We continue our series this morning. In Esther, let me briefly bring you up to speed. If you're new with us, here's what's happened. So even before the book, all the Jews are happy in the promised land, but they're not obeying God, and God warms them, warms them, warms them, and they don't obey, and so they get kicked out. They're in exile out in Persia now, and they're there, And the Persian king, King Ashurus, gets really mad at his queen. He exiles her. But then he gets lonely. So he says, oh, I got it. All his friends give him an idea. He gathers all the young women of the kingdom and picks Esther, who's a Jew, but no one knows. She's keeping it secret. And so she's the new queen. Then we went to chapter three last week and then things take a terrible turn because Haman, who's this wicked man who hates the Jews, Mordecai won't bow down to him. They've assimilated for a while but Mordecai has enough of it and he says I'm not going to bow down to this wicked man. Well Haman gets so angry He bribes the king, listen to this, he bribes the king with two-thirds of the annual revenue of Persia, 750,000 pounds of silver to say, I want to annihilate the entire race of the Jews because this one man, Mordecai, who won't bow down to me. And that's where we pick up a very sad moment. So here, I'm picking up with Esther. Now Esther 4 is gonna have a bunch of dialogue back and forth. I don't normally do this, but if you imagine with me, we've got Esther right here, and we've got Mordecai right here, okay? And my name's Hathik. And so I'm the middleman, you're gonna see him in here. He just goes back and forth this entire chapter. So you get to watch me walk back and forth. It'll just help you follow the narrative. All right, so let's look at God's perfect word in Esther chapter four. When Mordecai, learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. And in every province, wherever the king's command and decree reached, There was great mourning among the Jews with fasting and weeping and lamenting. And many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes. When Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he would take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther called Hathak, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend to her and ordered him to go to Mordecai and learn what this was and why it was. Hathak went to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate. And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasury for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction that he might show it to Esther and explain to her. and commanded her to go to the king to beg his favor and to plead with him on behalf of her people. And Hathak went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathak and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, all the king's servants and all the people of the king's province know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law to be put to death. except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I've not been called to come into the king these 30 days.' And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 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 come to the kingdom for just a time as this. 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. 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." Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. That completes our reading of God's word, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your word. Lord, and as we follow this dialogue, I know that you want to do something in us. You did something in Esther in that moment. Lord, please do something in us this morning. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. There was a game show called Let's Make a Deal. The only people that have probably heard of it are people older than me. So it was in the 60s and 70s and they would have like door number one and door number two and door number three. Which door will you pick? Well, this morning I have two doors for you, but I'm gonna let you in. I'm gonna let you see what's behind them so you know what you're choosing. All right, behind door number one, we have approval. And let's see, praise, you'll be well liked by your neighbors and your coworkers. And behind number two, door number two, we have you'll be ridiculed, you'll be embarrassed and humiliated. All right, the choice is yours. Which one do you want this morning? Well, the choice is pretty obvious. In this passage, Esther has a difficult decision, doesn't she? She's come to a fork in the road. She cannot remain kind of ambiguous on the fence. She's gonna have to choose between one door or the other. Now, her stakes are much higher. It's not just ridicule, it's actually her life that's on the line, isn't it? This morning we'll divide our time as we look at that in three parts. You see this on page seven. Lamenting, resisting, And then finally, action. So let's begin with lamenting. Look at those first three verses again. How does Mordecai respond to this terrible news that they will all be annihilated? He tears his clothes. He puts on sackcloth. Kids, you know what sackcloth is? Just imagine the most itchy sweater you've ever worn. Kind of like that. It's really uncomfortable like burlap that they would wear so that externally, and they're putting ashes on themselves, to externally show how they're mourning on the inside. Okay? So that's what's happening. He's lamenting. He's mourning. If you look in verse three, You see this three words, fasting, and weeping, and lamenting. That same wording is in the prophet Joel. They would have had that at this point. And in Joel, it's very clear they're talking to God. Remember this book? God is never mentioned, right? And so here, the author is probably helping them remember. Oh, a Jew would read this and be like, yeah, yeah, Joel, right. They're crying out to God. Okay, so, but how do we respond? How do you respond to suffering? Now, none of you have had the threat of your entire race being annihilated, but how do you respond? Don't we easily get angry? It's an easy—and remember, Brandon talked about this some weeks ago. In the first week on this series, he said that often we jump over lamenting, being sad, and we go straight to anger. Right? And so, we have a great example here in Mordecai. He doesn't. Now, which is, which is more fun? Crying or getting angry? Which one do you feel stronger and more powerful in? Anger, right? And so in this, Mordecai has let go of any idea that he's in control of the situation, right? He's not trying to figure out how he can overthrow things or throw a coup. He's in sackcloth and ashes, weeping and mourning. This is a great example to us. So this kind of sets our stage. So now let's look at this dialogue. Secondly, resisting. Look at verse four. So Esther, first she just sends clothes to him. Now, what's your deal, Mordecai? Just take off that stuff and put on some normal clothes. Right, she sends him clothes. She doesn't even inquire what's going on. She sends him some new clothes. Well, when he refuses, she says, all right, what's going on, Mordecai? Right, she sent Hathak to go find out. Why are you like this? This is what's crazy. The edict was signed where? In the palace. Where does she live? The palace. She lives in the palace. Everyone from like Ethiopia to India, every Jew knows what's going on. Right? They're all mourning, lamenting. And the Queen has no clue. This just tells you how separated, how isolated she is from her people. She's lived five or more years in the palace like a Persian trophy wife. Right? And no one knows she's a Jew. She's obviously hidden her Jewishness pretty well. She's probably not obeying dietary laws. She's probably not obeying any of the laws. Right? She's in the castle basically acting like a Persian lady. She has no clue what's going on for the Jews. She's very, very separated. Mordecai fixes that, right? He says, hey, 750,000 pounds of silver is on our head. That's what she bribed to kill us all. Here's the actual letter, right? So he sends all that back to her. How does she respond? Well, of course I'll go to the king. No. And she says, hey, do you not know the rule? Like you work at Mordecai, you work in the king's palace. Anyone that goes in there loses his head. And then you catch that, look at verse, I think it's 11. Because remember, okay, before that, he had commanded her, go to the king. And she says, hey, that's a crazy idea that everyone loses their head if they do that. And I haven't even been called to the king. in 30 days. Okay, so doubtless that the king is sleeping alone. And so you just connect the dots. His bride that he was so excited about five years ago, he's not as excited about anymore. They haven't even seen each other in 30 days. There's two big risks that she's facing. One is she might lose her head. She might not get any words out. She just goes in there and the king's like, yeah, you know, off of the, he's already done this. He already got rid of one queen. He's not so attached to his queens, is he? So then say she actually got to talk, right? So she makes it past the first thing. He extends the gold scepter. Then what's she gonna say? Oh, by the way, I'm a Jew. So then she has a death sentence on her. And then, on the other hand, I want you to pick me, the queen, over Haman, the guy that just bribed you with 750,000 pounds of silver. And he's your right-hand man, and you haven't seen me in 30 days. Do you now see why her, maybe her hesitation? The odds are not in her favor. but the odds are not in her favor. Now before we're too quick to be critical of Esther, let us look in the mirror for a second. We never like doing that, do we? Remember my two doors here? Which door do you want? That was basically the decision before. She said, look, I don't wanna, the odds are against me. I don't wanna do this. I'm very comfortable in the palace. Aren't you comfortable? Do you really enjoy when people get mad at you? No, I don't enjoy that. None of you do. And so this is the, this is the decision before us. She hid her, if she continued to hide her Jewishness, are we tempted to hide our Christianity? Of course. We don't want to be rejected. We don't want anyone to look down on us. We'll come back to that in a minute. But now that we've seen the first response, she's resisting. It's very natural. We resist too. Let's look at the third. Action. It's about to get, there's about to be some action. It's about to get exciting. Look at verse 12 and 13. So let's unpack this a little more. This whole idea of hiding her Jewishness. Do your neighbors love to talk about Christianity? We often will talk about the common ground we have with our neighbors. I'm tempted to do the same thing, right? We talk about sports and the weather and our kids, all the things that we have in common. Why do we not talk about Christianity? Think about it for a moment. Why do you not talk about Christianity? It's because of the response you might get, right? We have a hesitation because they don't go to church, we know that much, and they might know we go to church, but we aren't gonna like, it would be awkward, wouldn't it? It'd be awkward. This is exactly, we have the exact same temptation to hide this, that we could stay behind door number one. But now we come to probably some of the most profound verses in this entire book. Look at verse 14. For if you keep silent, he says, Mordecai to Esther, if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place. Remember, this is a book that never mentions God. This is probably the closest and clearest indication of God, right? What's he talking about? He's saying God will send someone else. He said, God will take care of us. If you don't do this, God's still gonna take care of us. Now, of course, he knows that God is powerful and God is all loving, but kids, imagine this scenario. You're playing baseball and your dad says, hey, I'm going to come to your game on Saturday. You know that your dad loves you and you know that he is able to come. But what if he's never ever come to a single one of your games? How confident are you going to be he's going to come? You know he's able and you know he's loving. Probably not very confident, right? What about God? I mean, he's saying, I'm sure that God's gonna come through for us. Has God ever come through for them before? Has God ever come to one of their games? Yes! Yes, he has. Right? He's done it through the whole Old Testament. Over and over and over and over. At the 11th hour, he comes through. He came through for Joseph in Egypt. I'm just gonna go through stories. If you don't know him, that's fine. Joseph in Egypt, God came through for him. He saved from a huge famine. The Pharaoh had all of the Israelites in captivity. And there's amazing plagues. He breaks them out, but then they get pinned against the Red Sea and the Pharaoh's army. And again, he comes through. He splits the Red Sea. They walk through on dry land. I mean, I could tell you dozens of stories. We did this last week. There are three or four or five, I told you. There are many, many. And so when Mordecai says this, he has the confidence of all of Jewish history before. Where do you sit today? 2,490 some years later. How many more stories do you have? How many more times does God come through for His people? Over and over. All through the rest of the Bible He's gonna do that. And then through Christian history. Right after the canon closed, over and over. There are countless stories where God came through for missionaries, where He came through for believers in tight spots. We should have so much confidence that you can say that. You can say with Mordecai that even if the person that, like Esther, doesn't come through, God's gonna raise up protection for us. We should have great confidence. But he has more to say. Look at the second half of 14. This is so good. He says, and who knows whether you've not come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Those words, who knows, should stand out to you. They're all through Scripture. It's saying that when God's in the mix, it's anyone's ballgame. No matter how bad the odds are, God can do it, right? Who knows? Who knows what's gonna happen? Yeah, we're in a real, yeah, there's this law that says we're all gonna be annihilated next March 7th. That was the situation. The law of the Medes and the Persians, it can't be changed. Yeah, but who knows? God's in the mix. It's anyone's ballgame. God can turn this around. He can raise the dead, right? God is so powerful and that's what he's saying. Who knows? Look at the rest of it though. Whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this, who knows? He's saying, you're here for this time. God has risen you to this position because he knew of this situation. Now there's something weird about this. Think about how she got here. There was maybe a little bit of compromise, you think? Right, so first she hides she's a Jew and she ends up in this harem. And then she manages to please everyone and she ends up being the trophy Persian queen, right? And she's not, she eats whatever she's served. And so, I mean, that would be like, that'd be like saying, hey, there's this guy and he's, he risen, he rose to executive power. Now there's some shady dealings and there was a little bit unethical practices, but then, but now you go to him and you say, hey, I know all that, how you got here, but God might have you here for, to go into this board meeting and stand up for truth. It's a little bit odd to say when he got there through shady dealings. Do you see the connection? Do you see the connection? That Esther didn't get there by being righteous all the time. Can God use someone who got to a place through not the best means? Absolutely, yeah, nod your head, that's right. The reality is, what else does God have to work with? The reality is all of us, to some extent, got to where we are through sin, through other people's sin, through our sin, right? And then, and God uses, chooses to use broken people to do his will. And so when he says, you're here for just a time as this, it does not mean that she's this righteous, amazing person. It just means God ordained to use even sinful things. Remember Joseph? Back in Genesis, he said to his brothers, his brothers sold him as a slave. That is not a good thing. Never sell your sibling as a slave, you'll get in big trouble. Well, so Genesis 50 verse 20 says, what you did you meant for evil, but God meant it for good. What you did you meant for evil, God meant it for good. God has good purposes and he intends to use it for good. And brothers and sisters, who knows if you have not come to Cane Bay for just the time as this. That God has purposes that He wants to accomplish and includes you. And you and you, God has purpose. He's completely in control. Now you might say, Everyone in Cane Bay is under a death sentence. It's not a parallel. Or is it? Is everyone in Cane Bay under a death sentence? What does Scripture say? Scripture says for the wages of sin is what? Death. It's not about eternal death. Yeah, actually Cane Bay is. All humanity is under a death sentence. An eternal death sentence if they don't do what? If they don't repent and believe in Jesus. And so for Esther, there was a death sentence on her people for March 7th, 473 BC, just short of a year later. I don't know about you, I do well with a deadline. Give me a deadline, I'm probably gonna get it done. Are you like that? You do better with a deadline? If your parents say, you better have this done in 30 minutes, you get it done a little quicker. We don't have a deadline, do we? Now, unless your neighbor said, I just, I have cancer, I'm going to die in three months, you don't have a deadline. You don't know. That's one of the things that makes it hard, isn't it? I mean, to live on mission when we don't really know, it's kind of arbitrary. It seems arbitrary. It seems like, well, we're all going to live a really long time, but it's going to end at some point. That's one of the challenges of living on mission, is that we don't have a felt sense of urgency. That's something the Lord intends to create in us, a felt sense of urgency. We should, there's certainly a need. Do you guys know Ephesians 2.8 and 9? It's probably my favorite summary of the gospel. It goes like this, if you aren't a Christian, you definitely want to pay attention to these two verses. Ephesians 2.8.9, it says, Basic idea, you're saved by faith, not by being a good person. Okay? The very next verse, you know what verse 10 says? Verse 10 says this, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. I thought you just said we weren't saved. You're right, you aren't saved by your good works, but he created you for good works. You're saved by faith, but he created you for good works. And here's the key line, which God prepared in advance for you to do, that he prepared in advance for you to do. God has sovereignly prepared good things for you to do, and he intends for you to do them. Let me tell you a story. So my wife was at a party, and someone at the party was sharing this story, this amazing story, how their son had become a Christian, and how prior to that, that things would happen, and she kept telling her son, pay attention to God. God's doing stuff in your life. One of those things was some pastor had given him his business card up here by Publix at the gas station. He was pumping gas, and someone talked to him, gave him his card, and the mom was like, would you pay attention? And the guy, you know, said, I'm not interested in church. And God is after you. Well, much later, he finally got the memo and he became a Christian. Isn't that cool? So do you think, you think that pastor like felt some like the sky opened that he should like go talk to that guy? Probably not. Like it's a very ordinary thing. I tell you that story that God often, you might end up in an Esther situation. You might have to give up your life for Christianity. But I guarantee this very week, God has ordained some good works for you to do. And it might be talking to someone. You have no idea the impact that it's gonna have. Does that connection make sense? There are often little things. Oftentimes, people will become Christian through a number of small encounters with Christians who have different conversations with them. Look at verse 15 and 16. So now, what does Esther say? Three days is a long time. Think about how hungry you'd get in three days. But I mean, you're all gonna be annihilated. Yeah, that'd be pretty motivating, right? He said, and so of course here again it doesn't say God, but who else, what else are they doing? They're crying out to God saying, the Queen is gonna go before the King, help, give her favor with the King. And so all the Jews are praying behind her. Some of you might know a few weeks ago, our church did that. We had a day of prayer and fasting. I like to eat. Don't you like to eat? Fasting's not much fun. The reason we do it is because we're setting ourselves apart. We're praying for Ukraine. There's crazy things happening over there. We're crying out to God on behalf of our brothers and sisters there. We're praying for our community. We're praying for you. We're praying for ourselves. Right, and so we spend a day praying and fasting. You know, often isn't it hard to remember to pray? When you fast, it's not hard at all. You have this alarm clock, your stomach that just keeps, the hunger pangs remind you, oh right, God, I've set aside this food to pray. And so they're doing that. They're seeking God. And look what she said. I will go to the king and if I perish, I perish. If all my neighbors reject me, and you're ridiculed at work. If I perish, I perish. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Absolutely, that's what she's saying. She says, at this point, I'm gonna put my lot in with the Jews, even if it costs me my life. Though our situation will probably never be that stark. Look at Mordecai, look at verse 17. Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had what? Ordered him. Wait, who's ordering who? I remember thus far, Mordecai has been ordering Esther. She's not a little girl anymore. She's grown up. She now is ready to move forward. And she says, Mordecai, I need you to do this. I need you to gather all the Jews together and pray and beg God with fasting that I don't lose my head and that God does a miracle before this king. And that's the way the chapter ends. Yep, he's done a lot of character development, huh, since we started with Esther. Where she's just going along with the flow. As we close. As we close, remember that lady at the party? The next day she texted my wife with a picture of my business card. Yeah, I know! So it was me. Now how in the world would I ever find out about that if they weren't at that party and having a conversation and figured out who I was? It was so encouraging to me. Now I tell you that, I didn't do anything great. All I did was said hi to someone when I was pumping gas. Just so you can know, there it is, God has good works prepared for us to do. He wants us to live on mission and He's the one that does the amazing part. This is so encouraging. Even in this, even though Esther's gonna be really courageous in the chapters to come, she had no hope of success. apart from God doing it. We want to live on missions of church, but we'll be an utter failure if there's no God. If there's no God who's not moving, but God is moving, isn't he? We see it all through the Bible. We see it in Esther. We're about to see it. We're about to get to the good stuff. Remember how Mordecai said, if you keep silent, relief and deliverance will rise from the Jews from another place. Have you heard the big word sovereignty? Sovereignty means that God is in absolute control over every molecule in the universe. Do you believe that? Scripture teaches it. Scripture teaches that God is in control of everything. He created everything, He sustains everything, and He orders everything that's happening. If it's a new thought for you, come talk to me. We can look at Scripture about that. That's what He's saying here. He's saying God will get His way. He's made covenant promises, He will do it. There are people in Cane Bay who God will save. And if it's not through you, he'll have to send somebody else. He's gonna get his way. Ephesians 1, 4 says that before the foundation of the world, before the foundation of the world, he has placed his love on people. Includes you guys. Includes others that have no clue yet. They're still asleep this morning. But he's placed his love on them. And so I for one, let's say, why does he send us? Why would he have to send someone else? I mean, he will, he's gonna get his way. But let, I think that you are here for just a time as this. I want those words to stay ringing in your head as you go from this place. For who knows whether you have not come to Cane Bay or your workplace for such a time as this. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, God, I thank you that you are sovereign. I thank you that we absolutely know that you are in the business of saving people and you've placed your love on individual people, including us and others that have no clue, they have no idea that their maker has called them from before the foundation of the world. Please use us. to do little things and courageous things, things that are scary, things that we're afraid that we might get humiliated by. We pray that we wouldn't be, but we pray that we'd be willing to risk that. If we perish, if our reputation perishes, let it perish. Oh, that would be our cry. Thank you for the example of Esther. Thank you for the example of Mordecai. They haven't always been a good example, and neither have we. But thank you that you're in the business of changing people. Change us, Lord. Change me. for your glory, not ours. You're the one that's saving people. Use us in tiny ways. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.