He worshipped so well it cost him his life. Words we rarely hear today.

It begins in Genesis 4. The story of Cain and Abel. Two offerings to God are made. Abel giving of his best while Cain seemingly tossing God his leftovers.

We see this in the descriptions: ‘Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil’ and ‘Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock‘.

The result was that ‘God looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour.’ (verse 4-5)

We know how that story ends. Abel’s honest worship leads to a jealous betrayal and murder at his brother’s hands.

WORSHIP THAT COSTS

It happens in 2 Samuel from verse 18. King David – the man after God’s own heart has sinned by calling for a census and God sends punishment on Israel in the form of a deadly plague.

He ends up on the threshing-floor of a man called Araunah who was a Jebusite and asks him if he can use the land to build an altar to God, so that the plague may be stopped.

Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing-sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”

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.”

David makes the offering and God stops the plague. I really love this story and return to it often – “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

WHAT IS MY WORSHIP WORTH?

When Jesus is asked what the greatest command is, He responds, in Matthew 22, with the words, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” The description Jesus gave of worship was the commitment of the surrender of everything.

Later on when He is talking to His disciples, He puts it another way, “If anyone would follow Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9.23)

There is a cost to worship. It is not simply a half-hearted singing of a song in a church service or a tossing in of some leftover coins into the offering plate. Not the weekly ritual of attending a meeting or flipping through a few pages of your Bible every now and then.

The cost of worship is a giving of yourself and everything you have and are to God, every single day. Committing yourself once again each morning to love God and love people in every area of your life.

In refusing to let your worship of God cost you nothing.

Let’s really worship God, together.