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2A 3.30 x 3.30 x 3.30 x 3.30 x 3.30 You You Seats and a red or green hymnal Welcome to show foundation Baptist Church find a hymnal hymn 19 1 9. There is a film Singing out on the first number 19 There is a fountain filled with quadrant from Emmanuel's veins and Sinners plunge beneath the flood All the guilty stains those Guilty Sings lose all their guilty stains And sinners plunge The Dying deep rejoice to see that fountain in his day and There may I provide Wash all my sins away, Wash all my sins away, Wash all my sins away. And there may I, O violetsy, Wash all my sins away, Dear dying lamb, by precious blood, Shall never lose it far, Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved to sin no more, Be saved to sin no more, Be saved to sin no more, Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved to sin no more, E'er since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds apply, Redeeming the vows in my theme, And shall be till I die, And shall be till I die, And shall be till I die, Redeeming the vows in my theme, And shall be till I die, Then in an over-sweeter song, I'll sing thy power to save, When this boreless pain, storm ring tongue, Thy silence in the grave, Thy silence in the grave, Thy silence in the grave, When this boreless pain, storm ring tongue, Thy silence in the grave. Amen. Next song will be Psalm 117. Psalm in the binder or in your Bible. Easiest in the binder because it's not the whole psalm. All right, Psalm 117. Alt again. O praise the Lord, all ye nations, Praise Him, all ye people, For His merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord! Praise ye the Lord! O praise the Lord, all ye nations, Praise Him, all ye people, For His merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord! Praise ye the Lord! All right, this time we'll have the announcements. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Church Foundation Baptist Church for the midweek service. Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements. Does anybody need a bulletin? Do we have any bulletins? All right. God bless you. Anybody else need one? No? All right. On our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says that we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8 28. On our inside page there we have our service times. 10 30 a.m. Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, 3 30 p.m. And our Thursday Bible study, 6 30 p.m. We're in 1 Chronicles chapter 26 tonight. And our sowing times are listed below there. And we do have sowing tomorrow night Friday in Gresham and Longview. So are those times accurate right now? It says 4 p.m. for Longview. Okay, 3 30 for Longview. Is 3 o'clock accurate? Okay. So those times are still on. I was considering doing Saturday sowing, but Brother Sean can't do Saturday. So we're going to just keep it at our regular scheduled Friday times. So we'll be out. So if anybody wants to go out to Longview or anybody wants to go to Gresham tomorrow, they're still sowing. And then the Praise Report, you can see the salvation, baptisms, attendance totals. And the next thing coming up is the Lord's. Of course we're having our regular service, but we're also having the Lord's Supper service at 3 30 p.m. And that is just, obviously it's not just, but it's a special service that we all partake of the Lord's Supper together, as we always do every year. So I really hope that everybody here can make it. And our whole church comes and participates together. And there's no preaching during that. It's just songs and then a solemn service where we reflect on what our Lord's done for us. And then we partake of the elements together. We sing a psalm or a hymn and then we leave. So something great that we do every year. I really like the way our church does it, but I think every pastor probably feels the same way. But I think ours is really special and I'm really excited about doing it this year. So also that we are participating in the all SFBC. It's not just the SFBC mega marathon now. We have added to that. So Pastor Stuckey in the Philippines has. I'm not sure exactly how many church plants he has, but he's definitely doing great things over there. And I know Brother Duncan Urbanic is also there from steadfast. And then there's also like minded churches that are over there. And basically, Pastor Stuckey is kind of organizing the Asia, which is a great vast number of different churches and like minded pastors and churches. And he has a list that's out on Facebook. I think I'm going to make a short video after the service, just kind of pointing everybody in the right directions. But we're kind of doing a soft roll out of what next year is going to become the old mega marathon. So we're probably able to cover all 50 states this year unless a bunch of people jump in within this week. But we do. We have Washington, Oregon, Arizona's Pastor Russell is going to be taking on Arizona. We have North Dakota. Of course, Canada is covered. And then I'm not sure what European nations. So we're looking for Europeans to get involved, African nations to get involved. We have a lot of Asian nations already involved and we have about eight or nine states so far. So obviously it's something that we we probably should have started planning a little bit earlier, to be honest with you. But I was just looking to get our church involved and help motivate others to want to get involved, too. And maybe I should just made a bit more of a vocal thing about it. But anyway, it's kind of the soft roll out next year. We're going to put about three or four months planning into it and really hit it hard and cover every state and try to get every country involved. Like in years past. And I think that we will get it done. And so excited about that. But we're going to participate in it on next Saturday, the 19th. And we're going to go to probably Gresham, I'm thinking, as we do it. We have Seattle covered and Spokane covered. I think Remy might actually go over to Idaho, get Idaho covered, too. So that'll add another state. And so, yeah, I mean, I'll put a list. When I make the video, I'm going to put all the people that are involved on the description of the video so that people can just go there and maybe find that church that they want to contact and get involved with it in. And really, the goal to make a marathon has always been to just have everybody in the whole world preaching the gospel on the same day. And to see how many people we could get saved in one day as just like a great big event. You know, so that's what it started out as. And, you know, COVID and separation between pastors and things like that has kind of stopped it from happening. And I think a lot of people have wanted to bring it back. So that's what we're trying to do. And this is kind of like I said, the soft roll out of it. But we will come back stronger than ever, I believe next year. So Lord willing, anyway, unless Fauci's plan to start another pandemic or whatever comes to pass. But we always have to say Lord willing, because, you know, we plan these things, but we just never know what's going to happen. So that's the plan, though. And then we also have coming up in a couple of weeks, we have the second year anniversary of our church plant in Seattle, where Brother Sean Collins doing a great job there. He just had 68 people saved by himself on a missions trip. So that's always good to get your 60, you know, some 60, some 100. But he's on his way to 100. So but anyway, Pastor Anderson's been preaching 7 p.m. that night, the 25th in Seattle, Washington. And then there'll be a marathon there. And then also I'll be preaching there on Sunday. So then we have the conference coming up after that. So we've got a lot of things coming up really quickly. Kayla's bridal shower coming up. And then we also have Mother's Day in between. So Mother's Day actually needs to go in between April 25th and May 15th. So make sure it gets on there. There'll be a gift for every mother in attendance. I already got your gift. So if you don't like them, it's just too bad. I'll give you a hint of what it is it has to do. It's not self-defense this time. You should have enough to fend off your attacking husbands by now. And I've given you the means. Kay, I have no excuses. But it's something to do with the kitchen, okay? I'm trying to keep people in their proper roles here. I'm just going all whatever, you know, whatever. So anyway, but they're nice. I mean, I think they are. You probably like them. I hope you do. But yeah, so every mother in attendance will get one of those gifts. And let's see. Beyond that, we do... I am planning on trying to get as many people to go to the Chicago Soul Waning Marathon and the Detroit Soul Waning Marathon in September as possible. I know that's a lot of trips to go on and maybe you might not be able to do all that. So I get it. But that's what we're trying to do anyhow. So looking at any birthdays, sing it all. Jesse's in Santa Cruz. I was going to sing to him again, but you know, he just turns red if you even mention his name in the service. But he'll come up here and sing a song for everybody. So anyway, all right, that's all I have for announcements. Go ahead and sing another song. We'll receive the offering. All right, next hymn is 116. 116, he leadeth me. 116 on the first. We already did that one. Brother gave 116. Still on 19. There we go. Processing there for a second. He leadeth me, O blessed thought, O words within thee, Comfort from whatever I do, Where'er I be, Still to his gods and there leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, By his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful power I would be, For by his hand he leadeth me. Sometimes it seems of deepest proof, Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom, By waters still o'er troubled sea, Still to his hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, By his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful power I would be, For by his hand he leadeth me. Lord, I would clasp thy hand in mine, Nor ever murmur nor repine, Content whatever what I see, Since it is my God that leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, By his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful power I would be, For by his hand he leadeth me. And when my task on earth is done, When by thy grace the victory's won, In discord I will not flee, Since God through Jordan leadeth me. Thank you, Lord, for this church. Thank you for the ability to serve you, Lord. I just pray that you bless the men of this church and will provide them for their households, and pray that you bless this offering as well. Hope to give them a giver in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Would you turn with me, please, to the book of 1 Chronicles, chapter 26. 1 Chronicles, chapter 26. 1 Chronicles, chapter 26. As is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse 1. Please follow along with me silently. 1 Chronicles, chapter 26. Taking the opportunity to turn to the last song here. All right. In 1 Chronicles 26, the Bible reads, Concerning the divisions of the porters of the Korhites was Meshelemiah, the son of Korah, of the sons of Asaph. And the sons of Meshelemiah were Zechariah the firstborn, Jediel the second, Zebediah the third, Jathneel the fourth, Elam the fifth, Jehonan the sixth, Elioani the seventh. Moreover, the sons of Obed-Edom were Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, and Sakhar the fourth, and Nathanael the fifth. Amiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peyuthai the eighth, for God blessed him. Also unto Shemaiah, his sons were sons born that ruled throughout the house of their father, for they were mighty men of valor. The sons of Shemaiah, Othni and Raphael, and Obed, Elzabad, whose brethren were strong men, Elihu and Semachiah. All these of the sons of Obed-Edom, they and their sons and their brethren, able men for strength for the service, were threescore and two of Obed-Edom. And Meshelemiah had sons and brethren, strong men, eighteen. Also Hosah of the children of Marari, had sons. Simri the chief, for though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him the chief. Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth, all the sons and brethren of Hosah were thirteen. Among these were the divisions of the porters, even among the chief men, having wards one against another to minister in the house of the Lord. And they cast lots, as well the small as the great, according to the house of their fathers for every gate. And the lot eastward fell to Shelemiah. Then for Zechariah his son, a wise counselor, they cast lots, and his lot came out northward, to Obed-Edom southward, and to his sons the house of Asupim. To Shupim and Hosah the lot came forth westward, with the gate Shalecheth by the causeway of the going up, ward against ward. Eastward were six Levites, northward four a day, southward four a day, and toward Asupim two and two. At Parbar westward, four at the causeway and two at Parbar. These are the divisions of the porters among the sons of Korah and among the children of Marari. And of the Levites, Hijjah was over the treasures of the house of God and over the treasures of the dedicated things. As concerning the sons of La'adon, the sons of the Gershonite La'adon chief fathers, even of La'adon the Gershonite, were Jehieli. The sons of Jehieli, Zetham and Joel his brother, which were over the treasures of the house of the Lord. Of the Amremites and the Isharites, the Hebronites and the Uzzielites, and Shebuel the son of Gershom the son of Moses, was ruler of the treasures. And his brethren by Eliezer, Rehabiah his son, and Jeshiah his son, and Joram his son, and Zikri his son, and Shelemith his son, which Shelemith and his brethren were over all the treasures of the dedicated things, which David the king and the chief fathers, the captains over thousands and hundreds, and the captains of the host had dedicated. Out of the spoils won in battles did they dedicate to maintain the house of the Lord. And all that Samuel the seer, and Saul the son of Kish, and Abner the son of Ner, and Joab the son of Zeruiah, had dedicated and whosoever had dedicated anything, it was under the hand of Shelemith and of his brethren. Of the Isharites, Tenaiah and his sons were for the outward business over Israel, for officers and judges. And of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brethren, men of valor, a thousand and seven hundred, were officers among them of Israel on this side Jordan westward, in all the business of the Lord, and in the service of the king. Among the Hebronites was Jerijah the chief, even among the Hebronites, according to the generations of his fathers. In the fortieth year of the reign of David they were sought for, and there were found among them mighty men of valor at Jezer of Gilead. And his brethren, men of valor, were two thousand and seven hundred chief fathers, whom King David made rulers over the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, for every matter pertaining to God and affairs of the king. Brother Sean, would you pray for us? In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Alright, 1 Chronicles 26, so we're still dividing. David's still dividing everybody up, and these are still all Levites that he's divvying up here. He's already divided the Levites for the service of the Lord to help the priests, and their teachers also, aside from that. But he's divided them up into their circuits, basically, where they have twenty-four circuits, where they have these times of service that they do. He also has the actual priests that are sons of Aaron. We've done that division. And then the musicians, he's done that by the same thing. So he has all these different circuits that he has, where there's just so many things for them to do, and so many of them. And he's basically just making a big organization, which he's preparing for before he dies. And he's preparing for it before the temple is built, preparing all the stuff for Solomon. He's already prepared. Solomon, he's going to give him one last charge later on here. And tonight we have the division of the porters, which were of the sons of Korah. And so the first point of the sermon tonight is the divisions of the duties of the porters, because it's not just porters that we're talking about tonight. It's actually the treasurers and judges and officers, too. But they all come out of the same group of people. So let's look at verse number 1. The Bible says, Concerning the divisions of the porters of the Korahites was Meshelemiah, the son of Korah, of the sons of Asaph. So if you remember who Korah is in the Bible, Korah was a bad guy. I mean, he was a straight up Judas Iscariot before Judas was ever born. And he was bad. He went straight to hell, kicking and screaming. We'll go to that story just briefly tonight. But just because he was bad doesn't mean all of his kids were bad necessarily. And so he's one of the he's one of the most wicked people that's mentioned in the Bible over and over again. But anyway, it's just because one man does evil, it doesn't mean everybody in his family is going to do evil after him. So but what is a porter? OK, and it's kind of hard to pin this down because you'll get definitions from the dictionary that, you know, what's considered a porter in England, what's considered a porter here, what the definition in the dictionary could be different from what the Bible is saying. But here's here's some definitions. A person stationed at a door or gate to admit or assist those entering. And that's basically what this position is. And so some synonyms that would be doorkeeper, gatekeeper, doorman, concierge, janitor. I mean, I just I didn't even look up the synonyms. I just saw it kind of on the on the page. It's like I wouldn't think janitor. But it is kind of part of the job of of the porter is to also clean up of something. So those are synonyms. But other definitions would be a person who carries burdens, especially one employed to carry baggage or for patrons at a hotel or transportation terminal. So you see, you know, it's kind of turned into this thing where people that carry baggage for people, or if you go to like an expensive hotel, you have those guys that are at the door. Like, if you ever drove downtown Portland, there's like, I forgot what it's not. I forgot the hotel is called, but he's dressed in this like goofy looking outfit. And then they're there to just assist people that pull up. They help them in. They get the people, the bell, the bellhops or whatever, take their bags in and stuff like that. So there's one to be a chief porter that would make sure that everybody gets their bags to the right places. If it's in a rail station or something, which a lot of people don't take rail yet. But that used to be a big way that people traveled across countries before airplanes and things like that. And people still do take the railways, but there's attendants that wait on passengers and things like that. And then in the airplanes, you have stewards or stewardesses that bring food to you. And there's people that do put the luggage. You just don't see them. But they're the ones that put all your luggage, blow deck and all that kind of stuff. And also someone that does routine cleaning, because in the airplanes, they routinely clean the bathroom, don't they? Or at hotels, they'll clean up the bathrooms, stuff like that. So it's kind of what a porter is. This is what the guy in the house of the Lord would do. And that's what their responsibility is, is to keep gates, to keep the door. And so in the New Testament church, this is the modern day usher. So I remember seeing for the first time I heard of ushers in church, and I'd never seen that name in the Bible. That name doesn't appear in the New Testament or in the Bible anywhere, I don't think. And I was like, well, where's that in the Bible? Where's that position in the Bible? That's me being a 25-year-old punk that doesn't know anything, right? Total novice move. But an usher is a biblical position. Maybe it's not the right name or whatever, but who cares? Like, that's what most people call it anyway. So you can call it usher or doorkeeper or doorman, or you can still call it porter if you really wanted to. But that's basically what an usher is. And so there's nothing wrong with having men that are ushers, and they're at our church. We have an excellent group of ushers here, and they're very helpful, very cheerful in their duties, always helpful at the door. They always ask every time I come to church whether I need help. And they pretty much make sure that the baby room door gets open for the ladies when they walk in. They clean up the bathroom messes sometimes, like last service. I mean, there was a catastrophe that happened right before I went up to preach, and Tony was just like, you know, I'm just patting him on the back because, you know, he just said, don't worry about this. I'll take care of this. You just go preach. And I'm just like, and it lifted a weight off my shoulders because those bathrooms have been killing me. And they're still not working, but I'm trying to get it figured out. So we're just going to have to go to the contractors and figure out what the deal is. So, yeah, anyway, they will be back in use as soon as possible. So I'm apologizing about that. But, you know, I didn't have to clean up that mess in the bathroom. The ushers and porters and even the ladies helped take care of that. But, you know, they clean up the messes outside. There's messes outside that have been left that there's no way that I would even touch because I would instantly throw up if I ever even came close to it. You know, call me weak or whatever. I just I just do I do have a weak stomach. So when it comes to bodily fluids that look and smell disgusting, I just I can't. So there's been some messes on my brother Ramon or Sean. I need you on this. There's no way it's happening. But they make sure that the guests get the gospel. They take up account the account for the ties and the offerings and they drop the ties to the offerings in the bank without fail. They count it all up and they make sure it all gets to the right place and it's secure. And they run off the tramps and hobos and they tramps. And when I said tramps in England, they and I was talking about tramps like the hose, you know, but there they think that's a that's a bomb. So I guess that's what I'm calling it here. Tramps are like that's what bombs are. You know, but here we would call them something, you know, the hose. But anyway, the hobos anyway, I don't know how that worked. But but anyway, they secure the building there likes our security, too, at the same time. And, you know, everybody can always do better and get better at things. So sometimes we let things slip and then we have to do some training. But for the most part, our ushers are very professional. They're always in their positions. They're always doing the right thing. And, you know, sometimes we have to refresh and refocus. But everybody has to do that at all. You know, everybody has to do those kind of things. So, so the first number two, the Bible says in the sons of Michelin Michelin Maya were Zechariah, the firstborn Jedi Jedi. I'm going to butcher these names. Zechariah, the second, Jebediah, the third, Jathneel, the fourth, Elam, the fifth, Jeho, Jehoannan, the sixth, Eli and I, man, the seventh. And moreover, the sons of Obed-Edom were Shemaiah, the firstborn, Jehozabab, Jehozabab, sorry, the second, Joah, the third, and Zechar, the fourth, and Ethanel, the fifth. And so, Obed-Edom is going to come up quite a bit. And you probably remember his name, maybe from when the Ark of the Covenant was kept in his house for three months. Let's go ahead and flip back a few chapters, like maybe 13 chapters or whatever, to 1 Chronicles chapter 13. But keep your finger there, because we're going to come back, as always, to the original chapter. But I want to kind of take a look a little bit about his role, Obed-Edom, because he comes up a lot when it comes to the porters here. And 1 Chronicles chapter 13, verse 12 says, And David was afraid of God that day, because remember, Uzzah touched the Ark when he wasn't supposed to. They weren't doing things according to the due order, and a man died because of that. So this trade that they're in is a very dangerous trade. You touch something you're not supposed to, you're dead. It's like electricity, but more deadly. Because it's God that will kill you for it, right? So, they did not do things right, and so he said, How shall I bring the Ark of God home to me? So David brought not the Ark home to ask, or to himself, to the city of David, but carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite. So, it says, And the Ark of God remained with the family of Obed-Edom in the house three months, in his house three months, and the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that he had. So, God just, so do you think it just, God just happened to allow David to just put it in this dude's house? He's just like, he's like, oh, we can't put it anywhere else, so let's just, anybody on the street will just put it in this guy's house. Do you think that that's how that decision was made? It doesn't say why he put it in his house, but I think that David doesn't do things by accident, God doesn't do things by accident. I would say this, that it wasn't done in a vacuum, it wasn't done by osmosis, that Obed-Edom was already a godly man. Obed-Edom was probably already serving the Lord with all of his heart, and the Lord allowed him to be blessed by his presence having the ark in his home for three months. I'm sure that's probably pretty scary too, because the ark is known to be the presence of God, that's where the mercy seat is. I'm sure it's all covered up and he's not touching it or whatever, but still to have the ark in your home would probably be pretty like, ah, you know, I just saw it kill this guy, and now it's in my house. He has kids, he has family members, and it's probably something, it's an awesome responsibility to take care of that piece of furniture, and Obed-Edom, I believe he's already a godly man, and he probably was trusted with it, because David knew he could be, and God knew he could be, and he was already faithful. So let's look at chapter 15 verse 23, chapter 15 verse 23, because he is, as we went through these stories before, he's mentioned multiple times. Chapter 15 verse 23 says, And Barachiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the ark, and Shebaniah and Jehoshaphat and Nethenel and Amaziah and Zechariah and Benaiah, and Eleazar the priest did blow the trumpets before the ark, and Obed-Edom and Jehoshaphat were doorkeepers for the ark. So after he's already blessed with it, then he's blessed in his house, then he becomes a doorkeeper also for it. So he's not, you know, it's not just, oh, thanks for holding this for us, see you later, cuz, or whatever. He's actually now blessed to be able to be a doorkeeper for it. I'm sure he's opening doors, and then also once it's stationed in its permanent place, he's keeping guard over it and making sure that, you know, it's protected at all times. Because again, part of the job is security. Part of the job is making sure that nobody's messing with it or going near it when they're not supposed to. So David and the elders, it says, And the captains over the thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obed-Edom with joy. So he's already been given the position, and then it tells us that they took it out of his house. So he's already been given the position of guarding, you know, being the doorkeeper for it. So God doesn't just bless men like Obed-Edom for doing nothing. He blesses them because he was already doing something. And I think that people think that they're gonna be like, well, when God decides to intervene in my life, then I'm gonna serve him. I'm just waiting for this, you know, burning bush moment in my life, or this call of Samuel in the middle of the night. You know, people will say, I was called by God to the ministry, and a lot of Baptist preachers have this kind of lore where they think that they're gonna have this Samuel Samuel moment or something, and then he's gonna say, here am I, you know, here am I, Lord, send me, you know. And, you know, that's not really generally the way it happens. So if you want to serve the Lord, you just serve the Lord. You don't wait for him to call you, necessarily, for things like that. So, but he blesses him because he was already doing something, and porters do stuff, and porters get stuff done. So, and then if you think about people that God's blessed in the past for working hard, Isaac sowed in the land, and he reaped a hundredfold. That's what the Bible says, which is a good picture of Saul wanting, because he skipped the 3060 and went straight to the hundredfold, and he was digging wells, just constantly. If you just look in the parts of the Genesis where Isaac is, it's talking about Isaac's works, what's he always doing? Digging wells, and then he's always finding water. And the Philistines are always coming and messing with them, and causing problems with them, and fighting with them over the wells. And then he's just like, okay, you can have it. Then he goes and digs another one. Then they can fight with them again. Okay, you can have it, and then, you know. So he just, but he's, he doesn't, that doesn't stop him from working. He still works hard. Joseph, hard worker, obviously rises to the top wherever he's at, whether it's in prison, you know, wherever he is, and he rises to what to be, basically almost equal with the king pharaoh of Egypt, and because he was a hard worker. Gideon, what's he doing when the Lord comes to meet with him? He's the least in his father's house. He is threshing wheat. He's working hard. What's Elisha doing? He's driving oxen and plowing a field. What's Moses doing? He's keeping, you know, his father's, his father's sheep or whatever, his father-in-law's sheep in the wilderness for 40 years, and David, he's protecting his, he's leading sheep and fighting lions and bears and killing them, and Micah is, you know, saying, I mean, he's doing work. He's picking fruit. Jesus Christ, he works so hard that people thought he was insane. People are like, he's crazy. He's doing too much. Take a rest, buddy, and he's just like, yeah, right, I got more work to do. He's getting up before everybody. He's praying, you know, before they're even awake and then just working till the night, deep into the night. Paul the Apostle did more works than all the other apostles. I mean, men have activities who God uses the most. If they're already a man of activity, then God's going to take that person and say, hey, I know this person's going to get a lot done, so this is why I want him. So it's a good lesson for us as men and women that if we're willing to work hard, you know, and for the service of God and even just in our daily lives, that God will bless us because in all labor there is profit. But when it comes to, you know, specifically what we're talking about tonight, the porters, you know, the type of people that God's looking for to be ushers and porters are people that are willing to work hard, and that's the kind of people that he wants guarding his door. So look at 1 Chronicles 16, verse 37, 1 Chronicles 16, verse 37. See, he just always seems to be with the ark, guarding, you know, doing the most important jobs. Verse 37, Obed-edom says, So he left there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, Asaph and his brethren, to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required, and Obed-edom with their brethren. Three score and eight, Obed-edom also the son of Jedethin, and Hosah to be porters. So they're right there guarding the most important thing, right? The ark of the covenant. So merit and effort are blessed when it's from the heart, and it's by faith. You know, obviously we don't want to, you know, rest on our dead works, of course, when, you know, nobody's saved by works, but God does look at people's, you know, the merit of what people do, and he blesses them accordingly. Why did he put the ark in Obed-edom's house? It doesn't say why, but we could just assume that it was because he was working hard and doing what was right. Let's go back to our text. First Chronicles, chapter 26, verse five. It says, And Amiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Pelethai the eighth, for God blessed him. Also unto Shemaiah, his son were sons born that ruled throughout the house of their father, for they were mighty men of valor. What does this have to do with anything, that they're mighty men of valor? Do doorkeepers have to be mighty men of valor? Why do we have skilled, armed people as ushers at our church? I mean, not everyone is necessarily, not everybody is necessarily, you know, armed or whatever, but, or some kind of jiu-jitsu master. But, I mean, we do have some guys that I would like to have around me and if there's some kind of a fight that goes down or some kind of rush to the door to try to do some damage to our church. You know, I mean, it's nice to have people that are mighty men of valor that are protecting us. Don't you feel more protected when you know that someone is armed at the front door? Someone's not gonna just be able to walk in here and do whatever they want? It's not SpongeBob weenie pants at the front door. That's just an open invitation to crash the door. It's like they see some dude with skinny jeans and a pink shirt or something. They're like, okay, this is the day, you know. This is the eighth rotation. It's the weakest dude in the church. Let's rush the door tonight, you know. Let's get everybody and rush the door. You know, if you mess around at our door, you will find out. And, you know, you better... That's why, I mean, we want our guys to have the A game on at all times. Now they're all getting vigilant. They're like, is the door locked? What's going on? Good, good, I hope you're thinking about things. So, I mean, they do security checks around our building. And the job of the porter, part of it is security. So it's nice. You know, why has God mentioned this? Well, he starts to mention how they're strong, they're mighty men of valor for a reason because he probably didn't have weenies at the door either. You know, because people try to mess around and find... You think that people didn't try to get into the temple that weren't supposed to be there? I'm sure that they did, especially when they were subdued by their enemies in the latter years after they ceased to be in charge of their own kingdom. You know, that happened a lot, I'm sure. And they had to have tough guys that guarded the doors. So, you know, every once in a while, someone does try to do something stupid in our church. Tries to walk in with a miniskirt or some man or, you know, people just come in and try to do weird stuff. But, you know, we have a little sticker on the front of that door that says that armed people are in here. People are less likely to try to do something stupid, aren't they? I mean, even though we had all those sodomites out there raging, they never walked over and tried to walk in the door, did they? Even though they had us outnumbered with superior firepower. But... Which might be debatable, yes. But, I mean, they didn't scare anybody here. Anyway, let's move on. So, verse 7 says, And the sons of Shemaiah, Othni, and Raphael, and Obed, Elzabad, whose brethren were strong men, Elihu and Semachiah. So, again, do you think it's just mentioning this for no reason? No, it's mentioning that they're mighty men of valor, strong men, because strong men are lifting up things. I'm sure that there were things that they had to lift and move inside. You know, people needed help getting inside the door, just like people need help getting inside our door. But we're talking about a temple, this later built, that has, like, probably long staircases to walk up. You know, not everybody is the same age. Not everybody is the same strength. And so, I'm sure that some people needed help picking things up, lifting things, carrying things. And so, strong men can lift heavy things. And that's part of the job of the porters, to help people with their burdens. Strong men are usually the ones you see at door clubs, at night clubs, and security events. I mean, most of the times when you see what you call bouncers, in England they call them doormen, and you have to actually have a professional license to be a doorman. Did you know that? I don't know if that's a thing here in the States, but in England you have to have, like, a professional license to do that. But most of the time when you see these bouncers, they're like these huge Samoan dudes that are, like, ripped. Or, you know, most of the time you're not going to see Pee Wee Herman as the front doorman at some nightclub or something. Or, you know, just any event, like any security event. You mostly see, you know, pretty stout guys, pretty fit guys, you know, guys that can actually hold their own that are at these doors. So, strong men are usually the ones you see, and make no mistake, part of the job of the usher or doorkeeper is security and being strong. So, verse 8, All these of the sons of Obed eat them. They and their sons and their brethren able men for strength for the service. So, they had to be able men. You had to have the ability to do the job, which, you know, in this day and age, that's not always, you know, you might have to have that ability, but they'll skirt around those things to, and I really mean skirt, you know, skirt around those requirements, like when they first started letting women be firefighters and they couldn't lift the requirements and so they dumbed down the requirements. And so, good luck getting dragged out of a burning building, brother Eli, or me. They're going to have to take, like, the whole crew to pull me out. I'm going to just die in the fire. But, I mean, I'm not saying that to be mean. I'm just saying it's just like, what's the point? Why don't we just put people that are qualified to do things that are able to do the service? But that's why it's important for us, like, to have women ushers would be just a dumb idea, you know, because a strong man's going to come in here and just, you know, they can take out a few girls pretty easily. Now, if they're Israeli-trained forces or whatever, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure that they might have a tougher time, but still, men are just stronger than women, and that's why the men are the ushers, you know, they're the doormen in the Bible. And Meshelemiah had sons and brethren, strong men, 18. So, I mean, it's almost like God built them or had them born for this purpose because all these guys are strong and mighty and mighty men of valor. So are you starting to see how the porters need to be? They're not little fairies with feather dusters. They're strong men. Verse 10, also Hosuh of the children of Merari had sons, the chief, for though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him the chief. And so why is that? Well, because probably of merit, not of nepotism. I mean, sometimes the firstborn son isn't the better son. And so his dad was probably like, well, this dude, maybe the firstborn was a peewee. Maybe he was a lightweight. Maybe he just wasn't up to the task. He wasn't as good. And so what he did is he did what was right and put the one for the merit in the right spot. Not because of his status and being born first. And you see that trend in the Bible a lot. This is just another location in the Bible where you see that the younger son is kind of pushing the older son off to the side. So just like Jesus is better than the Old Testament, better than Moses. Verse 11, Hilkiah the second, Tebeliah the third, Zechariah the fourth, all the sons of the brethren of Hosah, or 13 among these, or the divisions of the porters, even among the chief men, have wards one against another to minister in the house of the Lord. And here's the other thing is that, look, it's not a less position. People might think, well, why am I the usher? I want to be the pastor or whatever. I know our guys don't feel like that. But I just think that sometimes people do start envying other positions in the church. And we shouldn't be like that. And it's still a job to minister in the house of the Lord. No matter what you're doing in this house, this is the house of the Lord when we all gather together, no matter what you're doing, whether you're on the computer making sure everything in there is done and sounds right and the videos are running. And that's a ministry. That's a ministry to our house. Whether you're taking the trash out at the end of the service and making sure everything's all secured and closed up and ready to go for the next service, that's ministry. Whether you're here cleaning the bathrooms every other week and making sure that the church is clean, that's ministry to the house of the Lord. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's all ministry. So it says to minister in the house of the Lord. So do you think God looks at it as ministry? I mean, that's what it says, right? And so they cast lots as, well, the small as the great according to the house of their fathers for every gate. Now there's several different gates that led them into the temple and so this is what we're talking about. This is what the porters ultimately control is they're controlling the entry points into which they can go in. Now at Verity, they have multiple, even at their oldest building that they were just at before they moved into their new one, they had multiple entryways where people could come in and out and that's a security nightmare for me. I mean, to have men just always there even after the services and stuff, that was a big program that they had to minister. I like only having one way in and one way out. It's really way easier to manage, way easier for the ushers to manage and it doesn't tie you to all these different locations. And it's more safe. It's less likely for somebody to be able to get in but here they just didn't really have a choice. I mean, they had all these different gates and they had to have different ways for people to ascend up into the house of the Lord because this place is a huge facility compared to what we have. But even now, their church has that main entrance but they have many doors that you can come in and out of and so it is a little harder to manage but this is what they're doing is they're casting lots to see who has what gate and they cast lots to see who's controlling what gate and whoever's with that lot, then they rotate based upon however they did that. So I've got to love the New Testament though. We don't have to have this big temple where everybody goes to and it's a little more simple for us to divide that stuff out. Look at verse 14. It says, And the lot eastward fell to Shelemiah, then for Zechariah his son, a wise counselor, and they cast lots and his lot came out northward, to Obed-edim southward and to his sons the house of Asupim. To Shepim and Hosah the lot came forth westward with the gate Sheleketh by the causeway of the going up. Ward against ward eastward were six Levites northward for a day. Southward for a day toward Asupim, Asupim two and two at Parbar westward four at the causeway and two at Parbar. So I'm going to attempt to explain what this is talking about but really when I looked up Asupim there's literally no results. No results like to define what this word is and I was like that's weird. I've never actually had that happen before where there's just no definition and that's because they don't really know for sure what it means but that's why they probably just left it. That's probably the Hebrew, I'm not 100% sure but I think it's probably the Hebrew word just left untranslated like the word Parbar. And sometimes when the King James translators didn't know exactly what it meant they would just leave it untranslated and then we kind of have to assume by the context of what it's talking about. But I'll just read to you what some people think because I'm not 100% sure myself so but in the Bible in verse 15, Asupim is in context as the assignments of gatekeepers for the temple when it says Obed-Edom southward into his sons the house of Asupim that term is generally understood to mean storehouses or gatherings where they stored all the stuff. So it refers to a specific place or structure likely a part of the temple complex where supplies, offerings or treasuries were collected or stored. In the passage it seems to indicate that the sons of Obed-Edom were assigned duties related to overseeing these storehouses in addition to the responsibilities at the south gate. Seems like a reasonable explanation but that's not necessarily 100% fact it's just the only thing that I have for you. You're like well why did you even talk about it? Well I mean it does seem, I mean I just want to explain what people actually think. And Parbar in verse 18 is kind of a similar thing. So Parbar is somewhat an obscure term and an exact meaning debated among scholars so that's where you get in trouble where the scholars are debating what it is. So in the passage it seems to refer to a specific location or structure associated with the western site of the temple complex. The Hebrew word is thought to be related to a term meaning suburb or enclosure possibly indicating an outer area, courtyard or precinct near the temple. Some suggest it could be a colonnade, open space or an annex connected to the temple's western boundary. I don't know if that's true I'm just saying that this is what the scholars debate about. So I'm not 100% sure but it doesn't explain it in the passage but that's the best explanation I could come up with based upon other people's arguments about it. So anyway verse 19 says these are the divisions of the porters among the sons of Korah and among the sons of Merari. So that kind of just closes it up there a little bit there but I found this psalm interesting so I want to have you turn to psalm 84 real quick. And psalm 84 doesn't say who wrote the psalm but it is a psalm for the sons of Korah and it seems to indicate that it's talking about and might even be written by somebody that is a doorkeeper or at least someone that has an inside view of what because it seems like they're just really passionate about the house of the Lord whoever wrote this psalm. I think it's a beautiful psalm. So I thought we'd take a look at it because it is famous for doorkeepers at the end of the passage here but it says in psalm 84 verse 1 it says to the chief musician upon Gittith a psalm for the sons of Korah. How amiable are thy tabernacles O Lord of hosts. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of my Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young even thine altars O Lord of hosts my king and my God. So I mean he's basically saying even in this great building birds have come and lodged in the sacred places and most people aren't even allowed to go into those places but these birds have like nests by the altar and stuff like that and it's a great refuge for birds let alone for God's people. It says bless are they that dwell in thy house. They will be still praising thee. Selah bless is the man whose strength is in thee and whose heart are all the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baka make it a well. The rain also filleth the pools. And I guess I'm thinking about maybe the complex of the temple having all these different pools that would fill up because it's rain and that's how they get a lot of their water and stuff like that which kind of goes to show that the Temple Mount probably did have these pools already in existence. But it says they go from strength to strength. Every one of them in Zion appearth before God. O Lord God of hosts hear my prayer give ear O God of Jacob. Selah behold O God our shield and look upon the face of thine anointed for a day and night courts is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. That's a great verse right there. I've read that verse many times in church. But it really makes a lot of sense for someone if this is a psalm for the sons of Korah and part of their job was some of them were musicians. Some of them did other things but some of them were porters. And so it really seems to make sense that this person who wrote this psalm is a porter because what are they saying? I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. And it says for the Lord God is a sun and shield. So he brightens our day. He makes us be able to see and he shields us from things. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. So I feel like he's kind of taking, like whoever the psalmist is, they're saying I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. Not that that's a bad thing. But he's basically saying I'm okay with the station I have in my life. I'm okay with whatever my job is in God's house and I'd rather do that than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. And I kind of think he's just like taking a jab at Korah, the one who actually fell into hell and God dumped him into hell. Let's look over at Numbers chapter 16 real quick and this will probably kind of remind you of what this psalm is saying because it says then to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Because he's saying I'd rather be a doorkeeper where I'm at than to dwell in the tents of wickedness because look at what's said in number 16a it says and Moses said unto Korah here I pray you you sons of Levi seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them. So he's saying do you think it's a small thing to be a doorkeeper or whatever you're doing for God? You think that's a small thing? That he's allowing you to do those things in his house? They happen to be in the service. That's their job. They don't get to inherit in the land but they do get to serve the Lord and they have a really good position but he wasn't satisfied with that. He wanted the priesthood also. That's why they bring all that incense and try to you know and then God just smokes them but it says and he brought and he hath brought near them near the near to them and all brethren the sons of Levi with thee and seek ye the priesthood also so he's saying like he's already given you this great lot. He's already given you great things and now you just want more? You want the priesthood also? Now skip to verse 24. It says speak unto the congregation saying get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram and the elders of Israel followed him and he spake unto the congregation saying depart I pray from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs lest ye be consumed in all their sins. What's another word for tent? It's a tabernacle right? But it says specifically tent in Psalm chapter 84 verse 10. It says I'd rather to dwell in the tents of wickedness. So he said don't touch their tents, get away from them and so in number chapter 26 he says get away from them. Don't touch their tents and so I feel like the psalmist is saying hey I'd rather not have been with Korah in that tent and I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness with Korah who is our father who is basically because it's saying the sons of Korah every time right and this psalm is written for the sons of Korah who are actually doing this porter work in his house. Turn to first Corinthians chapter seven verse 20. First Corinthians seven verse 20. And the New Testament kind of warned us against this feeling of not feeling satisfied in our station and feeling satisfied with where we're at and you know it's sometimes people are really ambitious and they want more than they should want and ambition really can destroy people's lives. They just want more, they want titles, they want lands, they want money, they want power and their ambition will destroy them and that's kind of what Korah was doing and ambition can cause a lot of problems in your life but look at first Corinthians seven 20 it says let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it but if thou mayest be made free use it rather for he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lord's free man. Likewise also he that is called being free is Christ's servant. You are bought with a price. Be not ye the servants of men. Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God. So he's just saying whatever you, when you get saved wherever you're at I mean obviously we're not servants anymore there's slavery does not exist in our realm today but it did exist in Christ's time and it did exist in Paul's time but he's saying wherever you heard of Christ and whatever position you're in just serve him wherever you're at whatever station your life is because in different cultures just think of the Indian culture the dot not the feather but the dot culture is you can never move up in your station in your families no matter what whatever station you're born in that's what you are and you'll never rise up so you just have to be content with being in that station and I forget what it's called what's it called? The caste society it still exists today and it's a horrible system but that's just what it is we don't really have that kind of we have basically rich and poor I think people that are born with a silver spoon in their mouth they come from old money they're born into it there's a lot of people that are just born into rich families and we'll never understand them because we're not them but they look down at other people a lot of times not everybody that's rich does that but I would say a great many of them do but that's kind of the most that we kind of have to deal with stuff like that so look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 22 Colossians 3.22 Colossians 3.22 says see everything that we should be doing even in our secular life our secular jobs or in our homes but even also and maybe especially in our service to God is that we do everything not to please other men not for eye service because we want people to think that we're doing something good but in singleness of heart fearing God and somehow sometimes people are just like oh you shouldn't fear God or be worried about him smacking you around or whatever but what's the Bible say it says we should fear God and we should want to serve him obviously we want to serve him because we love him I get that but we also want to serve him because we fear him we do feel children obey their parents because they fear what's going to happen if they don't do it but do you think kids just always obey their parents just because they love them they don't I'm sorry but that's just not true I know your kids probably love you but the reason why they get up and take out the garbage when you give them that look is because they fear what's going to happen if they don't right fear is a motivating factor and we're just lazy we're ill sometimes we're human we have a tendency to not want to obey and do things and we're like that with God and we should have a fear of God in a lot of ways obviously he loves us he's not just ready to smash us with a sledge hammer every time we do something wrong he's loving, long suffering, he's graceful to us but his patience does have an end so if you're just like I don't really want to serve God today no not today either not tomorrow, not the next day not the next week and then you just kind of get into this funk where you're just not serving God at all not thinking of him at all nothing you do in life has anything to do with God and then when the sledge hammer comes you're like I don't even know what I was doing wrong well you weren't serving God and there's a reason why you're supposed to fear him because at some point the fear comes to reality and then reality comes and smashes you right in the face and you're like is God really like that? well why would he say fearing God I just and it says whatsoever you do do it heartily what does that mean? with your heart do it with all your heart as to the Lord and not unto men so if you look at everything that you do like hey I'm doing this because I want to serve God no matter how mean your boss is no matter how much you don't like them no matter how unfair they are to you if you're doing it like as if you're doing it unto the Lord and not unto men then you're doing yourself a service and you're also doing it because that's what God said to do knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ ultimately we serve Christ in everything that we do in every aspect of our life you know and saying your secular life or your home life or your church life it really is all one thing everything that we do should have Christ involved in it in some way shape or form and so it says we serve the Lord Christ that's why he's saying that we obey our masters according to the flesh and that when we look at it like hey I'm just doing this because Jesus wants me to just you know that forward boss I just need to obey him and yeah I've messed up and not been that way I actually got fired from a job one time I was a new Christian that's not an excuse but he really pissed me off one day and he was not treating me fairly and maybe I should have known this verse there's some verses in the New Testament that I probably should have really taken to heart before that but I didn't like cuss him out or anything like that but I kind of told him off and told him he wasn't treating me fair and then at the end of the day he was sitting in the office with my boss and they gave me my walking papers they didn't tell me why but I knew why because I just I said some things I shouldn't have said it's not my job to tell my supervisor what to do or how he's treating me unfairly so he was treating me unfairly by the way but I just shouldn't have said anything I should have just shut up and did my job and served as I was serving Christ so ultimately whatever service we do secular or you know whatever if we have this mindset we'll be successful and how much more should we be content in our calling in our service to God and I don't think anybody in our church is like oh I need to be the pastor or whatever like that I don't think that but there are people that kind of get this weird mentality and they need to be the pastor and they they rush to try to get qualified or whatever or they'll they'll even take the pastoral position when they're not qualified and they know it that's dangerous like if you know you're not qualified and you just take the position of pastor because nobody else is doing it you're still wrong for doing it or then when you're just trying to get rubber stamped because you think that you can just pull one over on somebody just so you can get the title that's wrong also and if you think that you're just going to check off the new IFB boxes and then you're just going to be the next pastor or something or check off any boxes and you think hey I'm just doing you know we found checklists in our pews before or someone's like get wife have kids you know whatever and it was just this weird checklist and that guy's a Mennonite by the way who knows what he is now but definitely not saved but the guy was just a weirdo but like that's just not how things are you know it's not a checklist you know it's we serve God out of faith and if you you know I think that if you desire the office of a bishop or a deacon or whatever it is then you should do that because you want to serve God not because you want some fancy title and an ordination certificate on your wall or something but I want to say this too because I've been talking a lot about what men do and porters and all that but ladies are also serving in this church and they deserve recognition as well we have ladies that work really hard here and they don't get thanks sometimes and they deserve that but boy they deserve it and they don't you know because the positions of authority in the Bible are for men but ladies do I mean if you just read what the apostle Paul writes in his in the ends of his letters he's like thank Phoebe and he's mentioning all these women because they're helping him a lot who are the ones that were taking care of Jesus who are feeding him and taking care of him and making his meals for him and just all the stuff they were helping him and our ladies welcome guests here they get the gospel to people they sing they play music they do janitorial work such as cleaning the building and they rotate and do those things and they decorate the building for weddings and baby showers and other events they organize things which obviously men aren't very good at doing and sometimes you know with children in tow like a little pack of little ducklings behind them they're doing these things and I'm like how are they ever going to clean anything when they got all these kids messing everything up behind them somehow they can do it and then can't clean up the kids mess and still it's good so you know they do a lot of things that the ushers do but just not the public show of it so and you know they don't complain much but I just want to say thank you ladies for all the hard work you do here and I do appreciate it very much and maybe I don't tell you enough but I really do appreciate your hard work too and of course ushers I really appreciate all the work you do and not just ushers but all the people that do things around here I don't do everything myself here I'm not even close so I just want to say thanks to all the people that do things the Bible readers I mean they come here the song leaders and the piano players and the musicians it's just it takes a lot to make this place run so let's let's go to back to our passage here and we're going to look at the treasures and other officials so verse 20 it says and of the Levites Ahijah was over the treasures of the house of God and over the treasures of the dedicated things so now it's kind of switching over to you know they're probably still in the similar to porters but they probably don't have the tough guy rank or they're not necessarily guarding the doors maybe these are the guys that aren't as stout and strong or whatever I don't know maybe they are but maybe they're a little more the mental guys the numbers guys the counters the bean counters or whatever because when you're treasuring you're counting things right and you're making but you're still making sure it's secured so and a treasure is a person appointed to administer or manage the financial assets and liabilities of a society company or local authority or other body so they're just basically stewards and counters of the things so even Judas when he was going around with the 12 he held the bag he was like the secretary I guess or he was the treasurer of the group and it's not good to have a thief being that person so but modern day in churches a lot of churches do have secretaries that they have you know take calls and do these type of things but we don't have one so but verse 21 says and concerning the sons of Ladan the sons of the Gershonite Ladan the chief fathers even the of it's probably Ladan or something isn't it sorry you know those two ways man they need to have a little squiggly between them the Gershonite were Jehili is that right no something like that anyway the sons of Jehili Zethum and Joel his brother which were over the treasures of the house of the Lord so once again the treasures so it's probably different than the feed and the organic feed and all that stuff that was coming in we're talking treasures like gold and silver and things like that so of the Aramites and the Isarites and Hebronites and of the Uzzielites and Shebuel the son of Gershon the son of Moses was ruler of the treasures so it's good to see that Moses you know family was still serving the Lord you know he wasn't necessarily a prophet or whatever but his sons were still serving God in a high capacity and you know that's what probably Moses would have liked to have seen you know from heaven he's probably checking and he's like hey my family is still serving God in some capacity and that's what every parent wants to see is their children serving the Lord look at verse 25 it says and his brethren by Eliezer Rehobiah his son and Jeshiah his son and Joram his son and Zechariah his son and Shelometh his son which Shelometh and his brethren were over all the treasures of the dedicated things which David the king and the chief fathers and captains of the thousands and hundreds and the captains of the host had dedicated so this is not this is kind of like the modern equivalent would be like someone that dedicates something or gives it to the church and it's you know it's not something that was tithed necessarily it's just like hey I'm dedicating this refrigerator to the church or something and like you just give it to the church or something like that you know or this microwave or this toaster oven or whatever it is and you just dedicate something but these were like treasures that were given these dedicated things it wasn't a tithe necessarily so but it says out of the spoils won battles did they dedicate to maintain the house of the Lord so the purpose of them was to maintain God's house so they would get people from a certain amount of time every so often they would pay like masons or people to redo the roof or whatever needed to be done but they dedicated these purposes these things to help repair the house of the Lord and it says in all that Samuel the seer and Saul the son of Kish and Abner the son of Nur and Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated and whatsoever had and whosoever had dedicated anything it was under the hand of Shelemeth and his brethren so like you notice that they're not selling these things because Samuel you know he was around before Saul and during the time of David he dedicated things and then Saul of course is the first king of Israel and his captain of his host was Abner so there's something about fighting battles and winning wars and they would dedicate certain things to the house of the Lord for this repair service and Joab of course the same thing so there's some good things that Joab did I mean he did dedicate some of his victory to the house of the Lord and dedicated it he's like I'll kill this guy but then I'll you know make sure I give a good gift in the offering or whatever but anyway so this Shelemeth is obviously in charge of all this and again stewards of security so verse 29 of the Isharites Chenaiah and his sons were for the outward business over Israel for officers and judges so obviously this is the outward business of Israel so they're not taking care of stuff inside the temple area and the temple business it's extending and refers to the duties and responsibilities that extend beyond the immediate operations of the temple itself so focusing on administration and judicial tasks basically as a broader governance so like the whole nation of Israel they're taking care of so they're judges and officers so they're assigned these rules and they're probably taking care of civil and legal administration of the people because I mean officers are people that you know are holding people accountable for things and the judges are judging between matters and it's not probably just strictly priestly temple specific duties so they're probably you know taking care of even probably public works and streets and they're like the government functioning body of the whole nation of Israel so and in that time David again you know the Levites are organized to support both religious and societal functions so while some of the Levites guarded the temple and managed its treasures like Shem and I and others like Chen and I and his sons were tasked with external administration like judicial roles this reflects a broader biblical principle where the Levites served as mediators between God and the people not only in worship but also maintaining societal order based on God's law so I mean obviously they had to have public works of some sort they probably built sewer systems they probably just like we had today I mean they still had some it's not like they're cavemen it's not like they're in India throwing all their poop on the ground or something you know they they couldn't there's no way all those people could have lived in that city and they didn't have some kind of sewage system and some kind of water delivery system they probably had some ways that were similar to ours I mean they found aqueducts and things like that that went into the city so you know and I'm sure they had streets I know they had streets so but that division of labor aligns with David's effort to structure Israel's leadership as he prepared Solomon's reign and the temple's construction the outward business ensured that justice and governance were administered in accordance with divine principles with Levites acting as a bridge between the sacred and secular realms so I mean it's obvious that they had to have some sort of outside somebody doing things on the outside so verse 30 and the Hebrew Knights Hashebaiah and his brethren men of valor a thousand and seven hundred were officers among them of Israel on this side of Jordan westward in all the business of the Lord and in his service of the king so I it keeps popping up the Hebronites why do these names keep popping up what does Hebron have to do with anything well David ruled there for many years and so that was part of his kingdom where he ruled from before he took over Jerusalem and he probably had things already set up with them and knew a lot of people that he could trust there and so he had all these people that were in his service from there and he set them up to serve and it says all the business of the Lord and in the service of the king among the Hebronites verse 31 was Jerijah the chief even among the Hebronites according to the generations of his fathers in the 40th year of the reign of David they were sought for so how long did David reign for? 40 years so this is in the last year of David's life when he's old he goes and seeks this man out Jerijah the chief and he had it says in there were found among them mighty men of valor at Jezer of Gilead and his brethren men of valor were 2,700 chief fathers whom king David made rulers over the Reubenites and Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh for every matter pertaining to God and affairs of the king so I mean David really in that last year where he just had everything divided and set up he really I mean even though he's about to die he really did set up things really well for them and it just goes to show that even though you set up everything and have everything covered all your bases covered everything can go downhill pretty quick because one sinner can cause a lot of evil things to happen and one screw up as a king can just screw everything up for your whole nation but they did keep the structure of David and when they would get right they would go back to it but it's pretty amazing what David was able to do I mean he was a man of war he was like sleeping in the forest and you know he was like a chafed bear robbed of his whelps when he went into battle I mean he went through a lot of hard things but he was a man after God's own heart and he cared about what he was leaving behind this is his legacy his legacy I mean people might think that these chapters are boring and you're like oh no another division of the porters it's a division of this but like it's really amazing to me just how organized David really got in the end and he just left this to Solomon and was like here you go son it's like all ready for you and in the end of his life Solomon screwed up but for a while Solomon did a great great job so we have the complete organization service and security of the temple organization along with the stewardship and of the treasuries and the storehouses also the judges and officers in place for the whole nation at this point and then next chapter is going to be the division of the military which of course in the New Testament we don't really have that but that military really is now us we are the military so I mean I guess next week that'll be basically how that will be applied but in summarizing this we're done here but just to summarize things how should we summarize this out for the New Testament believer well we should be faithful in our service and what God has given to us to serve in and whatever the service is in our daily lives and in our church lives and our responsibilities to the house of Lord we should just be faithful to those things and we should be good stewards of those things and number two usher is a biblical position and it's the doorkeeper to and it needs to be taken seriously and to be done well and God wants strong men willing to work hard and take their duties seriously and not to be a slacker and so you know what needs to be done the training has been there and yes we do refreshers and things like that but if you know something's not being done you know you see a piece of paper on the floor pick it up you know it's it's like if it becomes nobody's job then nobody's going to do it so if there's something that needs to be done just do it and if you're putting in more effort to your employer than you are when you're here then that's backwards and we need to serve we serve the Lord Christ so if we're going to serve the Lord Christ then serve him well you know he wants us to serve him well and we should do that with fear as the Bible says and number three we need to be good stewards of the things that God has provided us here he's provided us with a good building he's you know there's things wrong with it it's an older building obviously we got some turmoil with the toilets and all that but we're not getting that taken care of but you know we got to dig into the treasury sometimes to maintain things but we should still take care of the things that we have here and not let things get torn up and destroyed and treat this place like it's just a common place it's just a place to just destroy and not care about and take care of the building that we have and the things in it so we do have nice things and we should take care of them and I'll just leave close with this verse I won't even have you turn there but it says moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful so we are stewards of God's things we are stewards of God's kingdom and so the Bible says that we should be found faithful if we're going to call ourselves a steward and really I'm kind of taking this verse out of context because Paul said he's a steward of the mysteries of the things of God and so he's talking about himself that God has placed him in that position to steward the mysteries of the things of God but it's still required in stewards that they be found faithful that's still a true statement nonetheless so he wants us to be stewards of the things that he's given us and whatever position we find ourselves in in the church let's just be thankful that God has placed us in this place because I mean before salvation what were we? Headed for hell and now we have I mean I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness I never want to go back there I'll resign and be a doorkeeper any day I just want to serve God so let's pray Lord we thank you so much for this great chapter in the Bible it can teach us so many things and I pray that you'd help us Lord to have a servant's heart and that Lord we would appreciate the people that we work with and work around here at this church and Lord let us not knock each other and let us help each other to get better and help us take our positions and the things that we do around here seriously and to do them with all of our heart as we do them to serve you because we serve the Lord Christ I pray these things in Jesus name Amen you