So Esther 4 verse 13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time Then shall there be enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? And I want you to hold on to that statement. Verse 15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer. Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me. And neither eat nor drink three days, night or day, and also and my maidens will fast likewise. And so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law. Hold on to that as well. And if I perish, I perish. Now, verse 17. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this word, Father God. We thank you for this lesson. Lord, we're thankful that no one was asked where they were going when they got in their car and came to the house of the Lord this morning. Father God, we're thankful for that. We're thankful for the freedoms we enjoy here, Lord. Help me today, Father God, in this Sunday school hour. Father God, empty me of myself, Lord. Fill me with You. Father God, it's my prayer, Lord. I pray that you hide me behind the cross, Lord, that your message might be given to the people today, Father God, nothing of mine. Lord, we pray these things in the name of Jesus, and amen. OK, so there's a couple of things here we want to take out of this lesson. And I'm going to break down the outline first, because these outlines get confusing. If it's a number, that's a point. We have three points. If it's a letter, that's a subpoint. Just so we get that taken care of, because I don't have a PowerPoint. I'm not against technology. I'm just not good at technology. So I don't want to confound this whole process. So we're going to move right ahead here. So basically, God's Word goes to great length to show us that faithfulness is not a trait important only to preachers and prophets. Esther is a beautiful illustration of one who began as a common person, showed herself to be faithful in the worst of circumstances, a situation she faced and overcame through faith, we as believers may encounter as well. Esther's responses are worthy of case studies. And they're an encouragement and a help to us. Point number one here is that Esther went through some tough times. Esther went through some tough times. And in this country that we live in, it almost seems impossible that we ourselves would go through any kind of a tough time. Because everything is so handed to us in this culture. And yes, we do have to work for stuff. We have to have jobs. We have to provide for ourselves to live indoors and feed ourselves. But no one is accosting us against our freedom. No one's telling us we can't go to the house of God. No one's really getting after us for things that we want to do. We have freedom here. But I want you to see how easily this can be taken away. And we don't have to go 2,000 years ago to the Bible to see this happening. We really only have to go 75 years ago. The final passage I'm going to read to you is from the World Book Encyclopedia 2001 edition article about the Great Depression. And these are just some snippets of what that looked like. And this is a direct quote, so if this gets dry in the reading, I apologize. In 1925, about 3% of the nation's workers were unemployed. The unemployment rate reached about 9% in 1930. For reference, in 2008, the worst it got was 6%. When everything crashed, the bubble crashed, we got about 6%. And in here, they're at 9% in 1930. And about 25% were 13 million people in 1933. Many people who kept or found jobs had to take salary cuts. In 1932, wage cuts averaged about 18%. So imagine your income, 18% taken away. That's what you're living with, and you should be thankful for it at that time. Many people, including college graduates, felt lucky to find any job. In 1932, the New York City Police Department estimated that 7,000 persons over the age of 17 shined shoes for a living. The 1930s called Brother, Can You Spare a Dime the nationwide song. Human suffering became a reality for millions of Americans as the Depression continued. Many died of disease resulting from malnutrition. Thousands lost their homes because they could not pay the mortgage. In 1932, 25,000 families and more than 200,000 young people wandered through the country seeking food, clothing, shelter, and a job. Many youths traveled in freight trains and lived near train yards in camps called hobo jungles. Now, this is in America. The homeless, jobless travelers attained food from welfare agencies or religious missions in towns along the way. Most of their meals consisted of soup, beans, or stew and had little nourishment. The travelers began or begged for food or stole it if they could not get something to eat in any other way. Sometimes they ate scraps of food from garbage cans. Peggy Terry, who grew up in Oklahoma during the Depression, recalled a visit to a Hooverville in Oklahoma City, which was a shantytown. That's what they called shantytowns back then because Hoover was the president who everyone was frustrated with because he wasn't fixing the Depression. So they called these places Hoovervilles, not to get too much into history. Here were all the people living in old rusted out car bodies. One family was living in a piano box. This wasn't just a little section. This was maybe 10 miles wide and 10 miles long. People living in whatever they could junk together. Tough times come to the wealthiest of nations. This has happened. This will happen. This is a reality that every person faces, and it's not always because of a sin problem we have, although sometimes it does happen that way. Sometimes it's just the way life shakes out for us. So tough times. Point A, Esther had a very uncertain future that she had to deal with. Now we're going to go to Esther chapter 3, verse 8. This is going to tell us what a very evil man wants to do with God's people. Chapter 3, verse 8. And Haman said unto King Esauerus, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people. Neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the king's prophet to suffer them. verse 9 if it pleased the king let it be written that they may be destroyed and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business to bring it to the king's treasuries life often doesn't go as planned these people didn't have this coming these people these Jewish people didn't have their destruction as something that they planned for It almost never happens that way. You know, it's even said, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. That's a dark humor, isn't it? Because I have so many plans for my life and how long I'm going to live and things that I want to do and things I want to accomplish as a young man. And knowing that God knows the end of the story and every aspect of it, I'm sure that if that conversation were to happen, I would be embarrassed. As anyone would be. Anyway, the sovereignty of God made sure that while Esther's plans didn't go right at first, Haman's plans didn't go right at the finish. More on that later. Satan will often attack and try to harm God's people. Here we find the Jewish people, God's people, being threatened with their very destruction, but Esther did not flee. She became a vessel that God could use. More on that later as well. So point A, she had an uncertain future in these tough times. Point B, there was an unapproachable king in these times. Esther chapter 4, verse 11. All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live. But I have not been called to come unto the king these 30 days." Now this is Esther talking. Now a lot of people, you read the whole book and you say, wait, wasn't Esther the queen? Didn't the beginning of this story make Esther an obedient queen to this king? Well, back in those days, it didn't matter who you were. If you came to the king unannounced into his room, you were taken out. That's evidenced in the fact that this story started with a different queen and went to Esther. So even though this was the queen, it was no different than if I just have kicked down the door and walked in there. If you kick down the door in the king's pallet, you're out. You're done. Your life's over. It's almost a guarantee. Now, it is important to understand that God is greater than any king, president, or prime minister. If God is in it, it will work. That's a guarantee. It may not work the way you want it to, or the way I want it to, or the way we think it should, but if God's in it, it will work properly. That's the most important thing. The story of Esther, although it has been noted many times, God's name does not appear anywhere in this book. Her older cousin, Ingardi Mordecai, was confident that God was going to preserve His people somehow. Now, that's in chapter 4. While the world would think the king unapproachable, Esther, after being instructed by her spiritual authority, was willing to approach him." And this is a point I want you to hang on to. The Lord is looking for people today who are willing to attempt for God things that the world says is impossible. That's stupid. Why are you knocking on doors? Why are you wasting a Saturday going out and knocking on people's doors? They don't want to talk to you. How can you, why would you waste your time? That's way over the top. Is that what God says? Is that what God says about it? I don't think it is. You go Monday, or no, you go Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. What is wrong with you? Well, there's nothing wrong with us. The reason we go that much is this is spiritual food. We're hungry because we're going out and we're working for the Lord. That's why we do it. There are things out there that the world says are just impossible. God says, I created impossible. And I can work through you to make impossible happen. If you would just empty yourself and let me work through you. In your weakness I am made strong, says the Lord. So point number one, she had tough times. She had uncertain futures. She had an unapproachable king. Now we're at point number two. And this is very important to have during tough times. There were tender traits exhibited here. It's always a blessing to see someone who cares enough to make a difference. It's obvious that Esther cared deeply for the safety and security of her people. In fact, she cared so much that she, like the prophet Jeremiah, could not help but take action. This is another direct quote from a history text. So again, I apologize if this is a boring, dry read. But the information, I think, is really good. The Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia during the Civil War was basically a one-sided slaughter. The Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, has made their stand. Just west of the Raffinock River at Fredericksburg was strong position behind a stone wall upon Myers Heights behind the wall. As many as 13 separate Union attacks have been hurled against that wall and that hill and all that had been repulsed with heavy casualties. All night, thousands of wounded and helpless men lay on the open field moaning and begging for any kind of relief. One Confederate soldier, Sergeant Richard Kirkland of the 22nd South Carolina Volunteers, sought out his commanding enemy soldiers in an attempt to carry water to the suffering victims of this war. General Kershaw feared that Kirkland would be killed, but also trusted that God would honor and protect such a noble deed. With that, Kirkland gathered all of the canteens he could carry and climbed over the wall out onto the previous day's battlefield. For well over an hour, he ministered to his suffering foes as both armies watched in amazement and admiration. Not a shot was fired at him. Not a shot was fired at him. Not a shot in an hour was fired at this man. And when he had done all he could, he simply returned to his post and once again took his place in the line. Today, a statue depicting Kirkland's compassion stands near the battlefield's visitor center. The fighting men on both sides of the line called him the Angel of Myers Height. It's not enough to have tender traits when it's easy. We're in a heated building, in the summer we're in an air-conditioned building, we're wearing shirts and ties. I can show you tender traits in this setting. It's easy. It almost comes naturally in this setting. If I'm in a hospital bed, or if my wife's in a hospital bed, and you need my tenderness, It's going to be harder to come by. It's going to be harder for me to muster up. We need tenderness all the time, in good and in bad. We need to be able to exhibit that to people. Subpoint A. People in here cared enough to speak. We go to Esther 414 again. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, and this is Mordecai speaking, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? That's Mordecai speaking to Esther. Esther 8.3, and Esther spake yet again before the king and fell down at his feet and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the agitate, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. So people in this story cared enough to speak. They didn't just let stuff go on without saying anything. They didn't just let destruction happen without putting into sense about what should be done about it. Although it has been said that the silence is golden, it's also true that at times silence is cowardice. Mordecai urged Zestir not to hold her peace in this crisis. He challenged Zestir with the thought that God had her there for such a time as this. And it is helpful when people actually speak up. I got to tell you, a couple of weeks ago, Paul Becker and I were out soul winning. And it was one of my first times out. We were in a questionable neighborhood. And what ended up happening was we walked into what I was sure a drug dealer's home. Not into, but like on the property of. Now I know you guys in the bus routes in Chicago scaling buildings don't see what I saw as anything, but it was new to me. So I went up there and I'm looking around for something I could possibly use as a weapon because I lacked faith. something I could possibly use as a weapon, just to make sure in case someone jumped out the door or a gun came out the window or something like that. I wanted to be prepared. Now, Paul, I noticed, was not doing this. Paul was standing there like this. Waiting, smiling, happiest guy in the world. Yeah, so we walked out. We walked out and I said, you know what, Paul, I don't know if this is right or not, but every time we go to a house like that, I find myself looking for a weapon. And he just smiled at me really sweet and said, yeah, that's wrong. And then he rebuked me about it. He's like, yeah, listen, he told me, I'm in the palm of God's hand. I couldn't have any more safety if I wanted it. All that humor to make this point. He challenged me when He said that. He challenged the way that I approached life at that point when He said that. And because He challenged me, my faith grew. It made me go back into my Bible. It made me rethink how strong my faith really was. And when you have to go back and rethink and reevaluate how strong your faith really is, you realize it's not as big as you thought it was. And when you do that, you rise to the next level. But if Paul had just smiled sweetly at me and said nothing, what do you think would have happened? Every house we went to, I would have had this distraction of... You know? But the next house, I learned that peace. The next house, we're both standing there smiling. Happy as can be. Because he challenged me. When was the last time you challenged your brother? When was the last time you did that? How often is it in this culture that we just want to smile and not say anything, and in so doing, affirming what they're doing that is definitely wrong? We think that we're being helpful, but really what we're doing is spiritually inhibiting our brothers. So number one, they cared enough to speak. I'm sorry, letter A, they cared enough to speak. Letter B, they cared enough to fast, and they cared enough to pray. Esther 4.16 says, Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me. And neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise. And so will I go into the king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. And that's Esther. If I perish, I perish. That's a mic drop moment right there. That's really impressive. That's not something I'm 100% sure I could say. But that's not the point of this, what we're getting at here. Fasting and praying. Now there's some new believers in here. And I'm going to put a sermon within a message here real quick just to make sure we know the practical application of fasting. The purposes of fasting. Number one, it shows commitment to the Lord. Because I know that when I first became a believer, I would read the Bible and I would see fasting, and I would know on a logical level that they did it, but I wouldn't know what the benefits were spiritually or why people did it. And it just didn't make any sense to me, and that actually inhibited my fasting for years. We have some newer people in the building, so I'll go ahead and go through this real quick. Number one, it shows commitment to the Lord. You fast for a spiritual need. Let's say the salvation of a brother. You're fasting. Are you willing to show the Lord you're willing to give up a couple of meals for that? For their need. Number two, it shows your need. I said earlier, in our weakness, God has made strong. When you go 24 hours without food, you don't feel that strong. We want to think of ourselves as just strong individuals that we can handle anything, we can do anything. Well, if you go one or two or three days without food or water, you learn real quick you're not as strong as you think you are. In that weakness, it forces you to lean on the Lord. God can work through you in that weakness. You have to lean on Him more in that circumstance. And because you have to lean on Him more in that circumstance, number three is that you pray more. You're in better communication with Him. You get a physical reminder of how many times a day to pray for him. How many times a day? As many times as your stomach grumbles. Every time you feel those hunger pains in your stomach, that's a reminder to pray for the person you're fasting for. So those are just some practical reasons for fasting. But Esther knew that she had to speak up for her people, but she also knew that spiritual preparation had to be made first. God's Word says that certain things only come about by fasting and prayer. And this part's more in line with the lesson flow. What I just did was more of an off-track thing. So we're going to go to Mark, verse 9. So flip with me to the book of Mark, verse 9. I'm going to read this real quick. Oh, I'm sorry. I said that incorrectly. Mark, chapter 9. Mark, chapter 9, verse 25. Thank you, Kelly. Would have had blank stares for 45 seconds if I hadn't corrected that. So Mark chapter 9, verse 25. Mark chapter 9, verse 25. And it reads at 25, when Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit saying unto them, thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried and rent him sore and came out of him. And he was as one dead in so much that many said he is dead. Now verse 27. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast him out? Verse 29 states, and he said unto them, this kind can come forth by nothing but prayer and fast. Esther, along with her maidens and the Jewish people, fasted and prayed for the three days." This is a great challenge for believers today. Would you be willing to fast and pray three days for the salvation of others? Would you be willing to do that? If we as a church knew of a spiritual need and we called a three-day fast, would you partake in it? It's difficult. Because our food sometimes becomes our God. But the reality is when we stop making food our God, we can actually, you know, have God be God. Not that we have to let Him, but the Lord is a perfect gentleman. He's not going to impose Himself into anything unless He's a gentleman. And I've seen this work. I've seen this. My wife's cousin, who lives down in West Virginia, her name is Jess. Her husband's name is Brandon. Jess was a heroin addict. for years. Christmas Eve, three years ago, she OD'd. We prayed. We fasted. We prayed and we fasted and we prayed and we fasted. Well, there have been some difficult times between then and now, but the end of the story is that she's got two kids, her marriage is restored. She's living in West Virginia with her husband. And she is the spiritual cornerstone to her family. Not just her immediate family, but her entire family. She's the one reading every day. She's the one praying every day. She's the one that reads and prays and fasts for others. And that's not even the end of the story. Her husband had not been saved either. She called us and she goes, hey, can you guys, not us specifically, but like everyone up here in Ohio for family who was saved, can you guys pray and fast for somebody's soul salvation? She didn't tell us who. Okay, yeah, no problem. Who? Oh, don't worry about it. Okay, that's fine, we don't need to know. We prayed it, we fasted. I fasted for two days and prayed. Other people fasted for three days up to almost a week. And they came up, came to church, the home church that my wife grew up in. Heard the message. The gospel was given. Brandon got saved that day. Fasting and prayer does yield results. God honors that. God will use that. It didn't just happen thousands and thousands of years ago. It happened a couple of months ago. We can see, if we're looking closely, we can see the Bible lived out in lives today. We just have to look for it. So she had, Esther had, tough times. She had an uncertain future. She had an unapproachable king. Point number two, in those tough times, there were tender traits. People cared enough to speak, and they cared enough to fast and pray. Because of those tender traits in these tough, trying times, we have, and this is point number three, triumphant testimonies that we get to read about in God's perfect Word. It's exciting when God works. It is evidence in this case that God in His sovereignty turned the heart of the king Turn the heart of the king. Haman, who sought to be the destroyer, ultimately became the destroyed. When God does something wonderful, there are benefits that often affect more than one person. In this case, it affected all of the Jews. We'll get more into that here in a second. So who had triumphant testimonies here? Well, the first person, obviously, was Esther. Esther here has a triumphant testimony. We go to Esther chapter 8, verse 4. This is one verse, you don't have to turn there. But it says, then the king held out the golden scepter towards Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king. Esther 7.10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. That one needs a little bit of context. Basically what happened here, Haman had it out for Mordecai. Haman sought to kill Mordecai. Haman had actually had gallows prepared to destroy Mordecai. But, because of the way God worked, he was hanged off of those same gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Evil lost, God won. It's easy to see that Esther had been blessed by the Lord as early as chapter 2, verse 15. As the story comes to its conclusion, we see that, first of all, the king held out his golden scepter towards Esther and invited her into his presence. We see Esther asking the king to reverse the letters written by Haman, and God moved the king to tell Esther in verse 7 that he had given Esther the house of Haman and had Haman hang. The Word of God states that it took the hanging of Haman to pacify the king's wrath. That's point A, Esther's testimony. Point B is Mordecai's testimony. Because Mordecai was the helper in all this. Mordecai shares in this blessing as well. We go to Esther 8, 2, Esther chapter 8, verse 2, and it says, And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. How ironic. Esther 8.15 says, and Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple, and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. Now in that moment, all this apparel, all these nice things that you saw, read in Esther 8.15, King Asuerus went to Haman. He's playing with them a little bit. And you'll read this when you read the account. King Asauerus pulled Haman in to speak with him and he said, and Haman thought that he was, in this context, Haman thought that the king was speaking about Haman. So the king went up to Haman and said, the guest, what should we get him? What should he wear? Haman goes, oh, king, he should have this great white apparel with blue and white and you should put your ring on his finger. Oh, this and all that and all this. And the king said, oh, very good. We will go ahead and get all that from Mordecai. If there's a DVR of glory, one of the first things I want to see when I get on the other side of glory... Hey, can you show me that? I want to see Haman's face. Do you have that? Did you record that? I want that. I want to see it. So Mordecai had a great testimony here too. Esther's guardian, Mordecai, he came forth triumphant. It's not unusual for the people that do right to think that it's all for naught. Such undoubtedly was the case for Mordecai. He had saved the king's life and the king appeared to have wholly forgotten about it. Now that's in chapter 2 verse 21 through 23 for your reference. God in his time had Mordecai's actions revealed to the king. That's in chapter 6. Christians need to realize that God's blessings come when God decides the time is right. Sometimes it's quickly. Sometimes one has to wait a lengthy period of time, and sometimes one has to wait until eternity in heaven, but God is always just. He promises blessings in exchange for obedience. He promises blessings in exchange for obedience. After the Jews have been preserved, we see that Mordecai was rewarded by the king with apparel of blue and white, something Haman thought was for himself, a fine linen garment, and a crown of gold." That's in Esther 8, verse 15 that we read. In the final chapter in the book of Esther, the Bible says that the king advanced Mordecai and allowed him to have more power and might. The final verse of the book reveals that Mordecai was made the second most powerful man in the kingdom, where he was allowed to watch for his people. Mordecai had a phenomenal testimony here. Because Mordecai did the will of God and did the right thing, even when it wasn't easy. So we have Esther's testimony. It's triumphant. We have Mordecai's testimony, which is also very triumphant. Letter C, we have the people's testimony. Go to Esther 8, Esther chapter 8, verse 16 and 17. says, the Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. In every province, in every city, whether so ever the king commanded and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness. A feast and a good day, and many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. They went from having no influence on their way out the door, historically speaking, to having influence and having people join their ranks Because the fear fell upon them, because they had that much influence. That's amazing. That's something only God can do. If you let God write the story, that's the story He writes. The Bible said that there was light and honor for the Jews. Because the seeing of the good hand of God upon His people, when a tremendous challenge for believers today, that people would see God working in us and through us, that they too might realize that they were serving the true God, that we are serving the true God. People need to see that we're serving the true God. They need to see that what we're about isn't just something we're going to do for five years until we get bored and go on to the next thing. They need to see that this is a life commitment for us, that we are bloodwashed, born again, ready to do the Lord's work. They need to see that legitimate commitment from us, that complete sellout from us. And if they see that, they may not like it, but it'll intrigue them. It'll make them look at us twice. Now, that's a whole other sermon. We can go off on that for hours. In conclusion here, this is an example of a great woman. She's a woman of God. She endured tough times while never failing to stay gracious in her personal life. And she exuded tender traits which showed her love. And in the end, she was granted a triumphant testimony for that. by her God, through whatever life may bring, we always need to stay faithful. And if we stay faithful, if we do what God tells us to do, whether we like it or not, it may not be our version of good, but it will definitely be God's version of good.