Through Faith, Sacrifice is Required

Introduction

Good Morning CV First...

Hebrews 10:38 CSB

38 But my righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him.

This morning we will continue to be reminded of the faith of the O.T. saints and how that faith required immense sacrifice in their lives.

That same sacrifice is required of us.

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We live in time where itching ears are more easily satisfied than ever. There are so many “representatives” of the Gospel out there proclaiming that having a good job, having fun times, and as long as you love Jesus you don’t have to go to church, you don’t have to attend bible studies, you don’t have to serve(because your schedule is already busy), you don’t have to give up anything you have or are doing....that you can have your best life and have Jesus and if you don’t surrender fully to His lordship it’s ok.

NO Church! Our best life is Jesus.

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I pray this morning is a time of continued blessing as we see the testimonies of those that have come before and sacrificed everything for Christ.

Reminder for us that Living by faith produces righteousness...

The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are opposite sides of the same coin. - A.W. Tozer

And from that..... sacrifice is produced in us. That as we strive in our faith to be obedient, sacrifice must be the result.

Read Hebrews 11:17-40

Prayer

Living By Faith calls to us to step out of our comfort zones.

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Abraham- Genesis 22:1-10

Reminder- Abraham lived out obedience.....

By faith, he went without even knowing where he was going.......surely being laughed at by those around him.

Verses 9 and 10 point out 3 things: 1. His faith was passed on to his family.

2. His faith was tenacious.

3. His faith pointed him beyond this world. Which is something that God wants us to continually realize. This world is not our home. The author of Hebrews wants us to see that. Heb. 12:28, 13:14

Stepping out in faith does not require perfection or mean you will not stumble along the way.

Time and time again, Abraham stepped out in faith as he was called by God. But remember Abrahams journey. He did not always do it right but he remained faithful to following God.

Often times we don’t do things because our fear of messing up.

Who has ever messed up?

Anyone ever messed up your job?

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Offering Isaac- This was supposed to be the first sacrifice among many. Offering his one and only son.....

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Verse 19-Don’t miss this connection. Isaac as an only son, was to be sacrificed, was returned to Abraham(figuratively resurrected) which restored life to the promise-This moment God was pointing us towards what was to come...... God was able to raise someone from dead.....Isaac was the firstborn of nations but the one and only son,Jesus, went on to be sacrificed was the king of all nations.

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Abraham showed us in the midst of inner conflict what it means to be tested and how our response to the testing should be-He knew God was faithful and had made this promise.

And we see that his good works justified his faith, as our faith without good works is dead-

James 2:21–24 CSB

21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete, 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

We can believe all we want but if our faith does not drive us to DO good how deep is that faith really?

Isaac- Genesis 27:27-29, 39-40

Jacob- Genesis 48:15-20

Joseph- Genesis 50:24-25

Our emphasis here is about the faith of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph that they showed at the end of their lives. They each faced looming death in confident faith. And trusted, submitted, believed and obeyed.

Because of the blessings that God bestowed, we see that faith continued to be passed on from generation to generation.

Isaac blessed both of his sons with wisdom and truth. This was the same faith that Abraham had passed on to him.

We see the same from Jacob. As he was dying, Jacob blessings his son through his grandsons. And that same faith that had been passed on continued to be.

Joseph spent all of his adult life in Egypt. At this point, he was the fourth generation of God’s promise, yet to be fulfilled. But he had faith that it would happen and his people would be freed.

How patient are we to wait on God’s timing in our life?

These three believed when it wasn’t easy to believe. Their journeys were all riddled with failures, as well as success. But at the end of life, we see their true character. We see how real that faith was for them.

John MacArthur says:

“A Christian who fears death has a serious weakness in his faith, for to die in Christ is simply to be ushered into the Lord’s presence.”

For to live is Christ.....

Death is swallowed up in victory.

Questions:

How often in our day to day do we stop to bless others by speaking truth into their lives and offering up prayers on their behalf?

How often are we doing that in the lives of our families? Or do we find ourselves being negative focusing on the wrong things?

Moses- Exodus 2

We now see the second of two of the more prominent figures in the O.T.

Abraham received the promise and Moses received the law.

Two Features we see here-

No Ordinary Child- Acts 7:20

No Fear

Important note coming

Our Faith should conquer our fears.

The more we live in faith, the more our fears fade away.

We see that fearlessness continues as Moses grew up, leaving the comforts of his living situation and instead living among the people of God, which was a life of suffering.

Like Abraham, Moses was called on by God to step out in faith.

Think about this for a moment. Moses stepped away from luxurious living to live in poverty and to be treated poorly.....how do you think this decision was viewed by those around him? By the Egyptians? By the Israelites?

There was this realization for Moses that material things don’t last, but the spiritual treasures do.

Verse 26- How could Moses endure for the sake of Christ if Christ hadn’t come?

Not a bad question...

The implication here that the writer is making is that by identifying with the people of God and sharing their hardships Moses identified also with Christ, who sacrificed all and experienced the ultimate in hardships. And also, that Moses placed complete trust in the promise of God, knowing that He would redeem them one day.

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And during all of this for Moses-

HE...

By Faith, left Egypt because fear did not dissuade him.

By Faith, he instituted the passover and preserved his people.

By Faith, they crossed the Red Sea and were protected.

Think about the obstacles ahead of Moses in these instances..........

His faith overcame his fear and He lived by faith in a God he could not see.

What a lesson for us in this.

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Also the faith of the Israelites...

The Israelites(29-30)-Exodus 14:13, Joshua 6

Though Moses led the people, the nation of Israel displayed faith as they traveled through the Red Sea. Moses faith surely inspired the people.

Now, there faith would also stumble as we would later see them quarreling and being disobedient.

By Faith, the people of Israel would go on to win battles, endure persecution and eagerly look towards the promise of their forefathers.

Joshua stepping out in faith led the people to circle Jericho for seven days.

And this led to a moment that would continue to move things towards the promise.

God can do what we think is impossible.

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Rahab- Joshua 2:10-12

By Faith, Rahab had heard the mighty things of God and instead of rejecting the Israelite spies, she welcomed them, assisted them and returned them safely.

James 2:25 CSB

25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route?

Her works showed her faith and she would become a part of a lineage that would bring about Christ.

Matthew 1:5–6 CSB

5 Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, 6 and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife,

Many have stepped out in faith......

We see as chapter 11 comes to a close of 6 other faithful servants, 4 of which are from the book of Judges.

All of which sacrificed greatly......

God accomplishes on behalf of those who sacrifice faithfully.

Shut the mouth of Lions- Daniel 6.

Quenched the raging fire- Daniel 3 .

Escaped the sword- 1 Samuel 23:19–26.

Gained strength in weakness- Isaiah 38. -Hezekiah

Mighty in battle- 2 Sam. 8:1-18.

Endured horrendous persecution......

Torture, Mockings, Scourgings, imprisonments, stoned to death, sawed in two....

Joseph and Jeremiah were mocked, beaten and imprisoned- Gen. 39, Jer. 20, 37

Though it’s not mentioned in the Bible, Jewish tradition holds that Isaiah met a horrendous fate by being sawed in two...

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Great sacrifice was met through extreme faith.

Our Obedience through Faith should result in Sacrifice.

Abrahams faith showed us that what we are often looking for.....proof.

How do we know if someone has faith?

Abraham exhibited proof by his willingness to give back to God everything he had, even the son of promise that he recieved because of his faith in the first place.

There was this realization for Abraham that everything he had was because of God and that everything he had was Gods, including his son.

How willing are we to view things in our lives this way?

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Faith is powerful!

Faith accomplishes the impossible!

Faith sees what cannot be seen!

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The sad reality is that some faith is all talk and never leads to action.

True faith is all about action!

And to see this play out in our lives, it almost always requires sacrifice.

We must remember this is life is not our own. That we have been bought and paid for by the blood of Christ!

You may think that’s crazy. Why would i want to believe anything that means I’m “owned”...... Because you being bought means you were bought FROM something and that something is eternal condemnation…Hell.

Trust me, you should rejoice that you have been bought by the shed blood of Christ.

Christ did not come to make bad people good.....He came to raise the dead to life.

So, remember, this life is not yours and this world is not your home and for us to think our faith does not result in sacrifice is to have our focus completely off.

Galatians 6:14 CSB

14 But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

This is all about Jesus. For us to think it’s about anything else is have our priorities very misplaced.

Church, if you seek to follow Jesus. If you desire to serve Him daily, your life must be one of sacrifice.

Luke 9:23 CSB

23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Taking up our cross means.......

Questions:

How do you sacrifice daily? Really, truly, meaningfully sacrifice. And if you aren’t, what needs to happen?

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Does Christ’s sacrifice encourage you to take up your cross daily? Does it encourage you to sacrifice?

Do not be mistaken, the testimonies we have seen this morning were founded in faith that resulted in obedience and sacrifice.

These servants from the O.T. were approved by their immense faith shown by their sacrifice. Even though they didn’t receive that promise in their lifetimes but believed in the promise of God that something better was in store for them...

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That is the sacrifice of Jesus...

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Sacrificing for Christ is much harder than we probably realize as our flesh(sin) continues to yearn for what we want.

Not only are we torn to even surrender to follow Christ in the first place, but our lives are riddled with distraction, desires, opinions, and worldly thoughts that say to us sacrificing to follow Jesus isn’t worth it.

Many think, I can be a believer in Jesus, believe in what He did, believe that He is the Savior of all, the Risen King but still see no need to sacrifice daily.

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We have been numbed to the things of this world. We get so caught up in earthly culture that we have in many ways forsaken our eternal culture. We complain, we ridicule, we “critique”, we want a say....church, this world is in desperate need of Christ. We do not have time for such things.

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Often times we can think that things are worse now more than ever…do not be fooled. Sin is sin and has been since the moment humanity fell.

How arrogant of us to think such things?

Do we not realize that God still reigns?

That He is still active in our world?

That he has already won! Do not be mistaken here and think that there is anything we can do in this grand scheme except focus on the one that makes life possible. Surrender to Him, Focus on Him, Worship Him, Let others see Him in you.....

Sacrifice is an essential part of our faith. It connects us directly to Christ in the most intimate of ways. And when we surrender to Him and focus completely on Him, the wordly distractions to Christian living become irrelevant.

Galatians 2:20 (CSB)

20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

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The first part of this though is to sacrifice by surrendering your life to Christ.......

Closing

Hebrews 13:15–16 CSB

15 Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

The testimonies of others before us should urge us to live more obedient and sacrificial lives for Jesus Christ our Lord.

Why?

Because our life must be rooted in faith in Jesus.

This still applies:

We care far too much what others think of us instead of letting the Gospel of Christ motivate us.

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Do not stop fighting to sacrifice for Christ. The cost was great and has continued to be great by those that have fought to proclaim this before us.

The testimonies of Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Enoch, Noah, Rahab, The Prophet, the reformers....

BY FAITH, we must keep this message going by our obedience and sacrifice.

This message of hope…the Gospel of Jesus…is worth proclaiming and it’s worth sacrificing for...

Jesus is our Savior, Jesus is our King.....Jesus is better than anything that this world has to offer.....

Jesus is better.