Transcription
What's the difference between a career and a calling? That's what we're going to talk about today on the [Music] beat.
Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back. My name is Alan Par. And so today, we are talking about the difference between a career and a calling. You know, I hear a lot of people out here saying, "Well, I'm called to be a doctor," or "I'm called to be a lawyer," or "My calling is to be an artist." And so today, I want to first and foremost show some differences between a career and a calling. Second of all, I want to show some biblical examples of men who carried out their calling. And then finally, I want to give a clear biblical definition of what a calling actually is.
So, what are the differences between a career and a calling? Number one, a career, you use your natural talents for. Whereas a calling, you use your spiritual gifts for. Second of all, in your career, your motivation is primarily to please your employer. Whereas in your calling, your motivation is to please your God. A career is something you can do, whereas a calling is something you must do. A career is something that could change over time depending upon where you are in life. But a calling is something that never changes. A career gives you benefits for this life only, but a calling gives you benefits for eternity because you are sewing seeds into your eternal destiny. And then finally, and most importantly, in your career, your main goal is to advance the company. Whereas in your calling, your goal is to advance the kingdom of God.
All right, so now let's check out some people in the Bible who had a career along with their calling. And so first, obviously, you have Jesus, whose main career was to be a carpenter, but his calling was to be the savior of the world. Then you have the Apostle Paul, whose career was to be a tent maker, but his calling was to be the apostle that preached primarily to the Gentiles. And then you had the 12 disciples, who most of them were fishermen by career or by trade, but their main calling, as Jesus said, he says, "I'm going to make you fishers of men." And so what you'll see here is that all of these men use the resources from their careers to support themselves and others, and primarily to free themselves up so that they could do the thing that God had called them to do. And so for you, you may have a career that is extremely demanding, takes up a lot of your time, but the key is to stay focused on what God has saved you for and what he has created you to do.
So, what exactly is a calling? A calling is not always some magical, mystical thing that God reveals only to a select group of people. Now, Jesus made it very clear in Matthew chapter 28 what our calling is as Christians. He says that we are to go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then finally, teaching them to observe all that I've have commanded them to do. So, if you're a Christian and you're not going out, and you're not making disciples, and you're not baptizing people, which means you're helping new people come into the faith, and finally, if you're not teaching or advising or helping people learn how to apply the word of God and obey the things that Jesus has commanded, then it may be a passion, it may be a side gig, it may be a talent, it may be a hobby. But I personally would hesitate to call it a calling. God's main focus is to advance his kingdom. And so the key question that I want to leave with you today when you're trying to discern whether what you're doing is considered a career or a calling is, is whatever I'm considering to be my calling, is it or can I directly connect it to the advancement of his kingdom? If you can't clearly answer that question, then I would hesitate to call it a calling.
I hope this video was helpful for you because I know there are so many people that are struggling between their career and their calling. So I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please leave them in the comments section below. Finally, if you're curious as to what your specific purpose is, I encourage you to head over to a blog post that I released previously where I give you seven questions that you can ask that will hopefully make it a little bit clearer as to what God's specific purpose is for you. I'm going to leave that link in the comment section below. Hey, thank you all so much for watching, and I'll see you next time on the beat.