Good morning. Along with Brother Marty, I'd like to thank all the veterans that are here with us today. I appreciate the sacrifices that they have made. And no doubt, without our veterans, we wouldn't be Americans. We'd be something else. I don't know what we'd be. We wouldn't be Americans. So I appreciate that. This morning I'm glad for an opportunity to celebrate a day that we can celebrate and thank our veterans. So we'll be back in, let me get my clicker out here. Of course God has got this. And then the unseen director. And of course God directs our lives and God directs the world. And a lot of people have questions, well why does this happen or why does that happen? Anything bad happens, I can tell you what happens. Sin. Sin. God doesn't like sin. Matter of fact, He hates sin. But He loves the sinner. That's the reason He sent Christ to die on the cross for our sins. But we'll get up here. We talked about a defeated king. A difficult defeat. We talked about the battle that they went to in Greece and lost. A devised plan. And then a promoted orphan, of course, which is Esther. And then Mordecai in the palace, Esther in the family. Esther brought into the palace is where we are today. See on your, does anybody need an outline? Anybody else need an outline? One over there, one over, okay. Hurry up, Eddie. Some of us are getting older. We can't hold our arm up for so long. So C is Esther brought into the palace. And we talked about back over in the left corner, brother. Brother Tim back there. probably brought about 400 women into the palace for the king to choose a wife from and of course Esther was one of those. Esther too ate. tells us, So it came to pass when the king's commandment and his decree was heard and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace to the custody of Haggai the Esther was brought also into the king's house to the custody of Haggai keeper of the women. Now that word brought means today that she was compelled. She was forced to come to the palace. All these women were. And we have a term today for what happened to Esther. It's called human trafficking. And that's exactly what it was. They went out and took women away from their families, away from their parents, away from their siblings, and forced them to come in for one to be chosen to be the queen. And we may or may, probably not, it could be possible that somebody here has went through something like that, but we have went through things in our lives where we're going through a situation that we see really, we would call bad, a bad situation. But I wonder, can you think of a situation that you've gone through in your life where you didn't want to be there, you didn't want to do it, you didn't want to go through it, but God worked it out to be better than any way that you could have figured out that would have happened? We see that she was immediately favored. Now we talked about how we went through some time. Esther is a short book, but it takes place over nine or ten years. And I believe right now we're somewhere three or four years into the story. But this one thing did happen right away, Esther 2 and 9. And the maiden pleased him, talking about Haggai, and she obtained kindness of him and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belong to her and seven maidens, which were meek to be given her out of the king's house." So, by Sidon alone, the first thing that he sees that this may be the one, of course, this is his opinion on what the king may like. Esther finds favor in his sight, and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of women. So he gives her the best opportunity to be chosen. Evidently, it was Haggai's responsibility to rank these women in order of beauty. It's what it seems to be. But it's God who gives us favor with others. This is Haggai's first impression. Esther was I think she's the one Daniel 1 9 says now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the Prince of the eunuchs So God can place us what we might consider in a bad situation or allow us to be in a bad situation and But He can put us in favor with the people that we're around to bring us out of that situation. He can bring us out of the situation quicker than we got into it. God and His sovereignty can cause those people that we've never known to have favor for us. Of course, Esther was very graceful. She, of course, was a godly woman. She had been raised by Mordecai to be that way. And she was chosen by Haggai. And so then, the Bible also tells us she did not reveal her ancestry. Mordecai told her not to tell the people that she was a Jew and she didn't. Esther 2 and 10 says, Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it. Now her name again in Hebrew was Hadassah. She goes by the name of Esther which is a Persian name. Now he might have given her that name to conceal her identity. You know a lot of times you can hear somebody's name and you know their ancestry by their name. You know where that particular last name comes from. But Esther was a Persian name so nobody could tell by her name that she was a Jew. Then again, it may have been a legal requirement to change your name to a Persian name. We don't know that, but for some reason he told them not to. But it seems that maybe the reason he did it was because of the anti-Semitism in Persia, the hatred of the Jews. There's always been a hatred of the Jews. For when God chose the Jews, people started hating him. And that comes from Satan, not from so much, they don't just automatically, but Satan puts it in people's hearts to hate the Jews. And the reason is because at this time, it was going to be where Christ come from was out of the Jews and now it's the opposite because he did come from the Jews Satan hates the Jews and he puts it in people's hearts to hate the Jews and anti-semitism is still rampant today in the world that we live in and we have seen recently in our country how it is rampant because Israel tries to strike back at people for killing them, but when Israel does it, it's wrong. But when other people do it, well, that's okay. That's just the way people feel. Satan hates Christians and he still hates Jews. Now some question why Mordecai was still in Persia when the Jews were released to go back to Israel. But he didn't go. Some went, some did not go. We don't know if it was wrong for him not to go. I actually don't know if they released every Jew or not. But either case, he did not go. But even if it was, maybe it was wrong for Mordecai to have stayed there. but God still used Mordecai. We're not perfect just because you get saved, you're not perfect. we're still sinners who are just saved by the grace of God. And we take, for instance, Peter in the New Testament, we see how that he failed, that he denied that he knew Christ, but then just a little bit later in the New Testament, we see where he preached the gospel and 3,000 were saved. But there's something very important we need to realize. Between the time that Peter denied Christ and the time that Peter preached in 3000 were saved, there's something that we need to realize. And I've got it right here somewhere. Luke 22 and 62, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. In other words, he repented of what he had done. He was sorry for what he had done. And he knew, and he confessed that, and he was repentant. So when we're wrong, to be of the use of God, we need to get right. And that's what Peter did when he showed his repentance there. Maybe you're here today and you know you're saved, you know you've been born again, but you're not as close to the Lord as you should be. I don't care how far away you are today or how far away you may have been, God can still use you if you repent and get right with Him. Romans 6.15 says, What then shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. But what if we do sin? And we will sin. But what do we do? 1 John 1 verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So like Peter, when we find ourselves in a place where we have sinned, where we have done wrong, where we have done God wrong, that's sin. Sin is not me doing brother Eddie wrong, that's wrong. But sin is when we do God wrong. Peter had done God wrong. He had turned his back on Jesus. But he repented of that. So when we will sin, and when we do, we need to repent of that. We don't need to let it go and go and go and go and then repent when it just gets so bad we can't stand it. but we need to repent. Again, the verse says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. He will forgive us if we confess our sins. It doesn't say if we confess our sins, He'll put it under consideration to forgive us. No, it says He will forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not only does He forgive us for what we did, but He takes all that away and puts us back in the same fellowship, in the same position, the same ability to do for Him, to live for Him and to love Him as we were before we sinned. We're not able to do that on our own. We can't sin, say, okay, I messed up, so I need to do this and this and this and this to make up for it. You can't make up for one sin, but God can forgive all sin. Verse 10, 1 John 1 10 says, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So, actually if we're here this week, come back next week, and if any one of us said we didn't sin in that one week, we'd be lying. Because we didn't do all we could, we didn't love God with all our heart, there's something we didn't do that we could have done. I'm not saying we went out and killed somebody, but there'd be sin in our lives, so we should Immediately recognize that sin and get forgiveness for it then. Not just come back and say, no, I haven't done anything wrong. I've not done anything wrong whatsoever in the last week. Because if you can live it a week, you can live it the rest of your life. But we can't do that. So we need to stay close to God and ask forgiveness when we sin. Now then, are we a verse 9 Christian where we sin and ask forgiveness for it, get forgiven, or are we a verse 10 Christian where we just say, no, I don't need any forgiveness because I haven't done anything. Only a verse 9 Christian can be an Esther or a Peter. God can use you if you confess your sins and stay in fellowship with him. But if you say, well, God, I haven't messed up anything. What do you want me to do? I'm the perfect one, God. God's not going to use you. So then we see that after she was brought in, she waited 12 months. Once they were brought into the palace, Esther had to wait 12 months before she was presented to the king. It tells us that in verse 12, now when every maid's turn was come in to go into King Ahasuerus, after that she had been 12 months, according to the manner of the women, for the days of their purifications accomplished to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors, and with other things for the purifying of the women. Now, I don't know where they got this process from, but this is what they believed needed to be done. In order to present the women to the king, every one of them had to go through this process. So we know she was there at least a year for this to be done. And selecting the queen here was an ongoing process. We know she was there at least a year. We don't know how many people were selected before her, But we know she was the last one selected. But we know she was there at least a year. And like I said, it seems like an overabundance of care to make sure that her body was in a perfect condition and looked the very best. But you know, the world is still that way today. The U.S. spends $90 billion per year on beauty products and procedures. or 15% of the 600 billion that the world spends. Now that includes a lot of things that we would see as necessary probably, but a lot of it probably not necessary. But that's a lot of money. So we can't look back and, boy, that was just crazy to do all that. Well, we probably do the same thing today. Now, while there's a value in caring for the physical body, there's more of a value for preparing to meet Christ. Now, these women were standing before a powerful Persian king, and no doubt if they understood what was happening, they were very careful to follow the rules of what they were telling them to do. But one day, every one of us, every one in the world, will stand before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So, as important it was for these women to try to do the best they could, much more important for each of us to do what the Bible says and prepare ourselves to meet Christ. Now, if we're saved, we're not going to stand before the great white throne judgment and our destiny be determined. If we're saved, we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And our works for Him will be judged. So we should prepare ourselves for that. And then we see, after all this, she was made the queen. Each maiden again had to go in to spend a night with the king. This process was a mockery to true marriage. But it's much like the way we live in the United States today. Esther had to participate in this contest. Who's the best? That's who gets to be the queen. Who's the best? And it's that way today. People still look for the wrong qualities in a spouse to declare the winner of the contest. I'm going to marry you. You're the winner. I'm going to marry you. You're the winner. And because they choose the wrong qualities, they're not looking for the right thing, they're not getting married for the right reason, the winner ends up becoming the loser. But God granted Esther favor that she would be chosen. Esther 2, 17, 18, And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast, and he made a release to the provinces and gave gifts according to the state of the king." It was from this position of being queen that God would use Esther to save the Jews. Now we go back just a year or more, maybe a little more, and Esther's just at home, right? She's just living a Jewish life. She's in a captive world. Her family was brought to Persia from Israel. And she was born there in Persia. And she was an orphan in a foreign land. Now that doesn't look like somebody that's going to be the queen in a year. But God brought that around that she became queen. Now I said earlier that you couldn't get so far away from God that you couldn't get forgiveness that God could use you. Same thing goes for the position that other people may put you in. Some people go through some terrible tragedies in their life that they have no responsibility for whatsoever. But they have to go through them. God can bring you out of that just like he brought Esther out of the situation she was in. and brought her up to be queen, God can still use you no matter what you've been forced to go through, no matter what's been put upon you, God can still use you. So next we see a prominent Jew, of course talking about Mordecai, that'd be number three. Mordecai and Esther were in Persia because of their disobedient relatives. The Jews had sinned and God let Nebuchadnezzar come in and take the Jews out of Israel. But he allowed them to come in and Esther becomes queen and the book of Esther shifts the spotlight then to Mordecai. And we see here in A, a plot to assassinate the king. While in the king's gate, that was Mordecai's job, he overhears a plot to assassinate the king, verses 21 and 22. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigton and Teresh, of those which kept the door were wrath and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus and this thing was known to Mordecai. So we see they were mad at the king and they decided they were going to kill the king but Mordecai overheard it. I've lost it now. So B is the warning from Mordecai. Now he didn't have to do anything with that information, right? He just overheard it. Nobody knew that he knew. But he knew that was his job was to be there if anything wrong happened to try to take care of it, and he saw that the king needed to be warned. Only part of it came through for some reason. I'll try to tell you the answers. We won't get too many more days anyway. But B, again, the warning from Mordecai. So he warned the king And the way he did that was he told Esther. So he had a connection straight to the king, right? He didn't have to go through somebody else. He just let Esther know so he could go straight to the queen and the queen told the king about it. And the thing was known to Mordecai, verse 22, who told it to Esther, the queen, and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out. Therefore, they were both hanged on a tree. And it was written in the book of the Chronicles before the king. Now, Mordecai had good reason to be angry himself with the king. So he cut it and said, I'm not going to tell him. I hope they kill him. But his job was to help protect the king. Sometimes when we're hurt, We don't do the right thing, right? Somebody hurts us, maybe we can help them later. I ain't helping them. They don't want me to help them. They don't even like me. I'm not going to help them. That's not the right attitude to have. We're supposed to have an attitude like Christ, right? Did Christ help you when you didn't love Him? Did Christ help you when you weren't acting right? Did Christ help you when you hurt Him? Yes, He did. Yes, He does. Yes, He will. Romans 13, 10, love worketh no will to his neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Matthew 22, 39, and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So it doesn't say love your neighbor as long as he's treating you good. It says love your neighbor as you love yourself. Always do good to your neighbor. And it's our confidence in God's sovereignty and goodness that allows us to leave justice in His hands. We don't have to get even. If there's any evenness that needs to be done, God can do it. If there's any revenge to be done, God can do it. Romans 12, 19, Dearly Beloved, Avenge not yourselves. In other words, don't do it. But rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. And a lot of times that's what you see in social media. I don't do much social media. But what I've seen of it, for the most part of it is, somebody says something, somebody didn't like it, they say something back, and they say something back, and then four people join this side, eight people join that side, and 18 people join that side. You know what that is? It's revenge. It's not physical revenge. It's verbal revenge, one on the other, getting back at what somebody says. But that's not the way God's people are supposed to react. Now, if we see something illegal happening, we're supposed to do something about it. We should say something about it. But just because somebody don't like us, just because somebody did us wrong, you don't have to avenge yourself for that. Choosing not to be an angry person does not mean we should cover up illegal activity. So Esther told the king about the conspiracy, but Mordecai was not immediately recognized. Now you would think, you know, if that happened in today's world, if, say the, we won't get into the, president, let's say local, say maybe a local mayor or alderman or something, somebody was going to kill him, a judge, and somebody was going to kill him and somebody found out about it and said something that saved their life, they would probably recognize, their name probably in the paper, may even get some kind of medal or award for saving that public figure. You know what Mordecai got? Nothing. They wrote his name down. So, sometimes we do good things, right? And we do things that somebody might say, that's a very good thing. Somebody ought to nominate them for this, or somebody ought to give them a plaque for this, or somebody ought to say this about it. And we do it, and nothing's done. Again, just let God do the rewarding. Let Him do the avenging, and let Him do the rewarding. After Mordecai saved the king's life, that's the end of the chapter. It sounds like it's building up, right? Mordecai saved the king, next chapter. 1 Corinthians 3.13 Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. When we stand and judge and receive the Christ, if we've done something that we need reward for, we won't miss one reward. We won't miss one accolade. None whatsoever. If that's what we deserve, we'll get it. When you don't reserve that recognition or kindness, God does see it. He is sovereign and He will reward you. Isaiah 55, 9, For the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So I know a lot of times we may enter into something, and we think we've accomplished what we need to do, and we've really worked hard at it, and nobody says anything. But one day, if it was done for God, it'll be recognized. Take comfort in knowing that the great director, God himself, is orchestrating your life. If you're living for God, confessing your sins, and doing what you should do, God is orchestrating your life and putting things in place for your good. Like the title of this lesson says, God's got this. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day that you've given us. We thank you, Lord, for each one. Our Lord is here. Lord, thank you, Lord, for your sovereignty, and we can rest in that knowing you have this, whatever this is. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.