Good morning.
as we enter into this week uh here in the states that we celebrate Thanksgiving Day.
We are reminded of many things.
One of the historical documents that I enjoy going back and looking at is the first Thanksgiving Day address or proclamation of that day that Washington uh gave back in 1797,
I believe it was, or 96, not long after the Bill of Rights had been uh established.
And very many years after our country was given birth, there was already a mindset and a view of giving thanks to God for what we have.
But as we think about the things that we're going to be doing this week and the places we will be, I encourage you, if you've not already, take a supply of these invitation cards.
As you meet people this week, as you're having time with family, especially if they live in this area, encourage them.
to uh come visit us, but also let them know if they don't live in this area that the sermons, the Bible classes that we teach and preach, those are all online on our website.
And so even if they're not in this area and they need the uh materials that we're putting together and creating through the work in that booth and so many who participate in that,
uh please let them know that those are available there on the website.
But also,
We haven't talked about it in a while, but just remember the names that are on these cards.
And if you haven't filled one of these out or if it's been a while since you've looked at yours, maybe coming uh in this time of Thanksgiving and the time you'll be spending around
family, maybe it's time to fill out another one of these cards with names of people who you need to be praying for, for an opportunity to teach them the gospel.
And sometimes, I'm just gonna mention one last thing, sometimes as we're getting together with family, we've probably all got some family that are not members of the church.
And it can be hard to figure out where to start with them.
And even if they're willing to sit down and study.
What I would encourage you to do is revisit the lesson we gave on the sword method.
because that is a very non-confrontational and participatory way that you can have a Bible study where they will enjoy it, they will get something out of it, and perhaps they will
ask, can we do this again?
And so I encourage you to maybe consider that as an option, as something you may sit down and do with your family, because that'd be a great family activity.
over the course of Thanksgiving.
Take a chapter of the Bible and just say, what do we learn about God?
What do we learn about man?
What do we commanded, or what do we see in this text as a command to obey?
What do we see as an example to follow?
And then out of that, I will.
That is a great way to get the text open up and get into the Bible instead of avoiding the Bible during the holidays.
All right?
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to 2 Chronicles chapter 6.
As I was thinking about that proclamation that George Washington gave in setting a day of Thanksgiving in the month of November for the country, I got to thinking as well about a
proclamation that Solomon gave.
And thoughts about that turned me to think, you know what, what can we learn about Thanksgiving?
from the dedication of the temple in the days of Solomon, and specifically from this proclamation which Solomon gave.
So we're going spend basically all of our time here in this text, but as you look at this text, Solomon has been working to bring about that temple which his father desired to
build and wasn't allowed to.
He has been putting together and working the people so as to
create different groups of the people who would come and they'd labor for a while in building the temple and then they'd go home and they'd take care of their home and their
families and their farms and then another group would come in and they'd continue the work and then they'd go home and another group would come in and they'd do work and then they'd
go home.
The nation had come together in a time of peace which was rare in Israel's history to work to build the temple.
and truly what they built was magnificent.
But as Solomon begins to dedicate the temple, in chapter 5 the ark is brought into the temple.
There in the end of chapter 5 verse 13 we read, it came to pass when the trumpeters and the singers were as one to make one sound, to be heard in the praising and thanking the
Lord.
And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endures forever, that the
house, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, so that the priest could not continue ministering because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of
God." As they concluded that bringing in of the Ark of the Covenant,
God's presence came into the temple as it had done way back in the days of Moses there in that by comparison very small tabernacle.
And when God's presence came into the temple the priest couldn't stay in there any longer.
I don't know how to describe to you what it would have been like but you've probably in it at some point in your life
been in a scenario of very dense fog.
Some of you, since none of you are northerners that I know of, maybe a few of here, have experienced whiteout conditions in the midst of a blizzard where you literally cannot see
anything in front of you.
I don't know if that's comparable to what they experienced.
I imagine they experienced far more than that.
But whatever was going on in the temple, the priests had to leave.
They could not stay in there anymore.
So the priests depart from the temple.
And we find then Solomon spoke.
The Lord said he would dwell in the dark clouds.
I have surely built you an exalted house and a place for you to dwell in forever." Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel when all the assembly of
Israel was standing.
So if you make a mental picture in your mind of
of what is going on.
Here is the temple in Jerusalem.
It has just been opened.
The ark has just been brought in.
The presence of God has filled the temple and this large building is now empty except for one inhabitant, the Lord.
And as Solomon stands before the nation, they're all standing to hear what is being said.
And Solomon says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel who has fulfilled with his hands what he spoke with his mouth to my father David, saying.
The first thing I want us to notice in view of Thanksgiving is that we ought to recognize that our blessings originate with God.
As Solomon will address to the people
He recognizes that the work of their hands, the labor that they had all participated in to build this temple was not their product.
that it was God's.
That God had caused them to be able to do this work.
That God had blessed them to be able to build this temple.
That God had fulfilled what He had promised, though He had done the work through them.
We need to be thankful for what God has done.
We need to recognize
the blessings that we have in Him.
But we also need to be thankful that God fulfills His promises.
Peter would write, as he writes to those Christians, he says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
God has promised a day of judgment for this world.
And every year as we assemble for Thanksgiving, maybe it would be an appropriate time for us to thank the Lord for his long-suffering.
because he is not slack in his promises.
But then consider as well, we read in verse 5, since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a
house, that my name might be there, nor did I choose any man to be a ruler over my people Israel.
Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name may be there.
and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel.
But the Lord said to my father David, whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for my name, you did well in that it was in your heart."
Nevertheless you shall not build the temple, but your son who will come from your body.
He shall build the temple for my name.
So the Lord has spoken his word, which he spoke, and I have filled the position of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised, and I have built the
temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel, and there I have put the ark in which
is the covenant of the Lord which he made with the children of Israel." As Solomon begins to speak, he rehearses how they got to where they are.
He rehearses what God had said about not putting his name in any single one tribe.
How that God had not put a king over Israel when the nation began.
It was not a nation with a king.
Rather, God was their King.
Yet, we're familiar with the fact that there came a point in time, in the time of Samuel as judge, that Israel said, we want a King to reign over us.
and they began a downward spiral for the rest of their history as a nation because of that choice.
But God would initially give them Saul as king.
When Saul did not do what God said, God told Samuel to go and anoint a king who would be after his own heart.
And David would become king in Israel.
And yet David's reign and his time as king would be fraught with wars, with bloodiness throughout the forty years.
If David wasn't fighting those of the northern tribes that decided they wanted to keep the lineage of Saul in power instead of whom the Lord had chosen, then eventually David was
fighting his own children and those who they brought up against David to try and take over the throne.
As matter of fact, David will end his life giving a decree to Solomon to take judgment and execute individuals who had not been judged while he was still alive.
And it is for that reason the Lord said that David would not build his house for he was a bloody man.
But God told David, your son will reign after you and he will build the house.
You know as you look at this and as you understand what God has done, consider that we ought to always thank God that he reigns in the kingdoms of men.
You know, it doesn't matter who's in the White House.
It really doesn't matter who's in the seat of power in Russia.
It doesn't matter who's reigning in China.
It doesn't matter who's in a governor's house, and it doesn't matter who's in a mayor's house, and it doesn't matter who's in any position of power on the earth, because God
rules in the kingdoms of men.
And Israel needed to be reminded, as they would be, that Solomon was not on the throne in Israel.
That God was on the throne in Israel.
But then consider as well, in verse 12, Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly and spread out his hands.
for Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court.
And he stood on it, knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.
And he said, now before we get into what he said, I want you to notice that Solomon realizes that he is not the ultimate power in Israel.
For Solomon will bow on his knees before the people and before God.
And for that we should be reminded that we should be thankful to God that He has allowed us to even exist.
In Psalm 8,
The psalmist inquires and wonders for us and for himself, who is man that you are mindful of him?
In that psalm of praise and thanksgiving, the psalmist writer considers that man is insignificant by comparison to all that God created and by comparison to all that God
created.
Everything He created is insignificant to him.
And yet God considers man and has brought salvation to man.
And Solomon as he bows on his knees before all the assembly recognizes that God
does not Oman anything, but that we should humbly come before Him.
But notice He said, verse 14, Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like you, who keep your covenant and mercy and your servants who walk before you with all
their hearts.
You have kept what you promised your servant David, my father.
You have both spoken with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand as it is this day.
Therefore,
Lord God of Israel, now keep what you promised your servant David, my father, saying, You shall not fail to have a man sit before me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take
heed to their way, that they walk in my law as you have walked before me.
And now, O Lord God of Israel, let your word come true which you have spoken to your servant David.
But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth?
Behold, and the heaven of heavens cannot continue, how much less this temple which I have built." Solomon, as he begins to speak, as he begins to pray to the Lord, as he begins to
dedicate the temple, will remind the people, this temple cannot house your God.
it's not big enough.
The heaven of heavens could not house God.
uh Solomon, as he dedicates the temple, will remind himself, he will remind the people that while they are there and while they view this as a place to come before God, that
God's dwelling place is not in this temple.
Solomon realizes that God is greater than the temple.
God is greater than the nation.
God is greater than the rule in Israel.
God is greater than the earth.
God is greater than the universe.
God is greater than anything that anyone holds to as...
power or authority except for God.
But as Solomon began to speak, Solomon reminded the Lord of the promises that the Lord had made to David.
And if you'll notice, one of the things that Solomon said as he accurately quoted that which the Lord has said, he said, verse 16, you shall not fail to have a man sit before me
on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way.
And they walk,
in my law as you have walked before me.
Solomon reminded the Lord of the promise.
He also reminded the Lord of the qualification of the promise.
And truly it will not be the Lord who departs from the agreement.
Sadly, it will be Solomon who departs from the agreement.
It will be Rehoboam, his son, who departs.
from the agreement.
will be generation after generation of kings who depart from the agreement.
But all of this is to remind us that we should be thankful to God.
that His Son, Jesus Christ, now sits on the throne and He will never depart from the agreement.
To walk in the ways of the Lord.
To continue in the law of the Lord.
To be faithful to the commands of God.
And so we have part in a nation, in a kingdom where there will never be a departure by the King.
Solomon continues.
He says, verse 19, yet regard the prayer of your servant in his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant is praying before you, that
your eyes may be opened toward this temple day and night, toward the place where you said you would put your name, and that you may hear the prayer which your servant makes toward
this place.
We should be reminded by Solomon and his prayer that we should thank God that he hears our prayers.
That he has told us quite clearly that he has promised us if we are faithful as his children, he will hear the prayers which we offer.
And we should be thankful that God hears our prayers.
We should never grow
too comfortable with the fact that God hears our prayers.
We should never get to the point where we treat prayer as casual because God hears our prayers.
Solomon.
is somewhat desperate to ask God that no matter what comes in the future, no matter the scenario that Israel finds itself in, no matter what would be the case down the road that
God would continue if they would pray toward this place.
Solomon as he's enacting this, he's not discussing some idea of some
mystical thought that there was some holiness that existed in that one physical location.
No, no, no.
It was what the temple represented in their covenant relationship to God that Solomon is after.
He's not after that the people should think, what glory that this golden overlaid temple has, oh what beauty this has, it's got some spiritual magical thing where it gets the
prayers up to heaven.
No, that's not what Solomon's after.
Solomon's after a historical, covenantal relationship with God
and that when that covenant relationship is brought to mind and when Israel is reminded and remembers the relationship and the covenant that they have with God and when they pray
toward the temple in view of the covenant that the temple represents,
that God will hear their prayer.
You see, the temple wasn't holy because it was majestic.
The temple wasn't holy because it was overlaid with gold.
The temple wasn't holy because it was the work of great craftsmen.
The temple was holy because of the relationship with God that existed and was signified by the temple.
He says, verse 20, that your eyes may be opened toward this temple day and night, toward the place where you said you would put your name, that you may hear the prayer which your
servant makes towards this place, and you may hear, I'm gonna get it out, and may you hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this
place, hear from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear,
Forgive.
We ought to be thankful to God.
that in being willing to hear our prayers, He's also willing to forgive our sins.
Solomon knew there would be a day when Israel would need...
in a far-off land.
to pray toward this place.
and for God to hear their prayer off in captivity and forgive their iniquity that had put them there and bring them back home.
Truly in the days of Nehemiah, in the days of Daniel, in the days of Ezekiel, you see that come to pass.
He says, if anyone sins against his neighbor, verse 22, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven and act
and judge your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.
or if your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you and return and confess your name and pray and make supplication before you in this temple
then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land which you gave them and their fathers." Solomon says there's going to be a time when
Israel is going to be
unrighteous before you where they're going to lose against their enemies and they're going to be carted off.
And when that happens, when they realize that the reason that they're in captivity is because they failed to keep the Word of the Lord,
And when they pray and when they ask for forgiveness as a nation, bring them back to this place.
But in view of that text, we should be thankful.
when God brings judgment upon the unrighteous through their own works.
Have you ever imagined what this world would look like if evil people weren't destroyed by their own evilness?
Have you ever considered how apt it is that God has placed into the very nature of the world that it is self-defeating to be evil?
that when someone is pervasively continuing in that which is evil, when a nation continues in that which is evil, it brings about their own self-destruction.
One of the reasons I love the book of Revelation is because the book of Revelation tells us God was going to deal with Rome.
God was going to bring about the destruction of Rome.
Yet when you look at it from the historical view, as you look backward at the history of Rome, what do we all know?
Rome fell from the inside, not the outside.
Rome decayed in its own sin and iniquity and imploded.
because it would not obey God.
We can be thankful that we and those who are righteous do not have to defeat every wicked man who comes to power through force of arms, through force of will, through force of
words.
Because God sits on His throne as Psalm 2 tells us and laughs in derision.
at the decisions and the plans of the unrighteous.
For He brings the way of the wicked upon themselves.
We should be thankful to God that He judges those who are unrighteous and He brings about their destruction through their own unrighteousness.
But then Solomon continues and he says,
When there is a famine, verse 28, in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague
of whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone or by all your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden, his own grief, and spreads
out his hands to this temple,
then hear from your heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart you know, for you alone know the hearts of the sons
of men, that they may fear you to walk in your ways as long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
Moreover, concerning a foreigner who is not of your people Israel, but has come from a far country,
for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm when they come and pray in this temple, then hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according
to all which the foreigners call to you, that all peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I
have built is called by your name." Solomon as he
tells the people as he speaks to the people as he prays to God says we understand that we are not all there is
And he prays that when the foreigner comes in, when the non-Israelite comes in, when the person comes in who cannot trace his lineage back to Abraham, that cannot say, I'm a
descendant of this tribe.
when the foreigner comes in and comes into this nation and he comes there not because the commerce is good, not because the economy is good, not because he sees the blessings of
Israel and wants some of them, but he's come there because he knows the name of God is there.
Solomon says.
you act accordingly with that for it.
Solomon looked forward to a day when Israel was populated by people who weren't Israelites.
but loved God as much as anybody.
Who knew his name?
Solomon teaches us that we should be thankful that God is not a God of Israel, that God is not a God of the Gentiles, that God is not a God of the Jews.
but rather that God is a God of all those who are living.
In Acts chapter 17, Paul, as he stood at the Areopagus, would tell those individuals in Athens that God is a God of all men and that He commands all men everywhere to repent.
We should be thankful that God is not just interested in one nation, one country, one people.
God is not the God of America.
He is the God of humanity.
He is the God of all that exist.
But then consider as well, when we read in verse 34, he says, when your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever you send them,
and when they pray to you toward this city which you have chosen and the temple which I have built for your name then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication and
maintain their cause.
When they sin against you for there is no one who does not sin and you become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy and they take them captive to a land far or near
Yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned and
have done wrong and have committed wickedness.
And when they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity and where they have been carried captive and pray toward their land, which
you gave to their fathers and the city which you have chosen and toward the temple which I have built for your name.
then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you." Solomon in his wisdom,
Solomon in the knowledge and the wisdom that God had given him knew what was coming, knew what they would go through.
He also prayed for God to deal with it.
But notice this.
Solomon teaches us that we should be thankful that there is no place too far, no sin too great, no distance too long that we cannot realize that we have violated God's law and
repent and return and be forgiven.
when you look forward over the history of Israel, over the years that would bring about that very captivity that Solomon describes, Israel will be guilty of sins of immorality,
of iniquity, of promiscuity, of idolatry, of murdering their own children in worship to idols, of shedding the blood
of the righteous and the prophets so that it would run in the streets of Jerusalem, this city.
And yet, the midst of all their iniquity, in the midst of all their sin, in the midst of all of their departures from God, Solomon is able to be thankful because God would still
be willing to hear them if they would turn with their whole heart and repent.
we should be thankful that God is willing to forgive.
But then Solomon will write, Now, my God, or will say, Now, my God, I pray, let your eyes be open and let your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place.
Now, therefore, arise, O Lord God, to your resting place.
You and the ark of your strength, let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let your saints rejoice in goodness.
O Lord God, do not turn away the face of your anointed.
Remember the mercies of your servant David.
Solomon as he concludes the prayer.
reminds the people that truly they are blessed by their relationship to God, by their presence in that temple, by the mediators that serve before them in the form of the
priest, that there is someone that they can go to who is a go-between between them and God.
who will help them when they no longer are in a right relationship with God.
And today, John will tell us that we have a mediator between us and God.
The Hebrew writer will point out that we have a better mediator than Israel had.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
But in all points was tempted like as we are yet.
without sin.
And because of that we can come boldly before the throne of grace to find help in time of need.
So as we conclude, we should be thankful that God has given us a mediator, a go-between between us and God, and His name is Jesus Christ.
And Jesus said, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
And Jesus has given us the ability and the power to become the sons of God.
For an Israelite,
They were born into that relationship.
They had part in that covenant by blood and those Gentiles did not.
And yet for every Jew and every Gentile alive today, Christ has said, you can be born again by water and of the Spirit.
You can have part in the covenant relationship with God because I've given you the power to become the children of God.
If you'll hear my word and be obedient to it, if you'll confess my name, if you'll die to sin in a watery grave of baptism and rise again to walk in newness of life, you can have a
relationship with God.
and then think of, oh, all the things you can be thankful for this Thanksgiving season.
If you have need of the invitation of God, either to return to a right relationship, maybe you spiritually are in a far off land away from God and you need to come home.
We encourage you to do so.
God will accept your prayer and your return.
and your right heart that has been corrected to do His will and your request for forgiveness.
you're not a member of the body of Christ and you've been separated from God because you haven't been obedient to His will, you can enter a right relationship with Him.
You can die to being a servant of sin and a servant of Satan and you can be born as a child of God.
and then you too can pray a prayer like this because God will hear your prayers.
If you have need of the invitation, why not come as we stand and as we sing.