Give of your best to the Master (SS)

Introduction :

Before we can give our best to the Master, he must have our total surrender. Our hearts must belong to him and him only. It is only when we allow him to the right to enter our hearts, that he can come in and prepare our minds to be of service to him. Romans 12:1 says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service."

Under the Old Testament some of the Jews were not offering their best and were condemned for it. In Malachi 1:8 we read, "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?" Is it not just as evil today when we do not give God our best? Are we giving our best at work, or at school but only give what remains for the work of God?

Another practice in the old testament was to give God of the first fruits of the harvest. This means, the first batch of produce was not used for personal or business, but for the work of God. So today we should take care of God’s business first, because if we take care of God’s business, he will take care of our business. The bible encourages us in Matthew 633: to “…seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

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We do not offer animal sacrifices as the Jews did in the Old Testament; but we give Him our lives in service to Him as a living sacrifice. In doing this we must give Him our all. Anything we do for God must be our very best. Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind." All our heart, soul, and mind, or in other words, our total being must be in our worship.

Short Drama

(It is Sabbath morning and the music director is requesting volunteer to join the praise team. Susie and Hannah are both 10 years old when it I first mentioned)

Music Director: Attention everyone! We’re looking for volunteers to be a part of the praise team. There are lots of lovely voices in the congregation and it would be great to use your talents for the lord. We have no age limit, once you are ready to serve the Lord, you can join us.

Susie: Hannah, what do you think, should we join the praise team?

Hannah: Who me? I can’t sing.

Susie: Yeah right… remember you came third for our school song competition.

Hannah: Exactly, I’m not good enough. But why are you pressuring me, go and sing if you want to.

Susie: I’m scared, I can’t do it without you.

Hannah: Well I guess you won’t be singing then.

Neither Susie nor Hanna signed up for the praise team that day. Hannah however, went on to win her school singing competition the next year and soon was singing in talent shows across the country for the next 6 years.

Six years later in church again, both girls were having the same conversation.

Susie: Hannah, Sister Brown is starting a youth choir, she asked me to join, did she speak to you?

Hannah: Yeah, but the practice time clashes with my rest day.

Susie: Rest Day? How come? Practice isn’t on Sabbath.

Hannah: I know, I rest my voice on Thursdays, do you think I can sing this well my mistreating my vocal cords, I can’t overwork them. Especially since nobody else on that choir can sing, I’d be overworking on that day. That’s why you should join, add some quality to that poor group.

Susie: But you know I don’t do public singing without you, I hate the attention, I like it when you are the star.

Hannah: Susie, get over yourself, don’t make up silly excuses to not work for the Lord.

Susie: And you don’t?

Hannah: I’m being a good steward of the talent God gave me by not overworking my voice.

Hannah never did join the choir, nor did Susie. They remained in church but did not give of their best. This happened for the next 30 years. The youth choir was not functioning for a few years because no one thought they had the ability. After much begging and pleading from Susie, Hannah decided to become the new choir director.

Choir practice went great the first 3 weeks, but then the numbers of attendees started to dwindle.

Hannah: These young people are the worst, they have no commitment to the things of God. I sacrifice my time every week from my busy schedule to come and help them and only 5 people show up! I’m tired of this. Youths nowadays need to set their priorities straight. All that is on their mind is social media and Internet. Today is officially my last day as choir director, they will have to find somebody new next week.

Superintendent:

Many times we give second best to the master. We wait until we are older to get baptized, we wait until think we know more, or become more “holy” to take up church positions, or we just keep waiting. Meanwhile, we grow older, then we say, “I am too old to do this, give it to the younger ones”. Time passes and we’ve done nothing for the Lord. Eclessiastes 12:1 says “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;”

This morning let us purpose in our hearts to give our all, whatever it is we can do, to the master. Let us do it and do it now.

Let us stand and sing hymn # 281 then we’ll form groups of two(or three) and pray for God to help us give our best to the master (2-3 minutes)

When we consecrate our lives to God he blesses us and keeps us under his prayer.

-Secretary report

-Mission story

Break for lesson study

Closing Remarks

Let us invest our talents for God. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest”. Let us sing to honour his name. Let us preach to glory his name. If you can cook, serve the tables faithfully like Stephen, if you can sew, be known as the modern-day Dorcas and clothe the naked. If all you can do is smile, volunteer to welcome the members and visitors on sabbath mornings. Whatever our talent, let us invest it for the Lord’s use. If you cannot sing like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus, you say he died for all. Let us all stand and sign Hymn #359 – Hark! the Voice of Jesus Calling

End of Sabbath School