Amen, appreciate all that singing again. And it's good to be in the house of the Lord. And I'm gonna get this tab out of the way here. There we go. Again, good to see each one here this morning. We're going to be, I told them in Sunday school this morning, we taught a sermon and we're going to preach a lesson. And so when things don't happen just like we think they're supposed to, we just have to follow the leadership of the Lord. And so for those of you that are in the Sunday School class, the first part of the sermon will be a little bit of rehearsal for you. You've already rehearsed it however you want to say it. But Esther chapter 3 and verse 1, we'll be reading the entire chapter 3 verses 1 through 15 and I need to do that. I know some of you are familiar with the scriptures already fairly really popular words in this chapter that people we really turn to that and see the power of God and the providence of God and that is what we are really telling this message power and providence and we know that God has that and we know it because of His word. so we're going to be talking about that today and try to preach from that this morning but chapter 3 and begin reading in verse 1 and as we're reading we will try to bring you along in the story of Esther that God has given us so that we'll be prepared for the rest of the message but after these things Did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamethadetha? Did I say that right, Johnny? It was an odd head. and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. Now one of the things I learned studying the book of Esther is, I never realized it before, we see the book of Esther starting in chapter one, ending in the last chapter, and we just read it straight through, and it's like boom, boom, boom, boom, this happened. Well, it was several years. I think it was a period of eight years. I might be wrong on that now. And we see this in the first verse, after these things. So there's a gap in time between chapter two and chapter three. We don't know exactly, but there is a gap in time there. So as you're thinking about the book of Esther, realize it takes some time for this book to progress. And all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Now, one of the key things we need to see here, and I'll be brief with this part as possible. It's almost immediately we see conflict between Haman and Mordecai. And we thought, what's Mordecai? You know, why is he... Hazarus is a bad guy. Haman's a bad guy. You know, why is it his commandment? Why is he not bound him? We see that again in verse 1, that he was a... Agagite. And if you go back, if we go back in the Bible, we'll remember that Saul was supposed to destroy all the people of Agag. But he left the king alive. So he did not destroy them. So there was a contention then between the Agagites and the Jews. They hated each other. So that, and Mordecai would not bow to him. Verse three, then the king's servants which were in the king's gates said unto Mordecai, why transgresseth thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and hearken not unto them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. So they're just going to Mordecai and say, you know, you might be better off if you just do what Haman says and just follow what Haman does. And then to this point, Mordecai hadn't told anybody he was a Jew. And we'll find out also that Esther, they didn't know she was a Jew. So when they kept saying, you know, why don't you do this, you need to do this, he said, I'm a Jew. Then they turned against him. A lot of people turned against the Jews. And so they turned against him and then they went to Haman. They didn't say anything to Haman until they found out he was a Jew. And Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Then was Haman full of wrath. And he thought scorned to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai. Wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai." Now you have this whole thing between Agag and the Jews come back up right here And instead of the Jews getting rid of all of them like they were supposed to, he's going to get rid of all the Jews. That's his plan. That's his desire. That's what he wants to do. Verse 7, In the first month, that is, of month Nisan, in the twelfth year of the king Ahasuerus, they cast per, or that is, they cast lots, that is, the lot before Haman from day to day and from month to month, to the 12th month, that is the month of Adar. And Haman said unto the king of Hazaras, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the king's prophet to suffer them. So he doesn't name who they are. If it please the king, let it be written that they all be destroyed, that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business to bring it to the king's treasury. That's a lot of money. And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it unto Haman the son of Hamathadath, the Agagite, the Jew's enemy. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded, and to the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province, according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, in the name of the King of Hazards was it written, and sealed with the king's ring. And the letters were sent by post into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to take the spool of them as a for a prey. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published, and to all people that they should be ready against that day. The post went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace, and the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day for the word of God. Lord, it is the only way that we know how to live for you. It is the only way that, Lord, we can expect to have your blessings, Lord, is to familiarize ourselves with the Word of God. And, Lord, we thank you for these scriptures and all scriptures. Lord, help us to preach this message today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You have the story. Haman's plan is to get rid of all the Jews. He hates the Jews. At least Haman hates him. Also, we need to know a little bit about the background. The Jews have been taken out of Israel. and taken to Babylonia to begin with. Now part of them have been allowed to go back to rebuild the temple, but part of them are still here. And Haman is part of that group that is still in Shushan, the capital of Persia. 127 provinces, the biggest, strongest, most powerful kingdom until this time. That's who we're looking at. and looking at this king Ahasuerus, all the power that he has. And so, he is allowing Haman to do what he wants to do. Haman is second in power. He's been given the king's ring. In other words, that's how they were able to proclaim things when they wrote letters and wrote rules and wrote laws. It was stamped with the king's ring. And so, he had the power to do Whatever he wanted to he had the possession of that ring It was given to him to do what he wanted to do and what he wanted to do Was to get rid of all the Jews and we we know and much more recent history even in the last century and even in this century There are wars going on right now trying to eliminate the Jews That's what the devil wants to do What we want to look at now is God's plan for salvation for these Jews. No doubt when the Jews saw the proclamation, their hearts were grieved. But God was not wringing his hands. He was not surprised. He was not perplexed. We get perplexed over what to get somebody for Christmas. God is sovereign. God already knows all things. He knows what He's going to do. He knows what everybody else wants to do. Notice from our text Mordecai's response when he heard the decree. We see first Mordecai's grief. Of course there was grief when he heard that his people were going to be or somebody was going to try to wipe out his people. He was in intense sorrow. Of course he would be. And we see people in sorrow today for different reasons, for different things. And you've heard our pastor say, you know, don't tell somebody you know what they're going through. It doesn't matter. If you went through the same thing, it was different for you than it was for somebody else. And I was thinking a little bit about this. And I'm going to give you this illustration. I hope I can get it across. We all have a normal, right? Our emotions, our feelings. We like to stay in that normal. We like it if the emotions go up, if they're good. We don't like it if they come down. So, you can see me physically, sometimes we'll have a little bit come against us and it brings us down a little bit. Right? We know it. But we can take that, right? We can take that. And I thought about this. If you're on a boat, okay, out in water, deep water, wherever it's at, deep water, and you step off of that boat, now let's say you know how to swim, okay? You step off that boat, you're going to go underwater if you don't do anything. But just as well, actually, if you don't do anything and simply turn your body around, you're fine. You'll just float. But our mind don't work that way. We start fighting and thrashing and pulling ourselves back up, especially if we don't know how to swim. But when you fall off, your emotions a big change in your feelings, in your emotions, in your stress level, right? When you get in that water, you know you can't live in water, right? We all know that. You can't live in that, or you've got to get out of that water. Now that's bad enough. But like I said, you can, you can overcome that, right? If you just grab a hold of yourself and realize that you will actually just float back to the top. Now that's not what happens a lot of times. People don't realize they try to swim, they try to come back up and they fight the water and they drown. A lot of times that's what happens. Now then, that's a stress that you can actually deal with. And we go through something and we deal with it and we know how we got through it, right? And so we come back to normal again. And so we say, I went through that and I got back to normal fairly easy. Now let's change the scenario a little bit. You fall 100 feet into that same water. You don't just barely go under the water. You go 30, 40 feet deep in the water. And you realize how far you're going down. But you're fighting, and you're fighting, and you get your composure, and you feel yourself going back up. Like I said, you'll actually go back up if you don't do anything, but maybe you're composed enough that you push yourself back up and you come back up to the top of the water. You think, I'm getting there. And then you get to the top and it's covered in ice. And you can't get through. You just can't get through it. Well, sometimes that's the way problems are in life. And although somebody may go through exactly what you went through and you come back up to the top and you're back normal again. And you say, why can't they do that? I did it. So and so did it. All they have to do is this. All they have to do is that. All they have to do is what they did. All they have to do is what I did. You don't see the ice. They're banging on ice. They're trying to break through that ice and they can't get through. And it's days and it's months and it's years maybe. They're perplexed. They don't know what to do. They can't quite get through. They can't quite get back to that norm. Romans 12, 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice. We have rejoiced in song today. We can say that, right? And we like to do that. That's an easy commandment to follow, right? This one's harder. This is that verse. Weep with him that weep. Now, we do that to some degree, but when that one is under the ice, And we're trying to tell them what to do. And we don't know what they need to do. We need to weep with them. Sometimes you can't cheer somebody up. God's going to be the one that has to do it. We just weep with them and pray with them or pray for them. Sometimes you can't pray with them, you just have to pray for them. Sometimes we find it hard to mourn with people and we don't like to see them that way. I'm going to say a little bit more about that in a little bit. But we see Mordecai's mourning. Immediately after hearing about the decree, he went into mourning. In Esther chapter 4, if you still have your Bibles open, you can read with me. Verses 1 and 2. When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes and went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry. And came even before the king's gate for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. Now this was a common way to show grief, a common way to mourn in that day. We know it's common because there was a law, you can't come in here if you're doing that. So we know it's well known what he's doing. Now when we think about sackcloth, I think the closest thing we can think about that, to realize what it's like, is a burlap bag. And we talk about this at Sunday school, it's decoration now. Those that use it for decoration, I told them they never had to pick up a 200 pound bag of fertilizer made out of it. But just imagine wearing a shirt made out of burlap. I mean, I wash new shirts sometimes because they're too rough. But he's wearing that, he's ashes on his head, he's in mourning. Putting on sackcloth and ashes again was a common practice. Mordecai was neither afraid nor ashamed to let people know where he stood. He'd already told the officers at the gate that he was a Jew and now he was letting out a bitter cry of mourning. The Jews in the empire, they were all mourning when they heard this news. All over Persia, every province, 127 provinces, and they're all mourning. Verse 3 of chapter 4 says, And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. At this point right here, they are under the ice. They're praying. They're trying to get back. They want to get back to normal, but they see absolutely no way to do it, and the only thing they can do is pray. and they're trying to break through the ice. The decree could not be altered. There was no appeal. Nothing could happen to change that decree except God would have to do it. In M.C. Mordecai's communication He did not lose hope in God in the midst of his grief. And that's who he went to to get help. He believed that God could save them. Esther 3.15 says, The whole city was perplexed. Mordecai was confused. He was anxious. He was perplexed. He didn't know what to do. But he knew God knew what to do. Brother Bobby, he didn't say, he wasn't thinking, I've got a terrible problem and I don't know what to do. But John, he wasn't thinking, I've got a terrible problem, who can tell me what to do? Brother Kenneth, he wasn't thinking, I've got a terrible problem, I've got to find somebody that can tell me what to do. He knew where to go. He knew who knew. 2 Corinthians 4, 8 and 9 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. That's the reason we need to know the Word of God. There will be perplexing times in all of our lives. Now, at this point, apparently Esther does not know about the decree. She's in the palace. The decree went out everywhere else but not in the palace. When she learned that Mordecai was grieving in sackcloth and ashes in the streets, she was extremely grieved. Alright, and here we have the situation. Mordecai is grieving. He's mourning. This is her stepfather, so to speak, or her cousin. And she can see him mourning, and she is grieved by that. So Esther's maid and her chamberlain came and told her, then was the queen exceedingly grieved. And she sent Raiment to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sackcloth from him, but he received it Not. Again, Romans 12, 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. But here Esther is saying, Mordecai, you need to cheer up. And she don't know nothing. She just knows it's morning. It's going to be alright. But Esther was making it about herself. The queen was exceedingly grieved. She wanted Mordecai to stop making her feel bad. And you can say, that ain't right. Almost for sure you've done it. You've seen somebody grieved and why don't they cheer up, right? You might not say it to them. They need to get over that. And that's what she's telling them. Okay, you need to get over this, whatever it is. You're going to be alright. You're going to be alright. She sent someone to take away his sackcloth. But he received it not. He didn't take the clothes she sent him. You cannot take away someone else's sackcloth. You can't do it. Then called Esther for Hathak, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai to know what it was and why it was. So now she's finding out what the problem is. She realizes she needs to find out why he's grieving. Now, again, the story, a little bit of background. Esther is orphaned. Her cousin takes her in and raises her. She wants to speak. She can't speak to him, so she sends somebody out. He was sackcloth and ashes. He couldn't come into the palace. She would have got permission to go out of the palace, so she sent somebody else out. Then we have Mordecai's reply, chapter 4, verses 6-9. So, Hathak went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city which was before the king's gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him and of the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay the king's treasuries for the Jews to destroy them. And he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them." So this is how we know Esther didn't know yet because he's sending the copy of the decree to her. to show it to Esther and to declare it unto her and to charge her that she should go in unto the king to make supplication unto him and to make requests before him for the people. And Hathak came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. So he tells Esther just exactly what is going on. And then Esther finds out. He says, you need to go to the king. where she heard the message, responded through Hathak, it was out of the question. And there was a good reason for that. She had a reason for it. Esther 14-12, And Esther spake unto Hathak, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai, All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king in the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. But I have not been called to come unto the king for thirty days." So if you just go into the king's court and say, hey king, I want to talk to you a minute, kill him, kill her, all you have to do is say it. Unless he reached out the golden scepter and said, let them in, they'd be put to death. And as far as she knew, we've got to remember, getting into the background of the story, he's already got rid of one queen. Because she wouldn't come forth. And now, Mordecai has asked her to come forth when she hasn't been asked. And they told Mordecai Esther's words. So again, he tells her, you know, you're in position, you can do something. And she said, but I might die. At this point, we don't know how long she'd been queen, maybe months, maybe years, we don't know. And then we see Mordecai's understanding. He understood the predicament that Esther was in. Like she said, everybody knows that if you go in and he hasn't called you, he can have you put to death. And he understood that. But then verse 13, chapter 4, Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Now, this is one of the two famous lines in the book of Esther. Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? And we find ourselves perplexed sometimes. And we have to realize this first applies to us too. You could be where you are because that's where God wants you. Do we think we're perplexed, it's bad, we don't know what to do. God couldn't possibly want this for us. Well, have we been living for God? Have we been following God? Have we been listening to the Word of God? Have we been praying? And we're still in a bad situation? You're there for such a time as this. So he told her about three things. She was living in the palace. That was not going to save her. He also told her, if you keep your silence, You could die and God would bring deliverance from somewhere else. So he knew that God had promised a Messiah to come from the Jews. So that meant they weren't going to be annihilated. But he didn't know how it was going to come about, but God would not allow it to happen. He acknowledged that some of the Jews might be killed, but he knew some would survive. And if you remember the story back in Exodus, chapter 32, verses nine and 10, and the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it's a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation. See, God had already promised the Redeemer even back in Moses' day. But He could have killed them all but Moses and still fulfilled His promise. Mordecai told Esther that perhaps this was the whole reason that she was pulled out of her home and brought into the palace to start with. This was the moment. God and His sovereignty can use anything or anyone he wants to accomplish his will. And it seems that here Mordecai is beginning to perceive what God is doing. So then we see Esther's faith. When Esther heard Mordecai's message, she knew what she needed to do. But she wasn't able to do this under her own strength. And that's where we mess up sometimes. Well, I know how to handle this. I'll do this and this and it'll be taken care of. And we'll do this and this and we'll be in worse shape than we were to start with. So she sent back this answer. verse 15 through 17, then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish. But she knows that she's not going to be able to do that until she prays and fasts first and she gets her relationship completely right with God and listens to Him and knows how to do what she's going to do. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. So all the Jews inside the palace and all the Jews outside the palace In the city of Shushan and in the palace of Shushan, they're all praying and fasting. So Esther showed her faith in two ways. First, she showed her faith to fast. She knew what she needed to do. She shows her faith. She shows that she is a child of God by doing what's necessary. And she requested that all the Jews also do that. Now she must have had some spiritual influence in the palace because it says all the maidens. Now there's probably over 400 maidens in the palace and only a few of them are Jews. But all of them pray and fast. Then at the consummation of the three-day fast, she planned to go into the court of the king. Now through the book of Esther, God is not mentioned, but it is implied that he is working. It seems evident that Esther's fast was an expression of her humility toward God and dependence upon God. We must have dependence on God. Her decision to approach the king required faith and courage, for she didn't know her future outcome. If I perish, I perish. Before proclaiming her faith to die, she proved her life of faith through fasting. Now we see this in the Bible in another place. Now this is at the end, toward the end of where God had sent Israel out of the land of Israel. And some of them had already gone back. But at the beginning, when they were taken out into Babylon, there was also somebody that said almost the same thing. Remember the three Hebrews in the furnace? And they tell the king, he says, What God says do, if He delivers us, He does. If He doesn't, we'll die. Basically, they said the same thing. If I perish, I perish. I'm still going to do what God said. This was an expression of faith from a woman who committed to step into a need that she saw was greater than her own life. And that's what we got to do as Christians. And it may not be this great thing that we're going to die, But we have to realize that there is a greater need than our life. I'm going to quickly go through to the end of the story. Of course, if you've read the book, you know that she goes in. He does allow her to talk. And he does tell her, she does tell him what's going on and that she's a Jew. And then they find out that Haman was the one that done it. And Haman was of course executed instead of Mordecai, instead of all the Jews. But how did Esther have that faith to die? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, 6, Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are yet home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So how does Paul and Esther have this faith to die for God because they had faith to live for God? Esther did not try to do God's job for him. That's right. When we commit our works and circumstances to God, He establishes our ways. See, we want to make our own way. We want to decide how to do it. But if we'll commit our works to Him, our lives to Him, and then commit our circumstances to Him, He will show us what way to go. Proverbs 16, one through three. The preparation of the heart in a man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. If we commit our works, if we're living for God, he will show us what we need to do. There might be a situation in your life right now you don't know what to do. You're perplexed. You're in the water. You're trying to break through that glass. You're almost there. You know where you were and you can't get back to that normal. Like Esther, draw an eye to him, obey and watch him work. He loves you and his plans for you are good even if they cost everything. Esther was willing to give her life for her people Jesus Christ did give his life to save you and if you are here saved today then he will work things out in your life and there are times and we we know that good people do die but don't let it be that you didn't do what God said and you died. Let it be what you did do what God said. You can trust Him with your salvation and you can trust Him for your this, whatever it is. You can trust Him. You trusted Him to save you. You trusted Him to take you to heaven. If you're here this morning, you've never received Christ as Savior. He did die. for your sins. He died for my sins. He died for everyone's sin. And He wants to save you. If you're here this morning and you are saved, you may be going through a situation and you don't know what to do. Just get back to the basics. Live for God. Do everything you know to do what you're supposed to do and He'll show you the way. If you're here and you know somebody that's in sackcloth and ashes, they're mourning, they're grieving, and you don't understand why. If they ask you to do something for them, do it. If they don't ask you to do it, don't do it. But there's one thing that we know God wants us to do for them, and that is to pray for them. And it's very difficult to watch somebody in mourning, to watch somebody with difficulty, and not come up with your own idea of what they need to do. But we have to pray. And if you do something for them, you better make sure you know God is telling you to do that. Not that you think it's a good idea. Not that everybody thinks it's a good idea. It's God telling you to do that. Psalm 1311. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. Only if you are willing to put on the sackcloth can God take the sackcloth off. We must be able to pray and seek God's will if we want His answer. Ms. Susan comes and plays for us. or she's coming. Can we stand to our feet? Maybe you're here this morning and you're going through some difficult time. Just pray to God about it. Maybe you know somebody going through a difficult time. You need to pray for them. Maybe you're here and you've never received Christ for salvation. Listen, hell is worse than anything that you can come up against. Any problem you can have here on this earth is not as bad as facing hell if you don't receive Christ as Savior. I'd like to have every head bowed and every eye closed. Every head bowed and every eye closed. If you're here this morning and you're not saved, I'd like to pray for you. If you're here and you're not saved this morning, would you lift your hand just asking for prayer? Pray for me, preacher. I've never received Christ as Savior or I don't know that I'm going to heaven. I'd like to pray for you, anyone at all. Please pray for me, I don't know that I'm going to heaven. I'm going to let these prayers run the altar here for just a little while. Maybe you need to come. It's another moment. We'll be closing in prayer. Lord, we thank you for this day that you've given us, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for the Word of God. Lord, I want to pray now, Lord, for those that may be going through a difficult time in their lives And Lord, I pray for them. I pray, Lord, that you would show them what they need to do. Lord, comfort them, Lord, in a time when they just cannot figure out what they need to do to get back to the normal. And, Lord, they want to live the life for you that they've been living. They want to live for you. But, Lord, there's something coming in their lives that is so great that they just can't get back to that. Lord, I pray for them. I pray you'd strengthen them, Lord, through the Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would guide anybody Lord knows someone, Lord, that they pray for them. individually, Lord, and that God, that you would strengthen them. Then, Lord, we pray also, Lord, for one that may be here lost today that's never received Christ as Savior. Lord, I pray the Holy Spirit would speak to their heart. Lord, you love them. Lord, you love them just as much as you love me. You love everyone the same, Lord, and you want to save them. Lord, but they must ask you, Lord. They must ask forgiveness, must recognize their self as a sinner. Just like everyone that goes to heaven, they must recognize their self as a sinner and ask you to forgive them. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.