7/14/2022 • Desk of Dennis Piller
A Sacrifice is a Gift – The Fruit of Lips
I have been a Christian for many many years but how humbling to realize that I too often forget some of the most vital ways of praying and worshiping Father God. It says to enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise. How often have we heard that? Maybe we can’t quote the verse but we know it…but how often do we do that? Can I do something different today? Would you enter his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with me in praise. Would you do me a favor today and click the listen button above and enter his gates with me? Just for today Please.
Song: Michael W Smith Above all.
Hebrews 13:15 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly professes his name.”
The animal sacrifices that were once fragrance to a Holy God in the Old Testament have been replaced by “the fruit of lips” that acknowledge his name in spirit and in truth. (Leviticus 23:18 – John 4:24) The entire book of Hebrews is about a new way of life and a new way of worship. The old testament was ladened with laws that one could never achieve BUT by Jesus’ death defeating resurrection has set us free from impossible standards.
BUT it is still a SACRIFICE of praise! A sacrifice is a gift… It doesn’t imply…it defines… Offer a sacrifice of praise. Regardless of the circumstance. Regardless of the seriousness of the hardship. Yes, sacrifices hurt, they are costly, it takes real effort and fortitude… It cost Jesus the ultimate sacrifice…His life! God made man…died the most horrific of all deaths. THAT is a sacrifice. The Son being offered up as a sacrifice for ALL… is a sacrifice.
Can you even imagine as a parent, offering your son as a sacrifice to God because God asked it of you? And then trusting him as Isaac did? He offered up his son and had his boy gather the wood for the sacrifice! All the while believing that God would honor his word to make him a father of many nations. I firmly believe that he was undoubted sure that Father God would raise him back to life. What kind of faith is that? THAT my friends is the sacrifice of Praise. I can see him in my mind…his hands raised towards the father offering up his only begotten son as a Sacrifice of Praise…with a knife in his hand. BELIEVING.
HARD? You bet it is. Easy to write, easy to say but one of the hardest things you will ever do. My wife recently lost her Mom to dementia. My dear friend AJ just lost his mom. Hard? Unbelievably hard at times. Habakkuk's Complaint IN 1;2 – “How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?”
But a sacrifice of praise is proclaiming in the middle of our VIOLENCE.
In the center of our pain and anguish… to offer up as Isaac did…
the sacrifice…of our lips!
He didn’t ask for your child, he asked for the testimony of your mouth…your heart. He is asking you to sacrifice your pain and suffering in exchange for the joy of the Lord! WHAT? I just lost my Mom. My son is on drugs. My daughter came home pregnant! … Joy?
What gift have you to offer God? Money…things…a boat…your service on Sunday? He asks for a SACRIFICE…OF LIPS. Oh, how easy it is to praise him in our victories! Easy in our success when all is going our way.
But sadly even then we forget as we think we did this.
Just so you know, I do not have a stage I speak from as an achiever, been there done that, or that I have walked this and speak from a position of being above it. I am in the middle of it. I am writing this prayer, this teaching… to me even more than to you. I am struggling to obey in offering up the "Fruit of Lips", knowing his word is true and that he is “faithful and just:” 1 john 1:9
This is not about my willing it…it is about "Being Still" and His Holy Spirit giving me the strength to walk in the truth of…”The joy of the Lord is my strength!”
Thank you to those who have written that are praying for me.
I covet all your prayer for this person to return to the Lord!
