The Call of God

The Need:

The people’s condition

John 12:46  

I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

John 1:1-8  

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.

7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.

8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The hunger of the people

Luke 5:1  

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God,

The extent of the field,

Luke 4:42-44  

42 At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.

43 But he said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”

44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Acts 1:8  

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The ripeness of the fields,

John 4:35  

Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

The urgency of the hour

John 9:4  

As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

The need of the people,

1 Samuel 3:1 

The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.

Proverbs 29:18  

Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.

God’s need of a channel

1 Samuel 3:20-21  

20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD.

21 The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.