Part IIIBalance

Balance• 1 Chronicles 22:5 (KJV) • 2 Chronicles 1:7-12 (NLT)• Wisdom and understanding was not only

to build the Temple but to live right before God in order to lead righteously.

• Nehemiah 13:23-26 (NKJV)

Balance• Don’t be unequally yoked you are going to

end up shipwrecked! It does not look that way or feel that way now, but look at what Nehemiah said – “Nevertheless pagan women caused even him to sin.”

• When I use the gift upon myself, upon my desires, upon my lusts and wants. I will end up shipwrecked.

Balance• The gift of wisdom and understanding was

never intended to study folly! It was for him to walk in the fear of the Lord and lead Israel righteously.

• Solomon took the gift and created a wealth that went outside the balanced life God had for him to an EXTREME.

• Solomon’s life’s experience went beyond the point of balance to Extremes!

Balance• Ecclesiastes 3: 9-10 (NKJV)• Genesis 3:17-19 (NLT) • It is in balance God protects us from

extremes and being shipwrecked.• For every blessing there is an appointed

time; a right time for that activity to flourish in your life while you live on earth.

Balance• At one point in Solomon’s life he went past

having balance. When you use the gift and push back against God’s balance for our lives, we end up shipwrecked and life is unsatisfying and meaningless.

• God has put balance there to protect us.• Deuteronomy 32:39• Ecclesiastes 3:1-8• Ecclesiastes 3:12-15 • 1 Timothy 6:6

Scriptures

1 Chronicles 22:5 (KJV)5 David said, Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands. I will therefore make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.

2 Chronicles 1:7-12 (NLT)7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” 8 Solomon replied to God, “You showed great and faithful love to David, my father, and now you have made me king in his place. 9 O LORD God, please continue to keep your promise to David my father, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth! 10 Give me the wisdom and knowledge to lead them properly, for who could possibly govern this great people of yours?”

2 Chronicles 1:7-12 (NLT)11 God said to Solomon, “Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you did not ask for wealth, riches, fame, or even the death of your enemies or a long life, but rather you asked for wisdom and knowledge to properly govern my people— 12 I will certainly give you the wisdom and knowledge you requested. But I will also give you wealth, riches, and fame such as no other king has had before you or will ever have in the future!”

Nehemiah 13:23-26 (NKJV) 23 In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people. 25 So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves.

Nehemiah 13:23-26 (NKJV) 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God; and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless pagan women caused even him to sin.

Ecclesiastes 3: 9-10 (NKJV)9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.

Genesis 3:17-19 (NLT) 17 And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. 19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”

Deuteronomy 32:39 (NKJV)39 ‘Now see that I, even I, am He,

And there is no God besides Me;I kill and I make alive;I wound and I heal;Nor is there any who can deliver from My

hand.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NLT)1 For everything there is a season,

a time for every activity under heaven.2 A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.3 A time to kill and a time to heal.

A time to tear down and a time to build up.4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.

A time to grieve and a time to dance.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NLT)5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.

A time to keep and a time to throw away.7 A time to tear and a time to mend.

A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NLT)8 A time to love and a time to hate.

A time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-15 (NKJV) 12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God. 14 I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him. 15 That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been; And God requires an account of what is past.

1 Timothy 6:6 (NKJV)6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.