COSTLY FAITH

2 Samuel 24:24

“No, I insist on paying you for it.  I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

King David had sinned against the Lord by disobeying God’s command forbidding the king from counting the men in his army.  As a result, God brought a plague on Israel and people were dying.  Seventy thousand people died in this plague.  The prophet of the Lord told David to go to the threshing floor of Araunah and make sacrifices in order to stop plague.  When David told Araunah he wanted to buy his threshing floor in order to worship the Lord, Araunah insisted that David accept his property as a gift.  He even offered to give David the oxen and the wood for the sacrifice.  That is when insisted on purchasing the ground and said these memorable words, “I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

These thoughts have to do with the cost of following Jesus Christ.  Generally speaking, we American Christians know very little about costly discipleship.  We face no risk to our personal freedoms or our health or our business when we leave our homes to go to worship on Sunday mornings.  We know very little about suffering persecution in our neighborhoods or at our workplaces.  When it comes to giving our tithes and offerings we usually give from our excess funds, what we can afford to give.  In reality, when we look closely at what it costs us to follow Christ we have to admit that the cost is low.

I think of our brothers and sisters who live in countries where the risk of public worship and proclaiming the good news is great.  I think of pastors who are languishing in prisons because they refused to stop preaching the gospel or evangelizing their communities.  I think of Christians who have lost their jobs or their homes because they would not be silent about their faith in Christ.  I think of pastors and evangelists in India whom I know personally who regularly risk their own wellbeing by taking the gospel into villages where it is unwelcome.  I hear all of them saying, “I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God that which costs me nothing.”

Jesus told us all to count the cost of being his disciple.  As I sit here on the last day of 2011 looking forward to a brand new year I ask myself, “What will it cost me to be a faithful follower of Jesus in 2012?  How can I give more of myself, my time, my energy, my money, and my gifts to be a good disciple?” 

David bought that threshing floor and sacrificed to the Lord and the plague stopped.  When we are reading the story in 2 Samuel we are not aware of the plans God had for that property.  Years later Solomon would build the temple on that very land and it would become the place where the people of God would worship for centuries.  It would be the place where the Son of God would come and worship and teach.  It would be the site of the gatherings of the first Christians.

We never know what God will do with the sacrifices we make for him.  I know God will take whatever I have to give and turn it into something which is far beyond my imagination.  As New Hope Church moves into our own building in January we will have the opportunity to give generously and to sacrifice much.  The giving and sacrificing can continue not only in 2012 but for years to come.  Who knows what God will do with what we bring to him?