SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you today about being powerfully poised when you want to freak out.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you know who T'Challa and Killmonger are, and you know the scene in Black Panther when they are fighting, then you remember the time when the MCU was good.
SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
SPEAKER_00: One of the problems there with Killmonger is he is full of resentment, and resentment can kill.
SPEAKER_00: It turns their relationship, which might have been good, very bad.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk to Esther today, and she's gotta have a hard talk.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else ever have to have a hard talk?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's somebody at work that is just not bringing it, like they're not bringing their A game, and you gotta have a talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your spouse, like you have to talk about money and you don't really want to, and that doesn't always go well, but you still you know you kind of have to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I I would still dread this if you're a teacher and you have to have the parent-teacher conference and you don't have anything good to say, um, you know, I'm sure that's a hard one.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you've even just got like a family member or a friend that is, I don't know why, they're just getting unreliable for some reason, and you feel like you need to say something about it.
SPEAKER_00: We all are gonna have low stakes, but also sometimes high stakes conversations that we need to embrace.
SPEAKER_00: And today we're gonna learn the wisdom of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: It's a high stakes moment for Esther.
SPEAKER_00: Those of you who have been with us, you know kind of the deal, what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a quick summary.
SPEAKER_00: Esther was a victim of trafficking.
SPEAKER_00: She was trafficked into essentially a queen contest and she wins.
SPEAKER_00: She becomes the queen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but now the second in command, dude Heyman, he's kind of tricked the king into issuing a decree that all the Jews of the land will be wiped out.
SPEAKER_00: She hadn't even told anybody she was a Jew yet, but now she's got to go to the king.
SPEAKER_00: And if you go to the king, he might kill you.
SPEAKER_00: So if he doesn't like extend his scepter, that the punishment is anybody, it doesn't matter even if it's the queen, you die.
SPEAKER_00: Um, also, she knows the last queen, like, king didn't seem too keen on keeping her around anyway, so maybe he's easy, easily throwing out away queen.
SPEAKER_00: So she's she's a little bit nervous.
SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna see a contrast, now that we're in Esther chapter five, between the way Esther approaches people and the way Haman, her adversary, who doesn't he doesn't know he's her adversary yet, how he approaches people.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see that one of the ways that Esther does this, and this is how we're gonna talk about it, she's got virtuous persuasion.
SPEAKER_00: Virtuous persuasion.
SPEAKER_00: That is very different than the way Haman does it.
SPEAKER_00: He does self-centered resentment.
SPEAKER_00: And as we engage in conflict, it can go two different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the extremes ways, and I don't want to talk about them today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a little bit of a weird start.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start in the middle of the passage.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get through it and we're talking about Haman.
SPEAKER_00: Then we're gonna go back to the beginning of the passage, but you need to know the things we're studying first happen after the first part.
SPEAKER_00: So, what happened is the Queen Esther, she invited the king and second in command, Haman, to have a little luncheon, a little time in her quarters where she's gonna feed them, and they're just gonna have a hangout time, and there she'll ask the question that she wants to ask, which is, please don't kill the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: So that happens, and they have that lunch, but then Esther's like, Well, King, I can't really tell you yet.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you come to another one tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: So she invites Haman and the king back to the next luncheon, and this is what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's over.
SPEAKER_00: Haman's going home.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Haman was happy, a happy man as he left the banquet.
SPEAKER_00: But when he saw Mordecai sitting at the palace gate, not standing up or trembling nervously before him, Haman became furious.
SPEAKER_00: Mordecai is Esther's older cousin, and he's in in some ways a catalyst for a lot of why the trouble is there.
SPEAKER_00: But Haman's already issued the decree.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews are going to be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: So it really wouldn't make any sense for Mordecai to be stumbling over himself to respect Haman.
SPEAKER_00: This is the dude who's, it's his fault entirely that all this is happening.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: However, Haman restrained himself and went home.
SPEAKER_00: Then Haman gathered together his friends and Zeresh his wife.
SPEAKER_00: Now, his friends, those are also uh different translations will clue us in, those are also advisor friends.
SPEAKER_00: They're not just friends, they're advisors.
SPEAKER_00: And he boasted to them about his great wealth and his many children.
SPEAKER_00: He bragged about the honors the king had given him and how he had been promoted over all other nobles and officials.
SPEAKER_00: Then Haman added, And that's not all.
SPEAKER_00: Queen Esther invited me and the king himself to the banquet she prepared for us.
SPEAKER_00: And she has invited me to dine with her and the king again tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Then he added, But all this is worth nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting there at the palace gate.
SPEAKER_00: He's got all this great stuff going on that he's boasting about, but there's one thing that's taken him out of it.
SPEAKER_00: So Haman's wife, Zeresh, and all his friends suggested here's what you do set up a sharpened pole that stands 75 feet tall, and in the morning ask the king to impale Mordecai on it.
SPEAKER_00: Easy, done.
SPEAKER_00: When this is done, you can go your merry way to the banquet with the king.
SPEAKER_00: This pleased Haman, and he ordered the pole set up.
SPEAKER_00: 75 feet.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's that's taller than most of the structures that would have been around then.
SPEAKER_00: So that's a very tall way of saying, don't mess with Haman.
SPEAKER_00: Haman will get back at you.
SPEAKER_00: He'll come after you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't mess with him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what we see in Haman and Esther is our character choices foreshadow the trajectory of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Our character choices foreshadow the trajectory of our life.
SPEAKER_00: The inspired author who's writing Esther is putting this all together and he's showing Haman is the biblical fool.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's he rails against God, he has no respect for Mordecai's God, and he's super prideful.
SPEAKER_00: This is the biblical fool, and the biblical fool, his life doesn't go good, and so this is foreshadowing.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I know Haman seems on top right now, but it's not gonna go well for him very much longer.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't in this story.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 16, 18, pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.
SPEAKER_00: Here's number one.
SPEAKER_00: Self-centered resentment foretells a fall.
SPEAKER_00: Now you're gonna hear me and you're gonna be like, oh, I know some fool like that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you do.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see if you can hear any of it, though, for anything the Spirit of God might tap you on the shoulder about.
SPEAKER_00: Because it may be that it's not just those fools.
SPEAKER_00: You're not as much of a fool as them, but we are all foolish from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: So let's try to see what the Spirit might say to us.
SPEAKER_00: Self-centered resentment.
SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of two parts.
SPEAKER_00: There's the self-centered and there's the resentment.
SPEAKER_00: The self-centered is another way of saying pride.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is an attitude of the heart, it's a sinful attitude that says it esteems itself and says, I'm the best at this, I have the best possessions, I have the best status, I'm like the most important part of any equation that I'm around.
SPEAKER_00: And it may not say it out loud, it eventually probably will, because out of the heart the mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_00: But it mostly meditates, I'm super dope.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it thinks.
SPEAKER_00: And this is rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_00: It's rebellion because God's like, um, what do you have that I didn't give you?
SPEAKER_00: Like anything you have that is good is from me.
SPEAKER_00: So you're you're trying to steal God's glory and take it upon yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then there's also the resentment part.
SPEAKER_00: And the resentment, this is anger, but it's it's a special kind of anger.
SPEAKER_00: It's an anger that is growing under the surface.
SPEAKER_00: It's gaining ground because we were slighted somewhere, we were not appreciated for who we are somewhere, and we feel like there was unfair treatment.
SPEAKER_00: It was unjust.
SPEAKER_00: People did not see us the right way, they devalued us, and we're reflecting on it and reflecting on it, and we keep repeating it.
SPEAKER_00: And we say, until justice is done, I'm not gonna forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna get over this, I'm not gonna move on.
SPEAKER_00: I'm harboring resentment.
SPEAKER_00: So self-centered resentment is the inward belief that we deserve better combined with the unwillingness to let go of being wronged.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: You see Haman's resentment there in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: But all this is worth nothing as long as more the guy than you just sitting there at the palace gate.
SPEAKER_00: He goes from like, yeah, I got everything to, oh, now I have nothing, just because some person won't feed my insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody won't stay up and say, Yeah, Heyman, you really are all that.
SPEAKER_00: That like blows his day.
SPEAKER_00: Has your day ever been blown?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a ton of people who think you're terrific, but there's one mook that says something, and you're like, oh gosh, now not everybody likes me.
SPEAKER_00: Can I give us a revelation?
SPEAKER_00: Dear heart, you're you are awesome, and not everybody likes you.
SPEAKER_00: But check it out, you don't need everybody to like you.
SPEAKER_00: That can that shouldn't be a goal, in fact, because it will hang us up.
SPEAKER_00: Resentment has some real negative effects, yo.
SPEAKER_00: So some of you are old enough to remember a band called the Beatles.
SPEAKER_00: They're pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: They had some shows, they did all right.
SPEAKER_00: Resentment eventually overtook the relationship between Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't agree on certain business decisions, they couldn't agree on artistic direction.
SPEAKER_00: John wanted to get a little bit more political than Paul did, and eventually they just couldn't be around one another anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And in 1970, the Beatles broke up.
SPEAKER_00: Resentment.
SPEAKER_00: Now they ultimately reconciled before John died, but resentment keeps us from a lot of good.
SPEAKER_00: It can shut down amazing relationships and partnerships.
SPEAKER_00: So what about you?
SPEAKER_00: Is there any place you feel overlooked, and maybe you you were overlooked?
SPEAKER_00: Is there any place you've got resentment because you were corrected, and maybe you didn't like the way that you were corrected?
SPEAKER_00: Or you can tell that they don't appreciate me the way that they should.
SPEAKER_00: My spouse, my friend, the boss.
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, it's even God.
SPEAKER_00: I have resentment toward God because He let this happen, or He allowed these things to happen.
SPEAKER_00: I get that, yo.
SPEAKER_00: That's a real thing, and and it makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: It at least it tells us that you have some kind of sense that you are relating to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: But with all resentment, no matter what it is, we need to do two things.
SPEAKER_00: We need to ask for forgiveness, because it's the sin of pride, and we need to ask Jesus to heal it.
SPEAKER_00: Even when it's against God.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're angry with God, you say, Lord, I am angry with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not denying that.
SPEAKER_00: But I also know that that is evil and that's not going to help me.
SPEAKER_00: And I know it's true, even though it doesn't feel true.
SPEAKER_00: You're always trying to help me.
SPEAKER_00: So I ask for forgiveness for the pride, but I also ask that you would heal me of the resentment because I can't carry this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: This is heavy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting tired.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever the resentment is with, you can bring each and every one to Jesus and say, I know this is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Please forgive me, but also remove it.
SPEAKER_00: I need some surgery of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And dude, sometimes I gotta like bring you through a trial to do that, but sometimes like he just takes it away.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, I love that person for some reason now.
SPEAKER_00: That like God does that for those who will ask him to do it, who want to ask to be free.
SPEAKER_00: Let's jump back to the beginning because now it's life or death for Esther.
SPEAKER_00: This is earlier in the day.
SPEAKER_00: Esther has been fasting with her peeps.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews they went on a three-day fast.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to know that's that's already happened because as they were fasting and praying, they attracted the power and favor of God to the situation.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: You should just go to our YouTube channel and watch all the messages if you haven't.
SPEAKER_00: But that's that's where we start.
SPEAKER_00: On the third day of the fast, Esther put on her royal robes and entered the inner court of the palace just across from the king's hall.
SPEAKER_00: This word, uh, her royal robes, it's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, often words are are more pictorial than they are in our language.
SPEAKER_00: This royal robes, it really is, it's a kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: She was wearing a kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: She's so full of splendor, it's like she's a whole kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: So picture this.
SPEAKER_00: She's walking into the king's hall, and he's on one side on his throne, and she's on another.
SPEAKER_00: And she, this is where it gets symbolic.
SPEAKER_00: She represents a kingdom that is coming to meet another kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a very, this is a very uh depraved kingdom over here.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is a kingdom that will just get drunk and make war plans and then waste a bunch of money and traffic a bunch of girls to find a queen.
SPEAKER_00: This is this the kingdom of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And Esther is of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And she approaches them.
SPEAKER_00: He's loud, a little bit crazy.
SPEAKER_00: She's soft and poised.
SPEAKER_00: When he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner court, he welcomed her, held out the gold scepter to her.
SPEAKER_00: So Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter.
SPEAKER_00: The king asked her.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Okay, so you know you might have died, but I you've got favor.
SPEAKER_00: So, Esther, you must want something.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want, Queen Esther?
SPEAKER_00: What is your request?
SPEAKER_00: I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just so we know, guys, that's not really that's that's not literal.
SPEAKER_00: That's just like we might say, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.
SPEAKER_00: Ew.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna eat a horse?
SPEAKER_00: No, you're not gonna eat a horse, that just means you're very hungry.
SPEAKER_00: So he's just being very generous.
SPEAKER_00: He sent Esther, whatever you want, baby girl, I will get it for you.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want?
SPEAKER_00: If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a banquet I've prepared for the king.
SPEAKER_00: The king turned to his attendants and said, Tell Haman quick to come quickly to the banquet, as Esther is requested.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what they were doing that day, but he shuts it down.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we're going to this banquet of Esther's right now.
SPEAKER_00: So the king and Haman, they go to Esther's banquet.
SPEAKER_00: What's kind of this is one of the ironies that I just want to sidelight in the book or in the book of Esther, uh, because sometimes you don't see things unless you're looking at multiple chapters at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember at the beginning of the book, there was this big hullabaloo about we're gonna pass a law that makes sure every wife obeys her husband?
SPEAKER_00: Not that anyone was really having a problem with that, other than maybe the king, and even he wasn't really, but they made a big, they had meetings about it, and like we gotta pass a law and send it to all these provinces, we gotta get the word out in multiple languages.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, right here, and for the rest of the book, the king does whatever Esther asks.
SPEAKER_00: That's irony.
SPEAKER_00: That's supposed you're supposed to see that.
SPEAKER_00: Like, she's got so much favor.
SPEAKER_00: See, God doesn't need more laws sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: He just needs someone to have a change of heart.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't need laws are great, I like laws, but he doesn't need them.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we don't need a new rule.
SPEAKER_00: We need God to enter the situation and be a positive influence.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: And while they were drinking wine, here's another, it's a little huh.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what happens when they drink wine?
SPEAKER_00: They might go crazy.
SPEAKER_00: So this is we they don't have movies, so either in in the script, they're trying to say, hey, um, this is a moment of suspense.
SPEAKER_00: When they drink wine, they do stupid stuff and pass stupid laws and kick out queens.
SPEAKER_00: So is that gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what's happening with Esther right now?
SPEAKER_00: Uh while they were drinking wine, so it's after dinner, the king asked Esther, now tell me what you really want.
SPEAKER_00: What is your request?
SPEAKER_00: I'll give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's half the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Esther replied, This is my request and my deepest wish.
SPEAKER_00: If I found favor with the king and it pleases the king to grant my request and do what I ask, please come with Haman tomorrow to the banquet I'll prepare for you.
SPEAKER_00: Then I will explain what this is all about.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what she's doing a little bit?
SPEAKER_00: Why invite her to a banquet?
SPEAKER_00: Or why invite him to a banquet only to invite him to another one?
SPEAKER_00: As we might call it, she's buttering him up.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: She's buttering him up, and she gets to the end and she's like, you know what this needs?
SPEAKER_00: This dish needs more butter.
SPEAKER_00: How many know about dishes need more butter?
SPEAKER_00: That's what Esther knows.
SPEAKER_00: So whereas Cayman, we see the fall because of his self-centered resentment.
SPEAKER_00: For Esther, we're gonna learn virtuous persuasion leads to blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Virtuous persuasion.
SPEAKER_00: So important.
SPEAKER_00: Virtuous persuasion is courage with poise, with spirit-directed planning, with a desire to, I'm gonna make this easy, I'm gonna make this comfy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna think, what is the end result that God wants?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna make it the most likely conclusion by the way I shape the environment.
SPEAKER_00: I wanna set my my friend, my my co-worker, my whoever it is, I want to set this conversation, this hard conversation that I have to have.
SPEAKER_00: I want to set it up so it is the most gentle version of how it could possibly go.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not deception.
SPEAKER_00: There's no deception involved.
SPEAKER_00: Deception is when we start to get into manipulation.
SPEAKER_00: Manipulation is dishonest.
SPEAKER_00: Manipulation says, um, I'm gonna tell you one thing, but then I'm gonna do another, or it's gonna, or it's gonna say, I'm gonna try to get you to behave in the way I want by making you feel guilty or by taking away something that you want.
SPEAKER_00: Manipulation doesn't is not honest about even what they're trying to do, and we are a tool in the hands of a manipulator.
SPEAKER_00: But we can also, instead of virtuously persuade, we can be manipulators because we might even try to do a good thing, but we're doing it a wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: Esther knows, you might say, why doesn't Esther just like just get to the point?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, King, look, man, your boy is an idiot.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we gotta do.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta fix this problem.
SPEAKER_00: And in our time, that might make a little bit more sense because we're very like, you gotta be genuine, you gotta tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And and for some of us, it's I'm like a truth guy.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I feel uncomfortable when untruth is being spoken.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm often like, I gotta get, ah, I gotta say something about that.
SPEAKER_00: It feels weighty even to me.
SPEAKER_00: And it might feel weighty for you when someone says something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Look, man, I'm tired of carrying this.
SPEAKER_00: I just I gotta go.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta be blunt.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just get it to them.
SPEAKER_00: Who cares what they think?
SPEAKER_00: Like, let them deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's the brass tacks, it's the real way.
SPEAKER_00: Let them just deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: I hear that that might make sense to us, but the wisdom of Esther is remember that people.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't gonna sound good to Americans for a second, so just roll with me.
SPEAKER_00: People that are in power, that are really in power.
SPEAKER_00: So think about the power in where you work.
SPEAKER_00: Who's got the power?
SPEAKER_00: Think about the power in some kind of organizational system you've been in before.
SPEAKER_00: The people in power, here's a little secret your outrage doesn't matter because they're in power.
SPEAKER_00: They people in power, they will go around your outrage, or they'll just get rid of you.
SPEAKER_00: People in power can genuinely do that.
SPEAKER_00: Esther knows I don't need to like bring some outrage.
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't need to like get a bunch of of her friends and they start picketing around the palace.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, no, I've got a better way.
SPEAKER_00: I've got virtuous persuasion.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll notice, see, Esther's thinking through, I don't want to just ask what is true.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to just have uh the right answer.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say how and when and what exactly am I gonna say in such a way that it sets me up to have the best opportunity for God's will to be done.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's so important.
SPEAKER_00: You'll notice, this will help us if we just think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Esther is not after self-expression.
SPEAKER_00: She's not just trying to say, well, here's me and here's what I think.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes self-expression is self-fish.
SPEAKER_00: Because baby, I I love you, but I mean, does it matter what you think?
SPEAKER_00: Like, who are you again?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I I want to know Jesus cares about who you are, and I want to know who you are, but if you're going to try to like change a decision or you're going into a high-stakes conversation, your self-expression, dude, it might jack the whole thing up.
SPEAKER_00: So we want to be cautious about that.
SPEAKER_00: The question is not what is the essence of me?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm super genuine.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's a virtue right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's not here.
SPEAKER_00: She's not worried about being genuine, she's genuinely trying to take the wisest path toward God's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: So let's ask that question of us.
SPEAKER_00: I know that sometimes you're furious, and sometimes you just want to lose your mind and say, this is what it is.
SPEAKER_00: And I get that.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying there's never a circumstance where that's necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe someone's in danger and you need to save the day.
SPEAKER_00: But for most of us, if we could just ask the question, what's the best way to get God's purposes done in a way that represents his love, that represents his heart toward this person?
SPEAKER_00: You'll notice she doesn't make the king an enemy.
SPEAKER_00: She just goes to him and she's virtuously persuasive.
SPEAKER_00: Are we hearing this today?
SPEAKER_00: God blesses this version of communication.
SPEAKER_00: He puts his blessing, in other words, when we aim at this, even if you don't get it entirely, I believe I've seen this.
SPEAKER_00: God will sometimes like give you favor just because you tried to do it his way.
SPEAKER_00: He'll just make it work.
SPEAKER_00: God ultimately does make it work for Esther.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, I think the Lord would want to remind us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you name the name of Jesus Christ, if you are one of his people, if you are one who's he's forgiven you and you're like, yeah, you know, I'm his son or daughter, and I love Jesus and I want to be a part of the solution on planet Earth, if that's you, remember that one of those roles that you play then is an ambassador.
SPEAKER_00: You know what an ambassador is, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's it's someone from another land that comes to a new land and represents the other land.
SPEAKER_00: And they say, Watch me because I represent what the other people are like.
SPEAKER_00: And so when people that are around us see us lose our minds without rage and rant online because it's the only way of communication that we know, we might just like want to think through is that the best ambassador for the kingdom of heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Is there another way to do this?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the wisdom of Esther could help us out because Haman, his ways, he's completely oblivious to the fact that he is headed for a fall.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it a different way.
SPEAKER_00: The people of God should be the most in control of themselves.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about religiosity, I'm not talking about rigidity, I'm just saying self-control is a fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Poise is something the spirit of God helps us do.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean we never lose our cool, of course we do.
SPEAKER_00: But in general, we're aiming at now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna lose my mind here, I'm not gonna lose control here because ambassadors don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to misrepresent the kingdom that they are from.
SPEAKER_00: I'm hearing some good amens.
SPEAKER_00: Keep it coming.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are doing well.
SPEAKER_00: Um I think, but you know, I believe in you, I think there's more in you.
SPEAKER_00: So keep it coming.
SPEAKER_00: What does Esther do instead of outrage?
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice the emotional intelligence this woman has?
SPEAKER_00: She's picking the timing.
SPEAKER_00: She brings the king to her quarters.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's like on her turf.
SPEAKER_00: She's controlled, she's already arranged the room in the way she wants.
SPEAKER_00: She's on her home turf.
SPEAKER_00: She feels comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other like advisors around.
SPEAKER_00: There's no bureaucrats to like, well, king, here's what you should really do.
SPEAKER_00: No, she's not in an office setting.
SPEAKER_00: She's in a living room setting.
SPEAKER_00: She's very wise.
SPEAKER_00: She knows that weighty issues are best discussed in friendly places, maybe not always business places.
SPEAKER_00: So years ago, this church was a part was really two churches that merged together.
SPEAKER_00: During that time, but there's like a year that that took to pull that off.
SPEAKER_00: For almost the entire year, two elder boards, I was on one of them, there was was some of the elders I was a team with, and then the other team, we would come together and we would meet, and we knew this might blow up in our faces because Christians are notorious for getting really stodgy on very minute you know details, and we might just offend each other and like ah, forget the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we did intentionally was we stopped meeting at the church and we started meeting in living rooms because we needed to internalize this is my friend.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is a place of humility, this is a place for me to get them a drink, this is a place for me to sit back and relax on the couch.
SPEAKER_00: This shouldn't be like work, this should be like a little bit like bro time, is how it should be.
SPEAKER_00: Esther knows, make it easy on him.
SPEAKER_00: Make it easy on him.
SPEAKER_00: He likes this dude.
SPEAKER_00: What does he love?
SPEAKER_00: He loves to be honored, he loves to be pampered, he loves to be taken care of.
SPEAKER_00: He probably, if he's a man, he loves food.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna get him some food.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make him think his lady is giving him the TLC treatment.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not even gonna ask for what I want on the first round because I don't want him to think that I only like him for what he can do for me.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna keep that butter coming and I'm not going to manipulate him.
SPEAKER_00: And she does speak the truth, as we'll see next week, but she does it at the right time.
SPEAKER_00: She gets his relational guard down and she's patient.
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like for us?
SPEAKER_00: Does it mean if you have something you gotta say to somebody at work?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know there's there's easy for you, or there's is there something better?
SPEAKER_00: Could you go out to eat to have that conversation?
SPEAKER_00: Do you need to have that in a different context?
SPEAKER_00: If you're that teacher going into that parent-teacher meeting, Lord have mercy.
SPEAKER_00: I think start with prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what that's what Esther did.
SPEAKER_00: They started with prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God, I need you to give me something to say.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to show me the good.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to shape my words so that the parent we can partner together versus be adversarial.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to have that conversation with your spouse about money, and it needs to start with respect.
SPEAKER_00: It needs to start with celebrating what's right about one another and what will you appreciate of how you spend money.
SPEAKER_00: And then we talk about here's where I gotta grow in terms of our spending patterns.
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about how we can grow as a family.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe if you've got a friend that is just not bringing it, they're just they're not reliable anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe start with, if it were Esther, you'd start with empathy.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, he's annoying me, but let me start with understanding his situation.
SPEAKER_00: What why is he becoming unreliable?
SPEAKER_00: What's going on there?
SPEAKER_00: Let's poke at that thing.
SPEAKER_00: Esther knows that showing poise earns respect faster than outrage.
SPEAKER_00: Because you've got a model in the world right now, like in this moment in history where communication is blowing up and it's easy to be loud and it's easy to be angry that we could.
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid that young people will grow up thinking loud and angry is the only way adults communicate.
SPEAKER_00: Because they see it online, they see it with their politicians.
SPEAKER_00: Is there another version where we say, no, I'm gonna embrace the poise and the wisdom of Esther?
SPEAKER_00: Something happened for Esther.
SPEAKER_00: She shifted.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice that?
SPEAKER_00: In in chapter four, she was still this quiet, kind of like, I'm afraid to get involved, kind of a girl.
SPEAKER_00: And something shifts, and she comes in now and she's poised and bold with the king.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: I believe it was Esther 414 when her cousin Mordecai said, Look, Esther, it's on you.
SPEAKER_00: You need to go to the king and ask yourself.
SPEAKER_00: He needs to save the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And he's implying you're gonna have to tell him that you're a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: And somewhere in that time, she embraced, I'm gonna do this as a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do this as the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do this with the understanding that God has made a covenant with my people.
SPEAKER_00: God's favor is on me, God's strength is in me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go as with my identity in who my father is, not just my identity in me.
SPEAKER_00: When we do that, guys, when we look at our identity in Christ, see for new covenant Christians, Jesus was Esther's savior, but she didn't know about Jesus yet.
SPEAKER_00: We know about him and we understand Jesus says certain things about you if you are forgiven, if he is your Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: He says stuff like you are his son or you are his daughter.
SPEAKER_00: He says stuff like you are clean.
SPEAKER_00: He says stuff like you can't even totally like ask for anything that would in any way challenge my power for you.
SPEAKER_00: I will be behind you, I will give you courage, and I delight in you.
SPEAKER_00: And when and when you get that in you, you become bold.
SPEAKER_00: When you say, if God is for me, who can be against me?
SPEAKER_00: And so one of one of the ways that we embrace the poised vester is we try to root our identity in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That comes a couple ways.
SPEAKER_00: One, you got to find a good preacher that shaves his head.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And you've got to sit in that church for a long time, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's really, you need to go to church, you need to be taught the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And then you need to study the Bible on your own because that's where Jesus is talking about, especially the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: That's where He's telling you this is what I think about you, this is how I'm going to reshape your identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Killmonger and T'Challa.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you know, they were different guys.
SPEAKER_00: Killmonger was resentful.
SPEAKER_00: He was a Haman of sorts.
SPEAKER_00: T'Challah, the true king.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about the challah was that the chala was not just trying to save his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, at the end, he was trying to save the killmonger.
SPEAKER_00: He was trying to save the very enemy that was trying to usurp him.
SPEAKER_00: You know that we're all Haman?
SPEAKER_00: We're all in some ways trying to usurp God with our decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Like forget about it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to do what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: We've all got a little Haman in us.
SPEAKER_00: And if you know that, you might say, That's why I can't do this, Carter.
SPEAKER_00: I can't be poised.
SPEAKER_00: I can't have virtuous persuasion.
SPEAKER_00: You're talking about like it's easy, Carter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to walk into that thing, it's going to blow up.
SPEAKER_00: And my my rage monster is going to come out.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just encourage you?
SPEAKER_00: None of us can do it.
SPEAKER_00: None of us are going to do it great.
SPEAKER_00: None of us can do it perfect.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus Christ living in us is not only going to help us do it, he's going to be the one that makes it effective.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning you don't even have to take the pressure of this working very well.
SPEAKER_00: You just need him to make it effective because Jesus is the greater Esther.
SPEAKER_00: So we got a choice, friends.
SPEAKER_00: We've got a crossroads that we're in right now.
SPEAKER_00: We can go the way of Haman and we can keep the spirit of that person owes me.
SPEAKER_00: We can go the way of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: And we say, what is the best way to get God's purposes that includes loving them, that includes respecting them, that includes building them up, that includes speaking with Jesus about him empowering this endeavor.
SPEAKER_00: Are you tired?
SPEAKER_00: I get tired of carrying resentment, man.
SPEAKER_00: Like it just gets too heavy.
SPEAKER_00: If you're tired of it, I want to encourage us to bring it to Jesus this morning and ask him to take it away.
SPEAKER_00: Or help you walk it out and grow and forgive a thousand more times until it's gone.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ died on the cross so that you could be forgiven and so that whoever hurt you could be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: His cross provides forgiveness for our pride, our resentment.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the first persuasion that Jesus wants to happen is He wants to persuade us.
SPEAKER_00: He's already extending the scepter.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, come on, come on.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to persuade us.
SPEAKER_00: Let me sit on the throne of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be the guy in charge.
SPEAKER_00: You've been my enemy in some ways, but I'm a good king.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get rid of you, I want to save you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: As we trust his forgiveness, he fills us with his Holy Spirit and he makes us brand new and he gives us the power to do what we could not do on our own.
SPEAKER_00: If you're tired of a noisy world and want the grace of God to help you go a different way than the way of Haman, I want to invite us to ask Jesus to make us people that are poised like Esther when we want to freak out.
SPEAKER_00: Let's bow our heads.
SPEAKER_00: We need something else.
SPEAKER_00: What we see around us is bananas sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't want to be just like trying to catch up with something.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be the ones on the front lines that are leading in the wisdom of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: That's going to take your help.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to take training, and it's really going to take a church culture that fosters that kind of a thing.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we're asking in Jesus' name that you would come make it true in us.
SPEAKER_00: It's in that awesome name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for tuning in today.
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