Pastor Tommy Bailey
1 & 2 Kings: The King of Redemption History
1 Kings 11:1-13
Three lessons from the life of Solomon:
- The Peril of Drift
- The Priority of Worship
- The Provision of Mercy
“The Bible never offers a drink from shallow waters. There, you do not find a set of petty maxims, but the everlasting love of God; you do not find any shallow views of sin, but a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And that is the secret of the Bible’s permanence — when our little systems have ceased to be, for sin and sorrow and life and death and duty, it gives us drink ‘as abundant as the seas.’”
– George Herbert Morrison
“Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father…”
– 1 Kings 3:3
“…Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done.”
– 1 Kings 11:6
“We feed sin by coddling it, pining after it, daydreaming about it, giving vent to it. We suffocate sin by redirecting our gaze to Christ.”
– Dane Ortlund, Deeper
“It is only human to want more. God made our hearts for abundance. We desire to know more of the goodness of God personally and particularly. But we also stray, chasing after substitutes. This is why advertising is so effective: it offers us counterfeit versions of what God created us to crave, keeping us busy and distracted.”
– Sandra McCracken
1. The Peril of Drift
“Temptation — for the entire human race, for the people of Israel and for each of us personally — starts with a question of identity, moves to a confusion of the desires and ultimately heads to a contest of futures. In short, there’s a reason you want what you don’t want to want. Temptation is embryonic, personality-specific and purpose-directed.”
– Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried
An anatomy of temptation
- External
- Internal
- Opportunity
- Decision
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
– Proverbs 4:23
2. The Priority of Worship
Diagnostic questions for my spiritual health
- What is my current spiritual trajectory?
- Where is my trajectory leading me?
- What am I building?
- Whose name am I building it for?
- Do I delight in my savior?
- Do I grieve over sin?
- Am I being governed increasingly by God’s word?
- Am I sensitive to God’s presence?
- Do I love God’s people?
- Do I love my neighbor?
- Do have an active hunger and thirst for more of God?
Discussion Questions
- If temptation is so basic and targeted as to be “embryonic, personality-specific and purpose-directed”, how can we hope to stand against it?
- Reading through the previously listed of diagnostic questions for our spiritual health, which stand out to you as especially pertinent and worthy of your attention?
- If the workings of temptation progress from external to internal, then through opportunity to decision, where can you most effectively fight the battle against it? What is your plan this week to fight (and win) some of that battle?
Resources
- Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, Donald Whitney
- Watchfulness, Brian Hedges
- Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard
3. The Provision of Mercy
“We can begin each day with the deeply encouraging realization, I’m accepted by God, not on the basis of my personal performance, but on the basis of the infinitely perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.”
– John Owen
“A guilty conscience is a great blessing, but only if it drives us to come home.”
– John Stott, The Cross of Christ
“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation…”
– Psalm 51:12