David Wright

Sacrifice

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Sacrifice for the Gospel

Well, this summer, did you hear about somebody by the name of Luke Aikens?

Almost sounds like a country music star, but it's not that I'm aware of.

At the age of 42, he did a first in history.

You have to look closely at this picture, but if you look at this guy, he has some padding it looks like and that type of thing, but he was the first 1 to jump out of a plane without a parachute or without a, what do they call it, a wingsuit.

Back in 2012, somebody else crazy enough, Gary Connery wore a wingsuit to aid in his landing, but Luke decided, no, I'm going to do this without any parachute, without any wingsuit, I'm just going to jump out of a plane at 25, 000 feet.

And so he performed this stunt in Simi Valley, California on July 30, I believe it was, of this year.

And after a two-minute free fall, reaching speeds of 120 miles an hour, he landed in this, in fact, you can see it in the bottom of that corner, see that little square?

That's a net designed to catch Luke Aikens.

If we advance here, let me turn this on, that's part of my problem.

It was 100 feet by 100 feet square with 4 compression air cylinders.

But somehow it was designed to gradually slow him down after impact.

And of course, he survived to be the first to jump out of a plane without a parachute or a wingsuit.

And yes, he's married, and there he is holding his little son.

But that would seem a little counterintuitive, wouldn't it?

I mean, it's hard enough for me to wrap my mind around this idea of putting a chute on my back and climbing up, up, up, up, up, and then propelling myself out of a very safe environment.

You know, the doors open and all this noise and all the rest, and I'm going to jump, but then you take the parachute away.

Now he'd done some 18, 000 dives before and so I imagine he knew exactly how to maneuver himself, but still rather counterintuitive.

Doing something that I think even at that moment you'd think, what am I doing?

Well, today I want to look with you at a story where God asked somebody to do something that is very counterintuitive, didn't make sense from all human reasoning.

But sometimes God asks us to do those things, doesn't he?

But I want to look with you at a story found in 1 Kings chapter 17.

And we've been going through this idea of sacrifice in this series for the last couple months now.

And this is the last piece, sacrifice for the gospel.

We've had this annual sacrifice this past week, this week of prayer, asking how the Lord might be asking us or calling us to sacrifice for the gospel.

And at the conclusion here, we're going to take up an offering.

Yes, that's true, but I also want you to be thinking about other ways that God might be asking you to sacrifice for the gospel and for his greater good.

And so we're going to start this morning in 1 Kings chapter 17 and verses 8 and 9 to begin here.

This is the story of Elijah and the widow.

And so we read there in 1 Kings 17, verse 8, "'Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "'Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, "'and dwell there.

"'See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.

Now you may recall that prior to this story that the monarchy of God's people has only gone downhill.

There is apostasy everywhere, and Elijah is called to go before the wicked King Ahab.

In fact, in 1 Kings 16, verse 33, we're told that King Ahab is so wicked he sets up this wood image and did more, the verse says, to provoke the Lord than every king before him.

But keep in mind, church, that an Ahab always calls forth an Elijah.

So Elijah goes before the wicked king and says there will be no rain until I say, and then before the king even gets to know what's happening, he disappears, he's gone.

And God tells him, go up, I will provide for you here at the brook Cherith.

And it's there at the brook Cherith that Elijah is fed, not just once a day, but twice a day.

He has his water, he has meat, and he has bread, and the ravens bring it all to him.

But they bring it to him twice a day as if to say, Elijah, I will provide everything for you.

I want you to learn full and complete dependence upon me for everything.

Where's your next meal coming from Elijah?

And day after day, twice a day, these ravens would come.

But then the story tells us that the brook dries up and God says, I will provide for you another way.

I want you to go almost a hundred miles, perhaps even more than a hundred miles away, because we don't exactly know where the Brook Cherith is, but we know where Zarephath is.

On the coast of the Mediterranean, far west and north, a 100 mile journey when people are wanting and seeking after Elijah, he says, I want you to leave this safe haven, and I want you to go, I want you to march to Zarephath.

And there I have 1 of the poorest of the poor, a widow who has nothing and she will provide for you." Perhaps that was a bit humbling, I don't know.

You recall that a widow has no financial security, has no husband that will work, that brings in income, or provide, she cannot own property.

Interesting in Prophets and Kings 129 it says, this woman was not an Israelite.

She had never had the privileges and blessings that the chosen people of God had enjoyed.

But, she was a believer in the true God and had walked in all the light that was shining on her pathway." Isn't that interesting?

Not an Israelite, Not part of the quotes chosen people of God yet She is living up to all the light she has received and God says in fact I can use her above all these others here That have forsaken me She's the 1 living up to all the light that she is known Another place here testimonies volume 3 says a heathen woman living up to the best light she had was in more acceptable state with God than the widows of Israel, who had been blessed with special privileges and great light, and yet did not live according to the light which God had given them.

I have a widow, who's living up to all the light that she knows.

And so picking up our story here again, Arise, go to Zarephath.

And so, verse 10, so he, Elijah, arose and went to Zarephath.

And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed A widow was there gathering sticks.

And he called to her and said, please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink.

And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.

So, she said, as the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread.

And see, I'm gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.' And Elijah said to her, Do not fear.

Go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me and afterward make some for yourself and your son.

For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bin of flour shall not be used up, Nor shall a jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth." Now Elijah's asking a lot of this woman.

I don't need to remind you the state of widows.

And every mother has within them this strong instinct to provide at whatever the cost.

But Elijah is essentially asking her to do what God has just asked him to do, go to the brook Cherith and rely and depend fully on God.

Really it's the same promise he offers us, isn't it?

Isaiah 33, 16, your bread and your water will be sure.

But sometimes we feel like we're gathering sticks for our last meal.

Sometimes it feels like we're jumping out of an airplane and we don't even have a parachute.

Sacrifice Required

Well, there's a popular story that you have undoubtedly heard.

It was first published in 1905 in the New York Sunday World, and it goes something like this.

Jim and his wife, Della, were recently married and living in a modest apartment.

They only had 2 possessions between them which they really took pride in.

Della's beautiful, long, flowing hair, almost touching her knees, and Jim's shiny gold watch that was given to him by his father and owned before that by his grandfather.

And on Christmas Eve, Della only had a dollar and 87 cents in her hand.

So she only has a dollar and 87 cents, but she's desperate to find something for Jim, and not just any something, but something really, really nice.

And so she sells her hair for $20 to a nearby hairdresser in order to purchase a platinum pocket chain for $21.

Satisfied with the perfect gift for Jim, Della runs home and begins to prepare dinner and prays that Jim will still find her attractive without her long hair.

Usually late, Jim walks in and immediately stops short at the sight of Della.

Della then admits to Jim that she sold her hair to buy him his present.

Jim gives Della her present, an assortment of expensive hair accessories referred to as the combs.

Unless now, no combs for him either, unless now that hair is short, so there's no use for these combs, and they both are upset and dismayed, shed a few tears and hold each other, but they recognize the love that each has for the other, the willingness to give up and to sacrifice something so dear and precious to them for somebody else.

Now when I first heard that story, I was in grade school, and they walked us down to the media room, or media center, I don't know which, where they'd put on 2 old reels.

And they would start it up and it would go...

And when it was done, 1 reel would sometimes even come off and go...

I remember this story was really confusing to me.

They both had to give up and they didn't have and that's not a cozy feel-good story at all.

But really it is a beautiful story of willing to pay a high price for somebody that you love.

Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, he says there are 7 sins of the world, and maybe you're familiar with these as well.

Pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, Science without humanity, politics without principles, and worship without sacrifice.

Today, do we see worship without sacrifice?

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 31, I die daily.

Luke 9 23 if anyone Jesus talking if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Also in Luke 14, 33, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Now all of that's pretty strong, isn't it?

But it seems to talk of this idea that worship includes sacrifice.

Now we've been going through this series entitled just that, sacrifice.

Abraham willing to put all on the altar to give what was dearest to him, his son and his future.

We looked at the sacrifice of relationships.

How much we must be willing to put God above father and mother and sister and brother if necessary.

Paul and Silas in a dungeon suffering physically for Christ but in spite of that they were found singing and praying and trusting in God.

We looked at sacrifice of the Son over communion, how Jesus gave all for you and for me, how he emptied himself with that costly, expensive gift, And to throw away our life would be disrespectful to the gift.

We looked at the sacrifice of self-reliance, how the widow gave her 2 mites, all that she had, not knowing how she would meet her own needs, but trusting God to provide for her.

We talked about the sacrifice of means and pleasures.

We looked at the rich young ruler and how nobody can serve God and money.

How the secret is to focus on Jesus, not on stuff.

Last week we looked at the sacrifice of pride.

We looked at Judas and Simon the leper as they looked down and judged and despised Mary Magdalene.

In their pride they were blind to their own sin, but were so good at spotting the sins of others.

Yet in humility it's Mary who truly saw Jesus and she sacrificed her pride and gave her all.

And so today's piece, sacrifice required, and then next week we're going to look at sacrifice for the gospel.

And we're going to do something different.

We're going to take up the offering after the sermon, we're going to file up here to the front, and we're going to place our gifts for this annual sacrifice offering.

Well, if you brought your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Chronicles, not Corinthians, but 1 Chronicles, chapter 21, verses 1 through 4.

1 Chronicles chapter 21 verses 1 through 4.

Now this story is also In the last chapter of 2 Samuel, chapter 24, we can find things there and we'll refer to a few places there, but this morning we're going to look at the bulk of our story here in 1 Chronicles 21 beginning verse 1.

It says, now Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.

So here Satan is tempting David to do this thing, to take a census to number Israel.

And so David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, go number Israel from Beersheba, far south, to Dan in the far north, and bring the number of them to me that I may know it.

Now what's the matter with the simple census?

I didn't know that was such a terrible thing.

Well, first of all, it was the high priest that typically took the census, or the tribe of Levi, but here it's not that, it's Joab, excuse me, his military officer, and he wants to know exactly how are we ranking out there?

Anybody looked at any polls this last week?

Let's take a poll and let's see how we're doing.

Let's see how many, and this comes out later in the story, how many fighting men that we have.

When I started out as king, we had this much, and now at the end of my life, I wanna see how have we done.

And so there's an element of pride, there's an element of trusting in themselves to see how much military might they truly have, and in the process of all that, they're not really trusting God.

And Joab verse 3 answered, May the Lord make his people a hundred times more than they are.

King David, I hope that the Lord blesses our people, don't get me wrong, but my Lord the King, are they not all my Lord's servants?

Why then does my Lord require this thing?

Why should He be a cause of guilt in Israel?

King David, I don't want you to be a cause of guilt for Israel.

Why are you asking me to do this thing?" Nevertheless, verse 4, the king's word prevailed against Joab.

That has a tendency to happen if you haven't noticed.

I'm the king, you are subordinate to me, and I told you to take this census, therefore you will take it." So David pulls rank and Joab goes out for this census.

Patriarchs and Prophets 747 says, with a view to extending his conquests among foreign nations, David determined to increase his army by requiring military service from all who were of proper age.

To effect this, it became necessary to take a census of the population.

It was pride and ambition that prompted this action of the king.

And So here we find this king in this situation, an unaccountable life is a dangerous life.

Friends, an unaccountable life is a dangerous life.

As soon as we think we are above reproach, that is beyond us to fall into any temptation, that accountability is not necessary for me, I become vulnerable.

Is a co-worker, a boss, a husband, a wife, a leader, a pastor ever above accountability?

Sin Spotters

Well, have you ever experienced road rage?

There was a particular time that I was leaving and I was headed for home, but I was in a hurry.

I think I must have had to come back later that night or something, and I take the back way out to Haywood, and over there by the Dollar General or Family Dollar, whichever it is, I don't know, there's several lanes and a light, and there was a big semi-truck pulled up in the center lane, and I thought he was turning left.

Well, I must have failed to see that he had his blinker on to turn right or something, I don't know, because the lane on the right side was empty, and so I took it.

And he was trying to keep it open, I think, to turn.

So I'm sitting there in my right lane, trying to see around this truck so that I can turn, and all of a sudden, this truck beside me starts to move, so I'll never be able to see, and it starts to come closer and closer and closer, and I just am waiting for it to push me completely off the road and into that big ravine right there.

And you never know what you're gonna do in those situations.

I can tell you what I did as I saw that truck just moving in on top of me.

And right before he was about to run into my truck, he stopped and the whole truck did this big jerk like this and I was kind of in a panic and I tried to pull out and get out of his way so that he could continue on, which he did and barreled down behind me on Haywood, right on my back bumper.

Having a hard time breathing, and I get to Rugby and Haywood, that cross road there, and there is a red light.

I'm thinking I don't need a red light I need green please turn green turn green nope it was red and I stop and the truck stops right behind me and this big guy, he must have been 8 foot, you know, 10 and a half, steps out of this truck and he marches over to my window which I maintained in the up position.

And he proceeded to tell me what he thought of me.

And then the light turned green and I kept telling him, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

And I continued on my way, trying to get the adrenaline to calm down.

In fact, the Madison University, James Madison University in Virginia, did a study also with the University of Toronto, it was a joint study, and they told us something I think that we already know, that we see others' faults before we see our own.

They say this in their little report, it says, when considering the irrational choices of a stranger, for instance, we are forced to rely on how they behave.

However, when assessing our own bad choices, we tend to engage in elaborate introspection.

We study our motivations and search for relevant reasons.

And then they talk about this road rage example as if when we're driving down the road and we see some crazy behavior, we have no context of what's going on, yet if it's something that we do, we rationalize.

We say things like, well, I'm late to a very important meeting, I don't often speed, this is a rarity, whatever, on and on and on.

And so we're easier on ourselves, but without the context, we're very hard on other people.

Have you found that to be the case in your own life?

If someone cuts you off in traffic, there's 1 simple, observable explanation.

Another study, New York Times Magazine reported this, only 17% say they are overly concerned about themselves.

This is talking about pride and all those types of things.

But 60% think that most people are overly concerned about themselves.

You have the problem, I don't have a problem.

And I'm real easy and quick to see and discern your problems, and depending, I might just tell you your problem.

And it usually starts like this, you know what your problem is?

And I'm at license to tell you the problem because I don't have any problems.

Pride, friends, can be a major blind spot if you haven't noticed.

Now perhaps there's been a time that you've been humbled, perhaps there's a time that you've been put in your place so to speak, something happened at work or wherever else and you are feeling very humble.

It's at those moments that you can see a little more clearly your own faults, your own flaws.

If you brought your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me.

In fact, this 1 story is found in all 4 Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

But we're going to turn and look at John's rendition of this story in John chapter 12, beginning in verse 1.

While you're turning there, of course, we can remember this verse, Proverbs 16, 18.

Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Why do you suppose pride comes before I fall?

I was too busy, focused on the wrong thing, probably myself, or my accomplishments, or what I've done, and I don't see this very simple thing laid out for me, and I stumble and I fall.

So we're in John chapter 12, verses 1 through 80I skipped this whole section here.

Yes, we're going through talking about sacrifice and the different parts of sacrifice, but I'll spare you that.

Then 6 days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany.

Passover is on a Friday so this would most probably be a Saturday night.

Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was who had been dead.

Do you often times eat meals with people who had been dead?

This is what they were doing on this particular occasion.

You remember Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

Verse 2, there they made him a supper and Martha served, but Lazarus was 1 of those who sat at the table with him.

And if you look here at this picture, you'll see a little bit of the idea of the type of table.

Your feet were oftentimes very dirty, and so those were put as far away from the food as possible in some kind of a U-shaped type of a couch, if you will.

And so a servant could come in in the middle and serve the food, and then everybody would sit with their feet to the outside while they ate.

Verse 3, then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil." Now 1 thing I want us to look at here is that pride tends to look at self.

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Presenter

David Wright

All Recordings

Sacrifice for the Gospel

47m

Sacrifice Required

40m

Sin Spotters

34m

Never Enough

43m

Sacrifice: Leftovers or Copper Coins

40m

Salvation: An Expensive Gift

30m

God Wants To Hear You Sing

46m

The Reproach of Those Closest

39m

Life: The Final Goal of All Sacrifice

46m

The Economics of Salvation

26m

5. What’s Wrong with Being a Cultural Adventist?

49m

4. What the Devil Hates

51m

Sound Doctrine