1. This morning we considered what it is that fill up our lives. The big items that we think about the most, that we work for the hardest, the things we would fight for the most if someone tried to take them away. The things that are our priorities.
2. We considered that God and serving Him should be most important. He should fill most if not all of our lives, our time and our desires. We talked about how He should be that which fills the jars or spaces of our lives . But if we fill our lives with the smaller, less important things first, then there is no room for Him. Place Him first and there will be space for the lesser desires of our hearts as well.
3. God talked to Solomon in a dream "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." Solomon could have asked for anything in the world. His answer, though, would show that God and serving Him was his priority.
4. How would you answer God? What would you ask for?
5. Solomon had the right priority because of a number of attitudes or beliefs that he had. We looked at some of these and we will look at a few more this evening. My prayer is that we will share these same attitudes and beliefs. That we would meditate upon them and through them to get our priorities straight.
6. I will briefly remind you of what we saw about Solomon this morning:
* this morning we have seen that he could answer in this way because he loved God and showed that love in seeking to live according to His word
* he knew of God’s covenant faithfulness, trusting more in God than in himself
* he understood his role toward God and toward others
* and he humbly offered himself to fill that role
7. Tonight we fist consider that Solomon realized his dependence on God. It is one thing to be humble and to realize that we cannot do something on our own. It is another thing to ask for help. How many times have we not realized that we needed help? Either in a job we were doing or perhaps in dealing with a crisis in our lives. But we do not ask for help. Maybe we are to proud to do so - I’ll find a way to do it. Maybe we don’t want to bother anyone else. Or we don’t think anyone will want to help.
8. One of the things I was taught about being a pastor at seminary is that I am to be an initiator. Don’t wait for people to come to you to say they need help but be sensitive to them and offer your help to them. They may even refuse your help initially, but offer it again without being pushy.
9. This week I made a church business call to someone outside the church. I could sense something was bothering them. I asked them if they were alright. First said "Sure I am." I said "Are you really sure?, You sound like you are not." They said I was right but that then was not the best time to talk about it.
10. We hesitate to put our needs or burdens on others. But God invites us to bring them to Him. That’s why God told us to bring our biggest need to Him. The need for forgiveness and salvation.
Mat 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
11. Solomon knew He could not do the job of governing God’s people on his own. But instead of walking away from the role or hiding among the baggage as Saul did, He asks God to enable Him to do the work
1 Ki 3:9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.
12. Do you feel called by God to do a certain job? Perhaps in the church? Perhaps in the community? Perhaps to share the good news? To care for someone who is lonely? Its on your heart to serve, but you feel inadequate. "Will I say the right thing? Will I know what I am doing?"
13. Have you asked God to give you what you are lacking? As I said this morning I felt inadequate when I was called to be a deaco. I felt inadequate when I was called into ministry. Now, almost 15 years later, I still feel inadequate. But each day I ask God to enable me to serve Him and do be able to do the things I need to do. It is humbling but is also puts the weight of the work on His shoulders rather than mine
14. The image I see is that of the yokes placed on the backs of two oxen - so they can pull the plow together. I am in on loop and God in the other. I need to pull and do my part but God in His strength is beside me and it is actuall Him who enables me to even move ahead.
15. Solomon needed a discerning heart. What do you need to do what God is calling you to do? Ask Him and trust His word that He will provide what you need. Amazing when we take on responsibility, he provides. We need to step out in faith, he will equip us.
16. Then God will not just be a priority in our minds but our actions will reflect that priority.
17. Solomon also realized that God was the owner of His people. He asked "Who is able to govern this great people of yours?" Iin other words, I am the king, but these people do not belong to me. Solomon already had said that he himslef belonged to God. He called himself God’s servant.
18. What Solomon showed was an attitude that many Christians fail to have. We often consider what we have as belonging only to ourselves. And so we hold on to our possessions and our lives. We are slow to share them with others or to give them up. Jesus says to His Father "All I have is yours" Are we willing to say the same to God? Or are we like the wealthy young man, who was not willing to sell all he had to give it to the poor.
19. Friends, if we have an attitude that our lives, our possessions, all we have belongs to God, it will affect our priorities. It will mean that we will seek to glorify God in all things. Rather than ask, what is in this for me, we will say, "Lord, how I can use what you entrusted to me to build up your kingdom?"
20. Who is the owner of your life? To whom does all you have belong to? It is easy for you to answer "God." But do you live and use all you have in a way that shows it all belongs to God?. Do you strive to do God’s will?
21. Rather than do things for our sake we will do things for God’s sake. We will seek that His will be done not our own. And we will realize that the things of the world do not last, but only God’s kingdom does. Our striving will be for God. "God my life and all I have are yours!" "I am willing to use and lose my life for you."
22. As Jim Ellliot said "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
23. I am not saying that w e will not work to provide for our families and meet our earthly responsibilities, but God will come first.
24. God was pleased that Solomon did not ask for long life or wealth or the death of his enemies. For it showed that his desire was for the Lord.
25. We live in a materialistic society in which we strive to get more for ourselves. We compare what we have to others. God tells us that we are not to follow the way of the world buy rather to seek His kingdom and to seek to build it up
26. Jesus shared a parable in Luke 12:16-34:
" And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of theåspÉ(`rÉ(to us "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." What is your answer?
