Bold Service - Esther 10:1-3 - Sunday Sermon

Welcome to Boon Ferry. If you're new

here, my name is Mati Scaring and I want

to wish you a happy Father's Day.

I hope you are uh you've got some fun

plans for Father's Day. Um I do. I'm

going to be shooting at the bottom of my

property. And um but that's now

competing with something else I want to

do that you might not believe because

yesterday in preparation for shooting

the uh so my property is concave like

this and there's a little named creek

that flows through it called Thimble

Creek and it and because it flows to the

bottom there's a constant supply of

water to the surrounding area for every

type of plant. So I've got grass

yeah grass taller than six feet. I've

got cattails. I think that's what

they're called. They look kind of

prehistoric, taller. And then I found

what I think is a new species of

blackberry. Um I for those of you that

know how to remove blackberry brush,

you've probably seen this before, but

when you get deep into it, there are

like purple stems the size of the

knuckle of my thumb. And they're still

alive. They still they're not dead.

There's dead ones, too, that are really

thick, but I've never seen such thick

blackberry brushes. So, I have a friend

that uh taught me a little hack on how

to upgrade your Royobi string trimmer to

be an absolute weapon. You get this

thing called the Oregon blade. It's red

and it curves down and it's so heavy. I

had to like retrofit it on there with a

washer and everything. So heavy it shuts

off the motor and I was like, "Oh, well

this won't work." So called my friend

and uh he said, "Oh, you just got to

manage it." So, like you let it rev up

to the point where there's plenty of

momentum and then press down all the way

and it sounds like a helicopter blade.

So, I'm down there just destroying every

weed. Um, there's like small trees under

the blackberry uh bushes. This thing is

just right through like an axe through

the tree, right? Actual wood. That's how

powerful it is. So, my boys are down

there with machetes having fun. And then

they I w I like look around and they've

all stopped. They're just wideeyed at

how much this thing is destroying. So, I

really kind of just want to go do more

weed whacking today. That's my Father's

Day wish.

Yeah.

>> I have an illegal dam that was built on

my property. And yes, you heard

correctly. A gigantic at least 75 ft

wide. I would say I mean, not

exaggerating, 500 tons of rip wrap.

those big boulders, you know, one of

those boulders is over a ton. And I saw

pictures of how it was being constructed

and the entire front face and back face

has this rip wrap and then it has 12 in

of concrete on the front of it with

rebar in it. So all of the Blackberry is

covering this entire dam. So it's like

my dream to right now to uncover it all

and actually see what it is. Not this

close to me, by the way. Had no idea.

But that's down there. So, if you ever

come over, you'll get to see that at

some point. But anyway, that has nothing

to do with anything other than what I'm

doing for Father's Day. Hope you're

going to have a great one. Um, and today

we are in the very last chapter of

Esther. And although it's not really

about uh Morai's

fatherhood in relationship to Esther, he

was her father figure. He raised her,

uh, he still really was. And so we're

going to get to hear more about him um

even if it's not directly related to him

being a father. So without further ado,

I want to well I want to say if you're

new here, want to get more connected,

want to be prayed for, that's what our

welcome cards are for. So go ahead and

use those. If you have uh never as a

guest, even if you've been coming for a

while, turned in one of those welcome

cards to the connection table. We have a

gift for you and we love giving those

gifts out. Usually something like a

Dutch Bros card. That might be a fun

thing to do for Father's Day is go to

Dutch Bros and get a drink. Um, all

right. Let me pray. We're getting into

Esther chapter 10. All of it. It's only

Esther 10 · chapter mention

three verses, but it's very important.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for the

opportunity to complete an entire book

today. We've learned so much. I've been

blessed at just how much interest

there's been in the congregation, how

many comments there were. Even people

asking, "Hey, what was the elders's

process in discerning God's will to go

through Esther?" It just seems like so

clearly his will. And that's incredibly

encouraging to me to hear. Uh it it

seems like your support not only for us

as leaders, but also for those in the

church that are benefiting um from your

word. And I pray that today would be the

same as every Sunday in Esther has been.

I pray that it'd be transformative,

convicting, that we would learn what we

need to learn, have the power to apply

what we need to apply. Um, and most

importantly that you would be pleased uh

with what I say and what we learn and

that you'd be glorified as a result of

this completion of another book in your

word. I pray these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

So, one of the first things I want to

actually start with, and this is less of

an introduction, but just because

there's part of the sermon that's a uh a

summary. Um, I want to let you know uh

how the because people are asking how

the elders discern in general to go

through books because we've already

decided we're going to be going through

the psalms probably for the next 10

years in the summer because it's about

eight at a time and there's so many

psalms. Um but then we're going to be

meeting together to pray about what the

next book we just do b book studies

really very it's sort of rare that we're

doing uh topical study uh sermons

although I don't necessarily think

there's anything wrong with that I think

it's most powerful to teach verse by

verse through books um but that's sort

of beside the point the point is we get

together and we pray and we ask the lord

to help us discern uh what book we

should go through so we consider the

needs the spiritual needs of the church

let's Say for example that we felt that

uh in general the church was weak in

relationship to forgiveness. We might

consider well what books really

hammer home the importance of

forgiveness. So we could say let's go

through a gospel like Matthew. Um next

week we won't be in the Psalms. We'll be

it'll be a sermon on forgiveness. When I

do topical sermons forgiveness is a

topic that comes up over and over again.

We're talking about the parable of the

unforgiving servant. So maybe think

about that. But then you think, well

that's that's a long,

you know, Matthew, John, and and Luke

are quite long books and not everything

in there is about forgiveness. So maybe

an elder will say, "What about

Ephesians?" Ephesians 4:32 says, "Be

Ephesians 4:32

kind to one another, tender-hearted,

forgiving one another as God in Christ

forgave you." There's a lot there about

putting on the new nature and and not

succumbing to the flesh again. So maybe

that's the one. So we pray about that

kind of thing. Even just figuring out

Lord what do you see the needs the

weaknesses the strengths what needs to

be fan into flame what needs to be you

know where are the knees weak and need

to be strengthened uh we look at those

things well and I uh I feel like in in

part God's made me a cheerleader of the

church so I don't enjoy publicly talking

about the weaknesses but I can't explain

what I'm saying without that I think one

of the weaknesses our uh church has that

I've been talking to our leaders about I

say it it's not new to our church. It

might be new to you if you're new here.

Uh but it's definitely not new to the

elders is being willing to be verbally

bold. Um and if you've been here, you

know that has been a theme of many of

the books that God's been leading us

through. Um first and second Timothy,

there's a lot of calls to verbal

boldness. Um we went through Daniel

which is a call uh to boldness in the

face of you know legally forced unpain

of death idol worship with quite a bit

of esquetology in there as well. And we

thought that was really interesting

because we are in the end times even

though maybe not in the end of the end

times we're definitely at a time where

we seem to be speeding towards

immorality in our nation. uh more and

more things are being said that are

opposite of God's will and all the more

need to stand up verbally for what's

good, right, and true. And I don't mean

in a sort of shrill way on Facebook. I

mean, you know, when when it's right to

defend your hope of the gospel with

gentleness and respect, but when it's

also right to tell somebody that the way

that they're living is is not good for

them, when it's right to tell them that

they're they need forgiveness because

they are a sinner. Those kinds of things

in verbal boldness, even correction of

other Christians when they're in error,

it just requires verbal boldness. We see

that as a weakness. We went through

Genesis as well um in uh wanting to

establish some of the moral foundations

in creation order. Uh we talked in that

place. One a place where I think we need

moral boldness for the sake of

protecting people is regarding uh how

God really created two genders. And one

of the things we learned there is that

that's not just a biological reality but

it's a spiritual reality. For example,

when you die and are resurrected, you're

not going to cease being a man if you

were created uh uh male and you're not

going to cease to be a woman. You don't

lose your gender in heaven. So, there's

actually nothing science can do to

change your gender in relationship to

the Lord. And and that's what's most

important about understanding uh gender

is that it affects your relationship to

the Lord in a very destructive way. If

you misdefine that, if you can't

reconcile your identity in relationship

to the Lord, that's something I think we

should be bold about. Not just to stand

against those who advocate for sin in

that area, but to protect children in

our nation even, right? Um we have felt

that God is I don't think he's done yet

in changing our church to be more

verbally bold, but um we felt that God

was at a point where

he wants us to move on from that topic.

It's been quite a few book studies, uh,

but not entirely yet. And so, we were

looking at, it's like, well, I like

going back and forth between the Old New

Testament when it comes to book studies.

Where could we go in the Old Testament

and that might fit into this category of

challenging people in this way? And Ben

Jansen, who's an elder of church, uh,

mentioned, "What about Esther?" And

immediately Vern and I were like,

"Bingo." Because we know, we all know at

least one verse, or at least you could

probably paraphrase it from Esther. And

what is it for such a time as this?

Maybe my favorite. If I perish, I

perish. Um, and uh, it's all about her

willingness to be verbally bold in

defense of her people, even if it costs

her her life. And on top of it, it's a

woman, right, that gets catapulted into

becoming the queen. And if if I were to

guess just based on the evidence, I know

for sure she seems maybe like she's more

on the introverted side. We've got a lot

of introverts in our church. Most of my

best friends are introverts. I'm much

more extroverted. So I think that works

especially when I'm actually learning

how to listen. I respect introverts a

lot cuz they they'll

I can like I have a verbal process and

I'll throw a whole paragraph or five

paragraphs of of ideas out and my you

know theologically astute introvert

friends will be able to summarize it in

like a sentence and I'm like that's I'm

going to use that like that's so that

there's a force in their brevity that I

admire. Um, I think I'm not trying to

pump myself up, but I think something

that my friends admire about me is my

verbal boldness. They like that as long

as it's not too forceful or or like

aimed in a fleshly way at them. Um, but

here's, you know, you wouldn't it's not

really this young Jewish woman that you

would expect would be this verbally bold

warrior, but that's exactly what she is.

And she's humble. She's not stridident.

She's wise. She listens to her mentors,

especially her father figure. And we

just we just kind of all of that right

away. Yes, it's Esther. And that's been

confirmed over and over and over again.

Again, this is subjectively discerning

God's will. It's not like we heard him

say you should do this or God's word

says the elders of Boon's fairy in 2026

should go through Esther. It just seemed

like the spirit's guidance for that. So,

that's how that came about. Um, and here

we're at the end of of Esther. And the

the point that I'm going to make, I

think, is true from chapter 10 verse

1-3, but I think it's also a summary

point for our entire lives. And if you

think about this in relationship to what

we think the spirit is actually saying

to our church through Esther, this

church specifically, I think preaching

um should be focused on the people in

that church. It's shephering kind of

preaching that I'm after. Um, and if if

you're wanting a summary point both of

all of Esther, uh, that relates to us in

terms of why why should you be willing

to be verbally bold? Um, well, because

it's in the service of God's glory and

the welfare of others. Um, so that's

really the main point today. Uh, our

lives should be lived in the service of

God's glory and the welfare of others no

matter the cost. Can you see how that's

both the summary point and a point that

is made here towards the end of uh the

book of chapter 10? Our life should be

lived in the service of God's glory and

the welfare of others no matter the

cost.

The first one's huge. It's the very

number one commandment to love the Lord

with all your heart, with all your soul,

with all your strength, and with all

your mind to make everything in your

life about him.

And that that may take some reordering

for people. We talked last week about

the weeds. I just brought it up again

regarding the, you know, thing that I

want to do on Father's Day. Uh lots of

things can crowd out the agenda of your

life really being just about God. And

so, you got to get that right first. But

you got to decide, listen, I'm going to

live my life in the service of the Lord

and his glory. In simple terms, living

my life to make him look as good as he

actually is. And then secondly,

according to the second greatest

command, to live our life in the service

of the welfare of others. And because

there's a spiritual enemy, we know him

as Satan, the devil, the accuser. And

because we have enemy inclinations in

our hearts, we call that the flesh.

There's a lot of uphill battle related

to living your life for the glory of the

Lord and also in the service of others.

We are innately selfish of selfish

ambition. We we seek our own interests

uh far more than we seek the interests

of others. In fact, our our flesh is so

insidious, we will seek the interests of

others, sometimes only exclusively if

it's also in our best interest. And

God's word cuts against that. And you

see really if I had to say who's the

main character of Esther, I think most

of us would all have said, well, the

namesake Esther. By the time you get

done reading the whole story, it really

seems like a co- uh a co-main character

kind of book. It's it's Morai and Esther

constantly a team. I wouldn't put one I

probably if I was a director, I'd give

them both just about equal screen time.

There's they're just so important.

Especially it's Morai that gets

highlighted at the very end of this book

and um he live literally says he he once

he's elevated the second in command of

the entire nation he is about the

welfare of others. It's a very

Christlike thing. So, a lot of what I

hope happens here as a result of this,

especially when you consider, if you

agree with us, that the spirit has

something to say through the entire book

um to our church regarding our need to

become verbally bolder in whatever

situation. Um and and there's a great

cost in that. You might consider, well,

what cost do I need to consider? Um, I

know some of you have uh forsaken

um promotions, serious promotions as a

result of your unwilling to compromise

verbally in your jobs. I'm I'm not going

to mention the names, but I I know

that's true. I know some of you have

lost dear friends as a result of your

unwillingness to compromise verbally. I

know that some of you uh have tension in

your relationship to loved ones and even

children as a result of that. So I know

the convictions here not to compromise

are deep and God blesses that in

dramatic ways truly in dramatic ways. So

I want you to consider in your marriage,

in relationship to your children, in

relationship to leaders, in relationship

to even national or regional leaders, um

are you living your life with a singular

agenda to glorify God and with a

secondary agenda which also glorifies

him uh for the welfare of others? And

when it comes to verbal boldness, are

you willing to take steps towards

courageousness in that especially in

protection of others? It takes that. You

know, the enemy loves to destroy the

weakest. Most often in any society,

children are the weakness weakest. And

there's so many ways in which um it

would be a blessing to our nation, a

protective blessing to those children if

people became more verbally bold. Not

I'm not talking about polit. I'm

spiritual, genuine, loving, kind, but

true and protective. Esther was tough.

Morai was tough verbally. Right? So when

we decide not to be verbally bold when

we need to be, when we don't count the

cost and decide to be willing to

sacrifice it, uh God will raise somebody

else up. But it means that you were not

glorifying him in being willing to

protect other people that way. And you

know, it really is verbal boldness that

was required from Esther. Had she not

spoken up, God would have had used

someone else. But if she'd not spoken

up, she would have been disobedient. So

considered every area of her life uh as

we continue going through this. Um let's

get into it. I'm going to read all uh

one through three and then come back to

one and consider why this ought not to

just be a flyover passage, but why

there's just so much depth and why it's

just very much a fitting end to the

book. uh chapter 10 verse one king

Ahasaweris imposed tax on the land and

on the coastlands of the sea and all the

acts of his power and might and the full

account of the high honor of Morai to

which the king advanced him are they not

written in the book of chronicles the

kings of media Persia for Morai the Jew

was second in rank to King Ahaweras and

he was great among the Jews and popular

with the multitude of his brothers for

he sought the welfare of his people and

spoke peace to all his people. All

right, I want to show you how even

chapter uh 10:1 is actually about God's

glory as well. King Awar imposed tax on

the land, on the coastland of the sea.

Now, we're commanded, especially as

preachers, but as Christians alike, uh

to rightly divide the word. And one real

pitfall uh to wrongly divide the word is

to take modern sensibilities in this

case it's probably ancient and modern

sensibility but it's especially a modern

sensibility to feel some sort of way

about taxes right so and I did I'm like

impose taxes on everyone I don't like

how much we're taxed in America it seems

like too much I know I'm commanded to do

it anyway and I don't want to be a

constant grumbler but I read this and my

first reaction was negative Well, if

that's sort of the feeling you have

about this verse, you're probably going

to misunderstand what it's actually

about. In fact, at this time, believe it

or not, with this god king, Xerxes,

emperor of the entire known world, he

hadn't even been taxing his people. And

that's one thing that's hugely important

to understand. I'm not going to turn

there because it's a very short verse,

but we're going to go to Esther 2:1 18.

Esther 2:1

Uh, and so the details are right there.

You might think this a fly by verse.

Okay, so you impose taxes.

I don't think that's cool. I don't like

taxes. So then you kind of fly by. Why?

Why is that the of So all of God's word

is verbally inspired. And there's three

more verses of to finish up the book.

And one of those verses God spends on

telling us that King Ahasser, King

Xerxes imposed tax. Why? What's the

point? You got to think about it. It

really jumped out of the page to me. Why

have all the verses now saying that?

Well, here's verse 18. Then the king

gave a great feast for all his officials

and servants. It was Esther's feast. He

also granted remission of taxes to the

provinces and gave gifts with royal

generosity.

And by the time he's reinstating these

taxes, it's been a year. How nice would

it be for a full year? Year 251 of

America, no taxes.

Right? That would be unreal if that

happened. I'm not even saying that, I

don't know, without planning that it

would work. I'm just saying imagine not

having to pay taxes for a full year.

That's what the uh 127 provinces of

Persia were experiencing. Um, so he is

re-imposing taxes on the land. Then it

says on and on the coastlands of the

sea. So once I got over my initial

negative conservative American reaction

to taxes, I realized actually it's the

opposite. This is being stated as a

positive thing in in relationship to

King Aerys. Notice though how the taxes

that were uh initially remitted were

remitted in honor of Esther who's the

new queen, right? So Esther's related to

the tax remission. And that got me

thinking about just how much Esther and

Mori were a blessing to King Xerxes.

This is King Xerxes one. Asaweris is the

Hebrew way of saying it. Sometimes they

say Xerxes for short because it rolls

off the tongue. Asaweris does not. Uh

but I was thinking about, you know, it's

really interesting because there's a

huge tone shift. I'm going to walk a

little bit through the book of Esther

here, starting in chapter 1. remember

chapter one how I think especially the

women in our church and rightly so had a

real distaste for for Xerxes uh

character didn't we vain glorious right

pompous all about himself this is Xerxes

and then that leads to and that leads to

um drinking and then he made an edict

maybe not forcing everyone but like the

wine was just flowing Right. So, it's

all about himself. Uh, he's a serial

polygamist, but he's got this one queen

that's like the high queen basically.

Her name is Vashi. And I don't know if

he was drunk or not, but he was

definitely influenced by alcohol,

definitely influenced by his vain glory.

And he decides, you know, let me

objectify my wife in service of my own

greatness to all these men here. And

Vashi is not having it. And I think

there probably wasn't a person in the

church that wasn't sympathetic to her

thinking, man, would have been terrible

to be her, right? And then we get and

she gets deposed uh probably divorced

um and is no longer queen. And then King

Asaweris seeks out his wise men to come

up with a plan of what they should do.

Well, first he seeks out a plan to come

up with what she do. They they say you

got to get rid of her otherwise every

woman's going to act like this, you

know, which a isn't true. Uh but it's

just total normal um

uh way of of of fleshly thinking of men

and power, right? And uh that the only

thing that really matters in marriage is

control. And that's not true. Even

though men ought to lead, uh control and

course of control is not the way. Uh so

he gets advice from some of his

counselors and they kind of all agree,

hey, let's have a beauty pageant, right?

And uh and of all the prettiest women in

all the land and let's find another

queen. And of course, a vain glorious

thing king thinks that's the greatest

thing ever. You know, it's the bachelor

media in Persia. And uh so lo and behold

though, uh there's this diamond of a

woman found and her name's Esther and

she's a young woman. and she gets taken

into the herm. She's got no choice.

She's now under total control. We talked

just about how terrible that would have

been. But we found in Esther an

unusually deep humility and we found a

wisdom too and we found a connection to

Morai to that wisdom. She listened to

him and she also listened to the chief

unic and how he advised her in what she

should bring into the king. and she

above and beyond anyone else wins the

king's favor. And now we're all the way

to chapter 2:1 18 where he throws

basically this, you know, bash for her

queendom and remits taxes. Uh so that's

that's where we got to just there in

that quotation and then things seem to

be changing throughout the book in terms

of a tone shift. So, um, he loves Esther

and he treats her kindly and favorably.

Um, and then we're talking about Mori

and he was very loyal to the king and

thwarts an assassination plot by two of

the um, two of the Unix. We're

introduced to the enemy of the Jews as

well, Hmon. And he's vain glorious just

like King Xerxes. So, in a way,

initially, King Xerxes had just

surrounded himself with a bunch of vain

glorious people.

and he's introduced to Esther. She's the

first non vain glorious person. Uh well,

maybe not the first, but the first one

mentioned really. Um and then he doesn't

know Mordeai yet, but Mor Morai is also

not vain glorious. He's humble. He's the

one that taught the humility and wisdom

wisdom to Esther and he's saved by him.

But then we're introduced to Hmon who's

just like Aasawa in that sense but even

more evil and he wants to be worshiped.

He wants to be worshiped by Morai. So he

absolutely loves the king makes a

command for everyone to bow down to him.

Um he wants them to tremble according

another verse later on. So when you want

people to bow down to you and tremble

that is a form of worship and Mori is

not having it because the glory of the

Lord is what he cares about. He's not.

He says he he was been hiding and even

telling Esther to hide that they're

Jewish out of wisdom because of you know

probably at the time he knew there was

underbelly of hatred towards the Jews

represented by uh by Hmon and uh he's an

Agites and the Agites have a long sort

of bloodfeuded history against the Jews

and they've been the enemy of the Jews

and uh God is their enemy now as a

result of it but evidently a line of ag

survived and Hmon's one of them. So

probably reading a little bit between

the lines, Morai may have known about

some of the um

the negative sentiment against the Jews

at that time. But in this case, he outs

himself as a Jew and you can tell it's

because he's saying that's why I'm not

going to bow him. It's a religious

conviction. It's a worship conviction.

Uh, so Hmon hates that and he's so angry

about it and it boils over to the point

where like when you read closely you

realize Hmon really was the second in

command at the time. Everyone else had

to bow to him except for Xerxes and he

has the king's signant ring on. Only one

of those it seems. So Hmon's super

powerful and he's had all these

promotions and he's being invited to a

feast with Esther and he interprets that

positively. It's part of the irony of

the book. Um but he says to his wife and

uh wise men or friends um that all of

that's worthless to him so long as Mori

is around. Right? So just absolutely

malcontent person even though he has has

everything but because it's not in the

service of the glory of the Lord and

it's not in the service of others but

all just vain glorious selfish ambition

he can't take any joy in it. The theme

just keeps following through both in the

negative and in the positive. And so his

wife

foo deeply foolishly advises him that

the way back to joy is to murder Morai.

And he has a gallows made. And don't

think hangman gallows, think, you know,

75 foot wooden sharpened stakes that you

get impaled on. That's what we we saw is

actually and some of your translations

actually say impaled, not hanged. And

that was the primary form of execution

uh in media in Persia.

So terrible evil, right? And uh in

chapter 4 uh we find out that Morai

challenges Esther to uh say something

about it. Um and she's not saying she

won't, but she seems to be wanting to

tell Mordei, "Do you realize the cost of

that? The king hasn't had me called in

for 30 days.

If I go in there, there's a law. Morai

knows about the law. He sits at the

king's gate all the time. So, he's he's

a palace gate and so he's up on

everything that's going on politically.

Well, there was a law in media persia

that if you just bust into the king's

inner court uh without invitation, you

get executed with the exception of if he

tips a scepter to you. It's just the law

and the laws are revocable. So she knows

uh for her to go and say something like

Morai is telling her to do uh she has to

be willing to risk her life.

And so he tells her, "Well, if you

don't, some help will arise from another

place, but don't think you'll escape.

You're Jewish and just cuz you're in the

palace, you're not going to escape." And

she has this uh famous line, if I

perish, I perish. So she sacrifices her

life and she gains this confidence which

I for think picked up on a lot

considering the the thought we had in

terms of shephering the congregation

through Esther. It's the first time she

commands Morai to do something but it's

a spiritual command. She commands him to

fast and the Jews to fast with her and

her handmaidadens.

Um, it's one of the closest places in

terms of Esther where the author almost

mentions God but doesn't because what's

fasting about? It's about prayer and

seeking the Lord's favor and Esther's

doing that. But she commands him to fast

first command. So once she sacrificed

her life potentially in the service of

the Lord in his glory and the welfare of

others, it's like it's almost like that

day she really became the queen we know

today and admire so much. confident

verbally, commanding others, but

spiritual, still humble, still wise. She

comes up with a plan, st Tuesday's plan

to um invite the king and Hmon to a

feast. Uh she's wise enough to know that

um you know, whining and dining with to

a degree is a way into a man's heart.

And uh so she's she's serving them both

in that sense, but to set up Hmon. And

then in the second feast, in between the

second feast is when we actually hear

about uh Hmon and his discontentedness

and his plan to murder Morortei. And

little does he know that this next feast

that he's going to be invited to is the

one where he's going to be exposed and

everything's going to be turned around

on him. So they come to the feast and uh

Esther exposes him and Asaweras is so

angry he's got to leave the room you

know and that that was probably other

than him showing Esther favor like you

know truly all the way evil fully

developed in their evil uh kings I don't

think they actually like humility and

and those kinds of things in others but

there was something about loving Esther

that made me think he's more he's not as

one-dimensional as it seems like we we

see the picture in in I'm not saying the

author is saying he's onedimensional but

like he's got more going on than that

you know and then here he's so angry at

this at this betrayal and immediately

and justly has uh Hmon executed and then

he gifts Hmon's house to Esther and

Esther gifts that and and his signate

ring to Mordei which is really when when

Mordei uh uh promoted to second in

command, gets that signate ring. Esther

gives Hmon the uh gives Moriah the house

of Hmon. Um and then from there on out,

they just keep gaining more favor. They

ask the king uh to do something uh about

the fact that all the Jews are still

going to be killed in the month of Adar.

And uh he knows he can't revoke the law

that he foolishly, you know, they he

because of his vain glory too. There's

that verse where he uh agrees with Hmon

to um uh kill all the people. He doesn't

know it's going to be the Jews, right?

Hmon knows. So Hmon's deceiving him and

it it says, "Yeah, go ahead and do it."

And then they sat down to drink. Super

callous, right? But now I think through

the influence of Esther and also through

the influence of Mori,

King Asaweras turns out to be the king

that's out of out of, you know, maybe

Cyrus and and a few other Jewish kings,

one of the most protective kings in

relationship to Jews,

right? We went from a guy we really kind

of hated.

You know, you know, people that are all

about themselves, abusive towards women,

womanizers, vain glorious, and and they

just run rough shot over other people on

their way to their own, you know,

supposed glory. And yet now he's the guy

being used to protect all the Jews and

is just constantly helping Esther and

Morai, advances Morai to the very top.

So, he's he's sort of a mixed bag at

that point. And um I'll keep going back

and talking about details about this.

But if you look at chapter 10 in the

light of a tone change from vain

glorious like almost nothing good about

him to all of a sudden he's a king who's

protective of the Jews. Remember we also

discovered that this isn't a it

literally is a regional threat but you

ought not to think of it as a regional

threat to the Jews. This is the entire

known world. If Hmon had gotten his way,

the vast majority of Jews would have

been wiped out. So, I don't think I'm

even exaggerating to say that this

threat

um if it had gone through would have

been worse than the Holocaust.

Millions and millions of Jews would have

died. It would have been it would have

been a probably nearly effective total

genocide of the Jews.

And God's using Xerxes of all people

to enact a plan where the Jews can

defend themselves.

So if you read it in that way, there's

no evidence. He was no Nebuchadnezzar,

meaning Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself

and actually came to faith. I don't know

if you knew this, but we'll be in heaven

with Nebuchadnezzar. There's no

evidence, unfortunately, I think, that

Xerxes ever repented. Historically, he

gets assassinated. That's not a good

sign. Maybe he did. We don't know. I'm

not weighing in totally on it. But so

I'm not talking about a transformed as

he hasn't stopped being a polygamist. I

doubt he's not still about his vain

glory. But the tone change from like

everything bad to all of a sudden verse

two and all the acts of his power and

might and the full count of the high

honor of Morai to which the king

advanced him. Are they not written the

book of chronicles of kings and media

and Persia? So I think what's really

happening here is uh an account of

how much God benefited King Aasaweras.

So much so that he was able to reimpose

the tax on the land and not just the

land but all the way to the coastlands.

Takes unbelievable power and

coordination to be able to do that.

I don't know who you think of like the

the greatest king, not in terms of

morals, but like as most powerful.

Xerxes is one of them. He's up there.

I'm not even sure if there's anyone

that's much of a rival. Maybe

Nebuchadnezzar was Alexander the Great.

I don't know, one of the Caesars, but

he's up there in terms of one of the in

terms of just an evaluation of power,

greatest kings. And you don't ever get

to that power with go without God being

benevolent towards you, right?

doesn't mean God wasn't against his

polygamy or against his vain glory.

Doesn't mean God wasn't against the ways

he allowed himself to be deceived. But

God puts every king in power. He's

benevolent. I want to give you what's

kind of a funny example about

benevolence.

I now have 17 chickens and 13 of them or

14 of them are uh still juvenile.

They're getting much bigger. Um I think

I might have one rooster. I prayed that

I have a Brahma rooster and this big

like huge rooster and I think one of

them might be his tail feathers are

different than the other ones except he

only has one tail feather because

there's another chicken among the four

established chickens got a I don't know

what the the names of all the original

chickens are but one of them is like

black and white beautiful another one's

also black and white but speckled kind

of another one's like a Rhode Island red

kind of deep brownish red and then

there's this black chicken and she is

clearly the head of the original pecking

order. And then there's my favorite

chicken which I think is an Easter egg.

Looks like an eagle when you when you

see it. Eyes, everything and the hair.

You know how eagle feathers will kind of

puff out a little bit like this? His or

her uh uh feathers puff out like that.

And uh that black chicken, the head of

the original pecking order, singles out

my favorite chicken and has ripped out

all the tail feathers. It's like a

bloody mess on the back. And so I've put

some stuff on there. And so first time I

saw it, I was like, I I was going to go

out and kill the black chicken.

And so I picked up the black chicken.

All my kids are rushing out there.

Christine's rushing out there. Matthew,

don't do it. But I was just so upset cuz

this has been like a thing. Um, also

there's a poultry farmer I I know. I'm

not going to mention any names, but he

told me to kill all four chickens. So,

um, I'm just throwing him under the bus

in case you're thinking that I'm the

worst person in this church. Um, but it

just chickens are are vicious. They are

little cannibal dinosaurs and they will

just like especially once one starts

picking another one out, uh, they'll

just eat the other chicken alive. Right.

So actually removing that black chicken

whether it's I don't know euthanized or

given to somebody else um may actually

be the only solution. Uh but just

yesterday he was doing it again now that

Easter egg beautiful chicken has just

one tail feather and is bleeding again.

So I imprisoned the chicken in a little

tractor inside of the thing. Um but as I

was holding the chicken

uh it just kind of looked up to me. It's

never pecked me. It's totally nice

towards the kids. You know, there is a

pecking order. It's a thing. I don't

know why they pick on the weakest and

always only one. Um, but I was like, I

can't kill this chicken. They're pets to

me. Uh, and

it's not that I actually think killing

animals is wrong. Obviously not. But,

uh, I just I don't I'm not sure I'm

going to be able to do it. I'm not

really even a softy, but I actually kind

of love these chickens, especially the

original four. When I first started

living on the property, they'd follow me

around everyone. I was like, "These are

my chickens. God gave me, they're mine."

And so, I don't really want to kill the

chicken. I think uh God feels that way

towards Hmon. That's his benevolence,

right? Doesn't mean he's not going to

put him to death after his flagrant and

unrepentant sin. Um, but it's just

because a chicken is doing something I

can't call it evil, but you know what I

mean. Like really upsetting. Uh, doesn't

mean that that I hate it. Uh, I got

angry. You could compare that to God's

wrath, although it's not a copyable

attribute. Um, but I I probably not

going to go through with it. So maybe

I'll figure out another one. Maybe I'll

pray that that Brahma chicken gets

established as the mediator for the

whole thing. Uh, or the rooster. But so

if you think of the way I think in

relationship to this chicken, but then

think of God as all powerful, perfect,

in total control of all of uh um his

power in every way, deeply meek, power

under control at all times, but just and

he has a limit on how much evil. Uh

that's God's benevolence. And he's

benevolent towards this king Xerxes.

He's benevolent towards him. And I want

to and this is really where I wanted to

get. All this talk about this is

actually about Esther and Morortei. One

of God's benevolent blessings towards

Xerxes

is that he gave him Esther and Morortei.

Gave him Esther and Morortei.

You have the horizontal blessing that

we're going to talk about here. Meaning

from God down to Mori for his

faithfulness in living his life in the

service of God's glory and the welfare

of others no matter the cost. You have

the exact same thing, maybe even more

famously represented by Esther. If I

perish, I perish. What we haven't talked

that much about though is how God's

favor and blessing on Esther and Mori's

life out of as a result of their

obedience. Again, they still didn't earn

it. It's always just grace. But God

says, "If you obey me in this way, I

will bless you." So, he's just promising

it. And so I wouldn't say they earned

that promise, but it gets triggered

because of obedience, living their life

for the glory of God and for the service

of others no matter the cost. And it

cost them both a lot. And but then

there's also this horizontal blessing.

So I wonder I I don't know if you as a

student of the Bible see the tone shift

too. Negative things aren't being said

about Aasaweris anymore. They were

definitely being said early on. Lots of

foolishness, lots of vain glory. Now,

it's about how great of a king, at least

in terms of power he is. So, my point is

not at all about how much the king was

transformed. My point is about how God's

benevolent blessing, part of God's glory

is that he's benevolent to everyone,

even evil kings,

even black chickens.

So

the point is

when you live your life in the service

of God's glory and the welfare of

others, you'll be a blessing to those

around you, too. Now, nobody deserves

that blessing. And I guess you could say

especially those who have not even

repented in the first place don't

deserve that blessing. But I wouldn't

say especially, just everyone doesn't

deserve it. But there are those who it's

easy to be tempted to be like, "Oh,

well, Asa really didn't deserve it." So

those people in your life that are they

they seem like they're somewhere in

between a full-blown enemy and a frenmy.

And did you know that God wants to use

you even for their w their welfare uh in

relationship to his benevolence?

Right? That's how good the Lord is.

He'll be benevolent even to his enemies

and pseudo enemies.

So, who in your life might you seek the

welfare that doesn't deserve it? And who

in your life that you feel like

especially doesn't deserve it, even if

that's not biblically correct, could you

be a blessing to?

Esther had to go through a lot

of what I would call coercive abuse. She

didn't get a choice. There was no

consent in being taken into the herum.

She lost all the freedoms she had as a

young woman. She may have gained some

others, but most of it was just from one

place to the next under constant watch

and control,

right? Her wedding night was an audition

of of, you know, beyond the PG-13 type.

So rough to be a blessing to that king.

And yet she definitely still was because

of how deep her humility, how deep her

wisdom, and her deep her commitment was

to serve the Lord no matter what, no

matter the cost.

So I wonder sometimes and I think it's

true if God gives us these maximal

stories to eliminate all excuses.

It's highly unlikely that right now

you're having to actually sacrifice your

life in potential in the sense of like I

might die if I do this. But it's little

sacrifices in relationship to being more

verbally bold. It's little sacrifices

like the

fear that it might harm the

relationship. ship. And these

relationships are important. There's

really nothing more important in our

lives after our relationship to God than

our relationship to other people. And if

you tell them something that's got a

little grit in it, some truth that is at

least admonishing, maybe even

corrective, and they need it, and you're

the one that needs to say it. And even

if there's other people that would say,

you know, it's not a good thing to have

God pass you over, to find someone else

to say it,

we should take responsibility

to say it when we see it.

Maybe convince yourself that you don't

see it because you don't really want to

say it. But at the end of the day, if

you're saying it out of love for the

person and if it's true, and you have to

discern that,

it's in the service of God's glory and

the service of the welfare of others.

I've needed constant and regular

correction in my life.

And you know, the people I consider my

very best friends are the people that

are willing to do it.

That's what the Bible says. That's wise.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Are you willing to be a friend? It's not

faithful to never wound other people.

Do you realize that? If you're never

willing to wound other people with your

words in the service of the glory of the

Lord and their own welfare and

correction is what we're talking about.

Rebuke

can be even more wounding, but it's a

faithful wound. It's kind of like the

wounds of a cancer surgery.

It's kind of like the wounds of cancer

treatments like radiation or

chemotherapy. Yeah, it's painful. Yeah,

it harms something. But that thing

needed to be excised from the body.

So are you willing? Are you willing to

do that? Are you willing to take the

risk? Are you willing to walk in the

room with someone where they may

unfriend you if you say the thing?

You probably know the thing. Probably

know it because you're like able to

avoid it if you want to. But are you

willing to say it? It's it's in the serv

service of the glory of the Lord. Part

of the glory of the Lord is us not

living our lives in underhanded ways,

but rather commending ourselves by the

open statement of the truth. The body of

Christ, the church, does not build

itself up ever if nobody's speaking the

truth in love. Read Ephesians 4.

The mechanism through which God builds

up the body of Christ is when the saints

are trained by shepherds and leaders to

minister to other people, speaking the

truth in love. And as they do that,

especially the love part in the truth,

the body builds itself up.

Well, it doesn't if you don't. People

don't naturally come to the conclusion

that something is really wrong in their

lives. And there's there's never a time

where there isn't sin we don't need to

over we we we don't need to overcome.

And we're oftenimes blind to it or we

have rated the sin is not that important

and so we don't take it very urgently.

But we know Jesus words, right? If your

eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.

He's telling us to take a ruthless

approach to eliminating sin in our

lives. So, are you willing to be a

friend that tells people, "Hey, this is

wrong. This is not a good attitude for

you." And tell them lovingly and then

let the chips fall where they may cuz

you know there's no such thing as a

random event. All the chips fall exactly

as God wants them to. And he may not

decide at that time to change them. And

you may lose a friend. Let's just use

the maximal. You may lo you may gain an

enemy by correcting someone. But if it's

good, right, and true, and if you say it

in a loving way, it would be an example

of living your life in the service of

God's glory and the welfare of others.

And I still don't think it's anywhere

near as scary as walking into Xerxes.

And it's a choice. It's a choice.

I have friends that are more on the

introverted side or maybe even not, but

just more on the timid side, on the shy

side. I guess most people will say

that's introverted. Not always

necessarily. Um, but something's

blocking them from be able to say what

they know they need to say, and they've

made a choice to do so, and they're

growing in it. You got to make a choice.

You won't be transformed if that choice

is not empowered by God. So, it's got to

be surrendered choice, but you got to

make a choice. Esther made a choice.

Morai made a choice and they were such a

blessing even to a man like Xerxes. Now,

just for a little color commentary, not

really necessarily the sermon, but I

think it's really interesting and it is

biblical in the sense that it's

mentioned. Are these great acts? All the

things he did, including the advancement

of Morortei, are they not written in the

book of Chronicles and the kings of

Media and Persia? First, a

disappointment. We do not have any

record of the chronicles of kings and

media and Persia in terms of a primary

source. Those seem to be destroyed.

Maybe they will be uncovered. There's

still lots of archaeology done. However,

we have a bunch of secondary sources in

the form of clay tablets. And you might

be amazed if you haven't looked at this

at what they actually mention.

They seem to clearly cooperate both the

events of uh that happened in Esther.

They seem to mention Morai by name. And

I'm going to leave one thing unsaid as

just a little reveal here that is just

so cool and way too it can't possibly be

a coincidence odds-wise. So, Greg, if

you could go ahead and put up, and this

is a scholar, he's a Christian. He puts

the case a little milder than I would. I

think you might, too, once you see the

evidence. But this is how scholars

interact with each other to uh it's it's

like a higher criticism kind of way. Uh,

but it's also good because we don't know

for certain exactly what's true in

historical archival kind of or um

archaeological kind of digs. It it the

Bible is absolutely true. We can totally

trust it. We don't always know what a

dig might say.

Is it not going up?

>> Oh, okay. Good.

>> Well, send if you can um I want to show

it to them. So, if you can send me I'll

keep talking here. stalling for time. If

you can send me a screenshot of the

exact place, I might just actually look

it up here.

Well, maybe I'll tell you and then show

you the evidence. Okay. So, I think it's

uh Marduku or Marduka that gets

mentioned over 13 times on these clay

tablets, right? And on top of it, and

this corroborates the time period, five

of the Unix gets mentioned. Now, their

names are also transliterated. Uh, so I

think even Hmon's dad, Hamadatha, gets

mentioned. So as Greg works on this,

maybe I'll have it by the end of the

sermon here in about 5 minutes or so.

Um, I will show you that. But the

chances that these, you see the

transliterations, it's just these are

Elomite tablets, so it's a different

language, but they're they're impossibly

close to the exact names of the uh uh of

the Unix. On top of it, the um uh uh

Mori or Marduka is mentioned as both a

scribe and an accountant. Now we have

overwhelming evidence that uh Morai was

a scribe. He had a bunch of letters

written and he had these written in all

different languages. So he's definitely

working in the trade of scribe. Do we

have any evidence that he was an

accountant? Well, remember the bribe

that Hmon promised to bribe Xerxes even

if Xerxes waved it off. Morai knew the

exact amount of that. So we do have some

evidence that Morai on top of as second

in command you would have certainly been

in command of the treasury um and you

may have even been the treasurer in that

sense. So you have some I think

overwhelmingly non-quincal evidence

based on all these different names about

these very things and more than likely

these are reflection of the chronicles

of the kings of mer of pia media and

persia as a secondary source. So I

thought that was kind of cool to look at

because the bible says are they not

written in the book of chronicles and

kings of media and persia uh as if we

would have access to those maybe the

original readers did. We don't. And yet

God has preserved some access through

secondary sources. You can look that up

and if Greg gets it, I'll actually show

you the the evidence for that. So I

thought that was really cool. Um verse

three, for Morai the Jew was second in

the rank in rank to King Hassaweras and

he was great among the Jews and popular

with the multitude of his brothers for

he sought the welfare of his people and

spoke peace to all his people. He's

second in rank. I this is the main

reason why I think we should probably

think of him as a co- main character

co-star of the show. Um, if you think

about it, I'm not sure there

I want to be careful here. Maybe

Solomon,

definitely Jesus. But before Mori, was

there ever a Jew more powerful than him?

It got maybe Joseph, maybe. I don't

know. Persia seems to be much bigger

than even Egypt was at its height. I

haven't cooperated that, so take that

with a grain of salt. But this is one of

the most powerful men who had lived ever

up until that point. And it's Mori,

right? It almost makes you want to

revisit the entire thing and realize,

okay, with with Joseph, he's so famous,

you know, the story so well that you

don't just think of him as a guy whose

brothers hated him and then became a

slave and then got falsely accused of

uh, you know,

rape, I guess, and then goes to prison.

But he's the vicero of Egypt, right?

Absolute Christ type. But Morortei is

not just uh a rags kind of guy. He's not

just some little side player. He ends up

becoming the second most powerful person

in all the known world at the time. We

have to think of him like that.

Honestly, probably more powerful than

the queen. They're always a team. So

talking about them in relationship to

other like that doesn't seem right, but

unbelievably powerful.

There's no promise that you're going to

become the second most powerful person

in the world if you live your life in

the service of God's glory and the

welfare of others. In fact, you may be a

martyr. So, I'm this isn't a formula

like that.

But if that's why is God putting these

stories in here if he's not saying he

won't bless you with favor if you seek

first his kingdom and his righteousness.

He promises you will add to you your

needs

on mission.

He'll be benevolent. probably not going

to go hungry and starve to death as a

result of doing your own thing either

because he's benevolent. But

I want to ask you as a Christian,

what's the main reason why you would be

willing to live your life in the service

of God's glory and the welfare welfare

and peace of others no matter the cost?

It's the actual reason. I think you all

know it. It's the cross and the Bible

says. So, so as a closing, maybe what we

can do if if I know he's probably

feverishly trying to find it. Greg's so

good at this. So, uh, he's he's always

helping me find these resources, but

maybe if you want access to that, we can

send it to you, uh, and you can get it.

Or maybe if I can find on my phone

afterwards. Looks like we might be

running out of time. But I want to go to

Philippians because it states the reason

that we ought to consider others as more

important than ourselves. It states the

reason for why we ought not to look just

out for our own interests like Hmon did.

And this is Philippians chapter 2

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

starting in verse three. And I think we

do have that verse for you. It says

this, "Do nothing from selfish

ambition." Nothing. So that's one of

those ruth ruthless elimination kinds of

things. If you find selfish ambition in

your life, I

I would not say there's no selfish

ambition in my life. I I find it to be

one of those things that grows like

weeds and you just have to keep beating

it back, right? It's part of our fleshly

nature. I don't think any of you ought

to say you never have selfish ambition.

It creeps up on you. Sometimes you truly

think you're doing it out of interest of

other person, but it turns out to be

that you had selfish motives too. It can

hide itself in the weeds. So be careful

with that. It constantly is talked about

in the Bible. So nothing out of selfish

ambition or conceit, pride. But in

humility, count others more significant

than yourselves. Are others actually

more significant than you? Well, they're

supposed to think of you as more

significant than them.

So, you're to count others as more

significant. Doesn't mean that they are

in God's eyes. You ought to live as

though they are. One challenge ongoingly

uh that I have for the church that I was

so impressed by, it was another

Christian and it's a paraphrase of the

quote. Don't remember who it was. just

watch on YouTube. And he said, "You know

what? If you lived your life where in

every conversation, your goal is to make

that other person feel important." He

said, "I don't mean flattery." Like

today, go and make your dad feel

important if you're still in

relationship to him or if you have go

and make him feel important, right? You

can also just say, "Dad, you're really

important to me."

So, and go make your wife feel

important. I'm going go make your

children feel important. Children are

not difficult to make feel important.

It's eye contact, a cherishing attitude,

and quality time. I mean, you can do

almost anything with them.

It has such a deep impact. I saw a and

and these kinds of things bring me to

tears like father-son relationships. I

had such a good one. And so when people

don't uh that it's it's painful for me

to hear. Uh, but I also think it's it's

powerful to pass on um what good

fathering actually is. Uh, this was a

baseball player and he was watching

another son throw the ball with his uh,

dad and he'd watch his dad throw some

heaters, so really fast ball and the the

son would catch him and reminded him of

a memory with his dad. every once in a

while, completely unannounced, his dad

would throw an absolute rope, frozen

rope to him. And when he'd catch it,

which was not all the time, that look on

his on his dad's face and the words at a

boy. And then he and then he broke out

in tears. This is, you know, baseball

players are pretty tough. A lot of these

like farm boy types, you know, and he

was so emotional about having as a young

man pleased his dad cuz his dad was not

warning him. He was giving his best

throw and he caught it anyway. And the

look in his father's eyes, he said, "If

I had anything to say to that son, I'd

want to tell him that." Right? So, oh,

okay. Can we pause that for a second? Go

to this just for fun. This is out of

order. Now, um, I'll read the bottom

only here. The name Morai corresponds to

Marduka, a name attested in Persian

records. In 1943 1935, excavators at

Procepilus unearthed 3,000 Elomite

tablets and fragments dating from the

13th to 28th year of Darius first uh the

first reign. Among this collection known

as the Procepilus fortification text,

there are more than 30 references to the

name Marduka. I said 13, but evidently

30. Maybe I was thinking of a different

uh source which may correspond to up to

four different individuals. Edwin Yamoi

or Yamuchi concludes, "Though we cannot

be certain, it is possible that one of

these may have been the biblical Morai."

Um, did you happen to get the one with

all of the different names of the

>> Not quite. Okay. the the second resource

of another scholar has all the lists and

that's what I was hoping to show you

guys of just how close the names are

which corroborates both the time because

these we know from Esther that these

Unix uh uh were were contemporaries of

Muka or Mori and there's just too many

of the names and they're strange names

too and then the last one I thought it'd

be cool if we had some kind of evidence

of Hmon but we do have his dad

Hammedatha and that's translated is

Hamadada. So, it's like, oh, come on.

It's too many that line up. Uh, so

there's plenty of historical evidence

just from historical findings as well.

But I want to go back to second uh

Philippians 2. Why would you be willing

to sacrifice everything and anything for

the glory of the Lord and the welfare of

others? Let each of you look not only to

his own interests, but also to the

interest of others. Have this mind among

yourselves, which is yours in Christ

Jesus. What mind? to make other people

more important to live your life in the

glory of the Lord and the welfare of

other people at any cost. That mind is

yours in Christ Jesus. But you got to

surrender to him. He's got to be the

throne of your mind, the throne of your

body, the throne of your actions, the

throne of your heart. You got to

surrender to him. He's got to be in

charge. who though he was in the form of

God did not did not account quality

equality with God as a thing to be

grasped but emptied himself by taking

the form of a servant being born in the

likeness of men and being found in human

form he humbled himself by becoming

obedient to the point of death not the

potential of death the certainty of it

even death on a cross

so

what was the actually willing to do for

the glory of God and the service of

others, in particular their peace with

God. He was willing to take on the wrath

of God, which is his justified outrage

towards sin. And he's willing to die as

though he was responsible. And indeed,

he was made sin in whom there was no sin

so that in him we could become the

righteousness of God. So

he takes on not he's not just a martyr.

A lot of people think, what does that

have to do with anything? He's God in

the flesh

dragging sin with him into the grave,

making an atonement. So now is now God

is just to forgive us our sins and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That's the reason, the cross, and that

is the only reason. There is no other

reason. There's nothing more than that.

There's nothing less than that.

He's worthy of you sacrificing

everything

for your life to be about the glory of

the Lord and the welfare of others.

So, we're coming to a close here of

Esther.

I'd like to challenge you to before we

uh spend our summer in the Psalms to

read through Esther one more time. And

oh, here. Okay. This is It was almost a

climactic conclusion to the

but thank you, Greg. Seriously. Okay.

Can you see that? I don't know if you

can zoom in a little bit. I'll read it

to you. Um, I'm not going to read the

text because I've already read quite a

bit of that. But the Unix,

um, meu memo,

sorry, meuman,

bigtha, carcass, hath,

the princely advisers, mezz, marcena,

and meukan. I was mixing up Meuman with

me. Okay. All right. Now so those are

those are definitely mentioned in

Esther. What about what we found in

Elomite? Uh so Mehuman Miimana

bigtha bakatana

carcass carcass but with a kathch

hita mezz marza marcena marcena meukan

mamaka.

Okay now you can already see the

pattern. don't have to be an expert

inguist linguist to know that in

whatever language the Elommites spoke

they add a lot of a's to the last the

name the part of the name right you can

see it mehuman doesn't end with an a but

it does in the Elomite parallel mi biga

bakatana carcass is the only one that

doesn't here the rest hath

hita then measa

marena marena and memukan mamaka But

then the one that really threw me over

the edge, Hmon's father, Hamadatha,

Hamadada,

all contemporaries,

you know, living within like a close

time period. Uh, so then you listen

again to the word Muka and you're like,

come on, who is it? So I feel more

strongly than some of these scholars do

that that's that's evidence. We don't

need it to be. We can already just trust

the Bible without any historical

evidence outside of it. But anyway, back

to the conclusion.

You're never going to become what you

want to become if you're wanting to

become more verbally confident to be

more bold like Esther or Morai in the

service of God's glory and the service

of others without the cross. But there's

nothing can that can stop you from that

happening in your life. No matter how

hopeless you feel in whatever way you

need to grow, if you actually surrender

to the cross and it's a choice away.

Esther made a choice. Morai made a

choice. And look what happened. So as we

come to communion today, as we have our

final time, if you're convinced, as we

are as leaders, that the spirit has been

saying to us, come to the table with a

desire to grow in the area of speaking

the truth in love. And it will build up

our church. It will build up your

family. It will build up your children.

It will build you up. It will glorify

the Lord. And you will have lived your

life for the welfare and peace of

others. Let me pray. Father, thank you

so much for this conclusion.

Thank you for all the help that I get,

Greg looking these things up in the spur

of the moment. Just incredible. Thank

you for that historical evidence. That's

fun to look at. But thank you most of

all for being willing to die for our sin

to seek our welfare. In a way, Lord,

although you are unquestionably the most

important person in all of existence and

even beyond, you made us, you counted us

as more important than yourself in

saving us through the cross. And I'm so

thankful for that. I wouldn't be here,

wouldn't be alive, wouldn't have the

promise of eternal life without it. And

neither would any of us. And so, we do

want to sacrifice our entire lives, even

if it's only potentially. We want to

grow in the ways that imitate you and

those who imitated you. And so I pray

for power in that area. I pray that as

the summer goes on, Lord, we know what

when you plant a seed, it'll grow over

time. You water it. You're the one that

gives the growth. And so I pray that

you'd give that growth to Boon's Fairy.

That you'd strengthen up and show our

weaknesses and continue to fan into

flames where we're strong. So I pray

that you'd meet us today at the table in

a powerful way. Don't let it just be

another time where we go to the table,

but don't experience lasting change. I

pray these things in Jesus name.