Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: David had a purpose in his life, which was to fight the wars and clean out the enemy and create a land that had peace and tranquility. And now his son is going to come in, who's going to be able to enjoy the fruits of his father's labor.

Nowadays, people try to pass on to their kids something, maybe they're trying to pass on their house or their inheritance or whatever the government, of course, they want to get their piece of the action. David was able to pass on to Solomon a kingdom that was prosperous and peaceful and large and a land that was at rest. Rest from the enemies on every side.

Guest (Male): As Christians, the Lord has a purpose for us. Hello and welcome to Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. When the Lord calls, he provides.

All ministry throughout the ages has been fueled by his power and resources. He stirs the hearts of his people to get involved, and David is no exception. For more on David's legacy, we join Pastor Bill in 1 Chronicles chapter 21, picking up in verse 28.

Bill Luebkemann: David followed the law required and made the appropriate blood offering for the forgiveness of sin. And when that happened, then the Lord spoke to the angel, he put his sword back into its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.

The Tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon, but David could not go before it to inquire of God because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord. Well, hey, I would be also. So we see there, this not where the Tabernacle was, it's not where the altar was, but that angel with that big sword was mighty scary looking, and David was afraid of him, and rightly so, probably.

But God honored David's heart, and God offered forgiveness, and God called off the judgment and the plague and called the angel back and said, we're done here. We've already served our purpose here. David has repented, and an offering has been made. Three days of judgment had been executed. Then David said, the house of the Lord God is to be here and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel. Well, this is where we're going to build the house of God.

Now you remember, David was not allowed to build the house of God. He wanted to, and at first, the prophet told him, do it, do everything that your heart desires. But then the Lord told the prophet, no, go back to David and tell him he's not the one, but his son will build it. We're going to see why here in a few verses.

Then David said, the house of the Lord God is to be here and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel. David bought the land for the price. So David gave orders to assemble the aliens living in Israel, and from among them, he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God.

He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings, and more bronze than could be weighed. He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted, for the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought large numbers of them to David.

So David here, near the end of his life, deciding where the temple was going to be placed, built, constructed, and David giving orders to get together slave labor, basically, slave labor is the aliens that were living in the land were put to work here. And he got together the supplies and the materials so that Solomon could build this temple. And he provided iron and he provided bronze and logs, more than you could count, more than you could weigh, just a tremendous amount of supplies that he left for his son, so his son could build the temple.

David said, my son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of the nations. Therefore, I will make preparations for it. So David made extensive preparations before his death. Look, God told him he couldn't build it, but he didn't tell him he couldn't help prepare for it.

And he recognized that he was much older than his son, he had a lot more experience, built a lot more buildings, fought enemies, knew how to do a lot more things, had many kids at this point. Solomon here, still young, inexperienced. This was a big job. He didn't go to college for this. And David said, look, I'm going to make some preparations for him.

If this is going to be the house of God, the house of the Lord, it should be the most magnificent, greatest, most spectacular place that we could ever possibly imagine. It should be the fame and splendor in the sight of all nations. Everyone should hear about this. This should be so spectacular, so big, so magnificent, so awesome, that the word will go out and people will want to come from miles around to see this thing. It's going to be one of the ancient wonders of the world, perhaps.

And because of that, and because my son is so inexperienced and young and because the magnitude of this job is bigger than any job other, we have this gulf in between here, inexperience and a high job criteria. It's like trying to get someone who can't hammer two boards together and put him in charge of building a skyscraper or something. It's one thing to put a room in your basement, a lot of people can manage to do that, and if they don't do a very good job, no one will know but them. But building a skyscraper, well, that's another story.

I'm an engineer and hey, I drive over to Philly or over to New York and I look at the tall buildings and I think, how do they keep that thing standing? Why doesn't the wind blow it over or something? And the answer is, of course, it's anchored deep into the rock. Well, I don't know how to do that. You have to know what you're doing before you get involved in that kind of stuff.

And David said, there's a big gap here between the experience and the end result, between what the level of knowledge is of my son and what we have to achieve here. We have to build the most magnificent, famous, most splendid place of all. My son being young, I got to help him out a little. So he began to make extensive preparations before his death.

Now, it doesn't really say all of what they are, but certainly we know one of the extensive preparations that he made was getting the materials and supplies together because we already saw that. I wouldn't be surprised if they had blueprints maybe, maybe even did some demo work in that area, demolition work, maybe leveled off the ground, brought some bulldozers in, maybe started working on a foundation. Maybe David and his son rolled up their sleeves and looked over the blueprints together, went down to city hall to get them signed off by the building inspector, make sure an architect approves it and all that kind of stuff. They could have had a great time together discussing, oh, isn't this going to be great and make sure you do this, David could have told him, and make sure you do it that way and don't forget to put the gold here and don't forget to do this and make sure that you check with the Lord every step of the way.

Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. So this is kind of like a solemn charge, almost like putting someone on oath. David's going to be leaving, you are charged with this. You can't forget about it, you can't put it off, you can't do something else, you can't just say, well, I'll get to that later after I go fishing and hunting and maybe when I'm a little older I'll serve God.

You know, it's popular today for young people to say, yeah, we'll get around to that religious stuff later, maybe we'll serve God after we had all the fun we want to have in our lives, maybe we'll serve God then. One of the problems with that approach is maybe the future never comes. Never know when your life could end so suddenly.

He charged his son, almost like a solemn oath kind of a thing here. He called his son Solomon and charged him to build a house. Doesn't mean he made him pay, hey, I'm going to charge you $100 to build the house. Not that kind of charge, but an oath here. A house to the Lord, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon, my son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the name of the Lord my God.

But this word of the Lord came to me, quote, "You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my name because you have shed much blood on the 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 Israel 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." This is David telling Solomon what God has told him.

It's a shame he didn't remember this later in his life. It wasn't saying that God disapproved of the wars here. Some people could read this and say, see, God really didn't want him fighting all those wars. But yet when he fought them, it says clearly God gave him the victory. It wasn't that God disapproved of them, just that David had a purpose in his life, which was to fight the wars and clean out the enemy and create a land that had peace and tranquility.

And now his son is going to come in, who's going to be able to enjoy the fruits of his father's labor. Nowadays, people try to pass on to their kids something, maybe they're trying to pass on their house or their inheritance or whatever the government, of course, they want to get their piece of the action. It seems like for all of eternity people have wanted to be able to pass on something to their kids.

And what David was able to pass on to Solomon was a kingdom that was prosperous and peaceful and large and a land that was at rest. Rest from the enemies on all sides, it says, on every side. So that Solomon could enjoy the fruit of his father's hard work. Unfortunately, it was too easy for him and he had too much time on his hands and, as we know, he wound up having 300 wives and 700 concubines. Maybe he should have been fighting some wars, keep his mind on work instead of on those kind of things.

His name will be Solomon, the Lord told David, so he even told David what to name this son. And I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. What a promise that is. We're used to that here because here in America we don't see too much violence and there's probably nobody in this room that remembers World War II very well, if at all.

We look back over our lives and different kind of skirmishes going on around the world, put the TV on see what's happening in Iran now, all the battles over there, people getting clubbed and shot and really some gross video that was on the news, but it doesn't seem to affect us. It's coming from far away.

We enjoy peace. We don't know what it's like, I think, to be in battle. Wars have not been fought on our soil here in America, well, since the Civil War, 150 years almost. What a blessing that is. And that was not the case with David. He was fighting war after war after war, and he always did well because God was with him.

But Solomon was going to have this reign of peace and quiet. Israel was just going to be able to enjoy being God's people. And you know what? If they had stuck with the program, they would have been able to enjoy that forever. Seems like when you get it easy, you stop following the Lord, and then all of a sudden you find you wake up one day and you find yourself very far away from him.

God telling David here, Solomon your son is going to build this house. 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. You know, you can't go wrong teaching your kids about the Lord. Because the Lord is real in your life and you know the Lord and you know what he's done with you and through you and in you and what kind of relationship you have with him and how he's your father and he loves you and he forgives you and he's always there for you, you can call on his name anytime, and we can turn all that over to our kids and they can do exactly the same thing.

And we can rely on the fact we can be long gone and our kids can still be walking with God the same way that we are because he never changes. It's not like politics where one party comes in and four years later a different party comes in and then eight years after that the first party's back again and change back and forth as much as you can. God doesn't change.

He doesn't have a congress, a house of representatives, or a senate where they vote for this law or that law. They're always changing things. Nothing ever changes with God. He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. How great that is. Trying to follow what goes on in the world today is a lot like trying to nail jello to the wall. We just can't do it sometimes, but we can count on God to always be there for us.

And here he is telling David, your son Solomon, he's going to be my son, I'm going to be his father, and I'm going to establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. He's going to pick right up where you leave off is what he's saying here. And this was David telling Solomon what God said.

Now, David continues in his own words, verse 11, "Now my son, the Lord be with you, and may you have success and build the house of 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."

So David here, wrapping this up with his own words, telling him first of all, now my son, the Lord is with you and may you have success and build this house as he said you would. The Lord is with you. That's something else we need to pass along to our children. It will be easy for them to get out into the world and to think, where's the Lord in all this world here? What's going on? And we need to be telling them the Lord is with you.

May the Lord give you discretion and understanding. We already saw he was young and inexperienced, so he needs discretion and understanding. And Solomon started really right out on the right foot not too long after he became king. Remember the famous dream sequence, and God asked him he could give him whatever he wanted, and Solomon could have prayed for all the beautiful women of the world or all the wealth or gold or a bigger palace or money or what have you, to win the lottery every week for a year or anything like that. But he prayed for wisdom to rule the people well.

So it seems like David's prayer was answered here. May the Lord give you discretion and understanding. He had understanding if he was praying for wisdom. May he 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. Well, it worked anyway in the beginning of Solomon's life.

Towards the end of it, he went downhill, as we know, and he died an idolater. And is he was he saved and is he in heaven? I sometimes wonder that question. I don't know the answer to that. I kind of think he is, but you say he had been led astray by all of his hundreds of wives and concubines.

But certainly in the beginning of his life, he got off on the right foot. Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the Lord gave Moses for Israel. If you're careful to do that. And he did for a while. But then he started breaking them when he married pagan women. And God said, don't intermarry with the pagans.

And when he married one, it just made it easier for him to marry another woman. And when he had a concubine who was a pagan, it just made it easier to have another one. And when the first one said, hey, now that we're married, would you mind if I had an idol here for my god? When he said yes to the first one, it just made it easier for him to say yes to the second one. It's kind of like a slippery slope. You do a little bit and then a little bit more and then a little bit more, and it doesn't seem so bad.

Let wife number 627 have that idol, so if you want to have one also, no problem, I'll let you do it also. And before long, they all were leading him astray. He wasn't just letting them worship their gods, they were inviting him to worship their gods also and he was doing it without realizing or knowing or thinking, I'm the king here, God gave me all this stuff, why would I want to do this to him?

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. God is in control. Verse 14, "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 too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them."

Look, he's saying I've already provided just this huge supply of stuff. Huge. This would require a bigger warehouse than what you were talking about before we started here tonight, Mike. High ceiling, big building, we're talking about loads and loads of stuff that he provided. And he said to Solomon, you're going to need to get more. By the way, I didn't provide it all, I got you started. You get the drift of how this works. Now you can get out there and provide more.

"You have many workmen: stonecutters, masons, and carpenters, as well as men skilled in every kind of work; in gold and silver, bronze and iron, craftsmen beyond number. Now begin the work and the Lord be with you." He had all kinds of people that were talented, with all kinds of abilities.

The Old Testament is just filled with people who were talented in all kinds of abilities and used those abilities to serve God. And we should, we all have talents and abilities, and they were all given us by God. And we should use them for them. By the way, our talents and abilities are not the same as spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit when we receive Christ.

And the spiritual gifts covered in the New Testament are not the same as talents and abilities. There is not a spiritual gift of being a stonecutter, mason, carpenter, working with gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Those are not spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are supernatural abilities given to us by the Holy Spirit when we get saved or at some point after that.

Natural talents and abilities we may have had them all of our lives. These people that were stonecutters, masons, and carpenters were probably the sons of other stonecutters, masons, and carpenters, and they learned how to do it as they were growing up. And David said to Solomon, they are beyond number here. You have so many workmen. So now begin the work and the Lord be with you.

Verse 17, "Then David ordered all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon. He said to them, 'Is 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 devote 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.'"

So now David says, okay, time to get started. He gave the order. He's letting his son begin this project here before he dies. His son can start building it now. David hasn't died yet. And David's going to make Solomon king before he dies also. Solomon doesn't become king after David dies, he becomes king before David dies. David passed the title onto him when he was nearing the end of his life.

But at this point here, he's letting Solomon begin and he gives out the word to all the leaders, here's my son, here's what he's going to do, you're all going to help him. And he tells them, isn't the Lord with you and hasn't he given you rest on every side? You know, check with your grandfather about all the battles that were fought in prior years, and look at what we got now. He has handed the inhabitants of the land over to me, and the land is subject to the Lord and to his people.

Look, we can all talk to our grandparents if we're young enough, or to our parents if we're not young enough, or if we're too old we can't do that anymore, but we could have at one point. And we could say to them, what was life like before? What was it like to live in the early part of the 20th century during the depression or during the war or what have you? What was that like?

Here, these people could talk to their grandparents and say, what was it like when the land was only half the size and there was always a battle going on and you were always having to go out to battle? The stonecutters and the masons and the woodworkers and the carpenters, they all were going out and fighting a battle. Now they can stay here and actually build something with their hands. They have peace on every side.

And David says, "Devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God." Still good advice today. Good advice indeed. There's more to glean from this scripture and Pastor Bill Luebkemann will return in just a few moments to do just that. So stay with us for more Hope from the Word.

You can hear this message or more Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. If you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope from the Word wherever you find your podcasts.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday services begin at 10 a.m. and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7. To catch us online you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org.

And if you take a moment to write Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662.

And now once again, here's Pastor Bill.

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. Of course, these things were in the Tabernacle, which is over in Gibeon, the tent that was set up there.

David telling them, get ready, get started, begin to build this thing because when it's done you're going to bring all that stuff from the Tabernacle over here to the temple. And this is where the worship of God is going to be and this is going to be the house for his name, literally, really the place where God lives among us.

Look, God cannot be contained in the all the universe, but in some way this place is representative of where God would live among them. And David saying, get started. Look at what the Lord has done for you. Devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God.

Now look, none of us today is going to go out and build ourselves a temple for God. But we should take this advice to heart: devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. We can do that today. And we can begin to build and do whatever God is calling us to build and do. Whatever it is in our lives that God wants to do.

I saw a quote, it was something along the lines of, "Everything is experience for something else." Everything that happens in your life, it's experience that God is working into your life and he's building into you to make you the person that he wants you to be. It's building you up to be able to do whatever God wants you to do next. God works everything together for good to prepare us for what he has in store for us, which is making us more like Jesus.

That's all the time we have for today's broadcast, but we invite you back tomorrow as Pastor Bill Luebkemann continues in 1 Chronicles with more Hope from the Word.