(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. Amen. All right, Esther 6, 1, the Bible reads, On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Tirash, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king of Asherah. Now just to bring you quickly up to speed in the story, if you remember, Esther had brought Haman and the king to the banquet of wine in order to have her request granted, and she told them, I'm not going to give you my request today, but rather I'm going to tell you tomorrow what I would like. And so that night, the king is not able to sleep, and he commands that the chronicles be read, and of course it becomes very significant to the story. Now this is obviously an answer to prayer, because if you remember, Esther and all the Jews that were in Shushan, the palace, were praying that Esther would be able to go in boldly under the king and to ask his favor, not be put to death, but that rather he would hold out the golden scepter to her so that she could then make supplication for the Jews and ask that the Jews not be killed, because all the Jews in the realm are going to be killed because of wicked Haman's devices. And so instead of just going into the king and immediately asking for the Jews to be spared, instead she invites him and Haman unto the banquet of wine, and even there she doesn't ask, she postpones it to the next day. Now we don't really know why she postponed what she was going to say, maybe she just became nervous, or we have no clue why, but obviously God's hand is at work here because Esther could have had no way of knowing the things that were going on behind the scenes. And this is clearly an act of God that the king lay awake all that night, unable to sleep, and he just happened to call for the chronicles to be read before him, and it just happened to be that they read the part of the chronicles that had to do with Mordecai, who had done this great deed for the king and had never been rewarded for it. Now this is a great answer to prayer, it reminds me of a prayer that I've once prayed, because I spoke to a pastor one time when I used to live in California, who I used to go soul winning with sometimes, when I was in the Bay Area, and his name was Pastor Bowser. When I was soul winning with him, we had talked about the fact that Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses were very difficult to win to Christ, it was very hard to get them saved. And he had talked to me about winning people to the Lord that were really hard to get through to, and he talked about doing a lot of praying so that people would get saved, picking out a particular person that you wanted to get saved and just doing a ton of praying. And he said, I would pray for someone for weeks, and he said I would just pick one person and just pray for that person, and an amount that I could never keep up for a long time, I would just do it for a week or two, because it was something that I could not maintain for a long time, I would pray for that person so much. And I asked him, I said, well how in the world can you pray for one person to get saved for an hour, a day, or more, without doing some kind of a vain repetition of just chanting, I mean how do you keep praying for the same thing? And beyond that, is God really going to answer that prayer, because obviously salvation is based upon man's free will. The Bible says whosoever will may come. The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life, and Jesus said you will not come to me that you might have life. And so salvation is based upon a person's decision to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not something that God forces them to do. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all men should come to repentance. He said that he will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth. His will is that all would be saved, and therefore, how can we pray for someone to become saved when that's up to them, I mean it's their choice. And so he explained to me, he said, well I developed a big long list of things that I would pray for people when I wanted them to get saved, and basically he would just pray for the circumstances of their life to help lead them to getting saved. And to give an example, he would say, you know, obviously you've got to give people the gospel. And by the way, it's a big waste of time to keep praying for somebody to get saved, and then you don't give that person the gospel. Open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. You know, you can't just sit there and expect God to miraculously do what you're unwilling to physically do when you're able to do it. You know, God will pick up where we leave off, but we need to do the work that he's commanded us to do and not expect him to do our work for us. I mean, I'm not just going to get up tomorrow morning and not go to work, rather just pray that I will be paid, you know, and pray for the paycheck to come in. No, God expects me to do what I'm supposed to do, then he will step in and do the supernatural. And so he said, you know, first of all, I would pray that whatever I said unto that person, whatever Bible verses I gave them, whatever I preached unto them, that it would stick in their mind and stick in their memory and that they just would not be able to get it out of their mind. And every Bible verse they've ever heard, that it would come back into their mind and specific things I said that they would haunt them. And he said, I would pray that that person would be unable to sleep at night and that they would just lay awake and not be able to sleep and just be thinking about their soul and thinking about death and thinking about the gospel and how they need to be saved and how they're lost. And so he went into this big, long list of things. And I actually, I chose someone who was someone who I thought would be very difficult to get saved and I thought this guy is never going to get saved. And I tried it and I spent weeks praying for one person and fasting and praying for literally like an hour a day just for that one person. And after two weeks, this guy got saved. After working at praying, I gave him the gospel twice. One time he got saved, but I prayed and I prayed that he wouldn't be able to sleep. I prayed that it would keep coming back to him and haunting him. And the first time I gave him the gospel, it seemed like it just went in one ear and out the other. I'd been praying for a few days, I gave him the gospel. And it just seemed like it made zero effect. He was a little bit inebriated also as I was giving him the gospel. And it just seemed like nothing got through. But then, it turned out, later he repeated many of the things that I had said, showing that it had stood out in his mind and that somehow these things were brought back to his attention. And so, man has to make the choice of whether or not to believe on Jesus Christ according to his will. But what we can pray when we pray for people to get saved is we can pray that we would have opportunities to give them the gospel. We'd take those opportunities, make those opportunities, and then pray that other people would give that person the gospel. For example, whenever I pray for somebody to get saved, I always pray that God would bring people to that person to give them the gospel. In addition to myself. And I pray that people would give them the gospel, that they would hear Bible verses, that it would get stuck in their mind, that they would keep thinking about it. And I pray that whatever is hindering them from being saved, that God will remove it from their life if something is stopping them. Whatever it is in their mind that's stopping them from believing. Some people have hang-ups with, perhaps they're really into science and they believe in evolution and the big bang and all this nonsense sci-fi religion. It should be called the science fiction department down at the university, the institution of high learning. These that are obsessed with this science fiction that's out there and that's causing them to not be able to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because they're so hung up on that. Or maybe they're hung up with a false religion. Maybe it's Islam. Maybe it's Catholicism. Maybe it's Mormonism. Maybe it's Jehovah's Witness. Maybe it's their family that's putting all kinds of wrong ideas in their head. You know, I just pray that God would do everything that he is able to do. He's not going to believe for them. But he can do everything that he's able to do to try to get them to the place in their life. It might be a tragedy that has to happen in their life. They might have to lose their money. They might have to lose their health, whatever it is to bring them to that point where they're humble enough or where they're just receptive enough to get the gospel and get saved. That's what this reminded me of because this is an answer to prayer here where he can't sleep. And it's an amazing turn of events because Haman is literally coming in the story to have Mordecai put to death, to have Mordecai hanged on the gallows. Think about this, Mordecai never bowed down to Haman. He always refused and it always made Haman mad. But it's only on this particular day that his friends had told him, look, build the gallows, have him killed. All of this timing is perfect because what if it had happened just one day earlier? What if just one day earlier Haman would have walked into the king and said, I want this guy Haman to be hanged because he's refusing to obey your commandment. You know what would have happened? Mordecai would have been hanged if it would have just been one day earlier. But it just so happened that on that exact night, right before the fateful day when Haman is going to ask to have Mordecai killed, right before that day, he can't sleep. And he's tossing and turning all night. And it says that the chronicles are read before him and it says in verse 2, it was found written that Mordecai had told of big Thana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door who sought to lay hand on the king of Hazuurs. And the king said, what honor and dignity have been done to Mordecai for this? And said the king's servants that ministered unto him, there's nothing done for him. And often this will be the case in our lives when we do something good for someone or do something to help someone, we're not always going to be rewarded right then and there. We're not always going to get any gratitude. Often you do nice things for people and you don't even get a thank you. You don't get any reward. You don't get any dignity or honor out of it. But in the end, Mordecai is going to be lifted up and exalted to great honor. And the Bible says in Ephesians 6, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. So whenever we do something good to help someone else, we should do it as unto the Lord and not unto men. Knowing that God will reward us, okay? And Jesus Christ, of course, talked about, you know, when I was naked, you clothed me. When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was in prison, you visited me. And they said, you know, when did we do these things for you? And he said, and as much as you've done it unto one of these, the least of my brethren, you've done it unto me. So when we help people, sometimes they're not going to recompense us in any way, instead of getting bitter about that, instead of getting angry and saying, oh, man, you're ungrateful. And then this is what people will often say. That's the last time I do anything for anybody. Have you heard people say things like that? That's the last time I help anybody. That's the last time I give anything to anybody. That's the last time I loan money to anybody. That's the last time I bring a meal to anybody, you know, because they, the way they treated me. But wait a minute. Jesus said, when you make a supper, don't invite your friends, don't invite the rich. They might recompense you. He said, invite the poor, the lame, the maimed, the halt, the blind, because he says they will not be able to recompense you. And because they will not recompense you, you'll be recompensed in the resurrection of the just. He said, it's more blessed to give, okay, and not to be recompensed for them not to pay you back, not to be glorified by man. Your father would seeth in secret, your alms will reward you openly. So when you do something good and no honor or dignity comes to you, and no thank you is given, and you're not paid back in any way, shape, or form, God's saying rejoice because I'll reward you. And he can give us a greater reward than man can give. And so here we see Mordecai had done something good, he'd done a good deed for the king, and he'd received no reward, no honor, no dignity. But God is going to reward him in the end. It just doesn't always happen right away. And so we should never get disillusioned or disgruntled when we do things for people and they don't appreciate it. You know, when I do things for people, I just expect them not to appreciate it. And then if they do, that's even better. But if they don't, you know, that's not far from my expectation. And we shouldn't go through life just expecting everything to be returned to us right then and there. It will come back. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. In due time we shall reap if we faint not. But it doesn't always happen right away. And so it says in verse number three at the end there, there's nothing done for him. And the king said, who is in the court? Now Haman was coming to the outward court of the king's house to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. So he's on his way through the door. They say, you know, nothing's been done for him. The king says, well who's in the court? The king is just going to randomly ask the first person who walks in to give him a suggestion of what should be done for Mordecai. Well Haman just happens to be about to walk in the door. Right when the king wants to know this, Haman standeth in the court and he's coming there to ask for Mordecai to be hung on the gallows. And it says in verse five, and the king's servant said unto him, behold Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, let him come in. So Haman came in and the king said unto him, what shall be done unto the man whom the king delighted to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart, to whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? I mean look at the pride in that statement, the arrogancy of just thinking, you know, in the whole kingdom, of course if the king wants to honor anybody, who would he want to honor more than myself? Okay. And the Bible says pride goeth before destruction and in haughty spirit before the fall. And of course Haman is about to fall. And the Bible also tells us as believers in Romans chapter 12, for example, it says, for I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith. So we need to be careful that we don't think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. God warns us of pride all throughout the Bible, haughty spirit, arrogancy, thinking that we are better than others. When the Bible says with lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. We should not look down on others, we should be humble and esteem others to be better than ourselves. And so Haman here is just filled with pride and arrogancy to think that of course if anybody's going to be honored, it's going to be me. And it says, and Haman answered the king, verse 7, for the man whom the king delighted to honor, 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 street of the city, and proclaim before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighted to honor. Now when you look at what Haman asks for, there's something nefarious about what he's asking for. Because remember, Haman is the second in command of the kingdom. Is he satisfied with that? Is he satisfied with his ten children, his riches, his achievements, his power, and his position as being second in the kingdom? When he's offered a reward, he thinks he's being offered a reward for himself. And he can really ask for whatever he wants. He said, what shall be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor? He could have said, give him a thousand pieces of gold. He could have said, give him a hundred horses. He could have said, give him chariots. He could have said, give him wealth. Give him power. Give him authority. But no, what does he want? He wants to be dressed up like the king, and led around on the king's horse throughout the city, and a proclamation being made before him, thus shall it be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor. It almost seems like he's got designs on usurping the king's authority when you look at this. First of all, even if he does not literally have designs on usurping the king's authority, he wants to make believe and pretend he's coveting that position. I mean, he already has all kinds of honor. He already has people bowing before him. But his heart is filled with such covetousness that the number two position's not enough. He, even to his master's face, is asking to basically live out his position just for one day. He wants to ride around and feel like he's the king, and to just feel that position that he's coveting. But I think what he's probably trying to do is even more nefarious than that, because he wants to actually put this impression in the minds of the people of Shushan, where they're used to seeing him in that clothing, wearing that crown, and that perhaps when the king dies, you know, he can step in and take that position away from the king's son or, you know, who knows, that's just speculation. But whatever it is, it's covetousness. He didn't even ask for a legitimate reward. I mean, he could have asked for anything that would have been a reasonable reward, but instead he asked for this covetous reward, which the reason that the king is not angered by it is because the king is thinking of this as Haman asking it for someone else. So, you know, when you're asking for this for someone else, it doesn't sound that bad to say, you know, why don't you take that guy and dress him up in the royal apparel, put the crown on his head, make the proclamation before him. I mean, if he had said, why don't I put on the crown and I put on the royal apparel and I'm going to ride around having people make a proclamation before me, you know, the king might have looked at that and said, you know, off with his head, like he's trying to usurp that authority. And that's really what he's doing in his heart. But because the king is thinking of it for Mordecai, it doesn't upset him at all because, you know, he's not really threatened by Mordecai as far as, you know, taking over the kingdom. Whereas Haman is in a position where he could easily betray the king or even this, poison him or something. I mean, if he's got that close access to the king all the time, going to these banquets of wine and whatever, you know, he's being paraded around in the royal apparel and the crown on his head, you know, what next? That is a treasonous thing to ask for when you're asking for it for yourself. It shows the heart of someone who is trying to usurp that position, at the very least very covetous of it. And it says in verse 10, then the king said to Haman, make haste and take the apparel and the horse as thou hast said and do even so to Mordecai the Jew that sitteth at the king's gate. And I love this last statement. Let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. Don't leave anything out. And I mean, just imagine the thunderbolt that this is on Haman, coming in and thinking that he's going to be exalted to great honor. Now his mortal enemy that he just came in to ask be hanged on a gallows that was how high? Anybody remember? What was it? Yeah, it was like approximately 75 feet, 50 cubits, right, isn't that what it said? 75 feet high. And you know, after I preached that sermon, I was just driving around looking at buildings that were 75 feet high. Anybody else looking at any building? You know, I was looking at buildings, I was looking at hotels that were four stories high thinking that it's even higher than that. I mean, it's 75 feet. I mean, that's a pretty high scaffolding, right, that you're going to build to hang somebody from. That's some serious hatred. That's some serious revenge that you're trying to mete out on this guy. And so here he is coming to ask him to be killed and to be hung and you say, why hanged? Why a 75 foot high gallows? What's the difference if you're hung from 12 feet or 75 feet? What's the difference? Because the Bible talks about, you know, for example, and I think this might tie in with it, you know, cursed is he that is hanged from a tree. And I know that throughout history in people's minds it's considered a shameful way to die to be hanged. You know, if you die an honorable death, you're shot, you know, or slain with the sword. But being hung is one of the most reproachful ways to die. It's one of the most shameful ways to die. And something about hanging him higher just so that more people could see his shame, just so that he could be a spectacle to even more people, he wants him to just be an extreme spectacle of disgust in people's eyes. And then just the exact opposite, he's dressed up like the king and paraded around. And instead of being lifted up physically by his neck, now he's being lifted up on horseback and praised and given all kinds of glory. And of course when this happens, you know, Mordecai has to be the one to go around and make the proclamation. And I can just hear his voice because, you know, his heart's not in it, you know. That shall be done for the man of the king to lie to honor. I mean, you know, he's probably trying to make it believable, but he's probably not saying it as loud as he could. I don't think he's necessarily screaming his lungs out. I don't think he had a sore throat when he was done. You know, I think about having to go around and say that, and I'm going to get to what all this kind of symbolizes in a moment. But it says when he's done, it says in verse 12, Mordecai came again to the king's gate, but Haman hasted to his house mourning and having his head covered. And Haman told Zerush his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zerush his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. They're saying, look, this is worse than you think. You know, you think it's just so bad that you had to go around leading this guy around on horseback. You're so upset that you didn't get to have your enemy hanged on a gallows. It's way worse than that. They're saying you're going to fall because obviously they're saying there's divine intervention here. You know, it's interesting because God has never mentioned the book of Esther, but obviously the implication is here that, wait a minute, if these are, wait a minute, these are the people who you've decided to go after. Mordecai is one of them. Look what happens when you went after Mordecai. They're saying you're going to fall. It's going to get way worse for you. And while they were yet talking with him came the king's chamberlains and hastened to bring Haman under the banquet that Esther had prepared. So that's where he's going to go to the second banquet of wine. Of course, we're going to see in chapter seven his ultimate downfall where he's actually hanged upon the gallows. You know, spoiler alert, you know, next week he's going to be hanged on the gallows that he had made for Mordecai. But there's a lot of symbolism in this chapter when you think about what these things represent. Because if you think about it, Jesus Christ was killed in the shameful way of being hanged on a cross. And it's even said in regard to Jesus Christ hanging on a cross, cursed is everyone that's hanged on a tree. When it talks about them removing him from the cross before the Sabbath day, that being hanged on a tree is an accursed way to die, a shameful way to die. And that's how Jesus Christ died. But here's the thing. If you think about it, Jesus Christ was hanged on the cross and basically that's them putting him to shame. They spat on him. They mocked him. They shot out the lip at him. But Jesus Christ is going to return on a horse wearing a crown in white raiment, right? And he's going to be exalted and lifted up and given a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So in this chapter, Mordecai is actually a great picture of Jesus Christ because there's a design against him. You know, Haman could represent Satan. You know, he wants the glory. He wants people to bow down to him. Remember when he comes to tempt Jesus, what does he want Jesus to do, to bow down and worship him? He says, all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. So Satan wants to be worshiped. Satan said in his heart, I will be like the Most High in Isaiah 14, 12. He wanted to exalt his throne above the stars of the north. He wanted to be exalted like God himself and like the Most High. He wanted to be worshiped and bowed down unto. Well that's like Haman in the story, right? And of course, he designed to destroy Mordecai just as Satan's design was to destroy Jesus Christ. Because if you think about it, the Bible teaches in Revelation chapter 12 that the dragon, which is Satan, when the woman was giving birth unto the man child, which is Jesus Christ, the child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, the Bible says that the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born. So according to Revelation 12, it was Satan who wanted to kill Jesus Christ right when he was born. Who did he use to accomplish that? Herod. Of course he failed because Joseph was warned in the middle of the night in a dream to flee into Egypt with Mary and Jesus and he brought them there until Herod was dead and so on and so forth. Herod was acting at the behest of Satan, according to Revelation chapter 12, when he slew all of the children that were in Bethlehem from two years old and under, according to the time that he had diligently inquired of the wise men. He murdered all these babies. You say, man, times were rough back then. Well how many babies were murdered today in America? Does anybody know the number? Probably just as many as were in that town of Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof. Three or four thousand just today. And by the way, our country is doomed. I mean today I heard something on the news about how these filthy sodomites are getting married in California now and in one month all these bunch of fags are going to get married in California in 30 days. I mean it was like they made two decisions. I haven't really been following the news so I just kind of heard say of it. You know, a little bird told me that I guess there were two Supreme Court decisions that were pro-sodomite, pro-pervert. You know, it's just, it's disgusting what our nation is becoming. You know, and I just don't understand how people can think that our government is a righteous government, that they are, you know, operating as the servants of God or the ministers of God. I can't understand that when they're murdering children and they're promoting the worst kind of debauchery and filth of actually men with men working that which is unseemly. Unbelievable, the abomination that our country has sunk to, how bad it is, okay. But we see the infanticide of Herod killing a bunch of innocent children just to try to kill Jesus Christ. And then later on when Judas betrayed Jesus to be killed, to be crucified, the Bible says it was Satan that entered into Judas, okay. When Judas was controlled by Satan, he was possessed by Satan when he went to the chief priests and covenanted with them for 30 pieces of silver to have Jesus put to death. Because if you remember, afterward he repented himself and he went back to them and said, take this money back, I've betrayed the innocent blood and they wouldn't take it. So he just threw it on the ground and ran out and hanged himself, right. So it was Satan that tried to kill Jesus as a baby. It was Satan who entered into Judas when the sop was handed to him and decided to betray him unto death. And the Bible also teaches in Genesis 3.15, when it prophesied the coming of Jesus Christ, he says unto the serpent that there would be basically the seed of the woman would come and he basically said, he shall bruise thy head but thou shalt bruise his heel. You know, speaking of an injury that Satan would do unto the seed of the woman, unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Haman here pictures Satan, you know, seeking to destroy Jesus Christ, seeking to kill Jesus Christ, which we saw him do when he was on this earth. Here Haman is trying to kill Mordecai but instead Mordecai is exalted and lifted up above all others in the nation because if you look at chapter 10, if you would, flip over to chapter 10. It says in verse 2, it says, and all the acts of his power and of his might and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai where unto the king advanced him. Are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus and great among the Jews and accepted of the multitude of his brother and seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all his seed. Yet eventually Mordecai is lifted up to that position of second in command, that position where he's crowned, where he's on horseback, where those that are before him must bow down before him. And think about this. Remember how Haman had to make the proclamation before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighted to honor. Think about how all of Satan's minions one day, every human being on this earth who does the work of the devil, all of his ministers, one day will have to get on their knees and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So just as, just as Haman had to make the proclamation concerning the greatness of Mordecai, one day they will proclaim, they use the exact same word of Philippians 2, that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. They will have to say that. Every hardened atheist, every perverted sodomite, every wicked person who has denied the Lord Jesus Christ as the creator of this world is one day going to get on their knees and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So there's a lot of great symbolism in this chapter. Also if you think about it, Jesus Christ will rule and reign on this earth for 1000 years. But then after that time the Bible says he'll deliver up the kingdom to the Father according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and basically then it will be the Father who rules and reigns throughout all eternity and it says that even the Son will be subject unto the Father there. So we see that the symbolism there of Ahasuerus and Mordecai next unto him, the Lord Jesus Christ basically delivering up the kingdom to the Father. But having all power delivered unto him from his Father, which is the position that Haman was in in the story, but that's really where Mordecai is headed. And so obviously whenever you're dealing with symbolism, you can never expect it to add up exactly. And this is where a lot of people make a mistake. When they think that the symbolism is going to be just exactly there with reality. No, no, no. There are just certain parallels. For example, it's clear that Joseph is a picture of Jesus Christ, right? There are so many things about Joseph where he pictures Jesus Christ. He's got, you know, he's betrayed basically by Judah, Judas, you know, is the one who sells him just like Judas sold Jesus and, you know, he's basically has a coat dipped in blood. I mean, you know, I'm not going to re-preach all that, but basically we see obviously King David, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, Solomon's a picture of Jesus. But look, weren't all of these men sinners? So none of them can be a perfect picture of Jesus, can they? Joshua is a picture of Jesus Christ. All the symbolism in the Old Testament is pointing us to Jesus. Isaac, when Isaac is sacrificed or Abraham almost sacrifices his son, it's a picture of Jesus Christ, the only begotten son being sacrificed. But wait a minute, none of these men can provide a perfect picture of Jesus Christ because they're all sinners. So you got to get over that. But yet when we study the Bible, if we look carefully, we can see Jesus Christ on every page. And that's why the Bible says, to him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. And you might look at a book like Esther and say, well, you know, how could Esther point us to Jesus Christ? There's not even any mention of God in the book. How can this prophesy to us or point us to Jesus? But we see in chapter six here that it's a great picture of Jesus Christ. It's a picture of the fact that instead of being destroyed, he's going to be exalted and lifted up. Everybody's going to proclaim his greatness. Even his enemies will bow before him and proclaim that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And he's going to be lifted up, crowned on horseback with the robe. It's all the same. It's all similar. It all ties in. And so we can find the Lord Jesus Christ being pictured in every Old Testament book, even the Book of Esther. You know, you'll see him in Genesis as Isaac being sacrificed, as Joseph being betrayed. And then Joseph, of course, being lifted up out of prison, just like it says in Isaiah 53 that Jesus would be taken from prison and from judgment. Okay. In Exodus, we see him as the lamb that's being sacrificed, the Passover lamb. You know, in Leviticus, he's the burnt offering and in Numbers, all these different things we see are pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in every book, even of the Old Testament, in the Book of Esther, we find God pointing us to Jesus Christ and teaching us about Jesus Christ. So the lessons of the Book of Esther are mainly lessons of sowing and reaping. You know, when we go out and try to harm other people and try to destroy them wrongfully, the Bible is showing us that our wickedness is going to come back on our head. You know, Haman wanted Mordecai to be hanged on that gallows. That's where he ended up. And then when we try to exalt ourselves, we're going to be abased and other people will be lifted up in our stead. The Bible says, he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, but it says he that exalted himself shall be abased. The Bible says, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth. And we could apply this to our jobs also. Sometimes on the job, we might be interested in seeking glory for ourselves. And it's easy sometimes to fall into the trap of trying to make others look bad so that we can make ourself look good because we want to get that promotion. You know, we want to get that job. So we're going to make sure that everyone else's faults are brought to light and that ours don't come to the surface. And we're going to praise ourselves and tear down others. But you know what? God sees that and God is not pleased with that because God tells us, you know, let each esteem other better than themselves, therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets. And so we should look at our enemies, quote unquote, in the workplace and do good unto them and speak well of them. And let another man praise us. And you know what? God's going to see that. God's going to be pleased with us. And God can miraculously work out circumstances to where we'll get that promotion if he wants us to get it. The Bible says promotion cometh not from the east nor the west nor the south. And of course the other direction that's left is north, as he's saying comes from the north and God dwelleth in the sides of the north. He's saying promotion comes from God. God lifts up one and puts down another if he wants to. And so we need to be more concerned with what he thinks about our actions than what man thinks. And he tells us to bless those that curse us. But you know, speak well of those that are slandering us and doing us wrong. And he can make sure that we get the, and then we'll know it's from him. Because we didn't do anything to try to get it ourselves through dishonest means or just through slandering and tearing down others. You know, we should be more worried about what God thinks. Because God can cause that manager to be up all night, you know, just thinking about how he needs to promote you and not the other guy or whatever. You know what I mean? Instead of going out and trying to take it all into your own hands and do it yourself. You know, we should just trust in the Lord and do good unto others, try not to tear other people down in order to lift ourselves up. And you know what, it's very uncommonly when you hear people praising themselves. And this is the kind of guy Haman was. He thinks he's so great and he proclaims his own greatness. Remember when he gets together at a family get together, what he talks about? I mean can you imagine getting together with somebody at a family get together who just tells you about all their riches and all their greatness. It's like, oh yeah, I think we have to go now. I think, yeah, you know, what, you've only been here for a couple of hours. Yeah, yeah, no, we need to get home. You know, I know it's Thanksgiving but this is getting a little boring. Because nobody likes to hear you proclaim your own greatness. That's why everybody hates politicians because that's all they do and it's so annoying. And they're so disgusting when they just get up and tell you how great they are. And they get up and, oh, you know, I'm going to do this and I'm very proud of my record. And you know, their record's garbage. Their record is all just total failure, total, you know, lying, compromising, wickedness. But you know, I'm very proud of my record as governor. I'm very proud of my record as senator. I'm proud of my, shut up, quit praising yourself. You know, we need some politicians that are humble and, okay, sorry, never mind. That's a waste of time. You've been asking for that. But anyway, we just need no politicians because they're all bad and they're always going to be bad. But anyway, we just need less of them. Forget trying to ask for a good one, just less or one that has less power, right? Because these guys just praise and laud themselves. It's a rare exception that a politician ever comes along that doesn't just tell you how great he is all the time. And they come to a debate instead of debating the issues, instead of debating right and wrong, they stand up and just tell you how great they are, tell you how wonderful they are. I am good looking. I am intelligent. I'm smart. I have a perfect record. I'm a great leader. Let me, did I tell you what I achieved in business? You know? It's so annoying. I mean, does anybody else think that that's just so ridiculous when you hear people compliment themselves and tell you how smart they are and how good looking they are and how wise they are and, you know, oh, I'm really good at so and so? You know, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth. It's pride. It's arrogance. Don't go around singing your own praises. Sing the praises of others. Tell people how great someone else is, you know, and look, the Bible says let another man praise thee. It's okay if someone else compliments you, but when you're going around complimenting yourself, that's a big problem, okay? That shows that your heart is not in the right place when you talk about how great you are. And so we see that in the story. We see a lot of examples that we can learn about how to live our lives. We're going to reap what we sow. God's going to make sure that we get what's coming to us. We do a good thing for somebody. We help somebody out like Mordecai helped the king out. We might get zero reward, zero honor, zero dignity, but in the end, God always balances the scales and he gives everybody what's coming to them. Unto the good, he'll give good things and unto the evil, he'll reward their wickedness upon their own head. We don't need to worry about taking it into our own hands. We just need to pray and trust in him and live as righteous and godly life as we can and just trust him that he's going to fix the rest. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter and for the great picture it gives us of the Lord Jesus Christ himself triumphantly on a white horse with a crown on his head. We look forward to that day when we will see every knee bow before him and when we see him coming in his glory. These are all things that we're looking forward to and thank you for the story to teach us about life and about how things come back to get us and whether they're good or bad, we will reap what we've sown. Help us to learn from the example and to apply these lessons to our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, let's sing one more song before we go. Anybody think of a song that ties in with the sermon a little bit? All hail the power of Jesus' name, 167. You want to come lead us, Brother Dave, 167? All hail the power, let's sing it out on that first verse, 167. Thank you.