Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: What will you do with all your stuff? Pastor Bill Luebkemann provides some needed perspective. They say you can't take it with you, your treasure that is. But you can send it on ahead by giving it away. Jesus told the rich guy, "Sell everything you have, give the money to the poor, and come and follow me."

We get so hung up with our possessions and our stuff. We even have commercials on TV that say things like "stuff is good," and "we have to get more stuff," and "we have to accumulate more stuff," and "our barn is overflowing, we'll build a bigger barn." Jesus said, "Fool, even tonight your life will be required of you, and then who's going to get all that stuff?"

Guest (Male): It's been said that money wants to claim the loyalty and love that belongs to the Lord alone. Though money is not the root of all evil, the love of money is. There is an inherent danger in accumulating wealth. Is there a way to protect ourselves from this danger?

Yes, and we'll discover it today on Hope from the Word, the daily radio ministry of Calvary Chapel of Marlton. We are committed to proclaiming the truth of God's word, so let's do that right now with today's teaching from 1 Chronicles chapter 29. Here's Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

Bill Luebkemann: First Chronicles 29, we're just going to really try to finish the book of First Chronicles. We were looking at David's instructions and his plans for building the temple. This was near the end of his life, and we saw how he summoned all the officials of Israel, officers, and commanders, and officials, and different kinds of important people, mighty men, brave warriors, and he gave them all instructions. That's continuing here in chapter 29. He's turning over the reins and he's giving instructions to Solomon, what he should be doing and to his officials and how they should be following Solomon.

"Be strong and courageous" is what he was telling Solomon here. That seemed to be the theme last week. Be strong and do the work. The end of verse 10 in chapter 28 says, "Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary. Be strong and do the work." David's one of his other sons, Adonijah, was attempting to usurp Solomon's authority and become king himself. You see these reminders in here over and over again, David saying to Solomon, "You're the one that the Lord has chosen to do the work."

I can't help but think that he probably said that over and over again for the benefit of all those listening so that they would know when David was dead and gone that there's no mistake about it here. Solomon is the one that was king by the Lord's choosing, not Adonijah. I think he wanted Solomon to know that so that Solomon could feel secure in that knowledge, and I think he also wanted the people of the kingdom to feel that way or to know that also.

In chapter 29, he's dealing in the first part of it with the things that were given for the building of the temple. Then King David said to the whole assembly, now remember the whole assembly is officials of Israel, officers over the tribes, commanders of divisions and thousands and hundreds, and officials in charge of property and livestock belonging to the king, the palace officials, mighty men, and all the brave warriors. We're talking about the army, Navy, Air Force, and civil service were all here. This was everybody that was gathered here together.

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 because 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 work, 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 have 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 craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the Lord?"

David here, again, speaking to all these people, this large gathering and reminding them that his son Solomon was the one whom God has chosen. "My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen." It says in the NIV, the Newly Inspired Version, that my son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen. But some other translations say "whom alone" God has chosen. It's really the same thing. "Whom alone"—alone means singular, of and by yourself, like the number one. What he's saying here is the same thing said two different ways. No one else was chosen.

He's saying, "My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen" or "whom alone God has chosen." Again, we see him reminding the people over and over again that this is Solomon. He's my son, and he's the one, the only one, the one and only one that God has chosen. He says it so many times here, I just have to think that he's trying to drill it into Solomon that he would be comfortable and secure in his role, but also into everybody else. If any of my other sons comes along later after I'm dead and planted in the ground and wants to take over, you need to remember Solomon is the guy.

Not only is he the guy to take over, he's also young and inexperienced. He's the one whom God has chosen. He's also young and inexperienced. I don't know how old he was, but David served as king for 40 years, in Hebron for seven years and then in Jerusalem for 33 years. Sometime after he started serving in Jerusalem was the whole affair with Bathsheba. The child that was born of that illegitimate encounter died, and at some later point Solomon was born to Bathsheba, that was his mother.

We're talking about the fact that Solomon here has to be significantly younger than 33 years old at this point, because David's only been in Jerusalem reigning for 33 years and all these things happened before Solomon was born. Is he in his early 20s, late 20s, mid-20s? That's probably the range that he's in. Imagine taking over a whole kingdom with all these officials when you're that age.

Today in the business world, sometimes a father is running a large corporation and he wants his son to follow him, and his son goes and gets all the right degrees and then goes to work for the company and works in different positions and when he's 45 or 50 years old, he might know enough about the company to take over and run it. Here's David basically turning over the kingdom to a young guy. He says, "My son is young and he's inexperienced." That's not necessarily bad. He just doesn't have the experience yet, he hasn't been alive long enough.

The task is great because this palatial structure is not for man but for the Lord God. We see a contrast there. On the one hand, we have the son who is young and inexperienced, and on the other hand, we have the task which is great. We have the task being great, greater than any other task, the biggest task that has ever been accomplished, perhaps. Greater than average is the hardness of the task and lower than average is the ability of the son. They're not even close.

You'd think for a great big job, you'd want to have the greatest, most experienced person around. You'd think you'd give the young guy something simple to do, but here we have a contrast between young and inexperienced Solomon and this great palatial structure, this big task, because we're not building a house for man, we're building it for God. How big of a house does God need? It's not going to fit him. But the plans David said previously were given him by God. God showed him how he wanted this place to look. David wrote it down what God wanted.

With all my resources, I have provided for the temple of my God: gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, onyx stones, turquoise stones, fine stone and marble, all in large quantities. He has used his vast resources to provide for this, and he's been working on this for years. When they would conquer an enemy and carry away the booty, he would put it in a storeroom somewhere where it was going to be saved for the temple of my God. Notice the personal connection there. This is not just the temple of a God, the God, the one and only God or anything else, but notice, the temple of my God.

David was a man after God's own heart and he had a relationship with his Lord and he knew God in a personal way as much as you could in the Old Testament. He's been storing this stuff up and he's been doing it for a long time, and he has a vast quantity of stuff here. Besides now, he's tossing in his personal fortune as well. Nowadays, if some old person tried to toss their personal fortune somewhere, the younger generation would go to court and try to have the will overturned. "My dad must have been crazy at the end. He didn't have his senses. He shouldn't have done that."

David here is doing it all in front of everybody. I don't know if Solomon liked this or not, but he says, "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 have provided for this holy temple." Here he lists what he's given: more gold, more silver for the gold and silver work and all this kind of stuff to be done by the craftsmen. He's throwing in a lot of his personal stuff as well. He's giving this over and above what he's been saving up in the Lord's temple or in the treasury or in the storeroom, wherever he kept this stuff.

The stuff he's been saving up for the Lord, he's adding to it now his own personal finances to get it all done. Now he wants to know who else is going to step up to the plate. He ends verse five with that question, "Now, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the Lord?" This was just not a matter of saying, "Okay, count me in. I'll do something. I'll teach Sunday school" or "I'll do this or that." He was calling people to some level of sacrifice here. You're going to see what it is.

When they were called to consecrate themselves to the Lord, it wasn't to go down to the front of the church, kneel down at the altar and give your life to Christ like we do today. That's a good thing, we need to do that. But this was even beyond that. How are you going to show that to him? What are you going to give to make the building of this temple possible? Then the leaders of 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 were invited to contribute. David said, "Here's what we have saved up. Here's what I'm throwing into the pot. Now, who wants to give to this important work of God?" All these people that were there gave. It doesn't say they give, "Oh, all right, if you insist, if I have to." They gave willingly. They were excited to be able to be a part of what God was doing, and they gave out of whatever they had willingly to help. They gave toward the work on the temple of God: 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron.

A talent was like 75 pounds. So 100,000 talents of iron, 100,000 times 75 pounds is like 7.5 million pounds of iron. These numbers are staggering here. In fact, the NIV here has down at the bottom, they've converted it, and with the iron, they're saying it's 3,750 tons. We're talking about huge amounts of stuff that they gave, just enormous amounts. 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.

They're just having a fun time rejoicing and thanking God at what they're doing. They're so into this work of God that they're giving freely huge amounts of their own resources to help to pull this off. That was a blessing to the people because when they saw their leaders contributing, that showed them that their leaders really were serving God freely and wholeheartedly, unlike the leaders in Jesus's day, the Pharisees, Sadducees, the teachers of the law, the hypocrites, as Jesus called them, who preferred for other people to give and do all the work and they didn't have to give anything, do anything.

They just got to sit in the front row and look important. These leaders at this time, unlike the leaders in Jesus's day, were making an example by what they were doing. They were giving away freely from their own personal finances, and it reminds one of what Jesus said in Matthew 6:21: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Jesus said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

They say you can't take it with you, your treasure that is. You can't hook a U-Haul to a hearse. You could hook a U-Haul to a hearse, but it wouldn't serve the purpose, right? You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead by giving it away. Jesus told the rich guy, "Sell everything you have, give the money to the poor, and come and follow me." We get so hung up with our possessions and our stuff. We even have commercials on TV that say things like "stuff is good," and "we have to get more stuff," and "we have to accumulate more stuff," and "our barn is overflowing, we'll build a bigger barn."

Jesus said, "Fool, even tonight your life will be required of you, and then who's going to get all that stuff in your barn?" Some people today, they have to park their car in the driveway because their garage is full and their shed is full and their basement is full. I know if you come over my house, you'll see it all, and it's all junk. If I could figure out a way to get rid of it. I got so many parts for radio stations laying all around my house. My wife would love it if she didn't have to look at that stuff.

We need to give away to God first and foremost. These people did it and they set a standard here among the leaders. They were rejoicing at the willing response of their leaders who gave freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly. That's where it's at. It's in getting rid of stuff, letting other people use it. David praised the Lord in 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 the ruler of 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." We could spend the whole rest of the night just on this little prayer that David prayed in front of the whole assembly. "Praise be to you, O Lord."

There is no one else to whom we should be giving our praise. There is no one else up there who's listening anyway. If we're praising something else, we're falling on deaf ears. He doesn't make any bones about who he's praising. Some people say, "Well, we don't believe in Jesus Christ. We just believe in God and the prophet so-and-so." There are so many different religions today with so many different viewpoints on who God is and what God wants, and they're all trying so busily to please their God by doing whatever it is he wants.

David says, "Praise be to you, O Lord." Who is this Lord? He's the God of our father Israel. Jacob, was renamed Israel. Israel was the nation that came from Jacob's loins, descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We're talking about the God of the Bible, the God of the Old Testament, the God of Israel. He's the God, and there is no other God. He's the Lord, and he's the one that David is praising, and he exists from everlasting to everlasting. That means from as far back as you can go into time past, before time began.

You just keep going, and it never ends. It goes for infinity, and that's everlasting. How far it goes in the other direction when time ends and the world ceases to exist? God still continues to exist in heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and those of us that believe in him are there with him, and it goes on forever. He's the God. He doesn't have a beginning. He wasn't created in the mind of man. He wasn't made out of wood or stone or gold or silver, wasn't conjured up in somebody's mind. They didn't invent God.

People today say, "Religion is just invented by man." That's not true. God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, the Bible says God created them. If you don't believe God created them, then you have more faith than I do, because you believe they were created by nothing. It's easier to believe somebody created it. It's much harder to believe that it just came into existence by itself. That requires way more faith. Tell your atheist friends they have way more faith than you do. Tell them, "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. I can't imagine how much faith it would take to believe that we just got here by accident."

They act like what they believe is proven and what we believe is all fairytales and stuff. But the truth of the matter is they're the ones who have the far-out belief system, if you look at it logically. "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." He has all these things. Kings and rulers like to have all these things. You go to the White House, wherever the rulers of the world live in their own different houses, castles, on 10 Downing Street or at the Kremlin or wherever you go, you see pomp and circumstance and fancy ornate things, and people dressed up real fancy.

We think we've achieved this high level of power. We're the king, premier, prime minister, president, or whatever. We're something important and we're so great and we have all this power. But he says here, "Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power." Anything else pales in comparison to that. You see the president get off the plane, everybody salutes him and they're all lined up, shaking his hand and whatever. You watch similar in other countries. The ruler is some great person that has some great amount of power.

The truth is that God has all the power. Even as he was nailed to the cross, he had all the power inside of him and he chose not to do anything about it. That's a huge amount of power, because if somebody did that to me, I'd be calling them every name in the book and I'd make up a few more names that aren't in the book. I would have said, "I am and you were. Poof. You're out of here. Just blow them all up." Remember Jesus's disciple said, "Should we call down fire from heaven?" If it was up to them, they would have toasted the whole countryside wherever they go.

God has the greatness and the power, and he has the glory and the majesty and the splendor. The glory, he's the one and only God. The majesty, majestic. If we see him, if we were to confront him face-to-face, I have no doubt we would fall to our knees and fall down to the ground and pass out and probably remain passed out for a few years before we were able to get up and just open up one eye and take a look at what God's majesty is. Somehow he's going to have to give us new eyes as part of our new body. I think if our own eyes looked at him now, they might just pop out of our sockets.

Like you ever plug a light into the wrong voltage and it just blows out like that? Well, that's probably what would happen to us if we looked on God. His glory and majesty and the splendor is so great. "For everything in heaven and earth is yours." David acknowledging to God, "It's all yours anyway. We're giving you all this stuff, but it's yours anyway. You just loaned it to us temporarily." If we think what we have is ours, we are sadly mistaken. We miss a very important point. When we give back to God the first fruits of what he gives us, we're just acknowledging to God, "I know this is all yours, we know you gave it to us, we're giving you back some of the first fruits to show that we know that it all came from you."

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope from the Word. We're currently in a study of First Chronicles. 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 service begins at 10:00 AM, and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. 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'd 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. We'll continue our study in First Chronicles next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.