Purpose To Walk In Excellence

Zoe Christian Fellowship of Long Beach ZCFLB

The title of today’s message is “Purpose to Walk in Excellence.” We need to walk in excellence in every area of your individual life okay? Your professional life, your home life, your work in the church, and not only just in this area, in leadership of private organizations, corporations and governments. Everything that we do must be done in excellence and if it’s not done in excellence, it’s not going to last.

Follow me here. What’s happening is, if you do not walk in excellence, your talent and the giftings that you may have won’t last. You got to get this. God is the God of order. He wants things done right. He wants it done in excellence; He doesn’t want it half done. He doesn’t want it part way. Jesus told us in Luke 9:23, He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,” that means your personal goals cannot come before Him.

People want things. People want to see things done, but when God has you to do something and especially for Him, it must be done in excellence. As a matter of fact, if it’s not done right with people, it’s still not going to last. I don’t care what it is. Right now, we currently see going on in the world, a lot of turmoil right now, a lot of issues. And a lot of these issues start with just the basic things and these basic things starts around food, shelter, economic opportunity. It’s tearing the world apart. If the government can’t do it right, it won’t last.

If you don’t do it right with God, it won’t last. Turn with me to 1 Samuel 2. Now, if you work in this church, everything you do has to be done right. You shouldn’t give God leftovers of your time. You shouldn’t put God as it were His stuff is half done, not done right, just do it how you want to do it. No, we’ll talk about this because what happens is these things become straight in characteristics of people, okay? And God is a God of excellence, amen! And when you proclaim to know God you need to walk in excellence.

This church needs to be a church in excellence. I’m telling you one thing, I want to get it together because you’re not getting on your job right, you can be seeing me. If you get upset and want to walk, I don’t mind. I don’t mind because I’m not going to stand and pastor that’s halfway done. I’m not. And I’m telling you something, your job is not going to improve when you’re getting stuff’s halfway done right. They’ll let you go in a minute and won’t even think twice about it. I love you. You know, I’ll talk – I’ll work you, you know what I mean?

But people want everything done in excellence. Look here in 1 Samuel 2. Now God is going to do with high priest Eli because stuff wasn’t done right in the synagogue, in the temple and He had to deal with him. 1 Samuel 2:18 it says, “But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice and Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, The LORD give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the Lord. And they went unto their own home.”

Now what happens is, Elkanah and his wife gave Samuel as a baby to the priest Eli to be in the house and to serve God and God used this young kid to have him trained up to be a new priest for him, to be over the people of Israel, because the old wasn’t doing right.

Verse 22: “Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” Now his sons were supposed to be priests and they were supposed to be servants unto the Lord. But, what they’re doing is, they’re sitting at the door of the synagogue, of the temple checking out the women who they can sleep with. Get your house in order.

Verse 23: “And he said unto them, why do you such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you make the Lord’s people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them.”

Now what happens here, people were not listening. See, I tell you God was excellent especially in His house. Let me just give you some background here. When you do it right here, you’re going to do right out there, okay? And what’s going to happen is, as a believer, as a Christian… If you’re working, you should be the best employee. You should be the best employee. They should be looking for you. As a matter of fact, your boss should try to give you a pay raise, why? Because you’re so valuable to his organization, to his team, why? Because you don’t do it to serve the boss, because you do it to serve as unto the Lord.

See when you start working around the Lord doing things right, he started showing “You know, what? You don’t want to settle for half-done stuff.” Follow me here. And then what happens, when you get used to doing things the right way, you don’t want to do things halfway. It’s like for example, if you get used to nice stuff -you know, kind of like the lower grade- when you’ve been eating well, you don’t want to go back to mikidis. Well you’ve been eating right, eat at good restaurants. You don’t want fast foods. You just want slow cooked brought to you hot, one or three-course meal, okay? You’ve been used to eating that way. And if you can’t get out, you go make it yourself because you don’t want to settle for less anymore because you’ve been used to having good things.

What happens is when you’re used to do things right, you do it right first in the house of God. That should be the way you are. That should be a part of you and you’re not going to settle for less. But what happens now, we have to all go onboard with this. Because I tell you one thing in heaven, nothing’s half done in heaven, okay? Nothing’s half done in heaven. If you’re going to be someone to open the door to the temple in heaven, do you know that you’re going to be trained have to do that right? You are not going to give an attitude and God won’t worry about getting your feelings hurt because if God dropped Satan from heaven to earth because he got pride in his heart, and Jesus was like lightning.

See, what happens, people in the church they’re taking God for granted. God is going to bless you when you get up in the morning. God is going to bless you to have some money in your pocket. God has allowed us to live in a society where there’s some stability because we could be in some other places right now where you’re out there protecting your- in front of your house with a shotgun and knife, a little stick or whatever, some rocks. Don’t take the goodness of God for granted.

I travel around the world – I’ve been to Egypt, I’ve been to Cairo. I know what those streets are like. One of the best things about this country is order. What do I mean by that? You know people will go to the grocery store and wait in a line without having a fight, without someone trying to cut in front of another person. Do you know that people in this country where the light turns from green to red, they actually stop and wait. That’s order. Do you know the first law in heaven? Order. God’s on top.

This simple things makes the entire difference because people to walk in excellence. We have to operate excellence in our lives and in our church. Do you know that one thing when people see excellence, they gravitate toward it? You have excellence in your personal life, people gravitate towards you? As a matter of fact, we’ll just take a step back for a moment. When people are excellent in what they do, they make commercials. They get paid to make commercials. You know the top singer, “won’t you advertise my product? You’re a top actor. I want you to advertise my product.” Why? Because people want to be associated with excellence and they want to be associated with you because they believe there’s excellence in you and as a result of that, that gives you opportunities.

Now, God wants excellence in the church. He’s talking to Eli right now. He’s telling Eli to get your sons in order. In other words church, you get the house in order. We need to get this house of God in order and then get your homes in order. Let’s continue on here.

Verse 27: “And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house? And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? And did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel?” In other words, He provided food them, a livelihood.

“…Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honor thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chief of all the offerings of Israel my people? Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”

In other words, God sent a man over to Eli to talk to him, to give him the Word of the Lord and basically, what’s he saying here, paraphrasing, “When you don’t walk in excellence, do the things according to the way you should do them right, you don’t honor me. You don’t honor me. As a matter of fact, you dishonor me.” And the Lord is telling Eli that you allowed your sons to get away with this. In other words, if people are not doing right, you check them. As a matter of fact, the Lord said, “Eli, I am holding you responsible for letting them get away with it. So since you’re in charge, you correct this.”

I’m not going to let the Lord get on me. If he does, I’m not going let it stay on me. But you have to understand that God is serious about these things. As a matter of fact, just this week, I got an email from a lady over in India and she was writing to pray for her and everything and she’s working with people with AIDS, HIV and homeless people. The issues that she’s going through and asked for prayer.

See we’re praying here to ask God, to pray for people around the world, that’s happening. See the Lord said when two or three are gathered in his name, He is there in the midst of them. Don’t take what we’re doing here lightly. God cares about people. The Lord sent Jesus Christ to save people and individual person, individual people. So he cares about people all around the world. But what happens is, we cannot just take the things of God lightly, that dishonors God.

So God is talking now to Eli and telling him, “You know, you have to correct your sons because what they’re doing, that’s intrusions.” But do you know that kind of stuff still happens today? That kind of stuff still happens today, that we can be in the house of God and God’s not watching. And God’s not concerned, because He is.

See, each one of us as a believer, as a Christian, our life is important. Our witness is important. You many not think of being that big, but it is, especially to people who are lost. They may not say too much to you, but when they know that you’re a believer, they’re really watching you. You might be the only source of light around them and them seeing you “See you know what? Okay, he doesn’t act like everybody else. He is following Jesus. I see God working in his life. I want what he had.”

Remember when I said, when you walk in excellence, people want to use you for advertisement. In other words, what they’re really saying is, you have influence and each one of us has an area of influence, some greater than others. Is there some people out there I can reach? There are some people I cannot reach, but you can, okay? And that’s important to God. Why? Because He cares about reaching out to people.

Now, let’s see what happens here. Let’s look at verse 31. He says, “Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thy arm, and the arm of thy father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in thy house. And thou shall see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thy house for ever. And the man of thy home, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age.”

That means, all the men that come would die young. They wouldn’t live to be in old age, be an old man. This is serious, isn’t it? Verse 34, “And this shall be a sign unto thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them.” See we’re talking about here walking in excellence; your life depends upon it. He said, “Your two sons that you did not correct, that I told you about and one day they will die.” You can’t play around with the things that we do with God. The works that we do for the ministry, they lift up the name of the Jesus. This is the most serious business.

I’m going to tell you something, the jobs- where you make your money now, when you die, that’s not going to be important. When you stand before Jesus, He is going to want to know what did you do for the Kingdom? What did you do for me? And when I gave you talents and responsibilities, did you use them correctly? Were you serving me? See, a lot of whom God give skills and abilities initially, they’re in an initial state. They’re in an undeveloped state –I could use maybe like singing. You might see someone a kid, 12 years old, they might have a voice to sing, but it needs to be cultivated and developed to be a beautiful singer, okay? And as they get that talent and get someone to work with them – a music teacher. You see maybe five, ten years later; they might even have a career singing.

A lot of the great singers in America especially African-American singers came out of the church. They came out of the church. God may have given you a talent-everybody’s talent could be different, but when it comes together in the church, it gives glory to God. But those talents are cultivated, they’re developed. You may have some talents; they’re in initial stage if you’re a young person.

You may have some talents further down the line, they’re in immediate state. You may have some talents they’re being fully expressed, but you take those talents and you don’t use them for God. You don’t walk in excellence in the talents because the talent that God gives you makes room for you, but it also is a blessing to other people. And when you hide your talent, don’t use your talent, misuse your talent, you’re not only hurting yourself.

As we see here in 2 Samuel God take things very seriously that He said, “I’ll have these two men– they’re going to die.” He said, Eli your fam– like he was an old man. As a matter of fact, look here in verse 35, the Lord says here, “And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed forever.”

So what happens here, the Lord is talking about “Well, I want somebody who’s going to do right and doing in an excellent matter.” As a matter of fact, they’re going to be faithful. See, what happens when you’re doing God’s way and you walk in excellence, you develop for yourself you’re giving God glory and honor for the talent. It takes faithfulness.

I mean, I think one of the greatest entertainers in the world was Michael Jackson. But do you know that he didn’t start being a great dancer or singer? He worked very hard, I heard one day on TV he said how he worked every Sunday danced for two hours and he danced all the time. I mean, he developed the talent. We have people in the body of Christ with superstar talent, but you got to be faithful in serving God. You’d be walking in excellence in serving God. You got to spend some time developing the talent. I am telling you that will make room for you, it’s going to bless a lot of people and give glory and honor to God.

If you come in here and you have to work at the back door as an usher- that’s very serious with God. Every position seen or unseen that is done for God is important to Him. It’s important to Him. In the book of Revelations 2, just turn there for just a moment. The Lord Jesus goes through and He judges the churches. He examines. He sees what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong.

Here in Revelations 2:1, He says, “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things said he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks” These golden candlesticks was each church had a light, okay? And He says here “I know thy works.” In other words, God has informed what’s going on at the churches and He is involved in reviewing.

Now, how many people have a job in here? Now in your job have you ever had annual reviews or semi-annual reviews where somebody reviews your work? Most of you guys don’t? Okay. Now, what happens is they take an account of the good, the successes, doing things right and some things where you need areas of improvement, so does God. See people think, “Well you know what? I’m going to do God any kind of all way in His house,” and don’t think God’s going to want a review.

See, people think God is like Santa Claus, once a year. No. God’s the Lord, He’s the sovereign King, emperor of the universe – all knowing, all seeing, and He is very concerned about what’s going on down here. He’s so concerned that He sent His son. We, the body of Christ supposed to be the light of the world. If we’re messing up in darkness, what does that say? A lot of people are already in darkness.

He says here in verse 2, “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars” He said, “And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”

He said there is some things you’re doing right and He names the things they are doing right. But He said, “You know what? You left your first love.” You see what happens is, the Lord cares about His things and He is observing and He is analyzing. This a rhetorical question, but is God pleased with how you’re serving Him? Are you really focusing on putting His thing, making a priority? Or God’s thing is, you know, down the line. Its lower priority, it’s – when I feel like it or I treat God any kind of way.

You know, what if Jesus was physically here in the church? Would you do what you do? If you physically had to see Jesus once a week, once a month, would you hold your head down ‘cause you know what you’ve been doing is not right? You see what happens is, He told the churches in Ephesus “You left your first love. You got some things right, but your hearts not totally committed.” He told the church in Ephesus. He talked about the other six churches throughout the rest of this.

But we have to go back and say, “Lord, I want to be excellent. I want to do my job excellent.” That means, there’s going to be a change, if you haven’t been doing it right. You got to say, “God, I know I got a lot of things going on in my life, but you’re going to get the priority.” They’re going to be always – as long as you’re alive- there are going to be always things that’s going to compete for your time, for your energy, always. But you have to settle it and make the decision that “I will put God first.”

I mean, if Jesus was standing right here, He just observes what was going on here, He observe what’s going on at your home and at your work place. Maybe some reason why I have the blessing you should be having. See, he told Eli because you didn’t get your house in order, actually, “my house in order, like I told you.” He replaced him. In other words, He fired him, okay?

See, God loves you, but the Bible says, “Those that God loves he chastises.” He actually fired Eli and his sons He gave ultimate fire, He said, “You all are going to have to die.” That’s how serious He is. I’m telling you, get your house in order. Just like some of these nations that’s going on right now, their houses out of order, they’ve been fired.

Turn with me to Romans 13. Let me just say this, walking in excellence before God is going to make way for you what other people are going without. I want you to hear this again, walking in excellence before God will make a way for you when other people are going without. I don’t- everything that is going on for people because that’s not my source. See, the US government is not my source, God is. But when you don’t know God as your source you look for it in man. You’re going to look for it in institution, okay?

People over in North Africa right now, they’re complaining to the government because they don’t really know who to go to. They want the government to do something. The government don’t know anything, they don’t! As a matter of fact, you wait on the US government to do something for you. They don’t know either. They really don’t, but I know someone who does. That’s why I would never ask for a bailout. If your company- if you are a major company and you need to be bailed out, your whole leadership should be fired. God will fire you. “What do you mean Pastor God will fire them?

Remember the parable of the talents? He said the one that had one talent, he came back and said, “You are a hard man. I took about one talent and hid it.” What did the Lord said to that person with the one talent? He said, “Take from that person with that very one talent and give it to the person that had ten.” In other words, what did He do? He fired that one talented person. That’s why I’m telling; get your house in order. You better start walking with God because you can get fired and God will love you. He will help raise you up, but you will be fired.

See, the thing about it is, with people you have to understand. Because of the things of God, don’t take advantage of God. Don’t take advantage of God because He is good, because He is merciful, because He is long-suffering. But people do it all the time because they don’t see Him. But God is reviewing, just like he did in Revelation 2. He is walking through the churches and who are the churches? The people. And God is taking an inventory and God is going to ahead and say, “You know, we’re going to have a review.” With Eli He said, “We’re going to have a review.”

And so what happens is, if you are one talented person, you better try take that one talent and do something with it because you will be fired and it’s nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, what’s going on in the world right now, they’re firing presidents. That’s what we see on TV, amen? They’re firing presidents. Nations are following and being going through turmoil, why? Because it’s not done in excellence. See, if the leadership walks in excellence, it makes it easier for the people. But when you’re not governing correctly and not keeping the nation’s house in order correctly, God fires you.

Here in Romans 13:1 He says, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shall have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he bears not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must need be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.”

So what happens is, if the leadership is not doing right, just like in the case of Eli because they’re supposed to be ordained of God, right? If they’re not right, God is firing them. If God will fire the high priest of Israel in His house, these world leaders who are supposed to be a subject for good, if they’re doing wrong, God will fire them too. That’s why everybody needs to do what they’re called to do, to do it right and do it in excellence. Because I want to tell you something, when you start doing stuff wrong, you started to have an attitude or mentality, “I can get away with this. I don’t have to really put all my energy and do it right this way.” It then starts to become a habit or a culture or a way of living for you or for a person.

And what happens is they start to do it they don’t even recognize it. And after a while, they’re finding out that, “You know what, I wanted for someone who’s going to do it right. I’m not going to be around you. Your job will tell you you’re not doing it right. I’m letting you go.” God told Eli, “You didn’t keep your house in order, I’m letting you go. I’m going to find me a faithful priest over my house to do my will.”

See what happens is with people, they think that when it comes to things of God, they don’t want to walk the way God wants to do it. Well they go ahead and do the “Well, this is the way I like it. I want to do it my way.” God is not interested in your way. Let me put it this way, all these billions of wills, they’re going to do it their way, there’s only one will that’s going to last and that’s God’s will, okay? Its God’s Kingdom, the earth and all the fullness therein belongs to the Lord, okay?

So what happens you have to make the decision that “When I serve in the house of God, even in this local church, I’m going to do it right.” Everything! When I come to the house of the Lord, I’m coming to the house of God. I’m not going to carry on like I was in a club or some other place. I’m going to have reverence. Mentalities have to change. I know people don’t mean it, when they do anything bad and Eli didn’t think he was really doing bad either. Eli was a nice guy, but nice can get you messed up. Eli did not correct his sons. His sons had to die young because his father wouldn’t get on them. That’s why some young kids, you don’t correct them when they’re young, they grow up to be brats. And people are not going to put up with your brats like you do. They have to be corrected.

Now, let’s understand here, when we all walk in excellence, there’s a lot of good things that open up for you. There’s a lot of good things. See, people – they just want to be just mediocre. The vast majority of people want to be mediocre. So when you decide to be excellent, you’re going to stay way above the crowd. And I want to tell you something, it’s not difficult to be above the average. It’s not that hard because most people are not trying.

Most people just want to exist and get by. Trying to get by is not going to give you success. Trying to get by is not going to give where you want to be. A lot of people are going to say “Well, you won’t depend upon the government or some kind of agency for your existence and your income; you’re not going to live the way you really want to live.” You may get some food. You may get some shelter, but that’s not going to be in the neighborhood you really want to live in. You’re not going to eat the food that you really want to eat, but you can get by. I want to do more than get by. I want to enjoy the best, amen? Who else wants to enjoy the best?

You see one thing is when you walk in excellence, there’s room at the top. There’s always room at the top when you walk in excellence, why? Because people are going to look for you. The world used to be- kind of step back for a moment and apply to a world situation right now. All around the world, just in every country inflation is up. Food price has gone up. Have you seen the food price in America has gone up? I mean, you used to go out for a lunch, maybe go to McDonald’s you get $3.99, now McDonald’s said they’re going to raise their price again this year, it’s already $7 to $8 for a meal deal, then they throw a 10% tax. You’re talking about $9 to $10. So McDonald said they’re going to raise their prices this year. The whole world clamor about food prices, the whole thing that blew up in Middle East about food.

It all started with a man in Tunisia because he was selling on the street – a little cart, an educated person because he couldn’t find a job, it’s hard for him to get some food. He didn’t have a permit so they give him a ticket. He got so upset he lit himself on fire. So he survived three weeks and the nation got in to an uproar. They said, because the economic situation in the country, he wasn’t the only one feeling that way. It turned to a national protest, the president there. Now, it’s moved over to another country, same economic situation.

I told you. I told you about a month ago that 40% of the Egyptians were making only $2 a day. Remember I told you that? And then another 20% or 30% only makes $6 a day. This whole issue is about just the basics and then leadership was the one of excellence. People don’t get mad at leadership just to get mad. They get mad for a reason, okay? That what you see over there could be here next. Don’t think we’re exempt. There’s a lot people I know what’s going on there’s over 40 million people in the United States right now receiving government assistance just for food. It’s gone up- about 5% to 10% from the year before last.

But I’m telling you, when you walk in excellence before God, He knows how to make a way for you. Other people going to be heard and going hungry, which is a reality around the world, but for you, you, you, when you do the right thing before God, He makes a way. He makes a way. I want to submit to you right now, get right before God. Whatever God has you doing to serve the Kingdom, do it right, do it on time. Be excellent in what you do because you don’t want to stop the flow of your blessing. God is always going to give a test. I tell you that all the time, don’t I?

He’s always giving exams and He is evaluating. Just because you can’t see the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean he is not here, amen? And I’m telling you, I know how people are. They walk by and say a lot of time more than walk by faith, because they saw the Lord, they wouldn’t do some stuff they do. They wouldn’t treat him some of the ways they treat Him. They wouldn’t take for granted the blessings that we have. We can come in this building right now and be secure that we have a fear of bomb or threat. We can sit here comfortably in nice chairs and receive the Word of God and God speak to us, but yet some people wouldn’t even give. I mean, got jobs and wouldn’t give, something is wrong with that. Something is wrong with that.

See we have so many blessings that sometimes people take God for granted. You can’t do that. You need to have an excellent spirit. Look here in scripture with me. Turn to Proverbs 18, we just see now in the house of God the religious leaders have to walk in excellence. We see that world leaders are subject into the powers of God. They got to walk in excellence. When you walk in excellence in Proverbs 18:16, here’s what the Word of God says, “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men,” a man’s gift.

See there is something that God has given you some kind of talent. There’s some things that you have to do and this gifting that you have you may not really be appreciate as a gift or you may not see it as an avenue. But you know that the chauffeur that drives Queen Elizabeth around in her Bentley is living well? You understand that? The chauffeur that’s driving her around is living well, why? He’s driving the queen.

See, sometimes the things that we think about we don’t think they’re big because we compare it to somebody else. You start thinking about what God has taught you and given you skills to do and don’t get so focused on comparing yourself to Mike or to Susan or to Johnny. Because these gifts and abilities and skills that God has given you, He has blessed you to make a way if you recognize that. You recognize that.

We’ve seen the past few weeks that a person go from being homeless that God has given him a good gift to now giving a job the next day because of the gifting. Some of you might be good at cooking. You know that being good at something can make a living for you. You can start sewing the designs that God put upon your heart and people will buy your clothes. I mean, “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men”

How is it that a rapper who compose a rap saying, now has become a clothing mogul. Because what happens is, when people started walking in their vision, they start seeing things. They start seeing opportunities and what happens is, they start seeing concepts in their minds, visions that I can do this and I can see a potential for it. What happens is, God has given each and every one of us a skill and ability in our lives that we take for granted, but is a value.

If you were once getting paid to do something, you know that skill is valuable. Whatever you were paid for in your life to do, that has some value because you were doing for some reason. People don’t pay you money for nothing. I mean, I have never paid for nothing. If you were doing a certain type of skill, let’s call it even a handy-man skill. Fixing the fence, fixing the gate, doing electrical work, do you know that can provide a livelihood for you?

And I want to tell you another thing, you can get to a point where you just say, “You know what, I’m going to and envision for myself.” If no one will hire you and you were once getting paid to do a job, hire yourself. You say, “Pastor, how can I do that?” The Bible said, ““A man’s gift makes room for him…”

Do you know that people in these foreign that we’ve been seeing on TV and talking about? Over there like I used the example of Egypt, do you know that the average age of an Egyptian is? The mean age is 24. These countries, these third-world countries a lot of them they’re very young because the old people are not around. Half of the Egyptian population is 24 and younger, half! A lot of them are well-educated. They’re not the kind of people you think they’re poor, no they’re well-educated. They can’t find jobs or opportunities.

I want to tell you something right now. The day that we’re living in is not the same day that we can say, “I want to start to give me a job. I want to go get a job.” You got to make your own job. We can see it America. We lost what? 8 million dollars the last two years, they say a lot of those jobs are not coming back. People going to college and universities? See, “I’m going to college and university, going to give me a good job.” No. You going to the college and university to get an education and you may have to go out there and start your own business with it.

See, you have to start trusting God for everything- everything! Before in America at least we kind of lean on God’s so good to us that we can this way of making it. We get a job and go this, have this American dream, because now, you got to start working harder for it. The President Obama last week in a State Of The Union Address talked about how we need to get our education system redefined. Too many have to, at least I know the African-Americans students have more and now they [don’t] even graduate from high school. What’s going to be the business and economic opportunity for people like that?

See, excellence and excellence before God is going to be the only way. It’s no time out for free money, that’s over. You got to have to compete against people all around the world for a business, a job or economic opportunity. And the way you get blessed is first of all honoring the Lord God. What you learn here in serving God in the church in the first place is going to help you in every area of your life. That when you go to that employer, or when you start your business and you go ahead to serve somebody, you’re going to serve them excellence because that’s being imbedded in you. That’s going to be who you are.

There are some people out there, you had to push for them to do everything right. You got to tell them all the time. People don’t have time to tell you when they got 5, 10, 15, 20 other people who are hungry and ready to do it right and don’t need to be told. See, God fires poor leadership. He fired Eli. God fires world leaders that don’t govern correctly, but when you walk in excellence the Bible says, “…and your gift makes room for you.” That sounds like provision, amen?

Take a look here in Psalms 148. Don’t get so comfortable that what you see on TV you think will never happen here. Don’t ever get too comfortable. Here in Psalms 148:13, look what the Word of God says, “Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.”

“His name alone is excellent.” In other words, when you hear God’s name is excellent, what we want to do is be like our Father, amen? When your name gets mentioned they want to know- but you know what, it’s going to be done right. It’s going to be done in an excellent way. This probably I’m going to do it right. It’s like with some car manufacturer. You know you have certain cars out there; you get those cars, they have an excellent reputation, amen? Same as clothes you go out there and buy. You know what, they have an excellent reputation. The same thing when your name gets mentioned, or whatever service you provide, whatever good that you sell, you want the- you’re going to have an excellent reputation, amen!

God’s name is excellent. All of us here, whatever we do for God, we do it in an excellent way. I want to encourage you today, to think about what do I for the Lord? If the Lord would stand before me, to evaluate me about my job, what I do for him. Would I be able to say, it’s done in an excellent way? See, we have to stop giving God leftovers of our time, leftovers of our energy, leftover of our resources. You don’t want God to give you leftovers.

Now, when you’re hurting, you want God’s healing power. When you got needs, you want God to show up on time. When you have lack, you want God’s provision, how would you give God less? But it happens all the time. But God goes through the churches in his people and He evaluates. He looks at things. Let’s not be average. Let’s cultivate- at least here in this church and in our lives do things in an excellent way. It’s not based upon size. It’s not based upon location because wherever I am, wherever you are, it’s going to be done right. So that when they mention your name as an individual, our name collectively, it’s going to be done in an excellent way. They’re going to say, “Hey, they do things in excellence.” That’s the way it should be.

Turn with me here to Psalms 115:2 it says here, “Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.” We got to say, “Lord you’re excellent, I want to be excellent.” People do not have people around them that do not walk in excellence for a long time. You might be there for a season; you might be there for a while. But where review time comes up, evaluation time comes up, if you fortunately got away for that long, you may be out of a job.

And nowadays, jobs are hard to come by, amen? They’re hard to come by. It’s not easy out there. You need to stand out and the one you stand out is walking in excellence. That means you have to put extra time in, that means you spend some time behind the scenes, developing yourself when other people were having fun. You spend some time to get you an education, maybe formal or informal to go ahead and develop the talent, develop the gift that God has given you. But when that gift is presented openly, then people are going to say, whatever may be they’ll say, that person I want working with me.

See, turn with me to Proverbs 26. Look what the Bible says when people are lazy, wanted to be average, mediocre, don’t want to really focus on being excellent. Here in Proverbs 26:13, “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets…” In other words, what he is saying a person who is slothful or lazy, always got an excuse for reason why they’re not getting stuffs done. Amen!

I’m your pastor, now what if I was always gone, I’m tired. There’s my job. I fight all these issues. I’m here most Sundays. I’m here most Sundays in Bible study. If there’s a Bible study or church on Sunday, it’s going to be a very good reason and last time I think I got off three weeks, three Sundays. Two for just having a break and one I traveled to Japan to administer over there. I know people got to go for different reason, that’s okay. I’m just saying that I’m not making up excuses. The Bible says, a slothful person, say a lion down the streets, “I can’t go out to work!”

Verse 14 “As the door turns upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.” That’s why I’m saying if you’re going to go ahead you want the blessings of God in your life, you got to be one of excellence and you can’t be lazy. You can’t live for – you can’t keep on saying, “I’m waiting on a man.” “I’m waiting on the government” “I’m waiting for organization to provide for me.” No. You have to learn how to say, “You know what? I’m going to trust my God. If this God and I, that’s all that I need.” That’s all you’re going to need because you may not get an organization. You might not get a government to help you out.

Verse 15: “The slothful hides his hand in his bosom; it grieves him to bring it again to his mouth.” That means the slothful person is going to keep his hands right here, “I want someone to feed me.” Because he doesn’t want to do it himself.

Verse 16 “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.” The sluggard is worse than a slothful, he’s always got an excuse why they can’t do something. Don’t you hear that all the time? “Well you know I got this reason and that reason and that reason” It happens all the time, but in today’s society, today’s world there’s a lot of competition. I want to tell you something, you better watch this. This issue over the economics that’s going on around the world in particular, for just the very basic of like food, it can give more competitive, then competitive, then competitive.

I’ll tell you about my friend, he’s from India. I said, “How’s things going on in your country?” He said the price of food is going up a lot over there. He said, it’s just rising and see over there, they have about 800 million people who live in absolute poverty where there- and I was in New Delhi and I see this 14 million people, 3 million sleeps on the street literally. Their pillow is a newspaper, a sheet or two.

I saw a man when I was over in Varanasi and I was out walking around about 6:30 in the morning going down to the river and there was a man sleeping next to a cow on just a street pavement. And I’m telling you something, the streets were littered and it wasn’t just with papers because the animals live over there. They have a saying, “you look down before you look up.”

There’s not going to be “I’m looking for someone to do something for me.” You have to depend upon your relationship with God to make room with the gifts and talents and the skills that He is giving you. If you take those gifts and skills and talents that you’ve gotten from God and apply it by serving Him, He will make a way for you when other people see no way. They’d be waiting for you.

Verse 17 “He that passes by, and meddles with strife belonging not to him, is like one that takes a dog by the ears. As a mad man who cast firebrands, arrows, and death, So is the man that deceives his neighbor, and saith, Am not I in sport?” What happens is we have to take the book of Proverbs, the Jewish book of wisdom and these books have been around for thousands of years. Knowledge inspired by the Holy Spirit. We have to understand what God is telling us is that to prosperous, you got to be industrious.

You got to do it in excellence. And when you do it in excellence people come looking for you. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on advertisement. You know there’s some top companies in the world right now, they don’t spend a lot on advertisement. They really don’t. I don’t ever see a lot of commercials for eBay on TV, do you? No. You don’t see for Google, you know. They’re just so well-known. I mean, look at Facebook right now. Have you ever seen a commercial that say join Facebook? Do you know Facebook, if it was a country, it would be one of the largest countries in the world over 500 million people on Facebook now and it’s changing the way we live. Look at the nations, the nations changed around because of the internet– Facebooking and Twitter. If you don’t know how to use the computer today, you need to go learn how to use a computer, get some computer skills. I don’t think you need to be the top person, but you need to get some skills.

You got to understand, what happens when you walk in excellence, God will work with you. They give you insight, He will give you direction. You see, one thing when Jesus chose the disciples notice. He chose people that are already busy working. He didn’t go find somebody who sit on the side and had nothing to do. He got people who are already busy and made them more busy, why? Because the principle – it’s about the talents. The person that has the ten talents, he made ten more. There the Lord said, “Take that person with the one talent, and give to the person with the ten. So he had 21 talents.”

See, if you don’t walk and do what you’re supposed to do with your talent, God will take your talent and give to someone who’s going to be faithful, who’s going to give Him increase and who’s about doing what’s right. Because you see, the one-talent person said, “Oh, you’re a hard man…” See, you know what was hard. You do that. “But you don’t even have the sense to put my money in the bank. Oh, I’m taking it.” See we have to get to the point now to understand that when it comes to things of God, God is looking for a return. God invested in you.

First of all, God paid the highest price He could. He gave the best for you, the Lord Jesus Christ. You are highly valued.

Praise the Lord!

Zoe Christian Fellowship of Long Beach | ZCFLB

Pastor Keith Jones