GIVE A PLEASING SACRIFICE

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2 Samuel 24:21-25

“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.


A lot of manipulators and  mammon worshippers who are acclaimed ministers have used these verses to cash out. However, the teaching in these verses cannot be contaminated by their perverse intention.


Our God is King and we offer to Him the highest of our sacrifice.


David understood this, thus he was known as a giver, he never restrained himself when it comes to giving to the Lord, but gave massively.


Now wait, listen: 


there is a first requirement for giving!


Let us start from the first recorded giving.


Cain and Abel.


Genesis 4:3-7

When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord.

Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

“Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected?

You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”


Listen Cain's gift was not rejected because of it's size, beauty or type. No, they both gave according to their enterprise (read the verses again)


So what was wrong?


The Lord was clear about it, the heart giving mattered.


This is what Christ explained:


Matthew 5:23-24

“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.


This implies that your giving is meaningless if your heart is full of evil and hate. 


The first thing you must give is your HEART!


David understood this and scripture explains it again.


Romans 12:1

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.


If your heart is not with the Lord, your offering or sacrifices are also not with Him.


When your heart is with Him you do not need anyone to compel or manipulate you to give. You give and you give bountifully.


Enough of all these gambling and ponzi scams in all these gatherings in the name of the Lord.


Can we have people who have given their heart to the Lord and will give cheerfully an offering and sacrifice that the Lord will accept.


Help us Good Lord.


PRAYER

I love You Precious Father, my heart is Yours, help me to continue offering worthy sacrifices to You with all You have blessed me with. I will NOT join those who have abused true worship, offering and sacrifices but I will please You in all things. Glory to Your name Lord forevermore.


He calls us blessed.


Love

@the watcher.

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