Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20220731 - God Behind The Scenes - Esther 2:19-23

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#20220731 - God Behind The Scenes - Esther 2:19-23 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Colorado, to learn more about the many
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resources available, through abounding Grace, Media, or to
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tune into our live stream Services.
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Visit us online at Calvary. Co dot church or download our
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free Calvary Church app now. Let's open our Bibles and study
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God's word. And so today we're going to be
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in the Book of Esther. So if you have your Bibles you
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can go ahead and open up to Esther chapter 2.
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Now who here has read the book of Esther show of hands.
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If you've read that through the book, okay, cool.
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If you have read in or you haven't read it your homework
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today, either way, is to go home and read the book of Esther,
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this afternoon, this evening before you go to bed, something
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like that. It'll take you maybe 15 minutes
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to do the whole thing. It's a really short little book,
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but the Book of Esther is amazing because it has the
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Fingerprints of God all over. Right.
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And yet, it doesn't mention God. Once God's name isn't mentioned
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prayer isn't mentioned. In fact, you could take Esther
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and say, this doesn't have anything to do with spiritual
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things. Why is this even in the Bible?
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And yet God's hand is all over the Book of Esther.
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In fact, I would say maybe even more so than many other books
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throughout the Bible that mention God, the Book of Esther
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shows, the way that God works behind the scenes to accomplish
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his purposes, through his people in miraculous.
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And Powerful ways. I want to give you just a little
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bit of an overview of the Book of Esther, because we're not
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going to actually dig too much into the text of Esther today.
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I have not really so much of an expositional message for you as
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a little insight that God gave me through this one little, you
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know, nugget that stuck out in the middle of the book, but the
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story of Esther just for context is that the Israelites have been
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exiled and Babylon, which is now Persia King Xerxes, the first or
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King ahasuerus as he's also In the scripture is ruling over the
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Empire of Persia now Persia from that day.
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Stretched from India. All the way to Greece and then
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South to Ethiopia. It was a massive Empire and King
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Xerxes got really frustrated with his wife and this one party
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situation that they were having going on.
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And so he banished her from his presence, essentially, deposed
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her as Queen. And so they had to hold a
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contest throughout the entire Empire to name the next Queen of
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Persia. Shh.
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And so, it's essentially kind of a Miss Persian Empire contest if
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you will, the winner would become the next Queen of Persia.
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And so, this was held and through the the contest.
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All these women were brought in and Esther, this Jewish girl was
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chosen as the next queen of Persia and Esther and her
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cousin, Mordecai are the kind of the main characters that we read
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about in this historical account and we follow along with them.
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As God uses these, two unlikely, unsuspecting people to save an
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entire nation because c as you get into Esther chapter 3 which
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were not going to look at today, there's a man named Haman that
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comes onto the scene and Haman is a descendant of the enemy of
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the Jews and he takes issue with Mordecai and ultimately decides
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that he wants to wipe out the entire nation of Israel.
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And so he launches this plan, he Rick's the king into signing
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this decree and it goes into effect in the king couldn't
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undo, a decree that he had signed.
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It was part of the law of the Persians.
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And so, Esther and Mordecai step in and God uses them in a
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powerful way to rescue his people.
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It's a powerful story of God's power and Redemption and God's
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hand working in the lives of people, highly encourage you to
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read through the whole thing later today, but really the
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story of Esther even though it doesn't mention God.
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Is a story of how God is Sovereign and how he's in
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control. How he's ever present and
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constantly working through every situation to accomplish his
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purposes for his kingdom and his people, even when and maybe even
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especially, when we don't see how it's working out.
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And the cool thing as you go through this book is the way
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that God uses ordinary people like you and me to accomplish
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great things. And there's a line that I'm sure
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you've heard from Esther, even if you haven't read through the
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Book of Esther It's right in the middle of the book.
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As Heyman has launched this plan and Mordecai, Esther's cousin
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comes to her and is trying to encourage her to go in and say
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something to the king. And he says, who knows perhaps
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you've been brought to the kingdom for such a time as this,
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right? You've probably heard that
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before and I really believe that is true, not only an ester, but
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in your life and in my life is that God has placed you, where
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you are, and made you who you are, and set you in your family,
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and your school in your workplace, in your Neighborhood
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intentionally on purpose strategically for such a time as
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this. You're not on accident and
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nothing that you go through, is on accident.
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You've been brought to where you are and made who you are and
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placed in the circumstances, you find yourself in on purpose for
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such a time as this. Now, I think most of us know
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that on some level if you're a follower of Jesus, you know that
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there's a purpose behind your existence, you know that God has
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a plan for your life, but sometimes If we're honest, it
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can just feel Like you're floating through life, right?
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Sometimes you might think, well, I know that God has a plan, but
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why am I not seeing it? Actually happen in my life.
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Why doesn't it feel like it? Why do I find myself in the
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difficult season that I've been in?
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Why am I going through this hardship?
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Why am I going through this trial?
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Why am I going through this health issue?
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Why am I unhappy in my marriage? Why am I upset about the state
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of the world or the economy? Why is our country going the way
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that it is? Why is all why are all these
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things going out of control? I mean if God is really in
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control, why does everything feel out of control?
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Ever feel like that. It's okay to admit that I feel
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like that at times there are moments in my life where I'm
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like man everything spins like it just spinning totally out of
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control God if you're moving Why am I not seeing it?
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Well, I believe that as we dig into the word today, we're going
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to see how God moves even in small, and seemingly
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insignificant circumstances to bring about his purposes for
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your good and for his glory. And so, as we get into the word,
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I just want to come before the Lord and a word of prayer.
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Would you pray with me? Lord, Jesus.
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We come before you and we are so grateful for your goodness and
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your love that we sing about. Where that you are so good.
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And so loving And Lord, I pray that as we open up your word
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that you would speak to our hearts today.
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But you would Reveal Your goodness to us that you would
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reveal your power in your might and your strength.
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Would you speak through your word by your spirit in Jesus
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name? Amen.
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Look with me in Esther chapter 2.
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Verse 19. And this is picking up after
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Esther, has already been made the, the queen of Persia.
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Now, they've kind of settled into this role and Mordecai.
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Her cousin is a city official, as we'll see here in a second.
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It says, an ester to verse 19. When virgins were gathered
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together a second time Mordecai, sat in the Kings gate.
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Now, esther had not revealed her.
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Emily. And her people just as Mordecai,
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have charged her for Esther obeyed, the command of Mordecai
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as when she was brought up by him.
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And so, just to note here, Mordecai is sitting in the Kings
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gate. Now, there's a significance to
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that sitting in the Kings gate, meant that he was a city
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official of some sort in this day.
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If you had an issue or a dispute or a legal dispute with
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somebody, you would take them and you would go into the gate
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of the city and then, the city officials would act as judges or
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match. The streets and decide on these
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issues. And so, in this circumstance,
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Mordecai's sitting there, judging the issues that people
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are bringing up to him. And then in verse 21, it says,
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in those days, while Mordecai sat within the Kings gate, to of
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the Kings, Unix big thin and teresh doorkeepers became
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Furious and sought to lay hands on King ahasuerus.
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So the matter became known to Mordecai who told Queen Esther
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and Esther? Informed the king in Mordecai's
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name and when an Was made into the matter.
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It was confirmed and both were hanged on The Gallows and it was
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written in the book of The Chronicles in the presence of
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the king. That's an important part right
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there that it was written in the book of The Chronicles in the
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presence of the king. So here's what's going on.
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There are these two guys that are Servants of the king there
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doorkeepers and for some reason they were angry with him, we
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don't exactly know what it was, but we do know that this guy was
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not a nice guy, King Xerxes was a Madman, he literally Ali
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commanded that the sea be beaten and whipped with chains because
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it wasn't listening to him. Okay, the ocean.
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That's where this guy had lost it.
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He just had way too much power. His Empire was way too big and
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he thought he was all that and so he commands the sea to be
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beaten. And so, these guys are do, you
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know, they're just frustrated with him.
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For some reason, they're trying to plot his assassination, now
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they didn't succeed, but somebody did later, he was
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actually later assassinated by some of his servants.
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So this plot to assassinate the king is found.
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Out and shared with Mordecai. Who is Esther's cousin kind of
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her adopted father and Mordecai tells Esther about it and tells
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her to tell the king what she does and then it's found out and
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they put these two men to death and they write it down and the
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book of The Chronicles in the presence of the king.
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So here's the thing that we see this little energetic action
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into the bigger picture story of Esther.
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And my first thought when I was reading through, this is like,
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what does this have to do with the story of Esther at all?
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I mean, It's kind of just this little side Rabbit Trail in the
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middle of the book. That doesn't have anything to do
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with the Jews, being in danger, which will happen.
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In the next chapter. It doesn't have anything to do
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with Esther saving her people, which we'll see in a couple
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chapters. What's the point?
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Why is this even here? It seems so small and
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insignificant to the overall story.
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Why was this even included? Well, here's why this small
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interjection into the larger story of Esther sets, the stage
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for the way that God is going to save his people in the end.
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What it's doing is its showing how God works behind the scenes
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in advance, even to deliver his people, see the danger that was
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coming to the Israelites wasn't even present yet Haman, who we
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meet in the next chapter hadn't. Even concocted the plan to say
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to kill the Jews yet. And God is already putting
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pieces in place to rescue them. See God plans to deliver before
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the enemy ever even plans to destroy.
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It's a powerful example of how God ultimately Works in our
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lives. Not only in the day-to-day stuff
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but in your salvation as well. See it tells us in Revelation
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that Jesus Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the
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world. Now he didn't actually die at
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the foundation of the world, right?
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But God planned, before anything was created.
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If he would choose to die on that cross.
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Before sin even existed. He chose to die on that cross
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for you and for me. And so in this instance, God
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gives Mordecai the opportunity to save the King's life which is
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written down in this book. And then later in the story, we
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find the king bored, and lonely, and unable to sleep.
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And he's reading through this book and finds this written, and
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comes back and says, wait a second, we never did anything
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for this Mordecai guy. Ultimately setting the stage for
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God to deliver his people through Esther and Mordecai.
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See God knew that his people would need to be saved even
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before it happened and so he begins to set things in motion
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to deliver them from the coming destruction.
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That plot that would be hatched by Haman.
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God knew it was going to happen and so before it even happened,
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he already put the pieces in place to deliver his people.
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And he did it through these small seemingly insignificant
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circumstances Esther, getting chosen to be the king's wife
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Mordecai, hearing about this plot to kill the king.
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This being written down in this book.
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Small little details that add up to a big picture, deliverance
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from the destruction that was coming.
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It's in the same way God is working in all of the details of
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your life. All of the small things, all the
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seemingly insignificant things, all of the long drab boring days
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that you go through, God sees and is working in all of it for
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your good and for his glory, every circumstance that you go
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through is being worked together by God for your good.
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And you might be in a situation right now where you're just
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wondering what God is doing. You're wondering where he's
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going. Why you're not seeing answers to
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that prayer? That you keep praying?
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Why it feels like you're stuck and you're not seeing the growth
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that you'd like to or why you feel like you're in that
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dead-end job or or your marriage is on the rocks or whatever it
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might be. And here's what I think that you
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really need to know today is that God is always working.
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He's always working in your life, he's never not working.
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In fact, Jesus says this, in John chapter 5 verse 17.
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He says, my father is always working and so, am I He never
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has his hand off of you just kind of letting things happen.
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Know, he is working actively in your life.
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Even right now, he's working around your life and directing
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your steps in leading you in ways, you could never imagine to
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bring about his purposes in your life.
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You see Esther and Mordecai had no idea that they would be used
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by God to save their people. They are just kind of trying to
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do their life. It's like they're just trying to
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walk through life, trying to not get in trouble, trying to do the
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right thing and make sure that the assassination plot gets
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found out there. Just doing the right thing.
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Meanwhile, God is preparing them for what he's going to do.
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I see I think so often in life. We Face difficulties or we Face
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attack in Life or we see something happen and it's like
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man the enemies really coming after me right now.
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I don't know what's going to happen.
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I don't know how I'm going to get through this.
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I don't know how you know any of this is going to work out and we
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stress out and we freaked out and we worry out worry about it
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but the reality is that God is in control and even the things
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that the enemy is intending for your destruction.
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God is intending for your good. It was a quote from Michael
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Wells that says this. He says, do you realize child of
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God All that Satan has planned for your destruction.
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God has planned for your good. So, the best laid plans of the
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enemy to destroy your life. God takes even those and doesn't
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just circumvent them. He actually repurposes them to
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bring good in your life. This is how big our God is.
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He is so big and so powerful, we can't even comprehend how he's
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moving and how he's working. even today, even right now he
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didn't this minute as you're sitting here, You know, I think
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about my life honestly. I never wanted to be a pastor
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and it wasn't even just like, yeah, I don't want to be a
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pastor. It was like, if there was a list
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of things that I didn't want to do being a pastor was like up at
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the top of them. Okay.
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I didn't want to be a pastor, I wanted to be serving the lord in
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Ministry, I was a musician so I wanted to play guitar.
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I played in this Christian rock, band was all these things that I
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wanted to do, but if I didn't want to do one thing, it was be
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a pastor and yet, God kept sticking me in these positions,
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where I had to learn In pastoral Ministry, he put me in charge of
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leading a middle school. Youth group, each put me in
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charge of leading a Bible study and many of these things I was
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doing reluctantly is like I don't really want to do this, I
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don't want to do, but it's right there.
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Okay, I guess I'll do it. Lord, I guess I'll do it.
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Organizing outreaches and all these different things.
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I remember one day, I finally, I got my dream job, which was
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being a worship leader at a church.
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That the church actually that I'm at now.
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But years ago, we went and planted a church after that, a
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long, long story. But going back I got this dream
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job. I was leading worship.
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This church and that was going on for about a year and I was
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just so excited and blessed to be doing that.
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And then the pastor of the church came and said, hey,
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you're not going to be a worship leader anymore, you're going to
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be a pastor. I was like, I don't want to be a
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pastor. That's not what I want to do, if
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you want a job. That's what you're going to do,
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okay? And so I said yes to the Lord
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and stepped into that all the way realizing that, he'd been
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preparing me for that all along the entire way.
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Whenever I think about this, it reminds me of The Karate Kid.
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I'm not talking about like, the Jaden Smith Karate Kid.
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And I'm not talking about Cobra, Kai, all that stuff on Netflix.
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I'm talking about the real 1980s Karate Kid anybody, you know
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what I'm talking about Daniel's? Yes.
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Yeah, totally the real Karate. Kid Daniel Son and mr.
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Miyagi and the real Karate Kid. All right, so what happened in
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the Karate? Kid, Daniel wants to learn
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karate and so he goes to mr. Miyagi's house.
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And he's like, I want to learn karate.
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And what does mr. Miyagi, tell him to do wax on
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wax off. Wax on wax off.
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Wax on wax off and Daniel is sitting there and he's waxing,
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all mr. Miyagi's classic cars and
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getting them all, shined and pretty and good and he finally
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gets done. He's like okay I'm done I'm
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ready to learn karate and what is mr.
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Miyagi do, he says paint the fence up, down, up, down, up
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down. And Daniel gets so frustrated.
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He's like, I didn't come here to do your chores.
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That's not why I'm here I came to learn karate.
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Why are you happy doing all this stuff?
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What's going on? And then mr.
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Miyagi does something in that moment when he says Daniel wax
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on wax off and he starts punching at him and Daniel, does
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the wax on wax off and realizes that the entire time.
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Mr. Miyagi was training him in a way that he didn't even
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understand to be ready for the moment when the attack would
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come. and see, I think God is working in the same way, in your
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life and in my life, We go through situations and we feel
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like, I don't understand this. Why do you have me in this job?
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Why do you have me in this relationship?
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Why do you have me in this neighborhood?
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Why do you have me going through this God?
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I don't understand what you're doing.
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I'm sitting here, painting, a fence, and I want to learn
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karate. Why do you have me painting a
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fence? All the while God is preparing
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you working on you putting you through the tests and the trials
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to purify your faith to stretch your boundaries.
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In to build your trust in him. Do you don't face anything in
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this life on accident. There is nothing that enters
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your life without first passing through the hands of God.
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And if it's passed through his hands, first, you can trust that
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he is working it for your good. I don't care how scary how hard,
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how overwhelming that situation is.
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If God has allowed it, he will cause it to bring good in your
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life. Even if the circumstance itself
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is bad, Even if the the hardship that you're going through is
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tragic and destructive, God repurposes it for good.
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You know, there's a quote that I heard a few weeks ago, that
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really struck me. And he says this, he says, we
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like to talk about having the faith to be healed.
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But what about having the faith to be sick?
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And you know I believe that God heals in fact, I'm a testimony
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of God healing when I was born, I had a hole in my lung.
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I shouldn't have survived God. Miraculously healed me, through
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answered prayer for my parents and the church that they were
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part of God Work, miraculously my life, but Sometimes God
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doesn't heal. And what about having the faith
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to walk through the sickness? Trusting that God.
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Is still working and moving in the midst of it.
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What about trusting God? Whatever May Come knowing that
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he is Sovereign that he's in control.
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And even when we feel out of control and like things are just
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going crazy. God isn't scared God isn't
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confused. God isn't overwhelmed.
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He has a plan and we can have faith.
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And we can trust that God is good, even when things are not
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good. Guys, it's so important that we
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don't forget how big our God is. I think sometimes when we feel
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like things are out of control, we think like God doesn't have
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control right? Like we feel out of control so
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God must be a lot of control. Do you think God is up there
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stressing about your situation? I don't think so.
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I don't think that's how he's handling it right now.
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You know, Isaiah chapter 40 verse 12 says this.
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Who else has held the oceans in his hand?
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Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers.
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Who else knows the weight of the Earth or has weighed the
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mountains and hills on a scale. See our god is so big and so
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powerful. And so mighty, he has it under
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control, he's holding the whole universe together.
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I'm a little bit of a nerd, I'll just let you know, and I'm going
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to let you in on my brain here just for a minute.
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So you can kind of like as you process this or, you know, okay,
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he said he's a nerd, I get it now.
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Okay, but here's the deal. I'm like, kind of geek out on
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some of like space and astronomy and looking at things in outer
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space and just kind of the bigness of the universe that
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exists. And so I was looking like to try
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to compare like the Scale of the Universe to us, for example,
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right? Because I think we tend Put God
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in this bubble like he's a human and he's kind of hanging out
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with us. And of course Jesus Took on
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flesh, right? But the reality is, God is so
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much bigger than we can even comprehend.
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And so I'm trying to like put this Scale of the Universe
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together and I looked online and I was Google searching.
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I found this tool. That's really cool that you can
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actually zoom in and out and scale back and forth and see the
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size of the universe in comparison to yourself.
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And so, I couldn't find a way to share it with you.
23:12
That was very good, other than like, doing a screengrab video
23:15
of me playing around with. It online.
23:17
So that's kind of what this is. But I want to share this video
23:19
with you guys just to get a feel of how big the universe is that
23:25
God currently is holding together.
23:27
So would you look at this video with me?
23:28
You guys can go ahead and play that for me.
23:30
Thank you. Okay, so you can see there's
23:33
like a m basketball that person just imagine that person is you
23:36
now first thing to note, did you know that there are such a thing
23:39
as a giant earthworm? That is 9 feet long.
23:43
It lives in Australia, one more reason to never go to Australia.
23:48
Okay, so you can see. Now you're starting to look kind
23:50
of small next to the saguaro cactus, you know, the blue
23:53
whale. Your kind of zooming out there a
23:55
little bit, right? You got the redwood trees,
23:58
Eiffel Tower, the Titanic you and I are kind of a little tiny
24:01
dot at this point, zooming out a little further, you can see
24:05
there's Half Dome and Angel Falls, and we're starting to
24:09
look at some comments and some asteroids, you know, the size of
24:13
these things, there's a neutron star, which is a very small
24:15
star. There's Rhode Island.
24:18
You start to see West Virginia, California Texas.
24:23
This is just the scale of these things.
24:24
We're starting to see some moons now.
24:26
Different moons. There's the Earth and the moon
24:29
are moon scaling out. There's a Minecraft world just
24:33
in case you're wondering, right? Jupiter These different Stars,
24:39
there's the sun, that's our son right there.
24:42
That's the size of that compared to the earth.
24:43
But now look at these other stars, our sun compared to these
24:46
other stars. Now our sun is a dot in
24:48
comparison to some of these other stars that were looking at
24:51
and it just keeps going and going and going and going.
24:56
As you look at the size of these massive stars that exist in the
25:00
universe, we're starting to look at some of the nebulas that you
25:03
can see in space and we'll look at some of these a little bit
25:05
more later. But these nebulas of Gas and
25:09
dust that. You can actually visibly see in
25:11
space and then we're not even at galaxies yet.
25:14
That's what I want you to notice.
25:15
Like, we're like, we're so far zoomed out and we're not even
25:17
looking at a Galaxy yet, okay? And so all these nebulas are
25:21
zooming out, zooming out, think about how small you are at this
25:24
point in comparison to all of this.
25:27
And then now we're looking at dwarf galaxies, these are the
25:31
smallest galaxies, okay? And then there's the Sombrero
25:34
Galaxy in the Milky Way, which is where our sun is located.
25:38
And again even that is zooming out now, it's becoming a tiny
25:42
little speck on the big picture, the grand scheme of the universe
25:47
you could start to see we're looking at clusters of galaxies
25:49
and clusters of stars and there's a supercluster and
25:53
everything, this is just massive scale.
25:56
Look at this for a second. It's just massive and it keeps
26:00
going until we have what we call the observable universe.
26:04
You can leave that up just for a second.
26:06
Now, the observable universe, Observable universe.
26:10
This isn't how big the universe is.
26:11
This is what we can see of the universe that exists right now.
26:15
Now hold your thumb and your forefinger go up and just kind
26:17
of like put that in between your thumb and forefinger right now,
26:20
okay, that is what we just read in Isaiah 40.
26:25
That's like God's view of the universe.
26:29
He measures it off between his thumb and his forefinger.
26:33
The universe is like, nothing to God.
26:35
It's like a small, it's kind of like, it's like the size of a
26:38
softball, right? And of course, God is Spirit,
26:41
he's not physical. So this isn't like literally
26:42
holding it, but the picture is to God, the universe is like the
26:46
size of a softball. He's like, where did I leave the
26:48
Universe? I don't know.
26:48
I must have rolled under the couch over there or something.
26:52
To him, it's like nothing and yet compared to you and to me.
26:59
It's massive. I again, kind of geeked out a
27:03
little bit the last couple weeks because they came out with the
27:07
first images from the new James Webb Space Telescope.
27:10
I don't know if you know about this, you can go look at this on
27:12
NASA. The NASA website and look at
27:14
some of these pictures. But I just wanted to share a few
27:17
of these images with you of actual photos that they captured
27:21
of deep space from the James Webb Space Telescope.
27:24
Here's this first one. This is what's called the Carina
27:27
nebula. Now, that's not graphics.
27:30
That's not CGI. This is something that God
27:32
created, right? That you can actually observe in
27:36
space with a space time. And look at that just crazy like
27:39
Star Trek or something, right? So that next one for me, this
27:43
one's called the southern Ring Nebula.
27:45
And the one on the left is infrared light.
27:47
The one on the right is more like your observable, what you
27:51
would see with your eyes. This next one.
27:54
This next one is my favorite one.
27:56
Now, this one, look at that for a second.
27:57
Now, if you grew up in the 80s this is like a 80s Olin Mills
28:02
photo background. Anybody know what I'm talking
28:05
about? Like if you got a school photo
28:06
in the 80s that was your background right there.
28:10
But this isn't fake. This isn't actually that this is
28:13
a photo of not stars, but thousands of galaxies.
28:20
Okay. Think about that for a second.
28:22
Each of those dots that you see on that is a Galaxy not a star,
28:26
and each galaxy has somewhere around a hundred billion stars
28:30
in it. Okay, so each of those dots is
28:33
like a hundred billion stars and that Galaxy is just a tiny
28:38
little Dot and there's thousands of galaxies there.
28:40
Now, here's the thing. When I saw this photo that
28:42
absolutely blew my mind. Is that that isn't like some big
28:47
chunk of sky that you can look up and be like, oh yeah, there's
28:50
those thousands of galaxies. If you were to look for this
28:53
with your naked eye from here on the earth, it would be like
28:56
holding a grain of sand at arm's, length and holding it up.
29:00
Now everybody do that with your. Hold your arm up like this.
29:02
Like you're holding a grain of sand.
29:03
Look up at the sky that tiny little dot.
29:06
That would be a grain of sand held at arm's length.
29:08
Is that holding thousands of galaxies which each hold
29:12
hundreds of billions of stars. One tiny Dot.
29:20
And our god holds that together, he measured that by the scale of
29:26
his thumb and forefinger for the entire observable universe.
29:29
I mean, one little dot there holds thousands of galaxies that
29:31
holds hundreds of billions of stars you multiply that by like
29:34
5 billion to cover the entire sphere around the Earth.
29:37
What you would see that is the size of just the universe that
29:41
God measures between his thumb and his forefinger guys, are God
29:46
is big. He created sustains and holds
29:52
all of that together. Colossians 1:17 says this.
29:58
He existed this is speaking of Jesus before anything else and
30:03
he holds all creation together right now, everything that we
30:10
see exists, not because he created it, but because he's
30:12
actively holding it together, all that he would need to do to
30:17
end everything is let go And he sustaining it and holding it
30:23
together even now. I have one more photo.
30:27
I want to show you. You pull that one up for me.
30:29
This photo is not a planet. It's not a Galaxy.
30:34
It's not an outer. Space actions is much much, much
30:37
closer to home. This is a photo of the human eye
30:40
and I kind of like had a weird like Brain Check moment when I'm
30:45
looking at this because it's like I'm looking out of my eye,
30:46
looking at the I like just couldn't process for a second
30:50
like what's going on here but that's your I look at all of the
30:55
intricacies of Your eye. In the pupil and how it
30:59
contracts and expands to a. Let in just the right amount of
31:03
light to be received, by the back of your eye, to be
31:06
processed by your brain interpreted as an image.
31:09
And ultimately to understand what you're looking at.
31:13
It's miraculous, it's designed, it's perfectly put together,
31:18
it's not an accident. The same God who holds the
31:22
universe together is holding you together, literally your
31:26
physical body. And he wants to hold you
31:31
together, spiritually and emotionally as well.
31:37
This is who were talking about, God is in control, and the
31:41
amazing thing is not just that God is in control and that he
31:45
created all of that and he sustains all that, and he's
31:48
holding it all together. But God, who is holding all of
31:52
that together loves you as an individual person. think back to
32:00
that video, that we watched in the little stick figure at the
32:03
beginning, next to the giant earthworm, That stick figure
32:08
representing. You think about how small you
32:10
are in comparison with The Universe And yet The God Who
32:15
holds it all together, loves you, The God Who is in control,
32:21
loves you. And even being in control, he
32:26
chose intentionally on purpose chose to die on a cross for you.
32:36
See, Jesus didn't die on accident.
32:38
Jesus wasn't forced onto that cross.
32:41
There is no number of people that could force the God who
32:44
created that onto a cross, he willingly intentionally hung on
32:50
that, cross and died for you. And for me why?
32:55
Because he loves you. God who speaks Stars into
33:01
existence using his words and holds it all together and place,
33:06
those thousands of galaxies and hundreds of billions of stars.
33:09
And that one tiny dot held at arm's length, Humbled himself.
33:15
The almighty became nothing for you.
33:19
He was born as a poor, humble child and lived a humble life
33:26
and died. A criminal's death for you.
33:31
Philippians chapter 2, verse 6, through 8 says this speaking of
33:35
Jesus who though he was in the form of God, did not count
33:39
equality with God, a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by
33:43
taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of
33:47
men and being found in human form.
33:50
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
33:55
even death on a cross. See if God, this is like an
34:03
equation, right? So like a plus b equals c if God
34:06
who measures off that great big universe that we saw by the the
34:11
span the thumb to four finger. If God, who does that loves you?
34:20
What do you have to fear? What do you have to worry about?
34:26
What do you have to stress about?
34:31
If God who measures the universe like, this would willingly die
34:36
on a cross for you. What else would he possibly
34:40
withhold from you? And whatever he's allowed into
34:45
your life, you can trust that he's going to make it good.
34:51
He's moving through every circumstance of your life,
34:54
balancing, his sovereignty with your free will and the Free Will
34:57
of other people. I mean, he is so big and so
35:00
powerful that he can work it all out for good, even the hard and
35:05
the bad stuff. See, God is for you and just as
35:10
he worked in this situation and set it up perfectly for Mordecai
35:14
to hear of this plot and then his name to be written in the
35:17
book. So that later when the threat
35:19
came, he could unleash that and open it up and use Mordecai.
35:22
And Esther to save his people. He is working in the details of
35:25
your life today. He has a plan and a hope laid
35:29
out for you even through the hardship.
35:31
He doesn't usually spare us from the hardship.
35:33
He pulls us through it and makes it good.
35:35
As we get to the other side. You in response can trust him.
35:43
That's our proper response. That if God can hold all that
35:48
together, and he loves me so much he would die for me, then I
35:51
can trust him. Psalm 91 verse 2 says, I will
35:56
say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my Fortress, my God in him,
36:01
I will trust He's the place of Refuge, he's a fortress that you
36:07
can run into and be safe. I think it's totally the Lord
36:13
that God had us read Psalm 91 at the beginning of service today.
36:17
I didn't share that with him. I didn't pick that out.
36:20
God set that up and the very first verse of Psalm 91 we just
36:24
read verse 2. But back in verse 1 it says
36:26
this. He who dwells in the secret
36:28
place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the
36:32
Almighty. I love this because this picture
36:36
is God covering us and US resting in his shadow.
36:40
That everything that's coming. Our way has to pass by him
36:43
first. It's kind of like, when you go
36:46
to lunch and you're sitting outside and you know, like
36:48
you're sitting across from somebody and the sun's blinding
36:51
your eyes. But if you position your head
36:53
just right there, head blocks and makes a shadow.
36:55
So you're not blinded by the sun.
36:57
You ever have that happen? Is that?
36:58
Just me? I'm the only one who really does
36:59
that right? You know, I remember, it's like,
37:01
there's sometimes, I'll be sitting there at lunch and I'm,
37:03
like, kind of like sitting This in the person looks at me like
37:06
you. Okay, Mike.
37:07
Oh yeah, I'm just getting like, you're blocking the sun to don't
37:10
move. Don't move to the left.
37:11
Don't move to the right years. Blocking the sun perfectly but
37:13
see this is what God does as we rest in his shadow.
37:17
He covers Us and everything that comes into our life at that
37:20
point, passes through his hands. And he works it for good in our
37:26
lives. So that even when the world
37:29
feels like it's on fire, we can trust and we can rest, and we
37:32
can know that our God is in control that he has a plan, and
37:37
we don't have to worry. I mean, that thing that you're
37:40
thinking about that stresses you out so bad.
37:44
Do you think God's worried about that?
37:47
Did he God's stressed? Like sometimes I just have to
37:51
remind myself and give this myself visually like to try to
37:53
picture Jesus walking back and forth pacing like I don't know
37:55
what I'm gonna do with that. Nate guy he just blew it.
37:57
I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know.
37:59
I'm going to work this out. Do you think Jesus is actually
38:01
doing that? No, of course not, he's holding
38:04
the universe together, he's not stressed about your situation or
38:08
your finances, or your job, or your relationships.
38:11
He's not worried about it at all because he has a plan.
38:16
I'll take it a step further. He's not worried about where our
38:18
country's going. He's not worried about.
38:21
What's happening with the economy?
38:23
He's not worried about any of it, because he is in control.
38:27
He is Sovereign, and he will work things out according to his
38:30
plan. So we can trust in him, and in
38:34
his goodness. I'd like to close us out today,
38:40
with just reading the word of God over you.
38:43
I'm going to read Isaiah chapter 40 from the New Living
38:46
Translation. I'm not going to have it on the
38:48
screen and I'd actually encourage you not to open up
38:50
your Bible at this point. That's kind of rare that I would
38:52
say, don't open your Bible, but I just want you just to receive
38:55
the word of the Lord poured over.
38:56
You can close your eyes, even if you want.
38:58
That's how I would spend this moment is, closing my eyes and
39:00
just listening to the word of the Lord spoken over me.
39:04
I'm going to read from Isaiah chapter, 40, starting in verse
39:06
10 and you've heard some of this before.
39:08
But I think it's important to hear it in context about the
39:12
bigness in the Greatness in the grandness of our God.
39:17
Isaiah, 40 verse 10. Yes, The Sovereign Lord is
39:21
coming in power. He will rule with a powerful
39:25
arm. See, he brings his reward with
39:28
him as he comes. He will feed his flock like a
39:32
shepherd. He will carry the Lambs in his
39:35
arms, holding them close to his heart.
39:39
He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young who else
39:44
has held the oceans in his hand who has measured off the heavens
39:47
with his fingers. Who else knows the weight of the
39:50
Earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
39:54
Who is able to advise the spirit of the Lord, who knows enough to
39:58
give him advice or to teach him? Has the Lord ever needed
40:03
anyone's advice? Does he need instruction about?
40:07
What is good? Did someone teach him what his
40:10
rights or show him the path of Justice know for all the nations
40:16
of the world are but a drop in the bucket?
40:20
They're nothing more than dust on the scales.
40:23
He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand.
40:28
All the wood in lebanon's forests and all lebanon's
40:30
animals would not be enough to make a burnt offering worthy of
40:34
our God. The nations of the world are
40:37
worth nothing to him. In his eyes, they count for less
40:40
than nothing mere emptiness and froth.
40:44
To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to
40:49
resemble him? Can he be compared to an idle
40:52
formed? In a mold overlaid with gold and
40:55
decorated with silver chains. Or if people are too poor for
40:58
that, they might at least. Choose would that won't decay in
41:01
a skilled Craftsman to carve an image that won't fall down
41:05
Haven't you heard don't? You understand?
41:09
Are you deaf to the words of God?
41:11
The words he gave before the world began.
41:14
Are you so ignorant? God sits above the circle of the
41:19
Earth. The people below seemed like
41:21
grasshoppers to him. He spreads out the heavens like
41:24
a curtain and makes his tent from them.
41:26
He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to
41:29
nothing. They hardly get started.
41:32
Barely taking root when he blows on them, and they wither the
41:36
wind carries them off like chaff.
41:40
To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal asked the Holy
41:44
One. Look up into the heavens, who
41:47
created all the stars? He brings them out like an army,
41:51
one after another calling each by its name because of his great
41:55
power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.
42:00
Oh Jacob. How can you say?
42:02
The Lord does not see your troubles.
42:05
Oh Israel, how can you say God, ignores your rights.
42:10
Have you never heard, have you never understood?
42:14
The Lord is the Everlasting. God the creator of all the
42:18
Earth. He never grows weak or weary.
42:22
No one can measure the depth of his understanding.
42:26
He gets power to the weak and strength to the powerless.
42:30
Even use will become weak and tired and young men will fall in
42:34
exhaustion, but those who trust in the Lord will find new
42:38
strength. They will soar high on wings.
42:41
Like eagles. They will run and not grow
42:43
weary. They will walk and not faint.
42:48
Lord, Jesus, we come before you today.
42:51
Humbled. And how small we are in
42:55
comparison with you. Lord, we are nothing.
43:00
We're less than nothing in comparison with you weird when
43:04
we look at the scale of what you've created.
43:07
That simply speaks to your glory.
43:11
Or I for one am reminded that all the things that I feel like
43:15
are so big. All the difficulties, all the
43:18
challenges, all the worries, all the stresses, all those things.
43:21
That feel so massive in my life are so small.
43:27
And yet you're working in all of them.
43:32
Lord, we praise you for your Grandeur and your bigness board,
43:36
but also that you the God who created and sustains the
43:40
universe that you love me that you love each one of us enough
43:46
to die on the cross. So that we could experience your
43:51
love and relationship with you and have eternal life with you.
43:57
Lord, forgive us for making you small in our minds. forgive us
44:03
for robbing you of your power, in our minds and our hearts for
44:07
treating you. As if you're simply one of us,
44:11
Lord, I'm thankful that you did become one of us.
44:14
But you're not just one of us. You are the almighty, the
44:17
all-powerful. The one in charge, the one in
44:20
control. and so Lord, we come before you today, And we confess
44:28
that you are God. That you are worthy of our
44:33
praise. That you're worthy of our trust.
44:38
And so Lord we lay our worries at your feet.
44:41
Relay our concerns and our stresses in our fears at your
44:47
feet. And we choose to trust you even
44:50
when it doesn't make sense even we we don't know how you're
44:53
working even when it doesn't seem like you're working in this
44:56
situation, Lord we choose to trust that you are always at
44:59
work. Just like you were in Esther.
45:02
You're working in our lives. So Lord help us to choose to
45:10
trust to walk in trust with you. And Lord, I know that as we have
45:16
a gathering of this size as there's people here in the house
45:19
with us as people listening on the radio or online, that
45:22
there's probably someone here who's never put their faith in
45:25
you. Lord, they're probably never.
45:28
Received your forgiveness for their sins and knowing that they
45:32
have a God who loves them. It has good intentions towards
45:37
them. What if there's anyone like that
45:41
with us right now? Would you just stir their hearts
45:43
by your Holy Spirit right now? Would you reveal your incredible
45:47
love? And if that's you today, I want
45:51
you to know that God loves you, maybe you're here because
45:54
somebody invited you in or maybe you flip the radio station, or
45:58
maybe you just felt a sudden urge to go to church and you
46:00
don't really know why. Or maybe we've been going to
46:03
church for a long time and you've still yet to surrender
46:06
your life to Christ. I just want to tell you today
46:08
that God loves you the same God who created and holds the
46:12
universe together died for you on the cross, to forgive you,
46:15
for your sins and he does forgive you of your sins.
46:18
If you put your trust, Here. He's holding it all together and
46:24
he wants to hold you together. The question is whether you will
46:28
put your trust in him, will you say yes to Jesus?
46:34
And so, if you're here today, and you'd like to say yes to
46:36
Jesus, you'd like to put your faith in Jesus receive
46:39
forgiveness for your sins. To know that you have eternal
46:42
life waiting for you. In heaven to know that you
46:44
belong to him and you're loved by him and held by him.
46:48
If that's you I'd like to lead you in a moment of putting your
46:53
trust in Jesus right now. You can simply say, this simple
46:57
prayer is not a prayer that saves you at your faith, put in
46:59
him, but this helps you have a moment that you can look back on
47:02
and say yes, that's when I put my trust in Jesus.
47:07
Would you just repeat this simple prayer after me.
47:11
So Jesus. Thank you for loving me.
47:15
Thank you. That you the almighty God?
47:20
We're die for me. I know, I don't deserve it.
47:27
And yet, you give it. I want to follow you now.
47:34
So, please forgive me for my sin.
47:37
And make me a new creation in Jesus name.
47:42
Amen. We pray that you've been
47:44
encouraged by this Bible. Study delivered live from the
47:47
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
47:49
Call us at 877, 30 Grace. That's eight 77304, 2:53 to
47:59
listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
48:02
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48:06
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48:07
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48:11
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