What’s the most awkward topic to see in the sermon notes on a Sunday morning? Money!
As a pastor, I will tell you the room squirms most when I start talking about giving. Most pastors don’t like talking about giving and a lot of people don’t like hearing about giving. But, let’s be honest - the discomfort comes because this is tender territory. We avoid talking about money and giving because it requires a level of vulnerability and intimacy that feels very risky!
When I think about giving being an expression of worship, my mind instantly goes to a story from the Old Testament about the cost of worshiping God.
In 2 Samuel 24, King David had disobeyed God by taking a census of the people. God didn't want David to count up his fighting men because He wanted David to trust in the Lord, not in the multitude of soldiers he had at his disposal.
In response to David’s sin, God sent a plague on the people of Israel. The writer of 2 Samuel tells us that 70,000 people died as a result of David’s blatant disobedience. David is desperate to intervene, and God outlines what repentance would demand in this circumstance.
What follows is a powerful picture of giving as an expression of worship.
“That day God came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So, David went up to do what the Lord had commanded him. When Araunah saw the king and his men coming toward him, he came and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. “Why have you come, my lord the king?” Araunah asked.
David replied, "I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord there so that he will stop the plague." "Take it, my lord, the king, and use it as you wish," Araunah said to David. "Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing boards and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. I will give it all to you, Your Majesty, and may the Lord your God accept your sacrifice."
But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” So, David paid him fifty pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen. David built an altar there to the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer for the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
In my opinion, the most important line in that section of 2 Samuel 24 is this one. “I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” David refused the generous offer of Araunah the Jebusite to experience “free worship.”
We all love getting something for free. No matter what age we are, it feels exciting to enjoy something without having to pay for it. But there is a different level of appreciation and value when achieving or accomplishing something that has cost us dearly.
I had the privilege of climbing over 1,000 stairs to reach the top of the Great Wall of China while I was in college. After all those stairs, my level of awe increased. I wonder if my level of awe would’ve been that great if I had taken the gondola to the top, instead.
The same is true of worship. When we make a sacrifice to worship God, it changes the experience. When we give something dear to us in response to all that God has given us, our worship is different!
There are times when even the act of worship itself is a sacrifice. Perhaps we’re sacrificing another activity we could be attending. Maybe we’re sacrificing our feelings at the moment. Giving money as a part of worship can be a real sacrifice! These experiences remind me of a line in a song I sang as a kid in our church. “We bring a sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.”
Someone recently shared a definition of worship with me. "Worship is our response to all that God is and all that God has done." If that definition is accurate in any way, then we will never outgive God in terms of what He has done. Romans 5 says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. John 3 tells us that it was God's love for the world that led Him to send His son that we might have eternal life in Him.
What is God calling you to give in worship to Him?
1. God is calling you to give your money. Every dollar we have belongs to God. He has entrusted us with those dollars to steward. We are to give back to God out of what He has given us and to live open-handed, trusting His direction about how to spend 100% of what He’s put in our hands.
2. God is calling us to give our schedule. When we have an opportunity to worship God (in whatever form that worship takes), we should anticipate that it may take the form of an interruption. But, our schedule isn't king over us; Jesus is Lord overall.
3. God is calling us to give our priorities. Our lives are shaped by the things that matter most to us. Worship reorients us like a compass, ensuring that our priorities flow from our ultimate priority in Christ. Giving up what seems most important now, to the One who is most important eternally, is an act of worship.
In her new song, "Look What You’ve Done," Tasha Layton sings, “Look what you’ve done. Look what you’ve done in me. You spoke your truth into the lies I let my heart believe.”
RELATED CONTENT: “Look What You’ve Done” by Tasha Layton
I don’t know when you will enter in your next moment of intentional worship to God - either alone in your car listening to Air1 Radio or standing in a physical gathering of your church. But, let me prepare you for what may happen. God may very well call you to give in response to who He is and what He has done.
In light of all He’s done for you, it will be a small gift to give!
Scott Savage is a pastor and a writer with the coolest last name ever. He leads Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona. Scott is married to Dani and they are the parents of three “little savages.” He helps hurting people forgive others through his Free to Forgive course and you can read more of his writing at scottsavagelive.com
