Do you remember that the queen of the south came to see all of the work that Solomon did [see 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9]? Solomon expended all of that money when there were poor people that needed to be fed. He budgeted that money for the building of the temple and made this magnificent temple the way it was. And then even more than that, you might remember also that it was the most significant building ever built. It was the pride of the Jewish nation! I mean, that was God’s dwelling place. It was a very sacred place. It was a great building!

In 2 Chronicles, chapter 2 at verse 5, Solomon tells us why he went to that care and that expense and all of that trouble and built this magnificent temple. He said, “great is the building that I build because our God is greater than all gods,” [“And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods.”]. So they had their many gods in those days, and that’s all true. They had them in the New Testament days; we have them now. But God is greater than all gods.

Now, in this statement, “the house which I build is great because our God is great,” Solomon stated a principle that has always been involved in everything that we do: Man responds to anything in direct proportion to his estimate of the value of that thing! We all do that! Some of us are interested in children’s homes—providing homes for homeless children, and so we make large gifts. Others of us like Christian education—we make large gifts to that. Some of us are really sports enthusiasts. I have a friend of mine down in Texas that was going to pay my way to a banquet where I could sit at the table with the OU [Oklahoma University] football coach! And he did have the power to get me seated at the table with the football coach because he was a friend of mine! You know how he got that power, don’t you? I don’t know how much it was, but he thought that was important! It’s important to him to get to sit at the table with the head coach of football at OU. We got a winning team this year…so far! We’ve still got our fingers crossed. We’ve got a winning team and it would have been an honor to be there, and I love a winning team. I’m a graduate of that school, but, no, it doesn’t mean that much to me! So we get behind these things and we support what we really believe in…or do we? “The house I build is great because God is great!”

Another good example of that: Back in the early part of the 20^th Century, there was a black man by the name of Booker T. Washington who was struggling to build a school for the education of black people in Tuskegee, Alabama. It takes a lot of money; it takes a lot of work; and it takes a lot of initiative to do something of that kind. By having studied a little bit of history, knowing just a little bit of history of a hundred years ago about that time, you know that there was a far different attitude among people of the various races than there is now. There were many fewer people back then who were interested in education for black people than there are now! But he was trying to do the impossible! I have admired this man—he is one of my heroes because I admire a man who is willing to get in and to tackle the thing that is impossible. Nobody else can do it!

And so, he was working at it. He needed lots of help. He needed lots of money—it takes money to build and operate a school. He heard of a man up in Pennsylvania who was liberal and generous with his money. His name was Andrew Carnegie. There are lots of libraries built all across the country—the Carnegie libraries, you know. Carnegie was a man who was generous with his wealth.

Well, Booker T. Washington made an appointment to go and visit him. When he got there, he told Mr. Carnegie what he was doing and how he needed his help, and all that sort of thing. When he got through with his presentation, Mr. Carnegie reached down in the next drawer and pulled out a check book and gave the man a check for $5,000! Now you have to remember, $5,000 was much more then than it is now!

That would have been a generous gift! I certainly would not have turned it down! If you have a $5,000 check you’re going to give me tonight, if you don’t mean for me to take it for the Search program, don’t offer it! I will welcome a $5,000 check!

But Washington picked up that check and he looked it over. He sat there a moment and he said, “Mr. Carnegie, it’s obvious that I have not impressed you of the greatness of my cause.” And he gave him his $5,000 back! Then he asked for another opportunity to come back to speak to Mr. Carnegie again, and was given a date for that opportunity.

Washington went home; he did more preparing; he came back; and he again made his appeal; and this time he got a check for $500,000—one half million dollars! The Encyclopedia Britannica says that Mr. Carnegie gave him checks for $500,000 every year for many years following that time. Why? Because he was now impressed with the value of what the man was doing!

Our God is great! He’s a great God! Oh, how we need God today! But God is being attacked in our society. Right after the 9/11 incident [the attack by terrorists using commercial airplanes to fly into the Twin Towers in New York City, New York, subsequently collapsing them]—incidents, I should say—there seemed to be a surge, or a revival, in spiritual values and spirituality in America. But it was short lived! It didn’t last long. Soon after that, we began to read that people had lost their enthusiasm for God again, and we’d gone back into our normal life styles. One of the polling companies came up with a poll that said 45%—only 45%—of Americans have any confidence or trust in church or in organized religion. That’s fewer than half of the people in America who have lost their respect and their expectation for Christianity.