The Story of Esther | Ep. 1

Well, Chip, I guess this is our first episode.

Good to see you, my friend.

Um, I was wondering if we could maybe recreate the story of Esther you told me. It was a while ago, but I thought maybe you could talk about what you see as the main themes of that story, like what she was showing us in her actions and what Mordecai does. And then kind of like more of those life lessons you do such a great job of pulling from a lot of these old biblical stories.

Ones that I was dumb enough I had to learn the hard way myself, you mean?

Oh, we're all there.

Well, I am, that's for sure. As you know, there are, there are a lot of themes and subtopics that, you know, you could go through in the Book of Esther or most any other book of the Bible, but it's, it's always held a special place for me along with the story of Joseph back in Genesis, and the story of Daniel, the story of Nehemiah, and the story of Jonah. Now, I love David and all that kind of stuff, but that's been done to death.

Yeah.

The reason I like some of these others is because they show what happens when— and I made a post about this on LinkedIn um, yesterday, I think, in prep for this, I was reading through Esther again, and one of the things about Mordecai that came out— people forget that a lot of God's giants— and we see the stories, all right, and we're like, yeah, that's, that's what a giant of God does. They beat up on the enemy and they, they defeat the, uh, the bad guys. Yeah, but sometimes they do it while they're in places they would never have gone on their own, and they're in circumstances that they never would have signed up for on their own, and they're under conditions that nobody would want to be under. I.e., Joseph, I mean, he was his dad's favorite son of all 12— well, 13. And yet he was ostracized by his older brothers. That wasn't fun. Then they throw him in a cistern. They want to kill him. One of them finally has the sense to say, no, we're not going to do that. And they said, hey, let's make a little money off of him. So they sold him to the Midianites, and then the Midianites sold him to Potiphar, and then he did the right thing with Potiphar, and then he wound up, you know, that, that whole story. But preachers go on about, you know, the faith and the courage and the godliness of whether Joseph, Daniel, whoever, and the audience sits there a lot of times and they forget, because I know what they're thinking. I've been in an audience. I've been one of them. And they think, boy, I wish I had that faith. Boy, I wish I could do those great things. Boy, I wish God would use me like that. All right, go find yourself an empty well and throw yourself in it and hope the Midianites pull you out and sell you to somebody. What? Yeah, that's where it starts. Or Daniel. To me, Daniel is one of the most extraordinary human beings that has ever lived. More than Abraham, more than Moses. Daniel is told by heavenly beings themselves, Daniel, you are highly esteemed. And what they were saying was, in the eternal realm, in heaven, by God and all his angels, you, Daniel, are talked about thought very well of. You are highly esteemed. I'm like, sign me up, coach. Okay, then be a Jewish royal, which is what he was. He was either royalty or of the nobility, which is just one step underneath the royalty. When Nebuchadnezzar came in and killed most of them and took some of the best of them, and historians outside of the Bible let you know what happened. The Babylonians had a way of doing things. They wanted you broken. I guess the Marines learned from them, because it didn't matter who you were, male or female, whatever, they stripped you naked, they tied you with heavy rope and gave you just enough rope to the next person that you could walk, but you couldn't run anywhere, you couldn't get away. And they marched you 900 miles from Jerusalem to Babylon. 900 miles. What'd you do when you had to go to the bathroom? Yeah, what did you do? What did the ladies do? Yeah, what did they do? So that's how Daniel got his start of being highly esteemed by God. He winds up not serving God in Jerusalem at the temple but serving God as he's been told. You are going to serve the man that killed almost everybody in your country, stripped you and a bunch of other people naked, and marched you 900 miles, and you're going to do it with all your heart. So here, learn Babylonian. Here, learn our music. Here, learn our literature. Here, learn our language. And watch your manners. But Daniel resolved in himself, the Bible says, that he would not defile himself with the king's food or wine. Was there anything wrong with the king's food or wine? No. But according to Jewish law at that time, there were things he was being fed which were very rich, very good. I'd sign up for it. But he couldn't do it in all good conscience, and he wasn't going to do it. All right, so anyway, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah.

So what about Esther? Well, Esther and Mordecai are about 100 years after Nebuchadnezzar first moved into Jerusalem and rearranged the whole thing, and they're still in a foreign country. Now, several people had gone back after 70 years in Babylon, and they had gone back to Israel, Jerusalem, which was laid waste. I mean, it's like Beirut, just— it was annihilated. And bit by bit they rebuilt, bit by bit they tried to get their country back in order. But the people that had been moved in by Nebuchadnezzar and the others, the outlayers if you will, the outsiders didn't want them to be there, didn't want them to succeed, and they were always poking at them. You're not supposed to be here. The king's not going to like when I tell him what you're trying to do. Well, the king's the one who sent us here. That kind of stuff. But a lot of people, you find out, stayed up there. Now, Susa— did you know this? Babylon's over here. Susa's over here, about 200 miles away, but still up in Persia, okay, modern-day Iran, okay, that area. Why did they stay? I don't know. One of the things that happens to human beings, and it's in God's will, is, all right, you guys can all go back. Oh, I'm a Jew, I'm going back. I'm a Texan, I'm going back. I'm a— I'm from— I can't imagine anybody from— I'm going to keep my mouth shut on that. I can't imagine anybody from Michigan that finally gets out of Michigan wanting to go back to Michigan. But anyway, some of them do. It's too cold. Good people, but too cold. But there are others that they're— wait a minute, we've been here 2 generations, 3 generations, 4 generations, whatever. We've got a nice little business going. We've got good neighbors. Yeah, they're not Texans, they're not Jews, they're not Michiganders, but they're good people. We get along with them. We've got a life here. I'm not uprooting us to go back to my homeland that I've never seen because I wasn't born there. Well, you're not a good Texan. You're not a good Michigander. You're not a good Jew. And God says— in the New Testament, it's put this way: who are you to judge another man's servant? It is to his own master that he will stand or fall, and he will stand because God is able to make him stand. In other words, you mind your own business. It's always been that way. So for whatever reason Mordecai's parents and Esther's parents had stayed there. And like I said, this is about 100 years after the initial thing. So after the 70 years, we're talking, ah, 25 to 35 years after the, the remnant went back from Babylon after the 70 years. Okay, and you know the ones that went back after the 70 years? You had Ezra and you had Zerubbabel and, and all that stuff. All right, so Esther's parents die in a foreign country. Wait a minute, this is sounding like something else. The story of Ruth, where Naomi and her husband went to Moab because of the famine down in Israel, and, you know, their two sons met pretty little Moabite women and they got married. And then her husband died, and then both her sons died, and they went back to Jerusalem, actually to Bethlehem. But for whatever reason, these people did not, but they died in this country. And then Mordecai's parents died. Now, Mordecai was a lot older than Esther because it says he took her on like she was his own daughter. But thank God that he was there for her. There are two phenomenal people in this. Esther's not the most phenomenal, and that's going to blow dry some people's hair, but that's just the truth of it. Mordecai is the real unbelievable genius in this whole thing. Esther is a good girl. Esther is following the, the Moors' norms and, um, terms of action of that period in history? Well, she, you know, she went into, you know, be with a, uh, I, uh, what am I trying to say, a Gentile king. No, she was picked to go be with a king. That's how they looked at it, period. All right, that's where I live. The king wants to see me, I'm gonna go see him. Well, if she was a good girl, she'd have told him no. Vashti tried that. You know how that worked for her. It was the norms of the time that that's just the way that it worked. So you can argue with it. You can say that ain't fair, it ain't right, it's not kosher. You can do whatever you want. But women wore noses, nose rings and that kind of stuff. I don't really get into that these days, but it was a norm back then. Men did this. I wouldn't do some of the things they did, but it was the norm back then. But when Vashti did what she did— oh, by the way, you do realize that Esther is the only book in the Bible that the word God, the name God, or any derivative thereof never appears? Did you know that?

I only learned that from you last time we chatted, so—

oh no, see, you need to act like you're an experienced— oh yeah, I knew that, Chip. Yeah, I knew that already. I handed you an easy one, kid. Look what you did with it. You do a good job. So how did it wind up in the Bible, Tom? It's the only book in the Bible where the name God, the reference to Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai, none of it ever appears. How did it wind up in the Bible?

Because it was speaking God's actions through people, so they didn't to say his name.

You smarter than most preachers, kid. That's exactly it. When his footprints and fingerprints are so distinct and they're all over it, you don't need to have the word Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai, you know, Elohim, blah blah blah, plastered around it. How is it the Bible puts it in another place? What do you— the firmament declares the handiwork of God.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So without saying his name, you can see his personality all over, and Esther is full of it. Number one, when the Bible— hold on. Do you hear my old clock?

Yeah, nice clock.

Yeah, that, that clock is right, right there somewhere. My mother learned to tell time on that clock. I learned to tell time on that clock. I like that clock. It's 100 and almost 50 years old. 1876. 1876 is when it was, uh Bill, um, I'm an old fart. God is sovereign over all things. Now we read those verses and we say that to each other. Well, your will be done, God. We don't really want his will to be done because we're scared of what that will is. At least I am. Am I? I'll just hold my hand up. You know, thy will be done. But don't forget what I wanted you to do. Yeah, I'm just being honest. That's the way I pray. I'm working on not doing that. His will is always right. His will is always grand. His will is always the most powerful, the most profitable there is. But his will includes sometimes Wells, Midianite traders, whips, prison. Anyway, God is sovereign in the lives of these people. Now keep in mind, that's why I talked about earlier, a lot of people 30, 35 years before this had already left Babylon. They couldn't wait to get out. You're foreigners. We shouldn't have ever been brought here. Blah, blah, blah, blah. We're going home. Okay. God's back here in Israel. God's watching over the people in Jerusalem. He's watching over the worshipers at the temple. Yes, he was. Guess where else he was, Tom? 985 miles away in Susa, watching over the people that had stayed there. Well, that was because they were Jews. What? Hold on a minute. Do I need to read the Book of Jonah to you? Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because the Ninevites were nasty Gentiles, and they were nasty Gentiles that had done horrific things to some of the Jews historically. And yet God, when he tells Jonah to go preach to them so that they have a chance to repent, which they wind up doing, and Jonah gets mad because he said, I knew that's what would happen. And God says, do you have a right to be mad? I do. I'm so mad I wish I was dead. And instead of granting his request— thank God— God tries to explain to him again, you were all concerned about this plant that I made grow up overnight so that you would have some shade, and then I took it away overnight even though you didn't plant it, you didn't water it, you had nothing to do with it. You're worried about that? Why shouldn't I be worried about them? Listen, over 120,000 souls and many animals. How did God know how many people were in Nineveh and that they had a lot of animals, Tom?

Because he's God.

Okay, that's a cheap answer. Come on now. Come on.

Um, not sure what you're looking for.

Because he's mindful of every human being he's created, whether they're black, white, brown, yellow, green, whether they live in Michigan, Texas, or South Arkansas. God cares about people. And so he cared about the ones that were left back in Babylon. So all of this culminates— Vashti does the right thing. Now, you'll have preachers get off on bizarre little sidetracks. Well, what the king wanted was her to come out naked. Where the heck did you get that, you dirty-minded Baptist? What is wrong with you? Yeah, or Church of Christ, or whatever. That's not it. What it was is she had enough character and integrity that when the king was drunk and everybody else in that room was drunk, he goes, you ought to see my wife, boy, I tell you what, but she's wearing that crown, she looks every bit the queen she is. Hey, go tell my wife, put that crown on, come on in here and show the boys what I'm talking about. And she says, I ain't coming into a bunch of dadgum drunks. And walk around so you can go, well, you're right, that's one good-looking queen right there. And so she said no. She did the right thing. And she spent the rest of her life basically alone because he let her live and he took care of her, but she was never with another man. All she had was other women to talk to. And, and eunuchs and was never allowed to be queen again. Well, that's not fair. Life ain't fair. So that happens. Esther gets picked out of all the pretty little girls, virgins that they've got, and she was probably somewhere between 19 and 25. You know, she gets picked at the same time, and you think, well, okay, she gets picked, so God's fixing to bless his people. It's not exactly how it worked out, because she gets picked, she's queen about 5 years. All right, for whatever reason, Mordecai told her right from the beginning Don't tell anybody about your family or your people. In other words, your lineage, that you're a Jew. Why? I don't know. To this day, I don't know why he did that. It sure wasn't because he was ashamed of it, but he just told her, don't tell anybody. And she was a good girl and she acted just like he was her father right on through. Whatever he said, she did. So she didn't tell anybody. Of course, she was just good looking. Bible said she had a beautiful figure. And was beautiful to look at. So I don't think the king was too worried about doing a background check, just to be honest with you. So she's queen for about 5 years. In that 5 years, Mordecai goes back and forth every day to the gates of the, uh, castle— not castle, but, you know, whatever, the king's place. Palace to check and see on what's going on with her. One day while he's there, in the early days, he overhears these two guards. Did you hear what the king did? Yeah, he's such an idiot. I can't stand that sucker. I can't either. I think— you know what I think? I think we ought to kill him. I think that's a good idea. I mean, we're big bad tough guys with hairy chests and we're guards. I think we ought to kill him. Mordecai overhears it. Doesn't work for the king, keep that in mind. Doesn't work for him, and he is a Gentile. He's a foreigner to them, to Mordecai. But he tells Esther. Esther tells the queen, or tells the king, gives Mordecai the credit. They do a little bit of research, they do an investigation like Pam Bondi and, and, uh, Kash Patel, and they find out, you know what, it's a true story, you two did say all that, and they skewer them just like Korean beef sticks, and that's the end of it. Now it is written down in the annals of the king, but that's the end of it. Mordecai goes on with his life. Esther goes on with being queen. 5 years goes by. During that period of time, this piece of garbage called Haman somehow worms his way into the king's— in his face and in his good graces. And he's just slimy and smooth and rich enough that the king makes him number 2 in the entire kingdom. Well, Haman is all about the Benjamins, and he's all about the title. So instantly he makes this thing where anytime I come down the road, everybody has to bow and pay homage to me. Well, you know how that flies with a true follower of God. I'll do the job, I'll give you 100%, I'll be polite, I'll be respectful. But I'm not bowing to you. I don't care who you are. I bow to God and God only. Daniel did that. Now, Daniel would, you know, bow down and say, 'O King, live forever.' That was a matter of standard practice and everything else. But when it came to worshiping, that's different. Remember the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar set up out in the plain? Yeah, Shadrach in the bed to go, no, not bowing down. You bow down to me every day when you come in front of me. That's different. That's like shaking hands. That's like saying yes, sir. That's like saluting, right? When you got in front of the king, you bowed down until he acknowledged you. Then you came up and you said, okay, what can I do for you, King? What do you need? But to bow down when it says worship this Nope, not doing it. And so Mordecai, as Haman would come down and— here comes the great Haman, piece of garbage— and everybody else bowed and, oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, Mordecai just stood there and looked at him. I mean, he's like, he's like a, a non-rambunctious Trump. He ain't bowing for that sucker. Of course, he didn't mouth like Trump does, but he didn't bow. And Haman can't stand it. And so Haman finds out it's not good enough just to kill Mordecai. He says, who's his people? Well, he's a Jew. That's why he won't bow to you. Jews won't do that. And so in Haman's twisted, evil, wicked little mind, I'm going to hurt him as bad as I can. I'm going to wipe out all these people first, then I'm going to kill him. So he does all of that. Now you go back to the initial— Mordecai had told Esther, don't tell anybody that you're a Jew. Why? I still don't know. I don't, but I know that it's beginning to fall into place. 5 years she's been the queen. 5 years she's pleased the king. 5 years she's right here in his heart. It wasn't just a bedroom thing. He really was looking for a queen, a helpmeet, and Esther was doing a good job. All right, now If he had known she was a Jew all this time, would it have changed how close she was to his heart? Again, no. She had a gorgeous figure and she was beautiful to look at, and I don't think he was worried about any of that. But it would have changed the whole thing about Haman. Well, why didn't God work it that way? I don't know. I don't know. But I know it worked. Haman goes through all his machinations and, and, hey, King, there's this, there's this group of people in your kingdom and they're different from everybody different from everybody else and they don't follow the laws. That was a lie. They were different from everybody else, but they followed the laws and so on and so forth. And they don't need to be here. Matter of fact, they don't need to exist. And Xerxes— Xerxes was like way too many CEOs. If the CFO, COO, and all the rest of them say, well, this is what you need to do, Oh, okay. What? Do a little research, dude. Well, that's what I hired them for. No, no, not to tell you what to think. Yeah, never do the function they were hired for, but you still keep your finger on the pulse of the whole thing. He didn't. Oh, okay. Hey, man, you think that's the way it should be? Took the signet ring off his hand, handed it to Haman. Haman, and this, you know, just, I mean, that fast. Went over to Kinko's and had all these copies run off in everybody's language that on this date we're going to annihilate the Jews and you can keep all their property. And there was a lot of people signing up and lining up for that. See, when it looks like their hands are tied, their teeth are pulled, their eyes have been gouged out, A lot of people get a whole lot tougher around things. Mordecai finds out about it. He does tear his clothes. Again, he doesn't work for the king yet, but he's still checking on Esther. That's what true relationships are about. That's what real love is about. Yes, I know you're taken care of. Yes, I know you're in a good place, but I'm still your daddy, so to speak. I'm checking on you because I care about you. Esther finds out, you know, one of the, uh, eunuchs that are in charge of taking care of her says, hey, I saw Mordecai the other day. Oh yeah, how's he doing? Doesn't look too good. Got dirt on his head, his clothes are all torn. Didn't make any sense to them, of course, but to her, she knew exactly what was going on. That's what you do when you're mourning. You pour dust on your head, you rinse your clothes, you tear them. And she says, well, send him a new set of clothes. See, that's man's way of thinking. Somebody's hurt, somebody's going through a rough time, you know, send them a few bucks, you know, do this, do that, and pat them on the head and it's all good. It runs deeper than that, Tom. It runs deeper than that. Sometimes what people need from us more than anything else is for us just to sit there. The only time Job's friends were of any value was for the 7 days when they saw him and he was so appalling to look at, so un-Job-like, that they were stunned and they sat there with him for 7 days without saying a word. That's the only time they were worth a damn. But parents try too hard, too often, too fast, too many times to fix their kids. And a lot of times what their kids need is for you to just go and sit with them. What are you doing? Nothing. Okay, what are you doing? I'm doing nothing too. Well, that's weird, Dad. Well, that's weird, son. You want to do something else together? You're weird. Okay, I'm weird. And you stay there. It works. It works on that heart and it works on that mind. He ain't yelling at me. He ain't judging me. He's here with me. Now, does it work right then? No, but WD-40 doesn't always work in 3 seconds either. You know, you got to give it a couple of days sometimes to get through all the rust on the threads. But the point is Mordecai didn't need a new set of clothes. He needed to let Esther know what was going on, and he did. He sent word back with a copy of the edict that on this day, all the Jews are going to be killed, and you can have all their stuff for everybody that joins in the killing. And that's throughout the entire kingdom, every Jew in the kingdom. Now, what were the people in the kingdom that were being good citizens and true to God, what were they thinking during this period of time after they found out about the edict?

Probably pretty terrified.

What would you be thinking? I'm being a good citizen for this foreign government. I've stayed. I'm contributing to the economy. I'm not doing anything illegal, and I'm serving you, God, while I'm here. I'm serving you. What would you be thinking if you read that edict?

Why is this happening?

Boom, boom. One of the craziest things about human nature is the first thing that we grab at when something ominous is even in the windshield. It hasn't happened yet, but it's there. You're coming towards it. What do we grab for? Why? That 3-letter scream. Why? You want to know why, Tom?

Yeah.

Because when we have the why, it makes it so much easier to handle the how.

So true.

At the Battle of the Bulge, why, when we're surrounded and the Germans give us a chance at, at surrender which they had a history of not keeping their word on that. And that— what was he, Colonel? Was he a Colonel? I can't remember. He wasn't a General, he was a Colonel, I think, or a Major. He got that and he gave him a one-word answer. You remember what his answer was?

No.

Nuts. Nuts. I mean, he's totally surrounded. The ground's frozen. The air is frozen. Your hair's frozen. Everything's frozen. He's running out of ammo. He's running out of food. And they're surrounded. Nuts. I'm not surrendering. His soldiers, to a man, stood with him. Do you know why, Tom? Yeah, because they had their why. We're American Airborne, by God. We're American soldiers and we will live, fight, and die as American soldiers. We're not kneeling, period. So do what you're going to do. By the way, the Germans lost, but they had their why. If they had no why, they just said, what in the— why did you say that? Why did you do that? We can— blah, blah, blah. Why, why, why? And when you're searching for a why, You're not on solid ground. I'll repeat. When you're searching for a why, you're never on solid ground. You're flailing. That's what asking why is. It's flailing, trying to get your feet underneath you. Because the ominous things, the horrendous things, the tragic things, the hard things, they don't just knock the wind out of you, they, they knock your feet out from under you. Mordecai had his why that he would not bow to Haman. Mordecai had his why that he put the dust on his head and tore his clothes. Mordecai had his why He told Esther, don't ever tell anybody where you're from, who your family is, or that you're a Jew. Now, do I know why? No, I don't. Well, sure you do. It's because he knew, uh, 5, 6 years before, he knew that this was going to— No, he didn't. Listen to yourself. Yeah, he did not know any of this.

No.

Yeah, what he did know was What he did know is who you are to the king is more important at this moment than who you are by ethnicity. Not because your ethnicity is not important, but because your place with the king may have a place for your ethnicity to come in handy for our king at some later date. Well, that's not in there. No, it's not. That's why I can't give you an affirm why, but I've seen enough in Mordecai's actions to know that he thought ahead. He was like Trump in that he played three-dimensional chess. Now, if you had saved the king's life and it was proven that you were right because they skewered them like, you know, like that Mongolian beef sticks that they put on that little fire thing at the Chinese restaurant. Of course, you'll never see that again without thinking of those guards, but that's okay. I think you'll survive it. You got Chinese restaurants in Wyoming, don't you?

Very few, unfortunately.

Very few. Yeah, I know. They had a good one in Sheridan at one time. I don't know. That was 40 years ago. But so all of this takes place, he saves his life, and nothing happens. Now, they wrote it down in the annals of the king. That's, that's mentioned twice. Twice. Once when it happened, and the second time, and we'll get to that. But if you'd saved the king's life, and you know, would she go knocking on the palace door? Hey, King. Yeah, I'm Mordecai. I think you've heard of me. I need a job. He didn't do that. Why? He played the long game. The long game was not, I know that in 5 years Haman's going to do this, and then this is going to happen, and this is going to happen, and I'm going to wind up being second in command, which is what happened. Mordecai became second in command behind the king, just like Joseph became second in command behind Pharaoh. God has a way of doing that. Oh, did I mention Daniel became second in command over all the satraps, all the wise men, all the magicians, everybody, second only to Nebuchadnezzar? God does that. But not because we are talented, not because we are so good-looking, not because of our ambition, but because of his will. And if it's not his will for us to be that, whoever winds up being in that position in God's will, that's who I want. Yeah, but you're not going to make billions of dollars that way. Okay, but if I stay faithful to the king, I'll make him happy, and that's worth more than money. And that's what Mordecai did. Again, the name God, Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai, Elohim, blah blah, never appears. What does appear is a man named Mordecai that had such a solid faith in and solid knowledge of the God that he served that no matter whether he was being slapped around, threatened with death, or whatever, he knew, you don't run things, Haman. You don't run things, Xerxes. My God does. Well, how do you know that? That's not in there. Sure it is, because when he sent that back to Esther— in other words, here's the decree. You want to know why my clothes are torn? You want to know why there's dust on my head? Here, read this. Esther reads it. She's like, oh wow, that's terrible. Now where is she? She's in the palace at Susa. Where is she? Right next to the king. Where is she? Safe. I'll guarantee you, I know this, Xerxes liked Esther a lot more than he liked Haman. That was never going to change.

That's true.

I don't think he had the figure for it. Um, but when she sends word back to Mordecai, basically, well, this is terrible, but You know, what can I do about it? And Mordecai sends back and says, well, I'll tell you what you can do about it. You can go in and tell the king this isn't right. Now's the time, girl. Now's the time. And she sends a message back to him, you don't know how things work around here. You see, in this house, even me and he hasn't called for me in 30 days. If you go into the inner chamber of the palace, into his throne room, and he had not called you there, and you walk in, if he does not raise the golden scepter and point at you, you're dead. Not 10 minutes later, not after a 4-year trial. That second, you're dead. And he hasn't called for me for 30 days. Now may not be a good time. And Mordecai sent one more message back, and this is where the— how do you know that God's involved? Watch this, Tom. If you altogether hold your peace now, he tells her, don't think that you and your house, your family— see, her parents were gone, but she must have had siblings or, or other relatives around because he says Do not think that you and your family will escape just because you're in the palace if you hold your peace and don't, don't go into the king and talk to him. And he said, and if you don't, know this: one, you won't escape. Two, help will arise for us from someplace else. Help will arise for us from someplace else. How in the Sam Hill did he know that, Tom?

Faith.

Huh?

Faith.

In what? In who?

In God.

I mean, God's not mentioned.

I don't know.

Tom, Tom, see, this is, this is how it goes sideways so easy. All right, you're absolutely right, it's faith in God. Well, how do you know? The name God's not mentioned. Because he acts exactly the same way Joseph did when he was faced with this. He acts the same way David did when he was faced with this. He acts the same way Daniel did when he was faced with this. He acts the same way that Paul did when he was faced with this. He acts the same way that our precious King and Savior did, Jesus, when he was faced with this. If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into bread. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. If you're the Son of God, cast yourself down from this high point of the temple in front of everybody. See, that, that's a shortcut. That's how man and the devil think— shortcut, shortcut, shortcut. Because the Bible says, you know, it is written that he will not let you even strike your foot, heel against the ground, but his angels will catch you up before you bruise yourself. And Jesus answered, it is also written, do not tempt the Lord your God. When people act like God is real to them, God is real, period. What's that? One of the sad things that we do as human beings is we want every question we've ever had answered. When one is answered, when one thing's answered, well, yeah, but what about, what about the pygmies that have never heard about Jesus? What about, you know, come on, people. And that includes me. I've done it to God a million times. Jesus did not answer every question that had ever been asked or ever would be asked every time he answered a question, Tom. He answered the one right in front of him. And that was good enough for the moment. And the way that he answered it left you scratching your head with more questions because it was a bigger answer than you were ready for. Yeah. So Mordecai knows that God will do what is right for his people no matter what happens. How did he know that? I'm asking a real question. How did he know that?

Only because God's always been there before. Okay, but he was born and raised outside of all that, so how did he know? Have a good answer.

Stories, Tom. One of the first things the enemy tries to do is destroy the family. And one of the reasons he tries to destroy the nuclear family with a dad and a mom and all the other things that go with it, which includes grandparents and great-grandparents a lot of times, is that the connectivity of story Your great-great-grandfather back in 1901 did blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and helped the Wright brothers. You know, your grandfather in World War II. And when you grow up with stories, it strengthens character. It strengthens your ganas, your bone-deep desire to develop integrity. Now, does every single person have that in every single family? Sadly, no. My grandfather on my dad's side was a drunk and a womanizer, a worthless piece of garbage. But my dad, who had to grow up real fast because he was the oldest of 5 brothers, had to leave school at the age of 9, get a full-time job in the early '30s in the Depression in southern Oklahoma, and work like a full-grown man at the age of 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and fight for his money because he had a couple of bosses that worked him like a rented mule and then said, I'm not paying you, you little shit. I said, what'd you do? And he goes, I picked up a pitchfork the first time when I was 11. And he said, you'll leave me. He said, I told that old German, he goes, you'll either pay me or you won't be able to hold your beer tonight. Whoa. I said, did you mean it? He goes, I had 4 brothers and a mom waiting at the house. We weren't going to eat if I didn't. Yes, I meant it. And that German knew it. And he said— I said, well, what happened? He said— he goes, now here, here, here, there's no sense in going like that. Here, here's your money. Don't ever come back. That was my dad at the age of 11. So I heard stories like that, and then I heard the ones— and he didn't talk about his dad much. That's another thing. Don't dwell on the filth and the negative all the time or for very long. Use it as a— use it as a platform piece if you need to, but don't make it your whole foundation of your life. But my dad talked about what he did, what others did, what they did in World War II. And then he bragged on his buddies and he bragged on his friends and everything else. And all of his friends were men of character and integrity. And that just burned that into me. My mom died when I was 7. He remarried when I was 8. She was a worthless piece of garbage. She treated me like trash. She beat me. She called me everything but son. Well, son of a bitch, that kind of stuff. But you know what I'm saying? So how was I able to hang on to the things— and I made a ton of mistakes in my early days— but how was I able to hang on to all that and have the hunger and the drive and the desire to overcome circumstances and my own stupidity and wind up being whatever level and measure of a good man that God's allowed me to be? A lot of it is the stories, the connectivity. And that's how Mordecai knew that God would take care of him, because they told the stories. They told the stories of Abraham, and they told the stories of Isaac and Jacob, and they told the stories of Joseph, and they told the stories, and you go on and on and on and on. And I firmly believe that even though Susa's over here, I think it's about 200 miles from Babylon, Babylon was a city. All right, Nebuchadnezzar, that was his kingdom, that was his, his, uh, big city. I can't think of the word. When the Medes and the Persians came in and took over, all right, right after Nebuchadnezzar died, his son took over. His son was a piece of garbage and blah blah blah, and the Medo-Persians came in, killed him, and started that They moved their headquarters over to Susa, almost parallel, just straight across east. But I have a feeling that the stories of Daniel and Meshach and Shadrach and Abednego were told around the campfire too. Yeah, how do you pass it on? Stories. How do you know things? Stories. So he knew those stories, and he gave Esther a choice. I don't run your life, girl, that's for sure. But I'm telling you flat out, you keep your peace because you're too chicken to stand up, don't think you're going to survive it. And then he says this, Tom, and this is the turning point of the whole thing. Who knows, Mordecai said to Esther, Who knows? But what you were brought to the kingdom for just such a time as this. One day towards the end of his ministry and his life on this, on this side of forever, our Lord was with his disciples and they were walking through and there was this man born blind, sitting there begging. And the disciples turned and asked him, they said, hey teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Again, the way we're taught, the things we're told, man thinks stupid without God. Man thinks stupid, all men do. Black, white, brown, yellow, green, doesn't matter if you're Michigan, Texan, or whatever. And Jesus says this: neither, neither him nor his parents did any sin for this to happen, but this took place so that the glory of God may be seen. Now, he was born blind, and he spent 40, 50 years— I don't know, but it was, it was over 30 blind as a bat, and the only job for a blind person was a beggar. Why? Remember why? The man never had a why that was true. He had the why, the same why that the disciples have been told. Well, the reason that man's born blind is because either him or his folks did something awful terrible. That's a terrible why, Tom. That's a bad why.

Awful. Yeah.

And too many of us have been wearing the weight of bad whys. Well, the reason your marriage didn't work out is because you did blah blah blah, or because you're stupid, because you're from Oklahoma, or whatever. Bad whys. And Jesus said, no, you got the wrong why. Here's the why. Now, does it make it any easier? Not right off the bat. Not right off the bat. I finally figured out some of the why of some of the most horrific things that have happened in my life. Some of it was my fault, a lot of it was other people's fault, and I thought I'd found my why. That wasn't the why. Those were components of a why. But that wasn't the why. The why was because God knew me before he ever formed me, Tom, and he knew that he was going to make of me however good a man that I am. And it's all from him, none of it's from me. And he knew that in order to make me— it's just like there's different woods. You, you see my, my bows over here? Yeah, okay, this is going to be different, but here we go. They're made of different kinds of wood, Tom. Some of them got metal. All beautiful, all good, all fantastic bows, but they each have their own personality. They each have their own shooting characteristics and how they feel when you draw them and everything. And the Tigerwood was easier to work than the shadua, and the shadua was a little easier to work than the, the, uh, I can't remember what that's called. And then you got the koa. Koa is hard. And I got some ironwood in one of them, and that's very hard. Now the craftsman that made— and the different ones made those different bows— but my point is, the craftsman knows that if I'm working with maple, it's hard, but I can use this and make it happen in this time. If he's working with, uh, koa, ironwood, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm gonna have to take my time and I'm gonna go through 3 or 4 blades and I'm gonna have to, you know, sharpen everything a lot. Why? Because that's a hard-headed wood. I'm ironwood, hard-headed as hell, but God had a plan for shaping me to whatever level of good man that I am. For the good things that he had built ahead of time. For we are God's workmanship, it says at one point in the Bible, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Why were we created? There's that why, Tom. Why were we created? For good works. Well, I'm awful talented, uh, so I should be a, a song leader or, uh, famous in a quartet. Ah, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. That's not what it is. Did you know that I actually turned down a position with a world-famous group at one time?

Really?

Yeah, they hunted me down to be the bass singer for them. The group A Cappella.

For A Cappella?

You've heard of the group Acapella?

Yeah, I have.

Yeah, yeah, they hunted me down. July 2nd, 1982, I get a phone call. I'm working for a farmer outside of Cabot, Arkansas, and I get a phone call. I'd gotten like 5 or 6 messages, and I was like, I don't know these people, I don't know, I don't owe them money, so screw that. Keep in mind, Tom, all I wanted to do was to be a professional musician. That's how I paid for my college, was playing guitar and singing music and writing songs and that kind of stuff. But the group A Cappella wanted me for my bass voice, okay? And finally got a hold of me, and it was his mom, Keith Lancaster's mom. And she goes, oh, young man, we have been trying forever to get a hold of you. I said, well, who are you? I was polite, but I, you know, I was like, what in the world? And she tells me all of this stuff, and my son is starting this new group and they're going to be world famous and blah, blah, blah. And they've already got money and a recording studio and all this kind of stuff. And then he got on the phone and he said, I've already heard this young kid from Mississippi named Rodney, who became their first bass singer, by the way, and was with them for 2 and a half years. He goes, I've already heard Rodney, but everybody in America at all the Christian college campuses, blah, blah, blah, said that you're the man for the job, period. And I said, dude, you've never seen my face. You've never heard my voice. And he goes, no, but Clifton Gayness III and so-and-so and so-and-so and the guy from Pepperdine, they all said you're the man for the job. He goes, I've got an airplane ticket. I'll send it to you and we can get going. I said, give me 2 days to pray about it. Now, remember I told you all I wanted in life was to be a professional musician, and it fell in my lap. But for some reason, I said, let me pray for it, pray about it for 2 days, man. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. Red flag number 1: when a Christian guy tells you that you're crazy for wanting to pray over something. Red flag. Red flag. I prayed for 2 days, Tom. The more I prayed, the worse I felt about it. At the end of the 2 days, he called back. He goes, I can have you here tomorrow afternoon. We get started Monday. And I said, I'm not coming. What? You're crazy. I said, then you don't need me at all, do you? And hung up. Whoa. Yep, they instantly went famous. And what do they got, 17, 18 albums now? And you know, that kind of stuff. Not Aerosmith famous, but in Christian music circles they do pretty good.

Yeah.

Um, and I was still a worthless kid. I still did a horrible bunch of horrible things after that. But God was working on me even then, Tom. Why didn't I take that job? I, at the time, I didn't know. Now I do. That would not have helped me be formed into the man that God needed me to be for the good works that he established ahead of time for me to be a part of. Esther had no idea why Mordecai told her not to tell anybody she was a Jewess. I still don't know the exact why, but I do know this: it worked out so beautifully because right before it was all going to take place and they were going to kill all the Jews, Esther said, I'll tell you what, to Mordecai. She sent one more— they sent a lot of messages back and forth. Um, she sent one more message back. All right, I'll tell you what, you gather all the Jews and you and all the Jews pray and fast for me for 3 days, and I and all the people in my little circle of influence, the, the ladies that you know, our ladies-in-waiting or whatever, and the, uh, the big brawny, um, eunuchs, you know, that watch over me and stuff, we will pray too. And then one way or the other, I will go into the king, which is not legal. She had to put that in there one more time. That's not how things are done. And if I perish, I perish. We can be a good girl, a good boy. We can be godly. We can be all the things. We can do everything right, Tom, and still reach that point of that intersection and that, that precipice where faith has to take a leap because everything else says, if I do this, I'm going to lose everything. And until that point, all we are is an embryo. We're not born until we say, and if I perish, I perish, but I'm going to do what you said. And God says, now you're born. Now you're on a roll. Now it can work. And you go into the rest of Esther and you find out that, you know, she, she still used her head. See, she didn't just, hey king, I know you could have me killed, but we need to talk. I'm actually a Jewess and they're going to kill all my people and I think you need to stop that. That's not how she did it. Just because you have a mission from God doesn't mean you have to leave your brain in the back room. I will repeat, just because you have a mission from God doesn't mean you have to leave your brain in the back room or up your butt or wherever it is. All right, I'm just being honest.

Yeah, that's so true.

So you know how she planned, you know, um, you know, she comes in and of course the king looks up and says, hey babe, or however they said it back then, but pretty much. And he holds out the, the golden scepter. All right, thank God. Okay, she, she— okay, he hadn't talked to her for a month, but he still liked her. So God took care of that, and he says, what can I do for you? Anything you want, even up to half my kingdom. Why, why do kings do that?

I don't know. That's what I want to know.

You know, Herod, when that little stepdaughter did her little honky honky dance or whatever, oh yeah, whatever you want, up to half my kingdom. Up to half my kingdom. Up to half my kingdom. Whatever. And she says, I'll tell you what I want. You mind coming and, and having dinner over my side of things tomorrow? I'm cooking something special. Oh yeah, I'll be there, I'll be there. Oh, and can you invite Haman? Oh yeah, I guess I can, you know. All right, so that's taken care of. Now watch how things work. That's in the afternoon, let's say. All right, that night or that afternoon, Haman is also— because he can't stand the fact that Mordecai, every day goes by and Mordecai just stands there and looks at him while everybody else is groveling on the ground, even though they both know, as they look at each other, Haman's looking at him saying, you know that I'm going to kill every Jew on, on the planet that I can get my hands on, then I'm going to kill you. And Mordecai looks back at him and says, you have no idea who you're dealing with, boy. And it wasn't Mordecai. Where does the boldness of a true giant of the kingdom come from? It doesn't come from their muscle, their sinew, their hairy chest, their good looks, their bank account. It comes from them knowing, you mess with me, you're messing with my God. And my God may have for me to get run over by you. My God may have for me to get beat up by you, but my God in the end will absolutely stomp a mudhole in you and walk it dry. That I do know. You have no idea who you're dealing with. That's the difference. So that afternoon, Haman's going back from the palace. He sees Mordecai standing there. Everybody's groveling again. He's been seeing it for months. He goes home that night and he says, Mordecai, everything's going— he's number 2 in the kingdom, Tom. He's one of the richest men in the world. He's one of the most influential men in the world. He has nothing to worry about, and all he can do when he gets home to his wife is piss and moan and bitch and gripe about this Jew Mordecai that still won't bow to his greatness. Does he not know who I am? And his wife and his friends say, look, you need to stop worrying about that dude. Why don't you just have a great big old pole you know, built out in the front yard and hang him on it tomorrow morning. Just get it over with. Yeah, that's a good idea. So he calls a bunch of people in and they build a pole overnight, and he thinks, tomorrow morning I'm going to do this. He is going in— this is the next morning. Oh wait, I missed a part. That night See the sequence? Esther goes in and talks to the king. Hey, do you mind coming to a banquet and having Haman come? No, not a problem. Haman knows about that. Then Haman goes home, and even though he says, hey, I've just been invited to a private banquet with the king and the queen, I'm the only other person invited, ain't that cool? But I can't enjoy it because Mordecai won't bow down to me and I hate his guts. Well, build the scaffold and hang him on it tomorrow. I think that's a great idea. Let's get it done, he says. That night, the king can't sleep. Why can't he sleep? Why, Tom? Here we go. Why?

Why?

Don't ask me, I ask you.

Well, I don't know.

The God that's not mentioned by name moves with his fingerprints on everything. Why can't the king sleep? I don't know why he couldn't sleep. Why didn't he just call for Esther and have a nice little matrimonial time and then be worn out and go to sleep? I don't know. But I know this: when you watch the actions, he can't sleep. He gets up. He doesn't want anybody singing to him, playing the harp or the guitar or the saxophone or whatever they had back in them days. He says, hey, uh, I know the best somnics, and you're too young to know what I'm talking about. It was a sleep aid that you could take and actually did pretty good instead of taking a pill or something. The best one that I know of is go get me the Annals of the King. How many times had he asked for them? I don't know, but I'll guarantee you it was very, very, very, very, very, very few. And yet on this night, right before the morning when all this stuff is supposed to take place, Go get me the annals of the king. They go and get them, and he's going through stuff, going through stuff. Yep, yep, yep. Okay, I'm not sleepy yet. Hold it, wait a minute. About 5 years ago, those 2 guards that were going to kill me and, and blah blah blah. Yeah, Mordecai. Mordecai. Why do I know that name? Mordecai. Anyway, What was ever done for him? They look, they don't say anything. I guess nothing, King. Oh, well, that's not good. Sometimes people's oversight is not God's being mean to us, it's God's timing waiting for a later date. I guess he's able to go to sleep after that. The next morning, very early, here comes Haman. He's going to tell him what he's going to do to Mordecai, blah blah blah blah blah. And before he can open his mouth, before he even gets to the door, the king says, who's, uh, who's around that I can talk to about, you know, what would you do for somebody that had done something this cool for the king? I.e., when Mordecai saved his life by letting him know about the plot. Well, Haman's right outside the door. Perfect. Tell Haman to come on in here. All of this in 12 hours. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Crazy.

Haman walks in. He's thinking, you know, he's going to give me another honor, blah, blah, blah. And he hits him with this. Hey, Haman. Yes, sir. What would you do if somebody— how would you honor somebody that had done something so marvelous for the king that it just— it's, it's incredible. It's unbelievable. Sounds like Trump. Um, it's gonna be, it's gonna be wonderful. Um, and the Bible says that Haman thought to himself, who else could the king be talking about but me? See, when your world revolves around your little self, but God worked it out. And Haman said, well, I think I have an idea for you, King. I think that what you ought to do is get a horse that you have ridden, O King, and put on a royal robe that you have worn, O King, and have one of your very top officials in the entire kingdom hold the reins, walk in front of the horse, and yell as loud as he can to everybody throughout the entire city of Susa, 'This is what happens to one who pleases the king!' The king says, 'You know what, that's pretty dadgum good idea. So go and get Mordecai, get the best horse, get the best robe, get this, get that, do everything exactly like you said.' Can you imagine what was going through Haman's mind?

That's so funny.

But he did it. See, that's what gutless punks do. They'll hate what they're doing, but they'll go ahead and do it. So he had to go through the entire thing, the whole town, yelling at the top of his lungs, this is what happens when you completely please the king, blah blah, with Mordecai sitting on the horse. And you think they all didn't know that it had been him and his chariot, or him on his horse, or him on his, uh, pole thing that, you know, big strong guys have to carry your fat butt down through the city streets. And Mordecai standing there looking him in the eye like a regular man, and now he's having to do this with Mordecai sitting up on the horse. Huh, how cool is it? So he goes home, he's dejected, talking about Haman, and they said, well, you know, go ahead and go back You're pretty much done for if this is what's happened. And this is his wife and his friends. You're pretty much sunk, buddy. You know, it wouldn't want to be you right now. So he goes back because he still has that second dinner to go to. Remember, she said, you know, the king says, what do you want? I'll give you half my kingdom. And she goes, well, come back to dinner tomorrow and I'll tell you. Okay, I guess I can come back for another great meal and conversation. So this is the second one, all of this in 24 hours. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Haman comes back. At least he's still second in command. At least Esther still wants him there. And then the king says, now, Queen, what can I do for you? Anything you want, up to half my kingdom. And she goes, well, okay, I'll tell you what you can do is do something about the fact that all of my people, every one of my descent, of my kindred, of my ethnicity, are to be legally wiped out here in just a little bit. I think it was maybe a month later. And he goes, what? Yeah, every single one of my kin, of my people, is to be wiped out. Who would do such a thing? Now, the king's the one that said, okay, go ahead and do it, Haman. Like a CEO that didn't check out when he says, yeah, go ahead and buy 40 new trucks, and then when the bill comes due and you can't afford them, who would do such a thing? Well, you did, dude. You're the one that signed off on it. All right, but she didn't do that. She didn't nail him for being a Lazare fair king. She pointed right over at Haman and she goes, that man right there, Haman. And the king turned and looked at Haman, and Haman went green in the gills. Hold on, there's my clock. Um, this is over 20 minutes, sorry.

That's okay, it's really good.

And the king got up and he's mad, he's frustrated, he's confused. Probably thinking about the fact that he's the one that, without doing any checking on it, gave the go-ahead for it. But he storms out, okay? He's, he's so mad he can't even think straight, so he storms out. Haman, thinking that his schmoozing can still work, goes over to Esther where she's sitting on her cushions, couch, whatever, and throws himself, I guess right at her lap, not in her lap, but at her lap. Please, please, please don't do this. I'm so sorry, and I didn't know they were, you know, that you were a Jew. I'll, I'll take it all back, blah, blah. The king walks back in. Now, does he know that Haman's not trying to get in the sack with his wife? Yes, he knows that. But when you're mad as a hornet and you're a married man, You don't care. All you need is an excuse. Is he now trying to take advantage of my wife right here in my own room? And I mean, the words weren't even out of his mouth and two big old boys grabbed Haman, dragged him out of there. And the funny thing is, people keep their mouths shut. Lower-tier people, middle management people, they don't always tell you everything. But once they find out how the cow eats cabbage, who's in and who's out at the top tier— i.e., Haman's out, they know that— uh, well, uh, you know, by the way, King, uh, uh, you didn't hear it from me, but, uh— spit it out, boy. Well, Haman actually built a gallows right in his front yard to hang Mordecai on. Really? I'll tell you what. Hang Haman on his own gallows. And within the hour, Haman is hung on his own gallows. People that believe in evolution may not see God in the book of Esther, but I see his fingerprints. I see his footprints. I see his sense of humor, and I see his sense of justice in absolutely every single move. Esther is not the star of this story. Mordecai is more of a star than her, but the real star is the God and the king that does not even have to have his name mentioned to show absolutely everybody for thousands of years When I give my word to take care of a people, can't nobody, can't nothing get in the way of me taking care of the people. God's the star. Esther was not real. She was— she had not come to any fruition, even though she was a good girl. She was an obedient girl. She was a classy girl. She was a Jewish, you know, good— I mean, anybody would say, yep, good job. But she did not come to life until she reached that point where she said, and if I perish, I perish. Mordecai, he was alive all along. How did he get that way? Why did he get that way? Because of the stories that his parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, friends, neighbors, the guy that owned the cobbler shop, the guy that owned the, you know, the wood shop, whatever, as he would sit as a child, as a young man, work cleaning, whatever he did, I don't know, but they told the stories. They told the stories of others who had walked the life of faith down dark tunnels, dark valleys, barren plains, hard places. And God had always worked things out for their good and his glory. And it stuck. So what kind of stories you going to tell your kids? Tom?

Hope some good ones.

You see what I'm saying though? Yeah, totally. Tell other people's kids, tell other people's cousins and brothers, because there's a lot of people that don't have the stories of faith. I have them because my mom, before she died, instilled them in me. My maternal grandfather that I look like and am built like and everything else. I got my dad's attitude but my grandfather's everything else. I wish I had my dad's build. I could back up a lot of my attitude a lot easier because he was a, he was a mountain of a man. I'm just big and tall. But there were so many people down through, and there were friends, there were friends of my, of my dad that knew what Betty Jo, my stepmom, was. And they were nice to her because they were friends with my dad. But they would take me for weekends or weeks at a time, you know, uh, Emery, you and Betty go ahead and go, you know, do whatever. And then they would tell me the stories of Daniel and Joseph and David and Jesus and buy me ice cream and cheeseburgers and, and, you know, we had a good time and that kind of stuff. Tell the stories to the people you come across. Not all are hungry for them, but a bunch are. And you don't have to know them as in-depth as I do. I didn't always know them as in-depth as I do. But what you know, tell, and that'll strengthen and give birth to faith in people that you would have never otherwise even thought of. Because that's how Esther came to life. That's how Mordecai was able to be as strong as he was, because somebody else in a foreign land where they had been slaves and now they were outsiders, but they still know whose they were and who they were because of the stories. That's all I got.

That was really good. I wrote down quite a bit from that one.

Well, one last point. Yeah, Mordecai was a foreigner in this land. All right, Mordecai did not work for the king until Haman died. All right, and then he was made number 2 in the kingdom. I don't know what he did for a living. I don't know what he did for a job. But in this foreign land, as an outsider, he taught me one thing— the same thing that Daniel did, the same thing that Joseph did, the same thing that others have— and that is the opportunities that we have within our grasp are always more important and more powerful than the ones we wish we had. I wish I was back in Jerusalem. I wish I was back with my people where I was known to be a royal. I was known to be a Levite, a priest, or whatever, so that I could do something marvelous and powerful. Well, why don't you do what you can here with these knuckleheads in this crappy place and this sorry food? No, sir. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. There's my why for existing. Whether I'm, uh, in Borger, Texas, working at the Phillips 66 refinery, or I'm in the boardroom of Behr Paints talking to senior VPs and the president of the company itself about something, or whether I'm at the grocery store in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Wherever I'm at, I am his, and there is always a good work. There's somebody to be kind to. There's somebody to stand up to, stand up for what's right. You may take a beating for it, but that may be the good work that God had for you to do at that time. But there's always the opportunities that we have, no matter where we're at. Remember, I wanted to be a world-famous musician, and I walked away from being a world-famous musician. Didn't know why at the time. It's because what I went through after that— some of it my own stupidity, some of it other people's weakness or wickedness— but all of it used by God to shape me into where I can look you on March whatever it is, 2025, with love and no wavering whatsoever, and tell you flat out, I would not trade being God's adopted son where I'm at right now for having nothing ever gone wrong in my life. I would not trade that, and I wouldn't go through what I went through again for anything in the world. But I would not trade what he has made me thus far. And I'm not done yet. As long as I stay surrendered to him, I can't get any more handsome, but I can get more useful. Always a pleasure, my friend.

Always, Jeff. Thank you so much.

You're welcome to the shop anytime. Let's do this again soon.

Yeah, sounds good.

All right, bye-bye.