2 Chronicles. That's in the Old Testament, not
to be confused with 2 Corinthians in the New
Testament. 2 Chronicles. We were actually there
last Sunday as well. 2 Chronicles chapter 1.
We're going to be talking a little bit this morning
about King Solomon. Some of you may know of King
Solomon. He was the son of King David. 2 Chronicles
chapter 1. We're going to read through the first
12 verses, and then we'll kind of talk about
just the last few of those. But to get a little
bit of the context, we're going to read through
the first 12 verses. 2 Chronicles chapter 1,
verse 1. Solomon, son of David, strengthened
his whole on his kingdom. The Lord his God was
with him and highly exalted him. Then Solomon
spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands
and of hundreds, to the judges and to every leader
in all Israel, the heads of the families. Solomon
and the whole assembly with him went to the high
place that was in Gibeon because God's tent of
meeting. which the Lord's servant Moses had made
in the wilderness, was there. Now David had brought
the ark of God from Kiriath -Jerim to the place
he had set up for it, because he had pitched
a tent for it in Jerusalem. But he put the bronze
altar, which Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur,
had made in front of the Lord's tabernacle. Solomon
and the assembly inquired of him there. Solomon
offered sacrifices there in the Lord's presence
on the bronze altar at the tent of meeting. He
offered 1 ,000 burnt offerings on it. That night
God appeared to Solomon and said to him, Ask,
what should I give you? And Solomon said to God,
You have shown great and faithful love to my
father David, and you have made me king in his
place. Lord God, Let your promise to my father
David now come true. For you have made me king
over a people as numerous as the dust of the
earth. Now grant me wisdom and knowledge so that
I may lead these people. For who can judge this
great people of yours? God said to Solomon, Since
this was in your heart, and you have not requested
riches, wealth, or glory, or for the life of
those who hate you, And you have not even requested
long life, but you have requested for yourself
wisdom and knowledge that you may judge my people
over whom I've made you king. Wisdom and knowledge
are given to you. I will also give you riches,
wealth, and glory, unlike what was given to the
kings who were before you or will be given to
those after you. Let's pray. God, we come to
you this morning. We thank you for these words.
I pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would be with
us today, that you would free us from the distractions
and the worries and the things of this world.
I pray, God, that you would help me to be focused
on you, dear Lord, that you would help my mind
and my heart to be right this morning, to preach
and teach in a way that brings glory and honor
to you, that you take any pride or any fear that's
within me, dear Lord, and that today when I open
my mouth, God, that you are the one who does
the talking. God, you know where we are in life.
You know what we need. And I pray, dear Lord,
that your Holy Spirit would just minister to
us today through your word in these next few
minutes. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen. Now, David had been a pretty good king
for Israel. Saul was the king before David. And
Saul, he didn't even really start off on too
good of a note. He had a little bit of a run,
but was not really a good king. was a good king,
but even David was not without fault. He had
some serious moral problems, some things that
he did, some sins that he committed. But nonetheless,
David was a godly man, and that's obvious to
us when we read the Psalms. We kind of can see
the heart of David in the Psalms. I'll give a
plug to our Sunday school class that is going
through the Psalms for the next few months. If
you haven't spent much time in the Psalms, I
would encourage you to read them. You may find
that you can really connect with those Psalms.
It's some beautiful things in there. It's some
beautiful praises to the Lord. It's some beautiful
prayers, some cries for hope in the Lord. We
can certainly... relate to who David was and
the way that he praised the Lord sometimes and
even in his failures. And David was a pretty
good king and David had desire to build a temple
for the Lord. Now you may remember earlier in
the Old Testament that as God's people were wandering
through the wilderness that God had given instructions
for the tabernacle. It was kind of like this
big tent that they would set up and it was very
specific. that they had to sit up and pick it
up and take it along with them. And up to this
point, they were still using this tabernacle.
And David desired to build a temple for the Lord,
but God said, no, David, I'm not going to let
you do that. It's going to be up to your son
Solomon that's going to do that. And so when
we see this chapter, when we first start out
here in 2 Chronicles, we're kind of reminded
that the old system is still in place, that the
temple has not been built yet. And Solomon is
just beginning to start to reign as the king
of the people. And so they're all gathered up.
They're offering these sacrifices to the Lord.
And the Lord asked Solomon a simple question.
He asked him, he said, look, what should I give
you? Now this is a... This is a fun question
for us to ponder and think about. If we could
have anything in the world, if we could have
anything that our heart desired, what would we
ask for? And here God asked Solomon, what do
you want? Now, I remember when I was a kid, one
of my favorite movies, so much so, and you might
have had kids that did this too, that I knew
every word of the movie. Like, I literally could
tell you every word of the movie, sang every
song from it, and that movie was Aladdin. It
came out in 1992, I think. And some of you probably
had kids or grandkids that remembered that movie,
but I loved that movie. And for those of you
who have not watched Aladdin, it's a Disney movie.
I'll tell you what happens. Aladdin finds a lamp.
And in this lamp is a genie. And when you rub
the lamp, the genie comes out, and the genie
will grant you three wishes. Now, even if you
haven't seen Aladdin, you're probably familiar
with that idea of a genie in the lamp and the
wishes that they will grant you. And Aladdin
made his three wishes, and the first was that
he wished to become a prince. And then there
was an occasion where he was drowning, and he
wished to be saved. And then, ultimately, he
became good friends with the genie, for the genie
to be delivered from the lamp, that he would
be free. And so the genie was freed from the
lamp. And so this idea of having wishes, and
sometimes we think things like that, and we think,
boy, if I had three wishes, if I had one wish,
what would that wish be? Now, God certainly is
not a genie in a lamp. And sadly, sometimes perhaps
we don't respect God enough to realize that.
I think for some people in this world, and maybe
even for some in this room sometimes, we stop
viewing God as God, the creator of the heavens
and the earth, who has created us, who we live
to serve and to follow him and to be obedient
to him. Sometimes I think people view God as
nothing more than a genie in a lamp, as though
God exists to serve us. Well, that's not what
the Scripture says. God creates us, and we exist
to serve God. But for some people, God is just
the big guy in the sky who I call on when I want
something. And God, here's what I want. And some
people treat God in just that way. They don't
praise God. They don't live in obedience to God.
They don't serve God. They don't fear God. That's
the problem. Fear of God is the beginning of
wisdom. They don't fear God, and they just call
on God, and they pray or whatever they do. God,
I want this. Would you help me to get this money?
Would you help me to win the lottery? Would you
help me to become famous? And then people get
angry at God because those are the types of prayers
that they pray. Those are the types of things
that they ask for, and maybe us too. We need
to look at our own prayer life. What do our prayers
look like? God, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.
Now, don't get me wrong. God wants us to come
to him with our request. I don't think there's
any evil in saying, God, meet my needs. God,
if I need a new car or if I need some new clothes,
if my clothes are wore out, my car's broke down,
I don't think that it's evil for us to say, God,
I'm in a bind. These are things that I need.
God, I got to get to my work. I don't think it's
wrong for us to pray for the things that we need.
I don't think it's wrong for us to pray in that
way. But oftentimes the things we pray for may
not be needs at all. They may just be wants.
They may just be desires. And so we want that
fame. We want that fortune. We want that glory
for ourselves. And these are the types of things
that as humans that we may be tempted to request
of God. And if those are our requests to God,
if that's what our prayer looks like, God, give
me, give me, give me, then we're probably not
really being blessed in that. Sometimes people
get angry. God, why don't you do what I ask you
to? Well, the scripture says maybe you don't
receive because you've asked with a bad heart
so that you can use it for yourself. That's what
James chapter 4 verse 3 tells us. And so our
prayer life should never just be God give me.
It should be prayers of praise. It should be...
Thanking God for who he is. Yeah, make our requests
made known to God, those things that we need.
But too many times we don't really view God as
God. And we need to first establish that God
is God. There needs to be fear there. There needs
to be some respect there. There needs to be the
knowledge that we know. That God is not our genie
in a lamp. He does not exist to serve us, but
he has given his son Jesus Christ for us so that
we can faithfully follow and serve him and live
for him. Now Solomon here is kind of faced with
that idea, if we can call it that, that here's
what I'm asking you, Solomon. What do you want?
If I can give you anything, what do you want?
And maybe that's a good question for us to ponder
today and maybe this week. What if God were to
ask you that question? What if God were to come
to you tonight in a dream and he were to say,
what do you want? What would your answer be?
Now, I know what your church answer would be.
You would say good stuff. Oh, I want to love
people better. But what's really in our heart?
What really do we desire? What do we focus on?
What gets most of our attention during the day?
That's probably a good indication of where our
heart really is, what our focus is really on.
And Solomon here really gave a beautiful answer.
Now, he could have asked for anything. He could
have said, make me the most powerful king, make
me the wealthiest king. Destroy my enemies. God
help me to live forever. He could have asked
for all of these types of things that maybe you
and I would ask for. But Solomon, he at least
had a little wisdom even before he got to be
king. Because he asked for wisdom. We see that
in the last few verses. God said, what do you
want? And Solomon said, look, God, you have placed
me in charge of all of these people. It's a lot
of them. God, this job is way too hard for me.
I don't know what to do. I don't know how to
lead these people. So God, would you give me
wisdom? Would you give me knowledge? That's what
we see in the scripture here in verse 10. Now
grant me wisdom and knowledge so that I may lead
these people for who can judge this great people
of yours. Now that's a good request. How many
of us would that be our request coming into the
building today before this scripture? Would we
have thought, yeah, that's what I want to ask
for. I want to ask for wisdom and knowledge.
We would have probably thought of a lot of things
to ask for. But even in asking for that, Solomon
shows that he has some wisdom. He says, God,
I cannot do anything without you. I need you.
So God, give me the wisdom to lead these people.
And this pleased the Lord. And we see this. In
the Lord's response in the next verse. Verse
11. God said to Solomon, Since this was in your
heart, and you have not requested riches, wealth,
or glory, or for the life of those who hate you,
and you have not even requested long life, but
you have requested for yourself wisdom and knowledge
that you may judge my people whom I have made
you king, wisdom and knowledge are given to you.
Now, that was a good request. God heard that
request, and that was a request from a good heart.
God said, because this was in your heart, because
your heart is in the right place, that I'm going
to grant your request. I'm going to give you
wisdom, and I'm going to give you knowledge.
Now, there's a difference between those two things,
wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is good. Knowledge
is good, but what do you do with that knowledge
that makes the difference? You see, we can all
have knowledge. There's a lot of people in the
world who have knowledge of God, who have knowledge
of the Word of God, but they don't fear God.
They don't live by the Word of God. There's a
lot of times in our life as Christians that we
know what God calls us to. We have a knowledge
of it, but that knowledge does not do us any
good if we don't put it into practice. If what
we know, if we don't do what is right with what
we know, then it fails to become wisdom. I think
that's kind of what wisdom is. When you do the
right thing based on the knowledge that you have,
that is wisdom. And so there's a difference between
knowledge and wisdom. There's a lot of people
in this world who are knowledgeable, but they
may not be wise. Here's a good example, a good
definition between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge
is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is
knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. There's
the difference right there. So we don't want
to just be those who have knowledge. We want
to be those who take that knowledge, who have
the knowledge of the Word of God and the example
of Jesus Christ, and we want to live that knowledge
out. We want to be wise and listen to what it
says and do what it says. And that's exactly
what Solomon is asking for here. He says, God,
I want wisdom and I want knowledge. And God says,
because your heart is right, because this is
what's in your heart, Solomon, I'm going to give
this to you. And look what follows that. Not
only does he say he's going to give him wisdom
and knowledge in verse 12. He says, Wisdom and
knowledge are given to you. I will also give
you riches, wealth, and glory, unlike what was
given to the kings who were before you or who
will be given to those after you. So isn't that
a beautiful thing? That Solomon didn't ask for
the riches and the wealth and the fame, but nonetheless
God was going to bless him with that anyway.
Now there's something to be said for wisdom.
Wisdom oftentimes may lead to better choices
that may result in some of those things, just
wisdom alone. And so Solomon's wisdom certainly
was going to help him, and I think God blessed
him abundantly above and beyond what his own
wisdom would have gotten because his heart was
right, because he asked for a good thing, because
he asked for a right thing. Proverbs chapter
4 verse 7 says this, Wisdom is supreme, so get
wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding.
James chapter 1 verse 5 says, Now if any of you
lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to
all generously and without criticizing, and it
will be given to him. So what are we asking for
in our life today? That question is before us
too. What are our requests to God today? Are
we asking God for the things of the world? Are
we asking God for things that are for ourself?
Or do we fear God and seek him and seek knowledge
and seek wisdom to live by what his word says?
Maybe our prayers are not heard or not answered
because the things we request are not from a
good heart, but from an evil heart. And we need
to follow the words of James, that if we would
seek God and we would seek him and we would ask
him for wisdom, then we would receive that wisdom.
So maybe we need to check our prayer lives. We
need to check what's most important to us. Maybe
there's too much foolishness in our life today.
Maybe we need that wisdom like Solomon had. Maybe
that needs to be where we start. God, help me
not just to have some knowledge, but help me
to have wisdom, dear Lord, that I make good choices,
that I make the right decisions, that I live
in obedience to you and in service to you. And
the greatest example of God's wisdom throughout
all of Scripture is Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians,
Paul says, look, the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing. But it is God's power
to those who are being saved. And then he goes
on later to say in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 24,
Yet those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ is God's power and God's wisdom. If we
want wisdom, it must start with Jesus Christ.
If we want wisdom, we can't live by the ways
in the world and the things of the world. And
to many people in this world, this message of
wisdom and the cross of Jesus Christ seems like
foolishness. And I hope it's not any here today.
I hope that it's not any listening online. But
maybe for much of your life, you've thought that
God's word has sounded like foolishness. But
maybe today God is speaking to you and he's helping
you to realize that Without Jesus Christ, we
are helpless and we are hopeless. Now, we've
all made foolish decisions in our life. We know
where our foolishness gets us. And our foolishness
in this case is going to get us separation from
God for all of eternity. But the wisdom in Jesus
Christ will bring with it eternal life. It'll
bring with it forgiveness of sins. It'll bring
with it peace and joy. Those are the things that
accompany salvation through Jesus Christ. Those
are the things that accompany wisdom. There is
nothing that feels worse than making a foolish
decision. But there is nothing that gives you
more peace than knowing that you have acted wisely.
That you have done the right thing. That you
have followed the words of God and the instructions
of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. It
is a beautiful thing when we live in accordance
to wisdom. So maybe today we would fall into
the trap of, if we could have anything, asking
for things of the world. But what would benefit
us more than anything is the wisdom and knowledge
that comes through Jesus Christ. So may we follow
the example of Solomon today to seek God first,
to know that we are nothing without him, that
we will not be successful in anything that we
do without him, but that we need his wisdom in
every aspect of our life. Let's pray. God, we
come to you. We thank you for your good word.
I pray, dear Lord, that you would help us to
learn from the beautiful example we see of Solomon
in your word today, God. that you want us to
bring your request to you this morning. And God,
sometimes we may be guilty of being selfish in
our request, dear Lord. Sometimes we may be guilty
of not treating you with the reverence that we
should, dear Lord. But help us never to look
at you, God, as just one who is there to grant
our wishes, dear Lord. That is not who you are,
God. So forgive us if we've ever fallen into
that trap. I pray, God, that you would help us
to fear you, dear Lord, so that we could begin
to see what wisdom really is, dear Lord. I pray,
God, that you would just be with us today to
check our lives, to check our hearts, to see
if there's anything that shouldn't be there.
And I pray that you would just work in our hearts
and transform our hearts to make us be more like
Solomon was, that our heart would request things
that are, that are better than the things of
the world, dear Lord. So I pray, God, today we
would seek wisdom. I pray for anyone who does
not know Jesus Christ, that they would realize
today they're living in foolishness. And I pray
that you would help them to seek the wisdom that
is Jesus Christ and only in Jesus Christ. That,
God, the cross was necessary. It is not foolish.
It is your power. It is our hope, dear Lord.
To know that Jesus Christ gave his life on the
cross and was crucified so that our sins could
be forgiven. So God, I pray that if there are
any that do not know that wisdom today, that
they would experience that wisdom right now.
That they would repent of their sins and ask
Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior. That
they would make that decision to follow him today.
And God, I pray that you would help us. Maybe
we have some knowledge of your word. But maybe
we have not been putting it into practice, dear
Lord. Maybe even in knowledge we've acted foolishly.
But God, we don't want to be those who know and
are foolish. But we want to be those who know
and are wise, dear Lord. So I pray that you would
bless each one of us here today. That you would
pour wisdom out on us. That you would let the
Holy Spirit lead and guide us. That we would
be able to discern what is of you, dear Lord.
that we would be able to follow what your commands
are, that we would seek you in everything, dear
Lord, that we would know that you are our strength
and you are our guidance. And just as that was
the only way Solomon was going to be successful,
God, that is the only way that we will be successful
today. So I pray, God, that you would pour wisdom
out upon us, that you would help us to be a people
who seek your wisdom in all we do. And I ask
these things in Jesus' name. Amen.