"Strategic Sacrifice"

Passage:  Hebrews 13:16  “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

We really don’t get it here in Texas, America.  Maybe rather than don’t I should say can’t.  We can’t understand what it is to live a sacrificial lifestyle.

While I have not been on an overseas mission trip, I am very close to some who have.  The stories I have heard break my heart even though I have not seen it with my eyes.

First Burk has sponsored mission trips to Brazil, Burma (Myanmar) and Indonesia.  Heather, Lance, Will and Hadley spent a week in Nicaragua on mission with their church in Edmond.  The hearts of those who have gone will never be the same because they have seen up close and personal the lives of those who live in abject poverty and need. 

The Brazilian lady who sold all of her household furniture to provide lunch and the couple who rode thirty minutes on a motorcycle in the rain at night to bring fabric for an Indonesian shirt are just a couple of examples from mission trips in which Bill has participated.  The kids witnessed a house made literally from trash and actually worked with a church located in a trash-dumping site.  While these things go on in the world, I found myself frustrated when my coffee order is wrong or the jacket I must have is not in my size.

When the LORD instituted the sacrificial system found in Numbers and Leviticus, it wasn’t that He needed the people’s offerings or needed their money to make Him feel better.  He knew His people needed to give for themselves.  He knew they would begin to forget who had given them their houses and possessions and their hearts would become proud.  (See Deuteronomy 8:12) 

The believers in these “third world” countries don’t have much and you may think it’s easier for them to sacrifice or give.  I don’t think so.  I think they sacrifice because they have been set free from the belief that more is better.  I think they realize it’s not a matter of how much we “own”, it’s a matter of how much we believe God and what He said about what we call ours. 

As our worship is very personal, our sacrifices are personal as well.  Only you can give back what God gave you.  Your gift or sacrifice is unique and exclusive.

What Christmas gift can you give that will live on to eternity?