Pastor Easton Marks, "Age of Wisdom, Age of Foolishness"

[Music] [Applause] oh [Music] is [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] now we have come into his house gather in his name to worship him and so what shall i render unto the lord for all his benefits towards me i will pay my vows unto the lord i will lift up holy hands i will concentrate on him i will forget about myself and worship him and worship him and worship christ the lord for this is the day that the lord had made let us rejoice and be glad in it for jesus came that we should have life and we should have it more abundantly so let us worship him let us worship christ the lord let us pray dear father of creation [Music] nothing in our hands we bring this morning but simply to the cross we cling we invite you into our presence this morning an acts that you pronounce a special blessing upon this worship experience and so loving god in heaven reacts in a special way lord as we come from different places as we come from different backgrounds all with the same common purpose in that to worship you and so we ask that you'll bless us may we leave this place rejoicing knowing that we've been with jesus we place this entire service into your hands for care and keeping in jesus name we pray amen and amen please be seated good morning everyone everyone good morning everybody and happy sabbath as well not only to those of us who are in the sanctuary today but to everyone who is a part of the flatbush worship family for today the 23rd of january 2021 it's a much colder morning than most of us would want it to be we want warm weather all year round and yet we don't want to live in the tropics we can't have it both ways if we choose to be in north america then we have to deal with many days like this and perhaps the worst is yet to come we are still in january and we've got all of february ahead and the part of march before we get to spring but let's try to do it again if you're happy and you know it raise your hand somebody if you know you got reason to celebrate celebrate god's goodness raise your hand again somebody amen god has been good god has been good and i'm sure those of you who are at home are in the same spirit acknowledging god's goodness and greatness unlike many of my friends i reserve happy for sabbath i don't do happy mondays every time i get those greetings by text i smile i shake my head sometimes rather vigorously because i i i save my happy for sabbath it's not like i am melancholy on monday but on sabbath on sabbath i i saved my happy for sabbath so you're not likely to get a happy thursday from me or a happy friday from me i start getting happy on friday uh generally on friday my texts to those who send me good morning texts my text is tgif that's all i say i don't do good morning on fridays either if you get a text from me on friday you'll probably just get tgif because i'm giving thanks because i'm about to get into my happy day which is the seventh day of the week the sabbath of the lord our god let's reaffirm that this is the day church god blessed the seventh day and the bible says he hallowed it that's an old english word for made holy he made it holy i hope your week had more highs than lows sometimes our weeks run on lows and doesn't get up high at all but i hope if you had a high this week at least one high this week maybe one moment one hour one day let me see your hands you had a high god bless you i think every hand is raised in this place anybody at a valley a low a day an hour maybe you cried don't don't cry now but maybe you cried anybody at a low this week yeah i i had a low and some of you on my left and the prayers team had a law i see sister eve had a law quite understandable and then some of us just were on the planes no mountains but no valleys we were just on the planes and that's reason to celebrate you know because you've been on the planes and the planes aren't too bad a place to be today though is our mountain day god is going to take this day and our worship experience and our fellowship opportunity he's going to take our praise and our prayers and the proclamation of his word he's going to make something out of it he's going to anoint somebody's head with oil and he's going to make cops run over let's anticipate right now we don't have to wait for it to begin let's right now give him thanks so what he's going to do here yes yes yes i'm i'm happy that god is going to speak to me god is going to counsel me god is going to touch me god is going to feed me all of these things god is going to do for me today so ladies and gentlemen brothers and sisters on my right here in the center on my left the crew the team the staff i want to welcome all of you to today's worship experience here at flatbush welcome to those of you who are in the sanctuary welcome to our new york audience and those from elsewhere in these united states as always we welcome our friends in the international audience and thank you for choosing flatbush seventh-day adventist church to spend your sabbath morning we would be forever grateful and if after this pandemic is over you can join us here at any time let us know that you've been following us for a long time and you're finally able to be here with us god bless you as we wait on him today today we are extending condolences to brother winfield brathwaite and his wife robin and other members of their family as they mourn his mother's passing brother brathwaite lost his mom in atlanta georgia and had to head back down there for her funeral service which already has been completed as you can imagine he is broken but he is trusting that god will restore his soul please keep him in your thoughts and prayers brother winfield brathwaite his wife robin and other members of the family as they mourn his mother's passing we are extending our condolences as well to our head usher sister rooney eve who has braved it and braved the cold to be with the family in the house of the lord sister eve it's good to see you not everybody can do that i wasn't sure you'll be able to do it but it's good to see you and our thoughts and prayers are with you not just today but the rest of the journey sister eve got up to some very bad news this week her sister miriam edmund fell a little ill on her way to the hospital expired and then the news came not that she was sick but that she was gone the funeral service will be held on monday morning monday coming the 25th of january at 10 at 10 in the morning viewing beginning at 9 30 and the service will be held at the morvant seventh-day adventist church in trinidad the service can be viewed at the move on church's youtube channel that's m-o-r-v and that's where we'll be able to view the service on their youtube channel again it's m-o-r-v-a-n-t i can't say the way the trinidadians say they say it a lot sweeter but it's a trinidadian place and a trinidadian word and so they have to say it better than i can see it but i've been to that church it's a great place and i'm glad that your sister will be eulogized dear sister eve and as i said before and as you know this church is going to stand by you if any of you know any of you at all know of someone else who lost a relative or friend please inform us we would love to get in contact with everybody everybody who is grieving because we all all of us need somebody and need the church at times 17 days ago we began mourning manna on the 6th of january we wanted to do it as a part of the 10 days of prayer the nine nights of preaching and it has been a blessing to our hearts we have not done it on the weekends we are going to resume it on monday morning at 5 30. if you haven't called in as yet to morning mana try it on monday we are there only for 20 minutes and we have enough inspiration to leave rejoicing monday at 5 30 we'll be there we hope you will join us dear please be reminded as well that our midweek prayer fellowship continues on wednesday and we are doing 7 p.m 7 p.m during the rest of the winter 7 p.m on wednesday again we invite one and all including those of you who are spread across the country and those who are overseas join us for our midweek prayer fellowship if you can the prayer volunteers who constitute the prayer band are going to be meeting at 6 30 about half an hour before our services they are going to be meeting in a prayer room that will be created by the technicians so you can come in early and pray with and for each other until we get to the seven o'clock hour if you're on the church board please remember we have a board meeting tomorrow morning this is a virtual meeting tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock and we hope to be done by 12. tomorrow morning church board will be in session finally one item of business in the absence of the clerk i guess it falls on me to announce and present for the second time it was done on last sabbath brother patrick mccormack senior has applied for a transfer since he relocated he is north of us and he is attending the yonkers church and would like to be transferred into that church's membership it was recommended by the board it has been read a second time and the chair of the entity in a motion right now to transfer brother patrick mccarmack is the remotion on the floor it's moved by elder duncan is there a second it is seconded by brother ricky robinson those in favor please say aye little say i again and those oppose the motion is agreed to and the clerk will complete the process finally ladies and gentlemen this evening we are going to open up our school of prayer schools of prayer have been opened up all over the country an opportunity for people of faith to pray together and learn about prayer what the privilege we have to pray together and what power can attend us when we pray together this afternoon we'll be opening hours the screen says 4 30 but the announced time now is 4 p.m we'll begin at 4 and i believe we'll have a good time it's biblical basis is luke 11 1 when the disciples ask jesus on a certain day lord teach us to pray jesus conducted the first school of prayer and we are joining these other churches that are beginning to focus on prayer as the source of real revival may god bless us as we make our journey in faith at this time we are going to call on our praise team led by crystal ward and these wonderful young people who have been singing for us week after week after week after week after week after week and they're not asking for a week off after the pandemic i'm gonna take you five out and i'm gonna treat you in jesus name our hymn of praise we have brother mosley on the organ and we are all going to praise the lord praise to the lord the almighty the king of creation that's the song on our hearts today [Music] [Music] almighty [Music] is we [Applause] [Music] is [Music] granted [Applause] [Music] earth [Music] [Music] good we prayed for the scripture after which we will have our prayer all love the lord all ye his sins for the lord presented the faithful and plentifully rewarded the proud doers be of good courage and he shall strengthen your hearts all be that's hope in the lord amen i know you understand and appreciate why we are including the children they cannot be here so we are receiving the scriptures from them by video elder duncan trust me [Music] i will be [Music] with you i will be with you i will me trust me trust me [Applause] [Music] if you will trust me trust me [Music] trust me we approach the throne of grace [Music] for your goodness for your grace for yours [Music] this morning we come to you lord because you have been souls today in my own willful ways if you are worthy of all praise your name is powerful need to be praised no other name by which we must be saved and so lord we thank you we thank you for this opportunity where we can come into your courts we can join with the psalmist david and said i was glad when they said unto me let us enter into the house of the lord so we come to you this morning with gladness [Music] knowing that you have done great and marvelous things in our lives we've come because you've invited us to come into your courts and we thank you lord that you are a great god you are the omnipotent the omniscient the omnipresent god because you are here in this sanctuary right now and you are still there with our worshipers who are in the comfort of their homes what a great god we serve what a mighty god we serve you are great and greatly to be praised we give you all the glory this morning we give you all the honor for you have done great and marvelous things in our lives father as i intercede on behalf of your people this morning they have come with many needs but we thank you lord that you have a plethora of promises that whatever your people stand in need of it will be supplied it will be provided because you are the great provider you are the great supplier and there is nothing too hard for you there is no problem it's too hard for you to solve there is no sickness that you cannot heal no disease that you cannot cure and so we have come lord resting and standing on the promises knowing that you will supply all our needs not just so physiological needs not just our esteem needs not just the safety needs but all our needs according to your riches in glory we claim those promises and we believe lord that you are with us every step of the way lord we come to you broken we know lord that you are the god who can heal all brokenness we come to you lord discouraging going through difficulties in life but we know lord that you said in your words that you will never leave us nor forsake us we thank you lord with the promises that you have left us with knowing that you are god we still care when we have lost the life of loved ones you are still there and your heart is touched by your grief and so even right now i lift up sister eve on the brathwaite family and i ask that you will comfort them lord wrap your loving arms around them and let them know that you are with them and that you are able to see them through these things it's hard to lose a lot of a loved one but lord we know that these things are part of life and we know that all things work together to good to them that love you and are called by your purpose so help us to remember lord that soon and very soon all these things will be passed away soon and very soon there will be no more death there will be no more dying no more diseases no more sickness no more covet no more disease of cancer all these things will be passed away because you said in your words lord that you have gone to prepare a place for us and where you go you will come back and when you take us to heaven lord all these things will no longer be more so help us to trust you and to look forward to that day lord father we long for that day we long for that day waiting to see you lift it up oh what a day what a day what a day what a glorious day that will be when jesus we shall see the one who died for us help us to be faithful lord that when you come we can be able to reign with you through ceaseless ages of eternity father someone under the sound of my voice today is in need of a job i pray and act that even right now as they are seeking they have been seeking they have been knocking they have been searching lord and i pray that this week lord you will provide for those individuals i lift up sister ebony and sister anthony as they continue to search for employment grant them their hearts desire according to your will and purpose for their lives we come this morning with words of praise on our lips because you have done great and marvelous things for us this past week we can say all the way you have led us whether we traveled by subway or on the highway or on the bikeway or whatever way we took this past week we can say had it not been for your grace had it not been for you on our side lord we would not be in the sports today we should have been hit by a car we should have been dead we should have been sick but god you provide us you provide for us and you came through for us this past week and we just want to thank you for all that you have done for us father so many things have happened this past week we we lift up the leaders of our country we pray in this very special way for our president and vice president and we ask lord that you will grant them your wisdom grant them the wisdom lord to lead with humility grant them the courage lord to lead with integrity grant them compassion lord to lead with generosity that as they continue to look to you lord for their leadership that they will walk in the path that you have for them lord they have taken oath on word your holy words we pray lord that is not just for a seed but they will lead us according to your words we pray lord that you will speak to their hearts that as they lead your people lord they will also point the people to christ whose life eternal [Music] father we pray and ask you even right now that you continue to bless your pastor we thank you for his visionary leadership and the wonderful work that he has been doing in such a time like this where we know lord that you are still working on him and the best is yet to come so i pray even right now as he prepare to deliver his word to us that our hearts will be ready to receive it and as he preached with power and passion lord that we will continue to give you the glory we will continue to praise you for what you are doing in our lives and in the life of our pastor bless his family encircling with a rainbow of your love and your grace and your mercies we lift up our children thank you again for the effort and their their contribution to the worship experience sabbath after sabbath lord they could have chose to say no but they choose to say yes for jesus i pray lord as they continue to do these things day after day that they will continue to be a light in their community a light in their school a light on their zoom platform a light in their classroom wherever they go that the beauty of jesus will be seen in them they're not too young lord to serve you and they are not too young to lead others to you so bless them in all their endeavors lift up our young people continue to cover them with your blood continue to give them strength lord and continue to help them to stand like the brave tell them not to compromise to be recognized lord but they'd be like daniel that they when others see them they will see also you lord break the chains break chains of anger break chains of malice chains of pornography chains of fornication chains of idolatry break every chain today lord whatever is holding your people down i pray that you'll break the chains and set your people free so that the enemy will not rejoice but we will continue to rejoice and give you the glory for breaking the change in our life whatever is holding us down lord set us free like the woman of the world lord we have come seeking we have come with our cups empty waiting to be filled so fill us up lord fill our cups lord fill us with your love fill us with your grace fill us fill us with your holy spirit baptize us in you today lord and may we leave this place knowing that we have been with the lord thank you again for all that you have done for us and will do for us even right now and throughout this week until then keep us faithful we praise you and we magnify your name for your goodness in jesus name we pray amen i [Music] will deliver [Music] is me if you will only trust me trust me trust me [Music] happy sabbath boys and girls and i hope you are enjoying church so far it is such a blessing to be back with you the last time you heard a story tajana told it to you and she did an amazing job so i just want to say thank you to tajana and today i'm going to tell you a story about how you can give everything you have to jesus and he will multiply it beyond your wildest dreams now last year we learned and we met a lot of different friends and this year it's going to be the same so we're going to meet samantha today and samantha is about your age so however old you are that's how old samantha is and samantha she wanted to do so much for jesus but she was so scared have you ever been scared to do anything has anyone ever asked you to do something and even though you really wanted to say yes you just didn't have the strength and you couldn't overcome that fear samantha wanted to do things like read the scripture like hadassah did today but she was so afraid but like elder duncan just said in his prayer you can do anything no matter how young you are and that is what samantha's parents were trying to teach her and you know what samantha's parents told her story and they told her not just what your talents but anything that you put in jesus's hands whether it's your talents whether it's your education and even if it's some food jesus can multiply it beyond anything you ever imagined so they told her about the story in the bible where jesus fed a multitude of about 5 000 people and they said even the disciples were worried about how all these people were going to eat and there was a little boy with a lunch bag maybe something like this now i don't know what if something is in here i don't even think it can feed the people in this sanctuary imagine 5 000 people but that little boy he put his lunch in jesus's hands and do you know what happened not only could they feed all 5 000 people but there was food left over could you imagine food in a bag like this feeding 5 000 people and then having leftovers too man samantha was amazed she's like oh my goodness jesus was able to feed an entire multitude with a small amount of food just five loaves and two small fish well if jesus could feed all those people with the food that that little boy put into his hand if i put my talents in jesus hand i can only imagine what he can do with me and then after that samantha she volunteered to do whatever she could for jesus she read the scripture she prayed she told all of her friends about jesus and every day she became more and more confident and she knew that that wasn't her but that was her putting everything in jesus's hands now boys and girls i want you to do the same thing every time you are about to do something whether it's at school whether it's at home whether it's with your friends put it in jesus hands and he will multiply it more than you ever imagined let's pray dear jesus we are so grateful for how wonderful you are we thank you for what we know you can do and we promise that we will put everything in your hands so that you can multiply it and make it great help us to do what you want us to do so that we can do your will in jesus name we pray amen have a good week boys and girls and we'll see you next week [Music] happy sabbath church let us pray father we thank you and we ask you to bless the times gifts and offerings that will be received this day in jesus name we pray amen at this time may the deacons and deaconesses take their positions to collect the types and offerings i would like to remind the flatbush church family and our friends who are worshiping with us online that there are four additional ways to give you may mail your checks or money orders to the flatbush seventh-day adventist church located at 261 east 21st street brooklyn new york 11226 or you can give online at flatbushsda.org or you can use the cash app by dialing telephone number eight 347-280-8300 one nine you may also choose to give through the zell app at the same telephone number three four seven two eight zero eight three nine last sabbath the flatbush church finished an amazing uplifting and blessed 10 days of prayers praise and worship to the lord the good news the good news is that flatbush is continuing to pray and so this morning the question is how important is prayer the answer is prayer is so important that jesus took the time to teach us how to pray during the time when jesus walked upon the earth in human flesh he taught us the words for the lord's prayer in matthew chapter 6 and verse 11 jesus told us to pray and ask our holy father in heaven to give us this day our daily bread jesus himself invites us to come to god in prayer and to ask him for what we need i challenge you to find someone who is not in need of even one thing today our needs may be many and they may be different but we all have needs some of us desperately need to find employment others need money to pay for essential bills including rent mortgage and food while others are in need of healing for physical and emotional illnesses but the one thing we all need in common is god i invite us all today to accept the invitation from jesus and ask our heavenly father to supply our daily bread let us go to the lord in prayer almighty god who art in heaven we come before your holy presence today to ask for your blessings upon our lives father we each have different and specific needs in our lives and so we lay your burdens at your feet lord help us we believe that you are all powerful and that there is no limit to what you can do so we look to you to supply all our needs in jesus name we pray amen praise the lord everybody praise the lord everybody this is our time where we get to sing and i know we can't sing but we can still glorify and praise god how we believe that we serve a risen king and by his stripes we are healed by his nail ears and we are free by his blood we are washed clean and we have the victory in jesus by his stripes we are healed by his nail bears and we're free by his blood we're washed clean now we have the victory the power sin is broken jesus overcame it all [Music] [Music] the power of sin is broken jesus overcame it all he has won a freedom [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] is [Music] hold you down [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] he [Music] he won the victory he reigns [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] is he is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you are [Music] king of my life [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] yes [Music] yes [Music] unless i forget [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hallelujah [Music] free [Music] amen [Applause] the promise i made to you about going out it just got better elder assay and i are going to take you out [Music] he is the music director after all thank you again for your ministry through the fall into the winter [Music] our i think it should be said that our boilers are working what we had was a mistake in the setting not a mechanical problem even though i apologize i'm proud to say the boiler both of them are working i thought that's important so that you show up again next week and since we do have some folk here who are not flatbushed to the bone i want it on the record that this church has two boilers mistakes happen but both are working i just went back there and i heard them blasting so if we preach again for aoy we'll be good it's good to see you here it's good to have all our friends as well who are online watching on facebook youtube off our website and of course on zoom we have a growing family who can't be here but who are always with us in spirit today we continue uh many sermons series the third king of israel [Music] pardon me if you're not into serious preaching i i am kind of into it and right now we are doing solomon today's sermon is entitled as is shown on the screen age of wisdom age of foolishness gracious father bless us all through your word with the attending of the holy spirit in jesus name we pray muhammad ali the greatest got his revenge by defeating leon spinks in a rematch in 1978. you should know that leon spinks had won the first bout seven months prior according to boxing experts if spinks and ali had fought three or four years earlier sphinx may not have won a single round conclusion the ali who fought sphinx was not the alley the world had come to know as he promised muhammad ali announced his retirement after the game after the match 15 months later the same ali was back in the ring he suffered a humiliating defeat at the hand of his friend and former sparring partner larry holmes ali didn't come close to even winning a single round in the following year the visibly declining muhammad ali was allowed to fight in the bahamas the united states did not grant him a boxing license that's how bad ali was sadly but not surprisingly he was defeated by trevor berbick in 1981 and finally in gloriously his career was over by that time his longtime physician had quit the job telling ali and his people that he couldn't do it anymore and that retirement was not a choice it was a necessity ladies and gentlemen if only muhammad ali had stopped when he should have if only michael jeffrey jordan hit his final shot it was an absolute jordanian shot the bulls won he retired for a little while jordan went out and came back at age 38 to play two pointless seasons with the washington wizards and he ended on an anti-climax with an exclamation point if only michael had stayed out in an evaluation of king solomon's reign biblical scholar lawrence boat opines that if if if all we had on solomon was first kings chapter 3 where we meet him to first kings 10. if only that's all we had on solomon he would have been an ideal ruler wise in every respect lordly in style pious in his devotion to yahweh a king who thought only of the protection of his kingdom the honor of his god and the welfare of his people end quote in first kings chapter 3 solomon asks god for wisdom and receives it in chapter 4 we have a readout of solomon's cabinet he builds the temple in chapters five and six construction of his palace begins in chapter seven the sanctified sequence we spoke of last week should be emulated for solomon it was temple before palace god before self thine ahead of mine in first kings eight the temple is dedicated to the glory of god in chapter 9 god revealed himself to solomon once again in a dream in that dream the lord promised solomon he promised solomon to establish his throne forever if he remained faithful in first kingston her majesty the illustrious gorgeous queen of sheba makes a state visit to israel solomon welcomes her to say that she was wowed by the works and wisdom of solomon would be an understatement first kings 10 5 says she was overwhelmed now that solomon for you he would overwhelm you or underwhelm you but that's one solomon there is another solomon solomon who lived beyond chapter 10 hence lawrence boat's commentary if only all we had in solomon was between chapters 3 and 10. the next chapter 11 is a turning point in solomon's biography first kings 11 verse 1 says king solomon however no matter how weak your english is you know it's going down after coming three and four and five and six seven eight nine ten chapters we begin 11 with king solomon however that's the new international version the king james says but king solomon you have a choice of conjunctions but or however either way it's going down either way it's contradiction either way it's a contrast i'm using the new international the rest of the verse says first kings 11 1 king solomon however i like the english king solomon however loved many and you can stop there brother mosley we could preach that alone but it doesn't stop there it says foreign king solomon however loved many foreign women besides pharaoh's daughter moabites ammonites sidonians and hittites i don't know those i know americans i know antiguans barbadians i don't know moabitess ammonites sidonians i know grenadians haitians i know jamaicans i know kenyans i don't know those i know zimbabweans i know south africans i know the british i know the canadians i i don't know those cydonians i might even let you know that i know probations i know demerarians i know esiece i don't know those what we know is they were foreign to israel king solomon however loved many foreign women besides pharaoh's daughter she was egyptian moabites ammonites either my cydonians and hittites there were from nations about which the lord told the israelites you must not intermarry with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their god nevertheless solomon held fast to them in love he had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines and his wives his wives his wives led him away solomon grew old the historians tell us the biographer tells us the solomon grew old his wives his wives his wives turned his heart after other gods and his heart was not fully devoted to the lord his god as the heart of david his father had been he followed ashtareth the goddess of the sidonians this thing should have ended at chapter 10. chapter 11 is a remarkably depressing turning point in this man's career he followed ashtareth the goddess of the cydonians and molech the detestable god of the ammonites so solomon did evil in the eyes of the lord that's jehovah he did not follow the lord that's yahweh or this text lays out sister llewellyn a three count indictment to be honest i i want to say three articles of impeachment but i'd leave that i'd leave that now i'm just telling you i want to be honest with you i i said three count indictment to the attorney but inside of me there is a struggle and i just want to talk about something else but i'd leave that for another house the house on the hill i thought you'd like that the first count is polygamy paulie polygons are many cited polygamy many the second count is xenophilia as opposed to phobia the third is idolatry polygamy xenophilia and idolatry pause the video brother brethren pause the video is king solomon worshiping idols now david did a lot of things and and we've beaten david all our lives as preachers but david david had one god he called him a lot of things he said the lord is my light he said the lord is my rock he said the lord is my shepherd but david knew who the lord was the lord was yahweh the lord was jehovah the lord was elohim now he raised this boy right he raised this kid to be king david jumped over six sons solomon was seventh in the line of succession david moved him up and made him king instead this boy knew better but now we we have solomon this kid grew up in the church this kid was an adventurer this kid was a part trainer friend companion explorer this kid got sense he went to oakwood university the illustrious oakwood university he went on to andrews university this boy had an adventist education he was prepared to leave mom and dad put their money on him now he's bowing down to the goddess of the sidonians and the god of the ammonites solomon had two of the 21 dreams god gave in the bible two for him in dream number one god gave him a blank check hmm the lord endowed him with wisdom i'm talking about the wisdom he asked for and then god gave him things he had not asked for what a god what a gracious god his love has no limits his grace has no measure his power no boundary known unto men for out of his infinite riches in jesus he giveth and giveth and give it again [Applause] when we forget to pray god still keeps our hearts pumping when we forget to pray he keeps our lungs expanding and contracting when we forget to pray he keeps us standing and walking he wakes us up when we didn't pray before we went down he wakes us up solomon said lord give me some wisdom so i can provide leadership to this great nation god said good ask solomon i'm gonna give you some money if you didn't ask for it i'm gonna give you power even though you didn't ask for it i'm gonna bless you and bless you and bless you i'm gonna make your cup run over [Applause] god gives what we ask for and then some in the old country in the old village in my old church they used to say more than we can think more than we can think ask our desire [Applause] what a god may he keep me from ever worshipping the gods of the sidonians i told you all a few weeks ago i fell asleep on the interstate in connecticut 395 north and i was not cruising i was speeding i fell asleep and here i am i told you all the other day i had covered here i am you know how many times i formed the fool and played the fool but god in his goodness i don't get to preach up here because i'm better than you down there it's grace marvelous infinite much less grace and you don't get to sit in here because you're better than your cousins and you're better than your siblings and you're better than your neighbors it's grace what a god bless his name give him thanks solomon saw god in a second dream after completing the temple god spoke directly to solomon and assured him that he god had heard his prayer this is for somebody who's here and somebody's online god is telling you today that he has heard your prayer he doesn't have to come with the thunderous grandiloquence on which he has descended descended on mount sinai he is just whispering softly telling you i heard your prayer i heard your prayer stop wondering stop worrying i've got you wait no more god has heard you after that absolute assurance an exceptional endowment from the almighty god why somebody tell me tell me why is solomon bowing down before idols the worship of the canaanite goddess astarte was repeatedly denounced by the prophets solomon knew that solomon heard as much preaching as adventists we are never satisfied with the preaching we get week of prayer 40 days 90 nights are we still looking for the next idol the prophets denounce the worship of astarte her name shows up in some places in the bible as ashtoreth and the altars were sometimes referred to as poles trees they would consecrate trees as places of worship of this goddess of the canaanites and solomon is there worshipping her the prophets told them these things should be nowhere near israel why is he doing it why god had said thou shalt have no other gods before me god had commanded thou shalt not make unto thee and by the way god's commands are more powerful infinitely more powerful than biden's executive orders god said thou shalt have no other gods before me and in case you didn't hear he said it again thou shalt not make unto the any grievan image furthermore why why shouldn't you worship astarte astartes worship was was what our mother used to used to call vile you're too vile astartes worship was vile it included sexual fertility rights rites in other words stated differently put another way i'm talking about sexual fertility rights as a part of the worship of astarte this canaanite goddess in other words what took place around those altars was a disturbing blend of religion and eroticism carnival at church and i'm not talking trinidadian carnival trinidadians think they are the biggest best carnival the brazilians claim it when the brazilians play in mass they play in mass adventists still kind of sneak around trinidadian carnival no no not supposed to go you know but it's still kind of getting a little close you can't go near the brazilian carnival as an adventist lot strike you down it's too much archaeologists have found many nude statues of astarte in their digs and finds not just nude but nude statues with exaggerated breasts supporting me i'm not trying to offend anybody's delicate sensibilities here i'm just trying to tell you what the spade has done to confirm the book her statues were nude with huge breasts which she held out as an offer this is what i'll do for you if you worship me they found a few and i said that we're pregnant statues i started was all about flesh and that was the religion solomon married into not once or twice i had a guy who came to be married and been married you know like a lot you know most people marry maybe like two times or so and if you know you kind of get real unlucky maybe three but then you got some people who like you know they have a habit of getting married it's like you know like time number eight larry king who died he had a habit of getting married elizabeth taylor she was probably the gold medalist of getting married he was married into that religion many times over solomon he also worshipped molech the god of the ammonites molech worship you should know was associated with the practice of child sacrifice so wherever solomon went on the map of idolatry it was heinous it was sex and religion at the same time going down in the house why do you say him in the name of the father and the son you know what i'm saying and then on the other end of the spectrum he's in a religion that required the sacrifice of children what a way to backslide what a way solomon who had seen the glory of god twice he who had been anointed by god and elevated to the throne was now a patron of cults that practice sacred prostitution and child sacrifice how how it's called exposure exposure like kovid that's how you get covered 19 exposure i'm with the president on the masks for the next hundred days hear me america let's do this thing together and get out from under this cloud because this thing doesn't jump off trees on you let's be clear there's a lot we don't know about kovid 19 but it doesn't leap out of some tree on you this is a people-to-people transmission sprays from your mouth and your nostrils primarily so mask it up and if you get within six feet or so of someone 10-15 minutes it's called exposed solomon married into it married into it married into it that's how it's called exposure hundreds of pagan princesses to gain geographical economic and and political advantage like many who today throw caution to the wind anywhere no masks do you know many preachers died in faith faith some were actually gonna do healing of people who are covet positive tell them to come to church so we can heal them bring everybody let's have hundreds of people and have a convention dead exposure solomon a monotheist the lord our god cardinal doctrine of israel is one god he now had multiple gods and goddesses how did he get there exposure solomon served the unsubstantial unimaged yahweh now had carved images things that were made by people when god made us how in its characteristic blunt style the epistle of james says each person each person i don't know where i am with the slides anymore james 1 14. james says each person that's you that's me that solomon all of us preacher people each person james says is tempted when they are dragged have you ever been dragged that's an easy way to get killed you get hooked on something and it gets dragged each person is tempted when they are dragged by their own evil desire solomon thought he had won the hearts of those women could you stop kidding yourself bro you are not the charming you i hate to break it to you have been charmed you are not the hunter you are the game you are not the slayer can't you tell you've been slain how else do we explain solomon's apostasy how else do we explain anybody going from building a temple to yahweh to building high places for the canaanites gods and goddesses first kings 11 7-9 on a hill east of jerusalem solomon built a high place for kimwash the detestable god of moab this is after he built the church he is now building temples for idols not one two he built one for molech the detestable god of the yamanites he did the same for all his foreign wives whatever nation they would have come they were from and whatever their national deity was he built one for them these people are burning incense this is in my country this is called opia okay i don't hang out with people burning incense all the time you understand me because my frame of reference for that thing you walking around your house with this thing putting in a corner by the window putting it under your bed i'm out of here and if you dancing anybody who is burning things out of the house you better get out of the house oh smoke and smoke and smelling stuff what's wrong with you burning all these little stupid thingy in some bottle give me a headache as soon as i walk the utica just going down utica you know between church and linden headache smelling this crazy stuff is bad enough out there don't bring it in my house you and your candles have to go yellow candle on monday red candle on tuesday solomon gone known by some lady on on jamaica avenue in queens who tells you you have to put two drops of this in the water you bed on the street don't come to bed in my house with your smelly smelly stuff i'm not playing with the devil i'm not playing with the devil man and don't you bring those books into my house don't don't bring those things in my house pastor what do you think about this i think not you know better than that song you know better than that you suddenly have light the adventist church didn't give you so you have you have light it's voodoism it's witchcraft you can call it what you want to call it it's the devil's playground and you are walking into a snare the bible says in verse 9 the lord became angry angry you don't know the lord gets vixen you think only the pastor gets vexed the lord gets wet he doesn't stave it but he has emotions we were made in his image that's why we got emotions the bible says the lord became angry with solomon because his heart turned away from the lord god of israel who had appeared to him twice god keeps a record he is counting the blessings he is counting the revelations he is counting the anointings he is counting how much he has poured into you that's why i don't worry about my slave ancestors as to whether they'll be saved or not i don't worry about babies either let me answer you before you even ask me if babies are going to go to heaven i believe all of them are going to go to heaven because they didn't do anything wrong they hadn't received light the bible says this is the condemnation in other words let's be clear this is how you go to heaven or hell this is the condemnation that light is come and men love darkness rather than light when you turn your back on god when you turn your back on truth when you walk away from light you know better than that solomon i don't doubt you gonna get upset with israel at times but you don't leave israel to go into that christians have told and retold the early chapters of solomon's biography we preachers haven't helped we have lived in solomon's early chapters his wisdom the dream the temple and we go right back to his wisdom the dream and the temple only to go back there is another solomon there are chapters left in that biography as judges when solomon's name comes up like in the olympics i like to watch this you know when they're giving the scores 10 10 10. everybody's giving solomon a 10. and we do the same thing in our church hello to the smart people you know the people who are eloquent you're super talented people they get tens easily you know the church is very human you know as a pastor friend of mine used to say in barbados god made the church and then he gave it to peter james and john to run and that's where the problems come it's not the church it's not god it's peter james and john we get impressed by degrees and eloquence oh one more thing we get impressed by which solomon had deep pockets those who stiffen offering contributions are substantial get away with murder it happens in the congregations and it happens in the conferences by the congregations there are some big churches in the conference they get respect the flag bush is somewhere like in the top tier so we get some respect we know those little churches with 12 people i'm sorry for them and you could understand the practicality of him you got 12 members and you're going up against ephesus and handsome players man those focusing on hear you because you know these guys have like 2 000 members these guys are doing nearly 2 million dollars in title here and here you bringing in your little 15 000 at the end of the year you're talking about deep pockets we can't praise solomon enough for his iq growing up in church if i didn't know better i would have thought wise man was his first name and solomon was his second name always always the wise man solomon said wise man wrote we go on and on precious little if anything is mentioned about his foolishness somebody preached a sermon one time about the wise fool and it turned out to be solomon it's the age of wisdom for solomon but it's also the age of folly solomon observe with me that solomon did the very things we condemn we despise we hate on ahab and jezebel 4. we can't stand ahab he had one wife that controlled him and we beat that man i've heard preachers call him a wimp all kind of things it's like we can't hate ahab enough solomon had a thousand women controlling him at least the 700 the wives the concubines were like you know i'm saying status symbols and seriously a lot of these numbers were status symbols the rich men would just expand their harem to impress other rich men i got more than you half the time they didn't know who was shirley and who was sheila i'm sorry terrell shirley is a part of my genetic makeup didn't know didn't know sonja from sandra they just had them you know like when cell phones just came in you had to let people know you have them come on man you all know what i'm talking about like lin lady aldo hall you would know this when women just get married you always see their left hand and it's always strategically hanging out like this like something is wrong with their wrist they walk up in church they have the pocketbook here and the left hand morning pastor hello because symbol symbol but here we have this brother solomon age of wisdom age of folly and we hate ahab and jezebel for the same things we overlook in solomon is this a call for consistency you bet source for the goose source for the gander if we are going to call out politicians and have credibility we'll have to be equal opportunity calling outers now that the era of donald trump is gone america's problems aren't gone and the real prophets are going to be known the real profits equal opportunity calling out if we are going to denounce idolatry we should denounce it across the board you can't you cannot this is on my chest let me get it off you cannot go down to georgetown and demand a peaceful transfer of power in georgetown and over in caracas and you don't want to do it in washington dc listen to me who do you think you're playing for a fool mr pompeo random in my country i'm wrestling everybody telling them get out of power tell your boy get out of power you can call out africa call out africa for tribalism and you're letting american tribalism run wild hate is hate in kugali hate is hit in mogadishu as it is in kansas and mississippi race hate tribally still here if you decry ahab's conduct you have to decry solomons i know he's the illustrious one even jesus talked about his wardrobe solomon every robe he had was one of splenda in first kings 12 we hear a different complaint about solomon a very different one but just as depressing the people of israel are complaining now solomon is dead but they're up pennsylvania avenue they're around buckingham palace and they're chanting no more taxes no more taxes no more taxes no more taxes they're talking to his son rehoboam and they're reminding him of what his daddy did that solomon this wonder boy of christians sweet sweet sally your father put a heavy yoke on us that's solomon solomon's taxes were brutal we'd all be dead solomon i'm talking about david's wonderboy your father put a heavy yoke on us and the appeal to rehoboam lighten it and we will serve you we want to serve you we are patriotic we are americans like everybody else but man the taxes now that's how the workforce remembered king solomon we remember people based on how we experience them yeah and they experience a tough tough solomon the workforce i read one commentator who pushed back on the notion of the duncan he pushed back on the notion that solomon could have done that indeed he referred to the israelites as factious it's like saying they're just being seditious they're lying on solomon they're smearing him that took my breath away it's like saying if the stock market you know the dow jones industrial average is just soaring all of us are prospering it's like saying every time you see construction sites along the road it's because you have a lot of money in the bank well you and i know that's not how it works i see these cones everywhere i go and i don't have money so i don't know what you're telling me about money flowing because they're repairing linden and they're repairing everywhere else i'm talking about me it ain't trickling down to me now after reading what that commentator said that these israelites were just being whiners i rushed to the adventist bible commentary to see what the adventists say about it because i know the adventists don't always come down on the side of labor if you know your history you know if you don't know you don't know we don't always come down on the side of labor we hang out with the employer when james the epistle of james hangs out with the employee you all see what i'm talking about and how do you know when people are hanging out when they go muted when the employees are crying and we can't hear you you have chosen a sign you have taken a position by standing is a position all are involved so i rushed over to see what our commentary said and i was delighted i was relieved when i read in the adventist bible commentary the complaint was well-funded it goes on to say the people were not happy with the heavy weight of taxation and the forced draft of labor hello solomon forced people to work for free if you're black you should run because that's what they did to our ancestors solomon pushed israel so hard to realize his projects and he was just ambitious let's say differently solomon was a show-off he was going to get all those reservoirs and houses and vineyards and all those things that he conceived of he was going to get them done one way or the other and he did get him done but he lost the people let's face it solomon was splurging living large on the people's labor first kings 10 13 says king solomon i want you to watch this text king solomon gave the queen of sheba all she desired fool meets pretty girl you know flatbush avenue he's about to be played king solomon gave the queen of sheba all she desired she's queen brother she has stuff already what do you think sheba is broke he gave her all she desired and asked for beside what he had given her out of his royal bounty so he gave her out of his and he gave her out of state funds then she left and returned with her retinue to our own country it's easy to give it away if it's the taxpayers who are paying how do you think these big shots fly they carry everybody who could fit in that plane and everybody is going into this hotel that ordinary folks can't go into in fact government buys out the hotel for the six days they're in singapore yeah when you're not spending the money it's easy to spend it it's easy to dole out gold if you are not working in the mines other people mined it and refined it and solomon was gifting it someone had beaten those gold into shields that he hung around the temple shields of gold somebody worked on it but solomon got all the praise he was credited for this magnificent thing the workers built i hope you're hearing what i'm trying to say i'm not really trying to beat up on solomon as much as i'm trying to tell us how to conduct ourselves give some credit distribute some praise don't take it all in roll it back out to those who help you get where you are solomon's temple it was the people's temple somebody does the laundry mister somebody does the laundry somebody makes the pancakes at ihop it's called a tip hello say amen for tip those people don't make a lot of money they make a lot of pancakes so when you're going budget pancakes tip real humans work at the car wash uh-huh every night kids go to bed in america either parent not yet at home meaning they can't have their bedtime story read to them before they go to bed both parents are out trying to make ends meet but they are not going to meet the kids must stuck themselves in their parents are among the working poor in america show some appreciation somebody works all night stuck in the shells of your favorite supermarket somebody is taking good care of your aging ailing parent maybe just maybe you can show some appreciation if you have a secretary there's a day in april called administrative assistance day show some love say thank you show a little kindness somebody else is involved you are not alone we are standing on other people's shoulders i didn't parachute into ministry i was pastored here in i was raised by people who didn't go to high school but their hearts were right we just lost one of the matriarchs of our church two days ago three days ago in new jersey 98 i'll never forget that lady we could pull up in our house any time she never seemed to have the capacity to be annoyed when we as little boys and girls would go over there unannounced run up in the house and she would open the refrigerator and give us kool-aid they didn't go to high school but they understood somebody has to lift somebody up and when you get lifted up look back that's where the rear view mirror is from remember who used to change your diaper remember you didn't just make it into fame and fortune you probably had a mother you probably had a father a grandfather a grandmother an auntie an uncle somebody a teacher somebody and quite often the pastor if you are a ceo a manager a team leader supervisor a business owner a charge nurse a principal a chairman a foreman a king listen to people hear them empathize heard a sad story this week somebody somebody's father i think had a heart attack and wanted to leave work to go visit his father or her father i'm not sure supervisor wanted to know if another relative couldn't go how did you make supervisor what's wrong with you send the brother off to go look after his father solomon pushed his own people to their breaking point just so he could compete with neighboring nations he pushed them because he undertook so many projects expensive projects he had to slap them with heavy taxes and make them work many long hours without pay personal pride blinded him to the people's pain yes it was israel's golden age in so many ways it was called the best of times but in many many ways it was the worst of times for solomon personally it was the age of wisdom but it was also the age of folly it was the age of wisdom when he built the temple to yahweh the age of falling when he built worship centers to the canaanite deities it was the edge of wisdom when he prayed his best prayer it was the age of folly when he did his worst deeds frankly speaking this scenario this prospect is quite frightening for all of us it should be failure can be dressed up as success you could be speeding into damnation and having a great celebration you're about to crash and burn solomon and you know it not because right now you are wearing the costumes of wealth but god sees you as being a poor nobody high high high high might actually be very low and what the world applauds today because of the setting and the scenario they might be even giving you a standing vision but when you leave that office when you leave that job when you get out of there they might curse the ground you stood on this celebrate solomon the people came after saying he yoked us heavily lost lost often looks like saved and fools have graduated with high honors gracious father save us from ourselves our ambition the motivations we have in our hearts the desire for ascendancy you know organization including the church wanting to be at your right hand or left hand wanting to be drum majors wanting to be kings and queens and we climb on people we step on people to get to the top rung on the ladder and down below they are crying they are bemoaning our cruelty our lack of empathy forgive us lord our trespasses forgive us our debts what's done is done god we we can't take back yesterday we can certainly apologize to those people who will hear us and those who are still in our sphere some have spun out of our orbit and we probably wouldn't get in touch with them but we can still correct cores we can get off our high horses right now and walk humbly with our god so take away the stony heart the unfeeling uncaring ambitious power driven and motivated heart and make us servants yes humble us and we'll do your will in mercy lord humble us give us a humble spirit in jesus name we all pray let everybody say amen amen thank you everyone for being here today in our place of worship the church is so strange these days but it still feels like church even though we are not many more and more people are going to come back normalcy will come again this pandemic is not in prophecy it's not in revelation it's not one of the seven last plagues all these things must yet come to pass i look forward to seeing you again god willing on next sabbath if you can if you're coughing sniffling have a temperature opt out and wait for when you're better but if you can please come back as you can see we still have seating wherever you see the green stickers on the pews seating is available and that wing also has green stickers tell somebody we are open we're open for church we're open for the worship experience but they must be prepared to observe protocols like you've done today so thank you again to our worship leaders thank you for your contribution to today's worship service our praise team will now lead us in the trifold benediction in and then the ushers will usher us out from my right that row this and this and we all go down those stairs and out the first door on your right thank you again we'll be on zoom at four for our school of prayer god bless you and be well [Music] [Music] ah [Applause] we are going to ask you to please be seated until the ushers get to your row the row on the right is going first

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Id: o6e98wWgsMo

Length: 118min 0sec (7080 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 23 2021