Excellence
Tom Shrader explores what it means to live with excellence by looking at Jesus' human development in Luke 2:52, where He grew in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man. He challenges believers to pursue intellectual, physical, spiritual, and social growth while maintaining authentic relationships. Using examples from John Wooden's definition of success and various cultural figures, Tom emphasizes that excellence is about performing to your full potential rather than comparing yourself to others, all while pointing people toward the truth of Christ.
“The Bible is true when it says all of this will pass away, and all that's gonna last are people and God's Word.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Life Management (2013)
Recorded: October 03, 2013
Duration: 38 min
Themes: excellence, leadership, growth, potential, wisdom, character, development, authenticity, young leader, aspiring pastor, personal development, struggling with comparison, seeking purpose, mentor, new to leadership, young adult
Scripture: Luke 2:52, Mark 1, Mark 3, Mark 6, Mark 12, John 1, John 3
Theological Themes: incarnation, human nature, spiritual formation, christian maturity, sanctification, becoming holy, christlikeness, discipleship
Full Transcript
Session 2. So you have outlines. Let me kind of redo the introduction because it's important. Over the years, I've been doing this now 25 years, a quarter of a century serving the Phoenix community. We do all sorts of studies. Now my favorite one is to say open your Bibles to Romans 5 verse 3 and away we go. That, from a presenting position, is the easiest. You know the text. Here it is. Unpack it. Go.
The second one I enjoy are the character studies that we do. So the Gospels pull out maybe a case study in somebody's life or the life of Joseph, life of Daniel. This is a study that we developed in 1988. It was a 13 week study but I had a really hard time teaching it and then it became a seven week study and then it became a five week study. Somebody last week said I've been here a long time I've never seen it and it should have been in the rotation two years ago but I keep pushing it back. Let me explain why and then away we go.
Why This Study Is Challenging
We're going to talk about life and it can feel, my fear, not like a Bible study, though I say Bible based, but almost like a think and grow rich Joel Osteen, Robert Shuler rolled into one. That's not to criticize. It just simply could easily be misunderstood as power of positive thinking stuff. Those of you that know me, hopefully I've built up enough capital you know that's not my deal. I don't think anything. The only thing I'm positive about is how screwed up everything is.
In this study here's where this gets tough now. The role model is Jesus. So most of you who go to good churches focus on the deity of Jesus. He's fully God, fully man right? When we talk about His deity freely, so last week we talked about purpose, well Jesus' purpose was to save His people from their sin. So if I say go be like Jesus, you can't accomplish that.
If I say here's Jesus and there's 5,000 people that are hungry, He says well give me some loaves and fishes, you call Chick-fil-a. If He walks on water you get wet. So it's the deity part of it, we can't ask you to emulate that, but there's a humanity side to Jesus. If you begin to process you go okay I don't know that He struggled with these things. I had a great line last week I thought, it came to me while I was speaking, which was He was the Alpha and the Omega, right? But He had to learn the alphabet.
Excellence: The Topic at Hand
So we talked about purpose. What we're talking about today and this is so subjective, is this idea of excellence. Here you go on your outline. Performing to your full potential, exceeding expectations of those around you. When we start talking about excellence, we should acknowledge that we're talking about something that's totally subjective.
I was talking with Tyler the other day and one of the things about our church is that we attract a lot of young men who want to pastor, lead, teach. That is good. That's what occupies most of my energy are young guys. What's hard is to deal with them in the teaching thing. So we'll put a young man and say okay you're the young man you're teaching. And then it's brutal because you look around the room and you know there's two dozen guys that are scrutinizing and they're holding up 9.3, 4.8.
We'll sit and we're talking about a young guy the other day and I mentioned his name and five people go it's the best sermon including anything you've ever done. It's the best sermon I've ever heard. And five other guys going I don't understand anything he said. So it's subjective.
The Subjectivity of Excellence
So I walk in, I have friends at one of our campuses. If I walk in with a Circle K cup, I mean they're going you what do you got in there? Can't be coffee. You wouldn't drink that would you? No Starbucks. Starbucks? We're cartel and they're beginning to sell out. I mean it's that kind of a mindset. So what's excellence in this?
This is a great quote. Mediocrity is excellent in the eyes of the mediocre. So that's really good. Well here's what we're going to ask you to do and this is really hard for you to do is to look in this context of the study at your own life to be self-aware. It's very difficult to be aware and evaluate yourself accurately.
The Challenge of Self-Assessment
Sandy and I had a conversation last night about something and then we got into ideas and philosophy which was just I don't know and she ended up being late for a meeting. I mean those are great moments. That's a conversation moment about the great things of life. I had yesterday had an opportunity to be a small part of a big event of a memorial service for one of the ladies who came here periodically. Her husband's here today and passed away and it was a memorial service.
I kept there were all these people who for 30 years have been around stuff I've done and I've always told Sandy I was really something in my day and Sandy will always say you know I've got to take your word for this because I don't see it. She said how would you assess this yesterday and I said I'm not as good as I think I am and I'm not as bad as you think I am to get that view of this.
Examples of Excellence
John Wooden, iconic. I mean I have these things by the way how many you've watched the book on Manning yet have you. How many of you have seen this yet? Any of you need to see the show ESPN has done it. I started as a 30-30 and then like everything else the SEC has hijacked it but it's on Archie Peyton Eli Cooper. It starts on Archie and you watch this show and Sandy doesn't care about sports. Sports to her are a reason to eat and I said I want you to watch it because it's story.
Has anybody seen this thing yet? What do you people do with your life that you don't have? I watched it last night at 1:30 for the third time and you watch this. You're 20 minutes into it and you wish Archie Manning was your dad. In John Wooden there's a clip where Rick Riley comes to interview
John Wooden, and at the time the coach is 96, and Riley says just being with him makes you want to be a better person. This Manning in his book on Manning goes from them to Archie and then to Peyton, and these home movies they shot. These guys just beat the snot out of Peyton. Peyton's this little kid three years old and all they just—I don't know what Archie's doing—there's kicking him, Peyton's crying. He seems to have overcome this, by the way.
But John Wooden, here's his definition of success, which came out of teaching English in I think Martinville High School—I could be wrong on where it was. Martinville's where he's from, but he was an English teacher, which makes this stuff he writes so profound. He always considered himself a teacher, never a coach. He had these kids who were getting B's and C's and their parents were mad because they thought they were A students. Wooden's not exactly long on flexibility, I don't think. So he worked at this, tweaked it, it became something he wrote by the end of the 40s and carried through life.
Wooden's Definition of Success
So Wooden's definition is: success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction and knowing you did your best to become the best you're capable of becoming. It's self-satisfaction. So I can't determine—is Peyton—I mean Peyton is operating, and if you're not a football person I apologize here, but Peyton is operating at a level that's like a video game. I mean I can't even—I don't even know what "Omaha Omaha hurry hurry hurry" and everybody's moving and I don't know. These guys can't get to the bus on time but they all move on—I don't know—and everybody's moving, Peyton disappears, the ball pops out, they pick up 15 yards. I don't know.
But Tony Dungy said the other day he said he's not even close to where he's going to be in November. Really. And yet we don't know if Peyton's successful or not by this definition. And then by this definition he'd probably say no because he missed a guy the other day—there was a guy kind of open and he missed him like a foot. This is all about—and this will kill you—this is all about you looking at your life.
My daughter Sarah—hey, we just had this discussion the other day about school—and Sarah never studied and got A's. Haley killed herself and got A's and B's. Haley could get a B and be successful. Sarah could get an A and be a failure by this. So this is about you looking at you.
Not Too Late for Excellence
And I made this point last week: you know, for most of you when we start talking like this, there's something in you that flinches and says, "You know what, that train left the station for me a long time ago. I gave up purpose, excellence. My goal now is to get to the finish line before the government takes my last dollar." That's kind of where it feels like everybody I'm hanging around with. That's how we feel.
And I'm saying, no, you're not done till you breathe your last breath. And at very least, if you look at this and say, "This doesn't work for me," let me tell you it works for your kids and your grandkids.
I had a moment and I think I shared it last week with Brayden—Brayden's seven. When I talked about this last week, your favorite president. And I said, "Who's your favorite president?" He said, "Franklin Pierce." I said, "Really? Wouldn't have picked Franklin Pierce." And it started this discussion about how did you know about Franklin Pierce? And I said, "Buddy, what do you want to learn?" Here's what he said, and I lost this gene a long time ago. He said, "Papa, I want to know everything."
And it energized me to go, "Okay, bud, we're going to have to get some flashcards. We're going to have to work. Let's make a trip to New Hampshire someday to see where Franklin Pierce"—who I think was a president—"Franklin Pierce will go." And it's everything. It's to see the world through those eyes again.
The Challenge of Cynicism
I met yesterday with a young guy in town. You may or may not know him. And he was talking about when he was 21, how he was going to change the world. And now he's 26 and not even sure he wants to live in it. It's that kind of thing. And it runs against the grain, and you got to resolve this.
So here you go: by performing to your full potential. I don't even know what that is. I know this—you're not an overachiever. That's impossible. It's to accurately analyze these gifts and talents God's given you and the experience He's given you. And then to understand that there's people around you that are going to kick you down in this. I always thought there'd be people that want to pull you up.
I was the other day at home and I was watching a documentary on Steve Jobs. Here's what the guy said—think about this, this is so rich. I'm thinking about using this this weekend up in Williams somewhere. This guy said, "Everyone in Steve Jobs' life went through three phases: Seduction, then being ignored, then being scourged." Depending on whether he needed you or not. Steve ultimately betrayed everyone. You want that on your tombstone?
The Accurate View of Yourself
It's that accurate view. And it's that accurate view and looking how you fit in this place. And you're here at the end of the day to be like Archie or Wooden. That people walk away and say, "I want to be like him or be like her." Not necessarily a miniature them, but expose this. God's given you this unique gifts, sets, talents. It doesn't have to be in a big stage, it's on our stage.
So here you go, looking at the life of Jesus. Let's walk through that outline. We'll come kind of close to it. He's prepared. Let me remind you again, circle that Luke 2:52 because we don't think of it often in terms of Jesus. He grew in wisdom, stature, favor with God and man. He grew intellectually, physically, spiritually, socially. That's the way you're to grow.
Constant Growth
That there's never this—especially now with this explosion of information that you have around you—is that you're constantly learning. You're constantly growing intellectually. You're reading new stuff. I mean, my seven-year-old
My grandson made me go and Google Franklin Pierce. That whole sentence has in it "Google Franklin Pierce," which sounds dirty in a way, and it didn't even exist however many years ago. You're growing intellectually, you're growing physically. It's a matter of maintaining yourself. Spiritually is that I'm to be falling in love more with Jesus every day.
That's my answer to - I was talking to myself at a record pace driving down here today, and I keep falling back to that's the key right there. There's a guy by the name of Thomas Chalmers, an old Puritan. You can Google Thomas Chalmers, and what'll pop up among other things is a piece He wrote called "The Powerful Expulsion of a New Affection." That sounds really complicated, but here's what He's saying: you're not going to give up something till you love something else more.
The Power of New Affection
Here's the key to me staying faithful to Sandy and keeping this marriage vital: I need to love her more. I need to love her more so that whatever comes along, all of a sudden I'm like, "But I love her more." So how do people change? You have this thing that you love, whatever it is, but it's something you don't want to love. It's something that's captured your heart or your mind, but you want it out of there. What do you do? You replace it with something else.
We see it with the grandkids. If they're messing around with something, my response is to go over and say, "No, no," and I take it away. All I create is chaos. All of a sudden, all eight of them are going, "Eh, eh, eh." Sandy comes along, never says no. She simply takes what they're playing with - here's the key - and replaces it with something else.
So here's the sin in my heart. I need to take it away, but if I leave a void, sin is going to rush back in. I need to replace it with a relationship with Christ, a growing with Him. I need to love Him more than I love whatever that sin is.
Growing in Social Favor
I'm growing socially. I'm afraid, as Christians sometimes, we miss this - growing in favor with God and man. There's something so compelling about living the Christian life that it becomes, in a sense, irresistible to the people around you. Rather than construct this complex mode of behaviors, I'll give you an example.
Bill's son Brian and my son-in-law Tyler coach a six and seven-year-old baseball team. It's interesting to me this year, the number of parents who wanted to get their kids on this team. It's not because they win - no, they're three and O. It's because of Brian and Tyler. You just watch, and He's a miniature you, which is really kind of cool too. You watch Him with these boys. These boys get more affirmation when they strike out than I got if I went three for four. "Swing hard. Don't worry. It doesn't matter." It matters, but it doesn't matter. The kids want it, and the parents want it.
Here's what I suggested to you: they see, that's Jesus. Jesus affects the way I look at these games. I know it sounds stupid, but it affects everything. This was my first trip - we have a new Circle K by us, and I've been waiting. It took them longer to build this Circle K than it did the Empire State Building, literally. This was my first trip there, and I've been waiting for this. I would suggest my trip to the Circle K and my reaction to the lack of paper towels and the inappropriate places of stuff was moderated by my love for Jesus.
See, that's what I'm saying. All of a sudden, in a world where He ultimately betrayed everybody He knew, if you just show up on time and nice, they're going to go, "What's different about you?" You're growing in this whole process. You're growing in wisdom - the ability to connect the dots.
His Performance and Authority
It's the second thing in your outline. In Mark chapter one, Jesus blows into town and He begins to teach. People were amazed at His teaching because He taught them as one who had authority, not like the teachers of the law. Now you can't replicate - He is authority, He is truth. You can't replicate that, but you have truth.
Yesterday at the memorial service, it was an hour and 19 minutes. I was the close. It was an hour and 19 minutes, and I said - and I think it's close - we just had an hour and 19 minutes when we didn't think about Obamacare or government shutdown or bills that weren't paid or loans that were denied. There's some death and the certainty of it. That's the thing that's amazing - the certainty of this transcends all of this life and gives everything focus.
What People Really Want
All of a sudden people are going, "Listen, I want" - and I think this is genuinely true - "I want to love and be loved and know and be known. I want a sense of peace and satisfaction." Here's what people want. See if this list rings a bell: I want love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. It's the fruit of the Spirit. They want Jesus. They just don't know enough to ask.
Your answer to every one of life's issues and you will astound your friends. All of a sudden you sound profound and wise. Steve Jobs - again, you can Google it - did what's become kind of famous commencement address at Stanford. He made three points, and the last one was about depth. It's about 15 minutes. It's worth watching.
The Wisdom of Ecclesiastes
It gave me an idea of something that I'll never do but would be profound, which would be to take Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet - you know, the "lean into it" chick, whatever her name is - all these guys and go, "Here's what they're saying," and then just put Ecclesiastes under it. It could be so powerful because Bill Gates is going, "Death. I realize that ultimately I'm going to die." Well, then He's not quite as smart as we thought He was if it took Him that long to figure it out.
Then He realized this is the great equalizer. He said, "You have to live every day as though it were your last." Well, that's unrealistic.
Excellence Through Wisdom and Perspective
I want to live with that overshadowing and people intuitively know it, and you will astound your friends. I've watched it happen.
Here's how I define wisdom: the ability to connect the dots, to see the forest and the trees, to see life in its ultimate perspective. And you live this.
I'm a college football guy. I mean, that's my deal. And I now have Sundays where I'm not teaching, so Sandy got me the red zone. Now, hang on. This is a great point. I think the red zone has ruined football for me because in the red zone, every play is a scoring play. All of a sudden, when you go to watch a regular game, NFL looks like baseball now. I mean, we're gonna be slow, we're gonna line up, we're gonna do this.
The Red Zone Pace of Life
That's what's happened to all our life. All our life has become red zone. There isn't any downtime. You have a whole generation that's never... Last night, Sandy went to a meeting and I was hungry, so I got a Marie Callender's frozen chicken pot pie that has to go in the microwave for the unbelievable amount of six minutes. Six minutes seems like a long time to wait for a chicken pot pie. And then it has to sit for five, which I don't understand.
There's a whole generation that have been raised on six-minute chicken pot pies. My mom used to bake them - get the crust, it would sit - it was like a three-day deal. All life's accelerated to the red zone. I don't have any time to step back and go, "You know what, we got to let this settle." We can't live at a hurry-hurry-hurry Omaha pace all day long. You can't do it.
You come along and say, "You know what, why don't we take a deep breath? And why don't we let things just settle for a minute." You come along and, all I'm saying is, Jesus astounded His friends because He taught the truth. You know the truth. You have the answer. You have the answer to all these complexities of life.
God Has Positioned You With Purpose
You can tell people, "Listen, here's the truth." And God put you here - not to blow smoke at you - God put you here in this environment for that reason.
There were people yesterday at the memorial. Every memorial service reminds me of this: there are people who get it, so we do all the Jesus stuff. There's a whole bunch of people who want to just get out of there. They want to say hi, they want to pay tribute, but they don't want to deal with it. And it astounds me. It astounds me how many people haven't even thought this thing through. And you have that opportunity. You have that opportunity.
Meeting People's Desperate Need
Here you go. I'm a... I used to be an infomercial guy, and I love infomercials. I love the model of them. Last night at one o'clock - because I'm not sleeping very well - I've got a bag of Twizzlers watching Hip Hop Abs. What's the irony of that?
There used to be - the government shut them down - the psychic hotlines. Now let me remind you of this: $3.99 a minute. And we knew statistically, after studies, the average call was 38 minutes. That's $151.62 to go, "Hello? Yes. Who's this? Tom? Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, here's what I'm sensing. You're a dreamer that have never followed your dreams." She knows me.
Hang on. "Tom, I have another call." Click. $3.99. How desperate do you have to be? Well, two o'clock in the morning when you're all by yourself, you're pretty desperate and you've exhausted everything else. And God puts you in that place.
The Power of Genuine Care
Here you go. New book out on Charles Manson. Not the typical role model. They redo some of the stuff, they reinvent him, they refine him. They said to the girls - the Manson girls - "What was Charlie's deal? How did he get you to do this?"
The book that influenced Charles Manson the most... I'm going to take the Bible off because that would be the ultimate... The book that influenced Charles Manson the most was Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." He learned how to look people in the eye. I mean, it is an amazing thing. And he learned to... the girls would go, "It was like Charlie cared about us."
See, that's the whole thing - just to look and go, "He cares. We care." I got something you need, not in an arrogant way, but if you love people and care for people and answer questions for people.
Expect Opposition Even From Family
Now, lest you get carried away and think everybody's going to go, "Wow, this is great!" - look at family, community, and leaders. Jesus is thrown under the bus.
There's a point in Mark chapter 3 where Jesus comes into a house and He's gathered together and people are there, and they're studying and He's teaching. His family heard about this and they said, "He's out of His mind."
Don't you think now for a second, as you live this new life... You know, I'd love to think the power of the Holy Spirit - not me, but the power of the Holy Spirit - moves you to go, "I want to live like this." Don't think everybody's gonna go, "You're great."
Personal Experience of Family Resistance
God saved me in 1980. I tried to figure out... my family's 1,500 miles away, which is probably about the right distance to witness to them. And I felt I had to live in a certain way.
My folks were thrilled that I wasn't drinking, that I was sober, that I seemed to be able to maintain a job. They seemed less interested in... well, just that. But I had a brother - I have three brothers - but I called one of my brothers and I told him, "Here's what's going on." And I said, "Jesus has saved me."
And he started to laugh, which I'm all right with that. And I said, "Gosh, that wasn't the reaction I expected."
He said, "Do you remember... Well, you know you're in trouble. Do you remember the night that we were at such-and-such for a big dinner? And you got really drunk and you walked out, and there's a main thoroughfare called Third Street, and you went down to Third Street and passed..."
out. A friend of yours who was delivering pizzas found you and brought you home. Do you remember that? I said, "Wow, no, I remember waking up smelling like pepperoni, but vague on the details. I don't remember the details." He said, "Yeah, and what's that now? Jesus."
So I'm watching The Good Wife, but I'm back on season one. They're just introducing this character, maybe coming to cry. I don't know where it's going. But all I'm reminded of is the skepticism all around this. His family's suspicious. The community is suspicious. They're going, "Wait a minute, wasn't His dad the carpenter? This is this guy from Nazareth, right?" The religious leaders are suspicious.
Living Out God's Design
But here's what we said last week. We want to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reason. What's going to dictate that is not Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates, or the home office. They'll speak into it, but ultimately out of here, I'm going to begin to live in a way that allows me to be who God created me to be in my own expression of that.
Where this gets really complicated is it's going to look very different for different people. So Mark and Chrissy are going to live that out different than maybe Kevin would. It's going to be different than Clarkie would. Look at the final analysis—His competitors.
What Others Say About You
This is Mark chapter 12. I've always loved this scene. Later, they sent some Pharisees and Herodians—this is like Ted Cruz and Harry Reid is who you got here. These guys agree on nothing other than they're going to get Jesus, and they come to Him to catch Him.
Here's what they say: "You're a man of integrity." So we stopped—this isn't profound. What would they say about you? That's an amazing thought. Even when they try to catch Him, they're going—like with Daniel—the only thing we know is He'll always do the right thing.
I read that Steve Jobs—I don't know Steve Jobs from nothing. I mean, I remember going through when he died, "He gave us the iPhone, he gave us"—and I always, if he didn't give me squat, I bought the iPhone, bought the iPad, I bought the iPod. I guess he revolutionized how we communicate and all this. But I wouldn't trade all of that for he ultimately betrayed everybody he knew. Now I'm not trying to beat the guy up, and I presume that statement isn't totally true. I presume he didn't betray his mother, didn't betray a barista somewhere. But what he's saying is doing business with this guy or trusting this guy is dangerous.
What do they say about you? The guys that are getting—listen, here you go, listen to what they say about Jesus: "You're a man of integrity, you're not swayed by men because you pay no attention to who they are. You teach the way of God in accordance with His truth." It's not that we don't care about people, but if along comes a new idea and it's contrary to this, this trumps everything.
The Bible Is True
You don't need to write this down, right? I don't think you need to write this down, but I want to make the point at Williams, and it's my new deal: The Bible is true. Now when you hear that, your flinch is to go sin, salvation, heaven. I'm saying it's true when it says all of this will pass away. All that's going to last are people and God's Word.
Ultimately, I'm doing—it's like a greatest hits—but Warren Buffett, they're asking Buffett about success. Now the minute you quote him, you downgrade him because you go, "Obviously you can be happy, I'd be happy if I had Berkshire." Buffett said, "If I have a few friends and my family, I'll be a success." That's kind of sort of true, but I live in this red zone, Omaha, hurry, hurry. I live in that world that I don't have time to figure out what the seven-year-old who Franklin Pierce is, and that he probably shouldn't be on Mount Rushmore. But those are the things that ultimately make a difference in this.
The Verdict on Jesus
He's judged—I don't know if you remember this, I hope you do—He goes to Pilate and all they're looking for is a guilty verdict, because they've got the charge and they've got the death penalty. They need somebody to say He's guilty, and Pilate says, "I can't find anything wrong with Him." Those around Him ultimately say—you know what, in John chapter 3, John—I watched a little, Mark was texting me the other day, O'Reilly on 60 Minutes, and you know, Bill continues to have not a clue about theology, but he's talking about the Gospel John and John the writer. He's disputing that it's John that—I think most historians and theologians would say that John who was John the Apostle is John who wrote the Gospel.
When John writes, arguably maybe 50 years after the fact, in John chapter 1, he said He came to His own. "All who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." That's not who I am by nature—by nature I'm a child of wrath.
Our Broken Nature
Haley FaceTimed me last night, and the boys were with Tyler. Tyler was teaching, Sandy happened to be at that meeting, so Sandy was working with the boys, and she FaceTimed me. So the girls were there, and Harmony was on first, and she's going, "Hi," but the minute there was an interaction, then Lucy couldn't leave that alone. Now Lucy wants in, and now it looked like the Mannings. Now I'm talking to Haley, and the two girls are over there beating on each other because they want FaceTime, which is essentially good, but I want my thing my way, me.
That's what's broken. That's what's broken in every relationship, everywhere. I come into a relationship—so a house divided against itself cannot stand, all right, that's Civil War stuff, but a marriage, a friendship—so I come into every one of these with this thing called sin that says, "I want to get to know you, and I want to be your friend based on what I'm going to get out of this." So when we're talking, you go, "Man, I'm—you know, I'm a Cardinal fan," I'm making this up, "I'm a Cardinal fan, and I got great seats, and I'm"
a Cardinals fan, oh wow. In your mind—you don't have to shake your head, don't give it away—the minute you hear they have great seats, you're thinking your rear ought to be in one of them, aren't you? If I'm with them long enough, if I swing them a deal. So I bring this sin into this relationship, or I bring the relationship and go "if then."
I was watching Sandy this morning get ready. It's a running day, and I'm going, here she is, she's a dinky thing, 5'2", probably weighs a little more because muscle's heavier, she's this big around. I said to myself, which is the best place to keep this: would I love her if she was 5'2"? So I love you "if then"—that's all the brokenness that you bring in.
Freedom from the "If Then" Mentality
God, if you know Christ, has changed that. You don't have to live in this "me" or "if then" world. If all of a sudden you come to the table and say, "Let me see, I'll bring what I can," and you know what, if I don't get anything out of it, I don't get anything out of it.
It's Ronald Reagan: there's no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. But we're arguing over the credit—my bill, this bill, my idea, this idea. At the end of the day, you are by nature a child of wrath, but now you're a child of God. The Bible's right, and you're a new creature.
It's not just about heaven. I'm all excited about heaven, can't wait to get there. I wish my motives were more pure—I want to get there more to get out of here than to be with Jesus, and that's sad. But while I'm here, He's changed this. You don't have to live that self-absorbed, selfish life based on just you, and who you are, and what about you.
Servant Leadership in Practice
If you want to be really crass, what you're talking about now is servant leadership. Probably customer—I probably just gave you Nordstrom's philosophy of work, really. Don't chew gum, follow the rules. That's what the world's looking for, and you can be that. By world, I don't mean the world—I mean your world, your friends.
We'll pick up right there next week.
Father, thank You for this amazing truth. To think that You love us and You've changed us is an awesome reality. In this red zone, hurry-up world, let us just take a breath. Let us compete, but in a way that says we want to compete for Your glory, not for our success. Let us be the people You designed us to be. Some are going to be nerdy little people who are worried about X's and O's, and some are big picture. One's not better than the other—they're just different. God, You made us. Now let us live the way You've created us. We pray that in Christ's name, amen.