Sacrifice Made By Fire & Perspective on Your Worst Suffering

Lesson Audio: Sacrifice Made By Fire & Perspective on Your Worst Suffering

This lesson builds on previous study: "We Are The Fragrance Of Christ"

• Numbers 29:36 “You shall present a burnt offering, an offering made by fire as a sweet aroma to the Lord.” Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” NKJV

This Sacrifice is an Offering Made by Fire

• Our Life Will Be Refined As Silver - Psalm 66:10-15 “10 For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. 11 You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. 12 You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment. 13 I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows, 14 Which my lips have uttered And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. 15 I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals, With the sweet aroma of rams; I will offer bulls with goats. Selah” NKJV
• Zechariah 13:9 “…I will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, 'This is My people'; And each one will say, 'The Lord is my God.” NKJV
• Malachi 3:2-3 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire And like launderers' soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness.” NKJV
• We will be “seasoned with fire” - Mark 9:49-50 “…For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another." NKJV
• Our Work Will Be Tested By Fire - 1 Corinthians 3:11-13 “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.” NKJV
• God Sees Our Heart During the Refining Process - Proverbs 17:3 “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the Lord tests the hearts.” NKJV

Does God Promise to Keep Us From Suffering? 

• Consider: 
• Job (Job 1:13ff, 23:10*)
• Joseph (Genesis 37, 39:19-21)
• Elijah (1 Kings 19:9)
• Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego (Daniel 1:7,3:14-28,*21*)
• Daniel (Daniel 6:16) 
• No less Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:21; 1 Peter 2:23-24) 
• Or the Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 11:23ff)!

What do these men of faith have in common?

• They were all tried by fire
• God did not keep them from the dangers, they faithfully endured.
• Did God abandon them? No! Hebrews 13:5-6 “… He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." 6 So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" NKJV
• God was with them, and He will be with us!
• Note the final state of these great men of faith, better than before the affliction!

Our Life of Sacrifice Must Necessarily Include Suffering - (Psalm 66:10,11,12)

• Isaiah 48:10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” NKJV
• Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart —  These, O God, You will not despise.” NKJV
• 2 Timothy 3:12 “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” NKJV
• 1 Peter 1:6-9 “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving the end of your faith — the salvation of your souls.” NKJV
• 1 Peter 5:10-11 “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” NKJV

Application: In the Words of the Apostle Paul

• Romans 8:31-37 "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” NKJV

Remember: God did not spare His son (v32). Should we expect any better than the only begotten Son of God?

• Hebrews 12:3-4 “For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.” NKJV
• Have you “resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin”? Christ did.
• Consider Him (v3) “lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls”!
• When you've suffered to the extent of Jesus Christ, you come back and cry "woe is me!"
• The correct perspective will always helps us manage our worst suffering.

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us!

~written 11/17/2013 by Kristofer Gardana