Thee Downfall Series

The Downfall

Jeffery Anselmi / General

The King: The Rise and Fall of Solomon / Sin; Obedience and Disobedience / 1 Kings 11:1–13

The Lord despises idolatry, because when your heart is divided, you cannot be loyal to him.

INTRODUCTION

• The story of Solomon is tragic yet common.

• Solomon's life story is one that is full of beauty, prosperity, peace, and trust—at the beginning.

• There is no denying how blessed and loved Solomon was by the Lord and how he made a positive impact on Israel's people.

• However, in 1 Kings 11, we see King Solomon's fall due to his divided heart.

• Solomon acquiring so many wives served as a way to form alliances with other kingdoms. Still, while this way of handling alliances was acceptable in the culture, it was not permitted in God's law.

• Solomon was doing what everyone else was doing; he was doing what other Kings would do, but was that the wise course of action?

• When I pondered Solomon's life, I have often wondered how a person who was so blessed by God could turn so far from God.

• Solomon serves as a cautionary tale for Christians who have the same tendency to go along with what is "normal" in the culture.

• No matter what culture says is appropriate, we must stand firm in what the Lord requires of us.

• How did Solomon fall so far from God? Did his downfall happen overnight or over time?

• As we conclude our series on the Rise and Fall of the King, we will examine who this man who had been so abundantly blessed by God, would experience such a spiritual and relational downfall with God in his life.

› Big Idea of the Message: The Lord despises idolatry, because when your heart is divided, you cannot be loyal to him.

• Let’s turn to 1 Kings 11:1-4 together!

1 Kings 11:1–4 CSB

1 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women 2 from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods.” To these women Solomon was deeply attached in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines, and they turned his heart away.

4 When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.

SERMON

I. Distractions

• Solomon did not wake up one day, and all of the sudden, for no particular reason, he was not walking with God.

• Solomon did not wake up one and find that God ran away from him; Solomon’s downfall took time, a long time.

• From the story of Solomon, we can see that the downfall begins with distractions.

• On November of 2009, Andy House was driving a rare 2006 Bugatti Veyron (VEY RON) EB near Galveston, Texas.

• His cell phone had fallen from the center console, so he reached down to retrieve it from the floorboard.

• When the 34-year-old man looked up, a large brown pelican was flying alongside his car.

• The bird so startled him that he dropped the phone, swerved the car, lost control, and ended up in three feet of saltwater.

• Up until that time, there were only 15 of these rare exotic cars in the U.S.

• The Bugatti Veyron (VEY RON) is the fastest and most expensive production car in the world, capable of reaching 253 mph, and this one was new to House.

• He had just bought it the previous month for $1.25 million with 500 miles on the odometer.

• Possessions never last the way we hope, and sometimes, as ironic as it may be, they are stripped away by the distraction of something else. Houston Chronicle, 11/13/9, Front Page

• In 1 Kings 3:3, we are told that Solomon loved the Lord.

1 Kings 3:3 CSB

3 Solomon loved the LORD by walking in the statutes of his father David, but he also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

• This thought sounds great until you look at the end of the verse, where we see that Solomon was also sacrificing and burning incense in the high places.

• Hold on to the concept that Solomon LOVED the Lord for a second.

• Solomon professes a love for God, so where should his focus be placed?

• If you love your spouse or your children, where should your attention be placed?

• In verse one of our text, we are told that Solomon LOVED MANY foreign wives, well, 700 to be exact.