Transcript

Open your Bibles to 2 Samuel 24. 2 Samuel 24. What a picture of grace and what a picture of giving, so I’ve taken the, well, I’m decided to call this, entitle this exposition “Grace Giving.” Grace giving. 2 Samuel 24, over toward the first third of the old part of the book in the Old Testament. 2 Samuel 24, beginning in verse 15.

15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house.” 18 So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the LORD had commanded. 20 Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. 21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be held back from the people.” 22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23 Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” 24 However, the king [that’s David] said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the LORD was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.

The chapter begins with King David commanding Joab and the officials of the Israeli army to go count their warriors. David had fallen into viewing things the way a natural man would view things. David had backslidden into thinking, “If we have a strong and mighty army, we’ll stay victorious.” But God had been teaching Israel all along, “It’s not by might and it’s not by power but it’s by my spirit, says the Lord.” So Joab and his commanders appealed to David and said, “David, you know how this works. You know God will multiply our effectiveness. We don’t need to fall into the flesh and fall into pride and conceit and count our army and put our trust in our numbers. We’re to put our trust in the Lord.” But David did not relent. He pressed upon Joab and the commanders of the armies and they went out and counted the soldiers and because of this sin, by the way, it wasn’t just a sin to count the numbers, it was a sin because in David’s heart he was leaning on the physical strength of his army, not the might of Almighty God. That’s where the sin was.

So God sends a pestilence against Israel. Our text we read this morning said 70,000 men died and then all at once God commanded the destroying angel to stop, don’t go any further, and the geographical place where the plague was stayed was a place where a Jebusite man now converted to Jehovah worship, had owned a piece of property which was a threshing floor for him to thresh out his grain and then God told David, “Now serve me and worship me. I’ve held back the wrath from you. You know you deserved it and the rest of Israel deserved it, but in grace I’ve held it back. Now I command you to worship me and serve me and here is your instruction, build an altar on the threshing floor, that very place where the plague stopped.” Well, the wrath was stayed. “Build an altar there and offer offerings to me,” and these were to be offerings of thanksgiving, of gratitude to God for sparing them in grace from the wrath.

I deduce these observations for us this morning. I. Let’s remind ourselves today that all of God’s children are children of grace. There’s no such thing as coming to God or being God’s or belong in God’s family any other route than through the Lord Jesus Christ and the divine favor, that’s what grace is, the divine favor God’s offered to us in and through his Son Jesus Christ. If you’re a child of God, you’re a child of God by grace. It’s unmerited. It’s undeserved. You can’t achieve it. It’s infinitely beyond anything you can even fathom as far as its value and he bestows it upon us freely because of and through Jesus Christ.

Now back to our narrative. Here David is, again, in pride and conceit, he trusts the flesh, he looks at his numbers. Boy, I don’t want to chase too many rabbits here but how many areas of your life and my life right now where it’s not wrong to count what we’ve got in that account and look at what we’ve got in that investment or 1,001 other things and feel like, “Well, I think I’m okay. I think this is going to be okay.” Friend, the moment you look and the moment you calculate it out and the moment you think, “I think we’re doing okay here,” the next thought should be, “If God allows, because my confidence is not in this real estate or in this money I’ve put back or in these investments or in my ability to earn over the next 40 years if you’re a young man, whatever it is, I know I’m to look at that but in my heart I’m to trust in the Lord.” Are you hearing me, church? There’s a balance in that. David’s heart was overcome with just looking at it the way an unsaved man would look at it, just looking at the physical resource he had in his army.

Now the earlier chapters of this book of the Bible let us know that all of Israel had been guilty of sins before the Lord so though David tells the Lord, “Put the sin on me. I’m the one who’s sinned.” The Lord knows, “Yes, David, you did sin and your sin has consequences but all the people had sinned.”

Just as a side note here this morning, let’s do remind ourselves, though, that those in headship, their sin does affect those under them. The sins of the fathers affects those under them. The sins of the President affect those under them. The sins of the company leader affect those under them. The Bible tells us in Exodus 20:5, ” You shall not worship them or serve them,” that would be the gods of the other peoples, the pagan idols, “for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.” There’s a generational curse that can happen in families. There’s a generational stronghold of a bent toward certain wickednesses or certain iniquities that are cast down and passed down generation to generation, but notice what he says here at the end of the verse, “of those who hate Me.” In other words, when you come to God through Jesus Christ, when you embrace Christ as your Savior, God changes your status from one who is numbered among those who are opposed to God and hate God, now you’re numbered among those who belong to God and begin to love God. Aren’t you glad for that change? And you in your generation can break the generational curses. You can break the strongholds of iniquity that are passed down one generation to another generation because you’re no longer numbered among those who hate the Lord, you’re now his and you love the Lord. Do you know what that is, folks? Are you listening to me this morning? Do you know what that is? That is grace. Grace. Grace. Grace, that we can turn that thing around. Thank God we’re not counted among those who hate the Lord and it’s all because of grace.

As a matter of fact, everything in this chapter which is true of every chapter throughout the Bible, but everything in this chapter points to the Lord Jesus Christ and our salvation by grace. It’s all about him and it’s all about grace. You know, without the Lord Jesus and without grace, we wouldn’t know forgiveness, we would not know God’s blessing, we would not know freedom out from under the wrath and the judgment of God as David and Israel were under at this point.

Again in verse 16, we note the place where the wrath was stayed, where the wrath stopped, “When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, ‘It is enough! Now relax your hand!'” And notice the specific geographic place that’s pointed out here, “And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” This particular place was on Mount Moriah and, by the way, is that not just a clear and powerful picture of Jesus Christ? God in holy wrath, God in divine justice must pour out his wrath on sinners, the wrath of God is poured out and Jesus Christ stands between us and his Father and there the wrath of God is stayed and stopped. What a picture of Jesus that is.

The wrath of God ends at the threshing floor here of Araunah the Jebusite, but what about this place, this threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, what else happened here? Well, this particular spot is called Mount Moriah. What else happened on Mount Moriah? Well, that’s where Abraham was commanded to offer up his son Isaac to the Lord. Genesis 22:2, “He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac,'” now notice the parallels here; this is Abraham’s unique, miraculously born son Isaac, special, one- and-only son, that pictures Jesus, he’s the one-and-only Son of God, “‘go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.'” So that entire event of the father taking the son Isaac, the unique, precious, miraculous born son, Jesus was miraculously born of the virgin, and you take him up on the mountain of Moriah and there Abraham was to plunge the spear into the chest of his son and offer him as an offering to the Lord, but before he could plunge that dagger into his son’s chest, you know what the Bible says, the Lord speaks to him and says, “Abraham, don’t. Look, there’s a ram caught in the thicket. I’ve provided the sacrifice.” Every bit of that speaks of Jesus. Every bit of that speaks of grace on this very point, on this very geographic location.

Some people, I remember preaching this message many years ago why did God kill his Son, and I had some feedback from that, not from you guys but from people in the community that thought, “Oh my goodness, how could you say such a thing that God would kill his Son?” That’s exactly what happened. Isaiah 53:10 says, “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him [Jesus], putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” In grace upon grace upon grace upon grace God the Father took his precious one-and-only Son typified in Abraham and Isaac, Abraham the father, Isaac the precious unique son, and God the Father crushed God the Son on the cross in our place. That was the place where the wrath of God was set aside that was coming against us and that place that Abraham offered up Isaac is this very place, the mount of Moriah where Araunah the Jebusite at this point in history had put a little threshing floor. Everything about this thing is about grace. It’s just grace all over the place.

What else is going to happen there if you’re coming from the perspective of this narrative? Well, we know this is the exact place where David’s son Solomon would build the temple. 2 Chronicles 3:1, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan [you could say Araunah] the Jebusite.” Now what’s the temple all about? Everything about the temple is about Jesus and about grace. Everything in the temple was a portrait of Christ. Everything in the temple was a type of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us. Everything about the temple and the ritual and the old economy of the Jewish religion pointed to Jesus. He’s the substance of all of it. The Bible says in Hebrews 8:13 that all the aspects of the old Jewish religion – now listen to me – all the aspects of the old Jewish religion are now obsolete.” Why? Because the substance has come, Jesus. Those things were just shadows and types and pictures. Jesus, the reality, now has come and you don’t look at the shadows and the pictures when the real thing is there.

Now you may have family coming in for Christmas and you may not have seen them for a long time and they are precious and dear and you look at them on your internet or whatever you guys use these days to look at people with and they are precious, but once they walk in the door, you don’t pick that up and say, “Oh, look at the picture.” No, you look at them. When Jesus has come, all the rest that pointed to him is now set aside.

When they would go into the temple, they would have a bronze altar out there on the outside courts of the temple and there they would sacrifice the animals. We don’t do that anymore because Jesus is the fulfillment of that picture. He came and died on Calvary as the sacrifice. There is a golden lampstand in the temple, that lampstand represented Jesus who is the light of the world. There is the table of showbread in the temple, that represented Jesus who is the bread of heaven and the bread of life. There is the bronze laver in their where the priest would wash and cleanse themselves ceremonially. What did that picture? That represented Jesus who cleanses us from all sin. There’s the altar of incense where incense would rise up to the Lord. What does that picture? That pictures Christ who is our permanent and ever faithful intercessor at the right hand of God the Father. There is a veil in the temple and when Jesus died the veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies, the Bible says, was rent into. That represented Jesus’ body as Jesus’ body was torn and crushed and the way to the innermost sanctum was opened up, but we don’t go through a physical veil, we go through the veil of Jesus Christ. All of this points to Jesus and all of it points to grace. The innermost part of the temple is the Holy of Holies and there in the Holy of Holies the great high priest one day here would take the blood of an animal and he would sprinkle that blood on that mercy seat in that place, rolling back the burden of sin against the people for a year. That pointed to Jesus. Jesus Christ died on the cross and the Bible says he went into a greater and better tabernacle, he went into the heavenly one and there he bore his blood on the great altar of Almighty God in our place for our sins.

Everything about this geographic spot where the wrath was stayed speaks of Jesus and speaks of grace. Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. They all pointed to King Jesus, the King of all, the King of holiness, the King of righteousness, the King of truth, the King of heaven, and are you ready, praise his name, he is King of grace. If you’re a sinner, you like that. He is King of grace. He is King of granting favor to the most undeserving. That’s us. All of that is pictured in this glorious narrative of the wrath of God stopping at this geographic place which is at this point in history, owned by a Jebusite, Araunah, and it was a threshing floor.

We see another picture of grace here, another portrait of grace here and that is that what is Araunah the Jebusite doing owning land in Israel? The truth is it wasn’t long ago that this wasn’t Israel’s land. David had conquered the Jebusite kingdom sometime before and he had transformed it to be within the environs now of Israel but somehow in God’s grace, one of the royalty of the Jebusites, a man named Araunah, came to faith in Jehovah. He’s now as far as religion goes, an Israelite, and he’s allowed to reclaim and own land there in Israel. My friend, Jebusites are the enemies of Jews and Jews are the enemies of Jebusites but in grace you become brothers. So Araunah the Jebusite owns a piece of property in Israel and now is a faithful worshiper, a convert to worshiping Jehovah God. This is grace. He now had citizenship in Zion even in the city of David even though at one time before he was a Jebusite.

Now think about this. David conquers Araunah and his people and through the conquering of David God’s king, this pagan king becomes a child of the King. Isn’t that the way Grace found you? The Bible says we are at enmity with God, we are God’s enemies and Jesus through the sovereign work of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit of God, he comes and he conquers you, but he didn’t conquer you to put his heel of omnipotence on you and crush you, he conquers you to win you. He conquers you and places you as a citizen in his kingdom. He conquers you and wins you to even be a precious child in his holy family. That’s what Araunah represents, Araunah the Jebusite, now numbered among the elect of Israel, even a landowner when just a few decades earlier he was an arch enemy of God and God’s people.

What a picture of grace. This whole thing is about Jesus. This whole thing is about grace. It bleeds grace, grace upon grace upon grace, and all of it serves as a reminder to us, us believers, that it is grace that has enabled us to believe on Christ. It is grace that has enabled us to begin to love God. We don’t come to church and bring tithes and offerings and do what we do trying to appease the wrath of God. No, we come because we are his. We are the Jebusite who is now in the family. Once an enemy, now God’s child. In grace we believed. In grace we began to love God. In grace we began to love God’s church. In grace we began to love God’s word. In grace we are no longer under wrath, we are citizens within the protected elect family of God. In grace we are sitting here today in Grace Life Church of the Shoals because every true child of God is a child of grace. It’s all grace, grace upon grace upon grace.

II. The true child of God counts it a privilege to serve God. Well, I should say a true child of grace. I didn’t put the word “true” in the outline up there but I probably should have. The true child of grace counts it a privilege to serve God. Notice how we see this spelled out here beginning in verse 18, “So Gad,” that’s the prophet speaking for God, “came to David,” now this is after the wrath was stayed and David and the rest of the nation were spared, “Gad came to David on that day and said to him, ‘Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.'” So the prophet says, “Here’s what God wants you to do. Now that he has saved you from wrath, now you serve him.” That’s what he’s saying. “God spared you from the wrath. As a matter of fact, David, you knew good and well it should have come on you and your household before anyone in the kingdom but God spared you.” That’s not fair! No, God doesn’t need to be fair because his Son is just in who he saves.

“Now go and serve me and worship me,” and notice there is just a sweet grace-wrought humility in everyone involved. Verse 19, “David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the LORD had commanded.” Araunah who owns the land, David is now to build a threshing floor on, “Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king.” Verse 21, “Then Araunah said, ‘Why has my lord the king come to his servant?’ And David said, ‘To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be held back from the people.’ Araunah said to David, ‘Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.'” Verse 23, Araunah says, “‘Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.’ And Araunah said to the king, ‘May the LORD your God accept you.'” So first of all, we see such gracious humility, such a willingness to serve God on Araunah’s part. Araunah said, “David, are you kidding me? I saw the pestilence. I saw the wrath of God being carried out in our nation and I saw God miraculously stop it. He showered such grace upon me, David, I wouldn’t dare ask you to pay for this. It may be my livelihood but you can have the land. You can have the oxen for the sacrifice and the yokes and everything about the threshing floor, that’s the wood, you can build the altar. It’s all free, David.” You see, because a true child of grace counts it a privilege to serve God. “It’s just my privilege to do it, David. I want to get in on this.”

David was humbled also and David was gracious to be a part of this and so David says, as we remember in our text, verse 24, “However, the king said to Araunah, ‘No,'” this is David, “‘No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” David says, “In grace, you don’t know, I’m humbled and I’m grateful and I’ve got to buy this threshing floor. I’ll provide the wood for the altar, I’ll provide the animals for the sacrifice, I’ll provide my own labor to build it and erect it, I’ll offer it there because this is a thanksgiving offering. Araunah, here’s what you’ve got to understand, I’m so grateful that you have such a heart and you consider it a privilege to get in on this service but you don’t understand, I’m not doing this out of duty, I’m doing this because I’m grateful I get to do it. God showed me so much grace. I’m just that grateful.”

Now doesn’t that apply to us today in the church, that our labor for Christ in this church ought to be out of hearts of humble gratitude? We are sinners who have been shown favor by this holy God. We are undeserving and we serve him here in this local church out of gratitude, not willful duty. There is a biblical truth in your duty but it’s beyond that for children of God. We see it as a privilege to serve God. It’s our privilege to do so. It’s not that we have to do it, like Araunah and David, it’s that we get to do this for our God who spared us the wrath.

What a beautiful picture we see in David of all time lineage of Israel, Araunah, a lineage of paganism, anti-God wickedness and idolatry, yet both of them now are together, both of them now in humility and in oneness are endeavoring to fulfill this service and this worship to God. It’s a beautiful picture of the local New Testament church. This lady over here is from this side of the tracks, this lady over here, she’s from another side of the tracks, this fellow over here, he’s from a bad household, this fellow over here, he’s from wealth and prosperity in the community, this guy over here, he’s like this, and this guy over here, he’s like that, but we’re just also grateful that we missed the wrath and our Savior took it for us. So one of us is Araunah, one of us is David, it just doesn’t matter. We count it a privilege to serve together. What a beautiful picture of a local church this is. That’s why you’ve got to be careful who you receive as members in a local church, you can’t have anybody join Christ’s church that Christ hasn’t brought in because they’ll serve in the flesh. It’s going to be about them. It’s going to be about their little kingdom and about their little things, not about, “I’m just glad I get to get in on it.”

That’s where David and Araunah are. They were brought together by grace. This Jebusite, Araunah, and this Jew, David, they were bonded together in grace. Both had been brought to a humble penitent state realizing how deserving they were of the judgment and how close they were to receiving the judgment of God, and both looked to what they can do in service and worship to God. It’s just a privilege to get in on it. As we see, Araunah, the former Jebusite, and David, the royal king of Israel, co-laboring together in this service and worship I’m reminded of Psalm 133:1, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!” I see that at Grace Life Church. I’m not making that up. I see that here. I see so many men, I see so many ladies and you guys wouldn’t have anything to do with each other if the world was the only thing you had, but when Jesus changed you, you’re just like Araunah the Jebusite and David the royal king of Israel, together, grateful we get the privilege of serving our God.

III. The true child of grace will not allow others to do his part. He just refuses to allow others to do his part. We see that so powerfully in David’s response. Araunah righteously, generously, gladly says, “David, you can have the land, you can have the oxen, you can have the wood, just take it all, David. I’m glad to get in on it.” David says, “No, I will surely buy it from you for a price. I will not offer offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” You know, when we come to our Christmas love offering next Sunday, I’ve used this phrase many times to you and that is not everybody can give the same gift but everybody can do something. Araunah tried to do what he could do and I think for Araunah this was maybe a true lifestyle sacrifice for him. This was his threshing floor. That was his livelihood but his point is, “God will take care of me somehow, but if this is needed to serve my God, so be it.”

I believe I’ve had some moments, Pam and I have had some seasons where we gave lifestyle sacrificial giving to this work. I can’t say that we’ve done it often, haven’t been that often but there have been times when we’ve done that. I don’t know, maybe this is your time to do an Araunah-type gift. You do what the Lord tells you to do. For David, his heart was just as true and there was some generosity but it wasn’t of the size of Araunah’s gift and offer because he owned everything, he was the king. Everybody can do something like Araunah did what he could do and David did what he could do. You see, the child of grace sees it as abhorrent to enjoy the blessings, the grace, the fellowship of a sound local church and not offer back to do their part in the support and the service and the worship of God through that church.

I’m reminded of Nehemiah. As God in his grace allowed the children of Israel to return from exile and begin to rebuild the city and it was so important, so central to everything they were about as a nation to get the wall rebuilt around Israel, well, how are they going to do it? Well, Nehemiah had every family take a place on the wall and here’s the way it was, if you don’t do your work and if you are not faithful, then there’s going to be a weak spot and we are all going to be killed. Everybody had their job. Everybody took their place on the wall and they were successful in rebuilding the wall. As Nehemiah 4:6 says, because “the people had a mind to work.” “We used to be in captivity, now we are back in God’s country. We’re grateful. It’s a privilege. I’ll do my part on the wall. I’m glad I get to be a part of it.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, listen to me this morning, my first job here before I joined this church was to carry sheet rock up the steps of the old building which is now the chapel and help nail that sheet rock to the walls because I had just gotten saved not long before that. I was just glad to get to do a part, and honestly before God I felt that way, it’s a privilege. It’s a privilege to serve the Lord. It’s a privilege to support the Lord’s work. It’s a privilege to worship him together with these people and a child of grace says, “Someone else is not going to do my part,” and that’s what David says. David says, “No, I’ve heard a word from God. This is my part, Araunah. It’s wonderful that you have a heart to give it all but this is my part and I’m not going to let somebody else do my part.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, have you been at Grace Life very long? Stop for a moment this morning, just stop for a moment and think with me, think of the immeasurable blessings of a sound, true, local church as we see our lives and the lives of our loved ones immeasurably blessed by the ministry of the local church. It’s here that my children and now my grandchildren learn of sin, and learn of grace, and learn of Jesus, and learn of eternal things. It’s here in this fellowship. You had a little problem a while back, didn’t you? You had a little medical scare a while back, who called you? Who prayed for you? Who checked on you? It’s in this fellowship you found people who care without malice. They just genuinely cared for you. It’s here in this fellowship where people care for our eternal good, who care for us in times of sorrow or sickness and loss.

So we come like Araunah and we come like David to our Christmas love offering and it’s unthinkable as a true child of grace to receive these benefits and these blessings and to ponder the glories of the grace that God has shined upon us and yet be stingy in our support of God’s local church. It’s unthinkable to be a child of grace to sit on a pew knowing that the brothers and sisters around you are paying part of your way because of your tightness and stinginess, brothers and sisters around you are carrying what you should be carrying and you’re on the church welfare roll. I’m going to tell you, Araunah and David, both of them would say, “We’ll have none of that. We’ll have none of that.” A true child of grace counts it a wonderful privilege, they would not think of someone else doing their part.

When we see Araunah and David here and they are offering to serve the Lord in this way, we don’t see any of them or either one of them calculating out what’s fair and equitable. They’ve just seen the wrath of God that should oppress them, spare them. They can’t calculate that out. There is no number big enough to calculate that out so their devotion back is that way. “We are not going to calculate this thing out, we are thankful for grace, we are thankful we have been provided what we’ve been provided.” You know, the true child of grace understands that we do not first give to meet a need – did you hear that – we do not first give to meet a need in the local church because giving is not only God’s means to raise money, giving is God’s means to raise children. Giving to support the work of the local church is not first about material need, it’s first about our need for the spiritual exercise of giving. Giving is a spiritual exercise. It builds my faith and it prospers my soul. My church may need my offerings but more than that, much much more than that, I need to give to my church. It’s the clearly spoken from the Scriptures direction for us as to how we are to serve and worship God as clearly as Gad says to David, “Buy this place, this threshing floor, build the altar there, sacrifice there.” There was no Plan B. This was the way God has instructed us to do it.

The church needs my service, the church needs my gift but more, much much more, I need to give and serve my local church. Giving to advance God’s work is like lubricating the gears of my spiritual life. It’s a nourishment to the inner man and the true child of grace begins to grasp these things. You see, when you give to advance the cause of your local church, God causes that to be a thing that advances you more than anything else. You thought you were hoping to get that job done or that task done or that carpet laid whatever it is, no, God meant it to help you. God meant it to minister to you.

IV. Our last point, where is your gratitude meter? How are you doing on your gratitude meter before God? David and Araunah here are overwhelmed with gratitude to God. Now here’s what I want you to understand here – now listen, don’t miss this – they have been spared the wrath of God, they didn’t deserve it, it was grace, and immediately after that God says, “Okay, here’s where I want you to serve me. I want you to serve me.” Here’s what you’ve got to realize, God calls you and I to serve him and to worship him in our local churches after he has spared us from judgment and wrath. You see, we are commanded to serve and worship because in infinite, wonderful, matchless grace, he has chosen not to number us among the condemned and the damned. You’ve been chosen and commanded to serve God in a local church because you’ve been not numbered among the damned. He only told David to do this and David was to do it with Araunah in concert with taking his threshing floor, buying it from him, because those men were spared the wrath.

It’s the fool who says, “I dread God’s command. I dread his commands to worship, to serve, and to give him.” Understand something, sir, understand something, ma’am, understand something, brother and sister in Christ, God only has two summons: one to service because you are counted as a precious child of grace, or one to condemnation because you’re outside the realm of grace. So if he’s told you, “Serve me, give, support, work,” it means, “You’re mine.” I’d rather be in that company myself. Can you even imagine David or Araunah saying, “Well, doggone it, Gad is always telling us something to do. Now I’ve got to go and buy this threshing floor.” Not a trace of it. Their gratitude meter was way up there. “We are grateful this holy God spared us through Jesus Christ,” and that just takes care of everything else. There were 70,000 men killed in this plague. Not a one of them was told to serve God in any way. They’re dead. You get to serve the Lord because you’re not numbered among the condemned, you are numbered as a child of grace. What a gift. What a glory. What a goodness.

We are called to faith in Jesus Christ, then we are called to fellowship in a local New Testament church, we are called to support the ministries of that local New Testament church. That’s why I tell you find a solid one. Find a solid one. Find a good one. If you are called to do it, make sure it’s a sound, biblical, Christ-honoring, glory of God-focused, Bible-saturated church. You are called to fellowship. You are called to faith. You are called to support, support the preaching of the word, the body life, the missions endeavor. And by the way, can I just say this to you honestly? I hope you won’t think less of me. Sometimes I think about quitting. I’m like that preacher at the train station, you’ve heard all the illustrations, you have to hear it again. And the deacon walks up and says, “Pastor, you’re sitting here at the train station. I’ve been watching you, you’re just sitting here. A train comes in, a train goes out, a train comes in, a train goes out. Pastor, why are you sitting out here at the train station watching trains come in and trains go?” He said, “Man, I want to see something move that I don’t have to push.” Sometimes I just want to quit. I’m tired of the next offering. I’m tired of the next thing. I have five grandbabies, they must know this God that we love and know. They must cherish this God we know and love. They must worship him and honor him and embrace him. Can’t quit. Can’t quit. There is too much on the line. Amen?

It could be that old Brother Jeff, you may just work me into the grave in the next 20 years. I don’t know and let me be careful here, you are gracious to your pastor and that’s why I still have vigor in my preaching, by the way, and I thank you for that and it’s a benefit to you, but I could be dead before that carpet is worn out back there that we are wanting to put down. In all likelihood, Riley won’t be dead. Austin won’t be dead. Grace won’t be dead. Evelyn won’t be dead and Elise won’t be dead and they may walk down that carpet and learn of missions, and learn of church planting, walk down that carpet and go to a small group and learn the attributes of God which we teach in small groups, sit on this pew and hear the thundering Spirit-empowered expository preaching of the word of God. It’s more than carpet. Did you hear me? It’s more than carpet. Yes, if God should choose, we can meet in a barn and we can meet on a dirt floor. Hey, I’m okay. If God wants that, amen, hallelujah, and you can live in that too, by the way. Not just the church meeting, your house could be like that too. But if he allows us to have something decent and nice, we should enjoy that too.

So in our efforts to build and maintain facilities to perform these ministries, we must realize that it’s our service and our worship to maintain this place and to keep it going. You see, God is not calling you and I to build a wooden altar, he’s not calling you and I to sacrifice an animal like he did David, that all pointed to Jesus and Jesus has come, our service and worship is the local church. That’s our service and worship.

Dr. Jerry Vines had a preacher friend who told him this story and I’ve never gotten over th it. His preacher friend was at the 25 wedding anniversary of a simple farmer and his wife, I think the guy’s name was Jeb, and Jeb was a simple farmer with a small farm and, I mean, he worked sun-up to sundown just to barely pay the bills like most small farmers have to do. A country boy. He married his high school sweetheart and not long after they were married, I don’t know if it was polio or what, but she became handicapped and th crippled and she spent the next 25 years, this was their 25 anniversary, this pastor was in th their home for their 25 anniversary and she had been crippled all those years. Jeb loved her, helped her get up in the morning, helped feed her, helped clothe her, helped bathe her, and old Jeb worked hard but he would come in and check on her and for those 25 years he just poured his love into that dear crippled wife of his.

th About a year before this 25 anniversary, Jeb began to wonder, “What can I do for her? I don’t have hardly any money.” Then he remembered the only thing she ever said of any extravagance, she said, “I’d love a string of authentic real pearls, a pearl necklace.” Well, the only indulgence Jeb really had was chewing tobacco and he decided about a year after th his 25 anniversary he’d give up chewing. He didn’t tell her but he would give up chewing tobacco and every time he would think about her or think about buying and chewing tobacco, he would put the money in his tobacco pouch, and every day and every week, more money went into the tobacco pouch. Every day, every week, old Jeb would th put more money in the tobacco pouch and it became the day of that 25 anniversary celebration and at the end of it he said, “Sweetheart, I have something for you.” So he goes over to his crippled wife in a wheelchair and he kneels down and he buries his face in her lap and he starts weeping and he pulls out of his back pocket his tobacco pouch. She said, “Honey, why are you giving me your tobacco pouch?” He said, “Open it.” And she opened it and out came a string of pearls. She said, “Jeb, Jeb, are those real?” He said, “You bet you they’re real.” She said, “Jeb, how could you? How could you?” He lifted his head out of her lap and tears streaming down his face and he said, “Sweetheart, it’s just because I love you,” and that’s why we bring offerings to Jesus, just because we love him. But wait, it’s much more biblical and true to reverse the analogy. We are the crippled. We are the lame. We are the helpless and worthless and someone else has cared for us and loved us and been devoted to us and saved us and cleansed us and made us his own, then he brings out a pearl of eternal life with him forever and we say, “Jesus, how could you do that? How could you do this? There’s nothing about me, how could you do this?” And Jesus lifts his head off of our laps with tears streaming down his face and looks at us and says, “Just because I love you.”

Where is your gratitude meter? Where is your gratitude meter? As we bring our Christmas love offerings next week, I don’t know what God wants you to do, I will not know what you do, but I pray we will come in like King David of old and say, “I will not bring an offering to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” You do what God leads you to do, now listen, not out of coercion, not out of arm-twisting, gratitude. “I’m grateful for the love of my Savior. I want to serve and worship his church and part of that is this gift.”