Sacrifice - God's Status Symbol

One of the great paradoxes of life is the response that most human beings have. To significant achievements in the lives of others. Though we may all envy an accomplishment or an attainment or a great personal victory. It's not uncommon for many of us at the same time. To feel a measure of disdain and scorn and even ridicule for one who had given so much to attain their goal. Because, you see, in each of us is the thought that we could probably do it, too. If we wanted to be that fanatical about it. I remember when 1976, a man by the name of Dan Cable won the Olympic gold medal in wrestling. And at the conclusion of the Olympics, he told the interviewer that he was now going to change his lifestyle. Which had up until that time, for the previous something like 8 or 10 years. Had involved 6 to 8 hours a day of disciplined regimen. Working out to be an Olympic gold medal wrestler. Many of us witnessed the same kind of testimony after Linda Frateriani Frattiani, yes, Received her silver medal and said that for her whole life she'd been working for this. And now she was going to do something else. And in all of us, there's a sense in which we like to have that achievement. But we're a little too well rounded as individuals. To want to go off the deep end like some of them did. Maybe many of you know, as I do. People who have given a great deal of themselves to other kinds of goals. I remember when I was about a high school graduate. There was a little fellow that lived up the street from us. Whose name was Johnny. And he had some rather significant birth defect problem. His parents traveled to many clinics to find some sort of relief or possible solution to this problem. Which affected his coordination and his ability to learn and so forth. I went to a clinic out in Philadelphia, stayed there for a number of days, maybe a week or two, and came back. And I'll never forget what the mother described to us as the regimen that they were going to put Johnny on. And that was eight to ten hours a day of exercises that the mother would go through with the child. Bending his muscles in every conceivable way. And bringing flexibility and coordination. And helping that boy to grow up to be able to take a normal place in society. Eight to ten hours a day of regimented discipline. Giving of herself that her child might lead a normal life. Today, if I'm not mistaken, he has a regular job. I believe it might even be in the service. And God has seen fit to answer that mother's Prayer. But if you look through the great achievements, if you look back and see those who have risen above circumstance, one thread is common to all of those things, and that's sacrifice. Everyone who would attain something of significance sacrificed to get there. Now, in our world today, sacrifice is commonly accepted in principle, if not in word. Most of you around here this morning could give illustration after illustration in your own life of something that you were called to sacrifice in order to make an attainment. Let's take the band, young people. The band asks you to give certain number of hours per week to practice your instrument, certain number of other hours per week to be at the rehearsals. Now, if I'm not mistaken, there's band practices for the schools all the way through the summer, so that your section is meeting two, three, four times a week. And in August, you're supposed to go to camp, pay your own way, which for some of you means you can't have a job or you can't do other things. Sacrifice. Well, let's take some of the young women in our fellowship. And you want to have a career, and you're called on by your employer to be available according to the hours that he sets. And perhaps if you're married, you and your husband are considering having a family. Your employer says there's no way you can have a job and have a child, too. If he doesn't say it, you know it's implied because of the regimen that he puts you on. Let's take some of the men in the fellowship. We could hear story after story of those who wanted to climb and be accomplished, to be successful and their businesses. And you basically write a ticket when you go into a corporation today that says, I will do what you ask me to do. We always say within reason. But sometimes the reason even is something such as significant as pulling up your roots, your family, your acquaintances, your fellowship, and moving to Kansas City because they told you to. And if you want that promotion, you. You'll be down there an hour early for work and come home an hour late. Sacrifice. It's absolutely commonly expected, and I must say that it's commonly accepted by most of us in our culture. Now, you'd think that when we got to the kingdom of God, you'd have the same thing. And you know what you do? Sacrifice is very much a part of what God calls us to as his people. But you know what astounds me is how few people really recognize that sacrifice is necessary in the kingdom of God. And even more astounding is those who recognize it Refuse to embrace it. Sacrifice is the way that God has called his people to walk. And yet there's something about where we are in 20th century America. There's something about where we are even here at Northway Christian Community, that says sacrifice isn't really part of what we're called to be or called to do. This morning, I want to talk to some of you here today who want. If you were asked, what's the desire of your life? You'd say, I want to please God. If I asked you to put your hand up right now and I would say, what's the greatest desire of your life? You'd say, I want to please God. All right? And I know that many of you would say that. And I'm talking to you today who feel that way. I'm talking this morning to people who want to please God but find frustration and doubt and failure as the markers along the road of your spiritual walk, brought about by stumblings and by irresolution, by distractions and concerns of the world. You know, it's interesting in talking to people in various levels of financial success, people who make $12,000 a year have $12,000 problems. People who make 100,000 a year have $100,000 a year problems. And, you know, it's built into us to think that if we can get a certain level of income, that it'll alleviate our problems. Right? I'm telling you, it just doesn't work. Well. You say, well, the person with $100,000 a year doesn't have the $10,000 or $12,000 problems like, where am I going to get the money to pay the electric bill? But he or she has problems like, what's going to happen when this investment collapses and that causes the dominoes in the other. And they put a lien against my house. It's the same thing. It's just maybe a little more intense because it's bigger. And it's another one of the paradoxes, isn't it, of the way our culture is set up to operate. I want to talk today to the people who are frustrated in their growth, those who would say that, honestly speaking, your spiritual life isn't really chugging along. If it was parallel to a workout program at a spa, you'd be going down one day a week. What happens when you work out one day a week? Anybody? Oh, yeah, you hurt. Something happens, you hurt. It doesn't do you any good, but you hurt because every, you know, you get down there on that one morning or one evening a week, and you really give it everything, but somehow nothing happens and it hurts. Or if you paralleled it to a diet, it would be like somebody who skimps or even cuts out two meals a day, but just wham o at dinner time. You know, it's stack after stack and plate after plate. Net result is the same. You're in agony all day long. Then you indulge yourself at night, and the net result is you're still overweight. How many of you find your spiritual life like that? You don't have to put your hand up, but you find yourselves running in bursts, and the bursts never seem to amount to anything. There's no sequence, there's no growth. If you looked at the pattern of your spiritual walk, it would be like this, or maybe like this. And you're wondering, what can I do? I want to have a word today, this morning. For those who feel by some reason of comparison with friends or neighbors that you're doing pretty well, your spiritual life's on a pretty even keel compared to the person next door or the friend in the office. But according to what God would have of you, you're afraid to make that comparison. And the word I want to focus in on today is a word that is often lost, like a small ship in a huge sea. And the sea is grace, and the ship is the word sacrifice. I want to talk to you today about the implications in our life of the unwillingness to sacrifice and the possible potentials in our life if we do. You see, beloved, in the kingdom of God, sacrifice is God's status symbol. Sacrifice is God's status symbol. God isn't going to come and look at us and measure our successes by how many people fill this room or even by the fact that we build a steeple on a building. God's not going to weigh our victories and our medals and our books and our adulations. He's going to measure our scars. I never want to be interpreted by anyone as saying that growth comes by works. My theology, the theology of those who are charged with leadership in this community, is not one of salvation by works or growth by works. It's by grace. But mark this well. Grace is applied in your life by sacrifice. Grace is applied in your life by sacrifice. What makes grace functional to you rather than something that's just out there and God's always pouring out and you say, hallelujah, Grace is made operational in your life, is brought to bear, makes change, brings about growth through sacrifice. It's very possible that I'm talking today to people who have found themselves buying into our mentality that permeates secular society, which is, I have a right, God owes it to me. Listen, God's going to do it, I'm going to receive it, and that settles it. And it's a gimme and I'll take it kind of society. It's not a society that's willing to give even in order to get. Remember John F. Kennedy, president in the early 60s, who made a very profound statement that's been often quoted and maybe changed in some form or another over the years. But he said, ask not what your country can do for you, rather ask what can you do for your country? Now, politically, that was a powerful and profound statement, but spiritually, the application is every bit as true. We are so busy asking God what we can get from him. That, beloved, we very infrequently ask, what can we give to God? What can we give him for all of his benefits to us? Psalm 116 says, Now I could spend time, number one, in the old Testament and go through with you illustration after illustration of those who sacrificed to please God. I could tell you about Abraham, who left the comfort and the security of his surroundings to be a nomad, listening to the voice of God and yet becoming the father of many nations. I could talk to you about Moses, who left the victory of the Egyptian strength and power, the riches that he had at his disposal, the authority that was given to him as an adopted son of Pharaoh and left it all to live in the wilderness for 40 years because God said so. I could talk to you about Elijah, who spent three years at the brook because God told him to go out and to pray that there would not be any rain. I could tell you about Jeremiah, who was thrown into a muddy well for speaking the word of the Lord. I could go on and on and on and give you illustration after illustration of people who decided in their own inner man to please God and were willing to sacrifice in order to do it. And from the Old Testament into the New Testament, there's a lot of illustrations of sacrifice. I could talk to you about all the things that Paul says. The sacrifice of our offerings in Philippians 2, the sacrifice of our faith, the sacrifice of Praise In Hebrews 13, there's all kinds of illustrations of sacrifice. But Paul put an entirely new light on what sacrifice meant when he said in Romans 12, I call upon you to present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual worship. Now, in the Old Testament, every sacrifice that was spoken of was spoken of as dead. Right. You think of sacrificial lambs and sacrificial oxen. We were reading one of our gatherings this week about King Solomon at the dedication of the temple, sacrificed 20,000 oxen. 20,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep sacrificed unto the Lord. And the Old Testament folks had, in their mind, sacrifice meant death. And so when Paul introduces the thought that you can be a living sacrifice, it revolutionized the principle. A sacrifice is something that you give up in order to gain something higher. Now, my first real understanding of living sacrifice came about three or four years ago when some of the high school and college guys that I was working with at the time invited me to play a game of tackle football with them. And being a pastor, they were kind to me and always would put me on the line where I couldn't get hurt. But I remember the time that we did an end sweep, and I was playing guard or tackle, and there was three or four guys that they'd imported from another side of Pittsburgh to test our skills. And I was running in front blocking for one of the stars, you know, 10th grade star that was showing us stuff. And I remember the clear rings in my ear, someone saying, throw down your body in front of these oncoming tacklers. Now, at the time, I didn't have time to turn around and look at him and say, are you kidding? That's what I wanted to say, but I conveniently fell down and got out of the way. But I'll tell you, a lot of coaches would say to guys today on football teams, you sacrifice your body for this team. A living sacrifice. That is to say, one who offers up their life for something of higher value. You see, we tend to think of sacrifices as death and dead sacrifices, too, don't we? How many of you have ever prayed or meditated or thought about if someone came up and put a gun beside your head and said, do you love Jesus? Would you sacrifice your life? But the question really today is, brothers and sisters, not just would we die for him, but will we live for him? That's the sacrifice that God is calling us to. I want you to turn with me to Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5, Two verses. That's the substance of our text today. Ephesians 5:1:2. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Let me read verse two again. Ephesians 5, 1 and 2. 1 and 2. Ephesians 5. 1 and 2. Not 22. Sorry. Okay, good. We'll get to read it all again. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us. A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Beloved, remember who I am addressing this morning. And hear me when I say in love today. If you yearn in your heart to break out of the cycle of defeat, if you yearn to rise above the level of mediocrity in your Christian walk, then learn from these verses, would you? That in order to overcome, there must be a laying down. I want to talk to you about four sacrifices that Jesus pictures for us. Four sacrifices. And I want you to apply them to your life today and where you are in your walk with the Lord. This verse tells us to do that, doesn't it? What does it say? Be imitators of God and walk in love. As Christ walked in love. And he didn't just give Himself up on the cross, beloved, he gave himself up long before that. As we'll see now. If we look at Christ, the first sacrifice we see is the sacrifice of involvement. Jesus was involved in people's lives from the moment that he began his ministry. After his baptism in the River Jordan, he was constantly available to people. I'm struck when you read about him even trying to get away, going up in the mountaintop to pray. And when he gets there, people come up after him. The Bible says he had compassion on them and ministered to them and healed them. And I'm struck by the fact that even when things were pressuring him, he welcomed the little kids. I can see. I know what I'm like sometimes. How about you, when you're trying to take a leisurely nap on Saturday afternoon out in the backyard and the kids come down and they want to do something, get away, come back at 5 o'. Clock. There's something in us. We feel like we have the right to be alone, and so on and so on. But Jesus said, forbid not the little children to come to me. But perhaps the greatest thing that Jesus. The clearest illustration of involvement that Jesus gave us was found in Luke, chapter 10. You don't need to turn there unless you want to. But it's the story of the Good Samaritan. I'm not going to go through this story because I think it's familiar to all of you. But who were the three people that went by the injured man? There was a Levite and a priest and a Samaritan. And we all know the story of how the Levite and the priest walked right by him and went on and did their business, passed on the other side of the road, the Bible says. But we also know that the Samaritan, a man that hated, was hated by and hated in turn. The Jews stopped. And I think if you read that story carefully in Luke chapter 10 after worship this morning, you'll see a couple of very significant things. The Samaritan man involved himself in the Jew's life at great personal cost to himself. And if the priest and the Levite teach us anything, beloved, it's this, that spirituality without service stinks. And piety without giving of yourself to your brother or your sister or your neighbor. Is not acceptable in the sight of God. What did it cost, that Samaritan? Well, you think about it, he was on his way somewhere too. How many of us have been on our way somewhere when suddenly there's an opportunity? Everything runs through. I'm going to be late. If I stop and do this, I'm going to be late and people are going to be waiting for me. Not too long ago, at the prayer meeting, men's prayer meeting on Tuesday morning, Brother Ray came in. I don't know, it was after 7 o' clock sometime, and there was some grease on his hands. And he looked a little unusual for 6:00 or 7:00 clock in the morning. But here he had stopped along the way in a high river boulevard to help a couple of elderly ladies change a tire or fix their car or something like that. And he said so beautifully said, I really find it difficult to just blow by them to go on to prayer, you know, 6:15 in the morning raised some questions about what were two ladies doing out at 6:15 in the morning. But he stopped and ministered to them. A Samaritan's heart and beloved involvement will cost us time and it will cost us ourselves. That Samaritan gave his money. The Bible tells us that he came back later and paid for the man's lodging and gave of himself to heal that Jew. I don't need to talk to you today and give you some sort of pep talk about summer involvement in our community. All you need to hear is what Jesus said about this Samaritan. All you need to receive from God is the truth of his word, that if you're not involved in the life of this body for the summer, beloved, it's not God that's going to miss, it's you. And if you find that summer is too appealing a time to just not get out of the hammock at night, and you'd rather really go and play tennis and golf until you fall over exhausted than come and be with God's people, then you need to get before the Lord and ask them if that's God's will for your life, or is that your will? If you weren't with us Tuesday night, you missed a beautiful time, a profound time. Well, I had a lot of things to do. There will always be those things to do. Being a Christian is like owning a house. You never, ever catch up. There's always things to do. But, beloved, I'll say it, and I'll say it with all my heart. Your involvement, that sacrifice of involvement's got to be there if you're to grow, if you're to go on. The second sacrifice is the sacrifice of humility. And each of these would be its own teaching. But humility, the willingness to lay down your own way, maybe do it a different way, maybe do it their way. The most beautiful passage of Scripture on humility is in Philippians 2. I won't even get into that this morning. But you read that and see what Jesus Christ did as a model of humility, and ask yourselves these questions. Humility is seen in your response to questions like, will I sacrifice my right to make a critical comment when the situation warrants one? Will I sacrifice my right to make any comment? Will I sacrifice my right to have the last word in a situation? Will I sacrifice my right to do it my way, even if it's better? Will I sacrifice my right to participate in order to take over for another person? Rather, let them go ahead and learn themselves? Well, I sacrifice my right to have something greater and accept something lesser for the sake of the Gospel. And I'll tell you something, beloved, Satan will lie to us every time and say, you need to say that, or they're not going to be any different. They're not going to change unless you correct them. And he'll say to you, if you don't do it, then it's not going to get done right. And Jesus sacrificed all the things. Could you imagine what he could have done? Could you imagine how many times he could have put down and corrected and all those things? The disciples. But he didn't. He served them. Then there's the sacrifice, beloved of suffering. And I do want you to keep your spot in Ephesians and turn to Romans 8, the sacrifice of suffering. The word of God says this. Romans 8, 17. Let's begin at 16. It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our Spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Do you see those words, Beloved? Provided that we suffer. We tend to measure suffering in our culture by varying degrees of comfortability. Suffering, for some of us, was getting here at 10, not 10:30. Suffering would be the air conditioner turned up to 78 instead of 70 or 72. Suffering is measured in terms of inconvenience to what we've already planned. But, beloved, I believe this suffering is bearing with another through the consequences of sin. That's my definition. Bearing with another through the consequences of sin. It may be their sin, it may be another sin, but they're suffering the consequences. And you suffer by bearing with them through it. And so suffering, then, you see, becomes very practical. Suffering becomes sitting across the table from a woman that's going through a divorce and is lonely and talking to her and sharing the Scripture with her and ministering to her. And suffering is opening your home to a pregnant teenager whose family is casting them out and bearing with them through the consequence of their sin. And suffering is letting someone laugh at you because you hand them a tract and say, I just want you to know that Jesus loves you. And they call you a freak. And you suffer the consequence of their sin, of ignorance. You see, suffering is every day, and it's practical. It goes beyond being there. It goes beyond just, well, I'll be around. It gets right down to the heart of bearing up under the consequences of their sin. Jesus was called the suffering servant because he bore the consequences of our sin. Finally, the fourth sacrifice is the sacrifice of life. I hesitate to even talk about this because it's so far removed from us, but I want to say this. Before you ever face the possibility of martyrdom, your capacity to do that will have been determined long before the time someone puts a gun to your head. Because, you see, the sacrifice of life is a decision that's made every day. And if you're willing to say with Jesus in Luke, the 14th chapter that you'll take up your cross every day and follow him, then a decision has already been made about your life. And the only real life that a Christian can live is the crucified life. It's the only thing that a Christian can give that he can't take back again. Chester bitterman. Was a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators and had been given an assignment to Bogota, Colombia. He was being prepared for his training. They sent him down to the Summer Institute for Languages and so on, and were preparing him. And in his diary in Costa Rica on September 13, 1978, he wrote these words. The situation in Nicaragua is getting worse. If Nicaragua falls, I guess the rest of Central America will too. I think of Mordecai's statement to Esther in quotes. Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And then he continues, maybe this is just some kind of self inflated martyr complex, but I find this recurring thought that perhaps God will call me to be martyred for him in his service in Columbia. I am willing. September 13, 1978. On January 19, 1981, a little over three years later, anti government terrorists in Bogota, Colombia kidnapped 28 year old Wycliffe Bible translator Chester A. Bitterman III. They demanded the organization he worked for, I.e. wycliffe Bible, leave the country in exchange for his life. Six years earlier, Wycliffe had agreed as a corporation to resist terrorism. Too much was at stake to do otherwise. Linguists worked in 750 languages in 35 countries throughout the world. To give in might. To give in might jeopardize the work everywhere. And so when one of their translators was kidnapped in Columbia, Wycliffe stayed. That's the way Chester Bitumen would have had it. Letters he sent back during his captivity showed that he didn't want the organization to leave. Seven weeks later, on March 7, 1981, in the dawning hours of the morning, Chet Bitterman's body was found. An abandoned bus. A single bullet wound through the chest. You see, beloved Chester Bitterman decided to sacrifice his life long before that gun was held to his chest. Jesus decided to sacrifice his life long before Calvary. But when he went into the garden, it was before that, even when he went into the River Jordan. And the Bible says, so shall it be to fulfill all righteousness. You see, Jesus knew that by accepting the commission of God in his life, that he was then going all the way. Are you going all the way? Have you decided that you would give yourself in exchange for himself the sacrifice of involvement, the sacrifice that God expects of each and every one of us, of humility, the sacrifice of suffering and the sacrifice of our lives? I personally don't believe, brothers and sisters, that in the last days we will be able to survive with anything less than full commitment. Because as things begin by Satan's design and by God's oversight to get increasingly worse, the torment and the tribulation is going to increase. I want you to turn with me in conclusion to Revelation, chapter 12. Speaking of those in the church of Jesus Christ in the end times. Here's what the Bible says, Verse 11 of Revelation 12 and they have conquered him, I.e. satan, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And so many times we stop there. The blood of Jesus, the word of their testimony. But look at the rest of it. For they love not their lives, even unto the death. Sacrifice is the only way to overcome. It's the only way to receive all that God has for you. And I ask you today, my brothers and sisters, will you examine your life as I examine mine and ask God to show me, where have I not laid down my life? Where am I clutching and clinging to my own ways that we might receive from God the crown that's promised to they that overcome? Would you bow your heads and close your Bibles, please.