When you examine all the empires over history they have all vanished! Whether the Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman or any other they have all disintegrated! Most of their best dreams are in museums! Solomon was a great leader and powerful in managing his Kingdom! Next to his father King David he was a brilliant leader! He was a civil engineer building dams, roads, bridges, palaces, temples and anything he imagined! Solomon was rich and ambitious but very broken inside! Solomon longed for something he could not build himself! Why do we do what we do? Why do you get up in the morning? Why do you go to school, work and plan for retirement? What motivates us? What is in our heart? Solomon longed to go back to the Garden of Eden! He built groves and gardens but something was missing? If we build our own garden God will be absent! We do our own thing and then ask God to Bless it! If I build my own empire it will be empty in the end! Solomon created a lot of gardens but was empty inside! Let God come into the garden He created for you! God spent time in the Garden of Gethsemane to prepare a place for you! Ecclesiastes 2:10- Heathenism is the religion of choice in the world today! Heathenism is defined as getting more pleasure and avoiding the pain! It is like trying to sin and getting away with it! Even though Solomon lived about 3 thousand years ago people are chasing the same dream today in 2015! The problem is the more pleasure we seek the less we find! Emptiness will creep up on you! All the past empires are a pile of rock today! Living in Colorado we do not need anymore rocks! Each empire tried to rearrange the rocks! Why do empires fail? Simply empires use people to get money! Solomon said he bought slaves and women! Empires are built for pleasure! The empires trying to be built in 2015 are enslaving people and killing people for money! Jesus had a very different idea about money and power! In the first century Christian’s sold their lands to help those who were suffering! They did not claim property as their own! The Apostles sold their possessions to help others! People in the world build an empire so they can be King! Solomon was brought to a place of emptiness! At the point of our limitations we need to respond to the invitation of Jesus! What would Jesus have said to Solomon? Matthew 6:19 Do you store up treasures for yourself on earth? There is a lot of discussion in our culture about capitalism right now! Is it good or evil? Remember the talents? God does not hate capitalism! What God does despise is selfishness! When people of God catch the heart of God great things happen! Again why do we do what we do? We can even do the right things for the wrong reasons! God wants our worship! So does Satan! Like Solomon when we worship ourselves we are at the wrong God and the wrong Altar! Jim Carrey got 20 million dollars for every movie he produced but yet said wealth is not the answer! John 10:9-10 Jesus invitation to you the world cannot give you! If we are motivated by God lasting things happen! Invest your treasures in Heaven in eternal things that will outlast any worldly pursuit! Source; Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado