Built Different: Living a Spirit of Excellence

``We live in this Christian culture that a lot of times just thinks grace covers everything to the point where just sloppy in what we do, sloppy in what we what we say, and then we just blame the grace of God. Grace does not excuse sloppy living. Grace empowers growth. And living a life of excellence, being built different is not perfection, but it is stewardship. Excellence is stewardship. [00:53:04] (34 seconds)  #ExcellenceIsStewardship

We choose excellence because it adds value to every team that we're on. You know, I've lived a lot of my life wondering if I'm a little extra, a little too much for people, and I am. And I'm still a work in progress, but God has done a work in my life and has reminded me and continues to remind me that a spirit of excellence and living my life with excellence is not extra, it's stewardship. [01:14:06] (32 seconds)  #ExcellenceAddsValue

It's about learning and growing and maturing and adding value to everything we say and do. You know everything Jesus did in the New Testament was done on purpose with a purpose and with excellence. He also never cut corners. He also was not sloppy in the way that he lived his life. He didn't operate in chaos, he showed us what it looks like to serve and live a life of excellence. [00:53:39] (27 seconds)  #PurposefulExcellence

This is a message for every single one of us. There is no junior holy spirit. Young people, if you are in the room today, I want you to know this applies just as much as it applies to the oldest in the room because God is a God who wants to encourage our lives to understand that we are all called to live a life of excellence. We can begin establishing this in our life now and today. God is not wanting us to wait until one day. Every one of us are built different and called to live a life of excellence. [00:57:14] (31 seconds)  #EveryoneCalledToExcellence

There have been some things in in my life that I've had to walk through and take the high road in and and allow God to develop a spirit of excellence in me because I was willing and still willing to show up and do work when no one's looking, because I was willing and still willing to go a different route, because I was willing and still willing to take the high road. And I don't leave today with this cockiness, but I'm telling you I have a confidence now because I know that I add value to every team I'm on. [00:59:09] (34 seconds)  #GoTheHighRoad

We don't choose this and live this way for our spouse. If you're choosing to live a life of excellence for your spouse, good luck. If you're choosing to live a life of excellence for your pastors, good luck. If you're choosing to live a life of excellence for your coaches, good luck. We don't do it for those reasons. We don't do it to be noticed and get the applause and we have to continually check our motives, but we choose to live a life of excellence for the glory of God because a spirit of excellence sets us apart and shines bright and last time I checked, people are attracted to the light. [01:00:43] (40 seconds)  #LiveExcellenceForGod

It takes a team in our homes, it takes a team in our workplaces, it takes a team in our church, and when we strength, when our strength is in sync like we learned last week, our lives move forward toward God and toward His plan for our life. And so the question I have for all of us today, every single one of us, do you want to add value to the teams that you're on? [00:44:31] (33 seconds)  #TeamsNeedYourValue

And it's important that we talk about this today and often because we live in a society and a culture that just continues to lower the bar, continues to lower the standard and the expectation of how we should live and conduct our lives, in the church. For some reason when it comes to God's house, we bend toward lowering our expectation and our level of excellence rather than raising it because oh, it's just God's house. And to that I would say, yes, it is God's house. And so the level of excellence and expectation and skill and attention to detail should be that much higher because it's God's house. [00:52:09] (49 seconds)  #RaiseTheBarInChurch