worship call 0819 what's in your portfolio

Worship Call 0819

Tuesday February 14th 2023

What’s in your portfolio?

friends, you're chosen for a task! Hebrews 1:8,9 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. As we continue our study of Mashiach ben Yosef, we observe that both Joseph and Yeshua (Jesus) were chosen or "anointed" for a special task. When Jacob gifted his son Joseph with a coat of many colors, lifting him up above his brothers, he reflected Joseph's calling by the Lord for a life work as a leader. The preparation for this role was grueling. Joseph endured the fires of testing, sold into slavery, thrown into prison, and seemingly abandoned by God he must have wondered to himself, “Why is this happening?” It seems clear from hindsight that Joseph was learning the deep humility required for God's kind of leadership. We also see the humility of the Son of God in His Incarnation and crucifixion. ("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?") So as Joseph saved the whole world from physical death by starvation, Yeshua saved the whole world from spiritual death, the judgment of sin. Friends, if you have seen signs of your own anointing for a specific task, and find yourself in the midst of painful "unexplainable" trials and tribulations, you're in good company. God gives responsibility to people of character. Both Joseph and Yeshua are beautiful examples of the kind of leader God loves--a humble one. Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Baht Rivka, Obadiah and Elianna (Going to Christian College in Dallas, Texas) Daytona Beach, Florida

And this is another fine day in the Lord

I have a broke phone brother!

John 6:22–25 (ESV) — 22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

26Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

The breakthrough in the thinking of the people then and the people now, is the sight of heaven. Heaven opening up inside the hearts of believers. By heaven I mean the spiritual reality. That the spiritual reality becomes the central focus in our lives.

IN the Marines there was a common question asked to the candidate for meritorious promotion was.

What are the two leadership objectives?

The Answer…

Mission accomplishment and troop welfare?

And then there was the follow up question.

Which one is more important?

The answer is always and has to be Mission accomplishment.

And when I was sitting on the board and when the young marine answered that question in any other way that Marine would be passed over and no even considered for promotion.

I ask you this morning what is your mission?

What is your goal. what wakes you up in the morning? What is your heart anchored to? Is it just putting food on the table? Is it just keeping the roof over your head? Working hard so that you can take a vacation? Is it all about your logistics?

You see there is the mission and there is Logistics to support that mission. Many of our hearts ambition is to have so much logistics that we need not work no more. We can retire and play Golf. Because all the long it was logistics that we serve rather than our true mission on this earth as Christians to follow and serve Christ,

The people followed Jesus as a source to meet their daily Logistics, nothing else. They had their bellies filled and when the grocery store moved so did, they,

What was their mission?

To Eat.

I ask myself this morning and I wonder if you are asking yourself.

What is the mission of my life?

Why did God wake me up this morning?

To put food on the table? Or to follow and serve the Lord?

John 6:27 (ESV) — 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

Isaiah 55:2 (ESV) — 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

27 Do not work

42.41 ἐργάζομαιa; ποιέωd: to engage in an activity involving considerable expenditure of effort—‘to work, to labor.’

[2237] ἐργάζομαι ergazomai 41× intrans. to work, labor, Mt. 21:28; Lk. 13:14; to trade, traffic, do business, Mt. 25:16; Rev. 18:17; to act, exert one’s power, be active, Jn. 5:17; trans. to do, perform, commit, Mt. 26:10; Jn. 6:28; to be engaged in, occupied upon, 1 Cor. 9:13; Rev. 18:17; to acquire, gain by one’s labor, Jn. 6:27 [2038] See do; perform; produce; work.

Your labor becomes investment capitol. That labor produces that which is what is called fruit. And there are two types of fruit, good and bad. The good fruit will be the have value lasting into eternity while the bad fruit may be good for a time but as those who found out in the wilderness when they kept some of the manna over night found it rotten in the morning.

You know those that are smart with finances have financial portfolios. Now, no way in the world do I down such people who have a skill with money and are able to invest and make it grow. Having money and know what to do with it is no sin. A portfolio shows all of your financial assets and the tools for growing those finances.

You hear the commercial for a credit card company who asks.

What’s in your wallet?

Shall we ask ourselves what is in our spiritual wallet or portfolio.

This takes me back to what my teacher would teach about, and he called is the Portfolio of invisible assets.

It is the portfolio of spiritual investments. And the tools in how to make that which we invest work toward the glory of God.

Storing in reference to what we put into that portfolio.

Matthew 6:19–21 (ESV) — 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Is this saying we should all be full time Christian service and wait for the Lord to feed us.

That would be misapplication.

Paul tells the Thessalonians that if a man does not work neither shall he eat. And remember even the Israelites had to go out every morning to collect what God had provided.

Yes, we work. And our pay check pays for our room and board. It puts food on the table. The perspective however that our Labor for bread is not our mission. Our mission is to continue the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as we are to fulfill the great commission. The work that we do in regard to that mission is compensable. That means that we get paid.

2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV) — 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

It’s funny that you may have heard the term for someone’s death as “Cashing in”

“Did you hear, old Bob has cashed in!”

Meaning he died.

And all that Bob did in connection to this world is left in this world. It is passed on to those who are still living.

We have to understand what the wise King wrote

Ecclesiastes 1:2–5 (ESV) — 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

[2039] 1 הֶ֫בֶל hebel 73× breath; by extension: something with no substance, meaninglessness, worthlessness, vanity, emptiness, futility; idol [1892] See breath; futility; meaninglessness; temporality; vanity; worthless.

And it is Peter who writes

2 Peter 3:10–14 (ESV) — 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

A miserable life is not one that is lived in poverty. It is not one that leaves one with failing health or is lived in loneliness.

The one who has it all, Health, finances, friends and family close by may be considered the most fortunate but what did Jesus Say?

Mark 8:36–38 (ESV) — 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

How poor is a man really who does not have a spiritual portfolio. Who dies Sadly without Christ and for the Christian who had received Christ but invested nothing in the spiritual investment capital?

Jonathan Edwards, (born October 5, 1703, East Windsor, Connecticut [U.S.]—died March 22, 1758, Princeton, New Jersey), greatest theologian and philosopher of British American Puritanism, stimulator of the religious revival known as the “Great Awakening,” and one of the forerunners of the age of Protestant missionary expansion in the 19th century.