A Servant’s Heart:

A Servant’s Heart:

AIMING FOR = EXCELLENCE

Exodus 18:2= 0-23

Labor Day weekend is a time to remember that work and = the ability to do it is a blessing. Genesis tells us that God planned for us to do good work from the ve= ry beginning—just as He, Himself, accomplishes work and then declares, “It’s good.” We celebrate advances in the workplace on Labor Day; and traditionally, we spend a little time poking fun at work.

Now I realize that this is no laughing matter for lots= of people right now. Many are ou= t of work and most have seen major changes in their workplace—changes whic= h, for the most part, have not been good! But maybe a little humor won’t hurt.

A young accountant, fresh out of school, was being interviewed for a job. The Human Resources Rep asked him, "What kind of starting salary did you have in mind?"

The you= ng man replied, "Oh, something in the neighborhood of $100,000 a year…d= epending on the benefits package, of course."

The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of five weeks vacation, full medical and dental coverage, a Company Retirement Fund equal= to 50% of your salary, Profit-sharing and a new company car every two years--a= BMW, of course?" <= /span>

The you= ng man sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you serious?" "No,” the interviewer sa= id, “but you started it."

Think you can stand one more? A man who was up in a hot air ball= oon got lost. He reduced his altitude= a bit until he could see a woman on the ground below. He descended further and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I can’t figure ou= t where I am."

The woman shouted up to him, "You’re in a h= ot air balloon hovering about 30 feet above the ground. You’re at 40 degrees north latitude and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist. "I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"

"Well," he answered, "everything you to= ld me is technically correct; but I’ve no idea what to do with this informa= tion. The fact is…I’m still = lost. Frankly, you really haven’t h= elped me at all. You’ve just = delayed my trip."

The woman below responded, "You must be in Management." "I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know that?"

"Well," she said, "you don’t know= where you are or where you’re going. You’ve risen to where you are= due to lots of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to k= eep; and you expect the people beneath you to solve your problem. The fact is…you are in exactl= y the same position you were in before we met; but now, somehow, it’s my fault."

Now, I realize how dangerous it is for a preacher to u= se the phrase “hot air,” but anyway, I hope you got a chuckle out of t= his story. We’re talking ab= out AIMING FOR EXCELLENCE. What I= hope we all recognize is that this is part of having a servant’s heart too—when we make excellence our aim.

Do you appreciate excellence when you see it? Some people don’t, it seems;= but I love it when I observe excellence—like when the mouths of the judges dropped open as Susan Boyle started singing—nobody was expecting such excellence, but there is was!

Or how about leaving a theatre satisfied that the movi= e you just saw was actually worth the $8.00 you paid to get in; or realizing the waitre= ss who just served you a meal had anticipated your every need before you had to ask for anything—a simple task, carried out with excellence. Doesn’t this impress you?

Excellence should be our goal in every endeavor of lif= e, including the workplace; but secular employment, as important as this is, is not our focus today. We’= ;re talking instead about excellence in Christian servanthood, excellence in answering Christ’s call to serve God and serve others in His Name. We should aim for excellence in th= e work we do for God.

So let’s talk about making excellence our aim in ministry by turning to a story from the life of Moses. Our text is found in the 18^th= chapter of Exodus where Moses is having to deal with a problem.

One of his functions as leader of the Hebrew people wa= s hearing disputes and dispensing justice. The time demands had become overwhelming, so his father-in-law, no doubt prompt= ed by his daughter who never saw her husband because of his workload, makes a suggestion that Moses appoint some associates to help him in this task. We pick up the story at verse 20 of Exodus 18:

²⁰ Teach them the decrees and laws, and sho= w them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. ²¹ But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²² Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. ²³ If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied." Exodus 18:= 20-23

1. In thi= s brief passage, we discover several factors that will help us aim for excellence in our service to God and one another. First, there is the matter of GIFTEDNESS. “Select capable men,” = Jethro says to Moses. And, yes, toda= y, we would say capable women also.

By the way, capable women are recognized in the Bible = as well. The job descripti= on for these judges is presented here in all-male language, and yet one of the best known of the judges is a woman named Deborah. You’ll find her story in the= book of Judges. It seems to me that those who limit leadership to the masculine gender must overlook portions of the Book that they claim to be taking literally!

God gives gifts for service and leadership to those wh= om He chooses—and the Bible says we’re all gifted people. We all have gifts that are to be u= sed in the body. Some are eyes or ea= rs, hands or feet. And true, some= may seem to be tonsils and appendixes; but in God’s plan, they’re g= ood for something!

Aiming for excellence means that we have to somehow di= scern what we’re good at—what we’re gifted by God to do!

Did you see the movie, "Dead Poets Society?"= Central to the story is a boy= who wants to become an actor. He’s good at it, and his teac= her knows it. His father, though,= wants him to become a doctor.

The school put on a play. The= boy, in spite of his father’s disapproval, was the lead actor. He did such an outstanding job tha= t he was given a standing ovation. But his father heard of it and he was not pleased.

He took the boy out of school, carried him back home, = and told him, "I’m not going to let you waste your life being an act= or.” He made plans to send his son= to a military academy; but that night, the boy committed suicide.

It’s a powerful story, and a reminder of how we can try to force our children—or even ourselves--into becoming something that God never equipped them or us to be. Do= ing what you are gifted to do brings life and energy and fulfillment, and it pu= ts you on a road toward excellence—being your best self!

2. WeR= 17;re all gifted and capable people. But true excellence is achieved not only through superior abilities, but also t= hrough our willingness to use the gifts we have to their fullest—which bring= s us to another factor which influences excellence: FAITHFULNESS.

Jethro encourages Moses to select people “who fe= ar God.” Israel = would soon be entering the Promised Land. The struggle would be intense. Even though they were assured of God’s help, there would be no room for wavering in their faithfulness to the challenge before them.

Excellence in anything requires lots of commitment, ha= rd work, and faithfulness to the task. Someone has observed that there are four kinds of bones in the world= :

1) the WISH BONES who spend their time wishing someone else would do the work;

2) the JAW BONES who do all the talking, but very little else;

3) the KNUCKLE BONES who knock everything that anyone else is trying to do; and

4) the BACK BONES who shoulder the load and do the work.

So, where do we find ourselves on this list? Only those with the backbone to re= main faithful to their task will ever achieve excellence personally or enable the organization they’re part of to achieve it. Certainly in the Lord’s work, there’s no place for half-hearted commitment and lack of effort. God deserves and demands our faithfulness to His calling in our lives and to the ministries He has gifte= d us to do.

Someone asked the great football coach, Knute Rockne, = why he allowed scouts from future opponents into his team’s practices at Not= re Dame. Wasn’t he afraid = they would steal the play?

The coach replied, “It’s not the play that= wins the game. It’s the execution.”

3. And it= ’s the same with us. We can have= all the ability and giftedness in the world—but for what, if we’re = not faithful to the task. Which b= rings us to one other factor that leads to excellence: TRUSTWORTHINESS.

Verse 21 of Exodus 18 again: “…select capa= ble men from all the people (that’s GIFTEDNESS)—men who fear God (FAITHFULNESS), trustworthy men= who hate dishonest gain…”—trustworthiness.

What Moses’ father-in-law is suggesting here is = that Moses ask the hard questions concerning who’s ready to be entrusted to lead and serve and make important decisions among God’s people. This was a relationship based on a= high degree of trust that Jethro was proposing. People would have to know that these judges would always try to do the right thing and for the right reason. Trustworthiness was indispensable.=

I recently ran across this account of something that happened during World War II. The USS Astoria was the first U.S. cruiser to engage the Japanese during the Battle of Savo Island on the nigh= t of August 8, 1942. She scored tw= o hits on the Imperial flagship Chokai, but the Astoria was badly damaged in the process and sank shortly after noon on August 9. <= /p>

A young Midwesterner, Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staple= s, was swept overboard by a blast when one of the Astoria’s eight-inch gun turrets exploded. Wounded in both leg= s by shrapnel and in semi-shock, he was kept afloat by a narrow life belt that he managed to activate with a simple trigger mechanism.

Staples was soon rescued by a passing destroyer, and h= e was returned to the Astoria. By then, the captain was attemptin= g to save the cruiser by beaching her. But the effort failed, and Staples,= still wearing the same life belt, found himself back in the water.

Later, he was picked up again, this time by the USS President Jackson. He was one= of 500 sailors who survived the battle and were now being evacuated. On board the President Jackson, Sta= ples, for the first time, examined the life belt that had served him so well. He read that it had been manufactur= ed by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio; and it had a registra= tion number on it.

Back home, Staples told this story and asked his mother, who happened to wo= rk for Firestone, about the purpose of the number on the belt. She told him that the company insis= ted on personal responsibility for the war effort, and that each number was unique= and assigned to only one inspector.

Staples, who remembered everything about that lifebelt, quoted the number to her…and, well, it was his mother’s personal code, sewn into every item for which she was personally responsible. (Commander Eric J. Berryman, U.S. Naval Reserve, Proceedings, U.S. Naval Institute, Vo= l. 15/6/1036 (June 1989): 48.)

We never know when what we do--even in something that = may appear rather menial or common or just part of our everyday lives—but this simple act, done well, will end up affecting others in ways we would n= ever have expected or imagined.

This is true in all areas of life—and it’s certainly true in the service we render to others because of our commitment= to Christ. If we aim for excelle= nce in anything, friends, shouldn’t it be in what we do for Him?!?

Finding our areas of giftedness, faithfully using these abilities to their fullest, and being worthy of the trust that God and othe= rs have placed in us, leads to an excellent life, and witness, and contributio= n to the world about us. With the = heart of a servant, AIM FOR EXCELLENCE!