Putting the 'S' Back in 'Sacrifice'

"However, the king said to Araunah, 'No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing'" (2 Samuel 24:24)

Have you ever thought seriously about the "sacrifice" of heartfelt worship, beloved?  Did you know that what your offering of worship "costs" you is very important to God?  David is a classic and glorious example of this truth in the life of every true worshiper.  But take a moment with me to consider just how important the sacrifice of your worship is to God.  The children of Israel had fallen into a dangerous trap in offering their sacrifices unto the Lord and the problem lay as much with the Levitical priesthood as with the people themselves:

"You also say, 'My how tiresome it is!'  And you disdainfully sniff at it," says the Lord of hosts, "and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering!  Should I receive that from your hand?" (Malachi 1:13)

Israel had lost all sense of the greatness of God, beloved, as evidenced by the fact that worship was to them completely ceremonial or "surface."  They "sniffed" at each act of worship and "yawned" their way through them.  If they had worn wrist watches in those days, I am sure they would have been checking them to see when the service was going to end!  No wonder, then, that God in righteous indignation declared:

"'Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar!  I am not pleased with you,' says the Lord of hosts" (Malachi 1:10)

Contrast such divine outrage with how pleased He was with His servant David.  When offered by Araunah the Jebusite not only land for the altar but the oxen for sacrifice and the threshing sledges and yokes for wood for the fire and all of that free of charge, David wisely put the 's' back in 'sacrifice' when he refused and declared that any act of worship which costs the worshiper nothing also means just that to God...nothing.

When we enter into an act of worship today, beloved, and our thoughts are anywhere but on that worship, we are "sniffing" at the act itself and showing that we consider it to be "tiresome."  When we hear the Word of God preached and are thinking instead about what we are going to do when "church" is over, we are offering to God worship that costs us nothing.  When we sing the all too familiar words of praise in a rote manner while thinking of other things, we are offering to God an act of worship that is meaningless to Him.

Oh, that we would learn how today to put the 's' back in 'sacrifice', that worship would be totally about Him and not at all about us or our busy lives.  Oh, that we would think of what we bring before the Lord as seriously as David did the altar that he built on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, that site which, by the way, became the site of the temple.  For God to bless us with His presence in worship, beloved, that worship must be real.  It must cost us something.  Specifically, it must cost us the rule of our lives.  It must involve us yielding personally and continually to the control of the Spirit of God.  Only then will we know that we have truly put the 's' back in 'sacrifice.' Only then will God be pleased with our worship.

Ron 

Where Are the Nine?

"And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks; and he was a Samaritan.  And Jesus answering said, 'Were there not ten cleansed?  But where are the nine?'" (Luke 17:15-17)

Genuine "thankfulness" seems to have become a rare commodity indeed, beloved!  Even in Jesus' day when He graciously healed ten men of the dreaded disease of leprosy, only one of them showed true gratitude of heart and returned to thank Him after showing himself to the priest according to the dictates of the Mosaic Law.  And when he returned and fell on his face in thanksgiving before Him, Jesus rightly posed the question that should be on our hearts today: "Where are the nine?"

This sad but true incident in the life of Jesus reveals to us a number of key truths concerning genuine thankfulness today.  The first is that a thankful heart will always recognize that help has come from outside to one who is essentially unworthy.  No one in Hebrew society was considered more of an outcast than a "leper."  No one afflicted with this horrible and terminal disease was allowed within the walls of a city, much less in any public building.  The penalty was often death.  Likewise truly grateful hearts today will recognize and freely acknowledge that, as Paul told the Ephesians about their life before Christ: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins" and that "by grace you have been saved through faith" (2:1, 8).  Before God you and I are all equally unworthy of a second look from God and completely, like those ten lepers, unable to improve our standing.

But a second wonderful truth that should be obvious in this account, beloved, is that genuine worship can only come from genuine gratitude.  Much of what is called "worship" today and what men mistake for worship is actually only structured religious ceremony.  No matter how it is contrived or carried out, whether it is "traditional" or "contemporary"/"liturgical" or "charismatic" - it matters not - unless it is prompted by genuine and heartfelt gratitude for God's grace, it is shallow and empty and means nothing at all to God. The cry of "Thanks be to God!" from a single heart touched by His grace and transformed by His power is more of "worship" than the loftiest anthem or the grandest sermon ever delivered.

Finally, a truth that should rivet our attention upon the nature of true redemption is that only the one who is truly grateful gives evidence of having been truly converted.  In Jesus' closing words to this one of ten who returned to fall on his face and give thanks, we find His promise that "your faith has made you well" (v. 19).  But wait a moment!  Were not the ungrateful nine just as healed of leprosy as was this one who returned?  What then did Jesus mean?  Here the word for being made "well" or "whole" means literally "saved you."  Jesus said to the one who came back: "Your faith has saved you."  That one man, then, not only went home that day free from the curse of leprosy, beloved, but free from the eternal curse of sin and its condemnation as well.

So to pose Jesus' question once more: "Where are the nine?"  Are you one of them?  Am I?  Not if we truly understand that in and of ourselves we are not worthy of what Jesus did for us in love on the cross.  And not if we understand that only hearts that are grateful for what He did for us can in turn give Him the worship that He so richly deserves.  And not if we understand, above all else, that only a truly grateful heart will show to our world what a truly saved heart and transformed life is like.

So where are the nine at this Thanksgiving season?  Let's hope that all are on their way back to fall again at His feet and to thank Him for His glorious grace!

Ron      

 

A New Wind Blowing?

"Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts" (Proverbs 21:2)

Have you heard the latest "buzzword" bouncing around the mainstream media, beloved, and destined to become more familiar to us all in days ahead?  That word is "inclusive."  By media definition, to be "inclusive" means that we accept everyone's standards and ideals as their own and that, consequently, there are no more set standards for what is right and wrong.  The recent votes on legalizing marijuana and gay marriages and euthanasia surely made that point clear!

Every person doing what is right in his own eyes and expecting no accountability for his choices is certainly nothing new.  In fact, the people of earth have all been through this cycle before and as far back as the generation in which Noah lived.

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5)

Do you have any idea what society in Noah's day was plagued with, beloved?  It was clearly a sense of the need for "inclusiveness"!  Everybody is free to do what he wants to do and that is his human right.  And what was the result?  God judged sinful man for his inclusive attitude and a world-wide flood wiped out everything and everyone except Noah and his family.

So here we are in 2012 being told that we basically as conservatives lost this presidential election because we have not learned how to be "inclusive" enough.  In other words, live and let live.  Toss out the standards of right and wrong.  To your own self be true.  What the other guy does is none of your business.  Learn to look the other way.

Unfortunately for those who hold to such a misguided philosophy of living, no one has bothered to ask God what He thinks of it.  Did you notice what the writer of Proverbs here had to say?  He said that "the Lord weighs the hearts."  Do you know what that means?  It means that when it comes to right and wrong, when it comes to every man setting his own standard for how he lives his life, God is not "inclusive" at all!

So maybe we shouldn't say that there is a "new wind" blowing across this land, but perhaps a "new old wind."  It's been thought before.  It's been planned before.  And it's been done before.  And the result has always and will always be the same.  God weighs the hearts of those who practice such things.  Pray for America, beloved.  I don't think she is going to like where her "new wind" is going to take her.

Ron