"Building a Church Through Outreach"
It Must Have a Price
ELCOG 8/19/07
Text: 2 Samuel 24:18-25 (24)
This morning I want us to look at a story where David wants to offer sacrifices to the lord for his sins. David is now in the latter stages of his life and of his rule. He decides to take a census of all the people of Israel in verse 10 you can read where David’s conscience begins to bother him. He cries out to the Lord and the Lord offers him three choices of punishments:
1. 3 years of famine
2. 3 months of fleeing from your enemies
3. 3 days of severe plague throughout the land.
David decided to put his life and his people’s lives in the hands of God instead of the hands of his enemies. He chose the 3 days of a severe plague in which 70,000 people died throughout the nation. The death angel was about to destroy Jerusalem when God stopped him. David saw the angel of God and said, "I am the one who has sinned and done wrong, let your anger fall on me and my family" (David was always good at taking blame and repenting of the sin is his life. It is better to confess than to ignore the truth of your mistakes)
After David’s confession, he got a word from the prophet to build an altar at the threshing floor. David went to do what the Lord had commanded.
** Let me remind you that the threshing floor is a place of separation. It is where the seed is separated from the harvested plant.
Sometimes in life we have to go to the threshing floor. Often God is trying to remove things in our lives that only hinder our work and our relationship with him. This process is never easy, but it is necessary. In order for us to grow into the proper people of God we have to go through the threshing process. We have to allow god to sanctify our lives. We must allow him to take out the parts that cause hurt and bitterness. We must allow him to take the bad habits that hurt our witness and out effectiveness. We must go through the threshing process.
In this stage of David’s it is interesting that he is told to go to the threshing floor, but even if you’re a king there must be a place of separation. It’s in this place that you die to yourself and are born into God.
So, as David approached, Araunah saw the King coming toward him and he ran to meet him. David told him that he wanted to buy his threshing floor to build an altar to the Lord, so that the Lord would stop the plague, but Araunah said, "NO, King, I will give it to you…take it."
David was offered what he wanted for free. No price to be paid, just offer the sacrifice and stop the plague. Many people are unhappy with the stage of their life and to be offered your desire at no cost seems too good to be true.
** Here is a problem of the modern church: We are more than happy to accept anything without cost. We don’t want to endure the threshing floor and we want to stop the plague without a price. We want the blessings of God for free. We have become a bunch of spoiled brats with our hand outstretched for all the free stuff we can get. BUT that is not always how God works.
Notice in verse 24 David made a very powerful statement. A statement that we as Christians need to get into our spirit and understand its importance.
2 Sam. 24:24
24And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
I cannot present an offering to the Lord that cost me nothing. I can not offer God something that was given to me. Wow, what a powerful statement. A sacrifice is not a sacrifice unit it’s personal. A sacrifice is not a sacrifice until it hurts you. It is so easy for me to give your stuff away or to give your money in the offering, but when its mine it begins to mean so much more.
That is the problem…. We have people trying to offer sacrifices that are not personal to them.
Heb. 13:15
15By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Jer. 33:11
11The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.
We should bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord, but it must have a price. I have the answer to your why questions…. God is taking you through the threshing floor so that your sacrifice will have a price; so that your praise will mean something. Some of you need to take advantage of all the hard times you have been going through. God is making it where that when you come into church and the service starts you’ll be the first one to begin to worship. It will not matter that the song is not your favorite, or that the others around you are not doing anything but sitting like a knot on a log, but for you….. you have been through the fire and today you offer a sacrifice with a price. The reason you have been suffering … well, you have a price. I know you may have been down on your luck, but look at what you have now that you have come through the battle. You have a praise with a price. I don’t want it handed to me on a silver patter…. I can not offer a sacrifice that has not cost me something. I have a broken heart, and a discouraged spirit. I have been to hell and back in my life, but its all for something….. I now have a price. This should cause you to lift your voice. And shout a little louder, even though no one else will shout with you. This is your praise. This is your sacrifice and it cost you something.
Psa. 37:23
23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.
Psa. 37:24
24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.
Psa. 37:25
25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
Psa. 37:26
26 He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.
Le me give you some advice, HOLD ON! The righteous have never been forsaken. We have never been crushed. We have been through the threshing floor and a price has been paid to make my sacrifice worth something.
Let me begin to close, some of you this morning have been so discouraged because of the things have been going in your life and I am sure that they have been hard to endure, but remember:
1 Cor. 10:13
13There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
God is taking you through the battle. He is never going to leave you nor forsake you, but he might take you to the threshing floor. But change your perception; God is making your praise personal. He is making your sacrifice cost something. Many people will never offer a personal sacrifice and therefore never really get God’s attention, but as for you, take this battle that you are in a realize that God is giving you a price to buy the praise with.
I am sure that you have heard preachers say, "Don’t look at me funny when I praise God, you don’t know what I have been through." I don’t know, but you and God do, so pay the price and offer this sacrifice to God. You praise should mean something to you. Your praise has to have a price.