I Will Not Give To God That Which Cost Me Nothing

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.
- 2 Samuel 24:24

David has screwed up. Big time. He took a census, mainly to be able to boast in how awesome his army was. This ticked God off, because David (and because the people follow the king- Israel as well) was trusting in himself, and not God. So,God gives David a choice- 3 years of famine, 3 months of pursuit by enemies, or 3 days of plague. David goes with plague. So for three days, 70,000 people die, but God relents at the threshing floor of Araunah. David goes to build an altar of remembrance there, and Araunah wants to give it to him: no charge. This elicits David's response above. And it points us to true worship, thousands of years later.

Jesus was tough to follow. Not just because He spoke in thinly veiled parables and seemed to prefer going on foot everywhere. He was (and is) hard to follow because He expects so much from us.

Wait. Jesus expects things from us? How does that jive with the modern idea that Jesus is all about grace and forgiveness and taking care of us?

The truth is, it doesn't. And it does. Jesus does offer grace, forgiveness and provision. And He requires nothing of us to receive His salvation- His rescue from our failures and mistakes and sins. But if you take His name, if you claim to KNOW Him, there better be some evidence.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
-Matthew 7:21-23

Jesus says doing things in His name doesn't mean you know Him. Just because one attends church, wears a cross or ichthus, obeys the 'rules,' prays and reads the Bible doesn't mean they know Him. For a lot of people, we become fearful and concerned that we don't really know Him, that we are just faking it- with the best of intentions. I've been there.

I've had those times of doubting my relationship with God. Not that He was holding up His end, but that I was being genuine in mine. I've had times in my life when my consistency with prayer and time in the Bible was like clockwork. But looking back, my relationship with Jesus was at best distant. I was doing things that seemed right because that's what everyone said I was supposed to do to have a 'strong relationship with God.' The problem is, prayer and Bible study- just like "prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles" can be done without a relationship with God. The Bible tells us that the name of Jesus is powerful, and we see that people without God in their lives can do miraculous things. And they can do things that seem holy, but are in fact...well, selfish.

The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

- Isaiah 29:13

All the way back to the Old Testament, people were faking it. Maybe that's not entirely accurate, maybe it was more that they were fooling themselves. They were doing what man said we had to do, not what The LORD said to do. The Pharisees came about because of this type of thinking, and they were the biggest opposition to Jesus. Why? Because He spoke of knowing and listening to the Words of the Father- they wanted to just keep reading and re-interpreting to maintain their control, their way of living.

They didn't want to give anything to God that cost them something.

So, what does it mean for us? Can we be secure in our relationship with Jesus? Or will we be the people Jesus says He never knew?

I believe we can answer that. Starting with the Matthew passage above- what Jesus tells us is that those who do the will of the Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The only way for us know the will of the Father is to listen for it- and the best way to listen and respond to someone is to be in a relationship with them. The will of the Father, when we look at the whole of Scripture, is that we desire and pursue knowing Him. Not knowing about Him, but knowing Him like you know friends and family. The Isaiah passage is God summing that idea up into bringing your heart near to Him. And you don't do that by giving Him lip service and going through the motions. So, how do our hearts draw near to Him?

The answer is: How do you draw your heart near to a loved one? You want to be with them. You make time for them- real, genuine time, not just to check it off. You give them your attention, your affection, and you desire- deeply- them returning theirs. If you love them enough, you will sacrifice your own will and desires and schedules to be with them.

And so we come back to David. He wouldn't give to God anything that cost him nothing. David, we hear, is a man after God's heart. If we want God, it is going to cost us. It'll cost us our precious sins and selfishness. It may cost our comfort and security. It may cost us earthly relationships and success. It will most definitely cost us our lives. We may not die physically, but we must relinquish all that we hold dear to Him. We must be willing to walk away from attitudes, actions, hobbies, interests, and ideologies. See, He demands it all. And He has the right to demand our all.

After all, He gave us His all on the Cross.

So I challenge you, whatever it is that holds you back from Him today- give it to Him. Though the cost may seem more than you can bear, the cost of hearing Jesus say He never knew you is far more than you can imagine.