Sermon

Solomon's Great Wisdom Part 1 - Frank Brancato

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. You remember when David was nearing the end of his life?

  2. The Bible doesn't picture a man, that pictures David in times far

  3. before that, as one of the four men that were handsome and

  4. built, well, The Bible pictures him not as a great physical

  5. specimen, any longer. But the Bible pictures him as a

  6. decrepit old man, that was failing in his frailties and

  7. about 70 years old. The Bible says, And David was

  8. failing so that he was unable to even regulate his own body

  9. temperature. So the Bible says that a fair

  10. Maiden was chosen. A beautiful young lady and she

  11. would stand before him and help him in this regard.

  12. And her name was abishag. The shunammite.

  13. Well, the Bible says though that and really the Bible kind of

  14. pictures that she would be a concubine of the king and yet at

  15. the same time, the scripture says but David He knew her not

  16. and so there wasn't a physical relationship between David King,

  17. David. At the end of his life and

  18. abishag the shunammite, but you remember that the eldest living

  19. son of King? David was a man named adonijah

  20. and he considered himself to be entitled to the throne.

  21. I mean, after all, he was the eldest living son, why should he

  22. not stand? Why should he not sit on the

  23. throne of David when his father is taken out of the way now?

  24. The Bible pictures, this very idea that app that that this man

  25. at an idea adonijah would go with all the Pomp and

  26. Circumstance and all the Pomp and pride among the people, he

  27. would go with great chariots and he would be riding in a chariot

  28. with horses pulling that Chariot.

  29. He would take a page out of the past.

  30. You remember of Absalom when Absalom tried to overthrow the

  31. Throne of King David in times, prior to this That he would take

  32. the example of his brother and he would have 50 men and those

  33. 50 men would go on before him to Harold this coming.

  34. So it was loud. It was boisterous, it was

  35. powerful. It was a great spectacle.

  36. Here he comes. The son of the king that would

  37. sit on the throne. But you know this was a man that

  38. had a callous disregard for God and a callous disregard for his

  39. father's wishes as well. But you remember with the help

  40. of Nathan and Bathsheba David was persuaded to act quickly and

  41. install Solomon on the throne as king.

  42. And so adonijah has attempted coup failed.

  43. And so what he does is he flees to the altar, he realizes that

  44. the things that he had done, and the acts that he had committed

  45. were worthy of death, he had committed Didn't reason in the

  46. eyes of the kingdom. And the Bible says he flees to

  47. the altar. You know, when the Bible says

  48. that it's obvious that he knew he was wrong.

  49. He flees to the altar, you know, Wednesday night were talking

  50. about the heart a little bit. We've talked about the heart so

  51. many times and so many sermons over so many years about God,

  52. knowing the intentions of the heart.

  53. This was not just an idea that he thought was after all, I'm

  54. the eldest son. So, I'll be the king and

  55. Misunderstood? What God had instructed and what

  56. God had wanted for Solomon. That was not the case at all.

  57. There was nothing innocent at all, in the heart of this man.

  58. And the fact that he flees to the altar realizing that he's

  59. going to die. No doubt.

  60. He felt the guilt that he had done wrong, but, you know, he

  61. doesn't have a repentant heart. In fact, the Bible says, he

  62. grabs onto the horns of the altar.

  63. Remember what that was? They were those protrusions that

  64. stuck out at the Four Corners of the altar, that looked like,

  65. animal horns. And so, here he is, he's hanging

  66. onto the animal horns. Solomon knows where he is though

  67. and Solomon sends word. He Us, you summon him to come to

  68. me. But adonijah says, no, he says,

  69. I'm not going anywhere until Solomon.

  70. And this is this is a very important point to our narrative

  71. today. He says, I am not going to turn

  72. loose of the horns of this Altar and I am not going to go where

  73. Solomon is and I am not going to stand before the king until

  74. Solomon swears with an oath that I will not be executed for my

  75. crime. You know, Solomon never swears

  76. with an oath, he only promises he says this.

  77. Now, I think this is a wonderful picture of someone getting Mercy

  78. or having Mercy extended to them when they were not worthy, you

  79. know what Solomon said. Solomon said this he said you

  80. will not die and I promise you will as long as you're a loyal

  81. subject to me as the king, as I sit on the throne and another

  82. point and there's no new crime, no fresh crime, nothing. an else

  83. that you do against the throne, you will live and you will not

  84. die. You know, after the collapse of

  85. this attempted, coup adonijah pledged his allegiance to

  86. Solomon, and he bows down before Solomon.

  87. He bows down before his throne and he says he pledges

  88. allegiance to him as the king. But if we can only examine his

  89. heart, we would see that that was only an outward show.

  90. Isn't that a picture of people today?

  91. Bowing Before the Throne giving Allegiance on the outward or

  92. showing themselves to give Allegiance unto Christ and his

  93. kingdom sitting on his throne only to have it be only

  94. outwardly and not inwardly with the heart.

  95. We know that's exactly what happened with this young man

  96. because of his actions later and not long, after the death of

  97. Vedat an IG attempted to lay the groundwork for yet another coup

  98. attempt. And here it is.

  99. All of a sudden he's going to put together a subtle plan.

  100. Now before it wasn't the subtle plan, it was look at me, I'm the

  101. man. I'm the guy I'm going to sit on

  102. the throne and like like just like Absalom did regarding King,

  103. David in overthrowing his throne or his attempt to do.

  104. So now this is going to be different.

  105. He's going to be extremely smart here and he's going to figure

  106. out a son. Do plan in order that he might

  107. overtake the throne. Our, he knew that Solomon said,

  108. you're not going to die. You will not be executed as long

  109. as you don't do anything else. But the plan included abishag,

  110. the shunammite the X concubine of the King, David of the

  111. deceased King his own father. The Bible says that he calls, or

  112. he comes to see Bathsheba. And in this subtle plan, this he

  113. goes to see the most powerful woman in the land Bathsheba.

  114. The queen mother. You know, she was suspicious at

  115. first when adonijah came calling but his tactics disarmed, her

  116. and turned her into an ally. I want you to look at these

  117. things. These things are applicable

  118. today. When we do such things like this

  119. self-pity was the very first thing that he used.

  120. Self-pity. You know what he says to

  121. Bathsheba? He says, you know, the kingdom

  122. was mine. After all I come in peace, but

  123. the kingdom was mine, and then he gives a tremendous

  124. exaggeration here. He says, all of Israel was ready

  125. to install me and put me on the throne and recognize me as the

  126. King, which wasn't true, not all of Israel.

  127. But that's the exaggeration. He says, I was to be the man.

  128. I am the eldest son of the king. I think that now is dead of my

  129. father, it should have been me that sitting on the throne,

  130. here's the self-pity park. But then all of a sudden even

  131. though I should have been him. My younger brother Solomon, he

  132. was placed on the throne. You know, he's kind of painting.

  133. A picture of woe is me. Oh, I've been wounded.

  134. I've been affected in that. What we do, sometimes, I'll tell

  135. you when our heart is filled with self-pity.

  136. You can't see outside yourself. You really can't.

  137. If you have self pity, and that's all you're focusing in

  138. on. Is yourself.

  139. What you didn't? Get.

  140. It's all about me. How you were wronged.

  141. You cannot have the Christian spirit.

  142. And the Christian heart that Jesus taught when we need to

  143. look outside of our self and look to someone else can't do

  144. it, can't do it. You know why thinking about me,

  145. if Terry and I have a disagreement, I'm thinking about

  146. me, we're not fixing our problem by the way, because all I'm

  147. thinking about is me. How I was wronged?

  148. Oh, I was wrong. You know, somebody does not

  149. necessarily have to have an evil spirit, it conniving deceptive

  150. Heart Like adonijah had to be guilty of having self-pity.

  151. Let me give you an example. You know, the Bible pictures,

  152. you remember when the seven years of plenty had passed and

  153. now they were into the seven years of famine.

  154. You remember when Jacob goes to his remaining sons, and he tells

  155. his sons, I hear that there is grain in Egypt.

  156. Take your sacks and go there. And see if you can buy some

  157. grain. Lest we all die less, we starve

  158. to death. They went there.

  159. It's Joseph Joseph, recognizes his brothers.

  160. They don't recognize him, they get the grain.

  161. They accuse them of being spies. They says, no we're Shepherds.

  162. We got a father back home, we had a brother, that's Joseph, he

  163. is no more though, we have a younger brother too Benjamin,

  164. he's back at home and then when Joseph says all right, here's

  165. what you're going to do, I'm going to sell you the grain or

  166. else you're going to starve to death.

  167. But I'm going to sell you the Grain and when you go back you

  168. have to bring your youngest brother.

  169. Benjamin to me that I might look on him that I might see him and

  170. to make it that you're doing it in.

  171. Good faith, one of you has to stay behind Stay with me.

  172. And you remember even though Reuben was the eldest, it was

  173. Simeon. That was chosen.

  174. Simeon. Stayed said all that to say

  175. this. You remember when they came and

  176. stood back before? Jacob, they were standing before

  177. Jacob. And this is what he said, all

  178. they treated us bad. They called the spies.

  179. They were harsh to us. we told them about you, we told them

  180. about Benjamin, and he says, if we don't bring Benjamin back,

  181. Simeon has to stay. And Jacob falls apart.

  182. He never feels sorry for anyone else.

  183. He says these words, he never feel.

  184. Sorry that Simeon was left behind that Simeon.

  185. Now is the innocent party but he's left behind.

  186. He says this everything is against me.

  187. I've lost Rachel, I've lost Joseph.

  188. I've now lost Simeon. And I'm not about to lose

  189. Benjamin. Thinking only of the things that

  190. happen to him. When we think that way, it

  191. causes us to not be able to have the ability to see outside of

  192. our self and see that somebody else may have it worse than we

  193. have it. He was filled with self-pity but

  194. he used this as a tool to break down her defenses and gained her

  195. as an ally. Look how he builds on this.

  196. He starts with self-pity after all, I was supposed to be the

  197. man, I was supposed to sit on the throne.

  198. It was supposed to be me all the people.

  199. All of Israel were ready to install me as the king and

  200. recognize me as the king, but after all, the great Injustice

  201. happened to me, I was taken out of the way and my younger

  202. brother. Other now sits on the throne.

  203. Number two, hypocritical piety. He says this.

  204. He says, I was taken out of the way, but I know that the Lord

  205. had chosen Solomon. He didn't care about that.

  206. He just uses that. I know it was the Lord's will

  207. that that was going to happen. you know, when we pray, We pray,

  208. we ask in faith, believing the Bible says, we must we ask in

  209. faith believing okay and we're not tossed to and fro we ask in

  210. faith believing but we do. So, according to his will do, we

  211. say, if it be thy will or if it be your will do we say that just

  212. as words are do, we really mean it?

  213. It was the Lord's will that Solomon would be on the throne

  214. and he says, or he acts like it was, the Lord's will.

  215. So he is accepting of it. But he wasn't at all, and then

  216. he says to her. He says, I need your help.

  217. He says, do not deny me this one little thing.

  218. You know, if he would have come to her and requested what he

  219. wanted to request right off the bat.

  220. Maybe she would have had her defenses up, oh but this is a

  221. cunning crafty deceptive man, who's building his case and

  222. looking for allies. And guess what?

  223. Then flattery kicks in. And he says to her, he says

  224. Solomon, your son will never say no to you.

  225. You have the authority and you have the power to do something

  226. that no one else has. I am coming to you and appealing

  227. to you and I'm appealing to you as the Queen Mother.

  228. Shirley Solomon is not going to say no to you.

  229. Just grant me this one request and then all of a sudden he

  230. says, here's my request. And this is a falsehood to, he

  231. pretended, to be in love. He says, all I ask for all I ask

  232. for is that I would have the hand of abishag.

  233. The shunammite, that's all I want.

  234. After all look, it's all that happened to me.

  235. They took it all away. You can do this.

  236. You can go and speak to Solomon. You can make this happen and

  237. everything's going to be okay. All I want is the hand of

  238. abishag. Well, the Bible says that she

  239. goes and she speaks to Solomon, As she enters into the throne

  240. room, they exchanged courtesies. And you know what's, um, what's

  241. a beautiful picture to me? What seems to be a very

  242. beautiful picture is here is Solomon, he is the king and he

  243. is in the throne room, he is there on his throne, he is the

  244. king and in walks his mother. And the Bible says that he

  245. boughs before her in honor of his mother.

  246. And then he prepares a place of honor.

  247. You know, when the Bible talks about being at the right hand,

  248. it's a place of honor. Jesus.

  249. Right now is on the right hand of the Throne of God, in a place

  250. of honor on his throne, King Solomon for the Queen Mother

  251. prepares a place right next to him on his right hand and she

  252. sits there. And she begins to ask him for

  253. this request. She says this.

  254. She says, I would only ask you, but one little thing, one small

  255. thing. You know, I think that she was

  256. just basically. I think she was deceived.

  257. I don't think that for one minute.

  258. She thought that she was doing anything wrong.

  259. And I really believe when she said the words to Solomon, I

  260. only ask. But one small thing that she

  261. really believed, it was just a small thing.

  262. Not realizing the implications, she was deceived by someone who

  263. had plotted this whole thing out.

  264. She says, grant me but this one small thing and please don't say

  265. no, I'm going to tell you something.

  266. If your mother came to you and says I want to just ask you a

  267. favor. It's just a little thing.

  268. Would you do it? How many of us would say, no.

  269. Now, we might say, we might say, well what is it?

  270. Well, let me know what that is first.

  271. And then make our judgments based on what we're going to do

  272. when we hear what it is. Now, I would imagine that we

  273. would say that to just about anybody else.

  274. But I know, for example, I've walked up to Daryl, he had no

  275. idea what I was going to say. And I said Darryl, would you do

  276. me a favor? Will ya?

  277. What? Sure without hearing what it is.

  278. Because when you're close to somebody, you really care what

  279. it is, you're going to do whatever it is.

  280. If it's going to help that person, you love that person

  281. that's family, they're close to you.

  282. And if they are in need, you're going to ask.

  283. You're going to ask for it and they're going to do it.

  284. She says to Solomon, please don't say no.

  285. And he says, I will grant you this request.

  286. What is it? Little did he know that she was

  287. going to ask something that he could not Grant?

  288. she says, all I ask is at the former concubine of King David

  289. abishag, the shunammite be given to adonijah your brother.

  290. That's all You know, the Bible says that Solomon was Furious.

  291. Not only did he say, no, but he was Furious.

  292. And you know what? He says, he says, and his

  293. response. Why did you only ask for the

  294. hand of abishag? The shunammite, why didn't you

  295. just say, would you go ahead and give the entire Kingdom over to

  296. adonijah? You see here is the point.

  297. The point was, taking possession of a wife or a harem of a

  298. deceased King was equivalent to a claim to the throne.

  299. That's really the heart of a denied you, he didn't care about

  300. her, he won in love. He wanted a leg up.

  301. He wanted to now he had his big boisterous plan.

  302. Now, his subtle plan. If I could just do that, it's a

  303. leg up in the Kingdom. Solomon viewed, this petition of

  304. adonijah as conclusive proof that adonijah was involved in.

  305. Yet another conspiracy. Therefore he would be executed,

  306. you know, being lenient with his elder.

  307. Brother wants Solomon was in no mood to ignore the further

  308. threat that adonijah posed to his Rule.

  309. And so in the presence of all those that were in the throne

  310. room, he swore a solemn oath that adonijah would die that

  311. very day. He dispatched, Benaiah captain

  312. of the palace guard. His half-brother and the order

  313. was immediately carried out. Now notice the following for

  314. those that might be tempted to look on the execution of

  315. adonijah, his half-brother as a ruthless misuse of royal power,

  316. please Ponder the following points.

  317. Number one, Had a denied just first Rebellion, succeeded, both

  318. Solomon. And his mother would have been

  319. killed First Kings chapter 1 and verse 12.

    1 Kings 1 chapter mention

  320. Number two by fleeing to the altar.

  321. Following the collapse of his conspiracy adonijah was

  322. admitting that he deserved the death of a traitor.

  323. Number 3, Solomon already displayed, great Mercy toward

  324. adonijah once and already instead of executing him, he

  325. placed him on probation, he Gave him every opportunity to behave

  326. himself and to be a good subject to the king.

  327. Number four, adonijah had been duly warned that if the

  328. wickedness were found in him that he would be killed.

  329. First Kings chapter 1 and verse 52 number 54 Solomon to ignore

    1 Kings 1 chapter mention

  330. the second offense. Might suggest that the King was

  331. weak and such weakness would be an encouragement to sedition

  332. throughout the land. Therefore he would be executed.

  333. Remember joab General joab. Oh what a character that joab

  334. was he was the commander of all the Army.

  335. He was a man that stood valiantly and fought great

  336. battles. Fought great battles for King

  337. David but yet he had killed those that were innocent when

  338. joab, here's of the execution of adonijah and the expulsion of

  339. abiathar, he was a priest. He knew that he would be next.

  340. Joab had not supposed Absalom are hitting that followed or

  341. supported Absalom and his Rebellion, but he did support

  342. adonijah in his ill-fated conspiracy against Solomon.

  343. He realizes that treason treason was a capital crime and he does

  344. what adonijah had done previously.

  345. He runs to the house of God he goes to the throne He throws

  346. himself to The Altar and he grabs onto the same horns.

  347. Quote-unquote that adonijah grabbed onto hoping he would

  348. find Sanctuary there. His flight to the altar

  349. indicates that he had been involved in the abishag incident

  350. as well. Solomon regarded joab's flight

  351. to the author to the altar as proof of his continuing

  352. treasonous, intentions, he orders Benaiah to go and slay

  353. the old General, but joab won't let go.

  354. And Benaiah was afraid to go and slay him right there at the

  355. altar. He says, Solomon wants to see

  356. you you've been summoned by the king but he won't come and he

  357. won't let go and Benaiah goes back and talks to Solomon and

  358. ask Solomon. He says, what should I do?

  359. He says, you kill him right there.

  360. You slay him, right? Where he stands You know,

  361. Solomon spells out the reasons why he told Benaiah to do this

  362. number one, the altar provided no Sanctuary for murderers.

  363. Therefore the king ordered Benaiah to Slade joab at the

  364. altar. Only by the shedding of blood of

  365. this guilty man. Could the innocent blood of

  366. Abner and a Mesa be washed away from the house of David numbers,

  367. 15 and 33 as Chief magistrate of the land Solomon, considered it

  368. his obligation to avenge the death of my Murder victims as if

  369. the execution though of joab needed any further

  370. justification, Solomon adds these words that the victims of

  371. joab Sword were better men than their SAS ins.

  372. You know, though? Many people no doubt suspected

  373. David of of criminal complicity in these murders.

  374. The Deeds were actually done without his knowledge and by

  375. avenging. The death of the innocent, the

  376. stain of blood, meaning the obligation to punish would be

  377. removed from the house of Even forever.

  378. And as a consequence, the descendants of David would

  379. Prosper. On the other hand, the children

  380. of joab would always have to live with the stigma that their

  381. father had been executed as a murderer.

  382. The Bible says that he was executed joab was killed and he

  383. was buried Solomon filled the vacant post of general of the

  384. army and high priest with his friends, Benaiah and zadok.

  385. But finally along this line, You remember who she met?

  386. I was shimei, I was the one that was no doubt, some distant

  387. relative of King Saul and when Absalom was going to overthrow,

  388. or trying to overthrow David, on the throne, and when David is

  389. walking along and David his weeping and David with his head

  390. bowed low and what a sorrowful time it was, this was the man

  391. that was standing there saying, the reason that all these things

  392. are happening to you is because what you've done, Done against

  393. King Saul and you're paying for it.

  394. This is the same man that started throwing rocks at David

  395. as he walked by. You know, nobody forgot those

  396. things. but, you know, even though she may, I had recently

  397. been with Solomon First Kings, chapter 1, and verse 8, his

    1 Kings 1 chapter mention

  398. earlier Outburst against David made Solomon suspicious of him.

  399. Isn't that true? Isn't that true?

  400. That people look to us and people who either have

  401. confidence in us? Or they do not have confidence

  402. in US based upon our behavior in the past.

  403. Man, that's true. You can be forgiven of wrongs

  404. that you have committed. In fact, when the Bible talks

  405. about forgiveness, there is no number.

  406. It's an infinite number. And when my brother sins against

  407. me, I am to forgive him an infinite number of times.

  408. But like I have said before, if Ryan's stealing chickens after

  409. five or six of those guys, I'm a forgive him but I'm building a

  410. better fence. I'm going to keep the chickens

  411. in. You know why?

  412. Oh, I forgive him. I don't trust him Chimay, I

  413. wasn't trusted because his life was not such that he was trust

  414. worthy. I'll tell you something folks

  415. that happens to us. If we are not trustworthy, it's

  416. because we have not lived our life demonstrating the fact that

  417. we are worthy of such Trust. But, you know, there's Mercy

  418. extended that Solomon extends to him, Solomon doesn't say he

  419. doesn't come right out and say, you're going to be executed

  420. right now. He just doesn't trust him and he

  421. knew going back to the first chapter that, this man had at

  422. least verbally. He, at least came out verbally

  423. and said, I'm with you Solomon. I'm with you all the way I'm

  424. recognizing you as king. And all of that.

  425. So he doesn't execute him but he didn't trust him.

  426. He tells him to build a house in Jerusalem and he tells him this,

  427. you may never, ever, ever leave the capital.

  428. He said in the day that you leave in the day that you

  429. depart, you're going to be killed, get this for the crimes

  430. that you had committed against the throne.

  431. You know, that goes all the way back to David the crimes.

  432. He committed against David. So, in other words, these are

  433. crimes that are still there. In the memory bank, these are

  434. crimes that are still there, but you're not going to lose your

  435. life. You're going to be able to live.

  436. I'll leave you alone in that regard.

  437. I'm watching you though build a house in Jerusalem, you can

  438. never ever leave and if you do You would be killed.

  439. Three years go by. maybe Chimay eyes guard has now been let down

  440. Maybe he thought. I don't know if he premeditated

  441. this. I have no idea.

  442. We don't know. The Bible doesn't say But there

  443. were some actions that he was going to do, he was going to

  444. break the oath that he had made with Solomon and, you know, it

  445. was a serious matter, he broke the oath when he broke the oath

  446. to Solomon, he broke the oath to God.

  447. Bible says that two of his slaves to of the servants take

  448. off. They don't want to be in the

  449. house of shimei, I any longer and they take off and they go to

  450. gath and they go to seek Refuge of the king named achish member,

  451. a Kish with King. David Scholars say, this is

  452. probably his grandson in the land of the Philistines when

  453. David sought Refuge with a Koosh, a long time before that

  454. when he was trying to get away from Saul, who was out to To

  455. kill him. This is probably Scholars.

  456. Say this achish was probably that achish has grandson you

  457. know what he does without thinking.

  458. Maybe he did think, we don't know, but she may I decides he

  459. takes off and he wants to go get those slaves back.

  460. That sounds okay in it. I just want to get my guys back.

  461. I just want to get what's rightfully mine but in doing so

  462. he leaves and he breaks the vowel.

  463. He breaks the oath that he had was Solomon and to God and he

  464. basically is saying this, every single thing that you promised

  465. me were the conditions. I am not going to abide by that.

  466. Therefore, I am worthy of death and that's exactly what

  467. happened. You think Solomon forgot.

  468. You think Solomon, Let It Go. You think in the three years

  469. that had gone by that Solomon, just kind of thought it, maybe

  470. not that big of a deal. The Bible says that when he is

  471. summoned to the Palace, she may I stands before Solomon and

  472. Solomon lodged, a three-fold charge against him and here they

  473. are. He had profaned the name of God

  474. by violating a solemn oath taken in the name of God.

  475. Number two, he had violated the terms of his probation, thus

  476. disregarding the commands of the king and number three Chimay.

  477. I had cursed and blasphemed the Lord's anointed and that was

  478. David even In was brought before him.

  479. I'll tell you this. The Bible tells us.

  480. How to live? It came up in a question on

  481. Wednesday night about ananias and Sapphira his wife.

  482. And how they lied. And as the Bible says, you

  483. didn't lie to me and you lied to God, they kept back part of the

  484. price. They were deceptive, deceitful,

  485. liars, and God struck them both did.

  486. Right then and there and the question was, why did God strike

  487. them dead, right then and there, But not today.

  488. Why did he do it? Then and not now.

  489. You know, these are questions for God to answer in God's time

  490. before the word of God, though. Was revealed there were things

  491. like that or miraculous things like that.

  492. But I'll tell you this. You know, what's scary is if I'm

  493. not doing that which is right. Tomorrow, I'm probably going to

  494. wake up and I'm probably going to have a nice day and I'm going

  495. to have all kinds of activities. In the day, I'm either going to

  496. prosper or I am not but it'll be a day like any other day.

  497. And if I'm still not doing that which is right?

  498. The next day might come and then a week and then a month and then

  499. maybe a year, maybe many years. And now my heart no longer

  500. bothers me, my conscience, no longer bothers me by the life

  501. that I live and I'm just going right along.

  502. I'll tell you this if I lose my life.

  503. I've got no chance. When there's breath in me, I can

  504. change. I can do that.

  505. Which is right. What is Solomon say to this,

  506. man? He says, as long as you do,

  507. what's right, you're going to live.

  508. And as long as you don't do anything else in the future

  509. against the throne, you're going to live and as long as you do

  510. what I say, and stay there in Jerusalem, and don't leave the

  511. capital, you're going to live. Folks, the Bible says.

  512. Be not deceived. God is Not mocked for

  513. whatsoever. A man soweth that shall he?

  514. Also reap. There's a Payday someday,

  515. there's a Day of Reckoning, there's a day that I will pay

  516. for the things that I have done in this body in this life either

  517. rewarded or punished in eternity in a devil's.

  518. Hell for eternity based on what I have done.

  519. Three years past solemn. Didn't forget, and this man was

  520. executed for his crimes and so by swiftly eliminating for

  521. potential. Antagonists now adonijah Abaya

  522. Our joab and shimei. I Solomon firmly establishes

  523. himself as king but finally, now in this will be the remaining

  524. part of our sermon. There was a day when Solomon is

  525. going to have a time with God, and God asked Solomon.

  526. He says of all the things that I can grant thee, what is it that

  527. you want from me? And I think that there's a point

  528. here that we need not to just Brush by.

  529. I don't think that in this narrative, I don't think that in

  530. this particular instance, God was saying whatever you want.

  531. You can have, it doesn't say that it just says that God asked

  532. of him, what is it that I can do for you?

  533. God asks us. Solomon those words in a dream.

  534. In other words, God was speaking to him in this dream, literally

  535. And as he begins, you know what Solomon says.

  536. He says, first of all, he thanks God because God is allowing the

  537. son of David to sit on the throne.

  538. To keep the crown in the family. And to sit on the throne.

  539. He goes on to say to God. He says, I am but a little

  540. child. May I ask you something.

  541. If you were just now, exalted, by all the people, all Israel,

  542. and God, and you were God's anointed, and you were the son

  543. of the king, and you are a man with great wisdom.

  544. And you are a man that everybody respected and you now are

  545. sitting on the throne. Would you look to yourself with

  546. humility like that? Solomon says, I am but a little

  547. child, he says, and your people are so great.

  548. Man, that's great. Your people are so great.

  549. How can I rule your people without your help?

  550. I feel inadequate in this regard. you know, the greatest

  551. man are people that have that kind of heart, you know, when

  552. you feel like it's like in sports when a kid or a player

  553. gets to the point where he no longer feels like, he needs to

  554. be coached and he no longer is coachable.

  555. He's gone. As far as he's going to go, I'm

  556. going to say something. Solomon was a great man at this

  557. point in time. He says to God, I'm but a little

  558. child, I need your help. So he asks for this, he says,

  559. please grant me a Discerning heart.

  560. This word Discerning means literally a hearing heart.

  561. Why that I might judge or rule your people better and that in

  562. doing. So I would be able to discern or

  563. determine what was true and what was false, what was right and

  564. what was wrong? You know, why God granted his

  565. request the Bible says, God granted his request because he

  566. didn't ask for riches, he didn't ask for Honor, he didn't ask for

  567. a long life, think about it, of all that solemn.

  568. Could have asked for, he could have asked for Honor among his

  569. among his peers. He could have asked for praise

  570. among the people. He could have asked for great

  571. riches. He could have asked for, in this

  572. what God said, you could have even asked that I would take

  573. away all of your enemies and Grant you victory over every one

  574. of them. But you didn't.

  575. What you asked for was a tool. To better lead and rule the

  576. people of God. That's a powerful thing.

  577. And God says, because of that, I'm going to Grant this to you

  578. and I'm going to give you wisdom that far, surpasses anyone that

  579. has ever lived and anyone that will live in the future.

  580. Save Jesus Christ. The only one, no other man ever

  581. had the wisdom. That Solomon had no other man

  582. but Solomon was able to do what Solomon did and make the

  583. decisions that Solomon made. There's a lot of folks here

  584. today that have gray hair. I don't have any gray hair but

  585. I'm getting older. Some folks lose their hair.

  586. We get wrinkled. We get older. and with each

  587. passing year that goes by Don't you?

  588. Just look back on your life and think, man, if I would have

  589. known, then what I know now. That's wisdom.

  590. Wouldn't it be great to be a young man and have wisdom?

  591. Oh, we know it all when were younger have virtually?

  592. No wisdom. But through life by our own

  593. challenges and by making it through the things that happen

  594. to us by our own challenges, in our life, we learn wisdom.

  595. We also learn wisdom by the experience of others and we gain

  596. wisdom, when we ask it from God and it gives it liberally.

  597. God never gave it any more liberally than he did to Solomon

  598. a long time ago and he says you're going to have wisdom that

  599. far surpasses anyone that's ever lived and anyone that has will

  600. live in the future times But because you didn't ask for these

  601. things, he says I'm going to give you riches to that far

  602. surpassed everyone else. I'm going to give you honor as

  603. well because you've never asked for these things.

  604. But then he says I'm going to give you a long life where years

  605. of life and you know, of all the things that he says, That was

  606. the one thing that was conditional.

  607. He says, I'm going to give you something that's conditional.

  608. I'm going to give you a long life.

  609. You're going to have a long life, only if you continue to

  610. walk in the way of God and do, so all the days of your life

  611. only then will your life be lengthened.

  612. You know, this brings us to a close of these political

  613. matters, his discourse with God, God's Great blessings down upon

  614. him in the very next thing we learn is about two women and a

  615. baby. He puts it into motion, this

  616. wisdom that God said he was going to have.

  617. I just wonder this of all the things we could ask God for, I

  618. mean, really of all things of all the choices and decisions

  619. we've made in our life of all the things that We can look back

  620. on and ask God. Wouldn't it be things like

  621. honor? Maybe a better job.

  622. No, tell him what we asked for. Solomon asked for the greatest

  623. thing. He could have get this now, he

  624. asked for something that would help him to better serve, God's

  625. people. Oh man.

  626. That's it. And because of that he was

  627. blessed far above and beyond anyone that had ever lived.

  628. We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

  629. Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you

  630. would like any additional information, or you would like

  631. to receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.

  632. Please email us at info at her Church of Christ

  633. Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays

  634. at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.

  635. Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our

  636. honored guest.