Preparing To Build Series

Introduction:

A. Let’s begin with some statements from some great visionaries.

1. In 1859, Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist some drillers to help with his proposal to drill for oil. They said to him, “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.”

2. In 1899, Charles Duell, Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

3. In 1927, H.M. Warner, of Warner Brothers, said this about adding sound to movies, “Who wants to hear actors talk?”

4. In 1929, Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics at Yale University said, “Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”

5. Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said this in 1943: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”

6. In 1957, the editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall said, “I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.”

7. In 1962, a representative at Decca Recording Company rejected the Beatles saying, “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”

8. In 1977, Ken Olson, President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., said “There is no real need for sales people. Customers will be attracted to good products without assistance.”

9. Finally, in 1981, Bill Gates had this to say about the amount of memory needed in computers, “640K ought to be enough for anybody.”

10. My new laptop has a 300 G hard drive that is about 300 million K!

B. Predicting the future is almost impossible, but preparing for the future is indispensable.

1. I like what Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm said, “Sometimes leadership is planting trees under whose shade you’ll never sit.”

2. As we turn our attention back to the story of David, we witness him doing just that – planting a tree under whose shade he will never sit.

3. What I’m referring to is the preparations he made for the temple that he was not allowed to build.

4. Our story for today comes from 1 Chronicles 22.

I. The Story

A. The Bible says: Then David said, “The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

So David gave orders to assemble the aliens living in Israel, and from among them he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed 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, for the Sidonians and Tyrians 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. Therefore I will make preparations for it.” So David made extensive preparations before his death.

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 this word of the LORD came to me: ‘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 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.’ ” (1 Chron. 22:1-10)

1. As we have seen, David had a great heart for God, and it was his desire to build a temple for the Lord that would bring glory and honor to God.

2. But as we saw in a previous sermon, and as we see here in this text, God said “no, you are not the one to build a temple for Me.”

3. It is a great tribute to the character of David that he did not take offense to this arrangement.

4. David did not sulk around or make an angry tirade against God for not granting him this great honor at the end of his life.