1/5/2014
2014 A Year for Ministry
Part 1 Consecration
Consecrate make or declare sacred or holy…
- to dedicate (one’s life, time, etc.) to a specific purpose
- to ordain as (a bishop)
- To make, or declare to be, sacred; to appropriate to sacred uses; to set apart, dedicate, or devote, to the service or worship of God; as, to consecrate a church; to give (one’s self) unreservedly to the service of God.
The Lord Consecrated Himself For Us!
John 17:17-19 …sanctify them by the truth: Thy Word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. For their sakes I consecrate myself, that they also might be consecrated by the truth.
All Believers are “Consecrated” to Ministry
Revelation 1:6 …Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood,& has made us to be kings and priests unto God…
Consecration Concerns Personal Holiness
Leviticus 20:7 You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.
Consecration Requires Personal Commitment
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy & acceptable to God.
Romans 12:1
Consecration Requires Constant Surrender
Consecration means; ME giving MY life to God to do HIS WILL instead of my own. It means that I present MY body (I am inside my body) to Him as a living sacrifice. The animals which were offered to God in the Old Testament were slain—they were dead sacrifices. God does not ask me to place my body upon an altar to be slain. Instead, He asks (I beseech thee) me to become LIVING SACRIFICE This means that He wants me to live for Him.
The Burnt Offering Was Total
It represented the Lord Jesus offering up His life to the Father to do His will. This sacrifice was very precious to God, and from it we can learn many things about consecration
Consecration is Voluntary
If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord. . . he shall offer it of his own voluntary will… Leviticus 1:2&3
God does not compel me to consecrate my life to Him; instead, He says, “I beseech you.” God wants me to give my life to Him, not because I have to but because I love Him and want to serve Him.
Consecration: Offering of My Whole Life to God
God permitted four kinds of creatures to be used as sacrifices in the burnt offering. The people who were wealthy brought a costly animal such as a bull; some brought a sheep; those who could not afford either of these brought a dove or a pigeon. In each case, it was the offering up of a whole life to God. God did not accept anything less than this.
Leviticus 1:6-17
Philippians 2:5-8
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Being found in appearance as man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!