1 CHRONICLES 22 BUILD A MAGNIFICENT TEMPLE2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Chronicles 22 Build A Magnificent Temple

As we look at 1 Chronicles chapter 22 this morning, we are looking at a portion where David is preparing everything that's necessary so that his son Solomon can build a glorious temple for the Lord. And he's preparing everything that's necessary for the Lord.

And as he makes these preparations, there's some things that God wants to highlight for us to help us understand a little bit more about how God wants us to be in the life that he wants us to have. And the exhortation that I'd like to share with you this morning is for you to build a magnificent temple. That's the exhortation that David is giving to his son Solomon. As he's making these preparations, in verse 5, he says...

He, my son, is young and inexperienced, but the work that he's called to do, the temple that he's called to build is, well, it needs to be exceedingly magnificent. Not just magnificent, not just a little bit magnificent, but over and abounding in magnificence.

And so it's a huge work, and Solomon's young and inexperienced. And so David says, I need to make some preparations to help kind of fill the gap and help him be able to accomplish this great temple that he has been called to build. Now, as we consider the things here in 1 Chronicles chapter 22 this morning, I believe that there's some parallels for us to consider as believers in Jesus Christ today.

That even as Solomon was called to build a temple back in his day and during his reign, you and I have been called to build a temple as well. It's not a physical temple like Solomon was building, but a spiritual temple. And in fact, that spiritual temple is us.

I want to take a moment and just have you consider with me 1 Corinthians 3. So keep a bulletin or something there in 1 Chronicles 22. And would you turn to 1 Corinthians 3 for a moment to consider some of the words from the Apostle Paul talking about us being the temple of God. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul the Apostle is writing to the church of Corinth. And he says in verse 11,

He says, Verse 14.

If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Verse 16, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?

Here in 1 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul is explaining to the church at Corinth that you are the temple of God. And there's a work that needs to happen for this temple of God. And if you build on this foundation, he says the foundation is laid, it's Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the foundation for spiritual life. He is the foundation for the temple of God. And if you build on this foundation with good materials like gold and silver, these precious things that have eternal value, he says, then you will have great reward. The things that endure, the things that last, that survive the testing at the end of days, those things will last and you will have reward.

But if you build your life, if you build the temple of God with lesser things, and so you invest your time and you invest your energy in things that don't have eternal value, those things will burn, he says, and you'll suffer loss. You'll lose that time, that investment, all that was put into those things. He says you'll still be saved, but it's just the loss of those rewards, the loss of that investment of time.

And then he concludes saying, don't you know that you are the temple of God?

And so as he's talking about this building and as he's talking about using good materials, he's saying, look, you are the temple of God. The Holy Spirit dwells within you. And here he's talking to the church and speaking to the church of Corinth as the temple of God. But then also we see in a couple of chapters, in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, he'll refer to the individuals. And he'll say, you, your body is the temple of God as well. And the Holy Spirit dwells within you. And so there's truth to both aspects.

that we are a temple of God as a church, but we also are a temple of God individually, and that the Holy Spirit dwells within us. And our call then is to build on the foundation of Jesus Christ, to build our spiritual lives to be an exceedingly magnificent temple of God, to be a place where the Holy Spirit dwells, to be a place where the presence of God is.

to be a place where we can meet with God and walk with God. And so going back to 1 Chronicles chapter 22, we're going to be looking at these parallels then between the temple and the preparations that were made for the temple for Solomon and the preparations that were made for us by Jesus Christ so that we could have the spiritual life that God has called us to have.

And I would ask you to consider, as you think about the temple and the idea of your spiritual life as you being a temple to God,

Would you describe your spiritual life as exceedingly magnificent, famous, and glorious throughout all countries? Again, in verse 5 of 1 Chronicles chapter 22, that's what David said the temple of God must be. It needs to be awesome. It needs to be amazing. And it needs to be so awesome and amazing that it's known to everyone around, this is a place where God dwells. This is a place where God dwells.

is. And that needs to be true for you and I as believers as well. And so in order for this to happen, David did much to prepare. But also in order for that to happen in your life, Jesus has done much to prepare. All the preparations have been made, and now he hands you the baton and says, all right, take everything I've given to you and build a magnificent temple.

And what does that mean? Does it mean hit the gym? You know, make an awesome body for the Holy Spirit to dwell in? No, no, no. Have an awesome spiritual life. Have a close walk with God. And let me tell you, every Christian has everything that they need to be a magnificent temple of God. You don't have to be a mediocre temple. You don't have to be like a little shack that God dwells in. But you get to have the opportunity and you have everything you need to be an exceedingly magnificent temple of God.

That can describe your spiritual life.

I know sometimes we kind of think in backwards terms. We think of things, we get mixed up, and we can think easily, well, you know, great spiritual leaders, they have awesome temples. They have awesome relationship with God. And so, you know, that's why they are doing what they do. And so, you know, we might be tempted to think, well, the pastor of the church has the best relationship with God, you know, compared to all the other people. But you know, that's not the way it works.

You and I have all the same materials provided to us. We have all the same access to God. I don't have an advantage before anybody else. I don't have any advantage in a relationship to God or access to God. You can have access.

In fact, I would encourage you, have a better relationship with God than I do. I'm not saying I'm walking away from the Lord or anything, but I'm just saying that think of it in those terms, that you can have a rich and full and meaningful and excellent and glorious relationship with God. The same connection to God as Billy Graham, the same connection to God as Pastor Chuck, at least in his lifetime. He has a better connection now because he's there.

But when he was here, he had the same opportunities, the same provisions, the same capability that you have. Yes, we all have different callings, and God works in our lives in different ways. But our relationship with God, David says, it must be awesome, exceedingly magnificent, glorious, and famous in all the countries. And so how do we...

build ourselves into a temple? How do we build our spiritual walk so that we have this kind of relationship with God and it becomes this well-known? Well, we want to walk through the preparations that David made for Solomon here in chapter 22 and compare that to the preparations that Christ has made for us. And so we're going to start out in verses 1 through 5 with point number 1, and that is that David provided nails, wood, and bronze. Check out verse 1 and 2.

It says,

We see here in verse 1 and 2 that David picks the place where the temple is going to be built. This is the land that he just bought from Ornan in the previous chapter. He bought the land in order to be able to sacrifice to the Lord. And then something happens and he recognizes, he realizes this is the spot for the temple of God.

And so it was that plot there on Mount Moriah where God wanted to put his name and he wanted this to be the permanent dwelling place for his presence there in the temple in the midst of the nation of Israel. And so David recognizes this. The Lord speaks to him about this piece of land. He says, this is the spot. This is the place to build the temple.

Then in verse 3 and 4 it says, And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails of the doors of the gates and for the joints, and bronze in abundance beyond measure, and cedar trees in abundance for the Sidonians, and those from Tyre brought much cedar wood to David. And so here we get to see the beginning of the preparation that David makes for the temple. And David begins his preparations saying,

with very basic building materials. If you're going to build the temple, well, you're going to need building materials. He's going to provide gold and silver and all the decorative elements later on.

But for the structure, you kind of need the basics. You kind of need some wood and some nails in order to build the temple that God has called them to build. And so this is the beginning of David's preparations. Iron in abundance and cedar wood in abundance, as well as bronze in abundance as well.

And then again in verse 5, David says, So David made abundant preparations before his death.

You can see the heart of David here. David desires for the temple to be famous and glorious throughout all countries. He wants the whole world to know that this is the place where God dwells. So that if they want to meet with God, they want to hear from God, they want to talk to God, they want to hear what God thinks or what God says, they can come to the temple and worship God.

And so his heart, his desire is for God to be glorified through this temple that is to be built. But then he also recognizes, well, my son is young and inexperienced. We don't know exactly how old Solomon was at this time, but the estimates are that he was between the ages of 15 and 25. And so that was, you know, very possibly he was really young. That, that

This task, building the temple, making it exceedingly magnificent, was far beyond Solomon's capability, certainly beyond his experience, because he'd never attempted anything like that before.

And so David begins to prepare the work ahead of time. He tries to get everything ready, tries to think through all the details. We'll see in a couple chapters, David even prepares the plans for Solomon. He has it all laid out. He gives him the blueprints, all the materials necessary. He wants to give him the best opportunity to succeed in this call to build the temple that he's been given.

Well, as we consider this for ourselves today, again, we're going to be looking at the parallels. So David provided nails and wood and bronze, but Christ has provided for you to build the temple as well. And his provision is a little bit different, not quite material, but using the same materials, Christ has provided us the cross. Think about it. Nails, wood, and bronze. It's a perfect fit.

for what Christ has done for us. Because of course, Jesus died upon, well, the cross, hanging from wood, fastened to that wood by nails.

And so these nails and the wood, of course, it calls to mention, it calls to mind the work that Christ did for us upon the cross, where he went to the cross to die upon the cross for our sin, for our penalty, receiving the penalty and the punishment that we deserve. And that's where the image of bronze comes into the picture.

Because, of course, as you look throughout the scriptures, it's clear that bronze is a picture. It's a symbol of judgment throughout the scriptures. Now, here it says in verse 3 that David provided bronze in abundance beyond measure.

And as you think about the wood and the nails and Jesus there being fastened to the cross, that's exactly what he experienced. Judgment in abundance beyond measure. And this is the beginning of David's preparations for the temple. It's the beginning of Jesus's preparations for you to have an awesome relationship with God. It's the cross. It's the cross.

where there he hung upon the cross and received the maximum judgment. He received the maximum judgment for your sin and for my sin. Judgment in abundance beyond measure. The maximum amount of suffering that could ever be potentially suffered, Jesus experienced that. There's nobody who has ever suffered more than Jesus.

Because he received the full payment, the full penalty of sin there upon the cross in our place as a substitute for us. And so here Jesus lays the foundation. Remember in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul said that Jesus is the foundation and nobody else can lay a foundation. That's the foundation. That's what everything is built on. This is what your spiritual life is built on. Because he made the way, he made the opportunity for us to have relationship with God and

By taking the place on the cross, taking our place on the cross and receiving the penalty and the punishment that we deserve. And so now you have the opportunity to build a magnificent temple by believing in Jesus. You have the opportunity to have an awesome relationship with God by believing in Jesus and receiving what he did for you upon the cross.

And so we all have access to the cross. Again, every Christian has everything they need to be a magnificent temple of God. You have this part. You have the first elements here that are being prepared. You have the rest too, but I haven't talked about them yet. So you have everything you need to build the temple of God, to have an awesome walk with God, for it to be excellent and exceedingly magnificent and famous and glorious throughout all countries.

If you will believe in Jesus and what he did for you upon the cross and receive the forgiveness of sins that he offers. Well, we're going to continue on in verses 6 through 10 here at 1 Chronicles chapter 22 and see the next thing that David provided. David provided peace in the land. And that's what we see here in these verses. In verse 6, it says, Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord God of Israel.

And David said to Solomon, my son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house to the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came to me saying, you have shed much blood and have made great wars. You shall not build a house for my name because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. So now we see David begin to interact with his son Solomon.

He calls him into his presence and he gives him a charge. Now, a charge is, you know, it's something serious. It's not just, hey, here's a suggestion or even here's what I'd like you to do. But he's telling Solomon, here's what you must do. God wants you to do this. This is your calling. Build a house for the Lord God of Israel.

And he explains to Solomon, I know that this is your charge. I know that this is God's command to you because, well, I wanted to build the house. I wanted to build the temple.

And I thought about it. I thought it was a great idea. I consulted with Nathan, the prophet, and he thought it was a great idea too. And so we started to make preparations. But then, if you remember a few chapters back, God spoke to Nathan and he told Nathan, hey, go back and tell David he's not going to be the one to build the temple.

Instead, Solomon, his son, is going to build the temple. He's not going to build my house, but God says, David, I'm going to build you a house. And he gives him there the promise that the Messiah will come from the line of David. And so David knows at that point, God has spoken. Solomon is to build the house.

But here he gives us a little bit of insight in verse 8 that we don't have in the other portions. And that is that God says, here's why, David, you are not to build the house of God. You're not to build the temple because you have shed much blood and have made great wars. And so therefore, you shall not build a house for my name. It's interesting to consider. David wants to build the temple. He wants to glorify God's name. But God says no.

And why does God say no? Well, it says that it's because he's shed much blood. It caused me to wonder, but what was wrong with the blood that David shed? If you think about it and you go look through the life of David, you can see that many times David is inquiring of the Lord as he's headed to battle. And God's telling him, here's when to go to battle. Here's not when to go to battle. When you go to battle, here's the tactics to use. Here's how to have victory. Here's how to have victory.

It's not really an issue with the wars of David that is being referred to here. It's not that David's wars were ungodly or sinful. Here's what David Guzik says about it. He says,

And so it wasn't that the wars were wrong, but it's that God wanted a different context for the house of God. And I believe also that God is here painting a picture for us that David could not build the house because he was a man who shed blood and it was the son who came after him who was in a time of peace and rest and quietness who was able to build the house. And that paints a picture for us of

I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, though. So let's look at verse 9. He says,

And so God says, you can't build it, David. Your son's going to build it. And here's the characteristics of Solomon's reign. It's going to be a reign of peace, rest, and quietness. And then God says, that's why his name is Solomon, which the name Solomon means peaceful. And so Solomon's life and his reign is to be characterized by these things, peace and rest and quietness. But

The thing to consider here is where did that peace come from? How was Solomon able to have peace during his reign to be able to build the temple? And I would suggest to you, it goes back to verse eight. It was the wars of David that gave Solomon peace. David defeated all the surrounding enemies. He brought all the enemies of Israel into subjection. And so now they pay tribute to Israel. They're servants of the nation Israel.

And so Solomon is able to endure and have a reign of peace because of the victories that were won by his father, David. And because he has this peace, God says, that's the context I want for the temple, for the house of God, that it's to be built from the midst of peace and rest and quietness.

Verse 10 goes on to say, he shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. And so God says, Solomon's the man, and I'm going to be his father. He's going to be my son. We're going to have a unique and special relationship, and I will establish his throne. And so David provided peace in the land. The peace that Solomon enjoyed was won by the battles of David.

Now, as we consider that for ourselves today, of course, there's a good parallel here between David and Jesus. David provided peace in the land. Jesus provides a different kind of peace, and that is peace with God. It's the best kind of peace, actually. There's no greater peace than peace with God. But consider the parallel. David shed much blood.

in order to accomplish this peace for Solomon. In a similar way, Jesus Christ shed his own blood in order for you to have peace with God. David made great wars and had victory. And Jesus, he fought a great battle. It wasn't a battle of armies. It was a battle against sin and death. And he had the victory. He conquered sin and death there at the cross.

And so Jesus here has a victory. He shed his own blood so that we could have lives characterized by peace and rest and quietness. Paul tells us in Romans 5, verse 1, Here is Paul is declaring to us the gospel in the book of Romans. In chapter 5, he says,

We have peace with God because we've been justified by faith. And the word justified, it means to be made right with God, that we have a standing with God as if we had never sinned. And by faith in Jesus Christ, by believing in Jesus, we have this standing with God where he relates to us as if we had never sinned. And so what that means then is that we have peace with God. Now, prior to this, we didn't have peace with God because we had never sinned.

We stood before God as those who were deserving judgment. And so there wasn't peace because we deserved the penalty for our sin. But by believing in Jesus, we have the standing with God now that he relates to us as if we've never sinned. And so there's peace. And this is really amazing.

As Jesus has accomplished this kind of peace for us, he conquered sin and death. He gave us this most important peace. Now, world peace would be awesome, but it's not the most important kind of peace. And peace between individuals is good and it's beautiful, but it's not the most important kind of peace. And peace in the sense of absence of personal troubles, of course, we would all love that as well.

But we don't really experience that very often in this life. And that's not the most important kind of peace. Even if we had perfect lives, it wouldn't mean anything if we didn't have peace with God. This is the most important thing because this is the reality that affects eternity. Peace with God is what we need to have in order to have eternity with God. And so you have been justified by faith.

Jesus Christ has fought the wars. He's fought the battle. He's got the victory so that you can have peace with God. And it's in that context of peace that God desires for his temple to be built. And so again, I want to encourage you this morning to build a magnificent temple. That is, have an awesome relationship with God. Every Christian has everything that they need to be a magnificent temple of God.

because of what Christ has accomplished for us in providing peace with God. It gives you the opportunity then to live in the presence of God. Never waste another second wondering if God's out to get you. I'm sure you've wasted plenty of time. You spent plenty of time wondering, man, is God out to get me? I mean, look at what's going on. Look how I feel. Look at all this. Look at that. Look at this.

Maybe God's out to get me. Maybe God's upset with me. Maybe God doesn't love me. Maybe God doesn't care about me. Maybe God, hey, you don't have to waste another second wondering about any of that stuff. You have peace with God by faith in Jesus Christ. There is no animosity. There is no anger. There is no punishment. There is no judgment that God has for you any longer as a believer in Jesus Christ.

Now, if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, if you've not given your life to him and been born again, that's a different story. Then you're not at peace with God. But you can have peace by accepting what Jesus did for you upon the cross, by believing in Jesus. And when you believe in Jesus, he provides peace with God. Now, this is important too, because even as believers, I'm sure I speak not just for myself, but for many of us, we've wasted time.

minutes, hours, weeks, sometimes years, avoiding God because of our failures, because of our sin. We hold ourselves back from really engaging with God. We hold ourselves back from really experiencing his presence, really entering into that time of worship with him, really engaging in the word of God, really hearing from him and seeking him and pursuing him. We hold ourselves back because of our own failures. Fearful. Fearful.

Knowing how terrible it is, the things that we've done. Knowing how terrible it is, the condition of our hearts. And we hold ourselves back. But here's the important thing to understand with this. Jesus has provided peace with God. And you don't have to hold yourself back from the presence of God. Because you stand before him as one who has never sinned by faith in Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we hold ourselves back from the presence of God. Like, you know, we put ourselves on time out. I got to put some distance between that failure and now so that then I can go into the presence of God. That then I can experience the blessings of God and seek him and know him and hear from him. But God doesn't place those limitations. He's not putting those boundaries.

We impose them on ourselves to our own detriment and we stay away from the one who can heal us. We stay away from the one who can speak to us. Listen, build a magnificent temple. Have an awesome relationship with God because you have peace with God and you don't have to wait 10 minutes or 10 days or 10 months or 10 years to be able to go back in and enjoy the presence of God after a failure. You don't even have to wait 10 seconds to

You get back into the presence of God. You get back to seeking the Lord. You have peace with God. You don't need to run from him. You don't need to flee from his presence. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you have peace with God and you can build an exceedingly magnificent temple by living in his presence. Think about the temple. That was the standout feature of the temple.

Oh, sure, they had the altar. You know, they had the lampstand. They had all the different furnishings of the temple. But the thing that made the temple the temple, the presence of God was there. And that's the characteristic that we should have. We can have all the furnishings. Look, I've got a Bible. You know, I've got a Christian bumper sticker. I got a Christian t-shirt. I got that stuff. I got all the furnishings. But if we don't have the presence of God, well, you know, we're just looking good or looking Christian. But

But for us to have an awesome relationship with God, for us to be an exceedingly magnificent temple, we need to live in the presence of God. We need to be seeking God and spending time with him. We need to be inviting him into every aspect of our lives, consulting him in every decision that we make and just allowing him to fill us, to consume us, to be the key feature of our hearts and lives. The presence of God is there.

Well, going on into verses 11 through 14, here we have point number three, and that is that David provided all the materials.

So again, we look at Jesus. He provided for us the cross. We can look at Jesus that he provided peace with God. And now looking back at David, before we look at the parallel to Jesus, David provided all the materials that Solomon would need for building the temple. In verse 11, he says, now my son, may the Lord be with you and may you prosper and build the house of the Lord your God as he has said to you.

And so here, David encourages Solomon to build the temple, and he's kind of praying out loud to him. He's saying, here's what I'm praying for you. May the Lord be with you. May you prosper and build the house that God has set before you. Verse 12.

Only may the Lord give you wisdom and understanding and give you charge concerning Israel that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then you will prosper if you take care to fulfill the statutes and judgments with which the Lord charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear nor be dismayed. So David continues to encourage Solomon to obey the Lord and

That God would give him wisdom and understanding as he walked with God in the word of God. He says, keep the law of the Lord your God. Pay attention to the word of God. Keep the statutes. Keep the instruction. And you will be blessed. And you'll have all that you need to lead this nation. Then verse 14.

And so here David describes...

The resources, the wealth that he has amassed, that he's gathered together, that he's handing over to Solomon so that he has everything that he needs to build the temple. And the numbers here that David is giving are amazing.

incredibly massive. In fact, they're so large that it causes some scholars to kind of wonder and question, is this, you know, as it appears, maybe there's some differences here, maybe there's some misunderstanding about what these numbers mean. Because 100,000 talents of gold are

Typically, a talent would be measured at equivalent to 80 pounds for us. So at 100,000, that's about 8 million pounds of gold.

which if you're not familiar with these kinds of things, that's a lot of gold. 8 million pounds of gold. It would be worth about $103 billion at today's value. So that is quite a bit of gold. And then a million talents of silver would be basically the equivalent of 80 million pounds of silver, which would be about $13 billion in value today. Now, a couple chapters later in 1 Chronicles 29-30,

There's some other numbers that are mentioned regarding the gold and the silver that David gave and the people or the leaders of Israel gave, and it's a lesser amount. And so there's some discussion between scholars, you know, well, maybe the talent here is a different kind of talent or, you know, whatever. But I'm not worried about all the details, okay? The point isn't this exact number. Here's the point. There's mounds, mountains of supplies that are prepared for Solomon, okay?

In 1 Chronicles chapter 29, the lesser amount of gold is still 640,000 pounds of gold. It's still a huge, massive amount of gold. The silver that is mentioned is still over a million pounds of silver there in 1 Chronicles chapter 29. And then he goes on to talk about here in verse 14, the bronze and iron, again, beyond measure.

There's so much bronze and iron. You know, it's really not worth the time it would take to measure it all. We could do it. But you know, by the time we got to the end of it, it would have cost us more than it was worth, you know. And so it's just, we're not going to even measure it. There's just too much for us to even worry about. And then also timber and stone. Here's David's point. I've worked really hard to get you all the materials that you will need for the temple.

I kind of wonder, how did they store all of this gold and silver and iron and bronze? I mean, it must have been just huge storehouses. How did they secure this? How did they keep this safe? I don't really know, but he gathered these materials. It was great wealth so that Solomon had everything that he needed to build the temple. Not just to build a building, but

Not just to build a pretty nice or a pretty amazing building, but to build an exceedingly magnificent temple that would be famous and glorious in all countries. And so David provided all the materials. But as we consider the parallel for us, and we look at Jesus Christ and what he has provided for us, it's not material goods that he's provided for us, but Jesus has instead provided every spiritual blessing for

And this is what you need to know as you attempt to build a magnificent temple. Jesus has provided every spiritual blessing for you. As David provided an overwhelming amount of wealth and materials for the work for Solomon. And now we look to Christ, we understand. He hasn't provided like just enough for you to kind of barely scrape by in a spiritual walk. He hasn't provided just enough so that you could just like barely make it by the skin of your teeth in a relationship with God.

He's provided an abundance of everything that you need. The provision of Jesus far exceeds the provision of David, both in amount and in value. He's provided every spiritual blessing. This comes from Ephesians chapter one, verse three, where Paul says, "'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "'who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing "'in the heavenly places in Christ.'"

God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. And those spiritual blessings are found in Christ. They're found in Jesus. You can't have the spiritual blessings that God has for you outside of Christ. You can only receive them as a believer in Jesus Christ. Now, we looked, point number one, at Jesus providing the cross.

And that was Jesus paying for the debt that we owed, the sin that deserved judgment. He received judgment. If you think about it in accounting terms, you know, our account was severely overdrawn, so much so we could never pay it back. It was too far negative. There was nothing that we could do to pay off that debt.

But what Christ did there upon the cross, he received the penalty. He canceled out the debt so that we no longer owe the debt for sin. Again, we have peace with God. But now as we look at Jesus providing every spiritual blessing, again, thinking about it in accounting terms, our account was severely negative. Now it's zeroed out. But now with every spiritual blessing, now our account is maxed out to the other side, that is to the positive side.

That we have all the resources that we need for the life that God has called us to live. All the resources we need to have an exceedingly magnificent relationship with God, we have. All the resources we have to have a relationship with God that's glorious and famous in all countries, we have in Jesus Christ. We have every spiritual blessing. Now, what are these spiritual blessings? Boy, there's a lot that we could talk about.

I would begin by talking about the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples, it's to your benefit that I go away because if I go, then I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit to you. And every believer in Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. This is a huge spiritual blessing because the Holy Spirit dwelling within you does some radical things to your life. Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter five. This is what the Holy Spirit produces in you.

Love and joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The Holy Spirit is developing in you these things, these qualities as he dwells within you. The Holy Spirit also empowers you to do the work of God. The Holy Spirit is an incredible spiritual blessing. But there's others we could consider as well. There's the blessing of being part of the body of Christ. And we'll talk about that more in the final point.

There's the blessings that God has for us in eternity. As it says here in the heavenly places, there's some incredible spiritual blessings that we don't even fully know yet. We don't even have fully described for us because they can't be described for us. The things that God has in store. Eye hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, it hasn't entered into the heart of man what God has in store for those who love him. Every spiritual blessing is given to you by faith in Jesus Christ. You don't have to earn it. You can't try to deserve it. You can't work for it.

It's just given to you because you believe in Jesus. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 3, that God's divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Jesus. He says, look, God gives you everything that you need for this life. Everything that you need to live this life, to live the life that God wants you to live.

to have the relationship with him that he wants you to have. Everything that pertains to life and to godliness, it's given to you through the knowledge of Jesus. I was thinking about the theme verse for this fellowship, Living Water, in John chapter 7, where Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone's thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He's talking about a spiritual thirst. And we come to Jesus initially thirsty.

Because we're thirsty. We have a spiritual thirst. There's a yearning. We know there's a thirst within that we've tried to quench with other things, but it just never works. But Jesus says, I can quench that thirst. But then he says, not only will your thirst be quenched, but then torrents of living water will flow forth from you. Torrents. You're not just going to have a little bit of taste, a little drop of water. If you go to Jesus to have your thirst quenched, you will be satisfied. Satisfied.

you will be more than satisfied. You will then actually be able to bring others to have their thirst quenched. It's torrents of water. And Jesus, it goes on to say in John 7 that he was talking about the Holy Spirit. Here's my point. The torrents of living water, that's every spiritual blessing that's found in Christ Jesus. This is the idea here. In the same way as David amassed an abundance, a huge amount of materials for the temple, Christ has provided for you

a huge amount of resources, not just so that you could just barely scrape by. It's not just enough, you know, like you spend your last dollar, you're broke, but then you make it to heaven. You know, he gives you so much spiritual wealth, so much spiritual blessings, so much spiritual strength, so much that you're able to have an exceedingly magnificent temple of God or relationship with God. Think about Solomon. So he had all of these materials provided for him.

What did he then need to do? Well, then it was his responsibility to take those materials and put them to work. And in a similar way, Christ has provided for you every spiritual blessing, but now he calls you to build a magnificent temple.

You have every resources that you need to have an awesome and overflowing and abounding relationship with God. But now the baton is passed to you. And he says, okay, now build the temple. Use all that I've provided for you. Use all of these spiritual blessings and build an awesome relationship with God. Build a life that is characterized, that is known by the presence of God. You have everything that you need to be a magnificent temple of God.

Pastor John Corson says, David had given Solomon everything that he would need to build the temple. All Solomon needed to provide was obedience, and the same is true of us. We have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. Our part is simply to obey. This is our part. We must obey. We must receive all that Christ has done for us. And so he's provided for us the Holy Spirit, but then he commands us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Receive the Holy Spirit. Invite God to fill you with his Holy Spirit. He provides for you joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control. It's there. The mounds are just sitting there. And he invites you to receive it, to accept it, to put it to work. If Solomon had ignored all of David's provisions and then went and tried to build the temple, it would have been a sorry temple. And sometimes we try to build our Christian lives that way with our own efforts and resources instead of

Instead of looking to God and all that he has provided for us, build a magnificent temple. Walk with God. Be filled with the Spirit. Invite God to fill every aspect of your life. Be engaged in the Word of God. As David encouraged Solomon here in verses 11 through 13, he said, hey, you need to be in the Word of God. You need to be obeying the statutes. It's there you're going to find access to all of these resources that God has given to you. So receive these spiritual riches.

And walk in them. Well, finally, verses 15 through 19, we have point number four. And that is that David provided people to help. Not only did he give him the goods, the materials, those kinds of things, but he also gave him people who could help him do this work. Verse 15 tells us this. Moreover, there are workmen with you in abundance, woodsmen and stone cutters, and all types of skillful men for every kind of work.

You can see David wanted to make it as easy as possible for Solomon. He didn't want there to be any obstacles, anything to get in the way, any surprises later on down the road. So he gave him all the materials he would need. He gave him the place. Here's the place to build the temple. He gave him the plans. Here's all the diagrams, the blueprints. We'll see that in a couple chapters. All right, Solomon, here's all the details. Here's the plans for it. Here's all the materials for it. And now he says, I've also made some arrangements. And here's all the workers, the

David had already started making connections with the contractors. And he got bids from different contractors and checked out their Yelp reviews and found out, OK, here's some good guys. You can trust them. They're going to be able to help you build this temple to make it exceedingly magnificent. In verse 16, he says, of gold and silver and bronze and iron, there is no limit. Arise and begin working, and the Lord be with you. Again, he's saying, you have everything you need. Here's the guys. Here's all the resources. Here's the people.

arise and begin working. Get to work. I'm passing the baton. I've done all the preparation. I've done, David wanted to build the temple. God said no. So he got to the very edge. He did as much as he possibly could without actually building it. I've done everything for you. Now, just take it and go. Start to build the temple. But there's one more thing that David provided for Solomon. It's found in verses 17 through 19.

David also made sure that the leaders of Israel would be involved. In verse 17, David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon, his son, saying, "'Is not the Lord your God with you? "'And has he not given you rest on every side? "'For he has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, "'and the land is subdued before the Lord "'and before his people.'" Verse 19, "'Now set your heart and your soul "'to seek the Lord your God.'"

Therefore, arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy articles of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the Lord. Here, David stirs up the leaders. And he says, look, guys, this is the task at hand. Set your heart to seek God. He tells the leaders, hey, you guys, set your heart on having a right relationship with God, having an awesome relationship with God. And the way that you're going to do that, you're going to build the temple.

Come alongside my son. Help him build the temple to bring in the Ark of the Covenant, to have the presence of God there, to bring in the holy furnishings, to be able to operate in the way that God has instructed us to. He stirs up the leaders to come alongside Solomon to help him accomplish what God has called him to do. David provided people to help his son. And looking at the parallel for us today, Jesus also provides people to help.

I think this is one that I would ask you to take these things and reflect on them further throughout the week. There's a lot that I'm just kind of like jumping over and skipping over. And I think there's some depth here that God would want to speak to you about your relationship with him. And I think one of the ways that often we're lacking in our spiritual lives is the involvement of other people in our spiritual lives. I think way too often we try to live the Christian life by ourselves, right?

As I've been saying, you have everything that you need to be a magnificent temple of God, to have an awesome relationship with God, but you can't do it alone. You can't accomplish that just all by yourself.

And as David provided co-labors as well as leaders for Solomon, in the same way Jesus has provided co-labors and leaders for you. Consider what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. He says, but now indeed there are many members, yet one body. He's talking about us, many of us. We are all members, but we are one body in Christ.

We are joined together as a body, using the body as a picture for us being united together in Christ. And then he goes on to say in verse 21, and the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Now chapter 12 talks about the body in various forms and looking at it from different angles. But just pulling out this little snippet, here's the point. None of us can look at someone else as a believer in Jesus and say, I don't really need you in my life.

What does that mean? That means I need you in my life. None of us are disconnected from the rest of the members of the body of Christ. We don't survive that way. We're not designed to be that way.

But instead, we're designed to work together as a body. And as you look at this picture of a body, there's all the different members, which all have different functions. And then as we've seen many times, then God also gives gifts, spiritual gifts, supernatural ability for those members to be able to perform the function that God has called them to fulfill. We need all of those members at work. We need to be engaged with those members in our lives. David told Solomon in verse 15,

He says there's the workmen with you for woodsmen, for stonecutters. But then he says all types of skillful men for every kind of work. Listen, God has designed the body of Christ to be filled with people who have different skills and abilities and spiritual gifts so that, well, whatever the kind of work that he wants to be done or whatever kind of work needs to be done, he's provided the resources of people to do the work.

And then considering Ephesians chapter 4, we see also as David stirred up the leaders of Israel to help Solomon. Here we see in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 that Jesus, he himself, gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These are all leadership roles and responsibilities within the church. He says, "...for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

And so in a similar way, as David provided laborers for Solomon and leaders for Solomon, Jesus has provided laborers or co-laborers for you and leaders for you, spiritual authorities in your life. And so you have the resources, you have all the materials, every spiritual blessing, you have the people. But now again, my exhortation to you is to build a magnificent temple.

Now the responsibility is passed to you. You're taking the baton. And Solomon could have tried to build the temple without the help of all those people. And sometimes that's what we attempt to do as well. Every Christian has everything they need to be a magnificent temple of God, but none of us can do it by ourselves. Jesus has provided for you co-laborers and leaders. And how do we receive that?

this blessing, this gift? How do we receive the resources in these people that Jesus has provided for us? It's very simple. Interact. And I really want to encourage you. Interact with the body of Christ. I would ask you to consider, who do you spend time with? Now, consider this beyond your family. Of course, you need to spend time with your family. But you know, you need to spend time with other believers, right?

beyond just your family members. There's co-labors that God has provided for you. You can't have the awesome relationship with God that you're capable of having, that he wants you to have, that's excellent and glorious and famous in all countries, just you by yourself or even just you with your family. You need to have other believers in your life. You need to have fellowship. You need to have deep and meaningful relationships.

And let me suggest five, 10 minutes, you know, before service, after service on a Sunday morning, that's not gonna cut it. That's not gonna be, you know, you're not gonna be co-laboring. You're just gonna be kind of catching up and high-fiving one another. But you're not gonna be able to really work together on spiritual things. There needs to be something more deep and meaningful. You need to talk to each other regularly and be involved in praying for one another, be involved in each other's struggles and victories together.

to work together on things for the glory of God. We need to interact with one another in order to build a magnificent temple. There has to be these kinds of relationships with our co-laborers. But then we also have leaders within the body of Christ. And that's another area I would ask you to consider and reflect on. You know, God has provided leaders for the church. Sometimes we get it backwards in our head. We think God sees, well, that's an awesome leader.

Let me give them a bunch of people for the church. God looks at it the other way. He says, look at all these people. I'm going to give them some leaders. I'm going to give them some people who can come alongside to support, to help, to strengthen. And listen, here at Living Water, man, we're blessed. Seriously, we're blessed with good, godly, solid leaders. We're blessed with pastors. We're blessed with our ministry leaders.

And I know sometimes we can kind of get caught up into this idea that like, you know, those people are busy. They've got a lot to do. You know, I don't want to bug them. I don't want to bother them. Listen, that's what the leaders are here for. Drive them crazy with phone calls. It's okay. Call out, reach out. You need prayer? Listen, don't be afraid. Ask. It doesn't have to be a leader that you ask. I know you understand what I'm saying, but so many times we try to get through our struggles all by ourselves, right?

Instead of asking, instead of crying out, letting other people know where we're at and what's going on. Hey, you need wisdom? Man, we'd love to come alongside you and seek the Lord with you on whatever you might need wisdom for. Are you struggling in an area? We'd love to come alongside and help and pray that you might have victory in your life. Are you doubting and wrestling with the faith? Hey, we've been there too. And we would love to come alongside to help. That's what leaders are for.

And so I want to encourage you to interact with the members of the body of Christ. Interact with one another as co-laborers and leaders so that you can build a magnificent temple. Jesus provides you people to help. He provided the cross, first of all, so that you can have the opportunity to be a temple for God. He purchased you with his own blood, receiving the full penalty and punishment for sin.

He provides you peace with God so that you can live in God's presence, never having to doubt or wonder or consider if God's out to get you, but always having the confidence to enter into his presence with boldness to find grace and mercy to help you in your time of need. You have peace with God. Enter in, walk with him, invite him in, seek him, and pursue him. He provides you every spiritual blessing so that you can walk with him with all the resources that he has provided you. Then he also provides you with people to help.

And so interact with them, engage with them, get to know other believers, let them be part of your spiritual life, share with them what you're learning of the Lord and learning in the Lord and let them help you through struggles and be their support as well as they go through those things as well. That's how we're called to relate to one another. And as we put all these resources to use, all the provision has been made.

Christ has done everything he could and he hands the baton to you and he says, okay, now it's up to you. You can have a feeble, anemic spiritual life where you just kind of barely scrape by or you can receive all these provisions and have an exceedingly magnificent spiritual life that's glorious and famous in all countries. You want to shine the light of Christ? This is how to do it. Have an awesome relationship with God. Let's pray.

God, I pray for each one of us. Lord, that you would help us to build an exceedingly magnificent temple. Help us, God, to walk with you, to know you. Help us, Lord, to have lives that are characterized by your presence, that are known, Lord, by your work in us. And Lord, it comes not from our own strength or resources, but for us looking to you and the provision that you've already given. It's all found in Jesus Christ. And so, Lord, help us to look to you

to trust in you, and to receive all that you have for us. I pray that you'd speak to us, that we might know if there's areas, Lord, that you want to address, areas that you need to correct, where you want us to engage with the provisions that you've given. Lord, help us to hear your voice in those things and then to rely upon you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.