SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you about impossible situations today.
SPEAKER_00: You know about impossible situations?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we got some impossible situations.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know that God Himself kind of has an impossible situation?
SPEAKER_00: If you were to read the Bible and you'd never read it before, you don't know anything about it, and you realize, okay, God's the main character.
SPEAKER_00: I'm what is his deal?
SPEAKER_00: What's the problem with the main character?
SPEAKER_00: What's the problem the main character is trying to solve?
SPEAKER_00: God's problem is, as you're looking at his, what he's doing, you're asking the question, okay, God's problem is, do I forgive these people?
SPEAKER_00: These people who betrayed me, even this nation of my own, they completely like, they walk away from me.
SPEAKER_00: They just pretty much give me the bird and they say, we're going to do things our way.
SPEAKER_00: Do I forgive them?
SPEAKER_00: Because I love them and I want to be close to them.
SPEAKER_00: Or do I just let it go?
SPEAKER_00: Do I just let them have the results of what they've done and let them have their screwed-up world and let them have all the consequences that come with that and let them live forever estranged from me, very far from God.
SPEAKER_00: That's an impossible situation that God has.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, that's the tension.
SPEAKER_00: What is God gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: What's He gonna do with these Israelites?
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we know God's impossible situation is solved in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ fulfills the holiness part.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so he actually pays the penalty.
SPEAKER_00: The sin is answered, the thing everybody did wrong, there's an answer to it.
SPEAKER_00: There's like the penalty is paid.
SPEAKER_00: And now God gets to gets to forgive us and draw us close, which is what he wanted the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: He gets his problem solved.
SPEAKER_00: I can remember a particular hard problem I had when I was 22 years old.
SPEAKER_00: My sister had recently been in a car accident and it was bad.
SPEAKER_00: She was in a coma for a few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Her best friend and her boyfriend died, and she was the one driving.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't her fault, but she was still the one driving.
SPEAKER_00: And we were worried how that was gonna hit her when she finally woke up.
SPEAKER_00: And when she woke up, she was she was like a little girl.
SPEAKER_00: Even though she was 18, she was acting like she was probably eight, was more like how I think the Lord was just protecting her mind for that time.
SPEAKER_00: She's all better now, and it's all great.
SPEAKER_00: But at that time, we were worried because she just started to ask little childlike questions.
SPEAKER_00: Where's my friends?
SPEAKER_00: My best friend, where is she?
SPEAKER_00: What's I'm in a hospital?
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: And so she just had these questions, and day after day we'd kind of pushed them out.
SPEAKER_00: Heather, don't worry about that right now.
SPEAKER_00: Like just focus on getting better.
SPEAKER_00: But every day we pushed it forward.
SPEAKER_00: It was like an impossible problem.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, if we tell her this, is that just gonna crush her emotionally?
SPEAKER_00: To wake up and find out, oh, these two people that I care deeply about are no longer here and they're never gonna be here again.
SPEAKER_00: And so I remember the moment when I'm sitting on the hospital bed with my sister, and she just asks it point blank, she's like, Where is Brooke?
SPEAKER_00: It's been weeks now.
SPEAKER_00: And I had to break the news to her, Heather, there's been a horrible accident.
SPEAKER_00: And Brooke isn't coming.
SPEAKER_00: The reason she hasn't been here is because she passed away.
SPEAKER_00: It's an impossible problem.
SPEAKER_00: And I reflect on that and I think through how everyone was so nervous about the truth being received, about the truth arriving to her.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a common story.
SPEAKER_00: Let's protect people from the truth.
SPEAKER_00: This is a story of like so many like sitcoms and so many movies, you know, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like I can remember, y'all don't remember this, but three's company, like there's this constant, like, we're gonna try to keep the the truth from from the landlords.
SPEAKER_00: They can't know the truth about Jack because that'll mess up the whole deal.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but even the Dark Knight Rises, like, there's a subplot of we got to keep the truth from Bruce Wayne about what happened with Rachel.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of stories about let's keep the truth from people.
SPEAKER_00: Well, today in the book of Esther, chapter seven, we're gonna see the truth come out.
SPEAKER_00: This is finally it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all have been asking, Carter, when are we getting there?
SPEAKER_00: You keep teasing us, we're getting there today.
SPEAKER_00: Today's the day.
SPEAKER_00: She's gonna spring it, man.
SPEAKER_00: She's gonna let everybody know.
SPEAKER_00: And just to catch you up, if you haven't been around, I'm just gonna give you the background of the three main characters we're we're gonna look at today.
SPEAKER_00: The first is Heyman.
SPEAKER_00: Heyman's a whack job, dude.
SPEAKER_00: He's the second in command of the nation, but he's so arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: He's so arrogant, he will commit genocide on an entire nation just because one dude won't bow down to him.
SPEAKER_00: So he's just gonna wipe them all out.
SPEAKER_00: He has this decree made, kind of tricks this king, doesn't let the king know exactly what's happening against somebody, but doesn't tell him who.
SPEAKER_00: You've got um Queen Esther.
SPEAKER_00: She's been made the king.
SPEAKER_00: It was a long, hard journey, but she's finally the king.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I think Queen Esther is the original girl on fire.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's who this chick is.
SPEAKER_00: But she's got a problem because she's Jewish, but she hasn't told the king that she's Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: It's been four years now, which means she's one of the ones that's slotted to be killed.
SPEAKER_00: And then you got Xerxes, he's the king.
SPEAKER_00: He's dude, this dude's a psychopath.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's impulsive, he's erratic.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you one one example of in the history books.
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of thing that he would do.
SPEAKER_00: So an old man came to him and said, Hey, I've my my son is in your army, but would you just do me a favor?
SPEAKER_00: Keep him out of the battle.
SPEAKER_00: He's so important to me.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't want him to have to go into battle.
SPEAKER_00: Xerxes has the boy cut in half and separated, and the army walks through the two body pieces just to say, that's what I think of weakness.
SPEAKER_00: So this is who Esther's going in to see at lunch today.
SPEAKER_00: This is who she's gonna like have a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he can be, you know, kind of seem seemingly generous, and other times, dude, he's just out of his mind.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go to the second banquet with Esther, Haman, and King Xerxes.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1, chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet.
SPEAKER_00: On the second occasion, while they were drinking wine, the king said again to Esther, Tell me what you want, Queen Esther.
SPEAKER_00: What is your request?
SPEAKER_00: I'll give it to you, even if it's half the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Queen Esther replied, If I found favor with the king, if I found favor, somebody say, Found favor.
SPEAKER_00: If I found favor, and it pleases the king to grant my request, I ask that my life and the lives of my people will be spared.
SPEAKER_00: For my people and I have been sold to those who would kill and slaughter and annihilate us.
SPEAKER_00: If we'd merely been sold as slaves, I could remain quiet.
SPEAKER_00: For that would be too trivial of a matter to warrant disturbing the king.
SPEAKER_00: Who would do such a thing?
SPEAKER_00: King Xerxes demanded.
SPEAKER_00: Who would be so presumptuous as to touch you?
SPEAKER_00: Esther replied, This wicked Haman is our adversary and our enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Haman grew pale with fright before the king and queen.
SPEAKER_00: Then the king jumped to his feet in rage and went out into the palace garden.
SPEAKER_00: Haman, however, stayed behind to plead for his life with Queen Esther, for he knew that the king intended to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: Haman's been around the king for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: He knows, like, I've seen his moods, I see what he does.
SPEAKER_00: He thinks seems to be in one of those moods.
SPEAKER_00: I betcha it's off with my head right away.
SPEAKER_00: In despair, he fell on the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just as the king was returning from the palace garden.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Haman is making it worse right now.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so harem protocol is you don't, you're never alone with one of the gals from the harem, or much less the queen.
SPEAKER_00: You just never so what he should have done was like hightail it out of the room at least.
SPEAKER_00: Like just get away from this negative situation.
SPEAKER_00: But like he is, seems to present himself, like Xerxes presents himself.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of dudes in this story who dude, they're just they're emotionally controlled and they're not thinking very clearly.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think that's what's happening with Haman right now.
SPEAKER_00: King comes back in, and the king exclaimed, Will he even assault the queen right here in the palace before my very eyes?
SPEAKER_00: As soon as the king spoke, the attendants covered Haman's face, signaling his zoom to throw a bag over his head.
SPEAKER_00: Like, yep, it's both to signal shame, and we're gonna kill this guy.
SPEAKER_00: Then Harbona, this cracks me up, dude.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Harbona's one of the eunuchs, kind of like one of the seven servants that's really close to the action, always seeing stuff happen.
SPEAKER_00: So he's somewhere in the room.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he's he's he's waiting for.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's just bringing more wine, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But he he's there and he he takes this opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna speak up right now.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't said anything for a while, but I'm gonna speak up.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, one of the king's eunuchs said, Haman has set up a sharpened pole that stands 75 feet tall in his own courtyard.
SPEAKER_00: He intended to use to impale Mordecai, the man who saved the king from assassination.
SPEAKER_00: Then impale Haman on it, the king ordered.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like, I feel like Carbona, he's just watching things shift.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: He's worked for Haman for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh, I think this is over now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna try to get in good with Mordecai.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So, hey, by the way, why hey, he's already ready.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you just go kill him with this thing?
SPEAKER_00: He was quiet for a long time, speaks up to help out a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10 so they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and the king's anger subsided.
SPEAKER_00: Impossible situations.
SPEAKER_00: It was an impossible situation for Esther, and yet she decided it takes a decision to oppose evil and protect people.
SPEAKER_00: It takes a decision.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to be firm in our decisions.
SPEAKER_00: We just gotta make a decision.
SPEAKER_00: And my decision is what protects the most people.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Esther did.
SPEAKER_00: Said, look, I've got to oppose evil.
SPEAKER_00: I see evil, it's in my line of sight.
SPEAKER_00: I can oppose it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, just like Esther, we're all kind of a little bit of an Esther.
SPEAKER_00: I bet you in every single life, there's places where you have the opportunity or you have the visibility, you can see somebody, something that needs to be protected from evil.
SPEAKER_00: Evil is always trying to encroach in, and it needs to be protected.
SPEAKER_00: Esther decided I'm going to be a woman of consequence.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to rise to the occasion, even though it might get me killed, and I'm going to call out what I see.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've got this idea in our time that evil is just like a force.
SPEAKER_00: That it's just like, you know, we don't want to name it too specifically.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, it's just bad things happen, and and what are you going to do?
SPEAKER_00: Just it's it's it's it's a dark thing that happened or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you in the Bible, evil's very personal.
SPEAKER_00: Evil's a personal force.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not just that evil things kind of like chaotically happened.
SPEAKER_00: There's evil creatures endorsing and pushing evil through humankind, which has been infected with the evilness disease.
SPEAKER_00: And they're trying to make things actively, evilly happen.
SPEAKER_00: They're on the offensive.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just like fog in the air.
SPEAKER_00: Like if they're trying to push, and in every one of our lives, the moment's gonna come where we're like, oh, if I'm thinking clearly and discernly, that is not just random.
SPEAKER_00: That is something I could oppose, I could say something, I could stand up, I could help out.
SPEAKER_00: Evil is always against the ways of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's always trying to backstab, it's always oppositional to God's righteousness and what he wants to be rightly happening.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: if you and I stand up against evil, not everyone's gonna like it.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone's gonna like it.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know it's it's funny when you when you study books like Esther, which has been studied and preached for hundreds of years, um a couple thousand years, uh, people have said things about Esther over time, and many people have given her a lot of crap, honestly.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, I can't believe that Esther didn't stand up and like, I forgive Haman.
SPEAKER_00: She should have just been a better Christian woman.
SPEAKER_00: And okay, that's a legit thing to say.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give you the counterargument.
SPEAKER_00: Um, first, Esther is 500 years before Jesus shows up on the scene.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, she doesn't know what Jesus is gonna teach, even though he is the very God who saves her.
SPEAKER_00: He she he she doesn't have any sense of obligation to the Sermon on the Mount the way you and I would.
SPEAKER_00: But plus, she's a monarch of her people and has the power to save them.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why don't you save them and forgive Haman?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: The same reason, if there's a poisonous snake in your house and it bites you, dear heart, go ahead and forgive the thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive it.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, forgive that snake and chop off its head so it doesn't bite anybody else in the home.
SPEAKER_00: That was the danger with Haman.
SPEAKER_00: Dude, this person isn't repentant.
SPEAKER_00: We don't give any sense that he's oh, his character's changed.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's a different Haman.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's Haman, he wants to kill the entire nation of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: So, no, Esther doesn't get in the way of that.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, Yeah, please stop this wicked thing from happening.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is, throughout the centuries, people have given Esther crap about this.
SPEAKER_00: And people will give you and me crap about it.
SPEAKER_00: If you stand up against evil, people are not they're gonna just say stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I guess we just gotta decide I don't care what you say, I don't care what you do.
SPEAKER_00: As far as it depends on me, I'm going to be oppositional to the things of evil and I'm going to protect people.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say protection.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta bring protection to folks.
SPEAKER_00: Corey Tin Boom.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know about her.
SPEAKER_00: She and her family, during World War II, they were hiding Jews in their home.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they did until 1944 when they were outed.
SPEAKER_00: And they were taken to concentration camps.
SPEAKER_00: Her father and her sister were killed because they were standing up for doing good.
SPEAKER_00: And after the war, she actually traveled around and she preached forgiveness and the sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_00: But can you imagine being in her shoes and that family shoes?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we're not just gonna talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: We're just not gonna wish we would have been those people later in the 21st century, and people are looking back and like, ah, I think I would have been one of them.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be them now.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take care of people, we're gonna protect people.
SPEAKER_00: It's not right what's happening, and so we're going to protect anybody and everybody we can.
SPEAKER_00: What does a decision to oppose evil look like in your life right now, like today?
SPEAKER_00: Where's the darkness that you and I need to oppose?
SPEAKER_00: And and there's a difference between darkness we have authority to do something about and darkness we don't have the authority to do something about.
SPEAKER_00: Esther was going to the king who had all authority.
SPEAKER_00: So he could do, he could totally save that entire nation.
SPEAKER_00: Kinda.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see in the future weeks how that had to have a special workaround.
SPEAKER_00: But what do you have authority over that?
SPEAKER_00: You can actually you can just say it or you can just do it and it'll go away.
SPEAKER_00: Some stuff we have authority, like it's your family.
SPEAKER_00: You lead the team, like you can change it.
SPEAKER_00: There's other stuff you and I can't change.
SPEAKER_00: Like you can't personally go change it today.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what you can do?
SPEAKER_00: You can bring it to the king.
SPEAKER_00: You can say, I can't change this.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, but can you change it?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe what that looks like right now is you're just standing up, you're defending your friend.
SPEAKER_00: You see them being wrongly accused, and and you defend them.
SPEAKER_00: They need a place to say, to stay, you give it to them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe uh a family member has had a pretty ginormous failure, and everyone is is like withdrawing from them.
SPEAKER_00: They say, you know, that's not the way of Jesus, that's evil.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna draw close to them and dignify them just because they made a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: God still loves them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still gonna be with them, I'm still gonna build them up.
SPEAKER_00: Who is it that it might not be popular?
SPEAKER_00: Your family don't like it.
SPEAKER_00: Dude, who cares?
SPEAKER_00: Does Jesus like it?
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus likes it, then do it.
SPEAKER_00: Who is that for you today?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Esther sought the king's help by showing him the evil.
SPEAKER_00: She showed him the evil.
SPEAKER_00: For my people and I have been sold to those who would kill, slaughter, and annihilate annihilate us.
SPEAKER_00: When we can't do anything to stop it, we can name it before the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_00: We can bring it into his courtroom.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Judge, here's the file.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Thank you, I won't lose it.
SPEAKER_00: I know what to do with this.
SPEAKER_00: So that means, guys, just in prayer, we actively are saying stuff like, God, this isn't right.
SPEAKER_00: Please deal with this.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just worrying about it.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just typing, posting something about it.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying, God, King of Kings, you alone have the authority to do something I can't do.
SPEAKER_00: Would you do something?
SPEAKER_00: Or cause the people that have authority to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, this hurts and it feels unfair.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like it that I see this group or this group or this person going through this difficult time.
SPEAKER_00: It seems unjust.
SPEAKER_00: I can't change it.
SPEAKER_00: But God, you could, and I'm willing to stand in the gap and ask and pray, protect those that are being hurt.
SPEAKER_00: God, you see it.
SPEAKER_00: Will you please fix it?
SPEAKER_00: And can we do that again and again and again throughout this week, throughout this month, throughout these years, throughout the time that you're on planet Earth, can you see the injustices and say, I don't, you know, I don't have a lot of power.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a big deal, but my God is a big deal and he has all the power.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to like throw in my hat with him.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be one of the ones that was found on this earth and this generation, faithfully saying, God, here, put the power here, fix this here.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be one of the ones.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a quote that's attributed to Abraham Lincoln, which means we can't find a primary source, but secondary sources, a lot of them say he said it.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like something he would say, so here we go.
SPEAKER_00: During the darkest times of the Civil War, he said, I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.
SPEAKER_00: I got nowhere else to go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to God.
SPEAKER_00: God alone can get us out of this situation.
SPEAKER_00: Teenagers, young people, you sometimes I know you're gonna feel like my parents ain't listening.
SPEAKER_00: They don't understand, they're not gonna do anything.
SPEAKER_00: You know who will listen?
SPEAKER_00: God will listen.
SPEAKER_00: God will hear you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, they're not hearing you.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to God about it.
SPEAKER_00: Get God behind you.
SPEAKER_00: Get God, uh He knows about it, but but tell him what you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: God hears it.
SPEAKER_00: People that maybe you don't have a lot of influence in the organization.
SPEAKER_00: I know that it seems like I can't get through.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much red tape.
SPEAKER_00: Tell God about it.
SPEAKER_00: Ask God to God, you maybe I'm here for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I was raised up here for such a time as this.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's why all this is happening.
SPEAKER_00: So I could ask for God to do something about this.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems like, why would God care about this weird, stupid thing on the third floor of this office building?
SPEAKER_00: Because he does, because God cares.
SPEAKER_00: So ask him, get him in on it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it means that you and I will be one of the ones that says, you know, instead of whining about what the generation behind us is doing, or what those little yippers snappers are doing, instead of that, instead of whining and you know, complaining, maybe we'll say, I'm gonna fast once a week for this generation.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say, God, do stuff in this generation way greater than you did in my generation at all.
SPEAKER_00: In generations, in decades.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm praying you do something amazing through this generation.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they just need our help, maybe they just need our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they just need somebody behind them saying, I'm believing for the power of God through you people.
SPEAKER_00: Go do it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the why, my friends.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're all Esther and we can bring the king our petitions, but all the time we're really all Haman.
SPEAKER_00: That's the secret of the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to tell you at first.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are the bad guy.
SPEAKER_00: All humankind is the bad guy.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is we all want to be in charge.
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice how Haman just wants to be in charge?
SPEAKER_00: He wants to be the guy that's important.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to be the guy running stuff, and he gets to the different points where he doesn't care who it hurts.
SPEAKER_00: He just wants to be the guy that gets to say at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us have different maybe measures of that, but we've all got it.
SPEAKER_00: Even just the fact that the reason you and I disobey God is because we want to be in charge.
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
SPEAKER_00: There's a little heman in all of us, but thankfully, there's a king of kings that is more generous and gracious than Xerxes is.
SPEAKER_00: He's way more sane, too.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he's the only one worthy of being in charge.
SPEAKER_00: He's the only one worthy of being in charge of us, in charge of our world, in charge of our friends, in charge of anything.
SPEAKER_00: And so we then get God's help by asking for two things judgment and pardon.
SPEAKER_00: The judgment part is scary.
SPEAKER_00: Judgment, what?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we asked for judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Haman was asking for pardon from Esther.
SPEAKER_00: That's where he's falling over himself on the couch.
SPEAKER_00: Esther's asking for judgment from the king.
SPEAKER_00: And we might think, well, you know, if this is like a Christian place, shouldn't we like avoid the judgment and get the pardon?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the Jesus point?
SPEAKER_00: You'd think so, but you've got to start with the judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Because the judgment is actually kindness.
SPEAKER_00: The judgment, what the judgment is, is it's God kindly and lovingly revealing what is actually true.
SPEAKER_00: It's relational.
SPEAKER_00: When everyone at the end of the day, when all the curtains are pulled back, everyone will look at that decision and say, God was 100% right, and that thing was 100% wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a definition that I wrote down.
SPEAKER_00: The judgment of God is Him revealing to us what is really true about our sin, about the damage it causes, about the price we're paying for it.
SPEAKER_00: And my friends, just so you know, this is everybody.
SPEAKER_00: This is not just like some people.
SPEAKER_00: This is me, this is everybody you've ever met.
SPEAKER_00: There's spaces in our life where we're we're a little bit in denial.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, well, you know, that's not really a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Like these guys are over here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: But we need God to bring that thing into the light.
SPEAKER_00: God, what do you think about this though?
SPEAKER_00: Are there things that I'm just completely ignoring or I'm not seeing creep into my life?
SPEAKER_00: And I need the perspective of heaven because that's what Esther did.
SPEAKER_00: She laid it all.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Haman is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And we got to say, Jesus, would you lay it all out to me?
SPEAKER_00: Show me what's actually here.
SPEAKER_00: Show me what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Let's say, just pretend, you have there's an invisible cancer, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I mean literally invisible, so it's fictitious, okay?
SPEAKER_00: There's an invisible cancer that is somewhere in your body.
SPEAKER_00: You feel the effects of it, but you don't know where it is, and nobody knows.
SPEAKER_00: Doctors can't find it.
SPEAKER_00: By its very nature, it is invisible.
SPEAKER_00: But God knows where it is, and God could reveal it's right here.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get it out so that health can be restored.
SPEAKER_00: My friend, sin is a cancer, and it is invisible inside of us, and we don't know where it is sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's super obvious, but sometimes it's not.
SPEAKER_00: And we need God Himself to reveal this is where it is.
SPEAKER_00: We need to get that out.
SPEAKER_00: That's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Or at least we need to start asking for forgiveness for it, whether or not it leaves permanently, sometimes it grows right back.
SPEAKER_00: But we need you to it's asking God to show us what he thinks about it.
SPEAKER_00: It's agreement with him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: If I found favor.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 18, now we're gonna get a real good illustration of the judgment and the pardon.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: Here's Jesus' story.
SPEAKER_00: Two men were at the temple to pray.
SPEAKER_00: One was a Pharisee, think religious professional, if that's a foreign word.
SPEAKER_00: And the other was a despised tax collector, not in the accountant way, it's a whole different thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a bad guy in the story.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, God, that I'm not like other people, cheaters, sinners, adulterers.
SPEAKER_00: I'm certainly not like this tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: I fast twice a week.
SPEAKER_00: I give a tenth of my income.
SPEAKER_00: But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes as he prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, be merciful to me.
unknown: Sinner.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, says Jesus, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God.
SPEAKER_00: For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has got such a thing for people that know their sinners.
SPEAKER_00: He's attracted to them.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Yes, that's the one I want.
SPEAKER_00: That's the one I want for my bride.
SPEAKER_00: That's the one.
SPEAKER_00: If they know that they've made a mistake, I'm all theirs.
SPEAKER_00: They are justified by my blood.
SPEAKER_00: They're welcome into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: What it requires of us is say, God, show me.
SPEAKER_00: Are there places where I've really been trying to fit in instead of follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are there places where I'm calling it networking, but it's actually compromise?
SPEAKER_00: That's just how I like justify it in my brain.
SPEAKER_00: Are there places where I kind of give myself over to worry and it's the special brew that is really about me wanting to be in control of the situation, not anything else?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God, would you show me where my attempt to fix everybody and everything is actually just my own arrogance, thinking I could possibly do such a thing?
SPEAKER_00: Would you show me, God?
SPEAKER_00: Show me, lay it before me, be merciful to me, oh God, for I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the pretty part, it's the beautiful part.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's precious, it's the pardon part.
SPEAKER_00: Pardon is this it's reversing a sentence given under a guilty verdict.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks at us, he finds the cancer, he says, This is what's true.
SPEAKER_00: Guilty.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's reverse it.
SPEAKER_00: You're not guilty anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You're completely a thousand percent forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: I take the guilt.
SPEAKER_00: It's all on me.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Are you listening?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have found favor.
SPEAKER_00: You, you have found favor with the good king, with the king of kings, with the one who has all the power to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this from John 5 24.
SPEAKER_00: I just need us to get us in your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you the truth, though, this is Jesus talking.
SPEAKER_00: Those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: They will never be condemned for their sins.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say it together.
SPEAKER_00: Never be condemned.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say it again because the devil didn't hear it.
SPEAKER_00: Never be condemned.
SPEAKER_00: One more time for the angels and then back.
SPEAKER_00: Never be condemned.
SPEAKER_00: But they've already passed from death into life.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is what pardon is, dude.
SPEAKER_00: It's weakness and trusting itself to strengths.
SPEAKER_00: It's just saying, no, I don't have anything.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna lean back and relax into the strong arms of Jesus, who's got me.
SPEAKER_00: He's got me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to bring anything.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing I need to do.
SPEAKER_00: I just need to, he wanted me to see the cancer.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want me to get it out myself.
SPEAKER_00: He just wants me to see it and agree with him that it's there.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus is really the great arrester.
SPEAKER_00: He's the great arrestor that stops Hamans in their tracks, even the Hamans in us.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that gives grace and power by the Holy Spirit of God to say, okay, you're done with that.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start to kill that vine.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start to kill that cancer.
SPEAKER_00: And the spirit of Jesus Himself is gonna live inside of us and rise up and overtake everything.
SPEAKER_00: He's the good virus.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be the guy that wins so that my humans can have rest for their souls.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what pardon is, really.
SPEAKER_00: It's rest.
SPEAKER_00: It's I don't have to do anything anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus kills those Hamans.
SPEAKER_00: My friend, if you qualify as a Haman, then you've found favor with the King.
SPEAKER_00: And all we need to do is we need to ask for it again.
SPEAKER_00: We need somebody to go between us and the King, and that's what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: For those of us who've done things wrong, we need somebody to go between us and the king.
SPEAKER_00: But for those of us also who have been hurt by sin.
SPEAKER_00: See, sin, it's not just that it's bad in some weird way, some indiscernible way.
SPEAKER_00: It hurts people and it hurts us.
SPEAKER_00: And every place you and I have been wounded, we've been wounded by sin.
SPEAKER_00: We need somebody to go between and say, God, because of my death and resurrection, this person can have all my life, and I will heal their soul.
SPEAKER_00: What do we got to do?
SPEAKER_00: Let's this is what I want to do here at the end of the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to first take a minute, we're gonna do this together.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pause, we're gonna be a little bit quiet, and we're gonna say, Jesus, come and show me what you see.
SPEAKER_00: Bring your judgments in the sense of help me judge rightly.
SPEAKER_00: Help me understand this is what's actually true about me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing I haven't been looking for, this is the thing I've been trying not to see, or maybe it never occurred to me in a bazillion years, but nevertheless, Jesus says, it's time.
SPEAKER_00: It's time we need to talk about this.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do that for a couple minutes, and then don't be afraid of it.
SPEAKER_00: Because then we're gonna do the thing.
SPEAKER_00: We'll receive the pardon, the mercy of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's for everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who wants it, everyone who's ready to surrender, everyone who's ready to say, Jesus, you alone are the worthy king.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really not.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you this.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do it together.
SPEAKER_00: It might be a little scary.
SPEAKER_00: He won't crush you.
SPEAKER_00: He was crushed for you.
SPEAKER_00: He just wants you and him to agree.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, my precious Hamans, let's go to the king.
SPEAKER_00: Right now.
SPEAKER_00: Let's bow our heads.
SPEAKER_00: Or we just want to be open for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we want to admit we may not have the hardware to be able to even discern what the things are that are hurting you, that are wrong.
SPEAKER_00: We ask for grace to see.
SPEAKER_00: Would you release right now?
SPEAKER_00: What do you see, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Bring to mind.
SPEAKER_00: Lay it on our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Shoot it into our brain out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: Bring it up this week.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, cause it to occur to us.
SPEAKER_00: Have somebody say something that brings it home.
SPEAKER_00: God, I think that your word says that those who trust in you will never be condemned.
SPEAKER_00: But we want a clean house.
SPEAKER_00: If there's something hurting us and others, we want to know about it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to live like Hamans.
SPEAKER_00: Reveal it in Jesus' name, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We ask.
SPEAKER_00: And now, God, we say, that thing, whether we see it or haven't seen it yet, we point to it and say, that thing is a thing Jesus died for.
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for the mercy of God in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you are a better king than Xerxes.
SPEAKER_00: God, we ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Would you just forgive us?
SPEAKER_00: Would you just take it upon yourself instead of on us?
SPEAKER_00: Open, throw open your arms and pull us close to your chest.
SPEAKER_00: That's where he has you right now.
SPEAKER_00: He's not disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: He's not waiting for you to get your act together.
SPEAKER_00: He is beaming, holding his most precious treasure.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for the forgiveness we have in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to be a people that are characterized by wanting to know the truth about ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it seems impossible to be delivered from, we want to know the truth so we can run into the arms of Jesus and receive your pardon.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for tuning in today.
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SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time.