The Giant of Self: How One Person Can Make a Difference - Esther 4:13-17 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] do well how's it going can you all stand if you're able receive some worship let's do it i was buried beneath my shame who could carry me and who could carry that kind [Music] i try to hide come on can we sing this together you called my name you called my name [Music] is out of the darkness into your glorious day come on [Music] [Music] is [Music] hey my [Music] into your glorious day [Music] come on you're glad you came to church today amen foreign [Music] i needed shelter i was an orphan [Music] is [Music] out of the [Music] [Applause] into your glorious day [Applause] [Music] come on [Music] thank you father we trust you god in all things you can have our heart jesus the grande earth is quake before [Music] move by the sound of his voice and the seas that are shaken and stirred can be calmed and broken from my regard and through it all through it all my eyes are on you threw it all through it all it through is all through it all my eyes are on you and it is well with me god is good amen thank you jesus yes we give you praise god and far be it from me tonight believe even when my eyes can't see [Music] and this mountain nights in front of me will be thrown into the midst of the sea and threw it all through it all my eyes are on [Music] my eyes are on you and it is well [Music] it is a world so let it go my soul and trust in him the ways and when still know his name [Applause] so let it go my soul and [Music] still know his name let it go my soul [Music] [Music] still know his name it is [Music] with my soul [Music] it is [Music] it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] it [Music] is is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] and threw it all through it all my eyes are on [Music] my eyes are on you and it is well [Music] with me [Music] yes it is [Music] father we thank you you are so good well thank you so much for worshiping with us this far we invite you to have a seat as we continue in communion if you've gathered with us you have the elements for communion close by you if you are a follower of the lord jesus christ i invite you to take with us i understand that those of you at home have also been told to have elements ready so wherever you're at in the united states or around the world you're joining us in we have about 80 000 people that tune into this broadcast on the internet so we want to welcome you in the name of the lord and and celebrate communion with you no matter where you are we have a picture behind me it's a picture that i photographed 20 years ago at ground zero this is a world trade center building number seven all of them collapsed not just two but all of them and when i went into this building i was escorted by a firefighter who wanted to show me something he had been pulling debris out bodies out of this building all day long and he was in such torment he was so distressed and wanted to give up and then suddenly he said i turned and i saw this cross and it was like god giving me a sign that there was hope and if you can imagine this pastor along with a couple fbi agents a port authority policeman and this firefighter all gathering with our hands and praying for god's peace somehow to be known in this country and that people would also remember the one who gave his life on that cross 2000 years ago and you know on september 11th we remember people who lost their lives but we celebrate those people who gave their lives they ran into those buildings they ran into the pentagon they rushed the cockpit in shanksville we commemorate the one who willingly gave his life for us and it is a celebration without without him doing that without him rushing into our building our earth we'd have no hope father thank you for your plan that by one individual [Music] sin could be placed on him and not held against those who believe in you and trust in what jesus did on that cross that simple act of faith that simple looking to you that is so powerfully so totally efficacious to wipe away [Music] all of the spot and filth of our sin thank you for that we're your children because of it we take these elements the bread and the juice the fruit of the vine to commemorate as our lord told us to do let's take these together [Music] if you're able to stand as we continue in worship [Music] take me there take me there if what you need is just an offering [Music] it's right here my life is here and i'll be living [Music] sacrifice [Music] by [Music] you take whatever you desire the lord hears my life [Music] [Music] fill this [Music] [Music] the refinery [Music] you take whatever you you take is you deserve [Music] [Music] only for you lord take my life as a sacrifice [Music] purify my heart [Music] [Applause] [Music] for you [Music] me [Music] cause [Music] lord i wanna [Music] you take whatever you desire [Music] you take whatever you [Music] father we do at your altar right lay ourselves down well thank you so much for joining us for worship if you would turn to someone next to you and say hello in the love of christ hey church you won't want to miss next weekend's guest speaker sean mcdowell sean brings a timely message about the implications of cancel culture on theology and how you can respond as a follower of jesus bring someone with you to hear this courage boosting message and be sure to visit the foyer after service for a book signing what is your next step in your relationship with jesus well if you haven't gone public with your faith by getting baptized our next baptism is the last sunday in september so sign up on our website so that we can be ready to celebrate with you your next step might be finding a place to serve the lord and the church body you see the church needs you and your unique gifts so don't miss life track step two this week dates and times for your campus are on our website [Music] we hope you have the franklin graham god loves you tour on your calendar the tour stops here at expo new mexico in just two weeks so make sure that you have plans to be there and bring someone with you well there's a lot happening here at calvary in this month and the weeks to come the month to come so we hope that you do bring somebody with you to the god loves you tour as we're looking forward to seeing how god might use that event to bring more people into salvation hey my name is matt this is chip we both get to serve here and uh oh wow i didn't i didn't know we were going to get applause for that chip if this is your first time at calvary we want to say welcome to you we're so glad that you chose today to be here church can we put our hands together for those that are new [Music] we also have a small gift that we want to get to you we would love to connect with you so right after service connect with us at the red gazebo right outside we'll get that gift in your hand right this is not my first time here um but skip has prepared a special message for tonight as he does each week but like any large meal for your body a spiritually large meal to be properly processed needs to be digested to get all the nutrients to course through your your body and one of the best ways to do that is through small groups where you discuss what happened on the weekend you just don't leave it in the parking lot so we're inviting you to be a part of small groups they're called connect groups we're in the middle of the fall semester open groups are now available you can find it online or stop by and see a pastor or any staff person here we invite you to do that and here on campus you may have seen that giant flag that was outside hanging from the the fire truck yeah that's right we're so grateful for the fire firefighters in our city and around our nation all of the first responders well one of the things that we thought would be special is give you an opportunity to serve and to give and to be a hero yourself and so we have a blood drive right next to that fire truck outside they're still taking walk-ins after service or if you'd like to come back to this campus tomorrow you can set up a time to give blood and be a hero that's right matt another way to more fully engage is being a part of this body to move from spectator to participant to full family member is to be financially involved in the support here that way when you watch the victory stories in the baptism when you see skip through the altar calls when you hear the stories from our missionaries in the field it becomes part of your story and you're investing in something with eternal ramifications the way to do that we have the tall black boxes here all over the campus and also at calvary and m.church we sure hope you'll do that those boxes are also there for your prayer requests for your praise reports so please do drop those in there as well that's right well we all know what today is the 20th anniversary of 9 11. and you remember the wave of unity that swept across our nation in the days and weeks following that that doesn't have to be a temporary thing if we take the principles and we commemorate this day we can draw together in unity for things that are truly important a couple of thoughts number one um as we look around we see people now who weren't born at that time who i weren't aware of watching those horrific images don't maybe don't get the hollow feeling in the pit of their stomach as we do watching the searing things that went into our soul that day in the days after and so we hope you'll you'll accurately convey what happened why it happened and what it means to us and with that in mind we're gonna have a special song right now america the beautiful by sean let's ponder it as we listen [Music] oh beautiful [Music] four spacious skies [Music] ten majesties [Music] humble [Music] america america [Music] god has shed his grace [Music] [Applause] [Music] with brotherhood [Music] [Applause] [Music] beautiful [Music] forever [Music] majesty [Music] [Applause] [Music] america [Music] america [Music] god has shed his grace [Music] with brotherhood [Music] [Applause] [Music] god bless you stand beside her [Music] with [Music] to the [Music] with [Music] us [Music] america [Music] my [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] up [Music] right oh [Music] [Music] me before we get started we pay tribute to those who lost their lives i want to also pay tribute to those who gave their lives those who keep us safe our military our firefighters those first responders we honor you on this day and we want to thank you for your service would you turn in your bibles to the book of esther in your old testament the book of esther chapter 4. if you don't exactly know where that is most of you do just find the book of job that's a really big book go left one block and you are in the book of esther esther chapter 4 3 and 4. i want to talk to you about the giant of self benjamin franklin once humorously remarked that a man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package self can be a tyrant but self can also be a servant self can be a villain or it can be a hero i would dare say one of the biggest struggles we have as human beings as believers in christ is the struggle we have with our own selves d.l moody said i have more trouble with d.l moody than any other man i've ever met now the bible uses a particular word to describe a life that is dominated by self a life that is unperfected human nature it's the word flesh you've seen it as you've come across your reading in the new testament especially the flesh versus the spirit the flesh if you take the word flesh if you take the last letter off the word and you then spell that word in reverse you have the word self which is really a good description of yourself yourself self life is the flesh life when you live your life up to your own devices you will live for yourself and when you do you live it backwards compared to what god intended you to live your life like esther is a story about a woman who conquered the giant itself she had been taught to focus on herself she lived in a very pampered environment it was all about her because she becomes the queen of this land but the story is about how she goes from beauty queen to national hero and she closes the door on the pampering of the flash and she opens the door to a world of selflessness self-sacrifice and she became a woman who in effect changed her world history is filled with such people one soldier one artist one explorer one preacher one inventor one firefighter one police officer one missionary gives his or her life and a whole tribe is evangelized one statesman stands up and a whole country gets changed one citizen steps forward and a community sees things differently one student makes a stand and school policy can get changed and let's not forget one vote one vote can change everything john salisbury reminds us of the power of one vote i want to put this up for you in 1645 one vote gave oliver cromwell control of england in 1776 one vote gave america the english language instead of german in 1845 one vote brought texas into the union in 1876 one vote gave rutherford b hayes the u.s presidency in 1923 one vote gave adolf hitler control of the nazi party one vote one person one life one choice this woman esther was both jewish and related to another hero in the story a man by the name of mordecai and this one woman makes a bold stand to save the jewish people now we didn't plan to do esther on september 11th we just sort of scoped out our series that's how we do it and it just sort of happened to fall on september 11th but i can't help but see the lord in that the holy spirit and that is not a coincidence because as i said before this weekend isn't just about the thousands of people that lost their lives it's about the thousands of people that gave their lives that sacrificed themselves on that day they sacrifice self now i mentioned that esther is jewish she was a jew s she was part of the harem of king of hashuaris just so you you harem what's gonna what's going on here this is the bible yeah this is real life and the king of hajjuweerus is the guy's name he is not has no sensitivity toward the jewish god at all he is the king of persia his first wife by the name of vashti he boots her off the throne because she didn't show up at a meeting he wanted her to show up for so he simply replaces her with another queen and the queen happens to be this young girl in the story the hero the heroine by the name of esther we're about to find out why she is placed in this position a matter of fact she's about to find out why she is placed in this position now i want to walk you through this story chronologically as the stages are presented not the whole book but just sort of this key moment that we come to in chapter four i want to give it to you in four chronological stages i want to look at tragedy anxiety opportunity and bravery there's all in your worship folder and if you're watching online you have access to that online as well but we want to begin in chapter three with a national tragedy because that really sets up the entire narrative in chapter three we read something surprising has happened in persia a law is passed an edict is given it's an edict of extermination let's read verse 13 of esther chapter 3. and the letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces to destroy to kill to annihilate all the jews both young and old little children and women women in one day on the 13th day of the 12th month which is the month of adar to plunder their possessions a copy of the document was issued as law in every province being published for all the people that they should be ready for that day the couriers went out hastened by the king's command and the decree was proclaimed in shushan capital city the citadel or the palace so the king and haman sat down to drink but the city of shushan was perplexed let me give you the back story a plot has been hatched by somebody who works for the palace by the name of haman mentioned here in the story he is an official in the persian court and he hates this guy that's the hero of the story along with esther this guy named mordecai finds out that mordecai's jewish wants to get him killed but he just says i got a better plan i don't like these jews anyway so i'd like to solve the jewish problem by the way that that is what the nazis called the presence of jews in europe right around world war ii it's a jewish problem how do we address the presence of all these jewish people in our land so haman had the idea to exterminate them now jews were exiles in this land this was not their native land their native land was israel but there had been a babylonian captivity where they were taken captive for 70 years then the persian empire took over so all of those captives are now seated here in the persian empire some of the jews returned home to rebuild the city of jerusalem most of them did not most of them stayed back i don't know they had good jobs they got married but it is estimated that there were at this time 15 million jews still living in the persian empire that are dispersed through 127 different provinces so now because of haman's hatred he makes anti-semitism legalized the king signs it puts a signet ring it's like a stamp of approval and the command goes out to on a certain day about nine to ten months away all the jews in the kingdom would be killed now if he were to have been successful it would have been worse than the holocaust by over two times six million jews were killed in the holocaust of world war ii 15 million jews lived in the provinces of persia now at first mordecai did not know about this edict the queen esther did not know about this edict they were unaware of this decree esther is secluded in the royal harem she's pampering herself they're pampering her mordecai wasn't there the day that this thing was signed between the king and haman but they learn about it they learn about this hatred only after the fact after the fact that the edict is signed and you know as i read through the story this week i couldn't help but think that's how we were as a country on september 11 2001. we were largely unaware we were ignorant of the fact that there were large swaths of radicalized people living in the world that absolutely hate our country and want to destroy it and have called us the great satan and called israel the little satan now we know that to be a fact now but before september 11 2001 i did not know there were that many that day was a wake-up call to that to that outlook to that understanding you'll notice in verse 15 the closing verse of chapter three it says so the king and haman sat down to drink and the city of shushan was perplexed better word they were confused they were absolutely bewildered like what's going on what are we going to do i mean think of all the people that that we know think of our banker or uh the guy who works on our house or the friend of our children at school all of these people jewish people are going to be annihilated now a contemporary note just so you can tie a couple things together the setting of this book of esther as i mentioned is ancient persia ancient persia happens to be anybody know what country that is today modern-day iran and iran today i'm sure most of you know if you don't you need to iran today is the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world that's according to the united states state department and uh not only just iran but they supply lots of proxy groups like hezbollah in lebanon like hamas in the palestinian territories and uh all these groups along israel's border and they are sworn to the utter annihilation of the state of israel in modern times so i just want you to know like solomon said there's nothing new under the sun what happened then seems to be happening today in fact iran's newest leader a guy by the name of ibrahim raisi is a very hard-line cleric he is nicknamed the butcher of tehran i thought the previous guy was pretty hardline but they called him a moderate this guy is even harder and he has vowed to liberate the entire middle east from the scourge that is israel if you think yeah that's just rhetoric then you need to know something else just this week iran announced that it has quadrupled its nuclear stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium because they have sites on making a production of some pretty hefty nuclear weaponry they announced that this week like we're poised we're ready we're going to do this and so also this week israel's foreign minister yair lapid from all places moscow i mean you can't make this stuff up if you know bible prophecy you know the relationship between the soviet union and ancient persia modern-day iran as mentioned in the scripture for the last days he said this the israel's foreign minister iran's march toward a nuclear weapon is not only an israeli problem it is a problem for the rest of the world and he urged the world governments to stop iran from getting nuclear capabilities and then he finally made this kind of shot over the bow if the world doesn't do it israel reserves the right to act that's the scenario we are facing 20 years after september 11th so history does have a way of repeating itself and it seems like the nation of israel might find itself in another esther moment but let's go on to the rest of the story after this national tragedy unfolds an expected anxiety comes upon those who hear it so chapter four verse one when mordecai learned all that had happened he tore his clothes i'll get back to that and put sackcloth and ashes on and he went into the midst of the city and he cried out with a loud and a bitter cry and he went as far as the front of the king's gate for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth and in every province where the king's command and decree arrived there was great mourning among the jews with fasting weeping and wailing and many get this lay in sackcloth and ashes so it was a public loud visible display of grief with mordecai and with the jews in that country which is something we in the west don't quite get you know when it comes to somebody dying or a threat we have been trained in the west to sort of keep our emotions in check and and and not really show our emotions and even at funerals you know he's like isn't she strong isn't he strong because they're not openly wailing not so in the east it's exactly the opposite in the middle east in fact if you've seen a video footage of funerals in in the middle east you will see mobs of people wailing and clawing at the casket and tearing their clothes and throwing dirt in the air very similar to the biblical narrative that we read so mordecai who works for the persian government pretty high official he put sackcloth on sackcloth is think of a gunny sack think of a potato sack it's coarse goat's hair meant to irritate the skin and in other words he put rags on ashes just sort of adds to the effect it added to the look so that a person would appear ghastly purposely distressed person who dressed like that typically jewish people did that to express great great anguish so it's sort of like saying look i don't care how i look this is a tragedy i i have to voice that and then that that anxiety spreads not only from mordecai but goes throughout all the different people in verse three who hear about it it spreads throughout the land and so all the jews that hear about it are in grief together by the way have you noticed how tragedy brings us together you notice that like you saw in the video clip of what happened here in our church 20 years ago there's something about a national tragedy and i'm not advocating national tragedies i'm just saying one of the side effects is that it brings people together because that kind of suffering places us all at the same level and people will come out of their homes and they will gather together and i i still remember as do you the news coverage of the attacks of september 11th and the quake voices and the reporters and the stunned looks on their faces as they were filming what was transpiring in new york and washington and pennsylvania i remember the crowds gathering together remember people standing on the steps of the capitol singing god bless america republican democrat independent all together i remember churches packed full of people praying people come together during tragedy and i can't read verse one of chapter four without thinking of new york city and my experience there mordecai went into the midst of the city i recall walking into the midst of manhattan and encountering people with just desperate looks on their faces not knowing what to do they look so hopeless so helpless almost wandering around the desperation of the citizenry exhausted professionals weeping and vowing never to forget what had just happened on american soil and if you wonder why you guys keep bringing this up every year yep it's sort of like pearl harbor we keep bringing it up every year because it's something we must never forget by the way the jews have never forgotten the incident of this book of esther every year they have a celebration called purim takes place in the fall early fall like march and purim is a celebration where they read out loud the entire book of esther and they never forget haman in fact for 24 hours every time the word haman is mentioned people hiss people boo and in the synagogue when the story is read out loud they will say the words in hebrew yema which means when concerning haman may his name be blotted out forever it's the same hebrew phrase that the jews used when referring to adolf hitler so esther has been a long time ago but they will not forget it every year they celebrate and commemorate purim now mordecai though he is an officer in the court of persia he really has no access to the queen to his cousin he's related to esther but she after all is the queen he can't just sort of like pop in and have a cup of tea or coffee so he has to use an ambassador and he uses a guy here by the name of hathat to give a copy so that you have evidence a copy of the edict that was signed that all the jews will be killed so that the queen can read it for herself so now let me take you to the third stage and that is the opportunity a strategic opportunity in verse 10 of chapter 4 then esther spoke to hathach and gave him a command for mordecai all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court of the king who has not been called he has but one law put all to death except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live yet i myself have not been called to go into the king these thirty days so they told mordecai esther's words and mordechai told them to answer esther and before i read that i just want you to get the flow so mordecai says i got to get word to esther hatha take this copy let her read it tell her what's happening she comes back it sounds like an excuse like look i just can't run in there and stop this and that is because of the protocol measurements that were in place i will explain a couple of them in a moment but let's read on now so mordecai told them to answer esther do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other jews for if you remain completely silent at this time relief and deliverance will arise for the jews from another place but you and your father's house will perish yet who knows here's the classic verse yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this you've heard that phrase right we know that phrase say that for such a time as this it's an incredible speech it's an incredible moment it's a speech for the history books it really is the turning point of the book it's a rallying call to esther it's a watershed moment it's sort of like patrick henry's speech in 1775 give me liberty or give me death it's one of those kind of moments maybe you've come for such a time as this you've got to do something it's not dissimilar to winston churchill's speech in june of 1940 to the british house of commons they were in a great distress during that time it was a dark period in british history winston churchill shared these words let us brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that if the british empire and its commonwealth last for a thousand years men will still say this was their finest hour mordecai is saying esther esther this could be your finest hour this could be the moment this could be why you are in this place now esther has a little bit of a problem she hasn't been summoned she said for 30 days she's married to the guy but the guy is the king and he has a lot of women in his harem and she says look he hasn't even called me i can't come to him unless i if i barge in i could die so he hasn't called for me for 30 days now she's probably feeling a little bit i don't know a little bit anxious about that like my husband hasn't called me for me for 30 days what am i am i ugly now do i have bad breath uh did i say something i mean i haven't even seen the dude for a month and you should also know that the previous wife was dethroned because she failed to show up when he summoned her so if she barges in unsummoned it could be very very risky you just don't barge into the king of persia well-known fact in ancient history by the way um i've always believed that my family should have access to me so when we started this church and i even remember making this announcement to people that um don't be surprised if um while we're talking or counseling or you're pouring out your deepest secrets of your heart my wife and my son barge in and have a conversation with me i've told them i am never off limits so i just want you to know in advance they always have access no matter what no matter what the situation and over the years my young son nate as he was growing up took full advantage of that offer and would often just come in the office while people are bawling their eyes out and hey dad what's up and uh i just never wanted him to feel that kind of separation so look at verse 13 again mordecai told them to answer esther do not think in your heart that you will escape the king's palace more than any of the other jews for if you remain completely silent at this time relief and deliverance will arise for the jews from another place but you and your father's house will perish yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this in those sentences mordecai reminds esther of three truths i just want to review them with you first of all esther your position is no guarantee of your protection yes you're queen but you're also jewish and the edict is for all of the jews to be destroyed they're going to find out you're jewish at some point in this edict and you're going to lose your life so your position will not guarantee your protection in fact i think it's safe to say that there were probably some workers in that palace who were sympathetic to the previous queen to queen vashti who would love to see esther gone i'm sure that there was that kind of tension then he reminds her also of her silence your silence won't prevent our deliverance look if you don't do anything or you don't say anything they're going to kill you because you're jewish they're going to kill your family but what you need to know is god has something else up his sleeve god is going to do something now god's name isn't mentioned in this book and i'm going to get to that in just a moment because that's an important fact in the entire book the name of god is not mentioned once but god himself is all over this book in fact i think you could argue that he is the main character of the book even though his name isn't mentioned but here you have mordecai who believes in the promises of god that god made a promise to abraham and a covenant to abraham else he would not have said look if you don't step up to the plate god's got something else he'll deliver us by some other means you know it's important that we recognize the fact that god doesn't really need any of us god isn't like leaning on you depending on you go man if you don't do it nobody will do it listen if you don't do it he'll get somebody else to do it and you'll lose out on the blessing if if god has a strategic plan that's going on if he is determined to get that plan done um you got one or two choices jump into the program or lose out and so he's challenging her he's saying your position won't guarantee your protection your silence won't prevent our deliverance the third fact he reminds her of in these verses is your prominence is god's providence the fact that you are queen is because the lord god allowed you to do that even though he doesn't say god here again he strongly implies this so esther if you've been wondering and i bet she was i i think she sat on the throne from time to time and she thought how did i get here and the truth is she won a beauty contest but she's thinking why am i here exactly this is so weird i'm like the queen of persia and i'm jewish and so mordecai is saying if you're looking for a purpose for why you are in the position you are in this is it this is it there are two significant days in your life the day you were born and the day you discovered what you were born for when you discover why you are here that is a threshold moment a lot of christians wonder what what am i doing here why am i in this job why am i in this position why would the lord allow me to be here yeah figure that out find out the reason for that it could be for such a time as this god never wastes a life and so often big doors swing on small hinges and here's one of those moments that takes us to the fourth stage and that is bravery a determined bravery so she tells mordecai look i just can't barge in but i i see your point so look at verse 15 esther told them to reply to mordecai go gather all the jews who are present in shushan now watch this and fast for me again god isn't mentioned prayer isn't mentioned fasting is mentioned not prayer in the book of usher but if you know your bible you know that prayer and fasting are like salt and pepper it's like peanut butter and jelly i mean they go together it's like a glove and a mitt and she says get the juice together and fast now her language could simply be because she has not yet disclosed the fact and she's being very cautious so that she won't let others know that she has the jewish background especially now that this edict has gotten out but she says gather all the jews together in shushan and fast for me neither eat nor drink for three days night or day my maids and i will fast likewise she probably had some jewish maids that worked around her and so i will go to the king and watch this which is against the law and if i perish i perish what a great answer if i perish i perish look i know this is right for me to do this but i also know it's against the law and it could be that when i go in he's going to raise up his scepter and i'll live but it could be that they're going to run me through with a lance or they're going to tackle me and i'm dead meat instantly but bring it on if i perish i pair she decides now to risk it all what she is basically saying is look enough of the easy life enough of the beauty treatments you know i've had my picture on um l magazine for persia and harper's bazaar shushan bazar i've been in all the magazines enough of the beauty queen i am going to step up and do what is right now this this stand this brave stand to rescue others and to risk life and limb is the same mentality of those people that we commemorate every september 11th firefighters police officers port authority ambulance personnel clergy men first responders men and women who ran into the buildings who ran to rescue others there are so many names they're read publicly every year those who did that here's just a few names moira smith a female new york city police department officer led many injured people out of the building before she died in the building a chef and former marine by the name of benjamin clark saved hundreds of people he made sure that everybody on the 96th floor of one of the towers was completely evacuated and then the towers collapsed on him father michael judge the first victim of september 11th in new york city chaplain for the new york city fire department when he heard the explosions or that there were explosions he immediately ran to the scene and ran into the building and he was killed and there's todd beamer most of us have read the story or heard the story of todd beamer he was on american flight 93 that was flying above shanksville pennsylvania and he knew that pilots on his plane had been taken out of the cockpit that the flight had been hijacked he got on the phone and heard from some dispatch operator that the towers in new york had gone down that the pentagon had been hit and that his plane was being commandeered for a similar move in in some public building so he conspired with some of the passengers around to rush the cockpit take their own lives in their hands and he looked around at them and his last words were are you ready okay let's roll and they rushed the cockpit and the plane went down in that field but then i also have to go on and say this is the same mentality that 13 brave servicemen gave their lives for just last week in kabul afghanistan on the airport they were killed two weeks ago and it is also the mentality of many ngos and ex-military who have gone into afghanistan since then apart from the government you know the government's talking about we're going to save all these people honestly most of the lives saved were not saved by anybody's government they were saved by citizens and people like reload love who who raised money together and ex-military people went into the region and and and put their lives on the line to get people out and that's the mentality that we celebrate [Applause] during the civil war when abraham lincoln was very very despondent civil war was at its height the nation was torn lincoln himself was torn over what to do abraham lincoln went to church and he listened to the sermon and afterwards one of his aides said well did you like the sermon and lincoln said well the preacher was clear he was logical made many good points and he was very sincere and so the aide shot back and said so you thought it was a good sermon then lincoln said no i thought the preacher failed and he explained what he meant he said he did not ask of us something great he didn't he didn't make a great appeal to us i want to ask you today tonight to do something great i want to ask you to stop spending your life and start investing your life into something that will outlive you a great cause god's great cause this is the heart of god when he sent jesus into the world this is the heart of jesus when he said father i'll go into the world. he said the son of man did not come to be served but to serve he came to give his life a ransom for many we all deal with ourselves like i said our self can be a tyrant or it can be a servant it can be a villain or it can be a hero but we struggle what are we going to do with ourselves what are we going to do with our lives don't spend your life invest your life for eternal purposes one writer wrote this little prayer dear heavenly father i'm working on a puzzle pure and simple it is i god spoke back dear searching child here is the answer to your puzzle pure and simple it is i yeah we all have eye disease don't we and the cure for i is him would you pray with me father [Applause] this is a day of looking back it's a day of commemoration our memory some of us our memory doesn't have to be jogged that much it is still fresh we remember where we stood where we were sitting where we were walking or driving when we heard the news of the events of that day if we are of any substantive age but it is right lord that we as a nation look back and as a nation remember but then as your people whom your word calls a holy nation that we remember especially the sacrifice of our lord jesus christ who in giving his life could affect so much good by one man's sin entered in the world by one man all can be made alive father i pray that whatever choices we make in our lives that overarching idea would permeate us that is we wouldn't just be spinning our wheels and living to post mundane things about ourselves or make decisions lord that are just pampering ourselves benefiting ourselves but we would invest our lives in sacrifice in self-sacrifice for the benefit of others especially in the kingdom of god that they might know your son lord i pray for our nation i pray for the stability of the leadership of our nation and nations around the world as we are facing some pretty hefty threats not only in our homeland but in the middle east with afghanistan with iran and so many other places that are teetering geopolitically we look forward to you coming but lord we never want to use that as a cop-out to not get involved not to to not help the hurting where we can i pray you would use us i pray that our lives would be vessels that you could speak through hands that could be like your hands touching people to see the world a different place than we found it for the sake of the kingdom of god and for the glory of our savior jesus christ it's in his name we pray amen let's all stand and sing [Music] out of together darkness into your glorious day so good well there we go am i on so good what a great message that was would we rise to the occasion to invest our lives and not just spend it and if you're watching online we want to let you know that if at any point during that sermon during today's service you wanted you felt a tug to make a step towards the lord we would love to be able to connect with you our team is going to stay online for about 10 minutes or so and anyone here in person at this campus we're going to have a team of pastors out in the amphitheater and also in front of the stage if you'd like somebody to pray with but god bless you guys and we'll see you next week you

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 3,980

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Id: TiZHagmv8sk

Length: 94min 56sec (5696 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021