Excellence

Pastor Holly Wagner from Oasis Church in Los Angeles teaches a great sermon about excellence in this video. Holly talks about how God calls us to strive for excellence in whatever we do. Excellence means we won't do our job half-halfheartedly, we give it our best. It means we won't do our marriage half-halfheartedly, we give it all we've got. This is how God calls us to live our lives: "Whatever you do [whatever your task may be], work from the soul [that is,put in your very best effort], as [something done] for the Lord and not for men" Colossians 3:23 (AMP)


Excellence doesn't mean "be perfect", excellence means we do the best we can in whatever we do. Excellence is about doing better today than you did yesterday, which makes it apparent that excellence will take more than just casual effort to obtain. Mediocre lives and average effort doesn't bring glory to God. God calls us to give our very best to whatever we do. If you are a painter do an excellent job at serving people this way, don't leave any paint stains on the windows and so on. If you are a nurse, do an excellent job at caring for the people who are your patients.


We can ask ourselves a few questions to determine how we are doing in the area of excellence. Are you treating with excellence everything that God has given you? Your job, are you better at it this year than you were last year? Are you giving it your best? If God has given you a family are you treating them with excellence, are you going above and beyond for them? Has God blessed you with a car? Are you treating that with excellence or are you just frustrated that you don't have a better car? When we serve people with excellence it pleases God and brings him glory. God gave everything to us, so how can we give Him anything less than our very best?


God calls each Christian to live a life of excellence. We are called to be examples of excellence in our speech, in loving others, in forgiveness etc. However, excellence will never be easy. Excellence always means stepping into something new. There is always work involved in excellence. We will never experience the life God desires for us from within our areas of comfort. It's not comfortable to change, it's not comfortable to work for excellence, but it's necessary if we are going to fulfill our life's purpose. Whatever you do, give it all you've got!