Good morning, church. Good to see everybody this morning. If you've been with us lately, we've been going through a series called the Story that Ended. Last week. We were doing a metanarrative through scripture.

Today we're starting something new. We're starting something new in the Book of Esther. Probably a book that you've not read a ton, maybe some of you in the room have never really studied. And that's okay. We're going to study it together over the next few weeks.

But it's a fascinating piece of scripture where we see God's hand at work, even though we really don't see God's name presented at all. It's a very fascinating book, the Book of Esther, because you've got many chapters there where God is clearly doing things, and yet you don't see the typical prayers and praises and miracles and bold sayings that you would normally see in most of the rest of scripture. So Esther stands out as a very unique book. And as we were preparing to preach that this year, we never could have imagined that right in the midst of that, the world would have really shifted in a strange way. The Book of Esther takes place in what is ancient Persia, which is modern day Iran.

So ironically, we're in a story in the scriptures over the next few weeks that captures something that's very dramatic happening in our world right now. But I think what you're going to find as we dig into this text, that God gave us really good reason for placing it in our study this year. We trust him so much that he will guide us when we. When we plan the year. And this one's, I think, a perfectly placed one.

Because what's amazing about the Book of Esther is there's so many things in here that are unknown and surprising. For instance, the fact that you go many chapters here and you never even see the name of God presented. That's very unusual. It's one of only two books in all of scripture that are named after women. So it in its own way stands unique in that, and we don't really know who the author is.

Now, that's not terribly uncommon, but there's a few books like that, and Esther's one, The tradition is that it's written by Mordecai, who we're going to see appear in the Story of Esther, that it's somebody who clearly has very, very close knowledge of what's going on in the story. And what's even bigger is the fact that you don't see the presence of God in a way you see everywhere else in the text. It makes you ask a really good question. What's God up to? Where's his hand at work?

This is why I think the Book of Esther is going to be a really great privilege for us as a church over the next few weeks. I think it's going to move you and challenge you and encourage you where you need it. And the reason being is because that's the question that so many of us ask, if not all of us, at some point in time, we might even believe. We might even say, hey, I know God is real. I know that Jesus has come and has died for me and has risen.

Some of you believe that. Not all of you, but a lot of you. And you know those things. But at the same time that you might believe that, you might also be saying, but I'm not sure what God is doing. I know he's real.

I know he's, you know, he's in charge and all that, but I don't know what he's doing in my life. And so that's really the question that's being answered in the Book of Esther is what do you do when you don't see the presence of God? Do you trust? Do you still believe? Because the truth is, many of us struggle right here.

This is right where we struggle. God is real. But life feels chaotic. Circumstances make sense. God seems silent.

Well, there's a couple of things I would say to that as we get into Esther. First of all, let me just say this. Some of you are just going through life just on your own, and you're not even attempting to hear or know or see God. If that's the case, don't be surprised when he seems silent. He will be silent if you do not seek Him.

So he is present in his word. He is present with you in prayer. And you may not hear or see him or know him all the time, but the goal should be to know him better. And so when you're pursuing him, it's in that season of pursuit where sometimes you go, I feel like I'm hearing crickets from God. I feel like I'm getting nothing.

That's what the Book of Esther is for. For that person that's going, I know God's real, but what is he doing? Well, the Book of Esther is going to be a wonderful read for us because though he seems hidden, he is not absent. So let's dig in. We're going to be in the Book of Esther, and we have a habit here at our church of reading the text that we're in.

Sometimes that means we read a lot more than other times. And so today is one of those days. I pray, my prayer has been all week, that the Word of God itself would move you and speak to you that my preaching should help, but it has no power in comparison to the Word of God itself. And so I hope that just the mere reading of this would move you. And we're the kind of church that when we went through the Book of Judges together, we read judges 19 through 21 in one bite.

And that scared us all to death. And so we're going to do that again today. Read chapters one and two of Esther. And I pray that the Lord will so boldly speak to you as we dig in to this together. We're going to see the text.

Give us three really clear ways that we can know. We can know that God is working behind the scenes of our lives. I pray you would know that today, as you leave today, that you would have a sense that God is at work, even when you don't always see it. So let's get into Esther chapter one. Chapter one is the hardest one.

You're here for the hardest one, in my opinion. So praise God for you. Let's get into this together. Chapter one is the setting, and it's going to seem like a foreign event. All of this feels strange.

So let's get into Esther chapter one together. Now. In the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces. This is the king of Persia, y'. All.

He goes by another name you might be familiar with. King Xerxes. You've probably heard that name. It's the same man here. Verse 2.

In those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the citadel in the third year of his reign, he gave a feast for all of his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and the governors of the provinces were, were all before him while he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days, 180 days. So here's a king who's very proud of himself. And for half a year he is saying, hey, everybody, look at me. I'm the stuff.

You would think in this moment God would act and say, I'm done with this prideful, arrogant man. That's not what's going to happen here. He is going to use this prideful, arrogant man to install his own Purpose and plan. It's interesting what God does at times. That's what he's going to do here.

So here's this Prideful King, verse 5. When these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in Susa, the citadel, both great and small, a feast lasting for seven days. So a week, big time party in the court of the garden of the king's palace. And there were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen. Purple to silver rods, marble pillars, also this one jumped out at me.

Couches of gold, holy moly and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, of marble, of mother of pearl and precious stones. Drinks were served in golden vessels and vessels of different kinds. And the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king. And drinking was according to this edict. There's no compulsion.

Drink as much or as little as you want, I think is what is entailed there. For the king has given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired. And Queen Vashti, she also gave a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to King Ahasuerus. Half a year, big party, one week, massive party. They're sitting, they're hanging out on couches of gold.

Unbelievable, unbelievable going on here. Here's the conflict. Here's where it all shifts. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine. That's a careful way of the Bible saying, King Ahasuerus has gotten a little drunk.

He commanded Mahuman, Byztha, Harbona, Bigthan, Abiktha, Zithar and Karkas. I wouldn't use any of those names. Sons for yourself. Those are not great. The seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus.

And he gathered them all to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at. This is a very weird moment. He's drunk and he wants his own wife to come in and dance before all the people. That's strange. Verse 12.

But Queen Vashti refused to come in at the king's command, delivered by the eunuchs. And at this the king became enraged and his anger burned within him. Then the king said to the wise men who knew the times, for this was the king's procedure toward all who versed in law and in judgment. The men next to him were Carshina, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Maris, Marsena and Mamucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face and sat first in the kingdom. According to this, according to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs.

Then Mamukan said in the presence of the kings and the officials, this is kind of humorous to me. Not only against the king has Queen Vashti done wrong, but also against all the officials and all the peoples and in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. For the queen's behavior will be made known to all the women, causing them to look at their husbands with contempt, since they will say, well, look. King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not. Come this very day, the noble women of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's behavior, they will say to all the king's officials.

And there will be contempt and wrath and plenty. If it pleased the Lord or if it pleased the king, excuse me. Let the royal order go out from him. And let it be written among the laws of the Persians and. And the mead, so that it may not be repealed, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus.

And let the king give her royal position to another one who's better. So when the decree made by the king was proclaimed throughout all the kingdom, for it was vast, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike. I don't know if that worked, but the scriptures don't say this advice. It pleased the king and the princes. And the king did as Mamukan proposed.

He sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language, that every man may be master in his own household and speak according to the language of his people. Let's pause there for a moment, if you can. Let's say amen to God's word this morning. Amen. This one is the hardest chapter of all of Esther, because it is merely a setup, a setting.

But I want you to see the first thing that God is up to, even in that. And we can know that God is working in the shadows, hidden places in our lives by first recognizing his power over worldly kingdoms. Recognizing his power over worldly kingdoms. Now I want you to see something in chapter one that perhaps once you finish, Esther will be very obvious to you. Is this idea that although all of this in setting is strange, you've got a king having a big time, invites his wife in to dance before a bunch of people, which is strange.

And she refuses him. And whether or not you think that's good or bad is not relevant really to the story. I would be honest. When I read the story, I feel like Vashti is kind of innocent in this, that who would want to come in and humiliate themselves in front of their drunk husband and all of his buddies. That seems innocent to me.

But regardless of how you think about her or the king, these are fallen people that God is going to use for his purposes. And this is an amazing thing that God does. I have heard people say, you know, why does God do the things he does in the Old Testament? Why does he use this person and that person? What is that all about?

And here's my news to you. Who else was God going to use? All of us. This might not be great news to you today, but it is true news. We are all messed up.

We're all fallen. We're broken. We've made mistakes. And so if God is looking to use perfect people for his gospel, there will be no one. And so when he uses Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and when he uses David, when he uses these people, we know the backstory and we go, what a mess.

What was God supposed to do? He has to use people for his purposes. And people are broken here. He uses not only people that are broken, but people that don't even worship and know Him.

I want to just invite you into an idea this morning that God is still doing that, that there are people in your lives, people in this world, that neither honor nor know God. In spite of that, God moves their hearts and uses them according to his purposes, even if they are unaware of it. And that's what's happening here. Queen Vashti, when she comes and refuses the king, she doesn't realize that God is using that. She just thinks, I'm not going to go humiliate myself in front of him.

She's thinking, selfishly, I don't blame her for that. And the text actually doesn't really say how it feels about it. Do you understand that? It's just saying this happened.

And the way that the men respond to this might even surprise you. You're thinking, so the whole big deal to them was, now this word is going to get out, and all the women are going to start mistreating their husbands. Now, maybe they were right, but that's not the point of the text. The whole point of the text is now A position has opened for God to use. And it's strange, but let's just admit what it is and chase it headlong.

So here's what's going on in this first chapter. I want to talk about just a few things, just so you have your head around the picture. I, Ahasuerus, is King Xerxes, the same King Xerxes that you see in the story of the 300. The same king Xerxes who eventually starts to try to invade Greece. And it does not go well for him.

We're more familiar with that story, probably. But he has amassed a great empire. You can pop up this next image. This Persian empire was huge. It says, from Ethiopia to India, it is a massive region of 127 provinces.

And he has gathered them all together to say, hey, we're great. Look what we've accomplished. And then God throws an absolute wrench in the middle of his plan. In the middle of 180 days, they're partying, seven days, they're feasting. And the one person that the king probably thinks will do what he commands is the one person that says, absolutely not.

Now, is that accidental? I would say absolutely. There's no way. There's no way that's accidental, that the queen is the one who throws a wrench in his whole plan. Oh, the king, he thinks he's real great.

He can't even get his wife to show up. He's nobody. Is that accidental? I think not. And it provides an opportunity for God to show his power and his might.

Here's the thing. We live in a world where nations rise and fall, kings are dethroned, there are rises of kings and kingdoms. It happens. It has happened for thousands of years. And God is orchestrating these things.

He's in charge. He never left his throne. So the things that are going on in our world right now, some of them may make you anxious, they may stress you out. I would encourage you to look at the God of the Bible again and be reminded that at no point has he stepped off his throne. At no point will he ever step off.

And so he's in charge. But not just on the global scale. On your personal life, he is. And so there's times in your life where you feel like, what is God doing in this moment? It looks crazy.

There's drama all encircling me. Chapter one is a soap opera. What do I do with all this drama? God's going to show you. We're going to get into chapter two today, so we can see that.

But God is checking the power of the king and starting to show his hand. Psalm 103. It says, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. He says in Proverbs 21, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wills.

So no kings, no kingdoms, no rulers at any point are above what God can do. He will move their hearts according to his plan. And he's always done this. He does this here with Ahasuerus, King Xerxes. He does it with Cyrus.

He does it with people constantly. He does this with Pharaoh's heart. It reminds me of this idea that some of you might be chess players in the room. I'm not a particularly good chess player. It was something I did more in my youth.

But I would sometimes get on computer and play chess and do things like that. I don't know if we have any good chess players in the room. I'm not particularly good, but I know you can earn a ranking in all this if you really start getting into the play. But I'm more of the kind of guy that just tries to bring chaos to the puzzle, right? I'm just going to do something that I think no one would expect.

I'm just going to move my knight somewhere and just let him just sacrifice himself to see what you'll do. And normally it doesn't work out. But this God we serve is kind of like the ultimate chess master. If you've ever played a game like that, a really strategic game, something like that, something like chess, you'll find that some people have really poured their lives into it, really spent a lot of time on it. And it becomes obvious within, like, one turn, you're like, oh, I'm in big trouble.

Because with chess, for instance, that person is aware of all outcomes. Someone who's played a great deal has really devoted themselves to that, has really thought about, hey, if you move this here, I'm going to move this here. And it's a great puzzle. God is like that on a level we can't imagine. And so as we start to see if you think of your life, in a sense like a chessboard, you'll move this piece and think, well, I've definitely messed up God's plan.

There's somebody who's come in the room today and you're thinking, hey, I moved that pawn over there. I moved that night when I wasn't supposed to. That couldn't have been what God wanted. So now I am Outside of God's plan, that's not possible. That's not a thing.

Now, there are times where you do something that God did not necessarily desire, that he had a greater, perhaps another path, another will for you. But God will works. Here's what Romans says. He works all things for the good of those who love him and trust him. And so even your mistakes become victories if you'll trust him and walk with him.

So then this chessboard that's unfurling here in Esther, chapter one, is this idea that God has opened up a royal position so that he can show mercy to his people. They would have never expected that. Even when you can't see God working, he's on the move. Even when things look way out of control, God's in charge. Now let me move into chapter two, which is where this story really starts, to encourage and challenge me right where I need it.

Chapter two, verse one. It says, after these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus was abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed against her. Then the king's young men who attended him said, let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. Now, I want you to remember something here. God is not saying he likes this.

This is just what's happening in the text. Verse 3. Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem and seuss of the citadel unto the custody of Hegai, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of all the women. Let their cosmetics be given them, and let the young women who pleases the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. And no surprise, this idea pleased the king.

He liked this idea. Are you going to bring a lot of pretty women to the house? He liked it. Verse 5. Now, there was a Jew in Susa, the citadel, whose name was Moses Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives, carried away with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away.

And he was Mordecai was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther. So her Hebrew name. Just so you know, those of you who know Esthers or have raised an Esther, the Hebrew name is Hadassah. And Esther, this Esther, her uncle, she was the daughter of Mordecai's uncle, for she had neither father nor Mother. Now that's a confusing way of saying two things.

She's an orphan, and she is now being raised by her adopted dad, Mordecai, who is actually her older cousin. I don't know why the Hebrew unpacks that way, but it says she's the daughter of Mordecai's uncle. That is a very strange way of saying it, but that's her older cousin. So the young woman, this Esther, she had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

So when the king's order and his edict were proclaimed, many young women were gathered in Susa, the citadel, in custody of Hegai. Esther was also taken into the king's palace and put into custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. And the young woman pleased him and won his favor. And he quickly provided her with cosmetics and her portion of food, and with seven chosen young women from the king's palace, and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem. So here's what's happening.

Esther is very beautiful, and she has been taken. The Hebrew word there is taken, not given. She's been seized, so things are not going to plan for her. She's been taken in, and women from all over this huge map that I told you have been gathered. And now it's gotten down to the final seven.

I've heard it said this was like the first Miss Universe pageant, if you will, that seven women, she's now in the top seven. She's having to give the speech now and show us what her talents are. Some kind of playing cups thing or something. It's pretty cool. And now it says that she's found favor with the people in charge, so things are going well for her.

In verse 10, it tells us something unique. She has not made known her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. Don't let him know you're a Jew. That would not look good for you. Okay?

Verse 11. Every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her. Now, when the turn came for each young woman to go into King ahasuerus, after being 12 months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying. Listen to this, ladies. You thought you had a good time the last time you got like a foot massage or something.

12 months of beautifying. 6 months of ointments, of oil and myrrh, 6 months of spices and ointments for women. So I would imagine this would sink the good smells in so deep you would smell good for the rest of your life. I mean, this is amazing. Verse 13.

When the young woman or the young woman went into the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. In the evening, she would go in, and in the morning, she would return to the second harem in custody of Shashgaz, the king's eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go in to the king again unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name. Verse 15. When the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abihel, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except whatever Haggai, the king's eunuch, who had charge of the women, whatever he advised.

Now, Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tibet, in the seventh year of his reign, the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants. It was Esther's feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.

All right, let's pause there for a moment. Now, let me remind you here, there's a lot going on that you might feel like is very not PC not okay. And you wouldn't be necessarily wrong to say it. I don't think. It says in the earlier verse that she was taken.

The Hebrew word there means to lay hold of or to seize. I have no doubt that there was no moment there where Mordecai said, hey, hey, take mine. Take my adopted daughter. I don't see that in the text at all. It says she was seized.

I get the impression perhaps Esther was out shopping for the family. Maybe she's in the marketplace and one of these officials who's going through their provinces spots her and finds out, wow, that one's really stunning. She's beautiful. Nab her. Let's bring her back to the royal palace.

This is tough. This is not what she planned. You see nothing there of her saying, hey, she wants to do this. In spite of that, she seems very humble and willing to do according to whatever God is laying before her. There's a lot of sensitive things going on right here.

For a month or for 12 months, she has to spend time preparing for a man she never asked for and was seized to be with. This is wild. In spite of that, she gains favor. The Bible says multiple times she finds favor in those who are over her and finds eventually favor over this king. Many years have now passed.

It says in this verse 16 that four years have passed since Vashti was removed. Now she comes in and the king loves her and makes her queen. Now, all of that sounds very, very strange to us. But let's be honest. There's a lot of stuff going on in our life right now that does seem very strange.

That this moment, although we've never been in any moment like this in our life, there have been other moments in our life where we're like, I can't really see or hear or know God in this. I'm not sure what he's up to. I don't know why I just lost this job. I don't know why I was just pulled out of this situation. I don't know why I'm having so much trouble in my marriage.

I don't know what I'm doing as a parent. We've been in all kinds of these situations. And this is the moment for Esther where she has to determine, I'm going to do whatever God has laid before me. So this second way in which we know that God is working behind the scenes is when we acknowledge his placement in strategic positions. Acknowledge his placement in strategic positions.

This is not a romantic fairy tale. I have to be honest with you. The book of Esther 1 and 2, and the book of Esther is not one of these Disney moments. Not the Cinderella lost her slipper moment. Now I have questions about that anyway.

If that slipper felt fit so perfectly, why did it fall? But that's a whole nother matter. But here, here, this is no Cinderella. This is poor Esther getting nabbed out of. Out of wherever she was and pulled to this place and made to marry this king offends us a little, doesn't it?

In spite of that, God is at work. In spite of the way you feel about that, God has placed her strategically. And what we're do going to to see later in Esther, it's the very place she has to be in order to save a whole Nation of people. This one little girl is going to save a nation. But it came with very difficult beginnings.

Now, for us, that's really helpful because some of us feel the plight of young Esther, an orphan who's taken into her father, her cousin's career, living now in exile in a place. She's a Jewish lady living in Persia because she's not been allowed to go home to her home nation. This is a tough time for the people of God. And now she's won favor with the very rulers who keep them in captivity. Do you get the picture?

And Mordecai is trying his best. We're going to see in Mordecai a good man. This Hadassah, this Esther, her name, Hadassah, means myrtle, like a myrtle tree, which is life. It's an image of beauty. The name Esther means star.

It's actually a Persian name which means star. It's where we get the word astrology. You hear Esther, Esther, star. And she gets picked out of the seven who make the final cut. And the king loves her and she starts to be like star.

So many of the other stories of scripture that I hope and pray will move you today because David is like this, Joseph is like this. There's so many stories of men and women who thought that God was moving, but they didn't always see it. Look what Acts says about David. Acts 13. It says David had served God's purpose in his own generation.

Then he fell asleep and he was buried with his ancestors. That God. Here's the idea there. David did what God told him to do in. In his time.

And that's what Esther's doing here. It reminds me of one of my favorite stories in Scripture of Joseph. This is in the book of Genesis. Joseph is this character that comes on the scene towards the end of the book of Genesis, where you've got a long list of really strange people who followed God imperfectly. And Joseph fits in that in a way.

He's a little dude. He's a young man, Little Joe. And Little Joe, when he first comes on the scene, is kind of prideful, kind of a mess. And I don't totally blame him for this, to be honest with you. Jacob doesn't do a great job with his sons.

He's got 12 sons. The one that he loves the most, he makes really obvious. He gives him a coat that's nicer than any other coat. He's the only son that gets the fresh new pair of Air Jordans. It makes no sense.

And everybody else can see it, and they're starting to get real mad about it. And on top of that, Joe can't stop running his mouth. So God gives him dreams. Here's what's fascinating. God gives Joseph dreams, but Joseph doesn't know what to do with them.

And so he begins to tell his brothers what he saw in these dreams. That one day he would be ruler over his family, that one day he would be in charge. And that's going to be true. But he doesn't know how to deliver it as a teenager. So he tells them, hey, guess what, guys?

I'm the stuff, and y' all are all going to bow to me one day. And they're like, no, we're not. And just to make sure that never happens, we're going to kill you. And that almost happens. In fact, some of the brothers.

There's a few of those brothers that are pretty violent. You should go back and read Genesis. They got some problems that need therapy. But anyway, they determined, hey, when Joseph shows up, we're going to go ahead and take him out. And so they put him in a pit.

They're about ready to kill him. And some of the other brothers, Reuben being one, is like, I don't know if I can do that. Let's sell him instead. There's a fortunate moment where some traders come up and they're like, hey, you want this, dude? We'll sell him to you.

So then they can come home and tell dad, hey, you know what? Joseph died. But. But in their hearts, they're like, well, at least we didn't kill him. I'm not sure if that's better.

That's what they did. So poor Joseph, God does give him dreams. He's shown favor that actually didn't do him very well. And then he gets sold into slavery. And you're thinking, okay, things are going to get better once he goes into Egypt.

That ain't the case. Go back and read that story if you want to talk about a guy who it looked like God had great plans for him. And then he spends, like, the first 20 years of his life in a terrible situation. That should give you encouragement, friends, to go, oh, you know what? Just because God is for me doesn't mean everything's going to be a mountaintop experience.

There will be valleys in my path. Joseph starts that way and spends time there. When he goes to Egypt, he gets put in a very powerful man's house named Potiphar. And that man has a wife that is a very promiscuous woman. And I take the impression here that Joseph young.

Joseph's a pretty good looking young man. And so she sees him walking around and has been thinking, you know what? Potiphar's getting older. I'm kind of tired of his mess. And so I see Joseph.

That's something right there. The scene unpacks in such a way that it looks like she basically disrobes him at one point as he runs away. And Joseph does the right thing. He doesn't spend any time with her. I have no doubt when I read this story.

Potiphar's wife is probably not an ugly woman, she's probably a beautiful woman. But Joseph knows better and runs and is left with just a cloak in her hand. And she still accuses him of the very thing he never did. Well, guess what happens? He gets wrongly accused and thrown in prison not for one year, but many, many years for doing nothing wrong.

And then these two guys come down there that have been accused of something and both of them have dreams and they come before Joseph. And Joseph basically says, hey, one of y' all is going to die in three days. One of you of y' all is going to live. Which is really terrible news for somebody. He says, hey, just do me this favor.

Whenever Pharaoh lets you live, can you just tell him I'm down here? Because like this, this stinks. Like I'm down here and I didn't do anything wrong. Can you just let him know at least guess what that guy does. He forgets.

He gets let off the hook. It all happens the exact way that Joseph had seen it until some years later. Finally, the Pharaoh has some dreams about a famine that's about to come and nobody can figure it out. And finally the cupbearer I believe it was comes to him and says, oh, there was this guy down in jail. I forgot about that guy.

He's going to be so mad when he founds out I forgot about him. You should go get him. I bet he'll know. And he did know. And so finally, after years of nearly getting killed by his brothers, getting sold into slavery, getting chased around by a crazy woman, getting put in prison, and for a long time there, tells some people the truth and they forget about him.

Now, finally, God acknowledges him through Pharaoh. The question then becomes, was that all just a big mistake or was God working in that whole season? Here's the truth of scripture. God was working in that whole season.

And here's how I know that is. Because that's what Joseph says of his own life when he finally gets to reconcile with his brothers. Later because the famine does happen and the people of all the nations around start coming to Egypt. They come and they discover that their sold brother is now in charge, second in command in Egypt. They come and they say, give us food and don't kill us.

Basically, we're sorry. Here's what Joseph says in Genesis 50, verse 20. He says, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

God placed him in Egypt long before the famine that he might be the kind of person who would show his people mercy and grace. So what do you do with all this? What do you do with the fact that Paul, poor little Esther, is put in a position that feels very strange and uncomfortable and doesn't seem right? What do you do with the fact that guys like Joseph are thrown into a pit, sold into slavery? What do you do with your own story?

What do you do with your own story when you start asking the question that a lot of you here have asked, and that is, how in the world did I get here? What am I doing at this job? Some of you, when you were five years old, you wanted to be the Red Power Ranger. What happened? Why didn't you achieve that goal?

Some of you are like, I don't even know what that is. Most of you, everybody knows what Power Rangers are. Get out of here. But some of you, some of you had a different plan. You know, there was something you wanted.

I went to college to be a sports analyst. I graduated with that degree. I got a media performance degree from East Carolina. I thought, one of these days I'm going to be on espn. That was my goal.

I love sports to this day. I used to in my room in high school and college, I would watch every single thing that would come on ESPN. SportsCenter, pardon the interruption, all those things. And I would try to dialogue with the people because I was convinced that was what I was going to do with my life. You know what's interesting about that?

Let's think about that for a moment. I did a communication degree where I took a ton of public speaking. Is that accidental? This doesn't scare me to be up here speaking. Some of you are like, that would be the worst day of my life for me.

God was actually preparing me for this. I just didn't know it. Some of you are at a place now, you're positioned in a place now that you never would have expected. I want you to hear something. God has placed you there strategically.

That the job you're in right now, some of you are thinking, well, this is just a stepping stone. To a better job. It's not how God looks at it. That may be true, but that's not how he sees it. He sees you in the moment, being a witness in the moment.

So in this stepping stone, you might be the one light in that place. You might be the one opportunity that somebody is going to have to see the truth of Jesus and the reason he's put you in that fast food restaurant, in that place where you're like this. There's no way this is permanent for me. You might be right. But in that moment, you're strategically placed and there's a. I mean, I could tell.

Some of you could tell many more stories than me on this. The road to becoming a pastor of a church did not look anything like I expected. In fact, when I was a child, I told God, I will not be a pastor. I verbally told him that my dad's a pastor. One Christmas Eve, people showed up at our church that needed marital help, and they were aggressive and angry at each other.

And my dad stepped out on a Christmas Eve, and he helped them. And I thought, here we are around the table as a family, playing a board game. And my dad had to leave. God, I can tell you right now, I'm not doing that.

I've had some phone calls on Christmas Eve, y'. All. Can you believe that? He's like, bet.

God's so funny. And I love this job. I love the opportunity. Some of you are. Maybe you're in the place you finally long for, but there was a road to get there.

And every piece of that was important, every stepping stone was God using you in a powerful way. If you would have seen it that way. I got this job right out of high school heading towards this becoming a sports analyst thing. I got this job with a guy at our church who was supposed to be a carpet cleaner. I found out later most of what we did was janitorial.

So I thought, hey, we're going to clean carpets all day. You know what we did? Clean toilets all day. That was not what I signed up for. Now, I ended up.

I'll tell you this honestly, I ended up kind of liking that job. The reason being is you don't lose sleep over cleaning toilets. At the end of the day, people are like, thank you for cleaning that. Nobody wanted to do that. There are other jobs where everybody complains all the time.

Nobody ever complains that, hey, thank you for cleaning the toilet. That's wonderful. And I also found out later that the man I worked with day in and day out really Needed encouragement in his faith. I thought I was there to clean carpets. That wasn't even true.

I was there to be with him at the time. I was in seminary. I worked at a pharmacy for several years there. And I can tell you straight up, I don't want to count by fives ever again in my life. Never.

That job is so monotonous. Grace be unto you my pharmacist. But it is so much of the same thing every day. But here's what I also discovered, that the people coming in that place are also in great need for spiritual care. They're not just coming in there for a drug.

They don't just come into the hospital because something's hurt. Often is way bigger than that. So I found out, man, there's a fantastic ministry in this place. I tell you all that to say this. Wherever you are right now, God has a plan.

It's strategic. And the question is, will you yield to it? Will you make the determination. Hey, I'm okay. That for this moment, I'm working a drive through at McDonald's.

It is what God's doing at the moment. I haven't gotten wherever it is I think I'm going. I can assure you, if you're working at one of those fast food restaurants right now, you could make a huge difference because every single one I go to gives me the worst service I've ever had in my life. So you could make a great difference there. I mean, just saying hi would be pretty great.

I'm not going to get off on that. I think another passage of scripture might help us more for that particular, particular one. But so, Joseph, this is what happens, Esther, this is what. When you look at your life and you say, man, why am I here? Why am I in this relationship?

Why is this going wrong? I pray today that you would see that God is. He may not be obvious to you, but he is at work. Would you trust him? Would you say, hey, today I'm praying a different prayer instead of the prayer you've been praying for the last few weeks, maybe the last few years.

God, get me out of this. Some of you have been praying that a while. God, get me out of this. And he's not answering. Here's why I think that is.

Because he wants you to pray this instead. God, help me to be who you've called me to be in this. I'm not going to pray for you to get me out of this anymore. Help me to be who you've called me to be in this instead. And then see Where God moves.

Let's finish this text together now, just a few verses left. Esther 2, 19. And on. Now, when the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. Esther had not made known her kindred or her people as Mordecai had commanded her.

For Esther obeyed Mordecai, just as when she was brought up by him. In those days, as Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, big than teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold, they became angry and they sought to look, lay hands on King Ahasuerus. And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai. And he told it to Queen Esther. And Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai.

When the affair was investigated and found to be so, the men, both of these men were hanged on the gallows. And it was recorded in the book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king. Here's the last and final reason we can trust that God is working in the shadows, his work, working behind the scenes. It's by trusting his providence in the smallest details. Here's why I bring that point up, the small details.

This scripture, chapter two, ends with saying it was written in the book of the Chronicles, not the Chronicles of your Bible, but rather the Chronicles. Within Persia, there's a royal book they're keeping. And basically word gets out that these guys are trying to assassinate the king, there's a coup in place, and Mordecai finds out about it and he stops it. And the men are caught and they're executed. And all that happens for Mordecai.

Don't miss this today, Church. Guess what Mordecai gets out of this? Nothing. Nothing. He does the right thing.

And all the Bible tells us is it was recorded somewhere. Now that's going to be important later. I'm just going to give you a cue that's going to come up again, but it's going to be a while later. And some of you have been wondering for quite some time, hey, man, I keep doing the right thing at work. I keep doing a good job.

I keep clocking in on time, I keep being good, I keep being honest. I keep being a person of integrity. Why is it that it doesn't seem like I'm ever being looked at or blessed by this? Well, here's a hard word, but a good word to you today. God sees it, but it doesn't always, always pan out in the way.

If you're Doing what is right because you're doing it for gain, then you're not doing what is right. You do what is right because it's right to do. Because God says this plainly. Here's how he speaks to his people. He says, guess what?

I'm holy, so be holy. But if I'm holy God, does that mean I get rewarded? It means you get to spend eternity with me and you get to be the kind of person I've created you to be. You can actually live out your purpose. So if, if that's the reward you're looking for, then yes.

But if you're looking for wealth, then you won't do the right thing because it's easier to get wealthy. You don't do any of this godly stuff because you're trying to get wealthy. Success looks different than that. So here now, Mordecai, he does the right thing for a foreign king, for a people that actually have them in captivity, and yet he still does the right thing. And God in that moment, just lets it get recorded in a book.

Here's what's going on. God cares about the details, and he's going to work out those details according to his purpose in his time. Matthew, chapter 10 says this of God. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

He knows the minute details, he's considering them. He hasn't forgotten anything thing. And at the right time, he will work according to his purpose. I quoted this earlier, Romans 8. We know that those who love God are all things, work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

So as we close right now, I want you to remember this. Some of you are in a place right now where you've done the right thing over and over again, and nothing seems to have come from it. Faithfulness never goes unnoticed.

You may work for years, you may toil for many days, and your boss or your spouse may not notice, but he notices. And your faithfulness is according to him and his will, not others. And so Esther and Mordecai here, they do the right thing because God is good and it's the right thing to do. Oh, I was really hoping Jonathan would give me, like, more than that. When Esther did this, when Mordecai did this, he was greatly rewarded.

Doesn't happen here. And when you do the right thing, sometimes only the Lord can see it. This is what God has been up to throughout his whole story. We just feel finish this big look at all of the scriptures. Don't miss this today.

God is constantly working out a miraculous plan when no one else is watching and no one else notices. Most of the people in the first century were unaware that when this man died and rose again, they had no idea what impact that had made. Most people didn't believe he rose again, but there was a select few that got it and they began to change the world by it. What we know now is that the hidden hand of God was on him. That underneath that, underneath the life and death and resurrection of Jesus was God's ultimate plan of salvation, which was hidden to most.

He's still doing this in your life right now. Behind the scenes, God is accomplishing a great act. So even when you can't see it, God is working. I pray today you would trust him in this. Let's pray now.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would open up our eyes to see you that in spite of how our life might be going right now, in spite of maybe things are up, maybe things are down. Maybe there's something we're fighting a disease, maybe there's something we're dealing with, like a death, something very hard, maybe for some of us, we did get the promotion and others of us got fired. We're wondering, God, what are you doing? God, I pray that in the midst of that you would be so apparent to us, that to the people of God in the room, that when we see these things going up or down, that in all of it we would learn to trust you and say, God, I know even when I don't see your face, I know your hand is present. And I'm asking, Lord, help me to trust you, encourage me right where I am, that yes, maybe there's a future destination, a future purpose that you have for me.

But right now, help me to just be good where I am. Help me to honor you right where I am. Help that young parent right now, that young husband, that young wife that is a little surprised about how everything's going. Maybe they thought it would be all rainbows and sunshine and it's not. Maybe you got that new job and it isn't anything like you expected.

God, I pray in that very moment that all of us, this church, this place, we would learn to trust you. That God, you're at work even when we don't notice it. I pray for that person who's come in today and they've not seen any of what you've done, Lord. They've never seen, known, heard from you, they've never walked with you that perhaps they've come in today. They didn't exactly know why today, but after hearing this word, Lord, I pray that you've stirred in their heart and moved them to trust you.

If that's you today, my friend, would you say yes to Jesus today? Would you make a decision to trust God even when it hasn't always made sense, Make a decision today to trust him? If that's you, my friend, would you pray with me? Jesus, I believe today, today you are Lord. I believe you are Lord of my life.

Jesus, I believe you died on the cross for my sin and that you rose from the grave and conquered death for me. I'm asking now, Lord Jesus, would you guide my life? It hasn't made a lot of sense. There have been a lot of rocky roads in my days, Lord, would you help me to see it through your eyes and guide me and help me to be encouraged in the very place I am?

Dear friend, welcome to the family of God. If you prayed that with me, and we're asking all as one, as one whole church, Lord, help us to trust you in the details that even when things look like they're completely chaotic and out of control, God, we know you're in charge. Help us to be encouraged by that. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.