When we sing praises to His name, when we get on our knees with earnest prayer, we are sacrificing our self-concern and replacing it with God concern, and little by little, with each and every sacrifice that we make, we are gradually putting to death our carnal nature. Sacrifice is how God creates us into His holy image.
Now here we see our required sacrifices in service to man, just like the grain offering, which represent the second great commandment to love, that is, sacrifice for our neighbor. Now it took a lot of effort to harvest that wheat and grind it into a fine talcum powder-like substance. Likewise, it took a lot of effort to harvest the olives and to press them to create the pure oil. And this represents that our sacrifices and service to man will take a lot of time, energy, hard work. They are going to be tiring. It is not going to be easy.
What are our sacrifices of doing good for each other? What are they? First, I would say is, again, controlling our mind to not think badly about anyone. We heard about this earlier in Clyde's message.
Next, right with it, would be bridling our tongue to never speak badly about anyone. That is a sacrifice to our brethren. Service and the giving of our time and resources. That is one that probably easily comes to mind. Readily forgiving and forgetting any wrongdoing. That is a sacrifice. Forbearance and sacrificing our ego, not complaining when something does not go as well as we would like.
And most importantly, and I say most importantly because I think this is the one that we all struggle with the most, accepting loss of self-esteem to always keep the peace.
Why is the sacrifice of doing good for others so important to God? Well, unmerited sacrifice is what God beings do by Their very nature, brethren. It is how we are being transformed into His holy image.
Everything starts and ends with sacrifice when we think about it. Sacrifice is not really just the one thing, it is everything in our transformation process. So what is holding us back? Seems pretty straightforward, right? What is holding us back? Turn to Psalm 50.
