Now set your heart and soul to seek the LORD your God. Get started building the sanctuary of the LORD God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the holy articles of God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the LORD." Sermons
I. Note first, as here described, THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THE BUILDING. It was "the sanctuary of the Lord God;" it was to be built "to the Name of the Lord." A Divine dwelling, a habitation for the Most High, a holy place. In all this an emblem of the temple of our Saviour's body, and of that spiritual house which is the temple of the Holy Ghost. II. Remark next, THE PURPOSE OF THE BUILDING. It was to contain "the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God." That is to say, it was not only the locality of God's manifested presence, but it was the scene of sacrifice and worship and the centre of the nation's religion. This gave a practical and political significance to the erection of the sanctuary.' III. Instructive is the account given of THE DISPOSITION AND SPIRIT OF THE BUILDERS. The work was not to be done mechanically, or from a feeling of constraint. They were to "set their heart and their soul to seek the Lord their God." That is, they were to undertake the work as one distinctively religious, and from a religious motive and with a religious aim. PRACTICAL LESSONS. 1. Let everything that is God's engage your sympathy and interest and zeal. Let each Christian hear the voice from heaven saying to him, "Arise, and build." 2. Let God's work be done in a devout and religious spirit. In serving the Lord seek him, and he will be found of you. - T.
Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. I. THE OCCASION ON WHICH THIS INJUNCTION WAS GIVEN.II. THE INJUNCTION ITSELF. 1. The great object of our life. 2. In what way we are to prosecute it.(1) Avail yourselves of the opportunities afforded for public usefulness.(2) Begin with the surrender of your whole souls to God. (C. Simeon, M. A.) II. The METHOD of search. 1. Earnestly. 2. Resolutely. (J. Wolfendale.) I. THE HEART SET UPON GOD. 1. All work for God must begin with ourselves (Acts 22:28; 1 Timothy 4:16). 2. It must be heart-work, not merely duty, custom, or sympathy. 3. There must be a deliberate setting of the heart and soul upon God as our God, reconciled in Christ, fixedly His (Psalm 57:7; Deuteronomy 10:12). 4. There must be continued seeking God, in prayer, meditation, holy living. II. THE BUILDING-WORK GOING ON. The living Church is God's sanctuary. He dwells in the hearts of His people (John 14:23; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Corinthians 3:16). The work of Christ's followers is to build the sanctuary. 1. By gathering souls out of the world around to Christ. 2. By gathering souls into the Church, uniting in one body in Christ. III. THE SANCTUARY USED FOR GOD. Union in the Church must be — 1. For consecration. The temple is not for ornament, nor for the admiration of the world, but for God. 2. For worship: "Bring the ark," etc. The ark shadows forth the great propitiation (Romans 3:25). This must hold the first position in the Church, heart, ministry (1 Corinthians 2:2). 3. For service: "Bring the holy vessels," etc. Each vessel has its use. (J. E. Sampson.) Let us take this exhortation —I. IN ITS REFERENCE TO GOD'S OWN PEOPLE. 1. What are they to seek? "The Lord your God."(1) By endeavouring to obey Him in everything.(2) In building up His temple. It should be the main object of our life to seek the Lord by building up His Church.(3) By doing everything to God's glory. 2. How are they to seek? "Set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God."(1) With fixity of purpose: "Set."(2) Have an intense affection towards God's service and glory.(3) With an energetic use of the intellect. We ought as much to speculate and scheme to glorify God as we meditate how to advance our business.(4) By the union and concentration of all our faculties. 3. When are we to seek the Lord? "Now." Now is the only time worth having, because it is indeed the only time we have. When did David mean by his "now"?(1) Now that they had an efficient leader — Solomon.(2) When God is with you.(3) When God gives rest. "Hath He not given you rest on every side?" II. IN ITS REFERENCE TO THOSE WHO ARE CONVERTED. 1. Set your heart on true religion, and be not content with the outward form of it. 2. Seek the Lord Himself. 3. Seek Him at once with all your heart. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) In the struggle of life many men and women are hampered and depressed by the memory of past weaknesses, errors, and sins. The hours of their real spiritual prosperity are overshadowed and embittered by the recollection of their spiritual adversities. It is one of the wise and helpful laws of our nature that in freeing ourselves from weakness and sin we do not free ourselves from the memory of them. The value of the experience lies in the lesson we learn from it, and the truest repentance is often witnessed by the poignancy of the sorrow, and both the lesson and the sorrow have their roots in memory. But, while we are not to forget that we have sometimes fallen, we are not always to carry the mud with us; the slough is behind, but the clean, clearly-defined road stretches ahead of us, skies are clear, and God is beyond. We were made for purity, truth, and fidelity, and the very abhorrence of the opposites of these qualities, which grows and deepens within us, bears testimony that our aspirations are becoming our attainments. The really noble thing about any man or woman is not freedom from all stains of the lower life, but the deathless aspiration which for ever drives us forward and will not let us rest in any past, whether good or bad. That which makes us respect ourselves is not what men call a blameless career, but the hunger and thirst after God which makes all our doing unsatisfying and inadequate to us. Better a thousand times the eager and passionate fleeing to God from a past of faults and weaknesses, with an irresistible longing for rest in the everlasting verities, than the most respectable career which misses this profound impulse. The past, remains with us to remind us of our perils and our constant need of help, but it ought not to haunt and oppress us. The real life of an aspiring soul is always ahead, We are not fleeing from the devil, but seeking God.(Lyman Abbott.) People David, Sidonians, Solomon, Tyrians, ZidoniansPlaces JerusalemTopics Agreement, Arise, Ark, Articles, Begin, Belonging, Bring, Build, Building, Built, Covenant, Elohim, Heart, Holy, Lord's, Mind, Rise, Sacred, Sanctuary, Seek, Seeking, Soul, Temple, Vessels, WorshipOutline 1. David, foreknowing the place of the temple, prepares abundance for building it.6. He instructs Solomon in God's promises, and his duty in building the temple. 17. He charges the princes to assist his son Dictionary of Bible Themes 1 Chronicles 22:19 5015 heart, and Holy Spirit Library David's Prohibited Desire and Permitted Service'Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the Lord God of Israel. 7. And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God: 8. But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto My name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in My sight. 9. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Solomon's Temple Spiritualized He Does Battle for the Faith; He Restores Peace among those who were at Variance; He Takes in Hand to Build a Stone Church. The Promise in 2 Samuel, Chap. vii. Chronicles Links 1 Chronicles 22:19 NIV1 Chronicles 22:19 NLT 1 Chronicles 22:19 ESV 1 Chronicles 22:19 NASB 1 Chronicles 22:19 KJV 1 Chronicles 22:19 Bible Apps 1 Chronicles 22:19 Parallel 1 Chronicles 22:19 Biblia Paralela 1 Chronicles 22:19 Chinese Bible 1 Chronicles 22:19 French Bible 1 Chronicles 22:19 German Bible 1 Chronicles 22:19 Commentaries Bible Hub |
    |