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Esther: Trusting God When You're Running on Empty
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Some of you have something in your life you'd like to see change, but you're worried it's too late. Maybe you're hoping for a godly marriage, but you think it might be too late for you. Or you've been praying for better health and wonder if you could ever feel better. Perhaps you're trying to overcome a habit you've confessed repeatedly—the harder you try, the more it seems to return, and you wonder if real change is possible.
It could be a dream you've been hoping to pursue one day, or something you keep bringing to God in prayer, believing like the persistent widow. You keep asking, but nothing has changed yet. You wonder if God could ever do it. Esther faced similar questions, and today we'll see God's answer as we wrap up this series.
Let's review the book of Esther. There are five main characters. King Xerxes is the drunk king throwing big parties. In his drunkenness, he wants to show off his beautiful wife, Queen Vashti. She refuses to be objectified, so he banishes her—and suddenly there's an opening for a new queen.
They conduct a nationwide search and find a young Jewish orphan girl named Esther. After a year-long process, she's chosen to be queen. But Esther must hide her Jewish identity because the Persian culture hates Jewish people.
Then there's her cousin Mordecai—a good and honorable man. And the villain: Haman, who rises in power and hates Mordecai. Haman convinces the king to kill every Jewish person in the empire, and the king makes this decree. According to the law, the decree cannot be undone.
Mordecai tells Esther, "You have to do something about this. I know it's a big risk—it could cost you your life—but maybe God puts you here for such a time as this." She takes an enormous risk and tells the king about Haman's plot. The king kills Haman, but the decree still stands. The bad guy is gone, but the verdict remains.
Esther now has the king's favor. He says, "Ask for anything you want." She could have asked for personal safety, but instead, in Esther 8:6, she says: "For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?"
Her heart is breaking for the people she loves. Some of you can relate to this. You have someone in your life you love so much that their pain becomes your pain. If you're a parent, you've probably experienced this—watching your kids hurt and wanting to fix it, but being unable to. Or there's someone stuck in addiction, and it's destroying them, and you want to help but can't.
Esther's people are vulnerable. She has all the power of a queen, but in this moment she's powerless. All she can do is ask, and she does. She pleads with the king.
And the king does something remarkable. In Esther 8:8, he says: "Now write another decree in the king's name on behalf of the Jews as seems best to you. Write a new decree and seal it with the king's signet ring. For no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked."
There's already a decree you can't undo. The only thing you can do is write a new decree that overpowers the first one. Let me illustrate this.
In my household, I issued a nonnegotiable decree: we would never get a cat. You might ask why—and the reason is that cats are not Christians. Dogs love you unconditionally. Cats have terms and conditions. That is not the fruit of the Spirit. My kids didn't like this decree, so they pleaded with me, begged, and even prayed. Two campus pastors contacted me personally because my kids had submitted written prayer requests asking God to change their dad's heart.
But I had issued the decree, and the decree must stand. Then Amy came along and said, "Honey, how about if you don't do it for them, but you do it for me?" I was trapped. I'd already made the law and couldn't undo it. The only thing I could do was overrule it. Technically, I kept my word: we never got a cat. We got two cats. And maybe a few more over the years.
This illustrates what's happening in Esther's story. The king couldn't undo the decree, so he made a new one. There is a decree that cannot be undone. You can overrule it—and that's the only way.
Some of you right now may be living with what we call a decree that feels permanent. It's something that happened in your life that you never wanted—something you couldn't stop. It might be divorce. You never wanted it, and now you find yourself divorced and it's real. Or a loss that still hurts. Or a diagnosis the doctors confirmed is real. Or anxiety that feels completely crushing. Or a dream you always hoped for that now feels dead.
At first you fought it and asked God to change it. Then nothing changed, and somewhere along the way you stopped asking God to change it. You just learned to live under it, because that's what a decree does. It doesn't just describe what happens next—it defines what you believe about who you are.
You think: "I'm divorced, so I'm always going to be alone. I'm not feeling well, so I'll never feel good again. I made a big mistake, did something I hate, and now God will never bless me because of what I did."
I want to speak directly to someone facing something that feels final: what happened to you is not who you are. Your identity is not defined by it.
The enemy's verdict may be real, but it's not final. And that's where Esther was. She faced a decree that was very, very real. Her people faced it too. The decree was sealed and legal and real. But real doesn't mean final.
Real doesn't mean final.
God can issue a new decree that overpowers the previous one because our God is all powerful. Our God is all good. Our God is ever present. Our God is with you. He sees you. What you may be facing may be real, but real doesn't mean final.
Esther 9:1 says: "On that day—that very day the Jews were scheduled to be executed—the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them. But quite the opposite happened. It was the Jews who overpowered their enemy."
God turned it around. God took something that looked real and was real, but it wasn't final. That's what our God does. Our God's been turning things around since we first needed grace.
Let me explain the gospel. I'm going to go as slowly and deliberately as I can. For some of you, you know this and it's in your head, but I'm praying today it moves from your head down into your heart. Hear it maybe like you've never heard it before.
Every single one of us was created by God in his image to be in a relationship with him. But every single one of us—including you, including me—has turned away from God. We've lied. We've lusted. We've stolen, cheated, been proud. We've done what we wanted instead of what God wanted. The Bible calls that sin.
To be clear, sin is not just a mistake. Sin separates us from a holy God. And sin comes with a decree. What is it? Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death."
That's the decree. Sin earns death—not just physical death, but spiritual death, separated from God. We can't talk our way out of it. We can't work our way out of it. We can't be religious enough to get out of it. We can't be good enough. The decree stands.
So God didn't erase the decree. God overpowered it.
God became flesh. "For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, Jesus." His son Jesus lived the life we couldn't live—perfect in every way, a lamb without spot or wrinkle, sinless. And he died the death that we deserved. He was condemned, crucified, and buried.
Watch this: The cross was real. The tomb was real. His death was real. But real doesn't mean final.
Because three days later, when the stone was rolled away, Jesus was not there. Our good God issued a greater decree. The first decree is still there: "For the wages of sin is death." But God overruled it and said:
But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When Jesus gave his life for my sins, for your sins, on the cross, the enemy thought he'd won. But God had the final word. God's been turning things around since we needed grace.
We've all sinned. We've all messed up. You feel that guilt and sense of being dirty, so you want to work your way to him. You can't work your way to him. The decree stands. Our sin separates us from God. But God, who is full of mercy, draws us with his loving kindness. He overpowered the first decree, did what we couldn't do for ourselves, sent his son to die in our place, and raised him from the dead.
So that anyone—it doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter how dark your life is, how much you've done wrong—anyone who calls on his name, the name of Jesus, the name that is above every name, your sins will be forgiven, separated from you as far as the east is from the west, and your name written in the book of life. You belong to him, not because you're good, but because he is that good.
The old decree stands, but he overpowered it. Our God is so good, and we see that in Esther's story. The king couldn't undo the decree, so he made a new one. The new decree said the Jews had the right to defend themselves and fight back. When the day came they were supposed to be destroyed, it wasn't even close. The day of their destruction became the day of their deliverance.
Esther 9:20 and 22 says: "Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews to have them celebrate annually as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies—as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration."
When their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning turned into dancing. The day they were supposed to be destroyed became the day of their deliverance.
I want to speak to those of you who feel like you're waiting on something that may never come. Whatever you're facing, do not mistake what's real for what's final. I know many of you are facing something very real. The pain is real. The diagnosis is real. The betrayal, what they did to hurt you, is real. The loss is real.
We serve a God who's been turning things around since we first needed grace. We see it in Esther's story, and if you're open to the work of the power of the Spirit in you, we will see it in your story.
There are those of you that I believe God is issuing a new decree over your life even as we speak. Not the one the enemy wrote. Not the one that's been haunting you your whole life. A new one with greater authority that overpowers all the others.
You are not who they said you are. You are not what that season says about you. You're not defined by a failure that felt permanent in your life. The enemy doesn't get the final word over your life. Our good God does. Our God gets the final word.
I know what some of you are thinking: "Easy for you to say, Pastor Craig." I'll tell you right now—there are so many areas of my life where there are voices that feel like a final verdict. My whole life, I've heard this voice over and over: "Craig, you're not enough." Every version you can imagine: "You're not smart enough. You're not good enough. You're not spiritual enough. You'll never be enough."
Because I believe that, it puts me into a tailspin. I care so much about you as the flock entrusted to my care. I want to be available for everybody, but I can't. Sometimes I disappoint people I love, and it wrecks me. And the voice says, "See, I told you you weren't enough. See, I told you you're not a good pastor. See, I told you you'll never ever be enough."
The hardest part about that decree is it's true. I'll never be enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not good enough. I still fall short. I still sin. I'm not always spiritual enough. That decree is true. I'm not enough.
But truth is not final because my God issued a greater decree that overrules it.
The greater decree says: "My grace is sufficient for you." And God says: "My power is made perfect in your weakness."
So all of a sudden, I can embrace that weakness, my not-enoughness, because in my not-enoughness, his power is more than enoughness. In my weakness, in my frailty, in my lack, his power is more than enough. His power is made perfect in my not-enoughness. So my not-enoughness isn't really a weakness—it's a conduit to his power to work through me.
When the devil tells me I'm not enough, I can say, "Well, actually, you're right. I'm not enough. But I serve a God who is more than enough, and his power is working in me and through me right now."
I want to talk to every single one of you personally. What I would do is look across the table and tell you the same thing I tell myself: Whatever voice has been naming you, accusing you, robbing you, lying to you—don't give it authority that God never gave it. God gets the final word.
You're in some place in your life right now and you can't see his hand. Esther couldn't either. But watch this—God was working in all things.
Where was God working? Through a drunk king full of himself. Through a defiant queen standing up for herself. Through an empty throne. Through a little Jewish orphan raised by her cousin. Through an unexpected crown. Through a good deed by Mordecai that was recorded and then forgotten. Through an evil decree. Through a sleepless night and a boring book. Through one woman's bold step of faith.
God was working through all of it, even when it couldn't be seen.
God was working through every detail of Esther's story, even when His name never appeared. His fingerprints were on every page—through a drunk king, a defiant queen, an empty throne, a Jewish orphan, an unexpected crown, a good deed that was recorded and forgotten, an evil decree, a sleepless night, a boring book, and one woman's bold step of faith.
What you need to understand is this: God's name is never mentioned in the whole book of Esther, and yet He's working in every detail on every page. He was working in every detail then, and He's working in every detail now.
If you're tempted to give up, don't. If you're tempted to stop praying, pray again. If you've stopped dreaming, dream again. Why? Your story isn't over. Real doesn't mean final.
I came to tell you the truth of God's word: God gets the final word. What He says about you is true. The devil is a liar, and God's word is true about you.
There's something in your life right now that you want to change. Maybe you're worried that it's too late. It could be a diagnosis. It could be a financial situation. It could be a dream. It could be a relationship. It could be someone you're praying for to come to Jesus, and it looks like they're never going to come. It could be your marriage. It could be something with a child.
Real is not final. Whatever ungodly decree has been issued over your life, God can overrule it with His truth. God's word is true, and God's word always accomplishes His purposes.
God created all of us to know Him. All of us have turned to our own way. We've sinned. There is a decree that says: "The wages of sin is death." Sin separates us from a holy God.
But God overruled that decree.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus is the sinless Son of God who didn't come to condemn the world but to forgive and to free it. He came not for those who are righteous, but for sinners. He came for broken people. He came for those who are hurting.
Jesus, the Son of God who was without sin, paid the price and died the death that we should have died. God raised Him from the dead, overruling the previous decree. Now anyone who calls on His name would be forgiven.
Scripture says we're saved not by works, but by the grace of God through faith. It's the gift of eternal life. You can't earn it. You don't deserve it. It is the gift of God.
You say, "That's too good to be true." It's too good not to be true. That's how much God loves you. He sent His Son to die in your place and was raised so you could be forgiven and experience God's grace in your life.
You are not here by accident. It's by the providence of God this moment. If your heart is beating right now and you feel like, "Should I do this?"—yes, absolutely. God's been drawing you here. You're here for this reason. This is your moment. This is the moment of your salvation.
If you say, "Okay, it's me. Yes, I need His grace. I need His forgiveness today. I'm stepping away from my sin. I'm giving my life to Jesus"—when you do, He hears your prayer, forgives your sins, and makes you new.
