PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 375: LIVING THE BLISSFUL LIFE, No. 9
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 375: LIVING THE BLISSFUL LIFE, No. 9
We continue the New Testament sacrifices and begin talking about the eight points of the “koinonia” lifestyle God wants us to live. They all begin with T. You’ll want to check them out.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies, a magazine bringing strength and encouragement to families across the world.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Today we are continuing from last week. I began to tell you of how, in the Old Testament, there were five different sacrifices that the priests and the people did unto the Lord. We don’t live in the Old Testament. We live in the New Testament. But amazingly, we also find five different sacrifices in the New Testament. Now, we’re no longer sacrificing animals upon an altar, but God talks about sacrifices that He wants us to do.
Last week, we talked about the first one, OFFERING OUR BODIES AS A LIVING SACRIFICE. Today we’re on to . . .
No. 2. THE SACRIFICIAL OFFERING OF PRAYER
We go to Revelation chapters 5 and chapter 8. Here we see John, the apostle John is looking into the eternal realm. He sees the altar of incense. At that altar of incense, he sees the incense going up.
But what is it? The Bible tells us that it is the prayers of the saints. Revelation 5:8 says that he saw the golden vial full of incense “which are the prayers of saints.” We go over to chapter 8, and there he saw another time, another vision that he saw into the eternal realm. He saw an angel, who “was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne of God.”
Here we see that that altar of incense was a type of the prayers of God’s people going up before the Lord, offering up before the Lord. It’s an offering of sacrifice before the Lord on this golden altar, which is in heaven at this time, dear ladies. That golden altar is right before the throne of God. When you are offering up your prayers before the Lord, it’s right before the throne of God. It’s a golden altar.
My husband calls prayer “a golden ministry.” It is true. If you are praying in your home, praying with your family, you've got gold in your home. You know, ladies, I’ve talked a lot about prayer. We’re not going to spend too much time on this point, but I do want to encourage you. Are you sacrificing to pray? Are you gathering your family morning and evening to read the Word to them and pray together, to send your incense up before the Lord, to offer it up before the Lord?
That is a sacrifice God wants us to do. It’s not just Old Testament, it’s New. But we do get an understanding from one Old Testament Scripture. Here it’s David praying. He says: “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”
Back in Bible days, they had the morning and the evening sacrifice. David says, “Oh God, every time I pray, every time I lift my hands up before You, see it as the evening sacrifice,” because that evening sacrifice was a beautiful sweet-smelling savor unto God. Every time you pray, it’s a sweet-smelling sacrifice unto the Lord.
BRASS INSTEAD OF GOLD
Oh, it’s such an important thing. Sometimes, because of life, life is busy, and things begin to happen in our lives, we’ve got this going, and that going, and somehow, we don’t even get time for that evening sacrifice where we gather our family together. We gather them around the table to read the Word, and then to pray, getting each one in the family to pray unto the Lord.
Oh, don’t let this sacrifice go, dear precious ladies. It is so powerful, and it’s New Testament. It’s something that God wants. It’s a sacrifice He wants from our lives. We’ve got to watch that we don’t let other things take its place, because what happens is that the enemy can come in. He can take the gold and just fill it with brass.
We think of these other things that we get involved in and we have to go to at that time of the day, that evening time when we should be gathering around the table as a family so that at the end of our meal, we can come before the Lord in prayer. Instead, we let these other things come in. Ladies, they’re just brass. They’re not gold. This sacrifice of prayer is a golden ministry.
Notice too, how David says, “Lord, even when You see me lifting up my hands unto You, see it as the evening sacrifice.” Oh, there may be some of you listening who think, “Oh my! We’ve never done that in our house! Oh, nobody lifts hands in our house.” Or “Nobody lifts hands in our church.” I know that is true. Many never lift their hands.
Isn’t it amazing that it’s actually Bible? That’s only one verse. There are so many Scriptures about it. Even in the New Testament, yes. But I do have to say, dear ladies, I always wonder how it is that people don’t want to lift their hands before the Lord. I find that I can’t not do it, because when I’m coming before the Lord, I’m not praying some rote prayer. I’m coming desperate before God.
If it’s for myself, I’m desperate before the Lord. Not that I hardly ever pray for myself. I can hardly think when I do. But I’m so often praying for others. At our family prayer times, we pray for those in need. We’re praying for the persecuted church that is suffering so incredibly! We’re praying for Israel. We’re praying for this nation, and the things that are happening.
I am desperate before God. I am automatically reaching up my hands to the Lord, because I’m passionately praying, and seeking His face. We must be doing it very pathetically, if it doesn’t even touch our bodies. Remember last week? We are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice unto Him. Our arms, our hands are part of our body which we offer up to the Lord! In prayer, in praise, in worship.
Oh, that makes me think of a little story. This happened to a friend of ours years and years ago. He was in a meeting where people were worshipping the Lord. Many people around him had their hands raised. But he did not believe in doing such a thing. He had come from a church and a background where you did not do anything emotionally or physically.
He was standing there with his arms by his side, saying “I will never, ever do this! You’ll never get me doing such a thing!” All of a sudden, a bee stung his elbow! And up went his hands! Oh, he realized God had gotten him. He never had any trouble from that moment raising his hands. He thought, “My, if I can stick my hands in the air just because a bee stung me, I can do that to worship the Lord.”
All right, lovely ladies. Don’t forget that evening sacrifice, and, of course, the morning one, will you?
No. 3. THE SACRIFICIAL OFFERING OF THANKSGIVING
Well, we’ve already talked about this so much on this series, “Living the Blissful Life.” It’s come up so much and it comes up here again, because it’s one of the New Testament sacrifices. Hebrews 13:15: “Let us offer a sacrifice of praise to God continually.”
I won’t talk too much about it but just add a little bit that I haven’t actually shared with you yet. This is interesting, because if we go back to the Old Testament, we find that the sacrifice of thanksgiving is not a singular thing. It is plural.
Psalm 107:22: “And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing,” Did you hear that? “Unto His name.” There it is. It’s plural.
Then we notice, also, in regard to praise, Jeremiah 17:26: “Bringing sacrifices of praise into the house of the Lord.” Once again, it’s plural. “Sacrifices of praise.”
And then, when it’s talking about joy, it talks about the sacrifices of joy. Psalm 27: 6: “I will offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy.” Once again, it’s not singular. It’s plural, with an “s” on the end.
Yes, we’ve got to keep doing it. We make it a lifestyle. Well, how do you make it a lifestyle when you don’t feel joyful? I know there are many times you don’t feel joyful. But you see, ladies, what is it called? “The sacrifices of joy.” We don’t live by our feelings. We live by the truth.
The truth is that Jesus Christ, who is Joy, who has more joy than all His fellows. It tells us in Hebrews that He lives within us. He doesn’t change. His joy does not change when things are bad, and the going is difficult. No, that does not determine our joy.
We determine to be joyful, even when things are going wrong. “I WILL joy in the Lord! I WILL joy in the God of my salvation. I WILL be joyful, because Christ dwells in me, and because I know that God is a good God. He is working everything out for good. I can trust Him, so I will JOY!”
Is that your confession? Make it your confession, dear lovely mother. Confession is so powerful. You can feel lousy, but when you open your mouth, and you say, “I am filled with the joy of the Lord, and I will joy in my God,” when you begin to confess those words, it will change you on the inside. It will change your attitude.
This is what David did. Many times, in the Psalms, we see him down and rock bottom. He’s in the mire, sinking in the mud because of all the terrible things that are happening around him. But then, in a few verses, we read: “But I will rejoice in the Lord my God! I will joy in my God!” He would never stay in his circumstances. He would always begin to confess his joy in the Lord. Amen? Can you make that your lifestyle? Remember, we’re talking about living the blissful lifestyle. Well, this is how we do it, ladies.
At the end of this Scripture: “I will offer in His tabernacles, sacrifices of joy.” Remember, it’s an offering, an offering of sacrifice. He goes on to say: “I will sing, I will sing praises unto the Lord.” This is how we offer our sacrifices of praise. We’ve got to start singing. You remember that singing is one of the ways we release oxytocin which is that beautiful hormone that is the bliss hormone, the calming hormone, and the happy hormone. God knows the way that He wants us to live so we can live this blissful lifestyle.
Let’s go on to the next one, shall we?
No. 4. THE SACRIFICE OF DOING GOOD AND KOINONIA
Here it tells us of two sacrifices put together. Hebrews 13:16: “But to do good and communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
Let’s look at the first one, “to do good.” The word here is eupolia. It means “well doing; giving beneficence, including ministering and serving the saints; giving to the needy; hospitality.” This is what it means “to do good.” The Bible says here that this is a sacrifice “with which God is well pleased.” We don’t always feel like doing good, and doing these things, but as we sacrifice to do it, God will be well pleased.
The next word is “communicate” and that’s the Greek word koinonia. This is a very big word in the New Testament. It was also the lifestyle of the early church. In fact, if we go back to Acts 2:42, and we read about the new believers and their lifestyle, this is what we read. “They continued steadfastly in . . .”
Number one, “the apostles’ doctrine.” They listened to the Word of the Lord, so they would know how He wanted them to live.
Number two, “fellowship.” That’s the word koinonia.
Number three, “breaking of bread,” which is also fellowship and hospitality, because it didn’t only mean having communion, it meant gathering together with one another and eating a meal together.
Back then, they didn’t have loaves like we have, where we cut our bread. They had flat bread, which they would break. Then they would dip it into the dish that they had made, maybe hummus or baba ghanoush, or something like that. They would say when they wanted to gather with someone, “Come and let’s break bread together.” So, with fellowship and hospitality.
Number four, “prayers” with “s” on the end, plural. They also gathered to pray together. This was their lifestyle. It was a lifestyle of fellowship. We can read some other translations here.
A Faithful Version says: “Now, do not forget to do good, and to fellowship, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.”
The New English Translation: “And do not neglect to do good, and to share what you have, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.”
Also going back to Acts 2 in the Good News Bible this time: “They spent their time in learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship (koinonia) and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers. All the believers continued together in close fellowship, and shared their belongings with one another. They had their meals together in their homes, eating with glad and humble hearts.”
That lifestyle was a foretaste of what it is going to be like in Heaven. We’re going to have meals together. We’re going to sit down with the saints and fellowship and eat together, apart from doing many, many other things. But even when Jesus was here on earth, He said to His disciples, “I want you to sit down with Me at My table, in My Kingdom.” He talked about His table in His heavenly kingdom. There it is, that fellowshipping.
I must tell you a little story. Before I understood the full meaning of koinonia and fellowship, I read this Scripture: “But to do good and communicate, forget not.” I thought, “Oh, wow!” I had to use that Scripture for a certain thing. It was when Colin and I were courting, way back, many years ago, because Colin and I have been married for, can you guess how many years? We’ve been married for 62 wonderful years.
But back when we were courting it wasn’t like today. We didn’t have social media. Colin and I lived in two different cities, a long way from one another. So, how on earth did we communicate? We didn’t even use the telephone, because back then, it was too expensive. You would only telephone if it was a birthday, or Christmas, or something like that.
The only way we communicated was through letters. Because we were so completely and passionately sold out to the Lord, we didn’t even want to waste any time from seeking the Lord or serving the Lord. I only wrote a letter one week, and then he would write the next, so it means we were only getting a letter from one another every two weeks. That was pretty pathetic, wasn’t it?
But one time, his letter didn’t even come the second week. I was very upset. I thought, “What is happening? This is not good!” And I read that Scripture. So, I was very naughty, and instead of writing a beautiful, lovely letter as I always did, I just wrote that Scripture, and nothing else. It just said, “To do good, and communicate forget not.”
Well, he didn’t really have a very good response from that, so that wasn’t really a very nice thing to do, was it? But anyway, we got back into our lovely communication again. It really means “fellowship.” And the koinonia lifestyle was the lifestyle of the early church, and it should be our lifestyle today.
So, ladies, I am going to give you now eight points on living the koinonia lifestyle. You may like to take notes, because I think you’ll want to get these points. Although maybe you can’t take notes because you may be on a walk as you're listening, or maybe you're driving the car as you're listening. Maybe you're doing the dishes.
Oh well, perhaps you can listen again, or, of course, you can always go to the transcript. You know that we do a transcript for all our podcasts. My dear lovely friend Darlene does the transcripts faithfully, every week. She does it as a ministry unto the Lord, and to you, to all of those who want to read them. I’m so grateful to her, and I know you are so grateful too.
Anyway, let’s start on these points, shall we?
No. 1. WE OFFER UP OUR TIME
Notice it’s an offering. We’re talking about the sacrifice of koinonia. These are the New Testament sacrifices, and one of them is the koinonia lifestyle. God calls it “a sacrifice.”
But what did Jesus call a sacrifice? The greatest sacrifice of all time? When the Son of God, the glory of heaven, sacrificed His life unto death for our sins, what did He call it? He didn’t call it a sacrifice. He called it “a delight.” “I delight to do Thy will, oh My God.” So, I think each time we talk about one of these offerings up to the Lord, let’s look upon them as a delight, shall we?
So, we offer up our time as a delight. Yes, a delight. Our time. Well, there are some people who really don’t like to fellowship. They really like to stick to themselves. There are some people who do not even fellowship with other believers every week. That’s not really living the New Testament lifestyle.
It’s not living the koinonia lifestyle, because gathering together at least once a week . . . The early church didn’t gather only once a week. Do you know how many times they met together? The Bible says they met together daily. Daily they met together in one another’s homes, and what happened? “Daily the Lord added to the church such as should be saved.” They lived a daily koinonia lifestyle.
There are some believers today who don’t even have a weekly gathering. That should be the minimum of our gathering together with the people of God, to fellowship with them. Because church itself is not even meant to be just gathering to come and hear a message. No, it’s meant to be fellowship. It’s meant to be also eating together.
Of course, even meeting together more than that in hospitality throughout the week. Maybe getting together to pray, and so on, through the week. So, we’re giving up our time. We give up our time to bless others. We give up our time to pray and even give up our time and our thoughts.
Did you know we have to give time to think about others? It’s very easy to let all our thoughts just wrap around ourselves. Of course, when you get married and you become a mother, you then begin to realize your thoughts are not just about you and your husband. Then, you begin to have others who consume your thoughts because you have your children and they become part of your thoughts.
But even as we have family, we’ve got to give time even to others who are in need, and those that we need to bless, or maybe give a call to, or write a card to, or do something for them. We’re giving of our time.
No. 2. WE OFFER UP OUR TABLE
Not as a sacrifice, but as a delight, remember. The table is the heart of every home and family. I trust that the table is a very special piece of furniture in your home. I believe the table should be the focal point in our home where we gather as a family. We not only gather to eat but we gather to fellowship. We gather to dialogue together. And we gather to meet the Lord as we read the Word and pray together. It is a gathering place.
Of course, you’ll be using your table for loads of other things too. Your children will be homeschooling on your table, and they’ll be doing lots of things on your table. There will be lots of stuff on your table and you've got to clear it all off, ready for when you sit down at a meal.
MAKE SPECIAL TIMES
But ladies, we can’t keep our table to ourselves and just to our family. No, we’ve got to open up our table to others, to bring others in to join our family meal table. Now you won’t be doing that every day of the week, but you need to start making the times. I think it’s good to make times where you say, “OK, this day will be a day, or an evening. when we will invite someone to our table.”
Maybe it’s just one person. Maybe it’s a widow who’s living on her own, or a widower living on his own. They’re lonely. God sets the solitary in families. He wants them to be part of a family. Maybe you’ll invite just one person. Or maybe you’ll have a family, a family with little ones. Or you might even have courage to have a big family! But you’ll be praying and asking the Lord, “Who do You want me to have?”
We have had different seasons in our lives. We had churches where we didn’t have a fellowship meal afterwards. Currently, we do. In the last few years, we’ve always had a fellowship meal so that everyone who comes to this fellowship church will stay on for the fellowship meal. That is so glorious. It’s as important as the service.
We sit around tables together and fellowship and talk about things that we would never have an opportunity to do if we just came to church and went home. It’s at the table where we begin to feel and hear the needs of others, pray with one another, talk about problems together, and talk about life! It’s just so wonderful. It’s so great if you do belong to a church where they have a fellowship meal.
There have been times when we haven’t been in that situation, so when we’ve been in that situation, we have always asked someone home for a meal for our Sunday fellowship. We have never, ever, except one time, had a Sunday where we haven’t been fellowshipping with the people of God.
I remember one time, way, way, way, way back in the early, early days. I remember saying to Colin, “Oh darling, why don’t we, this Sunday, just don’t have people? We’ll just come home and be ourselves. We’re always reaching out and feeding everybody. Let’s just have a day where we don’t.” So, we decided that would be a good idea. We did not invite one person. We went home on our own.
Can I tell you that that was the most boring Sunday of our whole lives? We didn’t know what to do with ourselves. It was so boring. We never did it again. We always invited people. Back in those days, we would invite a family. As our children grew older, they would be inviting their friends. Goodness me. We often ended up home with about 30 people, sitting around our table, and sitting here, and sitting there. But what glorious fellowship we had! It was always so wonderful.
I have a little wee piece here from a lady who wrote about how she loved coming to our place for a meal. I think I wrote it here. Let’s see. Yes, she said, “Nancy and Colin always invited me to have Sunday lunch with them after church with their family.” (She must have been one we made, “OK, you just come every Sunday!” because we usually had different people). “What a blessed time that was, of sharing food, and discussing. We would all clasp hands and sing grace together. What marvelous conversations flew around that table. Discussions on many topics. To prove a point, Colin would often bring out the Bible and quote from it. That settled the matter. We all learned so much, and how we laughed!”
I love that, because when you have people coming to your home, you don’t want it to be some boring thing. You want it to be life, and dialogue, and conversation, and laughter. We always made Sunday a time for a fellowship meal, or inviting a family, or other people home.
Currently we also make Friday night a night, where we always invite people, because it’s our Shabbat meal. We always, always have someone to gather at our table for our Shabbat meal. Often, during the week, we’ll also have another night where we have people as well. That’s just our lifestyle.
What is our time, girls? How are we doing for time? Oh goodness me, I’m over time! OK. Well, we’ll just continue next week. All right.
“The Lord bless you, dear ladies, dear mothers, dear young people, dear little children listening. May you all be blessed of the Lord. I bless you in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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