A Tale of Two Kings: Wisdom vs the Heart
Photo: Pastor Don McClure, leader of Calvary Way Ministries and Calvary Chapel Association administrator, delivers an enlivened teaching comparing two kings—father and son.
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Photos by Josh Larson & Tom Price
Pastor Don McClure, who leads Calvary Way Ministries and is the administrator of the Calvary Chapel Association, compared Old Testament kings David and Solomon. We know a lot about their lives. Two kings, same road in a sense. You wonder how lives can be so different that they end up so radically different. Both are human and both had failures. David certainly knew his and yet, when confronted with them, he broke. God brought him to repentance and changed him and brought him back in a glorious way. Look at Psalm 32 and Psalm 51, and you realize: Here is truly a changed man, deeply converted in areas of his life where he'd been defeated for so long, [whom] God healed. There’s no record of him ever falling like that again after Bathsheba.
Worshipers at the West Coast Pastors Conference freely lift their arms in praise and adoration to Jesus between teachings. Don’s message reminded those gathered that the greatest commandment, found in Matthew 22:37, is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
David had this incredible heart for God. You can’t follow his life at all without realizing God [was] in the midst of it all the time. Nations fell before him and yet he could say frankly, “I'll be satisfied when I awake in His likeness.” [Of] things that would thrill so many people, David said, “Well, it's OK, but it's not what I want. It's not my heart.”
Then you look at Solomon. Here is a young man with such wisdom, such worship. He had a heart of prayer and dedication, but something along the journey, whether the glory, the wealth, the magnificence of the Temple, or other things somehow overshadowed the worship that was to go on within it. And then, of course, there was his problem with women. Don stated, “It's like ultimately the man couldn't burn enough incense to false gods to ever make up for the absence of the true God within his heart.”
Solomon, what are you thinking? You're the smartest guy on the planet and this is what's going through your brain? Solomon had a thousand wives and mistresses. How often did he look at one and say, “Haven’t I met you somewhere before?” She says, “Yes, we have two children together.” He says, “See, I told you.”
Little by little, decision by decision, the man is far from God. He's so different from his father David. David brings Israel to the zenith of its history and then Solomon takes over and within one generation he's brought the nation to the verge of bankruptcy. As much as the country once loved David, they now detest Solomon.
Jerel Hagerman, senior pastor of Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel, CA, and president of Calvary Bible Institute in Yucca Valley, CA, banters thoughtfully with conference attendees during a break
The greatest single difference between David and Solomon was their hearts. What a lesson that is—that wisdom is no guarantee against foolishness. In 1 Kings 11:9 (KJV), it says, And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice. Could you imagine: Twice God appears to you and says, “What are you doing? Don't do this,” and you go right on ahead and do it?
Don remembered being given a book when he became a Christian—The Pilgrim's Progress. It is the most published book next to the Bible in the history of the world. It’s an allegory of the Christian life. If you haven't read it, you should.
The mind is weaker than the heart. James 4:17 (KJV) says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
Don shared, “I don't know how many people I’ve sat down with that have fallen, but I've never met one that didn't know why. They knew, they preached on it—that you don't do a thing like that. No, you'd know it's wrong and yet, off you go and you do it no matter what, even though everything in you says No.”
Any home, marriage, family, any love that is pure deserves the right to be tested. An untested love is not love. When somebody refuses testing and wants to just be a robot without will or desires, and just wants to go to heaven, God won't do that.
Through the valleys and struggles that God has for us, so much of life is predicated on the heart. Everything is driven by it.
Believers participate in spirited fellowship after Don's message that included reflecting on our love for Jesus. Don proposed, "Jesus asked Peter the same question that He asks every one of us: ‘Lovest thou Me more than these?’”
Pastor Don described a time when he used a smartphone with GPS for a trip. He used it to find restaurants, motels, and went to visit past fraternity brothers. He was blown away by what the smartphone could do, by the brilliance of it. But he declared, “The one thing about it that it will not and cannot do: It can't change your destination. It only goes by what your heart put in there.”
Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”—Matthew 22:37a (KJV).
Ask the heroes of the Bible—Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul—what they want: Their hearts would all want to be with God and see His glory.
Jesus asked Peter the same question that He asks every one of us: “Lovest thou Me more than these?” My question to close is, “What do you love? What do you want? What's your GPS set on?”
Prayer groups sprang up throughout the three-day conference held at CC Golden Springs, CA, giving many encouragement and exhortation in their faith.
When Don first got saved, he didn't know anything, zero. He was zealous back in the ‘60s and running around with [Campus] Crusade. He listened to many prominent speakers and coveted their knowledge. Don wished he knew Greek, Hebrew, apologetics, history. He admitted, “Everything anybody had was far more than I had of anything. Yet as a young Christian, I was directed to go hear Alan Redpath one night. It wasn't his Greek, Hebrew, archeology, theology, or history. All I know is for the first time in my life I walked out, and I thought, I want to know Jesus like that man knows Jesus.”
Don concluded, “The wonderful thing is, you can repent. You can go back to that one place that you have total control over: your destination, your heart, the only thing God wants from you. That's it. [It's] your love and when you can say, “Jesus—that's what I want.”
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Watch Pastor Don’s teaching in its entirety at: Don McClure, CCA West Coast Pastors & Leaders Conference
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In mid-September, 1,100+ pastors, leaders and their wives gathered at the 2022 Calvary Chapel Association (CCA) West Coast Pastors & Leaders Conference at CC Golden Springs, CA, for refreshing in the face of increasing ministry challenges.
Over the coming months, Calvary Chapel Magazine will present summaries of the conference teachings by presenting pastors. Our desire is that these inspiring messages will encourage and bless all believers.
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Follow summaries of pastors’ teachings at theCCA West Coast Pastors & Leaders Conference:
• Garid Beeler, Your Labor is Not in Vain
Senior pastor of VISION City Church in Irvine, CA
• Josh Lawrence, Resting in the Power of God
Senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Eldoret, Kenya
• Dale Goddard, We Are One in Jesus Christ
Assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel Golden Springs, CA
• Mike Focht, How Should We Handle a “Judas” Betrayal?
Assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel Philadelphia, PA
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