How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, led in paths of light. Pressing more closely to him who is leading When we are tempted to turn, drop away Trusting the arm that is strong to defend us Happy, how happy our praise is each day How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Stepping in the light, stepping in the light How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Landing in paths of light Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior Upwards till upward When we shall see Him, the King in His beauty, happy, how happy, our place at His side. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, let Him has a light. What a blessing to be at Liberty Baptist Church this evening. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to be here. Lord, may our hearts be blessed from the singing, from the preaching, and Lord, from the fellowship we enjoy with one another. We thank you for this time we have. And Lord, may it be a blessing to all that are here. Help us now. In your precious name we ask it. Amen. You may be seated. All right. Sing to God be the glory. To God be the glory, great things He hath done. So up to the world that He gave us His Son. of the ♪ O come to the Father, to Jesus the Son ♪ And give Him the glory, great things He hath done ♪ O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood ♪ To every believer, the promise of God that moment from Jesus ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ Let the earth hear His voice ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ Let the people rejoice ♪ O come to the Father, to Jesus the Son ♪ And give Him the glory, great things He hath done ♪ Great things he hath taught us ♪ Great things he hath done ♪ And great are rejoicing through Jesus the Son ♪ The new and higher and greater will be ♪ How wonder our transport when Jesus we see praise the lord praise the lord let the earth hear his voice praise the lord praise the lord let the people rejoice oh come to the father through jesus the son and give him the glory great things he hath done Amen. What a blessing to be here this evening at Liberty Baptist Church. Uh, I'm looking around. I don't think we have any visitors today. Everyone's been here at least a couple of times. We're glad to have you here. Uh, just a few announcements. You want to continue to pray for brother Nichols and his family, their health pray for a brother block at, at this time as well as he's, uh, in, uh, North Carolina, we, with his son. So just to, uh, pray for him at this time as well. For those on the prayer chain, I know you probably already heard that Vida Ruiz and the procedure that was done, that it seemed to have gone well, so that's a blessing to know that. He's going over there. Okay, and what a blessing it is tonight. We've got Brother something Myers gonna preach which I think figured it out because he's here. So that's good That's because that's why he's here. He's gonna preach in a little bit. He's not singing a special although that'd be okay, too but he's gonna he's gonna be preaching and What a blessing to have him You want to make sure to pray for those, though, Brother Nichols, pray for Brother Block at this time, and Miss Vida Ruiz. You want to remember the regular things we have going on. Be a part of them if you can. We've got soul winning tomorrow at 645. If you can be a part of that, that'll be a blessing. Saturday at 930 the bus meeting 1045 for so winning and then back again on Sunday for service This Sunday will be having brother Dale Murphy So you want to make sure to to get a hold get here to be able to hear him boy That's it's a blessing having brother Brother Murphy, he's going to preach Sunday morning, Sunday night, and then Monday and Tuesday. So you want to be here for that, right? 23rd, 24th, 25th. Actually, Wednesday, then, I guess, too, right? Is that right? That's not up on the thing. Not Wednesday, just Monday and Tuesday. So we're going to have him here. So, oh, there it is right there. May 24th and 25th, Monday and Tuesday. 730 and so it's gonna be like having a mini week of revival got brother something my ear and then you're gonna have Sunday morning him so we're looking forward to all that so be faithful be a part of it if you can possibly and You'll be glad that you were in fact like tonight. Well, we're singing these songs and I was wanting another verse I kind of like that chorus that the earth here, you know, praise the Lord praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice I was enjoying that and then it ended. But we're here, what a blessing. Good to have you. All right, O for a Thousand Tongues. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim ♪ To spread through all the earth abroad ♪ ♪ The honors of thy name ♪ ♪ Jesus, the name that charms our fears ♪ ♪ That pins our sorrows cease ♪ ♪ His music in the sinner's ear ♪ ♪ To his life and health and peace ♪ He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the fowlers clean, His blood availed for me. Hear Him, ye deaf, ye free! loose in tongues and ploy. Ye blind, behold your Savior come, and we'll meet ye lame for joy. Paging Brother P. Gentle, here he comes. First Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 16, 17, and 18. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. Ain't God good to give us so many blessings undeserving? That's what we are. We ought to thank him, love and praise him a little more today and a whole lot more tomorrow. For 40 long years God's children journeyed in the wilderness, searching for Cain in that blessed promised land. They never got too hungry, no they never got too thirsty, and the more that God kept blessing them the more they would complain. But ain't God good to give us so many blessings undeserving. that's what we are we ought to thank him love and praise him a little more today and a whole lot more tomorrow in the times that we live so many are unthankful and many more that fail to see that god has given all they're always busy working They're never taking time for God. They're always busy working to pay for cars and DVRs and carpet wall to wall. But ain't God good to give us so many blessings undeserving? That's what we are. We ought to thank him, love and praise him a little more today and a whole lot more tomorrow. A little more today and a whole lot more tomorrow. All right, and this evening we have Brother Nick Suttmeyer, Missionary of New Mexico. Looking forward to hear him preach. Amen? Amen. What a blessing to be here tonight with everyone. And God bless you. Thank you for your faithful prayers for us. And Patty's not with me right now. Amen. She couldn't handle me, so she got rid of me. No, I'm just kidding. But it's a real blessing to be able to be here tonight. Good to see Preacher, Brother Nichols, and good to see all of you here tonight, too. What a blessing. Please pray for us. Next Friday, a week from this Friday, I'll be going to court. Whenever they closed our church down, the government came in and closed us down. accused us of having services, which we did not have services while we were in red. It was really bad there. Anyway, they shut us down. They're supposed to warn us before they even thought about shutting us down. and put these big old stickers across our doors and all that. And anyway, I have an appearance where the government, our municipality has to prove their reasoning for closing our church down. So they have to give proof To us and and also the federal judge is also giving us this is all in our favor right now and as far as all these proceedings and all that we're going after the government. So I mean they bid us so we're going to bite him back harder. So that's what we're. And if we don't do it, if we don't do it, then they'll go after other churches or they'll just keep coming back after us again. So I feel blessed because our lawyer, he's Brother Wins at their church. He's their legal representative. And he said, they've done this to them, you know, and several times. And he said, you know, it's really interesting. He said, the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and all those other, you know, sect, I call them sect as they're in Spanish, what are they called? Cults, cults. And they don't have any problems. They get building permits just like that. They get their, you know, the law doesn't mess with them. And the reason why, I told him, I said, Satan does not cast out Satan. He's upset with us because we're making a dent into his eternity. Therefore, people that are getting saved, they're not gonna be spending eternity in a lake of fire. So we're messing his plans up, amen? So I'm proud to be in that group there, amen? So, and... So anyway, it's a real blessing. So please be praying for us about that. And I came up to help Melanie get a car. So be praying for her, please, amen. Pray for mom and dad more than her probably. But so I'm helping her out with that. It's a real blessing. And she just finished up her first day of school. freshman year there in college. And Natalie will now be a senior there at Golden State Baptist College. So it's a real blessing. Amen. And God's been good. And also our church, we've really been growing. I mean, it's just unbelievable. And so we're excited about what God's doing. And right now, I mean, people are, I can see people just kind of like, oh man, where else are we gonna go? We just came out of this pandemic and all this. You know what? It's time the world is opening their eyes to a lot of Satan's deceptive works and all that, all that he's doing. And I think a lot of people are opening their eyes and they're wanting to see the truth. They wanna hear the truth, especially where we are so much. and so many people died because of the COVID and all that, but, and their hearts are open to the gospel now. So, I mean, when you go out knocking doors now, it's a different experience and it's a real blessing. So just keep praying for us, please. And God's been so good. We had to split up our services. We have to had two services just because we can't get everybody in our auditorium right now. And so the first service and the second service were full this last Sunday, and it's been like that. So we appreciate your prayers. We appreciate your faithful support. And this is our home, amen, here at Liberty. Our hearts are here as well, amen. And our hearts are there too. We're like torn between two people, two places. but it's always a blessing to be here. Amen? And it's not the San Antonio I know in May, right? I mean, I almost need a jacket when you go outside. So, but we're enjoying the free air condition while it lasts. Amen? If you have your Bible tonight, if you have your Bible tonight, 1 Kings chapter number 11, 1 Kings chapter number 11, This last month in April, it was a busy, busy month. We were able to establish an institute in one of our church plants. Now they have their own Bible institute and God's good. In my personal evangelism class last night, they took their midterm exam. and we've got 15 students in personal evangelism. So people are getting on fire, amen? And it's a blessing to see that. And we'll get them soldiers out there on the field and get them winning souls, amen? 1 Kings 11, verse number one, if you please stand for the reading of God's word. going to have Brother Murphy here now. If you don't know Brother Murphy, I am no comparison to Brother Murphy. Amen. He's a real blessing. He's a firecracker preacher and you don't want to miss one service. You don't want to miss one service. The prayer that goes into these special services and meetings and all that God's gonna do something great. Amen. He'll do something great in our hearts 1st Kings chapter number 11 verse number 1 the Bible says here, but King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh women of the Moabites and Ammonites and Edomites and Thodianites and the Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come into you. For surely you will turn away your heart after their gods. That's a key thing right there. Solomon clave unto these in love. And it says here, and he had 700 wives. I don't know about you, but when I read the Bible, and the Bible says he's the wisest man in all the earth. I mean, who would want 700 mother-in-laws, okay? And don't think I'm talking about my mother-in-law. I get spoiled rotten by her, amen? I've got the best one in the whole world. The rest of you, it's too bad, okay. And so anyway, the Bible says here, and he had 700 wives. I get choked up when I see that. Anyway, princesses and 300 concubines and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. It's important to understand that they turned away his heart. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord, his God, as was the heart of David, his father. For Solomon went after Astaroth and the goddess of the Sidonites, Sedonians after Milcom and the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord as did his father. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for your blessings. Thank you for everyone that's here tonight. What a joy. What a joy that our families together tonight, Lord. I pray that you'd be with Brother Block. I pray that you'd comfort his heart. Comfort our hearts, Lord. And with the loss of Mrs. Block here on earth, but we know she's more alive than any one of us here today. I pray that you'd bless tonight. Be with us tonight. Guide us tonight. Guide our hearts, every one of our thoughts tonight. May we be focused on you. and lord what you have for us and lord thank you for your goodness and and i pray that you'd be with each one of us in this place tonight in your precious name we pray amen amen we're praying for everyone and and uh we were able to watched the service and online. And that was really, really a shock. I don't know that coming back to San Antonio is the same anymore, really, but we're praying for everyone here. Amen. And especially for Brother Block. Amen. And behind every good man, there's a good woman there and to help him be there. Amen. So, that kind of reminds me of, you know, having a good woman behind you, you know. There's this tourist place, I think it's in Florida. The guy has an alligator, a crocodile farm down there. Normally, you see alligators down there, but he has a crocodile farm. And he was taken, he took a group of people out on his boat to show them, you know, all these crocodiles that are out there in the water. And when that boat goes out, those crocodiles follow that boat out there. And he said, I've got a standing thing. It's been 20 years. And he said, I'll give one million dollars to the first person that will swim, jump out of this boat and swim to shore a million dollars. All of a sudden you heard a splash. and this guy was swimming for his life to get to that shore. And I mean, these crocodiles are following him and I mean, they're after him. And he made it, I mean, just by the hair of his chin. And finally he got out there and he said, wow, no one in 20 years has ever taken me up on this offer. He said, you're the first one. And first one to take me up, he said, I didn't take you up on anything. He said, what? He said, no, someone pushed me. And then he looked back and his wife had a big old smile on her face. And so the moral of the story is behind every successful man, there's a woman behind him pushing him. Some people are scratching their head. About 3 o'clock in the morning, you're going to get it, OK? So anyway, are there any men in here that feel pushed? They're afraid to answer that right now. OK. It's a trick question. No, no, it's not a trick question. OK. Right here, what we're looking at here, I put as a title to this message, the Solomon Syndrome. It's very sad when someone that has been a blessing to others has done great things for God, then because of bad decisions, their heart being turned for whatever reason, at the end of their lives they become a stumbling block for those that are around them. That was the life of Solomon. He was the wisest man that walked this earth. And the Bible says there's no other like him. and was a very, when his heart was right with God. And unfortunately in our generation, we've seen faithful church members, pastors, missionaries, Christian authors, Christian singers, good Christian singers, men and women who get the Solomon syndrome. You see, it doesn't matter how you start off your Christian life. What matters is how you finish. how you finish your race. Keep that in mind. It doesn't matter all the things that we've accomplished in our lives. Solomon, if he's if anybody has accomplished something, Solomon, he was an example to other nations and how to run a country. And and he was a great, great king, very wise, built the temple. His father, David, was not able to do it. God put his blessing on the life of Solomon, his son, David's son, and did great, great things. But when he ended his life, he was not so wise. Instead of getting wiser with time in the Lord, He began to make very foolish decisions because the Bible says that his heart was turned. And it says here, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord in verse number four. And you would think that with more time and experience in the Lord, we would have more wisdom, but it is not always the case. And sometimes the opposite happens. especially if we're not careful with our hearts. We have to keep an eye on our hearts. We have to be vigilant because our adversary, the devil, is walking around as a roaring lion, seeking to devour anyone he can, all right? That's not an exact quote of the verse, but when we get careless, get filled up with pride and we get comfortable spiritually, we start trusting in our own strength and then we start making bad decisions. If we aren't careful, we'll end up like Solomon. Verse number four, the Bible says here, 1 Kings 11, four, the Bible says here, four, it came to pass when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods, not after the God, not after the only God, the only true God. His heart was not perfect with the Lord his God. The Bible says here, as was the heart of David, his father. As a matter of fact, the Bible says, according to the word of God, David had a heart like God's heart. And I'm thinking of the verse in Spanish and I'm trying to spit it out in English. It's not coming out yet. But right here, it says here that his heart was not perfect with the Lord. It can happen to any one of us. Any one of us could fall victim to this Solomon syndrome. The Bible says here in verse number 4, And his heart was not perfect with the Lord. In Solomon we see a young strong Christian who asked God for wisdom and ended up being a fool at the end of his life look over here if you would at 2nd Peter chapter number 2 2nd Peter chapter number 2 I want to show you something here 2nd Peter chapter number 2 the Bible says I'll get there myself 2nd Peter chapter number 2 and verse number 20 the Bible says here For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy, turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again. And the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the, the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. You see, we have to guard our hearts, we have to be careful with our relationship and guard our relationship that we have with the Lord. And we can't let anything, anything, we can't let it turn our hearts away from the living God, amen? Our Savior, someone who saw the great blessings of God began to abandon the source of his blessings. A lot of people want God's blessings, but they don't want the God of the blessings. Someone who obeyed God early on and ended up in total disobedience to God. Someone who did great things for God and ended up doing foolish things in front of this world. Someone who prayed with fervor to God and over time ended up like the rest of the world. And someone, when he was a new Christian, pleased the Lord and had a lot of fun and success and ended up a great failure at the end of his life. I'll repeat it. It doesn't matter how we start off in this world, in our Christian life. The more important thing is how we finish our race. You see, a lot of people will get out like a flash in the pan. They're on fire for God. They're doing great things. They're busy doing this and doing that and doing that. And then in a short period of time, you don't even see them in church anymore. It's a real sad thing. It's a real sad thing, but we have to guard our hearts. We have to protect our relationship that we have with the Lord. You see, Satan is so, so deceptive. He is so deceiving. I was preaching in our church and I was telling our church people, I said, you cannot, you cannot be duped by the devil. I'm telling you, what he will get you to think is that a pastor is your enemy. You see, pastor is the one who prays for you, preaches God's Word to you, walks with the Lord, and serves the Lord to help each one of our families. And I mean, whenever I was preaching that, people were just looking at me like my dog Toby looks at me sometimes, and he doesn't understand. We're like, what? Because for example, let me just say this, have you ever been sitting in a church service and hearing the preaching and then all of a sudden you get an elbow, did you talk to the pastor about our situation yesterday? No, I didn't say anything. No, are you sure about that? I mean, he's really, really very specific right now. You know? You know who's real specific? It's God. It's the Holy Spirit. And when we come across moments like that, we just need to say, okay, God, you keep speaking to my heart. Change me, whatever it is, just change it, amen? And help me to have the courage to make things different with my walk with you, amen? And I'll guarantee, I told him, I said, look, I don't have time to follow you around with a camera. and look for sermon illustrations. I don't, amen. And there's no way, but I tell you someone who does, and everything that you and I are doing is being recorded. And it ain't me, it's the Lord. Amen? It's God. I remember one time I was just new, serving the Lord, just excited about the Lord, you know, and I invited one of my best friends. He was on my team when we went to Saudi Arabia. We'd been on an assault team for a long time together, and I invited him to church. Finally, he came with me. Man, I looked over at him. I saw his hands first while he was sitting down and his knuckles started turning white. And I looked at that, and I looked up at him. I know the guy. I mean, I know this man. And his hands are just like this. And I looked at his face, and he just looked at me as red as can be. He said, did you say something? I said, no. Good night. He said, how could he know that already, what happened last night? And I said, just I have no idea. I came with you. I've been with you this whole time. There's no way I could have talked to the preacher, you know. And he said, someone told him. And I said, you know what? And so when we left out of there, you know, he was upset with me. I mean, like you wouldn't believe. And and I said and he said, did you you didn't say anything? I said, it was just the Lord. Don't worry. It's the Lord. He's speaking to us. And I said, just let it go. And his name is Jerry. I said, just let it go, Jerry. And cause he thought, oh, I told the pastor something. And then on February 8th, 1995, my friend Jerry trusted Jesus as his personal savior. One day, I mean, I mean, we talked all night long one night, and he was telling me about all the different religions. And he said, they're all missing something. And I said, that's right. They're missing Jesus, the one who paid our sin debt for us. Imagine God's love and his mercy over us that he loves us so much. You know what? We ought to do everything we can to protect our relationship with him. Everything, everything. And Solomon, he didn't do that. He didn't take heed to what God said. He said, don't even go into them and don't let them come into you either. Stay away from these people because they'll turn your heart away from me. And you know what? If we're not careful, a lot of things can turn our hearts away from God. It doesn't necessarily need to be something that's so sinful and gross and perverse or anything like that. No, little simple things, little simple things can turn our hearts away from the Lord. The Bible says here, look, if someone like Solomon, the wisest man on earth, was careless with his love and his heart and his own life and walked with the Lord, It can certainly happen to you and I. I haven't written any books of the Bible. Solomon has. Solomon has. And I think, man, I don't know. I mean, having 700 wives, I don't think that's very wise. I think to myself that. But how did he end up that way? He disobeyed God. Just simple as that. He just disobeyed God. You know what he did? He abandoned God. And the Bible says here in Revelation chapter number two. The Bible says here, Revelation chapter number two. I was preaching in Celaya, Mexico with Brother Alejandro Cordova. at his church and I was able to teach in their Bible college. Patty and I both taught in the Bible college there. And it was such a blessing to be there with them. And so I said, what time do I need to finish by? I just wanted to make sure I'm staying on time because it got bus routes and all that, all that, that's leaving in the morning, you know, after the morning services and everything. And, and, and they said, oh, Look, just don't preach under an hour. Just don't preach under an hour, all right? Please don't come and insult us here, okay? I said, oh, this is my kind of place, amen. And so anyway, so anyway, I said, okay, amen, I can do that, amen, that's good. And I remember I was at a church and Pastor says, okay, we gotta be done by one. Don't worry, you'll get the pulpit at 1115. You'll be there, you'll be preaching 1115, but you have to stop no matter where you are in that message at 12 o'clock. Now he didn't finish the sentence because it's long lines to get into these restaurants or something. I don't know what the rest of the sentence was, but he said, you can't go past 12 o'clock. I said, okay, we're good, we're good. So then it's about 11.20. I'm thinking, okay, we're gonna get the scissors out here. I'm gonna cut this message up a little bit. Okay, we're doing okay. We're okay though, we're okay. And then it got to be 11.30, then 11.40, then 11.45. And he said okay preacher. Let's get it. Come on. Let's go 10 minutes till 12 I Thought man why that's not even gonna give me time to read the text and We just got a guard our hearts We've got a guard our hearts Revelation chapter number two, verse number one, the Bible says here, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, write these things, saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Now, do you realize who the pastor of this church was? It was Timothy. He's the pastor of the church of Ephesus. And also this letter here was written about 40, little over 40 years after the church was started there in Ephesus. The Bible says here, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not. and has found them liars, and has borne, and has patience for my namesake, and has labored, and has not fainted. Now up to there, that's a pretty good letter. talking about a church that's really getting it done. That's a great letter. Now, if you go over to the Church of Laodicea, there's no letter there. It just says, I know thy works. And then it goes into, I wish you were hot or cold. But this church, I'm telling you, they, it says here, and has borne and has patience and for my namesake has labored and has not fainted. And then verse number four comes. I mean, this is a great letter so far to the church of Ephesus. Great job, Timothy. And then all of a sudden we get to verse number four and the Bible says here, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou has left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast. Thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, I'm mixed up in English and Spanish here, I'm fighting this, okay? Which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. What a tremendous letter here, but look at verse number four He said nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou has left Thy first love that word left. It actually has the meaning of abandon It means abandon. Let me just help you out with this a little bit give you a little illustration here that abandon if you have a dog and and you lose your dog and someone who loves their dog, they lost their dog, the dog got away, that person will normally go out and put up posters with phone numbers, pictures of that dog with the phone numbers. If you see this dog, please call this number. That person goes out. That's a dog that was lost, are you with me? that's a dog that's lost because the Bible doesn't say thou has lost thy first love the Bible says thou has left thy first love left abandon it abandoning a dog is you put the dog in your car you take it out to the middle of nowhere and you give it a little push out the door. That is abandoning. And you take off. That's abandoning. Why would someone want to do something like that? There's many reasons, probably many, many, many reasons why someone would want to do that to a dog. I would never do that to a dog. And I would have a hard time seeing someone do something like that to a dog. But anyway, if someone pushed that dog out and just took off and left it out in the middle of nowhere to fend for itself, okay, there's something, there's a reason why that person did that. Either that dog, maybe that dog was just costing them too much. Maybe that dog was a burden to that family. Maybe that dog was all great when it was new and a puppy and cute and playful, but now it's not like that anymore. So we're gonna get rid of it. We're gonna take it out somewhere and we're gonna abandon that dog out there. Maybe it cost them too much. Maybe the dog was really interfering too much with their lives for whatever reason. But you know what the Bible says here to this great church, this is a great church here. This is not some old church that didn't do anything, never have done anything for God. This is a church that was busy for God. And the Bible says, thou hast left thy first love. That's the only thing that God says that's negative about this church. You've taken my love. You've taken me and you've abandoned me. You've replaced me with something else. When you abandon, that means you get rid of this so that you can do this or you have room for more or for something else in our lives. when someone is abandoned, they leave them out there so that whoever abandons them, they can get on with their life and do the things that they want to do. God says to these people, these Christians in Ephesus, He said, you've abandoned me. Thou has left thy first love. And in these words here, we should learn something from this, that we should not abandon God. I'll show you a couple of things that can get in our way, and they're not sinful things, but it is sinful to put something else in God's place. Are you with me? Maybe reading our Bibles, it's just not convenient for me anymore. So I'm just gonna leave it off of my life. Maybe given the tithes and the offerings is starting to interfere with my secular life or my life. And let me say this, as a Christian, you're a Christian all the time. You can't hide from it. It's not like we have two lives. The Bible says we were bought with a price. And maybe just me being faithful or door knocking or whatever it is, forgiving other people, that's just not working for me right now. And we abandon that and we put it off to the side. And we put it off, we abandoned that. Thou has left thy first love. And what we're really doing is we are, our hearts are turning from God, just like what happened to Solomon. You see, we must never let anyone or something, oh wait, people, I've seen people change over the years. I mean, when families, I see we have families in our church and they're all, they're so involved in church, they're going after it. They're just doing a great job. But once they're teenagers, once their kids become teenagers, something changes in there. I have no idea what in the world, but all of a sudden it's just like the kids are ruling the roost in the home. And I'm like, good night. And because a lot of the times and be careful, teenagers, where your heart is, who has your heart? God is supposed to be our first love. The Bible says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul and all thy mind. And that is the first commandment. And who is our first love? It should be God. He's number one. And you see, families change. I've seen it so many times. And then they're not so faithful anymore. They stop coming to soul winning, stop coming faithfully to church. Next thing you know, they're not even coming to church anymore. You see, what happened was they left their first love. I've heard wives say to me, it's just that my husband won't let me go to church. It's just, he won't let me go. And I think to myself, that's the only thing you obey him in, that's for sure, right? That you won't go to church, right? Everything else, you don't obey him or listen to him or whatever he says to you. But the Bible says it's better to obey God than man. We should make God and make sure He stays our priority in life. The only thing, the only thing, the only most important thing should be God in our lives. He should be in number one position in our lives. We must never let someone or something, not even our own selves, become the priority in our lives. God must always be the priority in our lives. Mark chapter number 12, the Bible says here, Mark chapter number 12, the Bible says here, Mark chapter number 12, and the Bible says, verse number 28, Mark 12, 28, and one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And he says here, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This, and he says here, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Therefore is none other commandment greater than these. You see, God says we should love our neighbor as ourselves. Ourselves shouldn't be number one. God should be number one always. our neighbor, wife, husband, children, that is all number two. God needs to be number one. If you see that that's going away or something is starting to interfere, then we need to stop whatever that is that's interfering that God is not where God does not become or stay. Number one, we need to refocus ourselves to make sure that our love for him is number one. Amen. And that he is number one. You see, there's no other God like God. There's no other God like God. The mountain Everest is the highest mountain above all the other mountains. You see, that's the glory of Everest. Because no other mountain can say, I'm higher than, I'm taller than Everest. And that's the glory of Everest. But let me tell you this, Everest has been conquered. Men and women have both got to the peak of the summit of Everest and they have made it. But let me say this, like God, unlike God, God has never been conquered. You see, there's nobody else that's going to love you more than God. That's the glory of God. There's nobody. It's unconditional love that God has for each and every one of us. His mercy, His grace in our lives. There's no other. There's no other God. There's no other being that even comes close to God. But God has never been conquered. Are you with me? Satan has it in his mind that God's going to be dethroned one day. That's what Karl Marx had in his philosophy of Marxism. He was determined to dethrone, he was determined to dethrone God himself. I mean, what a foolish thought for someone to even do that. But you know what, that Marxism, they were, something happened in their synagogue, I don't know what happened, but they left and there was something bad that happened, and they left, and the Marx family, and this young man had no character whatsoever, and was horrible with the finances, came up with this philosophy. But you know what he did? He became a God-hater. And that's what Mark says, it's anti-Christ. They get rid of the Bible, they get rid of all, anything that has to do with God. Breaking down the families and all that. You see, God must remain our priority. Sometimes we don't understand what's going on around us, but God needs to be number one. That's the one thing that we must understand, that he's number one. And he needs to remain number one. A strong warning here from God it says here in Matthew chapter number 10 in verse number 34 Matthew 10 34 the Bible says here Matthew 10 and verse number 34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father, and this is the whole summing it up right here. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. You see, the second commandment is to love our neighbor. That's our neighbor. And it says here, and it says here, is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it. And he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. And the Bible says here in Luke chapter number 14, the Bible says over here in Luke chapter number 14, we're not to even let our family become number one in our lives. They belong number two. And if we are out of our place in that order that God is not number one, we are out of his will. Luke chapter number 14, the Bible says here in verse number 25, Luke 14, 25, the Bible says here, Luke 14, 25. And there went great multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them, if any man come unto me, come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life. I think COVID has brought that out in a lot of people. I can understand that some people are nervous about coming to church and all that, but we can't even put our own life before God. He cannot be my disciple and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." Oh my! We cannot put even ourselves ahead of God. We cannot put ourselves as the priority. God must always be the priority in our lives. Solomon abandoned his first love. He knew thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind. And he said, don't go don't go over that crowd over there. Don't even get no mess with those women that are over there. But he ignored God, because at one point, God stopped being number one for Solomon. And when he was number one, he was a great man. The Bible says here. that the Bible says here, the first and great commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul and all thy mind. When I'll finish with this, when I was down in Panama, all the Cubans were pretty much, many, many of the Cubans were getting ready to go back to Cuba. A lot of them had trusted Christ as their personal savior. A lot of them had trusted Christ. And they told our government, the military, they told our government, we want to go back to Cuba because we found the freedom we're looking for. We found Christ. And we want to go back and tell our families about Christ. So our government was like, but Fidel Castro said he will kill you. And they said, whatever it takes, if we could just get back and tell our families about Jesus. And they're just scratching their heads like, are these people crazy? But they took them back. And I thought all of them had gone. And then they surrounded our camp with the 101st Airborne. And then they said there, they said, big briefing before, no more things can go into the camps. Nothing can go in there, and I'm thinking wow man I'm glad we got some of those tracks in there before they said this I got back to my tent my hooch and there are four boxes sitting on my on my hooch with all Spanish tracks I mean big boxes, and they just got done telling us we cannot take anything back in there, and I'm thinking oh boy What am I gonna do? These are for those people. And I just happened to see a man that got saved, and he said, I didn't make it out on the first aircraft, Brother Nick. And he said, I'm going out tomorrow. And I said, guess what? God gave you a whole bunch of tracks to take back with you, buddy. I got four boxes of tracks sitting in my tent right now. I'll get them to you. And so I told the guys that were Christian brothers, I said, you guys pray for me. And they said, no, no, no, we're gonna help you. I said, no, I want it to be on me. I had a spotless record. But they said, this will be a career ender if someone takes something into that, Camp and I was like, well, I'm gonna end it on a good note doing something for God. Amen And so I they said no, let us help you. I said no, I want the risk all on me I don't want anybody God put two of our guys right there at the gate to go in there and they just kind of turned around whenever I walked through the big old boxes of tracks and Four big old heavy boxes of tracks. The first 101st Airborne, I don't know if they were sleeping or their eyes were closed or what, but God must have closed their eyes because they didn't see anything either, amen? Got them tracks in there, and guess where those tracks went the next day? To a country where it's illegal to have tracks. To get them over there so that they could have the gospel. God did that. You know, I didn't really put it all together. And I was working on this message and I said, you know what? I was really, you know, I was almost like an idiot. I guess you could say, put the whole career out there on the line. But you know what? I'd do it a hundred times over because God's first. He had something there. He had a plan for those boxes and I was determined to get them there so that they could get over to those people in Cuba. But let me ask you this, is God still your priority? I hope that there's not somebody here that has the old Solomon syndrome. And if that might be happening to you, You can come to an altar, get that right. You can put aside whatever's taken over, whatever's taken the priority in your life and make sure that God gets back into his position as number one in your life. where you're back into fervent prayer before him, guarding your heart, reading your Bible, staying faithful to church, going soul winning, working for the Lord, being fervent, fervent for the Lord. You know what? That happens when he's in the right position. And when he is in the right position in our lives, guess what? Everything else falls into its place too, with his blessings. Don't fall into the Solomon syndrome. Maybe you started off really good. Maybe you started off really good with your Christian walk, your Christian life. But things aren't like what they used to be. You know what the Bible says, repent and go back and do the first works. What was that when God was number one? That's when God was number one. And we're going to do it with him being the priority in our life. Number one. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for allowing us to be here tonight to hear your word. I pray that you'd help us. And Lord, continue to speak to our hearts. I pray that you bless in the invitation. I pray that, Lord, we wouldn't walk out of this place the same as we came in. And Lord, I pray that if someone is about to enter into the Solomon syndrome, Lord, that tonight they put the brakes on and say, nope, I'm putting God first in my life.