The King We Long For… The Life We Want
—and Why Neither Is Enough
Part 1: Introduction— Royals, a Lookback
Part 2: Solomon in 3 Acts
Part 3: Conclusion— Jesus, King of the Universe, King of our Hearts
OPENING TEXT
Jeremiah 2:1-13 ESV
The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord,
“I remember the devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
Israel was holy to the Lord,
the firstfruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it incurred guilt;
disaster came upon them,
declares the Lord.”
Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the Lord:
“What wrong did your fathers find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?
They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord
who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
in a land that none passes through,
where no man dwells?’
And I brought you into a plentiful land
to enjoy its fruits and its good things.
But when you came in, you defiled my land
and made my heritage an abomination.
The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the shepherds transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal
and went after things that do not profit.
“Therefore I still contend with you,
declares the Lord,
and with your children's children I will contend.
For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see,
or send to Kedar and examine with care;
see if there has been such a thing.
Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Part 1 - Introduction: A Recap of Royals
Over the past several Months, since we started our Royals series in February, we’ve been asking one central question:
What kind of King is Jesus—and will we recognize Him when He returns?
And along the way, we’ve uncovered three defining truths:
Revelation → Jesus is the true King (Chosen One)
Reframing → His kingship is not what you expect (suffering → glory)
Response → You must choose who rules your life
Comparing Jesus with all the Royals so far, we’ve seen the identity of the true King—that Jesus was not driven by ambition, is not self-appointed or culturally constructed, but God’s chosen King.
The one who not only perfectly embodies justice, mercy, and righteousness, but ultimately satisfies our deepest longings.
He’s our shepherd, our light, our daily bread… our very life. Everything that He claims in the Gospel of John, pointed to what the Israelites- like us- continually long for.
As if directly addressing Jeremiah’s admonition that the Israelites “dug their own cisterns” after being provided for, in John 7, during the Pouring of Water ritual at the Festival of Tabernacles (or Sukkot), a major week-long Jewish harvest festival (the 15th-21st of the seventh month) celebrating God's provision and wilderness protection, Jesus offers Himself as the "living water":
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 7:37-39 ESV
Secondly: We’ve seen the inversion of kingship—that Jesus doesn’t rule the way we expect. He doesn’t dominate; He serves humly. He doesn’t grasp for power; He lays it down. He is the King who is crucified before He is crowned.
Several passages in Isaiah point to Jesus being a different King, more so, as the King who truly offers what we desire:
Isaiah 11:1-5
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
Isaiah 12:3-5
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.
“Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
There it is again: wells, water, everlasting quenching…
Doesn’t this resonate? Because we always wrestle with the rival kings of the heart—that every one of us is ruled by something that we thirst for like water. Power, success, approval, control—these things compete for the throne. The question is not if you have a king, but who that king is.
And here’s what ties all of this together:
The kind of king we long for reveals the kind of life we want for ourselves.
What we desire in a king—security, influence, success, peace, significance—those aren’t just abstract ideals. They’re deeply personal. They reflect the life we would choose… if we could.
And that’s why Solomon is so compelling.
Because Solomon doesn’t just look like the king we want— he looks like the life we want.
He stands at the pinnacle of human achievement:
Unmatched wisdom
Unimaginable wealth
Global influence
Political peace
Cultural brilliance
If you could design a life marked by success, stability, and significance—it would look a lot like Solomon’s. And for a moment, it seems like it works.
The kingdom flourishes. The temple is built. The promises of God feel close—almost within reach. But Solomon’s story doesn’t just show us the height of what we can become.
It reveals the limits of everything we long for.
Because the same things that make Solomon great… become the very things that lead him away from God.
The wisdom that should have anchored him… becomes detached from obedience
The success that should have pointed to God… becomes centered on himself
The blessings he received… become rival kings that capture his heart
Solomon reflects our longing for a true King—but he cannot fulfill it. He embodies the kind of life we think will satisfy us— but ultimately shows that it won’t.
And that’s why his story doesn’t end with him. It points beyond him.
To a better King.
A truer King.
A King who would not just possess wisdom—but be wisdom.
A King who would not accumulate power—but lay it down.
A King who would not be divided by rival loves—but remain perfectly faithful.
Solomon shows us the life we want. Jesus shows us the life we need.
And today, as we walk through Solomon’s story, we’re going to see both:
The height of human kingship
And the deep need for a greater one
Because in the end, this isn’t just about Solomon.
It’s about the same longings—and the same competing kings—that still fight for our hearts today.
Part 2 - Solomon in Three Acts
Act 1: A Divided Heart
Act 2: A Distracted Heart
Act 3: A Decayed Heart
Act 1: A Divided Heart
1 Kings 3:3 (ESV)
“Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.”
Solomon begins well. He loves the Lord, he walks in David’s ways, and when God invites him to ask for anything, he asks for wisdom. At this point, he looks like the fulfillment of everything Israel hoped for in a king.
It’s hard to not imagine Solomon not knowing what an undivided heart looks like when we read this passage from one of the books he himself wrote:
Song of Solomon 2:1-6, 2:16
As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my beloved among the young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love.
Sustain me with raisins;
refresh me with apples,
for I am sick with love.
His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!
My beloved is mine, and I am his;
he grazes among the lilies.
So we know that Solomon was very much aware of what it looks like to be fully and intimately captivated by our true love. Yet, sadly, because He seems to have forgotten, many years later, we also see him writing in Ecclesiastes, another book he wrote:
Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
So after many years, Solomon goes back to “remembering God”. Note that the final chapter of Ecclesiastes begins with what is echoed by Jeremiah after the exile: Remember God in your Youth / I remember the devotion of your youth.
In this passage in 1 Kings, the narrator, Jeremiah, introduces a tension immediately: “only.” That word signals that something is already misaligned. His devotion is real, but it is not exclusive. Worship at the high places reflects a tolerated compromise.
The narrative of Kings consistently evaluates rulers not by their achievements but by their covenant fidelity. Solomon’s story is no exception. From the beginning, the issue is not capacity nor competency—it is consistency of heart.
This is where decline begins. Not in open rebellion, but in divided allegiance. What appears minor early becomes determinative later.
Act 2: A Distracted Heart
1 Kings 6:12-13 (ESV)
“Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”
By chapters 6–10, Solomon’s reign reaches its peak. The temple is built, Israel prospers, and Solomon’s wisdom is internationally recognized. This is the high point of the monarchy.
Yet right at the center of this success comes a conditional word from God: “if.”
This reflects a central theme that reads like it was intentionally emphasized by Jeremiah in the passages before Solomon— that God’s promises to the king are covenantal, not unconditional. The presence of the temple does not replace the necessity of obedience.
At the same time, Solomon begins to accumulate what Deuteronomy 17 explicitly warned against: wealth, military strength, and many wives. These are not presented as neutral developments. They represent a gradual reorientation of the heart.
Deuteronomy 17
“When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. 1And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.
Solomon embodies both the ideal and the failure of kingship—he builds the central symbol of Israel’s worship while simultaneously undermining its theological foundation.
In fact, interestingly enough, there are two details to point out:
The passage clearly states not to acquire horses from Egypt, but what does Solomon do? He marries Phaoroah’s daughter
It also states not to accumulate wealth. Yet, you also see throughout 1 Kings through 11, that the palace he built for himself was actually bigger than the temple.
This is the stage of distraction. God is not rejected, but He is no longer central. The heart becomes occupied with success, stability, and expansion. Outwardly, nothing appears wrong. But inwardly, devotion is being displaced.
Act 3: A Decayed Heart
1 Kings 11:4 (ESV)
“For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God…”
By chapter 11, the evaluation becomes explicit. What was once partial is now decisive: Solomon’s heart is no longer wholly true to the Lord.
This is not a sudden fall. It is the outcome of a trajectory. The divided heart of chapter 3 and the distracted heart of chapters 6–10 have now become a decayed heart.
The author of Kings makes the theological conclusion unavoidable: this failure is the turning point that leads to the division of the kingdom and, ultimately, to exile.
As D.A. Carson often emphasizes in his treatment of biblical theology, the greatest dangers in the life of faith are rarely abrupt—they are the result of slow, incremental drift. Solomon is a clear example of this pattern.
Even more striking is that Solomon retains his wisdom, influence, and accomplishments. What he loses is his devotional center. And in the theology of Kings, that loss outweighs everything else.
Part 3 - Conclusion:
The King We Long For… The Life We Want—and Why Neither Is Enough
When you step back and look at Solomon’s life fully, it’s not just a story of sudden decline— it’s a slow progression.
Divided — loving God, but not exclusively
Distracted — succeeding, but slowly shifting
Decayed — turned away, and no longer whole
And if we’re honest, that progression doesn’t feel distant. It feels familiar. As Pastor Rollan said in one of our Royals sermons:
Because it rarely starts with rejection.
It starts with division—small compromises we learn to live with.
Then comes distraction—good things that slowly take God’s place.
And over time, it leads to decay—a heart that drifts further than we ever intended.
Solomon’s decline echoes 1 John 2:15-17:
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
And here’s what makes Solomon’s story even more sobering:
God spoke at every stage.
In the beginning → inviting devotion
In the middle → warning with conditions
Before the end → clearly naming the danger
Solomon did not lack:
wisdom
opportunity
or warning
He lacked a whole heart.
And that’s where this becomes deeply personal.
Because Solomon shows us that it’s possible to:
Love God… and still drift
Receive wisdom from God… and still wander
Experience success under God… and still fall
It’s possible to build a life that looks full on the outside…
and still be quietly divided on the inside.
And that’s the tension we’ve been sitting in all series:
The king we long for reveals the life we want.
We long for security, influence, success, peace—
and we spend our lives trying to build those things.
But Solomon shows us something we don’t want to admit:
Even when you get that life… it’s not enough.
It cannot hold your heart together.
It cannot keep you faithful.
It cannot satisfy your soul.
Which is why Solomon doesn’t resolve our longing—
he deepens it.
Because what Israel needed—and what we need—
is not just a wise king,
and not just a successful life—
but a King who is perfectly faithful.
A King who will not drift.
A King who will not be divided.
A King who will not be pulled away by lesser loves.
And where Solomon failed, Jesus stands.
Because God is not ultimately after:
your insight
your achievements
or your legacy
He is after your heart—
undivided, anchored, and wholly His.
And only one King can lead you there.
Not the king we would choose.
Not the life we would build.
But the King we truly need.