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SACRIFICE. SUFFERING
by Pastor Mike Fortune
August 3, 2013
500 Days of Injustice
- Remember your Godly leaders (Hebrews 13:7-8; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13)
- Their strength comes from God's grace (Hebrews 13:9-11; 1 Kings 17:5-6; 1 Kings 17:15-16; 1 Kings 17:38-39;Prophets and Kings p.159; 1 Kings 19:1-4; A Grief Observedpp.49-50)
- Your can too because Jesus suffered for you too (Hebrews 13:12-14; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 1 Thessalonians 1:6)
Hebrews 13:7-8
7 Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
12 Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord's work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance.13 Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other.
Hebrews 13:9-11
9 So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God's grace, not from rules about food, which don't help those who follow them. 10 We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat.11 Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp.
1 Kings 17:5-6
5 So Elijah did as the LORD told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook.
1 Kings 17:15-16
15 So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days.16 There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the LORD had promised through Elijah.
1 Kings 17:38-39
38 Immediately the fire of the LORD flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, "The LORD—he is God! Yes, the LORD is God!"
Ellen White, Prophets and Kings, p.159
At the gate of Jezreel, Elijah and Ahab separated. The prophet, choosing to remain outside the walls, wrapped himself in his mantle, and lay down upon the bare earth to sleep."
1 Kings 19:1-4
1 When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: "May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them." 3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there.4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died."
C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed pp. 49-50
“Your bid—for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity—will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high.” He continues, “Nothing less will shake a man—or at any rate a man like me—out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself.”
Hebrews 13:12-14
12 So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. 13 So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. 14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.
1 Peter 2:21-25
21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. 22 He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. 23 He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. 24 He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. 25 Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.
1 Thessalonians 1:6
6 So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord.