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that they'll end up sticking around this church and growing in the Lord. And I just ask you at this time to help us put away all of our side thoughts, God, and just ask you to bless me with your spirit, give me boldness and clarity to preach your word. We just pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, in 1 Kings 10, we see the Queen of Sheba is coming from the end of the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now, I think we need to get a little bit of an introduction to see how we come to this point. So turn back to the very beginning of 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 1, verse number 1. So in 1 Kings chapter 1, verse number 1, the Bible says, Now, King David was old and stricken in years. Now, there's going to be something you notice throughout the Bible and throughout history, even in our presidential elections, that when someone's going to be taking the office of being a leader, of a king or president, or even a position at a company, oftentimes many people want to take over that position. Oftentimes, it's not just one person who wants to take that position. We see this with King David. When he comes to the end of his life, you notice that King David, when he gets older, he becomes a little bit softer. He doesn't become quite as tough, I guess, in his early days. And when he's coming to the end of his life, he doesn't really set in stone that Solomon is going to be taking the leadership position. So his other son, the half-brother of Solomon, Adonijah, tries to usurp that position. So look at verse number 5 in this chapter, 1 Kings 1. Verse number 5, the Bible says, Then Adonijah, the son of Hagith, exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he prepared him, chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. So what we see with Adonijah is Adonijah exalts himself. Adonijah lifts himself up, okay? Now go down to verse number 38. We're going to contrast that with what Solomon did. Whenever you see this in the Bible, whenever somebody lifts themselves up to a position of authority, God humbles that person. We're going to see this. And in 1 Kings 1, verse 38, the Bible says, So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherithites and the Pelethites went down and caused Solomon to ride upon King David's mule, and brought him to Gihon. And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon, and they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, God save King Solomon. So what you see is they caused Solomon to ride upon the king's mule. They caused Solomon. They're the ones that anointed Solomon. See, Adonijah basically anoints himself. He lifts himself up, but Solomon humbles himself. You know what the Bible says? Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. And that's what we see throughout the Bible. Now one thing I wanted to mention, because this is kind of a common thing that's happening in the independent fundamental Baptist movement, there's a lot of people that are just anointing themselves, ordaining themselves as pastors. They basically just say, you know what? I'm starting a church, and I'm the pastor. And they don't get trained. They don't get sent out. They just decide one day, you know what? I'm worthy of being a pastor. But you know what the Bible says? Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. You know, I moved here. One of the reasons why is because I want to be trained for the ministry. I want to be a pastor. You know, honestly, not just that I don't have kids, but honestly, I'm just not ready right now. And you know what? If I'm not at that point where the pastor will send me out, then I won't start a church. I'm not going to ordain myself. You know, throughout the Bible, you always see that men get ordained by other people to start churches. That's what you see. You know, a long time ago when I was in college, I saw a ridiculous movie that just completely blasphemed God, which is pretty much what all the movies of Hollywood are going to do. They blaspheme God. And the name of the movie was called The Apostle. And this movie was basically a charismatic movie where this guy was a preacher, and there's one part of the movie where he baptizes himself. He says, I baptize myself in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So he dunks himself in the water, gets back up, and then he says, and in Jesus' name, and he baptizes himself again. But that's pretty much just as ridiculous as someone just saying, you know what? I'm a pastor and just starting a church. You know, we should be ordained by other people. You know, we shouldn't be lifting ourselves up because if everybody who thought they were ready to start a church started one, we'd have a lot of bad independent Baptist churches out there. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 2. We're just going to look at 1 Kings 1, 2, 3, and 4, and then we're going to get into 1 Kings chapter 10. In 1 Kings chapter 2 verse 9, this is David speaking to his son Solomon. He says, Now therefore, hold him not guiltless, for thou art a wise man. It's interesting that David calls Solomon a wise man at this time because if you know the story of being wise, later on, Solomon in a dream asked for God for wisdom, and he becomes the wisest person. But David already considers his son Solomon wise. Honestly, David is right in what he says. You can prove that biblically that already Solomon is already wise before he asked God for wisdom. Now keep your place in 1 Kings 2. Okay, we're going to be in 1 Kings most of the night. But go to Proverbs chapter 1. There's a few verses in Proverbs I want to show you. Proverbs chapter 1, the middle of the Bible is the book of Psalms. Right after the book of Psalms is the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1 verse number 5, the Bible reads, A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. So the Bible says the person that's wise, the person that has understanding, is going to want more wisdom. They're going to want to learn more. And see, that proves that Solomon already was wise. Because of the fact that he knew he needed more wisdom, that proved he already had a good bit of wisdom. Because honestly, the more wisdom you have, the more you realize, you know what, I don't have enough to go through life. I need to get down on my knees every day and ask God to help me be the leader, help me to be the husband I need to be, help me to be the father I need to be, help me to train and teach my kids and homeschool them, help me to be the pastor I need to be, or whatever it is, we need the wisdom of God. And that shows that Solomon already had a good bit of wisdom. He already was wise because of the fact he realized he needed to increase in learning. He needed more wisdom. Now go back to 1 Kings, but keep your place in Proverbs. And we're going to go to 1 Kings chapter 3 now. And this is going to be the story of when, basically, Solomon's asking God for wisdom and understanding. And in 1 Kings chapter 3, verse number 9, this is what Solomon says, Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this, thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any rise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. So, basically, what we see is that Solomon asked God for wisdom, and God grants him that request. And because he made a wise choice, God also says he's going to give him riches and honor, which is something we see in 1 Kings chapter 10, okay? Now, before we go any further in this sermon, I want to explain the difference between two things that I've heard used interchangeably. There's a difference between wisdom and knowledge, okay? Now, you had your place in Proverbs, so go back to Proverbs chapter 15. We're going to look at verse number 2. So, in Proverbs chapter 15, verse number 2, the Bible reads, The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. So, what the Bible says is, the person that's wise uses knowledge in the right way. And it contrasts that with other people, they pour out foolishness, okay? Simply having knowledge does not make you wise, okay? Now, here's the thing. If you have no knowledge about the Bible, you can't be wise concerning the Bible if you have absolutely no knowledge. But just because you have knowledge doesn't mean that you have wisdom. Now, let me give you a couple examples of this. I know a lot of people here aren't really necessarily onto the Internet, but I know a few people in here that are on Facebook, you know, Brother Clint, Brother Alessandro, and there's a lot of people that are in our movement that they believe the same things that I do, and I agree with everything I see them post, but you know what? They're proclaiming how much knowledge they have, and honestly, it's just foolishness the way they're doing it. They get in all kinds of fights on Facebook, all kinds of fights on YouTube, for just hours and they just waste their time. And you know what? The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright. Is that wise to get in arguments for hours on Facebook when you could have been reading the Bible and memorizing the Bible and going soul winning and doing something that actually mattered? And that shows that, you know what? They have a lot of knowledge, but it doesn't mean that they have wisdom. And when somebody basically proclaims how much knowledge they have, they're also proclaiming that they don't have a whole lot of wisdom if they lift themselves up like that. And so there's a little bit of a difference between having wisdom and knowledge. You know, you can think of Solomon, and it says Solomon, he not only had a lot of knowledge, he had a lot of wisdom. Now there's a lot of questions maybe as a pastor that you might get that it would require maybe a lot of knowledge to answer, but other questions might not require a lot of knowledge by the Bible, but wisdom in how to answer that. Like for example, one thing I thought of is this, I'm sure that pastors oftentimes have people come to them and say, you know, will you marry us? And here's the thing, the Bible gives certain qualifications on whether or not two people are allowed to get married. And here's the thing, it would be very easy to just say, well, this is what the Bible says and that's it. And it could very easily offend someone, but if you said it in a different way and showed them what the Bible said, hopefully they would be willing to adhere to what the Bible says. See, it would require not just knowledge of what the Bible says, but wisdom in how to present that information. You see, there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Sometimes the wisest thing a person can do is just keep their mouth shut. In fact, you know, some of the most foolish people in the entire world, when they keep their mouth shut, you're like, maybe he's a little bit wiser than I thought he was, just because he didn't say anything. And that's what we see in the Bible. Now go back to 1 Kings. Let's look at chapter 4. And this is the last place we're going to turn before we really get into the meat of the sermon in 1 Kings 10. But 1 Kings 4, let's go to verse 29. The Bible reads, And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezra-hite, and Haman, and Chalko, and Darda, the sons of Maho, and his fame was in all nations round about. And he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even on the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings of the earth which had heard of his wisdom. So what we see here is that people from around the world are coming to hear the wisdom of Solomon. You know, honestly, we go to a church where people literally come from around the country just to see what our church is all about. Okay? You know, and I think it's important because like I said at the beginning of this, this chapter I really think gives us the perfect idea of how a church ought to operate. You know, one thing that obviously we care about here is about soul winning. Getting people saved, that is what it's all about. But we also care about training and discipling people. But you know what, another thing that I've been burdened about is that if a person comes to church, we want them to stick around. We want them to be here and to grow, okay? Now there's many reasons why someone might visit this church. Maybe they just got an invitation on the door and they just feel they need to go somewhere. Maybe someone just got saved and led them to the Lord. Or maybe they're your co-worker, your friend, or your relative. Or maybe they're like the Queen of Sheba. They're coming to a church like this because they want to see a church that really wants to do something for God. They want to grow and learn. They want to do something for God in their lives. That's what we see with the Queen of Sheba. She's not some random person who's visiting Solomon. She's someone who's coming to get wisdom. Honestly, it's a travesty, I believe, if anybody leaves this church. Because I believe this church has the power and the Word of God has the power to change somebody's life. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but if I were to ask a show of hands of people that would raise their hand and say, when I started coming to this church, honestly, I really wasn't that interested in living for God. I wasn't that devoted. But once I came here, the preaching of God's Word and the Bible changed my heart and now I do want to live for the Lord. Now I want to do something great for God. I guarantee you there would be a lot of hands in this room that would raise their hand and say, you know what, this church changed my life and it changed the desires of my heart. And it's a travesty if anybody leaves. Because honestly, sometimes we give up on people and I hope that they will just stick in this church and they'll grow and they could be a great, mighty person for God. But honestly, it would be a really, really big travesty if someone came to this church because they wanted to get wisdom. They wanted to do something great for God and they walked away and they said, you know what, Verity Baptist just isn't that on fire for God. The preaching is kind of soft. They're not really that into soul winning or the people don't seem like they take this that seriously. They're dressed like they don't really care about the things of God. They don't really seem like they care about what the Bible says. They're not really singing with enthusiasm. It would be sad if somebody walked away and said, you know what, I think I can find a better church somewhere down the road or somewhere else in California. That would be a real travesty if someone came to this church and they walked away and said, you know what, this church really isn't that on fire. Because the preaching of God's Word is going to make a lot of people flee, but it would be really sad if someone wanted to hear the things of God and they left because they said Verity Baptist is just not that interested in living for the Lord. That would be really sad. Now turn to 1 Kings chapter 10. Now we're going to get into the meat of the sermon. Now I want us to understand something about the Queen of Sheba, okay? She lives in a time period where there are no airplanes, okay? It's not just that you can make a short flight over here to Sacramento, California or to go to Solomon. Okay, she's making a great effort to go to Solomon. Now let's say for example, a friend of yours said that this restaurant is the greatest restaurant in the world. If you went to that restaurant, you'd have high expectations, wouldn't you? You'd probably be skeptical which we see with the Queen of Sheba how she even says it out of her own mouth in verse number 7. But you'd have high expectations and high hopes that this restaurant really was the real deal, okay? And so the Queen of Sheba, she has high hopes about Solomon that he really has the wisdom that people have mentioned, okay? Now in verse number 1, this is what the Bible reads, And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions. There was not anything hid from the king which he told her not. So we see the Queen of Sheba, she comes to visit Solomon because she wants to see the wisdom that she's heard about. But there's also another thing to keep in mind here. The Queen of Sheba has a lot of money, okay? She's a queen. And it says she came with a very great train, with camels that bear spices, very much gold and precious stones. She has a lot of money, okay? Now if someone were to come into this church who made, let's say, $520,000 a year, that's a lot of money. I'm not sure if anyone in here makes more than that, but that is a whole lot of money, okay? That's $52,000 would be a tie, 10% of that, which is basically $1,000 a week. Now $1,000 a week is a lot of money that a church could be like, man, we can do a lot of great things with this. In the flesh it would be tempting to try to make that person happy. It would be tempting to try to change the music so she'll stick around. It would be tempting to try to change the message not to offend her. Is that what Solomon does? Does he change the message? No, it says Solomon told her all her questions. He told her everything. And keep in mind, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. Everything, she communed with him. He told her all her questions. Then it says there was not anything hid from the king which he told her not. Basically he knew all the answers and he gave the answers. Now I believe these questions were probably two-fold. They probably had questions that required a lot of knowledge to answer and also questions that required a lot of wisdom in how to answer. You know, if someone were to ask me a really in-depth question in the book of Revelation on the end times, I might not know the answer. It might require a lot of knowledge to know that answer. I believe there are probably questions like that that required a lot of knowledge. But I also believe there are questions that might not have required a lot of knowledge but a lot of wisdom in how to answer the right way. But Solomon does not change it. You know, in independent Baptist churches, they have this same idea that I have of how do we get people to stick around. But here's what independent Baptist churches do. They change the message. Instead of preaching hard sermons that might make people walk out the door, they make a soft sermon, a Joel Osteen type sermon. They change the music. They water it down. They change everything. That is not what we see with Solomon. That is not what you're going to see with a perfect church. A perfect church is going to keep the standards of the Bible high and not change the sermon, not change the music, but do things the way that God says they're supposed to be done. Amen. Now, look at verse number 4. The Bible reads, And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom in the house that he had built... So it says she had seen all Solomon's wisdom. Drop down to verse number 9. It says, Blessed be the Lord thy God which delighted in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever. Therefore may he be king to do judgment and justice. Okay? Basically, the queen of Sheba understands that it's Solomon's job to do judgment and justice, not just to preach a flowery sort of sermon, not just to hear things that people want to hear, but to actually do judgment and justice. And it says she had seen all Solomon's wisdom. Honestly, it would be pretty hard to see Solomon's wisdom if Solomon held back his message. You wouldn't be able to see how does he answer a tough question? How does he show wisdom in how to answer this? One of the big things of Solomon in his life that showed he had a lot of wisdom is when there came the two women to him and one of the babies died in their sleep. And both women claim that that baby was the other woman's. And Solomon, we see, had a lot of wisdom in how to answer that question. We see Solomon has lots and lots of wisdom. Okay? But it would be really hard for the queen of Sheba or for anyone to see the wisdom from a pastor if the pastor doesn't stand up here and preach the truth without holding back. There would be no wisdom for them to see. But see, the queen of Sheba understood it was Solomon's job to do judgment and justice. Not just to preach on love, love, love, every single service, but actually preach everything from the Bible and not hold back. You see, we have this, there's this sort of thing in our flesh, this kind of King Saul mentality. You notice with King Saul that when people left, King Saul, he ends up changing what he's supposed to do. He ends up, and it's the same thing that pastors do. When people flee, they change the sermons. They change the way things operate in order to get more people to come in. But that is not what we're supposed to do. I understand this in everyone's flesh. We want people to like us. I want everybody to like me. Honestly. I don't want anyone to dislike me. But if you preach the Bible, is it possible for everybody to like you? It is not possible for everyone to like you. And if you're a pastor and you want everyone to like you, you're not going to make a very good pastor. And you're not going to make a very good leader. Can you imagine if you were a father and you just wanted your kids to like you so you never told them no? And that's what we see in America, that a lot of fathers are doing that. A lot of parents are doing that. They're afraid to tell their kids no. And we don't need men to become pastors that are going to do this. So one thing we see is that Solomon first, he humbles himself, unlike his half-brother Adonijah. But we also see that Solomon had a lot of wisdom, okay? Now another thing that we're going to see is works being done, which we can apply to soul-winning, okay? Go back to 1 Kings 10 and look at verse number 4. It says, And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom in the house that he had built, and then go down to verse number 6, and she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. You see, wisdom is only half of the picture here. A house being built that's works being done. It says, Of thy acts, think about the book of Acts. What is the book of Acts about? It's about soul-winning. You know, it mentions the house being built. I have no doubt though that Solomon, being a wise person, was a soul-winner and led many people to the Lord because the Bible says that he that win its souls is wise. Solomon was a pretty wise person. I guarantee you won a lot of souls. You know, there's a lot of people that claim that all these people from the Old Testament never went soul-winning, never gave people the gospel. They say that some of these prophets preached for hundreds of years without a single convert, and it's like, no. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Noah led people to the Lord. Okay? And one thing we see in these verses, it says the house that he had built, and it also mentions in verse six, Of thy acts. Okay? Now, you don't have to turn there, but in 1 Timothy 3, 1 it says, This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Okay? Now, there's a lot involved in this. This isn't just soul-winning, but soul-winning is a large part of the work of a pastor and of a church. Soul-winning is vital to God. That's why we're here is to win people to the Lord. That's what our goal is here at this church is to win people to the Lord. And see, here's the thing. Even though the Queen of Sheba gives credit to Solomon for this, one person didn't just build this house. There were many people. It wasn't just one person that had acts. It was everybody. So this translates both to the pastor and also to all the members as well. It is our job to go out there and to go soul-winning and get people saved and bring them to church and, you know, hopefully they'll be in here in church as well hearing the wisdom from the pastor. Now, I want us to understand something about soul-winning, though. Okay? Something I kind of noticed in the Bible recently. And you can turn there. I want you to turn and keep your place in 1 Kings 10 because we're going to go back there. Turn to Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. And I want you to look at a verse here in Leviticus 26, verse 8. Leviticus 26, verse 8. You know, I'm a math person. So whenever I see numbers, they always jump out at me. They're always interesting to me. And in Leviticus 26, verse 8, it says, And five of you shall chase in a hundred, and in a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. The Bible says five of you shall chase in a hundred. That's twenty people per one person. That's a lot of people, right? But then it says a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight. That's a hundred people per one person. It started with twenty people per one person, and then it goes to a hundred people to one person when you increase the numbers. Go to Deuteronomy, fifth book of the Bible, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 32. And this one's going to be a little bit easier to see here with the math very clearly. But in Deuteronomy 32, verse 30, it says, Deuteronomy 32, verse 30, How should one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight? Now, my natural reaction would be two would be putting two thousand to flight. One would put a thousand and two, two thousand. But is that what the Bible says? It's not what the Bible says. The Bible says two of you shall put ten thousand to flight. You say, what's significant about this? You see, the Bible's a little bit different than in our math classes in schools. See, here's the thing. We were talking about the numbers of people that had been here, and last year, the week before the big day, there were 67 people. And this year, last week, there was 130. That is almost twice as many people. Almost twice as many people, okay? Now, your natural reaction might be this. If there's twice as many people, you should be winning twice as many souls, right? But is that the way math works in the Bible? It's not the way math works. You see, if we have twice as many people, we should be getting more than twice as many people saved. We should be getting three, four, five, six, seven times as many people saved. You say, why? There's many reasons. Because one, hopefully everyone's becoming more zealous. Hopefully there's a higher percentage of people going out winning souls. Hopefully there's so much fellowship and excitement about soul winning, they're going to be reaching bigger and better things. You see, it's not good enough for our church just to get twice as many people saved as last year. We need to be reaching higher levels. We need high goals. You say, well, that's difficult. Well, we're looking here at what a perfect church ought to be like. I understand it's difficult. It's going to take a lot of man hours. It's going to take everybody in this church getting involved and going out and winning souls. But that is what you're going to see with a perfect church. That is what we should be striving to be. Go back to 1 Kings chapter 10. So we see here that soul winning is for everybody. Everybody should be getting involved in the work of the church. Okay? Now, I've heard this example before and I'm going to steal it because it's a really good example that when you look at firemen, everybody's job as a fireman is to fight fires. But actually at the station, they all have a lot of other jobs as well. Okay? Getting involved for this big day, there are lots of things to get done and so many people help contribute and get things done. But you know what? That doesn't change our main responsibility of fighting fires, of pulling people out of the fire and getting them saved. It is still our job to go out there and win people to the Lord. Now look in 1 Kings chapter 10. We've really been focusing on the pastor and the leader, so to speak, and we transitioned here to all of the members. Look at verse number 5. This is what the Bible mentions that she notices. It says, she notices the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers and his ascent by which he went up onto the house of the Lord. There was no more spirit in her. So she notices lots of people, the servants, the cupbearers, she notices everybody basically. She is impacted by everybody in this room. You say, well, I just show up to church and I'm just here. That's my duty. You have to understand that when there's a new visitor coming here, the way that you act in church is going to impact this visitor. That's what we see. And then out of our own mouth, we see in verse number 8, this is what she says. She says, happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee in that here thy wisdom. She was impacted by everybody. You say, my job is just an usher. That's not a big deal. It is a big deal. You say, my job is just to help out with something small here at the church. It's not a big deal. It is a big deal. Every single thing about the church matters. Every single person in here matters. That impacts the Queen of Sheba. And let me tell you something. If someone comes to visit this church, you have an impact on whether they're going to come back and whether they're going to be a part of this church. Every single person matters. Now, we notice that every single person matters, but we also notice a few specific things she mentions. And I'm going to just kind of go over three of these things, okay? One of the things she mentions in verse number five says, and their apparel, okay? Now, this is referring to their clothing. Now, this chapter in the Bible is a parallel chapter with 2 Chronicles chapter 9. Now, there's some places in the Bible that have parallel chapters. Ephesians and Colossians are kind of parallel books. Jude in 2 Peter chapter 2 are parallel chapters. But honestly, 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9 are very, very similar. They're almost identical. There's hardly a difference. But there is one thing I noticed when I was studying this out. The word apparel appears two times in 2 Chronicles 9. Pretty much everything else is basically the same, okay? Now, honestly, this church and myself and this church, we focus more than anything on the inward part, okay? And see, that is the thing that really matters is cleansing the inside and the outside is going to generally cleanse itself. That's what we see throughout the Bible. But I am preaching to you on 1 Kings 10, and I'm not going to do like a lot of people would do and not mention something that's mentioned. It mentions their apparel. Now, turn in your Bible to 1 Samuel 16.7, I believe it is. I think I gave you the right reference there. 1 Samuel 16.7. And look at the second half of this verse, 1 Samuel 16.7. We'll just read the whole verse that says, But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Now, the main context of this verse is God is showing how important the heart is, the inward part. The Lord looks on the heart. He sees our heart. But He also gives a statement where it says, Man looketh on the outward appearance. That is a statement of fact that the Bible is speaking. Man does look on the outward appearance. See, here's the thing. I can't see your heart. I can see the outside appearance. I can't see your heart. The Lord looketh on the heart. Now, we should try the best not to form judgments of people, but the truth is man looketh on the outward appearance. Now, here's the thing. I am not going to sit here and say that it is a sin for you to dress a certain way because I'm not going to say something the Bible doesn't say. But here's my perspective on this. I believe we ought to try to dress our best. And you say, well, why is that? Here's the reason why. Because the way you dress could impact the Queen of Sheba when they come to visit this church. That's the truth. Before we moved here, there was a few other churches that I was considering potentially moving to. And honestly, there was a few churches. There was about seven churches I kind of looked at and partially considered. Three of them were very close to where we lived or within that range because I was driving an hour and a half to go to church every single week. And so I wanted to be really close to the church that I was a part of. But honestly, a few of the churches, they were dressed like they were going to a carnival. They weren't dressed like they really cared about the things of God. Now, like I'm saying, I'm not saying it's a sin for you to dress a certain way. But what I am saying is the way you dress does impact other people, whether you believe it or not. And if you don't want to dress your best for God, I would hope that everyone in here would want to try to dress their best to positively impact people that would visit this church. I mean, the queen of Sheba, this is one of the things that she notices that impacts her, their apparel. The way you dress, the way you act in church, everything, it does impact people when they come to visit. That's one of the things that the Bible mentions. Now, another thing that's mentioned in verse 8, it says, Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants. So one of the big... And let me go back to that point for one second but here's the thing, if someone comes in church, it's no one's job to personally go up to them and say they're dressed wrong. When we go out soloing, we tell everyone, hey, dress how you want, we just want you in church. And that's the truth, okay? We just want people to come to church, you know, however they're dressed, if they're willing to come to church, you know, praise God, we want them to be in church and we want them to grow. It is no one's job to personally go to people and tell them you need to be dressed differently. That's no one's job to do that. But here's the thing, when you preach a sermon, it is your job to preach the whole council. We see that with Solomon. You know, I've never done this and I never will, I will never personally go up to people in the church and say you're not dressed right, you don't really fit in here. And no one in this church should do that either. I'm preaching on this because this is in the passage, this is what the Bible says, there are peril that's mentioned. I'm not going to personally do this outside of the pulpit and I don't think anyone else should as well. You know, on anything, we need to give people a chance to grow because this church can change someone's life, it can change the desires of their heart and we need to be patient with people. Some people grow quickly, other people it's more of a slow and steady climb. But the goal is for everybody to be changing and growing closer to God. We need to give people time. Now one of the other things mentioned is in verse number 8, it says, Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants. You know, this is a small point but it's something that the Queen of Sheba notices. The people are happy. They want to be a church. You know, I grew up in a United Methodist Church for the first, you know, I guess 18 years of my life. Honestly, nobody wanted to be there. They weren't excited at all about the things of God. It's funny when we're taking song requests that one of the songs, Praise God from whom all blessings flow, I know that song because every single week at every United Methodist Church, every Presbyterian Church, every Lutheran, probably every Episcopalian, they sing that song. And the way it's sung is, Praise God from whom all blessings flow. And so you're praising God and you're singing like you're at a funeral. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. But see, we're supposed to be happy. It says in Psalms 100, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. We should be singing out. We should be happy and excited about the things of God. We shouldn't just be here and just be like, Oh, I don't want to be here. You know, I don't really care. You know, I'm just here to fulfill my duty. We should be excited about the things of God. Now I understand things happen in our lives and sometimes everybody has moments where they're really down. But see, that is why it's so important that people are excited to build other people up and to lift people up. Because every single week people come into this church and even if on the outside they kind of look happy, on the inside a lot of people are really down. And they need other people to lift them up. And if you're just here, like you don't even want to be here, you're not excited, you're not happy, it's not going to help the people that need your help at that moment. Now a bigger thing that's mentioned though is the wisdom. And it says, she said, Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom. Now go to Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah chapter 8, we actually preached on this last Sunday. It was preached on. Now I want you to notice something in 1 Kings 10. Keep your place in 1 Kings and I want you to look at something in verse number 8 here for a second. It says in 1 Kings 10-8, it says which stand continually before thee. It says which stand continually before thee. That's what I want you to key in on. It doesn't say they're seated, it says they're standing. Now you say, well that is just an expression. I don't believe it's an expression. I believe that she's literally saying that they're standing and I believe I can prove this to you. Go to Nehemiah chapter 8. In Nehemiah chapter 8, let's look at verse number 1. It says in Nehemiah chapter 8, verse number 1. And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate. And they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the Watergate from the morning until midday before the men and the women and those that could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. Say, Brother Stockton, can't you have a short sermon? I want to go eat now. I mean, in this, we see that they're reading the Bible for hours, okay? I'm not going to be here for hours. I don't have the voice for that. I wouldn't be able to preach for hours. But they read for hours, okay? Now drop down to verse number 5. And it says in verse 5, and you know it's amazing that when you get rid of distractions in life, you care more about the things of God. There's so many people that honestly the best thing I could do, even better than preaching to you is probably buy you a sledgehammer to smash your television or your computer or whatever's taking away your heart from living for the Lord. You know, if we would get rid of the distractions in our life, we would realize how valuable every single word in this book is. And we would be like the Queen of Sheba. We would really care about the wisdom of God. But when you wake up in the morning, what do you do? Do you check Facebook or do you read the Bible? Do you check Facebook or do you start in prayer? What do you do? Because honestly, most people, they probably check Facebook before they actually check the things of God. They probably check email before they actually read the Bible or pray to God or get their day started off doing something for the Lord. Now, in verse number 5 in Nehemiah chapter 8, the Bible says, And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. This is the same thing as 1 Kings 10 which says they stand continually before the end to hear thy wisdom. In Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 5 it says all the people stood up. You say, well, why does it say that they stood up? Well, the Bible analogies from our modern day of when someone might stand up at something. You know, I don't recommend people spending their time watching sports but I used to be a huge sports fanatic. I used to go to a lot of soccer games and when I went to soccer games, I used to go with my dad and when our team scored a goal, we would stand up. We were excited, right? When the other team scored a goal, we were seated. We were kind of depressed and everyone else is standing up but then in soccer there's something that's called a golasso. Now, a golasso is basically a magnificent goal. It's like a fantastic, it's a spectacular goal and you know what happens when a golasso scored when an amazing goal scored up? Every single person in the crowd stands up and they start cheering. They just say, that is just amazing. Basically, it's so spectacular that they feel that they need to stand up to do honor to that goal. Like I said, I'm not saying that you should spend your money going to sporting events. I don't do that anymore but in my past, that's what you did. When there's a spectacular goal, that's what happened. Another example of this, something I really don't recommend is going to a rock concert, okay? But in my past, a long time ago, you know, I did go to some concerts and there's something about at the very end, if the concert's really good, what ends up happening? Everybody stands up and they start clapping, right? It's called an encore and so the person keeps performing because they're still standing, they're still clapping. Basically, they're saying that concert was so good, we want more, right? This is what you see in 1 Kings 10. This is what you see in Nehemiah Chapter 8. These people said that the Word of God was so spectacular, the wisdom of God was so spectacular, that they needed to stand to do honor for the Word of God. Now, we live in a day where we have the Bible on our cell phone. I have the entire Bible on my cell phone. I have my cell phone by my bed when I go to sleep at night. I wake up with an alarm. A lot of people are the same way, but people are too lazy to take their phone out and just start reading the Bible. They're too lazy to open up a book. We live in a country where everyone has the money to have a Bible in their hands and several Bibles in their house and people are too lazy to just open this book. But throughout the Bible, we see people going to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach. We see people going to great lengths. They don't even know what they're going to eat or drink just to hear Jesus preach. And we live in a day where we don't even open the Bible to read it some days. The biggest problem in churches is the fact that people don't read their Bible because I can only preach to you so much in one sermon. In 1 Kings 10, that is only one chapter in the Bible. And I've only gone to verse number 9 so far. It's only one chapter in the Bible. This book is huge. I tell this to people when I go out sowing after they get saved. I'll say, you know, this Bible's a big book. I only showed you a small portion of it. That's why you need to be in church because there's so much that you can learn. I can't show this to you in 20 minutes. There's so much in the Bible to learn, so much wisdom. The answers of life are in this book. We need to make sure every single day we're diligently reading this book. We need to take the wisdom of God seriously. Now just two more points and I'll be done. Go back to 1 Kings 10. I hope you kept your place in there. 1 Kings chapter 10. And we're going to look at verse number 6. And it says in 1 Kings 10 verse 6, And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard. Now in 1 Kings chapter 10, she makes a point in verse 7 to say until she came and her eyes had seen it. She had heard about the wisdom of Solomon, but when she actually saw it with her eyes, it exceeded every single expectation she had. You know, this is a church that we put our sermons online and a lot of people listen to these sermons. And there are people that probably started listening to the sermons at this church before they actually started coming. And I guarantee you every single one of them would say, You know what? Listening to sermons online is not the same as actually being here. Okay? Now, I mean, I like listening to sermons online. I still listen to sermons online. You know, before I moved here, I listened to a lot of the sermons from this church online. But you know what? Listening to sermons online, it's not the same as actually being here until her eyes had actually seen it. You know, I really wish, because there's so many people out there that don't go to church and they listen to preaching online, but they're not involved in church. And here's the problem with this, because we have two things mentioned in those verses, wisdom and acts, wisdom and works being done. Now, people can listen online and they feel like they're getting a lot of wisdom, but there's so many things else involved in church. And yet, anybody who doesn't go to church, they don't win souls either. Show me a person who wins a lot of people with the Lord and doesn't show up for church. You're not going to find it. And not only that, there's people that, you know what? If you were to move from this church, if you were to decide one day, you know what? The preaching is great, but I can just listen online. I'll just move to some area where I don't know what the church is. I guarantee you that no matter how great of a soul winner you are, you will win less souls over there than you're going to be as a part of this church. Because this church, being around people that love the Lord, it will build you up. But if you're in an area where there is not a good church and the pastor doesn't go soul winning and the soul winners are the enemies of the entire church, which is the case with many churches across the nation, you are not going to be winning a lot of souls. But when you get involved with a church like this, you're going to have a lot of zeal to win souls. Because the pastor is sending you out. Other people are talking about stories about how they won souls, the excitement about this church. You're going to get really involved. But the problem with so many people is people are too lazy to come to church. They don't get involved in church. They don't spend enough time looking for a good church or they don't have the faith to move to an area where there is a good church. And you know what? They're not going to get the wisdom. They're not going to get the things of this church. Until they actually come and are a part of it, they're missing a large part of the picture. There is so much in church. This sermon is only a small part of this church. This is only part of the church. There's so much involved. Soul winning is a part of the church. There are so many things involved and unless you're actually here to see it, it is not the same thing. Now, this is pretty much the first nine verses of the chapter and you say, well, are we only a short way through the sermon? There's really only one point left, okay? Because when I was studying through this chapter, when I was looking through this, this chapter was just packed in the first nine verses. It was so exciting. And the rest of the chapter is very repetitive with a point that's being driven home. But God is trying to make a point very clearly. It's actually interesting, the new sermon series we started because it's talking about money and that's what we really see with the rest of this chapter. It talks about money a lot. And here's the point that God's driving home. Turn to Matthew chapter six, the first book of the New Testament. I'll actually read to you this passage. Turn to Matthew chapter six. Go to verse number 29. Because it mentions Solomon in here, which is pretty interesting. It says in Matthew six, verse 29, And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God in his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Now the Bible mentions in verse number 29, it mentions Solomon. Now one thing you've got to remember in 1 Kings earlier is God promised Solomon riches and honor because he asked for understanding. He asked for wisdom. God promised him riches. Because someone could easily look at this and say, Well, it's pretty easy for Solomon to preach the truth and to preach art because God already promised Solomon riches. But here's the thing we see in Matthew six. Not only did he promise Solomon money, he also promised to provide our needs. Now there's no guarantee that I'm going to be rich. I don't expect to ever be really rich. But God did promise to provide my needs and to everybody's needs if we do what we're supposed to do. I mean if you're a man that's too lazy to work, if you're capable of working and you're too lazy to work, then maybe God can't provide your needs. But if you are serving the Lord and you're working hard, God will provide your needs. And see this is the point Not just as an individual, we're looking here at a church. If this church is the way it ought to be, if this church is one where everybody is humble, they're seeking after wisdom, the Word of God is being preached with no apology, great works are being done, God will provide the money necessary for this church to function. We don't have to worry about, Oh, I need to tone down the message. I need to change it so someone with more money comes in and other people that don't really love the Lord come in. We don't need to change anything because God shows us here in 1 Kings 10, it talks about money the rest of the chapter. People from around the world are coming and bringing money. God can provide money however He needs to do. If we're the church, God will provide the money necessary for this church to operate. And the same in our individual lives. If we choose to serve the Lord and devote our lives to Him, God can provide the money we need to be able to live. Now the one thing I want to get you to think about just as a closing for this sermon, because this chapter is packed. I know I preach basically the kitchen sink, but in 1 Kings 10 there is a lot of information, a lot of interesting things. But the Queen of Sheba is coming from around the world to see the wisdom of Solomon. It really would be a real travesty that someone would visit this church that they wanted to do something great for God. They wanted to see the wisdom. They wanted to be a part of something great and when they came here they ended up being disappointed. Let's make sure that's not the case. Let's every single person in here take the things of God very seriously and realize every single person matters. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and I just ask you to help us remember these words and help us have a wonderful day.