So let's get into Esther together. And I pray today that this will encourage and challenge you where you need it. We're in part two. We're continuing in chapter three and four of the Book of Esther. If you missed last week, you're okay, don't worry.

You can go back and catch that on our website. But today has got its own set of moves and points for you that I think will stir you right where you need it. So don't worry. A little bit of backdrop from last week just to get you caught up. We are in Persia prior to Christ.

We're in the 400-bc- at a time where there's a king named Ahasuerus who is also, by most historians, called Xerxes is his Greek name. So you probably heard that name. King Xerxes is who we're dealing with. And what happened last week is his former queen disobeyed him, so he gave her the boot. And he's put a new queen in named Esther, who happens to be a Jewish young lady, a beautiful, lovely young lady.

And she is an orphan who's been adopted by her older cousin named Mordecai, who is now kind of acting as her father. And so those are the characters of our story. And as we close last week, chapter two, Mordecai does this wonderful thing where he stops a coup, an assassination, if you will, of King Xerxes. And the Bible is very funny how it describes this. And the end of that chapter, it simply says, they wrote it down.

He doesn't get promoted. Nothing happens from it. They just wrote it down in a book. And that's going to come back up later. But chapter three is not going to start the way you suspect it will.

You're thinking, okay, here comes promotion. Queen Esther is in place. Good is happening for the people of God. That won't be the case in chapter three. In fact, we're getting the primary conflict.

The chapters we're dealing with today are really the core of the. Of the Book of Esther. As we think about this scripture, really the key to the whole scripture is right at the end of chapter four, where we're going to be today. And so as we dig into this text, we're going to see the story is taking a really dark turn. It seemed like this, like, quiet, God's working in Providence, although His name doesn't appear, although we don't see him speaking, we see him acting and putting people in place.

But now we have crisis. And it's even harder in crisis when it's not obvious that God, what he's doing or what he's saying. And so this is the moment we find ourselves. And for that reason, I think this message will be incredibly powerful to you today because we are often in the middle of crisis that God is calling his people to moments just like this, and moments where he's maybe not really obvious, where he's hidden at times where his voice isn't particularly clear. But in those very moments, we see his hand at work and also him calling us to speak up and to be courageous.

He calls us to courage at some of the most difficult times, moments where silence would be a lot safer. That's what you're going to see in this story. It would be easier to keep quiet, it would be easier to just compromise than to give in to any sort of conviction. It's always easier to choose comfort over Christ. That's going to be the story of today.

And this will be true in your life time and time again. It will happen over and over in your workplaces, even in your family life, your extended family, in your neighborhoods. It will always be easier to choose silence or comfort over Christ. But I pray today, as we dig into this word, that it will encourage you and challenge you and give you courage to live for Christ, because He has done so much for us. So where is God?

When the pressure on, that's where we're going to be. So Esther, chapter three and four. We're seeing here the narrator, most likely Mordecai, records how God sovereignly worked to call his people to courageously speak up. And that's what we're going to see as we challenge ourselves to study this text, that there's three ways that God is calling us to be courageous in the way we speak up for Him. And so here we go, Esther, chapter three.

We have a habit as a church of reading all of the texts we're covering. We we have two chapters today. It's a little shorter than last week's, the Good News, a little bit easier than last week. But I pray that this will encourage and challenge you even in the reading of it. So first, chapter three.

Here comes the conflict. 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, they bowed down and they paid homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But, and this is a really good but in the Sentence.

But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. There's your conflict. He did not bow down. Then verse three. The king's servants who were at the king's gate, they said to Mordecai, hey, buddy, why do you transgress the king's command?

And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman bunch of snitches, in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them 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, throughout the entire kingdom, the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast pur, which makes no sense to us, but the Bible actually tells us what 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. So they got together and they cast lots to pick this day. They kept casting until they landed upon the the 12th day of the 12th or the 13th day of the 12th month. Okay, verse 8. Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, there's 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 is not to the king's prophet. It's not to the king's prophet 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.

That's a lot. We're going to talk about that in a minute. Into the hands of all those who have charge in the king's business, and they be put in it, they may be put into the king's treasuries. Verse 10. So the king took his signet ring off of 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's given to you. The people also. Do with them as it seems good to you. Great. Verse 12.

Then the king's scribes were summoned on the 13th day of the first month. And an edict, according to all that Haman had commanded, was written to the king's satraps and to the governors over all of the provinces, and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people, in its own language. It was written, this 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 instruction here, this church, to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all Jews, young, old, women, children, which is in the month of Adar, and then to plunder their goods. Verse 14.

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. Don't miss this last sentence. And the king and Haman sat down to drink. But the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.

This is God's word. Amen. A little hard to say amen to this one. This one's tough. What's going on here?

This is a lot. Well, I pray that as we dig into chapters three and four, you will see three ways that God is calling us to be courageous in the way we speak up for Him. Here's the first way. And this sounds a little bit like last week, but there's some nuance here. Here's the first.

By positioning us providentially. Positioning us providentially. Now, this might not jump off the page to you, so I'm going to give you all the breadcrumbs so you can follow it. Okay, here's what's going on in chapter three. You're expecting to read Mordecai's promotion and you don't get it.

Instead you get Haman the Agagite, which just his name alone should make you go, I just don't like his name. And you shouldn't. This is not an actor you should like in the story, it says he's an enemy of the Jews, and in this case, an enemy of God and his people. He stands opposed. And his name is silly.

Haman the Agagite, son of Hammedath. His dad's name is kind of cool. I like that one. But he stands opposed. And the breadcrumbs, let me lay them out for you.

Here's what's going on. In chapter one and two, we find out that Mordecai, this person who we know very little about. It says the Bible says a couple of times, if you go back and look, it says he's the son of Kish, a Benjamite. And then here we have Haman the Agagite. And so, okay, and it tells us several times in this text that he is of Agog.

Okay, so what's pitting against one another? Well, this is meant to point us back to 1st Samuel. The early century readers would read that and go, I know what's going on here. Now, it's not obvious to us. We have a lot more text and we focus a lot in the New Testament, and that's fair.

But if we were just students of the old, we would say, okay, I've seen agog before and I know a little bit about the Son of Kish. When you think about the son of Kish, who should first come to your mind is not Mordecai. Saul should come to mind. If you go back and read First Samuel, Israel picks a king right away, and that king is Saul. And Saul in 1st Samuel, chapter 15 is given a task that he does not complete.

He doesn't complete it because he bows to the people rather than to God. In fact, that's what he says. He says when God tells him, hey, I need you to go and wipe out the Amalekites because they have done treacherous things in my eyes, I am using you to cast judgment on them, essentially. And what Saul does instead is disobey. And the reason he tells the prophet Samuel that he disobeyed is that he was afraid of the people.

And so he does not kill King Agog, King Agag and the Amalekites, and he keeps some of their possessions. When Samuel shows up, I'd encourage you to read that. It literally says he chops them into pieces. The Bible is real and it's wild. He shows up and makes it happen.

And King Saul is here, seen as someone who disobeys God, as Son of Kish, a Benjaminite who does not do what God has commanded him to do. And it's not long after that the kingship is removed from Saul. This is kind of the key event. So what is the Bible doing? The Bible is putting some things together to say, hey, don't miss this.

We've got a new son of Kish, and we've got a new Son of Agog. And this time God's going to win through the Son of Kish. Now God won the first time too, but this time it's almost like he's bringing Redemption to the tribe of Benjamin. So that's what's going on here. So why does Mordecai not bow?

Well, actually, you know, the text doesn't tell us. Like, carefully, it says that he tells his friends, I'm a Jew, so I can't bow. Now, what does that mean? Either he's saying, I won't bow to foreign kings, but I don't think that's quite the case because he seems to have bowed. There's no moments where he's gotten himself in trouble with King Ahasuerus.

So what appears to me to be happening is I'm not bowing to that guy because he is the enemy of my people. Now, what the Bible thinks about that, it doesn't say, is Mordecai being prideful here? I don't know. I would lean on the fact that God is using this event to do something miraculous with his people. And it seems to me perhaps he's implanted an idea in Mordecai's heart that you will not bow to this man.

Everybody else will bow to him, but he is not worthy of being bowed to, and he is not someone that you will bow to. So he doesn't. And guess what? He does. He gets his whole people in a lot of trouble for this.

Imagine feeling that weight. Some of you came in this morning feeling a little guilty about stuff. Imagine feeling like the reason that millions of people are going to die. That's a weight. That's how he's feeling today.

And then so Haman, okay, he gets himself all in his feels about this thing. Here's this one guy, and he finds out he's a Jew. Don't miss this. Trust me. Haman's pretty mad about this, too, because here's a people that is an ancient enemy of his people.

He's like, ooh, I'm a wife. This is why the Bible says it wasn't enough for him to just take out Mordecai. It's weird how it says it. He disdained to kill Mordecai alone. I want to kill them all.

He's got vengeance in his heart. He's got bloodlust in his heart. And so what does he do? He comes before the king, King Xerxes, and he says, hey, there's this people.

Notice in that phrase, he never says who they are. Hey, there's this people. They don't obey you. They do whatever they want. They don't obey the king and your laws.

They don't apply your laws. And if I were the king, Here I'd be like, who are they? But then he sugar coats it with a little thing called 10,000 talents. This is a ridiculous amount of money. A ridiculous amount of money.

In another passage of scripture, we know that one talent is like a year's wages. 10,000 talents. I read that this is somewhere around £750,000 of silver. That is a weight I cannot even fathom. If you bought £750,000 of dirt, it would be millions.

And here it's silver. Someone told me after church this could be somewhere around $800 million. So Haman's saying, here's a bill. What? I don't know if Haman even has that kind of money, but here he offers it.

And here's what the king does. He's like, I don't care who these people are. Did you just say 10,000 talents? Then look what he does. He takes his ring off.

Go do it, my friend. I like this plan. Not knowing that his very queen, the lovely Esther, who he chose, is a Jew. This is a very, very short sighted king. You're going to see that in the whole story.

And God uses him in spite of his many, many flaws.

So this date gets picked and that might also seem like, why in the world do you ever ask the question of the Bible? Why did you spend two paragraphs telling me about this particular date? If you don't do that, then start. Because it's okay. It is okay.

Me as a preacher who loves this Bible, sometimes I go, that was a lot of details. Well, there's a reason for that. The 13th month or 13th day of the first month, it repeats that phrase. This is when the edict is going out that all the Jews are to be killed. This is a bit ironic because guess what?

The 14th day of the first month is Passover. So the edict is going out to the region at the very same time that they're about to celebrate the biggest event in their nation's history, the deliverance from Egypt. And now this edict goes out. You're all going to die. That's wild.

There's a reason that it's those dates, because God's like, they didn't see this, I don't think. But God's like, I'm going to repeat some things. It's going to be cool too. And I'm going to use some people that you would never imagine to do it. I'm going to use this little girl who has no real power in the kingdom to change history.

This is amazing. So positioning God is positioning us. Providentially there's a reason it's Haman, There's a reason it's Mordecai. There's a reason Esther's in place. And God is at work to provide for his people.

He is making wrongs, right? There's an ancient wrong that I think he's making right here. And this horrible event that looks like it's about to occur is also meant to help us point to the Passover, help us point not only to that, but the eventual death decree that we all experience.

Not many people read Esther 3 and see, hey, this could be applied to all of humanity. But I think you should. That a decree has gone out to all peoples that for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's what Paul writes in Romans 3. We are all in big trouble because apart from Christ Jesus, we have a destination we do not desire.

It says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And then later in Romans, it says, in fact, that the wages of that sin then is death. But the gift of Christ is eternal life. So a death decree has gone out to all the people of God. A death decree has also gone out to all peoples of all time.

However, he has supplied a way. That's what's happening here. Chapter three should make us go. How do we get out of this? We're in big trouble.

If we stopped at chapter three, if that was the end of the book, we'd go, this book is terrible. It's not over. God is positioning his people just as he positioned his very Son in order to sacrifice and surrender so that we might be free of this terrible death decree. Friends, if nothing else, as we read Esther today, I hope that you will hear your debt. Your death decree has been paid for.

And if you don't accept that, then you live under that for no reason.

And the call to you today is to come out and come free, that there is someone who has come to establish that freedom. But in the midst of that, believers in the room, in the midst of that, we know that there are troubled times. Whether it's nationally, whether it's in your own workplace, whether it's in your families, there are always chaotic moments in your life. And these kinds of moments. The writers of Scripture tell us some really fascinating things.

One being what Paul writes to the Roman Church under an oppressive empire. The Roman Empire. Here's what he says. So before you say, how could he say that? Trust me, Rome is even worse than what you're living with.

And yet, in spite of that Romans 13. He says, 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. This is the idea that God has not taken his hand off the trigger. He has not taken his foot off the pedal or the steering wheel of this world. And so at no point has an authority got in place where God said, hold up, who let him in?

Never happened, never will. Here you've got this kind of goofball of a king in Persia who seems to be flying by the seat of his pants and does whatever his officials tell him, whatever. Whoever pays the most, whoever has the coolest idea. He's like, I like that. In history, he goes and attacks the Greek states and gets his self whooped because he's just following the whims of whoever seems to be instructing him.

He's not a good ruler. And then he puts a second in command. That is a terrible person. In spite of that, here's what Paul later writes to the Corinthian Church, Chapter seven. He says, only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him.

When you find yourself in a difficult place, don't assume that something has gone wrong. You might assume that God is leading. You should assume that and that, yeah, maybe this is a stepping stone. Some of you have spent your whole life saying, this is a stepping stone. This is a stepping stone.

20 years went by and you said, well, that's just. No, that seems like a quarter of your life, friend. That ain't a stepping stone. That was a huge moment that you wasted because you said, this isn't what God has for me. No, God has for you today.

He has this present moment. Some of us are so much looking in the future that we miss the present day in and day out. Some of us are so stuck in the past that we can't imagine a better future. And yet God has called us to be in the moment, in the present for today. This is why Jesus plainly says, hey, don't worry about this stuff.

Don't worry about tomorrow. It has enough for itself be present that there's a moment. Probably you're thinking, well, I'm in the right place right now. At least. You know, God's probably pretty pleased I'm at church sitting to this goofball preach.

That's something. All right. Yeah, okay. But guess what? You're leaving here in a few minutes.

There are moments. There's moments in these doors. You're going to interact with People, even before you get out of the building. That might be critical moments for people. Someone may have come in today and they need so desperately not just the Lord Jesus, they need a friend.

And as you leave here, they might be looking, or they might be the very person that what they really want, what they really need, they can't acquire because they rush out so fast that they're like, I don't want to talk to these people. I mean, I need them, but I don't want to talk to them. It's crazy. And that's some of you. Or you'll go eat lunch somewhere here in a little while, and there'll be moments.

There'll be moments. Crazy things can happen with people, even at restaurants or in grocery stores, if you'll ask them just a simple question. Hey, I'm about to pray over my food. Can I pray for you? At this point in my career of doing this, no one has said no.

No one. They might even be a straight up, I can't stand God. I can't stand the people of God. But when you say, hey, is there anything I could pray for you about? I don't know why.

They just cannot say anything but what to pray for. They might be thinking in their heart, this is the dumbest thing, but I'm just going to tell them, moments, moments. Be present. Church be present. When your jobs, when they cut corners, when there's opportunities around you that would be easier if you would do it a little less morally or a little less ethically.

The question is going to be, are you going to be like Mordecai or someone else? Are you going to be like these other guys who said, I don't really like this Haman guy either, but I better bow. Some of you are not bowing to Haman, you're bowing to the dollar. You're bowing to other things. So I just question today is God puts you in places.

He puts us in places where our voice really matters, where how we bend the knee really matters. So when God calls, don't be silent, speak up. Be courageous. Let's continue the story, because it's about to get really, really good. Chapter four, verse one.

I'm going to break this up. Verse one, it says, when Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and he put on sackcloth and ashes, and he went out into the midst of the city and he cried. 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. You're not coming in here looking like that.

Verse 3. In every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was a great mourning among the Jews, 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. So she sent clothes, garments, to clothe Mordecai so that he might take off his sackcloth and. But he would not accept them.

Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend to her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai and learned what this was and why it was. What's going on? Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened 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 Hathach went and told Esther all that Mordecai had said.

Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces, we all know this, that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there's only one law be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out this golden scepter so that he might live. But as for me, here's the bad news, Mordecai, as for me, I've not been called into the king for 30 days. I've not seen the man for a month. I don't even know if he likes me anymore. Verse 12.

Then Mordecai, 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, here's the key to the tax church. 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 church, hear it. Who knows whether or not you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Let's pause right there for a moment. I heard a lot of sermons as I was studying this. A lot of them entitled their sermons for such a time as this.

It's kind of a series theme for a lot of pastors. And they're right. This is really the key in the middle. How do you know that you weren't picked for such a time as this? Here's the second way in which we courageously speak up for God when he calls us by confronting it personally.

This thing confronts us personally. It got personal. Chapter three. Mordecai says, I'm not bound to that dude. And then now they're going to wipe out all of his people, him included.

Now Esther too, for Esther, she's the one that. It's getting personal now. I want to talk about her for just a moment because all of this seems very strange. Who is this Hathak guy? And why is he being like, why are we playing telephone here in the middle of chapter four?

What is going on? Well, I'll tell you what's going on. Esther can't talk to him right now because Mordecai has in mourning and has clothed himself in such a way that he's despicable to look at. And so he's not allowed anywhere near the king's court, which means he's not allowed anywhere near the queen. So she can't see him, she can't talk to him, and he won't stop cutting up in the city.

Now he has a reason to do that because a death decree has gone out and he knows it's my fault. Right or wrong, it's my fault. He's feeling a great deal of pain about this. A bitter cry, the Bible says. So what does she do?

Well, she's in a bubble. Apparently Esther has not found out what has happened. It makes no sense, the way that she interacts with him. Unless, of course, she's in this queenly bubble somewhere by a pool, eating grapes all day, enjoying life, right? Maybe they have hot tubs in these days.

I don't think so. But she's really living it up. And she finds out, hey, that guy, that Mordecai guy, isn't he your people? Aren't y' all related somehow? Yeah, he's out there in the city acting a total fool.

She's like, what in the world? He's in sackcloth and ashes. I don't know what causes Esther to think, I'm gonna send him some clothes. Does she think my adopted dad is, like, in such a financial pickle that he doesn't have clothes anymore? I don't know what exactly she's thinking.

She sends clothes, and he's like, I'm not changing because a bad, terrible thing is happening and it's not going to miss you. You're going to be a part of it.

So it gets real personal then, right? Esther finds out, okay, this is for all Jews, all women, children, age, doesn't matter. I'm in trouble. She could be silent in this moment, the queen could definitely make this decision. Hey, I'm good.

This doesn't have to affect me. No one ever has to find out about me. If anyone accuses me of being this, no one's going to believe them. I'm the queen. I'm in a bubble right now, and I could just stay in it.

This is a sidebar for some Christians in the room. Some of you think, hey, I'll just stay out of anything that really matters and just sit in my little Christian bubble and be of no use to anyone. The phrase I used to hear growing up is that you would be so heavenly minded that you were no earthly good. And some people are like this. They spend all of their time in their Christian circles, and they never do anything out in the public with anybody who desperately needs Christ.

That's a whole sidebar that isn't necessarily here in the text, but that's where it drove me. So here's Esther coming out of her bubble. And now Mordecai is saying, hey, look, I think the Lord put you in place for a reason. You have an opportunity. I want you to see Mordecai's faith here.

His faith is on display in verse 13 and 14. Notice what he says. If you keep silent, relief and deliverance will rise from another place. He believes and has faith in a God who is going to provide a miracle regardless of what Esther does.

I said this in first service, and I think this is dead on. I have to say it again. The kingdom of God is advancing, whether you're a part of it or not. And the question is going to be, where do I want to fit in this whole story? Where do I want to be in the story of Christ's advancing kingdom where he is king and he will eternally sit on his throne?

Do I just want to be, like, barely hanging on and reach heaven with steam coming off of me because I didn't do anything, or do I want to get there and have crowns to throw at his feet and hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. Oh, I want to hear the latter. I pray you do, too. It makes me picture this story that so many of us as fathers and maybe even mothers experience with our little children. Maybe in the kitchen or out in the yard.

For me, it was out in the yard when my little kids would come out and say, daddy, can I help you do the loan stuff? And maybe it was me mowing and pushing a mower. And I think they put that little second handle there just for little kids. And you know good and well that little kid is pushing nothing. They have no power, and yet you're so happy to have them there.

And Mom's in the kitchen, you know, hey, the baby want to help me? They're gonna make more of a mess. It's not gonna be good, but it's kind of fun. You want to be a part. This is what God is doing with us.

Does he need us to advance his kingdom? God needs nothing. He is a God of no need. In spite of that, he picks people like me, people like you to advance the kingdom in our city, in our neighborhood and our families. Some of you need to hear this today.

You might be the only believer in your whole family. How do you know you weren't picked for such a time as this? That you're the one? I don't know about that. Lord, why did you choose me?

You know, I really don't even. I don't really even speak very well. Okay. Moses, he said that once. It worked out pretty good when God showed up, started parting oceans and things for such a time as this many.

All of you in the room, I want you to hear this is confronting you personally. If you keep silent, God's going to advance his kingdom either way. But you're going to miss it. The opportunity to see the move of God. And I don't know, maybe you don't even realize just how cool that is.

There's nothing sweeter than seeing God move in your life. It's better than anything you can imagine. There's nothing sweeter than seeing someone come to faith, to seeing someone pull out of addiction or harm, to see God restore them. There's nothing sweeter than this. And he's inviting us not because he needs us to do it, because he's better.

He's a far better preacher than me. If he were here, I'd be sitting there going, just like you. But he didn't do that he said, I'm leaving. I'm going to empower you with the Holy Spirit so that you will do the work. Because I want to share this with you.

I want you to enjoy the work of God until I return. So what will you do in your season where you're providentially positioned? Will you take it personal or will you just say, somebody else will do it? Oh, well, you know what? That's actually true.

And that's super sad that God did everything, he orchestrated everything to position you in a place where you could be the voice of God to a fallen people. And you said, not me. Somebody else is going to get that wonderful privilege.

Notice what he says in Matthew. Actually, let me share this verse with you very quickly. Proverbs, chapter 31 puts this plainly. It says, speak up 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. This is one of many places where the Bible says, courageously speak. There's a wonderful story in Matthew 14 where Jesus does this miraculous act where he feeds 5,000 men, probably 20,000 people. And you know, this story, it was so incredible that people started following him around, wanting more food. But the moment I really like about that story is the moment where he got personal with his disciples.

He looks around and the disciples are like, hey, we've been here all day. These people are getting hungry. I hear their stomachs grumbling. There's thousands of people here that are starving. You might want to send them home or send them to the nearby villages so that they can get food, because we ain't got no food here, boss.

And I love what Jesus says. And he must have said it with a smirk. He must have said this laughing. Hey, they don't need to go anywhere. You feed them.

You feed them, he says to his 12 disciples. Looking at the thousands of people, if I was a disciple there, I would be like you would be. I would look at him and go, hey, Jesus, you've been hanging out with us. You know, we all broke and none of us brought anything. We didn't bring anything here.

One of the disciples, I don't know if he meant this as a joke, but Andrew, one of the disciples, goes and steals a kid's lunch money. I mean, he. And takes a couple of fishes and loaves off of the kid. I guess the kid was willing. He brings the kid and says, hey, look, you want me to feed him?

I found some food. Jesus, good luck with this. I don't know what level of faith Andrew was showing, or maybe he was very, very bold in his faith, I don't know. But. And then Jesus does this amazing miracle where there was so much food that they kept filling baskets long after the people were full.

But first he says you feed them. He wanted the disciples in on the moment. He wanted them to be a part of it. Not because the disciples could do the miracle, they can't. You and I, we can't, we can't move a person any closer to Jesus.

We actually cannot do that. But what we can do is be courageous when he calls us and speak, hey, I don't know about all of that, but I do know this. Lord Jesus saved me from a terrible pit. That might be all we get to say to somebody. And God moves them one step closer to faith.

God moves them. This message is then not so much about you doing more, but you yielding and abiding more in Christ. The word here from Mordecai to, to Esther should really encourage you that God has positioned you providentially. He's in charge of where you are in your work, in your family. And maybe you're in a really difficult moment, maybe you're in a real high moment.

Both of these, the Lord is in charge. This should encourage you that, alright, God, then my prayers get way simpler. I start saying instead of God, get me out of this, God, show me the way through it. Because clearly you're in charge. What do you want me to do or say or be in this moment?

Here's the third. Let's read this together. Esther, chapter four. As it ends, some of my favorite scripture and I haven't studied this really in depth ever. And I'm so thankful for this.

Verse 15 it says, Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, I love this word. Verse 16. Go gather all the Jews to be found in Susa and hold a fast on my behalf. Do not eat or drink for three days, night and day. Now I can tell you, a three day food fast is hard.

A three day water fast is really hard. This is a tough one. He says, do not eat or drink three days. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then this is a great sentence.

Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. I like this little girl, she's something. Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. God bless the reading of his Word today. Amen.

This is such a good word and it brings to Mind this third thing, and that is that God is challenging us sacrificially. He has positioned us providentially. He has certainly invited us also to be personal and be confronted, but also challenge. Here, sacrifice. Mordecai says, this is going to cost you something, Church.

I don't want to like, I don't want to blow smoke today. It will always cost you something to be for Christ and not for comfort. It will always cost. Because the world is completely opposed to the person of Jesus. Because the enemy of the Lord is currently ruler of this world and he's not really in charge.

He's a puppet. But right now he's getting to run rampant and he's completely opposed to the Lord Jesus. In spite of that, we are called according to his purpose. And when we walk with him, we know this. There will be trials of many kinds.

There will be, in fact, Jesus plainly says, hey, look, if they call me names and they belittle me and they persecute me, don't you know they're going to do it to you too? Okay, well, it's better to know that going into it, it's not really great news, Jonathan. Well, here's the great news. Eternity is a really long time and he has wonderful pastures ahead of you. And this season of life, though it may be hard, is incredibly joyful.

That there's real joy in going through a valley. You already know this. Let me just say this. You already know this, that you find the most purpose and joy when you go through hard things way more than you go through easy times. You know this.

You know that the fruit of working out hard and breaking down your body produces fitness and health and strength. You know this. The same is true in your life. When you walk with God in spite of discomfort, it builds faith and joy, as James says, it makes his joy complete and persevere. There's something way cooler about enduring something really difficult.

This is why when I left basic training a few years ago in the army, I felt so accomplished, even though it was extremely hard, probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. In spite of that, I felt awesome about it. I feel the same way when I suffer for the Lord. I pray you would as well. That there are challenges he calls us to.

He says, gather this, Esther. Gather them. Hold a fast for three days. And then he says, if I perish, I perish. I love that word.

It reminds me of Daniel, chapter three. These Hebrew men that you are very familiar with, I bet you probably grew up hearing about Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and these three dudes, they say, one of the coolest. I mean, this is one of the bossest lines in all of the Bible. They say, hey, you know what? We're not bowing to your false gods and your statues.

And the Lord might save us, but even if he doesn't, we will not bow. I like these three. I like this Esther. Hey, I'm going in. Even though it's against the law.

And if I perish, I perish. But I'm trusting. I'm trusting that the Lord is with me. You're going to see as we get into next week. Chapter 5.

The Lord must have spoken to her because she comes up with a wild plan. So in those three days of fasting and prayer, I think the Lord spoke. It's not obvious in the text, but I think he must have because her plan seems supernatural.

So God shows up, and if I perish, I perish. But guess what? I'm not. Instead, I'm going to walk with him. I'm going to sacrifice.

This is what Christ has called us to. Let me leave you with this final verse. Luke, chapter nine. It says of Jesus, said to them, the disciples, and now to us, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, 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. Some of you are right here, right now. You know what God is asking you to say to somebody. You know what conversation you need to have. You know what truth you've been avoiding.

And it feels really costly. But take courage. Know this. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is doing the right thing in the midst of fear.

Esther is very afraid here. I don't even know if he wants to see me. I haven't seen him in a month. He's got all these other women floating around. He might be liking them more, I don't know.

But if I perish, I perish. I will do as God called. I pray that's you today, that you would take courage, obedience in spite of fear when God calls. Knowing this, as I close that this death decree that hangs over all of us is done.

You don't have to like, imagine that you're in the position of the Jews here in this text. You are in their position apart from Christ. There is a death decree hanging over you, but it doesn't stop there. And the three days of fasting that they had. There was this other three day event that changed all that for you.

Died on a cross and laid in a tomb for three days. But he's not there anymore. There's a resurrection that gives you hope, my friend. That death decree is defeated if you'll receive it and if you don't. I don't understand.

To hear of this gift and say, I'm not opening it. I pray you wouldn't do that today. That you would make the decision. The Christian in the room, you'd make the decision, hey, I'm walking with him.

And maybe he'll show up. But even if he doesn't, I will not bow.

Let's pray now together. CHURCH Heavenly Father, we thank you for these heroes of the faith. But they're meant, all of them, Esther, Daniel, the three Hebrew men, the prophets of old. They're all meant not to point to themselves, but to point to you. And I believe that wholeheartedly.

Lord, as we read this story, I see you on every page, even though your name is absent. I see the person of Jesus Christ in this story. That there is this awful death decree on all of humanity. And in spite of that, you saved us. In spite of that, you sat in a tomb for three days.

But you were not done. God, I just pray for your people this morning, first of all, that you would make us courageous where we need to be. That we would stand for truth when it's very inconvenient or actually dangerous. That you would make us the kind of people who don't lie for the sake of advancement. That we would care more about the truth than we do a lie.

We would care more about the truth than our creature comforts. Instead would choose you. That we would do as you've called us, to follow you, to take up our cross daily, to deny ourselves, Lord, that we would be those kind of people. Would you empower us to do that? Encourage your people as we leave this place today, that there are moments, even today, even today there are moments for us to be truth based tellers, for us to be gospel bearers, to be lights in our city, in the places we eat, in the places we shop, in the places we're going to work this week.

We are called to be lighthouses and not in a bubble. God, I pray you would encourage your people to live for you. That they wouldn't cut corners and be unethical or immoral. That they would stand for truth and would be people of great grace and mercy for others. Lord, I pray for that person who's come in here today and they need to receive this.

For the first time. There is a death decree that's been said. It's been put out from Genesis on because of our terrible evil and mistakes, Lord, our sin has driven us far from you. And yet you have paid the ultimate price. Lord, if that's you today, my friend, you've come in this place.

I pray you would receive grace for the first time.

This terrible news is not terrible to you. If you'll receive the sacrifice of Christ today, take this opportunity with me. If you will pray simply this. Lord Jesus, I believe today that you died on the cross for my sin. You rose from the grave and conquered death for me.

For me, Lord, I ask now, would you make me courageous? Would you embolden me to walk with you? I've been living my life my own way. And it's gotten me in some difficult places, some terrible places at times. God, I pray you would walk with me through this valley, that you would walk with me over mountains.

Lord, would you guide me?

Dear friend, welcome to the family of God. We all pray the same thing together. With you, God, guide us in truth. Help us to be courageous with our testimony. Help us to be men and women of great faith.

We pray all of these things in Jesus name. Amen.