A Sacrificial Heart

A Christian’s Heart

“A Sacrificial Heart”

Watch on YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l76yVqg4XnE

Today’s Message in our series on a Christian’s Heart is entitled “A Sacrificial Heart,” and it’s a perfect follow up to the message on building worship-filled hearts.

A newspaper journalist assigned to Jerusalem decided to get an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall, or that which is now referred to as the Western Wall. After several weeks of watching, he realized that every day the same elderly Jewish man would come and spend most of the day praying vigorously at the wall.

The journalist wondered whether there was a story here, so the next day he went down to the wall. After introducing himself he said, “I see that you come every day to the wall. What are you praying for?”

The elderly man replied, “In the morning I pray for world peace; at lunchtime, I pray for my fellow man. Then in the late afternoon, I pray for the future of this earth.”

The journalist asked how long the man had been doing this, and he told the reporter that he had been doing it for about 25 years. The journalist was amazed and asked how it felt to come here every day and pray so much.

“How does it feel?” the elderly man replied. “It feels like I’m talking to a wall.”

I have the feeling that this is what God feels like when He is talking to us, especially when it comes to being those living sacrifices wholly devoted to Him. Yet we are told that this is exactly what God desires us to be.

In his letter to the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul said, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1 NKJV)

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are told that we are to present ourselves as “living sacrifices,” with the full understanding that there is no such thing as a partial sacrifice in much the same way as I had pointed out in the past which every lady would get, and that is it’s impossible to be partially pregnant. You are or your not, and the same thing goes for our being sacrificed. It is impossible to be partially sacrificed. We are either fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, or we’re not. It’s impossible to be partial in that.

There is a story about a pig and a chicken walking down a country road when they saw a sign saying, “Breakfast to Benefit the Poor.” The chicken said, “We should donate a ham and egg breakfast.” But the pig replied, “Not so fast, for you it would just be a contribution, but for me it would be a total commitment.”

The pig understood that it’s not possible to offer a partial sacrifice.

To be that living sacrifice is to commit ourselves to God, which means that we are to yield, surrender, and entrust ourselves totally to God, which means to place ourselves completely at His disposal.

I think it’s safe to say that there are no “take backs” when it comes to sacrifices that have been offered. You cannot take back a sacrifice.

As it was mentioned in our text, a sacrifice is what we offer up to God, which is nothing less than the whole of ourselves. And Paul’s argument is that the appropriate response to the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf is to be those living sacrifices, holy, and acceptable to Him, which Paul says is the reasonable thing to do; that is, it’s our reasonable act of worship.

Yet, when we look at these two words, “living” and “sacrifice,” they are what we call an oxymoron, that is, a combination of two seemingly contradictory words. Yet, they are not, especially in what God is calling for us to be, and therefore, it is important that they remain together.

You see, sacrifices are normally thought of as being offered in death, like the bulls and goats associated with the Old Testament sacrifices. But in our situation, Jesus, has given His life as a sacrifice on our behalf, and has therefore offered the sacrifice of death for us. He took the punishment we deserve, that is, death, because as the Bible says, the wages of our sin is death (Romans 6:23), and the reason Jesus did it is to bring us into a new and abundant life.

And so, to be those living sacrifices means that we are dead, not only to our own wants, desires, and ways, but we are also and more importantly dead to sin, which means being totally sold out to God, that is, alive to God, fulfilling His will in our lives and in this world. Therefore, the ultimate sacrifice on our part isn’t death; rather it’s living 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year being completely surrendered to the will of God.