Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / After the Ache . . . Celebrate! │ Msg 1112 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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After the Ache . . . Celebrate! │ Msg 1112 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: After the ache of their near extermination, the Jews had
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: much to celebrate. God had spared their lives through the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: most unlikely young woman early in her life, just an
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: orphan girl who had won the heart of a king
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: and swayed him ultimately to spare her people. Although the
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: book of Esther does not mention God's name per se,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: every page bears the marks of his handiwork, his unseen
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: but glorious name, not the king's, nor Mordechai's, nor even
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Esther's name. But God's name is to be praised. The
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: story of Esther was recorded so that when future generations
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  Speaker 1: of God's people recalled their hardships, they would look back
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: not on the pain, but God's abiding presence and enduring
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: faithfulness through the trial. Let me read for you sections
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: from Esther chapter nine, and as I do, let your
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: heart sing in celebration of God, beginning in verse twenty
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: of chapter nine. Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: sent letters to all the Jews who were in all
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the provinces of King of Hazuaris, both near and far,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month
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  Speaker 1: Azar and the fifteenth day of the same month annually,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: and it was a month which was turned for them
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: That they should make them days of feasting and rejoining,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and sending portions of food to one another and gifts
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to the poor. Thus the Jews undertook what they had
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: started to do and what Mordecai had written to them.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: For Hamon, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite, the adversary
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to
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  Speaker 1: destroy them, and had cast Purr, that is the lot,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to disturb them and destroy them. But when it came
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to the king's attention, he commanded by letter that his
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: wicked scheme, which he had devised against the Jews, should
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: return on his own head, and that he and his
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: sons should be hanged on the gallows. Therefore they called
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: these days Purim, after the name of Purr. So these
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  Speaker 1: days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: every family, every province, and every city. And these days
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: of Purim were not to fail among the Jews, or
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  Speaker 1: their memory fade from their descendants.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Most Christians seem to handle pain better than pleasure. For
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: some twisted and strange reason, we seem to do better
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: with hard days than with easy days, with tough times
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  Speaker 2: rather than times of relief and celebration and leisure. I'm
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  Speaker 2: sure our critics would tell us that it is because
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  Speaker 2: of our consuming guilt. We simply cannot seem to reward
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: ourselves for good times. Hard days and tough times we
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: seem to handle well. Stress and anxiety we not only experience,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: we tend to excuse the times of reward, times of relief.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: If we're honest with ourselves, we tend to keep those
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: times to ourselves, because, even though we may be among
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  Speaker 2: the few who can handle them, many of our friends cannot.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: We tend to weep with those who weep much more
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: easily than rejoice with those who rejoice, don't we. Most
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: folks I know who take a two week vacation tell
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: me that it takes about a week to begin to
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: enjoy it.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Often because we're so.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Wound up we don't relax, And sometimes it's because we
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: have to take that long a time to give ourselves
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: permission to enjoy the rewards of a long year. Of
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: work well done. Deep within our minds, there is sort
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: of a bad news mentality. Have you noticed that about yourself? Well,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: if someone says to you at church on a given Sunday,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: you know, I want to talk to you before long
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: about something that's been on my mind for quite some time.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Usually it's not a thought in your mind that says, oh,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I'm sure he wants to tell me something real good.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Often you find yourself saying, why don't you just tell
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: me now so I not to worry about it for
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the next period of time. Or if someone says I've
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: written you a letter, you'll get it in a day
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: or two, you go, oh no.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Rather than a letter of affirmation, we expect confrontation.
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  Speaker 1: Why are we like that?
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  Speaker 2: One author writes, the highest and most desirable state of
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  Speaker 2: the soul is to praise God in celebration for being alive.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Without perks, our lives are easily lost in the world
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: of money, machines, anxiety, or inertia. Our poor splendid souls,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: how they fight for food, They have forgotten how to request.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: The little perks.
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  Speaker 2: Our hurried, stressful, busy lives are unquestionably the most dangerous
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  Speaker 2: enemy of celebrating life itself. Somehow we must learn how
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  Speaker 2: to achieve momentary slow downs and request from God a
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  Speaker 2: heightened awareness of the conception that life is a happy thing,
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  Speaker 2: a festival to be enjoyed, rather than a drudgery to
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  Speaker 2: be endured. Life is full of perks if we train
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  Speaker 2: ourselves to perceive them. As someone has said, one thousand
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  Speaker 2: tiny things from which one can weave a bright necklace
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  Speaker 2: of little pleasures for one's life. Say when is the
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  Speaker 2: last time you would weave together a bright necklace from
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  Speaker 2: the little pleasures of life. Take Christmas, for instance. Some
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: of you say, yeah, take Christmas. That would be a relief.
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  Speaker 1: I believe that if our focus were right, and if
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  Speaker 1: our attitude were right, not only would we enjoy the
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  Speaker 1: celebration of the day itself, we could even enjoy the
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  Speaker 1: busy times that lead up to it.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there there are songs to sing, there are
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  Speaker 2: smells to smell. At Christmas time, there are sounds to
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: hear we'll hear no other time of the year. My
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: son was the other day saying to me, our youngest
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  Speaker 2: son said, I don't mind the crowds.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: He said, These people that get all their stuff bought
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: in September and October, they miss all the fun of
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  Speaker 1: the crowds. I thought, that is a terrific attitude, What
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  Speaker 1: a great response. I heard a terrific story the other
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  Speaker 1: day of a hassled shopper who came into a busy
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  Speaker 1: department store and wormed her way to the to the
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  Speaker 1: cost medic counter. And there was a busy saleslady gift
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: wrapping one gift and waiting on two other ladies. And
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the gal looking for something said, rather hurriedly to the saleslady, say,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: do you still have Elizabeth Taylor's passion? And the saleslady said,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: if I did, honey, would I be working here?
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  Speaker 2: How great it is to hear you laugh. How wonderful
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  Speaker 2: it is that God has given us joy rather than
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: a life full of mourning, tears and sadness. I thought
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  Speaker 2: a lot about why we're like that.
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  Speaker 1: Why is it that we can even turn Christmas into
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: a time of dread? I think I know.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: I believe our focus is more on the past than
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: on the future, and being negative by nature be.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Bad news people. By habit, we tend to pick out
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  Speaker 1: of the past the.
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  Speaker 2: Things that make us sigh and let them bleed into
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  Speaker 2: the present so that they color and stain.
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  Speaker 1: Are every day. When I look back into the past,
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  Speaker 1: and when you look back into the past, the things
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  Speaker 1: that make a sigh are four in number. People, events, circumstances,
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  Speaker 1: and decisions. There were people that we wronged. There were
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  Speaker 1: people who wronged us. There were occasions where conversations were held,
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  Speaker 1: and we feel badly about what we said, or we
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: are hurt within when we remember and how we've recorded
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  Speaker 1: them of the things that were said by those individuals.
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  Speaker 1: And because of the past and the sadness connected with
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: wrong relationships or unhappy, unfulfilling, unproductive relationships, our present is
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: marred because of people of the past. It was the
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: same in the days of esther As though Jews look back,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I'm sure many of them would say, it's Hayman. I remember,
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  Speaker 1: it's Haman's henchman, it's Haymon's sons, it's Hayman's followers. How
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  Speaker 1: miserable they have made our lives if they chose to
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  Speaker 1: do that, and they would sigh looking back into the past.
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  Speaker 1: That people who have made life miserable for us, who
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't sigh. Then there are events when we look back,
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  Speaker 1: we don't remember the times of celebration, the great birthday parties,
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  Speaker 1: the fun things we attended, the joys of an evening
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  Speaker 1: around a fireplace, the pleasures of family together. You know
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  Speaker 1: what we remember? We remember earthquakes. Isn't it strange even
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the newspaper brings up anniversaries for earthquakes.
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  Speaker 2: I've never been able to understand. Three years ago today
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  Speaker 2: we had a five point six shaker. I thought, so what,
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  Speaker 2: who needs to remember it was three years ago today?
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Forget it. We live through it, We'll be able to
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  Speaker 1: go on beyond it. But if we're not careful, the
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  Speaker 1: events of our lives that are negative will stick. It
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  Speaker 1: would be true in the days of Esther, and they
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  Speaker 1: would sigh the day the king wrote the edict, the
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  Speaker 1: day Hayman handed it out, the day the couriers came
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  Speaker 1: to our province and announced, the Jews will die on
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  Speaker 1: the thirteenth of Adar, And don't you forget it?
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  Speaker 2: What a horrible event. And if they lived in the
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  Speaker 2: light of that event, their whole life would be negative, down,
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  Speaker 2: sad and sorrowful. Then there are circumstances, conversations, difficult jam situations.
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  Speaker 2: We found ourselves in relational barriers could be true in
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  Speaker 2: Esther's day, and it would be true in our day,
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  Speaker 2: and we would sigh. Perhaps the worst of the four
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  Speaker 2: would be decisions. There isn't a person listening to me
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  Speaker 2: right now who hasn't made wrong decisions, who hasn't made
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  Speaker 2: a foolish decision, who hasn't gone too far or not
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  Speaker 2: far enough, who didn't step out on faith, or who
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  Speaker 2: called it faith and it wasn't faith, it was presumption.
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  Speaker 2: And you look back now through the perspective of the
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  Speaker 2: past number of years, and you see it as a
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  Speaker 2: wrong decision, or at least a weak one. And we're
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  Speaker 2: all hung up in today because we are snagged on
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  Speaker 2: the people and events and circumstances and the decisions of
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  Speaker 2: the past, none of which we can change. None, But
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  Speaker 2: the enemy of our souls continues to announce to us failures, wrongs, disappointments, disasters, calamities.
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  Speaker 2: And we try to put our lives together in this
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  Speaker 2: long tunnel called the present, we can't do it. Let
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  Speaker 2: me show you something from the Book of Philippians, chapter three,
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  Speaker 2: before we turn back to the ancient scroll of Esther
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  Speaker 2: yet again. And let me show you fourteen words from
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  Speaker 2: the new testament that can make a difference. These are
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  Speaker 2: words that I call the secret of celebrating life.
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  Speaker 1: How do I do it? What does it require?
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  Speaker 2: This isn't that complicated, but it will require some mental discipline.
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  Speaker 2: I'm looking at Philippians three, thirteen and fourteen, and there
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  Speaker 2: isn't a person listening right now who couldn't do better
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  Speaker 2: by applying what I'm going to read. In the middle
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  Speaker 2: of verse thirteen, we read forgetting what lies behind and
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  Speaker 2: reaching forward to what lies ahead.
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  Speaker 1: I press on. There they are.
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  Speaker 2: Most of your accounting this. Make sure they're fourteen. When
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  Speaker 2: you finish that, please underline the words forgetting what lies behind?
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  Speaker 1: Look closely. That's only part of it. Reaching forward to
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  Speaker 1: what lies ahead?
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  Speaker 2: I press on. You know what that kind of philosophy
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  Speaker 2: will do to your whole life. It will turn you
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  Speaker 2: into a celebrant. You will find that you mourn and
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  Speaker 2: sigh less, and.
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  Speaker 1: You laugh at life with God by your side. More.
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  Speaker 2: Turn from Philippians three back to Esther chapter three.
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  Speaker 1: Will you do that?
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  Speaker 2: By now your Bible probably opens automatically to this old book.
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  Speaker 1: That had gathered so much dust over the years.
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  Speaker 2: By now you remember the story of the book, how
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: the plot thickened, how disasters seemed to be written across
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  Speaker 2: every Jewish life, how doom was spelled so clearly, so eloquently,
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  Speaker 2: and how God changed the events to turn wrong into right.
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  Speaker 2: I'm reading from Esther three locate verse six, and let's
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  Speaker 2: begin about the middle of the verse.
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  Speaker 1: Three six. Therefore, Hayman sought to destroy all the Jews,
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  Speaker 1: the people of Mordecai, who were throughout the whole kingdom
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  Speaker 1: of a Hasuaris, in the first month, which is the
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  Speaker 1: month Nisson, in the twelfth year of King a Hazuaris.
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  Speaker 1: Now circle this next word poor, that is, the lot.
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  Speaker 2: Was cast before Hayman from day to day, from month
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  Speaker 2: to month, until the twelfth month, that is the month
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  Speaker 2: of r sounds.
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  Speaker 1: A little bit vague, a little oblique. Let me explain.
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  Speaker 2: You may recall when Hayman was trying to decide when
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: to carry out his plot to exterminate the Jews, he
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  Speaker 2: relied on an ancient custom of casting lots. A lot
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  Speaker 2: was called in those days poor pu are, and in
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: the casting of the lots in some strange manner. As
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  Speaker 2: a result of continuing the process, he came upon a date,
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  Speaker 2: the thirteenth of Adar. What interests me is not only
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  Speaker 2: the date, but the name of the lot.
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  Speaker 1: Poor.
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  Speaker 2: Let's take a little excursion in linguistics. Let me help
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  Speaker 2: you with this. In English, we pluralize a word by
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: adding s or es, most often in Hebrew and its
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: sister language Aramaic, a singular term is turned into plural
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  Speaker 2: by adding im. The English word for angel is cherub.
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  Speaker 2: The Hebrew plural for cherub is not cherubs, but Cherubim.
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  Speaker 2: Seraph is another kind of angel, and the plural for
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  Speaker 2: seraph is not Seraph's but Seraphim. The god bale is
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  Speaker 2: sometimes proliferated through the Old Testament in multiple forms, and
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  Speaker 2: that's called not Bales but Balim by Aleim for plural.
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  Speaker 2: So if we were to pluralize poor and make the
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  Speaker 2: lot represent lots plural, it would be Purim Purim. He
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  Speaker 2: decided that there would be the final death knell on
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: the Jews on a certain day Locate verse thirteen of
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  Speaker 2: this third chapter. Letters were sent by couriers to all
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  Speaker 2: the King's provinces to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all
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  Speaker 2: the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one.
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  Speaker 1: Day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth.
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  Speaker 2: Month, the month of Art, to seize their position as plunder.
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  Speaker 2: What is interesting, and you know the story.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Now, is it? Between the third and the ninth chapter
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  Speaker 1: the tables were turned, Hayman was captured in all of
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  Speaker 1: his anti semitism and murder, and the queen's heart won
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  Speaker 1: the king's mind, and the King made the decision not
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  Speaker 1: only to kill Hayman, but to wipe the slate clean
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and to remove the dread of the Jews from the Jews.
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  Speaker 1: And so this day of the thirteenth of Adar, which
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  Speaker 1: is their last month of the year, was turned from
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  Speaker 1: mourning in sadness to a time of celebration. As a
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, when you turn to chapter nine, turn police,
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  Speaker 1: you'll discover that on the thirteenth of Adar, they, rather
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  Speaker 1: than being killed, turned tables on their enemies and annihilated
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  Speaker 1: many of them Verse sixteen, Chapter nine. The rest of
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  Speaker 1: the Jews who were in the King's provinces assembled to
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  Speaker 1: defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies and
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  Speaker 1: kill seventy five thousand of those who hated them. But
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: they did not lay their hands on the plunder. This
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: was done.
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  Speaker 2: Look at this, on the very day they were originally
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: to have died, and in honor of this remarkable switch
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  Speaker 2: of events, they declared.
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  Speaker 1: A day of celebration, which.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: You anticipate, was named Perim, or the Feast of Purim,
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  Speaker 2: as we call it today, and.
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  Speaker 1: To this day it is still celebrated by the Jews
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  Speaker 1: to this day.
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  Speaker 2: What was once going to be there death turned and
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: became their future, their celebration. Aging Vance Havner, the evangelist
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: wrote a little book entitled It Is Toward Evening, and
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: in it he tells the unforgettable story of a little
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: town in Alabama that made its living raising cotton. One year,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: as the cotton was growing and it appeared to be
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: a bumper crop, the bull weavil invaded, devastated the crop
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: and destroyed the economy of that little town in Alabama. Farmers, however,
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: are an ingenious lot, and they were determined not to
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: just simply sit back and move into the poorhouse. One
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: of the farmers got the idea of planting peanuts instead
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: bowl weevils don't like peanuts, and another decided to plant
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: yet another produce, and others still others, and before long,
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  Speaker 2: bumper crops of these began to bring the economy back
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  Speaker 2: to what later came to be known as Enterprise, Alabama.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: I think that's significant. And do you know what they
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: did well. They erected a monument to the bowl weevil.
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  Speaker 2: It's there to this day.
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  Speaker 1: Van S.
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  Speaker 2: Havner writes, all things worked together for good to the Christian,
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  Speaker 2: even our bul weavil experiences. Sometimes we settled into a
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: humdrum routine, as monotonous as growing cotton year after year.
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  Speaker 2: Then God sends the bold weavil.
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  Speaker 1: He jolts us.
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  Speaker 2: Out of our groove, and we must find new ways
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  Speaker 2: to live. Financial reverses, great bereavement, physical infirmity, loss of position.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: How many have been driven by trouble to be better
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  Speaker 2: husbandmen and to bring forth far finer.
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  Speaker 1: Fruit from their souls. The best thing that ever happened
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  Speaker 1: to some of us was the coming of our bul weavil.
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  Speaker 1: Without that, we.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Might still have been a cotton sharecropper. I'm speaking to
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  Speaker 2: people today, all of whom could raise up your own
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: monument to the old evil. It invaded your life, It
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: took your joy. It had the audacity to come without
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  Speaker 2: invitation and probably by surprise, and it devastated your faith
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  Speaker 2: at the.
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  Speaker 1: Time you were cut down the size the lot was cast.
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  Speaker 1: But your problem is you haven't yet built your monument,
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  Speaker 1: you haven't established perim. You're feasting. You're still living in
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the sigh and the pain of all the sadness that
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: comes over you when you remember the brokenness. That's what
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: this is about. This isn't a story about some ancient feast,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: just that. It is that, But it's so much more.
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  Speaker 1: God has given us his word, not to teach us
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  Speaker 1: dates and Hebrew words. He's given us his word to
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  Speaker 1: reconstruct our lives, to build monuments where we once wept
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  Speaker 1: and bled and some died. Our lives were hurt, and
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  Speaker 1: hearts were hardened, and we were devastated. But forgetting that
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: which lies behind, and moving toward that which lies ahead,
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  Speaker 1: this is the way to press on. Don't just forget
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the pass Don't just, with the passing of your hands
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: say oh yeah, it was awful. Build a monument, celebrate
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the feast, pass along the lessons that led to the
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: maturity and the changes that were so essential in your
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: life and so different from when you were just a
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: cotton sharecropper. But I read verses seventeen eighteen and nineteen.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I read about a people who decided, let's name this
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: day a day for a holiday. Let's call it Kurim,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: which could be translated in your face hayman, or something
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: like that, here's to you, haymon, here's to our God.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Look at seventeen's wonderful.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: All this annihilation of the enemies was done on the
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: thirteenth day of the month are and on the fourteenth
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: day they rested. Of course, they made it a day
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: of feasting and rejoicing.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: How appropriate.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: The Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: and the fourteenth day of the same month. They rested
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: on the fifteenth day to come a little longer to
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: kill their enemies, and they made the day.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Of feasting and rejoicing. How appropriate, how good. Therefore, the
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Jews of the rural areas.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Who live in the rural towns, make the fourteenth day
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: of the month out are a holiday for rejoicing and
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: feasting and sending portions of food to one another. One
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: of the early Christmas times. They wrap up gifts and
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: send them to friends, especially to the poor. It reminds
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: me of the spontaneous celebration that occurred shortly after Jamestown
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: and Plymouth, but after enduring the bitterness of winter, the
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: early forefathers of our great country decided to kill a
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: few wild turkeys, and in primitive kind of ovens, to
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: bake fine cakes and pies, and to pull from the
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: land some of the produce and from the sea some
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: of the fish, and have feast, to celebrate a giving
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: of thanks to God for surviving the awful winters.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Of the past.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: It wasn't official until the governor of Massachusetts made it
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: official in their New England. But until then it was
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: a spontaneous celebration of praise. It was their perim. Those
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: in the old country said, you will never make it,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: you will regret it, And it was their thanksgiving to
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: God for changing their sorrow into joy.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: It becomes official at.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Verse twenty down through verse twenty eight. And how significant
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: these words appear. Mordecai, whom I believe wrote the Book
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: of Esther, recorded these events, and he sent letters to
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: all the Jews who were in all the provinces of
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: King of hajuaras near and far. Now take notice of
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: several things in this present time. First of all, noticed.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: The date of the celebration, obliging them to celebrate the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: fourteenth day of the month and the fifteenth day of
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the same month annually, So it was to be an
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: annual holiday. Two holidays, really, the thirteenth and the fourteenth next.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Notice the reason for the holiday, because on those days
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: a month which was turned for them from sorrow into gladness,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: from morning into a holiday. You see, they had already
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: planned who would be buried where, and who would die
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and howl. I mean the families that perhaps rehearsed it
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: in their mind over the dinner table. They knew it
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: was coming until God intervened. And now they chose the
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: very day when they would have been annihilated and exterminated,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and they turned those days from a sadness in mourning
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: to rejoicing in celebration. It was to acknowledge the change
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: of events. That's the reason for this time of celebration.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Look at the expression of it. Twenty two continues.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: That they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: and sending portions of food to one another and gifts
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: to the poor. This is all being written into the record.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: This is the way it will be for the Jews
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: from henceforth then the name of the holiday. Thus the
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Jews undertook what they had started to do and what
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Mordecai had written to them. For Haman, the son of Hymedatha,
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: the Hagagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had schemed
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: against them to destroy them, and had cast poor, that
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: is the lot, to disturb them and to destroy them.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: And when it came to the King's attention, he commanded
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: by letter that his wicked scheme which he had devised
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: against the Jews, should return on his own head, and
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: that he and his son should be hanged on the gallows. Therefore,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: call these days Perim after the name of Poor. And
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: because of the instructions in this letter, both what they
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: had seen in this regard and what had happened to them,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: let it be written the custom was to take place annually.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: The Jews established and made a custom for themselves and
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: for their descendants. For all who allied themselves with him.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Look at this, so that they should not fail to mourn,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: no to celebrate, to celebrate two days according to their
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: regulation and according to their appointed time annually. Ask many
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: people what the Book of Esther represents.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: They will tell you it's a book of tragedy. I
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: don't read tragedy in Esther. They will tell you it's
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: the early Holocaust. There's no holocaust in Esther. There's a
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: threat of a holocaust.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Do you know this is the only book that Jews
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: can turn to to find the roots for their holidays
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: of Purim? Do you know when they still to this
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: day read from the scrolls.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Of Esther that little children and young adults and old alike,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: when the name Hayman is mentioned, they pound on their desks,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: and they pound on tables, and even with shoes, they
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: pound on.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Pieces of wood, boo and hiss, and then others. When
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: they announce Mordecai and Esther, they cheer and they shout
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: voices with the voices of joy in honor of Esther.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: It's a reenactment of the story of triumph.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: It's called Purim. Look at twenty eight. Here's the purpose.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: every generation. And by the way, it's still going on
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: every family, every province, and every city. And these days
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: of Purium were not to fail from among the Jews,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: or their memory fade from their descendants.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: There it is.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: You know, in two or three generations, nobody would have
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: remembered pureim oh, only a few. But it's like talking
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: to today's generation about the difficulties of World War two
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: and they listen, they smile a bit or cock their
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: head to the side, and they have no memory of
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: what many of us call the Great War. You know,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: in another generation, there will Vietnam will just be a
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: place on the map. There will be no memory, there
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: will be no sense of anguish, no sadness over loss.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Even the emotion would be gone if it were currant
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: for the establishment of a celebration. You see, this is
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: the reason many of us appreciate a return to Washington,
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: d C. A city of memorials and monuments. Don't you
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: love going there? It is one city that has not
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: considered monuments and extravagance. A number of years ago, my
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: daughter and I jogged early one morning in Washington, D C.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: It was in the summer, The sun was just coming up,
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: and we ran from our hotel down to the Washington Monument.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: It turned and along the lagoon to the Lincoln Memorial,
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: and then over and around the Jefferson Memorial, and then
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: back down to the Vietnam Memorial. At each memorial, we
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: slowed apace and we talked as we ran together. We
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: rehearsed a bit of the life or a bit of
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: the history that that memorial represented. Memorials represent places to
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: stand and to be quiet, to read and to reflect,
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: and to pass on to the next generation, the roots
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: of a nation's heritage. They give the past significance because
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: they give the past perspective.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Men and women.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: One of my main fears of life and life style
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: where most of us live, is that we have so
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: few memorials, so few monuments, even mental monuments. Life has
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: lived in the fast lane, quick decisions, quick money, fast action,
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: strong competition, so little time spent stopping.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: And recording and learning. Have you observed that a divorce
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: can come and sweep across a family and.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Break it and bruise it, and life goes right on.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: That a young woman can get an abortion and those
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: who know cluck their tongues, frowns, shake their head, and
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: life goes on.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: And she.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Later regrets it with words she cannot even utter, but
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: life goes on. And for another there's a financial reversal
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: and a business fails, and life goes on and still another.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: There's a death, her heartache, her a scandal, and before
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: long it's swept up in the whirlwind of activity, and
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: life goes on, and we're left.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: With the anguish of a memory and so little perspective.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: You see, in order for there to be perspectives over
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: these things, there must be monuments, there must be memorials,
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: and they must be returned to and learned from and
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: passed on.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: There must be the purems in our lives, without which
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: we live rootless, fast, laying lives, without much significance. And
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: you know, the worst part of all, our children learn
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: less than little, often nothing from our failures, our brokenness,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: and our sorrows. If anything, they learn only to hate
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: like we hated, and to get revenge like we sought
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: to do. Are simply to drink themselves to sleep, so
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: he choose to do.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: In twenty nine through thirty two, at the end of
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: the story, all of it is made official. Queen Ester
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: steps in and writes with full authority, along with Mordecai,
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: to confirm this letter about Purim. And then the letters
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: are sent to all the Jews and all the provinces
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: according to verse thirty, and they established those days of
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: and Queen Esther had established for them, and the command
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: of Esther. This chapter concludes, establishes these customs for Pureim,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: and it is written in the book there's a memorial.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Established, there's a holiday for reflection. And to this day,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: even little children centuries removed from the days of Esther
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: take off their shoes and pound on desks to remember
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: the name of Hayman to the top of their voice.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: As they listen again to the name of Mordecai and
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: the name of Esther, they still learn from the ancient scroll.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: What is all of this saying? How does it relate
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: to our lives today? Pray tell well. Most of all,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: I think it's saying, all of us, when looking back,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: can see sadness and remorse and nothing else unless perspective
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: is provided. And I think it is saying, unless we
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: provide some kind of perspective, we will do nothing but
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: sigh and grieve over our past.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: In light of that, I have a suggestion, and I
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: have a warning. My suggestion is this, that each one
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: of us raise up memorials, mental monuments that turn tragedies
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: into triumphs each one of us that we raise up
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: memorials to turn tragedies into triumphs. Webster says a monument
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: is the lasting evidence of something or someone notable. Webster
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: defines memorial serving to preserve remembrance the commemoration. Think back
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: for a moment to the coming of the bull Weavil.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: If you are old enough.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: To have a few crop failures disasters, think back, have
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: you built a monument to it?
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: It may be too close and too raw for you
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: to do it today, but don't spend the rest of
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: your life licking your wounds over yesteryear, or you will
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: experience a grim future.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: What did you learn from it? How did it turn
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: in your life? You can't change it. It's over. Sure
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: you should have known better. Sure, I could leave you
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: with all kinds of shame on the shoods and woods
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: and aughts that I could lay on you you could
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: lay on me. But what did you learn from it?
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: You see, it's that that's worth passing.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: On to the next generation. In the next here's the warning.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: Don't turn the memorial into a shrine. Isn't it strange?
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: Those who travel in the land of Israel today are
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: told this is a piece of wood from the cross.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: And this is a piece of wood from the cross.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: One cynic said.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: If I gathered up all the wood that was told
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: me to be a piece of the cross, I got
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: to build a battleship. Who cares about a piece of
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: wood from the cross. It isn't in existence. Who needs it?
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: What I need is a memorial and God's given it
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: in the table, the bread and the cop that's the
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: memorial of the cross. And he left it as a
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: legacy for people of faith. And every time we sit
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: at the table, children are to understand, sweetheart, the bread
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: represents the body, honey, this piece of bread is for
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: his body which was given for and the juice represents
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: his blood. This is a memorial and we remember this
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: because he died for us. But it isn't a place
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: to worship if we don't worship the elements, We don't
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: bow before the table where they're served. We we worship
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: the memory and the significance, the triumph of the cross.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: This is what this is what makes Christmas so wonderful. See,
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: the enemy would would love that we just do nothing
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: but keep it.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: Merry, just merry Christmas.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: The legend is told of the time Satan and his
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: demons were having a Christmas party. As the demonic guests
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: were preparing to depart, one grinned and said to Satan,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: Merry Christmas, your majesty. At the Satan replied with a growl, Yes,
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: keep it merry. If they ever get serious about it,
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: we'll all.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: Be in trouble. Get serious about it. It is the
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: birth of the baby. It is the coming of God.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: It is the intervention of God's presence. Get serious. It
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: is the invitation to take him and own him as
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Lord Master. Don't seek to find the sight where he
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: was crucified. Don't seek to locate the tomb from which
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: he was raised. They've made them all into shrines. Need
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: the Savior?
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: Really, what I offer today is an answer to the
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: ache of life, an answer to the Haymans whose shadows
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: have crossed your lives, and to the would have been
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: holocausts that would have devastated your existence. I suggest you
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: make a memorial out of it, and the lessons you
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: learned from it that have turned you into a person
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: God wanted you to be. Those are the things to
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: pass on and on and on. I don't know what
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: all of this says to anyone else, but it says
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: available lot to me. It says, I'm grateful for a
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: book that has recorded the whole story.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: That hasn't quite yet ended. It will next time. But
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: it's a story of triumph that grew out of tragedy, ecstasy,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: out of agony, celebration out of an ache. When they
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: nailed him on a cross. I imagined that night a
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: lot of them got drunk.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: I'm sure they toasted one another with triumphal words. I'm
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: sure the empty headed fools that ran the government thought
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: another crazy gone from us. Finally got rid of that headache.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: In the eerie hours of the morning.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Three days later there was the beginning of a celebration.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: And that's a message we returned to every Easter, because
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: God gave us a memorial. My question to you is
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: how long will you stay at the ache and the
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: heartache and the brokenness of your pain?
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: When it will it become for you a perium, a
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: time to learn and to pass on the lessons, the beginning.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: Of the rest of your life. When let's about together,
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: shall we imagine for a moment, stepping before the real
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: tomb from which he was raised? Imagine looking into the
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: distance and seeing the shadow of the real cross that
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: the sands of time have not erased the real scene.
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: Now imagine standing before him, whose hands are scarred, whose
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: side was pierced.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Are you real sure.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: You have a relationship with him that will take you
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: into and beyond eternity? Are you certain he is your
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: God and savior? Invites wise people to come to him
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: to this day, to see themselves and their sin and
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: lostness and brokenness.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: And to come and join the company of the faithful,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: to come and adore him, Our Father, we realize that
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: in life there are these events that occur that bring
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: us a deep ache of heart. In fact, they break
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: our hearts. They're hard to bear, they're hard to hear,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: they're hard to deal with, they're hard to recover from.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: But when we begin to get your perspective on these things,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: when we begin to see your hand at work turning
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: our heartaches into causes of celebration, we realize yet again
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: that the life of faith pays off. Thank you for
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: honoring your name even through the midst of our trials.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you for a reminder that in the end, you win.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Father for personalizing events in such special ways.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: To make us realize that memorials can be built in
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: places of monuments of misery, are memories that break our hearts.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: Bring us back to those memorials from time to time
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: to strengthen our faith. As we call to mind what
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: you have done in turning curses and heartaches into causes
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: of celebration and blessing. We thank you for all of this,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: and we claim these things today by faith in the
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, our triumphant King. Amen.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: The preceding message after the ache Celebrate was copyrighted in
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: nineteen eighty nine, nineteen ninety nineteen ninety seven, two thousand
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: and five, twenty eighteen, and twenty twenty six, and the
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty six by Charles R.
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: Swindall Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. The duplication of
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.