VIA | Same God | Esther | Clayton Heath

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Alright, Via, how are we doing tonight?

My name is Hannah, and I have the privilege of sharing a little bit of my testimony and sharing our scripture for tonight.

Before Jesus, I was a fraud.

On the outside, I was really good at pretending everything was okay, that I was following the Lord, doing everything that I was supposed to, but truthfully, on the inside, I was very broken and I had zero hope.

And I allowed myself to fall in with the world, which then just led me down a very hard and uh shameful past of addictions.

And for a long time, I figured out, I figured I could just do this on my own.

I can fight my own battles, but every time I tried, I failed.

And I would fail and fail and fail.

And so finally I called out to the Lord to rescue me.

And praise Jesus, He did.

And so now I get to stand here before you today, unashamed of where the Lord has taken me, because in my weakness his power is made strong.

And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.

This is the word of the Lord.

Can we thank Hannah for sharing her testimony and reading the scripture tonight?

You guys can go ahead and have a seat.

Hello and welcome to Via.

It is so nice to see you.

If we haven't met, my name is Clayton Heath, and I'm a uh part of our team here at Sodel Young Adults.

I want us to do this before we start.

I want you to look at somebody, whether you know them or not, uh to your right, behind you, to your left, and in front of you, and say, aren't you uh I'm so glad to be a via with you.

I am so glad to be a via with you.

If you have your Bibles, I'm gonna invite you to turn with me to Esther chapter 4.

Esther 4 · chapter mention

Esther is in the Old Testament, it's in the part of the Bible that contains the things that happened uh before the life of Jesus.

Esther is kind of there, uh, it's after Genesis, it's before Psalms, you know, you can kind of like kind of guesstimate where it is in there if you know your Bibles.

And then hopefully on your way in, you gotta worship God from our home team.

We give those to you for lots of reasons, but by now you know that we give them to you because it is no small thing that God is the creator of the universe and he speaks to you and me.

And so when he does, we want to be sure to pay attention and write down the things that he says.

We are uh in our series, our collection of talks called Same God.

And what we've been doing is we've been looking at stories in the Old Testament for a couple of different reasons.

So one is that for some of these stories, many of us, if you grew up in church, it can be a long time since you've revisited those stories.

And so they kind of live in your mind the way that you learn them as a seven-year-old through veggie tales.

And while that's great, uh the Bible is a never-ending fountain of God's wisdom, and we find when we revisit these, uh, we see them in a new light.

And then, of course, we also remember that when we read these stories, the God who we read about, who parts the Red Sea, who shuts the lion's mouth, who pushes, uh, you know, strengthens Samson to push down the pillars, the very God that we read about in the Old Testament is indeed, friend, the same God that you and I worship.

And so tonight we continue.

And listen, if I can just be honest with you, I'm juiced every Thursday about Via, and I'm juiced every time that we get to preach uh about God's word, and I'm particularly juiced, some would say, about what I think God wants to speak to you tonight.

Because I want to start out with a question.

This is the question that I want to ask you with.

I want to ask you: has there ever been a time when you've asked the Lord, God, why on earth have you put me where you've put me?

God, I don't know why you're doing what you're doing right now in my life.

Why am I in this job?

Why am I at this school?

Why am I in this friend group?

Why did I grow up with this family?

Why are you doing what you're doing to me?

Other people aren't in my situation, God.

Other people seem to be having it a little bit better than what I'm having it.

And I just wanted to know if I could get a little cut of that action.

If you've ever felt that on any level, the tension of saying, I believe God is good, I believe God has a plan for my life, but when I look around at my life, I can't see, I can't seem to understand why God would allow these things to happen in my life, why God of all people, the one who's the maker of heaven and earth, has placed me in this situation in the first place.

If you've ever felt that tension, friends, we're in good company tonight.

Because that's where we find our sister Esther.

That's who we're talking about.

It's Queen Esther in the Old Testament.

Now, hand up, we don't really talk about Esther very much.

Sometimes I think it's because, you know, we kind of get pigeonholed into this idea that, like, well, you know, Esther's a woman, so she's just for the women.

You know what I mean?

Let me just tell you right now, that's not true for us.

Somebody say amen.

And other times we can read the story, and honestly, it's just like, it's just so extreme and so like seemingly unrelatable that it's just like a ridiculous story that has no bearing on my life in the 21st century.

And so I don't really know how I'm gonna read it.

But the truth that we're gonna discover tonight, and the sermon in a sentence, if my sermon in a sentence, if you get home and you, your mama calls you and said, How was Via tonight?

You can say, This is great, we talked about this.

What I want you to know tonight is that you don't have to know why you're here to be faithful while you're here.

You don't have to know, friend, why you are here in order for you to be faithful while you are here.

The story of Esther is a story about God's faithfulness and provision and protection and our participation in the story that God has written.

If you know your Bibles, you know that Esther is a Jewish orphan growing up in Persia.

That might not mean that many things to you, but what that means for her is she's a woman in Persia.

She's Jewish, she doesn't have any parents.

That's what those things mean.

And this is gonna be particularly significant for her because she lives in Persia.

The Israelites are not living in the promised land, in the land of Canaan, in Jerusalem, in where we think they are supposed to be.

They've been conquered.

She's an ethnic minority, she's a woman.

The Israelites have been beaten by the Babylonians, and then the Persians beat the Babylonians, and so all this happens in exile.

If you consider yourself a Bible buff, this is written about the same time that Ezra and Nehemiah are written, if you want to learn a little fact.

She's a Jewish orphan woman living in exile.

She's a minority, she does not have any power, friends.

This is not Abraham, this is not Noah, this is not Samson, she's not like Jacob.

She is not like the other people.

And if you know the Bible, then Esther starts out with telling us about someone who's not Esther, the queen.

It says the king and the queen, queen Voshdi, they're hanging out.

And King in your Bible, uh, it will call him Ahasuerus.

If you consider yourself a history buff, that person, my friend, is gonna be King Xerxes.

You're like, I didn't pay attention in eighth-grade history class, Clayton, I don't know who that is.

Well, if you consider yourself a movie buff, my friend, then this King Xerxes is King Xerxes who goes and bites the Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae in the movie of 300.

Everybody remember that movie, you know, the weird chain-looking dude who like a ride with the elephant or something like that?

That guy.

That's the king we're dealing with.

And so, yeah, him.

So here's what happens.

You ready?

Xerxes, King X, he tells him and his boys get drunk.

They throw a party, a rager.

And he says to Queen Voshti, hey girlfriend, why don't you do a little number so my boys can look at you?

And she says, No, thank you very much.

And you know what happens to Queen V?

She's out of here.

See his sister, she's gone.

We don't know what happened to her.

Except we know what happened to her.

Do you know what I mean?

This is what happens.

And so then the king says, I can't be a king without a queen, I need a queen.

So the boys in the country, the power, the boys in power, they put a committee together and they're like, We're gonna round up all the best looking women for you, pal, and we're gonna bring them to you, and you're gonna pick which queen you want.

And Esther, remember, the minority woman, the woman, the orphan, the Jewish person, she gets taken to the king, and she gets picked.

They pick her over and over again.

You know what it says in your Bibles?

And she was very good to look at.

She's a she's a rocket.

She's a tin, friends.

But here's what we gotta remember: we have to think less beauty pageant here.

Think more objectification of women.

This is not something she signed up for and trained for and has her dance because she's gonna impress the judges.

She doesn't even tell the people, King Xerxes, King X, that she's a Jew.

In other words, if we could try to put this on a similar level, this would be somehow a little bit like if Vladimir Putin's wife mysteriously disappeared, and then he picks a new queen and he doesn't know that she's Ukrainian.

That's a little bit of the kind of the similar situation.

But while she's queen, this guy named Haman rises to power, and he's got beef with her uncle Mordecai, who's the one who's raised her, and so Haman's like, you know what, I'm gonna kill all the Jews in all of Persia.

And a royal decree goes out.

He convinces X, our boy, King Xerxes, to kill all these joys, so the royal decree goes out.

And suddenly, remember our girl, the orphan, the Jewish woman living in Persia, the woman, the powerless one, she finds herself in the palace of the king in the exact moment that her people need someone there.

But you want to know something crazier?

God is never mentioned in the book of Esther.

There's no burning bush.

His name doesn't show up.

There's no prophet of God, there's no opening of heaven, there's no verse that says, And the word of the Lord, Lord, came to Esther, and yet God is everywhere in the book.

If you're taking notes tonight, the first thing I want you to write down is this is that you don't have to understand your placement to trust God's providence.

You don't have to understand your placement to trust God's providence.

Esther is queen.

Her uncle Mordecai is the one who's raised her, and he's still giving counsel to her as she's been picked for the queen and navigating this new position.

And they over uncover this plan for genocide, for the complete extermination of the Jews.

And in Esther verse chapter four, we get one of the most famous verses in Scripture.

And when talking about the prospect of facing the killing of her people, being chosen to be queen all of her life, her uncle says to her in Esther chapter 4 look at it in your Bibles, verse 13, he says, Who knows?

Esther 4 · chapter mention

Perhaps you have come to your rural position for such a time as this.

And here's what we gotta remember this is not some coffee cup verse.

This one statement contains a theology that greatly affects how we view the Lord and what he is at work at in our life.

Esther, do you see, couldn't possibly have understood all of the events that brought her here?

Imagine her life.

You get to talk to Queen E, and she says, Yeah, I never, I my my parents are dead, gone, I don't know, not don't, they're not here.

I don't have any parents.

Why was I orphaned?

Why am I in Persia?

Why did my people have to get conquered by another people?

Why are we not living where we're supposed to live?

Why was Queen V, Vashti, the old queen, why was she removed?

Why did they treat her so poorly?

Why was I taken from my home?

Why was I chosen?

Why am I queen?

And Mordecai looks at her and essentially says, Esther, maybe we're finally beginning to see what God has been doing in your life.

This is revealed a doctrine that we would call the providence of God.

Providence is the sovereign care and direction of God over the circumstances of our life.

Even when we can't see it.

I love the way that Dr.

Charles Stanley says it this.

He says, Providence helps us say, even when I don't understand the mind of God, I can trust the heart of God.

Even when I don't understand the mind of God, when I can't see what God is doing, when it feels like everything bad is around me, when it feels like God, you said that you have a good plan for me, but this doesn't feel like a good plan, when I can't see the mind of God, when I don't understand it, I can trust the heart of God.

I can know that God is good and he only does good.

Verses like this are why we quote Genesis chapter 50, right?

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

Joseph, in all of his turmoil, he looks and he says, What the enemy meant for evil, God meant for good.

Romans chapter 8, verse 28, a verse on your grandma's kitchen wall.

Romans 8:28

And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

These are verses that teach us this truth that we believe about God.

It's why we can have hope, even when our plans aren't working out, that God's always is.

How many of you know the reminded of this in Proverbs chapter 16, verse 9?

Proverbs 16:9

It says a man's heart plans his way, but the Lord is the one who determines his step.

And here's the deal: it's easy to talk about this when it's like, ah, I was supposed to get tickets to the UT game on Saturday, but you know, it just didn't work out.

God's always working though, you know, Providence.

It's gonna be alright.

How many of you know it gets a lot harder when the stakes get raised?

For so many of us, we're constantly asking, where am I supposed to be?

God, what do you have for me?

What career should I choose?

Did I choose the right career?

Who should I marry?

Who should I date?

Why am I single?

What's my calling?

What am I supposed to do with my life?

Is Marvel right?

And in 10th grade, I made a decision to go on that date with that girl, and it was like this branch multiverse, and now I can never get back to the main one that I'm supposed to be on?

And all these questions are good, they're fine, they're normal to ask.

And the story of Esther reminds us this, friend, is that you don't have to understand everything God is doing to trust that God is always doing something.

In other words, you don't have to know why you're here in order to be faithful while you're here.

So if I could just ask you kindly, where has God placed you?

Your family, your job, your classes, your apartment, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your singleness, your relationships, your gifts, your dysfunctional family, your grief, your mental health struggles, your illness.

Now I'm not saying that everything that happens to us is good or that God delights in evil.

There is plenty of evil in Esther's story.

But if you're looking at your life and you're questioning how a good and loving God would let you suffer through what you've been through, what the providence of God reminds us is that it means that we remember that evil and brokenness aren't enough.

They're not powerful enough to derail God's purpose in our life.

And so you're sitting here and you're saying, Clayton, but I've been praying, brother.

I don't think you understand.

I've been serving, I've been praying, I've been reading my Bible, I've been asking God for wisdom, I'm still broken, I haven't gotten the thing I'm asking God for, I don't have wisdom, I don't know what to do, I still don't have a breakthrough, I don't understand, God feels silent.

And this is the truth that we've got to remember, friend.

God's silence doesn't equate to God's absence.

And our confusion doesn't mean that he has lost control.

And so, in other words, what I think that God Almighty is trying to get you to see tonight is that instead of constantly asking, God, why am I here?

Why do you give me what I've been given?

Why am I living the life that I'm living right now?

We start asking, God, what does faithfulness look like where you've placed me right now?

I don't have to know God's placement to trust his provision.

I don't have to know why I am here to be faithful while I'm here.

That's the first thing.

The second thing I want you to write down is this where God places you isn't just about you.

Where God places you isn't just about you.

In fact, I want you to turn to the person you're sitting next to.

I want you to tell them where God places you isn't just about you.

Esther's queen.

Remember our girl?

Queen E?

Remember, she's not like a ruling queen.

Homegirl wasn't picked because of her foreign diplomacy and her macroeconomics knowledge.

Okay?

Her and Mordecai find out about Haman's plans to kill the Jewish people.

A royal decree has gone out.

It's gonna happen.

The Jewish people are going to die.

And Mordecai is encouraging Esther to approach the king.

Their only hope, Esther, Mordecai says, is if you, a Jew that does nobody knows that you're a Jew in the palace of the king, go to the king and make an appeal for your people on their behalf.

So, E, Queen Esther, you've got to go approach the queen.

And remember who he the king, remember who he's gotta approach?

X, Xerx, our guy.

Not just like the pickle from Veggie Tales, not that king, the king that beat the unkillable Spartans at Thermopylae, that king.

That's who she's gotta go talk to.

And look at Mordecai's challenge to Esther in uh chapter 4, verse 14.

He says, For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.

But you and your father's house will perish, and who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

What do we know?

That God places you, where God places you isn't just about you.

Think about it like this.

Esther's the orphan Jewish woman living in exile in Persia.

The royal bus shows up at her house, she gets put on the bus, she gets taken to the palace, the king's gonna pick a new queen, homegirl.

She gets picked.

She goes from poverty to the palace.

Imagine for a minute, friend, our girl Queen E's Instagram page after she becomes king.

We're talking story after story after story.

You know, like the ones where they put like just the Lambos and the Ferraris just chilling in the driveway, and it's like grind harder or something like that.

That's E.

That's what she's posting.

Ah, X just got me a new Birkin heart, love that.

We can quick little last-minute weekend trip to Maldives with a stop in Dubai.

Esther could have interpreted her placement in the palace entirely through the lens of herself.

Even the blessing of God.

Look what happened to me.

Look at how far I've come.

Story time.

Hey girls, I want to tell you about how I went from nobody looking at me to being the queen in the palace.

Story time, here's how I went from zero dollars in my bank account to a hundred bazillion dollars in my bank account.

Look at the position I have, look at the life I get to live, and Mordecai completely reframes it.

What if God didn't give you this position just to bless you?

What if he has placed you in a position to bless somebody else?

Esther chapter 4, verse 13.

Esther 4:13

Look at it.

If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place.

Can I just tell you, friend, God's plan of salvation for the Jews was not dependent upon Queen Esther.

But Esther had been invited in to participate in the promise of God for his people.

Then, who knows?

Perhaps you've come to such your royal position for such a time as this.

So listen, friends, God does not need you and me.

But he invites you and me into the work that he is doing.

And so listen, this isn't about God has given your family a lot of money, so you better give it away.

This isn't about you've got a nice job.

Look at where God has placed you, so you better do something impressive about with it.

What this is about is stewarding what God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, has given to you and me.

What do we know?

That this is found all through Scripture.

Remember what Jesus says in Luke chapter 12, verse 48.

Luke 12:48

From everyone who has been given much, much will be required.

1 Peter chapter 4, verse 10 just says, Each one has received a gift, do what with it?

1 Peter 4:10

Use it to serve others.

So can I just encourage you, friend?

Maybe your placement has come to the place where you're in the palace.

You found yourself in leadership, in your sorority or fraternity, in a management position in your company.

You have influence on social media or with Within your social circle.

He doesn't give us those things so that it stops with us.

God's gifts are rarely intended to stop with the receiver.

So I just ask you kindly.

What has God given to you?

What has God put into your hands?

Who has God placed around you?

Or rather, who has He placed you around?

What resources, what influence, what friendship, what access, what experience?

And whether you feel like God's placement for you has been for your betterment or for your detriment.

What story has God Almighty written in your life that you might use to encourage other people?

Sidney Barker.

Shout out.

Sidney Barker is our worship leader.

Everybody, come on, we can show some love to our girl sitting over there.

She leads worship, she does such a great job with our team, and uh she's everybody's favorite person.

Four years ago, her mom died unexpectedly in a tragic medical event.

Just this past week.

A family in our church, a person who's done ministry alongside Sydney, lost their mom unexpectedly in a tragic medical event.

And I've watched her minister to that family and to them in a way that few people can why.

Because the story that God is writing in your life is never meant to be read by just you.

We constantly ask what is God's will for my life?

What's my calling?

What's my purpose?

Clayton, I'm really struggling to know what God wants to do with me, in me, for me, all these things.

Again, these aren't wrong questions, but at some point, because we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, Christian purpose has to turn inward to outward.

The story that God is writing in your life is never meant to be read by just you.

Do you know why?

Because God Almighty is doing something far bigger than just you and me.

And while you and I may not be queen of an empire, we not be, we might not be placed in a position to save a people from genocide.

You have a story and you have been placed in a position so that you can influence somebody else.

You have a story, and who knows, maybe for such a time as this.

And can I just tell you what's crazy?

Esther gets it.

Look at Esther's response in verse number 16.

She says to Mordecai, I will go to the king.

Though it is against the law, if I perish, I perish.

Queenie, our girl's been picked.

Poverty to the palace, rags to riches.

They don't know that Zerks, our boy, King X.

He doesn't know she's a Jewish woman.

Haman rises to power.

He hates the Jews.

I'm gonna kill all of them.

Mordecai says, Esther, Queen E, girl, you gotta do something about it.

It's against the law, even for the queen, to approach the throne unsummoned.

So for her to go at night by day, to go to him unsummoned by the king is against the law, and normally she would face execution for doing so.

And she says, in response to all the things that God has done in her life, remember he took her parents?

Remember he took her people out of their land?

Remember how she didn't have anything?

Remember how her uncle had to raise her?

Remember how she was objectified over and over again, and men only wanted to use her for her body.

Remember all those things that she could have looked back and said, God, where were you in all this thing?

I'm not gonna go risk my life for some people that I don't know.

Why don't I finally got it good?

She says, I'm gonna go, and if I perish, I perish.

Her position has now become an opportunity for sacrifice.

That, friend, is the purpose that you and I are so desperately looking for.

That maybe God has placed you in your office because there's someone three desks over from you who needs to find Jesus.

Maybe you're on that campus because there's a freshman who needs somebody to notice them.

Maybe your testimony isn't just something God brought you through.

Maybe it's something He's gonna use to bring somebody else through.

So kindly, with love in my heart, genuinely, earnestly, stop asking only what you can get out of where God has placed you and start asking what God wants to give through you while you're there.

We walk into situations over and over again, you and I, and we say, Why does God have for me here?

I wonder what I'm gonna get out of this sermon.

I wonder if this friend group is really gonna be the friend group that welcomes me.

I wonder if this job opportunity is gonna give me the opportunity to climb the ladder that I need.

Is this gonna give me enough money to invest in the Roth 401, you know, with the Roth IRA and my 401k?

Can I buy enough crypto?

Can I do this thing?

Can I make it from my plan?

Can I do what am I gonna can I what am I gonna get out of it?

And I'm just telling you, friend, God Almighty is saying to you, what you quit asking, what am I gonna get out of it?

And when we start asking, God, what is it you want to do through me where you've placed me?

Last thing I want you to write down tonight is this you weren't meant to fulfill your calling alone.

You weren't meant to fulfill your calling alone.

Look at Esther chapter 4, verses 15 through 17.

Esther 4:15–17

Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, Go gather all the Jews to be found in Susa and hold a fast on my behalf.

And do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.

And I and my young women will also fast as you do, then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.

And Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him to do.

God places people around you for a reason, too.

Esther's gonna do the most courageous thing she's ever done in her life.

She's gonna face death, risk her life, genuinely, literally.

And in the moment of the 11th hour, when she's about to step into the room, when she's gonna go and face the thing and face death, she doesn't post on her Instagram story, time to lock in.

Scripture doesn't say she listened to Mordecai and she said, I got this, homie.

Look at what she does first in verse number 16.

Go assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me.

Not I've got this.

Not lock in.

Not I can muster this up.

Not God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.

She says, I need people.

And notice this Mordecai's role before all of this.

Even when Esther gets taken from her home and placed in the palace, she still needs someone to challenge her, she still needs someone to encourage her, she still needs someone to see the things that she can't see, to push her, to call something out of her.

And then when she decides to obey this final call of God, an entire community surrounds her.

That, friends, is biblical community.

You know this, right?

We have to have the people that pray for us when we're afraid, that challenge us when we're uncomfortable, that tell us the truth, even when we don't want to hear it.

And can I just remind you, friends, it's not toxic, it's not an offense, it is God's plan for our life.

Iron sharpens iron, two are better than one.

The scripture is full of this truth.

Look at what the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 10, verse 24.

He says, Let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works.

You've heard me say it a million times.

We experience God best in community.

But listen to me, community is not about having people to hang out with.

Yes, we want friends.

We need them, we're designed for it.

But community isn't just about having people to hang out with, but biblical community is about becoming the person that God has designed you to be.

And that's what I want for you.

That's what we want for you.

That's part of the reason why we do via.

Because you can have 30 friends and not have real community.

You can show up here every Thursday and nobody knows you.

Esther had Mordecai.

Who's your Mordecai?

To flip it, whose Mordecai are you?

Or are you always asking, where is someone to encourage me, but you're not challenging anyone around you?

Mordecai tells Esther that perhaps everything in her life is culminating into this one moment for such a time as this.

Now, to be clear, friends, I do not believe that God Almighty works in a way that everything in our life works to an up to a final culmination moment.

This is not some main character type energy fuel.

This is not about viewing our life as did I miss it yet?

Did I miss my curtain call yet?

That is not how Almighty God works.

What God is saying to you tonight is He has entrusted you with this place, with these opportunities, with these people in your spot right now.

Would you be faithful to him now?

Even when you don't understand your placement, can you trust his providence?

Because can I tell you something?

There's a reason that we have hope from this story.

Esther is not about you and me.

Esther is not a story that you and I can look at each other and say, No, our girl, she's faced the you know the giant, so we can face the giant too.

That's not the purpose of the story.

The whole reason that we can have the hope, the whole reason we can trust the providence of God, even when we don't understand our placement, is because there was another one who interceded to the king on our behalf, friend.

Because if you know the story, Esther does, she goes and approaches King Xerxes, and he doesn't kill her, he listens to her, and the royal decree shifts.

She doesn't die, the Jewish people aren't murdered, and Haman, the one who planned it all, dies on the very gallows he was building to exterminate God's people.

So again, Esther isn't about some grandiose moment, and this is our time to shime.

And all of God has been working together to put you in this spot for this reason, and everything's just gonna work out, but it points us to another because the Bible speaks to the fact that you and I are exiles, and you and I were facing death, and sin and death, and the evil one was building the gallows that we so rightfully deserved.

And Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and in our place, and to prove it, God raised him from the dead.

We were saved because another made an appeal on our behalf to the king.

But this was an appeal to change a rural decree.

Somebody had to die, and it wasn't the bad guy like Haman, it was the only good guy who ever lived, Jesus Christ.

And because Jesus now made intermediate between us and the king, do you know what we have?

We have hope.

We have access.

We can trust God's providence even when we don't understand our placement.

So that when we can do that, do you know what you and I can do?

What scripture says?

Look at it in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16.

Hebrews 4:16

It says, let us then, that's us believers, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.

You and I, friends, are not living our life afraid to approach the king.

Not King Xerxes, not some earthly king, but the king of kings.

What the Bible offers to you and me is that through Jesus' death and resurrection, that you and I, in our time of need, we can go before the king and find grace and mercy and our help in time of need.

And yet again, we see the truth that the placement of Jesus on the cross wasn't just for him, but it was for you and for me.

That we can trust God's sovereignty and God's providence even when we don't understand our placement.

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, we love you.

God, we're thankful for who you are, for what you've done for us.

God, we're thankful that you are God and that we are not.

God, we're thankful for your holiness, for your righteousness, that you are above all things, you are in control of all things.

That God, as we look at our life and we question, why have you put me here, God?

Why are you doing this in my life?

Why have you taken me from where I thought I was supposed to be?

Why did you take someone I love from me?

Why did you do this thing where I had a plan and now none of that plan is working out?

God, why are you doing those things?

And even when we sit in a situation and we say, God, you've blessed us.

I have this position, I have this thing.

In both of those situations, God, we can trust your providence even when we don't understand your placement.

I don't have to understand why I'm here to be faithful while I'm here.

So, Holy Spirit, would you minister to us tonight?

Would you remind us of that truth?

Would you draw us close to you?

Would you bring us back to you?

God, it's in your holy and precious name we pray.

And all God's people said.