Louie Giglio - All Worship Involves Sacrifice
I don't wanna just push play on the playlist. I don't wanna just jump off the shuttle and come through the door. I wanna be thinking like all the way, like, I wanna be thinking about what I'm bringing. I wanna be thinking about my offering. I wanna be thinking about what I wanna give to the king. Because worship is my gift to God. It's your gift to God. We see this in probably my favorite text on worship in Hebrews 13. It says, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess His name. And do not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased".
I wanna draw our attention to this word sacrifice two times in this text. "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise". In other words, I was thinking about what I was gonna bring. I had calculated what I wanted to give. I had already done the work before I arrive because I wanted to bring a gift to God. I wanted to bring a sacrifice of praise to Him. And this is what we see that all worship involves sacrifice. There is no worship without an offering. We see this at the very beginning of the story. We know that Cain brought some of his crops, but Abel brought the best of his flocks.
So, Cain brought something, he brought some of his crops but his brother, he brought the best of his flock. And that's why it says in Hebrews 11 about them, "By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead". So, he brings the best of his flocks but that wasn't the first of an offering of that kind. Even though we are only in the fifth chapter of Genesis. The first animal that was killed in Genesis was the one that God killed in the garden to make a covering for Adam and Eve.
So, God had already moved first. God had already extended mercy. God had already tipped His hand that He was gonna make a way to cover the sins of man by killing this animal in the garden and taking its skin and making a covering for Adam and Eve. So, God had already made an offering. He was the first mover. And then as a response to that Abel brought his offering to God. And that's just the way that worship still works today. This word, if we go back to Hebrews 13:15, it says, "Through Jesus, therefore," and all the "Therefores," as you know are really there for a really important reason and they're the most important words sometimes in the understanding of a passage.
And when you see a therefore you have to go backwards, and you have to go, "What is the there therefore? What are we talking about here"? "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise". And when we go backwards in the text, we go back to the verses before and this is what we read. "The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering". So, this writer writing to the Hebrews is really contrasting the old sacrifice and the old sacrificial system and the work of Jesus done on the cross. And he's trying to get into their minds to help them see what they've been doing year after year, century after century is now fully completed in what Christ did one time for all time on the cross.
And so, he's giving them this picture of the old and the new. "The high priest carries the blood of animals into the most Holy Place as a sin offering. But the bodies are burned outside the camp". In other words, the animal is killed. The blood goes in behind into the holy of holies, behind the veils, sprinkled on the mercy seat. But the carcass, that doesn't go into the temple. That doesn't go into the holy of holies. That goes outside the city, outside the camp and it's thrown unto the trash dump or onto the trash heap where all the things are burned. And so, the carcass is out there, the blood is in here. "And so," he says in verse 12, "Jesus also suffered outside the city gate".
When Jesus carried the cross, He carried it out of the city walls of Jerusalem, out of the gates of the city. Out to the trash dump is where Jesus was crucified. "And He suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood". And so, it says in Hebrews 10 about what He did. "For by one sacrifice," there's that word. "He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy". What did it take? A sacrifice. All worship involves sacrifice, even today. And once you see it, what He did, "One sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy".
That's when worship begins. Starts down here at the mercy seat and we realize we got the mercy seat at the cross. We realize that we were made righteous, and we got righteousness now as a gift. We have been adopted and a new birth. We've been given the spirit. Amen. And we've been given a gift to use for God. We've been given purpose. So, many people don't have it. We been given truth. We've been given hope. The whole world needs it. And all these things we've been given. We've been given them forever.
And this, my friends, is the way to worship. It starts at the mercy seat. It starts with righteousness. It starts with being adopted. It starts with new birth. It starts with being filled with the spirit, being given a gift and having purpose in life. Truth in a world that doesn't know truth. Hope forever. And this is the megaphone through which our worship and our gift and our sacrifice comes to God. So, what kind of gift are we gonna bring? When it reflects this is what we wanna bring today. What can I bring today that reflects that I'm coming through Jesus?
Therefore, "Through Jesus," that's the cross and the empty tomb. I don't know how you make a necklace out of that but that would be a good business to get into. That cross is done very well. The empty tomb is wide open business opportunity waiting to be discovered. It looked fantastic on a little necklace. Get a lot of questions, conversation starter. "Through Jesus, let us continually offer two things, fruit of lips that openly profess His name". What that means is that we use our mouths to give praise to God, out loud in the presence of other people. Pretty amazing. And he said, "Don't be forgetful to do good".
And that in the original language means to do good and to share with others. This sounds like giving gifts to people and helping people with their needs but really what it means is living in a community of generosity. So, do good. Well, first use your mouths and praise God. Praise His name. Alpha and Omega or the anointed one, came in my text today. Praise His name. Use your mouth, praise Him out loud in the assembly and don't forget to do good. So, that's a way that we worship God is by doing good. We don't get credit with God for doing good. That's not how you get to heaven by doing good, but it reflects that we've already received the greatest gift of all when we do good.
That we know a God who is good when we do good. That we love the God who is good when we do good and live in a community of generosity. In other words, live in a community where you understand and know what the needs are of other people and meet those needs. Whether it's friendship, whether it's finances, whether it's understanding, whether it's a support. Live in a community and be generous in that community. "For with this sacrifice," This is a sacrifice "God is pleased".
So, yes, God loves the sacrifice of lips that are openly professing His name, but it needs to be connected to doing the right thing and living in a community of generosity. These things together are what God is looking for. So, the question today, coming down now to try to drop the plane down on the runway which is short, because we gotta land now. The question is, what kind of sacrifices does God want? He doesn't need money. He doesn't really need anything.
So, what kind of scarifies does God want? Well, first let's talk about the ones He doesn't want 'cause He lets us know which ones He doesn't want. Amos 5, "I hate," that's the wrong word. Thank you, Lord. "I despise," that's even worse, "Your religious festivals". And I was like, "Oh oh, I needed to really pay attention here 'cause we are all on our way to a pretty big gathering in a football stadium and I wanna make sure I understand what's being said here". "Your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings..."
Didn't we just say all worship involves sacrifice? Well, here people are bringing the sacrifice. They're bringing the burned offering and a grain offering. He says, "I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps".
Now, man, that's pretty strong. So, we gotta be careful that we don't bring God what He doesn't want, and then He tells us what He wants. He says, "Here's what I want. Let justice roll on like a river. That's what I want. Righteousness like a never-failing stream. Bring me that. Or you can sing a song but bring me that. Definitely can bring me praise but bring me that. And if you don't have that then keep all the rest".
So, we know that He doesn't just want us to show up gather, assemble, and bring some song to Him or some praise to Him. He wants us to be involved by rolling our sleeves up and bringing justice into the world around us and righteousness into the world around us. He also says, "The sacrifices of God," Psalm 51, "Are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise". So, this is what He doesn't want and then we see what He does want. And this, the meaning of this broken and contrite heart really just means a heart that's broken into a million pieces. Not damaged and broken into a million pieces but a heart that is supple and soft and open and tender and grateful to God.
So, what does that look like? I think it looks like four things. I think the sacrifice that God is looking for on the altar today, He wants me and mine on the altar, and He wants that today and every day to be morphing into you and yours. That's worship. God my tendency is me. My tendency is mine. But today I come in recognition of the cross and I realize I'm coming through Jesus therefore, to continually offer this sacrifice. I didn't come through the door. I came through the cross. And coming to the cross today, I realized there really isn't any me in this story and there really isn't mine in this story.
There's only you in this story and there's only yours in this story. So, my sacrifice today is to humble myself and to say again to you, "I repent of all the me". And I wanna say again to you today, "Please accept my humble heart. I wanna be about you and I want you to know that all this isn't mine, all this is yours". I love the way Paul wrote this, "For Christ love compels us". What kind of love? Sweetheart valentine's day love? No. This kind of love. This kind of love compels us. "Louie, how do you get this kind of stuff, Louie? How do you know it's not that kind of love"? Because it says right here, "We are convinced that one died for all".
Why is that? Because all worship, oh, I'll just give the acronyms, involves sacrifice and it started with Him. That's why we never wrestle with, "Why is God so preoccupied about what were gonna bring"? The question is why are not more preoccupied about what God was willing to bring? "We are convinced". And this is what we're praying for people need to be convinced. And here's the ticket, no preacher can convince you. It's not my job. Praise God, because I couldn't. I could persuade you and I'm pretty good at that. That's why they... I'm called to do this. I'm a pretty good persuader it turns out, but I'm not a convincer.
So, I do everything I can to persuade you, but only the spirit of God can convince you. And unless you are convinced, I'm just telling you, worship for you is like talking to your friend on the other side of the glass through the little thing with the slits in it. You can see God over there, but you're not really in the atmosphere until you're convinced.
And that's why we pray, pray for me, pray for you, Holy Spirit open our eyes. And so, the question I would ask today is are you convinced? Are you fully convinced down in the core that one died for all? Because if you are, you realize that when we see that, "One died for all, we realize that all died". The story of me and mine ended at the moment I realized that He died for me, "And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but they should live for Him". Why? Again, He's just wrapping up His argument, because "He died for them, and He was raised again".
The second sacrifice we can bring is our gifts and our time. You have a gift, most of you realized that, that there's something that you're really good at. You have a spiritual gift, but you have an aptitude as well. Some of you it's your brain. Some of you it's your heart. Some of you it's your eyes. Some of you it's your hand. But you have a gift that's on a different level than most people around you, but you also have a spiritual gift that God has given you to help build up the church and one of the ways we worship today is not just to gather in here and sing these songs, it's to say that, "God, I wanna give you my gift today. I'm really good at being a litigator and so, I wanna somehow figure out how to do that to the very best as an offering to you because you made me a really good litigator. And so, how can I, God, today litigate for the glory of God"?
"Oh, I really can't do that with this thing I'm working on right now so I'm gonna need to stop working on that. Because you don't want a song and then me going over here and litigating something that isn't fair. So, I gotta match these things together so that I can bring a sacrifice of worship, and it's actually gonna cost me something, 'cause I wanna bring to you a gift that is pleasing to you. And I've got breath and so, how can I bring my breath to you"?
The third sacrifice I believe we can bring to God today is our goods, we talk about this a lot, and our goals. And I wonder if today you'd be willing to take not just your goods, that seems to be the easier of all these options is, "Yes, I would gladly invest in your kingdom".
But our goals that we would say to God, "This is what I'm aiming for. This is what I've been working for. This is what I've dreaming about. This is the scenario that I really, really am hoping for. But I wanna put all that on the altar today also because I want to put everything on the altar. So, I'm willing to even put my goals on the altar. And if you, if you wanna bring down fire from heaven and ignite them into reality then praise God. And if you wanna use some other circumstance to shrink them and have them completely go away there on the altar. I trust you. I want my life to count for you. This is what I think is the plan, but I tell you, the ultimate plan is I just want you. So, I wanna put everything on the altar".
And then lastly our highs and our lows. You know, it's weird. This whole thing of worshipping on the mountain top versus worshipping in the valley is so interesting, but very few people worship on the mountain top. That's why in hindsight we're gonna praise God for the valleys. We got a family come through a valley in the house today, a deep dark valley that they never saw coming. A teenage son who is the peak of health and then all of a sudden, has a catastrophic stroke. Nobody saw that coming, but in hindsight, and I can't speak for them and certainly wouldn't even if they said I could. But in hindsight, somewhere down the road, somewhere in history, somewhere in eternity, I have a feeling this family is gonna look back at that valley and say, "We found something in that valley that we haven't found on all the mountain tops".
You realize people worship a lot more in the valley than they do in the mountain top. People see God way more in the valley than they do on the mountain top. People turn to God way more in the valley than they do on the mountain top. And I think that's one of the most beautiful sacrifices of praise. It's to come in the valley and say, "God, we are crushed. We are hurt. We are wounded. We are confused. We are broken. We are mourning, but in it, oh, we still wanna come and bring a song of praise because you're still God. You are the same God. You're still The God of Jacob, still the God of Moses, still the God of Mary, still the God of David, and you're the God of us. You've been the God of our whole story up to this point so you're gonna be our God in this point. And in the valley today we bring a sacrifice of praise. And it feels like it cost so much to lift a hand of praise to you, but you are worthy".
And then on the mountain top, to stand on a mountain top and say, "Timeout, we're gonna give God praise. Don't pop the cork just yet. We're gonna give praise to the God who brought us here. We're gonna bring praise to the God who graced us here, who gave us the ability to enjoy this success, this victory, this moment, this celebration. We're gonna thank God just like we did in the valley when we got down low. We're gonna stand on the mountain top and we're gonna lift our hands in praise to God".
That's why church is church. You cannot get this online. You cannot feel the weight of the valley four seats down from you at the same moment that you feel the elation of the joy that is two rows in front. This is church. Everybody didn't come in today in a valley, praise God. And everybody didn't come in today on a mountain top. We came in, all of us somewhere on the journey. And the sacrifice today is to say, "He's still worthy, and so, I wanna put my all on the altar before Him. That's what He did. And I'm not gonna offer God any worship today that costs me nothing". So, what is your gift today? What do you wanna put on the altar today? What do you wanna bring to a King today? What is your offering?