I think God measures our acts of worship by their level of sacrifice. No sacrifice = No worship. Remember the story where David wants to buy a threshing floor from Araunah the Jebusite? Araunah offers it for free, but David refuses. He says, “I’m not going to offer God, my God, sacrifices that are no sacrifices.” Other versions says use the phrase “cost me nothing.”

Honestly, I wonder how many of our acts of worship don’t even count because they don’t involve any sacrifice? His sacrifice warrants more than spare change. His sacrifice warrants more than spare time. We’ve got to do better than leftover spirituality that offers God what’s leftover.

For the record, I don’t believe anyone has ever sacrifice anything for God. Sure, we make temporal sacrifices. But let me ask a question: if you always get back more than you gave up have you really sacrifice anything at all? The think the answer is no! In the words of Jim Elliot, “He is no fool who loses what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”