15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.~
…as we were saying…
Yesterday we looked at the call to “Go to Jesus”. One way to do this is to live our life in such a way that others may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven (Matthew 5:16). We are to bear testimony to God by doing the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). Here are two more. Note that there are many ways.
Sacrifice of praise
The second is to praise Him. How? Through Jesus, who was crucified outside the gate. We are unholy and sinful; God won’t accept our praise. When we go to Jesus for cleansing of sin, we are enabled to praise God such that He will receive it. As Jesus sacrificed for us, praise is one sacrifice to Him. We need to give ourselves w(holly) to Him, to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to Him (Romans 12:1-2). We acknowledge Jesus is our Lord – verbally if we can, but at least in our heart and behavior. How often do we praise? “I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” (Psalm 34:1 ESV)
Sacrifice of good
The third way is through a sacrifice of good works. We know that good works do not earn our salvation. Rather, they are the result of being rescued out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of Jesus (Coll 1:13), being forgiven for our sin, for being adopted into God’s family and gaining an inheritance from Him. An amazing fact found in Ephesians 2:10 is that these good works we do have been prepared in advance by God for us to do – before we were even born!
Sacrifice
These good works and sharing of our stuff do not come easily or naturally. It comes through sacrifice. We often need to give up what we want to bless others. One of my favorite movies is FireProof. One of the most moving moments (spoiler alert) is when the husband takes the money for a fishing boat he had been saving for 5 years and gives it up to buy a hospital bed for his mother-in-law. It could be a small gesture of giving your piece of cake to someone. The other extreme is giving your life, as Jesus did, for another. Follow Jesus.
