A SACRIFICE OF PRAISE
Eric A. Snyder, Minister, Farwell Church of Christ
Hebrews 13:15
Original date March 5, 2000 Revised July 22, 2001
Story young kid mom gave him a quarter for offering Communion was passed He tried to take communion Mom said you can’t take communion Why not I paid for it.
Little Girl won $2 for memory work put it in the offering
minister’s wife said well I’m sure you’ll receive a blessing for that
girl said Yeah now maybe God will let me do something that I want to do
How often do we treat worship like it’s ours. Like we own it. Like if we pay him off we can then do what we want to do
Prayer Hebrews 13:15
1. Under the Law the only way to commune with God through worship was to offer a blood sacrifice.
But sacrifice was not necessarily worshipful
After attending church one Sunday morning, a little boy knelt at his bedside that night and prayed, "Dear God, we had a good time at church today--but I wish you had been there!"
For centuries Being a lover of God, Meant offering the right sacrifices, Worshipping God according to a certain set of guidelines, and worshipping God in the right place.
Remember the woman at the well. Jesus is trying to tell her about Living water, He points out the mistakes she has made in her life. So she tries to change the subject. My people worship over here, but your people say we have to worship in Jerusalem.
Jesus answer is that there is a time coming when people will be able to worship wherever they want, however they want, as long as they worship in Spirit and in truth.
What he was saying was that before it was possible for people to go through the motions of worship and have their heart somewhere else. Under the new covenant, Coming into worship means that our heart is pure, that our spirit is tuned into God, and that we come before him honestly.
When I was a Kid and I did something wrong my parents would always make me apologize. and there were times when I didn’t want to apologize. So I would have to say that I am sorry But I would always do it unwillingly. That was not sincere.
We want a sincere apology
God would rather hear sincere heart felt worship Rather than Routine that we feel is necessary because we are his children.
One of the great problems with Christians today, is that we act like our worship is Old Testament worship.
We think we need a building. We think the songs should be a certain way. We thing the order is laid out in scripture.
And because we get caught up in the methodology we today face the same problems that the Jews in the Old Testament faced
They would come to the altar. Participate in the sacrifice, and Leave not being Changed or Challenged
it became a liturgy that was important to them, so they could keep up appearances, but their heart was not in it. and time and time again throughout the Old Testament When the Jews lost their hunger to be with God. eventually it led to their downfall, not only politically but spiritually as well.
God Said “They worship me with their lips but their hearts are far from me”
Warren Wirsbe "Most middle class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship And as a result their meanings and values are distorted, their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair, and their lifestyle resembles a cast of characters in search of a plot."
When we do not worship truthfully wholeheartedly. the answers to our most intimate questions become blurry
2. Continually offer to God
All the time
The barriers have been torn down. You can praise God in your car on the way to work
The book of Romans tells us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices mountain, a temple, a building to worship God Don’t’ you know you are the temple of God.
We no longer need a
We talked last week about the sanctuary of God.
I mentioned Paul walking down the road to Damascus.
the key for the Christian is to continually come into the sanctuary of God. Philip lived continually in the sanctuary of God. The Spirit lead him and he went where God wanted him to go.
Worship is a Choice that we make with our lives every day
"A budget is a- theological document it indicates who or what we worship” Hewett James S.
to offer God praise continually you ought to examine how you use your
time
talents
treasure
I went into church and sat on the velvet pew. I watched as the sun came shining through the stained glass windows. The minister dressed in a velvet robe opened the golden gilded Bible, marked it with a silk bookmark and said, "If any man will be my disciple, said Jesus, let him deny himself, take up his cross, sell what he has, give it to the poor, and follow me."
Soren Kierkagaard, in "And I looked Around and Nobody was Laughing."
True worship does not only come in a sacrifice of praise on Sunday morning but rather it is a sequential succession of daily surrender.
So praise God with your life, gifts possessions
How much time do you spend with God how do you use them who does it glorify
3. Praise is a Sacrifice
A. The fruit of our lips
What you say
What you sing, this is worship, The truth of God is spoke and sung about
Unfortunately there are those who would try to praise God completely apart from other Christians. for those people coming to Church would be a sacrifice.
One Christian has put together this list of reasons that they are not going to attend any more sporting events Football, Basketball, Baseball
1. Every time I went they asked for money
2. The people I sat next to didn’t seem friendly
3. The seats were hard and not Comfortable at all
4. I went to many games but the coach never came to call on me The referees made decisions I didn’t agree with
5. The game went into overtime and I was late getting home The band didn’t play my style of music
6. The games are scheduled when I want to do other things The people around me talked through the time-outs
7. I was taken to, to many games when I was growing up
B. The fruit of Life
TEAM
Time
Energy
Ability
Money
There once was this turnable bridge which spanned a large river. During most of the day,the bridge sat parallel with the tracks, allowing ships to pass freely on both sides. At certain times each day a train would come along, and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river allowing the trains to cross. A switchman sat in a small shack on one side of the river where he operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as the train crossed. One day as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he looked of into the distance through the dimming twilight and caught sight of the train’s light , he stepped to the controls and waited until the train was within prescribed distance when he was to turn the bridge into position. To his horror, he found that the locking control didn’t work. If the bridge was not locked into position, securely, it would wobble back and forth at the ends when the train came onto it. This would cause the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. It was a passenger train with many people aboard. He left the bridge turned across the river, and he hurried across the bridge to the other side where there was a lever he could use to operate the lock manually.
He could hear the rumble of the train now. He took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man’s strength. Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control shack he heard a sound that made his blood run cold, "Daddy, where are you?" His four year old son was crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the child, "RUN RUN" but the train was too close, and his tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time. The man almost lifted the lever to run and snatch up his son , and carry him to safety, but he realized he could not get back to the lever in time. Either people on the train or his son must die.
He took only a moment to make his decision. The train sped safely and swiftly on it’s way, and no one aboard was aware of the tiny, broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the rushing train, nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of a sobbing man still clinging tightly to the lever long after the train had passed. They didn’t see him walking home more slowly than he had ever walked, to tell his wife how he had sacrificed her son.
Now if you can comprehend the feeling that which went through this man’s heart you can understand the feeling of our heavenly Father when He sacrificed His Son to bridge the gap between us and eternal life.
How does God feel when we speed along through life without giving a thought to what was done for us through His Son, Jesus Christ? Can there be any wonder that He caused the earth to tremble and the skies to darken when His only Son died?
