Living Sacrifice

The mother of a 9 year old bold named Mark received a phone call in the middle of the afternoon.

It was the teacher from her son’s school.

“Mrs. Smith, something unusual happened today in your son’s third grade class. Your son did something that surprised me so much that I thought you should know about it immediately.”

The mother began to grow worried.

The teacher continued, “nothing like this has happened in all my ears of teaching. This morning I was teaching a lesson on creative writing. And as I always do, I tell the story of the ant and the grasshopper;

“The ant works hard all summer and stores up plenty of food. But the grasshopper plays all summer and does no work.

Then winter comes. The grasshopper begins to starve because he has no food. So he begins to beg, “Please Mr. Ant, you have so much food. Please let me eat, too?” then I said, “Boys and girls, your job is to write the ending of the story.”

Your son, Mark, raised his hand. “Teacher, may I draw a picture?”

“Well yes, Mark, if you like, you may draw a picture. But first you must write the ending to the story.”

“As in all the  years past, most of the students said the ant shared his food through the winter, and both the ant and the grasshopper lived.

A few children wrote, “No, Mr. Grasshopper, you should have worked in the summer. Now, I have just enough food for myself.” So the ant lived and the grasshopper died.”

But your son ended the story in a different way from any other child, ever.

He wrote, “So the ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper; the grasshopper lived through the winter. But the ant died.”

“And the picture? At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses.”

Scripture:

Romans 12:1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. (NLT)

Romans 12 ^1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. (The Message)

Make it personal. But not about you.

Make what personal? Being a living sacrifice.

The ant, according to little Mark, was willing to make it personal. He willingly gave up everything he had worked for and generously gave it away so that the grasshopper could live. That’s a beautiful of picture of what it means to be a living sacrifice. If we are going to have an impact in anyone’s life – we need to make it personal but not about ourselves. We need to take on the attitude of the ant.

When you make something personal – if affects you. If affects the decisions you make. It affects the way you do your life. If affects the way you live your life.  When you make something personal –you sacrifice something personal. God set the standard for us:  John 3:16  “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God made it personal. He gave his one and only Son.

When you think about it so much about our walk with God is about how much WE love God. This is why I believe that being a living sacrifice is such a chore for many believers. We see it as something that needs to be done in order to show God or prove to God that we love Him. We have to go to church. We have to read our Bibles. We have to pray. We have to serve others. We have to love others. We have to love our enemies.  Most of what we do in Christian faith is out of obligation.  When you do something out of obligation – there is not much, if any, joy in it.

Throughout scripture you read about men/women willing to be living sacrifices. They didn’t do what they did out of obligation. They did it because they were willing to be a living sacrifice.

Noah built an ark when it had never rained before

Abraham led his family to an unknown place

Moses led 2 million plus people out of Egypt only to hear them whine and complain about it.

Shadrach Meschach and Abendego were willing to get burned in the fire because they refused to bow down.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, dealt with ridicule and scorn.

The disciples dropped everything and followed Jesus

Paul lost his job and reputation for the sake of talking about Jesus.

They were living sacrifices. They all sacrificed  something personal.

Why were they so willing to put life and reputations on the line? I believe they understood that they were a part of something much bigger than themselves. I believe they understood how much God loved them. Their mission wasn’t so much a chore but a  challenge. What they did wasn’t a burden but they willingly gave their best to continue God’s story.

When it comes to be a living sacrifice we make it about work instead of worship. We make it hard instead of relying on the Holy Spirit. We make it a burden instead of giving God our best.  We make it an obligation when God just asks us to be obedient. Obedience is easy when you love the person. Jesus was obedient and went to the cross out of love for you and I and his heavenly father. I am sure he didn’t feel obligated to go to the cross. But because he loved you and me he was willing to become a living sacrifice.

Let’s put this in perspective. Parents do you feel forced to love your kids? Do you feel obligated when your child is born to make sacrifices of sleep, feed them, and give them a safe place to live? Of course not! Why do you do it? Because you love them.  You are willing to make a personal sacrifices to give them a chance at life. Now …. Think of how much God loves you! God was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to demonstrate to us that He loves us. He was not obligated to do it – He did it because he loved us.

When you do something out of love:

• It becomes an act of worship.
• Your burden becomes an opportunity to bless someone.
• Your attitude changes from having to serve someone to getting to serve.
• You become a living sacrifice.
• When you love what you are doing – You find joy in what you are doing. Its not a chore.

Let me give you a personal example. I understand, God gave me a great dad. His example was second to none when it came to living out his faith in the church and the community. He gave sacrificially of himself. He did the stuff he did because he enjoyed doing it. He didn’t have to do anything but he generously gave his time to his family and the community. He was a living sacrifice because of his generosity of time, energy, and personal sacrifice to those around them. He wanted to give them a chance at life. God used him to give hope through  to a generation of kids who were growing up without dads. Understanding how much my Heavenly Father and my earthly father loved me, understanding the sacrifices that they made for me, and understanding that what they did gave them joy because they loved me, causes me to want to give of myself generously and sacrificially. I don’t have to be a living sacrifice. I want to be a living sacrifice.  I want to give myself to others to give them a chance at life.  That’s what my dad did for me. And that is what God did (and does)  for everybody.

Being a living sacrifice is about loving and serving others who you think don’t deserve to be loved or served.

Romans 5:8 says But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

I John 4:11 says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”

There is a little song that reminds us that they will know we are Christians by the way we love. When you love others who you don’t think deserve it   – something changes inside of you. Your love might not affect them at all but it will affect you. You will be changed. For those who follow Christ, loving and serving others is an act of worship not an act of obligation. When it is an act of worship – you are the one who is changed. According to Paul worship doesn’t just happen when we gather at the church, sing a bunch of songs, have communion, and talk to our friends. Worship also happens when you are willing to be a living sacrifice by loving and serving others generously.

If you are a Christ follower, we are to be a living sacrifice.

I Peter 4:10 tells us “God has given each of you the  you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.

Philippians 2:3-4  tells us, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble , thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

Being a living sacrifice is not easy. It is not something you can do. It is something that you desire. How do you get this desire?  How do you get anything that you desire?  You ask for it. Being a living a sacrifice is not about what you can do for God it is an act of worshipping God. It is about taking your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, your eating, your going-to-work, and walking-around life—and placing it before God as an offering. Then ….. the desire comes.

Make this personal – but not about you.