Why Not Your Best?

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CURRENT TEACHING SERIES Daring Faith

Why Not Your Best? By Rick Warren — Jan 10, 2016 “Do your best to improve your faith.” (2 Peter 1:5a CEV) Admiral Hyman Rickover was the father of America’s nuclear Navy. He once interviewed a Naval Academy graduate for a job on a nuclear submarine and let the young man talk for two hours about anything he wanted to, and the cadet really tried to show off his intelligence and ability. Right before the young man left, Admiral Rickover asked him a very direct question: “When you were in school and in all your life, did you always do your best?” The young man started to say “yes” but then realized it wasn’t truthful. “No,” he said, “I didn’t do my best all the time.” Admiral Rickover looked at him with piercing eyes and said, “Why not?” Why not? The question burned in the young man’s heart, and the interview was a turning point in his life. That young cadet became the 39th president of the U.S., Jimmy Carter, who wrote a book called Why Not the Best? If you want to give your best to God, there are three things you must do that every soldier understands. You must define what you would die for. Until you know what you’re willing to die for, you’re not ready to live or love. Soldiers know there are some things more valuable than their own lives. Even Jesus talked about it: “The greatest love is shown when a person lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13b TLB). You measure love not by what people tell you but by their willingness to sacrifice. You must sacrifice your own comfort. Soldiers do this all the time. They serve in extreme temperatures and give up control of their schedules and aren’t making a lot of money. They give up a lot of things. You don’t become a great man or woman of God without sacrificing. You don’t become great by doing what’s easy or comfortable. You become great by committing yourself to something greater than yourself and then being willing to sacrifice for it. The greater your sacrifice in life, the greater your character will be. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:3, “Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (NLT, second edition). You must eliminate distractions. The Bible says, “No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer” (2 Timothy 2:4 NIV). Soldiers know they can’t be distracted by civilian life if they want to be ready to respond to a leader’s command. If you want to be great, if you want to be the best you can be, you must start spending more of your time, money, and energy on things that are going to last forever and less time, money, and energy on things that don’t really matter. If you want to give your best to God, why not start with these three steps? PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick>> Talk It Over What are you willing to die for? What can you give up in order to make more time for the things that matter in life? What is distracting you from focusing on God’s purpose for you and your eternal investment?   CURRENT RADIO SERIES All Things New   CURRENT TV SERIES Is There Hope For America   For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 I heard about a vacuum cleaner salesman who was up in the backwoods and was showing one of his vacuum cleaners from house to house. So he got to one house on the backside of a mountain, and he walked in at the invitation of a lady and said, “Ma’am, I guarantee you this vacuum cleaner will suck up every piece of dirt on your floor anywhere in your house.” Then he went over to the fireplace, got a bunch of ashes in his hands, threw them on the floor, and said, “I’m so convinced that this vacuum cleaner will suck up those ashes that I’ll personally eat them with a spoon if this vacuum cleaner won’t do it!” So the lady of the house said, “Well, you better start eating because we ain’t got no electricity in this house!” Now, the Bible works because unlike that vacuum cleaner, it has all the power it needs. And because of that, it brings the power of God to our lives. Yet, many believers today are living a ‘Bible-less’ Christianity. They want all the benefits of the Christian life, but they’re missing out on the greatest one of all: the wisdom and power of God. So as you walk with Christ, remember the powerful resource God’s given you in His Word and you’ll tap into His never-ending resources! The Bible ‘works’ because it has the power of God. So as you live the Christian life, stay connected with God’s Word!