SERMON: “No Cost? Your Loss!....
The Cost of a Christ-Centered Life"
Jennifer Mears 11/1/2006
Text: II Samuel Chapter 24
(Read the text ----FULL CHAPTER----focus on last two verses)
David had sinned ---he committed a great sin by numbering the people of Israel
· text does not state exactly what the sin was
· Interpreted as: The sin was not in the counting and numbering of the people, but it was in David’s disobedient heart…and the fall of PRIDE! And, that David was trusting in the size of his empire ….the military number and strength RATHER THAN leaning on God and trusting on HIS DIVINE Protection and Care! AND GOD WANTED ISRAEL TO TRUST IN HIM!
I have often wondered just what blessings I have missed or how much trouble I have brought upon myself because I failed to hear and obey God.
Would my family or my friends… or co-workers be living different lives if we had spent more time in prayer or daily family devotions?
Praying in faith for their deliverances, salvations, blessings, etc.
Would I be walking on a different/better path than I’m right now?
What would be different? What if I had learned early to obey His voice----sooner…..more clearly….more often?
How much time…money…and gifts have I wasted?
The lesson in this is - God prefers our trust in Him over in our own numbers or ideas or, power, knowledge and strength!
We can’t go back and correct the past, but we can do what is right from now on.
· Repent
· make things right with God
· BUT we may need to suffer the consequences of making some bad decisions.
Just as David did when he realized the price for his failure, we must also stop and count the cost of what has happened already and see where God wants us to go now.
David was given 3 Punishment Choices for his sin Moses warned of all of these punishments for those who broke God’s Covenants. – Deuteronomy 28:15-68
(ask congregation to write down scripture and read later during their own devotional time)
1. 7 years of famine (causing them to have to depend on others for food provision and water…weakening his army and kingdom)
2. 3 months of flight (running from the enemy)
3. 3 days of plague (unknown origin)
David said that “all of them are terrible”! He said, ”BUT, God’s Mercy is great and I would rather not fall into human hands….I will choose 3 days of plague.”
David realized that God would be more merciful than a person. “HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER”!!!
· Mercies- speaks of a Mother’s tender compassion for her child AND even in God’s Wrath, God has tender mercy on those he disciplines.
· The nature of the plague was not specified in the text but we know it was originated (created) by The Lord.
God had sent the Death Angel….The Angel had already destroyed 70,000 men before David could find a place to build an altar of repentance…..
Not only was David dealing with all that, now, God instructs David through the prophet Gad, to purchase a threshing floor and not just any threshing floor, but Araunah’s (uh-raw-nah) –later known as Ornan in Biblical writings)…this was to be the place to build the altar.
Gad told David that he was to build an altar to the Lord, and call upon His Holy Name! to end the plague that God brought to Israel because of David’s disobedience…the offering for forgiveness (offering means to bring near----get into God’s presence---seek His face)
I believe that God is always pointing us to the place of our altar. His Spirit is drawing and seeking those who would serve Him and repent, then turn and follow His leading.
· you can build an altar anywhere that you are.
· You can stop anywhere, anytime and begin to pray
· But, we must ALWAYS wait upon The Lord - We can’t force God to move! God moves in His own time and in His own way.
· HE IS AN ONTIME GOD – we just show up early or late…
· It is important to pray----
“God, show us where to build an altar of prayer and sacrifice in our own lives as we are in service to you. Show us where we have failed so that we may repent. We must realize that if we are going to be in the SERVING GOD BUSINESS- there is a price to pay!
Jesus bought our salvation. Our part is to believe and repent ….and then believe, heed and receive!
But, there is much more!
**We must also desire to become more like Christ each day. **We must learn to let the world see Jesus through us….”let our Light shine so before men…”
There is a daily walk of sanctification, prayer, communion with God and faithfulness that must begin to happen. A relationship…a change…newness of life! The process of changing is a lifelong job. The scripture says that we are to “grow line upon line and precept upon precept until we come into the fullness of the maturity of being in Christ and being like Him in every way.”
Are we willing?....
Ask yourself….AM I…. willing to pray
· Are we willing to Study the Word of God?
· Are we willing to submit to the leadership of the Church under Christ?
· Are we willing to set aside our own little petty personal goals and take on the vision that God gives to us?
· Are we willing to take the step of faith and trust God?
· Are we willing to witness for Him?
· Are we willing to be persecuted or ridiculed for His sake?
Well, King David was! ……….
· David fell into sin on several occasions BUT his heart was ALWAYS sensitive to God’s Righteous and Divine Will. He would quickly confess his wrong and would seek God’s Face and restoration with The Lord.
· In this case, David desired to intercede for Israel and build an altar to sacrifice unto the Lord so that God might forgive him for the sin of rebellion and disobedience…and bring an end to the pestilence of THE PLAGUE on himself and the people.
God brought David to Araunah’s the threshing floor on the top of a high hill on the outskirts of the city of Jerusalem. And, David went up and tried to buy this property from Araunah….
THRESHING FLOOR: a hard-flat surface where wheat is crushed to separate the kernels from the straw.
The place where God brought him, according to history, was called Mount Moriah.
Moriah means “where The Lord provides” and “where The Lord appears”
· This was the same place, according to the teaching of Jewish history, Cain and Abel had come to offer their sacrifices.
God accepted Abel’s offering of a lamb from the flock. That offering cost Abel dearly for it was a mark of wealth to have a large flock. Abel had spent many hours and days raising and protecting that lamb.
· This was also the same place that Abraham took Isaac for sacrifice in Genesis 22:2.
This was a precious sacrifice for Abraham to make. Later, Abraham had 6 sons but at the time of this event, Isaac was “uniquely born”….the same idea as in the description of Jesus being “the only begotten” in John 1:18. The point is not that Isaac was his only son so much as the fact that ALL of the promises of GOD resided upon Isaac. This was an event that tested Abraham’s faith. Not only was he to strike Isaac dead...but he was to follow all the steps of the offering of sacrifice unto God… he was willing to do God’s will---and then we all know that later God provided the sacrifice and spared Isaac after He saw Abraham’s Faith and Obedience…
but WHAT A PICTURE OF WHAT OUR GOD DID IN SACRIFICING HIS ONLY SON FOR US! Hallelujah!
Mount Moriah -This location echoes the need for SACRIFICE. It is located North of the Ancient City of David. It is a hill directly North of Mount Zion, the location of David’s Tabernacle. found in II Chronicles 3:1. (Solomon’s Temple –) It is a sacred place…
One other interesting point about Mount Moriah is that it became the actual site of the new Temple that Solomon was to build (II Chronicles 3:1)
and is the same site where the temple will be built again in Jerusalem in the end times. The Muslim temple called the “Dome of the Rock” occupies that exact location right now. ..and Jesus will return there and reign !!!!
-Like Abraham’s willingness to obey God’s command to sacrifice his son, Isaac! --- - -Like Isaac’s willingness as he gave his life on the altar...we too must be willing to say YES to what God asks? Yes, Lord….AMEN! Thy WILL be done!
../most of us have already said yes to the Lord...being that we have received Christ as our Savior...
-But it even goes a step further doesn’t it?
-We need to not only say yes once for salvation...but we must continue to say yes again...and again...and again!!!
Yes, Lord, Yes AND Amen!
- *Surrendering every portion of our lives...
*Giving it up on a daily basis...
*Yielding as the Lord requires it of us...
-I just simply know of no other way to live for Christ!
it IS a wonderful thing to serve the Lord...
And it really is the best decision you can EVER make...but also, it is a tough decision too
-It is a decision that will require something of us...the sacrifice of ourselves...
NOW-as David approaches Araunah to PURCHASE this threshing floor, Araunah offers to GIVE it to David….after all, he is the King who asks the Government to not buy anything they can just take it! Araunah wants to donate the floor and the oxen and the offering materials to David…he even wanted to give David oxen yokes to use as firewood…
V. 22 and 23 , And Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. [23] "Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the Lord your God accept you."
Lots of folks would have jumped on this deal! They wouldn’t have even had to pray about it…think about it…many would have grabbed it up before Araunah could think twice about it!
BUT…David does quite the opposite of what we would be tempted to do?
Read verse 24: However, the king (David) 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." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
In I Chronicles 21:25 – the Chronicler quotes the price paid as 600 sheckles of silver OR about 15 pounds of gold. –that would be the price for the entire property – a very large area….but he only paid 50 sheckles of silver
what David does is He REFUSES to offer God something that costs him nothing.
-Technically, can we offer God anything from us, if it didn’t cost us something
- ILLUSTRATION:
-It is like re-gifting giving that toaster that someone gave to you for Christmas last year, to someone else?
*There is no real meaning to it and no heart-felt expression of love or appreciation…just a second-hand token…meaningless and cold.
I couldn’t stand to do something like that
…and neither could David!
- What He was going to give to God was going to cost him something or it wouldn’t be worth giving at all!!!
- This is a powerful principle for ALL
- -Something for us to hear is that there is ALWAYS a cost when we live a life of FULL SURRENDER to God!
- To Live a Christ-Centered Life IS a costly venture But WORTH IT ALL…
- I would not trade my Christian life for ANYTHING this world has to offer---it is all dead….to live in Christ is LIFE…with the hope and promise of ETERNAL LIFE!
- And, in ministry---one moment in under The Anointing is worth more than an entire lifetime….
those things that do cost us, are worth paying the price for them???
I do believe that in order for anyone to live a Life Centered on Christ, they WILL have to pay some kind of cost?
-Which isn’t a bad thing, because if something doesn’t cost us anything there is no appreciation of it!---just as in learning a lesson in life
- My Grandmother always told me “A learned lesson is a bought lesson!”
- things that cost us our money, time, and energy… those things we will cherish and care more about…. It just seems to mean more to us…
and so we must sacrifice things, at times, as we serve the Lord?
What it comes down to is that living a CHRIST-CENTERED life does come with a cost and that cost is not cheap at all, as we will learn what it means, as we talk of the Cost of a Christ-Centered Life!
And Christ is definitely worth the price we would have to pay to serve Him?
Matthew 16:24-26 gives us a proper perspective concerning this thought of COSTLY CHRIST-CENTERED LIVING?
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. [25] "For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. [26] "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul??
- You can come to God and offer your sacrifices but unless those sacrifices have been covered in the Blood of the Lamb, they are in vain.
- God will not accept anything less than your best as an offering of sacrifice unto Him.
Praise and worship without having your heart and mind upon the Lord is nothing more than lip service.
- Working in the church with a resentful attitude because no one else is there to help is not an acceptable sacrifice.
- Preaching or teaching without preparation time and prayer is an unacceptable sacrifice. God wants our best and nothing else.
***David would not offer sacrifice upon an altar that cost him nothing. Araunah had not failed God. David was the one who owed God a debt of repentance. David knew that he must pay the price for his own failure.
David built his altar, paid the price for his sacrifices.
- God was moved by the prayers and that was the end of the disaster
- David was overwhelmed ----but NOT OVERCOME!!!
- David is at the lowest point he has ever experienced in his life. He’s at the breaking point, but he doesn’t break. All of his mental, physical and spiritual strength has been tested, tried, and was weakened… He is at the end of his rope.
- CLOSING:
- Do you feel like the death angel is living next door? Have you lost your joy, and have no peace, and no victory in your life anymore?
Maybe now is the time to pay the price for our failures, search for the altar and offer your sacrifice to God so that God can stop the plague that is come against us. We can come to God through the Blood of Jesus Christ and offer our sacrifice of praise unto Him. We can come to the Father through the Blood of the Lamb and allow Him to establish His temple within our hearts….give of our best…
-
- Where you build your altar – that’s where God will begin to build your temple and establish His presence in your life. Without an altar and an obedient heart there will not be a Temple of the Holy Ghost…power for living and an abundance of peace and joy that cannot be explained but it is full of God’s GLORY~
There is a price to pay if we want God’s best. There is a price to pay if we want Him to dwell in us…anoint us, and appoint us to do his Will and works.
There is a price to pay before we can experience deliverance.
That price is still called Repentance, Believing in the Lord and Trusting in Him, and then Accepting His will instead of our own. There is no other way. God has said in His word that obedience is better than sacrifice.
Pay the price of obedience – build your altar before the Lord – make your sacrifice of praise, worship and allow God to build His temple
- in your heart!
