I invite you to take a Bible from the Pew in front of you or
your own Bible perhaps, and to turn to First Chronicles 29 page
521, First and Second Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, First and
Second Chronicles. That helps you find it.
And while you're looking, another Thanksgiving that I'm
just, I hope the microphones are on down in the nursery.
We got dozens and dozens of people who gave up this service
this morning. So you parents could be here
this morning. And if you're listening down
there, we really appreciate you being there.
Thank you so much. Chapter 29 of First Chronicles.
I'm going to read a longer passage, verses 6 to 20, because
it's almost a sermon in itself. And then I'll just make brief
comments on it and we'll worship again before we go, starting at
verse 6. This is an interpretation of the
meaning of freeing the future as it happened in David's day and
as it happened in our day. Then the rulers of the father's
households and the Princess of the tribes of Israel, and the
commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with the overseers
over the King's work, offered willingly.
And for the service of the House of God.
They gave 5000 talents and 10,000 derricks of gold, and
10,000 talents of silver, and 18,000 talents of brass, and
100,000 talents of iron. And whoever possessed precious
stones gave them to the treasury of the House of the Lord, in
care of Jahil, the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced,
because they had offered so willingly, for they made their
offering to the Lord with a whole heart.
And King David also rejoiced greatly.
And so David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly.
And David said, Blessed art thou, O Lord God of Israel, our
Father forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness,
and the power, and the glory, and the victory and the majesty.
Indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth.
Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and thou dost exalt thyself as
head over all. Both riches and honour come from
thee, and thou dost rule over all.
And in Thy hand is power and might, and it lies in Thy hand
to make great and to strengthen everyone.
Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee and praise Thy glorious
name. But who am I, and what are my
people, that we should be able to offer as generously as this?
For all things come from Thee, and from Thy hand we have given
Thee. For we are sojourners before
Thee, and tenants, as all our fathers were.
Our days on earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.
Oh Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided
to build Thee a house for Thy holy name.
It is from Thy hand, and all is thine.
Since I know, O my God, that Thou triest the heart and
delightest in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have
willingly offered all these things.
So now with joy I have seen Thy people who are present here make
their offerings willingly to Thee, O Lord the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel. Our fathers, preserve this
forever in the intentions of the heart of Thy people, and direct
their heart to Thee, and give to thy son Solomon a perfect heart
to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, thy statutes, and
to do them all, and to build the temple for which I have made
provision. Then David said to all the
assembly, Now bless the Lord your God, and all the assembly
blessed the Lord the God of the fathers, and bowed low and did
homage to the Lord and to the king.
Bless the Lord our God, say those words with me, bless the
Lord our God, say them one more time and mean them, Bless the
Lord our God. Now verses 6 to 9 here are just
the facts. They're just the raw facts.
The human level fathers, Princess commanders, overseers
gave gold, silver, brass, iron, and there was enormous
generosity and everything was provided so that Solomon one day
would have everything he needed to build the house.
And the question arose, how do you account for this?
And verse 9 stresses the human factor, which is real.
Then the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly,
for they made their offering to the Lord with a whole heart, so
they were not coerced. These were choices, human
choices, made with joy. David does not shrink back from
highlighting the will of man in this accomplishment.
If the news media had arrived there in Jerusalem, they would
have reported what they could see.
They would have said perhaps the cause was perceived as exciting
and David was a charismatic leader and the overseers and the
Princess and the commanders set an an inspiring example and
Jahil Paul Johnson is a good financial officer and and he won
the trust of the people along with Scott Lesstein and Chuck
Morris. And then they would say it, it
was a bullish year that year in the economy.
And so that is part of the explanation.
And then they would have said that it's a proud thing to have
a building of your own. And then they would have had the
cameras pan out over the soon to be templed spot and somebody
with a very serious kind of voice would have said this is
where the temple will stand someday if the amazing free will
of God's people keep generating this kind of commitment.
And they would have come and they would have seen, and they
would have reported, and they would have missed everything
that counts. What matters on this day then
and this day today is not what you can see with the eye and
report with a camera or an interview.
What matters is the great invisible reality.
This text is designed through the prayer of David to pull back
the curtain of the invisible reality of what freeing the
future really means. No camera would pick up God.
No reporter could interview God then or now.
There are always psychological and sociological and economic
explanations for what happens. Technically, there are no
miracles here, no signs and wonders.
But David says it is all about God.
This is a lesson for us this morning much wider than freeing
the future. This is a lesson for you as to
whether or not when you view events and persons in your life
and in the church and in the world, whether you will see what
cameras see, or whether you will see behind the veil the
invisible hand of God in everything.
So that the main issue becomes God in your life and in all that
you see. Let's start with verse 10 here
to see this veil removed. So David blessed the Lord in the
sight of all the assembly assembly.
So he's responding to what he says is human willingness.
With willingness and with joy and with generosity.
Human beings chose to give to the temple and he blesses God.
Must be some connection there in David's mind.
What does bless mean? We've used it dozens of times
this morning. Great songs.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. What's the soul doing when it
blesses God? Here's the way I would define it
for different ways, but let's, let's just try this one.
To bless God is to speak good and true and wonderful things
about Him that account for what happens in the world.
Speaking good and true and wonderful things, blessings,
saying good things with your mouth about God from your heart,
which account for what happens in the world.
Now in this prayer of David, there are 12 things at least for
which he blesses God and what freeing the future means
therefore is a manifestation of God through these 12 things.
And I want to highlight them with you and just pause over
each one for a few seconds. And let me just say something to
the children here. Many of you children are in
Sunday school classes where these kinds of names of God and
characteristics of God or attributes of God are being
written on your walls and dealt with in your Sunday school
lessons. So one of the things you could
do right now if you're taking notes or just thinking is list
the names of God that I'm going to give you in the next few
minutes. OK, here we go #1 starting at
verse 11. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
#1 God is great. He's expansive, He's large, He's
bigger than anything in the world or in the universe.
He's not small and insignificant, but magnificent
and great. If there's any greatness in this
world that moves you and stirs you any great extravaganza, it
should always send your heart leaping up to God, who is 10,000
times greater #2 I'll just follow through right here in
verse 11. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power. God is powerful.
He's not just big, he's strong. Atomic power like a hydrogen
bomb, or natural powers like a hurricane or the rising tides.
When I think about tides, human beings can't begin to arrest the
power of a tide where the Pacific Ocean goes 60 feet up in
the air and down again, 10,000,000 and millions of tons
of water just and up and down because the moon's got this
absolutely scientifically unexplainable power called
gravity that God simply thought into being.
Or you've got stars exploding and coming into being out there.
God did all of that. He is very powerful #3 Thine, O
Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory.
This isn't the usual cavode Hebrew word for glory.
It's Teferit. It's the word beautiful when his
bigness and His power conspired to do and display.
What it displays is to ferret beauty.
God is a gloriously beautiful being #4 Thine, O Lord, is the
greatness and the power and the glory and the victory.
God is victorious. The Hebrew word here, it means
endurance, that is enduring and prevailing and persisting and
persevering so long until all the resisting forces fall away
and all that's left is the reigning God in triumph.
And so it's translated victorious #5 Thine, O Lord, is
the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and
the majesty. This word means it's like
royalty or kingliness. When God passes by, you take off
your hat and you salute. You don't slouch and you don't
slumber. You don't joke and you don't
jest when God passes by, because there's majesty in God.
Number six thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the
glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that
is in the heavens and the earth. God owns everything.
He owns you. He owns your house.
He owns your television, He owns your car, He owns your
computers. He owns your your land.
He owns your portfolio, He owns your mind, He owns your
affections, He owns your will, He owns your body, He owns your
soul. He gives it as a stewardship for
you to use in trust for His glory, and He takes it when He
pleases and does nobody any wrong, whether he takes it at
age 151522335680 or 100, you belong to God.
He gives and takes whenever He pleases.
Death is His right over us. God owns all things in the
world. What a perspective to dwell on.
Oh how it would revolutionize our lives if we reckon with the
fact that everything, our clothing, our toys, our
transportation, our energy, our jobs, they're gods.
They're gods. We only have them in trust.
We are trustees, not owners, and therefore we must consult the
owner as to the stipulations of the trust at every turn.
How we use our eyes, men and women on the Internet.
How we use our hands, How we use our hearts, our mouths.
Oh, if we could tame the tongue and bring it into alignment with
our God's trust #7 Verse 11. Still thine is the dominion, O
Lord. In other words, not only does he
have this royal splendor and this authority, but he rules as
king over everything. He has ruling authority #8 Thine
is the dominion, O Lord, and thou dost exalt thyself as head
over all. In other words, not only does he
have this leadership headship, by virtue of his reality, he
chooses to have it. He chooses to exalt himself as
head. He doesn't say, yes, I am head,
but I will withdraw and conceal myself as head lest I be known
and praised. Rather, he puts himself forward.
He exalts himself as head over all things #9 verse 12.
Now both riches and honor come from thee.
God doesn't just own all things. He doesn't just rule all things.
He doesn't just exalt himself over all things.
He is the source in your pockets and in your bank accounts and in
your hands of all things. From a human standpoint, it
would be reported well, what happened at Bethlehem this year
was that some inheritances came due and some stocks made good
and some shrewd real estate deals were cut and some saving
accounts were emptied and some hard work was performed.
And David says riches come from God, The invisible hand behind
the hand, in the hand underneath the hand.
If you wrote a check, God wrote the check.
God behind the check provided the funds.
It's not about what you can see with your physical eyes, folks.
Life is not about what you can see with your physical eyes.
It's about what God, the invisible hand, is doing behind
freeing the future. I feel this morning more
dedicated than ever to that mission, spreading a passion for
the supremacy of God in all things, for the joy of all
peoples. Because so few people in our
land and in this world give God the credit for this ninth point
that both riches and honor come from God.
Who today ask yourself, who today exalts the supremacy of
God in their paycheck? Who today exalts the supremacy
of God in the stock market? Who today exalts the supremacy
of God in year end bonuses? Hardly anyone.
And that's why we exist. Bethlehem exists to call
attention to the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of
all peoples #10 verse 12 continuing, Thou just rule over
all, and in thy hand is power and might, and it lies in thy
hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.
It lies in thy hand not only to give the resources, but to give
the greatness and the strength. If someone were to ask me, was
there any great systems management through Tim Johnson,
was there any great? Management of people by Shar and
Joby for those home groups. Was there any great financial
management by Scott and Paul and Chuck?
God would say it is in my hand to make great and to strengthen
everyone. God has been opening his hand to
us at Bethlehem. That's the meaning #11 He pauses
in verse 13 to burst with Thanksgiving and and praise.
And then in verse 14, I would say here he reveals his mercy to
us. Look at this verse 14.
But who am I? Who am I?
David says and I say, And who are my people, that we should be
able to offer as generously as this?
For all things come from thee, and from thy hand we have given
thee. In other words, God has helped
us to give like this. We have given from God to God.
All things are from Him, through Him and to Him.
And wherever we have reached, wherever you reach to get your
money, to give, to freeing the future, you reached into the
hand of God. That's what verse 14 says.
All things come from God and from God's hand have we given to
God. So the 11th tribute to God here
is that He is merciful because it says, who are we?
Meaning we sure don't deserve to be able to do this.
And that's absolutely right. You see, at the end of verse 15,
it says there is no hope. I think that means there is no
hope for people like us except for one thing, the mercy of God.
And so we extol the mercy of God in freeing the future.
And finally #12 let's jump down to verse 18.
God's enabling in this matter is not simply that He provides the
funds that we give back to Him, but He gives the willingness to
give. Remember what He said up in
verse 9? Then the people rejoiced because
they had offered so willingly, for they made their offering to
the Lord with a whole heart. So here you have the human
dimension, human beings experiencing an inclination of
the will to give. Where did that come from?
Let's read verses 18 and 19. Oh Lord, the God of Abraham,
Isaac, Israel, our fathers, preserve this, this willingness
forever in the intentions of the heart of thy people, and direct
their heart to Thee, And give to my son Solomon a perfect or a
whole heart to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies,
thy statutes, and to do them all, and to build the temple for
which I made provision. So let me ask you now, where is
Solomon going to get a heart to keep the commandments of God?
And the answer in the text is from God.
O God, give to my son Solomon a whole heart to keep thy
commandments. And So what about you?
And what about those Jewish Saints who gave so generously,
so willingly, so freely of their own accord?
Where did that come from? Verse 18.
O Lord, keep this forever in the intentions of the heart of Thy
people, and direct their heart to Thee.
When a Sinner like John Piper directs his heart toward God,
that prayer is answered. Direct my heart toward You.
You direct my heart the direction of my heart.
Money, sex, fame, family, success and all kinds of things.
Which way will my heart go? My father Bill Piper has prayed
for me 5000 times what David prayed for his son.
Direct my son's heart to you. And God has done it again and
again and again. And where did that generosity
come from? It says, oh Lord, keep it there,
keep it there, keep it there. God works to do that.
Apart from God, we do not give willingly.
Apart from God, we do not direct our hearts to God.
And that's why David prays, because prayer is asking God to
do what I can't do. And in these nine months, oh,
how you have prayed. Do you remember all those Friday
morning, Monday morning, Wednesday night, Sunday morning
prayer times when freeing the future was pleaded and pleaded
and God heard and worked it. So what's the meaning of freeing
the future? I conclude with this.
The meaning of freeing the future is that it is a
manifestation of God, that He is great and powerful and glorious
and victorious and majestic, the Owner of all things with
dominion over all things, exalted his head over all
things, the source of all riches and honor, giving greatness and
strength to all, merciful to those who do not deserve mercy
like us, and giving the heart and the willingness to give
freely and joyfully to him. Freeing the future is a
manifestation of God. And very specifically, I end on
this note, very specifically, it is a manifestation of God's
passion to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all
things, for the joy of all peoples.
Now, if that's true, if the meaning of freeing the future is
an expression of the passion of God for God's supremacy in all
things, for the joy of all peoples, than to the degree that
we live for that mission, that this church embodies that
mission, to that degree, incredible things are in store
for the next decade of this church's ministry.
He will be faithful and we're going to sing about it now.
Let's bow for prayer as we prepare our hearts to sing about
His faithfulness. Oh God, we have seen you in
these months. We have seen you in our debt
free condition. We have seen you now in the Word
as the veil has been pulled back by your inspired writer, and now
we want to open our mouths for just a few more closing minutes
in response to what you have revealed about yourself.
Would you now, I pray, receive our acclamation that you have
been, are now, and always will be a faithful God.