 Amen. So, keep your place in Esther chapter number three. We're going to be in the book of Esther for most of the sermon. So, we're going to have another this morning. We're going to be in the random characters in the Bible sermon series. And the character that we're going to look at this morning may surprise you just a little bit. But first of all, let me kind of give you some context on the story of Esther in the Bible. It's a great story. The book of Esther is nine chapters long. It's not a long book, but it's a great story in the Bible. Lots of lessons to learn, both good and bad examples. But the story of Esther takes place during the Persian reign of the captivity of the lower kingdom of Judah. So, the northern kingdom, remember you had Israel and the nation split with Jeroboam and Rehoboam into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And then the northern kingdom was wicked from the beginning. But at this point when the Babylonian captivity has happened to the lower kingdom of Judah, the northern kingdom has been gone for some 160, 80 years or whatever it is. So, the northern kingdom is already gone. They were taken over, kind of wiped out by the Assyrian Empire. And then the lower kingdom of Judah then 180 years later goes into captivity through the invasion of Babylon. Now, Babylon then, within a few years is overthrown by the Persian Empire, but the captivity is still happening. So, the king that we're looking at here in Esther chapter number three is the Persian king, as Harris, who I believe is King Xerxes of, you know, if you read history of the Persian Empire, I believe that this is King Xerxes, a very famous king of the Persian Empire. But the Jews are in captivity at this point. The people of the lower kingdom of Judah are in captivity under the Persian Empire. And what happens is in the first few chapters of Esther before chapter three that we just read is King, as a Harris, his wife offends him. He has this wife, her name is Vashti, and she disrespects him in front of other princes. And he goes looking for a new wife. All right? Look at verse number 17 of chapter number two. And he goes, look, he's not, this isn't, again, this isn't detailing what's the right thing to do. It's just what happened. All right? So, his wife offends him, she disrespects him, and he goes searching for a new wife. Look at verse number 17. So, he goes and he has all these ladies to choose from. And Esther is one of these ladies that are, you know, they're being, they're prospects to be the new queen. Okay? Look at verse number 17. And the Bible says, 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 Vashti. So, King, as a Harris, replaces his wife with Esther. She becomes the new queen of the Persian Empire. And in the meantime, this conflict arises that we just read about in chapter number three. Look at verse number one, and let's look at this conflict that arises. So, Esther is chosen as the queen, and the king loves Esther. He is very fond of Esther, which plays a very important role in this story and how it plays out. But look at verse number three, of verse number one of chapter number three, and look at this, this conflict that arises in the midst of this new marriage that the king of Persia has. Excuse me. And after these things, did King, as a Harris, promote Haman, the son of Hameththira, the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. So, this guy gets promoted to basically number two in the kingdom, this man named Haman, and all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. So, Mordecai is this man, he is this man that is a, he's a Jew, and in the earlier parts of Esther it is kind of revealed that Mordecai, you know, kind of exposed a assassination attempt against King, as a Harris. So, Mordecai has this thing that he's done, the king is not aware of it at this point, but Mordecai literally saved King, as a Harris, his life, but he just will not reverence Haman, because he knows the type of person that Haman is. And then the king's servants, which are at the king's gate, verse three, said unto Mordecai, why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Now, it came to pass when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath, verse number six, and he thought to scorn to lay hand, he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone, so he didn't want to just punish Mordecai, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai, wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the kingdom of Asaharis, even the people of Mordecai. So Haman, you know, sets himself up, and he sets his heart to destroy not just Mordecai himself, but all of Mordecai's people. He's going to destroy all the Jews that are in captivity under the kingdom of Persia. So the random character in the Bible that we're going to learn about this morning is the man Haman, right? You're like surprised, right? Because like Esther, normally we'd be looking at Esther. We'll end up looking at Esther throughout the story. It's a great story, but we're going to look at Haman. Like you can learn from the bad character of others. Haman is an evil, wicked man. I want to give you three traits of Haman this morning. Well, I tell you this story and how it plays out and show us how we should have nothing to do with any of these types of traits that Haman demonstrates. So there's three attributes, mainly of Haman, this man that has set his sights on Mordecai. There's three traits, three attributes that I want to point out of Haman that we need to apply to ourselves and kind of check ourselves that we do not have anything to do with attributes like this. Turn to Romans chapter one. Turn to Romans chapter one. So Haman is a very wicked and evil person. Just to have this idea that just because somebody disrespects me, I'm not only going to murder them, but I'm going to murder everyone that, you know, it's like some Italian, you know, insults me. So I'm like, we need to wipe all Italians off the face of the earth. This is the level of the wickedness of Haman, all right? So it's understandable that Haman would have the attributes that we see that are kind of, they have some of the attributes or all of the attributes really that we see in Romans chapter one when it talks about people that are rejected by God, all right? So the first attribute of Haman that I want to point out to you this morning is that he is implacable, implacable. What does it mean to be implacable? But look down at Romans chapter one in verse number 31. So the Bible calls somebody that is rejected by God. The Bible uses this word, implacable, to describe somebody who's literally reprobate, literally given up by God. Yes, Romans chapter one teaches and other places in the Bible teach clearly that a person that is still alive can be rejected by God. A person that is still breathing on this earth, this is a doctrine that is super important for the times that we live in. This is a doctrine that is super important for the protection of a church, of Jesus Christ Church, a protection of innocent people. This is a doctrine that many people need to understand in order to even be saved because many people will look at wicked people that will do horrible things to children and other innocent people around the world. They would be like, how could God let that happen? How could those people have a chance to go to heaven as well? People like that that are unnatural. People that have an ability that other people don't have because the Lord has given them over to those things. It's a very important doctrine in the Bible. But look down at verse number 31. That's not really the purpose of the sermon. We're talking about being implacable. What does that mean? But I want to point out in verse number 31 of Romans 1 that this is a characteristic of someone who is reprobate, someone given up by God. Without understanding it says covenant breakers without natural affection. And it talks about men with men, homosexuality, all that is covered here. But then look what it says. Implacable, unmerciful. So unplacable means that there is nothing that will ever be good enough. There's no way to appease this type of person. There's no way to say, okay, you have enough power now. I'm happy. I'm where I'm at. I'm happy. The problem with being implacable is that desire for power, that desire for complete control, it can never be satisfied. This is what it means to be implacable. And this was the man Haman. This was Haman. Haman, Haman was number two in the kingdom. There was literally nobody except the king himself who had more power than Haman. Yet what? It was not good enough. There was one person. There was one person who had no power over Haman. There was one man that would simply not give him reverence and it was just not good enough the power that he had. He had to have complete power over everyone. He was an implacable person. Now look, turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. A lighter form of this, a lighter form of being implacable is being a person that can just never have enough things. A person that can never have enough, you know, whether it be whatever worldly desire it is, somebody that always wants more and more and more. This is a lighter form of implacable. And this is why the book of Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, was to warn Christians against this type of trait, of this idea that, you know, just, Solomon is warning us. He's saying if you pursue all these worldly things, it will never be enough for you. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 2. This is why Solomon is such a great example for us. So, you know, Haman is a wicked person that is implacable. But this type of trait can infect a Christian as well. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 2 and look at verse number 9. Solomon, an older Solomon, warns us of this in the book of Ecclesiastes. In verse number 9, Solomon says this. He says, So I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me, that I had more than everybody and I knew more than everybody. And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy, from my heart rejoiced in all my labor. And this was the portion of all my labor. Then I looked at all the works that my hand had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly. For what can the man do that cometh after the king, even that which had already been done? He's saying here, Solomon is saying, he's like, I had everything. I knew everything. I did everything. He's like, I did smart things, and I did stupid things. He's like, I went into folly, and I went into wisdom. I did everything. And look at verse 13. He says, Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as the light excelleth the darkness. The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness. And I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all. This is so important here in verse 15. He says, Then I said in my heart, As it happened to the fool, so it happened to me. And why was I then born more wise? Then I said in my heart that also is vanity. Look at verse 16. For there is no more remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever. Seeing that which is now in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dyeth the wise man as the fool. Here's what he's saying in these two verses. He's saying that the fool and the wise are all going to meet the same fate. He's saying the fool and the wise die. He's saying by pursuing all of these things with my life, in the end, it made no difference because everybody is going to die. If you just pursue wisdom in your life or if you pursue folly in your life, they both meet the same end, both of these people. Look at verse number 17. And this is the culmination of all of this pursuit of pleasure and this pursuit of this hedonistic lifestyle, just a pursuit of anything that he wanted on this earth. It culminates in verse number 17. He says, Therefore I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me, for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. He's saying the pursuit of nothing but pleasure will end in knowing that you wasted your whole life, is what Solomon is saying. The pursuit of pleasure, whatever form it takes, things, money, with Haman it was power and money and everything else. It means that you will never be satisfied with it. Now here's the interesting thing about Solomon. And here's the interesting thing about Solomon, because it's easy for us to take somebody like Haman and just say, Yeah, he's a wicked, probably a reprobate, you know, whatever and just dismiss him. But here's the interesting thing about Solomon and what he is teaching us throughout the entire book of Ecclesiastes and why Solomon's example is so important because this disease that Solomon is talking about can cause you to spend, this is what he's saying in the few verses that he's writing. He says it can cause you to spend your whole life pursuing the wrong things. It can cause you to waste an entire life. Look, many times, many times the Christian who is at least trying to live a godly life cannot understand this. And I want to spend a few minutes explaining this to you that people that pursue pleasure, people that pursue pleasure in their life. Look, I get it. There's a lot of people out there that pursue pleasure through drugs and alcohol, and they're on the streets, and they've ruined their life on this earth. But there are many people who pursue pleasure in their life. And this is one thing that I think, you know, Bible-believing Christians that, you know, thank God have never gone down the road to just pursue earthly pleasures. Sometimes I think they miss this, which is why Solomon is so important. Some people that pursue pleasure in their life, they find it. Some people that set a goal, they say, what are you talking about, Pastor? Some people that set a goal that, you know what, I'm going to make as much money as I possibly can in this life. Some people, they do it. Some people that say, you know what, the point of my life is to become a billionaire, they make it. Some people that say, you know what, I just want nice things. And I mean, let me just give you an example. Let me just give you an example. Take a man that never gets married and just decides, I am going to pursue pleasure with my life. Now, look, women, I think you will find more men that do this because women have too many natural instincts to deter them from this. Thank God. Women, you have an advantage. This is why feminism is rejected by so many women early on in their life, because women have too many natural instincts. Women naturally want to get married. Women naturally will have a maternal instinct where they will naturally want to have and raise children. As women go through, as young girls grow up, they want to get married, and then young girls will have a maternal instinct where they want to have a child. And these are natural things, thank God, that are written into their conscience in their heart. So they'll reject many of these things early on, and they won't waste their entire life pursuing things like this. But take the young man. Take the young man. It's not a little harder on the young man this morning, again, sorry, but take the young man that pursues hedonism, and it's none of the men in this church, that's not what I'm talking about, but take the young man in the world that pursues just the pursuit of pleasure with his life. And he just, you know, I want to make money. That's what I want to do. I want to be in fornication, you know, in my life, I'm not going to get married. I'm not going to risk all my money and get married. And look, he'll find relationships with women. You don't need to be married today to have relationships with women. So he could, it's possible that he could find money. He could find plenty of different relationships with women. It would be hard for the Christian to approach that person and say, hey, you need to be, you know, you're going to be miserable unless you get saved. Hey, you know, you, you better, you better get saved and get in the Bible or you're going to be miserable. It won't work with this person. This is the problem with the prosperity gospel. It's not true. The prosperity gospel teaches get saved, get in the Bible and everything will be perfect in your life. Get saved, get in the Bible and you'll have money, you'll have all these things. When the Bible literally says that because you get saved and because you get in the Bible, many times you will have bad things happen to you. Many times you will receive persecution. You're guaranteed to have bad things happen to you if you get saved and get in the Bible on this earth. So for the Christian to say to somebody, hey, you need to, you need to get in the Bible and you need to, look, there's, it's possible that this person who's got yachts and plenty of whatever kind of relationships, you know, he wants to have is going to look and laugh in your face. You say, well, what is the point then? What are you trying to say? What is Solomon talking about? These people will go to the Christian. They'll look at the Christian, they'll say, you're boring. Christian, look at my life. You're boring. You're nuts. They'll look at the Christian and just say like, look at my life and look at yours. But the problem is this. And this is the problem that Solomon demonstrates. Remember, we are not reading a story written by a young Solomon here. Here is the problem that this young man, that this man that just pursues pleasure in his life will come across. He will not realize it was all wasted until the very end. So the women have a more, more of an advantage because a man has a much better chance, in my opinion, of wasting his entire life on these types of pursuits than a woman does. Look at verse number 18 and verse number 19 of Ecclesiastes chapter number two. Look at verse number 18 and verse number 19. He says, therefore, I hated life in verse 17. He's like, he realized at the end of his life it was already wasted. It was already all gone. We're talking to an old man here. We're reading the writings of someone whose life is past. And look what he says in verse 18. He says, yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun. It's over. His labor is over because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? That person that pursues pleasure may laugh at the Christian in their life. But at the end of their life, all the yachts and the houses and the whatever else that they pursued, they're going to leave it to a bunch of people they don't even know. That's what Solomon is saying. He's like, you're just going to give all this stuff you've accumulated. You've wasted your actual life and all this is just going to be inherited by who knows? Maybe they're good people. Maybe they're fools. But it doesn't even make any difference because you're coming to your end, is what Solomon is saying. This is the power of Solomon's story. He is warning people against an entire wasted life. And what Christians can do that? Christians could pursue the wrong things their entire life. And yea, you know a Christian on his death bed at least is looking forward to heaven. But he's going to look back on his entire life that he lived on this earth. And he's going to realize it was all wasted. And even the things that people are going to inherit from him is vanity, meaning worthless. It's all worthless. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and look at verse number 10. So pleasure can't be the goal. Pleasure can't be the goal because if you have pleasure as the goal, remember what Solomon said in verse number 17. Look, he won. He won keeping up with the Joneses game. He won. He beat everybody. And I hated life. He hated life. At some point he got to the point where he's like, it was all wasted time. It was all worthless. Look at verse number 10 of Ecclesiastes chapter 5. So pleasure can't be the goal. You say, pastor, can I never have good things happen to me? Can I never have a nice car? Can I never live in a house? I mean that's not what I'm saying. Pleasure can't be the goal. It's just a blessing along the way. Verse number 10, it says, he that love a silver should not be satisfied with silver. It's kind of like a rule of God that he puts on us to make sure that we don't have pleasure as the main goal. That we don't have money as the main goal. If you love money and it's your main goal, it will never satisfy you. It will never be enough. Nor he that love it the bundeth with increase. This is also vanity. Pleasure can't be the goal. It's just a byproduct. It's but it can't be the main thing ever. That's the key because God will not allow it to fill the void in your life. That's what God is saying. That's what Solomon is teaching us through the Holy Spirit, is that if you pursue the wrong things, they will never fill the void for you as a Christian. And at the end of your life, you will realize at that point, even if you were blinded by the pleasure of the moment, even if you were blinded in sin for decades and decades and decades, even if it blinded you throughout your whole life, at the very end, you will realize it was all a waste. What a terrible feeling that would be. What a terrible feeling in the last five minutes of your life to look back on your life to be sitting there and alone. Alone in knowing that all of my children who are fools because I pursued these things and didn't pursue their spiritual inheritance that I should have been pursuing for them, all my children are fools, they're going to inherit all these things that I've set my goals on and set my life on and it's just going to help them become more fools. What a terrible feeling and there's nothing you can do to change it at that point. It's a byproduct. Pleasure and blessings is a by product of living the Christian life. It is a blessing God will give us. You know, sometimes he won't give us those. Sometimes the Christian life may be suffering, but you will have pleasure in your Christian life if you do things God's way, but can never be the main thing. So that's the first thing with Heyman is he shows us just this this implacable attribute that we want to have nothing even a little bit to do with. All right. We'll go back to Esther chapter three and look at verse number one. Go back to Esther chapter three talking about Heyman this morning, this man who is the number two under King Azeherus, who's Esther's husband who is trying to destroy all the Jews. But the second attribute of Heyman that we want to have nothing to do with was Heyman surprisingly was insecure. He was an insecure person. Look at verse number one. After these things that King Azeherus promote Heyman, the son of Hamadotha, the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. Think of it. How could Mordecai possibly threaten this man? How could this man possibly be threatened by some nobody? He was above all the princes in the entire kingdom of Persia. The only person that was more powerful than him was the actual King himself. But he was so insecure that he literally needed every single person to bow down and follow him. Look at verse number five. It says that when Heyman saw that Mordecai bowed not, everybody else did. But Mordecai didn't or did in reverence, then was Heyman full of wrath. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai wherefore Heyman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Azeherus. So again, he needed all the people to reverence him. Even one person not reverencing him just threw him into a fit of wrath. He was super insecure in his position. But look, first of all, I mean, I've just preached on this. I'm not going to dwell on this one for more than 30 seconds. But the first thing here on being an insecure person is we should not desire the attention of all people. I mean, because of this insecurity, you know, this is the honor amongst men sermon that I preached just a couple weeks ago. You should not, because of this insecurity, he had this desire to draw all people to him, to have all people underneath him. We should not have that desire. You should not have that desire to need to have all people drawn to you. This is a very bad thing. Because look, not all people are good. I mean, it really is what it comes down to. Who would want to draw evil people to them? Just that this to have this attitude that we need to have all people drawn onto us is bad. Look, if you're doing the right things, you're following the Bible and you're living the way the Lord wants you to live, the right people will want to be around you. Period. But here's the second thing. Look at verse number 8. So he had this desire to draw all people under him, to get all people underneath him. The way, the problem with wanting to have all people drawn to you and have all people approve of you and just be underneath you, like Haman did, is that it's always done through manipulation. Haman didn't go to the king and he's like, listen, there's this guy's giving me trouble. Look what he does in verse number 8. It's always done. People that have this desire to have all people around them, underneath them, agree with them, they always use manipulation to try to get because look, you have to. You would have to. If you wanted literally everyone to be drawn onto you, you would have to tell this group of people one thing and this group of people another thing. Because there's good people and there's bad people. Look at verse number 8. Haman said to King Asaharis, there's a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom and their laws are diverse from all people. So he's already thrown a little shade there. He's like, there's these people in your kingdom and their laws are, he's saying their laws are diverse, meaning they're different than yours. He just kind of thrown shade on the Jews here. Neither keep they the king's laws. He's like, yeah, they're diverse from yours and they're also against yours. And then look at verse the next part of the verse. Therefore, it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. It's like these people are bad for you. He just like, in that one verse, he goes from bad to worse to worse as far as his slander against the Jews. Look at verse number 9. Then look at this. If it pleased the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed and I will pay ten thousandths of talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business to bring it into the king's treasury. So look what he does here. He doesn't use honesty. He doesn't say, listen, there's this one guy that doesn't show me reverence like everybody else and my ego is hurt and I'm super insecure and like it's just like, I mean I know on the second in command of the kingdom but this guy just like, he makes me so angry. That's who he is though. That's who he is. He's like, king, king, there's a problem and I'm trying to help you to the king. I'm doing you a favor king and then he uses flattery as all people that manipulate try to do. They use flattery. If it pleased the king, flatter's the king. Look, the king should have asked more questions here, all right? I mean this is how you find, this is how you find and I use this term loosely but this is how you find good leaders surrounded by bad people and you'll find that. I mean and obviously just the fact that they've surrounded themselves by bad people means that they're not really good leaders but you can find, you know, a decent man who's trying to be a decent leader which, you know, king has a heiress. I mean he's not saved by any means but I mean he is, he is a decent character in the story here and he's just surrounded by this really bad number two and he promoted this guy. Like, he doesn't know who this guy is, right? Because this guy is very manipulative and he's just, you know, he should have maybe been a little bit more in-depth of the management of his kingdom here but what people tend to do, this is how leaders end up in these types of situations, is they just delegate everything and they don't really pay attention to what's going on and he probably should have not been at the 30,000 foot level but maybe, you know, eight or nine thousand feet at least and he would have started to see things that Heyman was doing but the lesson, the lesson here is, you know, for us, it's like, look, don't be insecure. It's a pretty simple lesson. You don't have to have all people on your side. If you do, it's probably not good. If all people agree with you, it's not a good thing, right? Again, do the right thing, know the right thing, set your heart in the right way and just let the chips fall where they may. Some people are going to like that and some people aren't and you can kind of tell if you're kind of over the target by who doesn't like you, by the way. You get a bunch of wicked reprobates that don't like you, a bunch of feminists that don't like you and you're like, you know, maybe I'm doing something right here. Maybe there's some truth to what these, you know, these ideas are coming from. Look at Esther chapter 5. Look at Esther chapter 5. So let's continue with the story. I'm running out of time here. I don't want to lose the story in, I don't want to lose the story. This is such a great story and such a great outcome here and you know Esther is just a great character in the Bible and I'll kind of talk about her towards the end, but basically what happens is, so Haman, he comes up, he comes up with this scheme to destroy all of Mordecai's people. Not only just Mordecai, but he's such a wicked person, he's such a vindictive person, he's going to destroy all the Jews. Anybody that is a Jew, he makes this plan, he convinces the king to pay for it all and he's going to take this army of mercenaries and kill all these people. You know hundreds of thousands of people. Look at verse number, look at back to chapter 4, I'm sorry. Look at chapter number 4 and look at verse number 16. So Mordecai convinces Esther. He says to Esther, he says that, he says to Esther, look our only chance is you. Mordecai is like we have one of our people that's the queen. He's like we need you to go and talk to the king and expose this conspiracy to the king. But Esther explains to, she explains to Mordecai, this is dangerous. You don't just walk into the king. You don't just, it's against the law to walk into the king. And the law was this, I'm just kind of paraphrasing the next couple of chapters after chapter 3, but she explains that if somebody goes into the king without an appointment, if they don't make an outlook appointment with King Asaharis and he doesn't want them, you just walk in to see him in the garden where he's at and he doesn't hold out his scepter for you to touch the scepter, you're executed. So it's like if you make an appointment with this boss and he doesn't really want to see you at that moment, you're dead. And Esther's explaining this to Mordecai. She's like well you know this isn't like you know you don't just walk in and see this person. This isn't like the free cell phone person up on the street here. Like you walk in and see this guy and he doesn't want to see you, you're dead. And then Mordecai in chapter number 4, he kind of encourages Esther. He encourages Esther to save her people, to step up and save her people which she does. But look at verse number 4 or verse number 16 of chapter number 4. So Esther is going to go into the king and she's going to ask him if she can have a banquet with her and Haman. And she says to Mordecai, go gather all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast for me and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. Also I also and my maidens will fast likewise and so will I go into the king. See it's a big deal. She's like go and pray for me. So obviously the king has executed people before. This is not something that's like oh it's just never happened. It's probably not going to happen. She's pretty sure she's going to get executed is what it sounds like here. She's like go have all the Jews fast for me that are in the city. I'm going to fast. My maidens are going to fast. And she says I will go in under the king which is not according to the law and if I perish I perish. So Mordecai kind of encourages her to actually do it. She's like well go pray for me. Pray for me and I'll do it. Now go to Esther chapter 5. But remember the verse that I showed you in chapter number 2 I believe it was where the king loved her. The king loved her. So she goes into the king and right away he offers her deceptor. Right away he loves Esther. He is very affectionate towards his new wife and he's not going to execute his new wife in it and it works out well and she has the banquet. She has the banquet. Now look at verse number 7 of chapter number 5. So now we're into the banquet. Now we're into the banquet. It says then Esther then answered Esther so he basically says to her what do you want? What can I do for you? You know he's not going to execute her. Things are working out. She says my petition and request is this is if I have found favor in the sight of the king. Notice how just respectful she speaks to him and if it please the king to grant my petition and to perform my request let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them and I will do it tomorrow as the king has said. Then went Haman forth that day joyful with a glad heart but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate that he stood not up nor moved for him. He was full of indignation against Mordecai. So Esther is very smart too. She's very smart. She doesn't go into the king and just expose everything right away. She goes into the king and she says I just want to give a banquet for you and for Haman. So that will give her the audience of the people that she really needs to talk to and then again Haman hates Mordecai. We see more of that look at verse 10. Nevertheless Haman refrained himself and when he came home he sent and called for his friends and xerish his wife. So now I'm going to give you the third aspect of Haman that we all need to avoid like the plague in our lives. Haman was very vain meaning he was very self focused. He was a person that just loved to just brag about everything that he had. So Haman gets invited by Esther. He doesn't know what's going on. He gets invited. He doesn't even know that Esther is a Jew. He gets invited by Esther to this banquet and he just right away invites all his friends over. Why? Because he wants to feed his friends? Because he wants to do something good for his friends? No. So he can just brag about everything that makes him great. Look at this in verse number 11. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children and all the things were in the king had promoted him and how he had advanced him above all the princes and the servants of the king. Can't you just see this guy? Can't you just see this type of guy? You ever met this type of guy before? Just like it's just and look I do want anyone to get me wrong here. Like I love hearing about your work weeks. I love hearing about the successes that you have in your life. There is no one in this church like this. But this guy is just all about his own glory. Literally invites people over to his house just so he can just be like look at how rich I am. Look at what the king did for me and just like on and on and on. He just gloried and vain things. Ecclesiastes 215 again you know Solomon tells us as it happened to the fool so even it happened to me. This is the the fool here that we're looking at. He's just glorying in everything in all of these vain things. In his wealth, in his children, in his position that the king has given him. Look it's not enough that he has these things. He just has to like shove them and they define who he is because that was his pleasure in his life just trying to constantly keep attention on himself. Why? Because he's insecure. Because he's insecure. And the insecurity and the implacability are both showing right here as he just is vain and just I mean this is like to me like and look I'm not against you if you're on Facebook either okay. But like you see these people on Facebook. You see these type of people on Facebook. We're like nothing can happen to you in your life that doesn't have to go on that can't go on that it must go on Facebook. You know just like glorying and look at everything that I've my wealth look at my I mean how many times have you seen these people on Facebook that like they have these I don't know maybe not even Facebook but other kinds of accounts where it looks like they have like this perfect life and then like they all murder each other or something like that. You know you're like what like she was like a parenting expert and then like you know it's like murder suicide times 10 or whatever. I mean it's such a common story it's not funny it's sad but the point is like all these blessings in your life are just not there for you to keep glory upon yourself and that's what Heyman was doing all right. And look here's another thing like the Facebook thing like I deleted the app off my phone because it was so annoying just like all these these notifications like Facebook friends are not your friends do you know that. I mean I'm not saying that you don't have friends that are also your friend on Facebook but somebody that like thumbs up gives you a thumbs up on something or like something that you do that's not your friend I mean a friend is somebody that like when you need help they help you like a friend is like face-to-face like these here these are your friends a friend is somebody like when your car gets a flat tire on the freeway like a friend shows up or they're gonna come and like help you wrench on your car when it's broken or whatever that's a friend I mean somebody that's actually going to be face-to-face with you somebody's gonna give you assistance somebody's gonna give you an ear like an actual ear to talk to somebody's gonna listen to you as we talked about last week these are friends not you know it's face-to-face that's friends not Facebook to face a friend is here and now is what I'm trying to say so Heyman was vain because he just head to I mean it wasn't enough that he had all these things again he was implacable he needed everyone to know that he had all these things and here's another thing if you go back to Esther chapter 5 here's another thing you'll notice about vain people look at verse number 14 of Esther chapter 5 vain people like people that are like Heyman that are just constantly bragging and just have to have everybody know every just glorying and everything about themselves most normal people cannot stand that but what they will what you will find with people like that is they will be surrounded by other vain people like that so other people that like people to just glory in themselves will be surrounded by people that just glory in themselves and then those people will be like you know some of you like glory look how rich I am and then they'll be like look how rich you are look how rich I am too and they're like just waiting for each other to stop talking so they can tell each other how rich they are whatever it is look at verse 14 then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends to him let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high like fifty cubits high think about that it's not enough we're not just gonna hang Mordecai we're gonna hang him a hundred feet in the air or eighty seventy five feet or whatever that is like I mean we're gonna make a point we want all people to see his body swing in there that Mordecai may be hanged there on and then go out merrily with the king under the banquet and the thing pleased Heyman and he caused the gallows to be he's just surrounded by all these vain he's a he's a vain flatterer and he's surrounded by vain flatterers he's like look at how great am I look how great you are we're a horrible Mordecai is he's horrible hang him way up in the sky just they just this is so here's the lessons for us Mordecai is implacable he is very deceiving person he you know we have to understand that if pleasure is our pursuit there will be nothing there at the end that's the key thing to take away from there vanity vanity means two things actually in the Bible actually really means just one thing but vanity means it can mean worthless or self- focused but the Bible really teaches that self-focused equals worthless so when you read vanity in the Bible Solomon is really talking about things that were just worthless they were worthless pursuits but they were pursuits that were self-focused only on his desires so that is what made them worthless so that is another lesson for us is just be careful about vanity be careful about things that they just focus on ourselves again New Year's Resolutions all these resolutions by people for some reason are self-focused they're never focused on other people helping other people spending your life towards other people and we'll talk about that in just a couple of minutes as we end but how did how did Heyman end turn to Esther chapter 7 let's look at the end of this story and see what we can take away from this look at Esther chapter 7 look at verse number 2 so he has this plan to hang Mordecai he's building this massive gallows this this gallows that's never been you know it's the it's the tower right he's building this huge tower to hang this man and then Esther has the banquet look at verse number 2 it says in the king so they're at the banquet and the king said unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine what is thy petition Queen Esther and it shall be granted thee and what is thy request and it shall be performed even to half the kingdom then Esther the queen answered and said if I have found favor in thy sight so she's such a smart and virtuous lady here what does she do she just makes this banquet for her king and just what does she do she draws his heart closer to him she just shows affection towards him and just does a nice thing for him and then you know she then she asked him the question she's kind of buttering him up I guess is what you could say she's just she's asking him something after she's done this is why you know if you want to like pray to God you want to pray to God and request something maybe you should be right with God I don't know it's an idea instead of just being this disobedient child you know go and just ruin everything that your parents have in the house and then be like hey you know mom and dad can I have a donut or some ice cream after you destroyed the entire house probably know is going to be the answer so Esther is being a good wife she's being affectionate towards her husband and then she asked him literally she didn't even have to go up to him and just say this he's like what do you want I'll give you anything it's like whatever you want I will give it to you what is it and she answered I said if I found favor in thy sight okay and if it pleased the king let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request she's saying don't take away my life and can you imagine his face at that she's like please don't kill me and he's like for if we are sold I and my people to be destroyed to be slain I'm sorry she says and my people in my quest for we are sold and I and my people to be destroyed to be slain and to perish but then look she says here she said we've been sold for bond men or bond women I had held my tongue although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage she's saying if we had just been sold she's like I've been sold for death I've been marked for death and all my people have been marked for death she said if I had been she's such a great way of saying things if I had been marked only for slavery she says or servitude I would not have even said anything to you but she's I've been marked for death look at verse number verse number five you can imagine how surprised the king is at this point then said then the king as a Harris answered and said under Esther the queen who is he where is he he's like where is he let me find him it's like someone's threatening your wife it's like any man should have this this this reaction right your wife comes to me like someone's threatening my life where is he where is he at let me add him is what the king is saying that derse presuming his heart to do so who is the man that would even think about laying a hand on my wife is what this guy what the king is saying and Esther said the adversary this is why she invited Haman to the party the adversary an enemy is this wicked Haman she says then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen you think in the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden he just goes to cool off he's just like you can't you just see it he's just he's Haman stood up to make request in Haman so the king leaves in wrath and then Haman just starts begging Esther for his life for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine and Haman was falling upon the bed where Esther was so Esther was laying on this and you know it's probably one of these daybeds is what I'm picturing it and she's you know on this thing and Haman is just bowed down onto this bed begging for his life and the king the king says this he said he said to the then said the king well he forced the queen also before me in the house he's like what's he trying to do like have his way with my wife now as the word went out of the king's mouth they covered Haman's and right away the men the men that worked for the king they don't even they don't need to hear anything else they just grab him and they just tear him away and Harbona one of the chamberlain said before the king behold also the gallows fifty cubits high which Haman had made for Mordecai who spoke good for the king standeth in the house of Haman he built in his backyard then the king said hang him there on so who ends up swinging from the gallows the tower such a great story Haman himself he was destroyed literally of his own device such a great story the Bible why do we study why do we study Haman you say why have a random characters in the Bible about Haman well I mean it's good to learn from bad examples as well as good ones as we can see but really let me just say it like one thing that's why it's in the Bible that's why it's in the Bible but really because I mean this story of Esther is such a good one for the Christian turn to Luke chapter 12 and we'll end here let me just kind of wrap up the story of Esther it was really just a way to preach through this great story in the Bible and take the lessons from it but there's really a lot of lessons for Esther as well as we can look at Esther in the Bible but the thing is if you look at Esther chapter 4 and you look at Mordecai Mordecai literally says to Esther it is literally an example let me turn to you're turning to Luke chapter 12 right it's literally an example and we just read Luke chapter 12 in our Bible reading but it's really a great example in the Bible of Luke chapter 12 in verse number two in verse number two it says there is nothing there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be known it is a great example and a great practical story in the Bible of truth revealed and that applies directly to us in our Christian lives because God says that look truth will be revealed truth there will be nothing that will remain hid and God promises in Matthew chapter 7 that if someone seeks the truth it will be revealed unto them but the interesting thing about Esther in the story about Esther is that truth was not magically revealed truth was revealed through a person truth was revealed through someone that did something courageous truth was revealed look and Esther she did a very courageous thing she said if I perish I perish she was probably convinced that she had at least a decent chance of dying but it wasn't just Esther it was Mordecai before that Mordecai in the verse before in chapter number four Esther didn't want to do it Mordecai said you have to go tell the king we're all gonna die and she says I can't go tell the king he'll just kill me and he says this is why you were born he tells her how would you know that you know this he's I can't remember exact wording he says you've been born for such a time as this this is the purpose of your life is to reveal this truth and the interesting thing is is that God expects his truth of the Bible to be revealed but it's not going to be magically revealed so Mordecai encourages Esther to go out and reveal this truth and she is a she gets courage up she prays to God and she does it and she saves the entire nation one person by revealing that truth God gives us the same command God says in Matthew 7 that if something is someone is seeking they will find but they're not going to magically find they're not going to somebody is seeking the truth God is not going to have a Bible fly down from heaven and hit them so hard that they just get the gospel injected into them God expects someone to go to them to reveal that truth and that's why we are born for such a time as this to find the people that are seeking truth so that's the parallel of this great story of Esther you have a Christian that was doing what they were supposed to do and truth was revealed and that's us we're going to go out this year we're going to do what we're supposed to do and we're going to reveal truth not magically through our feet and through God's word and that's exactly why Esther is in the Bible let's power heads and have a word of prayer