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It is a great privilege to be able to minister the word of God to you once again this morning. And I would like for you to take your Bibles and turn to the Epistle to the Hebrews as we continue to make our way through it, we are in Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to examine verses 15 and 16 here this morning, under the heading "Christian Sacrifices."

Before we look at the text, may I say that the Epistle to the Hebrews is often ignored because of its complexity, especially as it relates to the numerous arguments that are derived from Old Testament concepts; issues pertaining to the Mosaic Law, Judaism, all of those things are quite foreign to us as Gentiles. We have not grown up under the Mosaic Law. I have never worshiped in a tabernacle, nor have you, or a temple. We know nothing of bringing animals that we own to be slaughtered and to be sacrificed. We know nothing of priests to offer them. We know nothing of altars and so forth. But that was just the opposite for the Jewish people in the first century. These things were as familiar to them as our lives are familiar to us today. This was all they knew for centuries. Therefore, with the old covenant now being replaced by the new, their world was turned upside down, and therefore they were prone to mix law with grace. They were very vulnerable to false teachers who specialized in that various thing - the Judaizers - so they had a great need to be taught how to worship, how to serve Christ, how to live the Christian life, hence the Epistle to the Hebrews. It's filled with rich theological arguments and explanations concerning the absolute superiority and supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ; and based upon who he is and what he has done, what he is doing and what he will do, here is how you need to behave. Here is how you need to worship. Here is how you need to conduct your life. These are the things that are pleasing to Him. So there are many exhortations concerning these things, exhortations that tell us how to fellowship with God and fellow believers and unbelievers.

In fact, many people are surprised that the Epistle to the Hebrews is filled with so many exhortations. In fact, the postscript of Hebrews in chapter 13, verse 22 says, "But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of encouragement, for I have written to you briefly." "This word of encouragement," by the way, that's a phrase used in Acts 13, verse 15, to describe a sermon, this is actually a sermon - the Epistle to the Hebrews - and if you were to read it through, it would take about an hour to get through it. And to "bear with" means to receive it warmly with a receptive and open mind. And so Hebrews is filled with numerous exhortations, and they make up, shall we say, the worship agenda for a believer. And all of this was new to these dear people, and these spiritual acts of worship were internal things that would manifest themselves in their everyday lives. And many of these things we're familiar with, but we need to be reminded of them as well. In fact, I'm going to read through a sampling of them from the Epistle to the Hebrews, and I want you to ask yourself, are these things characteristic of my heart? They were told to pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away, draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, but encouraging one another, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Let love of the brethren continue. Show hospitality to strangers. Remember the prisoners and those who are ill-treated. Let marriage be held in honor among all. Let your character be free from the love of money. Remember those who led you and imitate their faith. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings.

And then, if you follow the grammatical and logical flow of the letter, you come finally to chapter 13 and verse 10, where he says, "We have an altar." Don't let everybody out there tell you that we don't have an altar. Our altar is the cross of Calvary where Jesus died. And we also have sacrifices in verse 13 of chapter 13. Hence, "let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach." In other words, because we have an altar, which is Christ, let's join him outside the camp, and there we must get busy, because we have sacrifices to offer.

And that brings us to the text today, verse 15,

"Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

"And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."

My what practical and powerful exhortations. You want to ask yourself the question:  Have I gone out to where Christ is outside the camp? Am I living my life in such a way as to bear his reproach, to gladly be humiliated on his behalf, to reject the popularity and the identification with the world and to follow Christ, even possibly to death? Am I living my life that way, and since I've been made a priest unto God by Jesus Christ, am I faithful in fulfilling my priestly duties to him? What sacrifices do I offer? How do I offer them? When do I offer them? To whom do I offer them? And through whom?

Well, these are all questions that are answered in our text this morning, and what a wonderful privilege it is to immerse ourselves in the Word of God and understand these things, knowing that when we do, God draws near to us and ministers to our soul in ways that are incomprehensible to us, and yet we relish them. So I want to approach this text under three very simple headings. We're going to look at the mediator of our sacrifice, the nature of our sacrifice and the consequence of our sacrifice. Notice first, the mediator of our sacrifice, verse 15, "Through Him then..." Grammatically in the original language, this is in the emphatic position. It's very, very important. The writer wants us to understand that our sacrifices are mediated solely on the basis of Jesus Christ, and in him alone; nothing we do can be offered to God through a high priest of Judaism, nothing through Jewish observances. Our sacrifices don't go through angels, and certainly it's not as a result of some post-modern god of liberal Christianity, whoever he or she might be. Moreover, it's not through some god like Allah or some Roman Catholic priest or some Virgin Mary or a saint or whatever, the only one who has made atonement for sin, and thereby opened up the way for sinful man to enter into the presence of a holy God, is the Lord Jesus Christ; "Through Him then."

You see, as believers, we have no hope and no joy in dead animals. Our hope and our joy is in a living Savior. That's the point of all of this. It is only through his sacrifice that we have access to God to offer our sacrifices. He alone meets us at the sanctuary door, so to speak, to accept our sacrifices of praise to God and good works to the glory of God. And he, as it were, meets us at the door and takes our sacrifices and brings them into the presence of God. You will recall in Hebrews, chapter seven, verses 24 and 25 contrary to the earthly priest that would die, the writer says,

 "Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.

"Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."

It's only through Christ that we can draw near to God and folks, we must never, ever forget that that's the glory of the cross. That's the glory of Christ. Hebrews chapter four, beginning in verse 14,

"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

"For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

"Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

So indeed, Jesus is the mediator of our sacrifices of praise and of good works, and our focus must therefore forever be fixed on the glorious person and the saving work of Christ. You will remember, as we studied earlier, that the inspired writer of Hebrews is constantly pleading for his audience - his readers - to be preoccupied with two very simple, yet profound, realities: to be preoccupied with Revelation and with redemption. With what God has said and what Christ has done. And that's why, when we come to this text, and he says, "We have an altar," and in verse 13, "so let us go out to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach," we can understand that he's saying "Through Him then,";  listen to me here, here's the revelation, here's what Christ has done, "let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God," and so forth.

So, now that we understand the mediator of our sacrifice, let's look at the nature of our sacrifice. And we're really given just two very simple categories here. One, we praise God and give thanks to his name; and secondly, that we do good and share. We're going to look at those more closely.

Now bear in mind that every believer united to Christ through saving faith has the opportunity to enjoy the fullness of his grace, to enjoy the presence of Christ in their heart and all of the blessings of salvation. And this comes by fulfilling, shall we say, our priestly duty in offering our sacrifices to God. And you might ask yourself, if your heart is sour and sullen, if your heart is a bit hard today, if there's some bitterness, or there's some overwhelming sense of just being distant from God, here's the reason why you're not fulfilling your duties before the Lord, out of joy, out of love.

Now I want you to notice these are sacrifices of their heart. They are inward. They're not outward. They have nothing to do with the ceremonial Mosaic Law, and that's what he's trying to communicate to these early Jewish people that have come to Christ. Now also bear in mind, and this is important to understand the context here, most of the Old Covenant sacrifices were propitiatory and expiatory. You will remember we studied that. In other words, they would they were given to either appease the righteous wrath of God against the sinner, or they were given to remove the guilt of sin. And you will recall, we studied the two goats that symbolized propitiation and expiation. There was the one goat that would be slaughtered on the Day of Atonement, that symbolized propitiation; an innocent substitute was slaughtered to appease the just wrath of God, ultimately pointing to Christ. And then the other goat was sent into the wilderness to symbolize expiation, the idea that there is a permanent removal of the guilt of sin.

But we must understand that they also had other sacrifices that were Thanksgiving sacrifices. They were called peace offerings, and they were dedicatory. In other words, they were an act of praise and thanksgiving dedicated to the Lord. You can go to Leviticus three, go to Leviticus seven, and other passages like that, to read about them. And with the peace offerings, they symbolized a thankful heart because God was at peace with them, because of the sacrifice; fellowship for the true worshiper was restored. And so these were an expression of deepest gratitude for God being willing to accept the propitiatory sacrifices.

So I know these are difficult theological terms - you're maybe not used to hearing - but you need to get used to hearing them so that you grasp the riches of what God is saying. And of course, all of those sacrifices pointed to the reconciliation and the fellowship that Christ provided in his sacrificial death. In fact, according to Leviticus 17 and verse five, worshipers would quote, "bring their sacrifice," by the way, usually they were material sacrifices, like sheep and goats, okay? So you would take one of your precious sheep or goats, and you would take the sacrifice to the priest. You would "bring your sacrifice," the text says, "to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace offerings to the LORD." So this is the context now that the Jews are hearing these things that the writer is giving to them.

The Lord also says in Psalm 50 and verse 14, "'Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High.'" And in verse 23 goes on to say, "'He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; and to him who orders his way aright, I shall show the salvation of God.'" One more text, in Psalm 116 beginning in verse 17,

"To You I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call upon the name of the LORD. 

"Oh may it be in the presence of all His people,

"In the courts of the LORD's house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!"

 So when the writer of Hebrews exhorts these first century Jewish people to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, "...that is the fruit of your lips, and give thanks to His name," they had a clear understanding of that context. But obviously the nature now, of the sacrifices, have nothing to do with something material. This is speaking of an attitude of praise and thanksgiving to God for his saving grace, and all of the benefits that are associated with redemption, which ultimately result in our actions of doing good and sharing, as we will see.

Now, let's notice more specifically, the nature of our sacrifices. This is so precious. I hope you grab a hold of these things. First again, he says, "Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God." "Continually," he says, "that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name." In other words, this is not something that you just do on the Sabbath day or some special holy day like they were used to doing. This is not something that is presented to the Lord on Sunday, on the first day of the week. This is something that we are to present to the Lord continually, constantly, a way of life. Paul tells us, as you will recall that we are to "pray without ceasing." You might say, here we are being told to "praise without ceasing." That's the idea. This is like the incense that was outside the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle that would be offered up day and night, year in and year out, representing the prayers of the saints. In fact, Psalm 141, and verse two, we read, "May my prayer be counted as incense before You; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering."

I want you to notice also that this sacrifice of praise to God that we are to offer up is to be the "fruit of lips that give thanks to His name." There's a fascinating story that came to my mind when I was meditating upon this passage. In France, sometime in the 19th century, there was a poor, blind girl who obtained the gospel of Mark in raised letters, and she learned to read it by the tips of her fingers, and by constant reading, her fingers became so calloused that she was no longer able to sense the little bumps that would communicate truth to her, she couldn't distinguish the character. So as the story goes, one day, she decided to as best she could, cut the skin from the ends of her fingers to increase their sensibility. But unfortunately, she just destroyed that sense of sensitivity. She felt that she had to now give up the blessed book that she had; and weeping, she pressed her lips to the to the text, saying, "Farewell, farewell, sweet word of my heavenly Father." But to her surprise, her lips more delicate than her fingers, were able to discern the forms of the letters, and all night, she began to read the Word of God with her lips. She overflowed with joy with the new acquisition of that ability.

Well, back to our text, the sacrifice of praise to God here is to be offered up "as the fruit of lips." I understand the analogy is a bit different here, but you get the point. It's the fruit of our lips to give thanks to his name. In Hebrews, chapter two and verse 12, we read, "'I will proclaim Your name to my brethren in the midst of the congregation. I will sing Your praise.'" Beloved, we can do this through singing, through speaking, through teaching, through preaching, through writing - any way to communicate the glorious truths of who God is - to give thanks to His name is the fruit of our lips, to confess the glory of God in the face of Christ. So the point here is to publicly, continuously speak of God's revelation of himself in Christ Jesus, and the name of God - as we speak about his name, give thanks to his name - remember the name of God encompasses the sum of all of his attributes. In His name is the consummate holiness of who he is. It is in his name that we see his eternal perfections. God does things constantly, as we read in Scripture, for his name's sake, to bring glory to him. And folks, that is why we exist.

This text harkens back to Psalm 54, let me give you the context there; in Psalm 54 it was a Psalm of lament where David is pouring out his heart to God. He is in great distress because of the false accusations and the way Saul was pursuing him. So he was in unimaginable despair. And in Psalm 54 verse one, he says, "Save me, O God, by Your name," The "name" there refers to Yahweh - the covenant name of God that expresses his faithful love relationship to his people - that name emphasizes God's power, his eternality, his self-existence, his self-sufficiency. And later in verse six, he says, "Willingly I will sacrifice to You." And how does he do that? Notice what he says, "I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good. For He has delivered me from all trouble, and my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies. My what an example of what it is to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God through your lips, giving thanks to His name. And please understand we don't do this just when things are going well. We do this even when things are going terribly wrong. Just this last week, I was talking to a friend, trying to comfort him. He's been going through some very, very difficult trials for probably a year, and he said something that was so encouraging to me. He said, "Dave, I have finally come to a place where I can actually give thanks to God for my trial, for my situation, and literally praise him, because I know that he's in it." That's the idea of a sacrifice of praise. It reminds me of Romans five and verse three, Paul says that because of our justification, "we also exult in our tribulations." Grammatically, the text is saying we exalt not in spite of our tribulations, but because of them. Lord, thank you that even in this great trial, I can rejoice knowing that you are in it. And he goes on to say,

"knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

"and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

"and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

So folks, regardless of the circumstance that we find ourselves in, we must always come before our Great High Priest, and we must always offer him a sacrifice of praise to God. Praise being a heart that's overflowing with adoration for who he is, and utter contentment with what he's up to in our life, giving thanks to his name. Don't you love to be around people who do this. Oh, it is such a joy to my heart. I mean, nobody likes an Eeyore, right? You remember Eeyore? You know the little donkey walks around like this, Oh, everything's so sad. My, it's so discouraging when Christians act that way. A Christian Eeyore, sometimes I can look back when we're all singing, and I can look at a few of you and you got this scowl on your face and we're singing praises to Christ, you look like you're having a gallbladder attack. Well, you know what? What is going on? The Psalmist were so full of praise, weren't they? Psalm seven, verse 17, "I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High."

As I was thinking about this passage this last week, my mind went to my dear sister, Kathy. I remember talking with her on so many occasions. And for those of you that don't know, she fought breast cancer for five years before the Lord took her home. And I can remember one of the passages that I wrote down that she had read and found great comfort in. And it was this in Psalm 43, verse five, "Why are you in despair, O my soul?  And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him." And you know, I can still see her white teeth smiling through that clear oxygen mask as she lay dying of cancer. Folks, that's a testimony of what it is to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God and give thanks to his name. What a joy it is to be around people like that, praising God from their lips.

My mind also goes to a time when I was a little boy, I spent a lot of time in the summers with my cousin, whose father had, at the time, the largest farm in Western Kentucky, and I was too small to throw the bales of hay on the truck, so I had to ride in the passenger seat. I remember my legs wouldn't quite touch the ground. So that's how little I was then. And my cousin would drive the truck, but he had to have a big block on that accordion thing that they used to have for a gas pedal. Some of you are old enough to remember that. And on that farm, they had three black families that became very, very precious to me and a number of other folks that were friends of theirs, and they all worked together, and I got to know them, and I can still hear them singing beautiful harmony as they followed the truck, throwing those bales on the truck. "Swing low, sweet chariot coming for to carry me home." "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine." "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound," and on and on it would go. My what a reunion I will have some day when I get to see those dear brothers. And when I got older, I was able to sing with them while throwing bales on the truck. And I have to confess, I preferred riding in the truck at that time; that's a hot, nasty job. Any of you that have done that, you know that. And I can also remember when it was time to put up the tobacco, and if any of you have ever worked in a tobacco barn, you know that that is a living hell on earth, right? And I would climb up on the beams to wherever my station would be, and I would take that bundle on the stick from the person below, and then I would lift it up to the person above. And oh, it was, hot, miserable; tobacco juice all over you. Nicotine making you high as it comes through your skin, wasps everywhere. There is not a dry spot on you. And guess what those men were doing the whole time. Singing praises to the Lord. I'll never forget that. And then after the worship service was over, we would strip off and have a baptism in the pond, you know?

Friends, what about you? I mean, is this your life? Do you continually offer up sacrifice to praise to God? I hope you do. My think of all the ways we can do that, especially today. I mean, just with social media. It can go out to 1000s, if not millions, of people. Fathers, especially, do you do this with your children? You say, "Kids come around, I want to talk to you. Let me tell you about the time when God proved himself powerful on my behalf. Kids, let me tell you about what God did today. Kids, let me tell you what God has shown me today. Let me tell you what God is up to in our life today." Folks, this is what it means to be able to demonstrate the perpetual gratitude that we have for God and just the ardent admiration for the Lord our God. When we do that, that pleases him and he and he blesses us. Beloved, I must add this, as his creatures, we are happiest when we are doing what we were created to do, right? That's not that hard to understand. We were created to give him glory, and we do that by continually offering up a sacrifice of praise to God, "that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." And dear friends, when your heart is bursting with praise, your ship is in full sail, and off you go. That's my encouragement to you.

The second category of sacrifice is found in verse 16. Notice he says, "And do not neglect doing good and sharing." Here our sacrifices move from word to deed, don't they?  The inimitable 17th century theologian, Matthew Henry, once said that "This moves now from thanksgiving to thanks living." Right? I like that, from thanksgiving to thanks living. So our worship here, we see, also involves actions. Love is not an abstraction, it is action. First John 3:18, "Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." I have to laugh. I remember the story of a little five-year-old girl who had been attending the church kindergarten, and each day in their Sunday school, the teacher would have them sing the doxology, which this little five-year-old girl loved to sing. But she had her own words, and I love her words, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him, all creatures, here we go." You know, that's probably how we need to sing it. In fact, I will promise you the next time we sing that you're going to remember that.

Now, notice what he says here, "doing good." This is very important. This speaks more of merely rendering service to those who are in need. It carries the idea of doing good - doing well - in everything that we do, we do whatever it is. You know, as Christians, the world must see that whatever we do, we do with excellence, even if no one sees it. God sees it. Mothers, this refers to you training your children; do it with excellence. Put in the work, put in the time, put in the prayer, give your life to that. Those of you who serve at Calvary Bible Church in various ways, do it with excellence. And most of what is done here is done in obscurity. That's okay. The Lord is watching. Do it with excellence. Don't come here studying your Sunday school lesson as you pull into the parking lot, right?  Don't come here, and I'm glad our musicians don't do this - but I've seen this in churches - not having practiced. You know, do things with excellence. That's the idea.

Remember in Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus," for what? "For good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." So let's represent him well. Remember in Titus chapter two, we read that "Christ gave Himself for us, to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." There it is, He has redeemed us and transformed us so that we would have a disposition of generosity towards others and a disposition to do everything we do with absolute excellence; and this is a reflection of our love for Christ. This is to be the essence of our Christian character.

By the way, folks at Calvary Bible Church are well known for this. I marvel when I think of all the ways that you demonstrate this. And I might also add, this is part of what it means to be salt and light in a very dark world. I mean, think about it. You know what Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your..." what? "...your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." In the same vein, Peter wrote in First Peter 2:12, "Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles" - in other words, among those that don't know Christ - "...so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation."

So not only is our sacrifice to be one of "doing good,” but also, he says, "sharing." In the original language this is the Greek word "koinonia." It speaks of specific acts of fellowship or unity among the saints. In fact, in several New Testament passages, it includes the idea of sharing temporal possessions. For example, in Romans 15 verse 26, the term is translated "contribution." He says, "for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem." And we know that the saints there in the first century, that are described in the Epistle to the Hebrews, were familiar with this. Hebrews, chapter six and verse 10, we read, "For God is not unjust as so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints." I'm fascinated with one of the lectures of George Washington Carver that I read not too long ago in some of my readings. Remember he was the great American botanist and inventor, and his life is really a chronicle of sacrifice and humility. He's just a brilliant man, good deeds, dedication, a man that loved Christ. And he stated his personal philosophy in these simple words, quote, "Let down your buckets, where you are." Very interesting. In other words, he's encouraging people to, as we might say at times, bloom where you're planted, right? And don't go through life dodging issues, complaining, criticizing, but contribute something, that's the idea. This was well illustrated time and time again in Dr Carver's own career, but never, I think, more dramatically than when he turned down $175,000 a year to work with Thomas Edison. Now, folks, that's a lot of money today, but think about 100 years ago. He turned it down, and his reason was this, quote, "I felt that God was not through with me in Tuskegee." There was still plenty of work to do for him there.

Beloved, bear in mind, we can never out give God. He will return to us a million-fold, and when we are living for his glory, money doesn't matter. The applause of men doesn't matter. What the world says about us doesn't matter. All that matters is that we know before our holy God, in our heart, that we are honoring him, and he is pleased with what we're doing; and he manifests his good pleasure to us in a myriad of ways, sometimes in ways that we take for granted.

This leads us to our final consideration, that is the consequence of our sacrifice. Notice at the end of verse 16, "for with such sacrifices, God is pleased." Folks, can there be any greater motivation than this to do that which is pleasing to the Lord? I mean parents, what do you feel, and what do you do, when someone tells you about something that your child has done that has demonstrated some sacrificial goodness towards another person? You just swell with pride, right? You rejoice. That's the idea here. And can there be any greater reward than hearing the Master say, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master" (Matthew 25:23). I hope this is your life's ambition.

I want to challenge you this morning, in closing, about your own relationship with God, because all of these things really speak to that ultimate reality, our relationship with God. How would you describe it? Let me give you three options. The first option would be rich, intimate, exhilarating, soul satisfying, soul-exhilarating. I'm in constant communion with him, his word is a nourishment to my soul; my constant comfort, my heart is constantly filled with doxologies of praise, and it just kind of gushes out all of the time.

Or is it maybe a second category? Well, my relationship with him is just so-so. It's not really bad, but it's not rich and intimate and right now, frankly, I feel it's a little bit distant, maybe a bit strained. It's certainly not exhilarating or richly satisfying.

Or perhaps it's the final category. Your relationship with God is basically nonexistent. The fire has been extinguished. He's like a long-forgotten friend. You're out of touch with him, you seldom think about him. You have really no desire to fellowship with Him. You just go through the motions of your Christianity. There's certainly no praise from your lips. And sadly, many Christians live somewhere between the second and the third category. It's so sad. So many people are defeated and discouraged and depressed. Folks, if that is you, there's something terribly wrong. The psalmist David said in Psalm 34 verse one, "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord." But for a lot of people, that's just not true; it's just foreign to them. Well, why is this? Well, for most, it's because of habitual, often unwitting sin in their life that grieves the Spirit - that quenches the Spirit - that causes them to forfeit blessing. They're ruled by their flesh, not by the Spirit. There's no spiritual fruit on their vine. And for others, it's also in addition to what I just said, just living for yourself. You're not living for Christ. You haven't gone out to him outside the camp. You're not willing to bear his reproach. So you live from a distance. God is not real and exciting to you, and you often wonder where he is in your life.

Dear Christian, please hear this, if you're struggling in these ways, you must understand that you do not need more of God, he needs more of you. He needs your sacrifices here. He needs more than what you've been giving him. He wants you to present your body as a living and a holy sacrifice.

The point is, it is so crucial for us to continually present the totality of all we are as a believer to Christ so that he might convict us and discipline us and teach us and comfort us and empower us; bless us, sanctify us. You see, worship has always included sacrifice, but the form of sacrifice is now changed under the New Covenant. The Old Testament, sacrifices, as you know, were dead sacrifices. The New Testament, sacrifices are living sacrifices. We are to make a sacrifice in the Old Testament, I should say, they were asked to make a sacrifice in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we are asked to be a sacrifice; one that is living and holy. And this context is referring to a sacrifice that is set apart from sin, that is separate from the world; a person that is willing to give up their dreams and their ambitions, to set aside their own agenda and all of their selfishness and their passions and to be set apart unto the Lord. The idea here is total voluntary surrender of all that we are. But even as the Old Testament sacrifices were to be without spot and blemish, so we are to present ourselves to the Lord in purity of heart, solely dedicated to his glory. And this is the kind of sacrifice, dear friends, that is acceptable to God. This is what is pleasing to Him. This is what brings pleasure to him. My what a powerful motivation to surrender our lives completely to Him. Amen.

I want to close with this text. It's in Romans 12 one, remember, Paul has been exhorting the saints on the doctrine of justification, and at the end of chapter 11, he just bursts out in that incredible doxology of praise, and in chapter 12, he says, "Therefore," in light of all those things, "I urge you" - I exhort you, "parakaleō" in the original language. It's the idea of coming alongside someone and just kind of grabbing hold of them and earnestly pleading with them; please listen to this, act consistently with these truths. "I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God." In other words, in light of all that he has done for you, in light of his compassion to forgo what you deserve and give you what you do not deserve, in light of all of those great truths, "...present your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice." The term "present" in Greek was the term that was used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, as a technical term for a priest placing an animal on an altar of sacrifice. This is what I want you to do. I want you to lay yourself on that altar for the glory of Christ. And what are we to present? He says, "Your bodies." In other words, the totality of who you are as a person - the sum of all of your humanness - which includes, by the way, even our sin. Give it all to him.

I trust this is the passion of your heart. If it is, you will be able to sing with all of us older saints, a hymn that some of you younger people are not familiar with. And Dave, don't feel like you need to sing this. This just came to my mind this morning. I grew up singing this, "All to Jesus, I surrender; All to him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him in His presence daily live; All to Jesus I surrender, humbly at his feet I bow; Worldly pleasures all forsaken, take me, Jesus, take me now." And the chorus goes, "I surrender all." Remember it, "I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all." The key isn't quite right, but you remember it right? Beautiful old hymn. Folks, that's what we need to do, to surrender everything to him; that is our sacrifice of praise. Let's pray to the Lord,

Father, thank you for these great truths. I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will help us to apply them, to live them out, so that we can enjoy the fullness of your grace in our lives. May we indeed surrender all to you. I ask in Jesus' name, Amen.