Consumed for His Glory - The Call to Total Devotion

Grace Covenant Reformed Church

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Well, a few weeks back, we were working through several passages in Paul's letter to the church at Rome, and in one of those passages, specifically

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Romans 8, verse 30, we read, and those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

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And as we worked through this passage, we talked about how it is

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God that works in and continues working in his people to bring us fully and completely into his presence.

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Now, as we study sacred scripture, we also see that although it is

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God who is working in us to bring us to this glorification that we as believers also bear responsibility.

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Paul later addressing the church at Philippi would refer to this as working out your own salvation.

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Now, to be very clear, this is not a works -based salvation, but rather it is about works that result from our salvation.

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A lot of times we look at this as simply the actions that we take as members of the body of Christ that are relegated only to the work of the church.

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But I would submit to you this morning that it is much more than just the actions you take as the body of Christ within the confines of the church.

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In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we read in verses 18 through 22 these words.

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Now, as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,

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Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

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And he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

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And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

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And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.

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And he called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

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Now, as any good student of Scripture will understand, these men, when they responded to this call of Christ, had no idea of exactly what they were fixing to get themselves into.

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All they knew at this point was that this man had called them and they responded.

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In fact, they responded in such a way that they literally dropped everything that they had and followed him.

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Notice all four of these men were in the midst of their normal, everyday rhythm of life.

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They were casting nets, as Peter and Andrew were. John and James were mending nets with their father.

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And all four, Scripture records, immediately put down what they were doing, left, and followed

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Christ. Over the next three years, these men would walk many miles with Christ.

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They would witness many miracles and they would learn at the feet of the very master himself that lives would be completely devoted to following him.

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In that complete devotion, it ultimately culminated in their witnessing the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ.

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Not only did they immediately follow him, not only did they witness the fulfillment of God's plan, but they also continued to devote the rest of their lives to serving

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God. In fact, each of these men paid dearly for their service to God.

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This, this is what it means to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

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This is to live a life that is wholly, fully dedicated to God, to be able to say, as the

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Apostle Paul did in his second letter to Timothy, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

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I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.

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In the future, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

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Last week, as we studied in Exodus chapter 29, we looked at the bull that was being sacrificed for the purposes of atoning for the men who had been called, the men who had been set apart by God.

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And we thought about how that particular event points us forward to the sacrifice that Christ ultimately made on Calvary's cross, that penal substitutionary atonement that he made for his people.

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This morning, as we come again to the text in Exodus chapter 29, the priests have now been cleansed from impurities.

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They have been set apart for service, and their sins have been atoned for, yet their consecration is not yet complete.

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This morning, we will take the next section of Scripture, verses 15 through 18, and look at the sacrifice of the ram of burnt offering.

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And as we study this, we will see what this represented for the men who stood there before God and the people of Israel, but we will also see very clearly what is meant for us here today.

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And as we have done for the last two weeks, we will read the instructional section where God instructs

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Moses in Exodus, and then we will also read the obedience text in Leviticus chapter 8.

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So if you will, place your finger in Leviticus chapter 8, turn to Exodus 29, and stand for the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, and complete word.

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In Exodus chapter 29, beginning in the 15th verse, and reading down through the 18th, we find these words, you shall also take the one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, and you shall slaughter the ram, and you shall take its blood and splash it around on the altar, then you shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head.

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You shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar.

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It is a burnt offering to Yahweh. It is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh.

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And then in Leviticus chapter 8, beginning in verse 18 down through 21, we read, then he brought near the ram of the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.

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Then Moses slaughtered it and splashed the blood around on the altar, and he cut the ram into its pieces.

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Then Moses offered up the head and the pieces and the suet in smoke, and he washed the entrails and the legs with water.

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Then Moses offered up the whole ram in smoke on the altar. It was a burnt offering for a soothing aroma.

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It was an offering by fire to Yahweh, just as Yahweh had commanded

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Moses. Our prayer this morning is adapted from the

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Valley of Vision, Consecration and Worship. Let us pray. Almighty God, we feel that it is heaven to please you and to be what you would have us to be.

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Oh, that we were holy as you are holy, pure as Christ is pure and perfect as your spirit is perfect.

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Yet as we come before your throne, we confess that we are sinners, that we have grieved you, blessed

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Lord. You who are infinite in goodness and in grace.

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We acknowledge that what we deserve as a result of our sin is nothing less than total destruction.

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Yet God, you continually pour out your mercy to us.

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Lord, fill our hearts and our minds with a desire to honor you always.

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We pray that our worship is true and that it is glorifying to your name.

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We pray that all of who we are, soul and body, would be consecrated to your service without restraint forever.

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Lord, that we would give ourselves up to you in all of our desires, that we would never have any will or affections that are not perfectly conformed to your will and your love.

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We long to join with the angels in ceaseless praise of you for all eternity.

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Even though that is but a mere fraction of the glory and honor that you deserve, grant us that our hearts are filled with a divine and heavenly love.

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Precious Father, we ask all of these things in the name of your blessed son, our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. As we come to the text this morning, we should again notice that the beginning of the instructions are to bring the sacrifice before God, to make the presentation before him at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

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Now, it should be interesting to us that this is a continually repeated pattern throughout this section, and it's done so to draw attention to the necessary and imperative understanding of what is happening.

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Listen, the priest needed to be reminded, the people of Israel needed to be reminded, and we sitting here today in 2025 need to be reminded that these events are occurring in the sight and in the presence of the holy

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God, and being done so in order to prepare his chosen men for their duty in ministering to him in the tabernacle.

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We need to be reminded that this is in the sight of a holy God, of the almighty, because so often we lose sight that our worship sitting here this morning as we lift our voice in praise, as we read the word of God together, as we study the word of God together, is being done in the sight of the most holy

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God. Just as it is necessary to approach in such a manner these priests to the doorway of the tent of meeting, continually being reminded that this is happening and occurring in the presence of God, so we too as we worship together should be reminded that it is occurring in the sight and in the presence of the holy

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God. In a similar manner, the language used to recall to us the laying on of hands that Aaron and his sons are commanded to do to the ram, again it is a reminder to them that this is a sacrifice that is being made on their behalf, that there is a substitution being made, that this animal is serving as their representative.

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In the case of this particular sacrifice, we will see that this ram does not actually accomplish something such as the sin offering did where the blood was the price for the sins of these priests, but rather it is a token, as one commentator puts it, a token of the priest's dedication of himself to God and to his service, having been completely cleansed of their sins by the bull.

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The priest can now with confidence lay their hands upon the second sacrifice in full assurance that as they dedicate their life to God, they do so trusting and knowing that they can enter into his presence because they have been declared righteous by the blood of the first sacrifice.

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Once again, right here in the Old Testament, just as it does throughout all of Scripture, the

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Word of God proclaims that salvation is by faith alone. These priests are believing and trusting

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God that by this sacrifice he declares them holy.

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You see, oftentimes we had the opinion and the idea that the sacrifices in the

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Old Testament did something and by themselves were the thing that cleansed, and that's not the case.

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It was God's acceptance of that sacrifice that meant something. So we here, we stand in the same situation.

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You and I are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. That's the only way that we are declared just, that we are granted the righteousness of Christ, that we can now faithfully dedicate ourselves into the service of God.

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In Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10, passage that we love, we love the first part and we forget the second part.

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It says, for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of yourself, it is the gift of God.

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I love people want to argue that well, grace and faith are not both the gifts. Yes they are.

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Both of these things are the gift of God. These things are the gift of God.

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Why? Not of works, so that we can't boast. They remove all of our boasts, but they are done because we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which

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God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

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God has done the work. Listen, oftentimes we are looking for marks of assurance that we are truly saved.

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Here again is another one of those marks that we are his workmanship.

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That the works that we have been given to accomplish have been planned beforehand by God himself so that we would walk in them.

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When Jesus is speaking to the crowds in Matthew's gospel in the 16th verse 24 through 26, we could turn to both

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Luke and Mark. They all contain this particular occurrence, but in Matthew's gospel it reads this way, for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

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But what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

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What will a man give in exchange for his soul? He opens that with these words to his disciples.

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If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

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Brothers and sisters, this is not a call to, again, a works -based salvation. This is not a call to be saved based on your efforts, but this is rather a call to wholly surrender to the

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Savior, to give up the pitifulness that we are. That's the problem in this world today.

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We see ourselves as so much more than we are. We are offended to even think about the fact that we are a creature and as a creature subject to the

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Creator. So Christ's words here are to give up all of the pitifulness that we are, deny yourself, lose your life, but you give it up.

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You surrender it for all that He is.

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And so as they have laid their hands now on the head of this ram and understand that this is occurring as a token of their dedication to God, that this animal is serving in their stead in this moment,

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God then commands Moses to slaughter the animal.

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As the animal is slaughtered, the blood is then taken and once again sprinkled all around on the altar.

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This sprinkling, this additional act, signifies the purification of the altar in preparation for the sacrifice to be made.

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Now this is strange language to us. It's odd for us to have this need of the altar itself to once again be purified because we see the altar from our viewpoint as now being holy because it has been sanctified.

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But if you remember back up in Exodus 28, 38, there was this conversation we had about even the holy things we have set apart still bearing iniquity because they are still creaturely things.

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And as creaturely things, they still must be purified.

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And so in order for the altar to serve its purpose, in order for the sacrifice to be as pure and true as possible, the altar itself must have any defilement removed.

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Now for us sitting here today, that again comes across as strange and we may not fully appreciate the true depth of this and the significance of this because we're no longer under a sacrificial system.

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But I want to assure you that it rings true for you and I right here today.

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Brothers and sisters, we came here as an imperfect people gathering to worship a fully perfect God.

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We came here as an imperfect people gathering to worship a fully holy, righteous, just God.

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As such, as such imperfect people, every act of worship that we commit is still tainted by our imperfection.

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And only, and only, and only by the work of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Christ is our worship perfected in the eyes of God, is made acceptable in the eyes of God.

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And so the altar having been appropriately purified, Moses is then commanded to begin the actual sacrifice.

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The first command we see is to cut the ram into its pieces. Now, if you remember in Exodus 29, in the 35th verse towards the end of the chapter, we haven't got there yet, but we will in a few weeks.

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But in verse 35, there is a command that is given that this is to be repeated for seven days.

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It says, thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons according to all I have commanded you, you shall ordain them through seven days.

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And so just from a practical standpoint of having to move through these sacrifices every day, it makes sense to cut the carcass into pieces.

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And there are some who want to point to that as, hey, listen, this is just a quick way to get everything burnt up so we can move on to the next sacrifice because we've got to do all of this again tomorrow.

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And that's where they want to hang their hat and they don't want to press in and see if we can understand the details a little more thoroughly.

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You see, I believe that this is a demonstration that all of the parts of who we are are to be surrendered and to be dedicated to him.

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These men were being set apart for service to the

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Almighty God. They were being totally and completely, wholly set apart for this service.

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Their lives in totality were to be dedicated to this.

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That didn't stop Aaron from being a dad. That didn't stop him from being a husband. But even in his role as father and his role as husband, all of these things were being set apart for service to God.

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The washing of the entrails and the legs demonstrates the removal not just of the outer uncleanness but also of the inner.

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I want to labor this for just a moment because there is so much false teaching in the church today as it relates to the work of Christ in the life of a believer.

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And we need to understand that these men correlate to believers.

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Their sins have been atoned for. They have had faith.

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They have been declared just. But we must see, we must understand that these men, having been declared just, are now having a ram that symbolizes the entirety of their life being prepared to be sacrificed to God as a token of their dedication.

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But if you'll remember, in the outset of chapter 29, there was a specific term used in regards to the animals that were to be brought.

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They were to be without blemish, meaning that from the outside, from their view of the world, they were perfect.

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You and I look around today and we see so -called

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Christians living what they define as their best life now.

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They are standing up and defending sinful actions, sinful deeds, sinful practices.

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Not only are they defending them, in many cases they are championing, you know what

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I'm saying. They're driving the effort. They are continually subverting the

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Word of God, even to the point of denying the very truth of Christ's atoning sacrifice, the sovereignty of God, the work of the

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Holy Spirit, His true nature. Listen, we no longer want to call people to repentance and faith.

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We don't want to do that anymore. And we don't want to do it because we think, oh, it's going to offend somebody.

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It's going to upset somebody. It's going to cause a problem for somebody. But we no longer want to stand in the pulpit and demand that people submit to the authority of God's Word.

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We don't want to hold them accountable because we may be seen as judgmental. But I would argue that in every page of Scripture, in every nook and cranny of the

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Word of God, you will find that God demands nothing less than total submission and obedience.

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Listen, we could open the doors and there would be people who would come in here and tell me very quickly that, oh, what you're preaching is works -based salvation.

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I know I've said it a couple of times already this morning. It might not be the last time I say it. This is not about salvation -based work.

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So let's be very clear. Let's use very clear terminology. Because here at the end of the day, salvation, this word that we throw around so often is actually a broad term.

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And it is a broad term that we use to cover three more specific terms in theology, justification, sanctification, glorification, all of which combine together to generate salvation.

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Now, I want to be absolutely clear. You and I as believers are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to God's Word alone, for the glory of God alone.

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We have been made and declared just. But that declaration of being declared just is just the beginning.

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Now, here's the wonderful part about this. When we begin to truly understand the reality of this call, you and I and believers should absolutely be assured.

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Because we know, based on His Word, that He will complete that which

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He has begun in us. That He absolutely will.

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Those whom He called, He also justified. Those whom He justified, He also glorified.

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At the end of the day, it will occur. But that does not mean, listen to me, church, that does not mean that we have the right to sit back smugly and think that we are now perfect and that we have absolutely no responsibility.

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We read text, like the one I quoted earlier in Matthew, where we are commanded to deny ourselves, to take up our cross.

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We read in other places that if we love Jesus, Jesus Himself says, if you love me, you will obey my commands.

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There's no wiggle room in that. It is pure, unadulterated truth.

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Still other places, we're called to run the race, contend for the faith, study to show ourselves approved.

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And this is but a mere sample. We could turn to text after text.

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But all of these texts have one thing in common. It is a call to saved people to respond to the work and the call of Christ in faith, being justified, and then in action as a result of that justification, they move forward and are obedient, not to obtain salvation, but because it has been declared to them.

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These men we have here in Exodus are being consecrated as priest to God.

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They have been specifically chosen and called by God for this role.

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Their sins have been forgiven, but their work was just beginning.

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And the ram being cut into pieces, having its unclean parts cleansed, represented both the dedication of the whole ram, of the whole man to service, and the necessity of that old man internally and externally be cleansed, be purified, be holy as almighty

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God is holy. In his word,

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God commands, be holy, for I am holy. Finally, with the ram cut into pieces, the entrails and the legs are cleansed.

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It is placed upon the altar and consumed by fire until there is absolutely nothing left.

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All of who they are is dedicated and given to serving

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God. We shy away from this truth in the church today because we don't want people to think there's anything challenging about being a believer, but the cost of following Christ is high.

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And how dare, how dare, how dare men who are supposed to be men of God stand in pulpits and shy away from this truth?

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Jesus didn't shy away from it. He didn't pull punches.

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Not once did he tell you how wonderful following him was going to be. In fact, he gave them quite the opposite.

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In John 15, in the very first few verses in chapter 16, we read this, in John 15, 18 down through 16 forward, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

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If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you.

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Brothers and sisters, I'm just going to want to remind you again, in case you're missing the point here, the world, that is this system that opposes

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God, hates you. Sorry, I know you probably came here to feel good today, but I want you to understand that the world hates you.

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Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

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If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you, for my name's sake, because they do not know the one who sent me.

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If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

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He who hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sinned, but now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well.

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But this happened to fulfill the word that is written in their law, they hated me without cause. When the advocate comes, whom

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I will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness about me.

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That one verse is a bell ringer for some people in the church today who think that the spirit is here to testify about them.

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It says that he will bear witness about Jesus, he will bear witness about Christ. And you, you, the followers of Christ, the disciples of Christ, the believers who follow will bear witness also, because you have been with me from the beginning.

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These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. They will put you out of the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

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These things they will do because they did not know the father or me, but these things I have spoken to you so that when the hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

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These things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you. Cost is high.

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What does it cost? Everything. What do you gain?

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Eternity. Eternity in the very presence of the almighty

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God. The apostle Paul says, I counted it all as dung for the sake of Christ.

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Finally, in verse 18 of Exodus chapter 29,

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I find what I believe to be both a promise and a reassurance.

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You see, as the sacrifice is being made before God, as these men are dedicating themselves to God, this passage is closed out with the words that it was a sweet aroma.

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These words are here as a way of saying that the sacrifice is found pleasing in the eyes of God, that it is acceptable.

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That terminology, that phraseology of being acceptable, being pleasing may sound familiar. Romans 12 verse 1, therefore,

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I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice living, holy, and pleasing to God.

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Our lives, let me make sure you understand that word, our lives.

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That's everything you are and do is supposed to be a sacrifice that is pleasing to God.

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Earlier, we read in Ephesus, in the church, in the Ephesians letter that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand. If we want to live a life that is a sweet aroma, that is pleasing, listen, you actually don't even have to look any further than today's text for instructions.

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Now, there are plenty of other places we could go and plenty of places that we will go, but at the end of the day, these few verses right here in Exodus chapter 29 clearly define what it means to live a life that is pleasing to God.

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First, it means to live one that is completely dedicated to God. No parts are withheld.

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This particular burnt offering is a little different than the typical burnt offering that we see in Scripture.

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Typically, the skin was removed and discarded, but in this burnt offering, everything, everything was sacrificed.

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Everything was consumed. This is again a demonstration that the life of the priest, everything in the life of the priest was to be dedicated to God.

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Brothers and sisters, this is a call on the Christian life. It is not a call on the life of a

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Christian to go and be in a particular role or situation and you got to go find this right thing, but rather to a call that aligns with Paul's words to the

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Colossian church. In chapter three, verse 17, to the church at Colossae, he writes, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the

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Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Listen, take some encouragement.

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You as a believer have been placed exactly where God desires you to be for the moment.

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I can remember sitting in church, almost being hounded with this idea that to be obedient to the great commission,

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I had to go somewhere that I wasn't. After all, Acts does say, you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth.

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We have to go, go, go, go, and we do have to go. We do have to tell. We do have to speak.

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There is much veracity in that statement. After all, it is the word of God. But what

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I would challenge you is, is to understand that as a church, we have to understand that we have a presence everywhere.

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That means that in the movement and at the moment and this week, the things that you do to be obedient means that you profess the name of Jesus where you are, school, work, family, even if you're playing a round of golf, joining a book club, fishing, whatever activity you're undertaking presents opportunities.

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So often we pray for God to give us these opportunities to share the gospel, but we assume that this is going to take place outside of our ordinary rhythms of life.

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If you want your life to be a sweet aroma, everything that we are, everything that we have must be dedicated to His service, meaning every situation you're in is an opportunity to talk about Jesus.

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Secondly, secondly, we must be willing, we must be willing to seek and destroy the sin in our lives.

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This is a place where we cannot afford to be complacent.

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It is a fundamental necessity of being a true believer.

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It is absolutely necessary that in your life that you pray earnestly for the right desires, that you have a desire of absolutely hating and being grieved at even what we would call by human terms the smallest of our sins.

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The outside of this ram that was presented again was without blemish, but it was still necessary for the unclean parts to be cleansed.

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Listen, the Spirit is at work in your life, and one of the things that the

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Spirit works the hardest at is exposing sin for you to eradicate.

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Consider Paul's word to the church at Colossae in verses 5 through 11 of chapter 3.

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Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

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On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked when you were living in them.

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But now you also, this is to the believers, Paul says, listen, these are big things that are really easy to see up here, but now you as believers, listen to this, lay them all aside, wrath, anger, malice, slander, abusive speech from your mouth.

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Do not lie to one another since you put off the old man with its evil practice and having put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, uncircumcised and circumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave and free man, but Christ is all and in all.

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John in his pastoral letters writes these words in the second chapter, verses 15 through 17, do not love the world nor the things in the world.

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If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, and he seeks to define that for you, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the

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Father, but is from the world and the world is passing away, and also it's lust for the one who does the will of God abides forever.

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We can't sit back and think we've arrived. We have to put to death the sin in our lives.

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If we want our lives to be a pleasing aroma to God, then it is necessary that we are obedient to these commands.

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It is our responsibility, and the most reassuring part of all of this, again, is that we can walk in this with absolute certainty.

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We can accomplish this because we know that he who has begun the good work will complete it.

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We know that because we have been called, we have also been justified. Because we have been justified, we also have been glorified.

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We know these truths, and this is what allows us to be able to put to death these things, even the things that are at first glance uncomfortable, even those things that we want to hold so tightly in our fist that our knuckles turn white.

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We each have them, and we're called to let them go.

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Finally, finally be reminded that our imperfect worship and our imperfect living is made perfect in the eyes of God because of the work of the

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Spirit within us and the Lord Jesus Christ's work in the throne room of the

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Father. We live and move forward in obedience knowing that our sins are forgiven, knowing that we have been declared just, and that as we stand in his presence, we are clothed in the perfect righteousness of the

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Lord Jesus. This ram was not just a ritual.

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It was a declaration. It was a declaration of a life wholly surrendered, entirely consumed for the glory of God.

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So is your life a sweet aroma rising to the Lord? Have you, like those first disciples, laid down your nets, your ambitions, your comforts, your self -will to follow

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Christ without reservation? I love it. Later on in the Gospels, there are those who desire to seek

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Christ. Christ says, I have no place to lay my head. I have nothing, but you're welcome to follow me.

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Just need to understand the cost. The rich young ruler thought he had it all figured out, that he had been perfectly obedient until Christ showed him the true cost.

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The gospel call is not a call just to believe. Yes, you are to believe.

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Yes, by faith you were justified, but because you were justified, because you were found right in the eyes of God, you will, out of obedience, follow, be consumed in joyful obedience.

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You will desire this. You will want to present your body as a living sacrifice, as holy and pleasing to God.

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It's not a path of ease. That's the wide road.

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This road is a narrow road, and on that narrow road there is a call to daily die to yourself.

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But that road, that road ends in glory. So have you laid all on the altar, or is there something you're trying to hold back from the flame?

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Let today be the day that you fully surrender everything, that nothing is spared and all is offered in worship and service to the one who gave you all of himself.

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Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we bow now before you, humbled by the weight of your word, in awe of your glory and majesty, the beautifulness of your calling.

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Father, we know that you are a consuming fire, that you and you alone are worthy.

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You are worthy of our full and total dedication, our hearts, our minds, our strength, our lives, all that we are.

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Father, we thank you for the reminder that this call is not partial.

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It's not passive. It is total. It is transformative.

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Father, you have not merely redeemed us to save us from wrath, but to glorify yourself, creating in us holy vessels that give you praise and honor, that are set apart, that are dedicated for service to you.

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Father, forgive us of the areas in our life where we fail to submit to you, that we have withheld from you the sins that we tolerate, the worldly comforts that we cling to, the fears that hold us back.

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Oh, Lord, we pray that you cleanse us inside and out, purifying the secret places of our heart, that like the ram on the altar, every part of our lives be placed before you, washed, consecrated, and consumed for your glory.

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Father, give us courage to walk the narrow path, the grace to deny ourselves daily, the joy to serve you even when the cost is high.

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Lord, that your spirit would fill us so that we may offer ourselves in obedience, in a joyful act of love, that our lives would be a pleasing aroma, holy and acceptable in your sight.

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Father, we ask all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our great high priest, our sacrifice, and our