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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Sacrifice

David Wright

Life: The Final Goal of All Sacrifice

We're going to start a nine-part series on sacrifice because I don't believe we really know in our culture what it means to sacrifice.

And so we'll be looking at that a little bit, and I'll tell you a little bit more about that, but it's gonna culminate on November 12th is the offering of annual sacrifice.

Well, that's something that started back in 1922 When our funds were really low and the economy was in a rough place in this country we didn't have funds for the frontline missionaries and so they pleaded with the people here to sacrifice and To give up meals or some wages to do without in certain areas to save money and the week of prayer following leading up to that they pray Lord what can I sacrifice what can I do without what can I give up and so we're gonna practice that here and we'll talk more about that but for the week leading up I'd like to see our church have groups, small groups of prayer that entire week, meeting every night of the week?

To pray that the Lord will help to show us in what ways that we can sacrifice for this offering that will go to frontline missions.

If we truly believe we're living in the last days, then we need to sacrifice, don't you think?

Are we supposed to live like kings up until Jesus comes?

So that's what we're gonna be talking about, but we're gonna be looking at a lot of aspects of sacrifice along the way.

But to start out, I was just gonna tell you a brief little story of a test.

I was wanting that perfect story and I didn't find it.

I'm sure somebody here has it, Pastor Brian probably has it, of when somebody has to go through something they have no idea and all of a sudden there's this aha moment and they're so glad they did the right thing, you know what I'm talking about?

Well I couldn't find that story, at least not 1 that happened to me.

But I can think of 1 occasion in particular that someday I may tell you how Elizabeth and I met, but we had met and we started spending lots of time together and having lots of conversations.

And on December 7, a day that will live in infamy, we started to date.

So we began to date December 7th, but I had to still go meet her parents.

I had met them 1 time before, but it was kind of like, hey dad, here's a guy I think is cute, just shake his hand.

Oh, hello, nice to see you, da da da da, whatever.

But this time, I was actually gonna go up to meet the parents as the boyfriend.

Well, we hadn't been dating that long, but you know.

And I have this weird feeling because we, I'll tell you our story another time, Or maybe I won't, but we had kind of a rough start.

But by the time we were dating, we'll tell each other this now, but I was pretty certain that she was the 1.

And so as I was driving up to Maryland, I thought, I really think I just might be meeting the in-laws.

I was trying to remember, is her mom cute?

And we get up there and I meet the parents, and because you know your wife's gonna look like your mom, anyway.

So I get up there and I meet the parents, and I'm trying to practice all my good manners and be polite and the whole thing, but the test came when her dad said, David, have a little bit of a project that maybe you could help me with.

Eager as can be, sure, what can I help you with?

Well, and he starts to go into a lot of detail.

There's a little spot above this bedroom that we've just changed from, anyway, and it needs insulation and we need to crawl down, I mean, this was a pretty rough job.

I've never been on the show Dirty Jobs and this isn't really dirty so much but it's rough because you have to get up in the attic which was very hot, even at Christmas time it was hot, and we had to go in this tiny little space, the crawl space is not so bad, But then when it gets to the edge where the roof and the gutter all that area you had to reach back in there and and There was nails poking in from the top so several times you're hitting your head on these nails Oh that didn't feel good and you're putting insulation and we had to to be Special with this insulation and cut it around certain things and and anybody who's dealt with insulation.

And so I'm back there, and I'm breathing in all of this stuff that's shortening my lifespan.

And I'm trying to put this insulation in there a little bit further down Dave that's good that's good a little bit to the right I mean he was working it let me tell you but we finished the job the insulation was installed And I'm pretty sure 4 kids later I passed the test.

I don't know Have you ever been tested and did you ever have to suffer in the process now I suffered a little bit not much But I have to tell you it was worth it It was very very worth it.

I mean if you stop and think, there's a lot of times in life when we are tested.

A job interview is very much like a test.

Any type of a relationship, there's a form of testing that takes place.

Sure, they're nice on the surface, but when the going gets tough, do they get going?

And so, that's where the test comes in, to help us to see and to know who this person is.

And so we put them through a test of some sort.

And we don't necessarily always think of it as such, but a test.

Like I said, this morning we're looking at character of sacrifice, but we're gonna be looking at physical sacrifice, sacrifice of relationships, the sacrifice of self-reliance, the sacrifice of means, of pleasure, of pride, how sacrifice is required and sacrificing for the gospel.

And our theme verse for this series that I'm just going to call sacrifice, Is whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it But whoever loses his life for my sake will what?

Will find it Sacrifice If you don't give if you don't put in if You don't sacrifice if you don't give your all you're not gonna get all of life that God has for you You're not gonna get all the benefits all the joys.

I Don't know if I want to enter into a relationship I might get hurt I Don't know if I want to go downhill skiing that might turn out badly I don't know if I want to enter into a relationship.

I Don't know if I want to go downhill skiing that might Turn out badly I don't know if I want to you know And we can just be so reserved and so cushioned all our lives that we don't ever really experience life.

And the same is true I believe with the Gospel.

Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

This morning I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you brought your Bibles to Genesis 22 a tremendous story of sacrifice that we have here in Genesis chapter 22.

And before we jump into that story, we need to give a little background.

I know you know the background quite well but I think it would be helpful to do a little review.

You might recall leading up to this chapter, rather than trust in God, Abraham lies about Sarah being his sister to Pharaoh in chapter 12.

Which was in fact a half truth, they had the same father.

So they were half brother, sister, siblings, but it really wasn't the whole truth because the truth of the matter was she was his wife.

But for fear of his life and all the rest he told a lie not just once you recall But twice again in chapter 20 to King Abimelech same lie.

He didn't learn the first time He didn't learn to trust in God to trust him to be in charge and to have let the outcome rest with him No, I'm gonna do things my way.

At age 75, Abraham was promised a son, an heir.

First in Genesis chapter 12, and again in chapter 13 the promise is seen and Abraham is extremely wealthy Yet he and his wife are unable to have kids and all of his wealth will do nothing to change the circumstance Have you ever seen that individual?

Who finds himself in the hospital and they're the type of person that they just, they grab the world, and they just do whatever everything they touch turns to gold, and they're used to making everything go just the way they want it to go, and then they have a health crisis in their life.

And some of them, for the first time, they are helpless to do anything about it.

Their bank accounts, their resources, who they know, all of that is for naught because now they are left with an illness that nobody knows a cure for.

So here's Abraham with all of his money, all of his resources, yet he's unable to produce a son.

So after waiting 11 long years, think about that, 11 years is a long time.

He follows his wife's poor advice and has Ishmael through his servant Hagar.

This, of course, adds all kinds of drama.

Yet Ishmael, we know, is not the fulfillment of the promise.

And so after Sarah has now gone through menopause, the promise is repeated to Abraham.

In Genesis 17, 17 it says, Abraham fell on his face and laughed.

He couldn't even stand upright and laugh.

It wasn't a snicker or a giggle, it was a hearty laugh.

The Reproach of Those Closest

Have you ever been persecuted for your faith?

You know if you look up persecution there's a couple different definitions.

Persecution, hostility and ill-treatment is 1 definition.

I don't know about you, but when I think of persecution, I often think of death.

But you know, there's all kinds of different forms of persecution, aren't there?

Where we can be harassed, where we can be ill-treated, And it's just kind of that constant dripping, if you will.

Maybe you've been persecuted in your church.

Or even in your own family or your own home.

I'm going to ask Pastor Heiman to come up here.

We were talking just this week about this very subject and he was telling me about some persecution that went on in his dad's family.

My dad was not raised a Seventh-day Adventist.

And he grew up working on a construction job site.

Actually, his dad had served in World War II as an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers in Africa and was a strict disciplinarian.

When my dad came into contact by way of some literature of the Seventh-day Adventist message and became interested in studying it, there was no bones about it.

If he continued to study and follow these ideas he was going to be kicked out of the family, kicked out of the house at least and so my dad who inherited some of that stubbornness for the truth that is, he When he studied and was convicted this was the truth, he and his dad had to part ways.

And so he wound up having to go to school, he decided to go to Southern and had to pay his own way through.

And it was interesting because he studied to take theology because he was so impressed by the message that he discovered in the Bible and the spirit of prophecy that he became a minister and a pastor for many years here in the Carolina Conference.

Wow, so persecution from his own father, if you will, of saying, if you're going to choose this message, you're going to be out of the house.

No, I never had that type of persecution.

I will just add, though, many, many years later, his dad, eventually, by, of course, the influence of his son, wound up accepting the Seventh-day Adventist message.

And there's a church down in South Carolina, the church at Union, South Carolina, it's a small town.

He helped build that church in the early 90s before he passed away, my grandfather.

Now before you're done though, you have another story going to the other side, Teresa's side of the family.

You and I, both of us have in-laws named Ted and Nancy.

Your in-laws are a little better known than mine are.

My father-in-law, he himself was not initially raised as an Adventist.

He grew up in East Tennessee in Knox County and was raised in a Baptist family, but his dad, I have to say this carefully so I don't get confused myself, my father's father named Wesley, he began studying his Bible diligently and started to understand the understanding of the Sabbath on his own, just without any other outside information, and came to the conclusion that Saturday was the Sabbath.

And he began to teach this and to share this at the Baptist Church, which I should mention was actually the church and the land was donated by his family.

My wife's maiden name is Jones, and the name of the church is Jones Chapel Baptist Church.

Now this created quite a stir as he became so convinced that this was true and began telling people that this Saturday is the Sabbath, that they said, you can't do this anymore.

You're gonna have to stop doing this This is actually a picture of the the church and my Grandfather-in-law is the on the far side on the front row on the right sitting down That's my wife's grandfather the 1 who had studied and became convinced that Saturday was the Sabbath.

And anyway, they had a church meeting and said, we're going to vote you guys out of here.

And he had, I'm sorry, I need to point out, this is my wife's grandmother.

The lady with her head covered with the hat right there.

And anyway, they got married shortly after this picture in 1914.

So this has got to be 1912 or so, 12 or 1913.

They named the church after the family and then they voted.

They had other family members there that were Joneses.

And he said, they had a meeting and said, you know, if you're going to continue to do this, your family is going to be out of here.

He was convinced that Saturday was the Sabbath with no contact with Adventist yet at all none at all And so he remembers being asked to leave and his brother, my father-in-law's brother crying and saying, my daddy's a good man, my daddy's a good man, why are they doing this to us and having us, you know, kicking us out?

And so my Grandfather-in-law, he prayed and said, Lord, help, if this is really true, help me to know that.

Short time later, a call porter came by and knocked on the door, was selling literature, and sold him the book Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith.

And he read that book and was just amazed by it and he found out who published this who publishes Seventh-day Adventist well anyway that's when he began to connect and find a church in Knoxville area that was Seventh-day Adventist Church and they began attending and anyway that was...

They just about 6 7 years ago they finally the this church they they sold it but they called and asked my wife's grandmother, who was still alive at the age of 112, they asked her for permission to change the name of the church from Jones Chapel.

It still remained that name for many, many years.

And anyway, so they, I don't know what they changed it to, so it's not there anymore.

You know, we don't hear stories, maybe we do, but it seems like in this country, I'm convinced we don't know much about sacrifice and much about persecution.

These stories, by the way, were not uncommon in any way, shape, or form for our founders.

We're part of the Chestnut Street Methodist Church.

And similar thing, They believed in William Miller's teaching and the second coming of Jesus and they in so many respects were put on trial.

They had passages in Bible verses that they wanted to share and they weren't allowed to share and they were put away as quietly as possible without much of any explanation.

You've broken the rules, you can no longer be a Methodist.

And so you can read about it in a variety of places, but all 7 members of Alan White's family, the Harmon family, were discontinued from the church.

Persecuted, if you will, from your own church family.

Friends, following Jesus by no means is easy.

I think that's why Jesus said, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

And so we're doing this series that we're just simply calling sacrifice.

We've looked last week, we talked about the character of sacrifice, we talked about Abraham and Isaac and what some of those things look like, how he was to sacrifice what was nearest and dearest to him as a test.

Today we're looking at sacrifice of relationships.

Next week we'll look at physical sacrifice.

The sacrifice of the son in a few weeks when we have communion.

The sacrifice of self-reliance we'll also look at in upcoming weeks.

Sacrifice of means and pleasures of pride and how sacrifice is required.

And then we're gonna conclude how sacrifice is needed for the spread of the gospel.

And so that's what we're looking through.

But our theme verse, whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will preserve it.

God Wants To Hear You Sing

I know that's a little bit small, but Time Magazine did an article back in 2008, I believe it was, in September, that asked this very question, 2006, I'm sorry.

What exactly is the prosperity of the gospel?

On the headline it says, or on the front page, does God want you to be rich?

I believe that's a Rolls Royce with a little cross on it.

And then some of the books up here, Your Best Life Now.

And this talks about miracles and healings and special service taking place in Jerusalem and you can request your own prayer cloth to be sent to you.

Another book, 8 Steps to Create the Life that You Want.

This is just what Time Magazine had reported.

But what exactly do you believe is this prosperity gospel and do you believe in it?

You know if you go to Google they will define it this way, it's a religious belief among Christians that financial blessings and physical well-being is always the will of God for them and there is a result of this gospel, faith, positive speech, and donations will increase.

It is also known as the health and wealth gospel or the gospel of success.

Now don't get me wrong, there's plenty of very wealthy, not just a little wealthy, really wealthy people in scripture, right?

Abraham was very wealthy, Job was very wealthy, and there were others.

So I don't believe that wealth is necessarily the problem, But when we follow God, when we choose to trust in Him and to follow Him, is this a guarantee that I'll be rich and wealthy and healthy and and nothing will ever go wrong in my life?

I would suggest friends that following Jesus by no means is an easy life.

That's why he told his disciples, oh here's another slide, I forgot about this 1, prosperity gospel, why wait for heaven to get your mansion?

But what did Jesus tell his disciples in John 16, 33?

In me ye might have peace, But in the world ye shall have tribulation.

Doesn't say you might have, it's possible.

If you don't do everything just right, if you don't believe enough, it says you will have tribulation or trouble or trials.

In me you will have peace, in the world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world." And that's good news.

We're continuing our series this week on week number 3 on sacrifice.

We've looked at the character of sacrifice as Abraham was asked to offer up his only son, Isaac, the thing that he valued and treasured most.

It was a big test, so that was the character of sacrifice.

Last week was the sacrifice of relationships, sometimes family, friends, those closest to you don't understand, they don't agree with where you are spiritually.

They don't believe the same way you do and they might mock you, they might ridicule you.

And this week we're going to look at physical sacrifice.

And I know this congregation knows all about what it means to suffer in a physical sense.

In a couple weeks we'll look at sacrifice of the Son and a few others, pride and self-reliance, how sacrifice is required and the sacrifice for the gospel.

But I wanted to put this text on the screen, Mark 8 35, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it.

This is kind of our theme verse, except this one's taken from Mark.

This one's a little bit different, but same idea.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

Or could this in fact be speaking about physically as well?

Losing my physical life might be required.

But if I give it up for Christ and for the sake of the gospel, am I really giving anything up?

That's what this verse is asking me to think about.

If you brought your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Acts chapter 16 and we're going to look at a story there that's a very interesting story.

It's a story that challenges me considerably.

It's a well-known story, I'm sure you've heard of it before.

Acts chapter 16 And we're going to begin in verse 16.

I'll be reading from the New King James Version.

So Acts chapter 16, verse 16, And there we read, now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl, possessed with the spirit of divination, met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling.

So we have a slave of the devil, a slave of man as well, and the devil and this man are exploiting this girl for financial gain.

Verse 17, the girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation.

But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

Now this word annoyed really can also be translated as greatly distressed.

If you have a King James Version, it says being grieved.

American Standard says being sorely troubled.

But Paul is annoyed or grieved because this is hindering the Lord's work, what she's doing.

And she's constantly following them and badgering them and hindering their ministry.

And so in the name and the power of Jesus Christ, There's a lot of power in that name.

Jesus in fact had given himself, had given his disciples authority to cast out demons.

And so in the name of Jesus, in ways that the disciples and others had done before, he asked the spirit to leave this girl.

And verse 18 it says, and it came out over that very hour, verse 19, and when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities." You see, the marketplace was the center of just about everything.

Not just social, not just business, it also was where they administered justice.

And so they dragged Paul and Silas to the marketplace, and then in verse 20, and they brought them to the magistrates.

Usually there was 2 of them, and they had the power to inflict punishment on offenders.

And so they dragged them to the magistrates and said, these men being Jews exceedingly trouble our city.

These Christians over here, They're the problem.

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Sacrifice

Sacrifice for the Gospel

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