1 Kings #09: an exposition of 1 Kings 9:1-28. This message by pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, March 29, 2015.
Intro:
We hear it often, “His personal life is none of our business. How he choses to live has nothing to do with his job.” We most often hear that in connection with politicians. Doesn’t matter what his lifestyle is, that’s separate from his job in the congress. We may hear, “He’s not much of a human being but he’s a fine actor.” There is truth to that. When I take my car to the mechanic I don’t need to know his politics or what is his stance on same sex marriage – I want to know does he know anything about transmissions? Can he fix what is wrong with my car? On the other hand it is, at best naive, to think that one’s personal life, politics, beliefs and behaviors have nothing to do with how he conducts his business. We often hear from those who disagree with our faith and or moral stance, “Faith is a private matter. You need to keep that to yourself. That’s fine down at the church but it has no place here in school or the public arena.” Really? Can you separate things that neatly? Can you divorce your deeply held, cherished beliefs from other areas you can about? Just from a purely practical, pragmatic point of view is that even possible? Am I to believe a thorough going secularist leaves his personal beliefs out of his politics? Am I to believe his beliefs never influence the way he does business or the decisions he makes? Such thinking is nonsense. Of course beliefs influence practices. By necessity what you believe influences how you live, choices you make and the way you interact with others. That’s true for everyone. Further as the people of God we are commanded to order our lives according to our faith. We are not to be those who are hearers of the word only. In other words it is not enough to know what Scripture says, we are to live out those truths. I’m supposed to act like a Christian on Sunday and on Thursday afternoon. I’m supposed to order my life according to Scripture when I’m leading that Bible study and when I’m meeting with that customer, closing the deal on Tuesday evening. My faith is to determine how I respond to my supervisor and that foolish new system she insist on putting in place. To give your life to Christ is to give your whole life to Christ. To be a Christian, a follower of Christ is a full-time job. I am to live my faith 24/7. I sometimes joke with people when I’m having a meal with them. They will say, “Pastor would like like to ask the blessing on the meal?” I say, “No thanks. I’m off the clock.” There is no time “off the clock” as God’s child. There are no areas of life that are excluded from influence. Our text this evening is 1 Kings chapter 9.
Text: 1 Kings 9:1-28
1 Kings 9 is…well…interesting.
At first glance there seems to be this coherent statement (9:1-9) followed by mass confusion.
9:10-28 just seems to be a bit of this and a piece of that.
The section reads to me like a draw of newspaper clippings.
Little snips out of Solomon’s life as king.
Not in any particular order and totally unrelated.
I will admit to being a little confused and wondering if this was the chapter I would skip over.
But as I read over it several times considering each section something focused for me.
It is clear from the construction that there are two sections.
9:1-9 and 9:10-28.
Each begins with a statement about Solomon’s building.
Again, I don’t want to “spiritualize” the message.
But I do want to draw from it principles that relate to us.
After all Scripture is written for our benefit and all Scripture is profitable.
The message for us is that…
Thesis: We are called to a life of devotion and a pursuit of excellence as an expression of our faithfulness to God.
We are not Solomon. I don’t believe that any of us have been called to be king of Israel but the principles stated in this chapter apply to all of us. I want to point out a couple of things from our text.
- As the people of God we are to live each day before the face of God. (9:1-9)
- As the people of God we are to pursue our vocation as an expression of our faithfulness to God. (9:10-28)
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What you must not lose sight of is that 9:10-28 happens in the shadow of 9:1-9.
The call to faithfulness, integrity and uprightness is to dominate the pursuit of our vocation.
All of life is to be lived before the face of God.