Speaker 1: 0:02

Oh, great to see everybody, man. What a great day in God's house. Sorry if I just, while they were singing, I was on this front row thinking, looking across everyone that was singing today, and it's a collection of people who did not give up. Yet there's a reason why we get so passionate when we worship and it's really because, like David said, if it had not been for the Lord on my side, where would I be? And I don't know if it's just this season in my life or if it's just the way that heaven feels so close in these moments that I just can't help but be overwhelmed as I watch our young adults and our young people and just going so strong after the Lord and really leading us in this church in an atmosphere of expression of thanksgiving and praise and worship. And we have 25 that are in Puerto Rico right now that are doing ministry. So we keep on praying for them and my prayer is they have just the right blend of powerful ministry moments and fun, because serving the Lord is fun, and so I know there are going to be so many life change moments and thank you. So many life change moments and thank you. I just want to say thank you, church family, for your support and giving so generously to make it possible for all of these young adults and students to be in Puerto Rico, and then for everybody showing up today, well done. I mean, you could be anywhere today, but you got into this house and listen. It's not that the Lord wouldn't be here if you weren't here, because the Lord will show up, he's everywhere, always, all the time. But I think there's just a special anointing in this house when we all show up. And man, how many didn't recognize Ethan this morning? I'm like, did we hire a new worship leader? I did not get that memo. But no, ethan's our oldest son man. My heart's so just full, just by the way he's growing and just the power that he leads in. And how many, how many know I, all of us need to, everybody that serves on the dream team, which is our team, that serves and volunteers through the week and on the weekend and takes a good collection of us to make this service happen. But how many know we all need a shirt that says where's Ethan? All right, like two minutes, two minutes before service. I knew he was. He was leading this morning and we had an issue that we needed to correct down in the lobby and and somebody said, where's Ethan? I'm like, well, he's getting ready to go on stage, so I don't know that we can call him right now, and so, but, ethan, well done, I'm just so proud. He's getting ready to go on stage, so I don't know that we can call him right now, but, ethan, well done, I'm just so proud of you. Way to go.

Speaker 1: 4:13

We are in an incredible season of summer and I love summer. Five of you, I love summer. It's not that I hate winter. I just dislike February and March and most of April. But I'm thankful for what's happening in this house and man, I feel like God really wants to just continue to move in us and through us. So I'm ready to preach God's word. Are you ready to receive it today?

Speaker 1: 4:43

The year was 2017 and the twins were in fifth grade, and fifth grade is a milestone moment in our school system here in Oak Park, and they do this trip every year, and I think just about every one of the 12 or so elementary schools in this area do this trip at some point in the spring, and they call it outdoor education, and so they bus all of the kids in the fifth grade, as far west as you can go in Illinois and get them in this outdoor country camp setting and they do all of this like lesson and instruction about nature and all kind of I mean, and so I don't know why. I guess it's because they're boys that I did all of the chaperone trips for them, so like it wouldn't make sense for Urshana to go on an outdoor education trip and stay in a girl's camp dorm without a girl there that she is a parent to. So I get to do. I got to do all those trips and most of you may know this but I didn't go to seminary. Seminary is kind of my life. I grew up in the home of a pastor, who grew up in the home of a pastor. So, and my wife, like we'd just been around ministry all of our life, and so I always say my seminary was my upbringing and. But I went to school and I got a marketing degree and so if you know anything about marketing, we know how to say great things and make things look great, but we always leave the rest of the details up to the engineers in the room. Like as a salesperson, how many know it's the best product you've ever promoted in your life and you know that it should work and you know what it should do. But the fact of how it works you don't really care that much about, you just wanna sell it and then let the support team take over. Can I get an amen from a salesperson? I said all that to say.

Speaker 1: 7:08

On this outdoor education trip we did pretty good through all of the different things that they had challenged us with. And on the last day they brought us together and broke us up in groups and gave us a compass. They gave the kids a compass not me, but for the story purpose I'm in it and they gave. They broke us up into about a group of four and they had a compass and then basically they had four points in this large field wilderness. I mean, we could have been in the middle of Colorado for all I know, but I know we were in West Illinois, but it just seemed like we were lost and they gave us these four things that we had to do by using the compass and degrees and all these things and I'm a marketing major, not a compass major, not a compass major. So we started off and the kids were like challenged with making sure we were going the right direction and degrees. And so we got going and we found the one spot, the first spot, and we were like we're in it. And then for the rest of the time we looked for the second and the third and the fourth spot, until they actually had to blow a whistle over the entire campground calling us back because we had gotten just one degree off going to the second spot, which meant the one degree off going to the third spot was about six degrees off, which meant going to the fourth spot. We were about 26 degrees off. And then we were lost and we were circling around this wilderness not knowing.

Speaker 1: 8:50

And it really is the year that I learned the detail, right down to the exact degree, is so important for you to arrive at your destiny and if you're not careful in the first detail, you might never make it to the last detail. Why don't you just arrive at your destiny? And if you're not careful in the first detail, you might never make it to the last detail. Why don't you just turn to your neighbor and say we've got to dial in the degrees and then turn to the other one and just say you look so good today. Here we go.

Speaker 1: 9:33

We're in this series called Summer Shorts and it really is just this look into the gospels, like not taking a lot of time and not going line by line or precept by precept, but just like a brief overview of the gospels and hopefully you're reading through them this summer. And what about last week? Last week was such a great week with Noel and Retta and Julian and it's a powerful, powerful weekend, as they shared from the Gospels. And so here we are, we're right in the middle of this and we're really looking at the faces passage that refer to the faces of our Lord, faces passage that refer to the faces of our Lord. And it's kind of without. It's kind of the way to know what Jesus looked like in terms of character and how he worked and moved and walked on this earth.

Speaker 1: 10:16

And Ezekiel 1.10 is the scripture we've been starting with to get us to the gospel, but it says this as for the likeness of their faces, let's go ahead and pull that screen up all the way. As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox and the face of an eagle. So these four faces is what the vision showed, not that when Jesus walked on the earth he had four faces, but it's showing the character of who Jesus was. And, by the way, in the book of Daniel, chapter 6, verse 3, the Bible says that Daniel distinguished himself from all of the others not by what he did, but by who he was. A lot of times we think what we do is the difference maker, but it's really who we are. So if we are Christ followers, as we follow Jesus, we want to become more like him. And if you want to be more like him, then you need to know what he looks like. And by looking at the gospels we get a picture of what he looked like by what he did, but more of who he was. And so we know that John talks.

Speaker 1: 11:32

Really, the overview of the book of John is that it was the face of the lion, that Jesus had a mighty anointing. He had powerful anointing on this earth. He was 100% God, so he had powerful anointing. And John talks about that anointing and that boldness. And then last week or two weeks ago, we read through the book of Luke and Luke was like yeah, he's 100% God. Jesus is 100% God, but he also was 100% man. So he was fully God, but he's also fully man. And, yeah, he was powerfully anointed, but he was also personally relational. He became one of us, sat among us, suffered like we would suffer, took our sins upon him, like that's relationship, right there. And so today we continue and we're going to be in the book of Matthew and Matthew. Matthew's amazing. I love Matthew, matthew, if we just dialed it in into one sentence, we would say that Matthew talks about the face of the eagle, which is excellence, that Jesus did all things well and with excellence.

Speaker 1: 12:58

And it's important that you understand that Matthew was an accountant, that you understand that Matthew was an accountant. And I don't know about you, but I've never met a messy accountant. In fact, you don't want a messy accountant, you want an accountant who, like Matthew, will make sure every T is crossed and every I is dotted and every detail and every number matches and makes sense and, like Matthew, was a good record keeper. In fact, matthew gives us this very precise and very detailed look at everything Jesus did. That it's a precise look at his birth, even the lineage, all the way from Abraham, all the way to Jesus. He gives us the lineage, very precise details about the birth of Jesus, precise details about his ministry, precise details about his suffering, precise details about his death and his ascension everything. He was very precise in sharing that. In fact, he did that by quoting more Old Testament scripture and prophecy than any other gospel. That's how precise he was. He's like I'm going to tell you this account, but I'm also going to have footnotes and references and show you back where actually the prophet said who Jesus would be and Jesus would operate as the prophet said. And he's just very detailed in his result and, in short, he says Jesus did everything well, with excellence.

Speaker 1: 14:41

You know, jesus healed with excellence. He didn't just fix the ailments, but he restored dignity. Jesus taught with excellence, not just giving answers but actually providing an awakening of hearts as he taught. Remember the disciples after Jesus rose from the dead and they're walking to Emmaus and he's talking to them and what they say is didn't our hearts burn within us? He awakened something in our hearts. We have been taught it, but now we realize we're living it. Jesus led with excellence, not just from above, peering down and saying do this and do that, but from among. He showed the example of excellence. Jesus died with excellence, laying down his life with precision and purpose, even to the final detail. His final breath was it is finished. It wasn't chaos, it was completion. He did it with excellence. He did everything with excellence. Jesus didn't just come and move into mediocrity, but he actually was majesty in motion.

Speaker 1: 15:53

And if we want to be more like Jesus, we have to be powerfully anointed, meaning we have relationship with the Lord and we seek after his presence which, by the way, is why we have worship with the Lord and we seek after his presence, which, by the way, is why we have worship like we worship, because it's our opportunity to get in his presence together and pour out our life. The Bible says love the Lord with your whole, all of your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength, everything within us. That's how we worship, because we love the presence of the Lord. I'm gonna talk about that in a minute. But we can't just be powerfully anointed. We have to be good with people, we have to be relational. We got to get around people. You're not going to see people saved in your community if you don't get into their life and know about them and ask them questions and be the example to them, but also get involved and sit down at the table with them, so be good with people. But then Matthew's like yeah, you gotta be powerfully anointed and, yes, you gotta be good with people, but there is a detail that you have to walk with excellence, like Jesus did.

Speaker 1: 17:09

So let's talk about excellence for a little bit. What is excellence? Because there's a lot of conjecture and there's a lot of thought process that goes into what is excellence. And let me just first tell you what excellence is. Not perfection, it's intentionality. It's not about being flawless, it's about being faithful, a good steward with what God gives you. So we can't get caught on the detail of excellence, thinking it's only about performance, but it really is. It's about the matter of our heart being able to steward the things that God gives us to our very best ability.

Speaker 1: 17:56

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, he says follow me as I follow the example of Jesus, and if Jesus does things well, then I need to do things well, and I need to follow the example of Jesus, and if Jesus does things well, then I need to do things well and I need to set the example for the people following me to live that way as well. So it's not perfection, and Arshana and I were talking about this at dinner last night a little bit. Sometimes I get to preach my message to her and then she picks some points and perfects. So if you don't like it, go talk to her. But I came across this mediocrity is the graveyard of potential. And the thing is the graveyard of potential. And the thing is some of us are dying slow deaths in our life, not because we're sinful, but because we've settled it's going to be just good enough. If I do, just good enough, I'll get by.

Speaker 1: 19:02

And I believe that there is no glorifying Christ in that pursuit, because excellence isn't just a spiritual discipline, it's actually practical holiness, it's what sets us apart. Holiness, it's what sets us apart. Ephesians 2.10 says for we are God's masterpiece. Everybody say masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ so we can do the good things he planned for us long Now. That word masterpiece, in the Greek it actually means poem, like verse, like line upon line, like roses are red, violets are blue. I love Jesus. I hope you do too. I don't know, it's just what came to me. I got stuck. But the reality is this that think about. And obviously I'm no poet, although I've rapped a few lines in my day.

Speaker 1: 20:17

Don't make me start, but think about a beautiful no, a beautiful poem, a beautiful poem. And when you read it and it just flows and it's just man, it's like. Think about a song with great lyrics, like you hear it one time and you sing it all week long, and that is the detail and the precision that we are to God. He took great care. We read it in Psalms 139 that he took great care in planning out all the days of our life. He stamped us with his thumb a purpose and an identity and he wrote all the days down like this is how, if it all goes this way, this is what's going to happen in their lives. And whenever we mess up, he just tears that page out and rewrites our way back into the story every single time. If you don't give up, so you're God's masterpiece. If he made you with excellence, then it is our opportunity and our honor to live with excellence.

Speaker 1: 21:43

Romans 12.1,. So, brothers and sisters, here we go see. Brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you, come on, pull it up. Romans 12.1. I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him, and your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is, by the way, the spiritual way that you worship. So our lives are an offering. It means the way we walk is an offering. The way we talk is an offering. What we look at is an offering. How we act is an offering. Our work is an offering. Our hobbies become an offering. Like and listen.

Speaker 1: 22:27

Work isn't just work, it's worship. And if you can frame it in that category, it will change the way you walk into your office. Tomorrow Can't be 1102 already. This is supposed to be summer shorts, we're supposed to be at the beach already. But if we realize work is worship and worship is worth, ship it, worship is worth-ship. It's what he's worth. And if my song is my best and my raising my hands is my best, then also my accounting practice is my best. My laundry list is my best. My mowing the grass is my best. Like you have to think about it in the form of worship. My work is worship and so I'm going to give my best, not because it matters to any of you, because it matters to him.

Speaker 1: 23:36

So really, the start of excellence is this you should be the hardest worker, not the overworked worker, but the hardest worker. It's a difference and we should have the best attitude, always striving to do our best to reach our potential, because we're not working for a church or for a company. We are striving and working and worshiping for God. So let me just set a few things about Because, honestly, it is easy for us to fall into the trap that excellence would mean perfection. I told you it's not, but still we sometimes judge excellence by the standard of perfection. I told you it's not, but still we sometimes judge excellence by the standard of perfection. So let me just set this up for you Excellence motivates you when perfectionism Paralyzes you. Excellence causes or leads to success, while perfectionism causes or leads to stress. I could give you a couple more that I didn't give to them.

Speaker 1: 24:48

The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy, but the pursuit of perfection is frustrating and a terrible waste of time, because none of us will be perfect, because none of us will be perfect. Pursuing excellence is not to be a quest for superiority, because I'm pursuing excellence doesn't mean I'm better than anybody else. I just have a responsibility for what God has given me, to give my best with what he's given me. Do my best with all Listen whatever God has blessed me with. It's my responsibility to use that to the best of my ability.

Speaker 1: 25:34

Most people would think that striving for pursuing excellence means being better than everyone else, and that's not true. For one's own glory or significance, or for the praise or the applause of men, oh, that's what you know, living for excellence. You're trying to make yourself better than everybody else, or show you're better than everybody else, or live for the applause of men. No, that's no, no, no, no, no. The whole goal in pursuing excellence is this we want to be better tomorrow than we were yesterday. I'm going to be better tomorrow than I was the day before, and that is the pursuit of excellence Doing our best with what we have, all to the glory of the lord.

Speaker 1: 26:26

So what does excellence look at free church? Well, here's excellence at free church our, our core values. We have a vision. That's where we're going. We have um, we have a bridge to get there. It's what we do to get to that vision. But we have guidelines or guardrails to help us get where we're going, and those are called values. And if you don't name your values, somebody will. So our values at Free Church. Number one we love God, which, by the way, all of this is in freeway, which if you've never gone through the freeway or it's been a while you might need a refresher.

Speaker 1: 27:03

It's coming up on July 27th, right after service, and we're calling it freeway extreme because we are we're going to do all of freeway 101, 201, 301 in one moment. After service we'll have some light snacks, like a continental breakfast. We'll teach you heart and vision, what it means to be a disciple of the Lord and then how to be a part of making a difference and discovering your purpose in this house. And we're doing this because we're moving to two services in the fall and there's opportunity. There's great opportunity for our team to grow and not put all of the burden on just a few. You see, no matter like the vision is much bigger than than maybe what you can see. We have a great vision, but the vision is not heavy if we all carry it together. So Freeway Extreme is coming up July 27th.

Speaker 1: 28:07

You can register on Rene. Just get your phone out, open up that Slack app. It's our favorite app of the world. Amen, somebody. We love Slack, woo and DM Rene. Register forward, slash register and then select Freeway Extreme and, honestly, it will be a treat for you. You'll learn so much, you'll get connected and then you'll be a part of helping us make a difference.

Speaker 1: 28:34

But this is some of the things we teach you. We love God. That's our value. We love God. In fact, that is the face of the lion, that's the powerful anointing the pursuit of his presence. We love God. The second one is we love people. That's the face of man that is being good with people, being relational Too much, take it too long, okay. Then the third one is we. I thought you said come on like wrap it up, like landing.

Speaker 1: 29:04

And then the third one is we pursue excellence, not because we wanna be perfect, but because excellence honors God and creates comfort. When we do what God has given us to do and we do it well, it creates comfort. That's why we don't brew crummy coffee. We have the best coffee. That's why our iced coffee will match with I'll match it with anybody any little coffee shop in this area. Our iced coffee, it'll match it. Why? Not because we want to have the best coffee, but because a cup of coffee in our hand creates comfort and helps us kind of settle in a little easier, makes it feel like home, all right.

Speaker 1: 29:46

So and then the last one, in case you're tracking, is choose joy, and that's coming up next week. All right, so can I finish this sermon or do I need to like table it and come back? Very quickly, liam, you can come up and play behind me, it'll make this sound a lot better. So now we have an idea You're tracking with me. You have an idea what excellence is and what it is not. So how can we grow in excellence?

Speaker 1: 30:13

And this passage of scripture just kind of filled my spirit yesterday as I was just going through my notes one last time. It wasn't originally in my notes, but I put it in there for you and Paul's writing to the Corinthian church. He says this but since you excel in everything in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in, you see also that you excel in the grace of giving Paul's like listen, you're doing all these things with excellence. Well done, keep striving, not for perfection, but be excellent. Excellent in your faith, in your speech, in your knowledge, in your earnestness and in your love, and even in your giving. Be excellent because the gifts God has given you. It's good for us to be excellent in that we're doing this unto the Lord, not unto man, but unto the Lord. So how do we grow? How do we excel? How do we grow in excellence?

Speaker 1: 31:14

Number one commit to the hidden places. Commit to the hidden places. Commit to the hidden places. Excellence starts when no one is watching. Can you be excellent in what you're doing when nobody's paying attention? Because when nobody's paying attention, it is my greatest, it's the greatest threat for me to do just enough to get by. When the kids used to come in the room and they want your attention. So they start, they do some performing and, um, they give their best to get your attention and and man, you're like that, wow, that like the boys would come in and do tricks and somersaults and all kind of things to get our like like show off in front of the people in the room. But they only could do those things because they were somehow practicing those on the trampoline and other places. Like the reality is like, when no one's watching, you still strive for excellence.

Speaker 1: 32:14

Listen, jesus first. All right, let me close it with this. If I, if I make a second battery dead, I'm never gonna preach again. So listen, jesus lived 30 years in obscurity. For three years of ministry. Jesus lived 30 years in obscurity, for three years of ministry 30 years, the Bible says, of growing in wisdom and stature, pursuing excellence when no one was watching. For those three years, and you know what? And a lot of times you know we're like okay, yes, I'm called, give me a microphone. Yes, I'm called Give me a microphone. Yes, I'm called Give me a platform. Yes, I'm called Give me a budget. Like, no, no, that's not pursuing excellence. Can you do it when nobody's watching? Can you build when no one's paying attention? Can you prepare when? Can you be ready? When it's time to be ready? So if God is working in you behind the curtain, it's because he's preparing to reveal his glory through you, out and open. So don't despise your season of silence, because that's where excellence is forged in you.

Speaker 1: 34:00

The second one refuse to settle for good enough. So many of us are living at the level of average, not because we're incapable, but because we've become comfortable. Good enough is the greatest enemy of great. Good enough is the greatest enemy of great, and we just gotta always be. Listen, we're not trying to be better than everybody else. We're just doing better day by day, by day by day, with what God has given us. It is the way we become good stewards. And when we steward the gift well, what's the gift for ministry? What's the reward for ministry? It's more ministry. But you don't get the reward of more ministry if you're not stewarding the one talent that God gave you, or the two talent, or the five talent, all right. So average is always easier than excellent. But average will not change the world. You never go back to the restaurant that had an okay meal. You never take your clothes back to a cleaner that did okay with the collars. You don't go back to the car wash that did okay with most of the car, just the wheels and the the mud flaps. They missed those, but it's okay. No, we don't settle for that. We're not average people. We serve an extraordinary God and we serve him with excellence.

Speaker 1: 35:36

And then the last one invite the spirit. Invite the Holy Spirit to help you with the spirit of excellence. Invite the Holy Spirit to give you that spirit of excellence. When I told you that Daniel had a spirit of excellence that set him apart, it wasn't what he did, it was who he was, and it wasn't just natural for Daniel, but it was spiritual. Excellence is a fruit of intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Like we love the fruit of the Spirit in like power and goosebumps, and you know, like I prayed for somebody and they were healed, or I spoke a prophetic word over their life and man, this powerful moment that's happening. But really the fruit of the Spirit is also being excellent because it's a part of who we are. We're like our creator, we're like our creator. So ask the Holy Spirit and this is what you pray, if you want to invite the Holy Spirit to give you a spirit of excellence, this is what you pray. Ask Him to refine your work, to refine your character, to refine your character, to refine your attitude. And this one refine your rhythm, because a lot of us, since we're walking out of rhythm, we lose time to be excellent.

Speaker 1: 37:17

Like you can't live scattered and show up late and expect it to be excellent. It's like you know the student that gets there a few minutes before class starts and they sit in the front, not the back, and when they get there, they get their textbook out, they get their ipad or their laptop out, they get their pens and pencils out. They get there, they get their textbook out, they get their iPad or their laptop out, they get their pens and pencils out, they get their note taking however they're doing it if it's digital or they're writing it and they get all ready and they've got a bottle of water, and it's two minutes before class starts, but they're sitting and they're ready and they're, I'm ready. And you know what, if you do that for the people that are teaching you, the people that you'll teach will do that. I'll never forget, as, as a young college student in a young adult class ministry class I was cutting up and not paying attention and laughing with my friends in the back of the class and the young adult leader of the church I was in my dad's church spoke up and said hey, chuck, guess what? Someday you're gonna preach on stages, but no one will listen if you won't listen to me. You wanna be excellent, be ready to be ready so that when you start leading, people will be ready to be ready, so that when you start leading, people will be ready to be ready. That was better than that, amen, but I'll let that roll. Thank you, baby. Thank you for that one. That was good. I wasn't talking to you, I was talking about all of them, practically.

Speaker 1: 38:56

Can I just close with this Practically, number one. Listen. You want to. You want to distinguish? Listen. Daniel wasn't distinguished. He distinguished himself, not just what he did, but who he was. So listen. You wanna be practical at work or church, be the first to arrive and the last to leave, not overworking. But listen. If you're supposed to start work at nine, if you're supposed to be on the Zoom call at nine, don't start logging in at nine. Don't go through the door at nine. Be first. See, this is gonna help you distinguish yourself. Young people, young adults, it'll be a game changer. Be the last to leave. Then here's another one If you turn in reports, turn them in first, but ensure that they are clean and precise and actionable.

Speaker 1: 40:12

Turn in good reports at work. That will distinguish you. Thorough, thoughtful, actionable. Listen when you do at work, when you do your job at work, that's what you get paid for. When you go beyond your responsibilities, that's what gets you noticed. Be excellent.

Speaker 1: 40:39

It is not just. It's not just. It's sometimes not in our nature. So we can work at it. We invite the Holy Spirit to help us. But listen, it's not just about performing well, it's really bringing God all the glory in what we do. And it doesn't when you teach it like this. It doesn't sound so spiritual, but it is steeped in gospel principle, because it's how Jesus lived his life. Can you receive that word today? Let me pray. Holy Spirit, lord, we thank you for your presence in this room. Jesus, you showed up in such a powerful way today. Our lives are changed forever and I pray you'll help us live our life with excellence. Would you stir that within us, that when people look at us we resemble you, because you showed us how to live, doing all things well. We declare this in the name of Jesus. Let the church say amen. Come on, let's stand together. As I close, just a couple of things. First of all, if you're giving today, maybe you're.