2 Samuel 24:18-25 What Does it Cost to Serve God?

What Does it Cost to Serve God?

2 Samuel 24:18–25 NLT

18 That day Gad came 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 to do what the Lord had commanded him. 20 When Araunah saw the king and his men coming toward him, he came and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. 21 “Why have you come, my lord the king?” Araunah asked. David replied, “I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord there, so that he will stop the plague.” 22 “Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish,” Araunah said to David. “Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing boards and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. 23 I will give it all to you, Your Majesty, and may the Lord your God accept your sacrifice.” 24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” So David paid him fifty pieces of silver* for the threshing floor and the oxen. 25 David built an altar there to the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer for the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

What does it cost to serve God? Short answer worship of Him and nothing else. Most times we act as if our worship of God is more of a burden instead of a gift that He has given us. First of all WHY do I serve to God? I assure you there is no way you are going to enrich God. So why do I give to God? Is it because I have to? Is it because I feel somehow obligated…God gave me His Son and eternal life so I’ll give Him a couple hours on Sunday. That’s kinda how we approach worship right?

See David was in this position because of that kind of attitude to start with. That is where this story started. His “I am the boss” kinda attitude is what lead to his sin in the first place. We already established that we are no different than David in that respect. We begin to get to big for our britches and pretty soon we think we are more than we truly are…which by the way without Jesus as we said before ain’t nothing at all.

Then we learned that David when he realized how bad he messed up he just fell on God’s grace and mercy and trusted in God to do what was just and right. Now we arrive at the point where the plague has stopped and David is told by Gad to do what? 2 Samuel 24:18

2 Samuel 24:18 ESV

And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

“Go” don’t do it where you are go over there. I want my altar built there in that spot. See we don’t choose where we go and what we do when we worship God. God is the one in charge not you or me. Go there and do this. Not only do this but do it this way in that place right there.

David was the king true enough but he learned from his earlier folly that when God speaks he listens. “Go over there and do this.” “Yes Lord.” God did not tell David have someone build me an altar.…God did not say send someone to do this…God did not say if you have time…God did not say if you are up to it…God did not say if you have the money…God said go there and do this.

What you bring to God in worship first and foremost is obedience. What does it cost to serve God? First of all it is gonna cost you what you hold most dear… your power to dictate where you go and what you do. That’s the first thing it’s gonna cost you. You are no longer living for you and what you want. God is now the primary focus in a true life of service to Him. When God calls you answer. When God says go you go. When God says pray you pray. When God says witness you witness. God is now in charge.

When God told David to go he went. Now when David got there he knew what he had to do. The plague was not over it has just been placed on hold. Understand this plague is still very much alive and well it is not over just stayed. There has been no sacrifice to stop it at this point. There was no mistaking that David learned his lesson from the whole sin of thinking he was bigger and more important than the Lord. He knew what a sacrifice was and how it should be done properly.

Notice in verse 21 what happens 2 Samuel 24:21

2 Samuel 24:21 ESV

And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be averted from the people.”

David said I have come to buy the threshing floor from you. He did not say give me the threshing floor or let me use the threshing floor. It was understood that was part of the sacrifice to be made. I am here to buy that from you.

The second thing it’s gonna cost is effort. Don’t try to short cut God and call that service or worship. Don’t try to send someone else to do what God told you to do and call that worship or call that good. Don’t think for one second that God will honor that type of sacrifice to Him. To start with that is not a sacrifice at all. David was the king he could have easily demanded the floor be given to him so he did not have to pay for it. David knew that was not what he was called to do.

In your life when God calls you and you try to take short cuts and cut corners just to hurry up and get done what God called you to so that you can go back to doing what you wanted to do that is serving God, your serving self. That is giving God just enough to get you by. That is not putting God first that is telling God that He is not worthy of your best effort to do what He has called you to.

Now you might be thinking what has that got to do with David paying for that threshing floor it cost David something. Just because you ain’t buying it with money don’t mean it ain’t costing you time and effort. Your paying it just ain’t in money. We reduce service to God down to money when service to God is more than what you put in the plate at church.

It don’t only cost money on Sunday morning to serve God. Sometimes it costs sleep…sometimes it costs money…sometimes it costs time…sometimes it costs giving of self on behalf of someone else…..sometimes it is simply a sacrifice of self “I want to do this Lord” and God says “no” and we say “Yes Lord.” If love is measured by gifts given, then what I give says how much I love you. If that is our line of thinking then, think of what God has given to us. There is but one verse we need to call to mind John 3:16

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

That is a measure of love…. a gift that is so precious how can it be measured this side of heaven. What is my gift to God..what is my worship compared to this? Am i giving my best efforts to God or just what I think I can spare to get some fire insurance?

Now I want us to look at what happens starting in verse 22 2 Samuel 24:22-24

2 Samuel 24:22–24 ESV

Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.” But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

Araunah tries to give David not only the threshing floor but also the oxen and the yokes to make the fire of the sacrifice with. He is giving him everything he needs to complete the sacrifice. I want you to drill down here on what David tells Araunah in verse 24 2 Samuel 24:24

2 Samuel 24:24 ESV

But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

How much sacrifice is involved in your acts of service and worship? How much is it costing you to worship God? The third thing it’s gonna cost is something. That’s right I said something why so vague you ask? Because often times in our lives it is not money but something God asks of us. David refused to cheapen his love for God or the act of worship that was about to take place. He wanted God to know that he was willing to give anything at any price he was not about to take a short cut or try to cut a deal in order to fulfill his worship of God.

David wanted God to know how much it meant for him to be forgiven and how much God meant to him and that there was a reverence in his worship for God. He wanted it to be understood that this was what he was told to do and he got the message loud and clear. He was not about to believe for one second that he was above God again.

God showed him mercy and grace and he wanted God to know that he was indeed truly thankful and that God was first and most important in his life. He wanted that fact known to everyone.

We often reduce service and worship down to just money so let’s put it in frame of time..we reduce worship itself down to a few hours on Sunday morning and if we go to Bible study on Wednesday night (and by the way this is not the preacher trying to guilt trip you into coming to Bible study on Wednesday nights. If you don’t want to come or if you have something else that happens on Wednesday night I understand…I use this as an example of time given to God) an hour or two then so lets say four hours a week and that is giving it some.

Out of 168 hours in the week we give God 4 and call it good. We say that is service or worship. We say that we spend time with God. Oh we may find a few minutes here or there to maybe pause and read a few passages but man we got so much going on in our lives. We have baseball …we have school…..we have the kids or grandkids….. we have animals to tend to…. grass to cut…… stuff to do…. dinner to cook…. we got jobs to work…. we have all this stuff going on……but preacher we manage to squeeze in some time for prayer before bed and when we get up.

If that is the only time you are thinking about God you are not worshipping God. Folks I am just sharing with you here David bought that threshing floor out of reverence for God. He knew it was going to cost him something and God was first. He did not want God getting the leftovers. He wanted God to be first.

I told you this part of the chapter tied the story together. We started out with thinking we are more important than God. We then learned from David what to do when we find we have wandered away and have sinned. In this passage we see that sacrifice is required in our lives to be right with God. How to hit the reset button and get our worship back on track. How to refocus our lives on God and put Him first. We can’t earn our way to heaven but there is a standard and why is there a standard……

There is an importance here that needs to be stated if you look in 2 Chronicles 3:1

2 Chronicles 3:1 ESV

Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

What God is doing in your life is something amazing. We have to realize how important God is to us first of all. Second we have to realize that when we sin God’s grace and mercy is ours for the asking. Lastly give God your very best. Let your sacrifice to God cost you something so that it is sacred. Give of yourself to the Lord. His plan for your life is so much more than you can see and it will affect so many more than you will ever know when we are just obedient and reverent.

Invitation….