Leaders Are Committed to Excellence — James 1

0:08 So God's tapestry is absolutely absolutely amazing. What do you think of when I say tapestry? What do you think of when I say tapestry? Linda Ronstadt, what? No.

0:25 Sorry, that's back from my youth. Was it Carol King? Same thing. Tap... What's a tapestry?

0:34 Who said woven? Wall hanging. Okay. So a tapestry a tapestry is a wall hanging, and it's it's typically knitted or weaved together. Right?

0:50 Right? Am I right? Is that what a tapestry is? It's woven together. So you...

0:56 What what side of the tapestry do you see? Good side. Alright. What's on the backside? Knots.

1:01 Right. So I'm amazed at God's tapestry because Andy actually hit on a couple of things that that I was planning on talking about today. Let's see in on a secret. So, at about 06:00 on Friday evening, I was ready to call Roger and say, hey, look, I can't speak. Right?

1:20 I damaged my cornea, my eye. I haven't been able to read. I couldn't I can't look at a computer. So I'm like, boy, I hope the message is in me. Right?

1:32 And so Andy actually gave me some grace by taking some time and actually talking about some of the things that I wanted to talk about, and it also saved you from a review. So we're going to bypass the review and and and jump into what what I have on my heart to talk about today. Before we do that, let's, let's pray. Heavenly father, we do thank you that you are just a marvelous, wonderful, and gracious God. You've provided us with a way to heaven, and we're so thankful for that.

2:08 We ask you to bless this time together. We actually... Ask ask you to bless your word, Lord, and I ask you to give me the power to speak in a fashion and with the words that your Holy Spirit and you choose. So the topic of our of our message today is leaders are committed to excellence. So this is the third in a series from the book of James.

2:35 Leaders are committed to excellence. So if I say, what does it mean to be committed to excellence? What kind of response would I get from you? What do you think committed to excellence is? Yes.

2:50 The book of Excellent. See? It's one in every crowd. The book of James. Committed to excellence.

2:57 What what what do you think of? Perfectionist. Perfectionist? Okay. Hardworking.

3:04 Hardworking. What else? Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Alright.

3:10 What... Pardon me? Faithful. Faithful. What does that word committed mean?

3:19 Going to do it no matter what. Going to do it no matter what. You're committed to it. Pardon me? Determined.

3:25 Right. Excellent. So, who knows who Dabo Sweeney is? All right. Come on now.

3:35 Dabo Sweeney. So Dabo Sweeney is the head coach for Clemson. Clemson Tigers just won the national championship. First of all, his name isn't Dabo. I think it's William Christopher or Christopher William.

3:48 All right? Dabo is what his 18 old brother called him, Daboye. Right? Dab boy. That's where it came from.

3:54 So they call him Dabo. So so Dabo Sweeney, the story is pretty cool. This is a guy... I'm using this as an illustration, somebody that's committed to excellence. So halfway through the football season, I think it was five five years ago, six years ago, the head coach, which was Terry Bowden at thank at you.

4:19 My mind is all, you know. Alright. At Clemson, quit. Alright? Asked to resign because the football team was doing that poor.

4:29 Now, Davos Sweeney was in charge of the... Was in charge of the... No, wasn't the offensive coordinator. He was in charge of controlling the prayer time for that day. Alright?

4:49 So there were a bunch of men of faith that were part of this Clemson football team. And he got to the coaches area and found out that the head coach, Terry Bowden, had just been removed. Every single coach in there, they started calling their wives and saying, look, I'm not sure if I'm going to have a job. Right? Because usually when you get rid of one coach, you get rid of everybody else.

5:08 Right? All of the Browns. You get rid of one coach, you get rid of everybody else. Dabo Sweeney was the first one that was called out of the coach's office, and he had to have a conversation with the the person that made the decisions on on who's going to be the the next head coach. So he thought...

5:27 Right away, he thought, I'm gone. They were going to fire me. Right? I've got go see the athletic director. He's going to fire me.

5:33 He walks in. The athletic director says, Dad, boy, I believe in you. You are our next head coach. Prior to that, he was the wide receiver coach. He was the wide receiver coach.

5:43 And the athletic director said, I have so much faith in you. I really don't care how this year ends. You're going to be our head coach moving forward. Sweeney made a commitment. Dabo Sweeney made a commitment when he was age 16.

6:02 He committed his his life to Christ. This is a quote from Dabo. That was a game changer for me. That's an understatement. Right?

6:11 That was a game changer for me. That's really become the foundation of my life. That was a game changer for me. Committing committing my life to Christ was a game changer for me. That really became the foundation of my life.

6:30 Then he went on to say, Coaching allows me to use my life experiences to impact young people to serve God. What a great mission in life, coaching college football. Right? Wherever you are, wherever you are, you should be working for the Lord. Now, what do Dabo Sweeney and Freddie Kitchens have in common?

7:00 They're both coaches. What do they have in common? What? I said Freddie Kitchens. No.

7:09 Freddie Kitchens. Freddie Kitchens is the new head coach for the Cleveland Browns. Dabo Sweeney and Freddie Kitchens played together at Alabama. Dabo Sweeney was a receiver for Alabama. So Freddie Kitchens and Debbo Sweeney go back some.

7:49 Another leader who is committed to excellence. John 13, we're going to start with 21. Well, we're going to start with 20. Truly, I tell you whoever receives anyone I send receives me, and the one who receives me receives him who sent me. When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in his spirit and testified, truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.

8:19 The disciples started looking at one another uncertain which one he was speaking about. One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus. Simon Peter motioned to him to find out who it was that he was talking about. So he leaned back against Jesus and asked him, Lord, who is it? Jesus replied, he's the one he's the one I give the piece of bread to after I have dipped it.

8:44 When he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Judas, Simon Iscariot's son. After Judas ate the piece of bread, Satan entered him, so Jesus told him, what you are doing, go quickly. None of those reclining at the table knew why he said this to him. Since Judas kept the money bag, some thought that that Jesus was telling him, buy what we need for the festival, or that should be... Should give something to the poor.

9:18 After receiving the piece of bread, he immediately left, and it was night. When Jesus... When he had left, Jesus said, now the son of man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. Now the son of god is glorified, and god is glorified in him. So at that point, when Judas left, Jesus said, now, the son of God is glorified.

9:53 This began the process. This is final execution of a process that began before time began. Let's take a look at first Corinthians chapter two. First Corinthians chapter two. This is a verse that has been come...

10:13 Been coming back to me time and time again. First Corinthians two, we're going to start, and we're going to read verses seven and eight. So... Right? So the the the the point is this.

10:23 Jesus said, now is the time for the son of God to be glorified. So this is when Jesus... The glorification of Jesus began. He was setting into process the steps that would redeem the world, redeem me, would redeem you. Alright?

10:44 First Corinthians chapter two. We speak God's hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom because if they had known it, they would have not they would not have crucified our Lord. Alright? So first of all, the rulers of the world, Satan, did not know the plan.

11:23 Satan made the assumption that once Christ was crucified that he had won. But Jesus, being committed to excellence, when he said, Now the Son of God is glorified, he began the process to redeem us. And this was a plan that happened way before the beginning of time. Leaders are committed to excellence. Jesus Christ was committed to a plan that happened so long before, before time began.

12:06 That was his commitment, and he was crucified on the cross for us. He was committed to excellence. Committed to excellence. Now, let's go... Let's move to James.

13:11 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double minded and unstable in all his ways. Okay. Now I need you to jump to James chapter four, verse eight. And the reason I'm doing that is because this is the only other place in the Bible that the word double minded occurs. I wanted to tie this together a little bit.

13:42 Draw near to god and he will draw near to you. Cleanse you cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. Now we're going go back to James one nineteen. Back to James one nineteen. My dear brothers and sisters, understand this.

14:13 Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. For human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourself. So the question is question is simple.

14:51 Are you a committed Christian? Okay. I take a look. We've Sunday morning Christians, right? Those that show up on Sunday morning and then don't have faith.

15:02 Alright? We've got we've got Christians that believe, but they don't dive into the word and learn the word. Alright? We've got Christians that believe and read the word, and then we've got committed Christians who believe and live the word. Who live the word.

15:26 Right? Andy's Andy's example Andy's example was perfect, And I think it shows humility as well. None of us are perfect. None of us are perfect. Certainly, I'm not.

15:40 All right? But if we want to be leaders, if we want to be... If if we want to be where the Lord wants us, Dabo Sweeney. Right? Dabo Sweeney is committed to those young men that he touches.

15:59 Is that what we want in our life? Then we have to follow these words that James tells us. We have to use Christ as an example, who before time began, there was plan and he executed the plan, and he was glorified when the beginning of that execution started. Jesus Christ had a purpose on this earth, do you? What is your purpose?

16:29 Each and every one of us has a purpose. But do we do it? And you know what? I I get emotional, and I'm I'm loud, and I I don't mean it because my goodness, I am I am saved by grace like the rest of you are. Right?

16:45 I am the most double minded person I think the Lord created. Seriously, I can't make a decision to save my life. I'm telling you. So let's take a look at some of this. Right?

16:58 Let's take a look at some of this. Now if any of you lack wisdom, anybody who does not lack wisdom, stand up now. Alright? We all lack wisdom. Wisdom about, I can't see, should I drive to church?

17:19 I drove anyhow. Wisdom about what do I need to do what do I need to do about work? What do I need to do about the relationship that I have? We need to go and ask for wisdom about every single thing that we do. After I poked myself in the eye on Friday, I'm like, Lord, is this you telling me not to preach, or are you telling me that you have it right now, move forward?

17:54 Alright? Praying for wisdom. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously. I love the word that the King James uses here. It says, who gives liberally?

18:15 Gives liberally. All right? Daniel Boss's example. You got a little you got a little grape juice cup about that big. All right?

18:26 And God's provision is that baptismal baptismal tub. Right? If you're going to use that baptismal tub to fill up that little wine glass, it's going to overflow. It's liberally. All right?

18:42 Me, I'm a little bit more on the food side, so I think of a stack of pancakes with just all kinds of syrup on it. Right? Liberally. Liberally. And now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should he should ask God who gives to all liberally and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him.

19:05 We need to be convinced that if we look... If we search for wisdom and we want wisdom, it will be given to us. All you got to do is ask for it. But, let them ask in faith. Let them ask in faith.

19:37 Stress it. Stress it? What do mean by that? Put yourself in a situation where it requires you. That's so hard to do, isn't it?

19:48 That's so hard to do. Stress it. Yes? You got to feed it. You got to feed it.

19:53 How do you feed your faith? Very careful. Right? Reading the word of God, getting out of the council, listening to the words spoken on every Sunday. Okay.

20:13 What else? Spend time with those who are strong in faith. How about spend time with those that are weak in faith? Yes. Yes.

20:38 Confess your sin. It's hard to see the truth and... That's exactly right. Was it you and I that had that discussion? I recently had a discussion with somebody, and you know, it's extraordinarily hard for me to live my life for Christ if I'm not living with my spouse the way that I'm supposed to be living.

21:02 Right? So confessing those sins, confessing those sins helps that faith grow. I've got a note here that says, by creating positive neurological pathways, positive neurological pathways. If we control our mind to understand what faith is continually, that bridge, that neurological pathway gets stronger and stronger and stronger. And when we have a period of time where we need faith, rather than doubting faith, we will believe faith.

21:50 We will believe faith. But let them ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like a surging surging sea driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord being double minded and unstable. Double minded and unstable.

22:15 What do you think being double minded refers to? Right. Yes? Loving the Lord on Sunday and loving the world on Monday. Thank you.

22:49 Loving the Lord on Sunday and loving the world on Monday. Meaning Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as well. Right? So, how do you expect to have a stable life? How do you expect to be living your life on purpose?

23:10 How do you expect to be living out your life on purpose for the Lord if you're only giving the Lord a couple hours on Sunday? Right? If we if we listen to the word and we walk away and we walk away, what are we? We're we're kidding ourselves. We're kidding ourselves.

24:03 God. Jesus. That's the best best person to solve your situation in life. Cleanse your hands cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your heart, double minded. Right?

24:18 Move forward by living a life that God wants you to live. Living a life that then you can show others Christ living in you. My dear brothers and sisters, this, everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness. Right? If you lived in my house, you'd understand, you would know I have an anger issue, And you know what?

24:47 It doesn't accomplish anything. It doesn't even make me feel better. So we have to put that away. We have to put that anger away. We have to we have to exercise our faith.

24:59 We have to allow the Lord to take control of our life, and we have to put anger aside. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth. Right? Get rid of it. What is the moral filth in your life?

25:19 Were you going say something, Andy? Okay. Okay. What's the moral filth? Media is a big one.

25:30 It's constant stream. How could you live a positive life? Right? Philippians four eight, whatever is pure, appraiserly, loving, admirable, noble, true, excellent, and real, meditate on these things When you're watching TV all the time, news all the time, that's giving you the garbage. Right?

25:48 The Greek word for garbage is, which is defecation, and we're putting that into our brains. Right? We're putting that into our brains. Moral filth, get rid of all the moral filth. What else is there?

26:06 Right? What else is there? Get rid of it. Alright? An evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

26:20 And then here it is. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. All right? Andy touched on this last week, right, when he started. We must self analyze.

26:34 Right? It says here, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. So when we when we see the word, we must do the word, and we must analyze, are we doing what we're supposed to do? Is the moral filth entering our life so that we can't live the life that Christ wants us to live and accomplish that which Christ wants us to accomplish? If it is, we have to analyze it, we have to get rid of it.

27:05 We have to we have to take steps to clean our minds out, to clean our lives out. We have to take steps to do that. We must self analyze. And then one Corinthians twelve thirty one. I can't see.

27:46 Who has it? First Corinthians twelve thirty one. Go ahead Kevin. Okay. That whole chapter talks about spiritual gifts.

28:21 What is your spiritual gift? You, me, we need to analyze what those spiritual gifts are. We need to analyze where we're gifted, and then we just walk away and we're happy because we know what our spiritual gift is. Right? Right?

28:49 Christ executed the plan. We need to execute the plan. What is your spiritual gift? You know, I I I don't know how to tell you what your spiritual gift is, but I tell you what, I believe if you ask if you ask for the wisdom what your spiritual gift is, and I don't care how old you are, Unless you're doubting, you will be told what your spiritual gift is. It's so important to this fellowship for you to know what your spiritual gift is and use it.

29:35 It's so important for Christ's message, for you to know what your spiritual gift is and then use it. Pardon me? For what? For God's glory? For each other?

29:53 For each other? So, did I tell you how I hurt my eye? I told Kevin, because he was in the driveway and I asked him if he heard me scream like a little baby, and he said he didn't. I said, good. I know it was about 06:00 at night, Right?

30:15 And my phone vibrated, and I'm like, I wonder what that is. And I tell you, man, at lightning speed, I want to put my glasses on my... Yeah, I'm not going to. You can imagine what happened. Right into this eye.

30:34 The pain was vicious, but I'm tough, right? I'm going to... I don't need to go to the doctors. Don't need to go to the emergency room. Well, last night at what?

30:46 Was it... No, it wasn't that late. I was home by ten. I'm like, I'm going to go to the emergency room, man. Was...

30:54 It hurt so bad. Alright. The pain wasn't the only thing though. So the scratch, this this all works together right here, so this is a great illustration. Thank you for your prayers, by the way, because we came up with this wonderful illustration about serving, and about what gifts we have, and about different parts of the body.

31:14 Right? So I scratched my cornea right where my pupil is. Right where my pupil is. So my body did not know if it was supposed to focus on the scratch or focus on everything else. You can't imagine what life is like when your eyes are just like bolting back and forth to different spots, different areas.

31:39 So in in order to cause me some relief last night, the doctor in the emergency room basically paralyzed my eye, so that it couldn't focus. I'm telling you, the pain just of of of of of your body thinking, I better focus on that clock, and then say, no, no, I got to focus on the scratch, I mean, my... It was it was unreal. Pouring a cup of coffee this morning. Right?

32:07 I was in pain this morning because I... They gave me this... It worked for six hours, almost almost on the nose. Right? At 02:00 in the morning, I'm awake, like, oh, man, this hurts so bad.

32:19 Nancy was... Nancy would be... Couldn't get the prescription till about 09:00 in the morning. So here I am trying to pour a cup of coffee with a patch over my eye because that's the only way I was able to focus at least one eye. You know what they...

32:31 When they say you have no depth perception when you only have one eye? I didn't know where the coffee was going. I was hoping that it was in there. But... So so the the...

33:03 Leaders are committed to excellence. Christians should be committed to excellence. And the only way this body of Christ is going to do everything that the Lord Jesus wants us to do is by using our gifts to benefit the body. So I ask you, what's your spiritual gift? How do you know what your spiritual gift is?

33:29 Answer that question. How do you know what your spiritual gift is? Ask God. Ask God. Yes.

33:54 Ask another brother or sister in the Lord. So the question is, do we just want to come to a building on Sundays and listen, you know, listen to a forty five minute monologue and go home and get angry and pour moral filth into our body. And not live for Christ? Okay, this is totally, totally off. This is...

34:41 There's no biblical truth in what I'm about to say. Somebody once said the definition of hell. There is no biblical truth in what I'm saying, so... But but this illustrates it. The definition of hell is spending a day with the person that you could have been.

35:04 Spending a day with the person you could have been. Think about that. Noodle on that one for a bit. You have everything that you need to do exactly what God created you to do. You have everything.

35:24 You were created for a higher calling. Why do you settle... Or why do we... Why do I settle for not the higher calling? And we have the holy spirit to guide us, and we have the lord Jesus Christ living in us.

35:46 Imagine imagine what the lord could accomplish with Westlake bible fellowship if we all put our spiritual gifts into a basket, shook it up, and said, let's go do what the Lord has called us to do. Imagine what your life would be like if you identified what your spiritual gift is and saying, Lord, I'm going to live this life based on this spiritual gift. You're going to see people, you're going to see men, women, and children come to Christ. That's the great commission. That's what we're supposed to do.

36:28 Let's close in prayer. Lord, we come before you and we thank you. We thank you, Lord, that you're in control of everything. Lord, we thank you that all we have to do is ask for wisdom and you will give it to us. But we have to ask in faith, knowing that you're going to give it to us, Lord, so that we're not double minded, so that we're not unstable.

36:52 Lord, I pray for the brothers and sisters here that really want to be a committed Christian. They want to be a leader committed to excellence. I pray for them, Lord, that that they will seek your guidance, whether it's one on one with another brother or sister, or whether it's just just quietly in the prayer closet with you, Lord, to help them help us identify what our gifts are so that we can create here in Westlake that vision that you have for Westlake and not our vision for Westlake, Lord. We thank you that you're in control, and we know that the power doesn't lie in us, the power lies in you, and there is no failure. Lord, help us step outside our our our little cluster of security here, Lord, and stress our faith knowing that you will provide and knowing that it is for you and not for us.

37:55 Help us to do that, We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.