[0:00] can do that. And Linda. Be careful. All right, let's, we'll do a quick review and find with me, um, first Peter chapter two and Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews 13, first Peter chapter two. Last Wednesday night we met and we began by, uh, we began in Luke chapter 20 where the hypocrites came to Jesus Christ and tried to tempt him and thought they'd stump him with a question. And they asked about whether it was lawful for them to give tribute to Caesar.
[0:46] I mean, we're supposed to under the law given to the treasury and give of our tithes and offerings to the Lord and to the storehouse and so forth. And is it lawful to give to Caesar? And so Christ, as always, he, he left them where they were just marveling at his answer and they couldn't take hold of his words. He said, show me a penny who's inscription or superscription hath it. It was Caesar's. And he said, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. And that was good enough. But then he continued and said one more thing. And he said, and to God, the things which be God's. And so it made me ponder on that and think on that. What things belong to God? What does God expect us to give that is not with a man's image on it and his coins and not, can not be necessarily weighed and just has no, what's the word I want value of, of a worldly. I can't think of the word I want, so I'll just skip it. But when we got the first Peter, we found that there's some things that are required or that's since we walk by the spirit and that we've been alive in Jesus
[1:54] Christ, there's a little different way that we go about things in this way. First Peter two, we'll read again verse number five. Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Now that's, it's kind of, sounds like almost an odd thing, a spiritual sacrifice, spiritual, like it's, so it's not tangible. It's not physical. It's spiritual. And so how can you offer something spiritual up? Well, God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And what God is looking for is something from us spiritually. Now come back to Hebrews 13. And here we found a passage that laid out three of these. And we studied the first one last week, Hebrews 13 verses 15 and 16.
[2:50] And it's speaking of Jesus Christ that suffered without the gate. And it says in verse 15, by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. So there are spiritual sacrifices that aren't animal sacrifices and they're not measured in cash value. They're things that are, that are required that God seeks for us to offer up to him. And we looked at this first one last week. It said a sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. The sacrifice of praise. And that one, it seems right away on the surface, that's got to be easy. And we just sang praises to God. So check that one. We're good. But my comment last week, which is I'm going to bury this one into you, is how is that a sacrifice? How are you sacrificing anything when you just sing a song of praise to God? Or bow your head and thank him for your food?
[4:01] As it says of giving thanks to his name. How is that a sacrifice? But no, a sacrifice implies giving something up, something of value, something of cost. It ought to have a, it hurts in some way, to some degree, to hand it over to God. That's a sacrifice. And as we looked at that last week, we studied that it will cost you some things if you're going to offer that sacrifice of praise, specifically as this passage says in verse 13, going forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. And so we made comments last week. I showed you three things. One, it'll cost you your pride, to swallow that pride, to publicly praise Jesus Christ. Christ said, if a man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And you either deny yourself or you deny Jesus Christ what he deserves from your mouth and from your heart. It also costs you your image. And we talked about that a little bit last week, how you might look like a normal person, a nice person, a friendly person. People get along with you maybe at work and you're honest and dependable and all of those things could be your quote-unquote Christian image. But how is that a sacrifice? How does offering your praise unto God affect your image? I believe that Jesus Christ is worthy of the praise to come out of your mouth, not just for your Christian life to be, I'm a good person. As I said last week, you can just move up to Utah and just blend right in with the Mormons and they won't know the difference. If that's all your Christian life is, is my testimony of a clean life and of good things. But no, God wants a sacrifice of praise. He wants the Lord Jesus
[5:43] Christ's name to come out of your mouth. And I said this last week, nobody thinks you're a follower of Christ if you don't talk about him. Nobody does. They just think you're a good person, a nice person, quiet person. They don't think you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ or a believer in him.
[6:00] I mentioned what image it cost Jesus Christ for our salvation. He's the image of God, the expressed brightness of the Father in heaven. Jesus Christ gave all that up and took upon himself the form of a servant. He was made at the likeness of men. He was made of no reputation. And so his image went from glory, from the king of glory to some Jew that they ripped the beard out of his face and spit on him and bruised him. And his visage was marred more than any man. It cost him his image. Now, I also showed you that it could cost you your relationship with others. In John chapter 5, we noticed that some folks were worried about their relationships and the honor that they give one amongst another, but they're not concerned with the honor that comes from God only. And implying that they're more concerned with their horizontal connections than they were with their vertical one. And if you're going to start to preach Jesus Christ and let everybody know you love him and praise him publicly and giving thanks to his name, then it might cost you your relationship. Some people might move on from you.
[7:13] We saw in John 12 that these people believed on him, but they feared to open their mouth and confess him. They feared to say from their mouth what they believed in their heart because they might get kicked out of the synagogue, because their relationships with men were going to be affected. They didn't want to touch that. And so the sacrifice of praise, that giving thanks, that coming out of your lips, when it costs you something, it says in Hebrews 13, God is well pleased.
[7:46] And so we looked at even the disciples and saw that they were known that they had been with Jesus Christ, not because of their work ethic, not because of their honesty or their morals, but because of, they saw the boldness of those men that they were preaching Christ. And what did that cost them?
[8:02] They, they got threatened, they got imprisoned, they were beaten, and as we know, martyred. And so if your Christian life isn't costing you anything, I wonder how is it a sacrifice?
[8:13] How is God receiving a sacrifice? How is it pleasing to God? So now tonight, I want to look at the second one from Hebrews chapter 13. It's in verse number six. When he continues, he says, but to do good and to communicate, forget not for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. This one is simply these three words to do good. And it's called a sacrifice. So it's not just merely being nice and being friendly or being helpful or being what the world might call a good person. Oh, he's a good guy. She's a good girl. Yeah, they're good people, good neighbors. No, that's not doing good. It's an action to do good. And it's a, we've got to always remember this was everything we study here is that it is a sacrifice to God. And it's one of a spiritual nature. It is spiritual in nature.
[9:06] So it's not just helping somebody across the street or fixing their flat tire doing good. Now to study this out a little bit, and let's start in Acts chapter 10. And I want to give you just first a very broad statement about Jesus Christ and his ministry, a broad statement about his example.
[9:30] He was in this category, it says to do good. So see Acts chapter 10 and Peter's opens his mouth and preaches in verse 34 and down through the passage, we'll just need verse 38. He says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him.
[10:01] Now that's really, like I said, a very general synopsis of what Jesus Christ did. He went about doing good. And there's the passage in Hebrews. That's a spiritual sacrifice that God deserves.
[10:15] Now come back to John 21, the very last chapter of John's gospel, the very last verse. Jesus Christ's ministry, John acknowledges this, it just was, what he did was too much, far too much, to even bother recording, to attempting to record what John says here in verse 25, last verse of the book.
[10:40] And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
[10:55] So that's what Jesus did, John said. He went about doing good. Those good deeds and those good things that Jesus Christ did in his ministry, innumerable, according to John, couldn't record them. It's not even possible for the world itself to contain the books that should be written. What a remarkable statement. Now again, we're pretty general here. And I come back to John chapter 8 now. And that's okay.
[11:25] And what I want to do really is just kind of generalize some of this, this doing good, not necessarily try to hit a category and, and every instance that's acceptable to God. But let's just generalize some things and then make sure that we understand what they are. And then you can allow the Lord to work in your own heart and illuminate your mind as you seek to do good and offer that sacrifice to God. We're in John chapter 8. I'll just read one verse, verse 29. Jesus Christ says this, and he that sent me is with me. We just read that in Acts. The father hath not left me alone for I do always those things that please him. Doing good, there are things that please God. With these sacrifice, God is well pleased. See how this connection is being made? All right, come down a little bit later in the passage. Here's the world, the unsaved in verse 41. Christ said, ye do the deeds of your father. So their deeds are not good deeds or acceptable to God. They're of your father, verse 44, the devil. The lust of your father ye will do. And he goes on from there. Come down further into the passage then to verses 49 and 50. 49 and 50. Jesus answered, I have not a devil, but I honor my father and ye do dishonor me. And I seek not mine own glory. There is one that seeketh and judgeth. Now I'm just pulling out these phrases and this chapter to show you that what Jesus Christ did, that broad statement, he just went about doing good. And it was so much we couldn't even bother to attempt to describe and to write and record it all.
[13:18] But in general terms, what he did was those things that pleased the father. We can acknowledge that. He said that with his own lips. What he did was, verse 40, he honored the father. And what he didn't do in verse 50 was, seek his own glory. So putting those together, the spiritual sacrifice of doing good is going to be this example of Jesus Christ who went about doing good. One thing we can say for sure is that those are deeds that were selfless. They were not about him. They were about the father, primarily. They were bringing glory to the father. I seek not mine own glory. He seeks to honor the father. He does always those things that please the father. Ultimately, the ultimate display of Jesus Christ's selfless act and deeds that please the father is when it cost him the very most. And we've just covered this in Sunday school in Matthew 26, where he's in the garden and he prays not my will, but thine be done. And he laid down his life. Now let's summarize this much of what we've studied.
[14:31] He went about doing good, broad statement. His deeds pleased the father. His deeds honored the father. And what he did, he did to glorify not himself, but the father. If we wanted to say he just did the will of God, that's like a really easy way of just, that's what he did, the will of God. And I think that really is the best single phrase to encapsulate what we're covering here and talking about, the will of God. Now to do good, what about for you and I? What qualifies as doing good, according to the Bible, for a spiritual sacrifice that's acceptable to God? We're not going to be able to go about healing people, are we? We're not going to be able to die for sinners and pay for their sins.
[15:20] So we can't really match up and identically following the example of Christ there. You don't have to go back to Hebrews, but there was two parameters in that text that we can cover.
[15:31] One was the word sacrifice. It's a sacrifice. It's got to cost you something. And with these sacrifices, God is well pleased. So it's going to be pleasing to God. In Peter, what we read at the beginning of those spiritual sacrifices, it says acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So these are deeds that are pleasing to God, acceptable to God as a sacrifice to God.
[15:57] what qualifies? I want to add on top of that, because Jesus Christ did not seek his own glory, that deeds performed where the motivation, the motivation, that's going to be a big word tonight, is of no benefit to you and is of no benefit to your image and is of no benefit to your relationship with perhaps a person that's involved. What qualifies as doing good is something that you advantage nothing, but God is pleased with the deed and with the outcome of the deed and with you. We might be able to say that's the will of God. I mean, what does God want? And if he wants it, it'll qualify. What pleases God? What honors God? What glorifies him? If you find something there, it'll qualify as doing good. Let me show you an example of this. Come to 1 John chapter 3. To do good, forget not. For with such sacrifice as God is well pleased. 1 John chapter 3. And let's look at verses 17 through 19.
[17:27] Verse 17, but whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? He's implied it doesn't dwell in him. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed. There's action.
[17:49] And in truth. And hereby, loving in deed and in truth, hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. Not before our brother. Not before the one who has the need, but we're assuring our hearts before him. So what's taking place here in doing this bowels of compassion, being open toward a brother that has need when you can help him, and you take care of him and do a good deed, you're assuring your heart before him. Notice verse number 21, how this is about your relationship with God. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. And these actions, notice the point I'm getting out of this is that it's our hearts being assured before God. It's our confidence before God. This has, is not about just helping a man out and them thinking the world of you, but rather your deeds toward them is a display of how the love of God dwells in you. And you're assuring your heart before him.
[19:07] You're not getting anything out of it. It's about your relationship with God. Look at chapter four and verse number seven and eight. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God. And everyone that loveth one another is born of God and knoweth God and he that loveth not, verse seven, one another, knoweth not God for God is love.
[19:36] You see, it's about your relationship with God. And verse number 12, no man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.
[19:46] And that's what's being displayed by your deeds of compassion or by loving your brother is your relationship with God is what's being assured or the word confidence is used and being manifest the love of God.
[20:03] All right, come to Galatians six. I want to run you through a few passages that Paul writes along this topic of doing good because it's not just isolated to your brother, to believers, to Christians.
[20:24] The spiritual sacrifice of doing good. Galatians six, let's read verses nine and 10. And I have to remind you the context, verse eight and seven and eight, describing sowing and reaping and sowing to the flesh. But in verse eight, he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting and let us not be weary in well-doing.
[20:49] For in due season, we shall reap if we faint not. Verse 10, as we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith, who are not isolated to believers only, but especially them.
[21:07] I mean, they should be the top of the list. Just like your family. If a family has, you know, a blood family member has a need, you're going to be most likely really apt to just being on the spot, helping them out.
[21:20] And that's the idea with especially unto those who are of the household of faith. But the statement is, as we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men. Again, the context is sowing to the spirit.
[21:33] So it's spiritually motivated, whether it's toward a brother or whether it's something toward all men. Come to Philippians chapter two. Let's see something here.
[21:44] We were in this passage on Sunday morning, Philippians chapter two. And notice verses three and four.
[21:55] Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other, other better than themselves.
[22:06] Look, not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others. Now stay with that thought about looking on the things of others and come to later in that chapter.
[22:19] And look at verses 17 through 21. Paul says, yea, I think, or yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all for the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me.
[22:35] But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state.
[22:48] Why is that? For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. The things which are Jesus Christ's are caring for the state of others.
[23:01] From verse 20. Like we read earlier in the chapter. Look, every man also on the things of others. But he said, I have no man who is that way, that like minded who will naturally care for your state.
[23:14] All seek their own. Seeking the care for the others is things which are Jesus Christ's. And so these things are spiritually motivated.
[23:25] We naturally care about ourselves. But this is caring for others. And God gets pleased. And God gets glory. I'm reminded in this passage of 1 Corinthians 13 that charity seeketh not her own.
[23:41] Whereas in verse 21, all seek their own. Not the things which are Jesus Christ's. All right, come to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians 2.
[23:55] And we're going to read the first 11 verses. And just notice that Paul's testimony here among this church has all the earmarks that we've covered so far of this spiritual sacrifice.
[24:08] Notice verse 1. 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 1. For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain.
[24:19] But even after that we had suffered before, we were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi. We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile.
[24:34] But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. Like Jesus Christ.
[24:47] Verse 5. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God as witness. Nor of men sought we glory, like Jesus Christ.
[24:58] Neither of you, nor yet of others. When we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us.
[25:19] For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you. We preached unto you the gospel of God, ye are witnesses. And God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.
[25:34] And he goes on, they charged him as a father doth his children. The apostle Paul here is not seeking his own glory. He's not seeking praise. He's not seeking any edification or help from it.
[25:47] He's not trying to boost himself in front of other people, as he said there. Twice he said something to that effect. Not nor of men sought we glory, neither of you nor yet of others.
[26:00] His doing good here in this passage, in his place here, seems to fit the earmarks that we were talking about of Jesus Christ, where he's trying to honor the Father.
[26:11] And it's a selfless act, as the apostle Paul showed several times definitely. And it's also to bring glory to God, not to himself, not to advantage himself or his ministry or anything else like that in any way.
[26:26] And if that doesn't just contrast 90% of the guys that are out on TV with their big-time ministry, what they're trying to do more than anything, they're fakers.
[26:36] They pose pretty good, but they're trying more than anything to advantage themselves and to grow their ministry and to grow their name. And whether it's these incredible pushes for their material or for their sermons or for their shows or for their whatever you name it, they've got all kinds of gimmicks out there, making a name for themselves and their popularity.
[27:00] Paul's testimony among them had those earmarks, I'm calling them, of this spiritual sacrifice. All right, remember now 1 Corinthians 3.
[27:12] You don't need to turn there. But in 1 Corinthians 3, the Bible describes what we call the judgment seat of Christ. And it describes in that passage a building, a foundation that's laid, which is Jesus Christ, and then a building that goes up off of that foundation.
[27:32] It describes materials used, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, and it describes a fire trying that. And the statement that it makes is the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, of what sort it is.
[27:51] We're talking about doing good. And the thing I said earlier is that your deeds that you do for God that are going to be acceptable to him as spiritual sacrifices are deeds that are performed where the motivation is of no benefit to you or to your image or to your image or to your relationships with other people.
[28:11] You could gain, I'm sure, if you do something for the Lord and you see, I don't even want to just make something up off the top of my head, but if you're going to be helping somebody out with something and you're doing it because they're going to owe me one, then it's not going to qualify.
[28:27] But if you're doing it because I want them to see Jesus Christ in me, I want to be able to witness to them, I want to use this as a chance to build a relationship where I can show them Christ or give them, then God's going to say that deed you're doing is motivated by your love for me or by your desire to see them get saved, and that's a whole other category then.
[28:51] Surely that's acceptable. I was out. I used to have a fishing boat in Pennsylvania, and that was one of the hardest things to leave behind.
[29:02] Had to sell that thing and shed a tear. I asked Carla, kids, go in the house. It was tough. And so that fishing boat, it was given to me, and it was beat up and old, and it became a project.
[29:17] It was a little 15-footer with a 45 horsepower, and I didn't know a whole lot about boats or about motors, and I learned a lot and spent a little bit of time, or a lot of time, a little bit of money, but really restored what we could of it, made it something that was acceptable to me.
[29:34] Had a great time on that thing. And every time, because it was older and because the motor was never, I mean, it was a 19, and I want to say it was a 73, and because it just from time to time would have trouble, and there would be things that would have to get worked on or just clean the carburetor or whatever it was, there's just issues from time to time.
[29:55] And so after a winter and a harsh winter, I didn't have the thing fogged and stored in some slip or whatever you call it out of the water.
[30:06] I mean, it just sat in the backyard with a cover, and it got, you know, ice and rain, and the cover shredded, and it just went through the elements. And so the first time that I got it out in the spring, I'd usually just go and take it easy and just try to get it running.
[30:21] I'd just take it down to the river, and it was a big river. It was dammed up in several places, so it was basically these huge lakes that were running water. And we'd go down there, and the first time was just get the thing started and just try to blow the junk out of it, get some fresh fuel going through it, and just get it up to where we can plan on doing some fishing and taking the family out and being, you know, confident that it's not going to break down on me out there in the river when I got Carla or some of the kids and things like that.
[30:52] So the first trip was always just this, you know, trial and make sure it's good. So we went out, and I think I took a friend with me, a competent guy, and I took, I think, Samuel.
[31:02] He was pretty young. And we went out, and there was plenty of daylight left and got out there and just, you know, kind of a hard start to it. We got going, blew the smoke out of it, got the thing going, and just ran it around the river for a while.
[31:18] And then we decided it was going pretty good, so we shut it off and set up and did fish. We fished for a little while. And we did, and as I could tell, the daylight was leaving. I didn't want a chance being out there after dark and issues, so we fired it up and took it back in to where we put in.
[31:35] When I got in, and the sun was just setting, and it had taken us a little bit of time, got the boat out of the water, and there was hardly anybody there at this boat ramp.
[31:47] I don't even know if there was but one other truck there and a trailer. And we're starting to unload the boat of the things, the equipment, and getting it set up to take it home.
[31:57] And I thought, we're right on time. We'll be able to get home just before dark. And we heard this noise. We heard this noise just quiet, faintly like a whistle. And we're just kind of looking, and somebody spotted straight across the river, which the river at that place is close to a mile wide.
[32:17] And all the way on the other side, we could see just these tiny little figures doing this and waving away. And so I thought, oh, what's going on there?
[32:31] And one guy said, I think they need help. And we had just listened, and across that water, we could hear the sound of their whistle. They were trying to get our attention. And I looked around.
[32:42] I saw, well, there's one truck here. That's their trailer. That's got to be them. There's really nobody down here tonight. It's kind of very quiet. And so I said to the guys, all right, well, just get this stuff off here, and I'll run over there and see if they need help.
[32:55] And so we had already had the truck back down. The boat was up on the trailer. And so back in the water and fired it up and went across. And sure enough, their boat wouldn't start. There was a guy that owned the boat was just saying, hey, you know, it was really great.
[33:09] Just couldn't get it going. The guy in the back was like, he was frustrated. He was not happy. He was mad at that guy. He's like, this piece of junk. I mean, he was a different character. And so we tied him off and towed him in, and we got him in.
[33:24] And they were out there without a, you know, they thought, the guy in the back, he thought they were done for the night. They thought they were spending the night on the river, and it was going to be till morning, till somebody else would have made their way down running a boat around in the morning.
[33:38] And so when they saw us, they were screaming and hollering, making sure that we did see them. And thankfully, we were able to get them to shore and got them into their truck. And so this guy, the one's just like, yeah, I really appreciate it.
[33:50] I don't know what's wrong. You know, he just kind of like making light of it. And the other guy was still pretty high strung. And he came over to me with a real, like, forceful, fast handshake, put 20 bucks in my hand. He says, if I had anything, any more, I'd give it all to you.
[34:03] Thank you. You saved our lives out here. Like, you know, he was just really wound up. And I was like, okay. Hey, cool, you know, thanks. Glad we could help. Glad you didn't have to stay out here all night.
[34:15] Would have been pretty bad. You know, that act was just kindness, right? I mean, the guy had a need. If that was me, I sure would want the next boater to help me out. There was no prayer.
[34:27] I did not say, God, I'll help them. But you have to promise me this. There was no discussion. There was no wager. There was nothing.
[34:37] There was no offering. It wasn't a spiritual sacrifice. It was a good deed. But it wasn't a spiritual sacrifice. It wasn't doing good, something that God is well pleased. You might say, well, God's pleased when you help others.
[34:49] You're just, okay, sure. He's maybe glad you're not a jerk to everybody all the time. But now just think about this.
[35:00] What if you see a car broke down in the parking lot? And you see a hood up. And you might be tempted to just say, hey, do you need a jump?
[35:11] And yeah, I think so. My battery's dead. And you stop and help them. That's a good deed, right? Helping somebody out. Is it a spiritual sacrifice to just do a good deed?
[35:24] But what if you see that person and immediately you're like, Lord? And the Lord puts in your mind, you can give them a track. You could witness to them. What if it's just, it's more than showing them that you care?
[35:39] What if it's more than just showing them that you have a heart and you're doing a selfless deed? But what if your motivation is that here's somebody that needs a hand and if I give them a hand, they're going to be more obliged to listen to me when I tell them about Christ?
[35:54] They're going to feel obligated to take that gospel track. I could get that in their hand. Now, isn't that a little different motivation than just being a good guy? When you see this as an opportunity when I can do something for God?
[36:07] I think there's a difference there. And I think it's where your heart is. And if you're trying to serve Christ in everything. Remember what Jesus Christ said?
[36:19] We'll turn one last place. We've got to go. Turn back to Matthew chapter 6. I think the motivation here is just about everything. Human compassion is one thing.
[36:41] But seeking to please God, that makes it spiritual. Matthew chapter 6. And I'm not going to read it all, but we'll read the first two verses at least.
[36:54] Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise, you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.
[37:09] Then, verily I say unto you, they have their reward. He says the same thing about when you're doing your alms, then when you pray in verse 5. They have their reward because they do it in verse 5 to be seen of men.
[37:23] Same thing in verse 16 about fasting. Those hypocrites, they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. So their motivation for all these things they might think are spiritual things, spiritual sacrifices to God.
[37:37] No, their motivation is to be seen of men. Their motivation is to have glory of men and to appear unto men. And Christ says it's not acceptable to God.
[37:49] They have their reward. It's acceptable to men, but not to God. So to do good, as we're studying tonight, we'll close. To meet the qualifications of a sacrifice that has to have a cost.
[38:05] Whether it's your time, maybe you're a treasure, or anything that you give up to be a sacrifice. The other qualification was that it has to be pleasing to God.
[38:16] That it has to be bringing glory to God. Or as Christ said, it has to be honoring to the Father. And then finally, it had to do with motivation. Is it selfless?
[38:27] Or do you benefit from it? Do you look good? Because you can lose your reward for that pretty quickly. Or God is not pleased. So this is another one.
[38:38] A spiritual sacrifice. Doing good. You can probably think of a thousand ways to do something good. But is it acceptable to God as a spiritual sacrifice?
[38:49] It is if it's being done to glorify him and not yourself. Alright, let's pray. And then we'll be dismissed. Lord, please help us to understand this. And Lord, as we go through our lives, that you'll impress upon us a desire.
[39:05] And show us the times when we can glorify you and honor you. And use circumstances to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ rather than ourselves. Forgive us, God, for seeking our own and not the things which be Jesus Christ.
[39:20] Lord, make us more spiritually minded that we might be able to offer spiritual sacrifices. I pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. You're dismissed.
[39:30] Thank you. Thank you.
[39:46] Thank you.