back to index2017-11-19 Living Sacrifice
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Okay, if you can turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. 00:00:07.000 |
Again, this is kind of part 2, but really today we're going to be focusing on the subject 00:00:12.200 |
of Thanksgiving sacrifice as we're preparing ourselves for the Thanksgiving break. 00:00:18.200 |
Romans chapter 12, really on 1, and I'm just going to stemming off from the last part of 00:00:23.840 |
this passage, Romans chapter 12, but I'll read both passages. 00:00:27.880 |
I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as 00:00:31.920 |
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 00:00:35.840 |
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that 00:00:40.400 |
by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 00:00:52.480 |
Gracious and loving Father, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 00:00:56.760 |
For all the things that we know, and even the things that we are not aware of, the things 00:01:04.200 |
We thank you so much, Father, for being patient. 00:01:07.240 |
We thank you for your constant reminder through the Holy Spirit and intercession that we may 00:01:15.680 |
We may have confidence based upon who you are and what you have done. 00:01:19.460 |
I pray that this morning that you would remind us again of who you are, that we may worship 00:01:24.220 |
you to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, as a reasonable spiritual act of worship. 00:01:33.720 |
The last part of last week's sermon, at the end of chapter 12, verse 1, he says to offer 00:01:40.200 |
your bodies in view of God's mercy as a living sacrifice, this is your spiritual act of worship. 00:01:46.640 |
And we found out that at the end of that verse, the NASB has that translated, not spiritual, 00:01:55.080 |
And I think the literal understanding of that word spiritual that's in ESV, it just means 00:02:00.640 |
that this is the reasonable response to what we confess to believe. 00:02:05.160 |
The reasonable response to justification is our sanctification, that we offer our bodies 00:02:14.360 |
So basically what Paul is saying is, if we confess that these things are true, and that 00:02:19.880 |
we've genuinely been affected by the blood of the cross, the only reasonable response 00:02:24.760 |
is to offer our bodies, our whole bodies as a living sacrifice. 00:02:29.800 |
It would be unreasonable to profess Christ as our savior, that God sent his only begotten 00:02:35.360 |
son to die for us, and that our reward is in heaven to be in eternity to worship him, 00:02:40.880 |
and then his eternal damnation for rejecting him, to confess the belief of that, and to 00:02:46.760 |
live the rest of our life as if that never happened. 00:02:53.400 |
So it is not simply because the scripture teaches it that this is what a Christian should 00:03:00.520 |
And those of you who've ever been around a brand new Christian who confessed their sins, 00:03:09.200 |
In fact, they're the ones asking, "What should I do? 00:03:13.620 |
And some of you guys probably may remember that. 00:03:15.360 |
Maybe you were like that when you first became a Christian, came to church asking, "What 00:03:24.680 |
Because automatically it was understood, if Christ purchased me for himself, I belong 00:03:32.760 |
So that's how Paul ends verse 1 with saying that offering your bodies as a living sacrifice 00:03:42.360 |
Lordship is not an option in the church for a Christian. 00:03:50.200 |
And the reason why we have this theological term, "Lordship salvation," is to clarify 00:03:56.540 |
that a Christian isn't a Christian until Christ is actually your Lord. 00:04:02.040 |
He didn't just save us so that we don't go to hell. 00:04:05.160 |
The scripture says he purchased us for himself. 00:04:09.440 |
That we no longer belong to ourselves, but we belong to him for his purpose, for his 00:04:15.140 |
In fact, in Romans 10, verse 9, it says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is 00:04:20.160 |
Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved." 00:04:26.120 |
So this idea of Christ being Lord is not an option for a few select Christians. 00:04:32.720 |
For some people who decide to go into ministry or to go out to missions, that we somehow 00:04:38.000 |
struggle with this idea of, "I'm going to dedicate my whole life to Christ," and then 00:04:42.080 |
those who don't go into ministry somehow is exempt from that. 00:04:47.040 |
Some Christians have decided to dedicate everything to God, and then the rest of us have decided, 00:04:51.360 |
"Well, we're going to give some to God, and some I'm going to live for myself." 00:04:57.120 |
The Christian from the very get-go, his own salvation, it says, "If you confess Christ 00:05:01.880 |
as your Lord," meaning Christ didn't just forgive your sins, he purchased us, that we 00:05:08.800 |
But obviously, Paul is not saying, "Those who confess with your mouth, who knows how 00:05:15.040 |
Jesus himself says in Matthew 7, 21, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will 00:05:19.800 |
enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." 00:05:24.440 |
So obviously, Paul's not just talking about somebody who's able to articulate those words, 00:05:32.800 |
That he who finds his life outside of Christ, he'll actually lose it. 00:05:37.240 |
So if you think about it, our whole pursuit of happiness that this country puts on a pedestal 00:05:46.280 |
is actually, according to Scripture, a pursuit of death, according to what Jesus says. 00:05:56.160 |
And so, when we come, when we come to Romans 12, verse 1, when he says, "A reasonable response 00:06:01.460 |
to the grace of God is to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice." 00:06:06.000 |
But he spent 11 chapters telling us that the sacrifice has been made in Christ. 00:06:10.880 |
That whatever was necessary for us to get to God, Christ bridged the gap by his own 00:06:16.000 |
So what does he mean in chapter 1, chapter 12, when he says, "To offer your body as a 00:06:23.040 |
Well, all of the Old Testament sacrifices can be put into two major categories. 00:06:29.240 |
You have the free will offering and then you have the mandatory offering. 00:06:33.480 |
Mandatory offerings was commanded by God and if you did not obey, there will be consequences. 00:06:40.680 |
Meaning that the government of Israel will recognize that there's sin that you are not 00:06:44.480 |
atoning for and there will be consequences for that. 00:06:47.880 |
And then the free will offering is also commanded. 00:06:51.800 |
Free will offering doesn't mean that you can do it or not do it. 00:06:54.240 |
It is also commanded, but God desires that the free will offering be given from the abundance 00:07:07.940 |
All the offerings of the Old Testament can be categorized into five categories that the 00:07:14.800 |
And it's in the beginning of the book of Leviticus. 00:07:17.920 |
There's a few of you who were with us when I went through the book of Leviticus years 00:07:22.600 |
It's been about 15 years now that we went through the book of Leviticus. 00:07:25.520 |
I'm kind of debating that after we finish Revelation that we're going to tackle Leviticus 00:07:36.400 |
We're going to jump into the book of Leviticus. 00:07:38.640 |
But Leviticus sets the foundation of understanding of the sacrifices, ultimately fulfilled in 00:07:44.120 |
Christ, but also the free will offering that God desires in sanctification. 00:07:50.080 |
The five offerings that's mentioned in the book of Leviticus is the whole offering, sometimes 00:07:54.600 |
it's called the burnt offering, it's called the grain offering, peace offering, sin offering, 00:08:00.680 |
Of the five, the last two, the sin offering and trespass offering was mandatory. 00:08:06.280 |
So if there was inadvertent sin or certain type of sins that God required, you were required 00:08:14.000 |
Trespass offering is when you wrong somebody else, when you damage their goods. 00:08:19.560 |
Then God required that you compensate, that you would offer a certain sacrifice and then 00:08:23.960 |
certain amount of whatever you destroyed or took, that you have to compensate and you 00:08:33.800 |
But when the scripture talks about in the New Testament in chapter 12, to offer your 00:08:39.040 |
bodies a living sacrifice, mandatory offering was fulfilled in Christ. 00:08:43.040 |
So there is nothing that we need more to get to Christ. 00:08:47.280 |
So when we talk about sanctification, which is what chapter 12 through 16 is, is in reference 00:08:52.640 |
to the free will offering where God desires in light of his mercy, in light of his grace, 00:09:01.240 |
But again, he desires voluntary worship and we talked about that last week. 00:09:05.960 |
But it does not mean that there is no structure. 00:09:09.880 |
Even though it is voluntary, he did command it. 00:09:13.400 |
So the first three offerings, the whole offering, grain offering, and priest offering, it lays 00:09:17.480 |
the foundation in which we understand what God desires from us in our worship. 00:09:24.260 |
So we are going to look at that this morning, these first three offerings. 00:09:32.200 |
So the first of the free will offering is the burnt offering or the whole offering, 00:09:36.520 |
which is exposited or talked about in Leviticus chapter 1. 00:09:41.140 |
So the cause of this worship, the reason behind this worship is the general atonement of our 00:09:48.960 |
It is not because we recognize I did something wrong. 00:09:51.640 |
Generally understanding that we are in need of atonement and God fulfills that through 00:09:58.680 |
It is the only offering that is completely consumed. 00:10:02.600 |
And again, why it is called the whole offering. 00:10:05.240 |
No part of the sacrifice was to be reserved for consumption. 00:10:10.200 |
So a lot of the offering that you gave to the temple, some of it was reserved for the 00:10:13.760 |
priest, it was reserved for other use, but this particular offering was to be complete 00:10:25.120 |
It is the most common offering that is mentioned in the Old Testament, mentioned 197 times. 00:10:31.320 |
It is the first offering that we hear about in the book of Genesis, chapter 8, verse 20. 00:10:37.280 |
And again, it indicates a complete consumption. 00:10:42.360 |
When Paul says here to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, the term living sacrifice 00:10:51.720 |
Because a sacrifice by nature means it is dead. 00:10:56.200 |
So to say to give a living sacrifice, meaning to offer what is dead as living. 00:11:07.880 |
So these two terms on the surface seem to be a contradiction. 00:11:13.040 |
But that is exactly what Paul means, and that is exactly what God means in chapter 12, that 00:11:18.040 |
our lives, first and foremost, must die in order for us to live. 00:11:25.480 |
That is why for every single Christian, the first act of obedience is baptism. 00:11:32.100 |
Because baptism is the beginning of our relationship where we recognize that we are crucified with 00:11:39.600 |
So before we can live our lives as a sacrifice, we need to first and foremost die with Christ. 00:11:45.500 |
So this first offering that we are referring to is a complete consumption of our life in 00:11:53.560 |
Not just our weekends, not just a portion of our lives, not just when we are young, 00:11:59.080 |
not just when we are in college, but every part of our lives is to be consumed for His 00:12:06.080 |
And anything that comes short of that is defective. 00:12:09.840 |
Galatians 2.20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ. 00:12:12.600 |
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:12:15.720 |
In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and 00:12:22.480 |
So the first act of obedience, the first act of worship to God is absolute, complete surrender. 00:12:34.400 |
Some people again tend to think, as God called you into ministry, to think that somehow people 00:12:39.880 |
who have gone into full-time ministry have decided to completely dedicate themselves 00:12:44.160 |
to God and the rest of the congregation partially dedicated themselves to God. 00:12:48.600 |
The only difference between me and you is the avenue in which we have decided to live 00:12:55.160 |
If you're a businessman, that is the avenue that God has called to glorify God all of 00:13:01.380 |
Everything that you have to glorify through that avenue. 00:13:06.660 |
God does not call some for complete obedience and some partial obedience. 00:13:11.160 |
All of us, when we were justified in Christ, were also crucified and was also buried with 00:13:21.600 |
It is that first step of recognizing that it is no longer our lives. 00:13:27.760 |
It is that first step where we recognize and establish Him as Lord over our lives that 00:13:35.240 |
is necessary for all the other things that we do. 00:13:39.720 |
Again Philippians 121, Paul says, "Sitting in prison, for to me to live is Christ and 00:13:48.680 |
Paul recognized that his old life, whatever he was before he met Christ, was crucified 00:13:55.200 |
with him on the road to Damascus when he met him. 00:13:59.200 |
From that day on, it was no longer his passion. 00:14:05.520 |
So when he's sitting in prison, how can a man who's sitting in prison and some people 00:14:09.160 |
actually even preaching the gospel to put pressure on him out of envy and rivalry and 00:14:15.560 |
Will they do it out of envy or rivalry that the gospel is being preached? 00:14:19.560 |
And he's sitting in prison possibly facing, beheading, and he's concerned about this Gentile 00:14:24.760 |
church in Philippi, which just a few years before, he hated the Gentiles. 00:14:31.360 |
And yet there's such radical transformation that took place in his heart. 00:14:39.420 |
He says, "Don't worry about me, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." 00:14:46.520 |
So that life that he's living now between the moment he met Christ until he actually 00:14:56.200 |
Again in Revelation chapter 117, whenever an individual is confronted by the glory of 00:15:01.240 |
God, the immediate recognition is as they fell down as if dead. 00:15:07.040 |
Revelation 117, when John saw him, "I fell at his feet as though dead." 00:15:23.240 |
Our sins have been justified and we have been purchased to establish him as Lord over our 00:15:29.280 |
The primary rebellion that we see in the book of Genesis, our primary rebellion is to try 00:15:40.800 |
Giving glory to creation rather than to glory to God. 00:15:46.560 |
A Christian who is unsurrendered in his life is refusing to accept glory that belongs to 00:15:59.600 |
So the first step of true worship is establishing Christ as Lord in every aspect of our lives. 00:16:06.620 |
In Matthew 22, 37 it said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 00:16:14.920 |
Sometimes we get caught up with the technicalities of what it means to serve God with all your 00:16:19.720 |
heart, what it means to love God with your mind, what it means to love God with your 00:16:24.640 |
But I think the point of what Jesus is trying to make is not the mind, soul, and heart, 00:16:28.720 |
although it is part of it, but the real emphasis here is all. 00:16:42.440 |
Every aspect of our lives now belongs to him. 00:16:46.500 |
Every Christian must confess that we are crucified with Christ. 00:16:53.400 |
So much of our Christian frustration is because we live between two worlds. 00:17:00.480 |
There's a part of us that comes to church and wants to honor God and serve him, and 00:17:04.120 |
we want the blessings of God, and we pray for that. 00:17:07.800 |
We pray that God will bless us and answer our prayers, and then we live the rest of 00:17:11.960 |
the week coveting and desiring the things of this world, and we are torn because we 00:17:22.740 |
First and foremost, God calls us in complete surrender to him. 00:17:27.920 |
If we really want to live in Christ, we must first die to ourselves. 00:17:40.440 |
Die to whatever hope that we had before we met Christ. 00:17:43.320 |
Joshua 22.5, it says, "Only be very careful to observe the commandments and the law that 00:17:48.120 |
Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in 00:17:52.200 |
all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cling to him, and to serve him with 00:18:04.520 |
This is what he required of the Old Testament saints. 00:18:08.880 |
Jeremiah 29.13, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." 00:18:17.720 |
Take a step back, and I know that's a passage that I quote quite a bit. 00:18:21.680 |
Take a step back before we just like, "Oh, I know that passage." 00:18:25.920 |
We know what it means, but is that who you are? 00:18:31.560 |
Are we really seeking the Lord with all our heart? 00:18:37.840 |
Is this something that we do when we're at church, but when we're at work, we put on 00:18:44.160 |
The first offering that God desires from us is absolute, complete surrender. 00:18:49.260 |
So that's what he means as a living sacrifice. 00:18:52.680 |
That we must first die before we can make any sacrifices. 00:18:58.040 |
You may have surrendered yourselves, but may not have surrendered your family. 00:19:04.780 |
You may have surrendered your tithe, but not the rest of your wealth. 00:19:10.240 |
You may have surrendered your spare time, but not your vacation or your weeknights. 00:19:15.080 |
You may have surrendered your college life, but then once you start working and have freedom 00:19:19.320 |
and money, you may have surrendered your singleness. 00:19:24.620 |
I remember when I was younger, before I entered into ministry, the idea of coming into full-time 00:19:31.780 |
ministry in my mind meant that I'm not going to touch money, at least enough money that 00:19:36.580 |
I thought that I was going to have in order to take care of my parents. 00:19:41.380 |
Because we didn't grow up in a wealthy home, and there was always things that we lacked, 00:19:45.460 |
and our Christmas presents were always socks, underwear, and pants. 00:19:54.620 |
And so growing up, I think all three of us, we grew up thinking like, when we make enough 00:19:59.740 |
money, we're going to take care of our parents, we're going to buy a house, we're going to 00:20:05.580 |
But I knew that going into ministry, there's no money in it. 00:20:11.580 |
So I prayed before God, I said, "You know, I'm going to trust the Lord, that He's going 00:20:16.540 |
And whatever ambition that I had, again, I thought, "This is not selfish, it's for my 00:20:21.540 |
But I thought I surrendered that when I decided to go into ministry. 00:20:27.500 |
But even after I came into ministry, God confronted me with Lordship. 00:20:31.980 |
Because I had this idea of what it means to be in ministry. 00:20:34.180 |
So I thought, you know what, I surrendered everything to God. 00:20:36.740 |
And all of a sudden, to make a long story short, God started directing my path toward 00:20:43.620 |
And so in my mind, I had all these ideas of how I wanted to do campus ministry, and how 00:20:49.400 |
And then all of a sudden, again, I don't want to go into the details, but God started directing 00:20:52.720 |
my path, possibly to do full-time work in the homeless ministry. 00:21:02.560 |
And then the homeless ministry was not in that picture. 00:21:05.660 |
In fact, I had other pastor friends telling me, "Peter, that's like, you know, it's noble, 00:21:10.460 |
but if you do that, all these things are going to be forfeited." 00:21:14.300 |
But I couldn't shake the idea, what if that's what God wants? 00:21:20.460 |
Who am I going to say, "You know what, I want to serve God, and I've dedicated everything 00:21:25.580 |
And that's when I realized I wasn't fully surrendered. 00:21:31.020 |
If that's what God desires, I have to be able to say, "Here am I, send me." 00:21:35.300 |
So I thought, Esther and I, when we first met, you know, we thought like, we entered 00:21:40.020 |
thinking we're going to do homeless ministry, we're going to have homeless people, we're 00:21:53.020 |
And a whole different area of temptation opens up. 00:21:57.300 |
And I never thought about money, because I thank God, you know, I married Esther, and 00:22:03.140 |
And so we are able to live with little means, and because, you know, I chose the right wife. 00:22:11.540 |
But it wasn't until I had a kid, and I was driving in the car, and I was driving a pickup 00:22:18.060 |
truck with no air conditioning, and only, you know, manual, what do you call it, the 00:22:26.500 |
And the only reason I was driving that is because I wasn't making enough money as a 00:22:32.740 |
So I had this idea that if I made a little clip art and say that I'm going to wax your 00:22:37.220 |
car for 20 bucks, that I could at least supplement my income, because I didn't have enough. 00:22:41.100 |
So I just, literally a clip art that he used for the youth group, and I just put Pete's 00:22:46.180 |
I started putting it on people's windows, and at that time, we just had beepers. 00:22:53.180 |
To my surprise, I was getting a lot of calls, because I was doing it for 20 bucks, and I 00:22:58.100 |
found out that the waxing cost like 80, 90 bucks, and I was doing it for 20, you know? 00:23:03.060 |
And it probably wasn't even worth 20 bucks, what I did. 00:23:05.820 |
But I was getting phone calls, and it was enough, enough to get us by for that period 00:23:12.620 |
And so, there was no temptation until I had an infant in my car, and I saw him sweating, 00:23:21.280 |
and I was driving one time from LA back up to my house in Buena Park, and the thought 00:23:27.280 |
entered into my mind, it's like, "Man, you're a lousy father." 00:23:31.380 |
You know, all these infants are coming out of these sport expeditions, and you know, 00:23:36.220 |
nice cars, and they're well taken care of, and I can't even afford an air conditioner 00:23:42.620 |
And he's sweating, and he's sitting, I'm pretty sure that was illegal back then, too. 00:23:55.460 |
If anything happened, like, he's completely exposed. 00:24:04.140 |
See, up to that point, I thought I was completely surrendered. 00:24:11.340 |
But another part of my life happens, and I realized it wasn't complete. 00:24:16.140 |
In every aspect of my life, God would bring something in and expose that Christ was Lord 00:24:20.980 |
in certain areas, and then it would keep creeping back in. 00:24:25.260 |
I wrestled with that in the early part of this church. 00:24:30.060 |
I was willing to do homeless ministry, and I was willing not to have money. 00:24:34.520 |
And then the first six, seven years of this church, the church didn't grow. 00:24:38.700 |
Not that I was really focused on that at that time. 00:24:42.300 |
But because of that, financially it was difficult. 00:24:46.260 |
And it was hard thinking like, "Okay, God, you know, I dedicated myself to the homeless 00:24:50.800 |
ministry, but maybe God's taking me to another direction now, and maybe if I'm going to do 00:24:54.500 |
this ministry, you know, I can really dedicate myself and bear fruit." 00:24:58.300 |
And at least on the surface, there was no fruit. 00:25:06.660 |
And it took, for whatever the reason, it took a long time for me to be okay with it. 00:25:11.680 |
If this is what you've called me, if this is my lot in life, I have to surrender. 00:25:16.120 |
Every aspect, every few years, it creeps back into my heart. 00:25:20.600 |
And I realized lordship is not something that you claim in the beginning of your walk with 00:25:26.320 |
Every aspect of our lives, God will search, "Am I completely surrendered?" 00:25:32.820 |
See, the first act of worship to God is a constant surrendering to God. 00:25:44.740 |
The second free will offering is the grain offering, which is found in Leviticus chapter 00:25:49.820 |
The reason for this worship is God's blessing, his bounty. 00:25:52.900 |
Typically when we think of Thanksgiving, like, "What are you thankful for?" 00:25:56.100 |
We say, "I'm thankful for my job, I'm thankful we just got a new house." 00:25:59.460 |
And all of these things are possibly God's blessing in our life. 00:26:03.920 |
So this grain offering was in response a free will offering to thank God. 00:26:09.540 |
It's the only offering where there's no animal involved. 00:26:12.220 |
It was whatever harvest that you had, you were to offer it up to God as a free will 00:26:18.940 |
So the closest thing that you and I have in dedication is probably finance. 00:26:25.060 |
Where our offering to God, our free will offering that we give to God, is an act of worship 00:26:30.720 |
Not just giving money because it's required, but because God has blessed our lives. 00:26:35.260 |
We acknowledge his lordship in our life as an act of worship to say, "This all belongs 00:26:41.780 |
Proverbs 3, 9-10 says, "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of your 00:26:45.900 |
produce then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with 00:26:51.500 |
Again, in Exodus 22, 29, "You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest 00:26:58.500 |
So these offerings are free will offerings and yet it was also commanded. 00:27:05.900 |
So we think like, "Well if it's a free will offering, it's voluntary, then whether we 00:27:12.740 |
He actually commands it, but in the manner in which we give, he wants us to do it voluntarily 00:27:18.620 |
Exodus 23, 19, "The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the houses 00:27:25.740 |
And again, Paul reiterates something similar in 2 Corinthians 9, 6-8, "The point of this 00:27:30.900 |
whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 00:27:36.460 |
Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God 00:27:44.460 |
And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all 00:27:48.380 |
things at all times you may abound in every good work." 00:27:54.340 |
Now there's a reason why I'm using this today and not having the mic up here because I'm 00:27:57.940 |
going to walk off this pulpit and I'm going to hand out some money. 00:28:06.500 |
And so this is probably the most expensive illustrations I've ever given and thank God 00:28:11.940 |
we don't have three services, we only have two. 00:28:46.500 |
Alright, I'm going to explain what that money is. 00:28:57.180 |
That money is given to you and what I'm asking you to do with that is to use this week at 00:29:04.820 |
some point, think of somebody that you think needs your encouragement. 00:29:10.580 |
So use that money to take them out to eat, buy them a gift or something, but use it for 00:29:17.340 |
And if you don't want to do that, you say there's nobody I want to encourage, nobody 00:29:23.460 |
deserves this, I refuse to do it, then put it back in the offering basket. 00:29:32.200 |
This is for you to use to bless other people. 00:29:36.060 |
Now, I'm assuming, I could be wrong, but I'm assuming that most of you are going to try 00:29:43.700 |
Maybe you won't have time, but at least you're going to make an effort to do that. 00:29:46.420 |
And the reason why is because it was given to you. 00:29:51.940 |
This was my money I gave to you and I'm asking you to do it. 00:29:56.260 |
Because right now I have no idea who I gave it to. 00:29:58.580 |
I just walked around randomly so some of you guys look happier than other people, so I'm 00:30:06.980 |
But I'm assuming that those of you who receive the money are going to be able, or at least 00:30:14.260 |
And the reason why you're not going to be reluctant to do that is because you don't 00:30:23.460 |
Because if you do that, the person that you bless with that will be blessed. 00:30:29.460 |
You'll be blessed because you were able to do that for them. 00:30:35.100 |
And then I'll be blessed because I see you loving one another. 00:30:43.520 |
As a pastor, if you ask me what's the greatest gift that you can give me, this may sound 00:30:50.740 |
strange, and you may not believe me, but if you love one another and serve one another, 00:30:57.060 |
because we're working so hard to get you to get along and genuinely love each other, if 00:31:01.660 |
I see you guys doing that and serving each other, my heart is full. 00:31:07.660 |
So if I see you doing that, I will be blessed. 00:31:11.020 |
So if you take what you have and give it to somebody else and bless them, all three of 00:31:27.180 |
And you take that money and you hoard it to yourself, not only will you not be blessed, 00:31:31.660 |
I won't be blessed, and the person that you could have blessed isn't blessed. 00:31:38.540 |
There's a reason why God gives us bountifully. 00:31:43.820 |
Why he doesn't just kind of open up heaven and just pour out money. 00:31:51.420 |
And that's true, not just with finance, that's true even with evangelism. 00:31:56.380 |
Because if God uses you to bring somebody else to Christ, they're blessed because of 00:32:00.020 |
you, you're blessed because God used you, and God is blessed because you surrendered 00:32:07.540 |
Only reason why we have this difficulty with finance is because we see it as ours. 00:32:15.740 |
I've given it to God, the rest of it belongs to me, so we become stingy, and then we hoard 00:32:20.260 |
that to ourselves, and then we don't honor God with it. 00:32:25.080 |
That's why the language that we see in scripture is to honor God with your finances. 00:32:37.760 |
And we bless all the other people, and God is worshipped in that process. 00:32:41.920 |
The third and final free will offering is the peace offering mentioned in Leviticus 00:32:48.200 |
The cause of this offering is to, the offering was to be brought to God, recognizing that 00:32:54.340 |
because of God's sacrifice for us, that we have peace with one another. 00:32:57.840 |
Romans 5, 1, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God 00:33:04.080 |
Ephesians 2, 17 and 19, "And he came and preached peace to you who are far off, peace to those 00:33:10.160 |
who are near, for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father." 00:33:14.720 |
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints 00:33:21.320 |
The very first thing that happened when sin came into the world, there was contention 00:33:26.220 |
The most intimate relationship in human relationship, husband and wife, and all of a sudden, they 00:33:33.260 |
And as a result of that, the scripture says there is contention between husband and wife 00:33:40.480 |
So the restoration of that vertical relationship with God, the first ramification of that is 00:33:47.760 |
that our horizontal relationship with God is affected. 00:33:51.880 |
And so the third act of worship, they would come and they would offer sacrifices, only 00:33:56.920 |
the parts that they can't eat, certain organs like the liver or the heart, and then anything 00:34:01.280 |
that could be consumed, they would save that and they would have a picnic. 00:34:06.120 |
They would come on the side of the temple and then the priests and the offerer and their 00:34:09.520 |
family would sit and actually enjoy that meal together. 00:34:15.720 |
That peace with God caused peace with one another. 00:34:18.920 |
And so the third act of offering for Christians, it has to do with vertical relationship with 00:34:28.080 |
Ask any parent, ask any parent who has multiple children, how can we help you? 00:34:42.000 |
When our kids were younger, we didn't have all this technology. 00:34:45.400 |
Now you have this video thing that your kids are attached to the hip 24/7. 00:34:52.060 |
When our kids were younger, they could throw up in their crib and we wouldn't know till 00:34:56.680 |
As long as they didn't cry their heads off and we wake up and they're sleeping in their 00:35:02.360 |
But we didn't have to deal with it three in the morning as long as they didn't wake up. 00:35:05.080 |
So we were at peace even though they were not. 00:35:17.840 |
So if you want to help the parents, you have to help with the kids. 00:35:22.120 |
So if the kid comes up and says, "What can I do to help you?" 00:35:37.440 |
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and spirit. 00:35:40.720 |
He doesn't say those are two separate things. 00:35:44.600 |
If you want to love God, love your brother, love your sister. 00:35:48.200 |
If you want to worship me, take care of your brother, take care of your sister. 00:36:02.280 |
He puts us in a community so we can practice the love of Christ. 00:36:06.560 |
The church is not a place where certain types of personalities, certain people who have 00:36:10.640 |
kind of learned to get along, people who are not awkward, people who don't have ugliness 00:36:14.680 |
inside, that we hope the sanctification took place before you became a Christian so at 00:36:19.040 |
church we can practice how to be good to one another. 00:36:27.080 |
Church is a place where people who absolutely needed the grace of God just to make it. 00:36:34.240 |
And so it's only reasonable to think that there's selfishness in the room, self-righteousness 00:36:42.240 |
in the room, self-glorification, sometimes slander, maybe even hatred and bitterness. 00:36:52.880 |
And our natural reaction is when we see that is to run the other direction because who 00:37:04.440 |
That's a natural human response to sin when we see ugliness. 00:37:08.080 |
That's why we don't want to live in certain neighborhoods. 00:37:09.920 |
That's why we don't want to make certain kind of friends. 00:37:11.720 |
That's why we don't want to join certain kind of small groups. 00:37:14.680 |
Because as soon as we see some of this ugliness, we don't want part of that. 00:37:18.280 |
See, but when scripture says, when Jesus says, "They will know you by my love." 00:37:24.880 |
The love that Jesus is talking about is unlike the love in the world. 00:37:28.400 |
If you love those people who are lovable, tell me somebody in the world that doesn't 00:37:43.840 |
That is not the love that Jesus is referring to. 00:37:47.040 |
He says, "Love as I have loved you, then the world will know that you are my disciples." 00:37:50.920 |
And what is the love that he practiced with us? 00:37:53.020 |
He saw our sin and instead of turning away, he came to us. 00:38:04.400 |
And then he says, "Come, die with me so that you can also live with me." 00:38:09.720 |
So the church is a place where sinners are being sanctified. 00:38:15.120 |
Not sanctified sinners who are practicing everything that we know to be righteous, but 00:38:21.160 |
sinners who are practicing to become sanctified. 00:38:27.480 |
This is not something that you and I could do by our own strength. 00:38:30.400 |
Only those who have been affected by that love can practice that love. 00:38:35.720 |
The communion that we take this morning is much like this peace offering. 00:38:41.580 |
Because it is not meant to be done in isolation. 00:38:44.480 |
Everyone saw somebody would ask, "Do you mind if we have communion at our wedding?" 00:38:47.640 |
And again, there's nothing saying that you can't have it at the wedding, but at our church 00:38:53.160 |
The reason why we don't practice that is because it was not meant to be done in isolation. 00:38:56.320 |
It was not meant to be done with just two people. 00:38:58.940 |
It was meant to be very public within the body of Christ, where the whole church gets 00:39:02.560 |
together to recognize that we are a part of the larger group. 00:39:09.040 |
That we together are having this time together. 00:39:13.880 |
That peace with God has created peace with one another. 00:39:17.160 |
And that's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, 17, 18, their division in the Corinthian 00:39:25.520 |
Because they didn't recognize what the communion table was. 00:39:27.880 |
1 Corinthians 11, 17 says, "But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because 00:39:32.280 |
when you come together it is not for the better, but for the worse. 00:39:35.520 |
For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions 00:39:40.400 |
And then he leads into the communion and says, verse 20, "When you come together, it is not 00:39:46.000 |
For in eating, each one goes ahead in his own meal. 00:39:51.480 |
What do you not have in the houses to eat and drink? 00:39:54.560 |
Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? 00:40:02.080 |
In other words, they're participating in this communion table and they're not thinking about 00:40:08.120 |
And as a result, they are defiling the communion table, because they don't recognize what it 00:40:15.380 |
We can easily come to a church and pick and choose, especially a church our size. 00:40:20.600 |
Those people I relate to, those people I do not. 00:40:24.120 |
Those people I like, I like to smuggle with this group, but I don't like to smuggle with 00:40:28.080 |
I want to be in this group, but not that group. 00:40:30.840 |
And at the core of our heart, we do not recognize what Christ has done. 00:40:35.720 |
What we are recognized for is the love that Christ practiced on us. 00:40:41.360 |
And so therefore, we practice with one another. 00:40:44.120 |
That when we see ugliness, it's not if, it's when we see ugliness in other people that 00:40:52.160 |
That's when we have an opportunity to worship God. 00:40:56.120 |
Because God is honored and glorified, the more difficult it is to love that person, 00:41:03.360 |
Not just any love, but Christ's love is reflected when it is difficult to love. 00:41:08.420 |
So if we are a church filled with people, attracting people who are attractive inside 00:41:17.720 |
The church of Christ must run to those people who are in need of grace. 00:41:24.080 |
2 Corinthians 11 27 29, "Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord 00:41:28.320 |
in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord. 00:41:32.960 |
Let a person examine himself, then so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 00:41:37.000 |
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself." 00:41:42.200 |
So when he says discerning the body, he's talking about the others. 00:41:56.180 |
I love God, but I want nothing to do with these ugly people. 00:42:03.920 |
You can't say you love God and hate your brother, then neither do you love God. 00:42:09.640 |
See, the third offering, the peace offering, is a reminder to us that our act of worship, 00:42:16.760 |
our most tangible way to express our act of worship is through finance and with other 00:42:23.800 |
So this morning as we participate in the communion table, as we open it up, I want to encourage 00:42:28.680 |
you to take some time to reflect on yourself. 00:42:32.100 |
Don't think about other people, don't think about anything else but yourself as an act 00:42:36.820 |
How can I worship God and that our communion table will remind us, not because you're righteous, 00:42:42.400 |
not because of what you've done, but because of what he has done in light of his mercy, 00:42:48.440 |
in view of his mercy, to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable 00:42:56.140 |
So this morning we're going to open up the communion table, and again we want to remind 00:43:00.700 |
you in order to avoid traffic in the middle, we're going to ask you guys to come to the 00:43:03.540 |
side and then take the elements and then go down the middle. 00:43:07.280 |
Again unless you're sitting right here, you don't need to go all the way around, but just 00:43:12.240 |
And again I want to remind you that this is for the baptized believers in the church. 00:43:17.320 |
Again the first act of obedience should be baptism and not communion. 00:43:20.840 |
So if you're a believer and you have not been baptized, we ask that you come and be baptized 00:43:25.760 |
And then secondly, if you're not a believer, if you have not confessed the Lord as your 00:43:31.360 |
Savior, this is sort of an anniversary to kind of remember what Christ has done. 00:43:36.120 |
So if you're not a believer, we ask that you just kind of stay at your seat. 00:43:40.080 |
There is no power in and of itself unless it symbolizes cleansing of blood in your life. 00:43:45.340 |
So if that is not where you are, we ask that you would remain in your seat and just think 00:43:49.820 |
carefully about the things that we've discussed. 00:43:52.120 |
Again but for the rest of us, I ask that you guys would stay in your seats and take some 00:43:56.280 |
time to pray, repent of unrepentant sins, unreconciled relationships, and to really 00:44:09.160 |
Do my finances reflect His Lordship and His grace? 00:44:14.800 |
Third, is His grace reflective on the way that I treat other people and who I treat 00:44:21.880 |
And take some time to reflect on that to discern the body of Christ before you come up. 00:44:25.880 |
So I want to read the passage again in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and I'm going to pray and open 00:44:31.320 |
up the communion table so when you're all ready, we ask that one by one you would come 00:44:35.120 |
1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, 00:44:41.440 |
that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given 00:44:45.760 |
thanks He broke it and said, 'This is my body which is for you. 00:44:51.000 |
In the same way also He took the cup after supper and saying, 'This cup is a new covenant 00:44:57.400 |
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.'" 00:45:00.760 |
Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning asking, Lord God, that you would help 00:45:06.000 |
us to continue to see the varying degrees of your glory, that we may reflect that glory 00:45:15.520 |
We ask, Lord God, that you would affect us deeply, that what you have already done, what 00:45:21.400 |
you have already given, Lord God, would consume us, that everything that we give to you would 00:45:28.760 |
I pray, Father God, that you would examine our hearts, see if there's any hurtful ways 00:45:32.320 |
in us, that this sacred time, Lord, would have its effect that you've desired. 00:45:38.840 |
We open it up, Lord God, asking for your grace.