tommygoodesermon

David, at the end of his life, wanted to build a temple for God but was told he couldn't. Instead, he made preparations for his son Solomon to build it. David gathered materials and made sure everything was ready. The question is, who is willing to consecrate their service to the Lord? We have all the necessary things to build God's house, but we need dedication. We need to take a stand and be willing to serve God wholeheartedly. The leaders must be willing and the people will follow. When the people offered themselves willingly, they rejoiced. We need to offer ourselves to God and be willing to work for Him in any capacity. I find that in the lives of people, they have already experienced the things that we experience daily and they give us a record in black and white, in understandable reading, that we can look to for help in knowing what to do in order to best serve our Lord. We find that in 1 Chronicles, that's where I want to begin, 1 Chronicles, the 29th chapter, and we'll read the 5th, 6th, 9th, and 10th verses. 1 Chronicles, chapter 29, what we find here is David is coming to the end of his life, King David, coming to the end of his life, and he's made all the preparations to build the temple. And the Lord has told David that you can't build the temple because you've shed too much blood, you've been a man of war, and you can't build the temple. But Solomon, your son, can build it. And David so desired to see the work of the Lord accomplished, this particular work, the house of God filled, that he made all the preparations for Solomon. He gathered the material, he secured the work, he provided for all the necessary things in which to give Solomon control over to build the temple. Alright, in the 6th verse now, or rather the 5th verse, he says, the gold are things of gold, and the silver are things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hand of Christ, and in this last sentence, and who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord. Now I want us to pray before doing any further prayer. Our Father and Lord, we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity this week we've had to preach your word. Lord, how we thank you for the calling in our lives, in the lives of Arnold and of all the others that you have called into this wonderful service. Lord, that it's the most desired office that man can hold, to be your ministry, to be your provision. Lord, we realize the responsibility of it. Now, again, we come to stand and speak for you, or allow you to speak for yourself. Father, we just pray that you will take these words of yours, and the thoughts of my heart and mind, and put them together in a message that you have us to keep. Lord, open our hearts and our minds just now and still at this time of your presence. For us to be in a worshipful attitude. Father, we might truly uplift you, we might truly come to face-to-face, to a face-to-face encounter, just as I have come to do, and that was to see you, Lord, and that was to see you, I, in your vision. Lord, this is our prayer for this church, for this church. Lord, just have this revival begin here. Have these efforts stop right here inside this building. Give him power. Give him wisdom, heart, and reason. Give him life. Give him steadfast faith. Give him hope. Give him faith. Give him, Father, all the grace and courage to stand up when he knows he's dead. Bless his family, Lord. Keep them, watch over them, connect with them, guide them, prepare them for his ministry. Lord, we might feel better tomorrow, after eight or seven days. Bless his church, Lord, as they stand behind him, as they hold him up. They listen to the messages he preaches. And, Father, let it get through him, through him, through all of you in this community. May they work together, Lord, as we work together. Let this not be time for you to do the good things we do. All these so many things, Lord, we pray for in this church. Take our hearts and pray for all of us. Well, we find that David has prepared all the things, and we have a list there of all the many materials that he has. All of it has been prepared. But the question that I want us to know is the last one there, or the question there in the last part of chapter 5. Who, then, is willing to consecrate a service to David for all? Well, as we think about the building of the temple, the materials were made ready. They were all gathered together in the circle's top. They were ready to be formed in cards, and hammered, and sawed, and into the needed objects in order to build the construction of the temple, laying foundations, decorating. We have here in this church all the necessary things with which to build up God's house. We have the materials. We have, first of all, and most important of all, God's Word right here. We have the building facilities. We have the educational materials and help. We have all that is necessary. We have the manpower. We have the place to work. Already we have the diagram of the work that needs to be done, of the building that needs to be built. We have all of these things ready, except I think the question still needs to be asked to you. If I were in my church, I'd ask it to them, that this is, and the question is this, that who's willing to consecrate a service to this sacrifice unto the Lord? All week long, we've been working and striving and praying for a revival to break out. I hope it's broken out in your heart. I hope it has started. I hope the spark's been kindled in every one of your hearts. I hope that it's started there. And I hope that it will continue, but I think that we must take a stand. Every person must finally come to grips and take a stand, as Moses calls the children of Israel, to take a stand, either on one side or the other. All those that are on God's side, he said, come over here and stand with me. And I think this is what's needed here in Brother's Chapel, is for all those that say that they are on the Lord's side to take a stand for him. Take a stand for him. Take a stand for him on Monday morning. Get up in the morning on your knees and then let God lift you to an upright position, that you may go through the day strengthened and ready for whatever opportunity you may come up and to grips with. Wherever open door that you have open in your day tomorrow and the days ahead, every person needs to be willing then to consecrate a service to the Lord this day. For without a consecrated service of the people, there'll never be any progress toward the building up of the Church of God, which is right here in Tel Aviv. Just as if the people hadn't been willing and to come together for the building of the Temple of God that Solomon built, there would never have been one stone laid, there would have never been a foundation formed, there would never have been walls put up or a roof put on it or steps put up to it or the beautiful decorations that are on it. There would never have been the first thing accomplished, even though all the materials were ready, even though everything was made ready and everything that was needed to work with within a month and had been provided for was given off, there would never have been a house of God. And I want to tell you that you have done work here at this place. You have taken advantage of the materials that have been provided for you to deal this room to the Lord. Some of you may not have done so much as others. Some of you may not be able to do as much as others. But you need to do all that is in your power for God right here. And I think tonight would be a good time to decide that I am willing, I am willing right now to concentrate my service to the gospel, to the Lord, and let him use it. Now to me, that would tell me in 1974 in a Baptist church that it would be that the leaders of the people came together and said, yes, we are willing. The willingness must start at the top and it must go all the way down. The willingness must start with the leadership and then spread throughout the country. If the leaders of the people hadn't been willing, the people would never have fallen into the service and the work of building the temple. Because the leaders said, yes, we will take a stand. We are willing right now to offer ourselves and our services to this cause. You will always find that the greatest armies were no different than the worst armies except for the leadership. A great captain could lead any army into victory if he was the right kind of leader, if he had the right spirit, if he had the victory in his eyes, in his sight. If he could see winning and not losing, he could motivate the people into winning. So it is with God's work we are in a business of warfare, warring against principalities and powers in high places and low places, warring against lust of the flesh, warring against unconcern, warring against all the things that enter God's work. The leadership must be there. The leadership must be willing. The leadership must take a stand and say, yes, I'm willing. I get to see the victory. Just as these people probably could feature in their minds the erected temple of God, a place that was worthy of God's presence, of fighting with Him and around it. All right, then he says in the ninth verse, then the people rejoiced. For they offered willingly because with perfect heart they offered willingness to the Lord. And David the king also rejoiced with great joy. Now, after the leader said, yes, yes, we offer ourselves, we take our stand, we do it openly, we don't do it hidden. We don't do it in a closet. You pray in your closet, but you serve God in the world for a different sin. You go home and you meditate in silence, but you proclaim God's message on the hilltops and on the housetops where all can be. You serve your Lord outwardly as well as inwardly. Then the people rejoiced and they said, for they offered willingly because with perfect heart they offered willingness to the Lord. With a perfect heart, not with any reservation, not with any evasion, nothing at all, but they offered themselves. Here, my Lord, take me in you. If I can carry brick, let me carry brick. If I can mix mortar, let me mix mortar. If I can drive name a spike, let me drive spike. If I can hold a plumb line, let me hold a plumb line. If I can lay brick, let me lay brick. If I can be a leader, let me be a leader. But they said, I'm willing to work, God, for you. I think that right now, here tonight, that's what's needed. If you can carry brick and that's all you can do, carry brick. But if you can lead, lead, be a leader. If you can mix mortar, that will serve him. And that would be love outflowing throughout the people here in the church, the people surrounding the church, the love of God working through you that would mortar it together, the stone, the people, the building, the church of Christ. If you can lay the foundation or build upon the foundation which has already been laid, which would be a working of a spiritual status of living, our way of life that is uplifting not only to yourself but supports other people as well, then you do that. If you can direct the work, then be a director. But take your heart. There's work for all of us. There's need in every facet of life. And we find that it says the king of joy, great joy. Today, to me, this would be thinking about Feathers Chapel tonight, 1974. When the commission was sent forward, when the call was sent forward, the question was put to Feathers Chapel Church, that would you consecrate your service this day to the Lord and the leadership to him? Tonight, I'll consecrate my service to God. And the people rejoiced and said, yes, with a perfect heart, not holding back, just as I am. I'll give myself to the service of God. Then Jesus, the king of all, will rejoice. They'll be rejoicing in the Lord tonight. They'll be rejoicing by the Lord tonight. His people will come together with a perfect heart and a perfect heart saying, yes, we'll work. Yes, we'll work together. We'll consecrate our service to the Lord. We find that there are many things in the Bible that cause us to want to be, to realize where we've come to, where we are established, how far we've gone. I don't know how much we've accomplished this week in Revival effort. I don't know how many decisions have been made other than these that have come up. I don't know what your relationship to Christ is, whether it's a bit better or whether it's worse than it was the first night of the Revival. But I have faith in God to know that it can't be any worse because his word has been proclaimed. You've heard it. It has to have an effect on you. So then I believe that we've come so far, however far you've come, however far you've come in giving yourself to God this week, however far you've released your own self and said, here, dear Lord, take me and use me, however far you've decided to go to the Lord in this church, in this place, under this leadership with the things and tools and instruments and materials you have right here to work with to carry this gospel message right here around the church. First at home, in Jerusalem, and then throughout Judea, here in your county, here in your association, through your associational work, and then next into Samaria, into your state missions, through the state mission work, into all the world, through farm mission efforts, and you can do it right here through Feathers Chapel Church. And you may never be called into a mission field, but if you're not missionary minded, if you're not willing to send your dollar to Korea, or if you're not willing to send your dollar to the state missions, or if you're not willing to spend your time and your dollar and spend it right here at home, then you're on a mission. You're on a mission. God's call has never been reached to you. You never felt in your heart there was a need to do anything. We find that the Bible teaches us to be missionaries. Each missionary is home. Missionaries are home. And we can do it, you can do it, right here. Then we find, in 1 Samuel 7, verse 9, a story, a chapter, a story, a poem about the Israelite. And Samuel was feeding them as their judge, and he was feeding them in war, and they were in combat with the Philistines, and the Philistines, you know, they were a terrible bunch of folks. Why, they just aggravated the Israelites today. They'd run in, and they'd take their city, and take all the spoils, and they'd run back out again. And they just continually, periodically, would run in and cause havoc and trouble across the land. They'd run out, and they'd given the Israelites all kinds of mischief. And here we find that Samuel offered a tank of burnt offering to the Lord, and he prayed that God would help them in this battle against the Philistines. And as they won the battle then, it says that Samuel, well we'll read the 9th verse. Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering a burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to the battle against Israel, and the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and rooted them, and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them until they came to Bethlehem. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shem, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, He thereto hath the Lord helped him. Now let's go back to verse 9 just a minute. It says that Samuel took a lamb and offered it a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. Now there were a lot of offerings that... The End