Now, if you have uh little kids and if you're fans of Pixar movies, I'm a very big fan of Pixar movies. I even got to meet one of the directors who a Christian and um heard about how he writes stories. Several of his movies are actually biblical themes um wrapped up in a story line for children. And are there any Encanto fans in the church? the movie Encanto. Yeah, there's only one person or two maybe. Sorry. It's a great movie to watch. Three. Okay. As a family. And I'm sure even if you've not watched the movie, there is a very famous song in the movie which is we don't talk about Bruno. I keep hearing that song at least when we watch that movie like every day. We have three kids in our house. three kids really who sing that song repeatedly that I had to find out what is this Bruno thing all about and this Encanto movie um just to give a nutshell about it you know there is a family it's called the uh Madreal family um they have a special gift they are in a in a in a in a um magical village where every person in the family is known for their miracle. So each child that is born in that family receives a magical gift or miracle. Uh one child gets the miracle of strength. One child is a miracle of healing. One child has a shape-shifting gift and so on except one whose name is Mirabel. She feels ordinary when they get together to take a family picture. She gets left out, overlooked and everyone seems to be carrying the family forward except for her and Bruno which no one knows initially has disappeared is not there and uh so people don't know where he is but here's the twist at the end when the whole village starts literally getting torn apart u none of these gifts of the all the other children seem to be able to help to bring that village back together. And Mirabel, surprisingly, I'm sorry, it's a disclaimer. Since it's an old movie, I'll tell you, she goes and finds Bruno, who actually knows what's going to happen. And uh he gives he tells her that the miracle really wasn't about the gifts but it was about the grace and love and legacy that are going to actually take care and how Mirabel plays a key role in demonstrating those virtues to put this whole village back together. You know, it's a wonderful story. Um, we're going to and we're looking today at a passage, a very famous passage in the Bible on uh um Solomon and his prayer for wisdom. And in this passage, buried in this passage are stories of three kings um which focus on one plan of redemption. how God is weaving that through these three different kings. And it is we're going to look at this through the lens of what was accomplished in the life of each of these three kings. And we're going to look at the legacy of a king, a wisdom of a king, and the grace of a king. So this chapter begins in first kings chapter 3:4. It says, "And the king went to Gibon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar." And just before that, in the very first two verses, you will read Solomon is now the mantle is being passed from King David to his son Solomon after a military coup. You read that in the first two chapters of the book of Kings. And when he takes over as a king, he's very young, probably 20 years old. And King David has gone to conquer. He has actually conquered five other countries. And the empire is huge and the task is so big and at that level the geopolitical pressures are so high. So as a young king, Solomon first starts on the wrong foot. Now, have you ever remembered a time in your life where you took on a job that is too big than you could handle and you felt really very intimidated about it? Or perhaps if you have finished college, all of us remember our first jobs after school, isn't it? That's always the most difficult time in our life because you really don't know what to expect and what's going on. So when your empire goes from one nation to five nations and you're just a 20-year-old kid, you're given the mandate to lead. So he first starts off on the wrong foot. He think, well, the best way to keep my place secure and this country secure is to strike political alliances. So he goes to Egypt and marries the Pharaoh's daughter. something that was explicitly forbidden all the way back in the Pentetuk when God said to them, "When you leave this place when I give you freedom from Egypt, never come back there." Perhaps he quickly realized that and in this first verse that we read, verse four, he goes to Gibian because the temple was not built yet and offers a thousand sacrifices, thousand burnt offerings. You know, if you read in uh I think Leviticus 20:1, it said that all you need is just one burnt offering. And we remembered that a burnt offering is where a person who feels like he has wronged God and takes an animal, places a hand on the animal as a substitute and then sacrifices and burns that to reaffirm his complete faithfulness uh and commitment to the god. But Solomon perhaps re realized the magnitude of what he has done and does a thousand over and above what that is needed. And immediately we see God responds to Solomon. You know our God is a gracious God who always responds to a repentant one. Not a perfect one but a repentant one. So Solomon embarks on this prayer in a dream that he gets. And in this dream, he starts off by looking at the legacy that his father, King David, had left behind and then goes on to respond to God asking him, "What do you want?" Solomon makes a direct plea that actually pleases God. And God answers that prayer. So, we're going to look first at the legacy of King David described by his own son, King Solomon, to God. What kind of legacy did King David leave behind to his son? What What do you think of legacy when it comes what what comes to your mind when you think of legacy? How about you take a quick 3 seconds to turn to the person right to you and say the first thing that comes to my mind. Uh if there's no one on your right, turn to the one on your left. What is the one legacy I want to be remembered for by my children or grandchildren? Three seconds. One, two, three. Okay. If you couldn't find an answer, that's a problem. You know, recently um I went to my house that I grew up in and since I was bringing my mother here, I was trying to see, hey, should I bring some of my things? And I opened up and and and I saw there was this uh file which had all the certificates um of extracurricular activities I won in my school and some medals and and things like that. And I already had some of them at home. And uh and I was asking myself uh after I am dead and gone, would anyone care about these things? Even when I'm alive right now, none of my kids care about those things. And none of yours would either about yours. Isn't it? That's not our legacy. all our achievements, our gold medals, you know, the great things maybe we do in this world out there and how you're so amazing in your work and you know accomplish our wonderful deals. That's not our legacy, isn't it? Solomon is not remembering David and his mighty wars and his war techniques. He's not telling God, you know, my dad was an my dad, King David, he was an amazing warrior. uh you know how he deployed stealth and how he conquered his enemies, how he was brave. You know, you know what God how he defeated Goliath. None of that is there, isn't it? So, it's a good question to ask ourselves. What kind of legacy do we want to leave behind? And if you're just beginning your career, you probably want to start right in your own life. So, interestingly, here's the first thing that we read. He says in verse um six after God tells Solomon in verse 5 at Gibian the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said ask what shall I give you? And Solomon said, this is where he starts, you have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David, my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on this on his throne this day. Wow. What is it that he remembers and that he is thankful for about his father that he takes to God? The first thing Solomon remembers, he proclaims that his father, King David, walked before God. You know the biggest thing our children remember is our walk than our talk. Sounds very simple but that's the litmus test. I remember my both my grandfathers one was a lay preacher and he was a circuit preacher. He would go around villages when a pastor is on vacation he would preach. Until today people remember him and tell me when I go they have written about him. Another grandfather was very old and I was very young but uh he had some very fancy ways of praying which is what I remember like sprinkling water on places but both were men of prayer. One my uh one grandfather lived for 110 years and I'm sure he accomplished great things. I have no idea about any of that. But what has been passed on that I carry dearly is that they were men of prayer. Listen they walk before God. What would our children remember about our walk with God? That's our legacy, our first thing. And there was something about David's walk with God. Was not about David's walk with God. Was what happened in David's walk with God. He said he was shown great and steadfast love. He had this vibrant relationship with God. Of course, Solomon himself knows who he is. He is the son of Bath Sheba. He knows how incredibly gracious God was to his father who had messed up so badly. Not only did God forgive his father, not only did God God could have chosen any of his other sons to be a king. Of all of them, God picked Solomon, the son of an who came out of a illegitimate marriage relationship to be the greatest king the nation of Israel has ever seen. That's some marvelous grace of God, isn't it? And David got to experience that, the grace of God in his life. and he finished well. It was because of his walk with God. And there are three specific things he talks about. David's walk before God. His walk before God was characterized by faithfulness. We'll see what that is. Righteousness, and uprightness of heart. Faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. What would our children after we are dead and gone when they pray to God? Do you think they will be able to pray to God thanking God for our walk with him? For that we have to actually walk with God visibly, tangibly and that is shown in the decisions we make in the time we spend with him every day that they can see. Will they also be able to thank God for our faithfulness, our righteousness, and our uprightness? Now, why what what does Solomon remember about David's faithfulness? Or what does the Bible talk about David's faithfulness? You know, David's faithfulness was not more about him having great abilities to always be faithful. We know in the sense of how u with Batshea his faith broke down and and he was not that perfect person but what it talks about faithfulness the Bible we read is he he accomplished God's purpose in his generation we read about that in the book of acts faithfulness is about living a life to accomplish what god seeks to accomplish in this one plan that he is working towards in redemptive history. Same for David, same for Solomon, same for you and me that we are not living our lives for our glory, but we are living our lives to fulfill God's redemptive plan. And he was faithful in that and righteousness because of the innumerable psalms that David has written where he talked that he had no righteousness. Blessed is he whose sins are covered and whose transgressions are forgiven. He was someone who was able to embrace the righteousness of Christ for his own shortcomings. an uprightness uprightness of heart. You know the the word there is talking about a divided heart versus an integrated heart. A hypocritical heart versus a non-hypocritical heart. And David demonstrated uprightness of heart. when he sinned, when he was confronted, he was quick to openly confess and write a psalm that you and I can even read till today. And that's why the Bible says David was a man after God's own heart. What a legacy, isn't it? Will our children be able to say after we are dead and gone that we walked with God in faithfulness accomplishing what God wanted to accomplish through us in righteousness always looking at the righteousness of Christ and not being self-righteous not judging others based on a self-righteous spirit and uprightness where we were transparent. Who we were inside the house was the same as who we were outside the house. That's some legacy to leave. Often we think legacies are all about great accomplishments, isn't it? And then he talks about how in his prayer that God, he says, "And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day." A tangible legacy that David left was his son, King Solomon. He passed on to him his faith, his walk that was sticky. God gave David a son to sit on his throne. You know they say the greatness of a vision is when that vision outlasts the visionary. And God had promised that he will bring a king. He will give a son in the line of King David to sit on the throne forever because that's God's one redemptive plan that is going along. And for that to happen, our children need to learn to walk with God like how we walk with God. Isn't it? And that implies that we disciple our children to walk with God. That's some great legacy goals to pursue, isn't it? And this doesn't depend on any particular job we hold or place we live or what we have or what we do not have because our legacy is tied into God's grand redemptive plan in history. Next we'll move on to wisdom. Verse 7, he says, "Now, oh Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David, my father. Although I am but a little child, I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mine to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this, your great people? And verse 10, it says, "It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right. Behold, now I do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before, and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you all your days. That is something that is mind-boggling, isn't it? what Solomon asks for in prayer. His prayer is such a illustrative moral prayer that we can ask many of ourselves how our prayers are. But what Solomon asks, you know, now he has these five nations and he has to rule them and he tried in a worldly way by striking an alliance and quickly realized that's not going to work. So he goes back to what his father taught him to ask God and he did. Let's take a brief moment to understand what really is wisdom. We're going to look at an anatomy of wisdom to really comprehend what it is because that's something that you and I need even today. You know in Old Testament especially in the book of proverbs like we read this morning the start of our service uh we come across the the Hebrew word used for wisdom is a word that's actually used uh and it means training. It means discipline and it means to come under the authority of someone or something to get trained and disciplined in that. And and in the Old Testament, there's no such thing as a wisdom without coming under authority of someone or serving someone and giving yourself to it fully and religiously. In fact, there is a book uh ancient Hebrew wisdom literature that's not in the Bible uh but it's an interesting book. It's called the wisdom of the Jesus son of Cyra. Somebody else. Now at the very end of the book, the man who found wisdom, he invites people to find wisdom. He basically says, "Come to me you who want wisdom. End in my house of learning. Buy it for yourselves without money and bend your neck to the yoke. Be ready to accept discipline. See for yourselves the great rest and the peace." I have found this is what the Bible says. So basically uh what it means and even today there are gurus who will tell you if you come to me and listen to my teaching and put yourself under my teaching I will give you wisdom on how to live life. I will give you wisdom on how to solve your life's problems. So in a nutshell your wisdom is based on whatever you bend your neck to the yoke. The yoke always means control or authority. Something to whom or to which you have given yourself religiously. Wisdom is always connected deeply to the source of wisdom to whom or which you give yourself to. It is not about a religion. You can say well I'm a Buddhist or a Jew or an atheist. It's not talking about what you profess. You can be anyone following any religion. But the question is what is really the most important thing in your life? What is the thing you're yolked to? You give yourself fully to. What is really the thing that has authority over you in your life? What is it you feel like you have to have, you must have and without which your life is incomplete. In Silicon Valley for most people for example it's money and if it's money and that's the most important thing in your life your wisdom is going to be dictated by that one singular goal. And here's what that wisdom will be like. And you see there is a fork. There are two possible jobs that you can choose. And here's a job that satisfies you, that fits your gifts, that's very fulfilling, but it probably just pays $30,000 a year. And here's a job that isn't very fulfilling, that doesn't really fit your gifts, but you can do it, and it's going to make you $120,000 a year, and you'll do that. You made a choice. The rules don't help, but you made a choice. Why? Because of your priority. Because of what's most important to you. You know, any wisdom that emanates from any king but the true king is actually foolishness on its own terms. Because here's what happens. If money is the most important thing in your life, you choose a job that isn't fulfilling to you, right? And in the long run, you will become less productive. You will burn out faster and you'll have more money problems. For us, when we sit and even hear this, it's like, yeah, why would someone do that? If you have a job that fits you, you love it, and why wouldn't you go? Because your wisdom is telling you, oh, you're not going to get what you want. Then you know what you really want is money, right? So just ignore all these very sensible common sensical things and just go against it. And if money is the ruling thing in your life, you'll make decisions sometimes to do ethically improper things. You know, you can cheat on your income taxes a little bit, cut corners, which as you know in the long run can destroy you financially. And if money is the most important thing, some people take on to gambling, you know, or or trading in stocks in high-risisk endeavors. But let's take another example. How about money is not your king? You don't have a problem with money. You're like, I'm okay. But what if the most important thing in your life is parenthood? A good thing is your children. If your children you are happy, you're sort of living your life out through your children. You'll push them to do things that really don't fit them but will make you happy. Then they'll turn on you one day and hate you for making you do that. Or what if the most important thing in your life is work and not money but just work. You love to work and work is so important for you. your career, your excellence, your recognition. Now, this can be even with people who are wonderful Christians who believe in the Bible, who believe in Jesus, but Jesus is still not their king. You see, so if work is the king of your life, the one that has so much control that seems so noble. Work actually seems much more nobler than money. But let me tell you what's going to happen if that's the most important thing. And when you come to these decision-making moments in the road, you will choose work over rest. You will choose work over family. You will choose work over relationships. And in the end, here's the great irony. If the if your work is the most important thing in your life, that is the wisdom that emanates from that will be decisions that actually destroy and undermine your work. In the long run, if you choose work over rest, work over relationships, you know what ends up happening. In the end, you become less productive. You lose friendships. You regret. It's one of the greatest regrets most successful people tell when they've been asked including some wonderful men of God who have done great and incredible ministry is who had to travel across the world for that I wish I had spent more time with my family after the children are gone or when you make parenthood the most important thing in your life you will destroy the parenting And there's a beautiful illustration of this in the very next chapter. You can go home and read it where these two women come to Solomon who now has wisdom fighting over a child. Because parenting is so important for one of them, but the child is important to the other. and Solomon applying this principle of wisdom determines what was the controlling factor for each of them and was able to pronounce the right thing. You know, one woman there shows how motherhood is so much more important than child. Being a mother is a big deal. If I'm not a mother, I'm nothing. She shows how motherhood has become an idolatry for her. And one woman shows she she's so unhappy with the idea not about her own motherhood that her rival would be a mother that she's even quite happy to see the child killed. Wow. Sounds so graphic and terrible and feel like that's not me, isn't it? He actually doesn't care about the child. If parenthood is the most important thing in your life, you actually really don't care about your children. You're caring about yourself. If career and success are really the most important things in your life, you don't care about your work. You really don't care about your company or the work you do. You care about work and yourself. That's the reason you always end up in foolish ways. When the women says let him die, then neither of us will have him in the next chapter. That's foolish, isn't it? You and I can easily read through that. And anybody hearing that would right away know that's not the mother. So what's going on? She's a fool. But why is she a fool? Why does she make the foolish remark? Because motherhood is her yoke. Motherhood is her king. Motherhood is her authority. And in reaching for it and doing anything she could get it and being jealous and angry at the people around who might have it instead of her, she fell and reaching for it, she fell. So the structure of wisdom is whatever your king is, whatever your yoke is, whatever you've given yourself to religiously and all of us have, that will be the thing from which all our wisdom derives and it will be in the end foolishness. It will be foolishness on its own merits and in its own terms. In other words, you will lose the very thing you will want most because fundamentally no king but the true king really is the king. And Solomon realized that you know his his initial source of wisdom was his political savvy because of which he made that he married the daughter of the pharaoh of Egypt and he quickly realized and you see that demonstrated in this contrite prayer. It's a great model of prayer by the way. He asks first he praises God and acknowledges his goodness in what he has done with his father. Secondly, now he recognizes his inability and asks for help. The key word in this prayer is you your your people whom you have given me and for your purposes. The word comes six times versus me, my people and my plans. a prayer that focuses and trusts that God is the king and seeks God's plan for God's glory is a prayer that will always get immediate answers. How is how are our prayers my dear friends? What do we ask and what do we not ask? If we going through a painful time, do we just ask God to just relieve me or we want to ask him to learn? You know, this last week I had lunch with a pastor friend of mine who um suddenly developed u a blurry vision in one of his eyes and it started getting progressively worse. there was some fluid that was collecting behind his eyes and uh when they they they they couldn't exactly find the cause for it, the reason for it. There isn't even so much of uh uh research that has gone into finding it and he ended up having to take painful um eye injections initially to see if the fluid would drain and it would not. So they had to u enhance it to taking steroidal injections which really helped the fluids drain but they damaged 50% of his nerves in his eyesight. So I asked him how does he feel? I mean you're a pastor and as a pastor your job is primarily got to do with a lot of reading and even to preach. And he said even preaching has become hard because his one eye is always being messed up. You can't wear glasses to fix that. your brain is trying to u rewire and he has a headache all the time. And I asked him, how are you dealing with this? And he said, well, it was hard at first and it was painful at first, but now I have come to embrace and accept that I might even lose my eye. But I thank God that I have another eye that I can see. But I am really praying how I can use this condition of mine to minister to the doctors who are helping me and shared about how his prayer was God would touch their hearts through this pain that he is going through even whether or not he heals and of course he is praying for healing too. And he said of the two doctors, super specialists who are treating him, one of them has begun to respond and that is giving him joy even through this. What a prayer that I was just moved to. I don't know if I would do that if I'm in his place. You know, Solomon prays for wisdom to navigate the challenge. Grant us wisdom. Wisdom is not smartness. How can I be better in my job? How can I be better than everybody else? The Bible says that's the reason the Bible says the verse the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You know why? What is the word? Why does it mean say fear of the Lord? The fear is the actually the word is awe. What you admire about the most is what you will want to give yourself to. And no one has something much more to admire than God himself. And so Solomon is basically explaining to us, he's asking for one of the very attributes of God itself, which is wisdom that he admires that God has. And he's willing to put himself under the authority of the God and asks God to give him that wisdom. And and in verse 15 before we go to that we see that God grants him not only wisdom. He says because you ask me this and not ask me wealth or riches or even for your enemies I will also give you that. You know Jesus says the same thing in the New Testament. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. In verse 15, it says, "And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings and made a feast for all his servants." He gets a renewed fear, awe of God that moves him to worship him. Are you praying for wisdom, my dear friends? And awe of God, a renewed awe of God. I want to know enough of you so I can worship in awe of you. That was the prayer of Solomon, the second king, who wanted wisdom to continue God's work. And we know that Solomon was not the last king of Israel. And after Solomon come many kings, most of whom don't even come close. There is more failures and disruptions and chaos in the lives of those kings and consequently in the nation of Israel. But God is gracious and doesn't give up on the nation. He did not give up on David when David messed up. This very same King Solomon who did receive the gift of wisdom very shortly. It was short-lived. After 13 years we read that he started have marrying many other women from the other nations and the verse says that they turned his heart away from God. So as long as Solomon had his heart set on admiring God and wanting to put himself under his awe, God did great things. You know the book of Kings talk about three faces of Solomon. his calling as a king is building the palace and the temple. But then his end he's he shifted from admiring God to seeking his pleasure through other relationships. And God told him, I'm going to tear away your kingdom from you. But that was not the end. God was still gracious. He said, I'm not going to do it in your generation, but in the generation of your children. And then far down the line when people realize there is going to be no king who is going to be faithful, he sent another king as an act of his grace. And that was Jesus. Because God realized that the wisdom you and I need is not mere knowledge. The wisdom you and I need is a person. And that person was Jesus. And he's revealing something through these kings. The tallest king failed. The most upright king was also not perfect. King David, the most wise king did not end well. We need a better king who will be more powerful than Saul, who is more righteous than David, and who is more wiser than Solomon. And that's our king Jesus. And this king exuberates grace. He's the king both David and Solomon saw and write psalms. Wrote psalms in proverbs. David needed grace and he went to this king and received grace. God revealed Christ to him in psalms. And so we have these messianic psalms. Almost every psalm in this book of psalms is a messianic psalm as a glimpse of the savior Jesus Christ. And David got to experience that in his life. Solomon needed grace. And God revealed Christ to him as the real wisdom. And he wrote about wisdom in the book of proverbs to his children that they don't repeat the mistakes that he did especially giving their hearts to other women. And as we read read through all the other kings, we will see how most of them fail. They fail God, failed the people and are in desperate need of grace. But God did not change his plan just because the kings he picked failed him. The plan he revealed to Abraham and to David that he will be their God and they will be his people and he will bring a king in the line of David. Though David fell Solomon himself was a choice of grace and in the line of David and Solomon came Jesus and this king Solomon was a son who was born out of bedlock as an illegitimate son. But this King Jesus will be born of a virgin fulfilling God's covenantal plan not just for the nation of Israel but for all nations to bring them to God and for them to know God is with them. And that's why Paul says Christ has become for us unto us wisdom and righteousness. But because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us the wisdom from God, namely our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And what you and I need, all we need is Christ. We don't need anything else. He is our wisdom. You know what that means? When he is our wisdoms means you can relax. Anything else becomes the source of your wisdom, you can lose it. You can lose your job. You can lose your money. You can even lose your children. But when Jesus is your wisdom and you make him someone to submit yourself to as your king, he's never going to leave you. He's going to be wise for you. If you make a mistake, he will weave it in. He will weave it into your life pattern so he brings you into the place where you need to be. If you really understand the true king is your wisdom, you'll you'll relax. You are free to make your best decision to do the best you can. Pray to him and don't be paralyzed anymore. Wait till you see how much easier it is. This wisdom, this Jesus says you can come to him. God does not give us a watertight argument. When he gives us wisdom, he gives us a watertight person. God does not give us a set of concepts. When he gives us wisdom, he gives us a person. So come to him, know him who says, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. My yoke is easy and my burden is light." Because this king truly desires the best for you. This king truly will accomplish his best in you and through you. Let me close with a few illustrations, applications for us as we look back at these three kings. The legacy the king left behind, the wisdom a king sought after, and the grace that we receive in our savior Jesus Christ. You know, for parents or even grandparents, your children don't need perfect parents. They need parents who model repentance, who walk in faith and consistently point to Jesus. What spiritual patterns are they observing in your home? Are you more focused on passing down success strategies or spiritual legacies? You know, make intentional space for scripture, prayer, testimony in your home rhythms. And if you're not married and if you're young, remember your legacy is not your LinkedIn profile, but your lifelong posture toward God. What would your co-workers or friends say your walk looks like? You can begin now. Who are you discipling or mentoring or encouraging to follow Jesus? Spiritual legacy starts before you are in a spotlight. And for all of us, may I ask us to evaluate our prayer life? What is our prayer mostly about? Are we asking for comfort or for God's attribute and character to shape our calling? Do our prayers reflect God's kingdom purpose or just our daily pressures or this king that we are serving that we want to bend God to give us this king like the Israelites were so stubborn about whether it's work or or marriage or or money. And for those of you who are still students, may I remind you to pursue wisdom and not GPA or career paths. Biblical wisdom helps you discern not just what is good but what is God's best. Seek mentors in your life who can model spiritual discernment and ask more who do I want to become rather than what do I want to do. And for those of us who feel we have messed up that we have given over to these other kings in our life and are feeling the pain and the effects of what of that you feel like if you have failed like David or if you have doubted like Solomon grace isn't given to those who earn it. It's poured out to those who know they can. So come to this Jesus, the greater king who restores what you thought was beyond repair. Don't let your strength become your savior. You need Christ more than success. Let's not live for temporary victories, but for the eternal reign of the King of grace, Jesus Christ. Shall we pray?