FACEBOOK COPY: 🚲 Life’s like riding a bike – sometimes we’re cruising along going good, but if you turn the handlebars too quickly, you crash. Today we examine what turns our hearts from Jesus? Tune in and dial in your heart to todays message! 🙌 EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). Get the fill in the blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Was anyone into BMX bikes back in the day?  I had a sweet ride!  It was a Haro bike with mag wheels and pegs on the front and the back.  It was literally rad…

This is what it looked like [show bike on screen]

can you picture little chubby Kent with a sweet mullet riding that thing?

One time I was riding that bike and my little sister was standing on the front pegs holding onto the handlebars and facing me.  We were cruising down the road when all of the sudden she made the decision to turn the handlebars to a 90 degree angle.  You know what happens when you are going straight and someone turns the handlebars of a bike?  That’s right, you stop going forward…  lol

We both bit it hard, flew off the bike and landed hard on the asphault.

I think about that story a lot when I think about what I see in peoples lives.  

I’ve seen over and over again people who seem to be moving forward with Jesus until their not…

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What is up with that?

have you ever wondered?

Maybe that’s been you? 

-Maybe you grew up going to church and went off to college and started partying and Jesus just became a background image of your life

-maybe you lost someone close to you and as you raised your fist to heaven you decided you were done and as quickly as you were moving forward, you were stopped

-or maybe, just maybe, the worries of this life grabbed ahold of you and you ran off…

You are not alone.  I’d say more people understand what that feels like than not…

As a matter of fact as we jump into the story of God I want you to get a picture of the son of David – Solomon and understand who he is and I want you to see his moment where he flips over the handle bars.  Then I want to look at what we do to prevent this…

Solomon

Solomon’s story starts in a pretty dark place.  He is the child of a woman that his father the King – David seduced and plotted the murder of her husband.  David will stay home when kings and their men go to war, he will watch as one of his trusted warriors wife goes to take her ceremonial bath – mikveh (you did this naked).  I’ve stood where they think David’s palace was and where Bathsheba would have been taking this bath.  David, is watching from up above like a wolf salivating over his prey.  It is a dark and terrible story…  Out of this David will repent, he will eventually marry Bathsheba and eventually Solomon will be born.  

Through a series of painful events Solomon will become the son that David anoints as King…

as David is nearing death he gave this challenge to Solomon, I want you to listen to it…

1 Kings 2:2-3

2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go

David is reminding Solomon of the covenant – live for God, He will bless you.  Don’t life for Him and you are cursed already…

Solomon will start out well.  One of the early things he will do is go to Gibson and present 1,000 burnt offerings to God.  This is 1,000 different sacrifices – -animals burnt.  We’re talking a major operation to slaughter so many animas.  You are talking hundreds of people putting down the animals, removing the hide and then butchering the meat, incredible amounts of money spent.  It would have been crazy – it’s like the worlds largest BBQ.  We don’t know how long it took, but what we do know is that at some point Solomon has a dream and God appears to him and asks him what God could give Solomon.  He doesn’t ask for gold or riches or long life

Solomon asks for wisdom and God grants it to him, and because he did not ask for riches and long life, God gives him those things as well.

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Solomon will bring peace to Israel

Solomon will build the first temple of God

Solomon will bring treasure and renown to Israel like never before

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Solomon is moving forward in a seemingly good path, right?

Until he isn’t…

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For all the good Solomon will do, he will have a downfall – something that “turns the handlebar 90°”…

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Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines

I don’t know how the guy did it, I can barely keep my one wife happy :).  Lol, what a crazy man…

There was actually commands by God for the Kings of Israel not to do this.. but He did.  

1 Kings 11:4-5

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.

5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech ^[1] the detestable god of the Ammonites.

Ashtoreth – the goddess of love (sexual) and war

Molech – a god of fertility was characterized by the sacrifice of babies 

It thought that Molech statue was made of metal, with hands outstretched.  They would light a fire under the hands and offer their firstborn baby to burn alive in the hands to try and prosper and have healthy children…

Somehow Solomon turned from this man who was blessed by God to a man who had turned his heart away from God.

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The author of 1 Kings tells us exactly what happened…

Exactly what turned Solomon’s handler bars away from God.

Can I show you?

The Main Clause: “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old”

The Subordinate Clause: “that his wives turned away his heart after other gods”

The Direct Object (Subject Complement): “his heart”

What are the handlebars that turned?  It was Solomon’s heart.

For him, it was his wives that turned his heart…

What is it that has turned your heart?

The heart is the center of the matter.  

Jesus said the heart is what directs our life (Mark 7:20-22) – it is the handle bar

You can claim to be lots of things.  You can go to church and do all the “right things” but the question is 

What is your heart devoted to?

Solomon’s heart wasn’t fully devoted to the Lord and he lost because of it.  You’ll see how deep it will go.  Everything he is building will fall a part in a matter of generations because he abandons God.

The answer is not to fake like you are devoted to Jesus if you are not.  I thought about saying, “if you’re doing X, you’ll know if you’re devoted or not…”  But you know what.  You’ll know if you’re devoted or not…  You know don’t you?

So, what do you do if you’re not fully devoted to Jesus?

this is a prayer Solomon’s dad prayed…

Psalm 86:11

Teach me your way, Lord,

    that I may rely on your faithfulness;

give me an undivided heart,

    that I may fear your name.

What if you just started with that?  What if you wrote down that prayer and every day for a week you just prayed it when you got in your car, when you sat down at your desk, when you clocked in on the line?

Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness, give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name

CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:

I learned something from that day with my sister turning the handlebars.  From then on whenever I’ve put a kid in a position to affect the steering of something, riding a 4 wheeler, driving a car.  I have a talk with them about turning the wheel too fast when going straight and fast…  I guard myself…

It’s sad to me that Solomon wrote these words and didn’t live by them…

Proverbs 4:23

23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

I wonder if you will have the courage to do what he couldn’t.  To guard your heart and stay devoted to Jesus in a world that is trying to pull you off of that…

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