I found a website that published letters children addressed to God. As you can imagine, the letters are quite humorous. One girl wrote: “Dear God. Are you really invisible or it that just a trick?” Another child observed: “Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can ever do it.” Another boy prayed: “Dear God, if you give me a genie lamp like Aladdin, I will give you anything you want except my money or my chess set.” - Raphael
What do you think about Raphael’s prayer? Can you relate? Do you wish that God would give you whatever you wanted? In our sermon text this morning, God invited a young King Solomon to do just that—to ask for whatever he wanted. Oh boy! What did Solomon pray for? What would you pray for? A billion dollars? Long life? For summer vacation to never end? Today we’re going to learn how to ask God for true riches. Listen to our text.
Our sermon text takes place soon after Solomon, the son of David, was crowned king. He had spent the day sacrificing 1,000 animals on an altar in Gibeon, six miles northwest of Jerusalem. That night when he fell asleep, God came to him in a dream and said: “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” (1 Kings 3:5) God was placing a blank check in front of Solomon who may have only been about 20 years old at this time. Can you imagine someone just two or three years out of high school becoming the next president of the United States? What would he or she know about politics, world affairs, keeping an economy running, and everything else the ruler of a nation would need to know? Solomon himself was feeling overwhelmed at the kingly task ahead of him, so he replied: “Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. …who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:7-9)
Don’t you like Solomon’s humility? He was not afraid to admit that he was not sure how to go about this job of being king. Are we as humble in our undertakings? Do we readily admit to spouse, to parents, to our children that we don’t always know what we’re doing? Or do we push on ahead without any input or advice from others, or turning to God for help?
I also like how Solomon was confident that God would do what was best for him. He began his prayer with these words: “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.” (1 Kings 3:6) To paraphrase, Solomon was saying: “Lord, you have kept your promises…like you always do. And so I know that whatever it is that I’m about to ask for, you will give to me in accordance with what is for my good and for the good of others.”
Are we as confident about prayer as Solomon was? Do we believe that God really listens to our prayers, or do we suppose that he lets our prayers go directly to his junk mail folder? Do we think that since God has made up his mind about what he is going to do with us that there is no point in praying?
Today’s text demonstrates well how God delights in listening to our prayers. This truth is illustrated in such a neat way in Revelation 5. There, the Apostle John records a vision of heaven’s throne room. Surrounding God’s throne are the 24 elders—representatives of the Old and New Testament Church. Each one of them was holding a golden bowl of incense, which represented the prayers of believers (Revelation 5:8). Your prayers are fragrant and sweet-smelling to God. He never turns his nose up at your requests. The prayers of believers must also be precious to him because they don’t waft up from recycled yoghurt containers. No, the prayer-containers John saw were made of gold!
So, what did Solomon ask for? Well, you already know the answer, but listen again to Solomon’s words because they so delighted the Lord. “…give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” (1 Kings 3:8-9) Rather than asking for riches or for the death of his enemies or for a long life, Solomon asked for wisdom. Why? So he could be the smartest guy in any room? No! So that he could govern well. In other words, Solomon prayed for a gift that would benefit others.
Are your prayers as selfless? Why do you want healing and more strength? So you can start hiking again and visit more places? Or so you have the energy to serve your family and others around you? Like Solomon, we too can ask for wisdom so that we will be a blessing to others as we serve as teachers, managers, effective parents, honorable students, and young people who set good examples for others.
God gave Solomon the wisdom he asked for…and riches and fame which he did not ask for. God often does this—he gives us more than we ask for. So what happened to Solomon? Why did he go on to marry 700 wives? Why did he give in to their requests and build temples to their foreign gods? Solomon’s life is an example of why we need to make it our daily quest to seek the Lord and his wisdom. Although we’re not certain who the author of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes is, the following verses sure sound like Solomon. “I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. 10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor… 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:9-11)
If that was Solomon speaking, he was admitting that for a time, he made it his life’s goal to build a happy life by chasing the riches of this world rather than continually pursuing godly wisdom. And what did he find out? That trying to capture a lasting happiness based on material things is as impossible as trying to catch the wind with your hands.
Thankfully, towards the end of Ecclesiastes we hear a different attitude. The author offers this advice: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. 2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” (Ecc. 5:1-2)
True wisdom starts with listening to God rather than trying to impress him with our own ideas. Check out this cartoon by Far Side comic, Gary Larson. It depicts a supposedly “gifted” student who is trying to enter his school by pushing on the door even though the instruction is clearly to pull on the handle. How often doesn’t that describe us? We push on God with our prayers wondering why he doesn’t just give us what we want. So we push harder and try to manipulate God by saying that if he really loved us, he would give us what we wanted. But the way to true wisdom is through the Word, not prayer. Don’t “push” on God until you’ve first “pulled open” his Word. Only then can you get a good look at his heart and what we ought to really be praying for.
What you’ll see in the Bible is a God who really does love you. Think back to the Gospel lesson today and the parables Jesus told. In the one parable, a merchant sold everything to buy a precious pearl he found. How is this parable to be understood? Aren’t we usually led to believe that just as the merchant gave up everything to make that exquisite pearl his own, so we should be willing to give up everything to hold on to Jesus? That’s certainly a truth the Bible teaches. But consider how Jesus began this group of parables by saying “The kingdom of heaven is like…” Another way to put the thought is: “God’s ruling activity on earth is like…” If the parable is describing what God does, then the merchant who sells everything to obtain the pearl is actually…Jesus! And the pearl represents…you! Did Jesus not give up everything to secure you? It’s like what God said through Moses to the Old Testament Israelites: “The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6b).
Do you feel neglected by busy parents? Are you struggling with relationships so that you don’t feel loved or very precious. What matters is what God thinks about you. What matters is what God’s Son did for you. According to this parable, he sought and bought you. He gave up EVERYTHING—his glory in heaven, his honor, even his own life to make you his treasured possession. If a merchant sold everything to obtain a pearl, don’t you think he would care for and protect it? He wouldn’t carelessly shove it in his back pocket or toss it up and down like a $2 beach ball he could afford to lose should it skip away from him. Neither is that how Jesus treats you! You are his priceless treasure and so he is caring for and protecting you no matter what you’re enduring right now. True wisdom understands and believes this.
When God said to Solomon, “Ask for whatever you want,” I don’t think it was tempting for Solomon to ask for riches and fame. For this was a period in his life when Solomon actively sought God’s will. He had, after all, just sacrificed 1,000 animals to the Lord! So is that why God was willing to give Solomon anything—because Solomon had first offered much to the Lord? No. We don’t have to “sacrifice” $1,000 as an offering today to gain God’s ear. You already have his attention. Proof of this is the huge sacrifice God made for you and me when he sent his Son to die and pay for our sins. So go ahead, ask God for whatever is on your heart, and trust that he will give you what you need—true riches that will connect you to a real and lasting joy through faith in him. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
(pre-service warm up) If God offered to give you whatever you asked for, what three things would you request?
What characteristics of Solomon’s prayer should we adopt for our own prayers? List two.
What truths about a believer’s prayer are well illustrated in Revelation 5?
In what way was Solomon’s prayer selfless?
If God gave Solomon the wisdom he asked for, then why did Solomon end up marrying 700 wives and building temples for their false gods?
The author of Ecclesiastes (who may have been Solomon) offers this advice: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. 2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2) This passage teaches us that the way to true wisdom, and therefore to true riches is by…
How does the Parable of the Pearl Merchant in our Gospel Lesson this morning illustrate what God considers to be valuable?
Solomon sacrificed 1,000 animals to the Lord. But that’s not why God offered to give Solomon whatever he wanted. How do we know this?
