Commanded by Jesus
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· Stop seeing the reality of more churches dying than being born and start dreaming a dream. Not seeing things as they are and say why. But see things as they can be and say why not.
· We're in the middle, as you can tell, of uh what I've been saying is the most important uh and strategic initiative in the history of Cross Church. Uh one that will deepen disciplehip and raise resources for our church planning movement for generations to come. Seldom in our lives are we afforded the opportunity to make a real generational change. But this is one of those moments. And I love the fact that Let's Go is hanging its hat on the great commission. Cross Church, if you are not aware of this, has a reputation of being an evangelistic church. And there is nothing in my opinion more evangelistic than starting new churches and taking new turf with the gospel. In Acts 1:8, uh Jesus commanded us to do just that.
· He says, "After the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall receive power to become my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth." Now, let me just set the scene for you in Acts chapter 1 before we go backwards in the Bible to 1 Chronicles 22. The disciples were down from 12 to 11. They were a shellshocked ragtag small group that had been given the command by Jesus before he ascended into heaven. Now go reach the world. No small task. But they have the promise of the Holy Spirit, the inspiration of the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and all the support of God the Father. And from that small group of followers, they literally wrapped the world with the gospel message. So, let me give you this key thought to get us started today. Let's go is all about fulfilling the great commission by making Jesus known one church at a time.
· Now, if you will, I would like to u take a little personal and pastoral liberty with this message today. Pastor Andrews in California celebrating his anniversary. We don't have to tell him I'm diverting from the message map. All right.
· I I want to veer a little off course and hopefully make it back on the main road before we end today. I I want us to go back to the Old Testament and discover how David prepared himself and others to live at a critical juncture in history in such a way that had a generational change. Last Sunday night, many of you showed up for our let's go advanced commitment party. And those that were there will remember that I shared out of 1 Chronicles 29. But I want to go back a few chapters before that to 1st Chronicles 22. And I want us to read God's word for the first 16 verses. And if you don't mind, could we just stand in reverence to the reading of God's holy word this morning?
· It said, "Then David said, the house of the Lord is to be here and also an altar of burnt offering for Israel." So David gave orders to assemble the aliens living in Israel. And from among them he appointed stone cutters to prepare dress stone for building the house of God. He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings and more bronze than could be weighed. He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted from the Sidonians and Tyans had brought large numbers of them to David. David said, "My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of all the nations."
· So David made extensive preparations before his death. I love that he made extensive preparations before his death.
· He is talking about something that will have a generational impact long after he is gone. Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon, "My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the name of the Lord my God. But the Lord of the but the word of the Lord came to me. You have shed much blood and I have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my name because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son, and I will give him rest from all of his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my name. He will be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish the throne of the kingdom over Israel forever. Now, my son, the Lord be with you. And may you have success and build the house of the Lord your God as he said you would. May the Lord give you discretion and understanding when he puts you in command over Israel, so that we may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then you will have success if you carefully observe the decrees and laws the Lord gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the Lord.
· 100,000 talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone, and you may add to them.
· You have many workmen, stone cutters, masons, and carpenters, as well as men skilled in every kind of work, and gold and silver, and bronze, and iron craftsmen beyond number. Now, begin the work, and the Lord be with you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this wonderful Old Testament example of how we should live our lives in this New Testament reality. May you now bless the preaching and the teaching of your word.
· I pray in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen.
· You may be seated.
· I've wrestled with this for almost a year. Uh the challenge with this let's go initiative and and and we face this let's go challenge is that it is the same challenge that David faced trying to build the temple. Uh the challenge is I'm asking you in this room to consider doing something and contributing to something that you may never fully see or experience.
· to consider making a significant commitment of resources for the sake of others, not ourselves. This is honestly unlike any other capital stewardship campaign that I've ever been a part of or led. Uh most of those kinds of initiatives are focused on specific projects like building the worship building that you're enjoying setting in and worshiping in today.
· Uh almost 14 years ago, I I was being interviewed to become the pastor of what was called at the time Palm Vista Baptist Church and what met in the time in the children's building just across the way. And I knew they had plans to build a building. And uh I asked the search committee as I was contemplating uh the possibility of coming. I asked them, "How serious are you if I come that you will build that building?"
· And one of the dear ladies on the search committee replied, "Preacher, I've given so much money and so much time to this. I just want it built before I die. And by God's grace, within two years of landing here in Surprise, this building was constructed. And by God's grace, she is still alive. Well, let's go is different.
· You may never sit in a new sanctuary that we build. You may never worship in the new churches that we start. But the impact will be greater than any of the building programs specifically related to one local church. David would never see the temple built.
· He would never worship in that temple that he yearned to build. But without David, it would have never happened. And without you, the future of the cross collective of churches will never be fully realized.
· I came across a quote this past week in preparing for this message that sums up the life of David and sums up this Let's Go initiative. It's a quote by a philosopher by the name of a Whitehead and it's on the screen. He says, "The great man is he who plants shade trees that he will never set under."
· The great man and the great woman in this room is he or she who plants shade trees that we will personally never set under. Immediately you know what he means. Such a person is unselfish, visionary, missional, and dedicated.
· Ironically, we're all planting trees in life, whether we know it or not. Some of us are planting bushes and briars more than trees. But today, we have the opportunity to plant mighty oak trees that may years later endure for generations to come. that will provide shade for weary travelers that will follow after us. We're to be bridgeuilders for generations to come.
· The poet said the builder lifted his old gray head. Good friend, in the path I have come, he said, "There followeth after me today, a youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm has been not for me. To that fairhaired youth may a pitfall be. He too must cross in the twilight dim. Good friend, I'm building a bridge for him. Whether we know it or not, we are planting trees we will never set under.
· But truly great men and women are those who deliberately set out to make something possible which they will never personally enjoy. To give of themselves the very best that they have so that others who walk after them will enjoy the blessings of former sacrifices. That's what David did and that's what I'm asking you to do. But to do so deliberately requires certain qualities in our lives that David had in his life.
· To plant trees you will never set under. First of all requires a great dream.
· David said in verse one, "The house of the Lord God is to be here and also the altar of burnt offerings for Israel." He would say in verse 7, he said, "David said to Solomon, my son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the name of the Lord my God." What a dream. What a visionary David in his old age has become. Gone is the early days of David's youth when we first met him in his father's house when the priests came to anoint him to be the one day king. Gone are the days of his adolescent years where he hid from the spears of his predecessor Saul and remained faithful in all of those. Gone are the days of his middle years when he was a robust warrior and fought many battles. Now in his aging years, he still has a dream to do something for a generation of people that he will never personally know. David had a dream of building a great house of God. It was a dream for a big house with lots and lots of room. In this day and time, the reality was historically was that the people lived in cedar houses, nice cedar homes, and enjoyed a high standard of living.
· Meanwhile, while the people had a house, God only had a tent. To David, it was inconsistent that God should have no house while his people lived in affluence. I'm sure today that God still must look with disfavor upon a people who spend their best on their own creature comforts while bringing their second best to God.
· God forgive us when we can afford multiple homes, nice the nicest cars, country club memberships, and extravagant vacations and give only what is left over for the kingdom work. The problem with many of us is that we have stopped dreaming of great things and replaced it with mere creature comforts. We have lost the capacity of fantasy and dreaming and never escaped the present moment of our lives. In the Old Testament, they dreamed of the coming messianic age. In the New Testament, they looked forward to the coming of the Lord. And without fear in Acts 18, they marched out to conquer the world by starting churches all over Asia Minor in an effort to reach as many people as possible before his return.
· Can I say as we as individuals and as churches need to get off of the treadmill of the present and dream about our tomorrows?
· to dream about tomorrows. We we may never see the impact of this side of eternity.
· George Shaw once said, "Some men see things as they are and say, why?"
· He says, "I dream of things that never were and say, why not?"
· In this Let's Go campaign, we have been bemoning the state of the church in North America. the fact that more churches are closing today than are opening every single year. But I want you to dream a dream with me.
· What if we could change that narrative?
· What if we could be part of the solution?
· What if Cross Church could start 20 plus churches over the next 10 years and lead and train up 20 plus pastors over the next 10 years, not to mention ministry teams that we send out from all of our collective churches to make a difference. Stop seeing the reality of more churches dying than being born. And start dreaming a dream. Not seeing things as they are and say why. But see things as they can be and say why not.
· By God's grace and with your help I believe we can realize that dream. Remember, the world will never be changed by those who say, "Make mine the same." Dare to dream today. Dare to become a part of a movement today because planting trees that others will set under requires a great dream. It also requires sincere humility.
· David would say to his son Solomon, "But this word of the Lord came to me in verse eight, you have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my name because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest.
· And I will give him rest from all of his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon. And I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign." He is the one who will build a house for my name. He will be my son and I will be his father and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.
· Do you sense the great humility David must have had to defer and say there's somebody else that will do the thing that I most want to do. David's wars, no matter how honorable and just, made him unfit for the kind of work of building God's temple. God's temple was not to be built with hands readen by blood. So, the actual building of the temple would be entrusted to his son Solomon, a peacetime king.
· Uh when you think about it, the one who would later build the true temple in heaven, Jesus Christ, is a peacetime king. He is the prince of peace. David in humility knew that he had a part to play, but that others would have a part to play also in the great work of God.
· The fact is is that we are all limited in talents and time. I I have only long so long on this earth and and can do only so much. And so the same is of you. And the person who is interested in only what he or she is capable of doing is limited in size and scope of what they can ultimately accomplish. Paul knew that in the New Testament when he started churches.
· He would say to a divided church at Corenth, uh, I have planted, Apollos has watered, but it was God who gave the increase. You see, we all have a part to play in the kingdom economy. We can all make a difference, but we all must be involved. In this Let's Go initiative, we've been praying for 100% engagement.
· We want everyone who calls Cross Church their church home to be involved in some capacity, believing that when each of us does what we can, then God in return will do what we can't. It's amazing what one person can do who does not care who gets the credit. We are all limited by talent, by circumstances, by resources. I'm often reminded of my own personal limitations.
· This past week, I was in a meeting with some of the most amazing leaders I sat next to in Atlanta, Georgia. A guy to the right of me who pastors this a phenomenal church in Alabama. And to the left of me, a guy who's built this phenomenal network in California. And I'm like, man, these are all like five talent dudes. And here I am with my two talents.
· And that's okay.
· But each of us, when we are willing to do our part and humbly not care who gets the credit, then the sky is the limit. If we're willing to humbly plant trees that we will never set under, there is no limit to what God can do in and through us, his church. Finally, in order to plant trees you may never set under, it requires a sense of priority.
· Notice that spirit in David's heart back in chapter 22 verse two.
· So David gave orders to the assembly, the aliens, aliens living in Israel, and from among them he appointed stone cutters to prepare dress stone for building the house of God. He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings and more bronze than he could weigh. He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted for the Sidonians and Tyrannians had brought large numbers of them to David.
· In these verses, we see the high priority David even though he would not be the one to build the temple. The high priority that David gave to the building of the temple. a a temple that he would never worship in to planting trees that he would never set under. The end of his life was not far off.
· But in perfect submission, he gave up the thought of building the temple and set himself to preparing for something that someone else would build. He gave his energy to that cause. He gave his last great years to that cause. He prepared the nails. He brought the brass.
· He provided the cedar. He collected the silver and the gold. And after his hands could do no more. And after his body was cold. The cause came to fruition. The temple of God rose to the glory of God. After he had departed, the stones were brought from Lebanon. They were hun in quaries conveyed on rafts and placed with humble silence one on another. The cedars of Lebanon were mixed with gold and silver. The tapestry was applied.
· And it was Solomon, not David, who built it and dedicated it with these words, I have built thee a house of habitation, a place for thee to dwell forever and ever. David had effectively built a house he never entered. But he entered a better one, one not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. David had planted a tree he never sat under, but he found the better tree of shade, the tree of God's good pleasure.
· Now, let me draw a straight line from 1st Chronicles 22 back to Acts 18. And if Andrew asked what I preached on this morning, it was Acts 18. We all good?
· Acts 18 says to the ends of the earth, and that is us, and that is now. The work of the church will never be finished until Jesus comes back. And so we have to collectively say and live out this mantra, let's go. Let's go and share our faith. Let's go and be bold in our witness as we preached on last week. Let's go and be filled with his spirit.
· Let's go and be generous with our giving. Let's go and start more and more and more and more and more and more churches. and let's go and take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the world. Let's go and plant trees that we will never set under.
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Let's Go!
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· Stop seeing the reality of more churches dying than being born and start dreaming a dream. Not seeing things as they are and say why. But see things as they can be and say why not.
· We're in the middle, as you can tell, of uh what I've been saying is the most important uh and strategic initiative in the history of Cross Church. Uh one that will deepen disciplehip and raise resources for our church planning movement for generations to come. Seldom in our lives are we afforded the opportunity to make a real generational change. But this is one of those moments. And I love the fact that Let's Go is hanging its hat on the great commission. Cross Church, if you are not aware of this, has a reputation of being an evangelistic church. And there is nothing in my opinion more evangelistic than starting new churches and taking new turf with the gospel. In Acts 1:8, uh Jesus commanded us to do just that.
· He says, "After the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall receive power to become my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth." Now, let me just set the scene for you in Acts chapter 1 before we go backwards in the Bible to 1 Chronicles 22. The disciples were down from 12 to 11. They were a shellshocked ragtag small group that had been given the command by Jesus before he ascended into heaven. Now go reach the world. No small task. But they have the promise of the Holy Spirit, the inspiration of the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and all the support of God the Father. And from that small group of followers, they literally wrapped the world with the gospel message. So, let me give you this key thought to get us started today. Let's go is all about fulfilling the great commission by making Jesus known one church at a time.
· Now, if you will, I would like to u take a little personal and pastoral liberty with this message today. Pastor Andrews in California celebrating his anniversary. We don't have to tell him I'm diverting from the message map. All right.
· I I want to veer a little off course and hopefully make it back on the main road before we end today. I I want us to go back to the Old Testament and discover how David prepared himself and others to live at a critical juncture in history in such a way that had a generational change. Last Sunday night, many of you showed up for our let's go advanced commitment party. And those that were there will remember that I shared out of 1 Chronicles 29. But I want to go back a few chapters before that to 1st Chronicles 22. And I want us to read God's word for the first 16 verses. And if you don't mind, could we just stand in reverence to the reading of God's holy word this morning?
· It said, "Then David said, the house of the Lord is to be here and also an altar of burnt offering for Israel." So David gave orders to assemble the aliens living in Israel. And from among them he appointed stone cutters to prepare dress stone for building the house of God. He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings and more bronze than could be weighed. He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted from the Sidonians and Tyans had brought large numbers of them to David. David said, "My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of all the nations."
· So David made extensive preparations before his death. I love that he made extensive preparations before his death.
· He is talking about something that will have a generational impact long after he is gone. Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon, "My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the name of the Lord my God. But the Lord of the but the word of the Lord came to me. You have shed much blood and I have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my name because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son, and I will give him rest from all of his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my name. He will be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish the throne of the kingdom over Israel forever. Now, my son, the Lord be with you. And may you have success and build the house of the Lord your God as he said you would. May the Lord give you discretion and understanding when he puts you in command over Israel, so that we may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then you will have success if you carefully observe the decrees and laws the Lord gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the Lord.
· 100,000 talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone, and you may add to them.
· You have many workmen, stone cutters, masons, and carpenters, as well as men skilled in every kind of work, and gold and silver, and bronze, and iron craftsmen beyond number. Now, begin the work, and the Lord be with you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this wonderful Old Testament example of how we should live our lives in this New Testament reality. May you now bless the preaching and the teaching of your word.
· I pray in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen.
· You may be seated.
· I've wrestled with this for almost a year. Uh the challenge with this let's go initiative and and and we face this let's go challenge is that it is the same challenge that David faced trying to build the temple. Uh the challenge is I'm asking you in this room to consider doing something and contributing to something that you may never fully see or experience.
· to consider making a significant commitment of resources for the sake of others, not ourselves. This is honestly unlike any other capital stewardship campaign that I've ever been a part of or led. Uh most of those kinds of initiatives are focused on specific projects like building the worship building that you're enjoying setting in and worshiping in today.
· Uh almost 14 years ago, I I was being interviewed to become the pastor of what was called at the time Palm Vista Baptist Church and what met in the time in the children's building just across the way. And I knew they had plans to build a building. And uh I asked the search committee as I was contemplating uh the possibility of coming. I asked them, "How serious are you if I come that you will build that building?"
· And one of the dear ladies on the search committee replied, "Preacher, I've given so much money and so much time to this. I just want it built before I die. And by God's grace, within two years of landing here in Surprise, this building was constructed. And by God's grace, she is still alive. Well, let's go is different.
· You may never sit in a new sanctuary that we build. You may never worship in the new churches that we start. But the impact will be greater than any of the building programs specifically related to one local church. David would never see the temple built.
· He would never worship in that temple that he yearned to build. But without David, it would have never happened. And without you, the future of the cross collective of churches will never be fully realized.
· I came across a quote this past week in preparing for this message that sums up the life of David and sums up this Let's Go initiative. It's a quote by a philosopher by the name of a Whitehead and it's on the screen. He says, "The great man is he who plants shade trees that he will never set under."
· The great man and the great woman in this room is he or she who plants shade trees that we will personally never set under. Immediately you know what he means. Such a person is unselfish, visionary, missional, and dedicated.
· Ironically, we're all planting trees in life, whether we know it or not. Some of us are planting bushes and briars more than trees. But today, we have the opportunity to plant mighty oak trees that may years later endure for generations to come. that will provide shade for weary travelers that will follow after us. We're to be bridgeuilders for generations to come.
· The poet said the builder lifted his old gray head. Good friend, in the path I have come, he said, "There followeth after me today, a youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm has been not for me. To that fairhaired youth may a pitfall be. He too must cross in the twilight dim. Good friend, I'm building a bridge for him. Whether we know it or not, we are planting trees we will never set under.
· But truly great men and women are those who deliberately set out to make something possible which they will never personally enjoy. To give of themselves the very best that they have so that others who walk after them will enjoy the blessings of former sacrifices. That's what David did and that's what I'm asking you to do. But to do so deliberately requires certain qualities in our lives that David had in his life.
· To plant trees you will never set under. First of all requires a great dream.
· David said in verse one, "The house of the Lord God is to be here and also the altar of burnt offerings for Israel." He would say in verse 7, he said, "David said to Solomon, my son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the name of the Lord my God." What a dream. What a visionary David in his old age has become. Gone is the early days of David's youth when we first met him in his father's house when the priests came to anoint him to be the one day king. Gone are the days of his adolescent years where he hid from the spears of his predecessor Saul and remained faithful in all of those. Gone are the days of his middle years when he was a robust warrior and fought many battles. Now in his aging years, he still has a dream to do something for a generation of people that he will never personally know. David had a dream of building a great house of God. It was a dream for a big house with lots and lots of room. In this day and time, the reality was historically was that the people lived in cedar houses, nice cedar homes, and enjoyed a high standard of living.
· Meanwhile, while the people had a house, God only had a tent. To David, it was inconsistent that God should have no house while his people lived in affluence. I'm sure today that God still must look with disfavor upon a people who spend their best on their own creature comforts while bringing their second best to God.
· God forgive us when we can afford multiple homes, nice the nicest cars, country club memberships, and extravagant vacations and give only what is left over for the kingdom work. The problem with many of us is that we have stopped dreaming of great things and replaced it with mere creature comforts. We have lost the capacity of fantasy and dreaming and never escaped the present moment of our lives. In the Old Testament, they dreamed of the coming messianic age. In the New Testament, they looked forward to the coming of the Lord. And without fear in Acts 18, they marched out to conquer the world by starting churches all over Asia Minor in an effort to reach as many people as possible before his return.
· Can I say as we as individuals and as churches need to get off of the treadmill of the present and dream about our tomorrows?
· to dream about tomorrows. We we may never see the impact of this side of eternity.
· George Shaw once said, "Some men see things as they are and say, why?"
· He says, "I dream of things that never were and say, why not?"
· In this Let's Go campaign, we have been bemoning the state of the church in North America. the fact that more churches are closing today than are opening every single year. But I want you to dream a dream with me.
· What if we could change that narrative?
· What if we could be part of the solution?
· What if Cross Church could start 20 plus churches over the next 10 years and lead and train up 20 plus pastors over the next 10 years, not to mention ministry teams that we send out from all of our collective churches to make a difference. Stop seeing the reality of more churches dying than being born. And start dreaming a dream. Not seeing things as they are and say why. But see things as they can be and say why not.
· By God's grace and with your help I believe we can realize that dream. Remember, the world will never be changed by those who say, "Make mine the same." Dare to dream today. Dare to become a part of a movement today because planting trees that others will set under requires a great dream. It also requires sincere humility.
· David would say to his son Solomon, "But this word of the Lord came to me in verse eight, you have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my name because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest.
· And I will give him rest from all of his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon. And I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign." He is the one who will build a house for my name. He will be my son and I will be his father and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.
· Do you sense the great humility David must have had to defer and say there's somebody else that will do the thing that I most want to do. David's wars, no matter how honorable and just, made him unfit for the kind of work of building God's temple. God's temple was not to be built with hands readen by blood. So, the actual building of the temple would be entrusted to his son Solomon, a peacetime king.
· Uh when you think about it, the one who would later build the true temple in heaven, Jesus Christ, is a peacetime king. He is the prince of peace. David in humility knew that he had a part to play, but that others would have a part to play also in the great work of God.
· The fact is is that we are all limited in talents and time. I I have only long so long on this earth and and can do only so much. And so the same is of you. And the person who is interested in only what he or she is capable of doing is limited in size and scope of what they can ultimately accomplish. Paul knew that in the New Testament when he started churches.
· He would say to a divided church at Corenth, uh, I have planted, Apollos has watered, but it was God who gave the increase. You see, we all have a part to play in the kingdom economy. We can all make a difference, but we all must be involved. In this Let's Go initiative, we've been praying for 100% engagement.
· We want everyone who calls Cross Church their church home to be involved in some capacity, believing that when each of us does what we can, then God in return will do what we can't. It's amazing what one person can do who does not care who gets the credit. We are all limited by talent, by circumstances, by resources. I'm often reminded of my own personal limitations.
· This past week, I was in a meeting with some of the most amazing leaders I sat next to in Atlanta, Georgia. A guy to the right of me who pastors this a phenomenal church in Alabama. And to the left of me, a guy who's built this phenomenal network in California. And I'm like, man, these are all like five talent dudes. And here I am with my two talents.
· And that's okay.
· But each of us, when we are willing to do our part and humbly not care who gets the credit, then the sky is the limit. If we're willing to humbly plant trees that we will never set under, there is no limit to what God can do in and through us, his church. Finally, in order to plant trees you may never set under, it requires a sense of priority.
· Notice that spirit in David's heart back in chapter 22 verse two.
· So David gave orders to the assembly, the aliens, aliens living in Israel, and from among them he appointed stone cutters to prepare dress stone for building the house of God. He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings and more bronze than he could weigh. He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted for the Sidonians and Tyrannians had brought large numbers of them to David.
· In these verses, we see the high priority David even though he would not be the one to build the temple. The high priority that David gave to the building of the temple. a a temple that he would never worship in to planting trees that he would never set under. The end of his life was not far off.
· But in perfect submission, he gave up the thought of building the temple and set himself to preparing for something that someone else would build. He gave his energy to that cause. He gave his last great years to that cause. He prepared the nails. He brought the brass.
· He provided the cedar. He collected the silver and the gold. And after his hands could do no more. And after his body was cold. The cause came to fruition. The temple of God rose to the glory of God. After he had departed, the stones were brought from Lebanon. They were hun in quaries conveyed on rafts and placed with humble silence one on another. The cedars of Lebanon were mixed with gold and silver. The tapestry was applied.
· And it was Solomon, not David, who built it and dedicated it with these words, I have built thee a house of habitation, a place for thee to dwell forever and ever. David had effectively built a house he never entered. But he entered a better one, one not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. David had planted a tree he never sat under, but he found the better tree of shade, the tree of God's good pleasure.
· Now, let me draw a straight line from 1st Chronicles 22 back to Acts 18. And if Andrew asked what I preached on this morning, it was Acts 18. We all good?
· Acts 18 says to the ends of the earth, and that is us, and that is now. The work of the church will never be finished until Jesus comes back. And so we have to collectively say and live out this mantra, let's go. Let's go and share our faith. Let's go and be bold in our witness as we preached on last week. Let's go and be filled with his spirit.
· Let's go and be generous with our giving. Let's go and start more and more and more and more and more and more churches. and let's go and take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the world. Let's go and plant trees that we will never set under.
More from this series
Let's Go!