Our Gospel lesson text this morning comes from the book of 1 Chronicles chapter 29 that's found on page 306 and the Bible that are in your seats. I'll give you a moment to get there. You're using your own Bibles. First Chronicles is Find Psalms and go back a few books. You'll find it. And if you're using the Bibles in your seats page 306. First Chronicles chapter 29 beginning in verse 1. This is God's very word eternally true written for his glory and for our benefit. Then King David said to the whole assembly, my son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen is young and inexperienced. The task is great, but this palatial structure is not for man, but for the Lord God. With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God. Gold for the gold works, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron, and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble. All of these in large quantities. Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God, I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I've provided for this holy temple. 3,000 talents of gold, gold of Ophir, and 7,000 talents of refined silver for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings, for the gold work, and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsman. Now, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the Lord? Then the leaders of the families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king's work, gave willingly. They gave toward the work of the temple of God, 5,000 talents, and 10,000 dericks of gold. 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron. Any who had precious stones, gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord, in the custody of Jehiel, the Gershonite. The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the King also rejoiced greatly. David praised the Lord, and the presence of the whole assembly, saying, Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our Father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you. You are ruler over all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name. But who am I? And who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you. And when we have given you only what comes from your hand, we are aliens and strangers in your sight as we're all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow without hope. O Lord, our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for the building for building you a temple for your holy name, it comes from your hand and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever and keep their hearts loyal to you and give my son Solomon the whole hearted devotion to keep your commands, requirements, and decrees and to do everything to build a palatial structure for which I have provided. Hereins are reading for this morning, you have printed for you in your bulletins a response of thanks, thanks to God for his word, the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to him indeed. Let's pray. Our Father, you are good to us as proven by this fact that you have given us your word to guide and direct us in who you are, to help us in knowing who you are, and to guide us in life, to tell us how we might live that our lives might bring glory to you which is our purpose, and how our lives might most have the most satisfaction as we follow you in your ways, as our minds begin to think as you think. Help us to that end. Jesus preached to us by your word this morning, Spirit illumine this word, bring it to light, grant us understanding, and change us by your Spirit. Jesus, we ask in Christ's name. Amen. Have you ever passed by a really huge house?
I did that recently a few months ago. I was on Smithfield Road. I think at this point it's a pritchard road in Johnson County and then it switches over to Smithfield Road as it enters into Wake County and there's a house kind of right before you get to mild plantation and shot well on the left there and oh big yard and nice fence around it and just like a great house. There's another one by it that's real nice. I was by one recently on the golf course that I was on and out with one of you and you said look at that house over there. And you knew it was like 4,500 square feet and it had two bedrooms and the rest was just all kinds of stuff and we stood there on the first tee and said wow you know what a house.
Many ways a big house would be fun wouldn't it to live in just this big palatial kind of structure and to have room for everything and to have room in your master bedroom to have some chairs and tables and be able to sit around and all kinds of things. Many times we see as an as an athlete and professional sports makes it big. That's one of the first things they do often with their with their paycheck. They turn around to their to their parents who brought them up and given so much to them and Josh pressures on you. Parents are still waiting for them and they turn around and they they buy for their parents. It's wonderful house. 5,000 square feet in which their parents can live as a reward as a way of saying thank you to their parents for all their parents have done for them during their growing up years. In this passage we have something like this going on for us something about our gratitude to the Lord and a message to us this morning through God's word about what we can do for the Lord for all that he's done for us. It's a message this morning that directs us in how our how our energies how our efforts how our direction can be funneled in a way that will be pleasing to the Lord. This is one of the the forch one of these fortunate weeks for me where as I was preparing for my sermon I realized as I started mapping it out that I had done research that would probably carry for two or maybe three weeks. There were three clear points that I saw from this this passage to cover and you get one of them this morning just one point this morning one big thrust of meaning that comes to you and if you like to follow in your bulletins and outline you're welcome to do that there's an outline there for you with places you can fill in if that's not your bag don't worry about it we don't care if you fill that thing in or not but if you do like doing that here's our point point this morning that God is making to us is this because the church because the church is Jesus palace because the church is Jesus palace give to its construction because the church is Jesus palace give to its construction this passage this morning is about God's people giving materials for the building of the temple under King Solomon as David has handed the throne over to his son Solomon that the first five past five verses of this passage as you look at those in your bibles our verses in which David speaks of one his official giving as king all he's given from the king's treasuries for the building of the temple but then secondly in those first five verses he speaks about how to his own personal personal treasure he's also given in an abundant way to the building of the temple
David concludes his account by giving as a king and a person and challenges the assembly of Israel to do the same as he says in verse five now who is willing today to consecrate himself to the Lord what did he mean by that who is willing today to consecrate himself to the Lord well we see that his here is his original audience understood what he meant they come forward and they give in light they give in in terms of gold and silver and all kinds of things that were needed for temple construction the response was overwhelming we see that response in verses six through eight in verse 16 we see that this response was a generous response that blew them all away they were all surprised David was surprised they were surprised at how generous and how freely they had given to the Lord for the building of this the people understood you see as verse one says that this temple was not a house for man this temple was a palace for God we see here that David calls the temple God's palatial structure twice here in this passage the temple was to be God's palace the place in which God's very presence was the place in which God would be enthroned among his people
this passage from God is to serve as an example to us about how we should give to the church knowing the church is God's temple the church is God's palace today why should we give to the church the answer is fairly simple see it in a couple places I mentioned verse one the other places verse 19 both of these verses call God's temple his palace thus we give in various ways that we'll speak up and in few minutes here we give to the construction of the church so to speak we give to the construction of God's palace because we want God's palace to be magnificent wondrous abundance fantastic
because he's our king and he's a fantastic and wondrous and loving king and so it's fitting for us to give to him with generosity because he has been generous to us and forgiving our sins and giving us eternal life and granging that's every spiritual blessing that there is to give it's appropriate for us just like that athlete who gives to his parents a big house because they have given him so much does that house encompass an equal return for what the parents have given to that child so that star athlete no but they're a token of that they're an expression of what the parents have done for that athlete look at verse one read there in your Bibles first one first Chronicles 29 then King David said to the whole assembly my son Solomon the one whom God has chosen is young and inexperienced in other words he can't do it by himself this is a group project the task is great because this palatial structure is not for man but for the Lord God the question is how do we apply this today we're not in Jerusalem we're not being asked to build a physical temple there in Jerusalem so that we can sacrifice animals to our Lord he's not asking us to do that today how do we apply this today well the first question for us is this it comes out and your letter A there comes out in Matthew 16 first Peter 2 that are the red forests this morning Ephesians 2 all these passages tell us today that the temple is being built today the temple is being built today but it's not a stone temple it's not a physical temple in its nature the temple of God today is the church built as as first Peter 2 says built with living stones built with people it's a spiritual house as first Peter 2 puts it a holy temple in the Lord being built with people inhabited by the spirit of God as Ephesians 2 and 3 put it the temple today for filling out blanks is the church
temple is made up of people who call upon Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life together with their children so we're commanded to give generously here to the church which is the temple of God today which is the palace of Jesus today secondly how do we give to the temple construction today 1 verse Corinthians 12 and several other passages in the New Testament we're told that God tells us that our gifts today that we give to the Lord our spiritual gifts it's a good question for us to ask how do I give to Jesus temple how do I give to his palace how do I give to the church is that grain all kinds of fine stone and marble no of course not the temple today the church is not a building churches have buildings but the church is not a building church is made of living stones of people we give today spiritual gifts in the church spiritual gifts are spiritual abilities that God has given to us we're told in 1 Corinthians 12 that God gives to all believers at the time when he brings salvation to them and grants them his spirit that with that spirit by which they have faith in Christ that spirit has also given them gifts for employment into the church gifts to enhance the church gifts to build up the church gifts for the sake of the church
these gifts consists of things like administrating teaching helping serving exhorting encouraging and the like and if we find ourselves to be good at any of these things scripture tells us that the reason why we're good at these things is because he wants it to be so and the reason he wants it to be so is that he wants us to use those gifts in the church for the building up of it God wants us to use those gifts in the church for the building of maturity of these living stones you and I in the church so if you're good at administrating God desires you to use that gift in the church for the sake of building up the church so that the palace is wonderful so to speak or if you're a good helper with various tasks that need to be done a servant type God wants you to use that gift and that inclination in you to serve and to help in the church among other places help other people outside the church too but specifically wants you to use that in the church so that the people of God are built up so that the palace of Jesus is great is magnificent is splendorous if that's such a word God has made you a person who's good at encouraging people he wants you to use that gift in the church to encourage people in the church for their building up in Christ for their building up in maturity so that they grow as believers in maturity and so that the church grows and becomes a bigger and more magnificent structure you get the picture here whatever it is that God has made you good at maybe a few things maybe many things whatever it is God wants you to use those gifts in the church for his glory for the sake of the church being built up for the sake of his palace being glorious majestic magnificent splendid what does this tell to us as people in the church tells us that we're important it tells us that we are important God has said that every person who has faith in Christ has faith by his spirit which is also given him or her gifts for the sake of the church and so if you can administer it if you can help if you can teach if you can exhort if you can encourage you can do various things well you're important for the church if you're an encourager and you don't encourage then the church gets discouraged by the lack of exercise of that gift in you if you're a teacher and aren't using and you teach well and you teach and people say oh that makes sense to me now and you're not using that gift in the church then the church becomes undereducated and less healthy and less knowledgeable about God and how they can live their lives to his glory then it could be you each person in the church is important because God has given each person gifts for the sake of the church for the sake of the building up of the church for his glory so think about that as you use the abilities that God has given you in the church think about how you as you do these things in the church that you are contributing as a mental picture that you are contributing to the glory of the palace of God to the glory of Jesus palatial structure you are contributing to the building of a fantastic palace that's your that's your blank palace the building of a fantastic palace for your God for his glory so God says do you give to the construction of my palace by using the gifts that are given to you in the church we give by using our spiritual gifts secondly we do give by bringing materials not stones or or wood or kinds of precious metal like it's given in this passage but we contribute by bringing the materials of living stones we contribute to the building of Jesus palace by bringing to it living that's your blank living stones we've seen and mentioned how Peter calls the members of the church living stones in first Peter 2 we're living stones the holy building how do we bring living stones as a contribution to the construction of the church well through telling others of the gospel through telling others that are around us around us in our house our neighbors our co-workers friends that we bump into we bring living stones to the church by letting these people know the gospel message is that Jesus is the son of God and that he came to earth that sins could be forgiven who so ever would believe and as we let people know those around us of this message and they come to realize their own sinfulness and their need for Jesus to forgive their sins a living stone gets added to the church a living stone is brought in so to speak to the church so that the walls of the church become greater and higher and more magnificent God says do you give to the construction of my palace the church by telling others the gospel by telling them that Jesus is my son and that I sent him to this earth to bear the sins of all who believe contribute to the construction of Jesus palace by telling of the gospel thirdly a way we contribute to the temple construction the palace construction is a way that's very similar to the giving of the Israelites under David and Solomon here in this passage we too give to the building up of God's palace by giving of our here's your blank by giving of our money we give of our money the temple in Solomon's day survived in its day-to-day operations by the people of God bringing to it gifts by which the the Levites who work the temple could sustain themselves and their families you folks give and part of your you're giving monetarily to the church goes to support me so that I can goof around and work one day a week now it comes to support me and my family so that I can as my chief vocational objective is to study and teach God's words so that you can be fed by God's word so that I can know you and spend time with you so that I can shepherd you watch over you care for you in the church so that you can grow in Christ I get to spend all my time devoted to those purposes to praying for you to seek your maturity and God's goodness God's blessing on your lives I love each week one of the things that I get to do and spend a lot of time with this is studying God's word to prepare it for you if I weren't a disciplined person which sometimes I'm not I have to be because I've got to stand up Sunday always comes always comes and if I don't get my work done I have to get my work done by the time Sunday comes and that's a wonderful thing I love doing that I love spending time with you folks relationally eating meals with with you men as I sometimes do or visiting with you playing golf with some of you and by the way you know nine holes is two hours I get to spend with you it's great relational shepherding so all of you learn golf and I'll put a sign up sheet over there and schedule my whole week that'll be a very spiritual task on your part avail yourself to the relational shepherding of Allison dying to go golf and to relational shepherding there but God says to you this morning as well give to the construction of Jesus temple by the giving of your money so that the church can do the ministry it needs to do so that we can buy things like Sunday school material so that our kids are built up in the church so that our kids are matured so that we're matured your money supports all the the ministry and the building up of the church that goes on thirdly your letter C and your outline we may ask about our attitude and all this giving it's very apparent in this passage what our attitude is to be many mentions of giving the giving that's done in this passage being giving this willing wholehearted free they're amazed that they have given so freely so willingly with whole hearts toward it and this giving has a motivation of loyalty that's a blank for you has a motivation of loyalty to God we see these things in verses 6 9 17 18 and 19 but we think about loyalty to God what is that talking about means that we're to have this deep desire within us like God's people had at this time at the building the start of the building in the temple what was this desire they had in their lives well sprung from a loyalty to God they wanted God to be glorified they wanted God to be known as magnificent they wanted their gods be known as wondrous so that they would be reminded of that as they saw the temple and said wow just like when we go by one of those big houses wow what a big house how beautiful how well done who is the architect for that they want God they have people realize he's wondrous you see if everyone is giving in these three ways that we've talked about in the church for giving of our of our money for giving of our spiritual gifts then the church is in good shape the church is a wondrous and different place we used to have someone come here to our church and someone that came when we used to be in rain balanes the first time and this person was a believer wonderful person and she had a husband who was not a believer and she brought her her husband to worship one Sunday and and he had not wanted anything to do with any church or with God but she she probably bat him on Monday night football or something I don't know but he came to our church and as he came to our church he came in and people went up and talked to him and they should love to him and kindness and as he stood there he realized people had sincere interest in him and who he was and that they weren't judging him because he wasn't a believer they weren't asking him and testing him to see how spiritual he was they were loving him treating him as a stranger that Jesus says to welcome and I got an excited email from his wife that week during the week that week and she said my husband said after church on Sunday that he felt loved and not judged and he was blown away he came back again once and had the same comments about this and this man I don't know where he stands now in terms of his faith with Christ but boy he sure jumped a step forward in terms of realizing the validity and the reality of Jesus God's people exercising their spiritual gifts being encouraging loving as Christ has loved us
funded so we could even be here and pay the bill so he could come to a public place for worship as this giving was going on this man in essence said wow look at that house wow look at the house of God I've never been in a place like this I've never been to a workplace I've never been to a store I've never been to a restaurant where I've been so well treated where people ask me about who I was when I started talking about my lawnmower they started talking about my lawnmower with me they cared about me and he said in essence wow what a house this was the built-up palace of God that he saw the church enhanced and healthy treating a non-believer as he ought to be treated with respect and with dignity because he's created in God's image and he bears God's image and so we treat him or her whoever it may be that way and God's people the church Jesus palace are beautiful in this way and different in a good way when God's people are giving by their spiritual gifts their money and by their showing the forgiving spirit of Christ others when you drive by a really huge house and you have that response when you see the size and beauty of it and say wow look at that house that's what we're to think about we're to think about the church and making the church into a house like that the non-believers would drive by whether it's them driving by so to speak our lives as we deal with them in day-to-day life or whether it's them coming into church with no more conviction than I think church is a good thing and maybe I should go they don't know Christ they don't have much of a concept or realization their heart and their mind if they're they're sin in their need for Jesus but they come and say well I think church is a good thing we want them to see the palace of Jesus and to say wow this is something not because we're fake making them think we're great not because we've got a facade but because our real building who Christ has built us into is a church that cares for people and loves people and is sincere and is humble because we understand our sinfulness and that our Savior Jesus has rescued us from that by no merit of our own we want people to say what a palace and that palace must live a great and awesome king and that's what our king is king Jesus is great and awesome he's been that for us he is that for the earth for the universe that he sustains in the gospel Jesus our king showed great greatness to us and his love for us for giving us a shower and upon us his favor in the midst of our sin in the midst of our spiritual deadness when we were in rebellion against this will for our lives he showed great love for us from the gospel Jesus our king was awesome and powerful bearing in his body on across our sins a greater load than anyone could bear
and he died for those sins granting us forgiveness for our great number of sins and he was awesome and powerful in rising from the dead so that like him and in him we could too rise from the dead when we die our souls going into the immediate presence of God and when he returns again our bodies been joined with our souls in the New Jerusalem this is a great and awesome power that Jesus has done this is a great and awesome king that we have it is fitting and right for us to give to our king to his church to his palace so that his palace is great and so that we and believed non-believers around us would know that our king is great so we give to the Lord our desire our desires that God receives glory that's your last bite we desire that God receives glory we don't want people to say wow what a magnificent church you must be great people we want people to say wow what a magnificent church you must have a great God and that's the truth we're a bunch of boneheads and a lot of ways and God has rescued us let us pray
our Father in our God we are grateful that you have established us as your church as the palace of Jesus king over the church cause us in our hearts to be loyal to you Jesus that we would desire that your temple your church would be magnificent not that people would think that we're magnificent but that people would think that you Jesus are magnificent because you in fact are and any magnificence that is seen in the church is because you are magnificent we are selfish but through your example of selfless love for us and going to the cross and burying our sins and rising again for us of enduring humiliation and shame for us your example of selflessness strengthens aid encourages us to the same your example and you're accomplishing of the gospel calls us to the same you are great and wonderful and magnificent God and Savior cause us to reflect that in our lives and as a church by the power of your spirit in us and the church to your glory we ask come in this morning we come to celebrate the truth that we've talked about through the service and through this word from the Lord we come to celebrate the Lord's supper we're reminded as we come to the the Lord's supper