The Celebration of Purim | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter
by Kenneth Carpenter
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Esther 9:20-29, Psalms 122:6, John 4:22, Esther 1, Esther 2, 1 John 4:3-5, 1 Timothy 2:1-2, Matthew 2:16-17

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kenneth-carpenter--the-celebration-of-purim
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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if you would be so kind to open your bibles with me tonight to the book of esther chapter number nine and verse number 20. thank you praise team for leading us before the presence of god tonight with praise and worship we're so thankful tonight to have brother sister wilson here with us he said well we've always got wilson's will this just sweetens it up just a little bit this is the stump this is the mom and dad brother mike and sister joyce and uh we're so thankful just to walk in see you all at uh at church they're full-time evangelists and uh they and their children go here to our church so we get to see them when they're in town and be blessed uh be blessed by his ministry and brother sister wilson so good to see you all tonight uh i got a present i was in the prayer room somebody brought me a present said brother said my dad brother brad gomez wanted to bring you a present so man i'm i always want to open presents you know and so uh let's just open it right here well looky here i've got me a lava lamp isn't that wonderful pastor got him a lava lamp and the copeland's over there they brought me a lava lamp last week so now i've got matching lava lamps i can put one on both side of the dresser in the bedroom right honey right we put one on both right right right amen thank you for our lava lamps now i will tell you this lauren confiscates these things i don't know what she's doing with them i don't know but thank you brother brad for the good laugh and for the lava lamp thank you so much oh god it's so good god is so good please remember brother schilling just brought me word uh brother hines has been admitted to the hospital please remember him tonight let's remember him as we pray over the message this evening esther 9 and 20 and mordecai wrote these things and sent letters unto all the jews that were in all the provinces of the king of the king hazarius both nigh and far to establish this among them that they should keep the 14th day of the month adar and the 15th day of the of the same yearly as the days were in the jews rested from their enemies and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day that they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor and the jews undertook to do as they had begun and as mordecai had written unto them now go down to verse number 26 of the same chapter wherefore they called these days purim after the name poor therefore for all the words of this letter and that which they had seen concerning this matter and which had come unto them the jews ordained and took upon them and upon their seed and upon all such as joined themselves unto them so as it should not fail that they would keep these two days according to their writing and according to their appointed time every year and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation every family every province and every city and that these days of purim should not fail from among the jews nor the memorial of them perish from their seed then esther the queen the daughter of a bahel and mordecai the jew wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of purim i want to i want to teach tonight for a few moments i do believe i've got a word for the hour the celebration of purim the celebration of purim father i love you tonight and i thank you for such a wonderful crowd of people that have gathered out on a less than favorable night i thank you lord for the desire of this church for lord the many that are gathered here there are many that are around a computer screen right now and they're watching and worshiping with us father i ask you tonight that what i would teach from your word would edify and bring glory and honor to your name and i'll give you the praise in jesus name we pray amen and you may be seated the celebration of purim as we as we begin to read about this celebration i find it of necessity to uh tell us that this feast that was started in the book of esther by esther and mordecai that this feast is still being celebrated today this feast is still being celebrated today um some may ask why so much teaching in the word of god about such feast days well i'd like to read to you for a moment or before i do i would like to would you put that scripture on the screen psalms 122 and verse number six psalms 122 and verse number 6. if any of these students that are here tonight that had bishop croucher in bible class at school if bishop croucher drilled one thing into our students that was the importance of israel and the poor importance of jerusalem and i have heard many of our students i have heard many of our students praying and not that i was trying to over to eavesdrop on them but i've heard several of our students praying and they will say god bless israel god give peace to israel and uh we understand that this is a command in the bible in verse 6 it says pray for the peace of jerusalem pray for the peace of jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee if you love jerusalem then pray for the peace of jerusalem and god has added as we pray for the peace of jerusalem that god would prosper that god would prosper as a matter of fact the united states of america we are blessed tonight because of our love and friendship of an as a nation with israel we are tremendously blessed and if we turn our backs on israel then we will suffer uh a curse from god if we turn our backs upon israel i i want to read to you just a moment and i hope i don't bore you with this but this is out of a commentary that i have it says while purim is not a christian festival christians certainly ought to rejoice with their jewish friends because every spiritual blessing we have has come through the jews the jews gave to the world the knowledge of the true and living god they gave us the scriptures and they gave us the savior the first christians were jewish believers and were the first missionaries jesus was a jew who died on passover a jewish feast day he rose from the dead on another jewish feast day another holy day the feast of firstfruits the holy ghost came from heaven upon a group of jewish believers on a jewish holiday pentecost jesus said it in john 4 22 for salvation is of the jews if there had been no jew there would be no church no jews no church there's nothing wrong with meaningful tradition the church is always one generation short of extinction and if we don't pass on to our children and grandchildren what god has done for us and our fathers the church will die of apathy and ignorance and i can say amen to that the jews in the provinces finished their fighting on the 13th day of adar that's march and spent the day celebrating but since the jews in shushan were still defending themselves on the 14th day they didn't get to celebrate until the 15th day in the beginning in the beginning the jews were united in their victory but divided in their celebration it all depending on whether you lived in the city or in the country mordecai however later issued a letter that instructed all the jews to celebrate both the 14th and 15th day of the month today today the jews begin their celebration today as a matter of fact several years ago aca was on a junior senior trip in new york city and uh they went down through a part of town that was heavily populated by the jewish community and they were in the process of celebrating purim they were in the process of celebrating this and this is how they do it today the jews begin their celebration with a fast on the 13th day of the month commemorating the date on which haman's evil decree was issued they go to their synagogue and hear the book of esther read publicly and whenever the name of haman is mentioned they all cry out with a loud voice may he be accursed or may his name perish children bring special purim rattlers with them and they make noise every time that haman's name is mentioned on the morning of the 14th day of the month the jews again go to the synagogue where the story of esther is read again and the congregation prays the story about moses and the amalekites is read then the celebrates go home to a festive holiday meal with gifts and special foods and celebrating and celebrating continues on the next day and they send gifts and food to the poor and needy so that everybody can rejoice everybody can rejoice with them now one may ask me brother carpenter why would you why would you read us all of this well if the jews can have a tradition of being saved from annihilation extinction by the hand of haman a type of the devil and to this day to this day they celebrate purim i just think that right here at christmas time and by the way you do know that esther's name means star means star and of course we've got a better star in our life than a jewish girl that married a king we've got a star in our lives that brought us salvation not from human annihilation but from the second death and so i i just think that we need to get more into a a celebrating spirit of the times right now it's a great time to celebrate we need to remind our children that christmas is not about trucks and toys and gifts and all kinds of things christmas is because he gave us that gift of salvation he gave us a wonderful gift thank god for that gift thank god for that gift of salvation well you can't understand purim tonight until you truly understand what the whole story is all about just like you can't truly understand salvation if you don't understand you were lost if you don't understand how lost you were before he found you then you'll never be able to celebrate your salvation because you don't know what he brought you out of but when you realize you were lost and had no hope and he came and found you and directed you and changed your life blessings favor and you know we're near what you used to be it causes us to say i'll celebrate that i'll have no problem coming in lifting my hands up i'll celebrate that you won't have to cheer me you won't have to cheerlead me to sing a song i'll sing a song you you you won't have you you won't have to intimidate me to come to church i'll come to church you won't have to put me on a guilt trip and tell me i've spent more money on dog food than i have given to missionaries you won't have to do any of that when you realize that you were lost and he found you god had a great plan for you and i'm going to tell you if you're young and he finds you i promise you the older you get the more glad you are that you look back and say thank god he found me i think we need to celebrate i just think we need to celebrate but you'll never celebrate if you don't know why you're celebrating well i'd like to take you back to the first chapter in esther because you can't understand purim to understand what it was birthed in and the first chapter of esther chapter one verse number one now it came to pass in the days of a hazarius this is a hazarius which reigned from india even unto ethiopia over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces it's a lot of land that in those days when the king hazarius set on the throne of his kingdom which was in shusham the palace in the third year of his reign he made a feast into all of his princes he celebrated and his servants and the power of persia and media the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him it's interesting don't you make a note of this that the first chapter of esther starts with a worldly celebration and the last chapter ends in a jewish celebration he throws a big celebration what was it for verse number four when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom now follow this closely he's got a party going on and he's showing the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days even a hundred and four score days and i'm going to tell you something i call you over my house to show you everything i got i can probably do it in less than five minutes and what's not paid for less five minutes i'll probably show you you could tell you show you everything you can walk through the house if you've met her a minute show you everything you own how would you like to own so much it took you 180 days he threw a party someone should come see everything i got i got a glorious kingdom i want you to come see it okay we'll come see it how long we need to stay in the hotel 180 days it's going to take me 180 days to show you all my kingdom so there they are there they are 180 days and well while they're there he's got a he's got a you got to throw a little party for him verse number seven says and they gave them drink and vessels of gold the vessels being diversed one from another and royal wine in abundance according to the state of the king now that royal wine in the meant according to the state of the king that means how much the the wine flowed in reference to how rich the king was now if the man can show off what he's got for 180 days i think he owns more than a couple package doors all right i mean the wine is being poured out on the king's checkbook and the drinking was according to the law none did compel and it just really means you could drink all you want for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house that they should do according to every man's pleasure just drink all you want to just drink all you want to well now in verse number one nine his wife or queen vestai vegeta gets in in the spirit of celebrating and the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king hazarius she throw the party got 180 days going on got all the wine you could ever want got the women in one part of the house having a party got the men in the other part of the house having a party got 180 days and got more wine that you know what to do with and can i tell you what i see in chapter one i see three things now what happened before i tell you the third thing i got to explain what it was what happened the king's good and drunk and he's drunk with the other rest of the guys and he decides in his drunken stupor that he wants all these other drunks to see his beautiful wife so he just tells some of the men to go get his wife to go get his to go get his wife and uh he tells his men to go get her tell her dress up real good and come over here we want well she knows there's a bunch of drunks over in this room so guess what she does she refuses to come she says i'm not coming over there and showing my beauty to a bunch of drunken men to gawk at me so chapter one you see you can't understand you can't understand celebration until you understand what we're celebrating so chapter one can be summed up in this simple way materialism drunkenness and marital issues materialism kind of sounds like the world we're living in today materialism drunkenness and marital issues well what happened in chapter one when the old king kept waiting for his wife to come through the door somebody come through the door and said hey i has a rinse she's not coming she's not coming she has she said she's not coming so he gets real mad the bible says he gets real mad and then one of his other officers come up and say i'm going to tell you something your wife has hurt more than your feelings she's hurt us all it's here it's in here in the first chapter so what do you mean my wife's hurt everybody well i'll tell you this said when my wife hears that your wife wouldn't come then my wife's not going to come said you've caused all of us to have problems and so this chapter 1 resulted in the crown being taken off of vestai's head she was removed from being the queen the world which we live in right now can be summed up by materialism he you know the golden rule he who has the gold rules all right materialism people think they are who they are because of what they drive and what they wear and where they live it doesn't matter the character the person that's irrelevant so what does he drive what does he wear where does he live what can he do for me so we live in a culture right right now of materialism we live in a culture of drunkenness and we live in a culture of marital issues you see you can never appreciate the true beauty of the church until you get a peek at the ugliness of the world and sometimes that's what we battle when we're born in the church and we're kept in the church we've got to understand this is a beautiful place to be tonight this is a beautiful place for you to be tonight oh yes it's a beautiful place to be it's i i can't say it enough the world is ugly the church is beautiful but if we let our enemy talk to us long enough he'll cause us to see the church as ugly and the world as enticing i'm so glad to be in the church tonight i'm glad to be in the church spiritually but i'm glad to be in this building i'm glad we have this building right now i'm glad for the songs that were sung tonight that helped me to express and celebrate to my god so that my children and grandchildren can look at papa and daddy and say that's what you do when you get in the presence of god you begin to worship god because i'm telling you salvation is worth celebrating it is worth celebrating so now we go to chapter number two chapter number two introduces that we don't have a queen now and so in chapter number two we've got a world of materialism drunkenness and marital issues but in chapter 2 and verse number 5 it says now in shushan the palace there was a certain jew whose name was mordecai the son of jayar the son of shemiya the son of kish of benjaminite who had been carried away from jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with jehoiakim king of judah whom nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon had carried away and he had brought up hadasha that is esther his uncle's daughter for she had neither father nor mother talking about esther now she had neither father nor mother and the maid was fair and beautiful whom mordecai whom when her father and mother were dead took her as his own daughter so now uncle morty kay i said esther esther don't have a lot in her favor does she esther don't have a lot going for does she well she's beautiful yeah she's fair yes but she has no mother no father i don't know what happened we could paint a story tonight we could we could paint a story maybe they were killed maybe they died in the captivity but this girl would definitely be someone that you could say didn't really have a lot going for in that day so her uncle took her and i'd like to say to any esther male or female sitting here tonight or watching you may have a lot of things stacked against you but the best place for you to be is in the church the best place for you to be is in the church see here's a good example of that tonight you take brother and sister wilson back there dynamically anointed used of god talented songwriter all these things long list of a pentecostal heritage a mom and dad that loved god and the list goes on and on mothers and fathers that loved god and brought them up you see yeah that's what it really takes to make it in the church to make it in the ministry you know many of young girl and young boy has given up on the call of god in their life because they thought their dad had to be a preacher in order for them to be a preacher they thought they had to be born with the with the brother cade the right last name man it's yeah man that guy's got it made his dad his granddad and all this can i tell you something that's a bunch of baloney that's a bunch of baloney that's exactly right nothing wrong if your dad's a preacher matter of fact you are you listen that ought to be something that that ought to be something that not pushes you ahead as far as advantage but pushes you ahead as far as your requirements that you put on yourself to live for god shouldn't pray less because your parents are in the church you should be praying more than because your parents are in the church well see my dad my mom did the best they could but neither one of them was in the ministry neither one of them was in the ministry sister carpenter's mom and dad wasn't in the ministry but how in the world you know what put us to where we're at today the church the church you know what put esther where she's at today not that she had a mom and dad promoting her she had an uncle called mordecai that kept her tethered to her jewish roots she just had somebody that kept her tied that i know we may be here in shushan i know we're living in a world that's filled with materialism and we don't have what they've got and i know that we're living in a world that they're all drunk and we don't do that and i know we're living in a world where there's family structures that are splintered and and and we're keeping our families intact but do you know we've got a god that loves us do you know that we've got a god that that loves us and still has a plan esther i know your mom and dad they're no longer here and i know life is kind of hard on you for me to raise you and and without the help of your mother and i i know sometimes you feel like kind of you you know second place and all that but esther don't ever lose faith in god because god has a plan for your life esther god has something in your life and i'd like to speak that over all of our youth tonight please don't let your upbringing cause you to think less of what god can do with you god can do some mighty marvelous matchless things come on it's time to celebrate that tonight verse number eight so it came to pass when the king's commandment and his decree was heard and when many maidens were gathered together unto shushan the palace to the custody of hagia that esther was brought also under the king's house to the custody of hagee i keeper of the women i i didn't i didn't fill you in on this you remember vesta got the crown taken off her head that's right in the next chapter they said let's look for a new queen and so they opened it up and they wanted all the fair virgin girls to come and go through a process to be able to be able to stand in the king's presence and whoever the king would pick that would be the next queen and so mordecai he brings esther down and he delivers her into the keeper of the of the maids verse number 10 esther had not showed her people nor her kindred for morning k.i had charged her that she should not show it so now moanike i told her said don't let them know that you are a jew don't let them know don't let them know who you are mordecai i walked every day before the court of the women's house to know how esther did and what should become of her now when every maid's turn was come to go into king of hazarius after that she had been 12 months according to the manner of women for so were the days of her purification accomplished to which six months of oil i'm going to tell you this right here puts any day spa to shame and then told you it took 180 days to show them everything they had this is a day spa that lasts six months with oil that has soaked you for six months six months with oil of myrrh in six months with sweet oats man i you know you could smell that gal coming i mean she six months with oil and six months with older you know sweet odors verse 13. then thus came every maiden into the king whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women and to the king's house in the evening she went and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women to the custody of shag ass gas the king's chamberlain which kept the concubines she came in unto the king no more except the king delighted in her and you kind of followed this with me and that she was called by that name now when the turn of esther the daughter of bail the uncle the uncle uh the uncle of mordecai who had taken her for his daughter was come to go in under the king she required nothing but what haggai the king's chamberlain the keeper of the women appointed and esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her so esther was taken into the king hazarius into his house royal in the 10th month which is the month of tibet in the seventh year of his reign and the king loved esther above all the women and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of vesti then the king made a great feast into all the princes and his servants even esther's feast and he made a release to the provinces and gave gifts according to the state of the king and when the virgins were gathered together the second time then mordecai set in the king's gate esther and this is important i read all that to get here esther had not yet showed her kindred nor her people as mordecai had charged her for esther did the commandment of mordecai lack is when she was brought up with him i i i said all that to say this he talked to her about obedience he trained her about being obedient now there's one thing that you you could get going for you be obedient uh obedience will set you miles ahead of the of the competition being obedient to god's word if there's anything you could be taught tonight is to be obedient to be obedient now now now mordecai i may not be able to curl her hair mordecai i may not be able to tend to a young girl like she ought to be tended to but one thing monica i could do he taught esther to be obedient he taught her to be obedient he taught her to obey so when mordecai i told her now when you get in the house don't you let them know that you're a jew you keep that quiet and the bible says when she got in the house that she obeyed then just like she had obeyed before which the analogy could be this well i think god's going to use me he's only going to use you if you're obedient he's not going to choose you in disobedience in hopes that you will become obedient he's going to choose you in your obedience and then he's going to put you in that place and then you're going to carry on the obedience it's not if god would open some doors for me i would pray if god would open some doors for me i would get sold out no those doors never open you get sold out you get to praying you get to worship in god and then when the doors open you keep doing after the doors open what you were doing y'all understand that tonight so now in the midst of a world sister carpenter that's filled with materialism drunkenness and marital issues we have a queen jew in the house we have someone that the king loves her name is esther do you know do you know that we the church we are in the world but we are not of the world we are in this world we are god's esther in this world matter of fact we're the only hope this world has keep the church burning bright we're the only hope our city has think about it tonight any of you that have family members that are addicted to drugs or whatever suicide or whatever whatever whatever demonic activity is going on in your homes or in your family lineage here at christmas time do you realize that you are the only hope that girl or man has of being turned around you're the only hope for them well we're in the midst of a society of materialism and drunkenness and marital issues that's right and right in the midst of it god has a esther god has a church right in the middle of christmas dinner in a few weeks god is going to have a esther to stand up she's going to walk through the door shining brightly and the ones that are bound by sins shackles are going to have to look up and see the beauty of the esker coming through the door because we're the only hope that the world has we're the only hope that this world has look at first john chapter 4 first john chapter 4 and verse number 1. and not the gospel of john but first john chapter 4 verse number 3 every spirit that confesseth not that jesus christ is coming come in the flesh is not of god and this is the spirit of the antichrist wherever you've heard that it should come and now even already it is in the world what is in the world what is in the world is it any wonder now what's in the world the spirit of antichrist well that makes sense doesn't it that's why we have materialism that's why we have drunkenness that's we have marital structures the structure of marriage has been decayed because we have the spirit of antichrist now already it is in the world but look at verse 4 ye are of god little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world they are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them can i tell you i want to quote the i want to quote the great one johnny james if the world fits you you're the wrong size if the world fits you you're the wrong size if the world understands you you're speaking the wrong language if you don't understand the church you're not in the church because when you understand the language of the church i'm just going to tell you i'm just going to tell you the church is all we got in common you take the church out of our lives and brothers sister tharp what do we have in common take the church out of our lives take the plan of salvation out of our lives what do we have in common we have absolutely nothing in common he's educated and i'm not all right that's what we would have and he's a schoolteacher he's educated he he's edumacated he's got all that these degrees like a thermometer's got i mean he's got all all those things but that's not what brought us together you know what brings us together the church brings us together i had a good service sunday didn't we oh yes we sure did what brings us what what is it the common thing it's the church it it's it's not who's going to win it's not what are the stocks doing it's not it's not who's in the latest movies it's not who's the the best athlete it's not all that that all of that i don't i don't know any i don't know any of that what's the latest song that's out what what's the latest trend what's tren i don't know any of that because all of that is of this world it's materialism it's drunkenness and it's trying to erode away the structure but give me the church oh give me the church oh give me that that's what we've got in common we love jesus don't we that's what we've got in common we well i want to give me the church give me the church um let me um let's go to i may i may end on this note right here extra esther 2 and 21. in those days in those days while mordecai set in the king's gate two of the king's chamberlain's these are these were like secret service men big fan and t rush of who of those which kept the door were off they were angry and sought to lay hands on king hazarius boy you got some secret service men they're they're they're upset and they're planning to assassinate king hazarius and the thing was known to mordecai who told it unto esther the queen esther certified the king thereof in mordecai's name and when inquisition was made of the matter it was found out therefore they were both hanged on a tree and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king i've got written down here that the church is good citizens of the kingdom of which it is in god wants us to be good citizens mordecai he's a jew he's a church brother brad he's a jew he's a church he's walking around and he overhears these two secret service men yeah we'll catch him down there he'll get out of the chair and we'll get him down there when he turns the corner i'll i'll i'll cut his throat and we'll kill him down there mordecai i heard that well more candice went and got a hold of esther and said i need to tell you something they're going to try to kill your husband these two men right here so she wrote a letter and got it certified and put morning chao's name to it i said look there's a plot to assassinate you where they looked into and found out it was true and they hanged both of them on a tree and then they wrote it down in a book of what mordecai had done maybe sunday morning lord will and i'll tell you how that that'll come you know a lot of folks think it don't do good to do good anymore it's always good it's always good to do good when it's in your power to do good do good i promise you it will come back to you it will don't don't don't don't let the culture tell you it don't pay now to be good but you know god wants us to be good citizens god wants us to be good citizens now put apostolic aside put that we talk in tongues and dress different put put that step aside god wants us to be good citizens in our county god wants our church to have a good name in our county he does i i'd like to read you a verse of scripture god wants us to be good citizens verse first timothy 2 and one now i want you to buckle up on this all right because i think i it seemed like god kind of been working on me today with this because boy aren't we in some times right now as a nation are we not in some trying times you know what i've been doing i have been watching less news and been doing more praying about the news i've been let me say it again i've been watching less news and i'm doing more praying about our country right now what our country needs right now is not for us to choose sides our country needs for the church to pray we need to pray for our country we need to pray for our country he says paul says in first timothy 2 and 1 i exhort teach therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty now listen to me now paul didn't put on here any clauses about a political side he said pray for all of them pray for all of them what do we need to do right now pray for all of them pray for washington pray for every branch of our government pray for all of pray for all of them pray pray for him he said why do it because the bible says that we're to do it and then it says the reason that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life the church doesn't need to be known for what it's against we need to be known for what we're for we don't need to be known as a bunch of of rioting people and a bunch of uh a a bunch of uh of just stirred up people we're the church i can do more on my knees to control the government than i can do with a picket sign in my hand our mayor here our city officials our police officers they know who we are they pull you over and look in that car they know who you are they know where you go to church they pull you over and you're speeding tell them you're sorry don't ask don't you ought to be out really chasing real criminals no don't do that tell me you're sorry i promise you it will go further for the name of jesus if you would just admit yeah i'm heavy on the pedal i'm i'm so sorry go ahead i'm shame to tell you you know i'm here go ahead you know he's gonna look in that car if she's gonna look in that car and she's gonna think or he's gonna think well they they understand they understand how this they understand how this how this is so that we have a we lead a quiet and a peaceful life go up to visit somebody in jail and they say i'm sorry but there's visiting hours you've got to you've got to come at a certain hour don't stand out there and stomp and snort like a bull and and yes yes sir yes i have listen i have got to see more people listen to this i have got to see more people in jail and more people in hospital rooms that it wasn't visiting hours and it wasn't the time that i should but i just simply said i totally i i i thank you i totally and they'll start explaining well we're doing this right now we're hey i totally understand thank you so much i'll i and more times i've had them say come on in just come on in but i guarantee you if i got to kicking around there like an old bull and and all this stuff i don't want to be known i don't want to be known in our city for being a preacher that don't abide by the law we don't want to be known as because because they know us in our town we don't want to be known by that we want to be known we want to be like just like the amish people that have a name that have a name for building good barns good houses good furniture they have a name of good craftsmanship god let the apostolic people in our cities have a good name those are good citizens right there those are those are good people right there i i'm telling those friendly they're friendly people don't you want to live that way hey mordecai was a good citizen in a kingdom filled with materialism drunkenness and marital issues he was a good citizen he told he told them say oh brother carpenter but you you don't understand these are wicked politicians it's it's it's they're wicked they're they're they're wicked vile and dishonest okay okay but do you know that on god's prophetic calendar it may take some wicked leaders to push the church toward the rapture have you forgot that this world is not our home have you forgot that we're only passing through have you forgot there's a trumpet that is waiting to be blown and we want to be a part of the rapture of the church have you forgotten that well they're wicked and vile yes yes by all appearances by all appearances they are but on god's time prophetic table it may take a godless culture to hasten the coming of the lord i don't know how i don't know how how much more godless you can get than matthew 2 16. look at matthew 2 16. matthew 2 16. then herod who's herod he's a vile politician he's a vile brother patterson he's a vile politician he's a king herod when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men was exceeding wrath and sent forth and slew all the children that were in bethlehem and all the coasts thereof from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently inquired to the wise man what herod do what this vile what does vile politician do what does vile one do he ordered the death of every male two years and younger how vile can you get but wait a minute verse 17 then was fulfilled that which was spoken by jeremiah the prophet saying in rama rhema there was a voice heard lamentation weeping and great mourning rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not did you see that just as i told you it may take a vile government to hasten the coming of the lord it took a vile king herod to fulf fulfill scripture that was over in jeremiah this world's not our home let's pray for all of our god let's pray for them let's pray for their souls but in the meanwhile let's not get caught up and think that one day that this world that we're going to evolve into a better nation we are not going to evolve into a better nation evil times are upon us our culture we're more educated than we than we've ever been we have more material things that we've ever had before and we have more corruption more violence right now right now i heard the other day on the news a school somewhere in our world somewhere in our world right now a school had a bunch of young children in it gunmen went in and took all these kids out of this school and they don't moms and dads are searching frantically right now for them this world is not getting better church it's not going to get better the one world government is not going to make us a better place it's it's it's deception it's absolute deception it's this world's not going to be a better place the lord is coming esther it's time to shine it's time to shine esther we're in the midst of a godless world we don't need to become like the world we don't need to think like them we don't need to talk like them we don't need to hope like them we don't need to dress like them it's time to be the church and we're just standing with me right now it's time how many is ready it's time to be the church what do you think brother ben it's time to be the church it's time for us to be the church it's time for us to train our children we need we need a purim we need a celebration in the church i lift my hands because i was once shackled by sin i sing the songs of zion because i once sang the ugly songs of the world it's time to celebrate it's time it is time to celebrate i may lord willing i may continue this because i think this fits the time i think this i think this fits the time that we're living in and last but not least i'll leave you with this in the third chapter haman is promoted by the king the church is in the midst and now haman the wickedness is being exalted in the earth he's been given power haman wickedness has been given been given power and uh we are the church how many are thankful that you're not only in the church but how many thankful you are the church tonight could we celebrate for just a minute if you're just thankful would you just celebrate with me god i love you god i thank you tonight lord that i'm in the church god i thank you that i'm in the church and the church is in me god i worship your lovely name jesus i thank you lord that i once was in darkness but you brought me out into light i thank you that i once lord was in bondage but lord you set me free from the from the things of the world god you put a new song in my heart you put us your spirit inside of me god lord now i want to do the things that bring life to me lord i want to do the things that bring health to my body lord i want to do the things lord that bring peace to my family lord father i love you father i ask you tonight to allow this message to just soak down in our souls i'm so glad that i'm part of the church father take us from this place tonight but not from your sight help us to shine as esther did in that kingdom in this kingdom help us to shine god in jesus name we pray amen and amen you're dismissed in jesus wonderful name i'll see you sunday morning at ten o'clock sunday night we're having a special candlelight service gonna have a great time a gift for everybody to be in service with us on sunday night god bless you in jesus name