How Much Will You Sacrifice For God?

How Much Will You Sacrifice For God? Kelly Durant

Matthew 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls :46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

2. How many of you have ever wanted something really bad and you saved up for about a year to get it? For a special vacation, a car, or anything of value, it has to worked for and saved up for, and also even sacrificed for. I recall when I had a paper route I saved up for about 8 months to be able to buy the bike I wanted.

I already had a bike, but it was not special, it was ordinary. I am glad that when I was a youth I learned that you can get ahead and you can get what you want by fighting for it. As a matter of fact, I won a bike one year by selling the most boxes of candy for the Boy Scouts. My mother took me out every night for three months to sell door to door or in front of hospitals so I could win. I sold the bike I won and applied my savings and got the special Schwinn bike I wanted!

Most everyone in life is in the fight to progress or gain something of value. Who doesn’t want a good car, a good job, a good companion? To gain anything of value you have to have great patience and persistence. Here is the secret though, you have to have discretion to know what is worth fighting for! Here is a verse that will re-shift priorities. John 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

3. There are many examples of people in the Bible that fought to gain something of value and they got it. Take Jacob for example. He wanted to marry Sarah and so Laban her father did a deal and he told him to serve him tending to his herds. He wanted him to earn the right to her and then he said he would give her hand to him when done.

Who knows how long he served him? Seven years! And to think that today there are people who are not even able to wait seven weeks or seven months to plan a wedding to get married and so they just shack up after meeting and it usually ends in disaster.

But guess what happened on the night of the wedding? Now here is a lesson about not drinking too much! After the party Jacob was so wasted he did not even notice that his father in law was marrying him to Leah instead of Sarah. It turns out the older sister had to be married first, so what did Jacob agree to? To work another seven years to marry Sarah! Now that is patience and persistence! Most people would have been livid and left but Jacob worked even another seven years in order to gain possessions from Laban. That is 21 years of servitude!

4. So when you want something you must count the cost of what it will cost you and you ask is it worth it? A spouse is something that usually takes a long time to plan for and invest in. A new car, well, it might take a year of savings, but in the end a car is only something material, but it is a very important part of our lives.

And just think how many people settle for much less than what they could have gotten. There are people who make the mistake of getting any old car instead of sacrificing and waiting for one that could be much better. So the cheap costs expensive as some people end up spending a lot of extra money in repairs and parts all due to the fact they make the mistake of not sacrificing to begin with getting something of quality.

If you and I do not plan well what is best to obtain in life, we will end up with a problem instead of a blessing! But here is something we cannot make a mistake on, and that is the faith we are going to follow. To follow Jesus you have to be willing to make some great sacrifices, because to whom much is given, much is required. But some people fail this test of sacrifice.

5. Take for example the rich young ruler that was not willing to obey and trust Jesus all the way. Luke 18:23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. 24 And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!