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