Service is Sacrifice

Introduction

As you know, we have an annual theme. An annual theme this year is growing together. I want us to talk just a little bit before we start this morning’s lesson about that theme, what it means, and what it can do for us. The idea of growing together is inherent in both words that we’re doing something together, and we should be growing. We should be enhancing our spiritual lives, both individually and as a group. But what does an annual theme do? When we say growing together, is that just some kind of slogan? Is that some kind of vague, meaningless instructions? Just grow.

But it’s our intent throughout this year not to just give you some vague generalities about growth, and not just to give you some practical lessons which we will about growing and growing together, but to actually give us some actions to do. Some real things will be implemented. In not just telling you to get better, not just telling you to grow, but here are some ways in which you can grow. Here are some tasks that you can take up that you can actually grow together. We know that that phrase came from Ephesians chapter 4 and in verse 16 that reads, from whom, speaking of Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

That’s our theme.

Hopefully, this morning’s lesson will be that. You know, growth and improvement sometimes comes through difficulty. Sometimes we have to hear hard lessons. Sometimes we have to even be reprimanded. Sometimes we have to be not just challenged, but pushed to do more. And I hope this lesson will do that as a source of encouragement and even admonition that we grow together, but in love. This morning I want us to grow together in our sacrifice. I want to talk to you about sacrifice. We understand, I think, the concept of sacrifice. I’m not the first to use this illustration. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, the difference between a contribution and a sacrifice. Take this morning’s breakfast. The breakfast of bacon and eggs. The chicken offered a contribution. The pig made a sacrifice.

1. Sacrifice Has Always Been Part of Man’s Relationship to God

You know that sacrifice, sacrifice has always been a part of man’s relationship to God. This was a Bible class, I would ask you, what time in human history of God’s dealings with man was sacrifice not involved. I dare say there’s not a time. As early as Genesis chapter 3, Cain and Abel, the disagreement with Cain and Abel came about because of sacrifice, didn’t it? They were offering sacrifices to God as early as the third chapter in the entire Bible. A few chapters later, Noah. You know the first thing Noah did when he got off the ark? He offered sacrifices. In fact, that’s why Noah took not just two of every animal, he took seven of the clean animals, was so that when he got off the ark, there would be spares so that he could sacrifice to God.

Abraham, the father of the faithful, the father of the children of Israel, was a man known for sacrifice.

Abraham would have been an easy man to follow. He didn’t leave a trail of breadcrumbs. He left behind a trail of altars everywhere Abraham went. He erected an altar and he worshiped God. And then when all of this got solidified and codified into a law and into a nation of people, the children of Israel were certainly people of sacrifice. I don’t know that we could calculate the number of sacrifices the children of Israel offered at the tabernacle and at the temple. It was a daily weekly, monthly, annually ritual of sacrifice. But when we get to the New Testament, it’s no different. Do you realize that the 400 years of divine silence is interrupted when Zacharias the priest is performing his priestly duties at the temple. The New Testament begins with the theme of sacrifice.

John the Baptist pointed to the one who was to follow him and was to surpass him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Every Israelite and every good Bible student knew exactly what he meant when he said the Lamb of God. You see, it’s all about sacrifice. And we’re told that Christ is our Passover, our Passover Lamb. And then throughout, look with me at a couple of passages. Look in Philippians chapter 2. The Apostle Paul, in talking about his service as an apostle and a preacher of the gospel, as well as the Philippian, his brethren’s participation in it, he spoke of it in terms of sacrifice. Philippians chapter 2, look in verse 17. He says, Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

I, Paul says, am being poured out as a drink offering on your sacrifice. They were sacrificing everything they were doing for the cause of Christ, Paul said was a sacrifice being offered on the altar of God. Hebrews chapter 13. Everything that we do, including the praise that we offer God, Hebrews chapter 13, and in verse 15 is seen as sacrifice. Therefore, Hebrews 13, verse 15, 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. Let us continually offer not just praise, but the sacrifice of praise. Sacrifice is such a part of our service to God that the Holy Spirit through Peter, look in 1 Peter chapter 2, would describe Christians as not just as soldiers in the army of God, not just citizens in the kingdom of God, and not just children in the family of God.

But in 1 Peter chapter 2 and in verse 5, we’re described this way.

The Holy Spirit describes us as both the temple in which sacrifices are offered, as well as the royal priesthood who offer up those sacrifices. Do you see that sacrifice is a part, an integral part of our relationship to God. So much so that it could be argued, and the New Testament writers so argue that everything we do in service to God is a sacrifice.

2. Why Do We Sacrifice?

Well, if sacrifice is such a big part of our relationship to God, then that begs a question. That question is why? Why do we sacrifice? Why has man always sacrificed? And why does God want it that way? Well, maybe here’s some reasons. Number one is that God wants us to understand that he must be first. Sacrifice demands that.

Sacrifice teaches us that. God comes first. Sacrifice also teaches us that God’s in control. That we are giving to Him, we are giving up to Him, shows who is not only first, but who is in control, who can demand those things of us. It also surely teaches this lesson that serving must cost.

There has to be a price involved. Sacrifice by its very, very definition means giving up something. Giving up something of value, service to God, has to cost something. And then surely it makes us Christ like. Every one of those sacrifices in the Old Testament foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He was the Lamb. He is our Passover. It is by the shedding of His blood that we are cleansed. Don’t mistake it. Every Old Testament sacrifice that was rightly offered to God foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Also, don’t mistake it that every New Testament sacrifice, sacrificed after the cross, points back to our Lamb, to our sacrifice. Jesus said that if we were truly to be His disciples, we would take up our own cross and follow Him.

Our sacrifices point us back to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And so sacrificing in some small way makes us like Christ Himself, who is our sacrifice.

3. We Sacrifice to God by Sacrificing for Others Through Service

And so we sacrifice. We sacrifice because that’s what God demands of his people. And the New Testament would have us to know that we sacrifice in a great way. We sacrifice to God by sacrificing for others through service. Look with me in the book of Romans, chapter 12. We recognize as disciples of Christ that really everything that we do is done because of our relationship to God. You’re a wife or a husband, a mother or a father, a child, an employee, an employer, a citizen in the kingdom. You are such because of your relationship to God. And offering service in whatever way you can is ultimately offering service to God. But it’s also seen in terms of sacrifice. In Romans chapter 12, one of the most prominent New Testament passages about sacrifice says this.

Romans 12, beginning in verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You are a sacrifice. He says, You are a living sacrifice. That immediately distinguishes us from the Old Testament sacrifices, that in order to be sacrificed, that animal first had to be killed. And all of those sacrifices required the shedding of blood, which meant death. And that thing, that object that was being sacrificed, was going to give nothing else, because it had given its all right there upon that altar.

But Paul, the Holy Spirit, through Paul, tells us as Christians that we are living sacrifices. We’re not dead, we’re not slitting our throats or our wrists and laying ourselves upon an altar, but we are giving up our lives through a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. But notice the verses that follow.

Their death we sacrifice through our lives are through our living. And so beginning in Romans chapter 12, verse 3, he says this, for I say, through the grace given to me to everyone who among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one of us a measure of faith. For we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Our ministry, let us use it to our ministry.

He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

Here’s how your living becomes a sacrifice on the altar before the throne of God. By not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think.

By being a part of the body of Christ, and giving and doing whatever your part in that body is to the absolute best of your living ability. He’s saying that’s the sacrifice that we’re making. That’s the living sacrifice that we’re making today. So it’s not just seen as works that are done, things that must be accomplished, not even just seen as obedience to the commandments of God, it is couched as sacrifice, as us presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice before Christ. Keep reading. Verse 9, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another, with brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayers, distributing to the needs of the saints, and given to hospitality.

You see, Paul doesn’t just say be a sacrifice. He doesn’t just say, be a living sacrifice. He says, here’s how you do it. Here’s how you lay your living lives on the altar of God. You serve one another. That is your living sacrifice. Why? Because God always comes first. Because God is in control. Because sacrifice must cost. And because in serving and in giving, we become like Jesus Christ. Because I don’t do those things. You don’t do those things. Just for one another. We do those things because we have sacrificed and given ourselves to Christ Jesus. It’s a sacrifice. Or it’s not real service. And so the question is, how am I doing?

4. How Am I Doing?

If we were to place the same conditions upon New Testament sacrifice that were placed upon Old Testament sacrifice, how would we hold up? We won’t turn back there, but you’ll remember the stinging rebuke of the book of Malachi, where the prophet said, speaking the words of God, said, How dare you? You come to my altar and you bring the lame, the blind, these worthless sacrifice. You’re not sacrificing. You’re giving me garbage. Apply those standards to my New Testament sacrifice. Am I giving God the blind and the lame of my life?

Or am I truly giving him? Making him first. Putting him in control. Truly sacrificing to him.

5. Ways of Sacrificing Through Serving

Well, here’s some ways. If you need help, here’s some things that you can do in sacrificing through serving. First of all, you can attend the services, including Bible classes. That seems like many of these are going to seem like small little things, but they can be so crucial in your service to God. Be here.

Encourage. You can encourage those who lead singing and lead in prayer and take those leadership roles. Sometimes we don’t appreciate how they put themselves out there to be able to speak and to lead an audience such as this. And what a word of encouragement for the work that they’re doing could help. When you see someone doing good, commend them for that. What an encouragement to say, I see the good that you’re doing. And I appreciate that. Encourage those who’ve recently obeyed the gospel. Those who just initially and now are fighting for the world and the devil who’s trying to pull them back in. Speak a word of encouragement. Speak a word of encouragement, those who just seem to be discouraged. Lift up your eyes and see those who just seem to be down and out and maybe need a word of encouragement, need some kind of help, need you at this moment in their lives.

Encourage those who are lonely, who’ve lost a maid or a parent or a child, or through circumstances in their life that they’re now not surrounded by the people that they used to be.

Weep with those who weep. Sorrow in their sorrow. And we need to understand the importance of seemingly small things. Of just one word of encouragement. One note or phone call, email or text, one ride to the doctor’s appointment or one meal provided at a time of loneliness and hurt. Can mean so much. And then, of course, if someone goes astray, we need to seek to restore them. This is just ten of literally dozens, if not a hundred of ways in which we can serve, that we can sacrifice. How are we doing? The time to begin, by the way, is now, not tomorrow, is now to begin to serve God and to sacrifice for one another. To be there for one another. Do you understand the integration there in Romans chapter 12 and really throughout the New Testament of this idea of sacrifice as well as togetherness?

That we are a part of something, he says. You are to be a living sacrifice, and you are a part of a body, he says. A body who is dependent upon one another, who needs one another. That is your living sacrifice. So start now. Do we realize what we’re doing in service to one another is in service to God, is a sacrifice to Him. And do we realize that we are actively discouraging one another and actively discouraging the cause of Christ through our inactivity? Lift up your heads. Open your eyes to the opportunities to serve. I’m going to make a prediction. In the next couple days, as is our custom, an email will go out. We call them members’ needs email. It’s a call to action.

Someone needs a meal, someone needs a ride to the hospital or to some other place. Some need among our body, our family here needs to be met and needs to be addressed.

Will we sacrifice? Or will that email be answered the way it unfortunately many times is answered? Either ignored or answered by the one or two who are willing to sacrifice and to serve one another. And in so doing serve the Lord. Make someone’s day. Make someone’s day. Go up to someone who is in need and say, I’m here to help. Make someone’s day. Go up to Rob or the other deacons who’s been enlisted to see that these needs are met and say, don’t send out the next email. Just call me. I’m here to serve. I want to be that living sacrifice. I want Christ to be first in my life. And I mean it. You see, that’s how we grow together. And so my advice, like that preacher.

Conclusion

Get better. Grow and sacrifice. It may be that someone in our audience this morning has yet to begin the walk. A sacrifice is only a sacrifice if it’s offered by one in a relationship, a covenant relationship with God. Why not enter that relationship? Why not begin that life of sacrifice today? Why not obey the gospel? Believe the Bible, believe the Word of God. Confess your faith in Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins, and be baptized this morning for the forgiveness of your sins. And begin a life of service in putting Him first. Can we help you in that walk? Can we help you in your service and in your sacrifice to God this morning? I pray that we can. Will you come now? As together we stand and as we sing.