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All right, first Kings, first Kings. So first Kings ends up, it begins kind of the way second Samuel ends. We get to hear more of David's last words and his final charge to Solomon, his son. And on Sunday, we're going to take a look at some of the things that Solomon or yeah, that he learned from his father, David, for the father's day sermon. But just real quick, a quick breakdown here. So the first half of Kings deals with Solomon's reign over Israel, over the complete nation, all 12 tribes. It's 22 chapters long. So the last half of it basically deals with the kingdom divided. Remember, we talked about this on Sunday. Rehoboam took the southern kingdom of Judah. He became king. He took Benjamin and Levi and some stragglers as well, other people. And then Jeroboam took the 10 tribes, the rest of the 10 up north, and then he became a king. He became two golden calves because he doesn't want to lose people back to Jerusalem to worship. He doesn't want to lose the kingdom. So he institutes his own religious system and basically the rest of the book just goes over the different Kings, what they did, what they didn't do. And somebody asked me recently, well, you know, what's the important thing regarding first Kings? And well, you know, it's a lot of history, right? And so what we get to see here is what not to do. You know, it would do our leaders really good in this country to just read this book and see what happens. You know what I mean? Because I mean, think about it. If you read through first, second Kings, first, second Chronicles, one thing that you're going to see pop up anytime that wickedness is allowed to flourish, guess what? The sodomites come up, you know, they come up, they start instituting their policies, their will, the land just gets more and more backslidden. And you know, it just, the nation just gets into perils. And then finally, you know, they've had, they have enough of it and then a man of God raises up and takes the throne and you know, and then God says, okay, Hey, get rid of these people. And so I think it would be a huge blessing for our government to, you know, even if it's like, look, okay, I get it. You guys don't believe the Bible, but could we just get you to read this and see what happened? Because I mean, this is true history. These nations fell because of these things, you know, and if you study our nation and you go back 30, 40, 50 years and you look at when America said, okay, we're going to allow divorce to be legal, right? Guess what happened shortly after that? Then all of a sudden the sodomites start, well, we want to just be accepted, right? And then what happened in the sixties with Roe versus Wade, right? Abortion. And then guess what? The sodomites get more and more. You see, they get more and more influence, more and more power. And then what happens? You know, the rock and roll music comes on the scene and it gets, you know, it gets more and more influence in our culture, you know, and then all of a sudden the sodomites are on TV, you know, in a negative light at first, you know, but then what happens, you know, our government just overturns more and more and more of God's laws and then the next thing you know, we're in perils and we're in 2019 where they're trying to make it legal to take your children, you know, look, there's no nation under the sun that's ever embraced the sodomite lifestyle that has survived. No, not one. And you see that in this book, you see that in second Kings, you see that throughout the entire Bible. It is destructive. The only way out is to have somebody come in and clean house, you know, and I think it's just too late for this country. It's too late for America, you know, and so that's something that that's, you know, that's what's important about Kings, you know, do our politicians a great service to read and understand these things, you know, and you get to look at the Kings of Israel. They were evil primarily and look what God did unto them. You know how God destroyed them and they were the first to get wiped away. They were the first to get carried away into captivity and then follows Judah and so what we're going to do this evening is we're just going to take a look at a lot of the acts that Solomon did and that'll cover the first half of the book and we'll come back through and we'll diligently study the rest of the Kings and stuff later on and I have a practical lesson on communication that we'll finish with. So real quick, just go over to first Kings chapter three and we'll talk about Solomon's prayer for wisdom. So you know, he gets his great advice from his father, King David, you know, things are going good and I really liked the beginning of Solomon's reign in Israel because he's got peace, you know, he's following God and God's just blessing everything. You know, I'd say my three favorite times of the children of Israel in the Bible would be the time in Joshua after they inherit the promised land and then probably right when David takes over just because of the way he did his zeal for God, you know, that just excites me. And then the next would definitely be Solomon because he does start out with a good zeal for God. He goes forward, you know, and he basically, he has rest. He makes, you know, he's got peace and he just basically has, you know, these people living well. I mean, they're a prosperous nation and God's blessing him and we get to see that here. So let's take a look at this here in first Kings chapter three. Look at verse number one. It says, and Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had made an end of building his own house in the house of the Lord on the wall of Jerusalem roundabout. Only the people sacrificed in high places because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord until those days. And look at verse three, it says, and Solomon loved the Lord walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and burned incense in high places. You know, that's a, that's a thing that you'll read a lot in Kings and Chronicles, Samuel, you know, that they sacrificed in high places. It's a, it's a, it's a negative thing, but it's not always bad in the Bible. And so I want, what I want to do is we're just gonna, uh, once you guys turn to Numbers chapter 33 here, we'll just kind of take a look at this deal here about the high places because you see that come up in the Bible a lot, the high places. Now the heathen, they love to sacrifice in the high places because they could be seen, uh, because it, you know, they could be seen in the city that could get away with a lot of wickedness and things like that, uh, as well. And so, you know, God didn't want them patterning their worship after the heathen in the high places. But yet sometimes in the Bible you do read that they did sacrifices in high places and God wasn't angry about it. It's just a thing that happened. And so we'll, we'll, we'll get into it here. But I just want to start off right away with God's standards and his expectations regarding the high places. So if you're there in Numbers 33, look at verse number 50, it says, and the Lord spake unto Moses and the plans of Moab by Jordan near Jericho saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, when you're passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their pictures and destroy all their molten images and quite pluck down all their high places. So God's standard and his expectations right off the bat was that they would come into the promised land. They would destroy all their pictures, all their images, all their things, right? Because they were of the world. They were perverted type people. And he said, quite pluck down all of their high places because God did not want them to pattern their worship of him after the heathen. And you know what? It's the same exact thing today. God doesn't want us to pattern our worship after the world. That's why we don't have a rock and roll band, right? That's why I don't have a big screen up here. I mean, we really couldn't fit one up here anyways, you know what I mean? But we don't want to, we don't want to act like the world, right? I don't want to run this place like a community center or like a boy scouts thing or a, you know, the TEDx conference or what have you, you know, let the world have their communication with the devil and let's not pattern the way we do business after the world. And so right off the bat here, that was the standard. That was an expectation that God said, Hey, I want you to take them all and Chuck them, get rid of them, throw them away. And of course they didn't and it became a snare to them later on in life. Now go over to Deuteronomy chapter 12, Deuteronomy chapter 12. So Deuteronomy chapter 12, look at verse number one, we'll talk about God sets up his, his place of worship here. And you got to remember it also, it changes throughout the children of Israel's history, right? You remember the tabernacle that was portable, you know, they would follow that around. And then as you read through the Bible and you get into the Kings and stuff, you'll see different time periods where the children of Israel had local institutions set up where they could come worship where they did things and so forth. So look at verse number one, Deuteronomy 12, one, it says, these are the statutes and judgments which he shall observe to do in the land, which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that you live upon the earth, you shall utterly destroy all the places where in the nations which he shall possess served their gods upon the high mountains, upon the hills and under every green tree. And that's also why you'll read that God says, Hey, cut down their groves, cut down their high places of worship. Um, you know, people will, why cut down the groves? Well, it doesn't matter. God just said to do it. So you do it. We remember, we trust in God's wisdom and his instructions, not our own. We don't rely on our own selves. We rely on what God says to do. So we don't need to ask why we just do it. Now look at verse three says, and you shall overthrow their altars and break their pillars and burn their groves with fire and you shall hue down the graven images of their gods and destroy the names of them out of that place. You know what? I would like to destroy the names of these false gods in this city. I would like to get Mormonism out of here, or at least get them a huge black eye. And the same thing with all these repent of your sins people as well. You know, I think that would be a great goal for our church. Look at verse number four, you shall not do so unto the Lord, your God, the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall say, destroy them. Verse 28 Israel then shall dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine. Also his heavens shall drop down due. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places. Now you can go back or actually go over to second Kings chapter 14, second Kings chapter 14. And so God's standards, his expectations, his intentions are very clear. They were to destroy the high places, not allow any of them to remain. In fact, God said that thou shalt tread on them. God wanted that to be a testimony unto the world so that the world will look at that and see, okay, wow, the God of the heavens, the God of the earth, he doesn't like that. He doesn't want that. And you know what? It did work because how often have we read in the Bible up until this point where heathen people had gotten saved and joined the nation of Israel, right? They saw these things. Remember, God did this stuff for a reason. It was to reach the lost. The old Testament is not just a closed book to the Jews, right? That is false doctrine. That is not true. So while you're turning your first key, I'm sorry, second Kings 14, I'm going to read for you out of second Kings chapter 12 real quick. It says, and Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. All his days were in Jehoiada, the priest instructed him, but the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. So this is what we're going to talk about now. Oftentimes when you read through these Kings, you're going to say, God's going to say, okay, they did good at this part of their life. Here's what they did well. And then sometimes it'll say, but they didn't get rid of the high places. You know, it's kind of like when you read in Revelation, you know, the letters to the seven churches where God says, Hey, you know, I know that you have some that have strength, but yet you still doing this, you're still allowing this in and that's into to flourish. And so God, you know, he's, he's not a respecter of persons. He's going to tell it like it is. He's going to say he, here's what you did well. Here's what you did not do well. And so what I'm trying to say is it wasn't always a wicked, wicked thing when you read high places in the Bible. So don't, don't, don't misunderstand that here. You're there in second Kings chapter 14. Look at verse number one, it says in the second year of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel reigned, uh, Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah. Verse two, he was 20 and five years old when he began to reign and reign 20 and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoadan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like David, his father. He did according to all things as Joash, his father did. Howbeit the high places were not taken away as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense and high places. So God's saying, Hey, I'm not happy about this, but you did do some things right. You see that? So just keep that in mind as you're reading through these books here that it wasn't always a wicked, wicked thing because here's what people will say. Well, the Bible's filled with contradictions and they love to take you to first Kings. They love to take you to first Chronicles, second Kings, second Chronicles and try to make trip you up, right? Because most of these heathen people, they, they realize that Christians aren't reading their Bibles, that they don't know where to go to for these stories and they don't fully understand them. So this is just something that jumped out at me that I want to make sure that we all understand here. It's not always a wicked thing. Now it was, it was definitely a bad thing during this time because they had the temple already built. God already told them where to worship and how to worship. And yet they said, well, we still like our way. We still like the drums. We still like the rock and roll band. We still like the big screen, you know, and there are churches out there that I believe in, you know, in the last days of where God's like, Hey, you know, you did this right, but you still had your high places, you know, and it's just a thing. You know, we, we don't want to be like these Kings. I'd rather be like David, right? I want to be all in. I want to have my heart go fully after God, not just partially. And I hope it's the same for everyone here. So let's go back to dealing with Solomon. So go back to first Kings chapter three and we'll take a look at how God appears under Solomon. So first Kings chapter three, look at verse number five, it says in Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said, ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, thou has showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee. And now has kept for him this great kindness that thou has given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. And now, Oh Lord, my God, thou has made thy servant King instead of David, my father. And I am but a little servant King instead of David, my father. I'm sorry, I messed that up here. I know not how to go out or come in. Verse eight. I'm going to, I'm getting old. I'm gonna have to start double spacing these things or get glasses. All right. So verse eight, it says, and thy servant is in the midst of thy temple. I'm sorry. Of thy people, which thou has chosen a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great a people and the speech please the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. So God realizes right off the bat that Solomon has a heart for the people. He's not just in this for himself. He's not in this for prideful reasons right now. You know, he could have had asked for anything longer life, you know, more wives, more, whatever, you know, better health. Uh, I mean, you name it. He could have asked for that, but he had the people in mind and obviously he had himself in mind as well because being in this position would be a great responsibility. It would be hard to be able to manage all of these people as I'm sure you could tell. And he says, Hey Lord, I just want wisdom to deal with these people so that I can tell who's lying to me so that I can tell, you know, when, when these hard cases come to me and you get to read about that, uh, through the first 12 chapters here. So go over to chapter four and we'll get to see what happens now. God's pleased with his request and God says, okay, I'm going to grant you that request. Solomon winds up becoming the wisest man on earth during that time. And so let's take a look at that. First Kings four, look at verse number 29 and says, God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. So keep in mind, there's nobody alive today that's as smart as Solomon. Solomon was the greatest man, and I'm saying man, that's ever walked this earth. And the whole reason he was that wise was because God gave him that wisdom. There's a lot of people that think they're smarter than Solomon, you know, on this planet today, but they're not. Now look at verse 30 says, and Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East country and all the wisdom of Egypt for he was wiser than all men. And Ethan, the, the, I'm sorry, it says then Ethan, the Ezra height and Haman and Calco and Darda, the sons of male and his fame was in all nations round about. So God's saying, Hey, these other people, they were wise, they were known, they were looked up to, but Solomon was made wiser than all of them. Look at verse 32 and he spake 3000 proverbs and his songs were a thousand and five. Could you imagine if we had all 3000 of those proverbs in this book, you know, and that's the big complaint today. Well your Bible, this is what the Catholics will say, right? Well, your Bible's missing books. It's like you can't even handle the 66 books that are in the Bible now. You think having more proverbs, more books would benefit you. It would just be harder. You know, God gave us the perfect mixture, the perfect setup of books. We don't need more. You know, if we did, he would have gave it to us, but he didn't. He gave us what he's given us and that is it. So look at verse 33 and he spake of trees from the cedar trees that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spake also of beasts and of foul and of creeping things and of fishes and there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all Kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom. And so he was so, uh, wise that, that everybody, they just realized it. I mean, his wisdom and how he ran that nation proved, uh, basically it became a testimony to the world around and they sent their Kings. They sent their people to talk to him about all manner of things. I mean, you could ask Solomon about, you know, all sorts of stuff regarding the creation and he knew it because God had given that wisdom. It wasn't just knowledge that he had. I mean, in the beginning of his life, he applied that knowledge and it became wisdom unto him and it was wisdom from God. Now go over real quick to a chapter six over to first Kings chapter six. And then the next thing I'm going to highlight is that Solomon has the temple built. So if you're there in first Kings chapter six, look at verse number 38 and says, and in the 11th year and the month bull, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it. So there's where you're going to go. So anybody asks you, well, okay, well how long did it take for Solomon to build a, uh, to build the house, to build the temple, you know, in case you're playing that Bible trivia game with Kenley later, you know, remember these things cause that's a, that's a question, isn't it? And I got you on that one. Okay. All right. Go over real quick to a first Kings chapter eight. So in chapter eight, it's a, it's a very long chapter, you know, and it's a, it's basically Solomon on his knees, you know, on his knees in front of the people asking God basically dedicating the temple, praying for the future generations, praying for the nation that's there, um, praying for mercy into those that would make mistakes later on. And so real quick, just go over to verse 62 first Kings chapter eight, 62 says, and the King and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the Lord and Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the Lord two and 20,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the King and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. And now, now that that's done in chapters nine and 10, Solomon turns for the worst. And basically what happens is you get to read about him backsliding. I mean, I wish we had more time and then we could read all the acts that Solomon did that we could talk about everything that he did. Keep in mind, this is the wisest man on the planet and you know what brings him down? His love for the wrong kind of woman. That's what brings him down. You know, I think here also that things were going so good for Solomon that, you know, people just began to get kind of complacent. You know what I mean? You know, and that can happen to us, right? We go out, maybe we get a bunch of people saved. We would get a huge victory in our lives over or whatever. Maybe you've been praying for months about something and God finally gives that to you and you just, you meditate on it, you're happy and there's nothing wrong with that. And then all of a sudden, you know, you just slow down because you're just allowing yourself to become complacent. You're like, well, I've already got that victory. You know, I went to church, you know, three months in a row, I got eight people saved or what, you know, whatever the case may be. And you get this victory and you think, wow, you know, I can just slow down a little bit and I can take a break. You know, I'd rather be, do what Paul said, right? Pressed toward that high calling, you know, press towards the mark of that high calling, you know, which is in Christ Jesus. Because if you're always striving, you're always trying to finish that race. You're always in the race, right? It's not going to leave you room to become complacent and to fall out of line with God's will. And I think if Solomon would have, you know, had more of a heart after God's like his father did, he probably wouldn't have got into this situation. Sure he would have made mistakes. He's a sinner too. And that's another thing that the Bible is teaching us here. You know, just because he was the wisest man to ever live doesn't mean he was without sin and it sure doesn't mean that he went to hell when he died. Like the Pentecostals will tell you that's false doctrine. And so I just wanted to bring that up, go over to chapter 11 and we'll take a look at his downward spiral right off the bat here. Remember, we're almost halfway through the chapter here and so you're going to see this split take place here. So first Kings chapter 11 verse one, it says, but King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh, you know, and that really wasn't the wisest decision him taking Pharaoh's daughter in the beginning either. I mean, he should have just stuck with a woman that loved the Lord. It was a part of the nation of Israel, but he didn't do it. Nonetheless, she hadn't been really a snare unto him until this time, you know, where he just decided, you know, I'm so wise, I'm looking into everything that I just want to find out what the world has to offer. So it says, but King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zadonians and Hittites. Verse two of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, you shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods, Solomon clave unto these and love. And you see that there, the wisest man alive, you know, was no match for the strange woman. And you know what? You Christian believers, you're no match for the strange woman or the strange dude or the strange doctrine or the strange church or whatever it is that strange, you're no match for it. Don't play around in the world. God's already warned us. It's not going to benefit you. So look down at verse number three, it says, and he had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines and his wives turned away as our man. I can't, every time I read that, I laugh, I just, how in the world, man, I can barely manage Jessica and luckily she's not sitting here right now, but anyway, I'm just kidding. I'm just teasing. I got to make fun of her, but I'm sure you guys understand, you know, it's hard to manage people let alone. I mean, can you imagine that 700 wives, I mean, they're princesses, concubines. No wonder they turned away as heart. I mean that much influence, I mean, that's a tidal wave coming after one person. You know, can you really take burning coals in your bosom and not get burned? Well, Solomon put that to the test and guess what? He realized the answer was no and he failed. Look at verse four, for it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away as heart after other gods and his heart was not perfect with the Lord as God, as was the heart of David, his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zydonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites, Milcom, that sounds like a video game company. Does anybody know if that's true? Every time I read that, it sounds like a video game production company, Milcom, Kayden, you got to report back to me later. I need to know if there's, there's got to be some evil, wicked video game corporation out there named Milcom. There has to be. Look at verse six, it says, and Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord as David, his father. Then did Solomon build in high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. Verse eight, and likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrifice unto the gods. It goes back to what we were talking about earlier with the high places, right? He forsook the temple, you know, he's just like, ah, his heart got turned away and he went back up to doing the very thing that God told him not to do. Going against the very thing that he did. I mean, he, he was instrumental. I mean, he built that temple, he had people help him. He had his servants do it. I mean, he was in charge of that. He was in charge of the place of worship for the children of Israel. And now all of a sudden he's burning incense and he's doing weird things in the high places. It just blows my mind, but it just goes to show you. It doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter how wise you are. You're not wiser than the strange woman. Now jump down to verse number 28 and we'll see the coming consequences for Solomon's backsliding. So verse 28, it says in the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph. And if you remember when Samuel, back when we studied 1 Samuel and the children of Israel, they cried out and said, we want Kings like all these other nations. Remember what Samuel told the people, he said, okay, fine, but the King is going to take your sons to, to, to be in his economy. He's going to take your sons for warriors, uh, basically to, to do his will, you know, to be over his, his, his affairs, his things that he's got going on. He's going to take your daughters to become confectionaries and so forth. And so you're seeing that play out here. He sees this guy Jeroboam and he's like, wow, that guy's industrious, you know, he's a mighty man. He's strong. He's smart. I'm going to take him and he's going to be my employee. He's going to be my servant. Just look at verse 29 and it came to pass at the time when Jeroboam went out to Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah, the Shillo knight found him in the way and he had clad himself with a new garment and they too were alone in the field. So Jeroboam, he gets this new job and I guess he goes out and he buys a brand new garment, brand new piece of clothing and look at verse 30 and Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him and rent it in 12 pieces verse 31 and he said to Jeroboam, take the 10 pieces for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, I will run the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give 10 tribes to thee. In verse 32, but he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake and for Jerusalem's sake, the city, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. And so here we get to see the prophet Ahijah basically tell Jeroboam, Hey, you know, I'm sorry I just ripped up your garment into 12 pieces, but this is a sign confirming a prophecy from God that I'm, I'm trying to share with you here. And Jeroboam just like, what, what in the world's going on here? What do you mean? I thought I was just working for Solomon. Now you're tearing my clothes apart and telling me I'm going to be king. So, but he tells them why here, look at verse 33 because that they have forsaken me and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh, the God of the Moabites and the Milcom, the God of the children of Ammon and have not walked in my ways to do that which is right in mine eyes and to keep my statutes and my judgments as David his father. Verse 34, how be it I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servant's sake, whom I chose because he kept my commandments and my statutes. And verse 35 says, but I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and will give it unto thee even 10 tribes and unto his son will I give it one tribe that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city, which I have chosen me to put my name there. And so he goes on to tell him this prophecy. And then again, like a good prophet does, he gives him all the word of God and he tells him, Hey, if you do what God says, if you follow God's commandments, things are going to go well for you, Jeroboam. This is a gift. This is a potential good thing for you, even though it's a bad thing. And I mean, think about it. If anybody ever asked you, well, what happened to Israel? I mean, why are they the way they are today? It was all, it all goes back to Solomon and his decision to lust and love these strange women. That's what it all boils down to. Look at verse 37. He says, and I will take thee and now shall reign according to all that thy soul desireth and shall be King over Israel. And it shall be if that will harken unto all that I command thee and will walk in my ways and do that is right in my sight to keep my statutes and my commandments as David, my servant did that I will be with thee and build thee a sure house as I built for David and will give Israel unto thee. So you know, you know the story about Jeroboam because we've talked about it a lot. What is the first thing he did, right? He got, you know, he got covetous over the people. He said, you know, once he got those 10, those 10 tribes, he said, I don't want to lose any of the people. And what he does is violate everything that this prophet told him there and he institutes those two golden calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan. The exact, that's definitely, I mean, that's, that's going all the way back to Exodus. That had, that is the exact opposite of what God wanted him to do. And look at verse 39 and I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not forever. Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam and Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt under Shishak King of Egypt and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. And so obviously Solomon hears about this, you know, because God's chasing him. God wants him to understand, Hey, what you're doing, what you have done is wrong and I'm going to teach you a lesson. And remember, God comes down harder on leaders a lot of times than he does other people, you know? And so God's like, Hey, I'm going to cut this nation in half. It's done. And it's never been the same sense. And so you just read there in verse 40, what happens, Jeroboam hears that Solomon wants to kill him. He flees into Egypt. And then in chapter 12, after Solomon dies, he comes back, he goes to Rehoboam and he says, Hey, can you lighten the burden that your father put on me and my men? Uh, I told the story last Sunday, Rehoboam hearkens to the council of his young friends and basically puffs up on him and says, now I'm going to make it worse for you, Jeroboam. And so that's what did it right there. That's split the kingdom. And then from chapters 12 through 22, you just read about the different Kings and their exploits and we'll get into that another time. And so for the rest of the sermon, I just want to give you a quick practical lesson in communication. Like I said at the beginning. So go back to a first Kings chapter five, first Kings chapter five. So we're going to take a look at the relationship that Hiram King Hiram had with King Solomon. This is just something that jumped out at me as I was studying this, I've just got three real quick, uh, uh, points about communication. I think it'll help you out. I think it'll be a blessing. So who was King Hiram? Well, you don't have to turn there, but second Samuel five 11 says this, it says in Hiram, King of Tyre sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and masons and they built David and house. So Hiram was a, uh, was, it was the King of Tyre and he loved David. That's what the Bible, we're about to read that he loved David. And even during David's reign, remember David wanted to build the house of the Lord, but God said, Hey, you've shed way too much blood. You know, you've had way too many wars. You're not going to be able to build this. You can do the preparations, but your son is actually going to build it and he's going to dedicate it. And we've already covered that. And so Hiram has been helping this situation out for a long time, even while Solomon was just a young child. And so you're there in first Kings chapter one. Let's take a look at this here. It says in Hiram, King of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon for he had heard that they had anointed him King in the room of his father for Hiram was ever a lover of David. Remember I just, we just spoke about that Hiram loved David and I believe he was saved. I mean, the language that we're about to read with King Hiram, I mean, he, he loves the things of God. He's willing to support this new temple. I mean, he's willing to, to, to send things from his land and get into this business relationship with King Solomon here. And I think it's a great thing. Look down and jumped down to verse number seven and says, and when it came or, and it came to pass when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people. And great people there means large people. He was, he was recognizing the fact that this has become a large nation. Every time you see the word great in the Bible doesn't mean like cheery, great, you know, I mean, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but he's just saying, Hey, you know, blessed be God. I mean, look at this language here. It says, blessed be the Lord this day. You know, I mean, I'm sure he had his sins. I'm sure their nation, you know, uh, had their gods and their problems. In fact, they did. You know, as you get further along in the old Testament, the Bible, there was a lot of negative things about the king of Tyre, which we'll have to get into a further down the road. But nonetheless, you know, he's, he's excited about Solomon taking over. He's still, you know, zealous. He still wants to help the, the efforts here. So look at verse five. It says in Hiram sent to Solomon saying, I have considered the things which thou sent a sentence to me for, and I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring, I shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea and I will convey them by, uh, by sea and floats unto this place that thou shall appoint me and will cause them to be discharged there and thou shall receive them and thou shall accomplish my desire in giving food for my household. So he was just saying, Hey, here's, here's what I propose. You know, I'm going to send you these items here and then basically you're just going to send me the food for my family. And so that they, they worked out a real good trade deal. Not like the trade deals you hear on Fox news today. You know, I go into people's houses all the time and it's always like trade deal, trade deal, Trump trade deal. You know, I don't know much more than that. I just, you know, just, just hear the buzzing, but here's a trade deal that actually worked in the Bible. Now look at verse 10. So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to all his desire and Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 measures of wheat for food to his household and 20 measures of pure oil. Thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year. Now go to first Kings chapter nine and we'll take a look a little deeper look at this relationship here so you can see it. They understand each other supposedly, right? We understand you're going to send these items. I'm going to send you these items and we're just going to work together. We're going to get this thing done. There's no envy going on. You know, they both year by year, you know, they, they trade and things are going well. First Kings nine looking for number 10 it says, and it came to pass at the end of 20 years when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the King's house. Now Hiram, the King of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees and with gold according to all his desire that then King Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee. Now keep in mind here, Solomon, the wisest man on earth during this time, right? So what he does is he gives King Hiram these 20 cities of Galilee thinking, Hey, you know, I think this will be a blessing to you. I think you're going to like this. I think he probably gave him these cities because it made the trading of the trees and stuff like that a lot easier. Maybe commerce was easier that way. I'm not really sure. It doesn't say, but look at verse 12 it says in Hiram came down from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given them and pay attention to the last part of this verse. It says, and they pleased him not. You see that there? They pleased him not. Now, why does the Bible, nothing's in the Bible by accident. Why is that there? You know, we have to figure that out. It's there because there's a communication breakdown between Solomon and between Hiram. See whether Solomon thought in his heart, Hey, this'll be a nice thing for him or not. The Bible doesn't say, just keep in mind he's the wisest guy on earth right now and he should have probably maybe known or maybe tried a little bit harder to say, Hey, are you going to be okay with these before I, you know, ruin our relationship here, giving you something that I don't fully understand that you even want. You know, look at verse 13 and he said, what cities are these, which thou has given me my brother. And he called them the land of Kabul unto this day. And I'm guessing in that language, it probably doesn't mean something very well or very, very pleasant rather. So like I said, I've got three quick helps, three quick statements based off of this story that I want to help you. I want to give you for better communication. Just three quick things and then we'll be done. So you're there in first Kings nine, look at verse number 13 again. So point number one is state your intentions clearly. If you want to have better communication, if you want to have a better relationship, whether it's in marriage, whether it's with your children, whether it's at work, whatever the case may be, state your intentions clearly. Look at verse number 13 and says, and he said, what cities are these, which thou has given me my brother. And he called the land. I'm sorry. And he called them the land of Kabul unto this day. Now turn, keep your place there, but turn to first Peter chapter three. Now I think that Solomon probably should have done a better job at saying, you know, you know, maybe learning, you know, what his business partner, if you will, liked or didn't like or could use, couldn't use to avoid this situation. I think this situation could have been avoided with better communications, right? I get it. Solomon's trying to do a nice thing for the King here, but it doesn't please him. You know, I would think if I was going to give somebody 20 cities, if I was going to give somebody $20 or whatever, I would like to make sure that that is something that you're going to need. There's nothing wrong if you want to give somebody a gift to actually go around and somehow try to find out if that's what the person actually needs or if that's what the person actually wants, especially when you're in, you know, business with somebody. Because if not, you're going to get a situation like this and it just ruins things. So you're there in first Peter chapter three, look down verse number seven, it says, likewise ye husbands dwell with them, talking about the wives, right? Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers not be hindered. And so the first example that I, that came to my mind regarding communication of course is marriage because that's where communication breaks down a lot of times, right? Men and women, we don't think alike. You know, just the other day I had a, we had a communication boo boo, right? Yeah. About dinner, you know, and I'm sure I'll, don't even lie guys. I know you've done the same thing. You all know it's true. You know, I don't even know if I should tell the story cause it's just going to make me look bad, but nonetheless it was a communication boo boo. This isn't a Catholic church. I'm not going to confess my faults, you know, right now, but, but anyways, this verse here says, likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, right? So what the Bible is saying here is, Hey, you know, you need to learn how to please your wife, dwell with them. So live with them according to knowledge. Learn what makes them tick. Learn what they like. Learn what they want. Learn, you know, learn the things that are going to please them. It's not going to do you any good to get your wife a gift, right? If it's not going to please her kind of like King Hiram here, but you could apply this to your business dealings as well. You could apply this at work, right? Dwell with your boss according to knowledge. Learn how he likes things done. Learn how their, how his standards, how his expectations, how his intentions are. That way you can work according to knowledge and your efforts won't be hindered. You see what I'm trying to say? So point number one is state your intentions clearly, and this goes both ways, right? This goes for learning your boss's, you know, communication, his intentions, his standards, his expectations, but you know, it also should go, if you're a boss, if you're a manager, you know, you should learn that about your own people as well. And that's a big problem in the workforce that, you know, a lot of times it's a, we can't always correct that. You may have this, Pat, you may have this down, right? But your boss may just be a terrible communicator. You know, I've, I've dealt with that even, even recently. You know, there's always that boss that seems like that comes into your life that'll just give you the most vague instructions and you who know, you know, you know what I'm talking about, right? They give you very vague instructions. Like, hey, go, it's almost like they're trying to set you up for failure. You know what I mean? They're not trying to dwell with you according to knowledge. They'll say, hey, you know, go, go sweep the floor and you've got like 20 floors. It's like, well, which one, you know, don't ask questions, just go do it. And so you, okay, fine. I'll go do it. You go sweep a floor. Hey, that's not the right one. You know, or you go sweep them all. And they're like, what are you doing? You're wasting time. You know, those types of situations here, you know, that's why in those situations, when you have a boss like that, they're, they won't follow these rules. It's a bad communicator. What I've learned to do over my career is I carry a little notebook with me. I've got one in the, in the van there. And anytime I come to that person, he says a whole, hold on, I'll say, hold on, what are you saying? I'll pull out my pen and notebook and I'll write it down in front of them, right? Or if they're calling me on the phone and say, Hey, can you send me everything that you just said in a text message? Because I will forget. I'm not trying to be rude, but I just want to make sure that I don't do anything to this pleasure. You see, you've got to cover your backside in the workforce today because there's, I don't know what's going on out there if it's the chemtrails, the mercury, but it just seems like more and more people can not communicate clearly. They can't give clear instructions. And part of the reason is because we're in this culture where nobody wants to offend anyone anymore. They don't want to tell you the truth. Even in our own moment, there's a lot of people that have a problem with you or they don't like the way you preach and they don't like this, they don't like that and they will never tell you. It just comes to you in another way. It's like the little birdie just comes, comes and lands on your shoulder and says, Hey, did you hear what someone said? He's not really too pleased with what you said, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, well, you know, that all that could have been avoided if they would have just stated their intentions clearly, if they would have just said, Hey, you know, this is what I think. Hey, what's going on? Let's work together here. You see what I'm saying? So in your communication, learn to make your intentions clear. That's all I'm trying to say, especially with your wives, you know, it's almost father's day. So I got to give you guys some good tips. Dwell with them according to knowledge. They should dwell with you according to knowledge too, but you know, the Bible saying here that if you don't look at, look down at the verse again, look at that last phrase there, it says that your prayers be not hindered. If you're dwelling with your wife right now and not according to knowledge, the Bible says your prayers are hindered. So guys, if you're praying for stuff, you might want to just take a quick self examination and make sure that you're dwelling with your wife according to knowledge. So let's move on here. Point number one was state your intentions clearly. Now go over to James chapter one real quick, James chapter one. Number two is learn to listen carefully. You if you want to have effective communication, you have got to learn to listen carefully and yes, I have a problem with this. Sometimes I struggle with this. Jessica already knows. So James chapter one, look at verse number 19 and says, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. That verse there should become a memory verse of every single person in this room. We should always be swift to hear. So when someone comes to you with something, listen to everything they say very carefully. You know that notebook trick that I do that causes me to listen to my boss very carefully. And I say, hold on. And then I'll even read it back to him like a McDonald's menu sometimes, Hey, so this is what you said. Right. You know? And then later on when they, Hey, I didn't tell you to do that. Or why didn't you do this? I'll say, well, you remember, um, I wrote this down and they're like crap. Yeah, that's right. You know? And, and, and not to, not to be rude, but look, you got to protect yourself. And I wouldn't go around doing that to your wives either, guys. I'm just saying, you know, just be swift to hear, be quick to hear. You know, we ought to listen more than we speak. We all know that person, you know, whether it's in the workforce or in your family or even in churches, you go up to talk to them and they talk 10 times more than they listen. You know, if you're dealing with somebody like that, just realize there's a good chance that you're going to have a communication breakdown with that person. That's all I'm saying because somebody who's talking a lot isn't really listening a lot. So it's always good to be swift to hear, slow to speak, and then slow to wrath. And obviously there's situations where we don't need to be slow to wrath and that's another sermon for its, uh, for its own time. So real quick, point number one is how do we want to have effective communication? If you want to be effective in your communication with people, learn to state your intentions clearly. Learn to give your standards, your expectations, which you want clearly. You know what? And it goes both ways, right? Learn to seek out what those things are from the other people that are in your life. Number two is learn to listen carefully. Be swift to hear. Now go to Colossians chapter four, Colossians chapter four. So number three is learn to let things go. Learn to let things go. Look, in marriage, in families, at work, at your, you know, at your, your school, whatever, you will have situations that bother you. There are things that are going to offend you and you know what? A lot of times they really are not a big deal. We make them out to be a big deal. But you know what? If it's really not a big deal, learn to let it go. And you're going to see that with, with King Hiram. But you're there in Colossians chapter four, look at verse number six, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. You know, it'd be good if we could get to a point in our lives where we apply this, right? Hey, I mean, look, I'm not saying there isn't a time for battle. There's a time to rip face. There's a time to crush toes and let heads roll. But it's not with stupid, silly things. You know what? I mean, there are things like, like this, like Hiram, he didn't really get that bent out of shape. He just made it known that he wasn't happy that he didn't really like these cities. They didn't please him. Well, you know, and Solomon's just like, where's my wives at? You know, where's the peacocks and the apes that you brought me, which it talks about later on, you know, but these guys, they let that stuff go. If you want to have effective communication, you want your relationships to go well, look, learn to let things go. Look, there are people where I work now that have wronged me and I can prove it. I've written it down in my little handy dandy notebook, but you know what? Okay, you're right. Sometimes I just say, you know what? You're right. Even though they're not. And I just let it go. You know what? Sometimes that speaks more volumes that will do you more good, right? Do you a lot more good than to just hold a grudge. It doesn't profit you any. It doesn't profit anything. It's just basically sets a fire that eventually will overtake everything and you can't put it out. Right? Same thing with husbands and wives. Learn to dwell with them according to knowledge. You know what? You guys are going to offend each other all the time. You know what? You've got to learn to let things go, right? I'm not, I'm just, you know, I'm just talking, I'm not, I've been gone all day, so I, I've got it. I've got to give her a real hard time. So go back to a chapter first thing, chapter nine, and we'll take a look at this relationship here because these guys actually meet these standards, right? They learn to let these things go. They spoke to each other kindly. The result was the relationship continued. The relationship didn't get shattered, right? This could have become a big thing. I mean, we've saw, I mean back, what was it last week when we studied the last two weeks when we studied through Samuel, how people just said things to David and his men were like, let's go cut their heads off. Right? I mean, that could have been a situation here. I mean, there's a lot more at stake. There's 20 cities. I mean, that's people, commerce, I mean food, all these different things that are going on here, right? This was a big deal, but you know what? They just let it go. The relationship flourished and it continued on. So look at verse number 13 says, and he said, what cities are these, which thou has given me my brother. And he called them the land of Kabul and to this day and Hiram sent to the King six score talents of gold. Now there's your numerology. So you see what happens next? The relationship, the business transaction, it just continues on. Hiram's like, look, I'm not happy about it, but you know what? I'm just going to let it go. Right? And this is a foreigner here. This is a King of Tyre. It's not like he is the children of Israel, but yet he was wise himself. You know what he said? I'm not going to mess with you. I want to keep helping you. I want to keep blessing that temple and we're just going to let this thing roll. He keeps sending him money, keeps sending him trees and so forth. Look at verse, go over to chapter 10 real quick and look at verse number 22 first Kings chapter 10. We're almost done. Chapter 10, 22 and it says for the King had at sea a Navy of Tharshish, which the Navy of Hiram, uh, once in three years came the Navy of Tharshish bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks. And so you can see there, even though this business relationship didn't really go that well, there was a Rocky point here. You know what? It continued on, you know, and we can have that same results if we just learn to state things clearly, right? We learn to listen more than we speak. You know, we, we state things clearly. We listen, we observe, and then last we just learned to let things go, right? That's what I see in the story here. They learned to let these things go. It didn't bother them. And then you know what? The trade deal went on, peace remained and everything worked out well. So like I said, point number one was learned to state your intentions clearly. Point number two was learned to listen carefully. And point number three was learned to let things go. So we're going to stop right here and we will continue on with the Kings next week. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for your word and for these truths in the Bible. I just pray you bless the fellowship Lord and the soul winning to come this week in Jesus name I pray. Amen.