For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. – Proverbs 1:32
Illustration –
I. The trap of “just doing your best”
A. Being “good enough” can turn into a special hazard.
1. We become complacent in our lives
2. We stop doing hard things
B. Over time, refusing to reach higher, try harder, and risk more robs us of the glorious purpose and wonderful future God has created us for.
II. Three Strategies for going Above and Beyond
A. Do what’s hard for you
1. Take time to identify the areas in your life where you can accomplish more bay stepping across the line of what comes easy
2. To live as rebelutionaries, we can’t afford to only work on the strongest areas of our lives
B. Be known for what you do (more than for what you don’t)
1. We must get beyond avoiding just the bad stuff
2. We must pursue righteousness in a way that others will want to imitate
3. Psalm 1:1 tells that we should have a higher standard to live by than the world.
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. – Psalm 1:1-2
C. Pursue excellence, not excuses
1. We fall short of our true potential because we aim only to be bigger than the next best thing
2. God’s standard is not for us to be the godliest person in a youth group filled with halfhearted Christians, but to “be holy” because He is holy (1 Peter 1:16).
Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. – 1 Peter 1:16
3. God’s standard is not for us to be our teachers’ best helper, but to be a “servant of all” (Mark 9:35).
And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. – Mark 9:35
III. Hard questions to identify complacency in our lives
A. What areas of my life do I not care about that I know I should care about?
B. In what areas have I fallen short of God’s standards and my own potential?
C. In what areas have I settled for just getting by when I know I could do better if I really tried?
D. In what areas have I decided that things “will always be this way” without ever putting I the kind of effort that really changes things?
* “Do hard things’ means fighting for greater levels of excellence because there is always something harder to do.”
Final Thought: I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. – Theodore Roosevelt
