COMMITMENT TO GOD THAT COSTS nothing is worth nothing. My husband preached a message a few years ago titled, “That Which Costs Me Nothing”. It’s one of my all time favorite sermons and I just happened to read this scripture this morning and it bears repeating. David had sinned. He repented before the Lord and built an altar for a sacrifice. A man of Israel saw David coming in order to buy his land and oxen and he offered these things to David for free. David refused,
“Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” II Samuel 24:24
See, David’s words reveal that the true value of our gifts, worship and life’s service is measured by our depth of our love and sacrifice it involves. Jesus modeled worship and service motivated by love and sacrifice, as did Paul and the early church. God told the people through Isaiah, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Isaiah condemned the people for bringing offerings and sacrifices to God while continuing to participate in evil deeds; there was no true love for the LORD. Worship and praise can become an abomination to Him if our hearts are not sincerely and wholly devoted to Him and His holy ways.
Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice on the cross. We know the love of God was manifest on His cross and in His death. In fact, love is not love if it’s not tied to a sacrifice. Love costs. It will cost you time. It will cost you money, friends, and family. We live in the most self-centered generation that’s ever existed. The last church in Revelation is the lukewarm church.
The name “Laodicea” means “judgment of the people” and thus being lukewarm implies that you, not the Lord, determine what you want to do, what you want to give, where you want to go, how you want to obey and how you want to spend your time. The thing about lukewarm people is that they are blind to their condition.
The lukewarm says, “I am good! I am blessed! Jesus loves me so I can do what I want!” But Jesus says of this church generation, “you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked”. You don’t love Him because you won’t sacrifice for Him. You will give some but not all- some of your time, some of your money, some of your gifts, but never all. There’s no cost to you. Repentance is necessary, your sight must be returned. Paul understood the cost of following Christ. It is the call to lay everything at His feet. I am not my own, I was bought with a price; all things belong to Him and all things are for Him. I have no right to my own life- it’s forfeit for Jesus. Not my will, but Thine Lord.
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ…. Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.” Philippians 3:7-8, 17-19
David was a man after God’s own heart. Want to be a person after God’s heart? It will cost you everything, but the rewards are out of this world. Let these words ring in your ears today: “nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.”
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