Pastor
Dan Eddy
1
Kings 11:1-6
Finding
Christ in Unlikely Places
Part
5 – The Finish Line
4-10-11
I.
Introduction – dogging it
How
many of you have ever been on a team at work or in sports where your group
started off strong only to peter out later on? No, I’m not referring to the
Patriots past season.
Or
have you seen a relay track team racing on TV…where one runner is blowing away
the competition on the first lap then slips to 2nd, 3rd, and
4th on the second lap? He ends up dogging it and not finishing strong.
Or
at work…there is unbridled enthusiasm, high energy for a project…maybe a chance
to earn a promotion or pay raise. You start off strong with a never-say-die
spirit only to get fatigued and burned out.
Or
maybe you start off that amazing diet…lose 5-10 pounds right off the bat…inches
are dropping from your body…only to get frustrated because later on the weight
and inches aren’t dropping fast enough and you give up…you don’t finish the
program. Oh and worse yet all the weight and inches return, and more are added
back onto your body.
Now
you caught the flavor of this morning’s Old Testament reading from 1 Kings 11.
God’s chosen heir to the throne of David. Solomon started off so strong only to
be told later by the Lord that he was dogging it.
II.
How do we slow down?
Solomon
started off as king under incredible odds. Put on the throne at age 16 Solomon
asked the Lord to equip him with wisdom….not military power, earthly wealth, or
lots of women, but wisdom.
Solomon
was humbled by the throne he inherited and the enormous tasks ahead of him. He
could have asked the Lord to wipe every enemy from the face of the earth. Yet
he didn’t. He asked God for wisdom. He wanted God to equip him so the Lord
could work through him…a very wise
thing.
And
yet ironically it was in the asking of the Lord’s wisdom that Solomon
accomplished many great things where he did get military power and earthly
wealth and plenty of women. For example, he build a great temple for the Lord,
established many international peace treaties which greatly grew his nation’s
economy. For the most part he kept his nation from war, used his wisdom to make
God’s
Additionally,
the Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to write down 3,000 proverbs and over 1000
songs.
Solomon
was equipped and doing the Lord’s work for God’s glory.
And
look at many of us. Our life in Christ started strongly with our baptism in His
Church and the
I’m
sure as you reflect on your life whether your 6 or 60 you can see how the Lord
has provided you with many accomplishments in life.
The
Lord has equipped you and me with many talents and it shows at work, in our
family, and through this congregation.
But
as we see from this morning’s text something went terribly wrong with Solomon.
His loyalties got divided. He ran up a huge national debt, mortgaged the
kingdom to pay for pet building and renovation projects like his own home. He
was centralizing power, taking it away from the 12 tribes of
And
the ultimate problem dogging Solomon was all those Gentile wives. The Lord warned
him that these women were going to bring him down. Don’t think that God
endorsed bigamy.
In
ancient world, wives were obtained for the purposes of establishing
international relationships and treaties. But marrying Gentile women (i.e.
those who didn’t believe in the one Lord God as the only God) was prohibited in
verses like Deuteronomy 17:17.
His
wives’ unbeliefs were causing Solomon to really turn away
from the Lord to other gods. That point
is made emphatically here in this text by the Lord.
The
love of his wives was tied to the love of these gods. Solomon held on to these gods in love. The
progression of unrepentant sin was leading to him losing his faith – not
finishing the race and ending up in Hell forever.
I
guess you could say the worldly, sinful influences looked shiny and nice, but were
zapping Solomon’s faith…much like bugs being attracted to the light of a bug
zapper. ZAP, ZAP, ZAP.
(Pause)
Now
many of you may be thinking that your actions and mine don’t even come close to
Solomon’s. We don’t have multiple spouses (at least I hope we don’t) and we
don’t hold that kind of political power to do all those evil things.
But
think about it. How many times do we embark on a project to serve the Lord for
the church, in our communities, and families and we are enthusiastic as
first…full of energy and promise…but then we don’t follow through to complete
it?
For
example look at our vision here at Christ Lutheran that we spent 2009 putting
together. How much of that vision have we realized yet in this congregation,
about a year and a half later?
I
like the way Pastor Reed Lessing put in a recent sermon on this subject…he
said:
We’re great at beginning!
Unbridled enthusiasm, high energy, a never-say-die spirit. Like hot knives into
butter, we tear into new projects, new classes, new relationships. But as time
goes on, we get weary, fatigued, impatient. “It’s a bore, a snore, a chore” ...
until we say, “NO MORE!” Then we zoom toward different lights, dazzling lights,
deadly lights, at least 1,000 of them. Lights of pride, power, position,
prestige, prominence, even pouting over poor, poor pitiful me. Then ZAP goes
the joy of our salvation. ZAP goes passion for the lost. ZAP goes zeal for the
Word. We all know what it’s like to fly toward godless lights and suddenly find
ourselves lying in a tray littered with dead bugs.
(Pause)
What
starts off as loving the Lord through serving others becomes all about loving
ourselves and being annoyed by others. A lot of it is our attitude toward
Christ and His Church.
We
get distracted like Solomon and eventually we are off course with Christ.
Finding Christ at the finish line seems unlikely because we are no longer
seeing Him clearly in our lives. We’ve
given up the race and are risking where we will live for eternity.
The
Lord has equipped you to do great things to finish His tasks. Are we using what
He has given us or are we resorting to our own ways which are slowing us down
and tempting us to not finish the race, to not see Him at the end of this life,
and not living with Him forever?
III.
Where is Christ in the
text?
You
know Solomon acted like Christ whenever he would use His wisdom for God’s
glory…like when he settled the dispute of finding out who was the real mother
of that child. That line of dividing the baby in half and giving half to one
woman and the other half to the other. Wow...how that line exposed the lie and
revealed the truth is something only Christ can do, because is He is the
ultimate in wisdom.
We
don’t know if Solomon repented of his ways. We know that he knew in advanced
from the Lord that his kingdom would face civil war and be divided the day he
breathed his last breath. We don’t know if he let the Lord renew His faith. We
don’t know if Solomon finish what he started, but we know Jesus did.
Christ
finished with a ugly ending…scouring, mocking, spitting, beating, slapping,
sweating, bleeding, and crowning…and after all that when He said “It is
finished” He crossed the finish line on the Cross for you and me, and gave us
the victory we didn’t deserve. His blood
was poured out so that the curse on us would be removed. The sacrifice is
completed.
His
ugly ending turned into the glorious finish line victory when He arose from
dead and stood victorious over death, but has you handed the victory at your
baptism.
We
began strong at our baptisms, but it’s hard to finish because we lack the
endurance to keep our faith…to keep it strong. That’s the benefits of God
blessing you in worship like He’s doing right now. The benefits of eating His
body and drinking His blood keep you in the race, so you can finish strong.
Solomon’s
father David committed some real doozies of sins. But David also sought the
Lord’s forgiveness, reflected in many of the Psalms we read and speak in
worship and in our devotion time. David lived a life of repentance keeping His
faith only in the same Lord God that we do.
I
like the way Hebrews 12:1-3 (ESV) puts it:
Therefore, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (like David), let us also lay aside
every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of
our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him
who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not
grow weary or fainthearted.
This
morning be restored with Christ’s forgiveness, refreshed with His proclaimed
Word and rejuvenated to serve Him by loving others. Jesus is saying, “Don’t give up I am waiting for you at the finish line to finally give
you the medal of Heaven.”
(Show winning medals in
hand)
You’ll
get one of these this morning as you leave to remind you of the victory you
have. Don’t give it up. It’s waiting for
you at the finish line of life.
IV.
Our task is not done
And
that means our tasks are not done. We still have the rest of the race to
finish.
And
a good way to begin again is to ask... Where are your strengths? What do you do
well, and how can your gifts God gave you be used here at
The
true story was told about some Lutheran men who were being trained for
chaplaincy duty. The classes were being conducted in downtown
Any
way this group of people was going through extensive training one week per
month for months. And on the last day of their training as they were receiving
their badges of completion right during the morning devotions….bam…the first
plane hit the first twin tower…then minutes later bam…the second tower was hit.
Did
these men equipped to serve run away from this race? Did they dog it? No, they
went toward where the Lord needed them to serve. That day and the days to follow
they were ministering to people to make sure those injured, hurting, and dying
were at the finish line for Christ to give them their medal of salvation He won
for them. (Show medals again).
Is
not the Lord asking us to do the same for those whom we know?
God’s
blessings as you take how the Lord has equipped you, staying strong in the
faith, not giving up the race, and guiding others to finish the race with you,
so we can all celebrate at the finish line with Christ, forever. Amen.