The good, the good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, the mercies of sea. All I have needed, the heaven and all my debt. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Pardoned for sin and a feast I'd endure, Thine own near presence to cheer and to guide, Strength for tonight and light for tomorrow, Worse things are mine within, thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness, Thank you. You may be seated. All right, Romans chapter 1 this morning, Romans chapter 12 this morning. I've got to remember where I'm at. Sherry, were there some notes back there somewhere? Thanks. Romans chapter one, if you remember in the book of Romans. Book of Romans is separated in three different divisions. I believe there's three divisions in the Book of Romans. And the first chapters 1 through chapter 8, you have the outline of the gospel. You have the gospel of Jesus Christ and what a treatise it is that the Apostle Paul set out here by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. And then you come to chapters 9, 10, and 11, and she didn't take them out of her purse. Just kidding, just kidding. Coming to chapters 9, 10, 11 you have a parenthesis there where God is dealing with Israel. Israel has been put on the shelf. Israel was the, as I like to say, the vehicle. We might not say the gospel, but it's still the gospel, the good news that God is our Creator and He desires His people to be reconciled back to him but Israel chose not to be the vehicle and even up into the time the Messiah came and they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus came and he built his church and the church is now the vehicle for the gospel right we are the automobile that is to go out in all the world and preach the gospel churches are and So God put Israel on a shelf. He parked them in the garage, Romans 9, 10, and 11, and He's gonna deal with them again one day. Jesus is gonna sit on the throne of David. They are gonna look upon Him whom they have pierced. On a national sense, Israel is gonna receive Jesus as Messiah. Does that mean every individual Jew will receive Jesus and be saved? They have a free will still. I don't know about if they will or not, but I know on a national level, I know on an overall sense that they are gonna acknowledge that Jesus is, is the Messiah. And then we come into chapters, of course, chapter 12 on through 16. Well, chapters 12 through 16, right, you have the chapters 1 through 8, you have the explanation of the gospel. But chapters 12 through 16, you have the gospel lived out on a day-to-day basis. What is the gospel? It's the good news, right? It's a compound word. Angolos and the word, where we get the eulogy, the word eulogy, a good word, and the word Angolos, he comes up with the word gospel, gospel. It's the good news. What is the good news? Well, the bad news is that we are sinners on our way to a Christless hell. But the good news is that God said, whosoever will may come. And he sent his own son, he sent Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I will go. And the good news is that if you're here today trusting in anything else, then Jesus Christ alone, you can be saved today. That's the good news. But the chapter 12 and verse 16 now is how to live out your year to this morning. You're born again of the spirit of God. You've been saved. You remember the day that you called on Jesus. You remember the day when you finally realized I'm the problem. He's right. I'm wrong. I believe Jesus. And I need that. I must have. The work of Jesus applied to my life. That day you got saved. From then on, from that day on, we are living Romans chapter 12 through 16. The gospel lived out on the day-to-day basis. What I want to focus on this morning is verse 1. And it's fascinating to me that this section of Romans begins, the very first verse, begins with this verse, we know so well. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, what, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. I told the man a few weeks back, I've had a theme in my own heart, my own life, a theme I'd like for the church and something that I think is gravely missing today among, I'm just gonna say American Christianity and it's that word sacrifice. We don't sacrifice anymore. We don't know what sacrifice is in so many ways and I would like to look at that today if we could and I think it's amazing how this last section of Romans begins with this verse. If you're going to live the gospel on a day-to-day basis, the foundational truth is it must begin It must begin with sacrifice. Let's read that verse together. Can we please? Verse 1, chapter 12, verse 1. Let's begin. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Boy, isn't that good? So simple, really. It's reasonable. It's reasonable. I've told you this before, I love this, but it was the late Clarence Sexton said, the problem with the living sacrifice is that it's always wanting to crawl off the altar. Isn't that our problem? Yeah, we'll get up on the altar, but boy, we're trying to get off a lot of times as well. Absolutely so. You know, relationships are, and this is what we're talking about here today, is we're speaking of relationships and a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we know is relationships are not built on convenience. Did you know that? You will never build a deep relationship conveniently. it will always take work. Our world is all about convenience today, isn't it? Here's what convenience means. Convenience is anything that saves or simplifies work or adds to comfort and ease. Now, in a lot of ways, there's nothing wrong with that. We enjoy our creature comforts. We like heat in our house when we have it. Yep, sometimes we don't. We like heat in our house. We like air conditioning in our house. We like cars that have air conditioning and heat. I can tell you what, I can do without a house with air conditioning quicker than I can do without an automobile with air conditioning. Boy, that tin box is hot, and I can get cool under a tree and go in the house, and it's not so bad. but I like automobiles with air conditioning. I like that convenience, right? And so our world is all about convenience. You know the world makes a lot of money from convenience if you think about it. You go to a gas station, remember when the gas stations were just gas? Fuel? Now they sell everything. You can go to Florida to a Wawa, and you can get a loan, you can get a sandwich while you're waiting for the loan, and then buy a new car, whatever, oh yeah, and then fill it up on the way out. I mean, they just have everything at them now. It's incredible. Why? It's convenience. And you'll notice, you pay a lot of money for the convenience in that little place. That hot dog that you shouldn't have eaten, that thing was worth four times less than you paid for it, and it did four times damage more to your body than you should have allowed done to your body, right? I'm telling you, convenience. We'll pay a lot of money for convenient things. Takeout and delivery food. Well, I'll just have them. I travel a lot, and sometimes I like the convenience. Sometimes there's nothing wrong with convenience, it can be a good tool. And sometimes I'll be at a hotel in a new city, and I hate driving around a city I don't know. Brother Roberts, you guys have done this, no doubt. You've driven and you've spent hours just looking for something. You know what you find out sometimes? It's easier to just get to the hotel, order something out. You've actually saved time and probably some money, and depending on the city you're in, you've probably saved your life. And so, I mean, there's some real benefits to convenience. But sometimes, but it costs. You're like, oh, wow, that meal was 12 bucks. Well, tip, and that fee, and a gas fee, and a whatever fee, oh, now it's $34. How did we do that? Well, Bubba, that's called convenience. You're gonna pay for convenience every time. You go to the airport, I was at an airport like I usually live at, and I went to this little thing, I knew better, and I didn't buy it, I walked away hungry, that Dutch part of me reared up, and I said, I'm not doing it. And once in a while it comes up, and that tightwad part of me, and the sandwich, this wasn't even tightwad, this was wisdom, man. It was a $14 sandwich. Tuna. And you know, I don't know what factory it was made in, who knows, right? I'm sure Uyghurs were putting sandwiches together in China, freezing them and shipping them over to the U.S. And we're eating that stuff, who knows what's in it. $14 for about 48 cents worth of sandwich, yeah? I walked away. But you know people can pay for convenience. I've heard people talk about going to ball games and professional ball games and the money they'll spend on food. Now the idiots ought to spend 50 bucks on a beer, they deserve it. But like 25 bucks on a hot dog, I don't know, I'm making up numbers. They're just, it's exorbitant. And this is what convenience does. It costs money. Right? It can be a tool. Walmart shopping online is great. Hey, we found out that Sam's would deliver to our house. We're 12 miles south of Nixa, out in the middle of nowhere, and they delivered once. Sherry tried to deliver and get it again and said, we're out of the area. Somebody went back and said, do not do this again, right? They are too far out. But that's a benefit of convenience. It really is. Listen, there's money to be made on convenience, but there's also time and money to be saved on convenience sometimes. Absolutely so. But in our personal relationships, convenience eventually does damage. I'm talking about relationships. They do damage. Why? Because relationships take time. Relationships take energy. Relationships take money which takes time and energy, right? Listen, there's no shortcuts to a long lasting meaningful relationship. There's no shortcuts to it. You can't just go through a thing and do the turbo charge through all these things and come out the end and like, oh, wow, this really worked. No. Why? Because we're humans and God designed us. We're relational beings. And to have a relationship and to grow in the depth of a relationship takes time. It takes time. They're not built on convenience. But any relationship that's going to be deeper than where it started, listen to me please, requires sacrifice. sacrifice. You know so little in our society today extols the virtue of sacrifice, except the sacrifice of an unborn child, that's pretty easy anymore. They say we throw the, if you gather the attendance of every kindergarten class in the United States, on average that's what we throw in the trash every day in abortion. Now that's one area people have no problem sacrificing for their own needs. But listen, you cannot have love without some level of sacrifice. It can't be done. When two individual lives intersect, both must give up something to yield to one another. Both have to give. There's got to be sacrifice. Is it inevitable one will probably sacrifice more than the other? Yes. Yep, but there still has to be sacrifice. Yielding requires sacrifice. You go to these roundabouts now. I don't know who brought these into our part of the country, but they're everywhere now. Roundabout. You ever gone from Springfield to Ashgrove through Willard? There's six of them. It's pretty much you're doing that little pig loop tail all the way up. It's like, it's ridiculous. I want to know who brought these. It's like, is a four-way stop too hard? I mean, that is America. That is Ozarks. That is Missouri. Bring back the four-way stops, please. We can figure them out. Thank you very much. Anyway, I got that off my chest. But if you're going to go through a roundabout, you've got to yield. What's that mean? You've got to sacrifice. If you're going, I've got to get to the grocery store and this semi is coming in, you know what you're going to do? I'll wait. That's wisdom as well. Sacrifice. I want to notice the elements of sacrifice in Romans chapter 12 and verse 1. Number one, sacrifice has got to be voluntary. It's got to be voluntary. It's got to be something you do. You know what? If you love something enough, you will voluntarily sacrifice. If you find out, I don't really feel like sacrificing for that, well, you don't love it enough to sacrifice for it. I mean, I'm not saying it's a wrong thing. I mean, it may be something that's not wrong that you're not loving enough to sacrifice for, but when it comes to relationships, that sacrifice, that love relationship, that sacrifice has got to be voluntary. You know, that's why Adam and Eve had the choice of all the trees of the garden. You know, he put that one tree of knowledge of good and evil. That's why they had a choice. Why? Because for love to be reciprocal, there has to be the opportunity to say no. And there has to be, if there's the opportunity to say no, that means that sacrifice now becomes voluntary to have a love relationship. It has to be that way. God designed it that way. You cannot make it otherwise. So it's got to be voluntary. Number two, sacrifice has to be selfless. It's got to be selfless. The guy at the gym, he may sacrifice, but primarily it's for himself, right? They sit in the mirror. I try not to do this for you because I'll rip my suit. But they'll do that and they'll do all the, you know, the poses. That's why I did power lifting, because you didn't do this. You just ate food, right, and then tried to lift more weight. It was much better, much better routine. Those guys were eating raw potatoes and stupid stuff. I'm like, you're an idiot. Just let me eat some more, right? Yeah. But it's, you know, sacrifice has got to be selfless. A monk may sacrifice, but it's generally for self. The Pharisees sacrificed, but it was to expand their own power. It was all about self, right? No, if you're going to have sacrifice with the end goal of a reciprocal love relationship, the sacrifice has got to be voluntary, and it's got to be selfless. But number three, it has got to be complete. If you look in the Old Testament sacrifices, every animal sacrifice was given completely. They didn't bring the lamb and say, hey, do you mind if I cut the chop out before you kill this thing? Man, that thing, that's going to be a good lamb chop right there. I can't believe the priest is going to eat that thing. Let's bring him an old lamb. He doesn't need that one. We'll keep this one and bring him this one. Come on, they're human, don't you think they had to think? I mean, think about that. How often do we bring offerings to God or the Holy Spirit of God puts something on your heart to give and you're like, can I give that chair? I mean, I know the church needs a chair, but man, that one's... This one's new. Seriously? I like the old one. I mean, the old one can go. We're done with that one, right? Listen, I would give that old chair with such hilarity, it would be so biblical for me to give this chair because I would be rejoicing giving it, right? No, we do this, don't we? No, listen, sacrifice is complete. It's all of it. all of it. Remember when David had sinned in numbering the people, and he chose that for the plague, right? Well, God sent a plague, and he went out to sacrifice to stop the plague. Well, he went up to the threshing floor of Ornan in 1 Chronicles 21-23, it said, And Ornan said unto David, he was looking for a place to do a sacrifice on that threshing floor and Ornan said when he realized what David wanted to do and that he was sacrificing to God, Ornan said this, And let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Lo, I giveth thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood. Take my tools My wood tools, if you need to build a fire, wow. Talk about sacrifice. And the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for meat offering. Listen, he said, I give it all. I give it all. That's what sacrifice is. It's complete. It's voluntary. It's selfless. And it is complete. You know when you're, listen, you're sacrificing, if you're walking with the Lord, the Holy Spirit of God will let you know when it's not selfless. Yeah. Or it'll be like Ananias and Sapphira and he'll kill you. Thankfully we don't see a lot of that anymore. But anyway, yeah, that's what sacrifice is. Voluntary, selfless, and complete. There can be sacrifice without love, but there can be no love without sacrifice. It's just the way it is. And you know, all through the Word of God, we have illustrations of this everywhere. I want to look at a few of them this morning, but throughout the Word of God, the Holy Spirit of God has given us real life examples of those who lived lives of sacrifice because they had a real loving relationship with God. You know, how can you not go through the Bible and not stop? Very first stop at Abraham, right? Over in Genesis 12, verses 1-3, the Bible says this, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, under a land which I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation. and will bless thee, and make thy name great. And thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless him that blessed thee, and curse him that cursed thee. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. What a promise. Well, we know how that's true today, don't we? It's called Jesus Christ. Amen. The entire world is blessed, whether they realize it or not, are blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a promise of hope this man had. At 75 years old, childless, God came to him after his father died and said, go out into a place that you know not where you're going. And it says, the Bible says, he went out knowing not whither he goeth. He went home to sister Sarah and said, we're moving. Where are we going? Canaan. Well, he didn't say that. He said, I don't know actually. He said, I don't know where we're going. And she said, okay. How'd you like that? Okay. Yeah. And so he went out at 75 years old. In Genesis chapter 15, God made a covenant with Abraham that he is going to have a son. But it's going to be 25 years before that son is born. But finally at 100 years old, God fulfills the covenant. promise made unto Abraham. So here he is, 25 years waiting for the promise, 75, 85, 95, 100, year after year after year, even after he sinned, even after he made a wrong move and had another son Ishmael who was not the promised seed, even though he had made mistakes in Egypt and told them that Sarah was his sister, half-truth, and not his wife to preserve himself. Through all of the struggles of Abraham and the trials of the human side of Abraham, God was still faithful with Abraham. And 25 years after the promise, this little boy shows up. Wow, what a joy that must have been. Has anybody ever waited years for God to fulfill something you were almost embarrassed to tell somebody about because you just didn't know if it would come to pass or not? And here you're standing in it years later and God was faithful. He was right, it was exactly right. What an incredible time in Abraham's life. He's visibly looking at the promise of God. But then in Genesis 22, God says, take now thy son, thy only son Isaac, whom thou lovest." Do you know that's the first time love is mentioned in the Bible? Love, loved, lovest, loving, the word love, the first time it's mentioned in the Bible is between a father and a son, between Abraham and Isaac. No, love is in the Bible, Genesis 3.15, it's there, right? The Messiah was coming, the proto-evangelium, the gospel in Genesis 3.15, that's all love. The first time this word love is used in the Bible, and it's between a father and a son, and hear Abraham at this command of God, whom thou lovest, and get thee to the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of." Here again, a second time in his life, he's going out, not really knowing where he's going, like the first time, but this is even worse. Now he's going out to the mountains of Moriah. God, when he gets there, will tell him which one to go up, and he's gonna tell him, when you get up to the top of that mountain, you're gonna take the son that you've waited 25 years for the one that you love, the one you love, and you're going to take that one up to the top of that mountain, and you're going to sacrifice him, and you're going to give him back to me, and you're going to, essentially in Abraham's mind, you are going to take his life and offer him to me, and you're going to walk off that mountain by yourself and go back to your servants and go home. Obviously, Abraham knew better than that because he said, when I and the lad return to his servants, he knew what? Whatever God told him. Hey, whatever God told him, he knew this. The promise had to go on. So Isaac wasn't going to die. Maybe God would raise him up. I don't know. He didn't know. But he said he was coming back down. I love the faith of Abraham. But he took his servants and he took Isaac. And for the Bible says for three days, he traveled to the mountains of Moriah. For three days, he thought about this. For three days, he wondered about this. For three days, he wondered how it was gonna happen. Maybe he wondered about the response of Isaac and what Isaac would say. Obviously, he's old enough to walk up a mountain and to take stuff with him. You know, some surmise that he may have been 18 years of age by this time, but he takes Isaac up, he's thinking about it, he's stewing over it, he's trusting God. I think on the way, maybe he's just going, Lord, are you sure? Are you sure? I mean, really, this? I mean, I'm in, I trust you, but really, I want to make sure, are you sure about this?" As he's walking to the mountains, and up he begins to go, and halfway up that mountain, Isaac says, Father, here's the wood and the fire, but where's the lamb? Where's the lamb? I love Abraham's response, God will provide for himself a lamb. God will provide, I added a word there, God will provide himself the lamb. So prophetic, so prophetic. And here he goes up to the top of the mountains of Moriah and the knife was coming down. Abraham's sacrifice of his only begotten son. Selfless, voluntary, complete. Abraham was ready to give all of Isaac. You know what Abraham was called? Friend of God. Friend of God. Why? Sacrifice. What did he know through that sacrifice? Well, he knew an intimacy with the Lord Jesus, with God that nobody, that you can't know any other way. Sacrifice. It's what it was all about. There is no love without sacrifice. There is no depth of a loving relationship without sacrifice. If you go over to 1 Kings chapter 21, Ahab is king. of Israel. Well, Jezebel is kind of king of Israel, but Ahab is the figurehead over Israel. And Naboth has a vineyard that the Bible says is hard to the palace of Ahab. It was right next door. I've been there. It's a beautiful location and those troughs are still in the ground there, those rock troughs where they would and stomp out the grapes and the juices would run down into other areas. And you can see some of the old grape vines are there. I don't know if they're original, but there are still grape vines there, here and there. And the palace, of course, is gone. It's just a foundation that's there, and it overlooks the Valley of Jezreel. It's the most beautiful, beautiful scenery that you can see there. In 1 Kings 21, in verse 2, Ahab wanted Naboth's vineyard. He looked out and said, I like that. I want it. And Ahab spake unto Nathan, verse 2, 1 Kings 21 saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house, and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it. Or if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. Ahab was not here to just steal it from Naboth. He was going to give him some better land or a big chunk of money. He wasn't there to just take advantage and just rip it out from his hands. He was going to actually pay him back for it somehow, right? So verse 3, Naboth says, And Ahab goes home and pouts about it. Hey, can I remind you, up to this point Ahab has already had some losses in his life, right? Mount Carmel, the prophets of Baal, 850 of them were slaughtered, he had to go back and tell his wife about that one, 450 of them were hers, right? And now he has this loss, this little guy next door who all he has is a vineyard, tells him, no, I'm not going to sell it. Right? And so he's home pouting. Jezebel comes home. What's wrong, great man, king of Egypt, or Israel? Right? What's wrong? Well, Naboth won't give me the vineyard. I'll fix that. writes letters down to that district where he lives, got people together, some sons of Belial together, to be false witnesses against Naboth, to come out and tell the judge that Naboth blasphemed God and blasphemed the king, and so they brought Naboth out, and you know what happened? The Bible says, there came in two men, children of Belial, verse 13 of 1 Kings 21, and sat before him, the men of Belial, witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king, and they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died." Can I tell you this morning, Naboth was not executed for crimes. Naboth sacrificed. You say, why did he do this? I mean, think this through, please. Naboth no doubt he had a family, no doubt maybe he had a wife still, no doubt maybe he had children, no doubt he had maybe grandchildren that were there, that were maybe living in the area. What is it in a man that would stand up to a king and say, no, I'm not doing this? while the stones are coming at him, while the false accusations are going. I mean, what were the last things that crossed through his mind? What were the last things that Naboth saw in his eyes, right? Was it his wife saying, stop? Was it his kids, like, bewildered, like, what is going on right now? What is happening? The blood is everywhere, and the rocks are falling on this guy, and his life is exiting his body, the fury, and just like the frenzy of people, this blasphemer, and they're chucking the rocks at him, and he's watching. I mean, how do we get here? How do we get to this place that a man would sacrifice his life, and maybe his posterity, and everything he has for a stupid piece of ground? How do you get here? Well you'll find it in 1 Kings 21 and verse 3. You know what Nabal said unto Ahab? The LORD forbid it me. Don't make me go back to Joshua. and the coming in of the land, and the land was divided out, and God had said years ago, from the very beginning, you're not to sell your land. It's your possession. If you fall into trouble and you have to sell it, well, you can buy it back or you can get it back in the Jubilee, but you're not going to go out, you're not getting rid of your land. It's yours. And you know what Nabal said? Bring the rocks on. Hey, listen, I'll take the death. You can drag me out and stone me. You can do whatever you want. watch the scene unfold and watch my children and my wife and my kids just in total shock and screaming and crying. I can watch it all and go to my death because God said no. Wow. Conviction, huh? It really is. Why did Naboth do this? Well, listen. Listen closely. Naboth went to his death because he had a relationship with the living God that he was never going to disobey God for the sake of convenience. Convenience. He was literally a living sacrifice. It was voluntary. He could have said, well, wait, hold the phone. Hold on. Time out. Change my mind. Change my mind. I didn't know we were pulling rocks out. You should have told me at the beginning, man. We could have settled on something. No, it was voluntary. It was completely selfless. He was more concerned with what God thought. It was absolutely complete. His entire life, he was dead. Don't make any mistake. He did not sacrifice for Ahab. He sacrificed for God. He sacrificed for God. Abraham did it. Friend of God. Naboth has done it. Selfless, voluntary, and complete. Listen, we can't end without going to the Lord Jesus Christ. talking about sacrifice this morning. In Genesis 3.15 I told you earlier it says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, but thou shalt bruise his heel. Genesis 49 and verse 10, the scepter shall not depart out of Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Job himself said before any revelation per se, Job 19, 25-27, Job stood up and said in the midst of his trial, in the midst of his suffering, in the midst of what was going on in his life, he said, for I know that my Redeemer liveth and shall stand on the earth someday, someday upon the latter end of the earth, right? And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, he said, yet in my flesh, I shall see God. whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reigns be consumed within me." Hey, Job believed in a resurrection, right? He believed it was coming. He believed the Messiah was coming, and He did come, amen. The Holy One of Israel, God's spotless Lamb, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, He came. He came when He was being baptized of that one who called Him the Lamb of God. He came and was baptized of John. And while He came up from the baptism, we know He was in the water. The Holy Spirit of God was descending upon Him. The Father was in heaven and He spoke down from heaven. And He said, this is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him, My beloved Son. Beloved son, see as Abraham walked up the mountains of Moriah with the only son that he loved, so the Father led Jesus to this, listen to me, to the very same mountains of Moriah. They are the same mountains where Jesus was crucified. 2,000 years later, he was brought up. The Father led Jesus to be betrayed by the one he loved. Jesus was betrayed by the one he loved. Judas came to him and he said, friend. Remember, we looked at this when Judas said, is it me? And he said, thou sayest. If you look deeply into that, he was given more opportunity to repent why he loved him. The father led Jesus to be falsely accused. The Father loved Jesus to be horribly tortured. I don't need to spend time with this today and spend too much time in it, but sometimes I just cannot understand and fathom why they did what they did. Do you realize the Old Testament sacrifices, they didn't torture him. They brought him in, they slit their throat quickly, poured out the blood, put him on the altar, sprinkled the blood, it was over. and torture him. But for some reason it pleased the father to bruise his son. For some reason God allowed it that Jesus not only be sacrificed as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, but he also allowed him to be tortured. I don't get it. I mean really, did they have to do this? I mean really they didn't. They're cruel. They're absolutely cruel. They could have thrown him up. They could have crucified him. I mean, they could have founded, I mean, obviously he was going to be crucified, right? If I be lifted up, that's what it means, I'll draw all men unto me. That was the death that he chose. But man, was it vicious. You can't get past this without thinking of the words of Jesus on the cross. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. I thirst. You make this connection. When he was in the garden, you remember, he said, Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. Father, let this cup pass from me. Let this cup pass from me. On Calvary he said, I thirst. I thirst. And that cup was the dregs of the sins of all humanity. They were poured, they were placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus was pure and holy and spotless and blameless. He was the Holy One of Israel. He was God's little lamb that was absolutely perfect. And He came to Calvary. and said, Lord, I thirst. Father, I thirst. I thirst. At some point, all of the sin of humanity was placed on him. He cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The father had to turn his back on the son because he could not be in the presence of sin like that. The Bible says he gave up the ghost and died. Wounded for me. wounded for me. There on the cross he was wounded for me. Gone my transgressions. Hey, now I'm free. All because Jesus was wounded for me. If there's ever been an example of sacrifice, it is perfected in the Lord Jesus Christ. Voluntary, he told Pilate, I lay my life down and I take it up again. Completely voluntary. Selfless, absolutely selfless. Not my will, but thine be done. Father, if there's any way that this cup can pass from me, right? Not my will, but thine be done. Not my will, but thine be done. Entirely selfless. Absolutely complete. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Every last bit of it. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, your bodies, your bodies, your bodies, your body, your body, your body, your body, a living sacrifice unto God, which is your reasonable. It's your reasonable service. It absolutely is. And that sacrifice, it is holy and it is acceptable unto God. It absolutely is. Can I tell you something this morning? American Christianity has become a relationship based on convenience. I'll witness if it's easy. I'll knock doors if it fits my personality. I'll go to church if it's convenient. If all the planets are in alignment, right? If all the medicines are working. I mean, come on. I'll give if it doesn't hurt too much. I'll live a separated life in areas where it's convenient, areas that are easy, where we don't look or sound weird, then I'll go ahead and do that. You see God sacrificed everything because He wanted us, because He loves us. Amen? See there's attitudes and actions in our lives that are just simply detrimental to our relationship with Jesus that must be sacrificed for the sake of the relationship. Why? Because He is holy and we are still in a sinful flesh. Right? There's still a chasm between us and God. And if we're going to reciprocate the sacrifice and the love that God has shown towards us, if we are ever going to grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus Christ, there are just going to come up things in our life that we are going to have to sacrifice to grow into that relationship with Him. And you know why it's reasonable? Because we will never, ever, ever, ever sacrifice the level of what Jesus sacrificed. Ever. If you could put them on the scale, ours would never even show up. They're so minimal. But many would rather take, take, take, and never give. Sacrifice, where'd sacrifice go? Where did it go? People used to rejoice in sacrificing. You know, we have this preserved Word of God in the English language, and we have it because people sacrificed. People were, listen, people were burned at the stake for the Word of God. They were burned at the stake to assemble with the body. Think about this. There's nobody in this building or at other times in this building who has ever faced the trials that our forefathers have faced to assemble with the body. Many of them went to their death to do it. Yet we have all over the America, all over our nation, all over America, parking lots empty on Sunday night, empty on Wednesday night, empty on Sunday mornings. And you said it the other day, the movie house is absolutely full. You know what it's full of? People, no doubt, there's got to be a percentage of them that are there that should have been in the house of God. And if you got to be, they all should have been in the house of God. But there are some that will name the name of Christ and will claim membership of a certain church and they're not there. You know what we've lost? Sacrifice for convenience. Come on, you don't have to have road walking sense to see it. It's absolutely true. And you're never gonna experience that intimacy with Jesus that you really want down deep in your soul. You are never gonna experience that intimacy if you're not willing to sacrifice. God doesn't tell everybody to sacrifice at the same level. Not everybody is an Abraham that was told to bring up Isaac. Not everybody is a Naboth that was going to face the stoning. But every life has an aspect of their life that is going to, listen, of your own voluntary selfless choice going to say, you know what, if I'm going to get closer to God, this has got to go, or this has got to start, or this has got to change, because I want Him. See back over in Jeremiah chapter 21, Josiah is dead now, he's passed away, and his son, his son Shalom is now the king. His son Shalom is not walking in the way of his father, he's walking in idolatry. And as you realize and remember, Josiah sacrificed. Josiah cleaned that. I mean, he cleaned house. He cleaned house. I mean, he got rid of the idolatry. He had a heart for God, but his son did not. And at one point in Jeremiah chapter 22, listen to what God says to Shalem. For thus saith the Lord touching Shalem, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place, he shall not return thither any more. And if you look there again in Jeremiah 22, go down just a few verses. 22 and verse 11, go down just a few verses. I want you to see this. God says, why was your father this way, Shalem? Why was he like this? Why did he do what he do? Why did he sacrifice how he sacrificed? Why was it? Look at verse 15. Shalt thou reign because thou closest thyself in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink and do judgment and justice? Then it was well with him. Why was it well with Josiah? Well, because he did justice and judgment. This is what God is telling Shalom, your father didn't judge because he was wealthy and because he had a big house and because he had good business deals with other nations. No, your father did well because he did justice and judgment. Listen to verse 16 now. I love this. He judged the cause of the poor and the needy. Then it was well with him. How come? Why was it well with him? Look at this. Why did Josiah do all of this? Look at, was not this to know me, saith the Lord? Why did Josiah sacrifice? Why did he clean house? Why did he do justice and judgment? Because he wanted to know God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Listen, you can't hunger and thirst after righteousness while simultaneously hungering and thirsting after the husks of this world. See Josiah, you know why he wanted sacrifice? You know why Abraham sacrificed? You know why Naboth sacrificed? You know all the other examples in the Bible of sacrifice? Because they wanted an intimacy with God that is available for you today and for me today. If you'll learn that it only comes by sacrifice. Sacrifice. Not a monastic lifestyle. That's unbiblical. We're not being monks, going into a cave, right? That's not biblical. Can't preach the gospel, living in a cave, never coming out. Listen, there are areas of your life that the Holy Spirit of God is going to put His finger on. He's going to tell you, I can go deeper, but this is in the way. This is in the way. Would to God that we all had the conviction of Naboth. That we are more concerned with being obedient to the word of God. That we would go to our death and sacrifice our very own life and everything else just so our relationship isn't hindered. We don't know sacrifice anymore. We don't. We got it easy. We got it easy. We've got heaters and air conditioners and fans and automobiles and paved roads and grocery stores full of food that will deliver to you now and everything else. But there's some things that can't be delivered by convenience. He's not just going to show up in your house and drop a relationship. Here you go, here's the intimacy you wanted. See you later. No. Listen, you're gonna have to decide whether you want that or not. May God give us churches again that get back to the place of understanding the reasonable thing in the life of a believer is a life of sacrifice. It's holy and it's acceptable to God. He says, I like that, I'll take that. And you know what you'll find out? You'll find out you'll have a relationship with him that you never imagined was possible. And when you get there, there's more. There's more, if you want it. Our Father, thank you so much. Thank you for the sacrifice of thy only Son. I don't understand it at times, how you could allow this measly creation of yours to be so violent and cruel and hateful and disgusting towards the Lord Jesus. But you allowed it because you love us. And Father, I just pray that you do that work in us that we would be molded to the example of the Lord Jesus Christ even more than ever before, that our lives would be marked to, if the time comes and the need is required, that we would live a life of sacrifice. It's a heart condition, it really is. It's a matter of the heart. Father, I pray you would change our hearts Lord, that we would love you more than anything else in life. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand this morning. The instrument is going to play. The invitation is open for you. Let me ask you this this morning. Are you living for convenience? Or are you living a life of sacrifice so you can know him? Maybe the Holy Spirit of God has placed something upon your heart today. You know it's a sacrifice just to come to an altar. What are you sacrificing? Sometimes you're sacrificing your own stinking rotten pride because you just don't want to be thought of in a weird way. But the Holy Spirit of God is drawing and you need to respond to Him. You need to say yes. Are you living a life of sacrifice? Has the Holy Spirit of God put something, maybe He's put something during the message this morning. He's put His hand, His finger on something. He said, this right here, it's in the way. We could go deeper. You could know me more. It's up to you. But listen, this has got to go. This has got to go. This has got to change. This has got to stop. Maybe it's this has got to start. Whatever it is, you respond to the Lord this morning. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Amen. God bless you this afternoon and pray the Lord to keep this on your mind. Meditate on it. Meditate on this. May the Lord help us this year to know a level of intimacy with Him this year that we've never known before.