(Breath of Life Theme Music)
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Sermon #B648 - All In
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Pastor Byrd: Romans Chapter 12
and we're going to verse number
one, one verse, one verse.
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Alright.The word of God says, "I
beseech you, therefore,
brethren," by the mercies of
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whom? [Congregation: God].
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That you present your body
as a living, what everybody.
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Holy and acceptable unto whom
which is your reasonable what
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everybody. Father, we thank you.
God, we praise you. We lift you
up, we magnify your name.
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For the next couple of moments,
Lord, I pray that you would
illuminate our minds,
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give us receptive hearts. As
God, we seek to hear a word from
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you. We read this text. We
recited this text many times,
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but make this
text come alive today.
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We pray in the name of Jesus,
let everyone say "Amen." Amen.
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You may be seated
as you're being seated.
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Now, when Paul says in the New
Testament, present your bodies a
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living sacrifice. He says this
against the backdrop of the Old
Testament sacrificial system.
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You'll remember that in the
Old Testament, the priests would
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come, put an animal on
the altar and the offering,
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whether it was a sheep, a lamb,
or a goat, it would be slain.
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The offering would be dead. In
the Old Testament, priests would
offer dead sacrifices,
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not living sacrifices. Are
you hearing what I'm saying?
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Because Jesus had not come yet.
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They were offering dead
sacrifices that foreshadowed the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ who was
to come had not come yet.
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But who wants to come and die
paying the penalty for our sins?
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But in the 21st century, we are
not to offer dead sacrifices.
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That system is gone. It was
dismissed when Jesus died on the
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cross and the temple veil was
rent in two with the sacrifice
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of Jesus, the Lamb of God,
which taken away the sins of the
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world. The Old Testament
sacrificial system, the
sacrificial system of dead
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animals has gone away. God
doesn't want anything dead now.
God wants something alive.
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So, in the New Testament,
there's a new kind of sacrifice.
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It's not an animal,
but it's you and me.
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God is calling us to place
ourselves on the altar as an
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offering to him, but not as a
dead offering, but rather as a
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living sacrifice. Are
you hearing what I'm saying?
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So, a woman asked her Pastor one
day, she said, "What does it
mean to be a living sacrifice?"
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So, her Pastor held
up a blank sheet of paper
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and he said, a living sacrifice
means that you just sign your
name at the bottom of the
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sheets, but you let God fill in
what he wants. That's a living
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sacrifice. That's what it means
to be all in. Everybody say all
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in. Too many people think that
God is always going to do what
they want, when they want,
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where they want,
and how they want,
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and when God doesn't perform in
the way they think God ought to
perform, they feel cheated.
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That God isn't good enough.
That God is not in loving God.
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He's not a good God, that he's
in a prayer-answering burden,
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bearing God, but God is not
a vending machine. God is God.
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God doesn't have to
do another thing for us.
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And I'm learning in my life that
sometimes you have to let go of
the life you pictured in order
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to have the life
that God has planned.
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But let's get back
to the text quickly.
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The text begins
with the word, therefore,
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everybody say, "therefore."
Paul says," I beseech you,
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therefore." Now, anytime you see
the word therefore in the Bible,
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you should always
ask what it's there for.
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Somebody go get that in a
minute. And so when we come to
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Romans Chapter 12 and Paul
begins with the word, therefore,
Paul is making a shift from
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doctrine to practice. He's
saying, you've got the theory,
now get some application.
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You got the book sense,
now get some common sense.
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He establishes doctrine
in the first part of Romans
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but then moves to application
in the second half of Romans.
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Paul is saying, based on
everything that I've said
earlier in this book,
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this is what you now
need to put into practice.
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Because theology must always
have a practical application.
You all hear what I'm saying.
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And so, therefore, in Romans
12 is a therefore of surrender.
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Paul is saying that even though
we have sinned, even though we
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have messed up, even though we
are guilty and deserve to die,
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we have been declared
righteous through Jesus Christ.
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And so based upon the entire
argument of Chapters 1 through
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11, we should surrender our
lives to him fully in Romans
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Chapter 12. In other words, Paul
is saying, based it all God has
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done, I urge you, brothers, even
though Paul could've used to
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command here, he begins and uses
a word and makes an appeal with
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the word beseech, and he refers
to the people he's speaking to
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as brothers, pointing to his
affection for them as members of
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God's family, which means Paul's
begging believers, not
unbelievers. I wish I had a
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witness in his place. I beseech
you, therefore, brother and I
beseech you, therefore,
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brothers, by the mercies of God.
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Now, I wanted to skip this part,
but I have to do this part right
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now. He says the mercies of God.
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Now notice Paul does not
say in light of God's grace,
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I beseech you brethren by the
grace of God. Paul doesn't say
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that. Paul says I beseech you
brethren by the mercies of God.
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Why does Paul talk about
mercy and not grace? Well, don't
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understand. You have to
understand the difference
between grace and mercy.
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Grace and mercy are not the
same. Grace is when we get what
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we don't deserve. But mercy is
keeping us from what we do
deserve. Let me say that again.
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God's grace is
getting what we don't deserve.
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God's mercy keeps us from
getting what we deserve.
Somebody still not getting this?
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I'm seeing that you're looking
at me. Let me try this way.
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It's like the man, I
told this story before.
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It's like the man who stormed
into a photo studio complaining
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about the quality of his
photographs. He slammed his fist
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on the counter and he said to
the photographer, "Man, these
pictures don't do my looks
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justice." The photographer said,
"Sir, with a face like yours,
you don't want justice, you want
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mercy." Do I have a witness in
his face? So, be careful about
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asking for justice
because you just might get it.
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And we're just like the man if
we received what we deserved, we
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ended up in hell, but it's
because hallelujah, of God's
mercies, that we are not
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consumed the mercies of God.
That's what Jeremiah said are
new every morning. Do I have a
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witness in his place? Thank God
for mercy. [Congregati on: Amen]
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Mercy woke me up this
morning. [Congregation: Amen]
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Mercy started me on my way.
Mercy put food on my table and
clothing on my back.
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Mercy kept my heart beating
while I was sleeping through the
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night. Mercy kept you from
getting in a car wreck on your
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way to church. Mercy! We're
living in an age where people
don't, they think they don't
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need mercy, but somebody knows
you wouldn't be here right now
if it weren't for the mercy of
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God. Somebody ought to
thank God for God's mercy
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and what I love about Paul is
Paul does not reduce God to one
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mercy. He says mercies, plural,
morning by morning, new mercies.
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I see people like to preach that
God is a God of a second chance.
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No, God is not a
God of a second chance.
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God has given you chance
after chance after chance after
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chance. Oh --- yall
don't feel like it today.
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Some of you all on the balcony
looking at us like we crazy.
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Let me bowl down your alley.
Some of you all are in school
right now because of God's
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mercies. Bad grades. Preach
Pastor Byrd, I'm doing the best
I can. Money low, but God's
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mercy. You're living in mercy.
You're going to school in mercy.
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Somebody you're driving in
mercy. Your apartment is mercy.
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Your house is mercy. Your
marriage is mercy. Nothing but
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the mercy of God. Somebody
should be in jail right now.
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You should have had a nervous
breakdown right now, but God
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gave you mercy. He gave
you life. He gave you health.
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He gave you straight, so don't
sit there and act like you all
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cute. You can't worry about
what other folks say about you.
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You're just praising God for
God's mercy. I will bless the
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Lord at all times. And His
praise shall continually be in
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my mouth. Praise God
for his mercy. Praise him.
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Just ought to be glad you're
not in the hospital somewhere.
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That needles aren't
hanging out of your arms.
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I beseech you,
therefore, brothers,
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by the mercies of God that
you present your bodies a living
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words, but a living sacrifice
sounds like an oxymoron
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because how can you offer your
body a living sacrifice? Aren't
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sacrifices dead? How can a
sacrifice be living? To
sacrifice means to slaughter.
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The compund term, living
sacrifice is somewhat a
contradiction in terms.
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Animals that were sacrificed
were always killed first, then
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they were burned, and then they
would either cook, they were
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cooked and eaten. So, because
animal sacrifices were killed,
they weren't living sacrifices.
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So, then what does Paul mean
when he says living sacrifice?
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Living implies life, not death.
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So, to help us understand
what Paul is trying to say,
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there are two living sacrifices
that are recorded in the Bible.
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And these two examples give us a
clue as to what Paul was trying
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to say. The first example was
Isaac. Everybody say, Isaac. The
second example is Jesus.
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Everybody says, Jesus.  Alright,
quickly, I'm gonna say these two
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things and I'm gonna sit down.
Let's talk about Isaac first.
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You will remember that Abraham,
Isaac's father, was told to take
his only son, Isaac,
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and offer him up as a
sacrifice on Mount Moriah.
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You remember that? Now,
remember, when Isaiah, Isaac
rather, was offered up to be a
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sacrifice, Isaac wasn't a little
boy. He was not a little kid.
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Understand? Abraham and
Sarah had Isaac at an old age,
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which means then Isaac was old
enough and strong enough to take
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Abraham out. You all hear what
I'm saying? But because Isaac
became obedient unto death
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because he had to be a
type or a foreshadow of Christ,
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not somebody who was taken
against their will, but somebody
who would be obedient unto
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death. Y'all ain't getting this.
Somebody who was all in and what
becomes a living sacrifice.
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So, here comes Isaac, climbing
up the altar of sacrifice,
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and he says to his
father, "Daddy, I see the knife.
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Daddy, I see the woods, but
Daddy, where is the sacrifice?"
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Because remember, he didn't
know that he was going to be the
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sacrifice. Abraham says, "Son,
don't worry. God will provide."
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And there Isaac is, laid up on
the altar as his old father
begins to strap down his son.
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A living sacrifice. Isaac is
tied to something that's killing
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him. So, that's what it
means to be a living sacrifice.
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That if you walk with God, if
you're all in with God, sooner
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than later, sometime in your
life,the will of God will tie
you to something that's killing
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you. What am I talking about?
Somebody is tied to a child who
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won't obey. And you're loving
a child who won't love you back.
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You can't separate yourself from
your child regardless of how bad
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your child is because you're
tied to it and say whatever you
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want. But if it weren't for your
child, you wouldn't pray like
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you pray. You
wouldn't fast like you fast.
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And so maybe, God is using that
disobedient child to make you a
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living sacrifice. Somebody else
is in a marriage. That was
supposed to be a match made in
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heaven, but it seems like
a nightmare on Elm Street.
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And every day you go home,
you're going home to be a living
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sacrifice. You're on your way
home and you're driving and you
drive as slow as you can
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because you know when you get to
that house, you're about to be a
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living sacrifice. Don't say Amen
too loud because the sacrifice
may be sitting next to you.
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Come on, say,
"Amen." [Congregation: Amen]
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Isaac was put on the altar.
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He was tied to
something that was killing him,
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but he was willing to die
in obedience to God's will.
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But God, just in the nick
of time, stopped Abraham from
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killing him and sent a
ram to take his place. He's
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Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will
provide, but Isaac died just the
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same. He died to self,
yielded himself to God's will.
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So, when he stepped off of
the altar, Isaac was a living
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sacrifice. He became an offering
of one's life, even unto death
yet he was still living.
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And this is what Paul is talking
about when he's talking about
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living sacrifice. He means the
full commitment of somebody's
life to God, even if it means
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death. I gotta hurry up. I gotta
throw this in. It's not popular
to talk about sacrifice anymore.
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People just want
to talk about success.
00:16:21.81\00:16:24.78
But I'm here to tell somebody,
young people, listen to me good.
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Pastor Byrd 47 years
old, I sat where you sit.
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You can't have
success without sacrifice.
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You got to sacrifice.
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The second living sacrifice was
Jesus, but Jesus was the perfect
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living sacrifice because Jesus
actually died as a sacrifice in
obedience to his father's will.
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Jesus did what his
father told him to do.
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Jesus became the perfect lamb,
the perfect sacrifice for our
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sins. Jesus died that we might
live. Jesus shed his blood so
our sins could be forgiven.
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In the Old Testament sanctuary,
a live animal, remember, it was
brought to the priest
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and the sin barrow would lay
his hands on the animal's head,
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the sin offering to symbolically
say, "This animal takes my
place." The animal was then
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killed. Blood was
spilled because remember,
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there could be no forgiveness of
sin without the shedding of what
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everybody. But Jesus. When he
went to Calvary, he took our
place. [Congegation: Clapping]
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His blood was spilled.
Our sins were forgiven.
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