HOW TO EXCEL AND ACHIEVE THE HIGHEST STANDARDS

So we share from Proverbs chapter 22, verse 29. New King James Version says, "Do you see a man who excelled in his work? He will stand before Kings. He will not stand before unknown men." May the Lord increase grace upon your life, upon your children, upon your partners for global excellence in the name of Jesus.

So we share this morning on how to excel and achieve the highest standards. Note of these very important lessons of life. As an individual, it is possible for you to always excel. However, you may not always win the first position. You may not always win the first position. It is possible for a group or team to always excel. However, they may not always win the first position. And I believe God also wants to encourage certain people by some insights from this message. It is possible, all you may not, you may not always be the winner of the first prize. But have you excelled? Yes, you have excelled. You must go for distinction in a subject. You know, of course, you could score a distinction with 95, with 94, with 92, 91. But someone else will emerge as the first. Someone else will emerge as the best student or winner of the first prize with his score of 100, a score of 99. You may even achieve a first class, yet you may not be the overall best or number one in that graduating class. Students, it is possible for everyone to excel in an exam by scoring distinction, but only a few, most times just one person, would often emerge as the winner of the first position.

In Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 11. Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 11. New Living Translation, it says, "I have observed something under the sun: the fastest runner doesn't always win the race. The fastest runner doesn't always win the race." So it is not about you, it's not about your child, it's not about your team. It's just one of the realities of life. What is more important at the end of the day is excelling at the highest level possible. But why you are excelling at the highest level, it may not necessarily translate into you winning the first position. He said, "I have observed something under the sun: the fastest runner doesn't always win the race. The strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle." So there are some things that chance on chance on chance, not absolutely based on ability or competence. Are you extremely competent? Yes. However, you may not emerge as the overall best. And you begin to see this happen in every realm of life, including sports. So when you have world competitions and all that, you see that the very best teams will qualify. They will play the World Cup, the world competition. But some may even be knocked out in the first round. Some are knocked out in the quarterfinals. Some are knocked out in the semi-finals. Some are knocked out. Some lose eventually in the final match. But has that implied that the team that came second, the team that came third or fourth, they have dropped in terms of quality and standard? No.

Our primary goal should always be primary, that is what should come first, should always be to attain the highest level of excellence and performance. You want your son, you want your daughter to score it is in the college, eight distinctions, that should be the goal. But it's possible for a student, and we have seen this as we attend a price giving day of different colleges and schools, you will see, you see many students all scoring distinction. So a student that's scored distinction doesn't emerge as the number one. So the primary goal should always be to attain the highest level of excellence, the highest standard of excellence, the highest level of standard of performance. And that is where Proverbs chapter 22, 29 comes in. Are you good in what you primarily do? When something cannot be fixed, what happens next? You seek for an expert. You seek for an expert. What others may not be able to fix, an expert would most times have a way out to achieve that safety and to fix that same problem. Observe people who are good at their work. Skilled workers are always in demand and admired. They don't take a back seat to anyone. I pray that God will open doors for everyone listening to this message, and in those areas of life where you truly stand out, may the best opportunity come for you from now on, in the name of Jesus.

Excellence can be seen in different dimensions. The word excellence means to do something far above average, far above average. Thank you. And two constituencies where we really need to emphasize excellence: the church. The church. Another constituency where we need to emphasize excellence is in our continent of Africa. Is in our continent of Africa. One of the biggest challenges we have in Africa is the maintenance culture, culture of maintenance, the culture of maintenance. So to excel means to do something far above average, far above average. There are many descriptions of our products or surveys, performance standard, environment. They exhibit the attributes of excellence. And where you see excellence, sometimes words, certain kinds of words will come out spontaneously. Some words capture these attributes of excellence. Could be an excellent product, an excellent kind of service, an excellent kind of performance, an excellent environment, an excellent standard. Words like excellent, premium quality, this is premium quality, perfect, distinction, outstanding, world class. And back home here in Africa, we need to raise the bar, raise the standard to the world class level. And it is possible. Words like five star, first class, magnificent, awesome, spectacular, wonderful, fantastic, a masterpiece, extraordinary, ultimate.

Excellence is a diligent execution of a rule, diligent execution of a duty and assignment. In the military, we have some elite group of soldiers that are carefully selected, subjected to very rigorous training, and many of them, the majority, do not, do not successfully go through the training. And at the end of that process, you have a few that are now qualified to be in that elite team of Special Forces Commandos. Every nation means have a hundred thousand soldiers, but every nation has the opportunity to raise a sufficient team of Special Forces because they are much, much fewer in numbers. When you excel, you excel in a particular role, diligent execution of a role, a duty, assignment, or event to exact details and precise timing, precise timing. It could also be in whatever service you render. Excellence has to do with doing something very well, doing something very well.

Doing things to the best known standards, the best known standards. Don't take anything for granted. And take note that, you know, some of these things I just mentioned about, you know, Africa is not limited to Africa. Excellence is a state of perfection when there is nothing to correct, nothing to correct. 10 over 10. 10 over 10. And there are some key attributes of excellence. One is consistent outstanding performance. Two, and flawless effect, and flawless. Number three, highly durable, highly durable. Number four, quicker and faster, quicker and faster. So most of the tech companies, you observe that these are some of the things they continue to improve upon every year. The new model would now do better in some of these areas we are mentioning. Number five, user friendly, user friendly. Number six, safer and health friendly, safer and health friendly. It is a major factor. If a solution appears to be the best, but it has very serious health risks and possible side effects, then of course, you can't score it as an excellent solution. It must be safer, it must be health friendly. Number seven, premium quality, premium quality. Number eight, neatness, decency, and hygiene, neatness, decency, and hygiene. Now, you can't, in a, in a crowded event, you can't clean the restroom once. Oh, it's continuous. It's continuous. Someone must be there to keep it clean as, as people troop in and use the restroom, especially on busy days and high traffic days. Neatness, decency. You are going to relate closely with people. Anything that we have offensive smell, have to put because smell, smell better. Number nine, hospitality and royal treatment, hospitality and real treatment. It's part of the spirit, the spirit of excellence, the spirit of excellence. Number 10, beautiful appearance, beautiful appearance. And this is why you need to get the right person to analyze what you want to come up with. Not everybody has a good taste. Get the right person, get the right people, the right expert. Appearance. Number 11, quality packaging, quality, quality packaging. And number 12, which is the last one, well maintained and up to date, well maintained and up to date.

You know, something that was just ministered that in life, there are some things that you may not be able to compete with the very best. However, there are also some other things that are also used as a criteria where you can score the highest marks possible. The journey of life, there are some things that we can have a starting advantage over others. If you are a caterer, for instance, a caterer, for instance, of course, the quality of the food is the main thing. Oh, it's not the only thing. The packaging, the quality of plates you use in serving, the quality of your cutleries, the uniforms of your service boys and girls, those things matter. So your food may not be the best when you are not competing with outstanding caterers, but you can defeat them when it comes to the quality of packaging, of the things you use. And you will know that even before any client will evaluate and compare, you would already know that when they are looking at this caterer A, you are going to, they are all going to score you the highest when it comes to the quality of things, packaging that you use. Location is another thing. What you are going to do in that location, yes, is the most important. However, using a prime location can give you an edge over others in that same field. Location. The people you are competing with may not be able to afford the best location. So if you are able to get the best location and afford it, you already have a starting advantage. Another thing, especially with Christians, where we should have an edge over others, even for promotion, for selection, for appointments, is in the area of character and attitude. Character and attitude. The average man out there today is a thief. People see it as normal to cheat on others. Even when you pay them well, you paid them well, give them bonuses, they will still look for a way to stick something more from you. True cheating, loyalty is something that is very scarce. One of those core values that you would find from a true Christian is loyalty. Loyalty. So when it comes to promotion, our sister who was testifying today, she shared, she told you the same thing. There is a level where competence will take you, and there's a level where loyalty will be considered. Loyalty will be considered. Your attitude. So one of those things that will give you an advantage over others is your character, your attitude.