Sermon Tone Analysis

Does anyone recognize the name Stanislav Petrov?

Stanislav Petrov saved the world one day by doing absolutely nothing.

It was 1983… in the midst of the Cold War… officials in the Soviet Union believed that Ronald Reagan, then President of the United States, was planning a preemptive nuclear attack against them.

On September 26th, 1983, Petrov was working in a secret bunker in Moscow that contained the Soviet incoming missile early warning system.

Petrov’s job was to alert the higher ups if the early warning system detected an incoming missile.

Just after midnight, the early warning system began going off.

The system said that there was an incoming nuclear missile from the United States.

Petrov did not alert the higher ups and chalked it up to a false alarm.

Moments later, the early warning system showed that there were now 5 incoming nuclear missiles headed toward the Soviet Union from the United States.

Petrov thought to himself… if the United States was going to attack, they would probably shoot more than 5 missiles.

So, although he was supposed to report what the early warning system was saying… he instead, did nothing.

As we all know… there were no missiles.

It was a serious bug in the system.

Petrov’s decision to disobey orders, against Soviet military protocol, is credited with having prevented an erroneous retaliation nuclear attack on the United States that would have resulted in a large-scale nuclear war which could have wiped out half of the population of the countries involved.

Thereby, he saved the world by doing absolutely nothing.

There’s a good chance that you are alive today because of Stanislav Petrov.

I think we could agree that Stanislav Petrov made his mark on the world.

How many people can come home at the end of the day… How was your day today honey?

Oh pretty good… saved a billion lives today.

Most people would call that meaningful.

As we think about Tough Issues today, the pressure to have a meaningful life is what we’re going after.

And so, I’d like to ask… How would you measure what a meaningful life is?

Fast forward to your final days on this earth… When you reflect back on your life… what kind of measurements will you use in determining whether or not your life was meaningful?

Is it having a life of power?

Wealth?

Notoriety?

Influence?

Impact on people?

Accomplishments?

Achievements?

Living life to the fullest?

Checking off a bucket list?

Living life based on principles?

We feel pressure… and I think in some ways, it’s a good pressure to live a meaningful life.

We want to make a difference in the world.

And here’s the deal… God wants us to live a meaningful life… and the Bible helps us think about what it means to have a meaningful life.

And so today, we’re going to look at two stories… One in the Old Testament… and one in the New Testament.

And as we go through these stories, I want you to think about how you measure what a meaningful life is.

My first story today, from the Old Testament, is about a little orphan girl.

A girl who lost her mom and dad, and was raised by an older cousin.

As the story unfolds, there are five key characters… and we’ll look at all five chronologically to help me stay on track.

The first character is Esther.

In fact, the story is named after her… She is the little orphan girl.

So, if you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, turn with me to the book of Esther.

It’s right before Job and Psalms.

If you open your Bible to the very middle, you’ll probably be in Psalms… then you can just turn back until you find Esther.

Smaller book… only 10 chapters long.

The first thing that I want you to see about Esther is that she was a little orphan girl… a nobody in a big city.

However, the Bible tells us that she was absolutely a stunning beauty.

Look at Esther chapter 2, verse 7…

So, the Bible says she was shapely and beautiful.

The idea the Bible gives is that when you see her… you would gaze upon her.

I know… it’s a bit weird for something like that to be in the Bible… but there is a reason.

We’ll get to it a bit later.

Just understand… she had Hollywood type beauty naturally.

And she’s being raised by her older cousin in the city of Susa.

The 2ndcharacter in the story is the King… King Xerxes.

The man with all the power.

Xerxes was ruthless and had a wicked temper.

Once, Xerxes had a pontoon bridge built from Greece to Europe and a storm blew up and destroyed it… he was so angry that he had the sea lashed 300 times and its engineers were executed.

That’s how ruthless and hot tempered he was.

He was also a partier.

Loved drinking and celebrating… mainly, celebrating himself.

Look at chapter 1, verse 4…

So he threw a party in the city.

Look at verse 8…

He loved to party.

Now… I know some of you know the story… so just hang with me.

If you don’t know the story of Esther, I encourage you to read all 10 chapters later… it’s absolutely fantastic.

But during this massive party that Xerxes throws, Xerxes decides that he’s going to have his queen, Vashti was her name, come and display her beauty with her crown on.

The implication of the text is that he wanted her to come to the party with ONLY her crown on… and nothing else.

She refuses… and so Xerxes says… be gone with you then!

Now… Look at chapter 2, verse number 1…

And so, they search the whole country… bringing young women from the entire region in… hundreds… perhaps even thousands of young women… the house was every teenage boys’ dream… a house full of beautiful young women… and Esther, becomes one of the young women.

Not only that… but Esther gets special treatment right out of the gate.

One of the King’s Avon workers gives her a whole year of special beauty treatments that the other girls don’t get.

And so, through the process of elimination… out of all these women… Esther makes it to the elite eight… then the final four… and then… Esther wins the prize… she gets the crown.

Esther becomes the new queen!

The 3rdcharacter in the story is Esther’s older cousin… the man that raised Esther.

His name is Mordechai.

Mordechai, of course, feels responsible for Esther… and so, you could often find him at the King’s gate… looking over the gate perhaps… I don’t know how tall the gate was… Send a message to Esther.

One day, as Mordechai is at the King’s gate, he overhears a plot by two men to assassinate King Xerxes… and so, Mordechai rushes to the palace and reports the assassination plot… the men are convicted and Mordechai becomes a hero.

Mordechai’s name is written down in the logbook of the King.

Mordechai saved the life of the King.

But nothing else is done.

Mordechai doesn’t get a reward… He’s not honored… nothing happens… and the story goes on.

The 4th character in the story is Haman… a descendent of the Amalekite’s… enemy of the Jews.

Haman is the King’s highest official.

When Haman steps foot outside the palace, everyone knelt down to honor him… everyone except for Mordechai the Jew, that is.

This infuriates Haman… he’s on a bit of a power trip and Mordechai isn’t recognizing his power.

And so, Haman decides to kill Mordechai… but not just Mordechai… he wants to wipe out all the Jews.

Look at chapter 3, verse 8…

And so, the decree is written… King Xerxes agrees that on a certain month, many months away, that anyone could kill a Jew and take their stuff.

The decree goes out… and Mordechai and the Jews’… their days are numbered.

Of course, this hits Mordechai like a ton of bricks… he’s weeping and fasting.

And so, Mordechai sends a message to Esther.

Since you’re the queen, Esther… you need to do something… You need to say something to the King and save your people.

Esther sends a message back to Mordechai… you don’t understand cousin… If I approach the King without being summoned… I’ll be killed… unless he has a moment of kindness… but you know how ruthless he is.

Look at what happens in chapter 4, verse 12…

That’s a very important phrase… remember that phrase.