100 Days to a Healthier ChurchSample

Day 13

Today’s Big Idea: What will you sacrifice for the mission? Anything of value will cost us something. The greater the value, the higher the cost. So, while it’s one thing to make a commitment, it’s something else entirely to make a sacrifice for it.

Church events are worth committing to. In fact, if our faith doesn’t at least get us to commit something from our schedule on a regular basis, we’d have to question the level of our commitment. But sacrifice? Is there a church event or program we’d willingly make a significant sacrifice for? 

Probably not.

Hopefully not.

While commitments can be made for important things, sacrifice is reserved for truly essential and eternally valuable things. So today as we study the value of offering ourselves as sacrifices, we need to establish two important principles: First, this is not a sacrifice for salvation. Jesus has done that once and for all. There is nothing we can do and nothing we need to do to earn our salvation. It is a gift from God (so no one can boast). Second, this sacrifice is being offered to Christ and His church, not to your local congregation, pastor, denomination, or theological constructs. Those are important, to be sure. They’re worth committing to, and they will be the arena where our sacrifice plays itself out. But only Jesus and His church are worth truly taking up our crosses in sacrifice for.

Key Verse: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship (Romans 12:1).

Thoughts to Consider: While many people say they’d die for Jesus, this passage is telling us we need to live for Jesus, offering not just our thoughts or spirits to Jesus, but our bodies—not necessarily to die for Jesus (although we should be willing to do so, and many have and are still called to do that) but to live for Him. Commitments cost us something. A sacrifice costs us everything.

What does it mean to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice? How does that relate to Jesus’ command to take up your cross? Does it ever seem like it might be harder to live for Jesus than it might be to die for Him? If so, why? If not, why not?

Finally, what would you be willing to sacrifice for Christ and His mission? Be specific. Look especially at ideas, events, comforts and ways of thinking that you have grown accustomed to that you might need to give up or change.