A Prayer for Wisdom

Christian the world is dominated broadly. Men and women with the wisdom of the lead we learn about private wisdom from Solomon's example file Turning Point of your marshes and I have been a profile of the laws is the man who ever lived in the valley, passionately pursuing the gift of government listed. Let's listen now is that it introduces his special message, a prayer for wisdom where we are. It's the last day of July, we have completed our study on the subject of heaven will today were going to talk about what it means to pray for wisdom reference wisdom.

Someone told me once is doing the right thing without a precedent and have we ever lived in such unprecedented times I've prayed more for the wisdom of God in the last 6 to 8 weeks that I can ever remember in all my life because every day it seemed like there was something happening and I didn't know what to do. God is always available to us and I want to share with you this prayer that Solomon prayed at the outset of his leadership tenure and how he prayed for wisdom.

What he did pray for what he didn't pray for, and how God answered him. It's a good model for all of us as we face unprecedented times so here from the Old Testament is Solomon's prayer for wisdom.

One of the greatest definitions I ever heard of wisdom is this definition wisdom is doing the right thing when you have never faced the thing before in your life. Wisdom is doing the right thing when things are unprecedented and today I want to talk with you about what we do when we face moments like that Solomon prayed give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people that I may discern between good and evil.

For who is able to judge this great people of yours in this passage of Scripture uses the word discern and discernment and wisdom are almost synonymous and their meaning. How many of you know that in our world today. There doesn't seem to be a lot of discernment there doesn't seem to be a lot of wisdom in how many of you know we could stand a little of it in our world today and in our own lives, so want to talk with you about this prayer for wisdom and the first part of it is found in first Kings chapter 3 in verses three through nine.

Let's go back to the beginning and let's retell the story of Solomon from the very outset in verse three of the third chapter we read Solomon love the Lord walking in the statutes of his father David except that he had sacrificed and burn incense at the high places Solomon went to Gibeon to sacrifice therefore that was the great high place and he offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar and that Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said to him. Solomon asked what shall I give you Solomon tell me what your need is asked me for what you need most in your life, and Solomon answered. You have shown great mercy to your servant David my father because he walked before you, in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart you have continued this great kindness for him and you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day.

Now, old Lord my God, you have made your servant king instead of my father, David, and I am a little child, I do not know how to go out or come in and your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore, God give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this people of yours. Interesting thing about this prayer. First of all is the humility of it. Solomon said Lord caught him just a little child I don't know how to go out or come in. He confessed his own personal inadequacy.

How many of you know that before you can get the wisdom of God. You gotta get rid of your own wisdom in so many words that doesn't mean you go down it means that you stop trusting your wisdom so you can trust in God's wisdom and so often that never happens in our lives. We get so full up of ourselves.

We get all caught up in our education we think we know the answers, and quite often we don't know what the question is in the thing about Solomon that grabs hold of you when you first begin to read about his prayer is his incredible humility he realized that he needed help. He realized that he was not sufficient to do what God called him to. I've noticed in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the new that a man or a woman who was on the threshold of a great assignment from God is warned in the Old Testament. The warning goes like this. Do not be wise in your own eyes and in the New Testament it sounds similar. Do not be wise in your own opinions. One of the best forecasts of the success of Solomon is that he saw the magnitude of what God wanted him to do and he realized that he was not sufficient for himself. It is not diminishing or depreciating.

No matter who we are to stand before God or kneel before God and confess that we need his help is when we get caught up in our own sufficiency that we usually are on the road to mistakes that hurt us and others so the greatest demonstration of Solomon's early wisdom was his deep awareness that he still had much to learn.

He was, not your typical know it all, young leader, Solomon knew he was an adequate for such a great leadership challenge.

So he went to the city of Gibeon north of Jerusalem and offered sacrifices to Almighty God and his humility is followed in his prayer by his honesty.

He says Lord God give to your servant an understanding heart that I might discern between good and evil.

For who is able to judge this great people of yours. Use your imagination for a moment and try to imagine Solomon's ascension to Israel's throne in the reflected glory of his father's own popularity and unprecedented achievements, Solomon offers sacrifices to God and God asks the newly crowned Solomon to make a request. Can you imagine having that moment with God.

God speaking to you and say tell me what you want, tell me what ever you want, what would you have chosen. Solomon had the choice of a thousand lifetimes and he chose the gift of wisdom because he knew as we shall see that in wisdom were a thousand lifetimes and the history behind this prayer is unique. I have to cover this quickly, but Solomon, like all of us did not come to this moment in his life out of a vacuum. He had been prepared along the way. Unknown to him by Almighty God.

God in his own wisdom and sovereignty had been preparing Solomon for such a moment long before Solomon was even born or conceived. The Bible says that God prophesied blessing upon him, behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest and I will give him rest from all of his enemies and his name shall be Solomon and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days, and he shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son and I will be his father and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.

Listen to me.

That blessing over Solomon took place before Solomon was ever born and then when Solomon was born there was another blessing we read that Bathsheba bore a son and called his name Solomon and the Lord love Solomon and he sent word by the hand of Nathan to the prophet they called his name Jedediah because of the Lord and then after Solomon was born God appointed him in the right direction when King David said to all the assembly, my son Solomon home alone. God has chosen is young and inexperienced and David prayed for God's blessing upon Solomon in first Chronicles 2919. He said give my son Solomon.

A loyal heart to keep your commandments and your testimonies and your statutes, and to do all these things and to build the temple for which I have made provision and then God poured out a blessing on this young man.

So the Lord exalted Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed on him such Royal Majesty is had not been on any king before him.

So you see, Solomon is a 20-year-old boy standing before Almighty God in Gibeon and God says to him. Solomon asked me anything asked me what you want what you need in your new role, and you don't see all of this other information which is shared with you how God was bringing him along in preparing if he was not just a precocious young boy who happened to say the right thing.

He was the young man God had prepared for this moment, and when his moment came, he prayed for wisdom and the Bible tells us that he got what he asked for the Scripture teaches us in more than one place that the provision of wisdom for Solomon was abundant in verse 10 through 13 in first Kings three we read that the speech please the Lord.

Solomon's prayer and the Lord said to him, because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself and not ask for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words and I have given you a wise and understanding heart so that there has not been anyone like you before you, and neither shall there be anyone like you.

After you Solomon became a one-of-a-kind, a man that God singularly blessed so that the Scripture says, up until his time there was no one like him, and after his time there was no one like him.

He prayed for wisdom and he got everything he asked for and as we shall see a whole lot more. Now the Bible tells us he became the wisest man on the earth, and his wisdom is tested in more ways than one. In fact, I have only time to share with you a few of the things that illustrate what happened in his life. What is it look like when a man becomes the wisest man who ever lived.

Will Solomon had prayed that prayer and it wasn't long after the prayer was prayed that a problem came before Solomon and he proved first of all, his ability to solve problems immediately following the record of his prayer. We have this record of his first major decision as a king. It's one of the great stories of the Bible, but let me review it for you in case you have forgotten some of the details a situation arise in which there were no witnesses.

Just two contestants to prostitutes lived together as roommates and they came to Solomon's court with a dispute over a baby with two women had given birth three days apart and one of them said to Solomon during the night.

This woman rolled over on her baby and smothered him and then she got up while I was sleeping and she came and stole my baby and the other woman told Solomon a contradictory story. The living baby was hers and the dead baby belonged to her roommate and nobody knew anything about the situation, but the two women and they came before the king under the law.

Everything is confirmed by two or three witnesses.

But there is no evidence except for the testimony of the two parties in contention and sense the science of DNA was 30 centuries in the future. Solomon had nothing to go by, and what is he going to do watch him in action returns to some of those are standing with many sins bring me a sword and the sword was brought and Solomon said cut the baby in half and give each woman one half of the baby and someone is said would Solomon really have done that, of course not. He was collecting evidence and as soon as he gave his orders. One woman said yes kill the baby.

Give each of us half of the child, but the other woman said no don't kill the baby let her have the child and pointed to her adversary, and Solomon had his evidence, he knew what to do. He gave the verdict give the baby to the woman who prefers to lose the child rather than to see it killed. She is without question the real mother and Solomon's decision on that day spread throughout the kingdom like wildfire.

Almost with the speed of the Internet before there was anything such as that ever conceived. In fact it says in first Kings 328 all of Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice. How many of you know when you see God at work in a person's life. It's an awesome thing to behold when you know and you watch when you see someone do something totally without precedent. Totally outside the box totally like you can believe this, whatever happened, and it is right and it's good and you see how it's honored by the result. You know God is in it is awesome.

It's awesome to see God at work ever seen that. Have you ever watch that ever felt it. Have you ever experienced. It on that day.

The wisdom of God that was given in response to Solomon's prayer took root in his spirit and he made this audacious decision, and it changed the whole kingdom because people heard of it and had never heard of anything like that before wasn't the only evidence of God's incredible giftedness of Solomon. He was one of the first naturalists in the world.

His apprehension of nature was another one of God's gifts to him. The Bible tells all about how he understood all of the birds. He was an ornithologist he knew all about the way God worked in his created universe and he was an architectural genius.

If you go to Israel today and you talk to the people of Israel for very long. They will talk to you with pride in their hearts about the temple of Solomon and their desire someday to see the Temple rebuilt on the Mount, the temple of Solomon was built in a seven-year period of time and it was at its time.

One of the seven wonders of the world.

Every time we pick up the Bible we have another evidence of Solomon's wisdom.

If you open the Bible to its center. You run into a book called Proverbs the Proverbs of Solomon. You look a little round that you find the song of Solomon his love story and there's the book of Ecclesiastes, which is Solomon's Journal and if you keep reading and you keep studying, you discover that Solomon was the author of the Proverbs of the song of Solomon of Ecclesiastes. He wrote Psalm 72 he wrote Psalm 127 and the Bible tells us that he was the author of 3000 Proverbs and we only have 915 of them were the other 2000 when I have no idea but he wrote them 915 were collected for us in the book of Proverbs, so he was an incredible man filled with wisdom in ways beyond anything we can imagine in the Bible says that because Solomon did not ask for riches and wealth.

God gave it to him anyway so that he became not only the most wise of all the kings of history, but the most wealthy as well. And God honored him in his life until the very end of his life when he decided to be wise in his own eyes, and when he took his eyes off of God.

He ended his human life on this earth, and disaster. But when he was walking with God.

Solomon had the wisdom of God operating in this life, so you may be wondering as you hear me speak today. If God is still in the habit of granting answers to prayers like that and I want to tell you that in the New Testament there is a wonderful verse that goes like this in the book of James. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Notice the first part of the verse.

If any of you lacks wisdom, once again before you can get God's wisdom. You have to understand that you need it. You have to have enough humility to know you're not as smart as you think you are, you have to be willing to say Lord God, I lack wisdom. If you don't have any problems in your life right now that are big enough for you to make that prayer just hang on one is coming because God delights to put us in situations where we can't look around. We can't look forward, we can't look back all we can do is look up and when we look up we see the God of the universe standing there as he did before Solomon and saying if any of you lack wisdom, and ask of God, there's a statement from our Lord that emphatically answers the question is God available to help us today when referring to the visit of the Queen of Sheba who came to visit Solomon to check out whether he was as wise as everybody said he was the Lord Jesus said this, the Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it now listen to this for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here and we know that. Is this the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, in the judgment, the Queen of Sheba is going to stand up and she's been a rail against Christians because while she came as far as she could from the end of the earth to find the wisdom of Solomon, we have someone greater than Solomon and he's right here. He's a prayer. Always a breath away while she came from such a distance, to search out the wisdom of Solomon. We don't even take the time to ask God for the wisdom we need and he's is available to us in every situation when were facing difficult issues. We don't know what to do.

Let us remember what we do know we know that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God in Jesus Christ lives within us if we've accepted him as our Savior and his promise that he will give to us his guidance through the Holy Spirit. I want to encourage you in these days of unprecedented living that the answer to your life and to mind the answer to our nation to our community to our schools to our church is not our best ideas answer is our humility and honesty before God.

How we need his wisdom and love what James and if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, and he will give to all, abundantly, and he once called us for coming over how we made that promise and how wonderful it is when we take advantage of it. When we finish the month of July.

Having studied the subject of heaven. So from all of us here at Turning Point. Let me just say thank you, thank you for standing with us as we have shared the word of God. During this pandemic. God bless you will see you next time right here on this good station. For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's message of prayer for wisdom. Visit our website really offered to freeways to help you stay connected their monthly magazine Turning Points and a guide to even out devotional sign up today@davidjeremiah.org/writing that Jeremiah got old/radio ask your copy of David's book revealing the mysteries of heaven delete better informed about your eternal truth for a gift of any amount you can also purchase the Jeremiah study Bible and the English standard and new international relations as well as in standard or lodgment in the new King James loaded with helpfulness and articles by Dr. Jeremiah visit David Jeremiah.org/radio report data on Gary. Hopefully join us Monday and sleeping in the series how to be happy. According to Jesus is here on 30. Thanks for taking time to listen to on tonight from these increased in size and he's an old