This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday, and I want to welcome you to the start of our
study of First Kings in Drive Time Devotions. As we walk through First Kings,
we're going to see how God can work in the realities of your daily life, helping
you to understand what to do, giving you wisdom, giving you direction, giving
you leadership. There's also a couple of books that are about the kind of
miracles that God wants to work in our lives, the kind of leadership that he can
give into our daily lives.

There are also books that are filled with warnings about what it means to go the
wrong direction, but also the greatness of what it means to go the right
direction in life. As we look through these two books, as usual in our Old
Testament books, which are longer, instead of going a chapter a week, we're
going to go mostly a chapter a day as we go through First and Second Kings,
looking at the lives of Solomon and of Elijah and Elisha and all the kings of
Israel, the great kings of Israel and the not-so-great kings of Israel. As we
start out in First Kings, First Kings chapter 1, if you just come into this from
studying 1 and 2 Samuel, you know that David is dying, and in this first
chapter, David's dying, Israel needs a new king, it's a time of transition.

And one of the big questions of this first chapter is, how do they get the right
person in charge? We're going to see this happen in the first few chapters of
this book. As you look at this principle, how do you get the right person in
charge?

There's an application here for ministries and companies, families, anybody that
has leadership issues, making sure you have the right person in charge,
especially if your ministry or your company is changing leadership. There are
real principles here for you in how to walk through that. But there's also a
personal application here, because the truth is, I need the right person in
charge of my life.

You need the right person in charge of your life. We need Jesus in charge. So
how do you get Jesus in charge of your life on a daily basis?

We're going to look at both of those applications as we walk through this today,
but we're going to focus on the second one. How do you get Jesus in charge of
your life on a daily basis? Wouldn't you like to feel more in charge in a sense
of your own life, your responsibilities, your finances, your job, your family,
your emotions?

How do you take charge of your life? By putting Jesus in charge of your life.
That's the simple way that it happens.

And there's some simple principles here in 1 Kings chapter 1 for how that
happens in our lives. In 1 Kings 1 and 2, Solomon is led by God to take charge
of an entire kingdom. And the circumstances and the advice that you see here
gives you and I some important clues about how we can allow Jesus to continue to
be in charge of our lives.

Three simple principles we're going to look at together. Principle number one is
you have to quickly get rid of the pretenders. Quickly get rid of those who
would pretend to be in charge, pretend to be capable of being in charge.

Listen to what happens in beginning in verse 5 down through verse 10 of 1 Kings
chapter 1. Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggath, put himself forward and said,
"I will be king. " So he got chariots and horses ready and 50 men to run ahead
of him.

His father had never interfered with him by asking, "Why do you behave as you
do? " He was also very handsome and he was born next after Absalom. Adonijah
conferred with Joab son of Zariah and with Abiathar the priest and then they
gave him their support.

But Zadok the priest, Baniah son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, Shammai
and Reh, and David's special guard did not join Adonijah. Adonijah then
sacrificed sheep, cattle, and fattened calves at the stone of Zorothel near El
Rogal and he invited all of his brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of
Judah who were royal officials. But he did not invite Nathan the prophet of
Baniah or the special guard or his brother Solomon.

So here's this brother, this older brother of Solomon deciding he's going to
take charge. He decides it's for him to do. Nobody had ever told him not to do
anything these verses say.

So he just decides, "I'm going to be the one. " And he was a pretender to the
throne. God had chosen Solomon.

He's already said that, but he's pretending that he's going to be in charge.
Adonijah here maneuvers and positions and conspires to be in charge. There's a
basic truth here.

Wherever there is a throne, someone will conspire. Someone will clamor to sit
upon it, many times the wrong person. In a business, the wrong person will try
to take charge, motivated by pride or hurt or money or whatever.

Same thing can happen in a ministry, even in a family if somebody isn't taking
charge. It's also true in your personal life. In your personal life, if you
don't recognize that Jesus is the one who has to take charge, there's this
throne in every one of our lives, in our hearts, and someone else is going to
try to take charge.

The pretenders to the throne of your heart, they are your emotions, letting them
take charge instead of Jesus, or your sense of self-image, what other people
think of you, or money, or desires. Any God-given desire can be twisted to gain
control of your life. It can become the throne of your life, what guides your
life.

Pleasing other people can be the most important thing in your life. It can be
the thing that guides and controls your life. The ultimate pretender is Satan.

He pretended that he could take God's throne in heaven, and he was thrown out of
heaven for it, and he's been looking for thrones to sit upon ever since he was
cast out. He's trying to sit on the throne of your life through one of these
things. Solomon's example is very clear in these verses.

You have to haul off the pretenders. He very clearly deals with his brother
Adonijah. He very clearly shows that he is the pretender and shows himself to be
king.

If you don't decide who's going to be in charge, other things will inevitably
quietly slide in to take charge. If you're to be in charge of a situation, a
family, a business, a ministry, you've got to get the pretenders out of the way.
You have to do it in the right kind way.

You're not going to do it like King Solomon did here. He did it a little bit
differently than we might in today's world, but you are going to patiently make
sure that people know who's in charge, who's supposed to be the leader. Same
thing's true of your heart.

If you don't make a choice about who's going to be in charge of your life, a
clear choice that Jesus, the one who's meant to be in charge, these other things
are going to slip in. They try to do it all the time. This is a constant choice
you have to make to haul off the pretenders, to get them out of the way, off of
the throne of your life.

Selfishness is not controlling my life. Jesus is the one I want to control my
life. First step, get rid of the pretenders quickly, as quickly as you can.

Second step is you have to clearly recognize the leader. You can't just hope
somebody's going to know who the leader is. You have to recognize the leader
very clearly.

Listen to how this happens beginning in verse 28 down through verse 35. "Then
King David said, 'Call in Bathsheba. ' So she came into the king's presence and
stood before him.

And the king then took an oath, 'As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered
me out of every trouble, I will surely carry out today what I swore to you by
the Lord, the God of Israel. Solomon, your son, shall be king after me. He will
sit on my throne in my place.

' And then Bathsheba bowed low with her face to the ground and kneeling before
the king said, 'May my Lord King David live forever. ' King David said, 'Call in
Zadok, the priest, and Nathan, the prophet, and Baniah, the son of Jehoiada. '
And when they came before the king, he said to them, 'Take the Lord's servants
with you and set Solomon, my son, on my own mule and take him down to Gion.

' And there have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over
Israel. Blow the trumpet and shout, 'Long live King Solomon. ' Then you're to go
up with him and he's to come and sit on my throne and to reign in my place.

I have appointed him ruler over Israel and Judah. " There is no doubt here when
you hear what David says. He clearly recognizes the leader.

You announce it out loud. You recognize who is in charge. You don't just haul
off the pretenders.

You haul out the trumpets. You blow them loud and clear and you let everybody
know. Nathan recognizes the problem here.

Solomon should be in charge and he brings it to David and because of that, David
takes all of these actions. He appoints Solomon as the ruler. Now, in your life,
in my life, you have the opportunity to appoint Jesus as ruler of your life
every day with every decision and every attitude, 'Jesus your Lord.

' And then Nathan anoints Solomon as king. David asks him to do that. It was the
priest's duty to recognize God's hand upon a new king's life, on a new king's
rule.

In your life, in my life, part of making Jesus the king in your life is to
recognize that he has anointed your life for a special purpose. He has anointed
you to make a difference in this world. And then that news was announced to
everyone.

You don't say, "Jesus Christ, I want you to be the Lord of my life," and then
don't tell anybody. What does that mean? That means you don't really mean it.

It means you don't really want to live it. You're leaving yourself an out if
nobody else really knows. You think, "If I tell everybody, then they're going to
look at me when I make a mistake and say, 'Well, you're sure not a perfect
Christian.

' Well, just announce it from the beginning. 'Hey, I'm not a perfect Christian.
I'm going to make some mistakes, but Jesus is the Lord of my life and he's going
to be growing my life the rest of my life.

'" You don't have to announce your perfection. Please don't do that because
you're not perfect, I'm not perfect, but you can announce who your Lord is, who
your leader is. Jesus is the Lord.

So you announce it clearly. And then the third thing that you do for leadership
to happen is you have to daily depend on God. You quickly get rid of the
pretenders, you clearly announce the leader, and then daily you depend on God.

Listen to what happens in 1 Kings chapter 2 verses 1 to 4, this exchange between
David and Solomon. "When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge
to Solomon his son. 'I'm about to go the way of all the earth,' he said.

So be strong, show yourself to be a man, and observe what the Lord your God
requires. Walk in his ways and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and
requirements, as written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all
that you do and wherever you go, and that the Lord may keep his promise to me.
If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me
with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne
of Israel.

'" David brings his son Solomon in and he brings this final charge to him as
someone who's going to be serving God. He says, "If you're going to serve God,
you have to trust God. You cannot serve God apart from that trust.

" When you look at your life, when you and I talk about how you and I get the
right person in charge of our life, it's not a one-time decision. It is a
one-time beginning to begin a relationship with Christ, but then it's a daily
decision to trust him in that relationship. And in this simple charge that David
gives to his son, there's advice for my life, your life, every day of our lives.

Be strong, he says. You need the Lord's strength. If you're going to live the
Lord's will for your life, you need his strength.

Don't fool yourself. If you're going to take up Christ's leadership in your
life, it's going to require more strength than you have. You're going to need
his strength.

And then David says, "Listen to what the Lord requires. You need God's
direction. What direction do you want me to go, Lord?

" And many times that's going to come through his word or through other
believers, through an impression that the Holy Spirit brings into your heart.
You need God's direction to live out God's decision for your life. And then he
says, "You need to be wise.

" And twice in verses 6 to 9, David recognizes Solomon as a man of wisdom as he
tells him how to deal with his enemies. You need God's wisdom in your life. And
in fact, we're going to focus on that need for God's wisdom these next few days.

It's one of the hallmarks of Solomon's life, how that wisdom needs to be a part
of my life. When you get down to chapter 2 verse 12, the Bible says Solomon was
the king of Israel. He's definitely in charge.

But in this dual look at this, how do you put the right person in charge of a
business? I want to end by looking at the second thing we've been looking at all
the way through. How do you make sure that Jesus is in charge of your life?

And I just ask you, is Jesus definitely in charge right now? If he's not, you
can recognize his strength, his power. You can recognize that he is the one
that's to be in charge.

Let's do that together right now in prayer. Just say, Jesus, you're the one in
charge, Jesus, you're the Lord. There is nothing else, no one else who has my
best interest at heart, who loves me like you do, who knows eternity like you
do, who has a plan for my life like you do.

But Lord, I don't want to try to be in charge of what you're doing in my life. I
know that you're the one that needs to be in charge. So I recognize you as the
Lord, as the leader of my life.

And I pray, I pray for your strength. I pray for your direction and I pray for
your wisdom. I ask for it in Jesus' name, amen.