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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to Edwards Baptist Church. Glad you could join us here this evening. Let's go ahead and take out our hymnals. First song tonight is going to be song number 30, Nothing But The Blood. Again, that's going to be song number 30, Nothing But The Blood. Sing it all together on the first. My sin Nothing but the blood of Jesus What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh Precious is the flow that wakes me wide as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus For my part in this I see Nothing but the blood of Jesus For my cleansing this my plea Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh Precious is the flow that makes me wide as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus Nothing can force an atone Nothing but the blood of Jesus Not of good that I have done Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh Precious is the flow that makes me wide as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus This is all my hope and peace Nothing but the blood of Jesus This is all my righteousness Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh Precious is the flow that makes me wide as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus Amen. Great singing. Brother Brandon, would you pray for us? Amen. Second song is going to be 210 Wonderful Grace of Jesus Song number 210 210 Wonderful Grace of Jesus All together Wonderful grace of Jesus Greater than all my sin How shall my tongue describe it Where shall this praise begin Taking away my burden Setting my spirit free for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me Wonderful the mattress grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea Higher than the mountain Sparkling like a fountain All sufficient grace for even me Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater for than all my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise his name Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching to all the lost By it I have been pardoned Saved to the utter moss Purchasing Lord asunder Giving me liberty For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me Wonderful the mattress grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea Higher than the mountain Sparkling like a fountain All sufficient grace for even me Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater for than all my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise his name Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching the most defiled By his transforming power Making him God's dear child Purchasing peace and heaven for all eternity For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me Wonderful the mattress grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea Higher than the mountain Sparkling like a fountain All sufficient grace for even me Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater for than all my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise his name Amen Are one of the chapters of the Bible that I ever tried memorizing and it's got a lot of really good verses in it And so I'd encourage you to work on that one also on the inside We have our service times or soul winning times or our church stats. Is there any soul winning? for the past few days that needs To be recorded. Did you say you had one for this evening? All right, praise the Lord on that And Keep a good work on our soul winning We also have on the right the list of our expecting ladies please continue to pray for them as well as we have our prayer requests the Goodwin family Brother Edward praying for his health miss liberties family member Catherine for the goal we've been praying for but stronghold Baptist Church and also Rocco that Diaz Korea so Parietta sorry, my gringo is coming out. So But we'll be praying for the healing as well there Let's just go ahead we can say a quick word of prayer for those that were mentioned as a church family Thank you have any father for this evening. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to be gathered I pray that you would just bless our church family that is dealing with health issues to give them favor Please give them healing please that strengthen them and encourage them give them peace as they go through this difficulty I pray that you would help our friends stronghold Baptist Church Pastor Burson Please give them strength and favor. Please help them to keep reaching people in their area with the gospel And I pray that you would just continue to help us to have a deal and faith towards you in Jesus name we pray. Amen As far as upcoming events, I did want to make mention of a few things We do have an event going on in the Dow sport with area We're doing we're not doing the fire-breathing Baptist fellowship this year But we're doing a conference called the heritage of the Lord and it's a conference. I was gonna try and do in 2020 but due to All of the silliness of kovat and things like that. I wasn't able I didn't feel like it was a good timing So we just kind of relate that at the time But we are having that again this year. It's gonna be October Like six seven eight nine is that kind of window and the conference is kind of geared towards the youth the youth base Type conference and so all the preaching is gonna be geared towards youth And we're gonna have a lot of activities geared towards the youth. So on Thursday We're gonna have pastor Roger Menes from Verity Baptist Church He's gonna be preaching for us and then we're gonna have like ice cream after the service Friday we're gonna have pastor Bruce Mejia from First Works Baptist Church preach for us and we'll have pizza and Desserts and then Saturday, we're gonna have our spelling bee again We did do that at the FGBF last year And I want to try and do that every year for the kids to kind of motivate them encourage them I'm gonna try and get the spelling bee list Put out online very soon. I've already been working on it and I've been trying to update it I'm probably not gonna take any words away this year, but I'm gonna add a decent amount of new words Again, all the words should be found or related to the King James Bible though So that way either whether it's just a straight text or maybe chapters or books books of the Bible as it were like revelations things like that but if you're able to participate there's gonna be age brackets for everybody that participates and Prizes so last year was a lot of fun We had a lot of participation and it was it was actually pretty competitive. So I which was it was really Cool to see all the kids participating in something like that. We're also planning Some other youth activities and some events. So if you want to travel up there, that would be a great time of fellowship also Our churches are having a missions trip to Matamoros Mexico again In November, so November 10th 11th 12th. That is a Thursday Friday Saturday We're gonna be doing a mission to strip there now what we typically do is we drive to or fly to Brownsville and That's on the US side of the border Literally just right across the border is Matamoros And so we just stay in Brownsville and just travel in the Matamoros for the day and you still wanting to come back How you do theoretically need a passport and everything to travel across international lines But a lot of us even traveled and got back with a driver's license now, I don't recommend that but it did work Okay, I'm just saying that it did work. But I highly recommend that you just take a passport if you're gonna go and But we're gonna we're gonna take a group down there again every time we've gone to Mexico It's it's just honestly been some of the best soul-winning that we've ever that I've ever experienced the only Downside is you just speak Spanish. So if you aren't able to communicate in Spanish You're pretty much not gonna go get anybody saved in Matamoros. You could stay in the Brownsville side Sometimes we have some English people English speakers only that show up and they just do soul-winning in Brownsville It's it's not necessarily and incredibly more different than it would be going soul-winning in Houston But again, if you want it if you want to travel over there with us We would love for you to visit going into Mexico is a lot of fun. There's some really good restaurants. They're muy bueno Okay, so there's this one rest. It's like my favorite restaurant called la cancer. Yeah, and it's just like it's so good And it's like I guess in English is like the chancellery. It's like how you would say that in English But in like Spanish, it's like like I'm so yeah. Yeah, and it's just it's very good. So And it's cool because over there like the luxury restaurants are like kind of a normal restaurant price-wise for us So, you know It's like going to Chili's going to Chili's here is like the same cost is going to like the nicest restaurant in Mexico And so like they have just like awesome food. And so we just go all out, you know, hey you're going to Mexico You better you know have some fun. And so if you speak Spanish or you want to participate I Encourage you this is my motivation and getting you to learn to hear and of course I want to do that for this church because Honestly, like 25% of the people that you talk to out here only speak Spanish. Anyways, the departments We've been going to a lot so winning on Thursday nights I mean, I don't know I have personally never given the gospel to someone in English there I think it's just because my partners always take the English doors and you know, whatever but it's it's often just a Spanish door and But they're very receptive I I would not even be surprised I don't keep detailed stats on this but I wouldn't even be surprised if I've gotten more people saved in Spanish this year than Just because it's just they're so much more receptive in general And even though I run across them in smaller quantities the likelihood of getting someone saved in Spanish There's so much higher that you know I really would encourage people that you have the aptitude ability or whatever learn Spanish You know if your spouse speaks Spanish you should learn Spanish from them or you know any of those any of those kind of opportunities because and And again, I'm not saying you have to be You know the most fluent speaker ever but at least it's to give the gospel like me personally. I Can't hold very many conversations in Spanish, but I can give someone the gospel so, you know and and even Sometimes I can't quite understand everybody's dialect But if you if you ask them lots of questions of like is it this one or this one you can still communicate Effectively enough to get people saved and communicate Typically, I I fool people and they think that I can actually speak Spanish. So they're just like I'm just like I don't know. I don't know what he said, but you know Okay, you know what? I'm still a gringo. Okay, but At the same time, you know this gringo can get a lot of people spade man Hey, there's a lot of people that speak Spanish better than me, but they don't preach the gospel and so, you know It's a waste the waste that they have that language But that's a couple events just throw out there if you're interested in party participating Everything especially these trips and stuff, you know, the church helps you So like we'll we'll provide lodging and we buy you meals and stuff like that So and and even if you don't have the transportation we can try to sometimes figure out a way to get you down there But typically if you can get yourself there we'll put you in a we'll put you in a house We'll eat you and stuff like that. So we don't we want to make this as easy as possible We try to make soul winning. It's so easy. It would make Paul, you know, the Apostle Paul be like what's going on? Okay, I have to pay my own way and get beaten and you guys over here paying for people and there's no beatings You know, it's like what kind of missions trip is this? You know, this is a vacation that y'all are going on getting to eat You know prime steak and have fun and like, you know, and it's the best time of year I think to go November cuz it's down there. It's still pretty warm It's still like nice weather and just I mean how much better can I make this sound? Okay by now, right? but those are just a couple things to Think about and some events if you if you want to participate in as well Church reminders just make sure kids aren't running around on the stage or running in general in the church and That in the mother baby room. It's just mothers and their children Please don't just let your children go in there just because they're gonna tear everything up and it's not your kids It's my kids. It's every kid. Okay, so like for all of sin and control the glory of God all children are terrible So I'm just telling you that because it's not your kid, it's everyone's kid, all right Let's go ahead and go to our third song Psalm 12. We're gonna do actually our handouts on well You should have one under your seat if not raise up your hand Really James try to get you one. You know, I spend your Bible also you got a King James Version Psalm 12 You Psalm 12, let's sing it all together on the first Help Lord for the godly man see He said for the faithful fail from among the children of men They speak vanity Everyone with his neighbor With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak the words of the Lord? As silver dried in a furnace of earth purified seven times purified seven times the words of the Lord are pure words The Lord shall cut off all Flattering lips and the tongue that speak it proud things Who have said with our tongue will we prevail our lips are our own Who is Lord over us the words of the Lord are pure words as Silver-dried in a furnace of earth purified seven times purified seven times the words of the Lord are pure words For the oppression of the poor for the sigh of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puppet The words of the Lord are pure words as Silver-dried in a furnace of earth purified seven times purified seven times the words of the Lord are pure words Thou shalt keep them all on thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted The words of the Lord are pure words as Silver-dried in a furnace of earth purified seven times purified seven times the words of the Lord are pure words Amen as the offering plates being passed around Please take out your Bibles to Esther chapter number six And as we always do we're gonna read the entire chapter Esther is right in the middle of your Bible You'll if you open your Bible right in the middle You'll find the book of Psalms then before that you have the book of Job and right before that you have Esther Esther chapter number six The Bible reads Esther six verse number one 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 big Thana and Tiresh two of the king's chamberlains the keepers of the door who sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus And the king said what honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him There is nothing done for him and the king said who is in the court now? Haman was come into 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 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 and Haman answered the king for the man whom the king delighted to honor let the royal apparel be brought in brought which the king used it to wear and The horse that the king writeth upon and the crown royal which is set upon his head And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand 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 Then the king said to Haman make haste and take the apparel and the horse as thou has said and do even so to Mordecai The Jew that sitteth at the king's gate let nothing fail of all that thou has spoken Then took Haman the apparel on the horse and arrayed Mordecai and brought him on horseback through the street of the city and proclaimed before him Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighted to honor and Mordecai came again to the king's gate but Haman hasted to his house mourning and Having his head covered and Haman told Zireh his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him then said his wise man and Zireh his wife unto him if Mordecai of this if Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou has begun to fall thou shall not prevail against him But shall surely fall before him and while they were yet talking with him came the king's chamberlains Inhasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared. It's all better heads for a word of prayer You have any father. We just thank you for the opportunity to come to church tonight I just pray you to help our ears to be open and ready to receive the Word of God tonight Amen We're in Esther chapter number six and we've been going through going through this entire book of the Bible and We kind of had a lot of conflict building up to this moment where? we find ourselves and Mordecai and Haman have been at odds with one another Haman has been on a mission to destroy Mordecai specifically because Mordecai would not bow down to Haman and It's led Haman to make a lot of different decisions at first He asked King Ahasuerus to make a royal decree That all the Jews would be killed on a certain day and in fact Haman is even willing to pay money Or the Jews to be killed now, it's sometimes hard to fathom why people do this I Personally don't think I ever will understand it but it is a reality there are people who will just dedicate their lives to destroying you and Even though it has nothing to do with you personally It's because you just represent Christ and there's just something inside some people they just have a vehement hatred Towards God and the truth and It causes them to make very irrational decisions It's pretty irrational for Haman to just decide you know I just want every Jew to die and I'm willing to just pay a bunch of money for that to happen right isn't that seem a little bit bizarre like what's what's the point of this and Yet that is exactly what a lot of people are like in this world we live in today where there are people who are willing to give money time effort energy and allow themselves to just be dedicated to the destruction of God's people of churches of Christianity, you know, I see it firsthand. I've seen a lot of the people that are enemies of our church They their lives make no sense I'm thinking like why are you so dead? I mean you are more dedicated than many of my church members I mean you guys show up three to use you up for three services a week You guys are spending of your own time effort energy and money not only are you coming to three services week? you're not sitting down in a nice comfortable chair with air conditioning you're standing outside in the hot sun and And ridiculous outfit, you know showing up early Leaving late screaming and yelling the whole time. I mean you would you would think about like this person Cares so much more than the people that are coming to church on Sunday morning only I mean they're driving great distances to do these type of things You think like why would anybody do this? They don't even know me. They don't even know you they know nothing about us I've never had a conversation with this person in my life It's because they have this just burning hatred towards God They hate the Bible They hate the truth and it causes them to end up being a pawn of the devil Where the devil's will the devil's spirit is basically influencing them to carry out his missions to steal kill and destroy and That is a life today. There are groups especially those of the religion of the synagogue of Satan or known as Jews Who are willing to dedicate money effort and energy into people being destroyed? They're willing to pay all this money a lot of people have theorized people like George Soros and these other Influencers are paying literal money to protest and to fund all these different kinds of groups to destroy Really just anything that's biblical or Christian and why would they want to do this because Christianity and the truth exposes these wicked people who they truly are and it would tear them down It would bring them down a notch would affect their pocketbook all kinds of different things And so they have to try and cover up their sin They have to try and silence those that would expose who's really wicked in this world And that's why they're so dedicated often, but even sometimes when it's not as directly obvious Why like George Soros makes sense like we can actually change his influence, but these low-level people You're just thinking like you have nothing to really gain from this. They're just pawns of the devil They're minions and pawns of his scheme, and they're just they don't even understand what they're doing They're just being manipulated and used for a purpose But Haman is kind of this chief architect in a sense who's just dedicated his life to destroying Mordecai and in the previous chapter He talked about how great he was he talked about all the possessions he had But there was just this he just said but none of it avails me anything right all of this avail of me nothing So long as Mordecai is you look at what it says in Verse I want to find the verse He's just so upset about the fact that Mordecai is even in existence Even after he like brags all about himself Yeah, verse verse 13. Sorry yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jews sitting at the king's gate So he's just like you know what even though I have everything I could ever want virtually speaking 99% of what I could want just the fact that Mordecai is there just just drives me insane, and it's also funny It's like you would think having almost every possession that you could want would make you happy But these people are still not happy you know the reprobate and the God hater is just not a happy person They're never happy. They're never satisfied They always want more and they think in their mind as soon as they would get a they'd be happy But then it's B And then it's C And then it's D And then it's E and then they get all the way to Z and they like I ran out of letters But I still want some I'm still not satisfied. You know they just can't have enough because there is no satisfaction outside of being having joy in the Lord of being saved of being right with God of having that peace that path passive all understanding You know you can't really get true joy true satisfaction true peace apart from the Christian God be apart from Jesus Christ from God the Father from the scriptures you will not experience it It is a chase that you'll never catch you're trying to chase your own tail as it were You'll never really get there and even if you did it will hurt It's not something that you really wanted in the first place so that kind of gives us the setup To chapter number six of where we kind of are in our story But because of this burning hatred Haman has he's decided in purpose I'm gonna go talk to the king and I am going to get Mordecai killed look what it said in verse number 14 then said Suresh his wife and all his friends in him let a gallows be made of 50 cubits high and Tomorrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon Then go thou and merrily with the king under the banquet and the thing please amen and he caused the gallows to be made so he's so upset and He can't even wait because he's already determined that Mordecai would be killed on a certain day and the the the decree is already been Made by King Ahasuerus, but he's just like I have to have it now. You know I need this to happen tomorrow So Suresh his wife gives him this idea now Let me just give you a tip sometimes your wife gives you a bad idea. Okay. This is one of those bad ideas of You know it's like I can't afford this just buy it anyways. It's like well Maybe that wasn't maybe you should have waited right Maybe you shouldn't always go and always indulge and always get everything that you want so sometimes you have to be careful What advice that you have even if it's coming from someone that you trust you're like your spouse I'm not saying wives can't give good advice because they certainly can But your wife is a sinner just as much as you are and can give bad advice and you have to be careful that you just don't run with something just because your friends say so or your wife says so and So he's excited all right tomorrow We're gonna ask the king if if he'll kill Mordecai and honestly Leading up to this point in time. We don't see why King Ahasuerus might not grant they might actually grant this request. I mean Haman's a high elevated position of authority He's already asked to kill other people and the king already said yes. This is just one guy so Arguably it could be very plausible that the king could grant this petition But look what it says in verse 1 on that night, so the very night that they're going to bed Plotting and planning the killing of Mordecai 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 now You know what'll put you to sleep is reading the book of Chronicles, okay? You know reading just these stories like boring things I personally if I were to read a text late at night it will put me to sleep like that Now you have to realize that using an electronic device can Counter be counterintuitive to that point, but I'm saying like reading books Especially something that's not even the most interesting will put you to sleep very quickly So if you have a hard time sleeping that could be something you could try and you know try the harder parts of the Bible Because it's really a win-win either a you knocked out a big section of the hard parts of the Bible Or B. You fell asleep really quick You know but either way to me. It's just like a win-win right so if you if you have a problem sleeping. Here's my advice You know drink a lot of water Work really hard and read the Bible late at night, and you just you'll go to sleep Okay, that is that is the fix to going to sleep Now he's having a hard time reading wants to read this verse 2 and it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and T Resh Two of the king's chamberlains the keepers of the door who sought to lay hand on the king of hazardous And the king said what honor and dignity have been done to Mordecai for this Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him There is nothing done for him and the king said who is in the court Now Haman was come into 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 we see the exact night that Mordecai was plotting Killing Mordecai the king just randomly can't sleep and Then just is reminded about how great Mordecai is now. Do you think that that's just a coincidence? No, that's not a coincidence. This isn't random. This is the Bible folks okay, keep your finger here and go to Proverbs chapter 21 go to Proverbs chapter number 21 and Let me show you something. You know God while he created on the six days and then rested on the seventh I believe that God after the seventh day of creation Still is active in his creation So it's not like God has just let go of the steering wheel and put on cruise control My personal opinion and through reading the scripture is that God is in constant interaction with his creation in fact, I've preached sermons about how he controls the weather and I believe that God is in Constant control of everything that's happening from even a microscopic level The Bible even talks about even just animals certain birds and things needing nourishment and God's caring for them Providing for them taking care of them miracles are constantly being performed and I believe that our prayers Change the outcome of the reality we live in to the fact that when we pray to God he can grant that petition and alter Anything I mean all things are possible with God, you know, he talks about Mountains being cast into the sea, you know If you have the faith the size of the grain of a mustard seed and so I believe that God is in constant Concert with creation with us and doing all manner of things He's certainly counting the hairs of our head on a regular basis because some of us are losing that daily, you know moment by moment I mean we're losing hairs. It's just like oh, you know lost another one right check constantly and Check of that. I mean that the amount of thoughts and knowledge that God has it's it's overwhelming when you truly have to think about the billions of people live on this planet and Just of one stack. He knows just how many hairs on your head. I believe it's because he knows all stats It's not like that's the only one he cares about he was just trying to show you something so insignificant if God cares about something so insignificant as the number of hairs on your head in Comparison of the things that actually have real importance think about how much more he cares about them and how much more Concerned knowledge thoughts he has about those and what the Bible teaches is that God is in constant Influence of us as well. Look at Proverbs 21 verse 1 the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as The rivers of water he turneth it withersoever he will meaning that God Can cause you Not even just you even the most Powerful man on the earth the king he can influence them to make decisions that God wants them to make Now this you have to realize this is still in concert with our free will it's not that we don't have free will But it's rather the fact that God can influence us to make the decisions he want Despite us having free will you know, even the world is can do these things now They do it through manipulation and through all kinds of different deceitful tactics The Lord is not trying to be a deceiver here But simply he's just an influencer and if he needs to he can influence whom he will when he wants However, he wants and he uses that to bless his people multi Most of the time when we see God interacting like this in such a direct way It's because it has something to do with his people getting the right outcome And and really everybody else is just a pawn in God's orchestra here of just this symphony of History that we live in and all the experiences that we get to happen That's why it's so good to be a child of God so that God can you know turn whoever he wants or use pawns However, he wants for our benefit for our good. You know, I don't want to be one of those pawns I want to be someone that God's you know using pawns for my benefit and It's obvious here from reading the scripture and in comparing spiritual spiritual God's influencing the heart of this King To where he can't sleep and put it impressing on him some for some reason the idea of like you know what? I want to read the chronicles tonight, and he's just like that's weird But then that causes him to put Mordecai on fresh on his heart and God could have done this in many different ways God influences in all kinds of different ways and We've all probably if we were being honest with himself had experiences like this We're just something weird happen and then it caused us to be in a certain place at a certain time to meet someone or whatever I mean this could be how you met your spouse God could have caused some crazy thing to happen that led you to meeting your spouse or to leading you to meet someone that needs to hear the gospel or Or any kind of number of events that could happen transpire that caused you to just have a divine appointment As it were I believe that I my life is like that you know I believe that I have all kinds of things Turning in concert and and in cool stories and things that happen you know one in particular to me It's just when I tried to sell my house How I just brought up in casual conversation to somebody that I worked with Previously not currently, but like I just a friend that I had had in another workplace. I did something about moving and And he was like are you selling your house, and I was like yeah, and he's like I know who wants to buy your house I'm like that's just weird. It's just weird that like I'm not even trying to sell my house. It wasn't market It wasn't on the market I was just planning on doing it, and he's just like I know someone wants to buy your house, and I was like okay And then he's like let me know when they want to come they came and the guy just gave me like a full-price offer Basically, and I was just like I needed to fix things in the house And I'm like hey, I'll fix all this is like don't fix it I'll do it and just like and then and I'm like really, and he's just like oh, yeah And I'm gonna buy it in cash, so don't worry about closing just whenever you want to close just tell me Because the cool thing if you ever anybody bought has bought a house or bought something The only to the title company is frustrating right you go there And you have to sign like a bunch of documents it literally feels like you're signing your life away or something and And then you really are overwhelmed by it because it's like have you read all this you're like I mean, this is like longer than the Bible. You know it's like no. I didn't read these like 75,000 documents that you just presented to me. I just signed it a hundred times, okay, but if you do a closing in cash It's like three papers It's just like it's just like five. It's like two minutes. You know you're just like one two three But it's like when you finance something. It's just like the bank the Jews they bring all kinds of Sign this okay, and you're like okay. Yeah left kidney right kidney you know and and So it's just like how did that happen? How is it that some guy that I've never met? I don't know anything about just wants to buy my house with cash whenever I want Just because I was what I was planning to move to go to faithful word to train to be a pastor I wanted to serve God in my life, and it's just like it just felt like God Just is like orchestrating all these events, and I'll tell you like I will never be I'll never say oh, it's just random I Know it's God you know influencing people and causing Circumstances and events to just happen so that I can have that blessing you know and of course You know by me going to faithful word and then training to be a pastor and then eventually starting pure words Baptist Church and just being here and available it caused where then when steadfast needed a pastor I was a possible option and then through that I've met so many people and I've built so many relationships I would have not had if that hadn't happened And then there's certain people in our churches that wouldn't have gotten married probably if those events hadn't happened And then there's certain babies that wouldn't have been born Because those people wouldn't have gotten married and had a met each other, and it's like people literally exist based on the guy that wanted to buy my house for cash and I'm telling you like all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose You know it's like it's it's incredible All these dominoes that just fall perfectly in place for God's people and at times You know it's weird that you look at a domino falling you think like that's a bad domino But then later you realize oh actually that that was a good domino and You you sometimes can't really see the events as they're unfolding But you can kind of see them in hindsight And you can realize that God is just orchestrating our lives and causing all Kinds of good to be procured in our favor when you when you try to serve God And you try to do that which is right God can cause all manner of things to work out in your favor And for you to be blessed and even when enemies are dedicating themselves to killing you God can just somehow influence the right person at the right time to make a decision to help you Keep going or fulfill his will I remember even There was a Time I was learning try to like how to do soul winning better because I I was really active in church, and this was Probably like 2014 or something a long time ago when I was back living in the Amarillo area and I'd been doing a lot of Bible study and research and I I was trying to learn like the best ways to get people saved because I would preach the youth and preach the kids and I Just kind of did like a normal thing where you just kind of preached to everyone and then ask people like to pray with you Afterwards and I didn't know how effective that was and I'm just I'm just really interested so I found a video By my actual former pastor or sending pastor Steven Anderson not at the time But I just was a random guy online that made a video called like how to get someone saved how to get a Christian Saved or something like that, and it was a presentation where he was getting pastor burzins of stronghold now say But he was just a member at the time It's like a really old video just knocks on his door and so I like studied that presentation And then I studied like a bunch of verses that I liked for soul winning and I kind of made my own soul winning Presentation now I'd never gone soul winning where I went not door-to-door and knock on doors or like didn't that kind of stuff and and so like I've been preparing I've memorized like every verse that I want to use soul winning and it's it's lunch, and I say okay, I'm gonna go and buy a Bible that I can use for soul winning and Then I'm gonna start going soul winning So I'm driving and I wasn't even sure which store I was gonna go to and I saw a store And I'm like you know I'm gonna go to that store, and I turn it is like a Mardel Christian store I think they have Mardel down here. It's like a life way or something like that, so I go to a Mardel I walk over to the King James Bible section It's like 99% of the store sucks, but they have King James Bibles, okay? And I'm looking at the King James Bible section and all of a sudden He's out of nowhere this this like young kid walks in and he's a he's like a young black guy Looks like he's like lived a rough life Just kind of like maybe like in a gang or something like that. You know Not like someone walk into Mardel. Okay. You're like. Oh, you're racist and judgmental I'm just saying like he didn't look like he was gonna walk into Mardel okay folks And I'm just looking at him, and I can tell like I'm just kind of looking at what King James Bibles I want to use and I'm kind of I he just looks like he doesn't know what he's doing you know he just kind of just kind of like looking and Then he just he picks up the biggest bite like this like giant concordance Bible. That's like this thick He's just looking at it, and I'm thinking like what you doing with that like this gang member is like picking up a concordance or something and So I just I just look at the guy and just say looking for a Bible, and he's just like yeah he's like He's like. I don't know what I'm looking for and I just I just said okay Well, you know King James is a good good Bible to get you should get a King James Don't get the other one they take verses out, and I said let me help you find a Bible and I I Said so or you know do you go to church? He was like no, and I said well You know more important than going to church if you were to die today 100% sure you go to heaven, and he's like No, I don't know at all. He's like. I almost died in a car accident two weeks ago, and I just decided I needed to seek God and figure out like what to do and Like how to be saved, and I'm like You want to hear and he was like yeah, and so then right there I just I already had the Bible in hand and I was ready because I just I was like this is the Bible I'm gonna try and do it so and the guy got saved and then you know I bought him a Bible he ended up started coming to church, and he talked took his family to church and It was just like I mean how does that happen that you just try to learn how to do soul-winning You're so excited you finally learn it you go to the store to buy the Bible for so any and then you just randomly run Into person and he basically just says like what must I do to be saved now. I'll be honest I've probably never had a person more receptive than in my entire life like It's like so nice that God was just looking down from heaven like I'll give you the easiest person ever get saved You know you could ever want for the first time just to just get encouraged You know just to be excited to go so in and you know even just when I first started going soul-winning The church I went to is a King James only Church fundamental Baptist Church but you know they didn't have a soul-winning program and so I just went by myself and Sometimes I would drag family members. I would drag friends or a drag forever But most of the time I'm just going by myself but I went to this trailer park and it's right next to the church so the church has like a 50 or 75 foot tall steeple that you can see from everywhere And so I'm just going to this trailer park right behind the church and then it was like one of the most receptive soul-winning Places I've ever gone, but I didn't know at the time because I've never done soul-winning So I'm just going and it's just like everyone wants to hear everyone's getting saved But it was it was easy, and I'm just thinking like is this this easy You know try other places the United States is a lot different. Okay, but it was just it was so nice That the Lord just put me in the right spots at the right times Because I could have gone to the rich area not really understanding How so when he works and been really discouraged thinking like this thing doesn't work Nobody's interested. You know, but it's like I want to do soul-winning I want to see people saved and just God just put it on my heart To just go to all the right places and all the right times and just see how people are gonna get saved and man Did it just it just changed my life, you know soul-winning will change your life because there's nothing like getting someone saved and helping them realize the truth and Seeing people make differences for the Lord And you know God can cause all manner of things to happen in your life to influence you in the directions that he wants and And the good thing though is that you want to you want to lean into his prompting You know when God it feels like God's, you know, opening a door for you You want to walk through it, you know, he's opening the door of the ark you get in the ark You don't think like I don't know. I've never seen rain. It's like get on that ark You know walk by faith not by sight, right? Let's go back to Esther chapter number six if you didn't turn back there But but here's here's the thing when someone wants to destroy you Even though it seems like it's gonna for sure happen Look what God did to turn the heart of the king We're now that you know, what if Mordecai gets to open his mouth? They're like, hey, I want to kill Mordecai I wouldn't be the best timing wouldn't it? you know probably wouldn't have worked out very well and God has made sure to protect Mordecai because what he's a child of God he's righteous with the Lord and So the Lord is gonna protect him now. Look at what it says in verse Number Six so Haman came in so he's ready to get Mordecai killed and the king said in him What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor? So this is the first question and it kind of throws Haman off of his initial Goal of coming in in fact, it's like the king doesn't even care why Haman's there. He's just like hey, let me tell you what I want Yeah, you know if I want to honor somebody What do you think would be the best way to do this now what it says now Haman thought in his heart To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself. I mean what Could you be any more prideful? Isn't this just the epitome of pride he has decided already. Well, the king wants to delight in anyone It's obviously me because there is not a person on the planet that King Ahasuerus likes more than me or is more deserving or worthy of honor than myself So this is my chance to get whatever I want And Haman answered the king for the man whom the king delighted to honor Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth aware and the horse That the king writeth upon and the crown royal which is set upon his head 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 horse back through the street of the city and Proclaim before him thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighted to honor What a bizarre request and it's like hey, what do you think should be done to the guy? That the king really likes Now Haman thinks it's him. So everything in this passage we have to realize this is something that he wants What is it that Haman just really really wants? He wants to be king I mean think about what he's saying. I want to be dressed like the king I want to be on the king's horse and I want all the honor and praise that the king gets You know, here's a phrase he wants to be like the Most High Now, where's that phrase coming from in the Bible? Well, keep your finger go to Isaiah chapter 14 goes to Isaiah chapter number 14 and Of course, this is all dripping from the pride that he has in his heart Thinking he's the greatest thinking he is the most excellent. So of course then he wants Other people to recognize that in himself. I think one of the aspects of pride is not that you don't It pride is dangerous because not only do you want to think good about yourself you want others to people to confirm it about you Essentially you often what pride will do is it'll try to demand attention respect or praise or worship equivalent to what you think Regardless if it's true or not Well, I am the best therefore you got to call me the best or say that I'm the best or get a jersey that says I'm the best or because I'm so awesome I'm gonna literally change my name to the best and you have these like athletes that'll change their name So like the greatest or you know, whatever weird name they want to name themselves because of their pride They want they just want that respect. They want that honor. They want people to think that they're so Great, so they basically transform themselves into whatever it is. They think they want that's why it's weird when you have preachers Like Creflo dollar like why would you want the name dollar? You know, and that's not his real name. He changed his name to be Creflo dollar Like what why I hope that the dollars just fails and we go to a completely different currency, you know We'll go to like Bitcoin. It'll be like Creflo Bitcoin, you know, it's like what what what's so special about you? You call yourself literal money like how degrading anyways to be named after money, but People will try to give themselves these lofty titles or these names about how great they are There's a lot of these rappers will do this too Well, they'll basically name themselves something about them being the greatest probably the worst is Kanye West Because Kanye West he's he'll just like shorten his name to just like ye And it's like ye what because he's trying he's trying to emulate God and God it goes by what the great I am is just I am right and so he's like You know, I'm just I am right and it's just so blasphemous and so wicked that Kanye is trying to turn himself into God When you can't even keep a wife, I mean You're you're you're a little whore there Kim Kardashian said bye-bye to ye and You know whenever the Vashti said bye to King Asher as he banished her and she got what she was coming for But I don't see you know, Kanye doesn't have any power Kim's just you know off to the next guy or whatever doing her thing Why because this guy is not God Kanye West is a nothing burger He's an anti Christ trying to claim that he's the Lord Jesus Christ and his pride is gonna debase him to the point where no one likes him cuz let me tell you something Christian real Christians don't like Kanye West is a blasphemous wicked satanic person and Then the whole rap world the whole satanic world doesn't like this guy because he's trying to be like Jesus and the rap world doesn't Like Jesus they like Satan they like themselves They like to worship themselves and so he's gonna basically at the end of his life just become some loser that no one likes that everyone looks down upon and This is the ultimate end of anyone that lifts themselves up in pride with the ultimate being Lucifer himself the devil now Isaiah 14 is about the king of Babylon but it also then brings up the devil look at verse 1 for the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and Will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land and the stranger shall be joined with them and they shall cleave to the House of Jacob and the people shall take them and bring them to their place and the house of the Lord shall possess them in Land of the Lord for servants and handmaids and they shall take them captives whose captives they were and they shall rule over their oppressors And it's come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy fear and from the hard bondage wherein thou was made to serve that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say so The Lord unto the book of Isaiah is telling them how they're gonna go to captivity Babylon's gonna take them over But then chapter 14 is saying but eventually you'll get back you'll take them captive You'll be a ruler and then you're gonna have this proverb against the king of Babylon So you're basically going to mock and ridicule the guy that made you captive now who made the children of Israel captive? Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar Made captive the children of Israel. He was the king of Babylon and this is what they'll eventually say about him How at the oppressor ceased the golden city ceased The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke. He that ruled the nations and angered is Persecuted and none hindereth the whole earth is at rest and is quiet They break forth into singing gave the fir trees rejoiced at thee and the cedars of Lebanon saying since thou art laid down No feller has come up against us now Again, what what is it? What are they saying here? Nebuchadnezzar went through the entire earth and he conquered every kingdom now the way that they would do this is they they would chop down all the trees and your area and they would make a bulwark or they would basically encircle or besiege your city and So they would come through and they would Fell the trees that's basically no feller is come up against us a feller would be one who's knocking down the trees and then using those trees as a Bulwark or as some kind of a device against them to besiege their city or to basically hurt and harm them And they're saying hey since Nebuchadnezzar has been knocked out. Nobody's coming against us. No one's attacking us verse 9 Hell From beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming now it's just so funny to me is I show people this passage and they'll tell me that Nebuchadnezzar saved and I'm like, wait a minute. How could I mean the Bible is saying that he's gonna meet hell at his coming Okay It stirs up the dead for thee even all the chief ones of the earth it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings Of the nations all they shall speak and say unto thee art thou also become weak as we Art thou become like unto us thy pop is brought down to the grave and the noise of thy voils The worm is spread under thee and the worms cover thee. So he's saying Whenever you go to hell And this is what the word hell means Because it's not talking about the fire and flames. It's talking about the people of hell Sometimes the Bible will reference people with words like world have been and and and health So when it's saying like hell it's talking about all the people in hell Are gonna be there and they're gonna see you coming and then they're gonna mock you when you come into hell and they're gonna be Like hey you knocked us down. Well, look at you now, buddy you know, they're gonna be making fun of him and You know basically saying look how you're like us buddy. You're no better than we are You got knocked down Is he saying you're become weak as we hey, you talked a big talk. Look look at you now, buddy. You're knocked down and He's he's under the worms now the worms of course is just talking about the earth So they're under the earth right? Hell is under the earth verse 12. How about the fallen from heaven O Lucifer now? This is what the Bible does which is interesting is the Bible then takes simile or metaphor To talk to two different people at the same time. So what's happening is They're still talking about Nebuchadnezzar But then we're also bringing up Lucifer and it's kind of like a double come It's kind of a double dip where they both get the same type of instruction same kind of references He's being called Lucifer in a sense, right? It's a name that he's being called, but it's actually in reference to Lucifer now This is the only time Lucifer's mentioned in the Bible at least that word the word Lucifer Obviously the devil's mentioned multiple places, but the name of Lucifer is found one place in your Bible It's here modern Bibles take out this word Lucifer here, and they'll even replace it with Names like Morningstar which Morningstar is a title given to Jesus in the book of Revelation now, who do you think? Would ever want to take a title of Jesus and then give it to the devil Like I wonder who would want to do that. How about the devil? You know, that's how I know these Bibles are satanic is they take out the names of Lucifer and they replace them with Jesus's name For a couple reasons number one Jesus, they're trying to downgrade Jesus But then additional to that doesn't the devil like to take on names that aren't his. Oh, I'm the Morningstar, right? But the Morningstar is Jesus not Lucifer Lucifer is the son of the morning now Lucifer could mean light bear light bringer and Often Lucifer is associated with the Sun and So is Jesus they're kind of both are but it's because he's kind of like this fake God Often also Venus because it's kind of like a fake looking Sun that's rising in the morning or something like that but that's why there's a lot of Sun God worship in Satanism and paganism and these type of things is they they worship the physical literal Sun not the Son of God and That's really just representative of the devil because the devil tries to tell you oh, I'm bringing light I'm bringing information bring knowledge like he did in the Garden of Eden. So this is the title of Lucifer It says he's fallen from heaven How art thou cut down to the ground which did his week in the nations without seven light heart? I will send into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high What a freak, you know, this guy is just drunk with pride and just Desiring to be like God just so much and that's why the devil is going to be in the lowest hell The guy that wants to replace God is going into the lowest part of hell and he's gonna be cut down Just like Nebuchadnezzar brought down the lowest He tried to you know, lift himself up and in the Bible made it even clearer in Daniel chapter number four He really lifts himself up and then God has to tear him down God even makes another Kenezo become a beast on the earth just to mock him and debase him But you know, that's not the end of his debasement Hell is his final destination just like Lucifer lifting himself up verse 15 each Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying is this the man That made the earth to tremble that did shake kingdoms That made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof that open not the house of his prisoners all The kings of the nations even all of them lie in glory everyone in his own house But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch and as the raiment of those that are slain Thrust through with a sword that go down to the stones of the pit as a carcass trodden under feet Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial because thou has destroyed thy land and slain my people the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned Notice what he says. Hey You are now and how you're in the grave While all the rest of the kings that exist are still in their glory still have their kingdom But you've been brought down you've been cast down and you know what Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was overthrown in the night Omedo Persian Empire came in and just overthrew them in the night and it was just over Nebuchadnezzar's in hell for all of eternity brought down and of course has no Renown his children and those beyond him are never looked in a positive sense. Nobody's thinking like Oh Nebuchadnezzar such a great guy What a wonderful person and no one's looking at any the remnant of Nebuchadnezzar and saying what a wonderful guy His remnant has been destroyed. You know when you read the Bible you have to understand there were so many possible groups of people that could have existed on the earth, but then all the wicked ones God just snuffed out and They ceased to exist There's no one from them. There's not like all these people that are just oh, there's all these Canaanites You know our archa sites and you know these different like groups that you're just reading the Bible. They got snuffed out They got just completely decimated and wiped out and consumed and just cease to exist that you can be a people There are just groups of people that just cease to exist Why because of their wickedness because of their pride because of their hatred towards God and the seed of the wicked doers Look at this the seed of evildoers shall never Be renowned meaning that God will just destroy Evil people and all the their children go back to be with Esther chapter number six Doesn't sound like it's gonna be going well for Haman here What do you think's gonna happen it I mean we haven't read the rest of Esther yet What do you think's gonna happen to Haman now that we've read this, you know, you lift yourself up in pride You want to be like the most high I want to be in the royal apparel and ride on the king's horse and Everybody shout how wonderful I am, you know well Too bad. You're not gonna get any of that now it said in verse 10 then the king said to Haman make haste and take the apparel on the horse as thou said and Do even so to Mordecai the Jew? That's it of the king's gate let nothing fail of all that thou spoken You know, if there's one time that you could just watch someone's face in history, this would have been it. I Mean, can you Matt? I mean, I can't even believe it's almost you think the guy just died from shock. Like he's just like It's like the worst thing that could ever happen He's like he just came there to have Mordecai killed and it hurts his heart so much that Mordecai just is even in the gate Now he has the literally he has the dress Mordecai Did you read this because I read this Okay, it says 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 So in Haman's mind, they're gonna get some good guy to dress him You know who had to dress Mordecai? Haman Haman has to take all those clothes and put it on Mordecai and then he has to get Mordecai and get him on the horse and then he has to drag The horse around with Mordecai and be like, you know, you know, this is the man and him the king delighteth, right? What is this this phrase? Thus shall it be done to the man in the king delighteth honor Just over and over I mean what God has a sense of humor folks This Is an incredible, you know This is an amazing story of what happens when you go against God or God's people Where he can just flip the script and then your worst nightmare comes to pass now, you know, it's funny this makes me think of another story and is it so like Our church preaches against feminism. I don't know if that's a shock to you. Okay, but the Bible doesn't teach feminism. Okay folks and You know some of our preaching clips sometimes go viral and so like a lot of preaching clips of mine even my assistant Dylan Dylan Oz have gone viral and on women and how they're supposed to be, you know at home keepers at home Serving their husband and you know things like making a sandwich for their husband at home, right? Well, it's funny because after lunch one day or after church one day Dylan and his family go to Jersey Mike and they get some sandwiches over by the church and they walk in and this girl's making a sandwich for him and his family and She's just like oh get y'all coming from church. He's like, yeah, she's like what church and he's like steadfast like oh And then she gets making it. She's like, what's your name Dylan? And Then she makes a sandwich they start eating and then he said he was looking at him and they're all like Whispering and like writing and she was all she was all weird. It was a weird encounter, right? Well, then we see online This chick is saying my worst nightmare came to pass today. I Had to make a sandwich for Dylan Oz And I'm just like, you know, these people don't even understand logic and reasoning and truth It's like we get up and say hey It's better to make a sandwich for your husband whom you love Than to some bozo that you don't even like working at this low-income restaurant Yet these stupid feminists don't even get that and then they literally have to go and make a sandwich for the person they abhor Because you know what? That's how God is God has a sense of humor and you know what when you hate God's people Hey, you might make him a sandwich later Hey, you might have to drag him around through town Saying this is you know whom the king delighteth honor Hey, this is gonna be done unto the man whom the king delighteth honor, right? And so we need to realize Hey God is gonna take care of us God has a sense of humor and there's no sense in attacking God's people Your own worst nightmares will come upon you But you know what these people in their pride Thinking that they're better than a pastor or better than God's Word that women should replace men in the workforce Well, you got it honey, you go girl you make that sandwich and you know, it's funny I bet she won't even make sandwiches for a boyfriend or husband at home You know, she's so tired from working all day or whatever, but she'll make sandwiches for everybody else You know the irony it's beautiful folks. Okay, I just love it I love the Word of God and I love that people get what they deserve and you know What God's it the Bible says that the Lord loves judgment? He loves it more than I do He loves giving these people what they deserve, you know, you you spit in the face of God God will make you look like an idiot. You think that you have a better plan than God's plan idiot I mean these people that are trying to turn our nation into Satanism and all this junk, you know California saying hey, let's Ban gas-powered vehicles. Let's go to all-electric and they can't even have a power grid Their power gets going down because they're going to so much green energy They can't oh, we're so much better than y'all we're gonna have energy you don't even have energy Okay, I guess you're gonna really conserve the planet, you know save the planet with no energy over in California brilliant and Again, that's just a consequence to their idiocracy to their stupidity to the hypocrisy You know these people that go against the Word of God They're always shown to be the liar the fraud and just really the moron That they are because there is no knowledge wisdom or truth against God's Word God's Word will always triumph and God's people will always triumph. Maybe not in the moment There might be a dark day Christ did die on the cross, you know, that was the power of that was the their hour and the power of darkness You know what? They're not laughing anymore because he rose again They're not gonna be laughing when they meet God in the flesh They're not gonna be having a good day. Then, you know, God's people will be getting the victory then So it says in verse number 11 then took Haman the apparel and the horse and arrayed Mordecai That must have been that was so fun and brought him on horseback through the street of the city and proclaimed before him Thus shall it be done another man and the king delighteth honor just like he said Verse 12 Mordecai came again to the king's Gate, but Haman hated his house mourning and having his head covered. That's gonna be pretty embarrassing to tell his wife Hey, what happened? So about the gallows Yeah, and Haman told Zaresh his wife and all his friends everything they befallen him Then said his wise men and Zaresh his wife on him If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou has begun to fall thou shalt not prevail against him But shall surely fall before him And while they were yet talking with him came the king's chamberlains and hasten to bring Haman in the banquet that Esther had prepared So now he doesn't even get to enjoy the meal, you know He's all excited to go eat with Esther in them, but you're not gonna enjoy this meal after having gone through that experience I mean you just went through your worst experience and now you have to go to this banquet You're gonna sit there and it's gonna be hard. So to try and enjoy this or fake it or go through so Haman gets to enjoy nothing in his life. You know, what if Haman had never decided to kill Mordecai and Then he just shows up and he could have been friends with Mordecai or he could have had a good day or he could have enjoyed this banquet Like is there anything wrong with honoring one of your friends? I Mean if you like somebody and someone did a really good job What's what's wrong with setting them up for a day and celebrating them for a day, you know and being pleased with them You could still have a good day You know what when you make all these stupid mortal enemies and you go and try to attack people it ends up just biting you You know in the last Go view it to Psalms chapter number seven go to Psalms chapter number seven. I have a few more verses I want to just look at real quick and connection with this passage, but you know, what what is this chapter about? It's just about pride and you know, the book of Esther really condemns a lot of pride But what is pride? We look in a dictionary has a lot of different ideas and I think some of them are better than others in Context of what the Bible means by pride one A definition of pride is a sense of one's own proper dignity or value Now we have to understand about the word pride and our English vocabulary English language Is that we don't really have a proper substitute for the word pride So often we use it in a positive sense. So we'd say like I'm really proud of my children. You know, I really take pride in my house or I really proud of My job or you know, just things like that. So we kind of use it in a positive sense There's nothing I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that But we have to realize is that there's no usage as this in the Bible Like there's not really this kind of usage ever found in Scripture where people are like, hey I'm proud of my boy or I'm proud of my job or any time it's bring up pride or being proud It's always a negative thing Okay, so the idea of sense of one's own proper dignity or value While that's true, and I have no objection to that That's not always necessarily the best idea of what we're talking about from a scriptural perspective Okay, a second definition. It says arrogant or disdainful conduct now, that's a lot more similar Definition of what we see often in the Bible where people are treating people poorly Because of pride they have now to give a sense of what that truly means this is what another definition is found in this in a dictionary Excessively high opinion of oneself now that is often what we're describing when we're talking about pride in the Bible especially when it says excessively high opinion of oneself There's nothing wrong with being real about who you are Okay, it you can go to the opposite of pride where it's like self-abasement that's not good either You don't want to get so low. It's just I'm scum and I'm worthless and I have no value. That's not being humble But being prideful is where you go way above and beyond what you're really like to try and presume something about yourself That's not even true. I'm the greatest. I'm the best just this over-the-top Self-worth or conceit Kind of a love of yourself and and that is typically what the bio means about pride. This is the devil The devil thinks too highly of himself. He believes he should be worshiped as God, but here's the problem He shouldn't be worshiped as God there is no comparison to him and in God now Satan or Lucifer was a glorious creation and the Bible almost insinuates at least from an angelic perspective As if the devil were arguably his greatest creation, you know, I you could argue that man is as greatest creation So I think it's just kind of relative who we're talking about but in general sense I mean the devil is like one of the top if not the top of God's creations in general speaking Okay, but that's not good enough for the devil He's like Haman in the sense that he has it all virtually he has 99% of what he wants He doesn't have that 1% and he can't be satisfied so as long as he doesn't have that 1% now There's someone that gets what the devil wants. Who is that? Jesus God the Father Obviously is who he wants to be and he's mad that Jesus gets that same honor and that same respect that God the Father gets The devil wants that he wants to be like Jesus and he wants to be the substitute for Jesus That's why we have this Antichrist system and religion, okay Same with Haman Haman wants to be this top guy He wants to be like King Ahasuerus and have that same power and pride But why could not Haman and the devil have been content in being second place or third place or whatever it is You know wherever they find themselves pride because they think that they're more worthy than they truly are and This is a dangerous place to put ourselves in is when we start thinking about ourselves in ways that are not true They're not real. We believe that we're better than we really are We need to have a humble and low opinion of ourselves and to keep ourselves in check So as to not make stupid irrational decisions like Haman like the devil and like many that are very prideful Thinking that they're better thinking that they're smarter That's what feminism does is it tries to say that women are better than men at things that men are designed to do and It's just like you're gonna look silly Because just frankly speaking women aren't as good men at certain activities and the same could be flipped there are things that women are better at have a easier time dealing with than men and it'd be prideful for men to think they don't need women or that Women are always inferior or something, you know We need to have the right opinion of ourselves and not allow ourselves to think more highly than we ought to think and try to Presume things about ourselves that aren't true. This could happen in the workplace You know if your boss asks you to do something and you don't know how to do it You know what? The best thing is to do say I don't know how to do that. I can do anything I'm the greatest you should always pick me always choose me. I know about every topic every subject This sounds like Donald Trump You know where he just basically presumes to know everything and as the answer to everything But that's a foolish attitude because you're gonna end up looking like an idiot to people that know better I mean Donald Trump is saying that he knows more about the Bible than anyone and Then he's saying his favorite book of the Bible is two Corinthians It's like what? Obviously, this guy is a bozo, right? This guy doesn't know what he's talking about and then you start looking like a fool You're gonna get the base and the sight of everyone when you try to act like, you know But at the same time, you know some people when you knock on the door They'll say no one can know that you're going to heaven. It's like why do you know that though? Like do you know everything in the Bible? No Also, you know nothing. No What is it? Why no, I'm saved. I There are things I do know in the Bible, right? That's the humble opinion is being real not going to an extreme of like the basings Oh, I don't know anything, you know, or I've even heard a preacher get up and he says I'm just a retard. I'm stupid I don't even know what half the words are on the page, but I just believe the Bible. It's just like that's dumb There's this redneck type preaching out there that tries to lower themselves and to base themselves on purpose And you know what that is? It's it's trying to gain attention Women struggle with this they'll be like, oh, I'm so ugly today Ha I'm so I just look terrible and it's just like no you don't you look beautiful You know, what are they trying to do? They're trying to ask for a compliment is what they're trying to do Okay, that's not being humble either. Okay, so you can go to every form of extremity here we want to be right balanced Christians humble opinion and Yet the big danger here is to be like Haman be prideful Always thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think and and this is a a bad thing now Look what it says in Psalm 7. I want to read a lot more of this but for time I've ever I've run out of time, but I want to show you a few verses here The Bible does say in verse number 15 he made a pit and Digged it and has fallen into the ditch which he made so this time about a wicked person His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own fate so just saying this guy who Decided to kill someone else or hurt someone else was Building or digging this pit. He's gonna fall into the ditch. He made for someone else and whatever horrible thing He devised it's gonna come on himself Go to Proverbs 26 just flip the page a little bit Proverbs 26 and look at verse 27 We need to be humble and our workplace in our life and society wherever you find yourself Just humbly accept the position that God's put you in you know if you're the wife be the wife Don't try to be the husband if you're the husband be the husband don't try to be the wife If you're the husband don't try to be something that you're not you know if you're a church member be the church member don't try To be the pastor right if you're a pastor don't try to be God right be the pastor You know we want to be the position that God has put us in if you're a child Be a child don't try to be the parent if you're the worker don't try to be the boss be the worker No Don't presume things and try to put yourself in positions that you're not in and and always have this high view of himself What if a man just simply asked a question like oh who is it that you're wanting to honor King? Before he made that stupid proclamation of what he wanted Okay, and what a what a foolish attitude You know it also just shows that he's a hypocrite because he doesn't really want that he only wanted it was for him Because did he really want that to happen? No he only wanted to happen. It was him that was happening Okay, that's the hypocrisy of the left typically they have rules for me, but other ones for thee right? Proverbs chapter 26 look at verse 27 Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall there and he that roll the stone it will return upon him that sounds familiar doesn't it? Flip the page of Proverbs 29 and look at verse 23 Proverbs 29 verse 23 a man's pride shall bring him low but honor Shall uphold the humble in spirit. You know being a humble person will bring you on in your life Being a prideful person will tear you down go to Philippians to the last place of your turn Here's the other thing I thought about this parallel because most of the these stories we have in the book of Esther actually Shadows and types of figures of things that are going to happen How is Haman gonna? Give honor and glory to Mordecai well who consistently is Mordecai in our our book of the Bible is Jesus And who's Haman often pictured the devil or the Antichrist or that which is wicked? How is the wicked getting him honored of Jesus well look what it says in Philippians chapter 2 and Look what it says in verse number 9 wherefore God also have highly exalted him and given him a name Which is above every name that the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Hey, there's coming a day when every Haman is gonna have to give glory to Mordecai and what that means is everyone's gonna give glory to Jesus And I love this story because of how much of the parallel just fits think about this did Mordecai receive all the glory he deserved for salvation in the moment of salvation no It was delayed How about this did Jesus get all of the honor and glory he deserves for our salvation when he procured our salvation no Delayed there's a delayed now What ended up causing it to be brought in remembrance the work the the chronicle right the records being? Brought before so it's like I don't know exactly that's gonna work but it's like when we get to heaven or we're gonna be reminded of the scripture and Then we're gonna have Jesus and then we're all gonna we're gonna all bow the knee and we're all gonna Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of God the Father. I mean isn't that pretty cool I mean, it's delayed also for us You know while Jesus is the ultimate picture here even us Your glory for the things that you do for Jesus are not going to be realized in the moment. It is a delayed Gratification there will be a day when God's people are glorified there will be a day when the humble are lifted up There will be a day when we are rewarded for our works, but it's not an immediate thing. It's a delayed Gratification is delayed reward, but here's what won't happen God won't forget Hebrews says that he's not Unfaithful to forget our work and labor and love so God will remember Hebrews chapter 6 makes it clear that God is not gonna forget Anything that we did the king forgot, but then he was reminded God doesn't need reminding he will He will have that memory he will bring it will be brought back up and Our lives will be chronicled out, and you know we're gonna be rewarded according to our work That's why it's important to serve God. That's why it's important to do the things of God and Even if it's just you by yourself. I mean Mordecai did it by himself You know we're sitting in a room with 20 30 40 people You know we already had we're already better than Mordecai is off. You know But even at the judgment seat of Christ. It's not gonna be all of us You know partaking and our collective effort. It's gonna be you like what did you do? You know I don't get to get your rewards just as much you don't get to get my rewards you get your rewards and That should be scary to some people because I look at some people and I'm thinking like I don't know you But I'm thinking it's not gonna be exciting for you on Judgment Day I'm thinking like you need to get your button gear because hey your mom Might get a lot of words your dad might get a lot of words your brother might get a lot of words your sister might get A lot of words your cousin might get a lot of words your pastor might get a lot of rewards The person that sits in front of you in church might get a lot of words But you don't look like you're gonna get much because you're not doing anything You know what everyone is going to have to stand before God by themselves I I won't be there to stand next to you and be like all right your turn come here, buddy. You know It's like I'm gonna have to stand there by myself. You're gonna have to stand there by yourself We're all gonna have to get our own judgment our own dealings Which you know what happens those that work hard and humble are excited about that day those that are lazy and have done nothing for God are fretful of that day and I love it. You know even the job that I remember working in the workplace. I worked for the bank and You know what I hated about working for the bank is raise time You know why? Everyone in our department got the exact same race And I'm like this guy didn't even do anything This guy just got hired like two weeks ago, and doesn't even know anything And we're probably gonna fire him next week, and he got the same race as everyone here, and I said I don't like this So you know what I was like. I'm quit. I'm gonna get a different career I want to get a career that's based on Your work effort, and you know what the software industry would I like about the software industry is it is often based on your skill How you get paid if you're a really highly skilled employee And you work really hard you can get tons more money than those that are not very skilled and not very good at their job Whereas if you work for the government if you're a teacher if you're in a union If you worked at the bank that I did Everybody gets the same race. It's just like how many years have you been here you get this race You know next year they get the same race. It's like. There's no variance in that It's like I don't like that program And you know what God doesn't like that program because it's not gonna be like oh you went to pure words for 30 years Here's your 30 year bonus It's like you could get nothing and the guy that never even went to pure words gets all kinds of rewards Because it's not based on some tenure. It's not based on how many sermons you heard based on what you did Based on the works and the effort that you put in and I like that our church does a lot of works You know where we put it into practice. Let's close in prayer Thank you Heavenly Father so much for your word. Thank you for These pictures that you've given us I pray that we wouldn't be prideful people that we wouldn't lift ourselves up That we wouldn't have just this conceit in our hearts rather We'd have a lowly and a humble and a realistic picture of who we are We'd realize the importance that we can play in the lives that we live that one day will happen to give an account For our works, and I pray that you would help motivate us to do that Which is right and pleasing in your sight that we would desire to see people save that we would desire to have gold silver and precious stone laid up for us in heaven and that we wouldn't mock or ridicule the Word of God in our hearts because Ultimately will be shown to be the fool that we are and in Jesus name. We pray Oh It's gonna be song 41 sweet by and by Song number 41 Song 41 sweet by and by great song about going to heaven There's a land that is fairer than day And by faith we can see it a far For the father waits over the way To prepare us a dwelling place there In the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore We shall sing on that beautiful shore The melody as songs of the Blessings and our spirit shall sorrow no more Not a sigh for the blessing of rest In the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful Shore To our bountiful father We will offer our tribute of praise For the glorious gift of his love And the blessings that are low our days In the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore Amen, thank y'all for coming. God bless you are dismissed You