RACING TO WIN: SEEKING EXCELLENCE

We continue with our series, Racing to Win, with the sermon, Seeking Excellence.  Even though we may not always win, or achieve the results that we desire, we should never give up on excellence.  Excellence is a value that is often confused with success and perfection.  It is an understandable confusion because many things which are excellent are successful.  Perfection is a different matter altogether because it drives us toward unrealistic and unattainable goals.  The desire for perfection can become a terrible burden that can paralyze our energy and efforts because our standard is unrealistic.  Excellence is different.  It is that desire to be the best that we can be with all of our problems, fears, and limitations.  What does God expect of us?  This becomes one of the most important questions for our faith, because we will be either fearful that we cannot please God, or we think that grace relieves us from the need to put forth our best effort.  Our faith should seek an excellence that helps us to grow in grace, but also to find the ability to become more like our Lord and Savior.  This week turn to Hebrews 11:8-13.  This entire chapter reminds us that God’s people have always struggled to believe while confronting hardship and difficulty.  In this section, the writer focuses on Abraham in particular, who listened to God’s voice, believed God’s promises, and found an undeniable hope that altered the vision of his life!  Neither Abraham nor us will find this hope all at once, but it is the product of seeking an excellence in our faith.  As you read Hebrews 11:8-13, we pray that you will sense the grace of God forging in you an enduring hope through faith in Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 11:8-13: By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.  (NIV)