Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Assumptions Are You Making? | The Life of Solomon | 1 Kings 9

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Tim Minut Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. My name is Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. A few years ago, Time magazine ran a story about how we human beings are not very good at assessing risks. And the story captured one of the oddities of the human condition. And that oddity is this. We have a confounding habit of worrying about mere possibilities while ignoring real probabilities. We have this weird habit of building barricades against perceived dangers while leaving ourselves completely exposed to real dangers.

Starting point is 00:00:43 You see this when people are afraid to fly and instead choose to drive. But we know that a lot more people die in car wrecks than airplane crashes. But that's not how they think about it. Or a few years ago, people were worried about a disease called mad cow disease that infected cows and therefore be. beef. But those same people who are worried about mad cow disease don't seem at all worried about cholesterol that kills about 700,000 people each year. By the way, there's a hamburger chain, at least I think it's a chain in our town called Mad Cow. Now, naming your food after a disease seems like a really bad choice to me. Can you imagine if Chuk-Flei changed their name to

Starting point is 00:01:28 salmonella? It's just you're never going to go there. I'm never going to go. I'm never going to go to a hamburger joint called Mad Cow. You know, I don't know. Maybe I'm missing out, but it's just not going to happen. But back to the idea that people are worried about possibilities instead of probabilities. They're worried about getting E. coli from fresh vegetables, but they fill their grocery cart with French fries and nachos. We put filters on our faucets and we lather ourselves in antibacterial soap.

Starting point is 00:01:59 At the same time, 20% of all adults still smoke. and nearly 20% of drivers don't use seatbelts. As human beings, we have an inability to distinguish between threats that are real and threats that aren't. That's true of our spiritual life as well. There are real threats to our walk with God that we ignore. One of those is presumption. Another one is success. Let's tackle those.

Starting point is 00:02:27 But before we get to Solomon, let's spend a minute thinking about how this plays out in the life of a guy. probably not heard of. His name is Demus. Demus was one of the people on Paul's ministry team. Demus is mentioned right alongside Luke and Mark, and they're obviously really important people. Both of them wrote part of the New Testament. So Demus is there with Paul in Rome when Paul was in prison. It's a little shocking to read in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 10, which by the way, 2 Timothy is Paul's last letter before he dies. But here's what the verse says. Demus, because he loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Demas had walked away from Paul, but more importantly, he'd walked away from Jesus.

Starting point is 00:03:15 Demas going to Thessalonica was a little bit like Jonah fleeing to Tarshish. Thessalonica and Tarshish, they're not bad cities. There's nothing wrong with them. But it's not the place that God wanted them to be. So what we're told here is that Demas was running away from God. He did really well spiritually until he didn't. Following Jesus is a daily choice. Jesus said,

Starting point is 00:03:40 Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. You can't rely on yesterday's choices to follow Jesus. You can't rely on the fact that yesterday you loved Jesus, that yesterday you prayed, that yesterday you read your Bible. that yesterday you surrendered your life, that yesterday you confessed your sin, that yesterday you submitted to Jesus. You see this play out in all kinds of people in the Bible. There's Peter who confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God, but later Peter is denying that he ever knew Jesus.

Starting point is 00:04:21 We see it in Solomon too. In 1st Kings 8 and 9, God keeps talking to Solomon about a choice that lies in front of him, a choice. choice that lies in front of all of Israel, and of course it's the same choice that lies in front of us. It's the choice to keep surrendering our lives to Jesus, to keep worshipping him instead of getting seduced and giving our allegiance to someone else or something else. What's interesting and instructive is that up into this point in his life, Solomon had made almost all the right choices. In 1 Kings 9, verse 10, it says, at the end of 20 years, during which Solomon built these two buildings, the temple of the Lord and the royal palace. Now, that's a pretty impressive resume. Solomon was used to establish the king as God's leader and the temple as God's presence in Israel.

Starting point is 00:05:12 Solomon's wise decisions had started all the way back at the very beginning when he trusted God to make him king of Israel instead of taking matters into his own hands. Solomon made another good decision when he asked God to give him wisdom instead of wealth. And of course, like I already mentioned, he built the temple just as the Lord had directed him to. In chapter 8, Solomon had prayed at the dedication of the temple. And in chapter 9, we read that God heard that prayer, answered that prayer. God would do exactly what Solomon asked. But even with all he'd done, even with his past spiritual successes, even with his past

Starting point is 00:05:47 obedience, Solomon still had to choose to surrender to God's will daily, to daily follow after God. He couldn't presume on God's grace. He couldn't rely on his past obedience. or past prayers. He could not find spiritual health by looking in the rear view mirror. We can't either. We face the same choice of daily re-surrendering our life to King Jesus. There's another warning in this chapter. See, not only was Solomon presumptuous because of the way he'd followed God in the past, but he's also presumptuous because of the success he'd had.

Starting point is 00:06:26 I mean, you read through First Kings 9, and you see that Solomon was, incredibly successful as the king. He had won at international trade. He had completed these massive building projects. He ruled over a big and growing kingdom. He had an important wife. She was the daughter of the Pharaoh. He had an impressive navy. He had all kinds of gold. But still, every day, he had to make the choice to follow the will of God. What's he going to do with all these blessings? Is he going to thank God for them? Is he going to thank God for them? Is he going to to use whatever blessings God's given him to build God's kingdom, or is he going to use them on himself to make his life easier? People who are successful and part of their life have a tendency to

Starting point is 00:07:11 think that that means that God is good with them, like God is approving their whole life. The more personal success we have, the easier it is to think we're on the right track spiritually. But in the next couple chapters of First King, we're going to see Solomon fall away from God, fall into idolatry. Solomon had so much success, but he failed to daily walking with God. He walked with God until he didn't. What is a prophet a person if they're successful in all areas of their life,

Starting point is 00:07:45 but in the process, they lose their soul? I know that what's in Solomon and in Demus is in me. In other words, the same things that led Solomon and Demus to walk away from Jesus could very well have the same impact in my life. Today, you and I must submit our life to Jesus. And then tomorrow, we bend our knee and bow our head and swear allegiance to Jesus. And then the next day, we say we love Jesus and want to worship him alone. Anyone who wants to follow me must pick up his cross daily. Daily. That's how I want to live. Let's pray, King Jesus, we surrender our life to you.

Starting point is 00:08:34 We pray for grace that we might love you more today than we did yesterday, and that we might love you more tomorrow than we do today. Jesus, we pray that you would never let us go, never let our heart drift away from you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with.

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Assumptions Are You Making? | The Life of Solomon | 1 Kings 9

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