A Living Sacrifice
Lessons from Esther
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good morning welcome if you're new here Among Us my name is Jean I serve here at C3 Church as your lead pastor and if you are new here Among Us there's something in the worship service that you won't have to worry about today that is the passing of the collection plate or buckets or whatever it is right so some Churches this comes down the aisle but they have I don't know if you've seen this before stick attached to it so like you can't take it and so they pull it back right but some Churches I've seen the plate I've seen the bucket I've seen the bucket with the holes in the bottom you don't have to worry about yeah that's a real thing you don't have to worry about that at all why well we always kind of look at what we're doing and we say why are we doing that or is it encouraging bad behavior or is it making people feel bad so you could be like the woman with the two copper coins that's all you had to give but it doesn't look like you're giving much we don't want to put anyone on the spot maybe you gave online already so I don't know you know so it's not anyone's business or it could tempt someone to be like the Pharisee who puts in a large amount of money in front of everyone so we did away with that now it's not like we don't encourage giving we're a non-profit and clearly we rely on your generosity to do the things that we're doing it's not the point and I'll encourage bad behavior so it made me think of a story of a young girl who attended a very traditional Church where they passed the plate they didn't have the stick though so the pastor that day had preached on Romans chapter 12. and so sermon was over time for the offering plates coming down dad puts in the usual amount as it goes by the girl she grabs the plate no people were thinking maybe she's going to put in some change she had some leftover after buying gum or whatever right can you yeah well anyway so so she takes the plate looks at it stands up and starts to walk out and people are kind of get stuck you're in shock and you're like what's going on the mom's like told you right you know so you know she's going out but she doesn't go out she comes right up to the front she puts the collection I'm not done it's just gonna get better she puts it she puts the collection plate down on the floor sits down takes her shoes off puts the shoes to the side stands back up foreign plate you see Romans 12 says that we are to make our bodies a Living Sacrifice this is the way we worship God looked like she got the point I've had funnier ones but then you know we're going in a different all right so just to recap we're sticking with seams we're trying to put the Bible in chronological ish order but I don't want to break from some of these important themes I'm trying to do large sections of the story so that you can kind of see them and so they become a little bit more apparent in here and so we looked at Ezra Nehemiah we looked at finding balance so Nehemiah the governor he's very practical and then he had Ezra the priest he's very spiritual and so there's a time and place for all those things in our lives that's where we were so we kind of closed that theme there and I showed you we had a chart and so it's going to be the same chart as last week and you're going to see that Esther is in the midst of this so that's where we're talking about King Xerxes all right so in Ezra 4 and then Esther the whole book would have just been right there she's dealing with King Xerxes at this time then artaxerxes was later so that's what we were looking at so we're going to go in the past a bit here and look at the Book of Esther again we're trying to look at the whole story so think of it this way if you're new I'm not going to go into it too deep for those of you been here oh there he goes on that whole thing again it's like watching a movie you want to sit down you want to watch the whole movie and then you get the whole point right you don't want to sit there just watching little Snippets of the movie not good so we're going to look at all of Esther I'm not going to give you every word or detail all right so just just kind of the story here so let's hop right in Esther one one these events happen in the days of King Xerxes so there's your timeline who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia at that time Xerxes ruled his Empire from his Royal Throne at The Fortress of Souza in the third year of his Reign he gave a banquet for all his Nobles and officials he invited all the Military Officers of Persia and media as well as the princes and Nobles of the provinces the celebration lasted 180 days a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his Empire and the pump and Splendor of his majesty so if we continue here in chapter one that's not enough he's going to have like a Seven Day banquet with a no drink limit that's what's going to happen here it specifically says she has no end to the drinking they're just drinking and drinking and drinking and he gets to a point where he's like I'm going to show off my wife the queen she's beautiful queen vashti so he calls for her right so she's going to come in here and look at all my stuff look at my woman here here's the thing she refuses the invitation he's not happy all right so he's very very angry he asks officials like what do you think we should do there's a little comedy in here if you're thinking about it because they say wait a minute now all our women are going to disobey us too they're not going to listen to us so we've got to make a decree so they basically banish her this is she that's it no more in the king's presence you're not gonna come in and then you know hey all the wives they need to listen to their husbands so they issue this decree here and there's eggs I'm going to stop right there Esther 2-1 but after Xerxes anger has had subsided he began thinking about vashti and what she had done and the decree he had made so his personal attendance suggested let's search the Empire to find beautiful young virgins for the king let the king appoint agents in each province to bring these beautiful young women into the Royal Harem at The Fortress of Susa hey guy the king's eunuch in charge of them will see that they are all given beauty treatments after that the young woman who pleases the king most will be made Queen instead of ashti this advice was very appealing to the king sure it was so he put the plan into effect at that time there was a Jewish Man in The Fortress of Souza whose name was Mordecai son of jair he was from The Tribe of Benjamin and was a descendant of Kish and shimier his family had been among those who king jehoiachin of Judah had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar this man had a very beautiful and lovely young cousin Hadassah who was also called Esther when her father and mother died Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter so a couple of important points to notice as we keep reading if you're going to read this Esther doesn't tell anybody that she's Jewish so it makes note of this in here and that's important so what happens is they're gathered up she gains the favor of this haggai guy and she he likes him they get 12 months of beauty treatments sound pretty good right ladies you can go and get 12 months at the spa special beauty treatments and so they go through this whole thing and the longer Story made a little bit shorter is that Esther an audience with the King he likes her best she's really beautiful he makes her Queen so now she is made Queen and again she keeps the nationality secret doesn't tell her husband that she's Jewish now there's a very little thing where Mordecai stops a plot we're going to come back to that later there too other people there they want to assassinate the king and so Mordecai stops it there's a couple different little variations here on this but essentially in this one through Esther finds out Mordecai does the king good Esther 3-1 if we turn the page sometime later King Xerxes promoted Haman the sum of son of hamadutha the agagite over all the other Nobles making him the most powerful official in the Empire all the king's officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by for so the king had commanded but Mordecai refused to bow down or show any respect why and that's what the other people are asking him why why aren't you doing that there's no clear answer but if you know the word really well the fact that he's an agagite gives us a little clue if you know the word really well and you know one of the reasons Saul first king of Israel lost the throne he was supposed to wipe out king agag and all his stuff he doesn't do it so Samuel ends up killing him so could be bad blood here between the Jewish people and we see that this last generations and generations a little clue there as to why maybe not said or definitive so we don't know so here's the thing he gets so mad about it that it's not enough to take care of Mordecai alone he's going to wipe out all the Jewish people all of them so he does something that is kind of weird to us today it says that they're poor or poor him he has lost Lots cast so basically like rolling dice to decide what day this whole thing was going to happen and then he comes up with the whole thing and approaches the king with it so it'll be like on our calendar March 7th-ish and so they're going to enact this plan on this day kill all the Jewish people he tries to give the king it's a massive amount of money it says I think 10 000 talents so it's about 375 tons of silver so like a large payoff to get this thing done he's very invested clearly in this whole thing he just basically says look these people are no good right so they just worship their God they don't really obey our laws and stuff so let's kill him let's wipe them out the king agrees here's the Signet ring go ahead get it done keep your money just do your thing and so this is what happens Xerxes approves if you turn the page Mordecai Mordecai he hears about it first and so you know he's doing what the Jewish people would do you know he's he's grieving and mourning you know he's showing he's begging basically God like hey stop this thing from happening Esther finds out he is doesn't know why so she sends him like regular clothes they're not supposed to go in with the sackcloth and stuff like that he refuses it and then sends word to her as to why he's so upset tells her about the decree and says you got to stop it makes sense you're a queen there's a problem you're only supposed to gain the audience of the king if he invites you she hasn't been invited for 30 days that's a problem if someone comes in like that they get killed unless he holds out the gold scepter it's like the sign that it's all good so Mordecai sends word back listen don't think that you're going to escape this destruction and perhaps maybe you're you were sent for a Time such as this like use the position so very important here's a real central theme Here Esther 4 15 then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai go and gather together all the Jews of Souza and fast for me do not eat or drink for three days day or night My Maids and I will do the same and then though it is against the law I will go in to see the king if I must die I must die so Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him there's your key verse if I had to pick one verse that is important from this account that Esther 5-1 if we turn the page on the third day of the feet the fast Esther put on her royal robes and entered the inner Court of the palace just across from the king's Hall the King was sitting on his Royal Throne facing the entrance when he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner Court he welcomed her and held out the gold scepter to her so Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter then the king asked her what do you want Queen Esther what is your request I will give it to you even if it is half the kingdom I'm going to count those that's one so here you have that very famous scene on this artwork here there it is and Esther replied if he please the king let the king and Haman come today to a banquet I've prepared for the king so the king says tell Haman let's go to the banquet they get there now tell me what you really want the king says what is your request I'll give it to you even if it is half the kingdom so she says come with me tomorrow to a banquet I have prepared and then I'll tell you what it's all about so Haman leaves and he's a happy man for several reasons right he's getting invited to these exclusive Banquets but he sees Mordecai and Mordecai is not bowing down to him so he gets with his family and friends his wife zarish and he's bragging about all his accomplishments how big his family is his wealth all his stuff and by the way I get invited to these exclusive Banquets right so he's bragging about himself but he says all this is worth nothing as long as Mordecai the Jew like basically disrespects me like that so they give them an idea his wife's and his friends say set up a sharpened pole 75 feet tall and ask the king to impale a mordecai on it that sounds like a great idea so he had the poll set up segue to the king now late that night the King has trouble sleeping so he hasn't bringing the book to have it read to him like the accomplishments of the reign of Xerxes and so finally to get to the account of Mordecai and the Assassins now you may think like wait a minute doesn't he know about this he's a busy guy so he says what's been done for Mordecai what have we given him he said nothing we didn't do anything for Mordecai so then he sees Haman enters the scene he says who's that in the court that's Haman bring Haman in here and so what's funny is the king doesn't say anything about Mordecai the king just says what should be done for someone who honors the king like this haman's thinking he's thinking about me so he said go get the Royal robes that the King has worn and a horse he's ridden on like an emblem on us it's a very fancy thing right and then parade that person around the city and say this is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor the king says to Haman excellent go get Mordecai and you do that for him so he does it right so of course he's totally embarrassed he's dejected he comes home he complains to his family his family is like great now there's nothing you're going to be able to do to this guy right so then the eunuchs just come and they escort ham into the banquet now we're at the banquet scene again Esther 7-1 so the king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet on the second occasion while they were drinking wine the king asked again to Esther tell me what you want Queen Esther what is your request I will give it to you even if it's half the kingdom and I Esther this is another thing where it's kind of vague she doesn't talk about the specific decree that they're all worried about she just says spare my people basically it's really strange you got to remember that when you're reading it it's very vague because she's setting something up here and the King's like you know who would who would do something like this against Eerie people that Wicked Haman and she points to Haman so what happens now is the king gets very angry he leaves the court haman's pale with fright and he goes to plead with Esther but falls down on the couch she's sitting on the king comes in will you even assault the queen and the servants come along and cover haman's face signaling his Doom so then harbona this king's eunuch that's his name he points out the fact that look there's a sharpened pole that he was going to execute Mordecai on who saved the king execute Haman on the pole and so that's what happens this is the Fate so then the king's anger subsides chapter 8. on the same day King Xerxes gave the property of Haman the enemy of the Jews to Queen Esther then Mordecai was brought before the king for Esther had told the king finally how they were related the king took off his Signet ring which he had taken back from Haman and given it to Mordecai and Esther appointed Mordecai to be in charge of haman's property so the rest of Esther I'm just going to kind of close it kind of in short here you see that the king makes a decree Esther does the gold scepter thing again and she basically asks for a counter decree it's kind of interesting it took me a long time a few reads through Esther through the years to really understand what's going on here it's not necessarily reversal it might say that but not necessarily it's just another decree because he says once we do this and has a king seal on it we can't reverse it what the decree gives them permission that is the Jewish people is to defend themselves against anybody who might attack them that's the decree and then you can take plunder too there's something noted in there so let me see if the Jews celebrate chapter nine it finally comes the day comes March 7th and so they it says that they struck down their enemies with the sword they annihilated so many people and they kill 500 people and haman's ten Sons this is important so the king brings Esther and tells her those facts what more do you want and this is virtual comical she's interesting she's like let's do it again tomorrow and those ten dead Sons I want them impaled or hung on the pole it's not enough that they're dead we're just going to re-kill them right and then put them on display for everybody so then the next day the eighth they go out and do it and the next day 300 more people in Souza alone it says in the 500 enthusa alone plus throughout the province is 75 000 people are slaughtered but they did not take any plunder and makes note of that so Purim this Festival is now established Esther makes a decree chapter 10 it concludes with a very short paragraph basically talking about like the the glory of Xerxes and Mordecai it's very very like Poetic and big now here's a few things I want to point out and I'm not going to get into the whole like history of it again and again and again you can go back to the beginner series and watch it if you have some interest in this but it's worth noting that if you looked at the Bible of the early church it's different especially the Old Testament New Testament not very different the Old Testament very different that's about go back 350 BD a couple things about it whereas noting it's all in Greek even the Old Testament that's the language Franco of the day they're writing the New Testament in Greek why would they be doing anything else from the Old Testament except Greek and so if you look in your Bibles you'll see little lxx lxx that's the Septuagint it's telling you that the translators needed to go away from the Hebrew and to the Greek to get some of the prophecies and stuff about Jesus so it is what it is and if we go through history even the 1611 King James Bible is different than the King James Bible today so we're dealing with a bigger Old Testament 11 to 14 more books so we don't divide so what was it like last week I talked about like this literal creation we're not going to argue about that you're still a Christian no matter what you believe same thing some Christians 60 view those extra books as scripture they believe they belong in the Bible forty percent of Christians do not so it's actually Protestants are in the minority there so we are a non-denominational church that means we don't squabble about the secondary things we keep the gospel at the center the things about Jesus and salvific or thing no big words things that save you right so if you believe things about these other books are not unsaved if you believe in a literal creation or a non-literal creation save save right well there we go we don't fight about other stuff the Bible teaches us that don't squabble over those things so with that being said it's a different Bible and it was like that for about 1500 years-ish of Christianity it's only recently that this minority group is reading a smaller Old Testament Kennedy so being that we are a non-denominational church we look at them right and so you can decide on your own whether it's scripture but I'm going to point out the pros and cons here of another book so if you're familiar with these books another one might come to mind either in similarity or proximity it's close to where Esther's at and so I'll show you a couple of things here if we look there on your left that is the lexum English Septuagint that is the Greek uh version or translation from the Greek and you see right next to Esther that blue arrow Arrow there Judith there's another book right there the other one is a 1611 King James Bible and that is Judith that's the story of Judith nestled right in there in the King James Bible so this is an interesting story and it's a real shame that people don't look at the history of the Bible to know that hey your great granddaddy or whatever it was how old you are you know it was in his Bible and they read it so even if you don't think it's script that's fine great but you're culturally missing something like so think about how many other works you read The Iliad or something or you know you read this book that everyone's read but you haven't read something that was in the Bible for 1500 years so I really think it's sad when people turn a blind eye to it and I was showing you with Daniel and Maccabees how it helps you connect a lot of dots these were in here for a reason so even if people didn't think they were scripture they're in there to educate you about some of the other books so it's a shame and so all throughout history people have known about this a lot of people don't understand there's a painting of it in the Sistine Chapel so Michelangelo it's right there now once you learn the story if you don't know it that's crazy that that's right this is Dean Chapel yes naked man with head cut off it's in there so culturally it's enriching Vivaldi Mozart they boat wrote wrote songs based on this story and so people throughout history knew it so it would be weird you know that that you didn't know this story as a Christian going all the way through Christianity people would be like huh what's wrong with you don't you know Judas now here's the thing about Judas I'm going to tell you the story here it's a slow burn I think that's what we would say today maybe like Andor so it's nobody left okay so it's a real slow bar it takes kind of a while to get there not that slow right so but it's an amazing story it's a really good like if they did like a short movie or something like man it is a really really really well written story so the first seven chapters they focus on these military campaigns we have Nebuchadnezzar and his General General depending on how you pronounce it holofernese halafernese right so Nebuchadnezzar he wants to attack this guy our factset echopathana is the city and so he calls on all the other nations to join him in this attack and then they don't he wins the attack takes over the city then you're introduced to the general who then goes on this military campaign and he's enacting revenge on all the people that didn't help them so it's like seven chapters of that pretty detailed through all the things and there's some interactions with this guy ikior regarding the Jewish people they're going to attack the Jews and he kind of warns them I think he's going to ammonite he warns him he's like listen and you give us a little history of the Bible and he tells us it's a pretty good summary whenever they sin God uses other nations to punish them when they don't sin they're they're kept safe and so if they're sinning you'll get them if they're not don't because you can't fight against God don't don't do that so that's the basic Point well he goes in anyway the general and he sets up a Siege and he's pretty smart he traps him in there he cuts off the water supply and they're starving sure enough 34 days later I believe it is they're starving out the people come to like the elders there uziah's name not the same uziah just a popular name and like we're starving that's it let's just surrender because we're gonna die anyway and he says something interesting you don't think it's bad until it's brought up he's like well you know I'll do wait five days if God bails us out in five days okay then we'll surrender enter Judith and so she enters a scene in in the eighth chapter she's a beautiful woman much like Esther but she's a widow she's been a widow for three years but she's very religiously fast she prays all the time she lives like on the rooftop of her house but beautiful big key here she rebukes the elders that's what she's saying about this is that don't lay down conditions for God and as she says this it makes me stop you ever do that you're going to lay down conditions for God like I'll do that if right you know or if this happens you ever do that like game when you're a kid like if I make this basket I'll win Lotto next week it would be that kind of thing so so you know it's like that she's pointing out how ridiculous this is this is stupid God can do whatever he wants so interesting part of the story she tells him she has a plan but she doesn't say what it is we never know right here well we do but we don't know at this point so what she does is she gets herself all done she's already a beautiful woman but gets herself all dialed up you know she has right clothes and gets everything done right she leaves the city and she tells the soldier she who approach her she's defecting and that she has a message for the King again it doesn't tell him what the message is and it's cause there's some comedy in here because they're basically like okay they're awestruck they say somebody yeah sure you know but they say like she's saying it's very comical because essentially I'm paraphrasing they say This Woman's so beautiful we have to kill all these Jews because there's no way we're ever going to get anything they assume that these men are great too like you know they had to kill all of them right and so but they're like yeah let's go see the king so they send 100 men to take her to the game basically a long story short General is the same way or the guy keeps saying king sorry guys to see the general it's not the king and it's the general so she goes and see him holla for knees Hall of fernies she goes to see him same kind of thing but now you still don't know what's going on and you don't know the story here's what I'm going to do she kind of says what akr says like basically like you can beat them if they sin so I'm going to go out at night basically like out of the camp and I'm gonna pray and God's gonna tell me when they sin then I'll let you know then you'll attack him and you'll destroy them why would she do that you'll find out so three days goes by fourth day she she uh there's a feast he holds a feast the general not the king the general holds this Feast again the comedy he drinks more than he's ever Drank in his whole life right so he's drunk and again comical statements bring Judas in here if I said Esther during the story I met Judith I was reversing them when I was going over this before bring Judas in right I got it basically he says I gotta have a crack at that you know like let me get a chance at being with her okay bring it he does what a lot of people who drink more than they ever have in their entire life do he passes out she goes up to him short quiet prayer to God give me strength in this grabs him by the hair takes his own sword whacks at his neck two times till his head comes off puts it in the bag she has a servant girl with her and they go off but they get away why because they've been doing that for three days no one's a wiser brings it back everybody celebrates this is great she's like I got another plan we're gonna put his head on the wall but then we're just gonna go out and attack them and here's what they're gonna do they're going to find their General beheaded they're gonna freak out scatter you'll attack him kill him that's what happens and that's what goes down the last few chapters are 16 chapters long are interesting because it ends with these like songs of Victory recounting like these Heroes of the story here and it should remind you of Deborah like so when you get to judges five the song of Barack and Deborah should remind you of that and then there are things about this story that are very very very similar here here to uh like when jail uses the tent pig to kill Cicero in the tent so another woman killing a general and indeed that's a similarity here there are also similarities to Esther and Judith that are quite obvious and you can see why they traditionally were right next to one another there but here's the thing they're beautiful they use it to their advantage but they're both sacrificial remember Esther key verse if I must die I must die Judith when she's going out she makes a statement the Lord will use me to rescue the people of Israel she's putting herself in quite the spot just affecting in the first place is very dangerous of course she has the advantage right but it's a dangerous thing you're going to go into the enemies General's tent you're crazy right with this plan that she had that she didn't tell anyone about sacrificial people certainly The Bravery and willingness to sacrifice themselves for others is like a common theme that we're getting here now going back to like not being in the Bible now people ask me why it's really not a long story it's a short one there was just a Publishing Company of a certain group of I believe the Scottish Protestants they were like nope we're not printing this anymore because they just didn't like it but if you go back through history even Martin Luther said that these books are good to read right so it's just weird you know what I mean like they were in Luther's German translation as well you had no problem with it so it's just a very strange thing in the mid-1800s they just stopped printing them in the Bible it just became like a thing monkey see monkey do that's it so here's what they do people try to explain why they don't know and so they just make stuff up that's what's happened through the years and it's really all the arguments together they're very silly so I'll give you one proposed one deceit so people say of Judas GDC she uses deceit to accomplish the goal God would never let anyone do that okay Abraham what does he say to Pharaoh right this is my sister it's half true gross but yeah this is my sister so that he won't get killed because she's really really beautiful and then he does it again to abimelech of garage my sister it causes these people big problems deceit Isaac does it too probably the same guy abimelech king of Gerard but he's totally lying it's not Rebecca's not his sister but that's what he does there David you know akish of gath he was scared he pretends he's crazy to Kingfishers to get himself off the hook Esther imagine that like it's kind of important that the king your husband knows what nationality you are especially if you're making all these decrees she doesn't tell him I kind of call that deceit right get married to someone and there's like this whole really important thing about them that you don't know deceit there's deceit in that too now another proposed problem with Judas is that it is pretty obvious that it's a fictional work and so just like the original author I left out some details and both cases they're important and they're on purpose the author does this on purpose it's kind of when you attribute things to other people or you make certain characters and the Persona of a certain person and so he says it's Nebuchadnezzar but then he keeps calling the Army uh enemy Army the Assyrians and if you know anything that's wrong I know you can answer your baby language and now if you read you know you just read the good stuff good historical stuff they'll say clearly this very very best-selling book of all time the authors of this are not going to make mistakes that are so obvious they're doing it like a wink you know what I mean this is not supposed to be real right it's in the personas so it's the moral of the story here and this is funny and this gets me when certain Christians don't grasp this because this is the way Jesus teaches right who's the prodigal son what's his name nobody knows right the father you don't know they symbolize people it's just a parable the parable of the slower we gotta throw that out because we don't know his name Jesus is not telling a real historical account see the problem with that Judith it's not supposed to you're supposed to get a moral of the story here and so there that's in the Bible all over the place so it's another bad argument and a lot of people don't know we're not going to stay here too long but it's also a set of Esther and so it's worth noting if you read like rabbinic commentaries uh the rabbis didn't usually put Esther in the historical section they put it in the wisdom section and when you look at your Bible the way if you're in America you might see it Esther would be here than job would start but the way a rabbi might see it and so this history is the beginning of the Poetry section where Rabbi might go poetry section it's just one book off so it's the way we perceive these things it was very well known that there is no historical record of a Queen Esther so a lot of people put it there believe what you will about it another proposed problem and this is interesting so today we're going to get really interesting for Esther is that the Book of Esther is one of only two books of the shortest count in the Bible or any canon in the Bible two books don't mention God once Song of Songs or Song of Solomon and Esther now one mention of God not even like the Lord nothing no mention no suggestion about God it's not in there one time unless you're reading the Bible of the early church Greek Esther if you read Greek Esther they're going to talk about it a lot it begins with Mordecai's dream he has like this Vision or dream mentions God after the whole if I die I die there we get extra prayers Mordecai's prayer Esther's prayer mention God mention God the scene of Esther coming into like the king's court more dramatic give us a little in more information and so she faints not once but twice she thinks she's gonna die so it really drives that that verse home right if I must die I must die she's like passing out she's so scared and then he gives her an advantage right the king feels sorry for her it's a beautiful woman passed out he's like oh so it's this much more dramatic kind of scene here and it gives us a little bit more emotion behind what Esther must be going through you put yourself there all of these sections mention God and for example during that little short snippet I told you about the plot to kill the king where Mordecai stops it this is Greek Esther 220. Esther still wasn't telling anyone her family background and race as Mordecai had ordered her she continued to worship God and Obey God's commands just as when she was in his care Esther didn't change the way she lived another really interesting thing is Greek Esther ends with a PostScript that's kind of important instead of glorifying Xerxes and Mordecai Mordecai glorifies God and the short section of this paragraph mentions God no less than five times God God over and over again now the irony here of the absence of God in this book is that it misses the whole point what's the point here what are we taking away we must trust in God no matter how difficult the circumstance may seem ultimately what that means is ultimately are Eternal good that's ultimately what it means that's the takeaway here we must not be short-sighted trusting in this life alone if I must die I must die that's Faith it's trusting that we know where we're going when that happens true faith so no matter how bad these battles may seem in our lives right how powerful these worldly forces that come at us are even in suffering we must trust we must have faith in where we're going that's the perspective and then he continues to work out everything for the good of those who love him what does that make you think of Romans 8 28. true but in Romans 8 we find another Verse of the Day problem if you just look at this singularly just all by itself and you don't know Romans really well you may be tempted to look at and say okay and we know that God causes what everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them look at that by itself you may think great right so I'm going to pray that I'm going to look at the verse of the day put that away now forget about the Bible and God and I'm just going to go out I'm going to get the new job I'm going to get the new car I'm going to get lots of money because God's gonna work out it says everything it's the Bible it's the word of God can't be wrong everything so my life should be absolutely perfect because I love him and people there are people who subscribe to that and then what happens it doesn't go well uh oh what am I doing wrong not reading job like that so you know it's not going perfectly for me what's wrong well they're going to come to one of two conclusions either my faith isn't good I don't have enough faith I don't really love God or there's no such thing as God that's why that's bad you're like what's the big deal Pastor it's a very big deal people lose their faith they lose their faith it's no good all because they didn't know the context that's what I want to show you here this might shock some people we're going to look at it I'm not going to read all of Romans 8 but like we'll get through it and then I'll close Romans 8. a lot of people don't understand why Romans was written Roman was not written Paul did not sit down pridefully and say let me write the greatest theory of logical work that was ever made no there's disunity in the church if you read acts 18 you know some of the Jews are kicked out I remember Claudius then when he's gone they're allowed to come back in but in the meantime the Gentiles are running the church and it becomes like a very non-jewish thing but Christianity Jesus is Jewish it's a very Jewish thing in the beginning and so they're fighting and so Romans 1 the Gentiles have sinned okay these two groups Romans 2 you too Jews if you're so good teach yourself the Jews of sin three Level Playing Field we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God for Abraham's Faith you're saved by faith not all these little Works you're doing so stop it it doesn't matter do good but the law is not bad but just quit bragging about it right so five through seven Adam and Christ contrasted that's what that's all about and it's leading us into eight six we're no longer slaves to sin you're not bound by that you're not obligated to sin and here in eight you're not obligated all right sorry you're not you're yeah you're not bound to sin you're not obligated to it you're saved by the power of the spirit and so it's all about suffering living sacrificially by the power of the spirit Romans 8 1. so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus and because you belong to him the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death so don't stop reading at Romans 7. bad idea right you are not under the obligation to follow your sinful nature that's the point here so if we hop a little bit Romans 8 15 you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves instead you receive God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children now we call him Abba Father for his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children and since we are his children we are as heirs in fact together with Christ we are Heirs of God's glory but if we are to share his glory we must also share his suffering yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory that he will reveal to us later for all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal to his children reveal who his children really are if we jump a little and the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness for example we don't know what God wants us to pray for but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words and the father knows all Hearts who knows all Hearts knows what the spirit is saying but the spirit pleads for us Believers in harmony with God's Own will and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them looks a little different now doesn't it it's all for our good but not now now we must suffer for Christ that's interesting he says a little bit more about it Romans 8 35 can anything ever separate us from God's loving Christ does it mean that he no longer loves us if we have trouble or Calamity or are persecuted or hungry or destitute or endangered or threatened with death as the scriptures say for your sake we are being killed every day we're being slaughtered like sheep not the verse of the day ever no despite all these things overwhelming Victory Is Ours through Christ who loved us and convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love neither death nor life neither angels nor demons these are fears for today nor worries about tomorrow not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love no power in the sky above or in the earth below indeed nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our lord nothing that's the point it's our future good nothing here is good right so no matter what we're going through we're looking for that future Victory in Jesus that's it can be really bad but no nothing is better than that and God loves us so much and He sent Jesus to die for us think about that reflect on that when you think your life is hard that's the point and here's the thing so 9 through 11 of Romans Paul's addressing his Kinsmen that's really what that's all about those are Jewish people what happens to the ones that didn't accept Jesus that's the overlying context we get to Romans 12. this is this and so are therefore brothers and sisters I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you let them be a living and holy sacrifice the kind he will find acceptable this is how you worship Him Jesus sacrificed himself for us and in turn he expects us to live sacrificially be like Jesus it says it all over the New Testament what we learn from Esther's example if I must die I must die is sacrificial living it's true faith and by living that way I'm not saying we go out and try to get ourselves killed and just it's worth noting in the early church some people had so much Faith they knew what I'm going to talk about next that they would actually it was a problem they were trying to get themselves like put into the Coliseum games so that they would get beheaded or killed for Jesus because that meant something significant that I'll talk about in a minute but on that note that's not what I'm saying Esther doesn't die and that may work out for us too not everything we do it's just living sacrificially for one another it could be very small things but just putting people ahead of yourselves that's it right so it could be traffic in Naples if you've got a Jesus fish in your car let the person in the line right you know stop doing this to me you know and the answer is it's not just take the Jesus official off your garden no you know like whilst I'm not going to be a Christian right so this is guaranteeing that I'm going to do the wrong thing no but right just simple things right start there tip service was bad so it's my job to enact Justice on this waiter waitress whose husband could have left her you know what I mean you don't know how have mercy God had mercy on you have Grace God has Grace over you none of us deserves any of this and so the waiter waitress tip them more that's what I do tell them they probably need a pick-me-up starts I think that that's what this means that's what Romans 12 means that's worship you anybody can come in here and sing a bunch of Lies that's not worship it is worship it's it but it's an extension of Romans 12. if you weren't doing Romans 12 it's just singing that's all that is if you were doing Romans 12 that's worship that's the way it works that's what the Bible says all over the place Isaiah 1 Amos 5. Peter talks about it take away the noise of your songs if you're not living sacrificially that's the point so this is what we should be learning from that but here's the thing guys I want to show you a little something and we'll wrap up it doesn't always mean we die but no one can escape that no one can escape that you cannot we're all going to die I used to end staff meetings that way we're all going to die just remember that change is the way you live though if you think you may die at any minute so live sex that's what that means live knowing you are going to die you cannot delay it so let's just take a look at something I want to give you some real Biblical encouragement this morning so we see something similar I talked about Mark 6 yesterday and so I gave you the layout of the chapter there it's kind of moving quick Jesus is rejected in his own Hometown he sends the disciples and then I showed you that they come back and we looked at that but in the meantime mark is telling a good story here and so what he does is the disciples are away it's really neat he kind of recalls the fate of John the Baptist and John the Baptist he's the messiah's herald if you know about him right he baptized Jesus and he paved the way my voice crying out in the wilderness so Isaiah 41 Malachi 31. so he's that guy but he's a preacher he's a good preacher and he's a really hard preacher you think I'm bad forget about it you brood vipers you know like he's really bad you're ready Pat so he's real bad and so what he's doing is he's telling King Herod the tetrarch he's like this client King there he's telling King Herod that he can't be with his brother's wife the guys with his brother Philip's wife herodius you can't do that it's no good it's bad you shouldn't do that so he's going at him the king is kind of a fan the wife not so much so here's what happens Mark 6 21 herodius's chance finally came on Harry's birthday he gave a party for his high government officials army officers and the leading citizens of Galilee then his daughter herodias herself came and performed a dance that greatly pleased Herod and his guests ask me for anything you like the king said to the girl and I will give it to you even bowed I will give you whatever you ask up to half my kingdom she went out and asked her mother what should I ask for her mother told her ask for the head of John the Baptist sound familiar up to half my kingdom well John gets his head cut off silk gross story but a platter head on a platter here you go what do we learn John is killed for being in keeping with God's commands John is killed for preaching the truth John is killed for preaching the truth but where's John's comfort here's the thing Jesus says this may happen to us too what are the prerequisites for baptism deny yourself pick up your cross what does that mean you may get killed for this he gives really stern warnings what general with only ten thousand men would go out against another general of 20. before he calculates the cost it ain't anything like the way we're doing it today hey let's let's water park yay never turning back can we get like a t-shirt and everything that happens what so here's the thing this is what the early Christians will look at we've looked at this in the series we must believe that we will achieve victory we achieve Victory by finishing strong if you read it to the end that's what it says and you'll notice something if you're reading it there's this group of people that has been beheaded specifically you might say martyred in your version they got their heads cut off like John the Baptist chopped what happens well Jesus has to comfort them they they kind of come up and say Jesus what are you going to do relax I'll give you white robes in the meantime but what we see happens is there are two resurrections the ones specifically that were martyred for the faith they get to rise up first and reign with Jesus first judging all the nations there's a first resurrection and a second one if you're reading it literally one thousand years if you get your head chopped off for Jesus and you believe the word of God if you really believe it well you take comfort in knowing that you'll get to reign with Jesus for a thousand years sounds pretty cool and so the people of the faith that had probably none of the distractions we do they held on to this they believed this and so should we no matter how bad it gets check this out Revelation 3 1. we'll be on the throne right like Esther Revelation 3 21 those who are victorious that means finishing strong to the end and we'll sit with me on my Throne just as I was Victorious how I'm being crucified and sat with my father on his throne see we see a pre-figure of reward for sacrifice and Esther it's all prefiguring pointing to Jesus Esther gives us a foreshadowing of the reward for self-sacrifice that we will achieve in Christ upon his return this is our faith we must trust that God will raise us to a new life in Christ when he returns we should expect this world to be as evil as it is and not put our trust here it's all in heaven knowing that what happens in this life is not the end we'll have good times we'll have bad times but none of it lasts forever that's only in Jesus you must have faith and we must follow his example of sacrificial living then we will be seated with him on the throne let me pray for you Lord I Thank you for this church that is the body of Christ let them be encouraged by this we are just passing through we are just sojourning we are just aliens and foreigners here we are citizens of Heaven let's take that to heart as we go out this week and remember that we are representatives of our King Jesus and as such we must show others that Grace the mercy the kindness the peace and the love and you Lord have shown us I ask these things in Jesus name amen