Esther 6

So grateful to the Lord for giving us an opportunity to gather together in His presence to spend time in praise and worship and to learn from the Scriptures this evening. And it is a privilege for me to help us continue forward in our series, Esther Against All Odds. Even though we haven’t been meeting on a consistent week-to-week basis with all the summer activities that’s been going on and all the summer events, the times that we have met together we’ve seen a powerful time in praise and worship and through the teachers who’ve been teaching us through the Scriptures. And I pray that that continues tonight as we go through Esther chapter 6, that the Spirit would move in a mighty way tonight, that we experience the presence of the Lord, that our minds wouldn’t be distracted but attentive to what the Lord is trying to speak to us tonight. When I found out that we were going through the book of Esther as one of our sermon series over the summertime, I was extremely excited and happy.

The book of Esther, or the story of Esther, is a family favorite in our house. Our daughter Selah, she loves watching the story of Esther on YouTube, whether it be through different shows like Minnow Bible, Bible Adventure, Superbook. She loves watching the story of Esther, and she loves watching it on repeat. She’ll finish a whole episode and then she’ll go to the next episode and just repeat it over and over again, to the behest of her brother who has to kind of sit and just stare and watch the same thing over and over again because she controls the remote in our house. But I think the love of Esther is something that runs in the family because back when I was a young age, around the age of 8 or 9 or growing up, I really loved the story of Esther.

From the twists and the turns to going to that climactic ending, the story of Esther is something that I really enjoy reading. And it’s something that I remember to this day back when I was at a young age. I used to have this children’s Bible, and I’m sure you guys all had children’s Bibles before. And in those Bibles, there’d be a lot of pictures just to keep you guys and keep us entertained, right? Like, we don’t want to see a bunch of words. And I still vividly to this day remember the picture of Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate, hearing of the conspiracy to kill the king. I still remember that picture to this day.

Fast forward years later, the stories of Esther and the stories of Ruth are some of my favorite passages to go through when I read the Bible. And even though the main characters are women, there’s so many godly qualities that I can take from the men in those books. So, for example, from the love for God and the redeeming nature of the man, Boaz, to the fatherly love to an orphan and the caring mentality and strong-willed nature of the man, Mordecai. There’s so many things that I could take in terms of godly characteristics from those two men for me as a father, as a husband, and simply trying to be a man of God. And in the book of Esther, especially in chapter six, which is what we’re going to go through tonight, it only mentions Esther one time in this chapter. So, this chapter is mainly focused on the men in the book of Esther, which is King Xerxes, Haman the Agagite, and also Mordecai.

So, for the men here tonight, there’s lots of things that we can take from this chapter. As a recap from the past two times that we’ve met together from Encounter, we were going through all of chapter four of Esther and part of chapter five. If you come with me with a recap, Esther chapter four is basically when the edict is being sent out throughout the land of the Jews going to be killed. And Mordecai warns Esther about what’s going to happen, and she goes back to Mordecai and tells we need to get into a time of fasting and prayer. We all need to go spend three days and three nights in a time of fasting for all the Jews of Susa, taking time to pray, as she does as well, in preparation to go to the king without his invitation. And one of the most amazing verses that I love to this day is from Esther 4:15, where it says from Esther, If I perish, I perish. A truly powerful statement from a courageous queen. And if we go into chapter five, we continue to see the providential hand of the Lord. As Esther and the king and Haman go to their first banquet, they complete the banquet, and the queen asks for a second banquet.

Now, before we spend some time into chapter six tonight, I think it’s fitting that we go over two particular verses, one from chapter five of Esther and one from chapter six of Esther. And you’re going to see in these two verses how things can quickly change in just a matter of moments or a day. So we’re going to be starting off by reading from Esther 5:14. And then we’re going to go into Esther 6:13, and you’re going to spot the difference between these two verses. So Esther 5:14, it reads like this, His wife Sareh, so that’s Haman’s wife, and all his friends said to him, Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of 50 cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go to the king with the banquet and enjoy yourself. This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up. Now let’s go to chapter six, and we’ll be reading from 6:13, And told, so Haman, and Haman told Sareh, his wife, and all his friends everything that had happened. His advisors, his wife, and his wife Sareh said to him, Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him, you will surely come to ruin. So within these two verses, Sareh is planning in chapter five to prepare her husband to kill his worst enemy. But now in chapter six, she is preparing her husband for his own demise. Chapter six is where the tide in the book of Esther begins to turn in the favor of the Jews, and Queen Esther, and Mordecai, as we continue to see the providential hand of the Lord.

Before we go into all of chapter six, we’re going to take a moment to pray. Father, we thank you for this time that you’ve given to us to allow us to gather together as a body of believers, as a community in Christ, to spend time, to want to learn more about your scriptures, and what you have to teach us tonight, Lord. Pray that you’d open our hearts and minds to this word, Lord. And whatever we learn today, Lord, help us to apply it into our daily lives, and continue in our daily walk with you. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. So we’re going to start off by reading Esther 6:1. It reads like this. That night, the king could not sleep, so he ordered the book of the Chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him.

So, according to the National Sleep Foundation, it is found that approximately 30 to 40 percent of Americans go through insomnia. And approximately 12 percent of people, of Americans, they experience chronic insomnia. And chronic insomnia is people having symptoms of insomnia for three or more days in a week, for three or more months. So, if you think about it from a numbers perspective, 60 million Americans at some point go through insomnia, and about 14 million Americans go through chronic insomnia. So, researchers from the National Sleep Foundation have come up with different strategies to help patients who go through those symptoms to get over it.

Some basic examples are setting the room temperature to 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit. And I think if we do that here in Texas, our electricity bill will be \$1,000 a month, right? So, I don’t think that’s a great idea here. What are some other examples that we can think about? They mention about having the room completely dark because that affects your melatonin levels. They say avoiding screen time before you go to bed, having consistent sleep schedules, and also deep breathing. I didn’t see anything about counting sheep. How many of you guys did counting sheep back when you were younger? No, I feel like I’m the only one. Okay. So, I used to do this, you know, just for fun, you know, those nights where I was super hyper at night and trying to find a way to sleep. And I felt like it never helped. And research actually backs that up, that that doesn’t really help. But what the National Sleep Foundation did mention is what King Xerxes was trying to do in verse one, which is reading a book as a wind down activity before going to bed.

Unfortunately, we all know that science and research cannot quantify the providential, mysterious providential hand of the Lord. We can try whatever strategy that the foundation tells us to do. But when there’s spiritual divine forces working in our lives, that all goes out the window, right? There’s so many reasons why God could be keeping us up at night. He might be keeping us up so we can spend some time in reflection and repentance. He might be pointing out something that we did wrong throughout the day that we need to ask for forgiveness from God. He might be waking you up in terms of keeping you awake to examine the shortcomings in our lives. It could be a point where you’re going through spiritual warfare, right? We know in the nighttime, spiritual forces are active and are working and most active during the nighttime, and there might be a spiritual attack that’s on your life that you need to pray over and to get deliverance from. Or it could be simply God calling you to pray for other people.

And I found this story when I was preparing for the message tonight. In the middle of the darkness, a young Christian woman became wide awake. On her mind was another young woman who was married to one of the pastors of her church. She was immediately compelled to pray for her, and she held this young woman up before the throne of the king, asking for intervention and safety. She did not remember how long she prayed for, but recalls praying fervently because the Holy Spirit obligated her. Several days later, she and her friend had a chance to get to meet. She began to tell her friend about how she was awakened to pray for her in the middle of the night, and her friend asked her, what time at night did you begin to pray? She told her the approximate time and the date. Her friend’s face drowned with all color and stood motionless. She looked at her friend and said that was the precise hour she began to experience a miscarriage. God may wake us up in the middle of the night in order to strengthen other believers who are going through different struggles or situations in their lives. Or frankly, God may be keeping us awake because he has a message to share to us, right? The God who kept Samuel awake at night to prophesy about Eli’s sons is the same God who is keeping King Xerxes up at night, and is the same God who might be sending you a message and trying to keep you up at night as well. So when that happens, don’t let the nighttime be a time where you step away from the presence of God. Make sure that you are continually being with Him through the day and through the night. Let it be an opportunity for us to hear what God is trying to speak to us.

So we’ve been hearing throughout the chapters, and as teachers I’ve been going through, about the providential hand of the Lord. As we go on to verses 2 and 3, that becomes extremely painstakingly obvious. So we’re going to read from verses 2 and verses 3 of Esther chapter 6. It reads like this. It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bikdana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate the king. What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this, the king asked. Nothing has been done for him, his attendants answered. So what was the king’s book of choice for that night? We all know that this king had a huge providence of land, right? He had so many provinces, 127 to be exact. He has so much wealth. He has so much property. He has so much accolades that it can’t even be counted. That he needed to hear about everything that he did, right? And that’s something that’s common of kings of the past and to the present as well too, right?

They’re so similar in the quality of egotism. Unfortunately, pride is one of the things that our God hates the most. And we find that out from Proverbs 16:5. It reads like this. The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this, they will not go unpunished. And in James 4:6, it reads like this. But he gives us more grace. That is why the scripture says, God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. It is a need for self-importance that causes the downfall of so many kings and leaders in this world. And the life of Nebuchadnezzar is one instance where God steps in and opens the king’s eyes and literally makes him fall down on his knees. If we go to Daniel 4:30-32, it reads like this. He said, is this not the great Babylon I have built as a royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven. This is what I have decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar. Your royal authority has been taken from you. You’ll be driven away from the people and you will live with wild animals. You will eat grass like the ox. Seven times you will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the most high is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.

There’s some quotes that I was researching when I was preparing for the message tonight. And I really love these quotes and it talks about pride. The first one is from C.S. Lewis. He says like this, a proud man is always looking down on things and people. And of course, as long as you’re looking down, you can’t see anything that’s above you, right? Because you basically think of yourself as a god. You’re so prideful that you only see the things that are below you and inferior to you that you don’t know that you’re just a small speck in this great creation that God has created. And it’s so ironic when you think about it, as Spurgeon says in this quote as well too. You know, this king had so much wealth. He had so much accolades. He has everything, right? 127 provinces, living the life, right? But he couldn’t get a good night’s sleep when he wanted it. He couldn’t command that. And that’s what Spurgeon says. As Suarez is a master of 127 provinces, but not the master of a 10 minutes worth of sleep. And this chapter and this book in general is to show about the providential hand of the Lord. And as the Lord guides the king to have his attendance, read about his reign. I really love how God takes this storybook reading about talking about how great this king was. And it turned into reading about the faithful obedience of a servant.

And I want us to take that seriously in our own lives. We live in a culture today where social media allows us to idolize ourselves, right? It allows us to idolize our talents, our gifts, our physique, our mental acuities. Tonight, I strongly urge each and every one of us, including myself, that spending hours marveling at yourself and what you do is not a good use of your time. Yes, it’s important that we watch what we do to become better versions of ourselves. I completely agree with that. That’s important. We do that. But I humbly ask when we reach to the pinnacle, when we reach a position where we are in good standing, when we’ve reached our talents and gifts that God has given to us, can we take a moment to think about who gave that to us in the first place, right? Think about it in this way. When someone comes up to you and talks to you about how great you did, whether you sang great, whether you prayed great, whether you did a message in a great way, what’s the first thing that comes out of your mouth? Two words, thank you, right? Why don’t we try and change it to praise God? These are simple things that we can do to bring our pride down and to bring God up. And that’s something that God expects from us, right? The king thought he had a moment to cherish his accomplishments. Instead, God made him in awe of someone else.

Let’s go down to verses four and verses five. It reads like this. The king said, who is in the court? Now Haman had entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him. And it’s no coincidence that just when the king is asking, what can we do to honor the man who saved my life? The man who is trying to kill that person walks in to his presence. All these things are happening because why? Because our God is working in the middle of the night. And why did Haman decide to show up in the middle of the night at this time to ask for the death of Mordecai? We got to go back to Esther 5:9-10 to see that. So if it reads like this in Esther 5:9-10, Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. As I said in the beginning, this chapter is all about teaching us qualities of people that we should and shouldn’t emulate in our lives. And we just read about the pride of the king. And now we’re going into the next poor quality, which is the quality of impatience that Haman displays, right?

We know that Haman already got his decree, right? He knows his worst enemy and all his people are about to be killed. Everything was going exactly according to plan. But his fury in these two verses of Mordecai, again, not bowing down towards him, fueled such a level of impatience that he had to go to the king in the wee hours of the morning to speak to him. He was so exasperated by the king’s action that he had to be the first person to talk to the king that morning. It reads like this in Proverbs 14:29. Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly, the quality of impatience. If we go to Esther 6:6, it reads like this. When Haman entered, the king asked him, what should be done for the man the king delights to honor? Now the king thought to himself, who is there that the king would rather honor than me? Again, as we go through the book of Esther, we go through the prideful characteristics of these individuals, right?

We start off with King Xerxes, and it continues forward with Haman. Haman, in these verses, you can tell, thought that the king loved him to such an extent that no one was higher valued than himself. But once again, God is arranging things so that Haman’s pride and his folly and his arrogance will soon lead to his humiliation. Verses seven to 10 of chapter six, it reads like this. So he answered the king, for the man the king delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has written, one with the royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and the horse be entrusted to the one of the king’s most noble princes. Then let them robe the king, let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before them, this is what is done for the man the king delights to honor. Go at once, the king commanded Haman, get the robe and the horse and do what just as you suggested for Mordecai the Jew. So as we go through those four verses, what was Haman’s main intentions from these three verses, right? So it seems pretty evident that Haman wanted to go farther than beyond the killing of the Jews. He wanted to be the level of a king, right?

He wanted the same robes that the king wore. He wanted the crown that the king wore. He wanted to be rode on the horse that the king rode on. He wanted to be praised throughout the streets, just like the king would be. His thirst for power was so strong, he was willing to go past the killing of the Jews and he wanted to be at an equal position to a king that holds 127 provinces. And you think about it, someone asking that to a king, that’s kind of a scary thing to do, right? To ask a king to be on the same level of him. But the lust for power can truly cause us to make poor decisions in our lives. Verse 10, I’ll read it again. Go at once, the king commanded Haman, get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate, do not neglect anything you have responded. I think it would be amazing to just be a fly on the wall, right? And just to see how Haman would respond to something like that, right? I would just kind of think that his brain is just kind of like exploding, right? Thinking about you came in to have this man killed and now I need to honor this man myself.

Before I go any further, I wanna go back to another poor quality of Haman. And that is the need for approval from others and also the expectation to get approval from others too. Haman only believed that he only did well from himself if he received praise from people, right? Praise from a king, praise from Mordecai, praise from the people on the streets. And it’s okay to have praise here on earth. But if that’s what you’re spending your life seeking in your life, then you’re being really led down a poor path. He expected the approval of the king, which is why he so confidently approached the king to ask for this. But God is clearly telling Haman and to us as well that we shouldn’t expect or guarantee the approval of other people in our lives. But what does God truly want from us? He wants us to feel plenty when we seek the applause of heaven. We see that in Galatians 1:10. Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God, or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. And Colossians 3:23, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord and not for human masters.

Verses 11, it reads like this in chapter six. So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, this is what is done for the man the king delights to honor. So Haman at the present moment is now inferior to Mordecai, the Jew, and leads him throughout the streets, proclaiming his name to all the people. There’s nothing more that could be said than irony, right? Verses 12, and I’m only gonna read the first half of this verse. At the beginning of this sermon, I mentioned that this chapter has so many qualities that we as individuals should and shouldn’t emulate in our lives. And for these first 11 verses, everything is qualities that we shouldn’t be emulating in our lives. But verses 12 finally gives us a breath of fresh air. I’m gonna read that first half of verse 12. Verse 12, after word Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. Simple six words, he returned to the king’s gate. So just after this huge coronation, we see what his response is. He returns back to his work.

If I were in the same position as Mordecai, I think I would have probably handled this probably a little bit differently. If I knew there was an edict coming for my death and for the death of my family and my people, I think, and especially when I got elevated to the point of being just like a king and paraded through the streets, I think this is the optimal time to try and find a way to get out of being killed, right? I think this is a perfect time to ask for a pardon. Have you guys have heard pardons before? My political junkies here, okay. Pardons is something that’s talked about very often in today’s society. It’s done very often by a lot of presidents. If we look back on the screen, I’ll show you this. Within the past 20 to 25 years, the list of pardons that was provided by our previous presidents and current president. George W. Bush, he pardoned 189 people and 11 commutations. Obama, 212 total pardons, 1,715 commutations. President Trump, 143 total pardons, 94 commutations. President Biden, 80 pardons, 4,165 commutations. One number does not seem similar to the rest. This is a prime opportunity, I feel like in my opinion, to ask for a pardon, especially when the king knows who I am and what I did for him, right?

But there’s something to be said about the quality of truly waiting on the Lord and his timing for how he wants things to be played out in our lives. It’s so enticing to step into times where we feel like we can find a solution or a remedy to the problem that we’re going through in our lives. You know, this term, Jesus take the wheel, is such a common term. A lot of non-Christians know that term as well. But as for us as believers, I feel like it’s extremely hard to do and to take that back seat and let Jesus control the situations rather than us trying to fix the problem in our lives. We can’t let go of our control, right? The quality of patience that Mordecai displayed, truly waiting on the Lord and what he was going to do in this situation is frankly remarkable. In addition to the quality of patience and waiting on the Lord in the midst of tribulation, Mordecai also respected authority. This was a chance for Mordecai to be able to request access to the king, but he knew he wasn’t able to do that. So what did he do? He went back to the king’s gate.

For one, Mordecai understood that God’s appointments of rulers and kings should be held fast and he should respect the ruling natures of kings. If we look in Daniel 2:21, it reads like this. He changes times and seasons. He disposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. So our God in his sovereign will appoints leaders past and present for this world for a designed particular purpose. We talked about that last Sunday in Sunday school. Nebuchadnezzar was chosen to destroy the people of Israel, the Jews, for their lack of understanding, the abominations that they committed and their unwillingness to ask for repentance from God. And Mordecai knew in the same manner that God had chosen King Xerxes for a particular purpose to rule this nation and knew to trust God who raises up kings and deposes them. Secondly, along with respecting the rule of law by not going to fight on his behalf, in addition to understanding the appointments of kings, he respected the appointments of kings. He respected the rule of law and respecting the rule of law is something, frankly, that this world has none of in this world at this point.

Politics have deeply divided our particular country to the point where one group can’t stand the other group. There was days where it wasn’t like this. Like back in the 90s, back in the early 2000s, I know I’m giving a history lesson, but back in those times, there was none of that stuff going on. But nowadays people speak so badly about each other. They speak so badly about elected leaders, politicians, leaders, presidents, all these types of people. But what does God say how we should behave and how we should treat our leaders and our government? If we look into Mark 12:13-17, it reads like this. Later, some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to Jesus, to catch him in his words, they came and said to him, teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others because you pay no attention to who they are, but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we? But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. Why are you trying to trap me? He said, bring me a denarius and look at it. They brought the coin and asked them, whose image is this and whose inscription? Caesar’s, they replied. Then Jesus said to them, give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God, what is God’s. Our Lord and Savior, who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, asks us to give what is due to our government and leadership and to not cause an uproar. And frankly, over the past years, I’m pretty appalled by the way believers talk to other believers, especially in the realm of politics.

I know some of you guys are young, but when you guys have grow up and you have jobs, you’ll care about politics. It’ll play a factor in your life at some point. But I’m appalled by the way that I’ve heard conversations between believers, believers of the way, talk to each other to the point where they want to end friendships. They want to end bonds that they have with each other just because they don’t agree on something. But God expects us to have some decency in our speech and in our conversations. Though we may not agree on everything, can we at least be agreeable to respect each other and pray for the wellbeing of each other and pray for the wellbeing of the people who are in power over this country and the countries of this world? God asks us to pray for them. And hopefully when we pray for them in our prayers, praying that God will help lead them in the right path for the sake of our generations and for the sake of the ministry that we want to complete in our lives, right? Politics, government plays such an important role in terms of the church that we don’t see it. So we need to pray for the elected leaders. We need to pray for our presidents. We need to pray for our governing bodies that we can be able to continue the work that God has called us to do in this life. Mordecai was a model of dignity, honor, and integrity in terms of respect to leadership. And our Lord expects us to do the same no matter how much we may disagree. And it’s okay to disagree.

So Mordecai, what does he do? He continues to serve in his current capacity. So just by these six words in verse 12, we see so many qualities that Mordecai exhibits that we should follow, right? The quality of patience while waiting on the Lord, the quality of trusting in God’s appointments of leaders, and respecting and having a caring nature and loving nature towards people who are in authority over us. We’re gonna finish up with the last half of chapter, verse 12 and 13. So this is what is done for the man who delights to the king, okay? But Haman rushed home with his head covered in griefs and told Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends everything that had happened. His advisors and his wife, Zeresh, said to him, since Mordecai, before whom your downfall started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him. You will surely come to ruin. So when I think about what Haman did, just rushing home and talking to, you know, his family and just, you know, it seems like he’s like crying. It just kind of reminds me of like toddler-like behavior, right, I think kind of related to something that happens at home a lot.

Like my kids, for example, like, you know, they play with toys, and my son, he grabs a toy that’s technically a sailor’s toy that she hasn’t used in months. But then as soon as she sees him playing with that toy, she runs and complains to me that, oh, Ezra got my toy, that’s my toy. And it just kind of reminded me of that, that Haman is just kind of exhibiting the same way. It’s natural for kids to behave like that, but it’s not natural for a grown man like Haman to behave like a toddler. But it’s such an indictment for Haman, for his behavior to be like that, to cry back to his wife and to his friends. Continuing on with verse 14, while they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuch arrived and hurried Haman away to the banquet Esther had prepared. So when Haman explains this news to his friends and his family, the tide is turning, and he knows in his heart of hearts that he is cornered with no path to escape. His fate is sealed, and his friends and his family know that as well. And here we see that they plainly confess that the Jews, though scattered throughout the nations, though they have no home, though they have no authority, they are subject to the divine care of God.

Miserable comforters are they all. They didn’t advise Haman to repent, but they just foretold that his fate was inevitable. The Lord had a special plan for the Jews, and there was no way a mere modal man like Haman, no way a principality or power, an evil force in this world was going to change. God’s providence was finally made known to Haman the Agagite. And I’m closing up my words here tonight that no matter how prideful, no matter how confident the evil one makes this world, that makes up this world, feels he is, how confident he may seem that he will get his way, there is a reckoning for him to come in these last days. And there’s no way to hide from it. There’s no way to escape from it. It is inevitable. And not only will the forces of darkness be thrown down, they know it’s coming for them. And the Lord has a profound way of informing them of their fate. The evil one, he has taken many innocent lives throughout the generations and centuries, killed blameless people, martyred people for their faith. But in the end, there’s a final battle that we sung this evening that only belongs to the Lord and for his people.

Spoiler alert, the book of Esther is now changing into the hands and the fate is turning and shifting into the hands of Mordecai and Esther and the Jews. But today in our own lives, and for so many other people throughout the world, the enemy has taken innocent blood and he will continue to do so. And I was really, when I was thinking about this past week and I was preparing and spending time in prayer, I’m sure you guys all heard about that shooting that happened in the state of Minnesota in Minneapolis. And there’s something about those types of shootings that it makes you just ponder and think, you can’t focus for the rest of the day. And when I was reading the news on this story, on his gun magazine, it showed, where is your God? The enemy at this current time is filled with loads of confidence, pride, arrogance, thinking that there’s no retribution for them. And his followers believe that to the T. But there’s something that I want to explain tonight or God wants to explain tonight is that regardless of whether we win our current battles against the enemy or not, whether we win in this earthly world or not, the final battle belongs to the Lord and for his children. What should we do in the meantime? There was so much topic that prayer isn’t enough. Those children were killed during prayer.

A servant of God read this. I loved how he said it. Just as there is a God in heaven who loves us, there’s also a devil destined to hell who hates us. And he hates everything that God loves. And we know that God loves his people. He loves the Jewish people. He loves the Gentiles. He loves his church. He especially loves his children. Remember how these little ones were drawn to Jesus. He said, let the little children come to me and do not forbid them for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Here on the earth, we still face the reality of evil in our lives. But during that time, Esther six, and especially in verse 12, states how our characteristics, how our life should be resembled to that of Mordecai. We need to maintain a level of patience, trusting in God’s perfect plan and timing, not trusting in our own abilities. We need to hold each other to the high esteem and value and respect, respecting our ruling leaders and authorities and what they have placed over us. And we must remain faithful servants, just as Mordecai was faithful by returning to his work and continuing in his work. We must be faithful servants in doing the work of the Lord to this day. Living in humbleness and in humility.

The events in the book of Esther happened around the time of 500 BC. 500 years later, our Lord and Savior came into this world to humble himself, to be a servant for us and for all of mankind. Mark 10:45, it reads like this, for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And in Luke 22:27, for who is greater the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table, but I am among you as the one who serves. There’s no greater gift in this life for us to give to others than to have the mindset of being a humble and faithful servant, not just to the Lord, but to each other. There’s no greater model to follow than that of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as you go through your walk with him, you will face so many battles in your life. I’ve yet to attain anything or go through any types of battles in my life. But I pray when that time comes, when the evil one has his hands and his grips on each and every one of us, because it will happen in one way or the other, during that time, will we continue to be faithful servants, trusting in God’s timing and knowing that the final battle belongs to him and to us. We might not win in this current battle in this life. Things are not gonna go our way all the time. But I want you to remember that we are here in a temporary home and we are fighting to go to an everlasting home. I pray that this chapter would allow us to change certain aspects of our life, to change certain characteristics of ourselves, to demonstrate a life of humility and meekness and continue forward in our ministry with God.

Let’s all rise. We’re gonna take a moment to pray and get into a time of worship. Our righteous and Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for giving us this time to gather into the house of the Lord. And we thank you, Lord, for speaking to us. We thank you for your Holy Spirit working in this place. Lord, we know we are struggling with so many things around us. The evil one is crouching upon us like a roaring lion, trying to devour us at every turn. If we haven’t experienced it yet, Lord, we’re thankful for grace. If we’re going through it right now in our lives, Lord, I pray that you would allow us and strengthen us to continue forward in our ministry, to remain faithful, to be patient for your timing and your plan in our life, Lord. Help us display qualities of love, of humility, of kindness, not of dissension, not of discord, not of pride, not of arrogance, not of impatience. Lord, we need help. We need strength to be able to do that in our lives, Lord. And we know when we are faced with a battle that may be insurmountable for us in this earthly home, and we might not be able to get through it, Lord, I pray that you would give us strength to look upon your face and to know that you are going to win that final battle and you are coming to receive us into glory, Lord. Pray that you would give us that heart, confidence and strength, pursuing forward of that eternity that we will soon see and help us to continue forward in our walk with you that we could be able to achieve that eternity, Lord. We thank you for speaking us through the word, Lord. We ask all these things in the precious and mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.