What Do You Sacrifice?

What Do You Sacrifice?

Pastor Ben’s message last Sunday was about David bringing the Ark of God back to Jerusalem.  Some 20 years previous to this, the Ark had been captured by the Philistines when Israel took it into a battle and lost.  God sent plagues upon the Philistines, so they sent it back into Israel and it eventually arrived in Kiriath Jearim in the house of Abinadab.

David’s first attempt to bring the Ark back failed because he did not have priests carry the Ark on their shoulders, as the Lord had commanded, but copied the way the Philistines had sent it back to Israel – on a new cart.  After three months he went for the Ark again, and this time did it in the way the Lord had prescribed – upon the shoulders of the priests with rejoicing and dancing.

In addition, when the priests had gone six paces, they stopped the procession and sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf unto the Lord

We live in a time when we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  God no longer reveals himself from an ark but lives within us.  But what about sacrifice?  Certainly he does not require or desire animal sacrifices.  They all pointed forward to Jesus who became the once, for all sacrifice.  But does that mean there is no sacrifice asked of us?

Rom. 12:1 tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.  God calls this an act of spiritual worship.  We can sacrifice our bodies by not performing acts with them that would be displeasing to God, whether that be immorality, using our hands to steal or our mouths and lips to tell lies or gossip.

When Paul was in prison the Christians in Phillippi took a collection and sent it to Paul to help supply some of the things he needed.  In Phil. 4:18 Paul says that their offering was an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God. So our giving of finances or time to support God’s work, and to bless others is seen by God as a sacrifice and it pleases him.

The dictionary defines “sacrifice” as the surrender of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.  This makes Heb. 13:15 very meaningful:  “Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name.”  In other words, when we praise God or praise him to other people, we are sacrificing our words for something that has a higher purpose than just talking.

As we continue our vertical walk with God, there are some sacrifices that please him,  What better thing can we do with our lives than please Him?

Naomi Brinkman