Esther pt 2 - You Always Have a Choice

Well, if you are new, let me catch you up real quick on what we've been doing all year long.

Because I want to make sure you understand where we're at and why.

We are doing something this year called the whole story.

We have broken the entire story of Scripture down into 14 different series.

Today we're going to be wrapping up our ninth series out of those 14.

Don't worry if you haven't been here.

Don't worry if you're like, I'm way behind.

I mean, you kind of are.

But the truth is, every single series, and every really every Sunday for that matter, is designed to stand on its own.

And also your timing could not be better.

Because next Sunday is a major, it's a major jump.

Next Sunday, we are, we're beginning the New Testament.

We're getting to the story of Jesus next Sunday.

And so that's an amazing, honestly, that's about as good of a point to jump in if you're new to it as you can find.

So next Sunday, really exciting.

We start our first series on the New Testament.

We get introduced to the story of Jesus.

I mean, like, it's all been building toward that.

That's super exciting.

Today, though, we wrap up our final series of the Old Testament, which we have called Shattered and Scattered.

Shattered and Scattered.

It explores this amazingly difficult, challenging, but at the same time powerful era that we have in the Old Testament where the nation of Israel has been conquered.

The nation of Israel has been completely shattered.

Its people have been scattered to all the different parts of the empires that conquered them.

And it seems like all hope is lost.

It seems like everything is done, it's over, there's no hope.

And yet it's in this season, it's in this era of scripture that we find some of the most powerful and honestly relatable stories that we have today in all of Scripture.

Because it explores the lives of these people who find themselves living in a land that does not share their values, that does not believe what they believe, and if they're gonna live well and live successful lives while at the same time living by their convictions and honoring God, they have a challenge ahead of them.

They have to thread a needle.

Like it's going against the grain, and all of us who follow Jesus can relate to that.

Because we live in a world where very often the way that our world is going is not the way that we go.

Where very often our values and our beliefs and our convictions do not line up with the values of the world that we're living in, and these people give us a blueprint for how to live life like that.

So relatable.

That's one of the amazing things about scripture, you're reading stories that take place thousands of years ago in completely different times and in completely different cultures, and yet it speaks to your life now.

That is the power of the truth of Scripture.

Last Sunday we we looked at part one of the story of a woman named Esther, one of the most amazing people that we have in biblical history.

Esther is incredible.

And today we're gonna wrap that up.

I want to remind you kind of the point of Esther, and then I'll get you caught up on where we're at in the story, and we'll jump right into what we're gonna look at today.

So Esther's story is really interesting.

It's the only book in the Bible that does not mention God directly.

There's no verse in the entire book of Esther that says, and then God did anything, or and then God said, and that's very unique.

It's the only book we have in the Bible that doesn't directly mention God.

It could lead you to believe that God is taking a vacation, that it's like Labor Day weekend for God as well, and He's like, I'm off, you guys are on your own.

That's not the case.

God is always working.

Scripture is very clear on that.

Jesus actually said, My Father is always at work, and so am I.

And as you read the story, there's just so many moments, so many like it just so happens moments, that it becomes very clear in hindsight that God is definitely at work, that he is aligning things up perfectly.

But it's a good reminder for us that oftentimes God is comfortable being at work behind the scenes without us being completely aware of what he's doing.

The main characters in this story, Esther and her cousin Mordecai, who adopted her and raised her, they would have probably been completely and totally uh in the dark in terms of what God was doing.

Like there's so many moments in the story where they must have prayed, God, what are you doing?

Where are you?

Why aren't you doing something?

And I'm sure we can relate to that.

And God never makes it clear to them.

He never says, Hey, hey, hey, here's what I'm doing, here's what's next, this is what I want you to do.

That doesn't happen.

God is working, but he's working behind the scenes.

He does that.

And what Esther and Mordecai have to do in the vacuum of that knowledge that God is up to something, in that, in that space between God's direct involvement and them trying to figure things out, is they have to make choices.

They have to make decisions.

The story of Esther reminds us the power of our choices.

That the decisions that we make carry great weight, and God will often operate through our choices and our decisions.

That's what happens in the story of Esther.

We learn through Esther's story that we always have a choice.

We don't always have a choice in terms of what happens to us in life.

But we always have a choice in terms of how we respond.

If we ever find ourselves thinking, you know what, I don't have a choice.

I have to do this.

Maybe we're tempted because of circumstances to make a poor decision, to betray our conscience, to do something that maybe goes against our convictions and our knowledge of what God has said is right and wrong, but I mean we're backed into a corner and the circumstances are such that we just don't have a choice.

No, no, we always have a choice.

We don't always get to choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we respond.

And it's the way that Esther and Mordecai respond to the challenges that happen to them that sets them apart.

And so last week we explored the beginning of Esther's story.

She has grown up as part of the Persian Empire.

She's never even seen her home.

Jerusalem, where she's from, Israel was destroyed before her time.

She's never even been there.

She's living as this Jewish person in a foreign land, raised by her cousin Mordecai.

Her parents died, that potentially they could have died as a result of having to be exiled to where they live now.

We don't really know.

But Esther is just this young girl living in a foreign land.

And circumstances far beyond her control lead to her essentially being kidnapped and forced to live in the king's palace.

The Persian king is a man named Xerxes.

He has a little spat with his wife.

Her name is Vashti.

She doesn't do exactly what he wants her to do, and so he just banishes her.

He says, You're out.

His advisors literally come to him.

We looked at this last week, and they say, Hey, listen, if anyone gets wind of the fact that Vashti said no to you, we're gonna have an epidemic of wives not doing what their husbands say.

We can't have that.

And so you gotta make an example out of her.

So he sends Vashti away, and now he is a king without a queen, and that will not do.

So his advisors come up with this plan.

They say, Why don't you do this?

Uh why don't you like kidnap all the beautiful women around, like the most beautiful women in the empire?

Just take them, make them your concubines, force them to live here, and then pick one of them to be the queen.

And because he was an evil, evil man, Xerxes is like, that's an amazing idea.

Esther just so happens to be one of those women.

And her life is over as she's known it.

She is forced from her home.

She is forced into this horrific situation, this incredibly dark and evil situation.

Where she's either going to be a concubine forever in the palace of the king because now you're owned by the king.

You are his property.

That's the way the world worked then, and it was it was horrible.

Or she's going to be chosen to be the queen, but that didn't work out well for Vashti, so it's a it's a tough life, either way.

But God often works in some of the darkest situations that we can imagine.

And Esther makes decisions, wise decisions, that set her apart.

Last week we focused on this one simple fact that Esther chose to be a listener.

She listened to all the advice of the people that God had put around her, she listened to Mordecai's advice, she listened to the advice of some of the people that were in charge of everything going on around her, and as a result of her soaking up whatever wisdom she could find, she set herself apart from all of the other women.

And she was indeed chosen to be queen because she listened.

And all of us can choose, even in the hardest situations we've ever been in, to pause and listen to the wisdom that God has placed around us.

So now Esther is the queen.

And some time passes, and and Mordecai has some cool things that happen to him.

He actually overhears a plot to murder the king, to assassinate the king, and he he actually ends up unraveling that plot.

He subverts it, he reports to the proper channels what's going on, and the people who are gonna assassinate the king, they they get arrested.

I'm sure they were, I'm sure bad things happen to those guys, and and Mordecai's kind of given a pat on the back, like, hey, good job, man.

You saved the life of the king.

He's given a basic promotion.

So things are going well for Mordecai.

Meanwhile, Esther is queen, and nobody knows who she really is.

No one in the palace knows that she is, in fact, a Jewish woman.

Her nationality is totally a secret, and we'll see how that plays into the story today.

We're gonna pick up in Esther chapter 3.

Esther 3 · chapter mention

It says that sometime later, King Xerxes promoted Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite, over all the other nobles, making him the most powerful official in the empire.

All the king's officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by.

For so the king had commanded.

But Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect.

Then the palace officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, why are you disobeying the king's command?

They spoke to him day after day, but he still refused to comply with the order.

So they spoke to Haman about this to see if he would tolerate Mordecai's conduct, since Mordecai had told them he was a Jew.

When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or show him respect, he was filled with rage.

He had learned of Mordecai's nationality, so he decided it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone.

Instead, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire empire of Xerxes.

So Haman gets promoted.

He's the villain.

As bad as Xerxes is, he's not the villain in the story.

In fact, uh, this story of Esther, it ended up inspiring a holiday that is still celebrated in Israel today.

It's this Jewish holiday called Purim.

And one of the things that they do every Purim, this would happen in around March, uh, they read the entire story of Esther.

And every time Haman's name is mentioned, everyone shouts, everyone boos, his name is blotted out from history.

That's what they do.

It's kind of cool if you think about it.

In fact, look, it's Labor Day weekend.

Do you guys want to have some fun?

Let's do this.

Let's do this from this point on.

This might backfire tremendously.

We'll see.

Um, not when I mention his name as I'm teaching, but when we open up the story, anytime Haman's name is read, let's do that.

Let's just have some fun with it this morning.

Uh, it's read 54 times in the entire book, but it is way less than 54 in the message this morning, all right?

But why don't we let's see what happens?

Worst case scenario, it's a terrible idea, and we all go, man, that'll never happen again.

But but honestly, I think it'll be cool because it connects us to the intensity of who Heyman is.

No, no, no, whoa.

See, this is the same reason people parked at the parking lot this morning.

I'm teasing.

The person who started that probably is like, I am one of those people, and now you just double offended me.

No, no, no, no.

It's gonna be a mess if you do that every time I say his name.

So let's do it when we're reading it from the scripture.

All right?

I may have stepped into something.

It's Labor Day weekend.

We're having fun.

All right.

So I'll just go ahead and spoil it for you.

Uh Heyman's plot does not.

No, I alright?

So I I can, if you want to play this game, I'll just roll with it.

I'll just roll with it.

So the villain's plot does not end up working out.

Okay?

It doesn't work out.

And uh, but it's it's it's incredible how it all plays out.

And you see the hand of God.

Now you might ask yourself, why in the world does Mordecai refuse to bow down?

Why?

It was the king's command.

There's actually nothing in Jewish law that would forbid a Jewish person from bowing down to royalty or from some official.

No, no, no.

There's lots of stories actually in the Old Testament where an official would come and the Jewish people would bow in respect.

Why does Mordecai refuse to bow down?

And the truth is we don't know exactly why, but it's likely because of who Haman was and what he truly represented.

It says that he was an Agagite, meaning that he was a he was a relative, an ancestor to uh King Agag, who was an Amalekite king, and this is like a deep cut from the Old Testament.

The Amalekites were this unbelievably evil and brutal people who terrorized the people of Israel for generations.

In fact, when the people of Israel were nomads in the wilderness in the desert, the Amalekites would often follow behind, and any of the elderly or children who were weak that couldn't keep up with the group, they would pick them off.

The Amalekites were enemies of God's people, and eventually that comes to a head, and there's a war, and it just so happens that Haman is a relative of those people.

And so perhaps knowing that, knowing the evil that he represented, Mordecai refuses to bow down to Haman.

He refuses.

It's less funny now, but I'm just teasing it.

He refuses.

And it's more than it's more than pride for Mordecai, it's principle.

And this actually brings us to the first of three choices that we're gonna look at today, the power of our choices.

It's the choice to stand.

Like for Mordecai, this is a literal stand.

Like, I will not bow down, I will keep standing.

But for all of us, it's a reminder that there are times in life where we have to choose to take a stand.

We have to.

That there come moments where we we simply have to say to those around us, hey, you might be going that way, you might be for that, you might be all about that, but I I just I can't and I won't.

I have I have deeper principles, I have deeper core values, I have this faith.

And there's no way that I could go along with that, that I could support that, that I could approve of that, that I could endorse that, and still be true to my faith.

We have to take a stand.

Now, this happens sometimes in really epic ways.

History has been, in many ways, decided by people who were willing to take a stand, and they were often villainized in the moment, but vindicated by history.

You look at someone like Rosa Parks, who just said, No, I will not go to the back of the bus.

I I refuse.

I'm taking a stand.

And the the spark that that stance created in the civil rights movement and all of the all of the good that happened as the result of that, of one person saying, No, no, I'm taking a stand.

Oftentimes those stances that we take don't end up being the stuff of history.

They're much smaller, they're much more personal, and maybe no one even knows about it, maybe it doesn't even really affect any great number of people in any way, but it affects us because anytime we betray our conscience, anytime we go against our convictions, we lose a little bit of respect for ourselves.

Even if that means sacrificing something.

I'll give you an example.

I won't use this person's name because I was not given permission to, because I forgot to ask.

But it's all good.

The story is great.

I have a good friend, and he's been part of his hands for a long time, really, really great business guy, like super talented at business.

And he just so happened to be a finalist, to be on the very first season of the show The Apprentice, way back in the day.

Like he was this close to being on that show.

How many, by the way, are familiar with The Apprentice?

Like, we remember The Apprentice.

I know like Donald Trump, and that's let's talk about let's just talk about Donald Trump for a little while.

That'll make everybody happy.

There's no way that could divide a room, right?

Not at all.

Um for those of you who are younger, he used to be on TV and it was different.

Everyone liked him.

Everyone.

So the very first season of The Apprentice, season one.

He's he's in the running to be on that show.

Something that, by the way, if that would have happened for him, it would have like catapulted him into something, like either fame, maybe infamy, who knows?

But that show is a big deal.

And so he goes through all the different cuts, right?

Goes through all the interview processes, and and every time he makes it, he makes it, he makes it until he is in the running.

He's one of the finalists to be on the show.

And in that final set of interviews, one of the producers asked a question Would you, facing elimination, would you lie to save your skin?

Would you lie?

And he thought about it for a second.

And he said, No.

And so they they they booted him.

All right, one, yeah, hey, we'll clap, clap for.

There you go.

Honesty gets a clap.

That's good.

No, he he said no.

And they said, well then nice to meet you.

We can't have you on the show.

Because it turns out a bunch of people telling the truth and doing the right thing does not make for good TV.

No, they wanted it to be cutthroat.

They wanted some drama, right?

They they wanted there to be scandals that happened.

And he said no, and so he missed out on that opportunity to be on the very first.

He could have been fired by Donald Trump.

And now you'll never know.

And I I know his story and his life, and God has made up for that missed opportunity, if you want to call it that.

I don't even think it was one, but no, no, no.

Like God's taking care of him.

But the cool thing about him is that he's gotten to live the last 20-ish years knowing that I stuck to my principles, that I took a stand for what I believed was right, and no one can ever take that away from me.

1 Peter chapter 3 tells us that even if we suffer for doing what is right, God will reward us.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

So don't worry or be afraid of their threats.

Don't worry about all the what-ifs.

What if, man, what if I take a stand and it leads to this or to that?

No, don't worry about any of that, God says.

Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life.

And if someone asks you about your hope as a believer, maybe why you take some of the stands that you take, if someone ever asks you, always be ready to explain it.

But do this in a gentle and respectful way.

So Mordecai takes a stand.

He takes a stand.

And as we're gonna see, it has a consequence.

Now, the the most important official in the entire kingdom, other than Xerxes, has it out for Mordecai.

And Haman comes up with a plan to exterminate all of the Jewish people.

Not just Mordecai, but all of them.

And they even put it on the calendar, he gets it approved, they set a date for about a year in the future, that there's this date, and on that date, all of the Jewish people are to be killed.

All of them.

But what Haman doesn't know is that it just so happens that the queen, Xerxes' new queen, the queen that he's so proud of, she happens to be Jewish.

It just so happens.

So let's keep reading.

When this plot is discovered to kill all of the Jewish people, Mordecai sends word to Esther and says, Esther, like, you've got to do something.

You have to do something.

And she replies back, what am I to do?

There's really nothing that I can do.

Like, she didn't want to be the queen to begin with.

She certainly doesn't want to be part of some giant political, dangerous situation.

She replies back to Mordecai, there's nothing I can do.

In fact, she reminds Mordecai that there's a law in their land that says that you are not allowed to go into the king's presence without being summoned.

In fact, if you were to go into the king's presence without being summoned, it was punishable by death.

You waited for the king to invite you, and she tells Mordecai, he hasn't even invited me into his presence in three months.

She hasn't seen him in three months.

I mean, who knows?

Maybe she's the newest Vashti.

She's fallen out of favor somehow.

He doesn't want anything to do with her.

He's moved on to somebody else.

That's the way kings lived back in the day.

But Mordecai presses her.

I know it's a risk, but you've got to do something.

And we read about that in Esther chapter 4.

Esther 4 · chapter mention

It says that Mordecai sent this reply to Esther.

Don't think for a moment that because you're in the palace, you will escape when all the other Jews are killed.

If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place.

But you and your relatives will die.

Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this.

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai.

Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa, that's the area that they lived, and fast for me.

Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.

My maids and I will do the same, and then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king.

If I must die, I must die.

Let's just take a moment and appreciate that.

The courage and the bravery.

Wow.

So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

Esther's planning, no doubt praying about how to make the approach.

And it's here that we get to the second choice of our morning.

And it's the choice to act.

Now, in some ways, this is very similar to the choice to stand, but but acting is a little bit more, well, active, right?

There are times in life where we say, no, I'm taking a stand.

I will not go along with what everyone else is doing or saying or believing or endorsing.

But it's different to actually decide, to proactively do something about it, to take a stand and let it be known that you're not just going to watch this unfold.

You're going to try to stop it.

You're going to try to do something about it.

I actually got a really surprising experience with this just about two weeks ago.

I was at home.

It was really close to dinner time.

And I was being what in layman's terms would be called a selfish jerk.

I just, I had a bad, I had a, it's like I want to say I had a bad day, but nothing bad happened to me that day.

I used sometimes we just use the day as an excuse to be bad people.

And so I was being a bad person and just selfish and frustrated and getting mad about stupid stuff.

And so Megan and I had this little argument, and it was almost dinner time.

She was cooking dinner, and I said to her, you know what?

I'm not coming to dinner tonight.

I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna stay in my room like a child.

But I did.

I was like, she came to knock on the door, and she was like, hey, it's it's time for dinner, and I was like, I'm good.

She's like, What?

I said, No, I'm just gonna stay here.

You guys have dinner.

I'm I'm opting out of dinner.

And I could see in her eyes that it hurt, and that was the intention.

Because I was being a selfish jerk.

I was being emotionally manipulative, passive aggressive, whatever.

I was just being a jerk.

And I knew I was being a jerk, but you ever have those moments where, like, you know what you're doing is wrong, and you're doing it anyway, and you hate yourself while you're doing it, but you're committed.

Anyone else?

Is that just me?

Like, I've gone all in on being a jerk.

I know it's wrong, whatever.

So I do that, and I'm sitting there, and I'm having this little mini argument with God, you know, just doing my thing.

And there's a knock on the door, and I'm assuming it's Megan.

And so I say, Yeah, come in.

And in comes my oldest son.

And he says, Dad, what are you doing?

Just like that.

You ever have those moments as parents where you're like, if I would have said this to my dad, what would have happened?

Right?

Different generations.

But I said, Wait, what are you talking about?

I knew what he was talking about, but I was, you know, walls were up.

And he said, You are really hurting mom's feelings by not coming to dinner.

Like, I can tell she's upset.

And I start, honestly, I started to, you know, I was in a bad spot.

So I started to get angry for a moment, like, I'm gonna, you know, you don't come in here and tell me what's uh but I I looked in his eyes and I asked him, Oh, are you like, are you kind of standing up for your mom right now?

Like you're coming here to to try to like, you know, tell me that I'm not being a good husband and father.

And he said, Yes.

And I and I honestly like my respect for him grew in that moment tenfold.

I already love him and respect him a ton.

He's awesome.

He's awesome.

He probably doesn't always feel that because I'm hard on him sometimes, because I'm trying to raise him, and that's I don't know what I'm doing.

He's the first teenager I've ever had.

It's he's he's the I'm beta testing him, and then eventually the other kids will have a much better childhood.

But in that moment, in that moment, I my respect level for him grew immensely.

And I'd be lying if I said that I looked him in the eyes and said, son, you're right.

I've made a terrible mistake.

I will rectify this and join you immediately for dinner.

No, that's not what happened.

I said, I literally I looked at him, I said, hey, I respect what you're doing.

I'm just gonna just I need you to go.

And then I sat there and pretty quickly just got over it and said, I gotta just stop.

And if not for him, it would have taken me a lot longer.

I fully believe that.

And I gotta give him credit, like that's bold.

It's maybe not quite as bold as like going into the throne room of a king who legally will kill you.

But I am his dad, and I do have authority, and it was an unprecedented moment.

Like it's not something that I've ever seen him do, is to come to me and you know, like it was bold.

I mean, I grounded him for two weeks, but it was bold.

I didn't do that.

I didn't do that, I'm just joking.

My respect for him grew because he decided, based on a conviction, that he was gonna act, that he was gonna risk something to take a step forward and tell me that I was out of line.

And he was correct.

See, when you decide to act, there's always an inherent risk.

Esther says that very clearly.

If I die, I die.

Sometimes there's moments in life where we just decide, no, this is worth my action, this is worth me throwing my hat in the ring and saying, I'm not gonna stand for this, I'm gonna actively work against this, and if I suffer the consequences, so be it.

If I speak up, if I if I if I have a conversation with that person and tell them that that what they're doing is wrong, if I do that, maybe I maybe I face consequences, but there are times where injustices rise to the level in our minds where something has to be done.

Not just we won't go along with it, we need to try to stop it.

And that could happen in a big scale and some societal issue, or it could be happening in your home, like what happened with me and my son.

Jesus, by the way, does this.

One of the more famous stories of Jesus is the story of Jesus tossing all over all the tables in the temple.

And I mean, how many of you are familiar with that story, by the way?

Jesus tossing the tables around?

All right, so if you're not, here's the gist of it.

Um, in the ancient world that Jesus was part of, if you were a Jewish person and you wanted to worship God, that meant going to the temple and offering a sacrifice.

And those sacrifices were usually animals, it would have been like a goat or birds could be sacrifices.

If you were less wealthy, you would use birds.

Uh, but your sacrifice had to be inspected by the Pharisees, by the people who were in charge of the temple.

And they had this amazing racket going.

It's like criminal genius.

They would just deny virtually all of the animals and say that they were unworthy for some reason.

Even if you brought the best of what you had to offer it as a sacrifice to God, they would give it an inspection and say, Oh, I'm so sorry.

But good news, we just so happen to sell our very own pre-approved goats and birds right over here for about 10 times the amount that you should actually have to pay for them.

It's like when you go to the airport and you're hungry.

You know what I'm talking about?

And you're like, I'll get a sandwich, and it's$19.

And you're just like, I have no other option, right?

I'm here.

The gates close behind me.

Like I$19 for a turkey sandwich.

That's what it is.

And it's robbery and it's wrong, and we should all take a stand and take action.

I'm just joking.

I'm not that that's what the takeaway is.

Airports are going down, right?

No, they're not.

Even me just saying that's probably gonna get me in trouble.

It's a joke.

I don't mean airports going down, everything's fine.

All right, back to the point.

Jesus sees this robbery that's happening, and he's so deeply offended because people are being kept from worshiping and honoring God.

They're being taken advantage of, they're being robbed, and it's the poor people who are suffering.

And so Jesus looks at all these tables where all this money exchanging is happening, and there was other stuff with currency exchange and all kinds of craziness going on.

And the detail we get is actually amazing.

It wasn't like Jesus just lost his cool and just flipped some tables over.

No, it actually says that he'd left and he braided a leather whip.

I don't know how long that takes.

But just imagine Jesus, the most loving, compassionate, amazing person, God that ex just Jesus.

And he's braiding a whip.

And I imagine this disciples like, hey, Jesus, I don't know what you're planning right now.

It seems like maybe you need to cool down, and he just kind of gives them a look.

He's like, nah, alright, Jesus, you do what you want to do.

And so Jesus takes the whip into the temple, begins to whip it at all of these criminals that are harming God's people, and he chases them out, and he takes all their tables that are just stacked with money, with coins of all different kinds, and he's throwing them over, creating this massive commotion.

And Jesus was already a wanted man.

The religious leaders already wanted to kill him.

They're just looking for any excuse they can find to seal the deal, and that was it, and Jesus knew it.

But he decided this injustice will not stand.

I'm going to do something about it.

I'm going to take action.

And I think there are come times in life where we have to make those choices.

I'm not telling all of us to become disruptive.

But I am suggesting that we can see that there are times in scripture in all of our lives where we might have to make a risky decision to do what is right.

And Esther says, if I must die, I must die.

And so now Esther has to figure out what to do.

So here we go.

Esther, chapter 5.

Esther 5 · chapter mention

On the third day of the fast, Esther put on her royal robes and entered the inner court of the palace, just across from the king's hall.

The king was sitting on his royal throne facing the entrance, and when he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner court, he welcomed her.

And he held out the gold scepter to her.

That's a sign that she can come.

So Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter.

Then the king asked her, What do you want, Queen Esther?

What is your request?

I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom.

And Esther replied, If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today.

Yeah, that was fun.

To a banquet I have prepared for the king.

The king turned to his attendants and said, Tell Haman to quickly come to a banquet, as Esther requested.

So the king and there we go.

What is your request?

I will give it to you, even if it's half the kingdom.

And Esther replied, This is my request and my deepest wish.

If I have found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request and do what I ask, please come with Haman tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for you, and then I will explain what this is all about.

You guys did great there.

So, now we're not reading anymore, okay?

So when Haman hears about this, he's on top of the world.

He's like, I've arrived.

I got personally invited, personally invited to have like a banquet with the king and the queen, and the queen's request is that I come to another banquet tomorrow.

Like I've made it.

He's already having people bow down to him.

He's already been promoted to second in charge, but in his mind, now he's finally getting the praise that he deserves.

And on his way out, on his way home to gloat with his family about the favor that the king and the queen are showing him, he sees Mordecai.

And Mordecai refuses to bow to him and it like ruins his day.

Like he can't stand.

The idea that this guy still won't bow down to me.

He it like dominates his thoughts.

And he goes home and he tells his family, like, I don't know what to do.

I'm invited to this banquet.

I've got another one tomorrow.

I am so incredibly honored by the king and the queen.

I'm so important.

And this guy, this Jewish guy will not bow down to me.

It's driving me nuts.

And the people around him make a suggestion.

Well, I mean, clearly you are so favored, so favored by the king.

That why don't you just go ahead and and kill the guy now?

Like, Haman, you're you're you're everything to the king and the queen.

Like you're, they're not gonna, just just have if it's bothering you that much, if you can't enjoy the banquets that you're being part of, just go ahead and kill the guy now.

And Haman's like, that's a great idea.

So he at that moment instructs all of his servants to begin building a gallows.

And in that culture, a gallows was not like it wasn't something you'd hang a noose from.

You wouldn't hang people with a rope.

It was actually it was horrible.

Ancient Persia, here we go.

It was impalement.

You would build a giant pole, and then they would impale people as a method of execution and display their body for everyone to see.

And Haman tells his servants, begin building the biggest gallows you have ever built.

Build it overnight.

I want it done tomorrow, because tomorrow Mordecai is gonna die.

Now, here's what it says immediately after that.

Esther chapter 6.

Esther 6 · chapter mention

That night, it just so happened that the king had trouble sleeping.

Now I wonder if why he had trouble sleeping had to do with the fact that someone nearby was working overnight building a gallows.

Maybe that was noisy.

I don't know.

That's a detail we don't have.

But it just so happens that that very night the king had difficulty sleeping.

So he ordered an attendant to bring the book of the history of his reign so it could be read to him.

And I love this, by the way, the king's like, I can't sleep.

Someone read me a story about myself.

Like that's that's just like how ancient kings are.

Maybe it's how modern kings are too.

I don't know.

Probably.

It says, in those records, he discovered an account of how Mordecai had exposed the plot of Big Natha and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the door to the king's private quarters.

They had plotted to assassinate King Xerxes.

What reward or recognition did we ever give Mordecai for this?

The king asked, and his attendants replied, Nothing has been done for him.

Who is that in the outer court?

The king inquired.

As it happened, right?

Just so happened.

Haman had just arrived, yeah, in the outer court of the palace to ask the king to impale Mordecai on the pole he had prepared.

Like he's like on his way.

Hey, king, can I impale this dude, please?

Please?

The king's like, all right, you know, go ahead.

But he's on his way right after the king has read about Mordecai's heroics.

All right, the intendants uh replied to the king, Haman is out in the court.

Bring him in, the king ordered.

So Haman came in, and the king said, now I can tell the enthusiasm is waning.

Um, there's a small percentage of us committed to this, and so I'm just gonna say we're either gonna do it or we're not.

I mean, we're gonna have to figure that out.

All right, bring him in.

So the king asked him, What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me?

Haman thought to himself.

There we go.

Well, whom would the king wish to honor more than me?

He thought.

So he replied, Well, if the king wishes to honor someone, here's what he should do: he should bring out one of the king's own royal robes, as well as a horse that the king himself has ridden, one with a royal emblem on its head.

Let the robes in the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials, and let him see that the man whom the king wishes to honor is dressed in the king's robes and led through the city square on the king's horse.

Have the official shout as they go, This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor, which is a very specific request.

It's like he's got sick fantasies.

The king's like, that is highly specific, but thank you.

Okay?

Excellent, the king said to Haman, Quick, take the robes and my horse and do just as you have said for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the gate of the palace.

Leave out nothing you have suggested.

So Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed him on the king's own horse, and led him through the city square, shouting, This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor.

Afterward, Mordecai returned to the palace gate, but Haman hurried home, dejected and completely humiliated.

Now, do me a favor, in this next section, let's not do the booze, because I want the next part to I want it to hit hard, because it's meant to.

But that's really good.

So, you know, this poor guy, and by poor guy, I'm like, not at all.

Like, totally deserves this.

But, you know, it's just one of those moments, like I said earlier, we don't see God's direct hand.

It never says that God didn't let the king sleep, never says that that God orchestrated this, but you can see God's hand in it.

It's just too good.

It's too perfect.

It just so happens that that very night the king can't sleep.

It just so happens that he asks his men to read a story about himself to help him fall asleep.

It just so happens that they read the story of Mordecai, and it just so happens that Haman himself is walking to ask to impale Mordecai that very moment.

Like it's the hand of God at work.

God is always working.

So now Haman goes home and he's like, You won't believe what happened to me at work today.

Like he tells his family about this.

And his family, this is true.

He's like, This is what happened.

You know, that I had to parade Mordecai around the entire city, telling everyone this is this is what the king does to those that he honors.

And his family basically looks at him and just kind of goes, You're screwed.

Like that's essentially what they say.

Like you, you are in serious trouble.

There's nothing you can do.

Forget about Mordecai, don't even try to touch him.

Just go to this banquet you have with the queen and the king tonight and try your best to salvage the day.

And so, dejected, Haman goes to the banquet.

Maybe he's thinking, well, hey, at least I'm still the favorite of the king and the queen.

And so here we get to Esther chapter 7.

Esther 7 · chapter mention

And just let this sink in.

This is this is pretty amazing.

And so the king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet.

And on the second occasion, while they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, Tell me what you want, Queen Esther, what is your request?

I'll give it to you.

Even as half the kingdom.

And Queen Esther replied, If I have found favor with the king, excuse me, and if it pleases the king to grant my request, I ask that my life and the lives of my people will be spared.

For my people and I have been sold to those who would kill, slaughter, and annihilate us.

If we were merely sold as slaves, I could remain quiet, for that would be too trivial a matter to warrant disturbing the king.

Who would do such a thing?

Now just pause for a minute and imagine Haman's face at this moment in time.

Right?

Like he's a smart guy.

You don't rise to that level in the king's court unless you're highly intelligent.

He has no idea that Esther is related to Mordecai.

He has no idea that Esther is a Jew.

And you know he's putting the pieces together.

And the king says, Who in the world would do this?

And I just can't imagine the look on Haman's face.

Who would be so presumptuous as to touch you?

Esther replied, This wicked Haman is our adversary and our enemy.

Haman grew pale with fright before the king and the queen.

Then the king jumped to his feet in a rage and went out into the palace garden.

He's trying to figure out what to do.

Haman, however, stayed behind to plead for his life with Queen Esther, for he knew that the king intended to kill him.

In despair, he fell on the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just as the king was returning from the palace garden.

The king exclaimed, Will he even assault the queen right here in the palace before my very eyes?

And as soon as the king spoke, his attendants covered Haman's face, signaling his doom.

Then Harbona, one of the king's eunuchs, said, Haman has set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall in his own courtyard.

He intended to use it to impale Mordecai, the man who saved the king from assassination.

Then impale Haman on it, the king ordered.

So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai.

And the king's anger subsided.

The king's like, I'm good now.

It's a crazy story.

It truly is a crazy story.

And again, we don't see God directly intervening in any clear way, but it's so clear that he's there.

And that's a huge encouragement to all of us, to every single one of us, when we go through situations in life, whether they're big and life-threatening or maybe they're small and trivial, in the grand scheme of things, we know that God is working.

We know that God has this unbelievable way to line things up.

I have experienced that in my life.

I don't have time to go into the stories.

Many of you know some of those, if you've been part of His hands for long, the ways that God has lined even our church up in different seasons of struggle and how it's all come together.

God is always working.

I've seen it so many times, and I promise you, even if you're not aware of it right now, God is working.

Scripture says that he works all things, not just the good things.

He works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

And that includes you.

It's a beautiful thing.

And when we're in those moments where we're in the dark as to what God is doing or why God isn't doing what we think he ought to be doing, we're left with our decisions.

We're left with our choices, and our choices matter.

Our choices carry weight.

And we see all these decisions, all these choices.

Esther chose to listen, and that's what put her in the position as Queen in the first place.

Mordecai chose to take a stand that required boldness and courage.

Esther chose to act, even though it presented great risk to her.

And as we wrap up this morning, worship team, you can make your way out, we're gonna look at one more choice.

And in a sort of ironic way, it seems like the part of the story that we've read that is the least relatable in terms of our daily lives, it's so distant from what a normal day in our lives would look like.

But in fact, it's this one choice that Esther makes that we have the opportunity to make every single day in our own lives in a more literal way than we might imagine.

And we're actually gonna focus on this as we take Lord's Supper.

And so if you have a cup with bread and juice, go ahead and get that out.

By the way, if you don't know about this, um, when you walk in on the tables and you're free to go grab one right now, don't miss out on this.

We have these little cups of bread and juice.

We take Lord's Supper together every Sunday.

And some of you grew up like maybe Catholic, and this was like a big thing.

I grew up in a church that maybe did this once a year, twice a year, maybe.

Um, some of you maybe haven't been in church at all.

You're like, what are we about to do?

This is not poison, we're not a cult.

Um, don't worry.

No, no, this is this little meal.

This is this little meal that Jesus' followers have been taking from the very beginning.

Because the night that Jesus was arrested, shortly before he went to the cross, he took some bread and some.

Wine and he gave it to his disciples.

And he said, When you get together, do this to remember me.

And so we've always taken that very literally.

When we get together, which is every Sunday morning, we do this to remember Jesus.

This gets our eyes on him.

He said that the bread represents his body, which was broken.

He said that the blood represents, or the wine or juice represents his blood, which was spilled on our behalf.

Jesus died as a sacrifice.

He died as a sacrifice to save us from our sins.

But it did more than just that.

Not only did Jesus, through his sacrifice, save us from the consequences of our sin and our iniquities, Jesus put us in an entirely different place in terms of our relationship with God.

If you know the story of his crucifixion, when Jesus died on the cross, there were some things that happened, some significant things that would have symbolized to everyone around, hey, something is going on.

Something important, something epic is happening.

And one of those things is that there was a curtain in the temple.

In the Jewish temple, there was this curtain.

It was the curtain that divided everyone else from what was called the most holy place or the holy of holies.

It was where they would have viewed the very presence of God to dwell.

And it was a very separate place.

You weren't allowed to go there.

In fact, the only person allowed to go there was the high priest once a year.

After that high priest had gone through this ritualistic cleansing and was cleansed of his own sin, maybe then the high priest could go into the presence of the Holy of Holies.

That only happened once a year for one person.

And when Jesus died on the cross, that curtain tore from top to bottom.

And so what that means is that now we have this different access to God.

And so I want you to think about Queen Esther.

Having to approach the throne of a king, having to approach the throne of King Xerxes, knowing that it's likely, maybe even probable, that it will result in her death.

And think about how timidly she had to go.

We read many of her words.

You definitely understand how evil, maybe how short-tempered Xerxes was when you read Esther say, if it pleased the king, and if I have found any favor in the king's eyes, and if the king would just grant me this one request, she had to approach Xerxes with such timidity and fear.

Because Jesus has done this for us, because he died on the cross, forgave us of our sins, tore that curtain, now we have access to God.

And Scripture says that through faith in Jesus, we have now been adopted as God's own sons and daughters.

Read what the book of Hebrews says we get to do in our own lives.

Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.

There we will receive his mercy.

And we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

You wouldn't think that Esther's story, the whole approaching a king on his throne, would have much relevance to your life.

But the truth of the matter is, because you have been adopted as the very sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus, because of what Jesus did on the cross, that we celebrate and we commemorate every single week when we take this meal, you now have the right.

You have the right to not just go to God directly, to to go to his throne and ask him for what you need.

No, you're actually encouraged to come boldly, not timidly, not fearfully, not like I really hope this doesn't offend God.

I hope I'm not bothering God, but whatever is going on in your life, whatever struggles, whatever hardships you have, you can go boldly to the throne of God and you can ask for exactly what you need, and you know that all you're gonna get is grace and mercy from God.

That is beautiful.

And so Esther reminds us that we have a choice that we can make every day, that every day I'm gonna approach the throne of my God, my father, and I'm gonna ask him for what I need.

And so let's take this together and let's do that.

Let's pray over the bread.

Father God, we thank you for this bread.

We thank you, Lord, for what it represents.

This is your body broken as a sacrifice on our behalf.

Lord, we ask that you remind us how important and how immeasurable this gift really is.

Lord, let it fill us with permission and boldness to come before you as our Father, asking whatever we need from you.

We thank you for this.

Let's take the let's take the bread.

Let's pray for the juice.

Father, we thank you for this juice that represents the blood of your son, Jesus.

Jesus, thank you for shedding this blood on our behalf.

Not only did it cleanse us of our sin, as it still cleanses us of our sin, but it opens up a way to be more than a follower of God, but to be a child of God.

Now we can be your sons and your daughter because you've adopted us through our faith in your Son.

Lord, fill us with courage.

Give us the courage to daily choose coming before you as we pray, as we try to struggle through life, doing what's right, doing what's best, navigating all the challenges that we face.

Remind us, Lord, through this that we can now come boldly to the throne and we can ask for exactly what we need.

We thank you for this.

Let's take the Jews.