Mark 12:28-33
The scribe saw beyond the LETTER of the law to the SPIRIT of the law. God wants our best.
The dictionary defines Excellence as: The state of quality of excelling. It is superiority or the state of being good to a high degree.
It is also defines Mediocrity as: The state of quality of mediocre. It is of only ordinary or moderate quality-neither good nor bad, barely adequate.
Sir Lawrence Olivea once said: "Striving for perfection is the greatest stopper there is. It's YOUR excuse to YOURSELF for not doing anything. Instead strive for excellence, doing YOUR best.
So many times we strive for perfection. Being perfect. No flaws, no blemishes, no problems, alwys right, always have it together--etc. Well, there's just one small problem--WE ARE NOT PERFECT!!!!! There is no one here nor has the ever been nor will there ever be a perfect person-except Jesus!
We can try. We can work, and we can strive, but one fact remains...we are human. And humanityis fallible. We are SINNERS saved by grace. We All sin. We all make mistakes. We will fall, we have But God is goo. He is perfect. He is Just. He is righteous. He is awesome.
We many not be able to obtain perfection, but we can obtain excellence!!! What is excellence again....the state of quality of being good to a high degree- superiority.
The dictionary also defines Superiority as: Displaying a sence of being better than others: a favorable position-the state of excelling or surpassing or going beyond usual or norma limits.
God has always taught us the principal of giving our best. The priest had to make sure that the sacrifice was the best--no blemishes, no marks, it had to be the best the every individual had to offer. Your best might not be as good as someones elses, but it had to be the best that YOU had to offer.
Comparing ourselves amoung ourselves is not wise, the Bible tells us. We don't determine excellence by comparing ourselves to others. Jesus proved that by stating the story of the little widow woman who gave only 2 mites-She gave more than all the rich men. When compared in the natural-no she couldn't have "surpassed" them, but when compared to the spirit-She gave more than ALL the others put together.
As humans we sometimes fall in the rut of "I'm so tired of trying, it's never good enough, so why should we even try to>>>>(you fill in the blank). "So, I'm just going to do just and only what I have to do." We don't really try, we don't really even care. We just do it because "we said we would" or just to hurry up and get it done. It doesn't really matter if it is done right-Just hurry up and be done with it.
I believe that in the day and time we live that there is a spirit of mediocrity that gets ahold of people-not just Born again Christians. You can see this is work force if they see someone going beyond or surpassing they say" Oh yeah, he's just trying to butter his bread" or they say "He'll step on anybody he can to get what he wants." Striving for excellence has, to some people, become negative, because they don't want to give their best.
That spirit has also worked it's way into the church world. I've heard some people say-"They just want to impress the pastor or they jsut do that because they want all the attention or they think they are better than everyone else or they think they are the only ones who can do it and do it right, etc, etc. When actually, they are surpassing or going beyond. They don't want whatever they doing to be "barely adequate". They want their, prayer, worship, singing, playing an instrument, work or whatever, to be "good to a high degree."
God is not offended when we strive to excell as long as HIS ULITMATE GLORY is our motive and goal. (And for your information---YOU ARE NOT THE JUDGE OF WHAT THEY DO AND WHY THEY ARE DOING IT!!!!)
Daniel had an "excellent spirit" the Bible tells us. His prayer life, his integrity, and his consecration all worked together to give him an excellent spirit.
We can even see excellence in the beauty of nature. Look at the trees in the fall-how all the colors blend- look at the green grass and the blue sky in the summer. Look at how in the winter things "die" or leaves fall off the trees and become nutrients or food for the new crop of trees and grass or flowers, or whatever that's coming up in the spring. In the eyes of God, it is all excellent.
Why wouldn't you want to do excellent or strive for excellence. When I do something, I want it to be my best. I don;t want people to look at what I have done and say "You know, that isn't very good" I know she's more capable of doing better.
I want to go beyond. I want to break through the barrier of mediocrity that we have allowed to get ahold of us and become content, we want to sit back and take our ease. "Just let the young people do it. I'm tired. I've workd for God for years and it's time for someone else to step up to the plate. I'm passing my baton on to to someone else, it's too heavy for me carry anymore."
Well, is that the attitude that you take on your job? If so, what will happen? I guarantee that you'll lose it and someone else will have the pleasure of making the money you were.
Kindal like when the children of Isrea wandered in the wilderness for 40 long years. Everything started out great, but then they got content and thought, I'm a true Isrealite, I'm a child of God, I deserve this. Then they began to grow weary and began to murmur and complain. It is one thing to think something, but when you open your mouth and give voice to it, it becomes something else---I'll let you guess what that is...(SIN). So God decided that he didn't want to take that attitude into the promise land with them, so he let a WHOLE GENERATION DIE!!!!!! I don't know exactly how far they wandered, but it really wasn't very far to the promise land from Egypt. Can you imagine the frustration that set in when they looked down and saw that they had been there before. Saw the old "camp fire" saw the bones of loved ones that had died. Mile after mile, day after day, they saw their older generation dwindle down to where there was no one left of those that started out. They died having never reached their "dream" their destination. All because they lost the desire to focus on the ultitmate goal--GOD--They became "barely adequate" They let the spirit that we are fighting today get ahold of them and they never went beyond or surpassed.
I want to strive for excellence I don't want to be stopped by the "barrier of mediocrity." I want to go beyond. I want to surpass normal limits.
We have a city to reach adn we cannot do it by being "barly adequate". We need to reach our city by being in a favorable (superior) position. I want to do good to a high degree. I want to give God my best and show the world how good He really is.
God does all thing well. If we have His spirit and His nature and we allow it to controll us and flow through us-we will be people of excellence, too!!
I want His nature and spirit to have full reign in my life. I want HIS ULITMATE GLORY to be my motive and goal in all I do.
How about giving God our best!!! He deserves it.
How about "BREAKING THROUGH THE BARRIER OF MEDIOCRITY!!"
QUALIFIER: This is not up for debate. This is what I spoke to the saints in our church. Sorry if you don't agree with it, it's just what the Lord had me talk to "my children" about.
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