Excellence

The speaker discusses the topic of excellence and its meaning from both a worldly perspective and a biblical perspective. From a worldly perspective, excellence is defined as being outstanding or extremely good in various areas such as academics, appearance, or work. However, from a biblical perspective, excellence is seen as the pursuit of Christ-like virtue and behavior that aligns with high moral standards. The speaker then reads John 3:16-21, emphasizing God's love and the importance of believing in Jesus for eternal life. The speaker encourages listeners to walk in obedience to God's will and live a life of excellence in Christ. They also express hope that people will come out of darkness and embrace the light of God's truth. The podcast ends with well wishes and a reminder to seek God's blessings. Hello everyone and welcome back to my podcast. My name is Schola and you are listening to Revealed. So it's been some time, I've had to take a bit of a hiatus because I wasn't actually called to send any messages last week. But this week I was reminded of a topic that the Lord wanted me to speak on which is excellence. And essentially we'll be going through what excellence actually means and then the Lord will lead me to John 3.16 and then also I will be discussing what excellence means to me through the lenses of the Lord. First and first, Father God I thank you for taking this opportunity to bring me in this position, O Lord. Thank you because I know your will will be done in my life and it will be done in those that are listening in this very moment. So to you and to you alone be the glory. Let no words be of my own, let them all be of yours. Reduce me so that you can be greater. Use me as your vessel, O Lord, to tell your people what it is that you want to tell them. To you and you alone be all the glory. I lift your name on high forever, Amen. Thank you Jesus, in Jesus name, Amen. All right, so let's go into the definitions of excellence. And I'm sure you guys are probably wondering what do you mean excellence is very clear. It means all things that is, you know, done to perfection or done to outstanding, you know, results. But I think it's important to give you the definition from the Google, you know, like the Encyclopedia or the Dictionary and then give you the definition from God. Okay, so excellence. It's the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. Okay, an outstanding, an outstanding feature or quality. Very good. Now let's look at what it means from the Bible. And it says here, the dictionary definition for excellence is the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. From a biblical perspective, being outstanding or extremely good seems most applicable when it is seen as the pursuit of or abounding in Christ-like virtue, i.e. behavior showing high moral standards. Awesome. Okay, so now let's move into John 3.16 because this is what I was led to read. And I'm going to read it all the way up to verse 21. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done has been done in the sight of God. Okay, so excellence to the world is, you know, being extremely good, right? At something or outstanding at, you know, whatever it is that they've, you know, done, performed, you know, showed off to the world or to their friends or whatever. This could be defined in any way. It could be a result in school. You've done A's, pluses in all your exams. It could be excellence in your dress sense or, you know, you're extremely clean. You have a very clean home to the point that you can eat off your toilet, for instance. You're excellent at committing to a task or you keep time to an excellent manner. You know, it could be anything, work-related, anything. But the definition from the biblical perspective is quite different. It's actually being outstanding or extremely good is only applicable in the pursuit of or abounding in Christ-like virtue, behaviour showing high moral standards. So, if you are thinking from a perspective that is beyond your own traditional culture, the one that has been made up by man, and it's only being satisfied through what God has already put in place as law, that is you in pursuit of and abounding in Christ-like virtue, which is excellence through the word, for the eyes of the Lord. When you exhibit behaviour that is showing a high moral standard. In order for you to understand what the high moral standards are, you need to first understand the laws of the Lord. He has very clear commands in the Bible. There are things about making it very clear that you are not allowed to lie, steal, you must love the Lord your God over all things. You are supposed to do as He says, because He is good. Anything He tells you to do, it's for your good. It's for your benefit. You enjoy that. God is already God. He's God all by Himself. He is God. He does not need anything from you, but He knows you need Him, and in order for Him to do the things that He's promised for you, or promised to you in your life, it could only be seen when you are walking in obedience in Him. So that's understanding His word, understanding what His commandments are, understanding His position, and even if you don't understand it, do it anyway. Understanding will come. Just pray and ask for more understanding and clarity, but do what He says, because when we pray the prayer, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So it's not my will be done, or you know, my neighbor's will be done, or my child will be done. It's God's will be done, not mine. It's not the politics will be done. It's not the government's will be done. It's not pleasing other people's will be done. No, it's God's will be done. So that means, even if we don't particularly like it, we still follow it, because it's not our will, but the will of God to be done on earth like it is in heaven, because God's will is always going to be His will in heaven. Things are done His way in heaven, but because He's given us will here on earth, He wants us to use our will to follow His will, because us following His will aligns us to all the good fruit that He has already aligned for us, the good promises that He has for us, ones that we don't perish, ones that we don't fall sick, ones that we don't get ourselves into positions that hurt us in the end. By following God's will, we actually save our lives. Okay? That includes sexual immorality. It includes lying, stealing, and not loving your God. It includes not showing your neighbor's love. It includes all of the above. There are many more that are very clear, but the two main ones are love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind, strength, everything about you should love the Lord, your body, everything about you should love the Lord, and we all know that love is a doing word. Love is an actionable word. That means you do what He says. You don't start swearing. He says you hold your tongue. You don't lie, or commit murder, or look lustfully at somebody. The minute you do, you ask for forgiveness, and you look away. Okay? If something causes you to sin, leave it alone. Don't go back, because you know it causes you, and it makes you tempted into doing something that you shouldn't be doing. I was listening to something of a podcast today, and some of the words was causing me to get aroused, but then I said to myself, no, that is not of God, so let me walk away from this. I turned it off, and I left the room, because I knew that I'm experiencing something that I should not be experiencing. Okay? Also, we're going to John 3, 16, verse 21. I did wonder why I was led here, but now reading it out loud to you guys made me understand why. Because God's character is one that is loving, and it's excellent. So excellent that He shows in His character how much He loves us, by sending His one and only Son to come and show us the way how to live a high moral life. He didn't come to condemn us. He actually came so that we can have life more abundant, an excellent kind of life, the life that we could only dream of. Once we align ourselves to the ways of God, our lives would 1,000% be better. Drugs, alcohol will no longer have a stronghold on you, because you've allowed Jesus Christ in to be an excellent example to you on how you must live your own life. Not only did He come Not only did He come as an excellent example, but whoever believes in Him, whosoever believes in Him, will have life ever after. But sadly, there are still some that like the darkness too much. They like their sin too much. They enjoy living a life that keeps them far from God, which is really sad. But I pray that all will see the light, come out of the darkness, and walk in the fear of the Most High God, because He's the only one that can save you. The only one. So, guys, live by truth, walk into the light, come into the light, so that you can live a life that is fruitful, happy, peaceful, joyful, and just full of promises just full of promises and hope and a pursuit of goodness and excellence in Christ Jesus. I wish you all a great week, and I hope to speak to you guys next week. Until then, have a blessed time. I don't know what time I've caught you guys, I've just left it at time. And God bless you. Take good care, guys. Bye.