Brothers and Sisters, have you been through a season where every aspect of your life demands for your attention, from your ageing parents to your young children, to your work, to your failing health, and even church serving? Whenever I am in these challenging times, I have to admit that I am always tempted to compromise my church serving. But I am always reminded and stirred in my heart by this old hymn “Give of Your Best to the Master”.

From <1 Cor 10:31> and <Col 3:23>, the word exhorts us to do everything for the glory of God and to work at whatever we do with all our hearts. So we know, our second best is certainly not good enough, however in reality, we are indeed limited in our time, energy and resources. So today, let us ponder on what does it mean to “Give of Your Best to the Master”? To give our best to the Master, we have to get 3 things right.

Firstly & fundamentally, who is the (1) “Master” in our lives? <1 Cor 6:19-20> Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. Here, when Paul asked “do you not know”, what does it mean? It means many of us doctrinally know, our lives are not ours, we are being purchased with a great price by Christ’s blood, but our behaviours revealed otherwise. We live as we please, follow our own personal dreams, indulge in our own desires, as if we are our own Masters. We need good and honest self-assessment. We are not our own, we belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Master over our time, finances, career, marriage, children, relationships and our church involvement. To be a good steward of the things our Master had given us, we do not need to be very smart or very experienced in juggling many things at one time. Remember, our Master only requires our obedience, and he will direct and guide us in all things.

Secondly, what does it mean to (2) “Give”? If we do not get the meaning of our giving right, we will find ourselves burnt-out in our church serving, we may also find ourselves questioning God when our lives seemed to go south. This fallen world gives so that they may receive. On the outside, it may seem that there are many generous and kind people in the society, but everyone gives out of their selfish motives. Wealthy people donate big sums of money to get their names on the list of honorable donors, parents volunteer their time to try getting their children into good schools, our bosses give us good grades to keep us motivated to give our best to the company. This is how “giving” operates in our fallen society. And if we do not examine our hearts carefully, sometimes our giving to God or our serving also becomes as transactional, we give to God expecting some good outcomes. When it doesn’t turn out so, we start to question God or even stop serving Him.

So, what does it mean to give? While the fallen world gives so that they may receive, we believers give because we have already received. <1Jn 4:19> We love because he first loved us. And in <Jas 1:17>, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights… In our giving & serving, we are merely instruments of God to be able to offer back to God, His Church and His people. God does not need anything from us to be more glorious but He wants us to share in His glory. He gives us more than He can ever receive from us. Only when we truly understand what it means to give, can we only give willingly and sacrificially. For God loves a cheerful giver, a giver full of joy and thankfulness because he recognized that God had already given him much, much more.

Lastly, what is our (3) “Best”? The definition of “Best” is: that which is the most excellent, outstanding, or desirable. Are we giving our best to the Master of our lives or we are just giving Him our leftovers? Are we satisfied because comparatively, we seemed like we are giving more or do we always challenged ourselves to outdo ourselves? We got to be watchful because in today’s culture of busyness, it’s easy for us to be complacent and indifferent in matters of God’s Kingdom. We procrastinate, if not we are half-hearted in our commitment. But we know, we cannot deceive God. In <Mk 12>, we all read that the widow’s offering of 2 very small copper coins are more pleasing to God because she offered everything that she needed to live on, as compared to the rich who gave out of their wealth and comfort though they offered larger amounts.

Also, do you remember Mary of Bethany? In <Jn 12>, she took that expensive jar of perfume which was worth almost a year’s salary for a working man. She went to the Lord Jesus with that jar, broke it and poured out its contents on Jesus’s feet. The disciples criticized her but the Lord commended her. You see, genuine worship never counts the cost. This is exactly what Mary did. She gave her all and she gave her very best to our Lord Jesus. So, brothers & sisters, one very good measure if we are indeed giving our best is to reflect: if our giving costs us anything? In  

May the words of this old hymn continue to ring in our hearts and minds so that we are spurred to give our very best to our Master, Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus own words,
<Lk 9:23-24> “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.”