A Sacrificial Heart
To worship God as He desires,
we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
Here's Gene to explain:
What we see in this Principle is another quality
that God saw in David's heart when He chose him.
When He chose him to succeed Saul
as the king of Israel.
And you'll remember the story that when
Samuel was sent to anoint him as king.
Even as a young man, God said:
Don't look at his outward appearance
because I look at the heart.
And as the sons of Jesse came before Samuel,
God said: Don't choose him, or him, or him.
All seven sons came.
And then there was David.
And what God was simply saying,
Saul was head and shoulders above
everybody else in Israel.
And everybody wanted him as king
because of his height and his physical stature.
But He said: I don't look at physical stature.
I look at the heart.
Now the question is: What did God
see in David's heart?
In spite of the fact that he was going to
fail miserably in his life and sin against God.
Well let me just review for you things
that we've already noted in 1st Chronicles.
David had an unselfish heart.
If you look at the stories you will see
that unselfish heart.
He had a God-fearing heart, chapter 13.
An obedient heart,
which is illustrated in chapter 15.
A thankful heart.
He had a humble heart.
He had a repentant heart.
He had a compassionate heart.
And then here in this passage, we see he
had a sacrificial heart.
And so in repeating the Principle, then we'll
look at the Scripture that supports the Principle.
To worship God as He desires,
we're to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
Here's the passage from 1st Chronicles chapter 21:
So the angel of the Lord ordered Gad
to tell David to go and set up an altar of
the Lord on the threshing floor of
Ornan the Jebusite.
[And] David went up at Gad's command
spoken in the name of the Lord.
Ornan said to David, "Take it!
My lord the king may do whatever he wants.
See, I give the oxen for the burnt offerings,
the threshing sledge's for the wood,
and the wheat for the grain offering--
I give it all."
Now what was David's response?
Here you get a glimpse into his heart--
a sacrificial heart:
King David answered Ornan,
"No, I insist on paying the full price,
for I will not take for the Lord what
belongs to you or offer burnt offerings
that cost me nothing."
In other words, if it costs me nothing
that is not a sacrifice.
And so we see what God saw.
Even when h He chose David as a
young shepherd boy.
He saw the spirit of sacrifice in his heart
and in his life.
And I believe in the New Testament,
Jesus underscored this in Luke chapter 9,
verses 23 through 25:
Then He said to them all, [that's Jesus speaking]
"If anyone wants to come with Me,
he must deny himself, take up his cross daily,
and follow Me.
For whoever wants to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life
because of Me will save it.
What is a man benefited if he gains the whole world,
and yet losses or forfeits himself?"
And I believe here that Jesus is talking about
what it really means to give our lives
to Jesus Christ in sacrifice.
And Paul picks up on that theme in
a very familiar passage of Scripture in
Romans chapter 12--when this is what he says:
Therefore, brothers, [sisters]
by the mercies of God, I urge you
present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God;
this is your spiritual worship.
[And] do not be conformed to this age,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may discern what is the
good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Here is this spirit of a sacrificial heart
that God wants to see in every one of us
as believers because of what God
has given to us.
Freely we are responding in sacrifice to Him.
Which leads to a question:
How do we reconcile Jesus' challenge to
take up our cross daily with His statement,
"take up My yoke ...
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light"?
How do you reconcile those two statements?
Here's the statement to contrast with
what we read from Luke chapter 9.
Matthew 11, verses 29 and 30:
"All of you, take up My yoke and learn
from Me, because I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find
rest for yourselves.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
How do you reconcile that by Jesus saying:
Take up your cross and lay down your life.
Well if you look at the context,
it's quite easy to reconcile.
Because what Jesus was doing was
contrasting His invitation to follow Him
with the Pharisees who were engaged
in all kinds of legalistic requirements
and teachings. Which burdened people down.
Who created tremendous offense and burdens.
And there was no true freedom.
And what Jesus was saying:
If you follow Me, My burden is light.
I will not bog you down with rules and regulations.
But I will set you free to live for Me.
And to live in the perfect will of God.
And you know, where is the most wonderful
place to experience freedom?
It's in harmony with the will of God.
It doesn't mean we won't face persecution.
Doesn't mean that we won't face
serious difficulties, challenges
that come into our lives.
As Jesus said: They may hate you
because they hated Me.
But the fact of the matter is, when we're
in the will of God, that's freedom.
That's a clear conscience.
And Paul spoke to Timothy when
he wrote his first letter.
And I think summarizes this beautifully when he says:
Now the goal of our instruction is love [love]
from a pure heart, a good conscience,
and a sincere faith.
In other words, to live in the will of God
with a good conscience, regardless of the
circumstances of life, is true freedom.
True freedom in Jesus.
And that's what He means when He says:
My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Especially when you're walking in My will.
And I don't know about you but I have found
over the years that the place of blessing--
in spite of difficulties in life, in taking up
my cross and following Jesus.
But the true blessing and freedom
comes when I'm walking in the will of God.
Not in my own way but in the will of God.
And that's true freedom because Christ
has come to set us free.
The thing that keeps us in bondage is our flesh.
And living according to the flesh.
And there's no true freedom when
we're in bondage to sin and to evil.
And so God is giving us a wonderful
Principle here through David.
Let me restate it:
To worship God as He desires,
we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.