Lets open our Bibles up this morning to James 3 together. As youre turning there, I want to share a story with you. Its about a young preacher who was really climbing the ranks as far as popularity and notoriety went. He really wanted to make a name for himself. At first, his heart was in the right place. He wanted to please God; he wanted to build the Kingdom of God, but somewhere along the line, it got skewed, and it became about him. It became about building his name rather than Gods name. He started to get a little prideful and arrogant. It kind of reached a climax when he was invited to speak at a conference. At this conference, pastors and leaders would be there. Before he was introduced, he thought to himself, Look at how prominent Ive become. I am now the teacher of teachers. Im the leader of leaders. I really have accomplished a lot for my young age, he thought to himself. He knew he had a sermon that was just going to be incredible. He anticipated the standing ovation hed receive after he was done. He reflected on how hed have more accolades and more invitations to speak. His name would get even more well-known. Finally, they read his resume. They talked about all hed accomplished in his young life, and everybody applauded as he got up to speak. He was supposed to speak for an hour that day. About ten minutes into his sermon, he realized he was more than halfway through his notes. He started to lose a little bit of that air of confidence; he started to get a little shaky, a little nervous, but the crowd could not detect it at this point. He kept trying to stretch it out and elaborate, but still five minutes later he was almost done. He was supposed to fill an hours time. Now, he realizes he isnt going to be able to make this thing stretch to an hour, so he started to get a little tongue-tied; a little knee knocking was going on. He started to perspire, and now his confidence-or lack thereof-was clearly seen. He was embarrassed and ashamed when he had to say, Im sorry. Thats all I have. I know I was supposed to speak for an hour, but my material didnt last as long as I thought. Thanks for having me! He put his tail between his legs, humbly walked down the seats, and sat down. The MC got up and said, Well, we still have a lot of time to kill. The meal is not even close to being ready. Pastor so-and-so, would you come up and just greet us? Its so good to see you. And the guy was like, Oh, I cant. I cant. I havent prepared anything. He said, No, just come up and bring a greeting. Share what the Lord is doing in your life since you retired from ministry. He was like, No, really, I cant. I dont have anything prepared. He said, Well, just come on up. Just say hi to us. So he went up, he started to share, and the Lord started giving him words to say. The next thing you knew, he was preaching this spontaneous sermon; and it was moving people. In fact, when he was done, they rose to their feet giving glory to God for the inspirational words theyd just heard. They applauded as he returned to his seat, knowing that he had been used by God. He sat down next to the young man who was all embarrassed still from his ministry or lack thereof; and he said, That was amazing! I hope to be able to do that some day! He said, Can you just tell me what your secret is? Just give me a bit of advice to help me. He said, Well, young man, if you would have gone up like you came down, you could have came down like you went up. If you would have gone up humbly and meek, you could have come down knowing that youd honored God; but because you went up proud and arrogant, you came down humbled. God opposes proudness and gives grace to the humble. Jesus says, Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. James is going to talk about the importance of humility, and hes going to talk about the danger of being self-centered. That is our topic for today. Lets turn to James 3:13 (page 1198 of pew Bibles), Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. Just like faith would show itself in action, according to James, somebody who is wise, it shows by their life. Its demonstrated by their good works. James says, Wisdom too is something that we see. In Hollywood, you find wisdom, you find enlightenment. You climb a mountain and find a guru who is sitting in a lotus position somewhere. He doesnt really do anything, doesnt go anywhere. He just has all this head knowledge, and hes going to tell you the secret to life. Thats kind of how it works, right? James knows nothing of that. He said, That guys not wise. A wise person is out there living the life, doing wise things, and their wisdom is apparent. He says, Another thing thats apparent in a wise person is humility because humility comes from wisdom. Why? Because you cannot teach a proud person anything. You think you know all the answers, and you have it all. Youre proud, youre not going to learn, and youre not going to have wisdom. He said, A wise person is a humble person. A wise person realizes he or she has so much more to learn, so many more opportunities to grow, and so many people they can learn from. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. In other words, lets be honest here. To some of you who Im writing to today, youve become proud. Youre consumed with selfish ambition. Youre consumed with selfish ambition. He said, Lets tell the truth. Lets talk about where that lifestyle takes you. Such wisdom does not come down from Heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. What was Satans downfall? Isaiah writes and says, Satan said, I will be like God. I will ascend to Heaven. I will make my throne in the Heavens, and I will be like God. That was his downfall, pride. He says, When we act in a prideful way, that's exactly who were imitating. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. Where you find envy and selfish ambition, things break down. Things dont work; life doesnt function well. Have you ever been a part of a church? I think one of the reasons why our church works well is because we have a lot of humble people who are serving the Lord. I look at our staff and how theyve worked together, and I watch every week how they try to help each other out. What happens when churches get territorial? This is our budget, our room, our agenda! Have you been part of a church like that that gets divided and split because of these trivial matters, because people are being selfish? Instead of focusing on just their goal, building their agenda, what happens? Things break down. When were serving one another, were working together for a common good, theres unity, theres productivity, and good things happen. So he says, When theres selfish ambition and envy, [there you will find disorder and every evil practice]. Ive shared this before, as a friend of mine always said, the smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. When you become self-centered, you shrink. You lose that bigger picture that that song just sang about. What if theres a bigger picture? What if theres more than just me out there and population me? Now, Im going to talk a bit like I did last week. Last week, we talked about the tongue and the dangers of the tongue. We looked in James, and then we looked at David and saw when he really started to have a downward spiral to his life was when he began to speak-his deceit and lies, and he started doubting Gods promises and speaking out. With that discouragement and negativity, a downward spiral began to happen; and how did he turn it around? Through his words and his faith-confession, adoration, and thanksgiving-which changed his perspective; so were going to take a look at a person thats living both sides of this Passage. He started out wise, started out humble, started off giving glory to God, and then were going to see things go south. Were going to see them become self-centered. Were going to see them seek to glorify themselves instead of God, and were going to watch what happens to their Kingdom and their lives. Lets turn in our Bibles please to the Book of 1 Kings 3. Were going to take a panoramic look at the life of King Solomon. Were going to see him as a young man, as a middle-aged man, and as an old man. Were going to be spanning through many different chapters and kind of taking snapshots along the way and assessing where were at. David chooses Solomon to be his successor. We all know the story of Solomon and how he was conceived, how he was conceived out of wedlock through Davids relationship with Bathsheba. Yet David saw within Solomon these leadership qualities. He saw within Solomon a heart for God. He knew that though he was not his oldest, he was his wisest. He was most fit to be king, so he is the one whom David appoints. Some of you may be familiar with the story. In case you arent, Solomon is newly appointed king. Hes making sacrifices to God. He wants to try to get off on the right foot, and hes nervous. Hes nervous because hes king. The buck stops with him. Hes responsible for a nation, hes accountable to God, and hes scared by that fact. Thats on his mind when he goes to bed one night; and then while he is sleeping, God appears to him in a dream in Verse 5 (page 329 of pew Bibles). It says, At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, Ask for whatever you want me to give you. It was very unusual for God to say something like this. Some people think thats what Gods for, right? He is the divine dispenser. Were Christians, and that just means ask God for stuff. Hes the cuddly grandfather in the sky who just lives to give good things to you and spoil His kids; and thats a much distorted picture of whom God is. Actually, we are there to serve Him-not He [to serve] us; but in this particular case, God does say almost like an Aladdin kind of thing, What do you want? Ask Me anything. Ill give it to you. What would you say if God said that to you? Im not going to ask for answers because I know youre in church, and youd just give me churchy answers, I just want to love Jesus more. I just want world peace. There would be no talk of sport cars or bank accounts or anything like that. You would just give me all kinds of churchy answers, so Im not even going to bother asking you. In your heart of hearts, what would you say if God said, What do you want? What can I do for you? So here [we have] Solomons answer. Remember God can see if hes just pulling His leg here, if hes just giving lip service. God can tell that, so Solomons answer really is from his heart. Notice how many times he uses the word servant. He talks about his father, David. Then he begins to talk about himself in Verse 7 and says, Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give Your servant a discerning heart to govern Your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours? This is a game show. Its ding, ding, ding, Thats the correct answer. You just nailed it. Solomon knocked it out of the park. Thats exactly what the Lord wanted to hear. He just said, What do I want? I want to do this job, and I want to do it well. I want to be a king that youre proud of. I want to be a king that my dad would be proud of. I want to serve Your people. In fact, Im Your servant. How many times have some of us just come out of the blocks really good? Maybe when we were young or just a new Christian, we were really living for God. Things were going well, and our life was counting for the Kingdom. Then somewhere along the line, we messed up. Somewhere along the line we got off track. Thats whats going to happen to Solomon, but at this point in time, his heart is right where it needs to be. Its tender. Its humble. It says, God, I dont know what Im doing, quite honestly, and I ask You to lead me and guide me because if You dont, I dont know whats going to happen. God says, Because youve asked not for long life or wealth for yourself or the death of your enemies-because youve asked for discernment in administering justice, I will give you what youve asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never be anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what youve not asked for-both riches and honor-so that in your lifetime, you will have no equal among kings. If you walk in My ways and obey My statues and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life. So riches and honor are going to come. The third promise of a long life is conditional on how you live your life. When Solomon awakens from that dream, hes a new man. God often would speak in dreams, so even though they were dreams, the experience somehow was real. Unless youve experienced this [you wouldnt understand it]; sometimes God still does speak to believers today through dreams. In the last days, Hell speak through dreams. He spoke many times through dreams, so this is a real experience for Solomon; and he has wisdom. He doesnt just have wisdom about theological things. He doesnt just have wisdom about the Bible. He has wisdom about everything. In fact, in Chapter 4, if you look at Verse 29, it says, God gave Solomon wisdom about everything. Hes smarter than any of these men, and he names prominent men, and it tells you how he writes Psalms and Proverbs. He knows about plants, animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. He talks about how all the nations would send their people-the kings would send their people-to Solomon and listen to his wisdom. Solomon was a master of all. You name the subject, and Solomon could talk about it. People would come from all over the world and were astonished at his wisdom. Thats because it was a gift. It was the divine gift. God had enabled him to just absorb all of this knowledge and wisdom. Then in the next chapter, Solomon gets about the business of building his palace and building his temple, Gods Temple. Building Gods Temple was not going to be something easy. This was going to cost millions and millions of dollars, and it was going to take craftsmen many years to build. It was going to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It just consumed his time. He spent his time building buildings and gardens, and you can read about it in the Book of Ecclesiastes; but the next 20 years are years of construction. Theyre years of hard work, and Solomon is very busy; and hes accomplishing a lot. Finally, the great day comes. Its the time of dedication. The dedication of the Temple takes days. You can read about it in Chapter 8. Solomon prays to God, and its a wonderful prayer. Its a beautiful prayer. Hes about 40 years old now. Hes middle-aged, the middle of his life. He is doing pretty well, and hes still on track. Listen to his words in Verse 55 of Chapter 8 (page 337 of pew Bibles), He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel… Imagine the whole nation there to celebrate the dedication of the Temple. He said, Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel just as He promised… That was a reference back to their 40 years of wandering in the Desert. Think about that. Their nation was once just a dream or a seed planted in Abrahams mind. Then they became a nation, and they lived in slavery for many years. Then God delivered them out of slavery, and then they finally established a kingdom and a capital, but still there was war and turmoil. There were nations that would rise against them. [There was] never really a time of total peace. Now in Solomons reign, there is peace and prosperity as never before. There was nobody gunning for them. Theyre the top of the food chain. Solomon was the most famous man in the world, the richest man in the world, and he had 100 percent approval rate in the polls. Can you imagine that? Everybody loves this guy. Everybodys working. Everybody has a home; everybody has food to eat. Life is just good in Israel right now. This was the peak of the monarchy in the history of Israel, right here, and then they had this grand opening for the Temple. The Arc of the Covenant is no longer in a tent somewhere. The Arc of the Covenant is in a palatial Temple. Truly the prophesy has been fulfilled to Abraham. God has made a great nation, and theyre there. Solomons the head of it. At this point, it would almost seem that you could just put on the autopilot. What is there left to do? What is there left to accomplish? Thats going to be the problem. He encourages the people, and he says in Verse 56, …Not one word has failed of all the good promises He gave through His servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers; may He never leave us nor forsake us. May He turn our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways and to keep the commands, decrees and regulations He gave our fathers. And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that He may uphold the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel according to each days need… And what does that cause? …so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. Solomon says, Thats what I live for. Thats what our nation lives for, that we might know God. Is he on track? Hes on track. But your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by His decrees and obey His commands, as at this time. Excellent speech. Its wonderful! But God sees something in Solomon. God sees something coming down the road that nobody else sees-not even Solomon sees it. God is going to appear to him for a second time. Whats interesting is the prayer that Solomon has just prayed for his people and the admonition hes going to give to his people, God is going to take that same admonition, turn it around, and give it right back to Solomon in his second appearance. Look at Verse 1 of Chapter 9 (page 338 of pew Bibles), When Solomon had finished building the Temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do… Stop right there. Do you see the red flag there? What had Solomon done? Achieved all he desired to do… Friends, thats a scary place to be. Theres a time when you roll up your sleeves, and youre getting to work for the Kingdom of God. Youre building the Kingdom of God; youre busy in ministry; and youre serving the Lord. Then theres that time when you put the sleeves down, button them up, wipe your hands, and say, Done. Im done. Ive done everything I wanted to do. Ive done everything Ive intended to do for the Kingdom. Thats a bad place to be. When you stop living for the Lord and building the Kingdom, who do you live for? Yourself. Whose kingdom do you build? Your own. How small does that become-when you lose sight of the greater picture? Apathy begins to set in; self-centeredness begins to set in. James says when that happens, bad things come. So heres Solomon. Solomon is like hey, Ive done everything I planned to accomplish. I think Im pretty much done. Ive accomplished everything I wanted to do. God comes on the scene in tenderness and kindness. Hes not rebuking Solomon, but its a wake-up call. Solomon has to think, Why did God tell me this? How could He not be happy with my leadership? How could He not be happy with the state of affairs in Israel and with the beautiful Temple that weve built? God says in Verse 3, I have heard the prayer and plea that youve made before Me; I have consecrated this Temple, which you have built, by putting My Name there forever. My eyes and My heart will always be there. Nothing will change that. As for you, if you walk before Me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe My decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. But if you or your sons turn away from Me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this Temple I have consecrated for My Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. And though this Temple is now imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this Temple? People will answer, Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them-that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them. Solomon does not respond. Solomon has to be thinking, Why did this happen? Now Solomon is getting a lot of accolades. Nothing but praises, What a wonderful leader! What a wonderful king he is! What a great man of God he is, and Solomon starts to believe his own clippings. He starts to believe his press. He starts to think, Yeah, look what Ive done. I am a great king! Look at what Ive accomplished! Look how people love me, how magnificent I am! His ego is stroked even more when the queen of Sheba comes to visit. Now, her name is not Sheba. Sometimes people say, Queen Sheba. No, shes the queen of Sheba, this country near Ethiopia. She comes and bears gifts of gold, spices, and all kinds of good things. She comes in Chapter 10, and shes curious; so she begins to ask Solomon all kinds of questions. The Bible says in Verse 3, …nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. Then she sees all of his wisdom. She sees the palace, all the food, how well everything functions, and she sees the Temple. It says in Verse 5 at the end, …she was overwhelmed. She said to the king, The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth, you have far exceeded the report I heard. She continues to fawn all over him, How happy your kingdom must be! They must just wake up every morning, pinch themselves and say, We cant believe Solomons our king! She is just like, Oh, Solomon, youre so wonderful! Oh, youre so handsome! Can I feel your muscles, and oh, youre great! She is just fawning all over this guy to the point where it crosses the line from being diplomacy to almost like flirtatious or whats your motivation here? She is just laying it on thick. Solomon is like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hes taking it all in, and then she gives him gold. She gives him all these things. Its interesting in Psalm 72. Read that when you have some time. Its a Psalm in which David was writing about his son Solomon and his future reign as king. Its interesting. Its a prayer, but its also a prophesy. In one of the lines from David, he talks about may his kingdom be great, and may Israel be prosperous. One of the lines he says is may gold be given him from Sheba, and thats exactly what happens. Then Solomon becomes even richer, but then things change. Remember hes done all that hes wanted to do. Everybody thinks hes great and wonderful. The queen of Sheba comes in and is just worshipping the guy. Things turn for Solomon. Turn to Chapter 11:1 (page 340), King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaohs daughter… Up to this point, the only wife we encounter is Pharaohs wife, who was from Africa. She was from Egypt. There was nothing wrong with that. God had not forbidden them to marry Egyptian women. As far as we know, they were living happily ever after; but in the winding down decades of Solomons life, things change drastically. It says that he begins to fall in love with these other women from other nations. In Verse 2, it says, They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, You must not intermarry with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods. Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. In other words, Solomon is doing the exact opposite of what he said he wanted to do, the exact opposite of what God had commanded him to do, exact opposite of what he told the people. Solomon has taken his eyes off God and put them on himself in his own pleasures. He was building his own kingdom. Everything Solomon does is big. Like Trump has to do everything big, Solomon does everything big. It says he goes on to have 700 wives and 300 concubines. If you do the math, that adds up to 1,000-1,000 women. His honey-do list was a mile long (congregation laughing), but he could hire out anybody he wanted to do what was on that list. Im thinking of mine right now. Lets move on. Some of those items have been on there so long, the paper is yellow. Verse 4, As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. It says he even goes on to follow the Ashtoreth, fertility goddess. He follows Molech, a god so awful that child sacrifice was part of the worship of this god, the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. Solomon had an Achilles, didnt he? Was what Solomons Achilles? Women. That was his downfall. Its said everybody has a weakness. Everybody has a vice. You know the story of Achilles, right? Achilles in Greek mythology-his mom wanted him to live forever, so she took baby Achilles to the river, dumped him in the River Styx. By doing that, he became immortal except the river did not touch his ankle because she had a hand on his ankle as she dipped him in the water; so in that area, hes vulnerable. If you used a sword, spear, or a knife anyplace else, he would be immortal; but if something were to get him in that heal, hed be dead. Thats how Achilles died-an arrow went right to his heal, and he was vulnerable there. So the argument goes everybody had an area where were vulnerable, and that becomes an excuse. How many times have we heard people say, Well, you know, thats my vice. Thats how I was raised. You know my dad! He liked women too, you know, and Bathsheba-thats kinda how I ended up here. Im just a chip off the old block, so the Lord goes, Yeah, yeah, I forgot. That's the way I made you. I made you with that vice. Yeah, youre right. Yeah, thats okay. No, God doesnt buy it. Thats not an excuse for God. God holds him accountable. Somebody has to! Do you realize Saul was held accountable by Samuel? David was held accountable by Nathan. Solomon is held accountable by nobody-nobody. So God has to become his accountability buddy. When God comes on the scene, he says, Solomon, you are no longer living for Me. You are living for yourself. You are building your own kingdom. The Bible goes on to tell us that he began to build temples to these foreign gods. He just totally lost his mission and purpose. Dont use your vice as an excuse. God doesnt count as an excuse. Everybody has a weakness. Im not going to argue with that. There will be areas that youre weak in that Im not weak in, and areas that Im weak in that youre not weak in. Whats a temptation for you may not be a temptation for this person. I understand that. All of us have weaknesses, but those weaknesses are not an excuse. If we get to the point where we become self-centered, then those weaknesses are going to be exploited by the enemy; and he is going to attack like any good soldier would-attack where the enemy is most vulnerable. He becomes apathetic, and he is vulnerable. Satan knows his Achilles heel, and he attacks for these beautiful women. Solomon, in the end of his days, accomplishes absolutely nothing. When God confronts him, there is no repentance. There is no sorrow. From after the temple on, Solomon accomplishes not one thing for the Kingdom of God. Friends, if the wisest man who ever lived-aside from the Lord-could fall like that, anybody could. What does that do? It keeps us humble. It keeps us teachable. It keeps us aware. We know our Achilles heel. We know where hes going to attack, so I need to stay dependent. I need to stay focused on Kingdom matters and not become self-centered. Read that Passage one more time from James in light of what we just studied. He who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. That characterized Solomon during the first 40 years of his life. He was the epitome of that verse. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts and do not boast about it or deny the truth, such wisdom does not come down from Heaven but is earthly, unspiritual and of the devil. That describes his decline. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder in every evil practice. He went from worshiping God to worshiping the Pagan gods of all of his many hundreds of wives. The Bible then tells us what happened was the Kingdom broke down. Adversaries began to be raised up and began to come against Israel. The prosperity began to leave when people started to rebel. The Kingdom was taken away from him. One sad story: remember how Saul tried to kill David because David was everything Saul wanted to be? David was everything Saul used to be, so he got mad, he took his spear, and threw it at him, chucked it at him, and tried to kill him just because he was jealous. Remember that? Then he pursued him all over the countryside and all that? Now generations later, Davids grandson is a shadow of what he used to be. Theres a young man by the name of Jeroboam who is living for God and who is a servant. The last recorded act we have of Solomon is him trying to take that young mans life because he was jealous because Jeroboam was everything he used to be. Jeroboam would go on to become king. Lets pray together: Father, when we hear this message, it humbles us. It makes us realize that if the wisest among us could fall, so could we. If we take our eyes off the Kingdom, if we get to the point where we say, I have accomplished everything I needed to do for the Lord, apathy and self-centeredness will set in. Sometimes we begin to believe our clippings. We begin to think that were the reason were successful instead of You. We think were the founder of the feast. We become prideful. Its then that we fall. Lord, when we are living according to Your Word, when we are seeking first Your Kingdom and Your righteousness, life goes well. Unity takes place. Theres prosperity, but when we take matters into our own hands, we become envious and selfish. Great is the collapse. We pray for those who have fallen-people that we know who once loved You and served You who are heading down the wrong road right now. Lord, we call them back into the Kingdom. We call them back to repentance, to that place where their hearts were tender and soft to the things of God. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.