Pastor Mark Olmos
August 8, 2004 - W0432

There is something about great sacrifices that celebrates what’s best in mankind. And according to the Bible, God wants us to live like that. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn. 15:13) Jesus told that to His disciples. If you really want to love your friends, you have to lay down your life for them. Then Jesus did just that for us. Remember that…

The best sacrifices are those done as an act of love!

We make sacrifices for ourselves all the time, but the best sacrifices are ones done as an expression our love for others. The second thing is …

God wants me to experience the richness of living sacrificially.

So I want to challenge you to examine your life in the way you live sacrificially for God and others.

Q1:  What is your first memory of witnessing a true act of self-sacrifice?

Q2: What are some ways you avoid self-sacrifice?

Now I’m saying it’s easy to sacrifice. We have a hard enough time giving. In fact, we often say we’d give more if we were rich, but that wouldn’t be a sacrifice if we gave our surplus, would it! Sometimes we get angry when our spouses don’t acknowledge all the things we do. We even get upset serving in ministry when we’re not thanked or recognized for our efforts. Then we think to ourselves, “Why am I doing this?”

That’s a good question, why are you doing it? You see it is not easy to live a life of noble and enriching sacrifice. So how can we get there? What can we do to prepare our hearts to really live sacrificially? I think the first step is to always look at:

THE GREATEST SACRIFICE OF ALL

·        I NEED TO CONSIDER GOD’S SACRIFICE FOR ME.

The Bible says that God designed us to be in a personal relationship with Him. However, because of sin, our relationship with God was broken. So that brings us to the cross. You see, God loved us so much that He did something we couldn’t do for ourselves. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to earth so that Jesus Christ would become a bridge between us and God. Without Jesus, we didn’t have a chance.

Did you know that he cross in Jesus’ day was an execution device? It represented humiliation, torture, and death. Today however, the cross represents hope, grace, love, mercy, and sacrifice. How did it change from being a symbol of death to a symbol of life? It’s because Jesus had such an obsession to get to the cross to save us.

 “…he had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified.” (Matt. 27:26)

And it’s important for us to understand the incredible suffering (the Greatest Sacrifice) Jesus went through for us. He died so that we might live. Why would God allow His own Son to suffer and die for us?

Well I don’t think there are words to say just how much we matter to God. In fact, let me tell you about what happened on the cross. The Romans often used flogging to weaken their victims before crucifixion. They’d scourge them with a thing called, the flagellum which is made by braiding bone and lead into leather thongs. Then they’d strip and whip the prisoner so severely that it reduced his flesh to a bloody pulp.

That’s exactly what Jesus endured. Next, His hands and feet were nailed to the cross in such a way as to stretch His body out to make breathing difficult. In order to breathe, He had to raise himself by pushing down on the block His feet was nailed to.

Not only did He suffer physically, the Bible says in order to save us, God placed the sins of the entire world in Jesus at one point. Imagine having the guilt of mankind placed on you! If that wasn’t enough, His disciples fled from Him when He was arrested. Talk about being abandoned.

Yet, probably worst of all was when God the Father had to turn away from Jesus while He hung on the cross. In other words, Jesus had to endure the weight of millions of sins completely alone. God’s wrath and punishment was poured out on Jesus moment by moment, hour after hour. God’s displeasure and intense hatred of sin was focused all on Jesus. Now to feel God’s wrath even for a moment is terrifying enough. No wonder He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet even as people continued to mock and spit at Him while He suffered on the cross, we find true to Jesus’ character as He responds “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Q3: What makes living a life of noble self-sacrifice difficult?

 “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8)

While we were still in a state of rebellion to God, He sent a savior so that He could rescue us in the most radical rescue mission of all time. He opened the door for us to know God, have our sins forgiven, and guilt lifted from our life. God steps into our life and begins to work in a powerful way. Our place in heaven is secure forever when we place our faith in Him. So how do we respond to that kind of sacrifice? Well let me give you a few things.

HOW TO RESPOND TO GOD’S SACRIFICE

1.     I NEED TO TRUST CHRIST TO FORGIVE ME OF MY SINS.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16)

It’s not enough to know or agree with this. The Bible says that each person must make that choice. Jesus’ death made it possible because it repaired our broken relationship with God.

Of course doing good deeds, living a moral life, or being religious is good, but it isn’t enough. We must also trust God fully by placing our faith and trust on what He did on the cross. How?

Ask Christ to be your forgiver and leader from now on. When you do, the Holy Spirit will step into your life and you will be reborn. You may ask, don’t you have to be good to get to Heaven? First you trust Christ, then God steps into your life and empowers you, and you begin to live differently. I mean, how can we face the amazing love of Jesus and not be changed?

Q4: What does Jesus’ sacrifice mean to you? How does it affect your thoughts, feelings, or actions?

We live different, love different, and everything about us changes. And even in the area of sacrifice, God begins to change us. So the first step is to allow God to forgive you of your sins. The second way we can respond to God’s sacrifice is…

2.     I NEED TO BEGIN TO MAKE COSTLY SACRIFICES.

If you want to sacrifice in a way that pleases God, it has to be costly. “They all gave out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.” (Mk. 12:44) In another translation it says, “They gave out of their surplus, but she gave all she had”. The principle here is that God is not honored in the amounts that we give or do for Him. He is honored in the amount of sacrifice.

Isn’t it easy to love when it’s convenient or when you’re feeling really good? Isn’t it easy to give when you have extra or to serve when you have nothing else to do? Yet Jesus doesn’t want us to give out of our surplus. A true sacrifice will cost something.

What that means is that we have to get to that extravagant edge of giving to people around us. For instance instead of going on a trip to Vegas, pick up the expense for a missionary’s trip. Instead of sponsoring one child, sponsor a whole village. Or instead of a ski trip, jump on a medical mission team and serve people who have no hope unless you show up.

We need to also evaluate our relationships with our spouse and family. We can elevate our love to the level of sacrifice where it begins to cost us something. It will just change the nature of our love.

Q5: What can you do today to elevate your love to a level of sacrifice where it is costly?

You can save someone’s life today if you live differently. You can change somebody’s eternity if you love differently. You can actually make a change by trusting God fully and elevating your love and your life to a level of heroic sacrifice that God can use. Another way we can respond to Jesus’ sacrifice is…

3.     I NEED TO OFFER SACRIFICES FOR HIS EYES ONLY.

“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Mt. 6:1)

 “…your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Mt. 6:4)

In other words, if we have an anonymous approach to sacrifice, God will reward us greatly. Sometimes we just need to give anonymously and without drawing attention to ourselves. For example, if you’re in a restaurant eating and you see a family who seem to be of humble means and you discern that, ask the waitress for their check.

And if you’re serving in the name of Jesus Christ in whatever capacity, take a moment before you begin serving to say, “Jesus this is all about you and not about me. We need to fight those feelings inside about impressing people. You died a painful and humiliating death to get me into heaven and I do this all for Your glory.” And when you do that, it changes the nature of your service and your heart.  

Q6:  What can you give or do for someone today anonymously?

Remember to trust God fully to forgive you of your sins. Then start living life sacrificially in a way that honors Him without bringing attention to you. And finally…

4.     ULTIMATELY, I NEED TO RESPOND TO HIS LOVE BY OFFERING MY LIFE!

“Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave Himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased, because that sacrifice was like sweet perfume to Him.” (Eph. 5:2)

As we study the Bible and get close to God, we come to understand that we owe God our whole life. This is especially important to me because my call to ministry is connected to this.

I recall my first Christmas as a Christian. I was listening to a Christian radio station while driving home and there was a short radio skit of a father talking to his daughter. The daughter asks her father what Christmas is all about. The father tells his daughter that it’s Jesus’ birthday. Then daughter replies, “I see our presents, but if it is Jesus’ birthday, where are His presents?” Then the narrator broke in and said, “What are you giving Jesus for Christmas?”

I took that question so seriously. Later that night, I got on my knees and asked Jesus, “What am I going to give you for Christmas?” After what He’d done for me, what could I give Him? What is the most precious thing I own? After some pondering, I thought, “It’s my life!” Then I said, “Jesus, I give you my life.” And for the first time I heard the Holy Spirit speak in an almost audible voice in my heart: “I’ll take it!”

I never doubted the rest of my life that I would be in full time ministry because He called me at that moment.

And the same is true for you. When you look at the cross how do you respond? The best way to respond is to give Him back your life. The one thing Jesus heard while on the cross from the people and soldiers mocking Him, “Save yourself. If you have the power to do all those other miracles, save yourself.”

The fact is Jesus came to save us, not Himself! His mission was to save us. Therefore our only response is: “I sacrifice my life back to you and I will live the rest of my life for You!”

If you want to aspire to a heroic level of sacrifice, you must first consider the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and what God did for you. Then you need to receive it fully and begin to make costly sacrifices for His eyes only. Then when you begin to live like that, people will begin to see Jesus when they look at you. And God will use you to change the world around you, change people’s eternities, save people’s lives.

Final Q: What most impacted you about today’s lesson and how can you apply it to your life this week?

Say thank you to our newest volunteer writer, Robin Hart, II for this week’s summary. Good job!