Achieving Excellence in Giving
Not long ago at Heralds of Hope, we were discussing the importance of our core values as an organization. We currently have seven core values that guide us but it’s hard to remember all of them. So, our Executive Director, Tony High, worked to condense them into just three main items. Then the rest were added as subpoints to those three.
One of our core values is organizational excellence. Under that heading are things like integrity, transparency, and this – “do it well and on time.” Do you find excellence and punctuality a challenge in your personal life? I do. Why is that? These two things are affected by my sense of value. The more important or more valuable something is to me, the more likely I am to strive for excellence and to complete the task on time.
In business, sports, the arts, and other fields many people pursue excellence. In most cases, they do it for financial rewards or public acclaim. As for punctuality, in those circles, if you don’t show up on time you’ll soon be looking elsewhere for work. Other people depend on you to fill your assigned role or place so the whole group can achieve excellence.
When I was a child, my siblings and I would sometimes do a task hurriedly just to check it off our list of chores. My parents would remind us that any job worth doing is worth doing right. They wanted us to learn to do our work well for two reasons. First, we serve the Lord through our work. And second, we find personal satisfaction and fulfillment in a job well done.
Is God satisfied with mediocrity, with our performing a task or rendering service just to say it’s done? No! Under the old covenant, God demanded the best animals as sacrifices and offerings and the finest materials for the Tabernacle construction. In Colossians chapter three, in the new covenant, after listing character qualities we Believers are to put on, Paul twice says, and I paraphrase, “whatever you do in speech or action, do it in the name of Jesus and do it with excellence.” As a Christ-follower no area of my life is exempt from this command.
Last week in our time together, we began a study from Second Corinthians chapters eight and nine on the subject of giving. My teaching from the first seven verses of chapter eight was titled The Heart of Giving. Today’s teaching is taken from the same chapter, but verses eight through fifteen. I’ve titled it, Achieving Excellence in Giving. So, listen as I read our text, Second Corinthians 8:8 to 15. Here is the Word of God to us.
Paul’s instruction provides the STEPS you and I can take to achieve excellence in giving.
The First STEP (in achieving excellence in giving) is,
Find the Pattern
Think about it; if you want to pursue excellence in any field of study or service or production of a product, where do you begin? You begin by finding a pattern to follow. That can be a plan like a blueprint, or it can be a person who is skilled in their field. Solomon wrote that “there is nothing new under the sun.” Very few things today are created from a brand-new idea. Usually, newer things are improvements on items or skills we already have.
So, what about excellence in giving? Where do we find a pattern for that? In our text, Paul points the Corinthian Believers and us to...
