Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] O Father of glory, I call upon your name.
[00:00:08] I believe that you are altogether wonderful.
[00:00:12] I believe that the purity of your heart, the clarity of your thought, the power of your character, the wonder of your kindness, all these and many more are the reasons that you deserve to be worshiped, to be loved, to be followed. Holy.
[00:00:37] I pray this morning that your Holy Spirit would do in our souls what only you could do.
[00:00:43] We would sense your presence and we would be persuaded to be the people of God.
[00:00:51] In Christ's name, amen.
[00:00:57] The Bible teaches many great ideas through stories.
[00:01:04] And so we have all these stories in the Bible and they all have an overarching idea so that we get to learn from other people's successes and failures.
[00:01:19] Probably one of the most famous people in the Old Testament was King David.
[00:01:26] King David's father had a large family and they were basically subsistence farmers and all the kids worked on the farm.
[00:01:40] David was the youngest brother and he got the job of taking care of sheep.
[00:01:49] But God saw more in David than just a shepherd.
[00:01:54] God saw in David the potential to leave an example for ages and ages to come, what it means to live the adventure of faith.
[00:02:07] And on a.
[00:02:09] On a fateful day in the valley of Ella, David did what no one else dreamed of doing. He faced Goliath and he struck him down.
[00:02:23] God raised David up to be king.
[00:02:27] But it wasn't easy. The first seven years of his reign, there was a civil war between the house of David and the house of Saul.
[00:02:38] Not only was there a civil war between David and Saul, there were wars of conquest between the Israelites and the Philistines.
[00:02:48] And you can't read the Bible with rose colored glasses.
[00:02:55] The first 10 years of David's reign were as hard as anything you can imagine. He was basically at war all the time.
[00:03:07] God gave him an adventure of faith in those first years that formed him into the man God wanted him to be.
[00:03:16] It would have been nice if it ended there, but it didn't end there.
[00:03:21] He had a son named Absalom who took it on himself to secretly build an army and pull a coup to steal the kingdom from his father, which led to another civil war.
[00:03:41] David demonstrated what it meant to be a sacrificial king.
[00:03:50] He didn't live in a palace in luxury, he lived in a tent along with his army.
[00:03:57] And he consistently fought against those who would have driven the Israelites out of the promised land.
[00:04:08] But David prospered.
[00:04:12] When David won battles, it was the custom then that you got all your enemy stuff.
[00:04:20] You defeat your enemy, you get all Their stuff.
[00:04:24] And over 40 years David became an extremely wealthy man.
[00:04:31] You can look on some of these things online and they estimate how much he was worth in today's money. And I don't know how good those are, but he was a multi, multi millionaire.
[00:04:48] He could have given himself anything he wanted.
[00:04:53] Ah, but it called another adventure of faith out of David.
[00:04:59] Because David said, I want to use the wealth that God has given me to build the Lord a temple in Jerusalem.
[00:05:09] And the prophet prayed and God said to the prophet, you tell my man David that I appreciate the impulse of his heart, but it isn't his destiny to build my temple. His son will build my temple.
[00:05:28] What I want David to do is to get everything ready so that when Solomon takes the throne, he can build the temple.
[00:05:38] Listen how David responded to that.
[00:05:43] 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.
[00:05:57] For the palace will not be for man, but for the Lord God.
[00:06:03] So I have provided for the house of my God so far as I was able. Gold for the things of gold, silver for the things of silver, bronze for the things of bronze, iron for the things of iron, wood for the things of wood, beside great quantities of onyx and stones for setting and timony colored stones, all sorts of precious stones and marble.
[00:06:32] Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, my treasure of gold and silver and because of my devotion to the house of my God, I. I give it to the house of my God.
[00:06:49] 3,000 talents of gold. A talent was 75 pounds.
[00:06:56] So 3,000 times 75 pounds, that's how much gold he gave.
[00:07:01] 7,000 talents of refined silver for overlaying the walls of the house and for all the work that is to be done by the craftsman. Gold for the things of gold, silver for the things of silver. Now listen to what he said.
[00:07:17] Who then will offer willingly consecrating himself to the Lord today? This is what David said, this is what I'm doing.
[00:07:28] I believe so much in this temple, I believe so much in God, that the wealth that I've accumulated over my lifetime to build this temple, I'm dedicating it to the Lord.
[00:07:39] And then he said, will anyone help me?
[00:07:46] Will anyone join me?
[00:07:49] And the author of a king said, then the leaders of the fathers houses made their freewill offerings, as did the leaders of the tribes and the commanders of thousands and hundreds and the officers over the king's work they gave for the sacrifice of the house of God 5,000 talents, 10,000 darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, 100,000 talents of iron.
[00:08:24] And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord.
[00:08:31] And so David had not only set an example of how to be an unselfish king in leading the army, and he set an example of how to be an unselfish king in leading his nation to honor God and build this temple.
[00:08:50] This temple was built by his son Solomon in 966, 966 years before Christ.
[00:08:58] It lasted until 586 when the Babylonians wrecked it.
[00:09:06] So for almost 400 years, what David and the people who lived with him at that time did had a profound effect on the nation of Israel.
[00:09:18] They created a future by being generous.
[00:09:25] What was the. How did they feel about doing this?
[00:09:29] Did they feel grouchy about it? Did they feel like they were obligated? No.
[00:09:33] Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly and with a whole heart. They had offered freely to the Lord. And David, the king, also rejoiced greatly.
[00:09:47] Here is one of the greatest men in the Old Testament, probably one of the greatest men who ever lived.
[00:09:53] God said to him, I want to do something very special through you, but it's hard.
[00:10:01] In fact, it's so hard that most other people won't attempt it.
[00:10:05] And David said, yes, I will live the adventure of faith.
[00:10:10] And he led the armies and they conquered their enemies. And when he could have become self indulgent, he did just the opposite. And he said to God, I want to leave a legacy.
[00:10:25] I want my life to have. I want my life to have mattered.
[00:10:29] I want to affect the future by what I to do. I do today.
[00:10:34] And David led in his people in raising all the money they needed to build the temple.
[00:10:43] But like all men, David had to die.
[00:10:46] And he, when he died, his son Solomon became king.
[00:10:51] And in some ways Solomon was like David, and in some ways he wasn't.
[00:10:56] He started out like his father, but time changed him.
[00:11:02] When Solomon became king, he immediately set to work to build the temple.
[00:11:08] He became king in 970, 970 years before Christ, he became king. And in 966, after four years, they dedicated the temple.
[00:11:22] And this is where God asks Solomon to have an adventure of faith.
[00:11:28] Ah, you know that in the Old Testament they offered sacrifices. They had an altar and they offered sacrifices.
[00:11:36] Most of these sacrifices, they didn't burn the whole animal up. If you read Leviticus, if you read Exodus on a lot of these sacrifices, they, they burnt Internal organs and the fat around them.
[00:11:53] So they burnt the liver and the fat around it, and then the rest of the animal the family took home and they ate it.
[00:12:04] Solomon dedicates the temple.
[00:12:08] And to dedicate the temple, he called all Israel together to Jerusalem.
[00:12:15] Hundreds of thousands of people came to Jerusalem. And Solomon offered sacrifices.
[00:12:22] I'll read it to you.
[00:12:25] Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord.
[00:12:30] Solomon offered, as a peace offering to the Lord, 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep.
[00:12:41] So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.
[00:12:46] The same day, the king consecrated the Middle Court that was before the house of the Lord. For there he offered burnt offerings and grain offerings and fat pieces of peace offerings.
[00:12:59] Because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offerings and the grain offerings and. And the fat pieces of the peace offerings.
[00:13:09] And so Solomon held a feast at that time, and all Israel had a great assembly. All right, I want you to use your imagination.
[00:13:20] The temple is built up on a hill.
[00:13:23] You can see it from everywhere around.
[00:13:27] In front of the temple, on the outside was made of white marble, and it just shined in the sun.
[00:13:34] In front of the Temple, there was a giant bronze altar.
[00:13:38] And when Solomon dedicated the temple, he brought oxen and sheep to sacrifice to the Lord.
[00:13:46] Now, I don't know how much an oxen is worth, but I know that 22 oxen, 22,000 oxen is worth a lot of money.
[00:13:53] I don't know how much a sheep is worth, But I know 120,000 sheep is a lot of money. And Solomon freely made these offerings to. To dedicate the temple to God.
[00:14:04] And then he shared all that meat with everybody who came to the festival. And everybody feasted together. It was an incredible sacrifice that Solomon made.
[00:14:20] And the.
[00:14:21] And Israel thrived.
[00:14:23] It absolutely thrived. You can read about the reign of Solomon in chronicles and. And in kings.
[00:14:33] Solomon became wealthy beyond what we can describe.
[00:14:39] He did international business all over the Mediterranean and Persia.
[00:14:46] You can read all about it. It's just absolutely phenomenal.
[00:14:52] But it started to change his character.
[00:14:59] You see, Solomon had a character flaw.
[00:15:03] And that character flaw began to express itself in an unpleasant way.
[00:15:17] 1 Kings 11 says Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sodomite, Hittite women.
[00:15:33] In fact, Solomon had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines.
[00:15:44] You got an ego problem, bro.
[00:15:49] You think you can satisfy. You think you can satisfy A thousand women.
[00:15:53] You are self deceived ladies. I'm not picking on you at all. But I mean a thousand women, all right.
[00:16:07] And the problem was Solomon grew to want to please these, these thousand women more than he wanted to please God.
[00:16:20] And it began to show up in how he spent his wealth.
[00:16:25] In the past. He had been happy to sacrifice to God and serve God.
[00:16:31] But these 700 wives and 300 concubines, they changed his heart. And he grew to want to please them more than he wanted to please God.
[00:16:44] When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David, his father.
[00:16:57] So Solomon went after Ashtrath, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.
[00:17:06] So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord as David his father had done.
[00:17:14] Then Solomon built a high place for Chemish, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites on the mountains east of Jerusalem.
[00:17:25] And so he did for all his foreign wives who made offerings and sacrifice to their gods.
[00:17:32] You see what happened?
[00:17:35] Solomon grew to love something more than he loved God.
[00:17:40] And so what belonged to God began to flow out of his life into the things that kept his wives happy because they kept him happy.
[00:17:52] It was you do what I want and make me happy. I'll do what you want and make you happy.
[00:18:00] And it ruined Solomon.
[00:18:03] It absolutely ruined it.
[00:18:08] Solomon was phenomenally wealthy, but he used his wealth to indulge himself. He didn't use his wealth for a higher good and God held him accountable for it.
[00:18:22] The prophet came to Solomon and said.
[00:18:25] Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, since this has been your practice and and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant.
[00:18:41] Yet for the sake of David, your father, I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
[00:18:50] Solomon's self indulgence ruined everything that David had built.
[00:18:56] Everything that David had accomplished. Solomon's self indulgence ruined. And in fact God said, I can't even trust your family to be kings anymore. I'm taking 10 tribes from you and giving him to somebody else. But I'm leaving you with two tribes because I made a promise to your father David, and I'm keeping my promise.
[00:19:20] And then Solomon's son Rehoboam became king. And this is a tragic story.
[00:19:28] This is an absolutely tragic story.
[00:19:32] Rehoboam wasn't like his grandfather David at all.
[00:19:37] See, he had grown up with Solomon. Solomon's image of what a good king should be was his father, David.
[00:19:44] Rehoboam's image of what a king should be was his father, Solomon. And Solomon was a wicked, selfish, self indulgent man. And he raised a son who was worse than he was.
[00:19:57] Do you hear this?
[00:19:59] His father Solomon taught him to be entitled his son. His father Solomon taught him to put himself first. His father Solomon taught him that the people around you aren't important.
[00:20:14] You do whatever you please. You're the king.
[00:20:19] So when Solomon died, Rehoboam was put up for king. And all Israel came to Rehoboam. And they said to him, your father's work crews, where he built all this stuff, it made it real hard on us.
[00:20:39] Now we want you to not think of yourself through this whole rain. And we want you to start thinking about what's really good for the people.
[00:20:49] And Rehoboam said, give me three days and I will answer you.
[00:20:55] So the people waited three days.
[00:20:58] The first thing Rehoboam did was talk to the counselors who had served his father, Solomon, and the counselors who served his father, Solomon. They said to Rehoboam, look, you got to humble yourself a little bit.
[00:21:16] You. You have to, you have to live the adventure of faith.
[00:21:20] You have to do what is right now, believing that will pay off later.
[00:21:25] If you speak kindly to these people now, if you encourage them, if you humble yourself before them and you, and you show them that you care about them, they'll. They'll be faithful to your throne.
[00:21:40] But if you treat them poorly now, you're going to lose everything.
[00:21:45] Well, he didn't like that answer. That wasn't the answer he wanted. So he went to the young counselors, the boys who had grown up with him, and he said, what do you think I should say?
[00:21:58] Well, these young men, they had, they, they were selfish, just like Rehoboam. And they said, dude, don't give an inch.
[00:22:07] Don't give an inch. You tell these people you're not going to put up with their rebellion. And, and if you want to know, he said, they said, you tell them my little finger will be thicker than my father's thigh.
[00:22:22] And my father beat you with whips. I'm going to beat you with scorpions.
[00:22:27] And so the big day came.
[00:22:29] All the people gathered together.
[00:22:32] Rehoboam comes out in his fancy king clothes, all the people are waiting to hear what he says.
[00:22:42] And the idiot said what the young men told him to say.
[00:22:48] He stood in front of all those people at a moment that mattered more than he can imagine. And he had zero faith.
[00:22:56] And, and so he tried to intimidate them.
[00:23:00] And he said, you should be ashamed that you even ask what you ask. And you need to know that my little finger will be thicker than my father's thigh. And he beat you with whips, and I'm going to beat you with scorpions.
[00:23:15] Well, guess how that went over.
[00:23:19] There was no cheering that day. There was no clapping. The there was no feasting and there was no Joy.
[00:23:27] In fact, 10 of the tribes said, we're done with you.
[00:23:31] We can do better without you. And they named another man their king and moved their capital to the northern kingdom.
[00:23:45] Perhaps the young man learned his lesson.
[00:23:49] Perhaps when he saw all that had happened, he learned his lesson. Or perhaps not.
[00:23:56] In fact, after losing all of that, Rehoboam remained self indulgent. And he couldn't even get his own people to support him. And Shishak, the Pharaoh of Egypt, came and conquered Jerusalem.
[00:24:15] In the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house.
[00:24:26] He took away everything.
[00:24:29] He also took away the shields of gold that Solomon had made.
[00:24:34] Rehoboam's self indulgence ruined everything around him.
[00:24:39] Do you see this?
[00:24:42] Now we have a huge contrast. David's generosity created a great kingdom.
[00:24:49] Rehoboam's selfishness ruined a great kingdom.
[00:24:54] I think we can learn five lessons from these three lives. First, the blessings of the Lord brings wealth.
[00:25:03] David wasn't wealthy because he was smarter, faster, better than everyone else. He was wealthy because God blessed him.
[00:25:11] Do you know, brothers and sisters, I hope you know that we in America are wealthy because God blesses us.
[00:25:19] There are people around the world who work a lot harder than we do and don't make a fraction of what we make.
[00:25:26] There are people around the world just as good as we are, and they don't live nearly as well as we do.
[00:25:33] The blessings of the Lord brings wealth.
[00:25:37] You have what you have because God has blessed you.
[00:25:41] Do you have a heart to hear this? You have what you have because every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no variance.
[00:25:55] God has been consistently good to us. In fact, we don't just have we, we have Generational wealth. In America, it's not uncommon for a family to start below the curve and do well, and then their kids do better and then their grandkids do better.
[00:26:16] This God has been phenomenally good to America. God has caused America to prosper in ways beyond what we have any right to expect. And it's not just been one generation, it's been multi generational.
[00:26:31] Some of you can tell a story about parents and grandparents who came and started with nothing. And now you are living an upper middle class life because God has blessed America with generational wealth.
[00:26:47] The second thing we can learn from this is God pays attention to how we use our wealth.
[00:26:53] If you think God isn't paying attention, if you think God only pays attention when you do, when you break one of the ten Commandments, you misunderstand God.
[00:27:04] God is efficient.
[00:27:08] God is paying attention. And how we use our wealth captures God's attention.
[00:27:15] When David used his wealth in a way that pleased God, God brought more blessings and more blessings and more blessings.
[00:27:23] When Rehoboam used his wealth simply to indulge his own broken character, God brought discipline.
[00:27:33] Every one of us need to know that how we use our wealth reveals something about our heart.
[00:27:40] In fact, I would like you to do a little self check.
[00:27:45] For who and for what do you sacrifice?
[00:27:49] See, we all make sacrifices.
[00:27:52] Every single person in this room has made a sacrifice. But I want to know for whom are you sacrificing? And and for what are you sacrificing?
[00:28:02] A hundred years ago, Sharon and I went to college together.
[00:28:08] We worked our way through college.
[00:28:13] We made big sacrifices to get through college.
[00:28:19] I can remember eating oatmeal for supper many, many times.
[00:28:24] All right, okay, but that sacrifice. I had a faith in the future. I believed if I got a good education, I would have the opportunity to do things I couldn't otherwise do. Do you see? It was a sacrifice that was based on faith.
[00:28:40] I want to ask you for whom and for what are you sacrificing?
[00:28:47] Specifically, I would like to say the sacrifices you've made in your life for other things, how do they compare to the sacrifices you've made in your life for God?
[00:28:59] The sacrifices you've made to do other things, how do they compare to the sacrifices you've made because of your loyalty and love and faith in God?
[00:29:11] The third thing, wealth used wisely improves the quality of life.
[00:29:20] Everything got better around David because he used his wife. Wealth better.
[00:29:25] Everything got worse around Rehoboam because he used his wealth foolishly. You see how if you use Your wealth wisely. Everything around you gets better.
[00:29:40] One of the leading causes of family fights is we don't use our money wisely. And. And we end up sitting at the kitchen table arguing and fighting about money. Nothing gets better. Church.
[00:29:52] Church.
[00:29:56] We have a class, Dave Ramsey's Wealth University. And if you'd like to take that class, you can sign up for it here. All right.
[00:30:07] You see, wealth is a tool.
[00:30:12] It's not an end in itself. Wealth is a tool that lets me do with my life the things that are meaningful and the things that I want to do. If I use that tool wisely, I build a better life. If I use that tool poorly, I don't.
[00:30:33] 4.
[00:30:35] Wealth misused bring sorrow and poverty.
[00:30:39] No one ever found satisfaction through self indulgence.
[00:30:44] Is there anyone here that's experienced life enough to know that you can't self indulge yourself in dissatisfaction?
[00:30:56] You know what happens?
[00:30:59] It always wants more.
[00:31:02] It always wants more. The more I try to satisfy what is broken in me, the more broken it becomes.
[00:31:11] You see, you don't just get a little bit angry and then it goes away. The more you let yourself be angry, the more angry you get.
[00:31:23] Angry doesn't go, I'm satisfied. You were just a little bit angry. That's not how it works. It says, more, I want to be more angry. A little resentment doesn't get. Doesn't stop. It wants to resent more. You give yourself more and more reasons why you should resent. Do you see?
[00:31:42] Selfishness never leads to satisfaction. It never satisfies you.
[00:31:49] 5.
[00:31:51] God creates a better future through generosity.
[00:31:56] The unholy One manipulates the future through self indulgence.
[00:32:01] You see, this is all about something bigger than us.
[00:32:05] This is about this idea that I can't predict the future.
[00:32:10] But with God, I can create the future.
[00:32:14] Do you see?
[00:32:16] I cannot predict the future. But if I work with God, I can create the future.
[00:32:24] Some of you don't know, but there was a time when we bought this land. It was just an open field and the pond was about twice as big as it now it was. Now it was just. It was just an open field.
[00:32:38] It had a bad driveway. And we'd come here and pray and people would get stuck and.
[00:32:43] Okay, there was a time when none of this was here.
[00:32:50] And we created a future with God because we did what God asked us to do. Because we made the sacrifices he asked us to make. We. We created the future. We created the world you're living in. Do you hear that? All right, I'm not done this church shouldn't be done. There is another generation, that there is another future to be created.
[00:33:16] And the adventure of faith is about doing what we have done to get ourselves here so that God can continue to favor this church and this church can create another future with him.
[00:33:31] The world is going to be what it is 100 years from now. And we can have an impact on that or we can miss our opportunity.
[00:33:41] All right, please listen to this.
[00:33:44] God creates a better future through generosity.
[00:33:49] But at the very same time, the unholy one manipulates the future with self indulgence.
[00:33:57] I'm going to tell you exactly what the unholy one says.
[00:34:02] You deserve.
[00:34:04] You deserve.
[00:34:06] Look what they have. You deserve the same thing.
[00:34:11] Have you heard him say that to you? Has he whispered that to you?
[00:34:14] Why do they have that and you don't have that?
[00:34:17] All right.
[00:34:20] You will not be a player in God's future by being self indulgent.
[00:34:27] Can I just tell you that I've read the Bible through so many times. I know nobody ever became a player in God creating the future by being self indulgent.
[00:34:38] But the Bible is full of examples of people who became mighty in God and did mighty things with God and created a future. And they did it through sacrifice.
[00:34:49] Do you hear this in this campaign?
[00:34:53] This is basically what I'm asking you to do before June the first. I'm asking you to pray and see if God would speak to your heart.
[00:35:04] I'm asking you to let the Holy Spirit whisper to you.
[00:35:09] I've never.
[00:35:12] He's never failed to whisper to me when I've been serious and talk to him.
[00:35:17] Then I'm asking you to give exactly what he whispers to your heart. To give not a penny more. Do you hear this? If he doesn't whisper to your heart and ask you for a thing, don't give anything.
[00:35:27] But if he whispers to your heart, don't let the unholy one manipulate you out of being God's partner in creating the future.
[00:35:36] Now, I want to be a little more specific.
[00:35:41] I'm asking some of you who know God to pray about making the biggest charitable contribution you've ever made in your life.
[00:35:53] I don't want to. I'm not trying to do something small church. I'm trying to do something that makes the future in which God is glorified.
[00:36:01] I'm trying to do something that makes a difference in the world. And you can't do that on pennies and dimes. Do you hear me?
[00:36:09] God has blessed us. And let's ask him to whisper to our heart and see if he might give us the faith to do the most significant charitable gift we've ever given in our whole life.
[00:36:22] And then in faith, let's see with what God does with it all. Can you hear me, Church?
[00:36:29] All right, this is my. My. Okay, I. I look at one pledge card, my own.
[00:36:39] That's the only pledge. I don't look at the pledge cards. Those go to the finance office, and it all gets totaled, and all I get is totals. So I. I'm not comparing myself to you. I'm not asking you to compare yourself to me. I'm asking all of us to have a spiritual moment in which we by faith seek God and we follow the examples left to us in Scripture and we do something significant that God uses to create a future that otherwise would not have happened.
[00:37:11] Will you say amen?
[00:37:14] Our dear Heavenly Father, I pray that your spirit would whisper to us as only you can.
[00:37:21] I pray that we could hear the truth of scripture and it would be more powerful than the manipulative lies of the unholy one.
[00:37:33] I pray that we would each have an inner desire to do something significant with our God, to make a lasting difference, to be part of what you're doing, to create a future where souls will be saved. Christians will grow into maturity. Children will be taught the way of the Lord.
[00:37:53] And I ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
