Sacrifices of Praise

Thanksgiving arrives on Thursday this week. Many of us have fond memories of the holiday and look forward to building more good memories this Thursday. But I suspect Thanksgiving might hold bittersweet memories for some of us, and you are not as excited about this Thursday as you have been excited in the past. And so, it is about thanksgiving – not the holiday, but the attitude of thanksgiving that I want to speak about today. To that end, let’s look at Hebrews chapter 10. If the text seems an odd way to introduce Thanksgiving, please be patient. All will be explained.

The community to which this letter was written was suffering persecution. Some of it was severe. Many had had their possessions stolen. Some were imprisoned for their faith. And consequently, many were becoming demoralized. Some were drifting from their faith. Listen to what the apostle wrote by way of encouragement: (Hebrews 10:32-36) “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”

As I said, the writer was concerned – rightly so – that persecution or affliction was turning some away from the faith – just as we today ought to be concerned today about the same things, that persecution and sufferings and various disillusionments have turn some Christians away from Christ. And I sometimes think about that when I read 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I also think about it when I read Paul’s letter to the Christians at Ephesus: (Ephesians 5:20) “Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” 

I memorized both of those verses decades ago. But every so often – because I forget so often – God focuses my attention once again on them. And I confess to you how frustrating it is to me that God must remind me of the same things He’s has already reminded me of a hundred times in the past, that being to give God thanks IN all things and FOR all things – for this is God’s WILL FOR us in Christ Jesus.

 All things. For good things like health, prosperity, dreams come true, hopes realized. But also to give thanks in and for bad things – accidents, deaths, illness, chronic pain, loneliness, loss of income and so forth. For all things and in all things. Which brings us to the thanksgiving point of my message today.

The writer tells us later in Hebrews: (13:14-15) “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. Let’s talk a few moments about a sacrifice of praise. It is NOT a sacrifice to thank God when things go well. A sacrifice is not a sacrifice if it costs us nothing. I can give five dollars to someone in need, and I wouldn’t think about it twice.  But if God called me to give someone ten thousand dollars – well I can tell you, THAT would be a sacrifice.

Here is only one example of a Biblical principle behind sacrifices: The backstory of David’s sin of overwhelming pride takes up a full chapter in the Scriptures. (By the way, this chapter is not talking of David’s sin with Bathsheba. That happened earlier in his reign as king). We won’t take the time to rehearse what 1 Chronicles 21 tells us. You can read it yourself, if you like. But what I will focus on is the last part of this story where God demanded of David a burnt offering sacrifice for his sin.

For the sacrifice, David went to a man named Ornan, who owned the site David wanted to use for the burnt offering. But Ornan, a loyal and faithful servant of King David, said to him, “Take it for yourself; and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give it all.” But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the Lord or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.” (1 Chronicles 21:23ff) 

Listen to David again: “I won’t offer a sacrifice to God that costs me nothing.” That is, of course, the definition of sacrifice. It costs us something. And so, we ought to expect a sacrifice of praise to cost something.

It’s is no surprise to anyone over the age of 60 that life is full of trouble and heartache. Job had it right when he said: (Job 5:7) “Man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward.” In chapter 14:1 he continued: “Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil. Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.”

So, what shall WE do when life picks us up and smashes us to the ground? What shall we do when we pray for our beloved sick, and they don’t get well – or they die?  When we pray for family reconciliation, and it doesn’t happen?  When we pray for the salvation of our family – and they never, so far as we know – come to Christ. When we pray that we might have children, and we remain barren all our lives? What shall we do? God tells us what He’d like us to do: “Persevere” as we read in that opening text from Hebrews 10. It’s what Scripture tells us to do in Paul’s letters to the Christians in Thessalonica and Ephesus as I read earlier. “For this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

Is that easy? Of course not. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be a sacrifice. But is giving thanks in all things and for all things necessary?  Yes, absolutely. If it were not necessary, God would not have commanded it of us.

So, why does He command it? Why is it necessary? Because not only can prayer change situations, prayer can also change US. And that is part of God’s plan for you and me – to change us, to conform us to the image of His Son. That’s what God tells us in the eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome – and this is important to grasp with our hearts and not only theoretically with our heads. And oh! How well I know that theoretical knowledge does not keep us at peace when things go terribly wrong.

Being conformed to the image of Jesus will not happen without successfully persevering through trials and tests. As we learn from Hebrews 5:8, Jesus (remember, Jesus was 100% God and 100% human at the same time) – Jesus the Man learned obedience from the things he SUFFERED.

That’s surely one reason God tells us through the apostle James, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

 For years I thought I had it all together. I had lots of head knowledge, but through life-experiences, I learned much of it was theoretical – and not at all practical. But my failures aside, and YOUR failures aside, here is what God wants us to know that can help us when life’s fires and floods and storms again break loose against us. Many of you will recognize this passage from Romans 8:28-39

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son . . . What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? . . . . Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Neither good things or bad things, neither death or life, neither storms or nightmares or floods or fires – nothing can separate us from God’s immeasurable, indescribable love.

A sacrifice of praise means giving God thanks and adoration and exaltation even when our hearts – as Tevye sang in Fiddler on the Roof – even when our hearts lie panting on the floor. It means giving God praise even when we don’t feel like praising Him. It means giving God praise even when we don’t WANT to praise Him.

Why do you think the psalmist wrote more than once in the psalms: “Bless the Lord, Oh my soul. Bless His holy name”? The word David used in those texts is in the imperative form of BLESS; It’s a command from our mind to our soul to bless His Holy Name. In other words, David commanded himself to praise God – even when his life was such that he didn’t feel like praising God. Nevertheless, he’d grab himself by the proverbial scruff of the neck and require of himself to praise God who, simply by virtue of who He is, is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving.

The more I think about the idea of a sacrifice of praise, the more I get agitated by a specious, deceptive theology floating around among many churches which falsely promises that God wants us happy, prosperous, healthy, and wealthy.

 The roots of this damnable doctrine are traceable to at least the 70s. All we need, so they say, all we need is to have is enough faith, and God is obligated to His word (as they say) – God is obligated to make our life a proverbial Rose Garden without even thorns on the roses.

That false theology, often called, “Name it and claim it” theology, is as far from Biblical truth as east is from west. And of course, advocates of that theology find all kinds of biblical texts – always taken out of context – to support their view.

 But tell that lie to those who suffer martyrdom today in places like Egypt, China, Russia, North Africa, Iran, Iraq, and on and on. Tell “Name it and claim it” to those who suffered those events described in chapter 10 of Hebrews that I read to us at the beginning of this message. Tell it to those in the next chapter, chapter 11—the so-called Heroes of Faith chapter – where we find listed famous Old Testament saints whose faith “conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword . . . and on and on.

But then we find in the next verses these words: (verses 35-39) “and others were tortured . . . and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated - men of whom the world was not worthy - wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised." 

Talk about a sacrifice of praise. Talk about giving thanks to God in all things – in good times and in very, very bad times.

Many of our Christian brethren throughout history, from the earliest days of the apostles, many lost everything. Theirs was never a “name it and claim it’ faith as promised by so many modernists who either haven’t a clue of the whole of Scripture, or Church history –past or current – or they simply will say anything people want to hear.

Biblically based faith is and always has been rooted in a total trust and love for God, a faith rooted in “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done” – and not “my kingdom come and my will be done.”

Does any of this suggest we should not ask God for healing of our body? Or the reconciliation of our families? Or the salvation of others? Or a job? Or anything else important to our lives? Of course not. The Scriptures include stories of many, many people who prayed about their sometimes-desperate needs. But Scripture still tells us, “In all things give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you and me.”

How might we offer such sacrifices when we’re struggling with life-issues? Perhaps try a little self-talk, as the Psalmist did. Listen to him in Psalm 42:5, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.”

Perhaps listen to hymns of thanksgiving. Read aloud some of the Psalms of thanksgiving such as Psalms 8, 40, and 145, which are among dozens of others. Listen now to a part of Psalm 145: “I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.”

Again, it should not matter if we FEEL like praising God. Let our mouth speak His praise anyway – because He is worthy at all times of our praises, and THAT’S why it’s called a sacrifice of praise. And we ought to know this, God is pleased with our sacrifices of praise. 

God loves you. He is desperately in love with you. He is so desperately in love with us that He did all that He could do, He did the maximum He as God could do to prove His love for you and me – and that was to give His beloved Son as a substitutionary sacrifice for your sin and for mine.

When we come to know in the depths of our souls God loves us – regardless how things turn out and turn up in our lives often filled with trial – when we know in our spirits, and not simply theoretically in our head, that God always stands with us, and not against us – then the sacrifice of praise will flow more easily from our hearts. And it will be immeasurably easier to give Him thanks in all things and for all things.