Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Last week we had the opportunity to gather if you weren't here.
[00:00:04] We gathered as one service. Usually we do a 9, 30 and 11 service but we had one Sunday where we were gathered together as the church and this place was packed out but less about being packed out but more so seeing the presence of God and people responding to the gospel and being baptized. It was just a beautiful Sunday as a family and I'm just reminded to how grateful I am for the people of God being transformed by the spirit of God and just grateful to serve and be a part of this church family.
[00:00:31] And so that's my encouragement for you. If you are a college age young adult, like don't be on the sidelines during these next couple years.
[00:00:37] Invest yourself, pray to where the Lord would have you and root yourself there and pour yourselves out with these beautiful years that are ahead of you. And we're just grateful you've chosen to be here at least this morning. But we just want to challenge you that way. We are starting a new series this week. As you saw the bumper so called Everything is God's and my heart is that this, the spirit encourages us, it convicts us of how we live and how we need to live deeper into Christ but and how God calls us and frees us to live wholeheartedly in his hands in the world.
[00:01:12] And so we are gonna be unpacking this series for the next four weeks as, as what happens when you're a first time parent. You're just trying to figure things out about how to handle a human being. And this happened 11 years ago to me when my daughter was born and I was just faking it till I make it and understanding how in the world do I parent a little child?
[00:01:35] And so my daughter was around two years old when this interaction happened. And I still remember to this day I was hanging out with her, mom was out, mom was just taking care of herself and I was playing on the ground with my daughter Aurora and, and she had these two toys in her hand and she was walking around the house just, and she would not put them down. And so I was like, you know what? This is a perfect time to share a life lesson with my 2 year old daughter that has no awareness of what this lesson's gonna mean. But I thought it was a good time, I thought it was a good time to teach her. So I said hey Aurora, can you just give me one of those toys? And then she looks at me like smirks with sass and says mein Dada.
[00:02:20] I'm like okay, you're Right.
[00:02:23] Sort of.
[00:02:24] And then I say, I want to continue this lesson. And I say, I ask again, hey, hey, Aurora, can I have one of the stories? I want to show you what it's meant for. And she grips even harder. And she says, mind Dada. And I'm like, okay, child.
[00:02:39] So I'm really on this.
[00:02:41] Hey, bud, who paid for that? You know what I mean? Like, I think she's going to comprehend this life lesson at 2.
[00:02:47] Dad actually paid for that. Dad worked for that. He provided for you in that. And he actually just wants to show you what it's designed for. So, hey, Aurora, can you give me that? And she just looks at me and I remember, no, no, no, no, no. Mine, dad. Dad, not yours. And I'm like, child. So I rip it out of her hands and she starts crying, no, I didn't do. Actually do that.
[00:03:10] But that dynamic and that example has happened before, and I just remember that so clearly. But what was my daughter experiencing in that moment?
[00:03:21] She was experiencing in her heart, by her design, that she was the owner of something that wasn't really hers.
[00:03:27] She was the owner of something. And when it got threatened, like I was gonna take something that she loved from her and really just merely to show her how it was to be used, she gripped tighter.
[00:03:38] She thought she was the owner, she was the provider. She knew what was best.
[00:03:42] She was realizing that everything was hers, everything is mine. That's what she ultimately was saying.
[00:03:49] And so as I was preparing for this series, this teaching, I was immediately brought back to that example, that ownership posture of my daughter saying mei Dada.
[00:03:58] And how that just changes forms and morphs over time.
[00:04:03] Like, for me growing up, when I got to my teenage years and my time was precious in my own eyes, when my family wanted to go be with, hang with the grandparents and I just wanted to stay home and play video games, I was like, oh, I do not want to do this. Why do I have to go hang with old people? That's what I literally said in my teenage years. It was my time, it was what I wanted to do.
[00:04:22] And how it just morphed into when I went to college, right? I just said, hey, here's the career I'm going to pursue. I grew up in New York, so I wanted to go to Manhattan, be a finance bro at the time. And I wanted to make money, just make it on myself. And so then what happens when you graduate college? And it just is like, you actually get money and you're like, I could do stuff with this, you know, I can go on the vacations I want to. I can perform and make more money. And I just think, hey, this is my career. I'm gonna do with it what I will.
[00:04:56] Then you get married, and then you maybe have kids. And I knew, hey, when my kids were acting out of control and they didn't respect me, I would feel like I would get frustrated and out of control. Cause my kids need to act this way, right?
[00:05:12] Or if you've worked long enough and you're actually saving money, what happens is to your heart, when that retirement account actually goes up and down. And I realize how I live really with this idea of everything is mine, everything is mine. I'm the owner, I'm the provider. I get to do with it because I've earned it. Everything is mine.
[00:05:34] But the passage we're gonna read today flips it on his head.
[00:05:39] And it's a prayer of David. And so if you would. If you would open to 1st Chronicles 29. That's actually in the Old Testament, if you didn't know 1st Chronicles 29, we're going to read verses 10 through 14.
[00:05:57] It says this.
[00:06:02] Therefore, David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly.
[00:06:07] And David said, blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, oh Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.
[00:06:25] Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and. And you are exalted as head above all.
[00:06:31] Both riches and honor, they come from you, and you rule over all.
[00:06:37] In your hand are power and might. And in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. Verse 13.
[00:06:44] And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
[00:06:50] But who am I, and what is my people that we should be able thus to offer willingly?
[00:06:58] For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.
[00:07:04] You see, this prayer of David is a prayer we need for true freedom in a very disordered world that screams mine, screams mine.
[00:07:16] You deserve this. You're entitled to this. But this prayer of David flips it on its head. And I want to point forward this week to the vertical reality.
[00:07:26] The big idea for us is this. It's a simple but big idea from this prayer that everything is his, everything is from him.
[00:07:35] And our hands should be open to return everything to him.
[00:07:38] Everything is God's, everything is from God. And our hands and our lives should be open and. And live as if everything is returning to him.
[00:07:50] And so let Me kind of set the scene for us about this prayer that David prays, because we can read this and not know the context in which it was written. David is at the end of his life, towards the end of his life, towards the end of his rule and reign as king.
[00:08:06] And David for years had wanted to build a temple for the. For God, to the presence of God, to live in the ark to be housed in.
[00:08:15] But God had made it very, very clear to David that he was not going to be the one building the house his son Solomon would.
[00:08:23] And so David does something remarkable. Instead of gripping his own plans, gripping his position, gripping his vast resources and wealth, he spends the final season of life preparing the way for someone else to build what he dreamed of building.
[00:08:41] And so he gathers his leaders, gathers the people of Israel, and he personally gives an enormous amount of his own wealth toward the temple. And so do the leaders, so do the people, and they do so freely and wholeheartedly. And the whole assembly is rejoicing.
[00:08:56] And that's the moment David prays this prayer that we just read.
[00:09:01] He's praying, standing in front of an enormous amount of treasure that he helped accumulate, surrounded by a nation that he helped establish, preparing a kingdom he helped build, handing it off to his son Solomon. And here's what David essentially is saying encapsulated within the prayer. None of this was even really ours.
[00:09:21] None of this was even really ours.
[00:09:25] I mean, verses 10 and 11 really scream this thought again. It says, therefore, David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said, blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, oh Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all, not some.
[00:09:48] All that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, oh Lord, and you are exalted as head of above all.
[00:09:58] Like, what is David declaring to himself? What is David declaring to Israel? The leaders, the people assembled there? What is he declaring to us thousands of years later?
[00:10:10] He's declaring this simple thought. Everything is God's.
[00:10:14] He's saying, God, you are the owner, not us.
[00:10:18] And that's a hugely revelational thing for our hearts.
[00:10:23] Think about what David was acknowledging in this prayer.
[00:10:27] He's standing in front of probably like a billion dollars, and I'm not kidding, of gold, of timber, of resources, of personnel, of talent, and an entire kingdom that has flourished under his leadership. And David looks at all of it and says, yours, the kingdom, yours. The wealth, yours. The resources, yours. The temple that's to be built, the future plans, your everything is his.
[00:10:58] And this is not like a novel idea.
[00:11:02] This is a thread throughout scripture starting from the very beginning in Genesis 1:1. What does it say in the beginning? God created what? The heavens and the earth. It echoes this prayer, foreshadows the prayer, because before there was anything to own, there was God himself.
[00:11:22] Before there was land to acquire, before there was degrees to be gotten, before there was wealth to be saved up, retirements to actually be accumulated, before there was anything of that nature, there was God, the Creator.
[00:11:39] He was the Genesis haha of all things, the beginning.
[00:11:46] And since he was the one who created, he has the rightful claim over everything he created. And that's what David is acknowledging when he says all that is in the heavens and the earth is yours.
[00:12:01] And church, this is where it kind of hits us in the heart if we allow it to, because we might ascend and believe that thought theologically, but we don't naturally live that way practically.
[00:12:15] Like we may acknowledge, yeah, God, you are great, everything is yours. But how often do our lives actually reflect that, that everything is actually God's?
[00:12:27] Like I said, we grow up just living our two year old mindada postures, right?
[00:12:34] It just becomes more sophisticated, like, this is my time, this is my money, these are the plans that I'm gonna do, these are the vacations I'm gonna go on, this is the family idea, this is my future career, this is what it's gonna look like. We just repackage that idea of mine.
[00:12:55] Everything is mine.
[00:12:58] We live in God's world, though, surrounded by God's creation, holding things that exist because God created them. And somehow we convince ourselves this is mine.
[00:13:11] And one of the clearest ways to discover us living misaligned lives is what happens inside of us when we start to lose control of it, when our health goes a certain way that we didn't think it should go. What happens? Worry, anxiety rises up with any bit of money that you saved for a certain purpose and an unexpected emergency comes and it's drained account what happens to your heart? Does it run towards dependence or does it run towards fear?
[00:13:42] Or if something rises up within, maybe you're walking towards this pathway that you think that you have that the Lord has put in front of you, but now he wants to redirect your plans. What happens? You go, or do you just hold back and say, no, I'm good.
[00:14:00] What happens? Do we grip tighter to God or we grip tighter to our idea that this is mine?
[00:14:06] You see, that's the ownership tension of the human heart.
[00:14:11] More and more this week, as the word hits me, in preparation to teach here, I've just been reminded of the different things that I walk in where I just am closing my fist to mind. Like, even this week, we have to get our dog taken care of. And that's. I'm like, fifteen hundred dollars for what?
[00:14:30] Like, I love this dog. I don't know how much but kidding. We're getting taken care of. But here's what happened to my heart. I'm like, 1500 bucks. Like, where's that coming from?
[00:14:42] Like or with. With my. With. With kids not responding as I think they should, and my control and respect is threatened. Am I speaking in love or do I just speak?
[00:14:54] I mentioned a few weeks ago, when things are disordered or even within my home, my peace starts to go with how the order of my house is. Why? Because my mindset is I own, I control, I dictate. I'm the owner.
[00:15:10] But here's where I look at David.
[00:15:14] He's at the end of his life.
[00:15:16] He's about to hand the kingdom to Solomon, giving away enormous wealth, preparing for a temple that he dreamed of building but will never build himself. If anyone, if anyone had reason to say, look at what I built. Look at what I've accumulated. Look at what is mine, it was David. Instead, he says often, yours, Lord, yours.
[00:15:37] You see, that's the reordering that our hearts need every single day.
[00:15:42] Moving from mine, God, to yours, God.
[00:15:47] And that doesn't mean things in our lives don't matter or that we don't have responsibility for them. We'll talk more about that later. In this idea of stewardship, it means that underneath every human claim of ownership stands the greater claim of the Creator. It was his first.
[00:16:05] And here's what David's heart realizes when he says everything, all things in heaven and earth is yours. What was prior to that? He says, because of that truth, you are great God. Yours is the majesty, yours is the victory.
[00:16:21] He's saying the very character of God is because he has made all this and he has given all this, God, you are great and we are not. He is in awe of God.
[00:16:30] When we realize everything is his, it should produce awe in our hearts to say, hey, God, just the fact that you allow us as a king gift, you are great.
[00:16:39] My life is his. My bank account is. My family is his. My future is his. My time, even my abilities, my health is yours, God, everything is yours.
[00:16:52] And since he is the ultimate good, he's not trying to rob us of joy. He's trying to free us into true joy when we live that everything is his.
[00:17:02] So here's a question before I transition. What in your life right now that you say belongs to God but your grip on it reveals you still believe belongs to you?
[00:17:13] Where is this a misalignment in your heart? Hey, is it when something hits the bank account? Is it when your plans for maybe this what this next school year looks like and there's a disruption, where does your heart go? Because that might reveal the grip that you have instead of the open handed nature that we need to live. Say everything is.
[00:17:33] Where's God saying that's mine while you're still gripping and saying, no, that's mine.
[00:17:40] And so from there, where does David take us next in his prayer?
[00:17:45] If everything is his, what he acknowledges next is everything is from him.
[00:17:51] 1st Chronicles 29:12 both riches and honor come from you and you rule over all.
[00:18:04] In your hand are power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.
[00:18:14] Do you ever stop for a moment and just take a step back and think that everything is really actually from him?
[00:18:22] Like, I mean, this unbelievably complex item that I doom scroll way too much is ultimately from him.
[00:18:34] Like this product required thousands of engineers, the innovation of Steve Jobs, of the resources from the earth, inventors, designers, programmers, like this is ultimately from him. And let's move backwards from that a little bit. Like the glass and how it's made the silicone in the chips that makes it process faster, like the lithium and copper that we actually, if we were to take this apart and find in it, human beings didn't create that.
[00:19:09] It didn't come from nothing. It came from the earth.
[00:19:12] And what did we do? We discovered, we developed what was already here.
[00:19:18] And to go another layer deeper, where did the ingenuity from Steve Jobs to come up with this come from?
[00:19:24] Where did the mind and the knowledge of the engineers to create it come from?
[00:19:30] And let's talk about like the mathematical order needed in our universe to take this little device, beam it a few miles away, and then up to satellites in the air. Where did that mathematical order come from?
[00:19:46] There was a designer behind it all.
[00:19:49] All of that came from God.
[00:19:54] And you trace every material, every mind, every ability, every opportunity far enough backward and eventually you always will arrive at a designer that is God. And that's what David is seeing here in his prayer, David is essentially praying, hey God, my very existence is from you.
[00:20:13] The victories I've experienced Up until today are from you. The riches I possess are from you. The strength that I've gotten to get up in the morning and to get through all of the things that I've walked through in my life is ultimately from you.
[00:20:26] Even through my failures in sin, your mercy has come to me.
[00:20:33] This gold, this silver, this iron, this kingdom, it all came from you. Yeah, he participated in the process. He worked, he, he fought, he planned, he led. But he was never the ultimate source. And that's what he's acknowledging here.
[00:20:50] And this matters, guys. This matters so eternally because we can oftentimes move from receivers of him being the ultimate source to people that think they're deserving.
[00:21:07] Like, I earned that degree.
[00:21:11] I built my career by showing up. I earned that retirement. I deserve this kind of life. I deserve this better story. I deserve this family construction. I deserve this health. I deserve my body to be like this. I deserve, I deserve, I deserve, I deserve.
[00:21:31] And yes, you may have worked, yes, you may have studied, yes, you have sacrificed. And scripture is not minimizing any of that. So please don't hear that in my heart, but go backward.
[00:21:43] Where did your mind come from?
[00:21:46] Where did the abilities to have that knowledge actually originate?
[00:21:50] Who sustained your heart beating and stress that allowed you to rise this morning?
[00:21:56] Who gave you another opportunity morning to work? Who placed people and opportunities in your life that you could never have manufactured for yourself?
[00:22:06] You see, we work with what we first received.
[00:22:09] He is the one that everything is from.
[00:22:13] And let's take this down to the deepest need of our lives, deepest need of our lives. Because there's one thing we all desperately need that we absolutely can never produce for ourselves. And that's the salvation that we walk in.
[00:22:28] Like, we could never be like, hey, I've earned this much so I can buy holiness in relationship with God.
[00:22:35] There's never amount of a performance of right and wrong. I've got a good amount of right in here now. So now my bank account's full on this end, so I'm good with God. No, we deserve death, we deserve separation. We deserve our penalty of our sin, which is separation from a holy gap. But God gave, God gave his Son Jesus to us.
[00:22:58] Not as another resource. He gave his Son.
[00:23:03] And Jesus is the embodiment of submission to everything is the Father's and everything is from Him.
[00:23:09] If you actually look at how he walked in the rhythms of Jesus's life and how he positioned time with the Lord and how he lived from that place. John 13:3 says this.
[00:23:19] Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into his hands and that Jesus had come from God and was going back to him.
[00:23:28] Jesus counted equality with the Father, not something to be grasped and knew everything was the Father's. Everything he had came from the Father and his life existed for the Father's glory, not his own.
[00:23:40] That's why he said, I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. Even Jesus in the garden before he was about to be crucified. What did he say? Hey, I have these plans. And. And Father, if it would be your will for this to come to pass from me, but not my will, but your will.
[00:24:01] If anyone had rightful claim even above David, it was Jesus, right?
[00:24:06] But he acknowledged at the point of laying down his life that everything is his Father's and everything is from Him. And he went to the cross on our behalf and allowed us to walk in newness of life if we submit to him as Lord and Savior. Savior.
[00:24:23] The greatest thing we have ever received or will ever receive if you haven't, is the love of God and a right relationship through submitting to King Jesus today.
[00:24:33] So when David stands there going back to 1 Chronicles 29 and says both riches and honor, they come from you, he's recognizing a pattern throughout Scripture. God is the provider, we are the receivers.
[00:24:51] Our resources, our life, our very breath, our opportunities are from him. And ultimately our salvation rests in Christ alone.
[00:25:00] So what David is acknowledging in this prayer is everything is God's, everything is from him.
[00:25:08] And now what flows out of him next is a posture we all need to remember. It was worship instead of pride, gratitude instead of entitlement. And ultimately he calls, he opens his hands to return it all to him. It's all his.
[00:25:22] Verse 13 and 14 of the passage say this after acknowledging that everything is his, everything is from him.
[00:25:35] David says, and now we thank you our God and praise your glorious name.
[00:25:41] But who am I and what is my people that we should be able thus to offer willingly?
[00:25:49] For all things come from you and of your own have we given you.
[00:25:56] Do you hear what David is ultimately saying there, God? What are we actually giving you that wasn't yours already?
[00:26:04] David realizes that even when he gives something to God, he is simply opening his hands and returning to God what God first placed placed in them.
[00:26:16] See I was a part of that. Doom scrolling this week was on Facebook and a video popped up of if you don't know him, he's a pastor. He's 93 years old now. His name is Chuck Swindoll. Famous pastor of old, and he was recalling an experience where a number of years before, when Corey Ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who had helped house some, some Jews During World War II from the Nazis, she was at his church in Fullerton, California, and he was excited to see her.
[00:26:50] And again, this was about 40 years ago, but he was sharing this experience.
[00:26:53] And so what happened is Chuck Swindoll and his family went to the door to greet them, to greet her on the way out.
[00:27:01] And Corrie Ten Boom just takes Chuck Swindoll's hands and opens them.
[00:27:08] And she says this Pastor Swindoll, live with open hands, with everything, because otherwise the Father will pry it from your hands in this life.
[00:27:21] Pastor Swindoll, live with open hands with everything, because otherwise the Father will pry it from your hands in this life.
[00:27:30] What she was saying was to live with open hands, that everything is his, everything is from him, and he can have as he will, Open hands.
[00:27:46] Isn't that what we've been talking about this really this entire morning?
[00:27:50] I mean, we began with the idea for my daughter with her really living closed fisted with her toys, saying mein Dada.
[00:27:59] And if we're being real, that's so often us.
[00:28:03] God places something in our hands and we close our fingers, close our hearts to what he really wants to do through us and in us.
[00:28:10] And with that stuff, my time, my abilities, my money, my health, my house, my plans, my future, my children, mine, mine, mine, mine.
[00:28:22] But just like David really prays, just like Corrie Ten Boom opened Chuck Swindoll's hands, that's how the Lord wants us to live with everything he's placed in our lives, open handed lives.
[00:28:41] Because if everything is his and everything is from him, then he's placed everything in my hands ultimately to be given back to Him. And that's ultimately what we're going to talk about as it relates to these next coming weeks. That's a stewardship mindset.
[00:28:54] It's not asking the question, how much of my stuff should I give to God? Stewardship says begins by realizing there is no my stuff.
[00:29:03] There is no my stuff.
[00:29:05] There is only what the Father in His grace has placed in my hands for this season of my life.
[00:29:13] And what I've been doing this week as this text has been hitting me, is waking up each morning and just opening my hands.
[00:29:20] And this is the application I have for us from this text for this week, is how do I start to live this way? Obviously submitting to Jesus and letting the spirit transform you. But try this before you put your Feet on the ground. Or you can put your feet on the ground. There's not legalism here. But anyways, let the first thing you be that happens when you get up is just to open your hands and just to pray. Whatever words you want to pray, but these are the words that I've been saying in some way, shape or form. This week is hey God, my time today is yours.
[00:29:58] Every time I swipe my credit card or every time I want to. My kids are yours today. Let me respond with your words. Let me be interrupted with my time, my time this week and be on your mission this week.
[00:30:13] Watch what the spirit of God does as you live from the start of your day with open hands for what he wants to do. I believe he wants to continue to show you. Everything is gift upon gift upon gift upon gift. That's what David realized. That's what Jesus ultimately embodied in his life. And that's what we get to participate in as children of God as we walk in him. And ultimately freedom will be found as we live open handed lives as he's designed us. Because he could take it from our hand but we can trust he is still good even if he does.
[00:30:45] That's the invitation today. Live with open hands.
[00:30:50] And we don't open our hands because God is trying to take something from us. We open our hands because in Jesus God has already opened his hands towards us. He gave us his son. He has given us, provided a way for salvation. He has given us life and breath and everything we have.
[00:31:08] So the posture of the Christian life isn't mine, Dada. It's yours, Father Church. Let's pray.
[00:31:17] God, I thank you.
[00:31:21] I thank you for the grace that every time that I believe that this life is mine. You have forgiven me, you have pursued me when I have lived the narrative of my life that it's about me, bigger, better, more and the stuff that I have and the plans that I have and the future that I have, the time that I get to spend my way, God, you have met me in love through your son Jesus.
[00:31:46] God, continue to convict by your spirit how we live closed fisted lives saying this is mine and release our pry our fingers God, to live with open hands in all things that you've given us. Our time, our talent, our treasure, our stuff, our health, our relationships, everything is yours God and let us trust you.
[00:32:12] You are a gracious loving father and you've told us that every good gift comes from you.
[00:32:18] Let's trust that even if it's taken away and God for those in this room that do not know your great love, your victory, your mercy. God, I pray they submit to King Jesus today as Lord and Savior. That you are Lord to dictate everything in our lives, and that is for their good. But you are Savior because you're the only one who has earned perfectly in Christ.
[00:32:44] Thank you for your forgiveness on the cross. Thank you for your overcoming death and defeating sin. Death in the grave. And thank you for your spirit that is continuing to pry our hands open to say, yours, Lord, not mine.
[00:32:58] God, we love you. We praise you.
[00:33:01] Who else is worthy but you?
[00:33:03] In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
