Uncontrollable Trial - Esther 2:12-18 - Sunday Sermon

Good morning everyone.

>> Good morning.

Welcome.

I'd like to draw your attention to the

welcome cards. If you uh would like to

get more connected and aren't yet,

that's a great way to start. You just

fill out the information, hand them out

to the connection table. Um we also use

them as prayer requests as you know. So

just uh same drill for that. Just put

your prayer requests down, put them at

connection table, and we were praying

for several just this last week. Uh we

also would love to hear from you. Um the

prayer team would love to know if some

of those prayer requests are answered.

So, if you put a prayer request in and

then had a prayer answered, you could

put that as like a little praise report

and then we we know about that. I would

invite you to the prayer ministry as

well, maybe uh you're sensing that God's

leading leading you to um be more

regular in prayer. And uh so you're

welcome at any time via Zoom or in

person on Wednesday, 7 a.m. right here

at the church or on Zoom under our

Wednesday prayer um tab on the on the

website. Um, other announcements, just

real short, I've been telling you about

the men's ministry event that's at 9:30

at my house. Uh, we'll be sending out a

e- bulletin uh with the address for

that. So, if you're not signed up to the

e- bulletin and you're a guy, you're

going to want to point your phone camera

at the QR code as you walk out the door

and you can get signed up for that. I

think another way is to get signed up

via the welcome cards as well. But

that's one of our way main ways of

communicating. So again, 9:30 um at my

house. Address will be on the uh

communication. Uh if what to bring,

especially if it's bad weather, you're

going to want to bring uh some good

boots. If you got waterproof boots,

that' probably be good, too. Uh it's

just where we're going to be doing our

activity. It can kind of get muddy, so

maybe rain gear as well. Probably have

some canopy set up if it's raining. Uh

if you have any firearms that you want

to bring, you can bring those. Any

targets that you'd like to bring. um

whether that's paper targets or the

reusable targets, the metal targets,

that'd be great. Um

other than that, your Bible, maybe a

notepad. So, really looking forward to

that. And then, um Rebecca Egg will also

be hosting a women's ministry meeting

the following Saturday. That's the 21st.

And that one's at 10:30 right here at

the church. Um so, you can look forward

to that. I think that's all the

announcements for today. Let me pray and

we'll get right into Esther chapter 2

Esther 2 · chapter mention

starting in verse 12. Heavenly Father,

thank you for the book of Esther. Thank

you for the ways that you um

had these stories written down for our

encouragement, our consolation, our

conviction and just growth in

righteousness. We pray that our spirits

and our hearts and our minds and even

our strength would be submitted to you

today so that we can learn what we need

to learn. We pray that you would

actually transform us which we know we

can't do for ourselves but by your

spirit we can surrender to. I pray these

things in Jesus name. Amen.

I can't remember. Have I ever told you

guys the story of Christine losing

control of a car on a very steep hill in

Lake Asiggo?

>> No. I felt like I had but probably not

recently cuz I couldn't remember. And

just to reassure you, this is not an

elaborate setup for like an Asian women

driving joke. I would never do that.

that if you know me, I don't make

inappropriate jokes ever. So,

somebody knows me evidently. Um, but it

was actually really serious. So, um,

this was like an Audi A4 used car her

dad helped her buy while she was, uh,

attending UP for nursing school. And,

um, we didn't know anything was wrong

with it. And we never actually figured

out what's wrong with it cuz we just

traded it in for the Escape that we

currently have. Um, but what we think

happened is that the electrical systems

got flooded. And this is uh E Avenue in

first edition in Lake Asiggo. Uh, and if

you drive on E Avenue, there's this

windy really steep road, like one of the

steeper roads you can drive on. Uh, Lake

Asiggo's got a couple of these really

steep roads. And uh, it uh, comes out

right on 43. I think it's called

Riverside now. It turns into McAdam. And

that's a busy street. And as people are

coming into Lake Asiggo, the the um uh

speed limit changes, but they're kind of

flying into there, right? It's right

where the caddy car wash is. If you've

ever driven by there, I think you know

where that is. Yeah. And uh the brakes

went out,

steering went out, and she's just flying

downhill. Um so very serious in you can

imagine had she not come to a stop,

which if the brakes go out, how do you

come to a stop? She would have gone

right into uh it might even be called

State Street at that point, but 43 and

has gotten t-boned and she would have

gotten t-boned on the driver's side,

right? Like I'd say life-threatening

incident because some people been

screaming in there like 45 miles an

hour, you know, so it could have killed

her. Um, there's happens to be that

there's this caddy car wash there and I

actually don't know if the trash can is

related to car caddy car wash, but it's

a concrete base

uh trash can and the car just runs into

that trash can, which is like right

before the the pedestrian walkway before

you just go into. So had that concrete I

mean had it been a regular one even

maybe even a metal one I'm not sure

would have stopped the car but had this

you you know the concrete base ones and

it stops the car you know so it's an

uncontrollable situation that she was in

we had no idea there was anything wrong

with the car and then it did actually

kind of create a little bit of a trial

for us financially um because all of a

sudden the car is just out of commission

can't use it anymore or have to get it

fixed and that's going to be expensive.

Um, so

I was, you know, thinking about stories

in my life or just stories that I'd

heard of like where you come upon an

uncontrollable trial. This one, I mean,

it could have left me without a wife.

This was 13 years ago before Isaiah was

born, before she was even pregnant. So,

I might not even know any of my

children. Life could have been very

different if God hadn't placed that

concrete barrier of a trash can right

there. And I mean the I don't know what

the odds are of her running into that. I

mean five feet on either side and she's

right into traffic, you know, and even

then might have gotten, you know, God

could have warned the person, but

there's nothing like there's a road

coming out of Triion Creek that has kind

of a blind corner and they just race

around that road too. So, as soon as she

comes home, first of all, she calls me

in tears. And the first thing I'm

thinking about when she tells me is it

that she ran into this concrete trash

can was God God placed that there, you

know, like he was in control of

something we were not in control of. And

I mean, it's a trial on our emotions,

you know, trial for us as a a young

married couple. And

I Esther faces an uncontrollable trial

at where we're at in her story at this

point. And I know some of you are facing

uncontrollable trials.

And whether that uncontrollable trial is

epic

like it is with Esther ultimately

because we know the story or whether

it's just a small uncontrollable trial.

Um, it's still uncontrollable and it's

still a trial, right? Maybe you're

facing something like just the your car

is going out. Your life wasn't in

danger, but the car is going out and you

don't really have the money to pay for a

new one. You weren't in control of the

car going out. And you may you may feel

like, well, I have some some control of

my career. But even that according to

God in the early part of Deuteronomy, I

think it's 8 or nine, he talks to the

Israelites about when they come into the

land, they ought not to say it's because

of their righteousness and they ought

not to say it's by their own power or

might that they gain the wealth. And

then God says, I that he's given them

these vocations and the power to get

wealth. So, we like to think a lot of

things are in our control, right? We

like to think our cars are in our

control, but they're not actually really

in our control.

What if what if you have a health event

like a stroke or something while you're

driving and your arms stop working while

you're driving? The car could could

still be you're just not in control the

way you think you are in life. And these

uncontrollable trials really show us

that. And Esther faces this uncontroll

controllable trial. What we ought not to

do in looking at her story from 12 to 18

here, the end of chapter 2 or halfway

through to the end, is compare our trial

and then put our trial down as if it's

not that big of a a deal. One thing I

intend to do is convince you that your

trial is training for you. That your

trial is training. And some of the

development to your spirit

biblically seems to not really ever take

place unless you experience a trial and

experience it faithfully. That trial

could be like almost humorous like being

angry

or you're hungry, angly, lonely, tired,

halt acronym.

and you come home

and whether you're a wife or husband

coming home, you're you're tired and

you're hungry and you're irritated and

then your kids come to you or your

husband comes to you or maybe it's at

work and there's this maybe you weren't

really in control of the fact that you

didn't sleep well and that your

faculties are diminished and then you're

also not in control of what your kids,

your husband, your wife, your

co-workers, some Christian friend says.

says to you in that moment and it could

range from annoying to frustrating to

just downright mean. And then how do you

respond?

So when I'm talking about an

uncontrollable trial, I'm talking about

anything. It's similar to the idea of

the of the bleeding edge. Remember where

your spirit's under some kind of

pressure and God gives you that test

for you to rely only on the Holy Spirit

and then show spiritual fruit. Like

maybe it's patience, maybe it's

kindness, maybe it's gentleness, maybe

it's just overlooking the sin be, you

know, maybe it's it's just not

responding in that moment. But if you

think you're in control of the

situation, you're not surrendered to the

spirit. You end up saying things

something you you wish you hadn't said.

The con conversation escalates. It's a

big fight. You both hurt each other.

Then you may still not surrender to the

spirit. Let the sun go down with your

anger. little seed of bitter roots

planted and next thing the whole next

day is ruined. And some people live

their lives with a bitter root where

everyone's out to get them. And even

people that are being nice to them, it's

like, "Oh, well, this is just another

person that's going to betray me at some

point." And their relationships become

defiled. Their view of other people

become defiled because of their speech.

Other people start thinking negatively

about the people they're talking about.

And it just, as the Bible says, defiles

many. So, I'm not trying to be an

alarmist, but a lot of negative things

can happen when you're hit with an

uncontrollable trial at a time you

weren't expecting it, and you don't

surrender.

You don't surrender.

I mean, uncontrollable trials can

already be really difficult, terrible,

loss of health, loss of life of someone

you loved. They're just you're not in

charge of it. You're not in control of

it. And it happens. Happens to

Christians.

But if it's already a really difficult

trial,

then won't it be way harder without God?

And what do I mean without God? He

doesn't leave you or forsake you just

because you're living in a season where

you haven't surrendered something or

where you're being disobedient. But your

experience of his power by the Holy

Spirit, the filling of the spirit is

diminished. You can quench and grieve

the spirit. And so what I mean by

distant from the Lord

is distant from the humility it takes to

actually obey and surrender in that in

that moment. And so your experience of

him is not the same. There's distance in

your relationship. Now simple question.

I know I think all of you have the same

answer to is it better to face an

uncontrollable

uncontrollable trial. What do I say?

uncontraable uncontrollable trial uh

with God or without God. With God,

right?

Just one more thought before I give you

my main point here. What if that

uncontrollable trial

includes

other people harming you in some of the

deepest ways human beings can harm each

other?

And what if your thoughts turned towards

God? Why did you write my story like

this? Why didn't you protect me from

this? I know you could have, but he

didn't. And there in lies the rub

because of the severity of the trial.

And that's all really corresponds to

where your faith is at. A a trial

doesn't have to be the most epic trial

ever for it to be a real test for you

where you're at in your faith right now.

But I think one of the reasons why the

enemy can sometimes effectively test

attempt us to distance ourselves from

the Lord relationally and spiritually in

our hearts by not surrendering in that

time is that we're upset with him. that

we're even having to experience this.

It it may it it's I know it's not

possible just humanly speaking but by

the spirit you may become convinced

today that instead of thinking as your

uncontrollable trial is something that

you should allow your heart to blame God

for that it's actually a gift from him

and that to receive um the the real

fullness of that gift you actually have

to accept it as one you have to

recognize wow this trial this training

for my spirit.

This trials training for my spirit. The

main point today drawn exactly from

these verses is this. Humility allows us

to navigate life's uncontrollable trials

with grace with the grace and favor of

the Lord.

If you've been reading Esther, you

probably know exactly why

I'm highlighting that as the main point.

It's exactly what Esther does. Humility

allows us to navigate life's

uncontrollable trials with the grace and

favor of the Lord.

So whatever trial you're in today,

whatever trial you may have just gone

through and it's sort of completed,

whether you responded to that faithfully

or not, whether you're currently

responding to your uncontrollable trial

faithfully or not, or whether you're on

the precipice of an unknown

uncontrollable trial,

if we can actually truly learn that

humility allows us to navigate life's

uncontrollable trials with the grace and

favor of the Lord,

You can I think we've all been so

impressed with Esther. There's nothing

that she had that you don't. You say,

"Oh, I didn't have parents." Or, "Oh, I

didn't have a Morai. I didn't have

this." God has promised us that he gave

us everything we need for life and

godliness.

>> And his holy spirit is infinite. So

whatever disadvantages you grew up with

in terms of development and growing in

confidence and the idea that you

actually have value in Christ, whatever

it is, the Holy Spirit can fill in those

gaps. And some of those gaps get filled

in just one send surrender away. Now, it

may be a very painful surrender where

you recognize that you've drifted far

from the Lord and because of that um

have to confess

hard attitudes that started growing in

your heart as a result of that. But

whatever you learn, if you learn that,

if you truly deep down learn that

humility allows us to navigate life's

uncontrollable trials with grace, with

the grace and favor of the Lord. And I

want to show you promises. Jesus says

that. The Apostle Paul says that, which

also means Jesus said that, Peter says

that. The Bible says it over and over

and over again.

So, it's not like, well, maybe sometimes

if you have deep humility, that'll allow

you to navigate life's uncontrollable

trials with grace and favor from the

Lord. It's it's always

either God is faithful or he's not. And

if he is, then this is true. And I want

to convince you of it. And I want us to

be thinking about how this applies to

our lives. However, I do want us to put

ourselves in Esther's shoes. We stop

short of comparing our trial to hers and

putting ours down or maybe even putting

hers down, thinking ours is worse.

That's not the point. Whatever the trial

that God has given you, he's fit it for

the growth of your spirit. But we want

to actually put ourselves in her shoes

to think about just what she had to go

through and amount of grace she needed

to navigate it. Starting in verse 12.

Now when the turn came for each young

woman to go into King of Hazarus after

being 12 months under the regulations

for women since this was the regular

period of their beautifification. 6

months with oil of myrr and six months

with spices and ointments

for women. We have some comedians in our

disciplehip communities. And uh I forget

who it was that said it, but even if I

remembered, I didn't ask permission to

say it, so I'll just keep it anonymous.

Uh, someone said if they were so

beautiful, why did they need 12 months?

And someone else said it was like maybe

some of them had unibrows.

And I know this is serious information

we're talking about, but uh, man, humor

does sometimes cut through some of it

and just relax us, but um, yeah,

obviously they were all very beautiful

and lovely to look at, and so the

beautifification was, if anything, just

to enhance that. And we do it today as

well. uh we look at, you know, enhancing

our looks with what kind of clothes or

colors look be best or what kind of

makeup we're going to wear, what kind of

haircut. And so, uh, evidently they just

had a 12 month regimen for all that kind

of, uh, beauty care. Um, and I wanted to

think about here like a modern-day

example. I almost wish I didn't have to

admit this, but um, football buddies and

I would sit on this big U couch. Can't

remember if I said this before, but we

would watch like binge watch Project

Runway

and mostly just to mock it to be honest,

which then made it feel less awkward

that we were watching Project Runway.

Um, you know, as you do, if you mock it,

then you can feel better about yourself

compared to what you're actually doing.

Um, but the amount of back, it's a

competition for who's like the best

seamstress, seamster, I don't know.

There's whoever is best at designing

clothes, right? And um

the the contestants will all start out

really nice, really kind, it's on

camera, right? They want to be thought

of by the world as kind, but then at the

first sign of anybody saying anything

negative, especially if they're not the

judges, the judges were like Heidi Clue,

Michael Kors, and some other guy. And so

they'll they'll accept criticism from

the judges, but you'll see on their face

how they really feel about it. They

barely can even hide it. But at the

first sign of any kind of opposition,

the real character starts peeking

through. And there's so much selfish

ambition, just thinly veiled selfish

ambition. And if you remember our study

from Galatians, you know that selfish

ambition is one of the works of the

flesh. It's a work of the flesh. It's

what your flesh wants to do. There's a

part of us, this side of the grave, that

wants to be selfishly ambitious.

Okay? So take the idea of

all the beautiful women that they could

find and gathered and taken and put into

custody in the charge of Haggi

and the odds of them all being at least

god-fearing or even in right

relationship to the Lord are basically

zero. And so when you're not in right

relationship with the Lord, when you're

not indwelt with the spirit, there is no

power by which you would put your

fleshly desires to death. So they're

there, they're alive, and they might

even be dominant.

And then you add this contest for which

one is most beautiful.

You can almost guarantee there was going

to be selfish ambition involved,

backbiting, gossiping, slandering,

you know, cuz that's the way of the

world. That's just the way it has to be

when the flesh is not conquered in any

way.

And I was I was thinking about that in

terms of our lives because God says that

everyone apart from the spirit of God

has this fleshly desire to be selfishly

ambitious.

And it's easy to think of like those

people at Project Runway is selfishly

ambitious. Coming back to that story, I

forget the episode. Thankfully, I'm

trying to forget everything I ever saw

on Project Runway, but

there was this one southern gal

and uh she had a sweet spirit. I don't

know if she was a Christian or not. She

didn't talk about that. But even back

then when I was just living the prodical

life, I thought in my mind, she seems

like she might actually be nice, right?

And what started happening was even if

someone criticized her uh her design or

said something, she would listen to it

and be like, "Oh, maybe maybe you're

right. Maybe you should change that."

And someone else would come and it's

like, "No, I like it."

And all of a sudden a like cauldron of

selfish ambition turned into a situation

where someone was criticizing it.

Unsolicit advice on top of it. But then

someone because it was almost like when

they heard her say not defend herself

with some kind of mean little quip back

but

consider the advice. Someone else felt

like coming in and defending her design.

It was this and and again I'm not even

wasn't even walking in the spirit at the

time. So, but I noted it and I thought

that's interesting. She's different than

the rest of the of the contestants. And

by the end of the show and I think she

might have won the show. By the end of

the show, she

had like the fa everyone would come to

her and just spill their guts about all

the bad things that happened in her

life. They trusted her. They liked her.

And yet they're in this competition with

her, right? They'd been kind of

selfishly ambitious towards each other.

But then her, she becomes like the

design mother, you know, and then people

would have these like confessionals as

they do just to evoke emotions so that

it sells better, I think. And uh they

would talk about her, talk about how she

was just so kind and they hadn't met

someone like that.

It's just a modern-day example of of an

environment somewhat similar. There's

lots of differences too of where

a person

who has a humble spirit, who can take

advice and who's being teachable and who

seems to actually care even in a contest

where there's all of this backbiting.

You know, people steal each other's

materials and scissors and like they

just they do everything to undermine

each other. And yet this one woman was

was different at least on the show and

it reminded me well Esther reminded me

of that

except it is much much worse. Esther was

undergoing an uncontrollable trial. She

had been just gathered, taken, put into

custody and under the charge of Haggi.

That wasn't under her control. She

wasn't going to stop soldiers from

gathering her. She wasn't going to

overcome the whole group of Unix that

was now in charge of her. She wasn't

really going to be able to escape. And

if she had, they would have found her,

right? And now she's being groomed for a

king.

And so what what's happened to her is

uncontrollable? You might say, well, was

it really a trial? And I think most of

you haven't said that, but it does

it is worth considering uh the potential

mixed emotions of these women. for ex.

So from from a modern day perspective,

you look at this and you think, "Oh, how

evil." And was he's a polygamist, anger

monster, self- glorifying, vain,

glorious, only cares about himself. We

get details that even after Esther's

made queen, he neglects her for a month

at a time, right? So not a good man, not

a great husband, not even a good

husband. Uh and and and this whole

grooming process, yeah, it's polygamy.

It's evil. It's 100% against the will of

God. Sin. So there's no doubt about

that. However,

some of these women may have come from

backgrounds where being taken to the

herum, the prestige, the honor,

the fame, just all of the benefits are

way outweigh in their minds like it's a

huge it's like the best opportunity of

their life, right? Some of them may have

felt that way.

I'm saying that because I actually want

to make the point that that doesn't mean

that sin wasn't being perpetrated

against them.

The enemy will try to woo you with kind

words and promise you wonderful things

all the while intending your destruction

and destruction of your relationship to

the Lord.

So some of the women may have had mixed

emotions about this happening. On top of

it, even to Esther, when we go into the

story, we don't want to go into the

story not at least aware of how our

modern minds think compared to how uh

more ancient minds would have been

thinking about it. Another fact is

at least historically throughout the

generations, the Jews were not entirely

unfamiliar, the Hebrews were not

entirely unfamiliar with the idea of a

herum, right? Kings in Israel had that,

too. We're entirely unfamiliar with the

idea. By the way, none of this is me

being an apologist for it. So, don't

worry about that. You'll see that in a

moment. Um, I'm making a different

point. Just in terms of getting into the

story, we want to rightly divide God's

word. And so, we got to consider how

would have they really felt about it.

So, it wouldn't have been this

unbelievably foreign idea like it might

be for us. The idea that you could just

get taken. I mean, trafficking is the

closest thing to that. uh that I can

think of in in our um world. So, the

very same kind of sin is still

happening. Um I'm I'm not a conspiracy

theorist and I'm not bringing this up

because it even interests me. It

doesn't. But you consider the Epstein

files drama, which I've read very little

about. So, I'm not about to say a bunch

of things about it. One thing that does

seem clear to me, and you may not think

this is clear, but it does seem clear to

me, and just knowing the fleshly

attitudes of men and women in power, um,

if they're not if they're not

Christians, or if they do actually

indeed have that, there seems to be a

lot of political protection for people

that may have done

serious evil.

Seems to be right. That's as far as I

want to go as an example. Just as like

the sin is still happening today.

horrific sin capturing of young women

for the per like I see I see kids in

here so you know what I mean by the way

there is a portion of this and I'll try

to give you like a 5minute warning that

um Isaiah's right here and and he's of

an age where I'm okay with him talking

about it I'm going to try to keep things

to a PG13 level but there is no way not

to go at least about to that level so

I'm not saying that the world's PG-13 is

even right but just give you an idea Um

uh we're talking about some themes here

that may not be appropriate in your mind

for uh I see kids in here that that you

don't want them to hear. And that's

going to happen

right around um verse uh verse 15 or so.

I'll try to stop short of saying words.

So if you want to just go outside in the

for you, you can. I'm not saying you

have to. It's your choice as a parent.

Uh but sometimes the Bible just brings

up themes that where we have to talk

about them for real. And so I want to do

that. Just want to respect the parents

and all of that. But coming back to this

idea of

I lost my train of thought now. Usually

I just keep talking when I do that and

find my way back. But I was talking

about the beautifification period, the

infighting, the trial. Okay. So yes,

there there may have been a mix of

emotions. There may there there wouldn't

have been just this shock of the concept

of a herum like we have today. But

Esther was still taken

and she wasn't like when you're when

you're gathered, taken, put in custody

and under charge. Those are all words

that negate the idea of consent at a

very minimum. So that's a trial and

that's a trial she wasn't in control of.

Verse 13, when the young woman went into

the king, now what we're talking about

is when any of the virgins went into the

king. So they're giving you what the

plan was of this contest. When the young

woman went into the king in this way,

she was given whatever she desired to

take with her from the herm to the

king's palace.

In the evening, she would go in. In the

morning, she would return to the second

haram in custody of Shashkaz, the king's

unic who was in charge of of the

concubines. She would not go into the

king again unless the king delighted in

her and she was summoned by name.

I realize I skipped something that I

wanted to talk about in in verse 12 and

then we'll come right back to what we

just read. But if we could go to 1 Peter

3 uh 3-4,

I want to talk about the idea uh beyond

even just selfish ambition

as close to the text as like the whole

idea of being as beautiful as you can

and showing your beauty to every and

basically competing for beauty.

And I don't think that's just a women's

issue, competing for handsomeness or

competing competing for be the best

looking or the most muscular. It it's it

seems to only be on the rise in our

culture now where it's just so

materialistic and and physical. And I

still remember remember my parents

talking about how one thing they weren't

looking forward to in moving to America.

And this is again I I couldn't have been

older than 11. So I'm remembering this

from formative years of my life was that

people just put such a high value on

looks.

And I guess they uh felt differently

about the German culture at the time.

I'm not a I haven't been in the German

culture for a long time, so I don't know

if they become just as westernized in

that way, but the emphasis on looks and

how you look and the outward display and

the all the posturing that this is the

opposite of God's will for us. And I

want to show you that it says in 1 Peter

1 Peter 3:3–4

3:3-4, "Do not let your adorning be

external, the braiding of hair and the

putting on of gold jewelry or the

clothing you wear." and verse four, but

let your adorning be the hidden person

of the heart with the imperishable

beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit

which in God's sight is is very

precious. And I won't go into detail

about this uh because I think you guys

know it doesn't mean that women can

never wear jewelry or or that they can't

put on lipstick or things like that.

It's about what you really care about

and you know the difference between like

the Kardashian life and that you know it

viscerally and intuitively and and

that's the life the inner life God wants

for you. And in this case that was

specifically spoken to women although I

think there's I mean I read that and I

think yeah I shouldn't do it either. I

shouldn't just be all about looks

myself. But one that just applies to

anyone regular anyone in general uh man,

woman or child is 1 John 6 or 1 John

1 John 2:16–17

2:16-17.

Uh this is what the world does. The

world hosts beauty contests like this.

The world uh will will succumb to the

desires of the most powerful even if

those desires are evil. Happens all the

time for all that is in the world. The

desires of the flesh. Selfish ambition

is one of those. Vain glory is one of

those. Grooming young women is one of

those. And the desires, the eyes and the

pride of life is not from the father but

is from the world. And the world is

passing away along with its desires. But

whoever does the will of God abides

forever.

I think it's interesting how much of our

faith is future oriented in the sense

that we need to believe what God says is

going to happen. But how we're also

simultaneously commanded by Jesus to

focus on the day, right? So we know

stuff about the future to focus on the

day with.

So it's not about

future desires that you have. It's the

desires that you have today. Are they

for God or are they for worldly things?

Are they for that shy life of just

building up your little footprint around

your house? And you know those are those

are temptations for me just like they

are for you or are they things that are

directly connected to eternal value

children it's the same and we we talk

about this especially around Christmas

time like are you most excited about

gifts are you most excited about the

gift which is Jesus Christ living in you

by the spirit and God knows that and

viscerally and intuitively you know it

which desires are growing and prevailing

and which desires ires are diminishing.

It's the fleshly desires like this that

are all going to pass away anyway. You

can't you can't keep them long term and

they have no eternal value that

glorifies God in the positive way. You

understand what I mean by that? Like

ultimately everything God does will

glorify him. Some over against sin and

some along with uh the development in

his people of grace. So you can be with

the grain of God's glory or against the

God's glory, but he will be glorified.

So what we're talking about here is

being with the grain, being with the

grain of God's glory in humility. And it

takes humility. Uh I think, you know,

it seems similar to when Jesus said

um that it's easier for a camel to go

through an eye needle than for the rich

to enter the kingdom of the he kingdom

of heaven. And basically with man this

is impossible. And but with God nothing

is impossible. So it's not impossible

for the rich to be saved. It just takes

God's power uh to bring them to

repentance. But one of the reasons is

that you don't really get faced with as

many opportunities

uh for humility when you can just be in

charge of everything. And you can when

you have money I mean there's just a lot

you can buy with it. You sometimes can

buy more health. Not always. Sometimes

you can though have better access to

health care and overcome diseases other

people can't. You can all like you worry

about what you eat when you're filthy

rich. No, you worry about what you eat.

You can worry about what you wear. Yes.

But you have more than you could

possibly ever even try on half the time.

Closets full of shoes. Well, do you need

God when you got closets full of shoes?

And whether you're talking about, well,

should I have lobster tonight or some

kind of amazing ribeye,

I think it might be similar with worldly

beauty, too, because it can get you

quite far, whether a man or a woman.

When you're really good-looking, I

remember a mentor of mine once said, you

know, when you're really good-looking,

you're a ham sandwich, the world's

hungry. So, it'll devour you is what

he's saying. You got to be careful. You

got to be careful.

But those we are to reject the things of

this world. They're not good. Yet not to

be in love with the world. And I rarely

ever hear anybody admit that they're in

love with the world. But God sees what

your desire is. And it's in him. It's

him that you want to be in close

relationship during an uncontrollable

trial. Right?

This is about the point where we're five

minutes out from talking about some

pretty deep things. PG-13 related to

sexuality. So I just want to say that

one more time. Um when verse 14 says in

the evening she would go in and the

morning she would return to the second

harum in the cussy of Shashkas.

What does that mean other than what it

sounds like?

He's trying out the women.

That's what's happening.

We don't have to claim with absolute

certainty that the same thing exactly

happened to every woman, but we know

what the intent was.

We know what the intent was. So, they've

been being groomed for that.

It's it's sin that's being perpetrated

against them. Even if they have mixed

emotions about the opportunity, it's sin

that's being perpetrated against them.

There are some complex thoughts here

regarding Esther.

My conclusion is initially that I simply

do not know the answer and the Bible

doesn't give it to us. And

but one of the questions is should have

Esther just resisted this.

My answer to that although it's still

basically I don't know answer is that he

was the polygamist. She wasn't.

You can be the wife of one husband in

your heart towards the Lord. Even if

that husband is husband to many wives,

you might say, "No, I disagree with you,

Matis. Uh, she should have on pain of

death resisted this." If she was

married, yeah, I think so.

if she was married. What we're talking

about here is people like to make it

really simple or really complex. But

humility makes things more simplified.

If you're humble, you know the

difference between sin and not sin. And

if you're humble, you're going to fear

the Lord. And so, you're just going to

decide to surrender to him. And he said

that he'll always give you a way out

from temptation. Always. And that's

always true. So, there's never a

situation where you had no choice but to

sin. Period. There isn't. Otherwise,

God's wrong in saying that he always

gives you a way out. So, in this

situation, the only thing that Esther

cannot do in terms of being faithful,

staying close to the Lord and gaining

his grace and favor here is sin. That's

the only thing she cannot do.

So, you have to think, was it sin for

you? And you, you guys are the Bible

students. I mean, I am too, but I'm just

saying you you're the one that decides

this. I look at it and I don't see any

evidence from the book of Esther or any

other book in the Bible which sometimes

will mention

biblical characters even Lot. You'd

think it wouldn't say righteous Lot but

it does say righteous Lot. So therefore

God thought of him as righteous by

faith. Period. So in this case Esther is

highlighted as the hero. And it seems to

me that she did not sin

in allowing herself to be taken to the

herm. You might say, "Well, how much

power did she have uh to to resist it?"

And I don't know the answer to that. Nor

do I know with certainty uh the answer

to that conundrum. But we're still

simply put in an uncontrollable trial.

In an uncontrollable trial, if you put

yourself in those shoes, what would you

do? It's night before you go into the

king. He's a polygamist. Probably has a

reputation for being angry. Definitely

has a reputation for being a womanizer.

Cares only about himself. Definitely has

a reputation for that. Is he going to

care about you? Is he going to hate you?

Is he

going to never talk to you again? Are

you going to impress him?

They're all virgins. So, this is their

very first night. What a horrible thing

that would be. What a dreadful thing

that would be. I'm glad God has given me

a daughter because that's who I was

thinking of

in relation. What if Esther was Ariel?

You know what a horrible thing that

would be to be taken into a herum to be

competing for the heart of a polygamist.

My point that I'm trying to just hammer

home here is just how difficult Esther's

situation would have been. How terrible.

And it it it is what it sounds like.

There ought no reason to be like, "Let's

make this into sort of a G-rated

Christian movie." It is what it is. This

is what's happening.

This is where it's it's going to be more

of a short paragraph, but I want I want

to be really sensitive and careful about

this because and I'm thinking of how I'd

want my daughter to hear it if um if she

was listening and she was at an age

would this be applicable? But

if you're a man or a woman and sexual

sin has been perpetrated against you

like this, maybe worse.

That's not as uncommon as people might

think it is. And if that's happened to

you,

there's there's a real danger of the

deep wound that that's caused

where the enemy will try to isolate you

from the Lord

and where your flesh

left to its own devices rather than put

to death will participate with that

enemy's temptation.

And so, let me just first

lay out some things that I absolutely

believe. I do believe there's such a

thing as a victim of um sexual sin.

And I do believe that the Bible says

that that kind of sin is worse than

others. Let me show you that. Uh 1

1 Corinthians 6:18

Corinthians 6:18,

that's towards the end of the list I

gave you guys. flee sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is

outside the body. But the sexually

immoral person sins against his own

body. Now, this is talking about

somebody who is doing this um not

someone who this is being done to

against their will. But that doesn't

change the damage that's done. In modern

terms, I like to say it's core damage.

Core damage that happens to you in that.

Maybe if I just speak in at a heart

level of what I want what I want. If

that's happened to you and especially if

it's caused real deep distance and doubt

in the Lord's goodness and power in your

life, then then that wound needs to be

healed.

That's what I want. I I believe that's

what God wants. That you'd experience

healing

no matter how jagged

the spiritual lacerations. Maybe that's

something you haven't realized. This

kind of sins lacerates you spiritually.

That's how deep it is and you need to

find healing.

By the way, if you have, God can use you

in such a powerful way to help other

people find healing, too. And so, what I

just like to suggest is that if you

especially are feeling like, you know

what, I need that kind of healing,

healing from sexual sin. And and this is

where I also want to draw a hard

boundary. What I'm talking about now is

not people that have been victimized,

but I'm talking about people who have

men or women who fit exactly in this

category where you've participate in

sexual immorality according opposite of

God's design, sex outside of marriage.

And that also causes core damage.

And the only answer I know from the

Bible and the only answer there is is

that that healing requires repentance.

If a sin was perpetrated against you and

you stayed very close to the Lord in

that, that does not require repentance.

The enemy might tell you and accuse you

of that and you actually have to resist

it because it's not a sin you committed.

Therefore, you cannot ask. God's not

going to forgive you for something you

didn't do wrong. Right? Okay, that's

really important. Hard boundary.

However, sometimes these wounds that are

perpetrated against you lead to such

doubt and distrust in your relationship

to the Lord

that the sin ends up being perpetuated

and you get totally enslaved to it and

oppressed by it. And then

then the way out still is repentance.

Even though the door that opened it was

totally some other evil person's fault.

The enemy will tell you that what I'm

saying is victim shaming. I am not. What

I care about is your freedom

from the horror of the pain and

from the damage of your own sin as well.

And so you need to listen to the spirit,

reject the enemy's voice, and he will

tell you, okay, this is not your fault,

and I am not convicting you to to

confess this as sin, but you you didn't

trust me through it. And now look at

what you've done and look at the shame

and the guilt that you're enchained to.

Freedom from that also comes through

confession of sin through repentance.

That's the only way you got to bring

that all to the cross where you can

experience healing and forgiveness. I

hope you've understood me because it's

the healing that we're looking for. And

that road is a painful road, but it's

the only way out. And especially if

you're a woman and this happens to you,

I would offer you elder prayer, but it

seems more appropriate that you just go

directly to uh Rebecca Egg and she is

trustworthy and gentle and will handle

that in a spiritual manner. But I would

not wait to go ask someone to prayer for

prayer and it may just be some other

person that you trust in this area.

But it takes

a terrible kind of humility to admit

that you've sinned when the whole thing

started with someone perpetrating

something against you. A very painful

kind of humility. But that is the

humility that will allow you to navigate

the uncontrollable trials of your life

with the grace and favor of the Lord.

So it says here that in the evening she

would go in the morning she would return

the second her custo

who was in charge of the concubines. She

would not go into the king and again

unless the king delighted in her and she

was summoned by name.

Can you imagine the anxiety and the

pressure

to perform?

Can you imagine how much pressure these

young women were under to impress the

king?

Remember, they were told they could

bring whatever they wanted in with them.

So, of course, they'd be thinking about

how to gain some kind of advantage. Even

if they didn't have mixed emotions about

what was going on and just thought it

was all bad, I would humanly expect that

they were thinking at least it's an

assumption at best, but I would assume

that they're still wanting to have the

best of the situation would be to become

queen, which seems to have some evidence

to it in the book that you'd have some

more freedom, uh, potentially more

political power, influence, and a higher

position of prominence no matter what if

you did become queen. So I'm I'm I'm

assuming and I think reasonably that

most of the women wanted to win and I

don't know any women that wanted to be

neglected by their husband the king

regardless of how uh well maybe Vashi

wanted to be neglected by him you know

and she's such a sympathetic character

too

but man the pressure before that night

the pressure before that night the

anxiety

Verse

15. When the turn came for Esther, the

daughter of Abahel, the uncle of

Morortei, who had taken her as his own

daughter, to go into the king, she asked

for nothing except what Haggi

except what he the king's unic who had

charge of the women advised. It doesn't

say that for any other woman. So, in the

way the story reads is that she may have

been the only person that only took what

he advised. In fact, we're not even sure

that he advised anybody else. If you go

back to verse um nine of same chapter,

the young woman pleased him, he and won

his favor, and he quickly provided her

with her cosmetics and a portion of food

and with seven chosen young women from

the king's palace and advanced her and

her young women to the best place. He's

he's emotionally in engaged. He's

involved. He he kind of wants her to

win, it seems like, right? So maybe that

he didn't even advise anybody else and

he advises her.

Now another comedian in our Bible study

at our at at we're meeting at the church

right now. It's called the Greenwood de

DC and uh this comedian is my wife and

she I married her partly because of her

humor. She, if you've known her, she I

my favorite kind of humor is like a a

good-natured dry humor, like where

you're not, not trying to be mean, but

it's just pretty flat affect. And with a

very flat affect, she said, you know, I

wonder I was thinking about what she

brought in. And uh like what if it was

like just a stick?

I don't know why I thought that was so

funny, but like what if he advised her

to just bring a stick? Oh my gosh, it

could be such a funny skit. Although, it

would not be the right kind of thing to

even uh to even make a skit about

considering how horrible this actually

is.

Right? It's horrible. It's happening.

And yet,

>> she listens,

right? What if it was just some really

simple object?

probably wasn't just a stick,

but what if it was just some really

simple object

and she thought, "Well, this isn't going

to impress the king. She's a human

being, right?"

But she listened.

Just back to project one way, real

short, the the designers rarely listen

to anybody else, including the judges.

like they would be told this is what

we're judging on and then the designers

would come by and look at it and make

design suggestions and oftentimes they

would just reject the design suggestions

because there was pride. They're they're

artists and their identity is wrapped up

in the artistry of it. And so what

you're criticizing is the identity of

the person. That's that's how pride

works.

Doesn't allow you to be teachable

because

you know better. you know better. So

when you really care, you really gonna

want to be teachable to somebody. And

she was.

It's why it's one of the many evidences

in this passage that she was humble and

listened.

And it's interesting what's connected

the moment after. So right here um she

says to go into the king, she asked for

nothing except what Hegi the king's unic

who had charge of the women advised.

Remember we don't know the author but we

do know that God inspired this author

verbally. So really God wrote this both

the composition and the words. It was

definitely a human being but God

exactly what is written down is exactly

what God wanted to write down. And what

did God have written down very next? Now

Esther was winning favor in the eyes of

all who saw her. I feel like I have to

put blinders on to be like it's it's not

connected to the teachability and

humility. Of course it is. Of course it

is.

And so verse 16. And when Esther was

taken to the king or to king Asawareas

into his royal palace in the 10th month,

which is the month of Tebath in the

seventh year of his reign, the king

loved Esther more than all the women.

and she won grace and favor in his sight

more than all the virgins. So that he

set the royal crown on her head and made

her queen instead of Vashi. Now I don't

know if you heard the sermon uh probably

the second sermon. Yeah, the second

sermon we talked about Vashi. Did Vashi

do something wrong? Like I said, I think

she's a sympathetic character. Um but

because she said no, she wasn't going to

be the person that God used.

And we did establish the idea. You say,

"Well, she wasn't even Jewish. She

believed in God." No one has any excuse

for not believing in God. Romans 2, look

at it. Um, I mentioned that in this

passage, but I wanted you to notice two

details. In verse 11 of chapter 1, it

says to bring uh like he's commanded to

bring Queen Vashi, to parade around, to

objectify her at a minimum. uh to bring

Queen Vashi before the king with her

royal crown which also could mean

headdress

in order to show the people and the

princes her beauty for she was lovely to

look at. Verse 12, but Vashi refused to

come at the king's command delivered by

the Unix. At this was the king's uh at

this the king became enraged as anger

burned within him. But the two details I

want you to notice or maybe three. She's

got this royal crown on. He wants or she

he wants her to come with the royal

crown. She's lovely to look at and she

refused. Well, we know from verse seven

that Esther was lovely to look at and

she's not given a choice to go to the

king. And for this in this case, not

just to be paraded around in front of

other men, but to do you know what. And

she goes, and then what it says, the

king loved Esther, verse 17, more than

all the women, and she won grace and

favor in his sight more than all the

virgins, so that he set the royal crown,

same words, on her head and made her

queen instead of Vashi.

Another detail, verse 18, then the ca

king gave a great feast for all his

officials and servants. It was Esther's

feast. He also granted a remission of

taxes, the promises, and gave gifts with

royal generosity. And that's the final

verse for today in terms of this

passage. But remember verse 8 or verse 9

in chapter 1. Queen Vashi also gave a

feast for the women in the palace that

belong to King Awares.

There's all these connections in the

replacement. But in this case,

the king is hosting this feast for

Esther

because she's won such grace and favor

in his eyes. He's not become any better.

He's still a megalomaniac.

He's still a pretend god king. It

doesn't seem like at any point he ever

actually humbles himself before the

Lord. Uh unlike Nebuchadnezzar, if you

remember that story, kind of similar

characters and personality and

opposition to the Lord. But

Nebuchadnezzar learns his lesson, you

know.

So, so my point is not, oh, how

wonderful to get the favor of this king.

Well, a lot better than the situation

could have been for one, but whose favor

is it really? Whose fa is this just

human favor that she's gaining or is it

God's favor? Let me try to prove that to

you. Let's go to Romans 12. And this

little section is the end of the sermon

and we're done. Romans 12 1-2.

I appeal to you therefore brothers by

the mercies of God to present your

bodies as a living sacrifice holy and

acceptable to God which is your

spiritual worship. Does that take

humility? Sacrifice your entire life to

the Lord. Absolutely. It takes huge

trust which only comes through humility.

And what can you do when you have that

kind of humility that you sacrifice your

whole life and that's your spiritual

worship which by the way is all the way

down not just outwardly all the way

down. Verse 13 is what you can do. You

cannot be conformed to this world but be

transformed by the renewal of your mind

that by testing you may discern what the

will of God what is the will of God?

What is good and acceptable and perfect.

Okay. So all those terrible questions

about what was going on in Esther's mind

when she's on a conveyor belt to her

wedding night to this man.

If you have sacrificed your whole life

to the Lord, he will help you to discern

what is good, right, and true, and

acceptable. And but you got to not be

conformed to the world. So she need to

not give into all the selfish ambition.

Need to not give into all of like, oh,

look how beautiful I am. I'm the most

beautiful woman. You know, there's all

kinds of opportunities for pride. She

rejected them.

Remained teachable and humble. Look at

Proverbs 11:2.

Proverbs 11:2

When pride comes, then comes disgrace.

But with the humble is wisdom.

So I'm not I know you know this but I'm

not just making up the idea that if you

have the humility then even an

uncontrollable trialable trial is

navigable navigable navigable uh with

God's grace and favor because he says so

pride leads to disgrace

but with humility comes wisdom the

wisdom in this case to listen to he I'm

not particularly sympathetic to he by

the way or any of the unics that

gathered these women and took them into

custody. I don't actually don't know if

they were the one gathered, but if it

was my daughter, I wouldn't be

particularly sympathetic to them.

1 Peter 5:5, another connection between

1 Peter 5:5

humility and God's grace. Likewise, you

who are younger, subject yourselves to

the elders. In this case, just replace a

hazaware with another authority that God

has put in uh in the church or in the

world. clothe yourself all of you with

humility towards one another. For God

opposes the proud but gives grace to the

humble.

It's like a major

major theme in the Bible.

Finally, let's go to Matthew 23:12

Matthew 23:12

with words Jesus himself actually said.

I think of all of the words in the Bible

as actually Jesus's words because he is

the word. But he says this in red

letter. Whoever exalts himself will be

humbled and whoever humbles himself will

be exalted.

Your trial is a training ground for the

development of your character. And when

God sees the character that he wanted to

develop in you, he will give you grace

and favor.

It's a promise. You don't know exactly

what that will look like. The grace and

favor of the Lord could be that you

become a martyr, which is one of the

most powerful ways to glorify him, by

the way. So, it's not like a promise.

I'll definitely keep you healthy. I'll

definitely keep you alive. I'll

definitely like your way of navigating

through an uncontrollable trial might be

death. The question is whether you'll

die with humility in glorifying the

Lord. This I'm not talking about some

formula for health and wealth.

It can actually be quite the opposite.

It seems to me biblically that some of

the ways that our spirit needs to be

trained and humbled

just doesn't happen unless the trial is

very painful.

Flesh is clingy, doesn't want to die. It

fights back. And so I believe that God

will bring these trials into our life

because

that is the only way we'll actually

humble ourselves. At the same time, you

may be pre-trial, you may be post-trial,

or you may be right in the trial right

now. And what is the cross other than an

opportunity to humble yourself,

to come in and say, "I'm going to come

in on bended knee. I'm not in control of

this. I can't control of it. and I need

your grace and favor.

So, it is a low door of humility that

comes to that table with repentance. But

whatever you need to confess, whatever

pride there's been,

the other side of that door is the grace

and favor of the Lord.

Again, humility allows us to navigate

life's uncontrollable trials with the

grace and favor of the Lord. It's what

I'm learning from Esther. It's what I

want to learn more of in my life and

it's what I hope you've learned today as

well. Let me pray. Heavenly Father,

thank you for the opportunity to humble

ourselves.

Thank you for your spirit's work in our

lives. I pray that as we come to

communion today, we would

come on bended knee in our hearts

to some degree. Lord, I'm I'm thankful

that you don't just expose all of our

pride at once because I believe it would

overwhelm us. But Lord, whatever pride

you do want to expose, that you want to

be brought to the cross and laid there

and not picked back up, I pray that you

would help your people to lay down. I

pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.