Your Calling: The Clue of the Callus Tribe 2026-05-24 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com. Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com. Good. Laura first played that song for us several months ago now. Yeah. And so I'm so glad that I was glad that we got to hear that she would share that song with us and now, I'm so glad that she shared that song with all of y'all this morning. Okay. Connect card in your seat. Do that with what you will. Tomorrow's Memorial Day honoring those that have given their lives in service for the freedoms that we increasingly take for granted. So take some time tomorrow to be thankful for those that have served and paid the ultimate price for our freedom. We are in a series of conversations titled Work Smarter and Not Harder. And if you remember, our launching pad verse is in first Kings chapter five verse six. If you'd like to turn there, you can. We're going to zip right along today. But in first Kings chapter five verse six, the author is speaking and he says this, as you know, there is no one among us who can cut timber like the Sodomians. So, that's kind of been our our launching pad for the discussions that we've had. And what we've said is, in the same way that Sidonians had sharp tools, we too must keep our tools sharp. If the Sidonians were famous for being woodcutters, you gotta have the right tools. You gotta have axes and saws and sharp teeth or whatever else they gnawed through that wood with. And you can't do your work without not only tools, but tools in optimal functioning. They're right at their most maximum potential. And if it's an axe, you gotta keep your axe sharp. And from there, we began to to break this down into what does this mean for us practically and what does this mean for us spiritually. We weren't just talking about having a sharp wood axe, but what we said is a tool can be dull or sharp, and a dull tool is a gift or talent used in the flesh, in our own strength, operating outside of submission and surrender and the leadership of the Lord. We have these tools, but they are dull and unsharp if we operate in in them with our flesh from our own strength and our own understanding. Conversely, we said that a sharp tool is a gift or talent that is used in the spirit, That it's submitted and surrendered to the leadership of the lord. And today, well, this past week was the the feast of Shavuot. And in Christian circles, it's known as the feast or the celebration or the day of Pentecost. And Christians remember this day because it was fifty days after Easter. It's already been fifty days and it was when in Acts chapter two, the Holy Spirit was given to the church and so, you've seen this chart before if you call tribe home but I want to touch on this just really quickly. We call them instead of the Jewish feast because they're really the lord's feast. We call them god's family tradition and seven times a year, god invites the whole world to participate in his family traditions And the family traditions that God has established, they're known as the Jewish feast only because Jews celebrated on them first. But they're God's family traditions, and the purpose of all of these feasts is to help us to remember all that he's done, to recalibrate our lives, and be in sync with him, and then number three, to rehearse or to practice or to prepare for what he gonna do someday. And so if you look here, we have the spring feast. We've already had Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of first fruits, and here we are in the feast of Shavuot, otherwise known as Pentecost. When we see, when we look for Jesus in the feast, we see that it is the giving of the Holy Spirit and these spring feasts have been fulfilled, check marks right there. Their governmental role fulfills that of the prophet and priest, and right now we're in the church age. And someday soon, I believe that we will see a literal fulfillment of the feast of trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, and Sukkot where we will dwell with Jesus in the millennial reign of the Messiah. And so I just wanted to to make mention of this. At Tribe, we honor the feasts because they are God's family traditions, and it's a great opportunity for us to get our minds right, if you will. To step out of the world's rhythm and step into the spirit, into what God has for us. We're cruising along with our plans, with our rhythms, with our routines, and similar to what we've been talking about, a dull tool or life is a life lived only out of our flesh, only out of our own strength, our own understanding, our own calendar. But when we step into the spirit and we sync up with the lord, we step into his timing and his rhythm and these feasts help us to to do that And so as we talk about the difference between the flesh and the spirit using our gifts and talents like sharp tools, I have found that a lot of people end up getting some of these words mixed up, muddled, confused, my my gifts, my my calling, my identity, my ministry, my occupation, my vocation, and they all get kind of jumbled up together. And so what we've been doing is taking some time to unravel, untangle some of these really important concepts and lay them out plainly so that we can see each and every one of them. And if you remember last week, we talked about our identity. Who does God say that we are? Not what we try to invent ourselves to be, not what social media media would try to tell us who to be, but who does god say that we are? I am a child of god. I am a new creation in Christ. So last week, we talked about identity. I invite you to go back and listen to that message if you missed it last week. This week, we are going to talk about our I last week, we talked about identity. This week, we're gonna talk about our calling. This week, we're gonna talk about our calling. If you have your Bible with you this morning, would you turn to Judges chapter six? Judges chapter six. We've been there for a little while, and I'm going to one of the unique distinctives at Tribe, if you're new or visiting or passing through, obviously, we're in a different space than you have been at before your home church. I don't know if at your home church during service, you can stand up, walk over to the refrigerator, and pull out a fizzy if you get thirsty but this is Tribe. One of the other distinctives about our Tribe fam is we love to discuss God's word. So instead of just me talking, I invite all of us to participate and have a conversation about what we're talking about. And so what that looks like is we have a mic in the room. Shay's running the mic around this morning. And if you have a question, comment, pray, praise. Yeah, praise. You know where my brain went? My brain went to I was thinking about how awesome Laura's song was. And so, like, if you're like, I need to raise my hand and tell Laura how beautiful her song was, that's allowed too as well. Do mic. Do it in the mic. If you have a question, comment, praise, or connection, just raise your hand and we would love to hear your contribution to our conversation this morning. Judges chapter six, and let's do this. Let's have one person read these verses out loud. Most of us read from the NLT translation, but we'll take whatever you got. Who would like to read Judges chapter six verse 11 through 16? 11 through 16? Yep. Now now the angel of the lord came and sat under the terebinth tree, which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abyssarite. Oh. While his son Gideon threshed wheat in the wine press in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. Gideon said to him, oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us about saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Then the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you? So he said to him, oh my lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in the Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the lord said to him, surely, I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. Okay. So much to unpack there. If you're taking notes, you can write the title of the conversation that we're gonna have at the top of your notes. This is work smarter, not harder week three, your Calling, the Clue of the Callous. Sorry. It's as clever as I could. Comments are welcome. Commentary? Also I'll allow it. You get. Yeah. Yeah. Some I know that for some of you, it's your love language to me. The clue our love language shot us. Okay. We're gonna talk about our calling, your calling. Oh, yes? What's a callus? Ah, okay, good question. A callus, maybe I assumed, a callus is what's on your hand from holding ski pole, hammer, an axe, a callus on your toe from ski boots or from kicking against the goad. For some of you who are rebellious, A callus is a buildup of dead skin cells to protect nerve endings from repetitive motion. Yeah. Callus. Alright. The clue of the callous. Listen to this. Your calling answers the question, what was I born to do? If identity answers the question, who am I? Like Zoolander, who am I? Your calling answers the question, what was I born to do? Remember when you were a little kid and you looked in the mirror and maybe you were happy about it, maybe you were upset about it, but probably you were mostly curious. Why do I look the way that I look? And then your mom being a good mom was like, God made you unique and one of a kind. When he made you, he broke the mold. Well, why, mommy? Because he has something amazing in store for you. When god wants to accomplish something on planet Earth, he allows a child to be born. Your calling answers the question, what was I born to do? Let's look at what we just read. Put your nose in the text and see if you can see what Gideon's calling was. What do you see in these verses? Raise your hand when you have something. We're looking in verses 11 through 16 of Judges chapter six. What do you see as Gideon's calling? Just raise your hand. Tell us what you got. To to drive out the Midianites? To drive out the Midianites. Yes. That's what Gideon was born to do. Look at look at verse 14. No, this is more apropos to what you just said. Look at verse 16. Verse 16, the lord said to him, Gideon, I will be with you and you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man. There's another place that we see in these few verses that we've read, something similar. I kinda already gave it away. Now, verse 14. Brilliant. Look at verse 14. Then the lord turned to him and said, go. There's always a direction with your calling. There's always a direction. Having a calling means being sent and going. That doesn't necessarily mean geographically. But you cannot work towards fulfilling your calling and stay where you are. Press it. The lord turned to him and said, go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you. Oh, this leads me to another question. Answers right here in the text. Who gives us our calling in life? God. Now, why does God give us our calling? And if you say, well, because he's God, alright, that's a great that that's a great place to start, but there's more to it. Why does God give us our calling? We're on a this is a conversation. I love it. Because he has a purpose. Because he has a purpose. And he made you. And in his sovereignty, he knows what you will experience in your life. He does not give inflict damaging things on us just so that we can reflect his glory with more brightness. That's not how a good father operates. But in his sovereignty, which means his ways are bigger than our ways, and in his omniscience, which means he knows everything, he knows what will happen to us, what will be done to us, and the choices that we make, and the dust and the dirt that we gather because we are autonomous beings with free will. He knows those things but yet he always works them together for his, say it again, for his purpose. God is the one that gives us our calling in life. Why not us? Why do we not come up with our own calling? Even if it happens to maybe overlay with what God has for us? Why do we not get to define our own calling? Well, yes. Say it again. That's that's that's valuable. Sometimes we try to and just like Laura's song, unless he's there, it's not gonna work. There's nowhere good unless you're there. Can I don't wanna go down a There we go? Alright. So But Now. I do have a question. If you Oh, a question. Okay. You can ask a question. Okay. There there seems to be some divide between current Israel and The United States and all the Jews that are here. There seems to be a kind of a separation as to I don't know, it's just that's the way I see it anyway is, you know, where where do we stand in your mind? I'm trying I'm trying to get there. I'm hopping down the trail here. There just seems to be a divide between the two as to where they are scripturally versus not scriptural, I guess is my my. Like Israel's behavior, they're calling their destiny is not what it is. What we're seeing is not congruous with what God says about them and what God has for them? And what is that incongruence? You didn't even see my lips move, did you? Is that what he's getting at? Yeah. So in the same way that individuals have autonomy, meaning they're free to make their own choices, so do governments and nations. However, an individual and a nation and a government is not free from the consequences of their choices. And and just like individuals, sometimes governments and nations make poor choices, wrong choices, And there will be accounting for that, just like with any person. There'll be an accounting for each person must give an account for their life, including heads of states and nations and governments and and countries. Israel is not exempt from standing before a holy god. And he will not say, alright. Bad nation, bad nation, bad nation, bad oh, wait. You're Israel? Good nation. Bad nation, bad the bible says he is no respecter of persons. But in the same way that each and every one of us were lost as a frisbee on a roof until we came back to the Lord and we were, we our relationship with him was reconciled, that there will someday under a heavy hand of chastisement be a turning of Israel back to the Lord, their Messiah Jesus? Don't worry, I'm not asking about Israel. To your question though, Clay, kind of your question, your question, Brian. Can you be called to do the wrong thing? Because you're a part of that story. I'm thinking like Pharaoh. God hardened his heart. Right? So can you have a calling where where it's the bad is used for good, that was your calling to kind of do bad? What she said. Ah, okay. Thank you, Cass. The answer is no. You cannot because god says, I believe it is in Ephesians for we are god's workmanship created to do good things. He's not just speaking to Christians. He's speaking to all mankind. But how the the interplay of god's will and man's free will, how they work to conform to his goodwill and pleasure is almost beyond fathom. And some people would think, well, we actually don't have free will because everything in the universe has been predetermined by a holy God. Well, you know, don't have free will. Why even pray? Like, why even try to get saved? I'm either gonna get saved or not. Oh, we go down like a a squirrelly road there. So Pharaoh had free will. And God's desire for him was to not oppress the nation of Israel and multiple pharaohs because it was four hundred and thirty years. Let's just say the nation of Egypt. It was not god's will or it was not it was not Egypt's calling to be the oppressor of Israel. It was not Judas' calling to be the betrayer of Jesus that brought about the redemption and salvation of mankind. That was not Judas' calling. He exercised his free will but in god's sovereignty and in his brilliance. He worked it all out. Remember and just say, remember that TV show lost like the first three or four seasons were like, this is so good, like the story is incredible. How is it ever gonna end? And then by like season seven, they're jumping back and forth in time like, oh you can do anything you want, like you have clearly not thought this all through. Unlike the writers and producers of Lost, God is so brilliant. He knows and works all things together. He's better than Lost. You've got your thumb right on a basic philosophical issue that I had before I got saved. Oh. And it's okay. We have free will, but God knows the end of the story. That's the theory, right? Now how can that be? Well, would submit the answer is easy. It's because God knows how we're going to exercise our free will individually and collectively, and has got the end in sight. And if you're a sci fi reader and you remember the Foundation Trilogy, that's what it's all about, but anyhow. Look at Bob bringing in a cultural relevant novel reference, I love that, and it is so good. So listen, I wrote this down in my notes, I think it's maybe up here on the screen. Your calling is a unique life assignment entrusted to you by god. And some of your brains may be going, wanna like give a caveat, hold on to the caveat because I'll address it in a moment. Your calling is a unique life assignment entrusted to you by god. You said, where have you been? I said, nowhere good because there's nowhere good unless you're there. Now, we can see this idea and concept of a calling. It comes into more vivid contrast and definition when we look at some examples of other people in the Bible who we can see their life calling. Let's pick Peter. What was Peter? The apostle Peter. What was Peter's calling? To to what? To become a men fisher is so good and I cannot help. At a restaurant, it's less distracting But when our server comes to us and they have an accent, listen, I always try to guess the accent, and so I have to stop and play the game right now. I'm gonna guess either Ukraine or Romania for your accent. Am I anywhere close? No. Alright. Well, maybe if you will continue to answer some more questions, we'll get better clues. So don't tell us. We're acknowledged. Oh, yeah. We're okay. Lord, help me. Help me. In Pentecost, What is Peter's calling? To be a fisher of men. Survey says, Luke five ten. Jesus replied to Simon, don't be afraid. From now on, you'll be fishing for people. Who gave that calling to Peter? Jesus, god. Peter didn't say, you know what? I'm a good fisherman but you know what I think would be more fun? That I'll that will end up getting me crucified upside down on a cross for later years of my life. It was Jesus that gave him that calling, entrusted him, invited him into. Look at this verse in Galatians chapter two. Paul is speaking but it's about Paul. Instead, they saw that god had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. So, Paul is talking. Just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews. For the same god who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles. Now, between Peter and Paul, depending on what you know about them, who would you say is more equipped to be an apostle, a witness, a sent one to the Jews? Peter or Paul? Paul because he was so brilliantly educated. He was a Pharisee. He's a Pharisee. He was born in the tribe of Jews. I mean, the guy had his act together. In terms of being a Jew. He was a consummate, observant Jew. Did all the things and the things and all the things and said all the things. And god's like, not Paul. I'll pick a barely literate fisherman, blue collar, through and through guy. You go to objectively speaking, the most intellectually smart and literate and highest form of government in the surrounding world, the Jewish people. I'll send Peter to the Jews. And Paul, you take all that knowledge and all of your hand washing and all of your traditions, and you go to the Gentiles who don't know diddly squat nor do they care. That's a calling. Now, it's time to talk about your caveat because for some of the mothers in the room, you may think, well, motherhood is a calling that I've been entrusted to love and raise these little wild ones to in fear and admonition of the lord. And you'll you will always be their mother, but you might not always be their mommy. And so callings at the lord's discretion are allowed to be modified or changed. I need to say that. So, look at what Jesus said to Peter. He kinda started broad. From now on, you'll be a fisher of men and then later in life, he led the church in Jerusalem. His call was modified or narrowed or refined to be a fisher of men to Jews in Jerusalem and be a pastor of the church in Jerusalem. And so, in a similar way that Peter's call was modified over the course of his life, your calling too may change, adapt, or be modified. At the Lord's timing and at his discretion and at his leadership. Now, did what I just said, did that satisfy an itch that you were gonna raise your hand and tell me about? Mostly Amanda? Oh. Well, guess I don't know you at all, dude. Oh, you have your name. Amanda's like, well, I'll take the mic. I also wanna, Peter's first calling was being a fisherman, of which was projected onto him. And I think that's something that we also need to be mindful of is that if you don't have a calling or identity, then the world is very quickly to project one onto you. So, be very mindful of that. And like you said, it's like seasonal, know, things can change in different seasons of time that you work through. That's good. What I what I think I hear you're saying is maybe the world didn't force it on him, but prior to being called by the Lord, he was operating as a fisherman thinking that's what he was born to do. But Jesus is like, no, brother. I got something else for you. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes, the world would try to put something on you for the world's purpose. Hand back there to Bethany or Amanda. Just real quick. I would I yes. You did satisfy. Thank you. Because I do believe being a mama is a calling for for that. But I I translate the word calling to assignment. So I do feel like if it is from the Lord and if you are being obedient, we do have lots of assignments throughout our life or calling. But I was gonna ask you, throwing you a softball, if you would kind of speak about broad callings, for example, the great commission, which Jesus gave us. For sure, we're all called to preach the gospel. That's clear in the gospel. So would you speak a little bit on that broad callings verse into, like you, I want you to something very specific verse people groups, Christian. Yes. I think my thoughts on your question will be better placed a few more lines down in my notes, but hold on to that question because it's really good. Well, if I am uniquely made to fulfill purpose for God and it is go forth into all the world, making disciples, baptizing them in the name of, baptizing them in my name. And if that's my calling, well, you look different than me. Why is that your calling too? What's special for me? So yes, you are right. There is a narrowing down general, and this is why all of us are in this room despite our backgrounds and our looks and where we've come from and all of these different things that make us different. We get to be brought together by some of these commonalities and then it comes down to be to being even more specific and we'll get to that in a moment. Bethany. Well, my first thing that I was gonna say was with regards to your, I was kinda going back to your question about like what's the reason that God decides the purpose. And we had some like really valid and true answers, but one of the things I wanted to add to that was that I think that a big part of the power in the calling is not actually the thing itself, but the obedience to the thing. And so if we chose our calling, then there's something lost in that relationship with the Lord of trust and faith that causes you and motivates you and like leads you to obedience. And that the power is there in the obedience itself. And then kind of tying into that with what you guys were talking about now, when you asked earlier what Gideon's calling was, my first thing that I saw was, am I not sending you? And that like, his calling at its core to me is being sent. And that like, yes he was sent for this one thing, but you know it's very possible, like there could be multiple like big dramatic things that he would be called to, like in addition to this particular dramatic thing. And that like at its core, like his calling is to be sent and to be willing to be sent, and obedient to that. That's worth a whole another conversation on a Sunday to just unpack what you said. You're right on the money. If I were to summarize what you would say, would take a swing at your obedience unlocks his power, and that a calling always involves a vector, a direction. And I know where some of your brains may be spinning like, well, what is my calling? And the first thing that you think of is something gigantic and grandiose and huge and, you know, worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records. That's not what Peter was thinking. That's not what Gideon was thinking. God just told Gideon, go in the strength you have. He spoke his identity over him, mighty man of valor. That's why our calling comes after our identity. The more that we grow in our identity, who god says that we are as we grow in confidence of that, we position ourselves to be able to hear his calling, his unique mission, and assignment. You said the word assignment for our life. How about Jesus? Did Jesus have a calling? What was Jesus' calling? What comes to your mind? To take our sin on, to save us. It's just the ice maker. Yep. It's just the ice maker in our living room. Set people free. Every day, day. Every day, all day, you're you're basically getting it. Luke chapter four verse 18. Was this not Jesus' calling? The spirit of the lord is upon me. For he has anointed me to bring good news. So, if Jesus is bringing the good news, that means that god, what? Him. Sent him. To bring good news to the poor. He has sent me. There it is to proclaim that captives will be released and that the blind will see and that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the lord's favor has come. For god sent his only son. Is that, I mean, would, is that pretty safe to assume like, well, this was Jesus's calling. Can you think of who who else from the Bible we have a clear recorded moment of their calling. Well, we okay. Okay. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Now you have to hit them all. Okay. Okay. I I jumped I jumped ahead in my notes. You said Paul. Look at Paul's calling. Acts chapter twenty six sixteen through 18. Now get to your feet. Jesus is speaking, for I have appeared to you and appointed you as my service and servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me and tell them what I will show you in the future and I will rescue you from both your own people and from the Gentiles. Yes, I am what? Sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light from the power of Satan to god, then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among god's people who are set apart by faith in me. So, Paul, yes, a calling to be a sent one. Somebody said, Mary. She said, like, be that unto me. I am the Lord's handmaiden. Like, she had she had a calling to bring about Jesus in his earth suit. Moses had a calling to be the liberator of the nation of Israel. Joshua had a calling that was spoken by Moses but given by the lord to lead people across the Jordan River into the promised land. What does the name Joshua mean? God saves. Samuel who called, who was called by name by the lord. Jonah. Jonah was called to be a prophet and an evangelist to the pagan city of Nineveh. So, we could keep playing this game, and it's a fun one, and I love where your brains go thinking about this. I'm not gonna say the bigger the calling, the greater the impact, but I will say this, the clearer the calling, the greater the impact. And whose job is it to do the clarifying? It's not God's job. He speaks clearly all the time. It's our job to listen and obey, surrender, and as we do that, our identity, we grow in confidence of our identity, Our calling comes into greater and greater focus. I happen to have a mic right here just for me. Adjust my for a second. Let me just my own volume. I was just gonna say this. I peeked at your notes, and I don't think you're gonna go super into this, but I just feel a burden that there's people in the room that are thinking about their job, their current job that they wake up and go to. Allison? And you're thinking or Gretchen or I'm just thinking I know everybody, like, so many of what you guys do during the day. And that god can completely fulfill your calling through the current job you have. I just feel like that's really important to say that he can move and work in any vocation of any building that you go into during the day and fulfill your calling. So if you're, like, bogged down right now and you're thinking, well, when I quit this job one day, I'll be really obedient to my calling, but right now, I have to pay the bills and whatever. Like, I just I feel like there's hearts in this room that are thinking that right now. But god can fulfill his calling in the vocation or the job he is currently and will has you in. Well, it's not in my notes because it's in next week's sermon. Okay. Everybody just take next week off. Your and this is why we're we're taking time to untangle these words because many people confuse their calling with their occupation or their vocation, and they are not necessarily the same. Your calling and your vocation may be completely different. Let's use so we have these examples in scripture. Let's take it down about a thousand notches and look at my life. If you had to take a guess, what would you say my calling in life is? My calling is public speaking. Mountain climbing, teach, oh, this could go sideways real fast. Shepherd. I feel like I have a calling on my life to be a shepherd. What that means is I like us all to be together, all the time with everything. All of us. All the time. All of us. When you, insert your name, aren't here every Sunday. A piece of my heart is incomplete. I really mean that. And, yes, feel the pressure. Because God has placed you at this church for this season and for this time, for his purpose and his reason. Plant yourself in a local church. The Bible says those who are planted in the house of the Lord our God will flourish. I am called to shepherd. Like, you think about different personalities of different dogs. We have an Australian shepherd border collie. His name is Obi and he likes everybody to be all together all the time And even if it's birds that are flying over our property, he barks and yaps and chases it because he was like, Hey, where are you going? Get back here. One of my skills could be public speaking, one of my talents could be storytelling, my gift, which we're going to get to as well, one of my gifts is teaching. But my my gift of teaching is not the same as my identity. Nor is it the same as my calling. I like us all to be together regardless of the vocation. We we've joked about this before, but, like, let's say we're like, you know what? The season of tribe has run its course, and this has been great. We're gonna close the doors on tribe. The Lord bless you at wherever he has call calling you to next to to call home for a church. Don't worry. We're not doing that. But if he did, what would happen to me? I'd be just fine because being the pastor of this church is not my identity. I have a calling to shepherd people. So probably within the week, I would be inviting you all over to our house. Yeah. Yeah, and then we're back in the living room. Like, do you see how that calling works? And hopefully, each of you who have spent any amount of time around me are like, okay, like that that that kind of reds. I like us to all be together. I like us to do things together. I love for I get great satisfaction out of sharing something that that I have been there before or done before but is new to you, I love, I love sharing experiences that I've been through before that I enjoy or love or grew from to share those with others. But our calling is as unique as we are. So here's what you're asking. How can I discover my calling? How can I discover my calling? Let me just quasi rapid fire, semi auto. Alright? Let me give you some questions that you can write down or maybe if I'm going too fast, just take a picture of and then consider these questions. Some of these questions feel very similar to each other but they're intended to draw out something different from your heart. How can I discover my calling? The first question is, where are your calluses? Do. Have calluses. There is something. And here's what's great. Answer these questions for yourselves, journal them, and then sit down with a trusted friend and ask them, what do you how would you answer these questions about my life? Where are your calluses? Meaning, what's something that you, and I'm not talking about like a rut or a stronghold or repetitive sin. That's that's that's not what we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. That the Bible says your conscience is seared and that's not good. But a callous. What's something that you find yourself coming back to over and over again that you're good at, that you enjoy doing, that you love, and now, you have done or had that attitude or or thought this or been involved in this so often that now you've got calluses there. What could we tell about your life from the repetition of what you do? How you live? What you say? Where are your calluses. In this instance, a callus is a very good thing. When I was younger living in Texas, there was a a neighbor. You know, I was like a little kid and he was like a grown dude. And I went over to his house one day, and I can't remember his name where it's in Texas, so let's just say his name was Dale. Probably not too far off. Right, Caleb? He's downstairs. So, I go over to Dale's house and I was like, Dale, what are you up to? And he's like, check this out. I got myself a compound bow and I was like, what? And it was a compound bow and he's like, I'm going to set up some hay bales and I'm going start shooting a compound bow and I was like, oh god, that's okay, Dale. Great. So, I go to see him. I kid you not. I go to see him a couple months later. You know, I'm tromping through the woods and I pop out in, like, his property and go up and say hi. I kid you not. His nose was deformed like this From the string. Have you ever met a bow hunter like that that shot so much? He literally had a crease and was developing a callus on his bow from that same anchor point on his nose again and again, thousands of repetitions. I don't know. That wasn't in my mind. So where are your calluses? Number one. I've got a few more questions. Number two, what burdens your heart? Look at first Corinthians nine sixteen. Paul is speaking. He says, yep. Preaching the good news is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn't preach the good news. First Corinthians nine sixteen. I don't maybe I don't have that one up there. First Corinthians nine sixteen. Listen to Paul, this calling. What it it's a burden on his heart. Here's another question. What kingdom problem do I feel strangely responsible for? Maybe, kingdom problem. Amanda asked, define kingdom problem. It could be an a societal issue that the government is attempting to address, but you're like, they ain't doing it. They ain't doing enough. They ain't doing it right. It could be a a spiritual issue that has outworkings or outflowings. The the fruit of that impacts the natural world, but it is specifically relevant to the kingdom of God. What kingdom problem? So, another way to say it is what touches god's heart Here's another question. What keeps resurfacing even when I try to ignore it? For example, in 2013, our family went to Mongolia. I had this thought, and for a year, I couldn't shake it. It would just keep bubbling up. And after a year, I got smart and was like, well, should pray about it. And then another year of praying about it resulted in us going to Mongolia. But I would just be bopping along in life, doing whatever I was doing, and just it would come up again. Now that happened to be kind of a big thing for me, but if you're like, well, something keeps bubbling up, but it seems kinda small and insignificant and like that, but you can't shake it, should lean into it. Two more questions. Where do I feel unusually alive in serving? Now, this is I'm gonna take a couple of runs at this essentially same question. So you don't need to write these next ones down, and it doesn't count as when I said I had two more. But this is a reiteration of the same question. Where does the grace rest on my life? What gives you life? Among our friend group, we talk a lot about things that that fill up your battery or drain your battery. And some of these are just personality related, not necessarily a calling. But if you're operating in your calling, remember we talked about working smarter and not harder. If you're if you're in the spirit and you're walking out your calling in the spirit, it's gonna give you great life even though it may give you calluses and you're exhausted and may even someday cost you your life. It fills your tank. And this has less to do with calling, but it's actually a part of my calling. When we come back from a trip, we land at Jackson Hole Airport. We we kind of politely scoot past all the people that are rubbernecking and the gapers that are taking their pictures, and we go right out to our car. And as we're driving back into town on our way to home, I always like, hey, should we go see Jacob and Gretchen? Or or hey, we we could swing right out to Kelly. Like, the Abbads are just close by. Why wouldn't it be fun if we just surprised the Lacks and went over to their house like, what are they doing? And this is like, the last thing I wanna do after a trip is to see people. I need to go home. Who among you, when you land when you land in the plane, the first thing that you'd like to do is go see a friend? Yeah. I mean, it's gotta be the right friends. How many of you, like, when you when the plane lands, you're like, I wanna go home and nothing. But that's also part of the shepherd in me. I gotta touch base and connect with with my friends. That's why I have, like, 10 different group threads of five people or more that I love. But it gives me life to be around people. What gives you life? Oh, that was my last question. But this is my last note. Joy, yes. Can you give a quick example of a callus that was an indicator that you're a shepherd? Yes. When I was in high school, I was arrested for stealing wheelchairs. Yes. So I was with a group of my friends, and and and she did not set me up for this. Thank you, Joy. And I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and we're up to no good. And we're like, you know what? This is long before like YouTube, long before but like, you know what would be fun is if we each had a wheelchair and then we could like wheel em around town and do dumb things with wheelchairs. Like, where do you get wheelchairs? I don't know the hospital. We're like, alright. Well, let's go to the hospital. So, we snuck into the hospital and we're kind of like walking around looking for like wheelchairs. There were like six of us and we like turned the corner and it was like, Just down this hallway like 50 wheelchairs and we each took a wheelchair. We're like pushing them down the hospital. Somebody was like, hey, what are you doing? You know, we bust out the doors with our wheelchairs. We're running, pushing our wheelchairs. We go across the street from Boulder Community Hospital into this dark parking lot and almost run our wheelchairs into three parked cop cars. They're just hanging out doing their thing and and we're like scattering and the light come on and the the cops chase all of us. I was the only one that got caught. I was the only one that was 19 and I went to like Boulder County Jail, spent the night in jail. I had to to work off a lot of community service hours and as I was getting there, as I was looking at, where do I wanna work off my community service hours? I was like, okay, you could like sort like garbage at the recycling. You could pick up trash off the highway and then I saw one option that was a head start program And it's like a government funded kindergarten. I was like, oh, that could be cool. Nap time, snack time, play time. That's for me. Sign me up for head start. I was an only child, never had siblings, never spent time around any young children. And at 19, I started working off a quadrillion hours of community service at this head start program. And within a week, I would like pull up at the place, the kids would see me come running to the fence and like like a mother duck with all of her ducklings. All of the Head Start kids just followed me around the the playground and around the classroom and everything. I did get nap time, snack time, and a lot of playtime but the teachers came to me and said, how like, how many siblings do you have? Are you a teacher? How long have you been doing this? I I've never done this before in my life but it gave me life. It was the beginnings of an inkling of a calling to bring people together and ever since that time, I began working with leading and loving and shepherding people and it developed a callus that started all the way back by god's sovereignty and didn't pick like, you know what I think I'm going to do? Nope. It just started with court ordered community service. And a callus was developed there. I will shepherd you even if you don't want to be shepherded. I'll chase you down. Where have you been? What have you been up to? Because it's just part of the calling that god has on my life. Does that answer your question? The callous. Almost like muscle memory. Gretchen and then I just wanna bring it back to Kings really fast. But I think another good question to ask is like, what are the situations in your life that keep coming up and the and that you keep being put in? Because the Sidonians grew up like, if you look it up, they grew up in like, the area that they lived were dense, dense forest. Like, dense. It says that. And so, like, that's why they're such good like, they're so good at cutting down timber. Right? And so they were put in that situation. They were put in that place to learn that skill so that they could eventually become the ones that will provide the temple with wood and timber to be built? Look around you? Look through your past situations. Yeah. Write that one down too. Let's take a moment, go to the Lord in prayer, and invite the Holy Spirit to just speak to us. And if you ask the Lord, what's my calling? And you've already highlighted the blank and started and outlined it and put fireworks around it, you may be disappointed that he invites you into something that you may feel is small and insignificant. He would say to you, we gotta start somewhere. Let's just start with this. So, Holy Spirit, will you whisper to our hearts as we grow in confidence of our identity and we draw close to you in relationship, will you bring our calling into greater and greater clarity. You just talk to him. Listen for his voice. Come Holy Spirit. Speak to us. Just do it from here today. Every time we gather together, we bring our tithe and our offering for this local church called Tribe and practically speaking, it goes to do the work of the ministry, to help feed people, to bring people to Jesus. That's the whole point but in our hearts, we love to think of bringing our tithe and our offering wherever your local church is, tribe or otherwise, as a place where we can practice obedience and we just say, lord, what are you asking me to give? And then and then obey what he's asking you to do and it just keeps our hearts calibrated with our heavenly father. So, I'm going to pray for us real quick. If you brought a cash or check, you know, you're giving today. We have two drop boxes. There's one right up by the door here and then a little black lock box right outside the door. You could also give always at tribejh.com and then you see on the screen, there's a text to give where you just type like you have a new friend called Tribe Tithe and it's 8333697847. You just type the word give, the dollar sign, and and do that. Just a quick announcement and then we have a special ending for you today but this connect card that was in your seat, if you wanna just know what's going on around here, we'll just fill this out and put it in the Dropbox on your way out. But on the back, there's something really important. There's a place that says, how can we pray for you? And every Monday, we have staff meeting, and it's really important. We take these so seriously. Do you guys know nothing is too big and nothing is too small to pray for? And if you want prayer today, that's even better live. You can come to any of us that were up here. But just fill this out and put it in the box and so let me pray for us. You guys are coming up. Alright, bow your heads with me. Heavenly father, thank you so much for today. We love you dearly. Thank you for the opportunities we have to bring our tithe and our offering and all the other ways that we can obey you. Thank you for the ways that our hearts stay calibrated with you. We just wanna be where you are. Thank you so much for speaking into our lives and into our hearts today. We just love you. Thank you for this day and for all these people here and for how you're moving. Thank you for your faithfulness. In Jesus' name, amen. Just real quick, tomorrow is Memorial Day, so no men's bible study, but there is one bible study left next Monday. Even if you've not come oh, there's two. Even if you haven't come, Brian says, come, step in anytime. And then next week, we're back here at the TMC, but we're going back to our two services. So the nine and the eleven. Brian, what you got for us? I got one more thing. I think we're gonna use that mic, We got one more thing this morning. As somebody that likes to do things together, we met some new friends. They were passing through town last week, and I was like, hey. I'm a shepherd you. Let's be together. Let's do this. So we invited them over to our house. They are traveling and camping, and they came over to our house for dinner on Friday for Shabbat. We had a great time. There was some knee slapping, some foot stomping, some hand clapping. And so, you know, I like us all to be together. So I thought, let's invite Jason and their daughter to share a song with us today just before we dismiss. And so, Jason and Claire. Can you hear me? Awesome. Well, what a blessing to be here. It's been awesome. We were here last last Sunday, and, just a special. You guys have an amazing community. And, yeah, I'm I'm jealous. It's a it's a special place here. I love love what you have going here, and, and what a blessing to be able to celebrate Shavuot and Pentecost here on this day. And so we're gonna we're gonna learn a new song, Every Tribe. It's called by Joshua Aaron. Every Tribe by Joshua Aaron. And the chorus is simple, really easy. You know how the songs are like either woah woah woah or la la la or but this is a woah woah woah song. So I think you'll catch on pretty quickly. And there's one Hebrew phrase in here. It's called it says, and that is blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And and that's, you know, when when our messiah was coming on the lowly donkey coming into Jerusalem, they were singing that with palm branches. And then also on the, I think, just the Israel connection, you know, one of our purposes is to provoke to jealousy what we have. And and and and until the fullness of the Gentiles do come in, all Israel will be saved. And so I'm I think, you know, just it's gonna be an amazing sight, when he when when his feet hit Mount Of Olives and all Israel is saying. Alright. Let's see if we can do this. And and coming again. Tear us shall return to them, to the ones who harm the innocent. They better lay down their soul for the battle is not man. It belongs to the lord. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Is that? Oh, the king is coming. The king is coming. Oh, the king is coming. The king is coming. Alright. Stand up. Can I pray for you? Lord Jesus, thank you so much for being good to us. Jesus, we tell you that we love you. I command a blessing over each and every person here today, lord. God, I ask that you would give us a grace that we can grow in the confidence of our identity and as we surrender and submit to you, draw close to you, walk with you, that you would reveal with greater and greater clarity our calling and our assignment. We pray these things. In Jesus name, the strong son of god and everybody said. Amen. Amen. I love you guys so very much. Have a great Memorial Day weekend. You got this. How about one more time?