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Music Music Music Music Good evening and welcome to our services tonight. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Please turn to number 216. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Please take your seats and find the hymnal close by. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days, all the days of my life. All the days, all the days of my life. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the gathering this evening. Thank you for all the believers. And as we pray and worship you, Lord God. I pray that you bless the sermon, Lord. And Pastor Harrington as he preaches your word. And bless us as we go about our daily weeks. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen number 260. Amen number 260. He is able to deliver the... Tis the grandest theme through the ages, run, number 260. Tis the grandest theme through the ages, run, tis the grandest theme for a mortal tongue. Tis the grandest theme that the world, their son, our God, is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Go by sin, oppress, go to him, for rest, our God is able to deliver thee. Tis the grandest theme in the earth for me. Tis the grandest theme for a mortal strain. Tis the grandest theme, tell the world again, our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Go by sin, oppress, go to him, for rest, our God is able to deliver thee. Tis the grandest theme that the tidings grow to the guilty, hard to the sinful. So look to God in faith, he will make behold, our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Go by sin, oppress, go to him, for rest, our God is able to deliver thee. This time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, put up your hand, keep it up until we get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time, Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week will be in Psalm 72. This will actually be our last Wednesday night in the book of Psalms for a while. Psalms is broken up into five books, and so right now we were going through book two of Psalms, which is chapter 42 to chapter 72. So we're just wrapping that up this Wednesday. Then we'll be starting a new book. And then below that we've got the soul-winning times and the salvations and baptisms. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Of course, this Thursday is Thanksgiving. Below that we've got the note about the Bible memory passage. It's due today, so hopefully you've already wrapped this up. Make sure you quote it to an adult that's not a relative. And once you get that quoted, you can sign up on the clipboard over there to make sure you get your prize. And then below that we've got the ladies' Christmas cookie decorating party. This is for all girls and ladies 13 and up. And that is on Friday, December 4th at 7 o'clock, right here I'm assuming. So that's going to be just a couple weeks away. And then also there's going to be Christmas caroling on the back on December the 11th. We are going to meet at the church building at 5 o'clock and get organized, break into teams, get ready to roll, be out there caroling from about 5.30 to 6.30, and then come back to the church building for cookies and hot cocoa. Not only that, but two weeks after that. And it's actually supposed to be December 23rd. That date is wrong. It's Wednesday, December 23rd. That's going to be basically our Christmassy service because that's going to be our church service closest to Christmas. So on that Wednesday night, that's when I'll preach the Christmas-type sermon at 7 o'clock service. And then at 5 o'clock, we're going to have the cookie bake-off. So this is where you participate by entering your cookies into the contest. We set up a whole bunch of tables and we set up all the different cookies and then people vote. Every adult votes, in fact, because everyone receives a red stone, a blue stone, and a green stone and you drop them in the canister for who you want to vote for. Now, correct me if I'm wrong. They can enter as many batches of cookies as they want. Is that right? There's no limit on this, so you can enter five times or whatever. But the categories are the best tasting, the best looking, and the most festive. And you say, what does that mean, the most festive? Well, you know, basically the most Christmassy or just festive. I mean, that's the word, right? That's why I put that word there because that's the word that I'm looking for. So anyway, every adult will get to vote and you can enter as many. Who's planning on making cookies for the cookie bake-off? Come on now. All right, very good. So that's going to be fun and also the rules are that it has to be an actual cookie. All right? Sometimes people have entered things that were like cheesecakes or brownies or, you know, it needs to be defined as a cookie. And if you have to ask whether it's a cookie or not, it's probably not a cookie. That's probably a pretty good rule of thumb, okay? And then keep praying for our ladies that are expecting. Also pray for Laura Fritz. She's got coronavirus from what I hear. And also be cautious because of the fact that coronavirus is really blowing up right now. So let's do fist bumps instead of handshakes. At a minimum, it's a pretty easy switch to make. It'll help not to spread germs. Obviously wash your hands, be hygienic, and the fist bumps are superior to handshakes. All right, they're just cooler anyway. So we're just cool like that. All right, so that's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days going back to Thursday. Anything from Thursday? All right. Is that a three? All right, there we go. All right, anything else from Thursday? What about Friday? Got it. Friday. All right, and then what about Saturday? Gotcha. Got it. Okay. Gotcha. Saturday. All right, and then what about today, Sunday? Brother Scott? Nine for the main group with Brother Scott. We got two, one, two. Okay, I see a one there and a one there. Okay. Anything else from today? Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, we're going to sing Psalm 139. Yay! Psalm 139. Should I find that insert? Would you have that? Raise your hands. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Surely thou will slay the wicked. And thine enemies face thy name in vain. And thine enemies face thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do them not I grieve with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. I count them my enemies. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do them not I grieve with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of truth. There is no shadow of journey with thee. Thou changest not like compassion's sake, fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest. Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above. Join with the nature in meaningful witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Hardened for sin and of peace that endureth. Night on dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings of mine with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Esther chapter 5, Esther chapter number 5. As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1. Esther chapter number 5. Follow along silently with Brother Nick as he reads Esther chapter 5 starting in verse number 1. Esther chapter 5. Now it came to pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the king's house over against the king's house, and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house over against the gate of the house. And it was so when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court that she obtained favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near and touched the top of the scepter. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? And what is thy request? It shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom. And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? And it shall be granted thee, and what is thy request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then answered Esther and said, My petition and my request is if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king hath said. Then when Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai and the king's gate, that he stood not up, nor move for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman refrained himself, and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends and Zireh his wife. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king under the banquet that she had prepared but myself, and tomorrow am I invited under her also with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Then said Zireh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gaol be made of fifty cubits high, and tomorrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon, then go thou in merrily with the king under the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman, and he caused the gallows to be made. Dear Lord, we just thank you for all the souls that were won today, Lord, and we thank you for this opportunity to be in your house tonight, Lord, and we just ask that you bless this sermon and open our ears and our hearts, Lord, as Pastor Anderson preaches your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Man, the title of my sermon this evening is Don't Be a Haman. Don't be a Haman. Haman is the villain of the book of Esther. And if you're not familiar with the story of the book of Esther, I'll bring you up to speed a little bit with the story. Basically, we're talking about the Persian Empire. The capital city is Susan, and in Susan, the palace, we have King Ahasuerus. And, of course, he has a falling out with his wife, Vashti, the queen. She ends up being deposed from being the queen. Long story short, Esther becomes the new queen, and Esther is a Jew, but nobody knows that. She didn't reveal that to anyone. The king of Persia doesn't realize that. Well, Esther was brought up by her cousin Mordecai, and so that's like her legal guardian that raised her and so forth. And so Mordecai is also a Jew, and Haman is the second in command to the king of Persia. So we have the king of Persia, and this particular king of Persia, he doesn't really seem to be a very great king, okay? All throughout the book of Esther, he's sort of just manipulated by other people. He seems to be a lot more interested in partying than actually ruling or actually achieving anything. You know, the book starts out in chapter 1. He wants to just party for months on end, and he's just constantly drinking and just... He doesn't really seem to understand the duties of ruling an empire or ruling a nation. So this guy Haman becomes the second in command of the king of Persia, and so Haman has a lot of power, okay? And what we see is that Haman has so much power that basically anybody who comes into contact with him is required by law to bow down to him. They have to defer to him and drop to their knees. And of course, this is something that has happened throughout history. You know, there were even times... Like, for example, I was reading about in France before the French Revolution, you know, any time a priest went by, you know, everybody had to kind of drop on their knees or do some kind of a sign or, you know... It's just certain people coming through demand these ridiculous amounts of respect. Well, the Bible says in Esther 5, verse 9, where you are there, it says, Then went Haman forth that day, joyful and with a glad heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. Okay. So again, here's the situation. The children of Israel are in the diaspora. They are dispersed. They've been scattered into all nations. And so these Jews are living among the Persians at the capital city. You've got the king of Persia. His second in command is this wicked man, Haman. He has a ton of power. People have to bow down to him. But Mordecai has this attitude that says, I'm only going to bow down to the Lord. I'm not going to bow down and worship anyone else. Sort of like Jesus told Satan, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve, when the devil told Jesus to fall down and worship him. Okay. So Haman is looking for this worship, this bowing down, and Mordecai, because he is following the Lord, refuses to do it. So when Haman walks into the gate at the palace, everybody falls down and bows down, and Haman is the one who refuses to bow down. Excuse me. Mordecai is the one who refuses to bow down to Haman. And this makes Haman extremely mad. He's very angry. Okay. So as a result of him being so angry that Mordecai won't bow down, you know, he does a little research. He wants to figure out, like, why is this guy not bowing down to me? And he understands this isn't just one guy. This is actually a whole religion. This is a whole group of people. This is a whole ideology. And so he decides that he just wants to wipe out the Jews, period. He's just going to kill all of them. He just wants to eradicate the Jews, not only to just kill Mordecai, but to kill all of Mordecai's people. And so that's what Haman sets out to do. And, of course, the king of Persia is just like, whatever, you know, he doesn't really care. So he allows Haman to go forward with this and to use the authority of the Persian Empire to persecute the Jews and to bring destruction upon them. And so that's what the plan is, but it's planned for many months in the future, okay? So here we see in Esther chapter 5 that Haman, and I'm kind of cutting the story short to get to the actual sermon, but I don't want to just start preaching the sermon assuming you know the story, so I got to get you a little up to speed with the characters and who we're dealing with. Well, Haman, he's already the second command of the kingdom, but the reason he's so happy in verse number 9 is because Esther the queen, who he doesn't realize is a Jew, who's one of the people that he's trying to destroy, Esther the queen invites him to this special banquet where it's just her and the king and Haman and nobody else. You know, it's just the three of them. So he thinks, wow, this is really cool, you know, that I get to go to this elite gathering. So he's really happy, but then as soon as he walks by the group at the palace gates there and everybody bows down except Mordecai, all of a sudden the smile is just wiped off his face, he's angry again, he's upset. Now, I want to preach to you tonight, don't be a Haman, don't be like this guy. This guy has some really bad attributes, he's a very wicked person, and I want to go through each of his wicked attributes one at a time, because all of us could have the tendency to be like Haman in certain areas of our lives. Number one, the bad thing about Haman is that he's filled with pride, he's arrogant. He wants other people to bow down to him. Now, why would anyone want that? Godly men in the Bible, when somebody bowed down to them, you know, they didn't like that, it made them uncomfortable. For example, you know, you see in the New Testament, men like Paul and Barnabas or James and John or excuse me, Peter and John, when people bow down to them, they say, hey, whoa, whoa, stand up, we're human, we're men like unto you, don't worship us, worship God. But there's a wicked type of person that wants other people to bow down to them because they think that they're better than other people, they're prideful, they're arrogant, and you know, pride is one of the most wicked sins in the Bible. And by the way, that's why the most disgusting, wicked segment of our population uses that as their slogan. That's their hashtag, that's their slogan, that's the name of all their events with their queer pride because of the fact that they are the most rotten people so they want to glorify one of the most wicked sins in the Bible. I mean, why is it that Satan even fell and became the fallen being that he is and became the wicked adversary of the Lord and all humanity? Wasn't it his pride that caused him to fall? Because in Isaiah chapter 14 it talks about how he was so lifted up with pride and he said, oh, I will be like the Most High and of course he's going to eventually be destroyed. But we see that it was his pride, the Bible says in Ezekiel chapter 28 about the devil that his heart was lifted up in pride because of his great beauty. You know, Lucifer was created as a beautiful creature of God and because of his great beauty he got lifted up with pride. And you know, people today could be susceptible to that. You know, if you're a beautiful young lady or a handsome young man, don't be lifted up with pride. Don't allow that to go to your head and make you feel that you're better than other people. The outward appearance is meaningless. Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart, so don't get puffed up because you're so good looking like the devil did. But pride is a wicked sin that causes all kinds of other problems in our life. It causes all kinds of contention. The Bible says only by pride cometh contention. So it causes us to have strife and battle. You know, Haman could have just gone with the flow and could have just been happy being the second in command, really being the most powerful guy because the king isn't really doing much with his power anyway. Having power influenced fame, but pride destroyed him because he felt that he's better than everyone. And only by pride comes contention. He ends up entering into contention with Mordecai, entering into contention with the Jews, and you know what's eventually going to happen? He's going to eventually get destroyed. And you know what the Bible says? Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. If you are going through life with your nose lifted up in the air, prideful, thinking of yourself more highly than you ought to think, thinking that you are better than others, you better watch out because you're about to be destroyed. You're about to fall. The Bible says those that walk in pride, God is able to abase. The Bible says, who so humbleth themselves shall be exalted, but who so exalted themselves shall be abased. So just be ready for a wipeout. Be ready for God to bring you down if you're going through life arrogant and prideful. And again, what are we talking about here? Thinking that you're better than other people. The Bible says, Let each esteem other better than themselves. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Right? He took upon himself the form of a servant, although he was God in the flesh. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. If the sinless, almighty Son of God could humble himself, you can humble yourself. I can humble myself. And there's no reason for us to be arrogant, prideful, haughty. It's wicked. And that's what this is when he wants people to bow down to him. He thinks he's better than those people. He wants to bring them down. I mean, what is bowing? Bowing is physically lowering yourself. So he wants people to get lower around him so he can be higher. Right? That's what that is. Now, bowing down to the Lord makes perfect sense because the Lord is supreme and, you know, we must decrease, he must increase. So we'll bow down to him all day long. But, you know, bowing down to man and lifting up man or especially demanding that someone bow down to you, it's super wicked. He was filled with pride. He was arrogant. That's number one. But number two, not only is he prideful and arrogant, but he's also a braggart. And of course these things go hand in hand, bragging and pride. The Bible says in verse number 10, nevertheless Haman refrained himself. What that means is that when Haman walked by Mordecai and Mordecai refused to bow down to him, he didn't do anything right then and there. He refrained himself. So he didn't just say, what are you, you know, and just attack him because he knows, hey, he's got plans for Mordecai. And when he came home, he sent and called for his friends and Zireh, his wife. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches. Don't you love it when your friends invite you over just to tell you about the glory of their riches? And, you know, there are people like this. You know, they just get around them and they just tell you how much money they have. They tell you about their portfolio. They tell you about the things that they're buying and how successful they are. So he invites all his friends over to have a big party where he's the guest of honor. And we're going to talk about how cool I am. And so he talks about the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children and all the things. This is back when having kids was actually a blessing. Amen. Nowadays, we've been brainwashed that it's bad to have kids. But it is a blessing to have kids. But the multitude of his children and all the things wherein the king had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. And so he's just bragging and bragging and just, look how much money I have. Look how many children I have. Look at the promotions I've got. Look how much power I have. In fact, let me tell you who I'm better than. I'm better than the princes. I'm above them. Oh, and by the way, the king's servants, the king's cabinet or his advisors, his seven counselors, I'm actually at a higher status than them. Do you guys realize that? You guys realize who you're talking to? And you know what? I hate bragging. Man, when I get around people that brag, I refrain myself, sort of like Haman did there. Because what do you say when somebody just starts bragging to you? Now, if it's one of my children or something, then I would correct them. Because sometimes little kids, they haven't learned what's appropriate, so they might praise themselves. And I teach them, because I don't want my kids to grow up and be a bragger, right? So I would teach them, hey, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth. Strangers and not thine own lips. That's what the Bible says. You don't praise yourself, glorify yourself. But when I get around people, let's say at church or visiting different places, when I'm around other adults that are not my responsibility to raise them and fix them, I get around people and they start bragging. I just kind of smile and nod. But inside, I'm just so embarrassed for them. I'm embarrassed for them. I'm just like, wow, you're humiliating yourself right now and you don't even realize it. Like, I'm embarrassed for you. I'm not even the one doing the bragging and I'm embarrassed just to listen to it. And you know who the worst about this is? Politicians. And it wasn't always that way. You know, in the early days of the United States of America, it was considered shameful to promote yourself and praise yourself, even when you're running for office. You weren't supposed to. But you know, nowadays, if you listen to these political debates, that's a big portion of what it is. Look how great I am. Look at all my achievements. My record speaks for itself and I've done this and I'm going to do it. And not only do they boast in what they have done, they boast in what they're going to do, things that haven't even happened yet. I think I saw a thing where Biden said that if he gets elected, there's going to be less hurricanes, less earthquakes, less wildfires. Now look, how in the world is he going to have anything to do with an earthquake? This guy needs a lesson in plate tectonics. Sorry, it's got nothing to do with global warming or whatever you think it is. You know, plate tectonic forces are not going to be affected by who's in the White House, that's for sure. But you know, these guys, they make all kinds of campaign promises and I'm sure Biden's just going to fix everything. I'm sure he's just going to wave a magic wand and coronavirus is going to go away and the economy is going to come back and we're all going to be just living from the power of windmills and water wheels and it's going to be amazing. But here's the thing, these guys, they love to brag about themselves and you know what, I'll tell you the politician that I liked and obviously this guy wasn't perfect and he's got his problems and we don't agree with him on everything. But you know, Ron Paul was a politician with integrity and you know what he didn't do? He didn't brag. That's what I noticed about him. He's the only guy that would be actually talking about issues and not up there just bragging and praising himself and it was just so refreshing to actually find a politician who's not just arrogant, boastful and brag. That's what's wrong with politics today. You got a bunch of arrogant, prideful, it's like the whole House of Representatives is just like a crowd of Hamans. The Senate is just like a hundred Hamans. You know, you got a Haman in the White House, you got his Vice Haman and you got the Haman of Defense and the Haman of Education and the Secretary of Haman. It's just like everybody's Haman. Arrogant, proud, bragging. It's disgusting. Well you know what? I don't think we're gonna change that about politicians but you know what? Let's change it about ourselves. Let's not brag. We need to be humble. But number three, so number one we say he's arrogant. Number two, he's a braggart. Number three, he's a sycophant. A sycophant. Now what, that's a fancy word, a sycophant. But it's such a great word, I want to teach you this word because it's an important word. I use it all the time because I have seen a lot of sycophants in my time. Let me read for you just a couple dictionary definitions of this marvelous word. A sycophant is a self-seeking, servile flatterer, a fawning parasite, a person who uses flattery to win favor from individuals wielding influence. Now this is what a sycophant is. Let me just break it down to you in layman's terms. A sycophant is someone who wants to get around either powerful people, famous people, people in authority, just whatever, whoever has influence. Anybody who has influence, they want to get around that person, get close to that person, flatter that person, but it's not because they actually love and respect that person, but it's because they want to use that person. That is a sycophant, right? So you get these obsessive people who want to get close to you if you're any kind of a celebrity or just a leader, even maybe just some kind of a manager or whatever, you'll have people that will butter you up, flatter you, and they're using you, and they're out to get you actually. Now why do I say that Haman, I hope everybody understands the definition, I hope I'm doing a good job of explaining it, but remember the dictionary said a fawning parasite, okay, a servile flatterer. So they're flattering you because they want to use you because you have some kind of power or influence or whatever. Why do I call Haman a sycophant? Well, first of all, look what it says in verse 12. Haman said moreover, yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king under the banquet that she had prepared but myself, and tomorrow am I invited unto her also with the king. Now this is spoken like a true sycophant. He really wants to get close to powerful people. He wants to get in there and be at the elite dinner, the elite banquet, get close to people of influence. Now you say, well, maybe he just really respects Esther and he just really wants to glean some of her wisdom or he wants to get around the king because of the fact that he wants to learn leadership principles. Folks, we're going to learn later in the story. This guy doesn't love the king. This guy doesn't love the queen. The only reason why he wants to get close to them is just to advance himself, use their power, use their celebrity. He's using it right now to glorify himself to his friends. He's like, hey everybody, by the way, did you know that I'm having lunch with Esther? Did you know that I'm going to the banquet with just Esther? What's he doing? He's trying to use the celebrity status of Esther to brag to his friends and he wants to get close to them in order to use them. Now look, this word sycophant, I'm telling you, the reason that this word is constantly coming into my mind is because when you're a pastor, you will have sycophantic followers as a pastor. Now look, there are normal people who just appreciate what you do and they love the preaching and they're glad to hear some Bible preaching and they'll thank you, maybe even give you a gift or something, but then you have the sycophants and man have I seen a lot of them. You know, the people who, they flatter you, they want to get close to you, and these are the people that will turn around and lie about you, slander you, attack you. They basically, they want to get close to you and just use their relationship with you to advance themselves and it's really just a scummy thing to do. You know, it's just, sycophants are the worst people, okay? And that's what Haman is, I mean, he's a sycophant. He wants to get, he's got the backstage pass with Ahasuerus and Esther, you know, but it's not just that he loves the music, you know what I mean? He wants to, he's trying to get back there because he wants to use and abuse and that's what a sycophant is. And so number one, he was arrogant. Number two, he's a braggart. Number three, he's a sycophant. Number four, and this is the thing that I always think of, whenever I think of Haman, this is the number one thing that always pops into my mind, is how this guy can have everything going for him, but he lets one thing ruin his attitude, one thing. That's Haman in a nutshell. Because here's a guy, he's got the power, he's got the influence, he's got the money, he's got the celebrity status, he's got the family, right? He's got the wife and ten children and everything, but look what he says in verse number 13. Yet all this availeth me nothing, it's all nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Is that insane? I mean, can you imagine everything in your life being perfect, except this one guy won't bow down to me, just ruin, none of it avails me anything, I don't care about my family, I don't care about the money, I don't care about the status, the prestige, the authority, as long as I see Mordecai not bowing down to me, it just ruins everything for me. What a weirdo. But you know what, though? This is human nature, folks. You know, we look at some of these characters in the Bible and we think, what an idiot, I can't believe this. But you know what's funny is that we can see this on display in our own lives and in the lives of the people around us. Human nature is human nature. And the same children of Israel in the wilderness and all the dumb things they did, that's the kind of dumb stuff that we would do as well because we're human. And so we as human beings sometimes have a tendency to fixate on the one thing we can't have or to fixate on the one part of our life that's messed up. So for example, you know, you've got perfect health, you've got great relationships with your family, you've got a great church, but your finances are shot. You don't have any money. But here's the thing, there's so much to be thankful for. But yet you just fixate on that one thing that's bad. Okay, or, you know, for example, let's say your finances are fine, your health is fine, church is fine, but you have a bad relationship in your life. Now here's the thing, obviously that's worse, but let me tell you something though, you can still focus on the parts of your life that are going right. Let's say you've got, you know, something bad in your marriage or something bad in your home life or something bad with your parents or your children or whatever. You know what, you can still count the blessings that you have and not let that one thing just ruin it for you. And, you know, another situation could be somebody who's got a great family, great relationships, finances are fine, jobs going fine, careers going fine, church is great, everything's going well, but a health problem. But here's the thing though, there's still a lot to be thankful for. You know, and look, health problems are the worst. It's like the devil told Job, you know, all that a man hath will he give for his life. You know, he talked about how, you know, if you touch Job's body, he'll curse you to your face. Because even after Job had lost his children and his wife had told him to curse God and die and he lost all his money, he was still in good health because the devil wasn't allowed to touch his body. But in the end, the devil actually touches his body to the point where Job is covered in sores. And the Bible talks about how these sores are so burning and itching that he's taken a potsherd, basically like a piece of broken pottery, and just like scraping himself. Now that's pretty miserable, being covered in sores head to toe and scraping yourself. Okay, that's horrible, that's torture. I mean, you're physically in torment. And so, I mean, you know, with Job, and I'm not talking about Job tonight because Job didn't have one thing. Job had everything bad. I'm talking about you, where everything's good and you have one thing bad. Does everybody see what I'm saying? I'm talking about you, where if you broke your life into different areas, you know, if you broke it into the religious part and you broke it into the financial part and you broke it into the relationship part and you broke it into the career part and you broke it into family or home or whatever, you know, you have so much going for you. And then you just let one thing ruin your life and make you down and depressed and stuff. You know, why not just be happy for all the good things? And, you know, this is a great thing to think about going into Thanksgiving. Let's not have a Haman Thanksgiving where you just whine about the one thing about your life that isn't going right. And this whole coronavirus thing, you know, in many ways brought the worst out in a lot of people. When things happen that are stressful, sometimes it can bring the worst out of people. And it also just kind of exposes certain character flaws that we have as a nation. You know, for example, did you notice how in the springtime when a lot of the products were flying off the grocery store shelves because of all the panic buying? Did you notice how people would just fixate on the one thing they couldn't buy at the store? Right? It was like the one thing they can't buy at the store. It's like, they didn't have any white bread or whatever. It's like, get a tortilla. Get an English muffin. Get a pita. Like, they think they're suffering. It's like, dude, let them eat cake. I mean, in this case, Marie Antoinette was right. Except that Marie Antoinette didn't actually say that. That's an apocryphal quote. But here's the thing. You know, she ought to say it now because I'm thinking, oh, the people have no bread. Then in America, you could literally say, then let them eat cake. Because the cake is really there. And, folks, I remember at the worst of it, everybody's like, the grocery store shelves are empty and everything. I went around and one morning, I made a video like this, a YouTube video just to make a point. And I went and toured six grocery stores or something and I just played the video of me touring six grocery stores and in the background, I played a video called, I think it was a sermon that I preached called Are You Hungry? Okay, and the video got like 30-some thousand views or something. It was a great video until YouTube took it down. But anyway, hey, but here's the thing about that. You know what, YouTube took down our channel, but you know what, I'm not Haman, so I'm still happy. Because there's so many other good things about our church and about our ministry and about my life that I'm not just going to, oh, my YouTube channel. You know what, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But I made this video because the point that I was making was, you know, why don't we take a glass-is-half-full approach. Every single grocery store I went to was full of food. It was full of food. And it wasn't even like it was weird food. There was a lot of good food. I mean, I could have just eaten the rest of my life on just what was in that store. It was all there. It's like, oh, yeah, but, you know, I couldn't buy any flour. Yeah, but you could buy cornmeal. And you could buy all the ready-baked goods. And there was always an alternative. It's like, oh, they didn't have ground beef, but they had the ground pork or whatever, you know. Sorry it's not kosher enough for you. But the point is, there was an easy alternative. Like, you really think this is what it means to go hungry? A grocery store half full of food? And by the way, I bought something at almost every store just because I was, you know, doing a little impulse buying. But anyway, you know, you see stuff. It's good. So I did some impulse buys while I was there. And guess what? I was checked out in, like, less than 60 seconds at every single store. So big panic, no food, we're all panicking. We got to stock up on toilet paper because it's all going to be gone. And then you go to the store and it's half full of food and you can check out in 60 seconds and all the prices were the same. Nobody was gouging you and charging you, you know, $50 for a gallon of milk or something. It was all normal prices. And I'm thinking to myself, what is the problem? What are you panicking about? Because people just fixated on the one thing they can't buy. And you know what, some people, it was stuff that they didn't even normally buy. People who barely even bake. There's no flour. You don't even use flour. You rarely even use it. Why don't you just buy the same ready stuff you normally buy and just get on with it? But doesn't that kind of show the mentality of just the one thing I can't have? That's what I want, the one thing I can't have. You know what, you should get to the point where you're just content with such things as you have. And at Thanksgiving is when we count our blessings and think about all the good things that God has given us and not just fixate on the one bad thing about our life. Whether it's something bad about our physical appearance, whether it's something bad about our finances, our job, our relationships, you know, something that you hate about our church or whatever, you know, the one thing, hey, why don't you just like all the good stuff about our church? And the one thing you don't like about our church, hey, why don't you just get over it? And folks, happy people are not Hamans who just get mad about the one thing. And look, if you're a Haman, you're never going to be happy because I promise you, your life will never be perfect. There will always be that one messed up thing in your life. And you know, sometimes when I have something messed up in my life, I'm like, you know, I almost don't want to fix it because then I know it's going to be something else. Sometimes it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't know. And it's like, you know, I can handle this problem. And then when that problem goes away, you're kind of nervous to see what the next bad thing is going to be because there's always something. It's never going to be perfect. You will never live a perfect life. We're in a fallen world here. And so he lets the one thing that he can't have ruin his attitude. Now go to chapter 6 and I'm going to give you my final point here on Haman. We said, first of all, number one, he's arrogant, he's a braggart, he's a sycophant, and he lets the one thing that he can't have ruin his attitude, right? But lastly, he was covetous. He was covetous. And of course, a lot of these things connect to each other. But he was covetous, meaning that he's a person who's never satisfied with what he has. He always wants what he can't have. He always wants something else. Kind of relates to point four, but it's a little different. Covetousness. Now let me show you Haman's covetousness in scripture. Look at chapter 6, verse 6. So Haman came in and the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighted to honor? Now let me bring you up to speed in the story. Earlier in the book of Esther, there were a couple of guys who wanted to murder king Ahasuerus. Leaders are often the subject of assassination plots. And so there are a couple of guys, they want to murder king Ahasuerus. And Mordecai finds out about it. And Mordecai is like a whistle blower that warns the king and saves the king's life. Well here's the thing, when Mordecai does this, somehow he doesn't really end up getting a lot of credit for it. He doesn't get any reward or anything. He turns in his tip to the FBI or whatever and they act on it, but he doesn't end up claiming any kind of reward or anything. So what happens is, later on at the perfect timing, because in the book of Esther you see God's hand at work in mysterious ways. But in the book of Esther, we get to a point where it's just the perfect timing. And Ahasuerus goes to bed that night and he can't sleep. Because God is not allowing him to sleep. God actually keeps him awake. So, you know, he's tossing and turning. And you know what it is, when you're in bed and you're tossing and turning for hours, sometimes eventually you just give up. And you're like, you know, you get up and you read a book or something because of the fact that, you know, you figure, hey, I need to just kind of chill out, do something, and then try again. So, you know, you get up and do some reading or whatever. Sometimes I'll turn on an audio book or whatever. But Ahasuerus, you know, he doesn't have an audio book in electronic format. So, he brings in his human audio book. So, he calls for his servants to come and read the Chronicles of the Kingdom to him. Okay. So, basically he's laying in bed. He needs an audio book. So, he brings in the servant. And the servants are reading to him the Chronicles of the Kingdom. And they're just, you know, he's just kind of, you know, listening and thinking about where they've been and what's happened. And they come to the part where there's this plot where these guys were gonna try to kill him and Mordecai the Jew blew the whistle and whatever. So, then he asked his servants, he said, so, you know, what reward was given to Mordecai for doing that? Because, you know, he potentially saved my life. What did he get for doing that? And they said, well, you know, they're like, well, I don't think anything was done for him. I don't think he received any reward for that. And so, the king is thinking, well, we gotta fix that. You know, we gotta do something for Mordecai. And, of course, the timing just happens to be the day that Haman's planning to kill Mordecai. So, the next day Haman shows up for work at the king's and he's, remember, he's coming off that party where the bragging party and he thinks he's super cool and he's going to this elite banquet with just him and Esther and so forth and the king. So, when he walks in, in verse 6, the king said unto him, what shall be done unto him the man the king delighted to honor? Now, Haman's a really prideful, arrogant guy, so how does his mind work? Now, Haman thought in his heart, well, to whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? I mean, if the king wants to honor somebody, it must be me. But, you know, he's keeping it cool. He's going to do it in the third person, you know. For the man whom the king delighted to honor, verse 7, look at verse 8, let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear and the horse that the king rideth upon and the crown royal which is set upon his head and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes that they may array the man with all whom the king delighted to honor and bring him on horseback through the streets of the city and proclaim before him, dost thou it be done to the man to whom the king delighted to honor? Folks, think about what a stupid request this is and what a ridiculous idea this is. I mean, think about what if you knew, you know, Trump is going to honor you in some way or something or you think, you know, Donald Trump is going to honor you and Donald Trump says, what shall be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor and you think to yourself, hmm. Well, how about if I could dress up like you and I could be paraded around in, you know, the presidential vehicle and, you know, here's the thing, it doesn't really make any sense, does it? Because wouldn't, you know, you'd say something along the lines of, you know, I mean think about what kind of stuff you would suggest, you know, maybe some kind of a financial reward or I don't know, some kind of a plaque in your honor or something, you know, this is weird of like, I want, let's dress him up like you. Let's dress him up like you, right? Let's put him in the royal apparel and let's put the crown royal upon his head, what? Let's put the king's crown on his head and parade him around town in the king's clothes wearing the king's crown and the most noble princes will be subservient to him. Now where is this coming from? It's, exactly, it's coming from somebody who wants to be king. You know, this is an insight into what's going on in his mind is that he's not happy being second command. You know what he wants to be? He wants to be number one. And this is what I said earlier about this guy being a sycophant, okay? They hate you because they ain't you. He doesn't love the king. He wants to replace the king. It wants the king, he would love for the king to be dead and for him to be in charge. That's what he would love more than anything because this is a weird thing to ask for, to say like, well let me dress up like you, wear your crown. Of course this is being done in the third person, you know, for the man whom the king delighted to honor, you know, whoever that is, you know. So then of course, you know, it's the poetic justice when he says, okay, well sounds great, let's do it for Mordecai. All of a sudden Mordecai's wearing the crown, Mordecai's on the horse, Mordecai's in the apparel, he's being paraded around town. And of course this is a lot worse to Haman than just Mordecai not bowing down to him. This is like Haman's worst nightmare because he says, you know what, and he said, remember how he said he wanted the king's most noble princess to lead him around and proclaim before him? The king's like, that's you, you're my most noble prince. So basically Haman literally has to parade through town subservient to Mordecai. So forget Mordecai bowing down to Haman, he basically has to bow down to Mordecai, praise him, lead him around, put a crown on his head. And I mean, wouldn't you love to just watch him doing that because you know he's not really saying it, when he's crying out, I think when Alexander Scorby reads this, he kind of has this voice like, thus shall it be done, you know, it's like he kind of reads it a half-hearted voice because you know that Haman's not really putting his heart into that proclamation. And so we see here that Haman is covetous. Now here's the thing, let's say that Haman became the king, and let's remember, he already has all the power anyway. If you read the book of Esther you'll notice the king's just like, whatever you want Haman, whatever you think buddy. And then guess what, at the end of the story it's just like, okay Mordecai, here's my ring, do whatever you want, I'm going to go party, I'm going to go get drunk, I'm going to go to my hundred concubines or whatever. The guy lets Haman do whatever anyway. Haman already has all the power, but he wants the position, he wants the title, he wants the prestige, because he's arrogant and a braggart and everything else. But let's pretend for a minute that Haman got what he wanted, and Haman became the king of the Persian Empire. And by the way, this is the most powerful empire in the world, this is the greatest superpower in the world, Persia. Let's say he got what he wanted, do you think he'd be satisfied? Do you think he would have been happy and said, well I've arrived, I'm number one. And just, that's it, nowhere else to go. I guarantee you it wouldn't be enough, because you know what he'd then say? He'd say, well I know we have 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia, but why stop at India? Let's invade China, let's invade Japan, let's just keep pushing it, because guess what, that's what emperors have done throughout history, they always want to just keep going and pushing and conquering more and pushing for more, they're not going to be satisfied with what they have. Now Ahasuerus is pretty satisfied with what he has, because he's just kind of a lazy guy, so he doesn't really have any ambitions anyway, but you know a guy like Haman, who's covetous, and who always wants more, do you think he's going to be satisfied at any point? You know the Bible says, he that loveth silver should not be satisfied with silver. You know, you will, if you're a lover of money, you're never going to get to the point where you're just like, I have enough money. I mean look at the millionaires and billionaires of this world, what do they want? More money. And here's the thing, what do you even spend all that money on? I mean, how many houses can you possibly have? I mean you got the summer house and the winter house and the vacation house, I mean once you got three or four houses, how much food can you even eat? Even if you buy the most expensive food, there's only so much you can even fit down your throat. You can only eat so much, you can only live in so many places, how many cars can you drive? I mean there are people in this world who have a billion dollars, who have billions of dollars. One of my, who was it that was telling me, so and so isn't even that rich, he only has like five billion dollars or something, and I was like, what? Who was that, who was that that we were talking about? Somebody remind me, somebody help me out. Who was that, Solomon? Was it Isaac that we had this conversation, John? Where are they? You guys are just leaving me up here without, you're not helping. We had some conversation like that the other day and they were talking about something and well he's not as rich as people think, he only has like five billion or something. I was just like, five billion dollars, what do you even do with that? That's just ridiculous. It's crazy, but you know what, these guys, they just want more money and more and more and more. They're never satisfied. And if you're a covetous person, you will never be satisfied. So if right now you're thinking, well if I just had this, then I'd be satisfied. No you won't. It'll just be the next thing. And the next thing. There are two kinds of people in this world right now. There are people who are content and people who are covetous. That's it. That's all there is. Content and covetous. And here's the thing, it has nothing to do with their circumstances. You can have a life that's totally messed up, finances messed up, living in squalor, but be totally content. Be happy. Joy in life. Or you could be rich and you could be the poor little rich girl because the one thing she doesn't have. Right? And folks, most of us today in America by the world standard are living pretty rich if you think about it. I mean we're living in, we're sleeping in comfortable beds. We got climate control. We're eating nutritious food. You know our vegetables and fruits are coming from South America and Asia, Europe, you know so that we can eat them all year round. We live like kings in America. Even somebody who's just working class, even people that are lower class income wise live pretty good in America. If you're not content, even if you made more money you still wouldn't be content. You bid a bigger house and then it's like well yeah but I don't have this or I don't have that or you know. You get in some big fancy house and it's like yeah but I want to have property. I need to have a little property. And then what happens, then you get the property and then it's like who's going to take care of all this property? You know what I mean? I don't want to have property. It's too much lawn mowing. But it's like people in the city, they want to live in the country. People in the country want to live in the city. And people there in a small house, they want a big house. And they get in a big house, yeah but I want the big property. And then they get the big property and then it's like yeah but I don't have Trader Joe's close enough. You know it's like well you know life is full of trade-offs, right? You're not going to have everything. You can't live out in the country and have Trader Joe's a stone throw from your house. Now look I could throw a rock from my house and hit Trader Joe's. Life is good. You know I don't need property. You know I don't need property because if I want to go run around I could just go to a public field and just run around and just frolic and whatever. I don't need to do that on my own property. You know but other people maybe it's important to them about property. Great. You want to live out in the boonies and have property? Great. But just be happy there. Be happy there. You know be happy in the city, be happy in the country, be happy in a little house, be happy in a big house. Hey there's benefits to having a big house. Right? You can spread out, have comfort, have all your different specialized rooms but it's also more cleaning. You know look on the bright side if you live in a small house, there's less to maintain. Less to take care of. He's got its pros and cons. But here's the thing. If you have a big house, great, be happy. Small house, be happy. Town, country, be happy. Be content. The Apostle Paul said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Don't be covetous. Don't be always thinking about what you don't have and desiring what you don't have. That's a good, look, first number one it's a sin. A lot of people don't even realize it's one of the Ten Commandments. I bet if we did a man on the street and asked people to name the Ten Commandments, this would probably be the most forgotten commandment. Everybody knows thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal. How about thou shalt not covet? Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor's. And so number one it's a sin but number two is for your benefit not to be covetous cause you're going to be a miserable person. Who wants to be miserable? You want to go through life unhappy, miserable, you want to be Haman, Haman ends up dead. Haman's ten children end up dead. Haman's legacy ends up being that he's a villain. And so you don't want to be covetous number one because it's a sin and dishonoring to God but number two you're making yourself miserable. Even if God doesn't punish you, you're punishing yourself by being covetous. So number one it's a sin so God's going to punish you but number two you're making yourself miserable you're punishing yourself because you know what content people are just happy and they're going through life happy and you know what wouldn't you rather have joy than a full bank account? Why do people want the full bank account? They think it's going to bring joy. It's not going to. And so be content with what you have. Don't be a Haman. And as we go into Thanksgiving, think about all the good things in your life. And when you catch yourself complaining about something, and again like I said about corona kind of bringing out the worst in people like everybody whining about the one thing they can't buy at the store. How about this? How about the people that are whining, everything's going perfect in their life but they had to stay home or their gym was closed or whatever. Hey do some calisthenics if your gym's closed you poor little baby. It's like oh no you know my restaurants closed it's like I had to order takeout I couldn't dine in and it's like okay but but here's the thing don't be a complainer be a whiner don't be a murmurer you know think about this year has been a rough year and everybody's talking about oh man 2020 what a nightmare. So buckle up because 2021 is going to be worse that's my prediction. That's not popular to say but it's true. Hey buckle up buttercup 2021 is going to be worse that's my prediction. Like it or lump it and maybe I'm wrong but you know what this nation deserves the judgment of God and it's coming. So buckle up because 2021 is going to be worse that's my prediction maybe I'm right maybe I'm wrong who knows right. I'm not I'm not up here like prognosticating or anything I'm just telling you my opinion based on the past. But you know what though I'm going to rejoice in the Lord whether whether you know it's let's close on let's go to Habakkuk let's just close this just kind of popped into my head I think it's a good verse to end on Habakkuk at the at the very end of the Old Testament. Here's a great thought to end on going into Thanksgiving wrapping up 2020 getting ready for the really bad year 2021. See I'm just sick of saying that like oh next year is going to be the good year and then it ends up being bad. So now I'm just I'm trying the opposite now. Be very afraid. All right look at verse 17 of chapter 3 of Habakkuk Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 17 this is the mentality although the fig tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labor of the olive shall fail and the field shall yield no meat and the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation the Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places. You know what the Bible is saying here is that you know you can still be reaching new heights and tagging new spiritual summits and hit the spiritual mountaintop even when there's no fruit on the vine no ox in the stall even when the bank account is down and when everything's falling apart you can still rejoice in the Lord and you can still achieve new heights spiritually. And so be content with such things as you have and don't be the one who just just whatever the and look again I'm not trying to be up here making predictions about the future or something but you know what it's good to just be warned about what's coming. Folks look I'm telling you just you look at the look at the raw data on the coronavirus numbers it's exploding it's blowing up and here's the thing it doesn't matter what you believe about this virus what you believe about what the response to it should be these things aren't really in our hands anyway I have no control over these things you have no control over these things I'm not you know I don't get invited to the meetings in Arizona about okay how are we going to handle the next wave of coronavirus I have no power. Okay does everybody understand that so don't get mad at me for just stating reality I'm not controlling reality I'm just I'm just reporting here don't kill the messenger I'm here to tell you that the numbers are blowing up and going through the roof they're going insane it's exponential it's unprecedented it's going to make the spring look like a picnic okay and the deaths are going to go through the roof now here's the thing you say I don't believe it you know it's all a hoax okay well hold on a second does that change the fact that the government's going to respond to that no matter what you think no matter what you believe no matter what I think or what I believe let me tell you something and and and it looks like Biden's gonna be president you know Trump's still trying to you know pull this one out man if I were Trump I'd just be like good I need a break man because being president's gotta be the most stressful job four years is enough man but you know he's got to be number one he's pretty proud he's a pretty proud individual you know now here's the thing obviously obviously you know from a carnal perspective Trump is better for our country than Biden there's no question about that but here's the thing you know I don't mind having president Biden because our country deserves the judgment of God and I'm just like burn baby burn because our country deserves judgment of God you know what I pray every day I don't and by the way I don't pray for God to bless America I don't pray I stop let me let me tell you something and let me explain to you why my preaching is out of sync with mainstream Christianity and why my preaching is even out of sync with many of my listeners and many of our friends and many people in the independent fundamental Baptist movement is because here's the thing because you know I sit down and think about things I make decisions and decide what I believe about things before they happen and I just I just stay with that I'm not I don't want to be tossed to and fro with circumstances so I make a decision I stick with and you know what 20 years ago well I was actually about 18 years ago 18 years ago I was out soul winning 18 years ago with a buddy and here's what I told my buddy 18 years ago I said if our country ever gets to the point where and this was a time where our church had a thing going on where we were supposed to spend an hour a week praying for America so I signed up for that you know and I and I did the prayer for him you know I signed up for that and I participated in that you know praying for America one hour per week and it was you know it was just something that was like a thing but here's the thing I told my buddy I was so wanting I said if our country ever gets the point because we were talking about like where do you draw the line of when America is just too wicked and I said if our country gets to the point where the sodomites can just freely adopt children and where children are being taken away from people and put into the foster system and they could get stuck with a sodomite couple if our country gets that wicked I will never pray for God to bless America again I'll pray for God to destroy America now here's the thing when I if I would have said that to you 18 years ago you would have been like well yeah I mean that's bad because here's the thing 18 years ago that was not happening in America you might think that that's normal let me tell you so 18 years ago that was not even close to happening right but here we are in 2020 and every single state allows it now every single state there is one state left that had some law against it I don't know if it was Mississippi or Alabama or some and the Constitution or the the Supreme Court in 2016 said you're unconstitutional now in some states it's easier than in others you know in half the states it's just a green light to do it folks the cries of the children are going up to God the abused children from these freaks our country has enshrined this abomination of sodomy and here's the thing you're looking at you're like come on Pastor Anderson it's not so bad but here's the thing that's because we're like the frog in the hot water where we're just kind of used to it but see I'm I'm thinking about what I thought how I looked at it 18 years ago and I'm thinking to myself you know that was me just calmly making a decision about okay you know here's what what I think would be my personal line in the sand and maybe your line in the sand is a different line in the sand but that's why we don't fly the American flag here you know when our country is sending sodomite ambassadors all over the world we send a sodomite to Germany to represent our country when our country is saying hey we're gonna legalize this everywhere want to make sure every single country in Africa legalizes this you know it to me they've this country has crossed the line so here but you say well don't you love us don't you pray for us here here's what I pray I'll tell you what I pray God bless your people protect your people and let the Christians in America live in a Goshen that when you bring the plagues on this country that we would be spared that you would spare your people that you would spare the innocent that you would not destroy the innocent with the wicked that's what I pray but I'm not just gonna pray Oh God bless the 401k bless America bless the economy please let Trump win so that the economy can be good you know what I say nuts to the stupid economy let it go down the toilet because our country's wicked but you know what I want God to bless your finances hey I want you to get a raise I want you to prosper but you know what this country doesn't deserve prosperity when we've spit in the face of God and we've turned from God that's my position on this that's how I feel about this okay and and so I'm warning you that that right you know what's going on right now is that the coronavirus numbers are exploding and it looks like it's gonna be Biden okay that's what it looks like you know unless Trump just pulls this out it'd be like kind of a miracle if he does folks America doesn't deserve that miracle okay the bottom line is it's probably gonna be Biden and with coronavirus numbers through the roof what's Biden been saying that he's gonna do you know it's gonna be locked down upon lockdown and it's you know just get ready for some serious lockdowns yeah Matt he wants him didn't he wanted like a nationwide mask mandate you know I'm just telling you this thing isn't going away whatever you believe about it you can't just wish it away into the cornfield whatever you believe about it is not going away and so you better just fix your attitude because you can't change Biden you can't change coronavirus you can't change our government and our state but you know what you can change your heart and you can rejoice in the Lord and learn in whatsoever state you're in there with to be content so why don't you just decide that you know what when things get ugly over the next few months and when January and February get ugly because I think they're going to you know why don't you just decide you know what I'm gonna have a good January I'm gonna have a good February me and the Lord mean the Lord are gonna have a good old time and faithful word Baptist Church is gonna be blessed and we're gonna have a good time don't become this whining complainer and they don't have my product at the store and I ran out of toilet paper folks there's so many other things you could use besides toilet paper but just don't flush them down your toilet because it's gonna break the plumbing some of them you know you might need to dig a hole or something you know hey you know what though hey if I had to go in a hole for the rest of my life I'd still be as happy as a clam take the world and give me Jesus you know what I could be happy never using toilet paper again for the rest of my life and I could still love God and enjoy life and serve God and you know what I'll find something else I'll find a way because Abraham and Isaac and Jacob probably didn't have Trader Joe's right there and they probably didn't have toilet paper either okay quit whining about what you don't have Haman and be thankful for what you do have let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for the story in the book of Esther Lord just showing us this villain Haman Lord help us to be nothing like him help us to be humble help us not to brag Lord help us not to be sycophantic and and get all excited about celebrities so that we can just use them and abuse them Lord help us not to fixate on the one thing we can't have and help us to be content and not covetous Lord and in Jesus' name we pray amen. Men please grab your psalm books and turn to number 413 number 413 stand up stand up stand up for Jesus number 413 sing it out nice and loud on that first verse number 413 stand up stand up for Jesus the soldiers of the cross live by his royal banner he must not suffer loss conflict in this glorious day he that our men now serve him against the numbered fold let courage rise with danger and strength to strength oppose stand up stand up for Jesus stand in his strength alone the arm of flesh will fail you he dare not trust your own put on the gospel armor and watching unto prayer prayer duty calls your danger be never wanting there