00:00 Introduction and Today's Agenda

00:31 1 Kings 10 & 2 Chronicles 9 The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon

01:24 1 Kings 10 & 2 Chronicles 9 Solomon's Extravagant Wealth

03:25 1 Kings 11 & 2 Chronicles 9 Solomon Turns from the Lord

07:12 Lessons from Solomon's Downfall

08:28 Conclusion and Encouragement

Welcome back to another edition

of the daily Bible podcast.

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Today is Friday, June 21st, 2024.

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And today we're looking at

three chapters, only three.

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I should be done in less than 20 minutes.

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God willing.

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We're looking at first Kings

chapter 10 and 11 and second

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Chronicles, chapter nine.

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I'm still missing.

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Pastor PJ nothing's changed.

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My heart will go on.

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Thank you.

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Celine Dion.

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I do still miss him.

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But we're going to carry on.

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Thanks for joining me.

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Let's jump into first Kings chapter 10.

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Okay.

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We have the introduction

of a new character.

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Her name is the queen of Sheba.

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Next we don't know her name.

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That's her title.

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She comes from a modern day.

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Yemen.

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That's our best guess.

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And she comes with a large entourage.

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And she comes with hard questions

to test king Solomon and much to

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his credit king Solomon does it

greatly, she's responsive to it.

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She starts singing that song by Berlin.

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Because there's no more breath in her.

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And she says, man, blessed be the God.

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Uh, the Lord, your God,

this is incredible.

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Um, I'm impressed by your, your wealth.

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I'm impressed by your wisdom.

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This is incredible.

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This is good.

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And so she establishes a political

and trade relationship with him.

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She gives him 120 talents of gold.

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Which is about 9,000 pounds.

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Give or take 9,000 pounds of gold.

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That's a lot of gold.

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Um, not that he means it.

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King Solomon has plenty of gold.

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Which is actually kind

of the problem here.

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In fact, If you scoot on down to

verse 14 in chapter 10, it says

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here Solomon's great wealth.

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Now Solomon's great wealth.

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On the, on the outside can

actually look quite good.

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But wealth turns out to not be

a great thing here because it.

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Superficially showcases success.

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But the underlying truth here is that

they're struggling with spiritual decay.

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But let me just show you what's going on.

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Take a look.

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Uh, in verses 14 through the end of

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You have Solomon's great.

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A great wealth expressed in gold gold

on everything gold on the computer.

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Gold on the kids' gold on the

ceiling gold on the floor.

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This, this is plated in gold.

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Everything is gold.

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Shields are gold.

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Why is a gold everything's

gold, which is great.

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Right.

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It sounds great, but it's ornate.

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It's extravagant.

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I mean, you see just

some crazy wealth here.

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I don't know if you've

ever been to Beverly Hills.

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Um, I have not, not often, but I

would go there every now and then my

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family and I would drive by just to

kind of see what the hoodie toity.

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you're doing.

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And sometimes you'll see extravagant

wealth on display, you know, is

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he really fancy cars or something?

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You know, wearing really expensive attire.

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No, no, no.

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It's kind of interesting to GOC into stair

and to see like, oh, what's that like, I

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wonder what I'd like to drive in that car

when it was like to wear that stuff here.

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Well, Solomon has it all.

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In fact, he probably is the

wealthiest man to have ever lived.

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Some suggestions about his wealth,

put him in the $2 trillion range.

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2000000000002.3 choices.

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Some estimate estimate suggest.

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That's crazy wealth.

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I don't even think their wealthiest man

alive right now has that kind of wealth.

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I think the most wealthy

people alive are billionaires.

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Solomon looks at them and says, ha.

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Trilia the buddy trillions.

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So this guy is doing really well.

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Right.

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He excels all the Kings of the earth

and riches and wisdom verse 23 says,

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and then on top of that, Uh, verse

26 says that he has a verse 26.

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He has 1400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen.

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So on the exterior, it looks like he's

got all these things going for him.

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However, let's look at

first Kings chapter 11.

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Notice here, the heading

and your ESB Bible.

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Solomon turns from the Lord.

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That's a bad place to start.

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Isn't it.

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And in fact, that's a bad finish for him.

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We just finished reading.

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Ecclesiastes, these.

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Uh, hearing some of his reflections.

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And I wonder if this is when he might

have written it when he's turned from

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the Lord and as he prepares to exit or.

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Exit life and exit the kingship.

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If some of these things come

to the forum, but in any case,

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here's what happens in chapter 11.

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Notice in verse three,

the end of verse three.

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Um, well, He's got 700

wives and 300 concubines.

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And his wives turned away.

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His heart verse four says when

Solomon was old, his wives turned

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away as hard after other gods.

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And his heart was not

wholly true to the Lord.

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His God, this is awful.

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He starts worshiping the asterisk,

the Astra Roth after red MILCOM chemo.

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Shh.

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Molek I mean, all the guts, he just

welcoming them all and all because

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of his connection to his wives.

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Which of course scripture does not commit.

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He's not supposed to do this.

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Let's let's also be reminded here

of Deuteronomy chapter seven.

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And in fact, let me just give you

a couple texts to look at here.

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I want you first to

write down in your Bible.

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If you're still, if you're working

with me here, Deuteronomy chapter

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seven, verses 14 through 20.

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And then ju.

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Excuse me, chapter 17, Deuteronomy

17, 14 through 20, and then

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Deuteronomy seven one through five.

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Those are two important texts because in

both of those texts, God tells Israel.

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No.

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Uh, well, for first of all,

for the king, he must not

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acquire many horses for himself.

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He shall not acquire many Ys for himself.

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Nor shall he acquire for himself?

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Excessive, silver and gold.

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And on top of that, He should have a copy.

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Of the book of the law approved

by the Levitical priests.

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In other words, he was not to do these

things and to make sure that he knew this,

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he was supposed to have his own copy of

the word of God so that he could follow

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this closely for the rest of his life.

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And Deuteronomy chapter seven.

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What you find is that.

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He is.

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And all Israel are not supposed

to intermarry with the idolaters.

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And that's precisely what Solomon does.

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Consequently God responds to Solomon in

judgment by raising up three adversaries.

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The first one being, Hey dad, the Edomite.

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The second reason, the son of Aleida

and third, most significantly.

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Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

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Now Gera boldness and of knee

batch is approached by a hijab.

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The Shilah night Shilah night.

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It comes from Shiloh, which is, was

the religious epicenter of Israel.

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You might think of Samuel

and his time of the judges.

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Uh, hydro approaches, Jera Bowman says

I'm going to give you 10 shares in Israel.

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And then the S I'm going

to save one, share.

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For Solomon and for David,

I'm going to keep one in Judah

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and you get the other 10.

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The last I counted, there were 12

tribes and that's likely because either

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Simeon is being included in Judah or

Benjamin, and Judah are included as one.

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You'll see this later on, but notice

here, this is all in response to

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Solomon's infidelity to the Lord three

adversaries in response to his infidelity.

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Verse 40 Solomon saw therefore

to kill Jeroboam because

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Jeroboam had this prophecy.

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Uh, prophesied over him

and he's upset about this.

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Finally the end of chapter 11,

you find out that Solomon's reign

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concludes for after 40 years of

leadership, which is incredible.

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Think about that.

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You have 40 years of

leadership for one man.

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Uh, in the United States, we understand

what that's like, at least partially by

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only having someone in power for at most

eight years, which is still a long time.

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But you have Solomon

in charge for 40 years.

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That would be incredible.

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Solomon had a strong

start, but a sad finish.

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First Chronicles, chapter 10,

uh, I believe, sorry for a

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second Chronicles, chapter nine.

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Uh, it says much of the same thing.

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So we're going to leave that to you

just to read by itself, but we've

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covered most of the territory here.

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Big takeaway for us.

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King Solomon had the word of God.

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He knew the word of God had his own copy.

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And yet to know the word of God is not

the same thing as to do the word of God.

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God blessed him greatly.

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God loves Solomon.

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He favored him and even still.

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Solomon's heart straight from the Lord.

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Sometimes we can.

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Easily, let her heart

stray by not being careful.

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Attentive.

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Vigilant over our hearts.

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It's good to have a healthy

suspicion of yourself.

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It's good to say.

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You know what?

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I don't, I don't trust

myself to do the right thing.

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I want to make sure I stay

as close to God as possible.

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I think we should be careful.

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To do what James says, uh, James in

the new Testament is often called the.

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The Proverbs of the new Testament.

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James chapter one.

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Verse 22.

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He says something simple, but be

doers of the word and not hearers.

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Only deceiving yourselves.

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For, if anyone is a hearer

of the word and not a doer.

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He's like a man who

intently looks intently.

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At his natural face in a mirror.

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But then he forgets what it looks like.

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That's essentially what he's saying.

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He says in verse 25, but if.

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The one who looks into the perfect law,

the law of Liberty and perseveres being

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no here who forgets, but a doer who acts.

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He will be blessed in his doing.

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Hey.

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I thank God that you're reading

the word of God with us.

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I praise God that you're learning it,

that you're seeking to understand it.

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But don't make the mistake of thinking

that, understanding it and even memorizing

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it is the same thing as doing it.

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Unless you like king Solomon lose your

way and perhaps lose the blessing of

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that close relationship with the Lord.

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So great job reading proud of

you guys are making it this far.

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Keep going.

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But again, make sure that you're

staying in the word to do the word.

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That's where the ultimate blessing is.

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Thanks for joining me today.

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I look forward to seeing you guys

all tomorrow for another edition

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of the daily Bible podcast.