1 chron 29

The Lord Graciously Equips Us To Glorify His Name Through Joyful Giving

Intro

Imagine you are finishing up a 40 year career at your dream job. You’ll likely go down as the best to ever do it and there is one last, legacy-defining project that you need to complete; but you have to leave it to your high school aged son who has zero experience in the field.

That’s what is going on here as David is thinking about the Temple building project and the fact that his young son Solomon is the one who is going to build it. In fact, David doesn’t even call it a temple here, but amplifies the importance by calling it a palace, showing that it was going to be the house of Israel’s true King, God Himself.

Knowing that this is the case, David does what anyone in his position would do and tries to accomplish as much preparation as possible to ensure that the project is a success.

The People Give Joyfully and Abundantly

The people give abundantly

David: 225,000 pounds of gold, 525,000 pounds of refined silver

the other leaders: 375,000 pounds of gold, 750,000 pounds of silver, 1,350,000 pounds of bronze, 7,500,000 pounds of iron

Everyone who had precious stones gave them to the project

Altogether they had 600,000 pounds of gold, 1,275,000 pounds of silver, 1,350,000 pounds of bronze, 7,500,000 pounds of iron and precious gems from all the people.

The people give joyfully

This wasn’t an exaction. David wasn’t walking through a somber Jerusalem knocking on doors to collect taxes like the Sheriff of Nottingham. There wasn’t a mandate put out that everyone must give all that they have to the temple project. After David offered his massive treasure to the project, he asked the leaders of the tribes

1 Chronicles 29:5–6 (ESV)

Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the Lord?” Then the leaders of fathers’ houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king’s work.

The picture we see here isn’t an income tax or an exaction; but a request from the King to offer freely from their own possessions to their God. This is not a requirement, either from God or from David; but the people give abundantly from themselves. And even when they give, it isn’t as people who feel like they got “voluntold” to do so.

You know what that feels like, either from work or home or even in the church. Something needs to get done, which means that someone needs to do it, and since it isn’t getting done, someone comes up to you and says “im volunteering you to get this project done.” We often don’t very much enjoy being “voluntold” to do something, but the picture is different in this passage. When the people are asked to contribute to the temple so that young Solomon can build it, they respond with incredible participation and with great joy.

1 Chronicles 29:9 ESV

Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly.

The people are genuinely filled with joy because they were “voluntold” to make huge offerings to God.

Not only are they filled with joy, but it also spills over into praising God that all of this offering took place.

1 Chronicles 29:10–13 ESV

Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

So lets make sure we understand the full picture here:

David and all the people of Israel volunteer to offer enormous amounts of their resources

The people are genuinely excited and full of joy that they are giving away enormous amounts of their resources

The people genuinely and purely praise God and talk about HIS greatness because of this offering that has taken place.

Now you might be thinking that this seems a little too idealistic, a little too good to be true. This seems like the people of God are being a little bit too much like what the people of God are supposed to be like. This doesn’t seem natural, doesn’t seem real, doesn’t seem like its something that is attainable for anyone, and certainly not our church today.

David would agree with you.

God Empowers the Joyful Giving

1 Chronicles 29:14–15 ESV

“But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.

Even those who were raised in the community considered themselves strangers by birth, unworthy to find joy in glorifying God. This is a sinful people who have fallen short of the glory of God and they come from a long line of sinful people who have fallen short of the glory of God.

This is coming from a King who, not long ago, refused to fulfill his duty to go out to battle and instead stayed home where he committed adultery by taking his friend’s wife and then having his friend put to death.

This is coming from a people who, not that long ago, sinfully asked for a king like all the rest of the nations because they didn’t trust God’s leadership, and they got Saul.

This is coming from a people who have a long history of failing to meet their required duty to God, much less offer more to him on top of that.

This is a group of people that we can relate with on a spiritual level. We can relate in that we are also a people who have a long history of failing to perform our duties to God. We are a people who avoid volunteering, and grumble when we are “voluntold.” We are a people who dishonor God and think of ourselves more often than we think of him.

We are a people who, even if we do offer ourselves and our resources, often do it begrudgingly, or with the expectation of some sort of reward. We are ready to give our time or our resources, so long as we can treat it as a spiritual investment where we can find joy on the other side of it. *FCF*

And yet, we are also called by God to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” and even when Paul wrote this, it took on a similar feel to David’s request of the people. Paul wasn’t demanding that a somber people begrudgingly offer their lives to God, but urging them to joyfully devote themselves and all they have to their Lord and King.

So then, because we are just like the people in this passage, we can ask the same question, “who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer thus willingly?” And this isn’t one of those questions that doesn’t have an answer. In fact, this is almost a rhetorical question because David supplies the answer himself.

God is the one who gives us hearts that live joyfully for him. *CFC*

1 Chronicles 29:16–18 ESV

O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you. O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you.

First of all, David recognizes the fact that they wouldn’t even have anything to give if God hadn’t given it to them in the first place.

They understood that everything they had, including this incredible amount of precious metals and gems, were all directly from God. Israel was enjoying incredible wealth, in great part because of David’s successful military campaigns, but they recognized that the ultimate source was the hand of God.

This is a concept that has been widely understood by God’s people throughout the ages as well. Even in the New Testament, we read that every good and perfect gift comes from God. We know that everything belongs to him, and we are just stewards over the things that he gives us.

Yet far too often we tend to hold all of our possessions close to our chest as if we had earned them by ourselves and have the only right to them. Our individualism and selfishness lead us to believe that our time, resources, and possessions rightfully belong to us and that we should feel no obligation to volunteer them to anyone else, even into the service of God.

Or maybe we think that we have nothing to offer, which is simply untrue. Some of us may not have tons of money, but we each have a spiritual gift that was given to us for the sole purpose of building up the body of Christ to the glory of God. If we think we have nothing to offer, we need to think harder.

Which leads David to recognize a second need that has met by God.

Second of all, David recognizes that even if they had a lot of stuff, they wouldn’t have the heart that wanted to give unless God gave that to them as well.

Even if the Israelites here had managed to horde wealth and then build an amazing temple, but did it with an impure heart and for the wrong reasons, it would have been to their detriment in the eyes of God.

But they also had pure hearts in their offering to the building project, and this too was the work of God. David recognizes that God has always given his people a heart that truly loves to glorify him, and so he asks that God would continue to do that for all of this people.

Which brings me to the last point that I want you to see from this passage tonight; David and the people of God here derived their joy from their pure act of giving.

David Glorifies God For Empowering The Joyful Giving

Glorifying God isn’t a road to joy, Glorifying God IS joy. What brought the people joy in this passage? It wasn’t a blessing in return, but simply that they were able to offer so much to God.

1 Chronicles 29:20–22 (ESV)

Then David said to all the assembly, “Bless the Lord your God.” And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and paid homage to the Lord and to the king. And they offered sacrifices to the Lord, and on the next day offered burnt offerings to the Lord, 1,000 bulls, 1,000 rams, and 1,000 lambs, with their drink offerings, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. And they ate and drank before the Lord on that day with great gladness.

WSC 1 glorifying God and enjoying him are not separate activities. We enjoy God forever only when we glorify him, and we glorify God when we enjoy Him. The passage that we have tonight is just one prime example of what WSC 1 looks like lived out.

If we are going to have any hope to live this life that finds its enjoyment in glorifying God by being a living sacrifice, it will be because we are completely to dependent on God to make us into that person. You can get richer than anyone, more famous than anyone, enjoy more experiences than anyone, even donate more to the church than anyone else, and still fall short if you do any of it with selfish desires.

We don’t just need physical blessings, we need a new heart; and God provides that to us through his son Jesus Christ. In fact, giving you this heart that finds joy in glorifying God was one of the primary reasons that Jesus came into the world.

We know that the ultimate reason for Jesus coming was to glorify God, and he did that by accomplishing many things. Most of us would immediately say that Christ glorified God by saving his people from an eternal future of hell, which is true, but equally as important as that is the fact that Christ glorified God in his coming by empowering God’s people to live lives that love to glorify God. Jesus himself said this

John 14:12–13 ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Those of us who believe in Christ will do greater works than Christ did! I bet if I just said that without giving you the Scripture reference, most of you would get really uncomfortable with that statement.

But this is what Christ accomplished! He came to redeem his chosen people from selfishness and sin, and to empower them to live lives that love to glorify God. Because Christ is at work in us who believe, we will do even mightier works that the ones that Christ did in his life in Earth. These works that we do are not our own, but are only ours in our union with Christ.

So if we read a passage like this one tonight, or a passage like the one in Romans that calls us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices and to do it with joy, and we think that they are a bit out of reach for us; it is because we have failed to consider that Christ is the one who makes us into that person. If today we are not the people that find our joy in glorifying God, it is because we have not looked to Christ to be made into that person. As you leave today, if your desire is to find your joy in glorifying God, then look to Christ, and pray as David did, “Lord, keep your purposes and thoughts in my heart, and direct my heart towards you. Grant me a whole heart, that I may glorify you and love you as you deserve.”