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