Divided Kingdom

Introduction

This morning we’re going to continue to talk about the wisdom behind surrounding yourself with wise companions

Our theme this year is Wisdom from Above and we’re looking at godly wisdom and we’ve spend a lot of time in the Proverbs

One of the consistent themes from the Proverbs is that our friends impact us physically and spiritually

Could be positive

Iron sharpens iron

A companion could provide a good word in a time where it was needed

A friend could just genuinely be helpful

Could be negative too

Could be led astray

A companion could persuade us to be involved in their bad idea

A “friend” could talk bad behind your back because you weren’t careful about who you chose to be around

Proverbs 18:24

Having too many friends here implies that someone wasn’t being careful and selective.

That’s a lot of potential for danger.

But a good friend, true friend, wise friend is a good thing

Our companions don’t just impact us, they impact others around us, too.

This may call for us to think outside the box because we normally don’t think much about others when we are thinking about our friends

If it is ever brought to our attention that someone isn’t a wise companion, we get personal.

These are “my friends”

Even if we recognize someone isn’t the best influence, I know I’m strong enough to withstand their influence.

Maybe that’s true...

The proverbs are also clear that others are impacted too and in some cases they may not be as strong as you (Vulnerability)

Proverbs 28:7 - Gluttony is not a thing people really talk about anymore from a spiritual perspective.

Think of this as people who are uncontrolled; In this case, this is the unwise person

Notice the unwise person’s negative influence isn’t on the companion (He may not be a glutton)

It’s his father that’s impacted or humiliated here, not him

Maybe his father’s influence on the community is harmed

There are probably a few different ways the father could have been impacted, but the point is our companions affect others and we need to be cognizant of that too.

Wisdom in the Wild

All of the wisdom from the proverbs can be seen played out in other parts of scripture

These stories give us real examples and help us see some of the impacts this wisdom has in real life

There is a story where a person’s companions impact millions of other people

The Divided Kingdom

In Genesis 12 God promised Abraham He’d make him into a great nation

It takes them about 500 years to become a nation (Patriarchs, Egypt, Freedom)

They exist as a nation for another 500 or so years (Moses, Judges, 3 Kings)

They have spiritual bumps and bruises along the way

After Solomon there is a split and they become two nations (Israel and Judah)

This is really one of the sad parts of the Bible history

1,000 years worth of prophecy and 500 years of work creating this nation feels wasted

Neither nation represents God the way they were expected to.

The Northern Kingdom never has a single good, spiritual king.

Both nations end up being captured and taken away as captives

As bad as all of this sounds, it can all be traced back to one man having bad companions.

All of these other people are negatively impacted, because of one guy’s bad friends (1 Kings 11:43-12:19)

Body

At the beginning of this story, Rehoboam has it all.

He’s just inherited a massive kingdom from his father, Solomon

This is possibly the largest that Israel ever was.

The people are disgruntled, but they’re willing to come to Rehoboam first; what a blessing.

He actually has the mentality to ask the elders AND the elders actually give him some good advice.

This is as good as it gets and he loses it all in 3 days.

Because unfortunately, Rehoboam isn’t wise.

He dismisses the sound advice from the elders he sought out.

Instead he goes to chat with his buds, specifically these young men who “grew up with him.” (You know how it is around your folks)

This gets back to what the whole issue with companions is, when people are close to us, they have a significantly higher impact, which is why we’re saying we have to monitor those people.

These are his boys! And you get in a different headspace around your friends.

One of the men we support, Adrian Madison, was one of my best friends especially in high school and early adulthood.

We always laugh when this story comes up, because he and I used to have the dumbest ideas. (God’s grace, objectively not good ideas)

The idea that they have for him is pretty clearly not a good idea

They’re able to leverage his pride and then boom a bad idea starts to sound good because Rehoboam wasn’t surrounded by wise companions

But let me draw our attention to some of these other consequences, because Rehoboam is not the only person affected by all of this

An entire nation just split in two and have become enemies.

The 1st thing that happens in 1 Kings 12:21 is Rehoboam is ready for war

This isn’t the last time they fight, in 2 Kings 16:5 Israel and Aram have teamed up against Judah.

Judah responds by calling the Assyrians to defend them against Israel

God’s people are fighting God’s people and it can all be traced back to Rehoboam’s bad friends

Jeroboam, who becomes the leader of Israel because of the split, is one of the worst kings.

In fact, Jeroboam is so bad that many of the bad kings of Israel after him are compared to him. 1 Kings 15:33

It’s sad because he’s actually told by God if he’ll obey Him, God will make sure he’s established forever, but that’s not enough.

Jeroboam sets up two calves for people to worship in 1 Kings 12:28-30

They were supposed to worship in Jerusalem, but that’s in Judah, the other country now.

It was sin, as the text says, and Jeroboam, this new king is the one who leads them into it.

Israel ends up spending the rest of its existence in sin, and that too can be traced back to Rehoboam’s bad friends.

Jeroboam never becomes king if they don’t persuade Rehoboam.

This doesn’t absolve Jeroboam or the people of their responsibility.

If Rehoboam had some friends who would have sharpened him and told him to listen to his elders, who knows what the story would have looked like.

This is why we need to be careful who we hang around, not just for our sakes, but for the sake of those around us too.

Rehoboam has no idea how big of a mess he’s about to create.

We don’t have a crystal ball, which is why it is good to proceed with caution.

To my knowledge, nobody here is a king or queen of a nation.

We all have spheres of influence that are very much affected by our companions

Let me give you a few examples, some of these have specific scriptures that illustrate these concepts, but some I think are also just obvious and apparent.

Our companions can affect...

Our spouses

We talked about workplace gossip a few weeks ago. Say you’re hanging around a workplace gossip and they get you involved in some drama.

If you get in trouble or get fired...that affects you...that affects your spouse too. You need to think about that.

If you’re hanging around someone unwise who is constantly talking bad about their spouse, you can’t be surprised if your mindset towards your spouse is affected.

And then guess who has to deal with that? Your spouse

Say you’ve got someone unwise in your circle where there is the potential for an inappropriate relationship

If you keep them around and something happens, you know who you’ve created a mess for? Your spouse.

When we’re deciding who we’re going to spend time with, we have to be thinking about the one we love, the one we committed to.

Our children

One of the clear cases that the Proverbs make is that bad or unwise people can be dangerous and can hide that danger.

If you’re not careful who you choose to be around, you could be putting someone dangerous around your kids.

Even if they’re only unwise in a spiritual sense and you’re able to stave off their influence, your kids might not be as strong.

If my friend Johnny is always around making bad decisions and then my son starts to make similar bad decisions, who put him in that position?

How do you go about having that conversation?

Our kids are impacted by who we are around.

Our parents are affected.

I think the proverb we looked at at the beginning touches on this.

But one of my favorite little “asides” in scripture is in Genesis 26:34-35

Man Esau was stressing mom and dad out (Funny, Edom)

Of course, who you’re married to will impact your parents, so since we’re blessed to be able to choose our spouses, we should consider that.

Even just close companions affect them too, and the Scriptures show us that if we’re wise, we’ll think about that.

Our congregations can be affected (1 Corinthians 15:34)

Remember their bad company had caused them to stop believing in the resurrection.

It was also affecting the way they were living as they got involved with sin.

The people around us can impact how we understand Scripture and if we’re in any sort of leadership capacity, that’s a lot of impact.

As a preacher, I have to be and I am extremely mindful of this

Some of you might know this, but I go away a couple of times each year to meet with some groups of preachers.

In those groups, there are certain folks I don’t spend as much time around because I want to be aware of who I’m influenced by.

I’m cordial with everyone, because I’m thankful for the work God is able to do through all of them, but I’m mindful.

The reason for the caution is for me in some sense as teachers receive stricter judgment.

But I care about you all too much to be gravitating towards poor understanding.

I’ve got to be mindful of that.

This is something for elders to think about too as they are to watch out for ravenous wolves, and that includes in their circles as well.

Another impact that came to mind is an elder is supposed to have is a good reputation among outsiders according to 1 Timothy 3:7

The idea is you don’t want your leaders to have a bad reputation amongst non-believers and then shame on the church

If you’re hanging around scoundrels, that’s a bad look.

You actually could disqualify yourself from being an elder

We’ve just got to think bigger when it comes to who we’re around

It’s more than just someone we hang out with on the weekend, there is real influence and potential danger, if we aren’t careful.

Just like Rehoboam’s negligence caused a lot of other people problems, your friends do impact others.

We didn’t even talk about the influence on our other friends or neighbors.

That’s because when we’re careless, it’s the people closest to us that suffer.

This is another invitation to think about who you surround yourself with.

Are you surrounding yourself with wise people who are trying to do the right thing?

If so, are you taking full advantage of that?

If not, why not?

Think about the people close to you.

Conclusion

One aspect of this divided kingdom story that we didn’t talk about was the prophecy side of things. 1 Kings 12:15

The Lord prophesied that the kingdom would be split and ten tribes would go to Jeroboam

In fact, more info for that is found in chapter 11.

Prophecy is an interesting thing where the outcome is already known, but the path to get there is what gets revealed.

If Rehoboam had better friends, God would have found another way.

But, God knows Rehoboam and his friends and used those events to bring about this promise, so at the end of the day, nobody can be surprised that this bad decision led to all this mess.

Proverbs are not prophecy.

But the proverbs are clear about the dangers that could be present if we aren’t mindful of who we surround ourselves with

So, if we are not careful and diligent of our friends and who we choose to be around, and then we have a mess on our hands..we can’t be surprised.

As wise people, as people who are striving for wisdom, as people who are trying to be godly, we heed these warnings from the Lord.

There may be someone here this morning who hasn’t given their life over to God.

Next week, we’ll actually have almost an entire lesson that will be focused on why that’s the most important thing anyone could ever do.

It is good to be in Christ

But you don’t have to wait until next week to make this change.

One of my favorite things about serving God and being in Christ is the equality that is present among the people of God.

No matter who you are, Jesus died for you. That’s an equalizer.

No matter what your past might be, there is an opportunity for a relationship with God. That’s an equalizer.

God found a way to flatten things out so that even if there are differences, none of those things affect your relationship to Him.

Galatians 3:27-28

Where your from doesn’t matter.

Your social status doesn’t matter.

Your gender doesn’t matter.

You all have equal access to God, the Father, the Creator of the universe.

That’s amazing.

This type of equal status is only available in Christ.

So this is an invitation to get into Christ.

Worldly forces are always going to find a way to leverage these things against certain groups (Power, hate, or whatever)

In Christ, before God, things are different and that’s an amazing opportunity.

This text mentions baptism as a part of this process of getting into Christ

All of that equality is available to those who have been baptized.

Maybe you think it’s weird like, why would baptism be a part of that.

Baptism is the process through which God washes away your sins.

Because that’s another equalizer, everyone who is in Christ has recognized that they needed Christ’s death and blood shed to provide a path for them to be forgiven.

That opportunity is still available for you, even if you haven’t taken advantage of it yet.

I would say think about these things.

Talk to people close to you.

If the Creator gave you an opportunity to have access to Him, I think it would be wise to consider it.

If you want to be baptized, or you want to ask some questions, or you need the prayers of the church...