9 “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. 10 Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.” …20 David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished. 1 Chronicles 28
David wanted to build the temple, he wanted to be the man who created a permanent home for the Ark that was precious to him and his people. God had other plans and informed David that because he was a warrior and had shed blood the honor of being the temple builder would fall to his son Solomon. The above advice was given to Solomon by David before construction began. Solomon spent 7 years building a home for the Ark that lasted about 400 years.
Today we have no beautiful, elaborately decorated building to “work for the service” of. There is no longer a physical building to store the ark, for that matter we don’t even know where the ark is currently resting. However, we do have a temple that we should be building.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
So, the advice that David gave to Solomon applies to us as well. Let us look a little closer at the advice.
“acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind” I feel safe in saying that all of us sitting here acknowledge God. I also feel safe in saying that we don’t always serve him with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind. Do you, without reservation, commit yourself to serving him and His way of life with a willing mind? I believe I can answer for each of us when I say no. We have let things get in the way of our service. Bitterness, other tasks, pride, loneliness take your pick. David tells us that God searches our hearts and understands our desires and thoughts. He understands our desire to feel appreciated for what we are doing, to have someone acknowledge our efforts. He understands why we make excuses to not serve. But notice that David doesn’t say that it is okay to not serve because of these things, he tells us to seek the Lord.
Not sure what you should be doing? Seek the Lord. He isn’t trying to hide your purpose from you, He is just waiting for you to ask. It may not be glamorous, it may not be fun, and it may not be what you thought you should be doing. Then again it may be some or all of those things. What is important is that once you ask, you listen for a response and then serve with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind. Notice it wasn’t Solomon who desired to build the house. That was David’s dream. Perhaps Solomon had his own dreams of what his service to the Lord looked like. Maybe he thought he would lead God’s people into a time of peace. Or maybe he didn’t even want to be king and he hoped that his brother, who traditionally should be king, would be king so that he could sit back out of the spot light and enjoy a relatively worry free life. God had other plans though, and Solomon was appointed to build the temple. David tells Solomon to be strong and do the work. Don’t complain about not getting what you wanted. Don’t try to get out of it and tell yourself that someone else is just as capable and probably has more time or more skill to do the job. Don’t let the people that are whispering that you are going to fail affect you. Just be strong and do the work.
I say the same to you. You are building a temple today. And when your temple is completed you will be taken from this life. Be strong and DO THE WORK. Find the time and the way to serve in the building of the temple. Study God’s word, pray and seek his plan for you. Ask to see God’s blueprints for this temple rather than trying to haphazardly put it together on your own. Quit complaining about it being hard, quit making excuses about why you didn’t do such and such. It is going to be hard, not going to lie to you. And you will have periods in your life where your service in building this temple is painful, difficult, and will require you to sacrifice. But here is the thing. Your temple, you, are only a piece of the puzzle.
When you are strong and do your work, then others can do theirs as well. Solomon didn’t single handedly build the temple. He probably didn’t ever move a stone, weave a cloth, refine the metals, or craft any of the decorations. It took a LOT of people to build the temple. If Solomon hadn’t done his work then others would not have had the finances, the materials, the inclination to do theirs. God is working towards a much bigger temple in this world. One that involves all of us. And if you don’t do your part, you may be making someone elses work more difficult. I won’t say impossible because we know that God will make a way for His will to be done. However, I firmly believe that we can, and do, put up roadblocks on the easy paths by refusing to do things God’s way and insisting on doing them ours. That makes the work of others more difficult as they now have to tear down the roadblock we have created.
So what is your service? Is it a children’s ministry? Then Do the Work with wholehearted devotion. Is it music? Do the work. Is it cleaning the church? Just do the work. Is it encouraging others? Do the work. Is it ministry? Do the work. Is it being a wife? Or maybe being a mother? Just do the work. God is with you, and He will be until your temple is built. He sees what you are doing, even if no one else comments on it. He sees your struggles, He sees your heart, and he loves you. You are never alone in His service.
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