God’s desire is a life lived using things to help people rather than using people to get things.

The grip I have on my money, and who I am willing to loosen that grip for, says everything you need to know about my heart.

[2 Samuel 24:13-15] 

So Gad came to David and asked him, “Will you choose three years of famine throughout your land, three months of fleeing from your enemies, or three days of severe plague throughout your land? Think this over and decide what answer I should give the Lord who sent me.” 14 “I’m in a desperate situation!” David replied to Gad. “But let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great. Do not let me fall into human hands.” 15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel that morning, and it lasted for three days. A total of 70,000 people died throughout the nation, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south.”

Principle #1: God will discipline you in the area of your life where you least trust in Him. 



[2 Sam 24:16-17]

“ But as the angel was preparing to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented and said to the death angel, “Stop! That is enough!” At that moment the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 When David saw the angel, he said to the Lord, “I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! (David admits fault…) But these people are as innocent as sheep—what have they done? Let your anger fall against me and my family.”

Principle #2: Discipline only lasts as long as our disobedience.

[2 Samuel 24:18-19]

“That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up to do what the Lord had commanded him.”

Principle #3: Repentance is ALWAYS followed by obedience.

[2 Samuel 24:20-25]

“When Araunah saw the king and his men coming toward him, he came and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. 21 “Why have you come, my lord the king?” Araunah asked. David replied, “I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord there, so that he will stop the plague.” 22 “Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish,” Araunah said to David. “Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing boards and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. 23 I will give it all to you, Your Majesty, and may the Lord your God accept your sacrifice.” 24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” So David paid him fifty pieces of silver[f] for the threshing floor and the oxen. 25 David built an altar there to the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer for the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.”

Principle #4: Obedience becomes worship, when it’s extravagant and freely given.



The COMMON response to Araunah would have been, ‘thank you very much.’ 

The UNCOMMON response to God was, ‘No thank you. I WILL NOT give to God what has cost me nothing.’ 

[1 Samuel 13:14]

“But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

[Matthew 6:21]

“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”

[2 Corinthians 8:1-4] 

“Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. 3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem.”

• Biblical Christians give with UNCOMMON generosity