How to Bring a Good Man Down … and Back Again

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. One of my favorite country groups, Alabama, used to have this song, You Can't Bring a Good Man Down. First Kings chapter 11 would beg to differ. Some of the greatest men in history, including the wisest one to ever live, have been brought down. And this is the story of how it happens.

You may not have the same things going on in your life that Solomon had in his, but these same patterns are going to exist in your life. Thanks for joining us today for Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. You know, the Hoover Dam is one of the most impressive feats of modern engineering. All that water held back by this one structure.

And yet all it takes is one little crack being overlooked and the entire thing could come tumbling down. Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer reveals that the same can be true in our lives. No matter how good and holy you might look on the outside, it only takes one little area of hidden sin to bring everything crashing down.

So how do we make sure that doesn't happen? Let's join Pastor J.D. for a sobering message called How to Bring a Good Man Down and Back Again.

First Kings chapter 11. And as you're turning there, I'll tell you that every time I'm flipping through the channels and I come across one of those where are they now kind of shows, I feel like I just have to stop and watch. You know, the where are they now is some star music or acting that was just the cat's meow for a while. And then you just haven't heard of them for forever. And you're like, what happened to them? Here's somebody who had it all.

And then it just fell apart. And usually I didn't even realize the person was gone until the show told me that they hadn't been around. But I'm like, you know, now that you mention it, where is Meg Ryan? And I haven't seen Emilio Estevez in any movies recently.

Are they even still alive? One of my favorites in this category is Daniel LaRusso, who is the hero of the second greatest movie in our nation's history, The Karate Kid. I have been waiting for years to let my kids in on the magical moment that is Karate Kid. And so finally this year at spring break, I felt like my kids were all old enough. And so we watched it together. And at first my kids were like, wait, dad, what is this old movie? Old movies are dumb and boring. But I said, I am your daddy and I know what's best for you.

So sit down and be quiet. And as we pressed on, they fell underneath the spell and they were like, dad, this is fantastic. And for the next week or two, they were doing the wax on wax off stuff all over the house. And then one of them saw on Amazon, the Amazon prime videos, they saw that little recommendation thing that said, we saw that you liked such and such. If you like such and such, you'll definitely like Karate Kid 2. And they were like, dad, we've got to watch Karate Kid 2, which of course is not as good as the first one, but you know, it's still the case.

So we did. And then one day Allie, who is my 12 year old daughter, she came home and said, dad, did you know there's a Karate Kid 3? Dad, we have got to watch Karate Kid 3. And I said, sweetheart, I would have to hate a person pretty severely in order to inflict on them Karate Kid 3. Karate Kid 3 was one of the worst disappointments of my life. So we're not watching Karate Kid 3 and I stand by that decision. But Daniel LaRusso was actually the character's name.

The actor's name is apparently Ralph Macchio, which still doesn't sound right to me. In fact, that was his issue in life is that he never could shake the fact that he was the Karate Kid. And so he could never get any future acting gigs because everybody would only see him as the Karate Kid. Interestingly, his nemesis in the movie, Johnny Lawrence, had the same exact problem, but Johnny just rolled with it.

Johnny got plenty of further acting spots, but it was always as a cameo of his former tough guy self, including a cameo in a Wings commercial that he's in right now. Well, whenever I hear about these where are they now types of shows, I always want to ask, and this is what you want to ask and it's why you want to watch, what happened? I mean, one minute they had it all and then suddenly it all comes unraveled. Well, see, that's exactly what happened in the life of Solomon, the man who had it all. And chapter 11 is Solomon's story of where and how it all went wrong. So 1 Kings chapter 11, let's read it together.

I'll read it to you here. Verse 1, King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh's daughter. He loved Moabite women and Ammonite women and Edonite and Sidonian and Hittite women from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 17, 17, you must not intermarry with them and they must not intermarry with you because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods. To these women, Solomon was deeply attached in love.

He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 who were concubines and they turned his heart away. When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians and Milkom, the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the Lord's sight and unlike his father David, he did not remain loyal to the Lord. At that time, Solomon built a high place, which was just a place where they would worship from for Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab and for Milkom, the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites.

He did the same for all of his foreign wives who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods. The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice. Now when you're reading this through in the story of Solomon, this chapter seems to come out of nowhere. I mean you're rolling to the story of Solomon and you're reading about glory and wisdom and devotion to God and success and then suddenly, chapter 11, disaster. And you read this and you're like a thousand wives? I mean I thought this guy was the wisest man who ever lived.

I'm not even that smart and I know that's not a good idea. And we tend to think of Solomon as the man who fell because I mean what was wrong with him? He must have been a sex addict, right? I mean if you've got a thousand wives that is some serious libido.

I'm not even sure honestly if it's physiologically possible. How do you even keep up with all the anniversaries and the birthdays? Can you even remember all their names? I mean sometimes I'll run into people out in the community. You go to our church and you know our church is kind of large and so I'll recognize their face and I'll be like do you go to our church? And I'm always embarrassed by that because I feel like I should know their name and but they're always super gracious and they're like oh we know our church is big and you know yes I go to the church.

Solomon did that with his wives. Like hey am I married to you? Are you my wife? I can't remember.

What's your name? And you're like what's wrong with this guy? But see there's a lot more going on here than just a lust for exotic women. In ancient times kings would marry daughters of other kings as a way of guaranteeing peace between the two countries. I mean the idea was that if I was married to your daughter then you would be much less likely to come and attack my house if your daughter is living in my house. And so I mean do you notice there in verse three how the writer clarified that of these thousand women 700 of them were princesses? It means they were daughters of the kings of surrounding nations.

I mean when you go to a new place you collect like a souvenir of you know like a coin or a shot glass or something. Solomon brought back wives, king's daughters. That was kind of the way he stayed connected with the world. But the point is these wives were more about security for him than they were about sex. The problem with all this was that God had explicitly told Israel in Deuteronomy 17 that they weren't supposed to do this because he said you don't need treaties with other nations to guarantee your security. I'll be your security. You don't need all this.

Just trust in me. But see Solomon wasn't satisfied with just the promises of God. Solomon felt like he needed a little extra insurance and here's what happened. Gradually Solomon grew attached to these women and they turned his heart away. For most of these wives Solomon built them their own palace and in that palace they would erect an altar to whatever God they'd worship back in their home country.

Over time Solomon went from merely tolerating the existence of these idols to actively participating in the worship of them. And so what I want to do is I want to use this story to highlight for you the things that would bring a good man, even the world's wisest man, things that would bring him down. You know one of my favorite country groups Alabama used to have this song you can't bring a good man down. First Kings chapter 11 would beg to differ. Some of the best men in history, men that are greater than you and I could probably ever hope to be. Some of the greatest men in history including the wisest one to ever live have been brought down and this is the story of how it happens. You may not have the same things going on in your life that Solomon had in his but these same patterns, five patterns, are going to exist in your life. By the way ladies please don't let the phrasing of my points throw you. These are as applicable to you as women as they are to men but because Solomon is a man I'm going to phrase them as this is what a good man is brought down by.

There are five of them and then I got two kind of wrap up things at the end going to wrap up the whole series. So number one we see from this story that a good man is brought down first by disbelief in God's promises. Like I pointed out, Solomon's first problem was not out of control sexual lust. His first problem was that he didn't trust God enough to fully rely on him. In fact if you want to think about it this way 70% of his problem was unbelief and only 30% of his problem was lust because of his 1,000 wives 700 of them were political marriages not sexually motivated.

Now that is almost always the case. The root core of all sin is unbelief. If you peel back the layers of any area of sin or compromise in your life there you're going to find the core the sin of unbelief. When I talk to high school students which I've done several times this summer who will not offer up their lives fully to Jesus I always tell them I always tell them it's really a belief problem. So you think that following Jesus is going to make you miserable.

That's the real question that you got to deal with. Is Jesus trustworthy of the offering of your life? Can you trust Jesus with all these areas that you're afraid of? In whatever area of your life you're not fully obeying God it's because that's an area where you are afraid of being let down in that area and you don't really feel like you can trust anybody else with it except for yourself.

And that's what limits your obedience in that area. I often tell high school students to illustrate this. I tell them it's similar to the first time that I went rappelling. The first time I went rappelling I was the instructor gets me up on top a hanging rock and it's a 75 foot wall we're supposed to rappel down.

I've never done anything like this. I'm kind of scared of heights but I was scared to tell anybody that I was scared of heights so I'm just up there and he's like he's like I need you to lean back and if you've ever done this you know that's like the last thing that's on your mind just like I don't want to lean back. I'm standing here in this rock and you're telling me to lean back and just fall to my death and he's like just trust me you can do it. And so I stood there for at least five minutes and just could not move. And I remember like asking Jesus to come back in my heart. I remember doing this just in case those guys were right. I was like I don't leave anything undone here. And eventually I you know I kind of leaned back because I felt like my manhood was on the line and I leaned back and you know sort of you get the split second where it just sort of like and all of a sudden you catch and I was like it's not that bad and he's like all right now I need you to jump and so I worked up all my courage and jump with all my might and I went down like two inches you know sort of and just I just did two inches all the way down the mountain that was my first experience rappelling.

Well right after me was my best friend who I say best friend he was better looking than I was he was more athletic girls liked him a whole lot better I hated this kid but he he's my best friend but he was really scared of heights and he I could see him from where I was standing on the ground I could look about I could see him just like shaking and I knew what the guy was saying to him because I'd just been through it and for 10 minutes he just stood there and eventually after 10 minutes of not moving eventually I saw him take his leg and reach it down the rock and find like a foothold and then another and he starts slithering down the face of the mountain. Now as he's working his way down that's not rappelling you know that it's just rock climbing he's got the rope as kind of a safety net well he gets to a point where you know the rock is not like this anymore it's now kind of inverted and unless you're like a serious professional climber you can't climb down an inverted you know inverted rock face and so he kind of hovers there for a minute and he's looking around and so eventually he turns around and he crawls back because there comes a point if you're not willing to trust the rope there comes a point at which you just can't go any farther and that's a picture of why a lot of people never make it all the way with Jesus they've got him in their lives as a safety net I mean he's here to take me to heaven he's here to I call out to him when things are going wrong but the reason you can't get over these difficult parts of obedience is because you've never really learned to trust the rope to begin with you've never let go control of your life and said God all of it my marriage all of it you're trustworthy and I can trust you with the things that that scare me the most. Thanks for listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. If you want to know more about this ministry visit us online at jdgreer.com.

You know what? We appreciate you. Yes, you are listeners.

It's an honor for us to be able to be a source of encouragement for you each day. And did you know that these Summit Life broadcasts are only one of the ways that you can keep up with Pastor J.D. 's ministry? Now if you're like me I spend a good amount of time on my phone.

Okay, maybe too much time. Did you know that you can follow Pastor J.D. on social media?

Why not get some biblical insight as you scroll? Just search for Pastor J.D. Greer on Facebook, at Pastor J.D. Greer on Instagram, and at J.D.

Greer on X, formerly known as Twitter. Follow along on all your favorite social media platforms and stay up to date with this ministry while filling up your timeline with encouragement from God's word. Now let's get back to today's teaching right here on Summit Life. Whatever area of your life you are not obeying God in is an area you just don't trust Him in. Let me tell you some of the biggest ones that I see as a pastor.

Here's number one, romance. You just feel like, I can't do it God's way because God's gonna mess that up. I gotta take this into my hands. So I'm gonna date somebody that sent me dating or we're not gonna do it on God's timing or whatever. A second way I see a lot is money. People feel like, well I just don't know if I can trust what God says about money and so yeah I know He says to give Him the first and the best and Christians usually you know in the Bible interpret that as at least the first 10 percent but no I'm not gonna do that because what happens if we go through a rainy day?

What happens if I have a bill I can't pay? How can I actually be happy in life if I take a 10 or 20 percent reduction in my expendable income in the month? And I know what God says about how He'll multiply and bless me but I just don't know if I really trust that with something that important. You just don't really trust Him that's why you can't get over that hurdle of obedience.

Does that make sense? Here's another one, forgiveness. I see it happen a lot. Somebody's like I know God wants me to forgive. I know that but but if I forgive them then they're never really going to understand how bad they hurt me and I'm just going to get hurt again. And so I'm going to have to hold on to this bitterness because I don't trust God enough to do what He says.

Or maybe life throws a curveball at you and all of a sudden you get laid off from the job or you get cut from the squad or you don't get into the school or you get an unexpected medical diagnosis and your first impulse is God doesn't have a plan. He fell asleep or it's not a good plan and so you kind of take back control of your life and you live angry at Him because you just don't know if you can trust Him if you can trust Him with that area. The question that I have for you is what happened to Solomon? Is it happening to you?

The root cause of all of Solomon's problems was not sexual lust. The root problem was he felt insecure and felt like he needed to hedge his bet by not letting God have control of an area. Where is that happening to you? Where have you not let go? Where can you not trust God? Where are you hedging your bet through small areas of compromise and not letting go of things that God's told you to let go of?

Closely tied to this one is number two. A good man is brought down by disregard for God's word. Disregard for God's word. 1 Kings 11 2 that we read shows you clearly that God said not to multiply wives. Again that's Deuteronomy 17 17 if you're taking notes. As we go through the rest of the chapter the part we didn't read that comes after chapter verse 14 you're going to see that the writer of Kings is going to show you a number of other things that Solomon did that were out of line with what God had told him to do. For example Deuteronomy 17 after telling the king not to multiply wives also says don't multiply gold in your house. Now if you've been paying attention to all the last few weeks you know that Solomon did just that right? I mean 1 Kings 10 tells us that every year Solomon collected about 25 tons of gold for himself and that everything in his house every article was made out of gold.

That sounds like multiplying gold to me. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. He probably thought well his commands are not that important.

He was like hey you know so I enjoy a few monies and honeys. It's not like I'm breaking one of the 10 commandments. But the danger of sin listen the danger of sin is not in how wicked or immoral a particular act is. The danger of sin is in the presence of the God you drive out through your sin.

Do you understand what I mean by that? We always evaluate sin by how immoral is the act and how much harm is it causing to others. But what if the real danger of sin was not in the immorality of the act or the harm it caused to others. What if the real danger of sin was in the presence of God that you drive out of your life when you reject his authority.

You see when you reject God's commands no matter how small you put yourself outside of his protection and that one area of compromise becomes the gateway through which the enemy can pour all kinds of destruction into your life. Imagine that you had a chance to buy a 5,000 square foot house at an incredible price. The previous owner said I want to give you this for half of what you buy it from anybody else. And there's one condition you're going to have every part of it all the property it's all yours all the updates it's beautiful. But there's one little nail in the foyer and I just want to retain control of that nail that's all I ask. That one little nail and you're like well it sounds pretty good I don't even you know have a need for that nail so yes you have sovereign control of that nail but I get everything else. And the owner says fine so you buy the house and then he hangs a diseased dead deer carcass from that nail. Right all of a sudden now that one little area has become something that spoils the entire house. Well that's exactly what the enemy did with Solomon here.

He took this area these small areas and said that's the gateway that's the door through which I'm going to put spiritual death into your life. Where is that for you? Is it your relationships? Your money? Your friendships?

Your music? Where is he bringing spiritual death into your life because there's an area that you just haven't brought into conformity to God's word. Number three we see from Solomon's life here that a good man is brought down by disobedient friends.

Disobedient friends. Verse two tells us that when Solomon grew attached to these wives it was them that turned his heart away. Probably the single most important factor in your life in determining whether or not you will make it all the way with Jesus, listen to this, is who you choose to surround yourself with. I feel like I haven't talked about this enough in my ministry. I feel like I haven't talked about the importance of having the right community around you as being the right laboratory in which faith can grow and flourish. Ironically all the one who talks about this the best in the Bible is Solomon who toward the end of his life didn't heed his own advice but here's what he said Proverbs 13 20, he who walks with the wise will become wise but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

You know what that means? It means that the people closest to you that you walk with are wise you're going to become wise but if you choose to surround yourself with fools you're going to be destroyed like they're going to be destroyed. Here's why we say that, your friends are the future you. You want to know what you're going to look like in the future? Then look at your friends in the present. Your friends are the future you. You show me your friends and I'll predict your future. Well I've also heard it said this way, you will become the average of your five closest friends.

So go through your life right now and name your five closest friends to you. You're going to become an average of those five closest people to you. The most determining influence on your shape in the future according to Solomon are your companions in the present and this is one of those really practical things that people overlook. They get really motivated to become something great for God but because that decision never affects their friendships who they walk through life with their great intentions never become reality. One of my mentors in college used to tell me he's like JD it's never the big dreams that you dream it's always the small decisions you make. He was like you're a big dreamer you just have all these big plans what you're going to do for God but it's got to affect the small decisions.

It's not the big dreams it's the small decisions and the small decision is who you choose to make your community. And of course y'all there's probably no more important and influential friend you're ever going to have than your spouse. You know when I see a Christian intentionally pursue a romantic relationship with somebody who's not a Christian I just wonder I'm like do you know what you're doing to your future?

And they all say the same thing back actually they don't verbalize it but this is what they're thinking like oh I'm the exception. I really like this person and I am confident that I can change them. Learn from Solomon. I mean scripture is clear equally clear with you right? Second Corinthians 6 14 do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

Unequally yoked means you're not in a relationship with them that's exclusive like a romantic relationship. It's very clear that believers should only marry in the Lord. Just as with Solomon if you disobey this then you are going to bring down destruction on yourself. That for many of you is the one nail the one nail that the enemy still has control of that he is going to use to pour all kinds of spiritual disease into your life. I know you say back to me like but I know I know couples where this is work she wasn't she was saved and he wasn't and man she led him to Christ.

Yes God's grace is amazing but I'm going to tell you that you cannot willfully flout God's rules and then look to him to fix everything that is mocking him not trusting him and God will not be mocked. Solomon counsels us and counsel that he would disobey and ultimately destroy himself through. Solomon counsels us the righteous man is cautious with his friendships. He's cautious with his friendships especially his marriage. He's saying your most intimate acquaintances ought to be believers because you will inevitably become like them.

Do you really want to gamble with the rest of your life? This was a sobering reminder from Pastor JD Greer and Summit Life. To hear this message again or to catch up on previous messages in this study of Solomon visit us online at jdgreer.com. JD it's not a secret that our gospel partners are the real heroes of this ministry so one more time this month can you tell us exactly what a gospel partner is and how to become one? Yeah Molly gospel partners are those individuals or families or couples that give on a monthly basis because they believe in the messages that we share here.

These messages have had an impact on them or their family and they want to have a role in helping other people here. What we're saying here is we share God's word. You can become a gospel partner today by going to the donate page on jdgreer.com and then selecting the monthly option. I just want to say that I personally and we here at Summit Life are so grateful for your commitment to the gospel for your generosity. We take the responsibility very seriously to be a wise steward of what you give and to make sure every bit of it is used for the purposes of getting the gospel to the ends of the earth. Well there you have it folks if you have been blessed by this ministry you can become a gospel partner today as we partner together to reach the lost around the world with the gospel and when you do we'll send you a copy of our latest monthly featured resource an eight part study in Psalm 23 that shares a name with our recent teaching series Goodness in the Middle and if you have any questions about what it looks like to become a gospel partner we would love to answer them. To learn more just give us a call at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vitovich inviting you to join us again next time as we take a good long look at our hearts to see if there's any secret sin we might be ignoring. It will be the challenging conclusion of our series called The Man Who Had It All, Friday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.