Today, we focus on the importance of being a high performer for the Kingdom, guided by the principle found in Colossians 3:23, which encourages us to work wholeheartedly as if for the Lord. I reflect on the frustration that often comes from hiring someone who does not meet expectations, highlighting that this behavior is all too common in our world. Drawing from insights and verses, I emphasize that true fulfillment in our work comes from dedication and commitment, not merely from dreaming or talking about our goals. I share personal experiences and biblical encouragements to motivate us to remain steadfast in our endeavors for God. Ultimately, I urge everyone to strive to be in that 20% of high performers who contribute meaningfully to the Kingdom, working with enthusiasm and perseverance.

Takeaways:

• In our journey of faith, we should strive to be high performers for God's Kingdom.
• Working diligently and wholeheartedly is essential in our service to the Lord and others.
• Identifying our calling allows us to focus on meaningful work that glorifies God.
• Hard work and commitment are crucial to effectively serving in our respective fields for Jesus.
• Dreaming and fantasizing can distract us from the hard work that brings true fulfillment.
• Embracing imperfection in our endeavors is vital, as our passion for God's work outweighs perfection.

Links referenced in this episode:

• bible805.com

Welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of Road Advice from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's a little further down the road of life.

I'll talk to you every Tuesday and Thursday for about 10 minutes, and if you'd like more in depth information on walking with Jesus, you can find it at my www.bible805.com website.

For now, let's get started on our topic for today, which is episode number 50--

Be a high Performer for the Kingdom and the King!

Colossians 3:23 is our verse for today and it says "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters."

Now there are few things more frustrating than hiring someone to do a job, trusting them to do it, and then finding out they either didn't do it, took far longer than expected, or simply did a poor job. Unfortunately, this behavior is common.

I was reading a recent blog from Jane Friedman who said that during a recent conversation with a friend we discussed the conventional wisdom that only 20% of anyone in their profession is a high performer. The rest are average to below average. Now let's talk about this.

What follows are some verses about working hard, because I thought this might be how it is in much of the world, but it certainly seems should not describe us as workers for the Kingdom of God, as disciples of the King. Now please know that as I'm sharing these verses with you, I'm not really preaching at you, but I'm preaching to myself.

I remind myself that I've been given life and I know Jesus wants me to make it meaningful. Also for me, I don't know if you know your calling, but I do.

I believe he wants me to really encourage people to get into His Word, to think about him, to think about the Kingdom, to focus on that. If you don't know your calling, spend some time figuring that out.

But if you do, if you've been given life and a calling, we have so many reasons to work hard. Now, even though I know that, even though I passionately believe that, I must confess that sometimes I just want to take a nap.

It says, those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense. And how we all like to dream, to fantasize, as this verse says. And social media can Tempt us to spend excessive time fantasizing so much.

Social media, movies, celebrities, all that encourage it. And they tell us, oh, if you dream it, it'll come true. If you do a vision board, you can make it happen, blah, blah, blah. And that simply isn't true.

If you don't dream at all, if you don't fantasize one little bit, if you don't have one single vision board, if you just work your land, whatever the Lord's given you to do, you will gain far more then hours of fantasizing will get you. The deceitful thing about fantasies is from the minute we think of something, we sort of think we have it.

And then we don't really think about all the work that it takes to get there. But in real life, significant things take time.

That's why if you feel that you are called to do something for God or you want to do something for him, I encourage you as soon as possible, and especially I'm speaking here to younger people listening to this. Figure it out as soon as you can. Because that way you can spend your time and your focus on it.

Don't be trying this and trying that and thinking, oh, I'm going to maybe do this and maybe I'll do that, and I want to keep my options open. Yeah, you can do that.

But you dilute any power and significance and skill that you might have in your life if you focused on one or two areas, whatever you feel the Lord's called you to do. Now, I recently saw this lived out in a talent show that I attended. There were a lot of fun acts, but two of them really stood out.

This was an amateur show, but the people that stood out, one was a singer, the other one was a musician, a guitarist actually. Now, while many of the others in the show performed well, these two owned the stage from the minute they began.

Now, I knew both of them had a professional background in their respective areas, but with a guitarist in particular, he not only had extraordinary skill, but he had a comfort and a confidence and a level of ease as he performed in a way that only comes from commitment to his chosen craft over many years of time. If we want to please our Lord, we need to do that in our discipleship to Jesus.

Discipleship has been described as a long obedience in the same direction.

That's a good description, because if you make as part of your daily life obedience to spending time in God's word, in prayer, in listening to him, and in actions that you know will please Jesus in your world, you'll learn to walk comfortably as his disciple, and it will be obvious to those around you. Now moving along another verse to motivate us in our work for the Lord.

It's so much easier to talk about what we want to do for the King and the kingdom, and though dreaming and talking, sharing and brainstorming, those things have their place, nothing beats the hard work of just doing something As a writer for Jesus. One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received is to write a bad first draft. Now you think what? Write something bad?

No, the whole thing is just get it out there. Striving for perfection in writing, life or ministry isn't necessarily a good and godly thing.

It's often, quite honestly, just another word for procrastination. Here's how applying this idea has worked for me. Now I'm sure you already know little of what I put out there is anywhere near perfect.

And if you could see how things how I produce stuff, you'd probably be appalled. I do all my multimedia work in a very tiny office. I don't have any kind of fancy studio. It's in a 50 plus year old mobile home.

I use some very old bargain store equipment for my podcast. I don't have a fancy soundboard. I don't even have fancy recording software.

I don't even have recording software that people say you're supposed to use. I do all the raw podcasts with Camtasia, which is a software I bought years ago to record my PowerPoint lessons.

I just saved the sound file for the podcast. That's what I'm doing right now.

Now, I did upgrade my microphone from the Target headset that I used for years to a boom mic, but it's about six years old now. My equipment isn't perfect and neither are my podcasts or lessons.

I don't have to tell you that typos will never be banned from my life as I can't afford the time or the money for extensive editing. But I'm more focused on simply getting God's word and the lessons from it out there to you than I am on perfection.

I would become totally paralyzed if I focused on everything being perfect on maybe that I didn't do enough research. I always think I didn't do enough research. I can spend weeks researching lessons that I have to get out every single week. That just won't work.

I can get all uptight because maybe there's clicks in my voice or something doesn't make sense, or the transition isn't nearly as smooth as I wish it was and I didn't even see it till everything's done and produced and then I'm really tempted to totally redo everything and just say, oh, this is just not good. This is terrible. I'll embarrass myself, but I don't have time to do that.

I have to be okay with imperfection if I want to release anything, and it seems like the Lord uses them, perfect or not. If you want to do things for God, podcasts or blogs or videos or books, whatever you want to do, just get it out there.

A passion for creating for the King and the Kingdom is far more important than perfection. And finally, a couple more encouragements from the Bible.

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. So begin working or keep on working hard to be a high performer for eternal values, for people, for Jesus.

Don't ever let it be said of you that you were a frustration, a disappointment, a part of the 80% who didn't give it their all. Be part of the 20%, a high performer. Work with enthusiasm, thankfulness and perseverance.

In summary, whatever you do, work hard for the Kingdom and the King. That's all for this podcast, for transcripts, links to related material, and much more to help you learn to know, trust, apply and teach the bible.

Go to www.bible805.com for now, let me end with this benediction and prayer.

May you walk each day surrounded by the gracious love of the Father, guided by the gentle wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and conscious of the astoundingly real presence of Jesus, who will walk with you until you're no more a hobo soul, no more a transient wandering heart, but at home in the Kingdom prepared for you with your God forever. Amen.