Pastor Jon and Cyndi Burgess
October 2, 2016 - W1640

Pastor Jon Burgess:

We are continuing our sermon series in Future and Hope. So why don’t you get out your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 12:4-6:

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work."

That means all of us. He's gifted every single one of us. You are here for a reason and that is to use those gifts that God has given you.

We've been following David and Solomon, King David setting up his son Solomon for success, and King David handing over the reins for the building of the temple of God. King David has gathered everyone and 1 Chronicles 29:3 says,

"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 ..."

He's saying, “I'm not just giving what belongs to the kingdom. I'm giving of my own savings, my own personal treasure,” because earlier he had said, “I'm not going to give God something that costs me nothing. I'm going to give sacrificially. I'm going to give something that I feel, even to the point where it stings a little bit.”

Continuing in 1 Chronicles 29:4-9:

“… three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand 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 themselves to the Lord today?"

So to “consecrate” yourself is the same word as to “fill”. That is why when God said, “I'm filling the oceans with sea creatures and fish” at the creation in Genesis, it's that same work. 

Another translation of consecrate means to set in place. Consequently it was used on the precious stones that were used in the Ephod that the priests would wear when bringing sacrifices before God in the Old Testament. Those stones were put in place so that they could not move.

Therefore God was saying, “Are you planning on running when the building of this temple gets hard or difficult? Or are you all in?  Are you set in place by God himself to be immoveable?” Their response was overwhelming and immediate that they were “all in” on David’s plan.

Continuing in 1 Chronicles 29: 6-7

"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 gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron.”

They gave willingly. In other words, there is no haranguing. There's no manipulation.  There's no twisting of the arm.  This is an invitation, not an obligation.  This is something that David is inviting everybody to do just as David heard from His God on what to give. David is calling all of his people to that same thing.

1 Chronicles 29: 8-9 says,

“Anyone 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.”

When we have our place and He finds our pace, then God will give us a peace in the middle of it.

Why are they so excited? Because they realize that out of all the 480 years, God chose that they would be born here.  God chose that they would be born now.  And God was giving them an opportunity to participate in all that He was about to do.  This was their place; their God?given place.

Because they knew their security came from God, not something that they earned but that it was freely given, they gave generously. That's the outcome of you and me knowing that God sets our place.  God sets our pace.  And out of that comes this amazing peace that surpasses understanding.

And this is exactly what David was praying here, in 1 Chronicles 29:14, which says,

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

That's an identity question. That’s a God?given identity.  He's saying God has given us a place.

And that's a security question. Where does everything come from?  Well, if it comes from me, I'm insecure, but everything comes from the generous God that I serve. So then I instantly become the most secure person in the room.  It doesn't matter how much my paycheck is.  It doesn't matter what other people think about me.  If everything good comes from God, I become the most secure person in the room.

A God?given identity and a Jesus?forgiven security leads to a spirit?driven generosity. He's seeing it lived out in his people. 1 Chronicles 29: 15-17 says,

“We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”

What he's talking about is the 480 years leading up to this point. He's talking about how now God has finally given them a place to worship.

The timing of this is so beautiful, and I want you to recognize that we're in that place right here.

There's a lot of amazing churches, but God has chosen to make this your place, at least for this season of your life. This is God's place for you.  Where you work is God's place for you.  Where you live is God's place.  Are you going to be there forever?  Probably not.  But at least for here, right now, are you all in right there?  Are you consecrated to what God wants to do in the place that He's brought you?  If you understand that's your God?given identity, then you move into the Jesus?forgiven security where you understand you didn't earn any of this.

David was saying, “We're only giving back to God what God gave to us. Every victory over the last 480 years came from God.  This Promised Land came from God’s hand.  God, we're not giving You anything except that which You've already lavished upon us.”  That's security leading to this amazing spirit?driven generosity where we're no longer living out of the scarcity of what we can provide by our own hands, but we're living in the generosity of a God that never stops giving.

Pastor Cyndi Burgess:

1 Chronicles 29:20 says,

"Then David said to the whole assembly, 'Praise the Lord your God.' So they all praised the Lord, the God of their fathers; they bowed down prostrating themselves before the Lord and the King."

There was a place of praise that God's people came to because they said, “yes” to His place for them. Because they said yes to his pace for them, there was a praise that erupted in their hearts because they were finding their identity and their security in Him, not in what they could manage, but in Him.

And we're invited to do the very same thing, but the question is how do we do that practically? How does that roll out practically on a day?to?day basis where we find our identity and our security in Him?  And so I want to just give you some practical, rubber?meets?the?road kind of ways tonight that the Lord's been speaking to me about, and I hope that they encourage you and challenge you.  And we're going to use the acronym REIGN, R?E?I?G?N, and just like in the time of King David, we too now are in God's kingdom.  We're not building our own kingdom.  We're a part of God's Kingdom, and we're under His Kingdom reign.

And so the first one under the acronym REIGN is Remember.  We need to remember who we are and to Whom we belong. In the broken world that we live in, in a society that we're constantly bombarded with what we're not and where we lack and where we don't measure up, it's important for us to remember who we are and to whom we belong.

The second point in REIGN is Exercise. We're spirit, soul, and body; right?  And it's really easy for us sometimes to take care of our spirit, take care of our soul, but our body, well, that just is something we sometimes neglect.  And I want to say something that is true and I'm finding true more and more in my adult life is one of the most spiritual things I can do is just take care of myself, so take the time to take care of yourself and make that a priority.

The next one is Invite others in the process. We were not created to do life alone.  We are not an island unto ourselves.  We were not meant to do life alone.  In our efforts to walk out God's plan and pace and as we invite God to reign over our life, we need to invite others into that process.

And even more importantly than that, we need to get into the Word of God.  We won't be able to find victory in our life in any level if we're not grounding our lives in the truth of God's Word.  And Jesus modeled this so well for us in Luke 4.  We're not going to read through it all, but I just love this passage and love studying this out this last week.

And last, we have to say No. We've got to say no to self.  We've got to say no to entitlement.  It's a short word that comes with a lot.  Entitlement in our western culture is huge.  We've got to say no to the insecurity about what others will think because of the decisions that we make.

What is it that you need to say no to so that you can say yes to what God has? If there's something that you feel God's calling you to, most likely there's something you need to let go of because we can only hold onto a limited amount.

Where are you anxious, stressed, sick with worry or drowning in fear about? Those are all the places where we want to invite our King to reign over us, to have His security, His identity reigning over us.  We need to remember who we are and to Whom we belong.  We need to exercise and take care of this temple that we've been given.  We need to invite others into the process and not try to do this life alone.  We have to get into the Word and invest in what God says to us, and we need to say no to the enemy's plan for our lives. We must say yes to what God has for us. It is so much greater.

Questions:

1. What kinds of gifts and services was Paul referring to?

2. What did David mean when he said to consecrate yourself?

3. What is the meaning of the acronym REIGN?

4. Why is it important as a Christian to exercise?

5. Why do we need to include others in our life and not try to live a life alone?