Well, we have spent the last month going through the book of Esther. It is an amazing book of the Bible. It's just a great story. And I love to tell stories. I'm a storyteller. That's one of the things I like to do the most. People that know me really well get tired of hearing the same stories over and over again. My poor, poor wife. But I tell them anyway because I love to tell stories. I just can't help myself sometimes. And Esther is a great, great story. It is the story about the power of choice. Our decisions matter greatly, and God can accomplish much. God can accomplish miraculous results through our choices. Esther reminds us of the power of choice. And so every Sunday we've looked at a different decision present in the book of Esther. We've got a great decision, a great choice to look at today. We're going to spend most of our time in Esther chapter 3 and a little bit in Esther chapter 6 if you want to turn there or get that up on your phones. Obviously, we're going to put it on the screens, but they were doing something funky earlier. So just in case, you know, you have that option. Esther chapter 3, verse 1 says that King Xerxes promoted Haman, son of Hamadatha the Agagite, over all other nobles, making him the most powerful official in the empire. All the king's officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by, for so the king had commanded. I love Esther chapter 3 because it's in this chapter that we get to meet the villain. And you cannot have a truly great story without a villain. You need someone to root against, right? Sports fans, you have rivals. And if you're a big sports fan, I'm guessing you get just as much joy seeing your rival lose as you get when you see your team win. And if you can beat your rival, that's the best. If your rival beats you, you want to crawl in a hole and die, but the next year you've got a chance for redemption. You gotta have a villain. You take a villain out of the story, it's not much of a story. What would Jaws be without Jaws? You take that shark out of there, it's just a day at the beach. Okay? And Haman is a really, really good villain. By the time I was 10 years old, I had seen exactly two movies with Jack Nicholson. I saw Batman and The Shining. I was 10, 10 years old. I have an older brother that's eight years older than me, and he used to love to stay up really late at night. I don't think my parents knew what he was doing, and he would watch horror movies. And I wanted to impress him. I wanted to, I wanted him to think I was I was cool and tough, and so I would stay up with him and I would watch these movies and I would act like it didn't bother me. I would act like I was fine, but on the inside I was just huddled in a corner in the fetal position crying. And one of those movies was The Shining. To this day, if I see Jack Nicholson, I have problems. If you've never seen those two movies, he is a villain in both. He's the Joker in one and the most terrifying human being alive in the other one. And if I was trapped on an elevator with Jack Nicholson, even though I'm a grown man and he's a much older man, I think I could take him. I don't know. That would be a crisis for me. He is and forever will be a villain in my mind. If I ever see a movie where he's the good guy, I'm like, no, no, no, no, you're not. You're not fooling me for a second. You're evil. He's just really good at playing that role. Haman is not playing a role. Haman is not a villain created from someone's imagination. Haman is the real deal. He is the second most powerful man in the entire empire of Persia. We're talking about 500 BC. Who knows how many people he has killed to get there? Haman is intelligent, he is ambitious, he is ruthless, he is conniving, he is deceptive. Haman is a terrifying man. Every single year in the Jewish faith, the book of Esther is read aloud during this feast called Purim. It's a feast which actually began in the story of Esther. And when it comes time to say Haman's name as the story is read out loud, everyone makes a loud noise to drown out the sound of his name. The thought is that he is so despised, he is so detested, that his name should never even be heard. This last year there was a video that went around the internet, and it was Israeli soldiers shooting off automatic rifles every time Haman's name was read. That's the intensity that is felt toward Haman, and we're gonna see why in just a moment. I'd like to do something. We experimented with this in the first service, and it went really well, I think. So we'll do it again just for this next session of scripture, this next section that we're gonna read, not for the rest of the time, because that would get confusing for me. When we get to Haman's name, will you just boo loudly? Okay? It's like a dream of mine to be booed at on a stage. So make that, I'm just joking. But but no, seriously, I want us to enter into that mindset. We have to understand how intense this guy is. We have to understand how dangerous he is and how deserving he is of this kind of response. I'd love us to just engage in that. You need to know I have a microphone and a loud voice, so you're gonna have to boo pretty loud. Esther chapter 3, verse 6, it says that he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire empire of Xerxes. So in the month of April, during the 12th year of King Xerxes' reign, lots were cast in Haman's presence. Weren't as many people in the first service. That's good. To determine the best day and month to take action, and the day selected was March 7th, nearly a year later. Then Haman approached King. Yeah. That surprised me. I forgot we were doing that. He said, There is a certain race of people scattered through all the provinces of your empire who keep themselves separate from everyone else. Their laws are different from those of any other people, and they refuse to obey the laws of the king. So it is not in the king's interest to let them live. If it please the king, issue a decree that they be destroyed, and I will give ten thousand large sacks of silver to the government administrators to be deposited into the royal treasury. We get a little taste of how deceptive Haman is. He comes in and he says, Hey, King, you know that I'm always looking out for you. I just want to help you. And there's this group of people that we got to do something about them. They don't follow all the laws, they're kind of different. And you don't need to even worry about who they are, don't even worry about how many of them there are. I'll take care of all those details. You don't need to be troubled with little minor things like that. I just want to help you out, King Xerxes, and get rid of these people for you. And in fact, I'll take care of the whole thing, I'll fund it myself. 10,000 large sacks of silver, 10,000 talents is what that would have been. That was about two-thirds of Persia's debt as a nation at that time. That would be like someone coming to our government saying, Hey, I'd like to take care of a little problem for you, and I'll give you $11 trillion if you let me do it. And so the king agrees. And Haman walks out of the room with this decree signed by the king. And we need to know that this means March 7th is a done deal. It doesn't have to go to the Senate to be voted upon. There's no approval committee that has to meet before this law is official. In Persian culture, when the king signed a law, it was a law. It could not be amended, it could not be redacted, the king couldn't even change his mind. If he says later on, oh well that was a bad idea, kings didn't intend to do that. But if he did, too late. Allah was a law. And so March 7th is a reality for the nation of Israel. Haman sort of frames this for the king as if this is some small, insignificant group of people. It is estimated that the Jewish people took up about 20% of the Persian population. It would have been about 15 million people. Haman has just gotten the king to sign the death warrant of 15 million people. That is the kind of man that Haman is. That is the villain that we are dealing with. Haman has such an intense hatred for God's people that his best solution is to wipe them out from the face of the earth. There are several reasons why Haman had such an intense hate for the nation of Israel. It says that he was an Agagite, which means he was related to a man named King Agag from a tribe of people long ago called the Amalekites. The Amalekites attacked the nation of Israel as Israel was leaving Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt. They left. Exodus tells that story, if you've never read it. And they spent about 40 years wandering around in the desert before they entered the promised land. They were nomadic people. And the Amalekites attacked Israel while they were nomads. They didn't attack the military of Israel, they attacked the back of the tribe. And that would have been the elderly, the children, the sick. It would have been those having a very hard time keeping up with the tribe. That is who the Amalekites went after. And in Exodus 17, there's this big battle. It's a really, really good story. You don't make friends with God by hurting his children. And so later on, God decides that the Amalekites need to be done for good. And he tells King Saul to wipe them out, but King Saul relents and hesitates. He doesn't follow through. So this is a group of people that lingered on, and their hatred for Israel grew, and Haman is part of that family tree. And he is so passionate to see 15 million people die, he is willing to donate a fortune to see it through to the end. It's a sad truth that sometimes terrible causes are well funded. It's motivation for me, at least, to make sure that the cause of people knowing Jesus is always well funded. But Haman is committed to the end. Believe it or not, even though this is something that he's obviously thought through, this is a plan he must have had long ago in his mind, growing up, dreaming of a chance to get back at his enemies. This whole situation is sparked because of the choice of one man. One man's decision is what motivates Haman to take the action that he's taking. If we go back to Esther chapter 3, verse 2, it says all the king's officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by, for so the king had commanded. Notice that it's not because they truly respect Haman. They don't bow because they admire this man, they bow because the king said they had to. But Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect. In verse 5, it says that when Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or show him respect, he was filled with rage. He had learned of Mordecai's nationality, so he decided it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire empire of Xerxes. One man makes a choice, and it creates this whole mess. It'd be easy to look at Mordecai and say, man, just bow down. Just, just bow down, just do it. You don't have to mean it in your heart, but just do it, and this whole situation would be avoided. But I believe very much that Haman is the kind of man who's gonna do this eventually no matter what. The only question is, will someone stand up to him before it is too late? And Mordecai is the only person in all of Persia who is willing to stand up to Haman. That's his decision. That's our choice this morning, the choice to stand. Standing is something we can take for granted. For most of us, it's pretty easy to do. My eight-month-old little girl, she has to work really hard to stand up. It takes all the energy, all the energy she has. I've had times in my life where simply staying on my feet was the hardest thing I could possibly do. I played football in the seventh grade. Only in the seventh grade. I know I don't look like a football player. I did not look like one in the seventh grade either. But all the guys were going out for the football team, and you got to ride on the bus with the cheerleaders, and that seemed great, so I said, hey, why not? Maybe I can be like a wide receiver and run and catch a touchdown pass and look at the cheerleaders and point and they'll cheer. Like that was my that was what I envisioned happening. That is not what happened. Not even close. For some reason, I don't know why, because I wasn't a big guy at all. My coach decided to put me at offensive center. Those of you that know something about football, those are generally big guys. Really big guys, and their job description is simple: snap the ball to the quarterback, protect him from the mutant trying to get through you to hurt him. That is what you want to do. And my coach had this outside the box idea, this novel approach, like, hey, let's put a small guy at center. I've tried to think of why for the last 20 years. The only conclusion I have is that he hated me. That's the only thing that makes sense. And see, the other coaches, they weren't trying outside-the-box approaches. They were going with this tried and true method of putting a gigantic hit puberty really early seventh grader on the defensive line. And so, football for me in seventh grade was snap after snap of me getting mowed over, knocked down, I gave up my goal of trying to protect my quarterback. He was on his own. My only goal was just still be on your feet when the whistle blows. Don't fall down, because I fell down all the time. And this is a true story, I'm not exaggerating. Once I got hit so hard by this guy on the defensive line that I flew backwards and I knocked my own quarterback down. So I'm the only offensive center in football history to get a sack in a game. That's me. I moved on from football to basketball, a sport where they punish big guys for hitting little guys. I liked that sport. You know, those games, I I had to work so hard just to stay on my feet, and I know that's a humorous example, but I believe many of us have had situations in life where life hit us hard. And in those moments, it is all that we can do sometimes to stay standing. It takes every ounce of energy and focus we have to emotionally and spiritually stay on our feet. Four years ago, my son was born. It was a great day. I'm a huge Duke basketball fan. You can boo again if you want, you did earlier. Um and uh that's fine. So Duke was in the national championship game, April 5th, 2010. First time they had been in that game in 10 years. I was so excited. Halftime of the championship game, April 5th, 2010, my wife's water broke and we went to the hospital. That's the day my son decided to come. And so Duke won that day, national champions. Next day I've got a boy, I'm like two days in a row, this is awesome. I'm at I'm at like the peak of my life. This is amazing. And then the next day, he had to go to the ICU. And he spent about the first two weeks of his life in the newborn intensive care unit. And I've shared that story before. That mountaintop experience quickly became a very, very deep valley. And about a week into him being in the NICU, I came by here by the church to pick something up from my office. And uh, this woman that worked here at the time stopped me and said, Hey Justin, I know you're having an unbelievably hard week, but I need to tell you about something. One of your students, Nate Snow, was in a really bad car accident last night. And he's in intensive care at Grady. He's it's not looking good. And I'm sitting there going, like, what is going on? I I was torn. I I have my newborn son in the ICU at Kenistone. Nate was at Grady in critical condition. I couldn't be in two places at once. I had people here that said, Look, you just stay with your son. We're gonna go pray with Nate. And as soon as I could get away from the hospital, as soon as I could, I drove to Grady to see him. It was a few days after the accident, and it was it was hard. And I remember being in that situation and just going, God, what what do I do? Everything's hitting me so hard right now. All these people that I love and care about, and I feel powerless to do anything, and it was like it was like being in the seventh grade again, just being mowed over. Sometimes it's all we can do to stay on our feet, to stay standing. I want to read 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 58. Paul wrote, Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Stand firm. Let nothing move you. We're talking about a spiritual posture today. That in our spirits we are called by God to be people that stand firm. We all have hamans in our life. There are circumstances, there are situations, there are people sometimes that come against us, and they are not for us. They don't wish to bless us. What they want us to do is bow down, give in, give up, throw in the towel, admit defeat. But we are called to stand firm. But that's easier said than done, right? A few years ago I was talking with some people on the prayer team. Irene Stout was talking to me. If you don't know Irene, she and her husband Jim lead the prayer team here at his hands. They also own the beer growler shop in Canton. So, how many churches have a prayer team couple leader that own a beer growler shop, right? We're the only ones. It's just us. I love that. And Irene and Jim both hear from the Holy Spirit very, very well. And Irene came to me and said she wanted to share something with me that she believed God wanted me to hear. At the time I was really discouraged, really overwhelmed, struggling to have confidence. I felt like there was more on my plate than I could possibly handle, and I was not prepared to deal with it. No one knew that, though. I was something I was dealing with on my own. Not that that's the smartest way to deal with things, but that's the way that I chose at the time. And Irene came to me, she said, Justin, God wants you to know that you are equipped. She said, I can see his armor all over you. She had no idea how meaningful that was to me. I walked out that day going, God, thank you. I needed that so badly. There have been several moments since then where I'm dealing with those same feelings and not sure if I if I'm prepared to handle whatever life is giving me at the time, and I stop and I know I said, No, God, you told me I am equipped. I've got my armor on. The only reason I'm with you today is because in seventh grade, when I played football, I was wearing pads. I had a helmet, I had shoulder pads, I had all that stuff. That's why I'm still here. Sometimes, in order to stand and to stand firm, we have to recognize the need to stand in some protection. When Irene said she could see God's armor on me, she wasn't holding a beer growler, uh, she was quoting Ephesians 6. And Paul wrote in Ephesians 6 10, a final word Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. And that may not seem very encouraging, that it's not just life itself and the economy and things like that that come against us, but it's Satan himself, and it's these spiritual forces coming against us. But Paul goes on and says, Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor, so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then, after the battle, you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the good news, so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil, put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword. Of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, gives us this description of this armor. Paul at the time was in chains. He was imprisoned. He would have spent every day chained to a Roman soldier staring at that guy's armor. He had a great reference point. We all have the ability to stand. Because we are all equipped by the same God. We have access to the same spirit. We have access to the same protection. We can choose to spiritually put on every piece of armor that it just described. We can choose to put on truth. To refuse lies, to care about what is actually true and what is actually right. To reject whatever lies that we have believed or maybe even caused ourselves to believe. We can choose what is true. We can choose to put on that helmet of salvation. A helmet protects your mind, it guards you. When we live our lives knowing that we are saved, God has done the work, Jesus has paid the price, we belong to God. When we know we belong to God, our minds are guarded against so many lies that Satan will tell us. Because at the end of the day, we all want to belong. And if you're here today and you don't know that you belong with God, you belong with God. We can choose to put on that body armor of righteousness. Righteousness literally means right standing with God. And we're told in the Word that Jesus lived with right standing before God, and he chose to give us his righteousness. We don't have to earn that for ourselves. Putting on the body armor of righteousness does not mean doing the right thing every single time, every single day, every single opportunity. It means that we accept Jesus' righteousness in place of our own shortcomings. That is a really good trade. We can choose to put on the shoes of peace, which I imagine are like slippers. That sounds nice. And it says that peace comes from hearing the good news. The good news that Jesus has done it all. The more we listen to the good news, the more we share the good news of Jesus, the more peace we experience. That's a choice we can make. We can choose the shield of faith, which will block every single attack that Satan throws at you. Faith is so powerful. The Bible says that we live by faith, not by sight. And if we live by sight, fears, discouragement, lies, those things that Satan himself attacks us with, they're very powerful. Because if we're looking at life through our eyes, I can look at my bank account and be pretty afraid sometimes. I can look at the status of my marriage, or so I think it is, and go, oh, this isn't what I wanted it to be. I can look at the aspects of my job that I don't love. I can look at the world around me and not be very encouraged. But I am not supposed to live with my eyes, being the lens through which I see. We are supposed to live by faith. And by faith, I can look at my bank account and go, look how much room it has to grow. Right? By faith, I can look at my marriage and say, Well, not gonna make that mistake again. Not marrying my wife. That sounded really bad. Um the mistake would be me doing what I'm doing right now, not thinking before I speak. That's 99% of my marriage problems. By faith, by faith, I can look at my kids in moments where I'm having a hard time and say, thank you so much, God, that it's not all up to me to make sure they become the people that they're supposed to become. Thank you, God, for bringing people alongside me. Thank you, God, for giving me your spirit and for being their father. I don't have to be their only dad. Thank you, God, that it's not all on me. If we live by faith, so many of the discouragements that Satan gives us, they just stop short because faith is a shield. We can choose that shield. We can choose the sword, which is the spirit, it's the word of God. One of the biggest lies Satan will tell you is that you cannot understand the Bible. It's too complicated, it's too weird, there's too many questions, there's too much stuff in it that doesn't make sense. You can absolutely understand God's word. If you read it, you ask him to open your eyes. There's tools that are out there on your phone, there's there's apps, there's there's websites, there's one-year Bibles, you can get some at the source, there's all kinds of things that exist to help you really know God's word. And that's our sword. Every time Jesus resisted temptation, he quoted scripture and it worked. Because God's word is true, and it's a sword. You can you can just call reading the Bible your sword practice. And if you tell people all the time, hey, I gotta go practice with my sword, they're never gonna mess with you. That's just a little added benefit. That guy spends a lot of time practicing sword fighting. That's not that practical of a skill anymore. Why is he doing that? But have that mentality. This is this is a weapon that's at your disposal. It's what we have to fight back. See, all of those, all of those pieces of armor, that whole metaphor, it's all a choice. We have the ability to choose to live in God's protection. And when we choose to live in his protection, we stand firm. Always. Romans 5 talks about standing firm with hope. And in verse 2, Paul wrote, Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand. And we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials. For we know that they help us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. I mentioned my friend Nate Snow earlier, young man that had a car accident. This is a picture of Nate from back when he was in high school. He's on the right. Nate was the first student that I connected with when I came here eight years ago. He was uh, I think a junior in high school at the time. He and I spent a lot of time together. We'd go play basketball, we'd grab lunch, we'd hang out. Nate was the very first student that came here brave enough just to stand up and raise his arms and go crazy in worship. The first part of our youth group to take that stand. So a lot of us recognize that our students are very passionate worshipers. Nate was the trendsetter in that area. I love Nate so much. Nate's car accident was really serious. It's the kind of accident that you're not supposed to live through. He was driving, it wasn't his fault. Another car came over and hit him head on. He was in a coma for a very long time. But he lived. This is a picture of Nate from just uh a few weeks ago. Nate always liked to dress sharp, man. He's always been this sharp dresser, and he was always in really good shape. So we'd always be playing basketball, and he'd be like, uh, I don't want to get sweat all over my shirt, so I'm just gonna take my shirt off. Because he had abs and things like that, and I was always like, Nate, come on, just put your shirt back on. We all know, we all know that you look good. Come on, man. The last four years of Nate's life have been a fight. His brain has had to relearn how to breathe. His body has had to relearn how to regulate its own body temperature, the kind of things that your body learns while you're in the womb. He's had to relearn how to speak. He can't say many words. And he works really hard to say them, but he he can. I've heard him say, I love you. It's powerful. One of the things that Nate has had to work the hardest to be able to do is stand up. And Nate can stand up. I spent some time with Nate this last week, uh, just asking him some questions, and we sat down together. He has this little computer that he'll use to write on and answer questions that you have. And I wanted to share with you what he wrote. I asked him what he would say to someone who's going through a really hard time. Someone who has a haman coming against them, trying to get them to bow down. This is what he said. You can't see it on the picture, but I'll read it. He says, I know how you feel, and have had problems comparable to yours. I am mostly thankful for my hardships because they put me in a position where I'm relying on God more completely. Mostly trusting him. I asked Nate what he would say to someone who is just, just about to give up, just about to bow down to whatever is coming against them in their life. And he said, Well, obviously, and first of all, don't give up. Ever. Even when the going gets tremendously rough, trust my God and thank him for the rain, for the hardships, because I know God has been there, and nearly infinitely worse, or at least his son has. Nate comes here, and if you ever see Nate sitting in his wheelchair, do yourself and Nate a big favor and do not feel sorry for him. Because while Nate's body isn't always able to stand tall, Nate's spirit stands taller and stronger than anyone I've ever known. His spiritual posture is so strong that the worst life can throw at you has not phased his love for God and his excitement to live a life connected to God. Nate stands up every second of every day. Nate's a lot like Mordecai. Mordecai kept standing up. This wasn't a one-time situation, and it drove drove Haman nuts. To the point where Haman decides, I'm not gonna wait till March 7th. Haman ordered one night for some people to build a 75-foot-tall pole. Because the next day he was gonna have Mordecai impaled on that pole, right in the capital city for everyone to see. That was the execution method of choice in Persia. And so the building of that pole got away, got underway right away, and uh that night King Xerxes couldn't sleep, maybe because someone nearby was building a 75-foot-tall pole, hammering away all night long, just saying. And Xerxes is a man that loves himself very much, very confident man, and he asked someone to read to him his life's story. He can't sleep, he's like, What should I do with my time? I know, I'd like to hear about me. And someone begins to read to Xerxes the story of Xerxes, and eventually this person gets to this part in the story that Xerxes had forgotten about. There was an assassination plot against Xerxes years ago, and this one palace guard exposed the plot and saved Xerxes' life. That man's name was Mordecai. And upon hearing that, Xerxes says, Well, what did we ever do to repay Mordecai? And the guy reading the story says, uh-uh, it doesn't say we did anything. He's like, Well, that's gotta change. About that time Haman shows up, Haman is going to ask permission to impale Mordecai on a pole. Even though Haman is really powerful, you can't hide a 75-foot-tall pole with a man impaled upon it. The king's gonna ask questions about that. Mordecai needs, or Haman rather needs permission to do this to Mordecai. So Haman shows up and the king sees Haman and says, Haman, just the man I wanted to see. What should I do to really show someone I'm I'm appreciative of what they've done for me? And in Esther 6, verse 6, it says that Haman thought to himself, whom would the king wish to honor more than me? So he replied, and this is kind of creepy, this next part, because you can tell he's thought about this before. He's fantasized this. If the king wishes to honor someone, he should bring out one of the king's own royal robes, you know, wear your clothes, as well as a horse that the king himself has ridden, one with a royal emblem on its head. Not that I've thought about this before. Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials, and let him see that the man whom the king wishes to honor is dressed in the king's robes and led through the city square on the king's horse. Have the officials shout as they go, This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor. Excellent, the king said to Haman, Quick, take the robes and my horse, do just as you have said for Mordecai the Jew. Who sits at the gates of the palace, leave out nothing you have suggested. So Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed them on the king's own horse, and led him through the city square, shouting, This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor. I imagine that was a very long day for Haman. And I bet the hardest part was when they passed that pole that was being built. It says afterward, Mordecai returned to the palace gate, but Haman hurried home, dejected and completely humiliated. I want you to know that when you choose to stand against a Haman in your life, when you choose to stand up in the face of a trial, in the face of something really hard, not only will you stay standing through the power of God in your life, but those very things coming against you, they will be the things that are lying at your feet. Haman's the one bowing at the end of the story. So you can stand. I know that many of us in this room know that we are like Nate Snow. We have faced hardships, we have faced trials, and we're still on our feet. I know there's many of us in the room facing something right now, and we're not sure if we have the strength. Many of us may have not been through a trial like that ever, but we're not confident that if it came, we would be able to survive it. We are all equipped by God. We are all able to stand and to withstand anything, anything that life throws at us. We stand in God's protection every single day. That is a choice that we can make. We're about to sing the last song, which is why they're here. And uh normally we stand up at the last song. It's just what we do. And I'd like to ask all of us to stick around until this song is done. Just for a few moments. I think this is important. I want to ask you today not to stand up because that's what we do. Don't stand up just to stand. But let standing up be a choice that you are making today to tell yourself, to tell God that you will choose to stand in the face of whatever comes your way. Confident that you stand in God's protection. And many of us may not be going through something really hard right now. Maybe your call today is not to withstand something, maybe your call is to stand with someone. Because there are many of us here that need someone to stand with us as a church. Whether this is your first time here or you've been here for years, we will stand with one another always. In every circumstance, in every heartache, in every situation, we stand together. And so if you're in a good place in life, a peaceful time, choose today to stand with someone. Look for needs, look for ways to help. Nate Snow, by the way, in January, his older sister Aaliyah is going on a one-year mission trip to Africa. Aaliyah has been one of Nate's primary caretakers for the last four years. That family needs someone to volunteer to come alongside them and be a caretaker. To spend a few days each week just caring for Nate. And if you're equipped to do that, if you know how to do that, you have that availability, go to the info desk and leave your information. We stand with one another. We stand with God. And this is the best part. God stands with us. I mentioned Exodus chapter 17. That battle with the uh the Amalekites, the very people that Haman comes from. In Exodus 17, verse 10, it says, So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. And meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and her climbed to the top of a nearby hill. As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. Moses' arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Her found a stone for him to sit on, then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands, so his hands held steady until sunset. As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle. If you need someone to stand with you today, let us know. If you need someone to stand with you, to come alongside you, to help you, let us help. And by us I mean us. All of us. We're a family. We're gonna sing this song. And if you need, if you need prayer, if you need somebody to come next to you and be like her and Aaron and help lift you up, as we sing this song, lift your hands in the air. Lift your hands in the air. And if you see someone near you lifting their hands in the air, saying, I need someone to stand with me, I need some help right now, go to them and pray for them. Hold up their hands. Be that person that chooses to stand with them. That is why we're here. That is why we are a church, we are a family. We stand with God, for God, with one another, for one another, and we can withstand anything. Because Jesus has already withstood it all. Let's pray together. Jesus, thank you so much. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for what you're doing right now in this place. Give us the courage to let those around us know that we need people to stand with us right now. Give us the courage to know that we are equipped to help those of us that need someone to stand with them. We stand in your protection, God. And when all is said and done, we will stand firm because you stand with us. We love you, Jesus. And we ask all this in your name. Amen. Amen.