Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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We conclude first chronicles this evening with
chapter twenty nine. I have no real
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authority to say this, but I
wonder if this might be one of the
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greatest but most neglected chapters in the
Bible. There are so many wonderful things
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here in this chapter that I wonder
if so many Christians seem to have not
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even read it. But here it
is, right in the middle of chronicles,
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and and so excellent and good for
us this evening we have given to
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us it's great example of piety and
this great testimony to the God of David.
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So let me read it to you
this chapter tonight from First Chronicles Again,
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Chapter Twenty Nine, and let's give
our attention to God's word. And
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David the king, said to all
the Assembly Solomon, my son, whom
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God has chose alone, has chosen, is young and inexperienced, and the
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work is great, for the palace
will not be for man but for Jehovah,
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God. So I have provided for
the House of my God so far
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as I was able, the gold
for the things of gold, the silver
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for the things of silver and the
bronze for the things of Braun bronze,
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the iron for the things of iron
and wood for the things of wood,
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besides, great quantities of Onyx and
owns for setting antimony colored stones, all
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sorts of precious stones and marble.
Moreover, in addition to all that I
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have provided for the Holy House,
I have a treasure of my own of
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gold and silver, and because of
my devotion to the House of my God,
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I give it to the House of
my God. Three thousand talents of
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gold, of the gold of O
fear, and seven thousand talents of refined
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silver for overlaying the walls of the
house and for all the work to be
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done by the craftsmen. Gold for
the things of gold and silver for the
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things of silver. Who, then, will offer willingly, consecrating himself today
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to Jehovah? Then the leaders of
the father's houses made their free will offerings,
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as did the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of
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hundreds and the officers over the king's
work. They gave for the service of
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the House of God, five thousand
talents and Tenzero derecks of gold, tenzero
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talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents
of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of
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iron. And whoever had precious stones, gave them to the Treasury of the
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House of Jehovah and the care of
Jehiel, the Garret Gershenite. Then the
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people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart. They
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had offered freely to Jehovah. David, the king, also rejoiced greatly.
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Therefore, David Blessed Jehovah in the
presence of all the assembly, and David
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said, blessed are you, Oh
Jehovah, the God of Israel, our
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father forever and ever. Yours,
Oh Jehovah, is the greatness and the
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power and the glory and the victory
and the Majesty, For all that is
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in the heavens and in the earth
is yours. Yours is the Kingdom of
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God, Oh Jehovah, and you
are Exalted as head above all. Both
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riches and honor come from you and
you rule over all. In your hand
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our power and might, and in
your hand it is to make great and
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to give strength to all. And
now we thank you, our God,
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and praise your glorious name. But
who am I and what is my people
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that we should be able? US
to offer willingly, for all things come
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from you and of your own have
we given you? For we are strangers
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before you and sojourners, as all
our fathers were. Our days on the
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Earth are like a shadow and there
is no abiding. Oh Jehovah, our
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God, all this abundance that we
have provided for building you a house for
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your holy name comes from your hand
and is all your own. I know,
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my God, that you test the
heart and have pleasure and uprightness.
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In the uprightness of my heart.
I have freely offered all these things,
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and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely
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and joyously to you. Oh Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and
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Israel, our fathers, keep forever
such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of
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your people and direct their hearts toward
you. Grant to Solomon, my son,
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a whole heart that he may keep
your commandments, your testimonies and your
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statutes performing all that he may build
the palace for which I have made provision.
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Then David said to all the Assembly, Blessed Jehovah, your God,
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and all the Assembly Blessed Jehovah,
the God of their fathers, and bowed
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their heads and paid homage to Jehovah
and to the king, and they offered
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sacrifices to Jehovah and on the next
day offered burnt offerings to Jehovah, a
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thousand bulls, one thousand rams and
one thousand lambs, with their drink,
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offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all
Israel. And they ate and they drank
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before Jehovah on that day with great
gladness. And they made Solomon, the
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son of David, King the second
time, and they anointed him as Prince
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for Jehovah and Zadok as priest.
Then Solomon Sat on the throne of Jehovah
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as King in place of David,
his father, and he prospered and all
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Israel obeyed him. All the leaders
and the mighty men and all also all
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the sons of King David, pledged
their allegiance to King Solomon. And Jehovah
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Made Solomon Very Great and all the
sight of Israel and bestowed on him with
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such royal magics, or bestowed on
him such Royal Majesty as had not been
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on any king before him in Israel. Thus, David the son of Jesse
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reigned over all Israel. The time
that he reigned over Israel was forty years.
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He reigned seven years and Hebron and
thirty three years in Jerusalem. Then
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he died at a good age,
full of days, riches and honor,
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and Solomon, his son, reigned
in his place. Now the acts of
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King David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of Samuel
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this year, and in the chronicles
of Nathan the Prophet, and in the
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chronicles of Gad this year, with
accounts of all his rule and his might
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and of the circumstances that came upon
him and upon Israel and upon all the
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kingdoms of the countries. Sends the
Reading of God's word, may He bless
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it to us well. Here we
read of the great conclusion of David's rule,
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quite magnificent and as stirring tribute.
I'm if you have ever attended a
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retirement ceremony of some sort. This
is that sort of thing, only on
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a very, very grand scale.
This is a king, a King handing
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over the authority that God had given
him to his son. Now there are
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non inspired works here that God himself
recommends to the people. At the end
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of Chapter Twenty Nine, we read
that we can go, or at least
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people once could, go, to
various books and learn about King David and
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the various things he did. We
don't have these anymore, but the good
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news is we have the best thing
and what's even better, which is God's
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inspired word itself, where he tells
us of these things and has been telling
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us. And what we find here
in this chapter is, as I said
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before, this great example of piety. We see how the greatest of men,
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a godly man, humbles himself for
the glory of God and in doing
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so God has glorified in him and
indeed makes him great. There is this
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great and wonderful interchange that's going on
between God and his servant, and it's
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all on display, excuse me,
in this very grand way. I want
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you to imagine it for a moment, as we've done before. David is
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called this assembly to himself. You
can pick which person you want to play
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in the audience, whether you want
to be a leader or a commander,
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part of the mighty men, maybe
some of a servant and David's house,
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maybe Solomon himself, maybe David.
But here you all are, gathered in
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this great assembly. As a side
note, you we read here at the
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end of first chronicles that they made
Solomon, the son of David, the
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king the second time. They anointed
him as Prince for Jehovah. You remember
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that there was something of a controversy
and a problem earlier on, not recorded
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in first chronicles but in the other
historical books, where Ad Anisia row rose
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up and Solomon had to be placed
in rule. But all in all the
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hurriedness and politics of that event,
we don't see that here. Here is
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the Grand Ceremony in which Solomon is
made king. You have these two great
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kings, David, after serving all
of these years, forty years, his
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son, this assembly of rulers,
this huge face that follows thousands upon thousands
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of sacrifices. Have you ever gone
out into your neighborhood in the evening?
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You Go, I think someone's burning
a fire somewhere. I think someone's barbecuing.
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Can you imagine what it might smell
like to have thousands upon thousands upon
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thousands of animals being sacrificed under the
Lord? I really can't, but we
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can say that it would no matter
what that it would be quite grand.
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I don't even know how many tables
this would require that, the kind of
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silverware and plates, how the food
would be distributed. But anyway you slice
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this, we have a great event
going on. All the leaders, all
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the nobles, all the Great People
in the kingdom gathered in one place,
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with David and Solomon rising up over
it all. In addition to all these
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things, that grandness of the events
is found everywhere, in these great expressions
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of wealth. Here is the king, at the beginning of the chapter,
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saying, because of what God has
done, I am freely offering lots and
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lots and lots of money, gold
and silver and bronze and precious stones and
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all the rest to the building of
the temple. Just to hear of them
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speaks of its greatness. But no
doubt there would be visible elements of this
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as well, sparkling things, piles
of treasures, examples of this to be
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seen even if it weren't brought out
of storehouses. So you have these great
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expressions of wealth. You have everywhere
these reminders of David's mighty rule, including
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these servants who are willingly standing up
and saying yes, we give to you
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our allegiance and even following after David. So He makes this grand speech at
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the beginning he says, I give
to the Lord all of these things.
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WHO's with me? And then they
start pouring out their treasures, giving gold
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and silver and all the rest,
anything that they can find. They're pouring
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it out to the Lord. How
different this is than so many other collections
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that we've seen in history. Sometimes
we don't call them collections, we call
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it taxation or plundering or theft,
all different kinds. I'm not equating all
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of those together, but I'm just
saying there are the other ways in which
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money can be gathered, and not
all of them very pleasant. But that's
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not what we see here. And
even the people of God are marveling at
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it, aren't they? Notice what
David says? We read the in verse
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nine that the people rejoiced because they
had given willingly. They're all looking around
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it each other going this is fantastic, this is a party. We are
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all giving freely with our whole heart. Everyone is in it together. There
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is excitement and joy in the Lord. Nobody's being pressured, nobody's being forced,
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nobody's having their arm twisted to give
something they don't want to give.
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There is pleasure and willingness for with
a whole heart they had offered freely to
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Jehovah. David, the king,
also rejoiced greatly. So we have the
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sacrifices and these feasting and food and
coronations and wealth everywhere. But, as
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we've seen again and again throughout chronicles, even in the middle of the grandest
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moments politically speaking, David is always
pointing up instead of out and around him.
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As wonderful as it is, as
amazing and grand as all these things
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are around him, the people,
the wealth, the ceremonies, and on
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and on and on, David always
sees something greater, even higher. He
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sees it in God himself. Of
course, David's not discontent. He's not
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saying well, I wish I had
something more. He has something more.
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He has the Lord, his God. He knows that he has received all
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these from his hands, and you
see that in this chapter. You see
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David's expression, is expression of this
thankfulness. Is Good, how God has
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been so good to him. You
see it in the whole ways the story
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is recorded, but particularly in the
prayer itself, and I want to point
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this out by going through a number
of ways in which David draws our attention
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not to him, him and his
greatness, though great he is, but
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to God, who is infinitely greater, notice all of the ways in which
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David, in the humbleness of his
heart and in the greatness of all that
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God has given to him, bows
his heart down to the Lord, his
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maker and his God. The first
thing we see is God's choice. In
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Verse One, David the King said
to all the assembly, solemn, my
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son, whom God a little,
excuse me, who, God alone has
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chosen? Now, he goes on
to say, is he's young and experience.
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The work is great. Help him
out, be there for him.
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I'm serve him, but it's for
the way he begins to describe his son
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is by saying that he, that
Solomon, is this chosen one, chosen
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by God. David isn't saying you
need to follow him, because I have
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set him over, as king this
is my choice and my right, as
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king to make this choice. He
points to the Lord God. We have
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God's choice. We also have God's
palace. Throughout first chronicles I've been describing
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to you the temple of the Lord
as a kind of palace or Throne Room.
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We saw that last week when the
Ark was described as the footstool of
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the king. Here we have it
explicitly described as the palace. The temple
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is God's Palace. It will not
be for man, but it will be
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for Jehovah, God. These things, this offering that David gives not doesn't
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go to Solomon. The offering that
the people give don't go to Solomon.
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In other contexts that might make sense. The baton is being passed along,
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the crown is being passed along.
It's time for you people to demonstrate your
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loyalty, show Solomon that you are
behind him, and I'm while I still
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have this authority as king. David
might say, I'm going to make sure
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this happens. That's not what he
says. Instead of devoting all of this
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to Solomon, it's devoted to the
Lord. Solomon is going to put it
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to use, but it is the
Lord's it is his palace, it is
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his place. After noting these things, let's go over into David's prayer,
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this beautiful player at prayer, amazing
prayer that is worth hours and hours and
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hours and years of your study.
David begins by talking about the perfections of
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God. He points us to the
Lord. By talking about the Lord,
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he doesn't describe God in a vague
and abstract way. He doesn't think of
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God is just some sort of higher
power or nice therapist in his life.
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He describes God as God. Look
at first eleven. Yours, Oh Jehovah,
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or Yahweh, is the greatness and
the power and the glory and the
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victory and the majesty for All that
is in the heavens and in the earth
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is yours. Yours is the Kingdom, oh Lord, and you are exalted
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as head above all. Here we
have first God's eternality, in verse eleven,
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when he says or, I'm sorry, in verse ten, when he
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says, blessed are you, the
God of Israel, our father forever and
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ever. God is not like a
rock or a stone which is created.
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God lives forever and has always lived. He points to God's greatness. There
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is nothing greater than God. He
points to God's power, who upholds all
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things, who strengthens all things,
his power which is indeed irresistible. He
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points us to the glory of God. Everything is unto him, all this
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splendor, all this glory. David's
own service is for God. He points
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not only to his eternity, his
greatness, his power, his glory,
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but to his victory. David's God
is a God who wins every battle,
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and it's a day. It's a
truth David knows very well. He also
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speaks of His Majesty. All of
these things belong to him, though.
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Here are two great kings, some
of the grit too, of the greatest
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kings that have ever lived, the
greatest being certainly, that ever were under
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Israel, and and David is not
talking about them. He is talking about
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the majesty of the King God.
He's talking about his palace, his choices,
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his perfections, His Majesty. Do
you see what the Lord's Great Servant
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is doing? Even in all of
his greatness, he humbles his heart,
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and he does it honestly and openly. As he says later on, you
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can judge hearts. You know whether
I'm offering this willingly or not. He
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says to God, my conscience is
clear. I give this wholeheartedly to you,
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and indeed he does well. In
addition to God's choice and God's Palace,
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David also points us to God's perfections
and also to God's will. You
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See, in verse twelve, he
says we read both riches and honor come
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from you and you rule over all. In your hand our power and might,
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and in your hand it is to
make great and to give strength to
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all. Perhaps David is remembering that
he was once a shepherd moving about in
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his father's fields, being ridiculed by
his older brothers, shamed real least they
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tried. David knows that God can
bring up rulers and brought them down.
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He saw that in his predecessor.
We saw that at the beginning of chronicles
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when Saul, who is this great
king over Israel, fell on the battlefield
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under God's curse. But David points
to God, he points to God's will.
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He says it is from you that
you we receive these things. Anyone
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who is great, anyone who is
good, anyone who is holy, any
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and every good thing, comes only
from one place. It comes from God,
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and David confesses this with his whole
heart. He thanks God also on
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there. I'm in that same place, and he speaks of his own loneliness
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in verse twelve, I'm sorry,
in verse fourteen, this Great King,
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at this coronation ceremony for his son, says, who am I not really
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establishing his leadership right, going up
before the people in reminding them who is
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boss. Now he says just the
opposite. He says who am I and
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what is my people that we should
be able to thus offer willingly this great
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thing that they're all experiencing, this
moment of joy and rejoicing? He says,
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how is this even possible? Who
Are we? This is not possible
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apart from God. He says this
exactly, and for in the continual second
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half of that verse, Verse Fourteen, for all things come from you and
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of your own or end of your
own, we have given you. See
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what he's saying there. He's not
saying, all right, Lord, look
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at all of this wealth I have
amassed and am now giving to you.
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You should be proud of me.
He's saying who am I and where did
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this come from in the first place? It's all yours anyway. It belongs
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to you, it always has,
and we offer it freely with her own
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hearts. He calls himself and his
people strangers, a quite a significant thing
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when you remember that they are not
strangers in the land anymore. They're not
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wandering about like Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob. They're stablished. How could they
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ever be more established than they are
at this moment. But David knows deep
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down in his hearts that this thing
that God has done is but a shadow.
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It can pass away and even his
own life, as granded as it
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is, as many good days as
he will have, it's a shadow.
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He says, he considers himself a
stranger and he identifies himself with the promises
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of God to his father's a striking
thing in lie to the fact that God,
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in Chapter Seventeen, made a covenant
with David. It's promised amazing things
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to David, but he identifies himself
here in all of his humility. In
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Verse Fifteen, we are strangers before
you and sojourners, as our fathers were.
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He speaks to them and identifies himself
with these people and recognizes that he
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belongs to God by God's grace.
He also speaks to God's knowledge in verse
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Seventeen, which I alluded to.
I know, my God, that you
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test the heart and you have pleasure
and uprightness in the uprightness of my heart.
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I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your
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people, who are present here,
offering freely and joyously to you. And
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he is also the God of the
Covenant. David points us to in verse
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eighteen, the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Israel are fathers, keep forever
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such purposes and thoughts in the hearts
of your people and direct their hearts toward
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you. David sees this great blessing
that has been poured out on the people,
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not so much in the wealth but
in the free, wholehearted giving of
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that wealth. He sees the people's
hearts on display and he begs the Lord.
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He prays to the Lord and says, please, let this continue,
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let this go on, because he
knows that it can only go on when
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God keeps him. He identifies himself
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob or Israel
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and appeals to them and God's promise
as to them in all of these things
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and asking for God's grace and asking
for him to keep his people. And
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even he is son. In Verse
Nineteen, grant to my son Solomn and
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a whole heart that he may keep
your commandments. In all of these ways,
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what do we see? We see
David pointing US away from himself,
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away from the gold, away from
the silver and the bronze and the ONYX
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and the emeralds and all the rest. He points to God and says,
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here is where our heart should be, and here is the one who keeps
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our hearts. This is his choice, his palace. We worship him in
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his perfections. This is his holy
will. We are nothing, we are
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known by him. These are his
covenants. Throughout all of these things you
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see David in Great Holiness and exemplary
piety, pointing away from himself and relying
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holy on his God. Most of
us, I think, have a long
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way to go before our prayers even
begin to come close to this. But
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as we see this example, we're
given US headstart, not just in seeing
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how we ought to pray, true
enough, but more so in seeing the
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god to whom we pray. This
is the thing that inspires our prayers,
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the thing that ignites our hearts and
makes us filled with joy. Not by
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dissecting David's prayer and saying, all
right, if I can follow all of
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these things, I'll make sure to
mention all these, then I too will
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be godly. Doesn't feel very inspiring, does it. We find that the
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heat of prayer we find the joy
in the Lord, in the Lord by
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setting our minds and our hearts on
the god of whom David speaks. Think
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about how ironic it would be for
us to take a passage like this and
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to turn our attention to David,
to turn our attention to him and to
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give David Glory and honor and praise. It would be exactly contrary to David's
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intentions. would be exactly contrary to
God's intentions, who inspired this word and
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wrote it down so that we would
know him as king over Israel. We
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have an example, sure enough,
and I think we should study it and
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follow it, but we cannot do
that apart from coming to know the god
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of whom David speaks. We study
this, we think about who God is,
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in the greatness of his works,
in his perfection and his power,
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in his glory's and his victory and
His Majesty. We think about all the
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things that God has done for David, the things that he will do for
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Solomon, the time of rest and
peace that he has brought them into,
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the Majesty that he has bestowed upon
his people. And when we do are
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we will find that our hearts desire
to pray and to speak of him in
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this way, especially when we consider
ourselves, like David, not capable of
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these great things, not capable of
offering wonderful prayers, not capable of giving
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of our possessions and our time and
ourselves freely, but as strangers and sojourners
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and weak people and nothing people.
When we begin there, then we might
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have a start, because we are
turning away from ourselves onto God and his
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goodness and His grace. We come
to find a joy that David has and
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that the people have in this moment. When we find the source of that
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joy, the goodness of God and
His grace. We find that in humbling
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ourselves and we find it in looking
to him, as he's displayed these things
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not only in David, his son, but also all close in David's greater
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son, in Jesus. The greatness
of God's works on display here with David
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are amazing. They are breathtaking,
the goodness that he pours out on David
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and his son. But they don't
compare, do they, to the greatness
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of the glory that God pours out
on Jesus when Jesus ascends to the father's
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right hand to dwell with him and
eternal and heavenly holiness, where he rules
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with infinite might over all the world, the heavens and the earth belonging to
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him. Every cattle, every blade
of grass, every hair on our heads,
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all belonging to the Lord Jesus.
Every square inch of the earth,
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every thought that we have, every
action that we do, it all belongs
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to him. He has more honor
and wealth and glory than David even began
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to have. And these things,
though not always evident now, will be
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made manifest on the last day when
the Lord Jesus comes with great glory and
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victory and power and might. We
will not look to David, but will
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stand along with him and with all
the people here in Israel and with every
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person who's ever put their heart and
faith in God, through his promises and
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His grace, and we'll all offer
ourselves up, completely and holy and freely
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unto the God of our salvation,
the God of glory. David is a
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servant, and we are too.
David's honor and his his glory as ultimately
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not found in all of these external
things. It was found in his humble
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heart and in his shining back the
glory that God was shining down on him.
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And that means that for you,
you don't need to be a king.
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In order to be like David,
you don't need to have a son
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whom you are going to pass on
a nation to, but a heart that's
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humble, in whatever circumstances you're in
and whatever God has given to you,
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to confess with David that you are
nothing and that every good thing that you
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have comes from God, to confess
that God is everything and that all good
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things come from him. In that
we will know the goodness of God and
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you will find service of the Lord
a great pleasure. May God grant these
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things to us. Even as David
prayed for his son and for his people,
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let us also pray for ourselves and
ask that God would give us wholehearted
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service and delight in him as we
put our faith in his goodness and His
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grace. So let's pray.
