The Blessing Of King Solomon (2 Chronicles 6:1-11)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:06.160 Let's turn to second chronicles, chapter six. Please remain standing if you're able 2 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:14.349 and will here together God's word. Second Chronicles, Chapter Six, verses one 3 00:00:14.470 --> 00:00:26.820 through eleven. Second Chronicles six, verses one through eleven. Then Solomon said, 4 00:00:27.859 --> 00:00:31.500 the Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness, but I 5 00:00:31.660 --> 00:00:36.969 have built you an Exalted House, a place for you to dwell in forever. 6 00:00:38.289 --> 00:00:44.090 Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while 7 00:00:44.130 --> 00:00:50.479 all the assembly of Israel stood, and he said, blessed be the Lord, 8 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:54.119 the God of Israel, who, with his hand, has fulfilled what 9 00:00:54.280 --> 00:00:58.920 he promised with his mouth to David, by of David my father saying, 10 00:00:59.719 --> 00:01:02.960 since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, 11 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:06.909 I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build 12 00:01:06.950 --> 00:01:11.469 a house, that my name might be there, and I chose no man 13 00:01:11.670 --> 00:01:17.230 as prince over my people Israel. But I have chosen Jerusalem that my name 14 00:01:17.349 --> 00:01:21.900 may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel. 15 00:01:22.939 --> 00:01:26.420 Now it was in the heart of David to bill what David my father 16 00:01:26.579 --> 00:01:29.939 to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 17 00:01:30.819 --> 00:01:34.930 But the Lord said to David my father, whereas it was your heart 18 00:01:34.090 --> 00:01:38.650 to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in 19 00:01:38.730 --> 00:01:42.170 your heart. Nevertheless, it is not you who shall build the house, 20 00:01:42.689 --> 00:01:47.280 but your son, who shall be born to you, shall build a house 21 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:52.519 for my name. Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made, 22 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:57.239 for I have risen in the place of David my father and sit on the 23 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:00.549 throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and I have built the house 24 00:02:00.750 --> 00:02:05.950 for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, and there I 25 00:02:06.069 --> 00:02:08.990 have set the arc in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made 26 00:02:09.389 --> 00:02:21.300 with the people of Israel. You may be seated well here in these verses, 27 00:02:21.419 --> 00:02:28.659 Solomon is gearing up for one of the most significant and important prayers we 28 00:02:28.780 --> 00:02:34.129 have in all of scripture, a long prayer, a beautiful prayer, a 29 00:02:34.770 --> 00:02:38.810 prayer which is a great model to follow, a prayer which has so much 30 00:02:38.849 --> 00:02:45.960 good content for us to learn and to meditate on. Tonight, however, 31 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:50.599 I want to focus on the thing that happens just before that prayer. It's 32 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:54.039 kind of a prayer. You could perhaps categories categorize it in that way, 33 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:00.909 but all use the words the scripture uses here, and that's blessing. HMM. 34 00:03:00.110 --> 00:03:09.150 Solomon stands, turns around and blesses all the assembly of Israel and as 35 00:03:09.270 --> 00:03:15.460 he does so, he recounts what we've heard many times throughout first and second 36 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:22.580 chronicles, this thing that Israel wanted, that David wanted a king and a 37 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:27.289 place. They wanted the Lord God to dwell with them, and this was 38 00:03:27.689 --> 00:03:31.810 in David's heart and David intended to do this thing, and God commends him 39 00:03:31.810 --> 00:03:35.409 here for that. He says that is a good thing, that it was 40 00:03:35.490 --> 00:03:38.569 in your heart. Nevertheless, God says, it will not be you who 41 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:43.919 build the house, David, but it will be your son. God makes 42 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:49.080 this covenant with with him, what we sometimes call the DIVIDIC covenant or the 43 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:54.520 Covenant of David. So Solomon it is recounting all of this, but I 44 00:03:54.710 --> 00:03:59.389 want you to notice, and this is what I will focus on this evening, 45 00:03:59.990 --> 00:04:05.189 is the way that this history is recounted. It's all wrapped in a 46 00:04:05.349 --> 00:04:11.300 blessing. He isn't just merely saying I want you to Reme, I want 47 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:15.860 to remind you of what has happened. He frames it in a blessing and 48 00:04:15.019 --> 00:04:21.819 that's how we understand what it is Solomon says here. He makes this great 49 00:04:21.939 --> 00:04:27.970 confession that the things that God has promised with his mouth he has done with 50 00:04:28.129 --> 00:04:32.649 his hands. This, by the way, this ten dollar word, anthropomorphic 51 00:04:32.730 --> 00:04:40.639 language, this language which attributes sort of human characteristics to God, will occur 52 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:46.360 all throughout this long prayer. Mouth, hands, other things. It's one 53 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:49.759 of the ways that God is bringing to our minds this fact that he is 54 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:56.029 dwelling in a very personal way with his people, Israel. So you can 55 00:04:56.069 --> 00:05:00.550 pay attention for those as we go along in the next several weeks. But 56 00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:04.949 here, as he says that that God has fulfilled with his hands what he 57 00:05:05.110 --> 00:05:11.220 is done with his mouth, he wraps it in a blessing. So let's 58 00:05:11.259 --> 00:05:15.019 consider what that is. What our blessings? What does that mean? How 59 00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:19.980 do they connect with God? And actually, if you notice, there's kind 60 00:05:20.019 --> 00:05:27.089 of a double blessing here. Pay attention to this. Notice what happens verse 61 00:05:27.250 --> 00:05:33.370 three and Verse Four. Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly 62 00:05:33.490 --> 00:05:40.560 of Israel, while the is assembly of Israel stood and he said blessed be 63 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:48.519 the Lord. Isn't that interesting? That his blessing on and to the people 64 00:05:49.269 --> 00:05:55.470 begins with the phrase blessed be the Lord. Well, who are you blessing, 65 00:05:55.550 --> 00:05:59.149 Solomon? Are you blessing the people, or are you blessing God? 66 00:05:59.750 --> 00:06:00.910 You see what I mean? It's kind of a double blessing. There's a 67 00:06:01.230 --> 00:06:06.819 blessing wrapped inside of a blessing. So what's going on here? How is 68 00:06:06.939 --> 00:06:13.939 it that he's blessing his people by Blessing God? Here's the main thing. 69 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:20.490 I want to communicate that blessing God for the blessings he gives is itself a 70 00:06:20.610 --> 00:06:28.930 blessing to others. So I'll say that again. Blessing God for the blessings 71 00:06:29.050 --> 00:06:35.759 he gives is itself a blessing to others. Well, let's start with just 72 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:42.920 a simple definition, a simple definition of what it does it mean to bless, 73 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:46.470 and we'll go through a little bit of scripture. To bless simply means 74 00:06:46.589 --> 00:06:54.269 to bestow a good, to give a good. There as three different ways 75 00:06:54.350 --> 00:06:59.230 we see this in scripture. There's God blessing man, a man blessing God, 76 00:06:59.550 --> 00:07:04.019 and then man blessing man, men blessing each other. So here's three 77 00:07:04.019 --> 00:07:09.220 verses to highlight this. First one. How does God bless man? And 78 00:07:09.339 --> 00:07:15.300 in these each of these you will see how God bestows good. So Genesis 79 00:07:15.250 --> 00:07:21.129 thirty five, the Lord has greatly blessed my master and he has become great. 80 00:07:21.769 --> 00:07:27.490 He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants 81 00:07:27.529 --> 00:07:31.000 and female servants, camels and donkeys. You see what this servant says. 82 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:35.920 He is Blake, greatly blessed my master, of all these good things have 83 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:42.680 been given to him. Here's another one job for two twelve, and the 84 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:46.670 Lord blessed the latter days of job more than his beginning. And he had 85 00:07:46.870 --> 00:07:54.910 fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of Oxen and a 86 00:07:55.029 --> 00:08:03.579 thousand female donkeys. God bestowed good on job or psalm forty five to you 87 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:09.220 are the most handsome of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your 88 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:15.050 lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. So these are examples of 89 00:08:15.129 --> 00:08:18.850 God blessing man, and there are hundreds of them. But there are many, 90 00:08:18.889 --> 00:08:20.769 many, I'm in which we see this word being used in this way. 91 00:08:22.850 --> 00:08:28.920 What about examples where man blesses God? Psalm one hundred three, verse 92 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:33.759 one blessed the Lord, Oh my soul and all that is within me, 93 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:37.759 bless his holy name, bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and forget 94 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:43.509 not all his benefits. That word benefits. You could probably translate blessings bless 95 00:08:43.629 --> 00:08:48.429 the Lord, forget not his blessings. There's a relationship there, you see, 96 00:08:48.429 --> 00:08:52.669 between what God gives and how we respond. Psalm one hundred forty five 97 00:08:52.830 --> 00:08:58.299 one. I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your 98 00:08:58.340 --> 00:09:03.379 name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name 99 00:09:03.779 --> 00:09:11.769 forever and ever. And one more from revelation thirteen and fourteen. John says, 100 00:09:11.450 --> 00:09:16.490 and I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the Earth 101 00:09:16.570 --> 00:09:20.090 and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits 102 00:09:20.210 --> 00:09:24.879 on the throne, into the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might 103 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:31.120 forever and ever. And the four living creatures said Amen, and the elders 104 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:39.710 fell down and worshiped. Blessing is a bestole of good, but there is 105 00:09:39.789 --> 00:09:45.230 a difference between the way God bestows blessings on us and the way we bless 106 00:09:45.350 --> 00:09:48.029 God. Maybe, if you think about it, you even feel a little 107 00:09:48.070 --> 00:09:54.539 bit uncomfortable saying that we bless God or that we should bless God. This 108 00:09:54.659 --> 00:09:58.220 is one of those things that might be a little hard to wrap your head 109 00:09:58.220 --> 00:10:01.740 around, but here's the truth of it. In both cases, when man 110 00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:05.740 and his blessing God and when God is blessing man, a good is being 111 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:13.129 bestowed, like revelation hundred thirteen, to God belongs blessing, honor, glory, 112 00:10:13.169 --> 00:10:18.450 might for and might forever and ever. The difference, however, is 113 00:10:18.610 --> 00:10:24.399 that this good is not something that God needs. He's not dependent on that 114 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:30.440 in the way that we are dependent on him. When we are blessed, 115 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:37.350 we receive life, we receive goodness, we receive everything from God. There's 116 00:10:37.350 --> 00:10:41.750 nothing that we don't receive that isn't from him, and this is something we 117 00:10:41.990 --> 00:10:46.389 need. God, however, does not have life from us. He doesn't 118 00:10:46.429 --> 00:10:52.980 have might or honor or power from us. He's not dependent on us for 119 00:10:52.259 --> 00:10:56.899 these things, and yet we give them to him. Why? Well, 120 00:10:56.980 --> 00:11:03.740 not because he needs them, not because we need to provide for him somehow, 121 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:09.090 but because of worship. Right, that's what's going on there. We 122 00:11:09.450 --> 00:11:13.929 we give these things to God. So, for example, we have offering. 123 00:11:13.049 --> 00:11:18.759 Paul talks about. This is a worship. We collect money together to 124 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:22.480 give it to God. Is it because God needs our money? Is He 125 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:24.840 dependent on it? Is he going to go broke or not be able to 126 00:11:24.919 --> 00:11:30.559 pay the bills? Of course not, even do whatever he wants, but 127 00:11:30.679 --> 00:11:33.629 we give it to him as an act of worship, as an act of 128 00:11:33.870 --> 00:11:39.070 praise, and amazingly, he uses these things, he uses this praise to 129 00:11:39.190 --> 00:11:46.309 bless himself and or not to bless himself, rather to bless us. It's 130 00:11:46.389 --> 00:11:50.659 there's this kind of cycle that we begin to see in that God blesses us, 131 00:11:50.820 --> 00:11:54.500 we receive these benefits, we turn around and bless him, which glorifies 132 00:11:54.539 --> 00:11:58.419 him, which in turn blesses us, which is a benefit, and so 133 00:11:58.580 --> 00:12:01.690 we praise him and bless him, and so he blesses us. And it 134 00:12:01.809 --> 00:12:05.809 goes back and forth, not as equals, not as people, sort of 135 00:12:07.090 --> 00:12:11.610 two friends patting each other on the back, but as a create a creator 136 00:12:11.690 --> 00:12:16.000 giving to his creatures and his creatures responding in praise. And when we respond 137 00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:20.320 in play, it praise. That is a good thing, it is a 138 00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:26.799 blessing, something that we give to God. So God blesses man, man 139 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:31.909 blesses God and of course we bless each other. This in God's strength, 140 00:12:31.950 --> 00:12:37.309 because nothing good comes to us except through God. Even when he uses a 141 00:12:37.509 --> 00:12:43.190 friend to bring it to us. So what are some examples of US blessing 142 00:12:43.269 --> 00:12:46.379 each other in God's strength? Well, one's right here in our text, 143 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:52.620 second chronicles six, verse two, when Solomon as king turns to his people 144 00:12:52.779 --> 00:12:58.490 in the name of the Lord and blesses them. This kind of official blessing 145 00:12:58.730 --> 00:13:03.169 is what we receive at the end of our worship services and at the beginning 146 00:13:03.169 --> 00:13:07.889 of our worship services, when God greets us in the salutation and sends us 147 00:13:07.929 --> 00:13:13.360 off in the Benediction. This was true of the Levites as well, and 148 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:16.879 Deuteronomy ten eight, we read that at that time the Lord set apart the 149 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:22.559 tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the covenant of the Lord and to 150 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:28.549 stand before the Lord to Minister to him and to bless his name. What 151 00:13:28.669 --> 00:13:33.950 a great job God gave Levi, the tribe of Levi, the job of 152 00:13:33.230 --> 00:13:39.549 blessing his name. It's a it's a job we all share in now as 153 00:13:39.590 --> 00:13:43.019 a kingdom of priests. But here's another win which we bless each other, 154 00:13:43.379 --> 00:13:50.779 not necessarily in this official capacity, but in our everyday lives. I'm first 155 00:13:50.860 --> 00:13:56.250 Peter Chapter Three. I believe he says in Verse Nine, Do Not Repay 156 00:13:56.409 --> 00:14:01.730 Evil for evil or reviling from reviling, but, on the contrary, bless, 157 00:14:01.690 --> 00:14:07.409 for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing from 158 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:15.000 that wonderful you bestow a good, that you may obtain a good. And 159 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:18.759 then he describes the what it means to bless and verses ten through twelve. 160 00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:26.309 For whoever desires to love his life and see good days, let him keep 161 00:14:26.389 --> 00:14:31.070 his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away 162 00:14:31.070 --> 00:14:35.070 from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it. For 163 00:14:35.190 --> 00:14:39.340 the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to 164 00:14:39.460 --> 00:14:43.899 their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. 165 00:14:46.179 --> 00:14:48.379 So this is how we bless one another. We love one another, 166 00:14:48.500 --> 00:14:52.610 we do good, we seek peace, we speak rightly, we turn away 167 00:14:52.610 --> 00:15:00.490 from evil, we pursue a good things, we pursue peace. So you 168 00:15:00.610 --> 00:15:05.009 get the idea. These are the different ways that scripture talks about blessing man, 169 00:15:05.250 --> 00:15:09.039 blessing God, God blessing man, and men blessing each other one another. 170 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:18.840 I'm through God God using us to bless us one to another. Now, 171 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:22.830 from all of this it should be very clear that blessing comes to us 172 00:15:24.509 --> 00:15:28.350 from God. We got a sense from this already in Matthew, when we 173 00:15:28.429 --> 00:15:33.149 read Matthew Seven. Where do we get the good things that we ask for 174 00:15:33.909 --> 00:15:39.059 from God? James says this to every good and perfect gift comes from our 175 00:15:39.299 --> 00:15:43.299 father, and Solomon says that here as well. By recounting this history, 176 00:15:45.539 --> 00:15:50.009 he's saying that everything that has happened up to this point has happened because God 177 00:15:50.169 --> 00:15:56.570 has done it. These things aren't automatic. Kings don't come to power a 178 00:15:58.129 --> 00:16:03.639 mass, vast quantities of wealth and loyalty among their subjects and peace among the 179 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:11.159 nations. They aren't able to receive these great promises about a son and a 180 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:17.720 temple and all the rest, except from God. God says this about kings 181 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:22.389 in particular because we're so prone to see those who are the strongest as having 182 00:16:22.429 --> 00:16:27.509 a kind of self contained power. But not so, God says it's the 183 00:16:27.549 --> 00:16:33.539 same with kings as it is with animals wandering around in the fields. All 184 00:16:33.659 --> 00:16:38.460 are dependent on God, and Solomon gets that. He doesn't stand like Nebuchadnezzar 185 00:16:38.539 --> 00:16:41.340 does, up on his balcony and say, look at all these great things 186 00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:47.019 that I've done I built a house and sure enough, God came down and 187 00:16:47.100 --> 00:16:52.289 dwelt in it. Check it out. No, he stands there and he 188 00:16:52.690 --> 00:16:57.450 blesses God. Right, he bends himself, he bows himself before the Lord 189 00:16:57.490 --> 00:17:03.960 Almighty and he gives praise to God. You have done these things, you 190 00:17:03.119 --> 00:17:07.880 have spoken them, you have accomplished them. Verse Ten. Now the Lord 191 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:12.880 has fulfilled his promise that he made, for I have risen in the place 192 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:17.430 of David, my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as 193 00:17:17.670 --> 00:17:21.589 the Lord promised, and I've built the house for the name of the Lord. 194 00:17:22.670 --> 00:17:26.109 All of this has happened, he says in Verse Eleven, because of 195 00:17:26.269 --> 00:17:29.750 the Covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel. And 196 00:17:29.910 --> 00:17:33.500 this isn't just the dividict covenant. This goes all the way back to Egypt, 197 00:17:33.539 --> 00:17:37.059 he says, all the way back to when God brought them out of 198 00:17:37.220 --> 00:17:41.859 Egypt and promised to establish them in the promised land in Canaan. And even 199 00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:47.289 that promise goes all the way back to Abraham, when he called Abraham out 200 00:17:47.369 --> 00:17:52.130 of Er and set and and promised to a bless him with a great people 201 00:17:52.250 --> 00:17:55.930 and a land to dwell in. And that promise goes all the way back 202 00:17:56.009 --> 00:18:00.000 to Adam and Eve, when God promised to Adam and Eve that a son 203 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:10.519 would come that would bring all things together and make all things right. The 204 00:18:10.680 --> 00:18:15.869 providences of God depend on the promises of God. That's how we come into 205 00:18:15.990 --> 00:18:21.309 contact with them, anyway. That's the bedrock on which we are depending. 206 00:18:22.349 --> 00:18:26.109 We don't wait for God's providences to work out and then say, well, 207 00:18:26.430 --> 00:18:30.220 okay, maybe I'm seeing this. We trust in the words that he's given 208 00:18:30.259 --> 00:18:33.099 us, the promises that he's given us, one because he said them, 209 00:18:33.380 --> 00:18:37.819 and too, because he keeps fulfilling them again and again and again, and, 210 00:18:38.019 --> 00:18:44.289 as we know, it is his character never to lie. So my 211 00:18:44.650 --> 00:18:47.970 point is simply this. It should be clear from all of this, from 212 00:18:48.009 --> 00:18:52.609 the scripture, from our experience, from second chronicle six, that blessing in 213 00:18:52.769 --> 00:18:59.000 our lives come from God. Now making such a big deal about this because 214 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:03.240 we are prone to forget it, and I think in two different ways. 215 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:07.960 First, we're prone to forget the existence of blessing at all and second, 216 00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:15.750 we're prone to forget the gracious character of blessing regarding its existence. How often 217 00:19:15.869 --> 00:19:25.339 have you caught yourself being forgetful about being thankful or having such a hard time 218 00:19:25.660 --> 00:19:30.220 seeing how could there be even any blessing in this? My life is a 219 00:19:30.339 --> 00:19:34.579 ruin, everything is over, everything is wrong and terrible. Now, of 220 00:19:34.619 --> 00:19:41.170 course that sounds like an exaggeration. You know who would say that? You 221 00:19:41.210 --> 00:19:48.329 know we're all sitting here and controlling ourselves and not embarrassing ourselves, but we've 222 00:19:48.450 --> 00:19:55.279 all had these experiences where we've all said these things, frustrated, angry, 223 00:19:55.359 --> 00:20:04.400 terrified, anxious, unable to see the blessing in a situation. And yet 224 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:10.309 it's there. Are Even in the bad times. We won't even talk about 225 00:20:10.309 --> 00:20:12.829 forgetting the blessings in the good times, but just the even the bad times. 226 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:18.829 This is true. There's a story about Matthew Henry. I'm perhaps you've 227 00:20:18.990 --> 00:20:22.220 heard about his Bible commentaries. They're really good, by the way. There's 228 00:20:22.220 --> 00:20:26.819 six volumes of them and goes through the whole bibles all sorts of wonderful things 229 00:20:26.900 --> 00:20:33.940 to say. There's a time when Matthew Henry Henry, was robbed and he 230 00:20:33.259 --> 00:20:41.410 wrote this in his diary. Let me be thankful. First, because I 231 00:20:41.609 --> 00:20:47.450 was never robbed before. Second, because although they took my wallet, they 232 00:20:47.490 --> 00:20:51.440 did not take my life. Third, because, although they took my all. 233 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:56.000 It wasn't much and forth, because it was I who was robbed, 234 00:20:56.680 --> 00:21:03.309 not I who robbed. This is a thankful man, right. This is 235 00:21:03.390 --> 00:21:08.230 a thankful man. He doesn't tell us this, but my guess is is 236 00:21:08.549 --> 00:21:15.390 that Matthew Henry took some time to write this in his diary as an exercise 237 00:21:15.750 --> 00:21:19.859 in thankfulness. Now I also think Matthew Henry was a holy enough man that 238 00:21:19.940 --> 00:21:25.220 he probably thought these things on the spur of the moment, without much exercise 239 00:21:25.339 --> 00:21:30.420 either. But I also know that those who are holy, those who are 240 00:21:30.579 --> 00:21:34.609 thankful, our practice in it. They work at this. There are other 241 00:21:34.650 --> 00:21:40.049 people who do the opposite. They work at discontentment, they work at being 242 00:21:40.170 --> 00:21:45.809 frustrated, they work at seeing the wrong and all the right places. But 243 00:21:45.930 --> 00:21:51.039 we are called to look for our blessings, to see the good things that 244 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:53.200 God has done, and we are prone to forget them. And then, 245 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.480 even when we see them, we forget the graciousness of them. We might 246 00:21:59.559 --> 00:22:03.029 be thankful or recognize my life is pretty good, there's pretty decent, but 247 00:22:03.230 --> 00:22:08.430 how often do we remember that we do not deserve these things, that they're 248 00:22:08.470 --> 00:22:15.980 given to us from God himself? Solomon didn't deserve the Lord, God dwelling 249 00:22:15.180 --> 00:22:22.299 with him, supporting him, helping him in his rule. Indeed, in 250 00:22:22.420 --> 00:22:26.980 many ways he would come to undeserve this in his life. He would. 251 00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:30.250 There were ways in which we see in his life that he wasn't the king 252 00:22:30.490 --> 00:22:34.170 he ought to be, and yet God stayed with him, dwelled with him, 253 00:22:34.650 --> 00:22:40.250 helped him to rule. And when you think about all the blessings that 254 00:22:40.329 --> 00:22:44.210 God gives you, the blessings that you don't deserve and that I don't deserve, 255 00:22:44.250 --> 00:22:48.359 let us not forget the most important one of all, that while we 256 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:56.039 were ungodly. Paul says in Romans Five, Christ died for us, while 257 00:22:56.119 --> 00:23:03.829 we were still sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. We don't deserve it. 258 00:23:04.069 --> 00:23:11.509 The best and most important things that God gives to us he gives to 259 00:23:11.549 --> 00:23:22.460 us even while we are still sinners. So, in considering these things and 260 00:23:22.539 --> 00:23:26.900 kind of pulling us back to our main point, let me ask you a 261 00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:33.250 question. Is it not true, then, that reminders of the blessings that 262 00:23:33.369 --> 00:23:37.609 we have are a blessing itself, or that, I'll put it in the 263 00:23:37.690 --> 00:23:42.039 singular, that the reminder of the blessings we have is a blessing itself? 264 00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:48.279 Have you not just experienced this? Have you not just even now, been 265 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:52.000 blessed by being reminded of the goodness of the Lord to you and to me 266 00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:59.549 and to all of us together, while we were yet sinners? And maybe 267 00:23:59.670 --> 00:24:04.589 you experience this in other places. Maybe you've experienced a time when somebody helped 268 00:24:04.670 --> 00:24:11.019 you to remember the blessings that you have, or even the Holy Spirit himself 269 00:24:11.299 --> 00:24:17.619 testifying into you that you are an adopted child of God. You thought everything 270 00:24:17.779 --> 00:24:19.900 was bad, that you had nothing, you were discontent, you couldn't be 271 00:24:21.019 --> 00:24:26.529 happy, and then somebody comes and pops that bubble and instead of being deflating, 272 00:24:26.210 --> 00:24:33.009 it's a release. There's a way in which uncon discontentment and ungratefulness kind 273 00:24:33.009 --> 00:24:38.039 of wraps us up, you know. It binds us like Jonah being pulled 274 00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:45.039 down into the depths of the sea by all the seaweed and whatnot. Discontentment 275 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:48.119 does that. It makes us unhappy, it makes us frustrated and anxious. 276 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:52.710 Somebody comes and pops that bubble and reminds us of the blessings that we have 277 00:24:52.910 --> 00:24:57.390 in the Lord. Well, that's good. We feel good, we feel 278 00:24:57.589 --> 00:25:03.509 healthy, we feel released, and I think this is especially true when that 279 00:25:03.710 --> 00:25:11.420 reminder comes in the action of blessing God himself. That's what Solomon does here 280 00:25:11.460 --> 00:25:15.980 and that's why I put it in this way. In in other words, 281 00:25:15.019 --> 00:25:21.180 this is what Solomon does instead of just going to his people and saying, 282 00:25:22.569 --> 00:25:27.569 brothers and sisters, Israel of God, look at what the Lord has done. 283 00:25:29.329 --> 00:25:32.529 And that would be wonderful right. That would be a real blessing to 284 00:25:32.650 --> 00:25:37.839 be reminded of those things. But Solomon, instead of just talking about blessing, 285 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:47.599 jumps right to the praise itself. He blesses by blessing God. He 286 00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:52.509 blesses his people by Blessing, say, the Lord. It's a blessing wrapped 287 00:25:52.509 --> 00:25:56.069 in a blessing. And you know what, this is what we do together 288 00:25:56.269 --> 00:26:03.150 every Sunday when we gather together and we celebrate the Lord who dwells with us 289 00:26:03.349 --> 00:26:07.539 in Christ we who are the Temple of God and whom the spirit dwells. 290 00:26:08.460 --> 00:26:14.900 We come together each Lord's Day and we consider God's promises fulfilled to us. 291 00:26:15.099 --> 00:26:19.809 I stand here like a Solomon reminding you, telling you of the good things 292 00:26:19.890 --> 00:26:23.890 that God has done. He has promised them with his mouth and he has 293 00:26:25.170 --> 00:26:30.049 done them with his hands. And then in we do this not just in 294 00:26:30.250 --> 00:26:37.000 speaking about these things, but in actual praise to God. There's a way 295 00:26:37.160 --> 00:26:41.720 in which we praise God, we bless his name, and in doing so 296 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:45.799 we not only bestow a good on God, but is it not true that 297 00:26:45.960 --> 00:26:52.349 we also bestow a good on one another? There's this kind of one another 298 00:26:52.390 --> 00:27:00.029 ring that happens even as we are all simultaneously directed at God. This is 299 00:27:00.109 --> 00:27:04.859 the great spiritual unity that we have one another, with one another in the 300 00:27:04.980 --> 00:27:11.619 spirit and in the Lord Jesus. In worshiping God, in blessing him, 301 00:27:12.059 --> 00:27:18.410 we find that we ourselves are blessed, and so this is why I say, 302 00:27:19.130 --> 00:27:23.609 and I said at the beginning, blessing God for the blessings he gives 303 00:27:23.650 --> 00:27:32.240 is itself a blessing for others. We have an example of this in second 304 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:37.240 chronicle six, and it's a good reminder to us. It's a good reminder 305 00:27:37.319 --> 00:27:40.519 to us not only of what we do, but it's a good reminder to 306 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:45.309 us of how the Lord Works. So I'll just finish with this. When 307 00:27:45.309 --> 00:27:49.349 I say blessing God for the blessings he gives is itself a blessing to others, 308 00:27:51.789 --> 00:27:53.990 we can say that all of that itself is, of course, a 309 00:27:55.230 --> 00:28:00.420 blessing of God, and around and around and around it goes. That's why 310 00:28:00.460 --> 00:28:06.980 Jesus talks about the life that we enter to into is a blessed life. 311 00:28:07.380 --> 00:28:15.170 It's a life that itself is categorized in this way. It's not as though 312 00:28:15.250 --> 00:28:22.410 we just have this basket of blessings, even a whole room or a storehouse 313 00:28:22.490 --> 00:28:30.160 of blessings, but in Jesus Christ, our life itself is blessed, all 314 00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:36.160 of it, every part of it, from the Lord. So how do 315 00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:41.079 we respond? I'll let you guess. Let's pray.