[Sung Psalm: 94]Our ordinary Christian life is lived in union with Christ. Our everyday, normal existence is normed by life in the Spirit.And that means that you don't need to "make up" for failures in the ordinary through doing something extraordinary – but simply through repentance.And what is repentance? I like the Shorter Catechism's answer: "repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it, unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience."Repentance includes a clear recognition of how you have fallen short – as well as grasping hold of what God has done in Jesus to deliver us from sin! And when you clearly see your sin – and God's grace and mercy in Jesus – then you hate your sin for what it is – and turn away from sin, and turn towards God! Learning to live an ordinary life the way God calls you to live!And that ordinary life is a life of genuine love...

[Sung Psalm: 131]How often have you heard people object that "Christians are hypocrites"? How do you answer someone who says that? I think the best answer is to confess that too often it is, in fact, true. And not just in "churches out there" – but right here. How often have we thought about "what do I get out of it?"As we go through these verses, we need to confess that we have fallen short of what our Lord Jesus Christ has called us to do and to be!Paul had said in Romans 11 that we Gentiles should not get cocky, but we should remember that if God cut off the natural branches to graft us in, he can just as easily cut us off, if we rebel like they did...

In chapter 11, we heard how Solomon's life had ended poorly. The wages of sin is death – not only the death of Solomon himself, but also the dismemberment of the Kingdom.The golden age of Israel's history – the new Eden that Solomon built – ends the same way that the first one did.And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. When his heart was set on the LORD,he built a house for the name of the LORD. Now that his heart is set on foreign women, he builds houses for the names of their gods.God had warned him! But still he did precisely the thing that God had told him not to do! Sounds like Adam, doesn't it? God gives a very specific command – if you do this one thing, you will die–your kingdom will be taken from you. And so what is the one thing that Solomon makes sure that he does?!God had brought everything to fulfillment in the days of Solomon. All that God had promised to Abraham and Moses had come true. But the Second Adam–the one who restored paradise – did not persevere to the end. This is the difference, humanly speaking, between Solomon and Jesus. Solomon got off to a great and glorious start, but he could not finish what he started.We need a king who will persevere to the end, and sit down not merely on the throne of David in Jerusalem, but at the right hand of the Father in heaven.At the end of chapter 11, we were told of the rise of Jeroboam...

[Sung Psalm: 51]In Romans 12 Paul launches a new section of Romans. He will now talk about the "practical" side of the Christian life. He has spent the last 11 chapters talking about the importance of Christian doctrine – the importance of the good news of what Jesus has done.We should remember that "doctrine" simply means "teaching." Doctrine is the foundation for practice. "Teaching" is the starting point for "doing." Doctrine results in practice. It always does. Whatever you really believe is what you will act upon!So if you want to know what you really believe – take a look at your life!How you live tells the world what you believe! How do you live? Does your whole life revolve around your family? Do you focus your energy simply on enjoying life now – whatever the cost? What do your priorities say about what you really believe?

In chapter 3, verse 1, we are told that Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh. But we are assured two verses later that Solomon loved the LORD.So at the beginning of his reign, Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter while remaining true to the LORD.But now – we are told that Solomon "loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh." In other words, if he had only loved one – that could have meant the salvation of Egypt! But Solomon turned aside from the path of faithfulness. He forgot the LORD and clung to foreign women instead.In Hebrew, the "heart" includes both the intellectual and the emotional. This is the part of you that makes decisions, and thinks things through.And five times in verses 2-4, we hear about the heart:"You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods." (v2)"His wives turned away his heart" (v3)"his wives tuned away his heart after other gods" (v4)"and his heart was not wholly true the LORD his God" (v4)"as was the heart of David his father" (v4)This contrast with David reminds us that what made David distinct was his heart. He remained true to the LORD – he never turned aside to worship other gods. The first commandment is "you shall have no other gods before me." When you place something else before God, your heart is no longer true to him. And that is where all sin is ultimately rooted.If you don't see how you have sinned against God, then you don't yet really understand your sin.Solomon loved his wives more than he loved his God – and so he worshiped other gods...

[Sung Psalm: 80]The basic picture in Romans 11 is that of a cultivated olive tree. The olive tree refers to Israel – you might say that it has an Abrahamic root!Exile and judgment is described by the prophets as a "chopping down" of the tree. When God sends his people into exile, he sends his agents to cut down the tree – but trees are resilient – and you never know what will grow back.I grew up in a Coastal Redwood forest. There was an old stump by our front walk that had been cut down years before the house was built. But it kept putting out suckers – and so my dad had me and my brother cut it back every year. When my parents sold the house in 1985, the new owner decided to stop fighting. Less than 40 years later, there is a massive 100 foot tree eating up the front walk!So the fact that a tree is felled does not mean that the tree is gone forever!Isaiah spoke of a shoot that would come forth from the stump of Jesse. because all the promises to Israel have their focus on the house of David – and, as Paul has been showing us throughout Romans, they all come to their fruition in Jesus Christ...

1 Kings tells the story of Solomon as a story of wisdom. The whole Solomon narrative revolves around the gift of wisdom and Solomon's use of that gift, centered around the building of the temple – and indeed, with the worship service of chapter 8 at the very heart of the narrative.Our passage tonight returns us to the general theme of Solomon's wisdom, which we saw exhibited in chapters 3-5.In 4:29 it started with the nations and moved to Hiram. Here it moves backward, starting with Hiram and ending with the nations coming to Solomon...

[Sung Psalm: 69]At the beginning of this series on Romans we looked at Paul's mission: "to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations."In other words, Paul's mission is to make disciples of the nations. And his letter to the Romans is all about that mission. Paul wants you to understand your place in the kingdom of God. He wants to you understand what God is doing in history – and how you fit into what God is doing.What is God doing?The Bible is not an instruction manual. If you approach it that way, you will find vast swathes of the Bible that would appear useless. What do you do with the hundreds of chapters of OT history and prophecy that has no obvious "application" to my life.Rather, the Bible tells a story. The Bible contains the narrative of what God is doing in history. You and I are not the main characters in this narrative.The story of the Bible is not all about me. The story of the Bible is all about Jesus. And because it is all about Jesus, it does speak to you. It calls you to look to him, to believe in him, to love him, and to obey him...

[Sung Psalm: 19]We believe in our heart and we are justified (being) and then we do confess with our mouths and are saved.There must be both the inward faith and the outward confession. Salvation requires both the inward and the outward – being and doing.And, Paul says, this is true both for the Jew and for the Greek. Because the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. That is a remarkable thing. That God should bestow his riches on us! We have already seen in chapter 8 that we have been adopted into God's family. We have become fellow heirs with Jesus.God has called us into his family. Therefore, we are to respond by calling upon his name.But this provokes Paul to ask a series of questions. We started looking at this last time – but I'd like to focus here a bit more...

In the 2 Chronicles version of this story, you hear God's famous response, "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (7:14)Why is that missing here?The book of Kings is focused on the question of why the Exile? Chronicles is very interested in what to do after the Exile. Kings is not.Kings is interested in "why has this disaster fallen on Jerusalem?" For Kings, the point is that only God can raise the dead!For Chronicles, the point is that now that you have been raised from the dead, walk in newness of life!!The point that Kings is making is that when Judgment Day comes, it will be too late! When God brings disaster on the earth, there is nothing that can stop his mighty hand!And that's why Kings highlights Solomon's prayer.The central feature of this chapter is Solomon's prayer. Solomon's prayer is a model intercessory prayer.He takes the themes of the sermon – the basic gospel message that he preached – and structures his prayer around that...