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Esther: Trusting God When You're Running on Empty
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Today I want to speak specifically to those of you who are really trying hard to do the right thing and you're not sure that it really matters. Let me introduce this with a story.
Years ago, my wife Amy was driving our six kids in a 1995 Ford Winstar minivan. She was at a red light when the car in front of her stopped suddenly, and she bumped it—maybe two miles an hour. The other driver got out, called the police, and the police officer arrived and said, "Go home. No damage. Nothing happened. It's over."
But the man wasn't satisfied. He looked us up in the phone book, called me at home, and chewed me out, insisting there was damage and that I owed him money. I explained that the police had already been there and found nothing. He threatened to go to the news stations and tell them I was a fraud. I prayed about it and decided to send him a check—not just the right thing, but more than the right thing. I sent it and then... nothing. It felt like doing the right thing didn't matter at all.
Some of you today are working really hard. You're trying to honor God. You're serving faithfully. You're seeking God. You're praying. You're trying to restore a marriage. You're trying to get ahead. You're trying to be generous. You're trying to help your kids. And you've been faithful for so long. You're wondering: Does God even see this? Does my faithfulness and hard work even matter? Does he even notice?
Let me catch everyone up on the story. There are five main characters in Esther.
First, there's King Xerxes, who was good at throwing big parties and liked to drink a lot. At one party, drunk, he called for his wife Queen Vasti and said, "Come here. I want to show you off because you're beautiful." She refused to be objectified and wouldn't come. He got his feelings hurt, banished her, and suddenly the queen's throne was open.
Then we met Esther—the book is called Esther. She was a Jewish orphan girl raised by her cousin Mordecai. She was taken against her will, went through a one-year beauty training, and was chosen to be the queen of Persia. As a Jewish girl, she had to keep her identity quiet.
Mordecai, her cousin, was a good man. He heard of a plot of people trying to kill the king. He told Esther, she told the king, and he saved the king's life. It was written down in the records. Then nothing. Sound familiar?
We're going to discover this week a principle: What's unnoticed by people is never forgotten by God.
Then the music changes and it gets scary. Haman, the bad guy, shows up. He convinces the king that all the Jewish people are evil and convinces him to kill and destroy them all. Mordecai tells Esther, "You have to talk to the king. You have to tell him not to do this."
Esther is in a really complicated place. She's Jewish, but the king doesn't know that. He's planning to kill all the Jewish people—including her. And she's not allowed to approach the king unless he invites her. If she comes in uninvited, unsummoned, the king can kill her unless he extends the royal scepter. Mordecai tells her the famous line: "Maybe you were born for such a time as this." She realizes she has to do something. She calls her people and says, "Will you pray?"
On the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace in front of the king's hall. She's getting dressed up like the queen. She's going to approach him. He can kill her or extend the scepter.
The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall facing the entrance when he saw Queen Esther standing in the court.
When he saw her, what did he do? Did he kill her? No. The Bible says he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand.
And the king asked, "What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given to you."
She gets to live. He's in a good mood. She took the step of faith and God prepared his heart.
It seems like the perfect time to ask the king to save the Jewish people. But instead, she invites the king and Haman to a banquet. Then later, she invites them to another banquet. She waits. We're not sure why—maybe she was being prayerful, maybe she was afraid. Whatever it is, what we know is this: In the waiting, God was working.
All the while, Haman is planning to execute Mordecai, and Mordecai is worried about his people. Neither one of them sees what God already set in motion.
That night, the king could not sleep.
There's the hinge. The king had a bad night and God had a plan.
So he ordered the book of Chronicles, the record of his reign to be brought in and read to him.
The phrase "could not sleep" in the Hebrew literally means to make sleep flee—like making a fugitive flee or an animal flee. It wasn't that he just couldn't sleep. God didn't let him sleep. The king couldn't sleep because God had a plan.
Sometimes in the most ordinary things—even things that seem like interruptions or inconveniences—God is working in the middle of them.
I want to tell you something personal. The night before I started working on Esther chapter 3, I couldn't sleep. At 2 in the morning, I was wide awake. It was like sleep was fleeing. So I started praying, and I was praying for all of you. I had this very unusual burden—a heavy weight. There's so much pain. There's so much spiritual opposition. I just labored in prayer: "God, help me. Help them know you and walk in the victory you have for them."
I had this vision of standing before the church saying, "Everyone takes a next step. Everyone takes a next step."
The next morning, I went in and pulled up my notes. I had outlined this entire series back at the end of May and the first of June—before we ever started. I hadn't pulled this up since maybe the first week of June. I looked at my note, and it said: "You're looking for details. God's looking for trust. Take the next step."
Whoa. This was so personal to me. Last week, I invited you all to take a next step. And here's what's crazy: 24,000 of you said, "God's showing me what to do next." You took a step of faith and told us about it. Our pastoral teams made 24,000 personal connections.
I tell you that to say two things: First, I want you to know and feel that I care. More importantly, God cares. And for me, God made sleep flee so I would experience something I wouldn't have otherwise—and maybe to help you experience something you wouldn't experience otherwise.
It might be for you a restless night. It might be a delay. It might be an interruption. It might be a door that closes and you don't know why. And what looks ordinary to you may be something that God is setting in motion.
The king couldn't sleep, so he asked his assistant, "Bring me the government record book." Out of everything he could have asked for, he asked for the record of his reign.
In those records, he discovered an account of how Mordecai had exposed the plot to assassinate King Xerxes.
Remember chapter 2? Mordecai heard about the rumor to kill the king and he reported it and saved the king's life. Nothing happened. Not a thing.
Think about this. You find someone's wallet, they might give you 20 bucks. You help someone do something, they might send you a thank you note. He saved the king's life. No note. No gift card to Chick-fil-A. Nothing at all. It appeared completely forgotten and unnoticed.
Until sleep fled. Until the king couldn't sleep. Until someone read the right words on the right night at the right moment to the right king.
The king asked, "What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this? He saved my life. What did we do for him?"
The attendant said, "Nothing has been done for him."
The king was shocked. "This guy saved my life and we didn't do a parade for him. We didn't give him an award. He didn't get a financial award. He didn't get anything. He did the right thing and it went unnoticed and seemed forgotten."
That's why I want to speak to those of you today who are doing the right thing and it seems like nobody notices. Whenever you're faithful, whenever you're seeking God, when you're doing what he put on your heart and no one seems to notice:
What's unnoticed by people is never forgotten by God. What's unnoticed by them is always recognized in heaven.
The king realizes they need to do something for this guy. "We need to honor Mordecai, the guy that saved my life."
Well, the next day, Haman comes in and says, "Oh, I want to kill Mordecai. Can I have permission to hang this rebellious Jewish man on a pole—a 75-foot pole?"
And the king says, "Haman, what do you think should be done for the man that the king wants to honor? I want to honor somebody. What should be done for him?"
Haman thinks it's about him. You probably think this song is about you. The king is going to throw a party for me. So Haman says, "Here's what we should do. Get this fancy robe. Get this horse. Parade me on this horse. When you play the rocky theme music, I'm going to come riding in on the horse and everybody's going to clap for me. It's going to be amazing."
And the king says, "Perfect. Haman, you do exactly that for Mordecai."
So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city streets proclaiming before him, "This is what's done for the man the king delights to honor."
Do you see the irony? Haman, the bad guy—the man who thought the song was about him, the guy who planned to kill Mordecai—is now leading Mordecai through the streets in honor.
Listen, God didn't just stop the attack. He took what the enemy meant for evil and turned it for good. He took what the enemy meant for evil and used the most ordinary things to turn it for good.
The good news is most of you are not facing death on a pole. Most of you are not facing a 75-foot pole. But the reality is some of you are facing something. You're looking at something that's been moving in the wrong direction for a long period of time. It's because you have a spiritual enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy everything that matters to the heart of God.
When you're doing the work in the will of God, your spiritual enemy comes against you to try to take away any faith in God. The devil has a plan. The devil is planning to attack you. But the enemy may have a plan, but God has a better one.
The enemy may try to keep you trapped. Maybe it's in a private addiction. And God can take that private addiction and turn that trial into a testimony. You can declare that by the power and the stripes of Jesus, you have overcome that which held you hostage in bondage for years and years.
The enemy may tell you to give up and stop praying and stop believing. And I'm going to tell you right now: The miracle from God, the answer from God may be closer than you realize.
The second banquet comes up and Esther finally makes her move.
She says to the king, "King Xerxes, if I have found favor with you and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request."
There it is. She takes the risk. She finally says it: I'm Jewish, too. You're planning on killing all the Jewish people. If you do that, you're killing me. And then she helps the king recognize that Haman has been playing him the whole time. Haman's the man behind all of this.
At that moment, the king sees it all. Haman has been working behind the scenes trying to kill people who are not even guilty. The king is furious. He storms out and comes back in. He says, "Hang Haman."
So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai.
Boom. Boom.
I want to talk to those of you who are doing the right thing and you're not seeing results yet. You're discouraged because you've been faithful for a long time. You're seeking God. You're praying. You're serving. You're believing for a miracle. I'm going to tell you right now: The breakthrough you're praying for, it may already be in motion.
Long before anyone ever knew what God was doing, God was working behind the scenes.
Here's the thing about providence: It's when God uses natural circumstances to bring about his supernatural will. That's the work of God. Providence is best understood looking back.
Remember that guy who took advantage of us in the van situation? Over a decade went by. One week after preaching, someone brought us a girl who looked like she was college age, and she was crying. She had just given her life to Christ and someone wanted us to meet her and pray for her.
We were praying for her and you could just tell she was new. She was changed. She had so much emotion. She came seeking something and she found life in Christ. She said, "Oh my gosh, I just wanted to meet you and tell you thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
She said, "Years ago, you probably don't remember, but Amy hit my dad's car." I said, "Well, honestly, I actually do remember that."
And she said, "Yeah, I don't have a good relationship with my dad. He said he was going to squeeze you because you're the pastor of the church. He kind of told his family he's going to go after you and try to take advantage of you. But you guys were so kind to him. The way you treated him—you sent us money and we all knew you weren't guilty and he knew you weren't guilty and he was just playing you. But you just loved on him and sent him a nice note and said that you were praying for the family. I just remembered that."
Years passed after that incident with Amy's car. The woman shared that she had been dealing with mental health issues, depression, and uncertainty about whether she even wanted to live. Then she thought, "Maybe I'll try that one couple's church." What seemed insignificant at the time—our kindness to her father, the money we sent, the prayer note—God used it to bring her to faith in Christ.
I realized something powerful: the very thing that I thought didn't matter and went unnoticed was something that God used in the life of a young girl to bring her to faith in Christ.
I want you to understand this deeply: even when you don't see it, God is working. Even when you don't feel it, God is working. Even when it looks like everything's going backward, God is still good.
This pattern echoes throughout history. Consider the crucifixion: the enemy put Jesus on a cross, sealed the tomb, and the disciples wept, thinking it was over. Day one. Day two. It looked like God was doing nothing. But three days later, when the stone was rolled away, Jesus rose from the dead by the power of God. What was supposed to be the death of the son of God became the way for you and me to have eternal life.
The very same God that raised Jesus from the dead IS THE SAME GOD working in your life at this very moment.
This message is for somebody here who has been faithful for a long time. Maybe you've been praying for someone far from God and see no change whatsoever. Or you're serving faithfully and it seems like it's not making a difference. Or you're doing the right thing and nobody notices.
Maybe you're:
I want to tell you: it matters. It matters to God. God sees every single bit of it.
What's unnoticed by people is still noticed by God.
Look at the book of Esther. God's name doesn't appear anywhere, yet His presence and power are everywhere on every page. Consider the elements:
None of it seems important, but none of it is accidental. Why? Because nothing faithful is ever forgotten.
When you get up early and cry out to God, He hears the cries of your heart. When you keep praying and heaven seems silent, He hears your prayers. When you keep serving and no one notices—what you do to the least of these, you're actually doing unto Him. Not one moment is wasted. Not one prayer is forgotten.
Whenever that voice tells you it doesn't matter, that God doesn't care, that God doesn't see it—remind yourself the devil is a liar.
What's unnoticed by people is never forgotten by God. When sleep flees and you're weary, I'm praying for you. When you do what's right, God sees you. You are not forgotten. God isn't finished yet. Even when you don't see it, He's working. The same God working in that story is working in yours at this very moment.
Someone here today—maybe a lot's been pointing toward this moment. You are not here by accident. You look at your life and can see it: a hurt, a loss, a betrayal, an opportunity, a disappointment. Everything's pointing toward this moment right now.
You need a savior. His name is Jesus.
If you don't know where you stand with God, hear the love of this message: For God so loved you that he sent his one and only son, Jesus. That whosoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus is the sinless son of God, the lamb of God who was slain on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He died in our place. He paid the penalty for our sins. God raised Him from the dead.
Anyone—no matter what you've done, no matter how dark your life feels, no matter how far God feels away from you right now—anyone who calls on the name of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, your sins would be forgiven and you would be made brand new.
When you call on Jesus, He doesn't just make you better. He makes you new. The old is gone and the new is here.
If that's you today, this is the day of your salvation. Someday is today. Today is the day.
