Nothing But the Best

Thursday, January 29, 2015

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There's an interesting story that's told about Queen Victoria. She loved being able to go out and be by herself, without being recognized, so she could mingle with ordinary people. And to keep from being noticed, the Queen would "dress down." On one of her walks it began to rain, so she knocked on the door of this cottage and asked to borrow an umbrella.

Well, not recognizing the Queen, the elderly woman who answered the door lent her a beat-up umbrella, instead of her best umbrella. She did that because she wasn't sure she'd ever see the umbrella again of course. Well Queen Victoria left thanking the woman and promising to return the umbrella.

The next day a royal messenger returned the lady's umbrella. And he said to the woman, "The Queen asked me to return your umbrella." The elderly woman was heard to say, "Oh, if I'd only known who it was, I would have given her my best."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nothing But the Best."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Jeremiah 48:10. Listen to these sobering words, "A curse" - oh, a curse - "A curse on him who is lax in doing the Lord's work." Wow! Don't be lax. Don't be lazy. Don't be careless in doing the work of God. Strong words: a curse on that person.

See, sometimes we give the Lord what's easy for us to give Him, but the King deserves our best. A lot of people are frequently lax doing the Lord's work. That's why a strong word is probably needed here. Some of us may have been financially lax with the Lord's work; we've been careless with some money. Maybe there's not been full integrity in the way funds have been taken care of. You know, it's so important that we say, "Every dollar is God's money." I heard one Christian leader put it this way, "Ron, this money is blood money. It has been bought and paid for with the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus sacrificed His life for the work this money was given to. We can't be wasteful with it." Wow.

Maybe some people are lax with their time. A lot of time gets wasted in the service of the Lord. Let's be honest about it. We need to be doing every task as if it were a royal task, because it is. With social networks, and Facebook, and all the things that are out there to distract us during the day, it is so easy to waste God's time. But we're working for the King of kings; giving 100% however big or small it is. Whether it's in or out of the spotlight, we've got to realize time is too precious to waste.

And it's possible to be lax with the quality of our work for the Lord, settling for mediocrity. The King should always be represented by excellence don't you think? Numbers 18:29 says that we "must offer as the Lord's portion, the best and holiest part of everything we have." But in a very busy world and our very busy lives the King often gets our leftovers; our leftover time, our leftover energy, our leftover talent. And that's wrong! We forget this isn't work for the church or for some Christian organization or for the people around us or the people we report to. This is for the King. This is the King who bought you back with the life of His Son.

Some day we'll stand before this King and we will offer Him the work we did for Him. I hope you will make it work that Jesus will be proud of and you don't have to be ashamed of, or in the words of 2 Timothy, "A workman who does not need to be ashamed."

Then you don't ever have to say, "If I had only known it was for the King, I would have given Him my best."