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First Chronicles, chapter 24. Now, you might think this is ambitious. First Chronicles ends at chapter 29. I'm going to try to tackle the entire rest of the book tonight. Now, I know that sounds ambush ambitious, but here's the reason why I think we can do it. Because a lot of These chapters, particularly 24, 25, 26 and 27, have a long list of names that I'm not going to butcher. So I'm going to save you that you can go home and read them yourselves. And therefore. So we're going to skip a lot of the name reading. And I'm going to highlight kind of from 30,000ft, what these chapters are about. Now, in the middle of chapter 24, we left off last week with the reference to Abijah, one of the priests within the Levitical tribe. And we noted how in Luke chapter one, John the Baptist's father was a descendant of Abijah and he was doing his priestly duty when the angel Gabriel interrupted, interrupted that and announced to him that he and his wife in their old age, were going to give birth to a son, and they were to name him John Yohanan, and that would be John the Baptist. So God continued his legacy of the priesthood down through the time of Christ. And of course, when Christ dies on a cross, he in effect replaces the priesthood because he is our high priest. He ever lives to make intercession for us. So we no longer need another human being to go through in order to get to God. And all the former Catholics said amen, right? You don't need to go through somebody. And sometimes some people not knowing, and they're fresh out of the Catholic Church, they come here to cornerstone. And sometimes people come up to me and call me Father, and I have to correct them like, I ain't your father. And I got three kids and that's the only father I am. But it's good news. Good news. There's one intercessor now, and that's Jesus. And you can go directly to him. You don't have to confess to me, any of you. I really don't want to know it. I have my own garbage anyway. And so, thankfully, we can all take it to Jesus. And he's our intercessor. He is our high priest. Amen. Okay? But in the Old Testament times, this was a necessary function in the temple. And so what David is doing here as the king of Israel is he cannot build the temple of the Lord because his hands have shed blood. We're going to read that tonight. But instead, what he does is he gathers all the resources, he gathers all the supplies, he recruits all the laborers, and then his son will build the temple. But what David also does is he sets up the different people who will be serving in the temple. So he's going to set up the priests, he's going to set up the Levites, he's going to set up the musicians. And it even talks about military divisions here. So take a glance with me at the end of chapter 20. We left off in the middle of chapter 24, but. And if you look in verse 20, and then it just simply says, and the rest of the sons of Levi, colon. And then a bunch of names through the end of the 24th chapter. When you look into chapter 25, you see a subtitle, the musicians. So now David is going to assign among the tribe of Levi, they are the tribe that has been selected by God to serve as priests to attend to the things of God as it relates to the temple. Now, the priests in particular are of the tribe of Levi, and they will perform the sacredotal duties. They will perform the sacrifices and the rituals. But the rest of the tribe of Levi will serve as singers, musicians, worshipers in the house of the Lord. Gatekeepers, we're going to see. They will be responsible for tending to the actual care of the temple. And so David is arranging all of these different responsibilities among these various groups of people. And chapter 25 are the musicians. I'll read just the first verse. Moreover, David and the captains of the army separated for the service. Some of the sons of Asaph, of Heman and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps and stringed instruments and cymbals, and, and the number of the skilled men performing their service was. And then colon. And then you have a bunch of Hebrew names, okay, and then you jump to verse five where it says, and all these were the sons of Heman, the king's seer. You can underline that. What is a seer? We'll talk about it briefly. All these were the sons of Heman, the king's seer, in the words of God to exalt his horn. That was an expression that, that simply meant power and influence. And for God gave he man 14 sons and three daughters. Now, you got to love the name he man, don't you? Because it sounds like he's, you know, an action figure. But it calls, it refers to him as the king's seer. Now, a seer was similar to a prophet, but they were different. In fact, you don't need to turn, but I'll just read a quick verse out of 2nd Chronicles 9, verse 29, where it actually mentions both types. This is 2nd Chronicles 9, 2129. It says now the rest of the Acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the Prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shulamite, and in the visions of Ido the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat. So there's an interesting verse there that's second Chronicles 9:29, where it talks about both a prophet Nathan and a seer Ido. What are the differences? So both prophets and seers in the Old Testament were those that were divinely inspired with some message from God that they communicated to the people. A prophet generally received a message from God, like we would say today in New Testament terms, a word of knowledge. They would be they would get some inspired revelation and they would communicate it to the people. Whereas a seer would receive an inspired vision of some kind. Thus the word seer, he would receive some kind of a vision or sometimes a dream where he would actually see things, and then that was divinely inspired and then communicate those visions to the people. And so it mentions here that he man was a seer, and that his children were those who were part of the worshipers in the house of the Lord. Now in the New Testament, the word seer is not found. That word is only found in the Old Testament. However, there are examples of those who actually saw visions. It's just that the word seer isn't used in the New Testament. A couple of examples. Paul had a vision of heaven in 2nd Corinthians 12, Stephen when he was being stoned in Acts 7, he has a vision of the Lord Jesus in heaven. And John on the island of Patmos when he received revelation, he talks about I, John saw. So he received visions too. But that particular word seer, is not used to describe someone in the New Testament. So that's just a generalization about the difference between a prophet and a seer. They both are receiving some kind of divine inspiration from the Lord. A prophet, more so a word of knowledge, a seer, more so of a vision or a dream. And verse six continues says, and all these were under the direction of their Father for the music in the house of the Lord, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman were under the authority of the king. And so the number of them with their Brethren who were instructed in the songs of the Lord, all who were skillful was 280. And they cast lots for their duty, the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student. And then the rest of this chapter lists all the various names of those who were descendants of Asaph or of Jeduthun or of Heman, who served there in the house of the Lord. So 288 singers, worshipers, musicians, were recruited from the tribe of Levi. Remember David's heart? He was a worshiper. I mean, you know, he wrote that we know specifically with his name, 75 of the Psalms. Most scholars believe he wrote more than that. They just don't have a byline to the different Psalms. So he was a worshiper at heart. And when he was a shepherd in the field tending to sheep, before he was a warrior and before he was a king, after being a warrior, his heart was originally as a worshiper. And so this was near and dear to him. So of course he's going to organize musicians and worshipers because this is important to him. It's obviously important to God. But this is coming from the heart of a worshiper, David, who was arranging all of these various musicians and singers in the house of the Lord. And then in chapter 26, you'll notice the subtitle is the Gatekeepers. And just verse one says concerning the divisions of the gatekeepers. And then colon and then a bunch of names. So what was a gatekeeper? Well, a gatekeeper did two things. Basically, a gatekeeper was responsible for welcoming people as they came to the house of the Lord and of making sure that the house of the Lord was kept safe. They were considered both guards and those who were welcoming worshipers who came to the house of the Lord. So, you know, kind of in a modern sense, our ushers are kind of gatekeepers, the people who stand at the doors and open doors and welcome you as you come into church. They're gatekeepers, our armed security people. They're gatekeepers because it's all part of welcoming people and keeping the house of the Lord safe. You know, the gatekeepers would stand literally at the gate, and as people would come to the temple area, they would make sure that nothing improper was happening. As people were coming into worship. They would be the bad guys. They would be the ones standing at the door saying, no coffee, please, no coffee. I know that irritates some of you because, like, you, you buy your coffee and then you try to come in here to the house of the Lord. And we're, we're just Trying to keep it clean. That's the reason behind it. We just don't want coffee stains all over the house of the Lord. Bring your water. Now, I know some of you, I know because I've heard some of you have your little canisters and you have your coffee and your canisters and you pretend like it's water. We know you, okay? We know you. If it spills, you're gonna reveal yourself and we're gonna tase you. But anyway, but we're just trying to keep the house of the Lord clean. The gatekeepers were those kind of guys. They were like, okay, we're gonna make sure nothing's coming in here that is unwarranted. And so it was this decorum that they wanted to make sure the house of the Lord was respected at all times. Now, if you jump ahead still here in chapter 26 to verse 12, it even talks about the divisions of the gatekeepers. And you know, something simple to point out here is that, look, God was sovereign even to the details of the gate assignments. I find that amazing because David is being inspired by the Holy Spirit to organize all of this. But this is really a reflection of the move of God's spirit in his heart. So in verse 12, it says, among these were the divisions of the gatekeepers, among the chief men having duties, just like their brethren, to serve in the house of the Lord. And they cast lots for each gate, the small as well as the great, according to their Father's house. Now, by the way, just a little clarification for those of you who don't know. It's not like, you know, they're in Vegas, like, you know, casting lots. And, you know, this is more of a spirit inspired way of determining God's will. So the priest had two stones in his vestment. He had the urim and the thummim. And one stone, it is believed, was white and one was black. One meant yes, one meant no. And they would discern the will of the Lord like this. And that was before the spirit of God was poured out upon all flesh, starting in Acts, chapter two. So please, now you have the spirit of God. You have your Bibles to discern the will of God. Don't be, you know, don't be flipping a coin to decide if you should move to Minneapolis. You already know, don't move to Minneapolis. You know, but don't be flipping coins about stuff. And don't be like, let's draw a straw. You know, let's figure out what God wants. Like, how about Just pray about it, read the Bible, and discern by the Spirit. But this was in the time when they didn't have that luxury of the Spirit of God poured out upon all flesh. The Spirit of God in the Old Testament was only poured out on assignment on different individuals. So they were very dependent on how is God going to speak to us through the priest, through the urim and the tummim. And so they would cast lots to discern this. And in verse 14, it says, the lot for the east gate fell to Shelemiah. And then they cast lots for his son Zechariah, a wise counselor. And his lot came out for the north gate and to Obed Edom, the south gate, and to his sons, the storehouse, and to Shupim and Hosah. The lot came out for the west gate with the Chalakeh gate on the ascending highway. Watchmen opposite watchmen. On the east were six Levites. On the north, four each day, on the south, four each day. And for the storehouse, two by two. As for the parbar, some of your footnotes will explain that. Probably a court or colonnade extending west of the temple on the west. There were four on the highway and two at the parbar. And these were the divisions of the gatekeepers among the sons of Korah and among the sons of Merari. And then in the next section, you see the treasuries and other duties. Verse 20 says, of the Levites, ahijah was over the treasuries of the house of God and over the treasuries of the dedicated things. Now, look, we know the importance of this, too. We have a wonderful accounting team here at Cornerstone. And every church has to be very careful with how they handle donations and offerings. This is all from the Lord, and we have to be good stewards of it. And so even in these days, David had appointed specific members of the Levites to be responsible for the treasuries, for the offerings, for the dedicated things. Now, what do dedicated things mean? If you jump down to verse 27, because I'm skipping just a bunch of names. In verse 27, it says some of the spoils won in battles were dedicated to maintain the house of the Lord and all that. Samuel the seer, Samuel the prophet, also known as a seer. Saul the son of Kish, that was the first. He was the first king of Israel. Remember Saul, Abner the son of Ner, and Joab the son of Zeruiah. He was the commander of David's army, had dedicated. Every dedicated thing was under the hand of Shelomith and his brethren. So in other words, some of the spoils of war would be gathered and would be dedicated to the the temple for the livelihood of the Levites and for the upkeep of the temple. And so this is how they would fund some of the operations of the of the temple. In addition to the offerings of the people, they would dedicate the spoils of war. So then into chapter 27, because again, I'm just skipping a bunch of names in chapter 27, now we have the military divisions. And this is interesting, what we're going to read here is that David divided his army, those who were responsible for overseeing specifically the temple. It's not the entire army. These are just the divisions responsible for helping to guard the temple to keep it safe from any enemy attack. It was divided into 12 divisions. Each division was made up of 24,000 soldiers, and each division served for a month. So you have 12 divisions. If your division got called up and they would cast lots for this too, you would serve for an entire month, and then you'd have other duties for the other 11 months, but you wouldn't have the responsibility of safeguarding the temple. And so here in chapter 27, verse 1, it says, and the children of Israel, according to their number, the heads of fathers, houses, the captains of thousands and hundreds, and their officers served the king in every matter of the military divisions. These divisions came in and went out month by month throughout all the months of the year, each division having 24. So 24,000 times 12 is 288,000. So it took 288,000 soldiers doing a rotation of 24,000 each once a month to guard the house of the Lord. And so David separated his army in this way to give oversight to the temple of the Lord. And then all the divisions are listed in the following verses, and all the captains and all the heads of each division. And so we can jump all the way down to verse 25, see how we're making progress here. So the end of chapter 27, starting at verse 25. And asmaveth the son of Adiel, was over the king's treasuries, and Jonathan the son of Uzziah was over the storehouses in the field. Now, what we're going to read here are these are, you know, we might say today, cabinet officials of the president. So these are. These are cabinet officials of the king. And they have certain responsibilities of what they are over. You know, some are going to be over the treasury, some are going to be over agriculture. Some are going to be over housing and urban development. And so, you know, this is the kind of list we're reading here. And so verse 26, you have Ezri the son of Chalub was over those who did the work of the field for tilling the ground. And Shimei the Ramaphite was over the vineyards. And Zabdi the Shipmite was over the produce of the vineyards for the supply of wine. Baalhanan the Gederite was over the olive trees and the sycamore trees that were in the lowlands. And Joash was over the store of oil. And Shitrai the Sharonite was over the herds that fed in Sharon. Sharon, these are probably cattle. And Shaphat the son of Adlai was over the herds that were in the valleys. Obil the Ishmaelite was over the camels. Jediah the Maroniathite was over the donkeys. So this guy's over the democrats and Jazees, Jazzes, the Hagrite was over the flocks. And all these were the officials over King David's property. Also Jehonathan, David's uncle, was a counselor, a wise man and a scribe. And Jehiel the son of Hacmoni was with the king's sons. Now look at verse 33. Ahithophel was the king's counselor. That's probably the first familiar name out of this list. And if it's familiar to you, it's because Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bathsheba. Now, Ahithophel was, as it says here, the king's counselor. He was originally a very close friend of David's. He was David's counselor. It doesn't mean he was his therapist. It means he was his advisor. He was a very close advisor to King David. These guys were friends until David commits adultery with Ahithophel's granddaughter. What do you think that does to a grandfather? Well, at first he didn't really show his displeasure until David's son Absalom decided to rebel against his father David. And Absalom tried to usurp David's authority. And Absalom tried to insert himself as king. He led a rebellion against his own father. And guess who joined Absalom? Ahithophel. Now, why do you think he turned on David like that? He was David's close advisor. He was his counselor. He was his friend. In fact, I didn't write it down. I don't know which psalm it is off the top of my head. But there was a psalm that David even wrote about I remember when I went to the house of the Lord with my friend. It's probably a reference to Ahithophel who turns on David. But why did he turn on David? Because David had turned on Ahithophel by disrespecting him in regards to taking his granddaughter from her husband and sleeping with her. So Ahithophel becomes an enemy of David's when Absalom's attempt to lead this overthrow of his father's throne, when it fails tragically, Ahithophel then knows he's going to be killed because he joined with Absalom in this attempted coup. And so Ahithophel tragically hangs himself. The Bible says so. It's a very tragic story here. You know, our sin is not limited always to ourselves, especially when it involves something like adultery, some kind of sexual sin, which obviously involves another person, and then it involves that other person's family too. And so David's sin with Bathsheba was not just restricted to him and her. I mean, it affected the extended family. And Ahithophel becomes in some way a casualty of David's sin. So Ahithophel was the king's counselor, and Hushai, the archite, was the king's companion. And after Ahithophel was Jehoiada, the son of Benaiah, then Abiathar and the general of the king's army was Joab. So now we come to chapters 28 and 29. I am going to read through these two because now we've gone through all the different names and now the story is going to conclude here with David's death at the end of this book, at the end of chapter 29. So this is a very tender couple of chapters because David is now going to hand the baton to his son Solomon, which by the way, is, you know, in itself is an example of God's grace. Because Solomon was born to the woman that David has in with. You know, David ends up marrying Bathsheba, the child that she conceives as a result of the adulterous affair dies. But Solomon will be later born to the two of them. And in God's providential design, of all of David's sons, and he has many, it is the son of the woman that he marries from the affair that God says, this is the one who will inherit your throne. And God chooses providentially Solomon. God providentially does what God wants to do. And sometimes we don't understand, sometimes we don't understand and we're amazed. And sometimes we don't understand. And we're like, shocked. And yet God is providential and he does what God wants, and he chose Solomon. And so we're going to see the handoff here in chapter 28 and 29. Let's read it. Chapter 28, verse 1. Now, David assembled at Jerusalem all the leaders of Israel, the officers of the tribes and the captains of the divisions who served the king, the captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possessions of the king and of his sons, with the officials, the valiant men, and all the mighty men of valor. Okay, so David gathers all the leaders of Israel, and he's going to give them a speech. Here he says in verse two. Then King David rose to his feet and said, hear me, my brethren and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God. And had made preparations to build it. But God said to me, you shall not build a house for my name because you have been a man of war and have shed blood. However, the Lord God of Israel chose me above all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever. For he has chosen Judah to be the ruler. Okay, remember, David is of the tribe of Judah. So you have 12 tribes. And of the tribe of Judah, David is selected. And again, remember, we know that the lineage of David will eventually come to Jesus. Jesus is of the tribe of Judah. This is why David says, God has chosen my tribe to be a tribe forever and my kingdom shall never end. Because David knows that the Messianic prophecy is going to come through his line. That's why he says this, that he chose me forever. And it says, and of the house of Judah, the house of my father. And among the sons of my father, he, God was pleased with me to make me king over all Israel. Verse 5. And of all my sons, for the Lord has given me many sons. He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. Now he said to me, it is your son Solomon who shall build my house and my courts. For I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. It's a very affectionate way that the Lord refers to Solomon through David's speech here, verse 7. Moreover, I will establish his kingdom forever if he is steadfast to observe my commandments and my judgments, as it is this day. Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God. Be careful to seek out all the commandments of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and. And leave it as an inheritance for your children after you forever. So that's his speech to all the leaders of Israel and to his military generals. And he's just, you know, he's giving them this exhortation. He knows his time is short. David now at this point is. Well, we know that he dies at the age of 70. So he's got to be right near that age. He's got to be 69 or approaching 70 here. So that's his little speech to the leaders. Now he turns to his son. Look here at verse 9. As for you, my son Solomon. And Solomon at this point is around the age of. Scholars differ on this. How old is he exactly? But he's probably somewhere around 19, 20 years of age. Okay, he's going to be like 20 when David dies. So he's still young here. And so David exhorts him. As for you, my son, Solomon, knows the God of your Father and serve him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts, right, even ours, and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do says. And then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its houses, its treasuries, its upper chambers, its inner chambers, and the place of the mercy seat. You notice here what we're reading is that God had imparted by the Spirit the blueprint for the whole design of the. Of the temple to David. But even though David can't build it, he's. He's. He's provided everything for it and he's giving the blueprints to his son. Now, verse 12. And the plans for all that he had by the spirit of the courts of the house of the Lord, of all the chambers all around, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries for the dedicated things, also for the division of the priests and the Levites, for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and for all the articles of service in the house of the Lord. He. That's David gave gold by weight for things of gold, for all articles used in every kind of service. Also silver for all articles of silver by weight, for all articles used in every kind of service. The weight for the lampstands of gold and their lamps of gold by weight for each lampstand and its lamps, for the lampstands of silver, by weight for the lampstand and its lamps according to. To the use of each lampstand and by weight he gave gold for the tables of the showbread for each table and silver for the tables of silver. Also pure gold for the forks, the basins, the pitchers of pure gold and the golden bowls. He gave gold by weight for every bowl and for the silver bowls, silver by weight for every bowl and refined gold by weight for the altar of incense and for the construction of the chariot that is, the gold cherubim that spread their wings and overshadowed the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me all the works of these plans. So David hands this off to his son. But I mean all the details. This has been inspired by the Spirit through David. So he gives all these plans and details. And then verse 28, verse 20, rather. And David said to his son Solomon, be strong and of good courage and do it. Do not fear nor be dismayed. For the Lord God, my God, will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord. Here are the divisions of the priests and the Levites for all the service of the house of God. And every willing craftsman will be with you for all manner of workmanship, for every kind of service. Also the leaders and all the people will be completely at your command. And so he gives Solomon everything that we just read in the previous chapters. Here's all the divisions. We have gatekeepers, we have musicians, we have Levites. Here are the drawings, the blueprints. Here's the gold, here's the silver, here's all the articles, the laborers. I'm giving you everything, he says to Solomon. Now you be strong and courageous and do what God has called you to do. Verse 29, rather, chapter 29 says, Furthermore, King David said to all the assembly, my son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. Okay, again, he's like 19, maybe 20. But he had to be 21 to even be of fighting age in the military. So he is, by their standards, quite young. He would be quite young, by our standards, to lead the most powerful nation on the planet at this time. So he knows he's young and inexperienced, he says, and the work is great because the temple is not for man, but for The Lord God. Now for the house of my God I have prepared with all my might gold for the things to be made of gold, silver for the things of silver, bronze for the things of bronze, iron for the things of iron, wood for things of wood, onyx stones, stones to be set, glistening stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones and marble slabs in abundance. Moreover, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have given to the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house my own special treasure of gold and silver. This is out of his own pocket, he says, 3,000 talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and 7,000 talents of refined silver to overlay the walls of the houses. The gold for things of gold and the silver for things of silver and for all kinds of work to be done by the hands of craftsmen. Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord? And then the leaders of the fathers houses, leaders of the tribes of Israel, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the officers over the king's work offered willingly. They gave for the work 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 into the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite. And then look at this verse. Then the people rejoiced for they had offered willingly because with a loyal heart they had offered willingly to the Lord. And King David also rejoiced greatly. So people saw the vision. They understood this was God's plan. God had given it through David, Solomon was going to build it. And they just start to willingly give up of their own resources, including precious stones that will adorn this beautiful temple. You know, look, God's work is done by God's people, as God allows people to be generous. And you know, I'm personally thankful for the way that you all have been sacrificial. And that's why this building has paid off and our campus has paid off because of your generosity. And we just give glory to the Lord. When God puts it on the hearts of people to be generous, this is what happens. God's work continues. And as a result of this, then David launches into this praise to the Lord. And I'm going to just highlight three things that he says about God. And I'm going to highlight three things that he says about us, about man. Look at his praise here in verse verse 10. Therefore, David blessed the Lord before all the assembly. And David said, blessed are you, Lord God of Israel, our Father forever and ever. Now you might want to circle in your Bibles the word Father. It is the first time in the Bible that God is referred to as our Father. It won't be the only time, of course. Remember Jesus when he taught the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter 6, 9, 13. He begins when his disciples said teach us to pray. He said, okay, Our Father who art in heaven. God is our heavenly Father. That's the way we need to understand him as a loving Father in heaven. So here's one of the things that David says here as a result of this praise is that God is our Father in heaven. First time that use is given about the Lord, he says in verse 11, Yours O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. So number two, he tells us God is great and reigns over all. Verse 12. Both riches and honor come from you and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. So notice this number three, he tells us that God owns all and provides all we need. And then he makes it about what we need to understand of ourselves. Verse 13. Now therefore, our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name. He says, but who am I, who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you and of your own we have given you. That's a good reminder for all of us, right? We give to God what already belongs to him. Verse 15. For we are aliens and pilgrims before you, as were all our fathers. That's also a good reminder. We are only passing through this world, everybody. That's why he refers to us as aliens and pilgrims. This is not our home we're passing through. We have one life to live. And during this one life God has given us, we have the opportunity to trust Christ as our Savior so we can spend eternity with him. Don't get too attached to this world. We don't belong here. If you at times feel strangely out of place, that's good because you don't belong here. You go to your Christmas office party and you're like, you know what? These people are just, they're getting stoned in front of me. And you know, I feel oddly out of place here. Good, you should, because you don't belong here. You have to still live out your life, you still have to have jobs, you still have to, you know, pay bills and all that stuff, but you don't belong here. So you students at school and you're like, your friends are doing stuff that you don't feel comfortable doing. That's for a reason, because you don't belong here. So you still have acquaintances with people who don't believe what you believe. And you still can hang out with people who don't share your faith in Jesus. But listen, just don't be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. Good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2. So we have to still relate to this world. We still have to befriend this world. We still have to share Jesus with this world. Just don't become like this world. And as a result you will feel at times like odd man out. And that's okay because we're just aliens and pilgrims. And he adds in verse 15, our days on earth are as a shadow and without hope. That's number three to remember we have limited number of days on Earth. James 4:14 says, Our lives are but a mist that appears for a moment and then it's gone. As many of you know, my dad died now a year and a half ago and no, two and a half years now. And just the other day, you know, I have this tote in my closet in my basement and that's the last of all my dad's belongings because it was just, you know, the final files and some because I was the executor of his will. So you know, I've got, you know, his tax returns and the last minute legal stuff, but it's just amazing to think that his life has been reduced to just a single tote because, you know, I had to obviously sell his house and all his possessions and you know, the family came and took what they wanted of his, of his possessions or his furnitures or you know, stuff like that. But I mean, it's all gone. It's just so when I stare at that tote, it's just a reminder to me, man, life is short. We can't take anything with us. And one day all of our lives are just reduced to just a tote. Like, like it just. I don't know, every time I see that in my Closet. I'm just reminded of just the brevity of life. The brevity of life. Well, let's make our way through verse 16. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house, for your holy name is from your hand and is all your own. I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these things. And now with joy, I have seen your people who are present here to offer willingly to you. O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of your people and fix their heart toward you. And give my son Solomon a loyal heart to keep your commandments and your testimonies and your statutes, to do all these things and to build the temple for which I have made provision. And then David said to all the assembly, now bless the Lord your God. And so all the assembly blessed the Lord God of their fathers and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord and the king. And they made sacrifices to the Lord and offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the next day. A thousand bulls, a thousand rams, a thousand lambs with their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. And so they ate and drank before the Lord with great gladness on that day. And they made Solomon the son of David king the second time and anointed him before the Lord to be the leader and Zadok to be priest. Now, just real quickly, what does it mean he was king the second time? All the way back in First Kings, chapter one, when another of David's sons tried to lead a coup against his father Adonijah, David in haste said, I, I got to anoint my son Solomon as king. Now, at that time, Solomon was probably like 14 or 15 years of age, but he did it to make a statement that Adonijah was not to be viewed as the next king of Israel, that God's will was Solomon. David knew Solomon was God's will to be king, so he anointed him quickly. And so this saying the second time is because now it's done in the right way, at the right time with this property, festival and feast, so verse 23 says. And then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father, and prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. So David actually relinquishes his throne. He knows his time is short, so he wants to have a smooth transition of power. So he Hands it over to Solomon, Solomon assumes the throne. Verse 24. And all the leaders and the mighty men, and also all the sons of King David submitted themselves to King Solomon. And so the Lord exalted Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel. And thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. And the period that he reigned over Israel was 40 years. Seven years he reigned in Hebron, and 33 years he reigned in Jerusalem. And so he died in a good old age, full of days and riches and honor. He's 70 years old. And Solomon, his son, reigned in his place. And now the acts of King David, first and last. Indeed they are written in the book of Samuel the Seer, in the book of Nathan the Prophet. Okay, we have first and second Samuel. We do not have the Book of Nathan. That's lost. We don't know what that is. And in the book of Gad the Seer, also unknown, with all his reign and his might, and the events that happened to him, to Israel and to all the kingdoms of the lands. So this is the end of David's life here. And Solomon now assumes the throne. And that will be the book of second Chronicles. Let me pray and then we'll share just a couple of closing announcements before we go. Lord, thank you for your word. And thank you for the life of King David. In all of his successes and in all of his sins and failures. Lord, he was a man after your heart. We can learn much from him, the good and the bad. And so we pray, Lord, that you will use your word to strengthen our own hearts, to remind us that our days are limited, that we are only aliens and pilgrims passing through. And so, Lord, make us mindful of this, that we might make the best of our lives here on earth. Following you, Jesus. We thank you for your word tonight. In Jesus name, amen and amen.