Nuggets of knowledge article 10

Blessed morning everyone and welcome to yet another installment of the Nuggets of knowledge series here at
metanoiameans.com! Today’s topic is sacrifice.

With resurrection Sunday (Easter) still fresh in our minds, this seems to be
the best topic for a nuggets article. It just so happens that I have learned a lot about what sacrifice means in the life of a Christian in my 11 months of truly following Jesus and dedicating my life to our almighty God. As always, lets start with
the technical definition of the word, shall we?

SACRIFICE:
an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure.

1. an animal, person, or object offered in a sacrifice.
2. an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.
   Christian Church:
   Christ’s offering of himself in the Crucifixion.

Christian Church:
the Eucharist regarded either (in Catholic terms) as a propitiatory offering of the body and blood of Christ or (in Protestant terms) as an act of thanksgiving.

As followers of Christ, we Christians know that the greatest sacrifice of all time, past, present and future is that of Jesus
Christ, the son of God himself. his sacrifice, his death on the cross freed us. It broke each and every chain that bound us to
sin, darkness and death for all time. Jesus gave up his earthly life so that we might have a share in his eternal life and be
with him in heaven. through the shedding of his blood, we were given a way to be forgiven for all of our wrongs. Each
drop, a key to our freedom, the catalyst to our redemption.

There is no greater example of God’s love for us ALL than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. When you use the second sub-definition of the word sacrifice that I provided: an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. You can see that this is exactly what our loving heavenly father did for us. Are we
more important than Jesus, the son of god? NO! and we never will be. Are we worthier than Him? NO! never! But god
regarded us as valuable enough to save us through Jesus. God saw our relationship with him as important enough to send
his only son to earth in order to DIE to both save us from the eternal consequences of our sins and rebuild our connection
to him, making it even stronger. our connection to him had been destroyed by the fall of mankind through Adam and Eve
and the resulting introduction of sin into the world. The love of God brought Jesus to earth to save us, it also gave Jesus
both the resolve and strength to stay on the cross once crucified. God’s love was the reason for Jesus’ sacrifice just as our
love for his people should be the fuel for all of the sacrifices we make in our lives.
The life of a true follower of Jesus Christ is full of sacrifices. Not all of them end with blood but all of them are significant
and show God’s love for humanity through us, his children. But….what does daily sacrifice look like for a Christian?
There are many things that we as Christians can sacrifice. A few that come to mind are time, money, our right to be right,
and our need to be heard….the list of potential targets for what I call “sacrifices for faith” is truly endless. In this next
section, I will give examples of some of these and how they MIGHT look.

Time:

Time is our most precious resource that is both perishable and non-renewable. Therefore, to sacrifice it out of love for and
the general well-being of others is indeed significant. An example of this might be someone deciding to sacrifice their one
day off a week to go and be an unpaid volunteer at a homeless shelter or food pantry. It also could be as simple as shutting
off the tv just before your favorite show in order to talk to someone who is having trouble and needs someone to listen to
them.

Money:

In the digital age we now live in where social media is taking over and the amount of regular, non-professional people that
make their living off of content creation on platforms such as youtube is not only steadily but rapidly growing, a new job
has been created known as the “social media influencer.” If you go on youtube, a lot of times you don’t even need to
search any specific terms to be shown videos of people doing large scale seemingly sacrificial acts of charity. In terms of
scale, think buying a house for a homeless family or 100 max spec mac desktop computers for a school district in an
impoverished area. These acts are outrageously generous and also something not many people in the world would have
the ability to do. But are they sacrificial? No. why? Because each social media influencer has some sort of way of
benefiting from the act of charity themselves.
Most of them create brands and LLCs (limited liability company) around themselves, their image and their content. Such
that they are protected and they get rewarded for everything they do, be it charitable or otherwise. How? Subscribers,
views, sponsorships, tax breaks, notoriety and other things which all eventually translate to making them more money. To
top it off, if they get a big enough sponsor, its possible that the business entity sponsoring any particular charitable video
of theirs will pay the cost of the charitable act or supply the actual item themselves as some sort of public relations
strategy. This would cost the influencer nothing therefore it cannot be considered a sacrificial act.
One might say “but just the example before you were talking about sacrificing time, doesn’t this count as that?” the
answer to that is no. it was being done with the full intent of the charitable act being filmed and put on youtube or some
other social media for gain of some sort on the part of the influencer. As proof, I submit to you Matthew 6:2 which reads
“When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to
call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get.” Someone’s
next possible question could be “how does that verse prove this type of charity isn’t a sacrifice?” simple, in the case of the
influencer, they are getting paid based off of the amount of views or “attention” that the video they post about this act of
charity gets. It will also likely net them a few more subscribers which increases their overall earning potential. This makes
it advantageous for them to announce this charitable act, to blow the variable trumpet in the streets of the Internet in order
to draw more people to watching their video. Filming anything to post on social media is always done to bring attention to
the subject of the film. If that thing that is being filmed is a charitable act then it directly violates this verse. This all ties
into sacrifice because it isn’t a sacrifice on the influencer’s part but a calculated act to potentially grow the size of their
platform and increase their earnings. The word sacrifice implies a substantial loss being sustained by the one giving the
sacrifice, not what they stand to gain from it.
If this charitable act was to be counted as a sacrifice in the influencer’s case, it would have to be done “in secret”. This
means no cameras or recording of any kind with intent to post or otherwise share the occurrence of the act with others. It
also means no discussion of it in search of reactions of any kind from anyone or any type of gain on the part of the
influencer. The charity must also be given out of the resources of the influencer themselves not their company or their
brand or anyone that partners with them and no form of reimbursement of any kind should be sought by them.

On the back of that really hefty example, I have a few more.

Our “right to be right”:
Have you ever felt that during an argument when you knew you were the one in the right, you should persist until the other person gives in? Or if you were the one who was in the wrong, you would continue the argument in hopes of “saving face” as much as possible?

Both sides of that are an opportunity for sacrifice. If you were the one in the right, you could
lay that down, you could relinquish your “right” to be right.

An example: lets say you are sitting on the couch with your brother watching a movie and he incorrectly states that his
favorite show is about to start and he wants to watch it. You gently tell him that his show doesn’t start for another half
hour but he insists that its about to start and he wants you to change the channel. You could argue your position, even
going as far as to prove him wrong by showing him the actual start time, or you could save him some embarrassment and
just let him change the channel. Which would you choose? Before I began to follow Jesus I would have chosen to show
him he was wrong and proceed to mock and tease him afterwards. As a follower if Christ, that is the wrong choice. The
right one would be to say something along the lines of “I really think you’ve got the time wrong but ok. Here, take the
remote and enjoy your show. Maybe we can watch another movie together after its over.” This option both saves your
brother the embarrassment of being wrong and saves you the headache of the argument. Most importantly though, its
allowing someone to be happy even at the sacrifice of your own happiness. Our savior Jesus sacrificed his earthly life so
that we could have the opportunity to live with him in heaven for eternity. If we always remember that, little sacrifices like
this stay in proper perspective and help us to become more like our beloved savior rather than be harmful to our witness.
That’s all fine and good when you are the one in the right but what if you’re the one in the wrong? I don’t know about any
of you but I have struggled a lot with pride in my past and I still do to this day though it is to a lesser extent. I used to fight
tooth and nail in an argument even when I knew I was wrong or eventually figured out that I was. It was always to avoid
embarrassment and the accompanying injury to my ego, self-image and pride. Knowing what I know now about how God
wants his children to act, I can say that I was so far from acting properly in all of the arguments in my life regardless of
who was right. When we are wrong, the sacrifice we must put on the alter is our self-image and our pride therein.
Lets go back to the example of you and your brother on the couch watching a movie. The difference is that you are wrong
about the time that his show starts. It actually starts in 2 minutes. Regardless of if it is a rerun or not it is still his favorite
show and it brings him great joy to watch it. So after you look up the time and see that you are wrong, if you are
attempting to follow Jesus, your next course of action is clear. The first thing you should do is say something like “im
sorry, I got the time wrong. I should have listened to you.” Then you change the channel and come back after to see if he
wants to spend some more time with you. even if it stung to admit you were wrong it was the right thing to do. You
sacrificed your pride and self-image to make someone else happy.

Our “need” to be heard:
Sometimes there is nothing we value greater than our opinion. Sometimes nothing comes second to having it heard by
those around us. Even when we are involved in a group conversation, even though we feel the “need” to be heard, we
don’t have the “right” to be heard. Being heard is a privilege not a right. That may sting to hear. I know it did when I heard
it for the first time, but it is the truth. No matter what you’re saying, how you say it or when you say it, no one is obligated
to listen to you. Having people around you that will listen to you when you decide to speak is a gift. With that being said,
the only one you should be concerned with whether or not they hear you is God himself. Why? Because he created you, he
knows you better than anyone else, including yourself, he can fulfill your every need and he truly loves you to no end.
God can hear you, God does listen to you and God will help you when you call out to him. It might not be in that moment
and it might not take the form that you’re expecting, but he will help you. Do we have a right to this? Absolutely not, it is a
privilege and a great honor that our God listens to what we say whenever we say it. It is a privilege and great honor that he
not only listens to us, but he does what is best for us because he loves us.
It’s our pride in ourselves and our self-worth that we ourselves have assigned that drives us to “need” to be heard. That
pride has a major problem, it’s toxic to us spiritually speaking. In the nuggets of knowledge article that I have linked, I go
into great detail about “the problem with pride”. I ask you to refer to that article for more detail on the subject of pride
itself. There is nothing that I know of that is harder for a new believer to sacrifice than their pride. Everyone struggles
with it from time to time whether you are a new believer or a seasoned one, but it’s particularly hard for new believers. I
personally believe that the devil makes it difficult because it is the sin that got him thrown out of heaven. It was the poison

that killed his relationship with God and he wants it to be the thing that kills yours. Within the example of a conversation,
be it with one person or many people, how does someone sacrifice their pride? I mean, after all, you were invited into the
conversation… Weren’t you? You were asked for your opinion… You were asked for advice… You were asked for help…
So why should you not speak? Why should you be made only to listen? It all comes down to a couple of different things,
but the one that stands out most to me is the whole concept of “dying to self” that is baked into the teachings of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ and Christianity in general. But what that is that mean, to “die to self”? Dying to self is a spiritual
transformation where individuals relinquish their self-centered desires and embrace a life focused on God and others. It’s
not about literal death but rather a relinquishment of the old self, marked by a shift towards humility, trust in God, and a
willingness to prioritize His will over personal wants. Dying to self means setting aside one’s own selfish desires,
ambitions, and egoistic needs. This involves a conscious decision to prioritize God’s will and the needs of others above
personal gain. Dying to self is often accompanied by humility and a willingness to submit to God’s authority. It’s a
recognition that we are not the center of the universe and that God’s will is ultimately what matters. It manifests in love for
God, a deep appreciation for the love shown through Jesus, and a growing compassion and concern for the well-being of
others. The concept is echoed in passages like Matthew 16:24-26, where Jesus tells his disciples to “deny themselves” and
“take up their cross” and follow him. Other passages that touch on this idea include Romans 6:2-11 and Galatians 2:20.

Just by reading the explanation of the concept of dying to self, one can see that it is indeed difficult for anyone to do.
However, it is something that is required of us as followers of Jesus Christ in order to be following him to the fullest that
we might be able to. I decided to focus on the “need to be heard” because it’s something that I struggled greatly with even
before I started to follow Jesus and to this day still gives me a bit of trouble. I have learned to think about Jesus whenever
something like this happens when I’m speaking and someone cuts me off or talks over me or seems to be ignoring me.
This is insulting, it’s infuriating… it’s demeaning and disrespectful. All we have to do, though as followers of Christ is
remember that Jesus suffered far worse and still while dying on the cross, cried out “father forgive them for they know not
what they do.” in an effort to save us from the wrath of YHWH, our heavenly father. Meanwhile, us as flawed humans
would instead wish the greatest of torment on people who do such things to us. We would wish hell upon someone who
dares to interrupt us. That… Is not Christ like in the least and it is not what we should do.

Example: I have worked for the same place for 16 years. I’ve gotten used to and understand everything that there is to
understand within that office and within my position in it, I have also picked up quite a bit of knowledge about the
different departments within the building. Sometimes, I am asked for my opinion about things be policies, operational
practices even equipment that should be ordered. I have, however, noticed that when asked my answer is not always being
listened to. Does it sting? yes. Does it make me angry? Yes. Have I reacted to it in a far less than Christian Manor?
Unfortunately, yes, I have. But I think God every day that he is helping me to change. Instead of being angry now, I am
disappointed, but I don’t wish anything bad would happen to anyone that has done this to me. I know say a silent prayer
for them and just go back to my work. In life, I have learned that there are far more important things than to deal with
Penny, insignificant things like a bruised, ego or dashed pride. I have learned that no one has a right to be heard no matter
what society tells you. I have learned that any frustration I have not just in this area, but any frustration should be brought
to God immediately before it turns into anger and hatred, which would eventually give rise to ungodly thought and action.
Am I perfect at dying to self? Absolutely not. Will I ever be perfect in any respect, including this one? No, I will not. But I
will try to be until the day I die and go home to my loving God.

In closing, I encourage you all to think about the subject of today’s article and how it applies to your own life. What
sacrifices can you make in an effort to get closer to God to build a stronger relationship with him? I encourage you to
really look at your lives and see what sacrifices can be made not only what can be made but what should be made. I advise
you all to read God’s word and seek his face about the subject of sacrifice. Ask him how you as his child need to change
and what sacrifices you need to make.

I thank you all for joining me for another installment of the Nuggets of knowledge series here on metanoiameans.com.

Have a blessed week, see you again soon.

mb