WHAT IS YOUR PRICE?
Daniel Valles 7/2/7   www. informedchristians.com

II Chronicles 25:7-9 records, “But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down.   And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.”  Here in this account, when King Amaziah, was confronted by the man of God to do what was right, his first reaction was to think of the cost rather than doing what was right.  In Amaziah’s mind, all he could think about was (in our currency) a quarter millions dollars that would be ‘wasted’.  Many times we as Christians fall into the same trap of thinking from the wrong perspective.  Amaziah missed the point – he was going to lose his life and the war if he proceeded.  The cost of disobedience was far greater than the chump change that he was focused on.  Yet, today, many Christians first think of their beautifully decorated homes as not worth losing instead of going to the mission field or other service for Christ.  How many families have been led down paths of pernicious doctrines and preaching all because they valued their church membership more than the truth?  How many young people have not served God first of all in their life because they are fixated on their family?  Matthew 10:37-38 warns, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”

What is your price?  What does Satan have to dangle in front of your eyes to bring you to a standstill on making the right choices and actions in serving God?  The lure for Amaziah was money.  One of Satan’s most powerful tools is to counter-offer what God wants us to do.  He will make it look very appealing and desirous.  He tempted Eve in the Garden, and has been tempting mankind ever since.  Matthew 4:8-9 says, “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”  What is your price?  What will it take for you to leave service for God - what He wants for you and your family?  Oftentimes Satan does not offer us vile sins or activities – he offers substitutes.  So many people settle for ‘good’ instead of ‘best’.  Satan offered Jesus rule of the world, but at the cost of service to Satan.

What is your price?  One of Satan’s most often-used lures is Respect and Popularity.  Proverbs 28:21 says, “To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.”  Time after time people lose their morals, character, purity, and innocence because of the people that they wanted to associate with.  In John 12:42-43, it records how Respect and Popularity (being in the ‘In’ crowd) dragged men down:  “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”  How many Christians will not go further for Christ because they are going backwards with their friends?  So often we find ourselves tempted to not do what we should because of ‘what will so-and-so think?” 

Nehemiah 13:26 says, “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.”

The antidote and cure against this temptation is to keep in mind Matthew 25:21: “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant…”  What Christ says will be the only thing worth while.

Another similar lure is People.  Psalms and Proverbs speak at length about the company that one keeps, and how just this one area of life will affect your lifelong actions.  Proverbs 6:26 says, “For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread…”  The people that you fellowship and associate with will determine your actions.  Countless people are sitting in jails and drug rehabs right now just because of the people that they hung around with.  Many people’s lives are ruined because of the pursuits of their ‘friends’.  Many Christians are no longer serving God because of their ‘friends’.  Many a Christian is held back from serving God because of their lukewarm or reprobate church organization.

We need to constantly be asking ourselves what is possibly hindering my walk with God?  Psalm 119:59-60 exhorts, “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.  I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” Are there stumblingblocks in my life that I do not want to move because I consider them more valuable?  What is your price?  What does it take to get you to turn aside from service for God?

God’s Word is filled with witnesses and examples of people whose lives were ruined by the price of sin.  Many people wonder why God included some accounts in the Bible.  I Corinthians 10:5-6 tells us, “But with many of them [Israelites in the wilderness] God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.  Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.”  When we see where the path of sin leads, it should stir us up to avoid it at all costs.

II Chronicles 28:22-23 records, “And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.”  Just one decision to do that which God prohibited ended up destroying not only the king, but the entire country.  What is your price?  It does not have to be a series of major events per se – all it can take is one.  I once heard someone say that sin will take you farther than you wanted to go and will cost you more than you were willing to pay.  In Jeremiah 15:13 we learn, “Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.”  They lost everything that they had worked for, everything that they valued, and more!  The price of sin is not worth following after!  Whenever Satan tempts us to sin, we must remember how Scripture says the pleasures of sin are just for a season!  Satan will give you everything you want - but it will cost all you have.  When tempted, we must constantly remember and hold to: “The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.”

As Christians, we are not exempt from being tempted.  Countless Christians, like Demas (II Timothy 4:10) have forsaken God, “having loved this present world…”  I John 2:15-16 warns, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”  The goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures, etc. of this world are used to tempt Christians to follow them.  Daily we are tempted to crave what God has forbidden.  Satan constantly tempts our flesh with things and activities that only tempt us to sin even more (television, magazines, Internet, etc.).  Satan knows he can fill our time with the lust of the eyes – a covetousness for things of the world instead of things of God.  Satan goes all out to tempt us with the pride of life: the desire for approval, applause, ambition, and honour from the world – instead of from God.  The cure and antidote for these temptations is found in the next verse (17):  “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”  Do not live for this world!  Live for Christ first and highest above all!

This is the same response that Jesus gave to Satan’s temptations.  Matthew 4:10 says, “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”  Jesus made it clear to Satan that He was going to follow the will of His father, and that He was most certainly not going to serve Satan.  When we are tempted, we need to likewise further determine to serve God wholeheartedly, steadfastly because this world will pass away and only what is done for Christ will last!

What is your price?  This question can be asked to find out what it will take one to turn and forsake – or, it is also a question of your worth ie. what are you worth?  For the Christian, knowing the answer to the latter helps defend against the former.  I Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”  When we remember that we as Christians are a purchased possession of God, it should provide a soberness and gravity to serve and fear Him.  The charge of being a Steward, Watchman, Light, Salt, and Witness in this world should drive us to serve God, not falling for the deceitful dainties of Satan.  As with all of God’s servants, we will give an account of what we have done in this flesh.  Such knowledge should give us (like the Corinthians, II Cor. 7:11) an indignation at sin in our life, a vehement desire and zeal to serve God more, an exact revenge against sin in our life, and a carefulness to be clear from Satan’s traps and temptations.  In I Corinthians 9:27, Paul reminds us, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”  Paul was aware that unguarded strength is double weakness.  As Christians, we need to be constantly in God’s Word and prayer to guard against the wiles of the devil.

Finally, what is your price? – ie. what has it cost you?

I Kings 19:19-21 tells the story of Elijah meeting Elisha:  “So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him.   And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee?  And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.”  Elisha knew that Elijah was the man of God, and that he was being chosen to be his disciple.  Before he embarked on this new ministry, he essentially ‘burned his bridges’.  No longer was he going to be a farmer, no longer was he going to be tempted to return to the farm when the going got tough – he was in it for good.  Christian, have you burned your bridges behind you?  Have you purposed in your heart that you will serve God and not go back?  “…And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.”

In Acts 19:18-19 we find the price that several paid to serve God: “And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”  Fifty-thousand pieces of silver was enough to buy over sixteen hundred slaves in their day.  These people had money and means – but it did not stop them from serving God.  Too many Christians let material possessions and sins prevent them from serving God as He requires.  Most Christians are content to keep stumbling blocks in their life because they value their price.  Their value is more on the entertainment of the world than the raising of a godly family.  They value their pursuits more than the pursuits of God.  They revolt against the idea of throwing countless worldly videos and movies away because they see only money instead of lusts of the flesh.  These men saw these vile books not as money spent, but as hindrances between them and God.  “…And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.”

In II Samuel 24:24 we find a startling statement by David: “And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”  How often are we as Christians content to give God ‘that which doth cost me nothing’.  We give Him scraps of our time.  If we have nothing better to do we might read His Word.  No!  David was appalled at the idea that his service to God would cost nothing.  Service to God will cost!  It will cost our time, devotion, and pursuits!  What thanks do we offer God for His indescribable love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace by just giving Him our ‘spare’ time?  Romans 12:1 beseeches us: “…brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”  Giving our time, career, pursuits, family – our all – is our reasonable service and price! 

What is my price? – to serve Him with all that I have.  “…And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.”