The Joyful Givers Series

Introduction:

A. One day a father decided to take his son to McDonalds for some French fries, because he knew how much his young son loved French fries.

1. The boy was elated at his father’s offer, and so they drove to McDonalds.

2. As they placed their order, the young son was surprised when his father told the lady behind the counter to super-size those fries, giving the boy the largest size of fries available.

3. When they sat down in their booth and began enjoying the food, the boy’s father reached out to help himself to one of his son’s French fries, and the boy blocked his father’s hand, saying, “These fries are mine, not yours.”

4. How incredulous is that! Think about it for a moment…

a. Who’s suggestion was it to go get some fries? The Dad’s.

b. Who’s car did they drive to the restaurant and who paid for the gas in the car? The Dad.

c. Who offered to get the super-size of fries, and then who paid for them? The Dad.

d. Yes, the father then gave them to the son, but who’s were they to begin with? The Dad’s.

B. I wonder if that’s not how God feels sometimes.

1. I wonder if that’s not the attitude and actions we sometimes display toward God.

2. Who has supplied us with everything we are and everything we have? God has.

3. And then when God asks that we give some back or allow Him to take some away, what is our reaction?

4. I’ll let you answer that question for yourself.

C. As we will see from today’s story, King David enjoyed giving to the Lord.

1. He really had the right perspective on things – He understood where they came from and he understood how to use them.

2. Let’s take a look at this story of joyful givers and see what lessons we can learn from them.

I. The Story

A. The events described for us in 1 Chronicles 29 stand as the supreme spiritual pinnacle of David’s life.

1. I wish that the narrative of his illustrious life could have ended here, but it did not as we will see in our next couple of sermons.

2. Nevertheless, David deserves our respect and applause for the magnificent achievements recorded here in this chapter.

B. The story begins: Then King David said to the whole assembly: “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the LORD God. With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God—gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble—all of these in large quantities. Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings, for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the LORD” (1 Chron. 29:1-5)

1. It must have stunned and surprised those present at this gathering when David described all that had been done to gather building materials for the temple.

2. David made no bones about the fact that this project had been one of his foremost concerns.

3. He had applied all his might and influence to the project.

4. David did all of this because he loved the Lord so much and was so grateful for what God had done in his life.

5. To demonstrate to his people the depths of his devotion to God, David then openly declared, without fanfare, exactly what he himself was giving to God for the temple project.

6. He was not trying to be sensational, rather he was just being honest and sincere as he set an example for the nation.

C. The value of the gifts that David gave is staggering.

1. In addition to bronze, iron, wood, onyx, marble, turquoise and other precious stones, David gave 3,000 talents of gold – that’s about 110 tons – that’s 220,000 pounds of gold!

2. David gave 7,000 talents of silver – that’s about 260 tons – that’s 520,000 pounds of silver!

3. Now keep in mind that David didn’t have to give this much.

4. He could have held on to it for himself and his enormous family, but he didn’t.