GENESIS: Making Sacrifices
As parents, we sacrifice a lot of time and money to look after our children.
Sacrifices are something that you have to give up for some reason or another. Sacrifices cost something - they can’t be with no cost.
You might give up some of your money to give to the church. That is a sacrifice, unless you are giving an amount that doesn’t really make a difference, remember - it has to cost you.
You might sacrifice your spot in the handball game so that you can chat with a friend. This is only a sacrifice if you want that spot in the handball game.
You might sacrifice some of your lunch so that a friend who has none doesn’t go hungry (although that is more of a high school thing.) It is costing you because you don’t have as much food.
Do you think it would be a sacrifice if you had 3 beach towels, your friend didn’t even have one and so you have him one of yours? Not really as it isn’t really costing you anything, you won’t be missing that one towel.
What other things might you sacrifice?
When the Israelites were in Egypt and Pharaoh was making them slaves and they wanted to go free, an angel of death came through the city and passed over every home that had lamb’s blood on the doorframes.
The Israelites had to butcher their lambs to put the blood on the frames in order to protect their firstborn sons from the angel of death. This was a sacrifice.
The Israelites gave up their lambs - food - for their children to live.
They also sacrificed lambs and other animals as gifts to God.
What do you think?
Yes or no:
Would you sacrifice your:
Toys in order to get water?
Your health (being able to move about and live a usual healthy life, for the option to eat unhealthy food all the time?
Your warm bed for the night, sleep outside to raise money for homeless people doing it rough? (If you would, please check out https://roughtober2022.raisely.com/ )
What did God sacrifice? He gave up himself - Jesus on the cross - so that we could have our sins removed. He had a very kind reason for that and it cost him a lot - his life!
Bible Passage: John 1:29
"John saw Jesus coming toward him and said: Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Jesus was often referred to as a lamb, because lambs are sacrifices, plus other reasons.
Story Time!
Bible Passage: Genesis 22
“Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.”
19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.”
In this story God tested Abraham to check on his heart - how willing he was to follow God no matter what. And he was willing. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice everything he had for God!
God doesn’t ask us to give up everything for him, but the questions is: if he did, would you be willing?
The fact is, the most important thing in your life and in everyone’s life on the whole earth, is the question of where they are spending eternity - where YOU are spending eternity.
God is the creator.
God decides who spends eternity with him.
If you don’t spend it with him you have only one other horrible option.
These facts make God the number one priority in life.
Be willing to sacrifice anything for God.
And the good news? He actually doesn’t want you to sacrifice your child or your food for him. He is a perfect God, worthy of everything and that makes it easier to sacrifice our whole beings to God.
Question Time!
If you were Abraham and were tested like that, what do you think you would have done?
Search your heart and think about how willing you are to sacrifice things for God. Share your thoughts together.
