{"id":4182,"date":"2019-08-05T20:00:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T03:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=4182"},"modified":"2019-08-04T17:29:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T00:29:33","slug":"1chronicles_29_10-20-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1chronicles_29_10-20-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Wealth Is From God and For God"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p>1 Chronicles 29:10-20 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1+Chronicles+29%3A10-20&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4183 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/190806.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/190806.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/190806-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/190806-450x225.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s passage is 1 Chronicles 29:10-20.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1 Chronicles 29:10 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<sup>10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0David praised the\u00a0LORD\u00a0in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, &#8220;Praise be to you, O\u00a0LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On verse 10-13:\u00a0\u00a0Having given the most personal and precious offering he has ever given, and having seen how his officials and the people respond in kind by giving willingly and generously toward the building of the temple as well, David praises God.\u00a0\u00a0Notice a few things about how David praises God:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>David is the king of Israel, the most powerful man in his country, and yet David says to God, \u201cYours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor\u2026Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.\u201d (v11)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>David is the richest man in his nation, who has come from the humble beginnings of working as a poor shepherd boy to ruling as the king of Israel.\u00a0\u00a0Yet instead of attributing his wealth and power to his own hard work, David says to God, \u201cWealth and honor come from you\u201d (v12).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0No matter how powerful you get, always remember that God is the truly powerful one and all power comes from Him.\u00a0\u00a0No matter how wealthy you get, never forget that all wealth comes from God and that it is the Lord we are to thank for the blessings in our lives.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1 Chronicles 29:14-16 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<sup>14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0&#8220;But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.<br \/>\n<sup>15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.<br \/>\n<sup>16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0O\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On verses 14-16:\u00a0\u00a0David considers it an honour and a privilege to give toward the building of the temple.\u00a0\u00a0David also realizes that everything he and his people have offered to God is only what \u201ccomes from your hand\u201d (v14, 16).\u00a0\u00a0In other words,\u00a0<strong>there is no offering you can give to God which God did not originally give to you.\u00a0\u00a0When you give to God, you\u2019re simply giving back to God a small portion of what He has given you.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Tithing is kind of like a father who gives his child 10 coins and asks his child to give him back one.\u00a0\u00a0In our childishness we are tempted to think, \u201cBut if I give you one, I\u2019ll only have 9 left!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Instead whenever we are challenged to tithe or to give, may we have this attitude, \u201cWell, all I have is from God anyway and He is able to give me far more than anything I could ever give Him, so why not give Him everything He asks for and more.\u00a0\u00a0My hope is not in wealth.\u00a0\u00a0My hope is in my Heavenly Father who owns all wealth.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Since our Heavenly Father loves us too much not to take care of us, let\u2019s give to Him give freely, willingly, generously and wholeheartedly, knowing that all wealth is from Him and for Him anyway.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1 Chronicles 29:17-19 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<sup>17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. &#8220;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On verses 17-19:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I read these words from David, my mind flashes back to some key moments from David\u2019s life:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>That time when God rejects Saul and says that He was now on the lookout for a man after his own\u00a0<em>heart\u00a0<\/em>(1 Samuel\u00a013:14).<\/li>\n<li>That time when the prophet Samuel was about to pass David by when looking for Israel\u2019s next king, but then God says to Samuel, \u201cMan looks at the appearance of things.\u00a0\u00a0God looks at the\u00a0<em>heart<\/em>.\u201d (1 Samuel 16:7)<\/li>\n<li>That time later in life when David wrongly counts the fighting men because his heart was in the wrong place (1 Chronicles 21).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now here in these verses, we find David speaking so much about the condition of his heart and the condition of his people\u2019s hearts.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s because David, after all these years, realizes how important the heart is to God.\u00a0\u00a0So he says to God, \u201cI know that You test the\u00a0<em>heart<\/em>\u00a0and love integrity.\u201d (v17)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then after seeing how his people have generously offered toward the temple, David prays to God that God would \u201ckeep this desire in the\u00a0<em>hearts<\/em>\u00a0of your people and keep their\u00a0<em>hearts\u00a0<\/em>loyal to you\u201d (v18).\u00a0\u00a0And then David prays that his son Solomon would keep God\u2019s commands with \u201cwhole<em>hearted\u00a0<\/em>devotion\u201d (v19).<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s going on here?\u00a0\u00a0David has learned \u2013 and I hope you and I would learn too \u2013 that\u00a0<strong>when it comes to loving God and leading people, the condition of your heart is the most important thing<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0May you be a man or a woman after God\u2019s own heart.\u00a0\u00a0That doesn\u2019t mean you never make mistakes.\u00a0\u00a0Rather to be a man or a woman after God\u2019s own heart is to truly want to honour God from your heart, and whenever you mess up, to never stop running back to God for mercy.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1 Chronicles 29:20 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<sup>20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then David said to the whole assembly, &#8220;Praise the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God.&#8221; So they all praised the\u00a0LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and the king.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On verse 20:\u00a0\u00a0David and the whole assembly have just offered their wealth in worship to God.\u00a0\u00a0Now they\u2019re offering their bodies to God in worship, bowing low and falling prostrate before Him.\u00a0\u00a0What can we learn from this?\u00a0<strong>True worship begins with the heart, but then it quickly overflows into the way we use our wallets and our bodies.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0We worship God with our wallets.\u00a0\u00a0We also worship God with our bodies.\u00a0<strong>\u00a0Like David and his people, may we unashamedly bow before God and offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Him (Romans 12:1-2).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Heavenly Father, thank You for showing me today how much You focus on the heart and not just appearances.\u00a0\u00a0May I be a person after Your own heart and may that be reflected in how I generously give to Your church (since everything I have comes from You anyway).\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s passage is 1 Chronicles 29:10-20.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n<p>1 Chronicles 29:10 (NIV)\u00a0<br \/>\n10\u00a0\u00a0David praised the\u00a0LORD\u00a0in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, &#8220;Praise be to you, O\u00a0LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.<\/p>\n<p>On verse 10-13:\u00a0\u00a0Having given the most personal and precious offering he has ever given, and having seen how his officials and the people respond in kind by giving willingly and generously toward the building of the temple as well, David praises God.\u00a0\u00a0Notice a few things about how David praises God:<\/p>\n<p>David is the king of Israel, the most powerful man in his country, and yet David says to God, \u201cYours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor\u2026Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.\u201d (v11)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4184,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4182\/revisions\/4184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}