SACRIFICES THAT PLEASE GOD - UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF ENJOYING HEAVEN'S BEST
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OUTLINE
1. SACRIFICE OF PRAISE
2. SACRIFICE OF OFFERINGS
3. SACRIFICE OF CHARITY
4. SACRIFICE OF HOLINESS
5. SACRIFICE OF LABOUR
6. SACRIFICE OF SURRENDER
7. SACRIFICE OF SUFFERING
THE MESSAGE
1. SACRIFICE OF PRAISE
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THE LORD IS PLEASED WHEN WE HONOUR HIM AND PRAISE AND WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH WITH A HEART OF GRATITUDE AND THANKSGIVING.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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HEBREWS 13:15
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
JOHN 4:23-24
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
MATTHEW 15:7-8
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
PSALM 50:23
Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.”
PSALM 27:6
Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD.
PSALM 149:6-9
May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,
to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron,
to carry out the sentence written against them— this is the glory of all his faithful people. Praise the LORD.
2. SACRIFICE OF OFFERINGS
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THE LORD IS PLEASED WHEN WE GIVE OUR TITHES AND OFFERINGS CHEERFULLY AND GENEROUSLY TO HIS KINGDOM.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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PHILIPPIANS 4:15-19
Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only;
for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need.
Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account.
I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
2 CORINTHIANS 9:6-7
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
PROVERBS 3:9-10
Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;
then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
MALACHI 3:8-12
“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.
You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty.
“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
3. SACRIFICES OF CHARITY
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THE LORD IS PLEASED WHEN WE HELP THE POOR AND NEEDY AND SHOW OUR LOVE IN ACTION
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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HEBREWS 13:16
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
ACTS 10:2-4
He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked. The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.
MATTHEW 25:34-40
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
4. SACRIFICE OF HOLINESS
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THE LORD IS PLEASED WHEN WE OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS AND LIVE A HOLY LIFE AND HAVE A BROKEN AND CONTRITE HEART.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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ROMANS 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
PSALMS 4:5
Offer the sacrifices of the righteous and trust in the LORD.
PSALM 29:2
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
PSALM 96:9
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.
PSALM 51:17
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
ISAIAH 57:15
For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.
ISAIAH 66: 2,5
Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.
Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: “Your own people who hate you, and exclude you because of my name, have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy!’ Yet they will be put to shame.
MATTHEW 5:5
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
HEBREWS 3:7-19
So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.
That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?
And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
HEBREWS 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
5. SACRIFICES OF LABOUR
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THE LORD IS PLEASED WHEN WE USE OUR STRENGTH AND TIME AND RESOURCES TO SERVE HIM.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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JOHN 4:34-38
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
PHILIPPIANS 2:14-18
Do everything without grumbling or arguing,
so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky
as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.
But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.
So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
1 PETER 2:5
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
1 CORINTHIANS 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
HEBREWS 6:10
God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
6. SACRIFICES OF SURRENDER
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THE LORD IS PLEASED WHEN WE SURRENDER EVERYTHING TO HIM AND FOLLOW HIM WITH OUR WHOLE HEART.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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MATTHEW 16: 24-27
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
MATTHEW 19:23-29
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
MARK 8:34-38
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
LUKE 9:23-26
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
LUKE 14:25-33
Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.
And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?
For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you,
saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
MATTHEW 8:18-22
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.
Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
GENESIS 22:1-3
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
7. SACRIFICES OF SUFFERING
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THE LORD IS PLEASED WHEN WE ARE WILLING TO FACE PERSECUTION AND TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS FOR HIS SAKE.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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MATTHEW 5:10-12
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. "
ROMANS 8:17-18
" Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."
II TIMOTHY 2:12
" if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; "
JAMES 1:12
"Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."
REVELATION 2:10
" Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. "
MATTHEW 10:16-25
“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues.
On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.
But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,
for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master.
It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
MATTHEW 10:34-39
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
