Transcript

Good morning, church. We're continuing our series through the Book of Esther. Before I begin this morning, I want to give you another update. We've got several exciting things happening in our church and some of them happening this week. As you heard.

If you were here earlier, you saw the video announcement about our prayer summit, our week of prayer this week where we're collaborating with other churches in Wilson. This is something I think we're about six or seven years in doing this together. This week, four nights of prayer praying for the revival of our city and of our country. We begin tomorrow night at Christ Temple of Praise, Tuesday night here at Eastgate, Wednesday night at Wave Church, Thursday night at Peace Church. And that Thursday night is the night of the it's the day of National Day of Prayer.

And we'll be inviting city leaders, first responders, et cetera, to come forward for special prayer on that fourth night. And so we invite you to come at least one night, but all the nights if you can make it. And we invite you to that collaboration for prayer this week. And then speaking of collaboratives, we have joined a collaborative called the Mercy Hill Collaborative. It's a brand new group of churches representing 20 churches that have come together for the cause of making disciples and planting churches.

And we're convinced that we reach more people with the gospel with new churches. And so we are interested in collaborating with other churches and planting churches. And our interest in being part of Mercy Hill Collaborative is to help us plant churches, especially in eastern North Carolina. And so we're going to be collaborating for church planting, for leadership assessments, for church planter assessments, for internships and residencies. In fact, we have one of our own church members who is going to be a resident this fall in our residency program that we're beginning in conferences, peer learning retreats, et cetera.

And so people that feel called to ministry, that that feel called to either the mission field internationally, domestically, or helping us plant churches. We're part of this Mercy Hill Collaborative. And you can go online and find that we're one of 20 churches now. Part of our commitment is to help plant a church per year. And so this year, the church that we're helping plant helping support is in Cary, North Carolina, and it's Livingstone Church Pastor Drew Raynor.

And so they're launching later this month. And I met with this young man. I'm very impressed by his vision and we're excited to be able to support them. And I'd like for you to hear from him. He sent us a video thanking us.

So let's watch this video. Hey, Eastgate Church. My name is Drew Rayner. I'm one of the planting pastors of Livingstone Church over in the Cary Apex area of North Carolina. And on behalf of our church, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to how you guys have given generously to us.

Your giving has made it possible for us to actually get this building that I'm standing in, ready to welcome our neighbors and our community into this place on May 31st to hear the gospel and we pray have their lives changed forever. It's been a joy to get to meet your pastors, Pastor Gary and Wilson and Pastor Jonathan over in Rocky Mount, and just to experience their friendship and partnership in the gospel and yours, too. And so, on behalf of Livingstone Church, want to say God bless and thank you. All right. And so I wanted you to hear from Drew.

I brought Drew over here a few months ago and took him to Parker's, and so he's. I'm surprised he even wanted to plant in Cary. I think he wanted to move to Wilson after that. So we got the family item. He says they keep bringing the food.

Yep, they keep bringing the food. So, anyway, be praying for that church as they launch later this month. Well, let's dig into the Book of Esther. Last week we covered the first two chapters, and today we hope to cover chapters three and four. And just to remind you that as we study the Book of Esther, it's a unique book.

It's unique for many reasons. One of the reasons is because it's one of only two books in the Bible that is named after a woman, the other being Ruth. But the primary reason that it's very unique is that the name of God is never mentioned in these 10 chapters, although the name of God is never mentioned. However, we can see the hand of God at work throughout the book. And so last week, we saw that God vacated the Queen's throne and moved in his person.

He moved in Esther, a Jewish orphan who was being raised by her first cousin, who really saw him as her father. And she's an exile. She's an orphan. She's probably when she got the job. She's probably a teenager when she won the first ever recorded Miss Universe contest.

And that's where we've been. And now, five years later, is where we're at. And so this book's very good at giving us kind of a chronology. And so we know that in the seventh year of Ahasuerus reign is when he elevated Esther to queen. And now it's the 12th year of his reign.

And in chapters three and four, it takes a dark turn, the bad guy appears. Every great story has a good guy, and a bad guy has a hero, and it has an anti hero. And here he comes. And so we see this man named Haman who comes and he rises to power and his desire is to destroy the people of Israel. He wants to commit a genocide in the king's name.

And so long before there was a Hitler, there was a Haman who wanted to kill off all the Jews. But God in the midst of this, is moving. He's moved people into positions and he's moved people and he's calling them to faithfulness and to courage. And he's calling them not to be silent, but to speak up. And we need this message today because as followers of the Lord, we often feel in the culture today that like staying silent, we often feel like.

I just feel like, you know, it's best not to stir the pot. I think I'll just stay silent in this situation. Silent in the classroom, silent in the workplace, in my neighborhood, at my brother in law's house. Better not stir the pot. Just, I'll keep that to myself.

And sometimes that's good wisdom. But often God moves us to courageously speak up lovingly, joyfully, generously, not judgmentally, but gracefully to speak up. And so we see here, that's what's going on in chapters three and four, that a young woman is called not to be silent, but to speak up for God and for his people. That's exactly what we see. God's not named, but he's not absent and he's working behind the scenes and he's moving his people not to stay silent, but to speak up.

The narrator recorded how God, though he's never named, sovereignly worked to call his people to courageously speak out against Haman's evil, genocide, genocidal decree to destroy the Jews of Persia. And I believe today that we can see God calling us to courageously speak out against evil in our day, to courageously speak out when God moves us. And as we look at the text, I think we'll see three ways that God stirs us up in this regard. To not be silent, but to courageously speak out. So let's look at it.

I've got a lot to read. I put so much in your bulletin, I didn't leave you any room to write. So we'll try to do better in the future. It's just we're covering a lot. Chapter three and four, I'll start with verse one of chapter three.

After these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him. And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, why do you transgress the king's command? And when they spoke to him day after day, he would not listen to them.

They told Haman in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So as they had made known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, through the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, they cast lots before Haman day after day, and they cast it month after month till the 12th month, which is the month of Adar.

Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not the king's profit to tolerate them. If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed. And I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries. So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews.

And the king said to Haman, the money is given to you. The people also do with them as it seems good to you. Then the king's scribes were summoned on the 13th day of the first month. And an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king satraps and to the governors over all the provinces, to the officials of all the peoples to every province in his own script and every people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring.

Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instructions to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children in one day, the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day. The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king, and the decree was issued in Susa, the citadel, and the king and Haman sat down to drink. But the city of Susa was thrown into confusion. This is God's word.

Three ways that God calls us to courageously speak up. The first way that I see here in chapter three is by positioning us providentially. Really, we needed chapter one and two for me to make this point. But we see it here. We see that Esther is now providentially in place.

We'll get to that in chapter four. We also see that Mordecai is providentially in place. And even the evil one, the one who is under the influence, I believe, of Satan, although it's not named here, we don't see in this book. It's a very. The book of Esther is a very.

In this world kind of book. The unseen world is not mentioned. But yet always you can see it just beyond the veil. We see not only God's hand, but we see the evil one's hand in the overreaction of Haman's fury that not only does he want to kill Mordecai, he wants to kill all of Mordecai's people. And we see this.

We don't have to wait till Hitler comes before we see this hatred. We see it all the way back here in Haman. And so we see all of these positions. God was not caught by surprise. God's at work behind the scenes all the time.

We made this point last week. He's still at work. He's at work in your life today. Even when you don't see him, even when you don't hear him, even when you feel dry and you're not sure, you even feel his presence, he is at work, he is present. And so he's at present here, and he's positioned this.

Now we see some details here that we don't want to overlook. Remember, how chapter two finished. I told you it was an odd ending to chapter two, and we'll need it later. We still don't know why it's there, but it does kind of set up chapter three in a sort of backhanded kind of way. Here's Mordecai, who's one of the king's officials.

Now, how do you know that he's one of the king's officials? Because he sits at the king's gate. This is language that's used during this time period. The elders would sit at the gate of a city or at the gate of the king. That means that they were leaders, they were royal officials.

So here's Mordecai. He's told his daughter, his adopted daughter Esther, don't tell them you're a Jewish. And then here, soon as he sees that Haman gets promoted. Now remember what happened at the end of chapter two. Mordecai over.

He overheard a conspiracy to kill the king. Ahasuerus, or as we say it in the Greek language, Xerxes, same person, Xerxes I. He overheard a conspiracy to kill him. And what did he get? He got a promotion, right?

No, he got listed in Wikipedia. He got an honorable mention in the King's chronicles. He didn't get a promotion. And then we turn to chapter three, and then guess who gets the promotion? This guy, this guy Haman, this, this Agagite, this, this man who wants to kill all the Jews.

So here's Mordecai. Not only does he not get the promotion, but a guy that he hates and, and that he knows he's a racist, he hates the Jews, he gets the promotion. This ever happened to you at work? This ever happened to you at school? Did you ever have to sit the bench on a sports team?

And the guy whose daddy brought him to the ball game all the time always got to start, or he was the coach of the team. There's everyone has. We've all had this story where the deserving person sits the bench. And the guy who gets to start knew somebody. And so here's Haman, he gets the promotion.

Now what motivated Mordecai not to bow down? Because it was everybody. He was elevated to the second in command, a Haman is now he gets the signet ring, like he's signing documents with the king's signature. And Mordecai does not bow down. Everybody bows down.

Everybody pays homage. Not Mordecai. And when they ask him, why aren't you bowing down? He says, I'm a Jew. That's all the story tells us.

We don't know why. Is it because Jews don't bow down to kings? Well, that's never really been a teaching. The Jews were not to bow down to idols, but to show honor to a king. What's going on here?

Well, the Bible doesn't tell us, but it does give us a hint. Gives us a hint. Why does it make so much. In the previous chapter of the Background of Mordecai, it tells us, if you'll recall, that he's in the lineage of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin. Remember that.

And if you go to First Samuel, chapter 15, you'll see a story about the son of Kish, King Saul, who was commissioned by the prophet Samuel, speaking for God, to wipe out the Amalekites because they were a people group that had been against Israel from the time of their entrance into the. Into the wilderness. And what did King Saul do? He didn't do it. In fact, when Samuel shows up, he says, he says, look, I've done everything the Lord told me.

He goes, well, what that, what, what then is that bleeding of sheep I hear in my ears? Like, he didn't. He took plunder. And then why is King Agag still sitting right here? You haven't, you haven't executed him.

And so it's kind of graphic, but Samuel takes a sword and hacks Agag to pieces, right? Here's Haman, the Agagite. What is this? It seems to be a reference to Haman. Must be from the line of the Amalekites.

And can you imagine being a Benjaminite? And you've had this, you've had this negative story as long as you can remember that your forebearer was the king, and he lost it because of his disobedience concerning Agag and the Amalekites. Why is this here? It seems to be a hint, perhaps that that's what's going on with Mordecai. We don't know for sure.

I have to be careful as a pastor with suppositional thinking. But I see some hints here that there would have been enmity between Haman and Mordecai. And Mordecai doesn't bow down, and Mordecai doesn't bow down. Did he do wrong? Scripture doesn't say, was he right?

Well, he put his whole nation at risk. Was it out of pride? Was it out of hurt over not getting promoted? Was it just simply because he was a Jew, specifically a Benjamin? We don't know.

We're not sure what his motivation is, but we do see some hints here. We see this now. It says that whenever Haman goes before the king, before he goes in, he casts lots, which in the Persian word for that was per or pure, depending on how you want to pronounce it, the pronunciation. If you look it up, it seems to be per. It just means lot.

Or we would say casting the dice. And so he believed in the idea, I guess, of the gods somehow guiding the dice. We don't know. Maybe he just believed in luck. He was trying to find the perfect day to kill all the Jews.

And it says he cast it. And he was casting it and it went month after month and finally it landed on the 12th month of Adar. He's doing this in Nisan, which is the first month of the Hebrew calendar. And these cast lands on the 12th month and then it lands on the 13th day. And so here we are, 11 months later, we're going to kill all the Jews in one day.

That's his plan. He came up with it by casting lots. Can you think of someone else? Who. They cast lots for his clothing.

Can you think of someone? They cast lots. And the people were to die. And can you imagine having 11 months notice? You're going to die in 11 months.

And edict goes out. When did it go out? Verse 12. Then the king's scribes were summoned on the 13th day of the first month. What day is that?

Oh, that's the day before Jewish Passover. On the day before Passover, the high and holy day when they celebrated their salvation from Egyptian slavery. The day before that, an edict goes out. You're going to die 11 months from now.

Is that accidental? No, that's satanic timing in a way, isn't it? But yet God's sovereign and over it. But yet. Can you imagine a more disturbing reality?

Here we are at this time period. This seems to be the third king that we've read about in scripture, in the Persian line. The first was Cyrus. King Cyrus was the king of the Medes and the Persians, and he's the one allowed the the Israelites to return from Babylonian captivity and they went back and rebuilt the temple of Jerusalem. So the temple's been rebuilt.

The walls haven't been rebuilt yet, but the temple's been rebuilt. And then we have following him, Darius, who was the one that Daniel also served under. But now we're on the third king that we've read about in scripture. And this is King Ahasuerus or Xerxes the first. And this Goes out.

Can you imagine Jerusalem? We just rebuilt the temple. We thought God was with us. What's going on here? We're all going to die now, after all this, the day before Passover, we find this out.

Where's God? You ever been there? You ever been like, where's God? He goes out and goes out to all the people. Went all across 127 provinces.

I like how, like how he told the king. He didn't tell the king. He said, there's a certain people that aren't following your laws. He didn't name the Jews. You know, a good king would have said what certain people you talking about?

Not this king. This king doesn't seem to be interested in the details. However, I think he was moved by the last detail of Haman's offer. He goes, and I'll put 10,000 talents of silver in the royal treasury for this, which is £750,000 of silver. That's what he offered.

And then we see at the end of the chapter three that he and Haman, the king and Haman became drinking buddies while the city of Susa was thrown into confusion. Like, what in the world is going on here? The world seemed to be flying apart. I don't know if Mordecai did the right thing or the wrong thing. The Bible doesn't offer a judgment, it just gives the facts of what happened.

We do see In Romans, chapter 13, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. The kings command was to bow down to Haman. And Mordecai broke the King's command. Did he break God's intent?

I don't know if God urged him to do it or he did it out of pride. I don't know what his motivation was, but here's what I know, that even when I make decisions that are ill conceived as God's person, as God's man, even when I do that, I'll often suffer the consequences. But yet God's still at work in my life to hear my cry. And he's still at work. And he will even take the mistakes I make if I let him, if I repent and turn to him and give them to him, so that he causes all things to work to the good, for those that love him are called according to his purpose.

Even. Even. Even the ugly mistakes I've made in my life. So did Mordecai make a mistake? It's unclear, but he certainly put his whole nation at risk.

He put his whole people at risk. And and this is what happened first. Corinthians says, only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. God has put us each in a place, in a family, in a city, in a neighborhood, in a job, in a classroom. He's put us providentially in positions.

And in this season, there will be seasons and opportunities where he's put you there for such a time as this. And he'll call you to speak up. He'll call you to speak up. And it's getting ready to happen here. It's getting ready to happen here.

The setting is coming into focus here. Let's go to 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 sea, and 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. In every province, wherever the king's command and his 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 might take off the sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Them. Then Esther called for Hattak, one of the king's eunuchs who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. And Hattak went to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate.

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 treasuries 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 it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people. And Hadak went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hadek and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces 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 in to 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 such a time as this. We'll pause right there. This leads us to the second way that God calls us. Speak up. And it's by confronting us personally.

By confronting us personally. You know, sometimes you'll feel, you know, somebody needs to speak up. Like you'll feel that. Like, is anybody around here going to speak up? Like you'll feel, like at the workplace or in your classroom or in your neighborhood, or at your mother in law's house, like somebody ought to speak up.

And then this is what happens to Esther. Her adopted dad, Mordecai said, it's you, you're supposed to speak up. And she's afraid. She's got a reason to be afraid. But this is how this rolls out.

He says to her, he's very direct, go to the king and beg his favor.

And we've already seen in chapters one and two that she's obedient to her father. She loves him, he took her in, she obeys him. This was a hard one. This is a big ask. Everybody's crying.

How does Esther respond when she finds out that Mordecai is in sackcloth and ashes at the king's gate? This great official, the one who really rescued the king by uncovering a conspiracy, he's down there weeping and wailing this, and she's been queen now for five years. How do we know it? Well, if you look earlier here, it says in the 12th year. This is in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus.

It's verse seven. So she became queen in year seven. So she's been queen now for five years.

And this nonsense that's happening down at the gate, if people find out that that's my dad, and he's told everybody he's a Jew, and he told me not to tell anybody, I'm a Jew. She sent clothes down there to get him clothed. Because sometimes when God's stirring you up that somebody needs to speak up. You intend instead you decide to cover up instead of speaking up.

That's a human tendency. The fear of man will cause us to cover up instead of speaking up. I wouldn't judge Esther too harshly because you've done the same and so have I. We all have. Had.

We've been in those situations where I don't need to tell everybody this right here. Often it's because we don't love those people enough to worry with it. Just let me just see if I can get out of this situation without having to stir the pot. She sends it and he goes, look, you're not going to get out of this. We have something here going on where there's a law in Persia that you can't just go in when he's sequestered in the inner court, you can't just go in there.

Apparently you have to be his drinking buddy to hang out with him. She tells us a little detail here, and we don't know what's caused it. She's in the fifth year as queen, but in verse 11, it said he's not called her into his chamber for 30 days. And we know this is a Persian king and he does have a harem. We don't know what his thinking is here.

We don't know if she's fallen out of favor. I think we find out later that she has not. But it is disturbing for her to think, okay, he hasn't called me in for 30 days and now I'm just going to roll up in there. That's how you get killed in a Persian. But then verse 12, Mordecai gets that word from her and he does not let her back up.

Do not think. Verse 13. Rather, do not think to yourself. So that's where we get in a lot of trouble, is thinking to ourselves, isn't it? I mean, do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.

I don't know how she hadn't heard about all this. She must not have been checking social media. She hadn't been looking at the Persian times. She's in a bubble up there in the royal palace. She doesn't realize all the Jews are out here lamenting.

They've got a clock ticking. 11 months from now you die, and she's up in there. He goes, don't be thinking you're getting out of this verse 14. For if you keep silent, and that's always the flesh's temptation, and it's also the evil one who whisper in our ears. Yeah, you don't.

You're not worthy. You don't know enough right here to speak to this situation. There's always this temptation to keep silent. If you keep silent this time. And then he says, one of the most faithful statements, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.

Here's what he knows. He thinks Esther's supposed to be the one, but he knows for certain that God will not allow his people to perish. If it's not you, it'll rise from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. This is unusual language here. Some have noticed, and I'll talk about this more, perhaps in future weeks, that this language sounds very familiar to what you would read in numbers, chapter 30, regarding the law concerning a woman who's under her father or under her husband in her ability to make a vow, and that if her husband or father stays silent, the vow counts and he can't override it and speak up.

But there's some very similar language that would have been familiar to the Jewish ear, it seems here. And we'll talk more about that and how the name of the festival of Purim is based not only on purr, which means lot, but might also be a double entendre from. From numbers 30. So hang on to that, those of you that take notes, and I'll give you more as we unfold this book. So he says here, God's going to save us.

But perhaps, who knows, he says, and who knows whether you have not come. He basically says to her, I want you to go in there on a. Who knows? It sounds like Jonathan, the son of King Saul, who said to his shield bearer, let's go up there. Perhaps the Lord will give those Philistines into our hands.

He was willing to go up and attack the Philistines on a perhaps just on the character of God. I haven't got a word from God on this, but it seems like the thing that God's. I feel like on my heart, God's calling me to do this, going to go up there on a perhaps. Perhaps God will give us the victory like that. And so who knows that he's not put you right where you are for this very thing.

That's what he says to her, and he calls her on it. The book of Proverbs, chapter 31. We read this speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and the helpless and see that they get justice.

Don't be silent for those who can't speak for themselves. Don't be silent. Speak up. We're called to represent Christ in this world, to be salt and light. And so he says to her, perhaps that's why you are in this position.

Who knows whether you came into this kingdom for such a time as this. This is Mordecai speaking to her, reminded of Matthew chapter 14, When Jesus was speaking and he had a great crowd of thousands and the day was getting late. And some of the disciples come to Jesus and say, you should send them away because the people getting hungry and they can't find anything to eat out here in the wilderness. And he says to them, you feed them. It reminds me of that same thing.

Like you go, esther, you feed them like that, and they go, it would take a year's wages to feed all these people. And then Jesus, you know, tells them what you know, what do we have here? And here comes Andrew. He brings, hey, I found you somebody that's got a bag lunch. They got two fish and five loaves.

And he goes, let's use that, let's use that. Here's the thing. God will tap you, but then he also will multiply what you do. He'll cause his word not to return void if you'll speak up. And so we often think, I don't know enough to speak up.

I'm not sure how to do. No, if you'll speak up, he will use you. It's often the fear of man that keeps us from speaking up. You'll know it when he taps you. When he calls, don't stay silent.

Speak up. And when you speak up, you're speaking for the Lord. Not for yourself, not for your own ego, but for Him. Let's read the rest of it. We have just a little bit left in chapter four.

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.

This leads us to the third way that God calls us to speak up. And he often challenges us sacrificially. He often challenges us to get outside our comfort Zone in a sacrificial way, to put ourselves, our reputation, our possessions on the line in order to speak up on his behalf. And so we see Esther here, Esther, she says, let's fast for three days. She doesn't say pray.

It's as if the author here, the human author that is unnamed. We know the Holy Spirit is the ultimate inspiration and authority, but by, by just giving us, like here's how this story looks under heaven. If we could only see it from above heaven and look down on it. But here's how it looks without hearing from God or God's name. Or even when we fast, they don't mention prayer, but it's assumed.

It's like by not emphasizing, it seems to emphasize it more to me. Three days. Let's not eat or drink for three days, night or day. And I and my young women, we will do the same thing. And though it's against the law, after three days I will go into the King.

And if I die, I die. If I perish, I perish. This young woman has counted the cost. She's obedient to her father. She says, if you're sending me, I will go.

But first let's fast for three days. Let's fast for three days. Make no mistake. When Jesus calls us, he calls us to follow him. He first calls us, as he calls us to follow him, to leave.

You got to leave before you can follow. You got to leave some stuff behind. He calls us not to a self improvement course, but to self denial. He calls us to come and die and live in him. It says in Luke chapter nine, for if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. It's a paradox, it seems. He says, if you want eternal life, if you want to be my follower, you must die to self and live to me. This is the call.

And some of us are right here, right now, and you've yet to speak up your confession of faith, to say yes to Jesus, to say, I recognize that as Esther and Mordecai were under a decree of death, so are we. They're under a decree of death. Eleven months from now you are to die. And she says, I'm going to go three days from now, and I'm going to obey my Father and I'm going to go. She decided that God is called.

She's in obedience to her Father. And when you obey the authorities over you, if they tell you something that's consistent with God's word. You can almost say, well, that's, in a way, God calling me to do it. I'm not going to be silent. I'm going to speak up.

And even when he seems silent, you can speak up on his behalf. We're in the same position as Esther. We're under a death decree for the wages of sin is death. And it's not because, like Mordecai dishonored Haman. It's because we have dishonored the Lord.

The reason we're under a decree of death is because we've not given the Lord Jesus honor and praise and worship. We've not submitted to him as our Lord and Savior. That puts us under a death decree. It leaves us under the. Under the decree of death.

And Esther is a picture. She says, three days from now, I'm willing to die in order to obey my Father. But Jesus comes saying, I'm not only willing to die, I come obeying my father dying. Then three days later, I'm going to get up. We see a foreshadowing in Esther of the fulfillment in Jesus.

She says, if I perish, I perish. And he said, I go to lay down my life. No man takes my life for me, I lay my life down. He goes obedient to his Father who sent him. And he doesn't cancel the decree of death, as we find out later.

You can't cancel a Persian law, but you can come up with another way of overcoming it. And Jesus doesn't cancel God's holiness, God's law that the wages of sin is death. No, he satisfies it by taking our death in our place.

So God's law is kept and fulfilled in him. As we continue to unpack this book, we'll see how Mordecai and Esther get at this as a foreshadowing of what Christ does, how he satisfies the decree of death that's on us. Jesus wasn't silent. He spoke. He stood.

He gave his life for us. Will you speak up for him?

Not judgmentally. Not just being that loudmouth that offends people. Not just declaring your hatred of sin and people, but declaring your love of God joyfully, earnestly, gracefully, allowing people to hear your representation of Jesus in the workplace and in the classroom. And today, as we close this service, to declare before Jesus that you would honor him with your life. Let's pray.

Lord, I first of all, pray for that one today, that you've never honored Jesus by giving him your life. You've never surrendered your life to Jesus. Lord, would you stir hearts right now in this place?

We're all under the decree of death, apart from you. But thank you Jesus that you took our death and offered your eternal life.

I pray for that person right now that would receive that. Is that you? You can pray with me right now, right in your seat. Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. And I recognize that you died on the cross for my sins and that you were raised from the grave on the third day and that you live today.

Come and live in me. I invite you to be my Lord and Savior. I give my life to you, leaving my former life behind. Adopt me into your family. I want to be a child of God and follow you all the days of my life.

If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing you're confessing Jesus as Lord, you're speaking up. Know this, that he will save you. That's why he came. Others are here today and you're a believer, you're a Christ follower. But he's been stirring you up to speak out.

I don't know where it's at in your family, your workplace, your neighborhood, the classroom that you're a student in. You're a teacher in a classroom, wherever it is.

Lord, I pray for the grace, for us to be vessels, to not be silent when you stir our hearts to speak. For it might be such a time as this. We pray it in Jesus name, Amen.