Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen, and I am podcasting from Pinedale, Wyoming, where we’ve just finished some revival meetings here at the First Baptist Church. 

My wife and I also have had the privilege to see some wildlife out here in Wyoming, and it’s kind of been fun to do that. Of course, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a moose in the wild up close. I’ve had the privilege of seeing that with the “paddles,” they call them. I guess the “horns”ーwhatever they are. 

And we also had the privilege of going to a ranch and seeing some buffalo, even some white buffalo, which I understand are pretty rare. This morning in a cabin up in the mountains, we had the privilege of seeing a badger. Now, for a city slicker like myself, seeing any wildlife like that is pretty neat, and we’ve certainly enjoyed that. 

Well, last time we embarked on a journey of a seriesーI don’t know how long the series will goーwhere I’m gonna deal with some autobiographical moments from my own life, and then bring some biblical application from them. You might remember, I had a little bit of a hard time last time saying the word “autobiographical,” but I think I got it down now. 

And today I’d like to talk about the call to preach. For you young ladies, that would just be the call to know that you’re supposed to spend your life in full-time Christian work. You might ask yourself, “How did you know? How do you know that God has a call on your life?” Now we’re all supposed to be full-time Christiansーno doubt about it. Every one of us that’s saved has a purpose for our life. And all of us should be all in to whatever God’s will is for our life. But for some, God does call to preach, and even a young lady, He may call you to what we’ve come to call “full-time Christian service.”

I remember when I was 16, I had a youth pastorーDennis HornーI thank the Lord for him. He challenged me to do a preaching contest at his alma mater. And I don’t remember fighting it that much, but I finally agreed to do it, and went down there. I didn’t think I did that great, but my older brother was getting his master’s degree at that time there, and he was thrilled with the message and called home to my mom and dad and encouraged them that God had given me a gifting. 

Now at that point I wasn’t seeing it very much, but it served to be at least a platform. It was several months later when I began to recognize that God had called me to preach. I was wrestling with God. 

My brother, Wayne, who I mentioned earlier, was down at the school, had graduated, and was going to be ordained a short time after his graduation, at a church there in town. And we went down for that. 

I couldn’t tell you much about that ordination service, but I do know this. In that service, God made it absolutely 100% certain to meーI’m called to preach. I really should have gone forward in that service, but I wrestled with God. 

And I shouldn’t have said this, but I said, “God, I promise You that the first service I’m back at Marquette Manor Baptist Church”ーthat was where my dad was pastor, my home churchー“I’ll walk the aisle and let the folks there know that God has called me to preach.” And I promised God that I’d do that. I kind of used the excuse, “I oughta surrender at my home church. Let them know.” And so that’s where we were. 

Well, I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember the first service back, which was a Sunday night. My dad preached that night. I don’t remember a thing he said. I was wrestling because at this point still, I didn’t think I could do it. I wasn’t a rebel, in the sense of I didn’t wanna do God’s will. I just didn’t think I could do it. 

I wrestled with God that service. In fact, I know this sounds funny, but I went to the concordanceーa little concordance in the back of my Bibleーand I looked up the word “vow,” and I read every verse that was there about a vow, and I came to a quick conclusion: that God didn’t look too kindly at making a promise and backing out on it. So I knew what I had to do. 

When that invitation was given, I remember stepping out and walking up to my dad, grabbing my dad’s hand. My dad had a very kind faceーI don’t know how to explain it. Looked up at my dad. Tears began to roll down my cheeks as I said, “Dad, I think God’s calling me to preach.” I’ll never forget my dad looked back at me and said, “Jim, your mother and I have known it for a long time. We’ve been praying for you.” 

I wish I had one day asked my dad how he knew, because now he’s in heaven. Been in heaven for 25 years. But I’m pretty sure how he found out. He and my mother must have spent time either individually in prayer, or together in prayer, and God made it clear to them that God had called me to preach. 

Well,ーsome of you’ve heard me tell the storyーthat didn’t take the burden off because I still didn’t feel I could do it. And I really remember going out in the lobby that night, still very miserable. Thinking, “You know, I got my senior year of high school, four years of Bible collegeーfive years till I have to preach. Maybe something will happen.” Well, obviously, opportunities to preach began to come in. My dad, of course, began to give me opportunities. 

And I remember struggling through some of those until I kind of went off to college as a freshman, and that’s when I began to see some victory in preaching. I may have had some victory in the youth group there, but most of it came when I got into Bible college and prepared for the ministry there. Began that preparation my freshman year. 

And some of you had heard me tell this story about the very first time I preached at my home church on a Sunday night, and God delivered me. And that night I preached with great liberty, and I really had prepared best I knew how, but it wasn’t really the preparation that you really should have, preaching. And I did the best I could, I just didn’t know how to prepare a message at that time. And I preached that Sunday night. I preached for 45 minutes; I loved every moment of it. 

I do remember when I stepped in the pulpit that night, scared to death. I started preaching, and all of a sudden, I sensed the presence of God, and I was free! And I will tell you, since that time, I’ve certainly had times I’ve struggled in preaching, but I’ve had times when God has carried me through. And I’ve had times when I’ve struggled, and God has used me. 

But you might come to ask the question, and I’ll certainly give other stories about preaching as time goes on here, but let’s talk about the call. You say, “How did you know you were called to preach?” Well, the Bible says something that I think is very helpful. In 1 John chapter number 1, the Bible tells us “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” There comes a point where you know it. You just know it. 

If you were to come up to me and say, “Preacher, how do you know you’re called to preach?” I would say, “I just know.” It’s not necessarily a feeling, it’s just, “I know it.” It’s absolutely clear. If I were to do anything else, I know I would be disobedient to God. 

Now the wonderful thing about God’s call on your life is He’s promised: He doesn’t just call; He enables. First Thessalonians 5:24, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” God does not call the Gifted; He gifts the Called. I’m sure some of you have heard me say that before. And that’s a great thing, that when God calls you, He’ll enable you. He’ll “gift” you to be able to do it. 

Now, your gifting is really for perhaps another podcast, but I will say this about your gifting. Everything that God calls a gift in the Bible, we’re pretty much all commanded to do those things, whether it’s evangelism, serving, organizing, comforting, encouraging, exhortingーall of these things are things we’re encouraged to do in the Word of God. But your giftingーI like what someone has well saidー“Your gifting is what, when you do, God uniquely blesses it.” 

And I would have to say with preaching, that it’s something I know God blesses. I know it’s a gift from God. When I receive a compliment, I know in the depths of my heart that the compliment is for God, because He gifted me, and I’m just using the gift. And that’s the great thing about it, friend. God not only calls, but He giftsーHe enables you to do what He’s calling you to do. 

When you look at it at 16, and that’s how old I was, it looks impossible. It looks like, “I can’t do this.” But, if God’s calling you, then He’s gonna gift you. And if He’s calling you, He will make it absolutely clear. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

Somebody listening to this podcast is wrestling with this. One of the very first things you can do to help you in this is to make it public. When you know in your heart God’s calling you, make it public. And if you’re not sure, start asking people to pray for you. But the point is: don’t get behind God. When God’s calling you, take that step and begin to pursue the call on your life. And you will find that God will guide you step by step. He will lead you. He will gift you. He will encourage you. 

There’s something in those early years of life preparation and ministry that are very warm when I think about them, because it was all about God stepping into my life and encouraging me and gifting me to do what He called me to do. 

Friends, for 38 years I’ve had the privilege of being in full-time ministry. There’s been tough times…but I will tell you, looking at it, I have loved it. I wouldn’t want to have done anything else with my life. In many ways I wish I had done it better, in the sense that I’d been more faithful and been a better Christian. 

But I will say this, God has always been faithful. And I look back and see how He’s miraculously worked over and over and over again. And I have loved being in the will of God. There’s nothing like it. 

So let me encourage you. What God’s calling you to do, He’ll enable you to do. And that simply means: whatever His will is, surrender to it and trust him for the enabling grace to do what He’s called you to do.