For Such a Time as This (Esther 1)

well quick poll how many of you like fairy tales raise your hand up it's okay guys it's okay I don't like him now come on now I'll tell you what if you have girls you probably are very familiar with fairy tales I have of course four granddaughters so I become very schooled in all the fairy tales all the princesses it's a sad thing but I contain pretty much every Disney princess now because my grandmother's are very specific in which ones they want and so forth and they even like me to make up fairy tales you might describe them as fractured fairy tales where I will tell a story and they want to be in the story so whatever the story's about there needs to be four little princesses and it needs they need to happen to have the same names as my granddaughter so I'll tell these stories and then they always want me to work in a Wicked Witch of course and and a mermaid and mermaids are problematic aren't they I don't know how to fit them in sometimes but they want a mermaid in this story as well now so many fairy tales have sort of a similar trajectory if you will sort of a rag to riches story a beautiful obscure girl often living with wicked stepsisters is found by her prince in this rescue door maybe she's living in the forest with seven small men which sounds questionable but anyway you know there's a similarity of most of the fairy tales and they usually end with the words and they lived happily ever after the problem is life is not a fairy tale life is full of pain and unexpected twists and turns but we know in the end and the biggest picture of all we all will live happily ever after when we get to heaven but the story before us now is in some ways at least in its early stages like a fairy tale there's no fairies there's no witches there's no princess and there are certainly no mermaids but there's a beautiful orphan girl who wins a beauty contest and becomes a queen there's an evil man that plots our destruction as well as the destruction of her people but because of her courage and her bravery she saves her people and indeed they live happily ever after of course I'm talking about the beautiful young Jewish girl named Hadassah she has better known as Queen Esther but she was not always the Queen and that's where our story begins you know a unique feature of the book of Esther as the name of God is never specifically mentioned for that matter the Lord is never referenced or or even prayed to in an overt way yet clearly got us all over this book from beginning to end the Lord is present in every scene and in the movement of every event and that's just a good reminder for us as Christians that even when it seems as though the Lord is not present indeed he is see as Christians we don't believe in coincidence we believe in Providence let me say that again as Christians we do not believe in coincidence we believe in Providence what does that mean Providence or the sovereignty of God means that God is in control we're told in Psalm 20 or 37:23 the steps of the godly are directed by the Lord he delights in every detail of their lives you know sometimes people will come to and ask me to tell them what my favorite Bible passages and that's harsh because I have a lot of passages that I like and really it depends on the situation you know if I'm going through a difficult time or I'm in need of something my favorite passage for that moment would be Philippians 4 that says don't worry about anything but pray about everything and the peace of God that passes all human understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus when I look at this crazy world or unexpected events happen in my life that make no extense I'm reminded of John 14 where Jesus said let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid you believe in God believe also in me but overall if I had to pick one verse that I come back to often it would probably be Jeremiah 29:11 I bet it's a favorite of some of you as well where God says I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a home I love that because it just points out that God is thinking about me it doesn't say God speaking I know the single thought that I thought about you for a nanosecond says the Lord if it said that to me that would have been far more than I would ever deserve but it actually doesn't say that it says God speaking I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord how many thoughts are there many more than you can count but that could be good or bad depending on well the mood of God if God is angry with me if God is against me and I find out he's thinking about me all the time this is not a good thing right but no he goes on to say I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope or a better translation would be unexpected in so that's just a simple reminder that God is aware of everything that is happening to us Chuck Swindoll and his excellent commentary on the book of Esther writes these words and I quote God's presence is not as intriguing as his absence his voice is not as eloquent as his silence who of us have not longed for a word from God search for a glimpse of his power or yearned for the reassurance of his presence only to feel that he seems absent from the moment distant preoccupied yet later we realized how present he was all along end quote so the story of Esther begins with the powerful Xerxes now Xerxes was a powerful King he reigned over the vast Persian Empire which ranged from India to Ethiopia he was raised as a royal he was the son of Darius the great he was a grandson of Cyrus the great history depicts King Xerxes as physically towering over his contemporaries we also know from history that he was an intolerant and insensitive man let's just say he was liking in people skills so one day search he's the king the all-powerful monarch decides that they're gonna have a massive feast and it's gonna last for a hundred in 80 days and everyone in the kingdom was invited the food was plentiful and the wine was flowing freely the drinks were on the house courtesy of King Xerxes and imagined the great power he felt as everybody was present for this massive celebration and the King decides to bring in his beautiful Queen Vashti and so she is brought in because he wants to sort of parade her before his lords and his subjects but it's interesting because as we read it in the text it would appear that he wanted her to come in wearing her crown and nothing else in other words he wanted Vashti to come in naked and walk around so where everyone could admire this beautiful woman who effectively did whatever the King wanted her to do well to her credit Vashti flat out refused she didn't want to be humiliated now the King is in a quandary because all of his chauvinist buddies say hey you can't let this pass say if she can get away with this and none of our wives are gonna do what we tell them to do anymore they're gonna say well looking at Vashti disobey the king why should we obey you you've got a deal harshly with Queen Vashti and so Vashti was out she was fired she was relieved of duty she was removed from the throne so now the king needs a new queen well what better way to do that then they have a beauty contest a Miss Persia beauty contest the most beautiful woman in the kingdom would now become the next Queen so the word goes out and it's distributed in the country and and all the young beautiful women are brought in now we read the story and we think well what does this even matter well I'll tell you why it matters because God was setting things in place for a bigger event that was gonna happen a little further down the road God needed to get his person Esther into the palace to do his work it's a good reminder that big doors swing on small hinges and as you look back at your life you'll often find that what seemed like small events turned out to be very significant events and the larger scheme of things that's certainly the case in this story before us now and so now here comes Esther let's read about it we're in Esther chapter 2 and we're gonna start in verse 5 and I'm reading from the New Living Translation now with the fortress of Susa there was a certain Jew named Mordecai son of jr. he was from the tribe of Benjamin was a descendant of Kish in Shamai his family had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar along with King Jehoiakim of Judah and many others this man had a beautiful and lovely young cousin named Hadassah who was also called Esther when her mother and father died Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter as a result of the Kings decree Esther along with many other young women were brought to the Kings harem at the fortress of Susa and placed in Hegyes care heck I was impressed when Esther with Esther and treated her kindly he quickly ordered a special menu for her and provided her with beauty treatments he so assigned seven maids specifically chosen from the king's palace and he moved her in her maids into the best place in the harem so we'll stop there so the search is on for the next great beauty of Persia whoever wins this contest will become the next queen I mean isn't this the dream of so many young girls today you know to be a princess to be a queen or at least to be famous I read an interesting article and the paper that pointed out that American teenagers are fixated on fame the start of went on to point out that more than 1/3 of them would prefer Fame to Beauty intelligence or strength even more problematic these dream these teams are not just dreaming about being famous they're planning on it 31 percent of American teenagers expect to be famous one day it's amazing this desire for notoriety well whoever won this beauty contest was gonna be famous for sure and I don't think Esther had any interest in this whatsoever she probably just expected that one day she would marry a nice Jewish boy and she would live in obscurity and and just serve God and and live her life out not unlike Mary who lived in that little village of Nazareth just expected to marry a good man and serve the Lord and never realizing that she would be chosen to be a fulfillment of prophecy and the mother of the Messiah and I don't think that Hadassah or Esther ever in her wildest dreams ever thought she would save an entire nation I don't think she was pining for notoriety I don't think she was posting selfies on her Instagram page or sending out tweets you know no I think she was just living her life but the fact of the matter is this girl was drop-dead gorgeous she was beautiful and so when this beauty contest is put on she stood out from all the rest of the ancient Jewish historian Josephus tells us there were as many as 400 women involved in this competition and they had to be virgins and then they experienced what we would call today a makeover we would call them Meads as they're described in Scripture stylists you know who will come in and put your wardrobe together do your makeup for you they put her on a diet as well so girls losing weight there's nothing new of course even back then we want to get you in the best shape you can be we want you to stand up from all the other girls we want you to catch the Kings eye and then your dreams will all come true well here's young Hadassah in the middle of all of this and the bible does tell us she was beautiful informed and lovely to look at so we know she was really attractive but here's what I think not only was she beautiful on the outside Hadassah Esther was beautiful on the inside this is a good reminder of the fact that we all have talents and gifts that God has given us and one of Esther's talents or her gifts you might say was she was extraordinarily beautiful you know often when you meet a person who is beautiful or super handsome sometimes well not always but sometimes they can be a little bit on the shallow side am i right why because well they've had an easy life compared to others you know because they were attractive maybe they were singled out by the teacher maybe they were given special favors and so maybe they didn't have to work as hard as somebody else who didn't have those attributes you know they're used to walking in a room and having people look at them like wow they are so beautiful and saying it to them you are so beautiful can I give you the best seat can I do anything for you and so they live sort of a self indulged life you know sometimes people who are super attractive I've never had this problem you know they've never met a mirror they don't like you've heard the old joke you know how do you drowned a blonde you put a mirror at the bottom of a pool okay so get it Oh am I gonna get letters from blonde people now I was blonde once believe it or not just a long time ago but you know there's a vanity there that some people have you know they've got that Zoolander pose right for the photo it's funny you know you look at people posing them they've got the full pose gone like the certain look and they have the same look in every picture they're very aware of their attractiveness but not everyone has that but Esther did but what's really impressive about her is not just that she was beautiful you really don't determine if you're beautiful or not I mean you can do the best with what you've got but ultimately that's just something you're born with it's a gift but she had inner character to match it and as we'll see later she had great courage now maybe you've been blessed with beauty maybe you've been blessed with brains maybe you've been blessed with both maybe you have a musical talent an artistic talent then again maybe you're good at crunching numbers or building things one can be a great visionary another person may be more of a detail person but everybody has gifts that God has given them secures that we need to do we need to discover our talents in gifts and cultivate them and use them for the glory of God first Timothy 4 tells us to not neglect the gift that God has given to us or as another translation puts it keep your gift dusted off and any use so here's my question do you know what your gifts are do you know what your abilities are sometimes the way to discover what you're good at is by first discovering what you're not good at it's called process of elimination I read a story about Walt Disney that was quite the visionary who used to tell this story about a little boy circus came to town and they were gonna have a parade so the band master needed someone to play the trombone and the little boy signed up well this little guy had March to block before the horrible racket coming from his horn caused two old ladies to faint and a horse to run away so the band master demanded from the little boy why didn't you tell me you couldn't play the trombone the little guy replied well how did I know I'd never tried before and this is the thing you just try you know when we say we need help in this area of our ministry or that area you said well I'm not called to do that well how do you know have you ever tried it you know why don't you just get out there and take a step of faith and see how it works out for you you know teach a little Bible study at lunch break for your fellow Christians and see what happens volunteer to do that one thing that nobody else wants to do you might make a discovery you might find that you're gifted in an area that you never thought you were gifted in trust me when I tell you I never aspired to be a public speaker I like to do art and design I like to work behind the scenes I remember I had a class in high school what we had to get up and given impromptu speech and I was terrified by the prospect of it you know you've heard that when people are pulled in their ass but their greatest fears are in almost every case and number one fear of most people is having to speak publicly sometimes even more than their fear of death but I've always found interesting what would you rather do Dyer speak publicly kill me now so I never wanted to be a speaker per se maybe it's because they never really had anything to say but after I became a Christian little opportunities opened up for me to talk here and there and I realized that God had given me an ability so I tried to develop that gift we all have a give one gift is not better than another gift it's only different finding the gift that God has given to you and use it leverage it number two there is a time to speak up and there's a time to be quiet there's a time to speak up and there's not time to be quiet good verse 10 of chapter 2 Esther had not told anyone of our nationality in family background for Mordecai had told her not to so she's living in Persia modern-day Iran by the way I she's living among a people that don't believe in the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of Israel Hadassah Esther is a Jewish girl she does not identify herself as such she does not say I believe in the true and living God now some would read this and I've read commentaries that end up on both sides of this debate but some are critical about her saying that she was effectively compromising her faith she should have spoken up immediately and said I am a Jew well I think that may be true that she should have done that but sometimes we have to understand that there is a time to be quiet you know there are some people out there that feel that there's their job to bombard everyone they meet with the gospel but here's what I've discovered sometimes God wants me to sow a seed sometimes God wants me to water a seed that someone else has sown and sometimes God wants me to reap where others have sown in water as Paul said one sells another waters God gives the increase you might be surprised to know that I don't give a gospel presentation to everyone a means so when I'm in a restaurant I don't say I love the hamburger and the fries and by the way have you accepted Christ as your Savior I'm not saying there's something wrong with that though that would be a little abrupt but the point I'm trying to make is you pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit when you're out and about you know there are some people out there that you know they're a little weird and they're Christians and and so sometimes we sort of attribute their weirdness to their Christianity I suggest you they were weird to begin with there's just weird people some of you are weird people many of you would think I'm a weird person I don't know what to say I don't think I'm weird most weird people don't think they are but the fact is they're theirs they're out there they're out here okay and here's the good news God can save strange people converging doesn't make you unstrained it just makes you safe you see but just to make have your unusual qualities that make you who you are but often it's the weird people if you will that are more verbal than let's say the normal people so there might be the ones that are the most vocal so non-believers will look at them and say well I don't know if I want to become a Christian because I might end up like them so here's my point I thank God for normal Christians salt of the earth people that love God you know and our faithful husbands and wives and and serve the Lord and work hard and get out there and do what they can and share the gospel when the opportunities come in Esther was just being salt in this situation she was gonna have an opportunity to speak up and and be more vocal in time but there was a place for just kind of being quiet at times and waiting for the right opportunity but make no mistake about it she was a godly and attractive woman that would soon be a powerful tool in the hands of God and make no mistake about it God can use an attractive woman this is how I got saved folks nobody invited me to a Bible study nobody said Greg we were really been burdened about your salvation and we want you to come now I just saw a cute girl a cute girl that caught my eye and happened to be carrying a Bible and I wanted to know why she would be into what she was into and a resulted in me he's dropping on the Bible study she was attending at lunchtime on my high school campus and heard the gospel and I came to Christ and Jack Gibbs says a similar testimony doesn't he Jack was here recently and Jack story is similar to mine Jacqueline's just out partying and living his life as a young man and one day he saw a car full of cute girls and he said why wonder where they're all going he literally followed this car of girls that pulled into the parking lot of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa they were going to a Bible study so Jack out of curiosity walked in sat down and I happen to be preaching he ended up accepting Christ so here's my point I'm not saying that you have to be a hot chick for Jesus again here's what I'm saying though that's not a bad thing husbands are we in agreement on that come on come on okay Melissa here's what I'm really saying I'm actually seeing the opposite of that if you're attractive or you're not as attractive do the best with what you can but the thing that set ester apart and the thing that will set you apart girls is the godly quality inside of you it's called virtue that's why she was used so powerfully by the Lord proverbs 31 describing a virtuous woman says beauty is empty a woman who reverence as the Lord shall be praised or as a modern translation puts it charm can mislead and beauty soon fades but the woman to be admired and praised as the woman who lives in the fear of God we're starting up our virtue Bible study this week that's what we call our women's Bible study here at harvest my wife Cathy is speaking this coming week up for it and I would encourage all you girls to be a part of the virtue Bible studies these are great studies where they're looking at the life of Christ and you'll learn more about how to be that woman of God that woman of virtue that he wants you to be so Esther she was playing it cool she was waiting for the right moment to do the right thing now if this was a fairy tale the story could have ended you know obscure peasant girl elevated to the throne wins the beauty contest becomes the queen of Israel or excuse me the queen of Persia the end of they lived happily ever after oh no this story is just getting started every good story needs a protagonist it needs a villain and this story certainly has one his name is Kaman he was power-hungry and he would do anything he needed to do to manipulate his way to a higher position at present Heymann was the prime minister of Persia so one day he's walking down the street proud as a peacock expecting everyone to bow before him and everyone did because they feared Kaman except one guy Mordecai the cousin of Esther he saw him he felt why should I bow before him so everyone's bowing and there stands Mordecai hey what's up excuse me you're supposed to be bowing now bow no no I'm not gonna bow before you will this made Haman so angry he was incensed and he decided he wanted to have Mordechai executed and as he found out more about Mordechai realizing he was a Jew not only did he want to execute Mordechai he wanted to eliminate all of Mordecai's people when you talk about holding a grudge because Mordechai would not bow before him he wanted to kill Mordechai and the entire Jewish race it was sort of a precursor to the final solution in world war two Abbey Adolphe Hitler the elimination of the Jewish people this was sort of the first phase of that and now here's our story in Chapter three go over there look at verse eight Esther three verse eight see he can't just do this on his own he's got to get the King to sign off on it then human approach King Xerxes and said there is a certain race of people scattered throughout the province of your empire there are different from those of any other nation and they refused to obey even the laws of the king so it's not in the Kings interest to let them live if it please your majesty issue a decree that they be destroy and I will give you 375 tons of silver to the government administrator so they can put it in the royal treasury the King agrees confirming the decision by removing the signet ring from his finger and giving it to Haman the enemy of the Jews keep the money the king told Haman but go ahead and do as you like with these people so human lies hey these people don't obey your laws in fact the Jews were law-abiding citizens it's just that in this case Mordechai would not bow before Haman but the Kings flatter oh yes they don't obey me they don't honor me as they should yeah let's just wipe them out it shows the heartlessness of Xerxes as well and little desert seas know that he was effectively sealing his own Queens death even Xerxes did not know that his beautiful bride was a Jew so this decree is published and posted throughout the entire empire there they would put signs up you're all going to die to the Jews in one year I mean if it wasn't bad enough that Heymann wanted them all killed he gave them a year to think about it reminds us again of World War two when the Jewish people had wear these little yellow armbands with the Star of David on it and soon their businesses were being trashed and and then their businesses were shut down and then they were sent to the ghettos and then ultimately they were shipped off to concentration camps where they were being executed and gassed and so here is heme and I'm gonna give you a year to think about it a year to be stressed out about it now Esther's gonna find out why she won that beauty contest and why she was queen as I said earlier there was not a coincidence it was Providence so there's public in the city there's weeping in this and the streets Mordecai goes to the palace but he can't get in security is tight you know he can't get the attention of Esther and so he is out on the street trying to make himself visible to the Queen and here's a problem that Esther faced at this time she was disconnected she didn't know what was going on secluded in the luxury of the palace being waited on hand and foot having all the beauty treatments and in everything that a person could want I guess she didn't know about the plight of her people right outside of the doors of the palace so finally word gets to her your cousin Mordecai is out on the street in sackcloth and ashes weeping maybe you should do something she said oh yes let's do something here send him some clean clothes and so she sends a change of clothing to Mordecai and Mordecai thinking girl and you are missing the point it's isn't about clean clothes this is about your people the Jews were about to die his little cousin Hadassah needed a wake-up call so he sends back a decree give this to Queen Esther if you wouldn't mind and that the cream was the one signed by the king authored by Haman that called for the execution of all of the Jewish people so here now as Esther in a dilemma what do I do about this if I go and approach the King without permission I could be executed seeing this culture you couldn't just walk in to the king's throne room you had to be summoned and if you were to walk in unannounced or unexpected you could be put to death right on the spot for that act of disrespect so her own life could be lost in the process so she's sort of struggling with this but here's the way I see this Esther is a lot like many Christians today were removed from what's really happening you know we have sort of entered into our little Christian subculture and to me I find it humorous we always have to have a Christian version of everything these days you know whatever there is out there we have a Christian version we have Christian radio Christian TV Christian books Christian music and that's all great we have Christian hotels Christian gyms you name it we have Christian apparel you know I don't want to wear secular clothes I'm only gonna wear Christian clothes I think we need a Christian car I'm tired of secular cars you know the Christian car the radio stations are only set to Christian stations when you hit the GPS that not only tells you where to go it can also give you biblical counsel right when you hit the horn instead of a loud blare it says God bless you would you move please praise the Lord I don't know what the car won't start unless you begin in prayer remember the ejector seat in James Bond's Aston Martin and Goldfinger this one has one too but it's it's activated by the sound of a trumpet for the rapture your sunroof Oh see out the top you go we live in a Christian bubble and sometimes were removed from what's going on in the outside how people are suffering how people need to cure the gospel Esther was disconnected from her people she was disconnected from reality and now the wake-up call is gonna come Esther chapter 4 verse 10 then Esther told hot to go back and relay this message to Mordecai the whole world knows that anyone who appears before the king in this inner core without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter the King has not called for me to come to him now Mordecai was gonna put into plain English or Hebrew what Hadassah needs to hear look at Esther for verse 13 Mordecai sent this reply back to Esther don't think for a moment that you will escape there in the palace when all the other Jews are killed if you keep quiet at a time like this lorentz of the Jews will arise from some other place but junior relatives will die what's more who can say but that you've been elevated to the palace for such a time as this that's why I called the message for such a time is this Hadassah has it ever dawned on you that God puts you there for this moment has it ever occurred to you this was never about a beauty contest this was about being in a position of influence to save your people here's a thought what if your entire life has been preparation for this moment what of all that you've gone through in your life has been getting you ready for what is about to happen has God placed you where you are for such a time is this listen there's only one you there's only one person walking this earth with your exact heritage who's experienced the events that you have experienced who has gone through this suffering that you have gone through and it's brought you to this hour just as no snow to snow flakes are exactly alike two people are not the same either God has been prepping you for this moment and now God wants to use all that you've gone through see here's the problem a lot of times we don't like what we're at we complain about where God has placed us you know I don't like this neighborhood I live and I don't like the people I have to work with I don't like these people I'm related to I don't like this and they don't like that wait a second is it possible you're there for such a time as this and my answer is of course it's possible it's more than possible it's reality God is in control of your life now are you willing to be the person that God wants you to be you need to ask yourself the question I am where I am and I can't necessarily change that but what can I do to bring glory to God how can I take this position that I'm in good or bad easy or hard use it to bring others to faith in Jesus Christ how can I use this position in a productive way so here's Esther on the horns of a dilemma she could die if she goes to see the king but she knows what she has to do you see she was not a fragile drama queen she was a courageous Hebrew warrior and it was time to fight put away the makeup and take out the sword and it's time to do what God has called you to do Esther and she was ready for battle 1 commentary summed it up this way and I quote wherever there is at people of God there are enemies of God a realization that there is an enemy forces a reassessment of priorities the moment came in surfaced Esther began to move from being a beauty queen to becoming a Jewish Saint from being an empty-headed sex symbol to being a passionate intercessor from the busy and doughnut life in the harem to the high-risk venture of speaking for and identifying with God's people and quote and I love what Esther says look at Esther 4 verse 15 Esther sent this reply to Mordecai go and get all the Jews together and fast for me another way the same pray for me do not eat or drink for three days night or day my mates and I will do the same and then although it is against the law I will go in and see the king if I must die I'm willing to die all right I'm gonna do it I'm gonna I'm gonna take this on now I may die doing it but I'm willing to do it so pray for me as I go and see the king I would say the same thing to all of you you know as we do these Crusades pray for us and I'll pray for you as we engage in bringing the gospel the devil hates the gospel the devil hates any effort on the part of the people of God to engage others with the message that can change their eternal destiny he will oppose it in any way that he can so here now is Esther ready to take this step of faith so what do we learn in closing well there's a lot but here's just one simple thing we learned that our lives belong to God he created us he's called us he's gifted us and now he wants to use us we need to step out of our Christian bubble and pay attention to the people around us instead of cursing the darkness we need to turn on the light we need to ask the Lord when we should be quiet and when we should speak just as the Jews were crying in the streets there are people today all around us everywhere we go that are crying out for help now they may not be openly doing it they may not be walking around saying tell me how to believe in Jesus but an effect they're saying it by choices they make by things that they do by bad decisions that they make and they're looking for someone to step into their life and say let me tell you how you can have your life change for time in eternity God has placed you where you are for such a time as this so here are your marching orders carpe diem seize the moment look for the opportunities let's pray father we thank you for your word and every one of us are living our lives and we're facing our challenges and we're looking at our opportunities and I pray for everyone here Lord that you would help us to be the men to be the women you've called us to be and to seize the opportunities you have set before us not thinking so much about our personal comfort or even our safety but that we would be willing Lord to put it on the line to engage people with the only message that can change their life for time and eternity so Lord we commit ourselves to you we pray for harvest America only 13 days away pour your spirit out powerfully not only in Philadelphia but around the nation in these venues where this will be proclaimed including our own church and Lord we pray that it will result in one of the largest responses to the gospel in the history of our country we know it can happen use it lord help us to remember to pray for it and help us to all do our part bless now also Lord this time of giving as we invest our resources into your kingdom so more people can hear the life-changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ we ask this in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 47,322

Rating: 4.7763977 out of 5

Keywords: harvest, greg, laurie, esther, for such a time as this, a time, bible, God, Jesus, Christ, bravery, church

Id: S7Du-EV4si0

Length: 42min 56sec (2576 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 20 2013