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Hebrews 13:15,16 - Living The Sacrifice Of Praise To God Continually!

Heb.13:15,16; Living The Sacrifice Of Praise To God Continually!

Heb 13:15 (KJV)  By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of 
praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks 
to his name. 
Heb 13:16 (KJV)  But to do good and to communicate forget not: 
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. 

Heb 13:15 (NIV)  Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually 
offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his 
name. 
Heb 13:16 (NIV)  And do not forget to do good and to share with 
others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. 

Heb 13:15 (NLT)  With Jesus' help, let us continually offer our 
sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of his name. 
Heb 13:16 (NLT)  Don't forget to do good and to share what you 
have with those in need, for such sacrifices are very pleasing to 
God. 

Heb 13:15 (CWB)  Through Christ, let's bring to God a continual 
sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.  Let's confess with our lips the 
reality of what Christ has done and praise His holy name. 
Heb 13:16 (CWB)  Let's not forget to do good and to understand 
and help one another.  This is the most pleasing sacrifice you can 
give to God. 

"Sacrifice" is used metaphorically here to represent an offering 
to God. [NIV SB] 

The phrase "fruit of the lips." is a Hebraism, meaning what the 
lips produce; that is, words; (Barnes' Notes) 

Christians are to provide a continual sacrifice of praise, which 
is the fruit offered to God through speaking praises to him. 
[Jamieson, Fausset, And Brown Commentary] 

"Praise" is the appropriate response to what God has 
accomplished for us through the blood of Jesus. [College Press NIV 
Commentary] 

While Christ's one sacrifice for sin stands for all time, other 
kinds of sacrifices continue - praise, good works, and obedience. [New 
Bible Companion] 

The believers' sacrifices are praise, doing good, and sharing. 
[Ryrie SB] 

Praise, prayer, and thanksgiving to God, with works of charity 
and mercy to man, are the sacrifices which every genuine follower of 
Christ must offer: and they are the proofs that a man belongs to 
Christ; (Adam Clarke Commentary) 

The sacrifices of verbal praises must be accompanied by 
self-sacrificial acts of goodness. [Jamieson, Fausset, And Brown Commentary] 

Praise and practice work together as proper offerings. [Disciple 
SB] 

Praise is a spiritual offering. God is pleased with our genuine 
praise and receives it as a sacrifice. A "sacrifice of praise" today 
would include thanking Christ for his sacrifice on the cross and 
telling others about it. Acts of kindness and sharing are particularly 
pleasing to God, even when they go unnoticed by others. [Life Application 
SB] 

Christians are to offer spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5). A 
spiritual sacrifice is something done or given in the name of Christ and 
for His glory. In v. 15, he states that praise is such a sacrifice; 
see Eph. 5:18-19, Pss. 27:6 and 69:30-31. Good works and sharing 
material blessings are also spiritual sacrifices (v. 16). Other spiritual 
sacrifices include the believer's body (Rom. 12:1-2); offerings (Phil. 
4:18); prayer (Ps. 141:2); a broken heart (Ps. 51:17); and souls won to 
Christ (Rom. 15:16). [Wiersbe Expository Outlines] 

Let's not come empty-handed to the LORD. And let's not rush into 
His presence, shouting out our needs and demanding attention without 
first paying attention to Him. What we bring Christ as our sacrifice 
today is praise. And He is worthy to be praised. [The 365-Day 
Devotional Commentary] 

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews explained that Jesus 
suffered in order to set apart for God a people to serve Him.  This 
setting apart came through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  Because of 
this, the writer says we should constantly be praising God.  Do we 
constantly praise God?  We know we don't.  Even so, the Scripture 
frequently tells us to do so. There are times when it is very difficult to 
praise God. That is why it is called "a sacrifice of praise." But we 
must practice this attitude of constant praise.  It occurs when we 
confess His name.  That confession is not a formula of words.  Rather it 
is literally our life style.  This is why the writer of Hebrews 
concludes our verse with the comment about not neglecting to do good and 
to share.  Those who confess Jesus as Savior and Lord will act out 
their praise in church when they worship and during the rest of the 
week through their actions.  Let's all purpose to please God by such 
sacrifices. [In His Time; Walk With Wisdom] 

In recent decades the phrase "easy believism" has surfaced. 
Unfortunately, it describes a large number of contemporary Christians who have 
received Christ as Savior but do not, in practice, regard Him as Lord. 
They seem to have received Him in order to reach heaven some-day or 
to get help for their problems, but they have never fully committed 
to trust, obey, honor and serve Him as a way of life. 
Our Lord never intended that we be His casual acquaintances. He 
wants us to be His disciples, fully dedicated to following Him and 
lifting up His holy name to the world ..... Our Lord is repulsed by 
mediocre commitment.... 
When we acknowledge Christ as our Lord, we affirm that He is our 
Master for life and that we are dedicated to serving and glorifying 
Him. In all things, large and small, our deepest desire is to do what 
our Lord would want us to do. We ask for His guidance--not for our 
gain, but for His glory. We discipline ourselves in studying and 
obeying His written Word. We proclaim His love to the world around us. 
We try to think, speak and act in a way that will attract others to 
Him. 
The misguided person who thinks all this is too difficult or 
irrelevant misses the point. The Christian life is far more than a fire 
escape from hell; it is the life of submission and obedience which 
result in joy and victory. Bill Bright [Time With God SB] 

Hebrews challenges us to speak up about our faith and give 
evidence of our relationship with God through the Fruit of our lips (v 
15): A spiritual enemy in our time is privatization of personal 
faith. For too many so-called "committed Christians" their reationship 
with Jesus is like an extra-marital affair. It's a secret 
relationship. The love affair is real but hidden from the public eye. Some 
Christians become so skilled at concealing their personal faith in Christ 
that it takes the talent of an undercover agent to reveal their 
clandestine activity. The tragedy for those individuals is that undisclosed 
personal faith eventually produces an inner sense of psychological 
illegitimacy. The tragedy for the Kingdom is that God is silenced in the open 
forum so that people who ought to know Him do not even see Him as an 
option. Donald C. Posterski, Reinventing Evangelism [Word In Life SB] 

Running by the Rules: Ben Johnson of Canada was stripped of the 
Olympic gold medals he won at Seoul in 1988 because he broke the rules 
about drug use. Similarly, the Christian's faith-race is much more 
than a sprint to the finish line. It's a race which brings glory to 
God by the way the runners behave. In the concluding chapter, the 
writer to the Hebrews sketches a variety of duties to God and humanity. 
Together they reveal an exalted level of personal morality and duty. 
[Quiet Time SB] 

An inner-city missionary, stumbling through the trash of a dark 
apartment doorway, heard someone say, "Who's there, Honey?" Lighting a 
match, he caught sight of earthly needs and suffering, amid saintly 
trust and peace. Calm, appealing eyes, etched in ebony, were set 
within the wrinkles of a weathered black face. On a bitterly cold night 
in February, she lay on a tattered bed, with no fire, no heat, and 
no light. Having had no breakfast, lunch, or dinner, she seemed to 
have nothing at all, except arthritis and faith in God. No one could 
have been further removed from comfortable circumstances, yet this 
favorite song of the dear lady played in the background: 
Nobody knows the trouble I see, 
Nobody knows but Jesus; 
Nobody knows the trouble I see-- 
Sing Glory Hallelu! Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down, 
Sometimes I'm level on the groun', Sometimes the glory shines aroun'--  
Sing Glory Hallelu!
And so it continued: "Nobody knows the work I do, Nobody knows 
the griefs I have," the constant refrain being, "Glory Hallelu!" 
until the last verse rose: 
Nobody knows the joys I have, Nobody knows but Jesus!
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, 
but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but 
not destroyed" (2 Cor. 4:8-9). It takes these great Bible words to 
explain the joy of this elderly black woman. 
Do you remember the words of Martin Luther as he lay on his 
deathbed? Between groans he preached, "These pains and troubles here are 
like the type that printers set. When we look at them, we see them 
backwards, and they seem to make no sense and have no meaning. But up 
there, when the Lord God prints out our life to come, we will find they 
make splendid reading. "Yet we do not have to wait until then. The 
apostle Paul, walking the deck of a ship on a raging sea, encouraged the 
frightened sailors, "Be of good cheer" (Acts 27:22 KJV). 
Paul, Martin Luther, and the dear black woman were all human 
sunflowers, seeking and seeing the Light in a world of darkness. William C. 
Garnett [Streams In The Desert By Cowman]