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Of all the Kings of the Earth that have ever ruled and reigned, Solomon was by far the most blessed and the richest. Solomon was the youngest son of King David and assumed the throne of Israel when he was only 20 years old. God granted this king with great wisdom and under his rule, Israel grew to the largest and most powerful extent that is has ever grown about 50,000 square miles of territory.

At the time of the reading of our texts, Bible scholars figure Solomon’s annual salary to be the modern day equivalent of $20,000,000 annually. That’s 20 million a YEAR! To give you an idea of how many people were on Solomon’s payroll, think of how many men would have been required to take care of his “40,000 stalls of horses!” For that matter, those of you with equine experience figure up his annual horse feed bill! Keep in mind that the 20 million annually was his salary AFTER feeding the horses and AFTER paying the government employees. The total amount of money that actually went through Solomon’s hands a year has been estimated at around 100 million dollars a YEAR!

Part of this great wealth came from business deals with other nations. In fact all of Solomon’s horses were purchased from either Egypt or a small nation named Kue. Kue was a small nation in Asia to which Solomon had special ambassadors that traded chariots for the fine horses. It is implied in the Hebrew of the Scriptures that Solomon had a particular horse, that was by far the fastest of it’s day.

Solomon also built up a navy, the only Israeli king with the courage to do so. The navy was on a three year cycle and would leave in the fall of the first year and travel on a three year voyage to the coasts of Africa. The navy would then return in the springtime of the third year. IKing 10:22 states that the three year voyage returned each time bringing “gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.” One of these trips cargo is estimated to have brought in a cargo of gold estimated at $12,000,000! Archeologists have discovered silver mines in modern day ETHIOPIA that have evidence proving that they belonged to Solomon! Because of mines like this and other smaller ships frequently bringing silver in from Spain, the amount of the silver could not even be counted and was very common place in the kingdom! I have not even began to describe to you to the elaborate temple that Solomon build unto God, or the cedar lined and gold plated home that he built for himself. The Word of God does not exaggerate when it says that Solomon far exceeded the majesty and wealth of all of the Kings of the Earth.

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But Jesus made a claim in our text that shocked those who heard it. Jesus looked at the Pharisees and Saducees that so desperately desired a king to free them from the Roman’s rule and told them plainly that “there is one GREATER than Solomon here!” That was quite a boast! The Jewish leaders thought of the splendor of Solomon and how rich that he was and then they looked at Jesus Christ the carpenter and son of a man who lived among the poor in Galilee. A man who had never sat under the feet of the great philosophers. A man of simple dress who at the time had quit his job and didn’t even own a house and whose favorite mode of travel was by either walking or by a simple donkey. They couldn’t imagine how He could claim to be greater than Solomon.

Unfortunately, many people of today have made the same mistake in underestimating who Jesus is because of his humble earthly life. There is a great controversy among certain scholars today of how many thrones there is in heaven and who exactly sits there!

I personally have never been to heaven so I will have to take the words of the only man that I know who has seen heaven and wrote about it: a man named John!

Scripture makes it very clear that there is only ONE throne in heaven and ONE that sits upon the throne.

When you get to chapter 21, the one who sits on the throne speaks:

The one who sat upon the throne stated that He was the Alpha and Omega (A to Z to us), the beginning and the end, and the giver of the water of life.

In chapter 22, we find that it is Jesus who says He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end and the giver of the water of life.

In fact when we go back to the first chapter of Revelation we find that Jesus repeatedly mentions that He is the Alpha and the Omega, and the first and the last:

Who is the Lord? Ask the question that Paul asked in Acts 9:5: “Who art thou Lord?” And you’ll get the same answer that he got: “I am Jesus!”

Malachi 2:10 states “Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us?” Yet, Colossians chapter 2 states that Jesus created all things. John put it this way:

If you get anything straight in your theology on earth, you’d better get straight just who Jesus Christ is! Jesus told Philip in John 14:9, when Philip asked to see the Father: “have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Phillip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”

When Jesus stated in John 10:30, “I and my Father are one,” the Pharisees who were viewing Him as a carpenter tried to stone Him because they realized that He was saying that He was God! If you get any revelation about God, you’d better get the revelation that Thomas got that brought him to his knees at the feet of Jesus and caused him to cry out: “my Lord and my God!”

Jesus is the one God who sits upon the one throne of heaven. Don’t get confused when you see that He became flesh, get excited! Revelation 5:6 states that the Lamb came from the midst of the throne! I Timothy 3:16 says that “God was manifest (revealed or made visible) in flesh!” When you see Jesus Christ, you are not seeing a separate God or person from the creator. You are not seeing God the Son sent by God the Father, but you are seeing the King of Glory, THE King of Kings, who got off of His throne and came to earth and became flesh so that He could pay the price for sin and become ACCESSIBLE to us! He loved me enough that He was willing to leave glory, be born of a virgin, and die so that I would be able to come to Him! If He had not died, my sins would have forever separated us. But PRAISE THE LORD, Jesus, the creator, the God of Glory, the KING OF KINGS made a way that my sins could be washed away!

And He still is here today. Jesus told His disciples that “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.” (John 14:18). And then came the Holy Ghost! The Spirit of God that you feel today is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! Jesus Christ, Himself, is in this place today.

Even though the Pharisees didn’t understand it, I can assure you without a shadow of doubt that Jesus Christ is greater than Solomon! There truly is one greater than Solomon here! Solomon’s kingdom stretched from the Nile, to the Mediterranean, to the Euphrates but Jesus’ kingdom fills the universe. Solomon was willing to build a separate palace for his beloved bride, but Jesus has gone to prepare a place for His bride with “many mansions.” In fact Jesus is going to create a “new heaven and a new earth,” for His precious bride! Solomon surrounded himself with many workers, but Jesus’ throne is surrounded by 10,000 upon 10,000 of angels crying out with praise! To Solomon silver was in such quantity that he didn’t even bother to measure it. Jesus uses the finest and purest gold for pavement! Solomon had the finest but still only could settle for the Spirit of God to dwell in small cedar-lined room. Jesus came and died so that His Spirit could come and live in within our human bodies so that we could become temples of God! Solomon had a few thousand horses, but Jesus has the cattle on a thousand hills. Solomon had storehouses and such, but Jesus has windows in heaven with blessings that we cannot contain! And most importantly, Solomon died and is still dead, but Jesus Christ died and then got up and He is alive forever more! There truly is one greater than Solomon here!!!! May I introduce to you the King of Kings: Jesus Christ! He is so much more than just a carpenter, He is Lord of All!

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With a king as rich as Solomon was, fame and word of his wisdom and wealth traveled around the world. Most people of the day had heard of king Solomon. Kings began to send ambassadors and representatives to meet with Solomon and establish relations. These ambassadors traveled back to their homelands in awe of what they had seen and so the tales of the great king Solomon grew and expanded.

Of all the leaders who sought to find out more about king Solomon, one stands out from among the rest. That is the Queen of Sheba. We read about her in our texts. I want you to notice that of all the people who heard about Solomon, only one is recorded that decided to go actually meet the king in person and that was this Queen of Sheba. I also want you to notice, that of all the people who knew about Solomon, Jesus only mentioned one and that was this Queen of Sheba. In fact, Jesus said that one day the men of his generation would rise up in judgment with her in the end:

The Bible says that she will condemn them because of the great depth and distance that she was willing to come to hear the wisdom of Solomon. In other words, their excuses for not coming to the king would pale in comparison with what she did. For the next few moments, I would like to examine exactly how far the Queen of Sheba was willing to go to get into the presence of the king. As I do, ask yourself the question, “How will I do in judgment beside the Queen of Sheba?”

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First, I want to remind you that the Queen of Sheba was the only ruler not content with just hearing the stories! She had to go to see him for herself! Even though she was royalty, she did not mind that it inconvenienced her to see the king. This was no easy journey. It was 1,200 miles across pure desert and then a mountain range for her to get to Solomon! She was traveling by camel caravan and it probably took the better part of a year to make the journey. On the trip she would not have the conveniences of the palace. For a great Queen to come off her throne and travel through the hot desert, showed that the Queen of Sheba was willing to swallow some pride. But she was determined to get to the king!

I want to tell you that today we live in a time where everyone has heard about Jesus. Most people have heard the stories of what Jesus did and have heard that He claimed to be the great Savior. Some have even read their Bibles and even heard how that Jesus Christ is supposedly just as real now as He was back then. But when I look at the many people of this world and even in this area, I realize that although they have heard the stories, very few have made an effort to see the King themselves. Very few have ever felt the presence of God like we have felt today. Very few have experienced the life-changing power of taking on the King's name in water baptism. Very few have received the King's Spirit coming into their hearts and experienced the thrill and power of receiving the Holy Ghost. Very few have ever had actually had the King answer a prayer that they prayed with a miracle. Very few have ever known what it was like to feel the healing power of the King in their own lives. Oh, they've heard that He can do it. They've heard other people's stories of what the King can do, but like the rulers of Solomon's day, they are content to just settle for the stories.

One of the reasons that most people shy away from actually developing a relationship with the King is because of the work and commitment involved. Coming to church to learn and experience the presence of the King is seen as inconvenient in our busy lives. The Bible is so thick and it seems like such a long journey to learn about God and how to please Him. Not only that, but we have to swallow our pride and admit that we need help and guidance in our lives. For God to be able to work, we must admit that we need Him! And to get to the King, it takes a complete change of lifestyle from the one that we live in our palace of complacency. The more we find about Jesus and His teachings and His Word, the more it seems like our own lifestyles are a great distance away from where He is! And so, even today, most people aren't willing to make the sacrifice of time and effort in order to get to the King themselves.

But let there be some people that would have the spirit and determination of the Queen of Sheba! Some one who says "I want to experience the King of Kings for myself!" I'm tired of reading about other people receiving the Holy Ghost! I'm tired of hearing of how God moved in their lives back then. Whatever distance I have to go. Whatever I have to do. If I have to swallow my pride and admit that some of my traditions and theology contradicts the perfect Word of God. If I have to change my entire lifestyle in order to get to where the King is, then I'll do it.

I don't know about you, but I've made up in my mind, that on judgment day, the Queen of Sheba is not going to be able to say a word! Whatever distance I have to come to learn more about how to get into the presence of Jesus, then I'll do. There is no sacrifice too great! Nothing in this world that I would rather have than Him! If He has to knock me out of my throne room of contentment and complacency in order to get me on the road to His throne room, then I'll go! I've made up in my mind, in every area of my life: I must see Jesus!

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I can see the Queen as she made the decision to go see Solomon sitting upon her throne. I can feel the excitement building as the preparations were made and the servants and guards and gifts and spices and camels were made ready. And then after all the excitement, she had to make the first part of her journey through one of the most scorched deserts on earth!

I want you to realize that for almost 9 months she plodded through dry desert. They probably plotted a course that would bring them to water every three days. Occasionally they would miss the mark and then the journey would stop for a day or so as they frantically searched for a stream or an oasis so that they would not die of thirst. I don't know what kind of camel that the queen rode on. She was rich, so maybe she could afford the two-hump variety but either way, she was in for a rough ride through the roughest country that God ever created.

I'd like to tell you that when you make up in your mind to get everything that God has for you, and to gain an experience with the King, that everything is going to be great and peaceful from that point on, but it's not so. God sent the deliver Moses to the children of Israel. They began to pack and get excited for the journey of where God was taking them! And GOD LED THEM OUT INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT!

When you make up in your mind that you are going after everything that the King of Kings has for you, get ready for the wilderness. Get ready for some spiritually dry times. Oh, don't worry, the oasis that God will put in your life will more than refresh you and make up for the desert, but don't think that living for God is easy.

God uses dry times to see just how much we really desire Him. Jesus taught in parables that were hard to understand and the disciples asked Him once why He didn't just state thoughts straight. Jesus responded that He taught in parables lest people who really didn't desire the things of God would understand and get blessed. It's a principle in God's Word that God cares less about the destination than the character and changes that are brought about by the trip! And that's why as Christians, we don't feel like we are on top of the world every minute or every hour. You might be going through a personal revival and then the next week you do not feel a thing when you pray! Do you stop coming to church? Do you stop praying? Are you going to let a little wilderness or opposition stop you? No doubt the Queen of Sheba met some bands of robbers and some opposition in the wilderness just as Moses and his crew did. Are you going to let some persecution keep you from finishing this journey? Or are you going to persevere to the promised land!? Are you going to keep on until you have made it to the very throne room of God!?!

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I also want you to notice that the Queen of Sheba did not have any direct map of how to get to Solomon. She had to take other people's word for it and then sift through the stories and find the real route. But you and I don't have to take other people's word for how to get to the King of Kings! Oh, there are many opinions in the world, but the King loved us enough to provide us His very own directions! Too many people get discouraged in the journey to find God because of all the conflicting directions that they are getting from people. But the Queen of Sheba persevered. She was determined to find the true path to the King and no doubt she recorded it, because we later find that trade opened up along the route between the two kingdoms!

It may seem daunting to find the strait and narrow way in a world of so many differing opinions, but I want to remind you that you have an option that the Queen of Sheba didn't have. You can go read the Words of the King and find out exactly where to go and what to do. Don't take somebody's word for it: read the King's Word yourself! If anybody knows how to get there, Jesus does! And don't give up! As you discover the truth, you will blaze a trail for others to find Jesus as well. You will make it easier for others in your family to receive the Holy Ghost. You will make it easier for others in your family to get the freedom that comes from having your own relationship with the King!

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The fact that she was a Queen tells us quite a bit about the Queen of Sheba. There is not a king mentioned anywhere in scripture so she was not married. The fact then that she was still queen tells us that she had no children for if she had a son, he would have been king. If she had a daughter, then one of their sons would have been king. A nation back then was only ruled by a Queen if the royal family had no male heirs. That is why the wicked Queen Athalia tried to kill all of her sons and grandsons, so that she could remain upon the throne.

I don't know exactly why she was the Queen, but I can make some possibilities. It's obvious that her parents had died because if they had been alive then one of them would have been ruler. If she had a husband, and it would have been abnormal for a woman of royalty to not marry, he must have died as well. Either he died before they were able to have children or her sons had died as well. Perhaps they were all killed in battle as so often happened in that day. Whatever the circumstances, despite the riches and the power, the Queen of Sheba's life had not been perfect and peaceful. She had experienced great pain and sorrow. She had seen life's cruel hand turn and take the lives of the very ones whom she loved the most. But one thing is for sure: she wasn't going to let the traumatic events of the past keep her from reaching the king!

In your life, you are going to have heartaches and plans gone astray. Eventually you will know what it is like to lose a loved one or a friend. Most of you have come from dysfunctional homes and most of us have calluses upon our hearts and spirits from the toughness that was developed in us by going through some things. But, I urge you, don't blame it on God! And don't allow the sorrows of life to keep you from getting to the king! There was more than miles that was distancing the Queen of Sheba from Solomon. No doubt when she saw a male figure upon the throne, it would remind her of her own husband and the pain would surface, but she was determined: Despite what pain I have to face and overcome, I will see the King for myself!

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And here's the most important part: When the Queen of Sheba got there, the king far exceeded her expectations! He not only received her but was willing to show her everything that he had. She walked into the throne room with the golden steps and the long red carpet leading to the magnificent throne room. She looked around in awe at the golden armor hanging on the gold coated cedar walls. She was taken back by the exquisite dress of the workers. He led her into the dining room and she realized that she thought that she knew what it was like to eat, but even she had never experienced the grandeur and the majesty and the food of this. As she looked in surprise, she realized that even the forks and plates and cups were pure gold! She had thought she was content in her land but she realized that she had never seen happiness like she found there!

Suddenly in a gush of words she turned to the king and she told him, "I've got a lot of questions." The Bible says that she “communed with Him from ALL that was in her heart.” The scriptures say that she had come to "prove Solomon with hard questions." But once she got into his presence, he was able to answer every question of her heart, even the hardest ones, and the scriptures say that Solomon answered every one and did not hide anything from her. Finally, she was so overwhelmed by what she had seen and heard that she opened her mouth and pronounced:

6 And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. 7 Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. 8 Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.

Once she got there, she realized that the king far exceeded her expectations and the stories that she had heard! The wilderness, the journey, the pain, the thirst: it had all been worth it to get to the King!

I want to tell you that whatever you have to overcome or go through to get to the King, that it will be worth it! Once you get there, the stories that you have heard will only be the half of it! You may have been spiritually fed before, but you'll find out that you've never been spiritually fed until you've had the anointing and revelatory power of a Spirit-filled pastor talk to your heart! You may have felt the Spirit of God move in a service, but when you receive the Holy Ghost within your body, -- I can't tell describe to you the feeling and awe in stories! You may have some hard questions that you need answers too, but the only way to get those questions answered is to get into the presence of the King and THEN He'll answer every one of them! But He wants to see how bad you desire to get to where He is before He begins to answer the questions! Come prove Him! Jesus will far exceed your expectations!

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Then perhaps a little overwhelmed by what she had seen, she nevertheless unwrapped her gifts and presented them to Solomon. She had thought that she had brought enough to impress anyone, but now that she had seen the splendor of Solomon's kingdom, she wasn't sure, nevertheless, she began to present to him ALL that she had with her.

She had brought 120 talents of gold to give to him. In modern day equivalents, that is about 3.6 million dollars. She was probably starting to realize that Solomon made 7 times that amount annually. She gave him of the spices that were so abundant in her part of the world and that was the one thing that she could give to Solomon that he could not provide for himself.

The only thing that you can give Jesus Christ that He cannot provide for Himself, is your life. Jesus told his disciples that "ye are the salt of the earth." I know that your life seems so small when compared with the riches of the universe and the heavens, but the one thing that the King of King desires and needs is "the salt of the earth." Scientists say that the single most useful chemical in the entire universe is Sodium Chloride (salt). In the physical world it has over 14,000 uses. When Jesus told His disciples that they were the salt of the earth He was telling them that they are the most useful thing that God needs! The God who owns everything needs you to willingly give of yourself!

Imagine the surprise of the Queen of Sheba when in return, Solomon opened up his treasury and began to give back to her! In fact the gifts that she received from him, far exceeded what she had been given! \

God is not worried in the worth of what you can give, but whether or not you are willing to give ALL. He is only interested if you are willing to give everything in your life to Him! If you will give your very will and life itself as the "salt of the earth." But when you give of Him, you will find that what He gives in return will far outweigh what you have given. God challenged us in His Word "try me and see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you cannot contain." I believe that Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba so much stuff that she couldn't carry it all back with her! And the one greater than Solomon is not different. For a life that might reach 80 years, He gives an eternity. For pain and suffering, He gives gladness and healing. For ashes, he gives beauty. And it all comes from offering yourself as a living sacrifice unto the King of Kings!

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Most importantly, the Queen of Sheba found a relationship with the one, true, living God. She said:

I don't have time to go through the history and genealogy of the Queen of Sheba today. In fact very little is know about her descendants. I will just take you to one chapter in Isaiah that is talking about the future 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ and mentions all the nations of the earth that will be willing to come worship Jesus Christ at His throne in the New Jerusalem:

Did you catch that? The descendants of Sheba will be among those coming and praising the King of Glory upon the New Earth! The relationship with the one, true, living God that the Queen received from getting into the king's presence, was taken back to her own people and forever altered their course of history!

I implore you: whatever distance that you have to overcome to get a relationship with the King, do it! Doing so will not only change your earthly life, but will change your course forever! Whether it be pain, trouble, cares of life, tradition, lack of direction, questions, or a wilderness, there is nothing that is not worth overcoming to come and worship the king. When you come to the King and give, you will be overwhelmed by what you receive in return. Ask the Queen of Sheba. Ask the wise men who pushed through a murderous Herod, false prophets, and great distance to come offer their very best at the feet of the one who is greater than Solomon. They did not go away disappointed. But their tales are over now, and the real question is this: how far will you go to see the King?