Giving God What He Paid For 1st Corinthians 6:20 / 1st Peter 2:24 (Wednesday Night Reflection)
I can’t tell you the number of times Anita and I have been through a
drive-thru, placed our order, paid for our order, gotten home, pulled the food
out, and there was something missing. If
I have picked it up by myself, that discovery is usually followed by, “why
didn’t you check it before you left?”
When that happened and we lived in Burlington, most of the time one or
the other of us would quickly slide back over to Wendy’s, Sheetz, or Cookout
(the usually problem spots) and, nicely, ask them to correct the order so we
could have what we paid for. Anyone else
been there?
How many of you order online from somewhere like eBay where you are
dealing with individual sellers as opposed to a business? I have multiple times. One of the first things I check before
bidding on an item is to see the seller’s ratings and comments. If I see a lot of “Item not as described” or
“Item never arrived,” I quickly move on to a different seller or look elsewhere. I don’t want to join the people who did not
get what they paid for.
Couples, how many of you would be happy if you paid in advance for your
25th anniversary trip, including your hotel reservations for the
honeymoon suite, with no refunds possible, and when you checked into the hotel
you discovered they had overbooked and all that was left for y’all was a small
room with no window and two twin beds?
What about moving into a house you had built and will be paying the bank
for over the next 25 years, only to find out that the plumber had deposited his
check but had installed Aquasource hardware in your kitchen and bathrooms after
you paid for Kohler? Anyone happy with
that scenario?
Why is this? Because we have
always been told you get what you pay for…and in return we expect to receive
what we pay for…and we don’t get what we paid for, we feel cheated, and that
usually is accompanied by feelings of disappointment or anger. The truth of the matter is, the more we paid,
the more an emotional stake we have in our response.
The question I want us to answer tonight, is whether or not we give God
what He paid for? What has God paid for?
In 1st Corinthians 6:20 we read, “For you were bought with a
price; therefore glorify God in your body.”
Paul tells the Corinthians and each of us that we have each been bought
with a price. God has paid for each of
us, entirely.
I think sometimes we think that God only rented out our minds and our
behinds for one or two hours a week, and often we begrudgedly give Him that. Sometimes we might be a little more generous
and we might give him our whole Sunday and half our Wednesdays, but other than
that, we claim Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and, oh yeah, the
other half of Wednesday, for our own…to do with ourselves as we want to do.
Now some here tonight might want to say, “Hey preacher, I can’t be here
24/7—though with all the meetings and other activities it seems like you and
the others want me here that long.
Besides preacher, you are not even here 24/7. You have to understand, I have a family to
take care of…I have a job that I have to work…
God doesn’t expect us to be here 24/7.
In fact God doesn’t want us to be here that much. God sends us forth each time we gather. The question is, do we remember that God has
paid for us, and we have surrendered ourselves to Him, and we still belong to
Him when we leave here?
Do we remember that we are called to love God with all our heart, all our
soul, all our mind, all our strength—meaning that we are to love God completely
with all that we are? When we leave here
on Sundays or Wednesdays or any other time, do we remember that we still belong
to God?
If we go out to eat on Sunday after church (the time I am told that
wait-staff dread the most), does our attitude toward the person serving us
reflect that we remember whose we are, especially if they make a mistake?
If we are still in the workforce, does our attitude toward our coworkers,
our supervisors, or our employees reflect that we remember whose we are? What about when that coworker stabs us in the
back or our supervisor unfairly reprimands us or our employee shows up late?
If we are at home, does the music we listen to, the television shows we
watch, that activities that we participate in reflect that we remember whose we
are?
If the phone rings and the gossip starts flowing, do we remember whose we
are?
If we are in public with a group of friends who start telling racist
jokes or start making fun of someone because of a disability, do we remember
whose we are?
If the cashier gives us too much change or we get to the parking lot and
realize that she forgot to ring up one of the items, do we remember whose we
are?
When we look at our paycheck or in our wallet or in our bank accounts, do
we remember whose we are?
When we wake up and the sun is shining and the wind has laid down or the
fish are biting, do we remember whose we are?
When we look around at those struggling in our community, in our nation,
and in the world, whether because of their own choices, someone else’s attack,
or because of a natural disaster, do we remember whose we are?
The thing is, my brothers and sisters, while we might hold tightly to
anything we pay for, gripping it with all our strength, God holds onto us with
an open hand…freely giving us the option remember that we belong to Him or to
reclaim our lives as our own. Yet as we consider whether to remain in that open
hand or not, may we always remember, as Peter reminds us, the price God has
paid: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from
sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been
healed.”
I don’t know how many of us hear are familiar with Corrie Ten Boom. She and her family were a devout Christian
family in the Netherlands in the early part of the last century. During the 1940’s they hide, feed, and care
for Jews in their home in an effort to keep them from being sent to
concentration camps during the German occupation. They were eventually found out and sent to
the concentration camp in Ravensbruck.
Prior to her death, she shared much of her experience and how it changed
her. I want to close with an excerpt
from one of her books I used as a devotional:
"If you and I
do not give ourselves entirely to the Lord, we do not give Him the value He has
paid for us on the cross. We were bought at a very high price. That cross was
horrendous. It was an extremely high price to pay for you and me. When I was a
prisoner, I had an awful experience where I had to stand naked. I could hardly
bear it. And then suddenly I remembered what was said about the Lord Jesus,
that they divided His clothes among themselves. It was then that I understood a
little more about the incredibly high price of that cross. That was because I
was suffering the death on the cross in a small way. That was when I could say,
“Oh Jesus, how could I compare my pain with Your physical pain, and Your
emotional pain? Oh, Jesus, however much my soul suffers, one look at You
strengthens my heart. Did You bear all that for me? For my incredible sin?
Should I complain about my pain? And not suffer it with patience?” Yes, it is a
high price, but it has been paid. It is wonderful to be able to surrender to Him,
who bought us. With body, soul, and spirit. And to lose your life for Him. It
means you gain your life."[i]
Are we giving God what He paid for?
In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
[i] "I
Stand at the Door and Knock: Meditations by the Author of The Hiding
Place" by Corrie Ten Boom (Chapter 8 – “A Pure and Holy Life”)
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