Waters Church

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Getting the wisdom I need when I'm out of my league.
This is our third message on wisdom for the summer,
getting the wisdom I need when I'm out of my league.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Any anybody ever been out of your.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
League in a place where you just don't understand what's
going on, feel like you're in over your head, feel
like you're out of your source, out of your qualifiers.
You know, if you just don't feel like you're equipped
for the task, I want you to take out your
notes and fill in the blanks as we go along
as well, but at the top of your notes, and
if you don't want to use the paper notes or

(00:34):
you're online, take out your phone and go to watershirts
dot org and click on the message. It looks like
that and you can fill in the blanks there, but
right at the top. I didn't even want you to
fill this in because this is just a fact. The
fact is everyone eventually comes to a place where they
feel ill equipped for the task ahead. Everyone comes to
a place where they feel ill equipped for the task ahead.
So if you have never been there, just give it time,

(00:56):
because you're gonna get to a place where you just
do not feel like you're you are in your l anymore,
or you are overwhelmed by the circumstances.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
You know, Summer is kind of that season where we transition.
It really is.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
We transition young people from one grade to another. Anybody
transitioning from uh like, junior high to high school this summer.
Anybody doing that, raise your hand, Raise your hand. Anybody
went over there, anybody else or anybody transitioning from high
school to college this summer, transition of high school to college.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Put your hands up, amen. Amen. Let's pray for those people.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Anybody transitioning from college to time to get a job.
Anybody doing that, nobody as usual. Anybody transitioning from single
to married or recently this past year.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
So all right, Amen, Praise God, God bless you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Anybody transitioning from no kids to kid or kids, Yeah, wow,
praise pray for them. Let's lay hands. Let's lay hands. Amen, Amen,
annointly over here too, Praise God. Anybody doing this transition,
transitioning out of raising kids. You're going to the empty
nest season of life.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Put your hands up. We hate you, we hate you.
Put your hands up.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Anyway, Look, summer is a transition season. My wife and
I are in over our heads right now, because we
just had a transition season.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
We just got through a kind of.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Spontaneous, kind of impromptu, kind of like unexpected but very
fast adoption process we did. We just welcomed the brand
new boy into the home. We were so excited. I
want you to meet him. His name is Cody. Here
he is up on the screen.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, seven weeks old.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Oh, I love that boy. Here he is with his
big sister. Next picture, next picture, there they are. Yeah,
he looks cute, but he is demon possessed. And I'll
tell you, I am the worst puppy owner of all
all puppy I am the worst I have been. My
kids they hate me for this. I was a strict,

(03:06):
strict father and I still am. I'm very strict with
my kids. And my wife is begging me. She's like,
can you just take a little bit of that strictness
and to play it to the puppy because I am like,
I'm a millennial parent when it.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Comes to puppies.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Whatever they want, I give them a troll pumped on
the floor, give them a trophy, eating my eating my underwear.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Give him a trophy.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I am like, hands off, no discipline, I don't know
what it is. I just look at that face and
I say, he's perfect the way it is. Don't mess
with it. The only creature in God's creation that does
not need to repent.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Is a puppy. Amen. So we're kind of like it
over it is in a fun way, you know.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
And we're up late at night and I had the
worst I had the worst sermon prep week in a
long time because of that little that little sucker. He
has been robbing us of sleep and time and and
mental capacities.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
But but that's a fun.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Way to being over your But there's gonna be serious
ways that that life brings you to a place where you're.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
In over your head.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
And we're gonna talk about a guy who is in
over his head real fast. In fact, ask Hima sorry
that he became king of Israel following his father David,
at the age of somewhere between twelve and twenty. And
I know it's a large span, but he was a
young man, he was in his teens, and he became.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
King of God's people at the height of their power,
at the height.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Of their prestige, and they were wealthy, and they were blessed,
and they were prosperous, and he takes over from perhaps
the greatest Old Testament hero of all the Old Testament heroes,
King David. His name is synonymous with wisdom. His name
is Solomon. And we're gonna look at a moment where

(04:51):
he acknowledges I'm in over my head, Lord, and I
need wisdom, and so would you stand with me as
we read from this story where Solomon in First King's
chapter three, First King's chapter three, if you got your bibles,
make sure you bring your bibles to church. It's right
after Second Samuel, First King's chapter three, verse one.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Here's what it says.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city
of David until he had finished building his house and
the house of the Lord in the wall around Jerusalem.
The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because
no house had been yet built for the name of
the Lord.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Now this story is very familiar to a lot of people.
This is a Sunday school story.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Solomon loved the Lord walking in the statue to David's
father only a sacrifice and made offerings at the high places,
and the king went to Gibbea into sacrifice. There Verse
five s give ahead at game. And the Lord appeared
to Solomon in a dream by night and said, ask
what I shall give you? In other words, blank check,
blank check. Moment, Solomon, what do you want? And Solomon said,

(05:51):
you have shown great steadfast love to your servant, David
my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness and
righteousness and an uprightness of heart toward you. And you
have kept for him this great and steadfast love and
have given I'm a son to sit on the thrones
to this day. And now, Lord my God, you have
made your servant king in place of David my father,
although I am but a little child, and I do
not know how to go out or come in. And
your servant is in the midst of your people, whom

(06:12):
you have chosen, a great people, too many to be
numbered or counted for a multitude. Give your servant therefore
an understanding mind to govern your people. That I am
a discern between good and evil. For who is I
able to govern this your great people? Now God's response
verse ten, It pleased the Lord that Solomon asked for this,
And God said, to him, because you have asked for this,

(06:34):
and not asked for long life, riches or the life
of your enemies. But instead you have asked for understanding
and discernment. Behold, I now do according to your word. Behold,
I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that
so that none like you has been before you, and
none like you shall arise after you. I give you
also what you have not asked for. Rich is an honor,

(06:57):
so that no king shall compare with you all your days.
And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes
and my commandments, as your father walked, I will lengthen
your days. And Solomon awoke and behold, it was a dream.
And then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the
ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and offered a
burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for
all his servants.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
This is God's word.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Let's pray together, Father, thank you for your word, thank
you for this moment. Thank you for the power of
the Holy Ghost who is in this place with us,
in us, speaking through us. And I pray that he
will have total authority, total control over this moment. May
our hearts be receptive to what you want to say.

(07:39):
May our minds be renewed through your truth, and may
we see Jesus him and him only in his mighty name.
We pray, and everybody said, amen, God, bless you have
a seat. You know, it's one thing to think about
getting to the top of your game.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
It's another thing to get there. It's one thing to think, Wow,
if I only had.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
That opportunity, if I was only adored like that celebrity,
if I only had that kind of company, if I
only had those kind of that kind of family.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Then I would finally be where I want to be,
where I dream to be.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
And it's one thing to think about it, it's another
thing to be there. I think about Whitney Houston, tragic life,
tragic end to a beautiful life, one of the most
beautiful voices I think in human history. I having to
remember that nineteen ninety one Super Bowl when she built
it out, that star spangled banner. Our country was going

(08:36):
just to just started going to war in the Gulf,
and she gets up and she belts that thing and
man blew the It was the I think the one
time in history when the stars spangled banner was better
than the sporting event.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
I mean she was.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Awesome, and she was at the top of a game,
and at twenty eight, she was the world renowned singer,
multiplatinum artist, I mean, the best of the best. Her
voice was so good, she was so talented, they had
a nickname for her. They just called her the voice.
Imagine being called the voice. And then she talked about
this later in Lame. You hit the high note at

(09:08):
twenty eight, that's a hard twenty nine, that's a hard
thirty nine, that's a hard forty nine. Come on, somebody,
you know what I'm talking about. It's one thing to
hit the high note, but when you hit too early.
And she talks about this, she said, the rest of
her life she was trying to hit the high note again,

(09:30):
and unfortunately, drugs, alcohol, an abusive relationship with her spouse,
and all that kind of stuff, and she ended up
drowned in a bathtub.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
I mean, sad, sad story.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
It's one thing to think about being at the top
of your game, or have the opportunity to be at
the top. It's another thing to get there. That's where
Solomon is. Solomon is the tenth born son of King David.
I mean he is anointed king at age twelve, between
twelve and twenty. I mean, talk about being in over
your head and when you you get there, and Solomon

(10:01):
was there, here's what you're gonna need. You're gonna need wisdom.
And some of you think, well, I don't know if
I'm a worthy candidate to get wisdom. You don't know
my past pastor you don't know where.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
I come from. You don't know my story.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
You don't even know where I how I got to
where I am. There's a lot of mishift in my past.
There's a lot of decisions that were made by me
or for me from other people who are bad people.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
And now I'm here and I'm just trying to coast.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
I'm just trying to get through life so that hopefully
when I die, I've done enough for God to.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Be pleased with me.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
And I want to absolve every person of that idea,
because here's how it works in the Kingdom of God.
In every other situation, in every other program of life,
it works this way.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
You do good, you get good, you earn the degree.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
You get the degree, you earn the position, you get
the promotion.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
But in the Kingdom of.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
God, the script is flipped and instead of you earning
your way to the top, God, and it's amazing, Grace gives.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
You your way to the top.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
It's called grace, it's called faith, it's called favor its God.
It's called God's on marriage and favor to people who
don't deserve it. And if you think you need to
be good enough to get wisdom.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Look at Solomon.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I want to talk to you. Take out your
nose because it's important. God's candidate for incredible wisdom. I mean,
his name is synonymous with wisdom. He's the wisest man
that ever lived. And I want you to put this
down in your nose, the God's candidate for incredible wisdom, Solomon.
Can you do me a favor? In parentheses next to Solomon,
can you put the word me, Because if God will

(11:41):
bless Solomon, he can bless you. See, we sanitize these
Bible stories, and we sanitize our Bible heroes. We do
that because we want to teach these stories to kids.
But I think we do a disservice by not giving
our kids the whole story.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Like we do this with Noah all the time.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Noah righteous and he was a good man and he
saved the earth from the flood, and you.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Should be like, Noah, okay, sure.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
And we even decorate our kids' nurseries in the theme
of Noah.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Like, that's really comforting for a young child. Here's your
room decorated.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
After the time when God killed everybody, go to sleep,
Go to sleep.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
And then we don't even tell them about the rest
of the story after the flood. After the flood, what
happens to Noah.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
He gets drunk, he gets naked, and he passes out
in his tent. He is like, that's Noah that God
said was righteous and blameless.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Because God does not pick good people. He picks sinful people.
Do you know why he picks sinful people? Because that's
the only kind of people he could find. And Solomon's
story we sanitized it. Oh, Solomon was a good altar boy,
and he was a nice boy, and he was a
good Christian or not Christian Jew, good Jew. And he
went church every day and he was worshiping God. And

(13:02):
God said, oh, Solomon, you're such a good boy.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Ask for whenever you want, I'll give it to you.
That's not how the story goes down.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
There are three facts about how Solomon was living before
he got wisdom that applied to all of us. Number one,
write it down. Solomon obeyed the Lord incompletely. He was
not nailing the Ten commandments. He was not living perfectly righteous.
So I screper says, there's none righteous, there's none who

(13:32):
does good. We all need salvation. And that was Solomon too.
Look it with me, and verse three of her I'm sorry,
Verse one of second first King three.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
He took Pharaoh's daughter, brought her into the city of David.
Look at this word until until he finished building his
own house and the house of the Lord and the
wallero on Jerusalem.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
To say, what's up with this, Solomon, you know what
he's doing. He's doing what acient kings did in those days.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
You marry your adversary's daughter so that dad doesn't come
and invade his daughter's kingdom. That's not trusting God, that's
trusting you.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Oh and by the way, did you notice the little
word until he brought.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Her into the city of David, his hometown, until he
had the wall built up around Jerusalem. In other words,
he's I only need you here until my fortification is finished,
then you can go live somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Like this is Solomon. So yeah, yeah, yeah, he obeyed
the Lord. But as with all people, he both obeyed
in completely. By the way, there was a law.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
On the books, in the law in Deuteronomy about Israel's kings.
They were not to take many wives for themselves, and
they were not supposed to marry foreign women, and especially
women from Egypt, because that's where Israel left and they
worshiped foreign gods.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
And listen to me, this is not.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
A proof text against interracial marriage, proof text against interfaith marriage.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
All right.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
So there's a lot of people in the old school
shirts and see that's why you should marry only the race. No,
there's only one human race. The scriptures are clear. The
only people that you should marry are people who love
the Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
All right.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
So anyway, anyway, they were not supposed to do that,
because that was putting their trust in political alliances and
not in the God who saved them and would keep them.
Salomon's like you, Salem's like me. He obeyed the Lord,
but incompletely. Number two, Solomon loved the Lord imperfectly. Oh,
he loved the Lord. In fact, that's right there in

(15:36):
the text. He loved the Lord, but not perfectly. Look
look with me verse three, Solomon loved the Lord walking
in the sashes of David's father.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Now that next word is a four letter word. What
is it? Only? Circle? Only? If he got your notes out, circle.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Only he loved the Lord he walked in the sashes
to David totally. You know, whenever you hear somebody saying
I love the Lord only, that's not good, right. Only
he's sacrificed and made made offerings at the high places.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Now what were the high places?

Speaker 1 (16:13):
The high places were the leftover altars from the Canaanites,
who the Israelites drove out of the land, and they
were altars to pagan gods. In fact, on some of
these altars, the pagan Canaanites, they would burn their children
on the altar as a sacrifice to their gods.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
And when God commands.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
His people to go into the linen of Canaan and
conquer it, what do you think Let me ask you,
what do you think God wanted them to do with
those pagan altars?

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Destroy him?

Speaker 1 (16:46):
In fact, in Deuteronomy seven, verse five, God says, this
is how you'll deal with them. You will break down
their altars, you will dash in pieces their pillars and
chop down and others.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
I don't want any of these altars in existence in
the Lamb. Now let me tell you why.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Because God did not want his people just worshiping him
any old way. He wanted them to worship the one
way through the Temple, the Tabernacle, the ark of God's presence,
is where they're supposed.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
To go to worship God and see Him.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
And those those stories of the Old Testament were a
shadow of the New Testament reality that we don't come.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
To God as we want to.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
We come to God as He wants us to. We
come to God through his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
is the one way, one door to the Father.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
And you say that's very exclusive.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
It absolutely is exclusive, but it's tremendously inclusive in that
anyone from anywhere and any religion or lack of religion,
can come to the Father through Jesus Christ. Yeah, what
about those Muslims tell him about Jesus? What about those
Hindus tell him about Jesus? What about those Atheis tell

(17:59):
them about Jesus. It doesn't matter whether they come from.
It matters how they get to God through Jesus. Anyway,
back to the story, he's sacrificing at one of these
pagan altars. He's worshiping God the way he wants. So
that's why I say he loved the Lord, but imperfectly
he walked in the fought ways of his father.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Only. I wonder today, what's your only? What's your only?
Because you got one? Don't look at me like that,
you do.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Oh he loves the Lord only he's got a wandering eye.
Oh she loves the Lord, but her spending is out
of whack. Oh she loves the Lord, but when the
gossip happens around the water cooler, she's right there listening
to it. Oh he loves the Lord, but his golf

(18:47):
game comes first. Sometimes, like you watch out for making
it about your failures instead of God's faithfulness. And I
know that sounds weird because you expect me to rebuke
you for your only, don't you You expect me to say,
stop playing God, stop spending money like that.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Stop with a wandering eye. Listen, everybody's got an only.
I got an only, You got an only.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Praise God for his grace in spite of our onlies
because it reminds me.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
And this is our testimony to the world outside of
the church. Our testimony is not I got my life right,
I got my life together. I know what I'm doing.
I'm serving God completely and you should too. That's not
our message.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
Our message to the world is I'm sick, I'm undone.
I don't know everything I should know, I don't do
everything I should do. But I come to the Savior.
I come to the Savior of God of mankind. I
come to the Healer, and he's changing me, and he's
transforming me.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
The point is, I'm trying.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
To drive this home to you guys that if you
wait until you got it all together to ask God
for wisdom, be waiting forever.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
God gives without finding reproach.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
We talked about that in week one, all right, number
three Solomon worshiped the Lord ignorantly. He worshiped the Lord,
and yet he did not know how he should have
worshiped the Lord. And can I tell you that that's
true for you as well, and it's true for me.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
We all worship God with what we know. We don't
worship God with what we don't know.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
And the gap between what we know and what we
should know is grace.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
God's grace.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Because he the Bible says, he knows we are dust.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
He knows we are frail.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Stop beating yourself up because you don't do things like
you should all the time. Okay, and we're gonna get
to a big point about this at the end, but
just bear with me for one more moment. Verse four,
it says, and the king went to Gibbey and to
sacrifice there, for there was that was the great high place.
And he offered a thousand bird offerings. Okay, a couple
of things. Number one, A thousand bird offerings was overkilled.

(21:06):
I know, we think, oh he's very spiritual. It was overkill.
When you came to worship God in the Old Testament,
you're not had to bring one. You only had to
bring one, and one was required for every worship or
why it was a symbol that everybody comes the same way.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Rich, poor, doesn't matter, come just one offering. And then
it says he went to Gibbeon. Somebody said Gibbeon.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Now I got a little passage for you on your
notes there right below there to give you some context
from a parallel passage about this moment in First Chronicles
chapter one, it says Solomon and all the assembly went
to the high place that was in Gibbeon for the
tent of meeting of God, which Moses, the servant the
Lord had made in the wilderness, was there. So what's
in Gibbeon's the Gibbean. I'll write about this in my book.

(21:50):
Is that tent that Moses met with God in while
Israel wandered through the wilderness. But listen, that tent was
superseded by a more important ten called the tabernacle. The
tabernacle is where the Ark of God was. It was
this gold plated box that held the Ten Commandments, Aaron's

(22:11):
rod and manna from the desert, and it was a
place for God's people to go and meet with the Lord.
That's where they were supposed to go. Because look what
it says here in the last part of First Chronicles one.
But David had brought the Ark of God from curious
Jearum to the place that da had prayed for her
in Jerusalem. So instead of going to where he should
have gone in Jerusalem to the Ark, he goes to

(22:32):
that old school worship system under the wilderness wanderings. What
I'm trying to tell you is, yes, he worshiped the Lord,
but he did not worship the Lord with full knowledge
of how we should worship the Lord. And God still
shows up. And I get excited about texts like this

(22:54):
because this text gives me great hope because it means
that you do have to know all the protocols of
church and worship to have an experience with Almighty God.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
And I love that, you know what I say, I.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Think about this moment Solomon is like those people who
go they are raising the church, and they go and
they live their wild life, you know, during our twenties
and thirties, and then they come back and they kind
of like don't know, they don't know what they should do,
or they've never been to church. And maybe you're here
and you're one of them, and you've never been a
church and you're here of a church for the first
tie and it was like wild horses had to drag
you here, and you don't even know what's going on.

(23:37):
And you watch the people singing and you're like, what
the and they're living in their hands.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
You're like, oh weird.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
And maybe you're like, who is this guy yelling at me,
and why is he wearing jeans? And he's like, I
don't understand.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
This is not the church that I know.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
I don't get And maybe some of you are here,
you're still trying to find First King chapter three.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
You're like, where is that book? I don't know what's
going on. Can I tell you that we are so
glad you are here.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
We want to be the church for people who don't
do church.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
We want to be a church for pagans. Yeah, we
want to be a church for people.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
You know. Cus Lewis said, I'd rather be the prostitute
in the back row ashamed of her sin than the
prig in the fourth row judging her.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
And this is the kind of church we want to be.
And I want to make a deal with you. I've
done this with.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Both services so far they both agree to it.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
I hope you will too. And I think more pagan.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Show will but second Service on Sunday than any of
other church services, So I'm sure I'm in good company.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Well, I want to make a deal with you.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
You bring your pagan friends to church. We will have
the cafe rocking, we will have smiling faces in the
parking lot we will take care of their children. We
will make sure this place is clean, and we will
not ask of them a single thing.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
And we he will make Jesus glory to them. And
then we'll get them into this building. And then I
will slam them over the head with the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Yeah. Serious, they go to work tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Find the worst one, the worst guy.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
You should come to church with me tomorrow. I mean
this week. You should come to church of me.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yes, find that one, because that's look, man, that's how
we all come to God.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Ignorant, don't know, don't have the protocol.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
So I want to sum up this first part of
the message by saying this. If you are the kind
of person who, when you've already written these three things down,
obeys God incompletely, loves God imperfectly, and worships God ignorantly,
you are a candidate for incredible wisdom. Because look at
the next verse, verse five, at gibbeon the Lord appeared

(25:52):
to Solomon and dream by night and said, ask what
I shall give you. That's the whole story. That's not
the same tized Sunday School version. Here's a fact. Write
it down. If I had my life altogether. I wouldn't
need wisdom. If I had all the answers, I wouldn't

(26:13):
need God. And that's why you need God, because he
does have all the answers. He does have all the wisdom.
And we talked in this message serious about how all
the ways did you get to go back to last week?
Talk about that the Word of God, the fellowship and
the communion of the saints and all that stuff. But listen,
don't ever judge God's generosity to you by how well

(26:38):
you have obeyed God. See see, if you start playing
that game is called religion. The Hindus call it karma,
the Muslims call it the Five pillars. You do enough
and maybe God will bless you again. Christianity is the
only one that flips that script. God knows you'll never

(26:58):
be able to do enough, and he'll bless you. It's grace.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
So finding wisdom four things that were done.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Number one, Finding wisdom happens when I confess God's sovereignty
in my situation.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
This is in Solomon's prayer.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
There are four There are four experiences that he kind
of exemplifies for us on how to get wisdom.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
And the first thing that Solomon does is, He says.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
God, you brought me here. God, you were in charge
of the whole process.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
That led me to this moment. Look with me.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Verse six, and Solomon said, you have shown grace, said
fest Love. Skip down and says, and you have kept
for him this great and said fest Love. And verse
seven and now, oh Lord, you have made your servant
king in place of my father.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
You have you have you? God, You did it, God,
you brought me here. In fact, that's such a great line.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
I want you to I'll say, God, you brought me
here on the count of three, one two three. Wherever
you are, God is you don't have to say that stop,
but thank you for that. Wherever you are, I believe
God has been sovereignly leading you to that place.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Okay, now I can hear it in your head. I
hear it already.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
You're saying, oh, no, no, no, not me, no, no no.
There's a lot of sin that got me here. There's
a lot of bad you know, I've made a lot
of bad decisions that got me here. And some of
you are saying this, I'm only here because of a
lot of bad decisions on the part of other people. Hey,
if anybody could have said that it was Solomon pop

(28:43):
Quiz who was Solomon's mama, beth Sheba, the Glenn close
to the Old Testament.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Throw the body in the boiling water.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
I mean this woman, this is the woman that David
committed adultry with, had her husband killed, and then brought him,
brought her into his harem.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
And the offspring of David and beth Sheba is Solomon.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
And by the way, Solomon I already said it was
the tenth born son of David.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
And in those days the kingdom went to the firstborn.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
But David had a problem because the three firstborn sons
died or killed each other, and he was down to
this guy named Adanaija and five other kids. And ad
Anija tries to lead a revolt.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
We talked about this on the Deep End this past week.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
He tried to lead a revolt to become king, establishes
himself as king, and God says.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Nope, I don't work like that. I don't work the
way you were.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
I don't do things according to human intuition.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
I do things my way.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
And I'm skipping over ad Nija, and I'm skipping over
five other suckers, and I'm gonna make Solomon, the son
of Bethsheba, king of my great nation. If anybody could said, God,
you don't know what you are doing. I am not
supposed to be here. I am the result of a
lot of bad experiences and a lot of bad decisions.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
It was Solomon.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
So stop beating yourself up over how you got where
you are and tell God you got me here. Write
this down if you're taking notes, it doesn't matter what
got me here. God has me here, and I'm here.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
For a purpose.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Some of you were saying, oh, I married the wrong person.
I married the wrong person. Yeah, but you did it,
and now you're thinking I need to get divorced. I
need to get divorced.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Now, let me just do.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Some common sense equivalency for you. If stupid you back
then chose them. What makes you think you're not being
stupid right now planning to divorce them. Ooh, I moved
from preaching and I moved into Medland, didn't I right there?

Speaker 2 (31:00):
The point is you're always stupid. There, feel better, all right?
You're always making dumb choices.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
You're always making uninformed, misinformed choices.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Everybody is, you know.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
That's why Ron this vaccine stuff you know, relax, relax,
Let's not vilify the vaxers over the anti vaxers.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Let's let people make their own.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Decisions, and let's let them live with the decisions that
they make. They're making the decision as best for them.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Can we not do that?

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Can we not get into this divide and concrementality. It
doesn't matter what got you here, matters that you are here.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
God has you here for a purpose.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Oh and by the way, it was Nathan and Besheba
who kind of conspired underneath David to make Solomon king
that God had already sovereign at least elected Solomon. But
the point is is that other people made decisions, and
many people made mistakes, and here comes Solomon and he's here.
Stop wasting your time worrying about what you should have
done back then, because you can't do anything about it.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Embrace today. God is sovereign today. God is gonna use
this situation.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
God is gonna use all that stuff for me yesterday
to make me prosperous and purposeful to day number two,
Fighting wisdom happens when I address my own incapacity for
my station. And this is the second thing that Solomon
does in his prayer, I can't do this God. So

(32:24):
the first prayer is God, you brought me here. Second
prayer is God can't do it. And that's exactly what
he says. Look at the last half of verse seven.
He says, I am but a little child. And then
he says, I don't know how to go out or
come in.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
I don't know how to go out or come in.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Did Solomon have a problem with doors? What's that line?
That's a euphemism. It's an ancient euphemism for making war.
It's an ancient saying of being a war strategist. He says,
he says, Lord, I don't know how to make war.
And you got to remember that Solomon's daddy was named David,
and David was the greatest warrior the world had ever seen.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
In fact, he might be the greatest warrior ever in history.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Do you know that David This is shocking to me,
but it's absolutely biblically true. Do you know that David
never lost a single battle, not one.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Not one war.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Even if he was way out numbered, he's still won.
Imagine trying to fill those shoes. It's kind of like
the Patriots right now, what they're going through with Tom Brady.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?
They were gonna fill these shoes right.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Imagine, though you're Solomon, your daddy is the greatest warrior
the world's ever seen. And not just a warrior, a poet,
a musician, a lover, a statesman, a builder. I mean,
talk about living in the shadow. And he says, Lord,
I can't.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
I don't have.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
The first clue on how to fight battles. Now, little
fun fact about Solomon. For as much as David had
to war and make war and battle and be a
military strategist, do you know that in forty years of
his reign, for the entirety of his reign, do you

(34:23):
know that Solomon never once had a battle to face.
He never went to war. His name is from the
Hebrew Shalom, which means peace. David was the man of war.
Solomon was a man of peace. And the point is
the point of Jesus, because Jesus makes war with the

(34:44):
devil at the cross to bring us peace, hallelujah. But
the other thing is is that God had Solomon for
a season of peace after he had David for a
season of war. And here's what I'm telling you, here's
how you apply this to your life. It does not
matter how different you are then wherever you came from.
So dad was really great at building a business and

(35:06):
you're more into art.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Amen, Like, oh, mom was really good with.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
Raising kids and she had sixteen kids and she was
fantastic and she had all his energy, and you're like,
I got one and I'm exhausted. It doesn't matter what
I'm trying to say. Stop trying to measure your life
by where you came from or who came before you.
God had them for that season and you for this season.

(35:36):
This is why Paul says to the Corinthians who were
obsessed with wisdom. What does he say?

Speaker 2 (35:40):
He says, stop deceiving yourselves.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
If you think you were wise by this world's standards,
you need to become a fool to be truly wise,
for the wisdom.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Of this world is foolishness to God.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
In other words, you gotta stop doing stupid measurements as
to how much you know.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Compared to them, compared to that, compared to the world. Whatever.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
And let me just say, on a side note, Christian,
if the world does not think we're crazy in some way,
we might not be serving Christ. And but but the point,
the point is drop your own preconceived notions.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Of what you need to be like and let God
make you a more christ Like version of you.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
I believe this, This needs to happen in so many
people's lives, especially the next gen. Because when I came
into ministry, do you know that one of my biggest
frustrations was I came from the Pentecostal movement and I
was raising a Pentecostal movement, and the pastor would get
there and he would do, you know, prophecies and all
this kind of stuff, and you know, he would do
all this, you know, crazy stuff. I mean it was
good stuff, but it was, you know, kind of crazy.

(36:46):
And I remember thinking, I could never do that. I
don't know if I can do that. And we don't
do kind of like that. Well they did that back then.
We do it differently and and the reality is just
that's just one generation and doing it that way and
another generation doing it this way.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
And by point is set me free. When I realized
that it didn't.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
Have the fate to be someone else, to be what
God had called me to be, set me free.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
And it's going to set you free to wisdom.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Happens number three, finding wisdom when I offer my service
to God for the congregation. Now the congregation word congregation
means God's people, so not necessarily the church building, but
just the church globally.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
You want to find wisdom, Here's how you find wisdom.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
See yourself as a servant of God in whatever situation
you are presently in. Look with me at verse eight,
and your servant circle these words. By the way, your
servant is in the midst of your people, whom you
have chosen, a great people, too many of you number.
Give you your servant an understanding mine that I may

(37:50):
discern between good and evil, For who is able to
govern this your great people.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Not a single moment does Solomon.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
Say, and I'm in the midst of my great people,
and I'm in king and I'm in charge, and I.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Need to know how to lead my people. Not a
single time does he.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
He says, God, this is yours, These are your people,
This is your kingdom, and I am your servant.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
You know what I do. Before I preach, I get.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
On my knees and I say, after I've done prepped
my message, I say, God, these are your people.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
This is your word. This is your church, and I
am your servant. Have your way with it. Just test me.
Free from needing to perform.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
Or put on a good show or present. Well, I
just take that back seat to God. God, you are
in charge. You know that old saying God is my
co pilot. If God is your copilot, change seats. I
don't know how that happened, but that was messed up
right there. Thought he was there to help you. You

(39:01):
thought he was there to be your advisor.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Wrong.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
You are his servant. You are his slave. The Bible
says you are a slave to righteousness. In other words,
my life is not my own. So God, has you here? God,
I can't do it.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
God.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
This is your thing, This is your business. These are
your kids. Some of you are like, yes, thank you,
that's healing right there. They're not mine. I absolve myself.
This is your spouse, this is your marriage, okay. And
some of you are saying, well, I don't serve in

(39:39):
the church. I don't have a church job like you. No, no, no,
you are the church. It's never you are just a
barista or a janitor, or a teacher or a business own.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
You are an.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Ambassador for Jesus Christ right where you are, and God
has you here, and God will give you the wisdom
as you need for where you are. And God is
going to use you as the light of the world
in salty Earth.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
I think about Niemiah. Niemiah was the cup bearer to
the king. The king was not a God of the king.
He was king, assert Sities, king of Persia in the
sixth century of b C. And King Azers.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
He had no faith in God, no respect for the Jews, nothing,
And his cup bearer, the guy who tasted his wine
before he got the wine, was named Neemiah.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
And he was a Jew, and he was God. And
you know, the Bible says that.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
Nehemiah showed up for work one time in a bad mood.
Once he came to give the cup to Nehemiah, and
he didn't look so happy, and it was so shocking
to ad assert sees.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
He said, why aren't you happy?

Speaker 1 (40:48):
And Niemi said, I heard about my people in Israel
and Jerusalem and they are suffering and they are starving,
and they are in distress, and I want to help them.
And he says, well, I'll give you provisions. So I'll
give you chariots I'll give you horses, I'll give you
all the things that you need. Why don't you go
back to your hometown where you love.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
It so much? And why don't you help those people?
A pagan king.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
Blessed the socks off God's servant. Here's why, because for
years he showed up with that cup with a smile
on his face.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
He said, I'm just here to serve.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
I wonder who here is shutting the doors to God's
opportunities in their life, because all you do is piss
and moan about your life.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
All you do is, oh this rotten job, Oh, this
routting place, Oh, these people I don't Oh these kids,
Oh this spouse. Oh oh, I mean you are the
eore of existence.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
You need to turn that frown upside down. Man. You
need to fake it till you feel it. You need
to just show up and smile.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
Well, of the greatest books I ever read was How
to Win Friends and Influence People people. And it's not
it's not a Christian book, but you know what he
says is one of the best things in life.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
You can do. Just smile.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Smile.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
People like it when you smile, doors open when you
smoke it. Some of you walk through life.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Nobody likes you in this because this is how you
approach them.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Nay, I'm sure you're gonna hurt me, and you wonder
why you're all alone? Hey, you blame God or you
blame the church. I always gonna kick out of people.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
They leave the church, they don't come back for like
four weeks, they don't reach out, they don't have a
small group, they're not involved, and then.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Where are the words who hurt them? Because we didn't
reach out, we didn't say where were you. There's a
lot of people in this church.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
If you don't make an effort to come and get involved,
don't expect us to know who you are.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
The point is, I don't even know how I got here.
That's the point. The point is, serve God where you are.
What is Paul says? What is Apollos first Corinthia, s.
Three five? What is? Paul servants? That's what I am.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
I'm a servant. Why shout you write this down? Because
this is a really good point. When you embrace a
serving God mentality, you always succeed because God never fails
and what he does. I'm serving God here. I'm on
the winning team. Hey, some of you are freaked out

(43:33):
about America. You're freaked about the world. You're freaked about
this about You're freaked about out about.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
This post COVID thing.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
You're freaked out about how the government is starting to
encroach upon our liberties and take away our right and
you're freaked out about all this.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Watch this, watch this. I just go to the end
of the book. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, here we go.
Here we go, end of the book.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
Ready, Jesus wins hallelujah, it's.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Already written down. I don't know. Don worry about that.
Come on somebody anyway. Number four.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Finally, when you find wisdom when you enter into God's
presence through salvation. When you enter into God's presence through salvation. Now,
I'm gonna be real clear here, some of you will
never have wisdom because you've never surrendered your life to Jesus.

(44:30):
You still want to do it your way. Some of
your here saying I don't want all that religious stuff.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Neither do I.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
I already talked about religion. Religion is when you think
you got to do it to get the goodies from God.
That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about
God's grace for unworthy sinners. So when Solomon awakes, the
last thing that happens in this pastge verse fifteen. And
Solomon awoke and it was a dream. Then he came
to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the Covenant

(44:59):
of the Lord, offered up burn offerings, peace offerings, and
made a feast.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
For all of his servants.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Remember, at the beginning of the episode, Solomon had been
at Gibbeon where there was a tent of meeting, and
he wakes up and he realizes, I got to go
to be where God is. And the tabernacle was the
way that God's people in the ancient world would enter in.
They would offer sacrifice, and they would go in and
they would worship the Lord, and his presence dwelt above
the ark of the Covenant.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Symbolism for us that Jesus is that true arc of
God's presence.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Jesus is that final tabernacle that brings us into the
presence of God. Jesus is the final sacrificial offerings that
washes away our sins and makes.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Us holy before God.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
By the way, Jesus is the final great high priest
who ministers before the Father on our behalf. In other words,
if you want to walk in wisdom, walk in the
presence of God.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
And I can't bring you into the presence of God.
And this band that's going to be behind me in
a moment, they can't.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Bring you to the present God, and this church can't
bring you to the President of God. There's only one
king who can bring you into the presence of God,
and his name is Jesus. He's the true Solomon, the
wisest man who ever lived, who oversees peace for our souls.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
And brings us triumphantly into Heaven. Give your life to
him and you'll have wisdom the world won't understand. Stand
with me. Value has close your eyes.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
Because this is the moment for some of you to
say yes to that wisdom that is only available through
faith in Jesus.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
But you got to receive it. It's an offer, but
you've got to say yes. Here's the deal. Every single
one of us is born sinful. We do sin, we
we walk away from God.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
But God and his grace has sent Jesus, the great
shepherd of the sheep, who goes out and brings us
back home.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
But you got to say yes.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
You got to stop wrestling out of the arms of
the shepherd, and just give up and surrender and say
yes to Jesus