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[0:00] I've always been called or thought of myself as a hopeless romantic.

[0:19] ! And that kind of thing where at the end of the movie, the guy always gets the girl. Amen? And the girl's glad that he got her. Amen? Yeah. It's not a one-sided thing.

[0:30] It's a two-sided thing. And they go off into the sunset, you know, when the sun's going down over the ocean or the mountains and all of that. Yeah. Well, the book of Esther's kind of that way. It's got a great ending to it.

[0:42] And so that kind of makes it a romantic thing and people's favorites. It's filled with intrigue and danger and heroism and all of those things.

[0:53] And it's a good book. Even though there's no mention of God in the book. Always think of that. God is not mentioned in the book.

[1:04] However, it's a great picture of what he has done and what he does for his people. In this particular case, the covenant people of Israel. It's because of his loving care for them, his protection for them, his provisions in every circumstance, whatever that may be, he provided for them.

[1:25] And so that's the setting, kind of the overall thought about the book here. Now, as we've mentioned before, in our study of the book of Esther, we're going to take it from a different vantage point, if you will.

[1:39] Something different. We're going to look at it as at the battle of the life within every Christian for the control of the life. And that's the battle we all face every day of our life.

[1:51] Who's going to control our life and what we do? Of course, it's a spiritual battle that shows us that we have no ability to control it, combat it, or anything else.

[2:06] Look over in Ephesians chapter 6 with me just a moment. Ephesians chapter 6. The Apostle Paul deals with that. And it's familiar to us, but remind ourselves of it.

[2:23] As he closes the book, he says, finally, brethren, as if kind of to say, in light of everything else I've written to you here. All right.

[2:33] Here's one of the most important aspects. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

[2:49] For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

[3:01] All right. So he goes on to take on the whole armor of God so you can stand. So that's the picture that we have here. That spiritual warfare that we're engaged in.

[3:12] Now, the unique aspect of it is that you can't see your enemy. Okay.

[3:23] You can't see him. That's a lot of the type of warfare our soldiers are going into over in the Middle East. I don't really know who your enemy is.

[3:35] You don't see him. You can't tell. They don't have a uniform, per se. So we spiritually don't see the enemy we're fighting with, but he's there. And we know he's there. Scripture tells us he's there.

[3:46] And from time to time, we can sense his very presence. So we don't have the ability with ourselves to combat it. But God does provide for us in a very clear way, if you will, the provisions he's made for us in that battle so that we can overcome the enemy that we face every day.

[4:10] Now, again, we've been looking for the last couple of weeks at Galatians 2.20. And in the Amplified, I've been crucified with Christ.

[4:21] In him, I have shared his crucifixion. But it's no longer I that live, but Christ, the Messiah, lives in me. And the life I now live, I live, now live in the body, I live by faith in, that is, by adherence to and reliance on complete trust in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

[4:47] That word adherence that they use in the Amplified Version here is a word that literally means to stick to as if by gluing. I like that.

[4:58] Think about that just a moment. Talking about here, living the life in the body by faith in Christ Jesus. That's the Son of God.

[5:09] So that we adhere to him. That we stick to as if by gluing. Amen? You know what that reminds me of? I'm sure some of you have used those glue traps in your house to catch bugs.

[5:24] Amen? Amen? You ever gotten your finger caught in one of those? Do what? Don't do it. Oh, don't do it. I thought you were shaking your head.

[5:35] No, I haven't. I said, go try it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's almost impossible you get your fingers off of. That's the kind of way we need to adhere ourselves to the Lord Jesus in our life so that we can be used of him to the extent that he wants to use us.

[5:51] So again, we've come to the question. Have we come to the place in our Christian life where we've turned loose of what we are in the old Adam and embraced the fullness of Christ within us?

[6:05] There's the question. Everything we were in the old Adam nailed to the cross with the Lord Jesus, according to Romans chapter 6. But that's the question that we have.

[6:17] Have we let go of everything of the old Adam so we can embrace the fullness of Christ that dwells within us? We acknowledge the truth of it again in our minds, but have we allowed it to penetrate our spirit and thus be expressed through our living?

[6:33] The thing is, we cannot be used of God to the fullest extent he wants to use us until we have learned to do that. All right. Now, in our study throughout the book of Esther, I want to make it clear that the study comes to us as a result of and through a book that has been written by a man called Major W.E.N. Thomas.

[7:03] He was here in Barsville a number of years ago at a Bible conference at First Baptist Church. Went to see that, went to hear that, got to eat lunch with him and bend his ear just a little bit.

[7:18] But he wrote a book called, it's changed titles three times. First of all, The Right Man In, Wrong Man Out, and then Power in the Palace, and then If I Perish, I Perish.

[7:32] So, whichever one of those titles we want to use, you could do that. But nonetheless, he wrote that book and the conference was what was included in his book.

[7:45] So, he paints a picture here in the book of Esther of this battle for control in the life of the believer, that struggle between the fleshly nature and the spirit of God for control.

[7:58] Let me read you, this is just a copy of what's on the fly page of his book, just to introduce him. Now, the things that he writes of in the book, taking us through the book of Esther, which we'll be doing, using his book, are an allegory.

[8:20] All right, now, if you look at the Apostle Paul's writing in Galatians chapter 4, verse 24, where he uses Esau and Jacob as a comparison of law and grace, if you will.

[8:36] He writes in there, in that passage, that which things are an allegory. So, it's an allegory. It's something of, what, human life that's used to picture, if you will, spiritual truth.

[8:52] And so, that's what Ian Thomas does here. So, he's born in London, educated at Bertrand Taylor School and London University. He was converted at the age of 12, and he decided at age 15 to become a missionary doctor.

[9:10] In his book that he wrote, They Found the Secret, the late Dr. V. Raymond Edmond, who was then president of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, wrote at the university, Major Thomas entered into a round of activity, which at the age of 19, had reduced him to a state of complete exhaustion spiritually.

[9:33] Now, catch that just a moment. He started out at age 15 with the idea of becoming a missionary doctor, and did all this work of preparation and all those things, plus just serving God, until at the age of 19, he discovered something.

[9:53] And he was totally physically, emotionally, probably spiritually exhausted. All right? What does that show us? What does that show us?

[10:07] Yeah. Working in the power of the flesh. Good things. Things that he thought would honor God, but not directed by the Spirit of God. That's dangerous.

[10:18] Amen? Look what had happened to him. So, here it was. It was at this point in his life that he discovered the secret. For then the Lord told him, quote, For seven years, with utmost sincerity, you have been trying to live for me.

[10:36] On my behalf, the life that I, for seven years, have been waiting to live through you. See, that's the principle that all of this brought him to, which, of course, led to the writing of the book.

[10:49] Within a few weeks, he left the university to share with others the resurrection life of Jesus Christ in an evangelistic conference and ministry. Recalled to his regiment, he served throughout World War II with the Royal Fusiliers until 1947.

[11:05] Major Thomas, then, whose ministry is now worldwide, founded Capernway Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers and on and on.

[11:17] But you get the picture of where he comes from in writing this book and coming up with the analogy of the spiritual life through the book of Esther. So that's the picture that we find here.

[11:30] Now, so we see the conflict through the book, but we see the remedy for the conflict as well as we go through the study. And I, if you haven't done so yet, I would encourage you to read through the book of Esther so you get a picture of what's taking place there because we're going to be speaking about the characters within that story.

[11:53] Now, one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian experience, again, seems to be the control of the Holy Spirit. We know he wants to control us, but the how-to on our side is the question for us.

[12:09] How do we let that take place? So, most believers, or many believers, I should say, come really short of understanding the work of the Spirit of God within our particular lives and the freedom that comes with our being able to yield to him.

[12:28] So, that's a reality, but that's something we're going to address in this. So, again, our purpose in this study is to enable us to gain greater understanding of the Holy Spirit's work within us and to bring us further in our spiritual development and our ability to totally yield to God.

[12:47] Now, a quick look at the story. How many of you have already read through the book of Esther? How many of you have in the past and remember it? Okay.

[12:58] How many of you have read it in the past and don't remember it? There you go. Okay. All right. Of course, in the book, the people of Israel are subjects of the Persian Empire.

[13:14] The king of the Persian Empire at the time is King Ahasuerus. So, the story unfolds at a royal banquet. The king sets a banquet and he summons his queen, Vashti, to come and present herself at the banquet.

[13:32] Now, all the powers within the kingdom are there. Great, great banquet celebration.

[13:47] Now, he summons his queen, Vashti, to come and present herself so that everybody can see her, kind of as, if you will, his prized possession.

[13:58] All right. That's what he has done here. Now, what does Vashti do? I don't think it's because she's a humble woman.

[14:12] This may be, this may be the beginning of women's lib. I don't know. But nonetheless, she, she has in her mind, I don't want to go out there just to be a display of something he thinks he possesses.

[14:28] Yeah? So, what does she say? I'm not going to do it. Yeah? Yeah. Copious Matthias? Have you experienced that at your house?

[14:41] Careful. You do not need to answer. You do not need to answer that publicly. We already got the answer to it.

[14:52] All right. All right. So, she, she refuses to go. So, she doesn't go. And of course, all of the hierarchies in the kingdom, the advisors to the king and all of those recognize what's happening here.

[15:09] She's disobeyed him. And, if she has disobeyed him, then that brings reproach to the king. And, he cannot do anything but punish her because of that.

[15:26] Or else, he would come into ridicule. So, what is he going to do? I'm guessing he probably paced back and forth in the, in this, in this bedroom and wondering what he's going to do.

[15:41] So, what happens? His advisors come to him. He says, here's what you need to do. Just get rid of her. Now, that doesn't mean just put her to death.

[15:51] No. Just demote her. No longer make her queen. She's no longer queen. Take her crown away from her. And then, make a decree and summon all of the eligible women in the kingdom to come and present themselves before you and from them you choose a queen.

[16:15] Okay? Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn't it, Vern? Yeah. I'm just about determined to get you guys in trouble. Yeah. Yeah. So, he thinks it's a wise thing to do and so he issues the edict throughout the kingdom.

[16:32] All of the women are to come. All the eligible young women to come. Unmarried young women to come. and they come and present themselves to the king.

[16:46] Esther is one of those that comes. She's eligible. She fits the criteria. So, she comes to present herself before the king.

[17:00] And, of course, we know the story that, you know, he sees her and he's just taken back by her. And, just falls head over heel.

[17:11] It's like the preacher said, our preacher that married us when I started going with Calvita, he said, you're just plum twitterpated. That's what you are. You're twitterpated.

[17:22] And so, King Ahasuerus was twitterpated over Esther. All right? And so, she becomes the queen and then things go along.

[17:35] Now, here's the important aspect of the part that Esther plays. King Ahasuerus makes a man by the name of Haman his right-hand man.

[17:48] The thing about Haman, and we'll see the reason for this later, he hates the Jews. Esther is a Jew. He doesn't know that yet. But, her stepfather, the one that has adopted her, or her adopted father, is a Jew.

[18:10] Haman knows him. Haman hates him. And as a result, Haman, he causes King Ahasuerus, he influences King Ahasuerus to write a decree that all the Jews in the kingdom be put to death.

[18:29] All right? Esther hears of that. Mordecai, her adopted father, says, you're the only one that can do anything about this. And so, that's where she plays the part.

[18:42] And of course, she goes into the king, tells what's going on, and wants to stop, and eventually it is stopped. And we'll see more of that in depth as we go along. But that's a, that's a, preview of what the book is, is about.

[18:58] Now, the little drawing, I'll, I'll sign my signature to that if you want me to.

[19:11] All right? But as we look at this, we get a, we need to look at a good picture of the makeup of mankind. Men and women, all of us, human beings.

[19:23] All right? Because all this becomes a matter of influence. Influence, influencing what we are in our makeup.

[19:34] All right? So, mind, body, or excuse me, spirit, soul, and body is what we're acquainted with.

[19:45] The body, of course, regulates the outward actions, the things that we do. We do through the body. The soul, when we look at the word of the, the word soul in scriptures, basically it speaks of the mind, the will, and the emotions.

[20:01] And then, our spirit is that aspect of us that is connected with God. But there's one other thing, and that's what we call the flesh.

[20:12] That's the sin nature that we're born with, or otherwise known as the natural man. That's what we are. All right? Now, the body is going to do, it's going to have its outward activity developed by what influences everything else.

[20:35] and who it's influenced by. All right? It's going to influence our spirit, first of all, our soul, the mind, the will, and the emotion, and the soul as well.

[20:51] And then, that will regulate what we do outwardly. What's expressed from us in our activity and our actions. All right?

[21:02] Now, that's what we're going to be looking at here, so keep that in mind. Now, look at the main players in the story.

[21:13] King Ahasuerus of Persia. He represents the soul of man, the mind, the will, and the emotion. And then, there's the kingdom of Persia, of which Ahasuerus rules, over which Ahasuerus rules.

[21:30] It has 20, 127 provinces. That is representing the human body. So, through the length and breadth of all of the kingdom, all those provinces, the laws that are established in the palace by the king have repercussions on all of the kingdom.

[21:53] So, you get the picture here. All right? What is regulated or influenced to the soul, the mind, will, the emotion, will have its effect upon all the rest of the human body.

[22:08] All right? So, the conduct of the people and the way they behave will be affected by the commands of the king.

[22:19] Now, so we discover that it's within the soul, again, that the body's activities are regulated or determined. Decisions that are made, plans that are conceived, and the will that exercises all of that.

[22:36] You've got to have all three of those, and they work. They work together. The mind, the will, and the emotion. So, all of those bring the body into action. So, the thoughts and intents of the heart, of the heart of man will communicate to the outside world by the things that we do in our bodies.

[23:01] All right? the activities, the things that we say, all of those things. Remember, in Proverbs chapter 23, verse 7, Scripture, speaking of man, simply says, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

[23:18] Okay? With the Jeremiah that said, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. All right. So, and then we have Haman, represents the flesh or the natural man.

[23:35] And then, Mordecai, representing the Holy Spirit. And of course, Esther, representing the human spirit. All right?

[23:48] Now, let's take a look at Haman just a minute. All right? The arch enemy of the covenant people of God. He's the natural man, the flesh.

[24:01] So, the basis now upon what Haman represents as representing the flesh is found in the statement about him in Esther chapter 3 and verse number 1.

[24:14] All right? Anybody got your Bibles open to that? Yeah, read that for me. Yeah. After these events, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite, and advanced him and established his authority over all the princes who were with him.

[24:35] All right? The key there is the phrase, Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite. All right? The Agagite.

[24:46] Speaking of what he is by his birth. Now, if we go to Exodus chapter 17, we get the idea of what all that's about. All right?

[24:57] In Exodus chapter 17, Israel is taking their journey from Egypt to Canaan. All right? On their way there. In verse 8 of chapter 17 of Exodus, we find this phrase, Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

[25:18] All right? Amalek comes and fights Israel. In Numbers 24 20, we find that the Amalekites then are the first and foremost of Israel's enemies.

[25:31] Now, the Amalekites have come to prevent Israel from successfully continuing their journey into the promised land.

[25:42] God's inheritance for them. All right? So, there's no reason given for the hatred. It's got to go back a long ways.

[25:55] All right? But nothing's expressed there. But it's realized when we see from whom they descend. Now, in Genesis chapter 36, verse 12, we see Amalek descended from Esau who was well known for his attitude toward the things of God.

[26:15] All right? You can see that there. Okay. I don't know why I put that up there. But nonetheless, it's there. After these things, Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hamadath the Agagite and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him there.

[26:36] All right? Now, Esau, you know, this goes all the way back to Esau and Jacob. Esau is well known for his attitude toward the things of God.

[26:50] All right? Remember the story about Jacob and Esau. One was a mighty hunter. Esau was. Jacob was a homeboy. Liked to cook. All right? Now, remember what happens here.

[27:06] The day that Esau was out hunting, all right? Evidently hadn't caught anything because he comes back starving to death. Jacob is sitting there stirring a pot of stew, if you will.

[27:22] Esau says to his brother Jacob, give me some of that stew. Literally, give me some of that stew. That right there. That's literally the rendering of it. All right? Lest I die.

[27:32] I'm about to die. Give me some of that. Jacob, the old supplanter, does what? Make you a deal here.

[27:43] If you're so hungry, can't wait to get to the house for dinner, I'll give you some of this pottage if you sell me your birthright.

[27:55] All right? What's the significance of the birthright? Double portion, blessing.

[28:08] Of the firstborn. All right? Of which Esau was. Jacob tried to hinder that. That's why he's called the heel grabber. All right? But that's the picture there.

[28:22] The birthright even goes down to the covenant that God made with the people of Israel. Israel. So, that's where all this fits in.

[28:36] Esau, he was willing. All right? He had no desire to know how the birthright pertained to God's provision for him. He didn't care.

[28:47] He's hungry. All right? So, he had no desire thus for the things of God. That's where all this is coming from with Haman. Now, in Genesis 25, 32, Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die.

[29:04] What profit shall this birthright be to me? Now, when we see that in this case, Esau having no desire for God not caring about birthright or anything about that, what does that show us about Esau?

[29:26] what does that show us about him in his character as it pertains to God? The real crux of the matter is this. If he doesn't care about the things of God, thus not caring about the birthright, is he not saying, God has no right over my life?

[29:48] Yeah. He has no right to my life, anything about it. I'm going to live my life the way I want to live it, and that's sufficient, all right, for him.

[30:01] So that's the picture that you see painted here of Esau, which then again passes down to Haman. Now, Thessaly, there's a natural enmity between Haman and the covenant people of Israel, the Jews.

[30:25] All right? Now, in particular, in particular, Mordecai, that we'll see a little bit later. Now, we've looked at Romans chapter 7 before, and let me just remind you, the picture that we have here.

[30:41] All right? We see Satan's hostility here in that passage, in his enmity to God. God. And we see that at operation within man.

[30:53] Paul again said, remember, having been saved, he said, I find a new principle living within me that prevents me from doing the things I know I want to do and should be doing.

[31:07] And likewise, the things I know I should not be doing, I find myself doing. So, that's that operating principle of sin. The control of Satan to keep us from fulfilling the will of God in our lives.

[31:22] So, that's an operation in us as well. Again, the operating principle, Paul finds, that prevents him from being able to satisfy the will of God.

[31:34] It didn't matter that his own delight was to perform the will of God. The operating principle of sin prevented him from doing that. you remember. It overwhelmed him and would not allow him to do what his heart really wants to do.

[31:51] Now, again, that's where we see Haman in the picture here. In Esther 3.1, after these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamadath, the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.

[32:11] Now, that's a dangerous thing that takes place there. Haman, the natural man, the flesh, now becomes deeply entrenched within the kingdom.

[32:25] I mean, deeply entrenched. He's Ahasuerus' right-hand man. man. What does a king usually do with his right-hand man?

[32:41] Why does he have a right-hand man? Because he's got a left hand, right? Why does a king do that? So he doesn't have to mess with it.

[32:54] Amen? Amen? Yeah. I'm going to set you over the kingdom. The only one that's above you is me. So, as a result, I'm going to give you all the responsibility of the kingdom.

[33:09] Yeah. Yeah. I don't like what you say, I'll change it. Or what you do, I'll change it. So, deeply entrenched within the kingdom is Haman.

[33:21] Who is Haman? He represents the natural man. He represents the flesh. Now, Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 3.

[33:39] You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. See how deeply entrenched the sin nature is? We're dead because of it.

[33:52] In the realm, in the sphere of trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom also we had our conversation or manner of behavior in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, need.

[34:20] And as a result, we were by nature the children of wrath. That's the children of God's wrath even as others. Now, deeply entrenched, the sin nature is within the life of every man, woman, boy, and girl that's ever been born.

[34:44] All right? Controlling every aspect of the mind, the will, and the emotion. Now, from within the palace, Haman had constant unhindered access to the king.

[35:13] In his own subtle way, he colored the king's thinking, stirred the king's emotions with his malicious influence, and molded all of the king's decisions.

[35:27] Now, by royal decree, every aspect of the kingdom was touched by what Haman did.

[35:45] All right? all the 127 provinces that were there. Same control the natural man has within us. Now, the first step in becoming yielded, totally yielded, as an instrument of God, is to recognize and realize the influence and the control the natural man has within us.

[36:08] man has although we're saved and have the spirit of God within us, the natural man is still there. Amen? Always remember, there are some that believe that the sin nature is eradicated the moment we get saved.

[36:25] That's not the case. He's still there. If he wasn't still there, God would not have given us instruction of how to yield to the spirit of God.

[36:35] God, all right? He's still there. And he wants to influence us as much as he can. All right? Now, he desires to control us just as much as the spirit of God does.

[36:52] Galatians 5, 17, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would.

[37:04] All right? Now, here again, same thing that Esau did and thought. If we allow the natural man to control us, then we deny God's rightful place and authority in our lives.

[37:24] You ever thought about that? Yeah. Next time. Next time. Next time. Copious, Matthias.

[37:42] I just love that name. Yeah. Next time we find sin has entered our life, no matter what it is.

[37:55] All right? It could be that quote unquote little white lie, whatever, you know. Still sin, right? Whenever we allow that to happen in our lives, whenever we allow sin into our lives, we need to recognize what that is.

[38:10] It's not just sin. It's not just our failure to yield to the Spirit of God. But it's a failure of ours to let God have rightful possession of our lives.

[38:24] that's what that is. Yeah. Yeah. What did Paul said that we need to remember? You see, we need to remember that you are not your own.

[38:39] You're bought with a price. So, do I have that in it? Yeah, here it is. What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you.

[38:51] In other words, he dwells within us. Which you have of God, and you are not your own. Yeah. You're not your own possession. For you are bought with a price.

[39:05] Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6, 19-20. I just have a thought.

[39:17] Thought crossed my mind. Okay? Somebody said one time when I said that, that's a long journey over desolate territory. But it happens every once in a while.

[39:30] All right? Realize something. What happened between Vashti and King Ahasuerus? He wanted to put her on display.

[39:46] and I'm sure, you know, I'm sure there was an improper motive for that. But he wanted to put her on display as his queen and she refused to come.

[40:01] What happens when God wants to put us on display? In other words, when he wants to use us to reveal his life through us, and we don't let that happen.

[40:20] Is that any different? Especially with the fact that God's motives are pure. And that's what our life is to be.

[40:33] An outward expression of the life of God within us. Yeah. last time I lost her crown. Alright.

[40:48] I don't want to take that analogy too far. Yeah. Yeah. But still, it's kind of the same principle. We need to honor God and let God be in us and to us and through us what he wants to be.

[41:05] I made myself a little note here. God desires for us to know him in all he desires to be in us. There's some things God desires to be within us.

[41:19] Not just to us, but within us. And he wants us to know him in those things. Yeah. You study the life of Abraham.

[41:31] That's what you see. God continually doing things, being things to him, to Abraham. And Abraham thus then coming up with a name for him in that.

[41:45] Describe who he's been to him. That's what God wants to do with us. He wants us to know him. And the way we get to know him more and more is to see what he is within us.

[42:03] So that we can express that God throughout our lives. All right, let's pray. Father, again, thank you for your loving kindness to us today.

[42:13] And Father, I thank you for the privilege of being back together again to look into your word. Father, thank you for what you have put together through Ian Thomas and the study that he has prepared.

[42:27] And now, Lord, I just pray you'll open our hearts and minds to that. Give us the ability, Father, to make it clear to those that come and study and to be able to absorb the things that we need to see and understand so that we can make the application to our lives.

[42:48] So just bless us in that, we pray. Enable us to catch hold of the fact of the sin nature within us and what it's attempting to do, but realizing the power that you provide within us as well.

[43:01] By your spirit. Now again, thank you for the time. Thank you for these precious folks that are here. Ask your blessing upon them the rest of the week and that you bring us back safely next week to see what else you have for us.

[43:12]  And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.