President Obama, King David and super cheap worship.

Knock. Knock. 

Who is it? 

President Obama. 

President Obama who? 

No President Obama anything. Just President Obama. 

What? get out of town. 

No I won't. I'm the president and I need to do some important government stuff in your basement. Now open the door before secret service breaks it down. 

Imagine if that happened to you? 

Imagine the president of the United Stated knocked on your door. 
Don't worry, this isn't a political post. This is. But this isn't. 

I just wanted to set the stage for the story in 2 Samuel 24. 

So there's a guy named Araunah and one day David, the King of Israel knocked on his door asking if he could offer a sacrifice on his land. 

Naturally he did what we would do if the President King knocked on our door asking to use our basement land. We'd say go for it.

So he tells the King to take whatever he wants for free and David says no. 

David doesn't want his stuff for free.

In fact, he insists on paying for the land. 

Not because he wasn't entitled to it. Or because the guys land had a ton of value. Or because he was being nice. 

No. 

David refused because...

"He would not make a sacrifice to God that costs him nothing"

Whoa. 

Catch that? 

David insisted on offering worship to God only if it costs him something. 

How backwards is that from today? From us? 

I know we don't put it this way but how often are we looking for super cheap worship? 

To us, worship is like going to a garage sale. We're looking for the best stuff for the best bargain. 
Worship is about us. 

Its easy to see this in the area of musical worship. 

Do we like the songs? The atmosphere?
How do we feel after worship determines how good it was. 

To David, worship was about God.
About giving him worth! blessing him.

How does God feel after worship? 
What do people assume about Gods value based on how much my sacrifice costs? 

When was the last time you were unhappy because your offering to God cost you nothing? 
I'm gonna guess you don't remember. Me neither. 

You know why? 
Cause most of our worship is about us. It terminates on us. Our experience. Our takeaway. 

We're the ones left standing after we offer our sacrifice. 

So in a weird, messed up way, its like we're worshiping ourselves? 

What if worship had nothing to do with us? 
What if it wasn't ultimately about your experience? 
What if it was about ascribing Gods worth to him? 

What if we insisted on only giving God ‘sacrifices’ that costs us something because our God is worthy of it?

What if that's what we were known for? 

What if those on the outside are stunned and confused at how much its costing us to worship this 'God' that they don't know? 

What if worship is supposed to hurt a little? Inconvenience a little? wreck us a little? 
Cost us something?

I'm not saying we don't get anything out of worship. We do. Lots. 

But we'd be fools to think this was about us. 

Jesus is the greatest being in the Universe. He's huge.
He's sovereign. He’s the beginning and the end.
He's the first and the last. He holds the entire cosmos together. 

He is worthy of worship that costs us everything, including our lives. 

Will you worship him today or yourself? Will you insist on an offering that actually costs you something?

Thoughts? What sticks out to you from this post/story?

[I miss you guys. Please talk to me :) ]