In fact, it's her now and your Bibles, the first Kings chapter 10 will start in verse 14 this morning. It's found on page 246 in the Bibles that are in your seats. We continue on and get the last words of the glorious highest point of glory for the Kingdom of Israel, which occurs under Solomon. I'll give you a moment to find that there. So first Kings, chapter 10, we begin in verse 14. The way to the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, not including the revenues from merchants and traders, from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land. King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold. 600 beckons of gold went into each shield. He also made 300 small shields of hammered gold with three minus of gold in each shield. The king put them in the palace of the forest of Lebanon. Then the king made a great throne and laid with ivory and overlaid with fine gold. The throne had six steps and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were arm rests, with alliance standing beside each of them. 12 lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom. All King Solomon's goblets were gold. And all the household articles in the palace of the forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver because silver was considered of little value in Solomon's days. The king had a fleet of trading ships, at sea, along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned carrying gold, silver and ivory and apes and devoons. King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world saw an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year everyone who came brought a gift, articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices and horses and mules. Solomon accumulated chariots and horses. He had 1400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones. And cedar as plentiful as sycamore fig trees in the foothills. Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Q. They were oil merchants purchased them from Q. They imported a chariot from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150. They also exported them to all the kings of the hip-tites and of the Aramans. Here in our reading there's a response of thankfulness that you have printed for you in your bulletin. The word of the Lord. Thanks indeed. Let's pray as we've been pushing toward as we've talked so far. Number two, look forward to Jesus making his kingdom prominent across the world in the future. Beyond by far the prominence in the world Solomon enjoyed. We see this in verse 15, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, and 29. Solomon is prominent all of the world and you see these international references in those verses. All of the world he is prominent. There's no one challenging his authority, no one challenging his dominance. And for those receiving the book of kings here, they were receiving this book when the son of David wasn't prominent anymore. In fact, after Solomon died, the son of David wouldn't even be prominent over all of Israel, over all 12 tribes. But we're given this little hint at the end of 2nd Kings, 25, Bob Redd, the Reddit force. The God was not done yet with the son of David. For Jehoiachin, the king who had been exiled out of Jerusalem in 597 BC. After years and years of imprisonment in Babylon, the new king after Nebuchadnezzar takes the throne and he releases Jehoiachin who had grown up and begun to reign as king for about a year in Jerusalem. He releases Jehoiachin from his prison in Babylon and remember what it says there. He invites Jehoiachin to take place eating with him every night. He gets to sit at the royal table and eat of all the good food of the king. He gets to take off his prison clothes and he's dressed in royal roads. And this is this little tiny spattering of hope at the end of 1st and 2nd Kings, which are two books that are essentially of you guys deserve the exile. We're going to look at the good stuff so far, but wait until next week. God's not done with the son of David. And so God's people in exile reading kings could say, you know what? We've got a future and a hope in front of us because God has not done with the son of David. Even here in our exile, our king Jehoiachin who's still living here with us has been taken out of his prison and he's been given royal clothes to wear and is eating at the king's table. God is gracious with us and is gracious with our king. And he will once again reign in Jerusalem and we will be in good shape. So they could look forward in their lives to the regaining of prominence of the son of David and all the benefit that would be to the people who are under the son of David and in the same way we fit in the same shoes that though our king experienced the exile of death, the scorn of man to being carried away in death. And this is what Isaiah 53 is about. Jehoiachin being carried away, considered among sinful men in his death. We esteemed him not, carried away and embarrassed going into Babylon, but he would be brought back into the land of the living. The son of David would return and go back into Israel.
And this comes in fulfillment with Jesus. Jesus is the son of David who takes the throne. And so we can have hope in this that even though Jesus went into exile and said, Father, Father, why have you forsaken me? That was Jesus being carried off into exile. An exile of death for three days. Carried off but brought back in the resurrection and brought home not to Jerusalem but to the heavenly Jerusalem, 40 days after that in his ascension. He's brought back. But to the world in our experience, our king is still off an exile, isn't he? He's still not with us. We're not with him. But he will come back. It's what we read about in a revelation, 20 months or 26. He will come back. He will be restored to his throne on the earth. And so we can look forward to that to this period of prominence that will last forever, the New Heavens and New Earth. So what's this picture of here in 1st King Sim? It's a pre-showing of the New Heavens and New Earth. This time, the prominence of the King, the son of David, Jesus, where there's no trouble for us because we're citizens of his kingdom. So as we read this prominence, we rejoice in it. We read of this wealth of Solomon, we rejoice in it. It's a pre-showing of what will experience in the New Heavens and New Earth. And again, without our sinful natures, that will be ruined by that abundant provision there. Matthew 5.5. This is in the attitude that says, in the meet, challenge here at the earth, that's us, the whole world going here. We'll be prominence over the world. We'll be exercising dominion over the world. Not overweeds because they won't be there anymore, and without the hardships that we experience right now. But at the back of 2.14, the back speaks of this future time. This is for the earth will be filled, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. You have Eden. Then you have the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the New Eden. That's what the Promised Land is, the New Eden. And then you have for now the church, our little Eden, in the midst of the chaotic and sinful worlds. And then you have heaven, if you die, before Jesus comes. That's the Eden for your soul when you die. But if Jesus comes back before you die, you've got the New Heavens in the New Earth. The New Heavens in the New Earth are the New Eden. It's redone, but it's better. Because we don't have the possibility of sin and Satan has cast out. That's what the New Heavens in the New Earth is for. It's the going back to Eden, but better. And so look forward to that. Keep that in your mind. That one day we will have prominence physically, spiritually, and we will not be opposed. And our prominence we will all be using for the good of others and for the glory of our team. Number three, number three. Follow Jesus, follow Jesus, expecting measured prominence and some temporal blessings in your life now. And so measured prominence, it doesn't mean like you hear me say, it doesn't mean I can dunk. That's unmeasured prominence over gravity and my muscles, abilities, and heights and that kind of thing. But we have measured a certain measure of prominence today and temporal blessings. So some of what we see in Solomon, there are, we're not without physical blessings today. We're not without relational blessings today. We get some of these things in this life. All these things that we're seeing in verses 14 through 29. How? How do we get measured prominence, temporal blessings in your life now, A, in your outline there? Living life the way the son of David Jesus, living life the way the son of David Jesus leads you in, means you will do things, do things that will bring a prominence over life. So the connection between Solomon and Jesus. Remember I'm in Proverbs right now on my morning reading. And I'm just really taken by this and I've never really thought about this before. Solomon is giving Proverbs to his son and saying, son, lead your life in this way. Have wisdom, have understanding. And when he says that, he's saying follow, listen to my words, he's saying scripture. We have scripture. Live your life by scripture. Live your life by the commands God has given us. And this is Solomon to his son and this is Jesus to us, the great son of David. And he's given us this King, law, commandments. And these commandments, as we walk in these commandments, give us measured prominence, give us measured prominence in life. Just stay in Proverbs here. He who pursues righteousness and loyalty, that is as we follow God's commands, we find life, righteousness and on. I'll read these things and then we'll talk about Proverbs 1426. He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress. So fearing the Lord, you know, what is fearing the Lord, it's following his commands. We say, God, you know what you're talking about. I'm going to do it. He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress and for his children it will be a refuge. You follow the commandments. You as the head of your home and your children have a refuge. They're protected by your righteousness, by your example, moms and dads. Proverbs 1923, for the fear of the Lord leads to life, then one rests content. As we walk in our King's commands, not King Solomon's, well, yes, but they're really King Jesus commands, we can rest content. We know our sovereign king is over us and so we're content in our circumstances, right? Paul and Philippians 4. Does not care whether I have nothing but whether I have an abundance because God Jesus has made me content. He's taking care of me, whatever it is. Hebrews 12-11. No discipline in this is speaking to the commands of God, the ways and commands of God seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on, however, the discipline, the walking in God's commands, even when it causes us hardship sometimes, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. So let's talk now. So walking in God's commands, disciplining yourself to walk in God's commands, this gives you a prominence over life. Here's what I mean. One of my daughters said when she was about a junior in high school, she said, all my friends, their parents are getting divorces and they hate their siblings. And their siblings hate them. And it's not nice in their homes. That's not prominence, okay? That's when you don't know the commands of God. When you aren't raising your kids in the fear of the Lord, when you're not raising your kids to walk in God's commandments, and there's chaos in your home. They don't even know how to treat siblings and parents aren't directing their kids and how to treat siblings. And they're saying idiotic things like, you're going to have a new baby brother now. You're really going to hate that because he's going to get all the attention. One, the world. You're just setting up your kids to hate your brother, right? There's no understanding of a family is good and the kids listen to their parents. And the kids understand that their parents have lived a little bit. But even if they don't understand that, commandment 5, right? We talk about it in Sunday school. Honor your mother and father. And they grow up. The kids grow up with this understanding of how to respond to authority. The new teachers know the problem that is for you right now in the schools. Children don't know how to respond to an authority. And so you're doing a lot of things that teachers in 1972 and 1955 did not have to do. Because no one understands. Nonbelievers don't understand how to respond to authority. These teachers, if you haven't watched Abbott Elementary yet, watch that. Monica is teaching now. She said you've got to watch this day. I watched the first two episodes last night. She said all the stuff we deal with. But it's bad. But tell you what, if you in your home instruct your kids and expect from your kids, obedience and instruct them in the good things of the Lord, they know how to respond to authority. So guess what? They get a job and they're responding to their bosses like no other kid is. Who's their peer in that job? Guess who gets promoted? Your kid. If you're the Lord is a fortress for you because you respect your authority and your work, and so your bosses know they can trust you. And so you rise. So that's a fortress for you, but then that's also a fortress for you. You know because you appear the Lord. God's plan is one spouse for life. And so here she dies. And that's good for me. And so you don't have to wonder when things aren't going well. Well, is this the best thing for me now to head out? That's blessing for us. That's prominence over life. We as Christians walking with the Lord, now there are other things. You know someone can be faithful in their wife or husband can commit adultery or just leave or whatever. I mean there are other things like that, but we're just talking about the main 85% here. Generally what walking in the commands of God, walking in the wisdom of our great King Solomon Jesus. What that does for us is gives us a prominence over life. We know how. We walk into work. We know how to respond to our boss. We know how to treat those who are under us because they bear the image of God. We know how to run a business and not to gorge people with prices, but to provide a service for them or to provide products for them for their well-being. And when you do that, guess what? Your customers come back because you charge a fair price and you provide a quality product. This is just the stuff of God's word. You don't cheat people. That wins for you once. And then your customers don't come back when they realize you've been cheated. So you won't last ten years. My last ten years, maybe just five, maybe. This is the way we have prominence over life. We're prominence in marriage. We understand how marriage works. There's forgiveness. Everyone's a sinner. Okay, so you don't hold grudges. We have prominence in friendships because we have the ability to forgive. Because we understand Scripture tells us we're sinners and we're called to forgive up to seventy times, seven times. Lord, no, it's seventy times seven. You just keep on forgiving. We understand these things from Scripture. And so we have a mastery over life that non-believers don't have. We have from the Spirit of God self-control. Wow, that's a big one today, right? New teachers know this. Self-control. If a kid doesn't have self-control, they can't keep their mouth shut when they say, okay, quiet. And they start talking again, twenty seconds later. You know, let this, but self-control. So living like the way that son of David leads you in, Jesus leads you in, means you'll do things and it'll bring prominence to your life and marriage and family and kids, as well as with your inner peace. Now be, living like the way the son of David, Jesus leads you in, also means you will do things that will bring the favor of other people. Now this would kind of edged into in A there. And we see this, David, Solomon has the favor of all these governors and kings that formerly were enemies to Israel. And that end up being enemies to Israel later or enemies today. You know, can you imagine Arabs coming and bringing their wealth to the prime minister of Israel today? Right? That's not happening. That's one of those huge fights, you know. Middle East taught that. The Arabs versus Jews in the Middle East. But both Solomon, this is going on. So if Solomon has international respect, Solomon's wisdom, his living life according to God's command, brought him favor, the favor of lots and lots of people. This is true for Jesus as well. Luke 254, 252 says of Jesus. As a young guy growing up, Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Jesus living his righteous life with no sin, it brought him favor with men. John 3.2, Nicodemus comes up to Jesus. Jesus is older now and ministering among people. And Nicodemus says this, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. It's a Pharisee, an expert in the Jewish religion. And Jesus has found favor with Nicodemus. Nicodemus says, you have your teachers come from God for no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him. Jesus has the favor of this unbiased religious person. Nicodemus is not out for power. He's religious, but he's not out for power. And so his ears are kind of open to listen. Proverbs 31, 28. Speaking of a godly mother and wife, walking in the ways of Jesus, walking in the commands of Jesus, her children will rise up and bless her, her husband also, and he praises her. That's prominent in life. Hey, some mothers outside of the Christian faith, their kids are cursing. But a Christian mother, who loves her kids, who lives for her kids. You know how I talk about my mom? And that's all the stuff she did for me. And I never had to worry about anything. And she got me up, she cooked me breakfast. She typed my papers in the middle of the night. She drove me to practices and just put up with all my stuff. And I rise up, but I'm off of the way. But this is what comes out of walking in God's command. Colossians 32, servants obey your earthly masters and everything. And do it not only when their eye is on you to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work, or with all your heart working for the Lord, not for men. But you know what? You've lost. Looks at you occasionally. Even when they haven't watched you work, they see the product of your work and you gain their favor. Relations 5-22. For the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Guess what? If you've got those things oozing out of your pores. If you're loving people. If you have joy, you walk into the room and you're not eos. And not Debbie Downer. You know, just bringing stuff. You know, it's you're bringing joy to the room. Peace. You're not quick to argue. You know, it's like Solomon said, the fool is quick to bring up an argument. Right? Not always. But peace, the person peace. People, you know, these two people start to argue and quickly says, oh, but you need to agree because you're saying this and you're saying this. And they say, oh yeah, but you're right. Person peace. Patience. If you're patient to the people around you. If you're kind to the people around you. If you're good to the people around you. If you're faithful to the people around you. That is, you don't betray them behind their backs. You're faithful to them. And they tell you to do something and you're faithful to do it. If you're gentle with them and not harsh. And if you exercise self-control, guess what? People favor you. People favor you. The through the spirit will bring the favor of others. Now, just little qualifications coming up here. Number four, number four. Apologies is expecting it sometimes to create international peace. So Solomon walking in God's way that creates international peace for him. What does that mean for us? It means peaceful relationships with non-believers. That's your blank. We are a whole nation. The first Peter to nine in ten. It was your call to worship. We are a whole nation. The church is a whole nation. A nation with Jesus is king. And anyone who doesn't have Jesus is king. Anyone who hasn't bowed their knee to him. And anyone who's not a citizen of heaven. With Jesus their king. He's raining from heaven over them. It is international. A foreigner to us. Even if they live next door. Even if they're in our family. And not a part of the church or whatever the case is. Or your parents or that kind of thing. International. And what leads the peaceful relationship with non-believers is this following of Jesus. Hebrews 1214 says this. Make every effort to live in peace with all men. That's what we're called to do as Christians. To make every effort to live in peace with all men. That's what we're called to do. How do we do that? Through the spirit. Loving people. Being kind. Being patient. Exercising self-control. Being faithful to them. This is walking in the ways that Solomon and our king says. My son, walking in these ways. Or Jesus, the great Solomon, says. My son, my daughter. Walking in these ways. And you'll have peace even with non-believers. There comes a big qualification. A. Qualification. Some in the world may hate you simply for being in Jesus kingdom. Jesus told us that. Some. Some in the world may hate you simply for being in Jesus kingdom. 1 John 313. Do not be surprised, John says. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. So some will hate you just because you follow Jesus. Don't be surprised. John 1518. This is Jesus speaking. He says, if the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. So that's the case. Sometimes people will know that you're a believer and they'll just hate you because of that. And you'll be nice to them and they'll hate you just because you're a believer. But don't make them hate you because you're a jerk. But with more neutral people, what we see is what we see with Solomon. Where people who don't have a burrow in their saddle about Christianity because they were in the church as a little kid and they had fundamentalist legalist accounts. Or because someone in the church with a real snot nose to them growing up or they went to a Christian school and couldn't wear shorts or whatever. You know, you know you have that. When someone's typically against Christianity, they've got someone in their background or something that happened to them by some Christian person not acting like Jesus to them. And they like to use that as a excuse to use Jesus himself. But with more neutral people, the nicodemuses of the world, you following the wisdom of your great king will lead people aren't from God's holy nation first, Peter 2.9 to have a good opinion if you and to appreciate you because you're not causing trouble. You're being faithful. You're doing work at work hardly not as just for your boss, but as if Jesus were your boss. Like Jesus said to the sheep when it comes back at final judgment, you gave me water. You visited me in prison. You visited me when I was sick because you're treating people with love. And so as you do that, as you're loving, as your patient, as your kind, the people around you will view you with favor. Jesus said this in Luke 6.7, but I tell you who, I tell you who hear me, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you. If anyone who takes what belongs to you, do not demand a fact. Love people more than your stuff. You're that? Love people more than your stuff. Use your stuff to love people. Don't use people to love your stuff. But if it gives anyone a ask of you, if anyone who takes what belongs to you, do not demand a fact, do to others as you would have them do to you. And so with the less biased following the commands of Scripture and how we treat people will bring you peace in your relationships even with non-believers. And so you just notice that qualification in the book of Hebrews in 1214, make every after living peace with all men, or as Paul says in Romans 12, as far as it be in your power, live at peace with all men. So sometimes you have enemies like Jesus said to you. Sometimes you have people who hurt you and curse you in mistreat you. But Jesus says, give them return to them wealth, return to them patience, return to them kindness because that's what my father does. He shows kindness to the ungrateful and to the wicked. So that looks it. And so that's our command. We show kindness to the ungrateful around us. People who don't appreciate our work or don't appreciate what we've done for. We show kindness to them, the ungrateful and the wicked. And God says that's how he bulls us over. Romans 2 verses 3 and 4. How does God lead us to repentance? The kindness and patience of God leads us to repentance. And so as we're kind and patient with people, we're being like God who's like to us. And this is the gospel, right? We were wicked. We were ungrateful to him. And he was kind to us. And he sent the rain and sunshine on us, promised that he gave to Noah, he'd provide for us a stable environment. And then he got the gospel to us and brought us to faith even though we were wicked. And so we walked with him in his steps, and that brings people down. Someone's being mean to you. Don't be mean back. The way to get them to be nice to you is to be nice today. And maybe one day they will say, this guy's always nice to me. Now I'm a jerk. And that'll break them, perhaps. So follow Jesus expecting it sometimes to create international peace. You got problems with non-believers, treat them like Jesus treated you in the gospel, loving them, forgiving them, being patient with them, being kind with them, being caring towards them. So summary for you, summary. First of all, we learned from Solomon in his great glory. We see a picture of Jesus. So be it, always be amazed the greatness of your king, Jesus. Don't forget that. Jesus is never whole home. Always be amazed that the greatness of your king, Jesus. Secondly, never forget that his total prominence over the whole world is coming. Remember that especially when you're in hard times. This will soon be over. Jesus total prominence of the world is coming. It will not be like this forever. He saved you. You're going to be around forever. And his total prominence will one day arrive. And when we read when that comes, we all rejoice. Third, follow Jesus and enjoy prominence over your life that comes with doing that. Following his command gives you a prominence over the basic things of your life with family and friends and work and marriage and kids and parents and how to deal with life and how to work and how to do all these things. We have prominence over this. We understand how it works because we've read his word, the words of our king and we've walked in the ways of the wisdom of our king, the great greater than Solomon, Jesus. And then lastly, follow Jesus as the best way as the best way to peace with non-Christians. Follow Jesus as the best way to peace with non-Christians. As Solomon had, he had peace with non-covenant people by walking in God's ways. Let's pray.