the Word of God together. 2 Chronicles chapter 9. I've entitled this message, The Day I Came. The Day I Came. There's two days I remember really specifically in my life, and here tonight we're going to read about the day the Queen of Sheba came to King Solomon. There's two specific days I remember in my life real specifically, and that is one, the day that I got saved. Now I can't tell you the hour, I can't tell you exactly what day that ended in wow that it was, but I do know the moment that I got saved. And I also know the moment that after I got out into the world and was living a backslid life, I remember the day I came back to the king. And I'm thankful for that as well. And so both of those days are extremely important to me. The day that I got saved and then the day that after I had lived an ungodly life Even after I got saved, the Lord was still willing to forgive me and have me back. So those are two specific days that I remember very well. Entitled this message tonight, The Day I Came. This evening, well this morning, well today, is Branda's 17th birthday. Marius was just here recently. Happy birthday to Miss Mary. Her birthday was today, and so she requested that we last week or sometime, that we go to Roanoke for her birthday. She wanted to go shopping. And so we went. And I'm exhausted tonight. We got back to the car. She said, Dad, I think we've hit the town hard enough today. I was like, oh, praise the Lord. That's what she said. She said, I think we hit the town hard enough today. Let's go home. I was like. But while we were there this morning, we drove down early. And we was down there. And she had picked out a place to eat. And we got down there. And well, I was trying to find it. And I drove past it. You know, we was in town. I mean, downtown Roanoke. And I don't know my way around. And GPS's aren't always correct. But it did lead us to the right place, but we didn't know where we were going, so I missed it, realized where it was at, so I had to go up the block trail and come back. On my way back, I was coming around the other side of the block, I saw this gentleman, we saw this gentleman walking down the road, very slow, very heavy-lacking, his legs and feet, and didn't look very well. And we was looking at him and we thought that, you know, maybe he's homeless. And of course our hearts were sunk and we talked about that for just a little bit while I went to the next stoplight and made the turn. We got to the place and got out and went inside and it wasn't what we thought it was going to be so we came back out. When we came back out, lo and behold, that guy come walking right in front of us. And when he went past us, you could tell the world had got a hold of him. It was bad. And so Amy reached in her pocket and she gave me a gospel tract and I turned around and I walked up to the gentleman and I said, sir, I said, can I ask you a question? Can I talk to you for a minute? And he turned around and he looked at me. And I said, sir, I said, do you know that you're on your way to heaven? And it didn't seem like he could speak, but it was just, he could just kind of grunt. There was no audible words that came out of his mouth. He just grunted a little bit and nodded his head. And I said, so you know you're saved and you're on your way to heaven. And he just kind of grunted and nodded his head. And so I just kind of went through real quick the plan of salvation. Lots of people say they're saved and on their way to heaven. I want to make sure he knows that he's on his way to heaven the right way. That it's not through works and not through all that, but that he knows he's on his way to heaven. So I just kind of real briefly went through that with him. And as we were speaking, noticed that through the conversation that we were able to have through his head movements and acknowledging that he was saved. And I said, well, sir, is there anything I can do for you at all? I said, do you want something to eat or anything? And he just shook his head no. And I said, well, OK. I said, well, thank you for taking the time to just talk, you know, just to be with me. And then he just went on his way. Terrible looking sight. Been a long time since I've seen somebody look that bad. Got in the car, got up to the stoplight. I mean, just right there. And I'm sitting there at the stoplight, and my family's in the car, and I'm sitting there, and I see this woman. She's at this intersection, and she's walking by. And it looks like she just got off work. She looked like she had a name tag on her chest or whatever. Well, anyway, she's coming down through there. Next thing you know, she's making these weird gestures, just doing all this. And I'm sitting there in the car, And I'm looking at her and I'm like, what in the world? We think she's getting ready to throw up out in the road. Next thing you know, she turns around and she looks at us and she says, start spitting at us. Start saying who knows what in the world she was saying, but she was not happy with us for whatever reason. And I have no idea what it was. But she's walking down through there and she's spitting at us and hollering at us. And of course, you know, I'm just sitting in the car and I'm just like, what in the world is going on? She moves on and you know, praise the Lord, the light's turning and I'm going, so I make the turn. We finally get to the place where we, other place we want to go get out. As soon as we get out of the car, Somebody just hear from the door next thing. You know we hear this young lady down there, and she's just a cussing up a storm I Was like what in the world's going on down there? And she was with some guy and they were just cussing up a storm all dressed in black and somebody was I think from the store was talking to her man She was just cussing up a storm saying all kinds of stuff, and I was like Man, I was like we mean we even got breakfast yet And I was like this is getting pretty bad. We even got breakfast shit And so, we get inside, start eating. Next thing you know, she comes around. She's right outside the glass door. And man, she's out there just to pitch and to fit and all kinds of stuff. I don't know what's going on. But then we got to praying over our meal. And you know, it really burned my heart because I thought, man, how many people that I've seen in just a small amount of time that need to come know the same Savior that I know. And it just broke my heart to see people in this condition. So as we go through our text here tonight, I just want us to think about the day that we came. And maybe where we came from. Not just the day we got saved, but even in those moments when we got away from God, and God said, welcome back. The Bible says here in 2 Chronicles chapter 9, there in verse 1, the Bible says, And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem with a very great company and camels that bear spices in golden abundance and precious stones and when she was come to Solomon she communed with him of all that was in her heart. Solomon told her all her questions and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attention of his ministers, and the apparel of his cupbearers also, and their apparel, and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it was a true report which I heard in my own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not their words until I came and mine eyes had seen it. The one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me. For thou exceedest the thing that I heard. Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee, to set thee on his throne, to be king over the Lord thy God. Because thou, because thy God loved Israel to establish them forever, therefore made he king over them to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king 120 talents of gold and of spices of great abundance and precious stones Neither was there any such spice as the Queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight. We do thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Lord, I pray that you would just use your word this evening to speak to our hearts and help us, Lord, just to behold wonderful things out of your word tonight. I pray, God, you let your word do its perfect work. You said it would not return void, and so I pray, God, that that which goes out, that it would do that which you need it to do today. Lord, we love you and we thank you for it all. In this we pray in Jesus' name, amen. There in our text we read about the Queen of Sheba coming to see King Solomon. And as she came to see King Solomon we read about some things here that she was just mesmerized and really amazed and taken back by. As I was reading through this, as I said, I began to think about not only about the time that Sheba came to seeing King Solomon, but I got to thinking about and got to seeing some similarities about how whenever I came to my king, the king of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I began to look at some of these sayings, these similarities, and began to think about these sayings, it was such a blessing to my heart that I wanted to share these sayings with you tonight. And the Bible shows us there in verse one, The Bible says when the Queen of Sheba heard the faint of Solomon that she came I'm thankful that we see that Sheba said with even within herself that we read the verses that even the thing even the greatness that she had heard of Solomon even all the things that she had heard about him that even the half hasn't even been told to her about how good and about how good and how great King Solomon was. But I'm also thankful here tonight that my king is so great that the half, not even, listen, not even an eighth, I believe, has been told about the greatness of our God. Because my Bible tells me it hasn't even entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love him. And I can come up with a lot of things and I can think about a lot of things, but I can tell you what my Bible tells me. Listen, Jesus told everybody, he said, I've told you of earthly things and you don't believe. How shall you believe if I told you heavenly things? Even the Lord himself let us know very quickly that if I told you all the things about heaven, you wouldn't even believe it. He says, I've told you about the things of this earth, and I've told you, and you've seen me do great things here, but yet you still don't believe. How would you ever even believe of the things of heaven if I told you about them? Listen, the half hadn't been told about King Solomon, and we have never come even close, I believe, to hearing the greatness and the power and the majesty and the brilliance of the God that we serve here tonight. The Bible shows us here, there in verse 1, we see that when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, that she came to prove him with hard questions at Jerusalem. I was thankful for this verse, the very first part of this verse, the Bible says that when she heard. Because when I was thinking about today, as I had prepared this message before, but as I was thinking about the illustrations today that God had laid before me, about all the people that needed to hear about the Lord Jesus, about even I myself, who heard about the Lord and when I needed to get saved. As I began to think about all these things and even my own personal life and the things that God has done for me and how he has forgiven me and saved me and brought me out of the darkness and brought me into the light, I was rejoicing in my spirit. But we see right here the Queen of Sheba, the Bible says that she heard about the fame of Solomon. Hey, I don't know how she heard about it, but praise the Lord, she heard about the fame of Solomon because it was when she heard about the fame of Solomon that she wanted to come and see what this was all about. I say that just to say this here tonight, that listen, there's a lot of things that we can talk about in this world, and listen, there's a lot of great things, famous things, great people that we can talk about, great places to go, great sights to see, And there's a lot of things that are famous in this world, but there is nothing and no one more famous and more beautiful than our Savior here tonight. And so if there's anything that anybody would ever hear out of us, if there's anything that everybody would even know that would come from us, let it be one of the most foremost important things, that they hear about our King. Because it was when she heard about King Solomon that she came to see the King. May we be a light in a lost and dark world. May we be a people that goes out and that we would be a faithful witness that we would go out into a lost and dark world and that through us and through our witness and through our voice and through our actions and through our conduct as God's people, that people would be interested in knowing and hearing about the same God that we serve here tonight. And so I'm thankful about, I'm thankful for the fact that she heard about the fame of Solomon. Because it was when she heard about the fame of Solomon, that's when she wanted to come. So when we go out these doors and we live our life, and whether we go to work, or we go home, or wherever it is that we go, whether we're at the grocery store, or whether we're just out and about in other different places, let us be a people that wouldn't be afraid to let other people know about the fame of our God. what our God has done for us, and how our God has helped us, and how our God has saved us, and how our God has forgiven us, and the things that God has done here, and the things that God has done there in our life, and the things that God has done here in our life, because you never know that the people that we come across, and just in everyday life, the people that maybe they could be strangers on the street, or they even could be family members in our own home, or family members in our family, or friends, but whoever it could be, it may be that because they hear about the fame of your God, that how good God's been to you, and the blessings that God has shed upon your life, and where God has brought you from, from this place to that place, and how God has helped you, and been there for you, and provided for you, and blessed you, and how God has forgiven you, and all these things, it could be that by those very things, that those people hear about the fame of our God, and they say, well, I've got to see what this is all about myself. The Bible shows us right here that the Queen of Sheba, she came because she heard. And what are people hearing from us? What are people hearing that's coming out of our mouth? And what are people, what are they hearing? What are they seeing that's coming out of our life? Because one of the things that brought her to Solomon was the things that she heard about how he lived and the things that she heard about his wisdom. That was what brought her there. And so may the things that come out of us as well here tonight be something that entices people, something that the Holy Spirit can use to bring people to him. So that people would say, yes, I wanna hear about this same God. Listen, God's done this for them and God's done this for them. I wanna hear about this same God that can forgive. This same God that is willing every single day, every single day to reach his hand down to me wherever I'm at and to rescue me in my place. this very same God. The Bible shows us there in verse one, when the Queen of Sheba heard of the famous Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions. Number one, when we think about the day that we came, we understand that we came from a great distance. Our sin was between us and God. Did you know that in Matthew chapter 12 in verse 42, the Lord Jesus was talking to the people And it was talking to the Pharisees and all these people and he told them, he mentioned the queen of the south. And he said the queen of the south came from the uttermost parts of the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon and said that in one day she's gonna rise up in judgment one day against Jahl because she came to hear the words of Solomon. But yet a greater than Solomon is standing here. He said she came from the uttermost parts of the earth. So as I began to think about this, I began to think about, you know, the day that whenever I heard about the Lord, whenever I heard about the fame, when I heard about the forgiveness, when I heard about the blessings of the Lord Jesus, but then after I heard about that, I realized that I myself, was in an uttermost place. That I myself was also very distant. That I myself, because of my sin, was very far away from God. And that the only way that I can get to God would be through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see that the Queen of Sheba, she herself, she was far away from the Lord. She was far away, in essence, from the King. But she had heard about His fame. and she had heard about how great that he was, and so she wanted to come to the king to see what he was all about. And may it be in this day and this world in which we live, that even though, listen, no matter how far away the people are, no matter how far down in the depths of sin that they have gone, listen, no matter how far down, that the Lord has to reach down and find somebody. Listen, my Bible tells me that his hand is not shortened, that he cannot save. And so the Lord is not hindered tonight from saving somebody anywhere they are at. Because where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. Let us not think here tonight that because somebody sins different than we do, then they are just one worse off than us. Listen, we got to understand tonight that it is sin, simply put, that separates us from God. Sin separates us from God. And when sin separated us from God, it didn't just take us a little bit away from God, it took us so far away from God that we were in the uttermost that we couldn't get to God on our own. And so Jesus had to die so that we could come to God. The Bible shows us here, there in the text, that she came to prove Solomon with hard questions. We see that she came from a distance there in Matthew, but she also came with questions. How many have ever came to the Lord with some questions? Yeah. Lots of us have some questions. We see that one of the things that we can see right here is that we see that she came to Solomon, and the Bible says that she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem. We see that she had some things that she needed to know about. There was some, obviously, whatever they were, there were some things that were dear to her, some things that meant something to her that maybe she thought that maybe only Solomon could answer. And so she came to Solomon, she came to the king with these questions, and she wanted to know what they were all about. Listen, I can say here tonight, listen, I know I've had lots of questions in my life about a lot of things. And it's not that there's a lot of things that I don't know. But there are many things that I do know, and that is this. I do know that God is love. I do know that God is just. I do know that God knows more than me. Amen? I've heard a lot of people say over the years, and I've said this a million times, well, if I was God, I'd do this. If I was God, I'd do that. When in reality, if you was God, you'd do the same thing God did. because you'd know what He knows and you would see what He sees. You would be God. And you'd do the same thing He would. In life, we don't always understand in this flesh that we're in. We may not always understand. We might always get to the place where we know all the questions that we desire to know. But I do know this, that all the questions concerning man itself and eternity, God has given us right here in His Word. There's lots of questions that we may have, but the most important questions that deal with how we are to live our life, things that are sinful, and how we can move on into eternity with Christ, God has given us in his word. The most important questions that a man could ever ask, God has answered in the Bible that you hold in your hand here tonight. She came with some hard questions and she came to the king with some difficult things, but I'm thankful here tonight that listen, whenever I came to my king and I had some difficult questions and I wanted to know, listen, why am I a sinner? Why am I lost and on my way to a devil's hell? And is there anything that I can do about it? How am I supposed to get there? That my Bible told me all those things I needed to know. I had some difficult questions. Things that were needful for me for eternity and God answered them. The Bible says that she came with a very great company, and so I ask you this, is, well, like the queen, we come from a distant place. Like the queen, we have some hard questions. But like the queen, are we bringing anybody with us whenever we come to the king? Are we bringing anybody with us to the king? Because, listen, do we not, because we know of his fame and because we know how great it is, are we bringing anybody else to the king? The Bible says that she came with a great company. The queen of Sheba from the uttermost parts of the earth was coming. to see the king and as she was coming to see the king, she was bringing a great company of people with her. Why is that? Because she had heard about his greatness. She had heard about how good that he is. She had heard about his wisdom. She had heard about how he lived. She had heard about all these wonderful things in regards to the king. And there was no way that she wanted to come to the king by herself. She wanted to let everybody else know what she knew. And she says, hey everybody, I'm going to go see a king that we've heard about but we haven't seen. Why don't you all come with me and let's do this thing together? And she brought a great company with her. What a great witness that is. May we as well be an effective witness in this day when we think about coming to our king. May we be a great effective witness in our day as we look about and see those that need to come to the king. That we would reach out and help to bring them to the king. So she brought other people with her. But notice the Bible also says, a very great company there in verse 1 in camels and bare spices and gold and abundance and precious stones. when she was come to Solomon, and she communed with him of all that was in her heart. Not only did she bring a great company, but she brought some gifts. She brought some things to the king. And you say, well, what is it that I can bring to the king? What is it that, what is it? You say, well, I don't have the precious stones, and I don't have the gold, and I don't have all these things. What is it that I can bring to the king? Yourself. Yourself. Your soul is the most valuable thing that there is. It is the most precious. Does not our Bible tell us, and did not the Lord Jesus say, that what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? And so our soul is the most precious thing there is. What is it that God desires that we bring to him? Ourselves. Because you, my friend, are irreplaceable. You are unique. And you are irreplaceable. This world does everything it can to clone this and clone this and clone that and I'd say what they're doing all they can to clone all different types of things. But you are a unique person. And God loves you. And His desire for you is that you would come to Him. That's what He wants. Because you are precious. And so we see here that she brought some things. She expected something. She expected to hear something. She expected to see something. And she expected to give something to him. So when we come to the king, what are we expecting to give? Well, I would say first and foremost, what we want to give to the king is is ourselves. What greater possession could God have than us? And us? You say, well, I don't have all the gold. Listen, my Bible tells me the earth is His and the fullness thereof. Listen, He owns it all anyway. There's nothing that we have here tonight that is really ours. It's just on loan from God. And God has allowed us here tonight to be stewards of that which He has given us. We see here that she brought these things to the king, but in the same fashion, we ourselves can bring the most important gift, which is us, and we can bring ourselves to him, but notice in the latter part of that verse, one thing she did. Not only did she bring a great company, not only did she bring the camels and the spices and the precious stones, and we would see that, of course, as ourselves, but she also brought this. The Bible says she communed with him of all. that was in her heart. All of it. She brought her heart to the king. So when we're coming to the king, what are we bringing? Are we bringing anybody with us? Are we bringing ourselves? Am I giving God? Am I pouring myself out? Am I giving Him my heart? Am I pouring out my soul? Am I communing with Him about everything in regards to everything that's going on within me? The Bible says she poured everything out to Him. I tell you what, I can think of some really precious times when I've poured myself out to the Lord in so many different places. where it seems like sometimes you pour yourself out to God, and you can't really explain it, but it's almost like the God of heaven just reaches down and just says, I hear you, and wraps His arms around you, and it's almost like you just feel God just hug your spirit. What a blessing. She poured herself out. The Bible says there in the latter part of verse 1 that she communed with Him, so we ask ourselves, Are we communing with the King? Is there a line between us and the King? Are we in fellowship? Are we communing with the King tonight? Listen, I'm thankful that every time I want to talk to God, there's not a busy signal. I'm thankful that every time I talk to God, there's not a secretary that picks up the phone and says, well, I'm sorry, he's not here today. I'm thankful. that whenever I get on my knees and come to God and it don't matter if it's in the middle of the night at midnight or if it's in the middle of the day at noon, it don't matter in any other time in between that any time I come to God, I know I have access to His throne. I have access to my Father in heaven. Are we communing with Him? She was expecting to speak to the king. She desired to speak to the king. The Bible says she communed with Him of all that was in her heart. So like the queen, we ourselves, we come from a great distance. Our sin separated us from God. But because she had heard about him and how great that he was, and when she heard about his goodness and his wisdom, she wanted to see herself, what he was all about. And so as Christians here tonight, are we being that example for a lost and dying world? Are we being the light that is lighting the world as Christ told us that we ought to be? That ye are the light of the world. Are we doing that and other people hearing about the fame of Christ and the things that he has done for us? I also see that she came in humility. Listen, we get saved. That's definitely one thing that we have to do is we have to approach God in humility. We approach God with a humble heart. We come to the Lord with a humble heart because we know that we're sinners. We know that we're lost. We know that we deserve a devil's hell. And we know that there's nothing that we can do to earn our way to heaven. But yet because God in all of his grace and mercy, he sent his only begotten son to come to that cross and die for every single one of us. And I'm thankful here tonight that my God is not a respecter of persons. and it don't matter who you are. It don't matter where you came from. It don't matter what nationality you are. It don't matter what ethnicity you call yourself. Listen, none of it makes no difference. The Lord Jesus died for the sins of the world and every single person in this world. And all that have a desire to come to Christ can come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible shows us here in the text. that she communed with Him of all that was in her heart. And she came with humility. Imagine a queen as powerful and great as she is. Coming to a king. Saying, there sure is a whole lot that I don't know. And I'm coming to you. Some queens and some kings and the Pharisees of the religious crowd of the day can be so prideful they wouldn't allow themselves to do that. As the Lord Jesus spoke of the parable of the Pharisee, they come there into the temple and the Bible says he walks there into the temple and he looks down at the publican. And the Bible says he looks down at that publican and he says, I thank God that I'm not like this man. But then the publican down there who recognizes and sees what he is, he knows he's a sinner. He knows he needs the mercy of God. The Bible says that Jesus said he can't even lift up his eyes towards heaven, but he holds his head down, beats upon his chest and says, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's how we should be. And the queen of Sheba, despite the fact that she was a queen, despite the fact that she was in charge of the great company, despite the fact that she was rich and probably had all the things that you can imagine, despite all of these things, she humbled herself before Solomon. May we, in our hearts, come to Christ in humility. Not thinking that just because I have this position or just because I'm this kind of person or just because I haven't committed this sin or just because I haven't done this or just because I haven't ran with that crowd that I have any right to look down on anybody else and say you're not worthy enough to come to God. The Bible shows us here that I think we could see the humility of her heart. She communed with him of all that was in her heart. Notice verse two, the Bible says that Solomon told her all of her questions and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not. He told her everything that she needed to hear. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, watch this now. When she seen the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he built, You see, what's so interesting about the latter part of verse three is that when she's seen the house that he built, listen, I'm, yes, he had, that was a big house and that was a big temple. God had blessed. But it wasn't so much about that, I don't believe, as it was when she looked at the house, it was a way to describe his way of life. She had never believed, had never even seen had never fathomed in her mind how great the life of Solomon was. And just like I believe here tonight, we can't even begin to imagine, we can't even begin to fathom exactly everything, what it's like that is up in heaven. But I can tell you this, understand this now, even though the Queen of Sheba didn't know these things, and even though she hadn't experienced these things, and even though she didn't know about these things, it still don't mean that the way that Solomon was living and all the things that he knew was not true. It was still all there. Whether she believed it or not, or whether she knew it or not, it was there. How many of you would admit tonight that there's a lot of things that I don't know? And how many of you, when those things that you didn't know, you ended up seeing for yourself or you experienced for yourself and come to realize that it was true or surpassed what you thought? That's the same thing that happened to her. She says, I could not believe it when I saw how great Solomon was when I saw this house, the Bible says in verse three, and the house that he had built. I believe one of the things that we can see is that when she acknowledged how much God had blessed, but not just in what he had, but I believe in the life that he was living for the Lord that he served, that this path, that this direction was far greater than the direction and the path that she had been living. And I tell you what, When I got saved, I got saved when I was 10, so I was real young. So there was a lot of things up to that point that I had not done, but I tell you what, when I asked God, listen, when I got out in the world and lived like the devil for a while, when I came back to the Lord, I already knew that I was saved, but I tell you what, I still, I had a lot that I had to come to the Lord and say, God, forgive me. Not because I needed to be saved again, because I'm already saved, but because there was just a lot of There was a lot of things that I just needed to confess before God. The Bible shows us here that whenever she saw His life, she just could not believe it. And I think it's in essence really the same way with us. Listen, when we were lost and living like the devil, listen, I tell you what, sometimes this world can help us to easily forget about how good that we could have it. Sometimes we get so used to settling for all the things in this world that we forget really how great it is over there because we've been over here so long just settling. You ever been like, maybe thought, I've been over here just kind of settling for what the world will give me, that I've really forgot about how great I can really have it over here with God, but I've been living for the world and living out in the world, and so I've just been settling for what the scraps that the world has given me, and I got so used to settling for the scraps that I forgot about all the blessings and all the goodness of God that was over here that I could enjoy. Sometimes we can get so used to settling for the scraps of this world that I believe that we fail to remember the greatness of God and the goodness of God and the ways of God and how great that it is. And I believe there in verse three that whenever she saw the house that he built, that she wasn't just mesmerized by how God had blessed his kingdom, but that she saw that the way that he lived and the direction of his life far surpassed anything that she ever thought, that this way over here, the way that she had lived in the uttermost part of the world, that it was nothing like how Solomon was living, that over here in the uttermost part of the world that was separated between her and the king, that it was nothing like what the king had. And whenever she made this trip to come over here and to see what the king was all about, and to see what the king had, and to listen to his voice, and to commune with him with all that was in her heart, she was in awe. It's amazing. In awe. Bible says there in verse four, What was it that struck her so much? Not only his wisdom, and of course the house that he had built, his way of life, but notice the meat of his table, the sitting of his servants, the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers also, and their apparel, and what do we notice in that very first part of verse four? How the people that he was surrounded with behaved themselves. How the people that he was surrounded with how that the people that were there not wanted to do everything they can to, how the people that were there under the king wanted to do everything they could to serve the king and be the best that they could for the king. Listen, I think we should be the same way. Doing everything we can to be the best that we can possibly be for the king. And no matter what area of service it is that we are in. Listen, it don't matter what it is. Listen, I don't care if you, listen, and this is nothing small by no means. I am so thankful for the men that come up here, that bring me this water every single service. There's sometimes I may not even take the cap off of it. But there's sometimes that I may drink half of this bottle. And if it wasn't for that, my preaching would be very different. I'm so thankful. I'm thankful for the people that mow the yard. I'm thankful for the people that clean the church. I'm thankful for the service that everybody does in this church. And no matter what it is that we do for God, No matter what, listen, I don't care if you're walking down the aisle way and you see and there's some trash on the floor and you pick it up and you put it away. And you put it in the trash can. That is something that you did great for God. That meant that you cared about serving the king. You say, well, all I did was just reach down and pick up a piece of trash and put it in the trash can. What do you mean that's all that you did? You just served the king. It was fantastic. Because if you wouldn't have done it, it'd still be there. Or if you wouldn't have done it, somebody else would have to come along and do it. Don't never minimize your service to God. What blew her away, what blew away the Queen of Sheba was the fact that when she saw all the people that served the king, how they served the king, in every ministry that they had, in serving the king. It didn't matter what it was. It didn't matter if it was a cupbearer. It didn't matter if it was this servant or this servant or this servant. It didn't matter if it was the people that came and put the meat on the table. It didn't make a difference who it was. She looked at everybody and was like, wow, look at how everybody wants to serve the king. May our hearts be in the same place. that listen, that we serve the king in such a manner that we, that the God that we serve with, that it would be pleasing in his sight. Listen, not so we can have a reason to boast before man. Listen, we don't want, listen, it's not like, it's not, this is, we don't need this from man. But I tell you what, when you get to heaven, what greater words can a man hear than well done thou good and faithful servant. Enter now into the joy of the Lord. That's what I wanted to hear. That's all I wanna hear. The Bible shows us here in this text, there in verse four we can see that the servants that were there and she was in awe about them, but notice this. There in the middle part, there in the middle part of verse four, so we see in their apparel and his cupbearers also in their apparel, but watch this now, and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord. The fact that he was a king who acknowledged that he had a king. The fact that he was the greatest king that anybody had ever seen on this earth. And he acknowledged that he had a king that he needed to bow down to, that he needed to serve. He led by example. He showed everybody. Listen, she was in awe. When she saw other people and other kings and other people in Queens who would come to see Solomon, they would, in essence, bow down to him and come to hear his wisdom. And they were just in awe about how God had blessed and how he was living his life. And they were just in complete shock and in awe about it. They could not believe it. But I think maybe perhaps one of the things that took everybody back the most was the fact that this man that everybody bowed down to came to another man, the God man, God himself. That this man whom everybody lifted up, that this man whom everybody was awestruck at also went up into the house of the Lord and acknowledged that he had a God that he needed to bow down to. He demonstrated humility in his own life and he led by example. And the Bible says that there in verse four, that one of the things that took her back, notice the latter part of that verse four, it says, and there was no more spirit in her. In other words, she just could not believe all the things that she was seeing. And that last part there in verse four, when it talks about how when she was in awe about his ascent, whenever he went up into the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. So many great examples that we can see that Sodom lived in his life, but perhaps the greatest one was the fact that she was able to witness and see for herself the reason why God had blessed him so, was because he had enough humility in himself to understand that he also needed to ascend into the house of the Lord. That he wasn't going because he was just the king. That he wasn't going just because he had a lot of money. He wasn't going just because he had a lot of possessions. But that he was going because he knew he needed to go. That he needed to come before the king. The king of kings and pour himself out to the king. Regardless of who he was. regardless of the power that he had, regardless of the position that he held, he still needed to come before the king. And when she saw that, that he had such humility about himself, that he didn't have such a prideful heart about all the things that he had that did not keep him from coming to the king, but that she was, no, there was no more spirit in her when she saw his ascent into the house of the Lord. He demonstrated to her there in his ascent to the house of the Lord how important being in the house of God was. How important communing with the Lord was. How important spending time with the king of kings was. We'll stop with verse five. The Bible says, and she said to the king, it was a true report. which I heard in my own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom. Albeit I believed not their words until I came, and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me, for thou exceedest the fame that I heard. Happy are thy men Listen, you come to the Lord, you find out God's greater than everything you ever thought. You find out that God can give you far more than you can ever give. You find out that in the Lord and in the presence of the Lord, the Bible shows us there in verse 7, He says, Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants. Watch this now. Which, circle that, where is there happiness, where is this joy coming from? which stand, what's the next word? Continually before thee and hear thy wisdom. You keep yourself continually before God and before the wisdom of His word. And you ascend into His house and be a servant of His. You walk with God. My Bible tells me that when we're walking in the Spirit that we can produce the fruits of the Spirit Love, joy, gentleness, kindness, maintenance, temperance. And all these things. But I think we see a good key, some good key words in verse seven. Which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom. Where is the wisdom of God? You say, I want the wisdom of the Lord. It's right here. It's right here. This is the wisdom of the Lord. See, whenever we pray, we talk to God, we read God's Word, He talks to us. Make sure you just don't have a one-way conversation. Amen? When you pray, you talk to God, we read God's Word, God talks to you, make sure you're having a two-way conversation. And let God's Word dwell in your heart and life richly. Happy is the man that stands continually. Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight and we thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Lord, I thank you for everyone's patience here tonight. God, I pray you'd bless our night. Lord, I pray you'd bless our week. Lord, I pray that you'd just hold us close to you, Lord, tonight. I pray that you'd be with all these folks that are on our prayer request, Lord, we do have many. Lord, as we lift them up to you continually in our hearts, God, we pray for your blessings upon them and their families and all the needs that they have. Lord, I pray that you give us all a good week. I pray God you'd keep us safe. I pray, Lord, that you'd build a hedge of protection around all of us and that you'd bring us back here this weekend, our next appointed time, and this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.