Sermon – April 15, 2018
1 Kings 3-11 – The Progression of Sin (mp3)
This sermon was built off of the Bible Reading Plan blog post from a couple of weeks ago. To this post (found here), I added a few applications for Christians to consider. Namely:
1. Human wisdom is not a gateway for spiritual decisions.
Often, we think of human wisdom as enough. If we are reasonable, and thoughtful, we will make the right decisions in life. But this is not always so, even for the wisest of us. Solomon was given great wisdom, and yet made a wreck of his life at the end. Human wisdom is worthless without the fear of the Lord.
2. Past faithfulness is not a guarantee of future devotion
Solomon’s life begins on a high note, as Scripture notes briefly and poignantly, “Solomon loved the Lord” (1 Kings 3:3). Yet, this good start was not enough to solidify Solomon in the Lord. We are warned repeatedly in Scripture not to look to what we have done in the past, but to how we are living today. Do not let decisions in the past give you false assurance for your present life. Heed the warnings of God: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts! (Psalm 95:7-8).
3. Small steps are not guards against great distances
The Chinese proverb “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step” is typically used as an encouragement, to bolster the small attempts of people to do great things. But, applied here, it is a lesson about the danger of walking away from the Lord. We don’t just wake up and find that our lives are in moral shambles, surprised by the sudden turn in our lives. Rather, we slowly walk away from God, one small step at a time, so that our distance from God is inevitiable, not unpredictable. Solomon is a great example of this: a man whose small mis-steps led his heart away from the Lord. Standing against this is Jesus, whose continuous devotion in the minuscule things of life, lived over decades, provided for him the fortitude needed to stand the test of the cross.
