Are You Giving God Your Best?

"In the first two weeks of this sermon series starting out the year, we’ve talked about reading the Bible and setting new patterns for growth within us. For the next two weeks — today and next week — we will discuss pursuing excellence in our worship. Because there are real implications when we give less than our best. If we give less than our best in our marriage, our work, or our extra responsibilities, we could lose our jobs, you could lose our wives, our kids, or our friends, right? But we don't feel the same impending consequences when we don’t give God our best. But we should. There’s something on the line here. Colossians 3:17 is a foundational verse we’ll look at more next week, but let’s introduce it briefly here: "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Whatever you do. That includes … everything — every place you go, every person you talk to, every task you take on. And it’s not a call to do your best. Paul, who writes this, actually takes it a step further. He says, do it in the name of Jesus. This means that the places we go, the people we talk to, and the tasks we take on are all opportunities to represent Jesus … to give effort for Jesus … and to bring honor to Jesus. They’re opportunities for us to … worship Jesus."