Impress God with this:

Psalm 51:16-17

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Our reading today comes from Psalm 51 verses 16 and 17. This Psalm was written by King David after his fall into sin with Bathsheba. And he says to God,

For you do not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices God wants are a broken spirit. A broken and crushed heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17 EHV)

Years ago, I was talking to a man who used to go out and try to raise money for church work and for mission work, and he told me I got so sick of having people say to me, boy, if I had a million dollars, I sure would give a big gift to the church. He said he always wanted to say to them, God obviously doesn’t care if you have a million dollars, or he would give it to you.

We oftentimes can be very impressed with big, large gifts to the church. Maybe if someone gives a multi-million dollar gift or some other very large gift, that’s quite a sacrifice that somebody would make. When it comes to the gifts that we might give to God, we automatically think that the larger the gift would be, the better that is. And sometimes we can think that that’s what is impressive to God. And what makes God so much happier with us is how much larger our gifts might be.

The Psalm in front of us really contradicts that idea in fact, the Holy Spirit takes that thought and sort of flips it on its head. When you are the most aware of how unfit you are to be in the Kingdom of God. That’s when you are the most fit to be in the Kingdom of God. That’s a strange thought. When you realize about yourself and are the most aware of the fact that you do not belong in God’s kingdom because of your sinfulness. God says that is where he wants you to be for him to come and find you with his grace and his forgiveness.

If you think about it, God possesses all of the wealth that there is in the world already. Any gift that we might be able to give to God, he could automatically produce himself for the blink of an eye. But what he really desires to possess with us is our hearts, our souls. He wants a soul that relies only on his grace and on his mercy. Think about the story of the woman while Jesus was eating dinner with a number of people, the woman that came in and was crying at his feet and began to wipe his feet with her hair and her tears were going down on his feet. And who is the one in that setting that Jesus holds up to admire for everybody? Jesus holds her up as one to admire because of her great reliance upon his mercy and forgiveness.

The greatest gift that you and I can give to God, David says, is just a humble recognition of our own guilt and a longing inside of us for his mercy and forgiveness. And so before we run off to become a missionary to a foreign land or before we run off to join the seminary, or go off to empty our bank accounts to give God everything we have, the greatest offering we can give him is a heart that recognizes our sin and just cherishes what Jesus does for us on the cross. Then all of those other things matter.

Jesus always had his eye on those who are what we call contrite. David uses the expression people who have a crushed heart and a crushed spirit, just like somebody who is trained on a rescue squad like an EMT member that is always looking for a place where they can apply their talents to help save someone. So it is with Jesus Christ. When he came into this world, he was looking for those who realize their horrible condition of sin and how desperately we need a Savior. And those are the places where he loves to rush in with his word and with his sacrament to rescue us.

He says, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and faith. May God bless all of us to always realize our condition and how desperately we need the wonderful work of our Savior who has come to redeem us and forgive us and ultimately take us to our heavenly home. Amen.