Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 84. Who is Willing to Consecrate Themselves to the Lord Today? (calling all broken spirits and cedar logs)

Hello human.

If I am to follow Jesus, I follow His sacrificial nature.

The apostle Mark says in Mark 10:45:

 

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

He died for our sins. Because His Heavenly Father so loved the world. I am called to serve. To give my life to God as a living sacrifice.

Paul says in Ephesians 5:2:

 

And walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

The Sacrifice of a King

When King David conducted a census at God’s command, his commanders confirmed more than a million able-bodied men. Although my witness today is not about David’s sin here, it is important to understand his ill intent for God’s Will. That he wanted to gauge and scale his own prowess against the pagan kings, take credit for his army of able-bodied warriors…And thus, his need to build the altar.

The altar came out of his repentant heart. A broken spirit.

Because this was David’s sacrifice. A repentant heart that put him back within God’s Will.

David needed land to build his altar. He insisted on paying for it when his servant offered to give him the threshing floor for his altar and all the livestock needed to complete a respectable sacrifice.

2 Samuel 24:24

 

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.” So, David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.

And that threshing floor, that altar created out of a King’s repentant heart, became the foundation for the temple his successor would build. His son, Solomon. That was not for him to do, because as God said, he was a warrior. He had shed blood. He was King of all those able-bodied warriors. He would not build. His son would build.

2 Chronicles 3:1-2

Solomon Builds the Temple

 

3 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah[a] the Jebusite, the place provided by David. 2 He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

That isn’t all King David did to prepare for the building of the first temple.

1 Chronicles 22:2-4

 

2 So David gave orders to assemble the foreigners residing in Israel, and from among them he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God. 3 He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings, and more bronze than could be weighed. 4 He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted, for the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought large numbers of them to David.

He provided more cedar logs than could be counted.  All this, the gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, precious stones from the King’s bounty.

Yet King David also gives his personal treasures to the building of the first temple.

1 Chronicles 29:3-5

 

3 Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: 4 three thousand talents[a] of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents[b] of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings, 5 for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate themselves to the Lord today?”

The reaction from the priests, and the people was a glorious one. Everyone responded with a generous heart.

And here is where we enter his story.

This question is ours to answer. How do we sacrifice to God?

Why King David’s Altar is Our Altar Call

I asked myself why King David’s altar is what my daily alter calls should be. Because my sacrifice comes from repentance, changing direction out of humility.

Psalm 51 is a beacon of repentance. When we need God’s forgiveness but are at a loss for clarity we can return to David’s words and let our hearts follow along.

Psalm 51:17

 

17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart

    you, God, will not despise.

What Sacrifices Please God?

Romans 12:1 (NIV)

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

Proverbs 21:3 (NIV)

To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Luke 9:23

Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.’

Hebrews 13:16

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

When We Build from a Broken Spirit, Our Body is a Living Sacrifice

I am layer upon layer crazy about this… that the thing we can give to God through the agency of our free will, are the things that come from a broken spirit. A broken spirit requires everything we are. That we sacrifice more cedar logs than could be counted.

To be clear, to seek clarity, to better comprehend, here is a start to what I choose out of my broken spirit.

To encourage your response, I will pause for a second and picture you echoing each affirmation, that together we give weight to what we turn away from.

Consider who we choose, and over what.

Join me.

I choose His provision over my prowess.

I choose His sovereignty over my self-interest.

I choose His love over my lament.

I choose His grace over my good deeds.

I choose His call over my captions.

I choose His glory over my gain.

I choose His will over my wanting.

I choose His call over my creativity.

I choose His story over my strategy.

I choose His delight over my determination.

I choose His strength over my stamina.

I choose His bounty over my best effort.

I choose His Son over my sovereignty.

When we have a broken spirit, what we leave behind is what our sin nature tries to hold us captive to.

Prowess, self-interest, lament, good deeds, self-guided captions, accolades, wanting, creativity, strategy, stamina, and so much more… all the earthly pursuits we try to power through on our own merit.

It is such a strain on our God-given soul.

My sin nature holds nothing that endures. It is limited, not limitless. Finite, not eternal. Mortal, not divine.

He can power us in everything, but it starts from choosing His nature, resting in His nature first, out of our brokenness.

A broken spirit casts a divine light on living well at His glory altar. King Solomon’s temple was God’s altar. My life is God’s temple. A place where the holy spirit resides, governs, glorifies, gives to others what has been given to me. My life is God’s altar to which I come first, with a broken spirit—in obedience, in gratitude, in humility.

What I Am Trying to Say Has Already Been Said Better

My witness today has been said so well through the repentant hearts that have come before me.

When we choose God, when we choose His ways in every moment, we hear.

Psalm 40:6

 

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—but my ears you have opened—burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.

Is this ok with you, human? Because with repentance, with that change of direction toward God in any given moment, comes obedience, and He floods our steps toward Him with His love.

Ephesians 1:17  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.