Answering The Call

Preacher: Apostle Peter Mensah Date: March 22, 2026 I. The Motive of the Heart The reason why sometimes we come to church or why we keep coming—is because when we come, we don’t come because of Jesus; we come because of ourselves. When we finish church, people are like, “Church was nice!” But if you ask them what was preached, they say, “Oh, they preached about the church.” If you ask a person about the worship, they will tell you all about it, but if you ask them about what was actually preached, they can’t tell you in detail. For some of you, when matooke (your favorite food) is prepared, you have a great appetite for it. You should have that same appetite for the Word. God is working miracles in churches today and we are not seeing them; it’s because when we come to church, we don’t come for Christ we come for the pastor. A pastor is not the one building the church. We try to build people ourselves, but there is no way we can build the Church of God. I am leaving Uganda soon, and my prayer is that when I come back, you will have grown in Christ. II. The Test and the Testimony I call Sunday a “Day of Families.” Anytime people begin to tell me their stories, I feel like crying. When they are talking about giving up, I actually get so excited about their testimony! Meanwhile, what they are saying is a serious issue, but I begin to smile because that test you are going through is only because of the testimony you are about to witness. “After the test, there is a testimony. After rejection, there is acceptance.” Don’t delay your blessing because when you are passing that test, it is like you are passing a test to move from one class to another. When you come to church, you have come to an educational center. And eventually, everyone will approve of you your teacher, your headmaster, and your friends because when you went into the test, you proved yourself. You must show yourself approved of God (2 Timothy 2:15). The Son must approve of you, and the Holy Spirit, our Friend, must approve. When we gather here, the Lord is educating us, but unfortunately, a lot of us do not want to go into the test. Some of us cannot be trusted to be promoted. III. Discouragement in the Ministry When people go through hardship, I become excited. Imagine you are looking for a job for three years; you tell a pastor and the pastor gets excited! But the Lord is taking you through a test. Sometimes even as a pastor, you have done everything good, but things don’t go well and you feel like giving up. Once, we dedicated our lives to evangelism and we wanted God to bring more people. But as we looked for more, the people we had kept leaving. We gave up and wanted to leave church because it felt like the ways of God were no longer working. You hear God tell you, “Start a church,” so you start, and you start praying, “God bless them.” And when God blesses them, they leave your church! Then you ask yourself, “Did God call me or not?” When you go to pray for a sick person and the next day they die, you feel discouraged. There were seasons in my life I told God, “You called and I decided to answer, but I will not answer again. Enough is enough.” I said, “My fellow pastors have houses, cars, and are married…” But I tell you, after the test, there will be a testimony. If I had given up then, I would have regretted it today. IV. Loyalty to Christ Over Man If you received Jesus here, don’t let go. Don’t let your pastor make you leave the church; you came because of Jesus, not him. If you leave, you will leave something very important. Don’t be like the singer who leaves the church because of choir misunderstandings. You leave a blessing behind! Graduate to the next level! Put it at the back of your head: God has upgraded us; don’t degrade yourself. Instead of speaking bad about people, go and talk to them; don’t just speak behind their backs. If you’re a leader and you see a pastor preaching and you say, “Our pastor is sitting on our gifts, he is not allowing us to preach, he is singing alone, he is taking offering…” you are a witch if you keep complaining like that! If you’re a pastor, God didn’t call you for a confinement; your place is with the people outside, not just at the altar. If church starts at 9:00 and you reach late always, when God wants to bless the church members, He won’t bless you because you are not acting like a member. You won’t join evangelism, you won’t be in media, you won’t be an usher that shows you came because of a pastor, not for God. V. The Joy of the Work Before I became who I am, I passed through things. When I tell people, they say, “Pastor, we like how you travel country to country.” I ask them, “Are you able to pass through what I passed through?” When I used to go to the villages, I used to borrow money for transport to go and preach. When we finished, they would give us only water, and we were so excited because they had given us water in the village! We went to certain schools to preach and they gave us a soda; we were so happy! When we were done, we used to walk 10km just to get a car back. At that time, when they gave us soda after preaching, we felt like, “Oh, God is great!” Our joy was that we preached and they gave us soda, but at home, there was no food.

Scripture Reference: Genesis 15:1–5, Genesis 21:1–2 I. The Nature of the Call: Beyond Our Expectation God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called. In many occasions, God will call you when you are least expecting it. He sees the “Man of Strength” within you even when you see a coward. Gideon undermined himself, claiming to be the least in his family. He doubted and tried to compromise, yet God saw a mighty warrior. Moses lived as a prince of Egypt, unaware of the vision God kept for him until he stood up for his people and fled to the land of Midian. It was in the desert, after the failure in Egypt, that his true calling to lead Israel began to unfold. Jeremiah felt weak and young, but God put His hand on his mouth and gave him power. Key Truth: You are not born again by accident. You are predestined. Before you were ever born, God set a path for you. II. The Journey of Abraham: Faith Through the Delay The story of our faith begins with Abraham in the Place of Ur (modern-day Iraq). When God called, Abraham obeyed. He left his native country to go to a place God would show him. Because he obeyed the Voice, it was credited to him as righteousness. The Shield and the Reward In Genesis 15:1, God told him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” When God becomes your shield, nothing can harm you. This is why Abraham was able to defeat many countries and rescue Lot and the other captives—he realized that his protection came from the Almighty. The Trial of the Promise The promise of a son took 25 years to manifest. In the “silence” of God, human nature often tries to help God out: The Human Plan: At age 86, following Sarah’s advice, Abraham had a son, Ishmael, with Hagar. The Conflict: This created a “wild donkey of a man” whose hand would be against everyone (Genesis 16:11-12). The Divine Fulfillment: At the appointed time, when Abraham was 100 years old, God fulfilled His promise. Sarah gave birth to Isaac (Genesis 21:1-2). Even when the promise delays, God is not slow. He is preparing the character of the one He called. No matter how much the promise seems to delay, God will answer. III. The Transformation of Jacob: From Deceiver to Prince There is a reason we say “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” The same God who called the grandfather called the grandson. Jacob fled in fear after stealing his brother’s birthright. But at his lowest point, God met him: The Vision: He saw a ladder reaching to heaven and received a vow of protection. The Wrestling: At Peniel, an angel wrestled with him. Jacob refused to let go until he was blessed. The New Name: God said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel” (Genesis 32:28). Jacob’s story teaches us that an encounter with God changes your identity. You may start as a “supplanter” (Jacob), but you end as a “Prince with God” (Israel). IV. The Mystery of Revelation God continuously reveals Himself to those He calls. He spoke to Samuel when he was just a boy with no experience. Samuel answered the call, and the Bible says none of his words ever fell to the ground. God reveals His mysteries through His servants: Isaiah saw the fall of the enemy and the glory of the throne. Saul (Paul) received the revelation of the end times. Moses was shown the very beginning of creation. Conclusion: Don’t Compromise the Call It is hard to be “okay” with the world and “okay” with God at the same time. If you seek to please everyone, you will compromise your calling. God may use people you don’t expect—even those from the line of Ishmael—to reveal His mystery. We must not minimize or look down on anyone’s journey. If God has called you, He will keep revealing Himself to you every day. He is your shield. He is your provider. He is the one who changes your name.

Understanding Divine Assignment Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 3:1–10; Jeremiah 1:4–10; 1 Corinthians 12:4–11 INTRODUCTION The Church is a divine institution, and every member is a part of its structure. However, a common crisis in the modern church is the misunderstanding of “The Call.” We often confuse baptism with a call to the altar. Just because you have been washed by the water does not mean you have been called to the pulpit. As it is written in 1 Corinthians 7:20, “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.” I. TWO DIMENSIONS OF THE CALL There is a fundamental difference between being called to Salvation and being called to Ministry. The Call to Salvation: This is the general call to follow Jesus, to be saved, and to bear the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). You can spend years baptized but never changed because God is still “fixing” you before He “commissions” you. The Call to Ministry: This is the specific assignment. Not everyone is an Apostle. Not everyone is a Pastor. The danger is when a singer is “promoted” to a Pastor by men, but God called them to lead worship. We must not do what we believe we should do; we must do what we were called to do. “If you are teaching without a teaching grace, there is no power. But when the called doctor or teacher speaks, the power of God is felt because the Anointing follows the Assignment.” II. THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE CALL: SAMUEL’S EXAMPLE In 1 Samuel 3, we see that Samuel was sleeping in the Temple near the Ark of the Covenant (Sanduku ya Agano). The Presence Proximity: Samuel received his “experience” and “exposure” because he lived in the presence of God. You cannot hear the voice of God if you are not in the environment of God. Different Graces: Two evangelists may be called, but their preaching will differ. One may reach the drunkards and thieves, while another reaches the intellectual. Romans 12:6 says, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.” Do not compare your grace to another man’s results. III. THE SOURCE OF THE CALL: GOD VS. MAN A Pastor does not “give” you a ministry; a Pastor reveals what God has already placed in you. Divine Revelation: Just as Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to find David, he first looked at the “big children” (the older brothers). But God said, “Look not on his countenance… for the LORD seeth not as man seeth” (1 Samuel 16:7). Exact Obedience: Many are doing the work, but not according to God’s way. If God tells you to look for the “David” who is in the field, do not try to anoint the “Eliab” who is in the house. IV. THE SACRIFICE AND THE GROWTH Ministry is not a life of misery, but it is a life of discipline. The Fasting Test: I remember the 3-day fast where 45 started and few remained. When the Holy Ghost asked, “Who ate?” it was a test of honesty and spirit. If you are a preacher and you lack the discipline of prayer and fasting, your words will have no weight. The Growing Call: As with Jeremiah, God says, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (Jeremiah 1:5). You may feel young or hidden now, but the day will come when the calling inside you grows so large that everyone will know you. V. SEVEN TYPES OF “CALLINGS” (The Warning) We must distinguish between the true and the false: Self-Called: Those who call themselves because the church is weak. Neighbor-Called: Like the angels who praised Lucifer until he thought he was a god (Ezekiel 28). Beware of people who praise you into a position God didn’t give you. World-Called: Those who enter ministry for material influence or “overflowing cups” of money. Abraham was called to be a blessing, not just to have things. School-Called: Theology is good, but a Master’s degree cannot make you an Apostle. Many have degrees but end up in dark circles because they have the head-knowledge but not the Spirit. Dream-Called: God can give a book’s worth of vision in a 5-minute sleep. Instruction-Called: Doing exactly what God said, not your own things. God-Called: Like Saul on the road to Damascus—a direct encounter that changes everything. CONCLUSION: FINISHING THE MISSION People say Samson failed, but the Bible shows he finished his mission. In his blindness and his lowest moment, he cried out, “God, remember me!” (Judges 16:28). He did more in his death than in his life because he finally aligned with his calling.