You Are Not the One to Build, Part 1: God’s Work, God’s Reputation, and My Acclaim

The first of a series of videos about God giving people things to start which he does not then permit them to finish. God does this for his own glory, and, sometimes to protect his own reputation, as was the case in King David's preparations to build a Temple--and also in my own life.

This is a linked text of the You Tube video presentation posted at: You Are Not the One to Build, Part 1

Some things are only effective if spoken aloud and heard, not just written and read silently. Faith comes by hearing, Romans 10:17.

Putting my thoughts in a form that can be spoken also forces me to simplify them. And I learn better when I speak and write than when I just write.

So here is the text of my first video presentation, complete with links to the Scripture passages and other materials:

Slide 1: 1 Chronicles 17:4. I am only now, at my present stage of my life, beginning to understand that God often tells people to start on things that, for reasons of his reputation and his glory, he does not permit them to finish.  Instead, they are completed by others, often after those who started the work have left the planet.  There are many examples of this in Scripture, but the best one may be King David’s preparations to build the First Temple.

Slide 2:  1 Chronicles 17:4.  David very intensely wanted to build a temple as the center of the worship of God in the land.  This was a good thing to want.  David asked permission to do it.  Yet God sent his prophet to tell David that he would not be the one to build it.  Why?

Slide 3:  John 15:5. The first part of the explanation is that it wasn’t David’s work to begin with—just as the work I am given isn’t my work.  It is God’s work. The only parts of my life that really work the way they are supposed to are the parts God is doing through me.  John 15:5 says this.  I only bear fruit if Jesus is living in me.  Apart from Jesus, I can do nothing.  Nothing of any importance will be accomplished.  No fruit.  Nothing.

Slide 4: Jeremiah 45:2-5. The second part of the explanation is on this slide, which was God’s word to the prophet Jeremiah’s friend and scribe Baruch, which often seems also to contain my life verse.  God is bringing down, showing to be worthless, everything the world values. Then should I seek great things, recognition, in this world? No, I should not! 

Slide 5: John 15:15-17  This does not mean that God wants us to be unproductive, without any fruit.  Jesus called us to be his friends, and tells us his business, as we listen, so that we will bear much lasting fruit.  But that fruit is his; we ask the Father for it.  And our love for each other is the heart of that fruit.  Note that carefully: our love for each other is the heart of the much fruit Jesus has created, and saved, us to bear.

Slide 6: This slide gives Bible References about King David’s role in the building of the Temple.  God gave him the architectural plans for it, the designs of all its furnishings and utensils, the orders for the priests and Levites operating it, and even the songs to be used in its worship—and then told him he was not the one to build it! References: 1 Chronicles 17:10-14. 1 Chronicles 22. 1 Chronicles 28. 2 Chronicles 5.

Slide 7: 1 Chronicles 17:10-14.  God did not take away David’s good dream of building the Temple without showing David what he would do instead.  God’s replacement promise:  God himself will build an eternal house for David.  But it will be one of David’s sons who will build an earthly house for God.  So David’s dream of building God’s house was not dead, it only had to wait for David’s successor, one of his sons, to fulfil it.

Slide 8: 1 Chronicles 28:11-13.  God had given David all of the plans for the Temple and its worship.  But he had not let David build according to those plans. After God had confirmed that Solomon would succeed his father as king, David gave Solomon all of the plans for the Temple that the Holy Spirit had put in David’s mind.  Solomon built, after David was gone, the work for which David had been given plans—but then been forbidden to build himself.

Slide 9: 1 Chronicles 28:2-3.  Nathan hadn’t told David why he was not the one to build.  But David had asked God, and God had told him directly:  it is because you are a warrior and have shed blood.  God was concerned for his own reputation among the human community—whom he loves. 

Slide 10: 1 Chronicles 22:7-10.  God wanted his House, the place the nations would associate with his name, to be built by a man of peace during a time of peace.  He did not want his Name to be associated with war, violence and disorder.  And he still wants his Name to be associated with peace, for a very good reason!

Slide 11: 1 Timothy 2:1-4.  Peace , order, and the ability to live under Jesus’ direction with dignity are things we, as members of the Church, his Body, are still to pray for today.  These things are important because it is in peace, not in fear and disorder,  that people most easily come to the knowledge of God’s Truth.

Slide 12: Romans 12:16-18 and 21:  This is so important that it doesn’t apply only—or even mostly—to our leaders.  We are commanded to live in harmony with each other, and to live at peace whenever we can, even if it means sacrificing our thoughts of our own importance. (And it will, guaranteed).  “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”  Love is the heart of our lasting fruit, remember?

Slide 13: Ecclesiastes 10:1.  I now come to an introduction to the application of all of this to my earthly future and my strong natural desire for recognition.  Dead flies floating in a bottle of fine perfume are a very sharp, smelly metaphor for the permanent effect of a little foolishness on our reputations, aren’t they?  I have had more than a little very public foolishness in my past.

Slide 14: 1 Timothy 3:2, 7:  In selecting visible human leaders for his Body, Jesus himself considers the effect of our reputations on those the Church is to reach.  And I am quite sure he knew the evil I would do in my life, and considered it in calling me—which is something he did before he created everything, which is mind-blowing! .  But his work for me is not one of visible leadership.  In the writing and now, speaking I do online, I am not a recognized leader.  No organization recognizes me, and no one is following me.  I can offer my gift, without even showing my face! 

(As I said in the video, I here give a link to third-party information about my evil past. This information is contained the .pdf attachment–labeled “Comment on FR Doc #E9-22840”– at the bottom of the page of a 2009 EEOC regulatory docket that I have linked. It consists of the January 16, 2007, report of a member of the Kansas Board of Law Examiners who had recently spent one whole day of his life hearing all of the evidence summarized in it.)

Slide 15: Conclusion:  Romans 11:29: Yet, as an introduction to the next part of this presentation, I leave you with God’s declaration that he does not revoke his gifts or his calling.  Nothing in the context of this verse says “unless…”

Next: You Are Not the One to Build, Part 2: How can a just God not revoke gifts and callings of bad people—yet care for his own reputation?

The Voice of God (God Speaking to Us) Outline