SPEAKER_01: This is fun.
SPEAKER_01: We are about the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: We're about the will and the ways of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is everything to us in this church.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting with us, we're so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: If you are visiting, we have been going through this whole year of walking slowly through the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And the first few months we went through creation story all the way through Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And then we spent a few months looking at the era of the patriarchs.
SPEAKER_01: And we looked at, yes, we brought patriarchs into church, and you know, but the era of Moses and Jacob and Joshua and Israel, the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: And then the last few months, this last month and for the next few months, we're looking at the era of kings.
SPEAKER_01: And what we're doing is we're following a timeline of the Old Testament that shows how God created everything, how the patriarchs were there setting the identity, the DNA of what Israel was to be, and then how they rejected that and wanted a human king.
SPEAKER_01: And we're looking at what this era of human kings looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And before long you'll see it leads to exile.
SPEAKER_01: And for the last few hundred years before Jesus came, there was no king, there was no ruler.
SPEAKER_01: And this is kind of the timeline of scripture that as as we look at from Genesis all the way to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to look through this series.
SPEAKER_01: What does God have to say to us in our lives today with his living word that is true and alive and applicable to us?
SPEAKER_01: And what does the Old Testament tell us about the one who was to come, the greater king, the great prophet, the great I am, the one who is above it all.
SPEAKER_01: It gives us these breadcrumbs along the story.
SPEAKER_01: So last week we we covered Solomon, how Solomon had built the temple for God and a seven-year project, just incredible wealth.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon at this time was regarded the wisest king to ever live, and he had more wealth than anybody else, and he built this house for the Lord that David, his father, wanted to do, but God would not let him.
SPEAKER_01: So he built this house, and we looked last week at the dedication of the temple, how the glory of the Lord came down, and it was the weight, it was the revelation of who the Lord was, came down.
SPEAKER_01: The priests couldn't stand, they couldn't minister.
SPEAKER_01: There was such an awe of who the Lord was as it came into the room and the glory of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then Solomon prayed this incredible prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, if the story ended there, wow, put a ribbon on it, sell it to Hallmark.
SPEAKER_01: What a story.
SPEAKER_01: It is there.
SPEAKER_01: And he, I mean, in his prayer, he's declaring the most incredible things.
SPEAKER_01: I want to read you one verse from chapter 8, 1 Kings chapter 8, verse 61.
SPEAKER_01: He was praying, let your heart therefore be wholly true.
SPEAKER_01: Holy W-H-O-L-L-Y.
SPEAKER_01: Completely wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments as at this day.
SPEAKER_01: He was asking the Lord on behalf of the whole nation that their hearts would remain wholly true for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Problem is, it didn't end there.
SPEAKER_01: It would have been great.
SPEAKER_01: It would have been perfect, but it didn't end there.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be focused on chapter 11 and 12 of 1 Kings today.
SPEAKER_01: Just a few chapters onwards.
SPEAKER_01: It's also quite a few years onward.
SPEAKER_01: And we're looking at the story specifically, sitting here today.
SPEAKER_01: What can we learn from this?
SPEAKER_01: How a man who started so well, a man who said, My heart is holy, completely yours.
SPEAKER_01: He had the love song of the day.
SPEAKER_01: We are going to give you my all.
SPEAKER_01: And then, as we see a few chapters later, he's about 40 years into his reign.
SPEAKER_01: He had arrived, there's peace, he has wealth, he was the envy of the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Yet his heart had drifted from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: 40 years later, his heart had drifted for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: What we're going to see is there wasn't one incident.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't one moment.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't one offense that, like, that's it, I'm going to turn away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: There was a slow drift away from fulfilling the will of God for his life.
SPEAKER_01: There was a slow drift of enjoying the blessings that God had given them.
SPEAKER_01: But before you know it, his heart had drifted from being wholly true to the Lord to having a divided heart.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we're here pretty close to campus.
SPEAKER_01: This is generally a young church, but if you are above, let's say, 40, can we can we say a line here?
SPEAKER_01: Can have anyone over 40 just give me a holler?
SPEAKER_01: Good.
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: Can I just tell you this with all my heart?
SPEAKER_01: My heart breaks for our churches, where our old people, older, older, older, older, more mature.
SPEAKER_01: My heart breaks for seeing our churches emptying out of more mature people.
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: If you're sitting here, you're over 40.
SPEAKER_01: I honor you.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for showing the young people in this room what it looks like to wholly serve the Lord in longevity as you go on in your life.
SPEAKER_01: What happens, unfortunately, especially in our country, God has blessed this country with more wealth and more opportunities than any other country in the world.
SPEAKER_01: I'm from South Africa, trust me, I've lived in a few continents.
SPEAKER_01: The opportunities are incredible.
SPEAKER_01: The wealth is incredible.
SPEAKER_01: I love living in this nation.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is the blessing that we have in this nation, move our heart from him who gave it to him to the stuff that he gave us.
SPEAKER_01: And our hearts go from here to here, and before we know it, we have a divided heart and we stop serving the Lord wholeheartedly.
SPEAKER_01: We start serving the things.
SPEAKER_01: We start serving the blessings.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here over 40, I applaud you.
SPEAKER_01: Please keep coming.
SPEAKER_01: Bring your old friends with you.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I say that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm 50.
SPEAKER_01: Trust me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in that category.
SPEAKER_01: Bring your friends with you.
SPEAKER_01: Our church needs older, more mature people to help lead the way, to show the way, to teach, to mentor, to counsel.
SPEAKER_01: We are a church that wants to reach this whole city.
SPEAKER_01: We need everybody.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: What we're seeing in the story, though, is a king who started drifting from the will and the ways of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And before you know it, we see a heart that has gone after other things.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm praying today, as the Holy Spirit has already been moving in our hearts today, to establish again the Lordship of God, the one true thing in your life that the Lord wants to bring us back to one focus.
SPEAKER_01: I'm praying the Holy Spirit spotlights in your life what that thing is that you've allowed to take your attention off of Him, wholly and completely following Him.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna try and throw a few examples out, friends, but let the Holy Spirit speak in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Let the Holy Spirit address you.
SPEAKER_01: We all have little idols.
SPEAKER_01: We're a Tim Killer says, our hearts are an idol factory.
SPEAKER_01: We make up idols out of even the biggest blessings the Lord give us.
SPEAKER_01: We make that the main thing.
SPEAKER_01: Where is your heart today?
SPEAKER_01: That is our question.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Now, a couple of context sets for you.
SPEAKER_01: Firstly, the book of Kings actually used to be one book.
SPEAKER_01: Kings 1 and Kings 2 was one big book written to give the people of Israel a kind of a story, a long story of their history.
SPEAKER_01: The book came out around 500 BC, which is as you go through the timeline that we're going to be looking at this year, is around the time that they were in exile.
SPEAKER_01: So remember that the patriarchs, Abraham, led into Jacob and Joseph, and I'm getting it all wrong now, but they were establishing the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: The kings came, we started with Saul, then David, Solomon, and then a downward spiral from there.
SPEAKER_01: But it led into an era of exile.
SPEAKER_01: So this book comes out when the nation of Israel, the people of God, were either in exile or had just come out, and they're asking the question, what happened?
SPEAKER_01: How did we go from being the beloved of God, rescued out of Egypt, brought into our own land with the most wealthy king, wise king ever?
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: How did we get so divided?
SPEAKER_01: How did we get so far from the blessings that God had promised us?
SPEAKER_01: It's an autopsy.
SPEAKER_01: How did we get split, splintered into all the world?
SPEAKER_01: So see of it from that point of view, and we're we're looking at it then because God is wanting to instruct us the mile markers along the journey of drift.
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like?
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So one important context.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second one.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're gonna look at Solomon, you're gonna quickly realize he had 700 wives.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're a player in here, yeah, this is speaking directly to you, but it's it's it's not about that.
SPEAKER_01: 700 wives.
SPEAKER_01: What are we looking at here?
SPEAKER_01: This is not primarily a story about lust.
SPEAKER_01: This is a time where every royal marriage wasn't a marriage of convenience, it was a marriage of purpose, of a trade treaty, of a peace deal.
SPEAKER_01: Uh there was something behind many, I'm gonna say many, I can't believe 700, but there's something behind many of them that probably was a good and a wise decision politically, economically, and for the empire.
SPEAKER_01: So we have this thing.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is it was in direct opposition to what God had told Solomon about marrying foreign wives, but it was maybe a wise thing to do from a political point of view.
SPEAKER_01: So keep that in mind as we go.
SPEAKER_01: Will you open your Bible to 1 Kings chapter 11?
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna read the first four verses.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Kings chapter 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: So, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, here are the Moabite, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Sidonian, and the Hittite women.
SPEAKER_01: Why the detail here is important if you look at the geography of where Solomon was, is basically listing the countries that were bordering around him.
SPEAKER_01: He had made these pacts with them, these treaties with them, but his heart started loving them.
SPEAKER_01: From the nations concerning, uh, yeah, yeah, verse 2, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy, you shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you.
SPEAKER_01: For surely, here it is, they will turn away your heart after their gods.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon, look at the words, clung to these in love.
SPEAKER_01: He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4 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 was the heart of David his father.
SPEAKER_01: A few verses later, God then directly confronts Solomon and telling him that the kingdom will be torn away from him.
SPEAKER_01: There's an act of mercy in it, because God says, I won't tear it away from you, but I'll tear it away from your son.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a thread of mercy we already begin to see in the telling of the story.
SPEAKER_01: But he said, From your son, the kingdom will be torn away from him, and there will be this division that comes about.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 12, Solomon dies, and his son Rehoboam, Rehoboam, okay, yes, Rehoboam takes the throne, and everything that has been quietly building, kind of underneath the little compromises, shows up in one big catastrophe.
SPEAKER_01: The twelve tribes split.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we're going through this story.
SPEAKER_01: So I want us to look firstly what the text is telling us.
SPEAKER_01: I think most importantly, it's wanting us to show us so badly that it tells us more than five times the same idea that his heart was not wholly true.
SPEAKER_01: W-H-O-L-L-Y.
SPEAKER_01: His heart was not completely true.
SPEAKER_01: It says his heart was turned away, or his heart was not wholly true to the Lord over and over.
SPEAKER_01: This is not an accident of Hebrew storytelling.
SPEAKER_01: There's something very intentional with this constant repetition of this idea.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrew, the heart, live, isn't primarily about your feelings, it's the whole governing center, the the will, the mind, the affections together where decisions gradually get made.
SPEAKER_01: When you and I read, this thing is heart wasn't wholly true.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I want my heart after the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Uh anyone here grow up with Disney?
SPEAKER_01: All of us.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we grew up with Disney.
SPEAKER_01: Best movies Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin.
unknown: No?
unknown: Mulan.
SPEAKER_01: Mulan.
SPEAKER_01: No, nobody likes Mulan.
SPEAKER_01: Joking.
SPEAKER_01: But but but we grew up, maybe it's just for me, old oldies, right?
SPEAKER_01: You grew up with this Disney idea that one day your true love's kiss will make everything better.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: One day you're gonna be tending to your garden, you're gonna be picking a fruit, or you're gonna be riding your stallion, and you're you're gonna see her, or you're gonna see him, and the birds are gonna sing, and your heart is gonna flutter, and you'll be like, yes, she's my girl.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and and there we go, and everything's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_01: That's why a lot of people are still wondering where is my true love, because we're grew up with Disney.
SPEAKER_01: We grew up like the song is gonna play, like it's all gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the heart when the scripture talks about that.
SPEAKER_01: That's Disney feelings.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let's not confuse heart with feelings.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Any too many of us let our feelings drive the bus when your heart should be the decision center in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so when Solomon, when the text says that Solomon's heart was divided, it wasn't saying that he even felt differently about God.
SPEAKER_01: But it's saying that the part of him that runs everything quietly started splitting its allegiance.
SPEAKER_01: It started splitting, started dividing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the obvious question, perhaps if you've been thinking this for the last three minutes, isn't this primarily about lust?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, an appetite problem for Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to say, I'm fairly sure many of these were political and economic allegiances.
SPEAKER_01: But 700, I think Solomon had some other things on his mind as well.
SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to put that out there.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's both, right?
SPEAKER_01: So it is there, but what does this apply for you and I today?
SPEAKER_01: Solomon didn't wake up one morning and decide to abandon the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But what he did was make a few reasonable, perhaps defendable decisions, yes, against the will of God, but he thought it would make sense.
SPEAKER_01: And before long, started realizing the thing that the Lord said would turn his heart away from him, actually happened.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't happen right away with marriage, number one.
SPEAKER_01: It happened over time where these small decisions you and I make, these small compromises, these small, just veering, just a little bit left of what God is trying to tell us and do to us.
SPEAKER_01: See, you and I don't need one big betrayal to lose our first love in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We just need enough small, defensible compromises.
SPEAKER_01: Small reasons.
SPEAKER_01: We leave for good reasons.
SPEAKER_01: We we make decisions for for defensible reasons.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps in this room you have a partner, uh a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a husband, a wife, and and somebody offends her or him, and you're like, you know, Kathy, I'm gonna use my my wife because I don't want to offend you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Kathy didn't look at my friend the right way.
SPEAKER_01: Or Kathy didn't invite my friend to the party.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a toxic place at that church, even though you were part of this community.
SPEAKER_01: So what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Well, next week, I'm not gonna come.
SPEAKER_01: I want to protect my wife, my girlfriend, my husband.
SPEAKER_01: I want I want to protect them from big, bad Kathy.
SPEAKER_01: That's my wife.
SPEAKER_01: She's not big or bad.
SPEAKER_01: She's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Uh illustration, right?
SPEAKER_01: But someone offends you, and you're like, Well, I am going to defend myself or I'm gonna defend my friend, and I'm not gonna come next week.
SPEAKER_01: Let's see if we can work this out maybe with time, because that fixes everything, right?
SPEAKER_01: Uh that was sarcasm.
SPEAKER_01: Week two, I'm not gonna come.
SPEAKER_01: Week four, I'm still not here.
SPEAKER_01: Week six, my calendar starts filling up just a little bit on Sunday mornings.
SPEAKER_01: Week seven, I realize, wait a minute, no one has called me in the this last week or two.
SPEAKER_01: They don't even like me at that church.
SPEAKER_01: They, well, they don't love people.
SPEAKER_01: And I start defending my decisions, my offense with these actions where before you know it, three months down the road, I'm no longer going to church anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: I've been doing some online church shopping.
SPEAKER_01: Love you online.
SPEAKER_01: I know that's not you, but just we're illustration here.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and and before you know it, six months later, a year later, not really getting to the online either, not really getting to any church.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, church people are so hypocritical, and you know, and you know, my my feelings will hurt and everything.
SPEAKER_01: I what I wish, what I wish this was, was theory.
SPEAKER_01: But I've been in ministry long enough, I've been around the church long enough to know I'm actually describing actual events that have happened over times, over years, in different settings, in different groups in this church and in other churches.
SPEAKER_01: We don't deal with the little offenses, we don't really, but we justify why we're stepping out of the practices the Lord gives us, and before you know it, our hearts have drifted and we're wondering, does the Lord even want me back?
SPEAKER_01: These small little decisions.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Here's another example.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you are starting new careers, or you're in your career and you're starting to make it up.
SPEAKER_01: This is a good thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay, let's quick lesson.
SPEAKER_01: Having a job, being a contributing member of society is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
SPEAKER_01: Understand, let's just go, good.
SPEAKER_01: So now many of us starting our jobs, we're starting our careers, and I got a new sales job, and I want to I want to make it and I want to go, and um, let me just change the deal just a little bit, let me compromise just a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've got to get to this event and that event, and I've got to mingle properly, and I start drinking a little bit more, and I and I say, Oh, it's for the work, it's it's for relationship building.
SPEAKER_01: Again, true stories.
SPEAKER_01: My true story.
SPEAKER_01: And I begin compromising even more, and before you know it, I'm drinking a lot now, and I'm compromising a lot now, and my heart begins to drift.
SPEAKER_01: And I come to church and I'm a consumer now.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I tithe a lot, you know, I give a lot to this church, um, and and I mean I mean they should be happy I'm here, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And and we begin to treat our relationship with the Lord that way.
SPEAKER_01: What has happened?
SPEAKER_01: Small little compromises, small little drifting.
SPEAKER_01: And before you know it, what is the problem?
SPEAKER_01: The problem isn't that you have a drink, the problem is your heart has drifted.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart is divided.
SPEAKER_01: Many of these things I can describe to you in themselves, not that big a deal.
SPEAKER_01: 700 wives is a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Everything else, not that, not always, it's not the problem.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is the heart that's divided, and now I'm running after other gods.
SPEAKER_01: Other idols, other things that make me and bring me fulfillment and peace and joy.
SPEAKER_01: Anything else but God that you run to for peace, fulfillment, joy, identity, for worth, for value is an idol in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We run to those things when we veer off what we just experience together lives holy, devoted to Him, ministering to the Lord, practices and rhythms in our lives of coming every week, being in community with his church.
SPEAKER_01: What those things are there to help us along our journey.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 9 in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this detail.
SPEAKER_01: It says the God of Israel who appeared to him twice.
SPEAKER_01: This is again significant.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing insignificant in these scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: The God of Israel who appeared to Solomon twice.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Old Testament, doesn't have the benefit of you and I being able to come in into the presence of the Lord, you know, Sunday morning, Monday morning, Wednesday morning.
SPEAKER_01: This is a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: More than many of the Old Testament figures, God appeared to Solomon twice.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon experienced the glory, the weight of the Lord coming down where they couldn't stand in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon's problem wasn't information.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon knew God.
SPEAKER_01: He knew about God.
SPEAKER_01: He knew what God had done.
SPEAKER_01: He was raised.
SPEAKER_01: The information wasn't the problem.
SPEAKER_01: The revelation wasn't the problem.
SPEAKER_01: What was the problem?
SPEAKER_01: Is a life that was ready to continue day in, day out, to follow the will and the ways of the Lord so that a heart can stay true, wholly true for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is why I think so many older people either get stuck into their rhythms, and this is all the only way I'm ever going to serve the Lord, you know, with the with the organ, and if it's not that, it's hell music.
SPEAKER_01: Or we just drift away.
SPEAKER_01: We let busyness catch us up.
SPEAKER_01: So what does this mean for you and I today?
SPEAKER_01: Lesson here isn't avoid Solomon's marriage problems.
SPEAKER_01: A lesson for us is it's an invitation to do an audit on where your heart is today.
SPEAKER_01: What is actually running your calendar?
SPEAKER_01: What is running your life?
SPEAKER_01: What is the thing that's driving you?
SPEAKER_01: What is the thing that you're running towards?
SPEAKER_01: To find identity, to find value, to find joy, to find peace?
SPEAKER_01: What are the things that you look to first before you come on your knees wholeheartedly before the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself some questions.
SPEAKER_01: Is your heart divided?
SPEAKER_01: What are you preoccupied with checking?
SPEAKER_01: I know, I know Gen Z of today, if you don't check your social media every 37 seconds, someone's gonna get mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't leave leave your e your text unread, someone's gonna get offended.
SPEAKER_01: I get that, right?
SPEAKER_01: But what why do you keep going there?
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself the question.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you allow your friends' opinions to drive your decisions?
SPEAKER_01: Why do you allow how many likes and shares to ascribe value to you?
SPEAKER_01: Why do you give that so much power when the Lord invites us to be holy after him?
SPEAKER_01: This is the question we've got to ask.
SPEAKER_01: Because where that answer lies is where your heart truly is.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon's heart that became divided led to a divided kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna skip over just briefly chapter 12, but but here's how the story goes.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon's son, Rehoboham, takes over.
SPEAKER_01: He still has the whole kingdom, all 12 tribes.
SPEAKER_01: He listens to the old advisors, doesn't want to take their way.
SPEAKER_01: He listens to his peers, his buddies, takes their stupid advice.
SPEAKER_01: And out of that one decision, two tribes split away.
SPEAKER_01: The other ten say, we don't need you.
SPEAKER_01: They then, the Lord says, Okay, Jeroboam, Jerobim, Jerobam, come on, help me out.
SPEAKER_01: Jeroboam, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: That's lovely, lovely pronunciation there.
SPEAKER_01: Jeroboam.
SPEAKER_01: He then gets told by the Lord, you get to take be king of the other ten.
SPEAKER_01: Him?
SPEAKER_01: He gets insecure.
SPEAKER_01: By the prophet of the Lord, he gets the word, you will be king of those of those ten.
SPEAKER_01: He gets insecure.
SPEAKER_01: What does he do?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Oh, they're gonna go to where they're gonna go there and then they're no longer gonna follow me.
SPEAKER_01: So what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he creates new temples, new, new places of worship.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm gonna create a new feast, not the ones the Lord had said.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm gonna get new priests, not the Levites.
SPEAKER_01: He creates his own priests.
SPEAKER_01: He does all these counterfeits to try and make sure he can hold on to the kingdom of God that God had given them.
SPEAKER_01: He's compromising through his insecurity.
SPEAKER_01: Through these two actions, just in chapter 12, we're seeing what Solomon's decisions, how it plays out.
SPEAKER_01: A split kingdom, an arrogant king in Rehobah, an arrogant king in him, and you see an insecure king in the other ones, and they're all just one by one compromising on the will and the ways of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And who suffers?
SPEAKER_00: The people.
SPEAKER_01: Who suffers?
SPEAKER_01: The people.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon had so drifted in his ways that he had made the whole entire nation.
SPEAKER_01: The word is the type of work they were doing, the word is the same word used when Israel was under Egypt in slavery.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon had left his people in there.
SPEAKER_01: His stupid son, his arrogant son, doubles their work and causes a division.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, on the other side of you and I having a divided heart, there's brokenness and pain.
SPEAKER_01: There's people who got affected.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may not be a king, but you're a leader in some aspects of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps as in your in your relationships, perhaps in your in your dorm rooms, your house, perhaps in your home, in your friend group, there's leadership, there's influence that the Lord has given you.
SPEAKER_01: On the other side of your divided heart, there are people who suffer.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to ask another difficult question on the other side of my compromise.
SPEAKER_01: Who is paying for it?
SPEAKER_01: Or who's going to pay for it?
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps a spouse is running on empty because you've been somewhere else mentally, emotionally for months, and they're wondering what on earth is wrong with me.
SPEAKER_01: Because your heart has drifted.
SPEAKER_01: You've got friends who are covering for you over and over, making excuses for you, beginning to lie for you because your heart has drifted.
SPEAKER_01: God has called us into the city.
SPEAKER_01: Columbus, I love the city.
SPEAKER_01: I've grown to love the city and what God is doing here.
SPEAKER_01: And there's so much happening in the city, but there are so many people who need a church on fire with a single-hearted devotion.
SPEAKER_01: They need us to get this right.
SPEAKER_01: They need us to worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know it yet.
SPEAKER_01: But the other side of our disobedience is a city that doesn't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There is a consequence to your and my compromise.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you, many of you don't have children yet.
SPEAKER_01: But what's happening in our community and in our culture these days, our kids come along.
SPEAKER_01: Our kids have a schedule.
SPEAKER_01: Now the schedule becomes the Lord of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Then our kids have sports.
SPEAKER_01: Now the kids' sports schedule becomes the lord of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Then the kids have this interest and that interest, and your kids, you've made your child an idol, and your child is not strong enough to carry that level of devotion.
SPEAKER_01: Many of the young people in this room are on the other side of this gentle parenting, or you know, just don't rock the baby's boat in any way.
SPEAKER_01: So, children, maybe you've grown up being at the absolute center of your family.
SPEAKER_01: And now that you're out of your family, you're wondering why you're not the absolute center of everybody else's life.
SPEAKER_01: See the connection?
SPEAKER_01: You've been made an idol by somebody.
SPEAKER_01: And now you're struggling.
SPEAKER_01: Our devotion, all of us, needs to be wholeheartedly after the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is the heart of God for us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: No one can serve two masters.
SPEAKER_01: Either he will hate the one, will love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other.
SPEAKER_01: He says, you cannot serve God in money.
SPEAKER_01: God is not saying it is not wise to do it.
SPEAKER_01: He's not saying it'll be really hard to do it.
SPEAKER_01: He's not saying, man, your schedule is going to be really full, rather, don't do it.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying you cannot.
SPEAKER_01: There will be only one God in your life: either money or God.
SPEAKER_01: Either your career or God.
SPEAKER_01: Either your gaps that you're trying to fill desperately with, you name this substance, or God.
SPEAKER_01: Either your friend's opinion for your life or God.
SPEAKER_01: Either your parents' opinion for your life that they're trying to work out before the Lord and not sure how, or God.
SPEAKER_01: Who will you serve?
SPEAKER_00: Who will you serve?
SPEAKER_01: Solomon is described in greater detail than I did today as having more wisdom than anyone alive in his generation.
SPEAKER_01: And even all his wisdom was not enough to hold his heart together.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you don't know, Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: The book of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: With all that wisdom, it wasn't strong enough to hold his heart together.
SPEAKER_01: One more verse.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 12, verse 42.
SPEAKER_01: The queen of the south, Jesus says this, the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
SPEAKER_01: For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: Here it is, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
SPEAKER_01: Something greater than Solomon is here.
SPEAKER_01: I am gonna go out on a limb and call this Jesus' greatest understatement.
SPEAKER_01: Something greater than Solomon is here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has come.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon was great.
SPEAKER_01: Something greater is here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is here, friends.
SPEAKER_01: Do you and I have a revelation of who this Jesus is?
SPEAKER_01: God who loved the world, who saw the brokenness in the world, who saw the fact that someone as wise as Solomon couldn't keep it together.
SPEAKER_01: God saw the brokenness in the world and he put on his son flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He became man.
SPEAKER_01: He came and he lived amongst us.
SPEAKER_01: That God came amongst us.
SPEAKER_01: The God who is the creator of the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, are you seeing what I'm describing?
SPEAKER_01: And if you're with me, say amen.
SPEAKER_01: The God who created the universe with a word, with a breath, with a word, he came, put on flesh, and lived amongst us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that good?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that guys?
SPEAKER_01: We gotta get this.
SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about just someone a little bit greater than Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about God who came down, Jesus who is here for us, Jesus who lived a perfect and spotless life, Jesus who who humbled himself, God who sat at the right hand of the Father, humbled himself and walked the earth with us, taking on the form of man.
SPEAKER_01: Praises, amen.
SPEAKER_01: He came and lived amongst us.
SPEAKER_01: That is the Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say, Muhammad cannot, does not claim this.
SPEAKER_01: Muhammad is created.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph Smith created.
SPEAKER_01: Buddha created.
SPEAKER_01: These are figments, these are false gods, these are false idols.
SPEAKER_01: The only God who said, I will come, put on flesh, live amongst them, die for their sin, is the Jesus you and I get to serve.
SPEAKER_01: He is the greater Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who makes a way for us.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This is a God who we serve.
SPEAKER_01: This God who calls sinners friends, who sat with him, he ate with them, he even had them in his posse of twelve.
SPEAKER_01: And he never outed Judas.
SPEAKER_01: That God who lived amongst us, that God who died, he we only do this in Easter, and I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01: That God, God, God, Son of God, who could have in an instant ended the whole crucifixion, took it, took the beatings, took the spitting, took the mocking, took the pain, took the blaspheming, took it all, walked up a road, started forgiving while he's going.
SPEAKER_01: That God displayed for us on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: That God who conquered death itself.
SPEAKER_01: If you're sitting in this room and there's any fear of death, let me tell you, Jesus took it and crushed it.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to fear it.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to fear death.
SPEAKER_01: This is who we serve.
SPEAKER_01: This is the greater Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Greatest understatement of all.
SPEAKER_01: That is the God who was standing there before him.
SPEAKER_01: He's not just Solomon 2.0.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus provides a better way for us.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just avoid Solomon's failure, he repairs it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus offers you a heart made hole in him instead of the one you have to hold together.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I I I don't know if I gave this guys the slides, but in worship I was just reminded of Ezekiel 36 again.
SPEAKER_01: If you can't put it up, it's from Ezekiel 36, 25, just a few verses.
SPEAKER_01: If you like what you're hearing, holler back at me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, we we've got to get our hearts into this because we think we're just going through a good little theoretical theology exercise over here.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25, I will sprinkle, this is the word of God for you, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
SPEAKER_01: Who here needs that?
SPEAKER_01: And I will, verse 26, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit, I will put within you.
SPEAKER_01: I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
SPEAKER_01: If you were listening to this message today and you're getting feeling a little heavy, whoa, I I got compromised, I make mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've got another list of things, I've got a to-do list of things I've got to fix.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, we have not yet heard the Jesus part of this story.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the one who gives you the new heart, the new flesh, the new ability to be able to follow the will and the ways of God.
SPEAKER_01: Our job isn't like now I've got a to-do list of more things I've got to fix.
SPEAKER_01: Our job is surrender.
SPEAKER_01: Our job is repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: His job is heart transplant.
SPEAKER_01: He puts a new heart in you.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't this good?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27, I will put my spirit in you and cause you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: If you're wondering and you're like feeling so down, these things, I hate them.
SPEAKER_01: I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: Not you will try harder and finally succeed.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will put my spirit in you.
SPEAKER_01: I will cause you to walk in the statutes and the will and the ways of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, your job and my job is to surrender and to keep our heart, our eyes fixed on him.
SPEAKER_01: Keep our eyes fixed on him.
SPEAKER_01: He will give us the new heart, he will give us the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: My favorite quote, Michael Eaton, this is one you got to remember.
SPEAKER_01: Michael Eaton says this if we follow the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit deliberately, we will fulfill the law accidentally.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Spirit of God will lead you into righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit of God will not lead you into sin.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit of God will not lead you into arrogance.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit of God will not lead you to make an idol out of your social media, out of your friends, out of your children, out of your career, out of your net worth.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit of God will not lead you into that.
SPEAKER_01: He'll lead you into coming and worshiping the Lord and being ministers unto the Lord, for you are a royal nation, a holy nation, called to be priest unto him.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This is the calling of God for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Worship team, will you come up?
SPEAKER_01: What do we do with this?
SPEAKER_01: I have no idea where we are in our schedule.
SPEAKER_01: Are you okay?
SPEAKER_01: I think we still have some announcements, some really good things.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna fast, pray this week.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome, awesome, amazing.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have retreats just open, college retreats, go register, go sign up.
SPEAKER_01: Glory, glory.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: What do we do with this truth?
SPEAKER_01: What do we do with looking at Solomon's life, who had everything?
SPEAKER_01: Yet his heart moved.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, would you lead us today?
SPEAKER_01: Would you lead us right now?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I know you're not trying to just do behavior modification.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I know your heart isn't just for us to look and do exactly everything the same.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, this is not about uniformity, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is about heart surrender to you.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray this morning, Lord, that you will bring conviction.
SPEAKER_01: You will bring conviction.
SPEAKER_01: If you are in this room, friends, and you need to begin to speak to the Lord, to surrender to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We started with, is Jesus your king?
SPEAKER_01: And we all said yes and amen.
SPEAKER_01: And I asked you, is Jesus Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Lord means He has permission.
SPEAKER_01: Lord means He drives the direction of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Lord means His will, not my will.
SPEAKER_01: Lord means your way, not my way.
SPEAKER_01: Lord means your way, not my feelings.
SPEAKER_01: Your way, not my offenses for the day.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, if this is true, I pray, Father, that we would surrender to you today.
SPEAKER_01: What does surrender look like to you?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, but respond.
SPEAKER_01: Respond.
SPEAKER_01: There's places to kneel, there's places at your chair to kneel.
SPEAKER_01: We've got a prayer ministry team is gonna love to pray with you, but respond.
SPEAKER_01: Respond.
SPEAKER_01: Our city needs us.
SPEAKER_01: Our city needs a church on fire for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Our city needs a church with one devotion, one heart, the will and ways of God, the leading of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This is what our city needs.
SPEAKER_01: This is what your family needs.
SPEAKER_01: This is what you need.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are exhausted from trying so hard to be good.
SPEAKER_01: And your focus should have just been on surrender.
SPEAKER_01: Surrender, surrender, surrender.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you want to close your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you want to kneel.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you want to just start speaking to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I'm aware there's people in this room.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you're a visitor, perhaps you've you've heard a lot about religion, but you haven't yet met the man that I was describing.
SPEAKER_01: The man who laid down his life for you.
SPEAKER_01: The God who took on flesh and paid the price for you.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us that whoever believes in their heart that Jesus is Lord and confesses it with their mouth, they will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: What that means is the Lord will in that moment give you a new heart.
SPEAKER_01: In that moment, uh, the theologians call it regenerate the dead parts of you.
SPEAKER_01: He will bring you to life and you will have eternity in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: What I like to do is just for this moment, if you are here and you don't know Jesus, you you have never surrendered your life to Jesus, I don't care what your parents did with you in infant baptism, have you given your life to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: If you would like to be a child of God, that is how.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd like to pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: So with every eye still closed, if you're in this room and you want to give your life to Jesus, I want to lead you through a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: If you can lift up your hand so I know who I'm praying for.
SPEAKER_01: Who wants to give their lives to Jesus today?
SPEAKER_01: Who wants to submit wholeheartedly and say, Jesus, will you be my Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Just put your hand up so I know who I'm praying for.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, ma'am.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody else?
SPEAKER_01: This this is the single biggest decision you'll ever make in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Is who you serve.
SPEAKER_00: Who you belong to.
SPEAKER_01: What do you believe?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody else that I can pray with this morning to receive Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: If you're in the balconies, raise it high so I can see.
SPEAKER_01: If you raise your hand, would you pray this with me?
SPEAKER_01: And if you're sitting in this room and you want to, and you want to lean in that direction and you're just don't have the courage yet, just again to talk to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: But would you say this with me?
SPEAKER_01: Say, dear Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God, and I want to give you my life today.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand everything, but I know this to be true.
SPEAKER_01: I want to follow you.
SPEAKER_01: Will you help me?
SPEAKER_01: Please forgive me of my sins.
SPEAKER_01: There are many.
SPEAKER_01: Please forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: I now receive your forgiveness, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Will you help me to follow you all the days of my life?
SPEAKER_01: If you pray that prayer, I encourage you, please tell somebody today.
SPEAKER_01: Our prayer ministry team will be up here right now.
SPEAKER_01: If you if you guys wouldn't mind coming, we want to take a moment and just close in.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know, Noah.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow close, somehow announcement.
SPEAKER_01: We we just want to respond to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They would love to pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: They'd love to stand with you.
SPEAKER_01: But you can do business with the Lord where you are.
SPEAKER_01: If you're able, you want to stand and let's close in a song of worship before Noah takes over.