Sacrifices We Still Need to Offer: The Sacrifice of Praise

    We no longer live under the Old Covenant because Jesus brought God’s New Covenant into effect when He died on the cross (Hebrews 10:5-10), and it is because of Jesus’ sacrifice that we no longer need to offer animal or grain sacrifices, but we must not neglect the sacrifices that we are still commanded to offer to God: spiritual sacrifices.

“Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5 NKJV)

    This week, I would like you to consider the sacrifice that is commanded in Hebrews 13:15 – the sacrifice of praise.

“For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” (Hebrews 13:14-15 NKJV)

    Jesus sanctified us with His own blood outside the gate, because of this, we willingly go to Him outside the camp and endure the same reproaches He endured (Hebrews 13:13, 1 Peter 2:20-24); because we seek the eternal city that is to come (consider John 14:1-6, Hebrews 11:16).

    Keeping what Jesus has done for us always in our minds, knowing that through Him we have been granted access to boldly approach God’s throne (Hebrews 4:14-16), we should be continually (from this time forward without end) offering the sacrifice of praise to God.

    What is this sacrifice of praise? 

    We offer God the fruit of our lips – our words of praise and thanksgiving to His name.

    How are speaking words of praise and thanksgiving a sacrifice?

    First, they are a sacrifice because we are offering them to God. What we offer should be heart-felt and sincere; God knows our hearts, we need to let our hearts seek His face (Psalm 27:8) and the words will come.

“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness every night.” (Psalm 92:1-2 NKJV)

    Second, they are a sacrifice because we will have to give some things up in the process: time and thoughtless/corrupt speech.  

    The fruit of our lips is not always praise, is it?  We do not always speak with grace – sometimes the saltshaker is nowhere to be found (Colossians 3:6). Sometimes we let our upset take the reins and we say things we shouldn’t, we post things we shouldn’t…

“With [our tongue] we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:9-10 NKJV) 

    We don’t want the fruit of our lips to be wormy and rotten (consider Matthew 12:33-37 and Ephesians 4:29), we can prevent this by purifying our hearts, by being mindful of what we are thinking at all times, and by spending more time appreciating all that God has provided for us – on earth, in His word, in His people (the church). 

    In a world that praises the hustle and the constant go, go, go, we need to take the time every day to be still (Psalm 46:10) and give God thanks and praise Him for life, breath, and all things (Acts 17:25) and for giving us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).   

    We do not want to be like those mentioned in Isaiah who drew near to God with their mouths, who had the appearance of honouring Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him (Isaiah 29:13). Let’s determine to offer God what is right, not give Him what is left. We have been granted access to speak to God; the Creator of the universe! Think about that for a moment… Let’s not leave it to the very end of the day, when we can barely keep our eyes open, to thoughtlessly utter a memorized phrase before falling asleep; instead, let’s take time in our day to press our minds and hearts with thought and search our vocabularies for appropriate words to speak – let’s proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9)! Always remembering that we can read some of the Psalms to learn how to increase our offering of praise to God and find even more reasons to give thanks to Him!  

    Take time to read and consider Psalm 101 and Proverbs 4:20-27.

    I hope you will put aside your busyness today to sit quietly and honestly examine your heart. Yank out the weeds of corrupt speech and plant words of praise and thankfulness in their place; it will take time, it will take sacrifice, but it will be worth your every effort! Help your heart along by teaching yourself to meditate on what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely; what is good news, virtuous, and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8); in doing these things we will be able to continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, and be able to readily give thanks to His name!

You can do it! So can I!!