Sacrifice
Posted by Dion Todd December 3rd, 2023 3,119 Views 0 Comments
Sacrifice from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.
When Jesus came walking past the disciples in their fishing boat late one night, Peter called out to Him and asked if he could join Him and walk on the water.
(Matthew 14:28–31 NKJV) And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
What an opportunity for Peter! He walked on the water with Jesus, but when he saw the wind becoming stronger, he became afraid, and then he began to sink. It happened in that order: He was given an opportunity, he stepped out in faith, opposition came, he became afraid, he began to sink...
Peter cried, "Lord, save me!" And Jesus immediately caught him. Then Jesus asked Peter one question: "Why did you doubt?" Why Peter? You were doing fine. Fear is the opposite of faith, but they are both invisible. Faith will drive fear away, but fear will snowball and drive your faith away if you allow it.
(2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
God is able to take care of you. Our fear and lack of trust are like secondhand smoke drifting up to heaven. It is insulting, nauseating, a stench in His nostrils.
(Deuteronomy 10:17–18 ESV) For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
Anytime you have to ask yourself if you should obey the Lord or do something else, you are being seduced by the enemy and led away, just as Eve in the garden. Someone has been whispering in your ear.
(Galatians 5:7–9 NKJV) You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
The enemy sows little seeds of distrust and doubt to plant fear within you, to short-circuit the blessing of God in your life. To get you to stop trusting in the Lord and start looking at yourself and your own abilities, to draw back. To get your mind off the eternal and on the immediate needs around you. You were doing well. Why did you doubt? Jesus said that you can't serve two masters, for you will love one and hate the other.
(Matthew 6:24–25 ESV) "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
In this case, Jesus said that you cannot serve God and money, for you will love one and despise the other. But any addiction you allow to become your master will drive a wedge between you and the Lord.
There is a principle: people will sacrifice for their God. Sacrificing isn't just something in the Old Testament either. We have people with addictions in our family who will work all day gathering scrap metal, stripping copper wire out of old houses or air conditioners, picking up aluminum cans or bottles on the side of the road, or finding old batteries or radiators they can sell to the recycler, just to get enough coins for another fix. That is a sacrifice.
If you find that you will make a sacrifice for something else, but you won't sacrifice something for Jesus, then make no mistake about it; that is your god. If you find that you would rather buy a spool of yarn to knit with than pay your tithe, then your god is knitting. Serving the god of knitting will not serve you well in eternity. At the same time, that person will swear they can't afford to tithe... but they can afford to knit. Sacrifice.
If we can let go and learn to trust Him to take care of us, resist our fear, take Him at His word, and believe Him, it will be life-changing.
(Matthew 6:26 ESV) Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
(Matthew 6:27–30 ESV) And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
(Matthew 6:31–33 ESV) Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. I love that. It is the absolute truth. I have witnessed it firsthand.
When the Lord began pushing me into a computer business, I began with nothing. I had no knowledge, no education, and no money; often, I barely had gas to get to their office, so I prayed they were able to pay me so I could get back home. But pray I did. I sought His Kingdom first, and He rewarded me with pure miracles that only I could see. It was a golden time in my life.
It began as a hobby, working on computers at night in my workshop while listening to the Bible. I had gathered enough parts to build a computer and housed it in a cardboard box because I had no case. I was always swapping parts out, overclocking them, and trying a different configuration to make it go faster.
I was so hungry for more of the Lord, and by then, I had converted my Bible CDs into MP3s, built a machine, replaced the shell with a media player, and made a dedicated MP3 player before they existed. It played the Bible 24/7 in a loop.
I discovered that there are eight wires in an ethernet cable, but only four are used. I had a network cable pulled between the workshop and my house, so I fed audio down the unused wires so I could listen to it there as well. I soaked in His word and lay in bed listening to it at night. Still do.
Soon, accountants, banks, doctors, drug stores, insurance companies, and others began getting my phone number and calling me with seemingly impossible problems that I was scared even to tackle.
I remember an accountant's office that called me with a corrupted network tax database with years of client data in it. I wanted to tell them no, but I could feel the Holy Spirit whisper, "Go, and I will go with you." So I agreed to look at it and prayed all the way there.
(2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV) And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
Most things were command prompt then. So, I sat down in front of some ominous mainframe someone else had installed, not knowing what to do next. I prayed silently for a moment and heard, "Type help." So I typed help and pressed enter. A list of mysterious commands appeared. In that case, one was something like "Repair Database." Well, let's do that! I typed the command and fixed it in fifteen minutes. They thought I was a genius, but it was all Him. They were my client for the next fifteen years. Soon, I had gathered over fifty clients like that.
Looking back, it was surreal. Mini-miracles were a daily occurrence. It was following tiny clues one step at a time, completely dependent on His help to find the next one or fall flat on my face. Remember this: The Lord doesn't need someone smart, only obedient. He will provide the smarts when you get there.
(Acts 4:13 NKJV) Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
Just as with Peter came an opportunity, a chance to step out in faith, followed by opposition and fear. I could choose to give into fear and sink, or press in, stand my ground, pray harder, and overcome.
(Hebrews 10:38 NKJV) "Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."
We are not those who shrink back. We will step through the doors that He opens in faith, and we will not cower in fear and sink. We will stand our ground, pray harder, and overcome.
You can pray this with me if you like:
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You so much for the wonderful life You have given me. Please give me a clear vision, open the doors You want me to step through, and help me stand strong in the face of adversity. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!