A Generous Heart

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Nolan Maples examines David's generous heart as revealed in 1 Chronicles 28-29. Though David's dream of building God's temple was denied because he was "a man of war," he still gave his entire personal treasury—an estimated 225,000 pounds of gold and 525,000 pounds of silver—to ensure his son Solomon could complete the project. Nolan emphasizes that generosity isn't about what we give but where we give from, citing David's words in 2 Samuel 24:24: "I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing."

Nolan shares three studies demonstrating how generosity increases joy and happiness, from toddlers sharing candy to college students helping others. This reflects the Biblical truth that generosity leads to wholehearted joy, as seen when "the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly" (1 Chronicles 29:9). Ultimately, David's generosity points to Christ's greater sacrifice—not giving wealth but His body and blood. The sermon concludes with the powerful reminder from David's prayer that "all is yours," teaching us that recognizing God's ownership makes generosity natural.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Last week? Well, no, week before last, we took the youth to camp. And one of our… I remember about halfway through the week, Wednesday, we were trying to prompt the kids to be reflective on their week. And I felt that prompt kind of turned back into my heart.

And I had some. A moment down where I sat by the edge of the lake, and that reflective mood just kind of hit me. And especially in the thought that my time at Broadway here is starting to wrap up. And then I kind of carried that reflective mood with me into last Sunday when we taught. I taught Sunday school.

And then we're sitting there in a small group and, you know, the week after camp, kids are exhausted, I'm exhausted, Brian's exhausted. And so there were some moments of silence, some lulls, and yet I didn't ever feel any awkwardness in that silence because in this small group circle as we're talking, I noticed that in those moments of silence, our heads were kind of turning to the side. And so, like, on this side of our circle, we had Baby Brecken. And then on this side of our circle, we had Baby Jones. And so every time that there was a little bit of silence, one of those babies would squirm or coo and, you know, it would.

It would just kind of have a moment to still all of us. And, you know, I kind of sat there with, you know, I was reflecting, and it kind of hit me that it. It won't be too long before those little ones are actually students in the youth group. And then I kept thinking, well, you know, I'm not too far away from where those little ones are, and maybe none of us really are too far from where they are. But I kind of kept thinking about the babies as I was going throughout my week and them kind growing up a little bit.

And one of the things that I thought about was baby's first words. And, you know, sometimes I went and looked up a list because I was like, well, that's kind of interesting. And, you know, mama, dad, there's hi and bye. But the one that I found to be the most interesting and maybe a little funny. I find it funny because I don't have a kid, but the word no, right, it gets me.

And I know because that for me, when I was little and growing up, man, that was my word. I was a middle child troublemaker. But it's one of those words that it's your first time to use your words for yourself. You get to think inward. No, I don't want to do that.

And then I think sometimes as we grow, maybe that word no turns a little bit into the word mine, right? So sometimes we're sitting there with the kids and we're coloring. Like Wednesday night church, they do lots of coloring sheets, right? And you're like, hey, hey, share this crayon. And they're like, no, that's mine.

That's my crayon. Well, I don't think we kind of do the same thing still, like, that vocabulary stays with us. The word no, the word mine. As we grow older, it may not be, you know, the first word, the forefront, but that's still something that we carry with us. Well, what if we were to think about it more as instead of mine, but as yours, Especially when we think about God?

And so we're going to look at a champion of someone who is really good at saying yours, God. And so that's David. We've been looking through this series, the Heart of David, and different facets and aspects of David's heart. And what we're looking at today is David's generous heart, his generosity. Well, you heard some words, generosity.

And in that section that Adelaide read, he said, yours, God, your name, your glory. There was kind of that referring theme of pointing back to God.

But this is one of those aspects of the Christian life that it's really easy to feel defeated, that it's really easy to not gain traction. And I think that usually what we'll do is we'll just kind of follow the path of what our culture around us and our secular world says for material possessions and money. If we're not really being proactive about being generous, this is one of those heart postures that you have to train yourself to do that maybe sometimes it feels a little bit unnatural. And I think we'll see that in David. Right?

Because this section that we're going to look at in chapters 28 and 29 of 1 Chronicles is one of the last episodes of David's life. It's one of the last lessons he learns, one of the last heart postures that he attains, this generosity.

And what's interesting, too. So this is something that we all will struggle with generosity throughout our life. And even if you look in New Testament times, Paul is kind of encouraging his followers to not be conformed to the pattern of the world. And he's not directly speaking about generosity, but he's saying that if you're not actively seeking to point your heart back to God in things like generosity, then the world will form your heart.

Well, generosity is hard and sometimes it feels like there's two options, right? There's the hoarder or the hermit. And what's really cool is God doesn't call us to be a hermit and give everything away totally free, all of it, right? God wants us to have success and to build our own life, but he doesn't want us to keep it all for ourselves and hoard. No, he doesn't call us to be hermits or hoarders, but he calls us to be generous, to be willing to have that open heart.

So we're going to jump into the beginning of the story here in 1 Chronicles 28 and see kind of a dream that David had. And so he says, then King David rose to his feet and said, listen to me, my brethren and my people. I had intended to build a permanent home for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool, our God. So I had made preparations to build it, but God said to me, you shall not build a house for my name because you are a man of war and you have shed blood. David had this dream, and it was a good dream, a dream to honor God, to praise God, to build a home where people could connect with God closer.

And yet, because of David's disobedience, his seeking out of war and shedding blood, because of that disobedience, he wasn't able to chase after God in the way that he wanted. But that doesn't stop David. We'll read a little bit further. Right. David still pushes his heart to God.

He has this deeply rooted love that wants to praise the Lord. He finds a way to do that through generosity. But before we get there, God tells David that his son Solomon is actually going to be the one to fulfill David's dream of creating this temple, this place where people can come and be close to the Lord. And he gives him some really good advice about that. And so here we're going to read that.

He says to his son, as for you, my son Solomon, know the Lord, your God, your father, and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind. The encouragement that he gives him here with his dream that's going to last far beyond his own life. This encouragement he gives him is to be wholehearted and to be willing to give all that you have in your relationship with the Lord, because it’s the one thing that will keep you filled.

God has this promise, this covenant with his people, especially with David, to bring about a great work through them. In David’s mind he was thinking that this is this temple this sanctuary. And we have this foresight now. We can look back and see that really God's greatest work is to be with his people, to sanctuary, to tabernacle, with his people. But not just in a place in our hearts, this place where we can build our generosity.

So the encouragement that David gives Solomon rings true for David himself in just a little bit. When he begins to be generous, his heart is full and he starts giving. And so in the beginning of chapter 29, Don. No, I don't have it. But in the Beginning of Chapter 29, First Chronicles 29, it says that David starts by offering 3,000 talents of gold and 7,000 talents of silver.

So he can't be the one to build this temple, but he's going to give as much as he can to see it come through, even if his hands are not the one doing it. He just becomes a partner in the work that his son Solomon is doing. But you probably hear 3,000 talents of gold, 7,000 talents of silver. That sounds like a lot, but I don't know what that actually means. So I went and looked, right, A talent was about 75 pounds, just for reference.

So that's 225,000 pounds of gold and 525,000 pounds of silver. I just can't even begin to fathom that amount of money or I'd imagine this whole room would be completely full of gold and silver. Here's what's especially significant about that. One talent for the average worker was about 10 years wage. So he gave that over 3,000 times in gold and over 7,000 times in silver.

One talent was 10 years wage for your average worker. But for David, this had some significance because scholars did some research into the amount of treasury he had, the things that he had gained in war. And there's some belief that this was probably David's entire personal treasury and not just some of it. So his dream is shattered and yet he decides to pour everything he has into this project that the Lord has somewhat taken from him.

It actually reminds me, and this may give you some reference I was reading earlier this week something about Bill Gates, and apparently he has this plan in the next 20 years to give away 99% of his net worth, billions of dollars. Again, an unfathomable amount of money. And I would like to imagine that Bill Gates is realizing something that David is realizing here too, right? David is here coming to the end of his life, and he realizes I have this treasury, this thing. Bill Gates realize this, I have all this money, and yet I cannot take it with me when I die, I cannot take it with me.

So then he kind of realizes, maybe it's not mine, but it's yours. And I don't know exactly Bill Gates has thought, but I'd imagine it's something along the lines of, I can't take this, so I might as well give it for the benefit of others. I might as well pour it out with an open heart, a generosity.

One of the cool things about generosity is that it sparks praise. It's kind of contagious, right? When you see other people being generous and their hearts start to fill, your heart fills in that same kind of way. And I think that generous people can maybe see God with a little bit better clarity. Because you're getting outside of yourself.

You're getting away from all the distractions and away from your own priorities in your heart and replacing it with God's priority and God's heart saying, I want to be generous with this because it's yours and not mine. So there is something special to generosity. And I wanted to take a little bit look in that and bring maybe a more modern perspective. So I looked at three studies that were talking about generosity, and they all had this link to an increase in joy and happiness alongside being generous. And so the first study I looked at was dealing with kids that were under the age of two little toddlers, and they were tasked, not tasked, they were observed with a puppet and some candy out, and it was whether or not they shared this candy.

And so they were measuring facial expressions, mood changes, and every single kid that shared a piece of candy with this puppet had a positive change. And what's really cool, right? Another thing they did in this experiment, they would have candy out, and then sometimes they would give the bowl of candy to this kid so that it was their candy, right? The change, the positive change and joy that was shown in these kids when it came from their bowl, their candy was way higher than if it just was something that was out. So when it cost them something, it seemed to bring them a little bit more joy.

It seemed to fill them. And I think that we can probably recognize this to be true, right? When we have some skin in the game, then it matters to us a little bit more.

I saw this in David as I was researching in 2 Samuel 24, verse 24, David is talking with another king about a threshing floor, a place to offer sacrifices to the Lord. And this king is like, will do it for free. I'll take care of it. But David says, no, surely I will buy it from you for a price. For I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God, which cost me nothing.

David is recognizing that it's not just about the possessions, right? It's about the heart behind the generosity. Because you can give everything or you can give nothing, but it's about where you're giving from that really matters. And I think I saw a little bit of this recently. So we had the Children's Art Day a couple weeks ago and I walked in there at the end of it and you know, we had been wrapping up, we were cleaning and so some of the kids were sitting outside and I sit down on the curb next to Chisholm and he found this wet piece of chalk that who knows how long it had been out there.

And he’s drawn this little boat. And then one of the other kids, Gregory, walks up and Chisholm turns to him with his biggest grin on his face and just hands him the wet piece of chalk and says, come draw with me. He shares this wet piece of chalk with him. And all I saw was the biggest grin across both of these boys faces over a wet piece of chalk, Right? But it's the things like that, right?

Because it's not about what you're giving, it's about where you're giving from. And even in seeing the. Their hearts filled, it filled my heart. Well, the second study that I looked at was dealing with male undergraduate students. And the study that that was about was they would, they would be going through their day in the general college environment and people involved in the study would spill something of their own.

And they were seeing whether or not the students, the college students would stop and help pick up the things that other people dropped. And again, when they stopped and actively helped these people, there was an increase in joy measured through their different things, characteristics. And then they would come and ask them, hey, how did you feel after doing this? So they get a personal report, a look into each of these people's hearts. And then again on the flip side of that, they would ask the people who didn't help.

And in fact their moods were shown to have decreased. Like, I just saw someone totally ruin their whole day. Like, you know, you know when you're going through your day and like you spill your coffee on yourself first thing in the morning, that's terrible, right? But if somebody goes out of their way to help you or gives you a shirt from their car or something, it doesn't spark that negativity chain in the same kind of way. There's something to generosity that Flips the script.

And the last study I looked at was really big. It involved about 29,000 adults. They were really measuring just whether when these adults participated in religious organizations and volunteered with those organizations, there was an increase in happiness. Right? And so this was just a poll.

They would send it out, asking these questions and that measured some level of happiness. Well, these people of the 29,000, the people that participated with volunteering with religious organizations were a measurable amount higher on that scale of happiness than the people who didn't. That there's a measurable joy because you're pouring yourself out to others. You know, remember earlier when we looked at David's encouragement to Solomon, right, Of being wholehearted and willing. That wholeheartedness is being full, your heart being full.

And after David's giving and spreading of generosity, David pours out all of his treasury. And it says this. The people were starting to give as well. And it says the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they made their offering to the Lord with a whole heart. And King David also rejoiced greatly.

Joy and praise are the outcome of generosity. And let me tell you, that is something I want more of in my life, right? I mean, we can't get enough of that. But it's their joy in giving that brought them closer to God and filled their hearts.

And we can look at aspects of David's heart all day, but David is really just pointing towards a greater generosity, one that didn't just empty a treasury, but emptied himself. Jesus didn't give his wealth, he gave his body and his blood. Not 3,000 talents of gold, but a broken body, not 7,000 talents of silver, but his blood poured out for us.

You see, Jesus is that temple and that treasure, the sanctuary with us, the place where we can be wholehearted and willing. And it's because of that ultimate act of faith in saying yours, God, through the cross that we can have the confidence, just like David, to say yours, God. So I'm going to read this, right? And then when I get to the end, I'm going to pause and you all see the last three words in yellow. When I get to that, we're going to say all those words together so that we can remind ourselves where it comes from.

O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build you a house for your holy name. It is from your hand and all is yours. Let's say that again just so we can really feel it. All is yours, because everything comes from the Lord. And how much easier it is to have a generous heart when we can remember where it comes from.

It's yours, God.