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Esther: Trusting God When You're Running on Empty
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We're starting a brand new series from the Old Testament book of Esther. This book has one specific quality that sets it apart from every other book of the Bible: God's name is never mentioned once. Not a single time across 10 chapters and 167 verses.
Yet even though His name never appears on the page, our good God is the main character of the book of Esther, and you will see His fingerprints on every single page. Why? Because sometimes the places where God seems hardest to find are the very places He's most at work.
The story begins with King Xerxes, the most powerful man in the world, throwing massive parties. First, he throws a six-month-long party showing off his wealth to important dignitaries. Then, after that, he throws another seven-day party for everybody.
His wife, Queen Vashti, was beautiful and very bold. When the king, in his drunkenness, commands her to be displayed before his court like an object, she refuses. The Biblical text records: "When the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come."
The king's pride is wounded. He becomes furious and burns with anger. His advisors panic, fearing that if word spreads that the queen defied the king, all the women in the empire will start telling their husbands no as well. They convince him to banish her—essentially divorcing her. Suddenly, the queen's role is open.
To fill the vacant throne, the kingdom conducts a widespread search for the most beautiful women. These women are taken against their will to the palace. One of them is Esther, a Jewish orphan who has already lost her parents. She has no money, no connections, no royal background—only her cousin Mordecai, who is like a father figure to her and the only stable thing in her life.
She is swept up with all these other girls and taken against her will into the palace. The Bible emphasizes this detail: she was taken—she did not choose this.
Esther is Jewish in a Persian palace, and the Persian people hated the Jews. For her own safety, Mordecai tells her not to reveal her Jewish heritage. So imagine: one day a young girl is living her ordinary life with her cousin, and suddenly she is taken out of everything familiar into the most powerful palace in the world, forced to hide her true identity because her life could be in danger.
These women undergo 12 months of mandatory beauty treatments. After a year, they are all presented to the king. If he likes them, he will call them back; if not, they become part of his harem.
When King Xerxes saw Esther, he was attracted to her more than to any of the other women. She won his favor and approval. He set a royal crown on her head and made Esther queen instead of Vashti.
Here is a Jewish orphan, probably in her late teens, now crowned queen of an entire empire. A year ago, she was a nobody; now she's the queen of the most powerful kingdom in the world. But there's a critical detail: she didn't choose this. She didn't ask for it. She was taken against her will, and this was not what she had planned for her life.
Is there anyone here whose life has not gone according to your plan? We all have hopes and dreams:
You wake up one day and say, "God, where are you? This isn't what I had planned." Life changed without asking your permission. Many of us are not living plan A. Some of you aren't even living plan B—you're on plan Q part two, and you're not sure where this is going.
Esther was not living the life she planned. She didn't know it then in the way you may not know it now, but even though she didn't know it, God was positioning her for a purpose.
In the same way, you may be at a place you didn't want to be, but God could work in the very things that you didn't choose to bring about something that He would purpose. She wasn't in the palace for her own comfort. She was there for God's purposes that she didn't even know at that point.
I want to tell you something, and I want you to feel it and believe it: God can use the very thing you'd never choose. That's how good He is. It's not because every painful thing in your life was God's plan, but it's because nothing is beyond God's purpose and redemption. He is a good God who's working in all things to bring about good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
You didn't choose the breakup. Of course you didn't. You didn't choose to lose your job. Of course you didn't. You didn't choose the bad diagnosis. You didn't choose to be in a place that you didn't want to be. You didn't choose to lose the person you loved. Life changed without your permission. And God might feel distant or absent. But remember: even if God feels absent, it doesn't mean he's not working. Even though His name wasn't on the page, His power was in every single moment.
There is a little detail in the story that's really easy to miss. In the same way, there are some details perhaps in your life today that are very easy to miss. You may not see the purpose in that detail until you see God's provision in the future.
Mordecai raised Esther, and when she was taken from him, he didn't get bitter or drunk. He did his job: he sat outside the palace gate, staying as close to her as they would let him.
One day, while Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, he overheard a plot: two of the king's officers were conspiring to assassinate King Xerxes. Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. When the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were impaled on poles. All of this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.
But here's what happens next: nothing. Mordecai saves the king's life and receives no reward, no promotion, no recognition, no acknowledgement. He does the right thing, and the next day he's sitting at the same gate with the same ordinary life, doing the same job that wasn't particularly meaningful to him. The detail just sits there for four chapters or so. Or so it seems.
Notice this: in the first two chapters we've looked at today, none of it looks like God is involved anywhere. It looks like ordinary life—maybe like your week this week. No miracles, no burning bush, no voice from heaven. Just ordinary life. But what if that's exactly where God works the most? Not only in miracles, but also in ordinary moments. Not only in what gets noticed, but also in what seems forgotten.
Let me walk you through what just "happens":
None of this is miraculous. None of it is meaningless.
Theologians call this providence. Providence is when God uses ordinary moments to bring about His supernatural will. It's when God uses the very thing that you didn't think was a big deal, that a lot of people didn't even notice. But years later, when you look back to that moment, you say, "Oh, God was actually in the very thing that I didn't understand."
Sometimes the places where God seems the hardest to find are the places where God is actually working the most.
I'm trying to build this foundation because I want you to see the principle. Some of you right now are in a place you didn't choose. This was not your plan. And sometimes you do what I do: you look around and say, "God, I'm being faithful. Why are you allowing this? Where are you?" And sometimes you start to wonder: Does God even notice? Does He even care?
You're doing the right thing. You're trying. You're serving faithfully. You're giving when you can. You're praying. You're seeking God in His word. You're working hard. You're being faithful. And nobody notices.
Faithfulness is never wasted. What may be unnoticed by people is recorded by God. I want you to feel this right now: God knows the cries of your heart. Your faithfulness isn't wasted. And God is often working the most in the things that don't make any sense to you.
Random example—I've told this before, but it's so personal to me and so powerful. My dad played minor league pro baseball and almost made it all the way. Everything to him was baseball. My whole life was baseball, baseball, baseball. If I would preach a good sermon, he'd say, "That's a fast ball down the middle" or "Hit that one out of the park." He never said "good sermon." He said, "That sermon has some heat on it."
So, I could be a pro baseball player. That was pretty good. I went to a batting cage before I was supposed to pitch in the championship game. I took one inside, smashed my hand, couldn't pitch the next day. I said, "God, why would you let this happen to me? God, where are you?" This was my plan. Now I couldn't do this.
The weirdest thing happened—I'd never been afraid before, but I was afraid to get back in the box. I was just afraid. I'm supposed to be a ballplayer; I'm not supposed to be afraid.
I transferred to a new school and took up tennis in the fall just because I liked this person of the opposite sex that played tennis. I just decided to play that.
I want to share something deeply personal. My dad played minor league pro baseball and almost made it all the way. Everything to him was baseball—my whole life was baseball, baseball, baseball. If I would preach a good sermon, he'd say, "That's a fast ball down the middle" or "Hit that one out of the park." He never just said "good sermon." He said, "That sermon has some heat on it."
I thought I was going to be a pro baseball player. Before I was supposed to pitch in a championship game, I went to a batting cage, took one inside, smashed my hand, and couldn't pitch the next day. I asked God, "Why would you let this happen to me? God, where are you?" This was my plan, and now I couldn't do it.
The weirdest thing happened—I'd never been afraid before, but I was afraid to get back in the box. I was terrified. I'm supposed to be a ballplayer; I'm not supposed to be afraid. So I transferred to a new school and took up tennis in the fall just because I liked someone who played tennis.
I played baseball later and made the team as number six. I was afraid to bat, so I took a year off from baseball. Our little tennis team ended up winning the state championship, and I got better. The next year I came back and somehow ended up playing number one.
Because I was afraid, I stayed with tennis. That led me to a school I would never have gone to, where I fell deep into sin. That led me to call on the name of Jesus, which saved and changed my life. That led me to meet Amy, who was the answered prayer I'd been praying for. It led me to stay in Oklahoma City when I got a better job offer somewhere else—because I wasn't going to leave her.
That led me to First United Methodist Church, where Pastor Nick became a spiritual father and helped me get into ministry. I actually got rejected for ordination—true story. "Where are you, God?" But that rejection redirected my entire life. I ended up starting Life.Church through things that didn't go as planned.
Here I am today preaching about a book of the Bible where God's name doesn't appear, but His presence and power is everywhere. If life had gone according to my plan, I would not be living God's plan for my life today.
I hope you sense that God's working in your life too. Think about Esther. She lost her parents. She lost her home. She lost her freedom. The whole time she thought, "Life is falling apart. Where is God?" But God was quietly putting all the pieces together. He wasn't just preparing a queen—He was preparing her to save His people.
If you're in a chapter of your life right now that feels confusing or maybe a little out of control, and you can't see what God is doing and you don't feel His presence, you don't hear His voice—just because He's silent doesn't mean He's absent. Sometimes He's working, or you just can't see Him yet.
The same God who put that orphan on the throne is the same God who is with you right where you are. You may not see Him yet and you may not feel Him, but keep trusting Him. Keep being faithful. Keep crying out to Him. Keep reading His word. Keep living His word—because faithfulness is not wasted.
One day you'll discover that the God you thought was absent was working all along. That is our good God.
For some of you, God has always felt distant. I'm going to tell you why. It's because you don't know Him yet. God is drawing you. You're not here by accident. If you feel a pull toward Him, a tug toward Him—that is the Holy Spirit of God drawing you to Him. He's patient. He wants you to know Him as He knows and loves you.
Let me tell you how good He is. Scripture tells us:
For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, Jesus.
Jesus is the Son of God who is without sin. He died on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. When Jesus died, His disciples looked on and said, "Where's God?" Just because they didn't see it didn't mean God wasn't working. Jesus was doing whatever He did for those three days. On the third day, God raised Him from the dead so that anyone—and this includes you—who calls on His name would be saved, forgiven, and made new.
In the same way, in college I knelt down in a softball field and asked for forgiveness of my sins and asked for Jesus to save me. He changed me. He made me new.
There are those of you here today for this purpose. If you know you're not walking with God, if you're feeling drawn to Him, if you're so low that you may need to look up—you may not be here by accident, but by the providence of God who wants to reveal the goodness of His Son to you.
Today is the day of your salvation. If you need the grace of Jesus and want Him in your life, if you want the forgiveness of your sins, you can step away from your sins and step into faith in Jesus. When you call on His name, He will hear your prayer and forgive your sins.
Your prayer is simple: I need grace. I need Jesus. I give my life to Him. If that's your prayer, surrender your life to Christ. Jesus will save you, forgive all of your sins, and fill you with His Spirit so you could know Him personally and serve Him daily.
