Called At Home | Why Your First Ministry Is Family & Belonging Fuels Calling

In this Mother’s Day message from Sozo Kyle Church, we continue our Called series by exploring how Kingdom Calling begins at home. Before calling is ever expressed publicly, it’s formed relationally through family, belonging, and spiritual connection.

We unpack the truth that your first ministry is not a platform, position, or stage—it’s the people God has entrusted to you. Without healthy spiritual family, calling can quickly drift into striving, performance, and exhaustion. But when your life is rooted in belonging, your calling flows from identity instead of pressure.

This message will encourage you to see how God uses ordinary faithfulness, relational environments, and spiritual family to shape extraordinary Kingdom impact.

In this episode:

•  Why belonging is essential to effective Kingdom Calling 
•  How family becomes the launching place for mission 
•  The difference between calling rooted in identity vs. performance 
•  Why healthy homes and spiritual family matter in the Kingdom 
•  How ordinary faithfulness forms lasting influence 

Sozo Kyle Church is a family on mission in the Kyle/Buda, Texas area committed to hosting the presence of God, equipping believers, and activating people in their Kingdom calling.

Transcript

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You are listening to the Sozokle Church podcast. To learn more about Sozo Kyle Church, including our gathering times in the Kyle area, visit us online at ZozokTX.com. Today's talk comes from Pastor Chris Paul.

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Psalm 68 is the first piece of scripture here that we come to. Verse 5 that reads, A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. This is what impacts me, I think, so much is that the Holy Spirit is drawn to broken things, to brokenness. He moves towards anything that is not as it was, as it was right to be. Let the weak say I'm strong. The Holy Spirit is drawn to the weak to bring strength. Let the poor say I'm rich. The Holy Spirit draws to the poor to bring them up out of poverty. When we're in a place of weakness or vulnerability, we don't want to live there, but we can be assured in that context, as long as we're turning towards the Lord, that we can know and expect that He's drawing near to us. So this verse tells us that God has a heart that is looking for the widows, He's looking for the fatherless. Why is He doing that? Because verse 6, the next verse says that because God sets the lonely in families, and he leads out the prisoners with singing. I love that picture in my mind. But the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. Those that try to do it a different order, it's a sun-scorched land for them. That's true for every person in this room. It's a real possibility. The Lord has positioned us to be known, to be seen, to be loved, to be a family. Revival is only sustainable if there is relationship. Um, if there is a setting, so to speak, for the diamond to get put into. The diamond is the move of God, and the wedding band, the setting, is the family and is is is relationship. The move of God can't be sustained. You can't have revival if all there is is gatherings and meetings. It's not sustainable, it wouldn't last. But revival can last when it's it's put into and birthed into relationships that can last forever, generationally, even. On and on it goes. And just had nothing but wonderful things to say about his and his wife's experience of just not being left alone, of having people constantly be with them, bring them stuff, check on them, just running with them. And it impacted him so tremendously that it it served for me as a a very front row seat to the power of what family lived out looks like when you feel down and out, when you're cracked, when you're broke down. And seeing the power of the love of God move in and bring a real difference through people, through family. So verse six says, He leads out the prisoners with singing. Another verse version rather says, The bound, he leads to prosperity. It is the will of God to lead you to prosperity for your life. That is absolutely his heart. Now there's purpose for prosperity, and I guess we can deal with that another time, but to think that you could do life without real abundance in your life tells me that you don't have a right vision of your life. Because the vision that God has for your life is going to require abundance because he wants to resource you and equip you with um enough, more than enough, to do what he wants to do. And it's really big. And so uh religion wants to teach people how to live confined, restricted, restrained, and the kingdom wants to build people um into the real size that they think they can change the world. Like that's the heart of God, a world changer. And that's not doesn't happen on your own. It happens when there's family around you, people running with you, holding you up, supporting you, cheering you on, like my friend on Friday, saying, Hey, I know it looks bleak, I know you look down and out, but there's hope, there's light, you can do it. Come on, I'm moving with you. The power of community. Um, Ephesians 3 14. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. The whole concept of family emanates from the Father. So we have this prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. Our Father, not my father, could have prayed my father, but made a point to say our Father. That, yes, there is a personal connection that you have with Jesus, but not at the expense that you're a Lone Ranger Christian. So a better prayer than my father is actually our Father. Together we come before the throne. Um, and in the West, again, not to harp on the West, and I'm not preaching it like an enemy here, I'm just saying there's a better way. Um we're blind to our own deception. I mean, that's the nature of deception, but we have a very self-centered gospel in a lot of ways, a gospel that's fashioned to help us as individuals, uh, where in fact he's designed us as members of a body. And the body is actually the best um illustration to show that metaphor. Like, you can't have this without this, like it's all connected. This doesn't have its function and form if it's not held on with this, and this can't, you get the picture. Um we talk about calling. I think King David is a great help to look at. We mentioned him last week, but if you know his story from scripture, then you know he was tremendously close with his best friend, Jonathan. And Jonathan, of course, was the son of the king, of King Saul. And the power in the friendship, I think, is that Jonathan had the natural rights to the throne next because he was the heir apparent. Yet everything about Jonathan's life recognized the anointing was on David. And rather than pouting about it or trying to change it or trying to downplay it or dodge it somehow, he got in the middle of it and built it up and was like, David, I am here to serve you. I want to help you get to where God's called you to be. He recognized, Jonathan did, kingdom calling on David's life and his own calling, kind of like a John the Baptist in a in a form, was like, My calling is to make the way for your calling. And that's what Jonathan did. And I'm so I don't want to pass by that too fast because that feels rare in some cases, where somebody can celebrate and champion their brother, their sister when they recognize a call of God on their life. And the truth is, it's not that Jonathan said, Well, I had dreams, and I guess I'll just punt those to the curb and die at a self so I can live for David. No, I believe that Jonathan experienced fulfillment in his life because his calling was actually to be a forerunner and a prop for what God was doing through David, through the people of Israel, ultimately so that the new creation could come and know kind of this, you know, how we were going to be. And that indirectly David actually, or excuse me, Jonathan actually fulfilled his life because that was his calling. Um that feels new revelation to me. Somehow it's like Jonathan was a hero in the faith. He literally in friendship supported his friend's calling. And so Jonathan and Saul, his dad, actually die on the same day. In the last battle, uh, some arrows stick them. And um, at least they stuck Saul. I don't know if that's how Jonathan died, but you can go back and look it up. He died, though, the same day. And so now here's David left, and he's now got the king mantle on him. And David does something terrific. David actually does something different than what was normal in the day, which was when there was a family change of the throne, the old family would have been wiped out. But instead, David says, I want to honor Jonathan. So we need to find out is there any living family of Jonathan of Jonathan still? And so they sent out the search party high and low throughout the land and discovered Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son, who was crippled, and he brings him in and he says, Mephibosheth, and Mephibosheth thinks he's dying, he thinks he's over because it's a family change. And instead, David says, I want to give you all of Jonathan's estate. And so he became a really wealthy guy. He got all of his acres and acres of farmland, he got all of his cattle, all of his sheep, he got the palace that Jonathan lived in, he got the chefs, and he got everything, and so now Mephibosheth has it all and can dine in the palace that Jonathan was in and eat at his own grand banqueting supper table. But David adds one more thing to it, and he says, I want you to come and eat your meals at my table in my palace. Now here's an interesting point that I think we've got to catch is that Mephibosheth was lame, um, probably from a young boy he was picked up in the upheaval of battle and carried and ran with a maidservant carrying him and was likely dropped. And may I don't know what happened, he may have broken some legs and they didn't reset well, and so he was crippled. He was he was lame. So David invites him to the table of David's table with all of David's family. And when you're seated at the communion family table, all of your lameness and blemishes are covered. Can you imagine sitting at the table, crippled legs underneath the table, and Mephiboth Sheth is participating just as everybody else? That's the power of family, is that all of your lameness, all of your blemishes, all of your shortcomings potentially in life, in your in your mind, in your beliefs, all of it, anything that's limited you is actually covered, and you you are an equal in the family of God at the table of the Lord. It's one of the reasons I love the imagery of tables and building tables. I think the table has so much spiritual implication, um, both in physical form and in metaphorical form. There is something about the nature of the Lord that can only be discovered in the context of relationships. You hear that? There is something, there is so much to God, and we're gonna spend, we are now, and we're gonna continue to spend on into eternity discovering more of the grand revelation of God. He's that big. But there are some things in this life that you won't get to discover about God unless you're in relationship, that facets of God, the face of God, is to be known and discovered through the faces of people that you're in relationship with. So if you skip relationship, if you dodge it, you say, Nope, don't need it, I can do it on my own. I'm worthless, or I'm self-reliant, or I'm self-condeming, and so nobody really wants me, any of that. Then you rob yourself of discovering some of the depths of God that can only be discovered in relationship. There's lots of facets to God. There's some things like in in heartache, and again, um kind of like what the verse was talking about, the down and out, the fatherless, whatever it is. Pain points. There's parts of God that can only be discovered when you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death. It's a valley, uh, excuse me, it's a shadow, it's not actual death. But if you are always, you know, living a life that like has the silver spoon spoon of problemlessness in it or something, which is an impossibility, by the way. Jesus is the one who said, In this life you will have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world. It's an explanation to say that there's parts of God that you won't get to know except for when you're in the valley. And so I love what Graham Cook says. He's he says, you know, sometimes somebody prays, Oh God, get me out of this mess. And the Lord's saying, Are you kidding me? Took me six months to get you into it. There's purpose in this pain. Not that God's like providing the pain. Um, he's not a pain provider, he's a deliverer, but there's parts of him to be known when there is trouble as he brings breakthrough and brings you out of it. Um, but the point is that there's also parts that you only get to know in relationship, and so I want us to sink our our minds' teeth into that truth. Um I saw a picture of an old couple with a caption of the uh of the interview that they were asked the question. Um, it was an old couple. I mean old, real old. And so they said, What is your secret to being married over 60 years? And the caption, the interview caption read, We were born in a time when something broke, you didn't rush off to replace it, you fixed it. We're probably stymied in our Amazon world with replacing things so easy, so quickly. You want today's shipping? Done. Not doesn't even cost you anything more. Just replace it. And it's convenient in some regards, but I think potentially what's happened is that that thinking, that mentality way to go, dude, um slips in to our living in relationships, even in like church life, to where when something gets tweaked, something breaks, something isn't quite like it is, it's just easy to pull the ripcord and bail and say, well, we'll just get another one. It's not working with that friend, let's just jump and replace them and get another one. Not working in that church, let's just jump, find one where it's working and get into that one. And maybe didn't mean to it, but that is the world we live in where replacing seems easier than fixing. But if you're gonna be family, if you're gonna discover your kingdom calling and live out your calling inside the context of family, not just being a rodeo cowboy out on the road discovering the new frontiers, but inside the family also, then there has to be a part of you that says, hey, there's value in perseverance, and there's real purpose and value in sticking it out with the people I've been called to be family with, even if it's hard or confusing, or there's conflict and confrontation and some of that sounds really pretty preached. It's a whole nother thing to live it. But I think I think you're up for it. I think I'm up for it. It's a throwaway culture versus the kingdom. And I think spiritual maturity that can contain a move of the spirit um will do the hard things for family. And uh and that way it sustains multiple generations, multiple generations. You know, I'm a I'm a dad, and many of you are parents, um and we're anointed to be parents. If you're a parent, you're anointed to be a parent. Um that's uh that's what God's doing with your life now. And um I feel like I've prayed more prayers and done more searching in the scriptures about being a good dad than anything else, probably in my life. It's like, what are the scriptures about fatherhood? What are the what are the the the prayers I can pray about raising boys? I remember even going into their bedroom when they were young and singing certain songs over their over their little minds and and their sleeping you know bodies, um, praying certain prayers, and then even doing that in in daytime in wakefulness. And and in my heart, one of the things that we've tried to establish as kind of a family um stake in the ground, um, what's the word? Like a family crest, I don't know, uh, would be twofold. One, what are the impossible things around you that God's wanting to partner with you to accomplish? Identify those, think about those. Oh, that looks impossible. That must not be no. If it's impossible, it there's a good chance it may be what God's doing. Hoping that we've conveyed that inside of our family. And then, secondly, probably more of just an uh an exhortation of um saying, remember, you are part of a team that is destined to change the world by being part of this family. And so just having those conversations and in building that up. And I remember going into the rooms when they were little doing that. Um, and Jeremiah 24 actually says that they will have a heart to know me. And I'll pray Jeremiah 24 and and and pray, pray over it even when I wasn't with them, over them, and do that night after night, probably until they started staying up later than me. So it may have dwindled at that point. Um, but I want to be an exporter of what healthy relationships look like, what what what healthy parenting, what healthy sonship looks like. And and that's what God's calling us to do is to be a family that gets the health of relationship and then export that all around us and then let that flow out of us. Isaiah 54, 13 says, All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace. If that's the answer for peace, then sign me up for it. We're gonna teach the children the ways of God because great will be their peace, and that's just a good one to champion over your children, over your spiritual children. And so praying over your family is a good thing, but it's also what you do when the family grows in size in the context of the church. And so you pray that over each other. You establish relationship with each other to say, hey, teach me and I'll teach you, and let's talk about what God's up to, and let's call the gold out in each other, and let's pull a Jonathan on each other and and listen in on what God's doing with you, and then find out how we can support that and push that down the road. That's what the family does. And I feel so bad for people that live outside of that because you end up living under the illusion that all is well with you, but all is not well with you because all can't be well with you if you live in isolation. Because you were made to live in the community of family. God doesn't want you to be on your own. There's a great African proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. Like that's that's profound. Um we have we had that in our discovery class uh for for a long time. Um and husbands love your wives, but I'm speaking of Christ in his church, Paul writes. It's the context of family, but really I'm speaking of Christ in his church, and I think there's a moral insanity, maybe the best way to say it, that's landed in the region, maybe in the nation. We were talking about principalities, it's the whole Ephesians 6 thing that if the people of God don't influence the culture on how to believe and how to know God and how to think right, then the the principalities will influence the culture on how to think and a value um that has like a moving target where there used to be lines that wouldn't be moved, like this is this is the line. And now we see lines that are like moving targets, and ah, it used to be here, but now it's kind of like if you want it to be, you can, and if not, if it if it doesn't fit you, then don't let it fit you. It can be wherever. Um and uh healthy relationships where value is placed on another person, I think is how we show the community the family of God, because I think that's what people are craving. They're not craving isolation, they're not craving how do I do this on my own relativism. They actually want to know how do I fit and belong into a family. And that's the option the church has to show the community that we live in. In our case, it's right here around us, South Austin to the south end of Kyle, probably, and somewhere in between, of saying, okay, there's a lot of people here. We want to show that community what family looks like. Talking a big game here is what we're doing. Um Lori's back here on the computer. Lori, I was thinking about you as I was kind of putting some of this together in thought. And I feel like you are leading the way on building family ties in our small but mighty body. And I'm so thankful for you, and I'm so proud of you, and I see how you um adopt hearts and people and make sacrifice, and you're you're really bringing like, yeah, like a almost like a whirlpool. That if anybody else wants to get in the whirlpool that you're in, they'll get caught up in like, oh, I see what this looks like, I see how this moves the needle, I see the flow of that. And so I just wanted to honor that in you and say thank you personally because that's what I'm trying, that's what we're trying to do, and that's what I see you making moves to do. Um, and she's not the only one doing it, um, but I just noticed that and so I'm in. She's getting it, and and I think it's helping a bunch. So thank you. Um if you've been a part of something great before in a group, I will say it only exists because in the origin places of that group or whatever, that organization, whatever impacted you, were people who knew what it was to make sacrifices and to pour into others and to build them up and to empower. And and that makes a difference. It does every time. Um we're all either thermometers or thermostats, and you can't dodge the reality of either one of those. And so your life either looks like going into the culture and saying, Oh, this. Is this how it is? I'll reflect that. That's a thermometer. Or you can be a thermostat and say, Oh, this is how it is. I think there's a better way. And that's a thermostat. It sets the culture. And that's what I want to be. And that's what God's called us to be. That's what God's called the church to be. He comforts into a place of strength where now you become a source of strength for others. That's how that's lived out. One of the strengths of, I believe, Sozo Church is the missional component of who we are, living apostolically, living sent. We sent $5,000 to Freddie. That's a sending piece. We're sending some people in July to the Mexico border. That's a sending piece. We are right now trying to discover our kingdom calling so that we can be equipped in it and be sent in it. That's a sending piece. And so that's the Matthew 28 of the gospel, the go into all the world. The go is a huge part of the gospel. But there's another part of the gospel that I think we're learning how to lean into as well, and it's the come of the gospel. And this is the Isaiah 60 1 through 3 verse that you've probably heard before. Arise, shine, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples. But the Lord rises upon you, and his glory appears over you. So what happens when that happens? Oh, come on. Nations will come, the coming part of the glory of the Lord, the gospel of the Lord, to your light, and kings will come to the brightness of your dawn. So the other aspect of the gospel that we become something that people will come to. Now, John Maxwell helps us with this and says, uh, your church gatherings, uh, most of the community ain't coming. Now, you give them a personal invite, maybe you do some marketing stuff on social media, maybe they'll find you, maybe there's a few people looking. We all know the best way to get people to come to a gathering is to personally invite them, but that's not really what this verse is talking about. Visitors coming to your church gathering. What it's talking about is people who are thirsty and need to find a well to drink water so they don't die. And they're like, Where's the well? I will come to the well. People that are being sun-scorched and they're like, I gotta find shade. Where's the shade? The light that is on you as a believer in Jesus, as a family member of God, as a son and daughter, a new creation person with calling all over your life, is that well, is that shade source? People will sniff that out, hunt that out because it's life to them, and they will come to you when you know you're calling and you're living it out. That's how much I believe in kingdom calling. You will be a beacon of light, people will find it and come. So there's a going, yeah, we're going and we're sending. That's what apostles do, but we're also being the bright light so that the people that are hungry for the Lord will come, and we want to be on the lookout for that. That's what the family of God does. I believe every person is being set up by the Lord to step into another measure of abundance in relationships, in health, um, in business, in emotional well-being, in ministry, in dreams. I believe the Lord's probably gonna um revisit and awaken some childhood dreams among us that maybe have fallen dormant and asleep because he's doing that, because he is a father that rewards. And that's the nature of parenthood. I'm often asked the question raising boys and kids have been asked twice in the last week. Hey, can I get some time with you and uh talk to you about raising kids? And I'm like, Yes, you can. I mean, flattered you'd think to ask that. The truth is, I love talking about that. Um, it's been a joy of my life raising four boys and felt like, just like most of you, backed into it, looked up one day and was like, my word, we're outnumbered. How did this happen? Um, so we're gonna figure it out. Um, and it's my ambition ever since my kids were small that the reward would be greater than the cost of being my son, my, my, my child. Because here's the truth there is a cost to be paid for your kids to be your kids. Whatever your calling is, whatever you're up to in life, there's a cost that they pay. It's true about your spouse too, about your or you know, if you live in community or something. What God's called you to be, there's a cost for the others in the family for you to live that out. But so long as the reward always outweighs the cost, it's gonna work. I remember being little bitty and going to work with dad. And at the time he was a pest control guy. Alert pest control. I even got to wear one of the hats, had a big old Scorpion on it, alert pest control. I don't know if the branding was on point or not, but yeah, I know I still have it. I cut the grass in it sometimes. Takes me back to like being four. And so for whatever reason, um maybe mom couldn't watch me or something. I would load up in the truck that didn't have AC, windows down. Uh, what do they call it? 255 AC, because the split was 55 at the time. Um, and so two windows down, that's your AC. And so driving, while dad would go to the different pest control spots, and it was a it was a bit of a cost to me because it was maybe probably kind of boring for a four-year-old, five-year-old maybe. Uh then he would take me to Dan's hamburgers, and I got exposed to curly fries and milkshakes, and hickory sauce on a cheeseburger, and was like, this is worth the cost, baby. The reward being greater than the cost. And I just want to say that to us all before we pray here today is that you have calling on your life, it starts inside of family, yeah, and there's an overflow out of that into the rest of the world to be a regional transformer. And as you live out your calling, as David lived out his calling, and as Jonathan realized, oh, there's a cost of being family with David. But the reward of seeing the kingdom of God be established and the transformation in the nation that took place in Jonathan's heart must have been worth it. The reward was greater than the cost. And so I just bless you as you raise kids, as you be a son and daughter, as you be a brother and a sister to your brothers and sisters, that you would live out your kingdom calling and be able to champion and cheerlead the reward that is there, because there is rich reward inside of the family to those around you that you live with, that you're in relationship with, that you're in family. So kingdom family, kingdom calling inside the family, I felt was worth us fixing our minds on to punch in and talk about that. So let's pray for each other. Um probably anything bigger than about three or so uh will will take too much time. So maybe, maybe even twos, twos, and threes. Um, maybe find somebody that is not in your immediate family because we're trying to forge family outside just immediate family. And bless here, I got two things. You can pray whatever you want from any of this, but here's two ideas: grace for understanding what it looks like to be in the kingdom family, that there would be a grace of understanding like this is what it looks like for me to participate and be a part of the family of God in the church context. So, like revelation of that would be a good thing to pray. And then the other idea I had was that we would have a heart to commit to what that looks like. Like it's one thing to identify it and see it. Um, yeah, I want you to come up, that'd be awesome. And then it's another thing to say, okay, I'm gonna step into it and actually be a part of it. Um, and so whatever you want to pray, but find two or three people and bless them with Kingdom Family and calling inside the family. Go for it.

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