This recording is from Willa Creek Church in Wintersprings, Florida, where Dr. Pete Allenson is our senior pastor. Today's sermon is part 12 in the Offensive Christianity series. This message is titled First Things First. It's taken from 1 Kings chapter 3 verses 1 through 15. Now here's Pete with today's message. Our Father, we do come into your presence today as your people glad that we can worship and honor and glorify you. And Lord, our desire is to do that, to lift up your name. We come today on the first day of the week as you call us to, Lord, with the opportunity and the joy of focusing upon you and your mercy and your grace and your kindness and your greatness. Lord, we come to you because you're the God who created and you're the God who recreates. New life in us. And we thank you, Lord, for how you have come after us and have drawn us to yourself and are giving us the truth about ourselves and about how to live. And so, Lord, this morning, as we worship, we pray that you would need us. And as we look into your word today, we pray that you would teach us, that you would guide us in the paths of righteousness, guide us in the paths of wisdom, and Lord continue to do whatever you want to do in our lives. You know everyone here. We're not here by chance. We're not even here by choice. In a sense, you have called us and drawn us to be in your presence today. And so, Lord, we know that the word you have for us will make sense for our lives. Father, we pray for this world. And as we ask you to teach us, we ask you to continue to move in this world and there are so many that need you. Lord, right now, as we think about the violence and the chaos and Lebanon and Israel, Lord, we lift that up to you. You're not surprised. You're not shocked at what's going on there. But Lord, we pray that you would do a mighty work of overcoming terror and evil and stop it. We pray, Father, that you would bring peace. We pray that you would bring peace on earth, but we know ultimately that will only happen when Christ returns. But Lord, we ask for a measure of that in the here and in the now. We pray that your gospel would spread even in those places where it seems there is only death and destruction. And Lord, we know you can do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think. We pray, Father, for our missionaries and we thank you for the stoneburners and how Lord, for years, they've been faithful to you and what a privilege it has been to be a part of that ministry. We use them to raise up military officers with integrity and with skill and with Christ in their hearts, we pray. And Lord, there's so many in our family here who need you in a big way. Our vacation Bible school starts this week and we pray for our kids that Lord, you would make this an incredible time and those who will work with them to bring the gospel to them. We pray for our own kids this week, receive Christ into their lives and into their hearts. We pray for those who are looking for you to see business come to a conclusion for them that Lord who are looking for answered prayer. For those who are recovering, we pray for Brett, we pray for Rex. We pray for those who are grieving. We pray for Emma and Paula, Lord, that you would bring just your presence into their life in powerful ways. There's so many needs, Lord. We pray for Tom's side bottom right now as Lord, we mourn the loss of Dottie this morning early and Lord, how we pray, that you would protect him and guide him, Lord, that you would give him that sense of hope in the gospel that we know he has. Thank you that she's with you. Now we pray that you would teach us that you'd open our minds to your word and give us wisdom because we pray these things. In Jesus holy name. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles, take them and turn to first kings because we continue our study and what has been called in this series offensive Christianity that we could stay on the offensive and stay growing. There's so many issues in our life that could keep us from following God in a deeper way and you know the issues in your life and the suffering and the challenges that you face and what is it that's going to keep us moving ahead and following Him. So that's what we're talking about. Looking at some of the great verses in the Bible also, also we're looking at truth this year. Truth is kind of that underlying theme because you cannot progress very far without truth. Truth, a lot of people go on diets. I'm not saying you should or even that you are but a lot of people go on diets and one lady was talking about how she and her husband and following this diet following it down to the core. You know, it's one of those diets that has a particular meal for every meal of every day and they were following it. She loved it. It was good tasting. But yet one day she realized she wouldn't lose it any weight. In fact, they were gaining it. And so she went back to the diet and looked at the small print, the fine print, it said serves six. And you got to look at the fine print. I mean, you guys, we need truth. The truth of the fine print and how to live our lives and to keep us on the first things first. One guy said that he was talking to his wife and he said, you know, honey, there'd be nothing that I would change. If I had to go back and live my life, there'd be nothing that I would change, including diapers. But for most of us who are honest, there's stuff we would change. Even if you're young, what would you go back and change? What would you do different? The very cool thing about being a follower of Christ is that it's never too late to start over. It's never too late to go back and find wisdom from God as to how to do life. And that's what Solomon does. And in our text for today, we're going to be looking at wisdom for life, how to find God's wisdom in our everyday life. Verse Kings 3, 1 through about verse 9 because our key verse today is verse 9. And that's our text for today. This is God's word for us. Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. People were still sacrificing on the high places because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days. Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in his statues of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. And King went to Gibbian to sacrifice there for that was the great high place. Solomon offered 1,000 burnt offerings on that altar. In Gibbian, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night and God said, ask what you wish me to give you. Then Solomon said, now has shown great loving kindness to the servant David, my father, according as he walked before the in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward the end. Now has reserved for him this great loving kindness that now has given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. And now, O Lord, my God, now has made thy servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or to come in, and thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people who cannot be numbered or counted for multitude. So, give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, to discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this great people of thine? Well, that is God's word for us, and that is Solomon asking for a wisdom, a discerning heart, and that's what wisdom is. By the way, if you're wondering what wisdom is in a biblical sense, wisdom is skill for living, skill for doing life. And that's what Solomon is asking for as he becomes the king. The historical tide that we've been looking at as we've been going through this series has led us through the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, Moses' books, and led us through the time of the judges, and now into the times of the kings. The first king of Israel, there's some trivia question for you this morning. The first king of Israel was who saw the second king of Israel was David, and now we come to Solomon, the third king of Israel, who was the first king born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Solomon never knew a day when he didn't have money. He didn't know a day that he didn't know success. He was raised at a very wealthy home as the son of a king. Now I want you to meet Solomon because I got to tell you this guy has been my mentor for a lot of years, as far back as I can remember, really. So I got to tell you about Solomon. First let me tell you two things bad about Solomon. The Bible is an earthy book. It doesn't just tell us the wonderful and show us the beautiful people. It tells us the mess-ups as well. The first thing about Solomon that you need to know is he married a non-Jew against Old Testament teaching, and the Old Testament was very clear about that. He married the daughter of Pharaoh. Secondly, it says that he worshipped on the high places. And you say, where are the high places? Are you watching what's going on in the Middle East today? Are you- maybe you watched the news today before you came here, and you see that the reporters, those who are wise, are up on the hills and on the mountains, overlooking the cities. Not so many of them are walking around Haifa. They're up on the hills, overlooking Haifa because the Katusha rockets are going into Haifa. They're up on the high places. Jerusalem has hills everywhere around it. And as a nation, Israel has those places. The people went up to those high places and burned incense to the gods, the Asherah, the Bales, the pagan gods. And you know what? Solomon went up there sometimes, too. Now, that's not good. He worshiped the false gods sometimes, and that's not good. But there's more good about him than there is bad about him. Let me tell you two good things about Solomon. Number one, it says that he loved God. And number two, it says, in verse three, that he walked in the statutes of his father, David. In other words, what revelation God gave to his father, David, he Solomon tended to follow. He loved God. And then he obeyed God. Have you been wondering about all of the commands in the Bible? Do this. Don't do that. Do this. Don't do that. And you've been raised with the commands of the Bible. Did anybody ever tell you don't do a thing unless you love God? Well, I'm telling you today, because there's a lot of commands in the Bible. Don't do any of that unless you love God. You're saying that sounds like heresy. Sounds like you could lose your job over this, maybe. But it's biblical. In other words, see Solomon had it right. He loved God. And then he obeyed him. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. He doesn't say, keep my commandments and just do all this stuff. First, God gives us a reason to love him. And then because of his grace and his mercy, we want to love him in real practical ways. That's the gospel. That's good news. And Solomon understood that. And so what I want to show you here is just some things about Solomon's response, how he came to God and when God said, Solomon, whatever it is, you want, you ask me. This is one of those places in Scripture, and there are many of them. Many places in the Bible where you read a story, you come and a human being is put in a dilemma. And then that person in a dilemma has a decision, am I going to go this way or am I going to go that way? What would you do if you were in this situation and God says, all right, you won the lottery. You won the lottery. What do you want? I've never won the lottery. You got to play it to win it. I've never played it. Well, not much. But by the way, if you play the lottery and win, don't think you can't tell anybody around here. Just tie on it and it's okay. Just come to me and say, you know, I probably shouldn't know, but here it is. And we'll bless you in Jesus name and forgive you. But the reality is, is that if God says to you, you won the lottery. Here it is. What do you want? What would you say? What would I say? I'm not sure. What Solomon said was, God make me wise. Give me a discerning mind, a discerning heart. Give me skill for all of my relationships. Give me skill in marriage. Give me skill with my kids. Give me skill at work. Give me skill with my clients. Give me skill. Give me skill. Wisdom is the ability to know what to say when and how to say it. Solomon asked for that kind of wisdom. Let me tell you a couple things. Number one, his request for wisdom recognizes God's previous grace. He knew that God had given him so much. He knew that God had made him the son of a king, raised him. I love this. He understood by asking for wisdom that God had given him so much. He understood God's grace. And even calling David to be a king, that he said, you know, you've given us so much. Now give me something for other people. Secondly, Solomon's request recognizes his own inability to do the job. When he asked for wisdom, he said, he's basically saying, I don't know how to be a good king. And I love that. There's an old Jewish proverb that says this, with money in your pocket, you are wise, and you are handsome, and you sing well too. The old Jewish proverb that says, if you've got money, everybody thinks you're wonderful about everything. Everybody thinks you know everything about it, and you're wonderful. You really are. No, you're not Solomon. Newly what? He had all this money. He had all this power. But he knew that if he was going to lead the people of God, he was a baby at it. He didn't know what he was doing. And so he comes and ask God for wisdom. That's a good leader. That's humility. I love that. By the way, humility is not rippin' on yourself, not telling people you can't do things. Humility is not saying, I'm not good at that when you are. Humility is having a proper view of yourself. And that's exactly what Solomon had at this point in time. One of my favorite verses is what Paul says to the leaders in Corinth and the church and the New Testament in Corinth. And he says, these things I have applied figuratively, brethren, to myself, for you and a Paulist, that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. And then he says this, and I think he probably would have lost his job if he was the pastor to that church. He says, for who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? You see, true humility is recognizing what you have and by way of traits and abilities and gifts and saying, God, help me do this. But not acting as if you did it by yourself. Solomon asked for wisdom because he knew of God's past grace and because of his own inability and thirdly because of his great responsibility versus eight through nine. He says, the servant is in the midst of thy people which I was chosen, a great people who cannot be numbered or counted for a multitude. He understood that in his position he had a great responsibility for other people. I remember the time and I told you about this when I was ordained as a pastor and I think there were some guys and that was an evening service and they had to have been tired, all those elders and pastors and they made me kneel in front of the congregation and they put their hands on me and they prayed and they prayed. Have you ever been to an ordination service? I think they think that well, they were probably looking down and saying, this guy needs a lot of help and so they prayed and they prayed and they were leaning heavier and heavier and heavier and the weight. I wanted to say, hey, you guys tried to break my lower back but in that situation, feeling the weight of those guys leaning on me and praying, you not realized. Week after week, I'm going to be with God's people, leading God's people, standing up in front of God's people, trying to have wisdom and leading God's people. This is nuts. I don't know what I'm doing. My wife told me that a long time ago, we're too young for this. You know, he was right. There are three kinds of leaders in the world today. There are dictators and dictators say about the people I own you. And I'm doing with you what I want. There are pragmatic leaders and pragmatic leaders say, what do you want me to say? I'll say it, just to keep in power. What do you want me to give you? I'll give it, just to keep in power. And then there are godly leaders like Solomon who say, God, what do the people need? What do you want me to give them? How can I discern justice for them? Guys, that's the way your leadership ought to be in your families. And not a dictator. I'm in control here. I own you. Not pragmatic. What do you want to hear? But how can I gain God's discernment to lead this family well? That's what we need. Come on. You've got kids. Your kids need your wisdom. It's tough, isn't it? They need your wisdom. They need that kind of leadership. From you, the kind that says, God, give me a discerning heart. Oh, don't give up. You say I'm single enough kids. God can give you wisdom like this. For what you do, for where you are, a discerning heart for every step of the way. This is what is so needed. Well, fourth, in Solomon's request for wisdom, I want you to note, he recognized he had an opportunity to make a difference. Verse 9. So give thy servants an understanding heart to judge thy people to discern between good and evil. For who was able to judge this great people of thine? He understood that he had an opportunity to work with God's people. They were just this incredible body of people. Several million strong. And now he had an opportunity to make a difference in this world. For 31 years, that verse has rung in my ears. For 31 years, I have struggled and tried to do what is right for God's people. And leadership is tough, isn't it? Those of you who are in leadership, I've failed more times than I could ever recount. But I want to tell you, that's my goal. To lead God's people is to follow where he wants us to go. HL Mankin once said, the men American people admire the most extravagantly are the most daring liars. The men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. Who should we look for to lead us in our homes, in our communities, in our churches, in our missions? Who's people who looked at God like Solomon did? And say, Lord, give me a discerning heart to make a decision here at every phase of my life. What was God's response to Solomon? Well, as an interesting one of verses 10-15, God's response, I'll just read some of it. It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said, because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked for riches for yourself, and the text continues, and you can read it later, God basically says, I'm going to give you all of it. You asked for a discerning heart, I'm going to give you a long life, a lot of money, and a big kingdom. Pretty cool. Because there's two things you need to know about God. He simply loves humble hearts. He loves humility. He loves it when we come to Him and say, God, I don't know what it takes to make this happen here. I need your wisdom. And when we come and seek His wisdom, He is generous over the top. Matthew 6.33, Jesus said the same thing. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. God's going to make you rich. I'm not one of those name and claim it, preachers. If you ask for wisdom, is He going to pay your mortgage on? I don't know. It doesn't work like that in God's economy. He might do that, and if He does, give me credit. But the bottom line is that God, you need to know, if you want to understand God, understand that He loves humble hearts. He doesn't want you to think you've got it all together. Did you have a bad week? Did you make a bad decision? Did you fail in a couple of ways? And you feel like, oh man, I'm not good. God loves those kind of people. Who come to Him and say, Lord, I made a bad mistake. Would you forgive me? He says, yes, Jesus died for that. Lord, I have messed up with my family. Would you help me get over that and grow? Yeah, He loves that. He didn't expect you to have it all together. He loves humble hearts to come to Him and ask for wisdom. And He gives it. And He's generous over the top. By the way, many of you have been generous about our building program. And we've got pledged forms in there. If you're not doing anything and not a part of it at all, we want you to be a part of it. Do something. Do 25 cents. Do 10 bucks. Be a part of it. Just be a part of this because God's doing something very cool. But I want to tell you what my overall goal is here. It's not just to pay the mortgage. This is kind of an insight just between you and me. I don't want to just get the mortgage to pay for this thing. I want to pay this whole thing off. You say, it's millions. I say, no. But look what He gave Solomon. I don't want to just have a mortgage. I want to pay this thing off so we can give more money to missions. So we can give more money away. I want us to reach our mission field here. And then let's pay this thing off so we can give more money away. Isn't that cool? Wouldn't it be cool if we were able to do more and more? We give 11% of our ties and offerings on Sunday. That goes right out to missions. I'd like to make that more and more. So you say, why are you bringing this up? I don't know. No, I know why. Because if God could take care of Solomon, He can take care of you. God can make all grace abound to us so we can do His work. That's what it's about. God loves this. The other way, did Solomon's wisdom pan out? It did. It did. His wisdom paned out in an amazing way if you will read the rest of 1 Kings 3. And I'm not going to read it. I'm just going to tell you. But you got to read it because two prostitutes came to Solomon. This was the day when the king of Israel dealt with other kings and he dealt with everybody because there were a lot of people but not that many. So these two prostitutes came before him and here was the case. The case was that as prostitutes, they had each had children and one of the children died in the middle of the night. One of the ladies had rolled over onto one of the babies and one of the babies died. The woman who killed her own child got up, took her dead child, put it over near the other lady and took the living child and put it over near her in the morning. The other woman woke up and said, that's not my baby. She said, yeah, it's your baby. And so they went through the court system and finally got the Solomon and they brought them in and told the case to Solomon. Solomon looks at this. Here she says, one lady says it's her child. Another lady says, it's her child. Nobody else knows. We have no cooperating evidence. How do I know? He said, bring me a sword. The guy comes in with a sword. He says, cut that baby in half, give half to her and half to the other lady. And the lady, the lady whose baby it really was screams, no, don't do that. Let her have the baby. And the lady, I use that term lightly, who lost her baby, said, yeah, cut in half. Solomon give it to her. Because that's the true mother. It's so cool. It's kind of like, it went out through the whole nation. Everybody thought, whoa. Some of you have heard that story before. He said, that's no big deal. I heard it before. It says, kid, imagine hearing that for the first time. How would you have figured that one out? I would have sat there and said, I don't know. Got any dice? I gave him wisdom to come up with that. And he put the rest of his wisdom in the book in the Bible called Proverbs. So here's my challenge. My challenge to those of you who are Christians is to understand that God gives incredible wisdom. He gave it to Solomon. And there's no better source of wisdom than found right here in the book of Proverbs every day. I try my philosophy is one proverb a day keeps stupidity away. I listen. I need it. I read the book of Proverbs. When I forget, sometimes I'll get 10 or 11 o'clock. Whoa, I forgot to read it. I'll stop. Because this wisdom is powerful. I need it for every area of my life. And I've been doing that for 30 years. You say, whoa, you got it figured out by now, don't you? Yeah. I got it figured out. Listen, my second son is on an airplane right now flying to California where he's going to link up with a missions group. And they're going to go to Singapore. He's going to play basketball for Jesus. He's going to play basketball and he's going to tell the gospel for Jesus. And I think that's so cool. Would you pray about that? I love for you to pray that it's effective. But I want you to know I'm scared today. As he was getting in the car for caring to take him to the airport this morning, I was thinking, I've been telling him to be a man, to follow Jesus, to serve Jesus, to live his life to think big he is. And I'm scared. Because I'm at a new phase of my life. And I'm letting these guys go. I'm kicking him out. Go do that. It's dangerous in Singapore. They'll throw you in jail for chewing gum. I want you to know. I'm not kidding. If you throw the gum out on the, they will. They'll cane you. There's some weird people over there. And I need God's wisdom every day. Every day. I know you're going through some tough things. You need it. I need it. Your marriage is struggling. Follow Jesus and seek for wisdom from God's word because that's the other thing that's going to last. You say, haven't found the right person yet for my life. You will stay with him. Stay with him. Now, for those of you who don't know Christ, here's my wisdom because it seems like what? It seems like what Christians believe is kind of silly. That we say that all of us are sinners and that we need a God who will pay for our sins because we can't pay for our own. That's right. That's the gospel. The good news is this. You're bad. And God is good. And He will judge you. But He doesn't want to. The gospel. The good news is that Jesus died on the cross for your sins as He died for my sins. And whoever believes in Him won't have to pay for their own sins. But then we'll be given the forgiveness of God and the ability to know not only do they have eternal life, but they've got life here on earth with God's wisdom. That's the gospel. And Paul said, you know, for many, the word of the gospel is foolishness. It sounds foolish that some other person could put us right with a father. I encourage you to understand, as Paul said in the New Testament, that Jesus is the wisdom of God because He is the one who paid for all of our sins forever. And that the wisdom you need is to know that you will never get right with God by trying to be good yourself. Can't do it. That by trying to be good, the Bible only shows us how bad we are. And so Jesus was good for us, that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. He is the wisdom of God and the power of God. Jesus Himself said, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. But notice it is not a bunch of statements that sets you free. He is the truth. And He will set you free. If you know Him, if you know Jesus, then my encouragement to you is to do what Solomon has said, get on a relentless search for the truth. This is my friend, Kelly, always says, always have a beginner's mind and you will always have a learner's heart. Always have a beginner's mind. Always act like a beginner and you will always be a learner. You take it to heart. What's the price? Today, if today is a day that you want more wisdom and want the wisdom of God in your life, then we invite you to Christ. And we just invite you to invite them in your heart through prayer simply by saying, I do not have the wisdom, I do not have the righteousness, I do not have the goodness to be right with God. Today, I accept Jesus as my Savior and as my Lord. Please come into my life and begin to give me the wisdom that you gave Solomon to build a life that makes a difference. Lord, I pray for your people, for those who are following you that they would not just think that the gospel is only about the hereafter but that they would understand that the gospel is for here as well. Lord, be with your people, be with all of us, that we would relentlessly seek wisdom in our relationships with our money, with our children, that we would understand that who we influence now may truly influence others for return. So give us wisdom and we will give you honor and glory as we pray these things and the strong name of our Savior Jesus. Willow Creek Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America, our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org and our phone number is 407-699-82-11.