Sermon for November 25th, 2012

2 Samuel 24:18-25

18 That day Gad came to David and said to him, ‘Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.’ 19Following Gad’s instructions, David went up, as the Lord had commanded. 20When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming towards him; and Araunah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. 21Araunah said, ‘Why has my lord the king come to his servant?’ David said, ‘To buy the threshing-floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be averted from the people.’ 22Then Araunah said to David, ‘Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing-sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.’ And Araunah said to the king, ‘May the Lord your God respond favourably to you.’

24 But the king said to Araunah, ‘No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt-offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt-offerings and offerings of well-being. So the Lord answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.

David's Sacrifice: Counting the Cost

Is this not a beautiful church? A wonderful and fitting house for the Lord himself? You have no idea how much I wanted to build this church for the glory of God, and in gratitude for all he has done for me in my life. But it was not for me to build the house. The Lord said to me, "David, you are a man of business. But one will come after you, your son, and he will build me a house." And so he did. Is it not beautiful?

God did not let me build this church, but he did let me have one small part in it. Before long before the walls of this building were raised, this was an empty plot of land. It was here that I made a costly sacrifice to God. It was here that after a lifetime of taking, I learned to give.

My name is Dave. David Kingsley. If it sounds familiar, that's because I was the President and CEO of the Judah Group for eight years, then after the big merger with Northern Israel Industries, I was President and CEO of United Israel Incorporated--the largest conglomerate in the Middle East--for 32 years. But I wasn't always the executive in the corner office, you know. I began my rise to fame and fortune in the stockroom, shepherding packages from one place to another.