Home News  Pictures  Calendar  Links  Missions  Bible Search  Documents 
Discussion  Purpose  Guest Book  Sermons  Audio  History  Stanley Henderson  Services  Sermons  Members

    
We Must Give Our Best To The Lord

We Must Give Our Best To The Lord

     God expects our best to be offered to Him and not our leftovers.  God is asking the Jews in Malachi 1:8, "And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil?  And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?"  It is also evil and sinful when we don’t give our best to God.  In the Old Testament, God commanded the Jews to give to Him "the first-fruits of your harvest" (Leviticus 23:10).  God demands our best be given to Him today.  "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1).  We are to "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33), and "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2), if we expect to go to heaven.  If our treasure is in heaven, "there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21).

     But when we have given our best to the Lord, we haven’t earned our salvation.  Jesus says, "So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants.  We have done what was our duty to do" (Luke 17:10).  We can never do too much for the Lord, but we can do too little.  Jesus gives us a parable of the one talent man to warn us that we must give God our best according to our ability.  Jesus says, " But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money…But his lord answered and said to him, ‘Thou wicked and slothful servant… And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 25:18, 26, 30)  We see the tragic end of one who did not give his best to the Lord.

     One man said to Jesus, "Lord I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.  But Jesus said to him, No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:61-62).  Are we fit for the kingdom of God?  There are those who want to do the bare minimum just to get by.  Some members of the church are like visitors who come ever now and then.  We are "Not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some…For if we sin willfully…there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment" (Hebrews 10:25-27).  Those who forsake the assembly of the church are going to be lost since they sin willfully and judgment day will be a fearful thing.  Today we are to give "as God has prospered" us (1 Corinthians 16:2), not what we have left over, whether it be time or money.

     There are congregations who either have an abbreviated service or who cancel the Sunday evening service when special days such as Christmas Eve or Christmas Day fall on Sunday.  Felix told the apostle Paul, " when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee" (Acts 24:25).  Christians today are basically saying, "when I have a convenient time I will worship you".  They are putting other things, which they consider more important before the Lord.  Is this acceptable to God?

     In living the Christian life, so we can be pleasing to God, Jesus says,  "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." (Mark 12:30).  Let’s make our "calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10), by giving our best to the Lord, by putting Him first in all that we do.  "And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Hebrews 6:11-12)  Let’s make sure we inherit the promise of eternal life.
 
Jimmy
Adapted:  Bro. Ron Boatwright
1/24/10



Print

Direct Page Link
Powered By
TheLordsWay.com
Click here to host your
own church web site today!