Give God Always and Only Your Best | Stephen Kong

You're listening to a message to go from acts church. We hope this message

will light up your day if we can only and always give our best to

the Lord. So that's the title of my message this morning. Give God

always and only your best. Okay, all right, So let's begin by

looking at the scripture is found in second Several, chapter twenty four, verse

eighteen. Okay, so let's all turn our bibles to it. It's a

good exercise to turn our bibles in church in case you don't turn it at

home. Oh, I mean yeah, let's turn out. Let's turn our

bibles to Second several. Chapter twenty four is the last chapter of second seven.

Okay, before we go into the first book of Kings. So Second

Samul, chapter twenty four, verse eighteen. And this story might be very

familous to some of us. I'm gonna read it, and I'm going to

give you a quick context and then we'll move on. Okay. If you're

there, say yeah, okay, all right, let's give our best.

Amen. If you're there, say yeah all right. Verse eighteen says and

Ged came that day to David. This is King David, and say to

him, go up erect an author to the Lord on the threshing floor of

arounda the Jebu side. So David, according to the word of God,

went up as the Lord commanded. Now Arouna looked and saw the king and

his servants coming toward him. So Arouna went out and bowed before the king

with his face to the ground. Then Arouna said, why has my lord

the king come to his servant. And David said, to buy the trashing

floor from you to build an author to the Lord that the plague may be

withdrawn from the people. Now Arouna said to David, let my lord the

King take and offer whatever seems good to him. Look here oxen for burnt

off wing and feashing implements, and the yolks of the oxen for wood.

All these old King Goverana has given to the king. And Havana said to

the king, made the Lord your God accept you. Then the king said

to Evana, no, but I will surely buy it from you for a

price. Nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that

which cost me nothing. So David bought the freshing floor and the oxen for

fifty checkers of silver, and David built there and altered to the Lord and

offered burnt off wings and peace of wings. So the Lord heeded the prayers

for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. Lord bless the

wailing of his word. Amen. So just to give you a context,

it's a very interesting story. You can go read about it. Uh,

you know King David. I mean the story started off whereby King David,

uh you know, counted Omdet took the census of the people in Israel and

in Judah. Okay. And you may be asking why is that wrong?

It's wrong because in those days, you know, the kings so not supposed

to take the census unless God gave a command. Okay, because the people

of Eazwel and Judah belongs to the Lord. Okay, So the king is

not it's not supposed to count the people which does not belong to him.

Theoretically, it's like, as so I'm coming to Ben and taking his bank

statement and counting your credit card. This is your statement, you know,

So you can't count someone else's money, Okay, got that. This is

as simple as that, right. And so David did a very big mistake,

so big that actually a few of his men came up to him and

to him, why are you doing this? Don't do this, but he

still did it anyway. Okay, you're going to read the host passage,

you will know that. Okay. And God was very merciful to David.

So God gave David three choices for his punishment. Friends, with every action

or every decision, there's a consequence. Remember that, rather good or bad,

there will always be a consequence. So the law was very merciful to

him. Imagine, imagine God comes up to you and gives you three choices

for your punishment, or you can choose no, but they're still punishment now.

Okay. So the first choice seven years of famine, okay. Second

choice was three months of enemies pursuing you, and the third choice was three

days of plague on his paper, And of course David, being very wise,

chose the third one. Why because the first one seven years of famine.

He's going to be on the in the mercies of his neighbors for food,

okay. The second punishment three months of enemies pursuing him, so he's

going to be in the mercies of his enemies. And the third one three

days of plague from the Lord so he said, I'd rather be in the

hand and the mercies of God than men, because great is God's mercy.

A man created his mercies. So he said, I'd rather be in the

head of God, in the mercies of God, than be in the mercies

of men. Okay, And so he chose the third option. And so

the Lord came to the you know, the Angel of the Lord came,

you know, obstruck the people with a plague. And then we come to

this portion of scripture whereby you know, David says, forgive me, Lord,

I've seen you know, I ask for a forgiveness, and the Perfect

told David to offer and sacrifice to the Lord. And that's why we come

to this portion of scripture. And so King David knew that even as he

offered a sacrifice to the Lord, he could not come to the Lord and

offer a sacrifice from him that which cost him nothing, because believe it or

not, our best will always involve a sacrifice. Did you know that when

we give our best, it will always involve a sacrifice, whether is sleep,

time, energy, money, you name it, right, Even all

of us who serve God, whether in God's house, whether is he your

workplace, wherever it is. When you give your best, there will always

be a sacrifice. That's why some of you sleep very late when you prepare

for exams correct or some don't sleep as well. Yeah, some don't sleep,

you know. So your best work costs you. It will cost you

because if it is free, then maybe it's not really your best, or

maybe it's not even your giving. So in this story of an example,

King David refused to give an offering to the Lord free of charge because Arouna

already said, you know, King David, what you need everything is yours

offer whatever seems to speed to you, you know. And if King David

offered that which Arouna gave to him, that is Arounda's offering, not David's

offering. Think about it. So David said, no, I will surely

buy it from you at a cost, because I cannot offer to the Lord

that which cost me nothing. And so this is you know, one one

called one said, is a religion that costs nothing, it's worth nothing.

A religion that costs you nothing is worth nothing because definitely, when there is

obedience, there will be a sacrifice involved. By way, in fact,

reminds us that obedience is greater than sacrifice. Right, So let's let's now

go to the deeper. What what is the definition of a best? You

know, we talk about giving God our best right. What is the definition

of best? It's as simple as this. Best is basically the most excellent

or desirable type of quality, the most excellent. You can't get anything better

than that, you know. As I remember when I was growing up,

I used to I always get mixed up, you know, and ivery times

say this word called more better. You know, I think we need a

more better place in my mum, who is English teacher. Everything quietly,

there's no such thing as more better. It's either more or better, you

know. And and so best is really the best. It can't get any

better than the best, you know. It can't be the bestest, you

know, it's if that's such a word, it's already the best. Right

is the most right, the highest degree of excellence or quality, highest right.

So that's what best means. And so I asked myself a question,

is good? Is good? Good enough? Is just giving good something?

Good? Good enough? Is it enough? Think about it? Because here's

the thing. If it's not your best, then it's not good enough.

Because not everything that is good is of God? Right? Not everything that

is good is of God. So we ought to give off our best and

not just the good, because even good may not be good enough. Ninety

is considered good, right, but your best, and that is what God

deserves from us. Can I hear a good amen? So naturally, as

human beings, we tend to try to give just enough right everything. I

asked yourself, what is the minimum requirement? Like God, what is the

minimum requirement you ask of me for my finances? Or ten percent? Okay,

we give the minimum? Or maybe you you know, have you been

in this situation right by? You count your marks? What is the minimum

for me? The past this exam? Or I pray you are never in

the situation okay, normally most of you are. Will count what is the

minimum so I can get first class? Right? And you will say,

okay, I need to hit this subject seventy three, that one seventy five,

and then you count, okay, what's my CGPA? You know how

many? How many modules? I need to keep eighty so I will get

first class? You know? I pray your counting that you know? But

naturally we always look for what's the minimum? Come and not what is the

minimum? Give me the benchmark, just so I can qualify. But you

know, fans we've got with the Lord, just the minimum is not enough.

It's not enough because God demands and desires and will accept nothing less than

the best from us. That's very, very important. So before I go

in the further, let me bring you, you know, to four points

of what giving our best is not about? Okay, what is giving our

best not about? Okay? Number one, it is not to gain God's

approver or love. Okay, I'm talking about what is not about us?

What is not not okay? What is giving our best not about? It

is not to gain God's love or prover Because how many of you know nothing

extra or less that you do can change God's love for you. Roman's eighth

verse thirty five to the nine says, who shall separate us from the love

of Christ shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, of famine or nakedness,

or peril or sword. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor

things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall

be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ

Jesus our Lord. Amen. So it's not about getting God's love or approval,

you see, friends, there's the difference between receiving his love and his

pleasure. That's the difference. Okay. For example, as human as we

are, when we are growing up, some of us, say, some

of us may be very rebellious, you know, I'm one of them when

we're growing up, and sometimes we can tend to be better against our parents,

right, maybe we don't obey what they say. But even though we

go against them or we don't obey them, I never know your parents will

love you, right. The love never changes, of course, as human

sometimes in may, but for good it doesn't, you know. But the

point is that our parents will still love us. Right. But there's a

difference. When you obey what they say, right, then you have their

pleasure or their favor right. And likewise saying with God right. So nothing

that we do extra or less can change God's love for us. But we

can choose whether we choose to please him or not. There's a difference,

okay, there's a huge difference. So giving our best is not about gaining

God's approval or his love. It's not we give our best to God because

he deserves it anyway. Amen. Number two, we do our best not

to receive a praise or well done from others. It's not for others,

because here's the thing. If we only do it for others, you are

bound to be disappointed because they will be is that we do so hard,

We work so hard, and yet you don't want to get a well done.

Human get scolding in the workplace. That's very common. You know.

Some of my wife wants to be shaking that we're nodding their heads because sometimes

you gave your best, and even though you gave your best, you can

still be scolded for many other reasons. Okay, And so if we give

our best just because we want to get an approval from someone or or a

recondition, you're bound to be disappointed. So it's not about that. In

fact, In fact, the Bible reminds us that God does not look at

the oward appearance. He looks at the heart first Samuel sixteen seven. But

the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at at his appearance or his

physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see

as man sees for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at

the heart. So don't give a best just because you want to from someone,

because you will be bound to be disappointed. We do our best as

and to the Lord. Amen. The third thing, what giving our best

is not about is just doing it with our own strength, because the Bible

reminds us that apart from Him we can do nothing. You see, our

best always have limitation. Right, our best have limitation. But with the

help of the Holy Spirit, we can give the best to the empowerment of

the Holy Spirit as our helper. Amen. John fifteen five says I am

the vine. You are the brunches. He who abides in me, and

I in him best much fruit. For without me you can do nothing.

So giving our best it's not about doing it with our own strength. You

know, I wonder whether you have been in this situation whereby you know,

we either pray and ask God to bless something after we finish the project,

so we do our best, yes, all the way to the end.

Then we say God, I've done my best, Now you bless it.

I've been there before, you know, And it's no wonder. Sometimes things

don't happen the way they are meant to be because we work with all our

mind and with all our strength, and only at the end we ask God

to bless it. But I want to encourage us. Don't do it with

your own strength. Before you start on something important, pray and ask the

Lord to give you guidance, give you strength. While you're doing it,

seek the lot as well. And when you finish it, ask a lot

to take over. And that's something that I used to do every single time

when I see my exam paper. Are you hearing this? Don't go into

the exam paper, finish the paper and say, God, I've done my

best. Now is your turn. I know that's a very common saying,

Right, God, I've done my best. I've done my best, So

I leave the rest to you. But the question is did you pray before

you start? Because don't do your best with your own strength. Holy Spirit

is there to help you. Amen. The fourth thing is this, doing

our best is not to receive a reward. It is not just to receive

a reward, especially from men, because many times or sometimes we may not

receive a reward from men. But will you do it anyway? Will you

still give your best anyway if you did not receive a reward from someone else,

because ultimately God is our exceedingly great reward Genesis fifteen, Verse one.

God said to Abram, I'm your shield, your exceedingly great reward. So

our reward comes from Heaven, comes from God. We give our best anyway,

even though we may not receive a reward from others. So that is

what giving our best is not about. Okay, it's not about getting God's

approval. It's not about to receive recognition from others. It's not doing things

on our own strength, and it's not to receive a reward. Are you

getting something so far? So the next question will be why why should we

give our best to God? And the first one is this because God first

gave to us. In fact, he gave us his best. And that's

exactly what we are actually remembering in Christmas, right when Christ came to earth

to die on the cross so that you and I can have salvation in him.

And so God first gave to us. He didn't just give to us,

He gave to us his best. He gave to us his one and

only son, his best. John sixteen. We for good, so love

the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes him should not

perish but have ever lasting life. So God first gave to us. He

loved the world, that he gave his only son for our sins, so

that we may have life and have it to the full. In fact,

Romans five eight says, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that

while we were still see us. Catch that, while we were still seen

us, Christ died for us. So Christ died for us even before we

accepted him. He already gave to us, even before we knew about him,

even before we even accepted him. He gave to us first, and

he gave to us his best. Amen. I never know. God doesn't

know how to give anything less than his best. Come on, because that's

his nature, that is his nature. In fact, you and I were

made in his image. Can I hear good? Amen? We were made

in his image, in the image of God. And if God gives his

best, then so should we. It's as simple as that God gave his

best. We were made in his image, and so we too ought to

give our best to God, God and to others. And I'll come on

to that later. The second reason why we should give our best is because

God deserves it. Amen, God deserves it. Revelations five, verse thirteen

says, in every creature which is in heaven and on earth, and under

the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that is

in them, I heard saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be

to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever

every creature. Eventually were acknowledge that all glory and all honor belongs to him,

the Lamb who sits on the throne. So friends, we give our

best to God because he deserves it all. In fact, all of creation

came from him. Nothing was created in which He allowed it to be created.

Nothing. In fact, God can create something out of nothing. He

is great, and he deserves only. He deserve always and only our best.

Can I hear a good? Amen? He deserves it, hallelujah.

And the third one is this, God deserves our best because He is number

one in our lives, and it is very important to me. I look

at it this way. When we give our best to God, it reminds

us that He is number one in our lives. The fear of the Lord

gods, our heart and our mind to remind us that God is first.

God is number one, and he deserves our very best. So I pray

that this is three good reasons for us to give God our best, and

then we will always give God our best. Amen. And so let me

go to the next part, which is how should we give our best to

God? How, okay, I'm gonna give you three scriptures, three scriptures

on how we should give our best to God. Number one, coloss step

to three, verse twenty three to twenty four. Whatever you do, do

it heartily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the

Lord you will receive the reward of inhabitants for yourself the Lord Christ. So

the keyword is this, do it heartily as to the Lord. So that

is how we should give our best in everything that we do. Remember,

then, in all that you do, you're not doing it as unto men,

do it as unto the Lord. In fact, another version actually says

do it with all your heart. Do it with all your heart. So

I remember the times that I was working in my payers company, and one

day my boss came up to me. I think I shared this story before,

and he asked me, why am I and another guy because we both

believers, and he asked us. He asked me, actually, you know,

he noticed that we are different, me and this other guy who is

a believer. He noticed that we are different. Attitude of working is different,

the excellence is different. And he asked me, why are you like

that? And for me, that's a great opportunity to share what the God

that yourself. And so, being very nervous, I say these words.

Boss. You know, even though you are my boss in work by all

day I do I ultimately do it as unto God. First, it's not

an easy thing to say to your boss, not an easy thing to say,

but I just took the courage. I just say it, and I'm

like, okay, whatever happens next, you know, But I mean he

took it well. And my boss said, wow, he said, I've

never heard someone say something that lad to me before. He's like sixty years

older. And I say, that's why we give our best because and everything

that you do, do it with all your heart as unto the Lord and

not unto men. Because, believe me, friends, people will disappoint you,

but God never disappoints us. Amen Colos is three seventeen. Whatever you

do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God the Father to him. So whatever you do in

your words, in your actions, do it all as unto God. Therefore,

whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, whatever you do,

Bible says, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

A man, whatever you do, whether you eat or you drink.

So I was thinking to myself, why did the Bible talk about whether you

eat or drink, Because maybe maybe perhaps gossip happens around the table, you

know, encouragement happens around the table, right, So it's whether you choose

the gossip or the encouragement. But you know, so that's why whatever you

do, whether you eat or you drink, whether you wake up or you

sleep, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

That is how we give our best to the Lord and not unto men.

Amen. So let me now just bring us to bring us to a few

practical things that we can do how we can give God our best. Number

one is dressing. And maybe I've never sheard this before in a church setting,

but in ex church we actually believe in dressing our best for God.

You know, have you ever wondered why the leaders and most of us here,

you know, wear a suit and a tie on Sunday in worship service,

you know? And today I'm going to attempt to explain it to us.

Right, So, dressing is one area we can give God our best

in Okay, one area we can give God our best. Okay, And

imagine like this, the principles like this, right, if you were called

to see the King or the Prime minister today, what would you wear when

you when you go and see him? Oh? Yes, answer okay.

If if you were called to go and see the King or the Prime minister

today, what would you wear to see him? Okay? So I mean

you the first party said you were very soon and tire, like, okay,

why why is that stuff? And you want to try why why would

you add that? Ye? Yes, yes, you're right, absolutely,

that is very accurate. Okay. So let me give you a you know

a simple example. My mom used to be I mean used to be a

principal. She's retired now, uh, and she used to receive a lot

of wards okay, And at one point in time she was called into the

palace. Okay, to meet the southern or the sultan. Right to receive

a reward, I can't remember. There is a k one or the epo.

I think it's EPO one. Okay, to go and see the Southern

okay. And and so my my my father had a company her was allowed

to accompany my mom. So my mom went to receive an award. And

you know that's there's a dress code. Like what Ben say is right,

there's a dress code in which you come and see the king, you know,

or the or the high ranking minister or whatever it is. Right.

In fact, my father had to wear you know code tie and he had

to wear us on cod Okay, that is part of the dress code.

Okay. If you went in with shot pens and slippers, you will not

have a chance to see the see the king. You don't have a chance.

Right, So imaginity this way, if we see the king of this

land, you know we were dressed our best, wear a suit and your

tie. What more, when you come to see and worship the king of

all kings and a lot of all lots and man. So that's the principle

behind it. There is the principle in which actually has you know, started

years ago, even from the stuffrom the beginning till now, right, And

that is why we dress our best all the time. When we come to

see the King of all kings and a Lord of all lords. Amen,

we can give up our best in our dressing. Amen. Amen. A

right. Second one is time. We can give our best to God through

our time, you know, in many ways, either to by you know,

giving your energy, your time, you know, even being on time,

you know, you know, if that that's the saying extra, if

you're on time, you're already late. Did you catch that? If you're

on time, you're already late. So the thing is this, are there

times that will be late? Of course there will be, right there,

There will be occasions, uh that that things just you know, happen.

Maybe there's a traffic jam, maybe there was an accident, or maybe we

just overslept. There. There are times like that, right, But those

are like once in a while, you know, or once in a in

a blue moon case. Right. It cannot be like every single time because

if we are late every single time, then there's a there's an issue of

the heart. Okay, we can't be late every single time, So come

on and even if you're late, it's good to at least informed and tell

someone that you're going to be late, okay, because if we are late

all the time, it will eventually become a habit and it will lead to

other things. So, you know, you may think like a lot of

us were serving, you know, have been toly serving for a long time,

and we are perfect. But actually, frankly, even not even to

the best of us, it can happen that we can always leave or miss

our alarm clock, or you're supposed to set your alarm at five to tam

and you study for five to t pm. You know, it has happened.

It has happened. It has happened to me in my early days of

serving, when I first was assigned to serf. You know, I think

I was very new to extra time, at least maybe a few months in

X and I always like completely didn't show up in the morning. You know,

it happens. It happens, but eventually that it will get better,

right, and our attitude has to change. So I realized that if I

had to serve God early in the morning, right, I will sleep earlier

the night before. So that's an attitude, it's a principle, because your

worship starts the night before, not in the morning, yourself, so you

know your body, you know what you need to do, so you can

give your best to God and he's sleeping a little bit earlier, or you

know, getting someone to call you. Whatever is helps, then do it

right so that we can serve God of our best even with our time.

Amen. The third thing is is serving We can serve God with our best

through our service. Weather is giving a good handshake as a host, whether

it's even giving a smile, if you can smile, smile your best.

You want to give a handy shake, give your best. If you're gonna

sing, sing your best to the Lord. If you're gonna play an issue

one, play skillfully to the Lord. The Bible says that, Amen,

give off your best because God deserves I think less than our one hundred percent.

In fact, nine is not enough. N is not enough. Thing

about it. God deserves our very best all the time. Imen. If

you're going to cook, cook your best. If you're going to dance,

dance your best. If you're going to press some buttons on on you know,

on the computer or on a on a sound table, press your best.

You know, in order to do give your best to the Lord.

And so every single time I come to church, in extra especially, I

always see the spirit of excellence of people giving their best. Can I give

you a few simple examples, you know, I was just I was talking

to Banging earlier, and like you can see how how he lays cables right,

you'll put it straight, very neat right. In fact, some of

you will know that even Gable actually bought his drums so you can serve the

low God, you know. Uh. And every time I go to Espresso,

I will see how they decorate the the you know, the sushi or

they what else do they cook the sashimi or whatever? You know they know

Okay, okay, sorry sorry I shouldn't say our expectations a day, you

know. But but really everything I've been to other church plans also, and

I look at it, you know, the way how they decorate the place,

and you can you can't help but notice the excellence in it, you

know. I remember, I think we need we shid before, you know,

like we give a five star experience with a small budget by five star

experience, you know, and and and what was it? One star budget,

one star budget, five star experience or cheet start budget okay, teet

star widget, Oh really, says two star, two star not laha,

okay, we need to says two star. Okay. No, we want

to be proven with our finances, okay, but we can give our best

anyway, and then we can give our best. So if you're gonna sing,

sing your best, if you're gonna dance, dance your best, clap

your best, everything that we do, you know, o're serving unto the

Lord. God deserves nothing less than our best. And so I I I

remember the days that Zerbin will going and shake the whole hand, make sure

that the handshake is firm. And I remember the testimony that the sad and

uh he was coming in and then the shake his hand and his hand was

pain and he had to you know, yeah. Amen. So if you're

gonna serve, serve your best because God deserves nothing less than our best.

Amen. Number four worship worship. You're gonna worship God, whether it's a

lifestyle or even in the time of worship, peris and worship. Give up

your best, Clap unto the Lord, shout onto the Lord, dance,

sing, place qu free unto the Lord. In I really believe that heaven

is actually not quiet, because if you read a book of evolutions, you

say, you can find that it's very common they say, they said in

a loud voice. So I don't think heaven is actually quiet. So that's

why you find that. You know, people will say that our worship in

access is loud. Maybe it's loud to a certain extent, but not exactly

very loud per se. Okay, because we don't have like big speakers,

just like normal. Right, but we give our God our best anyway.

But the principle is this, you're gonna worship God. Worship God with your

best, Clap onto him, shout on to him, sing unto him,

don't hold back because God deserves our best. I always remind myself when we

worship God here on earth, it's actually a preparation for what's to come in

heaven, because in heaven it's gonna be a celebration. It's gonna be a

feast. And you don't go to a celebration and say, like, guys,

today we're gonna celebrate Christmas. Right, but let's keep our voices down.

Uh, you know, don't shout, let's be quiet. Okay,

I'm not knocking quiet. That's the time for it. Okay, that's the

time for it. Even in worship, there's a time to be quiet.

It's the time by the spelitics over abb. You know, the music stops,

you know, everyone stops playing. There's the time for it, you

know. But my point is that whatever they we do, we give God

our best, because He deserves our best amen, even in worship. And

number five is this finances. Now, I shed with you two weeks ago

about giving our finances, so I won't go much into this, but enough

to say God deserves our best, even in our finances. Second Covincience eight,

verse one to seven, I want to show you principle that the that

the Macedonian Church had amazing It says this moreover, bredon, we make known

to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, that,

in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep

poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according

to their ability listen to this, according to the ability, yes, and

even beyond their ability, they were really willing employing us with much urgency,

that we would receive the gift and fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

And not only as we have hope, but they first gave themselves to the

Lord and then to us by the will of God. So we urged Titus

that as he had begun, so he would also complete disgrace in you as

well. But as you are abound in everything, in faith, in speech,

and knowledge, in all religions, in your love for us, see

that you're abound in disgrace also. So you want to talk about giving.

I think the church in Macedonia, the Macedonian Church, had a sense of

generosity that went beyond their ability. They gave not only to God their best,

they also gave to the people their best, beyond their ability. And

if we ask ourselves, how did they give so much to the saints,

or to the believers, or to those who serve them in the Macedony Church,

how did they give their best? The keyword is this, they first

gave themselves to the Lord. If we first offer ourselves to the Lord,

then we too will be able to give our best to others, as God

gives us his best. They first gave themselves to the Lord friends freely as

we have received. Really we also ought to give amen. And so as

I reflect back, you know about how extra has you know, been running

our services and everything that we do for the past twenty three years, in

fact parts of Cando Cities. In one of his messages, actually Exchange was

founded on the DNA of giving God our best. If you actually go to

our website, you're going to click our beliefs, you will find a picture

that says, you know, always give God only and always your best something

like that. Okay, it is there. You can see it our belief

Okay, and we have always given God our best in everything that we do

in the five ws in our church, our worship, Word, warm,

works, and witness. Just observe carefully and you will see that in each

and every of these five categories, ex Church has never failed to give God

our very best because He deserves it. I remember in those days long time

ago, when our office was in a opposite tailors, you know, in

subera opposite tailors that's a as A S fifteen, yes, SS fifteen.

You know, it was in a shoplot upstairs, you know. Can I

used to share stories or whereby uh, you know, we would use computers

or laptops that were hand down, hand hand me down, hand down over

to church because we didn't afford We couldn't afford to buy new computers, right,

so we got hand me downs, and I think it's one one point

in time we could afford to buy a Mac or iMac something at that,

okay, and when they bought it, they were like, oh, so

excited. We finally got a computer of our own. We bought it on

our on our own. And then after that, I think remember either weeks

or months after that, it got stolen. Robbers robbed the office and he

got stolen. And we're like, man, you know, but yet we

gave God. We continue to give God of our best. In the early

days of Extra majority of us were students. Majority were students, So you

can imagine how much how much collection we can offering bang majority of students.

Okay, even many of us here seater today, the leaders, myself,

we all came to ex church students, right. We were first students here.

We grew up in this church, and now we are working adults.

And we always gave God our best. And I used to share how he

led worship with three strings and three courts or no six strings. I think

six strings, sorry, six strings and three courts. But even if we

had three stings, you still can't worship God. Amen. Yeah, So

we ought to give God our very best every single time, all the time,

only and only our best. I'm about a close to and I'm going

to close with this thought. Friends, even as we give our best to

God in what he has called us to, he will in return bring the

best out of us a man, He will bring the best out in you

and I. Even as we give our best to God and what he has

called us to. The thing is this, when you give our best,

never compare with someone else. I'll encourage you with that. It's very important.

Don't look to others and compare with others whether they're giving the best.

Listen to this. Whether or not others are giving their best, it's their

accountability to the Lord. You and I have a personal responsibility and accountability to

God to give our best, regardless of whether others are doing or not.

But the thing is this, we are always called to give our best in

accordance to the measure that God has given us. That is why we can

never compare. Did you get that we are called to give our best according

to the mansure that God has given us. So if others have more,

they are entrusted with more, then more is required of them. And if

you have less, then what is required of worse is only our best.

Even the woman with two mites gave more than the others story in the Bible.

So it's not about how much you have, it's about how much you

give with how much you have with what you have. We are called to

be faithful with a litter, and then God can and trust us sweet more

even as we are faithful with a litter. Because you cannot give what you

don't have, right, you can only give to the best of what you

have, what you have in your hands, five loaves and two fish.

The boy with five loaves and two fish gave his best. Why was it

his best? Because that's all he had, and he gave his best.

And with the best God can multiply it and turn it around into a mimicle.

God can use whatever they we give unto him. Abraham did not look

to others when he sacrificed Isaac. Abraham did he look to the neighbor and

say, God, why did you ask me for Isaac? My only son,

you know, asking from someone else, or maybe they're not giving their

best, Abrama and no one else to look to. He gave his best

anyway, because God had asked him to do an out of obedience to God.

Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac. In fact, he was going to.

He would have. He would have, but God stopped him because he

passed the tests. He gave his best. He never he did not behold

Isaac his best from the Lord, because Isaac was actually given by God.

God first gave to Abraham, and he would also offer Isaac back to the

Lord. In fact, you look at the story of Able and Cain.

Cain brought an offering to the Lord, aportant offering to the Lord. One

of them brought their best, one of them didn't. Did Able look at

Kine and ask God, why is Kan bringing his He's you know, not

best under the Lord? You know, why am I beinging my best?

Is it fair? It's not fair? Right? Able? You know,

look look at Kane and complain because Abel was accounted to the Lord, so

he's accountable to God. He gave his best, he gave his first fruit.

Anyway. You see, giving our best is to God is about trust

and faith. Will you believe that even as you give your best to God,

God can use it, and God will not forsake you. He will

also remember you and bless you in return as you have trusted and put your

faith in Him. Because, as I started a message, when you give

your best to God, it will always involve a sacrifice. It will always

cost you. It will cost you. It's not easy. I know it's

not easy, but it will cost you. So as I reflect in twenty

twenty three, yeah, there are many days, many days, even as

I continue to carry this burden of bringing a message to you, you know,

there are many days I stip late, very really late, because I

whenever I pray, I say God, you know your people are precious to

you. You love them so much that I can never short change them.

So I ask God for help for grace every single time as I take the

stage and share God's word with you, and I'm sure many of you do

the same, even as you serve God in church. You know, extreme

normally has to practice. They will practice hard. You will notice that some

of our singers, or most of our singers, memoris the lyrics not easier.

Memois our lilys because we want to give God our best. You know

they were memoroised cards times. You know it's not easy, but we want

to give God our best because he deserves our best. A man, as

I close, listen to this one more time. Give God always and only

your best. Amen. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For

more information on our church, please visit aschurch do org. We are also

active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week is going to be

a good week. I hit for you. God bless