← ArchiveKings and KingdomsKings and Kingdoms – The longest journey of our lives (10:23-25)DateJanuary 26, 2025Speaker—Text1 Kings 3Passages in this sermon1 Kings 102:181 Kings 36:59James 1:59:021 Kings 3:2812:51Proverbs 119:282 Corinthians 624:54Psalms 5134:40Matthew 1235:48TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00We'll be right back. Okay, welcome to the church that gathers here at Bethel.0:30My name is Josh, one of your pastors, and it is good to be back. Last week, I was preaching in Montgomery, Alabama at one of your partners, the Life Church. They celebrated their second year anniversary in inner city Montgomery.0:57What a phenomenal anniversary. And while I was gone, Pastor Jared preached here, preached on the tabernacle. There you are. Did a great job. Did you ever think you'd be preaching on the tabernacle? But did a fantastic job. And church, let me just say this. One, you are blessed with incredible godly leadership at this church, that when your lead pastor is not here, you have other men who can stand in the gap and lead the word.1:21And you're also blessed with incredible partners around the world. Montgomery, St. Clair County, and also to the uttermost ends of the earth. It's a reminder of God's favor here. As we start, I want to welcome everyone. If you're watching online and worshiping with us, whether it's here locally or maybe even in Greece, if you are new here. And also, I want to give a special shout out.1:50We have a growing young men's section at the top. I call those the boys in the balcony. So, church, if you would help me welcome all the guests and the boys in the balcony, give them a big round of applause. So, good to see you guys there. We're jumping back into the book of Kings, 1 Kings, in a series we've called Kings and Kingdoms. And as you turn to 1 Kings chapter 10, today's message is called The Longest Journey of the Soul.2:18Studies would show that the typical distance between your mind and your heart is roughly 18 inches. Now, for the doctors in our midst and for the literalists there, you're going to Google it and say, Well, Pastor, it's actually 20 to 24 inches. That is true. But just stay with me. Metaphorically, about 18 inches between your mind and your heart.2:47But that's not a distance that's measured in miles or even inches. That's a distance that bridges the gulf between our understanding and our discernment. Our love and our mind. And I believe that the space between knowing and feeling, logic and love, is where righteous wisdom is found. You see, righteous wisdom lives at the intersection of those 18 inches.3:14Where our mind and our heart mix for the glory of the Lord. And it's not just what you know in your mind about the Lord that counts. And it's not just what you feel in your heart about God that makes a difference. It's how these two connect together that shapes us, that molds us for the glory of the Lord.3:34This truly is the longest journey of our lives. Today, we'll return to the story of Solomon. Solomon, a man whose name is synonymous with wisdom. When given the chance, God asked him, Hey, I will give you anything you want in the world. He did not choose wealth or power or long life.4:03He chose wisdom. But what makes Solomon extraordinary is not just what he knew. It's how his wisdom bridged the gap between what he knew and doing the will of the Lord. So as we dive into the book of 1 Kings, and it's in the Old Testament, Samuel King's Chronicles. If you're looking to find your place. Let me ask, what would your life look like if you were marked by the wisdom of the Lord?4:32Not just your knowledge of God, or not simply your affections for the Lord. What would your life look like if you were known as a man or a woman who walked in the wisdom and the admonition of Jesus Christ? What would your home look like? What would your workplace look like if you were known by the wisdom of the Lord?5:00Today's message, the longest journey of our lives. The distance between our head and our hearts. So let's read 1 Kings 10, 23 through 25, and then I'll pray, and then we'll jump into the word together. 1 Kings 10, 23. I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible. King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the world in riches and in wisdom.5:24The whole world wanted an audience with Solomon to hear wisdom that God had put in his heart. So now the wisdom is a mix of head and heart. Every man would bring his annual tribute, items of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, and horses and mules, just to get an audience with a man who had the wisdom of the Lord.5:52Let me pray. Father, oh, that we would have the wisdom of heaven. Lord, that our minds would be filled with the glory of heaven. Lord, that our minds would be filled with the revealed words in your scripture.6:16Words that are a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. Oh, today that our hearts would be full of abundant life, found from the fountain that is drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Lord, give us wisdom. May our minds and our hearts be yours, undivided.6:41This is our prayer. In Jesus' holy name we pray. Amen. And amen. Well, we're going to start where it all began in Solomon's life. So if you want to turn to 1 Kings chapter 3, you can. One night at Gibeon, the Lord asked Solomon, I will give you anything you desire. Ask, what should I give you?7:12Now let's pause there. Can you imagine if the Lord right now, if you found under your seat a blank check from God, and God said, Brad, I've signed my name. Write anything you want. What would we ask for? Would you ask for wealth? Health? Kingdoms? Honor? Maybe you say, well, if the world just knew who I was, then I would have respect.7:41Would you ask for healing for a friend or a long life? Maybe, as we have seen in scripture, maybe you ask for the death of your enemies. Solomon doesn't ask for any of that. He humbly asks God for a receptive heart in 1 Kings 3. And because he asks rightly, God gives him wisdom and he gives him wealth. You see, his request pleases the Lord.8:10And it shows us the heart, I believe, of our heavenly father. God is a father who loves you, who cares for you, and he wants you to ask for good things in your life from him. Jesus tells us that. He said, well, if earthly fathers wouldn't give a snake to a son who asked for bread or stone, how much more would your heavenly father give you? James, the brother of Jesus Christ.8:40He tells us, if any of you lacks wisdom. And I would venture to guess everyone in this room lacks a little bit of wisdom. Somewhere. James says, ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly. In James 1.5. And it will be given to him. So James says, God loves you. He cares for you. And if you ask, he will give.9:09Jesus says, ask and it will be given. Knock and the door shall be opened. Seek and you will find. So we're going to pause this message. What would it actually do in our lives? If we took the word of God seriously. If we were asking people, believing that God was a giving father. So I'm going to give you about 30 seconds. Would you boldly ask God for wisdom in your life? Not wealth, not health, not the cursing of your enemies.9:37Would you simply say to God as Solomon did, Lord, give me a receptive heart. Give me wisdom. Because I know that you have and I know that you can. Let's pray. Let's pray.10:02Father, we pray right now, believing that you are a father who loves each and every one of us. So we are doing what you tell us. That when we ask for wisdom, you will give generously and without holding a grudge or even scolding us, Lord.10:27Grant us your wisdom. That we would walk in your ways and live in step with your spirit. Give, Father, because your children are asking.10:55We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And so the Lord gave abundantly. And in scripture, we find two major examples of Solomon's wisdom. If you find yourself in 1 Kings 3, you can still follow along. There's a story that there's two women living in the same house. And they both have infant children.11:23One night, one of the child passes away. One mom wakes up and realizes that her child has passed away. So she switches her dead infant with the infant of the other child. And they both wake up. And there's an issue. The mom who has the living child says, something's wrong. And the mom who had the dead child said, something's wrong. And so they go to Solomon. And they said, oh, wise king, you tell us what to do.11:51And Solomon says, okay, here's what we're going to do. Give me a sword. What? Yeah, give me a sword. We'll chop the living child in two and we'll divide the halves. Now, first instinct is what a murderous, evil king. But immediately the mom whose child is living said, no, don't do that. Give the child to the other mom.12:20And Solomon, knowing the heart of a parent, says that's the mom right there. Because she would rather give her child away and not see her child ever again and that child live than to see her child lose his life. And the Bible says about this interaction, it says that Israel stood in awe of King Solomon because they saw the wisdom in him.12:39That's 1 Kings 3.28. Later on, there's a second reminder of God's wisdom. It's actually found embedded in this text I read today. In chapter 10, the Bible says that the queen of Sheba is coming from the south to Solomon. The queen of Sheba is either in Yemen or Ethiopia.13:08Now, Yemen and Ethiopia border each other by a sea. So it could be either one. And it says that she is going to Solomon and she is asking for wisdom. She is speaking to him, the Bible says, about everything on her mind. Now, let me just give you some advice to the men. That is different than the queen of Sheba saying, I'm going to give you a piece of my mind. Different wisdom involved here.13:39Okay. Let the hearer understand. So she asks, and the Bible says that when Solomon begins to open his mouth and she hears the word of the Lord, look at verse 5. The very end of verse 5 says that it took her breath away in chapter 10. It takes her breath away. And then in verse 9, the queen of Sheba says this. Blessed be the Lord your God.14:09Now, that is highly sacrificial and that is highly covenantal language. She says, blessed be the name of the Lord your God. He delighted in you. He put you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel, he made you king to carry out justice and righteousness. Let's pause. Something interesting about the queen of Sheba.14:39The last time you heard a pagan woman, a woman not of covenantal faith, say these things and declare these things about the Lord God of Israel. Do you know who it was? You can just, you can give me random, you can give me wrong answers. I'll forgive you. I'm getting old too. Okay, I have not planted Chris in this audience.15:12It was Rahab. The last time a foreigner declared the glory of the Lord with such specificity on her lips, it was Rahab. And that would make sense because the last time you hear the phrase, something took their breath away. It was said of the Canaanites when they saw the Israelites coming and they knew that God was on their side. And it took their breath away. Church, what would it take for the world to look at your life and my life and be in awe of God to the point where it took their breath away?15:43How much wisdom would we need? How much holiness would we need to exude for the world to say, wow, we don't even worship the God that you worship, but we can't believe our eyes. You love like no one we've seen. You give like no people that we've seen. You pray like no one we've seen.16:11You're kind when people curse you and you bless them and turn and you give to those who are in need. What's wrong with you people? What would our world look like if God's wisdom was so dense in our life that it took their breath away? And let me just say, it should not take someone coming from Sheba to acknowledge the glory of God in our midst.16:36But praise be to the Lord for Rahab and for Sheba who recognize what God is doing in his covenantal people. Now don't forget about the Queen of Sheba because you're going to hear about this individual later on in the New Testament. So we see wisdom and we ask, well, if this is a spiritual journey of the mind, what did God actually give Solomon?17:05Did he score a 36 on the ACT? Did he pass all of his honors courses? Maybe he was street smart and not book smart. What was the wisdom that God gave? Well, biblical wisdom always is a two-pronged wisdom. First, it's the ability to discern and apply knowledge.17:31So it's the ability to read the word of God and apply it. That's the first verse of the wisdom song. But there's a second definition, second part. And it's to understand God in a way that aligns your life with the will and the purposes of the Lord. Because if you say to me, well, pastor, I understand everything in the Bible, I would say, really?17:58You understand everything, but let's just assume that's true. If you can apply the word of God, but your life does not align with the word of God, you're not wise. Because the knowledge of God should lead to the rightness in the way that we live. Scholars would call the right thinking of God orthodoxy, right?18:26Right thinking about the Lord. But orthodoxy always leads to orthopraxy. It's the practice of God in your life. And I would argue that the people who live closer to the Lord understand him more fully than the rest of the world combined. Does your life align in the will of the Lord? So let us not be content with big heads and little hearts.18:56May we not be content with the empty husk of worldly wisdom that doesn't lead to Jesus Christ. Because that wisdom is folly wrapped up in pride. It's a husk and no kernel. But may we seek wisdom that transforms the mind, that aligns the heart, and leads to hands that serve the Lord, and feet that walk upon the path of righteousness.19:24That's why in Proverbs 1, 7, Proverbs, most scholars would say that Ecclesiastes, the book of love, was written by a young man named Samuel. Sorry, named Solomon. And Proverbs was written by an older man named Solomon. And Proverbs, in verse 7 of chapter 1, Solomon says this, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and understanding.19:53Oh, that we would have the fear of the Lord in our lives. Maybe you're like me, and you read this, and you say, okay, pastor. So Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. Then he clearly was the most righteous man who ever lived.20:20Because having a mind in Christ should lead to a life of Christ. Well, I want to get really technical in Hebrew with you for a moment. So I put some Hebrew notes on the screen in front of you.20:41So, we're going to give you PhD 101. So, Lucy's written a story, right? And so, is that Linus, right? Linus to my right, is it Lucy? It's been a long time. Okay, and so the king was granted his wish, she reads. Everything he touched would turn to gold. I would say everything he touched turned to wisdom. And now, the next day, Linus says, stop. You don't have to tell me anything else. I know what's going to happen.21:10These things always have a way of backfiring. Which is exactly what happens in the word. In chapter 10, you have the word wisdom is sprinkled throughout the biblical text. Solomon is wise. He is understanding. The world is coming to see his wisdom. And then, in chapter 11, there is an abrupt shift. The word wisdom, which permeates chapter 10, is replaced.21:38In 11, you see words, the king Solomon loved someone. In verse 2, it says that his heart was turned away. To these women, Solomon was deeply attached. That's the language of heart. Verse 4, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted. Something happened to Solomon's heart between chapter 10 and chapter 11.22:06Church, this is a good reminder for us. You can have a mind full of the word and have a heart that is far from him. Beware. So, how do we connect our heart and our mind? Let's look at the spiritual journey of the heart. So, if the world and Queen of Sheba is impressed with Solomon's words and his wealth, the Lord is unimpressed. The wealth of heaven is measured not by external adornment, but by internal virtues.22:37By integrity. So, let's read verses 1 through 4 really quick. King Solomon loved many foreign women, in addition to Pharaoh's daughter. He loved a Moabite, an Ammonite, an Edomite, a Sidonian, and a Hittite. Not to be confused with the termite.23:07From the nations which the Lord had told Israel, you must not. And if Solomon's mind is filled with the word of God, he knew this. You must not intermarry with them because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods. To these women, Solomon was deeply attached in love. Because, if you love someone, God will understand.23:34Where do you think that came from? He had 700 wives who were his princesses and 300 who were concubines. And they turned his heart away. When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow their gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God as his father David had been. Okay, let's look at the heart of the matter.24:04Because wisdom is the intersection between your heart and your mind. Firstly, the spiritual journey of your heart includes other people. For Solomon, that included the Moabites and the Edomites among others. Solomon knew better. But, he loved. He was in love. Surely God would understand. He was in love with his wealth and he was in love with himself.24:32Because Solomon knew that God had forbidden these things. Dear Christian, hear the words of the Lord. Be careful who you give your heart to. Be careful who you give your heart to. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14 says, Do not be yoked together with those who do not believe. Where does that come from? It comes from this passage, which is built on the foundation of the Mosaic law.25:01God says, Do not give your heart to someone who will turn your heart away from the Lord. And if you say, Well, it won't happen to me. Really. You're wiser than Solomon. Let me know how that works out for you. And it goes even further. 2 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians would say,25:31Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. In every sexual and romantic relationship, you are giving someone your heart. The spiritual journey of your heart includes other people. And if this is the negative side, there's a positive side. The person that you love deeply with your heart26:00can have the greatest impact on your righteousness other than Jesus Christ of any person in the world. The spiritual journey of the heart includes other people. We also see this warning in this text. Subtle sin has devastating results. Solomon ascribed to the ancient wise proverb. Happy wives, happy lives. And he ascribed to the ancient proverb that the entire world is doing it.26:28So it must not be bad. So in Solomon's day, if you made a treaty with someone, you would marry his daughter. And so a lot of these were based on political treaties. He said, oh, you're a friend. I'm going to marry Pharaoh's daughter. Or hey, you're an enemy. I'm going to marry your daughter and you're going to become a friend. But sin that seems subtle and small and maybe even right by the world's standards is like a dam26:52that is holding back a reservoir of water. And it's just a small crack. It's just subtle. But the more pressure that is put on that crack from above, it does not minimize the sin. The subtlety of that sin grows and grows in your life. And the whole reservoir collapses before you know it. And we see this true in Solomon's life.27:21Look at verse 7. At that time, Solomon built a high place for, you would say chemosh, but it's ch-mosh. It's fun to say. The abhorrent idol of Moab and Milcom. The abhorrent idol of the Amorites on a hill across from Jerusalem.27:48It's just a small thing to marry, right? To marry that daughter. I know the Lord forbid it, but I'm the wisest person who's ever lived. I know better than God. And that small, subtle crack led him to build a high place. Scholars would say that the temple for Ch-mosh was built above the temple of Jerusalem. Which meant that every time God's people went to the temple and they looked,28:20every time they walked up to the temple of the Lord, as they walked up, guess what they were looking at? The temple of the Lord was now built in the shadow of the temple of Ch-mosh. And not only that, scholars would say it's most likely built on the east side of Jerusalem, across the valley. Today, that is called the Mount of Olives. So Solomon built an idolatrous temple to another God on the Mount of Olives.28:46Church, your subtle sins have devastating results. May we take that to heart. We also see in Solomon's life that internal sin is not an invisible sin. Internal sin is not invisible sin. Some of us today are saying, well, no one knows what I'm doing.29:13That's not true. First Samuel, the prophet, goes to anoint a new king. Actually, that king ended up being Solomon's dad, a man named David. And Solomon goes and sees David, and he says, Lord, this is not your man. And the Lord tells David, through the mouth of Samuel, Samuel, don't you understand that the world looks at the outside,29:40but God looks at the heart? There is no such thing as invisible sin. God knows everything about us. And long before anyone noticed the excavation work to the idolatrous temple of Chemosh on the Mount of Olives, the heart of Solomon had already changed. Before the permit was given to Jerusalem to build that temple,30:09his heart was already turned. There is no such thing as invisible sin. And if you are wrestling with internal sin today, don't think that you can leave here and God understands. No, you are here to find conviction of the Holy Spirit that will lead you to the Lord and say, God, I'm tired of what is a crack internally remaining. Cleanse me, purify me, and wash me whole.30:35And Solomon would say to you and I today, it is not worth it. There is no such thing as invisible sin. And lastly, we see here, the Bible never separates the mind and the heart. We do that.31:05You know why we do that? Because the person who says, Lord, I have intellect. I'll give you my heart. And so we separate the two. The person who has a big heart for the Lord and a small mind, we say, well, Lord, look at my heart. I raise my hands in worship. I give faithfully. Look at what I do. I will give you my heart. And God says, no, I want your undivided attention.31:33God wants our heart. He wants our mind. You see, embedded in this is there's a subtle turn in Solomon's life. And you can't see it in the English, but it's there in the Hebrew. Look at verse four. When Solomon was old, his wives, plural, 700 plus of them, turned his heart away from following other gods.32:02He was not wholeheartedly turned towards the Lord. The word wholeheartedly is shalem. Shalem. Solomon's was not wholeheartedly given to the Lord. Shalem. Solomon's name in Hebrew is shalemo.32:33So shalemo was not shalem to the Lord. And I believe the pun was even greater than that word. The reminder is the person who is the wisest king to ever live did not wholeheartedly and wholemindedly give his life to the Savior. I believe Solomon would tell us today, church,33:03a mind full of God without heart is legalism. And it will lead you to hell. A heart turned towards God with no mind is emotionalism. And emotionalism leads to hell. But a heart, a mind, soul, and strength given to the Lord33:26is a beautiful gospel reminder of faith. Look at verse six. Look at what God says about Solomon. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Unlike his father, David,33:55he did not remain wholeheartedly. Beware, dear friends, for a divided heart to God is the first step to divided allegiance. Divided heart is the first step to divided allegiance. And mark this distinction. Mark verse six in your Bible. David fell spiritually in tremendous ways.34:25But when he fell, he fell towards God, not away from God. He fell on his knees. Psalm 51, where David has sinned, he said, Lord, against you and you only have I sinned. It's as if when David fell, he fell on his knees before God, not away. And may we do the same.34:54May the greatest fear that we have would be the fear of David. Lord, do not take your presence from me. Lord, may I never worship in the shadow of Kemosh. May I never worship with a heart that is half yours. May my loyalties not be undivided. And you might be thinking,35:24well, pastor, what in the world does queen of Sheba have to do with me? Some of you are thinking, well, I am a queen. About time you recognize that. Mm-hmm. You're giving the side eyes right now to your husband, your boyfriend. I am that queen. Jesus later on to his disciples mentions this passage in Matthew 12. He says, the queen of the south,35:52that's the queen of Sheba, will rise up in the judgment with the generation and condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and look, and this is where we're going to end today. Jesus says, look, someone greater than Solomon is here. Someone greater than Solomon. My friends, the longest journey of our lives36:21is not measured in years or days or miles. The longest journey of our lives is measured from the distance between your head and your heart. What will you do with the words of Jesus when he says, someone greater than Solomon is here? Would you by faith believe that? Would you say to Jesus, I believe that to be true? And Lord,36:51And Lord, today for the first time, I believe that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And I believe that fools despise discipline and discernment. Lord, give me fear of you today. Fear of the Lord is not found in going to church. It's not found in opening the word. It's not found in mental assent. Fear of the Lord is found in humble submission to Jesus Christ. To say,37:21To say, God, I am a sinner and there's nothing I can do on my own to remedy this. There's no temple I can build. There's no wife I can marry, plural. There's nothing I can build for you, God. Solomon's not the answer, but the greater Solomon is the answer. I believe that you sent Jesus Christ to live a perfect life that I couldn't live. I believe you sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross and I believe that is foolish by the world's standards. Lord,37:51Lord, I believe that you take the foolish things of the worlds to shame the world and bring wisdom to the wise. The cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the gift of God. Church, one greater than Solomon is here. And would you follow him today? today? As one38:21As one who would give account for your souls, I plead with you. Let your love for Jesus today not be undivided. May your love for Christ be the flame that consumes the whole altar, leaving nothing behind but a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord. Fix your whole heart upon God. fix your whole mind upon God. And I pray38:51that the world would look at this gathering and stand in awe and say, man, the fragrance of Christ is strong in you. The spirit of the Lord is hot in you. And the power of God is evidence in you. we hold the wisdom of God in jars of clay that the39:21that the all-surpassing knowledge will not be in us but be found in the Lord our God. The longest journey we will ever take is the journey between our mind and our heart. And may God have both in our lives. Let's pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.← Previous in Kings and KingdomsKings and Kingdoms – A Blueprint for FaithfulnessNext in Kings and Kingdoms →Kings and Kingdoms – “Why did you tear my new clothes?” (1 Kings 11:26-43)More sermons on 1 Kings →
