Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of recognizing the greatness of Jesus Christ compared to the Queen of Sheba's admiration for King Solomon. He challenges the congregation to reflect on their own passion and commitment to Christ, urging them to let go of worldly distractions and infatuations. Beach highlights that the Queen of Sheba traveled great distances and made sacrifices to seek wisdom from Solomon, questioning whether believers today exhibit a similar fervor for the greater wisdom found in Jesus. He warns against the dangers of becoming numb to the presence of God and encourages a return to a singular devotion to Christ. Ultimately, he calls for a heart transformation that prioritizes the fame of Jesus above all else.

He's so precious. Father, we give you praise and honor and glory this morning. Our hearts are filled with thanksgiving because of your incredible love and long-suffering, your divine passion for we who trust in you, Lord. Lord, how touched we are this morning. How thankful we are this morning, Lord, for each and every sovereign circumstance that you have brought into our life. What freeing occurs in our souls when we cease to hold on to our life? What freeing comes when we let go by the grace of God? When we let go and lay everything at your feet? What joy floods our soul? What peace like a river flows into the depths of our being? Oh, Lord, we just adore you and we worship you. Our words fail to communicate what's going on in our hearts and we praise you and thank you for your goodness and for being our shepherd, the good shepherd, the shepherd who even now is feeding us, who even now is inviting us to trust in him. Lord, we adore you. We bow before you and we thank you for your goodness and your kindness, Lord. Hallelujah to God. My God, my God, my God, he's so wonderful, isn't he? His grace is so filled with goodness and kindness to each and every one of us here this morning. The shepherd is doing the thing that he does best right this morning. He is ministering in his house. You know, a little earlier when the glory just filled his house and you know that we're certainly not referring to this auditorium because this auditorium is not the Lord's house. The Lord takes no delight in dwelling in or on wooden chairs and I can't blame them because they're not very comfortable, are they? I don't think the Lord would find his heart's desire met by bringing his glory down on the front row on that chair. I don't think that'll do it. The house that God takes delight in is first and foremost the place of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. When Father God searched in eternity past and looked into eternity future, he saw no place that would satisfy him except in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There he found a place of eternal rest. His son perfectly pleased his heart. Did you know, beloved, that Christianity is all about Jesus? It's all about the son of God. We mustn't allow our hearts to be turned in any other direction other than unto him. Our delight, our thrill, our passion, our love, our desire ought to always be to and for him. He is what it's all about, isn't he? He is what it's all about. I want to encourage everyone before you leave to be sure and get a bulletin and in it you will find some announcements that are important, okay? We have announcements here about the ladies' Bible study and about a ministry trip coming up that, God willing, I will be taking and update on Brother George and also about Kevin and Virginia Robinson became the proud parents. This morning of a beautiful baby girl. Pray for this precious family as they enter into the joys and challenges of parenthood. Challenges? A parent must have wrote that. A parent must have wrote that word challenges. I guess only parents can recognize that having kids is both a joy and challenging. Do I get an amen from all the parents? Huh? Well, praise the Lord. We just lost everything, but everything is salvageable. I want to invite you, if you would, just for a few moments, just for a few moments, if you would, turn your Bibles, if you would, to Mark chapter one, okay? Mark chapter one. I believe that in light of everything that the Lord Jesus has, in light of what he has done in our lives and in our hearts this morning, I'd like to share from the Lord a word of loving warning. Okay? Loving warning to everybody here, including myself. Mark chapter one, verse number 28. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee. Matthew chapter 14, verse number one. At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus. Luke chapter 11, verse number 31. Listen carefully, please. Listen carefully. Here, everybody listen for a moment. Here is what the Queen of Sheba would do if the Lord granted her a resurrection and she walked down the aisle and stood at this microphone. She would look with amazement and tears and she would say, what are you doing? How can you be in such a state? Don't you understand what I did? The Queen of the South, the Queen of Sheba. Do you understand the distance that I traveled, the money that I spent, the sacrifice that I willingly took? Oh, have you forgotten that I, the Queen of Sheba, have a place in the New Testament? That's right. Let me refresh your memory, what the scriptures that are available to you today say about me. Listen carefully, says the Queen of Sheba. Verse number 31. The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. The Queen of Sheba will be given power by God to stand at the judgment day and pronounce judgment upon this evil generation. The Queen of Sheba will stand as our judge and she will speak. Why? Is God going, is that what Jesus said? Is that not what Jesus said? The Queen of Sheba. And the Queen of Sheba would stand in our midst and pronounce judgment. Hear the Holy Spirit, beloved. For she, or let us speak in the first person as though she is speaking to us this morning. For I came, says the Queen of Sheba, I came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. 1 Kings chapter 10. For it is spoken of me, says Queen of Sheba, not only in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament. And I will now show you where your scriptures speak of me. 1 Kings chapter 10. And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, the fame of Solomon, we read two scriptures in the New Testament. It spoke about the fame of Jesus. So we have the fame of Solomon and the fame of Jesus. We have the fame of a man who was born of earthly inheritance and we have the fame of a man who was born heaven heavenly. We have the fame of a man who was born of sinful parents, who was given by God wisdom. And this fame reached the Queen of Sheba. This is what she did regarding the fame of a mere sinful man. Queen Sheba says, I heard of the fame of Solomon and this is what I did. She came, verse two, to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. Queen Sheba says to you and I, beloved, when I heard of the fame of a man who had wisdom from God and who was causing the whole world marvel, I traveled a far distance. I took the best of my things. And when I found that man, I sat down with him and I communed with him. I sat at his feet. I opened up the depths of my heart and I poured out all that I am into this mere man. I sacrificed everything for a man. And when the Queen of Sheba had heard and seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearer and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. She looked at a mere man and she saw something that God had given to him. And after she beheld it and after she communed with him, there was no longer any spirit within her. In other words, there was no breath in her. She was speechless. She was breathless. She couldn't open her mouth. She was awe-stricken and it was over a mere man. How be it? Verse six, she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in my own land of the acts and of thy wisdom. How be it? I believed not the words until I came. And mine eyes had seen it. Behold, the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are thy servants which stand continually before me and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God which delighteth in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel because the Lord hath loved Israel forever. Therefore made he the king to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king 120 talents of gold and of spices, a very great store and precious stones and came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave the king of Solomon. There came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon. Sheba gave more spices to Solomon than any other source. Verse 13, and the king gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire whatsoever she asked. Besides that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she returned and went to her own country. She and her servants. The queen of Sheba shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, and behold a greater than Solomon is here. And might I speak and say from the Holy Spirit what are we doing about the greater than Solomon that is here in our midst? What kind of heart's passion do we have for him in comparison to the heart passion that Sheba had for Solomon? Does her passion for a mere man exceed the passion that we have for the God-man? Does her sacrifice and her willing to give her all and all to a mere man exceed the sacrifice and willingness that we have to give to the man of man's? Behold, a greater than Solomon is here the evil generation that Jesus speaks of in verse 29. As it applies to this particular heart, this particular window into the Lord's heart, is we are more infatuated in this hour, the church, the house of His dwelling, the place where He Himself lives. We are more infatuated with the fame of someone other than Christ. We are more infatuated with our own personal fame. We are more infatuated with the fame of a dignitary or the fame of an important person. And within the very church, the very house of God, there is an evil, evil, evil attitude that characterizes the generation that we live in. And unless we pray that God by His grace would deliver us, then we will be ashamed before Queen Sheba when she rises up on the day of judgment because her bounty and her sacrifice and her heart for a mere man will exceed and be brighter than our bounty and heart and desire for the King of kings and Lord of lords. What will that look like at that day when you and I stand next to Queen Sheba and God gives her a pronouncement of blessing because her sacrifice for a mere man exceeded the sacrifice that His people today have for the greater than Solomon? Wow. Now, please, this is not intended to be scathing. It's intended to bring perspective. Earlier, listen, earlier when the glory of the Lord came, the Lord began to speak to me and say, you know, He said, I'm visiting my house. And He said, if you visit another person's house, Phil, and you looked and you knew that there was dirt in the house, what would you do? I said, well, I'm not sure. Some people would criticize the parents of the house. Look at how filthy this place is. Other people might say, boy, I wish they'd hire help. But Jesus said to me this morning as we were here, He said, you know what I'm doing when I visit my house? I start sweeping up. I start cleaning. You know, Jesus was house cleaning this morning. He was house cleaning. He visits us because we are His. This is His house. He wants this house to be all His. He doesn't want any dirt in it. He lifts up the carpets. I often marvel because one of the things that frustrates my wife is that when she'll assign duties to our children to clean, well, you know, they take shortcuts. And they don't get behind the nooks and the crannies. And you know how it is. And my wife, she'll follow them and see how well they did. And oftentimes she'll bring them back and say, look, you missed this, you didn't do that. Or is this where this junk goes? Or you just took the junk from over here and put it over here. You ever see that happen? We think that we're cleaning up when we remove one thing from one place and put it in another. It's still in the house. It needs to be taken out of the house. And that's what the Lord's doing. He's cleaning the house. But here's why He's cleaning the house. He's cleaning the house so that He can come in His glory and in His majesty and be perfectly, 100% comfortable in His house. But here's what we must guard over. We must pray that God gives us a desire for the Lord, listen, that exceeds the desire that Queen Sheba had for a mere King Solomon. So that at that day, Queen Sheba might be able to look at those who saw Him and say, surely I can understand why you were so radical, why you were so willing to die. Because now she's saying, what's wrong? What's wrong? Don't you understand who is in your midst? Don't you understand who you are? Don't you understand the one who is greater than Solomon that is right in your... Can't you see that I traveled a far distance just to hear the wisdom from the mouth of a man and how you can commune with the King of kings and Lord of lords and hear the wisdom that comes from His mouth and be enticed by His love and be infatuated by the beauty of His house and by the splendor of His royal majesty? Don't you see that you have access to the man to whom all the world will eventually bow down and confess as Lord and King and sovereign God? Don't you see? We have become numbed to the presence of Almighty God in our lives. Sacred things have become common to us. We have followed after the fame of that which passes away and have missed the fame of that which endures forever. And that is the good word of God, the Lord Jesus Himself. And the Lord is our shepherd which speak into our hearts this morning and lovingly warn us, do not seek after the passing fame of the world, the passing infatuation of the world, but seek the fame of the Son of God. Seek the fame, but don't only seek that fame, demonstrate a living faith by works, not works generated through self-effort, but works produced by genuine faith, works that demonstrate a heart poured out on the altar like Sheba, a heart willing to travel great distance. Now we don't need to travel geographically now, but that is language expressing the willingness to go all the way and to lay everything down at the feet of Jesus and let Him have His way. Don't be seduced by this evil generation. What are you infatuated with this morning? Whose feet do you desire to sit at? What's got a hold of you? Who are you after? Does Queen Sheba demonstrate a passion for a mere King whose name was Solomus that exceeds your passion for the greater one, the Lord Jesus? Father, we thank you and praise you for the presence of your Holy Spirit this morning, for the good words that you placed in the hearts of your children, for all that you prepared for us this morning, the bounty of your house. We thank you, Lord. And now we ask, Lord, that you would bring it all together into one consummating passion that would equal an infatuation with the fame of Jesus Christ that exceeds the infatuation for a fame other than Jesus Christ. Deliver our hearts and our minds and the secrets of our soul from desiring anything other than the fame of Jesus Christ. Father, restore into your church, we, your people, a singleness of heart for you. Deliver us from the snare of this generation that will be condemned by Queen Sheba at the day of judgment. Deliver us from the snare of having a taste for the fame that passes away. The fame, whatever that fame is, whatever entices us today that is going to eventually pass away, the glory of man, the glory of things, the glory of what we see with our eyes and what we feel with our flesh, the glory of what we have or what we want to be like, all of it is going to pass away. And it is a fame that is like the vapor of the air. It is here today and gone tomorrow with the rising of the sun. It dissipates. Help us not to be after that kind of fame, but turn our hearts, O gracious God, to the Lord Jesus Christ and let us be after the fame of Him. Let us sit at His feet, O Jesus. Please let us find rest in Your presence. Do it, Lord, I pray for Your honor and Your glory. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.