With them, what is it? How do you get it? Let's talk about it on this edition of Key Life. Hello, I'm Mike Kellogg, and this is Key Life. If you are interested in honest and practical Bible teaching for struggling believers, you are at the right place. Here's Steve Brown. Thanks, Mike. If you had your Bible open into first and second kings, as we continue with our study in first and second kings, our Old Testament survey. We've looked at the major themes in first and second kings, and yesterday, we spent some time looking at how sin, this is from first kings 1, 6. I'm a tour director now. I'm going through these books, and I'm going to lift up some kind of interesting sites as we go along. First kings 1, 6. I had a nice father, David, had never at any time displeased him by saying, why have you done thus? And so he, at an IJah, was a very handsome man, and he was born next after absence. We saw the problem with David being a bad father was that he let his own sin keep him from doing what was necessary with his son. And then we looked at some cases how we do that sometimes too. So let's move along. If you got your Bible open into first kings 3, 10 through 14, it reads as follows. And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. Then God said to him, because you have asked this thing, that's wisdom, and I have not asked for, you know, I don't have time to read the old text, but you know that Solomon was wise, and he asked God for a wisdom. Then God said to him, because you have asked this thing and have not asked for a long life for yourself. Nor have I asked riches for yourself nor have I asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice behold. I have done according to your words, see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you nor any like you like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked both riches and honor so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments as your father David walked, then I will also lengthen your days. Solomon was known as wise Solomon. Let me give you some other scripture. James 1-5-6 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him, but let him ask in faith with no doubting for he would doubt this is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. Now if you want wisdom, what do you do? You go and ask him. If you ask him, he is going to give it to you. Yeah, because James says that he will if you don't doubt what I just told you. On a Job 28-28, an unto man, he said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. Conrad and Adam now are used to say, the Lord set definite limits on man's wisdom, but he said no limits on his stupidity, and that's just not fair. Billy Sunday said, a sinner can repent, but stupid is forever. First Kings and in Solomon, we find a great man who is not only great, but he is wise. In Job 32-9, a lau, one of the friends says, great men are not always wise, and that is true. And I might add, wise men are not always great. But please note that his wisdom was in his obedience to God. Who was it that said to Lincoln, I am a self-made man and Lincoln laugh and said, good, that relieves the Lord of a tremendous responsibility. I'm not, let me illustrate, I'm not a very good counselor, but I have a reputation of being a very fine counselor. In fact, when I was a pastor, the elders of the church had the limit, the time that I would spend counseling, because people would just line up, and it got out of hand, and I was spending almost all of my week from 8 o'clock in the morning to late at night seeing people and talking about their problems and stuff. People come to me because they figure, you know, a person I know that's worse than I am is Steve, so I'm going to go talk to him. And the truth is, I've raised my knees against the desk, because they were shaking so bad, and I hardly ever knew what to say. But as a young pastor, I'd come out of a liberal place, and I didn't know much of what the Bible said. I'd taught John, and that was my first time, of ever knowing what John had to say, but as I had determined to be a Bible teacher, and the more I taught it, the wiser I got. The more I taught it, the wiser I got, because it was God's wisdom, and out of the Bible came some real help for God's people and for me personally. Why is that? Because you move close to God, and you listen to what God says, and you stay close to God, then you begin to have wisdom. Zechler said, the wise man is also the just, the pious, the upright, the man who walks in the way of truth. The fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, consists in a devotion to God. Now, let me tell you something, when you see a ballman selling hair restore, you avoid that man, because the hair restore doesn't work. When you see a unbeliever dispensing wisdom, don't buy it. The product isn't real. Wisdom is something that God gives His people, and that's why I have a book coming out with 10-day old pretty soon, and it's called the 10 dumb things that Christians do to mess up their lives. But I've signed a second contract, and by the way, I'm going to be doing this at the Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center this year in the seminar that I'm teaching. But I've signed a contract for a second book, and as we've talked, I think it's going to be titled, Street Smart Christians. Is that close time so smart? No, is it because I'm so street smart? No, only in so far as I stay close to God, and as I find out what His word says. It's very important that Christians do that. You know, it amazes me sometimes, the unrealistic weird kind of stuff that comes out of Christian. You know what's gotten so? When pagans look at us, they say, oh, it's just a Christian. What do they know? I think one of the reasons we've been ruled out of the public square isn't because they hate Christians, though some of them do. The reason we've been ruled out of the public square is because of some of the things that we've said, the conspiracies that we've seen, the kind of weird stuff that we get into. Let me take some. That ought to never be a part of the walk of a Christian. Christian ought to be a person who is extremely wise. Why? Because of what I just told you. We stay close to God, walk with Him, we fear Him. That's the beginning of wisdom. We find out what He says about a situation, and then we render that wisdom, and it's the way the world works. That's what it means to be a street smart Christian. I remember when I was a young pastor and then decided that the Bible was God's Word, but I didn't know exactly what it said. I may have told you this before, but I do a lot of counseling. I had a 100% success rate. Every marriage problem that came to me ended up in the divorce. Now, you got to know that when you're a liberal, that's cool. I mean, divorce does not work out. Just get out of it. But if you're a Christian, that's not very good. I remember going to a pastor's meeting, and there was a Lutheran pastor. It's Salem Lutheran church on the South Shore in Quincy, Massachusetts. He was sitting out in front of his church, and I came a little bit early and was thumbing through the Bible. I said, what are you doing? He said, well, I've got some people who are talking about some really bad marriage stuff, and I'm just trying to find out exactly what I need to say to him. I said, Bert, don't get a divorce if it's not working out. Now, he looked at me like a wet, shaggy dog shaking himself at the Miss America Badgent. He was absolutely shocked, and he said, Steve, and he knew my witness. He said, Steve, sit down a minute. I want to show you something. And he went through the Bible and gave me 101, Marriage 101 from the Bible. You know what I did? I took what he taught me, and I started applying it in the counseling situations I had. Even in those days, when I wasn't sure this was good advice, and you know what happened? The situation almost grew worse, marriages were salvaged. Good things started happening, and I went, well, I'm smart. God said, no, you're not smart. You just tell him what I told you to tell him. And that's wisdom. It's godliness, fear of God that is healthy. Knowing what he has to say and applying the principles that he gives us to real life, and Christians need to be street smart Christians. I'd like to spend some more time on this. Let's move along as your tour director down this road of first and second kings. Let me show you something. I'm only mentioning it because I don't have much more time. I want you to note that while Solomon was wise, there are three areas of particular sin in Solomon's life. First, he had a lack of compassion, and secondly, he had a problem with pride, and thirdly, his sin was idolatry. And I'm going to talk more about that next week. I want you to know, and I look at that. What? You mean you had all of this, all of this money, and this wisdom, and this riches, and this long life, and the wisdom, and you liked compassion, and you're prideful. You think you did it yourself, and you are worshiping at the altar of idols? How could you? And then God says, the same way you could, if you aren't very, very careful. It amazes me sometimes. When I look at God's kindness and His goodness directed toward us, and how sometimes we still run to somebody else. When I look back over my life, and He's always adequate in my life, I still run to somebody else. I seek control aside from Him. I seek security and significance without Him. Do you do that sometimes if you do ripen of it? And I will too. And He will be glad. You think about that. I mean, hey listen, if I have a deal for you, you're not going to believe. We worked out with Christianity today, so you could get seven free issues, no obligation, no billing, no renewal, and now there are no strings attached. That's it. Now they're going to ask you to renew after you get these seven free issues, but you'll have to. And that's it. Now trust me on this, you're not going to get it to be a wipe this very often, but you got to let me know. If you'll call us at 1-800-keylife-24-hours-a-day, you write key life. Post office box 5,000-Mateland Florida, 3-2794. You can write us in Canada, key life Canada, post office box 3-215-0, Cambridge, Ontario, N-3-H-5-M-3. Or you can email us at see-that-keylife.org with your regular mailing address. And I'll get it to Christianity today. And this is maybe the most important Christian magazine in Christendom. And since I worked so hard to work this out for you, it seems to me to be willing to help me. I'd just get it. I know some of you can't, but if you can, be as generous as you can. And you can charge it on a MasterCard visa, DiscoverCard, include a contribution in your envelope. I would appreciate it. For any contribution of any size when you request it, I'll send you the cassette teaching what do it is killed. Guys, I've got to get out of here. Before I go a couple of things, whenever you're right or cold, be sure and give us the call letters of this great station. 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