Is Your Worship of God Convenient or Costly?

2 Samuel 24:18-25  (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 24:18-25.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

2 Samuel 24:18-19 (NIV)
¹⁸  On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
¹⁹  So David went up, as the LORD had commanded through Gad.

On verses 18-19: Earlier the Lord had sent the prophet Gad to tell David about the punishment for his sin.  3 days later the Lord sends the prophet Gad to tell David how to make things right again. He instructs David to build an altar to the Lord at the very place where the plague would stop: the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (v18).

What can we learn from this?  God is just as intentional about restoring a person after they have sinned as He is about punishing the sin.  In fact, that’s what God did at the cross.  When Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for us, God was simultaneously punishing our sin and making a way for us to be restored back to Himself.  God’s heart is to restore sinners back to Himself.

There’s another lesson we can learn from this.  Keep in mind that the threshing floor of Araunah was historically significant for a few reasons:

First, scholars say that the threshing floor of Araunah was the same place where centuries before Abraham in Genesis 22 tried to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice pursuant to God’s command before God said to Abraham, “Stop! Enough!” In other words, the very place where God showed mercy to Abraham was the very place where God would also show mercy to David.

Second, one generation after David, Solomon, David’s son, would build Israel’s temple on the site of Araunah’s threshing floor.  In other words, the very place where David made atonement for sin to stop the plague would be the very place where the temple would be built.

Third, remember that when David conquered Jerusalem, he took the city from the Jebusites.  Araunah was a Jebusite.  Here we see two once warring parties coming together not to fight but to work together.  They go out of their way to serve one another and sacrifice for one another.

What can we learn from this?  God loves to build His church in places where mercy and forgiveness flow and where people sacrifice for Him and for each other.

2 Samuel 24:20-25 (NIV)
²⁰  When Araunah looked and saw the king and his men coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
²¹  Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
²²  Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.
²³  O king, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
²⁴  But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.
²⁵  David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

On verses 20-25:    When Araunah learns of David’s intentions to buy his threshing floor as the site of the altar, Araunah tells David to take whatever he wants for free.  Araunah also tells David that he can take Araunah’s oxen and sacrifice them and that if David wants, he can chop up Araunah’s threshing sledges and ox yokes and use them as wood for the offering (v22).  But David refuses to take any of Araunah’s possessions for free.  Rather David insists on paying for all of them and makes one of the most powerful statements in the Bible: “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” (v24)  So David pays Araunah 50 shekels of silver to buy the threshing floor and everything else needed for the offering.   After David builds the altar and sacrifices burnt offerings and fellowship offerings there, the plague stops (v25).

Some scholars believe that when David purchased the land from Araunah to use it for offering sacrifices, David may have been following the procedure laid out in the Jewish law for dedicating land to the Lord (for example, see Leviticus 27:16-25), with the intention that from then on this land would always be used as a place of worship^[1].  Later on David’s son Solomon would build the Jewish temple on this same site.

What can we learn from this? Don’t give God cheap worship.  Give God worship that costs you something.

Our sins were so costly that it cost Jesus Christ his life.  Jesus paid dearly for our mistakes.  Since God has paid the costliest price for our sin, it’s only fitting that we give to God worship that is costly too.

Because Jesus gave His all for you, don’t come to church as a consumer who comes just to get more free stuff.  When you come to worship God, give God a sacrifice that costs you something.  Come to give, not just to receive.  Be a participant, not just a spectator.  Don’t give God convenient worship, but costly worship.

How do you know if you’re giving God costly worship or convenient worship?  Here are 4 clues that you’re giving God convenient worship instead of costly worship:

1.  You come to church only to receive, not to give.   You don’t give.  You don’t serve.  You’re not interested in being a blessing; you just want to be blessed.  You just come to consume.  You come and go as you please without any kind of commitment or sense of responsibility to God or to your church.

2.  You treat God like a vending machine.   Your attitude when worshiping is “If I punch the right spiritual buttons, God must give me what I want.”  When God does give you what you want, you don’t thank God, just like you wouldn’t thank a vending machine.  And when God doesn’t give you what you want, you curse God and hit Him, just like some do when a vending machine isn’t working.

3. Your worship of God is sporadic (irregular and inconsistent).  Your worship of God is weather dependent.  When things are sunny in your life, you praise God.  When you’re going through a storm, you curse God or ignore Him.  Or you might do the opposite: during storms, you draw near to God, but when skies are clear, you ignore Him.

4.  Your worship of God is half-hearted.   When you’re in church, you’re half there, half not.  While people are praising God, you don’t make an effort to focus, but you let yourself be distracted easily.  While God’s Word is being preached, you’re watching and listening with half an eye, half an ear, half a heart.  The other half is somewhere else.

As you can see, “convenient worship” is not true worship at all.  It’s just another form of self-centered living.  You’ll find that when you give God convenient worship, no one is blessed – not you, not God, and not anyone else.  Ironically, the cost of being a convenient worshiper is far greater than the cost of giving God true, costly worship.

Instead, give God costly worship by being intentional in your praise, your focus, your giving and serving. Not just in church but during the week when you’re on your own, try going out of your way each day, even for a few minutes, to spend time with God, to draw near to Him and focus on Him. When you give God costly worship, you grow, God is glorified and others will be blessed. Ironically, when you give Hid costly worship, in the end you gain so much more yourself.

Because Jesus gave His all for us, let’s give our all for one name.

Lord Jesus, thank You for showing us the ultimate example of what true, costly worship is: how you laid down your entire life as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  Help me, like David, to give you costly worship.  May I not simply do what is convenient or easy for me.  May I not offer to You that which costs me nothing.  Just as You paid the highest price for me, may I be willing to pay the price for You.  For there I will experience the greatest joy, strength, peace and blessing from You.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!