Esther 7:1-10

[0:00] Esther chapter 7 beginning at verse 1 says, so the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen and the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, what is the petition? Queen Esther, and it shall be granted thee and what is thy request? And it shall be performed even to the half of the kingdom. Then Esther the queen answered and said, if I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request. For we are sold, I am my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bond men and bond women, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. Then King Hazurairus answered and said unto

[1:00] Esther the queen, who is he and where is he that thirst presuming his heart to do so? And Esther said the adversary and the enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen and the king arising from the banquet of wine and his wrath went into the palace garden and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king and the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon it, whereon Esther was. Then said the king, will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth they covered Haman's face and Harbona, one of the chamberlains said before the king, behold also the gallows fifty cubits high which Haman had made for Mordecai who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said hang him thereon, so they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath was pacified and we'll stop reading their ten short little verses comprising the seventh chapter of the book of

[2:23] Esther. But once again we have all these things that we explained shortly ago that led up to this. Again this is the third request that the king has made to Esther as far as what exactly it is that she is wanting to know. Again I have no idea why she wouldn't tell him at the first banquet of wine. The Bible doesn't say why she didn't. We could we could surmise, we could suppose in our minds all kinds of reasons that she didn't do that. The folks I believe it all boils down to the providence of God like the rest of this like the rest of this book does. The word God isn't mentioned at all throughout the entire book of Esther. The word God is not brought up but the providence of God is laced in and out of the pages more so than any other book in all of the scripture. These Jews they have been taken into captivity, they've been in captivity for a time, they had been released at this point to go back to their homeland, go back to where they wanted to go but they chose to stay in the Empire of Persia. They chose to stay in this city of Sousa. They chose to stay where they were at so they had no business there to begin with but the king he makes his, he makes the question known to Esther for the third time. What is your petition? What is it that you want of me? Why have you gathered us at this banquet? Haman and I, what is it that you want? It'll be performed up to the half of the kingdom and this was the very time that Esther made her petition known. She said that you would spare my life and spare the life of my people and the king had no idea that he was married to a Jewish. He had no idea that Esther was a Jew, had no idea about the decree that he himself had confirmed with

[4:29] Haman to slay all the Jews of the Empire. He had no idea about anything. He says that's why it was a genuine question that he asked Esther when he said who is this man that has gotten this in his head that it's okay?

[4:47] Where is he? Who does put this? It is hard. Who does this kind of thing to a people and especially to my wife Queen Esther but Esther made her petition known under the king. She said spare my life, spare my people and she tells him why but we are sold as bond men and bond women. She said we just been sold as slaves. I would have kept my mouth shut about the matter. Why was that? Hey they might go into slavery. They might go into bondage. Esther worked herself to death but they would have survived that and sooner or later they would have arose again as a powerful people, as a multiplied people but they had been sold to be slu, to be slain, to be killed and to be destroyed. This was the king Queen's concern and this was the matter that she said before the king that she wanted her life spared and the life of her people. This was an intercessory prayer that Esther made. It was an intercessory prayer and I'm not saying she prayed to the king like she did to God. I'm not saying that at all but it is intercession that she was making on behalf of the people. Not just any Jew could come in there, could come into the king, could come into his court and request to see him because as I said before if he did not hold out that scepter that he wanted them in there. He had every right as king to have them taken out of the court, taken out of the town and slain in any way that he wanted done but Esther had actually put her life on the line coming in to the court to begin with to give the invitation to the first banquet for the king and for

[6:50] Haman to attend Esther and risked her very life. Hey I know a man that not only risked his life, I know a man that gave his very life for our people. His man he died on a cross at Calvary. He gave up his life. Why? Not only for the Jew, but for the Gentile as well. He gave his life that they could have life. This woman Esther, she made it known to the king.

[7:20] And there was a plan in place to slay many people, to kill many people and to destroy them utterly. God knew all about that plan when he sent Jesus. He knew all about Satan's plan. He knew all about Satan's tricks. He knew all about his canaverie and he knew that Satan wanted to destroy everything that God had created. He wanted to destroy everything that God had made. He wanted to destroy the Son of God which came to redeem mankind but Satan could not do it. Hey he might have thought that he had a chance when Jesus was hanging there on the cross on the God's head. Satan may have thought in his mind, hey this is my chance. He's laid, he's up there on the cross. He's died. I'm sure the demons were throwing a party of some kind around the cross of Jesus Christ. Maybe even in his tomb, but on that third day Christ rose from the dead, defeating death, hell, and the grave and waiting, life for God's people. Esther, when she made this intercessory prayer to the king, she was asking the same thing, the same thing for the same type of people. This was for God's people. This was for the Jewish race, for the Jewish nation that she had come before the king, but she made this petition known and she prayed this petition folks. It had to have been weighing heavy on her heart for days. Ever since Mordecai had told her of the plan, had gotten news to her about this plan. This had to have been weighing upon Esther, but she waited patiently for the right time and God intersist in her life at the right time for them, for her to make the petition known unto the king. It does us well as human beings, Christians and lost folks alike. It does us well to keep our mouths shut sometimes, don't it? It does me well to keep my mouth shut, but at the same time on the flip side of that coin, it does us well to know when to speak to. It does us well not only to know when to speak, but to know what to speak. Listen, listen to how Esther made this petition known. Folks, it was it was it was eloquent the way she that she said it. She said, for we are sold, I'm sorry, verse 3, Esther the Queen entrance said, if I have found favor in thy side, O King, and if it pleased the king, let my life be given me, and my petition, and my people, and my request, for we are sold, I am my people to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we've been sold for barmen and bar women, I'd held my tongue, although the enemy could not counter veil the king's damage. Folks, she was quoting from the very edict, from the very decree that the king had signed to kill these people.

[10:33] When she when she says that they were sold to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish, she was quoting from the very decree that went out to kill those people, and I'm sure that stirred something up in the king's mind. Not only was his wife gonna die, not only was a mass amount of people in his kingdom gonna die, but they were going to perish completely, and utterly they were going to be slain. So what happens after all, after all these things have taken place?

[11:09] Esther the Haman feared the king, he feared for his life life because he had been exposed, because his plan had been exposed to the king. The king rose up from this banquet of wine, it says he went out in to the palace garden. I don't know why he went out there, I don't know if it was to cool off, to think the matter over, to consider things, to consider what Esther had said, to consider everything that Haman had said up to this. I don't know why he went out, but God knows God had an all within his own place, and when the king came back in, where was Haman? He had fallen upon the couch of the bed that Esther was reclined in at the table begging for his life. He was too late by that point for in the bed for his life. His sin had been exposed. He was in the very presence of the judge when his sin was exposed. Both there's coming a day when people are gonna die, people are gonna stand before Almighty God. It will be too late to plead at that point.

[12:24] Amen. He was in the very presence of the king. Now folks, it has to be heiress. I'm not comparing him to God at all.

[12:34] He was a Gentile king, he was a wicked man, but once again this culture was different than what our culture is now, but nevertheless I'm not comparing him to God. But when you take the whole of scripture and you see the intercessory that's going on here, and you see a sinner that's pleading to an intercessor for them to do something about it, and you see the one above that intercessor not not taking heed to that plea. Folks, it tells me the judge was right there, the sin was exposed and mercy was not given. Mercy was not shown.

[13:13] They said that as the words exited his mouth, as the words came out of Haseiheiress' mouth, says that they came forward and they covered his head.

[13:27] What's that a sign of? That's a sign of death. That's a sign of death. Hey, the man was still alive. When we see these wrecks out here on the highways, if you work in the medical field and you go to the hospitals and you pass by a room where the sheets pulled up over the face, what's it a sign of? It's a sign of death. Folks, it was done thousands of years ago here. You covered the faces of the dead and it's done right now in 2020. You covered the face of the dead. They covered his head. Hey, I don't know if the king gave a hand sign to the guards or to the people here. I don't know if he said something that's not recorded in scripture. All I know is that when he came in and Haman was pleading for his life, he surmised in his own mind. He said, well, he forced the queen also in the house. In other words, is he trying to get sweet on my wife right here in front of me as well as to kill her a little bit later on. And as the words came out of his mouth, they covered his head. And then you got this man, Harbona, says he was one of the king's chamberlains. If you read the end of chapter six, you'll see that the chamberlains had gone under Haman's house. They had fetched him to come to the feast, to come to the banquet of wine. No doubt when this happened is when he saw the gallows that Haman had had built for this man, Mordecai, but he says, behold, the gallows that he had built that are 50 cubits high. Folks, that's 75 feet high. He had these gallows made for one man named Mordecai. He said, behold, the gallows made for Mordecai. The king said, hang him there on. They came back to

[15:18] Biden. Hope just makes me think of all kinds of things in scripture. It makes me think of all kinds of things. Makes me think of that anis and sapphire. Over in the book of Acts, what happened to thee? What happened to them? This is when the church was first getting on the move. The church was being built. There were 3,000 added in one day. They were some added another day. Some added at this time. Some added at that time. Hey, folks, we're selling their possessions. They were given to the church. They were given to the needy within the church. They were given to get the church on its way, to get the church started, to get the gears turning on it, get the wheels rolling, just a little bit better. What did anis and sapphire do? They sold a piece of property that they had, but they failed to give all that they got for that piece of property. When anis was asked about it, he lied and Peter said, you haven't lied. I demand you lied unto God. And he fell dead. Right then he fell down.

[16:22] Gave up the ghost. Sapphire, after the space of about three hours, she comes home and they say, they asked her the same question and they said, behold, the men that just buried your husband, they're coming behind you. They're gonna bury your dead body as well. Be sure, as Moses told the tribes in the book of Numbers, be sure your sin will find you out. We gotta be cautious of these things.

[16:54] Lost folks, their sin will find them out. There's too many out there now that they think that they're fine. I even thought that he was fine, folks. This was a bloody culture. Over here in the book of Esther, this was a bloody culture. As I've already said, the kings had every right to have anybody killed at any time that they wanted to have killed. And kings generally didn't sit on thrones for very long. Why? Because they was people that wanted the kings killed out there. Why do you think the kings had cup bears? They had cup bears so that when they bring the wine in, they would taste the wine to see if there was death within the cup to see if there was poison in that pot of wine that was being brought in. Hey, they had chefs that done the same thing. They tasted the food to make sure there was no poison in there, folks. It was a bloody time. It was a murderous time and I had no doubt in my mind that the king here thought that Haman had his eye upon his own throne. I'm sure Haman wasn't the only one that did. But Haman made it very obvious that he did. When the king said he did a lot of the honor in somebody. He said, how would you treat this person? I asked him,

[18:12] Haman. Haman thinking he was talking of himself. Haman said, let him pretty much pretend to be king for just a few hours. For just a day, bring out the royal apparel, set the royal crown upon his head, put him on the royal horses, parade him around in the streets of the city, herald who he is. Folks, that should have thrown up a red light in the king's head. He's white after my throne. He wants my throne. So when the king said hang him there on, hang him on those gallows that were made for this man Mordecai, made for this Jew, Mordecai. Hang him on those gallows. I don't think he'd like to deny when he does. I said this man, Haman, he wasn't very far underneath the king at all. In fact, you read when Haman came into the court, as I said, if the king stuck out his scepter, he had to come forth and touch it. Then you can make a petition. Now, Haman could just show up in the court anytime he wanted to from what I read in the scriptures. Now, he showed up in the court and when the king said, hey, who is that? He was told who it was. It's Haman. Well, tell him to get in here. Let's see what he wants to say.

[19:24] Hey folks, that was different than it was for anybody else. So, Haman had some clout with the king. But when all this, when it comes down to the end of the day, hey, the king saw what was on Haman's mind, folks, when it comes down the end of the day, I don't care how long somebody's going to church. I don't care how many Sunday school lessons they've taught or they've heard. I don't care how many Bible schools they've directed. I don't care how many prayers that they prayed when it comes down to the end of the day. And we stand before God with unclean sin. God will destroy us. Amen. He'll destroy anybody that stands before him. And it doesn't matter how much intercessory he's going on. Folks, Haman, when he fell upon the couch or the bed that Esther was on pleading, when he fell down there pleading, it was a vain plea. There was nothing that could be done.

[20:25] Nothing that could be done at that point. As I said, you look, you look over in the book of Numbers, you read what Moses said to the tribes of Gad and the tribes of Reuben when they said, y'all going over there, you fight, we're gonna set up farms over here. We're gonna raise our little ones over. We're perfectly alright right over here. And Moses said, if you do this thing, you do this thing, you take up your arms and battle and then war, you do it just exactly as you said. So you'll be good with the Lord. So the Lord found that. But if you do it not, if you do it not, you said, be sure your sin will find you out. Your sin will find you out. Folks, it'll find all of us. Hey, Jesus told Peter, he said, when Peter, when Peter pretty much bragging another time, Peter said, Lord, I'll go with you all, I'll go with you all the way. I'm prepared to die for you. And Jesus told him, he said, before this night is over with, before the cockroach three times, that shall deny me thrice. Hey, he already knew what Peter was gonna do. And don't you think for one moment that he didn't bother Peter on that third, on that third, a crow that the cock cried out. In fact, the gospel said, when he heard, he wept bitterly. But it was too late by that point. I ain't saying Peter went to hell. No, no. The folks, even for safe people, for safe people, our sin will find us out. Our sin will find us out. It makes me think of the Prophet Nathan, when he told David that I worked the man. Hey, David's sin found him out. It found him out in a big way. And not only did it find him out, but it cursed his entire house. Now listen, God's merciful too. God, God promised cursed upon Ahab, did He not? Over in the, over in the books of Kings, He promised cursed upon Ahab and

[22:18] Ahab, or Elijah, Elijah told Ahab himself. He said, he said, where you're at right now? The dogs will lick the blood up, will lick your blood up from that very spot. And Ahab said, I'll just avoid that place. I won't go there anymore. And he went and he disguised himself. And all these, he went off into battle. But when he came into the battle, he received a mortal wound of an arrow between, between his shoulders. And he rode in his chariot. But where, what happened after that? They cleaned up his armor. They cleaned up the chariot in the, in the, in the pool there.

[22:55] And the dogs looked up the blood exactly as God said it would happen. But he told Elijah, he said, not to, not to Ahab himself, except to his house afterward.

[23:10] We'll receive the curse. Well, because Ahab was a little bit remorseful. He was, he was a little bit remorseful. He was a little bit repentant after Elijah told him some things. God's merciful like that. God's very merciful. This King, he was not merciful at all. The sin had been exposed. Prayer had been made by Esther. The sin had been exposed. The Haven had committed and the sin was dealt with right then and right there. People all over the world think, and I've heard it right here in our area. People think that they're going to stand before God and plead their case.

[23:55] It will not happen. There's one right now to plead our case. His name is Jesus Christ. And he is the only one. The Bible says there is only one that can intercess between God and man. There's only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. He is the only one that is qualified to plead our case. I will not stand before God and say, well, I did this yes and I did that yes. But God, you don't understand my circumstance at the time. God understands all and God knows all. I will not say one word unto God when I stand in judgment. I don't believe I'll have time to say one word unto God because the judgment's already been given. The sentencing has already been given. All I have to do is stand there and receive the penalty. Stand there and receive the verdict from Almighty God.

[24:51] Haman here had committed sin. Haman had committed sin against not only the king's wife, but against an entire race of Jewish people that just happened that the Bible calls the apple of God's eye. That was the sin. That was the sin and it found him out. Oops. Excuse me. When Esther made that petition known to the king, she made her petition known. That was prayer. Prayer was heard. Prayer was acted on. You got to read in the chapters after this. The prayer was acted on. The first of all, the man that came up with the plan was hanged. He was killed. But in the chapters after where we're at right now in chapter seven, the edict was pretty much reversed. Folks that was unheard of. That was unheard of by those kings. The creeds of the Medes and the Persians didn't allow that to happen.

[25:54] They didn't allow decrees to be overturned. Once that decree was made, it was pretty much what we call nowadays set in stone. And there was no overturning of it to happen. But folks, in the providence of Almighty God and the providence of God, it can be overturned. Folks, we are under a curse from God. Everyone in the human race is under a curse from God. And only God can overturn that curse. Only God can redeem us from the from the penalty of that curse. Only God can redeem us from the penalty of our sin. Only God can do something about that. And God did something about that 2,000 years ago when he said the only begotten Son here to bleed for you and to die for you and to take my sin penalty upon himself. That is the overturning of the curse of Almighty God. And that's the only overturning that has been made. Well, or will be made. And I praise God for it. Folks, I'm thankful that God is not a man.

[27:04] The Bible says in John chapter 4, God is a spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit. He wasn't one of these meads.

[27:15] And he wasn't one of these Persians. Now, God, when he came here, manifests himself in the flesh. Yes, he was a Jewish man. He was born to a little Jewish girl named Mary right there in a little town on Bethlehem. We're getting ready to celebrate Christmas here in just two, three more months, praise God. But I understand that when Jesus came, he was a Jew and he identified himself with the Jews. What did Esther do here when she said that her petition to the King was to save her life and to save the life of her people? She identified with her people.

[27:48] Before she ever went into the King's palace, before she ever got crowned as Queen of Persia, the Empire of Persia, before that ever happened, Mordecai told her, he said, don't you tell that King? Don't you tell anybody where you're from?

[28:04] What your nationality is? Don't claim your jewelry. Don't claim these things. Because in God's providence, there was a time that she was going to have to claim that and she did that. When Jesus Christ came to the world, it says that he came into his own and his own received him. No, in Jesus Christ, hey, he had to preach it to the Jews first, but when the Jews rejected it, he came to us being Gentiles, being dogs, being unworthy of God's forgiveness. It was still offered. Praise God.

[28:43] But he identified, not only with the Jews, he identified with the entire human race, said, this is what I've come to redeem. This is what I've come to save. I come to call the roaches, but sinners to repent. Sinners that includes Jews, that includes Gentiles. He identified with humanity when he came, the same way that Esther identified with the Jewish people. And folks, that was dangerous. It was dangerous.

[29:14] Once again, the decree had already gone out and here was this woman claiming that she was a Jew, putting her life on the line for these people. But praise God for his providence and his providence. He made that way. He took the Haman out of the picture and had him hang. Now folks, listen, I'm not celebrating the death of a wicked man when I say that and none of us should do that. I've heard people in church when some great sinner that was out there in the world, maybe some drunk that would come in and raise cane at the back of the church or some pillhead would come in and make a scene in the church and something would happen to them. I've heard it come out of churchgoers mouth with good riddance. Well good. They won't come back in here anymore and they won't make a scene like that anymore.

[30:07] Hey folks, that's not the attitude that we as Christians should have. Yeah, it bothers me if somebody makes a scene in the church. It bothers me if somebody comes in and makes some mockery of the house of God. Yes, but when that wicked person dies within their sin and I know beyond the shadow of any doubt that they have wound up in hell, I should not celebrate that. Haman here was killed. He was hanged.

[30:37] He was hanged upon the same gallows that he had made for an innocent man named Mordecai. Mordecai had done nothing. All Mordecai had done was practiced that he would not put he wouldn't put a God before God. He would put no man before God. That's all Mordecai was doing. He would not bow down to Haman when he came through the King's gate. That's all he done yet. Haman wanted to kill the man.

[31:03] Folks, why did Haman die that day? Why did he die? There was nobody to hang all those gallows for him. Nobody else could do it. He was the one who committed the sin. He was the one that came against God's people. He was the one that fold the king and decided to decree to kill all the Jews. He was the one and there was no one else to go to that gallows for him. Folks, we live in a time where people wallowing their sin. People swimming their sin. They bathing their sin. They scrubbing their sin. They picked their sin up and they coddle it and they pet it on the head. They do all kinds of things with their sin. When that time comes, when the time comes of judgment, there's only one person that could hang for us.

[31:58] That was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ hung for the sins of the entire world. Haman hung that day because he stood before the judge and the presence of the judge with his sin. It had not been washed away. It had not been cleansed. He was naked and he was exposed. I'm not talking about physically. I'm talking about the sin that was on this man as he stood there before the judge, before the king, before the one that had his life within his hands could do anything that he wanted to with the man. He stood there and there was no one to take his place. That's why he died. Why did Jesus Christ die? He didn't die because he had sinned. He didn't die because he had evil thoughts. He didn't die because he was a druggy or an alcoholic or an adulterer or a whoremonger. He died because we are all of those things. He died because we are the murderers. We are the outgays. We are the prostitutes. We are all of these things. That's why Jesus died. We have someone that hung upon a tree for our sin. We have someone to take our place.

[33:10] Praise God that we have that. Praise God that Jesus Christ climbed Mount Calvary and took that punishment for us. We have someone to take our place. Amen.

[33:22] Did not. It was too late for him. Yeah. Roger taught this morning. I thought about it. I thought about what I was going to preach this morning as he was teaching about it.

[33:32] He taught about those millifactors that hung on the cross on either side of Jesus. And I'm not Roger. I know it says they were thieves. I know what the Bible said. They generally didn't hang these on the cross. But I know what the Bible says and also calls them millifactors. But either way, Jesus between the two of them, one on this side, one on that side, one railed against them. Railed against them said, if you be the Christ, get us down from here. Get us down. The other one though. The other one said, man, we've, this man's done nothing wrong.

[34:09] This man's done nothing wrong. And as Roger taught this morning, done an awesome job doing so, I might add, he taught this morning that man done very little work for Christ. Yeah. Very little work for Christ. In fact, you know how much work he did? He witnessed one time, one time that man witnessed for Jesus Christ. And Christ said, that shall be with me today in paradise. At this day, this day not a week from now, not a month from now, don't go to some place called Midtown and camp out for a year. Then you can come be in paradise with me. They said today, that shall be with me in paradise. Today, that shall be with me. That other mouth actor didn't have that promise. Why? Because he didn't believe. What did Jesus tell over in the gospel? He said that the publicans and the harlots would come into the kingdom before the Pharisees would and before the chief priest would. Why was that? Because the publicans and the harlots, they believed

[35:11] John when he came out of the wilderness preaching repentance. When they come out of the wilderness, tell them, hey, repent of your sins. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. They believed John when he said that. But the Pharisees and the chief priest and the scribes, they did not believe these things. Folks, Haman thought that he had this thing in the bag. He thought that he had his entire plan worked out. There was nothing that could be done about it. But God in his providence and God in his sovereignty came forward with a plan much greater than anything. Haman could have dreamed of much better than anything.

[35:48] Mordecai could have dreamed of. God came forward and in his providence he saved his people. And he'll do it again. Not only for the Jews. He'll say the Jews again too.

[36:02] Listen, they're gonna have some hard time. Don't you get me wrong. You read Revelation 12. You read how good God's gonna take care of them Jews. He's gonna take care of his own folks. He's taking care of his own right now. He's taking care of the church. We're fed. We're clothed. We got a house. We got we got lungs that are working. We got hearts that are beating. We got all these. And my God takes care of me. My God and his providence takes care of me. If he strikes me dead right now, hey my God's still good and he still took care of me up to this point. And if he strikes me dead now, I'll be in his presence. I'll be in his glory. That'll be even better care than what he's doing for me right now. God takes care of his own. Amen. And the book of Esther is an awesome portrait of God taking care of his people. I said the word God, the name of God brought up nowhere within its page. Nowhere but the providence of God is all over. It's all over. The sovereignty of God is all over. It says, Harbona, one of the chamber rooms, said before the king, behold also the gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for

[37:09] Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, then the king said, hang him there on. So they hanged Haman on the gallows. They had prepared for Mordecai and the king's wrath was pacified. Folks, there was a man two thousand years ago hung on that tree.

[37:32] Jesus Christ, that pacified the wrath of God for as far as punishment for sin went, that pacified his wrath. It made a way for anyone that would accept God's way, that would accept the way of Jesus Christ through a cross on Calvary. It made a way for that and that satisfied the king's wrath, that satisfied Almighty God's wrath as the punishment for sin. That is the only thing that will satisfy his wrath.

[38:05] We can work. Again, Roger, when he talked this morning, talked about working in the vineyard, talking about doing God's work in the church, around the church, for the church, out there on the streets. Hey, we can do God's work right out there too.

[38:18] But, but we can do as much of that work as we want to. If we're doing it without Jesus Christ, it is all for naught. It is all in vain. It's just as vain as Haman pleading on the on the couch that Esther was lying on.