Contend Against Racism

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So glad that you're here with us this morning.

And we're going to jump in.

You can turn your Bibles to Esther, chapter 3.

Esther 3 · chapter mention

May not have been expecting that as we look at the title of Contending Against Racism this morning.

And we've talked about contending for marriage and contending for right sex, contending for widows and orphans.

And today we're talking about contending for racism.

And next week we're going to talk about contending for right government.

As one man said as he left last week, he said, Are you wearing double deodorant each week?

He said, You gotta be sweating.

Well, the word of God helps with all of this if we'll read it as it says it.

So uh jump with me to Esther chapter three.

I do want to say quickly, just a thank you.

Uh many of you reached out.

My mom was taken to the hospital over last week and was checked for a heart attack.

And the best case scenario from all the prayers, she is at home, she is on some new medicine.

Um they thought maybe a stint was going to be required.

That wasn't required.

And uh so just be praying for her that that medicine will do its work and um and everything there.

Speaking of mothers, my mother-in-law is here this week with us.

You say hi to Graham.

You won't be able to find her, she's wearing a hot pink up front.

So I've had a good time spending some time with her.

It has been busy.

We've been footballing it.

I've been saying that every week for the 4-0 Chelsea Hornets now, and um had a good weekend.

And so, anyway, Esther 3.

Let me define racism.

The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to another.

Now, I need you to understand a little bit of background so you know who is standing before you.

I grew up in Delaware.

Okay, some of you will be holding that against me for the rest of the time you know me, but I grew up in Delaware.

And Delaware is a melting pot of cultures.

We're about 40 minutes from Philadelphia, New York City's about an hour away, and then Washington, D.C.

is on the other side.

And so I grew up much different than probably many of you here.

In fact, um, my elementary school boyhood, my best friend was African American, and culture was just very different in the way that I grew up.

And then God saw fit to call me and drag me to Chattanooga, Tennessee, um for uh my undergraduate at Tennessee Temple University.

And it was a small college, but I got to thinking about all of the different people.

I met someone from many people from Brazil at Tennessee Temple, Japan, Australia, Russia, China.

I had a Honduran roommate and I had a hallmate from Haiti in a like thousand-person college at the time.

And so God really began to open up my eyes to a culture that I didn't understand when I went to Tennessee Temple.

And I tell you, the most foreign person that I had ever met was a guy named Josh Minick, who lived in the hills of West Virginia.

Josh talked in a language I didn't understand, and he seriously came into Tennessee Temple.

I promise I saw him riding in, and I was like, I gotta get to know this guy.

He came riding on in on what looked like a stick with a trash bag on a Honda, I don't know if it's a moped or motorcycle.

And he'd driven hundreds of miles, and I'm like, this guy.

I even got him a job to work with me, and I'm telling you, I've never met anybody like Josh Minick from the hills of West Virginia.

Well, God took us from there to the Midwest.

Heather and I got married, and he took us to Indiana, you know, and they they don't drink soda, they drink pop in Indiana, and they don't they don't use a vacuum, they don't know what a vacuum cleaner is, it's a sweeper, right?

And so uh God took us through that journey, and God brought us from there to sweet home Alabama, God's country.

Roll Eagle.

He's still working on me, folks.

I still got something to learn, don't I?

Well, in all of these different cultures and all that God has showed me, I want to tell you today, I don't believe in making judgments based on skin.

I don't believe it's fair to classify race by skin.

I want to give you a small example.

If you just looked in my family, if you looked at both Cali and Weston, I have two children.

If you looked at them, classification would tell you that they're white or Caucasian.

Cali is most of the time some version of tan to brown.

Never have I ever seen a white Cali.

And Weston is most of the time some version of white, all right, or light peach.

I don't know what you even call them.

Okay.

And I got thinking about the classification that we use of skin tone.

And I got some pictures I want you to see of some twins.

Alright.

What would you classify these twins?

Alright, there's some more I want you to see.

These are all born in the same family.

Strange, right?

So when you look at the Bible, from beginning, all the way through, from the very beginning, with Adam and Eve, there is only ever mentioned one race of people.

And if you ask the question what race of people were Adam and Eve, what's the answer gonna be?

It's the human race.

Some might wonder, well, what were the color of their skin?

As if it mattered at all, it doesn't matter.

That's why the Bible doesn't tell us what color their skin was.

For all we know, they could have been any color.

The point is that God's word never equates membership in the human race with tone of skin.

Whatever color they were, God designed them with a DNA to create a multicolored human race.

We all have this same rooting back to Adam and Eve.

Therefore, any sense of hierarchy based on skin goes completely against God's biblical design.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you and we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the truth of your word, and that God, no matter what issue we come across, if we'll just come back to your word, Lord, we'll be given clarity.

God, I pray through this message that your heart will be seen over this matter, and God, that our church, Lord, would be a beacon of light in this area.

Lord, I pray that you bless us and use this message to speak in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You see, the problem, church, today is this that Satan has been using skin tone to divide for generations.

And at CCW, we must contend for the unity of men, not based on skin or social status or economics, but we want to look like heaven.

And in heaven, it says there's gonna be every tribe, nation, and tongue.

Can I get an amen?

Well, I want to take you to Esther to see three pictures of a man who was a racist.

Esther chapter three.

First point this morning is Haman is a picture of selfishness.

Esther three, we'll read verse one and two.

After these things, King Ahazuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hamadatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.

And all the king's servants who were within the king's gate bowed and paid homage to Haman.

For so the king had commanded concerning him.

But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage.

Letter A, this morning, is this selfish people require public praise.

I'm not talking about edification or encouragement.

No one here is anti-compliment.

Nobody here, I've never had somebody say to me on the 21 days fast this year, Pastor Rick, I am fasting from compliments.

Don't you dare say something nice.

I've not heard that.

In fact, Ephesians 4.29, it says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is to the use of edification.

Build people up, be a builder of men.

And so we're commanded to do that, not to hold words hostage.

But Haman, the selfish man, requires an inordinate amount of attention and an inordinate need for words, especially phrases containing his favorite word, Haman.

Haman said, Amen to Haman.

A praise problem for Haman was this.

It was a position complex.

He saw himself positionally as number two to the king, and he wanted everyone else to see where he stood.

And a position complex brings us to a mission problem because the mission that God's given us as a church is to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and then love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, we're good at loving us.

You love you, don't you?

Amen.

You love you.

It's not a trick question.

God doesn't even call us prideful for loving ourselves.

It is assumed.

Love your neighbor the way that you love you, and you'll be doing good to love.

But this is different.

There's been some people in history that have proven themselves to have a need for public praise.

Maybe you've heard these phrases, praise the Vatisa.

Probably saying that wrong, but it is a toast or a praise to Stalin.

Stalin was a dictator who had a bend toward racism.

In fact, he signed off on orders to deport and exile multiple ethnic groups, and they were brandished as traitors to the fatherland, declaring them second class.

You've heard hail Hitler, right?

Or praise Hitler.

And we understand from history what Hitler was reaching to do.

Well, Pastor Rick, we don't see that kind of pride today.

I want to tell you, it is rampant.

It's more than accepted, it's celebrated, and it's monetarily awarded.

I'll give you one phrase to think on.

Okay, today you hear phrases like you have to build your brand.

Anybody heard this?

You have to be sellable.

Right?

You have to build you and your brand.

And we see it, and hear me, I'm not against all of these things done in the right way.

I think some of them can be done in a way to give God glory, but you're seeing it.

It's all through our culture.

You say, well, we don't have pride like that.

Uh what is an N-I-L?

Right?

In the college world today, we're hearing an N-I-L.

That means name, image, and likeness.

And listen, I'm all for people who are making bank on a stadium full of people coming and seeing them to play to make some money.

But what they're telling is you is that you, through your name, your image, your likeness, you have to be sellable.

You have to build a social media empire.

You have to get clicks.

Well, it's not just stopping right there.

There's an online website called OnlyFans.

And on OnlyFans, they've twisted sex culture, creating workers across the globe that are selling their sexual souls, revealing everything, so that immoral people can get their fix.

For what?

For what reason?

To what end?

For the four Ps.

They want popularity, they want power, they want possessions, right?

And so today, our culture worships the most popular man.

The influencer.

Right?

There is a genre of people now called a YouTuber.

Right?

I heard kids the other year that were saying, What do you want to be when you grow up?

And many of them in a class said, I want to be a YouTuber.

What does that even mean?

And I'm not saying, again, that that has to be bad, but how do you become an influencer?

By public praise, likes, follows, views, and clicks.

People are using this, and pride is rampant.

How many views and clicks does it take before you start to think, you know what?

I am pretty good.

I've got a thousand people watching what I do.

Look at me.

I mean, that's a fight on pride.

And so maybe some people can work through that and be really extremely humble.

Maybe they don't look at it at all, but I'm telling you, it is in culture.

Pride is rampant.

Well, I want you to pass over to Esther chapter 6, and I want you to see something that happens later on.

Esther 6 · chapter mention

And I want you to see a little more about Haman.

Esther 6, 6 through 9.

So Haman came in, and the king asked him, What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?

Now Haman thought in his heart, Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?

There's highlight that.

And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, let a royal robe be brought, which the king has worn, and a horse which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head.

Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor.

Then parade him on horseback through the city square and proclaim before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

Good heavens.

Haman didn't have to think twice.

He had his picture ready.

He said, King said, Haman, what do you think we should do to honor a man?

And Haman just, bam, put on put on the king's stuff.

Not only I'm second in the land, but he thought to himself, make me look like I'm first.

But the king's royal crest put me on a horse.

And then for all of it, can you imagine all of this pomp and circumstance?

And he's walking on a horse and he says, make sure the guy is declaring it.

This is the man that the king delights to honor everywhere he went.

Do you think Haman had a pride problem?

If we're not careful, this voice can begin to work its way into our psyche.

That begins to feed an unhealthy and inordinate amount of praise.

You've already been seeing that, but look at verse 5 and 6 of chapter 3.

When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath.

But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai.

Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were with, who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai.

You see, Mordecai would not bow to Haman II in the land.

And that was Houston.

We have a problem for Haman.

He said, I can't, this is Mordecai said, I can't worship Haman.

I'll respect Haman, but to bow down.

Do you remember any other place in scripture that we see this?

You remember the three Hebrew boys and King Nebuchadnezzar, these boys have been exiled to this land, and they believed in bowing to their God.

And here Nebuchadnezzar is going to have a dedication for his nine-foot-tall, nine-foot-wide statue of himself.

And he says, When I hit the music and the music plays, we're going to have this celebration like a child dedication service.

And you can imagine the curtain falls and everything goes on and they would not bow.

And it said, Nebuchadnezzar, same as here with Haman.

Nebuchadnezzar was full of wrath.

A pride-filled person is full of wrath.

Ephesians tells us to let go of all wrath and bitterness.

A Christian shouldn't be able to be so pride-filled that they're full of wrath.

And Nebuchadnezzar and Haman both in this moment are just filled with it.

And so Haman takes to the king what has happened.

He said, He wouldn't bow.

That is it.

I'm going straight to the king.

And he offers the king a bribe of 10,000 talents.

And he says, This, he would not bow.

And in fact, what he says is his whole race of people live by their own rules.

And he says, Would you, king, allow me to write a bill?

And he writes a bill that would incite genocide, totally eliminating a people group.

He said, if you don't acknowledge me, Haman, you're a threat.

And I want to tell you, church, racists look to rid themselves of threat so they can be lifted high and they can look superior.

How could Haman be like this?

You might ask.

It's a pride-filled heart.

Let me tell you, I think C.S.

Lewis said this so well.

So this is sort of a long quote, but C.S.

Lewis said, the essential vice, utmost evil, is pride.

It was through pride that the devil became the devil.

Pride leads us to every other vice.

It is the complete anti-God state of mind.

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something only out of having more of it than the next man.

Hear this.

We say people are proud of being rich or clever or good looking, but they're not.

They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better looking than others.

If someone else becomes equally rich, clever, and good looking, there'd be nothing to be proud of.

It is comparison that makes you proud and the pleasure that people get about being above others.

And that, friends, is the heart of racism.

He took pleasure in it.

Well, I want you to see something in the book of Amos.

Turn to Amos chapter 5.

Amos 5 · chapter mention

You see, the Jewish people felt to bow down was an act of worship.

Haman would not bow, the three boys would not bow.

You see later where Daniel wouldn't do what they had said.

And so I want you to see in Amos chapter 5 just a quick passage.

Amos 5 · chapter mention

Amos 5, 21 through 24.

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies.

This is talking about church.

Though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.

Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments, but let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Did you hear these words?

He said, These people, they're quick to worship, but content to ignore justice.

If we're going to please God, church, with our worship, we must contend for the things that are at the heart of God.

He says, God hates their worship.

He hates.

God is not honored by worship as we sing songs and give our offerings if we're not standing against racism.

Ask yourself, have you fought for the equality of people around you?

Do we come to worship at CCW on a level ground?

Selfish people are pride filled.

Haman number two was a picture of a supremacist.

That is an advocate for one race as supreme.

Look at verses six through nine.

Said he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai.

Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom.

In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasweris, they cast Burr, that is the lot, before Haman to determine the day and the month until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

Then Haman said to King Ahasweris, There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom.

Their laws are different from all other peoples, and they do not keep the king's law.

Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain.

If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed.

And I'll pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work to bring it into the king's treasury.

I need you to see a little bit of history on this.

Letter A is this a supremacist has a pattern of hate.

We need to see where this started for Haman.

Haman had a history.

Exodus chapter 17, verse 16.

Exodus 17:16

It says, For he said, because the Lord has sworn, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

You see, Ham was an Agagite, a descendant of King Agag, and God told Saul to utterly destroy.

Agag and the Edomites were descendants of Esau, and God said, Here, I have perpetual warfare with Esau.

Mordecai was a Jew, and God's chosen, and the conflict here is more than two men.

Symbolically, you're seeing heaven and hell, you're seeing love and hate, and Haman had only known darkness.

He grew up generation from generation with hatred in his heart.

And he could only see life through this pattern.

Generations of hate.

Well, what is the goal of a supremacist?

I read this in an article this week.

Number one, a supremacist's goal is elimination.

Think Holocaust.

To drive out.

Number two is domination to segregate and terrorize in order to keep people within certain bounds.

The third is assimilation, to refuse to accept any who do not abandon their culture and adapt.

And the fourth is abandonment, refuse care for the needs or defend or to defend the basic human rights.

And so this is the heart of Haman.

Leviticus 19, 17, so all the way back at the beginning of Scripture, it says to us this you shall not hate your brother within your heart.

In Proverbs 10, verse 12, it says, hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers up wrongs.

Proverbs 10:12

And in the New Testament, 1 John 3.14, it says, Anyone who hates a brother or a sister is a murderer.

It's pretty plain in Scripture.

Why is Haman like this?

Letter B, because a supremacist has a problem of heart.

Proverbs 4.23 says, Keep your heart with all diligence, because out of it springs all of the issues of life.

It made me think about a story that many of you know, but I want you to look at it in Luke, the story of the Good Samaritan.

I think in the story of the Good Samaritan, we can see a picture of heart issue.

Say, Pastor, I don't have any problem with this.

Well, I want you to search your heart this morning.

In Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 29, it said to him, You have, but he wanting to justify him said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

Luke 10 · chapter mention

And Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thieves, and they stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a certain priest came by that road, and when he saw him, passed on the other side.

Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at that place, came and looked and passed on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

So he went to him and he bandaged his wounds, and pouring his own oil and wine, and set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

And on the next day when he departed, he took out Deneri to give to the innkeeper and said, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I'll repay you.

So Jesus said, Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among thieves?

You see, only one man had enough heart to help.

Only one man helped his neighbor.

Are we helping our neighbor church?

Because if you're not helping, that means you're leaving them in a ditch.

Edmund Burke said the only thing necessary for evil to pervade is for good men to do nothing.

The only thing necessary.

Heather and I took students to Go Tell in 2020, and uh we came back and we brought COVID with us.

And um it was there were some things on my part that was a little bit ignorant, and I sort of almost felt like I was invincible.

I hadn't had it that whole year, and it's like I was hugging people with COVID just so I could get it, so I could get over with it, right?

And I hadn't had it.

We took kids to camp.

We everybody signed a waiver about camp saying you could possibly get anyway.

Long story short, we came back, and uh that Sunday I started getting calls about kids having COVID.

I began to call through all our teen parents, and some parents were disappointed, some parents were angry with me, and some I would say were a little harsh.

And I again I I did not think about COVID in that moment in the right manner.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you my fault.

But I remember those days, and then we got COVID.

Other nine, the family got it.

And uh, if you've been through that, and this was the Delta phase, which is like it tried to kill you.

And uh it took me, I I was I was determined, I get sick, and I was determined that I'm gonna do things even though I'm sick.

It took me four days to mow the lawn.

I kept going out, I'm like, I'm gonna get it.

Today's gonna be the day, and I'd go back and you know, 30 minutes of work, and I'm dead tired.

And so, anyhow, we got we were we were doing that, and I was making another round of calls and just realizing in my mind, right?

You go to bat for yourself, and I'm going, I have cared for teenagers for 17 years, and I have loved teenagers, and never once has anything in my mind been about hurting a teenager.

I want teenagers to come to Christ, I want to disciple teenagers, I've opened my house, I've brought meals, and and I got in my head spinning about the things that were talked to me, and it my feelings were hurting about the time that I got thinking through some of that.

A neighbor came.

And a neighbor came to my house, and some people had made some calls, but um people sometimes in a church think this is one of my twins.

Is Sadaka in here?

Sadaka's back in the back, raise his hand.

Can you stand, Sadaka?

Everybody's always saying how we're so much alike.

The very first person to reach out to me was Sadaka and his wife Risho.

And they brought over some soup.

And I got thinking, this is a neighbor.

I was in a ditch, some of it because of myself, but he didn't judge me based on that.

And he was neighborly, they were neighborly, and you know what?

The truth of the matter is, we may be as far apart when you look at me and Sadaka as any two people.

I mean, Sadaka's 7'10, I'm six foot.

He's very handsome.

I'm just, but that heart of neighborliness has touched me and continue to touch me, and people after that, and I thought, I'm so glad that somebody saw somebody hurting and didn't just keep rolling.

They just didn't see it and keep rolling, they saw the heart to help.

That's how Jesus Christ was.

Well, in John 4:4, Jesus Christ's heart was not to hate.

John 4:4

He needed to go to a certain place.

And you know what?

He went through Samaria, which was not the best route.

He went through Samaria, and Samaria was a place that Jews would interact and come through, and it wasn't a place where they were real welcome.

And in fact, it was a place full of racial tension with Jews.

Verse 6 of John 4 says, Jesus was wearied from the journey, it was the heat of the day.

Verse 9, the Samaritan woman asked him, the elephant in the room.

She says, How is it that you, a Jew, are having dealings with me, a Samaritan?

And 2,000 years later, church, I fear that there are certain places and certain areas that this is still the feeling.

Why what are we doing here?

This isn't a place for you, or this isn't a place where you can be.

And I'm telling you, that's not the heart of Jesus.

We see it in this passage.

Jesus sits down with her and he proceeds to see her need, even though she hadn't claimed it, and he gives her the gospel.

Why?

Because Jesus cared about people.

He saw not a Samaritan, he saw a human, a neighbor.

That was his heart.

You see, Haman had a heart full of hate.

Haman's problem at the root of it was that he did not know or follow God.

His heart was corrupt.

Lastly, we see that Haman was a picture of Satan.

Look down at verse 8 and 9 of Esther 3.

He said there's these people, scattered, dispersed, their laws are different.

If it pleases the king, let a decree, verse 9, be written that they be destroyed.

Letter A, Satan troubles with false accusation.

If you miss this, a whole people didn't break a rule.

In fact, he's lying about the rule.

There wasn't a whole people group that broke this rule.

It was one person, which he did the right thing, but he's still giving a false accusation to the king.

And he could have been, you know, when you went to the king in this kind of manner, he could have been killed for his false accusation.

But we see throughout history that Satan is a great accuser.

Revelation 12, 10 calls him the great accuser.

Accusation problems.

I walked in to the house one time, and there was coloring on the wall.

And there was only two culprits alive that could have done it.

Heather didn't do it.

And I looked at Wyatt, who was too young, and Callie, who had a crayon her hand.

And I said, which?

I said, who wrote on the wall?

And Callie looked at me just as sweet as she could be.

And she said, Wyatt did it.

False accusations.

He said, those people don't keep your laws.

I want to tell you the way that Satan works on humans today, church, he's all the time putting accusations on us.

He wants to shame you.

He wants to guilt you.

He wants to take away your identity.

He wants to tell you what all of these things are telling us today that we need the pride for.

Oh, build that brand.

Build you.

You've got to be great, Haman.

They gotta see how amazing you are, Haman.

And in scripture, we see it often.

People that feel an accusation or shame, women.

Remember the scripture with the woman with the issue of blood.

Always unclean, uncomfortable, and uncomforted.

Wouldn't dare to ask Jesus publicly for healing, but just to touch the hem of his garment.

Remember in Luke 5, a man full of leprosy, he saw Jesus, fell to his face and implored him.

He said, If you're willing, you can touch me and you can make me clean.

The lepers always were outcasted.

They were sent out of their community.

They were marginalized.

The disciples were discussing this happening with the woman at the well later on.

They came back and they see Jesus there.

And this is the disciples, the church people.

Hear this.

The church folks said, Why is he talking to that woman?

It says they marveled.

They couldn't fathom one that he was talking to a woman and that it was a Samaritan woman.

Those people.

The disciples.

If ever there was a racial slur, it's those people.

Haman said the same thing.

He said, those people will not bow.

Those people won't shut up about their beliefs.

Those people, King.

Well, back to John 4.

Jesus continues talking to the woman at the well.

And you know what she says?

Because she's got a little bit of this too.

She says, your people worship on that mountain.

My daddy taught me that we worship on that mountain.

His daddy and his granddaddy.

Excuse me.

And Jesus looks at her and says, You want to talk about fathers?

He says, You don't even know who you worship.

He said, You're continuing this habit of worshiping over there.

But why?

Jesus was trying to get her to think, maybe, possibly, you've been taught something that is not the best thing.

Hear me, church.

And hear me with grace.

You might have been taught something that was the wrong thing.

Just because granddaddy did something, or great granddaddy did something, doesn't make it right.

Haman said, King, those people do not respect your laws.

What an accusation.

Really happened was one man would not worship.

Satan wants to accuse.

Why?

What is the purpose in all this?

Because he wants to put a great divide in the people of God.

Scripture says that a house divided cannot stand.

Have you ever tried to come to equality while you and your wife or you and your kids were at it?

A house divided cannot stand.

If he can divide the church, if he can divide your house, if he can divide your home, if he can divide your work, then Satan has won.

And I want to tell you, as a church, we are going to contend against division.

That's not how we're going to be at CCW.

Well, letter B.

Look at verses 10 through 13.

Satan looks first to give false accusations, then he looks to abduct.

10 through 13.

So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hamadatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

And the king said to Haman, The money and the people are given to you to do with them as seems good to you.

Then the king's scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded to the king's satraps, to the governors, who were over each province, to the officials of all people, to every province, according to its script, and to every people in their language.

In the name of King Ahazuerus it was written, and sealed with the king's ring, and the letters were sent by Khurz into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jew all the Jews, young, old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions.

So we see here a bill, a law written to destroy everything.

All that the Jews had known.

All of it, because one man in a moment had so much pride.

And hear me, it wasn't just that moment.

It was many, many years.

And that's what Satan looks to do.

He looks to steal.

He's called in John 10 a thief.

He comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

A thief.

Hear me, church, can only steal what you possess.

What does Satan want to steal from us?

He wants to steal our unity.

He wants to steal this church's joy.

He wants to steal your effective ministry.

As Warus gave the authority to a thief.

And this bill was written under the law.

Hear me.

I want you to catch this.

Under the law of the Medes and Persians, this bill was written.

Why does that matter?

Because ancient Persian attitudes towards their rulers imply that the king was law.

And if the king wrote a law, a law could not contradict itself.

And so I read what the law said in verse 13.

And so here we are in this situation.

If you're a Jew in this moment, this is a death bill.

And it gives him 11 months to destroy everyone.

Satan is looking to abduct, he's looking to destroy lives.

Made me think about this story.

How does that compare to where we're at?

Well, if Satan can divide, if Satan can destroy, why is it so important we contend as a church?

You've heard the name Gandhi.

Gandhi admired Jesus Christ.

A missionary asked Gandhi once, you quote the words of Jesus often.

Why does it appear that you reject becoming his follower?

Gandhi replied, I don't reject your Christ.

I love your Christ.

It's just that so many of your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

Gandhi said that the happenstance that caused this had he decided to attend a church service, and he came up the steps of a church, and a white South African elder of a church barred his way at the door, and he said, Where do you think you're going, Kafir?

And Gandhi said, I'd like to attend worship here.

He said, There's no room for kafirs here.

Get out, or I'm gonna have my assistants throw you down the steps.

Gandhi said from that moment that he would never again consider Christianity.

It's so important, church, the way that you stand and the way that you love and the way that you're hospitable.

It's so important the things that we stand for and contend for, church.

In fact, Martin Luther King wrote this in his letter from a Birmingham jail cell.

Dr.

King wrote, Too often the church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound.

That can't be true at the church at Chelsea Westover.

We have to contend.

So what are a few practical things that you can do right now in this era of living number one?

And I would write these down.

You can pray for understanding.

Pray for understanding.

Number two, don't be silent.

Not even subtle biases.

Don't be silent.

Number three, don't dismiss things as this.

That's just who they are.

Church, hear me.

Sin is sin.

And as a church, we need to have an attentive ear and lovingly correct sin.

And that's any sin.

Talking, I can't get away from it.

Last six, seven, eight weeks, I can't not say Matthew 18.

But Matthew 18 tells us that we lovingly go to somebody with the purpose.

Of restoring that wrong, but helping them to understand their wrong.

Don't dismiss things.

And number four, be the good neighbor.

Be the good neighbor.

You see, I'm gonna wrap this up telling sort of the end of the story.

Nothing could break the law of the Medes and Persians.

When that was stamped and that was signed with the signet of his ring, when that was done, nothing was able to break that law.

So how do we get past this?

Well, I want you to see in Esther chapter 4.

Esther 4 · chapter mention

Everybody knows this passage.

But Mordecai, her cousin, has written her a letter and told her of what's going on.

And he asks her in the letter to go before the king.

And in verse 14, it says, For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise from the Jews from another place.

By the way, could have been Esther, could have been anybody.

God is going to take care of God's people no matter what happens.

Nobody, not Satan, not anybody, is going to destroy what God has said will prosper.

And so when it says, Who knows whether or not this is your time?

He said, We know deliverance will come, but for such a time as this, you can be silent if you want to.

But it'll come from another place.

And your father's house will perish.

Yet who knows whether you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Verse 15, then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, fast for me, neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day.

My maids and I will fast likewise.

And so I will go to the king, which is against the law.

And if I perish, I perish.

Church, I hope for the heart of who we are at CCW that we say the right thing to do is the right thing to do, no matter what.

No matter what, she stood.

Esther stood at this moment.

She said, It's against the law.

I know I could die, but she stood and she spoke against the racism of Haman.

When Esther came to the king, the problem was still the law.

This law we'll see later with Daniel.

King Darius was so angry because he had been duped and he had to throw Daniel into the lion's dead over his law that he'd written.

He would not go back on his law.

Because once it's written by a king's decree, you don't go back on the law.

Well, so what is gonna happen here?

Ahasweris, an ungodly man, a prideful man, all of his own.

If you want to read, read in chapter one, the big party that he has all the models come through.

He chooses Esther.

He is a man full of pride.

And Esther risks everything to go to him.

And there's a loophole.

There's a loophole.

An unchangeable law, we see Ahisweris change by repealing the old unchangeable law with a new law.

And instead of saying what his the previous law said that all Jews would be annihilated in this law, he says, in fact, that none of that will happen.

And so he just writes a new law.

I want you to know, church, we all fall under a curse.

God is perfect, and our sin could not be touched by God the Father.

And the law tells us of our imperfections.

And we're told all through the law that because of sin we must be punished.

But there was a cross-sized loophole in the law.

And I want you to know that God sees in a different lens.

He sees every man that he created in his image, Genesis 1.27.

And he sees people not by a skin tone, but people in two categories.

People are this, they're a believer or they're an unbeliever.

And scripture talks about that in his heart.

He says, and he's not willing that any should perish.

And one day a trumpet is going to blow.

And one day when that trumpet blows, racism and division and hate are going to come to an end.

In this world, we're told of the tribulation we're going to have.

But remember God's lens.

He says, You're going to have tribulation, but he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world.

You see, the world sees everything through this jaded lens.

God sees that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags.

He sees that.

And we can't fix the sin problem.

Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin, the law, the curse is death.

But the great gift of God is Jesus Christ.

We deserve death.

But he sent Jesus Christ with crimson blood that cleans up this rag.

And it adopts this rag and it justifies and purifies and sanctifies and glorifies this rag.

And regardless of my skin, my job, my social status, or my wealth, God's favorite color is red.

And he sees the blood of the lamb that covers all my sins.

So matter what you look like, if you got red, then we are family church.

Can I get an amen?

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