Sermon prep work

Apply this command to yourself and get an understanding of where you are with reference to it.

1 John 2:15-17. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Is this a command that you can say Amen to from your heart or is it a command that causes you to develop excuses and blames because you have issues with it?  Are you fooling yourself and saying all is well when it is not?

In this place you may give all of the appropriate answers.  You may say; I really love the Lord more than this world!  Others of you may say I love the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul, and with my entire mind, yes I love the Lord more than the world.

But New Hope, bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name, for the Lord is much wiser than I.  Listen to how the Lord asks a similar question.

1 Kings 3:5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”  Notice, it’s night, Solomon is asleep, and the Lord appears in a dream presenting the question.

Now in this context, what would you ask for?  All guards are down and your sub-conscious mind is active, what are you dwelling on?  Solomon, who still falls away, gives an answer that is pleasing to the Lord.  How close would your answer be to actually pleasing the Lord?

It can be concluded that Solomon starts off in the right direction, the direction of being pleasing to the Lord.  And God demonstrates to Solomon something that Paul would write about in a New Testament letter to the saints in Ephesus.  Paul writes that God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.  I like how the ‘New King James version’ states this; He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. 

1 Kings 3 illustrates this;

1 Kings 3:10-14. It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”

But Solomon demonstrates and illustrates to all of us today another inspired writing of Paul and a quote from Solomon’s dad David, for Paul writes from Psalm 14 and 53 and states;

Romans 3:10-18. as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

And also;

Romans 3:23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Our text today illustrates this;

1 Kings 11:1-10. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. 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. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded.

There is so much that is here but today I would like to focus on one point.  That point is in the form of a question; how did this outrage occur?  My answer is that this occur because of poor spiritual maintenance.

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