“I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God of that which costs me nothing.” 2 Samuel 24:24
As I was praying for direction and for our team this struck me:
This powerful/beautiful statement from King David showed a heart of worship, loyalty, honor, relationship, desire to please God, and understanding of how God works. He knew God well enough to know that God does not take pleasure in half-hearted or “second-thought” offerings. (The book of Malachi drives this point home.)
We do not sacrifice or offer burnt offerings these days, but has God’s heart toward offerings/sacrifices changed? It is said of us in 1 Peter 2:5 that “we are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” We are told in Hebrews 13:15-16 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
We have said before that worship is a lifestyle as we strive to honor God in every moment with everything we have- I think we do understand that. As I read 2 Samuel 24:24 I related it to the moment when we take that platform at FCC. The worship set starts and we publicly begin to offer our offering to God. What has it cost us? If the answer is nothing, or very little, we have a problem. We should never offer an offering to the Almighty God that costs us nothing.
Throughout the Bible there was always a method for how to give an offering or what it would cost. As a team and as individuals the same is true today. Here are just a couple of things that our sacrifice/offering will cost us: The first very valuable thing it will cost is TIME. It really takes time to practice our skill, learn new things to enhance our skills and ability, time in prayer (connecting with God’s heart for that particular meeting), time in practice as a team, and time investing in our relationships with team members.
Another cost is our COMFORT ZONE (which can indicate pride). It takes humility and trust in God to step out with instruction from the Holy Spirit not knowing how we will look or sound. Giving God the offering He desires may require us to stretch a bit.
Spending time connecting, practicing, learning, and praying as well as being stretched costs us all ENERGY- also something of great value to us.
My point is this: it can become very easy for us to slip into auto-pilot and do what we’ve always done. We can check the calendar, show up to practice, read the emails, listen to set list, and sing/play etc.
My desire is to be sure that I NEVER offer God an offering that cost me nothing. Actually, the thought of even attempting to do that strikes a Holy fear in my heart. I am sharing this with you all because God laid it heavy on my heart and mind but also to be held accountable. My personal plan for making sure that my offering is pleasing to God may be different than what yours would be as we all have different things to give. I would like to encourage all of us to prayerfully consider what God is requiring of us. God has blessed our team with many gifts and has written many plans for us, Freedom, this county etc. Let’s not allow our gifts to stagnate or our faith in God’s plan to weaken.
In closing, I would like to point out that the common thread in both 1 Peter 2:5 and Hebrews 13:15-16 is “Through Jesus Christ”. In our pursuit of being loyal and honoring the King, we must not ever take our eyes off of who he is, what he’s done for us, and how desperately we need him 🙂
The call goes out again to all who will worship him in Spirit and in truth. I would like to invite you all to respond, comment, and/or add to this. I am sure that this is just a portion of what God is saying to us so please feel free to share what hes telling you 🙂
-Eslin
Amen!
I was reminded of a word I had written a while back:
Temple Not Made By Hands
“The foundation has been laid, you have been setting up the tabernacle, but this is the year to dedicate the temple. There has been a grind and hard work put in to build the temple for His glory. Continue to set yourselves apart, focus on Him and you will see before your eyes a temple, complete, ready; but not one built by hands or the sweat of a brow; but a holy, consecrated temple for God to dwell and to show forth His glory. Yes, you are the temple. Enter into my presence, enter into my rest.”
Acts 7:10 ” and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.”
Hebrews 11: 6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
Psalm 78:68-69 “but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.”
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this, it will also cost us… sit down… money. What? Yes money. When was the last time we invested financially into what we play or sing? What was the last thing we purchased to increase our skill set? Not saying we all need to go bananas and buy a bunch of stuff, I know we are in different places financially. For years I have seen the attitude of, “The church has ‘xyz’, so I can only practice on Sunday mornings and at practice. Oh and I would really like an ‘abc’, but I’ll wait for the church to buy it.” But if it’s not in the churches budget to get it, the call goes unanswered, or the tool goes un-purchased.
Do we own what we do or not?? If we do then WHAT did it cost us?? If we don’t own it, then, what are we doing with it??
I’m not “shooting” this at anyone, just my thoughts. 🙂
Natalie- that is so encouraging! Jeremy- I totally agree! There are more than just the couple of “costs” that I noted and money can/ is definitely one cost.
This. Watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDmvDXMbPB4 (I Will Waste My Life (Behind the Song) – Misty Edwards)
Wow- He IS so worthy of everything we can bring to the table.. Which doesn’t seem like much in the light of who He is. Good video- thanks for posting.
Excellent word Eslin :). And Natalie.. And Jeremy
I haven’t had time to read this yet, but I will! I just wanted to comment because everyone is commenting.
Um…I wrote more in my comment than what actually posted?! The rest of what I said was: “I can’t wait to read it tonight!”
Lol!!
A week later, but I finally read this…and Eslin, it is spot on! I pray also that I never offer up an offering that costs me nothing. Especially considering Jesus’ offering for me cost Him His life. He is worthy and deserving.
Amen- he is worthy!
Thank you eslin, was so much better with you playing keyboard ,with just drums keys and base it is really hard sometimes, everything has to be perfect. I do hope you continue was really nice, flowed so easy ….lord send more please