TOPIC: SACRIFICE

TEXT/ BIBLE READING: I CORINTHIANS 13:1-8

The word sacrifice means to give up something that is valuable to you in order to help another person. In the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament (O.T.) the priest made sacrifices for one person, a family and an entire nation just to maintain the people in their relationship with God. Today, God has made His children kings and priests through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. This sacrifice of Jesus is called the sacrifice of love.

David made lots of sacrifices for his nation – He killed Goliath and saved his nation from destruction. His personal relationship with Jonathan was a sacrificial one. When David had problems with Saul and ran into a cave, people looked for him and made him their king. It was not only the anointing on him but the sacrifice he made for the people that made them to look for him and make him their leader. The anointing you carry is for sacrifice. It’s not to dominate, it’s not to lord it over.

Leadership is for sacrifice. If you are in the sanitation department where you sweep and clean the church; you’re still a leader, everybody is a leader in a way. You’re first of all a leader to yourself and then a leader to the people. If David could not lead himself, he wouldn’t kill Goliath. He made lots of sacrifice.

· Love is sacrifice; which could be expressed through your money, time, material things, wealth, your services, etc. Paul says you’ve not loved to the extent of shedding your blood. Only Jesus Christ did that on the cross for everybody. Because he made this unique sacrifice once and for all for us, we need to sacrifice in our relationships with God and with man.

HOW DO WE SACRIFICE IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS?

1. Love people despite their faults. We must accept or admit the fact that every person has shortcomings. We all have weaknesses: Moses’ weakness was anger, Samson and Solomon- the love of strange women, David-lust, Gideon-fear, Isaiah-unclean lips.

· It will be unrealistic for us to expect people to be faultless or perfect overnight. In all our relationships: with God, with our brethren, our spouses, children, family members, friends and others within our society, love is the dominant and controlling factor not you; but love. In Apostle Paul’s timeless masterpiece of love in I Corinthians 13; love makes allowances for the weaknesses of people i.e. it covers a multitude of faults. If you can face your faults and those of your friends with transparency, you’ll stop demanding perfection out of them at all times.

· Love is medicine in any relationship. Prov.17:22 says “A merry heart does good like a medicine.” It does many things:

i) It covers a fault: let me share this testimony with you “one of my sisters visited me yesterday. She said her husband’s boss stripped him of his duty post. She was unhappy and murmured. Somehow the husband’s boss was informed of her behaviour. The man called her husband and said, “I’ve been told your wife complained because I took the duty post from you.” Her husband gazed at his boss and said “leave my wife alone. She’s very quiet. She does not socialise with her colleagues” this husband covered his wife’s fault in the public. I Corinthians 13:5 say that love “…keeps no record of evil” some of us claim we love our spouses, parents, friends, relatives but we don’t. Why? We keep records of wrongs. Some of us even have record books of wrongs. Even when people apologise for their wrong doings, we recall past events: 5 months ago or last year, you hurt me, now; you’ve hurt me again.

- Please if you have such a negative record book, destroy it. It doesn’t pay to stir up dirt from the past.

- I’m now addressing housewives and women in general who usually bring pain from the past and this causes strife in the present. Some women usually say “But I’m the one who is right!” Agreed. What do you- want?

- Do you want to be right or do you want to have peace in your home?

- Do you want to have your way or do you want to have a healthy relationship?

- It’s unfortunate, we can’t have both.

- It’s important not to keep score of offences/wrongs in all our relationships especially with God and in marriage i.e. don’t keep records of wrongs with your pastor and your brethren in Christ.

I Corinthians 13:8 says “love never fails”. Humanly speaking, love may sometimes appear to fail but it always emerges victorious at the end. For love to fail, God has to fail. Because my God never fails, God cannot fail. Love cannot and never fails because God is love. Jesus Christ didn’t focus on the weaknesses of people: His disciple Peter had many rough edges:

· He was carnal;

· He was hot tempered (wanted to cut off somebody’s ear);

· He denied his master Jesus three times before a teenage girl;

· He spoke before he thought;

· He was optimistic about Jesus being a leader on earth.

· He definitely saw himself as the spokesman of an earthly president. But when the Holy Ghost came upon him, He broke him down and he became spiritual.

- Remember Jesus Christ did not criticize Peter. He gave him a new name Cephas which means ‘a rock’. Are you ready to sacrifice to preach the good news of Jesus to people?

If you were blessed, please tune in for the continuation in the next edition

God bless you, we love you

Shalom,

Deaconess Doreen Tanyi T