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. My king, Araunah gives everything here to the king.” Then he said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” 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 50 ounces of silver.
(2 Samuel 24:22-24 HCSB)

David has to sacrifice at the House of Eddo before God judges the nation.

Illustration: The pastor sacrificed to pay into God’s temple, but the congregation is not making it too.

Our problem: We have taken the grace of God and turned it into an opportunity to neglect God’s priorities.

Challenge: Can you donate one month’s salary to pay off the Activity Center debt?

King David had to pay lots of money, although Eddo wanted David to pay nothing for the offering. Eddo wanted to just give David the animals. David correctly pointed out that if got something for nothing, and then gave that to God, it was not really a sacrifice on David’s part.

The same has been true here. The pastor has given you the animals to pay for the worship here. But you never sacrificed to pay for your worship as a congregation. You only considered it a financial benefit for yourselves.

You something for nothing, and then you never gave it back to God. That’s not really a sacrifice on your part.

Worse, for many of you, you have gone off and started sacrificing to the wrong God. So often, you don’t have the money to make a sacrifice to God and His kingdom.

Example 1: Credit Card god

You pay on a variable interest rate credit card. Well, because of the Wall Street problem, the Chase Mastercard god and the Citifinancial Visa god have asked for more than 10% from you. If your interest rate went up ten percent, and you can only make minimum payments, then the credit card god has just demanded a sacrifice and you paid it.

How many credit card gods are you submitting to?

So you keep sacrificing to that god or gods, then you sacrifice to the god of motor vehicles.

Some of us are paying too much for a depreciable asset. We won’t get rid of our fuel inefficient trucks, but we can’t pay our house payment. Now, I am not saying you can’t get a truck. I am just saying you can’t sacrifice your income to something is inefficient, when you could use something more efficient to save on gas.

Example 3: Broken families god

The problem is that we have submitted to so many gods, that we don’t have the financial resources to submit to God here. But here is the thing: You can choose the god whom you plan to serve and sacrifice to.

Photo by Andrew Gook on Unsplash