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Beautiful words
Wonderful words
Wonderful words of life
Beautiful words
Wonderful words
Wonderful words of life
Sweetly echo the gospel call
Wonderful words of life
Offer pardon and peace to all
Wonderful words of life
Jesus only Savior
Sanctify forever
Beautiful words
Wonderful words
Wonderful words of life
Beautiful words
Wonderful words
Wonderful words of life
Amen, good singing!
While the offering plate is being passed around
Go ahead and return your Bibles to Esther chapter number four
Esther chapter number four
If you open the middle of the Bible you'll find the book of Psalms and then Job
Right before the book of Job you'll find Esther
As we always do we're going to read the entire chapter
Before the sermon, Esther chapter number four, the Bible reads
When Mordecai perceived all that was done
Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes
And went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry
And came even before the king's gate
For none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth
And in every province whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree
came, there was great mourning among the Jews
casting and weeping and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes
So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her
Then was the queen exceedingly grieved
and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sackcloth
from him, but he received it not. Then called Esther
for Haytak, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to
attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai
to know what it was and why it was. So Haytak went forth to Mordecai
unto the street of the city which was before the king's gate
and Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him and of the sum
of the money that Haman had promised to pay the king's treasuries
for the Jews to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy
of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them
to show it unto Esther and to clear it unto her
and to charge her that she should go in unto the king to make supplication
unto him and to make requests before him for her people.
And Haytak came and told Esther the words of Mordecai,
Again Esther spake unto Haytak and gave him commandment unto Mordecai.
All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know
that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king and to the
inner court who is not called, there is one law of his to put
him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden
scepter that he may live. But I have not been called to come
in unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai
Esther's words. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther,
Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house
more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace
at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the
Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall
be destroyed, and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom
for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them,
return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather all the Jews
that are present in Shusan and fast ye for me, and neither
eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens
will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is
not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish.
So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther
had commanded him.
If you have any father, we thank you for your word and for the guidance that it brings
to us, and we pray you would open up our hearts and be ready to receive the message tonight.
And we bless Pastor Kelly right now as he preaches in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. So we're here in Esther, chapter number four, and
the story kind of is in chapter number four
is really contingent on chapter number three, kind of just
understanding what had happened, but Haman had made an
offer to King Ahasuerus to destroy all
of the Jews, and this really stemmed from Mordecai
specifically not bowing down before
Haman. He refused to worship Haman and to bow down before Haman.
Haman, being a very prideful person,
certainly didn't like this, and instead of just going after Mordecai,
he in fact decides he wants to go after all Jews, just every single person
that is of the heritage or the religion specifically
of Mordecai, because he understands that it's not necessarily
just Mordecai doesn't like Haman. Mordecai doesn't
care about Haman. Mordecai's not a respecter of persons.
The reason why he won't bow to Haman is not a personal beef that he has with a guy.
It's just simply due to the fact that you're not supposed to bow down to a man
and that Mordecai is not going to violate
God's commandments for anyone, even if he actually liked them.
Even if Mordecai had a little bit of favoritism towards Haman
or liked Haman, he still wasn't going to bow down to him. So it becomes a
religious dispute really when it comes down to it. Haman wants to kill
every single person of the religion of the Jews, and
so the king, willing to take money,
doesn't really care, doesn't really inquire of it, ends up passing the decree.
The decree is issued to every single province, every single area
that King Ahasuerus has under his authority,
and in chapter number four, verse one, we kind of see the repercussions or the
consequences. We see the response from the Jews. It says in
verse one, when Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes
and put on sackcloth with ashes and went out of the midst of the city and
cried aloud in a bitter cry. So the rent means
to tear or to rip. So essentially,
Mordecai just rips his clothes off and
he's putting on sackcloth, which is kind of
not even like real clothing. It's just kind of like a picture of just
a great morning and a great sadness with
ashes. It says then he went out in the midst of the city and he cried with a
loud and a bitter cry. And so
obviously he's very upset. It's very obvious
that he's upset. It says in verse two, and it came even before the king's gate
for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.
So not only is Mordecai
upset, he's like letting everyone know that he's upset and in fact he's
upset in a kind of a shameful way because no one
is supposed to be having a fit or essentially
having an emotional breakdown in the king's court.
This is in the king's gate in his particular area
and it says in verse three, and in every province whithersoever the king's commandment
and his decree came, there was a great morning among the Jews and fasting and weeping
and wailing and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. Now
fasting there, I'm not exactly, I don't think that
this fasting is the same as the fasting that's mentioned in the next part of this
chapter. Fasting simply is just
going without food. That's really what that means.
And sometimes people fast not necessarily
for any reason. They're just fasting because they just have a loss
of appetite. And this can happen when you're
grieved greatly or you're very distressed or
you're stressed out or sometimes when you're going through something that's very traumatic
you're just not very hungry. You know a lot of people that have gone through a
traumatic experience, typically this comes with the loss of someone that
they love. They're not very hungry. Like they just don't, they're like not eating
because it's just, food is just not that important to them.
Eating is not something that they're really interested in.
And usually their stomach is already kind of tied in knots
or has this upset feeling. So I believe what it's talking about here is
simply people are just so upset and so
distraught that they're not even worried about lunch. They're not worried about dinner.
They're just crying and weeping and fasting and just basically
just, they're really concerned with this decree.
Because essentially if someone said you're going to die really soon, like everyone's going to
come and kill you, that's going to cause you to put a higher priority
on other matters than eating some Twinkies or some Ho-Hos or whatever.
Now all of a sudden it might be a little bit different situation. And the same is with
a funeral or with the loss of someone. And that's just kind of a tip
or a reminder. I know a lot of times in funerals people provide food to the
family and stuff like that and that's a really nice thing. But usually the person that's
like the most impacted by the loss
is typically not that hungry. And so just keep that in mind.
If you ever try to visit someone or you're around someone and maybe
they just lost someone, it's pretty normal for them to not want to eat.
You shouldn't make them feel bad like, you know, you need to eat buddy, you know, like
or something. Obviously we don't want people to die here. But I'm just saying
it's not something that you need to just force people to do.
And it may be kind of a normal, natural reaction.
It says in verse number
four, so Esther's maids and her chamberlades
came and told her, then was the queen exceedingly grieved and she
sent Raiment to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sackcloth from him.
But he received it not. Now Esther being
a queen and being in the royal court and having
all these maidens and different things, she may not necessarily
and also just being a woman, she may not be aware
of all the decrees that are constantly being dispatched
or released. I mean most of us really don't even pay attention to the
laws that are passed in our country if you think about it. Like the House and the Senate
are constantly passing new legislation. Texas is passing new
legislation. Houston's passing new legislation. I mean there's all kinds of legislation
being passed all the time. And for most of us, unless we
see it in the news or a friend or a co-worker or somebody brings
it up to us, we're pretty ignorant of what's happening.
And really for Esther, she doesn't understand, she just hears like,
have you heard what Mordecai did? And it's like, what? And it's like, he ripped all his clothes,
he put sackcloth on, he's in the king's gate, he's crying,
he's weeping. So she hears about Mordecai being very upset.
But, maybe not, she doesn't know exactly why yet, she's trying
to figure out the situation. Says in verse 5,
Then called Esther for Hatak, one of the king's chamberlains,
whom he had appointed to attend upon her and gave him a commandment to Mordecai
to know what it was and why it wasn't. So she's like, she heard about
it and so she's going to immediately send unto
her uncle Mordecai to figure out, why are you so upset?
Like, what's going on? Verse 6, So Hatak went forth unto Mordecai
unto the street of the city, which is before the king's gate. And Mordecai told him
of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had
promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.
Also, he gave him the copy of the writing
of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them,
to show it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her,
and to charge her that she should go in unto the king to make supplication unto him,
and to make requests before him for her people.
So, Hatak goes to Mordecai
and Mordecai explains the situation.
Says, this wicked Haman has it out for me, because I won't
bow down to him. And then he also explains that now
because of that, Haman is offered this great sum of money to be
paid to the king's treasuries to destroy all Jews.
And then he also gives her the writing of the decree that Haman
basically the petition that Haman had written and the king had signed off on.
Which is also interesting, because I never understood this until I got sued
a whole bunch of times, but, like, how our legal system
works is a lawyer will often just write
a judgment, and they just write exactly whatever they want
and then they just hand it to the judge and the judge assigns, or whatever.
So, the judges don't even actually make a lot of the rulings in essence.
Essentially, it's just two people showing up saying, like, this is the judgment you should give,
and then he's just kind of putting his signature on it. You know, he's putting his stamp
of approval on them in most cases.
And even beyond that, you also have law clerks
and other people. Often law clerks will decide the judgments for
the judges, and they'll basically review all the briefs, they'll put together
the judgment, and they'll basically put their recommendation to the judge
and then the judge will just kind of, he doesn't have to abide by that.
But we all know what kind of probably happens in this situation, right? So,
you know, a lot of times these judges, you would think of a judge as actually making a lot of rulings
and making a lot of decisions, but really it's mostly just, where's my stamper
and just kind of, you know, just putting stamps on things or whatever.
If I stamp this paper or this paper, it's just like, you know, whatever, right?
And so King Ahasuerus is probably similar. You know, there's no new thing
under the sun, so I would envision that it's probably not much
different than from the past where King Ahasuerus has people constantly coming
to him, constantly bringing briefs and paperwork and whatever and just like,
hey, sign right here. And he's probably not reading all of it.
Just like all of us when it says read all the terms and conditions and we're
just like, approved. You know, it could have said, you
sell your soul to the devil and you're just like, no problem.
Now, because I get cancelled from companies so fast, it's not really
even, it's kind of funny, but it's also really frustrating. I started reading
terms and conditions of a lot of these policies and procedures
of these companies, especially before I sign up with them. And what I've noticed
is that you're really screwed no matter what anyways. Because I read,
I'll read these terms and services and it's just like, we can terminate you
for any reason at any time and we don't have to give any reason why.
You're just like, oh, well that's a pretty cool contract.
It's like, and I'm like thinking like from a business
perspective that sounds good. You know, because if you're the owner, you're just like, yeah, I want to just
terminate whoever, whenever, however, what, you know, it's like.
But then it's always funny when they're like, we don't discriminate against anybody though based on
their religion, race, or blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, but you just said you'll terminate
anybody for any reason at any time with no reason given.
It's like, what kind of contradictory nonsense is this to sit here and pretend like
we don't discriminate against anybody's religion or
their politics or, you know, their 58
genders or whatever else they want to say in their stupid thing. But you and I both know
they discriminate against Christians all day long. We won't discriminate
against religion, but we'll cancel you for absolutely no reason. And it's like,
well, is that discrimination? You know, it's like, what is it?
But obviously King Hasher, as he probably, you know, signing lots of things, he probably
didn't actually read the paperwork. He just got the summary
from Haman, and Haman's the one that actually wrote out the thing. And so you're reading
this just letter of what Haman has decided he's going to do against
the Jews. And it's really to destroy them.
Right? Not only does he give her that, though. So he explains
Haman. He explains also that Haman's willing to pay for it.
He also shows what Haman actually wrote. But then
he has a further request, a fourth item here,
where he's then going to tell Esther that she needs to make supplication
and request unto the king for
her people. And so he's asking her to basically
stand in the gap. She has obviously a very
high position of power and authority of being married to the king. So he wants
to hopefully see if she can use her position, use her
spot, her place, her intimacy or relationship with
the king in order to grant favor for her people.
Verse number nine, and Haytak came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
So she gets to hear all this and what's happening.
Now, what's interesting is how consistently
throughout the Bible you have the same themes being brought up over
and over again. Keep your finger and go to Matthew chapter 26 for a moment. Go to Matthew chapter
number 26. What in essence is the story here? Well, you
won't bow before Haman. You won't worship anybody
but God. So then someone's willing to do what? Pay money for
you to be killed. Now that reminds me of someone, and we already
looked at this, but it reminds us of Jesus Christ who wouldn't bow before
the devil. He wouldn't bow before any other god.
He's not going to submit himself into any other king because he is the king.
And because of that we have a wicked evil person that's
willing to take money to betray him.
But also on the other side there's a group of people that are willing to pay
for his death. And that is none other than the Jews.
Now look what it says in Matthew 26 and
verse number 14. Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot
went unto the chief priests and said unto them,
What will you give me? I will deliver him unto you.
And they coveted with them for thirty pieces of silver. Now obviously Judas is already
ready to sell him out. He's the one kind of coming and proposing this idea
of like, hey what will you give me for this guy? And it's mostly because
probably Judas at this point is realizing since Jesus has
literally preached the gospel to them multiple times at this point that
him being close to Jesus isn't going to benefit or profit him
financially. For a while the disciples were
confused and some of them falsely kind of thought
that Jesus Christ was going to come into Jerusalem, take back the city from
the Romans, set up a giant empire, and then all
of them were going to be his counselors, generals,
and everything like that. Kind of like David because if you think about it Jesus
life is like David and if you think about all those that were
close to David, what happened when David finally became the king?
Well all of those people that were close to David ended up being second,
third, fourth, fifth in his kingdom and basically got to be these high
ranking profile type people. And so you could see why
that would be tempting to a lot of people to say like, hey let's kind of stick with
this Jesus guy, see how things pan out because I might ride my way all the
way to the top. I might get to be in his cabinet as it
were, right? In America you have the presidential cabinet, special appointees
by the president himself and of course who's he going to pick? He's going
to pick the guys that have been hanging out with him and working with him. Even
James and John are arguing about this and they want
to be at his left hand and his right hand. They want to be right there in this
earthly kingdom in their mind. And there is going to be an earthly kingdom and there
will be people sitting near Jesus but that's in the millennial reign.
So they have their timing off. But when Jesus
is coming into Jerusalem, you've got to think about some of the
passages that are leading up to this. He's preaching the gospel very blatantly.
Most of what he preached before this was parables,
stories, things that were kind of hard to be understood. But then he just starts
just clearly saying like the Son of Man is going to be betrayed in the hands of sinners.
The Son of Man is going to be crucified. He's going to die. He's going to
be risen again the third day. And most
of the disciples just can't figure it out. I wonder if Judas could.
I wonder in the sense not necessarily from a spiritual perspective.
We understand that Judas didn't get saved and Judas
is not saved. Judas went to hell. But carnally speaking,
unsafe people can understand the concepts of the gospel and not be saved.
And in fact, I would argue that most reprobates and most people
that are atheists actually can very clearly articulate
the message of the Bible. I remember we were going to film
this project has been on hold for a long time.
It's still in my mind. It's still something I plan on doing. But I was going to make a soul winning documentary.
Then my life changed. But I was still planning
on making it. And every time I try to make this project, it's like something weird goes on.
But I had a person that was working with me directly and they had all the
footage and then they quit. So that's why it kind of keeps getting stalled. But when we
were collecting footage, we went to the University of
Texas Arlington or like the University of North Texas. I can't remember. Something in Dallas
area. It's like a satellite campus. We went to the universities and we're
talking to all the college students and we're just asking them about salvation.
And I thought it would be maybe a powerful illustration in the film
is just going around asking tons of people that say they're Christian
what you have to do to be saved. And I just thought it would be kind of a powerful piece
in the film is just seeing people just literally seeing all these Christians saying like
works, be a good person, blah, blah, blah. So that you could just have this nice
montage of just like works, be a good person and everybody basically being
saved. Well then we run into a guy and he's like well I'm atheist. Like everyone's
like basically Christian except there was like one Hindu I think before that
and virtually everybody else was Christian. No one was saved. No one knew the gospel.
And then we run into this guy that's an atheist. He's like oh I went to Bible Seminary before
I started going to this college. And it's like okay. He's like but now I'm
atheist. And it's like well what do you have to do to be saved? And he's like oh all you have to do is
believe in Jesus. And I was like well do you think people could lose their salvation?
Oh according to the Bible not at all. And I'm like so it's just like a free gift, one
time faith. He's like yep. He's like but I don't believe any of it.
And it was just like I never heard such crystal clear answers and the guy fully
understood it. It's just he didn't believe it. Okay. So in my
mind I'm thinking like Judas and I don't know we're speculating here. Okay.
Maybe Judas it kind of finally clicked. He's
hearing oh wow Jesus is actually going to die. You know that's not
that's not what I was signed up for. Okay. Maybe he didn't fully understand the resurrection
part but he just heard die. He's going to come here and die. And it was like he's
going to get betrayed. Well if he's going to get betrayed I might
as well be the one that does it and gets a little money out of it. Right.
Because if you think of it from an unsaved carnal perspective
if Jesus is going to end up getting betrayed and being killed well
if you don't betray him you didn't get anything out of it.
If you're the first one in on the job though you're the one that gets the money
out of it. Right. So it could have been Judas is thinking like what's going to happen anyway.
Either way I might as well be the one that actually profits from it
and not let one of these other guys betray him first and get the money.
Because under the pure all things are pure. But under them that are
defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. Right. So from Judas' perspective
he probably thought all the other disciples were going to betray him. He probably thought all the other
disciples were wicked. He probably thought everybody is bad and he's like I'm not letting
Peter get the cash in on this deal. John's not going to get here before me.
He's like I'm going to get the money. OK. So Judas is going
to the Jews and he's going to collect that money from them.
Now here in Matthew chapter number 26 it is clearly
saying that they coveted with him for 30 pieces of silver. He takes the money. We see
30 pieces of money given about Joseph.
We see it mentioned in other places. This is what's interesting about this.
Who is it that pays for the destruction
of Jesus Christ? It's the Jews. Who's paying
for the destruction of the Jews in the
book of Esther? It's Haman. Now you say well how
does that work? It's because the Jews of Jesus
time are Haman. You know the Jews don't
like to think of themselves as the bad guy but they are
the bad guy. OK. In every story when you're reading
they like to think of themselves as the Mordecai of the story but they're really the Haman.
They like to think of themselves as the Abraham but they're like the Pharaoh.
Or they're like the Sodom and Gomorrah of the stories of Abraham.
They like to think of themselves as the Joseph but they're the Pharaoh.
They like to think of themselves as the Daniel but they're the
princes that turn Daniel in okay they like to think of themselves as able but
they're really Cain and so you have to understand that the Jews in the book of
Esther they're the Christians they're the saved and the Hamans are the real
Jews in the sense in the physical sense in the carnal sense those that are the
descendants of Abraham and so it's an interesting how you know we have these
pictures and the Bible but they kind of get flipped in the New Testament because
it's a spiritual book and you have to understand that what we're talking about
here is a spiritual picture and God is able to use the same people for both
pictures he uses the physical Jews as the spiritual Jews here in the book of
Esther but they use the same physical Jews as the Haman in the story of Jesus
also illustrates the fact that you know you're standing with God can change now
obviously salvation itself can't change in the sense that no one can lose their
salvation but look at Saul's life I mean Saul at one point is elevated to King by
God God says that he was a very humble person God uses him greatly but then
later in Saul's life he's considered the enemy of God and he's an enemy of David
and so that's another admonition to us though is to think like we may not
always have the same standing with God our entire life especially automatically
we have to work and strive towards constantly being a friend of God and
doing right and being pleasing in God's sight it's not automatic but there are
people out there that want to have God's people killed and they will pay money
for it you know there's no new thing under the Sun the Christians in the time
of the Roman Empire thrown in the Colosseum fed to the lions you know the
Catholic Church paying money putting bounty on the heads of Christians
throughout history you have other Protestants and other people that were
trying to kill God's people are killing saved people and even today there are
people that are willing to pay money to kill Christians there are people willing
to spend money in effort to destroy Christians and to cause their churches
to cease to cause them to stop going out and preaching the gospel and you
know there's no new thing under the Sun and we have to have the same perspective
that Esther has here that sometimes we have to make petition for the greater
good of Christianity even if it comes at some kind of a cost for ourselves
because there are people willing to pay to have us destroyed and ultimately if
Esther isn't going to do anything about this this day is of wrecking is going to
come okay that's why Mordecai is bringing up now he makes a stronger
statement here look at verse number 10 his Esther kind of responds isn't it
again Esther spake on a haystack and gave him commandment unto Mordecai all
the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that
whosoever whether man or woman shall come unto the king in the inner court
who is not called there is one law of his to put him to death except such to
whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live but I have not
been called to come in under the king these 30 days and they told to Mordecai
Esther's words then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther think not with thyself
thou shall escape in the king's house more than all the Jews for if thou
altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall their enlargement and
deliverance arise the Jews from another place thou and thy father's house shall
be destroyed and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a
time as this then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer so what's
kind of interesting about the story is how Esther and Mordecai never get to
communicate in a personal way in the sense that they're not face-to-face
they're not like having a communication as a normal dialogue they're
communicating through this messenger hate act right well I think that also
pictures something and you know consistently throughout this book of the
Bible these characters kind of represent certain groups of people or certain
people and Mordecai consistently represents that of the Lord Jesus Christ
and Esther represents that of Christians and if you think about it none of us in
this room can just talk to Jesus Christ in like a just he's right here standing
next to me flesh and blood I can touch him we're talking to one another you
know like the disciples God you know that was a special privilege for them
where they got to literally just sit and hang out with the Word of God and first
John chapter number one comes to mind of just how special and precious they even
think that is that they got to behold the words of life I mean they got to sit
there and talk to Jesus Christ they got to talk to their Creator they got to
talk to the Bible in person but it's not that you can't talk with Jesus Christ
and it's not that Jesus Christ can't talk with you you know we pray unto the
Father and we pray to Jesus Christ and he hears those prayers especially when
we pray according to his will and then his response back to us is through the
Word of God and the Holy Spirit will often highlight scripture that God wants
us to hear from Jesus Christ and so you know who I liken this hate act character
to is the Holy Ghost because if you think about it even go to go one more
place go to Romans chapter number eight I want to show you a verse here in the
Bible but think about it Esther's messages going to Jesus are going
through hate act and then Mordecai's messages I don't know if I use the right
names there let me say this again Esther speaking to Mordecai goes through hate
act right and then from Mordecai back to Esther goes through hate act so for us
also the Bible teaches that our prayers can go through the Holy Ghost to Jesus
Christ and then we get return answer from Jesus through the Holy Ghost again
and look what it says in Romans chapter number eight says verse 26 likewise the
spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which
cannot be uttered so according to the Bible when we pray sometimes we don't
even exactly know how to pray what to say you know what to communicate and the
Holy Ghost just simply is there to make some kind of a petition to God for us on
our behalf and the Bible says that the groanings in which the Holy Ghost makes
it's something that we personally couldn't even utter it's not even
something that we could actually say this always makes me think of my
toddlers myself and my wife okay so the toddlers are us I'm in the parable you
know the father or the or Jesus and then my wife is the Holy Ghost in the sense
that my children will just be like and I'm just like I don't know and then she
doesn't interpret you know she's like here's what they said and it's like they
can't actually communicate properly yet so it's like we can't even properly
communicate to God but then the Holy Ghost just makes the proper
communication for us he just tells the Lord this is what they actually meant
you know this is what they're trying to say and he makes up that hedge right but
then backwards to us again you know because if you think about it you know I
may not even be able to communicate to my toddler as well it goes back through
my wife it's kind of the same way that the Bible is a deep book and the
Bible's language is sometimes hard to be understood right but what can happen is
eventually the Holy Ghost may lighten something to you explain something to
you or show you something in the Bible or you will make a connection in the
scripture that you've never made before and that's the way that God
communicates to you so if you want to communicate with God and you want to
communicate with the Lord Jesus Christ it comes through reading the Bible it
comes through memorizing scripture it comes through singing spiritual songs
that contain elements and even literally the words of God in them and by through
that constant meditation process you're enabling the Holy Ghost to press upon
you some portion of scripture at some point in your life and that is a way
that God communicates through us you know it doesn't even have to be like
just the Bible's open you're looking at it because I have tons of times in my
life where I'm doing anything and everything driving grooming myself
getting ready in the morning taking a shower working out playing a game
whatever and I'll be thinking about the Bible or I'll think about scripture or
maybe I'm not even actually being spiritual I'm just kind of thinking
about this life situation but then a Bible verse will just all of a sudden
just pop into my mind or something will click that I've never really thought
before and I'm just like wow you know I never really thought about that but that
that makes sense or that fits together and I believe that is how the Holy Ghost
communicates with us now it's not always positive because also sometimes you have
a bad idea or you want to do something wrong or you're doing something wrong
and then all of a sudden the Bible verses come into your heart or into your
mind and that's all he goes saying like stop that's all he goes saying like hey
wait a minute remember this scripture and you're like oh yeah yeah sorry yeah
I didn't stop that oh yeah I'm not I'm supposed to you know cast down that
imagination right I'm supposed to do something different here so again your
communication through the Bible or through your communication to God and
back and forth is really honestly in my opinion dependent upon how much
scripture you know a lot of people they want to hear God's voice they want to
hear God talk to them in their lives but here's the thing when you don't know any
Bible it's gonna be really hard for the Holy Ghost to bring to your remembrance
all things that Christ commanded you okay notice it didn't say this is gonna
tell you random things he's gonna bring to your remembrance all the things that
Christ commanded you so it's like when you've never read the Bible how can God
even communicate to you you know people that get saved at the door it's like
there's barely any verses that God can even communicate to them at any time or
the Holy Ghost can communicate to them so it's like you really want God to
speak in your life you need to start reading all the Bible you need to start
reading Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Romans and Acts and you got to read all the
scripture and and you know memorizing it even makes it even better because it
makes it more easily readily available for the Holy Ghost to use and impress
upon you and to constantly help you also just preaching you know there's
lots of times where I haven't really sought out to memorize a particular
verse or there's maybe not a passage of scripture that I'm very familiar with
personally but because I heard it preached or because someone brought it
up in a sermon it ends up coming to life to me at some point in my life just
because I've heard that really good preaching and you know the Holy Ghost is
able to use that for me so you know there is a benefit to reading your Bible
there is a benefit to praying there is a benefit to memorizing scripture there's
a benefit to hearing preaching there's a benefit to all these things in our life
and one of the greatest benefits is that God wants to communicate messages to you
that God wants to speak to you that God has something really important for you
to do in your life and this is how God can fix us you know I know other people
in my personal life that they communicated to me how they struggled
with a particular sin or a particular area of their life or they were
unwilling to do something and then just in church randomly just a verse gets
pointed out or whatever and then just BAM just like the Holy Ghost is like BAM
and they're just like I got to make that change you know and even through weak
preaching the Bible can still smack you pretty hard like even someone that's
pretty dry or not even a very dynamic preacher but as long as they're just
reading some parts of the Bible and they're just explaining some parts of
the Bible I mean the Bible can just sit there and kick your butt I mean the
Bible can just say I mean it's just it's quick and powerful it's sharper
than a two-edged sword piercing even inviting asunder a soul and spirit and
joints and marrow and is it a certain of the thoughts and tense in the heart I
mean you can't hide from God and God is constantly revealing what you're like
through the scripture and this is why it's so important to read pray and do
these things and we see this story of Esther and we see her talking to Mordecai
and we love to talk to our friends and of course you know it's great to have
inventions like FaceTime and it's great to see people in person it's great to
have these communication tactics but obviously God has chosen for us to
communicate to him through faith and that we can't see him yet but we still
can communicate to him he wants to communicate to us and these are really
important things to be reminded of the communication that God has for us now in
this message though Mordecai is making it clear to Esther that hey I understand
that you're not supposed to go talk to the king because she's saying I'm not
allowed to just go in and talk to the king whenever I want boy that that
really shuts down feminism pretty hard doesn't it I mean this wife can't even
talk to her husband for an entire 30 days unless he he wants to and in fact
according to the law think about this did you read did you read the scripture
it said if she asked her husband a question without his permission he can
put her to death if he wants to that is the law I mean talk about not being a
feminist culture I mean this is now okay I don't personally believe that should
be the law okay let me make it clear all right God gave us death penalty
commandments in the Old Testament and none of them were for asking your
husband a question when he was busy at work okay but I will say this if we
could learn this principle if that was how harsh they were maybe wives should
give their husbands a little bit of respect when they're on the job and not
feel like that their husband just has to bow down to every request that they make
you know they text you it's not like oh I have to immediately text you back or
immediately answer every call in fact when I was going to work not even that
long ago my boss said when he was a young man in the workplace if you got a
call from your wife at work you got fired like they were just no nonsense
now you have to think about it they didn't have cell phones okay and most
jobs back then you don't you're not having email you're not having all these
extra forms of communication so when they're in meetings or they're on the
assembly line or they're doing stuff they're doing their work in order to
take a phone call you have to literally stop your job stop a meeting break
communication cease a lot of work or whatever and if you're just going and
your wife just hey how's it going I just miss you tell me that you love me
through the phone you know it's like it's like what was so important that
your wife had to call it's like she chopped off her hand I don't know it's
like you would lie no it's like you're gonna get fired if she's just wasting a
bunch of company time and wasting a bunch of company money and bunch of
company effort okay now obviously today it's it's a lot easier to communicate
and it maybe isn't is detrimental to the work place for a wife to contact her
husband but I am saying this that you should give your husband some respect
there I'm not gonna kill my wife though she asked a question at the wrong time
okay just FYI now of course it shows that the King had the option for mercy
too if you hand out the scepter and he's like you're not gonna die today you know
then he can set it out she could touch the scepter and then basically she gets
to ask him whatever she wants but there's no guarantee she's not
guaranteed and in fact by just asking a question she could die so she's putting
her life at risk here a very serious risk threat of death she's not allowed
to do it she's gonna break the law she has to break the law in order to fulfill
this request but it's in an effort to save her people and ultimately Mordecai
says okay well you know if you don't do this you're gonna die anyways hey you
decide not to step up to the plate hey you decide not to get in there and play
ball you decide not to ask this petition God will kill you anyways and then he'll
save us some other way that's a pretty harsh words if you think about it you
know what it's kind of similar to how Jesus talks to us go if you would to
John chapter number 15 go to John chapter number 15 and he says hey maybe
you were put in this position just so you could even ask this question in this
very situation like you know it almost seems like this is providential because
why would you be here at this time the only person with this potential power to
ask this King this question and in fact this is a really important question he's
like maybe the even the whole reason you did this was for you know to ask this
question maybe the whole reason you're the Queen the only reason you're the
Queen is because of this and you decide not to do it what something's gonna
happen you're gonna die okay God could kill you for any reason look at John
chapter 15 verse 1 I am the true vine and my father's the husband and every
branch that is in me that beareth not fruity take it away and every branch
that beareth fruity purges that that it may bring forth more fruit now you're
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you abide in me and I knew
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except that abide in the vine no
more can ye except ye abide in me I am the vine year the branches he that
abideth in me and I in him the same bringing forth much fruit without me he
can be nothing the man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is
withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire they are burned now
again what Mordecai said seemed pretty harsh didn't it like he said very
clearly if you don't ask this petition you're gonna die but think about what
Jesus is saying here Jesus is saying in this parable that we're the branches he
is the vine God the father's the husband men he's the guy that's tending to the
vine and essentially why he's using this parable is because most of these people
are very familiar with agriculture and farming but in agriculture and in
farming a husband men is constantly going and evaluating the crops in order
to get the maximum crop the maximum fruit you have to prune or trim the dead
branches on a particular plant because if you don't water is going to be
wasted on these branches that are producing nothing and by the water
going to these other branches the fruit could potentially just dry up and not
actually fully produce fully ripen they could just be smaller and not nearly as
good and so a good what a good husband will do is you'll look at the vine in a
see oh here's a worthless branch chop it off oh here's another one chop it off
and what he's trying to do is he's trying to get better fruit and more
fruit out of the vines that are producing okay he's saying that's what
Christians are like he's looking at he's constantly God the Father's constantly
looking down from heaven and all the Christians and he's saying like oh here's
a Christian producing fruit I want to help him get more fruit here's a
Christian doing nothing so what is he gonna do what does the parable say cut
them off and notice what they do with those branches they throw them into a
pile to be burned okay now some people that believe in work salvation they say
I'll see if you don't do the works you're gonna go to hell that's not what
this is saying what this is insinuating is that you could die physically that
God would just basically look at you as trash because you're producing nothing
and would just cut you off because you're not producing anything for his
kingdom and why would God want to waste resources on a Christian that's not
gonna do anything for him you know why keep saving lot when all he's gonna do
is nothing why keep helping Christians do nothing no God wants to put a lot of
effort and energy into the people that are actually producing something and in
my view when you study the scripture and you look at this it's basically saying
if you want to live you got to actually produce some fruit you actually have to
go out there and do something otherwise God could literally kill you you know
and again I'm not saying that it all has to be the exact kind of same fruit
and you know you have to get tons of people saved or something like that you
know I would want to be at least a bare minimum going to the right church and
tithing and supporting the soul-winning program I think you should at least be
soul-winning too but I'm just saying like even if you couldn't physically go
soul-winning I would be terrified not at least be in a church giving money and
supporting the soul-winning program at a church because otherwise how could you
say they're producing any fruit you know and I think that God's obviously
gracious with people and gives them a lot of time you know Jesus talks about
certain trees not producing fruit and they dung it but then it's like
afterwards it's just like you know we're gonna destroy this tree or when he
looked at the fig tree that hadn't produced any fruit he just touched it
just withered and just destroyed it was just gone and that's a picture of the
nation of Israel and the Jews and how their nation just withered and just
completely destroyed and gone and eviscerated from off the earth because
they didn't produce any fruit and you know what if Christianity decides to
stop producing fruit whoa into Christianity it'll wither up you know
if any denomination which there's very few there probably been saved but maybe
that's because they stopped producing fruit a long time ago when a denomination
or a branch of Christianity decides to stop producing fruit it's gonna wither
up and it's gonna be a worthless branch it's gonna be destroyed you know we
don't want Baptist to just go into the trash can so we as Baptists need to
actually make up a hedge and go out and start producing fruit so that God will
help us produce more fruit and then all the worthless Baptists that are not
producing fruit that are not doing good God will probably cut them off and
destroy them and let them wither and be destroyed and you know as Esther is
commissioned here to do this great work and puts herself in danger we too have
to be willing to put ourselves in a little bit of danger in an uncomfortable
situation to sometimes produce some fruit you know preaching the Gospels not
always just super easy super fun sometimes it can be hazardous sometimes
it can put you know some of your ambitions some of your goals your life
even your physical safe being at jeopardy but you know what we're
supposed to just do it anyways and look what Esther's attitude is says in verse
16 go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast
ye for me neither eat or drink three days night or day I also and my maidens
will fast likewise and so will I go in unto the king which is not according to
the law and if I perish I perish the Mordecai went his way and did according
to all the Esther commanded him so she says you know what I'll do it but give
me three days and three nights of fasting and weeping and wailing and then
I'll go ask the petition you know and obviously these three days and three
nights pictures in my mind the gospel of Jesus Christ right and you've got you've
got these significant numbers that are being brought up but this fasting I
believe different than the fasting we had in the beginning right that's in the
beginning was kind of a picture of just morning being sad this fasting is a
picture of people that are separating themselves under a spiritual cause and
purpose of praying unto the Lord and asking for favor asking for blessing or
Esther and when it comes to fasting to me there's two kinds of fasting there's
a carnal fasting and there's a spiritual fasting carnal fasting is simply with
going from eating and it could have a multitude of reasons why it could be to
simply lose weight it could be because of necessity in the sense that you know
maybe like if you're having a medical procedure sometimes people fast so they
don't you know or they cleanse themselves they're doing like a cleanse
to kind of like cleanse themselves with toxins or something like that sometimes
it's because you just don't have any food I mean obviously in America this is
a foreign concept to us but throughout history there has been times where
people are starving they just don't have food and so they're in a sense fasting
right it could be fasting just simply because you're so upset you're in a bad
place mentally and so you just have a loss of appetite there's another form of
fasting though and this is where you're purposely with going a meal for a
spiritual reason and and the spiritual reason would be because you're
essentially asking something of the Lord in my opinion now it could be for a lot
of reasons most of the fast that we see in the Bible are either related to kind
of a death type situation sadness thing or making a petition under the Lord and
essentially because this person I they're trying to fast in a way so as to
prepare themselves for something or to ask the Lord for something we see even
Jesus Christ himself before he went into his ministry what did he do he fasted 40
days and 40 nights now I think that both fasting is fine and and and both are
good there's nothing wrong with fast one of the benefits of fasting and
because it is a carnal exercise what are you essentially doing you're denying the
flesh you're saying no to your body and when you end up fasting and you say no
to your body what you're doing is you're training yourself and helping yourself
learn how to walk in the spirit because the same principle of denying food is
the same principle of saying you know what I'm gonna follow God's commandments
I'm not gonna do what my flesh really wants here and I'll tell you that people
who struggle in both areas or in one area typically struggle in both areas
is what I mean so it's like if you could never physically fast it's also
sometimes representative the fact that it's really hard for you to spiritually
fast in the sense that it'd be hard for you to make a spiritual decision to deny
the flesh to not walk in the flesh that's why the Bible often talks about
very wicked people in the Bible as it's honestly being fat it's being very
overweight you know you got like Elon and he's like this giant guy or whatever
and you know you kind of you have Hoffnien Phineas Eli's sons who had
gorged themselves and were very fat and you also see Eli himself who was saved
different than his sons his sons were sons of Belial but he was saved but he
himself also became very fat why because it kind of just shows a picture
of someone who's not really walking in the spirit very well they're kind of
just gorging the flesh and you see this consistently with the false prophets
mentioned in Jeremiah and other places how they're feeding themselves on the
flock and they're they're only concerned with their own belly you know the Bible
talked about how they're concerned with their own belly meaning that they're
only caring about themselves and food and eating because eating is a selfish
activity
I'm not eating for you guys you know what you know what I mean like I've
never been like you're really hungry well I'll eat a steak for you all right
and I promise it'll be good you know I'm gonna eat some cookies for you tomorrow
right help you feel better like eating is just one of the most selfish tasks
you can do okay there's nothing wrong with eating of course we all have to eat
right but eating in itself is just a selfish task that's why the Bible even
talks about with kings and princes and rulers it talks about how it's it's kind
of a shame or a curse when your princes eat in the morning and it says that they
don't eat for strength meaning that you know when you wake up you don't and I'm
not saying that you have to skip breakfast but what I am saying is this
you don't necessarily have to just eat right away but if you just if you wake
up and you just say who's in charge the body's in charge the body's just like
well let's just eat you know let's just have fun I mean in fact people that have
no self-control they'll just eat all day because it's you get joy out of eating
like eating is a picture of joy and happiness and as long as you're eating
things that aren't like Indian food sorry I'm just kidding as long as you're not
eating like gross things right like dog cat or you know this is Asian food right
cat no I'm just kidding but seriously um you know as long as you're not eating
ranch dressing or tea or these type of things then you can actually enjoy it as
long as you're eating a steak that's not well done okay then then it's like
actually a joy and pleasure I'm trying to step on as many toes as possible okay
so hopefully you've been offended by something I said but I'm just saying
like if you're eating food that you enjoy it's one of the greatest pleasures
you'll ever have people love eating one of the most common businesses we have in
the world especially in America is what fast just fast food restaurants I mean
you could eat all day there's restaurants everywhere I make this joke
you know Oklahoma City has like the most restaurants per capita or something of
any place it's because they have nothing else to do and they have all this extra
disposable income so they just have so much restaurants because it's like
that's the one thing well they smoke pot that's true but but you know smoking pot
does it gives you the munchies so that doesn't help that problem I only know
this from experience from hearing it okay I've never smoked pot in my life I
never will smoke pot I think it's wicked okay you're an idiot if you smoke pot
but what I am saying about food is that you really get a lot of this personal
enjoyment out of it so what's what's the opposite of that fasting and you know
fasting is not fun not eating is not fun it hurts headaches all you can think
about is food it's just it's it's like the worst and you know I've gone through
several phases where I've dieted at times and I've tried to do calorie
deficits and stuff to try and lean up or get in better shape but I I do that
solely because I want to be healthy you know I have a in my mind a very
important job and a lot of people are depending upon me and I have to perform
at a high level I have to preach four times a week which is very stressful on
the body constantly driving and when you're driving and you're doing all
these things and traveling a lot it's easy to eat a lot of junk food and fast
food and stuff and easy to gain weight real quick you know especially when
you're not 20 anymore and so you know it's to me is important to try to
restrict my diet at times and try to get in better shape and do these things I'm
not perfect beacon of health or anything like that but I'm just saying I strive
towards that and when you do forgo eating it hurts but Esther here is
obviously she's not trying to get skinny for the beauty pageant she's not asking
everybody to lean up for the fashion show what they're doing is they're
forgoing eating to say no to the flesh and ask positions of the Lord spend
extra time praying and reading the Bible and and making petition of the Lord and
this is what the picture of a real spiritual fast is and that's why even in
the New Testament Jesus Christ talks about fasting he says hey still anoint
thy head of oil and wash thy face and don't appear to be fasting and the
sense that if you're doing a spiritual fast there's no benefit if you're going
around and then bragging about it to everybody because what was the point of
fasting it's saying no to the flesh right but there you get no joy out of
that but some people get the joy out of fasting and then telling everybody and
then everybody's just like oh wow you're so spiritual okay so then they still get
this joy out of it but it's like fasting is supposed to not be fun that's the
point of it that's why even the Bible also talks in 1st Corinthians chapter
number 7 that you would forgo relations with your wife or your spouse when
you're fasting because the whole point again of a fast is to say no to the
flesh it's not I mean all the things that the flesh loves you know relations
with your spouse and food it's like those are supposed to be off limits when
you're fasting that's the whole point of the fast okay as you're saying no to
things that you really enjoy it from a fleshly perspective so that you can draw
closer to the Lord or ask petitions of them right if you're indulging in other
ways then it doesn't really make sense and it'd be funny to me that people
especially the Catholics you know they have like Lent and stuff and they have
their forms of fasting but they won't even fast like food they'll be like you
know what for Lent this year I'm giving up coffee you know I'm giving up like
reading the newspaper or whatever you know it's like check I already checked
both those you know I'm good to go it's like but then they but then they you
know but then they'll drink alcohol but then they'll go do all this other stuff
that's fun it's like you know you're missing the whole point the point wasn't
just a substitute pleasure a with pleasure B it was just a substitute
pleasure with spirituality that's what it was substituting okay so they're not
having fun here and replacement of eating or eating some extra food that's
just different it's like well serving steak I'll have you know lamb chops you
know or I'll have rack of lamb or something it's like no you just don't
eat okay and of course if you fast you should never tell anybody about it right
so you know you should never you should be like I wonder if this guy fasts or
not you know it's a really stupid question anyways it doesn't matter to
you what is that to thee you know serve the Lord okay but you know you do see
this picture of like communal fast and I don't know how I feel about that I'll
just be honest with you I personally don't think there's anything wrong with
it but at the same time I don't have any feeling of like wanting to do that but I
do think if you were gonna ask people to fast it would just be in a generic like
public sense but you wouldn't be like checking like okay let's test everybody
and let's make sure and everybody sign their name that's fasting and let's all
raise hands who's actually doing it or not or whatever you know you could but
you could say like you know what there's a really important stressful thing going
on could everybody just be in prayer and even if you feel like fasting please do
that just make a petition of the Lord and I think that that there's a biblical
principle and precipice for that okay but again that's not losing a reward
because it's no one knows individualistically who's doing that or
whatever right I I grew up in a church where they did this religiously actually
every year they would ask the entire church fast for a portion of time and
again whether I participated or my family you know it doesn't matter
because sometimes you don't do things right you know but but again I don't
think there's technically anything wrong with that of a church society that but
you have to be careful you don't want to be doing things to be seen a man or for
the praise of men or getting pleasure out of these type of activities or
bragging about it and I remember that my pastor for sure didn't do that he would
he would get up and be like I'm on day seven of my fast you know just want to
let everybody know it's like why are you bragging about that you know if
you're gonna be on a seven if I had a seven-day fast you better believe I
would never tell any of you I would have to try and pretend like I'm super happy
just so I like I don't want to be like giving away this thing seven days I want
to like make it clear it's like I'm great guys yeah I wouldn't want to be
sneaking that out there right now I do want to go to a couple more places real
quick and then we'll finish go to go actually if you would the first
Corinthians chapter number seven and and here's here's the last point she says if
I perish I perish we have to understand that one day we're all gonna die and no
matter what your body looks like or how well you took care of it you're not
gonna get to keep it okay so but you know you do get to keep is the new man
and all the spiritual things you did and walking in the spirit so it's more
important to work out your spiritual man than it is to work out your physical man
because your physical means eventually either gonna die or get really old to
where it's like worthless like you know I've never seen this really old guy and
thought like oh man he must have really worked out a lot you know now of course
there are some there's exceptions I've seen a handful of really old people that
still look pretty muscular but just generally saying like every old person
just looks frail and about to die okay you couldn't even tell I know there's a
guy that I have a lot of respect for looks like your average just normal
looking old person but then I find out he was a d1 track star like when in his
college days like he was like one of the greatest athletes of his day but just
looking at him it's like and of course every small child in this room could run
faster than him right now I mean you know he's like you know like whatever
but it's like back in the day I mean this guy is running marathons you know
this guy is just in tip-top shape right and it's like that's great there's
nothing wrong with being in shape there's nothing wrong with bodily
exercise but a profit of little and eventually it's gonna wear away and be
corrupted and there's not any benefit to that but you want your spiritual man to
be able to still run sprints you want your spiritual man to be in good shape
right first Corinthians chapter number seven brings up how these things are
gonna change look what it says in verse number 29 but this I say brethren the
time is short it remaineth that both they that had wives be as though they
had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as
though they rejoice not and they that by as though they possess not and they that
use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world pass of the way
let me tell you something every single thing that we experience and see today
that is of a carnal nature that pertains to this world that has to do with the
fashion of this world will one day be burned and forgotten and most people
this is a terrifying thought for them because our world lives in this like
selfie generation where we take a picture of every activity and event that
we've ever done because we don't want to forget it I don't want to forget this
meal and I don't want to forget this vacation I don't want to forget this
sunset and I don't want to forget my kids when they were one and what they
look like at two and the outfit they wore on their birthday and I don't want
to forget this and you have all these photo albums and you have all these
pictures and you have home movies and you have all this just stuff where we
want to be remembered and people name streets after themselves and people have
great houses and they have all these things it's all going to deteriorate and
waste away and no one will ever remembered every time you cried no one
will remember that you cried but no one will care about me no one you won't even
remember in fact I bet right now most of the times I mean for ladies most of the
times you cried in your life you probably can't even remember it you
certainly can't remember why you know because it's always like what are you
sad about I don't know nothing right I mean every time you were happy every
good moment you had I mean all this stuff is just gonna burn up and it's
meaningless and it's pointless and the fashion is gonna just have nothing I
mean it just doesn't matter it doesn't matter what car you drove it doesn't
matter what clothes you wore it doesn't matter how tall you were it doesn't
matter what kind of glasses you wore it doesn't matter what your friends were it
doesn't matter what city you lived in it doesn't matter what kind of house
whether it was brick stucco a craftsman style it doesn't matter if you lived in
a trailer park it doesn't matter you live in an apartment it doesn't matter
if you were married ten times it doesn't matter if you were never married it
doesn't matter at all everything that you think you care about is meaningless
vanity of vanities say it the preacher all is vanity the fashion of this world
is just it's gonna go away what is the thing that matters the things of eternal
value that's the only things you can take with you and if you get this
perspective then you can get this perspective of Esther that says hey if I
perish I perish I'm gonna leave all this behind I mean of anybody on the planet
has something to lose it's Esther Esther is the queen Esther has the greatest
apparel of every woman on the planet Esther has the most beautiful house of
every woman on the planet Esther has everything that every woman could ever
hope and wish and want to have and her entire life you know what the fashion of
this world it's gone look everything that Esther had is gone it's I hadn't
seen on Craigslist like Esther's you know ball gown check out what Esther
wore on her 16th birthday check out what her wedding dress all of her
wedding photos destroyed all the songs they sang no one's singing them anymore
at her wedding everybody that it was her friend gone her house gone I mean it's
just it's and when it's gone it's gone right no one remembers just dust her
physical body gone you know people like to worship their body right
some people they have a great body in the sense that they look really good
they're really strong they have a lot of things going for them you know what one
day it's just me gone the Hollywood celebrities and the Hollywood athletes
and all of the things that are going on I mean yeah it's great right now but
guess what it's all going away you know eventually LeBron James won't even be
able to dunk eventually all those beautiful Hollywood actresses are gonna
look ugly as sin some Marty do but I'm just saying eventually they'll all be
ugly and old and nobody will care about them eventually they'll be dust and
ashes again and the only thing will matter is their soul and their soul is
gonna split hell wide open and all of that fashion is meaningless to them you
know all the fashion in this world you know it's meaningless go to Romans
chapter 8 and let me tell you something you in this room whether you like it or
not you will die one day it's not necessarily a fun thing to think about
from a carnal sense but it's fun if you think about heaven but at the end of the
day you will die whether that's just getting too old whether it's through
cancer whether it's a car accident whether you're you know have information
against the Clintons I mean you may die okay something's gonna happen and here's
the thing there's not a lot of glorious ways to die but you know what dying for
Christ is a glorious death and if I'm gonna die I mean it's not a question
mark I mean obviously I understand there's the rapture and people get
rapture and I don't know when that is okay but putting that aside I have to
die why would I not want to die for Christ I mean I only get to do once I
it's not Groundhog's Day I'm not gonna come back and figure out how to die a
hundred other ways I mean I only get one option I can't drown and die of fire
okay I can't get in a car accident and die in an airplane crash I can't have
heart attack and a seizure you know I guess with comorbidities you know you
can die of kovat right because everybody died of kovat last you know a couple
years but did they really I mean you can't die of everything right no one
could die of the flu anymore I mean it used to be everyone to die of the flu
but now no one dies of the flu I just disappeared 60 million people a year
getting the flu in America and we just cured it overnight I mean I'm surprised
no one's gotten like a Nobel Peace Prize for curing the flu right you could die
9-11 you could die on the battlefield you could die by a robbery you could die
I mean you're gonna die and if you're gonna die why wouldn't you want to step
up to the plate and say you know what I want to put my life on the risk for
Jesus there's a lot of things you could you could put your life in risk for but
look what it says in verse number 31 Romans 8 verse 31 what shall we say to
these things of God before us who can be against us he that spared not his own
son but delivered him up for us all how so he not with him also freely give us
all things now I thought about this I'm like if God is willing to let Jesus die
in the cross who am I to think that God wouldn't be willing to let me die you
know I mean if you're gonna let Jesus die a gruesome death who am I that God
wouldn't be willing to be like yeah sure he can go right of course that's like
way less significant than letting your perfect spotless lamb the Son of God die
okay so if he had to go through a horrible gruesome death why would I
think that I'm better than Jesus or something right he says also who shall
lay anything in the charge of God's elect is God that justifieth who is he
that condemned it that is Christ that died a rather that has risen again who
is even at the right hand of God who also make it intercession for us who
shall separate us from the love of Christ such a relation or distress or
persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written for thy
sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted a sheep for the slaughter
hey you know what if I perish I perish hey you know what I'm already accounted
as a sheep for the slaughter and you know what a sheep is it's a dumb animal
that just walks up gets the head chopped off or gets the blunt instrument
just shoved through their brain and they're just like man man just a
harmless little sheep it'll lick your hand while you cut its head off right
and that's what Christians are supposed to be like you like well that's not fair
well you know what life's not fair buddy and you're gonna die some way but you
know what I'd rather be out there preaching the gospel and making them the
mystery of the gospel and standing on the Word of God and die for that than
for any other reason I gotta die and you know obviously if you don't get to die
for Christ you're all hoping for in the sleep right or the rapture or something
but it's like that's it that's probably not gonna happen I want to either die
having you know basically passed off the baton to the next Christian to move on
and being like the Apostle Paul with Timothy that he's ready to die and it's
just the deathbed baton pass or it's dying for Christ you know you have to
think about this even though Paul may not have died for Christ in a brutal
way and I don't know I'm just I'm just saying because he said he was delivered
out of the mouth of a lion and it sounds like he might have died in the sleep or a
peaceful way potentially but it's not like his life was peaceful he might as
well have died been killed I mean he was stoned to death one time he was
beaten with rods he was whipped five times you know with 40 stripes save one
I mean if you said hey Pastor Shelley option a get your head chopped off and
you die and go straight to heaven option B we're gonna whip you 39 times and then
after you get a little bit healed we're gonna whip you again 39 times and then
after you get healed a little bit later we're gonna whip you again 39 times and
then after you get healed a little bit more will it be again 39 times and then
when you have all those scars and open sores and wounds on your back we're
gonna throw you into the sea which is full of a thing called salt and you're
gonna be shipwreck in the sea night and day oh yeah we're gonna stone you to
death one time and you're gonna somehow survive it I mean I was just like I
already signed up for option a a long time ago you know what I mean so it's
like surviving didn't even sound that great it's like we're Stevens option you
know Steven also got stoned but knew it straight to heaven right the apostle Paul
had to just keep taking the rocks off and this is what the apostle Paul said
he despaired even of life so he was wishing in himself to die he wasn't like
oh man this is great I survived this he's like why did I have to survive I
don't have to go preach to the next town they're gonna do the same thing you know
and it's like it's frustrating it's like I just keep getting canceled on services
and I'm like sign up for the next one you know and it's like if I can't keep
signing up for online services but the Apostle Paul can go to the next town and
get whipped and beaten again it's like what kind of we Christian am I right I
mean I mean the persecutions that we face are so light it's it's it's almost
a joke that we get to even try to pretend like we're sitting here if I
perish I perish you know YouTube channel might get new if I perish I perish it's
like oh no I mean this is such light affliction it's a joke but I'll tell you
you know it could be coming a day when it's that serious and we need to get
this deep in our hearts that we already are ready and that we're gonna we're
gonna stand the right test because for Esther her options were to perish or to
perish anyways Mordecai already told her hey say this and you can perish or not
say it you will die I'd rather take the 50-50 so this is how I look at
Christianity okay I got a few options quit serving God and I'm just gonna die
or keep serving God and I might be martyred 50-50 it's like let's go with
the 50-50 I don't want to go I don't want to quit though you know I don't
want to just perish having quit I'd rather perish on the line of duty and
possibly even make it through then not just not to serve the Lord let's close
in prayer thank Heavenly Father so much for this chapter and this example of
what Esther was willing to do and and the strong conviction she had to make a
petition on request of the king for her people see that we're supposed to follow
in Jesus Christ footsteps that Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price and that
he had to truly perish for our sakes and I pray that we too would be willing to
lay down our lives that we'd be willing to serve Christ that we wouldn't count
these things dear and precious unto us that are ultimately going to be burnt up
I understand the fashion of this world is meaningless the vanity of this world is
meaningless I pray that we would stop caring so much about the things of this
life and that we care more about spiritual things the souls that are out
there that can be saved and being pleasing unto you in Jesus name we pray
amen
you
let's go ahead and sing one more song before you head home
119
119 till the storm passes by 119 see all together
in the dark of the midnight have I offed hit my face while the storm howls above
me and there's no hiding place made the crash of the thunder precious Lord hear
my cry keep me safe tell the storm passes by
tell the storm passes over till the thunder sounds no more till the clouds
roll forever from the sky
hold me fast let me stand in the hollow of my hand keep me safe till the storm
passes by many times Satan whispered there is no need to try for there's no
wind of sorrow there's no hope by and by but I know thou art with me and
tomorrow I'll rise where the storms never darken the skies till the storm
passes over till the thunder sounds no more till the clouds roll forever from
the sky hold me fast let me stand in the hollow of my hand keep me safe till the
storm passes by when the long night is ended and the storm come no more let me
stand in thy presence on that bright peaceful storm and that land where the
tempest never comes Lord may I dwell with thee when the storm passes by
till the storm passes over till the thunder sounds no more till the clouds
roll forever from the sky hold me fast let me stand in the hollow of my hand
keep me safe till the storm passes by amen thank y'all for coming God bless
you are dismissed
you