Portraits of Faithfulness - Esther

1:30You have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, family, nation. Yes? This nation is enslaved in Egypt, and God raises up a deliverer, Moses, leads the people out of Egypt. We call that the Exodus. They wander in the wilderness. And then Joshua leads them into the promised land. They conquer the land. They have a nation of their own. They're ruled by judges like Gideon. Then they're ruled by kings like Saul and David and Solomon. And then things get a little kind of crazy, and the nation divides, and they follow idols, and they have some few good kings, but a lot of terrible kings. And actually, the people of Israel are then exiled. They're exiled to Babylon by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. If you don't know where Babylon is, that's like in modern-day Iraq. So it's during, so y'all got the sequence, right? So this is important because you have slavery.

2:21The people are not in the promised land. Then they're brought to the promised land, and then they have to leave the promised land again because of the exile. I think the exile is part of the part of the Old Testament where a lot of us are like, what's going on here? And the Babylonian Empire is eventually displaced by the Persian Empire. And there's a Persian king named Cyrus who lets many of the Jewish people return to the promised land. But then some of the Jewish people remain scattered throughout the Persian Empire in the different provinces. And that is the setting of the Book of Esther.

2:51So if you look in the Book of Esther, this takes place around 479 BC or so. And the king of Persia at this point is a person named Xerxes. Xerxes. Some of you may have heard of Xerxes before. Like, have I heard of that person somewhere else? You have. Xerxes led an unsuccessful invasion of Greece. He had this army of thousands and thousands of Persians, and they were impeded at this one little narrow gate called the Pass of Thermopylae by about 300 Spartans. So it's kind of like the Alamo, but with Greeks. And so that didn't work, and he failed. And so, same guy, Xerxes, the Book of Esther tells us Xerxes throws a new palace, and he's going to throw a huge party. And he drunkenly calls for his queen, Vashti, Vashti, come and parade your beauty before us. And Vashti sends back a reply: No.

3:44So all of Xerxes' buddies are like, hey, dude, you got to tell her who's boss. And so Xerxes actually deposes and banishes his queen. And then later he's like, why did I do that? And then his attendants are like, hey, dude, you got to have like a mandatory beauty pageant where you take all the beautiful young women and bring them into your harem. And whichever one you like the best, that's the new queen. Notice that Xerxes never comes up with these ideas on his own. He just does kind of what other people suggest to him.

4:13And so one of the beautiful young women who is forced into this mandatory beauty pageant is a young Jewish woman named Hadassah, who we know by her Persian name, Esther. Now, she's orphaned. She was raised by her cousin, Mordecai. And before she's taken into the palace, Mordecai tells her, like, do not. Tell people about your Jewish heritage. Keep that on the down low. And it turns out Esther wins the beauty pageant, and she is chosen by the king to be the new queen. In the meantime, Mordecai has his own problems. There is a guy named Haman, and Haman is kind of the king's right-hand man. He's an Amalekite, which is kind of an ancient enemy of the Israelites. And there's a rule. The king said, Wherever Haman goes, you've got to kneel and pay homage to Haman. But Haman goes, and everyone kneels to him. But Mordecai refuses, and Haman grows so angry at Mordecai. And he connects Mordecai's refusal to bow to his Jewish heritage. So Haman not only wants to kill Mordecai, he wants to kill all the Jewish people. So Haman goes to the king and says, Hey, dude, that's how everybody addresses your majesty, right? There's a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different than those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws. So it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them. If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed. And the king's like, whatever, sounds good. So Haman goes, and Haman casts lots. That's like throwing dice. He casts lots called Purim to decide a favorable, fortunate date on which the Jews will be killed.

5:51And Mordecai finds out about this. Now we're back in chapter 4 of the book of Esther, which Brooke read a few months ago. So Mordecai and Esther are texting back and forth, effectively. You know, old school test. And Mordecai says, Esther, go to the king. You can advocate for the people. And Esther says, I can't. You can't just show up uninvited in front of the king. If you do, the penalty is death unless the king raises his golden scepter in favor toward you. And Mordecai tells her, Go. Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

6:24And Esther says, Okay, Mordecai, you and the people fast for three days. And then I'll do the same. And I will go before the king. And if I perish, I perish. This happens. Esther goes before the king, uninvited. The king sees her, and sure enough, the king raises his golden scepter, smiles at Esther, and says, Hey, good looking. What can I do for you? And she says, I want you to come to a feast that I've prepared. You and Haman to come to a feast that I've prepared tonight. And the king says, Okay, we'll do it. And so the king and Haman go to the feast, and the king says, Oh, Esther, this has been awesome. What can I do for you? And she says, I want you to come to another feast tomorrow. And he's like, Oh, okay, fine, if you insist. And so the next day, the king and Haman go to feast number two, and the king says, Okay, this is my third time asking. Esther, what can I do for you?

7:19Surely you have some request. And Esther finally says, Oh, king, I want you to save my life, save the life of my people from this evil plot. And the king says, What? Who? Who? Who would plot against you? And Esther says, A foe and an enemy, this wicked Haman, has plotted to kill me and all my people. And the king says, and Haman says, oh, and an attendant walks in and says, Hey, guess what? Haman has built a gallows 75 feet tall on which to hang Mordecai. And the king says, Oh, hang him on it. And so Haman is led off to be executed, and the king works with Mordecai and Esther to devise a plan where the Jews can defend themselves. And the Jews are saved, and they institute the Feast of Purim, after those lots, where they honor Esther and what she's done, and they remember how they were rescued and how they were saved. And they celebrate the Feast of Purim every year. They celebrate not Esther's beauty, but her bravery.

8:19So where does this story show up in the green household? Well, my sister Bethany is a natural leader, especially in all things theatrical. And at the age of 10, Bethany said, We are going to stage a play in the living room of the story of Esther. Sorry, cousin Erica, you will play Vashti. Cousin Leanne, you will play Esther. I, Bethany, will play the king. And Micah, here, you wear this horrible rubber beard and you can be Mordecai. Here, I know it smells weird. Too bad.

8:49And Micah plays Mordecai. And Haman, where's our brother Jonathan? Oh, he's in trouble. He's not allowed to participate. He's, okay, we have a casting problem. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? You're not going to ask the four-year-old to be Haman, are you? Rachel? My four-year-old baby sister. Rachel. Uh-huh. Would you like to be in our play? Yes. Do you want to be the bad guy? No. Do you want to be Haman? Okay. You see where this is going, yes? Okay.

9:29The play goes off beautifully. Rachel does some wonderful acting as Haman, she does not know she's the bad guy. And the play reaches its climactic moment. And Esther says, This wicked Haman is responsible. And the king says, This wicked Haman shall die. And my baby sister, Rachel, is led away stage right, screaming, I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to be in your play. We have it all on video. It's hard to find out you're the bad guy.

10:05Well, despite all that fun, and it was fun, despite all that fun, some of you may have picked up, like, something's off with this story of Esther. Some of you picked up that there's a mystery surrounding this book. Did you notice that I told the whole story of Esther, and I did not mention once God? In fact, the book of Esther itself does not mention God. Once. That's disturbing. It's almost as if Esther and Mordecai are on their own.

10:38And many of you this morning may feel that same way. You look at your life and you say, I can tell my whole story, and God is not mentioned. Some of you are going through trials. I know this. Some of you are going through suffering, through medical difficulties, financial difficulties, family difficulties. And you say, where is God? Are we on our own? And some of you are not going through any difficulties at all. It just seems like you kind of go through your life and you're like, I believe in God. I show up at church on Sunday. And then I go through my whole life and God doesn't really seem to make a difference. It seems like I'm on my own. And now here I am at church and we're studying a book of the Bible that doesn't mention God at all. What are we doing?

11:22Maybe not. Maybe we can think through this a slightly different way. This morning I want to help you tell Esther's story and your story in a different way. And we're going to try to hit three questions. So those of you who are note-takers, God bless you, we're going to have three questions and we'll go through these in order. The first question is, where is God in the book of Esther? Where is God? The second is, where are Christians in the book of Esther? And the third is, where's the gospel in the book of Esther? Where is God? Where are Christians? Where's the gospel in the book of Esther?

11:57So I've already told you that God, that the word Does not show up in the book of Esther. So, to answer that first question, I want you to see God at work in the way that Mordecai and Esther speak, and the way that they speak. So, you have your Bibles open, I assume, to Esther 4. I want you to look closely at verse 14. This is where we'll spend a lot of our time. Look at Mordecai says to Esther in verse 14 of chapter 4, Esther 4, 14. At the end of Esther 4, 14, Mordecai says, And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

12:30Look at what he says, for such a time. You have not come to the kingdom for this time. This idea that you are here at this spot, at this place, for this moment, for a purpose. Whose purpose? A human purpose? Mordecai says, no. Who knows? I want you to see that when Mordecai says this, when he says, who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this, he means that God has a purpose. God put Esther in this time and this place for a purpose. Now, we don't know what that purpose is, but Mordecai says, it's possible that God's purpose in having you in this time and this place is for this moment, this, to save your people. That's what Mordecai is saying. He looks back and he thinks of that Old Testament story, that whole Old Testament sequence I talked about. He said, God put Joseph in the court of Egypt for a specific time for Specific place to save the people. God looked after baby Moses, put Moses in a specific place right at a specific time to save his life, to save his people. God's still at work in Esther's life, and he's put you, Esther, at this time and this place. And actually, God's put me, Mordecai, in this time and this place, too. This idea is called providence. Note takers, write that down. Providence. This concept that God directs people and events according to his plans, we call that providence. Now, providence is different than miracles. Miracles are unusual and they are wonders. Now, think about what God has done in this situation. God did not zap Esther into the palace. Kapow, miracle, Esther in the palace. God worked through normal means to accomplish his purposes. He worked through normal means, this sequence of events, to have Esther exactly where he wanted her. So providence means that God works through normal means to accomplish his purposes in all things. And this applies to you as well. God has you in the place where you are, in the time where you are, for his purposes. I know we often emphasize in church, we emphasize God's miracles, his miraculous wonders, but miracles by their nature are unusual. But providence is there all the time. God providentially got you here safely through the fog this morning.

15:01God providentially put you where you are with the neighbors you have, the co-workers you have, the family you have, the opportunities you have, the resources you have. All those things are there providentially. This next thing you can write down about God's providence is that God's providence uses means. It uses means. Right? In Esther's case, there's a whole sequence of events and means that lead to her being in the palace. I want you to look closely at verse 14 at the beginning. I've known this story of Esther my whole life, and I've never noticed this part at the very beginning of verse 14. Mordecai tells Esther, if you stay silent, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place. I literally did a double take when I read this verse recently. I was like, I thought Esther was our only hope. Mordecai literally says, Esther, you are not our only hope. Esther is not our only hope. God is in charge, and he will save us. I don't know how, but he will. And if it's not through you, Esther, deliverance will come through some other way.

16:08But what if it is through you, Esther? What if you, Esther, are the means by which God will accomplish his purposes? God's going to save the people through some means, and that means might be you, Esther. I think this actually solves one of the great theological conundrums for us as Christians. Sometimes when Christians hear about the idea of God's sovereignty, God's providence, we think, well, if God's in charge, then it doesn't matter what I do. We kind of become fatalists. It doesn't matter what I do. This says, it does matter what you do. It does matter what you do because you may be the means that God is working through. Some of you have prayed in the last week, Lord, let my close friend, let my family member, come to know the gospel. And God's answer to that prayer is, yes, through you, you are going to be the means through which your friend hears the gospel. God works through means. That's how his providence works. The next thing you can write down about providence is this text teaches us that God providentially restrains and frustrates evil. It seems like Haman has the upper hand.

17:24It seems like Haman has the upper hand. He is in a place, he's the right-hand man of the king. He can do whatever he wants. He makes a suggestion to the king, and the king says, do whatever you want. And so it seems like Haman is in a position where he can't be stopped. But despite those wicked plans that the Hamans of the world may devise, God is the one who's actually in charge. God's the one who's actually in charge, and his plans will prevail. I want you to look at this quote. This is from the great preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He says, I love this. I want you all to really zero in on this. Spurgeon says, Whatever mischief may be brewing against the cause of God and truth, this we are sure of. The Lord knows all about it. It. And he has his Esther and his Mordecai ready at their posts to frustrate those designs.

18:09The battle between good and evil is not fair. God knows what's going to happen, and he has his Esther and His Mordecai ready at their posts. I love this. I love this idea, partially because we now can see that it applies to us too. That God has us ready at our posts to frustrate the plans of the evil one. I want you to imagine Satan being frustrated. He gets news from a minion. Hey, our plans didn't work again.

18:40There's some church called New Life, and they were being generous and prayerful, and our plans failed again. And Satan says, New life again. This idea that we, God has us at our posts to frustrate the plans of the evil one, is very encouraging. So I want you to think about where God has posted you. God has providentially put you in the place and the time that He has, in exactly that right place in the right time. So what does He have for you to do? This is the hard part. God knows what's going to happen. God knows what His providential plans are, but we don't know. And Mordecai actually says this in verse 14. Mordecai says, Who knows? In the King James Version, Mordecai says, Who knoweth? So, who knoweth what God's plans are? But you can be sure that whatever. His providential plans are for you, it is to further his kingdom. It is to be the church, to show kindness to your neighbor, to share the gospel with your friend, to break the stereotype that your co-worker may have of Christians, and to show Christ-like forgiveness to a family member. I don't know, who knoweth what God has for you, but God does have plans for you. He has put you in a certain place for such a time as this to execute those plans that he has to further his kingdom.

20:08So maybe you prayed for a family member this morning, a family member you saw over Christmas in the last few weeks, and who doesn't know Jesus. And God may be answering that prayer, and he may be answering that prayer through you, through you as his providential means. Good. Let's go on to our second question. Our second question is: where are Christians in the book of Esther? Where are Christians in the book of Esther? Now, of course, this book of Esther takes place before Jesus, so it's kind of anachronistic to talk about Christians in the book of Esther. But I do think we can clearly, we as Christians, can learn from Mordecai and Esther. Mordecai and Esther are part of God's people, and they've modeled already for us how they trust in God's providence. The other thing that Mordecai and Esther model for us is they show us how to live as exiles. Now, at this point, you may say, like, I'm not an exile. What are you talking about? In some sense, we are exiles. Exiles. In 1 Peter 2.11, 1 Peter 2.11 says, Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. So the New Testament says, you are a sojourner, a wanderer, an exile. This world is not your home. So how do we live? How do we live if this world is not our home? Jeremiah 29, 7 contains instructions for the people of God when they are first exiled off to Babylon. Jeremiah tells them, seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. So that means that we are exiles and there's a tension there. It means we work for the welfare of our temporary home, but we never forget that our home here is temporary. It's not our true home. So you have to have both of these. We work for the welfare of our temporary home, and we remember that our home is temporary. Mordecai and Esther do this perfectly. Mordecai and Esther, they model that exact tension. So you might think, like, well, why do they care about Persia? They're not Persian, but yet Mordecai and Esther both work for the welfare of their city, for the welfare of their country. In fact, in chapter 2, Mordecai has kind of a civil position down at the gates of the city, and Mordecai overhears a plot to assassinate the king. And Mordecai relays those details to Esther, and Esther relays those details on, and the Plot is thwarted. And then later on, much to Haman's chagrin, Mordecai is honored as a model citizen, a model citizen. He's honored for his service to the empire, his service to the king. So Mordecai and Esther, they work for the welfare of this place that's their temporary home, Persia. But at the same time, they don't become Persian.

22:54Mordecai doesn't bow to Haman. Esther and Mordecai, they know they're not Persian. They say, this is not our home. Ultimately, we are not Persian. We are part of God's people. This is a helpful word to all of us. I especially want to talk to parents about this. Some of the best parenting advice I've ever heard came from the Bible teacher Jen Wilkin. Some of you probably know Jen Wilkin. She's a great Bible teacher and a proud Aggie. And the thing she told me that I'll never forget, she said, you have to tell your kids on a near daily basis, we are different.

23:25We are different. When your kids say, but everybody else, you have to say, like, just make your peace with it now. We are different. This is not our home. We are exiles. There are going to be moments when you feel out of place, when you feel like we do things differently, and that is the way it is. Day in, day out, kids, this is not our home. We are exiles here. We may be in Persia, but we are not Persian.

23:52This is somewhat difficult in the United States because, frankly, the United States is a place where it's kind of easy to be a Christian, especially in Texas. Especially in Brian College Station, right? It's kind of easy. And so it's easy to forget that you're an exile. Mordecai and Esther knew it. They were exiles in Persia. And the early Christians knew it. They were, just like Mordecai and Esther, they were a persecuted, tiny religious minority in a big, pluralistic Roman Empire. That is normal for Christians to live as exiles in the midst of this larger empire. So I do want you to think for yourself: do I live like an exile? Could someone tell that I'm an exile? Is there something different about me? Or do I just try to blend in and do as the Persians do?

24:38Okay, we've now come to the hard part of the sermon. And this is going to be hard. The second question is: where are Christians in the book of Esther? And if you ask your Jewish friends, where do you see Christians in the book of Esther? They may hesitate in that moment. Because what will flash through their minds, if you have Jewish friends, and you should, what will flash through their minds is, well, how have Christians treated Jews over the centuries?

25:16Persecution, slander, and cruelty. The person in the book of Esther who acts like a historic Christian. Is Haman. At this point, you should say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're not Haman. Haman's the bad guy. Like, that's not us. But sadly, those charges historically are true. That is how Christians have acted. We have often acted in a Haman-like way toward the Jewish people. It is hard to find out you're the bad guy. It's rare that anybody actually spells this out in a sermon, but we're going to do it today. When it comes to interactions between Christians and the Jewish people, I want you to lock three facts into your mind. Fact number one, since the first century, most of the Jewish people have not recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah. It was in the book of Acts. The gospel is being spread to the far reaches of the Roman Empire, and yet back in Israel, most of the Jewish people did not accept Jesus as the promised Messiah. It's really sad. God's people are expanding, and yet the Jewish people, the people to whom Jesus came, for the most part, didn't accept him. I can remember when I first kind of comprehended this. So, kids in the room, I want you all to listen to me. When I was maybe 10 or 11 years old, I'll never forget this. My mom showed me the wonderful musical Fiddler on the Roof, Fiddler on the Roof, which is about Jewish peasants in Russia in the late 1800s. And it's beautiful. And the main character, Tevia, he has five daughters. And at one point, he. Actually, he prays over his daughters. Lord, make them like Ruth and like Esther.

27:06But toward the end of the musical, the allegedly Orthodox Christian czarist government of Russia forces the Jewish villagers from their homes in a pogrom. One villager says, Rabbi, we've been waiting for the Messiah all our lives. Wouldn't this be a good time for him to come? And the rabbi responds, I guess we'll have to wait someplace else. And I'm watching this as an 11-year-old, and I say, wait a minute, like, mom, like, they're waiting for the Messiah. The Messiah already came. Why are they waiting for the Messiah? They missed him? This is the saddest thing I've ever heard.

27:56And that is correct. Fact number two: the biblical response to Jewish unbelief is lament. It's brokenheartedness. You can see this in the New Testament. I want you to look at this picture. This is a picture of modern-day Jerusalem. This is looking east. Here's the old city. There's the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock is on the Temple Mount now. And back here is the Mount of Olives. And there's a church on the western slope of the Mount of Olives right there. Here it is, a little bit bigger. This church is called Dominus. Flavit, which is Latin for the Lord wept. It is put there to mark the spot where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. The church itself is meant to be in the shape of a teardrop. If you go inside the church, inside the church is inscribed in Latin, Matthew 23, 37, where Jesus mourns over Jerusalem. He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that stones the prophets and kills those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing?

29:02That's Jesus lamenting over Jerusalem. We heard of this last fall in Romans 9. At the beginning of Romans 9, the Apostle Paul says he has great sorrow and anguish, such that he could wish himself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his Jewish kinsmen. He loves them. He is brokenhearted. Lament, sorrow, brokenhearted. That is the response, not anger and hatred and slander. Sadly, historically, instead of being brokenhearted for those who need the gospel, the third fact is it is indeed true that Christians have slandered and persecuted the Jewish people over the centuries.

29:40This concept of anti-Semitism, which is hatred of the Jews, did not begin in Germany in the 1930s. It has happened throughout all of so-called Christendom over the last thousand years. Throughout all of so-called Christendom, the Jews have been treated as second-class citizens, frequently the victims of pogroms and cruelty. And some truly ridiculous conspiracy theories. And now in 2026, we're still dealing with anti-Semitism now propagated online by amoral grifters and charlatans who know that there's profit to be had by propagating ridiculous conspiracy theories about the Jewish people.

30:23Now, I suspect right now you're like, this is not me. I did not do this. That's really frustrating. I totally agree. I totally agree. I know that this is not necessarily you who's doing this, but it still affects you and me. It affects the way that we interact with our Jewish friends or family. A few years ago, Heather and I went to Israel with a big group of Christian AM students, including several from New Life. And while we were in Israel, we heard a bunch of speakers and we went to a bunch of different places. It was amazing. And one Jewish speaker, she spoke to us about why it is difficult for Jewish people today to accept Jesus as the Messiah or to listen to Christians at all on the topic. And she said, I'll never forget this. She said, you are not writing on a blank page. And that imagery has stuck with me. So I want you to imagine, you and me, you and me, we're going to write a love letter to the Jewish people. Let's do it. Here we go. Dear Jewish people, we love you. Jesus loves you. Jesus is the promised Messiah. He died for you and rose again.

31:24And then we look on this page that we're writing on, and centuries of Christians past have written all manner of. Of hatred and slander on our page before we ever started. That is frustrating. That's discouraging. So, where do we find encouragement? I find encouragement when I think of my friend Jim. Jim was a Jewish guy from New York. He went to college, and God providentially put Christian college students around him who shared the love of Jesus with him, changed his life. He became a believer. And today, Jim is not only one of the most famous scientists in the world, he is by far the most outspoken Christian professor I have ever known.

32:10I'm also encouraged by a certain longtime member of our church who grew up as a missionary kid in northern Israel. And because he grew up there, he learned the language so well that he could help his missionary parents translate the truth of Jesus into perfect modern Hebrew. That's encouraging because God is still at work. But ultimately, this should lead us to our third big question, which is, how do we connect the Old Testament with Jesus? How do I connect the book of Esther with the gospel, with the good news of Jesus? So, this is our third question. Where is the gospel in the book of Esther? And what I want you to do, I want everybody to do this, I want you to turn to the book of Matthew. Matthew 1. If you're using those black Bibles, we're on page 807. Everybody turn to Matthew 1, the very beginning of Matthew. You'll be. Surprised when you get there.

33:03Some of you may remember what's at the beginning of Matthew. Matthew 1. Some of you have already gotten there, and you're like, wait a minute. This is a genealogy. So-and-so begat so-and-so, who begat so-and-so. Let's skip it. I know you do it. You're just like, eh, da-da-da-da-da, whatever, and you skip it. Don't skip it. We're not skipping it today. Look where it begins. It begins with Abraham. Look where it ends. It ends in verse 16: Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ.

33:41Now let's go up to verse 12. So let's look at Matthew 1, 12 through 16. Go back up to verse 12, and you may say, like, oh my word, we're in the middle of all the begats. So let's go ahead and put Matthew 1 up there. All right. Look at this. After the deportation to Babylon, there's the exile. Jeconiah was the father of Sheeltiel. Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiyah. Wait a minute. I want you to circle Zerubbabel in your Bible. That's a fun word to say. Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was a contemporary of Esther. I want you to circle Zerubbabel. And if you're the kind of person who writes in the margins of your Bible, and you really should be, I want you to write in the margin of your Bible. Out next to Zerubbabel, I want you to write, nice try, Haman.

34:37If Haman had his way, the genealogy would end right there. No more genealogy after that. Nice try, Haman. Too bad, Haman. What I want you to see is that this genealogy is showing the full history of God's work through the Old Testament. And any plan raised against God's plan will fail. Nice try, Haman. Sometimes we look at the Old Testament and we think it's a collection of nice stories, like, here's David being brave. Here's Daniel being brave. Here's Esther being brave. No, it's not just a bunch of like nice moralistic stories. It is a connected story of God working this massive arc of redemption, all culminating in Jesus. God calls Abraham and he says, I will make of you a great nation, and through you, all the families of the world will be blessed. And along the way, you may have a Pharaoh or a Nebuchadnezzar or a Haman who thinks, people should bow to me, and I'm going to put an end to this genealogy, and they always fail. They always fail. Now, sometimes God intervenes miraculously. God intervenes miraculously and parts the Red Sea. Too bad, Pharaoh. And sometimes God intervenes providentially by putting a brave Jewish girl on the throne.

36:00Plans always work. And the culmination of this story, the culmination of the story of God's people is the coming of Jesus. And I want you to imagine Jesus, Jesus, as a young man learned this genealogy, his own genealogy. He knew this history. He knew the story of Esther. Jesus would celebrate the feast of Purim every year. They celebrate the rescue of God's people, the bravery of Esther. And when Jesus grows up, he mirrors Esther's bravery. He says, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. If I perish, I perish.

36:38So like Esther, Jesus is willing to die for his people. Unlike Esther, Jesus actually does. And like Esther, the story ends in victory because Jesus is risen from the dead. And unlike every other hero of the Old Testament, Jesus is not just a prophet. He's not just a good person. He's not just a brave person. He is the Son of God, the Messiah, who came to save his people from their sins. We started this sermon by talking about this feeling like you're on your own. What I want to re-emphasize is this idea of providence. God is not far away. You are not on your own. God is right there with you. He is part of your story. In fact, if we had to write your story and say, what's the most important thing that has ever happened to you in your whole life? The most important thing that has ever happened to you in your whole life. Whole life is that Jesus died for you and rose again.

37:34So not only is God a part of your story, he's actually the hero of your story. One of the ways I want to apply this, maybe one of the most important applications we can do, is to rethink the way that we tell our own story, our own story. So I want us to practice this in our life groups. I want us to practice telling our own story, recognizing that God is the hero of that story. Let's think about this, though. If I were to tell my own story, normally I would tell my own story in first person. Everybody remember your English class? First person. I moved to college station.

38:12But I could tell the story in third person. He moved to college station. She moved to college station. She grew up in college station. She is a member of New Life Baptist Church, right? That would be third person. But the great African pastor and theologian Augustine pioneered a new idea, which I want to commend to you. Augustine wrote his own story. He wrote an autobiography, and he wrote it in second person. What would second person be? You. Augustine says, you, Lord, gave me the mother that I had. You, Lord, showed me that sin is empty and unsatisfying. You put the gospel in front of me. You changed my heart. You brought me to pastor here in Africa. You, you, you. He tells the story using the word you. Recognizing the fact that God is the central actor in his life, that God providentially is working in his life. He wanted to tell his story so that God is the main character, because God's not far away. We're not on our own. God is right here with us. And he is the hero of Esther's story, and he's the hero of yours, the hero who loves you and saves you. Let's pray.

39:25Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this story of Esther. I thank you that there is no evil plan that you don't see coming. I thank you that you are active in every one of our lives. Lord, I want to lift up the person in the room who feels all alone and feels like you're not a part of their story. I pray that this morning they would not just know with their head, but feel in their heart your presence, that they would be encouraged and to know that you care for them so deeply.

39:59I pray that you would work through this church, work through each one of us, that we are the means by which you use to advance your kingdom, that we are the means by which people come to know Jesus. All of our uncertainties and worries and anxieties, Lord, help us to cast our cares on you because you care for us and you are in charge. And there's nothing that will frustrate your plans and nothing that will surprise you.

40:30I thank you for the bravery of Esther. I do pray for these young ladies here in the room that they would be like Ruth and like Esther as they grow. For each one of us, help us to have a trust in you, a trust that can endure through hard circumstances. We thank you that you are with us, Lord. In your name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas.

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