Giving Our Best to the Kingdom

And you may be seated. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to give his word, a word which is anointed. And then I'm praying and believing that both the receivers and the speaker will be anointed. Tonight we're in a series about giving. We've touched various subjects and tonight the subject is giving to the kingdom and giving our best to the kingdom. starting in Deuteronomy verse or chapter 10 and beginning with verse number 12. And there are several scriptures throughout the word of God that hold a very similar theme and you could interpret it as a a an asking from the Lord or a stating that we can and we should give our best.

Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse 12. And now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require of thee? But to fear the Lord, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. The word all is used various times in in that one verse. And verse 13 continues to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I am commanding you this day for your good. The word of God is for our good.

And then Colossians chapter 3 holding this same theme of doing our best or giving our best to the kingdom of the Lord. And in this context, I'll just tell you, we won't read before it, but it's about how we work in society, secular work, giving our best to our employment, our employer. Verse 23. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily. Because you're not only doing it for the employer, but as a Christian, as a believer, as an apostolic, you're doing it as to the Lord and not unto men.

So God receives what we give in this worship service tonight and any others. But he also receives what we do at work and for in secular society. Do it heartily. He said which means work hard, work cheerfully at whatever you do. Work at it with all your heart. That word heartily means from the soul and having a personal interest in what you are doing. You know when we have a personal interest in something we give it our best. Uh we do it because we want to and sometimes we don't want to do the task.

For instance, uh cleaning a room or washing a car or uh taking care of the lawn. We may not just look so forward to it on any particular day, but we do it because it means something to us. It means something to our heart. And then verse 24 says, "Knowing." And this is important. Knowing, have an assurance. We can trust that the Lord is going to give us a reward. We don't have to worry about God missing something. He will not miss anything that we offer as our service.

We shall receive the reward of the inheritance. And here's why we can have that confidence. Four, you serve the Lord Christ. A few weeks ago, the government was shut down and employees did not receive some employees did not receive their check. Now, they had regularly received those checks beforehand, but it's different in trusting the government versus trusting God. Evidently um the first 10 times the word best is used in the Bible, it is used in relation to what or how man is to give or what is expected by God.

though in those 10 times he talks about giving the best of the land, the best of the crops, the best of the oil, the best of gifts, the best of offerings they would bring to the Lord. And beyond those first 10 times, there's a continual calling for of God for I desire what is best. I want you to give your best to me is what the Lord says. And giving does involve our finances. But giving to the kingdom goes beyond finances and should influence not only our treasure giving but our time giving and our talent, our skills giftings as well.

We know this and this is a key element in giving our best to God. God is worthy of our best. God is worthy of our best efforts, our highest achievements. We we really can't work too hard for God. In essence, he is worthy of our best efforts and all of our strength and all of our might. He's worthy of excellence. Now, there are a lot of causes. There are a lot of hobbies that persons could devote their time and effort to. And most of them there is nothing at all wrong with those efforts or those hobbies.

There's small causes and there's larger causes. Some folks collect coins, collect stamps, some rebuild old cars, some practice medicine. Uh others want to climb Mount Everest. I'm not one of them, but there are many people that have uh the focus on building a business or running for public office. These are all aspirations or goals of people. Uh, some just want to lower their golf handicap and others want to teach and tutor children and read novels or stay physically fit. That's a good one. Uh, find a cure for cancer.

Uh, find rare toys or rare coins. Uh, and some of those certainly are more worthy than others, I suppose. But there is only one cause that is worthy of every ounce of work that any of us could give. every ounce of devotion and labor and sacrifice. None of those are wrong that I listed. But there's only one cause, and that is that God is worthy of our best and our service and involvement with his kingdom, serving him with all of our hearts. All of these other things are going to go away.

Antiques will go away. Mount Everest will crumble. Um, our bodies fall apart. But God and his kingdom are eternal and those who serve him are going to be eternal with him. And as we give our best, one of the steps that leads us to be able to giving our best. This is a platform upon which we can launch our giving of our best is the kingdom as a priority. The kingdom as a priority. Seeing the kingdom as a priority in our life will result in us desiring to give and invest ourselves in the kingdom of God.

And again through his word and in his spirit he is calling us to commit our lives and our minds and our talents to him letting that be the first and driving priority. I know I have and likely you have had times when I literally felt the spirit of the Lord dealing with me in a service or in a message as it was being preached or at the time of altar. The Lord was asking for more. He was asking for better. You know, the Lord's not going to judge us by if we were better than someone else.

He's going to measure us by did were you giving your best? Were you giving your best? And I pray that the word of the Lord and the spirit of the Lord tonight would help us to pause and in the service tonight and then even afterward pause and and check yourself and give an examination. Am I doing and giving my best for the cause of the Lord? I suppose this lesson ties to our core value of mission. We have the general mission of God's church, but then we all have a specific purpose and mission in the kingdom.

All of us have that. Not not anybody. And I don't want to just get lost in the collective purpose of the church. I want to engage that. But also realize for everybody that's in this Bible study watching online, any person, we all have a purpose as far a mission as far as God is concerned. And so God is calling for us to commit our lives and our minds and our talents and our time to him. Now he's not saying that your life, your commitments, your talents should not be used in life for jobs and careers and for family and financial benefit.

He he's not saying that. But he does say before all of that, make sure we and our giftings are dedicated to God. When the temptation comes to dedicate or commit our life or talents to one of those other areas at the expense of dedicating to God, resist and deny that temptation for the sake of the kingdom and for the sake of the king of the kingdom. When the kingdom is a priority, there's some ways to examine and and to check ourselves. When the kingdom is a priority, it will look like Jesus's Matthew 6:33 instruction which says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." And he adds after that, "All these things will be added unto you." So some self-examination of priorities and kingdom first mindset and heart set uh seeking him will will also look like this.

Having a vision or a mindset I want to be a servant for life of his. I want to be a servant for life. I want to be employed by that one master who has one great cause also. Am I living by a first faithfulness mentality that says if I can go to work, I can go to church. I'll do for God what I'll do for gold. Faithfulness that looks for a way to make a way to be faithful to God to the house of God. Another checkpoint, another check question could be, do you consider God's work and his priorities something that we do alleart on the side or is it an integral part of who you and I are?

And we know that many of us may never be called upon to go into certain full-time ministries, but let me just pose this. If he were to ask that, would you be willing? If he were to ask that, would we be willing? Another check question would be, "What material possessions or hobbies or other preoccupations would you find hard to push aside in favor of going to a higher commitment level in the Lord and in his work?" Are there some things and there will probably be some difficult things for all of us that come and would try to push aside the the work of God, the will of God, giving oursel totally to the mission.

Would we find it hard to push aside those things to go to that next commitment level? Another question someone posed, "Do you ever feel offense rising within your spirit whenever the leader or a pastor asks you to give up some of your closely guarded leisure time for a worthwhile investment in the kingdom of God? You know, most people who serve in ministry in the church do so on a purely volunteer basis. But let us from this day on never look at it as this is a favor I'm doing you God.

This is a favor but rather this is what I want to give. This is what I want to do. This is who I want to be. I want to be a servant for life. Whether the time we invest in ministry is just a few moments or several hours each week. Let's treat that as an offering of ourselves as a holy thing. And I will say it is a holy thing to God. Holy means precious and valuable and special. And every effort that you and I give is holy to God.

It is special to him. Now, God's a practical God. He's a He's a spiritual God, but he's a practical God, too. He knows there's going to be times in your life and mine when you're only able to give less of yourself than you could at another season. God knows babies are going to be born. I never will forget reading the article. It was uh it was a women's devotional. Somehow I got on the mailing list of the women's devotional. I'm gonna tell you there's some pretty good stuff in there and it applies to everybody.

Now, there's a few of them and I just kind of quickly uh uh read through them, but uh this one was interesting to me because a mama was speaking and she was saying how guilty that she had been feeling because her devotion time lessened after those children started coming into their family. But she came to the realization that and God helped her with this and I think maybe a leader helped her with this that God understands that and uh taking care of kids is a ministry especially as parents and as family members that is a part of our ministry.

And so while that particular devotion time, whatever that was for her, had the lesson at that time, her motive, she wasn't trying to get out of anything. She was just dealing with what life was that was happening at that particular moment. There will be times of sickness that temporarily slow temporarily slow us. There may be family members, aging parents that will need our care. Our God is not a tyrant master. He's a good God >> and he understands some. But with all of that said, whatever capacity you choose to give yourself in the kingdom of work of God, do it with joy.

Do it with excellence. Let's give it our best, church. Let's just give it our best. However that means and however that whatever that means and however it comes out, with a zeal for the purpose of the Lord and excitement. Kindle in the fire of excitement. I'm gonna do this or I'm gonna do that or I'm gonna teach this or I'm gonna be that with a with a zeal in our hearts and in our lives. One of the great lessons that Jesus gives about doing what we should do is the parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 25.

If you have your Bibles, I'd like for you to follow along. Most of this will also be up on the screen, but Matthew 25 and it begins in verse 14. And I'll give the setting a little bit. It's a parable of Jesus. He's illustrating what it's going to look like as we stand before him to offer our explanation of our life's service and our life's work. So, this is a little pre-picture. It's a preview of how things are going to go when we stand before him with the to use the words of the parable with the talents that he has given to us.

um how we served in the kingdom. We'll also be uh to give account for how we served in our family and in our relationships and how we served in secular life, employment or education. Paul said it in that verse earlier, do it as unto the Lord. And he was talking about secular employment there. We are his servants. The and verse 14 is the Lord's going to call us his own servants. And all those servants, all of us included, are going to give an account of our stewardship of all that God has given us.

And per this parable, here's this was an interesting thing. I hadn't thought all that much about it from this context before, but each servant had been entrusted with at least one. I've always looked at it and and it is true. The five and the two and and the one, but really everybody got at least one. You know what that tells me? We've all got at least one. And some have many more than just one. And this per the scripture, it's God's way of handling this dispersion of gifts.

The number of talent varies with people varies concerning our ability to manage them. God never overwhelms us. That guy when he came back with the five, he didn't talk about how, oh, I was so overwhelmed with those five. You gave me too much to do, God. God, you made a mistake when you called me to that area of work. That's not what he said. He wasn't o God will never overwhelm us and neither will he short change us. He's not unreasonable and he never overtasks us.

The reality of that if there is a gifting and there is a calling that God has put on our life, God expects us to be accountable for that and it's not too much but God will help us to fulfill whatever he has given us to do. We take every opportunity throughout our life to engage our talents. And here's what will happen. The longer we serve, those kingdom influences will widen and there may be more areas that we work in. And it certainly will will deepen. And you you may do this as well as myself.

We tend to categorize or assign value to our giftings and put their prominence and their visibility. Those seem to be the most important. But background work and background involvement we may put as a little lesser important. But according to God all the giftings have influence and are valuable to God. Now there's no doubt some are more visible than others. There's no other way to explain that or define that. But the truth is all giftings have an influence. even if it's in the backdrop and the background.

He adds to what we think may be important in Romans 12 and in also 1 Corinthians chap 12. He talks about various gifts that he gives to us and I won't take the time to read them but he talks about there's gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 in the 11th verse he talks about various giftings he said all of these work that one in the self-same by the self-same spirit dividing to every person severally as he will in other words as in his you seems best.

So he doesn't want me wishing I could do what somebody else could do. Now I those thoughts may come to my mind but those thoughts can't handle me. I have to handle them. God gave and presented as he seemed best. So whatever giftings I have or whatever giftings you have, they are per the will of God. And in his view, they seemed best. And probably all of us at some point have kind of argued with God about that point. Oh man. God, it's almost funny sometimes how we try to figure things out for God.

I guess it's really not funny, but it's he's the all- wise God. And if he's given us a gifting and a talent, a skill or whatever it is, uh he didn't intend for us, he intended for us to have that and not to have perhaps what somebody else has that we think that we should have. So, Matthew 25 and verse14, for the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called, I love this phrase. I'd never noticed it before until studying for this uh lesson, his own servants.

It's almost like a term of endearment. These are mine. These are my servants. It wasn't like some tyrannical ruler saying, "Yeah, you're my servant. You're going to do what I'm telling you to do." It's like ownership. I love them. I've given them this g these gifts and these talents because I love them. That's the way he views us. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. And again, to every man according to his several ability. So although it looks unfair on paper, 52, and one, heaven accounted that that's the fair way to do it.

That's the right thing to do. God's wisdom is always higher and above ours. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents. And likewise the one that had received two, he also gained another two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. Any of us entrusted with limited talent fitting into perhaps this one talent person, we must be especially on guard because we are most exposed to the temptation of saying we can do so little we will do nothing.

That's what that one servant that had the one talent did. And evidently the way he thought you know what you can do best and what what connects with your abilities and circumstances that very likely is your talent and there could be one or there could be multiple. If you cannot do much yourself there's some ways to answer that. We can work to improve ourselves and to get better and to gain more talents. We can also work with others to help them improve. It said this man, one man or Jesus said to this man, why didn't you go to the exchangers?

In other words, why didn't you get others? Why didn't you get a brother or sister to help you so that you could do more? Why didn't you seek the guidance of a spiritual leader? Is what he has said. The Bible says that he hid. He it uses the term went digged in the earth and hid his lord's money. That word literally means to conceal away to keep secret. So the condemnation is not misspending but simply making no use of what he had and not using it for God.

you know, involvement in the community, involvement in school, involvement in education, other things, playing or singing, uh, in the high school choir, none of that is wrong, but not using it for God would be the mistake. Using it for the kingdom of the Lord first. So, this man did a little uh little digging. I found it out today. It's messy to bury talent. You'll get dirt on the carpet. You'll get dirt on you. You'll get dust on your hands. So, I'm just I'm just going to check out what what is it that uh could be could be hidden?

What what talent is there down there that uh could be hidden? musical talent. If you can sing, sing. If you can't sing anyway. Some of us may not make the praise team, but But see, there's probably some hidden talent. There's probably uh Well, let me just ask it straight out. Have you buried some music talent? Most apostolics are very qualified to give a home Bible study. Is it growing in your life or is it buried? Is it concealed? How we doing there? You know what I what I noticed also here?

What this one guy was not doing, the other two didn't let that influence them on what they should be doing. Don't let what somebody's not doing talk you out of in or influence you to not do and give your your best. There was a Here's Oh, here's a Christmas invite list of all of our services. You know, I think I saw some of those out in the lobby. This got buried. Don't bury that underneath all the other bills at Christmas. First first fruits instead of I can't afford to.

I can't afford not to. And sometimes we can bury it underneath various excuses. I've forgotten what's all in here now. That'll happen if you bury stuff. Oh, that's one of that's an event staff. Yeah. Fall Fest is a long ways away, but we need help at Fall Fest. We just got done, Bishop. Yeah. And that's not the only event that we serve in, but that could represent any other event. Let's see here. I'll clean this up. Brother Mifflin. Becky taught me how to use the gift of a vacuum.

So, oh, Sunday school teaching. I I've heard I heard some folks through the years say, "Well, I want to go to uh I'm going to go to somewhere I can be used. I want to go to that church." They got a lot of people. But the bigger the church, the more holes there are to fill. And so it's needed. Somebody willing to teach. Here's what I know that's happening tonight. God has already been, you've already been sensitive and God is talking to you and he's just using this microphone right here to just echo it out a little bit more.

I don't want to leave anything here, so I'm going to dig a little bit. We're running out of time, folks. I'm not talking about in Bible study now. We don't have time to dig and hide and we don't have time to try to figure out what did I do with that. Where did that go? There is an anointing. I feel it right here right now. There is an anointing. The only anointing that comes is not behind this podium, but there is anointing in chairs, pews, as we would say.

There's an anointing and that's here right now. If you would be willing just to be used by God in any way that in his view sees best, would you just lift a hand right now of surrender to the Lord and say, "Yes, Lord. I want to obey you. I want to serve you. I want to do it with my best. I want to do it with excellence. I want to serve you, oh Lord. I thank you for what you've gifted to us. I thank you for what you've gifted to APC.

God, I thank you for my brothers and sisters and their giftings. And we compleiment one another. Lord, what one of us can do, maybe another cannot, but what I cannot do, another brother or sister can do. Help us to be a complete body. Help us to give our best to you. Oh Lord, help us. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Verse 19 says, "After a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and he reckonth or he examined and settled the accounts." When he stands before us and we stand before him and he starts settling the accounts, I don't want to be stumbling and stuttering about what I could have done.

The Lord never is mean. He's not going to be mean on that day. But accountability brings sobriety and soberness. And he reckons or examines and settles the he said I in other words the master was saying I gave you this. How did you use it? Did you use it? Somebody said this. Look at every birthday. In other words, as each year goes by, as a precursor to standing before that judgment seat that second Corinthians 5 talks about, appearing before the judgment seat of Christ. And at that point, it probably we could do it more than just once a year.

What have I done this past year? We could even do it monthly or weekly. What have I done this past month or this past year to use what I have been given for the benefit and the advancement of God's kingdom, his church, and they began to come, verse 20, he that received five came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, you delivered me five. I've gained beside them five other talents. I love this verse here. His lord said unto him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Faithful there is the word trustworthy.

I entrusted you with something and you proved yourself to be trustworthy of what I had given to you. You trusted what I gave you and now I'm saying I certainly have and can trust you. Well done, thou good and faithful service servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I'm going to make you ruler. And as I look around this room and think through the history of this church and I see the capacity and I see what people have done in this church and their commitments.

If that's a few things compared to the great glories of heaven. My goodness, what are those glories going to look like and feel like when the Lord blesses us? Same happened with the man who received two talents in verse 22. He said, 'I gained other two.' And his lord said the same thing to him, well done, good and faithful servant. And then he which had the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew that you were a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where there hast not straw.

And he said, 'I was afraid and I went and I hid thy talent in the earth and here here's what you gave me, that one talent. There's several things laced in verses 24 and 25 with the excuses that the man gave. There was self-preservation or selfserving. I was fearful, but that didn't stand and hold the test. He shifted the blame to the master. I knew you were a hard man. He blamed his not doing what he should have done on the master. He mischaracterized accountability. He said, "It's hard.

It's tough. It's too hard. It's severe." The Lord was expecting accountability and what should have been expected. He wasn't being harsh or hard. All of those are easy things to present, easy excuses if we try to explain a lack of involvement and commitment. Verse 26, his lord answered and said unto him, and this these phrases have always stirred me, thou wicked and slothful servant, wicked. And I mean, the man didn't commit any great sin that we know of like uh fornication or any of the sins are listed in the scripture, but the Lord called him wicked or bad.

The literal word is falsehearted. It seemed he was supposed to do something or he presented that he had done something, but he did not. And it called him slothful. He didn't do anything against, but he simply did nothing for the kingdom of God. You know, some some tribes in Old Testament Israel were judged not because they fought against Israel, but because they did not step forward to fight and stand for the kingdom. Their lack of commitment, their lack of involvement judged and condemned them. The Lord didn't have to do that at all.

So, it's it's not enough just to stand idly by. Even though you may be part of the kingdom as they were part of the kingdom, but he said he cursed them because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against those mighty armies. God is calling for all of us. He's calling for his people. He's calling for every person. I just want to say do not minimize what you have and what God has given to you and who you are, but maximize it to the nth degree.

Do whatever you I I believe we can all be better and do better in whatever giftings we have. We can do that. But let's not let that stop us. We may not be as good as we want to be or as good as somebody else, but whatever we can do, do it with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength. And here's where giving our best comes from. Kingdom giving mentality and mindset starts here. Second Corinthians chapter 8 and verse five.

The Macedonians wanted to give an offering responding to some need that was in the church at Jerusalem. The Macedonians were going through hardships themselves, but they opened their hearts and their finances in this case to others. Verse five holds the key as to why they gave and how they could do this. Here's what it says. And this they did. Paul's writing, "Not as we hoped." In other words, they went beyond our highest hope, but first gave their own selves. There's the key, gave their own selves to the Lord.

They their first action was to dedicate and give themselves before they gave their money. Before they opened their pocketbooks, they opened their hearts. There is a blessing and a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment when we give ourselves first to the Lord. In fact, that makes all other giving easy or easier. I'll say some sometimes giving is not easy, but it's easier when we have given ourselves and given our hearts first to the Lord. The Macedonian apostolic sacrifice their will before they sacrifice their money. This happened often times in scripture.

Abraham before he placed Isaac on the altar of giving, he had given himself. The Lord said,"Abraham and Abraham said, "Behold, here I am, Lord." Before David's three soldiers gave their energy and their effort to get that water from the guarded well of Bethlehem, they gave themselves to him and to the cause. And Calvary was the giving of the body. But Gethsemane was the giving of self. Not my will, but your will be done. I close with this devotional excerpt that I read a couple of weeks ago.

Quote, "Stay ever so close to me and you will not deviate from the path I have prepared for you. This is the most efficient way to stay on track. It is also the most enjoyable way Men tend to multiply duties in their observance of religion. That practice enables them to give me money, time, and work without yielding up to me what I desire the most, their hearts. Rules can be observed mechanically. Once they become habitual, they can be followed with minimal effort and almost no thought.

These habit forming rules provide a false sense of security lulling the saw the soul into a comeomaosse condition. What I search for in my children is an awakened soul that thrills to the joy of my presence. I created mankind to glorify me and enjoy me forever. I provide the joy. Your part is to glorify me by living close to me. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6 and5. Whatsoever you do, work at it with all of your heart as working for the Lord and not for men.

I will praise you, oh Lord, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 86 and 12. And I'm thinking right now of the 116th Psalm in verse 12. What shall I render unto the Lord? What can I give? It's a rhetorical question. What what return can be equal to his blessings? What can be an adequate return for love like his and mercy so great and so undeserved? What can I render unto the Lord? Would you stand with me, please? God wants that to resonate in our hearts and our minds and our spirit.

What can I give? What can I render unto the Lord? My time, my talent, my treasure, or whatever else it could or it might be. What can we give to the Lord? Would you just thank the Lord with me for the privilege to serve him right now? Lord, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for your kingdom and for service in your kingdom. Thank you for being the master that you are. Thank you, oh Lord, for the greatest purpose there is in this world, your purpose and your mission to seek and to save.

I thank you, oh Lord. And now I pray that you would help us as we yield ourselves and we yield our commitments and we yield our natural desires and our flesh to please and serve you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and spirit. Jesus, would you take a moment right now and just offer yourself? We just thank the Lord, but would you offer your heart and life to him, Jesus? We present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto you, which is our reasonable service. And we're so thankful that you gave us everything in your life.

And now we give you ours, our time, our talents, Lord, our treasure. We give it all to you, Jesus. And we know that it's worth it, Lord. We thank you for the call. Jesus name. Amen.