Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Good morning, Westgate family.
Would you guys stand and join us as we worship the king?
Turn my eyes to see you, Jesus, in all your glory.
Turn my eyes into my heart to see and wonder of how you love me to my heart, O my God, forever you reign here and now hear the sound of your name, Jesus.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: There is none more beautiful than Jesus.
There is none more powerful there is in Christ lifted high Jesus, now be glorified, sit to my life on your name you sent to my life on your name.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: You turn my eyes away from searching for lesser glory.
Turn my eyes and teach us and teach my heart with all your wisdom to live forever.
Teach my heart, O my God, forever you reign here and now hear the sound of your name,
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Jesus.
There is none more beautiful than Jesus.
There is none more powerful there is in Christ lifted high Jesus, now be glorified, center my life on your name, My God, forever you reign here and now hear the sound of your name, Jesus.
There is none more beautiful than Jesus.
There is none more powerful. The risen Christ lifted high Jesus, now be glorified. The risen Christ lifted high Jesus. Now be glorified Jesus.
There is none more beautiful than Jesus.
There is none more powerful there is in Christ lifted high Jesus, now be glorified, center my life on your name, you center my life on your name.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Amen. Amen. Give him glory.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: Good morning.
My name is Stephanie Bogner, and I'm on the outreach and missions team here at Westgate Chapel, and I want to welcome all of you here today.
If it's your first time here and you would like to connect with people, there's a couple different ways you can do that. Or if you've been here a while and you're like, you know what? Now's the time I want to start making those connections. We do have a welcome center out in our main lobby here with people that would love to meet you and answer any questions you have. And we also have our connection card. Our connection card can be found in the pew in front of you or you can find it in our Westgate Chapel app.
So also if sermon notes are always available at our entrance tables, if you'd like those to be able to write and take paper notes. And again, you could always do it in the app.
So.
So many good resources there, and this is a very busy time for outreach and missions. I don't know if you guys realize, but two weeks from is Westgate's biggest party of the year, where we invite international students from all over our university campuses and scholars to come and Enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal here with us and learn about what we are most thankful for. So if you have international friends that you would like to invite to that, the RSVP is open and can be found at westgatechapel.org Thanksgiving and also if you'd like to serve, we still have opportunities on our cooking team and our prayer team and other areas that you can sign up to help and be a part of that really exciting day.
Also you'll find in your sermon notes. Today we are launching Christmas at Westgate. Can you believe it?
So many fun things are happening and we wanted to get you the information as soon as possible so you can get it in your calendars so that because we know our calendars fill up so fast this time of year and there is a table in our W Cafe filled with lots of information about what's happening at Christmas this year.
So please take advantage of that. One of the things though that I wanted to highlight that's on the table and in all at all of our entrance tables is the one of our favorite things to do every Christmas is bless a child that is launching today.
And you can find ways to be a part of that. But some of you, some of you have been a part of this for years and use it as part of your Christmas tradition. Some of you might not be aware of what the opportunity of blessed child is. So there are two main ways that we seek to bless the children who God has placed locally in our Toledo area.
And the first one is with our partnership with Doerr Elementary. We've been partnering with Dorr for a couple years and what it looks like in that context is many of the teachers there, they actually spend money out of their own pockets to supply needs for their own classrooms because the funding is not there to be able to do that. And we want to come alongside those teachers to be able to help them do their job well and care for their students well. So on the signup you'll see needs and ways to partner with Door in those kind of areas.
The second way that we seek to bless children in our area during this season is with our partnership with that neighborhood church. It's a church in the north of Toledo in one of the most impoverished areas and the actually the entire state of Ohio.
And they have an after school program where students can come and get help with their schoolwork and they also have a Thursday evening kids program and they want to be able to bless the kids and families that come to those come to those things. And so we like to be able to give gifts and help partner in that area.
And I don't. Some of you might know Shelly. Shelly lives in North Toledo working with the families and kids in that area. And I was talking with her and she shared with me a specific story of one of the students that she works with down there named Emma. Emma is in sixth grade and a lot of her story revolves around neglect.
Being only in sixth grade, she finds herself usually caring for herself and her little brother quite regularly.
And on top of that, she is only reading at a third grade level and struggles to understand and manage her own emotions.
So these are the kind of kids that TNC is trying to come around and support as they're walking this journey.
And so when gifts are purchased and given and a gift is picked out specifically for a child like Emma and the gift is given to her, it's actually more than what's just wrapped in that box.
It's about a message to Emma that says, we see you, we know you, we love you, we're here for you.
And that opportunity to share God's love in that tangible kind of way is what we get to be a part of when we help with these certain different ministries.
So how do you guys get involved? There's three specific ways that you can connect with the signup for these gifts.
One of them is there is a postcard on the entrance table that looks just like that.
All the entrance tables have them. So does the Christmas at Westgate Table has that also. If you open your app right now, boom, it's right there for you. Right when you open it, you can click on that and find the sign up. And finally, if not, if all else fails, you can always go to westgatechapel.org blessachild and you'll find out the sign up there also.
So join us in blessing these kids and these people that are working with these kids that they can just have a beautiful Christmas and school year.
All right? With that, I want to give you guys the opportunity to bless each other by greeting each other and welcoming each other today. And when you stand up and say hello today, why don't you ask your neighbor what is the best Christmas gift you received as a. As a kid?
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Serve an amazingly powerful God.
Nothing's beyond his reach.
Let's lift him up together.
Just one word you calm the storm that
[00:11:47] Speaker B: surrounds me when just one word the darkness has to retreat.
With just one touch I feel the presence of heaven with just one touch my eyes were open to see My heart can't help but believe there's nothing that our God can't do there's not a mountain that he can move oh, praise the name that makes a way there's nothing that our God can do Amen with just one word you hear what's broken inside.
With just one word can you revive every dream?
Just one touch I feel the power of heaven with just one touch My eyes were open to see My heart can't help but believe there's nothing that our God can do there's not a mountain that he can move oh, praise the name that makes a way there's nothing that our God can do no, there's nothing that our God can do there's not a prison wall that can't break through oh, praise the name that makes your way there's nothing that our God can.
You believe he can do anything I will believe for greater things that there's no power like the power of Jesus Let faith arise Let all agree there's no power like the power of Jesus so I will believe for greater things there's no power like the power of Jesus Let faith arise let all agree there's no power like the power of Jesus I will believe for greater things there's no power like the power of Jesus Let faith arise Come on Let all agree there's no power like his power there's nothing that our God can't do there's not a mountain that he can't move oh, praise the name that makes a way there's nothing that our God can't do no, there's nothing that our God can't do there's not a prison wall he can't break through oh, praise the name that makes a There's nothing that our God can do no, There's nothing that Jesus can do.
Ra.
[00:16:30] Speaker D: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation.
O my soul Praise him For he is my rock, My foundation Sh.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do.
Be still my soul he is faithful his mercy sustain us.
The world takes its toll yet your grace and your love still maintain us.
Drawing us near Let our intentions be clear Praise to the Lord Praise to the Father
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Praise to the one who saved my soul Praise to the Lord Praise to the
[00:17:56] Speaker D: Father
[00:17:59] Speaker B: Praise to the one who raised
[00:18:05] Speaker D: me whole.
I lift my hands to sing all that's within me Adore him.
All that has life and breath Come now with praises before him.
Let the young man sound from his people again.
Praise to the Lord Praise to the Father Praise to the one who who saves my soul Praise to the Lord Praise to the Father.
Praise to the one who makes me whole.
Oh, praise him.
Praise the Father.
You give us hope.
You give us healing.
Now we're surrender.
You give us hope.
You give us healing.
Praise to the King we sing.
You give us life.
You have forgiven.
Oh God, you cancelled sin came within, life begins.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Oh God, you cancelled sin came within, life begins. Oh God, you cancelled sin came within. We sing
[00:20:32] Speaker D: again.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Praise to the Lord.
Praise to the Father.
Praise to the one
[00:20:48] Speaker D: who saved. Use my soul.
Praise to the Lord.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: Praise to the Father.
Praise to the one who
[00:21:08] Speaker D: makes me whole.
Praise to the one who makes me whole.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: Praise to the one who
[00:21:27] Speaker D: makes me whole.
[00:21:36] Speaker E: Let's give the Lord praise together.
You may have a seat. Let's go to the Lord together in prayer.
Father, we thank you again for this day that you have given to us and that we can gather here together this morning and worship you.
Lord, we just praise you. We praise you that you are a God that is in control of all things.
And Lord, that no matter what goes on in this world or in this life, we know, Lord, that you are working all things out for your perfect purposes for eternity. And Lord, thank you that we can trust in you with that.
We thank you also, Lord, that in the midst of a broken world, and even in our brokenness, that we recognize the depth of how much you love us.
And Lord, I pray that within that we would be reminded, even as we get into your word this morning, of the way in which you have modeled through your son, Jesus Christ, such perfect humility toward us, that while we were sinners, having sinned against you, a holy God, that you would love us so much you'd send your son into this world to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin.
What greater love have we experienced than that, Lord?
And so it's what draws our hearts today here to this place to worship you.
And Father, may that same act of humility and love and grace be something that not only we receive, but something that we share and give to others in your name, that they might also know you.
Lord, as we come to our time of offering this morning, giving our tithes and our offerings again, Lord, we come to you.
This gift that we give, Father, is just our way of saying, Lord, we are fully dependent upon you. We are thankful for everything you provide. And Lord, we want to give back to show our dependence. But our desire as well, Lord, is to that you would multiply what we give so that more people would know your son, Jesus. And so, Father, thank you for this opportunity. To worship you in this way. Be glorified as we give with cheerful hearts this morning we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
We'll take our morning offering. Our offering buckets are here in the center aisle. Again, you can pass those to the sides. If you are in the balcony and haven't been with us, they're up in the corners and we'll pass those across to the middle and we'll just continue to worship the Lord this way for the next few moments together.
Well, it is good again to be together this morning. Many of you probably know we have got about 120 of our middle school and high school students and leaders out on a retreat this morning and they're going to be packing up from Beulah beach and heading home shortly. So if you're one of those parents, I believe their ETA is going to be somewhere around 12:30, 30, 12:45, that they're going to be rolling in here to the church. And so maybe just a little bit of time to grab some lunch and then head back to pick them up. So we wanted to make sure you were aware of that this morning.
I want to ask you a question we're going to be continuing in our series that we've been in, in the Book of Esther. So if you have your sermon notes, feel free to pull those out. And if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Esther, chapter five. That's where we'll be here in just a little bit.
But this morning, as we get into our passage, we're going to be talking about pride. Now, it's interesting, when you look in the dictionary for definitions of pride, there's probably four, five, six different definitions that are there, but they all kind of fall into what I would call one of two camps. On one side you have a definition of pride that you know, hey, pride is not necessarily a bad thing. It can be good and then you have a side that can be bad and quite honestly, a bit destructive. On the good side, though, when we say that we have pride in something or take pride in something, a lot of times that definition means we're talking about pride in terms of a sense of satisfaction we have in maybe something that we have accomplished or in something that has been done. And I wanna ask you a question this morning just to get our brains moving. Would you turn to somebody near you? It can be someone you came with today or someone you don't know and just, just share what is something, in a good sense that you take pride in. Go ahead and turn and share that with someone, Lots of good talking.
So as you think about things that you take pride in, a lot of times it's like accomplishments, right? Maybe there's something that we've done or accomplished that we feel really good about, or we take pride in our sports teams. Although Ohio State and Michigan fans, there's not a lot of pride today.
If you're a UCLA fan, though, there's. There's a lot of satisfaction. But don't worry, it's temperature.
I know once we play a good defense, there will be nothing to be proud about. So, you know, when you think of pride, it can be a sense of accomplishment about something, right?
Like when I finished my master's degree, which took years and years and years. When I finally finished it, there was a sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment. I persevered through something that was hard. Maybe you have a project that you were doing at home, and when you completed it, you look back and you were just. You felt a good feeling of, I was able to do it and finish it. And there can be a sense of pride, good pride of I've accomplished something, and it feels good to have done that.
However, pride can also definitely be a negative. And there's this fine line that we cross when we cross over to that. And really what it is, it's the place where a sense of satisfaction turns instead into an inflated view of ourselves, of where we carry arrogance or a sense of. Of superiority. Let me give you an example of that transition. When I was in college at Biola University, they didn't have a. What I call real football team. They had intramural football, which was flag football. And I went and played that, and I played intramural football because when I was in high school, I also never played football. Honestly, I didn't have good enough grades my first two years in high school to play any sport, for that matter. And then by the time that I did in my junior and senior year, the coaches were coming to me, pleading with me to come and play on the defensive line. But, you know, I tried to negotiate with them. I was like, you know, if I only have to practice one day a week, I would love to.
They didn't quite take me up on that offer, but I'd rather have a job. I didn't want to put in all the hours that my friends were putting in to play football. But by the time I got to college and I started playing intramural football, man, I regretted it. I was like, this is so much fun. I wish I had actually pushed into that. Well, I can remember the first intramural football game that my team had, and our team was pretty good. I played especially on the defensive line. And after that first game, I think I had four or five sacks that day of the quarterback. And I was constantly eating up their offensive line, running past them very quickly, getting to the quarterback. And at the end of the day, there was this sense of, like, satisfaction of, man, a job well done. We worked hard, we accomplished a task against a really good team and opponent. But one thing that I noticed, as the season went on and my abilities began to continue to progress, and I continued to garner all of the sacks against teams and pushing my way past linemen quickly, I felt really good. And there was this sense of pride, of superiority that began to build in my hearts of how great I was.
And so I can remember one of the last games of the season against a team we had not played, which we had heard would be pretty formidable, but we were so good, no big deal. I would own that quarter quarterback and eat his lunch, is what I thought. And so I can remember getting up there and the center for their team was this guy that I didn't know at the time. He was just really big. I mean, he was about, honestly, twice the size of me. And I found out later that he had played D1 football.
And so I get up in his face at the beginning of the game, and I literally told him, I'm going to eat your lunch today.
And he just stares back at me with this smile, and it's. It is seared in my memory. And the second that he hiked that ball, and I thought, I'm gonna blaze past him, the last thing I remember is staring up at the sky.
This guy put his hands in my chest, and with power I had never felt before in my life, ran me straight into the ground and ran over me.
I laid there thinking, I've never hurt like this before.
And so I popped up because my arrogance and pride were still fully intact. All right, I just got to get a better angle, and I'm going to take this guy. And I mean, no matter what I tried for an hour, every single play, this guy would run me over, Even to the point at the end of the game, I was so tired of getting beat up. Like, I would line up this far back from the line, thinking, I just don't want to take that hard of a hit. He would move so fast, and he made it his mission to drill me into the ground.
I learned that day the great lesson that we read from Proverbs 16:18, that pride comes before the fall.
And boy, did I fall hard.
My friends, there's a line between pride of satisfaction and accomplishment and where arrogance and a sense of superiority begin to set in that can be so destructive in our lives. We're continuing in our sermon series this morning in the book of Esther entitled Trusting the Unseen Hand of God. And we're gonna look today at the destructiveness of pride as it takes place in Haman's life.
For those who haven't been with us, I do wanna do a quick catch up. And that's really the first page of your notes this morning, so follow along with me here. What we see as we approach chapter five this morning is that the table has been set. And here's a quick, quick recap for you.
First, when we begin in Esther chapter one, we see that King Xerxes rules over the entire Persian empire.
And he has been preparing for war. He's had this huge war council that came in. He's been celebrating and having large parties with his officials. And in the midst of one of those parties where he and his friends had been drinking too much, he makes a request of his queen, Queen Vashti, that she would come and appear like he wanted to bring his trophy in front of these men, that she would come and appear before them in her crown. Many scholars believing just her crown. And so with this request that he makes, Queen Vashti fully refuses the order of the king. Now, in front of his officials especially, this is incredibly embarrassing. And so he deposes her as queen and with his other officials devises this plan to do a new search for a new queen throughout the entire empire. And so they go out. Remember, this empire stretches all the way from India all the way over to Egypt. It is this massive area of land with multiple different ethnic backgrounds and cultures that are there. And he wants the beautiful, the best women and virgins in the entire land to be brought to him so that he can choose his next queen. And this is where Esther enters the story. Esther is a young Hebrew girl whose parents have died and she has been raised by her cousin Mordecai. And Esther is taken in this search that is happening for a new queen as she is taken into the kingdom. We understand that she goes through a years long preparation of beauty treatments and preparing for her moment to go before the king. We learn and we read that Esther is actually brought before the king. And in this moment, letter A in your notes, Esther wins the heart of the king.
It tells us that Xerxes was attracted to Esther more than any of the women throughout the entire kingdom. That is a ton of people.
And it says that he's so attracted to her that he gives her a crown and he throws a large banquet in her honor.
And right at the close of this, there's an important tidbit of information that is given that is important for our text today. We're reminded that Mordecai had told Esther not to reveal her nationality or her family background. And so she does not. She doesn't reveal that she is a Jew, that she's a Hebrew by birth, and she doesn't reveal that family background, but holds it to herself. Well, right after this, there's another small story that's given which is important for our text text today as well. And what it reveals is letter B. Mordecai has a moment where he saves the king. Her cousin, while sitting at the king's gate, overhears two officials or guards of the gate speaking and conspiring to assassinate the king. So what does Mordecai do? He tells Esther. She informs the king. The king looks into it very quickly. He impales them with poles. They're dead and they're gone. And then he has this whole ordeal that happened, it says, written into like the Book of Memories or the Chronicles, as something that would be remembered. However, it's very clear that there was no honoring of Mordecai that actually took place, even though this was written into this book. Well, next we turn to chapter three. And in chapter three we're introduced to a man by the name of Haman. We don't know much about his background or why he has risen to such prominence within the kingdom, but it tells us us that King Xerxes takes Haman and raises him essentially to second in command. There is nobody greater in the kingdom except for the king himself. And he's so great that he tells people that whenever he walks by, the people are to bow to Haman. This was a command that came from the king as well. We'll see in the text that what the king also does is he gives Haman his signet ring, which would be used to make seals or official proclamations from the king. In other words, Haman having this ring, held incredible power that really only belonged to the king himself. It's incredible to see that Haman is risen to this position of great power and of great wealth.
Well, as I said, King Xerxes commands people to bow to Haman. But we read that Mordecai, the cousin of Esther, at the gate, will not bow down. He refuses. And Haman is enraged by this.
And so what does he do? He devises a plan, not just to kill Mordecai, but as he finds out that Mordecai is a Jew, he wants to have all Jews in the entire empire slaughtered. And so what does he do? He uses that ring that the king gave him. He goes to the king and says, hey, this is what's happening. These people, they're not good. They don't follow our rules.
We should slaughter them. The king agrees. So he writes a proclamation, stamps it with the signet ring, and has it sent throughout the entire kingdom that on one specific day, everybody is to rise up against the Jews and to slaughter them. It's incredible. Letter C. Haman uses the king's power to essentially annihilate the Jews.
Now, the important information that we see here is that when he sends out this decree again throughout the empire to slaughter the Jews, he does so and says that it is to happen on a specific day.
And it's important that we recognize that decrees that were issued by the king or on behalf of the king were considered to be irrevocable. In other words, there isn't much you can do. By the time this is sent out on this specific day throughout the entire kingdom, these people are going to die.
And what happens next is this. Letter D. There is a crossroads that Esther faces, and ultimately we see that she chooses faith. And this is where we left off. Like last week, Mordecai pleads with Esther to reveal her identity, that he had asked her to hold back. Now is the moment to reveal it, to tell King Xerxes that she is a Jew, that she's a Hebrew girl and that. And to plead that he would save her people.
But Esther knows if she goes to appear before the king unannounced, and it's been 30 days since she's been called in to see the king. If she goes unannounced, what's going to happen? Likely, she herself will meet death. And so her and her cousin Mordecai have this back and forth together. And ultimately you'll remember that at the end of last week, Esther calls for prayer and fasting for three days, not only for her and Mordecai, but for all Jews within the kingdom. This is important because in the book of Esther, you'll remember that we've said, you don't see the name of God or people talking about, but this is the close place we get to that we begin to understand the faith of Esther and Mordecai and the Jews within the land, that in this great moment of tension, it is brought to the point where she is seeking after God in prayer and fasting, asking that he would provide a way for the salvation of the Jews. And so they fast for three days, and then she will go to the king. So here's where we pick up, up this morning, together, prayed up and ready to go, Esther takes a step of Faith. Esther, chapter 5, verse 1 says this.
On the third day, after they had been fasting, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace in front of the king's quarters while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace.
When this happens, what we need to remember what is taking place is that Esther knows that anybody who goes into this room could likely be killed.
Historians have shown that in the Persian Empire, often when the king would sit on his throne, there would be a large guard that would stand next to him with a battle ax. And honestly, if you came in unannounced, your life was over unless, as we will read, the king would extend his golden sword scepter in order to save you. Let's look at what it says here in Esther, chapter 5, verses 2 through 3. Because letter A in your notes, King Xerxes makes known very quickly the favor that Esther has with him by making an extravagant offer to her.
Esther, chapter 5, verses 2 through 3.
When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter, and the king said to her, what is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even up to half of my kingdom.
Now, that sounds like a pretty amazing offer to offer up half of the kingdom. Let me explain to you how a little bit of what King Xerxes is saying here. My daughter Gracie often will come to me to ask me for something, and when she does, the answer that I give will often be based on how I'm feeling about her in that moment.
So if I'm frustrated, if she hasn't cleaned a room, if she hasn't done stuff that we've asked her to do, and she comes up and she says, dad, can I. No. Right? No, but, dad. No, but you didn't even know.
Right. If she's on my good side, like the other day when she got her grades Report from school. And she had all straight A's. And I was super proud. She came to me, was like, dad, can I ask you a question? And I said, for you princess, the world right?
Xerxes, in his response, isn't really offering up half of the kingdom in the same way that I am not offering the world to Gracie. Even though I, I promise you, she took that literally.
Xerxes is showing the incredible favor that Esther has in his eyes when he says these words. It's not literal, but it's an exaggeration that is meant to show the depth of love, of gratitude, of affection and admiration and favor that he has for her. And what ensues after that letter B is that Esther speaks the king's lips love language right back to him. Now you know what I'm talking about when I say his love language, right? What's your love language? Have you ever thought about it? What is the way to your heart?
I was sitting with some friends after Nick Ludwig and Olivia Silvernail's wedding yesterday. And I believe they are here this morning somewhere. Congratulate them. Woo hoo.
But following their wedding, which was awesome, waiting for the reception to start, we were sitting with some friends and just outside where we were, there was a food truck that pulled up outside and on the side it said tacos.
And I thought to myself, authentic Mexican food. That is my love language. If you want to win me over, buy or make me some authentic carne asada and I will give you the world right? And speak. When we talk in those terms, speaking someone's love language means you understand, Understand how to get to their heart. Well, look what Esther says in chapter five, verses four through five. He asks her, what is your request? What can I give you up to half of the kingdom? And it says, Esther said, if it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I have prepared for the king. And then the king said, bring Haman quickly so that we may do as Esther has asked.
So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared.
Now one thing that Esther understands about King Xerxes is this guy loves a good party, right? Think back to the history that we looked at beginning this study. He's having this six month war council with tons of officials coming and throwing a huge party in the citadel of Susa, full of wine and drinking and lots of, lots of good times. His because he's trying to win their favor. Is it clear that Xerxes loves a good time? He does. And at the end of the six month war council, it hasn't quite been enough. So what does he do? He throws a week long bender for all of the officials in Susa and they get drunk and they have a merry time together. He loves this kind of thing. And so what does Esther do? Esther says, I want to throw a feast for you and for your boy Haman. I'd like you guys to come together. And what does it tell us that Xerxes would like? His initial response is, round up Haman right away so that we can get to this place, so that we can experience the glory of this honor that is going to be bestowed upon us.
But it leaves this interesting question, letter C.
Why does Esther delay her actual request to the king?
Why doesn't she just come out like, have you noticed she's alone with the king, Haman is not there.
Why doesn't she just get straight to the point about the fact that Haman has put this decree out and that she's a Jew and that he wants to kill them all and that would also include her. Why does she not just use this moment that is in front of her? And on top of that, we see that she even delays the request a second time. Look at Esther. 5, 6, 8. It says, as they were drinking wine after the feast, so they've gone to this first feast, the king says to Esther again, what is your wish? It will be granted to you. And what is your request? Even up to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. And Esther answered my wish. And my request is, if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, then let the king and Haman come to the feast and I will prepare for them. And tomorrow I will do as the king has said.
It's King Xerxes essentially looks at her and says, what's the deal? You showed up in your royal robes in my palace unannounced.
I have offered you the world and I'm still waiting to hear what you would like.
There's got to be more to this. What do you want? I'll give you anything, my queen.
And yet she pauses again.
Why is that? Scholars believe potentially three things are at play here. Number one is this.
She might be strategically preparing him. This is a possibility.
I want you to consider the situation that Esther faces.
She is about to accuse Haman, the second most powerful man in the entire empire, of plotting the destruction of her and her people.
Haman is a trusted advisor and has been for some time of Xerxes. And Xerxes himself is the one who elevated him. He also is the one who authorized Haman's decree to kill the Jews, a decree that is irrevocable.
And she has to reveal in this that she's Jewish, that she's part of this. This is an incredibly delicate political situation. She can't just walk in and make accusations against the king's number two. But by inviting them to a private banquet, scholars believe that maybe what she was doing was creating an environment where she could approach the king personally, rather than through a formal political confrontation.
But secondly, some people think that maybe she was just waiting for the right moment. What I mean by that is that some commentators have suggested that maybe she's hesitant because she is fearful, fearful of what would happen. She wrestled with making this decision. And so, you know, maybe she's just biding some time to get to that perfect moment where she might be a little more comfortable to make this request, which would have severe political implications.
But number three is the one that I think most commentators center on, because honestly, it really becomes the theme, as we know, of the entire Book of Esther. And it's the delay allows God's providence to unfold, that behind the scenes of this entire thing, God is working and weaving his plan for the salvation of his people.
The Lord remember that Esther, right before all of this happens, spends three days with her people, fasting, praying, and seeking God for wisdom and direction. And in this, I believe that what happened here is that the Lord has given her insight to allow time for his plan to unfold. Because what we understand happens in the moments to come after this first party that she throws for Xerxes and Haman. Haman is going to develop a plan to kill Mordecai long before the date that was set to kill all of the Jews. His anger, his hatred, his pride are going to be so high that that's his goal.
We're also going to see that King Xerxes, after that party, goes home and has a case of insomnia, can't sleep. And so it's going to actually lead to the honoring of Mordecai, which is an incredible iron twist in the story. Ultimately, though, what takes place in this gap of time is that God is allowing Haman's pride to take over and ultimately lead to his demise. That's why this next section, I entitled it one of my favorite statements, give a man enough rope and he will hang himself. And that is exactly what happens here with Haman. What we see Next is the extent of the destructiveness of of pride, not only in Haman's life, but we can consider for our own lives as well. I want you to look at this with me. Letter A.
The first thing that we see about how destructive pride is is that pride erodes our dependence upon God.
In Esther, chapter 5 at verse 9A, the very beginning of verse 9, it says this. It says that Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart.
Joyful and glad of heart.
What was causing this gladness of heart inside of Haman? Well, you could say, well, he just had a good party and he had a good time, so maybe he was happy. But as we read deeper, what we understand, it was stemming from his inflated view of self. There was a pride that was welled up in his life that was causing this gladness of heart.
In a moment, you're going to see that he goes home to brag about how great he is. He's going to give this entire laundry list of accomplishments and things about himself and his wealth and his power bragging because his pride is so big.
And here's the deal about Haman.
Haman was a godless man. He did not believe in the God of the Jews. And his pride was the natural result of a life without God. Without God, mankind is left only to Himself to look out for his best interests. And pride was a natural result of that.
However, I want us to understand this morning the danger of pride for believers, because I want you to catch this truth. The danger in this for believers is that pride doesn't necessarily cause us to reject God. I want you to write this down somewhere.
Pride does not necessarily cause us to reject God. Rather, it subtly convinces us that we need him less than we actually do.
I want you to see this play out in this story.
I want you to see that as well, by looking at another place in the Bible where this plays out with God's people and makes it very clear for us.
If you have your Bibles, you could look with me. It'll also be on the screen. But In Deuteronomy, chapter 8, the people of Israel are encamped on the plains of Moab on the edge of the Promised Land. They have just walked through a season of incredible desperation.
40 years wandering in the desert, the punishment that they faced for their fathers being the ones who rejected God and refused to enter in the Promised land, wanting to go back to Egypt. And so 40 years they have wandered as the older generation dies off. And now, once again, they find themselves on the doorstep of the promised land. And Moses is preparing them to go in and take up this land. But he prepares this new generation of God's people to enter with, giving them some very clear instruction related to the incredible abundance they are about to experience.
Deuteronomy 8, 11 says this. Moses says, take care lest you forget the Lord your God, by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today.
Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up.
Notice the closeness in words. Here in Esther 5, 9 we see that what happens is that Haman goes out that day joyful and glad of heart. The warning that Moses gives is that their heart would be lifted up when they experienced this well and this provision that is given to them.
Notice though, that Moses greatest concern isn't outright rejection of God, but it is what will happen when God's people experience success and prosperity.
He worries about this because we all know deep inside every human heart is a small voice that says these words, you don't need God.
You can do better on your own.
Just look at how great you are and what you have accomplished. And then Moses warns them. He says, take care lest you forget the Lord, your God and your heart be lifted up. He says, don't forget what God has done, how he's been with you, how he has rescued you, how he has provided for you, lest your heart be lifted up. In the English, that sounds like saying, unless you're joyful, excited or fulfilled. But the Hebrew verb varam means to be lifted high or to exalted. What he's talking about is the temptation to believe that everything God has accomplished in and through them was a result of their own greatness. The danger that they faced was pride welling up, believing that they themselves had accomplished all of this, not God. Because slowly but surely as pride would take root, they would begin to believe that they were sufficient without Him.
The danger for us as followers of Jesus Christ is that pride does not necessarily cause us to outright reject God, but it subtly convinces us that we need him far less than we do. And when it grabs root in our hearts and lives, it continues to take more ground and bring destruction in our relationship with God. I want you to think about how easily this can happen.
God has given us gifts and abilities as followers of Jesus Christ. We see people every single Sunday here using their gifts, maybe it's playing an instrument or singing or working in our tech booths or working with our children or teaching or preaching.
It is so easy for us in the church and in the Christian life to begin to think that those gifts that God Himself has given to us are something that we ourselves have done and created for ourselves. And it becomes very easy then to begin to rob God of His glory and to take it for ourselves. What is happening? It's not that we're rejecting God, but we're subtly, quietly convincing ourselves that we need him less than we actually do.
I also find that as believers, it can be very easy to begin to rely on yesterday's spiritual growth in our life rather than cultivating today's dependence upon God. It's very easy to rely on what we know and what we've been taught in early experiences rather than to continue to journey with God in a posture of humility, understanding that every moment of every day is a moment of sanctification, sanctification in our lives, where God is working out things in our life to make us more like Himself. And it requires our dependence upon Him.
Slowly but surely, we very easily allow pride to begin to rot more and more destruction as we believe that we ourselves are sufficient without God.
And that causes even greater problems that begin to manifest. Letter B when God is taken out of the question equation. Pride also separates us from other people.
We see this on full display with Haman in quite some interesting ways. Esther 5, 9. The second part of this verse says, when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Now, can you imagine this with me for a second? Haman is second in command of the Persian empire. Empire. He's got the king's signet ring. He can make decrees on behalf of the king. People bow when they come. When he goes walking by, he has incredible wealth and incredible power. And what is it? That's the little needle in his backside. This one guy at the gate who won't bow to him. And it completely destroys Haman. Haman literally is like, he won't bow to me. And it ruins his good day. It's incredible to think about how pride can easily separate us from other people.
But what happens? What happens is this, is that we end up comparing ourselves to others.
And when we end up comparing ourselves to others, we bring separation and relationship.
We can have an inflated view of ourselves. We can see people as less than us and unworthy of our time or Attention.
I see this happen so many times in our own lives as Christians. I've experienced it in my own life and had to work through and deal with it. But maybe it's because we've got a certain subset of friends that other people don't fit into, and a sense of pride wells up and we look at other people as unworthy. Or maybe we'll look at people and they're in a different economic class and we go, ah, they're not quite the same as me. And so that pride takes over and I'm just different. I'm better.
Or we'll look at people that struggle with sin in their life and because of the sin they're wrestling with, and we go, I'm not that bad. We start to have a sense of pride. We want nothing to do with those people.
It reminds me of Luke 18, the pride of the Pharisees. Do you remember that? The pride of the Pharisees, where Jesus is talking with his disciples and he tells them a story about this Pharisee that stands out on the corner giving pride.
Thank you, God, so much for all that you've done for me. And what does he say? He says, thank you that I am not like those sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors. He has such an inflated, prideful view of himself, as though his sin wasn't going to nail Jesus to the cross.
And yet there's another example of a humble, broken sinner kneeling and bowing and asking the Lord for forgiveness. And what does Jesus say? Who is the man that is just justified in this moment?
Not the prideful, arrogant man who thinks he's better than he is and that he doesn't quite need God the same way other people do.
He sees that the person that's justified is the person who's humble in heart and recognizes the depth of their need for God and which produces a humility in their life to not see themselves as separate from others, but to see us in the same boat and journeying together.
You know, one other way that I see this happen, this separation from others in the Christian life is when we refuse to forgive people that hurt us.
Sometimes people hurt us, and they hurt us to such a degree that pride will even well up in our own hearts that we'll be like, look at them, those sinners, those people that have done that and hurt me. And we'll talk down about them. We'll ask people like to have our same point of view and to view them as though they're unworthy and. And not good. And we will almost at times refuse forgiveness or pursuing forgiveness of how people have wronged us.
But I want to ask you a question.
Have you ever sat in that position and thought about the fact that there's a holy God that sits in heaven that you have sinned against, like he never did anything wrong, yet you've done so much wrong against him?
And if there's one person that has the power and the authority and all the things of this world, if there's one person that should wag his finger at us and say, done with you, it would be him.
What does the Bible say?
That God loved you so much that he sent His Son into this world to die on a cross, paying the penalty for your sin against him. He took it on himself.
He showed such incredible not pride, but humility and love. And I just want to ask us this question. When that pride begins to well up in our heart against people that have hurt us and wronged us, how can we not forgive when we have been forgiven of so much more?
You see, that is the destructiveness of pride.
When pride begins to take root, there's a separation that happens in our relationship with God. And when that separation happens, we also can begin to see separation from other people because we lack the grace that has been shown to us as well. Letter C. We see that pride also opens up a sense of entitlement. It's so destructive, and that is entitlement can lead to all sorts of sin in our lives. Think about it with how this plays out with haman. Esther, chapter 5, verses 10 through 12 says, nevertheless, haman restrained himself after getting all hot and bothered about Mordecai sitting here at the gate.
He restrains himself. He goes home, and he sent and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh. And Haman recounts to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. And then Haman said, even Queen Esther, let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together again with the king. Like, look at what he does. He goes home and he just has this sense of entitlement. He recounts all of the great things about himself, how he's been raised to such power. He has incredible wealth. He has all of these sons, all of these flocks. He's got it all. And now Queen Esther basically sees him on par with the king because they're celebrating together. And tomorrow it's going to happen again.
And there becomes this sense of entitlement that builds in his life. And we're going to see how it leads to death. Depths of incredible sin. As now he will seek to put Mordecai's life to an end because he hasn't quite noticed how great he is.
And I would say to you today that this sense of entitlement with pride is a great danger for many in the church, especially for people in positions of leadership.
It is so easy for us when we allow a sense of entitlement to set in with pride, that we can easily abuse power, we can cut ethical corners, we can have misuse of funds, all sorts of things. But we see this not only in positions of leadership, we see this in our relationships. And one of the key places is even within our marriages. You know, the wedding covenant that God, the marriage covenant that God designed for us is a covenant of mutual submission to each other. And it's not about what I get, it's about what I give, and it's about how I show God's grace.
But how often are the deepest problems in our marriage stemming from a place of pride where we think to ourselves, I deserve better?
There can easily become this sense of entitlement that will well up within our souls. I also see this happen in so many people's lives. In the area of sexual sin, pride gives a sense of entitlement. People will engage in sex before marriage, they will have addiction to pornography, they will will cheat on their spouses. And why? Why? Because pride doesn't just say, look what I've done or accomplished. It eventually says, I deserve more, I deserve better, and I deserve exceptions.
And once we believe that we deserve exceptions, our integrity as followers of Christ is in major, major danger. But I want you to see where it all begins. It all begins at the top with a breakdown in our relationship with the Lord. And when this breakdown happens, letter D. Pride holds us in bondage.
It holds us in bondage. Esther, chapter 5, verse 13.
It says this after recounting all of his wealth and everything that Haman has, He says, all of this is worth nothing to me so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king.
It's crazy, man. This guy is ruined by one guy. He has everything he could possibly ever want. But his pride and his ego are tarnished by one guy that really is meaningless in his life.
And that is what happens when you are bound in the chains of pride. His entitlement drives him to devise a plan to have Mordecai hung on the gallows, and not just any gallows. It says that he and his wife talk about gallows that will be 50 cubits in height, that is 75ft high in the air in grand fashion. So everybody can see what happens when little old guy won't bow to precious, precious Haman.
Well, as he finds himself bound in the chains of pride, the rest of the story plays out. We see that the king can't sleep. He's got a case of insomnia. And what better to fix insomnia than to have the book of memorable deep, the Chronicles, brought out and read to him in the middle of the night. You should try that at home. Use the dictionary.
So he has it read to him. And as it's read to him, the account of Mordecai saving the king from this assassination is read to him, and he realizes nothing has been done to honor this man. And so in the morning, when the king is awake and Haman shows up, he comes to the king, and before he can say anything about Mordecai, the king says to Haman, what should be done for someone that the king wants to honor?
Foolish, foolish. Haman believes fully in his mind, it's me, right? He's like, the king wants to honor me again. I'm going to get another kudos. And so Haman, being, forgive me for just being this crass, who's so dumb, literally looks at the king and he says, well, that person should be adorned with the king's finest robes, and a crown should be placed on his head, and he should be put on the king's horse. And then the highest officials in the land should lead this man through the city and through the city square so that everyone can see how honored he is.
And so what does the king do? He says, great, get Mordecai.
Can you imagine with me for a minute? Haman's response is, haman sits there and goes, huh? What?
And remember that Haman also said the highest officials should be the one leading Mordecai through the city. And so the king says, go get my horse, because you're taking him.
And so, in the most humiliating moment of his life, he is taking Mordecai in the king's robes and a crown and on a horse through the thing, praising him and giving honor for what he did.
This is crazy story.
Esther, chapter 6, verses 12 through 13.
Mordecai returns to the king's gate after all of this. But Haman, it says, hurried to his house mourning, and with his Head covered, he is shamed. And Haman tells his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that happened to him. And then his wife, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, if Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him, but you will surely fall before him.
Here's what I see about these chains of pride that Haman finds himself in.
He has zero ability to self reflect.
At no point does he pause and go, man, I really screwed this up.
I really need to get some things right in my life.
There was zero self reflection. Pride had gotten him to the place where all he could do was try to protect his pride.
And the truth is, is that in our own lives, when pride takes root, one of the greatest difficulties that we have is admitting that we are wrong.
Have you noticed that we have a hard time admitting that we're wrong?
And I want to tell you that when we have a hard time admitting that we are wrong to other people, there is no greater breaker of trust in our relationships with other people.
What we think we're doing when we refuse to admit our wrong is we think that we're protecting our image that we have upheld, when in reality all we are doing is tearing it down in very embarrassing ways for people to see.
The other thing that happens is even if we have some self reflection and at times can get to a place of recognizing, I was wrong and I need to do something about it, we will often resist asking for help because if we admit that we're broken, if we admit that our life isn't together, then somehow, someway, our pride is shattered and we are less than in our own eyes.
And that pride holds us in bondage church.
You know how many Christians refuse to admit their sin and their struggle and to walk with other believers that could help them because they're too afraid to say, I need help, they're holding up. We walk into this church every Sunday and we hold up this perfect image as though I've got it all together. When guys, let's just be honest.
None of us do.
We all have brokenness and our pride is the thing that holds us in bondage.
We resist asking for help. And as I mentioned earlier, we often refuse to forgive other people.
And when we refuse to forgive other people, we stay in bondage to our hatred.
Bitterness wells up in our soul and it only digs our pride even deeper.
So destructive.
Well, it's a cliffhanger message this morning because we're not going to turn to the next chapter. But I do want to leave you with this.
How do we guard against developing this heart of pride?
We have been given Haman's full display of the pride and how destructive it is. We've considered its destruction in our own lives.
How does God's Word instruct us to guard against developing that? I want to take you back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 8. And if you have time this week, I'd encourage you to read through that and to just really dig into it with the Lord because He actually gives a prescription for his people, how to guard against pride welling and because of all of the wealth and accumulation of goodness that they will have. What does he say? Letter A. I want you to remember who I AM.
Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 14. He says, Then your heart be lifted up. That's the danger of pride. And you forget the Lord your God.
The most important warning that he gives them is, do not forget who I am. Remember me. I am the Lord.
I am Yahweh. I am the one who has taken you from Egypt, who has brought you to the promised land, who has provided for your every need. Remember who I am.
Church, can you do this with me? Can you take just a moment and close your eyes and I just want you to listen to these words pour over you. And whatever pictures come to your mind. I want you to remember who God is. Close your eyes with me.
Meditate on these truths.
God says, remember who I am.
I am the God of the covenant, who fulfills all of his promises from generation to generation.
I am the Holy God, the all powerful God, the Creator and sustainer of heaven and earth, the One who has worshiped day and night around His Heavenly throne.
I am the one who in whom nothing happens without his hand allowing it.
I am the God who causes kings and kingdoms and even politicians to rise and to fall.
I am the one who has numbered the very hairs on your head. The One who sees the motivations of the human heart, the One who holds all power over life and death. The one who will judge the righteous and the unrighteous.
The One who is just in all of his ways and yet who is full of mercy and grace.
Church, why remember who God is?
Because what happens when I allow myself to remember who God is, what it does is it reminds me that I am not Him.
When I remember who God is, it reminds me of how awesome and great he is, but also how desperately I need Him.
And that brings us to a posture of humility. God tells his people Remember who I am, but let her be. He also says, remember what I have saved you from. Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verses 14 to 16. He says, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery? Who led you through the great and terrible terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water? Who brought you water out of the flinty rock? Who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end?
What does he say? Remember who I am. That will remind you who you are and your need for me, but remember what I have saved you from. For the Israelites, it was a reminder of where he had brought them and how he had been present with them through their entire journey. He saved them from the land of Egypt. He was providing for them a promised land. And yet God speaks to us today through his word, saying, don't forget what I have saved you from. You were dead in your trespasses and sin, in rebellion against a holy God deserving of eternal separation. But in my love for you, my desire to pursue you and for you to be with me, I, God, have sent my own son to become one with you and to die on a cross to pay the penalty for your rebellion against me.
That if you would put your faith and trust in him, you would be restored to a right relationship with me.
Think of the incredible humility of that act and what God has saved you from.
Because when we begin to remember what we have been saved from by God, we understand to an even greater degree his love for us, which then allows that love to flow through us.
In letter C, he says, remember that I am the One who provides.
In verse 18, he says, you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers. As it is this day, As the Israelites traveled from Egypt to the promised land and wandered in the desert for 40 years, God provided for their every single need. Water, manna, protection.
What he reminds us of is his continued faithfulness in our lives.
And I want you to hear this this morning. When our hearts are intentionally cultivated for God, when we remember who he is, it reminds us of our need for Him.
When we remember what he has saved us from, it reminds us of the depth of his love for us. And we are reminded of the ways in which he has provided for us over and over and over again. It reminds us that God is not absent, but he continues to pursue us and to meet our every single need.
And when that impact, what does it develop?
Not pride.
Humility.
A humility that allows not me to get the credit for my life. And I begin separating from God, thinking I can do this on my own.
But it causes me to recognize that he gets all the glory and he is the only one that I need.
Let's pray together.
Lord, my prayer is that this morning, as we have journeyed through your word together, is that you, through your holy Spirit, would be revealing to us the places where pride has taken root in our own lives.
And that we wouldn't dismiss it, that we would recognize just how destructive it is to our relationship with you, to our relationship with others, how it feeds others sin in our life and how it holds us in bondage.
And Father, would you help us to find that place of humility, to not be afraid to say the words, I'm broken, God, and I need you and to be willing to openly say, I don't have to put on an act in order to save my pride.
I just need people to journey with me, with you, God, so that you can transform my life and my heart.
Church, I'm just gonna invite you as we close with this last song.
You can stand to worship, but if there's business that you need to do with the Lord, if the Lord is speaking to your heart in this area this morning and you want to come and you want to pray, this altar is open here at the front or the stage, these stairs. I would love for you to come and just bow and kneel in quiet prayer acknowledging this morning. God, God, I've heard you and I want to respond to you in humility, declaring today I need you.
Let's worship together.
[01:20:55] Speaker F: You came to the world you created.
Trading your crown for a cross.
You willingly died your innocent life paid the cost.
Counting your status as nothing.
The king of all kings came to serve.
Washing my feet, covering me with your love.
Sing this together in humility with all of you.
May needs less of me.
Take everything, yes, all of you is all I need.
Take everything, yes, Lord, It's our prayer, it's our cry.
You want my life and my treasure?
The one that I can't live without?
Here at your feet, my desires and dreams I lay down.
Here at your feet my desires and dreams I
[01:22:30] Speaker B: lay down, I lay it all down.
If more of you means less of me, take everything, yes, all of you is all I need.
Take everything.
If more of you means less of me, take Everything, Yes, all of you is all I need.
Take everything.
O Lord, change me like on God only you can.
Here with my heart in your hands, Father, I pray, make me more like Jesus.
This world is dying to know who you are.
You showed us the way to your heart.
So, Father, I pray, make me more like Jesus. O Lord, change me like only you can.
Here with my heart in your hands, Father I pray, make me more, more like Jesus. This world is dying to know who you are.
You showed us the way to your heart.
So, Father, I pray, make me more like Jesus.
More, more like Jesus. I pray more like Jesus.
If more of you means less of me, Take everything, Yes, all of you is all I need.
Take care, take it all.
If more of you take it all, make me more like you.
Yes, all of you is all I need.
Take everything, yes, Make me more like you. Yes, You means less of me.
Sing that chorus together. Church.
If more of you means less of me, Take care.
Free anything.
Yes, all of you is all I need.
Take every, take it all on.
If more of you take it all,
[01:26:38] Speaker F: would you take it all, God?
If
[01:26:42] Speaker B: all of you.
It is all I need.
Take
[01:26:47] Speaker F: everything.
Yes. Amen.
Yes. Hallelujah.
[01:26:55] Speaker E: If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, Apostle Paul says, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same life, love, being in full accord and of one mind.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or from conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but rather he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father Church.
If you need prayer today, our prayer team is here. They would love the opportunity to minister to you. As our service closes today. I just invite you to come.
But as I read that scripture, there is too much pride in our world today.
Rampant pride.
It affects the way that we see people, the way that we talk about people. It is modeled for us and splashed across our TVs and all over our radio stations.
And can I just say, church, what we need more of is the humility of Jesus Christ.
And when we embody the humility of Jesus Christ and allow pride to have its role, rightful place in death, the world that only sees pride when it experiences true humility, the humility of Jesus Christ in his followers, it is attractive.
It is something that they don't experience.
It is a grace that they don't understand.
And church, you are the only ones that can share that with the world.
And so as you go out from here today, go out with that call. If the Spirit is talking to you about a place in your life where you're struggling with pride, do business with him.
Take time today to do business with the Lord and let him shape that part of your heart.
Because as you go out and you display the humility of Jesus Christ that we just read about, an unbelieving world comes in touch with a holy God that loves them, and they just might possibly find him. Him. So, church, go out with that commission today. God bless you. I look forward to seeing you next week.
