Hebrews 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]