23 June 2024 Service 1, Pastor Reghardt Nel

The speaker talks about the importance of presenting oneself as a living sacrifice to God. They explain that altars in the Old Testament were used as places of covenant, forgiveness, intercession, worship, and encounter with God. Sacrifices were offered on these altars. The speaker encourages the audience to open their hearts to the Lord and surrender their lives to Him. They emphasize the need for the Holy Spirit's help and the grace of God to live a life of sacrifice. The speaker also mentions that Jesus looks at us with love and that His blood and grace are enough to break guilt and condemnation. They conclude by praying for victory and breakthrough in the lives of the listeners. You are the lily of the valley, you are the bright morning star, you are the rose of seraphim, you are the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. You are our source of joy, you are our source of peace. Jehovah shalom our peace. Jehovah chair our provider. Our Lord come and rest upon us this morning. He's coming to rest, just wait for Him. Worship Him, do as the Holy Spirit leads you. We crown you King of Glory. We crown you King of Glory. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Blooming in the plains. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Blooming in the plains. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Blooming in the plains. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Blooming in the plains. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Blooming in the plains. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Here comes the glory of the Lord. Blooming in the plains. Let's sing, Heaven is here right now. Heaven is here right now. Heaven is here right now. Father, we honor you in this place. As our God. We honor you in this place, Lord, as our God. As many as I love, I rebuke and chastise you. Therefore, be jealous to repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens up the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne. As I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church. I believe there's people this morning where the Lord says, I stand at the door of your heart and knock. He who opens to me shall come and dine with me. As we go into the rest of the service, I want you to open up your heart to the Lord. Forget about who's preaching this morning. Forget about the worship team. Forget about your own problems. Open up your heart to the Lord. He stands at the door and he knocks. As many of you need to surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ again. He's standing at the door and he's knocking. Open up the door. Open up the door. I'm going to give you just a minute to speak to the Lord there by yourself. Say, Lord, I open myself up to you. Holy Spirit, I ask you that you will look at every heart, Lord, right now. And those that are sincere, touch them. Lord, come and dine with us. Come and dine with us in this place this morning. You are holy. You are the Lamb that is seated on the throne. Who is like you, Lord. Jesus. The Lord has such a joy over you. The Lord has such a joy over this church. He's laughing over you. He's laughing over your life. Just stay in this place. When Jesus looks at you, He smiles. When Jesus looks at you, He has love in His eyes. It doesn't matter what you've done wrong. He looks at you with eyes of love today. Let every guilt and condemnation break now. His blood is enough. His grace is enough. Lord, we honor you. Have your way in this place. Have your way in this place. Can you sing that chorus one more time, worthy is the Lamb? Tell the Screecher's bough, giving praise to Him and Him alone, there's no one like the Lord. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain and seated on the throne. There's no one like the Lord. Tell the Screecher's bough, giving praise to Him and Him alone, there's no one like the Lord. Father, thank you, Lord, that we can praise you this morning. Thank you that we can worship you. Lord, it's such a privilege, it's such a joy to stand in victory because you have paid the price for us. Thank you that we can be on the winning side this morning. Thank you, Lord, that nothing can get us down. Thank you, Lord, that no obstacle that stands against us, Lord, will be able to stand. Lord, in the presence of our God, Lord, I thank you that I can say to every Goliath, Lord, in people's lives this morning, your time is up, in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord, that we have a covenant with the King of Israel, the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords. Lord, I thank you that you fight for us. I thank you that we have the victory in Christ. I thank you that breakthrough is ours, Lord, because you are for us. Lord, I give notice, Lord, to every obstacle, every giant. Today is your last day. In Jesus' mighty name. In Jesus' mighty name. In Jesus' name. If you receive that prayer, say with me, Amen and Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Welcome to take your seats. Can we just give the worship team a round of praise? You guys are amazing. It's good to be in Cape Town. Thank you. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. I said to Pastor Leon this morning, it's so nice to wake up in the morning and not freeze. Every morning when I open my door, because I've got a huge lawn, when I open my door, everything is frozen. So it's much nicer here in the morning. I must say, yesterday when I got off the plane, I thought, yes, this is going to be a cold weekend. But luckily, I brought the sun with me from Pretoria. So it's good to be here. It's good to be here. Why don't you just stay in a place of sensitivity toward the Lord? While I preach, listen to me, but keep your heart focused on Jesus. There's an important message that I want to preach this morning. And I must submit to you, I preach this message in a lot of fear, a fear to the Lord. It's hard sometimes to preach something, because every time that I, when I prepare something, when I first measure it in my own life, I see, listen, do I actually do what I say to you to do? It's very hard to preach some things, because there's many things that as a preacher, you also struggle with. Many things that you also try to, you know, all of us try to be better Christians. All of us try to live closer to the Lord. But this morning's message, I think it's applicable to all of us. So as I preach to you this morning, open up your heart and receive from the Lord. I want to start with the scripture, Romans chapter number 12, verse 1. All of you probably know the scripture. It says, I beseech you, or in other words, I encourage you, but therefore, pray then by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. I love how Paul says, this is just our reasonable service. This is not even going the extra mile. He says, therefore, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. This is your reasonable service. The standard is there. You know, there's a scripture, I think it's in one of the Gospels, where God says, I expect you to be perfect. You know, that's a tall order. But we can't do it alone. Not at all. We need the Holy Spirit to help us. We need the grace of the Lord. So it says, I encourage you, therefore, pray then by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Before we look at what the scripture means, it says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. On what do you place a sacrifice? Yes, I hear it. On an altar. So the Bible says, I want you to be a living sacrifice, but a sacrifice is not a sacrifice unless it is placed on an altar. Are you with me there? Right through the Old Testament, we see altars being erected. Sometimes they are erected, if you look at the Old Testament, the altar is erected on the altar. Sometimes they are erected, if you read the Old Testament, there are some weird things in the Old Testament. Sometimes they erected these altars to foreign gods, to their pagan gods. And sometimes they erected, or a lot of times they erected altars to the God of Israel. They actually say that, the study down there said there was 378 times that the word altar is mentioned in the Old Testament. That's a lot. Because in today's times, if I mention altar, many of your minds immediately go to satanic altars or witchcraft altars. And Christians think it's a very spooky thing. And sometimes it is. I mean, it is. But even right through the Old Testament, even up until now, altars are used as a connection place to the spirit realm. Whether it now be for Christians or for pagans. Altars are used in satanic rituals in the spirit realm. The Bible says, present yourself as a living sacrifice. But there are more to altars than just pagan worship. In the Old Testament, we see why altars were built. The first one, and you can write this down if you want to. The first one, altars were built as a place of covenant. Number one, as a place of covenant. Guys, you don't have to go there. Genesis 15, God made a covenant with Abraham and there was an altar built. Number two, an altar was a place of forgiveness. Exodus 29, verse 36 to 38. Aaron and the priest made offerings on the altar for the sins of the people. Number three, altars was a place of intercession. We see that in Joel chapter number two, verse 17, where Joel told the priests to make an altar and pray for the nation. Number four, altars were a place of worship. Moses made sacrifices of worship to God in Exodus 20, verse 24. And number five, altars were places of encounter. Genesis 28, Jacob encountered God and he built an altar. Let me run through that quickly again. It's a place of covenant. It's a place of forgiveness. It's a place of intercession. It's a place of worship and it's a place of encounter. With every altar that was built, some sort of a sacrifice needed to be placed on it. Abraham placed on the altar Isaac. Jacob placed on the altar oil. Elijah, when he fought the all prophets, he placed on the altar water. Just interesting there, water was the most scarce commodity in that time because there was a drought. So Elijah placed something, he sacrificed something, he gave something that was worth much and then the fire of God fell on the altar. That's just some free extra advice for you. Moses put on the altar animals. Every time that there was an altar, there was a sacrifice placed on the altar. Then there was a connection point or a collision between heaven and earth, between the spirit realm and the natural realm. Think about the tabernacle. The priest needed to go through all of these rituals starting at the altar and when eventually he got into the Holy of Holies, he met the presence of God, the manifest presence of God. So when there's an altar and there's a sacrifice, there's a collision or a meeting place between the spirit realm and the natural realm, between heaven and earth. In the New Testament, we don't need to build physical altars anymore. Jesus became our altar. The cross of Jesus became the altar, the connection point between heaven and earth. That's the only altar that we need. You don't have to have an altar there in your home where you sacrifice things on. That's a bit weird. The cross of Jesus is the only altar that we need. He becomes our connection point. He becomes the place of collision between heaven and earth. When Jesus breathed out His last breath on the cross, what does the Bible say? The Bible says that the veil was torn in the temple. Now just to explain to you a little bit, the priest needed to go through all of these rituals before he entered the Holy of Holies. That was behind the veil, the curtain. First he started the altar and then he needed to sacrifice for the sins. Then he needed to go to the brazen scottle thing. Then there was the showbread and the candles. There were many things that he needed to go through, many rituals that he needed to go through before he could enter the presence of the Lord. Interesting, if you look at the layout of the tabernacle from the top, it's a cross. It was a prophetic declaration by the Lord that there will be another altar that is coming that will set us free forever and ever. So they literally needed to go in the form of a cross to do all of these rituals before they could enter the presence of the Lord. But look at how specific the Bible is. The Bible says that when Jesus breathed out his last breath on the cross, the veil tore. How? From the top to the bottom. Why does the Bible say that? Because God made the way for us to enter his presence. It tore from heaven to earth. There was a new access point made from heaven to earth. It is not the rituals that the priest did that tore the altar. It is the price that Jesus paid. We are now called the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Righteousness means to be in right standing with him. Because of Jesus, I can be in right standing with God. So it's not about the hours of prayer that you pray. It's not about the how many pages of the Bible or anything. Nothing of your works gives you access to the Lord. It is by the righteousness of Christ. He is our connection point. He is our altar. Thank you Lord Jesus. Listen to what the Bible says, John 10 verse 9. It says, I am the door. Jesus speaking, I am the door. Only he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture. How do you access the heavenlies? Through Jesus. He is the door. He made the way. It's not about how much you sin. It's about the price that Jesus paid. I'm not saying that you shouldn't pray. I'm not saying that you shouldn't give to the poor. I'm not saying that you shouldn't read the Bible. I'm not saying that you shouldn't pray. I'm not saying that. But it's what, it's where your heart lies. Do you do that to gain his favor, to gain his attention? Or do you know that you have his attention? You already have it. As you sit here, when you woke up this morning, God stood there by your bed and said, yes, my son and my daughter is up. He didn't stay, look there and say, no, I'm not going to be close to him now. No. You are made right with God when you accept Jesus Christ. Because when God looks at you, he doesn't see Pastor Rion and he sees Pastor Rion's sins. No, he looks through Jesus to Pastor Rion. He doesn't see Clint, he looks through Jesus to Clint. Jesus made us righteous. He is the altar. Jesus is the door. Jesus is the altar through which we access God. Just like the Old Testament, God wants to pour his fire and his presence upon us. He wants to pour his fire and his presence into our time and space. Right there we are, in your workplace during the week, where you're at school, doesn't matter, he wants to pour his presence and fire upon you. He wants us to be drenched in power. But what are the sacrifices that we need to make? What are the sacrifices that we need to put on the altar? It's a very good question. Romans 12 says it to us. It's us. It's not our works. God wants us. He wants us. Matthew 16.25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What does this mean? When you try to manage your own life, when you try to do everything for your own self, then you will lose your life. But when you say, Lord, this is my life, I give this to you. Do with me what you want. And you are obedient to his voice. Then he says, you will find true life. And you will find true life. You are the sacrifice. Jesus is the altar. You are the sacrifice. And when a sacrifice meets an altar, the fire of God comes. The power of God comes. Romans 12. I'm going to read that again. Therefore, I encourage you, brethren, by the mercies of God. How do you do this? By the mercy of God. That you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy. How do you become holy? By the mercy of God. How do you become acceptable? By the mercy of God. Not by yourself. By his mercy. Which is your reasonable service. The work of Jesus is the altar. And when I daily give myself as a living sacrifice, I become a place where heaven meets earth. When you walk into your business, you become the place where heaven meets earth. When you carry enemies around the table, you become the place where heaven meets earth. You carry the atmosphere of heaven into the boardroom. You carry the atmosphere of heaven into your classroom. Especially if you teach high school, you need a lot of heaven. But you are the access place. You are the sacrifice on the altar. And then the power of God comes upon you. You wake up in that class in the morning and you know this is my most difficult class or this is my most difficult meeting. Wherever you are, you walk in there, you know the atmosphere of heaven is with me now because I am the sacrifice. You walk in there with confidence and you say, every demonic spirit that is against me, I bind you. In this place, I will have the favor of God. In this place, everything that is in heaven, everything that we can access in heaven, you can access right where you are because you are the sacrifice that is on the altar. But God wants you. He doesn't want a part of you. He doesn't want you to sit in the seats on Sunday and then from tomorrow you are a Gentile again or a pagan. And then just on Sundays you come in here, and then you are a Gentile again. I don't know why people's voices change when they walk into church but it's always like that. I grew up in church, I know. I've been around many pastors and preachers and people. No, God wants you to be a Christian Monday to the next Monday. Sunday through Sunday. He wants you to be a living sacrifice and this is a daily thing that we need to do. But it's not about our works. I want to say that again. We pray because we love Him. We read the Word because we love Him. We are generous to people because we love Him. There are too many voices that contend for the affection of our heart. That's the thing. The world is contending for the affection of our heart. The Bible says where your heart is your treasure will also be. What is your treasure? Is your treasure Jesus? Can they take away your health? Can they take away your money? Can they take away your peace? Can they take away everything and your heart will still be with Jesus? That's the question. Where your treasure is will still be. And I mean I say this in a lot of humility because I'm not there. I want to be there. I ask the Holy Spirit every day Lord help me. Help me to keep my heart on Jesus. Help me for that affection of my heart be on Jesus. Because the world wants to rob us of our peace, of the joy, of the love that we have for Jesus is the altar. And when I daily give myself as a living sacrifice I become a place where heaven meets earth. And this is what I become. Number one, a place of covenant. God makes a covenant with me. He says every promise is yes and amen. I will never leave or forsake you. Everything in this word becomes a covenant with me. I become a place of forgiveness. He kills the old man. 2 Corinthians 5.17 Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creation. All things have passed away behold all things have become new. The Bible says if you confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive it. I think it's 1 John 1 verse 9. I become a place of forgiveness. Number three, I become a place of intercession. What does that mean? Intimacy. I speak to the Lord, He speaks to me. Number four, I become a place of worship. Moses worshipped the Lord. He built an altar. He made sacrifices of worship unto God. Who was the man that saw the Lord? Moses. So as I become a place of worship He reveals Himself to me. I see the Lord. Number five, I become a place of encounter. I become drenched in power. Drenched in His glory. Drenched in His Spirit. And I am the living sacrifice and I place myself on Jesus. The Bible says I encourage you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. I went to see what that word bodies means because in the beginning I thought it meant flesh. The Bible speaks about our flesh a lot. It says don't follow the flesh, follow the Spirit. So I thought that the Bible says I must give my flesh. What is your flesh? Your flesh is your mind that is connected to your fleshly will. You know your body wants to sin all the time. It's actually your mind but your body wants to sin all the time. That is your flesh. But that's not what the word bodies means. The word bodies means so in the Greek in the New Testament they saw the priest saw that the body is separate from the Spirit. But in the Old Testament in Hebrew they saw it as one unit. Your spirit, your soul and your body. So when He says present your bodies as a living sacrifice God says present your soul, your body and your spirit to me as a living sacrifice. He wants everything. He wants your time. He wants your energy. He wants your will. He wants your possessions. He wants everything. He wants everything to His disposal for you. If He says to you I want you to pray for that person I am the sacrifice, yes Lord. I want you to give that to that person I am the sacrifice, yes Lord. I want you to seek me I am the sacrifice, yes Lord. Everything belongs to Him even our thoughts the thoughts that we think He wants that to be a living sacrifice unto Him. Can you feel His presence in the room? Jesus. Close your eyes for a second. Just focus on Jesus quickly in your mind. See Him however you want to see Him. As you look at Him say this with me Lord I am desperate for you Lord I am hungry for you make my heart soft. There comes the rest on you. Say with me again Lord I am desperate for you Lord I am hungry for you come and make my heart soft. His presence is filling the room. Say that one more time Lord I am desperate for you Jesus I am hungry for you make my heart soft come and rest upon me. Sometimes it is hard to sit in silence. But if you know He is going to come then wait. He loves you. He wants to be with you. He loves you. He wants to be with you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He wants to come and rest on you. Holy Spirit Holy Spirit As we are in this atmosphere I want to give you a chance You say Lord I want to be a living sacrifice but there are things that are standing between me and the altar might be unforgiveness it might be a disappointment it might be maybe you are angry toward the Lord because He didn't come through for you like you thought He would maybe it is guilt of your past anything that keeps you from the altar putting yourself on the altar I want to give you an opportunity if you want to you can come and just come to the front I don't think I am even going to lay hands on you I just want you to take a step of faith and say Lord I am going to pass I am going to pass by all of these things I am going to pass by the disappointment I am going to pass by the guilt I am going to pass by the unforgiveness I am going to pass by those things and I am going to come to the altar which is here in front and I am presenting myself to you as a living sacrifice as you make that step I believe that the Holy Spirit will touch you you can just come to the front if you want to you can say to the Lord Lord but here I am I am a sacrifice walk away from the things that keeps you from the altar walk away from the heaviness walk away from the guilt walk away from the hurt from the past walk away from the pain walk away from the hurt from the past walk away leave those burdens behind and get up on the altar Holy Spirit touch these people minister to their hearts minister to their hearts I worship you I worship you I remove the past from you it goes now the weight that you carry goes now and a fresh peace fresh joy comes upon you here the weight goes I feel it lifting thank you thank you for new joy can't I hear the Lord say I am proud of you you make me proud thank you thank you thank you for Jesus there is no shortcomings you are perfect in my eyes thank you thank you thank you thank you Jesus thank you Jesus lift up your head look at me I am where your help comes from I am where your help comes from I am with you even by your side I am your right hand that helps and my promise to you is today that I will never leave or forsake you I will be with you always until the end of the age I am the one that pushes you from behind and moves your life forward and I will be with you always until the end of the age Father we commit ourselves to you in this morning as living sacrifices we ask you that you will help us to put ourselves on the altar every day Lord on the finished work of Jesus Jesus thank you that you made the way thank you that you are the access point between heaven and earth thank you that your word says that we are the access point between heaven and earth thank you that your word says that we are temples of the Holy Spirit that it is now not we who live but Christ who lives within us thank you that we are walking altars walking sacrifices help us to place our will on the altar every day and be obedient to your voice even if it costs us a lot because where we make the sacrifice your fire will fall we give you praise and honor and glory you are worthy you are worthy thank you for smiling over us thank you for laughing over us we give you praise Lord we give you praise in Jesus name Amen Amen can we give Jesus just a round of praise we love you Lord we worship you we love you Lord we worship you we worship you so there the back of the glasses the Lord has been highlighting you the whole service since I stood here on the platform it's as if the Lord's attention is on you I don't know why maybe I've missed this completely but I'd rather say it than not say it do you have a desire for worship to worship God do you have a gift to worship play the guitar, sing, anything like that nothing it's as if there's worship on you I'm not sure what that means but it's like I see worship on you maybe the Lord will reveal something to you but it's like when I looked at you there's worship on you maybe the Lord wants you to go into a career of music maybe the Lord wants you to return to just worship by yourself in your room not sure what it is but maybe you'll know but the Lord's attention is on you right through this whole service every time you catch my eye I feel the Lord's heart toward you He's taken note of you He knows you're coming in and you're going out His eyes are on you as you go into this week you'll see keep that in mind as you go into the week that the Lord's eyes are on me not to condemn you not to look at what you're doing wrong His eyes are on you His eyes are on you to see where He can help you where He can support you where He can come through for you Amen Thank you I'm done Church Thank you so much