20260208 William

This information highlights the importance of being vigilant and faithful as believers. It emphasizes the dangers of carelessness and forgetting God's ownership and ultimate authority. Through David's prayer and Paul and Peter's teachings, it stresses the significance of building a life based on faithfulness and being prepared for Christ's return. The message underscores that everything will be tested, and only what is done in faithfulness will endure. It prompts believers to consider their actions and mindset in light of eternity. And I want to talk about a danger that we all face as believers today. It's not about us rebelling against God, but about carelessness. It's not about denying God, but solely forgetting who He is and what He owns and where all of this, this life is going. Carelessness is not dangerous because it doesn't feel sinful. It just feels normal. This afternoon, I want us to start off with a prayer, a prayer that really reorients the heart, a prayer that reminds us of who God is, of who we are, and what faithfulness actually looks like. And then we're going to walk forward and ask, what are we building, what will remain, and how we should live, knowing what is to come. And so the prayer I would like to look at is in 1 Chronicles chapter 29. We'll be beginning at verse 10. And this is David's prayer at the end of his life, after giving willingly toward the temple. At verse 10, it reads, Blessed are you, O Lord, God of Israel, our Father forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name. Truth about who God is is meant to lead us somewhere. David starts where we all must start, that God owns everything, that God rules everything, and that God deserves our thanksgiving and our praise. And if that's true, and it certainly is, then ownership is settled before obedience is ever discussed. That means that our time is his, that our strength is his, that our work is his, and that our lives are just borrowed. As we continue into verse 14, But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and of your own we have given you. David is saying, we didn't give you anything you didn't already have. I think that sentence right there, it really kills pride at the root of it all. It leaves no room for boasting in our service and our sacrifice or our faithfulness. We don't impress God by working for him. We honor God by being faithful with what he already, with what already belongs to him. In verse 15, We are aliens and pilgrims before you, as were all our fathers. Our days on earth are as a shadow and without hope. David isn't saying that life is meaningless here. He's saying that life is brief and borrowed, that we are temporary, that this world is not our home, and that nothing here is, in fact, permanent. That reality frames everything we give and everything we build. In verse 16, Our Lord, O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name is from your hand and is all your own. Even the abundance meant for worship comes from God first. Nothing offered to him originally comes from God. Even the abundance meant for worship comes from God first. Nothing offered to him originates with us. In verse 17, I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me and the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these things. And now with joy, I have seen your people who are present here to offer willingly to you. God isn't impressed with the size of our gifts. He's pleased with the condition of our hearts. David acknowledges something every believer must remember, that God tests our hearts, that he delights in our uprightness. And God sees not just what is given, but why it is given. And that's why Paul will talk about fire. And that's why Peter will talk about holiness. Because God has always cared about the heart beneath the work. In verse 18, as we continue, O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of your people and fix their heart toward you. And give my son Solomon a loyal heart to keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes. David doesn't pray for comfort here. He prays for a fixed heart. Because everything that follows in life depends on what the heart is fixed on. So David reminds us that God owns everything, that life is brief, and that the heart must be fixed. Paul picks up with that same truth, but asks us a sharper question. What are you building with what God has given you? What are you building with what God has given you? In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, starting at verse 10, we see this responsibility that's been given to us according to grace. At verse 10, it reads, According to the grace of God, which has given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. Let each one take heed how he builds on it. Not if you are building, Paul says, but how you're building. Grace gives us the opportunity. We know that the foundation is already laid and that responsibility lies in how we build. We see that Christianity isn't passive and that salvation does not cancel out our accountability. In verse 11, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. This is not about whether you are on the foundation. This is about what kind of structure your life is producing on that foundation. In verse 12, Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire. Paul's not ranking these materials by their visibility but by their survivability. We know that the fire doesn't destroy us, it reveals what we've lived for. If the fire passed through my calendar, through my priorities, through my speech, through my choices, what would remain? In verse 14, If anyone's work which has been built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved. Yet so as through fire. And so Paul asks, What are you building? Peter, he presses a little further, and he asks, Do you realize what's coming? In 2 Peter, in chapter 3, starting at verse 3, Peter's writing to believers, not to skeptics who are growing comfortable. Not rebellious, they're just settled. In verse 3, it reads, Knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lust, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. Now, scoffers' argument is simple here, that nothing has changed, nothing seems urgent, that nothing really matters. And Peter makes this clear, their problem is not ignorance, it's desire. That they walk according to their own lust, and they adjust their theology to match their lifestyle. And we see that delay here is breeding to carelessness, and patience is not permission, but risk. In verse 5, For they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. Peter says they willfully forget, and that God has already intervened once, that creation happened by his word, and judgment happens by his word. And the same word that created and judged is the word now reserving this world, reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. God is not absent, God is not idle, God is patient and precise. In verse 8, But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Time does not limit God. Urgency does not pressure Him. The Lord is not slack, verse 9, concerning His promise, but is long-suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This is not delay, this is mercy. Every day Christ has not returned, another day of repentance is possible. God's patience is an expression of His love, but that love aims at repentance, not comfort. In verse 10, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Sudden, unavoidable, and final. Nothing hidden, nothing casual, and nothing temporary will survive. Verse 11, Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be? Holy conduct and godliness. You know, this may be the most searching questions in all of Scripture, not because it's complex, but because it's unavoidable. You know, if everything we see is passing, and how we live now matters eternally. Verse 12, Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Fire does not just destroy, but reveal. God is not ending things arbitrarily, He is making room for righteousness to dwell wholly. Verse 14, Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. That let language should sound familiar. Diligence, peace, purity, readiness. And consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, that God's patience is not passive, that it's purposeful. And I think this brings us back to David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 29, verse 17. I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. Peter says that fire will test the world, and David says God tests the heart. Same God, the same holiness, same desire. Not merely that we build, but that we be found upright, willing, and ready when He comes. So to close, David reminds us who owns everything. Paul warned us that what we build matters, and Peter urged us to live ready. That everything will be tested, that everything temporary will pass, and only what is done in faithfulness will remain. Are you building with eternity in mind? Are you waiting passively or living diligently? If you've never obeyed the gospel, this patience of God is for you. If you are a Christian who has grown careless, the call is not shame, it is repentance and renewal. God is patient, but the day is coming. We can help you respond in any way that you let us know.