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May 19, 2024 13 mins

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As we journey through the pages of 2 Chronicles 2, we're reminded that excellence is not just an option, but our calling when it comes to honoring God. In our latest episode, "Only the Best for the King," I take inspiration from Solomon's ambitious preparations to build the temple, using the finest materials and the most skilled craftsmen. It's a poignant reminder that our worship and service to God should mirror the best of our abilities and resources. Reflecting on this dedication, we're encouraged to assess our own commitment to excellence in every act of service to the Lord, recognizing that it's not just about the grand gestures but also about the sincerity of our daily offerings.

Moving from the tangible to the spiritual, the next segment, "Celebrating God's Faithfulness," is a time of heartfelt gratitude where we recognize the steadfast love and presence God offers. The assurance that comes from 2 Chronicles 16:9, where the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him, becomes the cornerstone of our discussion. I leave you with a prayer and a promise: to continue unwrapping the gifts of wisdom found in 2 Chronicles, with the next episode poised to venture into chapter 3, all while fostering a life that is a living act of worship fitting for our King.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, 2 Chronicles 2, andtoday's title is Only the Best
for the King.
Only the Best for the King.
I don't know about you, buthave you ever been in a
situation where it was gettinglate in the day or toward the
end of a project and you findyourself wanting to cut a corner

(00:22):
here or there and go?
You know what.
It's fine, They'll understand,you know whatever, but you had
that one annoying person thatsays no, if we're going to do it
right, let's do it right, or ifwe're going to do it, let's do
it right.
You ever had that person?
Have you ever been that person?
Can I tell you, you get on allof our nerves, but we're so
thankful for you.
We need people to remind us tostay the course, because when

(00:46):
you've decided to do something,you might as well go all the way
right.
Well, we're going to get intothat in just a moment, but if
you like what we're doing here,make sure you like, share us,
subscribe to the YouTube channeland the podcast.
Thank you so much for some ofyou who have just been adding to
those five-star reviews, andthank you so much for your
encouragement.
It really means a lot.
There's more people than justme in front of this camera that
make all this happen, and we'redoing it number one as an act of

(01:06):
worship to God and faithfulnessto Him, but also because we
love you.
We love getting a chance to dothis together.
So thank you for yourfaithfulness and coming back and
engaging with God's Word withall of us every day.
Also, be sure you go to theBible Breakdown Discussion,
where we are writing journalsnot journals devotions every
single day.
There's an amazing team ofpeople.
They are doing wonderful andyou really owe it to yourself to

(01:29):
read those devotions everysingle day.
Okay, all right.
Well, if you have your Bibles.
I want to open up with me to 2Chronicles, 2.
Remember, this was most likelywritten by a priest, a scribe,
named Ezra, and he is writing tothe nation of Israel as they're
coming back from Babyloniancaptivity, and he's reminding
them that man, when God is withus man he is, he's going to be

(01:52):
with us, and all he asks for usis to be faithful.
We said the theme was God iswith those who are faithful, and
so what we're going to see isis as Solomon in the last
chapter.
He has risen to the challengeand he's asked God, help me be
faithful with what you put infront of me.
And then God does.
God gives him all these otherthings he didn't ask for.
And as he is starting to befaithful, he's honoring God with

(02:14):
the very best that he can find.
And so, if you also rememberfrom the end of 1 Chronicles, he
got the pattern for how tobuild a temple from his father
David.
He got most of the money thathe's using from David and David
asking the nation to give to thebuilding of the temple.
So now everything is ready.
Here he goes and he's going toget started, and only the best

(02:36):
for the king you ready.
Second Chronicles, chapter two,verse one, says this Solomon
decided to build the temple tohonor the name of the Lord and
also a royal palace for himself.
He enlisted a force of 70,000laborers, 80,000 men to quarry
stone in the hill country and3,600 foremen.
Solomon also sent this messageto King Hiram at Tyre Send me

(03:02):
cedar logs, as you did for myfather David when he was
building his palace.
I am about to build a temple tohonor the name of the Lord, my
God.
He will be a place set apartfor burnt offerings of fragrant
incense before him and todisplay the special sacrificial
bread and to sacrifice burntofferings each morning and
evening, on the Sabbath and atnew moon celebrations and at the

(03:26):
other appointed festivals forthe Lord, our God.
He has commanded Israel to dothese things forever.
In other words, we've got a lotof worshiping to do, so.
We need us a place to get ourworship on.
So here we go.
Verse 5.
This must be a magnificenttemple, because God is greater
than all other gods.
But who can really build him aworthy home?

(03:48):
Not even the highest of heavenscan contain him.
So who am I to consider abuilding for, or to consider
building a temple for him,except as a place to burn
sacrifices to him?
So, in other words, he's sayingthere's no way I can build
anything worthy of him.
I'm just gonna do the best Ican and we'll see how it goes.

(04:19):
Verse 7.
And Jerusalem, who wereselected by my father, david,
also send me cedar, cypress andred sandalwood logs from Lebanon
, for I know that your men arewithout equal at cutting timber
in Lebanon.
I will send my men to help.
An immense amount of timberwill be needed for the temple I
am going to build will be verylarge and magnificent.

(04:42):
In payment for your woodcutters, I will send 100,000 bushels of
crushed wheat, 100,000 bushelsof barley, 110 gallons of wine
and 110 gallons of olive oil.
So, in other words, they'regonna be well fed and they's
gonna be drunk, but they'regonna have a good time getting
ready to build the temple.
Let's carry on.
Verse 11.
King Hiram sent this letter toreply to Solomon.

(05:05):
It is because the Lord loveshis people that he has made you
their king.
Praise the Lord, the God ofIsrael, who made the heavens and
the earth.
He has given King David a wiseson gifted with skill and
understanding, who will build atemple for the Lord and a royal
palace for himself.
I am sending you a mastercraftsman named Hurim Abi, who

(05:28):
is extremely talented.
His mother is from the tribe ofDan in Israel and his father is
from Tyre.
He is skillful at making thingsof gold, silver, bronze and
iron, and he also works withstone and wood.
He can work with purple, blueand scarlet cloth and fine linen
.
He is also an engraver and canfollow any design given to him.

(05:51):
He will work with yourcraftsmen and those who are
appointed by my Lord, david,your father, send along the
wheat, the barley, the olive oiland the wine that the Lord has
mentioned.
We will cut whatever timber youneed from the Lebanon mountains
and float the logs in raftsdown to the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea, to Joppa.
From there you can transportthe logs up to Jerusalem.

(06:14):
Solomon took a census of allforeigners in the land of Israel
, like the census his father hadtaken, and he counted 153,600.
He assigned 70,000 of them.
So a couple of things.
First of all, you think thatpoor craftsman guy had a little
pressure on him.

(06:34):
He comes in and his king hassaid he can do anything.
Can you do this?
Sure, I can.
They didn't have YouTube backthen, so I don't know what he
did, but a little pressure onhim.
Second thing is is if you'repaying attention and I know that
you are I love all thequestions you guys send me, so
please keep sending them.
You can send them and put themon YouTube and all this good
stuff.
But you notice how, when Davidtook a census like he's talking

(06:58):
about, David got in trouble andhe faced judgment.
But this time Solomon took acensus and he didn't get in
trouble.
Do you notice the difference.
The difference is David countedall the nation of Israel, which
is what God told the kings notto do.
Solomon did not take a census ofthe people of Israel.
He took a census of all theforeigners in the land, because

(07:18):
foreigners were most of the time, the kind of people that would
work in this way.
A lot of times, if you're fromthere, you already had your
farms and your different placeswhere you had to work.
But if you're a farmer or,excuse me a foreigner, you're
not connected to the land in anykind of way and so you would be
willing to go in to do this.
So you're not.
Don't just think about forcedlabor, but you also think of
people who are available andwould want this kind of work,

(07:40):
that they could go and do that.
So there was the differencebetween the two.
But as we get ready to finishour time together, I want to ask
you a question.
We talked about first that wecall this title only the best
for the king.
And notice how Solomon he'swriting to this other king and
he's saying I want to build anamazing temple to worship the
Lord.

(08:00):
And notice this doesn'tnecessarily say that this other
king worshiped God, worshipedYahweh.
He might have been worshipingsome pagan, whatever, but
Solomon says my God is thegreatest God.
There's no God above him.
So whatever you're worshiping,out with that, this is my God.
And he said the heavens ofheavens cannot contain him.

(08:20):
But I still want to give him mybest, because only the best for
my King.
And imagine that he's puttingeverything on the line to give
God his best and watch what Godhas given him in return, so much
more than he could haveimagined.
Psalm has gone down in historyas one of the most wealthy, one
of the most wise, one of themost wise, one of the most

(08:42):
amazing people to ever live, andI wonder how much of it had to
do with the humbleness that hisheart started with.
I just want to be faithful towhat's been given, and then I
want to give God my very best.
So I want to ask you thisquestion, and it's a piercing
question you must think aboutAre you giving God your best
with what you have?
Can I tell you God doesn't wantyou to give what you don't have

(09:03):
.
So you never feel bad aboutgiving God something you don't
possess, but what God does askyou to be faithful with is what
you have Now remember.
It's got nothing to do with thefact that God needs anything.
God doesn't need anything.
He created all of this,everything that is, with inside
space and time and all of thedifferent dimensions that we
have.
He's made all of it.

(09:24):
He needs nothing.
So giving God our best has lessto do with his need and more
about our need Our opportunityto show him love, our
opportunity to show himfaithfulness, our opportunity to
put ourselves in position tothen receive the goodness of God
in our life.
What does this look like?
Well, there's three areas thatwe can give our best to God our

(09:46):
time, our talent and ourtreasure.
When it comes to our time, areyou factoring in time to serve
at your local church?
Giving to someone else?
Serving is when you worship Godby ministering to someone else.
That can be anything fromserving a cup of coffee to
praying with someone teaching aclass in kids' life.
Whatever it is, whatever you'vebeen given, whatever gift

(10:06):
you've been given, serve withyour time, not just in church,
but just in life, when you taketime to pause, when you really
should get back over here, butyou pause and you talk to that
person at the store because youwant to encourage them in the
Lord, or you call someone on thephone when you rather you could
be watching Netflix, but yougive God your time.
By giving it to someone else,you can give your time, give

(10:28):
your talent.
Do you always require pay whenyou serve somebody else?
Now, that doesn't mean that youdon't deserve to be paid for
things.
I mean, that's what smallbusinesses are all about.
But there's also something tobe said for when you give to
someone asking nothing in return, do you ever serve God by
serving others with your talentsSomething to think about and
then with your treasure?

(10:49):
God asks us to give him a tithe.
Give a tithe not to the HumaneSociety, not to your favorite
missions project even thoughthose things are great and they
have their place but to giveyour tithe 10% of your income to
the local house of worship.
Wherever you call your churchhome, you give 10% there.
Why?
Why does God ask for 10%?
I think, first of all, it's notthat much.

(11:10):
God could say, give him 90 andyou keep 10, and God would be
faithful and you'd still be okay.
But I think he asked us for 10because, if you think about it,
it's just enough that we feel itIf God asked you for 1%, you
wouldn't feel it.
You just give him 1%.
10% is just enough that youhave to reorient your life a
little bit to make space for it.
That way, every time you go andyou give to God, you remember.

(11:32):
You remember him, and I thinkthat's important.
God wants to be on your mind.
You can be like, well, hey,wait a minute, now I can think
about God without giving him mymoney.
Actually, it's not his, it'snot your money, it's all his.
So he is gifting you 90% andhe's saying bring back to me 10.
90%, and he's saying bring backto me 10.
I don't need it.
I want that fellowship with you, and so I want to encourage you

(12:00):
.
Think about it.
Are you giving God your best inevery area of your life?
And if you are, then celebrateit.
Man, I'm so thankful, god, thatyou've done this in my life.
If not, take a step.
Don't take all the steps.
Take one step and watch whathappens, because, as the theme
of this overall book is and thatis that God is with those who
are faithful what next step doyou need to take?
Let's pray together.
God, thank you so much that youare so faithful to us in so many

(12:23):
ways.
I love you.
I celebrate you today.
I pray God today that you willopen the eyes of your people.
Help us see where we can takesteps of faithfulness, because,
god, when we take those steps,you reveal yourself to us more
and more and more.
And no matter how we give toyou, we can never outgive you.
Because you are so faithful andyou are so kind, and I
celebrate you today In Jesus'name, we pray Amen, amen.

(12:45):
Well, God's word says in 2Chronicles 16, verse 9, the eyes
of the Lord search the wholeearth in order to strengthen
those whose hearts are fullycommitted to him.
God sees you, god loves you,and when you show faithfulness,
you make him smile.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for 2Chronicles, chapter 3.
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