Obedience over Sacrifice

Well, we are starting a new series this morning. But I don’t have a name for it yet. Maybe by the end of today we’ll have one. But that matters less than what we’re actually going to be talking about, and that is, and get ready for it, because it’s exciting, it’s what everyone wants to talk about..... / / Being a Living Sacrifice.

Sounds so fun, doesn’t it?

We’ll get into why in a bit, but the reason we’re going to talk through this now is because like we talked about last week, the beginning of the year is a good time to set some things right. It just feels like a time to re-evaluate, or reassess our current trajectory and make sure we’re on the right path. Whether that is our health, our finances, our relationships, and the most important one should be, our discipleship to Jesus.

Just by the simple fact that we re-introduce a Bible Reading Plan at the beginning of the year is an invitation to revolutionize your walk with God.

And please, if you were not here last week and you’re in the building, grab it, we’ve got copies on the welcome table. And if you’re watching online, it is available on our website at / / www.cutlerbayworship.org/bible

Here’s the thing, even if you’re a week late, it doesn’t matter. I’ve designed it so that regardless of the date there’s a checkbox beside each passage of scripture and you can start whenever you want and just check that box next to the part you just read. That also means that if you miss a day, don’t beat yourself up or get down or stop because now you’re behind, or even feel like you need to catch up. Getting the whole bible in through the year is not the point, well, it is the point, but it’s not the point as much as just simply getting scripture into your heart and spending time with God as you read! Invite God into the process. / / Ask God to reveal the love of the Father through scripture, / / ask Holy Spirit to reveal the truth - remember, He is the spirit of truth! And, ask Jesus to reveal how it points to Him. The bible is an absolutely fascinating book.

But, like I said, just the simple fact that we introduce this reading plan at the beginning of the year is an invitation to embark on a journey of discovery with God and our community.

Don’t let this be just a you thing, read it, and let’s talk, talk with those around you, invite someone over for dinner in our church that you don’t know yet and strike up conversation about life and scripture and following Jesus.

So, in this series we are going to start with a scripture from the book of Romans where Paul is really encouraging the church to take a step back and look at how they are living, especially in response to the grace that we have through Jesus Christ.

Paul gives a master class on the grace of God, about how it’s not through our works that we are saved, but by grace through faith. His books are incredible. But because grace essentially says, you can’t do this on your own, and you are still loved by God even when you mess up, he has to get very real with people at one point because they are starting to use grace as an excuse. So in Romans 6:1-2 he says, / / Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not!

The KJV says, / / God forbid!

Reading through the other translations of this scripture was kind of funny.

/ / Never may it be! Far from it! Certainly Not! By no means! Absolutely not! That’s unthinkable! I should hope not! What a terrible thought!

I kind of picture it like a group of cartoon characters from an 80’s Disney movie all chiming in with their thoughts.... You get the point. Paul is saying, listen, just because there’s grace, doesn’t mean we keep doing what we want knowing that God will love us and forgive us anyway! The whole point of grace is to alleviate the pressure of perfection while empowering us to live a life of righteousness before God!

And so then if we jump ahead to chapter 12, which holds a key verse in this series. He writes in Romans 12:1-2, / / And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

So, we are going to go through this scripture today and lay a little bit of groundwork here on what it means to be a living and holy sacrifice… And then over the coming weeks we’ll look at what that means for our lives, how we live that out.

I often mention Biblehub.com as a place you can go to look at different translations of scripture. Of the 32 translations it provides up front every single one of them use this word, / / sacrifice, and I think 30 said living sacrifice, while just a couple said, present your bodies as a sacrifice - alive, holy, and pleasing to God.

But, that’s the same thing, we’re talking Living Sacrifice here.

If you were a metal loving kid in the 90s that also meant a band that your parents didn’t want you to listen to but you were like, “But they’re Christian?!?!?!” 90’s parents didn’t understand.

The Message translation of Romans 12:1 says, / / So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Talk about a cool way to look at what God has done for us, especially with this challenge Paul has been dealing with about grace. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Embrace the grace of God, so much so that you live out of that grace, not use it as an excuse, but allow it to transform you!

Because this scripture can become confusing for some. And Paul dealt with it, which is why he’s writing these things, but if you look around, especially in the last, let’s say 15-20 years, I’ve noticed this struggle in christianity of / / works vs grace. I grew up in a time where the church I was in was very, “do the right thing” minded, and although I don’t remember it being specifically preached, “your salvation is based on what you do”, I know I walked away with this feeling that, “If you do the wrong thing, your salvation is on the line.” And that basically says the same thing, doesn’t it?

And maybe this is the reason, I’m not sure, but I would suggest it is. Because of that message we saw a big swing toward what was called hyper-grace. Because God forgives and God is love then don’t worry. And now today we see a big swing. If 30-40 years ago the predominant message was you better do what’s right, which then moved to, it’s all good in God’s grace, now we are seeing, especially in the last, let’s say in the last 5-10 years and especially today, we live in a time where people no longer even want to be told what to do. You can’t tell me what is right or wrong. Right? People want to make those decisions for themselves based on their own metrics.

There seem to be these pendulum swings. And I don’t know if what we are seeing today is really a revealing of human nature as a whole, I’ll do it myyyyyyyyy way!!! or if this isjust another pendulum swing that will maybe even out or go back the other way.

And as much as the time I grew up in swung a little too hard toward works, it seems to me that during that time there was a greater acceptance of being told what to do and how to live. And maybe for me this was simply because I was younger, and in our younger, formative years, we need people around us to do that, form us, these are why these years are formative, because what we learn, observe and experience forms who we become. And when we live in a healthy scenario with people we can trust to point us in the right direction we can then allow those people to point us, and direct us, leading us to the goals in life.

But like I said, this was swung too hard. And I think simply as humanity we tend to do that, to over correct by going too hard one way, then overcorrect by going too hard the other way. This is why, if you don’t know the term or the idea, but this whole concept of / / deconstruction has emerged in the world, but obviously we are talking about the Christian faith, where it has done a real number on some people.

I would say especially in the evangelical world of christianity, there has been a move because, as Timothy Keller states, / / “For many the Christian faith they grew up with or held for many years no longer feels credible to them. They are rethinking the whole thing.”

So, when you add a bit of betrayal, or even perceived betrayal, along with a culture and age that no longer accepts being told what to do and from the earliest of ages stands back and says, “I’ll make up my own mind without you.” we end up with people trusting less and less the systems designed to help them grow in the first place.

Now, it is incredibly healthy to raise questions. That is why over and over again you will hear me say those very words, If you don’t understand something, or you need further clarity on what you hear from me, from Kelley, from reading scripture on your own, then please, come talk to me about it, let’s learn together, let’s grow together. I will do my best not to just simply try and convince you of what I said, but truly hear you out and process with you.

But I have seen, and in an article I read this past week from Timothy Keller, which put words to my thoughts, He said, / / “The academic concept of “deconstruction” assumes that all moral claims are efforts to exert power over us in order to prevent our liberation to think for ourselves and create our own selves and lives. Deconstruction means then to unmask, relativize, and disempower such claims so they no longer hold us in their sway.”

And that has become the overarching mentality of our current society, “You can’t control me. I control me.”

And although when our systems are broken and areas where abuse and control have taken place we most definitely need to take a step back, the unfortunate side of things is we can end up looking at christianity, and scripture, under the scope of our own personal decision on what to follow and what not to follow. It’s like we take this idea that if I like the sound of it, I’m willing to embrace it, but if it seems too difficult, I’ll look at it and say, “You’re just trying to control me.”

I would like to say it’s not true, but it is. I’ve experienced it in myself, and I’ve seen it in countless others in todays world. And as a result we have:

people who want to be the church, meaning the bride of Christ, for all eternity, but don’t want to be a part of the church in the here and now.

people who want to be receivers of Jesus but not followers of Jesus.

We can easily be persuaded to pick and choose the parts of Christianity we want to live by.

We’ll take the love your neighbor, but forget that means everyone.

We’ll agree to God being our provider and Jesus looking after us, but won’t pick up the charge to generosity or tithing consistently, not for the sake of the church, but for the sake of our devotion to God.

We can easily agree to God is love and that we love God, but don’t like the sound of someone telling us that our lifestyle or actions don’t come in line with the God we say we love.

And as I said last week we live in a world that wants to be directed by what makes us happy, we want to decide what we do with our lives by our pleasures, but the problem enters when we truly want to follow Jesus Christ and realize that means we have to not just agree with, but do what He said in Matthew 16:24, / / If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds.

I don’t particularly like the sound of that...

And I get that the church has not always done a great job at representing God, or how He is, to a large extent. I agree, we should look at how things have become what they are:

There are systems and religious institutions that have grown too big for their own britches, let’s say, and need to be questioned.

There are most definitely things in this world that have been done in the name of God that should not have been done.

There are leaders who have demanded fealty and servitude that have just missed the point.

There are those who would use scripture to their own gain, either physically or financially, or to gain power over those they lead.

None of that is ok.

Again, going back to Timothy Keller. He said, / / “It is clear that for some people ‘faith deconstruction [is that] they have come to see the historic teachings and doctrines of the church as crafted to make us pawns and suppress our personhood.” And yes, things that have been built in the name of God that do not honor God should be torn down. But the unfortunate thing is that along with the systems that were built where they shouldn’t have been built, or the leader who lead for their own gain rather than for the love of God, or whatever the case may be, many have decided that those who would say they are representatives of the Kingdom of God that did it wrong define the Kingdom of God itself, and as a result, they walk away from all that is God and all that is their faith, when what we all need is healing and endurance to continue to pursue God and learn to heal and grow together.

That doesn’t mean stay in places you are being hurt, or churches that are teaching bad theology, or under leadership that is abusive or has lost sight of the gospel, for sure, there are times to leave particular relationships or situations. But the idea that deconstructing our own faith to a point of walking away from faith itself and the rest of those that Jesus gave his life for doesn’t make much sense. There’s got to be a better way. And we need those who see problems in the systems, so that those problems can be identified and through Christ as the head and working together as His body we can move forward becoming more who we are supposed to be while expressing His gospel in a clearer and more true and loving way than we were before.

Personally I think there are two major aspects of our growth… First, our / / personal relationship with God. See, there are things I believe today, not because someone else told me to believe them, but because I read it for myself in scripture, the Spirit of God brought life to it, because He is the spirit of truth, and brought me to Jesus Christ who looked at me, reaching out his hand and said, “Will you follow…?”

But second, and this is not one or the other, and I wouldn’t even say one more important than the other. I think they both hold high value and importance - But the second is that / / God puts people in our lives. There are things I believe today because God put amazing people in my life - someone brought me to the truth, taught me the right thing, showed me the right way, gave me insight and wisdom they had received from God, whether that has been in person, or through a book, a podcast, a teaching, and in turn the Spirit of God directed me to Jesus who said, “ya, they have a good point, wanna follow?”

/ / It’s not either or, it’s both and… Our own pursuit of God while pursuing God with others! And I’m convinced that you cannot truly follow Jesus without coming alongside those who also follow Jesus.

So, we have a culture now that doesn’t really want to be told what to do.

And on the other side, unfortunately, we have Christians, Churches, Leaders and systems that have hurt people.

And then we have this call, as Paul describes it, to become a Living Sacrifice. Which doesn’t really sound like I get to choose…

So, what do we do with that?

First, we have to look at what that means.

The word used here for / / sacrifice is the greek word thysia, and it means nothing more than sacrifice, there is no hidden meaning here. We are talking about either the act of sacrificing something, or the thing on the alter that is being sacrificed.

And if we only used that word alone it would be a very wrong way to look at how we are meant to live.

You are not meant to be a sacrifice. Hebrews 9:13-14 says, / / Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our conscience from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

So, let’s first say this, and define it very strongly.

/ / You are not a sacrifice.

Your life has been preserved, redeemed, saved, set free, and all the other ways you can say that because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the pure and spotless lamb on the cross.

Done and done. If you believe in Jesus Christ you are saved. By grace, that is we don’t deserve it, through faith, that is we believe it to be true.

Furthermore, and this is I think the foundation of this series, / / God desires obedience MORE than sacrifice.

But, for this we have to go back to the beginning… And I don’t mean back to the beginning of the book in Genesis, but pretty close. We need to read Israel’s choice in Exodus 19.

See, in the book of Exodus, Moses goes to Egypt where Israel has been living and eventually became slaves to the Pharoah for somewhere between 300-400 years. We’ll be reading the story in our Daily Reading Plan by the end of this month and into next month. So I won’t go into all the details, you’ll get them on your own time. But Israel is set free from their slavery, about a million people strong, and led into the wilderness by Moses.

And Exodus 19:1 says, / / Exactly two months after the Israelites left Egypt, they arrived in the wilderness of Sinai.

And this is where we’re picking up the story. They are camped at the base of a mountain, and Moses climbs the mountain to pray and get some direction from God. And Moses writes that the Lord said to him in Exodus 19:3-6, / / “Give these instructions to the family of Jacob; announce it to the descendants of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’

Moses goes down the mountain, tells the people, and they all say, “Ya, we can do that.”

So back up the mountain Moses goes and says to God, “We’re in!”

This is where it gets interesting.

God tells Moses in Exodus 19:9, / / “I will come to you in a thick cloud, Moses, so the people themselves can hear me when I speak with you. Then they will always trust you.”

Alright, so, God says he wants the people close enough so they can hear what he’s saying to Moses.

In fact, he goes one step further. He then tells Moses that the people have three days to get ready because he’s going to visit them and speak to them. But, don’t go on the mountain until then. Almost like he’s saying, “You go get ready, and I'll get ready, and we’ll meet back here in 3 days...” and he warns them that if they go on the mountain before a certain point they would die. But in vs 13 God says, / / “However, when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, then the people may go up on the mountain.”

There is a clear invitation to be close to if not IN the presence of God. It’s God’s invitation to not just meet with Moses and speak through Moses, but that all of Israel would be in His presence and hear his voice. It’s absolutely incredible.

But watch what happens.

The third day comes, the people assemble at the mountain. Moses goes up to the top, this is where he receives the 10 commandments, and if we go down to Exodus 20:18, right after the last commandment is read, it says, / / When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram’s horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightening and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear. And they said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us, or we will die!”

“Don’t be afraid,” Moses answered them, “for God has come in this way to test you, and so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning!”

As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.

“As the people stood in the distance...” They’ve already made up their mind, they won’t go any closer. And it’s kind of heartbreaking. The people were invited to the presence of God, but for fear they stood back and said, No...

This God who just rescued them. This God who had provided for them. By this point they’ve had the miracle of mana and quail from heaven, they’ve seen God produce water from a rock… But they are afraid of His voice. They are afraid to get close to Him.

All this to the point where in Exodus 32 they get so impatient with Moses being on the mountain that they ask Aaron, his brother, to make them an idol of a calf made out of gold. It’s easier if our gods are something we’ve made with our own hands… And people still do this today, not with idols, but ideologies. We’ll make our own rules about life, you can’t tell us what to do.

But, what I want you to see is / / God’s initial desire.

First was, will you agree to do all I’ve asked?

Second was, will you come close to me so I can speak to you.

And again, I wouldn’t necessarily put a first and second on this, but it boils down to two things that are of the utmost importance. / / Obedience & Relationship.

But Israel didn’t want it.

You see this over and over again with Israel. God either offers them something and they decline, or they come to God and ask for something that other people have when God wants to provide for them. This is important to see to truly understand the dynamic at work in the Old Testament.

Case in point. Kings. In 1 Samuel 8 the elders of Israel go to Samuel, who is the prophet of God speaking to the people on behalf of God, something that was necessary because they didn’t want to hear him themselves… They come to Samuel and say, / / “Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.”

And Samuel asks God for guidance and this is what happens. 1 Samuel 8:7-9, / / “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.”

So, when we read scripture it’s easy to think, “God appointed the kings of Israel...” except, God never intended for there to be kings over Israel. He wanted to be their king forever. But it was the people who wanted something different and being a God who honors free will and choice he said, “OK. But I’m warning you there will be consequences...”

See what happens?

You don’t want personal relationship, I’ll use prophets.

You don’t want obedience, I’ll give you sacrifice to atone for sin.

You don’t want me as your king, I’ll give you your own kingdom.

There is what God desires, and there is what we desire that God allows for the sake of relationship and honoring our will to choose.

OK, that’s the groundwork. Now we need to look at what God says about sacrifice through the prophets in the Old Testament, and echoed by Jesus in the New Testament.

Have you ever heard the statement, / / “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission?”

I’m about to break that down and step on it’s ugly little head…sorry.

We’re still in 1 Samuel, but jumping to chapter 15. God has let Israel choose their king, his name is Saul and at this point he’s gone to war with another nation and God tells him to take no plunder at all. But he did. And when Samuel calls him on it, in his response 1 Samuel 15:20-21, Saul says, "/ / But I did obey the Lord! ...Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

There’s just so much wrong with this.

First of all, notice how King Saul says, sacrifice to the Lord YOUR God… Doesn’t even identify the Lord as HIS OWN God.

And second, if the instruction was no plunder, then you can’t say “I followed instructions by offering sacrifice with the best of the plunder that you told me not to take in the first place...”

Samuel replies with this, / / “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than offering the fat of rams.”

Ok, so, / / Obedience is better than sacrifices.

Another prophet of God to mention this is Hosea.

Speaking again to the people of Israel this is what Hosea says, “O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?” asks the Lord. “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight. I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces - to slaughter you with my words, with judgements inescapable as light.

Don’t get worked up or offended by the, “he cut you to pieces...” talk here, notice how it says, “to slaughter you with my words...” Killing me softly, with his song… no, not that. Ever have someone say something to you and you respond, “Wow, that cuts deep” because it just seems to get to the core of you? Ya, sometimes we need a strong word to cut to the deepest part of us, right? In fact, Hebrews 4:12 says, / / For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

The word of God should cut deep and expose the lies and the deceit we are dealing with. I think sometimes we’re so afraid of offending people that we can shy away from the truth of what God has said, and that can actually end up doing more harm. Of course the truth needs to be said in love, but it needs to be said.

And so Hosea continues...

/ / “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”

That’s straight back to the mountain in Sinai… God is saying, “Come close”, and the people respond “no thanks, we would rather just let Moses go and we’ll end up doing what we want.”

Third prophet here, Micah. He has been telling Israel again that God is not happy with their lack of faithfulness. Trying to remind them of what He’s done for them, how He’s helped them and delivered them and how they still don’t get it. And he says in Micah 6:6-8, What can we bring to the Lord? Should we bring him burnt offerings? Should we bow before God Most High with offerings of yearling calves? Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

/ / Do what is right - obedience

walk humbly with your God - relationship

Isaiah also speaks to this issue in Isaiah 1:11-20, And for sake of time I won’t read the whole thing, but he starts with, / / “What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?” says the Lord. “I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle…” and he goes on like that for a bit, and you get down to vs 16, / / Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans.”

Stop sacrificing for doing wrong, and start doing right.

So, we swing over to the New Testament for a minute and then we’ll finish in a couple scriptures in the Old Testament. Jesus actually brings this whole thing up twice.

First in Matthew 9, This is when Jesus calls Matthew to be his disciple. Thing is, Matthew is a tax collector, hated by pretty much everyone. If you watch the Chosen series you see the distaste people have for him as a person. Even his own father rejects him. Culturally that would be very accurate. Tax collectors turned their back on family, heritage and culture to get in good with the Romans who were occupying that region. And so when Jesus says to Matthew, “Follow me and be my disciple.” in Matthew 9:9, it’s a big deal.

Let’s read what happens next. Matthew 9:10-13, / / Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher ear with such scum?”

When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor - sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Kind of odd to throw that in there. No one is talking about sacrifices, right? But this was a direct dig at the Pharisees. Jesus never shied away from exposing religious systems that had gone too far. This is the word of God revealing innermost thoughts!

When Jesus mentions the prophecy of Hosea 6:6, he’s pointing something out. The Pharisees were all about their rituals and doing it all by their own rules. They had made the law into 613 rules split into what you were allowed to do, and what you weren’t allowed to do. Made up ritual. But here’s the thing, God doesn’t want the rituals, the sacrifice, the burnt offering; he wants our hearts. He wants relationship. Jesus was inviting the Pharisees to apply Hosea’s words to themselves. God wants a heart attitude that includes a right relationship with him and with others, and to be obedient to HIM, not to their own made up system.

And three chapters later, in Matthew 12 Jesus says the same thing again. Pharisees come and challenge him and his disciples in what they are doing and again Jesus brings it back to obedience. Rituals are only good if they are in obedience and love to God. Rituals for the sake of rituals, and sacrifice for atonement of wrong doing was never the point.

Ok, let’s jump back to the Old Testament for a minute and then we’ll finish in Romans 12.

Listen to what David writes in Psalm 40:6-8, / / You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand - you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings. Then I said, “Look, I have come. As it is written about me in the Scriptures: I take joy in doing your will my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.”

And that is really a messianic scripture, pointing to Jesus.

All through scripture, over and over again we are seeing this theme, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, David, Amos, which I didn’t read, if you want to, read Amos 5:21-24, and one more I’ll finish with before we go back to Paul, Jeremiah 7:21-23, which is probably the strongest link back to what we read in Exodus. It says, / / This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says: “Take your burnt offerings and your other sacrifices and eat them yourselves! When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not burnt offerings and sacrifices I wanted from them. This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’”

And you can finish that passage on your own time, read through vs 24-29. It’s pretty powerful stuff on the human condition of not wanting to listen to being told what is right and wrong.

But the heart of God shines through that passage of scripture. It wasn’t burnt offerings and sacrifices, it was that He wanted to be their God, and if they would listen and obey his instructions he would lead them into a life full of His promise and presence.

I can’t help but think of Deuteronomy 30:19, after God gives Israel the instructions on how to live life, / / “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh that you would choose life...”

Obedience doesn’t require sacrifice...

So, why would Paul use that word? Sacrifices. / / Let [your bodies] be a living and holy sacrifice… This is truly the way to worship him.

Why? Because it’s the living part that makes all the difference.

God doesn’t want death, he wants living obedience. I think God would rather us be obedient to his leading the other 6 days of the week, rather than live our lives our way for 6 days and offer him worship, or let’s call it a sacrifice of praise, on the 7th day. Yes, repentance is good, but God desires obedience more than the need for repentance.

Let me say it this way. If you’re a parent of little kids you’ll get this, even if your kids are grown up you’ll remember this. But let me ask you a question, which would you prefer? Would you prefer that your kids do whatever they want and then come to you with a gift, or even with honest repentance, OR would you prefer they listen and obey what you’ve asked them to do in the first place?

Or let’s put it into the context of a relationship. And I’ll be classically stereotypical for a moment. Ladies in the room, would you prefer your man mess up and then bring you a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a hand written card as an apology, OR would you rather him have done what it is he should have done in the first place - no flowers needed? OR, the flowers are just for no reason, just a gift of love.

Would we want a friend that’s always needing to apologize for not being a great friend, or do we want a friend who truly knows how to be a friend, doing what is right?

But here’s the thing. And this is where it gets increasingly difficult for today’s society. / / You have to be willing to be told what is right and wrong, what is good and bad, what leads to life and what leads to death. And then, as a daily conscious effort, you deny yourself, what you want, what’s easy for you, what your desires and pleasures are, take up your cross and love Jesus by following His teaching and example, or let’s call that, love God by doing what He has commanded.

I think it’s because God loves us so much that he allowed Moses to be the mouth piece when Israel didn’t wan’t to get close and listen. He wanted Israel to hear his voice so much he was willing to settle on speaking to Moses and the prophets...

I think it’s because God loves us that in our inability to listen and obey, he provided a system of sacrifice to atone for sin. Not that he demands or even wants a sacrifice, but that in our inability to obey, he made a way for us to still be close.

And I think it’s because God loves us that he went as far as providing a permanent solution through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to eternally atone for, or pay the wage of sin. See, if sin leads to death, always, then we must be free from sin to embrace eternal life. And the entire point of humanity, from the garden, was that we would live for eternity in paradise with God, which means after Adam & Eve at the fruit, corrupting that plan, and causing God to close off the garden so they wouldn’t be able to eat the tree of life and live forever in that corrupted state, the plan of redemption was our only solution.

Sacrifice and Offerings will never make us clean, we can’t offer enough sacrifice to make up for humanities inability to obey. This is why Grace is such a powerful thing. It removes from us the pressure of getting it right all the time because our very soul is on the line, while empowering us to live a righteous live before God, a life of obedience, in love with Jesus who made a way for us to come back to paradise and eat of the tree that would give us eternal life.

And as Paul says, this is truly the way to worship him. It’s how we show our love for God, by being obedient to His commands and drawing close to him.

So, this series won’t be about making the right sacrifices in our lives, but it will be about becoming a living sacrifice, willing to deny what it is we want for doing what God wants. And the more you do that, the more you fall in love, the more you fill yourself with His truth and His way, the easier it is to follow Him and do His will.

I don’t actually expect any of you or myself to live righteous lives if you haven’t fallen in love with Jesus. But my hope is that we fall so in love with Jesus that our lives become an expression of His truth and His way of living as we follow him. To be a disciple of Jesus is to spend time with Jesus, to watch and learn what Jesus did through teaching and example, and to become like Jesus in our own lives by following his example and his commands.

Paul says that it is then that we will experience true transformation and God’s will for our lives. And I don’t know about you, but I want my 2023 to be marked by radical change in my own life. Not that I’m dissatisfied with my current life. I love all that God has done in me to this point.

But in the areas that have been difficult to follow, I want to follow.

Where I was more inclined to come to God and say, “ya, sorry I didn’t do that, I apologize”… I want to do what it is I know to do, to be obedient to Him instead of having to ask forgiveness.

Where I know I haven’t been 100% I want to be 100%, not for perfection sake like the Pharisees, but because I love Him so much, I want to follow Him.

And in all the areas I don’t yet know because he’s been gracious enough to not flood me with how human and imperfect I am.... I want the type of relationship with Jesus that can handle that two-edged sword, bringing to light what needs to change. Bringing to the surface what needs to be uprooted from my life. Bringing to Him what only He can help me overcome!

Let’s pray!