A Man After God's Heart

Feb 21

Series: A Kingdom Divided
February 21, 2021 - David Stockton

It’s a day for a new sermon series. We’re going to be going into the book of 1 Kings, if you want to grab a bible and turn there, or flip there or scroll there, whatever you do on your phone. 1 Kings. It’s in the Old Testament. Not everybody in the world calls it the Old Testament, but it’s definitely a part of the library of scriptures that we hold to as being very important and relevant. We think it’s inspired just like the New Testament. We’re so thankful that we have the New Testament to help us interpret the Old Testament in order to make application of it today.

We’re going to be in 1 Kings for a little while and learn from some ancient writers and some ancient prophets and see what the Lord was doing in that time. Because I think it actually is very relevant for our time today.

It’s a good time to be a Christian, even though it might not feel like it. As the world around us, at least in America, society seems to be less interested and less excited about the ways of God through the library of scriptures and Christian doctrine and Judeo-Christian ethic. It actually is a time where Christianity shines brightest, whenever there’s an adverse situation it finds itself in. I’m not saying it’s the most enjoyable for Christians. But the more adverse, usually the more powerful Christianity shows itself to be. So it’s a great time to be a Christian.

It’s a good time to be part of Living Streams. We’re kicking off a bunch of new things. We’ve got our Explore class going on right now. Some new people being added to the number of people who are knitting their lives together here. We have a bunch of Life Groups, which are our primary discipleship vehicle. We always make sure that everybody who comes on Sunday mornings for this hour, that they remember that following Christ really is not a one-hour a week deal. Being part of a church community is going to be very shallow, empty and maybe even trivial if you are only a one-hour a week type part of the community. So make sure you find other ways to connect with people outside of this. And obviously serve the Lord outside of this, as well.

That being said, 1 Kings is where we’re going. It’s going to be a fun book. The challenges that we’re facing today are real and are large, but the bride of Christ is alive and well all over the world. I got some letters in the mail this week from non-profits, Christian non-profits. I was just sitting there thinking about these and how they represent so many others—churches around town, churches around the world, Christian organizations around town, around the world that are fighting for what’s right, that are fighting for the unborn, that are fighting for justice, that are fighting to make sure our homeless, our elderly, or people with addictions or people in sex trafficking, that someone is really advocating and fighting for them.

I just think the challenges are so great and the sadness is so real, but it really is cool to see that there are so many people, you and I included, that are actually trying to see the kingdom of God come and his will be done right here on earth as it is in heaven.

So I was encouraged. I was discouraged and encouraged at the same time, if that makes sense. Okay, it’s going to be a little tight this morning. I get it. No problem. No problem.

You know I make fun of second service a lot, right? Everybody’s with me on that? Like, first service I was thanking them so much for being first service, I said, “I don’t thank the second service people for anything really.” And I’m going to say this, too. I tell people who are guest speaking here that, just because second service doesn’t laugh or give them any kind of feedback, doesn’t mean they aren’t with you. They really are.

And I know you guys are. As I was watching you worship, I was feeling like the Lord was saying, “These are people are hungry. These people want to see me move.” So I know that’s true. But sometimes I wonder with you guys. Sometimes I wonder.

Anyway, 1 Kings was written by Jeremiah, tradition tells us. Jeremiah was a prophet of God. He was actually called the Weeping Prophet, because he lived in a time of Israel and prophesied to the people in a time when they had great prosperity, but for some reason they did not really continue to serve the Lord. What Jeremiah saw—I want to put a few images in your mind—was basically like that old adage we hear all the time about the frog that you put in the boiling pot of water. I know it sounds weird. But I’ve heard, I’ve never done this because it seems a little mean. But if you take a frog and put it in a boiling pot of water, it’ll jump right out because it’s hot. But if you take a frog and put it in a cold pot of water and then you turn up the heat, it will actually die because it will never actually notice what’s happening and it will burn to death or something. People talk about it all the time as a good illustration. Man, it’s brutal.

But anyway, so that was one thing that I want you to see. That’s what was happening in Israel’s day when Jeremiah was prophesying. He’s like, “The water’s getting hotter! Do you understand? The water’s getting hotter!”

And the people were like, “Ah, Jeremiah and his hot water stuff.”

And they just never would listen until, eventually, Israel found itself in exile, taken over. The Assyrians took over the north and the Babylonians took over the south. They basically had seen their people be ripped from their own land. The temple of God was destroyed. And now they were living as slaves in another place. And Jeremiah watched all that happen.

Another image that comes to mind is, I don’t know where it came from, I feel like it’s Jack and the Beanstalk or something. You’ve got the big giant and they didn’t know how to beat the giant, so after he fell asleep they tied him up. And then, when he woke up he couldn’t do anything. And that’s the idea of this big giant that’s so powerful, but as it falls to sleep, it’s susceptible.

Which made my mind then go to Samson because I’m a Bible guy. And I was thinking about Samson who had all this power and strength and was able to deliver the people of God in great ways. But he didn’t take seriously the Nazarite vow that he had committed to. He was playing around with it. He was with Delilah. He started to even mention his hair. “If you tie my hair up I’ll be weak like anybody else.” He just kind of slowly but surely compromised. He didn’t think it was a big deal but, ultimately, I think he started to feel so secure in his own strength and wisdom that he wasn’t sure he really needed all that hair. So he told her, “If you cut my hair I’ll be weak.” Then one of the saddest verses in the Bible happened. It says he woke up, the Philistines were upon him, and he had no idea that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him.

And Jeremiah was constantly calling to the people of God, “You’re going to wake up one day and not realize that the Spirit of the Lord has departed from you.” And it wasn’t just a spiritual thing, but it was a real, practical thing, as well, as they watched the armies besiege them and take away all their young people, and, ultimately, take away everybody to become slaves in Babylon.

Then, also, the image of Jesus when he’s teaching about the parable of the sower, and he talks about the goodness that was there and then it gets choked out by the weeds. Little by little, the choking happens until, ultimately, all the good seed, all the goodness that had been there has died out.

So this is why Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet, because he was just continuing to see this decline. So he’s writing this book probably during the time of the exile; so all of that has now happened. He prophesied against it. Now that it’s all happened, he started to write a book, the annals of the kings or the history of that time period. And he’s talking about what happens. And he talks about what kings helped the people follow the Lord and what kings didn’t help the people. And there are very few that actually helped the people follow the Lord.

And this was probably circulated after they had come back from the exile, back to Jerusalem, back to Israel to kind of build back better, so to speak. And there in that place Jeremiah said, “I want to make sure everyone knows this.” And it was circulated, this book of First and Second Kings so people would be reminded how they got to that place of exile, that they would never forget the slow and steady decline that took place. They’d take heart next time to know there were divisions; because there are divisions all over this book. It’s a nation divided, a people divided.

Then all the secularization that came, where they never stopped worshipping Yahweh, they just started adding other things. It would be like in this place; if one day you saw there was no cross there, but instead there was some other sign of some other religion up there. You would be like, “I think Living Streams might have changed a little bit. I think something’s a little different here.” And you would be right. That should be a real indicator you should go somewhere else.

But what they did is, they never took down the cross, so to speak. They just put something else over there, and maybe a little something else over there, and it just was slowly, it became this kind fo pluralistic idea. “If one God’s going to give us goodness, then how about all these other gods? Maybe we can get all the goodness they can give us.” Not realizing that the God of the Bible is a jealous God. He doesn’t want to be one of our many wives. He says, “It’s all me or I’m out.”

And this is the state of Israel at this time. The divisions include—for those of you who are bible students some of this might ring a bell and if it doesn’t, you should probably read your bible more—but Saul versus David. We have that division of the people, where Saul was a guy who kind of started out all right but then he started to care more about what the people thought than what God though. And God said, “I’m getting rid of this guy because I want someone who’s going to be in here that only cares what I think.” That’s why David was called a man after God’s heart. Even when public opinion was going the opposite way, David said, “No, we’re going this way.”

David versus Absalom. Davis was king and his own son, Absalom rose up a coup and tried to take over power. So we have that here.

Adonijah and Solomon in this time period, and that was actually in chapter 1 where David’s two sons kind of were fighting for power after David passed away.

Rehoboam versus Jeroboam. And this comes that, Solomon, after he passed away, Rehoboam was his son. And Rehoboam decided that, instead of listening to the older elders and advisers and kind of going easy on the people and easing in and earning a voice with them, he listened to the younger people who said, “If you really want to be strong, you’ve got to impose taxes and you’ve got to tell these people who’s the boss right now.” So he did that. He just imposed taxes. He tried to really be strong and the ten tribes of the north said, “Nah. We’re good.” And they just broke off and made Jeroboam their king. Super confusing. I wish they could have had different names, because I never know. Was it Jeroboam in the north or Rehoboam in the south? Come on. I mix the names up.

But Rehoboam was Solomon’s son and he maintained power over the two southern tribes; whereas Jeroboam maintained power over the northern ten tribes. Then we now have a divided kingdom, which we’ll talk more about later.

Israel versus Judah. The name of the northern ten tribes remained Israel, but name of the two southern tribes became Judah.

Jerusalem versus Samaria. Jerusalem was the capital of the southern tribes, and that’s where God was worshiped. That’s where his temple was; whereas Samaria was the capital of the northern ten tribes, and Jeroboam didn’t want his people going to worship in Jerusalem, so he built his own temple and basically his own form of worship, worshiping Yahweh but not in the ways of Yahweh. Very bizarre.

Yahweh versus Baal. Monotheism versus polytheism, like we discussed. They didn’t stop worshiping Yahweh, they just added other gods.

Do we want to be like the other nations? Or are we good with being set apart from the other nations? This is always a constant question to Christians. We don’t like being the alternative community. We don’t like being countercultural. We want to be like the other nations. We want to be cool. We want to be hip. But as soon as we do that, we lose. We lose. We lose so much.

More taxes versus less taxes was actually a big theme in this book, which is funny these days, right? You guys aren’t laughing at that? Why aren’t you laughing at that? April 15th, how are you doing?

God’s ways are old fashioned versus God’s ways are right and true, was a big debate in this time. It was a huge debate in this time, as we’ll see in just a minute.

So, ultimately, you have the nation of Israel was in slavery in Egypt for four hundred years. The Lord brings them out with a great deliverance. He gives them a land and he starts making them into a nation. And you have all this wonderful time where God is their king. But the people want to be like the other nations so they say, “Give us a man king.” God’s like, “It’s not going to be good. Men aren’t that cool. Women, you’re not that cool, either.” But he felt like they were rejecting him as king, but he said, “I’ll give you what you want.” So he gave them Saul as king. When he passed away David became king. And when he passed away Solomon became king. And then that’s where that divided kingdom. So three kings of a united kingdom and then like twenty-five different kings within the divided kingdom. And First Kings helps us understand that whole process.

Are you with me? You’re like, “Is this school or is this church?” It’s both. It’s church school, maybe. I don’t know.

I want us to notice this one more moment. Because you’ll have some of these revivals. We’re all praying for revival. We want an awakening in our America. We want awakening in our church, where people will just really run back, will catch the vision for the righteousness of God, will hunger and thirst for that above everything else so that we won’t be tossed to and fro by all the winds of doctrine and all the people claiming to have the high moral ground right now. Yes, that’s what we want.

So there were times where that took place in First and Second Kings. One of them was on the top of a mountain called Carmel. There was Mount Carmel, and they were up there. And Elijah is the prophet of Yahweh. He feels like he’s the only one left because of the gross secularization by the king and his wife Jezebel. And they basically brought in the worship of Baal as a mainstream thing.

So Elijah calls then prophets of Ball to a duel, a battle. So he’s up on the top of Mount Carmel and opposing him are four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. And all the people have gathered around, and the setup is in First Kings 18:21, it was in our video too.

Elijah went before the pope and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal is God, follow him.”

So he sets up this mighty duel. I wish I could do this, but I don’t know. But he says basically, “What we’re going to do is we’re going to both make a sacrifice, and whatever God answers by fire will demonstrate that he is the true God and we should follow him.”

So Elijah is up on this mountain and says, “You guys go first.” So the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal gather together animal sacrifice. They put together their altar and they start doing their Baal worship type stuff. They get to the point where they’re just screaming and crying out and they start cutting themselves because they want to show how sincere they were in their worship. They’re doing all these things and it just goes on and on and on.

And Elijah is sitting there watching, all the people are watching, and there’s no fire coming, nothing happening. Then Elijah says to them, “Maybe you should just scream a little louder.” Seriously, Elijah is talking trash. I didn’t know you were allowed to do that, but you are. And then that doesn’t change anything and he’s like, “Oh, you guys. Maybe he’s in the bathroom or something. Maybe just keep going because he’ll come back out if he’s in the bathroom.” I’m not joking. This stuff is in there.

And then nothing happened and eventually they give up and Elijah says, “Now my turn.” So he just puts some stones together in a very Mosaic law kind of way. He prepares the sacrifice just like ordained in the the law of Moses. Then he actually says to everyone, I don’t know why, just to show off, he says, “Why don’t you go get all the water you can find,” even though they were in a drought, “and pour it all over the sacrifice. Actually dig a trench around here and let’s fill it with water too.”

And then he just prays a real simple prayer. “God will show them? Will you show them?” And fire comes out of the sky and consumes all of the water, consumes the sacrifice. And there’s this moment, momentary sad to say, but a moment where the people’s hearts were once again turned back to the Lord. They got to see that, got to experience that. Their hearts were turned back to the Lord momentarily. Momentarily.

So there are these moments of revival that happen in here, which are so encouraging. And that’s what I’m praying for us in our day and age, that we will somehow be inspired by God to go and create moments in people’s lives where they can see the reality of the power and goodness of God. I’m not saying you should go and challenge somebody on the top of Square Peak to some sort of sacrificial fire deal. I’m saying we should listen to what the Spirit is leading us to do and we should go for it with all of our hearts. We should be bold and courageous, whatever it might be, and God will show himself faithful.

First Kings chapter 2 is where we are going to begin, because First Kings chapter 1 is kind of a weird fight. It looks like in First Kings chapter 2, as we read this, that there was a peaceful transition of power, but actually in First Kings chapter 1 you realize it wasn’t that peaceful. Then if you keep reading in chapter 2 and3, it still wasn’t that peaceful. A lot of challenge for who wants the power there.

First Kings chapter 2:

When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son.
2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go 4 and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

So this is his charge as he’s telling Solomon, “Hey, I’m about done here. And I want you to become king.” He says to him, “I’m going to go the way of all the earth.” There’s a humility there, an understanding, this is the destiny of us all, that our strength is failing, our strength is not enough. And he says to him, “I want you to observe all that the Lord has commanded you. And I want you to walk in it. I want you to obey what the Lord has commanded you. Don’t just observe it. Don’t just be a hearer, but be a doer as well. Observe all the Lord has commanded you in the law of Moses, all the decrees, all the laws, all these things.”

And as you’re reading it, you just get more and more bored. All these words. These are the most boring words in the world: decrees, commands, laws, requirements, right? Ugh. And in the law of Moses? “Oh, Dad, don’t be talking about Moses again. Moses is so old.” This is probably about four hundred or five hundred years after Moses was around, that David is charging his son as king, “Follow the way of Moses. Remember all of those words, those laws, those decrees that are found in the book of Moses, in the Torah. Observe those. Learn those. Get them into your soul. And then walk them out.”

You can imagine a young man who has grown up his whole life in a palace. All he’s ever known of Israel is that it’s a world power. Prosperity galore. Victory over all the other nations. Immense popularity for his dad, the king. And here David’s telling him, “You need to keep real close watch to all of those old, old, old laws and decrees of Moses. And not only jus observe them, but do them. Walk in them. They will be a guide for you. They will bring you to prosperity.”

And obviously I hope you get what I’m getting at here. There is a real challenge right now in our society to say, “Those things, that Judeo-Christian ethic, that library of scriptures, that’s old news. That’s antiquated. In fact, that’s oppressive.” It’s the same thing that David was saying to Solomon. “Don’t listen to that. Don’t listen to that. Maintain these things. This is what will lead you to preparing.”

And I’ve said before the Judeo-Christian ethic that has been kind of the shaping of this nation and other nations, whenever the Judeo-Christian ethic is applied to a society, it creates the most freedom and the most flourishing. And yet, for some reason, we want to get rid of it.

And David is saying, “As for me and my house, we listen, we observe, we obey these things. We don’t consider them old and antiquated. And Solomon, if you will do this, you will experience prosperity.”

Now, I know for many of us in the church, we hear that word and that sounds great. We want to prosper. But we’ve got to be so careful to interpret prosperity through the New Testament and what God is actually saying. I’m not saying that God doesn’t want to give you riches, doesn’t want to help you with the American Dream and all those things, what God has. But the prosperity promised by God has a lot more to do with the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, meekness, gentleness and self-control. It has a lot more of being able to overcome the challenges that you face, than never having to face a challenge.

Please hear me, you guys. Following Christ does not get rid of all of the challenges, but it gives you the strength, by the power of the Spirit, to overcome the challenges. And then you wake up the next day and, guess what? New challenges. Because some people are starting to think, “If I really can’t seem to get free from this thing, then maybe God isn’t real and he doesn’t really love me.”

No. God sometimes will heal you and set you free from something completely, but oftentimes he gives you the strength that you need to overcome every single day. And for those who persevere, for those who hang on, there is the reward. But the prosperity is the strength that you need. The prosperity that he gives you is found in Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He leads me beside still waters and green pastures. He leads me and is with me in the valley of the shadow of death. It’s not that he doesn’t ever take us through those things. My cup runs over even in the midst of those situations.

One of the things that I think is the best gift of all that he can give to an American is peace, enough peace so they actually sleep at night. It just seems to be one of the biggest banes on our society. So many of our challenges and problems are because people can’t sleep anymore. They’re too stressed out. They’re too busy, too distracted. Their brains don’t know how to shut down so they can actually sleep. That’s part of the prosperity. The Bible actually says, “He gives his beloved sleep.” You get good sleep, all of a sudden it’s like, “Hey, life’s not that bad anymore.”

It’s one of the things we really found out with the homeless community. One of the best things we could do was give them a space where they could come take a nap. They’d wake up from that nap and they could think a little clearer, feel a little stronger. They’re more at peace. We were able to do that with that house over on the west side of the campus.

But these are the prosperities that God wants to bring. And the kind of prosperity, when you’re on your death bed and you look back and these are the things you’re really thankful for. What you did in your relationship with the people that you love. That’s the prosperity he gives us. Not even to mention what happens in the next life.

But this is the call of David. And he wants Solomon to be a man after God’s own heart. Seek God. Search God. Find out what makes him happy. Get a vision for the righteousness of God. And just so you know, the law of Moses is really helpful. But don’t just get a vision for it. Then walk in it. Be obedient to it. And it’s going to take faithfulness as he says down here:

If they’ll walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul. Faithfulness. Doing the things of God real consistently. I think this is what encourages me in the church at this time. It is the power that’s represented even in just this room. If all of us will just do the little things faithfully, that will be a lot of things that will make big impact.

So God right now is calling each of you, who is his bride, to do some things. To walk in some things faithfully. And if you’ll do that, the bride will show itself strong. That’s what David is trying to get Solomon to do, to be a man after God’s own heart.

To kind of recap that, David was a man after God’s own heart when he sought to do what was right in God’s eyes more than what was right in the eyes of the people around him, or in his own eyes. So David, it’s tricky. Because, when we say David was a man after God’s own heart, he also made a ton of mistakes. But this is when he was a man after God’s own heart. When he cared about what God wanted.

And there was a challenge. Think about that story, when he’s standing before Goliath, and all of the people, all of the army is there. And David walks up there. And he just knew in that moment what God was up to, what God was thinking. Everyone else there was either scared or unsure or confused. Even the king, Saul was just like, “I don’t know what to do here.” All of the people in the army were like, “I don’t know what to do.” David’s brothers were like, “David what do you think you’re going to do? You can’t take this guy on. You just want to be out here and get in the action. Spoiled brat.”

He was the youngest. I was the youngest of three boys. They always called me a spoiled brat. I might have been.

But nobody in that whole army, nobody in all of that was catching and willing to do what God was saying to do, except for this young man named David who just took off running down that valley, flinging his little slingshot, and defeated the giant. He caught what was in God’s heart in that moment.

And that was a great thing. That’s the way he started out. But if you remember, at one point David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then tried to cover it up by murdering Uriah, her husband. Definitely not after God’s own heart. He lost his way.

But then Nathan the prophet came to him and said, “What you’ve done is wrong.” And in that moment when David’s heart was pricked, when David realized that he had been busted, at that moment he wanted to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord and he confessed and he repented.

And then another time David was taking a census and it was kind of filling him up with pride. God had told him not to number the army. And he does this. And God’s against him and people are dying. And David catches it and figures out what to do. And then he knows he’s supposed to go buy this field and make a sacrifice and do all this type of stuff. And, as he’s about to buy the field, the guy’s like, “Dude, you can just take the field. You’re the king. You don’t have to give me any money for this field.”

And he says, “No, I want to pay full price for this field. I don’t want to skimp or compromise at all in what God is asking me to do.”

So there are all these moments when David was doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. And those were the times when he was a man after God’s own heart. And for us, that’s what we need to be doing.

The world around us is claiming the high moral ground through its clever and cunning humanistic philosophies and ideologies. But they are just castles made of sand. We need a hunger for the vision for the righteousness of God so we can hold the line by observing what the Lord God requires and walking in obedience. That is where freedom and flourishing are found. Sorry, Cardi B. The best fruit isn’t always forbidden. It just feels that way because it’s only found through a lifetime of faithfulness to God and his ways.

So that was the first way that David was a man after God’s own heart. Now let’s read this strange next passage. Verse 5. So David gives this charge to Solomon and now he’s saying:

5 “Now you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He killed them, shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle, and with that blood he stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. 6 Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace.
7 “But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom.
8 “And remember, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord: ‘I will not put you to death by the sword.’ 9 But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.”
10 Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. 11 He had reigned forty years over Israel—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. 12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.

So here in this interesting thing, David is giving a charge to observe and obey the things of God. Do what is right in the eyes of God. Don’t fall prey to doing what’s right in the eyes of yourself or the people. Seek first what God is having you do.

And then the second thing that I think shows kind of another picture into the life of David. He was a man after God’s own heart because he was willing to deal with the little foxes that destroy the vineyard. That phrase actually comes from Song of Solomon. Solomon actually wrote these words about the little foxes that destroy t he vineyard. And here David is basically saying, “Okay, Solomon, when you come into power, when you have the authority, you’re going to have to consistently and constantly deal with insurrection. You’re gong to have to consistently and strongly deal with divisions. You’re going to have to constantly watch out for the little things and deal with them when they’re small so they don’t cause huge problems.”

Now David did not do this well in his own house. He didn’t deal with Absalom well. He didn’t deal with the rape that happened within his own children. He didn’t deal well even in this situation, with Adonijah and Solomon and their war. But he also did deal with things often. And this is a sign of him saying, “Solomon, when you come in, there are a few things you need to deal with right away so they don’t become massive problems.”

Now Joab was his general. Joab was the person in charge of all of David’s army. But Joab’s heart had turned, and David had seen it, but David hadn’t done anything about it. So he said, “Solomon, you’ve got to make sure and deal with Joab, or you’re going to have a big problem.”

And sure enough, as you read these passages, it happened. And David in his life, we know he tended his own soul. He was quick to repent when he found out the things that were wrong, both in his own life, and in the nation around him. Both when it was his fault or somebody else’s fault. David was quick to deal with the little foxes and not let them take root.

For us, we need to be those who are watching out for the little foxes trying to destroy the vineyard of our souls, our households, or the institutions that we’re a part of. It’s so easy for us to allow certain little compromises or hold on to different sins or weights that this world offers us. We can become dull and numb to the deceiver and the destroyer and not realize our hearts are being turned away from the things of God.

It was interesting this last summer. I felt like we were really all called to search ourselves and search our institutions to see if there was racism, or systemic racism there. That’s a good thing for us to have to do, to search our souls and search our hearts. And I know a lot of people have landed in different places. But I remember in that search I didn’t see a lot of racism in my own life and I didn’t see much racism or systemic racism in the institutions I’ve been a part of, not to say those things aren’t real and those things don’t exist; but what I did find very clearly was greed and pride. I found a lot of deception. And so I’ve really spent the rest of the time just saying, “Lord, okay, help us figure some of that stuff out.”

And greed, pride and deception can lead to all kinds of things, including racism and injustice in those regards. The scary thing was I started to see some of that stuff seep into the church, as well. And so part of the motivation for this is I want us to be able to kind of go though this time, as the kings saw this decline, as they saw the idolatry kind of come and take root, I want to be able, for us as a church, to be able to go into these times and really discover what is taking root in our lives. What idolatry have we allowed to come in? So that we can name it and we can get rid of it.

That’s our call as believers, to be consecrated, to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. We have to watch out for the little foxes that are trying to take root.

So, as we conclude I want to talk about what some of those little foxes might be for you and for me. Greed shows up in little ways, a little fudging on your taxes, a little skimping on your giving to the Lord. Relying on your savings and securities instead of trusting in the Lord.

The writer of 1 Kings wanted to really make sure and help us remember that it took Solomon seven years to build the temple for God, and it took him thirteen years to build his own palace. So when Solomon was weighed in the balance by Jeremiah the prophet, he saw something that wasn’t quite right.

What God wants us to do is to build his kingdom. The reason he’s given you a brain, the reason he’s given you a body, the reason he’s given you a beat and breath, the reason he’s given you resources, talent, treasure, time, is so that you would build his kingdom. But are we doing more building of our own kingdom? It’s real easy to check. If you look at your time, if you look at your talent, if you look at your treasure, and how those are invested, it’s pretty easy to see which way you’re weighted.

And I know it might seem like, Oh, tithing is such an old thing. The New Testament doesn’t even talk about it. It talks about giving, for sure, and it’s way more than a tithe, but these simple practices defeat the greed in our lives. They keep greed from being able to take root in our lives. And I’m serious, if you think this is me just trying to get you to give to this church, please don’t. But give somewhere. Give to some church or something somewhere. I think this is a really good place and I know the integrity is really strong here, but I just know how important it is for us to fight against greed, because we are sitting in a very prosperous situation.

And we know the love of money is the root of all evil, so we ask the question, do we love money? We don’t need to ask that question. We love money. You love it. I love it. And we just have to constantly watch out and make sure it doesn’t become a first love, a love above God.

And then pride. Pride shows up in an unforgiving spirit or an unwillingness to say, “Sorry.” Pride shows up in unhealthy ambition and striving. It shows up in seeking first your kingdom and satisfaction before God and others. It shows up in hatred or belittling of others. And even if it’s just small in your life, you’ve got to pay attention to it. You’ve got to take it before the Lord.

And what’s awesome about this is the Lord has given us practices to counteract these things. For instance, worship in the place of worry. It’s always a good place to start with the scriptures. Jesus said what chokes out the good seed, the weeds that choke it out are the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth. That’s what Jesus said,

And how do you counteract the worries of this life that we’re full of? Worship. Every time you feel worry coming on, you get to your knees and you start worshiping. You remember that the big challenges or the big struggle that you face, you take it and compare it to who God is and allow that thing to shrink and become what it’s supposed to be. Worship is a powerful thing. It’s a very powerful thing. And it doesn’t just have to do with singing songs, by the way.

In the place of greed we can give. And we talked a little bit about that. If you feel like you’re a little greedy or you’re a little unsure whether you’re greedy or not, it might be a good time to start giving generously or giving faithfully or giving sacrificially.

That was one thing, as our church, we mentioned before, we qualified for the PPP, but thanks to all the giving, we were able to pay for all of our staff and not tap into our reserves. So we went through this long process and the elders decided the only we could absolutely, 100% assure ourselves that there are no little greedy foxes at all is, let’s just give it all back. So we gave it all back. And I’m not saying everyone should do that. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying, as for us, that was one way that we knew we could make sure that greed was not going to have a place in Living Streams. We need to take those assessments.

And one last thing is distractions. That was something that came up. And I know the Lord has kind of checked me a little about distractions. That Wordscape. Has anybody played that little app? Dude. I’m into it for some reason. It’s just like relaxing, but then it’s not. I get all stressed out because I’m like, “I don’t know what that one word is.” And the next I knew I was playing it a lot.

That’s one silly thing, but think about all the distractions at our fingertips these days. We really need to be those who are cultivating silence and solitude, just like Jesus did. And if we’re not actively cultivating those in our lives, we’re way too distracted.

Let’s pray:

Lord, we thank you for your word that doesn’t let us stay stuck, that doesn’t let us find our way back to slavery. And I pray that we would not just hear it, but that we would really receive it deep into the fibers of our being and we would walk in it, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

We’re going to finish with communion. But everyone’s going to take it on their own. Just want to create a little time for you and Jesus to be one on one today. To remember his broken body. To remember his shed blood. To kind of recommit your life to him or, if this is the first time you’ve ever committed your life to him you can do that by receiving the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus in this way. But talk to him about whatever little foxes might be there. Confess those things and ask him to give you the strength to overcome them. If some shame has come in through something that’s been said today, remember the blood that cleanses you and forgives you, as we sing this last song, take this time with the Lord.

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A Discerning Heart

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