1 Chronicles 22, then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.
And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel, and sent Masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.
Now if you remember in the previous chapter, this is where the destroying angel was, and David was commanded to offer a burnt sacrifice in order to placate God's wrath and to make an atonement for the people.
So in that place, which meant the difference between those who died and those who lived in the plague, that place was determined to be the location for the temple.
So that's why he's saying in verse 1 here, then David said, you know, then meaning after this event had taken place that we talked about last week, this is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.
Now in verse 2 when it says that David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel, these are basically workers that, these are the migrant workers, right?
These are the undocumented, no I'm just kidding. But anyway, the point is that people who are full-fledged members of the nation of Israel, he's not using them in this kind of conscripted labor or forced labor.
The ones who actually are circumcised and keeping the Passover and are officially members of the nation of Israel are not part of this.
These are just kind of strangers that are so journeying among them, foreigners who are living in the country with them, they're conscripted into this labor like, alright, since you guys are here, you have to do some of this work.
And Solomon ends up doing the same thing where he conscripts a lot of the foreigners and has them doing a lot of just manual labor for him at different times in the year.
So they could spend most of the year doing their own thing, but they had to work for him at various times.
Now, one thing I want to point out though is when the Bible says the strangers that were in the land of Israel, this doesn't have anything to do with ethnicity.
This has to do with the fact that they are not Israelites and you don't have to be ethnically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be an ethnic, or I mean to be an Israelite.
See, it's never been about blood lines with God. It's about worshipping the Lord, believing in the true God. That's what makes you one of the chosen people, okay?
Now, back in the Old Testament, it was a physical nation that you joined, whereas in the New Testament, believing on Christ makes you part of that spiritual nation made up of all believers.
And a perfect example of this is that in the book of 1 Chronicles itself, you find out, and when you compare it with Deuteronomy and Joshua and other places, you find out that Caleb himself was not a naturally born member of the tribe of Judah in the sense that he did not descend from the person Judah.
But yet Caleb is registered in 1 Chronicles with the tribe of Judah because his family joined the nation of Israel.
His father was what was called a Kenite, and the Kenites were another friendly tribe in that Israelite region, and his father had joined the tribe of Israel, and so Caleb became a member of the tribe of Judah.
He became an Israelite, but by blood, he didn't descend from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But was he considered a second-class citizen? Absolutely not.
And the proof of that is that when they're sending spies into the land, and they want to choose one from each tribe, who do they send for the tribe of Judah?
They send Caleb, even though he was not physically descended from Judah himself.
So it's not about ethnicity. The Bible makes it clear that anybody who wanted to worship the Lord, get circumcised, keep the Passover, could join the nation of Israel.
And then they would be considered a full citizen, and they would be graphed into that tribe, even in the Old Testament.
So a lot of people miss that fact. They get so hung up on ethnicity and genealogies and things like that.
But even one of Jesus' disciples was what? Simon the Canaanite.
So I've heard preachers literally get up behind the pulpit and say, all of Jesus' disciples were just full-blooded Jews.
Well, what about Simon the Canaanite? So I challenged one of these dispensationalists on Simon the Canaanite, and here's the answer that they gave me.
Well, he's just called the Canaanite because he's from the area of Canaan. They're all from Canaan.
I mean, the whole nation of Israel is called Canaanland. So then it might as well be Peter the Canaanite, John the Canaanite, you know, James the Canaanite.
No, no, he's called Simon the Canaanite because he descends from the Canaanites.
He was ethnically a Canaanite. Either he or his parents or somebody else had joined the nation of Israel.
God's not a respecter of persons. And so even in the Old Testament, even though it was a physical nation, you could join that nation.
You didn't have to be born into it.
So we see that the strangers of the land, the foreigners, are going to be masons to hue wrought stones to build the house of God.
And David prepared iron in abundance, verse 3, for the nails for the doors of the gates and for the joinings and brass in abundance without weight,
also cedar trees in abundance for the Zydonians, and they have tire brought much cedar wood to David.
So what David's doing is he's not building the house of God because God specifically told him, you're not going to be the one to build this house.
But what he's doing is preparing everything for the next guy. He's getting everything ready.
So he's saying, OK, well, I can hue out these giant stones. I can start collecting nails and brass and gold and silver and getting everything ready so that my son Solomon can build the house of God.
God had already told him, you're not going to build it, but your son will. So he's getting everything ready to go.
Now, in a moment, David is going to explain why it is that he's not allowed to build the house of God.
Let's read that. It says in verse number 5, and David said, Solomon, my son, is young and tender.
And the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory throughout all countries.
I will, therefore, now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.
Then he called for Solomon, his son, and charged him to build a house for the Lord God of Israel.
And David said to Solomon, my son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house under the name of the Lord my God.
But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou has shed blood abundantly, as made great wars, thou shalt not build a house under my name.
And again, he reiterates it, because thou has shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.
Is there any doubt as to why he's not allowed to build the temple?
It's repeated twice. He says, look, you have shed too much blood, you've fought all these wars, you've shed blood before me, you're not going to build the house.
Your son is going to be a man of peace, he's going to be a man of rest, and he's going to build a house under my name.
Now some people wrongly assume that, oh, he couldn't build it because of what he did with Bathsheba.
But actually, God told him that he was not going to build the temple before that even happened with Bathsheba.
It was actually earlier that David was told, you're not going to build the temple. Why? Because you've shed a lot of blood, because you've fought a lot of wars.
Now this goes to show that even a godly man like David, even a man after God's own heart, if he's getting involved with the military,
can end up shedding a lot of innocent blood before God and God being upset and God punishing him in some way or God holding him accountable in some way.
Now another thing we could do is take a symbolic meaning here, okay?
Because the house of God literally in the Old Testament was a physical building called the temple.
But in the New Testament, we have the church being the house of God.
The Bible says that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
So in the New Testament, the church or the assembly or the congregation is the house of God.
So when we talk about building the house of God in the New Testament, we're not talking about building a physical building.
We're talking about actually building a congregation, edifying people, edifying the believers, building them up on their most holy faith.
Now, if you would, flip over to 1 Timothy, chapter 3. 1 Timothy, chapter number 3.
Now we know that of course the one who ultimately builds the church is Jesus Christ because Jesus said,
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
So Jesus tells Peter, I will build my church.
So Jesus Christ, the head of the church, and I believe that even today in 2018, he is still building his church.
He is the one who builds the church. We're to rely on him to do the building, okay?
But, humanly speaking, there is leadership physically on this earth.
So Jesus Christ is called the bishop of our souls.
Jesus Christ is of course that great shepherd of the sheep, and the word shepherd and pastor are synonymous.
They're both the exact same word. A pastor is a shepherd, a shepherd is a pastor.
So Jesus Christ is the great shepherd of the sheep, but there's a pastor on this earth.
He's sort of like an under shepherd, underneath the great shepherd, which is Jesus.
Just like Jesus is the bishop of bishops, but then there's the bishop on this earth. Bishop meaning overseer, okay?
So obviously Jesus is our ultimate authority. He's the ultimate head of the church. He's the overseer.
But there's also an earthly bishop on this earth. Bishop, pastor, elder are three words that are used interchangeably.
We mean the same thing when we say those three words.
Now, a lot of people today in 2018, they don't think church is important.
They think that we don't need to go to church. We can just read our Bibles and fellowship with friends, and that's enough.
Well, here's my big question then.
If the church is obsolete, or if the church is something that's not important,
then why did God spend two chapters giving us the qualifications for the bishop?
I mean, if there are two chapters in the New Testament dedicated to telling us the qualifications for a bishop,
it sounds like we should have a bishop.
And in fact, when there were cities in Crete that had no bishop, that had no elder,
he said, you need to set in order the things that are wanting, meaning the things that are lacking,
and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee.
So in every city, there's supposed to be a bishop or elder or pastor there, and that was lacking.
And Paul is telling Titus, you need to fix that, okay?
So church is obviously important, and a lot of people are just like, well, we're the church.
Okay, but who's the bishop? Who's the pastor? Ah, it doesn't matter.
Okay, then why spend two chapters talking about it?
Because it does matter, because the church is supposed to be an organized institute.
Well, I just don't believe in organized religion.
Well, then, nuts to you then.
But the Bible says that all things should be done decently and in order, and that there's a bishop,
there's an overseer, there's a structure there, there are deacons there, there is a structure that is organized religion.
If you don't like it, then lump it, okay?
Then fine, go be in disobedience then and abstain from church, but God's not going to bless that.
God's going to chastise that, because you belong in God's institution, the local church.
Now, think about this for a moment.
David is told by God, you're not going to build my house.
In his heart, he wanted to build God's house.
And God told him, you know, it's good that that was in your heart.
It's good that you wanted to build my house, but guess what? You're not going to do it.
Why? You're not qualified, because you have shed too much innocent blood.
You're not going to do it.
Now, what if David would have done it anyway?
What if David would have just said, well, you know what? I want to build God's house, so I'm going to build it anyway.
What that would tell us about him is that he's not really building it for the Lord, he's actually building it for himself.
Because if he were building it for the Lord, and the Lord said, I don't want this, well I'm doing it anyway,
it's like, well then you're not doing it for the Lord anymore, because the Lord specifically said, I don't want you to do that.
Now stop and think about that.
What if a guy is not qualified to pastor biblically?
He does not meet the Bible's qualifications for a pastor, but he says, well I'm going to pastor anyway.
You know what he's basically doing is, he's doing that for himself.
Just take that to the bank.
Because if he were doing it for the Lord, he'd be following the Lord's instructions.
Okay.
And here's the thing, if I offered to do something for somebody, and they said, hey, I don't want you to do that.
Well I'm going to do it for you whether you like it or not.
That's not me doing them a favor anymore.
Okay.
And it's the same thing with God.
I mean if God sits there and says, no, you're not going to build me a house.
I don't want you to be a pastor.
Well I'm going to be a pastor anyway.
You know what that's called?
Ego, pride, self-aggrandizement, self-glorifying, and we see it all the time.
You know I saw somebody on Facebook recently put out a question, you know, can a divorced man be a pastor?
And it was just, oh yes, absolutely, yes, yes, yeah, of course.
And then all these divorced pastors are on there piping up saying, oh yeah, it's great, of course.
Well it depends on whose fault it was.
That's not what the Bible says though.
The Bible says that the bishop must be the husband of one wife, and he must rule his own house well.
And if you're divorced, you are neither.
Okay.
You have not been the husband of one wife, and you have not ruled your own house well.
You are not qualified, and if you do it anyway, you are wicked in the sight of God.
It's just that simple.
He said, well no, I'm doing something good for the Lord.
He told you not to.
So you must be doing it for someone else yourself at that point.
Okay.
And I know that's a hard truth, but it's the truth though.
Now one of the people that's very responsible for this false doctrine is Peter Ruckman,
because Peter Ruckman's a famous Baptist preacher, and he was on his third wife when he died,
and, you know, divorced twice, but, you know, because it was always the other person's fault.
You know, it's interesting, when you talk to most divorced people though, usually it's the other person's fault.
Because you'd think that if you surveyed all divorced people, they should come back like 50-50.
Right?
You know, if it was one person's fault half the time, another person's fault.
You know, just come back 50-50.
Or maybe 60% of people would say it was my fault, because maybe two people are both claiming responsibility.
Or maybe if 90% of people said it was my fault, because they're just really good at owning up to personal responsibility.
But I bet if you went around and asked divorced people whose fault was it,
I bet it'd be less than 50% would say it's my fault.
And if you surveyed pastors, it'd probably be 0% would take the blame.
Okay.
So, yeah, somebody, I don't care whose fault it was, you're not the husband of one wife,
and you're not blameless, and you're not ruling, well, your own house.
Okay?
Period.
So, he kind of started this trend, so all of his Ruckmanite followers, they do the same thing.
They divorce their wives and keep on pastoring.
And then another guy just recently, this skinny jeans, purple lighting kind of a pastor, named Greg Locke.
You know, just cheated on his wife with the secretary, divorced his wife, married the secretary, still pastoring.
Just still pastoring, married to the secretary now.
Just divorced, remarried, but, oh, you know, God's grace.
No, you shut up and sit down and don't build the house of God when he told you not to.
Now, here's the thing.
He said, what are you trying to say, that these people can just never serve God?
News flash, you can serve God without being a pastor.
You know, there are 200 and some people here right now, and they all serve God, and only one of them is a pastor.
But everybody here serves God, amen?
Who here serves God?
All right.
There you go.
Who here is a pastor?
All right.
So, therefore, it's easy to serve God without being a pastor.
Now, here's the thing.
David was not a horrible person.
David wasn't just some horrible person and, oh, we just hate David.
No, no, we love David.
He's a great guy.
He was a godly man, but he's not qualified to build God's house.
So, here's the thing.
There could be a lot of great, nice, wonderful, godly people who have a divorce in their past or other things in their past that could disqualify them.
It doesn't mean that they're bad people.
It doesn't mean that they can't be used by God.
It doesn't mean that they can't serve God.
It doesn't mean that they can't do great things for God, but it does mean that they can't be a pastor or a deacon.
And I don't understand what's so hard to get that through people's heads.
Now, look at 1 Timothy, chapter number 3, and we'll look at the qualifications.
And you'll see that some of the qualifications for being a pastor are kind of similar to why David was disqualified, if you think about it.
Look at verse 1 of chapter 3.
This is a true saying.
If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
Notice it doesn't say he desires a good title.
He desires a good prestige.
He desires a good position.
That's not why we should go into the ministry for prestige or power or title.
He says he desires a good work.
The goal of going into the ministry is because you want to do the work.
You want to do that work for the Lord, okay?
And then it says he desires a good work.
Well, that's sort of like when God told David, hey, you wanted to build my house?
It's good that you wanted to build my house.
Hey, it's good to desire to be a bishop.
It's good that you want to build a temple, okay?
But then he gives the qualifications.
A bishop then must be blameless.
Now, blameless does not mean sinless or else we're all disqualified.
But what a lot of these ruckmanites and other divorced pastors will try to do is they'll try to say,
well, blameless, none of us is blameless, so therefore it's all by grace anyway.
So just throw the qualifications in the trash because none of us is blameless.
That's not what that means.
Okay.
It doesn't mean sinless.
So they make that as a straw man.
Well, are you saying we got to be sinless?
Well, then nobody can do it.
No, no.
Blameless means that you don't have just some big glaring thing about you that says don't listen to me.
You know, some big glaring thing where you have just a major, major bad thing that you've done
that would basically disqualify you from being a pastor.
Like where the world would look at you and say, like, how can this guy be a pastor?
He's an axe murderer.
Now, you laugh at that, but I have a real example of that.
I'm not kidding.
I have a real example for you on that.
Okay.
Now, look, the Bible says a little bit later, and this is what you should tie in with blameless.
Look at verse number seven.
Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
So blameless is very similar to having a good report of them which are without.
What does that mean?
That means that if we went and talked to your job, they wouldn't say, oh, he's the laziest worker on the job.
Fired from every job, can't hold down a job, not qualified to pastor.
Bad reputation on the job, not qualified to be a pastor.
Amen?
Why?
You're supposed to have a good report of them which are without.
I mean, you shouldn't be known as just scum in the community.
Now, if you're reproach for doing good, happy are you.
But if you're just known for being a crummy person, a bad person, a lazy person, a scoundrel, okay, you're not qualified.
Look, there's a guy that pastors in Tennessee, his name is Wesley Tomlinson, the guy literally brutally murdered his own father.
Brutally murdered his own father.
You know, the Bible says you're not even allowed to even curse your father or mother or you should be put to death.
The Bible says that if you even smite your father and mother, you shall be put to death.
Exodus chapter number 21 there breaks that down.
Now, and it's reiterated in the New Testament.
In Matthew 15, Jesus said, whoso cursed father or mother, let him die to death.
Okay, this guy brutally murdered his own father.
Okay, first he shot him with a shotgun.
You know, I'm not going to be too graphic for the sake of children.
First he shot him with a shotgun and his dad asked him to call 911.
Instead he took the butt of the shotgun and just repeatedly bashed in his father's head.
Okay, so this guy brutally murdered his father, you know, went to prison for a super long time.
Okay, to this day will not take responsibility for what he's done and claims it was self-defense,
even though it's not self-defense when somebody's laying on the floor and you come and finish them off.
Okay, and I'm not going to go into the whole thing.
But the point is it's stupid and ridiculous.
The jury didn't buy it.
The jury convicted him, okay, of doing it.
All of the evidence points to the fact that he brutally murdered his father.
No repentance.
Then he gets let out early because of the work of his mother and stepfather to try to get him out early
by appealing and petitioning because he was like 17 or 18 when it happened or something like that.
Then he gets out, he goes and robs a video store.
You know, this guy's just a scumbag, murderer of his own father, won't take responsibility for it,
won't admit it, and he's pastoring a Baptist church.
Blameless. Blameless, right?
Good report of them which are without.
On what planet?
I mean, if this guy's qualified after brutally murdering his own father and being a criminal repeatedly,
then what does this even mean when it says blameless?
What does this even mean when it says to have a good report of them which are without?
That's pretty much the worst reputation you can even imagine somebody having is,
oh, I brutally murdered my own dad and knocked over a few stores and here I am a couple years later pastoring a church.
And God's not blessing this guy.
God's never going to bless this guy.
His church is going to be a failure.
It is a failure. Why?
Because the Spirit of the Lord is not going to bless that because he's not qualified.
Why does he want to do it?
For all the wrong reasons.
Because if this guy truly were repentant and said, you know what, I'm sorry that I brutally murdered my dad.
I was wrong. It was wicked. I'm sorry.
He could find forgiveness from Christ and go on to live a good Christian life.
And he could join a church somewhere and be a blessing to that church and serve the Lord.
Look, I don't care what is in your past.
If you confess and forsake it, you can be a church member in good standing and you can live for God and do great things for God.
But that doesn't mean you're qualified to pastor because you've got to be blameless.
You've got to have a good report of them which you're without.
Then the Bible goes on to say, bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife.
We talked about that a little earlier.
Vigilant. What does that mean to be vigilant?
It means this guy's not asleep at the wheel.
Just everybody's pulling the wool over his eyes.
All kinds of things are happening. He has no clue.
He needs to be alert.
He needs to be somebody who's a bit of a watchdog.
Vigilant, sober, which would mean seriousness and also an abstinence of alcohol.
Please, amens only from men.
Women are to keep silent in the church.
And the Bible says here also of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach.
Obviously, he has to have the ability to teach the Bible because that's the job, right?
Getting up Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night preaching the Bible.
That's pretty important.
So he has to have aptitude in the area of teaching.
And then also it says that he's not given to wine.
But watch these in verse 3.
These are the ones I want to focus in on.
No striker.
Now, what's a striker?
A striker would be somebody who hits somebody else in the face.
Wouldn't that be a striker?
You know, when we talk about mixed martial arts or fighting,
we talk about somebody who's more of a jujitsu, wrestling, grappling kind of a guy versus what?
A striker.
A striker would be the Muay Thai specialist or the boxing specialist
or the one who does some kind of striking versus wrestling and grappling, okay?
So when the Bible talks about striker here,
we're talking about somebody who gets in fistfights is what we're talking about.
And then we go on to find out that he's not supposed to be a brawler.
So it says no striker, not greedy, a filthy lucre, meaning he's not in it for the money,
but patient and patient goes hand in hand with not a brawler.
No striker, patient, not a brawler, okay.
You can't have a short fuse as a passer, and I'll tell you why.
Because people are going to push your buttons.
You know, I can't even count how many times I've had people scream in my face,
cuss me out, and even physically shove me, okay?
Now, I made a decision a long time ago that if someone physically shoves me,
I will not strike them back, okay?
And here's why, okay?
Come on up here and help me demonstrate, brother, Raymond.
Here's the thing, okay?
Those of you who are men and, you know, junior high, high school, whatever,
you know, when you're a kid, there's a little bit of this kind of grandstanding
and showing how tough you are.
And you'll have people do what?
They'll shove you, right?
And a lot of times the shoving will go, but go ahead and shove me.
You know, the shoving will kind of go back and forth a little bit, you know,
we're kind of shoving each other.
Who's been there when there's a lot of shoving going back and forth?
And everybody's kind of waiting for the other guy to throw the first punch.
Am I right?
It's kind of like shove them, they shove you back, shove them, shove them back.
So, you know, because once you throw that punch, it's on.
That's serious.
Okay.
Now, here's the thing.
I've been out soul winning.
I've been in situations where I had somebody get angry and just shove me, right?
Now, what if I had the mentality, you can go ahead and have a seat.
What if I had the mentality that said, well, every time somebody shoves me,
I'm going to defend myself by throwing a punch?
Well, I would have been in a lot of fistfights by now, a lot, in the last 13 years of pastoring.
Okay.
Now, is that what God wants me to do?
He doesn't want me to be a striker.
He doesn't want me to be a brawler.
Let me explain something to you young guys that want to be a pastor someday.
Some of you men who desire the opposite of a bishop, let me say this to you.
People are going to shove you and you can't just punch them in the face when they shove you.
Now, listen, if somebody punches me in the face,
if somebody actually throws a punch at my face, at that point, I don't know what this person's trying to do to me.
At that point, I'm going to take it as, okay, this person's actually trying to severely injure me or even kill me
because people talk about killing me all the time.
Okay.
So, I mean, if somebody comes at me and actually smites me, you know, I don't know where this is going,
then you know what?
I'm going to fight back because I have the right to defend myself.
I believe that the Bible teaches self-defense.
But when somebody's shoving you, you know what?
They're not trying to actually assault you or kill you or severely injure you.
You know what they're trying to do?
They're trying to humiliate you.
They're trying to insult you, right?
And you know what you do?
You turn the other cheek.
And also, by the way, I've also made the decision that if somebody slaps me in the face with their open hand,
I'm not going to fight back because, again, when somebody slaps you across the face with their open hand,
they're not trying to actually injure you or kill you.
What they're trying to do there is, again, just humiliate you, whatever you want to call it.
So you need to make these type of decisions in your heart that you're not going to resist that kind of evil.
If somebody slaps you or shoves you or cusses you out or yells at you, you know,
you don't want to be one that's just ready to throw down.
Now, and again, let me reiterate.
If somebody actually assaults me in a way that's meant to harm me, you know,
if somebody's trying to break my nose or something or whatever they're going to do to me,
I don't know what they're going to do next.
You know, I'm going to defend myself.
And you know what?
I'm going to fight as hard as I can.
It's going to be a death struggle, okay?
So, you know, I just want to put that out there because you don't want to be any kind of Christian
because I know these are the qualifications for the pastor.
But you know, every Christian should live by this too.
It's not like, hey, you're in the pew, brawl away, buddy.
You know what I mean?
If somebody just bumps into you, just break their arm, you know.
No, that's not what the...
You know, you should live your life the same way.
I think that you should stop and think about, okay, where do I draw the line?
And you know, especially when people carry guns, they need to stop and think about,
okay, when am I going to use my gun?
Because you don't want to be on a hair trigger.
You know, oh, somebody's breaking into my car in my driveway, blow them away.
Wrong.
You know what I'm saying?
I mean, you know, you only want to use that thing if it's absolutely necessary.
Because, you know, if it's a life or death thing is what you'd use that for.
Okay, you don't just use it because somebody's stealing or, you know, whatever.
So, you know, you got to be careful.
And it's good to get some training on guns and not just training on how to use the guns,
but it's also good to get some training on the legalities
and some training on when it is appropriate to use it
and when it is not appropriate to use it as well.
It's good to have that kind of training and not to just be a loose cannon, you know,
carrying around a deadly weapon and you're ready to just pull it out at the drop of a hat
and start brandishing it.
You know, somebody might blow you away just because you're brandishing the thing at the wrong time.
So you got to be careful with that stuff.
And you know what? These guns also, right? Amen?
So, you know, don't just start smiting and striking and brawling.
That's not what God wants us to do.
God wants us to be peaceful.
Why couldn't David build the house for the Lord?
He was not peaceful enough.
He had shed blood.
He was fighting wars and stuff like that.
And that's not what God wants us to do.
The pastor must be one who is not easily provoked or soon angry.
Okay?
That he doesn't just blow his top at the little thing.
You know, he needs to be able to stay cool.
Why?
Because of the fact that people are going to be pushing his buttons all the time.
I mean, look, I know this from experience.
I mean, people are constantly calling me names, saying stupid things to me.
And, you know, I have to stay cool.
I can't just start screaming and getting violent and all this stuff.
You know, you got to stay cool.
Now, look, there are times when righteous anger is warranted.
I mean, there are times when Jesus got angry, the Bible tells us.
And he really yelled at people and told them off.
Okay.
So I'm not saying, hey, you need to be this watered down sissy like the preacher on Little House on the Prairie.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm not saying to be Reverend Alden.
Okay.
But I am saying that we should strive for peace whenever possible.
Now, there's a time to blow up.
There's a time to get angry.
There's a time to rip some face.
And there's a time even to flip tables over.
Because that's what Jesus did.
There was a time when he flipped over the tables and stuff.
But it should be warranted.
It's not wrong to be angry, but it's wrong to be angry with your brother without a cause.
That's wrong.
Okay.
Jesus had a righteous cause.
We should always have a righteous cause.
And you know what's not a righteous cause?
Your pride or your ego.
That's never a righteous cause.
That's the wrong anger.
Okay.
If you want to be a pastor someday, you have to be the type of person where somebody can just tell you that you're the biggest blankety blank blank blank.
And for you to just be able to just walk away and smile and go to the next door.
Now, if you can do that, if you can be out so many and ask, you stupid blankety blank, slam the door, and you can just walk away and smile and go to the next door, you might be cut out for being a pastor.
But if you're the type that just goes away and says, oh, I can't believe that guy.
And you're seething about it 10 minutes later, 20 minutes later, it still bugs you what that guy said.
You know, I can't even hardly think of any examples like that because I forgot them.
About 10 seconds after I walked away from that door.
And people who have gone so many with me could testify that I usually, when something like that happens, I usually just laugh.
Like, not in their face.
But I'm saying, like, I just walk away and just laugh.
Like, oh, man, can you believe that guy?
What a, you know.
And then you just go to the next door.
That's the right way to handle it, right?
Peaceful.
Now, look, I've had people just blow up at me for no reason, out-soul-witting even.
You know, and just freak out and whatever.
But how do you handle it?
Well, you know what, I've never thrown a punch since I've been the pastor.
Unless it was, like, sparring and boxing or kickboxing or something.
But I'm saying, like, I've never thrown a punch at someone in a fight since I've been the pastor.
And for a long time before I was the pastor.
Now, you know, back in junior high and high school, we've all been there, amen?
But anyway.
But when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Okay.
So the Bible, you know, gives these qualifications.
And the ones I want to emphasize tonight are the qualifications about not being a striker and not being a brawler.
Why? Because that's kind of similar to why David was disqualified.
Too violent, all right?
Now, we live in a day that glorifies violence.
But you know what, that's the pride of life.
That's carnal to glorify violence.
That is not a righteous glorification.
Okay.
What we ought to glory in is the Prince of Peace, Jesus.
Okay.
So anyway, let's go back to 1 Chronicles 22.
I want to take the time to talk about that because we're living in a day of unqualified pastors.
Pastors who don't have any kids.
Pastors who only have one kid when the Bible says they're to have children.
Divorced pastors, single pastors even.
You say, well, what do they do if they're in that situation?
You know what they should do is they should step down.
And they can still serve God.
They can still do great things for God.
In fact, they'll do greater things for God by actually obeying God.
1 Chronicles 22.
He says in verse 9, Behold, a son shall be born to thee who shall be a man of rest.
And I will give him rest from all his enemies round about.
For his name shall be Solomon.
Solomon actually literally means peace.
That's the name itself.
And I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.
He shall build a house for my name and he shall be my son and I will be his father
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.
Now, my son, the Lord be with thee and prosper thee and build the house of the Lord thy God as he hath said of thee.
Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding and give thee charge concerning Israel that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God.
Now, what's interesting here is that David gives Solomon the promise of God that his reign sounds like it's going to go pretty smooth
because he's going to become king and there's going to be peace in his days.
I mean, doesn't that sound great?
I mean, if you're about to become the king of a country and you're being told by God, hey, there's going to be peace.
I mean, you're just going to be building God's house and it's going to be peaceful and your throne's going to be established forever.
So you don't have to worry about somebody else taking your throne or, you know, it's established.
You have peace.
Here's all the gold.
Here's all the silver.
Here's everything you need to build the house of God.
Only, look at verse 12, only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding.
He's saying, you know what you really need, though?
You don't need money.
You've got money.
You don't need security.
You've got that.
You've got the safety.
You've got peace.
What you really need is wisdom and understanding.
Isn't it interesting how when Solomon is given the chance by God to ask for anything and God tells Solomon, ask me what I'll give you.
And he said, give me wisdom and understanding.
Give me an understanding heart so that I can, you know, to paraphrase, do a good job as king.
I want to rule this great people well.
I want to do a good job.
Give me wisdom and understanding.
And God praises him for not asking for a long life, not asking for riches, not asking for the necks of his enemies.
And of course, that's a pretty famous story.
Most people realize that.
But one thing that people might not have thought about is that when he made that great request, he's actually obeying his parents.
He was actually listening to his dad.
Because who's the one who told him, here's the big thing you need, son?
Wisdom and understanding.
That's the big, only, only means what?
I mean, this is the thing that matters.
This is really the only thing.
Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding.
So you know what?
When David talked to his son Solomon, was Solomon listening?
He must have been listening because then later when God says, I'll give you whatever you want, he's like, oh, well, you know what my dad said was the one thing I need more than anything is wisdom and understanding.
Okay, God, give me wisdom.
Give me an understanding heart.
What about you, teenager?
What about you, young person?
What about you, child?
When your dad talks to you, or your mom talks to you and gives you advice about life, are you just tuning them out?
Is it like on Charlie Brown, like wah, wah, wah, wah, wah?
Whenever an adult talks on Charlie Brown, it's just wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.
Only the kids' voices are heard.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
All right, good.
I'm not the only one who's seen the old Charlie Brown cartoon.
So is that how you are, or are you like Solomon?
Because Solomon was listening.
He was young and tender, the Bible tells us, but when his dad told him something, he took it seriously.
And he obeyed.
So that's part of why he was so blessed.
And you know what? David had a lot of sons, and Solomon was not the oldest one.
So why was he chosen?
God specifically chose Solomon out of all the sons of David and said, Solomon is going to be the king.
Solomon is whose throne I'm going to establish.
Solomon's going to build the temple.
It's going to forever be known as Solomon's temple.
Solomon gets to write three books of the Bible.
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
Why?
Because he was a man of peace and because he listened to his dad.
And he sought after wisdom and understanding, but he took that advice from his dad.
So don't be this arrogant little punk who thinks you know more than your parents.
And you know what? We've all been 17 or 15 or 19 or 14.
And guess what? We thought we knew everything at that age too.
I know I knew. I thought I knew everything when I was that age.
I remember even being a young adult thinking, you know, I can't really see myself learning anything groundbreaking from here on out.
I pretty much, you know, I know I'm going to learn little things, but I've pretty much learned all the big stuff by now.
I mean, you know, I remember I'd read the Bible like 10, 15 times.
I was like, you know, I can't really see anything shocking or groundbreaking coming out biblically, you know, because it's like I pretty much know the Bible.
But guess what? I've learned tons of things then.
That was back when I was still wrong on the Jews.
Okay, and I thought, you know, I pretty much have learned all the major doctrines.
Boy, was I wrong on that one.
So don't have this prideful, arrogant, punk attitude, know-it-all attitude.
I guarantee you, if you're a teenager, you don't know it all.
And you need to listen to your parents.
And don't just, yeah, yeah, mom and dad are on my case.
Listen to what they're saying.
Because what they're saying is wise and it's going to help you, okay?
And you need to, you know, you say, well, they're wrong.
Okay, even if they're wrong, did you stop and really carefully listen to what they were saying and then examine it with scripture and decide it's wrong?
Because, yeah, if you carefully examine what your parents have told you and compare it with scripture and decide, you know what, my parents are wrong,
okay, fine, because we ought to make the Bible our final authority.
The Lord supersedes our parents.
But let me tell you something, though.
Most teenagers, they're not comparing it with scripture and deciding that their parents are wrong.
They're just like, oh, they don't know.
What do they know?
I'm different. I'm the exception.
No, you're not. We've all been just like you.
We were all that teenager that you are right now.
And, you know, we've been a teenager before, but you've never been an adult before.
We've seen it from both sides.
You're seeing through a glass darkly.
All right, we're seeing face to face, you know, in part.
I know also, even as I am known.
All right.
So anyway, I'm not saying you have to wax that eloquent when you talk to your kids.
You know, you don't have to start quoting 1 Corinthians 13, you know.
Like you're the apostle Paul or something.
But the point is that David gave great advice to his son Solomon,
and Solomon listened and obeyed and followed it, and he's blessed.
Honor your father and mother that it may be well with you, that your days may be long on the earth.
It's not saying honor your father and mother, because they need you to honor them in order to be fulfilled as parents.
No, you're honoring them so that it can go well with you.
So that your days can be long on the earth, the Bible tells us.
So anyway, he says, of course, in verse 13,
Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfill the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel.
Be strong and of good courage, dread not, nor be dismayed.
And then, of course, David goes on to explain the preparations that he's made.
He gives a catalog of, okay, here's the gold, here's the silver, here are the other metals and woods and so forth.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.