What do we do with our need?
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What do we do with what we need?
What do we do with what we need?
You guys can go ahead and open up to 1 Kings 3
Everything we need can be received in seconds. Amazon, Social Media, Publix and Target Pick-up Orders… Everything!
Example of car breaking down in Opelika and the need for and uber and rental car.
Not only are our needs able to be met but we know exactly where to go to get those needs. We know the process to get it soon, too!
We open the app, sign in, put in our location, the location we need to go to, our card info if not saved from before, and BOOM, an uber is on the way…
Living in this level of accessibility is so convenient…
But what happens when you are in need of something that is out of your control? Or maybe when you are in need of something that will enable you to accomplish a work that seems daunting and terrifying…
Some of you are trying to figure out how to not only be the right friend, but find the right friends.
Others of you are striving with everything you can to walk closely with the Lord. You love church, you love worship, and you are falling in love with Jesus. However, Bible reading isn’t regular because you don’t really know how. Praying is intimidating because it’s uncomfortable. Investing in people that are on the fringe is a desire of yours, but the cost is too high and you aren’t sure how to actually start a friendship or much less, share the gospel.
Maybe a few of you are here because you have to be. Or because there is a girl or guy here you’re interested in… whatever it is, you aren’t here because you love church, you are here because of the benefit of the experience.
But even though you are here, you aren’t fulfilled… You are looking for something to fill a need, to bring purpose and satisfaction.
The question I want to answer tonight is this-
What do we do with what we need?
What do we do with what we need?
I am not talking about the kind of needs we can solve on our own… I am talking about the legitimate needs that our own independence can’t provide.
Pray
3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. 4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”
9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
Context
Context
Who is Solomon?
Solomon is the son of King David-
If you remember, Israel desperately desiring a king… Even though they were in a covenant with the Lord, the king of kings.
In response, God allowed them to pick a King. Their first King was Saul- Saul wasn’t that great of a king, so then the prophet Samuel established David as the next king according to the leading of the Lord.
As how the royal family works, the children of the king inherit the throne, therefore, Solomon, David’s son, takes his position as King.
Immediately, the Lord’s favor is upon Solomon because of Solomon’s love for the Lord.
We see this in verse 3
3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.
In other words, not only did Solomon love the Lord, but he worshipped Him in the way the Lord was pleased!
We know we love the Lord when we trust His ways.
We know we love the Lord when we trust His ways.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
God’s plans are ultimately good, even if we struggle to make sense of them…
In exodus, the law to build altars and make sacrifices to the Lord was established.
24 An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.
Solomon was simply obeying the law the Lord established because he loved the Lord.
He believed the truths we read in Proverbs 16:9
9 The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.
God’s plan and ways will ultimately prevail.
Here’s my question for you tonight to ponder as we continue in this discussion…
If God’s plan for you life is the best plan for your life; if His ways will always come to be, then why not walk and trust in Him?
If God’s plan for you life is the best plan for your life; if His ways will always come to be, then why not walk and trust in Him?
Walk knowing it’s best.
Trust knowing His ways are best for you.
Let me share with you an encouraging story right quick….
Back in college, I was dating this girl who I had been dating since I was 16. She, in my mind, was the one.
We led worship together, I hunted and fished with her dad regularly, I went on family vacations with them, and her parents were even my parent’s Sunday school teachers!
We had known each other since the 6th grade. There was a long history.
Even though she loved the Lord, I can’t sit here and say we were walking in our relationship in the most God honoring way.
There were some unhealthy things… But at the end of the day, I was convincing myself that I could always point to other couples who were worse, and we surely weren’t them!
We dating up until her last semester of her senior year of college.
Even though the Lord was speaking to me, confirming this was best, I still chose to reject it and try everything I could to make it work.
The night she broke everything off, I was sitting in my house with my roommates. I got the dreaded text, “Hey, can you come over so we can talk.”
I knew immediately this wasn’t going to be a conversation about amazing of a guy I had been to her all 5 years or how good lookin I was.
I told the boys, “Guys… it’s about to go down.” They got up, gave me a good game butt slap, said some prayers, and sent me on my way on the road of insecurity.
I had this whole plan of taking it like a man… I was going to hear her out, receive clarity as to why she was making this decision, shake hands, and leave peacefully with hopefully new opportunities on the horizon.
Well… As many of you could imagine, that didn’t happen.
She got in my truck, began the spill of, “This isn’t working” while crying her eyes out.
I was fuming… Why is she crying? She’s the one making the choice?! She has no clue what I have done to make this work!
This lead me to ask the worst question I could have asked in the moment.
“Why are you ending this with me.”
You know her answer?
“I don’t really know.”
I was lost. I spun wheels out of the parking lot and the next 4 months were the lowest four months of my life. I had been rejected, left with no answers, constantly wondering, “Why in the world has this happened.”
There was a day when the Lord began to draw me to Himself. If I couldn’t find reasons for the breakup, I knew I could find purpose moving forward.
After a few months of figuring out life, reorganizing my priorities, the Lord began to show me why exactly I needed to experience such heart ache and pain…
If I wouldn’t have trusted the Lord with my life and continued in sin, pursuing what I knew wasn’t a part of His plans, I would have missed out on this.
*Picture of Caroline.
And if I would have missed out on her, I for sure wouldn’t have the joy of experiencing this!
*Picture of AC
The greatest comeback story of all time…
Y’all listen… When you walk in the ways of the Lord, He will establish your steps.
You might think you know what you WANT, but only the Lord knows what you NEED.
You might think you know what you WANT, but only the Lord knows what you NEED.
This is why we seek Him and listen to Him. God is our provider and protector. He protects by providing!
It is in our obedience and continual abidance that we grow in our understanding of His ways and will for our life.
The Lord surely provides what we need.
Acknowledging Solomon’s love, He allowed Solomon to ask for anything in the world he wanted.
Solomon, having the heart of the Lord, with an opportunity to ask for anything, responds by requesting something that probably wouldn’t have been our first request…
9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
He asks for an understanding mind…
the Hebrew word used here is the same Hebrew word used in Deuteronomy 6:1-6
1 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
Solomon is asking for the ability to hear the Lord.
To gain understanding from the Lord is to position ourselves to listen for the Lord.
To gain understanding from the Lord is to position ourselves to listen for the Lord.
Remember, the Lord is a provider.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
I wonder how many of you are currently trying to figure out something in your life that just isn’t working or making sense…
You’re having some relationship problems or friendgroup tensions.
You can’t figure out where to go to college.
For some reason, you feel like you and your parents just don’t see eye to eye.
You like this church thing, but honestly, being a christian feels harder than it appears to be to others and you have no clue why…
Jesus speaks to this in Matthew 7:7
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
This is your answer to the question, “What do we do with what we need?”
Ask.
Seek.
Knock.
Ask
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Bring everything to the Lord- in detail.
Prayer is our our mode of communication with the King of Kings, our one and true provider and protector.
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Have a plan- we have plans for everything in life. We make plans for the things we want and build strategies to get the things we need.
The same should be true for our prayer life!
Your prayer life….
Your prayer life….
2. Seek
13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
God told the Prophet Jeremiah that with his whole heart he will find Him.
When we are asking God to provide something we feel we need, we are seeking to find Him in everything that concerns itself with the request.
“God I am looking for a friend who loves the Lord and will encourage me.” (Request)
OR
“God, which college am I supposed to go to?” (Request)
As you look, watch carefully, ask questions, look for the Lord. Do they love the church? How do they treat others? How do they treat their parents? Do they love the Lord? Are they living for the Lord?
The answers you will find while seeking will give you the red or green light to take your last move…
3. Knock
Now is where faith comes in.
Take the initiative to knock. Apply for the college. Go spend time with your potential new friend.
If the door doesn’t open, it is not of the Lord. If it’s open, you will know…
A faith that works is a working faith.
A faith that works is a working faith.
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
We are going to trust the Lord that he will do what He says He will.
Our trust God will be seen in our initiative to walk by faith, to ask desperately, seek relentlessly, and knock confidently.
Our trust God will be seen in our initiative to walk by faith, to ask desperately, seek relentlessly, and knock confidently.
I want to end with going back to Solomon’s request…
Solomon loved the Lord… Solomon asked for the understanding to carry out His will through wise discernment and understanding.
What you ask for reveals what you want.
What you want reveals what you value.
What need do you have in your life tonight?