Reverend Jonathan Waits
Sermon: Giving God Something Worthwhile (2 Samuel 24)
Date: October 6, 2024
Do you know what it takes to become a world class athlete? Or a world class woodworker? Or a world class singer? Or a world class anything? It takes just two things. I know that sounds a little crazy to say, but it’s true. It takes only two things. If you have these two things, you can be a world class ____________. The first thing it takes is some level of natural talent for whatever it is. Some people are just naturally good at playing the piano, for instance. Some are naturally good artists. I had a friend in high school who could draw anything. He didn’t really do anything to become that good, he just had a natural ability to take what was in his mind and translate it to a page. Some people have a natural talent for doing math. Different people are good at different things. If you don’t have any talent for something at all, you can probably develop an affinity for it, but there’s always going to be a difference between what you can accomplish with regard to that thing, and what someone who does can.
So, the first thing being world class takes is some level of natural talent. The second thing is very, very simple. And whereas that first thing serves as a bit of a gate for becoming world class at something, this second thing does not. Anybody can do this. Are you ready for this one? The second thing becoming world class takes is the ability to say no to things that will prevent you from becoming world class. I know that doesn’t sound like a very big deal, but let me assure you that it is the far bigger deal of these two things. Lots of people have natural talent for something and never develop it for one reason or another. They never become world class because they don’t do this second thing, not because they don’t have the first. Someone who does have this second thing can become world class even if they don’t have very much in the way of the first.
Now, if I was going to put a single word on each of these things to capture their essence, I would give the first thing the label “ability.” If you are going to become world class or even simply moderately proficient in something, ability matters. It’s not the only thing that matters, but it does count. If I was going to give the second thing a label, it would be “sacrifice.” When we are willing to sacrifice for something—to truly sacrifice for it, not merely tolerate a bit of inconvenience—there are very few things that will be off-limits to us. This morning, I want to talk with you for a few minutes about the power of sacrificial living, and the kinds of things that can come from it.
Well, here we are. For several months now I have been telling you that this moment was coming. I have been telling you that God has been at work in our midst and has been angling us slowly but surely as we have followed Him to this place where we are going to talk very directly about a project that has been unfolding for more than 15 years. When this church started talking about doing what we are on the cusp of doing, I was fresh out of seminary and didn’t have any gray hair. God doesn’t always move at the speed we would prefer, but He does always move right on time. The time is now for the coming to fruition of years’ worth of planning. And what is the substance of these plans? In a word, worship. More than anything else, worship has been at the heartbeat of what we are doing since the beginning. We have been seeking to be able to more fully acknowledge, celebrate, and participate in the character of God as a church. The shape this is going to take is a brand new space for worship and a renovated old sanctuary building. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about all of this because of the kingdom growing potential that lies before us. And “us” is really the key there. This project is something that if we are going to do it, will be something we all have to do together. Together, we are investing in God’s kingdom. Together, we are investing in God’s kingdom.
That’s not what I want to talk about with you this morning, though. At least, not entirely. Starting this morning, and for the next three weeks after this one, in a brand new teaching series called, Together, I want to talk with you about what it takes for God to do incredible work through His people. That’s really what we want together, right? For God to do His kingdom-advancing work through us. Anytime God’s people set about growing His kingdom, He’s the one who does all the work. But that work happens through us. There’s an undeniable tension here that seems totally contradictory, and yet it is a tension that is beautifully resolved as we see how these two seemingly opposite ideas come together to have a great impact on the world around us. God does all the work by the ministry of His Spirit, but that work happens through people who are following Jesus and are willing to be obedient to His commands. So then, what does it take for us to experience God’s working through us like this? That’s what the next four weeks are going to be all about as we together invest in God’s kingdom.
The first thing experiencing God’s transformational work in our midst requires is a willingness to say no to the things that might keep it from happening. It takes a willingness to pursue a sacrificial lifestyle. In order to help us understand what I’m talking about, I want to take you to a story from the life of King David. If you will grab your copy of the Scriptures, join me right at the very tail end of 2 Samuel. The twin books of Samuel are part of the large history section of the Old Testament. They tell the story of the last judge of Israel, her first king, and her greatest king save the King of Kings. David is known throughout the Old Testament narrative as a man after God’s own heart. This didn’t mean he was perfect—far from it in fact. David made some pretty major mistakes during life and especially during his reign as king. But he kept seeking God from out of the midst of these tragic and often devastating slides into sin, and when we are willing to do that same thing in our own lives, God is able to do quite a lot with it. The story I want to take a look at with you this morning comes out of one of those moments when he totally blows it.
Take a look at this with me starting in 2 Samuel 24:1: “The Lord’s anger burned against Israel again, and he stirred up David against them to say: ‘Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.’ So the king said to Joab, the commander of his army, ‘Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and register the troops so I can know their number.’”
Now, this story comes to us with basically no context in all. The repeat of this story in 1 Chronicles 21 attributes the motivation for the military census to Satan instead of God, which seems like a pretty significant difference between the two stories. It’s not actually quite as significant as it seems. The fairly easy harmonization between the two stories is that Satan was at work in the hearts and minds of not just David, but all of Israel. They had gotten on a sinful path that was being greased by their pride. God was righteously angry with them because of their willingness to turn from Him in spite of all He had very obviously done for them. As a result, He allowed them to walk down a path that was going to result in judgment.
In any event, what happens is that David follows through on his desire to take this military census that would have really been about demonstrating how big and powerful his nation was. He does this against the wise counsel of his top general, advisor, and uncle, Joab. Once the affair was completed, the folly of what he had commanded to be done finally struck David. Look down to v. 10 with me: “David’s conscience troubled him after he had taken a census of the troops. He said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I’ve done. Now, Lord, because I’ve been very foolish, please take away your servant’s guilt.’” This is that willingness to pursue God in spite of and from out of the midst of his worst decision that I was talking about a second ago.
In response to his repentant heart, God offers David three choices for how His judgment was going to be delivered to the nation. As far as I know, this is the only time God gave somebody options for how they were going to be disciplined because of their sin in the Scriptures. It may be the only time in human history that something like this happened. The options were a three-year famine, a three-month military conquest by a foreign power, or a three-day plague. David reasons that the famine and military conquest would put him in the hands of fate, but that the plague would put him in the hands of God. He’d rather be in the hands of God when receiving punishment for his sins, and so he picks the plague.
“David answered Gad [the prophet who brought the message about the three options available to him], ‘I have great anxiety. Please, let us fall into the Lord’s hands because his mercies are great, but don’t let me fall into human hands.’ So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men died. Then the angel extended his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, but the Lord relented concerning the destruction and said to the angel who was destroying the people, ‘Enough, withdraw your hand now!’ The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
This is where things get really interesting, and where we need to sit up and pay close attention. As a Jebusite, Araunah was from the tribe that David conquered in order to make Jerusalem his capital city. That is, he was an immigrant, but one who had assimilated fully into the Israelite culture. This great spiritual conflict had landed on his doorstep, and he was going to have a role to play in its resolution.
Gad, the prophet who has been communicating with David on God’s behalf throughout this episode, goes back to David to tell him that he needs to go and set up an altar to the Lord at Araunah’s place. An altar would have been a place for worship and offering sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. When Araunah—who has no reason that he should be aware of the spiritual conflict happening behind the plague afflicting the nation—hears that David and his entourage are heading his way, he goes out to greet them and offer hospitality and respect. Their interchange is really important in how it reveals something about the state of David’s heart as well as the mindset we should bring to our own relationship with God.
Listen to this now in v. 21: “Araunah said, ‘Why has my lord the king come to his servant?’ David replied, ‘To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so the plague on the people may be halted.’” In other words, your land just got elevated to a place of incredible importance in the land of Israel. But this is no mere imminent domain decree from the governing authority of the land. That’s not how people thought back then anyway. David’s posture is entirely more humble than that. Continuing now: “Araunah said to David, ‘My lord the king may take whatever he wants and offer it. Here are the oxen for a burnt offering and the threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. Your Majesty, Araunah gives everything here to the king.’ Then he said to the king, ‘May the Lord your God accept you.’” Araunah’s graciousness here should not go unnoticed. He didn’t have to do any of this. Yes, David could indeed have simply taken his place by force or command, but Araunah’s willingness to contribute to the worship of the Lord and the salvation of Israel is laudable.
David’s response here is the key: “The king answered Araunah, ‘No, I insist on buying it from you for a price, for I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.’ David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for twenty ounces of silver. He built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord was receptive to prayer for the land, and the plague on Israel ended.”
The story has a somewhat happy ending. I say, “somewhat,” because it was a tragedy that led to it in the first place. There wouldn’t have needed to be a happy ending at all if the people—under David’s leadership—hadn’t drifted into sin in the first place. But God was gracious and received the repentance of the king. But it is David’s response to Araunah that should really get our attention here. Did you catch that? Let’s go back to it one more time just for good measure. When Araunah offered to just give everything to David that he was going to need in order to build an altar and offer sacrifices to God as an act of worship, what did David say? “I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” What is this? What kind of an attitude is David putting on display for us here? This is an attitude of sacrifice.
Why was it so significant to David that he not give something to God that didn’t cost him anything? Because he understood that the act of giving something to God doesn’t accomplish anything by itself. As God expressed through Asaph in Psalm 50, everything in the world already belongs to Him. We literally cannot give God something that isn’t already His with one exception: our devotion. For us to give God something that is not propelled by our devotion to Him is to waste time and resources in terms of its impact on us and on our relationship with Him. He can still take the things we give and accomplish His purposes in other places using them, but His purposes will not be advanced in our hearts and minds and lives at all. In fact, they may be opposed. To give to God without devotion is to engage in an empty religious exercise. Religious exercises for the sake of themselves don’t do anybody any long-term good. They only do a limited amount of short-term good. The reason for this is that, again, when we do this, we are not giving Him anything He doesn’t already have. Giving someone something they already have as a substitute for giving them intentional and focused time and attention is not a recipe for growing your relationship with them. It may even be a way to injure it.
This sacrificial mindset isn’t something we find only in David in the Scriptures. This is something we have commended to us all over the Scriptures, especially in the New Testament. Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 9:25-27. “Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”
The author of Hebrews mentions it in Hebrews 12:1-2: “Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” The apostle Peter brings attention to it: “ Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in having that name.”
It’s all over the Gospels in the words of Jesus. Matthew 10:37: “The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 8:18-22: “When Jesus saw a large crowd around him, he gave the order to go to the other side of the sea. A scribe approached him and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus told him, ‘Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’ ‘Lord,’ another of his disciples said, ‘first let me go bury my father.’ But Jesus told him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’” And Matthew 16:24-26: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?’”
Jesus’ invitation to us is to be a part of growing His kingdom. Growing and investing in God’s kingdom was always the main focus of Jesus’s mission. It’s what He proclaimed Himself. It’s what He sent out the disciples to proclaim. It’s what He gave His own life to enable. Since He returned to the Father’s side, the primary way He does His kingdom-advancing work is through the church—that is, the people bearing His name who have been called out for the purpose of doing His work on earth. To put that another way, the primary way He does His kingdom-advancing work is through you and me. If we are going to advance His work in His world, in meaningful ways, that is going to take devotion from us. Half-hearted or otherwise empty gestures won’t get the job done. Real devotion to advancing His kingdom, though, isn’t something that comes primarily through the stuff we give to it. It is something that runs much deeper than that right to our own hearts.
The kind of giving that properly expresses the devotion that enables Him to do His best kingdom advancing work through us is sacrificial giving, and I’m not just talking about money. When we give—and live—sacrificially, we are saying to God that we are more committed to advancing His kingdom than we are to the various things we are saying no to in order to do it. We trust more in His ability to provide for us than our own. We value His priorities over our own. We value His character more highly than merely what we want. We think He can use our stuff more wisely than we can. Friends, we serve the God who took a young boy’s lunch and miraculously multiplied it to be able to feed thousands of people. Giving Him a little bit of stuff with big devotion in our hearts can accomplish big things. A sacrificial attitude is the secret to unlocking all of this potential. Growing God’s kingdom requires us to walk a path of sacrifice.
David understood this. Jesus called us to it. The apostles all reaffirmed and repeated His call. Growing God’s kingdom requires us to walk a path of sacrifice. If you want to be a part of seeing God’s kingdom expand in ways that go far beyond what we could ask or imagine on our own, a commitment to sacrificial living is what will enable that to happen. What is it that you need to sacrifice? That’s between you and God. It may be time. It may be talent. It may be treasure. The journey we are taking together in the expansion and renovation project that is before us is going to take all of us committing to a path of sacrificial living together. But we do this because God is growing His kingdom, and we want to be a part of it. Growing God’s kingdom requires us to walk a path of sacrifice.
Look around for a minute. Think about the things you have seen and heard recently that God has been doing in our midst. Think about the lives that have been changed. Think about the disciples that are being made. Think about the relationships that have been strengthened. Think about the impact on this community we are having. Think about the little ones who are hearing the Gospel. Think about the young people who are experiencing the very best of the church thanks to the efforts you have put into making that happen. Think about the fact that we are where we are talking about building and renovating so that we can see more kingdom-growing work happen when so many churches are struggling just to keep the lights on. God is doing great things here among us. We are all witnesses of this. If we want to see all of this continue and expand, committing to a path of sacrificial living is the secret. Growing God’s kingdom requires us to walk a path of sacrifice.
God is clearly leading in the direction we are going. This commitment to sacrificial living is the most powerful thing we can contribute to His efforts to see them become even more than we’ve thought to imagine. Think back to where we started. If we want to take bold steps toward having a profound impact on this community and beyond, together investing in God’s kingdom, it will require just two things of us. We already have the first. God has given us the ability. He has equipped us and is making us more equipped every day with the people we need to do all the things He has called us to do. There’s only one other thing that having a world class impact takes. Remember what it was? The ability to say no to things that will prevent us from having it. Growing God’s kingdom requires us to walk a path of sacrifice.
Imagine if every single person in this room and the folks not in this room but who are still a part of this church family committed to living sacrificially together. Imagine what God could accomplish with that kind of a commitment. Did you know that we have nearly 70 kids and youth who are currently being impacted by our kids and youth ministries? Imagine what sacrificial living on our part could result in with that group. Imagine if our commitment to sacrificial living resulted in all nearly 70 of those fully embracing and living out the Gospel. We couldn’t even begin to count the sheer number of people those nearly 70 kids and youth could impact because of God’s powerful work through our commitment to sacrificial living. The impact would not be merely multiplicative. It would be exponential. All it takes is sacrificial living on our part. When and as we sacrifice our time, talents, and even treasure, God’s work will continue to expand. Growing God’s kingdom requires us to walk a path of sacrifice.
So then, what are you willing to say no to that could prevent us from having a world class impact on this community and beyond as a church? What demands on your time and schedule are you willing to deny? What talents do you have that you could make more available for God’s work through this church? What habits could you break so that you can give more and greater attention to the movement of God in the world around you? What could you financially go without in order to be an even more significant part of what God is doing to advance His kingdom through us right now? Growing God’s kingdom requires us to walk a path of sacrifice. His kingdom is growing. We are the witnesses. But we want to see even more. We want to experience even more. We want to bring Him even more glory. A sacrificial lifestyle is what will make all of that possible and more. Growing God’s kingdom requires us to walk a path of sacrifice. Join me in praying over just how God is leading us as we walk this path.