Let Us Offer the Sacrifice of Praise

[00:00:12] Hello and welcome to another episode of worldwide Wonderful Women. I am your host, Paula Harris, and this podcast is for women who are all about learning how to live in God's divine power. It is produced on behalf of transformed worldwide ministries. Thank you so much for being here. [00:00:40] Hello. This is episode number 356, and it's entitled let us offer the sacrifice of praise. [00:00:51] Even though Thanksgiving is coming up this month, did you notice how the emphasis was put on Halloween and then swiftly onto Christmas? It seemed the merchandise in the stores that I visited were leaning more heavily toward these two holidays. Now, there appeared to be little focused on Thanksgiving, except maybe the advertisement of a free turkey, if you spent enough dollars at the grocery store. What happened to Thanksgiving being heavily emphasized too, is being abundantly thankful and grateful, going out of style, so to speak? Have wars, tragedies, killing and evil been set before our eyes to the point that we no longer have hearts full of gratitude? Now, I know this is not true of everyone, but I want to bring this to our attention so that we do not slide into having such attitudes each day. When we sit quietly before the Lord as believers, our hearts should become overwhelmed by his mercy and grace and love. If you have breath in your body, are able to see and even think clearly, these in themselves are enough to make you burst out in praise. And thanksgiving is evil rampant and suffering and tragedies more and more widespread? Yes, I'm not denying that. Maybe some might be thinking, then how are we supposed to have hearts full of peace, joy, and thanksgiving? Is it possible? [00:02:37] Is it realistic? In the midst of all of this, wouldn't you be hypocritical or phony to offer Thanksgiving? Or maybe some might be thinking, well, I feel prideful to in the midst of all of this, count my blessings and offer thanksgiving when so many others are devastated. [00:02:59] I believe a day should not pass without some praise and thanksgiving being offered to our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. [00:03:09] Each day is truly a gift, and even though it may contain heart wrenching, life sucking events that leave you numb, yet I truly believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. We can muster up enough from our voice box to utter the sacrifice of praise. [00:03:32] A sacrifice is something that cost you. It is to suffer loss, to give up, to renounce, to injure or to destroy, even pertaining to an idea or belief. Let me repeat that a sacrifice is something that cost you. It is to suffer loss, to give up, to renounce, to injure or to destroy, even in pertaining to an idea or a belief. So to offer a sacrifice of praise, it may cost you something. [00:04:13] It may cost you to renounce a strong belief such as how is God good when so much evil is prevailing? [00:04:23] It may cost you to suffer loss where you offer praise for your life even though your house just burnt down. It may cost you to destroy that stronghold of fear that's dominating your mind and instead place faith in God even though you don't see how things are going to turn out. [00:04:45] Remember, a sacrifice is something that cost you. It is to suffer loss, to give up, to renounce, to injure, to destroy, even in pertaining to an idea or belief. In all honesty, this type of sacrifice takes the power of the Holy Spirit operating in your life. Yet, in the midst of tragedy, suffering or loss, we can offer the sacrifice of praise to God as instructed in Hebrews chapter 13, verses 15 to 16. Now this is what those passages say. [00:05:26] Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. And don't forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God. Now that was out of the new living translation Hebrews is a letter that was written to persecuted jewish Christians. It was meant to encourage them in the midst of their suffering so that they would hold fast to their trust in God. In chapter eleven in the book of Hebrews, there are saints that are listed whose faith looked beyond this life to eternity, and they remained steadfast in their trust towards God. Now remember, persecution from the world should be expected, especially if we're living righteously for our Lord. But if we, like them during persecution, would continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God and do good and share with others. We will be blessed and given the capacity to stand strong too. [00:06:48] Jesus will give us the ability to offer up true thanksgiving from our hearts within. [00:06:56] I thank God that our sacrifice does not involve blood or animals as in the Old Testament. In Hebrews we learn about the new covenant that was established by Jesus'sacrificial death. His death was that once for all sacrifice never to be repeated, that fulfilled all the requirements of God, thereby eliminating the Old Testament animal sacrificial system. [00:07:26] Since Jesus's sacrificial death and work on our behalf is completely finished, there is nothing that we can add to it. Please go and read Hebrews chapter nine, verses 24 to 26 and Galatians chapter three, verses ten to 14. [00:07:45] Now, though Jesus's perfect sacrifice was one time, our sacrifice of praise is to be continual and truthfully. Our sacrificial praise is based upon Jesus's perfect sacrifice. [00:08:04] You see, it's only through Jesus that we as believers can even offer a sacrifice of praise. This sacrifice is the fruit of our lips that confess his holy name. This sacrifice consists of praise whereby we openly acknowledge the name and the character of our God and savior. This sacrifice can take place when we meet together to encourage one another, or when we meet together to worship God, or when we confess Christ before unbelievers in the world, or when we are in private sitting before our heavenly Father. [00:08:48] We are to let our hearts overflow with thanksgiving and gratitude for who God is and for what he has done and for what he has promised. It's then that that overflow can burst from our lips expressing praise. [00:09:10] Now remember again what Hebrews chapter 13, verses 15 to 16 states. It says, therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. And don't forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God. Now, although the Old Testament animal sacrifices are obsolete, as believers we offer sacrifices which include our praise. And then, as we can see in verse 16, as I read our possessions, and then even as we see in Romans chapter twelve, verses one and two, our sacrifices include our entire lives as well. [00:10:02] Look, I just want to encourage you, like the writer of Hebrews did for the suffering believers at that time, because of Jesus's once for all sacrificial death on our behalf, there are abundant blessings already prepared for us each day. And even when life gets hard, it may be a sacrifice for you to part your lips and give heartfelt praise, but please, just do it. I know even for myself, each day can have different challenges or trials. But we need to learn how to look beyond the trials and beyond those challenges and at least find one thing that before we close our eyes and get in that bed at night, we can thank God for when we give the sacrifice of praise, first, we will be obeying a command that was given that I just read in this verse. And as a matter of fact, our sacrifice of praise should be continual in spite of circumstances. Circumstances should not stop our praise. And then second, as stated, it shows our allegiance to his name. His name represents all that he is. So even when what we see causes us to despair, we will not waver from trust in him for what we do not see, our belief in him will not be shaken. And then third, we will not just give lip service, but show gratitude by our actions. We will give to those in need, using our material resources to do good as commanded. Also in this verse and with such sacrificial living, God is well pleased. It's the opposite of accumulating or focusing only on ourselves. [00:12:00] So please be mindful to not let people or other things quench your expressions of praise and thanksgiving to God on Thanksgiving Day or really any other day. It may be a real sacrifice on some days and you may not be happy with God, much less want to praise him. But I want to encourage you. Do it anyway. [00:12:26] If you did a study on praise and its connection with God, it would just blow your mind. There is so much power released when you praise God regardless of your situation. [00:12:39] So call on the Holy Spirit for help. Ask him to help you to see beyond your situations, to see beyond the tv reports, to see beyond the negativity that is expressed to you. Put some music on if you have to, and let praise pour out of your heart through your lips to our lord. Those in heaven, when you think about it, are continuously praising God. So come on now, let's outdo them with our praise. Let's do it beginning now at the end of this podcast. Well, I hope that you and your family will have a blessed thanksgiving and that you would be able to, as you gather around your table, or even if you're by yourself, or if you have loved ones and friends with you or not, that you will let the sacrifice of praise just pour out of your lips and from the depths of gratitude in your heart and make it a point to join me here next month. And smile. Jesus loves you. [00:13:53] Thank you for listening. To make sure you do not miss any future episodes, please subscribe to our podcast. We want all to be able to live in God's divine power. Also sign up for our monthly newsletter on our website site twoojesus.org. Please do share our podcast with others and Lord willing, we'll be together next month.