THE PROPER SACRIFICE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Listen, My people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God.

I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before Me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are Mine.

If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.

But to the wicked person, God says:

What right have you to recite My laws or take My covenant on your lips? You hate My instruction and cast My words behind you. When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers. You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son.

When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set My accusations before you.

Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:

Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor Me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.

Psalm 50:7-23

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

At church, I am currently teaching a curriculum from the book, “How People Change.” The primary, fundamental premise on change is based on our reactions and responses to the things life brings upon us, an element referred to as the “heat”. How do we think and behave in response to the matters of life, good and bad?

The book proposes two paths.

One is to react and respond according to our flesh, represented by “thorns”. It’s the default mode for all mankind as we revert to trusting in ourselves and follow our own directives toward dealing with our matters. And when we allow the flesh to be our master, our actions and thoughts will be interlaced with sin. This lifestyle and mindset leads to spiritual desolation and eventual destruction.

The alternative to this is accepting Christ and allowing Him to guide us toward His righteousness in all we do and think. We submit control to the Holy Spirit and fully accept its direction, knowing and trusting that we will always be led to the right responses and reactions in the “heat” of the moment, while we’re in the midst of life’s circumstances. This option is represented by the Cross as we accept Jesus’ way as our way and allow Him to transform us from the inside out. As Christians, He is the only way – THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life (John 14:6).

Choosing to allow Jesus to guide us will lead us to do the right thing in any and all situations. And our reactions and responses bear fruit, a rich harvest of “fruit”, the fourth element, born of the Holy Spirit living and abiding within us.  

God wishes for all His people to bear fruit through a personal relationship with Jesus, our Savior and His only Son. It’s His primary desire for everyone He creates.

And yet we still have so many people today who are living in the thorns and ignoring the cross, even some who claim to be believers.

For often times, people want to gauge their righteousness (or their living right) on the good deeds that they do. They think that an outward display of good works will be what is pleasing to God and often they do it as an exchange for not wanting to change from within. They like to hold onto their will and ways vice completely surrender to the Lord and so they exhibit acts of kindness to others and think that will appease the Lord.

If only they knew that He despises this kind of faith attitude.

For in the 50th Psalm, God tells us clearly what He wants from us and shares His feelings about behaviors we might choose to adopt. We would be well served to pay attention to what He has to say. Consider His words:

Listen, My people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God.

I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before Me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are Mine.

If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.

But to the wicked person, God says:

What right have you to recite My laws or take My covenant on your lips? You hate My instruction and cast My words behind you. When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers. You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son.

When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set My accusations before you.

Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:

Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor Me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.

God is testifying against His chosen people Israel but He is speaking to all of us as well. In verses 14 and 15, He makes it clear that He wasn’t interested in the outward actions of the Israelites, the animal sacrifices that the people brought to atone for their sinful actions. Yes, the actions were in accordance with the requirements of the law but God didn’t want repentance to be a liturgical exercise. Anyone could go to the altar and slay and animal, displaying they wanted to be right with God. But many were just doing it for show. They brought the physical sacrifice without the willingness to give the personal spiritual sacrifice, to sacrifice their hearts and minds to allow the Lord to abide fully in them. This was the proper sacrifice God was looking for.

Indeed, God wants for us He wants us to show Him we are sincere in our repentance from sin, not as much outwardly as inwardly, and He is always peering into the very depths of our hearts and souls to examine our motives.

In considering the proper sacrifice, God did not desire the animals as much as He desired His people.

So what happens when we fully sacrifice our lives to God?

We find ourselves seeking to fully honor and glorify Him in all that we do. We seek to minimize ourselves so He might be greater magnified in the world we live in. And we choose to willingly lay down our life for Him in sacrifice just as He sacrificed His Son Jesus for us, bringing us deliverance and salvation.

One other special thing happens when we sacrifice ourselves totally for the Father. We find ourselves in the midst of a joy, peace, hope, and love that can be found nowhere else. And this joy, peace, hope, and love draws us into an attitude of praise, something else that God desires.

He longs for us to offer up thank offerings to Him, ever praising Him and proclaiming His goodness, mercy, and grace to all we know. We are to count our blessings and see that the abundance the Lord has given us, an exercise that will always draw us into an attitude of gratitude.

Friends, the message of this scripture is clear regarding what God desires. He wants the fullest measure of our praise and we can only give Him that when we sacrifice ourselves to the fullest measure unto Him. In other words, putting ourselves aside allows us to fully see God for who He is. And when we lift up our praise to God in thanksgiving and trust Him in faith, then, and only then, will we be living with the attitude that pleases God – one that continues to bring us deliverance and salvation as we seek to honor Him for all He has done, all He is doing and all He will continue to do.  

Have you given the Lord the proper sacrifice yet in your life? Have you given Him all your heart and mind and soul and strength?

I’ll close with lyrics from this great worship song, “Lord I Give You My Heart.” Below it is a link for you to listen to it and I pray you will lift up your voice in praise and offer your heart to the Lord, giving yourself up as a living sacrifice to Him and surrendering your life full to His will and way.

This is my desire, to honor You
Lord with all my heart I worship You
all I have within me
I give You praise
all that I adore is in You

Chorus:

Lord I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for You alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord have Your way in me

And I will live, and I will live for You Lord.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rioyt4Qwk3E

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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