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[0:00] we'll be at. 1 Chronicles chapter 28. We'll look at the entire chapter this afternoon and then we'll continue to move forward through there rapidly coming to the end of the book of 1 Chronicles which admittedly we have handled large portions of it together in major chunks just because of the listing and the names and things of that nature. In particular the last few chapters we looked at them in one large chunk. But tonight we'll look at this one chapter.

[0:40] We are in really as we started in chapter 22. It was from 22 to 29 which is the end of the book is recorded for us the preparations of David for the construction of the temple.

[0:56] And these are unique matters to the chronicler as he's referred to the author of Chronicles. Unique in that they are not recorded for us elsewhere in the historical writings. Much of 1 and 2 Chronicles is repetitious of what we have recorded in 1 and 2 Kings. But there are some things that are unique and many of these preparations are unique. The divisions of the Levites and the assignments of each group of them. The gatekeepers, the musicians, the singers, the ones who are over the table and the showbread and all the weight weights and measurements and all the dedicated things. That's all unique. And in chapter 28 everything that is confined within that chapter is unique to this book. And that is it really helps complete you'll see in just a moment all that is going on as we read at the end of 2 Samuel and as we transition from David to Solomon in the 2 Samuel 1 Kings where David is really making these preparations for the construction of the temple and he understands what's going on but there's some gaps kind of filled in for us here. So we'll see that tonight. But let's pray.

[2:15] Father thank you so much. Thank you for your goodness towards us. Thank you for the opportunity we have of gathering together. Thank you for the day. We thank you for just the word of God and that we have the opportunity to open it up, to read from it, to learn from it, to grow in it. So Father we pray that you would walk with us as we walk through it and that we would come to encounter you not just your word.

[2:47] That we would set our hearts and minds to know you with all of our being and knowing you that it would shape and change us and conform us more and more to your image for your glory. And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. So I want you to see this evening First Chronicles chapter 28 starting in verse 1.

[3:07] Now David assembled at Jerusalem all the officials of Israel, the princes of the tribes and the commanders of the divisions that served the king and the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds and the overseers of all the property and livestock belonging to the king and his sons.

[3:27] With the officials and the mighty men, even all the valiant men, then King David rose to his feet and said, Listen to me, my brethren and my people. I had intended to build a permanent home for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God. So I had made preparations to build it. But God said to me, you shall not build a house for my name because you are a man of war and have shed blood. Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever. For he has chosen Judah to be a leader. And in the house of Judah, my father's house and among the sons of my father, he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel of all my sons.

[4:18] For the Lord has given me many sons. He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me, your son Solomon is to be is the one who shall build my house and my courts. For I have chosen him to be a son to me and I will be a father to him. I will establish his kingdom forever if he resolutely performs my commandments and my ordinances as is done now. So now in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek after all the commandments of the Lord, your God, so that you may possess the good land and bequeath it to your sons after you forever. As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will let you find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

[5:25] Consider now for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be courageous and act. Then David gave to his son Solomon the plan of the porch of the temple, its buildings, its storehouses, its upper rooms, its inner rooms, and the room for the mercy seat, and the plan of all that he had in the mind for the courts of the house of the Lord, and for all the surrounding rooms, for the storehouses of the house of God, and for the storehouses of the dedicated things. Also for the divisions of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and for all the utensils of service in the house of the Lord, for the golden utensils, the weight of gold for all utensils for every kind of service, for the silver utensils, the weight of silver for all utensils for every kind of service. And the weight of gold for the golden lampstands and their golden lamps with the weight of each lampstand and its lamps. And the weight of silver for the silver lampstands with the weight of each lampstand and its lamps according to the use of each lampstand. And the gold by weight for the tables of showbread for each table. And silver for the silver tables and the forks and the basins and the pitchers of pure gold for the golden bowls with the weight for each bowl and for the silver bowls with the weight for each bowl and for the altar of incense refined gold by weight and gold for the model of the chariot even the cherubim that spread out their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the lord all this said david the lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me all the details of this pattern then david said to his son solomon be strong and courageous and act do not fear nor be dismayed for the lord god my god is with you he will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work of the service of the house of the lord is finished now behold there are the divisions of the priests and the levites for all the service of the house of god and every willing man of any skill will be with you and all the work for all kinds of service the officials also and all the people will be entirely at your command first chronicles chapter 28 i want you to see this evening calling out the laborer calling out the laborer as christ said the fields are white for harvest but the laborers are few there is work to be done in the kingdom of god but it is the laborers which must be called out to perform that work truly and certainly god could work apart from such laborers but it is the will and the purpose of god to work alongside and with and through the laborers god is sovereign that is he is not dependent upon any individual to accomplish any work which he desires to do but in his sovereignty he has chosen such to utilize us as his instruments of labor he has constructed the universe with the word of his mouth all things that were brought into existence were brought into existence by him and through him and for him and even in the midst of that existence he calls us to labor and work according to his purposes in his fields here david after making such preparations and setting up things for solomon and israel to continue the work which was begun in the heart of david here he calls an assembly and in the midst of this assembly he calls out the laborer to accomplish the work that the lord god is calling him to do it's not something we do very often anymore that is call out the laborers but yet david does it he does it with purpose he does it with intentionality and he does it for the glory

[9:32] of the lord god almighty i want you to see just four great truths of calling out the laborer this evening number one the first thing we focus on is not the laborer but it is the work of god that has preceded the laborer david focuses on the work of god what god has done to prepare as jesus would say the fields to be white for harvest david calls all of the leaders and all of the elders and all of the rulers of israel together and after calling them together it's telling it says in verse two then king david rose to his feet and said it's telling because the last mentioning we have of any posture of david david is seated before the lord god after the realization of his sin he is seated before the lord god after the realization of god's promises to him if we go all the way back to where god says i'm going to build a house for you says and he's set in the presence of the lord and then we find him on the mount there where he falls prostrate before the lord and he is in humble submission to him realizing that he cannot approach him and yet they construct the altar and god answers by fire when author said the postures we find of david we find him in psalm 51 laying prostrate in brokenness then we find him seated in worship and finally we see him standing and serving and that's a pretty good picture we understand that he who sat in worship before the lord now stands before the people of the lord and he has literally just left the presence of the lord as he stands before them and he stands before them not to exalt himself not to exalt his own labors not to exalt his own work when we find the transition recorded for us in the writings of second samuel and first kings we find mentioning of many of the failures and the rebellion that's even happening during in the household within the household of david and how one of his sons wants to be king but yet david makes solomon king and there's all this murmuring and we have man pitted against man we have no mentioning of that here we have no mentioning of things that are going on externally because the focus here is not on man david comes and he is coming for a purpose and that is to call out the people of israel to do the work that god has positioned and equipped them to do and david begins to speak of himself but he is not speaking of himself so that he may promote himself because if you remember these are the last days of david he knows by this time solomon is already king he has already made solomon king he's not trying to earn the respect nor the favor of any individual his mark has already been set his heritage has already been formed but yet he comes and he testifies to the work of god he said i had it within my heart i wanted to build a place of rest the little reading there is or a permanent house for the ark of the covenant of the lord and that is to signify the security of the nation of israel that they're in the place that god has promised because as long as the ark of the covenant abided in the tabernacle the people of israel were not yet in the place of promise but once they came to the place of promise then the presence of god would reside he said this was within my heart but yet god said it would not be me that i was a man of bloodshed and then he begins to testify he begins to declare what god has done he says but god yet the lord the god of israel chose me from all the house of my father to be king

[13:39] over israel forever notice that david does not say i rose to the position i slain the giants i've killed the philistines i've fought the battles they've sang songs about me no he says but the lord god chose me and he said he chose judah and then from the tribe of judah he chose my father's family and from my father's family he chose me and now that he has chosen me he has chosen of my sons of whom i have many solomon the emphasis and the focus is on what god is doing not what man is doing god is choosing in his sovereignty and in his purposes and in his privileged position to choose whom he may use for his glory and david reiterates this reality that it is god who is at work that it is he who is doing this magnificent work in choosing because my friend listen when solomon is being called to do something he needs to know that god has already preceded him and begun it before solomon was charged with the task god had already called him to do it jesus would say it this way in the gospel of john my father is working up until now and i do the works that he does henry blackaby used to say in his experience in god study knowing and doing the will of god see where god is working and join him there it's pretty simple why because the field that we are called to labor in put that in context where was jesus standing he had just spoken to the woman at the well of samaria right in john chapter 4 and he sees the people coming and he says the fields are white for harvest but the laborers are few pray to the lord of the harvest that he may send laborers into the field well who had planted the original seeds that was christ right why were the people coming out to him why were the fields because jesus initiated a conversation with a woman and he says here are the fields go labor in the fields what we must first understand is that long before we're ever called to enter into the labor god has already went before us and begun the labor and that's a comforting thing we are only called to join the father we are not called to start the work it's his work right it's his calling it's his field we don't build the church we serve in the church he is building the church jesus says upon this rock i will build my church so we don't have to worry about building the church we join him as he builds the church we join him as he is moving forward in the world we understand that the first focus here is a focus on the work of god david says god has been working and he's working until now and he's got us to this position and to this point now that solomon is called and now solomon i'm going to call you into the labor which god has already begun number two we notice also the warning of faithfulness though god has been working and though god has made a choice in solomon there is still the warning to remain faithful he says in verse eight so now in the sight of all israel the assembly of the lord and in the hearing of our god so it says not only are we all here but the lord god himself is listening in

[17:40] observe and seek after all the commandments of the lord your god so that you may possess the good land and bequeath it to your sons after you forever that's a warning giving to the entirety of the congregation he says walk faithfully before the lord just because god has a work for us to do doesn't mean that we'll enjoy and reap the benefits of that work if we're not walking in faithfulness and then he turns and he gives this charge to solomon as for you my son solomon i love this verse by the way know the god of your father what is he saying solomon he's chosen you but you need to know him you have a responsibility in this work too know the god of your father and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind mind he says not only do you need to know him you need to serve him with a whole heart and a willing my friend listen to me it's not enough just to say well i guess i will do it and it's not even enough just to say well it would be beneficial to me if i did do it we ought to do it with a whole heart and a willing mind and we ought to be more concerned with knowing the one we serve than knowing about the work we do the focus of any labor is the one who has called us to the labor the work is secondary whatever it is he calls us to do after he calls us to himself is really a secondary matter it doesn't have to be something that is up front and center it doesn't have to be something that is recognized by others it doesn't have to be something that is known and acknowledged it is knowing god and having a whole heart and a willing mind to do whatever it is he's called us to do why for the lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts one of the most saddening things to me i think that i have found is that too often i believe people want to serve the lord and serve the kingdom on the large scale long before they've ever served him on the small scale but jesus would say he who's been entrusted with much much will be expected right and he who is faithful in a little will be given much more if we find joy in serving in the minute and we find joy in serving in the quote unquote insignificant and we find joy in serving in the unnoticed and unrecognized and the unobserved and if we find joy in serving not because of what we're doing but because of who we're serving then god may if he so desires to entrust us with more because it's really not about what we're doing but rather it's about who we're knowing while we do it too many don't have a willing mind i'll do anything but and that's not wholehearted and willing mindedness we should say lord here i am whatever you want me to do why for the lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts which means if i'm doing something and i say lord i'm going to do this until i can do something better or i'm going to do this as a stepping stone to reach a higher plane or i'm going to do this until something greater comes along then that's the intent of my thought and that is not wholehearted and willing minded devotion it's not and we are called

[21:44] to walk faithfully for the lord knows and here's the promise behind that if you seek him he will let you find him what a wonderful promise that is unique to christianity by the way if you seek him he'll let you find him you ever think about that you don't find god unless he lets you find him you can't say oh well i found god i found jesus no he let you he revealed himself to you he let you find him he's what we call it's not like a great game of hide and seek you'll never find him but yet he reveals himself to us if we seek him what a gracious act right what a gracious act that that god would say here i am you saw it for me here i am but if you reject him look at what it says but if you forsake him he will reject you forever what a warning of faithfulness what a warning to stay true because the labor we are called to enter into is his work and if we attempt to do the labor without seeking him then we're really being very very bodacious in our abilities we are called to seek him in that labor so we have the work of god the word of faithfulness or the warning of faithfulness and now let's see the word of encouragement we can be encouraged by the reality that god can be found we can be encouraged by the reality that he is near but look at what it says consider now for the lord has chosen you david reiterates the reality of what god is doing the lord has chosen you if there's something that we need to understand in modern christianity i believe is that god has chosen us to do something says that there are works ordained before the foundation of the world were laid for us to walk within god called us to himself and chose us for a particular work what a comforting thing right he called us to himself now it may not be what we thought it would be we may it may just be to love him and to love others and that's the primary word that's the greatest work that we can have and it may be to live sacrificially for the glory of the king it may not be doing anything did anyone ever notice this but it is something he chose us to do i don't find anywhere in scripture anyone that christ calls himself and then doesn't give them something to do right did he just say oh i just wanted you to come along no he has a purpose look at this word of encouragement listen we know christ it's because he chose us to do something that's wonderful that is amazing and the encouragement that comes from that is because though he knows me better than i know myself he still chooses me to do something for the sake of the king of kings and lord of lords wow he goes on so since he's chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary be courageous and act we looked at this last time we were together this repetition of be courageous and act be courageous and act be courageous and act when you know that god has called you when you know that god has chosen you to do something then you can have the courage and the desire met with the action that follows along beside it

[25:44] be courageous and act why because god called me to do this people may look at you and say i would never pick you to do that or i would never choose you to do that every now and then you may look at yourself and say i would never choose you to do that listen i would never choose myself to be a pastor i just wouldn't i would never choose things for myself and so i know me i wouldn't do that but the encouragement doesn't come from the fact that i believe in my own abilities the encouragement comes from the fact that the king of kings called me and chose me to do it so be courageous and act if he thinks that we're fit to do it then by all means let us do it someone asked me one time pastor you ever get nervous before you preach i said i get nervous before i preach every time i stand up i always get nervous so it's just a feeling that you can never get over and i told him i said if there's ever a moment where i fail to get nervous before i stand up then i need to quit preaching because i have come to the point where i'm trusting and relying in my own abilities more than i'm acting in courage on his calling when he calls us to do something courage comes not from our abilities but courage comes from our calling right the lord chose you so be courageous and act and then david reiterates this again in verse 20 but david said to his son solomon be strong and courageous and act courage always does something do not fear nor be dismayed for the lord god my god look at that testimony there he says it is the lord god who i put to the test who has walked faithfully with me who has seen me through all these battles seen me in my ups and downs he is the lord god my god solomon you know what he's done is with you he will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the lord is finished you know what he says there that he is going to walk with you until you have finished the work he's called you to do what a word of encouragement god will not fail you as long as you're laboring in the work that he's called you to do what a word of encouragement that comes here he says be strong and courageous and act don't be dismayed for the lord is with you he will not fail our abilities may fail our strength may fail but he will not fail as long as we're laboring in what he's called us to do here's the work of god which he's already begun here's the warning of faithfulness that we are called to walk within here's the word of encouragement that continues to motivate us and to push us and to move us forward to a greater faithfulness in that labor and finally here is the witness that surrounds us to the charge that we are given notice what it says there in verse one then now david assembled all jerusalem or at jerusalem all the officials of israel the princes of the tribes the commanders of the divisions that served the king the commanders of thousands the commanders of hundreds and the overseers of all the property and livestock belonging to the king and his sons with the officials and the mighty men even all the valiant men so here we have the leading officials we have the leading servants we have those over the king's possession we have the mighty men who are there we have the valiant warriors we have everyone standing around and he gives this charge and he says in verse 21 now behold there are the divisions of the priests and the levites for all the service of the house of god he knew what he should do because we have one of the very unique things to the book of chronicles in the bulk of this chapter starting in verse 11 all

[29:46] the way down to verse 18 david gives his son solomon a very detailed list of what is to be erected what is to be built so detailed he says in verse 19 that all this the lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me it is much like when moses was up on mount sinai and the lord showed him the pattern of the tabernacle which was to be built this is the only place in scripture by the way that we find that david received the pattern for the temple by way of revelation that the lord god was upon him and by the revelation in the moving it is not it will be what we call an extra biblical revelation that revelation is not recorded for us in scripture verbatim it is david handing over the revelation that god gave to him and so here we have david telling us that he received this by divine inspiration and so he knows that this is something that must be done he knows it to the extent that he's got the full weight of all the gold the full weight of all the silver the full weight of all the bronze because god had a work for david to do and that was to prepare the materials so he needed to know the plan god had moved in such a way that david made ample preparations and then david calls everyone together and he has all these preparations here and he is charging solomon with what we said before he is giving him an impossible task to accomplish even solomon when he gets done constructing this temple which is one of the few ancient wonders of the world he testifies to himself i have done that which is impossible to do for the no building the world cannot contain you oh god the earth is your footstool and there is no place where you could abide forever for nothing that can be constructed by hands could ever contain the fullness of god so he's not building a house of god to house him because that's impossible but he's building a house to the name of the lord god it would be to his ownership it would be a place where god would cause his glory to dwell he is calling him to do an impossible task he is giving him all of the detailed plans that they should do and now he says here are the divisions of the priests and the levites here are the people that are going to labor in that house for all the service of the house of god and every willing man look at what he says of any skill will be with you so he says now i'm not only giving you the list i'm giving you the manpower and all these people around you have the ability to do that which you cannot do every man of skill will be with you and all the work for all the kinds of service and the officials that is the leaders will also and all the people will be entirely at your command see what he is doing is he is entrusting to

[32:40] Solomon a great labor to do but he is also surrounding Solomon with the right people to do it god does that to us right when he calls us into the labor he puts people around us that understand that that testify to our calling that testify to the reality of what it is god is calling us to do but also are equipped to help us to accomplish what god is calling us to do we alluded to it this morning that we are such a dependent people who try to behave independently the scripture makes no argument against it that what god calls us to do he calls us to do it with the people he's put around us the witnesses to our calling the witnesses to our charge the witnesses that have the ability to help us to do it the ones who are gifted to give us the means to be able to accomplish that which god has called us to do

[33:48]  Solomon we know cries out to god and says i need wisdom and god gives him wisdom and he gives him so much more than wisdom he gives him that which he did not ask for but one of the things that we notice in his wisdom is he uses the people that god provided around him in a right and appropriate way and it's not until after the completion of the temple that Solomon began to make decisions that we scratch our head and say oh how can a wise man do that and we answered that question by the way in our own statement because he's a wise man and in his flesh he's still man but yet what we notice is that the work god was calling him to do would be accomplished and there were witnesses around him that would encourage him that would surround him and empower him to do all that god's called him when we call out the laborer let us remind them that god has been at work long before they are called to join him let us warn them to remain faithful in their labors and in their obedience and in their love let us offer them a word of encouragement that god will not fail and let us surround them with witnesses to the charge so that we they could be fully equipped to do all that god is calling them to do this is what we see in you