Do Your Best: Scout Sunday
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 2/3/2012
Most of you are probably familiar with the Boy Scout motto—always be prepared. You might not be as familiar with the Cub Scout motto though, which is—do your best! That’s not just good advice for Scouts; that’s biblical advice for life!
The Bible says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NIV). And then in the New Testament: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord not for men” (Colossians 3:23 NIV). I really like the Message translation of this verse, which says, “Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God” (Colossians 3:23 MSG).
Each of these verses is speaking a quality of the heart—willingness to it give your all, to go the extra mile. In athletics, we applaud it. In academics, we award it. In character, we admire it. In craftsmanship, we pay extra for it. In business, we promote it. In death, we eulogize it. In Christianity, we strive for it.
We strive to do our best because we know that God rewards effort, excellence and endurance. The promise is found in Ephesians 6:8, which says, “The Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does…” (NIV). One of these days, in the presence of everybody we’ve ever met, and everybody we’ve never met, the Bible says we will receive the praise of God. Those who never heard the cheers of men will hear the applause of heaven. The small will be great. The forgotten will be remembered. The unnoticed will be crowned and the faithful will be honored.
What will God be looking for on that day?
I think the answer to that question is revealed through a short story told by the Master story-teller, in Matthew 25:14-30. It’s commonly called the parable of the talents. Jesus starts the story by telling of a King who went on a long journey, but before leaving he called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver (also known as “talents”) to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. Then he left on his trip.
When he returned, he discovered that the servant with one talent had done nothing with what the King had given him, but the servants with five and two talents had doubled their money. So the King was full of praise and said to these two, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!” (Matthew 25:21 NLT).
I think the words of the King in this verse tell just what God will be looking for on that day of reward and what it means to do your best!
First, doing your best requires effort.
• EFFORT
Notice that God didn’t say, "Well said," "Well thought," "Well supervised," or "Well criticized." He said, "Well done." The Bible is a book about doing (words like do, deed, deeds, and done occur in the New Testament 589 times—more than twice per chapter). A Chinese proverb says, "Be first in the field and the last to the couch." Even a mosquito doesn’t get a slap on the back until he starts working.
Just like the servants in the story, God has given each of us a variety of talents and he expects us to use them. You weren’t created just to eat, breathe, and take up space. God put you on this earth to make a contribution.
The first two servants were rewarded because they had done something with the talents the King had given them. But listen to the third servant’s excuse: “Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth” (Matthew 25:24-25 NLT). This servant did nothing what the talent he was given because he was afraid to fail. Rather than try and fail, he chose not to try at all.
His fears were unfounded though, because God knew exactly what he was capable of. In the parable Jesus said, “Each was given money based on his ability” (Matthew 25:15 GWT). God knows what you’re capable of, too. The Bible says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT).
You are God’s handcrafted work of art. You’re not an assembly-line product, mass-produced without thought. You are a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind, original masterpiece. God carefully mixed the DNA cocktail that created you and God never wastes anything. He wouldn’t have given you abilities, interests, talents, gifts, personality, and life experiences unless he intended you to use them for his glory. Long before you were born, God had a to-do list for your life.
The cartoon character Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes had it right when he said, “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things.” Of course, he followed that up with, “Right now I’m so far behind I’ll never die.” A lot of us are in that same boat. If we want to hear Jesus say, “Well done,” then we need to start using the talents and abilities he’s given us to do these “good things he planned for us.”
• EXCELLENCE
Furthermore, doing your best requires excellence.
Notice what the King said to his servants again: “Well done, my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21 NLT). There are two key words here I want you to notice—well and good. We often use them interchangeably, but the first refers to the quality of work and the second refers to the quality of character. Both are synonymous with excellence.
Charles Swindoll once said, “Excellence is a difficult concept to communicate because it can easily be misread as neurotic perfectionism or snooty sophistication. But it is neither. On the contrary, it is the stuff of which greatness is made. It is the difference between just getting by and soaring—that which sets apart the significant from the superficial, the lasting from the temporary.”
When God finished His work of creation, he said it was "very good" (Gen. 1:31). About Jesus, the Bible say, "He has done all things well" (Mark 7:37). Christ commanded us, "If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles" (Matt. 5:41 NLT). When you go the extra mile, you’re less likely to get stuck in traffic. No matter what we’re doing God wants us to give it our all—to do it with excellence!
Sir Walter Raleigh attended a prestigious boarding school when he was a youngster. He was an excellent student and wanted to be number one in his class. However, one lad always finished ahead of him, so he determined to discover the secret. Each night when he prepared for bed, he looked across the grounds that separated his room from that of his competitor and noticed that his light was still on. One night he noticed that the other boy studied only about fifteen minutes longer than he did. After that, Sir Walter Raleigh studied an extra twenty minutes every night. At the end of the year he was the number one student!
As someone once said, “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” That’s what it means to do your best.
• ENDURANCE
So doing your best takes effort, excellence and finally endurance.
Let’s look one last time at that verse: “Well done, my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21 NLT). The Bible has a lot to say about faithfulness. Faithfulness is a fruit of God’s Spirit listed in Galatians 5:23 and Jesus even commanded, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10 NKJV).
Dictionaries define faithfulness as either enduring in affection or allegiance, or following through with a commitment regardless of difficulty. In other words, someone faithful is dependable, trustworthy, and firm in keeping promises or carrying out their responsibilities. In short, faithfulness is stick-to-itiveness.
I witnessed a living example of this when I was still in high-school, attending a local Church of Christ. Some adolescent prankster, probably named Chris, thought it would be funny to steal the “T” off the church’s sign so that it read: Church of Chris. One of our church leaders, an elderly man named Bob Limburg who was a very talented wood worker, simply carved a new T and replaced it. But, when we showed up to church the next Sunday, the T had been stolen again. So Bob returned to his wood working shop, carved another one, and replaced it. But, again, the next Sunday the T was gone. This went on for several weeks, so Bob started churning out Ts by the dozens and stopped by the church every day to replace the stolen letters until finally one day, Bob stopped by the church and found lawn and leaf bag full Ts sitting by the door with a note that simply said: you win!
That kind of persistence is important in every area of life.
Lee Strobel once shared a similar story of enduring faithfulness. One day, Lee was about to baptize a woman during church at Willow Creek. He asked her, “Have you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior?” She smiled and said, “Oh yes, I have!” Then Lee did something strange. He turned to her husband, who was with her, and asked, “Have you received Jesus?” He looked at Lee for moment, and then suddenly burst into tears. He said, “No, I haven’t, but I want to right now!” So right there, in front of thousands of people, that man repented of his sins, confessed Christ, and Lee baptized the two of them together! After church a woman came running up to Lee, threw her arms around him and just kept saying, “Nine years! Nine years! Nine years!” Lee said, “Who are you and what do you mean ‘nine years?’” She replied, “That’s my brother that you just baptized, and I’ve praying for that man for nine long years without a hint of spiritual interest. But look at what God did today!”
Now there’s a woman who’s glad she didn’t stop praying after eight years! She stuck with it. She was faithful and it paid off! That’s what it means to do your best.
Conclusion
As I said before, we strive to do our best because we know that God rewards effort, excellence and endurance. One of these days, the King is going to return. On that day, you will be evaluated and rewarded according to what you did with the talents God gave you. That means everything you do, even simple daily chores, can have eternal implications. If you’ve accepted Christ’s Kingship over your life and you can honestly say to him, “Lord, I did my best with what you gave me,” then you’ll hear those fateful words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant!” Next you’ll receive a promotion and be given even greater responsibility in heaven: “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” And finally you’ll be invited to the party: “Let’s celebrate together!”
Invitation
I want to encourage you to consider making Christ the King of your life this morning or possibly rededicating yourself to doing your best for him. If you’d like to talk with someone about that decision please come forward while we stand and sing.
