Wisdom, Glory, and a Divided Heart (Solomon) - Pastor Gillins 3/17/2026

In this powerful teaching, “Wisdom, Glory, and a Divided Heart,” Pastor Gillins explores the life of King Solomon—one of the most gifted yet cautionary figures in the Bible. The message centers on how a man can be blessed with divine wisdom, experience unmatched success, and still fall due to a divided heart.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

House of God. For being patient with us, Lord Jesus. Thank you for not rewarding us as though our sins deserve. But God, you've shown up and you've shown forth your mercies and your grace one more time, Lord God. And for that, we just want to say thank you, Lord Jesus, in our own ways with our own vocabulary, Lord God. We want to say thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for watching over our family, Lord God. Thank you for watching over our loved ones, Lord Jesus. We thank you, Lord God, for what you've done. We thank you for what you're getting ready to do in our life, Lord Jesus. I pray that you would put something on the inside of us today that we might be a light and an encouragement to those that we come in contact with for the remainder of the week, those that are struggling with depression, Lord God, those that are hanging on by a thread. I pray that as we open and we study your word tonight, that you would give us something, not just for ourselves, but give it to someone else, Lord Jesus. We thank you because it is a privilege and an honor to serve you in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Praise God. We're just going to sing a quick little chorus, God. Praise God. I will bless thee, O Lord. I will bless thee, O Lord with the heart of thanksgiving. I will bless thee, O Lord. I will bless thee, O Lord. I will bless thee, O Lord. I will bless thee, O Lord, with a heart of thanksgiving. I will bless thee, O Lord, with my hands lifted up, with my hands lifted up and my mouth filled with pray with the heart of things. I will bless thee O Lord. I will bless thee O Lord. I will bless thee O bless thee O with a heart of Thanksgiving. I will bless thee O Lord with my hands lifted up, with my hands lifted up and my mouth filled with pray with the heart of Thanksgiving. I will bless thee, O Lord. One last time I will bless thee, oh Lord. I will bless thee, oh Lord. I will bless thee, oh Lord, with the heart of thanksgiving. Oh, I will bless thee. Oh Lord, praise the name. Let's just bless him. Let's just lift him up. Hallelujah, Lord Jesus. I thank you, Lord Jesus. If there's nothing else I can do, I will bless the name of the Lord. The song says, I will bless the Lord at all times, and his praises shall continually be in my mouth. Praise God. At this time, I'm going to ask Brother Philip to come. Praise God.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Praise the Lord, everybody. Amen. It's good to be in the house of God today. Amen. You may be seated in the house of the Lord. It's an honor to be in God's house. And I thank God, you know, just for uh the opportunity. You know, I don't take it for granted. I even caught myself. Uh lately, I catch myself because, you know, uh, we used to say, um, I gotta go to church. I gotta go to church. But uh, you know, I gotta get there. I got we make it sometimes we make it sound like like it's a chore. But I I heard somebody say a while ago, and and uh they emphasize, no, ain't that you gotta go? We get to go to church. And so so since I heard that, I kind of catch myself when I say, Oh, I gotta go to church. I gotta no, I get to go to church. It's a blessed opportunity. Uh, thanks for everybody that's watching online, those that are here. Uh, we want to be very, very intentional about getting the word out. So uh we're streaming, we're sending it to the guests, the visitors. Uh, I gotta we got a list of folks. So I'm texting people, texting sisters and brothers, sister Sandra, it's brother so and so. We want to keep everybody in tune because if you can't be here because you're working, we're gonna send you a link and you can catch a live stream, or we also now have a podcast. So if you go on iTunes, I don't think I don't know if anybody even know, but if you look on iTunes, we have a podcast of Pentecostal Boston Broughton campus. So the sermons that are coming out the pulpit, uh, I actually download them, chop them up, and put them on podcast. So now you can catch your sermon on iTunes and Spotify. Amen. We're getting the word of God out, amen, amen. So so we're getting the word out there because we want to reach the city, amen. And and I'm I'm I'm I'm excited, you know. We're breaking it and uh chopping it up, and I listened to it uh the other day, I'll listen to um uh Elder Lightbird on the podcast, and I listen to my wife on the podcast, and I was like, Man, this is awesome. I could go on iTunes and we can look it up. Pentecostals of Boston brought to campus, and you'll see a picture of our we took a church picture uh about a year ago. The church picture is on there, and uh we we we want to get the word out, and uh, I'm like this. We gotta reach the city, we gotta reach more souls. So I'm gonna use every avenue we can YouTube, Facebook, podcasts, uh street ministry. We're gonna get to that soon. Amen. Whatever we can do, but God has been dealing with me. God has been dealing with me, and uh this week has been a week of I I thank God the way he set things up. Uh, God knows what he's doing, he slowed things down uh in my life just for a moment for me to spend time with him, and I I say, Thank you, Jesus. He slowed it down, and I and I see what he's doing because there's so many things loading up in the library. There's so many things loading up on the back end, jobs and stuff, and all these different things, but God gave me some time this week to lock in and focus on him. I was just I've been just enjoying myself spiritually this week, y'all. I just I have been I've been just enjoying God this week, and it and it and it just shows how much flesh that we have on us, you know. You don't realize how much flesh you have on you until you start seeking the face of God, you know. So I challenge you to take some time and seek the face of God, amplify whatever you're doing for God, amplify it, turn up the heat, uh, crank up your prayer life. You know, uh, I'll tell my wife, I say, it's been a while, but the other night I woke up three, what is it, four, four, four, four thirty. Usually when I wake up 4:30, I'm going back to sleep. But this time, I my spirit was so hungry, and uh you know, I you know, I my spirit is hungry for God. So I roll out of bed and lay flat on the floor, and I say, God, I'm gonna talk to you on the floor. I lay flat on the floor with my face to the floor, and I say, God, I'm gonna talk to you. We're gonna talk, you know, because God loves those moments when we can seek his face, you know, even when you have sleeping, give God your effort. Amen. Give God your effort. And I look at the life of Solomon. We're gonna dig into the life of Solomon because he had a life, it was almost a roller coaster. He went up, but then he also began to go down. It was a life of wisdom, it was a life of glory, but then it was also a life of man that ended up with a divided heart. And my wife, and man, I'm glad you guys are here because I can point both of you guys out. Elder Leiberg, Elder Leiberg, and my wife's sister preached the sermon and preached the life of balance. You guys always talk about having that balance, you know, being the equalizer, always being at this balance. And my wife talked about it Sunday, how people get frustrated with our balance. Well, you're not worked up like I am. Well, you know, and so we can be we can be calm in the midst of our storm, you know, and so Solomon. You we're gonna get into Solomon, we're gonna get into it. Uh but before we do, I want us to pray. Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you'll speak to our hearts today, teach us your ways, teach us through the word of God today. Help us to chew on it. I don't want to just hear it and it go out one ear, but God, I want to chew on it. But don't don't let us spit it out though. I don't want to chew it and spit it out. I gotta digest this, I gotta get this hallelujah! I gotta get this in my spirit. If I'm gonna grow, if I'm gonna weather the storms, if I'm gonna be consistent, I gotta digest this word today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You maybe see that. I gotta digest this, and I gotta look at the life of Solomon. That's all right, that's all right. God bless you. That's all right, that's all right, God bless you, sister. Hey, it's all right, God bless you, amen. God bless you. One question. If God appeared to us today, if God showed out showed up at your door, knocked on your door, and asked you a question and said, Hey, if I could give you anything, what would be your response? If I could give you anything, what would I what do you need? And that's a tough question, because for many of us, what what what do we what do we get tied down to? We get tied to the earthly stuff. We're like, what we were like, what about that new house? You know what? Right now, we can take a new a new vehicle. You know, we could take a promotion. But Solomon, I give him props because he had enough, he had enough knowledge to ask for something that goes beyond just cash and wealth. He asked for wisdom. What would you ask God for if he offered you the opportunity of an open door, open heaven, and you receive whatever you ask him for? Solomon is the son of David and Bathsheba, the anointed king over Israel at the height of his power. He's chosen by God to build a temple. His father wanted to build that temple. But his story is honestly one of the most dramatic stories in the Bible. You know, and sometimes when I read the story of Solomon, I almost sometimes I wonder how did his end really end. Like, did he end up getting right with God? Uh it seemed like he had a confusing end. His ending doesn't seem, doesn't seem like he was, doesn't his e his ending doesn't seem very confident that he had things right with God. It almost seemed like a question mark. It almost seemed like he ended lost, or he ended confused, or he ended up in a state where he lost. It doesn't seem like he had as much wisdom as he asked for. To end up in such a state that he ended up in. Because Solomon began, his life begins well if you look in the scriptures. Shortly after he became king, he traveled to Gideon, Gibeon. And this is one of the most prominent high places that he went to. And he went there to offer sacrifices unto God. And when he went to offer these sacrifices unto God, God appeared to him in a dream, and he asked him a remarkable question. And that's the question that kind of was leading towards us today. If you look in the Bible in 1 Kings chapter 3, verse 5, I'm gonna read verse 5, then I'm gonna read verse 7 through 9. First Kings chapter 3, verse 5, and then we're gonna skip, then we're gonna read verse 7 through 9. And I want you to follow me in the scripture. In Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, ask what I shall give thee. And now, oh my Lord, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David, my father. We skipped over the verse 7 through 9, y'all. And I am but a little child, I know not how to go out or come in. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart. Now listen to this. He didn't just say, give me an understanding heart for my own benefit. See, this is what we got to be careful when we ask God for things. I found in my prayers and in my petitions and my requests, God tends to answer a lot of my requests when they are selfless, when the backing behind it is for the kingdom of God. I remember we prayed for Jonathan and for my children, and so many things that came up. And I remember praying. I said, God, I need you to change these things in his life, not just to do it so that he'll just be a healthy kid, but so that he'll be able to be an asset to the kingdom of God. I don't need I need you to make this child strong. I I we got too much work to do for me for us to be taking tons of hospital visits and pushing around wheelchairs, and and I'm not judging anybody or looking at anybody uh any kind of way that deals with that. But I told God, I I that ain't what we need for what we need to do in the kingdom of God. Our assignment our assignment does not align with what we're hearing at the doctor. So God turned it around, and lo and behold, we got two healthy boys that are running and rocking and rolling. But because I made my petition and it was for the sake of others, it wasn't for the sake of us, it was for the sake of the kingdom. I said, God, I need them healthy because we need to serve the kingdom of God. Go there for thy servant, give thy give there for thy servant an understanding heart. Look what he said. He said to judge thy people. He was saying, Lord, I need you to give me a understanding heart, not for my own benefit, but for the sake of your people. What are we asking God for? For the benefit of his people. What am I asking God for? For the sake of lost souls. What am I asking God for that can benefit and add on and multiply the kingdom of God? Y'all hear what I'm saying in the house of God today? I can't go asking God for selfish requests all the time. I need to ask Him and make my petition uh towards things that'll be beneficial to the body of Christ. So when we ask for our car and our vehicles, I always say, Lord, if you won't give me this, I'm gonna be willing to give a ride. You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna be willing, I'm gonna be willing to pick up the guests. I'm gonna be willing if the homeless guy out on the street is going through something and he needs, and we did it before. I remember we had people from the shelter. We put we were we if we needed to, we'll bring them in our car and bring them down here. We was baptizing people here from the shelter down the street. Why? Because when God gave us vehicles to do it, because the the purpose was not just my own benefit, because yes, the car helped us out, but the main benefit was for the kingdom of God. Amen. That's how we receive the blessings of God. It has to somehow advance the kingdom. And his was, I need to have understanding to judge your people. These people drive me crazy, Lord. I need wisdom, I need knowledge, I need understanding. I and he was kind of saying, I'm too young to be dealing with all this. I need I need your help, Lord. I need you to pour out a blessing so that I can fulfill this task that you put in front of me. So some of us need to ask God for what we need to fulfill the task that He already placed in front of us. So if I'm in here serving the kingdom of Broughton, not the kingdom, the city of Broughton, I'm asking God to give me the patience. I'm asking God, amen, to give me the wisdom. I'm asking God, amen, to give me direction and the strategy and the vision. Without a vision, the people perish. Amen. So it has to be beneficial to the people of God, the kingdom of God. Then you align with the will of God. He said that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to just die so great a people? Solomon didn't ask for riches. Riches came though. Solomon didn't ask for long life, but he had a decent long life. Solomon wasn't asking for victory over all the enemies, but he did have lots of victories. But what he did ask for was wisdom. One thing I've learned is there are some requests that we ask from God that'll cover a whole lot of other bases. That's why they said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things be added unto you. Let me seek the face of God, and he always added on a benefit package. Somebody say, Amen. Anybody ever experienced that benefit package? Well, you were you weren't even worrying about the bill no more. You were just praying, and all of a sudden, somebody said, I feel, I feel, I feel, I feel like I feel like I need to bless you right now. And it's just enough to cover the phone bill. That's how God works. But his kingdom and the advancement of the body of Christ has to be the priority, there has to be the reasoning, and God can see if it's selfish reasoning. My God, hallelujah. He sees if it's selfish reasoning. That's something I thank God for. I thank God that I I'm like this. I'll be honest, I'm like this. I'm not into uh uh uh being lifted up, I'm not into that. I don't care about that. I want to win souls. I'm not into oh pastor, oh I lift up the pastor. I'm not into that. Yeah, I can I you can call me brother Philip, you can call me bro. You know, I talk to I talk to Coward. Coward say, What's up, bro? That don't bother me because I'm just a brother Philip that God placed in the position of pastor, but I don't mean you gotta call me, oh pastor, pastor, oh, oh, you need a special seat. No, I don't need a special seat. Y'all barely gonna see me sit up here. I'll sit in the back. I don't need to be on the pulpit because I'm not into that. I'm in, I'm in, I'm in for the real kingdom benefit. What can I do for the kingdom of God? I can serve and don't need to be seen. I don't care if y'all see me, I don't need to be seen. It's a force for me to even have the live stream going because I don't want to be seen either, but I but I'm feeling bad because I'm like, Lord, I don't want to be seen, but you know what? You want us to get the you told it didn't matter whether the disciples wanted to be seen tonight, you whether they want whether the disciples wanted to be seen tonight or not, you told them to go and preach the gospel, so they had to be seen. You got to be seen to get the word out. So I gotta break my comfort zone and do what needs to be done, just like Solomon for the kingdom of God. He was going outside of his comfort zone, he was blowing out excuses of why he's not a good fit for where he is. I'm too young, I'm too little of a guy to be a king. But God bless me so that I can fulfill this task that you place upon me. And when he asked for wisdom, honestly, it pleased God so greatly. And God granted him not only wisdom, but also he did what he didn't ask. That's the kind of God that we serve. He'll go beyond your request when your heart is right. Hallelujah. That's why uh even that all night prayer, I keep saying it, amen. We was talking about how God's gonna do great things and all this, and I'm like this. If we ain't living holy, God ain't gonna do much. We're gonna tie his hands. If we're not living righteous, we're not consecrating ourselves and we're living this thing for real. God's gonna we're gonna tie his hand up, we're gonna plug the pipe. Hallelujah. And I don't want to be a plug in the pipe, I want the flow, I want the flow of the spirit. Amen. I don't want to claw the pipe and be talking all this stuff, miracles, signs, and wonders, and then nothing happening because there's so much sin in the camp. We got to clear it out so that God can move like we want to move. Because what we're seeing right now, we we just scratching the surface. But God is getting ready to do a great work for those that are willing to submit beyond their own personal agenda. Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. He said, Behold, I'm I have done according to thy words, I gave you the wisdom. But he said, Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart. I've answered your request, Solomon. So now there was none like thee before thee, and guess what else? Neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked. You didn't even ask me for riches and honor, but because you asked me the right request, I'm gonna grant you beyond what you requested in the first place. That's why we got to know what we need to pray for. Somebody say amen. Hallelujah. The more we seek God for revival and seek God, amen, and fast and pray and seek his face, that he'll fill this place up, and we're praying for the blacks, backsliders, and we're praying for those that abound. The more we're locked in on that, the more God's gonna pour out abundance on us. Hallelujah. He'll give you the car, he'll give you the house, he'll give you the bump in the finances, he'll give you what you need if you serve him first. Hallelujah. You want to see an outpouring the blessings of God that scare you? Serve the Lord, hallelujah! Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with thanksgiving. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Serve Him with gladness, hallelujah. One thing I'm learning, y'all, is we gotta serve God with a glad heart, serve him without bitterness, serve him without looking for a side transaction, serve him without looking for a slap on the shoulder, and that's kind of how Solomon was in the beginning. He was locked in. One thing I've learned about this walk 90% of the folks start off right. But man, it's those corners that get us, it's those bumps on the roads that take us out. I tell Jeremiah, Jeremiah, Jeremiah, come here, Jeremiah. There you go. Come here, Jeremiah. Let me I'm gonna get you in here real quick for the live stream. Run running place real quick. Fast you can. This is how we start off real fast. Go fast again, fast again. Come here, Jonathan. Come in, come here, Jonathan. Come here, run right here beside him. Nope, beside him, get right beside him, run fast you can run fast again, fast, fast. We always start off fast, but look what happened over time. Slow down, Jeremiah. Over time, once the gas tank started running low, once we start running through some trials and tribulation, all of a sudden, when things ain't as pretty as we thought it was gonna be. That's when we really get to figure out the kind of character we really have in our connection with God. Are we real about this walk? Thank you. Maybe you see that. Thank you. Because everybody starts off strong from the start, but it's what happens once we get to mile three and mile four. Solomon started off good. Even the Lord saw that he was about to start off good, but the Lord knew it, knew it was coming too. He said, Behold, I've done according to thy words. Watch this. Solomon's wisdom is confirmed almost immediately because then a circumstance comes. See, God will test you to confirm what you really got. Hallelujah. He'll put you to the test sometimes too fast, right? I heard Elder say, Elder said the other day about, you know, you mean you say we'll preach sometimes. Some of the sermons I preach, my goodness. Some of them I like, man, maybe I shouldn't have preached it. Because I didn't know when it came out my mouth, God was gonna allow the enemy to test my words. I've been there before. Preaching the some of the strongest sermons I preach pulled in the hardest battle. Hallelujah. But we have to stand firm. Solomon's wisdom is confined, it's confirmed as he has to deal with a test. He prayed for wisdom. All of a sudden, he deal with a circumstance. And I look at the scripture, I thought my own thought was these were some wholesome ladies coming up. Some wholesome ladies. But the Bible says these ladies were, you know, they were some street ladies. I'll say that. I'll leave it at that for the live stream. They were street women, they weren't wholesome. And I always thought they were just some regular, you know, wholesome mothers. And I lost my child. I had to look at the scripture. I said, Oh my goodness, these ladies was out there. The Bible said they was there was one of some of them fast ladies out there cutting up. But apparently they both was having a baby, they both had babies, and there was a situation that happened. One of them lost a child, and it came up to Solomon. Solomon had to figure out whose child is this? Now, you we look at that scripture, we think, oh, that wasn't too bad. Put yourself in that situation. Think about this. Mamas, two mamas. Baby don't have much, baby's young, so baby don't have much features. So you can't really look at the baby and say, Oh, she looked like that one. I think that's that child, because baby, y'all know how them babies are. In the beginning, they don't look that much like the mama. They don't look that much. Sometimes it looks so generic almost to an extent. Until after a while, the features started kicking. Oh, that child does have mama eyes and daddy's nose, and you know, but had to use wisdom in this in the circumstance that God given wisdom kicked in the gear. He said, You know what we're gonna do? What we're gonna do, we have to separate these babies, and then you can get one, you can get the other half, and that's how we're gonna figure this out. So the moment he was about to dice that child, the real mama was like, You know what? Just give the baby to the other lady. Because uh, if it's at this point, if it's this bad, I'd rather let my child live with the other lady, at least the child be alive. And mo and and and and Solomon knew, oh, yeah, that's the real mother. Now, y'all know good and well, we wouldn't have figured all that out. If I was now, because we look at the scripture and it sounds so easy, but in reality, think about the pressure in the room. My goodness, Tara, think about the pressure in the room. You got two mamas that just had babies, super emotional. You got a crowd of loud people in there, pressures in the room. They're looking at you to make the decision of who's getting this baby. My goodness, and the mama of this baby, you better get the one to the right one because this baby is gonna attach to the mama that you give it to. You give the baby to the wrong mama. Can you imagine the guilt of that? So I uh you gotta really digest the magnitude of the situation, but the God given wisdom. See, that wasn't a worldly wisdom, that was the wisdom given by God. See, see, I don't want, I don't want the the the the strategies of the world. I take some of it, you know, the use and certain things, but I want to get my strategy, I want some godly strategies, I want I want a godly mindset. You know, I appreciate all the gurus and and all the all the people I look up to out there that teach me a lot of different things about marketing and business and church growth and all these different things. But when it comes down to it, I need my intel from heaven. Hallelujah! I need direct intel from heaven because a lot of this worldly uh uh uh uh intel is so tainted by flesh and man. I need more gifts from heaven, wisdom, knowledge. Solomon's wisdom was confirming, and after he could he was successful in such a challenge, word spread all over the nations. Everybody and their mama wanted to meet Solomon. Solomon was popular, he was so wise, and and I'll be honest, there are some people that I know, I ain't comparing them to Solomon, but there are some guys that I listen to online because I do a lot of studying, you know, business and stuff like that, and even church stuff. Like uh, like, like for example, David K. Bernard, he's very wise. I like listening to him talk about the oneness of God. I like listening to him because he's very wise, he's very sought after because of his wisdom, and there's others out there, Lee Stone King. You know them people y'all know, and they're sought after because of their wisdom and their knowledge. But imagine that 10x, Solomon, sought after by many, reputation spreading all over nations, and it's rooted in the fear of God. See, see, see, see that is the issue. There are many in this hour that are gifted by God, but the fear of God is now going absent. So we're gifted, we can sing, we can beat the drum. We some of us are getting talents, and and now, all of a sudden, now that we can do something half decent, we start to look up our nose and act like it's about us, not realizing that every good gift comes from God. But this began the downfall of Solomon because the fear of the Lord, y'all, is the beginning of wisdom. He wrote it, he wrote that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and instruction, and this now, the writer became guilty of his own words. Isn't that hard to preach a hard word and you become guilty of the message that you preach? You got to live holy, you can't be out there cussing in them, and then you out there get mad and start cussing at somebody at your job. We become convicted of our own sermon. But he was he was all about wisdom, but he got so full up. See, see, that's why we can't get so caught up in what God give us. We can't let that thing start eating us and making us start feeling like we're better than somebody else. And I can say it because there's so many people that act like that and get like that on a download, but these days the download stuff coming out, they come out now. Now they just how you doing, sister so and so. My name ain't sister so and so, my name is Evangelist Evangelist Rebecca Salton, such and such. All right, I was elevated, don't call me that. Hey man, you did a great job on those drums, man. You sound real good. I know I I'm practicing. Come on now, what happened to God be the glory, and then the thing is though, we take it so lightly though, too. Because some of them folk that say to God be the glory ain't really ain't real ain't real behind it. They just say it just to just so you won't think they're prideful. We gotta be humble because I seen that too. To God be the glory, and we say that, and some of us know we don't mean that. We know we don't mean to God be the glory. We just saying to God be the glory because we don't want you to think we're proud of. We just hiding our pride inside. We feel like we all that, but God help us to be humble, so as we and that's why God is that's why God can be so restrictive on giving us uh high levels of success because you know the moment we touch the we start getting that thing for real, all of a sudden, I made it. We gotta be careful, and this is for everybody, including myself, this is for all of us. Take it and be humble. God elevate you and God bless you. Amen. We got a prayer warrior in the house. I ain't becoming a prayer warrior, and God is using her and stuff. I mean, God's gonna use you for great things, but even when He uses you, always stay humble. God is gonna use her for healing and all kinds of stuff. I can't wait to see all God's gonna do. God's gonna use Jonathan and Jeremiah, God's gonna use them, but as God used them, I want to make sure that they keep them level-headed. Don't start thinking you something, because the moment you think you're something, that's when God's gonna make you nothing. Y'all ain't hear me up in the house of God today. The moment people start feeling like that's something, that's when the decline starts. I've seen it so many times, so many times. Soon as that nose starts going up, you better bring it on back down. Bring it back down and make sure that you're locked in in the fear of God. Because when we really fear God, that nose is gonna stay down. When I fear God, I'm not, I just can't get there. When I fear God, I just can't get like that. I even if I feel like it for a second, I got to go back down because I fear God too much. Hallelujah. I feel I fear him too much to start acting like I don't want to this.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_02 37:29

I fear him too much, amen. To to to lay hand on somebody and they receive the Holy Ghost, and I start feeling like I did it. I ain't did nothing. That was God. I was just a tool, hallelujah, hallelujah. I was just a tool when we see the miraculous in the city of Brockton. That wasn't you and me, that was the power of God. We are just a tool. A tool without a user is nothing. Y'all heard me? You get a hammer, man. Woo! Look here, let me use brother Maverick. You give brother, look here, give brother, give brother, watch this. I'm gonna mess with y'all, give brother maverick a sledgehammer and 10 minutes on that wall to beat it as much as he wants. He's gonna reface that whole wall. But check this out put the hammer there with no brother Maverick. The wall gonna stay the same way. Ain't gonna be no holes. A tool without a user, nothing. We're tools. Solomon was a tool, but the tool began to think that he was the user in the tool. My goodness, help us, Lord, help us. He began to think he's the source, and that then was his demise. He had a glorious reign for a while. Under Solomon, Israel reached his greatest territorial and economic peak. They were going up high financially, they were going up high, unmatched prosperity. His wisdom encompassed the government, science, nature, poetry, commerce. This guy was he was doing his thing for the glory of God, and God took him up as long as he stayed. Look at look at it. God took him as high as he will stay low. Look here, God will take us as high as we stay low. You want to go high, you want to be successful in life? Get low, put your face to the floor. Get low, stay humble, make yourself clean. You know one thing to help make yourself clean some toilets sometimes. Make yourself clean the church, make yourself wipe the walls down, make yourself do something that your body sometimes make it feel like I'm too good for that. We gotta keep this flesh humble. Amen. That's why I force my get up and clean the toilet, wipe the floor. We do what we need to do, but sometimes I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I want to do it just to keep myself low, just to make sure that I'm there. Because the moment I act like I can't do it, something's wrong. The moment I feel like if a drunk man comes in church, I can't pray for him because I want to keep my hands clean. Hallelujah. But if God had that same mentality with us when we came in, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus, hallelujah. We gotta stay low to go high, and it can't be that fake, that fake pseudo-humility, it gotta be real. There's a whole lot of pseudo-humility in the house of God because we know how to cover it up, make it look like we humble. We ain't we know we ain't humble. Because every five seconds you're talking is I, I, I, I, I. You wanna you know how humble you are? You know how humble you are, Philip. How much you say I I I I everything about I sometimes when Tara comes in the room, lately. I'm catching myself and trying to shut myself up and say, Tara, how what you got going on, Tara? You notice that Tara? Lately, I'm trying to do, I'm trying to practice doing that. I'm trying to get it. You know what? Let it be quiet. Tara, how you doing? Because if all I'm doing is a conversation, is talking about me. That's a little too much.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

What about the other person? How you doing in the library? What's going on, Jeremiah? How was school?

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Or is it just I, I, I, I went through this, I faced this, I went, I, I, I, I, I. I don't want to be self-centered. The blessings came in Solomon's life because he was not self-simple-centered during that time. He was God-centered, but he got a little gassed up a little bit because beginning to speak all those proverbs, 3,000 proverbs, and writing about a thousand and five songs, and after a while, started to feel himself a little bit. God gave him wisdom, understanding, and seeding so much to the point where people wanted to see him. Woman by the name of Queen Sheba. Woman had an eye out for him. Like my wife had an eye out for me. Oh my Lord. But she had an eye out from him from distant land. She had an eye out for that brother. Came all the way to see about this man because she didn't really believe that Solomon was as wise as they say he is. World on the street is your something. Let me see how much of a something you are. She came and got with him. Well, uh, one thing that one issue that Solomon had was as he began to lose his fear for God, he started to embrace the women, way absurd, too much, he began to obsess himself. And if you look at the story, it was never enough. Never enough. Woman traveled so far, and she couldn't believe that he was so wise. But I'll say this even the seemingly wisest man. Has flaws, even the most holy person we think they got issues. It may not be on the forefront, but just like I've been saying lately, I bet you pull up that rug, you'll find all kind of roaches, bed bugs. You find all kind of mess under the my my theme lately has been pull up the rug and clean under the rug once and for all. So that we can get what God wants to do in our life. But she found it was a true report about this man. He was just as good as they say he is. But she had to understand, though, that this was not about Solomon's personal glory, but it was supposed to be about God's blessing on Solomon. The glory is supposed to have been going to God, but the glory began to get pointed towards Solomon. God's blessing on Solomon was designed to make Israel a witness to the nations. Israel was supposed to be the light to the world. That there is a God in Israel who keeps his covenant. That's why we got to live holy over here because we ought to be the light in the city of Brockton. So that when they see what's happening over here, they won't see Pastor Philip. They won't see Brother Maverick. They won't be Elder Lightburn. They won't see my wife. They won't see Elder Moody. They won't see Sister Janet. They'll see the glory of God. And they'll just see tools being used by the master. And when they come in here that know it, hallelujah. We can't fake it. Thank you, Jesus. People know if you're a tool or not. People know if you're really being used by God or not. They know if you submitted to God. There are folk out there that live worldly and come in here, smell like marijuana, alcohol, and they can come in and they'll know whether we are here for real or not. One of the pinnacles of Solomon's reign is the building of the temple. The building and the dedication of the temple. This was a this was monumental. It took seven years to build us a temple. And it was dedicated. If you look in first Kings chapter eight, you will see a beautiful prayer. Beautiful in the scriptures. As they were dedicating a temple. Because if you look in the scriptures, we got to watch this because one thing about God is his blessings always come with conditions. Y'all heard me? His blessings always come with conditions. And I'm gonna come to a close in a second. Bible says in 1 Kings chapter 9, verse 3 through 6, the Bible says, And the Lord said unto him, I've heard thy prayer and I supplication that thou hast made before me. I have hallowed this house. This is when he dedicated the temple, which thou hast built to put my name there forever, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. Watch this, and if thou wilt walk before me as David thy father walked, listen to this, y'all, then will I establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever. Uh oh, listen to this. But there's a big button there that scares me. But if ye shall at all turn from following me, see, there's the issue right there. There's some that turn their back on God and think that they're gonna be blessed still. But these blessings come with conditions, y'all. Because look at what happened in the Bible. The Bible says, But if ye shall all turn from following me, then would I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given thee? That was the condition. Now, if I heard that condition and I was Solomon, I would have kept that in mind. But no women got in this head. And the Bible is but the Bible is very clear, like he should not date, should not be with these women that are having these idols. You're over here bringing all these strange Bible talks about these strange women, but he could not control the lust of the flesh. And that's one of the challenges in this all right now. We cannot control the lust of the flesh. And that got a whole bunch of different avenues. The lust is the desire of the flesh. And the issue is we run with what our flesh desires. We're in a time now where people don't put up a fight anymore. And I'm like, we gotta start putting up a fight again. Back in the day, they'll tell us when you feel the temptation to come, just call on Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, call on Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, call on Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Y'all didn't tell us. I said, Call on Jesus, Jesus, I need you, Jesus, help me, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That's what he used to tell us. And guess what? It used to work. But we don't talk like that. We don't tell, we don't tell people that stuff now. We just say, when you fall, you shall arise. And so now, rather than fighting, folk disrespecting the fall and tobacco rise and to fall and tobacco rise. So then we smoke cigarettes and then we come to church, and then we drink, and then we come to church, and then we fornicate, and then we come to church because we've lost our fight. But you know what helps us with we're having with keeping the fight? Is maintaining our fear in God. When we reverence God and have, and that's why we got to stay in the word. The moment we that's why one of the big things is the enemy wants to cut off, cut us off my time and spend the time in the word of God. Because the more you read the word, believe it or not, the more you read your Bible, the more respect you have for God. Am I right, y'all? If I ain't reading the word, I'm slow to start to like get in my little my little zone. But when I read the word and hear about these stories and all these things that have happened, my respect for God stays high. And when my respect and when my respect for someone is high, I tend to want to please them. Am I right? I tend to want to do them right. If I don't respect Anya, when she comes to the door, I'm gonna just cling the door. I'm like, I could open the doors up. But if I respect Jeremiah, when I open it, I'm gonna try to open up the door for him, let them come in. Try to watch this respect. The issue in today's hours we're losing respect for God. That's why it's so easy for people to have God as the punchline for their joke. That's why it's so easy for there to be so much church, so many church jokes are so popular now. Church jokes, fake shouting, and clowning around about shouting in church and this and that, clowning about speaking in tongues, people fake ta-ta-ta and all this stuff and all that. I hate when I hear that stuff because that just comes when there's less of respect for God and less of a fear for God, so then we can fake tongue and fake this and fake that and mock God and do all these different things because we lost our reverence and our fear of God. Let's all stand to our feet. Solomon's turn wasn't instant. But I think the library said, I think the library says that I think about backsliding, backsliding this backside and this gradual, it's a gradual thing. It isn't like, oh, all of a sudden, so-and-so turned their back on God, it's gradual. Bible says that for Solomon it happened when he was old. The drift was gradual, it wasn't like his prime youth, and you know, we focus so much on the youth, but you know what? They're old folk backsliding too. They're old folk getting up an age where they ain't praying no more, they ain't seeking God no more, they feel like they done done their time and they done earned it. We hammer the youth so much, not forgetting there's older folk that are starting to backslide too. They'll show that show up the church, they ain't praying and stuff, not saying all of them, but anybody can backslide, anybody can gradually turn themselves away from God. But I'm gonna get I'm gonna be done with this. His wisdom did not protect him. Why? Because he stopped applying it to himself. See he knew what was gonna cause downfall. But here's the thing, me and Tara talked about this just the other day. Folk will talk about stuff that they know they shouldn't do, and but then they'll still do it and mess themselves up, they'll talk about it and they'll project it on other people and do all types of stuff, knowing what they're supposed to do, still do the opposite, because it's not just about having wisdom and knowledge, it's about applying it in our lives. Solomon knew it all, but that man said, you know, scholars say scholars believe that Solomon was the one that wrote Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 2, verse 2. They say scholars believe that he's the one that wrote it. They believe that he wrote it, they believed that Ecclesiastes was Solomon's own retrospective. It was a man that pursued everything that the world offered, but then at the end found himself empty. He said, Vanity is vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Let us hit a conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and his commandments. For this, in other words, I done chased the women. I done have that man has 700 women. I said, My goodness, I I I invest a lot of time just trying to take trying to figure out the one. I'm trying to please the one right here. I was I'm trying to figure out how to make her life better. I'm trying to, can you imagine having a hundred? I would lose my mind. Can a woman imagine having 600 husbands? You don't lose your mind. That man has 700 wives, concubines, and you're talking women from different nationalities, backgrounds, and different idols and different gods, and he allowed all of them to get involved in his life, and he's let compromise come in for the sake of pleasing them. So because he allowed compromise to come in, listen to this, and I'm in at this because he allowed compromise to come around him, it wasn't too long where what was around him got in him. Hallelujah. We gotta be very watchful because we can be as strong and as holy as you want to be. I could be as sanctified as I want to be, but we still have to be watchful of the people that we let in our circle around us. Not everybody's supposed to be so close, not everybody's supposed to be so tight and have so much access. Because if you're not, if we're not careful, they can infiltrate us, their spirit can infiltrate your spirit. So now he's open to everybody, God. Oh, it's okay for them to have a temple, you know. I want to be an open open community because this is going to enhance the the commerce. You know, we got traders coming in, and you know, we can we can I want everybody to be welcome to come because this all adds on to the bottom line. We're gonna be profitable, we're gonna be a successful nation. Everybody's gonna know of the glory of Solomon. What about the glory of God? Help us today, God. Help us today, God. Help us to not just be gifted by God and be blessed by God, but to keep our hearts and my mind stayed on Him. I don't want to have a divided heart where I'm split between the world and God. I gotta go one way. Lord, help us, oh God, to give God everything. I want to give my heart, I want to get my mind completely to God. There's no room for compromise, there's no room for second guessing, there's no room to have other people around me that are constantly pushing me to second guess the things of God. Lord, I pray that you'll help us to watch out and be watchful of our surroundings. Help us to use wisdom, help us to be careful. God, help us to guard our hearts, help us to guard our hearts because our hearts are not bulletproof. But we ask, oh God, to help us to put on the breast, pray to righteousness, guard our heart, help us live righteous in the eyes of God, help us to be wise, submitted, Lord. Help us to be gifted and submitted. Yes, I want the blessings of God, yes, I want the favor of God, yes, I want to be used by God, but Lord, I want to stay submitted because the moment I'm not no longer submitted is the moment I'm then now disposable. I pray God you'll keep us, mold us, and shape us to be more and more like you. Help us to continue this walk and to continue to draw nigh to God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God bless you in Jesus' name. God bless you in Jesus' name. Amen.