Take the Fork

What Fork?

I appreciate Tom Gulliver so much.

Last Sunday when I came to church early the parking lot and steps were already cleared and melting.

By the time we got our of church, w/ the direct sunshine, it was dry.

Tom is one of the real servants around this church. We have a number of ppl who will step up when something needs to be done.

We never have to beg for workers. We recruit, ask, never bribe or beg b/c we step up.

But, we have a problem w/ the Bobcat.

It will stall several times while Tom is using it to clear the snow. And, when it stops, it’s sudden. He could bruise a rib on the controls.

4, 5, 6 times, every time he uses it.

I don’t have a clue. Not one single clue what might be going on.

There are reasons, excuses why I am so a-mechanical. Some of it is b/c I didn’t have a dad around when I was growing up to show me.

Some of it is b/c I was so busy playing baseball and team sports.

I don’t have an aptitude nor desire.

But, as the pastor, I’m responsible for okaying the payment for the repair. That is unless it’s too much and the entire elder board needs t/b involved.

But, for minor things, I need to know what wrong, what needs t/b fixed, so I approve the right amount for the right repair.

Fortunately for us, Tom has a clue. Jim Burnett has a few clues. Tom Hlusak he knows his way around mechanical things.

Bob Timberman.

One or two of these guys are going to take a look at it when it stops snowing for a while.

They believe it t/b an electrical problem.

There are 2 boxes in the cab that need to communicate w/ ea other and that’s not happening.

A corroded connection.

A bad ground.

A short in a wire.

They can take the box apart and look around and maybe they can find something.

Those boxes are expensive and we don’t want to replace the whole thing if it’s only a bad connection somewhere. A waste of money.

But, it has to get fixed b/c the problem is getting worse.

If they can’t find the problem, then we’ll have to haul it to Flag or call a guy who knows a little more about these things.

Either way, we need to know what’s wrong w/ it so we can approve the right repair.

Foolish to fix things that aren’t broken. And, we can make the situation worse.

We’ll have less money and a bigger problem.

That’s also like going to the doctor when you know something is wrong.

Doctor runs tests and tells you what you’ve got and prescribes a treatment.

It would be foolish to ignore his advice and prescription.

Or, go to a counselor with a relationship problem.

The counselor gives you advice.

If you don’t like it, or don’t take it, maybe you chose the wrong counselor. Or, maybe you just don’t like what they had to say.

Find another who will tell you what you want to hear.

That may be foolish, too.

Ultimately, it’s your choice.

Your choice who to ask and your choice whether or not to do what they advise.

If something isn’t working the way it’s supposed to, and you need to make a change, you need to ask someone who has a clue, someone who knows how to diagnose the problem and advise you how to fix it.

Then, choose to do it the way they tell you.

Yogi Berra comes to mind again.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Your at a fork in your road,

your Bobcat stalls

your body isn’t working right

your relationship is broken

which fork do you take?

Or, spoon. Or, just do nothing and hope that the situ changes on its own.

Passivity, denial, rarely works, BTW.

When you’re facing a tough situation be careful who you ask for advice.

But, when you get good advice, take it.

We’re in a series in 1 & 2 Kings entitled, choose to follow the right leader.

God puts ppl in leadership positions for us to follow. And, ideally, they follow Him.

Ultimately, we all need to follow God.

But, when you are trying to follow the right leader but can’t find the way, maybe you need to follow other ppl who are following the right leader.

We’re going to pick up the story in ch.11 at the end of Solomon’s life.

He started his reign faithfully following God.

Unfortunately, he didn’t finish that way.

And, there were consequences.

Finish

1 Kings 11:1–4 NIV

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

From the beginning of time God instructed one man and one woman, both w/ a common faith in Him.

Where they are from, the color of their skin, ancestry, all secondary to what they believe and who they believe in.

Sun Devils or Wildcats?

Diamondbacks or Dodgers?

Cardinals or Rams?

Split allegiances are never 50/50. Certainly not 100/100.

God commands 100% of our attention, affection, and adoration.

That can’t happen when we share intimately w/ someone who doesn’t share our faith.

Solomon’s life was about collecting things.

He searched the world for significance.

According to what he wrote in Ecc., he didn’t deny himself any pleasure.

He found out in his search that none of these pleasures provided the significance he was after.

Only God can do that.

But, in his search, he wandered away from God and that cost him.

Not only did it cost him, it cost his descendants any hope for a peaceful existence and unified kingdom.

The division started right away when his son inherited the throne.

Solomon’s son, Rehoboam was his heir to the throne.

Immediately, he faced a tough situation, but it was an opportunity to win the loyalty of many ppl his father had lost.

He came to that proverbial fork.

A Fork

1 Kings 12:3–4 NIV

So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

The situation was those from the northern tribes were weary of spending all their time and energy building things in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is in Judah, one of the 2 southernmost tribes.

Solomon had the resources and in his effort to build up his own ego he built up his own hometown and surrounding area at the expense of the norther region.

If you spent 40 years commuting, or staying in the valley, building it up while Munds Park and Flagstaff suffered, you’d get tired of it, too.

The southern region is booming, the economy is good, the arts, bsns opps, ed opps, recreation all over.

All that while there is no MP Post office, restaurants, NAU, forest trails, Coconino County supervisors, symphony; nothing up here.

They didn’t have any options. Solomon forced them to work in Jerusalem and they were done. Over it.

Now, Rehoboam going to do. He had choices to make. He is losing the loyalty of the majority.

This could cost him dearly.

First, he needed to choose whom to ask for advice. He had 2 groups of advisors. 1 advised his father and were older.

The other was a group of his peers that were as new to their position as he was his.

Rather than choose one or the other, he chose both. Then, he’d choose one or the other to follow.

This is what he did.

Seeking Advice

1 Kings 12:6–11 NIV

Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked. They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.” But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ ”

This is not an indictment of all you ppl’s advice. Nor is it an endorsement of all elders’ advice.

That’s not the important criteria here.

But, in this case, experience helps.

When I was looking for this job 7 or 8 years ago I was working with 2 placement websites.

Churches looking for pastors would post their openings and the qualifications they required.

I’d sent resume’s to the churches I thought I was qualified for.

The biggest hurdle I could not get over was my age.

According to the quals required, I was too old for 90% of the openings. They were looking for someone 45 years old and younger. I was 53, 54.

Whatever you think of me now, I can tell you I am much better at what I do today than I was 15 years ago.

You may be thinking, wow you were bad.

Maybe. But, I’m better now.

Experience is a wonderful teacher. And personal growth is underrated.

The older advisors encouraged Rehoboam to practice servant leadership.

If you want your subject to follow you loyally, serve them first.

Do something for them that costs you something then they will gladly do things for you that cost them.

This is Jesus’s leadership style. He didn’t come to be served, but to serve us.

He sacrificed everything for us, first. Then He asked us sac our lives for Him.

But, the younger advisors encouraged Rehoboam to crack down.

As hard as Solomon was on the ppl, they said he should be harder.

They were young, proud, ambitious, and insecure. Insecure ppl bully ppl.

Rather than building ppl up to their level, they beat ppl down beneath them.

By young, Rehoboam was 41 years old, just starting his 40-year reign.

He waited 3 days to make his decision.

This was not a rash, quick trigger. It was well-thought out and foolish.

He chose slogans over servanthood.

Bullying over building up.

Following this advice didn’t fix the problem. In fact, he made it worse.

The fracture in the kingdom became a full-fledged chasm never t/b brought back together.

These youngers were woke and they broke it.

Broken

1 Kings 12:20 NIV

When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.

The northerners rebelled and made Jeroboam their king.

They left Rehoboam over Judah, and he kept the tribe of Benjamin w/ him.

What David and Solomon built over 80 years was completely broking in the first year of Rehoboam’s reign.

How much easier is it to break something that should be together than it is to restore what’s been broken.

Marriage and families.

Churches.

It is much more rewarding to bring these institutions back together that are meant t/b unified.

It is also much harder.

He even miscalculated their anger when he sent a rep. to try to mend things up but they stoned him.

Rehoboam had to run for his life. This was an embarrassment for him after what he had inherited from his father.

But, how much control over this did he really have? What affect did his choices make?

One of the biggest challenges we face as Christians is holding the tension between the sovereignty of God and our ability to choose for ourselves.

God clearly gives us free opportunities to choose what we want to do, wise or foolish.

At the same time, God is sovereign and whatever we choose to do fits his plan from the beginning of time.

God is Sovereign

1 Kings 12:22–24 NIV

But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to all Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’ ” So they obeyed the word of the Lord and went home again, as the Lord had ordered.

It would have been futile for them to choose to do this.

v.15 “This is my doing.” Said God.

There are no coincidence w/ God.

This decision was all Rehoboams, and God’s.

How does that work exactly? I wish I could tell you.

How can God give us free will to choose while at the same time causing every little event to occur in a way that makes his plan happen that he set in motion at creation?

He is sovereign. That means, independent, all powerful, and His plan will happen no if’s and’s or buts. And, yet we get to make choices.

We cannot limit God by human limitations.

I couldn’t do it this way. You couldn’t either. But, we’re not God. And nobody wants to worship a God that I can fully explain.

You don’t want a God that fits inside my pea-sized little brain.

Every situation we face god is sovereign and gives us the opp to make choices.

Somehow it works.

Regularly in our lives we will face choices that are not clear to us which is the best way to go.

God offers and provides wisdom directly when we ask.

But, even then the choice may not be clear.

There are also ppl around us who can help clarify which fork to take.

If you can’t make the choice of which fork to take then choose wisely which advisors to ask.

Ultimately, it’s your choice. But, God gives us opportunities to make the best choices no matter how hard they may be.

Solomon came to the golden years of his life and he did not finish well. When we are in our golden year we have the opportunity to do things differently.

There are consequences to our poor choices.

Not only do we bring unnecessary trouble into our lives, but our children, grandchildren and friends need for us to set a better example by finishing well.

Here are 3 things we need to apply to be able to finish better than Solomon.

Applications

Advisors

Choose good ppl to ask for advice.

Then, when they give it, do it.

When your doctor, mechanic, or counselor tells you what’s wrong and how to fix it, wisdom would be to do it their way.

If they are wrong, you made a bad choice in the first place. Choose better advisors.

But, once you’ve got good ppl in your life, let them help you pick the right fork.

ID the ppl in your life who are your best advisors.

Lead Servant

Live and lead like Jesus.

If you want to influence ppl the right way, serve them, don’t bully them.

Work on relationships, understand where they are, help them get where they want to go.

Be the lead servant in your home, you circle of friends, and in this community.

What can you do to serve the ppl you want to see be closer to Christ?

Sovereignty

This is a tough place to live in the tension between submitting to a sovereign God and making choices that effect your life and the lives of those around you.

Passivity rarely works. God wants us t/b actively pursuing what He wants us to choose.

Whatever, we choose, He makes it work in the plane He put in place at the beginning of time.

Be okay w/ His plan for your life.

Actively pursue what He wants for you and choose those things.

Don’t fight Him, follow Him.

Don’t usurp Him, understand what He wants you to do.

Accept His leadership over your life and follow closely to the finish.

How do you know what fork to take? Or spoon?

God has given us ample opportunity for helpful advice when it comes to tough decisions in tough situations.

Be careful who you ask. Then, when you get good advice take it.