Stop 9 Church
We want to share important pieces of our worship service with those who might not have been able to be there in person.
Stop 9 Church
C3: Lifestyle of Sacrifice (Part 2/5)
The concept of sacrifice often conjures images of grand, dramatic gestures or once-in-a-lifetime moments of surrender. But what if sacrifice was meant to be something entirely different? Something woven into the fabric of our everyday lives?
Diving deep into the ancient practices described in Leviticus, we discover that sacrifice wasn't designed as an occasional event but as a continuous rhythm that shaped the relationship between God and His people. The burnt offering, grain offering, fellowship offering, sin offering—each served a specific purpose in maintaining spiritual connection. The command that "the fire on the altar must be kept burning" reveals that sacrifice was meant to be an ongoing practice, not an intermittent one.
Looking at our modern lives, we recognize that we understand sacrifice quite intimately—just not always for spiritual purposes. We sacrifice sleep for Netflix binges, stand in lines for hours to get bobbleheads, wake up at unreasonable hours for vacation travel or sporting events. We make these sacrifices because we believe what we gain is worth what we give up. Yet when it comes to sacrificing for our relationship with God, we often become hesitant or inconsistent.
The revolutionary message of the New Testament is that Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice "good for all time." This didn't end sacrifice but transformed it. We no longer sacrifice to obtain forgiveness—Jesus accomplished that completely. Instead, we become "living sacrifices," offering our entire lives to God not out of obligation but gratitude. We sacrifice not because we have to, but because we get to.
Creating a Christ-centered culture isn't about building bigger programs or singing louder songs—it's about cultivating a lifestyle of daily surrender. What would change if sacrifice for God became as natural as the sacrifices we make for entertainment, comfort, or status? Where there is willing sacrifice, there will be divine presence. Where hearts are surrendered, God's glory will manifest.
Ready to build community through shared sacrifice? Join our summer-long life group volleyball challenge combining Bible study with friendly competition. Connect, grow, and discover the joy of living as a sacrifice together!
Okay, good morning you done, Okay, nice to see everybody this morning. Let's go ahead and stand up and we'll start our worship together. Oh, one more thing. Let's begin with a word of prayer, shall we? Father, thank you for this morning and thank you for the rain that we've had and the green grass and flowers and springtime and, speaking of water, lord, we just pray that we have a good event this afternoon and that we are mindful of our blessings and the privileges we have in this country, and we just want to use our blessings to bless other people, lord, and to further the kingdom, bless that this afternoon and just bless everybody in here this morning that has chosen to worship you, and we pray that the worship is pleasing and is an encouragement and we thank you for your son and what he did for us and, holy Spirit, we just invite you in here this morning to worship with us and, father, we ask all these things in your son's name.
Speaker 2:Amen, and Father, we ask all these things in your Son's name Amen. Wonderful, so wonderful is your unfailing love. Your cross has spoken mercy over me. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart could fully know.
Speaker 3:How glorious, how beautiful.
Speaker 2:You are Beautiful one. I love beautiful one. I adore Beautiful one. My soul must see. Powerful, so powerful. Your glory fills the skies, your mighty works, displayed for all to see. The beauty of your majesty awakes my heart to see how marvelous, how wonderful you are. You are beautiful one. I love beautiful one. I adore beautiful one. My soul must sing. You've opened my eyes to your wonders anew. You've captured my heart with this love, cause nothing on earth is as beautiful as you.
Speaker 3:You open my eyes to your wonders anew you capture my heart with this love cause nothing on earth is as beautiful as you, as beautiful as you.
Speaker 2:Beautiful one, I love Beautiful one, I adore Beautiful one. My soul must sing. Beautiful one, I love Beautiful one, I love beautiful one, I adore beautiful one. My soul must sing Peace, peace, perfect peace. With sorrow surging round On Jesus' bosom, not but calm is found. Peace, perfect peace. Our future, all unknown, all unknown. Jesus we know and he is on the throne. Before the world was made, before you spoke it to be, you were the King of kings. Yes, you were, yes, you were. And now you're reigning, still enthroned above all things. Angels and saints cry out. We join them as we sing to god. Glory to god, glory to god, forever glory to god. Glory to god. Glory to God, forever Creator.
Speaker 2:God you gave me breath so I could praise your great and matchless name All my days, all my days. So let my whole life be a blazing offering, a life that shouts and sings the greatness of our King. Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God forever. Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God forever. Take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory. Take my life and let it be yours. Take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory. Take my life and let it Glory to God forever. Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God forever Amen.
Speaker 3:Please be seated Morning. Today's scripture reading comes from Hebrews 10, verses 12. But our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for our sins, good for all time.
Speaker 4:Then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. All right, good morning. We will go ahead and get started with the word of prayer, father, we thank you so much for this morning, father. We're thankful for an opportunity to gather as brothers and sisters in Christ and to celebrate the love that you have for us and, father, as we continue to try to learn and navigate how to be a culture that is centered around Christ, father, I pray that you would open up our hearts and our ears and our eyes to things that you want us to know. We're thankful for the scripture. We're thankful for your words of encouragement that you give us and the history that you give us, and, father, we're thankful for Jesus and his example of how to love and interact with others, and it's in His name we pray. Amen, good morning, alright. We'll get started right away with sacrifice. I believe that's in the top of your outline. Last week, we spent some time talking about the altar. We talked about Noah, and the first thing that he did upon getting off of the ark was he established the altar, a place where they could offer sacrifice, and so it only makes sense that, as we continue this series, we talk about creating a culture, that we talk about the idea of what is sacrifice, and so we're going to do that this morning, and I just put a simple definition up there it's giving up something for the sake of something else or someone, and so, before we dive into what sacrifice might look like for you and I, let's talk about what it looked like back in the Old Testament.
Speaker 4:Sacrifice wasn't something that was quick and convenient. It was more of time-consuming. There were steps. If you're bored today and you have some time to kill, if you want to read Leviticus 1-7, that will make you more bored. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. There's a lot of details of what you're supposed to do in the sacrifices in Leviticus 1-7, and we're going to look at some of that today. But there's a lot of steps. It wasn't just a quick and convenient thing. It was a thing that took a lot of time, a lot of heart and a lot of sacrifice, and so there was different kinds.
Speaker 4:There was the burn offering, where the whole animal would have been consumed by fire, and so you would go to your herd or your flock and you'd pick out the best. It was the one that didn't have any defects. It was the one that was kind of the way it should be and the way it was designed to be, and you would offer that and in the burnt offering the whole thing would be burnt. You didn't save any part of it. You didn't save any part for your family or for the priest. The whole thing would be burned and consumed by fire.
Speaker 4:There was the grain offering. That consisted of flour and oil and incense, and it was carefully prepared, and I was reading a little bit about it this week. You would actually make maybe a cake or you would make some kind of bread, and that's what you would offer, and so it wasn't like you just went up to the fire and poured some flour into it, but you would prepare something and then you would offer it to the Lord. And the idea of a grain offering was that you were showing God thanks for what he's provided, and so that was another offering that they had in the Old Testament. Then there was the fellowship offering, where part of the offering would be burned, where part of the offering would be burned and part of the offering would be given to the priest, and then part of the offering would get sent home with you. You know what you'd do with that. You'd create a meal and have a fellowship. So you'd invite family or friends over and you'd meet together. And the idea of a fellowship offering was recognizing that, because of the sacrifice and because of God's love for you, you have fellowship with God, but also you have fellowship with other believers, and so that was another.
Speaker 4:And then there was the sin offering. There was the guilt offering, which each one had specific steps for each animal that you would use, and there were certain ways that you had to do it, and the priest had to sprinkle the blood in certain ways, and the blood had to be handled in certain ways and it had to be poured out in different ways. It wasn't just a five minute stop by the altar is what I'm getting at? Okay, this was a long process. You didn't just swing by on your lunch and toss the goat on the grill, kind of thing.
Speaker 4:This was a thing that took some time. You had to select the right animal. You had to bring it from your flock. You would oftentimes be the one to hold the animal while it was being killed. So you had a part in it. You would watch as they would skin it. You would watch as they would butcher it and arrange it and burn it. It was a whole process. It was every day or every month or every year one of these would take place. It took time, it took effort, it took attention, it was messy, it was probably smelly, it was costly and it wasn't really optional. It was something you did on a routine basis and, honestly, as we think about that this morning, we're not far off of that. We know sacrifice. We know all about sacrifice. We'll wait. I woke up at 4 am once to go to Disney World and I went on spring break with my friends and we decided that we were going to go to Disney World and we were going to wake up at 4 am. We were going to sacrifice sleep so that we could be the first ones at the park. And guess what? We weren't. There was other people that got there before us, but we pulled into the park and the sun hadn't even came up yet. It was dark, and so we know what it's like to sacrifice.
Speaker 4:The Pirates had a bobblehead giveaway a couple weeks ago. They have a pitcher that's going to be on the team for another six months and then he'll be a Yankee. But yeah, just let me have that for now. But they had a bobblehead day where they are honoring Paul Skeens for winning rookie of the year. So they had. I think they had 20,000 bobbleheads. Okay, because of that bobblehead they sold out the stadium First time, I think, all year. Nobody wants to see the team, they want to see the little plastic figure. So 40,000 people filled the stadium and there was videos. It was going all over the place on social media.
Speaker 4:The line if you know where PNC Park is, it's over here. And then there's all the yellow bridges that lead to downtown. People were lined across the Clemente Bridge all the way into downtown three, four hours in advance waiting to get that bobblehead. They were sacrificing guys. They gave up their time, they gave up their energy. They gave up their energy. They paid money to get that ticket. They were willing to stand for hours. They were sacrificing to get that bobblehead. The funny thing is is they only had 20,000. So 20,000 people sacrificed for nothing.
Speaker 4:No, but the pirates did one thing right. They said everybody that bought a ticket will get one eventually, probably be in 2029,. But you pirates did one thing right. They said everybody that bought a ticket will get one eventually, probably be in 2029, but you'll get one, all right. So we know how to sacrifice, right? Happy May the 4th Nobody. May the 4th be with you.
Speaker 4:Okay, guys, back in the day, you didn't just wait for something to premiere on Netflix, you had to go to a physical building to watch it.
Speaker 4:And so we know what it's like to sacrifice because we've waited in line to go see the Star Wars film, and this has happened over generations and we might even be like that guy. I know Giler dresses up. Giler just gave me the meanest look. I have Chipotle with Giler every week. He's going to spit in mine this week, but we wait for stuff like this. Okay, and this is for my younger generation here, we'll wait up all day or we'll stay on our phone because there's going to be a shoe drop. They're going to release a specific shoe that you want, and so you're going to spend an hour, two hours on the Nike app, just click and accept, buy, buy, buy and then eventually, if you get it, you get that little screen that says you got them, you paid $200 for that shoe, and then what you're going to do, what this generation does it's funny they're going to turn around and resell that for $400.
Speaker 3:That's what they do.
Speaker 4:But they sacrifice their time, right, they sacrifice their time and do things like that for the big sneaker drop. We sacrifice our sleep for Netflix, right, we'll be watching a series and we get out. I know I do it too. Listen, I'm not picking on anybody. These are all things that I do, okay. So if you're sitting here and you're saying, man, this guy's mean, he's just calling us out, well, every one of these I wanted to be at the Paul Skeen's bobblehead day but I didn't get there. I wasn't willing to sacrifice enough to get there. So I'm not picking on you, I'm picking on myself here.
Speaker 4:But we'll do this. We'll watch a movie and it's midnight. Or we're watching a series and it's midnight and you know you've got to get up at 7 am. But then that screen comes up and it says are you still watching? And you click yes, I am, because in that moment you're willing to sacrifice that hour of sleep to watch that next episode. Does that make sense? And so we do understand sacrifice.
Speaker 4:We will sacrifice money to go on vacation and sleep to go on vacation. We just booked a vacation for this summer and I can't tell you how excited I am to go relax on the beach and wake up at 2 am to leave for vacation. Right, because that's what we'll do. We plan things like that like vacation. But then let's leave at 3 am so that we can get to the beach and be grumpy, because it's better to be grumpy on the beach than in Guernsey County. But that's what we're going to do. You know, I'm going to wake my kids up, I'm going to carry them out to the car at 3 am to get into the car and, by the Buffalo Interstate, getting on the interstate JMO's, going to wake up and say, dad, are we there yet? And for the next 10 hours I'm going to hear Dad, are we there yet? But we do that, right, I'm going to sacrifice my ears for that trip.
Speaker 3:But I'm going to be on that beach.
Speaker 4:We do that. Where are these guys? I think that's Justin Fellows, I think that's him and Jackson right there. These guys, we do this too. We wake up and we want to go to the ball game and you know, if you're going to Ohio State, you've got to get up there early, you've got to be up there right, you've got to be a part of it, and even if it snows, it doesn't matter, because you've got to be at the game. These guys I think this was the playoff game. The game was at 4 o'clock in Buffalo. Well, there was a huge snowstorm over the weekend. So Buffalo opens the stadiums to any fans that are willing to come shovel. So they open up the stadium at 7 am and say if you shovel, we'll give you a seat at the game. And so these dudes are up at 6 am shoveling snow so that they can sit in the cold at the football game later, because they know what sacrifice is. They get it, they got it. So I hear I'm joking, obviously. Hopefully you've picked up on that.
Speaker 4:We do understand sacrifice a little bit. We understand what it is to give up our time or our sleep for something. But this morning we're going to talk about and look at this idea of what are we willing to sacrifice for? In Leviticus, we learn that sacrifice isn't just about convenience, it's not about just checking a box, but it was God's design so that he could have fellowship with his people. You think about it.
Speaker 4:The people in Leviticus, the Israelites, have been in captivity for years. They've been in Egypt and now they're free. They're free, finally, and he's teaching them how to live in relationship with him. So he gives them a system. He gives the Israelites a system. It's almost like a rhythm, a way of life. You know, we all have rhythms, the way we do things right, and everybody has a routine for the morning. This is what God was giving the people in the Old Testament. I want to give you a rhythm, a routine for you to live by so that you can be in relationship with me. Now it sounds really, really complicated. We're going to try to get through some of that this morning. But the ultimate plan of this design was is God wanted to have a relationship with his people, and so he set up this system so that they could have a relationship with him. Does that make sense? So that's what we're going to try to break down a little bit this morning.
Speaker 4:So Leviticus 1 through 7, if we could just paraphrase or put that in one little thing, it's just a culture where sacrifice wasn't occasional but it was every day. He set up this system so that people could live in sacrifice on a daily or at least a routine way. And that leads to point number one. Sacrifice was never meant to be occasional and we treat it that way. When we think of sacrifice, we often picture this big, dramatic moment. Or maybe it's a crisis and you're going to sacrifice in that crisis moment. Or maybe it's a big decision and you're sacrificing when you have to make that big decision on whether you should take that job because it might pull you away from something else. And so you think about sacrifice in those moments. Or sometimes we think of it as like this once in a lifetime moment. But for God's people, when he was setting this up back in Leviticus, sacrifice wasn't meant to be rare or dramatic. It was supposed to be normal, it was supposed to just be everyday life, it was almost daily, it was just expected to take place. So in Leviticus 1-7, he lays out how the offerings work. There was the burn offering, there was the grain offering, there was the peace offering, there was the sin offering, the guilt offering, all because God wanted to live with His people. He wanted to be in their presence and a part of their rhythm, and so he set it up to be that way.
Speaker 4:Leviticus 1, 1 through 2 says the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of Midi. He said speak to the Israelites and say to them when anyone among you brings an offering to the Lord, bring your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock. Who's that message to? Who's supposed to give the offering? Who's supposed to give the offering? The Israelites? But there's a word there Anyone. It was designed for all people. It was designed for everyone.
Speaker 4:And then we get in Romans 12, verse 1,. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. That is your true and proper worship. So are we supposed to still sacrifice? Yeah, actually, it tells us to be a living one. You know what that means? A consistently moving one, one that's still consistently going. So we talk about the idea of sacrifice.
Speaker 4:The point of sacrifice was to point back to relationship. It wasn't about a dead animal. It was about a living relationship. Every sacrifice had a purpose. Every offering pulled people's hearts back to God. The burn offering, where they would burn the whole animal. It reminded them that everything belonged to who To the Lord. That was the purpose of the burn offering. It was for you to understand that everything is for God. And then there was the grain offering, where they would take their flour and their oils and they would put it together, and it was to remind them that it was being thankful for everything that God had provided. And so you'd give your grain offering. You're recognizing, you're understanding that God has supplied everything that you have. And so it sounds like a lot when you read through Leviticus 1-7, but when you kind of break it down, it makes sense. It's all pointing back to this relationship that God had and desired for you. And then there was the fellowship offering that reminded them of the fellowship that they get to have with God and the fellowship that they get to have with people because of God's love. And then there was the sin and the guilt offering that reminded them that forgiveness was available, but it was costly. They had to pay something for it. So this was all about protecting the relationship. Leviticus 3.1 says if your offering is a fellowship offering and you offer an animal from your herd, there is an opportunity for fellowship. And then you get Leviticus 6, verse 12.
Speaker 4:The fire on the altar must be kept burning. It must not go out. He commands them that the fire on the altar must stay burning. Why do you think so? Why does it have to stay burning? Somebody came late. Absolutely. There was always supposed to be what there was always going to be sacrifices. This was supposed to be an ongoing thing. It wasn't like a one-time thing. It was going to be consistently going and so if people were going to be willing to sacrifice, there needed to be a fire. It wasn't about checking the box. It was keeping that fire so that the relationship could keep going. It was about building the bond.
Speaker 4:In Leviticus, god set up sacrifices for every part of life. When you needed to sacrifice, when you needed to surrender everything, you brought the burn offering. When you got to a moment and you said I want to give everything to God, you brought the burnt offering. When you got to a moment and you said I want to give everything to God, you had the burnt offering when you were thankful. In a moment of being thankful, you gave the grain offering. God. I'm so thankful for everything that You've provided. When you wanted to celebrate the relationship that you have with God and the relationship that you have with people, you brought the fellowship offering Because you get to have fellowship with people. Fellowship is important. Being around other brothers and sisters in Christ is important.
Speaker 4:There's a reason that we consistently say, hey, we'd love for you to join a small group. You know why we keep saying that? Because we think it's important. It's not just because we like to do advertisements. We want you to join a small group. You know why we keep saying that. Because we think it's important. It's not just because we like to do advertisements. Right, we want you to join a small group or a Bible study. Because it's important, because building relationships, because when you're having a tough day, when you're having a tough moment, when you've built connections with somebody in a life group, guess who you're going to text those people. Hopefully you're going to text them because guess what they're going to give you? Probably some positive feedback, probably some scripture to help you get through it. They're probably not just going to say, ah, yeah, you should just give up on that, right, and if they are, let me know I'll get you in a different life group, okay, but here's what we want to do this summer. I want to share this with you just a little bit, and if this makes no sense, see Jeff afterwards. Okay, so here we go.
Speaker 4:One of the things that we want to do this summer is give our life groups an opportunity to get together, and we know that summer is busy and we know that people go on, they sacrifice and go on vacation and do all these things. But we've been thinking about how can we get our life groups together, because we have a lot of great life groups that are meeting and have been meeting throughout the year. How do we get them together? Well, we came up with this ideal we want to have a summer long life group volleyball challenge, okay, and so some of you already checked out You're like I am not playing volleyball. Well, guess what? There's this thing called NIL and recruiting, and you can do it, okay. So here's what we're going to try to set up. What we want to do is we want to get all of the existing life groups to participate and once we get that mapped out, we'll create a little schedule where every two weeks you'll have an opponent that you're supposed to play. So the Biggs life group.
Speaker 4:Philip has a life group, he might be scheduled to play the Winland life group, and so over the two weeks that we're scheduled to play, we just got to get together at some point during those two weeks and have a Bible study. That's the important part. We're going to have a Bible study and then we're going to play a game of volleyball and you know what's going to happen during that time Fellowship we're going to get together, we're going to learn who's really competitive. We're going to learn who's not athletic. We're going to learn who knows scripture and who you know. We're just going to learn. And what we're going to do over that time is during June and July we're going to do an eight-week series here on Sunday morning and we're going to give each life group some stuff to study together. That will be based off what we're learning on Sunday mornings, so everybody will be on the same page. Everybody will be looking at the same stuff just every couple weeks. So I know this is a lot of information I'm throwing out to you.
Speaker 4:If you're in a life group we would like for you to be a part of this. If you're looking at your life group, saying there's no way that our life group is playing volleyball, you have grandkids, you have grandkids and they have friends, recruit them, stack the team, I don't care, call the Columbus Fury and tell them you need them, I don't care. Okay, because guess what, at the end of the day, the volleyball part doesn't, it doesn't matter, we're just going to do that for fun. You're going to learn how competitive my wife is. Okay, that's all that's about. Okay. And so, if you are a part of a life group, find your life group leader or the person that leads it and say, hey, we're doing that. Okay, just tell them, we're going to do that and tell them you'll recruit if you need to. And then, if you're not a part of a life group, if you're sitting here going, I'm not a part of the life group, that's okay. This is a really cool opportunity for you to get plugged in one. So there's some sign up sheets around the building. There are some in the back back here. There's some on the card shelf, some on the greeters desk. If you're not a part of a life group and you want to be a participant in this. Sign up and we'll get you plugged in. Everybody got it. Make sense. How many of you have no clue what I just said? That's fantastic. Let's do it All right If you have any questions. See, jeff, he's got all the information, all right.
Speaker 4:So, fellowship offering If you needed forgiveness, you would bring the guilt offering, the forgiveness offering Every moment. Here's where we'll get back into this. Every moment in the Old Testament, whether it was a high moment, whether it was a low moment, whether it was a moment of gratitude, whether it was a moment of guilt, there was always a sacrifice that brought it back to God, no matter where you were at in life. Whether you were in a mega moment where life was really good, there was a sacrifice that would bring you back to God. Whether you were in a mega moment where life was really good, there was a sacrifice that would bring you back to God. Whether you were in a low moment where you felt like you had nothing to offer, god had a sacrifice for you to give, and so there was that.
Speaker 4:Number three sacrifice makes space for God's presence. We read there in Leviticus 9, verse 24, it says that fire came out from the presence of the Lord. Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portion on the altar, and when the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell face down. When people brought their sacrifices and surrender their hearts, god responds by filling them with His presence, and I think that's still true today. You can think of it this way the altar was the meeting place. The sacrifice is the invitation, and God's presence is then the response.
Speaker 4:If we want to build a Christ-centered culture that we're talking about, it can't just be about singing louder. It can't just be about building a program that's bigger and better. It's not just about hope, but it's about sacrificing deeper. We have to live with our hearts as our sacrifice to God, and we need His presence. We would all like God's presence in our life, so we need to sacrifice to make room for it. We need to have those moments. And then, number four, jesus became the, the sacrifice, so we could become the living sacrifice. For generations after generations, god's people lived in rhythm by sacrifice, morning after morning, offering after offering. Year after generations, god's people lived in rhythm by sacrifice, morning after morning, offering after offering, year after year. They always were willing to sacrifice.
Speaker 4:In Hebrews, chapter 10,. It tells us this that our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time, and then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. Who's that about Jesus? So he says no more lambs, no more grain, no more blood on the altar. Jesus finished it. It is finished Once and for all. He made the single sacrifice for our sins, and I don't think he did that, so sacrifice would just end, but that we could be the living, offering to God that we don't have to sacrifice for forgiveness, that we can sacrifice because we are forgiven. Okay, notice how that changes a little bit. We don't have to sacrifice just because we are forgiven. Notice how that changes a little bit. We don't have to sacrifice just because we need forgiven. We can sacrifice because we are forgiven. We don't have to sacrifice to gain His love, but we can surrender and sacrifice because of His love.
Speaker 4:A Christ-centered culture is built on our daily lives being in worship. Romans 12.1 says and, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God, because all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind you will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. So you aren't called to die for your sins. Jesus already did that. You're called to live for him and his glory, and I believe today that God isn't asking you to drag an animal to the altar, but instead he's asking you to bring your self to live for him.
Speaker 4:He's asking you to bring your heart to Him. Bring your heart to God. Allow God to take control of your heart. He's asking you to bring your time, to sacrifice your time for Him. That it all start with Him. He's asking you to bring your trust to Him. That everything you do is built and designed in trust. He's asking you to design your future around him. That you sacrifice your future for him. That everything that you do is for him. He's asking you to lay down your fears for him, and you're going to lay it down, not because you have to, but because you get to. You're laying it down not because you have to, because you get to. Where there is sacrifice, there will be the presence. Where there is surrender, there will be glory and there will be the presence of God.
Speaker 4:Let's pray, father. We thank you so much for the way that you work in our lives, god. We're thankful for the way that you give us Scripture and history to help us understand how we can better serve you and, hopefully, live in your glory. We're thankful for the Old Testament. We're thankful for the way that you designed it so that we could have relationship with you and, father, I pray that so many times we sacrifice for other things and, father, I hope and pray that we won't sacrifice for comfort or success or fun, but that we'll sacrifice for you.
Speaker 4:Father, I pray that we can go out into the world and live as a living sacrifice for you. Father, I pray that we can go out into the world and live as a living sacrifice for you, that everything that we do in this life will be for you and for your glory. Father, continue to watch over us as we try to design and create a culture that glorifies you in everything that we do. We thank you for Jesus, we thank you for his example, we thank you for the way that he lived his life and we're thankful that he was the ultimate sacrifice so that we can live our lives for you. We thank you for.
Speaker 2:Amen. My heart, my mind, my body, my soul, I give to you. Take control, I give my body a living sacrifice. Lord, take control, take control. All to Jesus. I surrender all to Him. I freely give, freely give. I will ever love and trust Him in His presence, daily live. I surrender all. I surrender all. I surrender all, all to Thee, my blessed Savior. I surrender all.
Speaker 3:All to.
Speaker 2:Jesus. I surrender Humbly at his feet. I bow Worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me, Jesus, take me now. I surrender all. I surrender all, All to Thee, my blessed Savior Jesus. I surrender Lord, I give myself to Thee. Fill me with Thy love and power. Let thy blessing fall on me. I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee, my blessed Savior. I surrender all.
Speaker 1:Come, set your rule and reign.
Speaker 2:In our hearts again Increase in us. We pray. Unveil why we're made. Come, set our hearts ablaze with hope, like wildfire in our very souls. Holy Spirit, come, invade us now. We are your church. We need your power in us. We seek your kingdom first. We hunger and we thirst, refuse to waste our lives for your, our joy and prize To see the captives hearts released, the hurt, the sick, the poor, and peace. We lay down our lives for heaven's cause. We are your church. We pray.
Speaker 2:Revive this earth. Build your kingdom here. Let the darkness fear Show your mighty hand. Heal our streets and land. Set your church on fire. Win this nation back. Change the atmosphere. Build your kingdom here. We pray. Unleash your kingdom's power reaching the near and far. No force of hell can stop your beauty-changing hearts. You made us for much more than this. Awake the kingdom seat in us. Fill us with the strength and love of Christ. We are your church. We are the hope on earth. Build your kingdom here. Let the darkness fear Show your mighty hand. Heal our streets and land. Set your church on fire. Win this nation back. Let the darkness fear Show your mighty hand. Heal our streets and land. Set your church on fire. Win this nation back, change the atmosphere. Build your kingdom here we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:God bless you everybody. Have a great week.