Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Max Lucado - The Wicked Will Not Win Powerful Sermon

Transcript

Max Lucado - The Wicked Will Not Win Powerful Sermon · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

0:21
Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, Good morning, Way to go, way to
0:26
Speaker 1: be here, Way to be strong, Way to just keep
0:31
Speaker 1: putting the ore in the water and paddling the boat.
0:35
Speaker 1: Way to show up, Way to show up. May the
0:39
Speaker 1: Lord give you strength and bless you today with steadfastness,
0:43
Speaker 1: with energy, with resolve, with hope, with hope, with hope.
0:48
Speaker 1: What crazy seasons we continue to weather through? Right? Yeah?
0:53
Speaker 1: Somebody said this morning that they were sure glad to
0:56
Speaker 1: have an extra hour, and another person said, no, I
0:59
Speaker 1: don't want one more hour of twenty twenty. Well we
1:04
Speaker 1: have it, so here we go, but we're going to
1:07
Speaker 1: make it. We're going to be okay. Selma Reeves told
1:11
Speaker 1: me to tell you thank you for praying for her husband.
1:15
Speaker 1: Ruben had a heart attack earlier this week, and Selma,
1:19
Speaker 1: longtime minister of our church, called upon you to pray,
1:21
Speaker 1: and through God's grace and the skill of a wonderful
1:24
Speaker 1: medical team, Ruben is recovering well. And she wanted me
1:28
Speaker 1: to tell you that, So way to go. Thanks for
1:30
Speaker 1: your prayers. And speaking of prayers, this is an important
1:33
Speaker 1: week for us to pray for our nation as we
1:36
Speaker 1: head into a national election. Did you know we had
1:41
Speaker 1: an election coming up. Sorry, just kidding, of course you did.
1:45
Speaker 1: It's important that we vote, and it's even more important
1:50
Speaker 1: that we realized that the most important vote has already
1:54
Speaker 1: been cast, and that is God's vote in favor of humanity,
1:59
Speaker 1: and that He's on the throne. Regardless of who's in
2:02
Speaker 1: the White House, the throne room is occupied, and we
2:05
Speaker 1: can trust in him. Amen. You know it was about
2:09
Speaker 1: a year ago. In fact, it was exactly a year
2:11
Speaker 1: ago this weekend that during the middle of a sermon
2:14
Speaker 1: that I was sharing on the theme of revival, one
2:19
Speaker 1: of our elders stood up in the middle of one
2:21
Speaker 1: of the services and began to sing the song Revive
2:24
Speaker 1: Us Again. The whole church stood up, and I took
2:28
Speaker 1: that as the Lord's desire for us to be more
2:31
Speaker 1: serious about praying for revival. A group of people began
2:34
Speaker 1: praying every Sunday afternoon at five pm for revival. That's
2:38
Speaker 1: going on for a whole year now, initially of course
2:41
Speaker 1: in person, more recently virtual prayers, but it's also expanded
2:46
Speaker 1: into a citywide prayer effort. Last summer a couple of
2:51
Speaker 1: times at the AT and T Center in the parking lot,
2:54
Speaker 1: and then last weekend and this weekend at San Pedro
2:57
Speaker 1: Springs Park. Today, we're going to gat there with pastors
3:01
Speaker 1: and people from all over San Antonio and the Hill
3:04
Speaker 1: Country to pray, to pray for healing, to pray for help,
3:07
Speaker 1: to pray for protection over our city, and to pray
3:11
Speaker 1: for the Lord's will to be done. You don't need
3:14
Speaker 1: to register if you'd like to come in person. In
3:16
Speaker 1: the past we've requested registrations, but we don't need that today.
3:20
Speaker 1: If you'd like to come to San Pedro Springs Park
3:23
Speaker 1: and use this beautiful Sunday afternoon as a time of prayer,
3:27
Speaker 1: we ask only that you come and don't bring any
3:29
Speaker 1: virus with you. If you have a virus, please stay home.
3:33
Speaker 1: You need to be at home and if your cautious
3:35
Speaker 1: are concerned as we all are. If you're concerned, you
3:38
Speaker 1: can participate online online by going to praysa dot org,
3:44
Speaker 1: praysa dot org or Maxlocato dot com. At three pm,
3:49
Speaker 1: we're looking at probably about a ninety minute prayer service
3:53
Speaker 1: if you'd like to be a part of it. And now, Lord,
3:56
Speaker 1: we turn our hearts to you, asking for your presence,
3:58
Speaker 1: your power, your word, your strength to speak to us
4:01
Speaker 1: today in a world in which so many people are
4:05
Speaker 1: pummeled by the pandemic, by political sea sawing, by personal issues.
4:13
Speaker 1: We really need a word from you today, and we
4:18
Speaker 1: thank you that you promised to give it through Christ.
4:21
Speaker 1: We pray and all the Church said. In a nineteen
4:31
Speaker 1: sixty two episode of The Twilight Zone, the story tells
4:36
Speaker 1: of a narcissistic harsh Man. He hunkers and bunkers in
4:41
Speaker 1: the apartment, convinced that the whole world is one big
4:45
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory. He and only he perceives the world for
4:49
Speaker 1: what it is, and that is a planet inhabited by
4:54
Speaker 1: evil people. The episode begins, as each with an introduction
5:01
Speaker 1: to the Twilight Zone by does anybody remember Rod Serling? Boy?
5:07
Speaker 1: Some of you just showed your age Rod Serling. In fact,
5:11
Speaker 1: I saw that the Twilight Zone is one of the
5:13
Speaker 1: hottest shows on television right now. He introduces a self
5:18
Speaker 1: absorbed demand this way, that's Oliver Kringle, a dealer in
5:25
Speaker 1: petulance and poison, and he proceeds to talk about Kringle's
5:31
Speaker 1: metamorphosis from a twisted fanatic poisoned by the gangering of
5:37
Speaker 1: hate to the status of avenging angel, upright and omniscient
5:41
Speaker 1: dedicated in fearsome Kringle is a man of no empathy.
5:49
Speaker 1: He rages against people he's never met. He demands that
5:53
Speaker 1: their employees fire them. He calls upon law enforcement to
5:57
Speaker 1: arrest them. And Kringle's world only he is good. He
6:02
Speaker 1: sees nothing but good in himself, and he ascends the
6:06
Speaker 1: judicial brent bench of self righteousness and declares a guilty
6:11
Speaker 1: verdict on everyone else. He concocts a plan to purge
6:16
Speaker 1: the world of all unsavory folk, and he informs the
6:21
Speaker 1: FBI that at four pm that afternoon, the world's despicable
6:27
Speaker 1: and evil people will be a easy to identify because
6:31
Speaker 1: he is going to shrink them all to the height
6:35
Speaker 1: of two feet. As the fateful hour draws near, Kringle
6:41
Speaker 1: can hardly contain his excitement. Justice will finally be served,
6:47
Speaker 1: evildoers will be disclosed, and he will be seen for
6:51
Speaker 1: the hero that he is. So at four pm he
6:58
Speaker 1: rushes to the window to look out and to see
7:02
Speaker 1: who has been reduced to size, But alas he's not
7:08
Speaker 1: able to look out the glass, he Kringle has been shrunk.
7:17
Speaker 1: He is two feet tall. You know, a mister Kringle,
7:26
Speaker 1: have you ever cross trails with a small minded, self centered,
7:30
Speaker 1: despicable despot who demands that everybody else subject themselves to him.
7:40
Speaker 1: They have the audacity to think that they and they
7:43
Speaker 1: alone have the world understood. Consequently, they abuse, they bully,
7:50
Speaker 1: they scorn, they enslave, they even seek to exterminate. Hayman
7:58
Speaker 1: was a kranle, the villain of Esther's story, lived inside
8:03
Speaker 1: a one person world. Everyone else was called to bow
8:09
Speaker 1: down to him. When one of them didn't, a man
8:13
Speaker 1: by the name of Mordecai, Hayman declared his fate as
8:18
Speaker 1: well as the fate of his people, and that would
8:23
Speaker 1: be death. Yet his swagger was short lived. His reign
8:27
Speaker 1: of terror came to an end in the dining hall
8:32
Speaker 1: of King Xerxes. So the King and Hayman went to
8:37
Speaker 1: dine with Queen Esther, and as they were drinking wine
8:41
Speaker 1: on that second day, the king again asked Queen Esther,
8:45
Speaker 1: what is your petition? It will be given to you.
8:48
Speaker 1: What is your request? Even up to half of the kingdom.
8:54
Speaker 1: This is the second banquet, Feast number two. So much
9:00
Speaker 1: has happened since Feast number one. We talked about it
9:04
Speaker 1: last week. Haymon plotted the death of Mordecai the Jew.
9:08
Speaker 1: The King Xerxes, however, chose to celebrate and honor the
9:13
Speaker 1: life of Mordecai the Jew. The king publicly applauded the
9:17
Speaker 1: man whom Hayman had sought to destroy. Hayman was so
9:21
Speaker 1: angry and upset that he nearly missed the party. Just
9:26
Speaker 1: like Banquet number one, the wine was abundant, food of plenty,
9:30
Speaker 1: and the festivity helped Hayman forget his miserable day. He
9:36
Speaker 1: was just about to pour himself another goblet of wine
9:39
Speaker 1: when the king asked the queen what she desired. You
9:43
Speaker 1: might recall he's asked this question twice, and both times
9:48
Speaker 1: she has deferred. But now the time was right. I'm
9:52
Speaker 1: thinking that her heart rate was at triple digits when
9:56
Speaker 1: she said, if I have found favor with you, your majesty,
9:59
Speaker 1: and if if it pleases you, grant me my life.
10:05
Speaker 1: This is my petition, and spare my people. This is
10:08
Speaker 1: my request for I and my people have been sold
10:11
Speaker 1: to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely
10:20
Speaker 1: been sold as male and female slaves, I would have
10:23
Speaker 1: kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.
10:31
Speaker 1: Now the important words are the small words in this text.
10:35
Speaker 1: The queen said, we have been sold I and my
10:38
Speaker 1: people to be destroyed, to be killed. If we only
10:42
Speaker 1: had been sold as slaves, I we Esther links her
10:48
Speaker 1: fate to the fate of her people. Remember, up until
10:51
Speaker 1: this point, Xerxes did not know that she was of
10:55
Speaker 1: Jewish heritage, and now she discloses that she is not
11:00
Speaker 1: Esther the queen, but she is Esther the Jew. Silence
11:05
Speaker 1: certainly fell on the room like a curtain. The King's
11:08
Speaker 1: head was surely spinning, struggling to connect the dots. You're
11:15
Speaker 1: a Jew. Somebody's plotting to kill you. Somebody's plotting to
11:21
Speaker 1: kill the Jews. He asks, who is he? Where is
11:26
Speaker 1: this man? Who is there to do such a thing?
11:30
Speaker 1: Here it comes, folks, Esther said, our enemy, and foe
11:35
Speaker 1: is this wicked Hayman. Then Hayman was filled with terror
11:43
Speaker 1: before the King and the queen. Hayman, all two feet
11:48
Speaker 1: of him, began to tremble. He had no recourse. Both
11:54
Speaker 1: his jaw and his goblet dropped. Xerxes stormed out of
11:58
Speaker 1: the room, livid, fuming, seething with rage. He was angry
12:04
Speaker 1: at Hayman for playing him the fool, angry at himself
12:08
Speaker 1: for being one. The blood drained from Hayman's face, and
12:12
Speaker 1: unless he acted quickly, it would soon drain from his body.
12:17
Speaker 1: He threw himself upon the mercy of Esther. Literally he
12:24
Speaker 1: fell onto her couch, begging her to help him. Xerxes
12:29
Speaker 1: re entered the room and saw Haymon groping in the
12:32
Speaker 1: direction of his queen, and that did it. Hayman, who
12:39
Speaker 1: wanted to kill a Jew for not falling down in
12:41
Speaker 1: his presence, was caught falling down before a Jew. Oh,
12:44
Speaker 1: the ironies continued. The guards took Haymen in custody. One
12:50
Speaker 1: of the officials looked out the window at the seventy
12:52
Speaker 1: five foot gallows that Hayman had constructed for Mordecai, and
12:57
Speaker 1: he said, well, if I may make a suggestion, your majesty,
13:03
Speaker 1: and he pointed toward the execution instrument. Xerxes gave the nod,
13:07
Speaker 1: and Hayman got the point. There's much more to be
13:13
Speaker 1: resolved in the story of Esther, namely a decree to
13:19
Speaker 1: exterminate all the Jewish people in Persia. But we're going
13:22
Speaker 1: to press the pause button right now and pick that
13:25
Speaker 1: part up next week because we need to make sure
13:29
Speaker 1: we make a very important point that appears throughout scripture,
13:35
Speaker 1: but clearly here in the Book of Esther, and that
13:39
Speaker 1: is our God is a good God, and the wicked
13:41
Speaker 1: will not win. The wicked will not win. We live
13:50
Speaker 1: in a day that even says there are no wicked people.
13:53
Speaker 1: Everything's relative, and tolerance is the virtue, and nobody's really wicked.
13:58
Speaker 1: Scripture is clear, no, there are wicked people. There are
14:02
Speaker 1: wicked people. There are wicked people to tell God to
14:05
Speaker 1: leave them alone and disregard his teachings completely. And the
14:09
Speaker 1: teaching of scripture is the wicked will not win. Nothing
14:15
Speaker 1: escapes God. I wonder if you have time for another example,
14:20
Speaker 1: scroll back on your timeline one hundred and fifty years
14:24
Speaker 1: into the nation that preceded the Persians, the Babylonian Empire,
14:30
Speaker 1: and look at the story of Belshazar. He became king
14:33
Speaker 1: of Babylon in five thirty nine BC, again one hundred
14:38
Speaker 1: and fifty years before Xerxes. In a fateful feast, he
14:44
Speaker 1: invited about a thousand of his gentry to join him
14:48
Speaker 1: in his banquet hall that was reportedly one and one thousand,
14:53
Speaker 1: six hundred and fifty feet wide and a mile long.
14:59
Speaker 1: Along the wall of this banquet room were pillars carved
15:03
Speaker 1: to look like elephants, some four hundred and fifty of them.
15:08
Speaker 1: There was music, there was dancing, and you guessed it,
15:11
Speaker 1: there was much wine. While Belshazzar was drinking wine, he
15:14
Speaker 1: gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets
15:17
Speaker 1: that Nebuka Neezer his father, had taken from the temple
15:21
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives,
15:24
Speaker 1: and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought
15:28
Speaker 1: in the gold goblets that had been taken from the
15:31
Speaker 1: Temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles,
15:34
Speaker 1: his wives, and his concubines drank from them. As they
15:37
Speaker 1: drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver,
15:42
Speaker 1: of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. So when Nebuca Neezer
15:47
Speaker 1: overthrew the city of Jerusalem and he destroyed the temple,
15:53
Speaker 1: he took all the artifacts and brought them home with him.
15:58
Speaker 1: All those artifacts from the temple, every utensil, the menora,
16:03
Speaker 1: the table of the showbread, every spoon, every fork, and yes,
16:08
Speaker 1: every cup, every cup, and these utensils stayed in storage
16:15
Speaker 1: for fifty years are going untouched until this party of
16:21
Speaker 1: bel Shazar, and he called for those cups that had
16:25
Speaker 1: been used in the temple holy utensils to be used
16:30
Speaker 1: in a pagan celebration, a drunk wine fest. Why would
16:35
Speaker 1: he do this? Were they out of cups? Were they
16:39
Speaker 1: out of glasses? Did their dishwasher break? Did their kitchen
16:44
Speaker 1: staff go on strike? No, this is a targeted move
16:49
Speaker 1: on the part of bel Shazar. He wanted to blaspheme,
16:53
Speaker 1: the god of Israel. He wanted to make a mockery
16:57
Speaker 1: of Jehovah. So he used these all the utensils in
17:01
Speaker 1: a drunken pagan celebration. Friends, his irreverence did not go unnoticed.
17:08
Speaker 1: Out of the sleeve of the night, a mysterious hand
17:12
Speaker 1: came into view. Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand
17:15
Speaker 1: appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall near
17:18
Speaker 1: the lamp stand in the Royal Palace. The king watched
17:22
Speaker 1: the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale. He
17:29
Speaker 1: was so frightened that his legs became weak and his
17:33
Speaker 1: knees were knocking. Can you envision this moment? A hand
17:40
Speaker 1: disattached from a body appeared out of thin air. It
17:46
Speaker 1: hovered in the glow of a lampstand and a finger.
17:50
Speaker 1: The finger of the hand began to carve a message
17:53
Speaker 1: into the plaster of the wall. Silence fell over the
17:57
Speaker 1: entire room, all thousand people, deathly silent. King bel Shazar
18:02
Speaker 1: shook so much that he fell down, and his proud
18:06
Speaker 1: sneer became a troubled frown. His boast became a whimper,
18:11
Speaker 1: and his heart pounded like a kettle drum. The people
18:14
Speaker 1: could not decipher the writing. Bel Shazar called for the
18:19
Speaker 1: astrologists and the diviners to come in interpret the message.
18:24
Speaker 1: He said, and I'll make you rich and powerful. None could.
18:29
Speaker 1: The wife of bel Shazar overheard the commotion and stepped
18:33
Speaker 1: into the banquet hall. When she saw the kings, she said,
18:36
Speaker 1: don't be alarmed. Don't look so pale. There is a
18:38
Speaker 1: man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the
18:40
Speaker 1: Holy Gods in him. Called for Daniel, and he will
18:43
Speaker 1: tell you what this writing means. Daniel's an older man now,
18:49
Speaker 1: his hair of silver, his back is stooped. He spent
18:53
Speaker 1: his life in Babylon, but his mind and his faith
18:59
Speaker 1: are as keen as honed steel. Bel Shazar offered him
19:04
Speaker 1: money and power. He dismissed them both. He reminded bel
19:07
Speaker 1: Shasar how God had humbled and disciplined his father Nebukenezar
19:13
Speaker 1: with the season of insanity. Bel Shazar, he says, should
19:17
Speaker 1: have been paying attention, but he wasn't. But you, bel Shazar,
19:21
Speaker 1: his son, have not humbled yourself, so you knew all this. Instead,
19:26
Speaker 1: you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven.
19:29
Speaker 1: That's the definition of wickedness, someone who sets themself up
19:33
Speaker 1: against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from
19:37
Speaker 1: his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles,
19:40
Speaker 1: and your wives and your concubines drank from them. You
19:44
Speaker 1: praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, ironwood
19:47
Speaker 1: and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But
19:51
Speaker 1: you did not honor the God who holds you in
19:54
Speaker 1: his hand, who holds in his hand your life and
19:58
Speaker 1: all your way. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote
20:02
Speaker 1: the inscription. This is the inscription that was written many many, Teckel, Parson,
20:10
Speaker 1: this is what these words mean. Many. God has numbered
20:14
Speaker 1: the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel,
20:17
Speaker 1: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting Paris,
20:21
Speaker 1: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Meads in
20:24
Speaker 1: the Persians. That very night, bel Shazar, king of the Babylonians,
20:31
Speaker 1: was slain, and Darius the Mead took over the kingdom
20:36
Speaker 1: at the age of sixty two. Precise at the precise
20:42
Speaker 1: moment that Daniel was speaking, the Meads and the Persians
20:47
Speaker 1: were creeping through the underground aqueducts, ready to take the city.
20:53
Speaker 1: Belshazar never saw it coming. The takeover was swift total.
20:59
Speaker 1: The mighty nation Babylon collapse. Bel Shanzar was killed, and
21:04
Speaker 1: we are left with yet another sobering reminder, and that
21:07
Speaker 1: is our God is a just God. Our God is
21:11
Speaker 1: a just God. Now what are we to do with
21:14
Speaker 1: stories like these? What are we to do with stories
21:21
Speaker 1: in which an evil, anti Semitic cranle of a man
21:28
Speaker 1: comes to an end, in which bel Shads are irreverent, disrespectful,
21:36
Speaker 1: who had a regard for nothing as being holy comes
21:40
Speaker 1: to an end? Where do we go with these stories?
21:47
Speaker 1: I think of two directions. Number one, for some of you,
21:52
Speaker 1: this is a word of caution. It's a word of caution,
21:58
Speaker 1: a reminder that God will render to each one according
22:01
Speaker 1: to his deeds. Do not think, my friend, do not
22:04
Speaker 1: think for a second that God will turn a blind
22:08
Speaker 1: eye to a life or acts of rebellion and deeds
22:12
Speaker 1: of malice. The scripture says, therefore, consider the goodness and
22:16
Speaker 1: severity of God. Goodness and severity. We love to consider
22:24
Speaker 1: the goodness of God. Do we not? How many songs
22:30
Speaker 1: have been written about the goodness of God? How many
22:33
Speaker 1: sermons have been preached about the mercy of God? How
22:37
Speaker 1: many books have been written about the grace and wonderful
22:41
Speaker 1: grace of God. And yet how many songs have been written.
22:44
Speaker 1: How many songs do we sing that acknowledge the day
22:50
Speaker 1: of reckoning that awaits all evil people? Not so many.
22:57
Speaker 1: Out of curiosity, I'll pull the concordance down off my shelf,
23:03
Speaker 1: looked up the word wrath of God, looked up the
23:05
Speaker 1: word mercy of God, and just tallied up the number
23:08
Speaker 1: of references of each. Just to compare the number of
23:13
Speaker 1: references in the Bible to wrath of God one hundred
23:16
Speaker 1: and eight the number of references in the Bible to
23:19
Speaker 1: the mercy of God forty eight. It's good to talk
23:26
Speaker 1: about the goodness of God, and nobody wants to talk
23:28
Speaker 1: about the goodness of God more than your preacher today.
23:34
Speaker 1: But to discount the severity of God, the just nature
23:41
Speaker 1: of God. To present God as a teddy bear who
23:46
Speaker 1: is blind or ignorant or indulgent toward the wicked and
23:54
Speaker 1: the evil doer, is simply not a fair presentation of
24:00
Speaker 1: the characteristic of our Holy God. Somebody needs to hear
24:05
Speaker 1: this today. Somebody is in a cycle of sin, and
24:13
Speaker 1: somebody has been led to believe that they can continue
24:17
Speaker 1: to do what they're doing and God doesn't see, and
24:21
Speaker 1: God doesn't care, and that there will be no punishment,
24:24
Speaker 1: and that there will be no consequence. That's the culture
24:27
Speaker 1: we live in. Now, do what you want, and as
24:31
Speaker 1: long as nobody gets hurt. Friend, somebody's going to get hurt.
24:36
Speaker 1: There are consequences to our actions. God is gracious to
24:42
Speaker 1: those who trust him, but he's dead serious about correcting
24:46
Speaker 1: those who rebel against him. Today's adultery is tomorrow's divorce.
24:52
Speaker 1: Today's indulgence is tomorrow's addiction. Today's laziness is tomorrow's poverty.
24:59
Speaker 1: Most Supreme, dismiss God in this life and he'll dismiss
25:05
Speaker 1: you in the next. Spend a life telling God to
25:09
Speaker 1: leave you alone. And on the day of judgment, he
25:13
Speaker 1: will do just that. Actions have consequences. Has this pandemic
25:21
Speaker 1: had a negative effect on your life? Has it caused
25:26
Speaker 1: you to engage in some behavior that you know is
25:29
Speaker 1: irreverent or rebellious against God? If so, the reason God
25:34
Speaker 1: has you listening to this story is to tell you
25:37
Speaker 1: he sees and you will not escape. Return, return to
25:48
Speaker 1: your heavenly Father. For some of you, this is a
25:53
Speaker 1: word of caution. For some of you, oddly, a bit strangely,
25:58
Speaker 1: this is a word of comfort because you have a
26:00
Speaker 1: Hayman in your life. You have a Hayman in your life.
26:06
Speaker 1: He was the boss who demanded servitude. She was the
26:09
Speaker 1: teacher who played favorites. He was the uncle who abused
26:12
Speaker 1: his niece, the husband who womanized his way through marriages,
26:17
Speaker 1: including yours. The pastor who was more arrogant than reverend,
26:20
Speaker 1: who used the pulpit as a way to be seen,
26:23
Speaker 1: not as a way to serve. Hayman's snake their way
26:27
Speaker 1: into our worlds. And when they do, victims feel their
26:33
Speaker 1: calendars flip to January, and they are left in the
26:37
Speaker 1: chill of the consequence, searching for springtime, wondering does God
26:44
Speaker 1: know what this hayman is doing? Does God care about
26:47
Speaker 1: my suffering? Will Hayman ever meet justice? Or to borrow
26:52
Speaker 1: the words of the Psalmist? Oh Lord, how long will
26:54
Speaker 1: you look on or Jeremiah who asked, why does the
26:59
Speaker 1: way of the wicked prosper? Evil doers get a free pass,
27:04
Speaker 1: do a pressor's walk free to haymans and hitlers and
27:07
Speaker 1: lynch mobs and porn peddlers get away with murder. The
27:10
Speaker 1: resounding answer from scripture is no, No. The day is
27:16
Speaker 1: coming when God will forever balance the scales of injustice.
27:22
Speaker 1: God has set a day. It is set. He has
27:26
Speaker 1: determined a day in which He will judge the world.
27:31
Speaker 1: The lause who took advantage of you. God knows the
27:35
Speaker 1: seductress who divided your home and wrecked your marriage. God
27:38
Speaker 1: knows the racist who raged, the misogynist who raped, the
27:45
Speaker 1: bully who bullied. God knows about them all. God is
27:49
Speaker 1: a just God, and God is angry with the wicked
27:54
Speaker 1: every day. To be clear, friends, the door of repentance
27:59
Speaker 1: is why right now for anybody, regardless of how wicked
28:04
Speaker 1: they are. It is not his will that anyone perish,
28:09
Speaker 1: but the fact that some will is simply a marker
28:13
Speaker 1: of his justice. Satan knows this. I didn't tell Satan
28:20
Speaker 1: anything new as he listened in to this sermon. The
28:24
Speaker 1: demons are not saying, oh, I never knew that. They've
28:26
Speaker 1: known it from the beginning, because they realized that the
28:31
Speaker 1: real battle is against the devil in his forces. The
28:35
Speaker 1: scripture says, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
28:38
Speaker 1: but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
28:42
Speaker 1: darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness
28:46
Speaker 1: in the heavenly places. The devil placed the anti Semitic
28:52
Speaker 1: hatred in Hayman, the irreverence in Belshatzar. He is the
28:56
Speaker 1: hitler behind the hitler, the pimp behind all pemps, and
29:00
Speaker 1: the pillager behind all pillagers. But his days are numbered,
29:07
Speaker 1: and he knows it. He knows it. He's angry because
29:11
Speaker 1: his days are short. He's angry because he knows that
29:15
Speaker 1: the tables have been turned. Just as Hayman died on
29:19
Speaker 1: gallows that he made for Mordecai, Satan was defeated on
29:24
Speaker 1: a cross that he designed for Christ. God raised Christ
29:29
Speaker 1: from the dead and seated him at the right hand,
29:32
Speaker 1: and the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, and
29:35
Speaker 1: power and dominion. And after he did, he made it clear.
29:40
Speaker 1: God's plan was made known to the rulers and authorities
29:43
Speaker 1: in the heavenly places. Everybody in the heavenly places saw it.
29:48
Speaker 1: The devil saw it. And that is the very cross
29:52
Speaker 1: that the devil had hoped would be the end of
29:55
Speaker 1: Christ became the beginning of life for billions of people.
30:00
Speaker 1: Don't you know? Every time Satan hears us celebrate our
30:06
Speaker 1: Christ who died on the cross, he kicks himself. Had
30:10
Speaker 1: he known that an instrument of death would become life
30:13
Speaker 1: for us, he never would have been a part of
30:19
Speaker 1: the cross. Had Haman known that the gallows would serve
30:25
Speaker 1: to bring his own life to an end, he never
30:28
Speaker 1: would have created those gallows for Mornecai. But Satan, Haymon,
30:37
Speaker 1: Belshazzar Kranle, they don't see it coming. It's hard to
30:45
Speaker 1: see anything when you're two feet tall. Gracious Father, these
30:51
Speaker 1: stories that you gave us today are they're sobering, they are,
30:57
Speaker 1: but they're a reminder. They rightly just the lens of
31:01
Speaker 1: our eyes, so that we see what's happening. Father. We
31:07
Speaker 1: pray for mercy for those who have turned from you,
31:13
Speaker 1: who have fallen into a state of wickedness, those who
31:18
Speaker 1: worship Satan, those who worship alcohol, those who those who
31:25
Speaker 1: indulge in every type of evil behavior. We beg o,
31:29
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, that you would please awaken them, even as
31:35
Speaker 1: we pray. Names come to our minds of people that
31:38
Speaker 1: we know have mercy. Please and have mercy upon us,
31:47
Speaker 1: that we might rightly divide the word of truth and
31:51
Speaker 1: understand where you are taking civilization. Thank you in Jesus's name, Amen,