Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION - WHAT WE’RE AIMING FOR IN THIS SERIES…GENERAL THEME.

New series - 4 weeks…I want to challenge you to be here - crazy, right?

BOOK OF ESTHER - To kind of give you a frame of reference historically: Remember a guy named King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon?

He reigned from 605-562 BC.

In 605, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem and deported young Jewish men - particularly a guy named Daniel and 3 of his friends.

In 587, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

In 539, Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon and in 521, Darius became ruler of the Persian empire.

You remember him from the book of Daniel?

Remember the lion’s den episode?

Then, in 486, Darius’s son, Xerxes, came to power in Persia....and that’s where we find ourselves in this story…it takes place in Persia’s capital city - Susa…Modern day SW Iran.

God’s people the Jews are still living all spread out across the empire - still in exile.

One of the most interesting characteristics of the story of Esther is this…God is nowhere mentioned, nowhere does he speak, nowhere does he show up and reveal himself with any earth shattering, nature conquering miracles.

GOD ALWAYS ACCOMPLISHES HIS PURPOSES GOD IS ALWAYS WORKING - EVEN WHEN HE IS NOT OVERLY-EVIDENT.

Series Main Idea:

When I can’t hear God’s voice, I can trust his hand.

Esther 1:4-

A 6 month party!

King Xerxes is the living embodiment of excess.

Anything he wanted he got any time he wanted it.

Nothing was off limits.

He had the finest of fine furniture, wine, even the finest goblets to drink the wine.

And, as if a 6 month party weren’t enough, he capped it off with 7 day banquet.

Some of you who think you used to could or can party, you don’t hold a candle to this guy!

Esther 1:10-

Xerxes now wants to show off his most prized possession - Vashti.

He’s treated everyone to the most awesome party they’ve ever had - for half a year - and now, he’s bringing out what he’s most proud of.

The Hebrew text insinuates that Xerxes wants Vashti to parade around the banquet hall in front of his friends NAKED.

How demeaning…how humiliating…how inhumane…but, let’s be real - this is middle eastern Persian culture.

Male dominated AND he’s literally the most powerful man on planet earth.

You DON’T SAY NO.

But Vashti does.

Edict - women are going to respect their men.

Chapter 2 - new plan//new queen.

Esther 2:11-

REPEAT SERIES THEME

Even in a pagan culture…even with a godless, narcissistic, hedonistic, flesh driven king, God is working…even though HE’S not visible, his hand is.

Although subtly, he is there.

You know, there was a prophet about the same time in history as this takes place named Jeremiah.

Jeremiah wrote one of the most quoted verses - even quoted by people who aren’t necessarily Jesus followers:

Jeremiah 29:11

A plan.

God has a plan for all of history and he has a plan for how your life fits into that great big plan.

Here’s what I want us to really chew on this morning - and this week:

God is preparing me now for what he has prepared for me.

Even when my circumstances don’t make sense.

Look at Esther:

She and her people are living in exile - away from their homeland, ruled by a people that don’t worship the same God and don’t have the same basis of morality - they are living in a pagan culture.

She’s an orphan.

She lost her parents at a very young age.

She was adopted and raised by her cousin who, for all we know, is single…no one to help him.

Now, she’s ripped away from him - not by choice - but by the insatiable sexual hunger of a power-driven king - where her success, her life, basically, is determined by whether or not she is more beautiful than anyone else and, let’s be honest, if she satisfies the king in bed.

This is not your ideal life - not the story anyone of us would choose.

She didn’t do anything to deserve any of this.

Maybe you identify.

Maybe your details aren’t the same but you’re pretty much in the same boat.

You know, it saddens me that so many Christians are pretty atheistic - or agnostic at best - when it comes to life not really making sense.

No Christian should ever say, “Well, it’s just the luck of the draw…or it’s just the hand I’ve been dealt in life.”

God is completely out of control!

We ask, “Why?!?!?”

You know, why do bad things happen to good people?

OUR WORLD IS FALLEN

The Bible makes clear that we are under the curse of sin.

Adam and Eve, the first humans, disobeyed God and as a result, sin and death and brokenness came into our world and affects everything - health, relationships, nature, EVERYTHING.

The world is not out of God’s control but is under the power and domain of sin.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN.

But that’s the hope of Easter.

, - the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof (everything in it!),

- heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.

But that’s the hope of Easter.

So…God is in control.

He has a plan.

None of this is catching God by surprise.

If God is using this to prepare me NOW for what he has prepared FOR ME, what do I need to know?

What do I need to do now?

Trusting the visible hand of the invisible God requires the combination of faith and wisdom.

Faith:

You know, I think faith is really misunderstood.

Faith is never a step into the darkness…it’s not a blind faith.

Biblical faith is not hope-so.

It’s not a “let’s give this a try and see how it pans out....maybe it will, maybe it won’t.”

No. Faith is not a step into the darkness, it is a leap into the light.

Faith is assurance.

It’s know-so, not hope-so.

Why?

Because biblical faith is rooted and grounded in the belief, the unshakeable belief, that God IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS AND WILL DO WHAT HE SAYS HE WILL DO.

Hebrews 11:

I want to give you some verses from the NT that show us what I’m talking about:

But, still, life doesn’t really make sense…we ask, “Why?”

He is faithful…he WILL finish in you what he started in you.

Psalm

As a child of God, I can trust that my PERFECT God is faithful to work through IMPERFECT circumstances for His glory and for my good.

WISDOM:

Not just KNOWING the right thing to do but doing it.

It’s not just I believe God is in control…It is, “I am going to live like God is sovereign and live in a obediently EVEN WHEN IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.”

I want you to look at Esther: None of this is ideal, is it?

But...she listens to Mordecai and she listens to Hegai.

“Don’t tell them you’re a Jew.”

She didn’t take the excess of cosmetics that all of the other girls did.

She listened to Hegai who knew Xerxes better than anyone.

They focused on the exterior, she focused on the interior - of the heart.