My annual journey through Scripture has once again taken me to the early books of the Old Testament and those long passages in which God lays out the laws that are meant to govern his covenant people as they come into their promised land. Among the laws are a whole host that describe the system of sacrifices. So many sacrifices to serve so many purposes!

As I worked my way through chapter after chapter, I noticed one recurring theme: the people are meant to bring to the Lord what is first and what is best. Where they may be tempted to wait until their barns are full and their larders stuffed before offering their sacrifice, God demands the firstfruits. Where they may be tempted to sacrifice the animals that are lame or unsightly and that can otherwise serve no good purpose, God demands what is perfect and unblemished. He makes clear that if his people are to worship him, they must worship him in ways that prove he is their first priority.
And as I read I began to wonder: Do I give God what is first and what is best in my life? I don’t even mean the first of my money or the first of my possessions, because in my context those concepts don’t even really make sense. What is the firstfruits of a paycheck and what is a spotless and unblemished sacrifice in a twenty-first century urban context? What do these things mean when our worship no longer revolves around an intricate system of sacrifices?
Yet the New Testament does demand at least one kind of sacrifice. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). Where in the Old Testament God’s people were to sacrifice an animal, we are to sacrifice our bodies and, more than that, to sacrifice our very selves. As we come to Christ we are to surrender to him our bodies and souls, our attitudes and actions, our time and talents, our dreams and desires, our … everything.
This is why we sing songs like, “Take My Life, and Let It Be” in which we piously say,

Take my life and let it beconsecrated, Lord, to thee.

And, later:

Take myself, and I will beever, only, all for thee.

Or “All to Jesus I Surrender”:

All to Jesus I surrender,All to Him I freely give;I will ever love and trust Him,In His presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all;All to Thee, my blessed Savior,I surrender all.

But I wonder: Do we really mean it? Are we really “ever, only, all for thee?” Do we really surrender all? Or do we surrender merely some or most? Do we offer him the best of what we have or those bits we know we can do okay without? Do we really fully surrender to him those things that we love most, or do we effectively bring him what is lame and spotted, what is of little consequence and low on our list of priorities? Do we surrender the firstfruits of our lives or the lastfruits?
“I surrender all,” except my money and comfort. “Take my life” but not my position or reputation. “Take my heart it is thine own,” but please don’t take that sin I enjoy so much. “Take all I have Lord,” minus my health and strength, minus my spouse and children. “All to Jesus I surrender,” except those things I value most. We may as well be the Israelites of old entering the temple with the ugliest of our animals, the leftovers of our harvest.
When we come to Christ we must come all the way, which means we do not merely surrender our souls, but ourselves. Our prayer is to be not just “save me” but “use me.” “Use me even if it involves pain. Use me even if it involves loss. Use me even if it means you must break me. I love you, I trust you, and I surrender all.”

Preaching is a miracle. Faithful sermons are far more than explanations of a biblical text; they are celebrations of biblical realities. In ‘The Preaching Class,’ now available free online, John Piper distills lessons from more than three decades in the pulpit.

In this introduction, below, Pastor John invites preachers and listeners to join him in his series of short videos on preaching. Throughout the series, Pastor John distills lessons from his 33 years in the pulpit and 10 years in the classroom with aspiring pastors, all with the aim of welcoming listeners into the life of a preacher and the glorious task of preaching. Preaching is not the only means God uses to save and sanctify his people, but it is an essential one. We invite you to join us as Pastor John explains why.
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Watch all 30 workshops & lectures from ‘The Preaching Class.’

This week the blog is sponsored by Harvest USA.
Today, more than ever, parents need to take a proactive approach in preparing their children for a world bombarding them with false messages about sex, gender, and identity. If parents abdicate their God-given responsibility to equip and train their children with a biblical foundation for understanding sex and gender, the world is fully prepared to indoctrinate them in unbiblical ideologies that promote the self as god and individual experience as the supreme authority.
Raising Sexually Faithful Kids
Whether it’s pornography, LGBTQ+ ideologies, sexting, or hook-up apps, children are facing a torrent of temptations and dangers in matters of sexuality. This is why Harvest USA is offering a free online course for parents entitled Raising Sexually Faithful Kids. This eight-session course will help you understand what it looks like to proactively teach your children about God’s good gift of sexuality and how to guard that gift against temptations to misuse it in sinful ways. We also want to equip you to know how to respond to your children in love and truth when theystart to wrestle with sexual sins of various kinds. Raising Sexually Faithful Kids will help you understand your children not only at the level of their behavior but also by looking into the deeper issues of their hearts. You’ll learn how struggles with pornography, promiscuity, same-sex attraction, or gender distress may developand how the gospel of Jesus Christ offers hope for repentance, healing, and transformation. You’ll also be equipped for having not simply a one-off, awkward sex talk, but an ongoing dialogue with your children about God’s good design for sex with age-appropriate conversations during critical seasons. You’ll also receive vital information about ways to protect your family from the growing dangers technology presents. Raising sexually faithful kids requires a robust technology protection plan. Finally, you’ll learn how to engage in compassionate care and discipleship if you find your son has been looking at pornography or your daughter has been caught sexting.Your loving and truthful response to your child’s sin and struggles will show them the character of our good and loving heavenly Father.
Parenting Boys and Girls in a Gender-Confused World
Maybe you’ve already encountered how challenging it is to help your kids when peers, teachers, school guidance counselors, social media—perhaps even your familyphysician—promote ideas about our bodies, identity, personhood, or gender that don’t line up with biblical faith. Or maybe you have the painful experience of your child or their friends identifying as transgender, genderqueer, or something else celebrated by the evolving sexual and gender revolution. Parenting Boys and Girls in a Gender-Confused World is an eight-session, free online course from Harvest USA that will give you practical guidance as you seek to disciple sons and daughters about what it means to be a boy or girl created in love to bear God’s image. We wantto help you help them grow in understanding God’s design so they can think Biblically about gender and have the knowledge and courage to explain and defend the goodness of our Creator’s intent. And, of course, we want to guide you in how to offer compassionate discipleship if your child is struggling in this area. For free access to both courses, as well as many other resources on biblical sexuality, visitharvestusa.org or check out our courses at harvestusa.org/courses.