A Sacrifice of Praise

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We are also doing Christmas cards from the kids in the church. if you want your family in, please leave a comment or contact pastor jon. we’ll send you a template (we have either blank ones for you to put whatever you want, or coloring pages for your younger ones) - please draw whatever you want in marker (so we can scan and duplicate it clearly!)

Also looking for volunteers the day of to help package (and make some food, like gravy), as well as the day before to prepare turkey / other food

Hebrews 13:15 (NIV)

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

SIDEBAR - honoring God and taking care of each other are intimately tied together (this isn’t the point of my message - but it’s something i’ve been really passionate about for the last while!). so the next verse for me is great.

Hebrews 13:16 NIV

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

I love it. Paul is so on brand with this. You see it over and over again.

What is a sacrifice of praise?

See, Paul explains himself earlier:

Hebrews 13:11–12 NIV

The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

so, he makes that connection - that a sacrifice was (EXPLAIN), and Jesus was that sacrifice now.

But then, he says this:

Hebrews 13:13 NIV

Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.

so paul says here - we’re the sacrifice. We’re the ones being put on the altar, we’re the ones being offered to god.

But in the same way, that Christ was crucified in disgrace to reconcile people to Him, we’re called to that same path. We’re here to rescue the world. We’re here to be that agent of proclaiming the reconcilation

We’re here to tell people about the God who died and now lives forevermore.

And it’s in this context, Paul’s therefor makes sense. I’ll read it again.

Hebrews 13:15 NIV

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

So, Paul’s painted this picture.

He calls praise the fruit of lips that openly profess God’s name

Praise is not a song instead of a reading - it’s fruit created by a heart that openly professes and embraces God

But secondly - this praise will be a sacrifice for us, a sacrifice OF us, and it will cost us.

Now, if we look at ourselves, that idea that this is going to cost us - it doesn’t rub us the right way. We feel like we’re meant to enjoy things, we’re meant to have joy, peace, love ,etc.

But Paul says, there’s a key to understanding this perspective.

Hebrews 13:14 NIV

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

So, God wants us to ask ourselves a question.

Is here and now really that important?

STORY - my wedding, finger foods before the main meal, ladies put on a big spread because they thought, hey, this is it.

KEY PHRASE: Wanting only finger foods while waiting for a feast

In a thousand years, everything you built here will be dust. Your house, your wealth, the body you’re in now, everything.

But the life that is to come - that’s a whole other ballgame. That’s eternity, that’s perfection.

and that’s what we’re built for. That’s what we long for. and everything else is a pale comparison

The sacrifice of praise is when we refuse to live for ourselves now, but rather

The sacrifice of praise is when we choose to live fully for Christ - both now and forever

standing here and saying ‘God, you’re so amazing, you’re so great!’ and raising your hands, and dancing, and really feeling it - it’s great!

But if we walk out that door, and we look nothing different. If our praise and our worship starts and stops at the pew, then it’s hollow. If it hasn’t changed our heart and our lives - it hasn’t taken root in our heart and our lives.

How can we tell if we’re there? How can we tell if we’re really offering a sacrifice of praise or not?

Ask ourselves this question

Who and when is this all meant to pay off?

Your church, your faith, your relationship with God. Is your bottom line, ‘i’m here, i’m in, if I’m the one who benefits.’ I need to feel it, and it has to be here and now.

Because if it is, the person your heart truly worships is you. And the place your heart really longs for is here, and not just eternity.

You’re fighting for finger foods instead of a feast.

The disiples, the early church - faith cost them.

Acts 5:41 NIV

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

And that’s not an attractive thing to sell from a pulpit. But the truth is, this is what God has really asked from us. A sacrifice of praise, not just a nice cushy feeling in worship of praise.

But eternity was the plan from the very beginning. Garden of eden stuff. And in Christ, eternity returned is what we’re being offered. How could finger foods compare to that?

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This is the reason to praise. God hasn’t just left us hanging - he’s invited us into eternity.

But the thing is

He wants to invite more people - and He’s drawing us into that process