MAKE IT COUNT.
2 Samuel 24 [NIV]
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Sunday, December 7th
Icebreaker: ONE MORE HOUR
If you had 25 hours a day, how would you spend your extra hour?
3 Ways We Make Our Lives Count.
1. Quit Counting The Wrong Things.
2 Samuel 24:10 [NLT], Psalm 8:3-4, Proverbs 3:5-7, Exodus 30:12, Proverbs 29:25
David was counting people to prove something about himself, but God was looking for faith that depended on Him. Pride makes us quantify what God only asked us to trust. We do the same when we measure our influence by followers, money, performance, or applause. Anytime we need numbers to feel secure, we’re revealing where we stopped trusting His name. Heaven counts differently, meaning not by how much we can hold, but by how much we hand over.
Reflection Questions:
What “numbers” have you been chasing? (Followers, income, progress, etc?)
What fear is driving you to keep count? (Fear of failure, being unseen, or losing control?)
How can you release that metric and replace it with trust this week?
2. Learn To Let Mercy Validate You.
2 Samuel 24:14, Psalm 56:8 [NLT], Matthew 22:14
David’s distress wasn’t punishment; it was proof of his calling. His seasons of pain and suffering showed that he cared too much about God’s presence to live comfortably in disobedience. Sometimes pain isn’t a sign that we’re off track, but evidence that we’re chosen for deeper trust. Suffering doesn’t destroy calling; it refines it. God uses pain to reveal what still owns us — pride, fear, or control — so He can purify what He’s placed in us. Paul said, “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” (Galatians 6:17) — because real calling leaves scars. David’s leadership credibility was rebuilt not in his victory, but in his vulnerability. Pain deepened him instead of disqualifying him. Just as wheat is separated from the chaff on a threshing floor, God often uses seasons of pressure to separate our calling from our comfort.
Reflection Questions:
What pain in your life could actually be revealing how deeply you’re called?
Where have you mistaken suffering for punishment instead of preparation of calling?
What would it look like for you to “fall into the hands of the Lord” rather than resist what He’s refining?
3. Start Making It Count.
2 Samuel 24:24, Psalm 126:5, James 1:2-4, Mark 14:3, Mark 14:3
By the end of the story, David realizes that worship without cost is empty. The threshing floor became the place where pain turns to purpose, the same ground where Solomon’s temple would be built. God doesn’t waste pain or remove suffering, but instead validates our calling by trusting us to walk through it without losing our surrender. He repurposes these moments in the furnace, the pit, and the lion’s den into altars of glory. The cost of obedience today becomes the foundation for someone else’s encounter of grace tomorrow. When David pays the full price, he’s declaring, “This won’t be a moment of loss; it will be a moment of legacy.” What’s costly to us becomes sacred to God.
Reflection Questions:
What has God asked you to sacrifice that still feels costly?
What altar is God asking you to build out of the place that once broke you?
Share with us what God revealed through your need, your seed, and your surrender from this Sunday’s altar call moment?
THIS WEEK’S DECLARATION:
“This week, I declare that my life will count. Not by the numbers I can measure, but by the surrender I offer. I refuse to count what validates my pride and I choose to trust the God who counts every tear, every step, every sacrifice. When pain comes, I won’t run from it. I will let it refine me. My suffering is not proof that I am forgotten, but it is evidence that I am chosen, shaped, and trusted by God. What once hurt me will now build me. What once broke me will now bless someone else. I will fall into the hands of mercy, for His hands can hold what my heart cannot. I will not give God what costs me nothing, because the cost is where my calling becomes real. I am not counting for validation. I am surrendering for transformation. I declare that every act of faith, every moment of obedience, and every “yes” in the face of pain will all count in Heaven. This week, I will live aware, worship full, and surrender strong. I will make it count because my life belongs to the One who gave it all for me.”
