00:00Right now I'll ask my question, here we go.
00:06I had the privilege of knowing Pastor Skeed when I was a student at Andrews University
00:12and on the weekends I just happened to room with the program director for campus ministries
00:19and it was Israel and so he said, hey, come on out on the weekends, you can help teach
00:22some missionaries.
00:23And there was a double wide mobile home there outside of Ann Arbor, two of them, and on
00:31Sabbath we would eat rice and beans, I remember that.
00:37And anyways, there was a certain culture of a statement like higher than the highest.
00:47Do you remember that?
00:48I remember one year the mantra was higher than the highest after the book education,
00:53higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for his children.
00:57And I think that one of the things that I drew from every talk or being around you,
01:05praise the Lord, is that there is this element of excellence that exudes.
01:15You mentioned in your talk earlier that Christians should be known for their excellence.
01:22And there's almost this mentality sometimes that you can be a Christian and slovenly and
01:27late, lack of attention to detail, sloppy work, and so forth.
01:35Could you talk a little bit more about being ambitious for the Master's glory, excellence,
01:44higher than the highest human thought can reach, and how that can be incorporated into
01:49the Christian life, not for our own glory, but for God's glory?
01:52Surely.
01:53Ella White makes a very interesting comment in the book, The Desire of Ages, page 72,
01:59paragraph 4, speaking about Jesus Christ.
02:02She said, he was not willing to be defective even in the use of tools.
02:08He was as perfect a workman as he was in character.
02:13Now pause and think of what she just said.
02:16What she's saying is that when Jesus Christ, who by training and trade was a carpenter,
02:22when he applied himself to the making of a chair or a table or whatever, he applied it
02:28with the same care with which he took care of his personal character, which we know to
02:34have been sinless.
02:35And so she said, he was as perfect a workman as he was in character.
02:43The Desire of Ages, page 72, paragraph 4.
02:46This is an astonishing statement.
02:48It is all the more astonishing when we realize the life of Christ in human form is an example
02:55for us.
02:57Not most of the life, the very life he lived in human flesh is an example for you and for
03:04me.
03:05But of course, we have to believe that.
03:07The Bible says, seest thou a man diligent in his business, Proverbs 22, verse 29.
03:14He shall stand before kings.
03:16He shall not stand before mean men.
03:19If you study Daniel 6, when Darius chose Daniel to be the head of the princes or the governors,
03:27he chose him because an excellent spirit was in him.
03:31That's what the Bible says.
03:33And so Darius dismissed the fact that Daniel was from another ethnic group.
03:38What he saw was the excellence in Daniel.
03:43God cannot put a rubber stamp on sloppiness and mediocrity.
03:47He cannot do that.
03:49And so that's why I said a bit it was yesterday or whenever it was.
03:53Excellence is Christian behavior because ultimately we are representing God.
04:00And so when God made the world, as I said, Genesis 131, and God saw everything that he
04:05had made and behold, it was very good.
04:08Many years ago, I went to Barbados to see my sister.
04:11And she lives in a little house and there's a little front yard and someone mowed the
04:17front yard.
04:18I hesitated to use the word mow because there was no lawnmower.
04:22When I saw it, I said to her, who did this yard?
04:26Because the grass was cut round between rocks that could not be pulled up.
04:30And I was just astonished, who did this?
04:33That was my first response.
04:34And then she told me who it was, a brother from her local church.
04:38And I said to myself, the impression it made on me, the thoroughness with which he did
04:44that job would have drawn me to his church more than any argument he possibly could have
04:48made.
04:49Of course, he's already one of us.
04:50And so what I'm saying to you, my young friends and my not so young friends, excellence is
04:56required of God's people.
04:58As a matter of fact, God requires more excellence from you than he does from the unbeliever.
05:05Because you and I have the benefit of contact with Christ and the unbeliever does not.
05:10The same way, ours is personal, his is more general because God so loved the world.
05:16Our connection with Christ is personal.
05:18Consequently, we should feel the duty to be excellent in whatever we do.
05:26If we were to do that, we would be the most prized employees in any work environment.
05:32We would be the best students in any classroom setting.
05:35We'd be the best neighbors in any residential setting.
05:39Excellence in all that we do is required of us by God because this is part of the image
05:45of God.
05:46There is and was and never will be any mediocrity in God.
05:51And it should not be seen in God's people.
05:53Now, let me say quickly because this is an academic environment, does that mean you get
05:56all A's in your classes?
05:58No.
05:59It simply means that when you've done your work, you've done the very best you can do.
06:03Now, if that's a B, fine.
06:05But you know in your...
06:06You see, Sabbath keeping is connected to weekly excellence.
06:11You say to yourself or to me, what do you mean?
06:14Listen to verse 31 of Genesis 1.
06:17Let me pray.
06:18Fathers, I speak to your people.
06:20Tell me what to tell them, I pray, please.
06:22In Jesus' name, amen.
06:24And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good.
06:29Then he rested.
06:30He rested from a week of excellent work.
06:34When you and I do sloppy work during the week, we know it's been sloppy.
06:39Then we really can't keep the Sabbath, what are you resting from?
06:43Are you with me?
06:44You can't rest from sloppiness.
06:45You can't rest from that.
06:46What are you resting from?
06:48You see, the rest must be physical and mental.
06:50In other words, you must be able to say, look, I looked at my week of duties, I have done
06:54all I could.
06:55Only God could have done more.
06:57You rest.
06:59Your conscience isn't bothered.
07:01You did not shortcut your employer or your teacher or your parents.
07:04I have done all that I could when the woman anointed the feet of Christ and the disciples
07:09rebuked, he said, leave her alone.
07:11She has done what she could and all she did was wash his feet.
07:16She has done what she could and so all I'm saying to you is, in all that you put your
07:20hand to do and I, make a conscious effort to do the very best, particularly in the spiritual
07:29area of the life.
07:30But if you and I do it in the educational, the social, the environmental, it will spill
07:36over into the spiritual.
07:38The most important of all, we serve a savior who demonstrated excellence.
07:45We must regard excellence not simply as something we do, but something we are.
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