Me, Myself, and I and maybe a little bit of God

We all know people who have unique traits and skills that when we see those traits we think to ourselves if only they would use those traits for growing the kingdom of God. The trait I particularly have an interest in, this particular morning, is called enableing. The Enabling trait doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, or comfortable. Often this trait is passed down over time throughout a family. It is a learned behaviour that is inherited.

In the psychotherapy and the mental health field, enabling has been defined as a positive sense of empowering individuals or a negative sense of encouraging dysfunctional behaviour in individuals.

Enabling can be a good thing, enablers know how to talk people down from dangerous situations so they are good negotiators. Enablers also know how to encourage others around them to do things they don’t necessarily want to do. So how is this good? Enablers can be a huge part in making someone else’s life notably better. But despite this, I tend to dislike the enabler trait when negatively used. Enablers tend to be a bit too proud, so proud that there is always room for humility.

An enabler with the skill to play a sport really well, will look at their teammates as nothing more than a hindrance to winning.

You gift another enabler with the ability to talk, and next thing you know their friends are giving them that iPod that they just got.

You put yet another enabler who likes to smoke in the company of someone who is trying to quit smoking and they happily encourage them to keep smoking, so they have a smoking buddy.

Let me apologize to anyone who identifies as an enabler, not all enablers misuse this unique skill set because on the flip side …

You show an enabler how to enable their teammates to score a goal and they will set up and help bring their team to the championship.

You sit an enabler down before speakers who teach them well and they turn around and share their knowledge in such a way that others come to a clear understanding of what they are sharing (whether it be math or the Gospel)

An enabler who gets a phone call, no matter what they are doing they will drop everything and drive out to where that person is to help them out and get them where they need to go safely.

Often enablers are a prideful lot. More often than not, for an enabler to be settled down they need a pretty decent portion of Humble Pie. Some will reject that piece of Humble Pie and I pray for those who do, because they have chosen a hard path to follow. Those who receive that hard-to-swallow pastry become better people for it. Many of them come to Jesus, influencing others for the Lord in a significant way.

Let me ask you this. When you critically evaluate yourself and your families behavioural tendacies, how would you define yourself? It’s not a particularly enjoyable thing when you stop and you think about your sins, and the sins your family have committed and begin to realize that there can actually be a single word you define yourself with. However, that single word can be a negative thing and a positive thing.

Are you an influencer? Have you influenced others to partake in the same activities you have?

Are you an enabler? Do you enable just yourself or others as well? What do you enable them in?

Are you passionate? Do your passions drive you? Are these passions directed at Kingdom building things?

Are you a gatherer? Do you gather up the things in life that are offered and do you care if those things are good or bad?

Are you steadfast? So steadfast that you’re not ever willing to admit you’re wrong? Or are you steadfast in following the scriptures?

Are you for yourself? Or Are you for Building the kingdom of God? Are you so distracted by your own goals and the furthering of you that you are willing for your heart to not be wholly devoted to the LORD your God?

We all know the subconscious answer you would give. You are for building the kingdom of God. Of course you are. Why wouldn’t you be? You come to church as an outstanding Christian and leave church an outstanding Christian. You look at your life and when you check of that check list you are hitting all the right marks. God has blessed you with your house, your bank accounts aren’t horrible, you have a couple vehicles in your name. And you tithe regularly. Check, check, check, and check.

There was this man who had his checklist as well, and by all accounts he was blessed. He had all the resources he would ever need, God had blessed him with wisdom. So much so that all the leaders in the known world sought him out for advice. He was a trades ambassador, a trades titan. He would make those on the Dragon’s Den look like dust mites put together. God had blessed him with the gift of wisdom and by golly he knew how to use it. People in that time looked at him and I bet you they thought he was pleasing God with what he was doing. He must have been right? Why would he be so successful if it wasn’t for God? Well we find ourselves looking at this story this morning in 1 Kings 10:14-29 this particular man I’m talking about is Solomon. We find King Solomon in this particularly affluent situation. He is so rich not only monetarily but also in wisdom that we see in verses 23-24 his wisdom was sought out from all the earth.

1 Kings 10:23–24 NASB95

So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.

At first, glance when we read 1 Kings 10: 14-29 we understandably come to the conclusion that God was blessing Solomon with these riches. But the only clear thing God blessed Solomon with was Wisdom. And Solomon had a choice in how he should use that Wisdom.

While King Solomon’s riches were growing, we can almost get this sense that it was all going to his head.

The issue with building all these resources is, from all appearances, it no longer looks to be Solomon building God’s kingdom, for the betterment of all God’s chosen people but rather Solomon building his kingdom. For Solomon’s betterment.

God was abundantly clear when he set these rules for a King in Deuteronomy 17:14-20

Deuteronomy 17:14–20 NASB95

“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

So when we read Chapter 10 we see Solomon was beginning to break a few of these rules. Solomon, unfortunately, began to take a spiral nose dive at this point, and it wasn’t just himself he was taking down but he was bringing the whole nation with him. The Israelite people have worked hard and have enjoyed the material success that Solomon’s wisdom brought them. They have seemingly remained faithful to God, probably because of the temple which seems to be a consistent “oh yeah forgot that was there” type of nuisance to the Israelite people. Israel is enjoying the position of power and influence they had not known before. But this doesn’t last, like I said before, Israel has entered into a nosedive, spiralling out of control. Keep in mind that the king isn’t supposed to acquire a great number of horses for himself or return to Egypt to get more. In addition, the King isn’t supposed to accumulate a large amount of gold or silver, you wouldn’t think Solomon would fall any farther. Let’s read 1 Kings 11: 1-8

1 Kings 11:1–8 NASB95

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 sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Now, we see Solomon has fallen into more trouble. Solomon, as the King of Israel, disobeyed God not once, not twice, no not three times. By my count, he has committed more than 6 acts that go against God’s commands.

What was the underlying factor? Well, who benefits most out of each and every one of Solomon’s disobedient acts? Solomon does.

When God had called the Israelites to action each time he expected them to respond while following Him. Each time the Israelites responded out of their own abilities rather than trusting in God, God made sure they learned their lesson.

Now one might be asking what's the difference between David (Solomon’s Dad) and Solomon?

Solomon and David had two different priorities. Solomon weighed his success by one checklist. Material Wealth. And David he weighed his success by a completely checklist and it only had one box to check complete obedience to God.

So when God dished out a decent portion of humble pie to David; David repented with all his heart to God.

David even laments a whole Psalm (Psalm 51) in response to his sinful ways.

Psalm 51 NASB95

For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

David fell to the floor and stayed there lamenting to God for days. Asking God for his forgiveness after God had called out David’s sin. David poured his heart and soul out holding nothing back pleading for God’s forgiveness. Solomon. Solomon may as well have just shrugged God’s condemnation off. Why? Because according to Solomon’s checklist he was successful. He had the latest and best mustangs (the horses), he had the ladies, and he had all the money he would ever need and want and more. One could also speculate, he looked at his life and saw the sin that was in it, and saw how much self-pleasure it gave him. He may have considered for a second lamenting and repenting to God like he saw his father (David) do, but Solomon’s heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

Rather than being devoted to keeping his covenant with God and building God’s kingdom with the natural gifts that God gave Solomon. In the end, Solomon was interested in only measuring his success according to his checklist and he ignored how God.

History proves time and time again that we are the ones who bring about our own destruction.

Proverbs 16:18 reminds us:

Proverbs 16:18 NASB95

Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.

If only we would submit everything to Jesus, not trying to grab more and more for ourselves.

If only we wouldn’t use the gifts that God has given us to further just ourselves.

The gifts God gave us aren’t meant for just our own betterment.

They are meant to better God’s kingdom.

Solomon was an enabler. He enabled the Israelite people to advance beyond their wildest dreams. He enabled trades between the Egyptians, Moabites, and Hittites to name a few. He enabled rulers around the world with his wisdom. But when it came to enabling the kingdom of God, Solomon fell short, and the Israelite people would pay dearly.

Imagine what our world would look like if we would all commit to using the gifts that come naturally to us to further God’s kingdom and not keeping them to ourselves due to our own prejudices. Someone is waiting to hear the good news from you, in only the way you can share it. The Gospels' Good News isn’t supposed to be just shared from the pulpit but from the Churches whole body. Each part of the body tells the good news in only the way that part of the body can share it.

So how would you define yourself? And are you only interested in using your gifts for you and just a select few? Or are you willing to use the gifts God has given you to serve God and His Kingdom?

And how do you measure your success? Remember sometimes the way we measure our success is vastly different from how God measures our success. More often than not God has one thing for us to check off and that would be “Complete Obedience to God.”

I’ll leave you with this final verse.

It comes from 1 Peter 4:10-11

1 Peter 4:10–11 NASB95

As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Let’s Pray.