Excellence: is our pursuit

Intro: *Talk about the 7 Values Series.

Honor. is our ______________________

Love is our ____________________

Servant Leadership is our ____________

Today we are going to talk about our 4th value at Pinewood Church, which is “Excellence is our Pursuit.”

Excellence is when you care about the details.

Excellence is when you recognize there is no small tasks.

Excellence is when you make every effort to make it better.

Excellence is defined as making every effort to consistently make something better.

Illust: Pics of “Not Excellence” then pics of “Excellence”

Story: Working at Walmart and then Perfection Painting

“Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people,” - Colossians 3:23

Call out each ministry team and how they are pursuing excellence…

• Pinewood Kids

  • This is not babysitting, it’s leadership development. It’s training the next generation in how to love others, deepen their relationships with God, and share of the hope that is in them.
  • Just last night Ryan walked me through the 4 colors on his wristband and told me about salvation, baptism, fruitfulness, and our reward in glory. He learned this in children's programming.

  • Creative Team

  • Being creative is not simply fonts and colors, or lines and boxes. Being creative is hard work. Being creative takes discipline to carve out time in your schedule where you can dream.

  • We pursue excellence in our creativity because we see it as a powerful tool to capture people's attention and point them to the message of the Jesus.
  • We’re going to put something out there. It’s either going to be creative or not creative. It’s going to be done really well or done really lame.

  • Worship

  • Our worship team comes prepared every week and gives it all that they have. They are pursuing excellence not for a show, but to eliminate distractions.

  • Not only to we pursue excellence in our public worship, but in our private worship as well. Each one of our leaders are pursuing Christ in their personal lives and worship from a heart of humility and Spirit filled lives.

  • Connection & Coffee

  • Our connection team takes connecting seriously here at Pinewood. Look, don’t leave without meeting at least one person. I have seen people chased down before. :)

  • That’s because we want you to know that you matter and that we see you. We believe that everyone has a desire to be know and be known. To love and be loved. And we want you to feel that love every week!

  • Crews

  • And I can’t say enough about our crew captains. Who take serious the responsibility to shepherd and grow our crews to be more like Christ.

  • The details of crew nights, crew seasons, and passages are all intentional and we are constantly trying to make them better.

We will always be a culture of pursuing excellence in every area of Pinewood. We will not become stagnant or dormant, but we will always work hard to MAKE IT BETTER.

Audience Participation: Somebody say MAKE IT BETTER!

Excellence takes the whole body

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” - Ephesians 4:11-13

It’s not “Excellence is my pursuit”, it’s “Excellence is our pursuit”. There is no one man or woman show in the local church. We work together as a team. Pursuing excellence is a team effort!

Excellence happens in every season

Illust: What does your season look like?

Excellence to Sylah is making it down the stairs without falling

Excellence to Neriah is being able to buckle her own car seat

Excellence to Cory is building an intricate train railway

Excellence to Ryan is learning to read and write well

Someone here might say… “Pastor, I’m barely keeping my head above water, nevertheless pursuing excellence.” I hope that we can change that perspective for you today. Today, I believe in Jesus name, that you can make it better. You can grow and mature in your faith and that God will show you what pursuing excellence looks like for you in this season.

Excellence takes discipline and hard work

Excellence is a journey not a destination

Apathy will prohibit you

Perfection will paralyze you

Excellence will propel you

Passage: 2 Peter 1:3-9

2 Peter 1:3-9 is talking about you growing and maturing in your faith. It is not you growing up more mature than the person beside of you. It is not you getting better in comparison to anyone else. It’s about you personally making every effort to excel in every area of your life.

We are all called to pursue excellence in our lives. We are designed for it, empowered for it, and called to it!

Title: There’s Purpose in The Pursuit

Main Points:

1. Excel by His power (V1-3)

   1. What’s the source? We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to pursue excellence. It is a gift that has been given for Godly living.

   2. Illust: lawn mower and an empty gas tank.

      1. What you fill up with is what will give you power.

         3. One big things, is made up of a lot of small things working together. Making each thing better. And together, we become an unstoppable force in Jesus name!
         4. Excel for His glory

      2. Our pursuit of excellence is both from His glory and for His glory alone.

      3. God will not share His glory! It is by His power and for His glory that we have everything we need for godly living!
      4. We work to make it better not to boast, but to bring glory to the one who gave us the power in the first place.

      5. As we pursue excellence let us never forget that WE WILL NOT TOUCH HIS GLORY!

         5. It takes effort if you want to excel.

      6. Effort precedes excellence.

      7. How many of you know that there is little growth where there is little effort?
      8. Story: Have you tried gardening?
         6. You can live in His power when you stand on His promises!
      9. Excel in His promises (V4-7)

   3. His promises are not passive or dormant, they have a purpose and they are living and active in our lives.

   4. Promises of God:

      1. He loves you unconditionally

         1. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39 2. God knows you intimately and made you intentionally

         2. "For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." - Psalms 139 3. God’s plan is to prosper you, not harm you

         3. "'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" - Jeremiah 29:11 4. You have access to the power of God

         4. “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me” - Philippians 4:13

            3. Supplement your faith with…

2. Goodness

3. Knowledge
4. Self-Control
5. Endurance
6. Godliness
7. Brotherly Affection

8. Love

9. Putting faith to work is essential. Works aren’t a substitute for faith, they are a supplement of faith. Works are a result of faith and reveal what’s happening on the inside. Faith without works is dead because how can one receive the gift of God’s grace and not walk away changed and showing Christ’s attributes in their life?

10. Excel from His nature

    1. True excellence is found in the character and nature of who God is and what He has done for us.
    2. The deeper we grow in the knowledge of His promises and nature the taller we’ll grow in our faith and love!
    3. As followers of Christ we get to live in God’s power, share in God’s nature, and move in God’s provision.

11. Excel from His provision (V8-9)

    1. It is by God’s grace that we can pursue growth in our lives.
    2. It is by God’s unconditional love that we can experience freedom from share, freedom from guilt, and freedom from our sins!
    3. It is by God’s grace that we can look back and remember what we were saved from! How we were dead and he made us alive. How we were lost and now are found! How we were in bondage and now are set free! GOD HELP US REMEMBER!

    4. Growth helps you remember

       1. How easily we forget
       2. How easily we get distracted
       3. How easily we lose sight of of God’s grace and goodness on our lives
          5. Our growth and spiritual maturity is a gift from God. First we receive it, then we work to remember it.

Closing: There’s purpose in the pursuit.

1 Corinthians 14:12 “since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in building up the church.”

Process for significant growth:

• You have to seek to know.
• You have to work to grow.
• You have to persevere to show.

Illust: Gardening in Boulder