Serving In Excellence…

Volunteering in Excellence
If you were arrested for operating in excellence, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
- We are to flow in excellence, so excellence should be easily seen in us.

Excellence, Love, and People are inter-related.
- You cannot get away from the three of these
- All are included as part of serving, loving the Lord, and operating in excellence

Rev 2:4 (Jesus speaking – talking to the church at Ephesus)
4 But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].

- first love, stopped loving Jesus

Matt 22:34
34 Now when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced (muzzled) the Sadducees, they gathered together.

35 And one of their number, a lawyer, asked Him a question to test Him.

36 Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light--which are heavy?]

37 And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).

38 This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.

39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.

- starts with AND, joins something else to the first thing

What was the question Jesus was answering?
- “What is the greatest commandment?”

What does “greatest” mean in this statement?
- most important, of highest importance

The second commandment is of the same importance as the first! So the second was as important as loving God.
- Loving your neighbor, in the sight and value of Jesus, is the same as loving God
- Jesus places just as much importance on loving our neighbors as he does on loving God.

John 13:34 (Jesus speaking)
34 I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another.

35 By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].

Commandment = no option

Let’s talk about the love of Jesus…

John 3:16
16 For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

Isa 53:3-5
3 He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].

5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guiltand iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace andwell-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.

This is the love of Jesus – for each and every one of us…

Read something very interesting (from an archaeologist) recently…

In the days of Jesus, public restrooms were in the open, there were no stalls, walls, no barriers. These public restrooms could accommodate about 40 people at a time – sounds like fun, right? You would basically just sit and take care of business, maybe shoot the breeze, talk about camels, who knows. In this public restroom, there was also no toilet paper. Fresh water was delivered through a water trough that ran in front of each toilet. The people would take the fresh water to “clean” themselves after they had finished their business.

At this time, some of the poorest slaves realized that there was a business opportunity here. A way that they could have an income stream… These slaves would take a long stick, and would place a sea sponge on the end. They would dip this sea sponge in the water in the trough, stick it through the hole, and scrub the person that was using the restroom.

After a while, they realized that using one sponge on hundreds of people caused some of them to get infections. So, they started cleansing the sponge with vinegar or sour wine as a disinfectant.

John 19:29 (Jesus is on the cross, God – who came to earth, and we murdered Him)
29 A vessel (jar) full of sour wine (vinegar) was placed there, so they put a sponge soaked in the sour wine on [a stalk, reed of] hyssop, and held it to [His] mouth.

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished! And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

Jesus was hanging on the cross, having done nothing wrong, had been beaten beyond recognition, mocked, and humiliated. Do you think that this was an act of compassion – or was it further humiliation?

That means THAT was the last smell in Jesus’ nose, the last taste on His lips when He said “It is finished”. What was finished was our forgiveness, the atonement of sin, the forgiveness of the atrocity to God that is your life and mine. And Jesus loved each of us that much – to forgive those that shoved that sponge in His mouth, while He still had the taste on His lips.

Now – let’s go back to John 13:34…

John 13:34 (Jesus speaking)
34 I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another.

35 By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].

How are we to love other people? The same as Jesus loved us…

Jesus said, in Luke 4:18:
18 The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity],

Why was the Spirit of the Lord upon Him? To preach the Good News to who?
- Jesus #1 concern was ministering
- to the poor
- to the captive
- to the blind
- to the oppressed

Jesus Himself came to minister to mortal human beings – the Creator came to minister to the creation – He came to LOVE people and to GIVE to people…
- Can we begin to see the importance of ministering to others?

When we volunteer, when we serve, when we minister to people in excellence – that is showing love like Jesus did.

Read John 13:34-35 again
- 3 times Jesus says “love one another”
- Is this important to Jesus?

Ok, how do we do it?
- Jesus said loving one another is as important as loving God…
- Jesus said it three times to the disciples – just to make sure they got it…

According to Jesus, when we keep on showing love among ourselves, we show the world that we are disciples of Jesus.

Did Jesus tell us this is an option or a commandment? Do we have a choice in the matter?

John 14:15
15 If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.

Jesus says that loving one another is NOT an option. He also says that we cannot show love to Him if we don’t obey that commandment.

How does this relate to excellence?

Excellence is not just doing things the right way, it’s doing things the right way with the right motive – love. Without love for people, without the right motive, we can turn the spirit of excellence into legalism, into bondage.

Striving for excellence is a good thing, and we should strive for excellence in all that we do – but not at the sacrifice of love.
- The misbalance of excellence is perfection
- Excellence is not judging other people’s perfection, it is judging our own.

If we truly love Jesus, we will keep His commandments. If we truly love Jesus, we will love other people. When we have the love of God, his commands are not burdens…

1 John 5:3
3 For the [true] love of God is this: that we do His commands [keep His ordinances and are mindful of His precepts and teaching]. And these orders of His are not irksome (burdensome, oppressive, or grievous).