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Advent Day 3

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download (3)Advent: Day 3 

Scripture Reading:  Romans 12:1-3; Hebrews 13:15

Devotional:

Q. Do you know what a sacrifice is?

A sacrifice is when we offer something to God as a way to worship him. In the Old Testament, way back before Jesus was born on the first Christmas day, people had become sinful.  God was angry and wanted us to pay for that sin. But we could not pay for it because we kept on sinning, so God wanted people to sacrifice an animal for their sins. God told the people that sacrifice had to be perfect, no spots or sickness on it.  But this animal sacrifice for sin was only a sign pointing to the one true sacrifice.

Q. Do you know what the one true sacrifice is?

The one true sacrifice is when Jesus died on the cross.  He died for our sins, all of your sins.  His sacrifice was really perfect, because he never sinned!  Because he never did anything wrong, he could die for us and our sins.  Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and now we do not have to sacrifice animals anymore.

Q. God still wants us to sacrifice something for him.  What do these verses say that is?

He wants us to offer sacrifices of praise to Him.  He wants us to praise him and worship him in everything we do.  Even though we are still sinners, God is still happy with our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving  if we believe in the sacrifice of Jesus, because Jesus took the punishment for our sin and made us pure again.

Part of our sacrifice of praise is doing good works out of thankfulness for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  The heidelberg Catechism asks the question:

86. Q.

Since we have been delivered
from our misery
by grace alone through Christ,
without any merit of our own,
why must we yet do good works?

 

A.

Because Christ,
having redeemed us by his blood,
also renews us by his Holy Spirit
to be his image,
so that with our whole life
we may show ourselves thankful to God
for his benefits, 1
and he may be praised by us. 2
Further, that we ourselves
may be assured of our faith
by its fruits, 3
and that by our godly walk of life
we may win our neighbours for Christ. 4

 

Even though we all sin, all believers are made pure in Jesus.  So we should love each other the same.  No one is better than anyone else, because we all have done bad things and sinned against God and others. Yet we all are forgiven because of Jesus. That is why we celebrate Christmas, because God loved us even though we were sinners.  He sent Jesus who was perfect, to be a sacrifice to pay for our sins. So’ lets offer a sacrifice of praise to the Lord and live a life of thankfulness.

Sing: hymn 72 (Book of Praise) (Video is at the end)

Capture

Prayer: Take prayer requests today, ask each person for a way to praise God in prayer.

Ideas to add to your prayer:

  • Praise God for his holiness; praise him for His love, and mercy and for giving us the one true sacrifice in our saviour Jesus Christ.
  • Confess that we are unholy, blemished, and imperfect sinful people, and that we cannot come before God’s holy throne on our own, but in his grace he does not look upon our sin for the sake of the true sacrifice;
  • Thank God for this love, grace and sacrifice.
  • Ask God help us live a life of thankfulness bearing true fruit in our lives;
  • Ask God to strengthen our faith and help us show love to our neighbour at Christmas time.
  • Ask God to grant you and your children wisdom to keep your lamps burning

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