November 14, 2025 • 41 mins
In this episode, we explore the story of Cain and Abel, diving deep into why God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but rejected Cain’s. Through scripture and thoughtful reflection, the discussion unpacks themes of faith, excellence, attitude, and the heart behind worship.
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(00:01):
Welcome back to the Church Talk podcast.
Join the conversation today as we talk about excellence.
(00:23):
All right, we are back. We're back.
Out here in office, he's here a.Bunch of buffoonery going on in
the studio last week. I don't know what you're talking
about. I was.
Out of town for just a couple ofdays and I look up on Instagram
and somebody sitting in my chair.
(00:48):
So I did think about putting us both right.
Yeah. Didn't think.
You didn't think about long, didyou?
Yeah. Oh, for the crafts.
And Doherty did a great job on that episode about contentment
(01:08):
and. I'm glad to be back.
I've been pleasant here. Yes.
And it's been a good time. Did you get any more pheasants
for your office? Well, it's hard.
Believe it or not, it's hard to get fresh pheasant from South
Dakota to. Florida.
They don't want you to take it on your carry on, so I didn't.
(01:33):
I was not able to bring any back, but I sent quite a bit
home with my family from Mississippi so had a great time.
That's awesome. I'm glad to be back and I'm glad
to be back in the studio. And there we're.
Glad you're back. I was, I was thinking about this
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material that we're going to go over today and reminded me of a
guy that went into work. I don't know why I'm laughing.
This is not fun at all. But yeah, I went into work and
his boss came driving up in a brand new Lamborghini.
(02:21):
Oh man. And he said man, boss, that is a
fine car. Boss looked at him and said yes
Sir, it sure he is. He said, Man, if you work hard
and have a spirit of excellence about you this next year, I can
buy me another one. Lord.
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In other words, get back to work.
No, we are. Do we have anything to plug?
We. We do.
I will say this before you plug,I'll plug if you have not bought
Bishop Copeland's More than Enough book that just came out.
(03:09):
It's on Amazon. It's in the Ocala Church
bookstore. I believe you can purchase it on
pgpc.net, which is Bishop Copeland's church's website.
I think that is, don't quote me on that, but I think you can, if
not just forget I said anything.But I know you can buy it at the
(03:31):
Ocala Church and on Amazon. And it is a it is a great book.
So I wanted to plug the Bishop. I'm not getting paid to talk
about this book, but it is it isa great book.
Yes. Thankful and proud of Bishop for
finally, finally getting this out.
(03:53):
It's long overdue and I can't wait for the next ones to come
out. Yes.
Stay tuned because there's there's he's got some more
coming out. So we're looking forward to
that. Yes, Sir.
Well, we have. We've had a lot of actually
great reception to to that book here at the Ocala Church.
(04:13):
Everybody who's read it has loved it.
I've loved it. And we've also been having great
reception to the To the Church Talk podcast.
Love the feedback that we're getting online as well as in
person. And if you are enjoying it, go
ahead and leave a review. Give us five stars, say
(04:36):
something real nice about it. Just let it know how it's helped
you and you know how you think it could help somebody else.
And then if you got any questions, give us a e-mail.
At Don't be mean, I'm very sensitive.
Yeah, yeah, I don't be mean. E-mail us at podcast at Ocala
dot church and we'll take any questions.
(05:00):
Yes, we have. We, we, we don't know a lot, but
we have opinions about everything.
We have very opinion and so we will give it to you.
And so the information that we put out will be worth just about
as much as you pay for it. So yeah, I guarantee that you're
(05:25):
probably leaving a feeling like you need to get paid, yes.
So. Anyway, I don't know now, we
hope you've been blessed by it and we are going to continue
giving you the best that we we can find and put together.
So thank you all for the kind words and we are excited about
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today's topic. Yes, we're going to go all the
way to the Book of Genesis chapter 4.
We're going. From here, that's a long way.
Says, Then Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare
Cain, and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord, and she again
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bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the
fruit of the ground, and offering unto the Lord.
And Abel he also brought the firstlings of his flock, and of
the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel, and to his offering, but unto Cain, and to his offering
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he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his
countenance fell. The Lord said unto Cain, Why art
thou wrath, and why is thou count?
Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shall thou
not be accepted? If you do well, shouldn't you be
accepted? Yes.
Now we know the story. Cain goes on to go out into the
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field. He talks to his brother Abel.
It gets heated and Cain rises upagainst Abel and he kills Abel.
He kills him because he is angrywith the fact that his sacrifice
has been rejected by God and Abel's has been accepted.
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How many times have we seen how jealousy can rise up in our
spirit when it seems like other people's sacrifices to God are
being accepted by God and we are?
Yeah. We are being rejected.
Yeah, that's a deal. Yeah.
And so to to figure out what's going on here, we have to
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analyze the the two sacrifices. The the Bible says that God had
respect unto Abel's sacrifice, but had not respect for Cain's
sacrifice. The the problem was not in the
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person, it was in the sacrifice.God is no respecter of persons,
but in this passage of Scripturewe do find out that He is a
respecter of sacrifices. And So what is the difference
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between the sacrifices? We could talk about a lot of
things. We could talk about the the
difference between Cain bringingfruit and Abel bringing a lamb
and the precedent that had been set by God with the sacrifice
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being a blood sacrifice and the typology to the lamb slain from
the foundations of the world. Jesus Christ obviously is that
lamb and that blood. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins. We could talk about all of that,
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but I think for the sake of thisconversation, Hebrews Chapter 11
and verse 4 gives this distinction between the
sacrifice of Abel and the sacrifice of Cain.
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The writer of the book of Hebrews says, by faith, Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice.
More. Excellent.
OK, that is really the distinction between the two.
It was a the distinction was excellence.
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Cain. Cain's sacrifice was rejected
and Abel's sacrifice was accepted.
Same alter, same opportunity, different heart.
Yeah, a different attitude towards the sacrifice and so.
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It's a different attitude towards the one you're
sacrificing too. Yeah, well, well, Cain's was a a
sacrifice of convenience, and Abel's sacrifice was a was a
sacrifice that cost him. It's a lot easier to sacrifice
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pile of vegetables and fruit than it is to shed the blood of
the lamb. Yeah, it.
Is. It's a lot less of a emotional
experience. So God accepted Abel's offering
because it was done with faith and it was done with excellence.
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Excellence. Having a spirit of excellence
takes faith. Yes, yes it does.
You can't give God excellence without believing that he
deserves it, but also you can't give God excellence in every
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area of life without knowing that he is a rewarder of
excellence. Those that come to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that.
Diligently seek. There's a there is a attitude of
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diligence towards the seeker or towards the the rewarder by the
seeker. By the seeker, yeah.
So really what we're doing when we serve God and we we offer a
sacrifice to God, whether it's our worship, whether it's our
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praise, whether it's our offering, whether it's our
lifestyle, our the way that we conduct ourselves and our
ministries, our callings, the way that we serve God is a
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reflection of how we see him. Yes.
And if you don't see him as a God of excellence, it's hard to
be excellent. Yeah, yeah.
It's looking at why was Abel more excellent than Cain?
Well, Abel brought something that was better, but Abel I, I
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feel like, and this is, it's looking like Abel had a much
greater desire to figure out what pleased God Cain did.
But also he understood that thatGod is a God of excellence, and
so as a child of God I should I should represent him by being
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excellent myself. Job 3723.
He is excellent in power. He's not just powerful, he's
excellent in power. He's excellent in judgment and
in plenty of justice. Psalms, Psalms 8 and one.
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Our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth?
His He's not just excellent, Hisname is excellent.
Psalm 150 and two praise him according to his excellent
greatness. God's not just great, He's
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excellent in his greatness. So he takes greatness to the
another level by being excellence, excellent in his
greatness. Isaiah 12 and five Sing unto the
Lord, for he hath done excellentthings.
This is known in all the earth. So God is so excellent in the
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things that He does that the whole world knows that when God
does something, it's done in excellence.
Wow. So when he flung the stars into
space, He did it with excellence.
When he created a habitat for mankind to dwell in and to have
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relationship with God, he did itwith excellence.
When you look at the majesty of the Appalachian Mountains or
you, you, you go see the grand door of the Grand Canyon or the
of Niagara Falls or whatever, you you realize that God does
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all things well. He has a spirit of excellence
about everything that he does. And so, you know, even when he
decided to take on a name, he took on the excellent name.
He, he's, he's not just a powerful God, He's excellent in
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it, in his power. When he does a work, he, he does
it in a excellent way. And so if we serve a God who is
excellent, then the people of God should, I believe, reflect
that by being excellent in everything that we do and.
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Throw this out there for those who might not think so, but God
did an excellent job when he created us.
Yeah. Absolutely.
We did. We are fearfully and wonderfully
made. In his excellent image.
Yes, in the image and after the after the likeness of God.
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And so in light of all of that, if God is excellent in
everything that he did, and he made you fearfully and
wonderfully lying in return, would we offer him an average
worship or lazy praise, half hearted ministry?
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No, God is God is excellent in what he does.
And so I give excellence back tohim.
I will never be as excellent as God, but I want to be like Him
if. We're going to be in his
likeness. I can't be like God if I'm not
excellent. So one of the things that one of
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the things that came to my mind when thinking about the story is
that when Cain's response to hisrejected sacrifice, Cain sees
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that his brother's sacrifice hasbeen accepted.
And instead of going to him and saying teach me your ways, you
know, show me how to get my sacrifice accepted, I've made a
mistake, obviously. And.
After a conversation where God says you can do well.
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If if you're if you did well, you'd be accepted too.
But instead of going to Abel andsaying, hey, man, show me, show
me how to get this right, he just goes and kills him.
And so Abel has offered the ideal sacrifice, and Cain kills
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the ideal instead of learning from the ideal.
Yeah, Cain. Cain represents a lot of what
goes on in the church world. Well, and now we're here.
Let's talk about it. You know, we see, we see someone
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in the church who it seems like their sacrifice to God is
constantly causing them to be inan elevated position with God.
Their their prayers are answeredand their sacrifice is always
received. And it seems like we're not
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being received. And so instead of going to them
and saying how, how is this happening for?
You Why are you so blessed? Why?
Why does it seem like everythingyou touch turns to gold and
everything I touch turns to mud?Instead of doing that, we just
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figure out a way to destroy them.
Yeah. Yeah.
We gossip about them. There must be something wrong
with them. We try to tarnish their
reputation. Yeah, we we try to pull people
down to try to make ourselves look better.
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Yeah, I, I actually just touchedon that and youth service on
Friday about shame and that how shame will cause you to bring
others down to your level. Because if everybody's on my
level, I don't have to, I don't got to be worried about what
they think about, you know, my sacrifice.
Everybody's offering a fruit just like I am.
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I nobody's going to look at me for my fruit.
So if there's no lambs being offered, nobody's better than
me. I ain't got to worry about my
condition. I ain't got to change my
condition. Yeah, yeah.
Instead of instead of going and finding out, yeah, what it takes
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to have a sacrifice accepted, which is trying.
To kill them. Just there.
There must be something wrong with them.
Yeah. If they're, you know, if their
prayer life is working out and their, you know, their finances
is blessed, their home is blessed, they have peace in
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their relationship with their spouse, There's something fishy
about all that. I mean, they just.
Yeah, or, or we take it here, their church is blessed.
The church is growing. If their church is growing, they
must be going charismatic. Gotta be, there's no other
options. They must be compromised and
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well, it, it maybe, but maybe they figured out how to get
their sacrifice accepted. So I I would say, how about
let's, how about let's quit killing the ideal and let's
learn from it. Yes.
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It it takes humility to do that.It takes humility to say I, you
know, what I'm doing is not working.
So I'm going to go talk to the guy that it is working figure
out maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Yeah, that was a crazy idea. Crazy thought.
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Nobody wants to admit that I just did that whole thing all
wrong. I just spent the last two years
just messing it up. Yeah, everybody likes to admit
that. Well, proverbs one says, a wise
man will here, and if he will here, he will increase in
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learning. Wow.
So so be willing to hear. Yes.
Don't. Don't be so quick to to kill, be
more quick to hear. Yeah.
Yeah. It's crazy how in the business
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world it's such a thing on how what are you doing that's, you
know, working it. When it comes to the church
world, it's like don't, don't say those words.
And that is that is so true. You know, it's like
collaboration is celebrated in the business world.
Everybody is. And I'm not just saying it's
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it's there's not a dog eat dog world in the business world
because there is, but it's at least online, you know, there's
this, there's this attitude or, or spirit of collaboration in
the business world. And if you're if you believe in
and want to grow, there are business mentors that were like,
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man, come along out. I'd there, you know, successful
people getting get their kicks out of helping somebody else be
successful. And I'm just telling you,
whether you realize this or not,I have found out as a new pastor
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that when I reach out to the menof God, church builders that
have been successful in growing great churches, they don't, they
don't push me away. They want to help me grow.
And I'm thankful for that. But a lot of times it, it, it
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can get it can, it can be a temptation because of
inferiority complexes to think that, well, you know, I can't
approach them. And, and so, you know, I'm, I,
I, I don't have access to the right people to, or the right
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resources to climb out of what I'm in.
I'm not going to change. I'm not going to do anything
different than I've always done it or how we've done things,
methods that we've held onto forthe last 50 years.
We're going to keep doing thingslike that, like we've always
done it. And we're turning, we're turning
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methods into golden calves that that are worshipped, that keep
that keep our churches stuck in in stagnation.
And we've got to stop that. And so I'm, I am looking for AII
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really believe it's turning, I think I think we have a very
positive move towards young men,young, young ministries that are
saying, you know what, I don't care if it's my idea.
Yeah. I just want to do what works.
You know, I, I don't, I don't care if if I came up with it or
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I get the credit for it. I just want the Kingdom of God
to grow. And so I'm not going to sit
around tearing down people that are having revival, that are
growing, that are being blessed,that are moving forward.
I'm going to, I'm not going to sit around and nitpick and try
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to figure out why they, they must be doing something wrong or
compromising or tarnishing theirreputation.
I'm going to go to, I'm going togo to Abel and say, hey, what do
you, what are you doing to get the results that you're getting?
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And, and really, really what I have found from seeking the
guidance of the the men of God in my life that have so
graciously been willing to speakinto my life and help our church
grow at the exponential rate that it has over the last couple
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of years is really what what it what everything that they tell
me boils down to is be excellent.
Yeah, everything that you do, just just do it over the top.
Just be absolutely excellent. And everything that you do from
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from the way the property looks when people drive up on the
property to the landscaping, to,to the, the cleanliness of the
building, to the attitude of thegreeter and the, the hospitality
staff, to the security team, to the sound And the, the, the, the
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core of the building and the singing and the musicianship
and, and the preaching and everything that every part of
it, just just do it. Just do it great.
Just just just be outrageously excellent to the best of your
ability. That's that is The thing is not
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everybody's at the same level. Not everybody has the same
budget. Yeah, you know.
Doesn't require budget to be excellent.
No, you can be as excellent as you can be and that's all God is
requiring out of us is not can Ido it like so and so at their
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level? I don't have $100 million
budget, so I can't do what they do, but I can do the best that I
can possibly do on what I've been given.
That's the the parable of the talents.
It's, it's, it's, you know, I can't do with the guy that got
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5. Yeah, that's right.
But that don't mean I have to bury what I got.
So God's given me something to work with and I don't have to I
don't have to do it on the levelthat the other guys doing it.
I just got to this is what this is what the the master told the
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servant. He said, I wasn't even expecting
you to double it like the other guys did.
You could have just taken it to the bank and let it grow
interest. Just give me something back.
And so, so whatever we have, I believe that we'll have a better
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a, a, a better chance of having our sacrifice accepted by God
and the blessing of God being onwhat we're doing, whether it's
church growth, business life, marriage, whatever it is, if we
just have an attitude of excellence and intentionality
about everything that we do. Yes, yeah.
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Well, and we've talked about this before, you know, but it's,
it's that Daniel approach when, when you had the these Hebrew
boys and not even just Hebrews, there's people from all types of
countries and walks of life brought into captivity.
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And they had shining stars of every culture that were now
servants to is it Babylon, servants to Babylon and, and
every walk of life, they, they're taking the best of the
best. They're just going through and.
Yeah, they, they brought in, they didn't bring in the riff
raff. The Bible says that they brought
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in the best and the brightest ofof the kings and the noblemen of
the nations that including Israel.
And so I heard, I just thought about this.
I ain't thought about this in a long time, but I heard Bishop
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Larry Booker preach a message one time.
That was just phenomenal and he's known to do that from time
to time, but he preached a message called the The Peril of
Unconsecrated Brilliance. It's quite a title.
That is a title. But he talked about that fact
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that the best and brightest of the nation of Israel had been
brought into to Babylonian bondage.
And we only know four names. I I believe if I if I remember
right I wouldn't plan on saying this so I don't have it written
down but if I remember right there was around 10,000.
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Wow. Young men from noble families in
Israel that had been brought into captivity.
These are the best, brightest, smartest young people that
Israel had to offer and we only got 4 names.
Wow. And it's because they were
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willing to stand out from the rest We.
Talk about brilliance and that Ithink it's apparel.
Again, using the title, it's of people who sometimes just
naturally do things a little bitbetter.
Well, yeah. Well, he said, he said this,
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that, and this is where I was going with that.
He said that they were, they were so dedicated to the ways of
God and the ways of the people of God.
All of the other 10,000 or the 909,996, they ate the portion of
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the King's meat. They did they they ate the food
offered to idols. But four guys said absolutely
not. And the peril of uncon
unconsecrated brilliance was is all of the other ones died in
obscurity without anybody ever knowing their name.
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Four men rose to prominence because they were consecrated.
But there's another thing that is said about Daniel and and
that is that a a captive of war became the second most powerful
man in the entire world, and theBible says it was because there
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was a excellent spirit found in him.
Wow. I believe it's it's Daniel
Chapter 4 I believe is what that's found.
But that was the difference was that there were, it wasn't that
he was smarter or better lookingor whatever, but there was there
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was a spirit of excellence abouthim that caused him to rise to
the top. And also Joseph is the same way.
That that whole con, that Danielthing is amazing because, and
then we'll go to Joseph. But it's there are there.
I think people get caught and that I'm doing things better
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than other people, so I must be excellent and that they're not
the same thing. You could do something 10 times
better than everybody around youand not be doing it excellent.
You're just doing it better thaneverybody else.
But there's no excellence to it.And that's what that's what was
caught as you had all these smart people who did it better
than the other millions. But you know, one guy had a
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spirit of excellence that was like, I don't know, I'm giving
this 100%. I'm giving 110 because I wanted
to be right for my God. Yeah, Vivek Ramaswami, when he
was running for president in theis it the 2024 election, he he
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made this statement. I thought it was great,
especially for Apostolic people,he said.
If we've got to stand out, we might as well be outstanding.
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, and you know, Apostolic
people, we stand out anyway. Yeah, Yeah, we do.
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We look different, we dress different, we conduct ourselves
different. We got to stand out.
We might as well be excellent. We might as well have a spirit
of excellence about everything that we do.
And I believe that that is a a very, very key element to our
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efforts being accepted by God because I'm I'm, you know,
unless the Lord build the house,they labor in vain that build
it. And so I feel like, you know,
God, God, obviously he's a, he'sa God that helps those that
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helps themselves. He wants us to have some skin in
the game. But if you really want to get
God involved in what you're doing, have a spirit of
excellence about it, and then God will where your where your
ability ends. Yes.
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God bridges that gap, and so my it doesn't matter how excellent
I am about what I'm doing, it will never be enough.
But if I'm excellent, God to make sure it's enough.
Yes, yeah, that's good. Yeah.
So, you know, we have so many, so many passages of Scripture
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throughout the word of God that talk about, you know, this, this
heart of, of excellence that thechild of God should have.
Colossians 323 And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the
Lord and not unto men. So you know it, you know, it
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doesn't matter what what you're doing, do it with all of your
heart because you're not, you'renot doing what you're doing for
whether it's your business, yourwork, your career, whatever it
is that you are doing it, it really at the end of the day for
the Christian, it's, it's we're not doing it for men.
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We're doing it for God. Our lives are for the glorifying
of our King. And so here, here's what I would
say in in closing is when you see the ideal situation, when
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you see somebody getting it done, don't ridicule them.
Don't, don't run that down. Don't.
Don't kill the ideal. Imitate it.
Wow. Don't, don't, don't silence the
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excellent examples in your life.Study them.
I'm just going to tell you the the the reason for the success
that God has given us that I'm so thankful for has nothing to
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do with me. It has everything to do with the
fact that I'm the biggest copycat in the world looking for
what's working it. This, this, this does not take
away from the element of prayer and consecration.
Those those things are a given. But if you're praying, you're
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consecrated, you're in the Word,and it still seems like you're
spinning your wheels with whatever it is, whether it's
church, growth, business life, marriage, whatever it is, give
excellence a try. Yes.
Pray, study the word of God, be consecrated and devoted to him,
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and then get up and go be excellent in everything that you
do and and see see how your lifebegins to change.
Cain killed Abel because Abel exposed.
Mediocrity in Cain and it offended him.
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Don't we don't need to let jealousy cause us to assassinate
who we should be aspiring to become.
And so last verse and we'll we'll close it out.
But Philippians 1 and 10, the Bible says that you may approve
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things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without
offense till the day of Christ. So God bless its excellence
because he is excellent. So let's strive for it, pursue
it, live it, and don't kill the ideal.
(41:07):
Become it. Musicians come.
Welcome back to the Church Talk podcast.
Join the conversation today as we talk about excellence.
(00:23):
All right, we are back. We're back.
Out here in office, he's here a.Bunch of buffoonery going on in
the studio last week. I don't know what you're talking
about. I was.
Out of town for just a couple ofdays and I look up on Instagram
and somebody sitting in my chair.
(00:48):
So I did think about putting us both right.
Yeah. Didn't think.
You didn't think about long, didyou?
Yeah. Oh, for the crafts.
And Doherty did a great job on that episode about contentment
(01:08):
and. I'm glad to be back.
I've been pleasant here. Yes.
And it's been a good time. Did you get any more pheasants
for your office? Well, it's hard.
Believe it or not, it's hard to get fresh pheasant from South
Dakota to. Florida.
They don't want you to take it on your carry on, so I didn't.
(01:33):
I was not able to bring any back, but I sent quite a bit
home with my family from Mississippi so had a great time.
That's awesome. I'm glad to be back and I'm glad
to be back in the studio. And there we're.
Glad you're back. I was, I was thinking about this
(01:57):
material that we're going to go over today and reminded me of a
guy that went into work. I don't know why I'm laughing.
This is not fun at all. But yeah, I went into work and
his boss came driving up in a brand new Lamborghini.
(02:21):
Oh man. And he said man, boss, that is a
fine car. Boss looked at him and said yes
Sir, it sure he is. He said, Man, if you work hard
and have a spirit of excellence about you this next year, I can
buy me another one. Lord.
(02:48):
In other words, get back to work.
No, we are. Do we have anything to plug?
We. We do.
I will say this before you plug,I'll plug if you have not bought
Bishop Copeland's More than Enough book that just came out.
(03:09):
It's on Amazon. It's in the Ocala Church
bookstore. I believe you can purchase it on
pgpc.net, which is Bishop Copeland's church's website.
I think that is, don't quote me on that, but I think you can, if
not just forget I said anything.But I know you can buy it at the
(03:31):
Ocala Church and on Amazon. And it is a it is a great book.
So I wanted to plug the Bishop. I'm not getting paid to talk
about this book, but it is it isa great book.
Yes. Thankful and proud of Bishop for
finally, finally getting this out.
(03:53):
It's long overdue and I can't wait for the next ones to come
out. Yes.
Stay tuned because there's there's he's got some more
coming out. So we're looking forward to
that. Yes, Sir.
Well, we have. We've had a lot of actually
great reception to to that book here at the Ocala Church.
(04:13):
Everybody who's read it has loved it.
I've loved it. And we've also been having great
reception to the To the Church Talk podcast.
Love the feedback that we're getting online as well as in
person. And if you are enjoying it, go
ahead and leave a review. Give us five stars, say
(04:36):
something real nice about it. Just let it know how it's helped
you and you know how you think it could help somebody else.
And then if you got any questions, give us a e-mail.
At Don't be mean, I'm very sensitive.
Yeah, yeah, I don't be mean. E-mail us at podcast at Ocala
dot church and we'll take any questions.
(05:00):
Yes, we have. We, we, we don't know a lot, but
we have opinions about everything.
We have very opinion and so we will give it to you.
And so the information that we put out will be worth just about
as much as you pay for it. So yeah, I guarantee that you're
(05:25):
probably leaving a feeling like you need to get paid, yes.
So. Anyway, I don't know now, we
hope you've been blessed by it and we are going to continue
giving you the best that we we can find and put together.
So thank you all for the kind words and we are excited about
(05:48):
today's topic. Yes, we're going to go all the
way to the Book of Genesis chapter 4.
We're going. From here, that's a long way.
Says, Then Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare
Cain, and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord, and she again
(06:11):
bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the
fruit of the ground, and offering unto the Lord.
And Abel he also brought the firstlings of his flock, and of
the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel, and to his offering, but unto Cain, and to his offering
(06:32):
he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his
countenance fell. The Lord said unto Cain, Why art
thou wrath, and why is thou count?
Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shall thou
not be accepted? If you do well, shouldn't you be
accepted? Yes.
Now we know the story. Cain goes on to go out into the
(07:02):
field. He talks to his brother Abel.
It gets heated and Cain rises upagainst Abel and he kills Abel.
He kills him because he is angrywith the fact that his sacrifice
has been rejected by God and Abel's has been accepted.
(07:27):
How many times have we seen how jealousy can rise up in our
spirit when it seems like other people's sacrifices to God are
being accepted by God and we are?
Yeah. We are being rejected.
Yeah, that's a deal. Yeah.
And so to to figure out what's going on here, we have to
(07:50):
analyze the the two sacrifices. The the Bible says that God had
respect unto Abel's sacrifice, but had not respect for Cain's
sacrifice. The the problem was not in the
(08:12):
person, it was in the sacrifice.God is no respecter of persons,
but in this passage of Scripturewe do find out that He is a
respecter of sacrifices. And So what is the difference
(08:33):
between the sacrifices? We could talk about a lot of
things. We could talk about the the
difference between Cain bringingfruit and Abel bringing a lamb
and the precedent that had been set by God with the sacrifice
(08:55):
being a blood sacrifice and the typology to the lamb slain from
the foundations of the world. Jesus Christ obviously is that
lamb and that blood. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins. We could talk about all of that,
(09:16):
but I think for the sake of thisconversation, Hebrews Chapter 11
and verse 4 gives this distinction between the
sacrifice of Abel and the sacrifice of Cain.
(09:37):
The writer of the book of Hebrews says, by faith, Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice.
More. Excellent.
OK, that is really the distinction between the two.
It was a the distinction was excellence.
(10:02):
Cain. Cain's sacrifice was rejected
and Abel's sacrifice was accepted.
Same alter, same opportunity, different heart.
Yeah, a different attitude towards the sacrifice and so.
(10:28):
It's a different attitude towards the one you're
sacrificing too. Yeah, well, well, Cain's was a a
sacrifice of convenience, and Abel's sacrifice was a was a
sacrifice that cost him. It's a lot easier to sacrifice
(10:54):
pile of vegetables and fruit than it is to shed the blood of
the lamb. Yeah, it.
Is. It's a lot less of a emotional
experience. So God accepted Abel's offering
because it was done with faith and it was done with excellence.
(11:17):
Excellence. Having a spirit of excellence
takes faith. Yes, yes it does.
You can't give God excellence without believing that he
deserves it, but also you can't give God excellence in every
(11:41):
area of life without knowing that he is a rewarder of
excellence. Those that come to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that.
Diligently seek. There's a there is a attitude of
(12:06):
diligence towards the seeker or towards the the rewarder by the
seeker. By the seeker, yeah.
So really what we're doing when we serve God and we we offer a
sacrifice to God, whether it's our worship, whether it's our
(12:28):
praise, whether it's our offering, whether it's our
lifestyle, our the way that we conduct ourselves and our
ministries, our callings, the way that we serve God is a
(12:48):
reflection of how we see him. Yes.
And if you don't see him as a God of excellence, it's hard to
be excellent. Yeah, yeah.
It's looking at why was Abel more excellent than Cain?
Well, Abel brought something that was better, but Abel I, I
(13:13):
feel like, and this is, it's looking like Abel had a much
greater desire to figure out what pleased God Cain did.
But also he understood that thatGod is a God of excellence, and
so as a child of God I should I should represent him by being
(13:35):
excellent myself. Job 3723.
He is excellent in power. He's not just powerful, he's
excellent in power. He's excellent in judgment and
in plenty of justice. Psalms, Psalms 8 and one.
(14:00):
Our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth?
His He's not just excellent, Hisname is excellent.
Psalm 150 and two praise him according to his excellent
greatness. God's not just great, He's
(14:23):
excellent in his greatness. So he takes greatness to the
another level by being excellence, excellent in his
greatness. Isaiah 12 and five Sing unto the
Lord, for he hath done excellentthings.
This is known in all the earth. So God is so excellent in the
(14:46):
things that He does that the whole world knows that when God
does something, it's done in excellence.
Wow. So when he flung the stars into
space, He did it with excellence.
When he created a habitat for mankind to dwell in and to have
(15:06):
relationship with God, he did itwith excellence.
When you look at the majesty of the Appalachian Mountains or
you, you, you go see the grand door of the Grand Canyon or the
of Niagara Falls or whatever, you you realize that God does
(15:29):
all things well. He has a spirit of excellence
about everything that he does. And so, you know, even when he
decided to take on a name, he took on the excellent name.
He, he's, he's not just a powerful God, He's excellent in
(15:50):
it, in his power. When he does a work, he, he does
it in a excellent way. And so if we serve a God who is
excellent, then the people of God should, I believe, reflect
that by being excellent in everything that we do and.
(16:15):
Throw this out there for those who might not think so, but God
did an excellent job when he created us.
Yeah. Absolutely.
We did. We are fearfully and wonderfully
made. In his excellent image.
Yes, in the image and after the after the likeness of God.
(16:36):
And so in light of all of that, if God is excellent in
everything that he did, and he made you fearfully and
wonderfully lying in return, would we offer him an average
worship or lazy praise, half hearted ministry?
(17:03):
No, God is God is excellent in what he does.
And so I give excellence back tohim.
I will never be as excellent as God, but I want to be like Him
if. We're going to be in his
likeness. I can't be like God if I'm not
excellent. So one of the things that one of
(17:28):
the things that came to my mind when thinking about the story is
that when Cain's response to hisrejected sacrifice, Cain sees
(17:52):
that his brother's sacrifice hasbeen accepted.
And instead of going to him and saying teach me your ways, you
know, show me how to get my sacrifice accepted, I've made a
mistake, obviously. And.
After a conversation where God says you can do well.
(18:16):
If if you're if you did well, you'd be accepted too.
But instead of going to Abel andsaying, hey, man, show me, show
me how to get this right, he just goes and kills him.
And so Abel has offered the ideal sacrifice, and Cain kills
(18:38):
the ideal instead of learning from the ideal.
Yeah, Cain. Cain represents a lot of what
goes on in the church world. Well, and now we're here.
Let's talk about it. You know, we see, we see someone
(19:05):
in the church who it seems like their sacrifice to God is
constantly causing them to be inan elevated position with God.
Their their prayers are answeredand their sacrifice is always
received. And it seems like we're not
(19:26):
being received. And so instead of going to them
and saying how, how is this happening for?
You Why are you so blessed? Why?
Why does it seem like everythingyou touch turns to gold and
everything I touch turns to mud?Instead of doing that, we just
(19:46):
figure out a way to destroy them.
Yeah. Yeah.
We gossip about them. There must be something wrong
with them. We try to tarnish their
reputation. Yeah, we we try to pull people
down to try to make ourselves look better.
(20:09):
Yeah, I, I actually just touchedon that and youth service on
Friday about shame and that how shame will cause you to bring
others down to your level. Because if everybody's on my
level, I don't have to, I don't got to be worried about what
they think about, you know, my sacrifice.
Everybody's offering a fruit just like I am.
(20:30):
I nobody's going to look at me for my fruit.
So if there's no lambs being offered, nobody's better than
me. I ain't got to worry about my
condition. I ain't got to change my
condition. Yeah, yeah.
Instead of instead of going and finding out, yeah, what it takes
(20:50):
to have a sacrifice accepted, which is trying.
To kill them. Just there.
There must be something wrong with them.
Yeah. If they're, you know, if their
prayer life is working out and their, you know, their finances
is blessed, their home is blessed, they have peace in
(21:11):
their relationship with their spouse, There's something fishy
about all that. I mean, they just.
Yeah, or, or we take it here, their church is blessed.
The church is growing. If their church is growing, they
must be going charismatic. Gotta be, there's no other
options. They must be compromised and
(21:35):
well, it, it maybe, but maybe they figured out how to get
their sacrifice accepted. So I I would say, how about
let's, how about let's quit killing the ideal and let's
learn from it. Yes.
(21:57):
It it takes humility to do that.It takes humility to say I, you
know, what I'm doing is not working.
So I'm going to go talk to the guy that it is working figure
out maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Yeah, that was a crazy idea. Crazy thought.
(22:19):
Nobody wants to admit that I just did that whole thing all
wrong. I just spent the last two years
just messing it up. Yeah, everybody likes to admit
that. Well, proverbs one says, a wise
man will here, and if he will here, he will increase in
(22:41):
learning. Wow.
So so be willing to hear. Yes.
Don't. Don't be so quick to to kill, be
more quick to hear. Yeah.
Yeah. It's crazy how in the business
(23:04):
world it's such a thing on how what are you doing that's, you
know, working it. When it comes to the church
world, it's like don't, don't say those words.
And that is that is so true. You know, it's like
collaboration is celebrated in the business world.
Everybody is. And I'm not just saying it's
(23:27):
it's there's not a dog eat dog world in the business world
because there is, but it's at least online, you know, there's
this, there's this attitude or, or spirit of collaboration in
the business world. And if you're if you believe in
and want to grow, there are business mentors that were like,
(23:49):
man, come along out. I'd there, you know, successful
people getting get their kicks out of helping somebody else be
successful. And I'm just telling you,
whether you realize this or not,I have found out as a new pastor
(24:10):
that when I reach out to the menof God, church builders that
have been successful in growing great churches, they don't, they
don't push me away. They want to help me grow.
And I'm thankful for that. But a lot of times it, it, it
(24:30):
can get it can, it can be a temptation because of
inferiority complexes to think that, well, you know, I can't
approach them. And, and so, you know, I'm, I,
I, I don't have access to the right people to, or the right
(24:54):
resources to climb out of what I'm in.
I'm not going to change. I'm not going to do anything
different than I've always done it or how we've done things,
methods that we've held onto forthe last 50 years.
We're going to keep doing thingslike that, like we've always
done it. And we're turning, we're turning
(25:14):
methods into golden calves that that are worshipped, that keep
that keep our churches stuck in in stagnation.
And we've got to stop that. And so I'm, I am looking for AII
(25:46):
really believe it's turning, I think I think we have a very
positive move towards young men,young, young ministries that are
saying, you know what, I don't care if it's my idea.
Yeah. I just want to do what works.
You know, I, I don't, I don't care if if I came up with it or
(26:07):
I get the credit for it. I just want the Kingdom of God
to grow. And so I'm not going to sit
around tearing down people that are having revival, that are
growing, that are being blessed,that are moving forward.
I'm going to, I'm not going to sit around and nitpick and try
(26:30):
to figure out why they, they must be doing something wrong or
compromising or tarnishing theirreputation.
I'm going to go to, I'm going togo to Abel and say, hey, what do
you, what are you doing to get the results that you're getting?
(26:52):
And, and really, really what I have found from seeking the
guidance of the the men of God in my life that have so
graciously been willing to speakinto my life and help our church
grow at the exponential rate that it has over the last couple
(27:15):
of years is really what what it what everything that they tell
me boils down to is be excellent.
Yeah, everything that you do, just just do it over the top.
Just be absolutely excellent. And everything that you do from
(27:38):
from the way the property looks when people drive up on the
property to the landscaping, to,to the, the cleanliness of the
building, to the attitude of thegreeter and the, the hospitality
staff, to the security team, to the sound And the, the, the, the
(28:00):
core of the building and the singing and the musicianship
and, and the preaching and everything that every part of
it, just just do it. Just do it great.
Just just just be outrageously excellent to the best of your
ability. That's that is The thing is not
(28:20):
everybody's at the same level. Not everybody has the same
budget. Yeah, you know.
Doesn't require budget to be excellent.
No, you can be as excellent as you can be and that's all God is
requiring out of us is not can Ido it like so and so at their
(28:43):
level? I don't have $100 million
budget, so I can't do what they do, but I can do the best that I
can possibly do on what I've been given.
That's the the parable of the talents.
It's, it's, it's, you know, I can't do with the guy that got
(29:03):
5. Yeah, that's right.
But that don't mean I have to bury what I got.
So God's given me something to work with and I don't have to I
don't have to do it on the levelthat the other guys doing it.
I just got to this is what this is what the the master told the
(29:23):
servant. He said, I wasn't even expecting
you to double it like the other guys did.
You could have just taken it to the bank and let it grow
interest. Just give me something back.
And so, so whatever we have, I believe that we'll have a better
(29:46):
a, a, a better chance of having our sacrifice accepted by God
and the blessing of God being onwhat we're doing, whether it's
church growth, business life, marriage, whatever it is, if we
just have an attitude of excellence and intentionality
about everything that we do. Yes, yeah.
(30:06):
Well, and we've talked about this before, you know, but it's,
it's that Daniel approach when, when you had the these Hebrew
boys and not even just Hebrews, there's people from all types of
countries and walks of life brought into captivity.
(30:28):
And they had shining stars of every culture that were now
servants to is it Babylon, servants to Babylon and, and
every walk of life, they, they're taking the best of the
best. They're just going through and.
Yeah, they, they brought in, they didn't bring in the riff
raff. The Bible says that they brought
(30:49):
in the best and the brightest ofof the kings and the noblemen of
the nations that including Israel.
And so I heard, I just thought about this.
I ain't thought about this in a long time, but I heard Bishop
(31:09):
Larry Booker preach a message one time.
That was just phenomenal and he's known to do that from time
to time, but he preached a message called the The Peril of
Unconsecrated Brilliance. It's quite a title.
That is a title. But he talked about that fact
(31:33):
that the best and brightest of the nation of Israel had been
brought into to Babylonian bondage.
And we only know four names. I I believe if I if I remember
right I wouldn't plan on saying this so I don't have it written
down but if I remember right there was around 10,000.
(31:57):
Wow. Young men from noble families in
Israel that had been brought into captivity.
These are the best, brightest, smartest young people that
Israel had to offer and we only got 4 names.
Wow. And it's because they were
(32:20):
willing to stand out from the rest We.
Talk about brilliance and that Ithink it's apparel.
Again, using the title, it's of people who sometimes just
naturally do things a little bitbetter.
Well, yeah. Well, he said, he said this,
(32:41):
that, and this is where I was going with that.
He said that they were, they were so dedicated to the ways of
God and the ways of the people of God.
All of the other 10,000 or the 909,996, they ate the portion of
(33:07):
the King's meat. They did they they ate the food
offered to idols. But four guys said absolutely
not. And the peril of uncon
unconsecrated brilliance was is all of the other ones died in
obscurity without anybody ever knowing their name.
(33:28):
Four men rose to prominence because they were consecrated.
But there's another thing that is said about Daniel and and
that is that a a captive of war became the second most powerful
man in the entire world, and theBible says it was because there
(33:53):
was a excellent spirit found in him.
Wow. I believe it's it's Daniel
Chapter 4 I believe is what that's found.
But that was the difference was that there were, it wasn't that
he was smarter or better lookingor whatever, but there was there
(34:17):
was a spirit of excellence abouthim that caused him to rise to
the top. And also Joseph is the same way.
That that whole con, that Danielthing is amazing because, and
then we'll go to Joseph. But it's there are there.
I think people get caught and that I'm doing things better
(34:38):
than other people, so I must be excellent and that they're not
the same thing. You could do something 10 times
better than everybody around youand not be doing it excellent.
You're just doing it better thaneverybody else.
But there's no excellence to it.And that's what that's what was
caught as you had all these smart people who did it better
than the other millions. But you know, one guy had a
(35:01):
spirit of excellence that was like, I don't know, I'm giving
this 100%. I'm giving 110 because I wanted
to be right for my God. Yeah, Vivek Ramaswami, when he
was running for president in theis it the 2024 election, he he
(35:27):
made this statement. I thought it was great,
especially for Apostolic people,he said.
If we've got to stand out, we might as well be outstanding.
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, and you know, Apostolic
people, we stand out anyway. Yeah, Yeah, we do.
(35:49):
We look different, we dress different, we conduct ourselves
different. We got to stand out.
We might as well be excellent. We might as well have a spirit
of excellence about everything that we do.
And I believe that that is a a very, very key element to our
(36:14):
efforts being accepted by God because I'm I'm, you know,
unless the Lord build the house,they labor in vain that build
it. And so I feel like, you know,
God, God, obviously he's a, he'sa God that helps those that
(36:35):
helps themselves. He wants us to have some skin in
the game. But if you really want to get
God involved in what you're doing, have a spirit of
excellence about it, and then God will where your where your
ability ends. Yes.
(36:56):
God bridges that gap, and so my it doesn't matter how excellent
I am about what I'm doing, it will never be enough.
But if I'm excellent, God to make sure it's enough.
Yes, yeah, that's good. Yeah.
So, you know, we have so many, so many passages of Scripture
(37:23):
throughout the word of God that talk about, you know, this, this
heart of, of excellence that thechild of God should have.
Colossians 323 And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the
Lord and not unto men. So you know it, you know, it
(37:43):
doesn't matter what what you're doing, do it with all of your
heart because you're not, you'renot doing what you're doing for
whether it's your business, yourwork, your career, whatever it
is that you are doing it, it really at the end of the day for
the Christian, it's, it's we're not doing it for men.
(38:07):
We're doing it for God. Our lives are for the glorifying
of our King. And so here, here's what I would
say in in closing is when you see the ideal situation, when
(38:28):
you see somebody getting it done, don't ridicule them.
Don't, don't run that down. Don't.
Don't kill the ideal. Imitate it.
Wow. Don't, don't, don't silence the
(38:51):
excellent examples in your life.Study them.
I'm just going to tell you the the the reason for the success
that God has given us that I'm so thankful for has nothing to
(39:11):
do with me. It has everything to do with the
fact that I'm the biggest copycat in the world looking for
what's working it. This, this, this does not take
away from the element of prayer and consecration.
Those those things are a given. But if you're praying, you're
(39:31):
consecrated, you're in the Word,and it still seems like you're
spinning your wheels with whatever it is, whether it's
church, growth, business life, marriage, whatever it is, give
excellence a try. Yes.
Pray, study the word of God, be consecrated and devoted to him,
(39:56):
and then get up and go be excellent in everything that you
do and and see see how your lifebegins to change.
Cain killed Abel because Abel exposed.
Mediocrity in Cain and it offended him.
(40:22):
Don't we don't need to let jealousy cause us to assassinate
who we should be aspiring to become.
And so last verse and we'll we'll close it out.
But Philippians 1 and 10, the Bible says that you may approve
(40:44):
things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without
offense till the day of Christ. So God bless its excellence
because he is excellent. So let's strive for it, pursue
it, live it, and don't kill the ideal.
(41:07):
Become it. Musicians come.
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