WEDNESDAY’S WORD – SACRIFICE – 02/15/17 -Sadell Bradley- New Life Covenant Cincinnati

I met with a worship leader protege and we were discussing preparation in worship. I talked about setting aside particular and consistent daily times for consecration, prayer and the Word. They retorted with a few chunks of spread out time. I stated that I wasn’t sure that would be enough preparation, to which they replied…”Well, if you want me to sacrifice…,” I laughed. The thought still has me smiling. Sacrifice is not in our contemporary vernacular. SACRIFICE is defined as an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession or an offering to God. Some words associated with sacrifice are: surrender, forfeiture, and relinquishment. Sacrifice is not just the act. The person, animal or item itself is also called a sacrifice. Sacrifice is the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. It comes from the Latin sacer or holy. The greatest sacrifice ever was Christ offering His own life in the crucifixion.  Anything we could ever do for Him pales in comparison to what He’s already done for us.  

Sacrifice and selfishness can’t coexist. Jesus said,“If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24, NLT)  Sacrifice and self-denial are hallmarks

of a disciple of Jesus Christ. These words from Mother Teresa are true and worthy to be repeated, “A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves.”  Sacrifice is at the heart of worship.  Abraham’s faith, trust and commitment to God was tested, when he was called on to offer his only son Isaac on the altar of sacrifice. He responded willingly. In Genesis 22 verse 5, “He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”  Worshiping the LORD requires a willingness to sacrifice not just ‘our’ time, treasure and talent, which is at times inconvenient: but also what is most precious to us. This includes de-prioritizing work and loving our family less by comparison to our love for Christ. (Luke 14:26) It means presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice and not being conformed to the world’s systems and values. (Romans 12:1)  He died for us, so we live for Him. We are to obey His will, not the opposite.

Amidst a culture that craves comfort, we have to move beyond, “It’s ALL about ME…to it’s NOT about me at all.” Sacrifice is the way to do that.