1 CHRONICLES 29 GIVE WILLINGLY TO THE LORD2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Chronicles 29 Give Willingly To The Lord

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. Well, this morning as we look at 1 Chronicles 29, we are talking about giving willingly to the Lord. And I want to encourage you this morning to give willingly.

to the Lord. And I know this is everyone's favorite subject, and so you're really excited about, you know, hearing about giving willingly and the importance of being generous. But you know, it is appropriate for us to consider these things as we have just gone through this week of Thanksgiving and had many opportunity to give thanks and to reflect on the things that God has done for us and given to us. But at the same time, now we're heading into December, which is the giving season. And

And so it's a good opportunity for us. This passage is very appropriate and timely for us to reflect on all that God has done and also prepare our hearts to respond to that and to give to Him. Now as we begin to talk about these things and giving willingly to the Lord, I want to start out and just make two things very clear. First of all,

I'm not asking you for money, just to let that be clear, okay? We're not going to take a second offering and, you know, try to get more money out of you after the message and after I make you feel guilty about giving or not giving or whatever. That's not what this is about. In fact, the Apostle Paul, I think, writes it really well in Philippians chapter 4 verse 17. He writes to the Philippians and he says, "...not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account."

There, as he's writing to the church of Philippi, they had sent him some financial support. And so as he's on the mission field, he's ministering, he received their support, and he writes the letter of Philippians back to say thank you. And he says, I want to say thank you, and not so much that I seek the gift. It's not so much that I'm asking for more money or saying send more money, and it's not so much that, you know, I was going to die without the money you sent me. He says, I don't seek the gift, but here's what I get excited about, Paul says. He says, I don't seek the gift, but here's what I get excited about, Paul says.

the fruit that abounds to your account. And because you gave and contributed to the work of the Lord here, you have fruit in your account. That is, you have some rewards that God has laid aside for you as a result of you contributing to the work of the Lord.

And so Paul says to the Philippians, that's what I want for you. I want the fruit in your account. And as I share this exhortation with you this morning, I would share with you the same thing. It's not that I'm trying to ask for more money or trying to manipulate or do anything like that. Here's why I'm sharing these things.

because I desire the best for you. And I want you to benefit for eternity in the things that God wants to do in your life. And so again, it's not that I'm asking for money, and it's not that I'm seeking a gift, but I'm seeking the fruit that would abound to your account as you would be part of the work of the Lord. And so that's the first thing I'd like to make clear. The second thing I'd like to make clear, as I talk about give willingly to the Lord, is

You need to know that I'm not only talking about money. It's not just money that we're talking about here. And so you can't just tune out because, well, I don't have any money, so, you know, that's not appropriate for me. No, as we talk about giving willingly to the Lord, this includes every aspect of who you are and the life that you live. And so I would encourage you this morning to give your money to the Lord. But I want you to know that I'm not only talking about money.

But I would also encourage you to give your holiness to the Lord. That is to give yourself to the Lord in a way that you choose to do what's right. And you choose to keep yourself from sin as an offering to the Lord. And you would say, Lord, I'm willingly denying my flesh. I'm willingly dying to myself. I'm willingly turning away from sin to follow you because I want to give myself to you in holiness, in purity. And

And so you can give willingly to the Lord your purity, your holiness. But you can also give willingly to the Lord your time. And the way that you spend your time can be an offering to the Lord. And you can be selfish with your time, just like you can be selfish with your money. And you can say, well, I'm going to spend my time the way I want to spend my time and do the things that I want to do. And I'm, you know, going to...

Keep strong and strict control over my time and not be generous with my time. In the same way that you can be stingy with your money and not be generous with your money, you can be stingy with your time. But you can also give willingly to the Lord the time that you have. And you can offer your time to him as an offering and say, Lord, here it is, and use my time the way that you desire.

You could also consider your talents, the abilities that you have, the things that God has just blessed you with, and your abilities to do certain things. Maybe you're really mechanically inclined or digitally inclined, or maybe some other type of ability you have and techniques or whatever that you've learned, and you're really good at something. You can give those willingly to the Lord as well.

and use those things for the glory of God and for the kingdom of God and for the work of God.

And you can be stingy with those things. And you can say, no, I'm only going to play the guitar for me, what makes me money, what advances my career. And when I become famous, then maybe I'll think about using my talent for the Lord. Right, Ronnie? But you can also use that talent for the Lord and give it willingly to the Lord and say, Lord, whatever you want to do with this talent that you've blessed me with, I want to let you do that. And so you can give your talents to the Lord willingly.

your love, your attention. You can give to the Lord willingly, and you can be stingy with your love and your attention, and how much time you invest with God, and how much affection you show towards God. Or you can give it generously to the Lord, your obedience, and on and on and on it could go. And so as we talk about giving willingly to the Lord, again, I want to make it clear, we're not just talking about money. Money, of course, is an important subject. Money is

And it's one that we need to be challenged in and need to be encouraged in. But it's not the only thing that giving is all about. Giving is also about the rest of your life and who you are and what God has given to you.

Now, as we begin to look at this passage here in 1 Chronicles 29, the context of this passage is that David has called together the leaders of Israel and he's charging them to help Solomon build the temple.

In this chapter, he's really kind of passing on the baton to Solomon. Solomon has already been crowned as king, but here at the end of the chapter, they anoint him as king again. They inaugurate him again and say, all right, so now go ahead and lead Solomon. You know, it's your turn. It's your time to reign over Israel.

And as he's encouraging the nation and the leaders of Israel to help Solomon, he's encouraging them specifically to help Solomon in building the temple.

And so David shares with them how much he gave to the work of the temple. He shares with them, you know, not only did he give in the sense of as a nation, you know, he led the victories or he led the battles and won the victories and won treasures as a nation for the work of the temple, and we talked about that a little bit last week, but

But here he's saying, out of my own personal accounts now, I'm giving this much. And it's a big portion of gold and silver and all of these materials that were needed for the temple. And so he shares that with them as an example. And then he calls the leaders to engage as well. He invites them to give.

And so the leaders respond and they begin to give. And as you can see in the earlier parts of chapter 29, they give abundantly. There's an overwhelming amount of gold and silver and other materials that they give as well. And so they give all this precious metals and jewels and such to the work of the temple. But as you look at this chapter, the amount that they gave is not the focus.

The important thing to take note of, and that's what we'll be looking at this morning, is how the people gave to the Lord. That's the emphasis here. That's the thing that the Lord is pointing out in this chapter. In verse 9, it says, And so you can see that how they gave is really important here. They offered willingly.

And that's repeated twice in verse 9. The people rejoiced because they had offered willingly. And with a loyal heart, they offered willingly. This idea of offering willingly, the word is used six times here in this chapter. And the word to offer willingly means to volunteer. It means to do freely, to give freely. Or one definition puts it as uncompelled, free movement of the will.

It's uncompelled. That is, nobody's compelling you to do this. Nobody's forcing you to do this. Nobody's burdening you to do this or pressuring you to do this. But it's just free will. It's just absolute volunteer, absolute choice without any pressure whatsoever.

And so that's the emphasis in this chapter is that they offered willingly to the Lord. They gave willingly. There was no pressure to give. There was no manipulation. There was no, you know, burdens that were placed on them. And David said, you know, you guys better give or else, you know, it wasn't anything like that. It was God.

an invitation to give, and the people volunteered. They signed up and said, yes, yes, I want to be part of that. I want to give to the work of the Lord. And let me tell you, this is the way God always wants giving to be. He always wants our giving to be done willingly.

Without pressure, without regrets, without burden, without you later on going, man, I shouldn't have put so much in the offering. I wish I would have put a little less, because I'd like to go to Jack in the Box right now. And so I wish, he doesn't want anything like that, where you would regret it. But instead, he wants us to have this free will of our hearts, this complete desire, this attitude of willingness, right?

to give unto the Lord. And it's always the way that God wants our giving to be. Earlier in Israel's history, in Exodus chapter 25, verse 2, God tells Moses to make available to the people the opportunity to give for the building of the tabernacle. And so similar to the building of the temple, they were receiving an offering for the materials needed to build it.

And there at that time in Exodus chapter 25 verse 2, God tells Moses, speak to the children of Israel that they bring me an offering from everyone who gives it willingly with his heart, you shall take my offering. God says, all right, receive an offering for the work of the tabernacle. But here's a requirement. It's from everybody who gives it willingly. The implication is if they don't want to give, don't accept the gift because

If they've got a sour look on their face when they bring, you know, the donation, send them away. Tell them, don't even bother giving. It's only for those who really want to give. It's only for those who will volunteer, who will freely give, and who will enjoy giving to the work of the Lord. That's how God wants giving to be.

I like what J. Vernon McGee says about this. He says, my friend, I used to see a motto that read, give till it hurts. That motto may be all right for the world, but it's not God's motto. He says, if it hurts you to give, don't give. And then he says, God wants you to give when it brings joy to your heart and life. Here's the way that God wants you to give. God wants you to give when it brings joy to your heart and life.

And if it hurts you to give, don't give. Now, there is the idea of, you know, a sacrifice to the Lord. And many times when we give to the Lord, it is a sacrifice. But even though it's a sacrifice, even though it costs us something, God says, it's not that it's a sacrifice. It's not that it costs you something that makes it valuable. It's that you choose, that you willingly say, yeah, it costs me something, but I want to give up.

whatever it is that it costs me, so that I can contribute to the work of the Lord and be part of what he's called me to be a part of. And so this is the heart that he wants us to have, a heart that gives to the Lord as it brings joy to our heart and to our life. And if it's bothersome, if it's troublesome, if it's burdensome,

He says, don't give. You're not benefiting anybody because God doesn't need your money. This is about God's work in our hearts. And so as we look at this passage, again, the exhortation is to give willingly to the Lord. And we'll see four points as we work through the remainder of the chapter, the remainder of the passage. Point number one is found in verse 10 and 11. And that is that the Lord is exalted over all.

Now, as we look at these points here and look at David's prayer and praise and response to all of this giving that took place, what we're looking at is how to have the right heart so that we can give willingly to the Lord. We're looking at David's heart really as he announces or summarizes the situation for us. And so what we see, first of all, is that the Lord is exalted over all. In order for you to give willingly to the Lord, you need to, first of all, understand and remember that

that he is exalted over all things, all of creation. Looking at verse 10 and 11 again, it says, therefore, David blessed the Lord before all the assembly. And David said, blessed are you, Lord God of Israel, our father forever and ever.

David here is responding to the work of giving that has just taken place.

He announced to the people that he gave this much to the work of the temple. He invited the people to give. And then they gave an overwhelming amount, an abundance of gold and silver. And so he's there looking at these massive piles of

of gold and silver and those materials that were needed for the temple. But his response is not to say, oh wow, look at all this treasure that we have. Look at, you know, the amazing piles of gold that we have. That's not his response. David's response in verse 10 is to bless the Lord. He blesses the Lord before all the people and says, blessed are you, Lord.

Blessed are you, God of Israel, our father forever and ever. He's recognizing this is a work of God. God has done something special here. And he goes on in verse 11 to say, yours is the greatness. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory. Yours is the victory. Yours is the majesty. David is letting the people know and letting God know, reminding himself even perhaps, God is over everything.

Everything is his. Yours is the greatness. There is no one who compares to the greatness of God. If you talk about greatness, God owns that category. Yours is the power. There's no one who has power like God has power. God owns that category.

He has all power. Yours is the glory. There's no one who can glory before God because God gets all the glory. He deserves all the glory. It's his category. Yours is the victory. You know, there's no one who can beat God. There's never a time where God's going to fail or to lose. He always has the victory and yours is the majesty. There's no one more majestic, more honorable than God.

He owns all these categories. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. He goes on to say, for all that is in heaven and in earth is yours. The reason why God owns these categories, he's the greatest, he's the most powerful, he's the most glorious, he's the victorious, he's the most majestic, is because all things are his. Everything is his. Everything belongs to God because God is the creator of

of all things. What about this pulpit? Yes, this is God's. Oh sure, someone worked really hard to fashion it and make it beautiful. Thanks, Harvey. And it's wonderful, but it belongs to the Lord. And Harvey can't stake any claim and say, hey, I'm the greatness. I mean, he could say that to Elsa and that's okay, but to everybody else, that doesn't work, right? Nobody can stand behind this pulpit and say, all right, I'm the glory.

There's no one who would match with God in greatness or power or glory or victory or majesty as a result of this pulpit. It belongs to God. What about the chair that you're sitting in? You know, no one can sit in that chair and be more glorious than God. And even though we might fool ourselves sometimes and think we're pretty hot stuff, we all belong to God. Now, he says everything in heaven and in earth. So, I mean, whatever you want to think about in heaven and in earth.

All the trees, all of creation, all of the stars, all of the galaxies, it all belongs to God. It's his. He can play marbles with the galaxies if he wants to. That's his. He owns it. He created it. It belongs to him. He ends verse 11 saying, yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over. God is exalted as head over all. There's nothing that doesn't belong to him.

There's nothing outside of his authority. There's nothing outside of his working. God is exalted over all. You might remember that King Nebuchadnezzar had to learn this lesson the hard way. In Daniel chapter 4, we read about the story where Nebuchadnezzar, he was the king of Babylon, and he built Babylon into a glorious kingdom, a glorious empire, and he was pretty impressed with himself. And

He had this tendency to be impressed with himself. And so God warned him and said, hey, you're really proud about what you've done, but you're not recognizing that I'm the Lord of all and I'm the Lord over all. And so he warned him to humble himself, but Nebuchadnezzar didn't heed the warning. And so he's looking at his kingdom one day and he's just impressed with himself. He says, wow, look at this great kingdom, which I have built. Look at these awesome things that I have done.

And so the Lord taught him a lesson and he allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to go insane. And for seven years, he lived as an animal because of this insanity, learning that the Lord reigns on high. And at the end of the chapter, Nebuchadnezzar tells the story and he says, at the end of the time, my sanity returned and I looked up to heaven and I recognized all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing before God.

And God does anything that he wants to, and no one can restrain his hand or say to God, what have you done? He had to learn the hard way that the Lord is exalted over all. He thought he had lots of authority, lots of power, lots of greatness, lots of glory. And God showed him, no, you don't. And that's the reality for all of us. There is no one greater than God. Now, as we think about that in the context of giving willingly to the Lord, here's something to consider.

If the Lord is exalted over all, he is the greatness and the power and the glory, then there is no greater cause to contribute to. There's no greater cause that you can contribute to than to the work of the Lord. And so it's an encouragement to give willingly to the Lord because the Lord is exalted over all. You can give to the goodwill and that will do some good stuff.

You can, you know, give money to the guy on the corner and that's good. And that will do some good stuff. You can help save the dolphins or, you know, whatever you want to contribute to or work for. You can do all of those things. Lots of good stuff to do. But there's no greater cause. There's no greater work than the work of the Lord because the Lord is exalted over all. And so give willingly to the Lord because it's the most important, the greatest cause, right?

The thing that will last for eternity. And again, let me remind you, as I talk about giving willingly to the Lord, I am talking about money. And you should be giving to the Lord in that regard. But we're not only talking about money. Give your holiness money.

to the Lord. Keep yourself pure as an offering to him. Keep yourself in obedience to God as an offering to him. Walk with him and obey him. Honor him by the way that you live and give yourself to the Lord in that way willingly. Give your time to the Lord willingly. There's no greater work that you can invest your time in. There's lots of things that you can spend your time doing.

But there's no greater thing to spend your time doing than to doing the things that God has called you to do, the things that God has set before you. Give your time willingly to the Lord because the Lord is exalted over all. Give your love and attention to the Lord willingly. You can be stingy with your love and attention, but the Lord is exalted over all. And you can invest your love and attention into all kinds of things.

Your family, your work, your hobbies, yourself, the mirror, you know, whatever. But the Lord is the greatest. The Lord is the only one worthy of your love and attention. And so give willingly to the Lord your affection, your love, your devotion, because he is exalted over all. Well, going on in verses 12 through 16, we have point number two, and that is all things are from the Lord.

So not only is the Lord exalted over all, but all things that we have, all things that you are, are from the Lord. Check out verse 12. It says, David goes on to say, Lord, riches and honor come from you.

In other words, if I have wealth, if I have money, if I have resources, those are things that God has given to me. They come from the Lord. But he doesn't just work with those kinds of things. If I have honor, if I have authority, if I have any prestige or influence, well, that comes from God as well because God reigns over all. He says, in your hand is power and might, and it's in you to make great things.

It's God who makes great. If God wanted to take you and make you the emperor of the universe, he could do that. He could do that right now before service is over if he wanted to. He could give you the presidency or he could give you anything because it's in God's hand to make great. He gives riches. He gives honor. He gives authority, influence, everything that we have.

Everything that you have and also everything that you are is from the Lord. The commentator John Gill puts it this way. He says, So you can look at what you have or what you are and think, well, you know, I've worked really hard.

And that's why I have these things. Or I've been really good. And that's why I have these things. Or I'm really smart business-wise. And so I've been able to exchange and invest and work. And that's why I have what I have. And that's why I have riches or honor. That's why I'm great. You could look at yourself and look at what you have and think, this is the product of what I've done. But David is reminding us that is not the case.

Everything that you have and everything that you are is from God. Then verse 13, he says, now therefore, our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name. David takes a moment here to just pause and say, yeah, everything is from God. Everything we have, it's from the Lord. So therefore, Lord, thank you. Thank you. We praise your name because anything good we have in our lives, it's from God.

He's the one who's blessed us. And we've just gone through this week where we've celebrated Thanksgiving. And so again, this passage is incredibly timely for us to remember and continue to say thank you to God for all of his blessings, for all that he does. There's many reasons to be thankful to God. Everything that we have, everything that we are, it's from him. Verse 14, but who am I?

And who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and of your own we have given to you. Here as David goes on now into verse 14, he makes it clear. He's exalted the Lord. The Lord is exalted. He reigns over all, and all things are from him. But then he looks in the other direction at us, and he says, who are we?

I mean, we're looking at the Lord. He is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty. He is the glorious one. But then you look down towards us and, well, who am I and who are my people? When you see the Lord high and lifted up, when you see the Lord and understand that he is exalted over all, it helps to put us in the right perspective and to recognize who am I. And the point here that's being made, that David's making, is that it's a privilege to

to give to the Lord. It's a privilege. Now, now think about it. It would be very easy for them to look at these massive piles of treasure that they've just contributed to the work of the Lord and to think, now God owes us. Look how much we've given. Look how much we've done so that he can have a temple. Boy, he couldn't have an awesome temple without us. You know, we could begin to get real proud about our great contributions.

But David here is putting it back into perspective and reminding us, Lord, it's a privilege to give to you. I'm not worthy to give to the Lord. You know why? Because the reality is I have nothing to give. Again, here in verse 14, he says, for all things come from you and of your own we have given you. As he looks at these piles of treasure that have been given for the temple, he

David is saying, this is all yours. It was all yours to begin with. And then we give it to you and it's still all yours. There's not a coin on that pile that was, well, I earned that. I deserved that. That was mine. No, everything that was given and everything that wasn't given, it belongs to the Lord. He says, all things come from you.

And it's of your own stuff. It's of your own resources that we've given to you. Now, this is pretty amazing. Because if you recognize, if you understand this truth that all things are from the Lord, then you understand that, well, God doesn't owe us anything. You go to work, and you work really hard. And at the end of the week or two weeks or whatever, you get a paycheck. And they're called wages. It's what you are owed. And you are right to demand those wages. You deserve those wages. You work for those wages.

And that's accurate and that's true. And yet in the bigger picture, those are the Lord's wages because it's the Lord who enabled you to work. It's the Lord who gave you breath to have life to work. It's the Lord who gave you the strength to work, the mind capacity to work. It's all the Lord's. You have nothing without the Lord. And so even the things that we earn, that we think we deserve, they're not really ours. Everything is from the Lord.

And the only way for us to give to the Lord is to give to the Lord from his own resources. That's the only way. If you're going to give to the Lord, you're going to give to the Lord his own resources. He goes on to consider our humility in verse 15. He says,

So David continues to consider his own condition, the condition of his people, which also is the condition of us. He says, we are aliens and pilgrims before you. Now, the idea of being aliens is being strangers in a land. And as a stranger in the land, you don't have the rights that citizens have.

This is not a talk about, you know, legal, illegal aliens. We're not talking about U.S. politics, okay? This is talking about when you're a stranger in someone else's nation, you don't have the same rights that the citizens of that nation have. That's the reality all around the world and all throughout history. And so as David says, we are aliens before you, he's saying we don't have any rights. Did you know that you don't have any rights before God?

You don't have any rights before God. God has all the rights because he has all the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty. And you're his. He's your creator. He has all the rights. You're a stranger. You're an alien. You don't have any rights. Not only that, but he says we're pilgrims. Now, pilgrims also could be translated sojourners. The idea here is that you have no land. So not only do you have no rights, but you have no land. You don't have anything to call your own. You don't have anything to call home.

And you might say, well, I purchased this property. I have this home. I have this mortgage. Again, the reality is, in the bigger picture, you're a pilgrim. You don't have any land. You don't have anything that will last in that way. And he goes on to say, all of our fathers are like this too. And so it's always been the case for us as humanity. We have no rights. We have no land. And he says, our days on earth are as a shadow. Now, the point of the shadow is that there's no substance and it doesn't last forever.

It's emptiness. It's worthless. We're shadows here for a moment and then gone with no substance, with nothing that lasts. And so David says, we have no rights. We have no land. We have nothing of substance. And he says at the end of verse 15, and we were without hope. We have no hope of ever having rights or land or something of substance, something that lasts. We're nothing, David recognizes.

It puts us back in our proper perspective. We get consumed with ourselves many times and we forget that we're nothing. But the right heart, when it comes to giving willingly to the Lord, you need to understand, first of all, who you are and where you're at and who God is in comparison to you. And as you look at his greatness and he's exalted over all, and then you turn that picture back and you realize, I'm nothing. I'm nothing.

I have no rights. I have no land. I have nothing of substance. I have no hope without him. I have nothing to offer him except for what he has given to me. Well, then it will help you to have the right heart to give willingly to the Lord. Verse 16, O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name is from your hand and is all your own.

Everything. Again, he's looking at these piles of treasures. All this abundance, it's from you. We can't lay credit or claim to any of this treasure. You gave us this treasure and it's already yours. Even though we're giving it to you now, it's already yours. It was already yours to begin with. And as we give it to you, it's still yours. That's the reality. Everything you have is a gift from God and everything you are is a gift from God.

I like the way the Apostle Paul challenges the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. He says, It's a good question. What do you have that you did not receive? And the reality is, as David has been sharing, nothing. You don't have anything that is of your own doing. Everything that you have is

everything that you are, that's God's gift to you. You didn't earn it. You didn't deserve it. You never will. You never can. It's God's gift to you. Everything you have, everything you are, is what you receive from God. But then he says, here's the challenge. If you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you'd not received it? So you're telling everybody how

Well, they should follow your steps because you found the formula. You found the method. If they do what you did, then they will have what you have because you've figured it out. We boast. We flaunt. We celebrate. We think we're great and we've got it figured out. But if everything that you have, everything that you are is what you received, then, well, don't boast as if it was your own doing.

recognize it's really from the Lord. All things are from the Lord. And as you recognize that all things are from the Lord, it will help you to give willingly to the Lord, to give freely to the Lord, recognizing all this is the Lord's already. I was listening to Pastor Chuck share about this idea, and he was explaining how earlier in his life he would get his paycheck, and he would look at his paycheck, and he would consider, how much of my money am I going to give to the Lord this paycheck? How much of my money am I going to give to the Lord this paycheck?

And he would determine an amount and he would give it to the Lord. And that's good. But then he went on to explain that later he learned to consider it differently, that he would look at his paycheck and consider how much of God's money am I going to spend on myself? He flipped it around. Not how much of my money am I going to give to God, but how much of God's money am I going to use for myself and spend on myself? And that's the right perspective. That's the accurate perspective. Everything you have is

is God's. How much of God's resources are you going to use on yourself? Give willingly to the Lord. And that's talking about your finances? Absolutely. Give your finances to the Lord. But also talking about your time. You know, all the time that you have, it's time that God's given to you. Every breath that you have, it's breath that God's given to you. How are you going to use that? It's a gift. You haven't earned it. You haven't deserved it. But God's blessed you with time.

So give your time willingly to the Lord. It's his. It belongs to him. Give your holiness to the Lord. Your life belongs to the Lord. And yes, you can use it to pursue your own selfish desires, to fulfill the lusts of your flesh, but you're using God's resources to run away from him and rebel against him when you do that. It's much better to give willingly to the Lord and use God's resources in the way that he intends to live a holy life,

to run towards him, to pursue him with all of your heart. Give willingly to the Lord your talents. Use the gifts that God has given to you, the abilities that God has given to you to further his kingdom, to accomplish his work, to do what he desires of you. And yes, you can use your talents selfishly, but as you recognize this is God's gift to you, you understand how wrong it is to take the gift of God and use it in something that is offensive to God.

No, it's much better. It's appropriate to use the gifts that God has given to you to honor the Lord and to bring glory to his name. Well, moving on into verse 17 through 19, here we have point number three, and that is the Lord tests the heart. The Lord tests the heart. Here's what you need to know.

In these things, the Lord is exalted over all, and all things are from the Lord. And so we are to give willingly to the Lord. You can go through all of the motions here. You can replicate what happened in 1 Chronicles chapter 29 and have the great giving of all this treasure and have it be completely selfish, completely fake, have it be completely wrong. Again, it's not about the amount, and it's not about the money.

It's about the how, what the condition of their heart was, and the Lord is testing the heart. David says in verse 17, I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. So as David's looking at this massive mound of treasure that has been given, that's not the same thing that God is looking at. God's not looking at this mound of treasure and thinking, oh, wow, that's impressive.

Because God looks straight through the treasure. He looks straight past that to the heart of the people. He tests the heart. Remember when David was anointed king? The prophet Samuel went to anoint him, and he saw David's oldest brother and said, oh, surely this is the next king. And God rebukes Samuel and says, hey, you're looking on the outside, but I'm not concerned about the outside. I'm concerned about the heart. That's what I'm paying attention to. That's what I'm looking at.

So David was anointed as king because he was a man after God's own heart. God saw his heart and said, that's the king. He's paying attention to the heart, not the external, not the outside. What's really happening within? Is that giving unto the Lord really willingly? Is it really a free volunteer offering? Or is there something else going on?

Jeremiah challenges us in Jeremiah chapter 17. He says, who can know the heart? It's deceitful. It's desperately wicked. We don't know our own hearts. But then God says, I know the heart. I test the heart. I search the mind. God is able to see right to the core of who you are, to see all the motivations, all the thoughts, the real intentions. He tests the heart. You can fool yourself, but you can't fool God. And you can fool your family, but you can't fool God.

but you'll never fool God. You can fool the church, but you will not fool God. I was reading recently about a man named Doug Williams. He has been teaching people for 36 years how to beat a lie detector test. He was a detective for many years, but for the past 36 years, he's taught people how to get around a polygraph test. And here's how he teaches them. Here's how he trains them.

He says, look, there's two kinds of questions in a polygraph test. There's the relevant questions, and then there's the irrelevant questions. That is, there's the question like, where were you, you know, or were you here on this night, on this day, at this time?

And then there's the other questions that's like, is your favorite color red? And the idea between the two questions is to see, as a comparison, how do you handle each one? And so here's what he does. Here's the trick. If you want to know the secret, for the past 36 years, he's taught people how to get around and beat the lie detector test this way. He says, OK, on the relevant questions, the ones that you know are hard, picture yourself at the beach. Think about the waves just kind of like rolling into the shore, just nice and calm.

And then on the easy questions, is red your favorite color? Put yourself in the scariest thing you can imagine. That's the secret. Think about the beach on the hard questions and think about scary things on the easy questions. That's how you beat a lie detector test. I don't know if it works. Apparently, they say he has some success. But listen, even if you can beat a lie detector test, you can't beat God.

He's not measuring your heart rate and your pulse and, you know, how much you sweat and all that kind of stuff. You can't trick him. You can't fake him out by thinking about this or that. You can't. God looks directly at the heart. He sees what's really going on. And there's no escaping the sight of God, the test of your heart by God. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13 tells us,

but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Sometimes this can be quite a chilling verse. All things are naked and open, just laid right open before the Lord. Nothing hidden. He sees every dark detail, every little thing. All things are open before him. And it says that we're going to have to give an account to him.

This is the reality. As you talk about giving willingly to the Lord, you need to understand this is not something you can fake. This is not something you can do and just kind of like pass off as willingly, pass off as something that's good when your heart's not right. God sees the heart. He tests the heart. And David says he takes pleasure in uprightness.

So as we talk about the heart, it's important for us to have an upright heart. That is, that we're being genuine. We're not faking it. We're not trying to, you know, run a scam on the Lord and say, all right, God, here's, you know, my gift to you. And now think that God's indebted to us. Well, you owe me, God, because I gave a good offering. I served really, you know, a lot. I worked really hard for you. And so you owe me. No, it doesn't work that way. There's insincerity in your giving to the Lord if that's the case.

No, you need to have an upright heart. In verse 17, David says, as for me, in the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these. And now with joy, I've seen your people who are present here to offer willingly to you. David says, as for me, yeah, lay me bare. I know you test the heart. And I can testify, my heart's right. I'm genuine in this. David wasn't faking it. He wasn't manipulating the people so that he could have a massive storehouse of treasure. He was genuine. He was genuine.

But that's not always the case. Remember Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5? They gave an offering to the Lord, a large sum of money, but they fell down dead before the Lord because they lied about it. Now again, the issue wasn't the amount, but what they proclaimed to everybody was, well, we sold this piece of property that we had, and now we're giving all the benefits of that to the Lord, when the reality was they gave most of the benefits and just kept a

Now, if they would have announced, we sold this property, and we're giving most of the benefits to the Lord, and we're keeping a little bit for ourself, they would have been fine. No tragedy that day. It was the insincerity. They weren't upright in their heart. They were pretending. And God says, that's not right. And he dealt with it very dramatically. Well, David continues to consider the heart in verse 18. He says, "'O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,'

And so notice David is focused on the heart because the Lord tests the heart. And he says, look, the people have responded. They've given willingly to you. Now he begins to pray. Lord, would you make this a lasting work in their heart?

That it wouldn't just be on this day, they were generous and they gave to the Lord and they wanted to be part of the work of the Lord and they gave themselves willingly. Don't let it just be like a one day thing. But Lord, would you let it last? Would this forever be the intent of their heart? And Lord, would you fix their heart towards you? And so here we see, number one, we need to have an upright heart, but we also need to have a fixed heart.

But having a fixed heart, a heart that's fixed on the Lord is not something that you and I can do on our own. You can't be determined enough to like fix your heart on the Lord, to always be, you know, faithful to the Lord and always have your heart in this attitude. And so what David's doing here is the appropriate thing to do. As God stirs your heart and gives you a willingness to give yourself to him or to give whatever he's put upon your heart to him, then it's appropriate to pray.

And ask God to work in your heart. Lord, let this be the ongoing condition of my heart. Keep me in this place of willingly giving myself to you in this way. And then in verse 19, he says, and give my son Solomon a loyal heart to keep your commandments and your testimonies and your statutes to do all these things and to build the temple for which I have made provision. So he prays for the people, but then he also specifically prays for his son. And he prays that he would have a loyal heart.

to keep the commandments of God and to build the temple that they've been preparing for. Now, Solomon started off pretty well in his life. He started out pretty well. He was walking with the Lord. He was doing well. But later on, his heart was turned away from the Lord. He ended up not having a loyal heart.

Because, well, it tells us as he began to compromise and disregard the instruction and commands of God and multiplied wives to himself, it says that his wives turned his heart from the Lord. And so the way to have a loyal heart, which is important for us to have, is for us to do what David said here, to keep the commandments, to be obedient to the word of God. God tests the heart of

He knows what's really going on within. He tests what's happening internally. He knows the thoughts, the minds, the intentions, the motivations. He tests all of that. He knows exactly what's going on. And in order for you to pass that test,

To have reward in eternity, you need to have an upright heart. You need to make sure you're not faking it. Don't be insincere. Don't give when you don't want to give. Don't give when you're grumpy about it. Whether we're talking about money or time or holiness or whatever, be real, be genuine with the Lord. Have an upright heart and then ask God to fix your heart, to set your heart in that condition that it would always be the intent and thought of your heart to give to God in that way.

But then you also need to make sure you have a loyal heart by being faithful to obey God's word, to listen to what God says in his word and put it into practice in your life. God tests the heart. And so as you give willingly to the Lord, whether it be your money, your time, your talents, your love, your attention, your obedience, present your heart to the Lord. And if it's wrong, present it to the Lord and ask him to change it. Don't run from God because your heart's wrong. No, run to God because your heart's wrong.

and recognize that it's wrong and ask God to change your heart. He will change your heart. He's the only one who can change your heart. Don't wait for your heart to change so that you can come and get right with God and give willingly to the Lord. No, come and give your heart willingly to the Lord right now, testifying it's wrong. Again, the issue with Ananias and Sapphira was that they pretended that this was the full amount, even though it was partial. So don't come to God and pretend my heart's right before you, God.

that's not going to work. He sees right through that. If your heart's not right with God, still come to God. But don't pretend. Don't pretend that you're all in, that you're giving yourself to the Lord wholeheartedly. No, run to God and call out to God and present yourself to God as you are and ask him to change your heart, to fix your heart, to give you a loyal heart that you would be faithful to obey the word of God. Well, finally, verse 20 gives us point number four, and that is bless the Lord.

Here's the response that is called for in verse 20. David said to all the assembly, now bless the Lord your God. So all the assembly blessed the Lord God of their fathers and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord and the King. And so David, in response to this great giving, goes into this time of praise and prayer. And then at the end of it, he calls for the people to respond. And he says, guys, bless the Lord.

And so what did they do? They blessed the Lord and they bowed their heads and they laid themselves down before the Lord and before the king. They responded to David's prayer. They responded to David's praise and gave themselves to the Lord willingly.

David Guzik says, when it came time to bless the Lord, it wasn't enough for the people to have a feeling in their heart. They had to do something to demonstrate their heart towards God. And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord. There had to be action. It wasn't just a feeling. And as I encourage you this morning to give willingly to the Lord, there needs to be some action, not just a feeling. It's time for you to bless the Lord.

To do something about what God is speaking to your heart. And God may be speaking to your heart about your finances and say, hey, I want you to give willingly. Or he might be speaking to your heart about your holiness or your time or your talents or your love and attention, your obedience. He might be speaking to you about a multitude of things. But now he's going to call you to do something about it, to bless the Lord, to respond and not just know that, okay, God wants to do this. But now what are you going to do about it?

And the people in David's day, they responded and they blessed the Lord and they bowed down and worshiped the Lord. And so we want to take the closing time of the service to do that as well. I'll invite Zach to come on up and lead us in a closing song. And I want to encourage you in this time, whatever God is speaking to you about, use this time of worship as an opportunity to bless the Lord, to give yourself willingly to the Lord.

And maybe God's going to be speaking to your heart, and so he's going to prompt you to stand up or to kneel. It's totally appropriate. Respond as God speaks to your heart. Maybe it's not going to be so much outward that God's going to be speaking to your heart about, but maybe it's some commitments that you need to make or conversations that you need to have or things that you need to do. And so use this time to respond to the Lord, to worship him who is exalted over all, recognizing that everything you have is from him.

Not trying to fake it, knowing that he tests the heart. Let's bless the Lord and give ourselves wholeheartedly, willingly, freely, and fully to our God. So let's do that as we worship the Lord together. 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.