ministry.

It was said of Rolf Barnard that he was the human means of leading over 100 ,000 souls into the kingdom of God. Rolf Barnard tried to fight God's call on his life to preach, but it didn't turn out too well until he surrendered to God.

How about you, friend? Has God put a call on your life to serve him? Are you ready to answer and say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Let's get quiet before God and go to him now in a time of prayer.

Let us pray.