“All that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours”


Sermon by David Strain on November 1, 2020 1 Chronicles 29:1-22

Well today, as you have heard, is our annual stewardship and commitment Sunday and so we are pausing in our ongoing series looking at the theme of “Awakening” and “Revival” to consider the message of the passage chosen by the stewardship committee as we reflect on our duty as Christians to give generously in support of the work of the Gospel. The stewardship verse itself, printed in the bulletin on the panel dedicated to this stewardship challenge, is 1 Chronicles 29:11 – “All that is in heaven and in earth is yours.” And we’re going to focus not so much on this verse in isolation, but on the teaching of the chapter that surrounds it so we can see something of its context and grasp its larger message.

So do please take your own Bibles in hand and turn with me to 1 Chronicles chapter 29. It is also printed in the bulletins. As you may know, the book of 1 and 2 Chronicles covers much of the same historical ground that’s covered in the books of Samuel and Kings, although these two books do so from a unique theological perspective. Chronicles was penned after the return of the people of Judah from their exile in Babylon. That’s why in the order of the Hebrew Bible, unlike in our English Bibles, the two books of Chronicles comes at the very end of the Hebrew Scriptures. They tell an often tragic, always instructive story of God’s people from the time of King David through to the decree of Cyrus, the emperor of Persia, that allowed the Jews to return back to their homeland. And so in our passage this morning, the author is looking back, actually, some 500 years or so, all the way back to King David’s reign just before the construction of the first temple under Solomon, David’s son.

And we get little reminders of the historical vantage point of the author even in the text, for example in verse 7, where the chronicler is talking about the sums of money and gold and so on given to the temple work. He uses a word that’s really anachronistic that comes from his own time but was not used in David’s time. He talks about 10,000 darics of silver. That’s a Persian word from the time of Cyrus the Persian emperor when the people went back to their homeland. So you get to see the historical situation from which the chronicler is writing. And so he’s looking back from the time that he lived during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, when the second temple was under construction. And he’s looking back in this chapter to this earlier period when the first temple was being built to help encourage his own generation to engage in that great work with the same sort of generosity and determination and joy that their fathers in the faith had done before them.

And the account is a remarkable description of the radical sacrificial generosity of both David the king and the people who followed him as they gave what was needed for the construction of the temple of the living God. And we’re going to look at it together under three headings. First in verses 1 through 9 we’ll think about the grace of generosity. Their generosity is described to us and so we’ll think about the grace of generosity – what it is and what it looks like. Then secondly, verses 10 through 19, the grounds or the basis of generosity. As King David rehearses for us, the basis upon which his generosity rested in the extraordinary prayer that he prays before the assembly of God’s people. And then finally, 20 through 25, the goal of generosity – the construction of the temple of God itself. So that’s the outline. The grace, the grounds, and the goal of generosity. In a moment we’re going to read the Scriptures together. You have in the bulletin the first twenty verses of the chapter; we’re going to pick up the reading in verse 10. Before we do that, let’s bow our heads as we pray once more. Let us pray.

O God, open our eyes; open our hearts. Make them receptive. Incline our wills. Awaken our appetite for Your glory. Teach us again to prize Jesus Christ, the pearl of great price, more than any of the shiny bobbles and trinkets of this world. For we ask it all in Jesus’ name, amen.

1 Chronicles chapter 29, beginning at verse 10. This is the Word of God:

“Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: ‘Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

‘But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you. O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you. Grant to Solomon my son a whole heart that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, performing all, and that he may build the palace for which I have made provision.’”

Amen. And we praise the Lord that He has spoken to us in His holy, inerrant Word.

The Grace of Generosity  

In the first half of the 19th century and especially for the ten years prior to 1843, a conflict had been raging within the Church of Scotland. The state, you see, had refused to allow local congregations the right to elect and call their own pastors. Instead, the state had granted that right to impose a minister to a local patron, sometimes the crown, usually a member of the landed gentry. Understandably, the state was reluctant to relinquish that power mainly because the ability to impose a moderate minister upon the congregation who would not incite the people to religious fervor was viewed as a mechanism of social control. Nevertheless, despite the best efforts of the moderate party in the church, God brought remarkable spiritual awakening and warm evangelical Calvinism grew rapidly.

But their best efforts notwithstanding, after years of protest, finally the government rejected decisively every request from the evangelicals in the church to be set free from state interference. And so in response, about 450 ministers, led by the mighty Thomas Chalmers, marched out of the general assembly hall of the national church of Scotland in 1843 to establish a new Presbyterian and reformed denomination unencumbered by state interference – the Church of Scotland Free, or the Free Church of Scotland as it’s known today.

And we need to understand, I think, the cost that was involved in that heroic action. These men and the bulk of their congregations that followed them, left everything – their salaries, their pensions, their homes, their church buildings. All these, you see, had been provided by the government or by the local patrons. They were controlled by the national church. And so large congregations now had to worship outdoors. And if you’ve ever been to Scotland, you will know that gathering outdoors for worship, especially in the winter, would not at all have been a pleasant experience. Ministers who had been well respected members of the upper echelons of polite society in those days now found themselves, along with their families, impoverished in a single stroke. In some cases, they were persecuted, even hounded out of their communities by the local land owner.

Nevertheless, perhaps unsurprisingly as you think about their heroism, God blessed these godly men wonderfully and the people flocked to hear them. Their courage in leaving the security of sometimes quite affluent circumstances silenced scoffers and impressed everyone with their faith and their commitment. And soon, new waves of revival began to grip entire sections of the country. And yet, the situation the new denomination found itself in was dire. Hundreds of pastors and their families had to be cared for. Buildings had to be purchased or constructed for growing congregations. Provision had to be made for the training of future generations of men for Gospel ministry. And the Free Church had left all its assets, all its resources behind when it left the Church of Scotland. It was penniless. And unlike the Church of Scotland at the time, the Free Church could not count on government assistance, so Thomas Chalmers and the other leaders called upon the people to give. And he knew when he was asking them, he was asking some of the poorest people in the country to contribute. But he went on to speak about “the power of littles; the power of littles,” reminding them that nothing that they gave, howsoever small or apparently insignificant would ever go to waste. God would bless the sacrificial generosity of the people and multiply the meager five loaves and two fishes that they had until there was more than enough. And sure enough, within thirty years they had built 700 new churches, 400 manses for their ministers, 500 parochial schools, missionaries were sent all over the world fully funded, and the work of the Gospel prospered extraordinarily.

I said earlier that we are taking a break from our studies in revival to concentrate on stewardship Sunday, but that’s really only partially true. There is, as the story of the Free Church of Scotland’s founding reminds us, a real connection between the work of God in the revival of the church and the generosity of her members. And it’s vital that we understand the nature of that connection. It’s not that giving results in revival, the reason we do not see revival today has nothing to do with how well resourced we are and, “If only we had a bit more money things would change.” That’s not it at all. No, the relationship in fact is exactly the reverse. We do not give to create revival. God gives revival, and by the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit one of the great marks of it, one of the evidences of spiritual renewal in the life of the church is radical, sacrificial generosity.

In 1 Chronicles 29 we have an example, actually, of that very thing happening. We see the pattern, that pattern working itself out in the life of the people of Israel at the end of the reign of King David. God had called David to make provision for the construction of the temple. You will remember that since Moses led the people from bondage in Egypt the center of Israelite worship had been the tabernacle, sort of a tent where the priests served the sacrifices were made. And now, God is going to order the construction of a permanent temple in Jerusalem. And David will have to gather the materials for his son, Solomon, who would eventually build it. And in the opening nine verses of 1 Chronicles 29, the chronicler tells us about how David went about it all.

And here then, in the first place, we have a marvelous picture of the grace of generosity. The grace of generosity, verses 1 through 9. You’ll notice David tells the people in verse 2 that he has raised a vast sum for the temple. “I have provided for the house of my God so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting, antimony, colored stones, all sorts of precious stones and marble.” And then verse 3 adds, in addition to the resources that he has gathered, he has also donated from his own personal wealth. Verse 3, “Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God I give it to the house of my God.” And then he issues his challenge to the people. Verse 5, “Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the Lord?”

Now just think with me about how David gave. Notice he gave “as he was able,” verse 3. He gave “out of his own resources,” verse 4. He gave “generously and sacrificially” and he gave as an act of devotion to God. He did it “because of my devotion to the house of my God.” And notice when he challenges the people to join him in his example he frames the challenge in precisely those same terms. Do you see that? He doesn’t try to guilt-trip them. This isn’t an exercise in manipulation. What does he say? Verse 5, “Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself to the Lord?” So in David’s view, any gift the people gave was a token; it was an outward pledge of a deeper gift they were to make. It was an act of personal consecration to the Lord. That’s why it didn’t come in the form of a tax. He’s the king. He could have levied a tax. He didn’t extort it from them at the point of a sword. It was to be offered willingly. When it comes to the service of God and the promotion of His kingdom, by our giving we are to do our duty with a willing and cheerful heart.

And in all of this, David was leading by example. Wasn’t he? He didn’t ask them to do what he was not willing to do himself. And as they saw their king give, the people follow suit. Verses 6 through 9, “Then the leaders of the fathers’ houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, and the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king’s work. They gave for the service of the house of God 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze and 100,000 talents of iron. And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord, in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly.” Radical, sacrificial generosity as a token and pledge of personal consecration to the Lord with a whole heart.

And what was the result? Not regret, but joy. The people rejoiced because they had given willingly with a whole heart. The king also rejoiced greatly. Joy is the invariable fruit of radical sacrificial generosity. Now why is that? What’s the connection? When you give sacrificially and generously and it results in joy. How come? Jesus helps us understand that, I think, in Matthew 6:21 when He reminds us that, “where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.” Your heart follows your treasure. What you really treasure captures your heart. What you invest most deeply in is what you love most of all. And so your bank account – think about it like this – your bank account is a commentary on your loves. Your monthly financial statements are a record of what you worship. Your lifestyle is a projection out to the world of what you value most of all. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And the people here, together with the king, gave sacrificially and it became to them an act of personal consecration. They gave to the Lord because He was their true treasure, you see; not their personal wealth.

Now that’s the question, isn’t it? What is your true treasure? What does your giving reveal about what you love and serve and value most? Our text is inviting us to stop and to engage in an act of renewed, personal consecration. It’s inviting us to come back to the Lord and to signal that return by the way that we give. It’s the grace of generosity.

The Grounds of Generosity  

But then secondly, notice the grounds of David’s generosity and the generosity of the people. Where does it come from? What’s it’s basis? Look at verses 10 through 19 at his remarkable prayer. He dwells, first of all in this prayer, on the glory of God; on God’s glory. Who He is; what He’s like. Verses 10 and 11. “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.” That’s our stewardship verse there, by the way, and I love that that’s our stewardship verse because it is not a verse about how we need to give, but it’s a verse about how God already owns everything and therefore, He deserves our praise. What it does is lift our gaze from ourselves to fix our eyes on Him.

And these words, I hope, of David’s prayer here should sound somewhat familiar to us. They almost certainly are the basis for the closing doxology commonly used at the end of the Lord’s Prayer – “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever, amen.” David is reminding himself and his people, he’s reminding us that God the Lord reigns. King David, Israel’s greatest king, confesses here the real kingship of God under whose mastery even he lives. And until we really grasp that, until we understand that we are not kings, we are not sovereign, we are not in control, we are not in power, until we really begin to get that at the core of our beings, we’ll never understand the real nature of sacrifice. Because if we are kings in our own private kingdoms, we will tell ourselves we deserve the highest honor. If we are kings, we deserve the highest honor. But when we are brought at last to bow in humility before the living God as the only true sovereign, then we’ve come to confess there is nothing that we have that we would not gladly surrender in His praise, in His service to give Him glory because He is infinitely worthy of all our adoration and our service.

Generosity – can you see the point? – is grounded first of all in a fresh sight of the glory of God. Fill your eyes with who He is, what He’s like, and it will set you free from making an idol of your earthly trinkets until you gladly surrender them for His sake. God’s glory.

Then David dwells, secondly, on God’s grace. Look at verses 12 through 16. “Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own we have given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on earth are like a shadow and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.” The other side of confessing God’s glory is confessing our unworthiness and weakness and dependence. “Who am I and what is my people?” David says. Do you pray like that? It’s the cry of everyone who comes to see themselves as they really are before the throne of almighty God. He is the one who makes great. God is the one who supplies strength. All things come from Him.

And so David realizes, no matter how extravagant the gifts he may have given to the temple project, no matter how extravagant they may appear to us, all they are, in fact, is a return to God of some small portion of what God Himself had already entrusted to him. Do you see that in the text? “Of your own, we have given you.” Verse 16, “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy names comes from your hand and is all your own.” The reason we are so reluctant to part with our money is because we really think it comes from ourselves and belongs to us. Deep down, we really think that. But as the apostle Paul asked the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” Or James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” It’s all a gift, you see. It’s all grace. But if it’s all grace, all gift, your claim on it is no longer absolute. God has claims on you. It all came from Him, from His generosity, and He has every right to claim some of it back from you. It’s His, after all. It’s merely entrusted to you as a stewardship.

And then in verses 17 through 19, David prays for generations to come – first for his own son, Solomon, and then for all the people – that this perspective that they display so beautifully here of radical, sacrificial generosity would continue on by the grace of God. Verses 17 through 19, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their ways, their hearts toward you. Grant to Solomon my son a whole heart that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statues, performing all, that he may build the palace for which I have made provision.”

Do you see the link, the connection, between radical, sacrificial generosity and a life of godliness? He isn’t really praying about money here, is he? What is he praying about? He’s praying about their hearts because he knows that their gift is a token of the consecration of their lives, and that’s what he’s really after. “Keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people and direct their hearts toward you. Grant to Solomon a whole heart that he may keep your commandments.” Here’s the link between revival and stewardship and giving. It’s a matter of the heart, of personal holiness, of consecration, of being given up – whole and entire – to the glory of God. Nothing held back. Nothing kept in reserve.

The Goal of Generosity

The grace of generosity – it is radical, sacrificial, and it results in joy. The grounds of generosity – it flows as a result of seeing again both the glory of God and the wonderful grace of God. Notice, finally, the goal of generosity. And here we need to step back just a little and try to understand the significance of what is happening in 1 Chronicles 29 in the context of salvation history as a whole. What is happening in the story? Well, God’s king sacrificially gives his own riches to build God’s dwelling place and the people follow suit. And in verse 29, the chapter concludes with a coronation with Solomon, the son of David, enthroned in the center of his people.

Now you remember, as I said at the beginning, the chronicler is writing 500 years after these events when the people were busy rebuilding the temple that had been destroyed when the Assyrians and Babylonians had swept through. Clearly he wants his generation to recapture something of this same spirit, this same generosity. And in fact, history tells us they were able to do so. The people gave and gave and a new temple was built. But when the temple foundation at last came to be laid in the days of Ezra, Ezra 3:12 tells us, the older people who could remember the previous temple burst into tears because they knew they had returned in an impoverished condition and there was no way for the glory of this new building to come close to the glory of the temple that Solomon had constructed so long before.

And yet – this is interesting – one of the prophets who was ministering to them in those days, the prophet, Haggai, told them right in the face of their tears, “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former glory.” And they must have laughed in his face. “Look at it! There’s no way! Look at us. Look at how poor we are. There’s no way!” What does Haggai mean? He means one day another King was going to come who would spend all His riches to build the true and final temple of God. This King, as Paul puts it, “though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor that we might become rich.” Christ the King would come and He would be enthroned in glory far surpassing the splendor of Solomon’s coronation. Having given Himself for us, He would sit down at the right hand of the Majesty on high with the name that is above every name.

That’s what Haggai was telling the people of Ezra’s day, the chronicler’s day, as they worked on the construction of a second temple. He meant that when great David’s greater Son came, not Solomon but Jesus Christ, He would, as He said, tear down this temple and in three days build it again. Speaking about His own body and His own resurrection victory. In Him, God would come, John 1:14, and tabernacle, temple, dwell amongst us. “And He would make out of His people a dwelling place for God by His Spirit,” Ephesians 2:22. We would become living stones, built upon Christ the chief cornerstone until a new temple is built, not from bricks and mortar but from redeemed lives, from every tribe and language and nation. And in that day, His people like the people of David’s day, following their king’s lead, will give and serve and labor and build until the church is built and the true temple arises at last complete and hell’s gates not prevail against it.

Here is the real goal now of generosity. Here it is. Here’s what you are giving to when you give. Not a building, not a program. You are building, you are contributing to the building of the cosmic temple dwelling of God enthroned in the hearts of sinners saved by grace. That’s what you’re contributing to. Whenever someone comes to faith in Jesus they are made living stones, built into the temple of the living God. That’s the goal of radical, sacrificial generosity. It’s the extension of the kingdom of Christ that is the building of His dwelling place in the world. That’s why we give, and we ought to have far more enthusiasm and joy for that glorious project than any shown by the people of David’s day or the chronicler’s day for that matter.

So the grace of generosity – radical, sacrificial, joyful. Is that how you give? Consecrating yourself with your gifts to the Lord. The grounds of generosity – see again the greatness of God and the marvelous grace of God and cut the bonds that hold you enslaved to earthly idols and surrender them all. “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also.” Give it all for the glory and honor of God. And the goal of generosity – participation in the cosmic construction project that King Jesus is laboring in – building His Church, that hell’s gates might not prevail.

Let’s pray together.

Our Father, we adore You for the work of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who is building the Church. We see it all around us. Thank You for the opportunity, the invitation, the command to come and participate in that project. O Lord, we are ashamed that the people of David’s day who saw types and shadows only seem to have given with far more joy and sacrifice of heart than we who see the whole story in the wake of the cross and empty tomb ever manage to give. Have mercy on us and forgive us and help us to come back to You in renewed consecration. For Jesus’ sake we pray, amen.

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