GOD WANTS EXCELLENCE

Quality of Life Series

12/09/03

LEADER: What’s the difference between excellence and perfection?

Do you aspire to one or the other?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: From Websters: #1

excel: To be superior to in quality, degree, performance, etc.; to be outstandingly skilled or gifted.

excellence: very great merit, quality or ability.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: From Websters” #2

perfect: Complete or correct in every way, conforming to a standard or ideal with no omissions, errors, flaws or extraneous elements.

perfection: the quality of state of being perfect

perfectionist: a person who is not content with anything less than the very best.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Cor 12:31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Excellence vs Perfection” (Call out numbers)

Christian Fellowship Devotionals EXCERPT

From: http://www.cfdevotionals.org/devpages/de960702.htm

1. To strive for excellence means to do our best, and to be content to leave the rest for God; to be perfectionistic means that we aren't ever truly satisfied with the results of something that we do.

2. To strive for excellence means to live at peace with God, knowing that we are giving -- with His help -- our best efforts; to be perfectionistic means to live anxiously, always worrying about the flaws in what we are doing or have done.

3. To strive for excellence means to use our gifts to the best of our ability, but ultimately putting people first; to be perfectionistic means that sometimes -- perhaps often -- people are relegated to a lower place than the details of what we are doing.

4. To strive for excellence means to work like this: Col 3:23 (NIV) "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." To be perfectionistic, is to seek praise from people, for the "perfection" of your work.

5. To strive for excellence means to humbly depend on God for our abilities, strength, and results, and to give Him glory. To be perfectionistic means to begin to believe that we are responsible for our own gifts and successes, that we are self-sufficient.

6. To strive for excellence means to live in contentment and peace, knowing that God is pleased because You are working for Him, and doing your best. To be perfectionistic means to live in frustration, and to have sleepless nights because of fear of mistakes.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #1 From:

Tim Hansel, Eating Problems for Breakfast, Word Publishing, 1988, p. 39.

Edwin Bliss once said, "The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time."

LEADER: SOMETHING TO TRY

Christian Fellowship Devotionals EXCERPT

From: http://www.cfdevotionals.org/devpages/de960702.htm

1. Pray for God to help us release results to Him, and to stay focused on the fact that we are working ultimately for Him, and for His glory. He is our "boss."

2. Read and meditate on passages such as the following: Mat 11:29 (NIV) "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Remember, perfectionism comes with a very heavy yoke, so it's not from Him!

3. Have a friend hold you accountable for making progress in this, and pray for you.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #2 The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

PEARL S. BUCK

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #3 Excellence is to do a common thing is an uncommon way. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #4 From:

Ted W. Engstrom, The Pursuit of Excellence, 1982, Zondervan Corporation, p. 24.

http://www.christianglobe.com/Illustrations/theDetails.asp?whichOne=t&whichFile=talent

In his fine book, Excellence, John Gardner says, "Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them...They achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly by 'doing what comes naturally' and they don't stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose."

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #5 From: Our Daily Bread

http://www.christianglobe.com/Illustrations/theDetails.asp?whichOne=t&whichFile=talent

Former pro basketball star Bill Bradley tells that at the age of 15 he attended a summer basketball camp that was run by Easy Ed Macauley, a former college and pro star. "Just remember that if you're not working at your game to the utmost of your ability," Macauley told his assembled campers, "there will be someone out there somewhere with equal ability who will be working to the utmost of his ability. And one day you'll play each other, and he'll have the advantage."

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #6 Success: Being the Best

From: Leading the Way by Paul Borthwick, Navpress, 1989, Page 64.

From: http://www.bible.org/illus/e/e-58.htm#TopOfPage

Brian Harbour picks up on this theme in Rising above the Crowd: “Success means being the best. Excellence means being your best. Success, to many, means being better than everyone else. Excellence means being better tomorrow than you were yesterday. Success means exceeding the achievements of other people. Excellence means matching your practice with your potential.”

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “How’s Your Work?”

From: TODAY IN THE WORD Wednesday, August 9, 2000

From: http://www.moody.edu/st/tiw/tdw/devotional.cfm?dy=09&mn=08&yr=2000

Author and Christian financial advisor Larry Burkett writes, “Christian employees need two characteristics in their lives. The first is excellence. The apostle Paul said, 'Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men’ (Col. 3:23). The second is honoring those in authority over you. Proverbs 11:2 says, 'When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.’ If you are working for someone, regardless of what his or her personality type might be, God says you are to give that person honor. Pray for and do everything in your power to help that person daily.”

Burkett’s comments remind us of another important purpose for the work we do every day. It’s one form of our witness to those outside the faith, giving us a ready-made platform to show the difference Christ has made in our lives. There are probably many readers of this devotional who can testify to the impact that faithful and honest work, performed with excellence, can have on unbelievers who watch them day by day.

The importance and value of work was an issue Paul had to deal with in Thessalonica more than once (see the August 2-3 studies). Some of those believers were not quietly going about their own work or minding their own business (2 Thess. 3:11). Instead, they refused to work.

The problem wasn’t just that these Christians were creating havoc in the church by their laziness. They were also giving God’s people a bad name with their pagan neighbors.

Maybe you’ve heard your pastor or some other teacher say that as Christians, we should be the best employees on the job, giving our employers a full day of productive work.

Often unbelievers have higher standards for Christians than Christians do for themselves.

When it comes to our work, let’s make sure we are holding ourselves to the high standards set in God’s Word. We have the opportunity to “make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:10) to people around us by the way we do our jobs. Ask God to help you show Christ to your unsaved co-workers by your faithful work this week. How you do your job reflects Christ.

LEADER: I’d like to add that the bosses and leaders need to be held to a higher standard as role models for their employees.

LEADER: LET’S LOOK AT SOME PRINCIPLES FOR EXCELLENCE:

From: In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters.

From: http://www.bible.org/illus/e/e-58.htm#TopOfPage

In his book In Search of Excellence, Tom Peters outlines eight principles of operation that are practiced by the most excellent, innovative corporations. They are:

· Act quickly.

· Serve the customer.

· Encourage creativity and innovations.

· Know the value of your employees

· Stay close to your business.

· Do what you do best.

· Don’t get fat at the top.

· Adhere to established values while allowing employee independence.

Peters points out that some of these characteristics are so basic that they are like “motherhood” and “apple pie.” They bore to yawns the average business student. On the other hand, says Peters, these qualities are almost conspicuously absent in most large companies.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Peter 2:9
But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Philippians 1:9-10 " And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, That you may approve the things that are excellent"

HAVE SOMEONE READ: IN “Approve Things Excellent” EXCERPT

Today in the Word 10/02/95

FROM: http://www.crusade.org/word/word276.html

"That you may approve"

The word "approve" means to test for approval. This is spiritual discernment. Discernment is the ability to distinguish between the chaff and wheat, the dross and the gold, the genuine and the superficial.

Automobiles need to be tested on a torture track before they are sold to the public. If a car's brakes do not meet the test, they are sent back for redesign. You do not put a car with faulty brakes on the market. Lives are at stake. In order to test those brakes, some standard for testing needs to be applied. A standard or measure for good brakes is needed. God wants us to test for approval, to have a criterion for whatever comes into our lives. That criterion is "excellence."

If we have this criterion, we can resolve the priorities of our life. Any problem or set of alternatives that is set before us should be measured by this standard. If we operate by this standard, we should be able to resolve any priority.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: IN “Approve Things Excellent” EXCERPT

Today in the Word 10/02/95

FROM: http://www.crusade.org/word/word276.html

"the things that are excellent"

"Excellence" carries with it the sense of what is vital. In Greek, excellence means to bear apart or to differ between; as with metals, you learn to tell one from another, the greater from the lesser. So things of excellence are things of greater value.

We should be able to test for approval the things which are the most valuable in life. None of us operates in life without some scale of values. The question is not whether we have a scale of values; the question is more which scale of values we choose. Do we choose God's highest values or some set of values we may prefer?

Where there is no scale of values, utter confusion follows. If you want to live a flustered life, then live life without an adequate set of ultimate values. In this situation nothing is of value, nothing of importance. To live life with everything of equal importance is to live life at a trivial level. Lesser things are as important as greater things.

If we choose as our ultimate value to make and save as much money as possible, then we have chosen a lesser value in God's economy. If we choose to put God's glory first no matter how much money we make, then we live by God's scale of values. It is a matter of what comes first. If our main objective is to make money, then we are number one in our values and God is number two. We need to decide what is important.

LEADER: Principle:

Christians need to test for approval the things of greatest value in God's economy.

LEADER: Application:

Do we have God's scale of values? What is the highest item on our scale of values? What is first or most important to us? A good way to measure these questions is to ask ourselves how we use our time. Our answers will reveal what is important in our lives. Then we will have a sense of what is vital.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Philippians 4:6-9 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

LEADER: “Think on These Things”

From: http://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/phi4v1.html

These thoughts are like beautiful pearls threaded on a chain of gold. What one thinks gives character to life. Bruce says, “As good food is necessary for bodily health, so good thoughts are necessary for mental and spiritual health.” Like eating good food, set your mind on these things and plan to act accordingly. Let this way of thinking become a mind-set or an attitude toward life. This can take place only in our attachment to Jesus Christ and fellowship with Him. Apart from Him there is no guarantee of peace of mind.

“Excellency” is the idea of moral excellence. God is like that and we are to be like Him.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 2 Peter 1:3-8 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

LEADER: IN “Virtue is Excellence” Today In The Word 3/31/95

FROM: http://www.crusade.org/word/word816.html

"Glory" in this context means heaven. Christians are headed for glory. He called us "to glory" (literally). God will glorify us in eternity because we believed in Christ in our lifetime.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Peter 5:10-11 "But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen".

LEADER: IN “Virtue is Excellence” Today In The Word 3/31/95

FROM: http://www.crusade.org/word/word816.html

Glory is a term of dignity and refers to God's essence but here it means more. Glory is the fact that God designed a perfect plan for us. God designed a plan where He and we cannot lose.

LEADER: IN “Virtue is Excellence”Today in the Word 3/31/95

FROM: http://www.crusade.org/word/word816.html

In the King James version 2 Peter 1:3 reads:

Through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue. Virtue instead of excellence.

“And Virtue”

"Virtue" occurs five times in the New Testament. God calls us to virtue. "Virtue" is excellence, praises (1 Peter 2:9). This word has lost some of its meaning to us today. "Virtue" means excellence in workmanship. The work of Christ is a work of excellence. God calls us by His own merit and workmanship. Virtue is a quality of excellence that belongs to God.

LEADER: IN “Virtue is Excellence”Today in the Word 3/31/95

FROM: http://www.crusade.org/word/word816.html

Principle:

We will ultimately triumph in God's plan for us.

Application:

God calls us to His Excellency. He is building excellent character in us. He called us with a definite purpose in mind. God is in the business of reproducing His Son in me (2 Timothy 1:9). I do not think any of us have been mistaken for the Lord Jesus lately. One of these days we will be like Him. In the meantime, we are supposed to become more and more like Him.

LEADER: Philippians 1:6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it the day of Christ Jesus.

PRAYER REQUESTS AND PRAISES

CUT AND DISTRIBUTE FOR READING:

From Websters: #1

excel: To be superior to in quality, degree, performance, etc.; to be outstandingly skilled or gifted.

excellence: very great merit, quality or ability.

From Websters” #2

perfect: Complete or correct in every way, conforming to a standard or ideal with no omissions, errors, flaws or extraneous elements.

perfection: the quality of state of being perfect

perfectionist: a person who is not content with anything less than the very best.

Philippians 4:8

1 Corinthians 12:31

“Excellence vs Perfection

QUOTE #1 Edwin Bliss once said, "The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time."

QUOTE #2 The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. PEARL S. BUCK

QUOTE #3 Excellence is to do a common thing is an uncommon way. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

QUOTE #4 In his fine book, Excellence, John Gardner says, "Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them...They achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly by 'doing what comes naturally' and they don't stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose."

QUOTE #5 Former pro basketball star Bill Bradley tells that at the age of 15 he attended a summer basketball camp that was run by Easy Ed Macauley, a former college and pro star. "Just remember that if you're not working at your game to the utmost of your ability," Macauley told his assembled campers, "there will be someone out there somewhere with equal ability who will be working to the utmost of his ability. And one day you'll play each other, and he'll have the advantage."

QUOTE #6 Brian Harbour picks up on this theme in Rising above the Crowd: “Success means being the best. Excellence means being your best. Success, to many, means being better than everyone else. Excellence means being better tomorrow than you were yesterday. Success means exceeding the achievements of other people. Excellence means matching your practice with your potential.”

1 Peter 2:9

Philippians 1:9-10

Philippians 4:6-9

2 Peter 1:3-8

1 Peter 5:10-11

“How’s Your Work?”

The problem wasn’t just that these Christians were creating havoc in the church by their laziness. They were also giving God’s people a bad name with their pagan neighbors.

Maybe you’ve heard your pastor or some other teacher say that as Christians, we should be the best employees on the job, giving our employers a full day of productive work.

The problem wasn’t just that these Christians were creating havoc in the church by their laziness. They were also giving God’s people a bad name with their pagan neighbors.

Maybe you’ve heard your pastor or some other teacher say that as Christians, we should be the best employees on the job, giving our employers a full day of productive work.

It’s true. The way we work will say much more about us than the words we say. Our unbelieving co-workers and neighbors know what we supposedly stand for, and they’re watching to see if we measure up. Our work is one way we can honor the name of Christ.
Often unbelievers have higher standards for Christians than Christians do for themselves. When it comes to our work, let’s make sure we are holding ourselves to the high standards set in God’s Word. We have the opportunity to “make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:10) to people around us by the way we do our jobs. Ask God to help you show Christ to your unsaved co-workers by your faithful work this week. How you do your job reflects Christ.

"That you may approve"

"the things that are excellent"

Philippians 4:6-9

2 Peter 1:3-8

1 Peter 5:10-11