Esther - You Always Have a Choice

We started something back in February that we call the whole story.

We have been going through the entire story of the scripture.

We've broken up the whole story of the Bible into 14 different series.

We've been making our way through those, and we are now in this series called Shattered and Scattered.

This is our ninth series.

For the last few weeks, I've been saying it was our eighth series, and I had a panic attack.

Not really, I had a moment of panic because I was doing the math on how many Sundays we have left and how many series we have left, and I was like, oh no, I'm behind.

But no, it's not the eighth, it's the ninth.

We are right on schedule.

This is exciting.

This series is called Shattered and Scattered.

We're exploring this really pivotal but also difficult part of the story of the Bible.

And it's the moment where the nation of Israel falls apart.

If you open up a Bible and you begin to read the earliest stories, you read about this group of people that God chooses, he sort of picks them out of obscurity.

They become known as the Hebrew nation, the Israelites.

He rescues them from slavery in Egypt.

He establishes them as a nation.

He protects them against other more powerful nations that surround them, time and time again.

And he decides that it's going to be this group of people that he uses to reveal himself to the entire world through.

And ultimately that happens.

And next week we get to a series called The New Human.

And it's Jesus.

Next week we get to Jesus.

Actually, sorry, two weeks from now, I'm like really bad at all of this.

Wait, one final thing, two weeks, never.

Very soon we'll be at the moment when Jesus steps onto the scene.

We're right about there.

And this moment it's it's interesting, but it illustrates something really powerful about Scripture.

Because even though this is a situation that none of us have ever been in before, where you know your entire nation falls apart.

It may feel like that sometimes, but but for them it wasn't just a it seems like our nation is struggling.

No, their nation was conquered, completely destroyed, shattered.

Their people are scattered.

They've been like militarily conquered by another nation, their capital city destroyed, their temple completely and totally destroyed.

They have no place to worship, they don't belong anywhere.

Their people are scattered to all the different parts of this new empire that's in control of them.

Their lives are over as they know it.

And yet, even though that's the situation and it happened thousands of years ago, the stories that we have from this section of Scripture are some of the most relatable stories that we have in the entirety of God's Word.

Because they're stories of people who find themselves living in a broken world.

They live in a world that does not make sense.

They feel like foreigners.

The world around them does not share their values.

It does not share their convictions.

They don't live in a culture that's going to help them live well and honor God.

In fact, in many situations, their culture values such different things that it's hostile to their beliefs and the things they hold true.

And if they're going to honor God, to live for God, and to live successful lives in these cultures, they have to thread a needle.

It's a difficult situation.

Because their culture is not going to help them along at all.

They've got to go against the grain.

And we can all relate to that.

We really can, because to be a believer, to be a Jesus follower in in our world, and it's been like this, by the way, always.

Jesus is always counter-cultural.

But to be a Jesus follower in our world and our culture means that there's going to be a lot of situations we find ourselves in, and we're like the odd one out.

That we don't agree, that we don't we don't believe that's true, that we can't just go along with that because it's what everyone else is doing, that we have to sort of stand our ground, that we have to hold to convictions, that we have to live differently.

And so these stories, we can relate to them.

These are people trying to live well, trying to be successful in life, trying to do whatever they're supposed to do for their families, all the while being part of a culture that sees the world very differently than they do.

And their stories become blueprints for us on how to navigate a difficult, broken world.

We live in a broken world.

But it's not a lost world.

Because God doesn't give up on people.

And these stories show us that even when it seems impossible, even when it seems like it's never going to work, there's always a way.

And so a few weeks ago we looked at the story of Daniel.

He's one of the first people that's shipped off to Babylon when the Babylonians conquered Israel.

And then last week we went through the stories that we find in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and today we get to the story of Esther.

It's one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture, and we'll probably make this a two-parter because her story needs to be told in completion.

I love the story of Esther.

I'm not just saying that.

I'm not just trying to like get the ladies in the room to be like, yeah, Esther, you know.

No, my daughter, I have one girl, three boys, one girl.

And I thank God all the time that I have one girl, and I thank God all the time that I have one girl.

Dads with daughters, you can you can relate to that, right?

You can.

No, her middle name is Esther.

This story in scripture has always been one that's really spoken to me.

And I think Esther really stands at like the top tier of some of the heroes that we have in biblical history.

She's incredible, she's amazing, and she is in an unbelievably difficult situation, as we're going to find today.

And it's a situation that she has to navigate perfectly if she wants to survive it, and especially if she wants to be useful to God and to her people.

Esther is a really incredible story.

Now it's a very interesting story because it's actually the only book that we have in all of Scripture where God is never mentioned by name one time.

There's not any moment in the book of Esther that it actually talks about God.

And so you can be led to believe if you read the book of Esther that God doesn't do anything.

That God doesn't show up.

And the last stories that we've looked at, the stories of Daniel and the stories in Ezra and Nehemiah, there's moments where God shows up and it's obvious, especially in Daniel's life.

Like God does things, and it's clear.

In Ezra and Nehemiah's story, it's not like there's some big miracle that happens, but it's very clear as you read that, oh, God moved on the heart of the king and gave this person favor.

Or God, God reminded the king of this or that, and they were able to succeed in their mission.

But there's no mention of anything like that at all in the book of Esther.

And you can be led to believe that God is like taking some time off.

That Esther just so happens to live in an era where God has clocked out.

But of course that's not true.

God is always working.

He's always working.

In Matthew, Jesus was accused by the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day, who were all uptight about everything all the time.

He was accused of breaking their Sabbath laws because he would perform miracles.

He would heal people on the Sabbath, and they weren't supposed to work on the Sabbath.

And Jesus responds in Matthew by saying this, rather, John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

He says, The Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules.

Jesus replies, My father is always working, and so am I.

God is always at work.

He doesn't sleep, he doesn't take breaks.

God is always working.

And he's always working on our behalf.

He's always working on behalf of his children, of his people, even when it doesn't seem like it.

Romans chapter 8, verse 28 says, We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Romans 8:28

God is always at work.

And if you read the story of Esther, even though God isn't mentioned by name, there's just too many like it just so happened moments in Esther to not see that God's at work.

There's all these things that happen, and it's like you read the story, oh, and it just so happens that.

And you're like, okay, God is working.

But it's still important for us to stop before we jump into the story and say, well, why then doesn't it just outright mention that?

It would be so simple to say, and then God did this behind the scenes and it led to success, but Esther never tells us that.

And I was praying about it this week and just going, okay, this is interesting, this is worth spending a few moments on.

What does this teach us?

And I think what it teaches us is that at times God is okay working behind the scenes without us being aware of what he's doing.

God is okay with us not knowing what he's up to.

And that's challenging because I don't know about you.

I would love it if God would just tell me what he's doing.

That would be so nice.

In fact, at a newcomer meeting we had just a few weeks ago, there was an awesome question that was asked.

This person raised their hand and said, Can you can you tell us like the five-year plan of the church?

And I said, I cannot.

I don't have one.

I don't.

What I do know is that in January of 2020, I did a series called 2020 vision.

And it was about how important it is to see ahead and like, you know, plan for the future.

And I had all the, and then, you know, 2020 was a great year to have that message at the start of the year.

Like, let's start 2020 with 2020 vision.

What is your year gonna look like?

Decide right now, make a decision, and never mind.

You know?

No, we don't, we don't know what, we don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow, we don't know what's gonna happen five years from now for sure.

And God's kind of okay with that.

You know, it would be nice if he just told us, here's what I'm gonna do, don't worry, here's how it's gonna all play out.

But there's a level of faith and dependence and maturity that we develop when we have the faith to recognize that God is working because he's always working.

God is always doing something, he is working out everything together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

If you belong to Jesus, I'm telling you, he's working even when you don't feel it, but he's okay with you not knowing that.

He's okay with you not being aware of that.

And in the midst of that dynamic, what we find, and we definitely find this in the story of Esther, is that our decisions, our choices, in the absence of what seems like God's direct intervention, our decisions and our choices really matter.

Sometimes we find ourselves waiting on God just to do something.

And sometimes he does.

Sometimes he does.

But very often when we're in difficult situations in life and we're just living life trying to do our best, we have decisions that we have to make, and we don't know 100% for sure whether or not it's the it's the decision God wants us to make or not, but we have to make a decision.

We have to make a choice, we have to do our best, and our choices matter.

The story of Esther teaches us that we always have a choice, even in times where it feels like we don't.

It's a very common situation to find yourself in where you feel like you don't have a choice.

Like life has made choices for you.

You don't understand the circumstances are such that I have no choice.

I didn't have a choice but to quit or to leave or to fight or to say what I said or to stay silent.

I I didn't have a choice.

Do you ever find yourself in situations where you feel like you don't have a choice?

I'll give you an example.

Um, I got two.

One one happens all the time at my house.

I talk about this a lot.

I have four kids, they're great, lots of material is given by my children.

And um right now I'm I'm spending a lot of time sort of mitigating fights, like actual fights between my youngest two boys.

Just for my own personal benefit, if you don't mind.

Has anyone else ever raised two boys close together in age?

Any am I not alone in that?

Did they like physically assault each other a fairly?

Is that is it just me?

I need to like show of hands.

How many of you?

Okay, good.

Good.

All right, I just wanted to know.

Um yeah, no, so they're gonna be tough.

These two boys are gonna be tough because they they go at it sometimes.

And there's times where I hear it happening and I decide to stop it.

There's other times where I'm like, let's see how this plays out.

And it's not just to be funny.

I think sometimes like boys need to learn how it feels to be punched in the face and how to respond to that.

But the number of times that I will, I will it gets to that point, it gets physical, one of them hits the other one, and then I have to say, hey, why did you hit your brother?

And and it's amazing listening to their rationale.

For why, in their opinion, they had no other choice.

It I had, I had to, I had to.

So literally three days ago, there's a there's a punch.

It was actually a slap.

And it was my youngest slapping my second youngest, and so hard that there's this giant red handprint on my my second youngest face or back.

I can't remember where it was.

They they hit each other a lot.

It changes.

Um their body.

And uh, and so I'm I I yell like, and this is awesome.

They're upstairs, I yell, Eli! I yell his name, and I yell in that way that you know as a child that you were in serious trouble, right?

Like, I yell his name, and what emerges is a five-year-old boy with only two things on a pair of underwear, thank God, and a nice pair of wireless headphones.

He's just underwear and headphones, and he's standing at the stairs, and I'm like, you know, as you find yourself as a parent, you're trying so hard not to laugh.

Like, this is a weird situation.

I said, Hey, did you hit your brother?

And he's like, I can't hear you because of the headphones.

Like, take him off now.

So he pulls him off.

And I did you hit your brother?

Yes, and Eli has a lisp right now, he doesn't say S as well, so it was yes.

You know, he says, Yes.

I was like, all right, why?

Tell me why you hit your brother.

And he says, Well, he was playing a video game and listening to the wireless headphones, and I couldn't hear what was happening.

And so I tried to tell him that I wanted to hear what was happening, and he couldn't hear me, so I pulled the wireless headphones off of his head and I put them on my head so I could hear them.

And then he wanted them back, and I didn't want him to have them back, so I ran away from him, and he chased me trying to take the headphones off of me, and so I hit him.

And I was like, number one, well articulated.

Thank you.

I know exactly like I know exactly what happened.

But in his mind, and this happens all the time, it's like I had no choice.

I he was trying to take the headphones, so what am I supposed to do?

I hit him.

That was my only option, that was the only viable option that I saw.

I hit him.

And this happens all the time at home.

My kids will tell me that the reason they made this poor decision was because they had no other choice.

But how often do we find ourselves in similar situations as people that we literally feel like I have no choice?

I'm in the situation, it's really hard.

This dynamic at work is tough.

My boss is an idiot, my boss is a jerk, the person I'm married to is pick your word.

Um, and like I just, what am I supposed to do?

I have no choice.

And we find ourselves often justifying poor decisions because we feel like it's the only viable option that we have.

Like life and our circumstances have put us in a corner, where our backs against a wall, or between a rock and a hard place, whatever other metaphor you want for a difficult situation, and we have no choice but to respond this way.

And that's not true.

We always have a choice.

The story of Esther teaches us that no matter your situation, even when it seems like God is not doing something, even when you have no idea what God is up to, and your circumstances seem as dire and as difficult as you can possibly imagine, you always have a choice.

It's funny, I was telling someone about that this morning, and I was holding a diet Pepsi in my hand, and they were like, uh, and they said, Why are you drinking Diet Pepsi?

And I just got done talking about what the message was about this morning, and I literally was like, Oh, I didn't have a choice.

I went through Dunkin' Donuts with my kids, and I wanted some, I wanted some caffeine, I'm not a coffee drinker, and I said, I'll have a diet coke.

And they said, We have Pepsi, and I was like, Oh, well, I guess that's what I'm doing.

And I made a regrettable decision, and I drank a diet Pepsi, and I didn't enjoy it.

And I literally said to this person, like, I didn't have a choice.

And I was like, What am I saying?

I just I could have said no.

I reject your diet Pepsi.

Make better decisions and drove off, but I didn't.

Apologies to the Pepsi fans, I'm sorry.

No, we always have a choice.

We really do.

So, with that said, with that mindset, we're gonna jump into the story of Esther.

And we're gonna spend this Sunday and next Sunday covering this story and looking at some of the choices that Esther and the people involved in her story make and learning the lessons that we learn from them.

Because we always, always have a choice.

Here's the story Esther chapter 2.

Esther 2 · chapter mention

This takes place in the Persian Empire, and it's led by a king named Xerxes at this point in time, and Xerxes finds himself in an interesting situation.

Uh, he has a giant party at his house, and there's a lot of alcohol involved, and he and all of his friends get super drunk.

And he has this brilliant idea as a drunk man, where he says, You know, my wife is very attractive.

I'll prove it to you guys.

And she's like, I'm gonna call my wife in, and I'm gonna have her kind of just parade herself in front of all of you, and then you can all agree with how attractive my wife is.

This is the story.

This is the story.

And Vashti is her name, and so she gets the invitation.

Hey, the king would like you to come and you know prove to all of his buddies how hot you are.

And Vashti's like, I'm not doing that at all.

And this embarrasses Xerxes in front of all of his friends, and he's like, I don't know, my my women weren't supposed to say no in that culture ever, at all.

And Vashti is like, no, not doing it.

So big shout out to Vashti.

And so the king is like, I he's torn, what do I do?

And his advisors say, and this is this is like you can read this, Esther chapter one.

They're like, this is a huge problem.

This is a huge problem.

Because when the when the kingdom finds out that Vashti said no to you, wives are gonna start saying no to their husbands left and right.

We're gonna have an epidemic of non-compliant wives in the Persian Empire.

So, Xerxes, you've got to do something.

And he's like, What should I do?

And they're like, Well, you've got to dismiss Vashti.

She's gone.

You gotta get rid of her.

And he agrees.

Xerxes is not the hero of this story.

Let me just say that.

He agrees, and he's like, but I need a wife.

I need like a queen.

What do I do?

And so they say, Hey, we have an idea.

And again, this I'm not I'm not exaggerating.

This is just what happens if you don't know the story.

He's like, What we got an idea?

How about we forcibly take beautiful women from their homes all over the empire?

Like, we find the most beautiful women that exist in this empire, and we remove them from their homes, and they become part of your harem, which is where all your concubines live, and you know, and then you can just like pick one to be your queen.

And he goes, That's a great idea.

And that's what happens.

And it just so happens that Esther, Esther is one of those beautiful women.

So you'll see that as the story plays out.

Let's just jump into verse one.

It says, After Xerxes' anger had subsided, he began thinking about Vashti and what she had done and the decree that he had made, and his personal attendants suggested, Let us search the empire to find beautiful young virgins for the king.

Let the king appoint agents in each province to bring these beautiful young women into the royal harem at the fortress of Susa.

Hagai, the king's eunuch in charge of the harem, will see that they are given all the beauty treatments that they need, and after that, the young women who the young woman who most pleases the king will be made queen instead of Ashti.

This advice was very appealing to the king.

So he put the plan into effect.

At that time there was a Jewish man in the fortress of Susa whose name was Mordecai, son of Jair.

He was from the tribe of Benjamin and was a descendant of Kish and Sheme.

His family had been among those who, with King Jehoichon of Judah, had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.

This man had a very beautiful and lovely young cousin, Hadassah, who was also called Esther.

When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter.

As a result of the king's decree, Esther, along with many other young women, was brought to the king's harem at the fortress of Susa and placed in Hagai's care.

Hagai was very impressed with Esther and treated her kindly.

He quickly ordered a special menu for her and provided her with beauty treatments.

He also assigned her seven maids specially chosen from the king's palace, and he moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem.

Esther had not told anyone of her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had directed her not to do so.

Every day, Mordecai would take a walk near the courtyard of the harem to find out about Esther and what was happening to her.

Now, quick show of hands, if you don't mind.

How many of you grew up in church, like as a kid?

You were like, you went to church, Sunday school, you learn stories, right?

Did anyone grow up learning, because this is how I learned it, that Esther was in like a beauty pageant and she was the prettiest one and she got to become queen.

Did anyone else learn that, or was it just how that story was told to me?

Okay, you guys grew up in churches that told you the truth.

That's good.

I was lied to.

I was told at a young age that Esther was pretty and there was a beauty pageant, and the king was like that one, and she was the queen, and it was like a happy story.

It's not so happy when you read it like this, because Esther, guys, is in an unbelievably dire, horrible situation on every level you can imagine.

Just by the fact that she's been brought into the king's harem, which is where the king in those ancient cultures was horrible, where the king would have all these women that were his concubines, they were his property.

And he could do with them as he wanted to do.

Her life is over.

That's her life now.

There's no going back.

There's not like you don't get to say if you're a concubine in the harem, hey, this isn't for me.

And they're like, oh, cool, well, go live your life.

No, no, you are now the property of the king.

And he's going to choose one of these women to be his queen.

And maybe that's the best thing that could happen, or maybe that's the worst thing that could happen.

I mean, Xerxes is he's a horrible guy.

But if the king doesn't choose you, it's not like you're released.

No, you are still the property of the king.

You will spend the rest of your life living in that harem.

You'll never marry.

You'll never have children of your own.

This is you.

This is your life now.

You are the property of the king, and this is Esther's world.

Now she's she's Jewish.

She's one of the people that were captured and brought over.

Her parents were.

She's never seen her homeland.

Her uncle had, but Mordecai, or her cousin rather, he had.

But all she's ever known is life in this foreign culture in the Persian Empire, this horrible place.

And now any hope that she has of going back home, which is a reality that just became available a few years earlier.

The Jewish people were finally allowed to go back to Jerusalem, but she hasn't gone back yet, that's gone.

That's over.

That will not happen.

She is now a concubine in the king's court.

And the only question is whether or not she will be chosen as queen.

This is a horrible situation.

You want to feel like a you want to talk about a situation where you feel like you have no choices.

Like you feel like, like, what agency do I have?

What can I possibly do in this situation to better my life?

She has none.

If there's ever been a person who could say, yeah, like I just surrendered to the circumstances of my life, Esther could be that person.

But that's not the way the story goes.

So as we keep reading in Esther chapter 2, it says, Before each young woman was taken to the king's bed, she was given the prescribed twelve months of beauty treatments.

Esther 2 · chapter mention

Six months with oil of myrrh, followed by six months with special perfumes and ointments.

When it was time for her to go to the king's palace, she was given her choice of whatever clothing or jewelry she wanted to take from the harem.

That evening she was taken to the king's private rooms, and the next morning she was brought to the second harem where the king's wives lived.

There she would be under the care of Shazgaz.

I probably said that wrong.

Um, the king's eunuch in charge of all the concubines.

She would never go to the king again unless he had especially enjoyed her and requested her by name.

I mean, we were talking about an absolutely awful existence.

Esther was the daughter of Abbail, who was Mordecai's uncle.

Mordecai had adopted his younger cousin Esther, and when it was Esther's turn to go to the king, she accepted the advice of Haggai, the eunuch in charge of the harem.

She asked for nothing except what he suggested, and she was admired by everyone who saw her.

Esther was taken to King Xerxes at the royal palace in early winter of the seventh year of his reign.

And the king loved Esther more than any of the other young women.

He was so delighted with her that he set the royal crown on her head and declared her queen instead of Vashti.

To celebrate the occasion, he gave a great banquet in Esther's honor for all his nobles and officials, declaring a public holiday for the provinces and giving generous gifts to everyone.

Even after all the young women had been transferred to the second harem and Mordecai had become a palace official, Esther continued to keep her family background and nationality a secret.

She was still following Mordecai's directions just as she did when she lived in his home.

So, Esther, this young Jewish girl living in a foreign culture, a very, very broken world, is kidnapped, forcibly removed from her home, made to be a concubine of the king, and is now forced to live that life no matter if she wants to or not, she has no choice in that matter.

She's in a situation now where she can just surrender to her circumstances and say, this is my plight, this is my life, it's over.

I have no future as I know it.

My only options are either the king likes me and chooses me.

And again, is that the good option or is that the worst option?

I don't I don't really know.

Or I just live in this place completely isolated from the world for the rest of my life.

She is in a horrible situation.

And yet she does become a queen.

And as we're gonna find as the story progresses, God has He has an immense plan for Esther and for her life.

She's there for a reason.

Next week we're gonna get to this enemy in the story, a man named Haman, who hates the Jewish people.

And he comes up with this plan to have all of the Jewish people, all of the Jewish people in Persia exterminated, completely eradicated.

It just so happens that what Haman doesn't know is that the new queen happens to be Jewish as well.

He doesn't know that.

Again, God is always at work, and we'll see that in the story.

But right now, what I want us to focus on very briefly as we wrap up is this simple choice that Esther makes repeatedly in the verses that we just read.

And it's a choice that we always have in any circumstance that we live in.

Like I said, we find ourselves in situations sometimes where it feels like we don't have a choice.

It feels like life has forced our hand, we're in a difficult situation, and we what else can we do?

We we we just we have to do this.

We justify our circumstances to make bad decisions, but we always, always have a choice.

And Esther chooses.

At the beginning of this story, she chooses to be a listener.

Esther chooses to listen to the wise advice of those around her.

We see it happen a couple times in the story, right?

Mordecai, her cousin, who's adopted her, says, Hey, whatever you do, do not tell anyone your nationality.

Do not tell anyone where you come from who you are.

You're just gonna have to trust me on that.

And Esther does so.

She listens to Mordecai.

She doesn't necessarily understand why.

Mordecai doesn't really make it clear why.

We can infer that maybe she had some understanding that the Jewish people were not looked upon favorably.

Maybe it would have made her less likely to be chosen as king, but as we're gonna see next week, the fact that her heritage is a secret ends up saving her people.

But she listens, she doesn't let that slip.

Think about it.

It took months, months for her to finally go to the king.

It was like 12 months of preparation just for that.

So for 12 months, she has to keep her nationality a secret.

That was hard to do if you were a Jewish person.

They had all kinds of different customs and their prayers.

It was, it wouldn't have been easy for her to do that, but she did that.

And for 12 months, she never let that slip.

That takes some self-control.

And it wasn't just that.

When she finally got to that situation where it was time for her to go to the king and go through that horrible ordeal, she chose to listen to the advisor.

She said, it says that she didn't she didn't pick out anything other than what that guy told her.

Her clothing, whatever she did, all of that, she just she listened to the advice of this guy who just so happens to know the king really well.

And she does what he says.

And because of that, because she listens, because she she chooses in an unbelievably difficult situation to listen to those around her, she ends up being chosen as queen.

And finds herself in this position of influence.

Is her life in a good place?

No.

Is it like every girl's dream come true?

No.

No, it's the furthest thing from that.

But she's now in a position of influence.

And she now has the opportunity to do something, as we're gonna find next week, that that changes her people's history.

And none of that would have happened if she would have ignored the advice of Mordecai and the advice of the officials that were in charge of her.

It's a very, very small thing to listen.

But it's one of the easiest decisions to skip out on in life.

It's amazing how often we find ourselves in situations where we've got difficult decisions to make and we feel like we gotta make it fast, and the one thing we decide to skip is to pause and get some wisdom, get some advice.

But the decision to listen saved Esther.

The choice to seek out the wisdom that was around her, it set her apart, and it will do the same for you.

Do you value listening?

And maybe a deeper question is who do you listen to?

Like, who do you listen to?

Now I'm gonna say this, you guys are you have a huge leg up on the rest of the world.

And it's not because you're listening to me.

That doesn't give you any leg up at all.

Just ask my family.

Like, no, you listen to the Lord.

Just being here at church on a Sunday morning, it just shows that you are dedicated or at the very least interested in getting a perspective that's beyond you.

And that's vital and that's valuable.

Because no matter what situation we find ourselves in, no matter what stressful situations at work or at home, we always have the ability to stop and say, no, no, before I make my decision, I will choose to listen.

To listen.

Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it will not collapse because it is built, it is built on bedrock.

Jesus makes us a promise.

I mean, it's a huge promise.

He says, if you listen to my teaching and you do it, you apply it.

If you make my teaching the foundation for your life, Jesus says that when storms come, when challenges come, when difficult situations hit your life, you will still be standing.

Because your life is built on bedrock.

The teachings of Jesus.

Do you listen to Jesus?

And I know you do.

But I'll tell you this: like I I could listen to him a lot more.

Who do you listen to?

Who do you go to for advice?

Who do you spend time listening to?

Whose voice plays the most in your mind?

This is something I think about all the time.

And I talk about it from time to time because I think it's so vital for us.

We live in a world where there are so many options, there are so many voices to listen to.

There's so many podcasts.

Right?

There's so many personalities that we can listen to.

There's so many talking heads, there's so many, I mean, especially if you're into politics and all that kind of stuff, there's so many people out there who are basically begging you to listen to what they have to say and telling you this is the way you should see the world.

And it's so easy in our culture, in our time, to listen to so many, so many voices, but forget to recognize that not all voices are equal.

That not all opinions are on the same footing.

That there should be one voice that rises above all the other voices, and that's the voice of Jesus.

That he should be our teacher, that he should be the one that we put ourselves underneath and we listen to the most.

And when we find ourselves in a difficult situation, we say, you know what, what do I do?

What am I supposed to do?

I feel like I have no choice.

I feel like I have to go this way.

I feel compelled to say this or do this, but no, I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna ask, what would my Jesus have me do?

Lord, what do you say about this?

What do you say about this?

Jesus talked a lot.

He did, he talked a lot.

In fact, in a few weeks, we'll be in a series that's all about the teachings of Jesus.

But but it's very it's very normal as Jesus followers, kind of in our modern American culture, to become far more familiar with what Jesus did and less familiar with what he said.

And I want you to know that like those words of Jesus are true.

That if you make it your life's purpose to listen to Jesus, for his voice, for his opinion, to be the guiding voice in your life, you will have a life built on bedrock.

Choose to listen to Jesus, but but that choice isn't always easy because there's a lot of other options.

We're told in 2 Timothy 4, verse 3, that a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching.

2 Timothy 4:3

They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.

Now it's amazing to me that this is written thousands of years ago before the concept of like social media algorithms was a thing.

And if you're aware of how all that works, which I'm sure you are, um, most of what you see online has been decided by some type of algorithm for you to see.

Based on the things you've already watched, things you've already seen, all the history that you have.

It's like, hey, we think you'll like this, and it pushes something to you that you are inclined to agree with.

And I don't know if you ever get sucked into that, where like you're on YouTube or something something, and it's like the next one, the next one, the next one, you're like, how did I get here?

That's because we live in a world that pushes content to us all the time, and it's content that is not designed to challenge you.

It's content that isn't designed to make you see things from a different perspective.

It's not even content that's designed to better your life, it's content that's designed for you to like, to agree with.

And they're pretty good at going, hey, based on all this, we think you'll agree with this.

It's just so interesting that the scripture 2,000 years ago said that a time will come when people will seek out with itching ears whatever they already want to hear.

And maybe now more than ever is a time where we have to be resolute as people to say, you know what, I have to make the choice, the conscious choice in my life to be a listener, and I'm going to listen to Jesus.

If Esther hadn't chosen to listen, at the forefront of her story, everything we get to next week and next week, guys, it gets it gets awesome.

If you know the story of Esther, it's amazing.

But none of that would have happened.

All the cool stuff that's about to happen next week, all the moments in the story we're gonna read about, you're like, are you kidding me?

That happened, it's it's awesome, it's epic, it's amazing.

None of it would have happened, none of it, if she hadn't chosen to listen.

And so I know that on one hand, it's like here we are, and we got together and we worship, and we're about to wrap up.

In fact, worship team, you guys can make your way out.

And all we've talked about so far is this young woman who listened to some advice.

That's it, that's the whole takeaway.

But listening, listening is like a rare talent.

Do you know somebody that's a good listener?

Anyone like know someone in your life?

You'd be like, they're a really good listener.

Anyone married to a good listener?

Just out of curiosity.

There are so few hands in the air right now.

It's amazing.

You need to have a conversation about that with your spouse.

If you've ever been around someone who can really listen, like they really, really listen.

It's amazing, right?

Like it's it's it's truly powerful to be around someone who truly listens and hears you.

I want us to understand today, like, I hope you have people in your life like that, absolutely fine people like that, but but I really want us to focus on the fact right now as we wrap up that that's Jesus.

That Jesus hears us, that Jesus listens to us, that when you pray, you're not praying to just some idea of a person, you're not praying to some you know dead historical figure.

Jesus is alive and he listens to us.

He hears us.

That's why Jesus was able to say things like, Hey, when you pray and you ask for something in my name, I'll I'll grant it.

Like I can respond to you in that way.

Jesus listens to us.

But we need to listen to him.

We need to be people committed to letting what Jesus says be the guiding voice for every decision that we make.

And before we make a decision, especially before we make a big one, we need to ask the question have I heard from the Lord on this?

And that doesn't mean you just pray and a voice pops in your head and is like, do this.

Like that, that's awesome if that happens, but it means you you know what he said already.

You listen to his words, you know the things that he's already taught you through scripture, and you're familiar with who he is and what he's done and what he's said to the point where if someone were to try to come to you and say, Oh, I think Jesus would want you to do that, you'd be like, No, Jesus would never, ever say that.

Because I know that Jesus has already said this.

I just want to challenge all of us today to be resolute in our commitment to be deep listeners of our God.

Through his word, through prayer, because he listens to you.

It's like a relational thing, it's really beautiful.

In fact, we're gonna wrap up by taking Lord's Supper, and so if you have the cup, go ahead and grab that.

If you didn't grab it on the way in, you can.

Every week we take this little meal together, and it's a way for us to get our eyes on Jesus.

And every week for me, it's a little bit of an emergency because we we do this every week.

Every week, and most of the time it's it's at this moment of the morning, and I'm leading it, and I'm trying to like, I don't want it to just become this like rote thing that we do every week where it's like, okay, now we go through the ritual and we say the every week it's like, okay, Lord, help me see this from a new angle.

Okay, this morning we're talking about listening.

We're talking about listening, choosing to be a listener like Esther.

We always have a choice.

Let's choose to be like what does that have to do with this?

And it occurred to me uh about two hours ago as I was praying about this, like Lord, I really don't yet know what to say during Lord's Supper.

Like, help me.

I was like, oh, maybe I should just listen to Jesus.

And so I open up the Bible, because he's in there a lot.

Some Bibles even make his words really obvious with red letters, like it's not hard to find.

And I turned to the chapter and I read through his little conversation here.

And I was just like, okay, what if I just listened to what you actually said and believed it?

What if we started there?

Here's what Jesus said to his closest friends and disciples He said, Take this bread.

So let's all take the bread.

He said, This is my body given to you.

This is my body given to you.

Listen to that for a moment.

Jesus has given himself to you.

Just listen to that.

Jesus Christ.

And I don't know where you stand on who Jesus is.

Many of you are decided in that, some of you figuring that out, that's fine, but but I believe that Jesus Christ is who he says he is, that he is the beginning and the end, he is the creator of all, he is everything.

Jesus is God and He has given Himself to you.

Years before, centuries before, the prophet Jeremiah said that a time would come when God would be ours.

God said, I will I will call you mine, but you can call me yours.

It's like the idea of God belonging to us.

Well, how in the world could God belong to you if He's given Himself to you?

He belongs to you.

Listen to this, Jesus said, This is my body given to you.

Let's pray and take the bread.

Father, thank you for this bread and for what it means.

Lord, help us listen to your words.

You have given yourself to us completely and wholly, and we can listen to you and we can learn from you every single moment of every single day because you are alive and you are at work in our lives.

As we take this bread, remind us of that.

Take the bread.

So let's listen to that.

Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice to forgive you for your sins.

And so that means if any of you are here this morning, or even those watching from home, and you've got some guilt about some area of life where you just know you haven't been doing great, you messed up, maybe you messed up really bad, and it's it's bad, it's not good.

What do you do with that?

You sit in church and you're like, ah, maybe you avoid going to church, and you're someone's gonna listen to this later in the week because they didn't want to be here this morning because they just felt too guilty in light of recent events to be in church.

But we never have to feel that way.

Why?

Well, listen to what Jesus says.

This is my blood given as an offering for the forgiveness of your sins.

Your sins are forgiven by God, all of them, every single one of them.

Listen to that.

Whatever your greatest mistake is in life, doesn't matter.

It's done, paid for, washed away.

Whether that was last week, last year, decades ago, doesn't matter.

Completely and totally forgiven, because that's what Jesus said.

Just listen to it.

So let's pray and let's take the juice.

Father, thank you for this juice and for what it represents, what it means.

Thank you, Lord, that you've forgiven us of everything, that we have no guilt before you because of the sacrifice of your son.

Let's take the juice.

Guys, as we wrap up, I uh I sort of struggled this week a little bit with this one.

I love the story of Esther, and I wanted to tell the whole story in one Sunday, and it just wasn't just wasn't gonna work.

And I got caught with this idea of just simply being devoted to listening.

I know in many ways this is not some like earth-shattering whoa, holy cow, but I do believe with all of my heart that if you made it your purpose this week to listen to the Lord, or at the very least to listen more than you normally do, to listen so intently that it's like the number one thing you crave on a daily basis is to hear from Him.

So that you open up scripture and say, Lord, what do you have for me?

Show me through your word, so that you pray more than you normally pray and say, Lord, so that you've got some decision to make at work, at home, you've got something big going on, you're like, Lord, I need your help.

There's a situation at school for our students, and you're like, Lord, I don't know what to do.

I want to hear from you.

If you make it your purpose this week to listen to Jesus, to take a cue from Esther and be a listener.

I believe the Lord will honor that.

I believe that He will, like Esther, set you apart and you will see a benefit from that.

You will be put in positions of influence to where you know that your life has meaning and your decisions matter.

Like we're gonna see in Esther's story next week.

So don't forget to be here next week.

Esther's story is epic.

I can't wait to close it out.

But this week, be a listener.