The King Who Drifted - Chronicles of the Kings (Week 3)

Please stand for the reading of the Word of God.

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.

Solomon clung to these in love.

He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.

For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord, his god, as the heart as was the heart of David his father.

For Solomon went after Ashtar, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.

So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord as David his father had done.

Then Solomon built a high place for Chemish, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.

And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrifice to their gods.

And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods.

But he did not keep what the Lord commanded.

Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Since this has been your practice, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you.

I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your father's servant.

Yet for the sake of David your father, I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Come on, D.

Good job, champion.

Well, we're continuing in our Chronicles of Kings series.

Before we do, I just think we need to pause and just pray for our city.

You know, obviously with the events that happened late last week, um, there's a lot of hurting people, a lot of fear, and we just need prayer and strength over our city.

Will you all agree with me as we pray for Midland?

Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you.

I thank you for your mercy.

I thank you for your protection.

I thank you for your love.

God, uh we lift up all the families that were impacted by the senseless shooting last week a few days ago.

And God, we pray that you would be with every family that's been impacted by that.

And God, um we ask you especially to be with the family of Ed Scott, God, who lost his life.

We pray that you would be with them.

That you would love them, that you would show yourself strong on their behalf, that your presence would be there to bring them peace and grace in this season.

God, we thank you for our city and its leadership and all those that uh lead the way, God, here in Midland.

We pray that you would be with them and give them peace and strength and wisdom.

God, most importantly, we pray that they would love you with all their hearts.

God, we thank you for our first responders.

God, when people were running away from that scene, our first responders are running to it.

And God, we thank you for their courage, their bravery to protect our great city and the people uh that live here.

God, we certainly lift you high over our city.

God, we God, fly the flag of the banner of Jesus not only over this plot of land, kneely here, God, but across our city.

That God, we would be a city that keeps our eyes on you.

Jesus, I pray that this would cause us to come together, uh, God, to love more deeply and God, um, serve our city uh more fully.

So, God, we thank you for this.

Lift up Midland, Texas, God.

Put your hand on it today, cover us and bless us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

It was a tough week, that's for sure.

Um, but God is greater, amen.

As we get into this series, I'm gonna be trying to breathe up here because I have a little cold today.

So if I can't breathe, somebody come and finish the message.

You know, we Denver read, hopefully, you're following along in the devotional, and before you came today, you read a little bit about Solomon.

But if you didn't, that's okay.

Uh, Denver kind of gave us the spoiler.

He read the end of Solomon's life.

Um, kind of the result of where things ended up for Solomon.

But it just blew my mind as I was studying this week, thinking about how does this happen?

Um, how does someone who begins, and we'll look at this with so much humility, uh, end with such a tragic story.

And how does the wisest man in the world, who, you know, wrote books of the Bible and did them, built a temple and did amazing things, uh, become a warning to us.

Like we're reading this, and while we can look at his life and celebrate certain things he did in his life, ultimately the story of Solomon is a warning to the people of God.

And as I began to do that, uh, the Holy Spirit convicted me and basically says, you know, stop asking questions about Solomon and start looking at your own life.

That's the challenge.

We're not just looking at like this, you know, historical biography where we glean some things, but how many know the Bible comes to the front street of our hearts if we allow it?

And as I began to look at this, uh I figured out it's easy to identify rival loves in other people's lives, like the Bible calls them planks in other people's eyes, right?

It's easy to see kind of what other people might be trusting in.

It's hard for us maybe to see the rival gods in our own lives or the rival loves in our own lives.

And it hit me.

I don't wake up in the morning planning to drift from God.

But I bet every person in this room knows someone who started out hungry for the things of God that have ended up some other place in their lives.

Can I get an amen?

And so today's message comes as a warning.

And I like to encourage you and preach happy things, but truly, this is a message that challenged me because I thought about I don't just wake up in the morning and planning to drift from God, but I do wake up tempted to trust my own abilities.

Uh I love leadership, I love influence, I want to make a difference in people's lives.

So it's easy for me to wake up thinking, how am I going to make a difference today?

Who can I encourage?

How can I help out this situation?

How can I put out this fire?

And notice what all of those started with.

Ah.

And I realize it's easy to drift from a single devotion from God to this sort of commitment to self-reliance.

Are you with me?

I don't devise a five-point strategic plan to drift from God.

I don't get out my journal and think, how am I going to drift from God today?

Like how I don't, you know, but I do, you know, scroll way too long at the bass fishing reels and think, I would rather be on the water right now.

Right?

I do begin to look at things and have thoughts of escape and comfort.

I would rather be someplace else.

Can I get an amen?

Or is it only me?

I mean, I will find myself on a random Tuesday scrolling through Airbnb, figuring out where my next vacation is.

Even if I don't have vacation money.

Are you with me?

I'm quietly asking myself while I'm doing that this question of when can I get a little break?

When can I escape the pressure?

I don't suddenly decide, I think I've had enough of this God stuff.

And get in my truck and just drive off to live for myself.

That's not the way it happens.

But I am tempted to click on that bank app and just check the bottom line.

And I could say maybe reason like I want to make sure the bills are paid.

But honestly, it's a security check.

Am I going to make it today?

Do I have enough?

You see how subtle that is.

It's easy to trust in that number rather than trusting in God.

We don't wake up drifting, deciding to drift, but it's a little more trust in myself, a little less dependence on God.

It's a little more comfort, a little less surrender.

It's a little more attention to my kingdom.

It's easy to serve the unholy trinity.

Y'all know about the unholy trinity?

Me, myself, and I.

As opposed to the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

A little more attention to my kingdom, a little less affection for his.

That's how the drift happens in me.

And it's dangerous.

In a hundred years, like a hundred years from now, what might be written about you?

I mean, we're reading about the story of Solomon, but what is the story of J.

Tom Snelson a hundred years from now?

Is it something like, old Joe?

He started out strong, but then he fell off the wagon.

If your name's Joe in here, I'm not picking on you.

I just wrote a random name down.

Sweet Mary was really involved in church until she met Johnny.

How many of you know these are made-up scenarios, but I really didn't have to stretch too far to make them up.

As a pastor, we get calls, we get texts, we get the emails, we get the notification, we get the prayer moment.

Where all of a sudden we don't know where Mary is because she's off with Johnny.

And Johnny has become her Jesus.

Man, Daniel was serving in church, leading a small group, until he bought that lake house.

Now, if you have a lake house, I'm not mad at you.

I do want an invite, but I'm not mad at you, but I'm just saying that there's always competition for the heart to cause you to subtly drift from the things of God.

In fact, some of you guys have probably felt that.

You felt man like I got in the water, like in the ocean.

I got in the water with Jesus, and then after a little bit of time, I realized where I got in at, I had drifted from.

And I had to get out.

What do you do when you do that, when you drift?

You guys ever been to the ocean?

Hey, there's a blue body of water.

It's called the ocean.

Alright, just joke.

You get in the ocean, you're just playing around.

But if you stay there long enough, 15, 20 minutes later, you have to get out and walk back to the place you began.

And what I'm challenging us this morning is that maybe you've drifted.

And it's time to get out of the cycle you're in and walk back to the God you started with.

That's the challenge we find in Solomon.

Man, it's wedding season here at Neely.

We got some newlyweds right back there.

Come on, Annie.

Annie and Brittany.

And as I thought about this, I thought, man, how amazing those wedding moments are.

It's like almost every one of them was like Annie on uh last week, whenever that was.

It seemed like it was a month ago already.

The door's open, she walks in, he can barely hold it together.

A lot of times when we encounter Jesus in a fresh way, maybe at a camp or something like that, we have a moment at the altar.

God does something big in our life.

It's like that wedding moment.

And it's funny, and in that wedding moment, they make their vows for richer or poorer, for better or for worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.

And I believe they mean every word of that.

I've never really stood there before a couple and thought, these two aren't serious about that.

I don't know if they're going to make it or not.

Well, there might be one.

I've done that too.

But I have stood by the graveside of marriages that started exactly like that and ended up some other place.

The intentions at the wedding were real, but intentions don't sustain a marriage.

Choices do.

And our busy schedules, unresolved conflict, completing competing priorities have a way of quietly pushing us away from the person that means the most to us in our lives.

Maybe you've encountered that.

The same thing can happen spiritually.

It's what we see in the life of Solomon.

We see these competition for his heart, other rival loves rising up.

And you know, we're not immune to that in West Texas.

I thought about it.

Rival loves that crowd out God in West Texas.

I said in my notes, rarely sound scandalous.

Rarely might be a little strong, but oftentimes they are not that scandalous.

Here's what they sound like.

They actually look respectable on the outside.

Things like build the business, buy the ranch, take the trip, get the truck.

I was looking at you, Luke, on that.

Get the truck.

That's not a command.

It's a warning.

It's a warning.

He looked at Sarah and said, I told Pastor Mike told me to buy the truck.

Protect the family.

These are the things it looks like here, right?

Make sure the kids succeed.

We've got to give them every opportunity so that they succeed.

Control the outcome.

Secure the future.

Do you hear how those things sound?

I mean, they sound respectable.

And none of these things are inherently wrong, but here's what I want you to leave with.

And if you ever take notes or you want to take something with you today, here's a pretty good thing to take with you.

Every good thing becomes a dangerous thing the moment it becomes your ultimate thing.

Yeah, take a picture of that.

Leave it up there.

This will change your life.

Because there are good things in our lives that are competing to be the ultimate thing.

I mean, listen to how it sounds in real life.

I don't know why I'm I don't know why I'm picking on.

If I can buy the ranch, I'll be okay.

That's not ranch dressing, but for some of you, you just got convicted about that.

If my kids are happy, I'll be okay.

If people respect me, that'll be enough.

If I can control the outcome, I'll be okay.

That's how it sounds.

Those aren't lifestyle preferences, those are worship statements.

Whatever you believe you must have in order to be okay has already become your God.

You're already starting to drift.

I know this is a convicting message.

It is quiet in here.

You're like, why are you picking on me?

I'm picking on myself.

Solomon teaches us that, man, our lives can start, our journey can start in a good place.

He had a heart devoted to God.

When you look at a snapshot of the beginning of his life, we get 1 Kings 3:3, where it plainly says, Solomon loved the Lord.

1 Kings 3:3

That's why this is so dangerous.

We're not talking about people who are out living in rebellion who have nothing to do with God.

We're talking about a people who love God.

It's clear.

When they say Solomon, out of all the things to highlight, he loved the Lord.

They didn't talk about his wisdom in this point, his success, his power.

Solomon's story begins as a love story.

Maybe you've started in a place where you love God.

But today you come in here and you find out that love has grown numb.

That maybe we go through the motions, but I'm not sure about my affections.

And when God appeared, he had this moment like God was so blessed because of the devotion of his heart.

He's like, ask me whatever, and I'll give it to you.

That's the heart of God, right?

And he asked him, of course, for wisdom and he gave him wisdom.

But what stood out to me this week was 1 Kings 3:7.

1 Kings 3:7

I think we have it on the screen.

It says, And now, O Lord my God.

I mean, first, my God, you hear the intimacy, the personal connection.

You have made your servant king.

In place of David, my father, although I am but a little child.

I do not know how to go out or to come in.

And I read that and I thought, well, maybe this is when Solomon is like a little person, a preteen.

Well, we even know preteens aren't humble, but anyway.

Just joking.

Had to lighten the mood a little bit.

Maybe I'm not.

He's not talking about age.

He's talking about a heart posture.

It's actually a Hebrew expression.

Like, as I dove into that, because I was wanting to know, like, what's he talking about here?

I'm but a little child.

It's actually a Hebrew expression of humility and dependence.

He literally was restating something that was common, saying, I am insufficient for what you have called me to do.

This is where Solomon started.

He's saying, I am the king, but I feel like a little child.

I'm insufficient to do what you've called me to do.

I cannot do this without you.

How many know that's a pretty good place in your life, not only to start, but to finish.

God was pleased because of his devotion.

And so we see God gives him wisdom, peace, influence, prosperity, all the stuff that follows.

The kingdom flourishes.

And Solomon builds the temple.

Man, what an accomplishment.

The moment Israel had been waiting for, the temple is built, a place for God's glory to dwell, and the glory of God descends and fills the house.

God's presence was among his people.

And in the moment at the height of Solomon's reign, he stands and prays this prayer.

What a powerful prayer.

If you want to read an amazing prayer of dedication to the Lord, read Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings 8.

And part of it in verse 61.

Yeah, there's 61 verses in chapter 8 of 1 Kings.

Or there's more.

He says this: Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping commands as is this day.

That was the prayer that came out of Solomon's heart to the people of Israel.

Let your heart be wholly true to God.

What a prayer.

When I look at that, that wholly true means an idea of wholeness, completeness, undivided loyalty.

This is his vision.

This is his prayer.

And it's beautiful.

Until you realize, of course, I've already given you the spoiler, that the very thing Solomon prayed for Israel is the very thing he failed to do himself.

A devoted heart is a beautiful beginning.

But devotion must be guarded.

Our devotion, our affection must be guarded.

Why?

Because even the most devoted heart is vulnerable to drift.

What am I saying to you?

You're in church this morning.

Good job.

You're where you should be.

You're in the presence of God.

If you're running from God this morning and you're here, you're not doing a good job.

But what I'm saying is, even if you've served God faithfully for years, the warning still stands.

Drift can still happen.

You have to swim against the current of the things pressing on you.

And we see that the things began to press on Solomon and he began to drift.

And here's the sobering thing about it is God knew and God warned him.

As plain as I'm telling you right now, that your heart, Matthew, your heart can drift.

God had done the same thing.

In Deuteronomy, write this down.

We're all over the Old Testament today.

Deuteronomy 17.

There is this idea that God gave to every one of the kings what scholars call the law of the king.

Now, lest you think, well, I'm not a king, so this doesn't apply to me.

In Christ, you're more than a king.

You're the king of your home.

You're the king of the place you leave.

Right?

Come on.

And he understood kings would be tempted.

And so he gave them this very clear warning.

It says in verse 17 or 16, only he must not acquire, this talking about kings, many horses for himself, or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses.

Since the Lord has said to you, you shall never return that way again.

And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he be re uh he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

God commanded that any future king of Israel must not accumulate excessive wealth, build large armies, or make or take many wives.

Now God wasn't prohibiting pets or marriage or condemning wealth.

He was given a warning because what he was painting is a clear picture of the pathways through which a king's heart would most likely drift.

Are you with me?

So he gives them three warnings or three rival loves.

He talks about horses, he talks about wives, and he talks about money.

Sorry, wives.

We're not picking on you today.

It's just the point of here of taking on many relationships that would influence him.

And you're like, again, I'm not a king.

I might have a horse.

I've ridden a horse.

I have a friend that has a horse.

But all of these are symbols that represent something that will be on the front street of your heart.

Let's just break them down real quick.

What do horses represent?

They represent military power and self-sufficiency.

There's a psalm, one of my favorites, Psalm 20, verse 7.

Psalms 20:7

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we'll choose to trust in the name of the Lord our God.

It's easy to trust in that which you think will make you self-sufficient.

That will offer protection or power.

The question underneath of the horses is the question for you today, and it is in what do you trust?

It's the trust question.

And then to the wives.

The wives represent competing affections and divided loyalties.

The question underneath is what will you love?

What will you love more than God?

What will draw away your heart from God to compete for that devotion we sang about in worship this morning?

And then silver and gold, obviously, you guys understand.

That means self-preservation, security.

The question underneath means, what makes you feel safe?

We should pause and ask ourselves these questions.

I would encourage you to write them down and take them into your quiet time, your daily office, your time with God.

What do I trust more than God?

What do I love more than God?

What makes me feel safe more than God?

Those are challenging questions, diagnostic questions.

They expose the motive of the human heart.

Honestly, these are worship questions.

Because whatever you trust, whatever you love, whatever makes you feel safe, is what you worship.

It reminds me a little bit, you know, of just understanding that our hearts are tended, that whatever we gaze on becomes ultimate in our lives.

Whatever we focus on.

And the God knew this because not only did he give them this warning, he actually gave them an antidote.

Because if you keep reading in Deuteronomy 17, he literally listen to what kings had to do.

Now you think kings had servants, right?

They had people to do whatever they wanted to do.

Hey servant, go get me Starbucks.

Hey servant, do this, do this, right?

But God knew this, and he literally says in Deuteronomy 7, the law of the king, he knew, get that, tell him I'll get back to him.

The king was required to personally hand copy the Torah.

The law.

It reminded me of Psalm 119.

How can a young man keep his way pure by living according to the word?

How can a king keep his life pure by living according to the word?

Being locked in to the things of God.

Yet most of us have no place in our lives to allow God to rewrite his laws on our hearts.

So therefore, our hearts drift.

He knew that the king would be protected by daily personal humble submission to the word of God.

Things haven't changed.

Things haven't changed, have they?

Have they?

Y'all are quiet.

What's greater than wealth?

Worship.

What's greater than wisdom?

Worship.

And all of these things Solomon violated one after the other.

If we look at Solomon's life, 1 Kings 10, mark that down if you want to, tells us he accumulated 1,400 chariots.

He accumulated, multiplied, 12,000 horsemen, seven hundred wives, three hundred concubines, more gold than any king in all of Scripture.

And it wasn't accidental.

The word says he systematically multiplied it.

And Deuteronomy 1717B, in the second part of that, 1717, tells us God uses this Hebrew word, Nata.

I hope I'm saying that right.

I don't speak Hebrew.

I barely speak English.

It is translated as turning away.

It said, Do these things lest your heart Nata turn away.

In our reading today, the one Denver crushed, that same word appeared at the end when he's talking about Solomon's life.

He's talking about his wives, and he said, His heart had Nata.

His heart had turned away.

It's amazing that God named the exact mechanism of Solomon's failure before it ever happened.

Rival loves will cause you to turn away.

I want you to follow this last little piece before we look at the third part.

And I want you to lean into this because this, to me, honestly, this is the part that convicted me the most.

And I think I just felt the Spirit say, slow down right here.

Because you might understand, okay, I get it, Pastor Mike.

It's enough.

I know my heart is tempted to drift, but how does it drift?

This is how rival loves work.

They don't announce themselves, they accumulate.

The devil doesn't come to you in a red suit and a pitchfork.

It's subtle.

They start to stack, it accumulates.

Listen.

Here's here's how God gave it to me.

What we once resisted, we begin to tolerate.

What we tolerate, we begin to excuse.

And what we excuse, we begin to treasure.

And that's how the drift happens.

We used to resist, now we tolerate it.

What we tolerate it, we start to excuse.

What we excuse, we eventually treasure.

And what we treasure eventually will shape the direction of our lives.

Worship changes everything.

He started out with a singular devotion to the Lord.

And he drifted.

And what we find at the end of his life is a heart departed.

And that is scary.

That is a warning to us today.

Let's go back to that scripture that we read, 1 Kings 11, 4.

When Solomon was old, his wife's Nata turned away his heart after other gods.

And his heart, I mean, look at the wording of the Lord.

Do you remember Solomon's prayer?

And his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God.

As was the heart of the Father David.

Feel the weight of that.

I mean, this isn't a reckless adolescent making some bad decisions.

This is Solomon who's now reigned for 40 years.

40 years of wisdom.

We're talking about the wisest man in the Bible.

40 years of blessing.

We're talking about the richest man in the Bible.

He had everything we thought we might need: wisdom and blessing and all of that.

Do you remember what Solomon prayed?

He prayed what?

Over his people.

Let their heart, let your heart be wholly true to the Lord.

And now, 1 Kings 11 says, his heart was not wholly true to the Lord.

The very prayer Solomon prayed over Israel became the verdict over his life.

And look what God says next.

The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had not turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, commanded him concerning this thing.

Hello, warning, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not keep what the Lord commanded.

He appeared to him twice, once in Gibeon, once at the temple dedication.

He said, basically, bro, if you turn aside, there's going to be consequences.

Solomon wasn't ignorant, he was wise.

He knew.

The issue is never information.

The issue is never wisdom.

What is the issue?

Worship.

What you worship determines the direction of your life.

His heart turned away after rival love.

And the truth is, his drifting heart didn't just impact him.

Man, I meet with people who've said, you know what?

I know what God says, and I know what I'm supposed to do, but I'm going to just go chase this thing.

It's between me and God.

Can I tell you that it's never just between you and God?

One man's private, misguided worship produced a generational wound.

Parents, your worship impacts your kids, your family.

Kiddos that are in the room this morning, your worship, what you worship, impacts your siblings.

It impacts your friends.

You're like, I'm just a kid.

It doesn't matter.

When you put your focus on God, your friends are drawn to God.

When you put your focus on other things, guess what?

Your friends will be drawn to other things.

Leaders in the room.

There's a lot of leaders leading nonprofits and businesses.

What you worship matters, it impacts your entire team.

Private worship always has public consequences.

And the greatest threat is not that it's going to be this dramatic rejection of God.

It is the slow burn, the slow cook, the subtle drift.

And we're all susceptible to it.

So the question really becomes no longer about Solomon, does it?

The question is about our lives.

I'll try to speed up and wrap up and get you to lunch before the Baptist.

You can laugh.

It was a joke.

I love the Baptists.

When we think about this in this room, how does this impact our lives?

Is it control?

Yeah, I've gone from preaching to meddling.

We need outcomes to go our way.

We want life to be predictable.

We don't want any surprises.

Control becomes a rival love when surrender feels more dangerous than self-reliance.

Is it success?

We need to win.

We need to build, we need to accomplish.

Success can become a rival love, right?

When achievement matters more than obedience.

Family.

Yeah, I'm even picking on family.

We need our kids to succeed.

Our marriages need to look right.

Our families need to be happy.

Family is a gift from God.

But family becomes a rival of when their happiness matters more to us than their holiness.

We have to be careful as parents to build lives that actually allow them to drift from the things of God in our kids' lives.

Yes, we want them to be happy.

But do we want them to be holy?

I mean, there are parents, and just as an example, I'm not beating anyone up.

Maybe I am, but I don't mean to.

Who chose Disneyland over Kids Camp.

I mean, I love Disneyland.

But I'm not going to schedule it the week of kids camp.

Our kids will enjoy the rides and, you know, Mickey and all the stuff will be amazing.

But it'll fade.

The word of the Lord will never fade in their life.

An image of Jesus in their lives for one week, that commitment, changed their lives forever.

We want them to be happy.

I get that.

But are we building a life around the things of God?

Come into kids' ministry.

What happens behind these walls matters.

This isn't babysitting.

This is the word of God being planted in the next generation, in the hearts of their kids.

To me, it's the most important thing that happens on Sunday morning.

It's more important than what we're doing right now is that our kids are hearing the word of God, and those seeds are going into fertile soil, and the word of the Lord will not return void.

What happens at youth, what happens on our college campuses, those next generation ministries to me are critical.

And I just want us to care more about transformation than just having a good time, just having another opportunity because, yeah, they probably are not even going to make the high school team, but they need to be on that travel baseball team because their neighbor is.

And what will they think about their kid?

And what will they think?

Oh man, if my kid's not on that travel team, maybe it's soccer out here more than baseball, I have gone to meddling.

The kid's not going to make the varsity team.

But we're worried more about his feelings and emotions.

And like, what will it actually what it comes down to is what will they think about me?

What I want them to think about me is my kid's going to be in the house of God, again, the word of God.

And we're going to love, as for me and my house, we're going to love the Lord.

Do you see how subtle the drift is?

I promised I was closing, but I'm preaching a whole other sermon.

It could be money.

Kids in the room, adults in the room, it can be approval.

Where we worry more about what our friends think than what the Word of God thinks.

It's important this morning that we come back to the things of God.

If someone, let me just present this challenge to you, this kind of hard-to-escape diagnostic question, I promise you, I am circling the landing, the landing field.

If someone followed us around for six months, watched our calendars, our spending, our conversations, our habits, our affection, our attention, what would they conclude that we actually worship?

Not what we say we worship, what we actually worship.

That's what we need to be evaluating this morning.

This is a moment where we just have to come back to that singular devotion to God.

Solomon's story leaves us with a desperate question.

I'm going to touch on it before I pray for you.

Just so lest you think that it's just going to be trying harder and willpower that's going to get us back to God.

Is that okay?

Okay, thank you, Tori.

I'll take you to lunch.

If the wisest, most blessed, most devoted king in Israel couldn't keep his heart from drifting, what hope is there for us?

It's not trying harder, it's not more discipline, it's not another promise to do better.

The answer is Jesus.

Not Jesus as a moral example, not Jesus as an upgraded life coach, but Jesus as our Lord and Savior, coming back to that singular focus.

Jesus is the true and faithful King that Solomon never could be.

Where Solomon's heart turned away in blessing, Jesus remained faithful in suffering.

Where Solomon said, Let your heart be holy, true, and fail to live it, Jesus could say what he said in John chapter 8, I always do the things that are pleasing to God.

John 8 · chapter mention

Man, I always do the things pleasing to God.

Only Jesus could do that.

Solomon built the temple.

But Jesus is the meeting place between God and man.

Solomon received wisdom, but Jesus is the wisdom of God.

Solomon's heart drifted, but Jesus set his face like flint towards Jerusalem and never looked back.

He went to the cross with undivided love for the Father and undivided love for us, his people.

That's our Jesus.

And we need this Jesus.

At the cross, something amazing happened where Jesus died for our respectable idolatry.

Jesus died for our hidden rival loves.

Jesus died for the hearts that drifted.

He died for people who knew the truth but loved other things more.

Are you with me?

He went to the cross to be the antidote for the very thing that we're challenged with today is to drift from this singular devotion.

It's why he died for us.

So that over and over and over we can come back to him in repentance and say, God, this isn't about trying harder.

It's to say, God, I have loved other things more.

Today is an invitation to that repentance, to that warning that comes through Solomon, to set our eyes on him and to come back to that singular devotion.

And man, what a place we can be if we will commit kneely as a spiritual family to come back to that place again and again and again.

Repentance is not a bad word this morning.

Repentance is a good word where you say to God, God, I have loved something more than you.

But I want to put my whole heart back on you.

Probably one of the most gospel promises in the whole Bible is actually in Ezekiel.

I will close with this.

Ezekiel 36.

God's promise says, I will give you a new heart.

The answer over and over and over again is a new heart.

Not wealth, not wisdom, not willpower, a new heart.

It says, I and a new spirit I will put within you.

I will remove the heart of stone.

And I will give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you.

Notice, these are God's I will statements, not our I will statements.

These are our I receive statements.

Will we receive a new heart?

Will we allow Him to put His new spirit within us?

It says, and cause you and cause you.

Not work harder, but I, my spirit within you.

This is the good news of the gospel.

That when my heart when your heart is fully devoted to the things of God, that heart, that new heart will cause you to what?

Walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

See, it's not external rules that we're trying to apply to an internal, our internal lives.

It's an internal transformation that produces an external fruit of walking in the things of God.

That's the good news.

That's what makes us not moralistic.

But this is what makes us Jesus lovers, what makes us Christians, what makes us people that live and walk by the grace of God.

That's good news this morning.

Or this afternoon.

Why don't you stand with me?

This is all you can take today.

I'll pray and then we will come up and close us.

I mean, we don't have anywhere to go.

We're here.

We need the word.

And I pray that you received it this morning with love.

And I preach it with conviction because I have to do often I, me and our pastoral team and our ministry team, we have to do the autopsies.

We have to do the moments where we see people who once loved God, hurt the people they love, walk away from the things of God.

I mean, it can happen from a Sunday to a Thursday.

Sunday, they're here worshiping God, serving, all is well.

Thursday, bam, text, life changed.

I've decided to walk away from the things of God.

What we've learned today is they didn't decide on Thursday.

But they didn't guard their hearts in a way that protected them from the drift, and eventually that drift ended up to a heart departed.

God, let it not be us.

Let me pray for you.

Father, thank you.

What a challenging word.

But what a life-saving word.

Let us be a church that's not playing games.

Let us be a church that's not allowing the subtle, dangerous drift of the heart.

Thank you for the warnings in the Chronicles of the Kings that bring our hearts back to you.

God, we see the blessing, the goodness in Solomon's life.

But God, we are heartbroke broken by the tragedy we see at the end.

God, let us be people committed to you.

A people that time and time again say yes to the invitation to come back to you by your grace and your mercy.

God, we love you and we want to love you all the days.

For the subtle pursuit of other gods, rival loves.

And we turn back to you with our full affection, saying, We love you, Jesus.

Thank you for taking our heart of stone, giving us a heart of flesh, causing us to obey all that you've commanded us to do.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.