Address—Bob Thonney
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Let's pray.
Gracious Father, thanks for another opportunity to be able to open my precious Word and to let its light search us. Father, we pray for direction of Thy Holy Spirit this afternoon for the speaker, the hearers alike. Father, that we might get profit that will last for all eternity. We pray give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Let's go back to the Epistle of Romans.
And chapter 12.
I trust.
This will fit into what we've been having in our readings.
So tremendous to get a foundation work.
In the book of Romans.
And really the culmination of the first chapters in Chapter 8 that we haven't gotten into yet.
Wonderful, wonderful chapter. I've heard that one time.
A survey was taken of Christian leaders. If you were going to have your Bible taken away, but you could have just one chapter of the Bible, which would you choose? And the majority chose Romans chapter 8. It is amazingly wonderful chapter.
But we're going to go to 12 This afternoon because this is what really is the practical.
Reflections on our lives.
Verse One. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your.
Your bodies a living sacrifice.
Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
So when he says therefore in verse one, it reflects on what has already been gone over in this book.
Like I say, the first part of the book is the culmination, this chapter 8 chapter.
9:10 and 11:00 we have God speaking about his people, the Israelites, and how they will be be brought into blessing again. And so notice the end of Chapter 11 verse 32.
For God has concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all.
Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out?
For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has first given to him? And it shall be recompensed unto him again. For of him and through him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. We have been brought into a circle of fellowship and blessing.
Where God has declared that Christ is everything.
And in all, it's not about you and me, it's about him.
And so the exhortation is present. Your body's a living sacrifice. We all know about sacrifices that are killed and burned on an altar.
Old Testament was full of that.
But this is a living sacrifice. What does that mean? Sacrifice. It means laying down your own will, your own desires. And it is in view of of what he is. Oh, brethren, when we consider what the Lord Jesus has done on the cross, this is the only reasonable response. It's your reasonable.
Of us, how can you, when the creator of the universe who created it all, We heard something about its vastness yesterday. The one who created it all went to that cross and was hung there, and our sins were laid upon Him and He.
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Paid the price of redemption for us all.
Now, is it reasonable? And I say I'm going to do my own thing in light. I want my way. Yeah, I'll recognize the Lord. I'll be at the meetings, but I have my own desires too. Does that sound reasonable to you? I suggest it is not reasonable service.
You know, we have some beautiful pictures in the Old Testament and I'd like to go back to one of the better known stories in the book of Samuel.
Chapter 18.
It's about.
David and Jonathan.
Jonathan was the son of King Saul. In chapter 16, David is anointed to be king of Israel.
Beautiful story and at the end of chapter 16 Saul is afflicted by an evil spirit, and so he looks for a man that can help him, and David is brought in.
He was expert on a heart, but he was expert in a lot of ways and Saul loved him, it says.
But in chapter 17.
David doesn't seem to be with Saul. He seems to have gone back to his sheep in the wilderness.
And there is an enemy that is threatening Israel. He is the story of Goliath. I love the story. I don't get tired of it, even though I'm sure we've all heard it so many times.
Philistine, the enemies of the people of God. Giant. I calculate he was approximately 10 feet tall.
You know, I've seen a few people that are pretty tall, but never anybody that's 10 feet tall.
And at one time I made a calculation on the weight of his coat of armor that he had on. It weighed approximately 156 lbs. What I what I calculated that's pretty heavyweight. But the guy was huge and he had a staff in his of his spear was like a weaver's beam, it said. And his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron.
Just the head of the spear.
And I calculate that's approximately 20 lbs. Imagine that thing thrown at somebody, 20 lbs on the end of it way there be no chance for anybody.
But it is a formidable flow and he stood out there day after day saying give me a man to fight with me.
For 40 days, Saul the king was head and shoulders above all the arrest in Israel.
But he hadn't any desire to take on that giant.
And so David is sent by his father.
To see how his brethren are doing, taking some food. And here he sees the predicament and.
He says why doesn't somebody go take care of that guy?
And in his talking, his brother and get kind of his brothers get kind of.
Agitated at him.
Where in the world you come down from taking care of those sheep? You ought to be back there taking care of those sheep. Anyhow, he had been sent by his father, but he in his talking evidently ends up with Saul the king. You would think that Saul would know who he was, since he had been playing for him, but he doesn't seem to know who he is. And Saul says in verse 32 of chapter 17.
Said to David, Said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail, because of him thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, he a man of war from his youth.
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David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered him out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
I would take it that was a African lion because I don't think other lions have a beard, do they? You imagine the valor of this young man.
He caught him by the beard and I must have whacked him over the head, but he killed him.
African lion is a pretty formidable animal to encounter, but he took care of him. He says this Philistine is no more than they. Verse 36 Thy servants slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them seen. He had defied the armies of the living God right from the start with David. It wasn't a question of David versus Goliath, it was a question of.
God versus Goliath, all the others were comparing themselves to that giant and David didn't do that. David took it into focus with God as the reference point. And so Saul tried to put his armor on him and David just said I got unload this stuff.
If you're going to act in faith, act in your own faith. Don't act in somebody else's armor. That's an important lesson. But David went out.
And when he comes to the open field, there to encounter Goliath.
Verse 45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield. But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied this day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee.
And take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and into the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lords, and he will give you into our hands.
David sounded like the king, didn't he?
But he was just a youth. But he goes in that faith that the Lord is going before him. I think it is so beautiful. And you know the story. Verse 49 He took put his hand into his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smoked the Philistine in his forehead, and the stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed.
Over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and smote the Philistine and slug him.
There is no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran, stood upon the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of the sheet thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head there with. When the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled, and the men of Israel and Judah rose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines. Well, it was a tremendous victory.
But what I want to get at in Chapter 18 is that there was somebody standing there watching it happen.
It was Saul's son Jonathan. And notice what it says here in the first part of chapter 18. It came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, and would not, would let him go no more.
Into home to his father's house, then Jonathan.
And David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword and to his bowl.
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Into his girdle.
Did David say, come on Jonathan, you got to give those things up? No way. It was something that was the result of Jonathans heart being nicked with David. So he takes off his robe. That princely Rome, he was in line for the to be the king of Israel.
He says, John and David, I'm giving that to you and his garments.
And his sword, old times than they used to use swords. You sometimes have seen picture, I think it was. It's a picture of Robert E Lee giving his sword to Ulysses S Grant at the end of the Civil War. That was the way they showed they were surrendering.
And so.
Jonathan was saying, David, I surrender to you.
And then it was his ball. You know, the bow was something that was probably a personal talent. There were certain in Israel that could shoot right-handed or left-handed, a bow without missing more than a hair's width. I was pretty amazing. But the talents, they're yours, David, and.
His.
Is girdle this belt that was on him? I suppose they had a wide belt, those soldiers did to make them strong for battle. But David or Jonathan surrender to David. It wasn't something that was he was under obligation to do. It was of his own heart.
His heart was won by David's love that David would go down into the Valley of Elah, that he would take on that giant, and then he would come out Vic.
Yeah, OK, here's the challenge that comes to me.
Your young people and older ones to. I want to tell you about one that went into the valley of death.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
At Hebrews chapter 2.
And verse 14 For as much in as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same, that through death he might destroy or annull him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******.
The Lord Jesus, our David went into the valley of death and I love the way it puts it. He was partaker of flesh and blood. He came here, the glorious Son of God, the one that's the creator of the whole universe. It is amazing, but our brother was bringing before us yesterday about the.
Dimensions out there in the universe.
Are our Galaxy the Milky Way Galaxy?
Last year at Easter time I was up on the high Alta Plano, Bolivia, and it is incredible, brethren, at that altitude, 12,000 feet and away from the city lights.
At night, before the moon came up, the strip of stars that goes across the sky, there's just amazingly beautiful. It is so clear up there that you can actually see other galaxies with the naked eye, see little groups of light out in there that are not connected to the Milky Way Galaxy. And this is the one.
The one that went to that cross is the one who created it all by the word of his power.
He's fake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Can you get a grasp of the immensity of the power that was involved, the wisdom to putting them out of out there in the order that they're in?
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This is the one that came into the world.
To save us and he went to that cross. He partook of flesh and blood and but there was this difference and we've been talking about it with the Lord Jesus. He was holy humanity. We are sinful humanity. The Lord Jesus when he was born the Virgin Mary was told by the Angel that.
Holy thing which will shall be born of these shall be called.
The Son of God.
But what is amazing to think that he was not recognized. His people, the ones that had the scriptures in their hands, didn't recognize that he was there. Wise men came from the East and they said where is he that is born king of the Jews? We've seen his star in the East. We've come to worship him.
Well, they could get their Bibles out and they could give you the answers, but they had no clue that he was there.
Man does that search me. We got the Bible in our hands. We can open it and talk about it. Are we aware of the grandeur, the glory of this person?
And when they took him at the end, they took him first to the.
The Council of the Jews.
And it tells us, I think it's in Matthew's Gospel, the chief priest came up and spit in his face. Can't think of a more degrading act towards anybody. The human race. And they did this to the creator of all things.
What reaction was there? I like to ask that of men in the prison where I go. What reaction would there be on your part if somebody spit in your face?
One man said, well, he would be.
Level on the ground in a minute.
And I suppose that's the natural reaction, most people. But the Lord Jesus, no reaction whatsoever. They took him outside the city of Jerusalem. They nailed him to that cross, His head crowned with thorns, His back plowed upon by the Roman scourge.
And they stretched out those hands and nailed them to that cross. Oh, brother, we can never get that far from the cross. Just can't do it. And there they hung him. He said. All my bones are out of joints. Some have suggested that maybe when they put the cross into the hole that it was to stand in, that had jolted in.
Knocked his bones out of joint.
And they jeered him. They said, if you're the Son of God, let God deliver you.
Did God deliver him?
And I think that's why it says one of the Psalms reproaches broken my heart.
I look for comforters and I found none.
And.
Then those three hours of darkness that we can't begin to understand, when God laid on his own beloved Son the iniquity of us all, and that storm of judgment in all its fury broke on his head. For three hours the waves and billows of God's judgment passed over him. And if you look in the Scriptures, there's no cry during those three hours.
Until the very end.
When he cries, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
In all his life, when he had spoken to God, it was always my father. But here is my God. Why wasn't God his father? Yes, but here he was not treating him as Father. He was treating him with as God in the holiness of his character, that holiness that had to be satisfied, that had to be vindicated if there was going to be any blessing for you and me.
He paid the price in full. He paid it in full.
Oh how it plays hold of my heart.
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How can I say that I want to have my own way anymore? It just doesn't fit the picture. It's not reasonable to say such a thing.
Have you come to a point where you have surrendered to the Lord Jesus? I know you trust Him, perhaps as your Savior.
But has there been a true surrender in view of what He has done? This is what we have in this chapter in Romans 12.
Beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice. You know sacrifice is not.
Popular.
Today's world.
It's living for yourself. Men shall be pleasers of their own selves.
But it says of the Lord Jesus, even Christ pleased not himself. Is that your life, pleasing yourself, doing what you want to do? I want to suggest to you that that's not going to be a fulfilled life.
And I must say, as I have been challenged by different persons in my own life as a young man.
And that I have been challenged that it's not in doing things for yourself, it is sacrificing. Present your bodies, a living sacrifice.
Sometimes have said I do believe, brethren, the single most devastating.
Condition to the Christian testimony in the United States and North America, I suppose we could say, is the principle of self pleasing. It has devastated the Christian testimony. That's not Christianity.
Christianity is self sacrifice and the Lord Jesus said any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
Whosoever loveth his own life shall lose it.
Yes, your soul is saved, but you want a lost life.
Is that what you're interested in? I know I've spoken about it before and I'm not sure if I did here, but I have to say I was tremendously challenged with the life of our dear brother, late brother, Eric Smith. He was. And for you young people that maybe not haven't heard of him, but.
I got to know him when I was only.
A teenager the first time and then when I left Walla Walla at the age of 18 to go back to work and Bible truth publishers. He came back from Bolivia with his wife Francis in a couple of years after he married her, and he was stuck right there in Oak Park because she had cancer.
And had several operations and so he was planted right there.
And he started talking about Bolivia and he challenged us young people to live our lives for eternity, not for time. And I was challenged. It was in 1967. Then I was able to go within the first time to Peru in 1968, to Bolivia, along with several others.
It was a privilege, but he told us the story of his life that.
He was born into an affluent family in New Zealand. His father was Prime Minister. He was a friend of the Prime Minister of New Zealand. So he had a lot of opportunity to get into a lot of different areas of life that would have really made him prosper and his father, who was a man of the world.
That's what he had in mind for his sons. Go get a good education.
Get a good job, make lots of money and get position in this world.
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Brother Smith came into contact with the Lord and he told his father one day, said I've decided to go to Bolivia to preach the gospel. And his father said if that's your decision, son, get out of my house, you don't belong here any longer. So he had to get out and make his own way. And he did end up.
In Bolivia. But I must say I was.
Challenge the first time we went 1968 by the tremendous blessing that there was in the gospel through his instrumentality. You know those of you that may remember a little bit about Eric Smith. I don't remember that he was a man that had a tremendous gift in expounding the scriptures, but the sacrifice in his life spoke vividly for.
Some of you may remember at the conference in Des Moines years ago, they used to have it at a fairgrounds and in this room where they had the meeting, there was a balcony up above and.
The young people and the children used to sit up there and sometimes they were chatting with their friends and not paying too much attention to what was going on in the meeting. But a brother that sat up there kind of in the background told me, said I like to see the difference in attention on the part of the young people and children to the different speakers. And some of them they paid attention to fairly well and others.
They just didn't pay much attention to it at all.
He said when Eric Smith got up there, it was wrapped attention the whole time.
I say when I realized that he didn't really outstanding any outstanding.
Gift in any particular way, but it was his life, a life of sacrifice.
And I got to see him shortly before he passed away up in Montreal, Canada. He didn't have very much to his name at the end of his life. I think he did have a home, but he was in a nursing home. And I walked into the room. He died two days before.
He was 103 years old, so he lived a long life.
And I walked up to him and he wasn't speaking anymore, but he looked at me with his little beady eyes.
And I said to him in Quechua, he might not Yakashang Kermano. And that's the greeting of the Quechua brethren in Bolivia. And the only response I got was a little nod of the head. He understood me, thank the Lord, but he went home.
Not too long after that.
I tell you, young people.
It was a challenge to me. You want to live, earn lots of money, get the nice home and everything. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that in itself.
But I see so many people that have it all.
And they are empty. That is not what life's about. It's about sacrifice.
Present your bodies a living sacrifice.
It's interesting that it's your bodies.
We know we're all redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, spirit, soul and body, but it speaks about our bodies here. Our bodies are also redeemed. They belong to Him.
Do you dress to show that?
Not to draw attention to yourself.
But to show that you are surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it says it is our reasonable service. Again, I say, when I consider what Jesus paid on that cross.
His life, his precious blood.
I say this is the only reasonable response that I can give is to say, Lord Jesus, you paid it all for me. How can I live for myself any longer? It doesn't fit in the picture. It just doesn't.
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But then it goes on to say and be not conformed to this world.
This is what there's so much pressure, conformity to this world.
But.
Be transformed. I like that.
By the renewing of your mind. We've been talking in the reading meetings about our thinking processes. So often we don't have our thoughts right. We say I don't feel dead.
That's not the right kind of thinking. God says we are dead, think that way. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed into sin. So we need to through the renewing of our mind be transformed that we may prove. Notice it doesn't say that you may know. Sometimes people say I sure would like to know. The Lord's will for me doesn't say that.
That you may prove.
In putting this into effect in your life, practically presenting your body as a living sacrifice, then you will prove it in obedience. You will prove that the will of God is good and acceptable and perfect.
It's so wonderful.
This is what we are told to do.
Then he goes on in verse three to say, For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith.
What is conformity to the world is thinking well about yourself. I've got it together. I'm making my mark in my world.
Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Think soberly doesn't mean we don't think of ourselves at all.
Yes, we do think about ourselves, but think soberly.
This morning we were talking about that.
We have to come to the point just to read it again in Chapter 7 where we say, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, thanks soberly think according to the revelation of God.
That's important.
Don't be conformed to the world. What is the world? It's that system.
That Satan has built up to satisfy man and its estrangement from God.
And you find the beginnings of it in the book of Genesis chapter 4, when Cain went out of the presence of the Lord and built a city. And there are different facets into this world system. In first John chapter 2 it says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Any man love the world. The love of the Father is not in him.
You want to enjoy that love.
That's the love that gives you to surrender. You can't enjoy that love. If you're enjoying the love of the world, then it tells us everything that's in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are not of the Father, but are of the world.
And somebody has said that the lust of the flesh is what attacks majorly in the youth, lust of the eyes in midlife and the pride of life in old age. None of us are exempt from feeling it, but that's the world. What is the remedy?
Is to enjoy the love of the Father.
When the Lord Jesus was here in this world, that's what he did. Remember they asked him in John chapter one.
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Where dwelleth thou?
Where was his dwelling place? The Lord Jesus just said come and see. That's all He said. He didn't give an address.
Come and see.
But if you go back earlier in that chapter, it says the only begotten Son, which is in the Buddhism of the Father, He hath declared Him so. His dwelling place was the bosom of the Father. From all that past eternity. That was His dwelling place. He enjoyed the love of His Father.
That's why when he was down here in this world, he really wasn't interested in the things this world had to offer. It wasn't that there was rules against having a house.
But he said, boxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. I suppose that he spent many nights under the stars, probably in the cold at times.
Why didn't he have a home? Why didn't he? Have you never read of him having any money in his pocket? Even he had to say show me a penny one time.
Is it wrong to have money in your pocket? I don't think so.
Why didn't he?
He was so enraptured with that home that he had come from and was going back to that he wasn't interested in anything down here. And that's what will make you a Pilgrim. And a stranger in this world is enjoying the love of the Father. So that's this world, this world.
Pass away passes away and it's lusts, but he that does the will of God.
Abideth forever. What a challenge it is to my own heart. This life is so brief I can't believe it.
That it is over 50 years since I left Walla Walla and.
You see me as an old guy. I don't think of myself as an old man.
I don't feel old. My knee kind of feels old sometimes, but I don't feel old because life is ahead overhead. The Lord help us to.
Know what it means to present our bodies a living sacrifice.
Want to go over to the book of Hebrews again and chapter 13?
We've talked about the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. We've talked about the response there should be from us.
But now here's two more sacrifices that Scripture speaks of in that way, as sacrifices.
Chapter 13. Hebrews verse 15.
By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Sacrifice of praise to God.
What does it say on Sunday morning?
No, continually. Just wanted to ask you, are you occupied in giving that sacrifice to the Lord on a daily basis? Do you stop to praise Him? That's one of the reasons He's chosen us.
Eric talked about her being royalty yesterday. The other part was we are priests. What a privilege to be able to go right into God's presence, to present our praises, our worship.
You know, brethren, I have really been challenged in my own soul that we need to stop and worship Him. Worship is what we render to God for who He is. Praise is what we render to God for what He has done.
And when we think of the glory of his person and the work that he's accomplished, what tremendous themes, I'm convinced, brethren, that the moment we are raptured into the Lords presence, we're going to be so enraptured with his person, the glory of his person, that everything else is going to fade into the background.
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Have you ever thought about?
The three disciples when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord.
There they were, they were asleep 1St and then when they woke up they saw him and there was Moses and Elijah.
And they were.
Pretty interested.
They'd never seen Moses and Elijah before. They knew they were. That's interesting detail. But they were so enraptured with Moses and Elijah that they didn't realize they had taken their eyes off the Lord.
You ever notice another detail? There is no evidence that Moses and Elijah ever noticed Peter, James and John. Why not?
Weren't they interested in them? I'm sure they would be interested in.
But when you're in the presence of the glorious Son of God and talking like they were about his deceased that he was going to accomplish at Jerusalem, is there anything that compares with Audi glory?
Brother, do we grasp, in a small way anyhow, the glory of the person of our Lord Jesus?
We could go on and on speaking about it, but that's what is rendered to Him in worship.
Sometimes it's been said, and I believe it's true, that worship is not necessarily expressed with words. You find those wise men that came to Jerusalem. I suppose the Lord Jesus was a little less than two years old. Just what we'd call a toddler.
And they came into the house, it says in Matthew chapter 2.
And when they saw him, they prostated themselves on the floor before him. You know it wasn't just three men. Somebody have suggested it's probably a caravan. Probably 15 to 20 of those wise men came into the room. Imagine what Mary must have thought when she saw them coming in and then one by one just getting down.
They recognized who he was.
Do you and I recognize the glory of the person that we're talking about?
I have to say, brother, I'm not exhorting you merely I challenge my own soul, and when I think about it, the glory of His person, but to stop and to praise him during the day in our homes, let it be filled with praise. It's one thing I've learned from my Latin brethren in Latin America. They do a lot more singing than we do.
Beginning of a meeting off times they're singing for half an hour. Of course the clock is not.
Such a controlling influence in their lives. It is for us but but they don't worry about it so much. So when they get going they they'll go for their hour after that. But it it has been a blessing. It has been a tremendous blessing to be amongst them and to sing. We've got so much to sing about.
But the point is, is when the enemy gets you occupied with yourself, do you feel like singing? No way.
You feel like putting your head down and feel depressed.
Get your eyes on this person, this glorious person, not only on who he is, but that work that he accomplished on the cross. Oh, what a glorious God and Savior we have in the Lord Jesus. So that's a sacrifice of praise. Take time, you say? Well, I don't have much time.
I say that's why it's sacrificed. Take time to praise him.
I have been amazed that when we can do that, the blessing that results. Learn some hymns by heart so you can sing when you're traveling down the road.
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I've learned how great Thou art by heart and I love to start that up sometimes when I'm visiting at home. And most brother know it, but it's a blessing to get our focus of ourselves on the Him.
That's a sacrifice of praise, and we're told to.
Do it continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. And then verse 16 is another sacrifice to do good and to communicate. Forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. This is giving and some have suggested This is why we have the collection right at the time.
Of the Lord's Supper is because the 2GO together. They're both sacrifices, but sacrifice of giving is something that should characterize us at all times too. Brother, we live in a world where there's a tremendous amount of need.
It is incredible to think of our brethren there in Malawi. Rather, Tim Roach tells us about them down there that sometimes they can eat a meal maybe once every two days or maybe every three days.
We have so much.
To eat, think about it, do something about it. You say, well, I don't know how to do it. Ask the Lord to show you how to do it. There's a lot of ways you can be involved in giving.
Understand in China the need for Bibles is a tremendous need. They cannot keep up with all those that are coming to faith in the Lord Jesus giving them Bibles.
Recently my brother Dean Rule was in China and he visited a group of Christians in the city of Shanghai. Very interesting to hear his report of his visit. I didn't hear a whole lot but.
There are ways he goes in because he is a flower consultant and he has business in China and he has a business visa and he has to be careful how much he takes in unless he loses business visa. But at least he's going in and he's taking something in. But isn't there some way you can be involved in giving? It's not only Chinese, all over the world there is.
Need dear brethren, there in Africa and the need that there is in those places. Well brethren, these are just a few thoughts that I wanted to present to you and I get a picture of what God has done for us in the person of the Lord Jesus.
The only reasonable response is to offer our bodies a living sacrifice.
May the Lord give us to be exercised as well in the offering of the sacrifice of praise and worship to God, and also of the sacrifice of doing good and communicating.
Will just end in prayer. Father, thanks so much for Thy precious word. How it searches us. We pray for blessing Father these dear young people. Help them to live life in a way that they will not repent at the end of their lives for having lived for themselves.
We pray, Father, and give thanks now as we wait on Thee for the rest of the afternoon in the name.
Of our Lord Jesus, Amen.