Powerful Prayers - WK 3 - Solomon

I have a question:

What would you do if you won 100 million dollars?

I was going to say ‘1 million dollars’, but nowadays a million dollars is ‘put a downpayment on a regular-sized house’ or ‘buy half a tank of gasoline’. So I needed to increase the amount of money.

What would you do?

To most of us, this sounds like a HUGE opportunity.

God gave Solomon BASICALLY the same offer.

1 Kings 3:5 NIV

At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

So, the Lord of all the earth says to Solomon - ask WHATEVER you want.

1 Kings 3:6–10 NIV

Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.

Solomon asked himself:

What do I need to do the best job for God?

To solomon, the question really WAS ‘what would you do with a hundred million dollars’. God’s riches and power were infinite. and he’s just been written a blank cheque.

And the first thought in solomon’s head was ‘hm… I wonder what I would do with this offer.... for God’.

The truth is - You don’t need wisdom to be a king. There are plenty of rulers nowadays who rule AND lack wisdom - or even basic human decency, kindness, a respect for human life.

But Solomon needed it to do the job the way God wanted it done. And that’s what was most important to him.

We can learn 3 things about powerful prayer from Solomon’s priorities here.

Firstly, Solomon knew he was there because

God put him there out of kindness

We forget how unbelievably forgiving God is.

Talking about how we judge other people, Paul has this to say:

Romans 2:4 NIV

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Solomon’s request of God was so powerful because he understood this idea of the riches of God’s kindness.

He wasn’t the firstborn son - so he was king because God decreed it.

Many of david’s sons had tried to become king - but solomon was put there because God picked him.

Solomon’s mother was Bathsheba. HER STORY. If there’s ever a story of ‘ya, let’s just sweep this son under the rug’, it’s Solomon.

When we pray, we need to understand that

God’s bank account of kindness and patience is limitless

I told someone the other day, that i’m convinced that many churches and christians struggle not because God has given up on them, but because they’ve given up on the idea that God HASN’T given up on them.

That question I started with, what would you do with a hundred million dollars. Sooner or later, there’s a wall. A limit. Sooner or later, a hundred million would just…run out.

God’s kindness, his patience - it’s infinite. It’s rich, it’s full. It’s more complete and forgiving and embracing than we ever deserve.

God’s not offering us 100 million, he’s offering us trillions upon trillions upon trillions.

And God’s kindness is a really big deal. Later in romans, Paul says:

Romans 2:5 NIV

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

But he’s not talking about their sinfulness there. He’s talking about how they stubbornly keep being judgmental, and keep showing contempt for God’s kindness.

The thing that pushed them over the edge into the territory of God’s wrath was stubbornness and contempt. That’s a sobering thought.

Secondly, Solomon knew

He didn’t have what it takes to live up to what God wanted

This is a GREAT starting point for prayer. Solomon knew he had a job to do, he was put there for a reason by God’s kindness.

And he looked at the situation, at the people, and at God and say ‘yep, I do NOT have enough of what it takes here’.

And here’s the secret -

We don’t have what it takes to do what God can do

And we can have powerful prayers, when we lay that down as our foundation.

1 Timothy 1:15–16 NIV

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

Paul is saying - Jesus picked me not because i was good enough, but PRECISELY because I wasn’t. He didn’t want to show off my strength, he wanted to show off his power and patience.

To me, it’s an automatic red flag if we come out of seeing an answer to prayer with a higher sense of how good WE are. Because way more often than not, God’s here to show how much you can’t do it - but He can. God’s kindness isn’t here to show you how good you are - it’s here to show you how good He is.

I think of my wife, and whenever she tells me she loves me , or does something nice for me, just in general when she’s awesome, I don’t think ‘Well, obviously she loves me, look at me - i’m great’.

I think, ‘Thank God that lovely woman has that much patience and forgiveness’.

God answering prayer should always remind us how merciful and kind he is. If it leads us to look at ourselves as any better than we are, put it in reverse.

lastly, Solomon knew that

Prayer was about getting done what God wanted

He knew that ‘Solomon prospered’ wasn’t the goal. The goal was ‘God’s plan prospers through Solomon’.

And this sounds counterintuitive, because this is the entire point of prayer! To bring to God the stuff we need! Or want. To keep him in the loop.

But the truth is, prayer is about us connecting with God - and

learning to align ourselves more with God’s plans

Jesus qualified what makes prayer successful:

John 15:7 NIV

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

prayer needs to be laser focused on this idea of making sure that we ourselves, we remain in God, and that His words remain in our hearts and our lives.

And, sidebar:

Nobody can do this for you

This is not something i do for you, or someone else does on your behalf. It takes reading our bibles. It takes praying regularly. It takes a commitment every day to stop and say, ‘God, I want to try and live the way you want me to live today’.

And this is a big promise - if you’re aligned, ask for anything, and it’ll be done.

But the truth is - When you are THAT aligned with God, whatever comes out of your mouth - it’s gonna be what God wanted to do.

And I’ve asked this question with every message - ‘what about me?’ what do I get out of this?

Honest question.

1 Kings 3:10–14 NIV

The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”

God said - because you didn’t focus on yourself, I AM going to focus on you. Because you didn’t seek to enlarge your kingdom, I AM going to enlarge it.

Solomon busied himself with taking care of God, and

God busied himself with taking care of Solomon

God gave him GREAT wisdom.

And great riches.

Again, NOTHING about this should be a surprise.

Matthew 6:33 NIV

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Jesus says -

take care of God’s business first, and God will take care of your business best

way better than you ever could. Because God knows what you need better than you do.

And he can do what needs to be done better than you can.

THE GOSPEL

We can trust Jesus and give Him our lives

Romans 10:9 NIV

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:11 NIV

As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

When we trust Him and follow Him, when we make Him our lord - we’ll never be put to shame. God WILL answer, He WILL take care of us. We just have to trust Him.

INVITE