I'll give you a moment to get there. We've been hearing from God each week from First Chronicles. David has received his commission from the Lord to not to build the temple but to gather for it, gather materials and laborers and such, and in this passage we see him doing just that and turning to Solomon who would be the builder of the temple and giving Solomon a charge. First Chronicles chapter 22, beginning in verse 1, and this is God's word eternally true. Then David said, the house of the Lord, God, is to be here, and also the altar of burn offering for Israel. So David gave orders to assemble the aliens living in Israel, and from among them he appointed stone cutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God. He provided a large amount of plants and make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings, and more bronze and could be weighed. He also provided more cedar logs and could be counted for the cydonians and the materials had brought large numbers of them to David. David said, my son Solomon is young and inexperienced in the house of to be built for the Lord should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of all the nations. Therefore I will make preparations for it. So David made extensive preparations before his death. Then he called for a son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon, my son, I headed in my heart to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, but this word of the Lord came to me. You have shed much blood and fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my name because you have shed much blood on earth in my sight, but you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon and I will grant his real peace and quiet during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my name. He will be my son and I will be his father and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. Now my son, the Lord be with you and may you have success and build the house for the Lord your God as he said you would. May the Lord give you discretion and understanding when he puts you in command over Israel so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the Lord gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or discouraged. I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron two great to be weighed and wood and stone. And you may add to them, you have many workmen, stone cutters, nations and carpenters as well as men skilled in every kind of work and gold and silver, bronze and iron, craftsmen, beyond number. Now begin the work and the Lord be with you. Then David ordered all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon. He said to them, it's not the Lord your God with you and has he not granted you rest on every side. For he has handed the inhabitants of the land over to me and the land is subject to the Lord and to his people. Now to vote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God so that you may bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the name of the Lord. Here ends our reading. Let's now respond and thankfulness to the Lord you have a response. They're written in your bulletins. The word of the Lord. Let us pray. Our Father, we are grateful to you for your word. We ask that now you would speak to us by it. Jesus preached to us by your word. Spirit, illumine your word for us that we may understand it. Change us by it. Causes to understand you and your gospel love for us even greater. As we look at this passage, your words to us today. We ask that in Christ's name. Amen. Many of you sitting in these seats this morning may have already set your hearts and minds to be a part of Christ's church, all your life long. Wherever you may be, whether it's here in Clayton or someplace else, you set your hearts and minds to be a part of his church, all your life long. And that's a good thing. Some of you hear this morning, that may not be the case. And that's okay. We're all in different places at different times in our lives. Whether you're at that place or not, setting your heart and minds to worship the Lord to be a part of his church through your life. Whether you're there or not, it's an appropriate question for you to ask this morning. What's the church about? Why church? Why should I be a part of a church? What are my activities in the church have to do with anything? Do they have a purpose? Do they have a goal? Are we trying to do something? Why is the church there? Is it just something to take up my time? Or is there something to it? This passage here this morning talks about that purpose or that goal. The reason that the church exists, the reason that you as an individual sit in a church or are involved in a church. This passage talks about what the meaning is when you do anything in a church. As we look at this passage, it's important for us to make, first of all, a number of different identifications. If you'd like to follow along in an outline, you may. You don't have to. There's an outline written for you in your bulletin. Again, if you'd like to do this, you're welcome to. In our first section this morning, it's called Identifications. We're talking this morning about being devoted to Christ's church, our first section on identification. Anytime we look at a passage of Scripture, it's important to see with whom we're supposed to identify. In New Testament we say, am I supposed to identify with the Pharisees here or the disciples or Jesus or the sinful woman or the text collector? Who am I supposed to identify with? And when we're in the Old Testament, we ask the same kind of questions. And as we come to this passage, we see David and Solomon and those helping Solomon and craftsmen and the temple. It's appropriate for us and we should ask, what are these things today? Who are these people today with whom should I identify? Our first identification, and you see here in your outline, the temple today, is the church. The temple today is the church. The New Testament redefines what the temple is and it says it's no longer a stone building that exists in a physical geographical Palestine, Jerusalem. That's no longer the temple of God. The temple of God, rather today, is the church. It's called such in 1 Corinthians 3.16. The church is referred to being a holy building, a temple and first Peter 2 as well and Ephesians 2. So we make that adjustment as we come to our day. The temple today is the church. And we keep that in mind as we look at this passage. Second identification for us today. We believers in Christ are to identify and part with Solomon. Who identifies with Solomon at least in part and the people under Solomon working to build the temple? Who identifies with that? We do. Believers do. More about this later. Clearly we should understand that David and preparing for the temple building was a foreshadowing of Jesus. David was a foreshadowing of Jesus as the one who was king over Israel and prepared for the building of the temple which is today the church. David compares to Jesus. How do these two compare? Well, in this passage at least in a couple of ways, the first way. David and Jesus are similar in this passage. A, they're both establishers of peace. They're both establishers of peace for God's people. In the Middle East of David's day, it was a common practice for the nations, the pagan nations. They believe this that a God would not, they're gods, they're pagan gods, imaginary gods. We know them to be, would not enter the temple. They're pagan temples until the enemies of that people were vanquished, conquered. And once the nation conquered its enemies, they believed their gods would then enter their temples and be present among them. Well, this was all falsehood. But we find out in Zudoranami 12, they God said that with him the one true God, this was the case. Zudoranami 12 God told Moses, when Moses people, when God's people are in the verge of entering into the Promised Land under Joshua, he tells them that a temple will be established, a place for his name, a place for his presence, will be established when God's people are done vanquishing their enemies in the Promised Land. When the Promised Land is completely vanquished and belongs completely to God's people, verses 8 and 9 in our passage this morning, chapter 22 refers to this. David had done that. Joshua had failed in this way. Joshua had not conquered all the enemies of God's people in the Promised Land and the Promised Land had various kinds of people, sovereign to themselves, living in the Promised Land. But David conquered them all. He opened the way for God to establish his special presence in the temple. David had brought for his people peace. If you were a person living under David's kingship, you didn't have to worry anymore because of David, of the foreigners, the enemies that were right next to you. David had established peace for his people. How does Jesus establish peace for his people? Well, Jesus established peace for us because he conquered our enemy. He conquered the enemy who had the power over death. He conquered Satan. How does the New Testament put this? Colossians 2.15 says, having disarmed the powers and authorities, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, a public spectacle of them, triumpling over them by the cross. Jesus put Satan and his demons to public shame in the cross and resurrection, overcoming death. He was 214 since the children, us, have flesh and blood. Jesus too shared in our humanity so that by his death, Jesus might destroy him who holds the power of death that is the devil. Jesus conquered Satan and his power over death in his death and resurrection. First John 3.8, John writes, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. This is David's language. David destroyed the enemies of God's people so that God's people could have peace. And Jesus destroyed our enemy. Satan, the evil one so that we could have peace. Romans 5 puts it this way through faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, isn't he? He's given us peace from the threat of death in Satan and he's given us peace from the wrath of God which was justly coming against us so that we now have peace with God. Jesus and David both are people that accomplish and establish peace for the people of God. Secondly David and Jesus are alike in this way. Each of them does everything necessary for the construction of the church or temple to begin. Each of them does everything necessary for the construction of the temple or the church to begin. David assembled all the materials necessary, all the laborers necessary for the physical that should be like the physical temple to begin for construction of it to begin. Jesus likewise does everything necessary so that the church so that the church might begin to be built. Think historically here. Jesus says everything in his life, death, resurrection, suspension and seating at the right hand of God so that the church can be established. The church can be built. What were Jesus' preparations for the church? Well not wood and stone and gold and bronze and silver. Those weren't Jesus' preparations. Jesus' preparations were things like this. Number one, his perfect life. Jesus lives a perfect life to earn eternal life for his people. So that anyone who comes along believing in him might have eternal life through his righteousness, through his good life, second of Jesus' preparations for the church, his sacrificial death. He substitutes for us and receiving the just penalty of all who had and would believe. He pays the debts for believers sins so that our debt with God for sins stands forgiven. To get part from this preparation of Jesus' death for our sin, no church can be built. The church is built on this fact that there's forgiveness of sins, that there's a people who can even be in the presence of God. We can be in God's presence because our sins have been washed away by Jesus through his death. Jesus' third preparation for the building of the church, his resurrection and ascension, his resurrection and ascension. Jesus rises to life eternal with the Father so that all who believe in him, those that believed in the Savior God before him in Old Testament times and those who would believe after could be raised to eternal life just as he was. Jesus like David puts all things in place. There's life, death, resurrection and ascension so that the construction of the church might begin. But Jesus Christ himself being the very cornerstone of the church, the fundamental building block is Jesus. So we see Jesus and what are among his last words to his son Solomon. And he says to Solomon, okay, I've made all the preparations now you Solomon and you who are assisting him, helpers, craftsmen, et cetera, build the temple. I've got everything ready. Now build it. Jesus likewise, among his last words to his sons, his children, his disciples, he says go and make disciples of all nations. Preach the gospel to all creation and you dance, marry into the uttermost parts of the earth. What is this in essence? This is Jesus like David saying to his sons, we're children of God, build the church. I've made all the preparations necessary through my life, my death, my resurrection, my ascension, all the preparations necessary now build the church. That's the great commission. It's Jesus saying build the church just like David said to Solomon and Solomon's helper to help us build the temple. This brings us to the chief exhortation of this passage. In light of the fact that Jesus in his life, death, resurrection and ascension has made all the preparations necessary for building the church. Our exhortation with God says to you and I this morning is that, build the church. Build the church. Jesus has made all the preparations necessary. Build the church. There's just one task mentioned in this passage. A task that's central to the people of God. It's that task of church building. I'm going to make it disclaimer here. This message this morning is not about this local particular church. Okay, candy. If you're a member of the church here, it can be for this time as long as you're here, living in Clayton, a member of this church. This message is really about you. This message is about you and your response to Jesus as he's declared to you, build my church. Build my church and the message of the gospel. This passage is about you. So as you hear these things about building the church, don't hear necessarily a plea to do all these wonderful things for this church so that we can look real nice. This is about you and your response wherever you are in whatever church you're a member at whatever point in your life. This is about you and your proper response to Jesus and that proper response is building his church. I've arranged this with a number of questions about building the church. The first question is who's involved. Who's involved in building the church? In this passage we see that the building of the temple, the building of the church was not just one man's responsibility. It involved David, Shirley, it involved Solomon, but it didn't just involve Solomon. It involved helpers that David arranged underneath Solomon to build the temple. Stone cutters, masons, people skilled in inhaling bronze and silver and gold. This was a group project, I hated group projects in school, but they're good things in the church. The building of the church is a group project and every member, I think that's a blank for you there, all members of the church, all who call upon Christ's name, a part of this building. It's not a one man's show. It wasn't a one man's show and David's day and Solomon's day either. Secondly, scale of effort. What's the scale of effort that God asks of us in building the church? What is this passage indicated about whether this task of the building of the churches is a major reminder effort for us? As we look at this passage, we see that the scale here is massive. It's a massive scale. We see this in verses 14 through 16. We see this in verses 2 through 5. In the end of verse 5, we see verse 5 saying that David's preparations for the temple were extensive. In verse 14, David says that he had taken great pains to provide for the temple of the Lord. In verse 16, the craftsman that David assembled were described as being beyond number. The metals, the precious metals that he assembled, the gold, silver, and bronze, are listed as being beyond counts, beyond weight. This is a scale of effort fueled by the expectation David gives to Solomon in the Israelites in verse 19. He tells him there to devote their hearts and souls to seeking the Lord. This is what fuels this massive scale of effort. Hearts that are seeking the Lord. It's where David's heart and soul were devoted to seeking the Lord. It's why his scale of effort is so great. It's hyperbolic in essence. David's preparations for the temple were not minimal, rather they were astonishing. This is the message for us. As individuals who are called by Christ's name, Christians, this is the message for us. Our efforts in building the church wherever we are, whatever church we're in, whatever point in our life, the message for us is our efforts in building the church are to be maximal, not minimal, maximal. You and I are to be about this, the building of the church. You and I are to go all out. Our efforts in building the church are to be on this level of hyperbolic. That's the point of the writer of Chronicles here. David's efforts were on the level of hyperbolic. The amount of gold supplied here, verse 14, 100,000 talents of gold. 100,000 talents of gold. So David supplied for the temple. To give you an idea of that in 1 Kings 10, Solomon's annual based revenue was 666 talents of gold. 666 talents of gold. In all Solomon's wealth, that's how much gold he got in his based revenue, but not 166,100,000 talents of gold were what David provided for the temple. This is a massive scale, a maximal effort. See, what do we do? How do we build the church? There's three ways we build the church, three ways in which you and I can be a part of building the church. The first way is through gifts, gifts that are monetary, money is what we're talking about here. We're told in scripture that it's appropriate for us to give money to the church and this money has two uses. One is what we think of first, sometimes that is for a building, for maintaining a building if you have one or a building a building, if you don't. By the way, in the construction of the building, the temple foreigners were used. People that weren't part of God's people. So whenever we get to building, it's okay whether we choose a Christian or non-Christian construction company. David chose non-Christian. We have views for money in the church, for the people in the church, for the people in the church. We use money so that we can effectively minister to people. That's the main thing. The building is just there so that we can minister to people, so that we can build people up in their love and knowledge of Christ. In this, we think maximum. It's not as we think about giving to the church that we say, well, how much does the church need to get by? We don't say that. You and I don't say that when we think about our giving to the church. That's not maximum giving. We don't say how does the church do it in comparison to its budget. Well, if the church is doing all right, I'll give less. We don't say, what's the minimum I need to give? How much this helped us the church need? These are all questions of minimalism, aren't they? David didn't say that when he came to build the temple. Well, exactly how much gold are you going to need, Lord, for the building of your temple? I'll provide that much and no more. No, 100,000 talents of gold. David just lavished it on the Lord because this was to be a building of great magnificence for all the nations to see. Instead, we ask as we approach giving instead of saying how much does the church need to get by? We say how much can I give to make the church really thrive? Instead of asking how does the church do it in comparison to its budget? If the church is doing all right, I'll give less. We ask how much can I give to the church regardless of the church budget? Well, still being responsible to paying my bills and caring for my family. Instead of saying what's the minimum I need to give, we say what's the maximum I can give.
If you remember this church, you vow to support the church. It's work and worship. The biblical standard is 10% of your income. So if you're not giving that or it seems that you can't, you ask yourself how can I readjust my living and my spending habits so that I can get my life and my finances in order with God's commands for me to give at least 10%. Again, in church building, we think maximum, even if it means we have to downsize personally. Now, the second way in which a member of the church can build up the church, got through the money section, is by gifts of the spirit, gifts of the spirit that refers to your, my ministering in the church. The gifts of the spirit, first Corinthians 12 and 7, says the spirit of God, when a person comes to be saved, when a person comes to be believed, comes to, when a person comes to believe, the spirit of God gives each person gifts to be used for the education to building up the church. So that's the second way we build up the church, so the gifts that God has given us. Again, as with the first category, we speak in terms of maximum, maximum effort. So we ask ourselves the questions not like this, how can I avoid using the spiritual gifts God has given me, or what's the slimmest involvement I can have in the church? We ask rather, how can I maximally minister in the church for it's building up? What can I do, and how often can I do it, so that the people of God in the church are matured, so that they are built up so that they become more like Christ through my efforts? Again, we don't do this to the exclusion of our spouses, our families, or our right commitments. We don't kill our families or spouses and say, well, it's okay because I'm devoted to the church. No. God has commanded us to be responsible in these areas of our families, our spouses, if we have them, our families. But as we look and make sure that our families are taken care of because God has given us that responsibility, we think maximally about how I can be involved, how I can use my gifts for the building up at the church. Now, the third way each member of the church can build it up is by his or her third point telling of Christ, by his or her telling of Christ in his gospel. First Peter 2 tells us that the church is a building comprised of living stones which are its people. This message says to us from first Peter 2 that if you want the church walls to get higher, if you want the church to get bigger, you tell of Christ in the gospel because each person that believes is a living stone added to the wall of the church. This holy building, this holy structure that we call the church. Again, in terms of this, we don't think in terms of minimums. We think in terms of maximums like David. We don't think how can I avoid non-Christians so that they don't have any contact with them so that they're not uncomfortable. We think in terms of how can I maximally be around non-Christians? When I'm around non-Christians, how can I maximally use this time through my kindness shown to them, kind words, kind actions. And as opportunity arises through telling them of Christ in the gospel in an unemnoxious way, obviously. Don't knock them down and pin their arms on the ground with your knees and hit them back and forth while you're telling them of Christ figuratively. Thinking in terms of maximums and when we see our non-Christian neighbor who are working with our non-Christian co-worker, we think how can I use this conversation, whether in word or indeed, to show this person what Christ is like? How can I do Christ-like actions to this person so that the gospel through my actions will be unveiled? How can I take opportunity here? It seems like it might be an appropriate time to speak up something about Christ, being the Son of God who died to save sins. We think of how I can maximally use my time with non-believers, D. If you're like me, you get to this point and you've been through A and it's one and two points and B and two and three and that's a big weight. And say, oh man, the question is are we daunted in this? Should we be daunted in this? It might be tempted to say off a maximum effort, giving, ministering, telling of Christ and it's gospel. Well, we don't have to be daunted. It's not a matter of us being up to the task. It's not a matter of us having great ability. There's nothing that indicates that Solomon was a great builder, that David was a great builder, that they knew anything about architecture, but they were called to the task. Verses 7, 8 and 10 speak of the name of the Lord. We've talked about this some before in Sunday school and in worship. What does this mean, the name of the Lord, this reference to the name of the Lord? Well, the name of the Lord refers to God's presence. When we're here in Old Testament times or New Testament times, when it talks about the name of God, the name of the Lord, it's talking about the presence of the Lord, particularly God's accessible power. God's accessible power available for his people, accessible to his people. And that's very much in the scheme of things that David turns to Solomon, that the presence of God had been with David, fighting for him in all these battles, and the presence of God would be with Solomon in the building of this temple. God's presence, God's power, the name of God speaks of God fighting the battle, speaks of God fighting the battle. So we're not daunted as we look to give our money to minister to others with our spiritual gifts and to tell others of Christ, no, we're not daunted. Why not? Because we have access to the power of God through Christ being present among us. Jesus said, wherever two or three of you are gathered in my name, there I am. Paul says that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you. God is present among Christians, and God fights. Jesus is king, fights the battle for us as we approach these things. Christ is fighting the battle. So we step forward physically. We move our mouths, we move our arms, we take steps to do things in the church, outside of the church, for the building up of the church. But as we do these things physically, Christ is fighting before us spiritually, winning the battle so that we can walk through into victory. So we can walk through into the church being built up. This is why we can, as David says in verse 13 to Solomon, repeating the words of Moses to Joshua. This is why we can be strong and courageous. Not because we're strong, not because we're courageous, but because God is fighting the battle for us. And as we step through and do as God has told us to do in building the church in these various ways, God is fighting the battle to build his church on the spiritual realm. So we can be strong in the Lord because he's fighting for us. We can be courageous because he's winning the battle. Lastly, why build the church? Is there any reason we do things, or the cheesy things in the church, or the just meanless activity to keep you busy until Jesus comes back or he dies? Any activity in the church have any meaning for us? Well, we see it in verse 19. Why do we build the church? Look there. We build the church because we desire our God to be worshiped. We build the church because we desire for our God to be worshiped. David says, build the church, seek after the Lord with all your hearts and minds, so that the church can be built so we can bring in the ark of the covenant and the articles of the temple. Why did he want to do that? Why was he building up the temple? Why did he want the articles of the temple to be brought in? Why did he want the ark of the covenant to come in so that God could be worshiped as he was supposed to be worshiped? That's the reason for building the temple, not to build just a glorious structure. The reason for building the temple we see there in verse 19 is so that God would be worshiped. And that's the be us, as people who seek after God with our hearts and our minds, we desire for our God to be worshiped better among me and earth, and worshiped by more, through those who are not of faith yet, coming to faith and coming into the church as a building up of the church. We heard earlier about in the ancient Middle East how nations believed that once the land was vanquished, and the enemies were cleared out that the gods would enter into the temple. Jesus is present in the church because he is vanquished all our enemies, and the reason he is present in the church so that he might be worshiped. That's our primary task in the church, is to worship the God who saved us, who clears the land, who gave us peace. Why did we desire to see Jesus worshiped? Well, we desire to see him worshiped because of what he's done for us in Christ. Our sins deserve the death on the cross. We deserve, I deserve, to die in a cross in shame for my sins, punished by God, cast forever into hell. Eternal sin against eternal God, deserving eternal punishment. That's the truth of the matter. Why did we worship Jesus? Because Jesus took my sins off of me and placed them upon himself. The Father placed the sins of all who believed on Jesus on that cross, and Jesus took that penalty that you and I deserved, and he died. That's why we're here. We worship him because he rose from the dead so that we could rise from the dead too, and be with God forever in paradise. These are gifts that we can't get our arms around. They're so great. We worship God because he is worthy, because he's done these things for us. When we deserve to be discarded, God treated us as His special treasure. Review, church building, who's involved, every member of the church. What's the scale, and the effort that's appropriate, a maximal scale, a huge scale? How do we build up the church? We give gifts of money for the building and for ministry? We use our spiritual gifts to build others up in the faith, become more like Christ, and we tell those outside of the church of Christ of Him and His gospel. And we're not daunted in this because Christ is with us, fighting for us to build His church. And why do we build it to see our God worships? For He deserves to be given praise and glory and honor. He deserves for His worth to be declared. Let's pray. Jesus, you are worthy of our worship. You're worthy of our praise and our thanks for you and your life, death, resurrection, ascension, and seeding that God's right hand have done for us more than we can imagine. Even the smartest of us cannot get our minds around the extent of your love and mercy and grace to us. Lord, we ask that you would cause us to take up the cause of David, your cause to build the church. Jesus, you said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will now prevail against it. Jesus, you've made all the preparations necessary for the building of the church and you have been doing that. Caught us to be faithful as Solomon, faithful as the elders of Israel, faithful as these craftsmen in the building of your church. As we give our time and our treasure as we tell others of you so that living stones may be added to your holy building. We ask that in Christ name. Amen. Let's now worship our God.