Does excellence matter to God? Does God care about quality? Is He concerned with how well things are done? Does it make any difference to God whether: the instruments are in tune; the worship team has rehearsed the songs, etc.? Some would say, "no." All God cares about is our hearts. It’s the thought that counts. God is not impressed with a slick program or flashy audio-visuals; what matters to Him are internal things like love, compassion, and humility.
And that’s right - partially. It’s also partially wrong. God doesn’t care about those things in and of themselves. God is primarily concerned with our hearts. But God does care about those things as an expression of our hearts. Because the way we serve God - in the church, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our families - the way we live out our faith; the level of commitment we have to doing things well, to honoring God in every area of our lives - that reveals what is in our hearts. It’s not the things themselves God cares about. It’s what those things say about our hearts.
[Example: visiting a rich family member who is unprepared for your visit vs. visiting a poor relation who has gone all out to provide the best that they have. Which one loves you more?]
"Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred." -- Proverbs 15:17 (NIV)
If all you have to offer God is vegetables [speaking metaphorically], and you prepare them with care and serve them with love, then God receives them in that spirit. However, if you have more - if you have beef, and ham, and roast chicken - but you give little thought or care to what you offer God, then God will rightly see that as indicating a lack of love. Do you see what I mean? God wants our best, whatever that may be. Excellence in God’s sight isn’t being the best; it’s being your best.
At WestShore we believe that God cares about excellence. We believe that God deserves the very best we can offer, and we believe that He desires our best. The best of our time, abilities, energy and strength, creativity - our best thinking, and caring, our best efforts.
"Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops."
- Proverbs 3:9 (NIV)
God desires and deserves the "firstfruits," the best of what we have to offer, our best efforts. He wants excellence.
Why should we strive for excellence?
1. We should strive for excellence because God is worth it. He deserves our best.
"Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom."
- Psalm 145:3 (NIV)
"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
- Revelation 4:11 (NIV)
Have you ever given your best to someone whom you later found out didn’t deserve it? [employer, friend, husband or wife, religious leader, politician] That will never happen with God. He is worthy of our love and devotion, worthy of our worship, worthy of our labor. He is worthy of late nights and early mornings. He is worth making sacrifices for. He is worthy giving things up for.
[Illustration: Winston Churchill’s first speech to the house of commons three days after becoming prime minister, at the beginning of World War II]
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for."
Even more than Great Britain, God is worthy of our blood, toil, tears, and sweat. He is worthy of our best efforts, our highest achievement. He is worthy of excellence. There are many causes to which you could devote your time and effort. Small causes, large causes. [Collecting stamps. Rebuilding old cars. Practicing medicine or law. Climbing Mount Everest. Building a business. Running for public office. Raising a family. Keeping your lawn well-manicured. Lowering your golf handicap. Tutoring disabled children. Reading Tom Clancy novels. Staying physically fit. Finding a cure for cancer. Finding new galaxies. Finding rare Beanie Babies.]
Some of these causes are more worthy than others. But there is only one cause that is worthy of every ounce of work, devotion, labor, sacrifice, suffering, dedication - only one cause that is worth giving our lives for every day. And that cause is serving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Mount Everest will crumble. The galaxies will burn out. Empires, such as the British Empire that Churchill fought to preserve, will rise and fall. Beanie Babies will go the way of cabbage patch dolls and pet rocks. Your body will fall apart. But God and His Kingdom are eternal. And those who serve Him will be eternal with Him.
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." - Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)
No matter what we are doing, we are serving the Lord. It may appear that you are working for a government agency, or a paint company, or an accounting firm, or a home builder, or an insurance company, or a software company, or a retail store, or a hospital - but you don’t. If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, you work for him. That place where you work is just the specific location where you work for Him, the specific company in which you work for Him. [That job is like your "cover". You are an undercover agent for Jesus Christ.]
This has implications. First, it gives the quality of your work new importance. If you’re working for Jesus Christ, then it matters how you do your job. He cares whether you’re working diligently or goofing off. He cares whether you are doing your best, or just getting by. He cares whether you are doing the right thing, or just doing the easy thing. The quality of your work matters to Him. Why? Because all honorable work, done well as an expression of devotion to Christ, brings honor and glory to Him. Your conduct on the job either honors Christ or dishonors Him. He cares about that.
"The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."
- John Gardner
Second, it gives your work new purpose. Your job isn’t just a way to make a living; it’s an assignment from Christ. How will that job be done differently because it’s being done by a Christian? What difference does your presence make in that workplace? Can anybody tell the difference? When you do well, do you give Him the credit? Are your professional ethics guided by your faith, or do you leave your Christianity at the door when you go into work?
But what I really want to focus on in this verse is the reason Paul gives for why we should work wholeheartedly - because we are working for Christ. In other words, if something is being done for Christ, then we should give it our best effort.
Now, if following Christ means that we should pursue excellence in our secular vocation, doesn’t it stand to reason that we should pursue excellence in the other areas of life as well? If even the most mundane type of employment deserves our best effort, then doesn’t it stand to reason that we should strive for excellence in the church? In our families? In our marriages? In our outreach and witness to the world around us?
A follower of Christ should pursue excellence in every area of life, because everything you do is done to honor and serve Him.
2. Why should we give God our best? Because God gave us His best.
"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" -- Romans 8:32 (NIV)
God gave the best He had - his own Son, Jesus Christ - to suffer and die in our place so that we could be reunited with Him. [Your most precious possessions are your children] Jesus Christ gave his best for us - His own life - so that our sins could be forgiven and we could have eternal life. Nothing we can ever give Him could compare with those gifts, but He deserves no less than the best we have to give. Will you give your life to him?
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
