Transcript

This is part three of our series through the Book of Esther. We're looking through this 10 chapter book that's a very unique book in the Bible. We've entitled it the Hidden Hand of God, A Study of Esther. And the reason we've called it that is because of its uniqueness. It's unique because it's one of only two books of the Bible named for a woman, the other being Ruth.

But it's really unique because of all the books in The Bible, all 66 books, it's the only book of the Bible that never names the dame God. But although it never mentions God by name, he's present on every page. He's not missing. His hidden hand is active behind the scenes. He's already at work, even though he's not named.

And as we've studied this book, the first couple of chapters, we find out that the king of Persia is. His name is Ahasuerus, who's also known as Xerxes, Xerxes I. That he has ordered his wife Vashti, the queen, to come before him after a great feast. But she disobeys him. And so he removes her from the throne.

And he holds what might be considered the very first Miss Universe contest. And Esther wins this contest and she becomes Queen of Persia. Esther, a exiled Jewish girl, probably a teenager, a orphan, raised by her first cousin Mordecai, who really became a father to her. She's now been elevated to the throne. And then we see that as we turn into the chapters and we get to chapter three, we find that there's an enemy that appears.

His name is Haman. This is this part of the story where I'm giving you what happened last week, okay? And he gets upset because Mordecai, Esther's adopted father, will not bow down to him after he's elevated to second place in the kingdom. And so he hates Mordecai for this. And he convinces the king to allow him to send out a decree for the genocide of all the Jewish people in all 127 provinces of Persia.

And so Haman is the bad guy who shows up. And now we see that Mordecai is weeping in sackcloth. He's one of the officials. He sits at the king's gate, but he's been overlooked, and now his people are in jeopardy. And he encourages his adopted daughter to go before the king.

And she says, he hasn't called for me in 30 days. I can't just stroll up into the king's throne room uninvited. That's there's a death penalty for that unless he lowers his scepter and invites me in. And so Mordecai tells her, look, who's to say that God didn't put you in this position for such a time as this? And so she says, well, you all better fast for three days and then I'll consider going in.

So that brings us up to speed. This is where we are now, these details. God's never named. And maybe that's how you feel in your life sometimes, because a book like this, you don't see fantastically miraculous things happening. You just see these ordinary movements happening.

But behind the scenes, as you reflect on them, you go, wow, that was miraculous. And maybe that's more the way your life is. And what I would say to you is, as you're going through life right now, perhaps you're going through a time of delay where you've gotten a test at the doctor's office and you're waiting on the results. You are trying to conceive. Here it is Mother's Day, and you're waiting to see if the Lord will answer your prayers.

You're waiting for an adopted child, and you're in that process. You're waiting, and there's some waiting that's going to go on in this study today. You've experienced delays, but you're waiting. That's really hard for me. Is that hard for you to be waiting on the Lord for something to consider, that you're in a time of delay.

Others are maybe here today and your plans aren't working out? You had a good plan. It's not working out. These are details. Is God interested in these kinds of details?

Is he interested in the details of your life? And here's my conviction, he absolutely is. He's the God of great things, but he's also the God of little things. He cares about the details of our life. And he's at work even when you don't see him, even if you don't sense him, even if you're not sure where he is.

Trust in the Lord, wait on the Lord, and one day you'll look back and you'll go, oh, I see it now. I see where he was at work all along in the book of Esther. That's what we'll see today. Chapters five and chapter six. As God begins to put everything in place, Haman's deadly plot advances.

Esther goes into the throne room to seek favor. A series of seemingly ordinary events reveal that God was already at work to deliver his people And I believe God's already at work in your life as we look at the text today. Put your seatbelts on. Because we got four ways. Four ways that God is already at work accomplishing his purpose.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to break it into four pieces. Four pieces in the story, and we'll read a little bit and then make a point and so forth. Let's start chapter five, verse one. On the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace in front of the king's quarters while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight.

And he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. And the king said to her, what is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of my kingdom.

And Esther said, if it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I have prepared for the king. Then the king said, bring Haman quickly so that we may do as Esther has asked. So the king and Haman. Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared. And as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, what is your wish?

It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Then Esther answered my wish. And my request is, if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come to the feast that I will prepare for them.

And tomorrow I will do as the king has said. This is God's word we're looking for. Four ways God's already at work accomplishing his purpose. What we're really talking about today is God's providence. God's providence that he's working all the time.

And here's the first way that we can see him at work in the Book of Esther. It's by ordering the events according to his perfect timetable. He orders events according to his perfect timetable. We're reminded in the scripture that a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years to the Lord. His timing is not your timing.

He has perfect timing. He is the Lord. Notice how this passage begins on the third day. That's how it begins. It begins with a timing phrase on the third day in chronology.

Now, what does that mean? Well, this is the third day of the fast. Remember what Esther requested of her adopted father, Mordecai? Hey, go and tell all the Jewish people to call for a fast, because the king has not called me into his throne room for 30 days. And if someone goes uninvited, it's a death sentence.

But let's fast for three days, and on the third day I'll go in, and if I perish, I perish. That's what she said. She was obedient. She was obedient to her father. This, this young woman, Esther, this is one of the marks you'll see of her.

She's humble and she's obedient, and wherever she goes, God gives her favor. And so when she goes in on the third day, after three days of fasting, the king lowers his golden scepter and she touches the tip, and she comes in, and the king, I mean, he lays it out on. On a platter. Oh, my goodness. What would you have said?

I know what I would have said. He says, oh, Queen Esther, whatever you ask, whatever you request, up to half of the kingdom, it's yours. And I'd have been like, kill Haman and rescue the Jewish people. I'd have just blurted it all out right there. That's not what she does.

She does something very surprising. You know, I'm a kind of an impatient person. I'd have been like, bleh, let's fix this. No, she goes, I'm inviting you to a feast today. She's breaking her fast that day.

It appears on the third day. And by the way, could you invite Haman, your second in command? What a strange strategy this is. How. How could you predict such a thing for her to come up with?

Is this because Esther is postponing the inevitable? She's like, now that he's telling me, now that he's saying, you know what, whatever you want. She goes, oh, let's have dinner together. Is that what it is? She's afraid?

I don't think so. She's fasted and prayed for three days, she's had her people fasting. I think God has put something on her heart. Now, insert yourself in the story. That's what I'm trying to do.

I thought, now what would I do? Well, she doesn't do what I would do. She does what she does. And what she does seems just really contrary to human nature. What kind of strategy is this?

Let's have dinner together. Then the king asks the same thing again. Up to half of my kingdom. I'll give it to you. She goes, let's have dinner again tomorrow night.

Oh, and bring Haman again. And then I'll tell you at that dinner what my request is. What a strange, strange strategy. If it is a strategy. Here's what I'm thinking.

I'm thinking it's so strange that God must have put it on her heart to do it because it's so otherworldly. This. What. What in the world. You got your opportunity right here.

Just tell him. Tell him what you want. But she says, let's have dinner again the next day. Here's what I'm thinking that happened, that God somehow told her, here's what I want you to do. I'm putting this on your heart.

Just invite him to a meal, because the timing is such. And we'll see that as we continue in this story, that if she would have immediately told him, he might have said no.

And if she'd have told him on the first meal, the timing wasn't right because as we'll see, there were some more pieces that needed to fall into place. And God knew that. See, God is not trapped within time. He stands outside of time. He sees all of history and all the future in a glance.

I think it was CS Lewis who said that if you draw a line on a piece of paper and a timeline, you put an arrow on the end and you put a dot on there, that represents this moment that you're living in. And however long you've been alive, you have some memory of what's happened in the past, but you have no awareness of what's happening in the future. And so you see yourself right now. Here we are, a dot on a timeline in this moment that we're sharing together. And God is the piece of paper.

He's not. He created time in the beginning. God created, you know, in the beginning. That's a time word. The heavens, that's a space word.

And the earth, that's a matter word. He created the three dimensions that we live in, so he's not trapped by time, right? So he sees it all and he has perfect timing. Now, that's a good word for those of us who worry about details. Got any people?

Anybody here? You're kind of type A. You're a planner. You've got a list with boxes on the side that the most wonderful feeling you get in any day is to put a check in the box. Like, I checked that off.

Some of you are so Type A, you have another list. That's the list of your lists, all of my lists. And this is my daily list and this is my master list. Some of you have a diary with a five year planner and how presumptuous that we have a plan for five years out. But we often do.

God has a perfect timetable. And she says, tomorrow I'll tell you. See, God is behind the scenes orchestrating all the pieces to fall into place. When the disciples were with Jesus on the mountain before he ascended, they asked him, is now the time when you're going to take the throne and the kingdom's going to begin? Is it now?

Is it getting ready to happen? And he says in Acts 1:7, it it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father is fixed by his own authority. Here's what I've noticed about the Lord. He often leads us to the next step of obedience. He rarely tells you two steps forward.

He usually tells you one step and the next step is revealed as you obey the first one. If you don't obey the first one, you never find out what the second one is. He's still waiting for your obedience. And boy, that's hard sometimes when you want to know how's this going to end out now I want you to walk by faith. I want you to take the next step.

And that's hard. It's not for you to know though, the times or the seasons. That's the fathers. When Paul was talking about God's timing, when he's talking about the coming of Christ, he said that Christ came in the Father, fullness of time. And that word fullness has the idea of perhaps of a cup being so full that it overflows.

But maybe even more particular is the idea of a woman who is in her ninth month and she's full and the baby is coming. The doctor might tell you the due date, but the doctor is only guessing. The due date is whenever the baby comes. That's the due date. And so Galatians 4 says, but when the fullness of time had come, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.

He came at the perfect time in history, when the Roman Empire had taken over much of the known world. At that time, there were Roman roads for the Gospel to travel on, a common Greek language for the Gospel to be spoken on Roman laws to protect the people so they could move freely. And so when Christ was raised and the gospel went forth, it splashed upon human history and washed up on the shores of every nation, just so quickly, because Christ came at the perfect time in history. And so what are you waiting on today? What are you anxious about?

Is it a job offer that you haven't heard back on? Is it medical results that you took tests, but you don't know the results yet? Is it the birth of a child? What are you waiting on today? And you're anxious about it.

And the principle for us to take home today from Esther is God has perfect timing. He's already at work, so rest in him. Some of you are frustrated. You've prayed, you've waited. Nothing has changed.

But God is never late. He's always right on time. Don't rush ahead of God. You ever done that? You ever tried to help God?

Try to rush ahead?

That hasn't worked out well for me. I don't recommend it. Trust his timing. Here's where we'll go next. Let's go to the rest of chapter four, five, and then we'll talk about it.

Chapter five, we're picking up at verse nine. And Haman went out that day. He just had that first meal, that first feast, joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home.

And he sent and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh. And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. Then Haman said, even Queen Esther, let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king. Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.

Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, let a gallows 50 cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon him, then go joyfully with the king to the feast. This idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made. This leads us to the second way that God is always at work. His purpose is to accomplish. It's by overruling the sinful schemes of man.

By overruling the sinful schemes of man. It's always challenging to figure out and to think about. And philosophers and theologians have never solved this the mystery of the problem of evil. God is sovereign over all. Why does he allow evil?

Well, we'll not solve it today, but we can draw this principle, and that is that God even overrules evil, so that evil people who are subject to the evil one, they have their schemes, they have their plans. But ultimately God protects his purposes and his people. Do I understand the mystery of that interchange? I don't. I can stab at it.

I've studied the theology of it. But I'm not honestly sure of that mystery of the how to solve the problem of evil. But I know God is holy, God is good, and God is sovereign, and he overrules evil schemes. And we see it here. Haman is plotting, he's boasting, he's building gallows.

And he's completely unaware that every step he takes is to his own demise. He doesn't know it yet. He leaves the first feast, that was on the third day after the fast of the Jews, and he is on. He's like, man, can life get any better? And he walks out of the king's palace, and there's Mordecai, who will not bow down to him.

Now some of you are sitting there really feeling like that Haman's a bad dude. I'm glad I'm not like Haman. Are you sure? Are you sure you're not like Haman? Have you ever had a day and you're like, everything seems to be going so well?

You know, I've got a great family, I've got a good job, I've got these. I have my health. And then somebody doesn't pull out of the red light fast enough in front of you, something like that. Or you go to the store and the lady in front of you got the last one. I came all the way to the store to get this, and there it goes like this.

And then all of a sudden you're filled with wrath because life is not perfectly going your way. Oh, my friend, don't judge Haman too harshly. We are Haman. We're just like him. We're blessed.

Oh, we're so blessed. And all it takes is one little thing to knock our joy right off the throne of our heart and to be filled with anxiety and rage. We're just like him. He's leaving there and he is so ticked. He doesn't do anything about Haman.

He sees him. Haman's over there. Be reminded, he's wearing sackcloth and ashes on his head. He's weeping, and he won't show homage to Haman. And Haman comes out, he's full of joy, and all it takes is one look at Mordecai, and it just.

It just took away his joy right there. And he comes home and he does this thing where he's kind of glorying in himself. He goes, I've got it so made. He calls people over to the house and his wife's arrest, and in front of them all says, look at me, look at how wonderful I am. I've got it all.

And even today, to top it all off, I'm the only one that got an invitation to the king and Queen's feast, and I've got another one for tomorrow night.

But what does he say? This is so good. Verse 13. Yet all this is worth nothing to me. As long as Mordecai, the Jew sitting at the king, as long as I see him just sit.

Just steals my joy.

Just, just steals my joy. God's overruling even now, we can't see it yet. But he comes up with a scheme. Actually, he doesn't come up with it. What kind of wife is the Resh anyway?

She goes, I got a good idea for you, Mordecai. I mean, for Haman. For Mordecai, build a gallows 50 cubits high and put him on it. Now, if you look this up, the Persian practice of execution is not what you think of when you think of a Western movie and somebody getting hanged by the neck. The Persian practice of hanging was actually the idea of impaling someone on a pole.

You'd hang them on a pole so you'd be like, because he built it that, like that day he had the gallows made, and at 50 cubits, that's. If you convert that to feet, that's 75ft high. Now, how could you build a gallows 75ft high in one day? You couldn't. But you could cut down a tall tree and sharpen the end of it and stick it in the ground.

You could do that in one day. And I think that's what this refers to. The NLT actually translates it like this. Esther514, in the NLT set up a sharpened pole that stands 75ft tall, and in the morning ask the king to impale Mordecai on it. He has a scheme.

He said, I can't wait for the rest of the year to kill Mordecai. I'm going to kill him tomorrow. And so that's his scheme. While he's scheming, God's still at work. It reminds me of what Joseph told his brothers after they had sold him into slavery and after he'd been imprisoned and after he'd suffered so much, he said to them, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

You meant it evil, but God turned it into good.

There are people in our lives, there are situations in our life that are meant to harm us, but God preserves and protects his people, and he takes even evil schemes that are against you and against God's people, and he overrules.

And so we see Peter preaching at Pentecost, and he talks about how God overruled the evil schemes of Judas and the Jewish leaders and of Pilate. And then when he's preaching in Acts chapter two, he says, but God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out. When Jesus was betrayed with the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. So God planned to take the schemes of the evil one, the schemes of sinful people, in order to prepare for the great reversal. They thought they were winning the evil one and hell

And all of his minions were celebrating as he was crucified. But, oh, they were so wrong. Because on the third day. So we see an echo in Esther. It never names God, but like all the books of the Old Testament and the New, it points to one who was raised up on the third day.

He's Jesus. As Isaiah prophesied, no weapon that is formed against these shall prosper. So take heart. Take heart. No scheme can succeed outside of God's permission to touch you, believer.

Even when others mean it for evil, God is able to turn it for good and for his glory. That doesn't make evil good, but it does mean evil never has the final word.

Let's keep reading. We're drawing principles of providence in God's working behind the scenes from our reading today. Chapter six.

On that night, this is the night after the first feast, the king could not sleep, and he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the Chronicles. And they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mordecai had told Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold and who had sought to lay hands on King of. And the king said, what honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? The king's young men who attended him said, nothing has been done for him.

And the king said, who is in the court now. Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king's young men told him, haman is there standing in the court. And the king said, let him come in. We'll pause right there.

It leads us to our third timeless principle. The third way that God is at work, always at work, is by sovereignly directing the hearts of kings. By sovereignly directing the hearts of kings. Why on this night, this particular night, was King Xerxes, King Ahasuerus, having us having a bout of insomnia? Does God sometimes cause insomnia?

You ever have a sleepless night? And the only way to get through it was to talk to the Lord, because he was behind it. You can ask young Samuel about that in First Samuel. He kept getting his sleep disturbed until finally he said, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. I've had this happen to me in the early days when I would have a sleepless night.

I would pray like this, Lord, knock me out. I can't wallow in this bed anymore. Help me sleep. I got to get up in the morning and go to work. You ever pray like that?

And it doesn't seem to work. Just keep on being sleepless. Finally, after a period of time and growth in the Lord, I was like, okay, Lord, what do you want to talk about? Just get up so you don't wake your spouse up. Get up and go to the other room and just, well, here's what's on my heart.

Lord, is this what I'm. I mean, this is what I'm thinking about. And just kind of pray yourself empty. And then pray yourself full. Pray yourself empty of what's rattling around your head.

Take every thought captive, lift it up to the Lord, leave it at the cross, and then say, jesus, fill me afresh with your Holy spirit. And then often you'll be sleepy again, or he'll give you marching orders and you'll need to get on it right then. But I think sometimes he interrupts our sleep because it's the only way to get us quiet long enough to where we would listen. In this loud world, the King has a sleepless night. How coincidental.

To further the coincidence, which I think is really a God incident, he says, and perhaps this was his habit all along, Instead of counting sheep, he would have them bring out the Wikipedia, the chronicles of memorable deeds. And the young man says, would you like me to pick up where I Left off last time, O Lord. And he goes, yeah, just go ahead. I'm just. I can't sleep.

And he starts reading, and he starts reading about how Mordecai. And remember I told you. Hang on to this random detail from chapter two, where Mordecai revealed a conspiracy to kill the king, and all he got was an honorable mention in the Chronicles. And then you turn to page chapter three, and guess who gets the promotion? Not Mordecai.

Haman, his enemy. The enemy of the Jews gets the promotion. Mordecai gets overlooked. All he gets is an honorable mention in a book. But God didn't forget.

God doesn't forget what you've done. You might feel overlooked. You might feel like he doesn't see. He sees, and he brings it to the king. How coincidental, on this particular night, with God's perfect timing, the places the pieces are starting to click into place.

Sleepless night, hears this red. He goes, wait. Hey, hold up. What did we do for Mordecai? How did we honor him?

Yeah, we didn't do anything. Well, who's in the court? Coincidentally, Haman couldn't sleep either. He's already built the gallows. He's already got a sharpened pole out there, 75ft high, so all of the capital city of Susa will see him execute Mordecai.

He got up early to go to the king's palace to get permission to do it. So he's the guy in the court. He goes, who's in the court? He goes, checks downstairs. Haman's in the court.

It's all falling into place. All this coincidence, coincidence, coincidence, coincidence. Except it's not. It's God. Incidents.

It's God. It's God behind the scenes. A sleepless night, a random reading, a forgotten act remembered, and the exact person walks in at the perfect time. God is directing the King's heart. Proverbs 21 says, the King's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord.

He turns it wherever he will. Some of you have a boss that's giving you a fit right now. You're in some relationship at school or whatever it is, and there's someone over you, and they haven't seen the work you're doing. You're unrecognized, you're not getting credit, other people are. And you feel like you've got to do something.

But know this believer. Talk to the Lord about it. He's sovereign over all rulers and kingdoms. I was reading this past week in the Christian Post that Iranian Believers are refusing to leave their country when several nonprofits have offered to help them escape because many of them are being murdered and persecuted, especially during this season. And I would remind you that Iran is modern day Persia.

And why are they refusing to leave? According to this article, it says even as pressure and persecution have increased, reports show that many Iranians are becoming more spiritually open than ever before. And so they don't want to leave during this opportune time to share the gospel. And the gospel often goes out more quickly and people are more receptive during these times of disruption. And so they're staying.

In fact, some ministries are reporting that the fastest growing underground Christian movement in the world is perhaps today in modern day Persia, Iran. So as you're worried about gas prices and the cost of bread and eggs, why not lift your eyes and think, God, what are you doing in Persia right now? People are dying for their faith. But there's a great receptivity. And for me personally, can I share my personal heart about the Iranians?

My freshman year of college and I mentioned this, I think a couple of Sundays ago, my roommate was from Iran. His name was Merhegan, Merhegan Lopfi and his brother Mehran and his friend Fashad. These guys used to hang out in my room and watch Gunsmoke on my black and white tv. They loved Gunsmoke.

I think about those guys all the time, about where they're at with the Lord. I tried sharing my faith with them. I think God is doing something in history that's way beyond the price of gas. Christians. Let's look to the Lord and think about what's he doing now.

Because he is lord over kings and presidents and ayatollahs and bosses and teachers, and whoever is in authority, he is ruler. Let's keep reading. We've seen three principles, timeless principles, where God's already at work. We're picking up at verse 6. The king has just said, let him come in.

So Haman came in, and the king said to him, what should be done to the man who. Whom the king delights to honor? And Haman said to himself, who would the king delight to honor more than me? And Haman said to the king, for the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set. And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials.

Let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor. And let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Then the king said to Haman, hurry, take the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so to Mordecai, the Jew who sits at the king's gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.

So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

Then Mordecai returned to the king's gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise man and his wife Zeresh said to him, if Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him. This leads us to the fourth timeless principle, the fourth way that God is already at work accomplishing his purposes. And it's by humbling the proud and exalting the lowly.

By humbling the proud and exalting the lowly. You'll see it throughout Scripture. You'll see these great reversals where he'll slap down the prideful and lift up the lowly. You'll see it over and over again. Haman walks in thinking he's about to be honored, and he walks out humiliated.

He walks in prideful, and we see that Mordecai has been covering his head and weeping at the gate, but now he walks out covering his head, weeping as he goes home. And Mordecai has been clothed in the king's robes, with a crown on his head, riding on the king's horse. What a great reversal that God has accomplished without even being named. The irony of it, the coincidence of, cannot be explained except by saying, but God at work. Human pride, you see, makes us enemies of God.

But humility opens us up to where God can move in with grace.

First Peter says this. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Pride puts us on a collision course with God.

Somebody's sitting here today, this morning, and you're like, I got this. I can handle this myself.

You came because your mom invited you to church. First time this year you came. I got this I can fix this.

And you make yourself. You put yourself in opposition to God with that thought. But the humble comes before the Lord and says, I don't have this. I don't have control. I need help.

I need a counselor. I need a savior. I need someone to look up to, to rescue me. And that's the beginning of allowing grace to flow towards you and forgiveness and a new life.

Because pride puts us on a collision course with God. But humility invites the Savior.

And we see here this great reversal. We'll see more next week as we get into chapter seven. But we see this great reversal. But it really points to a greater reversal, and that's the reversal at the cross. We see God already at work in the book of Esther, ordering events, overruling evil, directing rulers, humbling the proud.

It's a great display of a reversal in the works. But the greatest one is at the cross. Men plotted, Judas betrayed, leaders conspired, Rome executed. But God had preordained it all to happen, overruling evil and creating a great reversal so that on the third day, he would get up, he would be raised like Esther. There's a great reversal.

Jesus was humbled that we might be exalted. Jesus took on our clothing, our human flesh, and became one of us so that we might wear his robes of righteousness that he had worn and put his crown on our head and walk, being led by him, saying, thus is one who the king delights to honor so that he became nothing, taking on death on the cross so that we might be exalted and lifted up in him. Every page, every book, ultimately is fulfilled in our scripture in Jesus. Esther, we see a great reversal forming here. But the greatest of all is at the cross.

Where's God at today? He's already at work in your life. Why not humble yourself and say, come, Lord Jesus, come take control of my life? Let's pray? Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you that you're already at work. And Lord, when we look back on our lives and we look back on what has transpired, we have to say, I see now what you've done. I see now as I look back how you've been at work. I pray today for that person that's here today. And you are ready to humble yourself and say, lord, I'm a sinner.

I need help. I need a Savior. And I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and that you were raised from the grave and that you live today. Come and live in me. Forgive me of my sin.

I pray that you would accept me as your child and that you would adopt me into your family. I want to follow you all the days of my life as my Lord and my Savior. If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, humbling yourself, admitting your sin, repenting and turning to him, he'll save you. Others are here today, and you're a believer, but you've been allowing little things to steal your joy. You've been allowing the long wait for something to cause anxiety and doubt.

I don't know what you're going through, but God does. Would you speak to him right now and say, lord, forgive me for trying to be in control. I recognize that you're already at work. Help me to rest in you and to depend on you for what comes next. Lord, we love you.

We thank you. In Jesus name, amen.