Do We Have Sacrificial or Superficial Faith | Hebrews 11:1-6

Transcript

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If you would take your Bible and turn to Hebrews chapter 11, Matt just read, we just read our my sermon. It's funny. If you would turn to Matthew chapter 11 or Hebrews chapter 11, uh title of this question Do we have sacrificial or superficial faith? It's a great question. That's why God put on my heart all week. Do we, individually and as a church, have sacrificial or superficial faith? So in Hebrews chapter 11, we'll begin reading verse 1, it says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It says, For it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the world was framed by the word of God, so as the things which are seen are not made of the things which do appear. Now he did not see death, and he was not found, because God had translated him. It says, For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. Then we get to verse 6. It says, But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Let's go to the Lord Murder Prayer. Heavenly Father, again, we just humbly bow before you. Lord, just thanking you again for the opportunity, the freedoms we have to be here this morning, to worship you in spirit and in truth. And we're just so very thankful and so very blessed. And it all comes from you. We know all good things come from you. And Lord, I do ask you for your preaching grace this morning that you just have me behind the cross and I remain there, and that we read your word and hear your word, and that we understand it. Uh, not just in our minds, Lord, more importantly in our hearts, that we would uh understand the need of it, that we would have it written in our hearts, that it would be the be a lamp and a light to our path, and that would we'd live a life to glorify you. We do pray for the loss that might be among us. If there's anyone here today, the Lord doesn't that's not a relationship with you, it's not been born again, that today would be the day that they would understand how much they're loved, understand the message of the cross, and then they would repent of their sin and place their faith in Christ's sacrifice and belong to you, and not just have a superficial faith, but have a sacrificial faith and a life again where you receive all the honor, the glory, and the praise. I do pray, Lord, for anyone here that has to make a decision, whatever it may be, for uh for church membership, baptism, whatever it may be, whatever decision someone's struggling with, that today would be the day that they make the decision to have a sacrificial faith. Again, we love when we praise you. We ask forgiveness of sins and we ask it's all in Jesus' name. Amen. Man, Hebrews chapter chapter 11 is a great, great chapter. It really is all about faith, because we know what it says. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. But we can take that verse and say, Well, I have faith, and that's why this message is titled what it is. Everybody has faith. They say, Yeah, I'm a Christian, yeah, I believe in Jesus, I've been baptized, I joined a church, I'm on a church pro. Yeah, but is it sacrificial faith? Or is it superficial? So if I was to say this, this Memorial Day weekend is the official weekend that we kick off the summer season, that statement is a great example of what is wrong with our nation. Forgotten or doesn't care what the, or to know the real reason we celebrate Memorial Day. On May 5th, 1868, three years after the Civil War, the leader of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union Veterans, instituted Decoration Day. A time for people around the country to place flowers on the graves of all who lost their lives in battle. But history says it began earlier than that day it was recognized nationally. So it was April 25th, 1866, in Columbus, Mississippi, when a group of women went to a cemetery to place flowers on the graves of the Confederate soldiers who had lost their lives at Shiloh. So to say that Memorial Day is to kick off the summer season, going camping and going to the lake and getting a day off work and all that is true. But just to say that's a very, just to say that's Memorial Day is a very superficial statement about what Memorial Day really means. The reason for the day. And that made me think about the message for today. For us today, do we have sacrificial or superficial faith? It's a huge, huge difference in people that have that. Because to have real following Jesus, Bible obeying, Holy Spirit yielding faith, our lives must be filled with sacrifice. Sacrifice. Why? Well, look what it says in verse 6. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. What does God always reward? Sacrifice. He rewards sacrifice because he knows our heart. He will reject in the Old Testament. People would bring a lame or a blind offering to God, and God would reject it. Why? Because it was superficial. It was just going through the motions. They go to the temple in Jesus' day and say, you know, they're supposed to bring their own offering. They say, I don't want to put up with a, you know, deal with a lamb or a goat or a pigeon or whatever it might be. I'll just buy one at the temple. And I just present it that day. Did not even pray about it, not even think about it. It was all superficial faith. And what Jesus did, he cleansed the temple. Because it wasn't, they weren't coming to really worship God. They were going through the motion. All superficial. And God always blesses sacrificial, what is real faith. And that's what he says, what's he do? When we have real faith, sacrificial faith, he rewards us with a peace and a joy, and we grow and mature. So we have to have that. To diligently seek him. After we're saved, we belong to God. John 1.12 says, but as many as received him to them, he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And then Jesus says, if we continue in the word, what would be? We'll be his disciples. To continue in the word, we must do what Jesus says in Luke 14. So if you want to turn to Luke chapter 14. Our faith would always be growing. In Luke 14, verse 25. It says, and there were great multitudes with them following Jesus. Why? Well, because of the scene of the miracles, they'd seen the healings and all the things he had fed them and all the different things they got physically, but we're going to see they had a superficial faith. They weren't willing to sacrifice to follow Christ. And he said he turned to them and said unto them, If any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and his wife and his children and brethren and his sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. When we see the word hate, there of course is not saying, well, we would hate our family, but it's saying that we would have a love for God. That people would think, man, you're so devoted to God that you don't even care about your family. In the way that a lost person would see that. But Jesus said, You cannot be my disciple unless you have that kind of love for me, basically. And he says, Whoever doth not bear his cross and come to me cannot be my disciple. What's the cross represent? Sacrifice, dying to self, and bear his cross. We must bear our cross, die to self. He said, Which of you intend to build a tower? Sits not down first and counteth the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it. So thus happily, after he hath laid the foundation, is not able to finish it, then all begin, all behold it, they see it, they begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going to make war against another king sits not down first, and can consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet that cometh against him with twenty thousand. And he says, or else while the other is yet a great way off, and send an ambassador and declareth the conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever of you that forsaken not all that he hath cannot be my disciple. And how do we forsake all? We have to have sacrificial faith. It's a sacrificial faith. Realizing, understanding, and realizing that it's a sacrifice that we put Christ first. And in thinking about this message, thinking about Memorial Day, uh sometimes I drive from work from Newport, I go down to Interstate, and I come through Bradford, come through Denmark. There's a mural in that one building at the very end. When you come this way, headed west, and you cross railroad tracks. I'm sure most of you have seen that mural. It's a war commemorating the war. And it's got a great line on it. It says, All gave some, and some gave all. And it's so true. Anybody that's been in the military, they've all given some, but there's some that gave all. When they gave their life. It's a beautiful picture. And it reminds me, uh it really does. It's really the Christian church today. Uh, all will give a little, but some will give all. And it's what it's all about. Be in the all group. Be that sacrifice, have that sacrificial faith. Uh some have sacrificial faith while others have superficial faith. It's one of two. Uh that's what Jesus said about serving two masters. You either have one or the other. There's no neutrality with God. You either you're either all in or you're not. You're either sacrificing or you're not. So I want to look today, I don't have points, but I want to look at what superficial faith looks like. Turn to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9.

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Luke chapter 9, verse 57.

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So it came to pass as they went in the way, Jesus and his disciples and all that was following him said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whither wherever thou goest. Okay, Jesus says, All right, in verse 58, Jesus said to him, boxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. He'd probably follow me until when? Around bedtime, or until it got cold. Like, well, Lord, where are we going to sleep? Jesus said, Well, might sleep in a barn, we might sleep out in the field, we might do that. I'm like, whoa. Uh no thanks, Jesus. I think I'm going back to my bed or going back to my house. There's not sacrificial faith there. And we go, and then Jesus goes on. He said to another in verse 59, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and to go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury the dead, but go there and preach the kingdom of God. And another said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And look at what Jesus says in verse 62. And Jesus said to him, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Some harsh statements, but that's some serious things that people want to do, but guess what?

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Christ has to be first. He has to be first.

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Excuses, but basically what they were making. That they wanted to follow Christ in their time when it was convenient for them. It was not sacrificial faith, but superficial faith. Superficial means this: it means shallow. It's superficial. It's shallow only on the surface layer. There's an example in the Bible, I believe, it's like friends of the rich man. The Bible says in Proverbs 19.4 that the rich have many friends, but the majority of the rich man's friends will not be friends when what leaves? When the riches leave. They're not friends, they're only friends with the wealth. They're not friends with the person. That's what the Proverbs 19.4 is an illustration of. And that's what is that? That's a superficial friendship. It's all based on surface level things, what you can get out of a relationship, what you can get out of a friendship, what you can get out of a church. Reminds me of that great, the famous story of JFK. What did he say? Think not what I can get from my country, basically, but what I can do for my country. And we have lost that. We have lost that on every level of our society today. Because everybody wants to get, get, get. What can you give me? What can you give me? What can I get? That's not sacrificial. Sacrificial is what can I give? What can I give to make this place better? What can I give to the Lord to make this church better? What can I give to my school, to my community, to my workplace? What can I give? Not what always can I get.

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True. Maturing faithful faith will be sacrificial faith.

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Understanding and realizing and seeing that the cost is worth it. It's worth it. Because when you see and hear messages like the Sunday school lesson today, and you realize and understand, you see what God, what Christ went through for us, that He gave everything for us to be saved. So we could live for Him. Look at Hebrews chapter 11 again. Jump all the way down to verse 17 this time. I want us to see sacrificial faith. Verse 17, it says, By faith, Abraham, when he was tried or tested, offered up Isaac. And he that received the promise offered up his only begotten son. That's an amazing story that you can read in Genesis chapter 22. When God asks or tests Abraham to go and offer his son as a sacrifice, that is the ultimate sacrificial faith that you are willing to give your son or daughters, your child to God. To a lost and dying world that hates you. I have two sons and I have two grandsons. I'm just here to tell you, I would never offer any of those, those four, to a world that hates me and despises me.

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I'm dishonest. I would never do it.

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But God told Abraham to do it, to offer that sacrifice to who, though? To him. To him. And Jesus was giving to us. While we were still yet sinners, God demonstrated his love for us, Romans 5.8. It's amazing love that we cannot comprehend. But it's a beautiful picture of Abraham's faith, sacrificial faith, when he was willing to do it. In verse 18, of whom it was said that in Isaac, thy seed shall be called. You think, what kind of faith did Abraham have? He had an amazing sacrificial faith, but he had a belief in the power of God and the power of God's word because this is how he reasoned in his mind. Verse 18, or verse 19. He's like, okay, God, you promised that in Isaac, there'll be so many descendants from my loins from through Isaac and all the others that you want me to sacrifice him? How did he reason it? Well, look in verse 19. Accounting that God was able to raise him up. Even from the dead, from whence he also received him in a figure. Abraham said, Okay, Lord, this makes no sense. You promised the descendants, an innumerable number of descendants through my seed, but you want me to sacrifice Isaac? Okay, the only way this is going to make sense to me is I'm going to offer him and then you're going to raise him up. There's going to be a resurrection. And it's all a beautiful picture of Christ. But we know the story. When Abraham was about to slay Isaac, what happened? God said, Stop.

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I know now that you do belong to me and you believe me, and you have me first in your life. And see, it was a test.

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A test of what? To see if Abraham's faith was real. If it was just words, if it was just superficial, or was it actually sacrificial? And God does that to us all the time throughout our life. That you will not put anything above him. And when we have anything above him, what are we to do? We're to sacrifice it. Keep it in place. Some things he says, yeah, you can put it in place, but something he says, get it away from me. Because you can't dabble in it. You can't deal with it. That's my struggle sometimes when it comes to hunting. I don't hunt nowhere near like I used to, because I know what it can do to me. I get so consumed with it and thinking about it, wanting to do this, this, and that it can take, it can, it can be in the wrong place. And it's like it can be anything in your life you enjoy to do, which gets it's just fine as long as it's in this right place. But sometimes you just gotta, okay. I still get to hunt, yes. But I don't nothing like I used to, because I know again what it what it desires it does, wanting to get out in the woods and the nature, and all those type of things. But having that sacrificial faith, we must have it. We're gonna see other examples. Jump all the way down to verse 23, he's talking about Moses. It says, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he's come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

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And here we see verse 25. Choosing.

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Choosing rather to suffer affliction. He could have lived in the palace, kind of been like we say on Joseph all these Wednesday nights. He could have been like Joseph, probably. Had a life of leisure and power and all these different things, but he chose what? To live with his brethren. He said he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. I got it wrote in my Bible here. I'm sure I've preached on this before. You know what it says? The church.

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It's an example of the church.

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A true sacrificial people that want to be part of the bride of Christ, the body of Christ. What will they do?

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They'll suffer affliction with the people of God. And that's an example of sacrificial faith. Moses had sacrificial faith.

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What did he do? He sacrificed a life of leisure to be blessed by God, to be a leader for the Lord. And you think about Old Testament men we looked at here, just think about in our day to day. In our time, this in our lifetime, the last few years. It's a man named Charlie Kirk. Hope you ain't forgot him. You don't hear much about him anymore. Isn't that amazing how it works? They try to kill the message, messenger, and kill the message. But I truly believe that Charlie Kirk was a martyr for the Lord. He was making a difference. That's the greatest example or an explanation I heard from somebody said why he was killed. He was killed because he was making a difference with young people. Making a difference for the Lord. His faith was what? Sacrificial. He was willing to go into a lion's den, basically. To go on a public university campus today and talk about Christ, talk about conservative values. You're one in very few. But he was willing, willing to go and stand and proclaim the truth. So if we continue to read, what it said, it says, esteeming the reproach of Christ, verse 26, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. But by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him as who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover, the sprinkling of blood, lest that he destroyeth the firstborn should touch them. Can you imagine Moses? I love the story of the Passover. And Moses, all the plagues have happened, and God says, Okay, you tell him this plan. You take a lamb, you keep it like seven days, three days, seven days, whatever it is. You keep that lamb up, then you kill it, and you put the blood on the doorpost. And Moses, okay, God, that that's the plan. That's how you're gonna free us from 400 and something years of bondage. And then Moses has to do what? By faith, take that message to the people, and they're gonna say, What? God's not gonna send some great army from around Egypt to come in and rescue us? No. His plan is, he's told me to tell you, you take that lamb and you kill that, you sacrifice that lamb, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Just like the world today laughs and mocks that God would send his son, one man, a perfect, sinless man, that he would come and die on a cross so that all could be saved.

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And what happens? People's like, oh, there's this no way. Why? They don't have faith.

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They don't have faith. But what's the Bible say? We must have faith to please God. And that's what this is all about. Talking about by faith, when he when he led them out, says in verse 28, through faith he had kept the Passover, the sprinkling of blood, lest that he destroyeth the firstborn should touch them. It says, by faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians, assaying to do, were drowned as they chased them. Remember, the water came and they drowned them. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after their compass about seven days. You think about that with Joshua? Here's the plan. The greatest walled city of that time. Okay, here's the plan that God says, we're going to march around it and not say a word. That was the hardest part I always joke about for the women to be not say a word for seven days. But he didn't say a word until that last day, and then when I marched around seven times, and they shouted and they blew their jump, and the wall fell down. It's amazing. You're like, man, what a plan. They had faith, sacrificial faith. By faith the heartless Rahab perished not than when they believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. And why should I say more on say more of the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephet, of David also, of Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of this ward. Out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant and fight, turned to flight. To fly the armies of the aliens. It says, Women received their dead, raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance. I believe it was in the time of Domitian. They were so fed up with the Christians, they were trying to make a deal with them. They said, if you'll just take one pinch of incense and offer it and say that he is Lord, you'll be fine.

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We'll let you live. They went in there and said, We will not say that He is our Lord.

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Say, kill him. That is sacrificial faith. That's what the world wants you to do. Just compromise just a little. A little compromise, no big deal. It's a huge deal with God. It's a huge deal with God. And that's what he says here. They were tortured, not accepting deliverance, they might obtain a better resurrection. Verse 36, and others had the trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yet, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, were slain with a swarve. They wandered about sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. And I love the writer of Hebrews what he says in verse 38. Of whom the world was not worthy. They had such sacrificial faith. This world was not worthy of them. And who's that compared to? Compared to Christ. This world was not worthy of the sinless Son of God to come to this earth. Why? Because his own rejected him. But he was willing to humble himself and to sacrifice for us. And he says they wandered in deserts and in mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And he says, All these, and these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. See, we're so blessed today. We have the entire completed, we know how it ends. We understand the millennial reign. We understand that how things are going to all end. We're on the winning side. It's all been written for us. Real people are willing to give everything for the Lord for us to have the truth today. It's like the men and women have fought wars, World War I, II, Vietnam, Korean, Desert Storm, all the things the war we're in today.

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What?

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So what?

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So we can be free to come here and worship today. We're free to give our lives to the Lord. That is sacrificial faith.

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But it must be a willing sacrifice. We're called to give our lives as a living sacrifice. Someday it may come to give in our lives by faith. But today is a living sacrifice. It's a willing sacrifice. But there comes a point when we belong to God. He'll test us to the point where we say, okay, will you show the world you belong to me or will you not? It's like the story of Joseph or Amaranthea. See, it was a secret disciple. And God said, okay, for a season you can be a secret disciple.

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I was a secret disciple for five years. I was. I was saved.

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And God kept dealing with me and dealing with me and dealing with me. He said, You either gonna represent me or you're not. And I had all kinds of struggles. I've shared this story so many times.

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God shook me. Said, You belong to me. And that's when I realized and understood I needed to find a church, I need to be baptized, I need to show the world I did belong to him.

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And Joseph of Arimathea, there came a time at the death of Christ, that he's the only one that probably had the means or had the political power to go to Pilate and to ask for the body. Who knows how he got the body? They said Pilate gave him the body. He probably, my guess, probably paid him, could have possibly paid him. Who knows? We know how the system works. Money's always about everything. But who knows? He was able to do it. But more importantly, just like Matt brought out and Josh brought out in Sunday school and the devotion and stuff, he was willing to step out in faith and sacrifice his position about who he was and where he was. And from that point forward was probably shamed by his peers and people around him because he would do that, that he would go and get the body of Christ. But he stepped out and did it. Put yourself in his position. Will you? Would you?

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Are you today? So how do we do it? We must die to self. Turn to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. The Apostle Paul has been preaching these first five chapters about it's grace alone.

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It's not, it's not, we don't live under the law. It's not about the laws of circumcision, all the different things that God said, the dietary law. It's all we're saved by grace and grace alone. And so they say, well, in verse 6, in chapter 6, verse 1, he said, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? That's like us. What we have to deal with as ABA missionary Baptists believe in security of the believer. That we believe in, I hate to even say it, once saved, always saved. It really is, I like this saying I've heard, if saved, always saved. Okay? If you're saved, born again belong to God, guess what? You are always saved. But are you saved? Have you made that profession? Have you been born again? Do you belong to God? And so they were saying, well, you say you can go out and do whatever, like today. They'll say, well, if you can't lose your salvation, then I guess you can go out and live like the devil. So you don't understand it. You have the Holy Spirit inside of you convicting you that we're not sinless, but we should sin less. And what does he say in the scripture here? He says, that grace may abound. He says, God forbid that you as a child of God go out and live like the devil. He says, To do that, what do you have? Superficial faith. He says, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? He says, Know ye not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized unto his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so here it is. We should walk in newness of life. And how do we walk in newness of life? We have a sacrificial faith. A sacrificial faith. And it's a willing sacrifice. Turn to Romans chapter 12. A couple of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. Talk about Christian conduct. And really it is, in sacrificial faith. Romans chapter 12, it says, I beseech you or I urge you, what Apostle Paul is saying. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice. The first thing is what? Holy. Holy doesn't mean self-righteous, doesn't mean you're better than anybody else. Holy means that you are separated. Like the ones that this world was not worthy that we read about in Hebrews 11. You are separated. The desires and the dainties of the world, the dainties of the king's table that Proverbs talks about, doesn't entice us. Our eyes are focused on the Lord, having his will done in our life. They willing to sacrifice those things. We're holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And he says in verse 2, and be not conformed to this world. See, the world is always wanting to conform us to who? To be like the devil. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die. Get all you can get. Do all you can, be all you can be, all these different things for yourself. Get, get, get. Never sacrifice. That's the message of the world and the system of the world. But he says, be not conformed to this world. Now, how do we do it? What'd he say? Well, but be you transformed. By the renewing of your mind. You read God's word and you have the Holy Spirit inside of you telling you to do what? Have sacrificial faith. Forsake the things, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Give your life to the Lord. Renew your mind. We have to have the word of God. Read the word. And he says that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So you might be thinking, Brother Ronnie, how'd I do that? And I look back at my life and the decisions I made and the things I did was out of understanding and realizing that the apostle Paul says that we're all babes in Christ. And I told you I was a secret, uh secret believer, saved person, belonging to God for five years. Really, I was a babe. The babes of the all babes. I didn't know the word. And I use that as an excuse. There is no excuses. Because once we're saved, we have the ability to have the word, to hear the truth, be taught the truth. And so we have it, we understand it. And what are we ought to do? We ought to realize and understand one thing: how much we're loved. How much God loved us, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. John 3, 16, that he loves us, that he gave us. And we realize what? That he died so we could live for him. So what what drives us, what fuels us to live for God and have a sacrificial faith is love. It's a love for the Lord. When we love the Lord and we sacrifice things for His because He loves us, we'll grow and do the things He'd have us to do.

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Turn, if you would, to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. I want to end with this verse, and I pray you remember it. Always remember it. 1 John 4, verse 19. It says, we love him because he first loved us.

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We love him because he first loved us. And he showed us what a sacrificial life is, willing to die for the Father's will to be done. Jesus gave all of himself so we could have eternal life. He died for us, we could live for him. And to live for the Lord Jesus, we must have sacrificial faith. If you would please stand. Brother Matt, Miss Michelle, come forward. I pray that you'd just be yielding to the Holy Spirit. You'd really think about the message, think about the question that started it. Is your faith sacrificial or is it superficial? It can go from superficial, it can go deeper. It needs to be deeper. It has to be deeper. It has to be a sacrificial faith. Well, there's nothing in your life that you won't give to God. It's like the song I surrender all. Have you surrendered all to God? Well, you will grow and be more like Christ each and every day. As we sing.

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396.