Well, I want to welcome you to Big Valley Grace Community Church. If it’s your first time at Big Valley Grace Community Church, my name is Joel. I would love to meet you. I’ll be in the welcome center where if you just come to the lobby, any of these doors out here, there’s a welcome center after the gathering. I’d love to put a name and a face together and personally welcome you to our church.

We’re really glad that you’re here. And I hope that today’s a great experience. And welcome. We’re thankful that you’re here. We’re starting a new series this weekend called The Giving Life and we’re going to be in 1 Chronicles chapter 29.

If you need a Bible, you don’t have a Bible, hey, we’re going to take care of that today. All you need to do is come to this room over here. There’s a sign over it that says prayer. If you need prayer, come to that room after the gathering. But if you need a Bible, come to that room.

We have Bibles in there. It’ll be at no cost to you. The church has purchased them. We want to make sure that everyone has a copy of God’s word. And so if you need a Bible, come grab one after the gathering.

But we’re in a new series called The Giving Life. And today, each of these weeks, it’s four weeks long. Each week, we’re going to look at a different aspect. Today we’re looking at the resource. The resource. What is the resource for The Giving Life? And we’re going to be in 1 Chronicles chapter 29.

Before we get into that, I want to share with you a story. It’s a short story and it’s from this book called The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn and it’s one of the five books that we’ve made available in a resource set that’s available in our on-campus bookstore The Nook right out here. These five resources are partner resources to this series that we’re in called The Giving Life. And I read something from this book. It’s real short. I’m going to share it with you, but it just ties in so well to help us get into our text today. And so, let me read this to you.

Alfred Nobel dropped the newspaper and put his head in his hands. It was 1888. Nobel was a Swedish chemist who made his fortune inventing and producing dynamite. His brother Ludvig had died in France.

But Alfred’s grief was compounded by dismay. He just read an obituary in a French newspaper. Not his brother’s obituary, but his. An editor had confused the brothers. The headline read, “The merchant of death is dead.”

Alfred Nobel’s obituary described a man who had gotten rich by helping people kill one another. Shaken by the appraisal of his life, Nobel resolved to use his wealth to change his legacy. When he died eight years later, he left more than $9 million to fund awards for people whose work benefited humanity. The awards became known as the Nobel Prizes.

What would happen if the first thing you read this morning was your obituary? You pull out the newspaper. I don’t even know anybody who has newspapers. You pull out, you know, an online feed of your news and you read your obituary. He’s shocked as he has this experience for two reasons.

One, he knows his brother has died, but he’s reading an obituary about himself. And the second is the things that are said about him are a mirror to him of what the world thinks about him. And he doesn’t like it. And he makes changes in his life to give himself a better reputation than what was true about his life in that moment. And now we all know him regarding the Nobel Prize, not regarding how he got there.

If I read my obituary today, would my obituary say about me that I was generous? Would my obituary say about me that I gave of myself to help other people? The text we’re going to look at today is not an obituary, but in the chapter 1 Chronicles 29, it’s about King David and it’s at the end of his life. And in the chapter, at the end of the chapter, it says that David died.

So, this is a picture at the end of his life. But if his obituary had been earlier in his life, then King David’s obituary would have said something like he was the merchant of death because his hands were very, very bloody from the murders that he committed. But he repented of his life. He followed the Lord’s leading. And what we’re about to read is an incredible description that we now remember him by as opposed to what was previous in his life.

For context, I’m going to read the first nine verses and explain a few points. And this will help us understand the scene, the historical context of this chapter. 1 Chronicles 29:1. And David the king said to all the assembly,”Solomon, my son, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced, and the work is great, for the palace will not be for man, but for the Lord God.” So I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, silver for the things of silver, bronze for the things of bronze, iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides the great quantities of onyx and stones for setting, antimony, colored stones, all sorts of precious stones, and marble.

Verse three. Moreover, in addition to all that I’ve provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver. And because of my devotion to the house of my God, I will give it to the house of God.

Verse four, 3,000 talents of gold of the gold of Ophir. Now, I got to stop right there and I got to bring some context into our present day of what that just said. Does anybody here know what the current price in US is for an ounce of gold? $3,310 as opposed to yesterday when I saw it. Okay. An ounce.

Does anybody here know how many ounces are in a pound? I appreciate that some said that with conviction. That’s good. That’s good. I think some of us can work on that.

Okay, we’re going to work on that a little bit. The talent that said here 3,000 talents, the talent is 75 pounds. Okay? So if you take $3,310 for 1 ounce times 16 gets you to a pound time 75 gets you to a talent, what it’s referring to here, times 3,000 3,000 talents of gold. Do you know what that math problem is?

That is just under $12 billion. In today’s dollar, it keeps going. 7,000 talents of refined silver for overlaying the walls of the house, for all the work to be done by craftsmen, gold for the things of gold, silver for the things of silver. And then he makes a great question. Who then will offer himself willingly? Who then will offer willingly consecrating himself today to the Lord?

He’s saying I’m bringing a gift to the Lord. Is anybody with me? I’m bringing a gift to the Lord. Who’s also going to bring a gift to the Lord? He as a leader is only able to ask this question because he did it first.

But because he as a leader said, “Who then will offer willingly?” Consecrating himself today to the Lord. Because he was willing to give a gift, he’s now able to say, “Is anybody with me? Does anybody want to serve the Lord with me? Does anybody want to give a gift to the Lord with me?”

Well, the leadership responds in verse 6. Then the leaders of the father’s houses made their free will offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commander of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king’s work. They gave for the service of the house of God. And now it’s going to describe their gift.

The first one, 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold. Okay, let’s set the 10,000 darics of gold aside for a moment. Let’s come back to our math problem here. If 3,000 talents of gold is just under 12 billion, that means 1,000 talents of gold is just under 4 billion.

If there are 5,000 talents of gold that the people give, 4 times 5 is 20, which means it’s just under 20 billion is the value that the people now give. That’s just in gold. So 12 plus 20 is 32. $32 billion is being described in our current day currency just in the gold of the things that was brought by David and the leadership. That is a number that is so big. I don’t have any personal context to understand how big that number is.

If there’s somebody here who has personal context to understand how big that number is, I’d love to have a conversation with you. There’s some things I’d like to get done. But this is so big and it’s so massive, I don’t even understand it. That’s how huge this gift is that they’re bringing to the Lord. It’s mind-blowing.

It goes on, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, a 100,000 talents of iron. And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. Jehiel the Gershonite is like their pastor John Fryoli. Pastor John Fryoli is our pastor of business administration. He makes sure our budgets are good and we don’t spend too much.

He makes sure all the line items are good. He’s our Jehiel the Gershonite. So the next time you see Pastor John Fryoli, you can call him Jehiel the Gershonite. All right, he’ll appreciate that I said that. Okay, that’s going to be awesome.

Verse nine. Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. And David the king also rejoiced greatly. They give a massive gift to the Lord. David gives a gift.

It’s huge. The leadership gives a gift. It is enormous. And the result of them giving this mindblowing massive gift is they’re now all super excited. They are rejoicing.

What would happen if your favorite media source got a hold of these first nine verses? What would they describe it as? They would describe it something like this. Hey, there was a charismatic leader.

He gave a really good speech. Stirred up the people through inspiration and emotion. He told them about this great structure that was going to be in their community to bring pride to everyone who would look at it. And so everybody came together for a community project and look at how they’ve lifted the morale of the town. And you know what the media would do?

They would completely miss the point of what is actually happening here. 30 years ago, Pastor John Piper said this. I think it applies maybe even more to what we experience right now. Shall we see God in our lives and in the life of our church and our world the way the Bible does? Or will we always be seeing and thinking and talking the way the secular world does while they miss everything that ultimately matters. In the next verse, we start to see a picture of what’s really going on.

Verse 10. Therefore, David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said, “Blessed are you, oh Lord, the God of Israel, our father, forever and ever.” To bless God is to say, “God, you’re true. God, you’re good. God, you are wonderful. Blessed are you, oh Lord, the God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.”

The first thing that I want to pull out of this text number one is bless God as the source of all true good and wonderful things. If you see something that is true, God is the source. If you see something that is good, God is the source. If you see something that is wonderful, God is the source. And we bless God as the source of all true good and wonderful things.

As he continues on here, he uses at least 12 terms to describe how amazing God is. Verse 11, yours, O Lord, is the greatness. He’s saying, God, you are so big. You are so massive. You are so huge and the power.

You are so strong. You have all ability and the glory because when the greatness and the power of God come together, it shines super bright, blinding light, the glory of God and the victory because the greatness and the power and the glory of God determine he always wins every time. There is not a match that God enters into that he does not end up being the victor. God always wins every moment. And the majesty when God shows up, the soldiers stand at attention and the people bow before his majesty.

When God shows up onto the scene, people don’t slouch. People don’t kick back. People don’t go, “Ho, hum. Maybe I’ll acknowledge God. Maybe I won’t acknowledge God.”

You can’t ignore when God shows up onto the scene because he is majestic. For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. I want to illustrate this a little bit. If you walk out that door where we have our prayer room, there’s a hallway right there. And if you go down that hallway, you’re going to see some really beautiful, beautiful paintings about the days of creation.

And I want to walk through those paintings, share with you a little bit about it. So, in the beginning, at the beginning of our Bible, we have in Genesis, we have the creation account. And this is what it says on day one in our Bible that God created the heavens and the earth. And so, when you see the heavens, God is the source of them. And when you see the earth, God is the source of them.

On day two, it says that God divided the water that he had created. So, when you see water floating in the sky, that’s amazing how that happens. And then water that’s in the sea, that’s incredible that it stops right there. When you see waters in rivers and lakes, that’s beautiful and amazing. When water comes out of the faucet in my home, that is convenient and cool.

God divided the water. He is the source of the water. When you get to day three, you see that God created the dry land and plants. Just drive one mile that way, that way or that way and you will see farms filled with almonds, walnuts, peaches, apples, grain, everything you see on the dry land and all the plants. God is the source of all of that.

Day four, God filled the expanse with many lights. I was in my backyard just this last week and I’m out in my backyard and I’m looking up at the sky and a shooting star went by and I was like, “Yes, I saw a shooting star.” I was pumped. Man, if you don’t get pumped when you see a shooting star, you’re not a person who gets pumped because that is exciting to see a shooting star. I’m like, it just flew across.

Oh, you missed it. Too bad for you. I saw it. I was so excited. I saw a shooting star. God put all those stars up there. He’s the source.

Day five, God filled the waters and the sky with living creatures. Man, you’re seeing things fly. I was driving the other day. I almost hit a hawk. It like flew right in front of the jeep.

I was like, “This is the moment in the movie. Was awesome.” And then came right over me. I was like, “Oh, that was almost bad.” really quick.

My friends just went to the aquarium. They took their kids. It’s like you get to be in the ocean without being in the ocean to see what’s in the ocean, without being in the ocean. Is they got to see Yeah, their kids are getting to see what’s inside the like how cool is that? When you see all that, God’s the source of it.

Day six, scriptures say that God created land animals. So when I’m hanging out at my house and my neighbor’s cat crawls in my yard, God’s a source. When I see out of my neighbor’s house, you know, he his little girl and his little boy, they come running out and they come running over to the park. That little girl and that little boy, they were made in the image of God. God is the source.

Day seven, Bible says that God rested from all of his work of creation. He stopped creating, took a break, saw what he had made. This says, “All that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.” So, you should walk down that hall. You haven’t walked down that hall before, look at those beautiful paintings and have it remind you of what this verse is saying.

It continues on in verse 11. Yours is the kingdom. There’s a kingdom and there’s a king who sits on the throne. There is boundary lines in that kingdom. There are citizens who are in it.

Yours is the kingdom, oh Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Not only is he head, but he’s exalted. He’s exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you. Anytime we look in this world and see we see riches and we see honor.

All that is a reflection of the true riches and the true honor that belong to God. And you rule over all. There is not one person on this planet who is not under the rule of God. And it doesn’t matter if they acknowledge it or not. God rules over all.

In your hand, in the grasp of God, in your hand are power and might. In your hand. It is to make great and give strength to all. God can lift somebody up and God’s going to take somebody down. And now we thank you our God and praise your glorious name.

Second thing, praise God as the giver of all true, good, and wonderful things. We bless God as the source of all true good and wonderful things. And anything that ends up with us, we recognize and praise God as the giver of all true, good, and wonderful things. Anything you have that is true has been given to you by God. Anything you have that is good has been given to you by God. Anything you have that is wonderful has been given to you by God.

Verse 14. Now we get into a moment where David has some sobriety in this text and he asks some questions. But who am I? And what is my people that we should be able thus to offer willingly? He’s saying, “Who are we?

We’re nobodies. We’re nobodies from nowhere. How is this even that we get the privilege to be in this scene right now to be the get to be the people who give this? For all things come from you and of your own we have given to you.” It’s such a privilege to be here, to get to be the people to give to God because everything we just gave was God’s from your own.

We’ve given to you. It was It’s all yours, God. What we just gave you is all yours. For we are strangers before you, sojourners, as our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow.

There’s no abiding. The nation started with a dude wandering around in the desert. He didn’t have anything. And God grew from a guy wandering around in the desert to this massive nation that is able to give this gift that I’m not even sure how to understand and calculate saying, “God, everything we just gave you, we had nothing. We had nothing.

You did this so that we could give to you, oh Lord our God. All this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. It was in your hand, God. You put it into our hand, God. We took it out of our hand, God, and put it back into your hand, God, it was yours the whole time.

It was yours. And the third thing is to admit that God is the owner of all true, good, and wonderful things. If you have true things, you’re not the owner of them. If you’ve got good things, you’re not the owner of them. If you’ve got wonderful things, you’re not the owner of them.

Don’t make the mistake to think that somehow you’re the owner of the true, good, and wonderful things, because you are not. God is the source. He’s the giver. And even when he gives it to us, he retains ownership. He’s still the owner of all true, good, and wonderful things.

Now, in verse 17, we get to a moment where David does a heart check. He wants to make sure his heart’s in the right place. I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart, I have freely offered all these things. And now I’ve seen your people who are present here offering freely and joyously to you.

So he’s saying, God, you know my heart. You know my motives. You know I’m not doing this like for bad reasons. You know I’m doing this for good reasons that I’m bringing this gift to you. It’s you’re the source.

You’re the giver. You’re the owner. I’m just giving it back to you. It’s all yours anyway. But God, you know my heart.

You’re the one who’s going to judge my heart. But God, look at your people because I’m seeing your people, God, and I’m seeing them offer freely also. No one’s making them do it. And they’re joyful. They’re not having a bad attitude.

God, look at what’s happening in your people. And then King David says something amazing. Oh Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people and direct their hearts toward you. He’s saying, “God, we’re in a good place right now. Could you keep us in a good place?”

Like, our hearts are in a good place. Like, we’re acknowledging God and we’re seeing God as the source and the giver and the owner and we’re giving to you. God, could you keep us here? Could you help us remain in this place where our hearts are for you? And then David does something that is so amazing.

He asked God, “Can you help my kid, too?” God, can you help my kid? This is what’s true about me and the leaders right now of our nation. God, can you help it be true about my kid, too? Grant to Solomon, my son, a whole heart, that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies, your statutes, performing all that he may build the palace for which I’ve made provision.

God, you’ve done something so amazing in my life. You’re the source. You’re the giver. You’re the owner. I’m just offering it back in joy.

Can you teach my kid, too? Can you teach my kid, too? I mean, this right here is an incredible prayer for all of us who are parents, all of us who are grandparents. To pray like this for our kids, to pray like this for our grandkids. God, you’ve done amazing things in my life.

Would you teach my kids? Would you teach my kids? I got like goosebumps right now thinking about this. I mean, asking God to do something, build a legacy in our home, in our families, in our generations. God, would you do this? Amazing.

Number four, offer to God joyfully of all true, good, and wonderful things. What David’s showing us here is when you recognize God’s the source, when you recognize God’s the giver, and you recognize he’s the owner, it totally changes the perspective, and you just offer to God back to what is his. It’s all his. It’s all been his the whole time from the time of creation till the time it ended up in our hands. It’s all been his the whole time. We’re just joyfully giving it back.

Then in verse 20, we see David lead the people now where they’re going to have a time to worship God. Listen to this description. Then David said to all the assembly, “Bless the Lord your God.” I wonder what that sounded like when everybody said, “Bless the Lord your God.” Let’s find out.

Let’s say, “Bless the Lord your God.” We’ll say it together. We’ll all say it together and we’ll enter into the context of what they’re experiencing as they’re now worshiping the Lord in this moment. And we’re going to say, “Bless the Lord your God.” Here we go. 1 2 3.

Bless the Lord your God. That’s what it sounded like. And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and paid homage to the Lord and to the king. And they offered sacrifices to the Lord. And on the next day, they offered burnt offerings to the Lord. 1,000 bulls.

That’s a lot of bulls. 1,000 rams. 1,000 lambs. That’s 3,000 animals that they offer as a sacrifice on that day. That’s a lot of animals. That’s a lot of blood being shed. That’s a big scene.

It goes on and it says, “With their drink offerings and their sacrifices in abundance for Israel, and they ate and they drank before the Lord on that day with great gladness. They worshiped the Lord in the way that God had asked them to worship him at that time. A huge enormous gift is brought to the Lord. The leader and the leaders together and then the people enter in. Praise is given to God.

We learn so much about who God is after the gift is brought to acknowledge that he’s the source. He’s the giver and he’s the owner. And they just confess that they now have the opportunity to joyfully give back because God’s had it all at the same time. And they enter into worship and they sacrifice. But for us it looks different. 1 John 4:10 in this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The word propitiation that means that Jesus Christ dying on the cross was the acceptable sacrifice. The propitiation he is the full satisfaction of what was needed. The propitiation. What this verse is telling us is that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he is the final sacrifice. He’s the last sacrifice, which is why we don’t have 3,000 animals in the room right now.

Because we’re not making sacrifices of animals today. Because Jesus Christ is the final sacrifice and we worship him which is why we saved communion to the end because of what’s happening in this text. We want to also worship the Lord but we worship different because the way we worship is we recognize his sacrifice not ours. We recognize what he’s accomplished. We recognize how he gave his life. And Jesus asked us to remember him in this way.

Jesus taught his disciples that when they remembered him, they were to remember that he had given his body for them. And so he gave them bread. And when he gave them the bread, he told them that the bread represented his body that was given for them. And we were to remember Jesus by eating the bread in remembrance that his body had been given for us. And so if you want to remember the body of Jesus that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins—he’s the final sacrifice. Let’s take the bread and let’s remember the body of Jesus.

Jesus also gave a cup and with the cup he described the cup represented his blood that was going to be shed on the cross and how the blood his own blood was going to open up a new covenant with God which means we now have relationship with God. There’s a new agreement and we’re able to have that new agreement with God where he forgives our sins when we place our faith in Jesus and the work of Jesus Christ on the cross that it was enough. It was satisfying. It was the final sacrifice. It is the propitiation for our sins.

And so he asked his disciples, “Don’t forget me. I want you to remember me. And when you drink the cup, you remember that it’s my blood that has been shed for you. And so if you want to remember the final sacrifice, Jesus Christ, and his blood given for us, then let’s drink the cup together. Let’s pray.

Father God, Lord, thank you for the opportunity to come together to worship you. Lord, thanks for allowing us to see how Jesus spent the last little bit here of his earthly life, the way that he gave his life for others. And God, we remember. We remember in worship. We remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And we say thank you. Thank you that we have been given an opportunity for our sins to be forgiven because of Jesus Christ. And so Lord, we also want to honor you and we also want to worship you because we want to recognize that everything we have that is true and good and wonderful, it has come from you. And so Lord, we worship you and we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ who is our Lord God and Savior from our sin. And all God’s family said, amen.