CALL TO CONFESSION

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Mighty God, you are our deliverer and refuge. Though we have nothing to fear in life or in death, we still surrender to fear. You call us to rest, yet we rely on our own strength and are overwhelmed by anxiety and weakness. You promise to work all things for our special blessing and good, yet we doubt your love and question your wisdom. Father, forgive our pride and unbelief.

Thank you that when our faith falters, Jesus remains a strong and powerful Savior. Though Satan accuses us, you declare us righteous in Christ. Quiet our fearful hearts and remind us that you hold us fast, even when we stumble. Help us deeply feel that Jesus has paid for every sin through his sacrifice.

Holy Spirit, guide us through life's deserts with your powerful hand. Help us see Christ pleading for us, declaring there is no condemnation. Give us faith in your relentless love, wisdom to discern your truth from lies, and joy and contentment as we find rest in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

“Take a few moments to personally confess your sins to the Lord.”

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

“Hear these words of comfort and assurance.” 

Romans 8:31-34

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

• For the past nine years, the Lord has met us in this physical space. 
• Nine years of setting up and tearing down to convert a space for God’s people to gather for worship and the Word. 
• God has been remarkably faithful to us here. He sustained us, saw us through difficult seasons, and he has used this space to give us a faithful presence at the Y and the surrounding community. 
• Today we say goodbye.
• What I want to do is look back and give thanks to the Lord for everything he did with us here in our past season of ministry. 
• And then look forward and give thanks to the Lord for what he will do with us in our next season of ministry. 

• We're going to read a prayer David prayed near the end of his life. He is an old king, surrounded by treasures that have been received for the building of God's house.
• It’s for a house of God that David himself will never live to see completed. 
• He prays and blesses the Lord.
• And his prayer has rich reminders for us to lay hold of today in our season of transition. 
• We can look back with gratitude and step forward with open hands, because everything comes from God and belongs to God. 

1 Chronicles 29:10-16

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. 11 Yours, O 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. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

14 “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 15 For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. 16 O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. 

• 1 and 2 Chronicles was written for a specific group of people: the small remnant that returned home after the Babylonian exile.
• But home didn’t look anything like it looked in the good old days. 
• The book of Ezra tells us that when the foundation was laid for the new temple, the old men who remembered Solomon’s temple wept out loud (Ezra 3:12). 
• The new temple looked like a massive downgrade by comparison. 

• The chronicler writes to a small group of discouraged people who are worshiping in a much humbler place than did previous generations. He tells them their story again to remind them who their God is. 
• He shows them what real worship looks like and he shows them that God keeps his promises, even when they are in unfamiliar places and when the buildings change. 

• In chapter 17, David wanted to build a house for God that reflected the glory and majesty of God. 
• But God said no. He told David that his son would build the house instead. 
• And then God gave David an amazing promise. 
• God said that he would build David a house. And God would establish the throne of David’s son forever (1 Chron. 17:10-14). 
• David heard God’s “no” and he accepted the promise of God. 
• But David would spend the rest of his life preparing and getting things ready for when God said, “yes.” 
• He gathered materials. He organized all those who would minister in the temple: priests, musicians, and singers. He gave his son Solomon the plans. 
• And he gave out of his own personal treasure, and invited all of the leaders of Israel and the people to give generously to the building project. 
• Verse 9 of our chapter says, “Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly.”

• And then David prays. “Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly.” 
• David’s first response, his first instinct, is worship. He turns to God before he turns to anyone else. 

• And that’s always a fresh reminder for us. We are not here to celebrate ourselves.
• David shows us a far better way. When the Lord has been good to you, turn and bless him. 

• David’s prayer has three movements. 
• First, it lifts our eyes up to who God is.
• Second, it brings us low, to who we are. 
• And third, it opens our hands to whose it all is.

• David starts with praise. “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever.” He reaches all the way back to their beginning as a people. 
• God was faithful to Jacob and he is faithful now to them.
• Real gratitude starts with God himself. 
• As wonderful as his gifts are, the Giver is far greater. 
• Look at God’s attributes that David stacks up in his praise: God's greatness, power, glory, victory and majesty.

• David is the king. He is the most powerful man in Israel. And yet he declares, “yours is the kingdom, O Lord.” 
• He acknowledges that he is sitting on a borrowed throne. The Lord is the real King.

• Notice in verse 12, twice David says, “in your hand.” In the Lord’s hands are power and might, and in the Lord’s hands is the ability to make great and give strength to all.
• David’s point is that God is sovereignly in control of everything.

• That is great news for us. 
• God was in charge from our first Sunday at the Y until this one. 
• We had a few very difficult moments in our history. But none of that happened because we had slipped out of God’s hands. 

• Our church is going to a new place. But the God who rules over all things is right here with us. We are in his hand. 
• And we will be in his hand as he establishes us in our next place. 
• His sovereign rule should give us courage as we start fresh in a new community, as we figure out what the needs are, as we engage with new people and bring the light of the gospel to them. 
• As we trust in his sovereign rule, God will work through us, and everyone will see that the strength and the ability to do great things for God came from him. And he gets all the glory.

• Verse 13, “And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.” 
• David’s response after extolling God’s greatness is “thank you.” 
• Gratitude is what happens when you see how big God is and how kind and faithful he has been to you. 
• And for David, gratitude leads to humility. 
• Verse 14, “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?”
• This echoes David’s response when the Lord promised to establish his throne and kingdom forever. He said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?” (1 Chron. 17:16). 
• David looks back over the course of his life and sees grace everywhere.
• David was called from humble beginnings. But God knew David. And God made him king over Israel. 
• David knew he didn’t deserve any of it. That’s what grace is. 
• Grace is God’s kindness, given to those who haven’t earned it and could never repay it.
• That’s the heart of the gospel. 

• Why did God save any of us? We could all say, “Who am I, O Lord, that you have rescued me and brought me into your family?”
• We were all dead in our trespasses and sins. But God being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. It is by grace alone we have been saved (Eph. 2:4-5). 
• When we look back over our nine years at the Y, we could ask, “Who are we, O Lord, that you would use a small church in a rented space?”
• Let’s always be humble and thankful. Amazed and aware that it is all of grace.

• Verse 15, “For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were.” 
• A sojourner is a traveler, someone who lives temporarily in a place that they do not own. 
• The language goes back to Abraham. When his wife Sarah died, he had to buy land to bury her. Abraham said to the Hittites, “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you” (Gen. 23:4). 
• God had promised Abraham the whole land and yet the only piece of it he ever owned was his wife’s grave. 
• Now here’s David, the king of Israel. He lives in an opulent palace. He’s surrounded by treasure. And he says the same thing the patriarch Abraham said, “We are sojourners, as all our fathers were.” 
• Then he goes on, “our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.” 
• A shadow constantly shifts throughout the day and then at sundown it’s gone. 
• David is saying that there is nothing lasting on this earth, except God himself. 

• We’ve been sojourners our entire history. We never owned a building. We were guests. Our name was never on the building. 
• And we’re going to be guests again, sharing a home at Christ Church. 
• Some might see that as a failure. Why doesn’t a church have its own building? 
• But it is a picture of who God’s people have always been. 
• Hebrews 11 says Abraham and the patriarchs “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth,” and that they were seeking a homeland.
• Peter writes to Christians and calls them “sojourners and exiles” (1 Pet. 2:11).
• Our true home is never going to be a building that we own. 
• Our true home is and always will be with God, in the city he is preparing for us. 
• We’re just pilgrims passing through this world, and our primary business is not maintaining real estate, but making disciples. 

• What does it mean for us to be sojourners right now?
• It means that we hold loosely to the idea of any space being our own. 
• We’re going to be guests at Christ Church. We’re going to express gratitude. We are going to take excellent care of what is not ours. 
• We’re going to be patient and flexible and quick to serve. 
• There will be moments where things won't go as we would like them to. Those will be moments where we will show what grace looks like and our hosts can see a visible display of the gospel from the way we share their home. 

• It also means we hold onto our lives loosely. 
• Our days are like a shadow. Life moves quickly. So whatever time God gives us in this next season, let’s not waste it. 
• Let’s spend it on things that are eternally lasting. Those are the things worth building on. 

• Verse 14 ends like this, “For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.” 
• Then verse 16 says it again, “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.” 
• David can’t stop saying it over and over again. “It’s all yours, Lord. It came from you and we’re only giving back what you gave us.”
• It's like when your child asks you for money a few days before your birthday. And they buy you a birthday present with the money you gave them. You receive it with joy because the heart behind the intention came from someone that you love and who loves you. 
• That’s what David is saying, “Lord, we brought you all this gold and silver, but we know that it was yours to begin with.” 
• And our heavenly Father receives it with joy. 

• It’s a solemn reminder when you give your offering to say, “All things come from you, and of your own have we given you.” 
• It reminds us what giving really is. When we give, we get to join God in his work with what he already put in our hands.
• Bear in mind that David gave for a house he would never see. David’s gifts were for the next generation. 
• When we sent almost thirty of our people to plant a church that was a similar kind of gift. 
• We gave away friends, leaders, and volunteers. We gave them away for a harvest we would only see from a distance. It cost us something real. 
• And God has been faithful through it. 

• God is asking us to do it again, in a new way. We’re moving because we believe the Lord is calling us to reach this community. We’re giving up a familiar and comfortable place for the sake of people we haven’t met yet. 
• God is sending us from here for the mission, and he is calling us to live with open-handed generosity. 

• What does open-handed living look like in our next season?
• For starters, we need to do some listening and observing. We don’t know all the needs of our new community yet.
• We’ll be smack in the middle of local government workers and first responders. 
• We need to pray and learn, and then we want to be strategic in how we show the love of Christ in specific ways. 
• Everyone has a part in that. In God’s family, everyone has something in their hands, because God put it there. 
• All have something to contribute. 

• Open hands also means partnership. Not just with Christ Church, which has been in Longwood longer than any other church, but with other ministries that impact our community.

• Open hands also means generosity. Giving of our money, time, and giving up our comfort. 
• When that feels like a sacrifice, remember David’s words. “Of your own have we given you.” 
• We can never out-give God. 

CONCLUSION

• David’s story points us past David to the promise of chapter 17. 
• God said he would raise up David’s son, he would build God a house, and God would establish his throne forever. 
• Solomon built a glorious temple. But that temple was destroyed. And no physical son of David sat on the throne forever. 
• The people reading Chronicles were still waiting for that promise to come true. 
• Then, centuries later, a baby was born in David’s hometown of Bethlehem. And the angel told Mary, “the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32-33). 
• Jesus is the greater Son of David, the King whose kingdom will be forever.

• And Jesus is the one who builds God’s true house. 
• Jesus said, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). 
• And the house he builds is made of the people he redeemed with his own blood. 
• Paul says we are “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). 
• Peter calls us “living stones” being built up as a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5).

• When we walk out of the Y for the last time today, God’s house isn’t staying behind. 
• God’s house is walking out the door.
• The church is the people Jesus bought with his own blood. 

• In Jesus, we see how true David’s statement is, “All things come from you.” 
• The greatest gift God ever gave was his own Son. 
• Jesus owned everything, and he became poor for our sake (2 Cor. 8:9). 
• He became a sojourner. He said he had nowhere to lay his head (Matt. 8:20). 
• He went to the cross and gave his life for sinners like us. 
• Then he rose from the dead, and now reigns as the King of kings.

• So when we give, we’re giving back to the God who gave us everything in Christ. 
• When we go, we’re following the Savior who came all the way to us. 
• And when we feel like strangers, we remember that Jesus was a stranger too, and he has gone ahead of us to prepare for us a place. 

• David’s prayer reminds us of who God is. He is great and glorious. He is in sovereign control of everything. He held us in his hand every Sunday at the Y and he will hold us in his hand every Sunday to come. 
• David’s prayer reminds us of who we are. We’re small, undeserving, yet deeply loved. We’re sojourners who have always been guests, and always will be until we reach our true home. 
• David’s prayer reminds us of whose it all is. Everything we have came from God and everything we give is his. And he delights to receive it. 

• Here are three things I want to ask all of us to do. 
• First, look back and give thanks. This week, take some time to remember. Tell someone a story about what God did at the Y. Maybe it was a friend you made, a prayer the Lord answered, or a difficult season God carried you through. Don’t let the good gifts of God slip by without a thank you. 
• Second, open your hands. Ask the Lord, “What have you put in my hands that you want me to give?” Maybe it’s your time. Maybe it’s opening your home in gospel hospitality. Maybe it's your money. Hold it out to God. He gave it to you so you could give it back to him. 
• Third, go from this place as a sent people. Pray for our new community. Ask God to show us the needs we can’t see yet. And when the opportunities come, may we respond with a resounding, “Yes, Lord!” And look forward with bold anticipation of what the Lord is going to do with us and in us. 

• David’s prayer began with praise and ended with open hands. May that always be our story. 
• Nine years ago, the Lord brought us into a space and he filled it with his Word, his people, and his grace. 
• Now he is sending us out. 
• The building will be different, but the Lord and the mission are the same. 
• We can look back with gratitude and step forward with open hands, because everything comes from God and belongs to God.
• We can say together with David, “And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.” 

APPLICATION AND REFLECTION

In light of today's message....

• What did I learn about the gospel?
• How can I apply what I learned about the gospel to my life?
• With whom can I share the gospel this week?