God Requires A Sacrifice

Romans 12:1

 ¹I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

God will reward you according to your sacrifice. You can't judge someones level of blessing if you don't know their level of sacrifice. Paul is teaching about sacrificing to God. We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind (Matt 12:30). God requires mind, spiritual, and financial sacrifice We need to look at what we are getting in return when we sacrifice instead of what we are losing.

God requires us to keep our bodies not only from sex (for those who are single) but God also wants us to keep our bodies by eating right. God may be dealing with you right now about your diet. God can only use you as healthy as you are.

Romans 12:2
²And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

You have to sacrifice what you allow in your mind. If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything. Guard your mind. Sacrifice your time. We need to do more than just coming to church. If you can work 8 hours a day you have time to spend with God. Your answers are revealed in prayer. You have to be still to hear. In a relationship you have to invest time to make it work.

Sacrifice means to surrender or the destruction of something prized. It means something to you. If you just give it up He will bless you beyond your wildest dreams. Saul was to destroy everything but he kept some things. He was fired by God and didn't even realize it:

1 Samuel 15
¹Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
 ²Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
 ³Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
 ⁴And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
 ⁵And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
 ⁶And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
 ⁷And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
 ⁸And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
 ⁹But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
 ¹⁰Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
 ¹¹It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
 ¹²And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
 ¹³And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
 ¹⁴And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
 ¹⁵And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
 ¹⁶Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
 ¹⁷And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
 ¹⁸And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
 ¹⁹Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
 ²⁰And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
 ²¹But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
 ^22
 23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
 ²⁴And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
 ²⁵Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
 ²⁶And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
 ²⁷And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
 ²⁸And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.
 ²⁹And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
 ³⁰Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
 ³¹So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD.
 ³²Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
 ³³And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
 ³⁴Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.
 ³⁵And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.

We have to denounce things. Walk around your house and denounce those things that are not of God.

Phillipians 4:18-19

 ¹⁸But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.
 ¹⁹But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

God wants you to give it up for you to see how bad you don't need it. Paul was talking to the church Philippi. The offering that was received was a sweet smell. The sacrifice you give go God may not be sweet smelling. Make sure your sacrifice is acceptable to God. When your sacrifice is acceptable God will supply your needs.

Hebrew 11:4
⁴By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Abel's sacrifice was a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.

Gen 4:1-5
¹And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
 ²And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
 ³And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
 ⁴And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
 ⁵But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.


Some say that God respected Abel because he gave up the 1st fruits. Whatever Abel brought it was more excellent. You can't get mad and sad when you bring things on yourself. You can't be mad at someone else's blessing because you don't know what the other person went through. Learn to celebrate others blessings. Whatever God tells you to do, do it (i.e forgiving someone, calling up someone to pray, giving things up).

1 Kings 3:3-4
³And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
 ⁴And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.


We always talk about Solomon's wealth.  Solomon asked for wisdom but Solomon had given a great sacrifice. It was the wisdom that gave him the wealth.

Ephesians 5:2
²And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.


When you give a seed it is dead in the ground for some time. There is a seed time and a harvest time. Jesus was dead for 3 days and then He opened his eyes. He conquered death. If Jesus was able to conquer death how much more can we do? Nothing can hold you down.

John 3:16
¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Your only will bring you plenty. God gave his only to reap the whole world.


Psalm 51:17
 ¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

We have to humble ourselves because we don't know everything. There is always someone who is better than you.The minute you think you have it going on you are setting yourself up for destruction. We need to go to church:

Hebrews 10:25
²⁵Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.