When I go over that with my children, I always tell them, I said, you just remember the acronym
HOME. You remember HOME, you remember the faith, our statement of faith here at Stroud
and just remember HOME. Remember that word. And so that has helped me many times as well.
Let me put on my reading glasses here. I don't have my prescription glasses because I won't
go into that story, but I'll put on these glasses. I'm going to read the scripture, pray in after
prayer. And I'm coming out of the English standard version.
Then Esa called for Haythok, one of the King's Units, who had been appointed to attend her
and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. Haythok went
out to Mordecai in an open square of the city in front of the King's Gate. And Mordecai told him
all that had happened to him, the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay in the
King's Treasury for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written
decree issued in Susa for the destruction that he might show it to Esa and explain it to her
and command her to go to the King to beg for his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people.
And Haythok went and told Esa what Mordecai had said. Then Esa spoke to Haythok and commanded
him to go to Mordecai and say, all the King's servants and the people of the King's province
know that if any man or woman goes to the King inside of the inter court without being called
there, it's but one law, to be put to death except the one to whom the King holds out the golden
separate. So that he may live, but as for me, I have not been called to come in to the King these
30 days. And they told Mordecai what Esa has said. Father, we come to you, Lord God, as Haman as we
know how. We thank you, O Heavenly Father, for the breath of life. We thank you, O Heavenly Father,
Lord God, for yet another day. Lord, we just pray, Lord God, that Lord God, the words, O Heavenly
Father, of your mighty word, O Heavenly Father, will, Lord, seep into us, Lord God, and bring us
clearer understanding that it may apply, Lord God, to our daily living. Lord God, I pray, O Heavenly
Father, that everything in me, Lord God, subsides, O Heavenly Father, and that, Lord God, you will
have your way, O Heavenly Father, that I will decrease, O Heavenly Father, that you will increase,
Lord God, that your word will come forth, Lord God, boldly, Lord God, and plainly and simple,
Lord God, that your people, Lord God, may understand, Lord God, what you will have for them, Lord God.
I pray, O Heavenly Father, that you will give the glory, O Heavenly Father, and, Lord God, that your
people, Lord God, will be better off, O Heavenly Father, in the mighty name of Jesus. Lord God, I
give you the glory, the honor, and the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. First,
give me the honor to Jesus, who is head of my life, and to the man of God who's over this house,
Pastor Bowden. Thank you for this opportunity. I thank you for being here on this morning. I thank
my family. I thank my children, who's always encouraging me, and I especially thank my wife,
who puts up with me and encourages me the most. This has been a very difficult week for me,
and especially for her. I haven't been feeling my best. It seems like that, I don't know, when
God has a great work for you to do, it seems like you get challenged in many ways. I've been sick
in my body, and then I had different appointments, but my wife, she was at my side as I went to
Pensacola, and then this weekend I couldn't be here at the church cleanup because I had an appointment
all night Friday, and most of the all day Saturday. I had a sleep study, but so that left my wife
with the kids, and I know that she had to deal with everything on her own, but she did what she
had to do, and I just thank and praise God for her. But God in those times spoke with me, and in
that time I had an opportunity to do what we're going to talk about when I'm asked to do. Many
times, you know, when God is dealing with you, what do you do? You, as Christians, we know,
one of the things, one of the things that God has given us is the two of us fast, and we set
aside some time where we retreat from some of the things that we would normally do, but we would
just fast and not do those things that we routinely do, and we would not eat, you know, some of the
things that we eat and not drink, some of the things that we, you know, not drink and what
have you, and so when people see you, they may see your glory, but they don't know your story.
They don't know what you're going through. They don't know how you feel. You may look radiant,
and you smile, and you may glisten, and, and, but they don't know that your body may be whacking
on the inside. They don't know the pains that you go through, and you don't have to say it to them,
because when you fast and when you pray, you don't have to tell people that, okay? You just go to
God in prayer, and when people have a spirit of discernment, many times they can pick it up,
and they just pray with you, and if they don't, oh well, you have God, and this too shall pass,
and if not, then guess what God says, my grace what? It's sufficient. And so we go to the story of
Esther, and we look here, we see that there is somewhat of a dilemma here, okay? We see that
that the Jews are about to be annihilated, and so Mordecai has gone to the Queen to get help,
and Esther has said in so many words, I'm not going before the King, he has not summoned me,
and everybody knows what the rules are, you're asking me to go before the King,
and so you ask yourself what just happened, now we know the story of Esther, meaning let's know
the story of Esther, but for those of you out there, let's just try and go along with this,
let's dissect this, what just happened, okay? So what's wrong with this? He asked for help,
the Jews are about to be annihilated, Esther is a Jew, okay? So let's take this back to see
how Esther got to be where she is, okay? She is the Queen, okay? And Mordecai asked her to do this,
how did Esther get to be Queen? So if we go back here, we look back in Esther, go back here to
Esther chapter 1 verse 10, and you see the title is, Entering to God's Full Promise for Your Life,
so Esther here, and we're coming from the vein still, because this is the year of great stewardship,
right? And so Esther, at this moment, not realizing, you know, where her true role is,
okay? So we go back to chapter 1 verse 10, and it reads, so the King took his,
technology, chapter 1 verse 2, on the seventh day, when the heart of the King was married with wine,
he commanded Mahuman, Vista, Arbona, Vicka, Abakta, Zeta, Karkas, the seven eunuchs who served in
the presence of King Osiris, and in some Bibles, Xerxes, to bring King Boshdai before the King,
King Vashdai before the King, with her royal crown, in order to show the people and the princes
her beauty, for she was lovely to look at, for King Vashdai refused to come at the King's command,
delivered by the eunuch at this King, at this the King became enraged and his anger burned within him.
Then the King said to the wise men who knew the time, but this was the King's procedure towards
who was versed the law of judgment, the men next to him. So I'm not going to read all that,
but what happened was the King was angry. So the Queen refused to come before the King,
and so what he did was he went to his boys, okay, there were seven of them,
and they said, hey King, the Queen, she just ditched you in front of everybody, okay. We can't let that
happen because if she did that in front of everybody, then all the other noble women,
they're going to get out of control and they're going to figure that they can do that also,
and if they do that, then we're going to have a problem here. So you need to handle this,
okay, and so then they said, what we need to do is we need to get rid of her,
okay, we need to show these ladies, now ladies, okay, this is back in the time now, all right.
Okay, so this is not now, but this is then, all right, okay, so go with it, all right.
So he said, they said, we need to handle this, let's nip this in the bud right now,
she needs to, okay, get rid of her. So the King got rid of our style, he said,
from here on out, she would not come before me no longer, she would no longer wear the crown,
so guess what, Bashtar was no longer queen, and so when she was no longer queen, then he needed
another queen, and so then without reading everything, they want to have a big beauty contest.
One of the young men said, hey, okay, time passed, we need to get the King someone else, so let's
send out a royal decree, okay, through all the lands, okay, all the seven provinces, because you know,
the King, he had lands all the way from India, all the way over to Kush or Ethiopia,
some Bibles call it Kush, some Bibles call it Ethiopia, in a way from Africa, all the way over
to India, okay, and let's bring all the versions over, okay, the prettiest, and let's, you know,
give them cosmetics, oh, they had cosmetics right then too, let's beautify them and everything,
and let's bring the fairest of the land, a big beauty contest, I mean, this was like, okay, so
they had Miss Persia then, okay, Miss Persia, Miss Meads, okay, like we got Miss America, Miss Universe,
that's what they had, that's what it was, okay, that's all it was, okay, and then what he was going
to do, he was going to crown the fairest of the land and crown her Miss Persia, Miss Persia was
going to become his wife, the Queen, okay, and so then therefore, there was a young lady, Hadassah, was her, was her Jewish name, okay, but you know,
the Jewish people, they had to take on a Persian name, okay, and her Persian name was Esther, okay,
Queen Star, right, so Esther, she was very fair, fair to look at, the Bible even describes her,
it was a beautiful figure, nice to look at, Esther was nice, all right, that's what the Bible said now,
okay, all right, now you can read it for yourself, I'm not going to bore you with all the reading and
everything, but read it for yourself and read it in a different translation, Esther looked nice, okay,
and so Esther was chosen, that's how Esther was chosen, so God graced her with good look, okay, so now
that's how Esther came into being, so when she, so when she got there, Mordecai told her this,
okay, do not let them know your heritage that you are a Jew, now even back up before then,
how did, was Mordecai Esther's father, no Mordecai, he was her father, role, yes, he was her father,
okay, he adopted her, he was her father, Esther was an orphan, Esther, mother and father died,
Mordecai was her older cousin, and so he adopted her as his own, and so what I want to tie into this
is that in order for us to enter into God's full promise, there's a process, okay, there is a process,
like the process of truth, not the test, but the process of thinking.
It might be the whole process, but there are some things that no one knows about God.
It may not be the end.
It may just be the start.
Maybe the secondary, the very, may not be the potential
of who you are.
OK?
So Esther may have thought, when she grew up, oh,
I'm an orphan.
OK?
And so she could have had a self-esteem issue.
Mordecai adopted her.
God gave her beauty.
She felt good about herself.
Oh, now she has picked them on all as to be maybe queen.
She wasn't the third runner up.
She wasn't the second runner up.
She wasn't the first runner up.
All different stages.
She was selected as queen.
OK?
And so once Esther was selected as queen, perhaps Esther,
perhaps at that time just for a fleeting moment,
maybe she thought, oh, I have arrived.
OK?
And so in thinking that she has arrived,
and here come Mordecai kind of upsetting things,
asking her to go for the king.
Wait a minute.
I am where I'm supposed to be, and now you want me
to go for the king?
OK?
And it may cost me my life.
Dear one, how many of you know that sometimes,
at some point in your life, that when God has given you
something or placed you someplace, that there's going
to come a point in your life that you will be challenged,
that you will be called to go and to give up something
to show your faith in God?
So, Esther, what was Esther thinking about?
So perhaps Esther thought that being queen was just it.
Just a thought.
Perhaps that was it.
Perhaps when you landed that position as supervisor,
you thought, hey, I'm here.
I'm the supervisor.
I'm married.
I got this house, the car that I want,
this picket fence, white picket fence.
Hey, I have arrived.
OK?
Here I am.
Nobody can touch me.
OK?
And so you are fat, dumb, and happy.
OK?
So to speak.
OK?
All right?
Not physically fat, dumb, and happy.
OK?
But you know, all right?
But you're comfortable.
That's all I'm trying to say.
You're comfortable.
And so in your comfort, there are people around you
who may need help and assistance.
But because you're so comfortable
and you're good at what you're doing, you may not see that.
Here in striving, we are so blessed.
We've got people.
You know, we got people in the military.
We got doctors.
We got nurses.
We got lawyers.
We got people who are in high positions.
We've got people in just about every facet of life here.
And then we've got people who are struggling, who
are trying to get up there.
OK?
We've got you who are coming up.
You know, they're trying to get there.
But we have people who are older who are still
trying to get up there going to school at an older age
and trying to get up there.
What are we doing to try to help others?
But then some of us were saying, I
don't know about that person because I see this person.
That person may not be the right person because guess what?
If they don't do well, then that's
going to look bad for me.
I'm not going to step out there, OK,
and make a sacrifice because I don't know, OK?
I don't know.
So here we go.
There we go, Esther.
You don't want to step out there.
You don't want to step out of your comfort zone
because Esther fear death.
But then you fear that it's going to cost you maybe
your career or your figure.
It's going to cost you your name.
But what about God?
What does God say about you?
Do you know that you didn't get yourself there,
that God bought you there?
And if God bought you there, what is for you?
Is for you that God has placed you there
and that you don't get to say who is
going to be elevated or not?
You cannot take a safe space and say, oh,
I'll take this person and that person.
Oh, not that one and not that.
No, even the word says, let the wheat and the pear grow together.
And I'll do the separated.
Why would you try and judge when you cannot judge?
Only God can judge.
If people come to you for help, why not help?
And when I say help, I mean follow through.
You cannot say that you are helping people when you say,
oh, well here, do this, do this, do this, and then
don't even think about them.
You don't call them.
You don't follow through.
You don't do anything.
You're not helping.
Only thing you're doing is filling a square, filling a block,
checking it.
There you go.
I did mine.
But we know and God knows what God knows.
We don't know what God knows.
You have not done due diligence.
God has elevated you, but now you
don't want to take a chance.
But God is in the business of taking chances.
And guess what?
If God can do it for you, He wants us.
And see, this is the season of what?
Great what?
Great stewardship in order to be a steward.
You don't own it.
God owns it.
You don't own your talent.
God gave it to you.
You didn't manufacture it.
God gave it to you.
And He doesn't want you to bury it.
He wants you to get out there and duplicate it, invest it.
And when you invest, OK, you might lose some.
OK?
But guess what?
You invest, you pray, and you rely on God to get the increase.
You don't worry about that.
And then here in the church, same thing.
Oh, we have so many things to do in the church.
In the church, outside the church,
people are sitting on their talents.
Because we think that the thing that we're doing,
we have arrived.
So we have Esther here at this particular place.
And she has told Mordecai in so many words.
No.
She has told him no.
So we know her background.
And we know that Esther has said no.
She said no for a particular reason.
Maybe Esther said no because Esther was in her conference
zone, we talked about her being in our conference zone.
Maybe she said no because she was in a position where she just
thought that she had arrived.
Maybe she said no because she was afraid.
And we do get in positions where we are afraid, right?
We do get afraid sometimes.
We do, we do, we do, we do.
But God did not give us what.
But He gave us what?
See, you can say it.
You can say it.
But do you believe it?
You have to believe it.
He gave us the power of love.
Love overcomes what?
It overcomes fear.
The opposite of fear is faith.
And so when fear comes over you and fear will come,
we're human.
We're going to be afraid sometimes.
OK, so there's nothing wrong about being afraid.
But you can't live in fear.
You can't live in fear.
You have got to apply faith.
And then when you apply faith, you will overcome fear.
You put it in God's hand.
God has given us a word.
You live by His word.
Iron shoppers, iron.
You're around your fellow Christians.
You hear the word and so you read the word.
You meditate on the word.
That word is in you.
You regurgitate the word.
You apply the word.
There comes your faith.
You have the word, isn't you?
Use it.
And so therefore Esther may have been afraid,
like many of us are.
Oh, but it gets better.
It gets better.
So after this, let's go back to our original verse.
And let's go back to Esther 4 and see what Mordecai says.
But Mordecai has an answer for Esther.
Sometimes you have to say something to just remind people
or to just joke them back into reality.
OK.
And so when they told Mordecai what Esther said,
then Mordecai in verse 13 in the English Standard Version,
Mordecai said, he told them, he said, you tell Esther this.
He said, do not think to yourself
that in the King's palace you will escape more than all
the other Jews.
For if you keep silent at this time,
relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.
But you and your father's house will perish.
And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom
for such a time as this.
Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
go get all the Jews to be found in Sousa
and hold a fast on my behalf.
And do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.
And I and my young women will also fast as you do.
Then I will go to the King, though it is against the law.
And if I perish, I perish.
Then Mordecai went away and did everything Esther had ordered
him.
I remember a song when I was a little kid,
and I didn't understand it back in the day
when my mother used to say this.
If I perish, let me perish.
Lord, I'm going to see the King.
I don't know if you guys ever heard that song,
but we used to sing that song all the time in church.
And I didn't understand what they were talking about.
But now I know.
Because sometimes you're going to be faced with adversity.
And you have to tell yourself sometimes, if I perish,
let me perish.
But I'm going to see the King.
I'm going through this adversity, whatever that adversity
may be.
You may have to do something that God has called you to do,
that you don't want to do.
It may make you uncomfortable.
But you've got to do it.
You've got to do it, and you have to do it in faith.
Like Esther said, when Mordecai said something to Esther,
just something that Esther, something just went through her spirit.
Esther knew exactly what to do.
This is one of two books in the Bible that don't even mention God.
But one author says God's fingerprint is all through it,
his thumbprint.
I say his ethos is all through it.
God's captives all through Esther, the way
God just works through the book of Esther.
Even though he's not mentioned, we know that God is behind the scene
just orchestrating everything in the book of Esther.
Esther just knew exactly what to do.
We know that Esther is a Jew, and we know that the Jews, the chosen
people of God, knew exactly what to do.
When he told Esther that, guess what Esther did?
Esther said, oh my God, let me go and fast.
She knew exactly what to do.
Esther fasted.
And I know she fasted, and she prayed.
And I know she fasted, and she prayed to the great God, the only great God I am.
She asked God to give her the strength and the courage, because guess what?
She lacked courage.
And that's what happens sometimes.
We don't have the courage to go through.
We lack courage sometimes to do the task at hand.
In a minute, we don't have the courage all the time.
Sometimes we are weak.
We want to do it, but we're just weak.
And we have to pray and ask God for the courage and the strength to get through.
And so Esther fasted.
And that's what we have to do, dear heart.
We have to go before God and fast.
And pray.
We have to seek the face of God, go before him, and say, God, I don't know what to do.
Give me directions.
Show me.
Give me the courage and the strength, the understanding.
Be with me.
Stand with me, God.
As I go through this.
And so Esther did this.
And she required her people to do it.
She asked Mordecai to do it.
And Mordecai did it.
And that was the answer that Mordecai wanted to hear.
And so as the story goes, Esther went before the king.
She went before the king.
And in the background, Hamid had planned to destroy the Jews.
And he had already fixed the gallows.
And you know how the enemy is?
The enemy sets traps for us.
But guess what?
We have a great God.
He can turn things around.
The very traps of the enemy sets for us.
Guess what?
God will use it and turn it around.
Turn it around, turn it around.
Oh, Haman.
Haman was a man that was full of just evil and just hated Mordecai.
And not only Mordecai.
He couldn't get to Mordecai.
He wanted just to annihilate the, find out who Mordecai was, a Jew.
He wasn't satisfied just taking Mordecai's life.
He wanted to take all the Jews.
And so he went to his wife and his wife said, well, hey, just get rid of him.
You know, okay, well, let's hang these, put these gallows up and we're just gonna, we're
gonna hang Mordecai.
Okay, we're gonna do that.
And so Esther went before the king and said, and the king, he held out his scepter.
He put a hand on it and he called her forward.
What do you want, Esther?
I'll give it to you, whatever.
Even have a pecan.
And Esther said, she paused.
I want to throw a feast for you.
And Haman.
And she did.
She threw a feast.
Now Esther could have came right out and said, hey, Haman is doing this and blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, but no God did not give her those instructions to do.
Because see, God had a plan.
And so he had that feast.
Had the feast.
Haman.
And then that night, the king was troubled.
And then when he was troubled, he had a dream.
He just couldn't rest.
And so he needed to be read to and they read him some chronicles and they read him the story
about the man who saved his life.
And who was this man that saved my life?
He said, well, what did I do with this man?
I didn't do anything.
You did nothing for him.
And he said, well, I need to do something for him.
And so Haman, at the moment, he was coming to tell the king that he wanted Mordecai killed.
And so Haman was right at the door.
And he said, who's out there?
Haman is there.
And so he said, tell me to come in.
He said, what must I do for a man who was, and he gave accolades and blah, blah, blah.
And Haman so pompous and everything.
You can read it for yourself.
Okay.
So pompous.
I mean, you talking about conceited?
I mean, this man was into himself.
And so Haman thought, oh, he must be talking about me.
He said, well, I will put a crown on his head and give him a robe that you wore and ride
him on the horse and blah, blah, blah, blah, and let him be the second and command and
all that stuff like this.
And he said, okay, do it.
So do this for Mordecai.
Haman went, Mordecai.
Well, what can he say?
That was the king's command.
He dared not talk back to the king.
Because this king had a temper.
Okay.
I mean, that's the story all into itself.
Okay.
That's probably why I asked him what's so scary.
Because this king, Xerxes, oh my God, temperamental.
Okay.
But anyway, so Haman goes out, okay, takes, you know, Mordecai, parades him around, put
the robe on and everything.
Oh my God.
Then Haman goes to his wife and says, oh, the king has made Mordecai, you know, put
all this on on him and she said, oh my God, this is not fair well for you.
Okay.
And before Haman couldn't even think of anything, the unit tower, it came and got him.
It was time for the second feast because Esther had already went and asked for a second
feast.
Okay.
Because she had went before the king again and asked for, you know, because he had asked
what, Esther, what do you want?
Okay.
Before that, asked what he want and she said a second feast.
And so it was time for the second feast.
So Haman didn't have time.
He did not have time to plot a plan to get away or to run or anything.
It was time for him to come in right now.
They went and grabbed Haman, he came in and she, and he said, well, okay, what do you
want?
I mean, he just loved Esther.
So I mean, she just barkled.
She batted them long eyelashes.
Beautiful.
Oh my goodness.
I mean, he just give Esther anything.
That girl was just, oh, Esther.
Wow.
They said, girl, what do you want?
I'll give you anything.
What you want?
Esther said, Esther said, King, she said, there's a plot to kill me and my people.
She said, if it were just to sell us into slavery, she said, I can live with that.
She said, but the plan is to just annihilate us, to kill us.
And she said, if you can just help us, she said, he said, kill you.
Now, you know he loved us.
Kill my queen.
Who?
Who dare?
Gonna kill my queen?
Kill my lovely Esther?
I mean, that's all I get.
Esther?
Kill Esther?
Now, if you were to say the Jews and without Esther, he probably would have talked about
Esther?
Kill my radiance star?
Oh, no.
Oh, who is going to kill Esther?
She said that wicked Haman.
Haman like, oh, the king let the Haman, he was so mad he could, he even stormed out.
He stormed out and Haman was just like, Haman just turned.
Haman went to Esther and was pleading for his life and he was pleading for his life,
but he was grabbing on Esther.
The king stepped back in and he was like, he said, and now you're trying to.
He thought, he thought Haman was trying to take advantage of Esther.
He said, how dare you even in my own household?
Now you're trying to, first you're trying to kill her.
Now you're trying to take advantage of her right here in the palace?
Oh my God.
And the eunuch said, well, hey, Haman has already built gallows, you know, for Mordecai.
The king said, oh, say no more.
He said, hang him there.
You see how God turned this thing around?
The very thing that he wanted to do against the people of God, against the person of God,
that's what God did.
He turned it around and did once, that's what God does for his people when your enemies
come at you and you go before God.
God would turn those things around and the thing that your enemies do towards you, God
would do it to them.
The gallows that Haman built for Mordecai, he hung upon.
The ditch that your enemies dig for you.
That's what they are falling to.
That's what kind of God that we serve.
All you have to do is trust in him, have faith in him, have the courage and to stand when
you can do nothing else.
Stand, guard yourself up, put on the helmet of salvation.
Yes.
The battle of truth, charge your feet with the preparation of peace, the sword of the
spirit.
Yes.
Put on the whole armor of God.
Yes.
Go forth and allow God to fight you.
The battle is not yours.
God is only asking you to have faith in him, trust in the Lord.
And Esther, wow, what Esther turned out to be, she thought that her promise, in the
first place, was a promise for your life.
She thought that her promise was queen, but she was a Christ like, she was a savior for
her people.
That's what her full promise was.
Esther was a savior for her people.
She saved her people from annihilation.
And yeah, Esther inherited the image she thought would be會 is even better, even though the
edict was written and they could not overturn the edict, guess what God did.
God made a better edict that the Jews could defend themselves and they went and annihilated
their enemies, they annihilated their enemies so much so that their enemies, many of the
people, they became Jews themselves.
And so that is a type ahead of salvation.
Whereas people are converted and they become what?
Same, come into the church.
And that's what God wants us to do.
He wants us to go out.
And he wants us to go out and to go out and evangelize
and go out to get people to come in and to be saved.
Salvation, that is the ultimate goal.
That's the ultimate goal of being a steward.
It's for us to go out and to advance the kingdom of heaven
here on earth.
That's what your servitude will do.
It will allow people to see your action, your works.
They see it in you and people want to do,
what must I do to be saved?
Salvation, not only did she, was she a savior to the Jews,
but they bought people in who wanted to be like the Jews
because Mordecai became very powerful, very powerful.
The second in command.
And they didn't want to upset Mordecai
and people, they became some of them, a lot of them,
they became like the Jews.
They adopted a lot of their customs
and they became like the Jews.
And so this is salvation.
When we look at it in the sense of the church,
what we're supposed to do, to go out, to go out,
go out and to speak the word.
You don't have to be a pastor, you don't have to be a preacher.
You can go out and speak the word.
But more importantly, live it because people are not,
they're not looking at or hearing a lot of times
what you say, they're looking at what you do.
Your actions carry more weight than your words.
Because if you go out there and you say things
and then people see you doing things
that are contrary to what you say,
then you are double-minded.
And if you are double-minded, then you are what?
Unstable and no one wants to follow anybody who's unstable.
And so I challenge you to make your walk,
follow your talk.
Make sure that when you go out and profess Jesus as Lord,
that you have the walk to follow that talk, so that you do not
bring shame among to the body of Christ,
because we don't want to give the Holy Spirit a black eye.
We don't want people to look dimly on God.
Ensure that when you look at this
and when you look at the promise,
entering into God's promise for your life,
make sure it is the full promise.
Make sure that you're not just at a sub promise.
It's the full promise.
Make your eyes closed.
Thank you.