The story goes that President Abraham Lincoln, a great communicator, was known during the Civil War to attend a church not far from the White House on Wednesday nights. The preacher allowed the president to sit in an adjacent room with the door open to the chapel, so he could listen to the sermon without having his presence disturb the crowd.

One Wednesday evening as Lincoln and a companion walked back to the White House after the sermon, the president’s companion asked, “What did you think of tonight’s sermon?”
“Well,” Lincoln responded, “it was brilliantly conceived, biblical, relevant, and well presented.”
“So, it was a great sermon?”
“No,” Lincoln replied. “It failed. It failed because he did not ask us to do something great.”

What are you aspiring to do great for the Lord? It’s easy to be lulled into a mediocre version of Christianity.

A.W. Tozer said,

“You’ll never be more than the common Christian until you give up your own interests and cease to defend yourself and put yourself in the hands of God.”

The Apostle Paul aspired to do something great for the Lord, stating,

“It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.” (Romans 15:20)

Paul purposed in his heart to do something great for the Lord, by opening new territory to the good news of Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder that it was he, the Apostle Paul, that said,

“And [Christ] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Cor. 5:15)

So avoid the allure of mediocrity, and aspire, as the Apostle Paul, to do something great FOR Christ…motivated BY Christ.