1 CHRONICLES 16 SCHEDULE WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Chronicles 16 Schedule What Is Important To You

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 2019. So when I was growing up, I always heard that you can tell who your God is by looking at your checkbook.

If you're old enough, perhaps you might remember that, right? I don't know if that's just a living water thing because that's where I grew up was here, right? But you can tell who your God is by looking at your life.

It didn't apply much when I was a teenager because I didn't really have a checkbook. And then when I did have a checkbook, I never actually put anything in my checkbook. So I just, I took money out of my account, but I never recorded it, you know. So, you know, it always, it was, it made sense. I got the point, but it kind of also, you know, didn't really seem to fit quite right. And I was thinking about that this week. And I was thinking about, you know, for today, you know,

I don't know that there, I still think it's a valid point, but I think there's maybe another component that we could add to that to consider. And I would maybe put it this way. You can tell who your God is by looking at your calendar.

So not just the way that your money is spent and where your money goes. That's not the one indicator of where your heart is. And there's a lot of reasons for why money is spent and used in certain ways in different aspects of our lives. But another component that we need to kind of factor in and consider is

is what does our schedule look like? What does our calendar look like? What do we spend our time on? And that is a really important thing to evaluate as we consider who is our God and are we giving God his due in our lives? I've titled the message this morning, Schedule What is Important to You. And I want to encourage you to be thinking about what is important to you.

talking about priorities. And in talking about what's important and priorities in our lives, of course, we all know what it's like. We are balancing a lot of different things in our lives, aren't we? I mean, and they're all important, right? Of course, we could say there's some, you know, things that aren't important in our lives. But I mean, you have family, and that's important. And you have work, and that's important. You have church, and that's important. You have God, and that's important. And there's all these important things that

And trying to balance those and sort those out and get those things taken care of sometimes can be quite a scramble to try to, you know, make all of those ends meet, so to speak, and to get all of those things accomplished. I like chapter 16 here in 1 Chronicles because here David is essentially saying, we as a nation must make it a priority. We must make a point that

to worship God, to schedule worship of God. And that's what we see unfolding here in the first few verses of chapter 16. Really, a lot of the reading this week was about schedules, scheduling Levites, scheduling priests, scheduling worshipers, scheduling the army, scheduling the servants. You know, there was a lot of schedules all throughout the reading this week, but all of that scheduling, which all is important, began with

this chapter, this passage about scheduling the time to worship God and spend time with God. We need an army. We need supplies. We need people to be working and for commerce to be happening. We know all of that stuff. But first things first, we need to make time and make it a priority to have God at the central place of our lives. And that's really what David is doing here

within this passage. Now, I share this with you because, of course, it's something that God is stirring on my heart, and I also share it with you because, well, I'm sharing it out loud because I need to hear the message.

This is something that the Lord is speaking to me about. And, you know, of course, every message I share, I need to hear. There's not really an exception to that. But I'm particularly aware of it because I've been praying over these things as I look forward into this next season of whatever is in store for me. And for those who haven't heard...

I have accepted that full-time position that I was offered. I shared a little bit about it last week. And so on the 21st of January, I will be starting as a full-time employee. It's going to be weird. I haven't been a full-time employee for like 15 years. I mean, how old are you, Nehemiah? 14. You weren't even born the last time I was working full-time. I mean, it's been...

Maybe my math is wrong. 2004. That's, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, it's kind of, it's going to be a transition, right? I'm expecting this. I've been working on the side freelance, right? And although freelance, the word free is in it, you know, it's not as free as it implies. So I've been working more than 40 hours a week freelance, right?

But my schedule was flexible. And now my schedule is going to be rigid. I don't get to set my schedule. In fact, Kim and I are going to take a quick trip up to visit my family. And we were booking the rental car. And as I was booking the closing date, all of a sudden it hit me. It dawned on me.

I can't return the car at this time. And I looked at Kim, I'm all shocked, like, this is so weird. You're going to have to return the car. I have to work. I can't just go where I want to when I want to. It's going to be different. It's going to take some adjustments, you know, to get used to that. And so as I began to like work through those things and think through those things, I began to think about, okay, I need to start thinking ahead and planning ahead. What's important to me?

And begin now to try to work out some schedule to make sure that, well, my priorities stay in line, even though I won't have as much control and freedom over my schedule, but I do have control and freedom for my schedule regardless of those work hours. And I need to make sure that I make a priority, make a point that

to do what's important to me. And so what is important to me? And I think David gives us some good insights to consider through his example here in chapter 16. And again, I want to encourage you to schedule what's important to you. So three points we'll work through as we look at this passage. The first point is found in verse one, and that is give God a special place in your life.

It's not complicated. It's not anything that we haven't heard before. But it's a good time for me to remember my priorities, to remember what's important, and

And to make sure I'm walking and living that out, it's a good time for you as well. Maybe you don't have the same exact kind of transition ahead of you, but it's a good reminder for us to stop and kind of take note. What is important to me? And does God have a special place in my life in light of that? Looking again at verse one, it says, so they brought the ark of God and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it.

Then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. What's happening here is David has brought the Ark of the Covenant here.

into Jerusalem and given it a special place there in the city, in the kingdom, in his life. He's made a special place for it. Now, the Ark of God was the most important piece of the tabernacle. The rest of the elements of the tabernacle still existed, but they were at Gibeon. They would be brought to Jerusalem when Solomon finished the temple. But for now, David has brought the Ark into Jerusalem.

And God had said of the ark, this is where my presence will dwell. I will meet you there. This is where we are going to really have a relationship as the presence of God was promised there with the ark of the covenant. Now, when God first established the tabernacle and gave them the ark of the covenant, they

If you think back to our days going through Numbers and Exodus and those passages, we can see, and you might be able to kind of picture in your mind, the camp of Israel centered around, circled around, what? What was in the center of the camp of Israel? It was the tabernacle, right?

And depending on how you lay that out, some see it shapes the cross, or maybe they were just encircled. But however the tribes exactly on the outside were laid out, they were all around the tabernacle, and the tabernacle was the central place of their camp. It was for some important reasons, but very clearly demonstrates God is saying, I'm

I belong at the center of this nation. I belong at the center of this people. I belong at the center of your lives. That this is where I belong. This is God's design. He told them to camp and where to lay out and how to be positioned in relationship to the tabernacle, in relationship to the Ark of the Covenant, where his presence would be. He required a special place in their lives.

Now, as the children of Israel went into the promised land, went into the time of the judges, the priorities of the nation were kind of lost. And they went through this cycle of, you know, forgetting about God and wandering away and then coming back in a time of need. And it was just this perpetual cycle of deliverance and oppression and deliverance and oppression. In fact, during the time of the judges, they lost the Ark of the Covenant for a while. It had become, you know, a little bit,

you know, so watered down in their eyes, they thought of it as a good luck charm. And so they took it into battle. They lost the battle to the Philistines. The Philistines had the ark. It finally was returned to them after some time. It wasn't the center of their lives. It was just at somebody's house because they didn't know what to do with it. They didn't know how to have God at the center. They didn't, God didn't have a special place in their nation and in their life any longer. And so they

Then as King Saul comes on the scene, he didn't really do anything to set things right in that regard. He just continued on. He didn't give much attention to God. Everything God told him, you know, he just kind of ignored and did what he wanted. But it wasn't until David who came on the scene. David, the man after God's heart, right? The man who pursued God's heart. Here's what David says. You know what's important to me, David says? We need to put God back in his rightful place.

He needs to have a special place in our nation. We, the nation of Israel, he says, we need to put God at the center of our lives again. Now, he's doing this, you know, on behalf of the nation because it's important to him. But don't get distracted by it like the nation piece of it. Because we collectively are really a reflection of what we individually are.

So for God to have a special place in our lives as a church, let's say, that only happens when God has a special place in our lives individually. So it's something for us to consider. We don't have some, you know, God has a special place in our lives.

as a church, but then individually, you know, God doesn't have that kind of priority. That doesn't work. That makes up a different composition. But here, David is saying he's calling the nation back, not just to have this physical thing in this physical place, but

But we need to put God back where he belongs and esteem him the way that he needs to be esteemed. We need to give him that special place in our lives once again. Pastor David Guzik says, after many years, since the ark was lost in battle, the ark was returned to the center of Israel's national consciousness. The emblem of God's presence and glory was set at its proper place in Israel. They had forgotten about where God belonged.

They had forgotten about the importance of the presence of the Lord. They'd lost that priority. And so, yeah, the ark was still around. If you stopped someone on the street, you know, and asked them how important the ark of the covenant was, they probably would have told you it was important. But that wasn't reflected in the way that they lived. It wasn't the center of their nation. It wasn't the center of their lives. It wasn't taking up a special place for them. It was just, yes, it's important, but

It's over there somewhere at somebody's house, but we don't do anything special around it. We don't do anything special regards to it. It didn't have that place. David says it needs to have that place in our lives. And he is restoring. He's calling people back.

He's saying, let's re-examine our priorities and what's important to us. Let's give God this special place. And so David, remember it was him who conquered Jerusalem because while he had sought the Lord and God said, I'm going to put my name here. So boom, let's take Jerusalem. And then now David sets up a tent specifically for the Ark of the Covenant. Let's give God a special place and

Put the ark there, and then we will be able to meet with God, and he will have this central place, this special place in our lives. And this is a characteristic that we see through many men and women throughout the scriptures, right? I was thinking about Daniel, how he purposed in his heart as he heads into Babylon. He's far away from the ark of the covenant, right? But

But he said, you know, as I go into this new time, this new season of captivity, I've decided here's what's important to me. I will honor the Lord with what I eat.

That's what's important to me, Daniel says. And so he purposed in his heart, he made that priority. He gave God that special place in his life, not, you know, with a physical location, but with his dedication to the Lord. And we see that played out in his commitment to the Lord in times of prayer and, you know, many great examples that we could look at from the life of Daniel.

Jesus puts it this way, though. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Familiar verse to us, but don't let it be so familiar that it loses its meaning. This idea of seeking first, it speaks to us about priority. What's first? What's most important? And not only is it most important in the sense of, you know, ideas or theories, concepts, but

but it's most important in the sense of seeking first. You know, actually, so you could say it's important. I could say it's important, but then what do I actually do? How do I actually live? How does that actually play out in my life? For David, that meant taking the ark out of obscurity and putting it in a central place once again, giving it a special place in his life. For Daniel, it meant

Committing to this specific diet in honor of the Lord and giving God that special place, seeking first the kingdom of God, it's going to perhaps look different in each of our lives. The way that we give God that special place, we all have different schedules and different circumstances and how those priorities are lived out may look different, but it comes back to this place of what's important to you.

Does God have a special place in your life, a place that is worthy of who he is and what he deserves? This morning, as we consider these things, it's a good time to ask, am I seeking God's kingdom first? Is that my priority? Is that priority reflected in the way that I live?

And again, I would suggest you can tell who your God is by looking at your calendar. Maybe some clues are there. Yeah, your checkbook, that's a good one to look at too. But that's not all of it, you know, because perhaps you're just, you know, buying off your time with God and thinking, well, I don't have that much, you know, time with the Lord that I should have, or I'm not giving him that priority, so, you know, let me give extra. Or maybe you do it the other way and you just say, well, I can't give, so I just give extra time. And, you know, it's a combination of both that, you know,

that giving ourselves to the Lord and giving him that priority is something that is important. Now, as we consider this with David, with the Ark of the Covenant there in Jerusalem, I would point this out. David did not get it right on the first try. In chapter 15, we see the Ark of the Covenant, the procession coming in, the celebration and all of that that was going on. But a couple of chapters earlier,

David tried to bring the ark to Jerusalem and failed. Remember, they were taking it on the cart and then Uzzah held out his hand to try to stop the ark from falling over and God struck him and he died. And there was all of this confusion about why did God do this and allow this and we're trying to do something good, right? So there's all this like, well, how did this happen? But

But the point is, David didn't get it right on the first try. He tried to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem. He tried to, you know, restore that priority. And he missed the mark. Didn't quite make it. Later on, he consulted the Lord and tried again. And so I would encourage you with the same. What's important to you, you need to think about what your priorities are. You need to also just kind of give yourself a little bit of grace and say, you know, I may not get it right the first time.

But you better get it right the second time or God's going to strike you down. No, no, no. It's okay. We're not, you know, God's not expecting a perfect type of situation. But consulting God, we can try again and say, Lord, these are important to me. I do believe this is what you have called me to. Put in the arc here, you know, having this type of diet and relationship with you or whatever the case might be.

Giving God that special place in your life, it's going to take some perhaps second and third attempts as you consult the Lord and try to figure out how can I make this work? Again, we do juggle quite a bit of different priorities and things that are, and they're all important. And so how do we get the right balance between those things? We're probably not going to get that on the first try, but we need to make sure that we try. We consult God and try again and try to give him

that special place in our lives. Well, continuing to look here at verse one, but then on into verse three, we get point number two, and that is schedule special times of dedication and fellowship. As we give God that special place in our lives, his proper place in our lives, that's going to include some special times, right?

of giving ourselves to God and fellowship with God. Looking again at verse one, it says, they brought the ark of God, set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Notice here, then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. So as they bring the ark in, it's set up there in this tent, the special place that was given to it. And now they begin to offer sacrifices. And there's two specific kind of sacrifices offered here.

burnt offerings and peace offerings. And these were very different types of sacrifices. A burnt offering was an animal being slaughtered and then being put completely on the altar to be consumed completely. And it pictured that dedication of the worshiper to the Lord.

So if George offers a burnt offering, George is saying, that's me. See that on the altar there, God? And it's just fully consumed, completely, every aspect of it, every piece of it, every part of it, it's all consumed on the altar. George is saying, Lord, that's me. I'm giving myself to you in that way. And I want my life to be given over to you completely, entirely. I'm yours fully. I am devoted to and dedicated to you.

And so it was a consecration offering, a dedication offering of myself. And so in this time, as God is being given that special place in their lives, David initiating, he's saying, come on, let's everybody, let's give ourselves to God.

Let's dedicate ourselves to God. Let's, again, give ourselves over to be used by him for his glory, for his purposes, to be part of his work. Let's point our attention and our focus back on the things of God so that that is what captivates our hearts. And so David here is leading the charge. He's leading the way, helping people to come back to this place of, Lord, I give myself to you completely.

And so there was the burnt offerings that were offered before God. Important offerings. But then there was also the peace offerings. And peace offerings, they're a different kind of sacrifice. It's still an animal. It's still an animal that is slaughtered. But instead of the entire animal going on to the altar, only several key pieces of the animal went on the altar. And that was offered to the Lord. But then...

A portion of that animal was given to the priest who performed the sacrifice, and then the rest, the majority of that animal, was then used by the worshiper for a feast. It's also referred to as a fellowship offering. It's a feast. It's a barbecue. It's a time to enjoy a good meal together and enjoy peace with God and peace with one another. It's

It's a sacrifice that reflects this idea of enjoying and receiving and participating in what God has provided for us. You can kind of see that played out in verses two and three. It says, when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. Then he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins."

So David offers these peace offerings and then he blesses the people in the name of the Lord. He says, God bless you. And as a token of that blessing from God, here is a meal. Have a good meal. Enjoy a good time with your family. He's distributing it to everybody so that they can all participate and partake and enjoy the peace with God and the provision of God and the work of God as they give God this blessing.

rightful place in their lives so the peace offering was for that purpose for that distribution now you know as a family if a family would come to offer a peace offering they would then consume that animal themselves that would be you know a family situation a big feast that they would have in order to have peace with the lord and enjoy their peace with the lord and with one another

It speaks of fellowship. It speaks of our fellowship with God and our fellowship with other believers. And so David here offers these sacrifices, and it's a special time of dedication and fellowship, a great celebration. This was not intended to be, you know, just a one-time thing whenever the Ark of the Covenant is brought into Jerusalem type of thing.

God had established in the calendar for the Jewish people, three times a year, it was required for every male of Israel to go to Jerusalem for three specific feasts.

Now, there was more feasts than the three. So there was more opportunity for them to go and participate in these kinds of celebrations and things. And of course, then they could also come at any time. They would come and offer their sacrifices. But three times a year, God required, you guys have to be here for these feasts, these special times, right?

Where the time is set aside, it's dedicated to God. It's for fellowship. You all have to come back to Jerusalem, right? You're going to be crowded. You're going to be bumping into each other. And it's going to, you know, there's going to be that aspect of it. But it's part of the fellowship. We're going to gather together together.

and we're going to enjoy the work of God and what God is doing and give ourselves over to God and worship God. It's these special times throughout the year. And so three times a year, they were required. Now, as Christians today, we've cut that down to two. Because of grace, you only have to come on Christmas and Easter, right? That's the two times a year. No, but I would encourage you to consider that these three times a year, aside from the other feast days and other times they were invited to come,

It was not a one-day event, but it was several-day feasts, seven-day feasts that they would participate in. And so, you know, you could maybe think about it as 21 days a year might be one way to kind of think about this as you think about special times of dedication and fellowship. There should be in our lives these kinds of opportunities for us to take a few days that are devoted to dedication and fellowship.

And again, this may look a little bit different for us today. It's not the same structure that we have in the Old Testament, but there should be perhaps an equivalent, a type of, a similar type of schedule for us to have some special times of worship with God, fellowship with God, fellowship with one another, celebrations and feasts, as well as times of more somber celebration

Spending time with God in a way of devoting ourselves to him. Now, those kinds of special times happened for Israel because God set the schedule and said, here's your calendar. Here's the feast. Here's the days. This is required. He established those things and required it. And for us today, we don't have that kind of law, right? We don't have that kind of set schedule that God requires of everyone, right?

Although it is the heart of God for us to have something similar, it's up to you. What's important to you? Do you have some special times that you have set aside for dedication of yourself to God? To just remind yourself. You know, there is good reasons for us to just remind ourselves that we kind of, you know,

loose our grip on the anchor sometimes, right? We're like committed and man, you know, God spoke. And then as time goes by, you know, we kind of slip a little bit, we drift a little bit and we need those times to like come back and go, my life belongs to the Lord. And I need to dedicate myself to the Lord. And I need to re, you know, examine and recommit and, and put some things in perspective. And, and we need those special times of devotion and fellowship.

Something for you to consider. Something for you to schedule, perhaps. Something for you to kind of put on the books. And hey, vacation time, I'm going to have to experience what vacation time is. Not for a while, because I got to start accruing it. You know, it's like, this is all so strange for me. It's been so long since I had to work this out. But hey, my vacation time is not just time for, you know, the hammock. My vacation time needs to have some special times of dedication and fellowship. That vacation

that I have some time that's devoted to the Lord in that way and that refreshing and renewing and recharging of my relationship with the Lord and the people that God has placed around me. And so schedule special times of dedication and fellowship. Again, you can tell who your God is by looking at your calendar.

And so there needs to be these feasts, these celebrations for families, you know, and that's something for you to consider as a family. For the congregation, that's things for us to consider as a church. And maybe, you know, some retreats or special events are part of that. I think another element of this is the time of communion. And it's one of the reasons why we have that set aside, you know. It's a special Sunday, one Sunday a month that we partake of communion to celebrate

to remind, refresh, to dedicate ourselves and to fellowship together, partaking of the same bread and the cup together, that we remember, that we were reminded that we're one with the Lord and one with one another. This is something that is essential for our lives. We need these special times of dedication and fellowship with one another and with the Lord. Well, finishing it up in verses four through six, we get point number three, and that is schedule regular times of worship.

Special times of worship are great and they're needed, but we also need to have regular times. That is consistent daily times, perhaps. In verse 4, it goes on to say this, and he, talking about David, appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the God of Israel.

Then he lists these different guys. Asaph, the chief. Next to him, Zechariah. Then Jehiel. Then Shemiramoth. Jehiel, Metathiah, Eliab, Benaiah, and Obed-Edom. Jehiel with stringed instruments and harps. But Asaph made music with cymbals. I didn't want to be there when Asaph was leading worship. Benaiah and Jehaziel, the priests, regularly blew trumpets before the Ark of the Covenant of God. I'd rather be there with the stringed instruments and harps, right? But the cymbals...

That's not a great song, but that's how he worshiped. So great. David brought in the ark. They had this huge celebration, this huge ceremony, all of these great sacrifices. But then he went on to make sure that that wasn't just a one-time event. And then now what David does is he establishes, he appoints, he sets in place these guys who

who will maintain regular times of worship for the nation. Now again, don't get distracted by the concept of the nation and don't think, okay, well, we've appointed George. So, you know, George, you go worship and just do that all the time on our behalf. You know, that's not the picture that God is giving us here. What the idea is, this is important to us. And so David is calling the people back to worship so that anytime people come to the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant is,

there is worship taking place, that there would be regular, ongoing, and consistent because it's important for us as a nation, it's important for us individually. And the only way that we can be those collectively who worship God regularly is, well, when we individually are those who worship God regularly. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says it this way, special times of praise and celebration are good to have.

but you cannot live on these experiences. A satisfying walk with the Lord depends on daily worship of the Lord. A satisfying walk with the Lord depends on daily worship with the Lord. We need those special occasions, those huge feasts and celebrations, those great times, those mountaintop experiences. We need those in our lives, but we can't just live on those alone.

We can't survive spiritually on just those high points, on just those rare occasions or special occasions. We need an ongoing and consistent and diligent life of worship, regular times of worship unto the Lord. Now, what does that look like? What does that consist of? Well, I think it is interesting that these guys, they played different instruments, right?

There wasn't, you know, the formula of, okay, you know, this note, this melody, pray, you know, our Father who art in heaven every time, you know, that's the way, that's the only official, no, no. There was some variety there. Some were stringed instruments and some used harps. And I like how it says in verse six, Benaiah and Jehaziel, they blew the trumpets before the Ark of the Covenant of God. Now,

I don't know if this is accurate, but it kind of just gives me the impression they couldn't play an instrument. So they just, you know, blew the trumpets. It wasn't not like trumpets like we have, right? It was just a horn. They just blew on the horn, you know, before that was their contribution. But they gave what they could in their time of worship. It looked different depending on, you know, who was on deck and who was leading worship at that moment. It was different depending on who it was that was involved. I think that the important things about our regular times of worship is not

a specific instrument or formula, but some important components that are revealed here in verse 4. What should be included in daily worship? Well, he tells us he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel. Commemorate, thank, and praise God. This is what's important for us

the regular times of worship. Not so much the instrument. Maybe you don't play an instrument. That's okay. When we're talking about worship, I'm not actually talking about singing. Even though these guys were singing and playing instruments. And typically when we talk about worship, we're talking about singing and playing instruments. But that is not the entire, you know, element of what worship is. Worship is, well, it's a devotion to God. It's an adoration of God.

And we do that not just in song, but we do that by commemorating God. And we do that by thanking God and we do that by praising God. And so regular times of worship are not necessarily times of music, although it can be, but that's also not required. What's required is, well, that we adore God and worship God and give him the honor that is due his name.

This idea of commemorating God. The word commemorate, it means to remember and to show respect for. To remember and show respect for. I need to have times in my life where I have some scheduled time to stop and remember who God is. Remember what God has done. Where I revere and respect and give honor to the Lord today.

as part of my regular schedule. This word commemorate also can have the idea of making a record. Making a record, right? You have this plaque or whatever, right? That's a commemoration of some event, right? It's let's remember, let's make a record so we don't forget. That's kind of the idea behind it. Charles Spurgeon encouraged those who are listening to him, make an actual record of what God has done so that you can remember as he was talking about this passage.

Another way he encouraged his congregants to commemorate God was to set apart time for meditation on the good things that God has done. There needs to be time in my regular schedule where I have a moment to reflect and to consider on the things that God has done in my life. Charles Spurgeon went on to encourage his people to talk about mercy to other people.

In other words, to share God's work with others. We commemorate God in a variety of ways, but it's about remembering, keeping a record so that we can remember. The psalm that David writes that goes along with this occasion is recorded in the rest of the chapter, and we're not going to get into that at all.

But it's interesting how he, throughout the psalm, does talk about the importance of remembering and he recounts what God has done for them as a nation, as a people. He talks about declaring to the people the things that God has done and

And so he not only, you know, shares these three points about what worship is, but he illustrates it in the song that he puts together for this occasion, that there would be this, we need to stop and reflect and remember who God is and what he's done and give him that glory and that honor that is due to him, to remember and to show respect for God. The second component of regular times of worship is thanking God.

We need to be those who are grateful to God. And at different times in our lives, we may struggle with that in, you know, more than other times in our lives. But if you'll jump down to verse 41 for a moment, I'll just kind of remind you of something here. As it talks about at the end of the chapter there, the execution of this ongoing worship process.

It says in verse 41, talking about the different worshipers, and with them, Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest who were chosen, who were designated by name, to give thanks to the Lord, and then it tells us why. Why? Because his mercy endures forever. If we have nothing else in our life that we can look at and say, God, I'm really grateful for this in my life, we have this in our lives, that we can look at God and say, God, I am thankful. Your mercy endures forever. There is always something

Things in our lives and aspects of our lives that we can look to God and be grateful and be thankful. And there needs to be a regular time on an ongoing, consistent basis of gratitude being expressed. Don't just save it for, you know, November, the last Thursday or the fourth Thursday of November every year. And okay, now I stop and give thanks to God. But to have that be a part of your regular times of worship.

You need to commemorate God, remember who he is and the honor that is due his name and what he has done. And then you need to express your gratitude and say thank you. God is worthy of our thanks and he's worthy of our praise. That's the third component of this regular time of worship, praising God. The word praise, it's the word that we get the word hallelujah from. It's probably been a long time since I mentioned that, but hallelujah is praise.

The Hebrew declaration, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It's a exhortation, hallelujah, to boast about God, to lift up God on high, to praise him, to boast about him. It's similar to thanking God. It goes hand in hand, right? But it's a praise of recognition of all that God is, and it's lifting him up.

And so we need to have these regular times of worship. And again, praise, it can be done in song. That is one way that we praise God. And many of our songs are, you know, the words bring us to that point of, but it's the song itself, the music, you know, it's just an instrument to help us express that praise to God or express that thanks to God or commemorate God. But praise,

But don't feel bad. Don't feel like you have to put on a worship CD. That's not necessarily, maybe that's appropriate and maybe God will lead you in that. But it doesn't necessarily have to be tied to music. You can commemorate God and thank God and praise God regularly and consistently with or without music. And you need to. It's an important part of our lives. Again, as Warren Wiersbe said, a satisfying spiritual life can't be lived on just the high points. But that daily walk regularly

with God. And so David makes sure this wasn't a one-time event just at the inauguration, you know, of this tent for the Ark of the Covenant. But he sets in place these who are dedicated to these things. Now, I think we would probably understand if David was too busy to set these things in order, right? He was like, I got to run a kingdom here. I've got battles to think about. I've got to organize food for everybody and figure out problems. And, you know, I don't have time to organize the regular worship.

but for David, it was, this is important to us. It was a priority. I'm sure there were other things battling for his attention, but this was the priority we need to make sure. And so David sets the schedule. I mean, this is kind of interesting, right? Now it's not David all by himself. If you want to check it out later on in second Chronicles chapter 29, verse 25, it tells us that David had with him the prophet Gad and the prophet Nathan and

And it was the three of them who were putting these schedules together. And then it says it was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. And so this wasn't just David, you know, making stuff up because he wanted it. But this was David seeking the Lord and the Lord saying, here's what I want. Here's the order that I want. Here's what's important. And so David's saying, let's do it. Let's make this happen because this is what God desires. It's what is important. And again, yes, there were other people who wanted David's attention besides David.

Gad and Nathan and the Lord. And, you know, there were other people who would have asked for his time. But David said, no, this is the priority. It's important to me that we don't just worship on this special occasion, but that we go on consistently. And so he worked out the schedule and divided up the teams and, you know, worked those things out because it was important for him to call the nation back to worship.

Christian author C.J. Mahaney says, we make time for what we truly value. We build habits and routines around the things that really matter to us. This is an important principle to understand as we seek to build our lives around the gospel. A cross-centered life is made up of cross-centered days. A life of worship is made up of days of worship.

We need to consider regular times of worship. We need to schedule. We need to make time. There's going to be other things that are battling for that time and attention. But we need to maintain that because of what's important to us, because of the priorities that God has set for us.

Now, all these different guys are scheduled, right? They all have their set time to do worship here at the tabernacle. Let me ask you, do you think it's possible that sometimes the person who is scheduled to lead worship that day didn't feel excited about the task? Absolutely, right? We had to like drag George in here and like sit him up here at the piano. He was like not excited about it. No, I'm just kidding. He was excited about it. But

I'm not excited about it. I've been very honest with that, right? I'm sharing about worship on Wednesday nights. You know, there are times that our worship of God, it's not based on how we feel about it, but it comes back to what's the priority? What's important? You still get up and go to work when you don't feel like it because you have to. It's important. There's, you know, things at stake, right? Well, you may not see the same results right away, but the same thing is true of our spiritual life, right?

There's things at stake. It's important. And if you don't maintain that schedule, you're going to be missing out and things are going to begin to drift, to fade away. There is a real sense of the need for us to fulfill our duty regardless of how we feel about it. Schedule regular times of worship. Again, you can tell who your God is by looking at your calendar. I would ask you to consider, is our God lesser than David's God?

God hasn't changed. He's still deserving of all honor and glory. He still deserves that special place in his people's lives. And God deserves to have some special times that are devoted to just dedicating ourselves to him and fellowship with him and fellowship together. God still has that same place. He still deserves that same kind of relationship with his people. And God still deserves that regular time of worship, that ongoing, consistent worship.

time that is given to God, time that is spent with God. It may take different forms and shapes in each of our lives, but it comes back to what's important to you. What's important to you? There's a lot of things that I might say are important, but you can tell if they're important or not by whether or not I actually do them. It's something for us to consider. We make time for what's important to us. So let's make time. Maybe we need to reevaluate what's important. Maybe we need to reevaluate our priorities. David here sets a good example for us.

You can tell what's important to David. He becomes king. All right, we need to take Jerusalem. That's where God said he's going to put his name. It was important to him. It was first thing on the list. All right, let's set up a tabernacle. Let's bring the Ark of the Covenant in. You know, this is important. We need to put God in the central place of our lives.

He scheduled daily worship. He wrote a song for the occasion. He prepared, and the chapters after this go on to record all the battles and specifically for the preparations for the temple so that the temple would be built. David was working hard to establish the people in a place where they would be focused on God and walking with God. You can see what was important to David by how he lived his life. You can tell who your God is

By looking at your calendar. Now, what if our life doesn't match up? We check our calendar. We look at our checkbook. We look at, you know, these things and our life doesn't match up to the priorities that we know we should have or that we say that we have or that we think we have. What if our priorities don't match up? Well, again, David didn't get it right on the first try either. And so we need to do the example of David. He told the priests and the Levites, you know, we messed up the first time because we didn't consult the Lord.

Now I've consulted the Lord. Here's what the Lord says. Here's how to transport the ark. Here's how to put these things in place. And there's maybe going to be several attempts required. But let's consult the Lord and give it another go. Lord, how do you, these things I believe are important, Lord. How do you want me to apply these things? How do you want me to live this out? We need God's help.

So let's consult the Lord about the things that are important to us and maybe the things that should be important to us. And we'll do that now with a time of prayer. 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.