 And while I'm getting myself straightened up, I'd have to give a love and rebuke to Pastor Darrell. I don't know what he was talking about about having a, what, tired of Thanksgiving, tired of the turkey. I just want to remind them, you do know the turkey died for us. Yeah. The pig died. The greens, all that. It made a sacrifice. That was just blasphemous in my eyes, but okay. But it's my daughter did the same thing too. She's tired of it. So maybe it's just, I'm just older. I don't know what it is, because she's giving the turkey away to the dogs and I'm, she need a whooping. That's just, anyway. I've got a good two hours to go. Now, people looking at me like, wait a minute, wait a minute, but you all can help me get out of here early. So I'm gonna look to you for some interaction. Not a whole lot, but some interaction. I wanna see something on your face. I wanna give you something that I think that I know for a fact is going to help you. And so, now if I don't feel any feedback, well then dog on, I'm just gonna preach to this computer and we'll take two hours. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Some of y'all wanna go see the game. I wanna go see the game. So if you are in this category, and I just want you to be honest, if you're in this category, if you have ever been depressed, if you've ever worried, if you struggled, if you had some issues, if you felt like you have ever been attacked, if you are being attacked, if you anticipate ever being attacked by someone or being attacked by yourself, if you just struggle, if you got some issues, you intend on having, not through your own desire, but know you're gonna have some issues in the future, this is for you. Now, if you don't think this is for you, well then something's wrong with you. And this is definitely for you. And so what I wanna do is, I wanna do something that could be a little bit dangerous, that is going from different texts throughout the scripture and kind of putting together. That typically is a recipe for bad Bible exegesis. That's bad Bible interpretation usually, but I am going to put it all together. They seem like they are unrelated texts, but I'm gonna make them relate, not just for the sake of the text, but for the sake of you. And so I want you to also, as we go, notice if you can see a thing. Now, before we get too far into it, I'll let you know what the theme is in a little bit, but hopefully this is going to help you to grow and overcome in your faith. And so what I wanna do is first start off in the book of Esther. Esther chapter three, verse five. Now, Esther really oughta be called the book of Mordecai. It's really not so much about her. She's a part of it, but it really magnifies and showcases the faith of her uncle Mordecai. Mordecai has taken her on and has really raised her like a daughter, and so she's married to the king. Depending upon which version of your version, the name of the king might be Xerxes or Hashiriris. His Hebrew name is the Hashiriris, and so your version might say Xerxes, same person. Now, it starts off speaking about, I'm sorry, not start off, but it speaks about a man named Haman. Haman hates Mordecai, and his issue is historical and a bit racist because his great, great, great, great, great, and I don't know how many more greats there needs to be. Grandfather is a man by the name of Agag. He was king of the Malachites, and he should not be around because the prophet tells Saul to kill all the Malachites, and apparently he doesn't. As a matter of fact, all the Jews worked to get rid of them, and so now we have to deal with Haman later. Just as a little side note, you all do need to realize that past sins can show up. You disobey God. That might not be you taking care of that or having to deal with the ramifications. It might be your children. It might be your grandchildren. Some of you all might be dealing with some stuff that maybe your parents or grandparents did or did not do, and so I would deceit you in biblical terms to take care of what you're supposed to do. Be obedient to God right now, amen. But that being the case, Haman hated the Jews, and so if we go to Esther, chapter three, verse five, and this is weird, by the way. This is the very first time that I'm actually using a laptop to preach. What was it, 30, wow, 30 years ago. The first time I preached, it was a book. It was a Bible, pages in it. Now I use it. I refer to it every now and then, but I'm gonna be honest, typically, it's one of these gadgets or the phone. But so it's just weird. But verse five of Esther, chapter three, Haman, when Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or show him respect, he was filled with rage. He had learned of Mordecai's nationality, so he decided that it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews through the entire empire of Xerxes. He hated the Jews, and so giving a little backdrop of his history, or his family history, you see why he could not stand. But by the way, God had already told them because your disobedience in me, I'm gonna cause other nations to hate you. I'm gonna cause those very same folks. The Jews supposed to drive out to keep them in the land. What's happening today, that is what God said is gonna be a result of your disobedience until I fix it. I'm gonna make you look to me. And with that in mind, he's gonna do the exact same thing for even his own children. Not to the same degree over the same ferocity that he does with the Jews, but also with us. And so here we see Haman cannot stand Mordecai. Mordecai, though, we learned something about him, and I would encourage you to read all of Esther, but Mordecai, we see that Mordecai seems to trust God more than he trusts anybody else. Mordecai seems to have a favorable view about God than he does about either Haman or the king or really anything else. And so how much does Mordecai, is he hated by Haman? So much so that after the king, after Haman is invited to a banquet with the king and the queen, the only one to place the honor, he still can't get over the fact of how much he hates Mordecai. So much so that him and his wife and friends have come up with a plan to build a gallows. That's where you hang somebody. That's gonna be 75 feet hot, hot. I've never actually experienced or witnessed a hanging, but I don't think you need one that's 75 feet tall. I don't find, so what he's wanting to do is he's wanting to make it visible. He's wanting to make a spectacle. He wants to embarrass him as he hangs him. He wants to make Haman, I mean, Mordecai an example. Now, there are some people who love hating you more than they love their own life. Some people love hating you more than they love their life. Matter of fact, some people's life is based on hating you. Anybody ever felt like that? Your whole life was just consumed about hating me. You hate me. I guess the word, what is it? Hater? You are a hater. It's a bunch of haters. Isn't that something? If we could export one thing in America, we could export hating. We do some, and we do it ourselves too. It's just what we are. If mom, apple pie and hating, no, that's the American way. And so that's what we see here. This man hates Mordecai. But if you read the story, Mordecai really didn't bother. Why? Because it depends on who's doing the hating. There can be somebody that's got some plans for you. Matter of fact, truth be told, there's a lot of folks that's got some plans for you. You know how many plans have been put together for you to destroy you, to hurt you, to harm you? It really doesn't matter though, who's making the plans, even if it's the greatest enemy, because if the king has favorable plans for you, well then it doesn't matter, it doesn't. It doesn't matter at all. You can hate me, but if you're about this big, if you're a two-year-old, you mad at me, that doesn't mean you're good. That doesn't bother me at all. I could care less if I give my grandkids a spanking, and what are they gonna do to me? Nothing, right? And so it does matter who has a plan for you. And so Mordecai seems not to be bothered about this. Why is that? Well, I wanna turn to Esther, chapter six, and I wanna read you something. In chapter six, verse one, at night it says, at that night, verse one, the king had trouble sleeping, so he ordered an attendant to bring the book of the history of his reign so it can be read to him. And what he reads is, what he's doing is, he's going back and he's checking the record, and he's seeing something that Mordecai has done. The king notices that this person has stopped a plan to kill him. There were two men that wanted to kill the king, and Mordecai forced it, and these two men are hanged. Well, the king is oblivious to it, but he goes and he checks the record, and he finds out, and he says, what should be done for this man that's done such a thing? And he's saying, well, who's out in the court? And his attendant says, well, Haman is out there. Why is Haman there? Because Haman shows up because he wants to announce his plan to kill Mordecai. You know that 75-foot gallows? We'll come back to that in just a little bit, but that 75-foot gallows, he's coming to bring that plan, and so the king says, what should be done to a man who was done such a thing? Well, Haman, the hater that he is, is thinking that the king is talking about him. Well, you should give him a signet ring, give him a parade, run around town, show him off. I said, well, do that very same thing for Mordecai. And so now Haman and his jaw just dropped. He doesn't know what to do. And so before I move on, all of that now, guys, was my introduction, because I want to submit to you that when you find yourself in any kind of problems, any sort of situation, I want you to do one thing. I want you to check the record. Check the record. Rather than seeing what Haman is doing, or what he's got planned, isn't it better to know what the king is thinking? Oh, by the way, what did the king do? Check the record. We have a king by, I don't know if y'all know this one. I just want to just drop something on you in case you didn't know this. We got a king who checks the record. Matter of fact, this particular king, unlike this one, he couldn't sleep. Our king never sleeps, and he checks the record. So you might want to, it would behoove you to give him something to check. Give him something that when he goes to look at things, oh, by the way, the Bible tells him he's gonna judge you for everything that you've done, good or bad, thought or indeed, amen? Give him something to check in so when he checks it, he can reward you even now and then. But he wants to reward him, but the enemy is against him. Well, so what? That is Mordecai's thought. That's Mordecai's thing, so what? Now, me, if you ever get a chance to spend time with me, you're gonna find out that I have kind of a so what sort of attitude. Meaning that I don't really let on how much I care, because truth be told, in many cases, I really don't. Why? I won't go through my whole story, but I've been through a whole lot enough to know that. So, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna say? Well, what can you possibly do? So, and honestly guys, I mean that. So much so, ask my wife, listen, so. So, and? Well, what about this? And so, why? Because when you start checking out, you know what, I'm almost about to get into the sermon too much. Let me hold back a little bit, because I wanna save that for later. Now, I'm not a hooper. I'm not a hooper, I'm not a shouter, but I just, I might start today. I might start today. But, Mordecai understands who God is, and in spite of the circumstances, is never bothered, never depressed. Now again, all of that is my introduction. So now we can go ahead and jump into this. After this happens, after the king checks the record, Mordecai, I'm sorry, Haman is bothered. But Haman still wants to destroy all the Jews. And to make a long story short, it comes about that Esther is talking to the king, and she lets him know about this plan, and tells him that it's that man, Haman, who has devised this plan. The king is furious, and he comes back in, and he sees Haman pleading with her, but he's touching her. And he's upset, so they grab and yank him out. What do y'all think that he was killed on? That 75 foot, sometimes you ain't gotta worry about what folks mean for your destruction, because that might be the very thing that they die on. And so, often times, the plan that the enemy has for you is the very same death or failure that God is gonna cause him, so not every time. But the point is, I don't have to worry about what the enemy's doing as long as I know what he is doing. Now, I said I'm gonna put some stuff together because I wanna go to another story. Doesn't seem like they're related, but I promise you they are, because what we wanna do is we wanna check the record. Now, how many of y'all are familiar with the story of David and Goliath, right? You don't even have to be a Christian of that story, just David and Goliath. Matter of fact, that's kind of what we talk about when a really, really, really good team is playing against a really, really, really, not so good team, and we say it's David and Goliath, right, the team that shouldn't win versus the team that shouldn't win. So, can I ask you guys a question? Why was everybody so afraid of Goliath? He was a giant, okay, what else? He was strong, what else? He was a warrior, okay, can I ask you guys a question? Now, I want you all to think for a second, this is where we can, you can help me get out of here early, that way I don't have to go back into the text and do a whole lot of searching, this way we can get out of here an hour and a half early. Can I ask you guys a question? Who did Goliath ever kill? I think about that, yeah, nobody. Go throughout the scriptures, you won't find anything that he's ever done worth it, he's just big. All his whole claim to fame is, he's just big. Go check the record. However, as we go to 1 Samuel, chapter 17, verse four. The Bible says that then a champion, I'm sorry, I'm really out of ENSP, I'm going to ENLT, then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the force of it. The word that's used there for Goliath is ish bahaneen. All that is, is a single champion. That is, if my team, if my nation wants to fight your nation, me against you, the winner, that's who wins. We ain't got to worry about everybody else dying, it's just one, that's it. So what do they do? They pick the biggest guy they could find. Apparently the slowest guy too. Somebody would not very good reflexes because David did not have an issue with that. Why? I wish that they would have done what I'm asking us all to do too. Look at 1 Samuel, chapter 17. Everybody is bothered, everybody is afraid. The Philistines got a whole lot of, have you ever seen somebody, I'll never forget this, I'll never forget this, I was at Texas Tech and we had this center, I'm gonna even say his name, I'm gonna say his last name, his name was Bernard. I won't say his last name, I won't tell you his last name is Jackson. But this dude, six, 10 and a half, 270. And this was, you know, Shaq was in college at the time too, and so everybody liked the next Shaq. Can I tell you, this guy was horrible. This guy was at the end of the bench and that was on a team, a Texas Tech basketball team that wasn't very good. Six, 10 and a half, 270, two whatever and could barely dump, just big for nothing. That seems to be, that seems to be who Goliath is. Look what it says, look what it says in verse 25. When David shows up, the Bible, they say to David, have you seen the giant? Have you seen them? Seen what? He's a giant, that's it. David said, yeah, I see him, I can't miss him. Literally, can't miss him. He says he comes out each day to defy Israel. The king has offered a huge reward to anyone who kills him. Well, that's interesting since this giant you're talking about has never, as far as we can tell, has ever killed anyone. Now everyone is doubting him because of their perceived view of Goliath. However, instead of checking the giant's record, yeah, he's never lost a fight, but he's never won a fight. He's zero and zero. He's like everybody at the beginning of the season. He's like all you Cowboys fans at the beginning of the season, you got a whole lot of hope. Notice what happens when the king asked David, are you sure? They said, this is a giant. David says, no, why don't you check my record? Why don't you check my record? But notice how David puts this, David didn't just say, just check the record of me. Notice when he says, go to verse 35, he says, I'm sorry, 34. But David persisted, I have been taking care of my father, sheep and goats. He said, when a lion or bear comes to still lamb from the flock, I go after it with the club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears and I'll do it to this pagan Philistine too, for he has defiled the arms of God. Now, other versions in the Hebrew let you know that it is God that delivered the animals into his hand. So David's not just saying, check my record, but check who was behind my record. Check who, it's not just me just doing this and that's why David says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that comes to defile the people of God? And that's kinda how you look at it. You need to be someone that checks the record. Typically though, let's be honest, we don't like to check the record. We like to look at our issues and our issues become bigger than what they are. And it's not just us, it's even people in the Bible do the exact same thing. One of my favorite stories, cause it just shows how we are as people, is when you look at those men, those, I don't know how many men were actually in the boat with Jesus. Now, they had been with Jesus for a while and they get in the boat with Jesus and Jesus is tired. Tired of them, tired of people just tired. Y'all just wearing me out. Jesus is in the boat, sleeping. He's earned a rest. Jesus does it from time to time go off by himself and get a rest. He is sleeping. Now, we have a son of God. God in flesh who was literally in the boat and he's sleeping. But apparently these men have forgotten his record. Now they've seen a lot. They have seen a lot, and I'm coming down your alley just a little bit, but they've seen a lot. They've seen him do all these miraculous things. But what do they focus on? The current giant, the current issue, the winds, the storm. Now, the Bible doesn't declare that anyone has died in this storm. They just declare that it's a storm and it's frightening to them. And these mighty men of God, these chickens are in the boat with God. Think about it for a second. Literally right there, he's not tripping. He's not fussing. He couldn't be worried because he's asleep. But they're panicking. Master, as the King James verse says, carest thou not that we perish? Jesus, Jesus, we might wake him up. And this is why Jesus is upset when he gets up and he says, basically, so you all have no faith. Haven't you been with me? Check the record. All that I've done. Now, let me come down your alley. Yesterday's storm. Today's storm. Next week's storm. Go and be honest with me. What are you likely to do? You're not likely to check the record. Well, you might be, but it's whose record you gonna check. It's whose record. How is it that the God that creates the waves and the winds, who can put them to rest, we don't focus on him, but we focus on the issues? Now, I wanna show you how much you should be checking the record. I wanna show you how you should or how you even can adopt a so what attitude. I don't mean so like you, yeah, I don't really care. You care that stuff is happening. You care that you might not make as much money as you want. You care that you wish that you were in better shape and so forth. You care, but to what degree? Everybody has this at some point in time. The problem is, it doesn't seem like we're really trusting God. But I wanna ask you or invite you, beg with you, please check the record. And what record core? Because I've trusted God for my salvation. Okay, fine, we're not trusting him for your life. Trust him for your living. Because if God has designs or plans for you, have you checked his record? Has he failed? If he says, let me give you a story. Some of this Jesus said. In John 14, he says, do not worry, do not trip. Fix your heart. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And he says, if I'm going to prepare a place for you, then who am I coming back for? You. In my father's house, there are many mansions, dwelling places, rooms. And if I'm going to prepare it, I want you to understand that in the Jewish tradition that if that happens, when he's doing that, he is obligated to that bride. So he's coming back for you, but what do we do, panic? Worry? Where is Jesus? What's gonna happen? So, let me help you out real quick. Matter of fact, before I do, before I do, before I do, let me turn, let me go to 1 Peter 1. Now, we typically read out of NLT. I'm gonna read out of NLT, but I'm also gonna read out of the NASB. I wanna point something out to you. In the NLT in 1 Peter chapter one, verse three, something that you need to see vitally important, because again, I wanna not just check any old record, I wanna check his record in our lives. He says, in all praises be to God. Matter of fact, I'm gonna have to read out of the first portion of the NLT and the NASB. In the NLT says, all praises to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again because God raised Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation. Now, in the NASB, it says, according to his great mercy, who has caused us to be born again. The word that's used there, anaganesis, which is he is the one that's causing you to be born. If you are born again, you didn't do that. It is literally what he does to you. It's him because he sees that you know good, you gonna mess up every time, even with the spirit in you, you gonna mess up. So what does he do? He does the work first. He has to, as Jesus saying in John 3, he causes you to be born again. Why is that? Well, if we keep reading, notice what he says. He says, we have a priceless inheritance and inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and defiled beyond the reach of change and decay, meaning you're gonna get exactly what he has for you. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive the salvation which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see, verse six. So be truly God, I'm sorry, glad, there is a wonderful joy ahead, even though, look what he says, you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials, verse seven, and here it is, these trials will show you that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. And I wanna point to something that you don't really see in the NLT. The NLT is more of a thought for thought translation. It's kind of on the lines of the NIV, the King James, New King James, NASB, ESV, those are word for word. There's a word that you need to see here. It's this word that we have for proof. It doesn't really show up in the NLT, but this word, proof, is from the Greek word, documentus. It's only used twice in the New Testament. The other time that it's used is in James one. So in James one, some of you all are familiar with this passage says, considered all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. That word for testing is the same Greek word that's used in 1 Peter. That word just simply means proof. In other words, the trials that you go through when you're coming out is proof. Put another way, it gives you a record to check. What do I mean by that? How many of you all have had some problems in your lives? Even if you two, you have some issues. Somebody didn't fill my bottle, ain't nobody changed his diaper on me, something. Or if you 30, if you 40, if you 50, you've had some issues, right? Did any of those issues cause you to cry? How many of y'all worried about those issues? How many of you stayed up? Matter of fact, it might, Lord, help you if it's one of your kids. Then you really worry. You almost wish that you could just die for whatever your child is going through, right? Am I, you've gone through so many things. Maybe you've been beat up, shot at, put in jail, homeless, whatever, abused, all different things. You've gone through all those different things. The problem that we have is we keep checking the wrong record. There is an account of every single thing that you've gone through in life. Problem, cause you keep looking at every single thing that you've gone through in life. Why is that a problem? To be looking at every single thing that you've gone through in life, because you're missing the point about every single thing that you've gone through in life. That is, God has brought you through every single thing that you've gone through in life. You think about whatever it is that you're in. Here's how I know that God has delivered you from all those things. You're here. You're here. This is why he calls us sheep, because sometimes we just do dumps up, I'm literally here. God, why did you take me through all of this? You did all of that and this and that and this and that and that. Why? And God is like, shut up. I brought you out. I literally brought you out. You're here. Anybody ever had a medical emergency? You're here, right? You're here. So who did that? Check the record there. Anybody had a family? One of your kids just went off the range. They're here. Check the record. Have any of you all ever had a financial problem? Maybe I lost a house, lost a car, lost a job, lost this, lost that. Did anybody sleep outside today? Check the record. Maybe you don't have what you wanted to have, but I can promise you, if you check his record, you can have what he wants you to have. Check the record. It really is that simple, because what he's trying to do is, as he says, that word that's used there, God doesn't have casually just chooses words for no reason. That's why that word is there. Proof, proof. Now let me just tell you the problem that you're gonna have. By the way, Jesus, or the Bible makes a statement in John 20, speaking of all the signs, all the things that God has done. It says in John 20, 30, it says, the disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones that are recorded in the book, you know, the record, but these are written that you may continue to believe that Jesus, they're written, all of these things that you can go and check in the Bible are written, just a few things, not all, just a few things, so you can go and check the record, but even if adding enough, go down that list of all the things you've been through, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, and check the record. Now here's the problem, and I'll close on this. Here is the problem, and to have a conversation with you, have a relationship with you, wants to speak with you, wants to be with you. Do y'all believe that? Well, how often do you speak to him? When do you speak to him the most? Is it typically when trials are happening? Oh God, matter of fact, you go, some of y'all, no, I'm not into the whole tongue stuff or whatever, there are times when you just feel like, Lord, if you hear my tongue, something, I want you to hear me, Lord, I'm going through something. I'm struggling, right? You cry out and you cry out, but if God, this is just me, if the only time I can hear you, if the only time I can spend some time with you is when you go through something and then you want to have a conversation. Okay, well, guess what you're going to have? And oh, by the way, all I'm doing is giving you some more proof, that word, I'm giving you some more proofs, some more things that you can check. And what are we doing? As soon as he delivers us, we shout, we're happy. Five minutes later, God, you'll never do nothing for me. And so why would you stop all the trials from you? If you learn, if we learn to trust Him, or if we just check directly, instead of writing about what you've been through or complaining about it, I should put it, how about just both about what He's done? What Paul says, and I can boast about a whole lot of things, but what I would rather boast about is all the things He's brought me outside. You know I'm weak, but when I'm weak, I'm strong. Why not? That's a feat, because that's Him, but I'll leave Him who's brought me through. And so when you sit in there crying and when you want, and you lower down the economy in the little kitchen, the upper, the upper in my wife's. Because I could be a little more compassionate, but I don't know what she's been through. I don't know what she's been through. She knows what I've been through. We got a serious record. I'm talking about a serious record. And so we check it. Not only do you know what He's brought us through.