This sermon explores the story of Haman in the book of Esther, focusing on the destructive nature of pride and its consequences. It contrasts Haman’s self-centered life with the humility God desires, highlighting God’s justice and grace.
Transcript
Well, if you would turn with me once again to the book of Esther chapter 7. We’re going to continue to think about this really amazing book, the book of Esther. It’s such a powerful, gripping story in so many ways. And we are stretching it out, so that we can pay attention to some of the little smaller details that we wouldn’t be able to cover if we tried to cover the story in one or two sermons.
So, we want to look at some of these details, think about them. There’s a great deal of powerful truth that God demonstrates for us through this amazing account of Esther. We come this morning to chapter 7. In chapter 7, it is a chapter that is filled with what you call poetic justice. Because, as you know, it ends with Haman, the death of Haman. He dies a death of irony. Back during the Middle Ages, when they had just, they had invented gunpowder, and you were still in medieval warfare. And so, one of the early uses of gunpowder for warfare, they would pack a container full of gunpowder, and they would use it. If they had a castle under siege, you want to be able to get inside the castle, so they would set a little bomb at the door, at the door of the castle, to blow the door off of the castle.
Introduction to Esther and Haman’s Fate
The French word for that is petard. They would set a petard. And you may have heard that expression that Shakespeare made famous, ‘hoist on his own petard,’ ‘hoist by his own petard.’ That’s where the engineer, the problem with the bombs back then is that you didn’t have very reliable fuses. And so, when the engineer would set that bomb, real often, he was lifted by his own explosion. And that’s, that’s the idea, is hoist by his own petard. You might remember Hamlet, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet uses that figuratively to about the plot that Claudius has planned for him and how he hopes to be able to twist that so that it falls against his uncle Claudius instead of himself.
So, that’s, that’s where that comes from, the little phrase. And if you read many commentaries or listen to sermons or read sermons on the book of Esther, it comes up pretty often in this chapter, that little phrase, because that’s exactly what happens to Haman. I mean, yes, exactly, that’s what happens to Haman. Haman is hung on the gallows that he has built for Mordecai.
The Nature of Pride: Haman’s Defining Attribute
Before I read this, I want us to begin thinking about Haman’s life. I want us to start thinking about the kind of life he lived. And if you were going to characterize Haman’s life with a single attribute, what is the overwhelming attribute of Haman’s life? And as I read this, if I had to name one quality that was true of Haman, if you can call that a quality, I would say that his life is characterized mostly by his own pride. He’s a very, very proud man.
And so the consequences are fitting. Proverbs 16:18 says, ‘Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.’ And Luke 14:11, ‘Whoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.’ And so, I think that’s, that’s true of Haman. I came across an interesting description of pride by White. He describes it this way. He says, ‘If pride is the self-centered disposition to determine one’s own reality.’ I hadn’t heard of a definition that described it that way. That, that pretty well nails it.
It’s a self-centered disposition to determine one’s own reality. ‘I’m going to determine what’s real for me,’ is the idea. ‘To be the God of one’s own life, to say in every act and word, ‘My will be done.’ Then humility cannot merely be the ability to forget oneself, that is, to be self-uncentered, or even less the ability to be self-pitying, which is really just pride in reverse. Rather, humility is the ability to find one’s center in the God whose overwhelming loveliness and glory are able to dethrone us from the usurped lordship of our own darkened hearts. Humility is spiritual sanity. And its constant refrain is, ‘God is God, and I am not.’
That’s a powerful and beautiful statement. And in fact, that’s the sermon today. So I hope you take that home with you. It is what you see when we’re looking at Haman is exactly the opposite. Haman’s characterized by the world that he has built for himself. He’s attempting to build the world for himself. And when he looks at all the things around him, he’s often deluded because he’s interpreting reality to suit his own ends. And as you, as we work through this, there’s, there’s been lots of examples of it.
Haman’s Selfishness and Harshness
He is very concerned about other people and how they are to behave according to his will. And so when Mordecai, when Mordecai fails to bow down to him, then he, he focuses, really becomes completely focused, obsessed with Mordecai. It ruins his, he ruins his life. He’s harsh with people. Because Mordecai didn’t bow down to him, he wants to put Mordecai to death. And not just put Mordecai to death, but he wants to kill all of the Jews, wipe out the entire Jewish people. That’s pretty harsh.
These are characteristics of pride. A proud person is often finding fault with other people. They don’t look at themselves very much, but they look around. I’m, I’m, I get kind of concerned when I’m listening to various people in ministries and they focus all the time on other people’s, other, other groups and other people’s things that didn’t measure up in their expectation and the way they see things. They focus so much on them that I wonder if they are doing any self-reflection. You see, one of the marks of pride is that you’re always finding fault with other people. Think about the Pharisees.
And so here, you have Haman focusing on people who don’t measure up to his standard and just the extreme harshness of his, of his behavior. Just like the Pharisees in the New Testament, focusing on the sins of the disciples and failing to wash their hands before they ate their, the corn that, the grain that they had picked. Or, or the consequences that they planned for them when, when they didn’t comply with the standards that they had set for them. So that, that’s a, that’s a mark of pride. It focuses on things that are often superficial.
And certainly, Haman focused on things that were, was very superficial. His, his great concerns is how he’s perceived. It’s like the Pharisees who do all their works to be seen of men. They, they work on sinful behavior if it’s visible to people. They don’t think about, they don’t concern themselves overly with private sins, their sins before the Lord. They’re, they’re very concerned about the sins that other people can see. That’s the Pharisees. And here, just looking at the superficial things, the surface things, the things that are on the outside, Haman’s, all of his concerns has to do with things that are very superficial and shallow.
The things that upsets him the most is how he’s perceived and whether or not Mordecai is bends to his will to worship him. So you have all of these behaviors that are characteristic of, has been so far as we’ve looked into this so far. And so these things are, are continuing to, to, to, to be concerned, to, to be the concern here. And, and you can see it even in the way he treats all people. Everybody in, for Haman is a tool or a person to be used for his own power or, or pleasure.
So everything is turned toward himself in that kind of a way. So you have, you have him, for example, he’s, he is, he’s basically the, uh, Secretary of State for Xerxes. He’s, he’s, he’s right at the head of power for Xerxes. And he’s not making decisions for the good of the nation of Persia. And he’s not making decisions for the good of Xerxes. He’s making decisions for his own pleasure and will, which is a mark of, of, of, of great pride. And he’s, he’s just overwhelming pride.
And so he manipulates Xerxes into signing a decree to kill all the Jews in Esther 3. So he values people as a means to his own power. And that’s pretty clear. This is the kind of character that, that Haman is. He is the kind of person who is his own God. He’s, he, he’s doing things because his world is the true world. The way he perceives it is the reality. And that’s the way he goes about the world.
So as we explore this, as we continue to think about it, you see the terrible end of Haman in chapter 7. And as we, as we see that, we can see how serious God takes the sin of pride. And how serious he takes someone who pursues such selfish evil. The consequences that, that Haman suffers is a warning to us, to, to, so that we know how sinful this truly is.
You know, the, I guess probably the best thing to do here is to just go ahead and, and read the, read the chapter. So let’s do that and then I’ll pray. This is God’s holy, inerrant word. Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen. And the king said to Esther on the second day, also as they drank their wine at the banquet, ‘What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even half the kingdom, it shall be done.’
Then Queen Esther replied, ‘If I found favor in your sight, O king, and it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request. For we’ve been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the trouble would not have been commensurate with the annoyance to the king.’ Then King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is he? And where is he who would presume to do thus?’
Esther said, ‘A foe and an enemy, this wicked Haman.’ Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen. The king arose in his anger from drinking wine and went into the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king. Now when the king returned from the palace garden into the place where they were drinking wine, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, ‘Will he even assault the queen with me in the house?’
As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who was before the king, said, ‘Behold, indeed, the gallows standing at Haman’s house, 50 cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on behalf of the king.’ And the king said, ‘Hang him on it.’ So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai. And the king’s anger subsided.
Let’s ask God to bless his word.
Father, as we consider this chapter again this morning, we, we thank you, Father, for your word. We ask, Lord, that you help us this morning as we consider the truths that you have here for us. Just as we focus just on the details of this chapter, help us, Father, to understand it, to, to take warning where necessary from it. And Father, to put our confidence in you, that we might live humbly and with wisdom, and not as Haman lived. And yet, Father, we know that there’s a bit of Haman in each of us. So we ask, Lord, that you confront us with our own sinfulness. And Father, help us to live in dependence on you. Help us with this we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Esther’s Revelation and Xerxes’ Fury
Well, the chapter begins with Esther as she answers the king’s request finally. I didn’t read the little introduction to this, to this chapter in verse 14. When you remember last week, this, the chapter ended with, with Haman talking with Zeresh, his wife, and his friends. And they, he, he was commiserating his miserable day so far. How he had intended to hang Haman as he had planned, but it turned upside down and he ended up parading Haman through the streets.
The very thing that he wished was happening, he was, I do that from time to time. By the way, I’m not the only preacher that does that. Haman and Mordecai are easy to get mixed up for some reason when you’re talking. I don’t know why that is. But, yeah, Haman is upset because he wanted to parade himself through the streets, but ended up parading Mordecai, dressing Mordecai in the king’s robes. And so that Mordecai is celebrated. And then he retreats to his wife Zeresh and his friends. And they are disturbed by what has happened.
And they give him a warning. They say, ‘If this, if, if Mordecai is of Jewish seed, then this might not go well for you, Haman.’ And so they’re, they’re having this conversation about what might take place. And, and while they’re, while they’re having the conversation, the king’s eunuchs arrive and they hastily brought Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared. So one of the things that just interests me because I, I kind of wondered before, how is it that, that this, this fellow, this, this eunuch at the end of this chapter, Harbonah, how does Harbonah know that about that gallows that has been built?
Well, he’s probably one of the eunuchs that went to pick up Haman to bring him to this banquet. So he’s, he goes to their house, the, the, the thing is evident, he’s heard the story. So he knows all of this has taken place. And so Haman has had a very miserable day. But it’s going to get better. The day before he had had this wonderful banquet with Esther and with, with, with King Xerxes. He was celebrated. He was so happy about that celebration. And now I’m sure he’s confident that if the rest, the day hasn’t gone so well so far, but now I get to go to this wonderful banquet just like I did yesterday.
With, with Xerxes, at, at Queen Esther’s invitation, and I’m the only one who gets to attend this beautiful banquet with, with the queen and with the king. So what a great honor, what a great privilege this is for me, Haman, he’s thinking. And so they, he gets there and the king asks Esther, as they’re drinking their wine at the banquet, ‘What’s your petition, Queen Esther? It’ll be granted you. What is your request? Even half the kingdom, it shall be done.’ Well, the day before, she didn’t, she didn’t, she didn’t answer the question. She postponed till today.
But the time is right now. And so here Esther tells the whole story. She tells who she is. She is Jewish. And she makes her request. ‘What is my request?’ She says, ‘If I found favor in your sight, O king, if it pleases the king, let my life be given to me as my petition, and, and my people as my request.’ So it’s full disclosure. She blows the whistle. Is, is basically what happens. And she, she lets the whole thing, the whole story come out. And it’s shocking. It’s shocking.
To, to the, to King Xerxes. You wouldn’t think he would be shocked by this. You would think that he would be, he would know enough about what’s going on in the kingdom that, that, that he would know this. But he doesn’t know it. He doesn’t know who Mordecai is, that Mordecai is among the people. The person that he’s just celebrated that very morning. And, and called attention to. He doesn’t, he hasn’t realized that that’s the very people that he has signed over to have exterminated. And so that’s yet to take place, the extermination of all the Jewish people.
And one of the things that’s interesting, that I find intriguing in the book of Esther is how the suspense continues in through the book. Even as Haman is hanged, there’s still a lot of suspense left. And that’s because Haman has planted these two bombs. The first bomb is a nuclear bomb. And the fuse is pretty fixed, and you can’t change it. And, when you’re, when you’re reading a, a good story, a story that carries some suspense to it, they usually use one of two devices in the story to keep your suspense.
And one is, you’ve got this terrible problem and there’s only so many things that you can do to, to resolve it. So how do you resolve it? And it’s, they have all these different options and you try this and that doesn’t work, and you try the next one and that doesn’t work, and maybe this one will work. The other one is when you have, when time is running out. And so in this one, you have, really both of these kinds of things going on, but, but the time thing is fixed. And there doesn’t seem to be an answer to it. And so the time is getting shorter and shorter. Months, a couple of months have gone by.
And sooner or later, you’re going to, well, eventually you’re going to come to the end of the calendar of that year, and the day will come that has been signed into law by the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked. And all the people, all the Jewish people will be put to death. And there doesn’t seem to be an answer to it. The only possibility is maybe, maybe Xerxes can help in some way. And so she tells, she tells Xerxes, the king, what has taken place, that she is among the people who is condemned to die.
And Mordecai is among the people that’s condemned to die. And all of these people are going to be put to death by the king’s own order. And it’s signed into irrevocable law. And Xerxes is, is furious. He, he doesn’t get it immediately. He says, ‘Who is responsible for this? Who did this? Who would dare do such a thing?’ And she says, ‘A foe and an enemy, this wicked Haman.’ And Xerxes is furious. He’s absolutely, he’s, he’s absolutely furious.
And so he gets up and he goes out into the garden and begins pacing in the garden. He has a problem. He’s got lots of problems. He just discovered that his wife is going to be put to death by his own order. He’s got all these problems. So he’s got to sort through it. It’s a complicated political problem. It seems really interesting when you think about Esther and how she’s approached this thing. She is a very wise lady. She’s a very shrewd woman.
Because the overt way of doing it, if she just come out to do this straight out, she would have simply said, ‘You know, you’ve signed, you sealed this order. Can you do anything about this, this seal that you have sealed with your own signet ring?’ That probably wouldn’t have gone well with Xerxes, calling attention to his own responsibility. But no doubt Xerxes knows his own responsibility. That’s probably one of the reasons he’s out pacing in the garden. ‘How am I going to deal with this? I’m going to, I’m going to put Haman to death.’
He, just the look that he gave Haman on the way out made it clear to Haman that he was going to be put to death. That’s why the rest of this unfolds the way it does. He, but, ‘How am I going to do that? I’m going to put Haman to death because he, because he, uh, has, had this order for all of the Jewish people to be put to death, which I approved and sealed with my own signet ring.’ So that’s, that doesn’t go very well. That probably isn’t going to fit too well. And so he’s out there thinking about, ‘How is this going to come about?’
And while he’s out there, Haman is desperate. He knows that his end is imminent. And he’s only, he, he begins to feel that maybe, maybe he can, he’ll be able to, sorry. I get distracted occasionally too. When you see an escapee, sometimes it’s, I’m sorry. But anyway, Haman wants to appeal to Queen Esther because he thinks maybe she’ll show him some, some mercy. He’s not repentant. He just, he’s just doing what he can to maybe survive this.
And, you know, part of the, the rules of the Medes and, of the Persian court is that you didn’t get too close to the queen. And yet, he’s desperate. And so he’s falling on her couch. He must be very close to her when Xerxes comes in. And, I don’t know, every time I’ve read this and Xerxes thinks, ‘Will he attack the queen?’ ‘Even in my presence?’ And you think, ‘Well, could he really be seeing that that way?’ Well, maybe not. Maybe not. But here’s a good, good reason.
There she is, close proximity with, with Esther. And, uh, Haman is so close to Esther and he can, he can read it that way. And when he says that, they cover his face. Second time that day Haman’s face is covered. First it was covered with shame. And now it’s covered with a cloth. And Harbonah says, ‘He built the gallows for Mordecai, the man who spoke up for the king.’ And Xerxes says, ‘Hang him on it.’ So, as this, as this unfolds, Haman’s executed on the gallows that he himself built.
Who digs a pit? Proverbs 26:27, ‘The one that digs the pit shall fall into it.’
Well, here you have justice working its way out perfectly. And yet you have so many things that, to deal with as we wrap up this little part of the section. The story hasn’t resolved. The first, that, that second bomb that Mordecai set to put, I mean, that Haman set to put Mordecai to death, I’m going to get to Mordecai, so it comes up a little too soon sometimes.
The second bomb that Haman set to put Mordecai to death, well, that ended quickly with Haman’s own death. But that first bomb’s still out there, and it’s going to take place. And it’s not something that can just simply be undone. And so that’s still hanging over, and, and, uh, so Esther and Mordecai and all the Jewish people still are not safe, even though the villain who’s brought this about has come to an end. So the chapter ends with, uh, the king’s anger subsiding, but it doesn’t say a lot about Mordecai and, and Esther’s anxiety subsiding because that, that hasn’t been resolved at this point.
God’s Justice and Grace: A Warning Against Pride
When you look at Haman, when, when we read a chapter like this, because the justice is so poetic, because it seems so fitting, it’s easy to read a chapter like this when you’re dealing with somebody who is as wicked as Haman is and take delight in this ending. I, I know I have. I have, I have done that. But I, I kind of became convicted about it this week because I stumbled on a different passage in the book of Jeremiah where God is pronouncing judgment on, not on the Ammonites, but, but on the Moabites, the other, the sister, the sister group of the Ammonites.
Haman was from the line of the Ammonites. But there was another group of Jew-hating people called the Moabites. And they were related. They came from, from Lot’s family, both of them, actually. And so, God pronounces a terrible judgment on the Moabites. And as you’re reading that, you get a sense of God’s intense anger against the Moabites. And the judgment that God has pronounced on them, which he carries out.
And so I’m thinking about that, here’s God’s anger, which fits in with this. God is angry. But then I noticed something, and came across something quite interesting, and that is, as Jeremiah is writing this section of God’s judgment on the Moabites, he’s writing it in a poetic form. And that poetic form is in the form of a dirge. Just like the book of Lamentations is a dirge. In other words, God is expressing overwhelming grief at what he’s about to do.
He grieves. It’s right. He must do it. He’s carrying out judgment against, against, against Haman. He’s carrying out judgment against the Moabites, against the Ammonites. And yet, God doesn’t enter into that with great joy. Not at all. He does that because it’s necessary, but he does it with a heart that grieves. Judgment on sinful, wicked people. God grieves over that. He does it. He must do it because it’s the only right thing to do. But he doesn’t take any delight. No joy. He’s not laughing when Haman gets hung.
I might have said that he did last week, but only in that, only in that most bitter sense that Psalm 2 says. He’s sad about this. He’s got to be sad about it. Because that’s the nature of a loving heart of God for his creation. And yet God does this. He brings it about. He brings about the judgment on Haman. The terrible judgment. Haman’s judgment doesn’t end on the gallows. Haman is still experiencing the judgment of God, and he will forever. It’s a terrible thing to think about that. It’s enough to, to cause any of us to have a tear for Haman. I think so.
And yet, all of us recognize that this displays powerfully the righteousness of God, the goodness of God. Haman does what he did of his own volition, for his own self, out of the pure wickedness of his own heart. And God judges him for it rightly. But God is not happy about having to do that. He takes, sorry, he, he’s not happy when he, when he with the death of anyone. And so you have that truth about the heart of God as we read this, we should be reflecting partly on that as well.
And, and yet, thinking about Haman, I recognize that God has worked good through Haman’s life. God has used Haman in such a way to accomplish something important among the people of God, for the good of God’s people. And you think, ‘Well, what would that be? How could God have done any good work through Haman?’ Do you know what he did? Because of Haman’s attacking the Jewish people the way that he has, the people of God have humbled themselves throughout the entire, throughout all of Persia. The people of God have humbled themselves. They’re in sackcloth and ashes. They’re praying to God. They see their dependence completely upon God.
That’s exactly the opposite place we started, thinking about Haman. Haman is his own God. Haman sees the world the way he wants it to be, and he’s going to make it the way he wants it to be. He’s, he’s, he’s a self-made man. He does things his way. But the Jewish people, recognizing that they’re helpless, they’re helpless, and they’re dependent on God, and it calls their attention to that reality, which is always true. And so they repent in sackcloth and ashes, and they’re looking to God. They’re looking to the Lord. And that’s a good thing. That’s a wonderful thing. God is working grace through all of the Jewish people.
As he, uh, brings this repentance in, on Israel’s part about, about. And that’s ultimately celebrated through the festival that they established at the end of this book, which, by the way, was last Thursday. Purim was last Thursday. So, you have this. The warning, though, is, ‘How are we living?’ God, uh, gives us many, many warnings through Scripture about pride. I’ve read a few of those. But he also offers great promises to people who humble themselves before the Lord.
He gives grace to those who humble themselves. That’s what James 4:6 says, ‘But he gives grace. Wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.’ God gives grace to humble people. The Apostle Peter says exactly the same thing. He says, ‘Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.’ You want to experience the grace of God? Proud people don’t receive the grace of God. You can’t come to the Lord in true faith in pride.
When, when Jesus talks, gives the, the, the Beatitudes, and he’s explaining the Beatitudes, you come to God in poverty of spirit. That’s how we approach him. We see ourselves as spiritually destitute before God. And we grieve over our sinfulness. We mourn over our sins. ‘Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted.’ We come to God in humility. If we are coming to God expecting him to save us because we’re saying the right words, we’re not coming to God in faith.
We come to God recognizing that we are sinful people who deserve the judgment that Haman has received. We are sinful people who deserve the kind of judgment that Haman has received. Do you know why? Because we are like Haman in, in the deepest ways. If Haman’s sin, overwhelming sin is pride, and, and if that means that he sees himself as his own God, ‘My will be done,’ do you know we have done that? Anytime that you sin, in that moment of your sin, you are saying, ‘My will be done.’ That’s what you’re saying.
You’re saying, ‘I am, I want this my way. I’m going to do this my way.’ And you’re either taking no thought at all of God in that moment, or you’re doing something that’s, you know, is defiant of God. And it’s no different. That’s an act of pride that’s like Satan himself. You are in that moment doing what Satan tempted Adam and Eve to do when he said, ‘You will not surely die. He knows that you’ll be like him.’ And so here’s the way we can do what we want. We can act the way we want to. We can be our own gods.
When we live that way, that’s what sin is. That’s what sin is. And that’s why sin is so horrible. When you think about Haman in, in this passage, and you see Haman’s bitter end, and you see that that is a warning against pride, it’s a warning against sin. Because when we sin, we are acting, it’s a, it’s a personal act of our own personal pride. And we’re living in that moment as our own God and defiant with God.
And we need to remember those verses. ‘The fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom, and honor comes before humility.’ If you’re going to be honored by God, you need to be humble before the Lord. But before destruction, the heart of a man’s haughty. We need to remember that before destruction, we have that haughty heart. Sin is terrible. And if God has saved you and you’re a child of God, we need to war against sin in our life. Because sin may not, it may put you to physical death.
But it will certainly create spiritual deadness in your life. You won’t be able to serve the Lord freely if you’re actively pursuing some sin. And it will destroy your assurance if you persist in it. How will you even know if you are a child of God, if you are living a life that you know is at war with God? How will you know that you belong to him if you’re continually caught up in, in that sinful behavior? No, you have to, you have to, it’s when we abide in Christ.
When, when we see the blessings of the Spirit of God in our life, that’s when the fruits of the Spirit multiply in our life. In those times, in those moments, we can see the hand of God in our life, and we have great assurance, great, great assurance. Let me, uh, let me just end here because I didn’t get to the conclusion. I got distracted, I suppose. But I think this is a good place to stop. So let’s do that. Let me pray for us.
Father, when we consider the life of Haman, it’s so easy for us to treat him like a character in a story, not recognize that he’s a real person who exists to this day in hell, whose judgments that took place in this world are nothing compared to the judgment that he faces forever. And Father, help us when we think about ourselves to recognize those moments of foolish pride. When we’re caught up in our own selves to the place where we ignore your word, ignore you, live apart from you for that moment. Help us, Father, to, to, to recognize the horror and, and the terrible consequences of sin. And Father, we pray by the power of your Holy Spirit, because we don’t have any apart from your Spirit, that you would strengthen us, enable us to live faithful to your word. And Father, that we would take joy and, and great thanksgiving in all the good things that you bless us with. We know, Father, that as we give thanks to you, in that moment, we’re not proud. We’re grateful. So, Father, let us live lives of gratitude and service, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.