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

[Music] [Music] would you turn in your bibles to the book of esther please esther chapter 4 if you have a hard time finding it and i don't think this crowd probably does but go to the old testament book of job it's a pretty big book go one block left and you are in the book of esther esther chapter four we have been studying in this series um the idea of being courageous in the times in which we live and we're looking at different giants to conquer and today we want to talk about the giant of self benjamin franklin once humorously noted that a man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package self self can be a tyrant self can be a servant self can be a villain self can be a hero i venture to say that through all of the struggles of life that we have one of the biggest struggles we all have is our struggle with ourselves and the struggle within ourselves d.l moody the evangelist from chicago a century ago said i have more trouble with d.l moody than with any other man i have ever met well the bible has a special word for unperfected human nature or the self self life in the new testament it's the word flesh the flesh you see it often in contrast to the spirit the spirit wars against the flesh the flesh is a life lived for yourself if you took the word flesh and dropped the last letter the h so you have fless if you spell that backwards you have self that really is a good description of the flesh it is the self life it is you left up to your own devices you will degenerate i will degenerate to that level of living for myself esther is the story of a woman who conquered the giant of self she went from beauty queen to national hero because of the choices that she made she closed the door on pampering herself focusing on herself and she opened the door to selflessness self-sacrifice she changed her world and history is filled with such people individuals who make a stand one soldier one artist one explorer one preacher one inventor one missionary who goes to a culture and a whole tribe is changed or one statesman who stands up in an entire country is changed or one citizen that steps forward and the community is different afterwards or one student that makes a stand at his or her school and school policy has changed then there's the power of one vote never underestimate that one vote john salisbury reminds us of that power with these words in 1645 one vote gave oliver cromwell control of england in 1776 one vote gave america the english language instead of german boy i'm glad in 1845 one vote brought texas into the union in 1876 one vote gave rutherford b hayes the u.s presidency and in 1923 one vote gave adolf hitler control of the nazi party one person one life one vote so powerful this one woman named esther prompted by her cousin by the name of mordecai saved the jews now i don't think it's a coincidence that we are reading the story of esther on the weekend that is the commemorative weekend for september 11 2001. we sort of put these series together and just kind of map them out but we didn't plan that it would fall on this day but i think the holy spirit is behind it because here is a weekend where we remember not just people who lost their lives we are commemorating people who gave their lives who stood in harm's way who rushed into buildings who who saved other people and that is the story of esther esther was jewish she was a jew s she was part of the captivity that got taken to babylon and now that same group is in persia she is not only jewish she is part of a harem a group of girls serving a king by the name of ahajuerus the king of persia the first queen was queen vashti we don't have time to read the whole story queen vashti was the original wife of a hazuris but he didn't like her because he called for her she didn't show up so he conveniently had her dethroned and he was lonely and somebody said you got to get a new queen so he picked of all the people in the kingdom this young jewish girl by the name of esther now we're about to find out why she became queen by the way she's about to find out why she becomes queen in our story so what i want to do is take you through the story chronologically by the stages that are presented first with a tragedy followed by anxiety followed by an opportunity followed by bravery we begin in chapter three again i'm just going to be summing these things up and reading a few key verses but i'm going to show you a national tragedy that is going on when we open up chapter 3 something has been signed a legal document something signed into law it was an edict of extermination for the jewish people so look at chapter 3 verse 13 and the letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces to destroy to kill and to annihilate all the jews both young and old little children and 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 to be issued as law in every province being published for all 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 the citadel shushan as the capital city of persia the citadel is the palace so the king and haman sat down to drink but the city of shushan was perplexed the jews had been in babylon babylon was taken over by persia so now they're in persia the persians allowed the jews to go back to israel to rebuild their civilization their temple only 50 000 of them went back most of them stayed i don't know they had good jobs they met people they had bases of friendship wives children so while 50 000 went back to rebuild jerusalem it is estimated that there were 15 million jews still living in persia so most of them did not there are 127 provinces or there were in persia at that time one of the members of the royal court was a man by the name of haman we just read his name haman had an idea because he hated jewish people and the reason he hated jewish people is he had a run-in with a guy in the story named mordecai mordecai is the cousin of esther mordecai is jewish so is esther he doesn't like mordecai because mordecai doesn't bow down to him but stands up to him and so he says i really hate this guy i want to kill him but better yet i want to deal with the jewish problem that's what the nazis called that in world war ii there were jews in their country how do we deal with the jewish problem so haman comes up with an idea to exterminate every jew in the empire had he been successful he would have made the holocaust of world war ii look like a puppet show because hitler killed 6 million jews if haman would have had his way 15 million jews would have been slaughtered in the persian empire so now anti-semitism is legalized the edict assigned mordecai the jew also working in the king's palace knows nothing about this and that's because he wasn't there when haman approached the king and had him sign on the dotted line esther the jewish she doesn't know anything about it she's tucked away in the palace her own little palace is queen so both of them are completely unaware but they will learn of it and when they learn of it they're shocked they're shocked as they should be and as i read through the story this week i couldn't help but think back 20 years to september 11 2001 because on that day when all the dust was settling we came to a sudden but very new awareness something that we never knew before that we were hated that there were people around the world who wanted to exterminate us who would want to end our civilization some of us knew some of that but we didn't know the extent of it we didn't know that there were swaths of people that referred to the us as the great satan and israel as the little satan and so we came into a new awareness and i look at chapter 3 the very last verse verse 15 and the very last sentence so the king and haman sat down to drink but the city of shushan was perplexed they were confused they were bewildered by this edict now i just want to give you a contemporary note before we move on to the next stage the setting of this book of esther is ancient what go ahead and shout it out it's ancient persia so it's ancient persia because i'm glad you you're paying attention it's persia this is the kingdom of persia ancient persia and again you can shout this out if you know it is modern day what iran so you know how solomon said there's nothing new under the sun and uh history has a way of repeating itself i think we see that today because today iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism on earth they do more terrorist attacks than any country on earth so says the united states state department and many other countries and that's not just iran that's just not their mentality but they they have fostered different groups proxy groups around the region and they supply money and arms to groups like hezbollah in lebanon to attack israel hamas in the palestinian territories to attack israel the houthis in yemen to attack that region as well and iran's newest leader this just happened a few months back was elected by the name of ibrahim raising a hard-line cleric his nickname is the butcher of tehran and i didn't know this but i thought the previous guy was hardline he's considered a moderate compared to the new guy the new guy raici vows to liberate the middle east from the scourge that is the nation of israel repeatedly we're just going to get rid of the jews we want to destroy israel they shouldn't exist and if you think well that's just rhetoric man these people in the middle east they just talk smack all the time that's so what well it's more than talk just this week iran announced it has quadrupled its nuclear stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium you know what 60 percent enriched uranium is for nuclear weapons they have stated we are building nuclear weapons we mean business and that is why this week as well israel's foreign minister yair lapid of all places in moscow when he was visiting made this announcement 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 governments of the world to stop them from this stockpile and then he said this if the world doesn't do it israel reserves the right to act and if you know israel they will so what you have going on in the middle east and now with the destabilized afghanistan on top of iran and its proxies and what's happening this week is a very volatile situation and the target there's two targets israel the little satan but the big satan is us so history is repeating itself it may be another esther moment that the nation of israel finds itself in but let's go to the rest of this story so it begins with a tragedy a national tragedy annihilate every jew in the empire followed by what is an expected anxiety chapter 4 verse 1 when mordecai learned all that had happened hey there's been an edict sign to exterminate us when he learned all that had happened he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the midst of the city he cried out with a loud and bitter cry he went as far as the front of the king's gate for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth you can't show up for work in the palace dress like that and in every province where the king's command and decree arrived there was great mourning among the jews with fasting weeping wailing and many lay in sackcloth and ashes in other words there was a very public a very vocal a very visible display of grief now we in the west we don't really get that you know we have sort of been taught culturally that when we grieve you know we should have it all together and that public displays of wailing and grief are uncalled for listen to the language at funerals you hear it there's the widow in the front row and somebody goes oh she's so strong why do you say that she's not weeping really that's strength to you um understand that in the middle east that thinking doesn't exist it's exactly the opposite if you love somebody the more you love them the louder you wail and if you've ever seen middle eastern funerals where you have the casket being taken through the streets you have people throwing dirt in the air and wailing and mobs of crowds and people clawing after the casket that's sort of the idea for public grief so that's mordecai notice he puts on sackcloth sackcloth is like loose fitting very coarse goat's hair garment think of uh gunnysack a potato sack it's meant to feel uncomfortable it's meant to look disheveled and then there are ashes that he put on that added to the look you'd appear ghastly unclean grimy purposely distressed because that's how jews typically would grieve the tearing of the clothes the throwing of dust or the pudding of ashes on the head etc and this deep sorrow spread verse 3 to all the land all the provinces where the news was making its way jews everywhere were in grief by the way ever notice how tragedy brings people together we are 20 years after 9 11 some of us who were a little bit older remember that day very well and what we remember is how it brought people together because all of us collectively are been have been put on the same level suddenly we're all attacked as a country so we remember the news reporters and the shaky voices and the tears in their eyes as they were saying oh my goodness we're being attacked they just couldn't hold in the emotion and we remember people out in the streets hugging each other and democrats and republicans and independents standing on the steps of the capitol singing god bless america holding hands like we don't care about partisan politics we're americans today we remember churches packed full of people for weeks because tragedy does that i can't read verse one of chapter four without thinking of new york city where it says mordecai went out into the midst of the city i had the privilege of going to ground zero for three weeks following the towers falls and doing work there every day i walked out into the midst of the city every day in the midst of the city i encountered new yorkers who were desperate i encountered in the midst of the city professionals who were at their wit's end and didn't know what to make of this they were struggling they were weeping and i heard in the midst of the city the vow of every new yorker and then every american to never forget what has just happened never forget it's like my parents vowed never to forget pearl harbor and we say we'll never forget 9 11. by the way a side note actually fits right in do you know that the jews to this day have never gotten over what haman plotted with king of hazuris every year every jewish person celebrates to some degree the festival of purim it happens in the fall the march of every year and they read the book of esther and for 24 hours it's standard protocol in jewish communities every time the word haman is mentioned for people to boo and hiss every time it's mentioned every time the word comes up all sorts of bad noises you want to give it a shot yeah let's do that so look at verse chapter 3 verse 15. so the king and haman come on you can do better than that haman yeah yeah yeah you got the that's what they do you'd be you do you do good sat down to drink the city of shushan was perplexed also in the synagogues every year the book of esther is red and the name of haman [Applause] appears 51 times 51 times in the synagogues as the story is read and they mention haman that's that's what you hear pretty fun service huh and in the synagogue they will often shout out at the name of haman the hebrew words yemak shimo which are translated may his name be blotted out forever the same exact hebrew phrase when mentioning the name adolf hitler so they they never forget they haven't gotten over this they resurrect this story every single year so mordecai wasn't there but he he hears of it he gets wind of it he's an officer in the court but he has no direct contact with queen esther even though she is his cousin he couldn't just pop in go hey cuz let's hang out together so he had to use a liaison somebody to speak to her and he chooses a guy by the name of hathach i can't vouch for these names that's just his name so he gets half at and puts in half at his hands a little copy of the edict that was signed so she has proof positive and says you go to queen esther and you tell her what has been done by haman okay you tell her what that guy did and what they're up to and tell her she has to approach the king and do something so she hears about it um let me show you the opportunity now the strategic opportunity verse 10 esther spoke to hathach and gave him a command for mordecai no mordecai's a good guy you don't boo you don't go mordecai you you clap mordecai okay you'll make that mistake once that's okay though but he's a good guy the bad guy is heyman very good the good guys mordecai yeah there you go okay good good good good you got it so esther spoke to hatha neutral guy gave him a command for mordecai you don't have to clap all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces this is what she said all the king's servants and all and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king who has not been called he has but one law put all to death except the one to whom the king holds up 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 mordecai told them to answer esther now listen to this little speech says you go tell esther this do not think in your heart that you will escape the king's palace escape in the king's palace 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 whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this you've heard this before right you've heard that phrase for such a time as this say that out loud for such a time as this that is what this book is built on this is your time who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this this is a speech for the history books this is a watershed moment this is the turning point this is like patrick henry's 1775 give me liberty or give me death moment this is sort of like winston churchill in 1940 to the house of commons during a very bleak time during that war churchill said 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 say this was their finest hour this was their finest hour immortalized words this is mordecai saying girl this could be your finest hour this could be why you are here now esther has a little bit of a problem that she mentions you just don't go saunter into the king go king what's up because this is persia and nobody sees the king unless the king summons you and he hasn't summoned me for 30 days now if i'm the wife and i haven't seen my husband for 30 days i'm a little nervous it's like okay he has a harem he has he can have a girl night after night anything he wants he hasn't called for me for 30 days and i'm thinking am i ugly do i have bad breath did i say something bad and if i just show up like that and he sees me it's like heads off so i could die this is risky business he had his previous wife dethroned for not showing up and if she just shows up unannounced it could be equally as bad by the way i haven't told you this yet the name of god is not mentioned once in this book it's one of the unique things about the book of esther the name of god isn't mentioned once and this has bothered some people it bothered martin luther martin luther said i wish the book of esther would never have been written but i i want to say marty you're way off base i disagree with you though god isn't mentioned i could make a case that god is the main character of this book he shows up all over the place with his fingerprints on everything it's called his providence god's providence is god takes normal circumstances of life and weaves them together for his ultimate purpose and that is so apparent in this book really this is the beauty of esther god is an always overt god isn't always apparent he's not always miraculous or audible jesus said the kingdom of god does not come by outward observation so rather than noticing what isn't there like the name of god notice what is there god working like john nelson darby used to say god's ways are behind the scenes but he moves all the scenes that he is behind god is behind these scenes and he is working now in this little speech of verse 13 and 14 that we just read of mordecai to esther he reminds her of three important truths and i want to review them with you number one he's saying that your position won't guarantee your protection your position as queen won't guarantee your protection you're the queen but you're still a jew and sometime the king is going to find that out when he finds that out since the edict says all the jews you're part of that number it'll be your life and i got to think that there were probably some leftovers from the previous administration vashti queen vashti i'm sure that there were some people that kind of sided with her were loyal to her and they would love to see esther kicked out they would be for that so your your position won't guarantee your protection second thing he reminds her of is your silence won't prevent our deliverance look at what he said for if you remain verse 14 if you remain completely silent at this time relief and deliverance will arise for the jews from another place does he say that because he's a jew that's why because this guy remembers even though the name of god is a mention he knows the abrahamic covenant he knows that god made a promise to abraham isaac and jacob for the jews to be in that land that god would preserve and protect his people for his eternal purpose so it might not be you but god has got something up his sleeve somewhere and and you might die esther and your family might die but god will deliver the jews somehow so if you don't step in and do it god will do something with somebody else by the way i hope you realize god doesn't need any one of us god has a plan and god's plan is in motion for his eternal purposes and you and i have one of two choices either get on board or don't get on board either you're all in or you're not and if you're not it's your loss god didn't go oh man no what it's like next i'll use somebody but i'm gonna get this done we get the privilege of being a part of it so he reminds her of that your position won't guarantee your protection your silence won't prevent our deliverance and third your prominence is god's providence your queen because god put you here he didn't mention god didn't say that but he implies that who knows but you weren't brought to the kingdom for such a time as this queen esther if you are looking for a purpose for why you are queen this is it i gotta think that queen esther sat on that throne from time to time this young jewish girl and she scratched her head and she thought how did i get here what am i doing here what is my purpose for being the queen of persia if she ever thought that mordecai is here to say this is why this is why this is it listen there are two significant days in your life the day you were born and the day you discovered what you were born for and so if you wonder why why am i in this position why why do i have this job why am i in sales i find myself in the legal profession why what am i doing what's god's purpose i don't know but figure that out figure that out discern what that might be because you could be at a very important moment where god is going to call on you soon to make some very important decisions that will benefit a lot of people god never wastes a life and so often big doors swing on very small hinges it's one of these moments for her so we have a tragedy anxiety opportunity and finally bravery she has to do something with the information what will she do verse 15 esther told them to reply to mordecai okay go gather all the jews who are present in shushan why all the jews because that's who it affects who are present in shushan in the capital city and fast fast for for me neither eat nor drink for three days she doesn't mention prayer but she does mention fasting and i'm guessing that she's very cautious about letting out the idea that she is jewish especially in light of this edict but any jew to another jew when you say fast for three days no that includes prayer and fasting because in the old testament prayer and fasting are like salt and pepper like peanut butter and jelly they go together and so i want you to fast for three days implying pray for three days and fast with your fellow jews night or day my maids and i will fast likewise she probably had some jewish maids at work on her staff now watch this and so i will go to the king which is against the law i'm going to break the law the law says i can only go in that throne room if i'm summoned i'm going look at this and if i perish i perish i need to do what's right it could cost me my life bring it if i perish i pair what a great answer what a great woman she decides to risk it all keep in mind esther has been in an environment that pampered her an environment that told her to focus all of her attention on her skin and her looks and her beauty and herself right it was all about herself now in this decision she conquers the giant of self and she suddenly becomes self less self sacrificing self denying in effect she is saying enough of the easy life enough of the beauty queen stuff i've been on persian vogue on the cover i've been in l magazine i've i've everybody knows who i am i'm i'm a beauty queen enough of that i'm gonna go see the king and put a stop to this and if a spear gets thrust through my body or a guard tackles me so be it let this be my finest hour now this is the commemoration for 9 11 as well and the decision that esther made is a decision that so many people made on that day to sacrifice their lives to rush into the towers to to work in the pentagon to bring people to safety to commandeer airplanes that could become missiles whether they were firefighters or port authority officials or police members or ambulance drivers or clergymen first responders all they ran to it people like moira smith a female new york city police officer who ran in and ran out with people to rescue them and rescue them and finally she died in the tragedy or a chef a chef who was a former marine by the name of benjamin clark who made sure that everybody on his floor the 96th floor of one of the towers was evacuated got him out lost his life or father michael judge the first victim of the 9 11 attacks he heard of the explosions he ran into the building he was killed most of you know the name todd beamer he was aboard united flight 93 and he knew that the pilots had been killed they were forced from the cockpit they were knifed they knew the plane was being hijacked they he got a report on on the phone that um other planes had been flown into the world trade center another one into the pentagon they were probably going to commandeer this plane for the capital or the white house or some other target so todd beamer in a moment knew this was an esther moment if i perish i perish and he told the other passengers what was going on they concocted a very quick plan and his last recorded words were are you ready okay let's roll and that plane went down in shanksville [Applause] when the civil war was at its height and abraham lincoln the president of the united states at the time was feeling very discouraged and despairing he went to church one sunday and he listened to the sermon and afterwards one of his aides that was with him said mr president did you enjoy the sermon and lincoln said well the preacher was clear his points were logical i'm sure he was very sincere and the aide said so you thought it was a good sermon lincoln said no i think he failed he did not ask of us something great he gave information but he didn't ask us to do something with it he didn't ask of us to apply something to our lives that would be considered great what mordecai asked of esther is to do something great this could be your finest hour you you could be alive and in this position for this moment do something good do something great let your life be raised to a higher level i'm asking us to do something great here it is in a nutshell stop spending your life start investing your life if you are planning your life for your comfort and and my joy in my latter years it's all about that okay you can do that it's a free country free world i suppose but that's just spending your life invest your life into something that will outlive you that's something great jesus didn't stay in heaven he said i'm going to come to this earth i'm coming to ground zero i'm coming to where sin exploded and hit the human race and i didn't come to be served i came to serve and to give my life a ransom for many so that's the answer to self one person wrote dear heavenly father i'm working on a puzzle pure and simple it is i god answered back dear searching child here's the answer to your puzzle pure and simple it is i that's always the solution to self is you replace yourself with himself your will with his will your plans with his plans your cause with his cause that's this is the flesh that's the spirit father you have called us to something great you have called us to the kingdom of god you have called us to rescue people out of darkness and deliver them into the kingdom of your son this could be our finest hour we need to be courageous we need to be bold we need to also mix that with grace seasoned with salt i pray that you by your spirit would help us to be those change agents in our culture how thankful we are lord as we remember back 20 years to those who willingly gave their lives by rescuing others but i am so thankful for those who continue to do so in so many different areas including our military and police officers and first responders who daily put themselves in harm's way and how we honor them today and i pray that every person who hears this message would be elevated to something much greater than living for self but that we would live to please yourself our lord in jesus name amen we hope you enjoyed this special service from calvary church we'd love to know how this message impacted you email us at my story at calvarynm.church and just a reminder you can support this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church give thank you for joining us for this teaching from calvary church

Channel: Skip Heitzig

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Keywords: Bible Study, Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Sermons, Calvary Church, How to Study the Bible, Gospel, bravery, the flesh, grief, providence, purpose, sacrifice, self, selfishness, selflessness, sorrow

Id: jVqKFXWgbD8

Length: 43min 4sec (2584 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021