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Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey. Family. Welcome to day 355. We are finishing up the book of first chronicles today. And tomorrow we are. We're gonna dive into the book of Second Chronicles and the Bible nerd in me just does not want to admit that these are two books in our modern translations, but I get it, I get it, I get it. Yeah, the Bible nerd in me is just like, no, it's just Chronicles. It's just Chronicles. Tomorrow is just Chronicles, chapter 30 to 34. You know, it's just. It's all Chronicles, but I get it. They are technically two books. So today we're gonna look at the very end of first Chronicles, chapters 28, 29, and then tomorrow we launch into two Chronicles is gonna be fantastic. If you haven't done the reading for the day, honestly, you are missing out. The reading for the day moved me. Like, genuinely moved me. Maybe it's the season that I'm in, maybe it's the day that I'm having, I don't know, moved me. I would actually say that First Chronicles, Chapter 29 is a generosity master class. Like, not only did I write down a bunch of nerdy nuggets that I'm going to share with you on today's episode, I mean, I wrote down, like, generosity offering talks for next year for the garden for this church plant. So anyway, talk about just a generosity masterclass in First Chronicles, chapter 29. But before we dive into those nerdy nuggets, let's hit these context clues and let me give a big warning at the top of the episode. If you haven't done today's reading, not only are you missing out, but I actually think it would be better for you to do the reading and then come back to today's episode. So if you haven't done the reading, how about you stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done, and then I'm promise I'm not gonna go anywhere. Okay? I'll be right here waiting to talk about the episode with you. So let's dive into context for everyone who's done the reading. Pretty simple. Solomon is gonna get anointed as king, and David is going to die. Okay, that's the gist. Of what's about to happen or what's happening today. However, it is very, very different than the account that we have in the Book of Kings. Okay, so in Kings, we've got this young girl named Abishag who, like, is there to keep the king warm. In Kings, David is bedridden at the end of his life. Also in Kings, Adonijah, one of David's other sons, is a rival to Solomon. There's all kinds of turmoil. And honestly, none of that is present in this version of the events and Chronicles. Why? Pretty simple. Because none of that has anything to do with the Temple, okay? None of that involves the Temple. The only thing that Ezra cares about are the events related to the Temple. And if it doesn't, like, help him encourage his generation of Jews to love the Temple, centralize the Temple, give towards the Temple, be generous towards the Temple, visit the Temple, like, be faithful towards God's temple, then he is not going to include it in First Chronicles. Okay? So Chronicles, again, is a priestly account of the same events that. Whereas Samuel and Kings are gonna be a prophetic account of the same events. All right? So you can see at the end of David's life, the accounts are very, very, very different. David is not bedridden here. He is gonna call all Israel. He's gonna give multiple speeches, and he is going to hand the baton to Solomon with no. The same way that there's no competition between Saul and David, there's not gonna be any competition between Adonijah and Solomon, okay? Because none of that, that rivalry, all that political or family turmoil, that has nothing to do with what Ezra's assignment is, which is get his generation and subsequent generations to look back at how David and David's generation stewarded the Temple and loved God's house. And then get Ezra's generation and future generations to do the same. To prioritize the Temple, to centralize the Temple and to love God's house. That is the agenda, okay? Which immediately, for anyone who's in ministry, like, talk about first and Second Chronicles as a masterclass on just being unapologetic about getting people to prioritize, centralize, and love God's house. Like, in this season of my life, I am pretty unapologetic. Like, yes, as a pastor, I want people to serve in church. I want people to tithe. I want people to be generous. I want people to prioritize coming to church on Sundays. I want people to, like, serve in kids ministry. Those aren't selfish. So books like Haggai Zechariah books like Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles. Like this entire post exilic collection of books has honestly been this emboldened me to. So God has put this reading in my life at the exact right time because I'm making big asks of people constantly. So if you're a leader out there, like, it doesn't matter if you're a children's ministry leader or youth pastor or a servant leader at a church, and you're just encouraging people to prioritize God's house and to love God's house. You don't have to manipulate people and motivate them with your own ideas. Just quote scripture to them. Like, bring them right back to Haggai, bring them to Zechariah, bring them to Chronicles, bring them to Ezra and Nehemiah. Like this post exilic content where the people of Israel have leaders in place that are helping them to build the temple, rebuild the temple, prioritize God's house. This stuff is rife with content that honestly will give people a biblical foundation for prioritizing God's house. So huge. Okay, so that's all the context that we need. Again, when an author has an agenda, that agenda is based on their audience. Okay? And so Ezra's audience needs to see David in a certain light. And that light needs to be David the temple builder. Why? Because Ezra's audience needs to be like, diligent about prioritizing and building God's house, building God's temple. They need to be like David. Okay, so makes sense why Ezra is presenting the events the way that he is. And that's all the context that we need. Okay, family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. All right, chapter 28. The big theme is really about David has made plans. Like, I mean, this man is giving Solomon all of his plans for everything. Like, it says this, chapter 28, verse 11. Then David gave his son Solomon the plans. And then again in verse 12, he gave him the plans. Then in verse 13, he gave him instructions, right? Then in verse 18, he also gave him the plan for the chariot. Like, I mean, like, dude, we, you don't even gotta think, dude, like, here's a plan for this, here's a plan for this, here's a plan for this, here's a plan for this. And I think that sometimes, like, put yourself in Solomon's shoes, when someone has made all these plans for you, it can kind of feel like they've robbed you of agency. But Solomon takes the plans and then owns them and makes them his. Solomon still adds his creativity and his energy and his personality. And so for anyone who is not pioneering a church but is taking over a church, yeah, there's a senior pastor maybe that you're taking a church over from that's made a lot of plans. But I don't think that should in any way, shape or form diminish your role as a leader or diminish how great of a leader you are. I don't think anybody's looking at Solomon thinking to themselves, oh, well, he's not as great of a leader because all he had to do was fulfill the plans that his dad made. It's like, no, actually he still has work to do. And he has so much work to do that actually what his dad says to him at the end of chapter 28 is really, really, really, really encouraging. So not only has David made plans, but David also has encouragement. And what amazing words for a dad to say. Kate, chapter 28, starting in verse 20, David also said to Solomon, his son, be strong and courageous and do the work. This is going to be work. Like, doesn't matter how many plans I've made. This is going to require work. Okay? You're going to have long nights, dude, you're going to have early mornings. Like, this is going to require work. You can't be lazy, okay? Do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord God, my God is with you. He. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. Man, that I, I, I, I'm adopting that. Planting a church is hard work. And I'm in the middle of it right now. It's just, it's just hard work, hard work. And I believe right now that, that I can hear the Lord saying to me, do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord God, my God is with you. He will not fail me or forsake me. He will not fail or forsake me until all the work for the service of the Garden, that's the name of our church, of the Garden of the Lord is finished. Whatever the work is that you have for yourself, I just want you to take out the words the temple and substitute in whatever that work is for me, it's the garden. For you, it could be something else. The divisions of the priests and Levites are ready for all the work on the Temple of God. So, hey, you got the Lord, you've got plans, and then I've left you with teams, okay? They're ready to do the work. So also, Solomon, don't let the people who are called to help you do this be lazy. You can't be lazy. Don't let them be lazy. They're ready for the work and every willing person, so they've got to be willing. That's huge. We're going to get into that when we talk about the generosity of chapter 29. Hey, every willing person skilled in any craft will help you in all the work. So if you're called to work on something, what do you need? You need willing people who are skilled. Sometimes the skilled people aren't willing and sometimes the willing people aren't skilled. But you need willing people who are skilled. What are they going to do? They're going to help you in all of the work. The officials and all the people will obey your every command. So you need to be willing, you need to be skilled, but then ultimately they need to be submitted to what you have to say. Solomon, what a great way for a dad to set up his son. With plans, with people with resources, but ultimately with a trust in God that God is going to see to it that the work gets done. Then chapter 29. I call this a generosity masterclass. My gosh. I mean, everything that has to do with, you know, the taking up of the offering, I would say all the way up to verse 20. So chapter 29, verses 1 to 20. Generosity masterclass. If you are teaching a sermon series on generosity or you're taking up the offering on a week to week basis at church, just dig in right here. There are five lessons that I learned just from this. Okay? Number one, and anyone who's a leader understands this, right? There are the resources that you manage and then there's your personal resources. And those are not the same. There's resources that you manage, that you oversee, right? I oversee the budget for Manny Arango Ministries, the budget for Arma, and the budget for the garden. So I have access to all those resources. But that's not my personal finances. Those are not my. That's not my personal money. Okay? David not only is generous to the temple with the resources that he manages, but then his personal finances, once it starts talking about all the provisions that he's made, it then says, and I want you to catch this in verse three, besides, okay, so, hey, I've secured gold and silver and wood and iron and stone and all these things that you're going to need, Solomon. But in addition, besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God, I now give my personal treasures, my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God. Over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple, man. So it's like right now, I'm a church planter, and I've been able to raise over a million dollars for the church plant. Obviously, none of that has gone to me. I don't personally benefit from that money that's been raised. And in addition to the finances that I've been able to raise for the church, I still am tithing off of speaking engagements, tithing off of book deals like. Like me, like. And. And this today just encouraged me, that man, that. That not only do I need to be generous with the resources that I oversee, but I also gotta be generous with my personal resources. And sometimes if you're someone who oversees the resources of an organization, you'll think that it's just enough, but that you're generous with the resources of that organization. But David is not just generous with the resources of the kingdom, he's also generous with his personal wealth. And that right there. I was at a church in Atlanta recently, and the church that I was speaking at was sewing a significant gift into the garden. And then in the green room, the pastor pulled me aside and said, hey, man, while you were preaching, the Holy Spirit asked me and my wife to not just give you a check from our church, but to give you finances for your church from our personal bank accounts. We will be personally sowing into your church. And I think as leaders, we gotta always have moments like that where the Lord will say, give. And then you need to follow up with a question. Do you want me to give from the man and wrangle Ministries account, from the Arma account, from the garden account, or, Lord, are you asking me and Tia to give? Are you Asking this to be a personal gift. One time I was at the Life Church in Memphis, Tennessee, and Pastor John and Leslie Sebling made it clear. They were like, hey, they were giving me. They were giving a gift to me. And they said, hey, this isn't from the Life Church. Like, we didn't use the church credit card to, to do this for you. Like, this is from. Pastor John said, this is from me and Leslie. Like, we personally wanted to sow into your life. And I think it's gonna be hard to get your church to be generous if you are not generous. And, and so, and so, number one, okay, the number one thing I got in this generosity masterclass is that David leads in generosity. He leads in generosity. He's not just trying to get the resources that he oversees to be deployed generously. He is personally generous. Number two, there's a key word here that gets repeated over and over and over and that's willing to. Willing, willing, willingness. This is going to get echoed in the New Testament because Paul's going to say, we don't want people to give reluctantly or under compulsion. We don't want people to be emotionally manipulated into being generous because A, that's just God doesn't receive it. And B, like, okay, sure, the church got its bills paid, but that's not good for the long haul. And that doesn't create a generosity culture. So willingness, willingness, like, this is a great reminder. Hey, don't emotionally manipulate people. Don't do things that get people riled up to give impulsively, but make sure that people are willing, willing. Because if people are willing, man, it'll create a culture. Number three, chapter 29, verse 14. This is good right here. This is David talking. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Why should we even be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, Lord. Everything comes from God. And we have given to you only what comes from your hand. That's such a good principle to teach that. I'm actually not giving God anything. I'm actually returning things to him. God, you own everything. It's you. You're the one who's made us wealthy. This is verse 12. Let me back up a couple verses. Wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name. I'm not giving God anything. I'm returning to him that which he gave me because wealth comes from the Lord. Fourth things. Fourth thing is there's zero entitlement in this. Zero entitlement on our team. We got this from the church that me and Tia came from, which is social. Dallas. We always said at the end of every huddle, we get to do this. And you know, people that are church hurt, people who find themselves in church documentaries that have negative things to say about church, be like, yeah, we always say, we get to do this. You know, that's manipulative. And it's like, no, it's not manipulative. Comes straight out of scripture, like, who. What is David saying? But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as gener? We get to give, we get to do this. We don't have to. There's no obligation, there's no entitlement, there's no sense of we have to do this. It's, we get to do this. And so it's something that we've adopted at the huddle at the garden, we say the words, we get to do this, we get to tithe, we get to serve, we get to be generous. We get to show up and watch other people's children. We get to serve, we get to volunteer, we get to do this. I get to preach, we get to sing. I'm not entitled. This is genuinely a privilege. And then last thing I learned is that generosity from the heart creates a culture. You read this right here. This is verse 16. All this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your holy name comes from your hand. And all of it belongs, belongs to you. Okay, next verse 17. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. I now have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. And what you begin to see, like in the text, it says this in verse nine. The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly that when there's real generosity, there's joy. Generosity creates joy and generosity from the heart creates a culture and man. That's a generosity masterclass right there. Our timeless truth for the day is this. This is what it says in chapter 29, verse 25. The Lord highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him royal splendor such as no king over Israel had ever had before. Can I tell you something, it's the Lord that exalts. It's the Lord that promotes. That's what God does. It's funny. You know, a couple years ago, I started getting a lot of speaking engagements and started speaking at some notable churches, churches with, you know, significant platforms. And I had somebody say to me, man, I need to consult with you. Like, I need you to tell me how to market myself the way you've marketed yourself. Because. And I'm like, you think marketing did this? You think that it's marketing that. That got me on, like, big stages? Like, you think marketing did that? My brother, the Lord exalts, the Lord promotes. Like, come on, man. Like, I've stewarded what God has done. You know, it's not like I'm. It's not like I'm anti marketing or. Or not marketing. But, dude, you got a lot of faith in marketing. My faith ain't in marketing. My faith is in God's ability to exalt someone in the sight of all the people. And that's all God's done with Manny Wrangle Ministries. He's just. He's shined heaven's light on what we've been able to do. And if God doesn't exalt and promote, then I don't think it's worth it. I don't think you should market your way into, like, popularity. I think you should allow God to put you in spaces where your popularity grows. Because if God does it, then honestly, God sustains it. And that's not just true for Solomon. That's not just true in 1st Chronicles, chapter 29. That's true for you. That's true for me. It's a timeless truth. Family, tomorrow we've got day three, 56, and it's technically a new book of the Bible. We're gonna be in two Chronicles, chapters one, two, three, and four. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. I love you. I'm proud of you. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram. The Bible Department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses at the Bible Department. We'll see you back here tomorrow.