SPEAKER_00: What is the response today?
SPEAKER_00: What is the response for all the times you didn't know what you were gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: It all seemed hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: It was all going down the drain.
SPEAKER_00: What is the right response for when you were out of money and you didn't know where the money you needed was coming from?
SPEAKER_00: Whether that was rent, whether that was food?
SPEAKER_00: What's the right response to that person who was defaming you and calling you out and trying to make turn people against you and God got you out of it and defended you?
SPEAKER_00: What's the right response to the wound that you received?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's still a little bit there.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth is you're not who you used to be, and you're a whole lot more healed than you were.
SPEAKER_00: What's the right response to God?
SPEAKER_00: It's thankfulness.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's gratefulness, it's praise.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it is.
SPEAKER_00: We're at the end of the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: We're on the last message of this series.
SPEAKER_00: We just did this series.
SPEAKER_00: We interrupted this series to do the blue series.
SPEAKER_00: God got us through both of those series, and I'm thankful.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful that he did.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, can I tell you a secret that you might not hear from a lot of preachers?
SPEAKER_00: Um, when you're in a church and there's a preacher preaching, and there's something more than the preacher preaching happening, that's the spiritual gift of teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is hopefully that preacher studied all week long or longer than that.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully they got prayed up.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully they got sharp about everything.
SPEAKER_00: But but when it's the spiritual gift of teaching, there's more than that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a sense of Jesus is teaching me.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: So I would just encourage you, wherever you go for the rest of your life, in case I get hit by a bus tomorrow, go where you hear Jesus through the preacher.
SPEAKER_00: But that also means you have a responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: So when we start a service up in here, you want to pray, well, Lord, don't let it just be this whack job.
SPEAKER_00: We want to hear from Jesus today.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to thank him that he's gotten us through all these series.
SPEAKER_00: I want to thank him that um he's taught me for sure.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to ask you to pray with me right now in Thanksgiving and asking the teacher Jesus to come and be our shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
SPEAKER_00: God, there's so much to be thankful for.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to thank you for all the things we're not even thinking about yet, or the things that we just we saw and we passed by.
SPEAKER_00: We want to say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to say thank you for bringing us here.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning us in online.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for all the times you've used human voices, but it was you trying to get our attention.
SPEAKER_00: We want to ask for this church and this preacher and every preacher ever who is here, would you make it not just them?
SPEAKER_00: Make it Jesus, because Jesus is who we need.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So last week we talked about being always optimistic.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about, hey, whatever you do, it's faith to just start the day saying, I believe no matter what's going wrong, God is still awesome and God can still get in my situation.
SPEAKER_00: Hope you like that message.
SPEAKER_00: I did.
SPEAKER_00: The other side of that hill, though, is once we once we do that, once we decide I'm gonna be always optimistic, the other side of that hill is to, when there is a breakthrough, when there is something that goes right, when there is a like, oh, there it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's on us to be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: It's on us to say something about it.
SPEAKER_00: It's on us to say, oh, that really was God.
SPEAKER_00: When when he breaks through and there's something in you like, he did it again, there is.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's the first time you ever saw it, but you're pretty sure like this whole God thing is new to you, but you're like, I I think that was God.
SPEAKER_00: When that happens, here's what here's what goes wrong if we don't take time to praise and thank God.
SPEAKER_00: You've you've seen this, I've seen this.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a trial one week, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You're saying you're really anxious, you're really stressed out because this is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: And then you get like the Lord takes care of it, it's all good.
SPEAKER_00: You get on the other side and you're like, Whoo, that's over.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I kind of wish I would have trusted God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh well.
SPEAKER_00: The next week you get the same doggone trial, and the month later, you get the same doggone trial.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening?
SPEAKER_00: You're fighting the same battle again and again and again because you never made a marker of like, no, this is what God does in these situations.
SPEAKER_00: He rescues me, he brings about reversal.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have to do all these, we we we get all this anxiety that continues to build up, and then people are watching us.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Well, I see like you do really godly things sometimes, but then I see you freak out again and again every week or every month about the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: So, like, what is this?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think God is gonna help you or do you not think God is gonna help you?
SPEAKER_00: And it's confusing to people who might be following behind us.
SPEAKER_00: So we're ending for such a time as this.
SPEAKER_00: It's the story of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, if you've not uh heard this whole story, it might you'd be he'll you'd have a whole lot more context and you'd probably just hear from the Spirit of God again.
SPEAKER_00: Go on our website and go find the for such a time as this series.
SPEAKER_00: It's only like 11.
SPEAKER_00: We're on 11.
SPEAKER_00: It's 11 messages long, but maybe it'll be a good 11 hours for you.
SPEAKER_00: Um go ahead and check that out and re-listen because this is really a powerful story of how God works behind the scenes even when we don't see him.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we are.
SPEAKER_00: I want to catch you up in case you weren't here for all of them.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the Jews are they're in a foreign land, they're living in an evil empire, and there's been a decree, we won't go into all the specifics, but there's been a decree that they need to be wiped out, that all the citizens of the land are to go kill the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a new thing, that's an old thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's an old thing because Satan has always hated who God loves.
SPEAKER_00: He always has wanted, see, Satan holds a grudge, yo.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how many eons go by.
SPEAKER_00: Satan wants to hurt the Jews, he wants to hurt the Christians, he wants to hurt anybody at all who has ever said, You are God.
SPEAKER_00: He hates it.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to get him because he wants to be God.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what's happened.
SPEAKER_00: That's what was happening.
SPEAKER_00: There was a decree issued, and it can't be undone.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Esther, this sweet Jewish girl, gets raised up.
SPEAKER_00: It's a hard way to get there, but she gets raised up as the queen.
SPEAKER_00: She risks her life, goes into the king, says, Hey, we got to do something about this decree.
SPEAKER_00: Can you undo it?
SPEAKER_00: The king says, No, we can't undo this decree, but I'll tell you what, I'll let you and your cousin Mordecai, you can come up with a different decree and maybe somehow do something that saves the day.
SPEAKER_00: And they do, and it the day is saved.
SPEAKER_00: There's a great reversal, and we talked about that last week.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about how we need to be open and expecting, dude, you just never know what God's gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: He just might do an entire reversal, and we're better off if we're found believing.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what happened, but that's not totally the end of the story because as we come to the end, as we come to the end of this book, as God has taught us a lot of stuff, what's the response?
SPEAKER_00: There's a response that the people of God have in the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: There's a response that we should have as we end the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: Because you've seen, I'll bet you, I'll bet you've you've seen God do some stuff that maybe you haven't contemplated enough.
SPEAKER_00: Like it was it was a long time ago now, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: Like maybe you used to be, you used to be less healthy, less healthy than you are.
SPEAKER_00: But now God has moved you forward.
SPEAKER_00: It could be that you used to be one of those people that you would go to work and nobody paid attention to you at all.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, who's that?
SPEAKER_00: Who cares?
SPEAKER_00: And now you have a degree of power.
SPEAKER_00: You have a degree of you can get some stuff done.
SPEAKER_00: It may be that you're one of these folks, you have gone into the test, and you're like, God, I gotta be honest, I'm just not ready for this test, but would you help me just pass this test?
SPEAKER_00: And you did that like seven times and then ten times and then seventeen times, and God was just so merciful, he's like, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And he's just like, Did you didn't get 100, but you did way better than you would have done because God helped you.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe there's a time you can remember when, dude, you were dirt poor.
SPEAKER_00: And you're not in that dire of a situation anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't record those, if we don't singe those into our brain, guys, it not only keeps us from remembering them as well, but it's just not worthy of our God.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what I want to say about it.
SPEAKER_00: Silent witnesses believe God acted.
SPEAKER_00: Visible witnesses live like He did.
SPEAKER_00: Silent witnesses believe God acted.
SPEAKER_00: They saw it, they're like, oh yeah, oh, that was God.
SPEAKER_00: But they're hush about it.
SPEAKER_00: They don't let it influence their lives, they don't let it influence what they say.
SPEAKER_00: Or there's visible witnesses, and they live like, oh no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: God acts in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I see God work do stuff all the time, and that's real.
SPEAKER_00: We can we can train ourselves to just be so stifled, and I don't want to offend anybody, and I don't want to do anything that lives out loud that we we have a reaction of like, just hold it in, just don't say praise to the Lord, just don't acknowledge what God just did there.
SPEAKER_00: You could tell the whole family about it, but just don't.
SPEAKER_00: Just keep it to yourself because then they're gonna think you're gody, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And we're living as a silent witness.
SPEAKER_00: And I just gotta tell you, man, a silent witness ain't much help.
SPEAKER_00: You've seen it, you know what he can do, but you're not letting anybody else know.
SPEAKER_00: Those who have seen God's faithfulness, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, practice restraint toward their enemies.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know the details of the story, I'm gonna try to fill you in as we go, but uh here we go.
SPEAKER_00: They practice restraint toward their enemies.
SPEAKER_00: In Esther 9, the narrator says three times, but they did not take any plunder.
SPEAKER_00: Again, they took no plunder, but they did not take any plunder.
SPEAKER_00: That's verses 10, 15, and 16.
SPEAKER_00: Part of the decree, the second decree, the decree that kind of in some ways tries to undo the first decree of death to all the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Part of it was, hey, you can defend yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So if these people attack you, you can defend yourselves, you can like totally lay the beat down, you can kill them, and you can take all their stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the take all your stuff thing is something that the Jews refuse to do.
SPEAKER_00: Again and again, it's pointed out they don't take all the stuff.
SPEAKER_00: The author of the book of Esther also keeps pointing out through the whole book, do you remember this?
SPEAKER_00: He keeps highlighting Esther the Jew, Mordecai the Jew, Haman the Agagite.
SPEAKER_00: He keeps talking about their background because there's this ancient fight between the Jews and the Agagites.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes back to King Saul, who was commanded by God.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to wipe out this king, wipe out everything about him.
SPEAKER_00: I want these people gone.
SPEAKER_00: They were the first enemy that came against Israel as they came out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul didn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: And what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: But he took all the stuff even though God told him not to.
SPEAKER_00: And so now, generations later, these people are in exile, they've been disciplined by the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They look back and say, We don't want to go through the same disciplinary process that the first king did.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to get it right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so thankful that God, you know, dude, you might have made some mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: And I just got to tell you, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to make mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to put that thing under the blood and just say, you know, I did poorly before, but I'm gonna do better now.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's a God of grace, God's a God who helps.
SPEAKER_00: He sent me a helper, he sent me full of the anointing so that I can not just sit here and feel bad about myself all day, but press on and grow up in Jesus' name and help people.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all forget about my Christmas present?
SPEAKER_00: I feel like maybe you did.
SPEAKER_00: My Christmas present, just so you know, if you weren't here, my Christmas present was you're gonna say a lot of amens as a congregation for me the whole year round.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so just do your best, do your best.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna condemn you for it, but you got the Holy Ghost, so here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Where even was I?
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Um restraint.
SPEAKER_00: Restraint.
SPEAKER_00: They're restrained.
SPEAKER_00: They don't do everything they could do, they're not as severe as they might have been.
SPEAKER_00: That's what restraint is.
SPEAKER_00: Restraint is a type of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying, I could really calm down on you.
SPEAKER_00: I could really lay the beat down.
SPEAKER_00: I it would be within my rights to just make you feel like a fool, but I'm gonna be restrained.
SPEAKER_00: I could be sharper than this, but I'm gonna be restrained.
SPEAKER_00: And it can feel like sometimes because it was whatever you're up against was so difficult, it can feel like I'm surrendering my dignity if I'm restrained.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not treating this like it should be treated.
SPEAKER_00: It was really hurtful to me, it was really offensive to me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I should be able to get back really harshly.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a harsh decree that the Jews were up against, right?
SPEAKER_00: It was you you can wipe out every Jew in the entire nation.
SPEAKER_00: That was what the decree was.
SPEAKER_00: You would think, okay, well, then you can do that to us, and then we're gonna, we're not only gonna kill you, we're gonna take all your stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It was even right in the time that was the custom.
SPEAKER_00: That would be totally appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: But they didn't do it, they held back, they were restrained.
SPEAKER_00: And part of restrain being restrained is I trust that God is a merciful God, and I've been shown a lot of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: I might need mercy before the day is done.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just want to be like my master Jesus Christ, who is always merciful.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that there's not consequences for things in real life, it just means there's a heart set that we're trying to develop.
SPEAKER_00: See, we're not just trying to have a religion, just so you know.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to be in union with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And as we are, his heart is transferred to us, and we think more like him, we act more like him because we feel more like him.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways we're supposed to feel is more restrained because of love producing mercy.
SPEAKER_00: It feels a little bit like this.
SPEAKER_00: You know how this feels.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that you're in a text fight with somebody, and you know that texting is the most intelligent way in the world to communicate.
SPEAKER_00: But you're in a text fight and you're hurt, like you really got hurt.
SPEAKER_00: They said some sharp things, and you know, you've you've designed this text that when you press send, when you hit that button, man, it's gonna go nuclear, and you're gonna help them see finally.
SPEAKER_00: They're just gonna be like, they're gonna be like, wow, I was just all wrong.
SPEAKER_00: They are right for sure.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, that's exactly how it happens.
SPEAKER_00: And you're tempted to hit that button, and and you're right, like it's it's a score, man.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna restrained, Jesus-filled people say, ah, that's what it that feels right there.
SPEAKER_00: That's what restraining feels like.
SPEAKER_00: It's like everything in me wants to, and I'm gonna pull back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna do it because I could be that severe, but Jesus is not that severe with me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna take this time to show some mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta know this, dude.
SPEAKER_00: No one's gonna be applauding that, no one's gonna see that at all.
SPEAKER_00: Only the Holy Spirit saw that, and it's not gonna feel like you won.
SPEAKER_00: When you don't press that, they're gonna think they won.
SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna feel for you like, dude, this ain't what this is like swallowing a sword, man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, it hurts.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Or another example.
SPEAKER_00: You're driving along in the car, you're going pretty fast, and someone zips by you and cuts you off.
SPEAKER_00: And not only are you like, oh my gosh, like I almost just died.
SPEAKER_00: This could have killed me, but you're also offended.
SPEAKER_00: What are they doing?
SPEAKER_00: Why are they being so careless with my life?
SPEAKER_00: And dude, you are ready to like hit the gas and go up and cut them off.
SPEAKER_00: And dude, you you you know you could do it too, because you got the bigger car.
SPEAKER_00: And you're white knuckling that thing, and then instead of hitting the gas, I'm just gonna give them grace.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna be that severe.
SPEAKER_00: I might need grace before the day is out, and so I'm just going to be restrained in my reaction.
SPEAKER_00: I've probably cut people off sometime when I didn't mean to, so I'm going to let being restrained shape me into a Jesus-shaped dude or dudette.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be a different kind of person because I embrace the shaping power of restraint.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, we got to get this.
SPEAKER_00: We got to get this in our time.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, listen, if you name the name of Jesus, you and I, you are not a conqueror in the way the world conquers.
SPEAKER_00: You are not a conqueror in the way the world conquers.
SPEAKER_00: The world wants to be severe.
SPEAKER_00: It wants to get back at them.
SPEAKER_00: It wants to punch back and say, see, you fool, you never should have messed with me.
SPEAKER_00: How dumb you are.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way the world tries to conquer.
SPEAKER_00: But it won't be so with us.
SPEAKER_00: See, we are, in one sense, the Bible says you're more than a conqueror.
SPEAKER_00: What that really means, though, that's that has nothing to do with violence.
SPEAKER_00: It has to do with before I even enter the battle, I've already won in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I just know that walking in.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are cross-bearing conquerors.
SPEAKER_00: We win through the pattern of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We will lay down our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We restrain ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus could have stopped the whole dang thing, the whole time he was being crucified, and he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: He pulled back.
SPEAKER_00: He was restrained, and he did it because he showed that's how you overcome the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, keep keep coming.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are doing all right.
SPEAKER_00: You're backsliding a little bit with those amens.
SPEAKER_00: I just gotta tell you.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a conqueror in the world's way.
SPEAKER_00: You are a crossbearing conqueror.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does that mean we should do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it means when, you know, when there's a rumor going around about you, you die to answering that.
SPEAKER_00: You just let it go.
SPEAKER_00: You just let it go, yo.
SPEAKER_00: That means when you're tempted, to trash your boss, or trash the church, or trash whomever.
SPEAKER_00: Restraint.
SPEAKER_00: I wanna do it, but I'm not going to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Not because it'll then everyone will know that I'm the awesome one, but the Holy Spirit will be there and he'll like it, and he'll work it together for my good.
SPEAKER_00: That means I don't need to set the record straight.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to humiliate people just because they dared mess with me.
SPEAKER_00: Because silent witnesses believe God acted.
SPEAKER_00: Visible witnesses live like he did.
SPEAKER_00: So they practice restraint toward their enemies and they become publicly joyful.
SPEAKER_00: Publicly joyful, yo.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see this?
SPEAKER_00: I just want to make sure you saw this.
SPEAKER_00: So after the decree went out, listen to this, chapter 18, verse 16, the Jews were filled with joy and gladness and honored everywhere, in every province and city, wherever the king's decree arrived, the Jews rejoiced and had a great celebration and declared a public festival and holiday, and many of the people of the land became Jews themselves, for they feared that they feared what the Jews might do to them.
SPEAKER_00: Their response, even before this, you gotta this is before they were able to defend themselves.
SPEAKER_00: This is before any fighting happened.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as the decree goes out, they are celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: They are joyful, and it is visible.
SPEAKER_00: It's so visible that even people see it, and they're like, maybe I should become a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: They're celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, you and I need to not under celebrate that it was God that delivered us.
SPEAKER_00: It was God.
SPEAKER_00: It was God that fought our enemies.
SPEAKER_00: It was God that brought about that reversal.
SPEAKER_00: We should want there should be something as we mature, my friends, there should be a jealousy for God's glory that begins to develop in us.
SPEAKER_00: I want God to get the glory.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want anyone, I don't even want me to get the glory.
SPEAKER_00: I want God to.
SPEAKER_00: When we hold back joy, we're we're pretending nothing happened, but it did happen.
SPEAKER_00: We're pretending God didn't just rescue your butt.
SPEAKER_00: We're pretending that God didn't just come through again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: We're pretending God didn't forgive me again, even when I would have left me a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what it's like when you you have a secret and it's good and you haven't let it out yet?
SPEAKER_00: So, like, let's say you just got accepted into that college and it's it's what you want him, man, and it's where you want to go, and you just find out about it, and nobody knows yet.
SPEAKER_00: And when people know they're gonna be excited, but you know, and you're in those moments before you tell anybody it's just your secret, you can't wait to let it out.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe some of you know what this is like.
SPEAKER_00: You got engaged five minutes ago, and nobody knows yet.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody knows.
SPEAKER_00: They're about to know, but nobody knows yet.
SPEAKER_00: You have this special secret, but you can't keep it in, dude.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get that stuff out.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you felt like the Lord's been encouraging you to try for a baby for a whole year.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't happening, it wasn't happening, and then finally you found out you're pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: But now nobody knows yet.
SPEAKER_00: Only you know.
SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a beautiful little precious secret, and you wanna let it out.
SPEAKER_00: And my friends, that's that's really the feeling that we should feel about how God has helped us, about how God has come through for us, about how God got us through when no one else would.
SPEAKER_00: So let me issue you this challenge.
SPEAKER_00: Is it possible that during you as you go through the week, you could even, whether you're with friends in the cafeteria, whether you're at the kitchen table, wherever you are, you're gonna say, I'm just gonna be bold and loud about one thing that I saw.
SPEAKER_00: It could only be God that he did this.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's small.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just like, well, God did this for me today.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Carter, what if they don't like it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what if they don't like it?
SPEAKER_00: What if God likes it?
SPEAKER_00: What if it's worthy of who he is?
SPEAKER_00: What if it's the thing that he ought you ought to say, because the right response is living an active as a visible witness.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Carter, what if I'm just too much?
SPEAKER_00: What if that what if that's just too much for people?
SPEAKER_00: Precious, the devil tells you you're too much, but you're not too much.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of focusing on you, let's focus on focusing, let's focus on unveiling how awesome God is.
SPEAKER_00: Let's shout it loud, man.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be like these these folks celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the third one.
SPEAKER_00: Those who have seen God's faithfulness practice restraint, become publicly joyful, and commemorate God's kindness.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Mordecai does.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so after the days of battle, and the Jews have completely won.
SPEAKER_00: He's intentional and he's pastoral.
SPEAKER_00: It says in chapter 9, verse 20, Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to the Jews in Erifar through the provinces of King Xerxes, calling them to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: An annual festival on these two days, the two days that it took place.
SPEAKER_00: He told them to celebrate these days with feasting and gladness by giving gifts of food to each other and presents to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: This would commemorate a time when the Jews gained relief from their enemies, when sorrow was turned into gladness and their mourning into joy.
SPEAKER_00: So the Jews accepted Mordecai's proposal and adopted this annual custom.
SPEAKER_00: This is the festival of Purim.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you know about this.
SPEAKER_00: This is still practiced by Jews today.
SPEAKER_00: And what was it?
SPEAKER_00: It was the recognition God reversed the entire situation on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: God took our sorrow and he turned it into joy.
SPEAKER_00: God took our danger and he turned it into rescue.
SPEAKER_00: And there's feasting.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you so glad you have a God that doesn't just fast but feasts?
SPEAKER_00: God loves it sometimes, do we just go for it?
SPEAKER_00: God, you are glorious.
SPEAKER_00: Watch me put this thing away.
SPEAKER_00: And it's characterized by giving and generosity.
SPEAKER_00: All to say, here's what's worthy of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just that I tell people about it, it's not just that I restrain myself, it's that I party like God is real.
SPEAKER_00: So everybody can know.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to even be generous so that everybody can know that I'm doing this because my God is real.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he want us to commemorate it though?
SPEAKER_00: Like what is that?
SPEAKER_00: God knows, like you and I have experienced.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, dude, you feel it really strongly, and it's really, oh my gosh, that was so hard.
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as the pressure lifts, you're like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And I just forgot about that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just moving on with life, got a lot coming at me.
SPEAKER_00: And I forget how hard that was, and I forget how meaningful it was that God delivered me.
SPEAKER_00: And so God wants us to, I want you to keep some records here of the fact that I come through for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't do it because God just needs our praise.
SPEAKER_00: He does it because you and I need the courage.
SPEAKER_00: And when we commemorate, when we look back and we see this is what God did here, and this is what God did here, and this is what God did here, my friends, it just gives us more confidence.
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I, okay, she's she's such an advantage to me in all the ways.
SPEAKER_00: One way that I'm maybe a mild advantage to her is she's afraid of tech in such a way that when she goes to a website where she needs a password, it's almost like a like she's shaking almost.
SPEAKER_00: Because she's she's had so many times when she went to that website and she's like she's trying to get the password in there, she doesn't know where it is, the machine isn't even telling her the right password, and she's just frazzled.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a dread.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go to this password site, and I'm gonna have to get in.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I on the other hand, I just know how to do passwords, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I got a password app, I got all kinds of like it's easy like it's just easy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not hard.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is it not hard, I'm not saying I walk with a little bit of swagger, but um when she's having trouble, I'm like, hey there, little lady.
SPEAKER_00: What you got there?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm super willing to help, but what also is happening there is I'm super confident because I know it works for me.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen it again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Every time I go, it's reinforced.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Carter, you're pretty good with those passwords.
SPEAKER_00: It's reinforced again and again, and her fear is reinforced again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: When we keep records of what God has done, it reinforces confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he did it here, so he's probably gonna do it here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he did those previous ten times, he's probably gonna do it the next ten times.
SPEAKER_00: And we're wisely keeping track of what God does for us.
SPEAKER_00: There my wife and I have been really intentional about with our kids.
SPEAKER_00: I think they could tell you a lot of stories about what we just call the dark times.
SPEAKER_00: So we had a fan, we've always had, we've always been deeply in love.
SPEAKER_00: We've always had Jesus by our side.
SPEAKER_00: But the first between 2002 and 2008, we just call them the dark times.
SPEAKER_00: Because, not because anything was wrong between us, but because that's the time I was sick, that's the time we were recovering from that church split.
SPEAKER_00: That's the time when every job I did was, dude, it was like taking your face and smashing it into the gravel.
SPEAKER_00: That's really what it felt like to go to work every day.
SPEAKER_00: It was so humbling and so bleeding.
SPEAKER_00: It was hard.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just hard.
SPEAKER_00: And so we tried to help our kids understand hey, mom and dad went through this time.
SPEAKER_00: We just called the dark times.
SPEAKER_00: In 2008, things began to turn around.
SPEAKER_00: Like God had just opened some doors and things began to blow up in a good way.
SPEAKER_00: And we're like, oh my gosh, here's the favor we've been believing for this whole time.
SPEAKER_00: But it took all those years, and so we tell them, we tell them not to depress them, we tell them the story because we're pretty sure for most of them, the dark times might be might be a lot sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna see the dark times, and I want them to remember God was faithful to my folks, he'll be faithful to me.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, that's why we tell our kids the stories.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we pass it on.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I don't want to hear it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe they do want to hear it, or maybe it's just gonna help them anyway, so help them hear it anyway.
SPEAKER_00: I've got this, I mean, I don't think it's like super gross or anything, but I got this little scar right here a few years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Like I had a hernia and it had to be fixed, and so bro, the doctor went in and I guess chopped me up a little bit, like shot a bunch of holes in me.
SPEAKER_00: And there's one scar that's left, and sometimes I forget that ever happened.
SPEAKER_00: But then I look down at that scar and I'm like, oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm glad I'm out of that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I don't have that pain anymore.
SPEAKER_00: That was that was really hard.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's okay to even chronicle the pain as we get further and further from the pain.
SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of years, my friends, when we first had that, when we were part of that church split, when there was that leadership betrayal, we were it was I was 22 years old.
SPEAKER_00: Every year after that, it was like a little bit of a oh, thank God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a year away from that.
SPEAKER_00: And for the first two years, it was like, oh, that's so hard, I can't wait till I'm further away from it.
SPEAKER_00: And then on year three, it feels a little better.
SPEAKER_00: And then in year four, oh, okay, this is getting okay.
SPEAKER_00: And then in year five, wow, I'm glad that is behind me, but life is beginning to look a little bit different, and I'm not quite so bitter, not quite so jaded, not so quite so hurt, because God has been healing.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we count from trauma, you don't have to be all the way over the trauma, but you're saying, God has been on the move all this time, and I want to give him the praise.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's okay to mark the trauma so you can tell the story of a God who delivers from trauma.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you a secret.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to hear the hear it the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, your thankfulness brings about God's activity in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: See, sometimes we're asking God and asking God and asking God.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Okay, well, faith, just believe that it's happened then.
SPEAKER_00: Just thank me that you're God, you you've got this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen, it's not a lever, it's not like you can make God do something like, Come on, God, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: I want that Lamborghini.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what it is.
SPEAKER_00: But when there's something we're earnestly needing, okay, I've seen God come through with money.
SPEAKER_00: God, I need this money.
SPEAKER_00: I'm and I've asked you and I've asked you and I've fasted for it, but now I'm thanking you, I thank you, I'm thank you that it's coming.
SPEAKER_00: As we've received a house.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't free, but the door opened to get it as a result of thanking God that we already had it.
SPEAKER_00: That's how it works.
SPEAKER_00: There's been all kinds of deliverances.
SPEAKER_00: I I began to thank God when I was sick.
SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you that I don't know, you might kill me, but just in case I'm thanking you that you're at work in me.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing something to heal my body.
SPEAKER_00: And someday this is all gonna make sense.
SPEAKER_00: And someday I'm gonna give you praise and look back and say, God was right, I was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Has God reversed any situations for you?
SPEAKER_00: What's the response?
SPEAKER_00: The response is thankfulness and praise.
SPEAKER_00: Are there things you still need to see God do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the right response is to ask him, he wants us to ask him, but also act like he's the kind of God that probably will do that at some point soon.
SPEAKER_00: Begin to thank him for it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna invite the worship team back up.
SPEAKER_00: The right way to close this series is with thanksgiving, and especially to recognize that Esther and Mordecai, dude, they're they're cool, they're good, they're not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like even the fact that Mordecai put into the second decree, yeah, and you can steal all your pe all your enemies' stuff, he's the one that put that in there.
SPEAKER_00: Like that wasn't perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Esther asks for another day of slaughter.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_00: That's a hard one for me to get swallowed down.
SPEAKER_00: But really, you know, they're just like Abraham and David and everybody else in the Bible who they were great on one level, they can be a model of some things, and they ultimately fell short.
SPEAKER_00: Just like you and I fall short.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to hear this is not a message like I don't want you to take away from this.
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, just act like Esther, act like Mordecai.
SPEAKER_00: No, instead, I want us to focus on the point.
SPEAKER_00: They were great models of some things, but there's only one who is the perfect servant of God.
SPEAKER_00: And his name is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's the real deliverer.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one, he wasn't hiding in a palace, he was exposed on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that thought about you when he was on that cross.
SPEAKER_00: He was the one that said, their deliverance will be worth this.
SPEAKER_00: Esther took a big risk for her people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took a much greater risk for the salvation of his enemies.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he did.
SPEAKER_00: Esther, yep, her actions brought about a reversal.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' mission and obedience brought about the reversal of death itself.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the hero of every story, dude.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the greater and perfect Esther, and he's the one who should be thanked.
SPEAKER_00: He should be thanked.
SPEAKER_00: He should be recognized, he should be honored, he should be pointed out.
SPEAKER_00: He should be like, you know who it was?
SPEAKER_00: It was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's who it was.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't anybody else, it wasn't just religion, it wasn't just even Christianity, it was Jesus, the man, the God himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's who it was.
SPEAKER_00: That's who keeps saving the day around here.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not gonna be quiet about it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna be a silent witness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be a loud, visible witness.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's who it is.
SPEAKER_00: He's the answer, he's what I need, he's what y'all need.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one that is the antidote for everything sick with our society and everything sick within us.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus, yo.
SPEAKER_00: So as we go into this next song, I want you to invite Jesus into every one of those spaces.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the reason spirit-led restraint is possible.
SPEAKER_00: He's the why that is.
SPEAKER_00: Or what went right there was a Jesus thing, and I need to praise him for it.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna pray, and then y'all are gonna sing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: As you know, we like Esther and Mordecai, we're imperfect servants, and we don't always praise you.
SPEAKER_00: We don't always make the right decisions.
SPEAKER_00: But we own we have seen God move in our time.
SPEAKER_00: We have seen reversals, we have seen you rescue us again and again and again, and it's so insane that we almost get used to it.
SPEAKER_00: We ask you to forgive us for that.
SPEAKER_00: We should never get used to your kindness that you didn't have to do.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for every good thing going on in our life right now and for every bad thing that you're gonna work for our good.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you ahead of time.
SPEAKER_00: God, everything that we need, some need a financial breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that you know about that, and we thank you that you're gonna send it at the right time.
SPEAKER_00: Some people need a job, they need a relational restoration.
SPEAKER_00: Some people need help just to get better, they need to get out of the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: Others, their emotions are damaged.
SPEAKER_00: There's trauma that is like stuck.
SPEAKER_00: What they need is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm asking Jesus, I'm asking you to go heal that.
SPEAKER_00: They can't do it on their own.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to heal their trauma.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to help their heart beat again.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to help them trust again.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to help them draw near again.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to help them believe again.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, folks, that's all the time we have, but thank you so much for listening to this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: If you got a lot out of this, feel free to share this with somebody who might need it.
SPEAKER_00: Also, there's a ton more content on our website, on our YouTube channel, on our Instagram channel, on our TikTok channel.
SPEAKER_00: Feel free to check all that kind of a thing out.
SPEAKER_00: Also, if you're interested in leadership type stuff, go ahead and check out another podcast or any other blogs or videos or anything over at BibleLeadership.com.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever else you do, make sure that you believe God for something big today.