Solomon's Choice

If you got your Bible, 1 Kings chapter 3. 1 Kings chapter 3 is probably the most familiar event in scripture that we talk about when it comes to Solomon The time in which he asks the Lord for wisdom and not for wealth But in asking God for wisdom, he receives wealth So we think, okay, we'll ask the Lord for wisdom and we'll get rich Well, it doesn't really work that way We need wisdom on how to spend the wealth we have and then God will determine what to do next But he asks for wisdom and he does this at a very early time in his life

Most commentators would tell you that he's around 20 years of age in 1 Kings chapter 3 He dies early on in his early 60s and he reigns for 40 years as king over Israel So he's around 20 years of age and he asks the Lord for wisdom He makes a very wise choice And early on in Solomon's life, he displays great character, probably more so than any other time in his kingship But early on, there is this supreme acute awareness of what it means to walk with God and to follow God and to live for God

And so when you look at this man's life, you begin to realize this man exemplifies some of the key qualities of leadership at a very young age And yet, as time goes on, and we will see this, and tonight we will see the seeds of the setbacks in Solomon's life Even though we ask the Lord for wisdom, there are these seeds that slowly begin to develop in his life We can begin to see how these seeds set his life back that lead him into sin and ultimately the sadness at the end of his kingship and of course the division of the nation of Israel

But tonight you'll be able to see how that all begins to unfold before you It's unfortunate that when you get older in life, you tend not to be as vigilant and as diligent in your taking care of the inner man You ever be as disciplined as you were sometimes when you were younger And Solomon is an example of that Very early on, there was vigilance in walking with God There was a diligence about his life He'd write about that, right? Proverbs 12, 27, man's most precious possession, his diligence He wrote about it, but he didn't maintain that diligence throughout his kingship

And so as you begin to see this man's life and the things he writes about early on, if he would adhere to those words later in life, then maybe some of the things wouldn't have taken place that did as he grew older Tonight we're going to read verses 1 to 14 of 1 Kings chapter 3 Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem

The people were still sacrificing on the high places because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there for that was the great high place Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar In Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night and God said, ask what you wish me to give you

Then Solomon said, you have shown great loving kindness to your servant David, my father, according as he walked before you in truth and righteousness and a brightness of heart towards you And you have reserved for him the great loving kindness that you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day Now Lord your God, my God, excuse me, you have made your servant king in place of my father David Yet I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in

Your servant is in the midst of your people, which you have chosen a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted So give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil for who was able to judge this great people of yours It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing God said to him, because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice

Behold, I have done according to your words Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, said there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, said there will not be any among the kings like you all your days If you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days Five things I want you to see this evening The first one deals with Solomon's consecration

And then I want you to be able to see God's revelation, and then Solomon's petition, God's gratification, and then Solomon's satisfaction Okay, it begins with Solomon's consecration Solomon is interesting to note that he has mentioned nearly 300 different times in the Old Testament That's a lot of times He's mentioned some 12 times in the New Testament For instance, he is mentioned in Matthew chapter 1 in the genealogy of the Messiah He is mentioned in Matthew chapter 6 as an example of splendor In Matthew chapter 12 and Luke 11, he's cited as a model of wisdom

He's identified as the great builder of the temple in Acts chapter 7 verse number 47 His father David, King David, is recognized as the ideal leader, the ideal king In fact, he is the standard by which all the kings are measured And yet, Solomon is never pointed to as a great or godly leader in Scripture. I find that very interesting because he was a great leader In fact, there was more peace under his rule than any other ruler in Israel And he was a very wise man He was a very righteous man He understood what it meant to lead wisely

And so as we have gone through some of the characteristics in the first couple of chapters of Kings, looking at his integrity and his ministry, looking at the mercy that he has shown to those who have gone against him, looking at the kind of life of loyalty that he has exemplified, and going through the book of Proverbs and showing you what he's written about those qualities, we have seen a man who exemplifies great leadership skill Great leadership skill In fact, you can take your sons and daughters through the book of Proverbs and build leaders based on what Solomon says about leadership

You can write a book about leadership based on Solomon's lifestyle, Solomon's organizational skills, Solomon's administrative skills There was probably no administrator greater than Solomon So he had leadership qualities, but nobody points to him as a great leader. I think he was. I think he exemplifies many qualities that when we look to him, we can learn so very, very much about how to raise young men to be strong leaders He learned from the best king He was in the palace with the greatest king And so he would learn from his father, David, and he would take a hold of those things

He would write about those things And yes, he did sin And that's obvious in our text this evening, as he begins to do things that will cause him great detriment in the future This man, Solomon was a peacemaker His name means what? Man of peace He had another name other than Solomon given to him by Nathan What was that name? Anybody know? It was our very first sermon for the prophet Nathan The Lord named him Remember? Yes Second Samuel chapter 12, verses 24 and 25, Jedidiah Remember that name? Oh yeah No, you don't Okay Beloved of the Lord Remember that? That's what his name means

Beloved of the Lord David named him Solomon because David and Bathsheba were at peace with God Right? And through the coming of Solomon, there was great peace in their lives So they named him the man of peace God told Nathan to name him Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord, because the Lord loved Solomon So he had two names, the man of peace and beloved of the Lord And as the man of peace, he would bring peace to the land And one of the ways he would do that was through political alliances In fact, his political progress led to his spiritual digress or regress

Okay? Sometimes we can become so politically active, we become spiritually inactive, more so than we like to think Because of his political alliances, by marrying the daughter of the king of Egypt, see, what that did was give peace between Israel and Egypt And many would say that was a good thing This was his first wife First of another 699 yet to come Okay? But this was the seeds of a setback And those of you who are politically astute, be careful of the seeds of setback. I'm not saying you should not be aware of what's happening politically around you

You should be. I'm not saying you shouldn't vote You should vote. I'm not saying you shouldn't be aware of what's going on in Washington You should But be careful about becoming so ingrained in that, that it takes you from the things that truly matter The gospel of Christ and the eternal salvation of people's lives Just be careful Because this was the first seed that was sown in Solomon's rulership that led him down a path of tremendous setback that led to his sin and ultimate sadness Simply because as a man of peace, he was seeking to make peace

And remember what was said of Solomon in, I want to say First Chronicles, Second Chronicles. I'm trying to think I remember where it was. I can't remember now But David called him the man of peace because that's what he was And as he began to build that temple, it was supposed to be a central focus of peace Man being able to understand his peace with the living God And so Solomon would develop these political alliances with different nations Remember, remember Israel in first Samuel chapter eight said, we want a king like all the other nations have a king

Remember that? And of course they had the first king was King Saul But this is their desire We want to be like all the other nations We want to have Kings like all the other nations, not knowing the implications of that for them as a nation themselves But all this would begin to lead to the division ultimately of the nation of Israel, the kingdom itself, which would lead to many other devastating things in the nation So it's important for us to realize what's happening in Solomon's life And this is injected here to set the tone for what's going to happen later on

And it says very carefully these words that he had formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, King of Egypt and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David Now you would ask the question, why would he do that? Why would he do that? Because as you recall, the Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy, and I'm going to refer this many times over the course of our study, we already have in Deuteronomy 17, it says in verse number 14, when you entered the land, which the Lord, your God gives you and you possess it, this is Moses speaking and live in it

And you say, I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me See, the Lord already knew they were going to say that Sure enough, that's what they did in first Samuel chapter eight You shall surely set a king over you, whom the Lord, your God chooses one from among your countrymen You shall set his king over yourselves You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countrymen Moreover, he should not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses Since the Lord has said to you, you shall never again return that way

He should not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away, nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself Moses already set the tone for the king of Israel before there was ever a king, before Saul ever came on the scene, before David ever came on the scene But make sure you don't multiply horses Make sure you don't multiply wives But Solomon does He does do that And yet in the very same section, he asks for wisdom God is pleased and God gives him more than wisdom He gives him riches

So how do you rationalize that? How does a man who, as it goes on to say in verse number 18, now shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priest It should be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart not be lifted up and so forth So Solomon knows this

Presumably Solomon's doing this, right? So why is it then when he, when he reads this and writes this, that he begins then to multiply wives for himself, and he begins to multiply horses for himself And those of you who go to Israel with me will go to go to Megiddo, on the top of Megiddo, all these different stables that that Solomon had built for his horses Why would he do this if he knows what the word of the Lord says? Let me ask you a question

When you come on Sundays and on Wednesdays and you hear the word of the Lord and you know what it says, do you always do what it says? You don't, do you? You don't always obey everything God says, or you want to, but you don't always do so And the Lord puts us in here to help us gain perspective Solomon is not a perfect man David wasn't a perfect man, right? They were sinful men, but God had shown grace and mercy to these men

And even when you go to offer up sacrifices and to dedicate yourself to the Lord, because they're going to go to Gibeon, which is about five to six miles northeast of Jerusalem, and they're going to go and offer sacrifices there And if you read First Chronicles, you realize, which is the corresponding passage to this one, they take with them the chief officers, the officials, they take with them the common men, and they all go up to offer sacrifices to the Lord, thousands of them, because they want to dedicate themselves to the Lord

So here is Solomon marrying a foreign woman, right? And going up and offering sacrifices to the Lord And God still comes to him and asks him, commands him, asks for me what you wish that I may grant it to you And he does in a very humble manner And God grants it to him and gives him much more than that To show you that so many times that God blesses in spite of us, not because of us Sometimes we can get to the point where we think, well, if I do this and God will do this, and if I do that, then God will do that

But God blesses us so many times in spite of all of our sin, because He knows our frame He knows we're weak He knows we're but dust And God is merciful and kind and gracious And I'm glad that this is in here to show us the goodness of God It doesn't mean that we can just go off and do whatever we want to do and say, you know, hopefully the Lord's going to bless me anyway That's not the attitude That wasn't Solomon's attitude He truly was seeking the political alliance

He was seeking to live out his name, the man of peace, to bring the nation into the realms of peace, so that it would cease from conflict and from war with the surrounding nations That was his desire And so they go up to Gibeon, and this is Solomon's consecration He leads the nation in a worship service He leads the nation to dedicate themselves to the Lord He's the king He's doing what kings do by modeling what it means to honor and glorify the name of the Lord, and they offer burnt offerings

And when you do what God wants you to do, okay, by worshiping Him, God always responds by revealing to you exactly what He wants you to do That happens That's what happens here From Solomon's consecration comes God's revelation God is pleased with Solomon He's 20 years of age He's beginning at a very young age of leading the nation to honor God, to worship God And so in verse number 5, it says very simply, in Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon Now, God appears to Solomon twice This is the first time, okay? And we'll do it later on in chapter 9 Appears to him in a dream

He appeared to Abraham in a dream, Abimelech in a dream, Jacob, Laban, Joseph, Pharaoh, Nehemiah, Daniel, Samuel, excuse me, Solomon He appeared to them in a dream And he asked them, commands them, ask me, ask what you wish me to give you Isn't that great? Ask what you want me to give you Imagine God saying that to you and me He does It says it this way Ask, and it will be given unto you Seek, you will find Knock, it should be open to you For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds And to him who knocks, it will be open

What man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, you will not give him a snake, will you? If you then be an evil and know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? God wants you to ask He wants you to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking God wants you to come to him He wants you to ask him James says, you have not because you do not ask That's pretty simple, isn't it? But he says, but when you do ask, you ask to consume it upon your own lusts

That's another problem You see, when God goes to Solomon and says, ask from me what you wish, I want you to come to me and ask me Eight times the word ask is used in this text because God wants us to come to him and ask him Ask him And that's what Solomon is going to do But God's going to reveal himself to him because he wants Solomon to understand he's available He is here He is the true king of Israel, the Lord God himself He wants Solomon to rest in him, to trust in him, to believe in him And we don't need dreams anymore We have the word of the Lord

Psalm 119.24, your testimonies are my delight for they are my counselors, right? God's word gives us counsel God's word tells us what to ask for And God wants us to ask from him the things pertaining to his word He wants us to do that And so the revelation comes and says, Solomon, ask, ask And Solomon was youthful He was following the greatest king ever Second king of Israel, God's first choice as king of Israel and the greatest king ever in Israel's history And Solomon was following his father Not easy standards to fill

Knowing how much the people loved David and he was following in his father's footsteps, it would not be easy The Lord knows that So the Lord wants Solomon to rest in his God, to trust in his God, to believe in his God, to come to him and ask So he appears to him in a dream and says to him, ask And so you move from Solomon's consecration to God's revelation to Solomon's petition His prayer is brief, but pointed and speaks of true humility It wasn't like, oh, it's okay, God, I got this It's all right It's all right

Not a problem. I can do this thing. I was raised by my father, King David. I got it No, he mentions in his prayer, he's, he's but a little child He also mentions that, that the nation of Israel is a great nation and they are God's people And, and, and that's really unique because you see as, as a humble servant of the Lord, he knows these are not his people They're God's people, right? So it's important to realize that

And, and Solomon knows that, that this is his nation, his people, and therefore he wants to be able to, to, to relate to them in a way that he can lead them properly because the accountability is so high, so high He recognized that That's why humility is a, is a hallmark of his early ministry because he actually was a humble, honest person In the book of Proverbs, several times over and over again, he writes about humility Proverbs 15, 33, before honor comes humility Said three times, says it three times specifically in the book of Proverbs

He knows that honor will come when humility is that which is uppermost in the heart of man That's why God opposes the proud, gives grace to the humble, and therefore he realizes that and he speaks to it in the book of Proverbs because it's a key component, a key quality of those who, who lead God's people Well, he is, he knows that he's leading this great multitude of people that are great in number They are God's people and he's 20 years old He's but a little child He sees himself in a very humble manner

He said, I just need a wise, discerning heart to make judgments with justice. I need to know how to govern your people What a request. 20 years old God says, ask whatever you want, whatever you want This is what he chooses Now we already know he's a wise man because his, his father David has already told him he's wise because David has seen that quality in his life He's already made wise decisions up to this point, right? We've seen that in his dealings with, with Joab and Adonijah and Shimei

So he's a very wise man already, but he recognizes the fact that there needs to be more wisdom that he needs to attain in order to accomplish the great task before him So he asked the Lord for, for wisdom Now, if you read over in First Chronicles chapter one, it says in verse number 10, he says, give me now wisdom and knowledge Okay Wisdom and knowledge in, in, in, in first Kings It's all about understanding in, in first Chronicles It's all about wisdom and knowledge

And remember in the book of Proverbs, there's a huge emphasis on wisdom, understanding and knowledge, right? And he says, Solomon does Proverbs 24, three and four by wisdom, a house is built by understanding is established And my knowledge, all the rooms are filled with precious and pleasant riches, right? And, and, and, and they're, they're all one, but all distinctly different Remember, we talked to you about this, that, that, that wisdom is the application of truth to life That understanding is the verification of that truth to life

And knowledge is the clarification of that truth concerning life In other words, wisdom applies truth It does it through representation and characterization That is I'm representing what is read, what is being taught, what I've learned, and it becomes the character of my life Understanding is that verification of truth That is, it's that one aspect that demonstrates truth and knowledge clarifies that truth through instruction and through interpretation and through explanation See, and so Solomon is asking for, for wisdom and understanding heart knowledge And all that comes from God

He writes about it in Proverbs chapter two, chapter two, verse number six He says these words for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. A fascinating study is just to read through the book of Proverbs and contrast the words, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding the repetition of the words, how they're used interchangeably, but yet they're all distinctly different to some degree And he talks about wisdom And then he goes on to say in, in a, in chapter, chapter three about wisdom

He says her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold She's more precious than jewels and, and nothing you desire compares with her long life is in her right hand and her left hand are riches in honor Her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her and happy are all those who hold her fast In other words, he writes to his son and says, you want to be happy in life, get ahold of wisdom, understand wisdom because wisdom applies truth to life

And the happiest man is the one who takes that truth and lives it out And then he says this same chapter, chapter three of Proverbs, the Lord, by wisdom founded the earth by understanding, he established the heavens by his knowledge, the deeps were broken up So he uses the word wisdom, understanding and knowledge Again, he goes on in chapter four and says, acquire wisdom, acquire understanding, do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth Do not forsake her She will guard you Love her She will watch over you The beginning of wisdom is this acquire wisdom

And with all your acquiring, get understanding, prize, wisdom, and she will exalt you. I mean, you can't say enough about wisdom, understanding and knowledge because everything about life centers for what God's word says, because wisdom, knowledge, understanding proceed from the mouth of the Lord He writes about this early on in his kingship He asked the Lord for wisdom He values wisdom He values the knowledge to understand God's people He values the understanding in his heart to be able to discern between good and evil That's what he wants He could have asked for wealth, wealth

He's going to get that anyway He doesn't know he's going to get it, but he's going to get it anyway See, I know we're sitting here thinking about if I ask for wisdom, will I be as wealthy as Solomon? Probably not because the Lord knows the motive of your heart, right? He knows why you're asking for wisdom He wasn't asking for wisdom thinking in the back of his mind, wow, if I ask for wisdom, God will give me all kinds of wealth and riches So maybe I can trick him into thinking I really have a humble heart. I want wisdom God knows your heart He truly wanted to be a wise, discerning king

That was at the base of his petition He wanted truly to have the wisdom of the Lord God of Israel So what happens next? Well, it tells us 1 Kings chapter 3 It says, verse 10, it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing Wow God commands him, ask He asks, and God is pleased Have you ever thought about the things that truly please the Lord? And do you ask and do the things that please the Lord? This brought great joy to the heart of the Lord Now, did the Lord know he was going to ask for wisdom? Yes, he did

The Lord knows everything, right? He knows what's on your lips before they're ever there He knows in your mind before you can ever think it He knows everything But the Lord was extremely pleased He pleased the Lord Remember 2 Corinthians 5, 9, what did Paul say? We make it our ambition to be well-pleasing to the Lord. I wonder if that's your ambition We all have ambitions, right? We all have aspirations We're all driven by something Every one of us are We're driven by what's on the inside And on the inside of the apostle Paul was this innate desire to please the Lord God of Israel

Now, Solomon didn't think back and say, if I ask this, the Lord will be pleased He'll be happy So I'm going to ask this That wasn't in his mind Truly, he was a humble servant He called himself the servant of the Lord Several times in his petition, he sees himself as a slave of the God of Israel Very humble manner He sees himself as a lowly child Very humble and honest perspective of his own life Okay? He wasn't overinflated with his own ego He wasn't, you know, I'm the king's son and I'm next in line to be the king. I deserve this None of that's there

True humility. I just need wisdom, discernment, understanding, knowledge Lord, I need you to give me that That's what I need because this is your people It's like a father saying, Lord, I need wisdom on how to raise my kids because they're not my kids They're your kids But see, we don't ask that because we think they're our kids, right? News for you They're not They're gifts from the Lord only for a short while They're not forever Okay? They're gifts for a while And so you say, Lord, give me wisdom to raise your kids Give me knowledge on how to teach your kids

Give me an understanding heart on how to judge and discern my kids Ever asked that? Lord, they're your kids You gave them to me as a gift. I want to do it right. I don't want to mess it up This is Solomon Except he's got, you know, a couple of million Jews in Israel He's ruling as God's kids And so he's asking God for discernment and wisdom And we'll see in our very next lesson with two women and a baby, right? And whose baby is it? And Solomon's wisdom is put to the test in a very unique and special way But he asked the Lord for wisdom God's pleased

You know what? Every one of us should have as our ambition to please the Lord And it begins when we start asking God for wisdom Because if we know this is what pleases the Lord, and Paul says we make it our ambition to please Him who is invisible, then we say, well, we know it pleases the Lord because it tells us right here in 1 Kings 3 that this really brought pleasure to the heart of the Lord We ask the Lord for wisdom And wisdom is something we should all aspire to, to know the God of wisdom And from his mouth comes wisdom, knowledge, and understanding

Paul says in Colossians 1 10 that he wanted those in Colossae to walk worthy, worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing Just a little food for thought If you're a man pleaser, you'll never be a God pleaser If you like to please those around you, if you're in one of those people who loves all the affirmation and praise a man, and that's because you're a man pleaser, you're going to have a hard time pleasing God Because you can't do both In Galatians 1, Paul says, if I seek the pleasure of man, I forfeit the pleasure of God Okay? So if I'm seeking to please man, I can't please God

In fact, over in 1 Thessalonians 2.4, Paul said of himself that he spoke not as pleasing men, but God which tries the hearts He wasn't there to please those in Thessalonica, but to please God, because he was the one who tried the heart In Colossians 3 22 and Ephesians 6 6, Paul says that we are to serve our masters, our masters, not with eye service, as men pleasers

Bible has to say a lot about pleasing men versus pleasing God. I think that every one of us needs to kind of sit back and take a look at ourselves and say, you know, am I doing what I'm doing so that I can have the pleasure of man? So that people around me are pleased with me? Or am I here to truly please the Lord? Now, that doesn't mean that you could care less what people think about the things you do That's not the point

Right? The point is, do you want to please God more than anything else? And if you do, if you do, when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him Right? Isn't that what the Bible tells us? Sure it is We must make it our ambition to be well pleasing to the Lord This was God's gratification Completely pleased with Solomon's petition because God came to him in a dream through revelation

He did that, I believe, primarily because he didn't appear to Solomon anytime before this, and he could have, right? But he did it when the king would lead the nation in consecrating their lives to the Lord He did that when the king would lead the people into a closer relationship with the Lord God revealed himself to him He said, ask. I want you to ask He does And then I want you to see Solomon's satisfaction Look what it says This is quite interesting First Kings 5.12 says, the Lord gave Solomon wisdom just as he promised him

If God promised you something, you're getting it, right? And God promised him wisdom, and he gave it to him But have you ever thought about the extent of that wisdom? First Kings 4.29, God gave Solomon wisdom even as the sand that is on the seashore Are you kidding me? That's just incredible He gave him wisdom as the sand on the seashore That's quite incredible Not only that, have you ever thought about the excellence of his wisdom? It says, I'm sorry, First Kings 4.30, Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East country and all the wisdom of Egypt

He was wiser than any man Wow The wisdom excelled It says, there was no king like thee before thee, neither after thee shall arise like unto thee in wisdom First Kings 3.12 King Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in wisdom Second Chronicles 9 verse number 22, he was wiser than all other men Isn't it interesting? God is never stingy when he gives Never stingy Huh That's your wisdom? Oh, okay Here, your wisdom will be as the sand of the seashore Whoa

That's a lot of wisdom, right? How does one little pea brain accomplish all that? But God gave him all this supreme wisdom because God's gifts aren't stingy God wants to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ever ask or think And that's what God wants to do God wants to do that in our lives as well Not just Solomon's life Problem is we don't ask for the right things We go to God and ask, we ask for wealth, right? Need more money And God says, no, you need to ask me for wisdom on how to spend your money That's your problem You don't need more money

You need better wisdom on how to spend your money And if you have wisdom on how to spend your money, guess what? You got more money See, but we think we need more money That's not the case And yet, Solomon asked for wisdom God gives him more money Gives him more wealth First Kings 4 says this about the evidence of God's wisdom in his life Verse number 32 First Kings 4 verse number 32 He spoke 3000 Proverbs Songs are 1005 He spoke of trees from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even to the hyssop that grows on the wall

He spoke also of animals and birds and creepy things and fish. I couldn't tell one fish from another. I can't tell one insect from another. I can't tell one bird from another. I can't, I don't know anything about flowers. I don't even grow flowers in my yard. I don't even have real grass in my yard. I have artificial turf in my yard You see, I don't know anything about that stuff, but he knew about everything That's how much wisdom he had With all these songs, with all these Proverbs See, God had granted him so much wisdom

And then it says in First Kings 434, there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all the kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom Everybody had heard of it So everybody comes They want to glean from the man's wisdom Imagine that God just over abundantly gave to him what he asked for, because what he asked for pleased the Lord When you ask for that, which pleases the Lord, there are not enough truckloads to hold the blessings that God gives There just isn't Note this, God goes beyond that and says to Solomon, these words, I have also given you what you haven't asked for

That's just like the Lord, right? You ask for something, he says, you know what? I'm going to give you something you didn't ask for That's what God does He says, both riches and honor Can you imagine that? Both riches and honor. I know, I know you didn't ask for this, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. I'm going to throw a little icing on the cake. I'm going to throw a little icing on your wisdom. I'm going to give you riches and honor And when you look at the riches that he receives, the fortune that he receives

Second Chronicles 1.12, I will give you riches and wealth such as none of the Kings have had that have been before you, neither shall come after you Second Chronicles 9.22, King Solomon passed all the Kings of the earth into riches First Kings 9.28, 420 talents of gold came to Solomon The weight of that gold, First Kings 10.14, that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, which reaches into the billions of dollars in our day Can you imagine that? God says, you know what? I'll give you wisdom. I'm also going to give you billions of dollars Unbelievable

This is Solomon's satisfaction It goes beyond anything he could ever begin to imagine And it says, I will also give you honor Did he have honor? Yes, the Queen of Sheba We'll read about her in chapters yet to come But why she would come and receive wisdom from Solomon But God does say this He does say this First 40, if you walk in my ways, give me my statutes and commandments As your father, David walked, I will prolong your days. I'm going to give you fame. I'm going to give you fortune and I will give you a future

The fame and fortune are going to come, but the future is only going to be evident if you keep my statutes and walk in my ways And unfortunately, he only lived to his early 60s because he didn't keep his statutes and walk in his ways And that's because in verse one of our chapter, he marries a foreign wife And I believe it's there just to help us keep perspective It's a lesson for all of us to learn God's going to bless in spite of us more so than because of us

But God doesn't want us to be obedient to him and follow his word and promises long days, long life, quality of life to follow and obey his word And yet, and yet we all need to be careful about the things that we're doing in life that are contrary to what God's word actually does teach us to do For he will not only marry foreign wives, he will marry many foreign wives And then he will begin to accumulate all kinds of horses

When his father said in Psalm 20 verse number seven, that some trust in horses and some in chariots, but you are to trust in the name of the Lord, your God, they shall be brought down to fall, but you will rise up and stand firm Do not trust in horses and chariots And yet he would multiply his horses for himself and multiply his chariots for himself And the seeds of that were sown in the very same chapter He asked the Lord for wisdom and God is pleased It's a warning to all of us that, you know, we go to church and worship the Lord because we want to honor the Lord, want to serve the Lord

We truly want to be used by the Lord And yet there is this besetting sin in the back recesses of our mind that we just can't help but commit And we do, we commit it Believing that we're going to ask forgiveness and God will forgive because he does And God is graceful and he shows his mercy toward us all he does But that sin not repented of begins to multiply The seeds of setback are sown Sin envelops to a greater degree and sadness encompasses my life That's what happened to Solomon's life But at this point, he pleases the Lord At this point, he worships the Lord

At this point, he wants to lead the people in the right direction And maybe that's why you're here tonight You want to lead your family in the right direction You want to be the leader of God. I want you to be in the workplace or in your school wherever your sphere of influence is You really want to do the right thing You ask the Lord for wisdom, discernment, understanding, and knowledge that you might make wise choices And God grants me that wisdom Like God wants to grant you that wisdom and me that wisdom But we always need to keep in check what's actually always happening

Asking God to search our hearts, try our hearts, see if there'd be any wicked way in us that he might lead us in the way of righteousness, in the way of everlasting life May God give us the grace to ask those right questions, the wisdom to ask those questions, and then to live enlightened Let me pray with you Father, we thank you for tonight So much to cover, so little time to do it But we are blessed to be able to see what's going on in Solomon's life. I pray that all of us would learn from from his life All those who hear what he says adopt the qualities of leadership that he portrays

At the same time, Lord, may we learn because his life is on the pages of scripture Ours is not We can read about all the mistakes that he made, all the sins he commits People can't read that about us We can read about Solomon But it's there for us to learn, to grow Pray that we do that, that we honor you May every one of us, Lord, seek to make it our ambition to be pleasing to you in every area of our life for the glory of your name We pray in Jesus, our coming King's name Amen.