WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.520 I guess that by now you have heard a number of New Year sermons and I think I can say 00:00:07.520 --> 00:00:14.240 with confidence that this will probably be the last for this year. 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:21.280 And nonetheless, it's important to mark the occasion and we do so by this evening coming 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:27.359 to the Old Testament and by recognizing the new beginning that there was in the chapter 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:33.960 that we read in First Kings and chapter 3. Solomon's reign or the beginning of Solomon's 00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:39.439 reign, it represented a new beginning for the people of Israel. They had spent many years 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:48.000 under the authority of David and now they look to a very different rule under Solomon, 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:57.759 his son, and they had no idea to what extent Solomon would represent or reflect what his 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:05.840 father David had done. So for them it was a new beginning full of uncertainties and challenges, 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:13.799 but it was also a new beginning for Solomon himself and despite the excitement of a new 00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:20.679 king and a new coronation, there were the dangers and the uncertainties that faced him. He knew 00:01:20.679 --> 00:01:29.399 that things were that being a king over Israel was not going to be easy with much power comes 00:01:29.399 --> 00:01:36.759 with great responsibility. David had set a great precedent in Israel and how was Solomon going 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:44.040 to faithfully follow that reign. I want you to notice first of all the way in which Solomon 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:51.800 enters into this new era. He does so in worship and worship for the people of the Old Testament, 00:01:51.800 --> 00:01:58.439 of course, it took the form of sacrifice. It always did and the reason for that is really 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:03.880 important. I'll go into that in a moment. You'll notice that being the king of Israel, 00:02:03.879 --> 00:02:11.159 Solomon's sacrifice didn't consist simply in one animal, but a thousand. The whole, the chapter 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:18.120 begins with him sacrificing a thousand animals, not only on this occasion, this was his regular 00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:25.879 practice. Now there's a wrong way and a right way of understanding this. The wrong way is to imagine 00:02:25.879 --> 00:02:32.599 that Solomon thought that he could win his way into God's favour the more animals he killed and the 00:02:32.599 --> 00:02:40.439 more animals he sacrificed. That wasn't the way it worked at all. The right way of understanding it 00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:49.240 is to recognize the extravagance of Solomon's worship. It almost seems ridiculous, doesn't it, 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:58.280 to put to death a thousand animals for the sake of a worship service. And yet for Solomon, this 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:09.960 great slaughter, it was what God meant to him because sacrifice was the provision that God 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:16.520 had made for the removal of sin. The New Testament puts it this way, without the shedding of blood 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:23.639 there can be no forgiveness. In the Old Testament the blood was the blood of the animal, but every 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:31.479 sacrifice in the Old Testament looked forward to the death of Jesus, when Jesus would give himself 00:03:31.479 --> 00:03:41.959 as the once-for-all sacrifice that truly removes all our sin. And so this is the Old Testament, 00:03:41.959 --> 00:03:49.959 in Old Testament language, Solomon's way of accepting God's provision for the removal of 00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:58.520 sin because there was no other way of coming close to God. There is no other way of coming 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:06.680 close to God. There is no other way of being reconciled to God than taking, accepting the 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:14.760 death of Jesus as the payment for our sin, which was what sacrifice was all about. And this was 00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:22.599 Solomon's extravagant way of recognizing how great God's love and his forgiveness and his 00:04:22.599 --> 00:04:31.480 mercy was for Israel. The thousand animals reflected the extent to which Solomon wanted to 00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:39.560 reflect the extravagance of God. I love you a thousand times. That's what Solomon was saying. 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:46.839 That's what worship was for Solomon, and that's what I hope it will be for me also and for you. 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:55.639 Worship is when we come close to God and express on the basis of what Jesus has done for us, 00:04:56.360 --> 00:05:04.519 what he means to us, and how can it be anything other than extravagant in our expressions and 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:10.680 where our hearts are, in our focus and in our concentration and in every element of our worship. 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:19.560 Let's make this a year when our worship reflects what is in our heart, the love that is focused on 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:26.199 the Lord Jesus Christ and let this and every other Bible-believing church be a place where 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:36.839 God's people meet wholeheartedly, giving themselves to the Lord in response to what he has done for 00:05:36.839 --> 00:05:46.199 us. Solomon's worship spoke. It was a tremendous message to everyone of what God meant to him 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:55.399 and what God meant to the people of Israel. But this sacrifice, it meant it allowed Solomon to come 00:05:55.399 --> 00:06:04.599 into communion with God, putting aside for a moment whether this was a dream or otherwise. 00:06:04.599 --> 00:06:10.759 This was, it was a dream that in the Old Testament and Bible times, very often God chose to speak to 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:18.359 his people by way of dreams. But the important thing here is not the means or the time, the 00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:26.280 important thing here is that this is a conversation between God and Solomon. It is a personal 00:06:26.280 --> 00:06:33.879 communion between Solomon and God in which God approaches him and in which Solomon answers God. 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:40.759 And that's our great privilege as well. There is no difference between the kind of 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:49.079 conversation that Solomon had with God here in this chapter and the conversation that each one 00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:56.199 of us in Jesus Christ is able to have. What was it the apostle Paul says? That God has given us 00:06:56.199 --> 00:07:06.120 access into this grace wherein we stand. This is prayer and prayer is this kind of personal 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:13.399 communion, this conversation in which we can listen to God and in which we can pour our heart out 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:21.240 to him honestly and forthrightly. He knows our needs before we ask. And so let this be a year 00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:28.680 when we make use of God's provision for us in which we come and we worship God with all our heart 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:37.720 and in which we know the greatness, the preciousness of personal communion with God. What a privilege 00:07:37.720 --> 00:07:45.240 we have to be able to know God face to face. In the Old Testament it was Moses that had that 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:53.000 reputation of knowing God face to face. We have that same privilege through the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:08:03.800 We can know him face to face and we can come and we can converse with him. Now here's what God said 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:09.720 to Solomon and it's the most extraordinary statement isn't it? He came to him at night and he 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:17.959 spoke to him and this is what he said in verse 5. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream 00:08:17.959 --> 00:08:27.079 and God said, ask what I shall give you. Now like I said with the sacrifice there's a wrong way of 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:32.279 understanding it and there's a right way of understanding it. Same with verse 5. When God 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:39.799 says to him, ask whatever I shall give you, there's a wrong way and there's a right way of understanding 00:08:39.799 --> 00:08:45.639 it. The wrong way is to think of God as some kind of genie giving Solomon three wishes or even one 00:08:45.639 --> 00:08:51.960 wish. That's not the way it worked. That's not what this is all about. This is not about God saying 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:58.199 to Solomon, just tell me what your dreams are. Tell me what you want self-centeredly or selfishly 00:08:58.199 --> 00:09:04.439 for yourself. In actual fact if you carefully read this again, this is not about Solomon. 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:14.200 This is about God. Ask what I, the operative word in this conversation is not Solomon. It's I, it's 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:23.240 God. And when God asks him to ask whatever he should give him, he's not asking him to think of any 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:32.200 kind of fantastic dream or fantastic ambition he might personally have. He's asking him to focus 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:42.600 on God and God's glory, on the being of God, on the reality and the presence of God. He's asking 00:09:42.600 --> 00:09:51.560 Solomon to focus on what he is now solemnly undertaking, the kingship of his chosen people, 00:09:51.560 --> 00:10:02.680 Israel. And he's asking Solomon to ask him what he, whatever he feels that he needs or wants in 00:10:02.679 --> 00:10:15.319 connection with that. But there's a very interesting question here, isn't there? When God, this challenge 00:10:15.319 --> 00:10:21.799 if you want to call it that way, ask what I shall give you. I know that Solomon's position was very 00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:28.599 unique and we're not to see ourselves as many solomons in any way. And yet there is a similarity, 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:35.800 isn't there, between what God asks Solomon here and what Jesus says in the New Testament. 00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:44.600 What is he says in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 7, ask and it shall be given to you. And then again 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:53.080 in John chapter 16 and verse 23, truly, truly Jesus says, whatever you ask of my Father in my name, 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:59.879 He will give it to you. No, that's not a challenge to exploit our selfishness. That's the way you 00:10:59.879 --> 00:11:07.160 understand it. You're on the wrong road. But what it is, is a declaration of the generosity of God. 00:11:08.040 --> 00:11:18.680 It's a declaration of the power of God and His willingness to be asked and His willingness 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:27.879 to do for His people more than they can ask or even think. It's a declaration of His love 00:11:28.599 --> 00:11:35.079 for His people. And it's a reminder to us of our access to Him that we are able to ask, 00:11:35.639 --> 00:11:42.120 said Jesus, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you. So, 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:51.399 what are we asking for at the beginning of 2018? Or is it safe to put it like this way? We are what 00:11:51.399 --> 00:12:01.080 we ask God for. We are what we ask God for. What we ask God for, it establishes our priorities, 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:08.200 establishes the kind of people that we are, what we think are important, who we think are important, 00:12:08.200 --> 00:12:15.160 who we're concerned about, and to what extent we are concerned about the glory of God or 00:12:16.040 --> 00:12:25.240 my personal advancement. What was it John the Baptist said? He must increase and I must decrease. 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:36.759 Is that the way that we are going into 2018 asking God but asking Him for what He wants to give us? 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:46.039 Because that's what it's all about. Now, very briefly, I want us to look at four things in what, 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:52.759 how Solomon responds to this and in what, how he comes back to God. Four things, very briefly, 00:12:53.559 --> 00:13:01.080 which I think serve as a pattern for the way in which we might go into a new beginning and in 00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:09.000 which we might face the challenges that a new year might bring us. First of all, I want us to notice 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:18.920 that he thanks God for what God has done in the past, God's provision for him. Verse 6, 00:13:18.920 --> 00:13:27.080 Solomon said, You have shown great and steadfast love to Your servant, my Father David, because 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:32.360 he walked before You in faithfulness and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart towards 00:13:32.360 --> 00:13:38.600 You and You have kept for him this great. Now, look at that word again, second time that he uses 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:48.759 the same word, steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne to this day. 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:56.919 So he's thanking God for his provision in the past. Now, on one level, of course, 00:13:56.919 --> 00:14:04.759 it's only right for anyone to thank someone who has given something to him or her. But this is not 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:11.799 simple thankfulness. I'm not saying that we should diminish in any way the importance of 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:16.840 thankfulness to God. Every time we come together, it ought to be coming together in thankfulness. 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:23.160 We ought to be continually remembering what God, in fact, the Bible tells us, consider what great 00:14:23.160 --> 00:14:31.560 things God has done for us. It's dishonoring to God to fail to do so. And yet there's a special 00:14:31.560 --> 00:14:40.759 focus in what Solomon is saying here on God's special faithfulness, what he calls his steadfast 00:14:40.759 --> 00:14:47.480 love. There's a really important Hebrew word that is used here. I'm not in the habit of quoting 00:14:47.480 --> 00:14:52.200 Hebrew words. I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but there is one. There are one or two Hebrew words that are 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:56.919 really important. Important enough to mention in one of them is this one. And it's the words that's 00:14:56.919 --> 00:15:03.319 translated steadfast love. It's the word Hezad. If you remember nothing else, then remember this 00:15:03.319 --> 00:15:09.559 in Hebrew, Hezad, because it's one of the key words in the Old Testament. It's a word that 00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:14.759 describes not just the power of God, not just the greatness of God or the holiness of God, 00:15:15.319 --> 00:15:25.559 but it describes how He extraordinarily set His love on His people Israel and bound Himself 00:15:25.559 --> 00:15:32.519 in love towards the people Israel, and He took them through thick and thin, through all kinds of 00:15:32.519 --> 00:15:39.960 dangers and trials and all kinds of experiences all the way through thousands of years of history, 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:46.759 and He never separated Himself once from them, because He had made a promise to Abraham in 00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:53.960 Genesis chapter 12 that He would be His God and that they would be His people forever. 00:15:55.399 --> 00:16:00.679 That was His promise. And God stuck to that promise. And what that meant was that if you were in 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:08.759 Israel, you knew you were in special relationship with God, even though they strayed from time to 00:16:08.759 --> 00:16:18.039 time, they sinned from time to time. God's grace was greater than that sin. And God's grace meant 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:26.679 that He was going to draw them back into a right relationship with Him. He, where they were unfaithful, 00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:34.279 He would remain faithful. And it is exactly the same relationship that we stand tonight in Jesus 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:43.879 Christ, where He has made a promise to us, and He will never change that promise. He will never 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:52.759 renege on that promise, because it has been ratified and verified and secured in the death 00:16:52.759 --> 00:17:00.200 of Jesus Christ. Nothing, says Paul, if I can put it in his way, nothing can separate us 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:12.839 from the love of God in Christ Jesus. So we go into a new year, secure in the love that will not 00:17:12.839 --> 00:17:21.400 let us go, the love that has expressed itself, and Paul's words here in this, the love of God 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:29.080 demonstrated to us that in that Christ died for the ungodly. That's as you and I, we were ungodly, 00:17:30.040 --> 00:17:38.440 and yet Jesus died for us in all our shame and darkness. He drew us into His kingdom, 00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:45.160 and He changed our lives, and that's what He promises to do for everyone who trusts 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:54.680 and who comes to discover Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a love that will not let us go, 00:17:54.680 --> 00:18:02.440 and Solomon was able to lay hold on that love, and he knew that whatever lay ahead of him, 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:09.320 whatever changes that there might be, whatever difficulties that there might be, he stood in 00:18:09.319 --> 00:18:18.200 that love that was completely unique in which he was able to call God his God, and he was able to 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:27.559 know that he was God's child, his beloved child. When Paul prays for the people of Ephesus, 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:32.599 he prays this that they would, their eyes would be open, that they would come to know 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:42.439 this love more and more, and I would hope that at the beginning of this year that we too would want 00:18:43.159 --> 00:18:47.959 to come to discover more and more of the steadfastness and the greatness and the glory 00:18:48.599 --> 00:18:56.679 of God's love and His grace towards us. Behold, says John, what manner of love the Father has 00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:03.799 bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God. We have every right to call Him Father 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:13.640 this evening. So that's the first thing. He reflects, he gives thanks for God's steadfast love 00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:22.360 towards Him, but then secondly, he recognizes God's providence in bringing Him to where He is. 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:31.000 Verse 7, And now, oh Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my Father. 00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:37.079 Now at first sight, this might be just Solomon here is Solomon. He's now the king and he's just 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:46.279 kind of looking in the mirror and saying, well, I've made it. And here I am now taking place, 00:19:46.279 --> 00:19:51.799 the place that my Father had. I'm here in all my robes and with my crown and I'm going to do the 00:19:51.799 --> 00:19:57.960 best I can. But that's not what this verse means at all. This verse once again is not about 00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:06.119 Solomon's grandeur or greatness. It's about God's greatness and particularly God's providence. Now 00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:12.919 what do we mean by that? This is really important because it operates in every era. It operates 00:20:12.919 --> 00:20:19.399 in the New Testament and here in Edinburgh today, amongst God's people, we rely on God's providence 00:20:19.400 --> 00:20:27.080 from day to day. Here's what it means. It means that our lives are not a random series of meaningless 00:20:27.080 --> 00:20:36.680 events that take place, but it means that our lives are ordered and governed by God. 00:20:38.360 --> 00:20:45.800 It means that God guides every single event. The events in the past, the events in the present 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:53.079 and the events in the future are all governed in a mysterious way, ways that we do not understand 00:20:53.879 --> 00:21:04.599 by God in order for him to be glorified in us and in order for us to carry out his will, providence. 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:09.879 It doesn't always operate the way we expect it to. 00:21:09.880 --> 00:21:20.600 It often operates in the ways that are opposite to our expectation, where God seems to allow 00:21:20.600 --> 00:21:31.240 things to take place that appear to be hurtful and painful, things that we don't understand. 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:43.000 And yet the Bible assures us that all things work together for good, all things, not just some 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:49.400 things, not just the things that we understand, but all things work together for good to those 00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:56.279 who love God and who are called according to his purpose. Now you might say, well, 00:21:56.279 --> 00:22:01.480 of course Solomon's going to say that because he's the king after all. I mean, it doesn't get 00:22:01.480 --> 00:22:06.680 better than that, does it? I mean, he's the king of Israel. He's got all the riches at his disposal. 00:22:06.680 --> 00:22:11.879 He's got more gold than he knows what to do with. He can do anything he wants. He can give any order 00:22:11.879 --> 00:22:19.240 to do anything he wants. And of course, if I had that kind of power, it's, that's not the way it worked. 00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:26.680 That's not the way it worked for Solomon at all. You might think that on the surface, but in actual 00:22:26.680 --> 00:22:36.839 fact, Solomon's life and his past wasn't very tidy. And it wasn't very secure on a human level. 00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:44.759 There were things in Solomon's past that actually shed light upon this, and that's why it's important 00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:52.920 to know the context of the story. Yesterday, I was persuaded to go and see the last Jedi, 00:22:54.119 --> 00:23:01.960 and by a 11-year-old friend of mine who wanted to go and see it. And we're sat there in the 00:23:01.960 --> 00:23:07.400 cinemad, all of a sudden you're hit with these massive spaceships, and they're all blowing each 00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:14.039 other up. And then there's people of all shapes and sizes and ages, and they're lightsabers and 00:23:14.039 --> 00:23:21.879 fights and some of their deaths and lives. And you work out within about half an hour who the good 00:23:21.879 --> 00:23:28.200 guys are, and so you root for the good guys, and you work out also who the bad guys are. But there 00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:33.799 are some twists in the story. I better not say too much just to give anything away. But there are 00:23:33.799 --> 00:23:38.759 twists in the story as well. You're trying to work out what the twists are. But what I'm trying to say 00:23:38.759 --> 00:23:44.519 is you end up, you enjoy the movie even though you don't know anything about it. 00:23:47.240 --> 00:23:53.240 But if you really want to get into the nuances, you have to know the background, 00:23:54.599 --> 00:24:00.839 which I don't, but it was explained to me afterwards by my 11-year-old expert on Star Wars. 00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:08.279 You have to know the background, and it's the same with this. If you don't know the background 00:24:08.279 --> 00:24:13.799 here, you might just think, well, this is the right thing for Solomon to say. But if you know 00:24:13.799 --> 00:24:20.440 the background, you discover actually there are twists to the story, like for example, 00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:30.440 the circumstances of Solomon's birth. They were not easy. They weren't clean. We would expect 00:24:30.440 --> 00:24:37.639 someone who's going to be destined for the throne to have a clean track record. But he doesn't have 00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:42.920 a clean track record. Now, this wasn't his fault. His father and mother, they started off their 00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:47.880 relationship in a sinful manner. It was an adulterous relationship, and that would have caused all 00:24:47.880 --> 00:24:54.200 kinds of rumour and gossip so that when Solomon was born, you would have had people saying, 00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:58.759 ah, yeah, well, you know all about them, their history and what happened. And it would have been 00:24:58.759 --> 00:25:04.040 a resurrection of all the rumour that would have been going around when David and Bathsheba first 00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:12.440 first got together. And so the whole of his life, there would have been a sort of cloud. 00:25:14.359 --> 00:25:23.480 There would have been suspicion. Besides, Solomon wasn't the natural heir to the throne. He wasn't 00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:30.279 the oldest member in the family. And so there were people against him. Adonijah had already tried to 00:25:30.279 --> 00:25:38.119 take the throne. So it wasn't an easy thing for him at all. It wasn't tidy. And perhaps, and this is 00:25:38.119 --> 00:25:44.039 where it's so relevant, perhaps it might have been tempting for Solomon to say to God, why has my 00:25:44.039 --> 00:25:53.480 life been so complicated? Would it not be so much easier had I had a tidy background without these 00:25:53.480 --> 00:26:01.640 questions being asked and without all this awkwardness? But that's not the way life is, is it? 00:26:06.200 --> 00:26:13.160 Many people bear the scars of events and a past that perhaps they're not responsible for. 00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:21.000 And perhaps we're tempted to say to God, God, why have you not made my life, if I was, if I 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:26.759 didn't have this in my past, then things would be so different and so much easier. 00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:35.799 And that's what God says to us. You are who you are, because you are where I want you to be. 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:43.960 With all the weaknesses and the past and all the scars and all your deficiencies 00:26:43.960 --> 00:26:53.720 and all your disabilities. So at the end of the day, all of us have disabilities, don't we? All of us. 00:26:55.799 --> 00:27:01.079 The marvelous thing is this, God's providence means that God weaves it all in 00:27:02.600 --> 00:27:07.160 to produce what he wants, and that's what's important. It's not what we want, it's what he wants 00:27:07.160 --> 00:27:15.000 that's important. God somehow in his own mysterious way, he weaves it all together 00:27:16.600 --> 00:27:21.080 because he has a plan, he has a purpose for us. Now look at what happens, and this is why I wanted 00:27:21.080 --> 00:27:27.400 to read verse 16, because immediately, almost immediately when Solomon becomes king, he's 00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:36.120 confronted with the most bizarre situation, two prostitutes. On the outskirts, the margins of 00:27:36.119 --> 00:27:43.799 society. The first thing that strikes you about these two women, you can read the story for 00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:48.759 yourself, it's incredible. You read the story for yourself afterwards. The first thing that strikes 00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:58.119 you is, how come they got access to the king that they did? And I can't help wondering whether 00:27:58.119 --> 00:28:12.039 Solomon had that sympathy for them because he himself had such a messy past. He had such a messy 00:28:12.039 --> 00:28:22.919 background. This was God's way of giving him the readiness and the preparation for facing some of 00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:33.160 the most bizarre situations that you can think of. The time is going, but can I just say this, 00:28:35.480 --> 00:28:43.240 as a Christian, you can say, you can go one better than saying, well, I am where I am tonight. No, 00:28:43.240 --> 00:28:49.080 no, you can go one better than that, and say, I am where I am because God wants me to be here, 00:28:49.079 --> 00:28:55.079 and God wants me to be the person I am. He doesn't want me to be anyone else. He doesn't want me to 00:28:55.079 --> 00:29:07.000 be anywhere else right now. I am what I am because God has brought me to this place. Very quickly, 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:15.559 number three, he acknowledges total ignorance in his profession. Verse seven, he says, I am but a 00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:21.399 little child. I do not know how to come in or go out, and your servant is in the midst of your 00:29:21.399 --> 00:29:27.240 people who you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Now, 00:29:27.240 --> 00:29:31.720 none of us likes to confess his ignorance, do we? There's something that just goes against our 00:29:31.720 --> 00:29:35.639 pride. You don't go to a job interview, and when you're asked, well, how much do you know? How 00:29:35.639 --> 00:29:40.839 much can you, how much knowledge can you bring to contribute to this company? You would never say, 00:29:40.839 --> 00:29:44.359 well, I actually don't know anything. Well, you wouldn't have much chance of getting a job, would 00:29:44.359 --> 00:29:50.519 you? Neither do we expect it of our rulers and presidents and kings that they don't say. I mean, 00:29:50.519 --> 00:30:00.119 this is hardly, this is hardly stable genius, is it? This is a man who is talking to God, 00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:06.279 and when we talk to God, when we know what it is to talk to God, we see ourselves in contrast to 00:30:06.279 --> 00:30:14.680 his greatness. And yet again, this is such an important place to be brought back to, time and 00:30:14.680 --> 00:30:21.000 again, where we're brought to see our own nothingness. And you know why? Because ignorance is as good 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:32.680 a place for God to start as any, and God can do anything with a man or a woman who realizes his 00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:40.600 own nothingness. He's done it. The Bible is littered with men and women who came to realize 00:30:40.600 --> 00:30:46.920 their own ignorance and nothingness, and these were the people that God used. But what was important 00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:53.640 to Solomon was not his knowledge or his skill or his abilities, but what was important to Solomon 00:30:53.640 --> 00:31:02.200 was the preciousness of the people of Israel. And he just felt that he was so incapable of 00:31:02.200 --> 00:31:09.720 fulfilling what God was asking him to do with his precious people. Now the people of Israel equate 00:31:09.720 --> 00:31:16.360 to the church in the New Testament, and I believe we're being asked here, how important is the church 00:31:16.360 --> 00:31:23.160 to you? How important is God's kingdom, the place where we come together to worship, 00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:33.480 and where we come together to hear his word? And then lastly, he asks for wisdom to govern, 00:31:34.279 --> 00:31:39.560 to wisdom to govern. He says this, give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern 00:31:39.560 --> 00:31:45.640 your people that I may discern between good and evil for who is able to govern this, your great 00:31:45.640 --> 00:31:54.120 people. Now I know that wisdom is a theme that was taken over the course of the last few months 00:31:54.120 --> 00:32:00.759 in this congregation, and if you're a regular here, you'll have heard the series on Proverbs. 00:32:00.759 --> 00:32:05.720 So I'm not going to redefine wisdom. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel, but it's so important to 00:32:05.720 --> 00:32:12.040 go back and to remind ourselves of what biblical wisdom is. What was it? I think it was Cori that 00:32:12.039 --> 00:32:17.559 said when he was defining wisdom, he said, wisdom is the ability to do what is good and right, 00:32:17.559 --> 00:32:23.879 where there are no rules telling you what to do. What he meant by that, and I think he explained it 00:32:23.879 --> 00:32:28.839 at the time, was when you're confronted with a commandment, you shall not kill. Well, that's a 00:32:28.839 --> 00:32:35.000 no-brainer. You just, you don't kill. That's easy, no problem. You shall not steal. You don't steal. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:43.799 But life's not like that, is it? Life is full of the most complicated issues that require the discernment 00:32:43.799 --> 00:32:54.839 and the ability to make judgments and to act in a way that is in keeping with the way that God 00:32:54.839 --> 00:33:04.599 wants us to act. And that's why all of us, me included, we need to, at the very beginning of 00:33:04.599 --> 00:33:13.959 this year, ask for that discernment, a discernment which is exemplified for us supremely tonight 00:33:15.079 --> 00:33:23.879 in the Lord Jesus Christ. When God asks us what can I give you tonight, 00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:35.720 I hope my prayer is, I want to be more like Jesus. I want to face every situation, 00:33:36.840 --> 00:33:41.880 the way that He would face it. I want to make the judgments, now I know I'm going to fail, 00:33:42.840 --> 00:33:50.840 but my failure will come from my own foolishness. But God will answer that prayer. That's a prayer 00:33:50.839 --> 00:34:00.199 that God will answer. Make me more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that what you really want? Because 00:34:00.199 --> 00:34:08.360 that's the prayer that God takes pleasure in. We read here that God was pleased with Solomon's prayer. 00:34:09.239 --> 00:34:18.759 And that's what it's all about, isn't it? For God to be pleased with us. He already is in the Lord 00:34:18.760 --> 00:34:24.360 Jesus Christ. He's pleased with all His people because He sees us as united and identified with 00:34:24.360 --> 00:34:35.080 Jesus. We pray that our lives will reflect who we are and our relationship to Him for His glory 00:34:35.960 --> 00:34:42.040 every day. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we pray that we too will have that wisdom 00:34:42.039 --> 00:34:54.360 to discern the times around us to act in such a manner that will reflect the patience and 00:34:54.360 --> 00:34:59.960 the godliness and the biblical instruction that you have given to us. Lord, give us a greater 00:34:59.960 --> 00:35:06.679 understanding of your word and how your word guides us as to how we are to conduct ourselves in the 00:35:06.679 --> 00:35:13.159 days that lie ahead. We thank you that you can do anything with men and women who are prepared to 00:35:13.159 --> 00:35:20.279 admit their own weakness, their own nothingness. May we be those men and women this evening. 00:35:20.279 --> 00:35:27.399 We pray that your church will be precious to us and that we too will rediscover the joy 00:35:27.399 --> 00:35:33.799 and the importance of worship and communion with God. We pray that you will personally take us into 00:35:33.800 --> 00:35:42.600 the days that lie ahead in your own love and in your own grace for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.