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00:05 Shall we pray before we hear the word of the Lord? Our father, we give you thanks, oh Lord,
00:11 for this day that we can come before you with our with all the baggage that we had in the
00:18 week and in our lives. And we can come before you this day, oh Lord, knowing that you hear us. You heed
00:24 us. And oh God, you call us, oh God, to be in your presence, in your direction.
00:33 So Lord, we may praise you to the very end of our days. And so Lord, as we look into the life of David, as we look at
00:40 his prayer, oh God, just before he he goes on to be in your kingdom, we ask,
00:45 oh God, that we may learn from his example and learn from this prayer, your
00:51 words. they may witness your gospel and it may change our life. You change our
00:57 lives tremendously. And this we ask and pray in Jesus name. Amen.
01:05 It's rightfully said that the passage that we that we heard about that we just heard read and more of it even until
01:11 verse 20 talks about the David's prayer at death. We see uh if you look at the
01:18 Bible as a whole uh 1st Chronicles chapter 29 is the last chapter of 1
01:23 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles 20 chapter 29 is also the last time you will hear David's voice heard historically because
01:31 much has been written about s about about David. Much has been written about him in his life from the day that he
01:38 managed to slay Goliath with one stone all the way through the wars and battles and now nearing to the end of his life.
01:45 1st Chronicles 29 is his last words, his eulogy we can actually say.
01:52 And in the New Testament in comparison Jesus has four gospels, four whole books
01:57 in the New Testament to narrate about his life, his ministry, death and resurrection. If there was anyone else
02:04 who was written as much as Jesus in the New Testament, I would have to say it's David. Half of 1 Samuel was written
02:11 about David. The whole of 2 Samuel was about David. 1 Chronicles, the whole 1 Chronicles about David and to the very
02:17 end, just as he trans as we transit over to King Solomon's rule and reign.
02:24 I see it quite fitting and so beautiful that the chronicler of course by with the help of God uh to to inspire this
02:32 moment a great way to end the memory of King David by recording his prayer.
02:40 So when we look at this passage here, we look at the last things that the last
02:45 thing that David did which was to dedicate the resources needed to build a temple and his last words was not a
02:52 great speech at the United Nations. His uh his last event was not uh how we
02:58 would say uh you know being able to host either the Commonwealth or the Olympic Games. His last act as king was to
03:06 dedicate resources for the temple and his last speech as we say before we
03:11 transit over to King Solomon's life is a prayer and I feel that speak volumes of
03:19 King David's life. King David. If you see, if you take the moment, you take a time to read the life of King David from
03:25 1 Samuel all the way to end of 1 Chronicles, it is true that he had a prayerful life
03:32 by virtue that half of all the psalms in in in the book of Psalms was written by King David. King David wrote 75 of the
03:39 150 psalms that we have uh that we have in scripture. Tells us very very frankly
03:45 and tells very very truthfully that David has a prayer for life.
03:50 So what can we learn from David's life? What can we learn from having a prayerful life? I just have some very uh
03:56 simple points to uh to to share and I hope that you will encourage your heart into wanting to take up this challenge
04:04 of actually not just having a life of prayer moments but to have a prayerful
04:09 life. What can we see in a prayerful life? First of all, we can see a prayerful
04:15 life prioritizes God. We see in the text here that when king uh that king David
04:21 from the very beginning when he as he was when he became king of all of Israel, he always had this burden in his
04:29 heart to want to build a house of worship for the Lord. We see his lament.
04:35 He say we see here that uh King Samuel summoned Nathan the prophet and he says look you know I am living in a beautiful
04:42 cedar palace but the ark of God is out there in a tent. So he's always had this
04:48 burden and always wanted to build a temple for the for to to praise the
04:54 Lord. Unfortunately, as much as David would like to to build
05:01 that temple, God did not want David to be the one to build the temple because his hands were tainted with so much
05:07 blood from the wars he had been through. And also he feels that if we had a if we had if if uh if King David was the one
05:15 with that same hands build the temple of the Lord, it would not give a good uh uh
05:20 give testimony. It would not give a good testimony to to the Lord, the one that uh to to the Lord of which this temple
05:25 is made for. But the Lord made a promise to God. Uh but the Lord made a promise
05:30 to David that he'll begin a dynasty of kings um with David and his family and
05:37 that when he dies, God will appoint his son whom late whom we later know to be Solomon to build the temple. So that's
05:43 why we see here he uh I will raise up one of your descendants for your own offspring and I will make his kingdom
05:49 strong. He is the one who will build a a house a temple for my name and I will secure his royal his royal throne
05:56 forever. So we see this later to be Solomon. And so when he is about when he
06:02 is about to uh leave his throne and of course then to pass away, King David,
06:09 turn to the entire assembly and said, "My son Solomon now whom God has appointed will build a temple. And now I
06:15 ask of you, rally up together people. Let us come together and build the temple of the Lord." And so we see David
06:22 prioritizing even his very last strength as king. He says, "You know what? I with
06:27 this last strength I will prioritize the Lord and so I will go and build and prepare all this. And David did not just
06:35 give a speech and hope the people will take up after him. No, he himself put his foot put his money where his mouth
06:41 was. Look at the amount of wealth that King David had put. Not only did he put
06:46 the not only did he had the palace treasury at his disposal to which then he says there was already enough gold,
06:54 silver, bronze, iron and wood as well as great quantities of onyx and other precious stones, costly jewels and all
06:60 kinds of fine stone and marble. This was prepared already from the palace treasury.
07:06 But we see in verse three, and now because of my devotion to God, to the
07:11 temple of my God, I am giving all of my own private treasures of gold and silver to help in the construction. And we see
07:18 a large amount of wealth. Um, if you read the NIV and the ESV, it will come
07:24 out with uh how many talents and how many nari it's very hard to translate
07:29 that. So, I like the way the new New Living Translation puts it. You look at the tonnage of how much gold and how
07:34 much silver was donate was donated for the temple. 112 tons of gold from offair. 262 tons
07:42 of refined silver used for overlaying the walls and the buildings for other gold and silver to be done. This if you
07:49 were to equate it to today's wealth is equivalent to 16 billion.
07:56 Now, it's not that King David had 16 is donating $16 billion from his $1 trillion empire. No, he said himself he
08:05 emptied out his treasury and he came out to this much. So basically, he was giving out everything he had and he's
08:11 encouraging the people to do the same. And by the grace of God, the people
08:16 responded and they gave. And they gave. Notice uh
08:22 it took the whole community of Israel to put together 188 tons of gold, 10,000
08:28 gold coins and 375 tons of silver. Compare that to what King David had given 112 tons of gold and 262 tons of
08:36 refined silver. The difference is not so much. By one person alone, King David put his
08:43 money where his mouth is. And in his prayerful life, he prioritized God and say, "You know what? my whole life, my
08:49 whole wealth, my whole household. I even surrender my son that he will be the contractor for the temple.
08:57 A prayerful life prioritizes God. The question that I will then we'll then
09:04 have is do we pray that God becomes the helper of our heart's desires or do we make God the
09:12 desire in the desire in our hearts that we pray for?
09:20 I feel sometimes when we look at prayer, I feel we have allowed a lot of secular
09:27 and modern culture to influence the way we pray and therefore the way we see God. This is from the secret. It was a
09:35 very popular self-help book in the '9s and it made such a big ruckus because they were engaging in spirituality and
09:42 they basically sedated God to just be this cosmic power who then when we pray
09:47 in Jesus' name or in whatever name the uh the the the the author Ronda Bine doesn't really care but as soon as long
09:54 as you have this positive energy let it come to claim that it will come to you and it will come to you.
10:01 So Ronan he she said this ask once believe you have received and all you have to do is receive what uh all you do
10:09 is to receive is feel good. I wonder sometimes have we made prayer
10:15 to become something just like that we are having a frustrating day so we go on
10:20 bend the knees. Oh Lord please help me from my frustrating day. And we pray somehow that God will go God will
10:26 somehow make the day better. You know, sometimes when we're behind the wheel and we and as we drive down the road and
10:32 we pray, "Oh God," and suddenly a motorcycle uh just skims through and
10:38 hits and hits your side mirror and says, "Oh God," and you say, "Uh" and you say this prayer, "Oh Lord," you know, uh why
10:43 did why did this motorcycle why does this motorcyclist even exist? You know, I pray that you would, you
10:49 know, I don't know, something bad will come upon them. You know we will say it in we will not say it in our mouths but we say in our heart of hearts and we
10:56 believe somehow that God will either by some sort of telepathic energy will either cause the motorcyclist to to to
11:02 fall on the side of the road or we our or we ourselves will suddenly feel a little better because why we surrender
11:08 that anger over to God and we feel a little better. The way this is being portrayed out is
11:16 pretty much we take God like papaya takes his can of spinach.
11:21 Whenever papay is in trouble, opens up a can of spinach, suddenly he has the energy to do it and he can overcome the
11:27 day. Sometimes do we take God that way? Do we take God do we make God the helper of
11:33 our desire of the desires of our heart or do we make God the desire of our
11:39 hearts in itself?
11:44 A lot of times when and rightfully so, we should go to God and ask God, "Oh
11:49 Lord, you know, I don't know how to balance the next bank account or oh Lord, I don't know what's the next step
11:54 in my life in the future." Or Lord, I'm turning 50, 60 years old. I I I'm having
11:60 reflection of what of what I'm doing in my life. You know, go to him. Of course, surrender it to him. But sometimes I
12:06 wonder, do we take God as a personal God speaking to us in our hearts? Just as
12:12 David looked upon God as the sovereign Lord in his heart and therefore he prioritized everything towards him, not
12:19 because somehow or another the God uh by some telepathic energy would make King
12:24 David a successful king. Uh by no means or measure was he entirely a successful king.
12:32 But the difference is that when David prioritized God, he prioritized God because he is God
12:38 not because that he is the wish granter. Do we take God to be this celestial power
12:44 where in the mornings we wake up and we say our prayers? Oh Lord, this day I pray I will be ever mindful of you and I
12:51 pray oh Lord that your blessings will be upon me and my family and you allow to have this mindset of this you know God
12:56 will bless me. God will bless me God will bless me which is the promise of God true but then do we just make God
13:02 the promise maker or do we actually allow God to be the sovereign Lord in our lives? Corin Tenboom. I was reading
13:10 a uh biography about her recently and she gave this very interesting statement
13:15 before. She asked, "Do you uh when you pray, do you make God your steering
13:21 wheel to guide you and direct you where to go or do you make God the spare
13:26 tire?" Only when tire puncture then you then you call upon God and to and to
13:32 place in your life. But we see David
13:37 having a personal encounter with God. He regarded God as a person, a powerful
13:42 almighty God. Not for not for David to have him on his side to help him do what
13:48 he wants because if he wanted to, he would build the temple himself.
13:54 King Saul did something similar one. There was one time where the he they
13:59 were supposed to wait for Samuel to give a sacrifice before they go to war. King Saul took him upon himself because he
14:05 thought he's good enough and he gave sacrifice instead and because of that
14:11 rebellion in thinking that I'm good enough you do what I say is do we sometimes feel that way we go to God and
14:18 says will you do what I say but when we prioriti when we prioritize
14:25 God truthfully uh fully we'll realize that he is a person and it's not he
14:31 should follow our will But we should be in line with his.
14:36 CS Lewis, I like the way he put it in the Chronicles of Narnia. In talking about God, by the way, for those who
14:42 don't know, CS Lewis uh portrays God in the form of Alan in the Chronicles of Na. It's a very Christian fiction
14:49 actually. And CS Lewis when he talks about God, Alan, I like the way he puts
14:55 it. He says he'll be coming and going, he had said one day you'll see him and another you won't. He doesn't like being
15:01 tied down. And of course, he has other countries to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in once you only
15:09 you mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. He's not a he's not like a tame lion.
15:16 Often times we think God is like this tame lion. We keep him nice aside. He is our best friend, very kind, very gentle,
15:22 and we let and and we only need to release him whenever we need help. But no, he is not a tamed lion. He is wild.
15:30 He has a he has a will of his own and it's up to us then to put him in our top
15:36 priority, the center of our life, the center of our attention.
15:41 So for those who know me well enough, you will know that I'm not really a proponent of every morning devotion.
15:48 Uh my youth has asked the youth had often come up to me and say, you know, pastor, I'm so sorry. You know, I try to
15:56 do my morning devotion every day or I try to do it before I go to sleep. Before I go to sleep, but it's either in
16:01 the morning I wake up late and I have to rush straight to school or when I come home late at night, halfway praying, 5
16:06 minutes into prayer, I've already fallen asleep. To which I told them this, you know
16:12 what? I don't want your half an hour a day. Do me this favor. Can you try and do 4
16:18 hours a week? What that means is that some days you will forget to pray. Some days you
16:24 forget to have your morning devotion and it's fine but the next day you know when you don't have your tuition when you
16:29 don't have piano class when you don't have ballet you have an hour to spare why don't you spend that one whole hour
16:35 encountering God make him a priority of that day and by virtue of doing 4 hours a week
16:43 you're already doing half an hour more than if you ever do it doing 30 minutes a day just by that simple mathematics
16:51 but most importantly is is I like to tell my youth this and I would like to encourage you today. God is a person.
17:00 God is a person. He's not some sort of cosmic energy that you tap into every morning. He's not the petrol station.
17:06 He's not the spiritual petrol station where you try and fill up the gas tank in the empty gas tank in your heart just
17:12 to be able to run the day. No, God is a person. So spend the time. So spend good time
17:19 with him, quality time with him. focus on him. Prioritize him
17:25 because King David, we see in his life. There will be days that he's that that
17:30 we we don't we don't see we we we don't see the whole of his life. But I imagine
17:36 there will be days where he just be way too busy to prioritize half an hour a day, but there will be days there will
17:42 be times in the entire day that he's prayerful and mindful of what God would want to do with his kingdom. Because
17:49 because Israel although he is king of Israel, God is the sovereign king of the whole world.
17:57 Do we let God be the steering wheel which will guide us in this journey or do we just make him our spare tire?
18:07 So we have two choices to make and I and I will propose to you this. Number one, lay aside your own crown. Lay aside your
18:14 own priorities. Yes, there are pressing engagements that we need to have in our lives. But rather
18:20 than trying to figure it out by ourselves and only ask God, God help me when the worst had hit the fan and and
18:26 and we had to clean up the mess. No. Even before going into the in the into
18:32 into the uh events of the day or your troubles in your lives, invite God from the very from the very beginning, God,
18:38 that your will be done in this. You will hear more about that statement next week when Masimo prays when Masimo talks
18:44 about the about the Lord's prayer. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What that is is that
18:51 you take off your own crown and you allow God to be sovereign in your life.
18:57 A prayerful life prioritizes God. Would you prioritize God today? Would you put
19:04 your sight your your the desires your desires which you call to God and say, "Oh God, please help me fulfill these
19:10 wishes of my heart. Would you allow God be the wish, the desire of your heart for his will to be
19:17 done in your life?" And that is the beginning of a prayerful life.
19:24 A prayerful life prioritizes God. A prayerful life prizes God. We see in the
19:30 text that was read earlier that this is what we call a doxology a a hymn of praise. So King David or King David and
19:37 like um King David this being uh kind of like a formal prayer he starts off with
19:44 a doxology. He praises God and we see how and we see how he portrays God in
19:50 this way. He says, "Oh Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, may you be praised forever. Yours, O Lord, is the
19:57 greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O
20:02 Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things.
20:08 Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your
20:14 discretion, people are made great and given strength. Notice how David positions God. And
20:22 notice how God position and how notice how David positions himself
20:29 in 2008. Uh Tun Dr. Mahhatate made that speech made that famous speech at the ANO general assembly and talking about
20:35 his res uh uh him wanting to resign. And of course there was that all that drama
20:41 of people say no please don't resign please stay there you know and then after that you'll notice in 2008 2009
20:48 2010 you will notice nothing but good things was being talked about tund mahhat
20:55 nothing nothing nothing nothing else but only good stuff you know and in when he gave his speech
21:03 when he finally stepped down and received his tun to pass on to to Bakla
21:08 he said he he noted he he mentioned the number of things that he had done for the sake of the for the sake of this
21:14 country. He modernized it. He opened the he opened the market away when everywhere when every other country is
21:20 having economic recession 97 we were we uh we we did not face uh as hard of as a
21:27 recession as that time we he tries his very best to make sure that the best is remembered of him.
21:34 King David on the other hand unlike any other king that we can ever that you can ever find in history did not elevate
21:40 himself up in praising himself and all the good works that he has done. He
21:46 gives praise to God the one that has protected him that has empowered him with that one stone to kill Goliath all
21:53 the way until now to be able to build this temple. So he gives praise unto
21:58 God. Now, does David have moments in his life
22:06 that would prevent him from giving him praise? And I would say, of course,
22:12 before King David was king, he was playing the harp for King Saul. And a
22:17 lot of times, King Saul will come into this fit of rage looking at King David and looking at David, the one that will
22:24 potentially and did take over him. He wanted to kill King David. And in fact, when Jonathan,
22:32 King Saul's own son, uh, David's friend, went up to King Saul and said, you know,
22:37 David has gone away. He will come back later. King Saul said, why do you lie to me? And he threw the spear over to his
22:43 own son. It shows how much hatred that King Saul had for David and therefore how big
22:49 David was was the situation David was in. How horrible David uh were parts of
22:55 David's life. And yet when he look back at his life
23:02 and what a life that he has had, he was banished from the kingdom before he became king. He lost his he he lost once
23:10 he lost one of his own sons. He in the 33 years that he was ruling uh that he
23:15 was ruling as king over o over Israel. 30 of those years he was fighting in battles and wars.
23:23 And yet even all of those things, even when the darkness came over in his life,
23:28 even though the even though difficulties were were over his tri, he praises God.
23:35 And he praise God even at the very end of his life.
23:40 Why is that? Well, let me give a proposition.
23:45 When we pray for mo at the moment when we pray we when we pray it become it is
23:51 then an act of faith and because God is a living God we will
23:58 encounter him every moment when we pray okay it's an act of faith and by that we
24:05 will encounter God all right now it's very different from when we say
24:12 you know where we take that step of trying to tap into that celestial your energy and hoping to be filled up. No,
24:17 actually God encounters with us and is a very fullon person.
24:23 I wonder how will we react one day when we first say the words when we finally one day when we go on a bended knees and
24:29 say dear God and you see and then suddenly you hear an audible voice and say yes.
24:39 Some of you be excited. Some of you be shocked. Some you'll be scared and run out of the room.
24:45 But a lot of us therefore will not expect God to speak back, wouldn't he?
24:51 But the moment we pray is an act of faith to go up before this almighty God,
24:56 the person that is God, and he will encounter you.
25:02 Now multiply that into the whole aspect of your life. Prayer therefore in life is a life of
25:11 faith and therefore your life will be a life of encountering God. And when we
25:18 encounter God in such a powerful way in our lives,
25:24 we cannot help but praise him.
25:29 In my time when I was an intern over in Pinang, the Christian uh when I was in
25:35 seminary, I took uh one of uh one weekend I went over to Batu Ringi to
25:41 visit this lady and uh she wasn't a believer but she did ask for prayers
25:46 because her life was is horrible. Okay. Uh out of he had she had three sons. One
25:51 is in one was in jail. One was slightly demonp possessed which I will tell you another day. And another one and and
25:57 another one is unfortunately have he has Down syndrome. So no one could take care of her. She was like in her 70s going on
26:05 to 80s. She was all alone. Her father the husband is not in the picture. Left
26:10 be left by left after the second son, you know. So the third son where where he came from, I'm not really sure. But
26:16 she asked to be prayed for. And so we went over and we shared the gospel and we prayed for her
26:22 and she said, "Wow, you know, I feel Jesus to be such a wonderful God. Let me
26:28 receive Christ." And we were quite excited really. And so and and so we we sat down and we shared with her the
26:34 gospel, the the Romans road, and then we prayed for her. And then she said sinners pray. Yes, she came to faith in
26:39 Christ. And so we left quite happily. And then the next week when we came um
26:46 she's always had this altar on the wall on the on the pillar of our house and I
26:51 realized that you know we did advise her to bring the idols down uh but we did it very lightly. We
26:57 thought we would follow up with her later. So the next week when we went and see her you know we saw we still see all the
27:04 pictures there but then we asked the question hey I thought you believe in Jesus now. Yeah yeah yeah I believe in
27:10 Jesus. You see this picture here? So she put Jesus right next to the other
27:16 gods that she was still praying to, thinking that Jesus was still this celestial energy that will be able to
27:22 help her in her days. My brother um Daniel who was with me at
27:29 that time, he went up to he she she he boldly told this lady, "Okay, auntie, go
27:35 ahead and pray. And I promise you this, one after another, you will take down
27:41 every single picture until Jesus is only left on that wall. Because Jesus is such
27:48 a big and powerful God that you that that no that no that there's no there's
27:53 not enough space for him for anyone else but him.
27:59 And auntie said, "You sure? No, I've been praying for these other gods for years, decades."
28:05 And Daniel said, "Yeah, I'm sure. Very sure." The next week, we noticed one of them,
28:11 the I think Ganesha was the first to go. The elephant was the first to go
28:17 because she said, "Yeah, I've been praying for wealth all my life, but then I'm still poor. So, okay, take out."
28:23 You know, then she prayed for and then after a while then after a while, the other one took out because why? That one
28:30 supposed to give good life. But then I never had a good life in my life. to take out.
28:35 And then finally, the big one, the one that the the one that she prioritized, the one that's supposed to give protection, she took out
28:42 and only left was Christ two months later.
28:48 And even that after that I uh to my shock the next month that when I went to
28:53 visit her, she also took Christ out
28:58 and I was quite sad. I was like, "Oh, what happened?" I said then she told me
29:04 he said to me brother Mark that time they call me brother I was also a pastor yet said brother Mark I don't Jesus look
29:09 I don't think Jesus look like that and also I don't think Jesus should be
29:15 stuck on the wall when every time I leave the house Jesus
29:20 follows me wherever I go both good days and bad days
29:26 and the Gideonss had come and gave her a new testament you know those little pocket ones
29:31 She took that with her and everywhere she went in the morning market where she's having her tea and waiting for her
29:37 son waiting for her second son to come from I don't know where
29:43 you know she'll read she'll pray she'll give praise
29:49 I asked her you know you already nearly 80 years old
29:57 you only came to know Christ very recently Do you have anything to say to God about
30:03 the life that he's given you? And auntie to my shock and to and to
30:09 shock into the shame of my own faith, she said, "Brother Mark, I had good
30:15 days, I had bad days, but I believe all those days were in preparation for me to
30:20 know the true God. And that's why I give him praise."
30:28 So guys, when we look at our lives today, it may some days may be obviously we
30:35 should give him praise, but especially when days seems to be so difficult to praise him, will you still
30:43 give him that? Will you still give him the honor of praising him?
30:48 Prayerful life prioritizes God. Prayerful life praises God. Prayerful
30:53 life puts us in our place. King David was such a humble king in
30:59 compared to others. When you read Chinshui and when you read the other kings of this world and they give praise
31:05 unto himself, King David does the exact opposite. In his prayer, he gives God
31:10 all majesty and all praise and then he puts himself in such a small place. We
31:15 read in the text, he says, "Our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name.
31:21 But who am I and who are my people that we could give anything to you?
31:27 Everything we everything we have has come from you and we give you only what you first gave us. We are here only for
31:34 a moment. Visitors and strangers in the lands as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like passing
31:40 shadow are like a passing shadow gone so soon without a trace. Oh Lord our God,
31:46 even this material which we have gathered to build a temple to honor your holy name comes from you. It all belongs
31:53 to you. I know my God that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find when you find integrity there. You know
31:59 I have done all this with good motives and I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously.
32:07 Notice how David puts himself.
32:13 By now you will say, "Oh God, thank you." By now, if I were King David, I would say, "Oh God, thank you so much
32:19 that thank you so much that I was able to gather all this wealth to build a temple just for you." It makes me the is
32:26 as if I had some sort of power and authority to gather all those things together as if they were really
32:31 authentically mine that I had earned it by my own stripes and then give it and then I give it to God like a charity.
32:39 But David puts but when but David's prayerful life had put him had know puts
32:44 himself in his place before God. He says oh God all these things we have collected it's a lot 112 tons of gold
32:51 and 262 tons of silver is 16 billion today the whole collection that they
32:57 made just for that one temple was $30 billion US in comparison to today's
33:03 market. And David so humbly would say, "Oh God,
33:09 all this was from you." And I know, oh God, you look into the hearts of men and
33:14 you find great joy when there's integrity there. Because friends, there have been times
33:20 where David, there have been moments in David's prayerful life when he did not
33:26 have where he did not reflect that prayerful life in in his days as king.
33:33 There was that one time where in where instead of pray instead
33:39 of going before the battle, instead of praying, instead of giving praise to God as he normally would, he was walking
33:46 across the window and he saw a beautiful lady taking a bath on the roof.
33:55 And that's when he did not prioritize God. He prioritized his own desire. He did not praise God. He tells his I
34:01 deserve it. And so he set up so that this woman's man, this woman's husband may be killed
34:06 in battle. And that gives him that gives him license to marry this woman.
34:16 And when David was vindicated, when he was when he was when he when he was punished for this,
34:26 he lost one of his sons because of this.
34:32 his life changed back again. And this he wrote Psalm 51. If you have
34:38 a moment, take a read at it. It's beautiful. Oh God, created me a clean heart and renew me a steadfast spirit.
34:45 Purge me in his that I may be clean. Wash me that I shall be whiter than snow. Help me, oh Lord, save me. I am
34:51 nothing. I know my transgressions. I know my I and I I I know I I know the
34:57 weight of my sin. Against you and you alone have I sinned. I have not met such a h a more humble king
35:05 because a prayerful life puts us in our place. Friends, when we pray, we realize
35:11 how great God is and then we realize actually how small and how puny we are even in our own lives.
35:20 Who are we to say that the number of zeros in our bank account was for from our own sweat and blood? No, it's not.
35:27 It's by God's providence. Why? Because we ourselves, if we were gods of our own lives, we would have messed it up just
35:34 like King David did. If King David did, we most certainly would.
35:42 And so when we go before that holy almighty God, we are then put in our place and realize we need help.
35:51 And I believe it's good. Saurin Kagad, a Christian philosopher, he says this, this is the power of prayer. The
35:58 function of prayer is not to influence God but rather to change the nature of
36:04 the one who prays. The more you pray,
36:09 not only will more the circumstances around you will change, but the more also you will change.
36:16 You begin to look at your life and say, "Wow, actually uh I did not know what I was doing in that part of my life.
36:23 I did not I did not I don't I don't know what I would have done if I was in the position without God.
36:31 And some of us may even pray oh God if only I had let you been into my life earlier.
36:37 These things will come up because why we realize our place. We are not the king of our lives where
36:44 God is our helper. No God is the king of our whole lives and we surrender it all unto him.
36:51 The prayerful life puts us in our place. We realize how much of a sinner, how much of a wrong person, wrongful person
36:57 we are. And even in the midst of going and becoming a good person, we will have
37:03 bad days. I would know. You think a full-time worker would not have that many bad days, but yeah, there will be
37:09 bad days. You know, there'll be bad days when I'm staying up at 3:00 in the morning when my daughter my daughter is
37:16 collicky and she's crying. The things that at the back of my head
37:21 that I wished upon that I wish upon the crying of my baby puts me in my place is oh God I'm not a
37:27 perfect father. A prayerful life prioritizes God. A
37:34 prayerful life praises God. A prayerful life puts us in our place. And therefore
37:39 a prayerful life points us to the gospel. In the text we see this last part there.
37:46 Oh Lord, the God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make your
37:51 people always want to obey you. See to it that their love for you never changes. Give my son Solomon the
37:57 wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, laws, and decrees, and to do everything necessary to build this
38:02 temple for which I have made these preparations. Of course, God, of course, David is saying a prayer on behalf of
38:09 Solomon, his son, who will take over as king. And his first agenda is to build the temple. So of course, of course,
38:15 King David is praying for that his son will that his son will do a good job. But notice the way David prays in this
38:22 part. He says, "Oh Lord, the God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, generally speaking, when someone prays
38:29 in this way, when a prophet, a priest or a king prays in this way, she he is declaring God, the God who fulfills all
38:36 promises. He'll fulfill his promise." And what was the promise that God gave to King David?
38:43 He said this. Furthermore, the Lord declares that he will make a house for you, a dynasty of kings. For when you
38:50 die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise one up of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his
38:56 kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house, a temple for one for my name, and I will secure his royal throne
39:03 forever. You know, it's so interesting. If we say that God is a God of promise,
39:10 yeah, I mean, we can agree. Uh there was a dynasty of kings. So King
39:15 David, King Solomon, Rahoboam, and a couple others. Good. And Bur answers, I
39:20 will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. Yes. King Solomon's
39:26 kingdom was quite strong. He is the one who will build a house, a temple for my name. Yes. Okay. That
39:32 seems to be fulfilling the the promise. And I will serve and I'll secure his
39:37 royal throne forever. Do we see a royal throne of Solomon
39:43 today? Is there a king in Israel, the modern Israel?
39:49 No. Oh dear. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel
39:55 not fulfilling his promise.
40:00 Because a lot of people say, "Yeah, King Solomon, but King Solomon only ruled for under seven under under 50 years
40:09 and then it died out." Or maybe it's a dynasty. Okay, let's think of the dynasty of all the kings. But it only
40:16 was 200 years and then after that, Israel was flattened out. The temple that Solomon built emptied out,
40:23 plundered out. $30 billion of gold and silver taken on the temple and it was nothing but flat rubble.
40:30 Or maybe it's the nation of Israel. We think about that now because we have a a physical Israel. But after 8070, did you
40:37 know that Israel was wiped clean off the map for so many years
40:42 until finally in the battle in the 1960s? Was it 60s or the 40s?
40:48 Sorry. 1948. Sorry. Yes. In the 40s.
40:54 So how can we say that this royal throne through Solomon through David would be
41:00 secure forever? We can only say that is in Jesus.
41:09 And Jesus was clearing up the temple. My house shall be a house of prayer. You
41:15 made it to a den of thieves. The Pharisees come up to us says, "Who are you to do such things? If you are
41:21 truly sent by God, give us a sign. Show us a miracle. And Jesus says, "All
41:27 right, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
41:36 Jesus then puts himself as the temple from which then we can go before God and
41:42 pray. Jesus becomes the high priest of which then he will mediate the prayers
41:47 before God and God's will into our lives. Jesus then becomes the ultimate
41:53 sacrifice. You do know that the purpose of the of the temple is twofold. One is to have the presence of God but also the
41:59 use of the the function of the temple is to give sacrifices unto God so that he his wroth upon the Israelites will be
42:06 appeased will be will be yeah will be appeased.
42:12 So without the temple they couldn't offer sacrifice and therefore they feel the wrath of God will be upon them. But
42:18 Jesus then becomes the ultimate sacrifice to which then we don't need to slaughter
42:24 animals for our own sake because Christ had forgiven us. Christ had paid for the
42:29 wrath that which we deserved.
42:39 Prayerful life prioritizes God. A prayerful life praises God. A prayerful life puts us in
42:45 our place. A prayer life will point us to the gospel.
42:51 Friends, it's no wonder that every time we end a prayer, we end it in Jesus' name because only the name of Jesus
42:58 is the one that lasts forever.
43:03 So, King David didn't see it at first, but now we can truly say that God is a
43:09 God who fulfilled all promises, including the secure the securement of
43:14 the kingdom of the of of a of a of a dynasty of kings for through David,
43:20 Solomon, and then finally Christ who now rules and reigns
43:25 forever.
43:32 I challenge you guys have this prayer for life and the gospel become very real
43:38 very very quickly. For even David, he did not see Jesus in
43:43 while he was alive. But he already know that God the salv this God the savior is underway.
43:53 A prayer for life prioritizes God. A prayer for life praises God. A prayer for life puts us in our place. A
43:59 prayerful life points us to the gospel. I want to invite the worship team up as we respond with this last point.
44:08 Friends, a prayerful life is a life lived out.
44:15 It's interesting to see that the last thing that David did after he secured the resources and after
44:22 he give this speech of praise and prayer, prayer and praise, he then encouraged the people in the
44:30 assembly. Give praise to the Lord your God. And the entire assembly praised the
44:36 Lord, the God of their ancestors. And they bowed down uh they bowed low and knelt before the Lord and the King.
44:46 We have this king now, King Jesus, the high priest that will reign forever, the
44:51 ultimate sacrifice. And through him, we don't need a
44:57 physical temple anymore. We can go before God in Jesus' name and he will hear us.
45:04 And so Jesus empowers us in this prayer for life. but a prayerful life. Therefore, is a
45:12 life lived out. And I want to encourage you today. Jesus is speaking to your
45:17 hearts now. Praise the Lord. Praise him. Say, "How blessed is his name." How
45:23 blessed he is because he is the sovereign God. Ble how praise his name because he is worthy to be praised.
45:30 Praise God because we are nothing worth praising for. Praise the Lord. Because through Jesus Christ,
45:37 we then have that life to be able to be counted worthy.
