Key’s to a King’s Success

Introduction

But I just sort of text him and said, What about something on Old Testament Kings and some of the shadow ideas that we can see? And I think his response was they probably haven’t done anything like that in a long time or before. And that’s when I instantly knew that’s what we want to do. We want to try to do some things that maybe are a little bit unique for meetings that you’ve done in the past and get you thinking about things perhaps in a little bit of a different way. So we’ll be together for six lessons, and five of those lessons will be headed back to the Old Testament, rereading those valuable narratives on the historical happenings of the kings of Israel. And we’ll get to look at those.

And you know, any time you go back to the Old Testament to read these stories, whether it’s any character, any story, or maybe in particular the kings, you know, you’re going back there for one of two reasons. There’s two reasons you’re back there. In addition to the basic one, which is read the story and enjoy the story because it’s historically true, there are two things you’re going back there for. One of the reasons why you’re in the Old Testament is you are looking for yourself. We would call that practical application. You read this Old Testament story, you try to put yourself in the place of the person and try to see their decisions through their eyes. Then, once you think you’ve got that figured out, you hop in your time machine, you come right back up to 2016, and you say, okay, I think I’m going to do more of this and less of that.

That’s the way practical application studies work. A great example may be David. David didn’t make the short list. He’s not one of the five guys we’ll be looking at this week. I feel really sacrilegious about that. But we’ll use them to get this thing started. You study the life of David. We all know about his huge mistake, right? He looked too long. And all of a sudden he’s looking at life through a straw, and all he can see is her, and he sees nothing else, and he makes a series of really poor decisions. So I go back and I look at that story. I come back to now and I start self-evaluating. Alright, here’s how I don’t want to be in that case, so I’m going to take these precautions.

On the positive side, before David became king, he did a lot of time running and hiding in caves as he was fearing for his life. And he’s hiding there, and he’s writing these psalms about how to trust in God when people are trying to kill you. So I try to go back and get a sense of what it felt like to be David, hop in my time machine, come back to 2016 and say, I think I’m going to pray. And I think I’m going to pray like this. So that’s sort of one of the reasons why we go to Old Testament stories. And I think tonight and tomorrow night and I think Tuesday night, that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Go back and read the story, come away with practical applications.

But there’s a second reason why we go back to Old Testament stories. Not that we’re looking for ourselves, but we’re looking for Jesus. We go back to these stories to find the magnitude of the glory of Jesus, these shadows of greatness. Let me just tell you.

All they are is a two-dimensional shadow on the ground in their best moments, their most shining accomplishments. They are two dimensional shadows that come out from Christ and lead us to the substance that is Christ. And when we study them, we learn about the glory of Jesus. Does that make sense? We’re going to get to do that some this week. We’re going to do it this morning in the worship hour, and Lord willing, Wednesday night we’ll finish with it. I couldn’t be more excited about Wednesday night. My prayers this week are, Lord, just get us to Wednesday night. But if we can see how these things bring us to Christ, that can benefit us tremendously. So if it’s okay with you, that’s what the next six lessons are about.

We’re headed back there for two reasons. We can use a lot of it, and we can see Jesus in the rest of it. I’ll give you an example of that. Let’s stick with David a moment with Jesus. Remember when David walked into the camp and Goliath had threatened the people and they were terrified, and he said, Who would stand against the living God? And he went out and he slings the stone and Goliath falls, and the people are delivered. How many of you think that you’re David? You’re not David. If we’d have been there, I’d have been hiding four rows deep behind the biggest rock I can find, just praying that somebody would show up and kill this guy for us. David is a shadow of Jesus.

Who came and he didn’t look like a king, and he wasn’t dressed like a king, and he wasn’t respected like a king, but he knew that the living God is victorious. And he defeated the foe that threatened us all, and freedom is ours because of him. That’s the kind of stuff we’re going to get to do this week. And so I hope that you’re interested in that. We’re going to start in an odd place, however. We’re not going to be in the New Testament looking at Jesus. We’ll get there eventually. And we’re not even going to be in the period of the kings. We’re headed all the way back to Deuteronomy chapter 17 for our Bible class. Please open your Bibles, your electronic devices, your photographic memories to Deuteronomy chapter 17 for our read today.

And hopefully, if you follow me along so far, you might wonder what we’re doing back there. You’re not going to read about any of the kings, but it’s interesting that all the way back when Moses gave that second law to the people, the second time he gave the law, he told them that a time would come when God’s people would want to be ruled by kings. Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 14, please. When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations who are around me. You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your countrymen, you shall set as king over yourselves.

You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countrymen. Now you know the story, it was not God’s will that they appoint a king because God is their king. But he knew that time would come, and when it came, God’s effectively regulating that, saying, All right, I’ll set you up with a king. But in the next series of verses, here’s what he talks about. When this happens, there are six critical keys to a king’s success. I just saw my cousin is here. I’m Michelle. If your king will stay away from three mistakes, and if your king will devote himself to three godly activities, you can be successful. Now, if you know anything about Israel’s history or all history, as goes the king, goes the nation.

They follow them everywhere. Tuesday night we’re going to talk about Jeroboam. Jeroboam came up with the most bone-headed idea in the history of mankind, and the people said, Well, sure. And they just followed him. As goes the king, goes the people. So, we’re going to talk about the keys. And I think what might be interesting if we can get through this morning is every one of the kings we study this week, I hope, maybe you’re taking notes today. Measure it up against this. How’d they do when it came to the big six? The three things to avoid for sure, and the three things to embrace. Now let me just go ahead and tell you what we’re doing. This is you looking for you today. There is personal application from these six things, and I would go ahead and tell you that it’s a little bit of a partisan decision to sit today.

1. Three Things He Must Not Do for Himself

I’m talking to our gentleman. I want to talk to the shepherds of the Decker Prairie Church. I want to talk about dads. All the dads or potential dads in the room. I want to talk to husbands, to business leaders, to social leaders, to the men who lead. As goes you, goes the people you love and the people you care about. And the same six keys that led to a king’s success or failure, I guarantee, in some derivative, if not in a very direct way, will lead to the success or the failure of the people you care about. So let me begin, because this is the way the text begins, with three things that he starts with. You must not do these things. Key word for himself.

Let’s read verses 16 and 17. Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. Since the Lord has said to you shall never again return that way. He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away. Nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. Now the thing I need you to see, we’ve already noted, this is about for himself. It didn’t mean that a king would not be financially successful. It wasn’t about a pauper’s life. He could be very rich and that would be okay, but he couldn’t do it for himself. He could have strong defenses and win great wars and defend his people, but it couldn’t be him doing it on his own for himself.

So here are our three things. Number one, you must not multiply horses. Anybody here have more than one horse at your house? This is going to get awkward early. Okay, we’ll talk later. It wasn’t about how many horses that you had. It was about God providing you the defense. I think horses here is put for the cavalry, the soldiers, the warriors that you would have. I, God, will surround you with all the horses that you need, all the horsepower that you need, all of the defense to stand against the adversary, but do not go around my idea, go beyond me, go back and make deals with Egypt and say, I think we need a few more horses. So, Egypt, can I make a little deal with you?

Can I give you a little money out of our treasury? You send us about a thousand more horses. He must trust that God can defend his people. And if God gives you ten horses, that’s all the horses that you need. And to go around that or distrust that would be a violation of God’s will. God delivers his people. And how many stories with the judges and with the kings did God whittle down the number just to show that if you have me, it doesn’t matter how many horses that you have. But if you feel a lack of trust in what I can do, and you feel like you need to go around and do some of your own gathering, you’ll fail, regardless, in fact, of the numbers.

So number one, do not multiply defenses outside of me. And you’re gonna see that in two stories this week, two guys who made that mistake. Secondly, and one of the most obvious things that Scripture has ever said, do not multiply wives. Now we know that there was some allowance for that in Scripture. You’re familiar with that, but can I just ask you, how many times did that go well? Are there any success stories? Rachel and Leah, how’d that go? Jealousy. And a lot of hurt feelings. Hannah and Penina, how’d that go? Jealousy all over the place. Sometimes it came down to the maze, like Hagar and others and all the problems, and we’re going to see a story in a minute where it really got poor.

In Genesis and the very beginning, God said, I know how to build things. I’m a master builder, God said. I know how to build your defenses so that you’ll never fail. You’ve got to believe in me, and I know how to build the family. I know how to put one man and one woman together and have them share everything with one another and serve me, and I know how to make that fruitful, and I know how to multiply, not the marriages, I know how to multiply the family and make it strong and wide and impactful. Do not go outside of God’s will for marriage in pursuit of anything, because you’ll lose the provisions of God, and when you lose that, you’ve lost all there is. The kings must not multiply their own defenses, they must not multiply the family in a way that they choose through multiple wives, and you saw the third thing, they must not multiply riches.

Verse 17. Now again, were some of the kings wealthy? They were incredibly wealthy. But what’s the difference between good wealth and bad wealth? If God gives it to you. Or if you ascertain it through prioritizing the will of God, that’s good wealth. Bad wealth looks the same. It’s green for us, it was gold for them or silver or some other form. But if I have to put God aside, and I have to prioritize myself, and it’s about me. If the motive is me, I don’t care how much money you have, it’s not good money. Multiplying riches at the expense of receiving the natural, spiritually prioritized provisions of God is a huge mistake. Gentlemen, are you focusing in on what I’m saying? The application for the men in this room and even the women as well, of course, is very important.

2. Solomon Did All Three of These Things

Now let me just ask you something. Is this ringing any bells for you? Is there any king you’re thinking that guy? That guy had it all. That guy was amazing until that guy actually literally did all three of these things. Now, I don’t want to jump on this guy too much because he’s in one of the sermons this week. In fact, here in just a little bit, and I think there’s a bunch of really neat things to say about him. But you know who we’re talking about. Open your Bibles with me to 1 Kings chapter 10. 1 Kings chapter 10. We’re talking about Solomon. And in verse 24, it’s looking pretty good. In 1 Kings chapter 10 and verse 24, you ought to note that we’re getting near the end of his 40 years of reign.

And I think that guy had about 38 really great years. We’re going to talk a lot about that in a minute. But in verse 24, all the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. Now keep reading. They brought every man his gift, the articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, mules, so much year after year. Now Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen, and he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities. Verse 28. Are you kidding me, verse 28? Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt. Got to be kidding me. He literally violated in the most explicit and direct terms precisely what he was warned not to do when he gathered from these other nations.

Verse 29, these chariots. So he’s receiving riches from the world. He’s reaching out and making deals with ungodly nations to garner more chariots and more defense. And what did he do in chapter 11, verses 1 through 8? Strike 1. Ooh, there’s no red light on a monitor. Look at that. Strike two, and what’s the one in the middle? That’s strike three, isn’t it? Did he multiply wives? He multiplied wives. A thousand total, if you count the wives and the concubines. And I think I remember, I’ve got my place marked back in Deuteronomy 17. I’m pretty sure that it said that if you multiply wives, verse 17, your heart will turn away. And I think that’s exactly what you see if we had the time to read in 1 Kings chapter 11, verses 1 through 8.

3. Let God Defend, Shape Your Home, Fill Your Cup

He went outside of what God had originally designed for his benefit, and his heart was pulled away. Alright. What do we need to learn from this? Let me share with you a couple of things. Number one, for you.

And all I care about, can I just tell you this, outside of God and his people, is I have four kids. And I love those kids. I don’t know. I’m not going to say I love my kids more than you love yours, but I do. I’m not going to say I do. I want them to be protected. I want them to be okay, and I would do anything to take care of those kiddos. But I have to remember something. I must let God defend my family. I must let his will, his way, his design. I think it’s really tempting to sort of say, Well, I know what you’re about to say, preacher. You’re about to say, well, we need to be reading our Bibles every day, you know, armor of God, right?

Ephesians 6, and that’s the passage I actually have listed here. We need to go to Ephesians 6 and say, All right, here’s what we need to do. We need to read our Bibles every day and make sure we’re girding up our loins and we’re getting a nice, good protection, and I want to start armorizing, that’s not even really a word, my kiddos with the Bible, get my five-year-old quoting some psalms and stuff, and just protect us. And Ephesians 6, 17 and 18, we’re gonna pray in the spirit too. We’re going to be the most studious, Bible devoted people that you’ve ever met, and we’re going to be the most prayerful people. And I don’t just mean pray, I mean praying in the spirit. If the Lord ever lets me come back and preach in this place, we’re going to study what it means to pray in the spirit.

It’s fantastic. We’re going to study, and we’re going to pray, and you know what else we’ll do? We’ll get with God’s people. We’ll spend a tremendous amount of time talking with God’s people, fueling our fellowship, deepening our relationships, and confiding in one another. And look, if I spent the next 15 minutes preaching that sermon, you’d say, that’s all right. I’ve heard that 99 times. Read my Bible. Pray every day and go to church. Let me tell you what you’re going to be tempted to do as things get increasingly unstable. You’re going to be tempted to relegate those staples to the sarcastic language that I just presented to you. And feel a need to add more horses. Try more things. Go other routes. Build other relationships. Focus on other things that make your family safe.

And some of that may hinge with the money idea and how much of that we need to save and you know the panic rooms we’re all going to build. Let me just tell you, gentlemen, it will always start Ephesians 6 with your Bible study and teaching the Word of God to your children. It will always grow through a daily communication with God in connection with the Holy Spirit. And God’s people will always be the only people you can trust who watch this, have been given to you by the will of God. You don’t know if his government’s been given to you by the will of God or not. I got a pretty good guess. But you don’t know. You don’t know if your friends and neighbors or your family members have been provided to you for the will of God, but you know the people in this room have.

They’re yours by the will of God. Number one, let’s be a people who do not overlook the simple maybe, but God’s always used the simple, has He not? The simple defenses that can make us whole and strong. Romans 8, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Here’s the second thing. Let God shape your home. As goes the families goes the church. Pretty hard to have a strong church if I don’t have a strong family. It’s pretty hard to lead people if I can’t lead in love and encourage the woman whom I’ve given my life to. Let God build your marriage. Psalm 127, unless God build the house, they labor in vain who build it. We need to be the kind of people who are continually, open your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 3, continually seeking the will of God.

We live in a culture where the people in the world go outside of marriage. I’m missing something. Something is not being provided to me. I feel an emptiness within. And so I will go outside of my marriage and I will bring another person into it. We call this fornication or adultery in some cases, and I’ll try to find that answer. Not at all considering what it means to God or the people you’ve entrusted yourself to. Or I’ll get out of this marriage and I’ll go find me another one. That’s sort of our modern day multiply wives and husbands, isn’t it? It’s not polygamy in most of the states. It’s not polygamy. But for us, it’s it’s trading. It’s saying, well, that one didn’t work. I think I’ll get me something else.

If you marry someone, and when you marry them, you do so of right heart and mind, and according to the law of God, that is the spouse God gave you, and you chose it. And our spirit has to continually be repair of what God has provided for us, not, oh boy, repeal and replace. 1 Peter chapter 3. I like verses 8 and 9. And I would encourage the people here, if you find that your relationship at home is a shortcoming to your growth in the faith, and I know that is not always your fault. In fact, on a Sunday morning Bible class, if one spouse is here and one spouse chose not to be here, probably means it’s more their fault. Can I just say that because you’re here?

If I was talking to them, I’d be blaming it on you. But I would tell you that there’s no place in Scripture where God says, I will provide you a marriage, and if the other person is not behaving properly, then I will provide you a multiple of marriages. I will give you something else, someone else. Instead, the Bible says in 1 Peter 3, which by the way, I think are the two most powerful and important verses on strengthening your marriage in the entirety of Scripture. And it’s not even exactly about marriage. It comes at the heels of it. In verse 8, to sum up, all of you be six things, be harmonious, seek common ground. Be sympathetic, see it from their point of view. Be brotherly, treat them the way you treat an older person at church.

Be kind hearted, be humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. Those are six phenomenal ideas that say, I don’t need to replace or multiply or go find what I need. I can build it right here if we’ll come together and do that. God is so good at building things at last. But we have to give him the opportunity to do so. And then thirdly, let God fill your cup. I know that security in our country and for our families, actually, is largely tied in our culture to monetary things. When we have good security and we have a good savings account and we have good insurance. Anybody have good insurance? No? Didn’t think so. when we have all these things going on around us, then everything’s going to be great and fine.

Let me just tell you something. God will give you the physical, monetary blessings that He wants you to have and not a dollar more. God will give you and provide for you and open up doors for you. So here’s the big question. How do I know if what I’m pursuing in 2016 to get more? How do I know if I’m multiplying money for myself? That’s the deal here. Or is God doing it for me? Anybody figured that out yet? How do I know? If I’m doing it for me, open your Bibles to 1 Timothy, you know this passage. Open your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 6. It’s in here somewhere, is it not? Taking my time. Just bought me a Bible on the way here. Alright.

First Timothy chapter 6. How do I know if it’s me doing it for me, which was the huge king mistake, or is it God doing it for me? Well, I think the key is found in some really familiar verses. Look in verse 9. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare in many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. And some by longing for it, verse 10, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Now there are several things going on. Contentment should be added in verse 6. The child of God is content with what God has provided if I’m still serving God faithfully.

If I am faithfully prioritizing, giving my life to God, every dollar that I have is where God wants me to be. And a sense of contentment with that, verse six is the key. But when we want it, verse nine, and we long for it, verse 10, so strongly that I have to, watch this carefully. I actually have to take a step away from God in order to get closer to my goal. That’s your indicator. Do you see that happen? That’s actually tangible. You could actually draw that out on a piece of paper and say, for me to get closer to more security, I have to step away from my Bible. I won’t have time for that. I have to step away from prayer. My brain is tortured.

I can’t sit down and focus on prayer. And I have to take a step away from God’s people. Those are the three things we talked about. God’s defenses that he built for you. I have to walk away from the defenses, at least in some one step, one step away from the defenses that God gave me in order to get closer to my goal. You are multiplying riches for yourself. And God can’t bless that. So there are three things that all must not do. Accept the fact that God defends you, God built the family, and God will put something in your pocket. But make sure it’s God doing it for you, and not you doing it for yourself. Verse 17 is really interesting in 1 Timothy 6 about a willingness to share.

There’s a litmus test on whether what God has given you. Here we go. About to get to meddling here for a second, if that’s all right. I’m gonna come over here to metal territory. How do I know if I’m taking what God has given me as from God or if I’m doing it for myself? The first chance you get to give some of it away. You’ll know the answer to your question. If it’s for me, I ain’t giving it to you. I did this for me. Stop. Three things that we must not do. Now that leads us to the second half of this. Let’s end with something quite positive. Go back with me to Deuteronomy 17. I don’t know how long I have. Don’t even tell me.

4. Do These Things for Yourself: Write, Read, Obey

Don’t even tell me. We’ll just do it. We’ll just keep going until kids come filing in. Deuteronomy 17. Okay, what are three things that we definitely do want to do? Well, go back with me and take a look. Do these things for yourself. You say, okay, I get that life’s about God, but do I get to do anything for me? I get that I don’t get to build my own defenses, and I don’t get to shape marriage however I want, and I don’t get to pad my pockets for security of self. What do I get to do for me? Oh, you do. You get to do three things all for you. You ready? Deuteronomy 17, please. Look at verses 18 and 19. Now it shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes. Now let’s stop there. Verse 20 is. I can’t use the word huge anymore. It’s been hijacked. It’s big. Okay, verse 20 is big. It’s an important conclusion. But we’re not ready for verse 20 until we’ve first seen these three things. Alright, here are three things we’re going to do. Number one. I told the kings this. I’ve seen people today try to. You ever tried to write a New Testament letter in your own handwriting? First of all, let me go back. Anybody remember what handwriting is? You hold a device in your hand and you put characters on a deal.

Benjamin Lee, my buddy over at Dallin Road, he decided to write out the book of Corbus one time. Because that’s what it looked like when I tried to read it. Okay. So I would say hang tight for application on this. You may not be somebody who writes your own your own Bible, but I tell you this, when you do write it, something really amazing happens. The material comes in, you process it, and you’re forced to slowly but with focus reproduce it. It’s actually quite amazing. But here’s what they were told to do. Number one, you want a king to be successful? He needs to sit down at a table with a fountain pen, a lot of ink, and a scroll with the Levites watching, so he doesn’t add the things he wants to take away the things.

And he needs to handwrite his own copy of the law and then read it, read it once a month at least. Wait. That’s Eugene’s Bible. No, it’s not the message. Here’s the truth. I want you to read it constantly. Read it all the days of his life. All’s an interesting word. Is today one of all the days of your life? Tomorrow one of all. I think all is all, isn’t it? I want him to sit down and write his own copy. You know, we’re talking about the law of Moses here. The most, the majority of those five chapters, those five letters that begin. And then I want him to read it every single day, and then naturally, as almost as natural as breathing in the oxygen that God provides and producing the carbon dioxide that benefits the things around you.

As obvious as that becomes, he needs to be somebody who obeys the law. But not some disassociated, is there some law over there I’m supposed to be obeying? Would you check on that for me? No, it’s I’m writing it, I’m reading it, I’m meditating upon it, and as naturally as living, I will obey God. I just have to say, if your relationship with the word is not this close, then you’re in a zone of danger. Because if the word is not this close to you, can I just tell you something else will be? There are always things we keep close to us. And it may be worldly defense and relationships. It may be people we have no right to be around, or it may be the pursuit of wealth and riches and notoriety, and who cares.

Here’s our application. Let me, God said, let me guide and protect you. I’m pretty good at this. I’ve been doing it since the very first person I created, God would say, and I can do it for you. And here’s what we’re going to do. Number one, you need your Bible. Build a relationship with your Bible. Find some text. I’ve been using this new inductive study Bible NASB, and this is a good time for me to tell you New American Standard Version. People don’t like it when you keep saying what version you have. If they don’t have it’s really interesting. If you have it, you’re like, keep saying it, preacher, NASB. But if you don’t have it, you’re going, why does he keep saying that? Like it matters or something.

Okay. New American Standard, updated. That’s what you’ll be hearing from the pulpit throughout this week. And maybe Tony uses that as well. No, he’s New King James. Oh, the old NSB. Alright. Anybody, can I stay with anybody this week? Because I’m not going back to Tony’s house. It almost doesn’t matter. Just pick a Bible and make it yours. You don’t have to write it, but everybody said, Hey, I don’t know what passage that is, but I know where it is on the page. If you don’t have a Bible in your hand right now or with you during the week where you don’t know where something is on the page, you need to build a new relationship with the Bible. We need to be associated with it and close to it and making, I’m a big note taker in the margins and kind of a color Bible marker too, although that’s a good way to get run out of here early.

But there are some really interesting ways we can approach this. Look at Psalm 1. I think about David a lot. Now I wanted to bring him up some in the class this morning since David won’t get a whole lot of attention going into the week. But in Psalm 1, put perhaps a letter, a psalm written by David. We’re not entirely sure, but when I read Psalm 1, I wonder if David wrote it. I wonder if it was the end of a long day. He’d been handwriting Deuteronomy. How’s that sound? Enjoyable? Let’s handwrite Leviticus together this week. You want you guys want to sit down and do that? He’s been handwriting the law, and he’s been rereading and reading over what he has done. And he comes in verse 2 and he says, verse 2, let me tell you about the godly man.

Let me tell you about the man who walks right and does the right thing. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night, and he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. Its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does, he prospers. Build a relationship with your Bible and converse with it every single day. Every single day. If anybody comes up to me this week and says, Chris, every single day is unreasonable. I would take you back to Deuteronomy 17 and tell you that these men were running entire countries, millions of people at their disposal, decisions to be made every day, and they were to read it all the days of their lives.

If there’s a Christian in the room and you’re not finding yourself at least in one inspirational passage once a day, every day in contact with the word of God, you’re leaving a buffer zone, a vacuum, and the devil is amazing at vacuum filling. And likely with some of the things we’re trying to avoid. And thirdly, of course, I’m not going to tell you obey the word. You know that. We want it to come natural. It wants to become, I want it to become a natural extension of who we are. We are a people of the book, and obeying it comes as naturally as anything that we do to serve our physical bodies, to protect our flesh, this even more so to protect our spirits. Read the book every single day and do what it says.

You know, it’s a two-for-one, right? Because you’re building defenses God’s way. That’s sort of the connection here. You’re letting him make you stronger. Now go back with me to Deuteronomy 17, and I’ll finish this in verse 20, please. Deuteronomy 17, let me get you to think about it. What’s this all about? Now it sounds like just sort of a sequence of bullets. You know, okay, there’s three things I’m not going to do this week, and I’m going to reevaluate my relationship with those three things. I hope you do that. And then there are three things I want to do better, and a gospel meeting week makes that really easy. But what’s this really all about? Well, let me show you something. Look with me in verse 19 and 20.

5. Humility, Focus and Posterity

We’ll put the two together. It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes. Here’s the reason. That his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel. That verse gives you three, and we’ll finish with this. We have just a few minutes left. Three reasons why cutting out things and re envisioning what matters to us the most and putting the word in its place are valuable.

Number one, humility. I think you’re going to see a theme developed this week. Humility and kingship, hand in hand. When a king was humble, when he understood his place, when he let God do the building, they won wars, they had no business winning. They just won them. Easy. When kings abandoned their humility and began to take credit for who they were and what they built and the work they do and the wealth they have and the respect others have for them. It didn’t matter how many people thought they were great, they failed over and over again. Number one, he may learn this, verse 20, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen. Folks, it’s you and it’s God. It’s always you and God.

And when you go up, it’s because he pulls you up. And when we try to climb to the top of the Tower of Babel without his wishes, he can tear it down in an instant, and we made that happen. Humility is a reason why I can’t take credit for what I have, and I have to continually confide in him. Here’s the second thing. Focus. There’s a sense in which we need to continue to focus on how important it is to do the will of God. He said that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left. You’ve got to have focus on the goal. Everything I have that is good is from God, and when I study and obey and read and write, I stay on that path, and I don’t let anything pull me to the right or to the left.

And let me tell you, there are a lot of things tugging. You’ve got things tugging to your right, left, and behind in every different direction except for ahead, and I will stay focused. And then thirdly and finally, read that carefully. It does not say prosperity. The outcome of this isn’t prosperity. I think in our materialistic time, and I’ll just sort of self-criticize here, I might go through here and say, you know, I think that these six things are really important. And I’m going to make sure that I’m not going around God’s will to get richer and get some new business going, even though I know it’s going to draw me away from God, and I know that I’m going to put all my priorities in the right place, and I’m going to read the Bible every single morning and every day, and then maybe at the end, I get silly rich anyway.

Except now I know it’s from God. Now I’ve got all that I want, and I feel more secure than ever. And now I know that it’s from God. Let me tell you, God is measuring the what and the why. The motives behind. How many of you know you can read the Bible for the wrong reasons? Max Dawson has a great sermon titled, Don’t Read Your Bible. It’s catchy. Don’t read your Bible if you’re reading it to check some boxes so God can open up his treasure chest for you. Don’t read about it. This is not about prosperity. This is about posterity. Let me show you what I mean at the end of verse 20. So that, remember I mentioned my four kiddos this week. You’re going to hear a lot about them.

I’m sorry about that. And so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel. I just want my kids to be okay. I love you guys. I’m glad to be here. But if I thought being here hurt my kids and their growth, somebody else will be standing here. My kids need to be okay. I believe that as goes the Father, in large part dictates the direction of the children. There’s a foundation built there with a man’s hands that’s hard for anybody else to build. And I believe that by avoiding three things and embracing three others, I give them the best chance possible to be servants of the king, and that’s all that matters. If you care about your posterity, don’t try to save them up a bunch of business or a bunch of money or a bunch of notoriety, because first of all, it can be taken away in an instant.

Conclusion

And second of all, even worse, they may keep it. And it lead them further away from God. Posterity is the key, is the focus. And so as we go through this week, and we’re looking at these guys, I want you to do a little bit of measuring. The ones who do well, they’re gonna do pretty good on the six things you see behind me. And the ones who lose their way, you can even note the flip, the change. You’re gonna see this two or three times this week. You see it starting to shift. And I think that’s critical because I know I’m not looking at a bunch of materialistic worldly people today who all they care about is wealth, but it can easily shift if we’re not really careful.

So this week gives us a chance to look into prevention on that. That’s all I have today. Thank you for your good attention, and we’ll be dismissed.