I'm sure I've enjoyed it. The book of Esther, chapter number 8. If you would turn with me to the book of Esther, chapter number 8. Now, when we started that last congregational, the pastor leaned over to me and said, take all the time you want. So if we go long, it's his fault, not mine. I'm just kidding. I've got to be careful. Y'all haven't taken me on for support just yet. This morning I learned pretty quickly that I was parked in the wrong parking spot. Now, when I want to, I can be pretty good at putting off the blame on other people. You see, I've never been here, and Brother Keaton, if I call him Pop, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, that's what we call him, but Brother Keaton, he's been here, and I figured he would know, but he didn't tell me. He didn't offer me the information that I was parked in Pastor's parking spot. But anyway, I apologize for that if I caused any problems. I'm just kidding. I've heard that. I've heard that. I need to get out of that. I'm going to cause problems. We need a breach tonight. They do have a clock here. I'm glad to see that. I see it's not been changed from time change yet, but I can still see what time it is. But the book of Esther, chapter number eight. And I just, I want to say I appreciate the church. I appreciate this church. I enjoyed listening to the letters, the questions that you sent out to the missionaries. And from a missionary's perspective, I haven't been on the field full time yet, but I can tell you from a missionary's perspective, whenever you receive a letter like that, an email like that, one of two things will go through your mind. And which one depends on what church it comes from. Some churches, the first thing that goes through your mind is, uh-oh, they're looking for a missionary to drop. But churches like this, what goes through your mind is they're paying attention. They're caring. They want to know about the ministry. They want to know how to pray for us. And I appreciate a church like that with the testimony that y'all have. The book of Esther, chapter number eight, we know a lot about the book of Esther. It's one of my favorite books in the Bible, one of my favorite stories. And we know the back story. We're going to come in near the end of the story here, but the children of Israel are under the rule of King Ahasuerus in this passage. And the wicked man Haman, he comes to the king and convinces the king to put a curse, if you will, on the children of Israel. To pass judgment on the children of Israel, he passes a law that on this day all of the Jews of the land are going to die and there's nothing they could do about it. Now put yourself in the shoes of the Jews. You've got your family. You're just trying to make a living. You're just trying to go about your own business and all of a sudden you find out that you're going to die and there's nothing at all you can do about it. There's nobody to help you out. You can't stand for your own life. You're powerless. It's the decree of the king that you're going to have judgment on your life. And the truth of the matter is, when we look at the world today, that's what we ought to see. People that are going to die. People that are under the curse of sin, under the judgment of God. And yet in the book of Esther, the king says, I want to make a way of escape for these people. I want to make an opportunity, as the book of Esther puts it, for them to stand for their lives. I want to make an opportunity for these people to not have to face this judgment that has come upon them. And I know any type in the Bible and any types throughout scriptures, they will break down eventually. You may look at some verse in this passage and say, well that's not how it is with the gospel today, and I understand that, but I think we can as New Testament believers, we can look at this story in the Word of God, we can look at this situation that the Jews are put in, look at this message that the King sends to the Jews, and we can learn a lot about our responsibility to get the gospel to the world. We as a church oftentimes we get caught up in faith promise missions and that's a good thing. Of course we need to get the gospel to the world and we get caught up with what we're doing for God and we forget the message that we're taking to the world. We forget the importance of that message. You see, to the Jews this message from the king, it was their life. Everything depended on it. And to the world, the message of the gospel that we are commanded to take them, everything depends on it. They may not know it, but everything depends on it. If you look at Esther, her name, I studied a little bit about her name. It is translated Hadassah, I believe. If I've done the study correctly, Hadassah is the Hebrew Hebrew word for Esther. And if you look at what Hadassah means, it links back to the myrtle tree. If you study the myrtle tree throughout the Old Testament, when the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt, Moses led them out of Egypt, God brought them out of Egypt, they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. And when they came into the Promised Land, God said, I want you to each year observe some feasts. And as a remembrance of different things, one of those feasts was a feast of tabernacles. And God said, I want you each year to build a tent or a tabernacle outside of your house and I want you to live in it. I believe it was for a week. And I want that to remind you of what God did in bringing you through the wilderness. Remind you of the mercy that God had on you bringing you out of Egypt and taking care of you through the wilderness. What they were to make those tabernacles out of was the myrtle tree. I mentioned Hadassah a moment ago. If you look in Jerusalem, I believe to this day in Jerusalem there is a hospital called Hadassah Hospital. A hospital is known as a place of mercy. So when I think of Esther, I think of the mercy of God. When I look at this story, it reminds me of the mercy of God. And when I think of the gospel message that we have, that God has commanded us to take to the world, I think of the mercy of God. You see, we didn't deserve the gospel message. But we have a message of mercy to carry to the world. And in this passage, I want to look at a message of mercy that this king gave to the Jews and make some correlations, some comparisons to the gospel message today. Let's start reading in verse 7, I guess. Let's drop down to verse 7 of chapter number 8. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen, and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring, for the writing which is written in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring, may no man reverse. Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof. And it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies, and the rulers of the provinces, which are from India unto Ethiopia, and hundred, twenty, and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language. And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries, wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the power of the people, and the province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey upon one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, namely upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people. and that the Jews should be ready against the day to avenge themselves on their enemies. So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment, and the decree was given at Shushan the palace." And we'll look at the rest of those verses in that chapter in just a moment. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning and this evening, and Lord, for this church, their heart for missions. Lord, you can see it in their love for missionaries, their questions, their desire to pray and know how to pray for missionaries, and Lord, even them sending out missionaries of their own congregation. Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to be here to present the burden you've given us for Mongolia. Lord, I pray that we would be able to convey that burden to this church, that they would see the need there. Lord, I pray that you would help us now as we endeavor to preach your word this evening. Would you help me? Lord, you know I've tried to study and wrap my mind around the word of God and what you've got for us, but ultimately it has to be you that preaches tonight, not myself. I pray that you would work in spite of us, not because we deserve it, but because we desperately need your help. Lord, I pray for the power of God tonight. I pray that most of all you would be glorified, that you would be honored tonight, that we would listen to what you have to say for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So there's some things that I want to look at in comparison. This message that the king Ahasuerus sends to the Jews, we can look at that and compare it to the message of the gospel that we have to take to the world. The first thing that I've noticed in this passage about the message is that this wasn't just Mordecai's... it wasn't Mordecai that came up with this idea. It wasn't some Jew that said, hey, I want to tell all my people that we can stand for our lives. It wasn't their idea. It was the king's idea. The one who had the authority to say it, the one who had the authority to decree such a message, it was a divine message. This message of mercy was a divine message given by the king himself. It wasn't the Jews saying, we're going to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and we're going to stand for ourselves. It was the king that said, hey, you have an opportunity to be saved. Now the Jews did have a responsibility, it says, to stand for their lives, but the king was the one that said, I'm going to offer a message of mercy to the world. It was a divine message. Some things about that, its divinity. First of all, how do we know it was a divine message? Well, it was signed by the king. It says in verse 8, righteous also for the Jews as it like you in the king's name. Like I said, it wasn't Mordecai. It wasn't one of the Jews. It wasn't maybe one of the king's servants. It was the king himself that said, I'm going to put my name on this. Our message that we have to take to the world. It's not our idea. Now your pastor, I love Pastor Savage. I love my pastor and respect my pastor. And our pastors ought to preach, go into all the world and preach the gospel. But it's not because he came up with the idea. He's preaching what God said to preach. The king of kings, the one who created the world, is the one that's sending this message. Brother Hembree mentioned it this morning. Just because of COVID doesn't mean the message is recalled. Just because of COVID doesn't mean or because of the economic crash doesn't mean that we have to pull back our giving. I say crash. It wasn't really a crash. But the financial hurting, I'll put it that way, doesn't mean that God said, you don't have to do that anymore. It's a divine message. The King of Kings, the one who has the authority over this world is the one that told us, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. And he said, I'm the one that commanded it. I am God and there's none else. He's our authority. It was signed by the king. How did the king get this name? He signed his name. It says right here in the king's name. How did he receive his name that he put on this message? Well, he received it by birth. That's the way we receive our name. When I was born, my parents said he's going to be named Jeremy David Martin. He's a Martin because he was born to us. Our king was born. Our King was sent to this earth as a Son, born on this earth, born to die for us. And He said, in His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. He sent a message of mercy through the birth of His only begotten Son. We have a message signed by the King. How did it get signed? Through His birth. Our King was born for us, born to die for us. Not only was it signed by the King, but notice what else it says in verse 8. Write you in the King's name and seal it. with the king's ring. This message was signed by the king and it was sealed by the king. Now, this was sealed how? It was sealed through his ring. That ring was specific to the king himself. It was as specific as his name was. Nobody else could have recreated that ring and said, this is my seal. It was something unique to the king. It was something that when everyone else saw it, they could not deny that it was the king himself. Our King had something so unique to Him. Not only is He the King of the universe, but something that man has tried to do over and over again is earn their salvation. Earn the right to be saved. They've tried to do and do, and our King said it's done. He sealed it with His blood as He shed His precious, sinless, perfect blood. A man's blood is polluted with sin. It's unable to atone for our own sins, for the sins of the world, yet Christ shed His own blood. to seal our salvation on the cross. Our message is signed by the King through His birth. It's sealed by the King through His blood. Notice what it says in verse 8. For the writing which is written in the King's name and sealed with the King's ring may no man reverse. Our message is settled by the King. This world has tried to say that the gospel doesn't matter. This world has tried to stamp out the Word of God. It's settled, by the way, through His book. The message that we have is given by the Word of God. The Word of God that will abide forever. It's settled forever in heaven. The Catholic Church has tried to stamp it out. They've tried to destroy it. China's tried to stop the Christianity, tried to stop the Gospel message, but it's settled. It doesn't matter who. The President of the United States, the whole world could stand up, and they will one day. The whole world's going to stand up and say, we don't care what God has to say, but that doesn't change the fact that His Word is settled. The message that we have to take to the world is signed by the king, it's sealed by the king, it's settled by the king. That ought to encourage us as a church. Hey, if it's settled in heaven, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. We ought to go on for God. We ought to take this message. There's nothing the world can do to stop the message. They might be able to stop the message only if God allows them to, or if we allow them to. But the truth of the matter is the message that we have to take to the world is settled in heaven. Not only is it signed, sealed, and settled, it's sent by the King. If you look down in verse 10, and He wrote in the King Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the King's ring and sent. It's sent by the King. How is it sent? Well, at this time it was sent through His servants, but today it's sent by the King through His bride. The church of the living God, He commands us to be the ones to take this gospel message. What a miracle that is. Somebody said God could have written a gospel message in the clouds for all the world to see. Somebody said God could have sent angels to strike fear in the hearts of men, and they fall down on their knees and worship Him immediately, but yet He sent us. Those that don't deserve it. We have the opportunity to take the gospel message to the world. The same message that changed our lives. The same Word of God that changed us. We have the opportunity to take that message to the rest of the world. We ought to do that. It's sent by the King through His bride. It's a divine message. The message that we have to take to the world is divine. God Himself said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Not only is it a divine message, it's a diverse message. First of all, I see in this chapter, it's diverse in its communication. Let's look at verse 9. Diverse in its communication. Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is the month Simon, on the three and twentieth day thereof, and it was written. It was communicated, first of all, by being published. This message was published. We have a message that's been published. It's the Word of God. We have the opportunity to publish that message through tracts, through Sunday school material, through all types of literature. And I'm certain that these folks over here, the folks that can't hear, the deaf folks, they are so thankful for the published Word of God. They can see it. They can read it, even though they can't hear it. Oftentimes, we as Christians, we have such a great opportunity. We pass through the drive-thru at McDonald's. And you say, that's a great opportunity. It is, because we have a little track. We can't sit there and talk all day to them. We can't witness verbally, but we can hand them a track. We go through the cash register at Walmart daily and buy our groceries, buy different things, and we have the opportunity to give them the printed, the published Word of God. The command by the king was published. Can you imagine these people that delivered it? And we'll get to them in just a moment. But they ride into a town and they've got the decree that's been written, it's been published, and they go to the central location, whether it's a tree or a door or something, and they tack it up for all the town to see. And folks can come from far and wide and read it. We have the Word of God. We ought to publish the Word of God every chance we get in every way we possibly can. We need to publish the printed Word of God. Not only was it diverse in its communication because it was published, but because it was proclaimed. You see, these men that delivered it, can you imagine if they would have ridden into a town and just tacked that message up and left? What if somebody couldn't read? Somebody couldn't tell for themselves what it said. Can you imagine? It doesn't say specifically in this passage that they read out loud, but we as believers are commanded to proclaim the Word of God, to preach the Word of God. Maybe there's somebody who has no opportunity to read the Word of God. We can preach it. I worked in radio ministry. while I was going through Bible college at our local church, and there's people out there, they would never have their hands on the Word of God, but they're driving down the road and they turn the radio over and they hear someone proclaiming the Word of God. Maybe there's an opportunity to preach on the streets. Oftentimes, we use the excuse, by the way, of the published Word of God, and we use that as a replacement for the proclaimed Word of God. That shouldn't be. We give a track at the drive-thru and we say, but that's enough. And I understand you don't always have that opportunity to witness. But when God gives you that opportunity, don't settle for just a track. Proclaim that word to those people. I'm stepping to moan toes there, because it's so easy to give a track and go about your day. I'm kind of high strung. If I get my mind set on something, I'll go and not pay attention to anything else. I get laser focused and I lose sight of everyone around me. And that can be a major problem for me, because I'll hand out a track and go my merry way and never even think twice about verbally witnessing to them. Some people, maybe they just need a proclaimed word. to make that decision to accept Christ. It was diverse in its communication. It was diverse in its coverage. Let's look at the rest of verse 9. And it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies, and the rulers of the provinces. which are from India and Ethiopia in 127 provinces. So this king's kingdom is a large area. From India and Ethiopia. And he commanded these people to take the message not just to Shushan the palace. He said, from there I want you to take it all to every province. 127 provinces. Everybody. This message was diverse in its coverage. It went in all directions. Let me share a quick story with you if I have time. I had a friend of mine start a church in Bolivia, South America. And that church he started years ago, and they matured and they grew, and he said, we're starting to take on missionaries. And that was about the time I was starting deputation. He said, we want to support you to take the gospel to Mongolia. And here's somebody, the gospel message went south to South America, and these people in South America got a burden to take the gospel to the world, and they sent money to America and said, we want you to take the gospel to Mongolia over to Asia for us. There's no direction that we shouldn't be willing to go for the gospel message. By the way, there's churches supporting me in Colombia because of that. There's pastors in Venezuela. If you know the situation in Venezuela right now, they don't have the money to send an American missionary to Mongolia, yet they're doing it somehow. I wish I could tell you that whole story, but it'd take too long. But the gospel message, there's no direction that it shouldn't go. But not only that, there's no division it shouldn't cover. In Mongolia, if I was going to take the gospel to a certain people in Mongolia, I'd have to get on an airplane here, maybe in Memphis or in Nashville, fly to Atlanta. And in Atlanta, take a 15-hour flight to Seoul, South Korea. From Seoul, South Korea, take a four-and-a-half-hour flight to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. From Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, I spend the night there, and wake up the next morning, take about an hour and a half flight to Mudan, Mongolia. From there, I take an hour and 15 minute drive to Hatko, Mongolia, which is the village we're working in, by the way. But then, maybe there's a certain people I want to get to. I have to get on my dirt bike in Hatko, Mongolia, put a backpack on, fill it full of tracks and Bibles, and ride for hours up into the Altai Mountains, just on this side of Siberia, and find the Tsatan reindeer people. Now we know reindeer is a myth that Santa Claus looks up to his sleigh, but they are reindeer people in Mongolia. I've seen them, I've pet the reindeer. They come down out of the mountains every once in a while, but when they're up in the mountains, it's a journey. to get there. There's some mountains to cover. It gets expensive. That plane ticket is $2,000 to $2,500. That dirt bike we had to buy is $1,500 to $2,000. The gas, the meals. It takes a lot to get up into the Altai Mountains in Mongolia. Now when the lake freezes, we can go 80 miles across the lake into Siberia, witness to the Russians. There's no division that should stop us from getting the gospel to the world. If you look in verse 9, it says, unto every province according to the writing thereof, unto every people after their language, unto the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language." There's language barriers to get across. We're going to have to spend two years learning Mongolian in the capital city. Maybe you've got a co-worker that you work with. They don't speak English. Would you take the time to study a little bit of their first language in order to share the gospel with them? Would you take the time to cross that barrier to learn a little bit about their culture? There's cultural barriers? In Mongolia, if you go into somebody's house, they're very, very kind. They'll welcome you in, but let's say the doorways are pretty small. And let's say they're welcoming you into their house and you bump their foot with yours on the way in. You go on in, you don't think anything of it. We wouldn't as Americans. But if you don't stop and shake their hand, you gave them the biggest insult and they'll probably never listen to the gospel. There's cultural barriers that we ought to overcome. We shouldn't say, well, they ought to learn our ways. They should be understanding of foreign... No, no, no, no, no. Our job is to get the gospel to them. There should not be any direction we're not willing to take the gospel. There should not be any division we're not willing to cross to get the gospel. Now, of course, we ought to stand for our convictions and stand true in the Word of God. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying compromise. What I'm saying is this gospel message is too important. We cannot let divisions and directions stop us from taking the gospel message. I could spend a lot more time there, but it was diverse in its coverage. I love this one. It was diverse in its carrying. And Brother Hamburger, we talked about this a little bit at lunch today. We talked about the difference in a camel and in a dromedary. And he didn't know I was thinking about praying about this message this evening. But verse 10 says, and he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name and sealed it with the king's ring and sent letters by post on horseback. And writers on mules, camels, and dromedaries. A young dromedary is simply a camel with one hump. We think of a two-humped camel. That's a normal camel. A dromedary is a single-humped camel. I'm not sure what all the differences are between them, what one can do that the other can't, but think about the kingdom that this message had to cover. A hundred and twenty and seven provinces, desert, mountains, plains. Can you imagine where all this message needed to go? If we bring it to our day, the gospel message, there's a lot of places it needs to go. It needs to go out into the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. It needs to go down into the Amazon in South America. It needs to go up into the highest mountains. I was at 15,000 feet in Bolivia. The Gospel message has a lot of places it needs to reach. It needs to go into the cities. It needs to go into the rural areas. Imagine a camel trying to cross through the mountains. I'm sure they could. But carrying this message through the mountains, it might have been a little harder for a camel. Or think of it this way. Think of a mule who's a little bit slow, not as hardy as a camel in some ways, trying to cross the desert with this message. He probably couldn't do it. The mule needs to go through the mountains. He's sure-footed. That's his terrain. Imagine the vast plains in Mongolia. They're known for the plateau and the horses can run and there's a long way to cover in Mongolia. A horse can cover that long distance a lot faster than a mule might could. So there's a lot of areas that this gospel message that we need to take needs to go. And you may say, Lord, I can't take the gospel because of this. I can't take the gospel because of that. Can you imagine the mule saying, I can't take the gospel across the desert, I'd die of thirst? Well, he probably would. That's why he was sent to take the message into the mountains. I'm trying to say this, God has a place for each of us. Moses tried to use the excuse that he was slow of tongue, and God said, well, I'll give you Aaron. Jeremiah tried to say, I'm too young. God said, no, I formed you before you were even in your mother's womb. I had this plan for you. I've got a plan for your life, and God has a plan for our life. We need to stop giving excuses as to why we can't take the gospel and start saying, Lord, how can I take the gospel? Where do you want me to take the gospel? It was diverse in its carrying. Every one of us are called to get this gospel message somewhere, somehow. I've heard some preachers stand up and say, if you surrender and you're afraid God will send you to the other side of the world, don't worry about that. God won't do that. He'll leave you right here. That's not true. He's sending me to the other side of the world. And I say, just as likely for that, He's just as likely to send you to the other side of the world. You say, if I surrender, you think God will send me to the other side of the world? He might. He might let you stay right here and witness to your family, to your co-workers, but He might send you to the other side of the world and give you someone to witness to over there. But I can promise you this. Whatever it is, it's the perfect plan of God for your life, and if you'll obey it, you will be happy. It's not always going to be easy. I'm not going to tell you that. It's not always easy, but it will be right. God has a plan for you. He has a purpose, a way that you can take the gospel to those He's called you to take the gospel to. It was diverse and it's carrying. I need to move on. Very quickly, it was not only a divine message, a diverse message, but it was a driven message. It was driven, first of all, by commandment. Let's look at verse 14. So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. We already touched on this, but we have a command from the king. We ought to be driven to get the gospel to the world because it was his great command. The command still stands to go into all the world and preach the gospel. The command still stands to pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest and to send forth laborers into his field. We are commanded to do this. Imagine one of these servants of the king. He says, OK, I've got this message for you. I want you to take it to such and such a province and deliver it. Imagine that servant saying, King, I've got something happening here. I've got my own plans. I'm going hunting or fishing or golfing this weekend. I have to wait till later. I can't do that. Can you imagine one of the servants even saying, King, I don't think that one's for me. I better go over here and do it. What would have happened to him? I imagine in the time, given the setting, he probably would have lost his head to defy the king. You say, well, God's not going to kill somebody for not obeying Him. I'm not going to go so far as to say that, but think of what the Word of God says. I don't have it written down. I may misquote it, but He says, if we save our lives, for our own sake. If we say we're going to live the way we want to live, we're going to lose our life. We'll be miserable, the word of God. I'm paraphrasing, but he says, but if we'll lose our lives for His sake and for the gospel's sake, we'll save it. I'm not going to say that God's going to kill you for disobeying Him, but I wouldn't put it past Him. We might lose our life for getting out of the will of God, but we might just be miserable wherever we choose to be. And God allows us to make our own decision. We might be just miserable out of the Word of God. It was driven by commandment. Let's obey the command of the King. Not only that, it was driven by compassion. This king, he loved Esther. Esther loved her people. Compassion was what drove this command to be given. And if you look over in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I believe it is, Paul says, the love of Christ constraineth us. And he goes on to talk about sharing the gospel with those around him. The love of Christ is what constrains us. We ought to be driven not only because God commanded, but because God so loved the world. Because God so loved me, I'm willing to go. Because God so loved you, we ought to be willing to go take this gospel message. It was a driven message. Finally, and we'll close, probably one of the most, they're all important, but one of the most important points of this entire message tonight. The command was divine. That's great. The command was diverse. It was driven. But none of those matter if the command, if the message was never delivered. It was a delivered message. We read in verse 14, so the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment, and the decree was given at Shushan the palace. And it goes on. We'll go ahead and read the rest of that. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple, and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. And in every province and in every city with a swear of the king's commandment and his decree came a feast. And the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. This message was delivered. Church, what good is it going to do the world if we never deliver the message God's given us to deliver? What good is it going to do? God didn't save us just so we can sit on a church pew and say amen. That's all good. Stay in church. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. Say amen. Encourage the preacher. But while you're at it, obey the command of God. deliver the message that He's given us to deliver. The message must be delivered. As a church, we are given the responsibility to get this message to the world. I don't know if any of you know Brother Stennett Ballew, but he was one of my heroes. One of the greatest missions preachers that I've ever known. Preached on missions, preached at missions conferences all over, especially the southeast, but I had the great privilege of driving him to some of his meetings for about six months before he passed away. I heard him say one time in a meeting, I'll never forget this, he said, in the military, when the troops are sent out to fight a battle, there's three things that could happen. Either the commander will say, retreat, we can't do it, we're not going to win, we have to fall back. Or the commander will say, we've won, the battle's finished, at ease. Or maybe the commander will say, the order still stands. There's still a battle to be fought and you're still responsible for fighting. And Brother Blue would always say, he said, the command's not been given to retreat and it never will be. The command's not been given that we've won the battle and that won't happen until Christ takes us home. So the only one left is the order still stands. Church, we must deliver this message. So I say one more word. Not only was this message delivered, but this message, when it was delivered, this message delivered some things with it. It delivered some things with it. Verse 16 says the Jews had light, gladness and joy and honor. It talks about a feast and a good day. In the video presentation, I had a picture, when it started talking about youth camp, there was a video of the young people playing a game and then there was a picture of one boy running and jumping and he had a red hat on. And you probably didn't notice that one specifically, but that boy, I put that picture in our video presentation because he has a special place in my heart. I'm sad to tell you I can't tell you his name. I don't speak the language yet, and names are very hard to get and especially remember, but I had a close friendship with him while I knew him. He came to camp our very first week of youth camp. I'll tell you this story and we'll close. Our very first week at camp in 2014, he came and he got off the bus. You've got to understand, most of our young people that we have come to the camp are from what we would consider the ghetto. They are from the poor district of the capital city. Most of them have never heard the gospel. It's not like youth camp here in the States. Here in the States, we have church kids that come, and that can be bad enough. But in Mongolia, these are lost young people. Many of them have never heard the gospel. Many of them have never heard the name of Christ, and they've never known what true love is. And this boy, he got off the bus, and he had a red hat on, and he was the biggest, baddest guy there. He was big. You could tell if there was a gang there, he was the leader of the gang. He was the one calling all the shots with all the teenagers. He had the look on his face that he was going to do whatever he wanted to do. And I remember thinking as he got off the bus, this guy's going to cause us problems this week. We've got to keep an eye on him. And he was a tough kid. He was kind of the bully of the group. But partway through the week, he got saved. And I don't mean just made a profession. His life changed. When he got back on the bus, you see, watching those young people get off the bus, it opened my eyes because I'd seen it. I'd seen lost people. But these young people got off the bus and you look in their faces and they were just hopeless. They were helpless. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 2 real quick. I need to turn over here very quickly. Ephesians chapter 2 describes The lost life. The life before Christ. And that's how I would describe these young people getting off that bus. Ephesians chapter 2 starts off, "...and you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." Verse 11, "...wherefore remember..." He's talking to the church. "...remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcised by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." That's where we were as sinners before we got saved. That's where this young man was when he got to camp. He had no hope, he had no joy in his eyes, he had no light in his eyes, no life. In his eyes, he was dead in his trespasses and sins, and yet the message of the gospel delivered that life. Ephesians 2 starts off, and that means made alive. The Jews in this passage, they had gladness and joy and honor. The world, the lost world, has no honor. They have no life, no joy, no gladness. They may act like it, but in the end they have no hope. They're without Christ. This message, church, that we have to deliver to the world, it delivers life. It delivers joy. It delivers honor. It delivers light to them. And let me ask you this before we close. Maybe you're sitting there wondering what in the world all this is all about. What's He talking about? A message of mercy. What's He talking about? Life and light. and joy and honor. Maybe you've never accepted this message yourself. Maybe you've never been saved. Maybe you've never asked Christ to come into your own heart. Can I challenge you? This message of mercy that I'm preaching on, that we as a church are called to take to the world, if you've never accepted Christ, you first have to receive that message. You have to receive the message before you can give it to somebody else. So maybe you're sitting here and you say, that life describes me. I've never had joy. I've not had light and honor in my life. I feel lost. I feel like I don't know what's happening. I don't know God. Maybe you need to come forward and be saved. And pastor, you can head this way. We'll start the invitation. that one of us would be happy to talk to you. If you've never accepted this message of mercy, I beg you, accept it tonight. But if you're here as a believer, and you haven't taken part in Faith, Promise, Missions giving, it's more than giving by the way, but that's part of it. If you haven't taken part in Faith, Promise, Missions giving, make that commitment to start that tonight. God's commanded us to. But more importantly than that, if you haven't begun witnessing yourself, If you haven't told the gospel message yourself, in person to someone else, I challenge you, get this message delivered this week. Think of the world that's lost and going to hell. Put yourself in their shoes. You'd wish you'd come and told yourself about the message. You'd wish somebody had told you about the message. So we as a church, let's remember this message of mercy that God has given us to give to the world today. Thank you. Thank you for speaking to our hearts tonight. Lord, I've sensed you in the house tonight. I thank you for the special music that just spoke to my heart and prepared my heart for the word tonight. Lord, we're thankful that the message has been signed and sealed and settled and sent. And Lord, I just pray that you'll help us take this divine, diverse message that is driven and help us to deliver it. Lord, it does bring light and gladness and joy and honor and freedom. Oh God, it does all that. Nothing has changed us like the message of God's love. God's mercy is mercy for the world. And what I pray that would rejoice in your mercy tonight. And then I pray that we'd have a burden to share that message of mercy as God speaks to your heart tonight. Won't you come?