Let Us Offer Up Sacrifices Of Praise! Series

#5

"LET US OFFER UP SACRIFICES OF PRAISE!"

TEXT: Heb. 13:15-16; Rom. 12:1-2

INTRO: Mention the word "Worship" to someone and see how they respond! To

most people the idea of "Worship" is something that happens on a Sunday

morning in a building somewhere called a Church. For some, the conditions

have to be just perfect in order for them to worship...too often people don’t

enjoy worship unless things are just right, thus we are good at finding all kinds of reasons to avoid Church...imagine the world acting like this!

ILLUS: The reasons why I’m giving up sports: football in the fall, baseball in the summer, basketball in the winter. I’ve had it all. I quit attending sports once and for all, and here are my 11 excuses:

1. Every time I went, they asked for money.

2. The people I sat next to didn’t seem friendly.

3. The seats were too hard and not comfortable at all.

4. I went to many games but the coach never came to call on me.

5. The referees made decisions that I couldn’t agree with.

6. The game went into overtime and I was late getting home.

7. The band played numbers I’d never heard before and it wasn’t my style of music.

8. It seems the games are always scheduled when I want to do other things.

9. I suspect that I was sitting next to some hypocrites. They came to see their friends and they talked during the whole game.

10. I was taken to too many games by my parents when I was growing up.

11. I hate to wait in the traffic jam in the parking lot after the game.

Worship and praise is not something that comes just from the right conditions

around us, it comes from the heart and from our life....we are always worshipping...it is not just what happens on Sunday morning!

PROP. SENT: The Bible will teach us that both our LIPS and our LIFE should be

offering up praise to God continuously.

I. PRAISE FROM OUR LIPS! Heb. 13:15; Rom. 12:2

A. A New Communication Heb. 13:15

1. Notice in the text the link that makes this new communication possible:

"Through Jesus....."

a. Praise and worship cannot happen without coming through Christ!

b. Praise is not just something we do, it is what we are and who we are

connected to....connected to Christ makes praise even possible!

2. Notice here also the sense of praise being "continual"!

a. It is not just at Church where praise from our lips is suppose to happen!

b. The reason it is called a "sacrifice of praise" is because it won’t always

be convenient or when we simply feel like it!

c. There is a real sense here that how we communicate all the time is a

part of worship, every word from our lips should be "praise" in some

form or fashion to God reflecting Christ in our lives.

3. Our lips should confess praise and gratitude at all times reflecting Christ’s

reality in our lives!

ILLUS: Alexander Whyte, the Scottish preacher, always began his prayers with an expression of gratitude. One cold, miserable day his people wondered what he would say. He prayed, "We thank Thee, O Lord, that it is not always like this."

4. It is our language at home, work, and Church that is in view in the passage,

that our lips are offering up to God ’CONTINUALLY’ a sacrifice of praise!

a. How should this impact that way we talk about others?

b. How should this impact that jokes we tell co-workers on the job?

c. How should this impact our speech around home and family?

d. As well as how we enter into the service at Church!

5. too often it is far easier to express praise in a worship service than it is in

day to day routines...yet the sense of "continuously" and "sacrifice" here indicates the daily routine as well as the Church service.

B. A New Communion Rom. 12:2

1. It is clear that what we say comes from how we think...hence how this passage fits well with the "fruit of lips" issue in Heb. 13:15!

a. We speak how we think! (see Luke 6:45 "out of the heart the mouth speaks")

b. If we are to offer up a sacrifice of praise as the "fruit of our lips" on a

ongoing basis, it will have to spring from the way we think in our hearts

and minds!

2. Paul writes here to express the importance of "conformity"....but to be

cautious not to conform any longer to the thinking of this world!

a. The world has little concern for worship and praise of God...and if we

allow the world’s influence to infiltrate our entire thinking processes we