DirectTV has taken advantage of Comcast cable losing the forth quarter of the Super Bowl. DirectTV’s commercial asks you to switch to them because they claim to be almost perfect with a 99% on air rate.
Ninety-nine percent is an incredibly high goal toward perfection. But think about being satisfied with 99%: -No electric service for fifteen minutes each day. -1.7 million pieces of first-class mail lost each day. -35,000 newborn babies dropped by doctors or nurses each year. -200,000 people getting the wrong drug prescription each day. -2 million people dying from food poisoning each year. -One hour of unsafe drinking water every month. -Two unsafe plane landings per day at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. -20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions per year. -500 incorrect surgical operations each week. -22,000 checks deducted from the wrong bank accounts each hour. -32,000 missed heartbeats per person per year. -Two million documents lost by the IRS every year; -1,314 misplaced telephone calls every minute; -twelve babies given to the wrong parents each day (John Maxwell, Eleven Keys to Excellence)
Jesus told us to, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Is that possible? If it’s impossible, why try? But Jesus wouldn’t say it without a reason.
This comes from His Sermon on the Mount. The entire sermon is about excellence in the Christian life. As we looked at last week keeping your word, controlling your anger, loving your spouse, turning the other cheek, and loving your enemies are all marks of Christian excellence.
Usually when we think of excellence we think of great performances and soaring achievements. We picture great musicians like Paderewski and James Galway, or sports stars like Tom Brady, Brett Farve and Michael Jordan. We think of famous entertainers and politicians—people whom we admire and who inspire us.
Christian excellence is not in a great achievement or a marvelous performance. Christian excellence is a way of life that touches and influences all that we are and all that we do.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or as Beethoven composed music or as Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’”
When Jesus says we Christians are to be perfect it is a call to excellence. We should try to be excellent in every way. When we do He promises that He will give us His perfect help.
True Christian excellence reflects the character of God. When we look at the life of Jesus, we see God—His life calls us to a life of Christian excellence.
What we aim at determines what we become. Jesus has given us the goal in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect as God is perfect.” This should be what we want and desire.
“But pastor, we can’t do that. Why even try?” That kind of thinking always drags you down to mediocrity. Jesus knows that only in Him can we be perfect. So He tells us in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
We may not always reach our goals, but our goals will always make us. Keeping your word, controlling your anger, not retaliating, and so on is what Christ wants. When you truly are seeking God’s kingdom and righteous, you will live on that higher plane of excellence.
But if your goals are just sub par—if seeking first God’s kingdom is not who you are—that’s where you will exist—the sub par plane of mediocrity, or less. We Christians have a reason to pursue excellence that goes far beyond the world’s understanding of excellence.
When you accepted Christ, you were called to excellence—the entire Sermon on the Mount is about a life of excellence. You are called to be the best you can be because you represent Jesus. The only Jesus people see is you. Our God of excellence calls us to live lives of excellence that reflect His excellent character to our world.
In every area of life, your goal as a Christian must be to become more and more like Jesus. His purpose is to take your God-given potential and bring it into reality for His glory.
Excellence begins first of all with an awareness of God and secondly with knowledge of His will. Paul prayed in Colossians 1:9, “…asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
The knowledge he prays for is not just the intellectual accumulation of information. He is praying that you will have an intimate personal knowledge of God so that you will know what He likes and dislikes.
Living in the will of God is simple really. It is primarily avoiding sin and doing what is right in the sight of God and appropriate to the Christian community. This all comes as you grow in your knowledge of God.
This year Luaine and I will celebrate 39 years of marriage. Thirty-nine years ago I knew she was beautiful and smart. Today, after 39 years, she is still beautiful and smart, but I know a lot more about her. How did that happen?
It is because we have lived life in close partnership all those years. Because we are committed to each other and our marriage, we have lived the ups and downs of life together.
We like each other’s company, we do things together, we laugh and cry with each other, we talk and listen to one another. I know my wife, and she knows me. This is how a believer ought to be related to his Lord. We know His will because we know Him!
Paul prayed that God would fill the Colossians with the knowledge of His will. This is an ongoing and growing process when we have such intimate personal knowledge of our Father’s will, that we are “filled” with it. When someone is “filled” with anger or joy—we know what that means—they are controlled by that emotion.
When someone is “filled” with the Holy Spirit, they are controlled and directed by God’s Spirit. Paul prays that we will be filled and controlled by an intimate knowledge of God’s will, which we find in His Word.
To be filled with the knowledge of God’s will means that we “know” that God’s revealed will sets the standards for living that, when we apply it to our lives, we live in Christian excellence.
We don’t need more experts telling us how to live our lives. Expertise isn’t excellence—we are drowning in experts. For Christians the answer is found in Jesus Christ and the Bible.
God wants every Christian to live their life in a manner worthy of Jesus Christ. Our standard must never be centered in people, but should be Christ centered. The Bible says:
Ephesians 4:1, …live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Philippians 1:27, Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 2:12, …live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
Don’t measure your life by what others have done—measure your life by what Jesus did. This is exactly what God’s word instructs us to do. When God measures a man, He put the tape measure around his heart, not his head, not his skills or achievements.
Measure your life against the life of Jesus and try to please God in every way.
Why Christian Excellence?
Colossians 1:10a, And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way.
“We make it our goal to please Him” Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (2 Cor. 5:9). That attitude absolutely drove Paul to repudiate mediocrity and embrace excellence as the only proper expression of Christian living.
When you submit and commit every area of your life to God, that brings pleasure to Him—this is the heartbeat of excellence.
Meeting basic requirements is not enough. There was a church in Thessalonica that Paul delighted in. In fact he called them a model church (1 Thess. 1:6-8).
Yet, as he came to the close of his letter to them, he said, “We instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more” (1 Thess. 4:1).
He also complimented them on their love for one another and all Christians in Macedonia. Yet he then said, “Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more” (4:10). (Groan)
Do you see it? Paul was not writing to people who were falling short in their Christian lives. They were already living in a way that was pleasing to God, but they could do more.
The status quo is not enough when you are called to excellence. God’s call is always to abound, to excel, to press on, to reach toward the goal, to aspire far more.
Legendary coach, Vince Lombardi said, “The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”
He’s talking about the secular world. We Christians must live beyond that. What we have to live for and share goes far beyond anything this world can offer.
The call to excellence leaves no room or place for us to stand around and congratulate ourselves on what a good job we are doing. If you want to please God, your attitude must become one of total commitment to Him.
Paul prayed that the Colossians would, Colossians 1:10b, “bear fruit in every good work.” Jesus said, “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8). The fruit bearing Jesus is talking about is obedience to God’s will.
Fruit is the natural product of the life of a tree—in the same way, spiritual fruit is the inevitable product of God’s life in the believer.
Paul also prayed, Colossians 1:10c, “…growing in the knowledge of God.” Growth is progress. This is the greatest privilege in life—to “know” God.
If knowing God is truly the greatest value in the world, then no life can be excellent which is not growing into a deeper fellowship with the living God.
Colossians 1:11, “Strengthened with all power according to His glorious might.” Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, God’s power is continuous and never weakens.
The power Paul talks about is not raw, physical power, it is inner enablement—the ability to meet life’s demands.
Colossians 1:12a, “Giving thanks to the Father. . .” Praise is not just what we do here Sunday mornings. Praise is an attitude of thankfulness that spills over into a positive, optimistic outlook on life.
When your heart is dominated by the grace of God, you will face all of life with confidence in the goodness of God.
A person of excellence is one who is productive, progressive, powerful, and positive in spirit. This comes from a commitment to walk worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. And out of gratitude and love for what Jesus has done for us (v. 13).
He knows your abilities, talents and circumstances. He asks only for your best, without comparison to others.
Knowing you, He still loves you. He isn’t hard to please. When we want to please God with our lives, God responds to our pursuit of excellence.
As God measures excellence—there can be none where there is not a desire to walk worthy of the Lord, so as to please Him in all respects.