ABC - Solomon Becomes King - Lesson 5

All right, so let's go ahead and, let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your kindness and goodness to us, this day that we are alive, able to come to church, to be with God's, your people. I ask you to fill us with your spirit, and we thank you so much that you are a God that is so willing to hear our prayers and to act on our behalf. you are a God that actually delights.

In providing answers to prayer and and giving us wisdom. We pray, Lord, that this morning that you would impart wisdom to us as we study your word. We ask you to fill us with your Spirit. And as we pray in Christ's name.

Amen. All righty. what would you ask for if God appeared to you and said, ask of me whatever you want me to give? This is the situation that Solomon was in, right?

What would you guys Ask for and that's. I, it's one of those questions where when you're asking a bunch of adults who know what the Bible says, I pretty much know what you guys are all gonna say, but let's go to justice. Oh, that's great. Justice says to be safe underneath the shadow of God's wings.

That's awesome. Yes, to be protected spiritually, in your relationship with the Lord. Anybody have any stories on just if you've ever asked that question of your children or young people, what they've shared with you? Brian?

Peace on Earth. So Brad would ask for peace on earth. It's good. Sounds like a good Miss America answer.

Good job, man. you see, we're asking our children, we're going to use this for devotions this week. And a couple of my kids said they would like to go into a time machine like. What's the time machine show's name again?

Doctor Who. They would like a police box where they could travel around. And I was, and so I said, well, guys, don't you want wisdom? And they said, well, if we had a time machine, we could go around and get wisdom in our time machine.

OK. Anybody else? one of the commentaries I was reading this week, one of the writers asked his children the same question, and his boy who's I was really into baseball at the time. This was back in the.

80s and his boy said he would ask for astroturf. Want to astroturf. Cause they're playing baseball out in their backyard and tearing up the grass and if they could just have astroturf, then he could play baseball all the time in the back without it getting torn up. Well, what we're gonna find this morning is that The Lord is an amazing, it's, it's really amazing how that God wants to hear our prayers and he wants to answer prayers.

I don't know about you, but I frequently go through I don't know, just, there's times where we just don't. align our thoughts with God's thoughts and we just allow our minds to go a different direction. And my default direction when I think about God answering prayer is that God is He's a little stingy. He's not all that ready to give out prayer.

He's like a slot machine. You stick in, not that I play slot machines, but you stick in your, your quarter or whatever, and you pull a little lever, and maybe once every 100 times, something comes out, but just enough to keep you involved. And sometimes I think God, when it comes to prayer, That he's got this this mentality that he'll dish out a few answers here and there just to keep us interested, but his default setting is not to respond and not to answer. And is that really the heart of God?

Is that really the way God views prayer? And we're gonna take a look at that today and also take a look at just how that God wants to give out wisdom as we approach him. So we're gonna be talking about the wisdom of God through the historical situation of Solomon becoming king. So this is less than 5.

Next week we'll I think we'll be doing lesson 6. Dan, what lesson are you doing again? 7. OK.

So let's do a little bit of review. anything stand out to you guys about last week's lesson on David and Bathsheba? I'm not gonna take a whole lot of time on this unless you guys have questions or ideas. David and Bathsheba.

No. Everybody got it down? All right. we did not get to Psalm 51.

I encourage you guys to read that on your own. We know that, how many words did did David utter in the Hebrew when he offered his confession in 2 Samuel? Anybody remember how many words that was? 2.

Yeah, so just two words in the Hebrew. And then the Lord says, you are forgiven. There were definitely consequences that followed David in his lifetime, as we see in 2 Samuel. But, but the Lord forgave David merely by David saying, Lord, forgive me.

So, as we said last week, this is not the vending machine view of forgiveness where you drop in your token and out comes a bag of forgiveness, your token penance and then God owes you forgiveness. This is the miracle view. of forgiveness that, that God is, is pleased to forgive us based upon what God has already provided through Christ and we merely come and humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness. And so that was part of the lesson of last week.

And then one final thing just as by way of review of last week is David's the one that hears the story about the rich man and the poor man with the sheep, and when he hears the story from Nathan, what's his response? How does David res? Yeah, he's like kill him. He wants justice.

Nathan turns to David and says, what? You are the man. We hear the story of David and Bathsheba and what's our response a lot of times. Kill him.

This is David deserves death. And then the Holy Spirit turns to us and says, you are the man, you are the woman. And I don't think that's accidental. I think that's part of what God is, why it's recorded in scripture is for us to have the same experience that David had when he hears the story of the rich man and the poor man and their res and, and the sheep.

And so that's part of the lesson, yeah, Dan. How His God was so Yeah, yeah, so Dan says that's, David provides a model of confession and, and, and forgiveness, repenting of sin. Remember when Saul was confronted on two different occasions, and remember how Saul responds when he's confronted over his sin. It's pretty consistent in both cases.

First, he basically tries to say this was right, here's why he did it. Then he steps back and says, well, really it's the people's fault. Then he steps back and he blames God for it or Samuel, and really it's not till after 3 or 4 steps back that he's finally like, OK, I'm sorry. And, and then once, so there's just this excuse-making process, whereas David, he's confronted in his sin and there's no 1st, 2nd, 3rd step back, it's just, I have sinned, please forgive me.

And so that's, there's a key difference there between, Saul and David. Yeah, Joe. In Hebrew Mafumihika. No, I, I have no idea.

I, I didn't look up, I didn't look up the Hebrew words themselves. Just the, the commentary I was reading was telling me that there's two Hebrew words, but honestly, I didn't go and look at the, my copy of the Hebrew. So I'm not really sure what they are. I could look it up though.

So, my Hebrew is a little bit rusty. Still know my alphabet. my, Calper and Peel perfect and things like that, but if you get me outside of the book of Jonah, Jonah is like basically, there's a reason why seminary students study Jonah and Ruth. It's because those are like the easiest Hebrew.

You get me outside of Jonah and Ruth, and I'm in trouble, so. Pastor Milton could do a lot better, but I can look it up. This week and get back to you. So, let's, OK, so let's move into The lesson.

Let's, let's open up to 1 Kings. Just so, I'm gonna try to spend the biggest chunk of our time in chapter 3 of 1 Kings. So we're gonna do a fly by. Of chapter one.

In chapter 2. But let's, let's start in chapter 1 verse 28. To set the scene. If you guys read through the 1st 4 chapters this week, Adenijah, which is David's son from another wife, had actually tried to overtake, usurp the throne.

He gathers together several of David's enemies, and at this time, including Joab, and they basically have this ceremony. To establish Adenija as king. David is eventually informed by Bathsheba, who had been informed by another, and so then the wheels began to turn. And.

And so let's look at verse 28 down to 37. Then King David answered and said, Call Bathsheba to me. So she came into the king's presence and stood before the king, and the king took an oath and said, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from every distress, just as I swore to you by the Lord God of Israel, saying, assuredly Solomon, your son, shall be king after me and he shall sit on my throne in my place. So certainly will, I, I will do this, this day.

Then Bathsheba bowed with her face on the earth and paid homage to the king and said, Let my lord King David live forever. And King David said, called me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. So they came before the king and the king said to them, Take you, the servants of your Lord and have Solomon, my son, ride on. My mule and take him down to Gihon.

Gihon is on the other side of Jerusalem. This is a spring area. Anybody see any significance? What's the significance of Solomon riding on a mule?

Anybody know? Yeah, this is a place of honor. We would think, man, riding on a donkey, is that you're humiliating that person. No, I remember, who's the guy in the book of Esther who is honored.

Mordecai. So Mordecai, when, when the king is honoring Mordecai, he rides upon a donkey. Obviously, the Lord, right, on Palm Sunday is riding on a colt. And so here riding down to the spring, Solomon is gonna be riding on a mule.

Then let's, in verse 34, then let Zadok, Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet anoint him over Israel and blow the horn and say, Long live King Solomon. Then you shall come up after him and he shall come and sit on my throne, and he shall be king in my place, for I have appointed him to be ruler over all of Israel and Judah. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, answered the king and said, Amen. May the Lord God of my Lord, may the Lord God of my Lord, the King say so too.

As the Lord has been with my Lord the King, even so may he be with Solomon and make his throne great, greater than the throne of the Lord King David. it will just stop right there. So the, this is the way that the coup has stopped. Remember, David had been promised that his son, particularly his son, Solomon, would sit on the throne.

Adenija, if any of you guys read Ford, does anybody remember what What Anijah does and Adenijah does in response. Right. So yeah, he had tried to make himself king and then once everybody finds out what David has done and everybody's shouting and celebrating, you just have to imagine all of Adeniajah's support and help, they kinda slowly, kinda slip out and they all head out. They're like, we don't want our heads cut off.

See you. And so you have to imagine the scene of Adeniajah suddenly standing by himself. And then he takes off and goes where? Anybody know where he goes?

He goes to the temple, he grabs onto the horns of the altar, which apparently at this time, it was almost kinda like freeze tag or tag. It's like if you touch the altar, it's like you can't be killed, so he's like, OK, as long as I'm holding on to these horns, you can't kill me. And so Solomon says, OK, as long as you stay within the vicinity, you're on house arrest. As long as you stay within Jerusalem, you will live, right?

but then. fast forward, he talks to Bathsheba. I have no idea why he does this. And he says, hey, Bathsheba, Abbaha or that other maiden that David has, in his council.

Do you think she could be my wife? Why don't you go to David and see if I can have his Abbahai or Abba Abbasshai and What would be the problem with him asking for one of the maidens of David's court? Yeah, that would set him up to be, to have some stake in the royal line. That's really not his prerogative to ask for that, especially somebody who's under house arrest.

Bathsheba actually goes to David and asks for that, which I have to think, you guys could differ with me on. I have to think that Bathsheba knew what she was doing, that by going before David and, and actually bringing this request to David, she knew what was gonna happen to Adenijah, and it did happen is Adenijah is basically eliminated. so he's, he's gone and Solomon's throne is established. And so that's, that's what kicks things off and then you have the end of David.

So let's turn to chapter two. For the completion of his life, his journey. Verse 10, so David rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. The period that David reigned over Israel was 40 years.

7 years he reigned in Hebron and in Jerusalem, he reigned 33 years. Then Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established. When you read the phrase, his kingdom was further, was, firmly established. You need to hear in your mind Davidic covenant.

God had promised that David would reign and that there would be a, a son and another son that would, would reign on the throne. And so this is Davidic covenant stuff. God had made this promise. Solomon's throne is now established.

By the way, back in the previous chapter, when Benaiah prays and make his throne greater than the throne of King David, you just know that David, who has bought into this debateic covenant stuff, the idea that his son's kingdom would be greater than his own, would that be pleasing or displeasing to David? Incredibly pleasing., he, he, he wants to see God's name established and he wants to see his son's kingdom increase. Imagine this was Saul. Do you think Saul would be pleased or displeased that Jonathan's throne would be greater than his own?

Yeah, you get the feeling that somebody like Saul would not be excited, which is another indication of the difference. God wants God's, David wants God's name ultimately to be exalted, that God's kingdom would spread throughout the earth, and, and so for his son and the next son and then ultimately Messiah, for that kingdom to spread throughout the earth, David's excited. you don't get that impression about Saul. But let's fast forward to chapter 3, and this is where we're gonna spend the bulk of our time.

I If you, if you read through it all, the first two chapters and Solomon's move to the throne, was this a peaceful, a totally peaceful transfer of power or a fairly crazy transfer of power? Yes, please do. Yeah, thank you so much. So would it be peaceful or not peaceful transfer of power?

Yeah, this was not an easy transfer of power. Obviously, there's Adenijah. there were also some other happenings. Seems like everybody, every time you turn the page, somebody else is going and grabbing onto the horns and, And so it's not a real peaceful transfer of power, but eventually, Solomon, his kingdom is established and he is the recognized king both in the north and the south, Israel and Judah.

But you can imagine this young king in just his first few days or a few months is experiencing so much. he's probably Just feeling somewhat overwhelmed. he is now the guy in charge of this thing that is, has been promised by God to be a people group through whom all of the other nations of the earth are going to be blessed. And at some point through Solomon, there's going to come the great king that will rule them all.

And so you come to To chapter 3. Let's start. In chapter 3 verse 1. Now, Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh's daughter.

Then he brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord, and the wall all around Jerusalem. Very typical again of Hebrew literature, if you guys have been in part of this class very long. We, we see something that happens right here in the present of the narrative, but there's also a preview of something that's gonna happen years down the road. And then we're gonna come back to the circumstances or the information of this narrative.

Does that make sense? It's, it's not uncommon at all. This can be very confusing sometimes for us as more Western readers that write in one verse, you've got Solomon marrying Pharaoh and then some preview of something that happens way down the road, that is the building of the temple and the walls and so on and so forth. Verse 2, meanwhile, the people sacrificed at the high places because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days.

And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father, David. Now, this might be one of the commentaries I was reading this week. In the Old Testament, I don't know if there's any other place that uses this phrase. Solomon loved the Lord.

I could be wrong, but, and the commentator I read could be wrong, but I'm, I'm just racking my brain, of some other king, some other person where it just uses this phrase, Solomon loved the Lord. So when you hear that phrase, is that a good thing or a bad thing? It's a good thing, right? This is a positive pronouncement of Solomon, that he loved Yahweh.

So Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statues of his father David. Is that good or bad? It's a very good thing, except He sacrificed and burnt incense at the high places. Is that a good or bad thing?

Yeah, so that wouldn't necessarily, that's not necessarily a good thing. But right in the same verse, it's saying he loved the Lord. So it's not saying when When somebody's doing something really, really bad, we're gonna, when we, when we look through First Kings and Chronicles, you see these lists of kings, and they'll say, here's what they did, and they did evil in the sight of the Lord. And then there'll be a few kings, particularly in Judah, and they did right in the sight of the Lord.

These are two different pronouncements that you see of the kings, right? Interestingly enough, once you have the civil war split, the Israeli kings, none of them are said to have done right in the eyes of the Lord, and only a few of the southern kings down in Judah are said to have done right in the eyes of the Lord. Most of them, the pronouncement, the overall pronouncement of their life is they did evil in the sight of the Lord. Yeah, neat.

That's a that's a good question. So Nate is saying, how does that jive with if you love me, you'll keep my commands. I'm gonna let that hang up. That, that's the question that we're trying to answer here.

That's, that's really good. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I, I, that's part of the question.

Yeah, Nate's raising the question of this verse. Yeah, Dan. Yeah. Right.

The worship I don't There Right. Yeah. So Dan is saying there seems to be a clue in verse two, which I agree that verse 2 is indicating that the people sacrificed the high places. Why?

Because there was no house built for the name of the Lord yet. So we didn't have the, the the the temple yet. We did have the tabernacle. In fact, there's some indications that the tabernacle was at a very prominent high place where Solomon goes to here in the next verses.

And, anyway, let's go back to Stan and then I'll try to wrap some of this up. Right. And particularly as a standard saying there were certain standards that were given to kings, and I'll just focus on one, don't multiply your wives, and yet we do see Solomon multiplying his wives in this very context, he's building a, a treaty with the, with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and one of the ways you build treaties is he married the king's daughter. So he brings in Pharaoh's daughter, builds this treaty.

And so that's right out the gate in verse one. There's debate amongst commentators on whether that should be viewed negatively or neutrally, because of the practice of treaty making, but it's clear from Deuteronomy and other places that kings were not to multiply wives. Some people see in this as a precursor to Solomon's fall, but that, that the Lord was actually trying to woo Solomon in spite of his shortcomings. Yeah, neat.

Yeah, there could be. I, I don't know that the law would have been lost at this point. This is still the unified kingdom. I don't think the law is lost until after the Civil War.

And so Josiah is part, he becomes a king in Judah after the whole Reoboam, Jeroboam thing. So when, when Josiah rises to the throne, they do find the law, but I, I really I, I'd have to do some research, but I'd have trouble believing that the law has been lost this close to the Davidtic. Kingdom, so, but I do think this is, I'll just throw out my spiel what I think and you guys can tar and feather me if you want. I do think what you're seeing here is A, a common theme in scripture, and that is that God is a gracious God.

And when he sees people who love him and they desire to worship him, that he's looking upon the whole package. And there are just things both in the Old and the New Testament. That don't completely conform to his law, but God is bringing people along. Part of this involves what we call the progressiveness of revelation is there are sometimes things that haven't been as fully revealed as they will be later.

the idea of worshiping false gods had, had obviously been revealed. And Israel had been commanded not to go to the high places to worship false gods. but this seems to be in a time period where people were like customarily wanting to go to those high places to worship Yahweh. And so, God's looking at the overall character of Solomon saying this is a man that loves me and except he's not doing everything exactly the way I'd want it done.

But I'm gonna woo him with my kindness. That's the way I'm reading this. God theoretically could say, hey, you're worshiping the high places, you're out. but no, he's seeing a king that is, is, is clearly loving Yahweh and walking in the statutes, generally speaking, of his father David.

But, as with all of us, there are things that Solomon either in ignorance, or by convenience, had not completely followed the Lord in every respect. And when we look at David, I think all of us would say that David was a man after God's own heart, but there are things that David does on the pages of scripture that we would say, I don't know about that one. And yet the Lord's general viewpoint of David is this is a man that I am pouring my blessing on. This is a man that comes underneath my have said, my covenant mercies, unconditional covenant mercies.

I saw a hand somewhere, yeah, Gary. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so Gary says if we could all keep all of his commands, we would need Jesus.

And I think that is part of the, the point is, is that the scriptures, I think unlike just about any other ancient text that I know of, religious texts or some of the ancient Near Eastern. literature that's out there. Hebrew literature, what we have in the Bible is so willing to tell us every flaw of the leaders. just down to the nitty gritty of this guy loved the Lord, he was keeping all the statutes except he would go worship the high places.

Most of ancient Near Eastern texts, they make their leaders look like the number one worshiper of their God. This, this king just worshiped Molech like like nobody's business. And here's all of the temples he built, and here's all of the cattle that he sacrificed. And here's what he did in the eyes of Molech that made Molech so happy.

Most of ancient ern Texas, you, you don't text, you don't see the flaws of the leaders mentioned. But in the Bible, they're free to share every flaw. It's gonna be interesting to get to heaven and to be talking to some of our, spiritual heroes. And I wonder how they feel about the fact that all of their flaws are mentioned before everybody for all of history.

they just have to, cry out for the Lord's, depend upon the Lord's mercy, obviously. Let's, let's move on. So Solomon, according to the text, is clearly described as a man that loves the Lord, that is generally walking in the statutes of the Lord. However, he was sacrificing.

at the high places. So then you come to verse 4. Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for there was a great high place. Solomon offered a 1000 burnt offerings on the altar.

At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what shall I give you? Now, this is another clue to me. It is, it is, to me, it seems like it is not the ideal scenario that Solomon goes to a high place. But he goes to this high place, offers all these sacrifices to the Lord, and the Lord appears to him.

If the Lord appeared to him, do you think the Lord is pleased? Well, let's say he could appear to him and, and pronounce judgment, that would be displeased. But if he appears to Solomon and says, what shall I give you? Do you think the Lord is pleased or displeased?

He's pleased. So generally speaking, however, we want to view this, Solomon's heart is to love the Lord and God looks at what Solomon does in his offering of the sacrifices, and he appears and, and shares his blessing, the, the blessing of his presence. When we talk about the doctrine of the omnipresence of God, we know that God is everywhere with this whole being in every point in the universe, right? But God can also be present to bless in a special way in particular places, like in the burning bush, when, when Moses appear shows up, there's God appearing in the burning bush.

Now we would never say that God is only in the burning bush, but God is able to reveals himself and be present to bless in a special way, in particular locales. Here at Gibeon, God chooses to manifest his presence in a special way to bless. And so we see in verse 6, Solomon said, You have shown great mercy to your servant, David, my father, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and an uprightness of heart with you. You have continued this grace kindness for him, and you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day.

Now, oh Lord my God, you have made your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. So he starts off with this rehearsal of God's grace. And just the wonder of his faithfulness to David, and then this faithfulness to put Solomon on the throne, and then he takes this turn, and basically like we see with a lot of God's leaders, but who am I?

I'm a little kid. Here I am in charge of the whole kit and caboodle, and I feel like a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in your midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people too numerous to be numbered or counted.

Therefore, give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people that I may discern between good and evil. And who is able to judge this great people of yours? Cause that's Solomon's prayer. We're gonna come back and try to pick that prayer apart a little bit.

But what we have here is God shows up, says, what do you want? And then Solomon offers this prayer to the Lord. And verse 10 is very telling about how God views this prayer. It says, the speech pleased the Lord.

That Solomon had asked this thing. So was this a prayer, I'll ask a bonehead question. Was this a prayer that God liked or disliked? He liked it.

So if God liked this prayer, do you think we could learn something from this prayer on how we should pray? Yes, and we're gonna go back to that and do just that here in a second. So this is a good prayer. It pleased the Lord.

if something pleases the Lord, that's something we can get excited about imitating. So here's how the Lord responds, verse 11, then God said to him, behold, you have asked this thing and have not asked for long life for yourself, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, nor have you asked for a time machine, or astroturf. but you have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice. Behold, I have done according to your words.

See, I have given you a wise and understanding heart so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor any, nor any like you, shall arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked for, both riches and honors, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in my ways to keep my statutes and commandments as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. And Solomon awoke, and indeed it had been a dream and he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the Covenant of the Lord, offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

So let's, let's go back and let's think about. What is, what is going on here, with this? With this prayer. I think one of the things that really stands out to me.

As I was, reading and studying this prayer this week, is just The way God just shows up to King Solomon and just says, what do you want? Ask me what you want. And while King Solomon, he's a king and he's over all of Israel. don't we have indications from the scriptures that That God says to us, What do you want?

Isn't aren't there places in the Bible where God says, pray to me? Anybody think of some places where we're called on? Ask Yeah, ask and you will receive, right? How about Matthew 7:11?

Doesn't, don't fathers know how to give good gifts to their children, and will not your father give you whatever you ask him, right? Let's turn to James real quick. James 1:5. I think what we see here in this narrative with Solomon is not something that's completely unique to Solomon, but this is just the character of God.

In 15, it says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all what? Liberally, there's different translations of word and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Whatever word your particular translation chooses to use, the idea is, is that God is a God who wants to give, and he wants to answer prayer. Remember my analogy earlier?

A lot of times if I'm not really thinking straight, I think that God, praying to God is kinda like a, I'm forgetting the term of it now. A slot machine. So, I kinda feel like prayer is kinda like putting a coin in a slot machine. God really doesn't want to give out, but if you keep putting enough prayers up there, he'll let a little trickle out once in a while just to keep you interested.

That is honestly my default non-gospel thinking human mic thinking about prayer. God really doesn't want to answer our prayers. He's stingy, but he wants us to feel like we need him. And so he'll throw out a couple of answers here and there just to keep us, keep us on the line.

And that's just, that's just not the biblical view of our God. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives. Liberally, right? those of you guys that are parents in this room.

you guys have been through various stages. A lot of you guys are way ahead of us. We're looking to you guys for counsel and wisdom and example. our children, our two older children are getting to this age where we're like having to ask questions that we've never asked at any time in our life before.

Where should they go to college? How can we guide them in career choices, hoping that they'll really be sold out for Christ. And I just find myself sometimes just laying awake at night, just like. Just turning about where are things at with these kids?

And it was just hitting me even just last night. Wait a second. The Lord wants to give liberal wisdom to me and Katie. We cry out to the Lord, what should we do?

How can we help them grow in passion for Christ? How should we guide them in their college and career choices? things we've never done before. I, I totally empathize with what Solomon's saying in this text.

I feel like a little kid. we went to, went to visit a, a university and sat in on the financial aid presentation, and I'm just sitting there like, Wow, man. I am totally unprepared for life. what have I been doing for the 48 years of my life?

It's like I have no idea what to do. But the Lord, it's like, if I'm thinking according to Mike, God's up there like, yeah, you should have been preparing for this for 48 years. When you were born, you should have been thinking about your kid's college, and, and I have been thinking about, but it's like I'm still, there's nothing that can really prepare you. And, but no, the Lord, he wants to give.

And this week, we were sitting, we're having devotions and just talking about all the things the Lord's done for us. We're just looking around our house, we're like, man, the Lord gave us this house, the Lord gave us these children. This table we're sitting at came from Uncle Joe. That rocking chair over there came from Miss Needham's mom, that refrigerator came from my grand, the Lord's just like, he just gives and gives and he wants to give us wisdom.

He's not like stingy. Yeah, Joe. Yeah, it seems like, if I understand correctly, without reproach, it's not like the Lord says, All right. Here's 20 bucks.

But don't ask anymore, right? And if you misuse this, guess what? There's no more. There's no more where that came from, right?

Yeah. What I found in my life and, and I, I'll just be honest with you, it's like. I feel like the Lord gives me things. And then I don't always go out and use it properly and I don't, I'm not always thankful and, and then I come back to the Lord and then the Lord gives me more.

And then I go and I kinda do the right thing sometimes, but then there's ways in which I'm falling down and I'm waiting for God just to bring the other, I'm waiting for the hammer, right? And yeah, there are times there's chastise, but I'm just waiting for the hammer, and then God comes and he brings more goodness in my life. And yeah, it's not like there aren't trials. We have trials, we have temptations, we have health issues.

But it's just, there is, like we talked about last week, there is this peculiar nature of God to dish out grace. He is peculiarly bent towards grace. and we see that in Solomon, and we see that in passages like James 1:5, right? so the Lord says, what do you want?

David asked for wisdom. And what does the Lord give him? He gives them wisdom, and he gives them riches, and he gives them honor, and he just pours out blessings upon, on Solomon. And I, I think if our ears, our eyes are properly tuned, we can go back and look at our lives and just see the Lord's blessings that just flow out on us, that we ask, and the Lord is just so willing to give.

if we're not properly tuned, it's very easy for us to look at the trials and then just look at the trials through the wrong lens. In fact, that's the context here, right, in James, right? My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. And so there are things that even in the trials that God is doing that are really gifts of his love, and then we cry out to Him for wisdom and then he gives more grace, and then he gives more grace.

So James 1:5, Matthew 7:11. there's a, A John Newton hymn that says, come, my soul, thy suit prepared, Jesus loves to answer prayer. He himself has bid thee pray, therefore will not say the nay. this idea, the Lord wants to say yes.

Pray, he wants to say yes, that God, he, he lures us to pray to him and he lures us with his kindness and goodness. There was a lady back in New York, back in the 1700s that just with her interactions with George Whitfield, she just said that his kindness and his willing to, willingness to give and his cheer cheerfulness has tempted me to become a Christian. She's a total unbeliever in New York, but just the, the goodness and kindness and cheerfulness of Whitfield was just like, oh man, I, I'm like wanting to become a Christian cause this guy's just so gosh darn kind and giving and cheerful.

And, and the thing is, is if we really understand our Savior, and we really understand Him as our Father, he wants to give good gifts.

he is kind, he is good. So, so there's this generosity of God that should lure us to prayer, go to him, be willing to ask. but secondly, You turn back to. First Kings.

There's this reminder for us in as we look at Solomon's prayer. That Solomon is reminded of the faithfulness of God in verses 6 and 7. He says, you have shown great mercy to your servant David, my father, because he walked before you in the truth and the righteousness, uprightness of heart with you. You have continued this greatness, great kindness for him.

You have given him a son to sit on the throne. So for two verses, he's just reminding in his prayer of God's faithfulness, these promises you made to David, you kept. And now here I am on the throne, which is a fulfillment of your promise. And he's just reciting the faithfulness of God.

So the Lord lures us into prayer with his kindness. And then one of the things that that we can do as we pray, is to remind ourselves and speak to the Lord of his faithfulness. Lord, you have been faithful to me. I Lord, the fact that you allowed me to come into the contact with the gospel when I was a young man.

The fact that my eyes were opened when I was 14 and I embraced you as my savior. Lord, that you took me out of one place where almost certainly I would have ended up in, in terrible straits and brought me to live in another place that gave me stability in life. there's things that we can just rehearse. those of you that have grown up in a Christian home, that God, that God allowed you to be born to Christian parents, what a mercy of God.

So just to remind ourselves of God's Of God's faithfulness to us. but then thirdly. Consider the content of Solomon's prayer. Why is it that he really wants wisdom?

What's the big, what's the anxiety of his soul? What's the motivation? Yeah, Cynthia. Yes.

The thing that's really on Solomon's heart is he wants to lead the people of God rightly. He wants to do a good job. Let's, let's look at that again in the second part of verse 7, he says, I do not know how to go or come in, he says, I'm a little, a little child. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people too numerous to be numbered or counted.

And so what we find is Is that Solomon's anxiety, what he's really moved about is the people of God, which really makes up the kingdom of God. He has kingdom of God concerns. And we can go to the Lord and pray for anything, but you wanna touch and connect with God's heart. You wanna see a, a prayer that God wants to answer, go to him with your anxieties about the people of God, your children that you want to walk in the ways of the Lord, your care group that you want to continue to flourish in Christ.

This church, you come to God as a God cause cornerstone to be a beacon of light in this area that the gospel will go out, protect your people from the devil. Lord, help our, our families grow strong. These are, these are things that the Lord's just like, oh man, I, I want to answer those prayers. And it's not that God isn't interested in answering prayers about astroturf, maybe he's not so interested in time machines.

But We've got this kingdom thing happening, this, this, the welfare of God's people, Not just, Solomon could have said, I pray that you would grant me wisdom so that I can have a good, healthy self-esteem, so that when people come to me, I know how to answer those questions and I don't feel like a dummy in the room and, and then people will think that I'm a really smart guy. That could have been his prayer, right? But no, he says, I want wisdom because I need to lead your people.

I need to do, I need to know how to lead these people.

So, just a quote from Ralph Davis, he says, we should not worry over how to succeed so much, but over how we may most profit the people of God. So is, is your drive in life on how that you can use the gifts that God's given you for the greatest benefit for the people of God? Or is your overall worldview just, man, how can I find the most success for myself? It's not bad to seek success, we're made in the image of God and so God has made us to want to reach out for the best we can be.

But we want to reach out for the best that we can be for the benefit of God's kingdom and His glory. And his pleasure. Lastly, let's just talk about The ultimate goal of, of Solomon's prayer here. Look, again at verse 10, or the outcome of his prayer, and that is the speech where the prayer pleased the Lord.

That's the ultimate is we want our prayers, we want to please the Lord. Do you ever notice? The look on your child's face, your children, the Lord has made your children to want to please you, right? And when your child does something.

And they want to please you and then you show pleasure, what happens to them? They get pleased, right? They want to please you, you show pleasure and they get pleased. was it, too long ago?

Let's see, Katie sent me a text of Samuel had, had built a Lego thing all by himself. Pretty compli complicated Lego thing. So she sent me a text, he's all smiles, showing his Lego thing. And I get home and he runs out to the garage.

He's like, Dad. You are gonna be so proud of me. And, and I could, there's a lot of ways I could have reacted, right? oh really?

OK. So I come in and he's made his little Lego thing and he shows it and I'm like, oh man, that is so cool. That's amazing. And so he just gets this big smile on his face.

And so what was in his mind, it was fun to build the Lego thing, right? But it was even greater, it was more fun, the fact that Dad came home and saw it and was happy. And then that just made Sam just excited. He was just pleased, right?

And I really think that's a picture of our Heavenly Father. If we really understand our relationship through Christ with the Father is He gets pleasure from us wanting to please him. And when we know that the Lord is pleased, we get pleased. There's this cycle of pleasure that happens and I think that's the big idea, one of the themes of John Piper's ministry, he talks about desiring God and the idea of, of making everything about pleasing God.

And the, and the, the whole idea is that there's this cycle. If we make our lives about pleasing God, and then he gets pleased with us, then we get more pleased when we understand that he's pleased. And it just goes back and forth. I'll just, another quote from one of the commentators here that is reading this week.

There is something so pleasing about the pleasure of someone you want to please. That's just a killer, that's just a killer line. There's something so pleasing about the pleasure of someone you want to please. And, and that is the goal of our praying, is to please Yahweh.

And isn't that the goal of our worship, right? When we gather together to worship on a Sunday, ultimately, the goal of worship is to give pleasure to God. Yes, it's true that we're singing to one another and we're teaching one another with songs, spiritual songs, so on, but we would just want God to be pleased. And, praise the Lord, we're beyond, I think the, the worship wars here at Cornerstone, but there's still some of that that goes around, around the country and around the world.

But I, I think if all of us just understand that the ultimate goal is to please the Lord, whether we're just singing a cappella, whether we're singing with a piano, whether we've got drums or this or that, and whatever the song choice is or whatever the sermon topic is. That the ultimate desire is we just want God to smile upon us. We want him to be pleased. That just levels the whole field.

And a. So, in summary, I think from this prayer, God comes to us and he says, I, I don't think this is just an offer to Solomon in a dream. There's evidence from Christ in John chapter 14. There's evidence in Matthew 7:11, James 1:5.

What do you want? The Lord says, ask what you want. And, and we are motivated. God lures us in to ask what we want with his generosity.

He wants to be generous. And then as we come to him, we remember his goodness to us in the past. We're like, OK, here's how God's been good to me. And then we come and we ask things of him, but we want to ask.

with a good view of God's overall people, right? We want us, what is the overall kingdom things that we can ask for that, that God's glory would be spread amongst his people, and we can come and pray, knowing that, this is something that even if we don't do it exactly right, Lord looks at our prayers. Remember, in Romans 8, it says that the Holy Spirit will utter things and help us. We don't always know how to ask or what to ask for.

And the Lord looks down, we've got this half-cocked Lego prayer that's, it's done pretty well for an eight year old, but there's a few pieces out of order and the Lord looks, he's like, oh, that is awesome. And I think that's just the way the Lord treats us as we come to Him in prayer. I don't think that if, we mess things up, mispronounce a word, maybe you don't quite get it all right, it's like, oh, that's not good enough. you need to go back and redo that.

just the graciousness of our God. is, is just amazing. Let me just give one final encouragement and then we will pray is just as the Lord, he takes pleasure in us trying to please him. We can learn by God's example to be generous with our communication that we are pleasured by people in our life.

When. your spouse does something kind for you to allow yourself to express that pleasure. When your children make an attempt to do something, when a friend does something, maybe it's not quite perfect, but they're attempting to help you, that we express our pleasure and, and allow them to experience pleasure, and not exacting perfect perfection from them. God doesn't exact perfection from Solomon.

Solomon loved the Lord, walked in the statues, except, here's some, and yet the Lord met with him. And we need to be careful that we're not exacting, every single detail be somebody, somebody in your life comes to you, makes an attempt to apologize for something that they did. They, they know that they sinned against you, it's hard for them to apologize. They come, they offer an apology and you're like, Oh yeah, well, OK.

I don't know if I accept that apology because I can detect that you're not quite sincere enough. And so, I don't know, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna receive that. I'm not gonna allow you the pleasure of forgiveness because it's not quite in order yet. Now, if we're following the example of the Lord, we would say this person is, they're trying to please us, they're trying to humble ourselves.

Yeah, maybe they're still worshiping on the high places as it were, but their overall direction and intent is correct. We can follow the Lord's example and say, I forgive you. That, man, thank you for coming to me. Does that make sense?

Let's go ahead and pray and then I'll, I'll be up here for questions if you guys, if you guys want tar, tar and feather me for any of my interpretations, you can do that too. Lord, we just thank you for your graciousness. Thank you for this wonderful passage of scripture, Solomon's example of coming to you in prayer. And the example of just calling for your faithfulness and your kindness.

We thank you that you are a God that wants to answer prayer and that you're so kind to dish out mercy and, and generosity. And yet, we think of the conditional statement of, of Solomon being called to continue to walk in your statute child's lifetime and when we fast forward, we see ways in which, he did not continue and so there are warnings here as well for us to, to walk in a, a direction towards you of general obedience and And, and so we pray, Father, you protect us from the world, the flesh and the devil, help us to be lured by your kindness, not be lured by the things of the world.

Protect us, Lord, from, some of the life-altering sins that we see even on the pages of 12 Samuel, 12 Kings, and, Lord, may we continually confess our sin daily and walk in grace and humility with others before before you in Christ's name we pray. Amen.