Dr. Rodney Plunket

In January, we had three worship assemblies on consecutive Sunday mornings that focused on responses to God.  The first one focused on awe; the second one was on obedience, and the third one had to do with silence.  The plan was to have one more in January; it was to be focused upon excellence.  It was postponed because, on the relevant Sunday, Lubbock’s county and city leaders called upon the churches to have a day of prayer and fasting for rain.

And we praise God for the almighty “yes” given to our prayers for rain.  Hasn’t it been great?

This morning we want to complete the January series, so let’s look together at one more response to the reality of our majestic God.  Let’s look at excellence.

What I refer to by the term “excellence” is well expressed by a dictionary definition of that word.  Excellence is defined as “the quality or state of being outstanding and superior.”  Now words like “outstanding” and “superior” are often used in settings in which one person or group of persons has outperformed another.  The excellence to which I refer this morning has nothing to do with competition.  The excellence to which I refer is inspired and shaped by the power and wonder of God.  Christians should do all that we do in an outstanding and superior way because we are being transformed by the power/the majesty/the excellence of our God.  I think we actually can hamper people being drawn to our God if what we do before them is average, or inferior, or mediocre, or second-rate.  How can a run of the mill life show forth the majesty of our God?

I want us to look together now at some biblical passages that showcase the power/the majesty/the excellence of our God.  Please read aloud in unison the lines in bold type and marked by the word “ALL,” and please read those lines with passion!  I want to hear you strong and loud as we read together from Holy Scripture.

Exodus 15:11

                   Leader:  “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

                   ALL:                   Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

                   awesome in splendor, doing wonders?”

1 Chronicles 29:11

Leader:  Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty;

All:        for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Psalm 8:1

Leader:  O Lord our Lord,

ALL:      how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Psalm 29:1-2

                   Leader:  Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,

                   ALL:                   ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

                   Leader:  Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;

                   ALL:                   worship the Lord in holy splendor.

Psalm 47:2

Leader:  The Lord Most High is awesome.

                   ALL:                   He is the great King of all the earth.

Psalm 104:1-2a

Leader:  Bless the Lord, O my soul.

                   ALL:                   O Lord my God, you are very great.

                                      You are clothed with honor and majesty,

                                      wrapped in light as with a garment.

Psalm 113

                   Leader:  Praise the Lord!

                   Praise, O servants of the Lord;

                   praise the name of the Lord.

                   ALL:                   Blessed be the name of the Lord

                   from this time on and forevermore.

                   From the rising of the sun to its setting

                   the name of the Lord is to be praised.

                   The Lord is high above all nations,

                   and his glory above the heavens.

                   Leader:  Who is like the Lord our God,

                                      who is seated on high,

                   who looks far down

                                      on the heavens and the earth?

                   ALL:                   He raises the poor from the dust,

                                      and lifts the needy from the ash heap,

                   to make them sit with princes,

                                      with the princes of his people.

                   He gives the barren woman a home,

                                      making her the joyous mother of children.

                   Praise the Lord!

Romans 11:33-36

Leader:  O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!

ALL:             How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

                   Leader:                   “For who has known the mind of the Lord?

                                      Or who has been his counselor?”

                   “Or who has given a gift to him,

                                      to receive a gift in return?”

ALL:     For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever.  Amen.

In light of the greatness and wonder of our God, we want now to prepare for the Lord’s supper.  Would the servers please move to the foyer?

We indeed worship a great and mighty God!  And God’s greatest wonder is the sending of Jesus Christ because in Christ, to use the words of Paul, “all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).  What an incredible gift from our God!  And the Lord’s supper is a time when we celebrate together the joy of that gift from our great and mighty God.  Would the servers please come forward?

[I lead prayers for the bread and the cup, and we participate together in the Lord’s supper].

There is a Christian classic by Oswald Chambers entitled, Our Utmost for His Highest.  That could have been the title for the next part of this service.  I said earlier, “Christians should do all that we do in an outstanding and superior way because we are being transformed by the power/the majesty/the excellence of our God.”  We should be giving our utmost in service to God in light of the fact that God is above all.  God is the highest, and serving God is the highest good.  It should draw excellence out of each one of us!

In the Bible you will find that over and over again the purposes of God are pursued by means that are excellent.  I want us to look at just a few examples this morning.

The passages listed in this week’s Ancient Words/Open Hearts Bible Study schedule were Exodus (Ex) 35-37; 1 Chronicles (1Chr) 22:6-16; and 2 Chronicles (2Chr) 2:1-16; so let’s look at a few verses from each of those passages.  Let’s begin with Ex 35:30-35:

Then Moses said to the Israelites:  See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; he has filled him with divine spirit, with skill, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kind of craft.  And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.  He has filled them with skill to do every kind of work done by an artisan or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and in fine linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of artisan or skilled designer.”

These verses reveal that God inspired and used the very best expertise to make the tabernacle.  God’s goal was excellence; that’s easy to see.

1 Chronicles 22-29 details all the careful and expensive temple building preparations that David did before he died and Solomon became king.  In 1Chr 22:14-16 David says to his son, Solomon:

With great pains I have provided for the house of the Lord one hundred thousand talents of gold, one million talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond weighing, for there is so much of it; timber and stone too I have provided.  To these you must add more.  You have an abundance of workers:  stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of artisans without number, skilled in working gold, silver, bronze, and iron.  Now begin the work, and the Lord be with you.

Again, the standards of excellence employed in fulfilling God’s purpose are easy to see.

2 Chronicles 2:1-16 reveals that David’s son, Solomon, uses the very best expertise available to have the temple constructed.  He actually sent a letter to the King of Tyre requesting an artisan to work on the temple.  Here is the King of Tyre’s response (2Chr 2:13-14):

“I have dispatched Huramabi, a skilled artisan, endowed with understanding, the son of one of the Danite women, his father a Tyrian.  He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him, with your artisans, the artisans of my lord, your father David.”

The pursuit of excellence revealed in these verses is all but impossible to miss.

New Testament (NT) scholars recognize that the Apostle Paul was trained in and used the ancient technique of rhetoric in his writings; and Dr. Abraham Malherbe, a member of churches of Christ and former professor at Yale University, is one of three NT scholars who did the groundbreaking work in that field.  In Paul’s day, rhetoric was considered one of the most if not the most important area of study in a person’s education.  Paul used the form of written communication that was the most admired in his time.  It indicated excellence in his day.

Yesterday we buried a man of excellence.  J. E. (Gene) Hancock was 98 years old, so he lived a long life.  But, more importantly, he lived a highly productive one, a life of excellence.  He invented the Elevating-Terracer and established Hancock Manufacturing Co. in Lubbock in 1947.  He holds 18 patents on his machinery designs, and more than 15,000 Hancock Scrapers were sold worl­wide.  His scrapers were used by Israel to dig the irrigation canal from the Sea of Galilee to the south desert.  Dr. Harvie Pruitt reported at the funeral service yesterday that Gene gave over $20 million dollars to Lubbock Christian University.  And we could say much more, but the point is clear this was a man whose life was outstanding, superior.  It was a life of excellence.

I was honored to be asked to say a few words at Gene’s graveside service.  Please listen to the passage that I read at that time, 1 Corinthians 15:50-58:

What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Listen, I will tell you a mystery!  We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

          “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

          “Where, O death, is your victory?

                    Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

I found that Gene’s life and Paul’s words converged powerfully.  I listened to Dr. Harvie Pruitt; Dr. Steve Lemley; Dr. Ken Jones; Gene’s grandson, Lance; Gene’s granddaughter-in-law, Margaret; and Gene’s brother, Jack talk about this great man.  I heard of a life of excellence that was shaped by faith in Jesus Christ.  I felt called by that life to do all with excellence.  My God is excellent.  If I love that God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, then I will want to become like that God; and God’s Holy Spirit will empower me to look more and more like my God.

Brothers and sisters, may we have a passion for excellence that is inspired and shaped by the nature and power of our God.  May excellence characterize all that we do.  May we display excellence in our work places.  May we display excellence in our families.  Children and teens, feel the call to excellence.  University students, may all that you do show forth the majestic glory of our God.  Those who work at home blessing the lives of families, live a life of excellence that gives glory to your God.  Those who work outside the home, may people see the excellent work that we do and be led to give glory to our God.

And please allow me one final challenge.  In our day and time, too many give excellence to everything but the family of God.  I suspect we say something to God when we give our very best at school, at sports, and in our working lives but only give the leftovers of our energy and creative gifts to our church family.  Remember, the best talents and resources were given to the tabernacle.  The same is true of the temple.  Paul used the best approach to communication for his time in his many letters to Christians.  May we feel called to aspire to no less than excellence in our service to God.

Lynn Vitatoe works as my unpaid, volunteer research assistant; and her service to me is characterized by excellence.  This week she found a special story to bring home our call to excellence.

A doctor who specialized in learning disabilities evaluated a twelve-year-old boy.  He and his mother were told that he had a fairly severe case of dyslexia and would never be able to read above a fourth-grade level.

The boy was shattered.  He knew he was the slowest kid in his class.  During recess he hid behind a shrub and cried because of his frustration.  But he wanted desperately to go to Bible college and be a preacher like his dad.  He fought back tears as he sat in the doctor’s office and listened to what he said.  All his dreams and goals were crushed.

When he and his mother arrived home, the boy took off his coat and hung it in the closet.  When he turned around, there was his mother.  She didn’t say anything.  She just stood there and with tears running down her cheeks.  The boy could not hold it back any longer.  He reached for her and fell into her arms crying like a baby.

After that good cry together, his mother led him onto a couch in the living room.  She said that she did not believe what the doctor said about him not being able to finish school.  Those words cause the boy to stop sniffling.  He looked at his mother and sensed an iron will behind those blue eyes.  She let him know that it would take hard work from both of them.  She said that she would hire a tutor who knew about dyslexia.  Then she looked hard at him and asked, “Are you willing to work, Peter?  Do you want to try?”

All of a sudden he had hope; and he said, “Yes, Mom.  I want to real bad.”  Listen to his words:

The next six years were an endurance run for both of us.  I studied with a tutor twice a week until I could haltingly read my lessons.  Each night, my mom and I sat at my little desk and rehearsed that day’s schoolwork for at least two hours, sometimes until midnight.  We drilled for tests until my head pounded and the print blurred before my eyes.  At least twice a week, I wanted to quit.  I had the strength of a kitten, but my mom’s courage never wavered.

She’d rise to pray over my school day.  A thousand times I heard her say, “Lord, open Peter’s mind today.  Help him remember the things we studied.”

Peter went beyond the doctor’s prognosis.  He won two statewide speech competitions.  He graduated from high school.  He applied at a local Bible College with his mother promising to help him with that level of his education as well.

One week after high school graduation, his mother suffered a massive brain hemorrhage.  She died two days later.

Young Peter Dow describes the effect his mother’s death had on him:

My grief almost drowned me.  For weeks I walked the floor all night, sometimes weeping, sometimes staring at nothing.  Did I have a future without my mother?  She was my eyes, my understanding, my life.  Should I still enroll in Bible school?  The thought of going on alone filled me with terror.  But, deep inside, I knew I had to move on to the next step, for her.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mom’s prayers still followed me.  I could feel her presence.  I could sense her faith.

In my graduation testimony I said, “Many people had a part in making Bible college a success for me.  The person who helped me most is watching from Heaven tonight.  To her I say, ‘Thank you, Mom, for having faith in God and faith in me.  You will always be with me.’”

A Greek word that can be translated as “to excel” can also be rendered as “to abound.”  I hear both meanings in this story.  A woman abounded; she went above and beyond for her son.  As a result, her son excelled.  He was empowered by his mother’s love.

Sisters and brothers, we have a heavenly Father whose love for us abounds!  God loves us so much that the very Son of God was crucified to cleanse us of all our sins.  God loves us so much that the Holy Spirit has been given to us and lives inside of us.  The Holy Spirit is working mightily within us to transform us so that we increasingly reflect the glory of our God.

May we all rejoice in the presence of that great life-transforming power.  May we embrace God’s call to excellence.  May we respond to our awesome God by living lives of excellence to the glory of our God.

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