Sermon
Enter into God’s Full Promise for Your Life
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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When I go over that with my children, I always tell them, I said, you just remember the acronym
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HOME. You remember HOME, you remember the faith, our statement of faith here at Stroud
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and just remember HOME. Remember that word. And so that has helped me many times as well.
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Let me put on my reading glasses here. I don't have my prescription glasses because I won't
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go into that story, but I'll put on these glasses. I'm going to read the scripture, pray in after
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prayer. And I'm coming out of the English standard version.
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Then Esa called for Haythok, one of the King's Units, who had been appointed to attend her
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and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. Haythok went
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out to Mordecai in an open square of the city in front of the King's Gate. And Mordecai told him
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all that had happened to him, the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay in the
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King's Treasury for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written
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decree issued in Susa for the destruction that he might show it to Esa and explain it to her
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and command her to go to the King to beg for his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people.
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And Haythok went and told Esa what Mordecai had said. Then Esa spoke to Haythok and commanded
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him to go to Mordecai and say, all the King's servants and the people of the King's province
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know that if any man or woman goes to the King inside of the inter court without being called
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there, it's but one law, to be put to death except the one to whom the King holds out the golden
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separate. So that he may live, but as for me, I have not been called to come in to the King these
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30 days. And they told Mordecai what Esa has said. Father, we come to you, Lord God, as Haman as we
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know how. We thank you, O Heavenly Father, for the breath of life. We thank you, O Heavenly Father,
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Lord God, for yet another day. Lord, we just pray, Lord God, that Lord God, the words, O Heavenly
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Father, of your mighty word, O Heavenly Father, will, Lord, seep into us, Lord God, and bring us
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clearer understanding that it may apply, Lord God, to our daily living. Lord God, I pray, O Heavenly
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Father, that everything in me, Lord God, subsides, O Heavenly Father, and that, Lord God, you will
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have your way, O Heavenly Father, that I will decrease, O Heavenly Father, that you will increase,
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Lord God, that your word will come forth, Lord God, boldly, Lord God, and plainly and simple,
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Lord God, that your people, Lord God, may understand, Lord God, what you will have for them, Lord God.
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I pray, O Heavenly Father, that you will give the glory, O Heavenly Father, and, Lord God, that your
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people, Lord God, will be better off, O Heavenly Father, in the mighty name of Jesus. Lord God, I
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give you the glory, the honor, and the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. First,
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give me the honor to Jesus, who is head of my life, and to the man of God who's over this house,
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Pastor Bowden. Thank you for this opportunity. I thank you for being here on this morning. I thank
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my family. I thank my children, who's always encouraging me, and I especially thank my wife,
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who puts up with me and encourages me the most. This has been a very difficult week for me,
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and especially for her. I haven't been feeling my best. It seems like that, I don't know, when
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God has a great work for you to do, it seems like you get challenged in many ways. I've been sick
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in my body, and then I had different appointments, but my wife, she was at my side as I went to
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Pensacola, and then this weekend I couldn't be here at the church cleanup because I had an appointment
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all night Friday, and most of the all day Saturday. I had a sleep study, but so that left my wife
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with the kids, and I know that she had to deal with everything on her own, but she did what she
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had to do, and I just thank and praise God for her. But God in those times spoke with me, and in
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that time I had an opportunity to do what we're going to talk about when I'm asked to do. Many
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times, you know, when God is dealing with you, what do you do? You, as Christians, we know,
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one of the things, one of the things that God has given us is the two of us fast, and we set
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aside some time where we retreat from some of the things that we would normally do, but we would
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just fast and not do those things that we routinely do, and we would not eat, you know, some of the
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things that we eat and not drink, some of the things that we, you know, not drink and what
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have you, and so when people see you, they may see your glory, but they don't know your story.
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They don't know what you're going through. They don't know how you feel. You may look radiant,
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and you smile, and you may glisten, and, and, but they don't know that your body may be whacking
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on the inside. They don't know the pains that you go through, and you don't have to say it to them,
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because when you fast and when you pray, you don't have to tell people that, okay? You just go to
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God in prayer, and when people have a spirit of discernment, many times they can pick it up,
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and they just pray with you, and if they don't, oh well, you have God, and this too shall pass,
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and if not, then guess what God says, my grace what? It's sufficient. And so we go to the story of
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Esther, and we look here, we see that there is somewhat of a dilemma here, okay? We see that
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that the Jews are about to be annihilated, and so Mordecai has gone to the Queen to get help,
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and Esther has said in so many words, I'm not going before the King, he has not summoned me,
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and everybody knows what the rules are, you're asking me to go before the King,
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and so you ask yourself what just happened, now we know the story of Esther, meaning let's know
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the story of Esther, but for those of you out there, let's just try and go along with this,
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let's dissect this, what just happened, okay? So what's wrong with this? He asked for help,
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the Jews are about to be annihilated, Esther is a Jew, okay? So let's take this back to see
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how Esther got to be where she is, okay? She is the Queen, okay? And Mordecai asked her to do this,
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how did Esther get to be Queen? So if we go back here, we look back in Esther, go back here to
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Esther chapter 1 verse 10, and you see the title is, Entering to God's Full Promise for Your Life,
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so Esther here, and we're coming from the vein still, because this is the year of great stewardship,
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right? And so Esther, at this moment, not realizing, you know, where her true role is,
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okay? So we go back to chapter 1 verse 10, and it reads, so the King took his,
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technology, chapter 1 verse 2, on the seventh day, when the heart of the King was married with wine,
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he commanded Mahuman, Vista, Arbona, Vicka, Abakta, Zeta, Karkas, the seven eunuchs who served in
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the presence of King Osiris, and in some Bibles, Xerxes, to bring King Boshdai before the King,
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King Vashdai before the King, with her royal crown, in order to show the people and the princes
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her beauty, for she was lovely to look at, for King Vashdai refused to come at the King's command,
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delivered by the eunuch at this King, at this the King became enraged and his anger burned within him.
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Then the King said to the wise men who knew the time, but this was the King's procedure towards
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who was versed the law of judgment, the men next to him. So I'm not going to read all that,
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but what happened was the King was angry. So the Queen refused to come before the King,
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and so what he did was he went to his boys, okay, there were seven of them,
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and they said, hey King, the Queen, she just ditched you in front of everybody, okay. We can't let that
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happen because if she did that in front of everybody, then all the other noble women,
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they're going to get out of control and they're going to figure that they can do that also,
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and if they do that, then we're going to have a problem here. So you need to handle this,
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okay, and so then they said, what we need to do is we need to get rid of her,
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okay, we need to show these ladies, now ladies, okay, this is back in the time now, all right.
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Okay, so this is not now, but this is then, all right, okay, so go with it, all right.
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So he said, they said, we need to handle this, let's nip this in the bud right now,
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she needs to, okay, get rid of her. So the King got rid of our style, he said,
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from here on out, she would not come before me no longer, she would no longer wear the crown,
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so guess what, Bashtar was no longer queen, and so when she was no longer queen, then he needed
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another queen, and so then without reading everything, they want to have a big beauty contest.
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One of the young men said, hey, okay, time passed, we need to get the King someone else, so let's
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send out a royal decree, okay, through all the lands, okay, all the seven provinces, because you know,
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the King, he had lands all the way from India, all the way over to Kush or Ethiopia,
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some Bibles call it Kush, some Bibles call it Ethiopia, in a way from Africa, all the way over
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to India, okay, and let's bring all the versions over, okay, the prettiest, and let's, you know,
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give them cosmetics, oh, they had cosmetics right then too, let's beautify them and everything,
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and let's bring the fairest of the land, a big beauty contest, I mean, this was like, okay, so
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they had Miss Persia then, okay, Miss Persia, Miss Meads, okay, like we got Miss America, Miss Universe,
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that's what they had, that's what it was, okay, that's all it was, okay, and then what he was going
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to do, he was going to crown the fairest of the land and crown her Miss Persia, Miss Persia was
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going to become his wife, the Queen, okay, and so then therefore, there was a young lady, Hadassah, was her, was her Jewish name, okay, but you know,
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the Jewish people, they had to take on a Persian name, okay, and her Persian name was Esther, okay,
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Queen Star, right, so Esther, she was very fair, fair to look at, the Bible even describes her,
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it was a beautiful figure, nice to look at, Esther was nice, all right, that's what the Bible said now,
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okay, all right, now you can read it for yourself, I'm not going to bore you with all the reading and
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everything, but read it for yourself and read it in a different translation, Esther looked nice, okay,
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and so Esther was chosen, that's how Esther was chosen, so God graced her with good look, okay, so now
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that's how Esther came into being, so when she, so when she got there, Mordecai told her this,
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okay, do not let them know your heritage that you are a Jew, now even back up before then,
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how did, was Mordecai Esther's father, no Mordecai, he was her father, role, yes, he was her father,
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okay, he adopted her, he was her father, Esther was an orphan, Esther, mother and father died,
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Mordecai was her older cousin, and so he adopted her as his own, and so what I want to tie into this
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is that in order for us to enter into God's full promise, there's a process, okay, there is a process,
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like the process of truth, not the test, but the process of thinking.
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It might be the whole process, but there are some things that no one knows about God.
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It may not be the end.
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It may just be the start.
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Maybe the secondary, the very, may not be the potential
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of who you are.
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OK?
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So Esther may have thought, when she grew up, oh,
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I'm an orphan.
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OK?
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And so she could have had a self-esteem issue.
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Mordecai adopted her.
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God gave her beauty.
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She felt good about herself.
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Oh, now she has picked them on all as to be maybe queen.
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She wasn't the third runner up.
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She wasn't the second runner up.
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She wasn't the first runner up.
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All different stages.
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She was selected as queen.
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OK?
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And so once Esther was selected as queen, perhaps Esther,
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perhaps at that time just for a fleeting moment,
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maybe she thought, oh, I have arrived.
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OK?
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And so in thinking that she has arrived,
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and here come Mordecai kind of upsetting things,
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asking her to go for the king.
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Wait a minute.
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I am where I'm supposed to be, and now you want me
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to go for the king?
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OK?
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And it may cost me my life.
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Dear one, how many of you know that sometimes,
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at some point in your life, that when God has given you
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something or placed you someplace, that there's going
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to come a point in your life that you will be challenged,
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that you will be called to go and to give up something
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to show your faith in God?
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So, Esther, what was Esther thinking about?
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So perhaps Esther thought that being queen was just it.
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Just a thought.
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Perhaps that was it.
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Perhaps when you landed that position as supervisor,
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you thought, hey, I'm here.
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I'm the supervisor.
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I'm married.
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I got this house, the car that I want,
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this picket fence, white picket fence.
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Hey, I have arrived.
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OK?
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Here I am.
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Nobody can touch me.
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OK?
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And so you are fat, dumb, and happy.
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OK?
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So to speak.
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OK?
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All right?
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Not physically fat, dumb, and happy.
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OK?
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But you know, all right?
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But you're comfortable.
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That's all I'm trying to say.
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You're comfortable.
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And so in your comfort, there are people around you
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who may need help and assistance.
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But because you're so comfortable
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and you're good at what you're doing, you may not see that.
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Here in striving, we are so blessed.
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We've got people.
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You know, we got people in the military.
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We got doctors.
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We got nurses.
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We got lawyers.
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We got people who are in high positions.
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We've got people in just about every facet of life here.
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And then we've got people who are struggling, who
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are trying to get up there.
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OK?
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We've got you who are coming up.
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You know, they're trying to get there.
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But we have people who are older who are still
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trying to get up there going to school at an older age
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and trying to get up there.
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What are we doing to try to help others?
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But then some of us were saying, I
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don't know about that person because I see this person.
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That person may not be the right person because guess what?
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If they don't do well, then that's
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going to look bad for me.
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I'm not going to step out there, OK,
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and make a sacrifice because I don't know, OK?
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I don't know.
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So here we go.
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There we go, Esther.
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You don't want to step out there.
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You don't want to step out of your comfort zone
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because Esther fear death.
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But then you fear that it's going to cost you maybe
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your career or your figure.
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It's going to cost you your name.
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But what about God?
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What does God say about you?
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Do you know that you didn't get yourself there,
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that God bought you there?
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And if God bought you there, what is for you?
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Is for you that God has placed you there
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and that you don't get to say who is
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going to be elevated or not?
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You cannot take a safe space and say, oh,
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I'll take this person and that person.
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Oh, not that one and not that.
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No, even the word says, let the wheat and the pear grow together.
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And I'll do the separated.
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Why would you try and judge when you cannot judge?
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Only God can judge.
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If people come to you for help, why not help?
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And when I say help, I mean follow through.
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You cannot say that you are helping people when you say,
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oh, well here, do this, do this, do this, and then
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don't even think about them.
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You don't call them.
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You don't follow through.
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You don't do anything.
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You're not helping.
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Only thing you're doing is filling a square, filling a block,
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checking it.
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There you go.
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I did mine.
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But we know and God knows what God knows.
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We don't know what God knows.
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You have not done due diligence.
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God has elevated you, but now you
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don't want to take a chance.
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But God is in the business of taking chances.
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And guess what?
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If God can do it for you, He wants us.
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And see, this is the season of what?
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Great what?
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Great what?
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Great stewardship in order to be a steward.
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You don't own it.
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God owns it.
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You don't own your talent.
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God gave it to you.
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You didn't manufacture it.
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God gave it to you.
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And He doesn't want you to bury it.
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He wants you to get out there and duplicate it, invest it.
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And when you invest, OK, you might lose some.
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OK?
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But guess what?
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You invest, you pray, and you rely on God to get the increase.
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You don't worry about that.
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And then here in the church, same thing.
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Oh, we have so many things to do in the church.
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In the church, outside the church,
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people are sitting on their talents.
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Because we think that the thing that we're doing,
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we have arrived.
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So we have Esther here at this particular place.
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And she has told Mordecai in so many words.
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No.
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She has told him no.
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So we know her background.
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And we know that Esther has said no.
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She said no for a particular reason.
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Maybe Esther said no because Esther was in her conference
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zone, we talked about her being in our conference zone.
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Maybe she said no because she was in a position where she just
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thought that she had arrived.
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Maybe she said no because she was afraid.
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And we do get in positions where we are afraid, right?
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We do get afraid sometimes.
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We do, we do, we do, we do.
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But God did not give us what.
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But He gave us what?
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See, you can say it.
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You can say it.
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But do you believe it?
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You have to believe it.
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He gave us the power of love.
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Love overcomes what?
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It overcomes fear.
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The opposite of fear is faith.
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And so when fear comes over you and fear will come,
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we're human.
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We're going to be afraid sometimes.
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OK, so there's nothing wrong about being afraid.
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But you can't live in fear.
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You can't live in fear.
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You have got to apply faith.
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And then when you apply faith, you will overcome fear.
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You put it in God's hand.
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God has given us a word.
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You live by His word.
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Iron shoppers, iron.
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You're around your fellow Christians.
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You hear the word and so you read the word.
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You meditate on the word.
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That word is in you.
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You regurgitate the word.
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You apply the word.
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There comes your faith.
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You have the word, isn't you?
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Use it.
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And so therefore Esther may have been afraid,
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like many of us are.
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Oh, but it gets better.
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It gets better.
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So after this, let's go back to our original verse.
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And let's go back to Esther 4 and see what Mordecai says.
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But Mordecai has an answer for Esther.
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Sometimes you have to say something to just remind people
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or to just joke them back into reality.
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OK.
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And so when they told Mordecai what Esther said,
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then Mordecai in verse 13 in the English Standard Version,
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Mordecai said, he told them, he said, you tell Esther this.
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He said, do not think to yourself
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that in the King's palace you will escape more than all
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the other Jews.
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For if you keep silent at this time,
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relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.
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But you and your father's house will perish.
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And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom
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for such a time as this.
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Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
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go get all the Jews to be found in Sousa
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and hold a fast on my behalf.
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And do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.
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And I and my young women will also fast as you do.
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Then I will go to the King, though it is against the law.
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And if I perish, I perish.
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Then Mordecai went away and did everything Esther had ordered
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him.
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I remember a song when I was a little kid,
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and I didn't understand it back in the day
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when my mother used to say this.
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If I perish, let me perish.
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Lord, I'm going to see the King.
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I don't know if you guys ever heard that song,
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but we used to sing that song all the time in church.
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And I didn't understand what they were talking about.
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But now I know.
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Because sometimes you're going to be faced with adversity.
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And you have to tell yourself sometimes, if I perish,
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let me perish.
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But I'm going to see the King.
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I'm going through this adversity, whatever that adversity
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may be.
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You may have to do something that God has called you to do,
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that you don't want to do.
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It may make you uncomfortable.
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But you've got to do it.
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You've got to do it, and you have to do it in faith.
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Like Esther said, when Mordecai said something to Esther,
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just something that Esther, something just went through her spirit.
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Esther knew exactly what to do.
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This is one of two books in the Bible that don't even mention God.
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But one author says God's fingerprint is all through it,
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his thumbprint.
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I say his ethos is all through it.
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God's captives all through Esther, the way
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God just works through the book of Esther.
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Even though he's not mentioned, we know that God is behind the scene
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just orchestrating everything in the book of Esther.
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Esther just knew exactly what to do.
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We know that Esther is a Jew, and we know that the Jews, the chosen
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people of God, knew exactly what to do.
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When he told Esther that, guess what Esther did?
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Esther said, oh my God, let me go and fast.
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She knew exactly what to do.
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Esther fasted.
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And I know she fasted, and she prayed.
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And I know she fasted, and she prayed to the great God, the only great God I am.
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She asked God to give her the strength and the courage, because guess what?
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She lacked courage.
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And that's what happens sometimes.
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We don't have the courage to go through.
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We lack courage sometimes to do the task at hand.
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In a minute, we don't have the courage all the time.
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Sometimes we are weak.
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We want to do it, but we're just weak.
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And we have to pray and ask God for the courage and the strength to get through.
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And so Esther fasted.
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And that's what we have to do, dear heart.
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We have to go before God and fast.
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And pray.
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We have to seek the face of God, go before him, and say, God, I don't know what to do.
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Give me directions.
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Show me.
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Give me the courage and the strength, the understanding.
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Be with me.
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Stand with me, God.
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As I go through this.
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And so Esther did this.
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And she required her people to do it.
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She asked Mordecai to do it.
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And Mordecai did it.
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And that was the answer that Mordecai wanted to hear.
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And so as the story goes, Esther went before the king.
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She went before the king.
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And in the background, Hamid had planned to destroy the Jews.
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And he had already fixed the gallows.
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And you know how the enemy is?
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The enemy sets traps for us.
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But guess what?
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We have a great God.
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He can turn things around.
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The very traps of the enemy sets for us.
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Guess what?
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God will use it and turn it around.
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Turn it around, turn it around.
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Oh, Haman.
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Haman was a man that was full of just evil and just hated Mordecai.
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And not only Mordecai.
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He couldn't get to Mordecai.
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He wanted just to annihilate the, find out who Mordecai was, a Jew.
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He wasn't satisfied just taking Mordecai's life.
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He wanted to take all the Jews.
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And so he went to his wife and his wife said, well, hey, just get rid of him.
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You know, okay, well, let's hang these, put these gallows up and we're just gonna, we're
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gonna hang Mordecai.
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Okay, we're gonna do that.
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And so Esther went before the king and said, and the king, he held out his scepter.
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He put a hand on it and he called her forward.
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What do you want, Esther?
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I'll give it to you, whatever.
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Even have a pecan.
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And Esther said, she paused.
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I want to throw a feast for you.
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And Haman.
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And she did.
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She threw a feast.
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Now Esther could have came right out and said, hey, Haman is doing this and blah, blah,
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blah, blah, blah, but no God did not give her those instructions to do.
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Because see, God had a plan.
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And so he had that feast.
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Had the feast.
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Haman.
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And then that night, the king was troubled.
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And then when he was troubled, he had a dream.
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He just couldn't rest.
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And so he needed to be read to and they read him some chronicles and they read him the story
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about the man who saved his life.
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And who was this man that saved my life?
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He said, well, what did I do with this man?
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I didn't do anything.
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You did nothing for him.
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And he said, well, I need to do something for him.
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And so Haman, at the moment, he was coming to tell the king that he wanted Mordecai killed.
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And so Haman was right at the door.
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And he said, who's out there?
-
Haman is there.
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And so he said, tell me to come in.
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He said, what must I do for a man who was, and he gave accolades and blah, blah, blah.
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And Haman so pompous and everything.
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You can read it for yourself.
-
Okay.
-
So pompous.
-
I mean, you talking about conceited?
-
I mean, this man was into himself.
-
And so Haman thought, oh, he must be talking about me.
-
He said, well, I will put a crown on his head and give him a robe that you wore and ride
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him on the horse and blah, blah, blah, blah, and let him be the second and command and
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all that stuff like this.
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And he said, okay, do it.
-
So do this for Mordecai.
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Haman went, Mordecai.
-
Well, what can he say?
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That was the king's command.
-
He dared not talk back to the king.
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Because this king had a temper.
-
Okay.
-
I mean, that's the story all into itself.
-
Okay.
-
That's probably why I asked him what's so scary.
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Because this king, Xerxes, oh my God, temperamental.
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Okay.
-
But anyway, so Haman goes out, okay, takes, you know, Mordecai, parades him around, put
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the robe on and everything.
-
Oh my God.
-
Then Haman goes to his wife and says, oh, the king has made Mordecai, you know, put
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all this on on him and she said, oh my God, this is not fair well for you.
-
Okay.
-
And before Haman couldn't even think of anything, the unit tower, it came and got him.
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It was time for the second feast because Esther had already went and asked for a second
-
feast.
-
Okay.
-
Because she had went before the king again and asked for, you know, because he had asked
-
what, Esther, what do you want?
-
Okay.
-
Before that, asked what he want and she said a second feast.
-
And so it was time for the second feast.
-
So Haman didn't have time.
-
He did not have time to plot a plan to get away or to run or anything.
-
It was time for him to come in right now.
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They went and grabbed Haman, he came in and she, and he said, well, okay, what do you
-
want?
-
I mean, he just loved Esther.
-
So I mean, she just barkled.
-
She batted them long eyelashes.
-
Beautiful.
-
Oh my goodness.
-
I mean, he just give Esther anything.
-
That girl was just, oh, Esther.
-
Wow.
-
They said, girl, what do you want?
-
I'll give you anything.
-
What you want?
-
Esther said, Esther said, King, she said, there's a plot to kill me and my people.
-
She said, if it were just to sell us into slavery, she said, I can live with that.
-
She said, but the plan is to just annihilate us, to kill us.
-
And she said, if you can just help us, she said, he said, kill you.
-
Now, you know he loved us.
-
Kill my queen.
-
Who?
-
Who dare?
-
Gonna kill my queen?
-
Kill my lovely Esther?
-
I mean, that's all I get.
-
Esther?
-
Kill Esther?
-
Now, if you were to say the Jews and without Esther, he probably would have talked about
-
Esther?
-
Kill my radiance star?
-
Oh, no.
-
Oh, who is going to kill Esther?
-
She said that wicked Haman.
-
Haman like, oh, the king let the Haman, he was so mad he could, he even stormed out.
-
He stormed out and Haman was just like, Haman just turned.
-
Haman went to Esther and was pleading for his life and he was pleading for his life,
-
but he was grabbing on Esther.
-
The king stepped back in and he was like, he said, and now you're trying to.
-
He thought, he thought Haman was trying to take advantage of Esther.
-
He said, how dare you even in my own household?
-
Now you're trying to, first you're trying to kill her.
-
Now you're trying to take advantage of her right here in the palace?
-
Oh my God.
-
And the eunuch said, well, hey, Haman has already built gallows, you know, for Mordecai.
-
The king said, oh, say no more.
-
He said, hang him there.
-
You see how God turned this thing around?
-
The very thing that he wanted to do against the people of God, against the person of God,
-
that's what God did.
-
He turned it around and did once, that's what God does for his people when your enemies
-
come at you and you go before God.
-
God would turn those things around and the thing that your enemies do towards you, God
-
would do it to them.
-
The gallows that Haman built for Mordecai, he hung upon.
-
The ditch that your enemies dig for you.
-
That's what they are falling to.
-
That's what kind of God that we serve.
-
All you have to do is trust in him, have faith in him, have the courage and to stand when
-
you can do nothing else.
-
Stand, guard yourself up, put on the helmet of salvation.
-
Yes.
-
The battle of truth, charge your feet with the preparation of peace, the sword of the
-
spirit.
-
Yes.
-
Yes.
-
Put on the whole armor of God.
-
Yes.
-
Go forth and allow God to fight you.
-
The battle is not yours.
-
God is only asking you to have faith in him, trust in the Lord.
-
And Esther, wow, what Esther turned out to be, she thought that her promise, in the
-
first place, was a promise for your life.
-
She thought that her promise was queen, but she was a Christ like, she was a savior for
-
her people.
-
That's what her full promise was.
-
Esther was a savior for her people.
-
She saved her people from annihilation.
-
And yeah, Esther inherited the image she thought would be會 is even better, even though the
-
edict was written and they could not overturn the edict, guess what God did.
-
God made a better edict that the Jews could defend themselves and they went and annihilated
-
their enemies, they annihilated their enemies so much so that their enemies, many of the
-
people, they became Jews themselves.
-
And so that is a type ahead of salvation.
-
Whereas people are converted and they become what?
-
Same, come into the church.
-
And that's what God wants us to do.
-
He wants us to go out.
-
And he wants us to go out and to go out and evangelize
-
and go out to get people to come in and to be saved.
-
Salvation, that is the ultimate goal.
-
That's the ultimate goal of being a steward.
-
It's for us to go out and to advance the kingdom of heaven
-
here on earth.
-
That's what your servitude will do.
-
It will allow people to see your action, your works.
-
They see it in you and people want to do,
-
what must I do to be saved?
-
Salvation, not only did she, was she a savior to the Jews,
-
but they bought people in who wanted to be like the Jews
-
because Mordecai became very powerful, very powerful.
-
The second in command.
-
And they didn't want to upset Mordecai
-
and people, they became some of them, a lot of them,
-
they became like the Jews.
-
They adopted a lot of their customs
-
and they became like the Jews.
-
And so this is salvation.
-
When we look at it in the sense of the church,
-
what we're supposed to do, to go out, to go out,
-
go out and to speak the word.
-
You don't have to be a pastor, you don't have to be a preacher.
-
You can go out and speak the word.
-
But more importantly, live it because people are not,
-
they're not looking at or hearing a lot of times
-
what you say, they're looking at what you do.
-
Your actions carry more weight than your words.
-
Because if you go out there and you say things
-
and then people see you doing things
-
that are contrary to what you say,
-
then you are double-minded.
-
And if you are double-minded, then you are what?
-
Unstable and no one wants to follow anybody who's unstable.
-
And so I challenge you to make your walk,
-
follow your talk.
-
Make sure that when you go out and profess Jesus as Lord,
-
that you have the walk to follow that talk, so that you do not
-
bring shame among to the body of Christ,
-
because we don't want to give the Holy Spirit a black eye.
-
We don't want people to look dimly on God.
-
Ensure that when you look at this
-
and when you look at the promise,
-
entering into God's promise for your life,
-
make sure it is the full promise.
-
Make sure that you're not just at a sub promise.
-
It's the full promise.
-
Make your eyes closed.
-
Thank you.
-
Thank you.