What Makes You A Sacrificer?

Call to Worship (Easter, Acts 4)

We gather in the name of the risen Lord. Christ is risen! Alleluia! We gather as sisters and brothers of the resurrected one. Christ is risen! Alleluia! We gather to share our faith and to worship God. Christ is risen! Alleluia! We gather to proclaim the good news of Easter! Christ is risen! Alleluia!

Opening Prayer (Easter, Acts 4)

God of the resurrection, we gather this morning as a community of believers. We come with joy to greet one another and to tell again and again the amazing news: Christ is risen! Love is victorious over death! You have given us new life in the name of your Son! May our singing, praying, listening, and proclaiming be a testimony to the power of your love to make us a new creation as a community of faith. We pray in the name of the risen Christ. Amen.

Invitation to the Offering

All that we have belongs to God. As we celebrate our unity as a community of faith and focus our hearts on the risen Christ, we joyfully lay our possessions at the altar [Lord’s table]. Through the grace of God and the bounty of this church, we have the ability to share our gifts so that all may have what they need to live. We thank God for the opportunity to truly be in fellowship with one another and with the world through our offerings today.

Invitation to the Word

Dear God, as we hear your word, may we be transformed into a true community of believers, ready to go into the world to testify that Christ is alive and active in our lives today. Amen.

Romans:12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Introduction: We are told that these bodies are to be presented "a living sacrifice". This sounds dreadfully painful to us because we know that a sacrifice, in Bible times, was an animal that belonged to the person offering it and that the animal was put to death, its blood was shed and its flesh was burned on an altar. That does not sound like something I want to be involved in. The difference between what the Lord is calling us to do and what He called those people in the Old Testament to do is this: Their sacrifice was to die, our sacrifice is to live! While that is true, there are also some similarities between our sacrifice and their's. Now, just as then, the sacrifice the Lord is commanding each of us to make is costly, painful, difficult, personal and necessary. Basically, God is commanding every one of His people to lay the totality of their persons on the altar of sacrifice. But, at the same time, this sacrifice must continue to function in the world around it. This is confusing, but I think that four ideas are in view right here:

1. A living sacrifice means that we are to be on the altar wherever we are. Regardless of the geographical surroundings, we are to remember that this body and all it is belongs to God. There is never an instant in life when we are out of His view or free to live as we please. 2. A living sacrifice means a constant, continuous sacrifice. This is not something we do from time to time. But we are to offer this body up to the Lord and never ask for it back again! 3. A living sacrifice means that the body sacrifices its own desires for those of God. To be a living sacrifice will require that the body does not live for the world, the flesh or the devil, but that everything the body does is held to the guidelines of the Word of God. 4. A living sacrifice means that the body is devoted to the task of serving God. This means that we are to lay down the ambitions and desires of the body and commit ourselves to doing nothing but that which God bids us to do! We are to be His vessels through which He can live and work in this world.

Ill. The bottom line of all this is that the sacrificing of the body is not something done in the church only. But, it implies that every action and activity that the body engages in is an activity to glorifies and honors God. The sacrificed body sees itself as the Temple of God. It realizes that God must be in absolute control of the will, the emotions, the passions, the deeds and the thoughts of the body. All rights are released and the body is delivered to God to do with it as it pleases Him!)

In conclusion, God wants us to offer ourselves, not animals, as living sacrifices-daily laying aside our own desires to follow him, putting all our energy and resources at his disposal and trusting him to guide us. We do this out of gratitude that our sins have been forgiven. We should joyfully give ourselves as living sacrifices for his service.

What are you willing to endure pain for?

What do you sense God has called you to do?

What do you regularly pray about?

Benediction

Go now with the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Go to share your faith and your lives. Go to proclaim the good news. Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.