From Worldly Success to Least in Heaven: Don't squander your calling | Torah Portion: Toldot

There's an old saying that goes something like, money makes the world go around. But I want to put a new spin on that today. Purpose makes the world go around. From the greatest to the least, the rich to the poor, all people want to have their life mean something. We spend billions of dollars trying to figure out how we can make our lives, our little lives, last a little bit longer so we can do a little bit more before we are put in the grave. And even when we are put in the grave, we engrave upon our tombstones what our purpose in life was, what we have accomplished. And these are normal and healthy things. We realize that there is an intrinsic value that human life has, that we were made for something great, that there is something to be accomplished and we hope to be remembered by something good, something of purpose. But I want to submit to you that the world is presenting to all of us a certain birthright, a certain purpose, a certain promise. One that is restricted to our teeny tiny little lives on this earth. And without understanding the one who has made us, who has written in the heavens what our purpose is before the foundation of this earth was laid, without knowing him, how will you ever know where you are going? And how will you actually fulfill what you've been made for? This reminds me of a story in the Bible of Jacob and Esau, where Esau despised his God given birthright, his calling, and he sold it for a bowl of stew. He wanted rather what the world had to offer him. He wanted to go his own way and what seems right to him. See, we all have an idea that seems right to us as to what we. What our purpose is. But Jacob, Esau's brother, on the other hand, he didn't rely on himself. Rather, in the end, he surrendered to God. And he said to God, I will not let you go until you bless me, until you show me who I am and what I am supposed to do in this life. And Jacob and Esau still around today, within each and every one of us is a Jacob or an Esau. Because like Jacob and Esau, we each have different personalities and talents. We each have access to also a unique birthright and blessing that God has laid out for us. And we each decide whether we will use our personalities and talents for God's kingdom birthright or for our own worldly kingdom. And this right here, it is this that has set men against one another in this world. Great disunity, many battles, many jealousies, and many competitions in the world and even in religious circles, between those who set their Minds on the things of God like Jacob and those who set their minds on the things of this world. Are you a Jacob or an Esau? Today we're going to look at what does it mean to squander your birthright? How do you walk in your kingdom? Birthright? And how do we avoid the sibling rivalries that Jacob and Esau had between one another with our fellow human being brothers and sisters? We're also going to talk about how the world celebrates the first, the strongest, the smartest, the rich and famous, and how God is looking for something else within you. We start with. With Genesis 25:27, with the story of Jacob and Esau. And it describes these two brothers when the boys grew up. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. So the first thing that we see is told to us about Jacob and Esau is that they were very different brothers, you know, and we see that in all of our families. There's the one who is the outgoing one who wants to hunt and who wants to have fun outside. Then you have the other one who's more of a quiet brother. He's more of a study bookworm, dwelling in tents, as the verse describes Jacob. But then we see that because they were so different, their parents liked their own pick. There was favoritism within the household, and this was the first mistake. Because of this home environment. It bred an ungodly competition between these two brothers where they were continuously trying to impress their parents because they did not both receive the same love from both parents equally. And like the parents had this favoritism, this is a picture of what the world also does to us all. The world treats people differently based off their personality differences and their talents. I mean, think about it. If you're a shy, introverted person, you're a little bit more socially awkward. You're not the best at sports in school. You're going to have a harder time than the kid who's best at sports, who's super like, head boy and everything like that. And in fact, that's where I find myself. I was the loser in school, right? And the world tells you, because you do not fulfill these worldly conventions of greatness, that you are somehow lesser. And suddenly we are tempted in order to play the world's game to win their favor. And this is what Esau and Jacob also fell into. Esau was favored for his hunting abilities. He was favored for being the firstborn, coming out of the womb first. And today, people are favored for running the fastest, speaking the most confidently, being the most outgoing, being smart. And this is a type of evolutionary thinking, isn't it? It's the survival of the fittest. You either got it or you don't. But Jacob, he's a dweller in tents. He's a quiet man, that's who he is. And the reality is, the sooner that you can make peace with whom God has made you to be and find your birthright within that, instead of trying to mold yourself to the standards of this world, the sooner you will find fulfillment and purpose. See, true purpose and true fulfillment isn't in gathering as much money and fame as possible. Just ask the most famous and rich people in this world and they will tell you, they will show you by their bad habits that they are seeking fulfillment to the ends of their own destruction. Because it's not found in the world, it's found in God. See, in the world, the weaknesses that the world perceives you have is what kills you. In God's kingdom, however, your weaknesses becomes your strengths. See, our Father who is in heaven, the one who has made you, he does not hold to favoritism. Romans 2, 9 tells us there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil. The Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good. The Jew first and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality. God is telling us that you will not be competing for my attention. I do not have favoritism based off your natural born abilities, your genealogy, what family you were born into, your social status, your wealth. See, this is what set Jesus apart from everyone else and many of the other so called gods in this world. Dare I say that he treated the least as being the greatest. He went to the poor, he went to the prostitutes, the drunkards, the tax collectors, this sinner. And he uplifted them with mercy, calling them to greatness and forgiving them of their sins, giving them the opportunity to find their purpose. While on the other hand, this world cast them aside. Even many of the religious in the first century cast them aside. But Jesus, his name being Yeshua in the Hebrew, he crushes this competitive spirit that is within mankind. We see in John 21:21 when Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man Speaking of John? Peter was looking over his shoulder at one of the other disciples with jealousy with who's going to be the best? They even had arguments with Jesus asking him, who of us are going to be the best in the kingdom to come? But Jesus gives us a sobering warning that as his disciples, you will no longer act like the world does, trying to be the best by relying on yourself to earn God's favoritism. See, Jacob attained his birthright not by being a strong warrior against his brother Esau, but by surrendering and wrestling with God. By not relying on how many warriors he has in his family versus his brother or any such thing, but saying, God, I need you to bless me. He realized that God needs to be the one that blesses me. And he wrestled with God until God blessed him. See, we need to wrestle with God. When we try and wrestle with the world to gain the world's approval, it leads to death. When we wrestle with God so He can show us simply who we are, we step into that and it leads to life. Even Jesus didn't fulfill his birthright by becoming a great warrior against Rome in the first century, as many expected and hoped for him to be. And many even rejected him. Because he did not become this warrior that overthrew the Roman Empire for the Jewish people. Instead, what does he do? He surrenders. He gets on a cross. He lays his life down for a people who don't deserve him. And that surrender is what qualifies him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Being perfect and yet so humble. Being a king that rides on a donkey. See, the first time he came as a king riding on a donkey, and the next time he's coming back as a king riding on a horse. And every single knee will bow. Every enemy will be put under his feet. See, that surrender that he came with the first time is what qualified him for him to come and reign the second time. And so it is with us in this life. We are called to surrender what we want, what we think, what we think our purpose even is, and our birthright to what he has given us as our birthright in the kingdom. And if we truly pick up our cross and follow him as he said we should, then we will get what he has promised is coming to reign with him for a thousand years, in a millennium, and in the new heavens and new earth to come, just as his surrender later uplifts him as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Our surrender exalts us as a priest to our Lord in the kingdom of God that is coming. He has different conventions of greatness than this world. God values obedience and sacrifice. Abraham was declared righteous because he believed God. And it caused him to obey God and to make a sacrifice. Faith, obedience, sacrifice. Abraham left the land of his fathers to follow God. His son Isaac did the same. And his wife Rebekah left her family and her land in order to follow God. Jacob left lands to follow God through the wilderness. Peter himself, the disciple of Jesus, says in Mark 10:28, see, we have left everything and followed you. And with our sacrifice, God comes to us with a promise. Abraham and Jacob left their lands, yet gained land, as God says, as far as the eye can see. Rebecca left her family, yet became the mother of a great and mighty nation. And Peter, when they left everything to follow Jesus. Mark 10:29. Jesus says, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold. Now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first. Jesus gives us an incredible promise today that if you make a sacrifice for me, if you leave things behind for my sake as I call you, I will bless you a hundredfold in this life and in the age to come. I can myself profess that I have seen that in my own life, in a very literal way. I have left land. I left my country where I grew up in, and I came to a new land where God called me to. Led me to for his name's sake. And he had enormous blessing for me here. So many friends that I have met, so many family members, if you will, that I have met people who I dearly love on this side that he has given me as well. And so in the same way, I want to encourage you. If you are filled and led by the Spirit, he's going to lead you in unexpected way to unexpected places. You're never going to really fully know what's going to happen next. And that's wonderful. But realize that as you decide to obey and sacrifice, he will take care of you and he will bless you. But Jesus also says that in this life, even though you go ahead, there will be persecutions. He promises that if you follow me in my call, you will be blessed. But you will also face persecution for the fact that you decided to follow Me and not this world. Because this world hates it when we don't fit into its mold. This world needs us to be the way they are. But when we are called after his likeness, we are opposite in fact, it needs to be that way, because we serve a king of opposites. A king who says that the greatest in this world will become the least in the kingdom to come. And the least in this world will be called the greatest in the kingdom to come. The world considers us least when we pick up our cross and follow the Messiah. The fishermen who followed him were fishermen. They were considered the least, even by the religious world, unworthy to be the disciples, the students of a rabbi. But the question is, will you be Jacob or Esau? Because Esau chose to sell his birthright for a bowl of stew. He chose the stew instead. A nice warm meal, a momentary satisfaction. Is that not exactly what this world is? A short life, a momentary satisfaction, like a warm stew on a cold day. But once we have finished eating it, we look around and we realize we have nothing left. And as many of our brothers and sisters have eternal life ahead of them, as Esau looked upon his brother Jacob. And practically, we can squander also the birthright that God has given us. And it's not about the question of, well, do you care about religion or not? Are you a religious man or woman or not? There are many who consider themselves religious, yet have forsaken their kingdom birthrights. It's about whether you are passive or not over God's call. What is God's call? To be born of the Holy Spirit. To be born again. This is what Jesus said. You must be born again. For the wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is of everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8. If the Spirit is truly guiding you, you will be like Abraham, who finds yourself suddenly leaving everything that you had ever known to go to a new, unknown place. And it's kind of scary, but it is exciting at the same time, because you know he is leading you. You are following the cloud. See, the Spirit of God is what causes you to leave and sacrifice and obey, to leave even everything you'd ever known, to go wherever he calls. And it has little to do with going through religious motions. The Pharisees in the first century, they thought that they are these religious, high standing, spiritual men of God. But in fact, they were simply in a worldly, counterfeit birthright. They were born into this natural line. They were born into a family that afforded them the ability to study and to grow and to become learned Pharisees through family connections, through wealth, through above average intelligence, perhaps. And they were going through the motions of that which was right in front of them. I mean, it seems like a no brainer, does it not? To go to university, to go to seminary and study. And there's nothing wrong with that if God, that's what God calls you to. But it can be so easy to simply look at what's naturally fallen in front of you and take a part in that. The question is, is that what God has called you to? Because Jesus said to them in Matthew 23:28, so you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. These scribes and Pharisees were just focused on what they looked like on the outside with fulfilling the world's purpose in their life of looking good to everyone religiously. And yet when these fishermen showed up out of nowhere, it seems with this new rabbi called Yeshua, they couldn't stand it that he would pick fishermen. They couldn't understand how these men are not learned, these men are not wealthy, they didn't go to seminary. Who do they think they are? And so they became the resisters of the Holy Spirit. Because of course, these scribes and Pharisees were relying on their own abilities, right? They were relying on everything the world had handed to them. And they compared themselves to these mere fishermen whom had nothing going for them. See, many today cannot stand it when Yeshua makes a disciple of a weak man, setting him on fire to be more effective than a seminary student in ministry. You say pd, are you bashing studying in seminary? Absolutely not. But do not be deceived to think that that's where anointing comes from. Do not be deceived to think that learning and gathering more knowledge and having the right connections is what makes someone chosen of God in a certain birthright. It is by wrestling with God. It is by surrendering to God. It is by making sacrifices, by leaving things behind, not just by taking what has fallen into your lap. What sacrifice have you made? Once we set our minds on God's kingdom and his will and his birthright and started wrestling with him over that, then we start finding that many rules of success that this world parades around no longer applies to us. And that greatly displeases those of the world. They are like Esau thinking, Jacob, my brother, he's just a guy dwelling in tents. I am a hunter. And if you know anything about the ancient culture, to hunt and to be outside is very valuable. It's the way that you bring food to the table. But Jacob, he dwells in tents he's reading all those books or whatever. He doesn't have the same value. He's the loser of society. And as Esau thinks to himself, why is Jacob now blessed? Why am I struggling? That's what the world look when they look upon us. That's what they think they're like. Why does he or she know where they're going in life? Like they have a purpose in front of them and they're running with fire. They're so blessed from above because God has blessed you, because you have surrendered and given up lands and families and friends and whatever is needed for the call of God. And that is the promise of God established in your life. One of the most shameful things, however, is how this competitive mindset of the world, this sibling rivalry, is now also among believers. Believers are playing the games of the world in God's kingdom. They set themselves against one another, climbing over one another in order to reach some top. Like Paul wrote even in his day in 2 Corinthians 10:10. For they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account, verse 12. Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves, but when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. Paul was a man who was in many ways a weak man. He himself describes that people are saying that he writes strong letters, and we know his letters are strong, but yet his appearance is weak. He doesn't seem to be a good orator. He doesn't seem to look like a very confident and strong man in the ways that the world perceives. Confident and strong. But Paul was confident in the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. Paul was confident in who he was, his calling and his purpose. And Paul, he warns all people. He says, if you rely on the strength that's in your own flesh, in what you think you're strong in, of your own accord, and you start comparing yourself to the flesh of others, you have no understanding. You guys are like a bunch of flesh comparing flesh to flesh. The flesh is not entering the kingdom to come. The flesh is going to stay in the ground. It was born from dust and return to dust. But God will resurrect you, the Spirit. And that's what matters, is who are you in the Spirit? What do you accomplish in the Spirit? Because what you do in the Spirit is of the fruits of the Spirit. And that by nature means you're not comparing yourself to other people because this is insecurity to compare. This is just stressful and you will never find rest in doing so. You're chasing after fleshly things instead of being securely seated in your birthright and in your calling of God, you gaze upon another's. I mean, if your birthright is indeed being fueled by the Holy Spirit, then there is no competition because the same Spirit dwells in us all. The Holy Spirit isn't competing with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit isn't looking at the Holy Spirit and another person being like, well, I think I can do better. I'm going to do. I'm going to gain. I'm going to climb over them. I'm going to gain some reputation over them. I'm going to be the best. Know the least will be the greatest, consider yourself the least, and then you'll maybe get somewhere. Stop asking Yeshua, who's the best? Who's the greatest? Stop pursuing that with your fleshly evil heart of wickedness. Surrender. Be obedient. Be totally fixated on Yeshua and his birthright for you. And then perhaps you will find yourself boasting in no one and nothing but the Holy Spirit and his power and his glory. 2 Corinthians 10:17. Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, for it is not the one who commands himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commands in God's kingdom. He is coming and looking for servants. And that's what the Messiah called us to do is to outdo one another in this one thing, in serving one another, in considering others as better than yourself, mercy. And in love. He said in John 13:14, if I, then your Lord and your Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. Either you give up your life for the Holy Spirit, or you will give up the Holy Spirit for this life. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Father, I ask that you would help us to keep our eyes on you. Help us, Father, to pick up our cross and follow you and to stop looking at what other fishermen are doing. As we fish for men, let us be focused on the gospel as a goal to bring people in close to you and for us to draw near to you. Yeshua, I ask that you would come and show and reveal to each individual watching this the birthright that you have for them. For them to lay all things down, to leave lands behind and whatever it is you call them to leave in this time as we enter a new time, a season. Father, let it be a people who raise us up after your own heart. Who puts aside all disunity and quarreling and looking over the shoulder. Father, I thank you for giving us your spirit. Filling us with your spirit more than ever before so we can think the way you do. So that we would not be like Peter, asking, what about this man? What about that man? That we would rather ask, what about me? What am I to do today for you, Lord? How can I serve? How can I sacrifice? How can I love? We praise you. We thank you, Yeshua, for your sacrifice and example of love. Come quickly. Yeshua. The name. Yeshua. Amen. Thank you for joining me today. May the Father bless you and keep you. Shine his face upon you. Lift up his countenance upon you. And give you his shalom and his mercy and his grace. And a special thank you to all of our partners who've made this teaching and every other teaching this month possible. We'll see you in the next one. Shalom.