1 Kings 2:1-4 WHEN DAVID'S time to die was near, he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth. Be strong and show yourself a man; Keep the charge of the Lord your God, walk in His ways, keep His statutes, His commandments, His precepts, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may do wisely and prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, That the Lord may fulfill His promise to me, saying, If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and mind and with all their soul, there shall not fail you [to have] a man on the throne of Israel.
	This short passage is the counsel of King David to his son, his heir, Solomon, just before David died. He wanted to impart the most important aspect of his kingship to Solomon. He was a father, as we see in the first part of the passage, Be strong and show yourself a man. He wanted to see his son be a strong leader, a man of power and courage. But the focus of that strength was that Solomon would be strong in the Lord. He was to follow the precepts of the Lord. He was to walk in the way of the Lord, cherishing the law of the Lord. Solomon was admonished to be wise in the Lord, and to keep the testimony and the statutes of the Lord. He was instructed to walk before God with all his heart, with the totality of his mind, and with the full desire of his soul. All of this was in order that the promise of the Lord would be fulfilled, that the promised king of Israel, out of the house of David, would sit upon the throne. Solomon was to teach his sons the same course of action before the Lord, to serve Him with all their hearts, minds, and souls.
	In this passage, we see another of the great promises of God to His people, to us in Christ. There is a king of the lineage of David that is now and forever sitting upon the throne of the entire creation. That king is the Lord Jesus Christ. The first chapter of Matthew traces the line from which Jesus Christ was descended. It even begins with the proclamation, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Note that David is listed before Abraham, because of the promise of the royal lineage of Christ. That fact was primarily established, and then the promise to Abraham was fulfilled. 
	Solomon was receiving a great charge from David, from the Lord through the words of David. He was being instructed to love the Lord and the ways of the Lord with all his heart. He was being admonished to teach his sons of the Lord, and the manner in which they were to honor, obey, and cherish the Lord with all their hearts. This charge was vital so that the promise would find fulfillment. Even with the human frailty of the nature of man, we see in Mathew, that Christ did descend from that line of kings, and received the mantle of Lordship over all the creation of God. God kept His promise, despite the often recorded faithlessness of man.
	 This evening, I would like to look at the promises of God that are held within the scope of having our whole heart given unto God. There are a number of elements that the church needs to accept in line with the commitment of our hearts, our souls, our lives unto God. The church needs to be brought to the place of desiring the Lordship of Christ above all else in our lives. The focal point of our discussion will be centered, Lord willing, on what it means unto God that His Body of Believers, His Beloved, is completely desirous to see His glory established in the recognition of the fact that Jesus Christ is the King on the throne of all creation. 
	Deut 6:4-7 Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord [the only Lord]. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might. And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be [first] in your [own] minds and hearts; [then] You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the [minds and] hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. 
	First of all, let it be established that the admonition of David was not singly given to his son, Solomon. The Lord gave the same charge to all the people of His nation. We can not duck the full aspect of our duty unto God, by claiming that it doesn’t specifically apply to us. This call to whole heartedness unto God is especially for us as we walk on this earth as a testimony of the only true God, Lord of heaven and earth. So often, we might find ourselves arguing with the Lord as pertains to our daily walk. We read the scriptures faithfully, but we tend to look at them from the standpoint that they were great for the people of old, but now that we are sophisticated as a society, they no longer pertain. What a deceptive argument we throw before God concerning His Word of Life. We are fully instructed, and we know it deep within our beings, that we should love the Lord, completely, unreservedly, and willingly.
	This is where we tend to lose sight of the great call of God in our lives. We gave ourselves over to Him when we accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. We promised to live unto Him, to be identified with Him when we chose to be baptized. These were not empty promises made to someone to get them off our backs. No, we were very serious at these momentous times of our life. Our choice was set in the desire after the Lord to be our life. He did not take these actions lightly. He did not just account them to emotional whim and fancy that fly hither and yon with the wind. God was absolutely earnest in His call of us, and we were utterly prostrate before Him in our response to His call. We wanted Him above all else, and that is what He still desires from us. He expects us to honor the vow that we made in His presence to be completely unto Him.
	As His church, His Body of Believers, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to show us the areas that we are holding back from God. We need to have those hidden desires which are not in line with the glory of God exposed and removed from us. We need to see that every desire of our being must be Him and Him Alone. The glory of God is seen when we, His people, all His body throughout the world, are living lives that completely are unto Him, unreservedly.
	That is the key aspect, don’t you see - Unreservedly. Without any thought or premise of our own grandeur. Always, always the focus of our entire essence placed upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Impossible, you might huff! Will never happen, might be the stubborn response. I can’t afford to indulge these fanciful words when the reality is that I have to work, that I have to live in the real world! Ah yes, the real world. It’s the so called real world that hits us in the face every Monday morning, and takes our complete attention throughout the week. It so drains us that we look to Sunday as a day of release from the cares heaped upon us at work, at school, in the real world.
	Oh how deceived we are in our complete lack of faith, in our ignorance, in our self-assured deception. Yes, deception. That’s what it is. The real world is a façade of the elements of this age to draw away the full heart of humanity from the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There is a real world, of that we can be absolutely certain. But, the real world of truth is the spiritual truth, the spiritual realm in which God is absolutely in charge of our lives. Some of us can rest to a point in that. Some of us can see beyond the veils that are trying to disguise the worldly elements for what they really are. It is because of this deception, that we need to have the Holy Spirit open our eyes to what the real world is, a spiritual struggle for the hearts, the souls, and the attention of man. This age seeks to bind mankind in chains of slavery to self. It is trying to eliminate the glory of God in the people Whom He created for that precise purpose. It is using all the arguments and lies of this age to deflect the attention of those whose hearts should be completely after the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Completely unto Him! That is the call to the church that was raised, even in the Old Testament. The verse of Deuteronomy is not a fable of old. It is the spiritual battle cry to wake up. See what’s going on in the real world. Recognize that without the power of the living Christ in our lives, we would be dead in sin and trespasses. We would be as dead as the so called real world that is trying to capture our hearts. These hearts were made by God for a very fixed purpose. They were made into malleable flesh in order that He could make them the recipients of His very Spirit of life. They are to be wholly unto Him, completely desiring to be filled with all the fullness of God Alone. Call to the Lord, with all our hearts. Let us seek Him to bring into being the desire to be wholly unto Him in the lives that we live, especially in the so called real world that is in such desperate need of the freeing power of Christ.
Ps 119:1-3 BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, to be envied) are the undefiled (the upright, truly sincere, and blameless) in the way [of the revealed will of God], who walk (order their conduct and conversation) in the law of the Lord (the whole of God's revealed will). Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are they who keep His testimonies, and who seek, inquire for and of Him and crave Him with the whole heart. Yes, they do no unrighteousness [no willful wandering from His precepts]; they walk in His ways.
Our concern should not be the consequences of living our lives as unto Christ in this world. We should be concerned with the consequences of not living completely unto the Lord. The consequences of not being completely set upon serving Him with all our heart, and soul and spirit. As the church is the living witness of Christ to the deceived of this age, we should be very wary of how we are seen by the people in our lives - spouses, children, parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, workmates, schoolmates, buddies, enemies, acquaintances and strangers. There are countless eyes peering at our lives, critically inspecting every facet of our beings, looking for every flaw and every indiscretion. In that light, we are gravely in danger of casting our testimony into the dusty trail of our walk on this earth. Our careless disregard for the things of God is a focal point of the sneers of this world. Thank God, that even when we make a mistake, He is faithful to cover and to keep us unto Himself. In guarding us, and in guarding His testimony, God has freed us from the anxiety of trying to be perfect. We must seek to have God show us His way, and then walk in it by the instruction of the Holy Spirit, in obedience to the Word of God. 
Cast aside the deception that has placed blinders on our eyes, and look to Christ Jesus. See Him in all His splendor and power.  Come into the living realization that He is the focus of all the glory of God. Please become conscious of the truth that in Him alone is any hope in this world. In Him alone is there any freedom from the wrath of this age. In Him Alone will we find peace and comfort and joy everlasting. In Him Alone will we find life. This age tries to ensnare with its tawdry delights which serve only to disappoint time and time again. Because of their falseness, they can never be more that flash and mirrors. In Christ, however, we have the eternal joyfulness of the Lord that can never be dimmed nor faded with the passage of the ages. He is new and He is fresh in all His mercy and grace, day in and day out. We all need to learn to live in Him constantly, every moment of every day, for His glory to be evidenced in our lives.
 Prov 3:5+6 Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. Maybe we are a bit overwhelmed with the call of the wholeheartedness with which we are to serve the Lord. We have seen the love that is ours in Christ, and should be returned willingly unto Him. We have considered the act of our obedience in the desire to be the willing and gracious servants of Christ. We are His testimony to this earth which is ensnared in its self-deceit. Fortunately, we now have the promise of God to be our wisdom and our understanding. We are enabled, in our seeking after the Holy Spirit, to know the way that would best please God as we walk through the years of our short, physical life. There is an understanding that matures within us, a spiritual understanding that is planted by the Holy Spirit, to see His hand in action. This is in nowise to try to claim any ability to see the future or to elevate us as spiritually more advanced. Hardly. True wisdom, born of the Spirit, understands the ways of God. It sees the consequences of the choices that are not pleasing to God. It rejoices in the revealed love of God as He manifests Himself in the large and the small aspects of His grace in our lives. Spiritual wisdom opens the door to our being able to know the compassion of God as we are dealing with others. He develops in us sensitivity to the things of God. He shows us the immense value that we should set upon Him and on His Word of Life. The wisdom born of the Holy Spirit indwells us with the knowledge that we are living our lives unto Him. It sees the Lordship of Christ, and cherishes Him above all else. The wisdom that is from God knows the value of the service of prayer, the magnificence of being enabled to talk with God, Spirit to spirit and heart to heart in Christ.
Jer 29:12+13 Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. The promise of God is to hear our prayers. What a joy to know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who desires to be in fellowship, constant fellowship with us. Please consider the fact that when we are befuddled, under pressure, in seemingly hopeless situations, we have the complete assurance of God that He will listen to us and will heed us. It is not simply a matter that we are praying to the sky, filling the heavens with our thoughts and wishes. Not at all! We are in audience with God, through the right standing that is ours in Christ. It is through the avenue of the Holy Spirit Who also stirs in us the need to talk with God. So often, when we face difficulties on this earth, we find it helpful to share the burden with someone else who can hear our trials and give advice or encouragement. With God, however, not only does He hear, not only does He encourage but He comforts us with His Peace. He gives us strength and patience and long-suffering and understanding. Above all else, He answers each prayer of our hearts. He does not just sit and listen and then tell us everything will be alright, that things will work out in the end. No, in His Omnipotence, He answers our every prayer. He responds with His Mercy and His Grace and His Comfort to make it known that we are His and His alone. He watches over us. He guides us in the manner in which we need to approach every given situation. He keeps us unto Himself. He develops in us those hearts which seek after Him fully to have His way on this earth, no matter what the cost in our limited understanding. Even when His answer is not the one we desire, He still answers our every prayer in His infinite wisdom and power. He opens in our hearts the truth that His answer is always the very best and the most marvelous answer that will bring glory to His name, our heart’s desire in Christ. 
God desires a people who will seek after Him in earnestness. He doesn’t do this to be a power monger. Never! He desires that we would come into the place in our spiritual walk whereby He can have constant fellowship with us. He desires to be able to lavish His Love and Life upon us to the enth degree. He has a burden to see us come into the place that is ours in Christ Jesus. He needs to have a people who are so attune to Him, that there is no question as to the hearts that are seeking after the glorification of Christ throughout this whole creation. God wants to be able to dwell in us because we yearn for Him to be our life, moment by moment, day by day, through all time and beyond. He cherishes the prayers and the fellowship of those whose hearts utterly desire Him in all His fullness and glory. That takes place as we give ourselves to Him in the prayer lives that seek Him above everything. It should be understood that before we do anything, we go to Him in prayer. That we ask Him to have His way in the course, the complete course of our actions, our reactions, and our interactions with the entirety of this realm. That is when we will be completely released from the fetters of this age, and truly see the grave condition of a life that is lived only in the slavery of this world’s false reality. 
We have spent much time on what some might consider the impossible, a complete turning aside from the concerns of this age unto the full desire after the glory of God Alone. Yes, if we try to do anything out of will power, out of human determination, out of man’s strength and wisdom, we are doomed to failure. God Alone can bring us to the place where He is preeminent in the entirety of our beings. God Alone can create in us the desire to be whole-heartedly unto Him with every thought, every word, and every deed. We are completely incapable of ourselves. We have no power of our own that can even begin to approach the holiness of God in the fellowship that is now ours in Christ. Why is this true? It’s quite simple, actually. It is because, if we could do it by ourselves, there would be no need for the salvation that is ours in Christ. If it were possible with human endeavors, we wouldn’t need the Holy Spirit as our strength, as our wisdom, as our comfort. If this relationship with God were possible by our efforts, we would be seeking after the glory for ourselves. Heaven forbid that anyone would be so fallacious as to try to retain unto oneself the glory that is due God. The holiness of God demands that it is in Christ Alone that we can have this absolute relationship with God as His Beloved. Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life as God’s own Word so eloquently proclaims. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me. 
Some might view this truth of God’s promise with alarm, knowing that we have erred, sometimes very critically erred, in the testimony that we present to this age. There might be those who figure that they are useless to this complete walk in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they have already blown it, as it were. But God, Who is so rich in mercy and Grace. But God, Who saw the frailty of mankind. But God, Who loves us with an everlasting love in Christ Jesus, has even made provision for our human inadequacies and failures. Joel 2:12+13 Therefore also now, says the Lord, turn and keep on coming to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning [until every hindrance is removed and the broken fellowship is restored]. Rend your hearts and not your garments and return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness; … God has promised that He will be the One to maintain our fellowship with Himself in Christ. It is not up to us in our meager efforts. It is in the Hand of God. All that He requires is that we are willing to repent as we make mistakes, that we are willing to place Him supremely as the desire of our hearts. He is gracious, and slow to anger. He is abounding in loving-kindness. That is what He wants us to discern, to understand, to live before all creation. Let us rend our hearts. Let us seek after Him. Let us look solely unto Him. Let us, as His Body, desire Him to be Lord of all. If at this time, we’re not able to do so, then let us ask Him to make us ready. Ask Him to create in us that hunger which desires to know Him in all His fullness and Grace and Mercy. 
We must become those men and women of God who are strong, not in ourselves, but in Him. The promise to David is the promise to us. If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and mind and with all their soul, there shall not fail you [to have] a man on the throne of Israel. Jesus Christ is that promised king for all the ages to come. Let us live our lives in accordance with that truth. Let us teach our sons, our daughters, our grandchildren the truth of the way of the Lord. Let us seek Him with all our hearts that they will learn to seek Him with all their hearts. Be that testimony of Christ’s Lordship for the glory of God to radiate forth the fact that Jesus Christ reigns now, this moment, and evermore. That He reigns not only in all creation, but in our hearts eternally before Him in love.
Be strong and show yourself a man; Keep the charge of the Lord your God, walk in His ways, keep His statutes, His commandments, His precepts, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may do wisely and prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, That the Lord may fulfill His promise to me, saying, If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and mind and with all their soul, there shall not fail you [to have] a man on the throne of Israel.