PART #9 – Preparing for What You’ll Never Finish
1 Chronicles 22:1-19, 28:1-21, 29:1-9, “Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.”
David is an old man now, the wars are over and the kingdom is settled. He knows he is not going to be the one to build the temple. God already told him that, and David made his peace with it. Most men, when they find out somebody else is going to get the credit for what they wanted to do, walk away.
They tell themselves it must not have been God’s will after all and they let the dream die.
David did the opposite. He spent the rest of his life pouring everything he had into a building he would never lay one stone of. He gathered gold by the ton, silver by the thousand tons, and iron and brass too much to weigh. Cedar from Lebanon, and stone from the quarries. He drew up the plans God gave him on paper and handed them to Solomon. He organized the priesthood into twenty-four courses. He set up the singers and the gatekeepers. He stood up in front of the whole assembly and gave away the personal treasure he had been saving for years out of his own pocket. And when his giving sparked a wave of giving from everybody else in the kingdom, David rejoiced. Then he laid hands on his son, blessed him, charged him to be strong, and quietly stepped offstage.
Here are six things from David’s last season that every believer needs to make peace with.
- Letting the End of Your Life Be About Building, Not Just Resting
Most men, when they get old and the wars are over, sit down. David did not. The very first verse of 1 Chronicles 22 says, “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 he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God” (1 Chronicles 22:1-2). The minute the wars stopped, the building started.
Paul did not retire. Caleb at eighty-five said, “Now therefore give me this mountain” (Joshua 14:12). The world tells you the back half of life is for ease and golf carts. The Bible tells you the back half of life is for the deepest, most generous building of your whole walk. If God lets you live long, do not waste those years. Use the strength and resources you have left to build something for the next generation.
- Pouring Out Resources for a Project You Will Never See Finished
Notice the numbers. David personally gave three thousand talents of gold and seven thousand talents of refined silver out of his own treasure for the temple (1 Chronicles 29:4). Some scholars estimate that single offering at billions of dollars in today’s money. He told the assembly, “I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God” (1 Chronicles 29:2). He had been saving for years. He gave it all to a building he would not live to see dedicated.
Generosity is the proof that you actually believe in the next generation. Anybody can talk about caring for those who come after them. The believer who actually does it puts his money where his mouth is. Solomon wrote, “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty” (Proverbs 11:24). Open-handed giving toward what comes after you is one of the surest signs that God is still working in your heart. The believer who hoards in old age has stopped trusting God. The believer who gives in old age is finishing strong.
- Equipping the Person Who Gets to Finish What You Started
David did not just leave Solomon a pile of gold. He left him a plan, a workforce, and a priesthood organized into twenty-four courses. He left him singers and gatekeepers and treasurers all assigned to their posts. He told him, “Behold, the courses of the priests and the Levites, even they shall be with thee for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship every willing skilful man” (1 Chronicles 28:21).
It is not enough to want the next generation to succeed. You have to actually equip them. Paul told Timothy, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). Pour into the young people at your church. If God has given you a skill, a ministry, or a business, do not take it to the grave with you. Hand it down. The believer who refuses to equip the next generation is robbing them of something God meant for them to inherit.
- Giving Other People the Plan God Gave You
Read this carefully. “Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat” (1 Chronicles 28:11). And then a few verses later, “All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern” (1 Chronicles 28:19). God gave David the blueprint of the temple supernaturally, and David handed it straight to his son.
The vision God gave you is not always for you to execute. Sometimes it is for you to receive and pass down. The believer who hoards God’s vision because he wants to be the one to do it ends up dying with the plan still in his head.
- Letting Your Generosity Spark Generosity in Others
Watch what happens after David gives. He stands in front of the whole assembly, lays out his giving, and then asks, “And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?” (1 Chronicles 29:5).
The answer is in the next verse. The chiefs of the fathers, the princes, the captains, the rulers, all of them gave willingly. Five thousand talents of gold. Ten thousand talents of silver. Eighteen thousand talents of brass. A hundred thousand talents of iron. The whole kingdom moved together because the king moved first.
Generosity is contagious when it comes from the top. Paul wrote, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). If you are a parent, your giving will train your kids how to give. If you are a leader, your generosity will set the temperature of everybody under you. Most people are waiting for permission to be generous. Be the first one to open your hand and watch what God does in the people around you.
- Charging the Next Generation to Be Strong
Right before David steps offstage, he turns to Solomon and gives him one of the most important charges in the Old Testament. “Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord” (1 Chronicles 28:20). It is the same thing God told Joshua when Moses passed off the baton. It is the same thing every old man of God has to say to every young man of God.
Whoever God puts behind you needs to hear the words “be strong and of good courage” from your mouth, not just read them in the Bible. Your kids, the young preacher, and the believer you are discipling needs it. Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.” Speak strength into the next generation on purpose. Tell them God will not fail them. The world is going to spend their whole life telling them to quit. The believer who comes behind you needs at least one voice in his life telling him to be strong.
David did not end with a temple. He ended with a son ready to build one, a workforce ready to do it, a treasury overflowing to pay for it, and a kingdom that knew how to give. He did not lay one stone. But every stone Solomon laid was paid for, planned for, and prayed for by his father.
There is going to come a season in your life when the building part is done and the preparing part begins. You will not always be the one cutting the ribbon. Sometimes you will be the one cutting the checks for somebody else’s ribbon-cutting.
The pattern of David’s life was God’s pattern for every believer. Anointing in the small place. Long seasons of fighting. Partial crownings. Conquered cities. Failed worship corrected. God’s no turned into God’s bigger yes. Worship before vision. And finally, preparation for what comes next. You cannot skip steps. God builds in order. And He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).
The believer who finishes well is not the one who built the most for himself, but the one who left the most behind for the people coming after him.
