Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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God’s Providence Continues On (Esther 5 & 6)

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Scripture Reading

We’re in the book of Esther. Turn to chapter 5. We’re picking it up where Esther is about to enter the throne room to request of Xerxes for the life of the Jews.

On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace in front of the king’s quarters while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace and when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court she won favor in his sight and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. And the king said to her, what is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of my kingdom. And Esther said, if it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I prepared for the king. Then the king said, bring Haman quickly so that we may do as Esther has asked. So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared, and as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, what is your wish? It shall be granted you, and what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom it shall be fulfilled. Then Esther answered, my wish and my request is, if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come to the feast that I will prepare for them and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.

(Esther 5:1–8)

And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home and he sat and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh and Haman recounted it to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced above the officials and the servants of the king. Then Haman said, even Queen Esther let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king. Yet all this is worth nothing to me so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate. Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it. Then go joyfully with the king to the feast. This idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.

(Esther 5:9–14)

Opening Prayer

Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you that you are ruler of all, that you rule the nations, that you rule this world, that your hand is upon us and upon the actions of men. We thank you, Lord, that you have a kind providence towards us. We thank you—we see it displayed clearly over and over in the book of Esther. Help us, Lord, to see you as our Heavenly Father, as our gracious God who loves us so much, who knows what’s best for us, who prepares our ways, who prepares good works for us to work and act in them, Lord, and to walk accordingly. We pray, God, that you would bless our time now as we get into your word. Help us to see you clearly, to see ourselves clearly, that you would continue your transformational work in our hearts for your glory. Amen.

God’s Providence Continues

All right, so it’s a big day in the book of Esther. We’re about to find out if Esther lives or dies and she goes to intercede for her people and plead for their lives. Now pause for a minute and see where this story is currently at. If you look at chapters one through three, those basically take place over the period of about nine years.

What happens now takes place in two days. So previously, it was pretty fast paced, and now everything slows down and has great detail. Things get turned upside down. But what we’re going to see is God’s providence continuing to work.

He honors the willingness of Esther to first identify with God’s people and then plead for their lives. We’ll also get a glimpse into Haman’s heart, which is actually unusual for Hebrew story storytelling. So we’ve already seen God’s providence and Esther being chosen as Queen, correct?

Xerxes might have chosen Esther, but God had already chosen Esther. And what do we see? God always makes a way for his purposes and will to be accomplished. Sometimes you know we say God opens doors.

Listen, when God is working, when his providence is ongoing, he opens doors that only he can open and he’s opened a huge door here for Esther to literally save her people. If God wants something to happen, guess what? It’s gonna happen. So I don’t know how many times or how many places I’ve been where it seems like I’m at a dead end or there’s no place to go and nothing to do and then God comes through.

Over and over and over and over and over His hand is at work. It is obvious that He has done it. Years ago—I was talking to Justus this morning. I remembered the story but I just wanted to clear it up.

When we were on a mission trip in Belize, we were going to this Mayan ruin, which thankfully we don’t go to that Mayan ruin anymore because the road’s actually gotten a lot better. But we were on this road at the time, it was horrible. And so our team is on this bus and the bus ends up clipping the side of the road and on either side it’s just swampy-ness. You’re right next to the bay and the ocean.

So this bus goes in and it gets stuck. And we’re like in the middle of nowhere. And so everyone’s like, what are we going to do?

Well everyone started praying and worshipping. I think Justus, did you lead that trip? It was a while ago. Okay.

Justus is leading the trip. They’re not sure what to do. In the middle of nowhere, the cell service at the time has gotten a lot better, but the cell service at the time was just atrocious. You know, this is like flip-flop, flip phone days at least down in Belize it was.

And this car comes along after a while and they stop and they’re like, well, we can’t really do anything for you, but we got this chain. We’ll just give you this chain. They’re like, great. So they give them the chain, and the car drives off.

Well, they’re waiting and waiting and waiting. And then the opposite direction comes this big, basically dump truck. And the dump truck stops, and he’s like, well, I would help you, but I don’t have a chain. And they’re like, we got a chain.

So the dump truck hooked up to the bus, pulled them out. They were able to get back on their way. Listen, that’s God’s providence at work. It’s his providence, it’s his good, tender hand of providence at work.

Esther Approaches the King

So here we have Esther going to King Xerxes. And there might as, well, have been a giant sign over the throne room door that’s like, upon pain of death, don’t enter. What does she do?

She enters. Once again, God opens the door, like literally opens a door for the door for Esther. Through the throne room, she enters in, his providential plan is being worked out. Consider this for a second.

Xerxes, right, he wanted his first wife, Vashti, to be brought into his presence with all his power. He couldn’t do that. Now he gets Esther in his presence when he doesn’t want her present. He wants to be left alone.

I’m like, God, God’s at work. And Esther, what happens? She finds favor in Xerxes’ sight. He extends the scepter to her.

So we’re expecting, hey, this is going to be a potentially, potentially quick resolution. But the Lord doesn’t see fit to play it that way. So she’s like, I’m going to have this feast. Please come to it.

Notice what he says. What is your request? Verse five. It shall be given you even to the half of my kingdom.

So she requests for Xerxes, oh, and for good measure she throws Haman in there. And we’re like, hmm, looks like she might be up to something. We already know Haman’s plot and plan. But notice the irony.

Previously Mordecai had been telling Esther what to do. Hey, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this. Right?

But then what happens at the end of chapter 4, in verse 17, it says, Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. And previously we had Xerxes telling his wife Vashti what to do. And now look what’s happening. His wife Esther is telling him what to do.

Right?

The Tables Have Turned

My how the tables have turned. So we’ve just seen Mordecai do what Esther instructs. Now we see the most powerful man on earth and his head of government Haman follow what Esther requests. So this young Jewish woman who has no power is calling the shots with the men who have absolute power in the world.

Clearly God is at work. Vashti didn’t have the Lord’s hand of blessing. Esther definitely does. And then what happens again?

They’re feasting. Notice in verse six, what does the king say? What is your wish?

It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom it shall be fulfilled. So twice so far, and we’re gonna see there’s a third time, but twice so far he asks from Xerxes’ point of view, you’ve heard the saying, you can lead a horse to water, you can’t make him drink.

Some people add, you know, you can salt the oats though. Well, if anyone’s salting the oats here, it’s Esther. Like, she’s building this up. Right?

She’s like, I have this big request, so big I risked my life to enter into your presence. And Xerxes’s like, hey great, what is it? And she’s like, well come to my banquet tomorrow. And I’ll tell you.

He shows up for the banquet. He has to be very curious about this. And he’s like, okay, what’s the request?

I’ll give it to you. Up to half the kingdom. And she’s like, I’ll come to part two of my banquet tomorrow. And I’ll tell you.

So what happens? Well, I mean, that’s salt in the wound. Xerxes has got to be dying, wondering what could possibly be requested. In the midst of this, so it’s like, and then we hit pause because now there’s part two tomorrow and we find out about Haman.

Haman’s Pride and the Gallows

Now it looks like the situation is going favorably for Esther and we’re being led to believe that Esther’s request is probably going to be granted, but there’s a twist in the story. What happens? Well Haman happens. In verse nine, Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate that he neither rose nor trembled before him he was filled with wrath against Mordecai.

I mean, what a pathetic little man that he’s having like one of the best days of his life and he lets one little person mess it up. Right? One person won’t lick his boots and he can’t stand it. One person undoes him.

Everyone else is afraid and won’t bow down, or and does bow down, but not Mordecai. And Haman, he’s got everyone bowed down. He’s second in command, but he can’t stand just one person not going along with it. So what did he decide to do?

He’s gonna take care of Mordecai as soon as possible. So Mordecai is on death’s door. He’s gonna be hanged in the morning. And you realize like the somewhat foolishness of this, because if you look at the end of 5, what does it say?

Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it. All right, so if you do the math, a cubit is about a foot and a half. This thing’s 75 feet in the air. Like what in the world?

That’s kind of overdoing it. You just want to hang a guy? You just need a small little platform, just enough for his feet to dangle, right?

I mean, this is a seven and a half, it’s basically a seven and a half story hanging platform that they built for him. Well, it looks like even if Esther succeeds in her plan to save the Jews, Mordecai’s not gonna be around. Because Haman’s plan is I’m gonna go to King Xerxes and ask for his life. Well, what happens?

A Sleepless Night

Well, what happens? We get to chapter 6. Pick it up in verse 1.

On that night, the king could not sleep and he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. The king’s young men who attended him said nothing has been done for him. And the king said, who is in the court? Now, Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king’s young men told him Haman is there standing in the court. And the king said, let him come in. So Haman came in and the king said, what should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. And Haman said to himself, whom would the king delight to honor more than me? And Haman said to the king, for the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn and the horse that the king has ridden on whose head a royal crown is set and let robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials, let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor and let them lead him on the horse throughout the square of the city, proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Then the king said to Haman, Hurry, take the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned. So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city. proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house mourning and with his head covered. And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends, everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, if Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, You will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him. While they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived in a hurry to bring him into the feast that Esther had prepared.

(Esther 6:1–14)

So the king can’t sleep. Of all nights, the night before Mordecai is to be hanged, he can’t sleep. What a coincidence, right?

No. It’s God’s providence at work. So what does he do?

He can’t sleep. Oh, get that dusty tomb out and read it to me. It’s basically the works of how great he is. Read all those stories about the great things that I’ve done.

Haman just happens to walk into the king’s presence at this moment. What are the chances? No, it’s providence at work. The king can’t sleep.

Mordecai is on death’s door. They just happened to turn to the page talking about how great Mordecai is. And all along here we get this window into Haman’s soul. It’s dark.

It’s dark. I mean we’ve already seen it. It’s not enough that Haman doesn’t just want Mordecai taken out. I mean he just wants all of them taken out.

Now we kind of see that plays into his tribal and his ancestral lineage. But man, the window into his soul here It’s dark. And imagine for a moment, I mean he’s so prideful he thinks the only one that the king could possibly honor would be himself. So really what he suggests here, at a minimum borders on treasonous because you’re talking about wearing the king’s robe, riding the king’s horse, being led publicly.

I mean, he’s drawing himself as equal as possible with the most powerful man on earth. And he’s trying to grasp it. He thinks the honor is coming his way. Right?

Poetic justice. If you ever want a definition, it’s right here. Think about a couple of things here.

Trust in God’s Tender Providence

One, I want to encourage us to trust in God’s tender providence. We saw it when we went through the book of Ruth. We see his tender providence. This should be a comfort to us.

When we know and realize God is working his plan, we can rest in that. We don’t have to fear when he’s on our side. And to remind you, providence, it’s the doctrine that God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he does three things. One, he’s keeping those things existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them.

That’s Colossians 1. He holds all things together. Two, he cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do. And three, he directs them to fulfill his purposes.

So when we think, oh wow, isn’t it amazing that of all the young women in the empire, a Jewish girl was chosen. What are the chances? No, that’s God. That’s God at work.

Esther didn’t even realize at the time. Mordecai didn’t even realize it at the time, but God knew. He’s all powerful. It makes sense that he’ll use his power to rule, preserve, govern his creation.

Well, so when you hear the word Providence, we’re talking about the idea of God, how God relates to his creation. Now the deist view, right, God is removed. He just kind of winds up the world, puts it into motion, and he steps back and lets it go. As I mentioned a few times ago, this idea of providence, it wipes out a few misconceptions that people can have.

One is the deist view. The other is the pantheist view. It teaches that creation does not have a real distinct existence in itself. It’s only part of God.

Well, no, God’s providence teaches that God is actively involved and he’s related to his creation but he’s distinct from creation. That shouldn’t be too hard for us. Third, events in God’s providence are not determined by chance or randomness. Now I know sometimes we might just whatever say, oh what are the chances?

Well in God’s providence the chances are 100% because he sees it fit to happen. Fourth, they’re They’re not determined by impersonal fate. There’s not a determinism here. That’s some impersonal thing.

No, God’s very much involved in directing the affairs appropriately. So there’s three aspects which I’ve mentioned it before. We might get into it in the future, but it’s preservation, his concurrence, and his government. Preservation he keeps all created things existing and maintaining.

Concurrence he cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to Acts chapter 12 it says, About that time Herod the King laid violent hands on some and and the Lord doesn’t see fit to rescue him, but Peter the Lord sees fit to rescue. I mean we don’t know. We don’t know. But you have a pretty clear example.

I mean James is up in heaven. He’s like Lord the angel thing with Peter? Like where were you?

No. Like he understands God’s working to providence. We’re not guaranteed anything from the Lord. So sometimes we end up, to be honest, there’s been many, many, many, many, many martyrs of the faith.

So sometimes, yes, we end up like James. And sometimes others, we end up like Peter. We’re not sure why. God’s working a plan, but we can trust that he is working a plan, and it’s his plan.

So we have to trust. We have to trust. Sometimes you’ll hear people talk about, oh, that’s just nature taking its course or nature has its way. It kind of drives me crazy, right?

It’s given like personhood to an inanimate object or thing or idea even. Mother nature is letting us have it when it’s, you know, storming outside. Listen, nature’s not a person. It has no mind, it has no will, it has no purpose of its own.

Nature doesn’t work in its own independent way, however it sees fit. It has no agency. It lacks personhood. There is no mother earth.

Sometimes people talk about, oh, the universe is sending me a sign. Natural selection wants this. The universe is fine-tuning itself. The universe doesn’t have causation.

It’s not trying to cause things to occur. It doesn’t have a mind of its own. Even people talk about karma. Why does this matter?

Because when people habitually ascribe action or wisdom or purpose to nature or earth or even evolution, they’re making a mistake because they’re treating secondary causes as if they’re ultimate causes. Secondary causes if they’re ultimate. Listen, God is the ultimate cause of everything.

Look at Psalm 104. We’ll see this in a couple places. We could spend a lot of time.

We’ll just look at a few verses but look at Psalm 104. In verse 14 Psalm 104,

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

(Psalm 104:14–15)

Who causes the grass to grow? It’s just natural, that’s just how nature works, that’s just how evolution works. No, no, what does it say?

You cause the grass to grow. God. He’s the ultimate cause. Can we explain that scientifically?

Yeah. We can talk about the rain and the nutrient, all those things. Those are secondary causes. It’s God.

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, make melody to our God! For he covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts, their food, and to the young ravens that cry.

(Psalm 147:7–9)

He is the ultimate cause. All those other things are secondary causes. We’ll pick it up again in verse 15.

He sends out his command to the earth. His word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool. All right, snow people? There you go. That’s your verse. He gives snow like wool. He scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs. Who can stand before his cold? It’s his cold, right? Not the earth’s cold. Mother Nature’s cold. It’s his cold. Why? Because he’s the one sending it. He’s the one doing it. The rains, the snows, all of it goes on. He sends out his word and melts them. All right. So he not only sends it, he’s the one that makes the snow melt. That’s my verse, right? When the snow finally goes away, he sends out his word and melts them. He makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

(Psalm 147:15–18)

That’s That’s his providence. He has control over his creation. He exercises his control. It’s a tender and good providence.

So he has the ultimate agency. When we do anything else, we’re treating secondary causes as if they’re ultimate. We shouldn’t do that. So one, my first application is in regards to God’s providence, trust in God’s tender providence.

Stand for What’s Right

Two, stand for what’s right. Mordecai was willing to stand alone, literally stand alone. Wouldn’t bow down. Don’t follow the crowd.

Be willing to stand and even stand alone. Esther stood alone. Sometimes you have to stand alone. Right?

Testing refines us. It makes us more like Christ. Jan Hus, some people call him John Hus, that’s fine. He’s like the front runners, one of the front runners of the Reformation before Luther.

He’s kind of there with Wycliffe. But he’s teaching things and the church is against him. And so he expects that he gets an opportunity. He’s being told you will have safe passage.

This is years and years and years after his teaching and different things. But he’s told you’ll have safe passage. And he goes on the understanding that he’s going to have an opportunity to defend to defend his beliefs and hopefully convince the people that he’s right. So he’s given this safe passage and when he arrives they basically kind of do a switch of room like this isn’t really like a counsel to hear your beliefs this is really oh a heresy trial and we’re not interested in your beliefs.

And so he didn’t get an opportunity to actually defend or try to persuade or clearly present his ideas. He basically asked a bunch of yes or no questions regarding his beliefs. So much for safe passage, right?

I mean I guess they did give it in safe passage to demise because he ends up arrested, he goes through the hearing, they end up convicting him, he refuses to abandon his biblical positions, and what does he get? Burned at the stake. Burned at the stake. So much for the Catholic Church being against the death penalty, right?

Likely in our lifetime by God’s grace, we won’t be put into that position, but we got brothers and sisters across the world who might in various shapes and ways. Some atrocities of atrocities going on in Nigeria right now against our fellow brothers and sisters. But Hus was willing to stand for what was right. Stand for what’s right.

If we, I think if I asked everyone now, hey, would you, if you were in like, HUS’s position, like would you be willing to stand for biblical truth? We’re not talking secondary issues. We’re talking primary gospel issues. I think all of us would say yes.

Well, okay, if we’re willing to stand for big issues, then you should be able to argue from the greater to the lesser. Certainly we can stand for things today when the punishment isn’t going to be death. Certainly those issues are still just as as magnitudinally important today. Primary issues, well we have to be willing to stand for that.

If we’re willing to to the point of death, well certainly we can take a little ridicule from our friends or family.

Persevere Through Trials

What really leads me to my next application, persevere through trials in your life. I mean Esther appears before the king and she survives that and you’re like, that’s a pretty big deal. Like she’s risking her entire life. But then it’s like she has another trial before her.

She’s got to present the request. So she first gets the scepter pointed to her. She survives that, but now, I mean, the request hasn’t been given. It seems like it might be from what Xerxes is saying.

But it does seem to go along with how most Christian life goes, is that trials in our lives tend to get bigger. Well, because God is training us for the next trial. He’s preparing us. He knows what lies ahead next week, next month, next year, five years, 10 years, 15 years.

He knows. So he’s training us today, train today for the battle tomorrow. That’s what he’s doing. So he allows them and he uses them.

I remember this goes back like roughly 15 years, but I remember a lot going on in my life and I was in my office and I leaned back like in my chair and I just like I’m like I just kind of closed my eyes and I’m like Lord I just can’t handle anything else more on my plate right now I just can’t do it and right then literally right then the phone rings and I found out that my dad had just had a stroke. All right, so I definitely didn’t think I could handle anything more, but the Lord knew that I could. And even at what I felt like was one of the toughest places of my life, the Lord in his goodness and gracious saw fit that, hey, you can handle this too. And so I saw him work in ways that I would not have because of his timing.

So yes, the truth is, life does have more and more and more trials. And yesterday’s trials prepare you for tomorrow’s trials. So it’s important for us not to water this down to unbelievers or new believers. Like the Christian life can be pretty challenging at times.

I mean it’s glorious and it’s amazing. It’s completely awesome. What a friend we have in Jesus, amen. But there’s a lot of trials and there’s a lot of heartache and there’s a lot of heartbreak.

So persevere.

Slay the Dragons

Finally, let’s slay the dragons. That’s been our motto for the year. You should come to the new members meeting in about a week and a half. We got a new motto we’re rolling out.

But that’s our motto. Let’s finish this year well and slay the dragon. Sometimes we have hobby horses, we have pet peeves, things that bug us, we make mountains out of molehills. We treat a leak in a boat as if the Titanic is sinking.

We over exaggerate, we overstate, we over emphasize small little things. Haman thought he had a dragon to slay. It really wasn’t a dragon, a Mordecai. But sometimes we have dragons that aren’t really dragons.

And what happens is we can get off on the wrong path and end up 10 miles down that path and we can hardly see anything but what’s in front of us. And we’re so far off track already that all we see is things that we think need to be taken down and slain like the dragons. When in reality, you’re so far off the mark, you just can’t see. And they didn’t.

So I was thinking about this. When you’re walking in darkness, you wake up in the middle of the night, and you find everything that was left in your path from yesterday. And you’re tripping, and you just you can’t see as clearly when you’re in the darkness. So if you’re walking in a cloud or darkness, even if you’re a believer, you just can’t see things clearly and you end up pointing the arrow the wrong way.

I mean, what do you think happens to these high school seniors? They go off to college, they return for Christmas break, and what do we see sometimes? They’ve been radicalized. R I mean, it sadly doesn’t take long.

It’s like a reverse salvation, really. They get radicalized, and they were lied to about what? Who the dragons were. So now they’re on a quest to slay the dragons, but it’s not really dragons they’re trying to slay.

It’s the thing that’s trying to protect them from the dragons. So they end up turned upside down and lied to. I mean, it’s like Samson, right?

He thought Delilah was the best thing for him. Nope. Led to his downfall. Haman, he thinks he has a dragon to slay.

I mean, he’s off. He’s wrong. Distorted in his thinking. So slay, make sure if you’re focusing your arrow somewhere, you’re pulling back the bow.

I mean, you’re pulling back the arrow with the bow. Make sure it’s direction at the right dragons and that they are dragons indeed. What we should be aiming at is sin and things that aren’t according to God’s word. I mean sin is messy.

I was using this self-leveling caulk the other day, just this past week. I’m using this caulk outside trying to put it between the dividing joints in the driveway. And I get done with one of the tubes. It’s one of those bigger tubes, not them small tubes of caulk, but it’s a big tube of caulk.

And I get to the end and then I pop it out and I’m not sure what had happened, but there was like a whole bunch of extra caulk that must have slipped. That little thing that you keep pushing up as you’re squeezing the trigger. And when I pulled it out, it finally had the opportunity to go like literally all over the place. I’d never had that happen before.

So I’m like, I have my tailgate open on my truck and I had like this nice little cardboard cutter. I mean, everything is like covered and it’s getting on the ground and the street. And I’m like, what in the world?

It’s everywhere. Thankfully, literally by God’s providence, because I’ve used this caulk before and like every single time I forget to bring the stuff that if I end up in a jam, cleans the stuff up. And I’m literally pulling out of my driveway and I’m like, I should bring that stuff in case I need it. Well, I mean, I needed it.

Like I use like a whole gallon of this stuff. It’s all in the street. It’s all over my hands. It’s all over my truck.

It’s all over my favorite little cardboard cutter. I mean, that’s kind of how sin is. Like we think, oh, we’re just going along and we just, we can kind of, as long as you know, you got the little tip with the caulk, right?

You can kind of aim where it’s going, right? Little do we realize, like at some point, there’s gonna be a huge mess. It’s gonna come when you don’t expect it. I thought I had it contained.

Guess what? You can think you got sin contained and you’re all good with it. And then what happens?

You think you keep it under wraps for a while? You can keep it under wraps for a while, but eventually it leaks out and explodes and goes everywhere. And so now you got to deal with it. And it’s a huge mess.

It’s better just not to mess with the caulk to begin with. Better not to mess with the sin to begin with. But should you do that, as we all have at times, be willing to humble yourself and repent. Be willing to go get help.

Be willing to confess it before the Lord. Be willing to get a brother or sister to help get you out of that mess. What does Hebrews talks about?

Right, it’s the sin that so easily entangles you. It’s so easily, it’s like I’m messing with that caulk and the more I tried to fix the problem, the worse the problem became. I’m trying to clean it up, what am I doing?

I’m just smearing it all over the place. Ended up all over me, all over my truck, all over the ground, all over my favorite cardboard cutter. I like that cardboard cutter. But it’s a mess.

Well that’s how sin is. That’s how sin is. So what do we do?

Well, we slay the dragon. And sometimes it takes more than one to slay the dragon. Sometimes we need some help. Sometimes we need some assistance.

Sometimes we need some . Sometimes we need people holding our hands, walking around. Sometimes we need people holding our hands, walking us through it. But can dragons be slain?

Yeah. Biggest dragon ever slain? His name was Satan. One man took him down.

Because of that, by God’s grace through his Spirit, we can attack our sin. We can attack those dragons and we can have victory over them. We can walk in obedience before the Lord. So I encourage you if you’re caught up in it get some help seek some help repent.

You can have victory whatever the sin there’s no sin too big that God can’t get you through and you can walk in obedience to. He is a good and gracious God he’ll see you through the blood of Jesus covers that sin too, whatever it might be. So repent, right?

Repent, come to the Lord, repent, turn away from it. And there he is, offering forgiveness. We serve a good God who is quick to forgive. Over and over and over again, quick to forgive.

In fact, 1 John says he’s just and righteous to forgive. It is in God’s nature to be a forgiving God. So come to that forgiving God who meets all your needs, who walks with you every single step of the way, who guides your steps, picks you up when you fall, dusts you off, sets you back on the path, walks with you at times, holds you on the challenges of life, walks with you through those trials. That his providence is a good providence.

So trust in him.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Father, you do have a good providence. Help us to trust you and to know that. Even in the midst of sorrow, even in the midst of trials, it’s a good providence. And we do thank you for the blood of your son, for his resurrection from the dead, that he defeated death, and through his victory, we have victory. So let us continue to tear down strongholds, anything that tries to put its way in your way, Lord, anything that tries to discourage us in the path of righteousness, any idol that creeps up, Lord, any idol that we’ve erected ourselves and set up in place of you, or alongside of you may we tear it down. And have your way with us, Lord. Have your way, you are a good Father and we love you. Amen.