Sacrifice

Last week we talked about honor and respect and how it is disappearing and maybe has totally disappeared, you know, from American culture. This week, let's talk about how we honor God. Because we are, you know, we've talked last week about when we honor each other, we honor God.

But God is the primary focus in our lives when He calls us. And there's many things that we do. And we can talk about a number of words when we talk about honoring God. We can talk about worship, we can talk about love, we can talk about trust, we can talk about dependence, we can talk about faith.

And all those things are important in how we honor God. He looks to see how we do all those things. But there is a common thread in the Bible from Genesis all the way through the New Testament, another word that permeates what our honoring God is. And in that, maybe Old Testament word that we would think of when we hear it, we find a lot that we need to know and understand about ourselves today as we honor God.

So let's go back, and let's look in Genesis. Right at the beginning of mankind's existence on earth, after Adam and Eve were put out of the Garden of Eden, and God had already taught mankind on earth a basic concept that they would follow throughout Old Testament times, and that we should be aware of and be thinking about in our honoring God today. In Genesis 4, we find the two, Cain and Abel, and they're coming before God. When God puts something right at the beginning of time, and He's taught someone, He doesn't change His mind in what He's doing.

It's something, a standard He set for mankind, that has one way of being done in the Old Testament, very physical, but another way in the New Testament for you and I. So in Genesis 4 and verse 1, we learn that Adam and Eve had a couple of sons, Cain and Abel.

And down in verse 3 it says, So here, right at the beginning of the book of Genesis, we see that God has already taught mankind a way to approach Him. They had rejected God, Adam and Eve had. When they took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they rejected Him. But there had to be a way back. They knew that there was a Messiah coming, and that God promised that.

But He taught them, there's something you do if you want to approach Me. And Cain and Abel did it. They brought an offering to God. When they approached Him, they brought something to God. Now, when you look at the Hebrew word that's translated, offering there, there's a couple of them in the Old Testament that are sacrifices. And this offer, where it says offering here, it's from Hebrew 45.03, and it's defined as a gift offered to a divinity, a sacrifice. Often used for a sacrifice that is not a bloody sacrifice.

So when you see offering, it's a sacrifice, but not of the bloody kind where you sacrifice an animal necessary. When you see the word sacrifice in the Old Testament, it usually means there's been an animal that's been offered up, that's been killed and whatever, and you understand what the blood for us. But here, right at the beginning of Genesis, we see Cain and Abel doing something that they're bringing to God. One of those offerings, one of those sacrifices that they brought, God accepted.

Here was Abel who brought something of... and his was a bloody offering. He brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. God looked at what Abel's attitude was in bringing that offering to him and that sacrifice.

When Abel approached God, he respected what he had done. Look at the attitude that Abel had. But Cain kind of went through the motions. He was just going to bring from fruits and vegetables or whatever. Really didn't put any thoughts in it. He just kind of went through the motions. God says, if you're going to approach him, bring something to him. I'll do it just because I need to. But there wasn't the attitude before it, and God looked at that.

One offering, one sacrifice he accepted, and Abel was noted as a man of God. Cain, his attitude in bringing an offering, God rejected. There's a lesson there in how we approach God. Let's go to another one here in Genesis, before the flood. In Genesis 8, we have Noah and his family.

God has seen them through the flood. They've been on the ark. They've watched God destroy the earth and all life that was on it. God brought them totally through, totally through that time. In Genesis 8, when they get off of the ark, Noah, of course, as you and I would be too, should be very, very thankful to God. He knew absolutely it was God who had saved their lives. In verse 20 of Genesis 8, it says, Then Noah built an altar to God, and he took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

So as he approached God, and he was going to thank God, you know, I'm sure he thought in his mind he thanked him, but he approached him in the way that people approached God. Bring an offering. Bring a sacrifice. He built an altar, and there he was, taking of every clean animal and bird, and offering burnt offerings on the altar.

And notice how God responded to that. It says, The eternal smell of a soothing aroma. He looked at the attitude. Here's Noah, then brought through the flood. Here's Noah. He's built an altar. He's offering to me. Look at his attitude. He's done the things. He's sacrificed, and he has approached me in the way that I taught him to. And he's offering me a thank offering, and that was very pleasing to God.

Noah honored God in exactly the way that God wanted himself to be honored.

Lord Smolus moving aroma, and he said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Very pleasing to God, as Noah offered up that thank offering.

Going forward in Genesis 22.

Note, these are all before there was a nation of Israel ever before. Israel presented themselves before God at Sinai ever before. God had recorded the law of sacrifice in the temples and tabernacles that men would have. In Genesis 22, verse 1, it says, it came to test after these things that God tested Abraham, and he said to him, Abraham, here I am, as Abraham answered. And God said, take your son. Take your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. Here's how you will honor me, Abraham. Take your son and offer him as a burnt offering. A tremendous test.

But Abraham had schooled himself in whatever God asked, in whatever way God needs to be approached, in whatever way I work with God, I will do exactly what he says, because he is the preeminence one. He is the primary focus in my life, and if Isaac is who I need to sacrifice to show God where my heart is, so be it. Well, you know the story. God could see that Abraham wasn't going to sacrifice, and he stopped them from doing that. And down in verse 12, God says, don't lay your hand on the ladder. Do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you haven't withheld your son, your only son from me. You were willing to sacrifice even him for me. I know now how important I am to you. You've shown me how important it is by what you were willing to do in this sacrifice. Abraham lifted his eyes and looked. There behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered Ipah for a burnt offering instead of his son. God provided the way for sacrifice. Even though Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, he still completed the burnt offering that day. He still sacrificed to God.

And Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide. Maybe a name that we should often remind ourselves is God, because he will provide everything as Abraham learned and as Abraham demonstrated throughout his life in the complete submission that he gave to God. He approached God in the way God wanted to. He knew how to approach God. He knew how God wanted to be. He wanted to be approached, worshipped, and honored. And so we learned just looking at these Old Testament people before there was Israel. There's a way to God. We sacrifice to God with our hearts. With our hearts.

God looks to see what is in our hearts. Do we really mean what we say? Is he really real to us?

Would we be willing to sacrifice our own whatever it is because we love him that much, that we respect him that much, that we recognize him as the provider of everything that much, that no matter what it is, that we would give it and we would give it to him.

Let's look at another one here in Genesis 31. Genesis 31. Jacob is on his way back to Esau. You know the story between Jacob and Esau and the consternation and the conflict that was between the two of them. God shows him a ladder to heaven in chapter 31. Here at the end of chapter 31, it says in verse 33. Let's pick it up in verse 33. The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, the God of their father judged between us, and Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac. Notice 54. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice. Even he knew. I'm going to approach God. I'm going to ask God his blessing on this. Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his brethren to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain. Laban and Jacob offered a sacrifice and eat together.

It's kind of a peace offering, if you will, between the two of them. There was an accord between Laban and Jacob that occurred over this because before that Jacob and Laban mind the right chapter. Jacob and Laban, you know, had this controversy. Jacob had left, but now they were going to agree to part ways. Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, called his brethren to eat bread, and they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain. And early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place. As the relationship needed to be healed, Jacob offered to God. Jacob sacrificed to God, and then they ate that sacrifice together, the two parties that were apart. And so we find that even sacrifices in that. Sacrifice, you know, many people would look at that as an Old Testament term. Sacrifice is something that God had people do back in the Old Testament times. That's an Old Testament way of worship. It's not an Old Testament way of worship.

It's very important in religion, maybe not in the physical way that it was in the Old Testament, but it's alive and well today. Let's go back to Leviticus, or go forward to Leviticus, as God brings his people out of Egypt, where they've been slaves for years and lost the way of life that God had brought them up in, as we see in these their forefathers who were doing these things with them. In Leviticus 7, verse 37, after God has commanded Israel, this is what you do. You build the temple, you build the tabernacle, here's all the specifics of what you do in that tabernacle, and here's the offerings I want you to offer to me. I want you to offer these offerings and sacrifices to me. And he gives five of them here in verse 37. This is the law of the burnt offering. Well, we heard about burnt offerings, well, before this time. We talked about Abraham, talked about others that have done the burnt offering. This is the law of the grain offering. Well, Abel wanted to bring a grain offering. There was a place of the grain offering. You know, when God gave the instructions in these chapters we were leading up to this, the burnt offering was given as a voluntary offering to show your commitment to God. I trust you. I approach you, and by doing this, I know that you exist, and I look to you. I look to you and commit to you. The grain offering was the type of thing too. Often God said, bake it into an unleavened cake or everything, but it was for the purpose of expressing thanks to God for His provision. Now, maybe that's what Cain was trying to do, but Cain didn't have the right attitude in doing it. If we go on, there's another one, the sin offering. The sin offering was a mandatory offering. All mankind had sinned, and when now it was going to approach God, they had to come up with a sin sacrifice to approach God. The sacrifices, as we know, didn't forgive the sin. It was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that ultimately forgave the sin, but they had to approach God with an offering. They couldn't just simply say, God, forgive me. They were told, do this sacrifice. You have to go through some motions. You have to kill this animal. You have to offer it as a sacrifice to me, and you approach me in that way.

He says there's a trespass offering. The trespass offering was another mandatory offering. It could be for unintentional sins that were offered. It could be that there was compensation that was due to other people because of the actions that we have in our sins, even though they may be unintentional, can have consequences, and we have to pay the price. The priesthood was the one who was involved in that. There would be a sacrifice for that. And then finally, he says, the peace offering. The peace offering is what we saw Jacob and Laban occurring. The people would get together. It was a voluntary offering. They would sacrifice. They would eat together. It was a way of healing relationships, and they engaged God, or they were even trying to heal relationships.

And you look at those offerings, and when you see what the purpose of them are, you see something that was done in the Old Testament, but we all have need of those very same things today, don't we? There was a way of life and everything that God showed we still need today. We still need to approach God toward forgiveness of sins. We still need to approach God when we have relationships that are broken and come before Him and seek His guidance. We have to come together. We can't just be apart. We have to eat together. We have to develop that relationship together. The things that are important to God. We look at the trespass offering, and we still have sins, and we commit sins that affect other people, and we have to pay the reparation for that and make it right with people. We have burnt offerings where we just want to approach God. And when we come before Him, we need to come before Him with the appropriate attitude to thank Him and to recognize Him. And, of course, the grain offering where He provides for us, and we recognize that in all we do. The things that God was teaching Israel back then are still important for us today.

He taught them by sacrifice. When you're doing this, sacrifice to me. Go through this physical act.

What did it do for Israel when they did those things? They were supposed to be mindful of God. I am approaching God. He's the one who can heal. He's the one who can make this all happen. He's the one who, whatever it is, and there's something I need to do, the sacrifice needs to happen.

The sacrifice needs to happen. And so they went through that purpose, and they were supposed to learn from it. Who God is, what He could do, how they had to seek Him in every area of their life. Did they learn their lesson? No, sadly for Israel. They might have gone through the sacrifices. They did the physical things, but they never got the heart of it. They might have gone through the sacrifices and then killed the animal, kind of like, you know, Cain brought an offering of brain, but he didn't have the heart behind it as like, God says, do it, so I'll do it. But you know what? I'm doing it only because he said to I really don't get the meaning of it. You know, today we can liken it to we might do the things that God says to do, but our heart isn't really in it.

You know, we might sit here each week, but our heart isn't really in it. We're here because we have to, but we don't really get the Sabbath day and what God created for you and me. We may pay our tithes because we have to, but we really don't get what it is that God was trying to teach us by the things that he has us do. You know, we can let's turn to 1 Samuel 15.

You know, as Israel went through the things that they did and God washed the sacrifices that they did in 1 Samuel 15. You know, and looking what Saul, you know, what King Saul did and everything. In 1 Samuel 15, it says here, you know, Samuel says, he says, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Do you people get it, is what he was saying? Are you getting it, Israel? Do you think God just took delight in these animals being killed? Do you think God was having to do these things just because it's like, hey, this is great. I'm going to have them kill these animals. I'm going to have them bring my first fruits to me and all this stuff just because he just wanted you to have something to do. Do you get what God was trying to teach you, is what Samuel was saying? There was a purpose for those sacrifices. There was a purpose for what he did. Israel didn't get it. They were a very physical nation and they thought very physically and they didn't get it. So Samuel's saying, do you think that God really, what he was really interested in is all these animals being killed?

He wanted you to obey him. He wanted you to trust him. He wanted you to see him as really real in your life. He really wanted you to really call on him and worship him and honor him as who he is. And so we know the answer to that. Obedience itself is a sacrifice, isn't it? Obedience to God is a sacrifice. It's not what we want to do. Romans 8, 7 tells us that the carnal mind is enmity against God. It wants to do what it wants to do. It wants to write the script. It wants to write how life should be. So when we obey God, we are sacrificing to him. It's a sacrifice to obey God. And that's what Samuel's saying. This is how God prescribed for you to approach me, but he wants you to obey. That was the bottom line. You still got to do the sacrifices back in the Old Testament time. You still got to come to the temple. But what he's looking for is something else. He's looking for your heart. The same thing that he would say to you and me today, I'm looking for your heart. I just don't want you to go through the motions and just think if you just kill this fatted calf, that's all you need to do. But all you have to do is just do, do, but not have your heart behind it. You're not making the changes in your life and allowing God to come into your life and make the changes in your heart to become more like him. You know, there's a lot. An awfully lot we can learn from the temple, the sacrifices, the whole system that God had set up back then. When you look at the way the tabernacle was set up and the temple was set up, remember there was the Holy of Holies and how many people were able to go into the Holy of Holies? Just the high priest once a year, right? And then there was an outer court. You've seen the pictures of the tabernacle and the temple, how it was built. Then you have in the outer court, and the Holy of Holies was back there, the mercy seat was in it, the high priest would come in, that's where they would approach God. But in the outer court, what did you see as you came into the outer court? The altar. The altar was there. That was where the altar was. If you read through the altar, God saw that as so important. He gave specific guidelines on how that altar was to be constructed, and they had to sanctify it for seven days before it could be used. It was that important because that's where the sacrifices of Israel would be brought. That would be where the priests would be offering these sacrifices to God day and night. So before you could ever get into the Holy of Holies, before you could ever approach God, the first thing you saw when you came into that temple area, what was it? It was the altar. The sacrifices were there. If you're going to approach God, you had sacrifices that had to happen, and they were happening all the time. If you can imagine, with one, two, three million people that were out in the wilderness, a whole group of one tribe of Israel that was consecrated to work in the temple, to do these things, the priests, that that's what they were doing all the time. They were working with Israel in order to those sacrifices because the people needed to do that in order to approach God.

They didn't understand all those things about the temple. They didn't understand they will, when they're resurrected, they'll get it, as we should be getting it, and light bulbs should go off.

Ah, there's a way to honor God. Look what he's looking for. Look what he was looking for from Israel. Not just he wasn't just taking delight in those killed animals. He wanted their heart, and he was trying to teach them, this is the way to approach me. You don't approach me just as any human being. There's something you do. There's something about it. So, you know, when we look at the foundation of the Bible and who we are, sacrifice was an important part of it. It's all there in the Old Testament. The Old Testament sacrifice was there, and the deeper meaning of sacrifice in just animals, just grain, and those things, it was a way that people had to approach God in order for him to listen and be part of what it is. Something that was ordained by him. Now, we know that when Jesus Christ came to earth, he was the sacrifice to put an end to all of those animal sacrifices. He was the ultimate sacrifice. He was the Passover sacrifice. He was the sin sacrifice. He was the one who put an end to those. And over in 1 Peter, in 1 Peter 2, Peter continues the analogy for us of what it is that was happening back then, and where we are today, as they were sorting these things out at the time the New Testament church began. It's like, okay, for thousands of years, we sacrificed to God. For thousands of years, it was just Israel and one nation. Now, everything has changed in the way that God is working with people. Well, let's pick it up in verse 1 and read down through verse 5. 1 Peter 2, verse 1. Therefore, he says, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, coming to him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also, he says, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Is the concept of sacrifice done away with? No. No. God is building a spiritual house today.

And one of the purposes he's doing it, he tells us, is we are being trained to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So sacrifice should be part of our vocabulary. If sacrifice isn't part of our worship, if sacrifice isn't part of what our lives are, then we're missing the point. Just like ancient Israel so missed the point.

Sacrifice should have kept ancient Israel mindful of their need to be close to God.

We need to constantly be mindful of how it is, and that we need to be, that we need God, we need to obey Him, and we need Him in our lives for all these things, all these things that come our way, all these things that come our way.

So we can look and learn a few things from the sacrifices. You can think on this, and you can come up with many more. Let's just talk about two things that we can learn that apply to our lives today. One thing that we learn from the sacrifices of the Old Testament is that God would tell us, the very first commandment, God must be first. God is first. You read through the New Testament, you read through the Old Testament, you see terms like firstborn. In ancient Israel, the firstborn were consecrated to God. You read about first fruits. They're the ones who belong to God.

There were first fruits before they could ever be accepted, had to be weighed before God and accepted. Today we know what God is talking about when He talks about first fruits.

We can talk about first tithes. Where does the first tithe go to? Does that belong to us?

Belongs to God. We can talk about first, and whenever you see the name the word first, we think about God. We must still put God first today. People had to put God first back then if He was going to listen. We must have God first if He's going to listen to us today and pay attention to us. One of the ways we honor Him, one of the ways that we work with Him, one of the ways that we show Him that we respect Him is when He is first.

First in our thoughts, first in our actions, first in our prayers, looking to Him for everything in life that we may need, everything that comes our way, even keeping Him first when we wake up in the morning. Thinking about Him first and starting our day off that way.

One of the things that we can talk about, and let's just reverse it a little bit. We haven't talked about it for a long time. It's the concept of first tithe. It's the first tithe.

There are people who will talk about tithes today. Do we need to do them? Did God say we still need to do them? Was that an Old Testament concept? Let's just look at a few verses here on that. Let's go back to Genesis again because again in Genesis God sets the standard for what mankind was going to do from the time that He created them until the time that Jesus Christ would return and even through the kingdom period. In Genesis 14, many people would say that first tithe was just for ancient Israel. We say that no, God taught it long before then. Genesis 14. And then I've got verse 14 written down there. You can read through verses 14 on down. It's where Abraham comes back. God has delivered these nations into His hands. He's recovered things for Sodom and for Lot and everything. But let's pick it up in verse 18. It says, then, Melchizedek. Now we know who Melchizedek is, right? You can read through verse 7 and see who Melchizedek is. The Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed Abraham and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

It was God who did it. You went out and you worked, Abram, but it was God who did it. Now what did Abram do? Abram gave him a tithe of all. Of all. The way he honored God and recognized that blessing was he gave him a tithe of all. Now, if you didn't instruct him at that time, now Abram, what you need to do is you need to give a tithe to God. He's the one who delivers into your hands. You owe him that. Honor him with your possessions, as it says in, where, Proverbs 3, I think, verse 9. Yeah, Proverbs 3, verse 9. I see in my notes here. Honor him with that. Abraham just did it. He knew how to approach God. God gave it to me. It's his.

I pay that. Go forward to Genesis 28. Now I see it from my notes. I confused what I was saying about Jacob and Laban earlier with Jacob's ladder that's here in Genesis 28. So, Jacob and Laban in the peace offering back then, this is the chapter where the ladder appears to Jacob. In verse 20, it says, Jacob, Jacob, who learned from his father, they had problems in their family, but he learned the way of God, then Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord will be my God. And this stone, which I have set as a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you. It'll be you who provides. I'm going to honor you. I'm going to thank you by giving you that tenth of all. Ever before Sinai, well before Israel came out of Egypt, well before Israel even knew they were going to be Israel, there was something that God showed man, this is what you do. If you honor me, the first belongs to me. Leviticus 27.30 makes that very clear. You can write that down. The first tithe is God's.

It's not ours. It's not ours. In Numbers 18, in the Old Testament, it was the way that God set up the system for his temple to work. That tithe was given to the tribe of Levi. They had no other inheritance. They had no other income. They served, and that was the way that God was going to see that they were done. They were doing God's work, and that was what was being done at that time.

Back in Malachi 3, to show how important honoring God with our possessions is, in Malachi 3 and verse 8, he asks the question of Israel, will a man rob God? Well, how can you rob God?

Because that first tenth is his. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, he says. But you say, well, in what way have we robbed you? And he says, in tithes and offerings, they belong to me, but you kept them for yourself. You need to honor me with what you do. It's a way you approach me. It's a sacrifice you make, and it can be a big sacrifice, can't it? When you look at all the tithes and all the offerings that God commanded in the Old Testament, there was first tithe, second tithe, third tithe. There were free will offerings. There were sacrifices that were people were making. There were offerings on holy days. There were these burnt offerings that had to happen routinely. It was an expensive religion, if you will. God required a lot of those people. They did it because they had to be reminded, it's God who provides. He reminds us, and every time we write our check as an offering or whatever, we should be reminded, it's God who provides. It's God who provides, and we honor Him with what we do. Now, you can write down some other scriptures because in the New Testament, you know, Paul validates what's going on in the Old Testament in 1 Corinthians 9 verses 13 to 14. You remember in Matthew 23 when Jesus Christ was bringing rebuke upon the Pharisees. He said, you know, you pay tithe of mint and coming, and cumin, whatever the other one is, tithe of mint and come, and anise. But you leave these other things undone. He goes, this is what you should have done. You should have done that. And He teaches His Church and His people, do all things that I commanded you. Do all things that I commanded you, put God first. Then that can be a challenge.

Chose trust, doesn't it? Chose trust in God because sometimes when we do it, we think, I don't know how I can make ends meet if I do these things that God says.

We sacrifice to Him, and He can provide whatever He wants in ways we can't even imagine.

Sacrifices help us when we put God first, build our faith in Him. That was what ancient Israel had to learn. That's what we need to learn. We put our faith in Him. And even when it doesn't make physical sense, even when it doesn't make financial sense, we do it anyway to show faith in Him. And that's part of the lessons that He wants us to learn, that He wanted ancient Israel to learn. Do those sacrifices. Go to Jerusalem three times a year. Do everything I command you to do. I will help in heaven and earth. He says the same things to you and me today.

Do what I ask. Show me. Prove me. Show me what's in your heart. Prove me that I can do and will do what I say. Put me first. And trust in me and have faith in me, even when it's scary to do so.

Because part of what we sacrifice today is not just money. We can sacrifice so many things, right? When we put God first. We can sacrifice our comfort. Oh, you know what? I'm just really tired today. I don't want to do that. We sacrifice that and put God first. Look what happens.

When we sacrifice our convenience, when we put God first, and we follow what He says, and we remember it's better to obey than sacrifice because obedience is a sacrifice. And we have to say, you know what? I prefer to do this. It would be more comfortable for me to do that, more convenient for me to do this. But we do what God says in every sense of the word. That's a sacrifice. He's looking for a sacrifice from us today, too. Possessions, yes. The second thing we learn is that sacrifice had a cost. And that cost wasn't just dollars and cents. It can cost our time. It can cost our convenience. It can cost things that are uncomfortable to us. When we sacrifice to God, it can hurt. It can hurt. It can put a dent in our wallet. It can put a dent in our convenience. It can put a dent in our time. But we do it anyway. If God is really real to us, if God really is our God. And we really do believe in Him. And we really do believe that He can provide all things. Even when it doesn't make sense and we really want to do something else, we put Him first and realize it's going to have a cost. Let's look at 2 Samuel 24. 2 Samuel 24. Someone wants to give him something that he would offer to God and give to God. And David says something interesting that is there for us today too. 2 Samuel 24 verse 24. The king, David, said to Arana, No. No, I appreciate your thought that you want to give this to me.

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 costs me nothing. If it doesn't cost me anything, then it's not a sacrifice to God.

If I'm just doing things that are convenient for me, then that's not a sacrifice to God.

If it's not costing me something, then it's not a true sacrifice, is what David was saying. I appreciate what you want to do, but if I don't have my, if I'm not invested in it, if it doesn't cost me something, then it's not what God is looking for.

You know, we see the same thing that Jesus Christ alluded to back in Luke 21.

As he watched the people milling around the temple where they had the altar, where sacrifices were going on, where people were bringing their offerings and people were bringing their sacrifices, and they were paying their tithes, and they were paying their, bringing their other offerings, and whatever. In Luke 21, you know, he singles out one person as he watches the people coming up to the temple there. In Luke 21, verse 1, it says, Christ looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. You know, they're bringing it in. Okay, they're going through the motions. They've got a lot of money. They may be putting in some big dollars in there, just like on Holy Day offerings, you know, we may give God an offering out of the abundance that he has given us, as it tells us to do. And so we saw all these people doing that, and that's a good thing to do. He doesn't chide them for that at all. And he also saw a certain poor widow putting in two mites.

And he said, truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all. You know what she's given?

That was a real sacrifice. They all had a lot. So no matter what they put in, they weren't worried about where their next meal was going to come from. They weren't worried about any of this. Look what she did. She gave it all to me. Look where her heart was. She was building faith.

That sacrifice she gave, that cost her, that had the hurt. When she put that in, she was building faith. God will provide. I know he will. Now, I'm not at all advocating, okay? I'm not at all advocating that we do that. God doesn't chide the rich men and the people, and all of us would be considered rich, okay? In this story, he didn't chide them. But look at the example. He was pointing her out. Look what it cost her. It cost her a lot more than it cost him and her and him and her and him and her. Their dollars might have been much more, but look what she did to sacrifice and what she was showing God by that sacrifice. Because sacrifice, when it costs us, it can build our faith. They should build our trust.

It should build our confidence in God. Now, it's not just money that God is looking for. You know, all too often, when we talk about cost and everything, we talk about money, and I don't like to talk about money. You know, but God, there's money that's involved. In fact, there's two things in the world, right? God and man, and God says you can't worship both. And so, you have to learn how to deal with what possessions that He gives you, but honor Him first and not trust in the other. But there's a lot of other sacrifices today that we need to be aware and we make. And when we come into the church, we are aware of some of those sacrifices. If we think back to some of the things that changed in our lives, it didn't come without a cost. Life changed when we said we were going to follow God. When He opened our minds and He called us, there were things that we had to sacrifice. We know one that comes up when it is unclean meats, right? Almost all of us ate pork before we came into the church.

Maybe you really liked bacon, maybe you really liked lobster, maybe you really liked pork chops, ham, and all those things. What did you have to do when you came to honor God?

You had to sacrifice that out of your life. You had to give it up. Now, for some, that was really difficult. I remember one woman who never did come to church years ago, when she found out she was supposed to be giving up those meats, she said, I can't do it. I won't sacrifice that to God.

That was her stumbling block. And I thought, really? Of all the things that you have to do, that's the one? And she never did? She never did. She wasn't going to give it up. She enjoyed those things too much, and that was more important to her than God. He saw what was in her heart.

But it's the whole concept of obedience, right? It's the whole concept of obedience. This is what God said, do, and so we do it. It may not be what we want to do. We may say, why was that important?

But we do it. We sacrifice it to Him. We look at the Sabbath day before we came to the church. Saturday is the big day, right? College basketball games, football games, lots of things going on on Saturday, lots of things going on on Friday night. What did God say? If you're going to follow me, sacrifice your time for me. This 24-hour period belongs to me. It's a sacrifice. We offer it up. We no longer can do that. It's not a convenient thing. And God says, if you're going to be, follow me. You have to give it up. You have to give what you want done on that day up. You have to give it to me and do what I say. Let's turn over to Isaiah. Isaiah 58.

Isaiah 58. You know, all too often, we think about Sabbath days and we don't work. And we know that goes without saying we don't work on the Sabbath day. But God says there's a lot more of the Sabbath day than just not working. And there's a lot more of the Sabbath day than just resting. Isaiah 58, verse 13, makes that pretty clear. When you put all the scriptures about the Sabbath day in into it, God says, you give me this time. You sacrifice that 24. That's a pleasing aroma to me when you keep the Sabbath the way I said to keep the Sabbath. When I see you doing that and sacrificing that to me, that's a pleasing aroma. Isaiah 58. 13. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and you call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Eternal, honorable. And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. You notice He doesn't mention work anywhere in that scripture. You take your foot away from my Sabbath day. You don't find your own pleasure on my Sabbath day. You find my pleasure on that Sabbath day. You don't speak your own words. You don't do your own thing. You don't justify. You don't compromise and whatever and say, if long as I'm not working, it's okay. He tells us what He wants us to do on the Sabbath day and that we give that time to Him. When we do it, when we do it, it's a pleasing aroma to Him, a sacrifice to Him. We can look at our entertainment. We talk about Romans 1. Everyone knows Romans 1 when God says, because they wouldn't keep God in their own minds when they wanted to just forget there was God. He gave them over to the base of mind and they did all these vile and evil things you read about in Romans 1 and the latter verses there in 28 to 32.

And He says, and some will take pleasure in those things. They kind of enjoy what's going on. They kind of enjoy seeing the sin and the depravity of the world. And that's their entertainment. But He says, not my people. We shouldn't revel in that. Give up that entertainment. That isn't the thing that should entertain you anymore. Give that up. Give that up. That's a sacrifice that you make.

Prayer. Prayer is a sacrifice we make today, right? So there's any number of mornings that you kind of think, I just like to get on with things. I don't have time to pray right now, whatever. Right? Do you ever have that feeling? Maybe it's just me. But you do it anyway, because you realize that is the way to approach God. He wants us to pray and contact Him and put Him first. Let's look at Psalm, Psalm 141. It's in here somewhere. Psalm 141, verse 2. Let my prayer be set before you as incense. Remember the sweet-smelling aroma. Let my prayer be set before you as incense. The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

I'll pray to you. I'll sacrifice that time and my prayer, God, I hope it comes up before you as sweet-smelling aroma as we read in Revelation 5. The fervent prayers, the heartfelt prayers, where we're really talking to God and not just filling time. Let Him come up before you as the evening sacrifice. My prayers are a sacrifice to God, how He's ordained for us to approach Him. And along with prayers, there's praise, right? Let's go back to Psalm 50.

Psalm 50, verse 23. Whoever offers praise, who ever offers praise glorifies Me. Heartfelt praise, not just the common everyday things that you might see along the street, or sometimes your encounter people and everything you say. They say, praise Me to God, and whatever, kind of an empty thing. But when we offer praise to God, genuine heartfelt prayer, realizing or praise, realizing what we're doing, God knows what's in the heart. Whoever offers praise glorifies Me. And to Him who orders His conduct aright, ah, who sacrifices His way for Mine to follow what I am saying, for in Psalm 50, verse 23, to Him who orders His conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God. When He honors Me and approaches Me in the way that I say, He'll have access to Me. I'll give Him salvation.

Go back to 1 Corinthians 6.

Even our own bodies, God says, is a sacrifice. We know the Gentile world, they just kind of reveled in everything they wanted to do, and everything sensual they did, and they kind of made an excuse for it and made a part of their religion. But God says, not you, not you, your bodies can't be used that way. Let's look at verse 15.

Paul writes, Don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not.

Or don't you know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her?

For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. In verse 18, he says, flee sexual immorality. Don't be like the people around you, Gentile world. Don't be like the people around you, America in the 21st century. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have from God and you're not your own?

Sacrifice that. For people coming into the church, for some, that is the difficult thing, because their lifestyle has been far different than yours and I who have been in the church a long time has been. And they have to have a whole way of thinking and change to sacrifice for them.

Maybe it was a sacrifice for some of us when we came into the church. We give it to God, because if we honor him and obey him, we do what's right. We follow him even at the cost of our inconvenience, comfort, pleasure, or whatever it is, we do it for God. Over in Proverbs 14, I think we might have read this verse last week, but let's read it again. Proverbs 14 in verse 31, we see that it's even a sacrifice when we look out for others and we meet the needs of others who have needs, because it's easy to pass right on by. It's easy to just kind of forget it. It takes some time to actually think about what people need. It might take some time to do the things, even give them time, even give them attention, even show love. In verse 31, in Proverbs 14, says, he who oppresses the poor, and oppresses can be done in so many ways. We can ignore them. We can kind of walk around them. He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker. But he who honors God has mercy on the needy. It's a sacrifice to God when we have mercy on the needy. When we look out for the needs of others, physically, emotionally, mentally, when we're thinking outside of our self and not just what we need, but what others need and how to make their lives better. Because God puts those opportunities in our lives. Every single one of us has those opportunities, probably more often than we think. Do we give that to him? Do we sacrifice that to him? You can mark down Philippians 4.18 in your notes there. Paul talks about the sacrifice that the Philippians made to him in giving him gifts when he needs them. And he appreciated that. See, my time is running out here. Let me go through another couple of these. Let's look in Hebrews 13.

Now, this would be a good study. If you think about life, what is it? What is it today? Maybe we're not out killing fatted calves and maybe we're not out sacrificing sheep, but there are sacrifices that God looks to. He's building up a spiritual house that makes spiritual sacrifices to him.

In Hebrews 13, verse 15. Now, verse 15 highlights something we've already talked about. Therefore, by him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Verse 16, but don't forget. Don't forget to do good and to share.

Hospitality is part of our sacrifice. Having someone over to our homes, that's a sacrifice. It takes time. It takes effort.

God says, be willing to do, but don't forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.

You can mark down Romans 12, 10 to 13 in there that talks about hospitality. We can look at verse 18 in Romans 12. It talks about living peacefully with everyone and making the effort to be a peacemaker. The sacrifice that that takes sometimes, because sometimes in life, it's just so easy. It's like, I'm not going to talk to that person ever again in my life.

I'm just tired of them. I don't want to deal with them. God says that's not the way he deals with us.

Make the sacrifice of healing that relationship. Make the sacrifice of sacrificing yourself and your own ideas and your own comfort and your own convenience. Do it to heal that relationship. He gives us the opportunities. Make sure we take the opportunity to make those sacrifices to him.

Matthew 10. Matthew 10, verse 35. Some sacrifices and some are called on even more than some of those things. And again, you can mark down some of the other things that happened before you came to church, but even the time that we're in church, as we see, the things that we may have to sacrifice when we put God first and realize there's a cost to it, it's not always easy. Not always, not always easy. Verse 37. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Sometimes, yes, even family members have to be, a relationship with them may have to be temporarily sacrificed when you put God first. You know, I remember well, and I said it before, when my parents came to the church, we had my dad's side of the family. There were a lot of cousins and a lot of aunts and uncles who lived close by. When he came to the church, they said, we're not talking to you anymore. You've lost your mind. And for a year, we didn't see any of them.

They wouldn't talk. They wouldn't talk at all. To my dad's credit, he didn't let it bother him. We just went on and, you know, the church became a family. But after a year or so, people started coming back. They saw that he was serious about what he was doing, saw that we weren't these crazy people that were doing things that were just kind of goofy, and everything healed. Sometimes you have to be willing to sacrifice to do what God's will is, and that can come at a cost, an emotional cost. It's a sacrifice we made. Finally, in Romans 12, you don't need to turn there Romans 12, 1, and 2, Paul says, you know, present your whole life as a living sacrifice to God. Everything! Whatever he asks, present your body. It's your reasonable service because of what he has done for us. The sacrifice alive and well in 2020 or 2019, in the 21st century, yes, it is. Yes, it is. It's the way we approach God day and night.

Our lives are to be that way. And if we want to approach Him and we want to show Him that we honor and respect Him, then that's what we do. We must be willing to sacrifice and remember Him first, His way first. And when it costs, and God sees us willing to do that and put Him first, it's a sweet-smelling aroma to Him. It's a sweet-smelling aroma to Him.

You know, when you look back at the temple, one thing you learned there, too, is there was always a light. There was always a light. And in Leviticus 6, verse 15, God says, the fire should never go out on that altar of offerings. The fire should never go out. It must be lit day and night.

In our lives, the same thing must happen. The light must never go out on our willingness to sacrifice to God.