Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Hello, ladies and gentlemen, it is Ryan. Welcome back again to the Life Refresh podcast.
[00:00:11] I'm just going to jump right in. I really am excited about today's teaching. And again, it's going to talk about something I think is extremely important for many of us. And it's going to be a series of teachings and conversations around this particular subject of value exchange.
[00:00:34] And this is one thing I think is going to be meaningful to many of us, particularly as we are going through the first month of 2024.
[00:00:45] You might be hitting your goals or you might be on course to hit them. I went through some of my goals last night, actually, prior to doing this podcast, and I looked at them and I said, you know, there's going to be some things I'm going to have to do differently. And there's a quote from the book called the Mountain is you by Brianna Weiss. I mentioned it a long time ago. We'll link it in the show notes. But it says this. And again, I'm saying maybe the first portion is a long piece that speaks to the growth of an individual, but it says this, your new life is going to cost you your old one.
[00:01:37] You're going to have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And part of that is centered around what you choose to value, particularly being valued by what God has deposited in you and in your life.
[00:01:59] And I want to give an example here that I think, I hope many of you may think about this, but if you were like many, I'll say the stat is, I think they said in the first year, 700 plus thousand people purchased an iPhone. The first iPhone, by the way, not the ones with the cameras and all that stuff, just the first iPhone. Okay. And if you were like me and many others who were one of the first adopters of this particular device, people got a lot of slack for it. Did not do what it wasn't as impressive as many people thought it would be. But a year later, when they added the Apple App Store to the software, it changed the game for how we connect with one another, buying apps with this device, connecting, building businesses, businesses like Uber and Airbnb didn't exist if it wasn't for the iPhone being what it was. Now, this is the thing about this device now. The first iPhone now for many is a relic. Actually, the network that this device was built on initially does not exist anymore.
[00:03:26] And I would say maybe the first iPhone cost about $700 to $800. Okay? And it just did the basics, had no front camera, everything was very minuscule, but it did what it was supposed to do.
[00:03:41] Now, if you happen to have kept that iPhone in pristine condition, kept all the instructions, kept everything in perfect place, that device is now a piece of history.
[00:03:56] There has never been a device that has sold more, impacted more, and changed the lives of more people than the iPhone. Now, if you were to happen to take that device and, say, sell it on eBay or something like that, you would probably get maybe 250,000 plus, depending on the condition by which this particular iPhone has been put into.
[00:04:28] Now, the thing is this, most people. What is the value that people put on a device that no longer works?
[00:04:39] It's not how much they paid for it, but it has everything to do with what that device represents.
[00:04:49] It represents a change in culture that will. It may happen again in our lifetime, but it'll never happen the way it did in 2007. It'll never be that way again. So this individual or individuals that have kept this device in its pristine shape have a piece of history that most people would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to capture.
[00:05:18] That's the value somebody puts on something that doesn't even work on a network anymore.
[00:05:26] How about your experiences?
[00:05:31] How about what you value?
[00:05:37] Do you value you?
[00:05:40] Have you taken the time to say that I'm worthy of the goals and desires that are placed in my heart? Because those are something that God already put in me.
[00:05:54] Okay, so I'm going to give an example. We're going to use the Bible, as we always do, to illustrate some of the things that value was intrinsically put on. Now, God uses, and this is a little bit of hermeneutics for you to understand some things about the character of God and what he uses. So God always uses something meaningful to represent his character or his character or love towards something or someone. Okay. Typically someone, which is us. So I'm going to use a king that most people read, just his book, which is King Solomon, which is the book of.
[00:06:48] Well, I'm not going to start with the book of proverbs, but we're going to talk about him, who authored the book of proverbs. He is considered the richest and wealthiest man to have ever lived on the earth, period. And what's crazy about it is, like, Solomon obtained this by no work of his own. He essentially was.
[00:07:20] He essentially was a person who loved God just like his dad did, but inherited a lot of things that his father was promised from God. And once he became king, and this is found in two chronicles, chapter five, you can kind of go through it. It goes through the whole process of Solomon bringing and building the temple, that was actually his father's heart and desire to build a house for the Lord. But the Lord really doesn't need a place. But he wanted to build a place that was so immaculate, so grand, that matched the majesty of God. But God told him that, told King David that because he was a man of war and he had too much blood on his hands, he couldn't do or build a place for him. So what David did was he saved all cedar.
[00:08:33] He provided all the resources for his son Solomon to build this temple for the Lord. And essentially this temple became what we know as Solomon's temple.
[00:08:48] And Solomon's temple is one of the most majestic, wealthiest looking.
[00:08:59] I didn't see it, but I've seen. If you want to just Google Solomon's temple, it is a work of beauty to behold. I'm serious, like all the things, and we'll get to it in this, but I'm going to go to second chronicles, chapter six.
[00:09:23] And after they had dedicated the temple back to God upon its completion, there is a, sorry, it's not the completion of the temple. It is when he's preparing to be king and he's anointed king. He was asked to, he basically did everything to, he assembled all the judges, the leaders of all of Israel, and they did sacrifices unto the lord. And that night, after they sent, they said, a thousand burnt offerings, which means there's a whole bunch of stuff. But they did like a thousand burnt offerings in the tabernacle of meeting before there was a temple. But I want to go. I'll get back to that in a second. But that night, God appeared to Solomon. This is second chronicles, chapter one, verse seven. And it says, and God appeared to him and said to him, ask, what shall I give you? And Solomon said to the Lord, you have shown great mercy to David my father, and have made me a king in his place. Now, O Lord, let your promise of David my father be established. For you have made me a king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. Now give me wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people. For who can judge this great people of yours? Then God said to Solomon, because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked for long life, but asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge my people over whom I have made you king. Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you, and I will give you riches, wealth and honor such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after. You have the like.
[00:11:38] And in some translations it says, the Lord said, because you didn't ask for this, I'm going to give it to you anyway.
[00:11:48] Now this sounds really like, okay, wisdom, knowledge beyond your years, beyond what you are experiencing, sounds really cool, right?
[00:12:06] What the thing is, what value that added is incredible. I'm going to jump to. There's so much in between here, but I'm going to jump right to chronicles. Second chronicles is Old Testament chapter.
[00:12:26] We'll go to chapter nine.
[00:12:28] Now, this is the thing, when someone is endowed with wisdom. So most people value wisdom, some people don't.
[00:12:39] Some people value money, but they don't value the knowledge that it takes to obtain that right. So depending on what you value is shown by what you display, and knowing where those resources come from lets me know how much you value the source and not necessarily the resource. You hear some of these things that are talked about. That is the love of money. That is the root of all evil, which is always a quote of scripture that is always kind of moved around and said the wrong way. But the thing is, all of those resources come from someone, comes from God. But if you just worship the thing and you just think the thing is what gives you value, you'll miss the true value. It is not the thing. It's not the substance that comes from the person. It's actually the person themselves. It's okay to feel loved if you're getting a gift from someone, but don't acknowledge the giver. It's just that you want the stuff. You don't want the person that gave it that shows the value of the individual.
[00:14:01] Because if I have to tell you and remind you that my love is not in the stuff, my love is towards you, and it's just my vehicle of showing and how I appreciate you, then your value is misplaced. Okay, so I'm going to say all this and I'm going to get into it. So many people in this time, when Solomon was getting the wisdom and was obtained wisdom, he was beginning to be what we call, he was going viral. He was being well known in all of the kingdoms in the land at that time. And he received a visit from the queen of Sheba, who had heard of Solomon's riches and heard of his wisdom. So she came with, like Bible says, she came with camels that bore spices, gold and abundance, precious stones. And all she did, they didn't talk about money, they already had that.
[00:15:08] It says this. She came and spoke to him about all that was in her heart.
[00:15:17] And it says, verse two said, so Solomon answered all her questions, and there was nothing so difficult for Solomon that he could not explain to her. And then the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon. The house that he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel. His cup bearers and their apparel. His entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord.
[00:15:45] There was no spirit left in her, meaning that she was just impressed. Right? So I'm saying all that to say it wasn't that. She came to just like, hey, listen, this is how much I have in my bag. How much do you have in your bag? That wasn't it. She came specifically for something that was meaningful to her. It says the things that were on her heart, and that was what she valued more than the stuff. The stuff was an appreciation of a service that she really needed. So it was never about the gold and the spices. It was all about the interaction by which she needed something answered. And she only went to the person by which anything of wisdom and understanding. The only person that could answer it at that time was King Solomon. Okay? And with that being said, there's so much after that, she was just that impressed by what this looked like. Now, let me give you an understanding of what this all looks like, and I'll end on this concept of value being exchanged, because after this particular time, things started changing in the kingdom of Israel. And I'm going to use some material that is represented in the temple that God typically used to show some of the changes. But I want to kind of set you and help you understand how majestic, majestic Solomon's circumstances were.
[00:17:37] Okay, so, long story short, the weight of the gold that came into Solomon yearly was 666 talents of gold, which is, I think it's about six months of wage, besides what traveling merchants and traders brought. So that was like, the floor.
[00:18:00] All the kings of Araba and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon. Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold. 600 shekels of hammered gold went into each shield. He also made 300 shields of hammered gold. 300 shekels of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon and their cedars. Now, cedar is a very precious wood. It's very durable, and it's hard to get. And Solomon had that in a forest. Okay.
[00:18:36] His throne was overlaid with gold, and underneath it was ivory. It's just, like, ridiculous how majestic it was. All of his drinking cups were gold.
[00:18:48] There was not one piece of silver in that city.
[00:18:54] This is how it all says here, King Solomon. I'm going to summarize this. King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. Each man brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, mules, at a set rate each year. Just to hear the guy talk.
[00:19:22] Just to hear the guy talk.
[00:19:25] So it's value exchange, right? Now, the thing is, you exchange based on what you value.
[00:19:32] If you think it's worth something, then you'll pay what it cost in value because you think that it's that important.
[00:19:41] Don't ever put yourself on sale because you don't think somebody values you.
[00:19:49] You can rewind that back if you need to hear that again.
[00:19:55] It's so important to know that if it's worth what it's worth, because it costs what it cost, it cost you your time, it cost you the level of experience.
[00:20:07] It costs something. It costs someone something.
[00:20:12] So I'm going to say this some more summary in chronicles, chapter nine.
[00:20:21] So he reigned, this is what Solomon says. So he reigned over all the kings from the river to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones.
[00:20:36] And he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores, which are in the low land.
[00:20:43] And they brought horses to Solomon from Egypt and from all lands.
[00:20:50] You guys, they couldn't pay enough to get Solomon's wisdom. That's how much none of these guys were talking about finances, but this is what they were willing to exchange in order to get the value of his wisdom. Now, there is something that is very prevalent in Solomon's reign as king, and it is this metal called, okay, gold in the Bible really represents God's presence, majesty and, okay, so when God's presence is there, there are things that exemplify and are characteristic of God's presence there. And for us that we can understand, gold is one of those materials that, as it's purified through fire, but it's so malleable, it's a soft metal, which makes it bendable. It makes it easy to put into a shape or a mold for something. So it's very useful for artistry, for whatever God needed at the time, right? You can overlay it over something in ivory. That was his throne.
[00:22:21] It is just something that works well, with other materials that aren't metal, but that represented something.
[00:22:31] It represented God's favor and blessing and presence in Jerusalem.
[00:22:38] Right. But what we find out as we go through this particular story of the kingdom of Israel is that they traded God's presence for something that maybe wasn't as much value.
[00:23:00] And as you see, things change in the kingdom, the type of metals change as well.
[00:23:12] So the thing is, as we are getting to the end of this podcast, I want to leave you off with a reflection note here and what have you exchanged for yourself that was of lesser value? And you ended up finding out later you thought it was going to be great. But then you found out, man, this isn't as good as I thought it was.
[00:23:42] I don't know what it is for you. It might have been a relationship, it might have been a breakup, it might have been a job opportunity, it might have been something. I don't know what it may be, but everyone in their life has had a circumstance and situation by which they thought what they were pursuing was a better value.
[00:24:02] But once they exchange what they had and they worked for, and it wasn't giving the amount of return that they thought they'd get, there's a level of disappointment that happens.
[00:24:14] But in the meantime, you already knew God already placed your heart of kindness, whatever it may be. You might have given what they say. You may have given your trust and your love to someone that didn't even value it. And you will do what the Bible says as casting your pearls before swine.
[00:24:37] There's no way picks can value pearls. They have no use of it because it's not important to them, it's not of value to them.
[00:24:46] So as we're going through this series, I don't know how long this one's going to be, but I will say this, we are going to utilize this imagery of God's presence from the examples of the temple that's been laced with gold and covered up and been not covered up, but been displayed majestically for God's glory, not for Solomon's glory, for God's glory. And get this, it had nothing to do with how much money he had. It had everything to do with what he had here and in his heart that God placed in him.
[00:25:35] So God will make your name great. This is proof here.
[00:25:40] But everyone will exchange what they have materially for something that they can't get spiritually to show that they appreciate that wisdom, knowledge.
[00:26:02] I'm excited about this one.
[00:26:04] I hope you all can hear it in my voice, so keep it locked here. But I want you. If you know someone who you feel might have exchanged who they are for something lesser, God hasn't forgotten about them. God hasn't forgotten about you.
[00:26:26] So please lock it here. Make sure you subscribe. Share it.
[00:26:31] I believe this is going to be an important one, particularly as we go into 2024. You don't want to get distracted with poor exchange rate.
[00:26:44] Okay. All right. We'll see you in the next one. Peace.
