Can You See It | Dr. Matthew Stevenson | Emerging In Emergency

and join me if you will at ester the fourth chapter the fourth chapter of the book of Esther and I'm going to preach one verse of Esther chapter 4 when you're there say I'm there Esther 4:14 and I want to read this in the King James Version and then we're going to declare the mystery unto you Esther 4:14 for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed and who knows whether thou art come into the kingdom for such a time as this father your word is powerful in life to me help me to preach it in Jesus name a man this morning's message is emerging an emergency emerging in emergency I love the word of God it is my absolute best friend my confidant my consolation my security my bodyguard I love God's Word and it is so filled with wisdom that it would take a million lifetimes to fully exhaust what the Word of God has to offer us and it is to the direction of the Word of God that we turn as believers as we're looking for answers on what's going on in our world today the book of Esther is extraordinarily rich and I think we've cheapened it because we normally only use it to preach women's breakfast but Esther has so much more to offer us than women and or female encouragement let me give you some background on what Esther is like the scene of the book of Esther is 100 years after the Babylonian exile and there is a Jewish community that decides to remain and some decide to escape they're living in a capital city in Persia called sucia and there are three primary characters in the book of Esther let's see if you know them the first one is a man by the name of Mordecai Mordecai is a very key figure in the book of Esther then you have the king there is a king there a strong king he has a very powerful bit inclination towards intoxicants he's the king of Persia but then you've got this other guy by the name of Haman Haman he's a very very very key figure in the book of Esther now here is where I want to lean in as we trust God for preaching power this morning of the 66 books in the Bible the book of Esther is the only one that never mentions God God is not mentioned one time in the book of Esther not one time you can look through the entire book of Esther and you do not find the name God the word got the phrase God and so the literary structure of the book of Esther was written in a profound technique that says even if you do not see him you can witness his action and know he's up to it what that means is that they have always been it's not new you have always been periods when people did not know what God was saying but to pay attention to what he was doing and know what to do based upon what he's allowing and so we see that this book is really really really full of odd reversals there are odd reversals uncommon a turnarounds and divine irony I want to take you through the history of this because if you brought up in church much like me you realize that scholars in order to pretty up this story have made this about America's next top model' what we did was we made this about a beauty pageant what it was really about a brothel this about an issue of a young woman being pretty enough to be found but what we did not discuss was human trafficking we took out the prostitution part of this and we made this a really pretty Disney story but I want to give you the gruesome facts around the book of Esther number one the book opens up god be praised with a 187 day banquet to celebrate the pride and the beauty of the king of Persia and on the last day of the banquet the King says bring me some maker's mark is there any more tequila back there bring me any come on open up we're here I want to know if there's anything else back there I don't want that New Testament why you and I wanted Old Testament stuff bring me some good heart look up and the Bible said that the King gets so drunk on the last day of his feasts then he goes for his current wife whose name is vashti vashti refuses because typical to any prostitute situation they do not want to insult themselves by appearing like they are equal among the other bed wives so that she does not respond in rebellion and the Bible says in a drunken rage the King gets rid of Vashti and now sets out a new call for someone to replace her this is how we are now introduced to him and because human is there and he is aiding the King he's a T of the king and what this is to look like now once she refuses to come there is a new decree say decree say decree because another theme of the book of Esther is whoever is in the right seat has to say the right thing if you are not in the right seat or you don't say the right thing then there cannot be divine reversal therefore there is a relationship now between a circumstance and the right statement from people that are in authority now the Bible says he holds this this fake beauty pageant and all of these people come from every province and he's sizing them up and he's looking at them and he comes somebody thin in the waist I can't get help nobody thin in the waist cute in the face you won't help me today but somebody who's not shaped like a two-litre god I love your powerful work she was a spouse yet anybody know what it means to be cornbread we here today she went to trotting down the aisle and the king of Persia said my gone from heaven who is that why he over there I wanna love you mighty pretty young and s it gives him face go over to God Sabrina she gives up she says ha ha and she saw because of her background listen to me she had a very much used what you got to get what you need attitude can we get real with this this was not a young woman Aryan who aspired to be a model this was a poor Jewish girl who saw one opportunity to get out and because she didn't have anything else she used her body to get ahead in life now you don't wanna tell the truth but even since the days I've set it off Jada was not the only one sleeping around to get their bills paid if you don't open up I'm a crack up in here there's about 20 of you right now that's got a mr. bill you can call every now and then to make sure you get your needs met but this is not a place of condemnation this is a place of a restoration it got you 2.8 but God's taking you to point victory so the Bible says she wins this pageant the King selects her but here is the deal whenever you are in a sinful dark cycle you can't really tell the truth about who you are in order to stay in something that God don't want you in you got to convince both yourself and other people that I'm not really Who I am so to knew that in order to make this thing work she could never let it out that she was a Jew if she ended up going before the King and letting him know that she was a Jew she probably would not have made the assist that she actually made so she wins and she wins in a real real real aggressive way it was unanimous and the Bible said that the King elevated her and made her the Queen now you know exactly what that means if you read this story in PG 13 you think this was a romantic process that he had horses and flowers everywhere no this was a grimy man he took her to the nearest whatever was available and officially installed her as queen is there anybody in here that's ever been in something where you felt dehumanized you felt like your value was not what it was supposed to be come on many of you don't know that I'm not talking to you suburban eyes I'm talking to those of you that got ugly stories of drunken uncles and rapes in the alleys and molestations before you had puberty I'm talking to people whose uterus got tilted because somebody violated them and they don't want to be able to open up about that I'm talking to folks that came to the church looking for Jesus and found a pedophile and pound somebody there to introduce them into the darkness behind the sacred desk I'm talking to people whose story is so ugly that they dare not testify about it because it's contributed to so much of who and how they are and they want to keep it in the time she gets elevated through a dirty circumstance she gets elevated from a motel 8 she gets elevated from a nasty place and now the scenes begin to turn without mention of God again where Mordecai who is a perfect example of a real intercessor Mordecai is walking and pacing back and forth one day just to make sure that his niece is safe now pay attention we don't know very much about Esther's mom and dad all we know is that the most responsible and consistent adult in her life was her uncle if you look into this there are several possibilities to why the girl was raised of all things by an uncle now many of us particularly if you grew up in the hood we know what is to happen to be a guard mama or grandmama or auntie ain't nobody raised by no uncles uncles our barbeque ways uncle uncle's our football player our uncles are those that make you dress yourself because they don't know what size you wear but the Bible said it Mordecai took responsibility was something that was not his problem that's what all intercessors do they take upon them the weight and the pressure of a problem that is not theirs i'ma get there at 11 o'clock but if you don't come out of selfish Christianity there is no way you're gonna ever have the power of God if you want the power of God you got to take on problems that are not yours I know you want me to turn my plow this means you got to grow your tail up to handle the problems and all yours so you can make space for problems that ain't yours if you want to prosper find the problem if you wanna thority find the problem if you want power find a problem Mordecai found the problem and he raised this problem and he groomed and now Mordecai is walking back and forth elder CFO and an ant and Mordecai because all real intercessors have an ear for detail listen Mordecai hears in the in the in the gates better of the guards are planning to kill the king he hears the details Esther he knows that the King loves Esther so Esther tells the King in safety and here we go one position in the kingdom listen to me he got there the king now because he has issues the King raises him enough and then demands that everybody in the province bow to him it bow to him this is this is a bound nose and lion jackleg and I want everybody to bow to him well when you get to Mordecai cuz I don't know I don't care what you say a real intercessor got Authority at the knee Ram you're not just gonna make somebody bow to something just because everybody else is doing again Mordecai look at that man and say they can all bow to you making all yield to you I'm walking right past you I know exactly what's in operation I'm not confused about what you did you're taking credit but what's not yours I will not I wish I had an uncompromising and we can be compassionate and not compromise it I'm not bowing these tongues ain't just for Sunday I've got a Monday ministry not just for you it's for dancing through culture and dancing Mordecai didn't bow to them and this enraged Eamon so Haman looks at more tequila oh I tell you what you're not going bow to me I'm gonna kill ya so what he does is he figures out that Monica is really a Jew cuz all this time listen the secret to the whole story is hidden identity he finds out the motive guys at you and says okay since you won't bow to me boost my ego make me feel like I am something more than what I am I'm gonna kill you and your people I'm going to enact a decree to kill you and everybody that looks like you I'm gonna just snatch off a whole generation I'm gonna make sure that you don't have the power to reproduce or to replicate I'm gonna make sure that nothing ever becomes of you so they go and they enact this illegal ungodly ferocious decree they another banquet now to celebrate this death order and this decree now you've got a strong situation where you've got more to con nervous you got Esther before the king or situated in the palace and you got a people that are under a death decree people that are under a label a standard and is scheduled to die here's where it gets juicy say pure that is a Hebrew word for dice what happens is while they are drinking this is where we get the Purim festival from it is a celebration of the Jews escape from the death decree under this King what happens was Hema says I let's roll some dice and see what day will kill them so literally he Gamble's rolls the dice and it lands on the number 11 and so they say 11 months from today we will kill everybody there can I just give you a real word from the Lord there are things gambling over your outcome right now by you sit here in south shore there are spiritual forces that are gambling and making bets on your demise making bets on whether not you're going to obey God making bets on whether or not you got the guts to make it through cultural confusion and inconsistency something is betting on you right now that you don't get so stressed you just don't stop something is betting on you right now that you're so emotionally depleted and you're so mentally confused that one criticism from your boss is going to drive you to suicide things betting over you right now that the pressures of motherhood the pressures of fatherhood and the pressures of leadership are gonna corrode you internally so you gonna become a walking talking zombie being what pain meet and dying on the inside but I believe there's about 20 people in here that's like devil don't hold your breath I'm not going to stop here I got nothing else to lose look at what's happened around me so he rolls the dice they choose a day and then 11 months later we end in an emergency an emergency the premise of this is an uncommon circumstance is the platform for an unusual calling an uncommon circumstance is a platform from for an unusual coming calling now if you are called of God unusually you cannot emerge when things are normal if you have an unusual amount of authority upon you then the normal the mundane the safe stages are not necessarily the most apropos for who you're going to be but it takes an emergency for some people to emerge it takes a crisis for some people's anointings to be clear therefore when any culture takes a turn for worse then those that know the name of God should be looking at what God has been teaching them when it was safe what God was showing them before the tragedy you know my the average Church in America is scared today because they didn't split the last three years ignoring the Holy Ghost they were so busy being seeker sensitive that they did not erect within their mich an altar but they could have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church everybody that still has corporate prayer everybody that still believes in the laying on of hands everybody that knows that there is a such thing that's Kairos time you could say that there was a tornado coming South Chicago and this crazy church right here their hands and begin to speak with tongues up and say in the name of Jesus I boots the winds and the ways you got to get out of here you go over there but this is a no danger zone an emergency an emergency so now this is the backdrop this is the situation you got a woman who is probably sexually and familiarly broken you got an uncle who feels like he's at a disadvantage because now you got somebody that's perpetrated information to get a promotion in his name one Mordecai walks up to his niece and say hey boo appreciate your frankincense and your myrrh and your roller set and your linen but your people are in an emergency I realize listen that you're very comfortable and I realize that you're very content right now because the presence of contentment does not mean the absence of a crisis just because you feel okay with where you are does not mean that things are not going adversely around you but in our lack of sensitivity to the world around us sometimes we are anchored in personal accomplishment and personal contentment so much so that we don't realize that the crisis is the premise for our calling listen to me so the Bible said in Mordecai walked up on Esther and said listen to me he does not mention God here's what he says he say he said he says listen if you don't do something now come I want you to put your hand on yourself say self don't just stand here do something I can't hear you say self o self don't just stand there do something look at what Mordecai preached to him I love this morning I told us these if you don't do something then fine but you can believe that enlargement and deliverance I love that it's going to come from somewhere now it's either gonna come from you or from your replacement but God is gonna get his job done whether you cooperate or not you may as well yeah cuz plots gonna answer people whether you are available or not now the second point that is this if God's going to deliver you it's because he wants to enlarge you he's not just trying to deliver you so you can walk around feeling better the Bible said deliverance and I want you to hit yourself Rock the shoulder and just say and enlargement come on say and enlargement I said hits Assoc and enlargement I declare over you that in the next thirty days you not just don't be free you're so gonna be made not just don't feel liberated a change in your level something is about to come from somewhere just wanna bring deliverance and enlargement scream hallelujah whoa touch me myself and I read and say enlargement enlargement enlargement I can't hear you say enlarge and I'm trying to let this go but I and feel something getting bigger around me say enlarged with it larger in the last season of your life your problems are getting bigger your feels were kidding yeah your worries were getting bigger your diagnosis was getting bigger but there is about to be a divine turn around there is about to be an ironic reversal there is about to be an unlikely outcome and it's going to be deliverance and enlarge if you don't do this woman man boy girl apostle property managers the democrat-republican then the setting is going to happen without you because the future can either happen through you or to you and if you're not situated in such a way where you're cooperating with the plan of God it's going to devastate your complacency he says you don't have anything else to lose you're set up with your pearls and your and your perfume but your people will die I think one of the issues I got to get there at 11:00 with our Christianity is we became Christians but didn't become humanitarians what is a non humanitarian Christian what is a Christian worth that has no empathy towards the human condition but how does a Christian contribute to a world that they know nothing about is your goal heaven people were getting there without the blood and getting there it was a place called Abraham's bosom I don't have the time but if your goal is heaven then you'll have nothing to do on the earth you can be comfortable get your degree sell your cookies but your people are going to die you're gonna watch and see that your story means nothing your rate means nothing your molestation means nothing the fact that you were a human traffic means nothing because you were running for safety but did not become a deliverer you were running for your own image and your own platform and your own banner publication but no deliverance came through you so you can sit here and great this cup and all you want but your people like the iconic phrase in the context of this gruesome story the ester preaches to us is all right I have nothing to lose if I perish I perish can I ask you a question what are you going to do it have you ever come on open up have you ever thought about what you were willing to die for because it's a fiend you're willing to die for that should determine what you're living for if you don't know something that's worth your death then you don't really have a life you've got a hobby you've got a goal you got a vision board but what puts in life in life is a reason to die and we don't love anything that much that we're gonna lay our life down I know this is the ancient gospel we live in convenient Christianity where we want to and here's a problem in regions around the world there's very much a martyrdom issue where people are loving their lives literally unto death they're saying I'm willing to die for a Bible I'm willing to the in the name of Jesus may the entire all nations worship assembly come out of corrupt evangelical Christianity that's got this thing situated to give us a frame and torture may we be situated like a city upon here may we be the salt that didn't lose its savor and maybe authority upon these people be global deliverance enlargement not just convenience and pretty media we don't have a pretty gospel we don't have a coupon gospel this thing is raw and brutal and ugly and you ought not ask for miracles if you scared of emergencies what do you think signs and wonders is for it's not for you to say that target and wall box that's not why you need a sign and a wonder you need a sign and a wonder when people are like where is God what is he saying what is he doing and the data has got us scratching our heads in times of emergency instead of emerging breaking the ground if I perish I perish but I'm going in I'm going in because I'm more concerned with my legacy than my convenience I'm going in cuz I'm not just working on my autobiography well I'm working on my eulogy I'm going in because I want more people saved in my death I want you know that in my life I want to be like a dr. King glory to God who was willing to in imperfection and in frustration do it against the grain and then have a national holiday where people say if it were not for that I wish I had somebody that had a vision bigger than this year that had a bishop bigger than where you're going you don't need no money if you're only living for the moment money if what you're doing is raising up monuments of deliverance and events of freedom and celebration what would you do if you could come back from the dead and see a museum honoring you what would you do if you can watch how people greet you in death wishing they hadn't appreciated you this is why you have to live like a legend do not postpone your greatest energy and your greatest effort so when you feel like you're ready ready or not do it here and gods gonna sing deliver it's through your obedience the church is afraid to talk like this because it scares people away but if how gospel be here it is here to those that are lost for the god of this world hath blinded them everybody's woke until it's an emergency you a new york in the middle this serve god I grew up 64 24 South Langley I dodge bullets as a sport do you think I'm gonna run hear from somebody sneeze it they had rifles on my box I walked over dead bodies to get to school I didn't get saved to get solved I got P with the Holy Ghost so that there could be a harness [Applause] emergency's of the opportunity for those of us that are going to believe put your hand on your chest say self what you gonna do so I believe what we have before us over the next two weeks is an opportunity to present what we've been working on I said what we got over the next several weeks is an opportunity to present what we've been working from working on theories but the turnaround came when she went before the king there was a penalty you could not go before royalty without because she's like anyway so I want you to put your hand up there's something that's gonna work this next week there is something about it but you are about to say it's me surprise [Music] as I said I'ma be truthful with you I've been acting like them I've been behaving like them I've been hanging with them but I ain't really one of them she said I know you fell in love with the version of me that you first saw but that ain't the real me I was ahead I know you attached to the version of me that made your most comfortable but if I would have told you there now that I was really set up hard time if I would have told you then then I was only in a season huh but that wasn't my real identity then you wouldn't have given me the situation that I'm in now but I'm here and it's too late put your hand on your head that's so weird and say in the name of Jesus the Holy Ghost to arise in you come on church and be brave you ain't no Punk you ain't nowhere pop you ain't no scary cat this is the greatest hour but the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and how are you gonna see what you're going to saw for this time I'm going in I'm going in I'm going in I'm going in I'm gone in well what if you perish then what's going to happen is what they will write is that he or she or it went down saving lives and she and or it went down restoring the loss and giving hope the situation would have it that now if you look at the top of the story at the back of the story Heymann who was the perpetrator is now dead but the one who plotted the wrong got wrong about what he plotted he's literally dead now Mordecai was raised up to do what his adversary was doing can I give you a word from the Lord there is a devil somewhere babysitting your next-door I can't okay I said there is a demon somewhere taking care of your next role and responsibility I want to talk to somebody that's discouraged because it looked like the wicked is ruling they're just holding it down until you're it they're just maintaining it until you're it they're just situating it until you're ready I feel some governor's in this room right now I feel some senators in this room right now there's some congressmen in this room right now there's some Congress women in this room right now I see some superintendents looking in my place right now there's some CEOs right now there's some CFO's right now I think I've got a Supreme Court justice chewy I'm done I will never stop being fascinated and who God decides to call this whole story is phenomenal because it shows that God raises people just because let me go to a brothel find an orphan let me go to Nazareth and find a teenager I'm gonna go pass everybody that thinks they're going there and I would deliberately find somebody who no they can't go there and I will raise them up to get glory out of them we've got to come hear the word of the Lord we've got to come into our fainting Christianity that tells the whole story the reason the nation has no hope and Christianity's because she's not authentic she gives a pretty story she leaves out detail this is why people look at Christmas oh that's so nice but they're not flabbergasted and they're not at all because people tell the versions of the story that's most palatable but it's the ugly truth that secures the future it's the bloody details that brings deliverance if you've been through a hell it's because you're supposed to bring heaven stop lying about the fact that your mama was a crackhead it's not lying act like you know who your real daddy is acting like you were not raped by your family but details are the stage for the deliverance of another and if you can see this it'll give you the victory you never suffered nothing for yourself everything you've ever been through was for the sake of somebody who hasn't met you yet but if you had to match you'll never have a ministry it's time for us to compromise and to emerge in the middle of chaos and in the middle of crisis eventually Esther finds favor with the king and she's situated as she's remembered in an era but nobody's mentioning god she's remembered as the queen that delivered an emancipated and entire people I heard the Holy Spirit say what you gon do WH a TCH you gon do what you gonna do you've got an unparalleled opportunity over the next several weeks to sit down and catch up on some sleep you're going vacate your way out of the emergency you're gonna catch up on some shows you go Netflix and chill and you don't have eyes to see that the hearts of millions are wide open right now I'll get there at 11:00 you don't have eyes to see that we have an apostolic obligation are we gonna scratch our heads like the Jehovah's Witness in [Music] we're gonna use this next month to down and to bash the government or are you gonna reveal yourself this may mean that something that you've been working on that you don't think is as ready you may have to risk presenting it now because maybe the problem is your perfectionism God will allow for a time to happen for you to hurry up and do what he's been told you to do the situation does not mandate that what you're working on does not have flaws so what are you gonna do it's gonna sit here hope nah we bout to rain God has given us even through this a tremendous opportunity don't be afraid even in Exodus Moses prophesied a judgment miracle and the firstborn was taken out there was one thing that mattered on every door the blood where we are now as we're forced to wrestle with who believes in it or not where I see the blood I'll pass over you and I'm not gonna pass over you because you're good I'm gonna pass over you because I'm good what are you working on use this time to get the leverage you got time off work you got time with your kids get them filled with the Holy Ghost tennis is wonderful golf is nice but see what they believe about God if they're old enough to ask you questions about Corona they should be old enough to know who the Christ is don't be nervous focus you're supposed to produce something this is of God I think it's of the devil but God is using this as surely as I speak his word to find out if we understand the power of discerning the moments they're looking for answers we're not we've got him he's a man born of a virgin now thirty and two generations and he's seen this before I said he's seen this before this has happened over and over again but he's going to get glory those that trust him put your hand on your own belly in the name of Jesus I've got a river of life flowing out of me and makes the lame to walk and the blind to see I've got a river of life springing out of me a river of life it opens prison doors and making captives free spring up all well within my soul spring up all well and make me whole spring up all well and bring to me the type of life that flows eternally in the name of Jesus father your word declares but if we would believe on you as the scripture has said that out of our bellies would flow rivers and right now there is like a desert thing that's trying to happen in America and you're not to create random wells you've already built one within your people I'm asking that those under the sound of my voice would not be under fear or not be under timidity that they were not going panic or worry or anxiety but let a brand-new spirit of creativity a brand-new audacity a brand-new Authority give them dreams and visions that are possible right now help them to see the divine opportunity in the name of Jesus and I'm also asking father that you would shake the earth right now those that wouldn't ordinarily look to you we can to schedule the phone call schedule the meetings my god schedule the coffee arrangements of those that had a hard hard top that now Bearheart through our harsh times I will position us strategically with the name of Jesus it's almost like I'm having a vision of a chessboard right now ronamoon us strategically now move us in the direction of the Train in the direction of conquest in the direction of battle I give your people what to say give your people want to know give your people what - here give your people what to do now right here right now I bought the all over this building right now that you are not bound with but you are like to talk in your face when you you're taking me other type of now Jamie the type of favor that Blue Devils are the spirit of Hey give a plate up plumbing a double portion for the all basic worship Virgil I can took a head come on some phone calls over pauses [Music] one of those

Channel: All Nations Chicago

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Length: 43min 23sec (2603 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 18 2020