Don't See Yourself As Higher Than You Are - Patrosky Anderson

We're wrapping up our series "Queen's Gambit" where we read through the book of Esther! In this final episode, Pastor Patrosky focuses on the common theme of pride and humility throughout the book.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to the Brick by Brick Podcast from Renovation Church, where faith gets built one truth at a time. In this sermon episode, you'll listen to our most recent Sunday morning message. So whether you're new to faith or have been walking with Jesus for years, there's something here for you. So kick back, hit play, and let's build this thing together.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Let's open in prayer and then we will dive into God's word here. Father God, thank you for thank you for today. Thank you for our fathers, Lord. Most importantly, you, God, as you are our good, good father. God, we also recognize that there are those of us who our fathers are no longer around. God, there are those of us who maybe the memory of a father is not a pleasant memory, Lord. But I thank you that you step in and you fill in all those gaps, God, if we would allow you to. And so we thank you, we love you. God, we honor our earthly fathers, both uh living and past, Lord, and we praise our Heavenly Father this morning. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear what your word would say. In Jesus' name. Amen. So today we're gonna wrap up our series looking at the book of Esther. And so um in in hindsight, a holiday weekend might not have been, we should have maybe should have uh coordinated that a little better because you might be a visitor here. Maybe a child or someone brought you here, and you're a visitor, and you're here on the last day of our series. And so, in many regards, I'll be saying some things, and people have already heard it, they've already, they've been walking through, but I'll do my best to offer some context because I want we're not gonna finish the entire book of Esther today. Uh, because the book of Esther, I've said this several times. The book of Esther, it doesn't mention God. The book of Esther really is um obviously uh God-inspired, God-breathed. It's meant for uh correction, rebuking, uh, to train us up in righteousness. I believe it is very much the word of God, though it doesn't mention God, but it has a very specific purpose, I believe. I believe that the book of Esther tells us, it gives us this inside look about what does God do with a corrupt culture? Like what does God do with the corrupt culture, right? I think every culture is corrupt because Genesis chapter 3, so I'm not trying to highlight uh us or even them, but we get this unique look into how does God deal with corrupt people? How does God, even though we're all broken and fallen, how does God still somehow use us to bring about his glory? Amen. Are you excited that we are broken people and yet God can still use us to bring about his glory? And the book of Esther highlights the ways in which God can and still does do those things, right? Because the book, it starts off, just to recap a little bit, the book starts off with this huge party that the king is having. And the whole reason he's throwing this party is because he just wants to highlight how rich he is, right? He has this huge party. When the party's over, then he throws an after party for everyone who are the workers in the palace. He throws this after party, and it's at this after party, when everyone is drunken, they've had their feel, he calls his then queen, his then wife, Queen Vashti, to come and parade her beauty around to all of the drunken men who are in the room, and she refuses. And because of the fact that she refuses, it says that she is banished, and then that's where we even get the book of Esther. And the point that we tried to make there is the point that we've made throughout this entire book that not all sacrifice is us losing. And we've got to get to a point, and I think it is very uh pointed on Father's Day because I think this is the mantle that we carry as men in the kingdom of God, that we've got to get to this point where women, their value is not based in the way that they look. Men, can we say amen to that? That a woman's value is not based in the in the way that she looks. And and the book of Esther highlights that even in the midst of all of this, God has got a plan for this corrupt generation. And so he kicks Queen Vashti to the side. He throws this this this I would say this wicked uh beauty pageant to bring in all of these other new uh women into the palace, and then from there he chooses Esther. In part two, we realize, or the second thing that we've been realizing throughout this entire book, is that the company that you keep, it will dictate your life. And it's extremely evident. And we're gonna highlight even the company that Esther kept. Even the company that Esther kept while in the palace, while under the king's thumb, that dictated her life. We know that the company that the king kept, it dictated uh his life, right? Unfortunately for Esther, like it seems like for her it's just been one sacrifice after another. The loss of parents, then the loss of Mordecai. She's taken from her home, forced to live in the palace. Mordecai is her uncle, but he he serves as like her father. She loses her innocence. She loses the life that she's always known, thrusted into this life of uncertainty, and yet not all of her sacrifice equated to her losing. Esther is now the queen. Esther is now the most powerful person in the entire kingdom. Contrary to King Xerxes, the company that he keeps, what's got him losing too? He loses his wife. Right? He almost loses his life. And now he's losing his peace. The Bible says that he can't even sleep. There's a high-ranking official, right? A noble person named Haman. He comes onto the scene when the king just decides to, as far as we know, just bless him with power and authority. So he he blesses Haman, says, from here on out, everyone who sees Haman, they need to bow. Haman sees Mordecai, who's at the gate, who's worried about uh Esther, who's like his daughter. Haman sees him and he expects Haman or Mordecai, or Haman sees Mordecai and he expects Mordecai to bow. Mordecai doesn't, because Mordecai says, Look, I'm a Jew, and Jews, we don't do that kind of thing. We only believe in one true God. This enrages Haman. And so Haman, uh Haman really goes on a warpath, and it says that he delighted in not just killing uh uh Mordecai, but he sought to kill all of Mordecai's people, right? So then he goes to the king in the king's ear, offers to pay the king to kill the Jews. The Jew, uh the king says, Keep the money, I'm good. Haman, do whatever you want. So Haman uh decides that he's going to, with the with the blessing of the king, create a day in which the people were going to turn upon their neighbor and kill the Jews. Right? From there, uh Mordecai starts to mourn because there's now a date in which he's gonna be executed. He goes to his daughter, Esther, and says, Look, you gotta talk to your husband. Right? She's like, No, no, no, no, that's not something we do around here. And he says, Well, I'm gonna need you, this is me paraphrasing, I'm gonna need you to do this for us. But but at the same time, don't think that you alone are safe because you live behind those walls. And Mordecai says something to her that that I'm gonna be honest, I debated whether or not to share this example, but I feel impressed in my heart to do so, right? Um, Mordecai tells her this. He tells her that for such a time as this, this is your moment. But what he tells her is that essentially don't separate yourself from us. Just because you live on that side of the wall, don't think that you're not one of us. Don't think that you are safe with this false sense of security that you have. Don't separate yourself from us. We do this in our culture far too often. I grew up in Texas. You guys know that, I'm proud of that. One of the things that I grew up in Texas was just a part of our life, and I didn't know it wasn't a part of every every black person's life, every white person, I just didn't know it until I moved out of Texas. But it is this celebration that we call Juneteenth. And I I was like, I don't know, right? Because can we be honest, right? Like, I pastor you guys. And there are some differences between us. And I try to be, I try to be wise, I try to be understanding, I try to, but we we just moved through Juneteenth, and I know that Juneteenth has got like I don't, I I'll be honest, I don't understand the controversy around it. So you'll just have to forgive my ignorance because again, I grew up in Texas where this was a thing, right? And I I grew up like we would go to the park. I have, you know, I have family in town. He asked me not to call them out, but and so we we were reminiscing, and then I just did, we were reminiscing um over the weekend about how like in the city we grew up in, it was like this this weeklong celebration. And uh like everything would stop. Everyone would go to the park, there'd be vendors, you'd be hanging out, kids would be running around, the pool would be open, like it's just this beautiful time of like our community getting together, celebrating. And you can imagine as a little child, I'm asking my mother, mother, why do we do these things? Like, like what is this? I've like, what is this? And she told me, this is Juneteenth, this is us celebrating the time in which we were free. And I remember her telling me something one day. She said, Because we believe here in Texas that until we're all free, none of us are free. And she explained it to me that look, slavery, right, 1865, I won't get into that. But there were a group of people in Texas who didn't know that they were free until June 19th came around and they were actually told. And so we celebrate the fact that until they were free, none of us were free. And you can politicize that all you want, but I think that's as Christian as it gets. Because the Bible says that we gotta bear one another's burdens. And if you believe that in your heart, then how are you free and I'm not free? How are you free and I'm not free? How am I free and you're not free? Right? Are we not together? Are you not my brother? Are you not my sister? And that's what Mordecai is telling her. Don't confuse the safety that you find behind those walls. I'm telling you, until we are free, none of us are free. And he's telling her, this might be your moment, but don't get lost in the sauce and think that you are safe. That's what he tells her. Don't think that you're safe. He's telling her, until we're all safe, you're not safe either. And as Christians, I think we need to get that deep down into our heart. That until our neighbors are loved, until our neighbors are free, until our neighbors are safe, are we? Are we? You see, you can hear that and think, oh, you know, it's it's not. It's biblical. Because that's what the Bible says. That's what the Bible says. And so here Haman is on this war path. He's been he's been exalted to the highest person outside of the king and the queen, right? And all the people they are bowing down to him. And Mordecai is appealing to Esther to do something about this. And so she finally like answers the call and says, Yes, I'm gonna stand in the gap for my people. She asks them to fast. I believe God starts to work in the background. The king can't sleep. Haman is is is happy, he's doing his thing, he's free. And then Esther, after they spent some time fasting and then in prayer, she asked the king, King, can I just get some get some time with both you and Haman? Let's just share a meal together. King says, Of course, anything you want. Up to half of my kingdom. A meal, small price to pay. So they go get Haman and they eat. And the and the king is asking the queen, what is it you want? What is it you want? And she's she, I think in her wisdom, she's like, no, no, no, no. Let like indulge me one more day, let's go and do this, right? And if you go to Esther chapter 5, verse 9, this is what we see. We see that Haman he went out that day happy and in high spirits. He went out from what? He went out from the first uh meeting and dinner that he had with the queen and the king in high spirits. But then on his way home, it says that when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate, and he observed that neither he nor um he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence. It says he was filled with anger, with rage against Mordecai. Nevertheless, it says that Haman showed restraint from with himself, and he went home, and he called together his friends and his wife. And we talked about last week how how Haman he he fixated. When you look at the story from Haman's perspective, things are going good, aren't they? Dude's been invited to the king's, personal table, the queen's people have cooked a meal, he's hanging out with the two, like life is good. And yet he leaves, and all he can think about is there's one more person in this kingdom who won't they won't bow to me. Pride has a way of robbing us of humility. We talked about this last week. Pride has a way of causing us to fixate on the one thing when God has blessed us with so many other things. It it reminds me of the thing that Jesus warns us against in Luke chapter 14. In Luke chapter 14 and verse 7, it says, When he noticed that his guest, right? Jesus gets invited to a banquet, and at the banquet he's kind of watching and he's seeing how people have come in and they've taken a seat. And when he noticed how the guests came in and they took a seat, he says this in verse 7. When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told this parable. When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of the honor, uh, of the honor. For a person who is just more distinguished than you may have also been invited. And if the host who invited both of you, he they come to you, and and and essentially he's gonna have to give your seat to the more distinguished person. And what he's gonna have to do is he's gonna have to ask you to get up and go sit at a lower place. And he says this in verse 11. He concludes with this he says, For all of those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Church, what what Jesus is trying to tell us is that we ought not see ourselves higher than we are. Not just in our hearts, not just in our minds, but that should spill over onto our actions. And Haman had the opportunity to humble himself all along the way, didn't he? He had the opportunity to stop focusing on Mordecai and to realize that this is his opportunity to humble himself, right? But we talked about last week how humility is not the opposite of pride. You should know that. Pride is not the opposite of humility. Because you as a person, us as humans, we can do both. It's not that you're just doomed to being prideful or doomed to being humble. No, no, why would you be doomed to being humble? But you know what I mean? Like, you're not just stuck with these qualities, you can possess them both. And it's and it's think of it like a fire. It's like if to to keep the fire of pride burning, you have to feed it the logs of humility. You just do. But likewise, to keep humility uh present and burning in your life, you have to constantly sacrifice these parts of our lives. We all have them, I have them, these parts of our lives that cause us to lend, uh lean into being pride. You have to be prideful, you have to submit those things to the fire, to the refiner's fire, as God is trying to mold us more and more into his image. And if we hold on to these things, then he cannot have them because he's a good, good God. And what good, good father rips these things out of the arms of his children. No, he wants you to lay those things down at the altar, lay those things down in his presence. And to keep the fire of humility going in our lives, we have to consciously put pride aside. And Haman has this opportunity all the time, but he doesn't because these things are filling his head. He gets invited to another dinner, right? He gets invited to another dinner, and what happens is, well, let me back up and say this. Haman is like us. I want to make sure that you're we're clear on that. Haman is like us. I think sometimes we look at characters in the Bible and we shake our hands like, how could they be so foolish? We I do that and I'll be like, Peter, what do you do? You walked on water. You cut a guy's ear off and you watch them heal it back. Like, what are you doing? But these people are us. Because these people are just displaying humanity. Right? Go to Esther chapter 6, verse 6. We're gonna skip through this. By now the king has had trouble sleeping. And they didn't have TV back then. He couldn't just turn on Netflix or something like that and fall asleep, scrolling on his phone. And so he does the next best thing. He has one of his attendants, right? We we we know in later parts of the Bible here that that um the the king kind of surrounded himself with eunuchs, Esther kind of, right? So in turn, Esther was surrounded by eunuchs as well, right? And one of these eunuchs comes in to read for the king, and the and the eunuch goes to the specific part. He goes to the specific part about how um there was a plot to kill the king's life, and it was Mordecai who helped save it, right? So here, remember, uh Haman has been invited back to a second dinner. And so Haman now uh is utterly, utterly enraged with Mordecai. He talks to his family and friends, they say to build a pole and throw and have the king put Mordecai on it. Super crazy, super wild. And so, though, but Haman's like, that's a great idea. So now Haman's like, when I go back to the king tomorrow, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, suggest this to the king. And meanwhile, the king can't sleep. He's had this thing read to him about Mordecai, and he's like, Oh, we gotta do something about that. And so when Esther 6, chapter 6, this is where we're at, it says that when Haman entered in, uh, the king asked him, What should be done for the man that the king delights to honor? Now, Haman thought to himself, Who is this that the king would rather honor than me? Pride forces you to look at only who? Yourself. And Haman's like, of course he's talking about me, right? So he answers the king. He answers the king uh for the man the king delights to honor. Have uh them bring and pay attention to this. Have them bring a royal robe, the royal robe of the king. Remember, Haman thinks he's talking about who? Himself. And he says, Oh, what do I want? Have them bring out a royal robe that the king has worn, uh, and a horse that the king is written on, uh, and one of the royal crests, and place it on his what to mimic a what. Haman wants to be who. Because that's what pride does. Church, the longer the fire of pride burns, the harder it will become to put it out. And just like any fire, it will always want more more oxygen, more wood, and it will never be enough. Haman wants to be king, and it is evident in the way in which he thinks that he's the one that's gonna receive the the this these accolades, and it is apparent in the Way that he wants those accolades to look. He's like, go get the king's robe. No, no, no, go get the king's horse. Oh, take the royal crest and put it on his head. Essentially make this person look like the king, and then let the robe and the horse be entrusted to one of the king's most noble, uh, who? Yeah. Let them robe the man and the king's that the king delights to honor, lead them around the horse around the city, proclaiming uh before him, this is what is done to the man that the king delights with honor. If we're not careful, we will want people to sing our praises. And that's a dangerous, dangerous, dangerous game to play. Haman tells the king basically what he wants, right? But then the king flips it on him. And in verse 10, he says, At once the king commanded Haman, get the robe and the horse and do just as you suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. He says, Don't neglect anything that you've commanded. Can you imagine? I bet Haman probably started choking on his own spit. Like he probably lost his mind. He probably lost his mind. So he does exactly what the king says because he has to, and then he runs back to his wife, and he is he is totally upset. His wife is now starting to read the writing on the wall. Oftentimes they get there before we do, but it's Father's Day, so we will not admit that today. Um and so, but before they could even have time to process it in verse 14, it says, While they were still talking uh with him, the king's eunuchs arrived. They hurried Haman away to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And then I just want to paraphrase this last part. If you turn to chapter 7, they go to the banquet, they're eating, they're drinking, and the king is constantly asking Esther, Esther, what is it you want? What do you want? And then in verse 3, she says, it says, then the Queen Esther answered, If I have found favor with you, your majesty, if it pleases you, grant me my life. This is my petition, and spare my people. This is my request. For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed. Um she she is, if you notice, she is talking to him in a way where she is saying, like, would you save me? Would you save my people? Would you um like like would you do this? And she paints this picture as though there's this anonymous person out there. And she's like, look, look, look, if it was, if we were slaves, like if it was something else, if it was something any other than taking our lives, it would be okay. I would keep quiet. But this king, this is beyond. This is a bridge too far. And she's she's getting her husband uh riled up, right? And they because they've been drinking. Verse 5, it says that the king exercises asked the queen, who is it? Where is he? The man who dares do such a thing. They didn't have mirrors back then. He's like, who dares do this? He wasn't reading the room at all. And I do think if you, it's like this happens on the second day, and we don't know if they've been drinking for two days or if this is just the second day of the banquet, but they've been drinking every day, they're at the banquet. So the king is good and full. And and the queen is saying, There's someone out there who's trying to take our lives. And the king is like, Who is it? Who's this man? And then Esther says, the adversary, the enemy, this vile Haman. And I imagine she pointed. It's Haman. Haman freezes in his tracks. And I bet it all comes together. It says Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. The king gets up in a rage and it says he left his wine. So you know it's serious. You know it's serious, right? He leaves his wine, and it says that he went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his faith, why? Because he knew the king. He knew the king. And he knew the king had no problem killing those people who opposed him. He knew his own fate. He stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life. The man who made it a point that everybody should bow to him at any given moment, all the time, is now on his knees to the queen, who he now knows is a Jew, and he is begging for his life. The king returns from the palace, the garden banquet. Uh, just as he did this, Haman was falling on the couch that Esther was reclining on. Now look who's kicking back. And the king the the king exclaims, and it just tells you where his mind was. And it seems always. He says, Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in my house? As soon as the words left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. And then from there, who? A eunuch. Are they not the unsung heroes of the story as well? It seems like around every corner there there's a eunuch there. Right? From the very beginning, it says that that the eunuchs they gave special treatment to Esther, allowed her to do special things, allowed her to gain favor. She goes in. It's the eunuch who's reading to the king. He goes specifically to this spot where Mordecai was um lifted up as a hero. It's the eunuch who's going back and forth. That Esther trusts the eunuch to be able to share the stories, right? As he's going back with Mordecai. It's the eunuch who goes and gets Haman, and now it's the eunuch that says, Hey, while I was at Haman's house, did you know that he had a pole that he was actually going to put Mordecai on? You know Mordecai, right? Mordecai, the guy who saved you. And the king says, impale him on it. And so in verse 10 it says, They impaled Haman on this pole that he had set up for Mordecai, and the king's fury subsided. Why? Because he had passed the buck and eliminated the problem. Don't don't neglect that. Because he had passed he had passed the buck and eliminated the problem. I know that's gruesome. I do, I know that's gruesome. And that's why we're gonna stop right here. Because can I just tell you, this is not this is like Esther Light. Like Esther is a book that I pray you continue to read and finish and you ask God to search your heart while you're doing that. Because I think God wants to continue to speak to us through this book. But I just want to recap some of the things that I believe the Word of God has shown us over the past five weeks. That if you weren't here or you didn't write it down, I want to make sure you do. We've said this many times, but this is still true that not all sacrifices you losing. Church, not all sacrifices you're losing. And God has called us to be a people of sacrifice, to be to be a people that don't hold on to status, hold on to the things that we feel like give us value in this life. When the only value we should ever require is good and well done, faithful servant. Amen. But I know it's human nature that we seek validation from all these other things. I get it, but I'm telling you, the only validation that matters will be good and well done, faithful servant. Because not all sacrifices you're losing. Number two, the company that you keep will dictate your life. I said this a few weeks ago, and I still remember some of your faces. Some of you think that you you you're hanging out with people you shouldn't be hanging out with, and you think you're making a difference. You are not. That is hard for you to hear. You are not. You're not making a difference. And I'm not saying it's all about coming to church, but the people you're thinking you're making a difference with, they're sleeping right now, and you're in church. Some of the people that you think you're making a difference with, you've been doing the same thing for years with these people. They haven't changed their ways. Why? Because you're not making a difference. And you need to realize that the company you keep dictates your life. Have a real conversation with God and ask him which direction he wants your life to go. Number two, to maintain your pride, it will cost you your humility. And as you sacrifice your humility, it changes who you are as a person. It changes who you are as a person. And so to maintain your pride, you must sacrifice your humility. And lastly, poor company plus pride equals hypocrisy. Poor company plus pride equals hypocrisy. We've all, and this was the king. When you go back and you read chapter seven, he is nothing but a hypocrite. Nothing but a hypocrite. How dare the person who fired his first wife brought in his second wife without even getting to know his second wife, agreed to kill all of her people. Now all of a sudden get enraged about who dares do the things that I actually signed the things to happen in the first place. The comp I'm telling you, the poor company you keep and your pride will equal, it will equal hypocrisy. Because the more you hang out with poor company, and yet you the more you try to keep this mask on over here, well, that's just hypocrisy. And that's what we see on display. And God wants you to be free from that. We say scriptures like whom the Son sets free is free indeed, but do we believe it, church? Do we believe that God actually wants us to be free from these things? If you do, then I want to encourage you to take the time to spend uh in these moments where we worship after the message. And and and the the worship team can come up now. We're gonna transition into those times, but I want to make sure that that church, you are utilizing these spaces. This is not just another opportunity to sing another song or two to justify the worship team. No, this is your opportunity to wrestle with God, to wrestle with the things that the Holy Spirit has shared with you, that the things that the Holy Spirit has been tugging on your heart, this is the moment because as a church, we want to help you find, follow, and be like Jesus. And we want to give you the opportunity that if God has been tugging on your heart right now, don't leave this space without engaging with the Lord and saying, I heard you. What do you want me to do? And if we didn't care about that, we would just be like, You're dismissed. No, but we asked the team to come back up and lead us in these moments where we can actually move towards God. And so I want to make sure that we're clear. That's what these moments are for. That's what this moment is for. Seize. Because when you leave here, some guy's gonna cut you off. It's portage. If you're going, if you're going north, it's he calling. I promise you. And if no one cuts you off, you need to stop cutting people off. Slow down. Slow down. The point I'm trying to make is like, you're gonna go to work tomorrow. That person who is trying your last nerve is gonna be there. You think that's gonna be the moment when you're gonna be like, God, I praise you, I worship you. No. You're gonna go home and your kids are gonna be there. And that will be the moment that you love them so much. Because it's Father's Day. In a lighthearted way, I'm trying to tell you that this is your moment. Don't kid yourself to think that those moments are gonna come as easy as they come right now. Because they won't. They just won't. We're all busy, we're all trying to do the best that we can, we're all having the same human experiences, but this is your moment to slow down and say, God, I heard what you wanted to say. Not what he wanted, but what you wanted to say. You spoke it to my heart, and now I want to move and I want to respond and I want to do something. That's what these moments are for. I encourage you to take full advantage. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Let's pray. Thanks for tuning in to the Brick by Brick Podcast. We're so glad you've joined us on our journey to build faith, one truth at a time. Be sure to follow us so you never miss another episode. We've got plenty more coming your way.