When Wisdom Isn't Enough

And we're in 1 Kings chapter number 3. I want to say very quickly thank you to you all and Brother Tyler for allowing me this opportunity of getting to preach. I never take it lightly be in prayer with Brother Tyler and his family as they are away as he's preaching this morning and give them safe travels as they return to us this evening.

We're going to start in verse number 5 of 1 Kings chapter number 3 and it says, In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said, ask what I shall give thee.

And Solomon said, thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee. And thou hast kept for him this great kindness that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day.

And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father. And I am but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in.

And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen. A great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad.

For who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, because thou hast asked this thing and has not asked for thyself long life, neither has asked riches for thyself, nor has asked the life of thine enemies, but has asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment.

Behold, I have done according to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.

Most people remember two things from Solomon's life. The fact that he was the wisest man ever to walk the face of the earth behind Jesus Christ himself. And secondly, about the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of wives and gods he later served in his life.

Two very contrary things. And we are going to look at both parts of his life and see what we can take away from that this morning. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this opportunity that we have to dive into your word this morning.

Just allow you to use me through your words to be a vessel for your words this morning, for your people. Help us to glean something from your word this morning, from Solomon's life, that we can take and use with us throughout the week this week.

Be with Brother Tyler and his family as they are away. Be with him as he's preaching even now and give them safe travels as they return. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing.

This morning I was studying my message and looking. I always like to open my sermons with an illustration. And I was searching and I kept coming back to one thing.

And it's actually my very favorite Disney movie ever made. It was a classic in my mind. The animated version, not the live action, the animated version of Aladdin.

One of my favorite movies ever made. Aladdin is one of my favorite characters as a matter of fact. I love the rags to riches story and the character arc of Aladdin and how he comes to realize what's most important.

He's been too selfish. But throughout the entire movie, I like the genie the best. It might be because it's Robin Williams and I think Robin Williams is hilarious.

But the genie is a great character in the movie. Oftentimes he comes as the comedic relief. But Aladdin throughout the movie is figuring out a way.

If you've never seen Aladdin and are living under a rock. Aladdin is searching for a way to marry Jasmine. But Jasmine is supposed to marry a prince. And Aladdin is a lowly street rat.

So he's searching for a way. How can I find a way to marry Jasmine? What do I have to do to make her fall in love with me? So then, of course, we all know he finds a magic lamp and he rubs the magic lamp.

And out comes a blue genie. With all of his spiel that he's got to say, there are a couple things that Aladdin can't wish for. But other than that, he's got three things.

He can wish for three things in the entire world that he could want. And so, of course, Aladdin is trying to do the math in his mind. And how can I ask the genie to make me a prince and eventually one day maybe fall in love with Jasmine, her fall in love with me?

So throughout the first half of the movie, Aladdin is very selfishly using the genie. To be honest with you, if I had three wishes granted by a genie, I think I'd probably be pretty selfish too.

I'd ask for a million bucks, to be honest with you. But Aladdin is searching for a way to get with Jasmine. And finally, he asks to make him a prince. He lies to Jasmine throughout the movie.

And finally, at the end of the film, after they conquer everything, they finally love each other, he's met with one more wish. And rather than being selfish this time with his wishes, he realizes the best wish he could have is to set the genie free.

It's very heartwarming. Like I said, I love the movie Aladdin. But the story we are talking about today is actually quite opposite of how it worked with Aladdin. Aladdin starts off selfish with his wishes and then turns it around and finally realizes what's most important.

We have a man in Solomon who was doing the right thing from the onset. He was doing the right thing from the beginning. He had one wish that he could wish for in the entire world. God says you can wish for one thing.

What is it, Solomon? And he asked for wisdom. That does not sound like a guy that we are going to talk about here later in 1 Kings chapter 11. That sounds like a man really trying and striving to do what is right.

It sounds like a man trying to live for God and doing what he knows he should be doing. And in fact, in verse number 10, it says in the speech, please the Lord.

Later, we will find the Lord very angry with Solomon. It is two opposite verses. One time, the Lord is pleased with what Solomon is doing. The next, the Lord is angry with what he is doing.

So as we go over the life of Solomon today, I want to ask you one question. Do you think if you could see the Lord right now, he would say he would be pleased with your life?

Or do you think your life would further resemble the latter half of Solomon's life? Where he got away from the Lord, where he started living in disobedience and rebellion to God. And the Lord had to say, man, I'm angry with you, Solomon.

What would the Lord say about your life today? What is the Lord saying about your life today? Is he pleased with it? Or is he angry with where you're at today?

Solomon's life is divided into two parts. But first, we're going to talk about the good stuff that was going on in Solomon's life. Point number one, he made the right request.

Solomon made the right request. He could have asked for anything under the sun. He could have asked for money. He could have asked for all his enemies to be conquered.

He could have asked to be the most powerful man in all the world. But rather, he chose to ask for wisdom.

And as I was looking at these verses, one thing stuck out to me. Solomon, at this point, is a young man. A pretty powerful young man. And obviously, a very smart man as well already at this point.

In verse number seven, however, this is how he describes himself. It says, Do you know the first step in walking with the Lord?

Realizing our own inadequacy. Realizing that we are not enough. The only thing that can be enough is the Lord. Solomon realizes when everything is happening, I realize I'm just a little child.

David, my father, he was a great Christian. All these men before me, they were great Christians. I am nothing, God. Before you can truly walk with the Lord, you have to be brought to the bottom of yourself.

You have to lose all of yourself to realize that God is the only way forward. That's what happens with Solomon here. He has to realize that he is nothing in the grand scheme of life.

He can do nothing without God's help. Our first step must be to realize our only ability is through God's ability.

By the way, wisdom starts when we recognize that we need God. Wisdom is not being smarter than everybody else. Wisdom is not having more knowledge than everybody else.

It is realizing our need for the Savior and for God. It is realizing that we are not enough without God. So first he recognized his own inadequacy.

Then he desired wisdom instead of wealth. I looked up the definitions of godly wisdom and godly knowledge and wanted to see what the difference was. A lot of people interchange wisdom and knowledge to mean the same thing.

But they are two very different things. Godly knowledge is having a learning and understanding of the Bible. I imagine there are many smart people in this room.

Probably a lot smarter than I am. Most of us probably know the Bible pretty well. We know all the Bible stories. We know several verses. We know the Bible very well. Maybe we even read the Bible each and every day in our own alone time with God.

Let me just tell you, that does not mean you have godly wisdom. That means you have godly knowledge. But there's another step to get to wisdom. What is that step? The step of godly wisdom is executing on the godly knowledge that you have.

It is possible to have godly knowledge and lack godly wisdom. But get this. It is not possible to have godly wisdom and lack godly knowledge. It starts first here.

It starts first in God's word. We need godly knowledge. Godly knowledge is important. But if that's all we have, we've missed the point. If we only have the knowledge of God and knowledge of what God says, there's more to it.

Most of us, I understand, probably know the right things to do. We know what God has told us to do. That does not mean we have godly wisdom. That just means we know. Godly wisdom is executing on the knowledge that we already have.

Solomon had the option to ask for all these different things. But he rather chose wisdom. Because I think Solomon realized, I've got a lot of knowledge. He was probably like Ivy League knowledge level.

All right? This guy's smart. But he realized knowledge wasn't all he needed. He needed wisdom. He needed to execute on what he already knew God had told him to do. That's what we need.

We need to execute on the godly knowledge that God has given us. Not only that, God was pleased with his request. The request that he made for godly wisdom pleased God.

Later on in his life, Solomon's not pleasing God anymore. But at the beginning, at the onset, Solomon was living the right kind of life. Godly knowledge and godly wisdom is kind of like this.

When I was in school, I was pretty decent at school. But there was one subject I hated more than any other. Anybody, any of our teens taking geometry right now?

Any taking geometry? Okay. You got one or two. I hated geometry. And I always told my teacher, when am I ever going to use this? Brother Tyler is still yet to show me a shape and ask me what that shape is called.

All right? I don't think I needed geometry. I never thought I did. And what I hated most about geometry was proofs. When somebody asks me to prove that this is a triangle by giving me six steps that it is a triangle, I think that is the most foolish way to prove that something is a triangle.

I think you can look at a shape and say, yep, three sides, that's got to be a triangle. Four sides, that's a square. All right? I hated geometry. Didn't like it at all. Didn't think it was ever going to apply to my life.

Going through school is like that. As a kid, even in math class, we know we're going to need math. But even in math class, we say, I'm not really going to need to know this later.

All right? I just want to be an accountant. I don't need to know numbers. All right? That's what we say. I don't think I'm ever going to use this. It would be very foolish to go through school and use none of what we learned in school in life.

But here's the deal. If all we did in school, we learned it, we have it in our head, and we never use it, it does nothing. If all we do is hear this word, we learn this word, we tell the preacher every week, man, that's a great sermon.

If that's all we do and we never act on it, we're lacking the godly wisdom that God told us we needed in the first place. We're missing the execution of that knowledge.

Having all the knowledge in the world isn't good enough. You know who I think was one of the smartest men to ever live? Albert Einstein. He died a sinner, and he died on his way to hell because he had so much knowledge, but he missed what was right there in front of him the whole time.

As he lay on his deathbed, he knew there was a higher power. He just didn't know. He couldn't connect the dots. He didn't have the wisdom. He didn't have the knowledge to glean it and execute. Smart knowledge, it doesn't get you there.

Being a smart person was never the goal. And obviously, we see from Solomon's life, he realized that knowledge can only get you so far. Book smarts, I'm a book smart person.

Book smarts can only get me so far. At some point, you have to apply it to your life. I used this verse in Sunday school with the teens this morning, James 1.22.

Be not hearers of the word only, but be doers of the word. Don't sit in service and learn and glean all these things that are being taught to us, but never act on it.

We're lacking godly wisdom. Don't sit in the pew and learn all these things and then we go out on the week and then we come back next Sunday, learn the same stuff, and we never act on it.

Godly knowledge is executing the knowledge that God has given us in his word. That's what it is. And he made the right to request. He understood that knowledge, Solomon understood that knowledge was not all that he needed.

He needed that godly wisdom. And secondly, I see the wisdom on display. This might be one of my favorite stories in all the Bible.

If you have been paying attention to social media recently at all, you've seen a couple very notable court cases that have been transpiring in America. I like following that stuff.

I like mysteries. I like figuring out what actually happened, what was actually going on. Well, back in Solomon's day, they did not have video footage. They did not have things to decode DNA.

They didn't have all that. So when a court case was brought to Solomon, he kind of just had to do his best to figure it out himself. Look down with me in 1 Kings 3, verse 16.

And it says this. Then came there two women that were harlots under the king and stood before him. And the one woman said, Oh, my Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house.

And I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered that this woman was delivered also. And we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

And this woman's child died in the night because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while thine handmaid slept and laid it in her bosom and laid her dead child in my bosom.

And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead. But when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay, but the living is my son and the dead is thy son.

And this said, No, but the dead is thy son and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. What was Solomon supposed to do here?

Basically, there are two women that just had babies that live in the same house. They were both asleep at the same time, both in bed with their babies. One rolled over on her baby and killed him.

So, being wise as she was, she went and took her dead baby, laid it beside the mother with the alive baby, and took the alive baby for herself. But now it's a he said, she said, or a she said, she said in this case.

Trying to figure out, well, who did it? Whose baby is whose? We want to know what you think, king. Everybody at this point had heard about King Solomon's wisdom, so they figured Solomon could give us a pretty good answer.

And his next answer is better than any judge that has ever lived. Verse number 23. Then said the king, the one saith, this is my son that liveth.

And thy son is the dead. And the other saith, nay, but thy son is the dead. And my son is the living. And the king said, bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.

Then spake the woman whose the living child wasn't the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son. And she said, oh, my Lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

Then the king answered and said, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. She is the mother thereof. The thing I'm most impressed about Solomon is Solomon did not ask for wisdom, for godly wisdom for himself.

He wanted to display that wisdom for everybody else to see so he could help everybody else. And in this story, this is a crazy response that Solomon has. This is snap decision, snap moment.

He says, all right, ladies, here's what we're going to do. The one living baby that's left. I'm going to get my sword, and I'm going to divide the baby in half. And obviously the real mother comes forward and says, no, just keep it alive.

Give her the baby. I don't want it to die. And the other woman says, well, yeah, you can divide it. You can divide the baby in half. Give half to her, half to me.

And at that point, it's obvious who the actual mother was. Solomon did not use his wisdom to help himself. He used his godly wisdom to help others.

Throughout our story from chapter 3 and into chapter 4, Solomon uses everything that he does to help others. He's always thinking of God before himself.

He's always thinking of others before himself. And he's using his gifts that God has given him for the furtherance of the gospel.

His wisdom helped him lead God's people. Then his wisdom became known throughout the world. It says in 1 Kings 4, verse 29, And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore.

And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East Country and all the wisdom of Egypt. You know what he's using his gifts now to? To point everybody back to God.

This is kind of a side note here, but I imagine everybody in this room has a gift given to them by God. Are you using it to show others of God? Or are you keeping it inside?

Solomon could have done that. Solomon knew he was wise. He had wisdom. He could have held it inside and said, I'm not sharing it with anybody. They don't need to see that. I'll use it for my own good. When I need something, that's when I'll use the wisdom God's given me.

Those gifts that you've been given by God, God has given you those gifts so that you can reach others for Christ. So that others can see Christ through you.

Telling others and talking to others about Christ is not the only way that they can see Christ. That is not the only way that they can have salvation. They can see Christ through your daily actions.

Through you showing those gifts you have for Christ. His wisdom became known throughout the world. He shared his wisdom. He shared the things of Christ.

But, unfortunately, and this will transition us to our next point, wisdom did not make him incapable of foolishness.

It doesn't matter how much godly wisdom you have. It doesn't matter how much godly knowledge you have. If you stray away from God, if you start living in disobedience and disobeying God himself, it's never going to end good for you.

See, Solomon started out very strong for God. I imagine most people in here, when you got saved, you were on fire for God. Are you still on fire for God, or has that died out a little bit?

Because Solomon's life shows us, don't just start on fire for God. You got to finish on fire for God, too. Thirdly, I see a dangerous drift. A very dangerous drift.

Turn to 1 Kings, just a few pages over to chapter number 11. Eight chapters later, after he has been given all the wisdom he could ever ask for, here's where we're at.

Verse number one says, But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites.

Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you. For surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.

Solomon, clave unto these. In love. I had to use a sports illustration, of course, because that's just who I am. Back about 10 years ago, there was a football game.

A lot of people, even if you're not a fan of sports, have probably in your lifetime watched the Super Bowl. I normally go over to somebody's house for Super Bowl parties or whatnot.

And this specific year, I was a sophomore in college. And I was getting to go over to my friend Matt's house. There were about 12 of us. We were going to watch the Super Bowl. And it was a very infamous Super Bowl.

The New England Patriots against the Atlanta Falcons. And if you remember watching that game, you know how historic it would be. I was watching that game.

Ten of my friends were rooting for the Atlanta Falcons. Because if you know much about football, you probably heard the name Tom Brady a time or two. And Tom Brady won so much that everybody got tired of it.

So most of us were rooting for the Atlanta Falcons to win. However, the New York Giants had been the only team to ever beat Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. I'm a Giants fan. So I was rooting for Tom Brady to make it stay that way.

So the Giants were the only teams to ever beat them. I was one of two people rooting for the Patriots that day. One of my friends was from Atlanta, Georgia. About as big of an Atlanta Falcons fan as you could ask for. He's got like birds on his head.

All right. He is decked out. He's ready to go for the Super Bowl. And sure enough, the game started how most Tom Brady games didn't start. It was 28-3, 28-3 Atlanta Falcons as halftime came around.

And I had heard some of the people were already beginning to etch the name of the Atlanta Falcons on the Lombardi Trophy at the Super Bowl. The game was over. 28-3, even the great Tom Brady couldn't come back from that deficit.

And as the second half started, somebody forgot to tell the Atlanta Falcons that there was a second half. And as Tom Brady began to play, you just began realizing something.

There's not just one half in football. There's two. And Tom Brady did what he's been known to do and why many people still to this day do not like him very much. Drive after drive, he became clinical, throwing pass after pass, touchdown after touchdown.

And before long, it was 31-24 in the waning minutes. The Atlanta Falcons led by seven. And of course, Tom Brady, cool as a cucumber, never let anything rattle him, drove the New England Patriots down to score one more touchdown to tie the game.

And in the biggest, most historic comeback in sports history, Tom Brady led the New England Patriots in overtime to beat the Atlanta Falcons.

And I just remember my Atlanta Falcons friend, man, he was heartbroken. He didn't talk to anybody for a week. And you think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. He was very angry. And we had to be very careful about rubbing it in because he was very hurt at what had happened.

But as I recalled that game, I realized something. The beginning matters. It does. The beginning absolutely matters. Because if the beginning didn't happen, the Patriots would have won by 28 points.

The beginning matters. But so does the finish as well. Your whole life should be on fire for God. It can't start on fire and we lose that flame. You got a whole life to live for God.

I remember, man, there have been people in the church that I've grown up with that get on fire for God. And two years later, you don't see them in church anymore. Because, man, they were so on fire, ready to serve God.

And then all of a sudden, their flame just kind of burned out. Got a little bored. Got a little restless. Said, ah, there's got to be more to life than this. This can't be what life has to offer.

And I feel like that's where Solomon was at. Solomon had everything he could have wanted. He had a kingdom. He was a king. He had all the wisdom he could ever want. Everybody in the nation knew who he was.

He was famous everywhere. And there's one word that gets me here in chapter number 11. It's a very simple word. A very short word, actually. The very first word of chapter number 11 is but.

So chapters 3 through 10 was explaining about how amazing of a man Solomon was. How wise of a man Solomon was.

And it took one word to destroy everything he built. But. We all have something. We all have something that would refer to that as a but.

What is our but? What is our thing that is holding us back from serving God? Because Solomon had one. By the way, don't sit here today and say, I don't have one of those.

I don't have something that's standing in my way. I don't have one. Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, had one. Had something that got in his way. You have one.

But don't let it get in the way of you serving God. Don't let it get. Don't let it put your fire out from serving God. Because that's what it did. And what gets me the most is Solomon knew so well what God had told him not to do.

It says in verse number, verse number two of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you.

I don't think there's much gray area here. The Lord specifically told Solomon, not just don't love them, don't go near them.

You know what happens when you linger around sin? Sin's going to catch you. It just will. You've got to stay as far away from possible. And that's what God's telling Solomon to do.

Solomon, don't go near them. God knows what that one sin is or what that one thing is that's holding you back. God knew what Solomon had. And God said, Solomon, don't go near it.

Don't go near those women. Don't touch them. Don't do anything with them. And before long, you know what happened? Solomon compromised. He said, God, going into them, that ain't that bad.

It could be worse. I could be living like Bobby over here, man. He's living in a whole lot of sin. I'm not doing that bad. I just went in and saw a couple girls. That's it. I'm just living my life.

I want to have some fun. And that's where it started for Solomon. When you compromise with sin, when you compromise with God, that's when sin will catch you and it will take you much farther than you ever thought you would go.

That's what happened to Solomon here. God said, don't go into them. And before long, the end of verse two, Solomon clave unto these in love and get this.

And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wife turned away his heart.

You know where this started? Solomon ignored God entirely. Solomon knew what God said, but he ignored him. He said, God, I've got this one. Throughout his whole life, he's put God and others before himself.

And then he decided, I need to live for me. Now's when I need to live for me. Sometimes we get in that mindset.

I've been doing everything for everybody else. I've been doing everything for God. Now I want to live for me. Just give me a week, God. I'm going to live for myself for a week. And before long, 700 wives later, Solomon has gone way farther than he'd ever thought possible.

He compromised with sin. And before too long, these women were influencing his decisions. Influencing what he was doing. Influencing what he was wearing, what he was saying. You couldn't even tell he was a Christian anymore.

I imagine the men around Solomon came into his throne room and said, Solomon, who are you? They couldn't tell who he was anymore. Before, several chapters earlier, everybody knew who Solomon was.

Everybody knew he worshipped God. Now nobody knows who he is. Where did you put Solomon? Don't live for yourself. Because when we start compromising with sin, sin starts influencing us.

Then we get a divided heart. You know what happens with a divided heart? We say, God, I'll give you half of my heart. The rest of it is mine. It doesn't work that way. God tells us in Revelation that he'd rather us be hot or cold rather than lukewarm.

If you're a lukewarm Christian, he wants to spew you out of his mouth. I'm not sitting here telling you that Solomon wasn't saved because he absolutely was. Solomon, I'm sure you will one day see him when you get to heaven.

But Solomon messed up and he kept on messing up. And before too long, his heart was now in sin. Rather with God where it should have been from the beginning.

And not only that, the last step of his fall was idolatry. The one thing Solomon knew he would never go into was worshipping other gods.

Solomon, I'm Solomon. I'm wise. I've got everything you could possibly ask. I've talked to God personally. I wouldn't do that. How often do we say that?

It's just a little sin. It's never going to take me there. And that's never going to become me. I'm never going to be the one falling down like that.

Solomon did. Solomon was a pretty smart guy too. Solomon was a pretty wise guy. Solomon, by the way, probably at every single church service. Every time the church doors were open, Solomon was there.

Don't think that just because you read your Bible five minutes a day and you sit in a church service, that that is going to protect you from where Solomon went.

It won't. You need to have a personal relationship with God and an obedience to God to ever expect that you're going to avoid where Solomon went.

You know where that starts? What Solomon forgot. Realizing that we need God. Realizing that we're inadequate. Realizing that we could fall into sin, which is why we need God in the first place.

That's what Solomon forgot. Solomon forgot his need for God. He got so wrapped up in himself that he forgot his need for the Savior.

And finally, point number four, the final warning. The final warning. And this is very telling.

This is the verse I told you we were going to get to. 11 verse 9. And it says, And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice.

And I commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods. But he kept not that which the Lord commanded.

Where is your heart at today? Are you living a life that is pleasing the Lord? Or so oftentimes, do we get in a rut? And really, the Lord's angry with where we're at.

That's the big call this morning. Is God pleased with where you are at in your life? Maybe you say yes. Well, friend, let me just tell you, it might not always stay that way.

You have to make sure you are fully in with God, have a relationship with God, and are committed to obedience to God. Because even if you're pleasing God today, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

It's just eight chapters later that Solomon's got 700 wives. And idols. Could you imagine that? From the wisest guy in the world.

And listen, I love my wife. No way I could have 700 of them. Just couldn't do it. That's a lot, all right? That's a lot of flowers to buy. That's a lot of dates to go on.

I just don't think I'd be able to do it. So obviously, the wisdom that he had has already gone out the window a little bit, right? He's got all those wives. Everything that's happening.

But just eight chapters earlier, he was pleasing the Lord. Don't get content with where you're at. Because contentment with where you're at, with the pew you're sitting in, that turns in to where Solomon went.

Don't say, I'm good right here. I'm doing a good job right where I'm at. Because when we stop moving forward for the Lord, that's when we get caught up in that sin. That's when we get caught up living for ourselves.

We always need to press forward for the Lord. As a community in Gainesville, as a church here, as an individual, you need to press forward for the Lord. Because when you stop, say, I need a break right here.

Just let me sit back, relax. Let me take it easy for a minute. That's when you go down the road that Solomon went down. God gave him a warning. God said, Solomon, what are you doing?

By the way, and I mentioned this at the beginning, your knowledge, your wisdom cannot replace your walk with God. It cannot replace your walk with God.

That knowledge and wisdom that you have, it's great. It's a great first step. But it can't replace a personal relationship that we should have with God.

Biblical wisdom is what Solomon lost here at the end. Biblical wisdom is knowing what is right and then living according to it.

Solomon had the first part down pat. And I think everybody else in here probably does too. We know what the Lord has said. We know what we're supposed to be doing. But the only way to have biblical wisdom is to go out in the world and do it.

Live a life that is pleasing to God. Don't live your life as the second half of Solomon's life. Because you'll live it full, full of regrets.

And one day when you get older, you'll say, man, I wish, I wish I wouldn't have done that. Solomon writes an entire book of the Bible on why he messed up. On what he wishes he could have back.

Listen to that and say, you know what? I want to live my life pleasing to God now. Don't wait. Don't say, well, I'll live my life for me today.

Because before long, you're all engulfed in yourself. Rather than your relationship with God. I is the most overused word in the English language. You know why?

Because all of us love to talk about I. Number one, me. I like to talk about me. I like to live for me. That's what our flesh wants to do. That's why we have to die to our flesh every single day.

To make sure we are living in submission and obedience to God. Live a life pleasing to the Lord today. As we go out this week, live a life pleasing to the Lord. Go ahead and bow your head.

Go away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away away