Offering God A Sacrificial Offering

Praise the Lord, brothers and sisters, when you turn with me to Psalm 50, Psalm 50 and verse here, verse 5, Psalm 50, verse 5, who are the ones who are truly godly in God's eyes? It's not what you think is godly or somebody else thinks you're godly. Here's the Lord's description for those who are truly godly. And it's good for us to take God's definition of godliness more than anyone else's.

Gather my God, this is Psalm 50, verse 5, gather my godly ones to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. In the Old Testament temple, if you entered through the gate, what you saw in front of you is a big altar and covered with blood, blood, blood, blood, blood. Every day, priests were just killing animals and shedding blood, shedding blood.

But there was something that God wanted to impress upon the minds of his people. What did that blood symbolize? Death. There were animals being killed, killed, killed, killed.

It's all pointing to the day when one day Jesus himself would be killed on the cross. And we know that the cross was in God's mind from all eternity. That's something very difficult for us to understand, that God existed from eternity.

God himself is a mystery. How does someone exist from eternity? And there's no point in time where God learned something. No, there's nothing for God to learn.

Everything that happens throughout time and everything about everybody that ever lived on this earth was in God's mind from the beginning. There's so many things about God we can't understand. And the sacrifice of Christ was in God's mind from eternity.

That means the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, right from the beginning, long, millions and millions and millions and billions of years before anything existed, that was in God's mind that one day the Son of God would come and die. Imagine, that was in God's mind from eternity. And those who are in fellowship with this God, the true God, are the godly ones.

And they are the ones who make a covenant with him. A covenant means a sacred agreement with him. And that is made by the sacrifice of themselves, because that is how Jesus gave himself for us.

And that is why, from the beginning of, if you read the Bible carefully, you know there's a saying in English, if you understand its meaning, to read between the lines. If you've understood English, it means don't just read what's written there. But read the hidden meaning behind it.

That's called reading between the lines. So let's read between the lines here in Genesis 4. Right at the beginning, these are the first two human beings that were born on the earth, Cain and Abel. And we read that they offered a sacrifice.

Now, how did they learn that? It says here, the first thing mentioned in verse 1 is immediately after they were thrown out of Eden, the last verse of chapter 3 is they were thrown out of Eden, and the very next thing it says they had two children between a period of years. And Cain was born first, and then his younger brother Abel. And it says here that in verse 3, in the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the Lord, and Abel also in verse 4. And remember, this is the first time people are offering a sacrifice.

This is not a sacrifice for sin. Sacrifice for sin was understood much later, because I don't think Cain and Abel had any understanding of sin. This was what is called in Leviticus, a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Lord, I want to express my thanks to you by offering something to you. And it says here, read carefully and then you'll understand why God accepted Abel's offering, why he did not accept Cain's offering. Read between the lines.

Cain brought an offering, that's the word to remember, an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel also brought the firstlings of his flock and their portions, and the next thing is it says the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. Now, many people have taught, not read between the lines carefully, that because Abel brought an animal sacrifice where blood was shed, and Cain brought grain, there was no blood.

That's why God accepted Abel. That's wrong, because there's no teaching here before this that you have to shed blood. And if God has not taught something, he doesn't hold anybody responsible for it.

Later on in Leviticus, it says that we have to sacrifice blood, but here there was no such teaching. And they were bringing whatever they were working with. It says Cain was a tiller of the ground, so he brought, he went to the field and gathered up a whole lot of fruit from the ground, that was his work, and he offered it to God.

What else could he offer? And Abel was looking after flocks, so he went to the flock and selected flocks and gave it. So, each gave exactly what they were working with. There's nothing wrong with that.

The difference was this, Cain brought an offering and Abel brought the best. Firstlings means the very best from his flock. He looked around the flock and all animals are not the same, and he selected the very best and said, I've got to give the very best to God.

And Cain just picked up some offering and gave it. Now, this is a type, this is a picture of two types of believers. They're both believers, but some people give something to God and there are others who give their very best to God.

And that's what we read in Psalm 50, verse 5, gather my godly ones to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. We can say that in Cain's offering, there was no sacrifice. And there are many Christians today who offer something to God, but there's zero sacrifice.

It doesn't cost them anything for what they give. It's good for you to ask yourself, what have you given to God? I'm not talking about money. People always think about money when you think about giving.

Money is the least thing. God is not interested in your money, I'll tell you that. He's interested in your life.

That is the sacrifice. That is the offering he wants. Gather to me my godly ones, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

What will God do with money? A lot of people think the great need in the world is for money to do God's work. It's totally wrong. The first church, they did not have millionaires.

Jesus did not select, go around Israel and select millionaires because we need a lot of money to do this work, so I'll select certain millionaires. No, he selected some very poor people. They were fishermen.

And I've seen in the coasts of India what fishermen are. They're among the poorest people in the country. So it's not money that God wants, but an offering of one's life and one's time.

It's life and time that many Christians do not offer to God. They offer a little bit of money, drop it in the box and say, I've given an offering. That's like him.

I gave an offering to God, whereas Abel gave that which really cost him something. Those are the ones whom God calls godly. He says, gather them to me.

So the Lord is especially close to those who offer to him a sacrifice like that. And that's why, even though Jesus had 12 disciples, he was always hanging around with three of them. Many times, even when he went up to the Mount of Transfiguration where Moses and Elijah were to come in.

What a spectacular experience. Wouldn't all the other 12 have benefited from seeing that? But Jesus took only three people up with him to the mountain. Why is that? There was something special about those three.

It's not that they were cleverer. They were all fishermen. But I think the difference is like the difference between Cain and Abel.

There was a commitment and a dedication that the Lord discerned in Peter, James, and John, which were not in the others. They were his disciples. And they were very useful to him.

They served him. But there was a smaller group among them. And I feel it's the same in every church.

God loves every one of us, and he calls all of us to him. But among the called, he has a smaller group that have some special experiences. For example, when he went to raise Jairus' daughter from the dead, Peter, James, and John went with him.

And it's like that in different situations. When he went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, wouldn't all the 12 disciples have loved to go with him? Call Peter, James, and John, you come with me. There was something, you see, that Jesus has drawn.

It's not partiality. No, there is no partiality with God. There's no partiality in the way God deals with any of us.

But, dear brothers and sisters, if you find that some people are closer to the Lord than you are, there's a reason. And in the other nine disciples had asked themselves, why is Jesus always hanging around Peter, James, why does he always select them? I mean, I'm just thinking. I'm using my freedom of mind now to think like this.

That if there were two, three others among the 12 who are equally sacrificial and committed, I think that inner circle of Jesus would have been six people and not three. And if one of those three were not so committed, his inner circle would have been two. It was not a fixed number.

It could have been more or less. There are some churches where there's nobody in that inner circle. And there are some churches where there are a number of people in that inner circle.

All of them go to heaven. I mean, if people's interest is only to go to heaven when they die, you don't have to worry about what I'm saying. But if you want to have what the Bible calls an abundant entrance into God's kingdom, see that expression in 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1, he talks about verse 5, applying all diligence.

That means being wholehearted, radical, wholehearted in your Christian life, keeping on adding to your faith. I mean, we begin with faith, but don't stop there. He says add moral excellence and add knowledge and spiritual knowledge and self-control and perseverance, verse 6, and godliness and brotherly kindness and love.

And if all these qualities I mentioned are increasing, that means you don't just have them but keep on increasing in them, growing in them, you will not be unfruitful. But if you lack these qualities, you're short-sighted. Therefore, brethren, verse 10, be diligent in these qualities so that you can be certain of his calling and choosing you.

Because, listen to this, if you practice these things that I've just mentioned, first of all, you'll never stumble, that's one thing. You'll have a steady walk on earth without stumbling. So many Christians stumble, stumble and get up, stumble and get up.

If you find a person walking down the road always stumbling and getting up, you say something is basically wrong with that person. He probably needs to go and see a doctor. And when you see Christians, born-again Christians attending RLCF and stumbling and getting up and stumbling and getting up every day in their home life or anywhere else, I say you need to go and see a spiritual doctor.

You need to get back to the Lord and say, what's wrong with me? Why am I stumbling so often? It's not the way normally. Would you be concerned if your son or daughter is always stumbling and walking and stumbling and walking? That's exactly how God is concerned when He sees one of His children coming and listening to these fantastic things in RLCF, but then going around and stumbling and walking every day. Come back to the Lord.

And He says, if you do these things, the Christian life is a life of diligence and sacrifice. You will never stumble. Imagine walking down the road, never stumbling.

Living our Christian life, never stumbling. To go one day without stumbling is a great thing. To go a whole week without stumbling.

For example, you determine today that the next one week till next Sunday, you are not going to stumble. By the grace of God, you're going to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit. You're going to humble yourself.

Say, Lord, teach me what it is to take up the cross. Fill me with the Spirit. I want to go through this week without stumbling.

When you come the next Sunday, you say, Lord, another week without stumbling. You will never stumble if you take these qualities seriously. And not only that, when you finally leave this earth, your entrance into the eternal kingdom of the Lord will be abundantly supplied to you.

It won't be just a sort of crawling into God's kingdom. Oh, I made it. It's like these, you know, in India, the pass marks is 40% in many schools.

And I use this example sometimes. Here are two children studying in the same class. And one person got 40%.

You know, you get 40%, you're promoted next to the next year, next class. And here's one child who got 40%. Another child who got 98%.

40%, 98%. Who is the one who's going to go home that day to his home rejoicing? And who's the one who's going to go home sad? I'll tell you. The one who got 40% is going to go home rejoicing.

Mom, I passed. I'm going to be promoted. And the one who got 98, oh, mom, I missed 100 by just two marks.

That's the type of wholehearted Christian. Not the one who's getting 40% and I scraped into God's kingdom. But the one who's sad that he wasn't perfect, that his life during the past week was not perfect.

Not that I somehow managed to survive this week without committing some gross sin. I managed to survive this week without yelling at my husband or yelling at my wife or getting upset. Is that all there is in the Christian life? An abundant entrance into God's kingdom.

It's this principle of sacrifice that makes the difference. And so, it's not just here, but throughout the Old Testament, you find that that is the principle by which God's greatest men have lived. I want to show you a verse.

Before I go there, I would like to show you Romans chapter 12. You know, Romans is one of the most systematically written episodes of the Apostle Paul. It's a step by step going from kindergarten to first grade, second grade, third grade, all the way to college.

It begins with a terrible description of sin in Romans 1, verse 29, 30, 31, 32. I don't have time to read it, but it's a big list of sin. And it begins with how we can be justified by faith in Romans 3, 24, and goes on to how sin won't have dominion over us, Romans 6, 14, how we can be free from the law in Romans 7, from a legalistic lifestyle, and how the Holy Spirit can guide our life, Romans 8. And then it speaks about God's sovereignty in selecting us in verse 9, and His righteousness in verse 10, and His faithfulness in verse 11.

And then it comes to what shall we do when we have dealt with such a God. Dear brothers, in view of all these mercies, Romans 12, verse 1, in view of the mercies of God that I have described up to chapter 11, what shall you do? Present your body a living and holy sacrifice. There's that word again.

The only way I can respond to God when I realize all that He's done for me, and that's what He's described in chapter 1 to 11. It's a very wonderful section of Scripture, Romans 1 to 11. And in view of all this, what am I to give to God? Not money.

It's not what He wants. It's not even service, going out and witnessing to somebody. No.

The first thing, my dear brothers and sisters, if you really are grateful to God for what He's done, He's not coming to church every Sunday. He's presenting your body to the Lord, not as a dead sacrifice like the Old Testament. Goats and lambs and oxen were slain on the altar.

A living sacrifice, where I'm living, and at the same time, there's a sacrifice in my life every moment of my life. This is true Christianity. We preach the highest standard in this church, and in all our churches throughout the world, we preach the same standard.

If all the schools, education in all the schools were free, would you send your child to the school that has the highest standard of excellence and the highest standard of morality and the highest standard of discipline? Would you? I'm sure you would. You wouldn't send your child to some school that has third-rate standards and indisciplined people. No, you'd always choose the highest in education.

Why? Because we value education. If all the hospitals, treatment in all the hospitals were free and someone was seriously sick in your home, and all the hospitals are free, would you choose the hospital which has the highest standard of treatment, the best doctors and the highest standard of hygiene and cleanliness and has a good reputation of healing people? Definitely. Because we value health.

We value education. We value health. All the hospitals are free, all the education is free.

Okay. Now we go to the next thing. Attending in all the churches is free.

Isn't it? Do you look for the best church where you can grow closest to God or do you look for something to ease your conscience? I went to church on Sunday. My dear brother, sister, let me tell you the truth. That shows the level of your Christianity.

It's probably third-rate. It shows that you value education and health a million times more than you value your spiritual life. It shows that you value your physical body and all that's needed for your physical body more than you value your spirit.

That's being pretty close to the level of the animals. The animals value only their body. They're only occupied with the things of earth, how to make money.

See, that's the difference between man and animals. It's very significant if you read Genesis 1 that God made all the different sun, moon, stars and even the fish up to the fifth day. Now he could have reserved the sixth day exclusively for man.

He could have made the fifth day the fish and the animals. But you read there, there's meaning in these things. Read between the lines.

On the sixth day, first part of the sixth day, he made the animals. And the second part of the sixth day, he made man and woman. Why? What was he trying to teach them? It's very easy for you, Adam and Eve, to sink to the level of the animals.

I made you both on the same day. Your bodies are made of the same dust. You've got eyes like the animals.

You've got ears like the animals. You've got a tongue like the animals. It's different from the fish.

The fish were made on the previous day. But you look at the animals. You've got legs like the animals.

You've got hands like the animals. You've got ears, hands, everything. And some of those monkeys look a bit like Adam and Eve.

He made them so much, so similar in so many things, and on the same day, sixth day. There's something significant about it. Except one difference.

After he had made Adam, he breathed into him the breath of life. And Adam got, you know what he got? Not just breath, he got a conscience. That's what he got.

Breath in the nose, even the animals have. God didn't have to breathe into them for them to get breath. They've got lungs, just like we have.

But that's not what Adam got when God breathed into him. He got a conscience, which none of those animals have. And that breath of God which produced a conscience is what distinguished Adam and Eve from all the rest of creation.

And it's as if God was saying, if you live by this conscience, you will come up to me. If you don't live by this conscience, you will descend to the same level of the animals. God made those animals always with their head down.

And God wanted man to have his head lifted up. You know, God is called the lifter of my head in the Psalms. Because unfortunately, man who was created to have his head lifted up to heaven is always looking down at earthly things.

That makes him like the animals. If your mind is always on earthly things, you're like a man who's always looking down, down, down, down. Have you ever seen a cow looking up? Or a dog? They don't.

Every single animal is always looking down for something on the ground. And every man who's always looking at earthly things, whenever you see an animal looking at the ground, say to yourself, that's how I am. Interested in money, the honor of men, and approval for my friends, everything of this earth.

God wants to be the lifter of your head. Lift up my head, O Lord. That involves a certain sacrifice, the denying of something.

When Cain came to offer it, he just picked up something and gave it to God. Abel looked for the best. So here it says in Romans 12.1, present your body a living, holy sacrifice, because that is what is acceptable to God.

While you're living, present yourself as a holy, the word holy means set apart, that's the real meaning of that word holy, set apart from the world, set apart from the animals, set apart from the way the animals are looking down, and set apart from them. A sacrifice that's acceptable to God. And it says this is how you can worship in the spirit.

One of the things that I have tried to understand more and more and more, how can I be a worshiper? Here on earth, people admire preachers, gifted preachers. They are admired in Christian circles, especially those who can preach a gripping message where you pay attention from beginning to end, and who can preach powerfully and bring forth God's word. People admire them.

But a person can be unconverted and preach powerfully. Do you know that the devil can preach a powerful message from God's word and keep your attention for one hour? He's got ability, cleverness. But that's not the greatest thing in the Christian life.

Preaching is not the greatest thing. Singing, that's another thing which a lot of people, Christians get admired, a lot of Christians admire, singing, music, and a lot of young people want to go into music to be admired and respected in the church, to stand up in front and sing and get the admiration of people. Preaching, singing are all secondary.

The greatest thing in the Christian life is worship, where it is only you and God. And that was taught in the tabernacle. In the tabernacle, there was a lot of activity in the outer court, killing animals all the time, killing, killing animals.

And then even inside, you go into the next compartment called the holy place. There also there's some activity, burning the incense and lighting the candles and all that. And then you go into the third part of the tabernacle, which is the most holy place.

There's no activity there. No activity. Silence.

Because you're with God. God was there. God was there.

That was worship. Service, activity, worship. That's the greatest.

Very few Christians get there. Most people are happy with activity or some type of service, activity, service and worship. That's the three parts of the tabernacle.

And many people are either interested in activity or service and stuff there. Very, very few enter the veil, through the veil and worship. So that's what he says here at the end of this wonderful teaching in Romans 1 to 11.

He says, how are you going to respond to God? Present your body. All those sacrifices that were slain in the temple in the Old Testament, the book of Leviticus, full of it, was all to teach one thing. God wants you to present your body.

He wants you to lift up your spirit. When I say lift up the head, it's not just this head. But your spirit is lifted looking up.

There's so much of looking down. Even the great Christian musicians who perform on the platform, just like secular musicians, they're so concerned that people should admire them. If you want people to admire you, you're totally unfit to serve God.

Totally unfit. And I know that most of the people who stand up singing songs and playing instruments, their main aim is to get people to admire them. I'm seeking to glorify God.

Many preachers also. They want to preach in such a way that people admire them, respect them. They can get money for it.

It's always, what will I gain from this? Either money or admiration or a following or something like that. It's all looking down, down, down, down. That's the way of the animals.

Where are the people who are looking up and say, Lord, I want you to be glorified through what I do. Even people who want to bring up their families in a good way. My children must be godly.

For what? For people to admire you? Oh, that family, they've got wonderful children. Is that what you want? That is looking down. Like the animals.

I want the praise of men. You know, it's so subtle. You may think you're glorifying God, but you want the praise of men.

How well your children are brought up and well behaved. And you feel a little excited when you hear somebody say that. You're looking down, brother.

You're looking like an animal. Lift your head up and say, Lord, I don't care what anybody thinks about my children. I want to bring up my children for your glory that you can approve of them.

That's all I want. That's worship. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your body and your whole life as a living, holy sacrifice.

Acceptable to God. Forget about whether it's acceptable to men or not. Acceptable to God.

Please remember this expression all your life. Acceptable to God. Accepted by God.

In everything in my life, I wanted to be accepted by God. I couldn't care less what men think of it. Many, many years ago, I discovered that if I wanted to be a faithful preacher of God's word, I had to completely ignore, completely ignore what men think about me.

Whether they think I'm gracious and gentle and nice and kind when I speak. I couldn't care less for that. I can't serve God that way.

You can be a famous preacher or a famous speaker that way, but you can't be a servant of God. I discovered if you want to be a servant of God, everything in your life, acceptable to God. I'm not a singer, but if I were a singer, I would say it must be acceptable to God.

I couldn't care less what people think about my singing. Or if I'm playing some instruments. It doesn't make a difference what people think whether I'm a good player.

Acceptable to God. Acceptable to God. Dear brothers and sisters, please take this seriously.

This is what makes man different from the animals. The animals are not interested in being acceptable to God. They are happy to be acceptable to each other.

That's the difference between man and... And that was the difference between Cain and Abel. Abel was really keen that God should accept him. Even though he knew so little, there were no Bible those days.

There was no teaching on sacrifice, but he understood in his spirit. I can't give anything cheap to God. God Almighty, if you know who God is, how can I give something cheap? It's something like if the governor of your state or the president of your country came to your house for a meal.

That itself would be a great honor that he came to your house. What sort of meal would you prepare for him? You wouldn't give something that you take out of the fridge that's been there a couple of days. You'd get something fresh.

You'd get the best and you'd spend a lot of time preparing for it, probably a whole week preparing what you're going to prepare a meal for the president coming to your house for a meal. And you'd give that to him. And if he was happy with it and appreciated it, what a thrill it would bring to you.

Dear brother, sister, is that how you give to God? I don't mean just on Sunday mornings. Sunday morning can be a ritual. Is that how you give your life to God? I beseech you, brethren.

Paul is pleading with them. I urge you. I beseech you.

Present your body. You know, in the Old Testament, sacrifices are cut up on the altar. You read that in the book of Leviticus.

They'd bring a bullock there and they'd cut it into pieces and then put it on the altar and burn it up. Now, that looks like a tremendous waste of time. If you're going to burn up that sacrifice, why waste your time cutting it? I mean, it must be a job cutting all those bones and all with a knife.

What a waste of time, you would say. But why did God do it? Everything in the Old Testament had a meaning. Those pieces must be cut up and then offered as a sacrifice.

Now, bring that principle here to Romans 12. Present your body as a living holy sacrifice. You've got to cut it up.

See, it's very easy to say, Lord, I give my body to you. No, hang on. Cut it up.

Lord, I give my eyes to you. I put my eyes on the altar. I never want these eyes ever to look at anything that will displease you.

That's sacrifice. I never want these eyes to ever read anything that will dishonor you. As soon as I see it, I want to turn my eyes away.

I never want my eyes to look at anything on the internet or on my phone that will dishonor you. Now, hang on. We've reached only one part of the body, and you already discover how difficult it is.

Imagine, we've got to go on to the other parts of the body. It's very easy to say, Lord, I give my body to you. No, the Lord said, cut it up.

Don't just put the bullock there and go away. That's why the Old Testament, the Lord taught them to do that difficult job of cutting up that bullock into pieces, and one by one you lay it there, then offer it. The meaning is understood here in Romans 12.

Present your body piece by piece. Lord, I give my tongue to you. It's going to be yours from today.

I never want to tell a lie with that tongue. Never, even to save my life. I never want to speak a rude word to someone.

We are all created in God's image, and even though that image may be defaced by sin in many people, we were originally created in God's image. That's why I don't despise any human being. In India, very often the beggars would come to our gate.

We are very poor people, jobless. Sometimes they were lepers, could never get a job. They'd come to the gate and beg for money.

And so many people just say, get out of there and turn them away. The poor people have to turn away and go away. And I used to tell my children, never, never, never speak rudely to a beggar.

Never speak rudely to a poor person, someone who is lower than you in society. Always treat every human being with respect. Whatever their level in society is.

I want to respect a beggar as much as I would respect, respect the president of a country. They are human beings. And if you are a man of God, of course, one person needs to show, you need to show greater respect to a president, but I would never treat a beggar or a homeless man with any disrespect or any human being.

Someone who bungled up something, maybe in the office, I would never treat him with, correct him by all means, but never treat him with disrespect. That's unchristian. I had to present my body, my tongue, and say, Lord, I'm laying it on the altar.

I'm not just saying, Lord, I give my life to you. I put my eyes already, and I put my tongue there. I never want to say anything that will dishonor you, to my wife, and my entire life.

Sorry, Lord, I've done it in the past, but from today onwards, my tongue is on the altar. And when I speak to my wife, or speak to your husband, I'm going to remember, I've laid my tongue on the altar. Not just when you listen to this message, and you go back, and you take back the tongue from the altar, and say, it's mine.

That's how most Christians are. They offer something to God on Sunday morning at the church, and the rest of the week, it's theirs. And then next Sunday morning again, they say, Oh, Lord, I'm sorry, I messed up again.

Here's my tongue. It's going to be the same story throughout the year, 52 weeks of the year. When are you going to take your Christian life seriously? When are you going to really present your parts of your body as a sacrifice? Will a day come like that? That will be the day something new will begin in your life.

You say, it's so difficult, brother. I know it is difficult. That's why God asks you to pray for the Holy Spirit.

What I'm really aiming at is, you know what happened when they laid the sacrifice on the altar, lit by, bit by, bit by, bit by, God answered by fire from heaven. That's how we approved. Throughout the Old Testament, God's approval was manifested by fire coming down from heaven and burning up the sacrifice.

It's the same today. If God accepts the offering you're making, He will send the fire of the Holy Spirit. He did it on the day of Pentecost.

He'll do it again. He's the same. Jesus Christ, the same.

Yesterday, today, and forever. The same Jesus Christ, who's there on the day of Pentecost, pouring out His Spirit on them, is the same today. My dear brother, sister, that is the greatest gift God can give you.

That's how He brings approval to the sacrifice you've offered. How did God approve the sacrifice in the Old Testament? By sending fire from heaven. How did God approve the sacrifice of those 120 people who came out of the Jewish community in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost and waited and waited and waited, day after day, it looked as if nothing was happening.

Jesus said, wait. One day, two days, three days, four days, five days. Wait, wait, wait.

Nothing's happening. I saw a cartoon once of these people waiting and one man getting up and saying, I waited nine days. That's enough.

I'm going home. And the next day he hears that on the tenth day the Holy Spirit fell on them. Can you imagine how he felt? I'll never forget that cartoon.

I've had enough. I waited nine days. I'm going home.

God approved the Old Testament sacrifices with fire. When he looked at it, if there was something missing, supposing a man had taken out one leg from the ox and kept it for himself to take home, the fire would not have fallen. Do you wonder why some people are filled with the Holy Spirit and some are not? Do you wonder why God sends the fire on some people's offerings and on other people? Not.

We read about the offering of Cain and Abel. How did they both know? How did they both know that God accepted one offering and did not accept the other? It's not written there. But I know.

I know when I read the rest of the Old Testament that the way God approved a sacrifice was always by sending fire from heaven. So I'm absolutely certain that's how Cain knew and that's how Abel knew. Here are these two people laying their sacrifice on the altar.

Cain offering something cheap and Abel offering the best. And Cain suddenly finds fire falling down on Abel's offering and he's looking up and there's nothing on his offering. That's what made him mad.

That's what made him take a rock and hit Abel's head the next day and kill him. Jealousy. Why does the fire fall on him and not on me? Are you jealous of somebody God has blessed? Don't be jealous.

He's offered something that you did not offer. That's all. There's no partiality with God.

That I'll tell you. I've discovered through the years there is no partiality with God. He's a perfect father who treats everyone equally.

He's a perfect God who treats everyone equally. But if he sees someone like Abel carefully taking time to select the best and giving it to God he sends the fire. And he sees somebody else who claims to be a Christian and in a careless way gives something to God and there's no fire.

Cain was concerned. The sad thing is today many Christians are not concerned. They go day after day, year after year, decade after decade with no fire in their lives and they seem to be quite happy.

Boy, something is wrong. Something is wrong. No fire day after day, day after day, year after year, no fire in their lives.

No passion to serve Christ. No burning fire that burns up sin that gives them a passion to live for God and to live in purity and devotion and sacrifice to God. Something is missing.

Imagine if Cain said, Oh well, it's okay. What does it matter if there's no fire? He was concerned. But his concern led instead of it should have led him to repentance.

It should have led him to God and say, Lord, why in the world did you not send a fire on my life? Please show me. What is it that my brother, my younger brother offered which I did not offer? God would have told him and his life would have been saved. But instead of that he destroyed himself because he was careless and he was jealous of his brother instead of repenting.

So that history is repeated again and again and again. Let me give you an example from the second book of Samuel. Gather my godly ones to me.

Those who have made a covenant with me, not cheap covenant, but sacrifice. Remember the verse we started with in Psalm 50 verse 5. Please turn to 2 Samuel and chapter 24. 2 Samuel chapter.

It's the last chapter of 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 24. This was a time when David made a serious mistake.

And the mistake was he wanted to depend on the strength of his army. How strong am I to fight the enemy? And so he sent his general to go and count the soldiers. And the Lord said, I can see that you are depending on your soldiers and not on my power.

I'm going to punish you for depending on man rather than on God. And the Lord sent a pestilence as we read in verse 15. 2 Samuel 24 15.

The Lord punished Israel by sending a pestilence of serious sickness morning till evening and 70,000 people died because of David's mistake. He looked at Israel and saw 70,000 widows. He said, Oh Lord, I'm sorry.

What shall I do? And he said, the Lord said, Go and offer a sacrifice to me in verse 18. 2 Samuel 24 18. Go and erect an altar and offer a sacrifice on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

So David went up. He was so grieved that his failure had caused a problem to so many people. And Araunah, who was just a simple farmer, saw David coming and he bowed down before the king and said, Why have you come? I'm your servant.

Why have you come to my house? I'm honored. And David said, I've come to buy your threshing floor. The Lord told me to build an altar there to him to stop the plague that has come on the people.

And Araunah said, You want my threshing floor? Take it freely. You're my king. You don't have to pay a cent for it.

Not only the threshing floor, but I'll give you wood to build the altar and you can take my animals and take the oxen. Verse 22. Offer it as a burnt offering.

Free! And the yokes of the oxen you can use for wood. Verse 22. All free.

Now you know how human nature is. If something is free, even if we don't want it, we take it. That's how our nature resonates.

David could have said, Wow, free. I don't have to pay anything. I didn't ask him for it.

He offers it free. Everything you can have freely. Verse 23.

And look at David's reply. The man after God's own heart. He says, No.

What a man he is. I will not take it free. Because, if I take it free, my offering will cost me nothing.

I got something free and I gave it to God. And look at the statement of David's. Middle of verse 24.

I will not make and give an offering to God that cost me nothing. Those are very precious words to me. I was converted when I was 19 and a half years old.

And one of the, I mean when I read the Bible, there were different words that spoke to me. But one of the words that I remember, even today after 65 years, way back in the beginning one day when I read the Bible, God spoke to me was this verse. I'll never forget it.

Way back in 1959, 1960. God said to me, You must never offer to me that which costs you nothing. And, I made a decision, a covenant with God.

Lord, to the best of my knowledge, I will never in my life offer to you something cheap. Something that cost me nothing. I don't want to be like Cain.

I want to be like Abel. Like David. If somebody offers, gives me something free to give to God, I say no, I'll pay for it.

I will not offer to God that which costs me nothing. And this refers now to my body. I don't want to give you my eyes and my tongue without sacrifice.

That means using my tongue and my eyes just as I like the whole week and then coming and praising you with wonderful words. Oh, Lord, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. And I haven't given anything.

I'm a downright hypocrite. I said, Lord, I never want to do it. If I have offered my life to you and my say, take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold all that in that lovely song.

And I don't live like that during the week. And I come to church on Sunday morning and sing these amazing hymns. I am a first-class hypocrite just like Cain offering that which cost me nothing.

What did it cost me during the week? Nothing. But here I come and speak those wonderful words to God. This is the word, I've never forgotten it.

What the Lord spoke to me 65 years ago. Never offer to me in your life that which costs you nothing. And I've stuck to it.

I stuck to it. I remember when the Lord told me to quit my job as a naval officer and serve him full time. I said, Lord, fine.

It'll cost me. I took in my entire life savings and gave it to the Lord. I said, God, it cost me something.

And even when I started serving the Lord, the Lord said, never take a salary for your work. Okay, I want to offer to God that which cost me nothing. What is the result? God's blessed me abundantly beyond what I can explain.

God's blessed my family, my children. He's blessed my home. He's blessed us with health.

He's blessed us with things too numerous to mention. He's the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Let me ask you, my brother, sister, would you allow anybody to work in your home and you don't pay them? If you run a business, would you allow somebody to work in your shop and not pay him? Even unconverted people have that uprightness that I must pay somebody who works for me.

What if somebody works overtime? You didn't ask him to work overtime. But after his eight hours work was over, he said, no, I want to complete the job and he works two, three hours overtime. Would you pay him? Of course you would.

You'd have a sense of conviction. I must pay him. Do you think God is less than that? God always remembers those who have sacrificed for Him.

I want to tell you, my brother, that is the best life, even if you're the most selfish person on earth, thinking only of yourself. Okay. I would still say, sacrifice and give to God.

That's the best thing you can do for yourself. And when you get into eternity, you will realize that what I'm saying is true. Those who enter into God's presence one day when Christ comes back will see that it's those who sacrificially gave everything, their body, their eyes, their tongue, their hands, their life, their money, their everything.

What a reward they will get. What an approval from God. And the reward will not be in terms of money or something cheap.

Money is cheap in heaven. I can't even explain it. I don't think I understand it fully myself.

But it'll be such a wonderful thing that those who lived a selfish Christian life on earth will say, boy, I wish I had given all to God. I mean, that's not the best reason to give your all to God because I want a reward in heaven. No.

That is an option, an extra that God throws in. The greatest joy, I know for myself anyway, that I'll have when I meet my Savior face to face one day will be that Lord, I said thank you to you on earth for the life devoted to serving you with sacrifice. That was my expression of thank you.

I hope that will be yours. Make a decision today, my brother, sister, and say to the Lord, I will never offer to you from today in anything in my life, time and prayer, I will not offer that which cost me nothing. You know, people are so casual about this.

I remember I asked one brother who'd been in our church for years in Bangalore. I said, brother, do you read your Bible every day? He was a professor in a college. Brother, I'm so busy, there's so much work to do in the college.

Uh-huh, okay. You know where he is today? Fallen away. Fallen away from the church.

I don't know whether he's fallen away from the Lord. I'm not surprised. His work was so busy that he didn't have time to read the Bible.

Did you have your meal today? Did you have a breakfast? Did you have a lunch? Oh yeah, yeah, I had time for that. But reading the Bible, this is the, and they're supposed to be born-again Christians. Some of them will even say they are spirit-filled.

Make a decision today and examine every area of your life when you go home and say, what am I offering to God? How do I express my gratitude to God? Something cheap? Supposing you have made a great sacrifice for, done a tremendous work for somebody and somebody gives you 10 cents in gratitude, 10 cents in gratitude for what you did. That is a picture of how many Christians are saying thank you to the Lord. Exactly like that.

Don't be in that number. Take your best and offer it to God. Even if you're selfish, that's what you should do because you won't regret it in eternity.

But that's not the reason why we should give ourselves to the Lord because we want something in eternity. Out of gratitude. I would urge you to do what the Lord told me to do when I got converted.

Meditate on the cross. For 65 years, my greatest meditation has been on the cross of Calvary. What it cost Jesus to be separated from the Father for three hours to experience eternal hell on the cross for three hours.

That's what he experienced. For my sake, I want to meditate more on that. I've meditated on it for 65 years and I will continue to do it.

Then nobody has to ask me to give to God. Nobody has to ask me to make a sacrifice. Nobody ever came to me and quoted this verse to me.

I meditated on the cross as Jesus told me. I meditated in Gethsemane what the Lord said. There's a cup I don't want to drink.

I said, Lord, what is that cup? He didn't want to be separated from the Father. Not even for a second. Leave alone for three hours.

It was not the fires of hell that bothered Jesus. This cutting off from the Father. He had fellowship with the Father from all eternity.

And for three hours that had to be cut off and he didn't want it to be cut off even for one second. I don't think we'll ever understand. Many people are taken up with the nails and how painful it must have been.

When I was a young kid and I saw these movies of Jesus being nailed, I'd really weep. But I didn't give my life to Christ. But as I had grown up, I realized it was not the nails.

Those nails and that physical death meant nothing to the Lord. It was the cutting off from the Father. And if there's one person who said, I will not offer to the Father that which cost me nothing, it was Jesus.

The thing that cost him everything in his life is being cut off from the Father. Worse than the fires of hell, he offered up. Why? It was for you and me.

No other reason. I remember the day when this became a revelation to me when I asked the Lord, tell me the cup which you were hesitant to drink in Gethsemane, Lord. And I realized it was this sacrifice.

The cup was this cutting off from the Father. He didn't want to lose it even for one second because he had it from all eternity. We don't realize what a precious thing it is to have fellowship with God.

For Jesus, it was everything. He said, I don't want to lose it. And I remember that day when I've said this before, I'll keep on saying it.

I imagined a conversation between Jesus and the Father. And the Father says, you don't have to go to the cross. You lived a perfect life for 33 and a half years.

Come straight up to heaven from Gethsemane. You're welcome. I was praying alone to God that day and the Lord said, this is how I pictured it.

The Father and Jesus having a conversation. It wasn't like this, but imaginary. Father saying to Jesus, you've never sinned.

You don't have to go to the cross. Come up to heaven. But Zach will go to hell.

Oh. And I imagine Jesus saying, Zach will go to hell? Okay, Father, I'll go to the cross. Can you imagine what that did to me? Can you imagine what that did to me when I heard that from my Father in heaven? I said, Lord, I'll never in my life live for myself.

Not even one minute. That's what my Savior went through for me. I can never think of living for anyone else but for Him.

That's what changed my life. And that's what keeps me going. And I still feel after 65 years, I've not said thank you enough to the Lord.

My dear brothers and sisters, this is the Christian life. I encourage you not only to understand it, but that your earthly life will be a demonstration to others of your gratitude to Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let's pray. All messages are easily forgotten unless you make an effort and ask the Holy Spirit, Lord, imprint this deep in my heart that I'll never forget it for the rest of my life. Remind me of it every day until it is so deeply imprinted that it can never be forgotten.

I decide, Lord, today that I will never offer to you that which has cost me nothing. Or even that which has cost me very little must cost me everything. Thank you, Father, for the Holy Spirit that moves to make us wise as to how we should live on earth and not be like the animals.

Thank you. We praise you. We pray it'll be true for everyone here.

No one will miss out on your best. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.