Values: "A Church That Does It's Best"

 

Values

“A Church That Does It’s Best”

Introduction:

Good morning church family. 

Visitors…welcome. I am so glad to see you this morning…all of you. My name is Stuart Davidson and I am the pastor here at Eastern Shore Baptist Church. 

I know it is the same information every week but I want to remind you that we have a prayer line. It is open 24 hours a day…7 days a week. It doesn’t matter if you have been a member of this church since it’s inception or if you walked into these doors 20 minutes ago for the first time, we want to pray for you. Text us a prayer request at 251-222-8977. 

Surgery?

Family issues?

Job change?

It doesn’t matter, big or small, we care about you. I care about you. So, let us pray for you. 

Today we are in our second week of a new series entitled “Values”. When I was thinking of this series an image popped into my mind. DNA. You know what I am talking about? The double helix structure of DNA. The values of this church, really any church, is like the DNA of the church. The values of a church are the building blocks of the church. Everything in the church, what really drives us, what excites us, what makes us what we are…are found in the DNA of our values. So, what are our values? Good question. 

We put God first. 

We do our best.

We are contributors, not consumers, with an eternal perspective.

WE over ME.

We embrace and enjoy the journey.

We give to the glory of God.

Last week we looked at our first value, “A Church That Put’s God First”. 

We heard Jesus’ words captured in Matthew 22. Jesus tells His followers that, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Basically, loving God means loving your neighbor and loving your neighbor means loving God. We discussed what it means to actually love God and we talked about the definition of the word neighbor. 

If you remember I gave you a bit of a history lesson. I told you why this church, Eastern Shore Baptist Church, was planted. I told you how we came into existence. We started as a mission of Daphne Baptist Church. Our creation as a body was to reach the neighborhood of the Lake Forest neighborhood. I want you to remember that the doorway to the nations is through the Lake Forest neighborhood. If we cannot reach Lake Forest for Christ, what hope do we have to reach our globe for God?

Let’s read together our vision this morning. 

Our Fresh Vision:

ESBC is on mission to share Christ with every family in the community of Lake Forest and the greater Eastern Shore.

Friends, do me a favor this morning and fill in the blanks under “Today’s Thought”. 

Today’s Thought:

God Calls For Our Commitment And Our Consecration! Ill give it to you again. God calls for our commitment and our consecration. 

Friends, God has never been interested in halfhearted followers. Imagine if you promised to halfheartedly pledge your love to your wives? What do you think she would feel about a halfhearted promise of fidelity? 

Guys, imagine if your wives looked you in the eye on your wedding day and said, “I’ll be faithful to you…most of the time. I’ll love you…when it’s convenient. I’ll be committed…as long as it doesn’t cost me too much.” Every one of us would walk away heartbroken because we know that isn’t love. Love demands commitment. Love calls for devotion. Love gives itself fully to the one it loves.

The same is true in our relationship with the Lord. God is not looking for people who will squeeze Him into whatever time is left over after work, hobbies, sports, and entertainment. He is not looking for followers who give Him a little bit of their heart while the rest belongs to the world. He calls us to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. He deserves nothing less. After all, Jesus didn’t halfheartedly go to the cross for us. 

He gave everything. 

He held nothing back. 

The only reasonable response is for us to hold nothing back from Him. 

That is what our second value is all about. We do our best because He first gave His very best for us.

Eastern Shore Baptist Church does its best. 

We do our best for God, for His Kingdom, for His glory. 

We do our best because anything less, anything short of our best, brings shame upon the Lord. 

Illustration:

Speaking of doing your best, how many of you have ever heard of a man named Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi? Most people haven’t. You may not recognize his name, but I promise you know his work. Bartholdi was the French sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty. He spent years planning, and designing, and overseeing its construction before it was given to the United States. He took crazy pride in his work because he wanted it to be done right.

There is a story told about Bartholdi while the statue was being built. 

One day another artist came to visit him and found Bartholdi high on the scaffolding, carefully shaping the hair on the very top of Lady Liberty’s head. The visitor laughed and said, “Why are you spending so much time on that? No one will ever see the top of her head. The only ones who will ever notice that work are the seagulls.”

Bartholdi stopped what he was doing, looked at the man, and said something that has stuck with me for years. He said, “God will see it. If God will see it, then it deserves my very best.”

Church, I love that perspective. 

Excellence isn’t about impressing other people. 

It isn’t about receiving applause. 

It isn’t about getting recognition. 

Excellence is about honoring God. Even when no one else notices, God notices. Even when no one else applauds, God sees. That’s the kind of heart He calls His people to have.

Bartholdi knew that his Lord demanded dedication and devotion. That is what is looks like to do something with excellence. That is the attitude that our church needs to possess. 

Introduction To Today’s Quote:

Each week I give you a quote from a pastor or theologian to think about. This week is no different. 

One of the earliest lessons that my parents taught me is that the world doesn’t revolve around me. I am not the center of the universe. One of the earliest lessons that the Bible taught me is that my life, our lives, were never meant to revolve around us. That is one of the great problems of our culture today. We think that we own ourselves. We walk around thinking that we owe nothing to no one. We are our own boss, our own miniature dictator, our own little “g” god. Wrong. Humans, all humans, humans that were created and all humans that will be created…all of us, we were created to bring glory to God. 

Every conversation, every decision, every act of service, every task, no matter how big or how small, should be done in a way that points people to Him. Think about that for a second. Does everything you do, everything you think, everything you say, does it bring glory to God. That is a high threshold to cross isn’t it? 

That’s really the heartbeat of today’s message. Doing our best is not about pursuing perfection or impressing people. It’s about glorifying God with everything He has entrusted to us. Read this quote with me.

Today’s Quote:

“Life is wasted when we do not live for the glory of God. And I mean all of life. It is all for his glory… ‘Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31). We waste our lives when we do not weave God into our eating and drinking and every other part by enjoying and displaying him.”

-Pastor John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life”.

Background and Context:

Today we are reading form Colossians. Colossians 3 to be exact. Colossians is a letter written by Paul, likely during his imprisonment in Rome around 60-62 AD.

In Colossians 3, Paul addresses the believers in the city of Colossae, a region in ancient Turkey. His focus was on Christian living and he encourages believers to set their minds on heavenly things rather than earthly desires.

The third chapter provides instructions for living a life that glorifies Christ in everything that we do, such as putting to death sinful behaviors, being more compassionate, showing kindness, and granting forgiveness. Paul also knew that the disciples of Christ were a community and as a community they should commit themselves to doing everything with God’s glory in mind. Paul also encourages believers to let the peace of Christ rule in their hearts and to be thankful and grateful.

Statement of Belief:

Before we read Colossians 3:23-24 this morning, I want to remind you that…

Statement of Belief:

“We are opening the living and powerful Word of God…truth without error, breathed out by Him, and fully sufficient for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. It is our authority, our guide, and our hope. In honor of the God who gave us His perfect Word, I invite you to stand with me as we read it together.”

Today’s Scripture:

Colossians 3:23-24 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, [24] knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Pastor: This is the Word of the Lord. 

Congregation: Praise His name. Praise His holy name. 

You can be seated.

How Can We Serve The Lord With Excellence?

1. Understand the Relationship Between Work and Worship

Since the passage of Scripture is so short this morning. I want to repeat it for you.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,  knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

The other day I heard a quote. You have probably heard it as well. “Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life”. Some of the happiest, most joy filled people that I know are people that do what they love. When you do what you love you don’t really feel that you are working. 

When you have discovered what your purpose is, why God has you here, life becomes more fulfilled and more meaningful. 

I get asked from time to time the following, “Pastor, don’t you ever get tired? Don’t you ever feel burdened? Don’t you ever get tired of writing sermons every week?”

Doesn’t it ever get repetitive, doing the same thing over and over and over again. 

The answer is “of course”. Even Jesus got tired and needed rest. Im no Jesus for sure which means I get tired all the time. Sure, I get discouraged. I get frustrated. I get tired all the time. However, just because I get tired doesn’t mean that I want to quit. 

A better question is why don’t I quit when I get tired? The answer to that is simple. The reason I don’t quit is because my work is my worship. 

My worship is my work. 

I have been tired plenty of times but I’ve never experienced “burnout”. That’s the truth friends. The reason I don’t burnout is because my worship is my work and my work is my worship.

How do we serve the Lord with excellence as individuals and as a church? Good question. 

Easy. 

We must understand the relationship between worship and work. 

Paul clearly tells us that whatever it is we are doing, we are not doing it for men or women. We are doing it for God. Our work should be our spiritual act of worship. No matter if you are a CPA, in the FBI, or if you are working on your PHD, we are all enrolled in God’s army. 

Let me reveal a deep truth for you this morning. I want to tell you about the Hebrew word “avodah”. The word has three distinct meanings but the meanings are all intertwined together. “Avodah” means worship, work, and service. 

For example in Exodus 8:1, Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, "Let my people go, that they may worship (avodah) me. 

Another example comes from Exodus 34:21, "Six days you shall work (avodah), but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.” 

Yet another example comes from Joshua 25:15, “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve (avodah)…but as for me and my house, we will serve  (avodah) the LORD." 

What Joshua meant was that he and his household pledged loyalty to God by worshipping Him through work and service. 

It’s a unique image to ponder that the word used for “working in the fields” is the same word used for worshipping God. What this communicates to me and you is that God’s original design, His desire for our lives is that our work and our worship would be continually tied together, linked, bonded together, one words three different meanings, a seamless way of living. In other words, your work is your worship and your worship is your work. 

A few weeks ago my family went down to the ole House of the Mouse. We spent a few days at Disney World, and one of our favorite rides is the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. As your little train rolls through the mine, all seven dwarfs are hard at work. They’re swinging their pickaxes, collecting jewels, smiling from ear to ear, and all the while they’re singing that familiar song, Whistle While You Work.

I’ve heard that song my whole life, but this time one line caught my attention. 

When I got back to the hotel that evening, I actually looked up the lyrics to make sure I had heard them correctly. Here is the lyric that really got me thinking. 

And as you sweep the room, imagine that the broom 

Is someone that you love, and soon you'll find you're dancing to the tune

The song says that if you imagine your work is connected to someone you love, your work becomes joyful.

Now Disney may not have intended to preach a sermon, but there’s a spiritual principle hiding in that little song.

Paul says something even better.

He doesn’t tell us to imagine the broom is someone we love.

He tells us to remember that the One we’re ultimately working for is the One we love. It flips the Disney tune on it’s head. 

When I’m serving the church, I’m serving Christ.

When you’re teaching that Sunday School class, you’re serving Christ.

When you’re rocking babies in the nursery, you’re serving Christ.

When you’re greeting people at the front door, you’re serving Christ.

When you sharpen the pencils in the pews, balance the books, cook a meal, change a diaper, or show up day in and day out at your job on Monday morning, you’re serving Christ.

The task may stay exactly the same, but the audience changes.

When the audience changes, your attitude changes. When it stops being all about you and it all revolves around Jesus, everything changes. We can endure more. We can turn our frustration into adoration. 

Work stops being just work.

It becomes worship.

The direct application for this point is pretty simple, you are not really worshipping unless you are working. Our ultimate expression of worship is using both the physical and spiritual gifts to grow His Kingdom through the local church. Many of us have been raised to think that worship is relegated to 30 minutes on Sunday morning. That is not untrue but clearly God has a deeper meaning, a grander expression of worship, and that is working for His Kingdom. 

If working and serving God here at the church is not bringing joy to your life, you are probably serving outside of your giftedness. You said “yes” to something where you should have probably said “no”. However, when you find the area in the church that demands your service, and that service matches with your giftedness, you will find joy. 

So let you worship be your work and let your work be your worship. I love Paul’s words in Romans 12, 

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

How Can We Serve The Lord With Excellence?

1. Understand the Relationship Between Work and Worship

2. Understand Everyone and Everything Is Important  

Let’s go back to Colossians. 

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, [24] knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

How can we serve the Lord with excellence? Understand everyone and everything is important. 

There are no small jobs or small people in God’s economy. 

I love the stories about Jesus when He took time with children, with women, with the diseased, with the Gentile. I love stories about Jesus when He spent time with tax collectors. I love those stories about Jesus when He would spend time with the blind, the deaf, the mute, and the lame. 

I love those stories because Jesus clearly displays that there is no such thing as a person that doesn’t matter. 

Everyone matters to Jesus. 

Back in those days, children were to not only be not seen, but they were also not to be heard. 

Women had no rights. 

People who were sick and diseased were thought to be receiving their just punishment for the sins of their parents or for their own secret transgressions. 

These were the cast offs, the people that no one cared for. Jesus however, He proved that they too mattered. If they matter to Jesus they should matter to us. 

Sadly, we live in a world where we gauge the value of our work and we even gauge the worth of a person on how much they are paid. 

If you aren’t paid a massive salary, have a big title, or work in a fancy office, then it must not be valuable work. That’s not how God sees it. 

Brothers and sisters, there are no small jobs or small people in the church. Everyone matters and everyone has value. 

Let me ask you as a church a question this morning. 

Do you feel unappreciated? 

Do you feel that you are not being thanked enough? 

Are you jaded? 

Do you think that no one cares about your ministry? 

Do you get frustrated because you feel that other people should be as passionate about your ministry as you do? 

Do you think about quitting so that the church will recognize your value and beg you to return?

Let’s be honest, we have all had those emotions. Those are human thoughts and human emotions. Chances are most of us raise our hands and say “yes, Ive felt that way before”. 

Let me tell you something that I have learned, if you are serving and you feel that way today, you are serving in the wrong head space. 

You are serving for the applause of people and not for the applause of God. 

When people operate in that headspace, they become bitter, jaded and jilted. They have taken their eyes off of what really matter and placed it on themselves. In some ways, they have made their own need for human approval an idol, a false god demanding to be worshipped. 

Let me encourage you this morning, you do matter. 

Your ministry does matter. 

You are making a difference. 

It doesn’t matter who joins you or doesn’t join you. 

Put your eyes on Christ and you will receive your just fulfillment. 

God sees the same value in changing dirty diapers as teaching and adult Life Group Class. He sees no distinction in the man who shows up early to unlock all the doors as me standing behind this very pulpit. 

In heaven, they receive the same spotlight. God sees them as the same act of love and service. God sees the tutor who shows up week after week with no fanfare, He sees the woman rocking the baby in the nursery, He sees the man running the cameras in the booth, He sees the prayer team member who shows up by herself to pray in the prayer room. He sees it all. He sees what some may say is small but declares it as big. 

Remember, there are no small jobs, no small people here at this church. Everyone and everything has value. 

Remember Paul’s words captured in I Corinthians, 

1 Corinthians 12:12 ESV

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

How Can We Serve The Lord With Excellence?

1. Understand the Relationship Between Work and Worship

2. Understand Everyone and Everything Is Important  

3. Understand That God Rewards Deeds Done With Excellence and Enthusiasm 

How can we serve the Lord with excellence, understand the relationship between work and worship? Understand that everyone and everything is important. Lastly, understand that God rewards deeds done with excellence and enthusiasm. 

At the end of all of our days, it should be the goal of every Christian to hear the words “well done my good and faithful servant.” Let’s read our passage one last time this morning. Colossians 3:23-24. 

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, [24] knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

What does it mean to work heartily? We don’t really use that word anymore. We say that we work hard, we work joyfully, we work diligently, but we don’t really say that we work heartily. What does that mean? 

The Greek word for “heartily” is the word “psyche” pronounced pose-khay. It is where we get our English word “psyche”. The word actually means breath. 

It means soul. 

It means feelings, desire, affections and heart. 

Basically Paul is saying that when we work, we work with all of ourselves. We literally pour all of ourselves into what we are doing. 

We give whatever it is our very soul, our breath, our soul. I’m not talking about an upside-down way of working mind you. 

I’m not talking about living an unbalanced life where your career takes precedence over your walk with God or the love you have for your family. 

Really, this is just a support of my last point. 

What it means is that we work with all of our heart and soul knowing and understanding that God is watching. It means that if you are Kate Pate, it means that your job as a nurse requires you do the small, unnoticed things, doing more than what’s required because God is watching you . If you are Roger Russell, it means that you arrive before everyone else, unlocking doors around church, standing at your post, greeting guests and members week after week after week, because these small acts glorify the King of Kings. If you are Alfie Faulker, it means you show up on Friday, every Friday, when the lights in this room are turned off, he shows up to program the lights so that when we worship, our lights are on and work. Alfie, Roger, Kate, Michaelyn, Adam, Angela, Johnathan Armstrong, Brenda Lloyd, Cal Hendricks, all of them work as if their very lives depended on giving their maximum best because anything less would shame the very nature of who God is and the talents that He has given to her. 

What it means is that every single member of this church looks to Lake Forest with hungry eyes. It means that every single member of this church has a responsibility to do whatever they can to reach out to every single man, woman and child in that community for the good of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. 

It means that everything we do here, no matter the size, no matter what event should be attended well, we should never lack for help, it means that we do everything at the highest level possible. 

Why? 

Because there is a reward. 

God will absolutely reward those who give Him their best. 

Hebrews 6:10 says, “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.”

It means doing your best when no one is looking because God is always looking. 

It means that Eastern Shore Baptist Church is a church that does its best so that we can reach Lake Forest. 

By the way friends, just because we do our best doesn’t mean that we can’t do it better. We cannot be afraid of criticism and critiques. That includes me. I know that I can do better, be better, communicate better. 

Are you giving God your best? Are you giving God your best at home, at work? Are you giving God your very best here at Eastern Shore Baptist Church?

If the answer is “no”, you are only depriving yourself of an amazing reward. 

Friends, I will leave you on this last remark, Eastern Shore Baptist Church cannot be at her best if individually we are not committed to be at our best for Christ. 

Hebrews 6:10 ESV

For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

Turn This Information Into Your Inspiration!

Closing Prayer:

Father, thank You for Your Word and for the reminder that everything we do should be done for You.

Forgive us for the times we have served halfheartedly. Forgive us for looking for the applause of people instead of seeking Your approval. Forgive us for treating certain people as unimportant and certain acts of service as insignificant.

Lord, help us remember that there are no small people and no small jobs in Your Kingdom. Help us see our work as worship. Whether we are serving at church, working at our jobs, caring for our families, or doing something that no one else will ever notice, remind us that You see it all.

Give us hearts that are committed and lives that are consecrated to You. Help us serve with excellence, enthusiasm, humility, and joy. Teach us to use the gifts You have given us to build Your Kingdom and bless others.

Father, make Eastern Shore Baptist Church a church that gives You its very best. Unite us around the mission of sharing Christ with every family in Lake Forest and throughout the greater Eastern Shore. Give us hungry eyes for those who are lost, willing hands for the work before us, and faithful hearts that refuse to quit.

Lord Jesus, You gave everything for us. You held nothing back. Help us hold nothing back from You.

May our work become worship. May our service bring You glory. May our lives point people to Jesus. One day, when our work is finished, may we hear You say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

We ask all of this in the strong and mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.