When God Hands You A Blank Check | Pastor Paul McGee

Hey, man, we honor the Lord today in the House of God.

We're glad to be in the church for another service.

Those who have been to camp have been in several services this

week trying to think, see, starting really on Tuesday.

So about 8 services I believe. And so this is number 9 for them

this week, if you start on Monday, I guess.

Amen. We're so glad to be in the House

of Lords. See all your smiling faces,

Amen. Most of the people that I see

out in this audience are people that wasn't at camp.

And so you're refreshed maybe. And I'm on my journey to there,

Amen, That it's been good. It's been good.

First Kings chapter #3 Today, First Kings chapter #3 I'm going

to read just a few verses of Scripture.

I'm going to skip around just a little bit, all right, in this

chapter, but I'll direct you where we're going so that you're

not, so that you're not lost. Bible says in verse #5 First

Kings. 3. Verse #5 In Gibeon the Lord

appeared to Solomon in a dream by night God said, Ask what I

shall give thee. Skipping down to verse #9

Solomon's request to that statement.

Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy

people, that I may discern between good and bad.

For who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

Skipping down to verse 13, this is God now responding again to

Solomon. And I have also whatever I say

also, I've also given thee that which thou hast not asked.

So if you start stringing some things together, God says

basically tell me what you want. He says I want an understanding

heart. God says I'll give you that,

plus I'll give you what you even didn't ask for, both riches and

honor, so that there shall be not any among the kings likened

to thee all thy days. And if that will walk in my

ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father

David did walk, then will I lengthen thy days.

Oaks, I mean, this is quite an open fountain that has come from

the Lord. I mean, imagine if God looked at

you and said, hey, what do you want?

Name it. And then he said, hey, in

addition to what you asked for, I'm going to give you what you

didn't ask for. So this morning I want to

minister just a little time today on this, when God hands

you a blank check. And I, I think I'm OK because

all the young people over there, most of them don't even know

what a check is. OK.

All right. Hey, man, let's pray together

today. Father, I love you, God.

I thank you, Jesus, God, for your spirit.

I thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to be here.

God help my mind. Lord Jesus, my body.

I pray, O Lord Jesus, to be in tandem, Lord, with your spirit

and will not fail to thank you, God, for what you accomplished

in this place. And the lovely name of Jesus

Christ, I pray Amen. And everyone say Amen, a man,

you may be seated this morning in Jesus name.

Now, I was born in the late 1970s, all right?

And so a lot of my childhood was spent in the 80s and as 80s

childhood. I remember most of you will too.

The sweepstakes era, the sweepstakes era, a lot of times

it happened by direct mail. You would get in your mailbox

this little thing you could fill out for entering into the

sweepstakes. And there was a known person of

Ed McMahon. You remember that?

And, and, and there were even advertisements for all of this

and they would many times come to you like you may already be a

winner, you know, type of thing. And, and Ed McMahon would say

things like that. Do not forget to look for the

envelope with my picture on it and, and all these different

things. I remember giving those things.

I remember my mom filling them out, filling them out.

And so, and they, they, a lot of times they were encouraging also

to get a magazine subscription and they had like little

stickers of time and stuff. And so we were poor kids.

So that was the stickers that we got growing up playing with the

little magazine subscriptions, you know, from the sweepstake

house. And, and, and they always then

highlighted that if Ed McMahon showed up at your house, he was

going to have this oversized check, you know, he might be

presenting to you $10,000 or something like that.

And that was just always amazing to me.

And then, and they still do it from time to time.

They have the little McDonald's Monopoly game that you, you can

play. That's changed a lot over the

years. You can pull off those little

tabs and collect Boardwalk and Parkway and maybe get some

money. I remember once whenever I was

young and we went to McDonald's, which was again a scarce thing.

It didn't happen all the time, but I pulled one of those tags

off of my drink and I had an instant win of $250.

Now, folks, my idea of instant win is you take that to the

calendar and they open the register and give you $250.

That's not the way it operated. They you had paperwork you had

to fill out. You had to put that thing in the

envelope, send it to the headquarters of wherever.

We did all of that, Tyler, I promise you we did and got a

letter back saying we didn't have the little instant thing

off the cup, including the envelope.

I, I think it, I, I just think it's a, just a hoax.

And so, you know, even today when we talk about checks or

things like that, and I mentioned it, they say that the

millennials and the Gen. Z generations rarely even own

checkbooks. Many have never even written a

check. I mean, when I was growing up,

when I was in middle school, my middle school math teacher had

us fake accounts and we wrote checks and we made deposits and

we bought stuff and all these type of things to practice even

in whenever we were evangelizing and remember speaking about

checks, it was just always a common thing that I did and I

still yet do this day. It drives my wife crazy, but we

evangelize and of course we were at the mercies of wherever we

went as far as any type of pay that, you know, our livelihood

was just however it went. And I would oftimes receive a

check and I just put it in my pocket and you know, we're

going, hours are going. Don's like, have you looked at

the check yet? Because this is our livelihood.

I said no. And Sir, give me that thing.

You know, it's just, I don't know.

I just kind of felt embarrassed by even opening an envelope like

no, I ain't going to do this. But there were times that we we

went places and we were never even given a check.

You know, they forgot or whatever called a few days

later, I'm sorry, you know, forgot to give you a check.

So that's all right. There's been one time I had a

check that was written to me and I'm not naming any names, but

then I, and this is back the day before, like a major digital

world, right? We would cash the checks and

then we would get a money order and we'd send money back type of

scenario. And so I remember going to the

bank before we left that town and I gave them that check to

cash it to do what I need to do. And they said, sorry, brother,

whoever you say we have insufficient funds and we can't,

we can't catch this check. I'm just saying how things were.

And so I don't think I've ever really been given a blank check

unless someone gave it to me and what I was getting ready to

purchase. They just didn't know what the

the amount was going to be. And they said I could fill it

in. But nonetheless, could you

imagine being given a bank, a blank check?

This is just as an essence what has happened to Solomon early in

his reign. He has traveled to the city of

Gibeon and Gibeon's about four to five miles away from

Jerusalem, and the Tabernacle of Moses is standing there at this

time, and at the same time that the Tabernacle of Moses is at

Gibeon. The ark of the Covenant, though,

was at Jerusalem in a tent. No work had been done yet,

according to Scripture, for the building of the temple of

Solomon. Nothing has been done toward its

completion yet, and the Bible describes that Solomon is

spending the night in Gibeon and that God appears to him in a

dream, which was not an uncommon way for God to interact with

mankind. We have enough instances in

Scripture where he dealt with Jacob and Joseph through dreams

and the Butler and the Baker and even Pharaoh himself through

dreams in the past. However, the statement that God

makes right here to Solomon seems somewhat out of character

even for God. It's it's unprecedented, it's

unrestrained. It's it's a little unsettling.

Whatever God says to Solomon in this dream, ask what I shall

give thee. Or as other versions would,

would, would term it or translate it.

Solomon, ask for anything you want and I will give it to you

or ask for whatever you want me to give you.

This. This is how we're introduced to

Solomon's conversation with God. There's there's no warning,

there's no conditions, there's no test.

Brother Fred, it's not as though Solomon has to wander through a

wilderness 1st and then he, he, he offers this.

It's not as though he has to climb some mountain and then he

offers this. He doesn't have to fight so many

battles. And then it's offered to him,

though. It's just, what do you want,

Solomon? It's it's as though God's

opening his Ledger and saying what whatever you want, just

name it. He's he's providing Solomon a

divine blank check. And so this type of talk from

God that it it just startles me a little bit because I

understand scripture does not portray this prosperity gospel

that sometimes is spilled out across pulpit pulpit.

It's not the blab and grab it, name it and claim it game Amen

in Christ Church And, and I, I, I realize Solomon has some

status. I, I realize that he is a king

and I, I understand he has a position of rank in that life.

But but what's happening right here isn't normal.

It wasn't normal for Abraham. It wouldn't have been normal for

Moses. It wouldn't have been normal for

Jacob or Gideon or Job or any of them, because the, the, the,

the, the history or the way that God would typically work is that

God proves a man and then he trusts the man God.

God didn't give Abraham, Isaac and then say, what else do you

want? No, he rather took him to a

mountain and tested him on the top of Mariah.

As a matter of fact, Jacob, before his name was ever

changed. It was because there was a

wrestling match that took place all night with an Angel, the

touching of the hollow of his thigh that that kind of segwayed

into the giving of that new name.

When we read about even Gideon, he had to scale his army down

right a man, scale it down to 300 before God gave him any sort

or type of victory. And when we mentioned Job, he

meant we know with surety that Job lost almost everything,

possessions, health and wealth before God doubled.

What? It wasn't like Job.

What do you, I'll give you double right from the go.

No, he went through some things. He he was approved by some

things. And then the Lord trusted him.

And so Solomon's dealings with God seems to break the pattern

that we have in Scripture. There's no warning, there's no

trial. It's just that there's an

invitation and God doesn't even set limits on the options.

God leaves it all open-ended. It's not as though God came to

Solomon said would you like peace or long life?

He's not given even even just options.

He he doesn't say would you like riches or honor.

He doesn't do like that. No, he leaves it wide open and

says just tell me whatever it is that you want.

And so I got a pause this morning and ask why?

Why would God offer this open-ended, if you will, ability

of anything unto Solomon? For that matter, Sister Sheila,

I'm thinking in the back of my mind, what type of life must a

person live where God would trust them so much that he would

say whatever you want? Many times in the Solomon story

we focus on what Solomon asked for and what he didn't ask for.

But the real question that begs the answer this morning is This

is why did God even give Solomon this boundless freedom to ask

whatever it was he wanted with no strings attached?

Because let's be honest, today, if we were put in the same

position as Solomon, I don't know if we would be as humble as

mindful with our request. Some of us would say, hey God,

give me your e-mail and I'll just share with you my Amazon

wishlist and we can start right there.

God, There you go. Others might even say, you know

what, a bigger house would be good or maybe better financial

standing, or maybe someone else would say, oh, I want some

power, prestige or protection or, or perhaps somebody else

would say God, whatever it would be, that would make life easier

for me that that's what I request.

Or I, I got some scores to settle with a few people.

And if you can kind of lean in and help settle the score, then

that's what I would really like. God, Amen.

And it's for that matter, what Solomon does in this moment is

is not not not customary even for what a king might want,

because all of the people of his heir and age of different

nations that were considered great kings, It's known probably

what a king would want of his age.

He would probably want long life, right, because kings were

always under a threat of assassination.

He probably want long life, or he could establish his king

Kingdom and rule for a long time.

King kings of Solomon's age are probably going to want wealth so

they can build their empire or power to conquer their enemies

and keep their enemies in check. So as they conquer enemies, they

are then also gathering together more land and and broadening and

making their Kingdom larger and bigger.

That's that's what kings would want in Solomon's day.

But Solomon doesn't ask for that.

Kings and Solomon's day. They want to be remembered.

They want their names etched in stone.

They they want them stamped, if you will, on cities written down

in history to be remembered, shouted Amen to with with

applause by their subjects. Kings wanted monuments and

memorials, not wisdom and discernment.

But Solomon doesn't ask for any of that, and yet he breaks the

pattern. He asked for an understanding

heart. The Bible says he knew that he

was inexperienced and he doesn't approach God as a king that's

talking to a higher king. He comes, the Bible says, as a

servant. As a matter of fact, several

times Solomon in his conversation with God is

referring to himself as a servant because he knew the task

before him was great and he had a certain self-awareness about

himself. And the Bible talks about how he

felt the burden of all of the people that he had to care for.

And so he's asking for an understanding heart.

But in his asking, in his request, really it tells us

everything that we need to know about where Solomon's heart was.

Because pride doesn't make a request like that.

Entitlement doesn't kneel like that.

Ego doesn't ask for things like that.

Solomon even says he says, God, these people are your people and

I don't know how to lead your people without you.

And so God, I need a God perspective on how to handle

your people. I need your mind in order to

govern your people. Look at verse #12 it tells us,

Behold, I have done according to thy words, lo, I have given

thee, God says a wise and understanding heart in verse 13.

Again the wow factor is and God says I have also given thee with

that which thou has not asked. I mean having having the

opportunity to ask for whatever you want is 1 level, but being

getting what you even didn't ask for is a whole nother degree.

A whole nother level. God added then what he did not

ask for He added to his life riches, He added to his life

honor and the promise of a long life if he would follow after

the ways of the Lord. And I'm blown away.

This is a blank check scenario with God.

And if we only read the passages and the verses that I read to

you this morning, then our minds would be spinning, no doubt, as

the goodness and just the lavishing of God upon Solomon,

the breaking of the pattern of what typically was.

But when we read a little bit more of the context of the

scripture that surrounds Solomon's story and his dream,

hey man, and don't just get caught up in the the dream,

Amen, we begin to understand there's something that happened

before he had a dream in Gibeon. The Bible says in First Kings 3

and verse 2, only the people sacrificed in high places

because there was no house built into the name of the Lord until

those days. And Solomon loved the Lord

walking in the statutes of David, his father, only he

sacrificed and burnt incense in high places, and the king that

went to there by say Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was

the great high place. 1000 burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon

that altar? I understand there's no temple

right now. There's no temple right now.

It's a time that there is no per SE central located location for

worship at this moment. And so the people, including

King Solomon sacrificed in high places and and high places were

just places of worship that were naturally or artificially

elevated for the purpose of worship.

And so when we look at the snapshot of Solomon's life here,

the Bible tells us he loves God. The Bible tells us he's walking

in the pattern after the ways of his father David.

And the Bible is telling us that he is sacrificing and burning

incense at the place of worship. But not just any place of

worship. He's doing this at Gibeon.

He's doing this where the Tabernacle of Moses is currently

set. Just walk with me.

I do have a point before it's all set, maybe one Amen before

it's all set. And.

Today, but at Gibeon, here's Solomon offering.

The Bible says 1000 burnt offerings unto the Lord.

Some will argue that that took place all at once.

Others will argue that's an accumulation of his regular

trips having offered up sacrifices unto God.

But the verb tense of offering in that particular verse

indicates that this was a continuous act, that Solomon

regularly went to Gibeon at the altar that was in the Tabernacle

of Moses, and he would bring myriad sacrifices to offer up

and to God. What the Bible is describing to

us is that this was not Solomon's first time going to

the altar and offering a sacrifice.

Neither would Brother Fred be his last time that he was going

to the altar to offer sacrifice. Now listen folks, 1000 animals,

animals, regardless of what they were, Lamb, go ram, bull.

That's a lot of animals. Now I don't know what he took,

but I'm going to take the most expensive just for our purposes

today. If it were a bull, which would

have been the most expensive sacrificial animal?

One source says concerning Solomon's day that a bull likely

cost between 30 and 50 shekels. I know that don't mean anything

to you depending on the age and the size and quality of it.

But to put it in perspective, the Bible says in Second Kings

7/1 it describes that a measure of fine flowers sold for one

shekel during a time of abundance.

In the book of Jeremiah, it describes that Jeremiah bought a

field for 17 shekels, suggesting that land could be purchased for

less than the cost of a bull. So if a bull cost, let's say

that 30 to 50 range, let's just go in the middle.

If a bull cost around 40 shekels, then 1000 bulls cost

all the mathematicians out there 40,000 shekels, which an

enormous amount that that that equaled and trumped years of an

individual's wages in that day. And then according to the law,

every burnt offering had to have a certain amount of flour and a

certain amount of oil and a certain amount of wine that had

a company all that. So you have that expense and

cost on top of all of these thousands of sacrifices that are

brought. And then these are whole burnt

offerings. What that means is there were

certain offerings in Scripture when you offered them, certain

pieces of them were set aside and you could eat, your family

could eat and your your friends could eat, or there were certain

pieces set aside that the priest could eat.

But that's not the case with hope and offerings.

The priest isn't getting anything of that.

Amen. The family that brought, it's

not getting anything of that. No, the whole thing was put on

the altar of fire and consumed by the fire and it belonged one

hundred 100% unto God. Nobody got any benefit per SE of

a piece of eating from it except God consumed it all and

Solomon's placing things on there and he's relinquishing, if

you will, them. They're all for the purpose of

the Lord to the numbers of the thousands.

And he hasn't just done this once.

He has done this regularly. Someone say man.

So what happened then, ladies and gentlemen?

That night in a dream of God coming to Solomon, he comes to

him at Gibeon on the hills of one of his trips to Gibeon of

Holborn, offering sacrifices, being yielded and given unto

God. What are you saying them,

Brother McGee? I'm saying it starts to bring a

little bit more clarity. Why God looked at this man and

said whatever it is you want, ask what I'll give you whatever

you desire, whatever's in your spirit that you would want.

It puts a little bit more clarity to it.

This isn't just God breaking a pattern, so to speak.

But before God ever offered him whatever he want, Solomon had

already spent several times at the altar and trips giving God

everything he could give to God, offering to God everything God

Amen would even require even more than what he would require

for man. He's bringing animal after

animal and saying I don't have to have a piece of it.

I relinquish it all into your hands.

That got the attention of God before the offer, before Solomon

got Wisdom, before the bonus package of getting what he

didn't ask for. There was a no Walter in

Solomon's life. It's not just 1000 animals at

this one particular time, but it's the continuous trips that

he made there. Listen, this is what we must

understand about this. When you're sacrificing 1000

animals, this is not they get in, get it done, let me be seen

by the public and go home affair.

It takes time for the bloodshed of 1000 animals.

There's work, there's toil, there's sweat, there's time,

there's investment. Oh, God, that's involved at this

altar whenever Solomon shows up. That much sacrifice is going to

take some time. And that sort of sacrifice, it's

going to slow a person down. You just can't rush through that

sacrifice. You just can't say, well, let's

get there and get home with that sacrifice.

No, no, no. You got to spend some time

there. It requires your resources.

It requires your attention. Hey, man.

And more than just the cost of it at all, you know what it's

showcasing in the life of Solomon?

It's showcasing A commitment. There's something I'm going to

show up. I'm going to spend the time

that's due and that's necessary to offer what I brought.

If it's bloody, then fine. If sweat comes on my brow,

that's fine. If I don't get home tonight and

he didn't, he spent the night in Gideon.

He said that's fine because God's worthy of it.

I owe it to him. So here's a man that loves God

walking after the ways of his father David.

David was known for offering material and offering, if you

will, items to God. And here's Solomon regularly

showing up to give to God, spend time with God.

So then we should not be surprised that the quote UN

quote outlandish offer that God gives unto Solomon, he doesn't

give that to him because he's king, come on, doesn't give that

to him because of his position. He gave that to him because he

was surrendered to an altar. This this isn't God wasn't

trusting a stranger. No, God was trusting someone.

He was in relationship. There's a verse a lot of people

like to quote in the book of Psalms 37 and verse 4.

Many of you perhaps even know it.

Got it on your refrigerator, Little post it note on your

digital laptop screen. Delight thyself also in the

Lord. We love the second part, and he

shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

And sometimes we live then in the the air of like God is just

a blank check writer right? You give me the desires of my

heart. But the secret to that phrase is

the first phrase, Delight thyself also in the Lord, your

sister Maya. What happens when we delight

ourself in the Lord? There's something that starts to

happen. There's a change, there's a

shift that starts to happen in our life when we make His

priorities, our priorities, when we adopt his ways because we

delight and, and we're just so overjoyed and marry and, and,

and investing in the Lord and being with the Lord.

You know what starts happening, Your wants and desires begin to

shift because the more I delight in him and what he's for and

what he, what he supports, you know what starts to happen.

I begin to love what he loves and hate what he hates and

desire what he desires. And so as I'm delighting myself,

listen, as I'm delighting myself and the Lord, in a sense I'm

becoming more like the Lord. And so at that moment in full

abandoned of self and delighting in him, God can emphatically

say, delight thyself also in the Lord, and he will give thee the

desires of your heart. Because now, because through

your delight in the Lord, your desires are not like they used

to be. You're not that selfish person

that you used to be. You're not that looking out for

another one and my needs as you used to be.

No, you've adapted and you've adopted his desires.

And so God says, I know if they have me and mine, they're going

to have the same desires as me. And whatever they ask, it's

going to be by my will and my purpose and according to what I

would want for their. So it's no surprise that God

would look at Solomon and say, ask whatever you want.

He said he's been at the altar enough, there's been enough

sacrifice. He loves me enough.

I know that man's heart. I can give him a blank check

because it's going to be aligned with my purpose and my desire.

Because he's delighted in. Oh, yeah, someone say man, he's

delighted himself in me. Solomon, at this stage of the

game of his life. And I'm not, I'm not trying to.

You know, sometimes we put Bible characters on pedals and listen,

they're human. They have their faults, too.

But what I do put on the pedestal today is the behavior.

There's been so much sacrifice and interaction with God that

virtually anything that Solomon wanted at this moment would

reflect what God wanted. For that matter, Solomon's in

Gibeon because he wanted to go before temples in Jerusalem.

He's there. He's established in his life

before the building of the temple or for the before the

building of his own house. He's established a rhythm of

worship in his own life. And so when a man delights

himself in the Lord and when a man acknowledges the Lord in all

of his ways and he spent that much time and energy and expense

and attention at the altar, God says, I can trust his desires.

Solomon says, God, I just wanted, I just want to

understanding heart or as we call today, we call it wisdom,

right? Solomon, the wisest man that

ever was. I want to understand in heart

because God, through all of my sacrifices, God's been shaping

Solomon and his wants and his desires are starting to look

like God's will. When we spend time with God, it

recalibrates our ambitions. When we spend time with God, it

realigns our desires to align with God's purpose.

Moses in his own lifetime had been exposed to the miraculous.

He'd been exposed to the power of God.

He had witnessed the plagues that came upon Egypt, and he saw

with his very own eyes the sea parted and he led the people.

But the Bible says in Exodus 33, at one particular occurrence

after a prolonged time in God's presence, that Moses's desire

Bishop it shifted the Bible says in Exodus 33 and verse 15 and he

said unto him unto the Lord, he said, If thy presence go not

with me, carry us not up hints. And then a few verses further

down the verse 18, he says, and he said, I beseech thee speaking

to the Lord, shoe me by glory. Can I tell you that after a

prolonged time in the presence of God, Moses did not ask for a

better route through or a easier way?

He didn't even ask for a better behaved people who were quite,

if you will, unsavory at times. He didn't ask for any of that.

Know what he asked for? God, I just need your glory.

I need more of you. What happened?

Amen. Time with God changed his

desire, his want. You don't have to change the

people. You don't have to change the

route. I just need more of God.

And that was God's purpose and God's will.

Hey, man, David, he's a warrior. David is a king, but he's also a

very attentive psalmist. He writes Psalms, and he plays

music out in the fields in the place where he's tendon animals.

And the Bible says he once refused even to make an altar

and sacrifice to the Lord if it didn't cost him something.

And there is a little verbiage in the Psalms by the pen of

David that is written in Psalms 27, 4, where the Bible says

this. David says one thing.

Have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after?

Think of this one thing you could desire of the Lord.

Here it is that I may dwell in the House of the Lord.

You know what it's like. It's like David, here's your

blank check. What do you want?

I just want one thing more of you.

See, when you ask for something, it reveals the desire of your

heart for David, for Moses, for Solomon.

It's not something that's self-serving.

It's the people are mine or God's purpose and his will is a

mine. That all of that flourishes out

of time spent with God. How many times the Bible says

annually that Hannah and Elkana and Hanaya and all of them would

make their way to the House of God when it was time to offer

the sacrifice. And Elkanah would give Hannah

even sometimes more portions than what what her family, which

was just herself, Amen should have deserved.

But they would go there every year they would visit, they

would make their altar, they would offer their sacrifices and

they were would pray. Do you know over a period of

time of annually doing that? There's something about

frequenting the altar and praying to God that transformed

Hannahs desire simply from wanting a child to hold to

wanting a child to dedicate, wanting a child to hold for her

own purpose as a natural mother with maternal instincts.

Amen to coddle, Amen. And watch after a child.

Something happened through the frequency of her visits that now

it's not just I want a child for me.

I want a child for you. I want a child for your purpose.

And on those final times when she prayed and she cried out to

God, God said, according to the time of life, I'm going to give

you a child. And she would come about three

years or four years later with that child, not for the purpose

of her own advantage, but she's going to give it back to God.

How in the world would God give such a thing?

Because she had been at the temple, done enough sacrifice,

had enough conversations. God said she's delighted

herself. She's delighted herself.

And from just wanting a child for herself, her wants have

changed. The warning the child for me,

I'll honor that. I'm convinced I'm hastening to a

close and I'm convinced we read all this that took place and

I'll even give you what you didn't ask for all these things.

You want to see the life of Samuel, Look at verse 15 of the

text today of First Kings Three. He's had this dream.

All this thing has happened and the Bible says, and when Solomon

awoke, behold, it was a dream. He leaves Gibeon, he goes back

to Jerusalem, he stands before the Lord, look what he does, and

he offers up burnt offerings and peace offerings and made a feast

for all his servants. Now a peace offering could be

shared. His purpose was really for

fellowship, not just with God but with other people.

There were pieces of it could be shared if he did it for all his

servants, his entourage. We're talking about a great

amount of sacrifice. Again, this is the life of

Solomon. Sandwiched between two large

notable times of sacrificing is a man that's being approached by

God and asked just tell me what you want.

The life pinpointed delineated by sacrifice has a man in the

mix of it all. Where God's saying just tell me

what to write the check for. The question is, are we

trustworthy enough for God to ask the question, our desires

enough in alignment with His desires that He don't mind

moving the decimal further down the roll?

Stay with me today, because this O encounter Gibby.

And it didn't begin with a dream, started with an alter.

And before the request, before the answer, before the promise

of wisdom and riches and long life from Solomon, there was

worship, there was total surrender.

There was a man that had developed the rhythm of life of

giving his best again and again and again.

He doesn't come. And no, we don't have any

history of this. It's not as though Solomon comes

and then gives all this and says, now, God, since I've done

this, this wasn't AI scratch your back, you scratch my back,

God. This was not get leverage on

God. Oh, a thousand 1000 animal

sacrifice. Now God, let's talk about what I

need and what now. He did it with abandoned.

He did it without expecting anything in return.

But what Solomon does do for us and his actions that they do

this for us is that maybe I need a return to an altar, not to

ask, but to be shaped by it and just give.

Because here's the fact that matter if we in bow our heads

today, God needs to work in US until what we want begins to

reflect who he is. And if you delight yourself in

the Lord, He even won't just give us what we desire, that he

will give us desires worth having.

Can we begin to talk to God today?

God hand out a blank check as it would be whatsoever whatsoever

you want. I want to be in a place that God

can ask or suggest or make such a statement to me that he says

McGee, what, what? Whatever you want.

Understanding that it's really not breaking the pattern.

It's showing a relationship. It's showing a trust that has

been burgeoning from a relationship with God because I

spend time with him. He he knows my character because

you spend time with him. He he knows, he knows the

shifting of your desires that used to be maybe all about you

or I would benefit you. But now it's about what what can

it do for for God or what can it do for his Kingdom or how can I

be bred on the table for somebody else?

God's just standing there saying, just tell me what it is.

Just tell me what it is, because I know you.

You frequent, you frequently talk to me and we have

conversation and you pour your heart and your life out to me

and I try to pour things back in you and I know you.

I can ask you whatever and your whatever is going to be in

alignment with what I would want to give you.

What would serve the purpose best.

These altars are open today. Maybe we need to ask.

God search me O Lord help me God, help me God.

Let let Lord my desires and my wants to come in alignment God

with your desires and ones for me.

God in this period of time in my life, I pray O God today, help

me Jesus to find an altar. Help me God to frequent it.

Help me God to pour my soul out upon it.

Let it not be a one off trip. Let it be, Lord, a continuous

trip and help me, Lord, God with abandoned to offer to offer.

If it's cost, if it's expense, if it takes time, Lord, if

there's energy, if there's investment, if it takes extra

attention, Lord, I'm going to slow down.

I'm going to pause God, because you're so deserving of it.

You're so deserving of it. God will take you to the degree

of not just giving you what you asked for, but he'll even give

you what you didn't ask for and all of those type of things.

They they they trickle down from a relationship with God.

Can we raise our hands across this place if you'd be willing

today and someone just begin to cry out how they want that

deeper relationship with God. Lord, I want a deeper

relationship with you. I don't I don't want it to be

surface only. I don't want it to be just a

Sunday and a Wednesday relationship.

Oh God, I don't want it just to be I'm interested in God

whenever I'm in need type of relationship.

No, no, no, no, but I want it to be a relationship that in the

off days when we're not gathered here at this place, that I'm

finding myself a place of sacrifice.

I find in myself a place of conversing with God, Hallelujah,

and having conversation. And I'm noticing something in me

that that my thoughts are becoming the thoughts that God

has and that I'm seeing things through different eyes and my

heart, my heart palpitates and it beats for things differently

than what they used to be. For I'm finding that I'm being

transformed. I'm growing, Amen, in the image

of the stature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Folks, when that begins to happen, God's going to get out

his checkbook. When that starts to happen,

God's going to get out his checkbook and say you just name

it because you're in a place and position that you're going to

ask something in tandem with what I would want and desire.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah. I need you, Jesus.

I need you, Jesus.