John 10:10: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
Shakespeare's Macbeth utters these words of frustration:
" Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour of on the stage
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
Like Macbeth, too many Christians have accepted a life of mediocrity.
Being mediocre discounts the possibilities of the present and the hopes for the future.
Mediocre is neither good nor bad.
It is just average and ordinary.
Mediocre is only halfway up the mountain.
Today, we can be mediocre and still be acceptable.
In fact, maybe even more so than if we were excelling.
We can be content and comfortable when we are just maintaining the status quo.
Many Christians become satisfied with the self righteousness of their mediocrity.
Mediocrity is not enough for the Christian who would truly like Christ.
Every Christian should strive for excellence.
Christian excellence is the ability to care for others.
A Christian's life should express a Christ-like compassion.
John Bunyan said, " Better that your heart have no words than your words have no heart."
Do you really care in your heart what is being done and said?
One writer reminds us that, " God hides some ideal in every human soul.
At some time in our life we feel a trembling, fearful longing to do some good things.
Life finds its noblest spring of excellence in this hidden impulse to do our best.
There is a time when we are not content to be such businessmen or doctors or teachers
as we see on the dead level or below it.
The woman longs to glorify her womanhood as sister, daughter, wife or mother.
Here is God with us all day long…"
Christian excellence is daring to dream.
Every Christian must be possessed with a vision of what can be.
Lowell said, " Not failure, but low aim, is a crime."
We must dream great dreams realizing that dreams are essential for excellence.
Phillips Brooks words challenges us:
" The ideal life is still in our blood and never will be still.
Sad will be the day for any man when he becomes contented with thoughts he is thinking
and the deeds he is doing…
Where there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do
something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do."
Christian excellence is the willingness to work.
Compassion and visions must culminate in the action.
Lord Baden-Powell said: " Don't be afraid to act for fear of making a mistake.
A man who never made a mistake never did anything."
A T. Stewart observed: " No abilities, however splendid, can command success without
intense labor and persevering application."
In John 10:10 Jesus gives the solution for our misguided mediocrity.
Jesus said: " I am come that they might have life and might have it more abundantly."
No one on earth has ever possessed more courage to care, and dared to dream more,
or was more willing to work than Jesus.
" The love of Christ constraineth us," and the life of Christ calls us and leads us on
to excellence, and to an abundant life.
Someone has said that three things are essential for life to be its best.
Those three things are life, light, and love.
In Christ, these are supremely expressed in His life, and abundantly available to us.
Individuals can surrender to mediocrity as Sampson did as seen in Judges 16: 20-21.
Churches that yield to the temptation to be "average" will discover that the glory has departed.
Revivals can be stopped completely by the well-executed and planned programs that are
widely promoted, but completely devoid of God's power.
Let us, as individual Christians and as a church, dedicate ourselves today to
strive for excellence and receive the abundant life that Christ is ready to give,.
In the Man From La Mancha Don Quixote asked why he was always caring when
no one else cared, and why he was always giving when it seemed right to take,
and being involved when it wasn't really his fight.
Quiote answered by singing:
" To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbeatable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go,
To right the unrightable wrong,
To love pure and chaste from afar,
To try when your arms are so weary,
To reach the unreachable star.
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
Without question or pause
To be willing to march
Into hell for a heavenly cause
And I know
If I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my head will be peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this --
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach that unreachable star."
Sermon adapted from several sources by Dr. Harold L. White
(I would have the congregation stand and sing together the hymn, " Higher Ground".)
Higher Ground
"I'm pressing on the upward way
New heights I'm gaining every day
Still praying as I'm onward bound
"Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."
Chorus:
"Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith, on Heaven's table land
A higher plane than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."
My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay
Though some may dwell where those abound
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.
I want to live above the world
Though Satan's darts at me are hurled
For faith has caught the joyful sound
The song of saints on higher ground.
I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright
But still I'll pray till Heav'n I've found
"Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."
