Will you counsel me with good Intentions without a REWARD???? I KINGS 12:6-8,,,12-14...vs 20 6 And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people? 7 And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever. 8 But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him: 12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day. 13 And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old mens counsel that they gave him; 14 And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. 20 And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. Today we will explore a topic that has been on my mind for quite sometime now. Since I have been Blessed of GOD to have reached that Milestone of 50 and beyond, I have often questioned who exactly is for me. Who has GOD lined up for me to make a connection with that will catapult me further and closer to the things of GOD... I wonder if any of you out there can relate to what I am referring to thus far???? who is it that GOD will cause to be HIS voice of reason for me at that specific moment of Counsel???? How do you know where to go for that help? How do you sort through all the advice to arrive at an understanding of what God is wanting you to do or what the real solution to the problem is? .......Why do we need counsel from others?..Those are the kind of questions we want to address Today. I wonder if you would turn to two passages of scripture with me.... I Kings 12:6-8, then drop down to verses,,12-14.... and one more vs 20..& Proverbs 27:17 King James Version (KJV) 17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. We are going to talk about Rehoboam, who is the successor of king Solomon. Saul was the first king of Israel. David was the second king. Then Solomon was the third king. Each one of these kings reigned for forty years, which means for 120 years they had had only three kings. Now, we come to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon...Rehoboam was a forty one year old man when he began to reign, verse 21 says. He reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem. That means that he reigned until he was a fifty eight year old man. How do you know where to go for that help? How do you sort through all the advice to arrive at an understanding of what God is wanting you to do or what the real solution to the problem is? .......Why do we need counsel from others?..Those are the kind of questions we want to address Today. I wonder if you would turn to two passages of scripture with me.... I Kings 12 lets pick up at vs 6 and read to 8.. skip to 12-14 and finish with vs 20. We are going to talk about Rehoboam, who is the successor of king Solomon. Saul was the first king of Israel. David was the second king. Then Solomon was the third king. Each one of these kings reigned for forty years, which means for 120 years they had had only three kings. Now, we come to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon..The people go to Shechem to make Rehoboam king, and send for Jeroboam out of Egypt, who with the heads of the tribes, requests relief from the heavy burdens laid on them by Solomon. He rejects the counsel of the elders, who served his father, and follows that of young men, and returns the people a provoking answer............................................................................... The people therefore renounce the family of David, stone to death Adoram, who came to receive their tribute, and make Jeroboam king; none cleaving to Rehoboam, but the tribes of Judah and Benjamin........... In the story we read at the beginning of the service from 1 Kings 12 there is no mention of Rehoboam going to God in prayer and asking Him what to do. That was a big mistake! But as we see in the story he did not really want to know God’s counsel. For many decisions in life we can simply ask the Lord what He wants us to do and do it. We can use the principles discussed in previous sermons on this subject and know the mind of the Lord. But sometimes we have done all that and we are still at a loss as to what the answer is. Each one of us must ultimately make our own decisions before God. The other extreme is independence which is very prevalent in the American culture. We don’t want to be accountable to other people. We want to be free to do what we want—when we please. But that attitude is contrary to Scripture and will ultimately get us into trouble. Ponder with me the words of Proverbs 18:1-2 for a moment. “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment. 2 A fool has no delight in understanding, But in expressing his own heart.” (NKJV) What is a man (who isolates himself) seeking? Is he seeking to know the will of God through godly counsel? No he “seeks his own desire”. By himself he can pursue his own will without anyone else interrupting him or holding him accountable. To seek out counsel on every decision would be the kind of dependent relationship we criticized earlier. You don’t need counsel on what kind of milk to buy or whether to buy a loaf of bread today. Everyday you will make hundreds of little decisions that don’t even require much thought let alone counsel from others. But we have established the value of counsel and there are times when we need to get insight from others. To whom should we go for counsel? The best I can do with that question is to talk in terms of broad biblical principles. (1) I would suggest you go to the godly for counsel. Ps 1:1 “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” Seek counsel from people with the expertise you need. If I need to know what to do about my plumbing I’m not going to ask a mechanic; I’m going to ask a plumber. If I need advice about medical problems I go to someone trained in that field of medicine. This is pretty well accepted in our culture. If I need counsel about spiritual matters where do I go? If I need counsel about relational issues where do I go? Go to someone who has knowledge about those matters. Some people know the Bible better than other people. Don’t go to somebody that thinks there might be a scripture somewhere that says, “God helps those who help themselves.” Get competent counsel. In 1Kings 12 we have the story of Rehoboam. He has just been made king. And he is facing the first major challenge of his leadership. We read the story at the beginning of the service. Under the leadership of Jerhoboam, the people come asking him to lower the taxes that Solomon had been requiring of them. Rehoboam goes to experienced people and asks them what he should do. They give him wise counsel. But it was not the counsel Rehoboam wanted to hear. So he went to inexperienced people and asked them what to do. They told him exactly what he wanted to hear. And when he did it; it was a fiasco. Prov 13:20 “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” Some counsel is better than other counsel. My time is limited but I want to quickly go back to the two extremes that should be avoided. Don’t go to a counselor and hand that person your life. You will be ultimately responsible for the decision you make. There are counselors who neurotically need to exercise power and control over other people and they can do great damage. We saw that in the Shepherding Movement of the ‘70’s and we have seen it repeated from time to time. A counselor is not there to solve your problem. He or she is not there to take your problem from you. The counselor is there to equip you to solve your problem. So don’t enter into an unhealthy relationship of dependence upon a counselor. On the other extreme, don’t waste a counselor’s time if you are not serious about receiving instruction. If you already know what to do; then do it. If you just need a listening ear then ask the person if he or she would just be willing to listen. Honesty is the best policy. The person you need as an empathetic listener may not be the person you would need to give you advice. Rehoboam went to experienced counselors for advice but he was really just looking for someone to tell him what he wanted to hear. Make sure the person you go to is capable and experienced and then take the counsel serious................ Pastor JOEL LEWIS
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 23:05:57 +0000