Worship That Costs

INTRODUCTION

Worship that costs.

In John 4: 23 & 24, the Lord Jesus Christ gave one of the most powerful revelations of who God is, and what true worship entailed. He gave this revelation to a Samaritan woman from Sychar, who had come to draw water at Jacob’s well.

²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

 I have often pondered on the phrase “true worshippers” and wondered what it exactly meant. The phrase “true worshippers” implies that there could be “false worshippers.” The prophet Isaiah reminded us in Isaiah 29:13, that there would be people who would honor God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:5, that in the last days, there would be people “who would have a form of godliness but would deny the power thereof!” Thus, the Scriptures present the possibility of external worship without an internal relationship.

This morning, I would like to speak on the subject of authentic worship. I would be looking at two texts from the New Testament and one from the Old. I have entitled this message as “WORSHIP THAT COSTS!”

Please turn with me to

2 Samuel 24:18-22

¹⁸ On that day Gad went 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, as the LORD had commanded through Gad. ²⁰ When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped.” ²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.

2 Samuel 24:23 – 25

²³ Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept you.”

²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.

²⁵ David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

The first aspect that I would like to draw your attention to is that

True Worship will cost you something worth 

Let me give you the background of the text. David took the census of Israel, even though Joab the commander advised not to do it. The census took nine months and twenty days to be completed. At the end of it, David realized that he had made a grave mistake. God was displeased with what David had done. He sent His prophet Gad, and gave David three punishments to choose from –

• 7 Years of famine
• 3 months of fleeing before his enemies
• 3 Days of the Plague

David chose the third option. As a result of this seventy thousand people died from Dan to Beersheba. The Lord then spoke to David through the Prophet to go and offer sacrifice on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

David pays the cost of his worship

It is not every other day that you have the king visit your home. We read that Araunah is warm and effusive in his welcome of the king and offers David free

• The oxen for the burnt offering
• The threshing sledges (instruments)
• The ox yokes for the wood

David however declines the offer and pays Araunah 50 shekels of silver for them. He refuses to offer God anything that cost him nothing. His worship has to cost him.

David and his life of legacy

David for me is one of the most colorful characters in the Bible. We see different images of him portrayed in the Old Testament.

• As a dutiful shepherd, we see him fight a bear and a lion to protect his father’s sheep
• As an anointed Musician we see him play the harp skillfully to pacify a troubled king
• As a courageous warrior, we see him bravely confront Goliath, the giant, and go against a hundred Philistines single-handedly.
• As a gifted psalmist, we see David pen some of the most poignant and stirring songs and prayers in the Old Testament
• As an able leader, we read of him drawing followers who were discouraged and in debt and transforming them into a band of fearless fighters.

David the worshipper pays the cost of his worship

But for me, the image that stands out in the life of David is that of David the fervent worshipper. We read of him passionately dancing with all his might in the presence of God, oblivious of his surroundings when the Ark of the Covenant returned to Jerusalem. Even in the passage that we just read we see David refusing to offer God anything that did not have a price! David loved God deeply and this we see reflected in his worship. He wanted to worship with a cost and not cheap.

Worship that doesn’t cost anything isn’t worship, it is empty religion! Worship got to be a costly affair.

Amy Carmichael once said, “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”

I find worship and sacrifice inextricably linked throughout the scriptures. You see you can give without worshipping but you can never worship God without giving something of worth to Him. You cannot worship God genuinely without a cost to you.

Hannah dedicating Samuel is a costly worship

In the book of Samuel, we read of how Hannah dedicated her firstborn son, Samuel to serve God. This son was an answer to prayer, born after many years of barrenness. I have tried to imagine the scene of Hannah traveling with her little son to leave him in the temple. As she returned home, after she left little Samuel, she might have lumped in her throat and most probably wiped moist eyes. She was only going to next see this little child a year later when she would come for the annual sacrifice.

I am sure at times when she was alone at home, she may have remembered her little boy and wondered what he possibly could have been doing in the temple all by himself. Year after year she brought a coat that she lovingly made for him. This separation would never have been easy. Yet we read that Hannah honored God and God in turn honored Hannah. The narrator goes on to record in 1 Samuel 2:21, that the Lord blessed her for it and gave her 5 more children (3 sons and 2 daughters)!

You see, “One can never, never outgive God,”

Martin Luther once remarked, “I have tried to keep things in my hands and lost them all, but whatever I have given into God’s hands I still possess them.”

The second aspect that I would like to focus on is that –

True worship will cost your material wealth

Please turn with me to Mark 12 verses 41 – 44.

⁴¹ Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.

⁴² But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

⁴³ Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.

⁴⁴ They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything–all she had to live on.”

In this passage, we read of the Lord Jesus sitting opposite the treasury in the temple. We know that Herod’s temple was an impressive structure. We read of how the disciples of our Lord were greatly impressed with the magnificence and splendor of this imposing edifice.  Some time ago, I did a little study about this temple and discovered a few interesting details. The construction of this temple began in 19 BC and the main building was constructed by 9 BC. In height, it was twice the size of Solomon’s temple and richly overlaid with gold, which made it dazzle in the sunlight.

Solomon’s Temple

The whole enclosed area of the temple was about 35 acres and it had four separate courts –

• The Court of the Gentiles
• The Court of Women
• The Court of Israel
• The Court of the Priests

The Lord Jesus could have been seated anywhere in this mammoth arrangement. He, however, chose to sit opposite the treasury. I have often wondered why the Lord chose to sit there of all the places in such a large temple. I believe that He sat there to see how people worshipped as they gave!

The rich people came and gave liberally out of their abundance. A poor widow came and sacrificially placed her two mites, all that she possessed. It is this giving that caught the attention of the Master. The widow worshipped in a costly way. Her worship costs her everything. George Mueller the man of God who led an orphanage in Bristol, England once said, “God judges what we give by what we keep” And that is exactly what happened in this story.

BACKGROUND

Let me draw your attention to the churches of Macedonia – In 2 Corinthians 8:3, 4, we read that the churches of Macedonia gave abundantly despite their want. The Word records how in the midst of a

• Severe Trial……. There was an overflowing joy
• Extreme poverty…….. welled up in rich generosity

They gave because they loved…… They gave as an act of worship!

Dr. Billy Graham once said, “Tell me what you think about money, and I will tell you what you think about God, for these two are closely related.”

In Matthew 26, we see a beautiful story of how Mary of Bethany broke the alabaster box worth about three hundred denarii at the feet of Jesus.  Three hundred denarii would have been about one year’s wages. Many might have considered this a colossal waste! The Lord Jesus accepted it as a gift of love and worship because it was a costly worship that cost.

C.S. Lewis once said, “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.”

Finally, I would like to remind you that –

True Worship will cost your whole life

Please turn with me to

Romans 12:1, 2

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is true worship.  ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

After spending eleven chapters of the book of Romans explaining God’s incredible grace to us, the Apostle Paul urges us to fully surrender our lives to God in worship. Surrender, today, is an unpopular word as it implies losing, and no one wants to be a loser. Surrender evokes the unpleasant images of admitting defeat in battle, forfeiting a game, or yielding to a stronger opponent.  In today’s competitive culture, we would rather talk about winning, succeeding, overcoming, and conquering rather than yielding, submitting, obeying, and surrendering! True worship involves offering our lives back to God.

The Heart of Surrender

At the center of true worship is a heart of surrender. Someone rightly said worship is not about the song we sing, but the heart we bring! This is where we learn to pray, “Not my will but yours be done.” Prayer is not asking God to do our will in heaven but prayer is asking God to do His will on earth. I am reminded of a prayer by a Roman Catholic monk, who prayed this prayer every morning, lying on his bed, “God, this bed is the altar and I am the sacrifice!”

It is impossible to worship without sacrifice or cost, the giving of our best, the giving of our life. In Malachi 1:6-8 we read that the people of God had begun to show contempt for God by bringing the defected, the blind, and the sick of their fold and giving their leftovers to God as their worship. We sometimes use the word sacrilege, when someone takes something that belongs to God and uses it profanely. For example, in the book of Daniel, we read of Belshazzar taking the vessels of the temple and using them for a frivolous night of revelry and blasphemy. This was a sacrilegious use.

Sacrilege

However, sacrilege is not just using something holy for an unholy purpose, but in its worst form, it consists of taking and giving to God something when it means nothing to us. That was the charge God brought against his people when he said, “You bring the lame and the blind and the sick as an offering, is that not wrong?” Offer it to your governor, would he accept it?

We live in times of recycling and conservation. I know of people who would recycle the gift wrapping of the gifts they receive. However, there are those who not only recycle gift wrapping but also recycle gifts – passing on to others what is of no use to them!

It bothers me when people remark that such and such should consider serving the Lord or going to Bible College, as the person hasn’t fared well academically. In the same vein, they suggest that people who have done well should consider training to be professional. As if ministry is for those who have found no other suitable occupation and Bible College is some rehabilitation center.

God chose weak to confound the wise

Now I do believe that God has chosen the weak of this world to confound the wise and the simple to confound the sophisticated, so that no flesh may glory in His presence. But I also believe that we are called to offer our best to God. Two of the finest minds and well-educated in the Old Testament and the New Testament were Moses and Paul and both used their training in the service of God.

David Livingstone once said,

“If the service of an earthly king is considered an honor, why is it that the service of the heavenly king be considered a sacrifice?”

Now I am in no way saying that all of us are called to be involved in full-time service. I believe that God calls each of us to different vocations in life. However, the call that comes to each of us is to die to our selfish ambitions and to live consecrated lives to God. For in the Christian life we live by dying! Our Lord said in John 12:24…. Except for a corn of wheat, falls to the ground and dies it abides alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit! The question that confronts us today is whether are we willing to lay down our dreams to fulfill God’s dream for our lives.

ILLUSTRATION

John Leonard Dober and David Nitschman are names you may not readily recognize. John was a potter and David a carpenter. Ordinary occupations – extraordinary men! They are men who left the security of their jobs and families in Copenhagen to become the first Moravian missionaries in 1732.

John Leonard Dober and David Nitschman are unsung heroes. These men were not going on a nice short-term mission to the Caribbean, or even Africa or China but they sold themselves into slavery to answer the call ‘come and minister the gospel to us’. It gives new meaning to the phrase “sold out for Christ”. They became slaves to have the opportunity to reach the slaves of the West Indies for their Lord. Their life’s purpose was to follow the Lamb who had given His life for them and all the souls of the world. Their mission statement was “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.”

One of the men left his wife and children begging on the wharf for him to reconsider and stay. But the call and heart of God for these slaves in the West Indies was even greater than the pull of home. As the ship pulled away from the docks the men lifted a cry, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering” which became the resonating heartbeat of the Moravian Missions movement.

Romans 12: 1 – 2

So, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, and develops well-formed maturity in you. [Romans 12:1, 2 – Message]

ILLUSTRATION

William Mc Chesney the American missionary who was martyred in Congo, Africa wrote the following words before he died –

If He is God and died for me,

No sacrifice too great can be,

For me, a mortal man to make,

I’ll do it for Jesus’ sake.

Worship at its core is giving to God all your best, your life! This cannot be done without sacrifice…. this cannot be done without a cost. If we were to pause for a few moments and take stock, we would see how close we all come to sacrilege each day.

Do we give Him,

the best of our time?

or the best of our energies?

Do we give Him the best of our wealth?

or the best of our thinking?

Do we give Him the best of our dreams and plans?

Or do we place ……the rest ….. what remains… what is convenient…what is of no significance… mere leftovers!

Leftovers are such humble things,
We would not serve a guest,
And yet we serve them to our Lord
Who deserves the very best.

We give to Him leftover time,
Stray minutes here and there.
Leftover cash we give to Him,
Such few coins as we can spare.
We give our youth unto the world,
To hatred, lust, and strife;
Then in declining years, we give
To him the remnant of our life.

CONCLUSION

Let me conclude this message with a story that beautifully sums up what I have shared. A story is told of the legendary Sadhu Sundar Singh. A young man once met him and told him, “I too would like to become an itinerant evangelist and a traveling sadhu, when I became old.” Now the Sadhu could communicate the spiritual truth through his illustrations and parables. In response, the Sadhu pointed to a mango tree nearby and asked the young man, “If I were to pluck a mango from that tree, remove the skin and the flesh and having peeled off every bit of it, offer it to you, would you accept it?” The young man answered, “No, I wouldn’t!” The Sadhu replied, “God doesn’t want the dregs of your life. If you want to serve God, serve Him NOW!”

Self Reflection

I want us to ponder on a few questions as we bring this service to a close (with every head bowed and every eye closed)

• What are you willing to give God as an act of worship? What is the most precious thing that you possess, that you are willing to offer to God? Sacrifice and worship are linked inextricably. That is why worship costs.
• Is there a cost involved in the worship that you bring before Him? The Apostle Paul desired to spend everything he had and to expend himself as well….. to spend and be spent!
• Finally, the call comes to all of us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. The opposite of sacred is not secular but profane or unholy. Are we willing to be holy for God……. set apart for His service?
• God is not looking for golden vessels or silver vessels but clean vessels. Can we become a generation of Daniels whose purpose in our hearts is not to defile ourselves with the temporary glitzy allurements of this world?

Brothers and Sisters, this morning this church is the altar, we are the living sacrifice. If you would like to respond to the Word that you have just heard and to make a fresh commitment to the Lord, would you please stand?

For more related sermons:

I am the Lord’s Servant | Luke 1: 26 – 38

Worship Like Wise Men| Matthew 2: 1 – 12

The Basic Christian