Who Knows? For a Time Such as This | Esther 4:14 | Nate Kaloupek

Guest speaker Nate Kaloupek continues the "Who Knows?" series, talking about how a big view of God calls us out of crisis and into courage. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to the Ambassador Church Podcast, a church in the city for the city, on Milwaukee's east side. We pray this message meets you where you are, challenges your faith, and draws you closer to Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Thanks, Cherry. Appreciate you. Hey guys, my name is Nate. Someone say hi, Nate. Hi, Nate. Hey, it's good to be with you. I'm really grateful to be here. Yeah, I'm on staff at Doxa in Madison, and then we love you guys. And you might not know anyone at all in Madison, but there are people in Madison that love you, that are praying for you, that really care about you and about God doing something significant in your life. And so if you ever need encouragement or whatever, we we love you guys and we want to be on your team for that. And we're just excited about what God is doing in you and through you in this city. So I get to walk you through the next um message in this who knows series you guys have been going through. These moments in the Bible where that phrase who knows pops up, that it's kind of this turning point, this hope, this faith, this opportunity for God to show up in moments of pain or suffering, indecision questions people are asking, right? So today we're gonna we're gonna walk through our next who knows um out of the book of Esther. If you have a Bible, I would love for you to turn to Esther chapter four. Um I want to read Esther 4.14 for you. I want to read this and then we'll kind of set up where we're going. But let me read Esther 4.14. So what it says If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father's family will be destroyed. Who knows? Perhaps you've come to your royal position for such a time as this. There's a ton going on here in here. There's a ton of context that will lead us up to that moment. We're gonna spend the majority of our time trying to understand what is happening in this story, but our passage is gonna bring up the idea of courage. Someone say courage.

unknown 1:59

Courage.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Okay, some of you were not courageous just now. That's okay. If I ask you to say something, it's because I'm lonely up here. I need you to work with me a little bit. Um it's second service, so you probably already got enough sleep and whatever. So we got to work together on this a little bit. But listen, we're talking about courage today. And oftentimes people think of courage as this innate quality, right? It's strength somebody has in themselves when there's crisis, when there's a moment to step up, they they have this strength inside to go step out and have courage. All of us need courage to do the right thing in life because oftentimes doing the right thing is not the easy thing. Sometimes there are moments in your life where doing the right thing is actually incredibly difficult. Even if you're not a Christian here this morning, all of us need courage because doing the right thing in this world, in this life, again, there are moments where that's actually the most difficult thing you've got going on. You're at work and someone is doing something unethical. It's gonna take courage to figure out how do I step into this moment here. Maybe you have a neighbor that is suffering, that is going through something very significant. It's gonna take courage for you to step into their pain, into their suffering, into their brokenness. Man, when the cops show up, when the family is hitting rock bottom, for you to step in with love and kindness there. It's gonna take courage for you to begin admitting the brokenness in your own life. There are men and women at docs that are that are walking in recovery. It's taken incredible courage for them to go, hey, I need help. This has gotten way beyond me. This is actually ruining my life. I need help. Whether you're a Christian or not, you need courage in this life. Doing the right thing might actually be the most difficult thing in front of you. But if you're a Christian this morning, actually, you might even have it harder. You're like, I thought you were trying to build me up this morning. But actually, being a Christian, you might actually need more courage than your average, average everyday person because the things that you're trying to step into are by definition beyond you. By definition, the things that God is inviting you into are supernatural. That means they're beyond your natural ability. And so you're gonna need some courage that is actually beyond the ordinary and the average. I mean, sharing the gospel with somebody. You can you can share, you can talk, but you can't save somebody. You can't make somebody come from death to life by your own power. You need courage to go step out, trusting that, hey, I can't do the thing I'm trying to do right now. Confessing sin to somebody. It's gonna take incredible courage for you to just open your mouth and say what's true that God already sees and knows. Maybe pressing into somebody's life, somebody you love and care about, and you're watching sin wreck and ruin and destroy their life. It takes courage to step in because you can't control how they're gonna respond. Whether it's opening your hands to serve, opening your life to host and love, opening your mouth to share the gospel. If you're a Christian today, you need courage. Ambassador, I am I'm not as courageous as I wish I was. Okay, I was there's a coffee shop in Madison I love called Broken Board. Um, it's very Madison, okay? Like whatever stereotype you have in Madison's probably like, yep, that's that coffee shop. But it's the best, in my humble opinion. I'm right about this, it's the best coffee in Madison. And um it's inside a skate shop. And my my buddy Jared, who's a different Jared, smaller Jared than this one, um, he he runs it, owns it, and he's a very um kind of philosophically and culturally left-leaning person, very committed to kind of left-leaning in whatever definition you want to have. Um, we have great conversations. We love hanging out, and a lot of the staff there are very social and culturally progressive. So the other day I was prepping a sermon there. I was reading my Bible. I had my Bible open at this coffee shop, sticking out kind of like a sore thumb. And um, one of the people working at the shop asked me a question. He goes by the name Aaliyah. Um, he's part of the LGBTQ community, and we haven't talked a ton about life in some ways. He's a little bit guarded, but I know he's been in a long-term relationship with a man for a while now. And he goes, Hey, so you're reading your Bible? Like, are you some kind of religious studies guy? Are you a pastor? Like, he's trying to figure out what is this guy's deal, right? And I go, Oh, yeah, we're gonna church, blah, blah, blah. And I'm thinking, like, dude, gospel opportunity, right? God teed it up for me. This is gonna be great. It'll be a great story later. This is gonna be awesome. I'm gonna be courageous. And so I'm like, oh yeah, what about you? Like, tell me about your background. It's like, well, I grew up Catholic, but I've never really believed in God. Like, oh, interesting. Okay, I used to be an atheist too. Like, why, you know, why are you an atheist and not just agnostic? Like, tell me, tell me about that. I'm just trying to ask questions, just get to know where Lee is out and and try to understand his heart. And he goes, Well, it's just never been my vibe. I've heard a lot of like responses, you know, I've heard a lot of reasons why people don't believe in God. It's just not my vibe. That was a first for me, right? I was stumped because it's not my vibe is not an argument, right? It's not like a reason that I can work through. It's just like, yeah, it's just not my vibe. Cool. Um, and I I completely lost my nerve. Like I was I was so thrown off. I was like, okay, I'm going to the bathroom now. I guess I don't know what to do with that. Like the conversation stopped right there. It's not my vibe. Just not my thing. Because I knew there was a lot going on in his life behind that. I wanted to engage and ask questions, but it's not my vibe. It stumped me. A couple days later, I was meeting with somebody who is gonna be one of our versions of like Citigroup, one of those leaders stepping up and just telling him about this. And he's like, Well, man, I would have asked this question and I would have said this, and man, what about this? And he gave me like four or five different things that would have been perfect in that moment. I was like, Yeah, dude, you should this you should be doing this. What are we doing, right? Because I can stand in front of hundreds of people and tell you about Jesus and open the Bible, but in that moment, talking to Aaliyah, something I hadn't heard, my my courage just left me. I'm not as courageous as I wish I was. That happens more often than I want to admit. Maybe you're a little bit like me too. Maybe I'm not the only one that struggles with courage. Maybe there have been some things in your life, like moments like I just had where you were at work and somebody asked you what you did this weekend, and you wanted to tell them I go to this church, but you totally you hit it. Maybe there's somebody in your life suffering and going through incredible pain and brokenness, and you've been feeling this invitation to go in, but you you're honestly too scared, you're too nervous, you don't know how to step into that. Maybe there's sin in your life that has been wrapping itself tighter and tighter around you, and you know, man, if I just bring this into the light, someone is gonna encourage me and help me and walk alongside me, but you you haven't shared it yet. Ambassador, maybe we're not as courageous as we wish we were. What's at stake here? Why does that matter? I know that God is up to something incredible. I know God is in the business of bringing people from spiritual death to life, in the business of redeeming and healing and restoring people. I know God is doing incredible things. And I want a front row seat of that, but I know if I don't open my mouth or open my life or open my hands, I'm gonna miss out on what God is doing. He's gonna still work, but I might sideline myself. We might sideline ourselves into a holy huddle, into the privacy of our own little world. We might miss out on a front row seat of the God of the universe moving. No wonder faith can feel dry and empty and hollow. No wonder people in our lives like don't really know Christians except they know you. Like, no wonder the world looks at Christians and goes, I don't know what this whole thing is about. But with a little bit of courage, maybe we would get a front row seat of God performing miracles in people's lives. I want that. Maybe there's part of you that wants that too. So, how do we become people of courage? How do we become people that that have a kind of courage to step into these things that are beyond ourselves? How do we become people that have courage to step into pain and brokenness and suffering? How do we become people that have courage to say yes to what God is inviting us into? Even when He's inviting us into something that is well beyond us. I'm glad you asked. That's where we're going today. Esther, here's what we're gonna do, okay? We're gonna walk through the book of Esther. And a majority of our time is gonna be trying to understand this ancient story of pain and suffering, but courage in those moments. Then we're gonna look for the source of the courage in these people's lives, and then finally figure out the step for us to take. Does that sound good? You ready to go to work? Someone say, Yup. All right, Esther, while you're turning there, Esther chapter one in your Bible, a little bit of background, okay? God brought his people out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land, and he said, Hey, I'm going to dump my grace on you. I want you to be like a city on a hill. I want the light of my presence to shine on you so that all the nations can look and see what I'm like. So that men and women from all over will look and see that I am different than every other God, every other deity, every other system of worship. I am different. I am present, I am holy, I am with you. I'm going to bless you so that all the nations of the world can see what I'm like. But if you don't follow me, if you follow other gods, if you pursue other gods, I'm putting my reputation at on the line here. I'm not going to keep blessing you if you are worshiping these other gods because I don't want people getting confused. I don't want the world to look over and think that I'm just like every other God. And so if you choose to run away from me, I might give you what you want and you will end up in captivity. And if you're familiar with the Old Testament, that's kind of the story. Like people turn, they start following God, and then they turn away and they fart start following God and they turn away back and forth until eventually they worship idols, they worship false gods over and over again. And God says, Okay, I'll give you what you want. You're going back into slavery. Just like I took you out of Egypt, you're going back. This time it's the Babylonians who take them into exile. God still gives them hope, still gives them promise, still invites them to follow him. There are moments of incredible courage, like in Daniel and his friends' lives and this book, Esther. But there's incredible suffering and pain in the exile. Now, our story takes place over about 10 years, from 483 BC to 473. It's the story of this young woman, this orphan, and God raising her to a position of power and authority for a moment of courage and crisis. Okay, we're gonna start in chapter one. We're gonna meet four main characters over the course of a couple chapters. Esther, chapter one, starting in verse one. These events, the events in this story, took place during the days of Ahasuerus. Someone say Ahasuerus. No, I'm kidding. No, that's no, no, no. Um, his Greek name is Xerxes, okay? Maybe you've heard of Xerxes with the 300 Spartans, and he tried to conquer Greece and was stopped at the Battle of Thermopylae, okay? But all these events took place during that king's reign. This is real history, real people. This is not a fairy tale or a figment of someone's imagination, real events to real people. Okay. Now, this um this Xerxes, he ruled 127 provinces from India to Cush. In those days, King Ahasuerus reigned from his royal throne in the fortress at Susa. He held a feast in the third year of his reign for all his officials and staff, the army of Persia and Media, the nobles, the officials from the provinces. He displayed the glorious wealth of his kingdom and the magnificent splendor of his greatness for a total of 180 days. This guy threw a six-month rager, okay? It was a wild time. And part of what he's doing is he's gathering people from all over his empire to look at how powerful he is and how rich he is so that he can raise up an army for his next war of conquest. But historically, we know this king was abusive. He was selfish, life and death were cheap in his kingdom. He was a wicked, wicked man. If you want more background of this, if if you don't get enough Esther in you today, um, Docs actually walked through this book in 10 weeks. I've got like 40 minutes for it. So I think that means Jared believes in me. I'm gonna take some courage from that today. But if you want to know more about this king, we we talk about it in more detail if you want to go and listen to those messages. But he's showing off so that he can draw a big army to himself. And he actually throws a week-long party after that in the capital city. Everyone's getting drunk. He's he's trying to show that he is powerful and that generals should start following him because of all this wealth and splendor. And at the end of the seven-day party, after six months of partying throughout the empire, he makes his wife parade around, or he tries to make his wife parade around for these men. Now, we don't get a ton of detail, but but potentially he was trying to have her walk around naked so the men can see his trophy wife. She was an object to him to enhance his power and prestige before this man. He was, he was an abusive man. She didn't want to be abused like that. So she says no. Now he is furious, and so he kicks her off the throne and he sends out a decree that says, Hey, across my empire, men are in charge of their households, women need to listen. Which, if you have to rely on a law to get your wife to listen to you, you might not be a good husband. Okay, I'm just telling you. Um, if that's your situation, talk to Jared, he'll help you out later with that. But that that's kind of chapter one, this weird decree that goes out. At the beginning of chapter two, his advisors, the guys around him, realize he's kind of lonely and frustrated. And so they say, Hey, we're gonna have a beauty contest. We're gonna gather women from all across the empire. They're gonna go through all these beauty treatments, and then they're gonna sleep with you. You get to sleep with every single one of these women, and whoever you like best will be your queen, and the rest will be your concubines. It's a horrible, evil, abusive practice. But he's like, Yeah, that sounds great. That sounds like that'll be a fun time, man. So they rip these young women out of their families, out of their communities, from from all across this empire that expanded from India to the ancient Mediterranean, the ancient Near East, ripping these women out of their homes and communities to come to be objects for this king's desire. It was awful. But life and death were cheap in King Ohasurus' kingdom. Great suffering happened all for the pleasure of this one man. Now we're gonna meet the next two of the four main characters who are swept up into this suffering in chapter two, verses five through seven. In the fortress at Susa, so this is the capital, there's a Jewish man named Mordecai, son of Jer, son of Shemai, son of Kish, a Benjaminite. Kish had been taken into exile from Jerusalem of the other captives when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took Jaconia and Judah into exile. So this man grew up in exile. He's part of the suffering of his people here. He's been raised in captivity here. And we find out later he actually has a position around the royal throne. He's one of the king's advisors somehow. He's at this place called the King's Gate. And so he's one of the king's officials, part of his court. Verse 7, Mordecai is the legal guardian of his cousin, Hadassah, that is Esther, because she had no father or mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure, was extremely good looking. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. Now, one thing we need to learn about Mordecai is that he is a compromised man. He's been hiding his faith. He's been, he's been maybe believing the lie that his faith, because it's personal, should stay private. In fact, we find out later that his co-workers, the other people working around the palace, don't know that he is Jewish. They don't know ethnically and kind of religiously his heritage. He's hiding his faith. He's compromised. In fact, if you're if you're a scholar reading this, you might be wondering, like, okay, his name is interesting. Because his name is not a traditional Jewish name. It's actually a name of a Babylonian god, Marduk. His name has switched, so he can kind of like cope and cover and hide and fly under the radar when he's in Susa. Esther, by contrast, we see her Jewish name, Hadassah, and her name in captivity, Esther. So Mordecai is hiding, but he does have a private faith. In fact, he has generosity and kindness towards this girl, Esther. He takes her in and raises her as his own. But being in the capital, they are swept up in the evil and the suffering that's happening across the empire. Esther is taken, forcibly taken to the palace because she's beautiful, forced through months of beauty treatments, and then forced to sleep with the king. Now, while she's there, Mordecai tells her, hey, don't tell them that you are Jewish. Don't tell them about your heritage. Don't tell them the people you came from so that you can fly under the radar. You can keep your faith private, that's fine, but don't tell them, which means she can't follow the traditions of her ancestors. She can't follow the Jewish dietary laws and eat kosher, things like that. She has to compromise in her faith to try to survive. That's what he taught her to do, just like he'd been doing for years. Now at the end of chapter two, Esther receives favor and she's elevated the position of queen. She's gone through incredible suffering with her people in exile, personal suffering and pain and abuse. And it ends with her being the queen of the Persian Empire. Now, if the story stopped there, it would almost be this kind of weird rags to riches story. It would almost be this weird kind of historical vignette of suffering and people just trying to make it through. And one of the strange features of this book of Esther is that it doesn't actually mention God's name anywhere in particular. It's very odd in the Bible. On the surface, it looks like it's it's kind of the story ultimately of establishing a festival that Jewish people would celebrate. We'll talk about in a minute. But if you were just to read that first part, you'd go like, I don't, I don't get it. I don't get it. It's just it's just pain, it's just suffering, it's just a few events happening to a few people. We're gonna meet actually the central villain of our story. This evil king is not the central villain. We're gonna meet the central villain that's gonna set us up for the crisis where we're gonna see God's work on display. Because under this story of pain and suffering and crisis, we're actually gonna see God's good providence, God's sovereignty, God's power through the ever everyday events of life. Let's meet our fourth main character at the beginning of chapter three. Chapter three, verse one. After all this took place, so Esther is on the throne sometime later, King Ahasuerus honored Haman, son of Hamadatha the Agagite. He promoted him in rank and gave him the higher position than all the other officials. So he's kind of like the prime minister of the Persian Empire. Verse 2, the entire royal staff at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman because the king had commanded this to be done for them. But Mordecai would not bow bow down or pay homage. It doesn't say why. We're not exactly sure why. Maybe he had a personal grudge against him. Maybe it's related to his background as an Agagite. Scholars kind of disagree on this, but but this moment of choosing not to bow down to honor Haman, this is going to propel the central crises of our story. Verse 3, the members of the royal staff of the King's Gate asked Mordecai, why are you disobeying the king's commands? When they had warned him day after day, they're like wearing this guy down. He'd still not listen to them. They told Haman in order to see if Mordecai's actions would be tolerated, since he told them he was a Jew. Now again, they are just discovering his ethnicity and his religion. He spent years working at the King's Gate, years around these people, but he's been hiding and compromising. He hasn't wanted anyone to know his faith. He's kept it deeply private instead of letting it be public, but it's been forced into light in this moment of him not bowing down to Haman. How is Haman going to respond? Verse 5. When Haman saw that Mordecai was not bowing down or paying homage, he was filled with rage. Someone say rage. Some of you are not happy with that. That's okay. There's a whole other sermon in this, but listen to me. What gets your anger shows what has your heart. What gets you angry shows what you deeply care about, whether you love it or you hate it. What Haman really cares about is people honoring him, people respecting him, people bowing down to him, people giving him his due. His ego is the main thing he cares about now. He's filled with rage because Mordecai will not stroke his ego, will not bow down to him. So he has an evil plan he comes up with. Verse 6. When he learned of Mordecai's ethnic identity, it seemed repugnant to him to do away with Mordecai alone. He planned to destroy all of Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout Hasuiris's kingdom. He decides, hey, I hate this one Jewish man, but it's not enough to kill him. I'm going to kill all the Jewish people in the whole empire. Now, that's a bit of an overreaction. Am I right? Like if you were bullied by a kid growing up and he was Hungarian, you wouldn't be like, I'm gonna kill all the Hungarian people in the whole world, right? Game over. Nope. Okay. That sounds extreme, right? Some of you are like, what is he talking about? Okay, you don't know a single Hungarian person, that's fine. Um, but but listen to me, this is a crazy overreaction, and you're supposed to read this and go, Whoa, wait a minute, what is going on here? See, underneath this story, we're supposed to understand there is a spiritual reality and a spiritual background happening. Through the events, the everyday events of suffering and crisis and pain in life, there is a spiritual reality. We live in a spiritual world, and you have an enemy. His name is not Haman here, but his name is Satan. And Satan hates God, hates people made in God's image, and hates the plan of God to bring salvation and redemption to the world. Back in Genesis 3:15, God promised that one would come, a son of woman, would be born to crush Satan's head. And all throughout the Bible, we see these weird moments where people decide, I'm gonna kill all the Jewish people, because God had promised that through Abraham's descendants the whole world would be blessed, that Jesus would come, the savior, the Messiah would come through the line of Abraham. You see this when Pharaoh decides he's gonna kill all the Jewish baby boys when Moses is born. You see this later when King Herod, who's supposed to be a Jewish king, actually decides to kill all the baby boys when Jesus is born. You see this when Haman decides, I'm not just gonna kill this one man who didn't bow, I'm going to destroy all the Jewish people. It is a satanic overreaction. It's crazy because the enemy of the people of God, the enemy of humanity, Satan, is trying to energize this man so that Jesus couldn't be born. That's what's happening underneath this story. He hatches a plan, he rolls these dice, they call them poor or purim in plural. He rolls these dice and decides, okay, on this particular day, I'm gonna convince the king that all of the Jewish people in the empire, man, their neighbors can go kill them and take their stuff scot-free, no consequence. That's the way I'm gonna kill them. I'm gonna tell the king there are people that are different than who you want in your empire. They're different, they worship a different God. Let their neighbors kill them and destroy them, and I'll give you some money. He hatches this evil satanic plan, and the king, King Ahasuris, goes, Yeah, it sounds great. Go for it. Sounds like a good time. We'll figure out what happens, right? His mind is so addled by his own ego and selfishness that he agrees this plan for the Jewish people to be destroyed. Mordecai finds out this becomes a central crisis, and the crisis becomes the context for courage in our story. Look at verse or chapter 4, verse 1. When Mordecai learned all that occurred, this satanic plan to destroy all of the people, he tore his clothes, he put on sackcloth and ashes, he went in the middle of the city and cried loudly and bitterly. He went only as far as the king's gate, since the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering the king's gate. There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king's command and edict reached. They fasted, wept, lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. Sackcloth and ashes were a symbol in the ancient world of mourning, of being so overwhelmed, that there's so much grief on you that your clothes, the way you dress it, I am undone right now. I'm representing the distress of my soul by the clothes that I'm wearing by ashes on my head. Now it says he only goes as far as the king's gate because the king's palace was supposed to be a little island of paradise. They were trying to make it so that no suffering, no pain would enter the king's presence. It could be a mini island of paradise. So he he was pushing as far as he could without being killed, his weeping and his lament. But notice something. All the Jewish people in the kingdom are weeping and lamenting, and Mordecai is identifying with them. His faith has gone from being private to being public. His faith has pushed out of the boundaries of his little world trying to compromise and just make his way in the world. This crisis has propelled his faith to be public. It's drawing him out where he is weeping and lamenting and fasting. Esther hears about this and she is confused. She's been in the palace, they haven't been able to talk very much, they've had to send messengers back and forth, but but he taught her to compromise, right? He taught her to fly into the radar, and now he is publicly crying. Now he is pushing the boundary. Now he is identifying himself with the Jewish people. She is confused. Like, what is going on? She sends somebody to give him clothes, like, dude, stop this. I thought we were, I thought we were just trying to pass here. I thought we were just trying to hide here. But Mordecai's response to her is going to set in motion the courageous step she takes. Look at verse 13. Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, don't think you'll escape the fate of all the Jews because you're in the king's palace. This evil, this pain, it's going to touch you, even in that little island of paradise you're in right now. If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father's family will be destroyed. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this. There's a warning in this. You will be touched by this evil, by this suffering, by this pain. If you don't do anything at all, you will you will come under this fearful evil plan. But there's hope too. Maybe. Just maybe, under the story of our exile, under the story of our suffering, under the story of our compromise, maybe God has been working. Who knows? Maybe everything we've been through has been leading to this moment so that God might use you. Again, the book doesn't say his name, but listen to what he said again in verse 14. Relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people. It might come from another place, but maybe, who knows, maybe God has put you right here, right now for this purpose. This sets in motion her courage in crisis. She asks all the Jewish people in Susa to fast and pray with her, to seek after God. Fasting is basically saying, God, I need you. I need you and your guidance more than I need comfort, more than I need food, more than I need to feel okay right now. I need you to show up, God. And if you don't show up, it'd just be better if I didn't eat at all. I need you, God. It's not a hunger strike against God, but it's begging God to show up and to move and humbling ourselves to listen to what he has to say. They fast and she decides in wisdom, I'm gonna risk my life and step into the presence of the king. If I'm not invited, he could kill me if he wants to, but I'm gonna step in the presence of the king and ask for his help. And in great wisdom, she steps in and subtly shows the plan of Haman, shows this evil plan that he has, and it sets up a series of divine reversals. Divine reversals where it looks like everything is heading one direction and all of a sudden God flips it the other way. Haman had been setting up a giant stake in his backyard so that he could crucify Mordecai on it, and he ends up getting killed on that stake. This plan that he had where the Jewish people would be destroyed, actually, a law goes out where they can defend themselves. And many people start identifying with the Jewish people and saying, no, I want to be with God's people because of that. And Mordecai, who was going to be killed and hung on the stake, gets elevated to Haman's position as prime minister over the kingdom. It's divine reversals. It is crazy God movement in their moments. As they say, we have to remember this. We have to celebrate this. We're committing every generation after this needs to be a historian of God's grace and remember God's redemption. So they set up a festival, the first festival set up outside of the Torah, the Feast of Prim, to remember these events. And Jewish people to this day celebrate the Feast of Prim. I want to summarize kind of what we've been talking about. That's a ton. All right, you're like, dude, where are we going with all of this? But I want to put on the screen kind of a summary of the book if you want to have it in your head. Listen to me though. We can read through this summary and read through this book, and we can kind of try to apply it in a way that might actually miss the point. You might hear this and go, man, Esther was so courageous. Be like Esther. Go out and just be more courageous like Esther. Mordecai, you know what? He stopped compromising, you stopped compromising, go, go after it and get it. But I think that might actually miss what the book is trying to teach us. I think that might actually miss the way that this book is supposed to change you and me. In fact, if Esther and Mordecai were here, if we if we put them up on some stools and said, like, teach us about courage, teach us today, how did you step up? How did you do this? I think they'd be confused. I think they'd be like, What do you, what do you mean? We just did whatever was the next step in front of us. How could we not? Like, how could we not just take the next step that God was inviting us into? Because they had been trained from a young age to remember and think through how God had already shown up for his people. That's kind of what what Mordecai was saying in verse 14. He said, relief will come. He's thinking through the fact that over and over, God had been true to his character and true to his promises. If you think through the story of the Jewish people that they were told to remember over and over, think of Father Abraham. He is in paganism in Babylon, and God calls him out and gives him the promise that the nations will be blessed through him, that one day the Messiah will come through his line, the Savior would be born, and the nations of the world will be blessed through him. Think through the Exodus. They're in slavery in Egypt, and God doesn't forget the suffering of his people, but he shows he is more powerful than all the Egyptian gods and the Pharaoh. And through he brings them through the Red Sea. God walks them through the sea like on dry land. God provides for them in the wilderness. God walks them up to the edge of the promised land. God collapses the walls of Jericho just with some marching and some singing. And over and over, as they turn away from God to other gods, God brings up judges to lead them and save them, and prophets to speak God's words to them. Over and over and over and over, God has shown his character as a savior, as a redeemer, as the God who forgives and brings grace on his people. They were trained up to think about and know this God. And so in their moment of crisis, listen to me, the source of their strength, it wasn't this innate ability they had. It wasn't hype. It wasn't kind of some courage that they always had in them and just was waiting to get unlocked. We might miss the source of their courage. Because if we were looking at them, we might miss what they're looking at. They weren't looking at themselves. They were fasting because they were looking at God. They were looking at a big God that proved he was a savior, that proved he was a redeemer, that proved he was a rescuer, that proved he was the kind of God that could save his people through all kinds of circumstances. And who knows, maybe in their suffering, God would use ordinary people like them to do the exact same thing. Friends, their courage didn't come from themselves, it came from a big view of God. And listen to me, we have even more fuel for courage than they did. Do you know that? We have even more fuel for our courage because we have seen more of God's character and nature on display than they have gotten, that they got to see. We have all the stories that they looked at from history. We have all of the history of the Old Testament, real people in real events that God showed up in, but we have even more because they had promises they hadn't gotten to see the answer to yet. All through the Old Testament, God was promising that He would send a Savior. He would send a king to sit on David's throne who would never leave the throne. They would send a priest that wouldn't have to need cleansing and cleaning for himself, but would be a good high priest to stand in our place. That God would send one like Moses who would leave his people out of slavery, who would speak God's word, who would lead us through the wilderness to true promised land. That God would send one to finally deal with our sin, to finally deal with Satan, who would finally beat hell. If you don't know him, his name is Jesus. We know his name. We get to look back on the promises of God fulfilled in the person of Christ because all of the Old Testament's hopes and promises and expectations find their yes and amen in Jesus. Is that good news? Alright, second service. I thought you'd be awake. That's okay. That's good news, okay? Listen to me. We have more fuel for our courage. Not because we are strong, not because we are mighty, not because we have innate sources in ourselves, but because we have a big God. And like Esther and Mordecai, we get to look at this good God. Listen to me. I just want to summarize what we're saying for us, okay? If you're a note taker, this is the phrase that you can write down. Courage to step out in faith comes from a big view of God. Courage to step out in faith comes from a big view of God because we have a big God. And as your view of him expands, you might find a little more courage in you to go step out to whatever he's inviting you into. So what do we do with this? What do we do with this ancient book that I just spent too long summarizing for you? What do we do with this story of suffering and divine reversal? I think it kind of depends on where you're at in the room this morning. Some in this room, you you are not a Christian. You're new to this church thing, you're kind of figuring out a friend invited you, and you're like, dude, I don't know why you're talking ancient history. This is weird, but okay. Listen to me, you need a divine reversal in your life. You don't just need more religion. You don't just need more friends, you don't just need a new job or a new relationship. You need a divine reversal. You need something to happen in your life that is supernatural, and so by definition, it is beyond you. You need God to show up in your life. And here's how it happens: you look at Jesus Christ, who is God in flesh. He came to this world. He stepped off his throne in eternity and stepped into human history. He lived a life following the Father in perfect courage. He always stepped out to do the thing the Father was inviting him into, whether it was healing the suffering and sick and broken, whether it was inviting the stranger, whether it was confronting those who were proud and religious on their own right. But he was more than just an example of courage. He was the one who came to conquer our sin. He was the king who got his throne through a cross. See, friend, all of us have have places in life where we've compromised, where we have walked out of step with God's plans for us. We call them mistakes, we call them accidents. The Bible has a word for it, it's sin. Sin is anything that's against God's character and God's nature. There's sin in my life. There's sin in your life too. We can just be honest with that because God already sees it, and frankly, the people around you probably see it too. God is not surprised by your sin, but he's not waiting for you to clean yourself up. He's not waiting for you to get more religion or get more courage. God is waiting for you to come just as you are right here, right now, and admit to God what's true. There's sin in your life that keeps you from God, and you need a savior. But friends, the good news is God saves sinners through Christ. Is that good news? God saves sinners through Christ. Jesus came and on the cross, he offers to take your place, to take the punishment that your sin and my sin deserves, and in exchange, give you righteousness, rightness with God, adoption into God's family, belonging with his people right now where you're at. And Jesus rose to life in victory, proving he could pay for all your sin and still have life to give you. And he is reigning on his throne right now. So whatever suffering, whatever pain, whatever crisis goes on in this world, he's never out of control. He's never surprised. He's never caught off guard. He knows you are here right now for a purpose. Friend, you need a divine reversal in your life. Would you trust Jesus today? Just talk to him. Just agree with him with what's true and accept the gift of life as you surrender to Jesus as King and as Savior. If you're a Christian in the room this morning, I think the place that we start isn't to look first at Esther and Mordecai, but to look at the one they were looking at. We need to look at God. The first place of application for us today, if you're a Christian, is to get a big view of God. And I've got three ways you could start doing that. First off, I think we need to ask a better question when we read the Bible, when we show up to church, when we get in community. So often I read the Bible and the question I ask, I go to church, the question I ask is, man, what would I get out of it? Right? What I get out of this today? What do I get out of this? And it's not a bad question, but it's a bad first question. The first question is, who is God? What do I learn about God? How do I get to know this God better? How do I see his promises more clearly, his character on display? Who is God? Everything else in my life can flow downstream of that. Read your Bible and ask a better question. As he's written his attributes and his character across real history, real people's lives. The second way we can look at God is we can look at history, missions history, church history, read some biographies of people that came before you. Learn the history of our church family over time. I this is where I nerd out a little bit, but there's some missionaries you should get to know, like Jackie Pullinger. She showed up in Hong Kong in the Forbidden City and ministered to prostitutes and gang members. John G. Patton, he showed up to the New Hebrides Islands in the Pacific and shared the gospel with cannibal people who are trying to kill him and eat him. George Mueller, he ran orphanages by faith, just praying and asking God to provide to feed these kids to show up in their lives. Get to know our ancestors in this church family through church history and see God's character on display. Learn to share your testimony. Your testimony is the story of God working in your life and the lives of people around. Now, a testimony is different than a biography, okay? A biography is I was born here, I did this, I did that, things changed my life. A testimony is God did this. God showed up, God changed me. Learn to share a testimony. Do your kids know your testimony? Do your coworkers know your testimony? Do your neighbors know your testimony? Are you testifying to the mighty works of God in your life, in your brokenness, in your compromise? Learn to share your testimony. As after we look at God, that freezes up to be the kind of people that just take the next step of faith. Take the next step of faith. You might need some courage to open your mouth to share the good news of Jesus. You might need some courage to open your hands to begin giving and serving like Jesus. You might need some courage to open your life to invite some people in in their brokenness and pain for you to get a front row seat of God's work. But the God of the universe might have been positioning you perfectly in their life and in your world for such a time as this. For a moment like this, for a relationship like this, for pain and brokenness and suffering. For you to actually not just say, hey, I'm a big deal, I got a cool church, I got a tall pastor, but but to say, listen, I know a big God who's in the business of redeeming and saving and healing. He's done that in my life. Maybe you could do that in yours too. Who knows? Maybe the God of the universe has been preparing you for such a time as this. Maybe the God of the universe is trying to invite your eyes up to a big view of him for such a time as this. Maybe the God of the universe has been positioning you perfectly to get a front row seat for him doing the supernatural in and through your life for his glory to shine a light on your life to reflect off on the world around. Who knows? Ambassador, what would happen if we took God up on this? What would happen if we filled our eyes with a big view of this sovereign, saving, powerful, kind, merciful, mighty God. And then we just did whatever he invited us into. Maybe you got some people in your life that need to fast alongside you for the next step that God's inviting you into. Maybe you know right now that the name that's been coming to mind that you need to share Jesus with, the sin in your life you need to confess, the opportunity to serve that you've been holding off on, but God has been inviting you into the neighbor who the cops were just at their house this weekend that you're actually gonna go bring a meal over to. I don't know who that was for, but maybe that was for you. I don't know. But listen, who knows what God might do? And I don't think this is just hype and bluster. I think this is exactly in line with what Jesus wants to do with us. So I want to finish actually with some words of Jesus from Matthew chapter 5, as he was describing his people. Matthew 5, 14, he's Jesus says, You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. That's what God has always called his people to be a city on a hill, shining light in a dark place. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand and gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, shining in a dark world, let your light shine before others so they can see your good works, where you've stepped out with courage and give glory ultimately, who it is all about to your Father in heaven. Listen to me, your light shining. It's not because you have it inside of you and it's always been in you. It's God's light shining on your life. The God who brings the dead to life, the God who made everything and made you and set you in these moments. Who knows? Maybe he's inviting you into this right now. Let's pray and ask him to do that in us. Jesus, I'm grateful for these moments where we get to talk about you. We get to put our eyes together on you and what you're like. I confess, my friends here, I'm not courageous on my own. I don't have enough strength or enough hype or enough energy or enough whatever. But together today, would you draw our eyes back up to you? You have written your attributes, your character over real history in real people's lives. And would you invite us into just looking back at you as we see that you're a savior, that you're a redeemer, that you are powerful, and you invite us to have a front row seat of what you want to do. Spirit, in this room, would you begin showing us what you're inviting us into? Yeah, that conversation we need to have, that place we need to get public with our faith instead of just private. That opportunity to serve and to bless and to bring light and life into dark corners of our world because your light shines off of us. At the end of the day, would you just bring our eyes back to you for our strength and our hope, Jesus, so that your name and your glory can resound throughout this city. Would the world look in at our good works and glorify you? Because it's always been about you. Praise in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Thanks for listening to the Ambassador Church Podcast. To learn more, visit ambassadormke.org or follow us on Instagram at Ambassador MKE. And if you're in the Milwaukee area, we'd love to see you this Sunday at 9 or 11 a.m. at 2308 East Bellevue Place. Grace and peace.