For Such a Time as This | November 8th, 2026

Last week, as we look at chapters three and four of the book of Esther, we saw the plot thicken. As the king of Persia promoted a man named Haman to be a chief official over all other officials in his court. And we saw that although the king had commented everyone to pay homage to Haman and bow down to Ham as his second and command, Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman that way. This hand raised Haman. And when Haman found out that Mordecai was Jewish, he devised a plan to get rid of Mordecai by telling the king that the Jewish people were going to be a problem in his kingdom. He told the king that they lived by other laws than the kings and they would undermine his power throughout the kingdom if he didn't destroy them. The king trusted what Haman said and agreed to make the decree for the Jews to be destroyed on a certain day, months later. When Mordecai heard the news, he was devastated. And he begged Esther to talk to the king and tell him that she herself is Jewish and to beg the king to reverse the decree. But Esther was very afraid because no one was allowed to make a meeting with the king unless he asked them first. Not even the queen. In fact, to appear before the king without being someone could even mean death if he decided to be so offended by it. It was in this moment that Mordecai pleaded with Esther

to consider that she had become queen for this very reason. The rescue gets people for such a time as this. In the end, Esther agrees and begs Mordecai to fast and pray for her, saying, "If I perish, then I perish." Which is where we continue our study of the book of Esther today. - Well, good morning fellowship. Man, what a joy it is to be here with you all. Today, as we gather together across all of our campuses this morning as a church family, to sing praises and give glory to the one who is truly worthy of it all, Jesus Christ, our Lord. In front of you who are relatively new with us, whether you're joining us in the chapel this morning or here in the worship center on this campus, my name is Ben Parkinson. I'm one of four we call teaching pastors here at Fellowship. We have the privilege of coming alongside Mark and Justin and Brandon and the team, Arena Way, that we do to lead and teach the church. And so if I haven't had a chance to meet you yet and you have some time after the service, please come and say hi, that'd be a huge blessing to me. I would really love that this morning. And before we jump back into the book of Esther today, we do want to recognize someone who's actually retiring from our staff family who served here for a very long time. You know, with the size of our staff, it doesn't make sense for us to get up here and announce

every time someone comes on staff or every time someone moves on and does something else. But every now and then, it does make sense. And so I want to invite up Trish Monahan to come here this morning with her husband, Scott. Yeah. (audience applauds) (audience applauds) Now, although this morning is about Trish, and it is, it is Trish, I promise, we do also want to recognize and acknowledge how special it is, the entire Monahan family, at some point has actually served on our staff, starting with Scott all those years ago as one of the ones helping lead our FSK, Fellowship Kids Ministry here for so long, and then moving in to lead our IT team for a season, and then, of course, helping with the kids' staff up in Cabot, when that campus was up and going, served for a long time, before he moved on to what he's doing now. And then, of course, the entire Monahan family from Jordan to Landon to Lindsey and Abby, who's here on our staff on this campus, is one of our Fellowship Kids pastors, have all served in some capacity over the years on staff, where Fellowship is, well, you can see their beautiful family there on the screen. But many of you know Trish from one of her multiple roles

over 25 years here on our staff. Long time, starting off helping lead our Fellowship Student Ministries with the girls there, and ministering to those girls for such a long time, such a critical season of their life. And then, going from that role into leading our women's ministry for some five years, you told me, last a service, something like that, yeah. To help all of our women man grow in the word, grow in learning the word, grow in community with one another through Bible studies and small groups and teaching and all the different ways that she helped lead that ministry and grow it to a certain place over time. And then, most recently, a lot of you guys have known her through leading up our Care and Connection Ministry team. And just Trish has done an incredible job since I've been back here of helping a big church feel really personal and feel really small in so many ways. to the way that you've ministered our midweek group here on Wednesdays who I know you love so much as well as all the classes that you oversee during the week that ministered to people who were hurting and who were in need. I'm such a huge blessing for that. As well as the role that she's played on our central leadership team to be a critical voice over a number of years helping us make key decisions for the entire church across all of our campuses for so long. She's been an incredible leader and an incredible pastor and incredible friend and just a member of our body and we're so thankful for you today. So absolutely yeah. Can we thank the Monohans for serving in the way that they have for so long. Thank you guys. Thank you guys for loving them that way. Well, I'm going to pray for them in just a minute but want to let you know after the service, Trish and Scott are going to be out here in the plaza at a spot near the cross out there and so there's a backdrop. You can see what Trish's name on it but please stop by for the

service and say thank you. Give her a hug. Just tell her how much you appreciate her. I know that means a ton to her. Let me pray for you guys this morning. Hey, if I let me come before you and we thank you so much for the Monohans or thank you for their faithfulness to you and the way that they have expressed that through serving and loving on our church for so long. Lord, thank you for Trish and the way that you have made her in your image. Lord, the way that you've given her gifts to not just be able to do one thing, like a lot of us, but to be able to do whatever you've asked her to do over years and years and decades here in our body. Well, we know as a church family you call us the body because you have some of us to be eyes, some of us to be ears, some of us to be hands, some of us to be feet, all working together for the good of those around us and yet in someone like Trish, Lord, you've allowed her to be an eye when she needed to and an ear when she needed to and hands when she needed to and feet when she needed to and just what an incredible gift that is to our church. So we thank you for them, but we thank you that they're still going to be here in our midst as members, that they're not going anywhere. But what we do pray is they move into this next season of their life being grandparents and parents and loving on our church as volunteers. They'll continue to to continue to minister the gospels all of us are called to whether we're on staff at a church or a not, Lord, I just pray that you would go before them, that you would give them favor, that everything they put their hand to would prosper and you would bless them, Lord. We love them so much in your name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thanks. We do love you guys at Tom. Is there making their way off the stage if you guys do want to turn with me to the book of Esther? If you have your scriptures really this morning, we're going to pick up where we left off in chapter 5, verse 1 this morning. We'll talk all the way to chapter 6, verse 13 today together. And so far in the series, of course, in the first three messages, we've made a number of different points from this book. Points in the things that we've seen God showing us through King Azerus and through Queen Vashti, through Mordecai and Esther and even last week with the rise of Haman to his position. But I hope in the midst of all those individual points that we're making about this book and about this story that we're also continuing to see the bigger picture as to why the Spirit led us to preach this book in a year when we're talking about the reality that our God is able to do more than we could possibly ask or imagine. According to the power that is within us like we memorized last month in Ephesians 3. Because although the entire story of the Bible is really one of God's sovereign love for us, loving us and calling us back to him in the midst of the choices that we

make with the free will he's given us made in his image. The book of Esther, man, tells us that story and shows us that point over and over again in a very pointed specific way, verse after verse, chapter after chapter. This incredible reminder to us that we're not robots just because God's in control. Our actions and our choices absolutely matter a great deal in this life and in our relationship with God and yet even though that's true, he is sovereign. He is in control. He is working all things together for our good and for his glory in ways we can barely even fathom. Always perfectly loving us, always accomplishing his will in and through our lives. And sometimes that's obvious to us in our relationship with him as we walk through this life and sometimes it's a little hard to see. But like we'll see again today even when we don't see God, he is working. Even when we don't hear his voice audibly, he is speaking. I love that about this book that we've already mentioned in this series. and yet he is everywhere in here. You can't miss it. Like I told you when we kicked off this series a few weeks ago, this book leaves you with some cliffhanging moments, if you're following a long week by week, when you preach it a little bit at a time like we are, which is what we saw last week. We ended that sermon with Mordecai begging Esther to go and talk to the king and beg him to reverse the decree that he had made through Haman's encouragement to wipe out the entire Jewish people in the midst of what Haman was encouraging him to do. And Mordecai came to Esther and said, "You have to use your position and scream to go "and talk to him." And she said, "I can't." No one can show up at the king's unannounced unless he invites you to come talk to him.

It means death. It's what the decree of the law says. If you show up unannounced and he decides he doesn't want to talk to you, it means death. She's like, "I don't know what to do, "but we saw it in the last week." She ends it with that bold statement, "I'm gonna go. "You pray and fasten me for three days, "and if I perish, I perish." And that's where we pick it up in chapter five, verse one today. Let's see what happens next. It says, "On the third day, "after they had been fasting and praying for three days, "Ester put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court "of the king's palace in front of the king's quarters. "While the king was sitting on his royal throne "inside the throne room opposite of the entrance "to the palace." Can you imagine that moment? He'd been praying and fasting for three days, begging God to give her favor with him, but now's the moment of truth. Standing there outside of his throne room, dressing her robes, doing everything she can to convey her position, to convey his care for her, to convey all the things that she means, hoping that it'll mean that he accepts her.

I can only imagine the uncertainty and the doubt. I can only imagine the fear and the temptation to just turn him bolt and say, "Nope, hang on to it." I can't imagine what that must have felt like. Yet look what God does in verse two. It says, "And when the king saw Queen Esther "standing in the court, she won favor in his sight." And he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hands. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of that scepter. She won favor in his sight. The thing that never happens happened. Esther shows up unannounced. Man, assuming, believing. There's no way I'm probably not walking out of here being condemned to die because of what I'm doing unless he decides to make an exception to his own rule and lo and behold, he made that exception. The thing that he rarely, if ever, did. And we can attribute that maybe to Esther's beauty, right? We're told how beautiful she was when the reason why the king fell in love with her, although God gave her the beauty that she had. We can attribute that to Esther's character, maybe in the way she carried herself different, which is the reason why maybe he chose her to be his bride and queen like he did, although God gave her the character that she had. But it's tempting for us to look at this and say, "Man, he must have really just liked her."

Or, "Man, she must have done something great." Or, "Man, we should cross her fingers and just got lucky." But when we come to these points in the scriptures, we ought to hear passages like Proverbs 21 and 1, echoing, screaming out to us. I don't have it on the screen, but just listen to what it says. It says, "The king's heart is a stream of water "in the hand of the Lord. "He turns it wherever he will." That's why the king accepted her in that moment. Psalm 75, six through seven, "For not from the east or from the west, "not from the wilderness comes lifting up, "but it's God who executes judgment, "putting down one and lifting up another." That can be hard to believe, can it? Sometimes. It can be hard for us to trust it. Even though we can't see him physically with our eyes or hear his voice audibly with our ears, that our God is that real in the earthly moments that affect our lives. It can be hard for us in those moments to trust what we're reading here, that God can give us favor with any one he wants, any time he wants, under his sovereign hand. God can give us favor fellowship, with any one he wants, any time he wants, under his sovereign hand.

And yet God records what he did in the life of Esther to remind us of that exact reality. In fact, not only is the king not sentenced Esther to death when she shows up unannounced, but look at what he actually says to her in verse three. It says, "And the king said to her, 'What is it, Queen Esther?' "'What is your request? "'It shall be given you even up to half of my kingdom.'" I mean, you talk about favor. Now, he didn't just welcome her in and say, "What do you need?" He said, "Anything you want to ask, "even up to half of the kingdom." I'll go split these with you on this entire kingdom. That's how much I love you. What do you need? I mean, think about the favor God's given Esther in this story so far. I mean, we saw earlier in the story when he married her, he was so in name, where they're so in love with her, Can you imagine that? The leaders of our nation just being so in love with their spouses, they just say, "You know what, take a year off." Wouldn't that be great? That's how much favor she has. Not only with him, but now with the entire nation having that happen. And now here in this moment he says,

"Listen, whatever you want, "up to half the entire kingdom." So we see Esther set the stage in verse four. Says, "And Esther says, 'If it pleased the king, "let the king and Haman come today to a feast "that I've prepared for the king.' And the king said, "Bring Haman quickly "so that we may do what Esther has asked." So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared. Now I don't know about you, when I come to this point in the story, I'm like, "Okay, here we go, right?" Esther has the favor of the king. She must be feeling pretty confident. He said, "I'll give you whatever it is "that you want to ask for." And she made the king bring Haman to the feast. So surely she's gonna confront the whole situation, confront Haman, talk to the king. Just like she told Mordecai, she would do in the last chapter that we wrapped up last week. She's gonna ask the king to reverse his decree and save the Jewish people, here goes. And yet the next verse we see something very different happen, look at verses six through eight. It says, "And as they were drinking wine after the feast, "the king said to Esther, 'What is your wish? "It shall be granted you, and what is your request? "Even to half my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.'

"And then Esther answered, 'My wish and my request is, "if I found favor in the side of the king. "And if it pleased the king to grant my wish "and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come "to the feast, I'll prepare for them, "and tomorrow I'll do as the king has asked." Wait, what? You prayed and fasted for three days, and that's the entire Jewish people across the entire land to pray and fast for three days for you to go and ask the king for this one thing. You risked your life to go and to interrupt him in his court unannounced, and yet he received you. He's encouraging you to ask. He's begging you to ask. He wants you to ask in the midst of that, and then you get right to the point of asking, and you say, "You know what, thanks so much "for coming to this feast. "I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. "I'm gonna ask for, come to another feast tomorrow, "and then I'll do it." What's going on here in Esther's heart? Is it that she got there right to the point of that and still just so fearful that she's gonna ask for too much, so fearful that the king's gonna reject what she says, so fearful that he's gonna be like, "I'm not gonna go back on a decree. "I already made and stamped with my seal." Do you know what that would mean?

That she just kinda freaks out in the fear and decides to put it off another day? I can see that. I've done that. I'm sure you've done that at times. I geared up some courage to do something, and then you're like, "You know what, "I think tomorrow will be a better day for this, "not today. "Sure, we've all wrestled with that before." That kaboot's going on. Could be that she's following some kind of ancient Persian custom here and how she's going about this to ask the king, lavish him with a feast, ask him to come back with another feast to kinda bless him and give him gifts and food and wine always kind of things over him. Before she asked it, maybe in some kind of customary thing they did back in that day, that's definitely possible. We don't know whether she's feeling fear or whether she's being shrewd in the midst of this. We're not told in the story, but what we do know is that this decision, to put it off another 24 hours, to put it off another day, whether it's shrewdness or whether it's fear, doesn't seem to make things better for Esther and Mordecai and the Jewish people at first glance. Seems to make things much worse. Look at the rest of chapter five, with me, verses nine through 14.

Says, "And Haman went out that day, joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home and he sent and brought his friends and his wife's arresh and Haman recanted them, the splendor of his riches and the number of his sons, all the promotions which which the king had honored him and how he'd advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. Then Haman said, "Even Queen Esther, let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also I'm invited by her together with the king. Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Then his wife's arresh and all his friends said to him, "Well, let a gallows, 50 cubits I be made, and the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hang upon it. Then go joyfully with the king to the feast. This idea please Haman and he had the gallows made." You know, this is one of the reasons why I love the word of God. Why I believe it's absolutely true and real and from him. Because God's realistic in the way he talks about the things we experience, isn't he? He's realistic and now he describes the things that happen in our lives. He doesn't candy coat it here. That even though he is sovereign and in control

in this moment, like we said, we're not robots. We're not just playing out some predetermined script on the earth. Esther has the free will made in his... She has the freedom to delay talking to the king for 24 more hours about the very thing that she knows she needs to talk to him about. And in that 24 hours, Haman has the freedom to get so puffed up in his pride thinking there's nothing the king and queen won't do for him that he decides to change his mind on waiting for Mordecai to die with the rest of the Jews months from now when the lots that he cast determined it would happen. And instead he decides, now you know what, I'm gonna go and take care of this now just like my wife, my friends encourage me to, and build a gallows there in the middle of the city, 50 qubits high. A qubit from what we know is about from your elbow up to the tip of your fingers. So I mean, foot and a half, that's some 7,500 feet tall that he's built these gallows to hang Haman on in the midst of that. No, in the midst of this story, what we see is that even though God's in control and even though his sovereign love for us is always acting on our behalf in real time, there are real moments in our lives of doubt and fear. In a real moment, we don't know what's going to happen. Real moments of encouragement and relief at the same time,

real moments of waiting and confusion as God's sovereign love plays out for us, it's real life fellowship, it's real life. And one of the things that we see in this part of the story that can be hard about the way this plays out in life on the earth is that it can be hard to watch unhealthy people seemingly prosper under God's sovereign hand, can't he? It can be hard at times to watch, in our lives, what we see here happen with Haman for unhealthy people to prosper and to rise to power and to be lavish upon all these kinds of things in their life. I mean, Haman's clearly an unhealthy person, being driven by his pride. So much so, he doesn't just get offended by Mordecai and want to find a way to make him bow down to him. No, he wants to destroy Mordecai and not just Mordecai, but extends it out to the entire Jewish nation across 127 provinces, he decides to do that. And then finds a way to use all of his wealth and all of his power to manipulate the king to agree to that plan. And Haman isn't just prospering a little bit as he's doing this evil act, this evil deed notice, how he gathers his friends together for a dinner party in verses 10 and 11 and just decides to spend the time bragging about how great his life is, bragging about the splendor of his riches, bragging about how many kids he's been blessed with, bragging about all the promotions the king had given him,

how he'd been risen up to second in command of the entire empire, only to the king. Now, he's getting invited to private dinner parties with the king and the queen of the entire known world at the time. I mean, Haman's not just prospering a little bit here. Haman's on top of the world. Haman's life's going as good as it possibly can. And he's full of pride and he's a violent man. In fact, we're gonna see her in a minute, he's narcissistic, he's not healthy. He's not the kind of guy you would think God would bless in these ways or be able to have these things in this life. And he seems to be getting away with all of it at this point in the story. And yet fellowship, God is able. Because God's greater than any kind of wealth someone can wield as a human on the earth. God's greater than any kind of power someone can have as a human in this life. No matter what kind of connections people around you have, no matter what kind of schmoozing they think they're able to do to get the things that they want in the midst. There's no how unstoppable they may seem God is in control. And he can begin to turn the tide in your story at any moment that he wants to, any moment he sees fit. Which we see starting to happen in chapter six, verse one, look at it with me.

Says on that night, the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. Who knew that's what they used the ancient sleep aid back in the day, right? And he's aiming when you have the king's chronicles. I mean, that's what you do when you can't sleep, right? You just call your staff and say, "Read me the story of me." And you just fall asleep until it's better, right? That's what's going on here. So he does that in the midst of this moment. And when you know what part of the story they happen to read to the king on the night, he just happens to not be able to sleep on the night, Haman decides to build these gallows and go ask the king in the morning to hang Mordecai on them. Look at verse two. It says, and it was found written how Mordecai had told about big Thanah and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guard the threshold and who had sought to lay hands on King Azuris back from chapter two that we read earlier. And you got to be kidding me. That's what they happened to read to him that night. But he gets better, look at verses three through five. And so the king said, "What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?" And the king's young men who attended him said, "Nothing's been done for him."

And the king said, "Huh, who's in the court?" Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hang. "Well, Haman is there, standing in the court." And the king said, "Let him come in." You guys are tracking all the crazy quintessence that's happening here, right? I'm not alone as I read this. I mean, think about what is actually happening. Haman decides, in a fit of frustration and pride, to speed up Mordecai's death and ask the king to let him hang him on 100 foot gallows, he just built the day before. The king happens to have a rough night of sleep that night. And the part of his chronicles, they happen to pull out and read the part about Mordecai saving the king's life, to which the king happens to not just say, "Huh, that's interesting." But say, "Do we ever do anything for him?" And when they tell him, "No," instead the king just say, "Well, then go and do this." He says, "Now I want some advice on this. Who's hanging around? Who can I talk to you right now?" Well, the guy who's going to ask you to kill him in a couple seconds is here. Do you want to talk to him? They didn't know that, but that's what happens. I mean, you can't make this stuff up as you read it. It's incredible the way that God works in the midst of this story, in the midst of Mordecai and Esther's life and the life of his people. Look at verses 6-2-9 says, "So Haman came in and the king said to him, 'What should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?' And Haman said to himself, 'Who would the king delight to honor more than me?'" I told you we're going to see his narcissism come out here. I mean, Haman can't fathom anyone else possibly that the king can be talking about, but him, of all the people in the kingdom. So Haman said to the king, "For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set, and let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials, and let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them lead him on the horse due to the square of all the city proclaimed before him, thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor." I love it. Haman's so convinced it has to be about him. He suggests the most over-the-top thing you can possibly imagine. I mean, honestly, it's a little risky when you think about it. For the emperor to say, "Hey, what should I do for someone I really want to honor?" And for Haman to say, "You know what you ought to do? You ought to take a robe you've worn before and put it on him and make him look

like he's equal to you like an emperor." You ought to do. You ought to put him on a horse that you've ridden before. The horse that everyone recognizes is one of your horses so that people when they see him, they kind of see you. You ought to put a crown on his head just like you wear a crown, and then you know what? They're just letting him ride around and kind of people check it out. No, no. I want you to get one of your most noble officials, right, because Haman's thinking, this will prop me up above everybody. If I go with his most noble officials to have to leave me around dressed as the emperor and declare, look at what the emperor does for the man he wants to honor, and that's going to put me head and shoulders above everybody else. He's so convinced it's about him. He goes so over-the-top to make sure that it's going to exalt him to this place of promise he's never had before in the midst of that. I can't imagine how Haman's jaw hit the floor on the next horse. I mean, you think about how excited he is about this moment, and yet look at what God does in verse 10. Says, "Then the king said to Haman, 'Perfect. Hurry, take the robes and the horse, as you've said, and you do so to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king's gate.' And by the way, leave out nothing that you've mentioned. Don't skimp on it, Haman. Everything you said, do that, and the noble God that I want to walk around, they're not great he is. Why you do it since you're here." I mean, I would love to be a flaw in the wall now, man. I would love to just be living inside Haman's head when that happened. Can you imagine the color just draining out of his face of all the names the king could have said of people to honor. Over 127 provinces, an entire kingdom of anyone's name coming out of his mouth, the last person in the world that he thought would come out of the king's mouth is the guy he was showing up there to say, "Hey, by the way, can I kill this guy today?" And not only that, but notice he didn't just say Mordecai. He says, "What? Mordecai the Jew." So now it's in the king's head, "Oh, by the way, I want to honor this person, and I want to honor this person who's connected to these people." Now, the king doesn't know when Mordecai came to him earlier back in chapter three and kind of said, "Hey, there's a people who don't honor you. They don't love you. We need to wipe them out." He didn't mention it was the Jewish people, right? So the king hasn't made that connection yet, but you've got to know Haman in his heart and mind when the king says Mordecai the Jew is all of a sudden feeling like, "Oh my gosh." The king's in love with Mordecai. He thinks he's incredible and knows he's Jewish. What's going to happen when he finds out the people that I'm wiping out on the certain day casting lots are the Jewish people. I mean, he must have just been sick to his stomach.

Now, I'm going to pause right here for a second because even though we're beginning to see God. to kill Mordecai at this point. Mordecai has no idea this is going on, does he? I mean, for all Mordecai knows at this point, sitting at home right now, is that Esther went in to ask the king about his decree to wipe out the people, but she didn't do it. She said, "Hey, come back tomorrow." That's all he knows at this point about what's gonna happen there. And my guess is he's heard the rumors about what those gallows are being built for and who's building them and why. And that's all he knows is that today's the day that Haman's coming for me. So even though we can see God begin to turn the tide in Mordecai's story, he doesn't see it yet. He doesn't know what's going on. And I wanna stop and pause and bring that up to us 'cause these are one of the hardest things that we have to do that God asks us to do as the people who live in a world that makes free real choices under the banner of his sovereign love for us. It's to trust him in waiting as his love plays out for us over the course of our lives. I mean, think about it. It's not as hard to necessarily trust

that God's sovereign over everything in your life when you see him do something only he can do for you in a positive way, right? It's easy to say, man, God's in control. Look, it's not hard for us to believe that God's sovereignly in control. And we're praying prayers and begging for something and he answers it in the way that we wanted him to. It's easy to say, man, look, our God is real, look how he's in control, look how he interacts in our day-to-day lives and how he's real and present and loves us in this way. But it's those times when we're crying out to him, begging him for something, praying for something, and we don't see the answer. Those are the times that are hard to trust. Those are the times that are hard to believe that he still is who he says he is and he's still doing what he says he's doing for us. So moments where we ask him for something and maybe the answer isn't no, but maybe the answer is not yet. And we have to wait. We have to trust as we see unhealthy people being exalted, as we see the things we're begging for, not happening as we don't know what's gonna happen to us in the midst of it. No, as hard as it is to believe that God can give favor to us and moments that seem impossible, as hard as it is to watch him.

It times allow unhealthy people to be exalted or to rise in that way to prosper sometimes. It's really hard to sit in God's timing and trust him as he does things behind the scenes that we don't always know he's doing under his sovereign hand. Mordecai doesn't know God's doing all this. I'm sure he's sitting at home going, "God, where are you? God, what are you gonna do? God, why aren't you answering our prayer? God, how's this gonna happen?" No, being able to rest in the waiting can be the hardest thing. But he does get verse 11. So Haman took the robes on the horse and he addressed Mordecai and he let them do the square of the city proclaim before him, "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor." I can't imagine who was shocked more in that moment. Can you imagine Mordecai sitting at home, seeing the gallows built here in the rumors, Haman shows up at his door, says, "Hey, come here, out in the street. I need to do something." You know Mordecai's thinking, "This is it, this is my life." And yet in that moment, not only does he not march him off he could hang on the gallows, but all of a sudden Haman wraps him in the emperor's old robe and puts a crown on his head and helps him get up onto the horse and then leads him through the square, giving him glory and honor and proclaiming,

this is the man whom the king wants to honor more than anybody else. I mean, I can't imagine what Mordecai was thinking. He must have been, I mean elated and thankful, but he must have been so confused. And yet that's what our God does in all the hardships we've talked about today. Even though there are times where he's asking us to wait on his timing for his love to play out in our lives fellowship, you've seen it in your life, I'm sure I've seen it in my life. Even when we're waiting, even when we're not sure what's gonna happen, even when we're still hoping and praying in the midst of that, he is so good to give us a glimpse of hope along the way. He's so good to give us hope in the waiting just so we needed the most under his sovereign hand. Now it's not over yet the waiting for Mordecai and Esther. It's not over yet the risk that's still involved. He still doesn't know if Esther's gonna follow through and ask the king for what she said she would. He still doesn't know what the king's gonna say. If she ever gets up the courage to bring it up, he doesn't know if the king's gonna say, no, I'm not reversing that decree. That would make me look weak and foolish. I'm not gonna do that, sorry. He doesn't know what's gonna happen. The biggest issues on the table are still on the table. The biggest things they're begging God to do are still up in the air. It's far from over. But that had to give Mordecai a sense of hope.

That had to give Mordecai a sense of just man, the God of Israel is real. And he does see me. And he does love me. And he does know who I am. And he does see me in my struggle. And he is able to do what I thought would have been impossible. He does do that for us. And we need to look for those moments in our lives and praise them for it. Verses 12 through 13 says, "Then Mordecai returned to the king's gate, "but Haman hurried to his house "and mourning with his head covered. "And Haman told his wife Zaresh "and all his friends, everything that had happened to him. "Then his wise men and his wife Zaresh said to him, "'If Mordecai before who you begun to fall "'is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him, "'but will surely fall before him.'" They begin to see the writing on the wall. Troy Haman's gonna walk into that next feast with a little different posture than he did in the first feast. Mordecai's going home confused, but man encouraged maybe what's going on, but things are still up in the air, aren't they? Listen, fellowship, I don't think it's a mistake. I don't think it's an accident that when we decided to preach Esther a year ago and put it on the counter, we knew it'd be in the fall,

but we didn't look to see exactly how many weeks you're breaking it up yet, or when certain sermons are gonna fall in certain days. I don't think it's any mistake that God said, you know what, I'm gonna put that sermon the week after an election. Because this is what we saw play out and we're living through in this week in our life, isn't it? We're not robots, we have free will. We have free choice, made the image of God, and he's so gracious and loving and kind to give us that. He doesn't force us to do anything. And so it was good for us all to go out and to vote the way that we felt convicted, to vote, and try to encourage people and persuade people with the way that man we think that the candidates ought to go and the people we think are gonna be best to lead our country and all of it. We're not robots, we're acting, we're moving. And God's using our votes and using our voices, just like we see him using Mordecai's voice to influence Esther. Using Esther's voice to influence the king in the midst of this, right? He's using us. He wants us to do that. He wants us to take care. We're blessed as a people to be able to have a voice and who governs our nation. That's a rare thing. Esther and Mordecai didn't get to choose the emperor.

They lived under. We get to play a part in that. And God wants to use us in that as those who follow him. At the same time, here's what I wanna encourage you in. Whether you're excited about what happened on Tuesday or whether you think it's the worst thing in the world. Whether you're going home today deflated and depressed and oh my gosh, the country's over or whether you're like praise the Lord that something changed. I don't know where your heart is in all of it in the midst of that. Here's what you can absolutely believe and understand and know. And the reason why I think God wants to give us this passage on this week, he is in control. He is sovereign over the things that are happening in our nation to us, right? And here's what I love about God. What I can absolutely trust, I don't know what he's gonna do in the direction of politics in our country. I don't know which leaders are gonna actually be better for one thing or worse for another or all those kind of things. Here's what I absolutely know though. He is gonna use whatever happens to draw people to him and to draw more people into a relationship with him and if it didn't happen that way. I mean, you see Esther and Mordecai hitting their knees, fasting, praying, begging God,

getting closer to him in their relationship and they probably were before when there was a throw on the table that Jews might be destroyed. That's what brought them closer to him. Yet the same time, we're gonna see him do amazing things in the midst of that to turn the tables and do other things in their life. They're gonna rescue you. Whatever God's doing, just know, because he loves you more than anything in the world, under his sovereign hand, under what he's doing, under how things are playing out in the world, his heart, his goal is to draw as many of us closer to him as he possibly can. We can trust that, we can believe that and because of that, we don't have to be afraid. We don't have to be afraid. I know I've been saying a lot lately and a lot in this series. First John Forge, one of my favorite passages, perfect love casts out fear and God loves you perfectly. He doesn't want you to be afraid. He wants you to look at the things happening in your life and say, "Okay, not what I expected, but he loves me." Or, "Okay, exactly what I hope for." Man, look at how he loves me. But he wants you to know how much he loves you and that you can rest in that, you can trust that,

you can believe that, you can hope in that and you can wake up every day with great expectation that he's doing something in your life to conform you more to the image of God. And to draw you closer to him than you've ever been before. He's in control. He's always loving us with a sovereign love even when we don't see it. Even when it seems like unhealthy people are prospering instead. And I know that we're preaching through the book of Esther and talking about Esther and Mordecai and these real human beings that live this real life, thousands of years ago and how it influences us. But don't ever forget what Jesus said about the scriptures. He even told the scribes and Pharisees, in this you look to find life and yet these things speak at me. All of this is pointing us to who Jesus is and to what he's done for us. And I love that about the scriptures. I love that about Esther's story. I mean, think about some of the things we've seen in her story up to this point. standing in the inner court dressed in her roar robes, scared to death, is the king going to accept me? Is he allowed me to come in and to make a request that I need to make to him in the midst of this? Wondering if she's going to be accepted by the king? And yes, he welcomes her in and says whatever you want, King Esther, because of his love for her. What a picture of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is granted access and welcomed into the throne room of God to make intercession for us, for his people to rescue his people and to save us anytime he needs to. He's granted access into that. And what's great about Jesus and about really all the characters of the Bible that we read about is even though they point to certain aspects of who he is, we see certain

glimpses of who he is in their story, he's always the ultimate version of it. Jesus is the better Esther because even though she has to show up hoping the king will accept her, unsure if the king will accept her, praying the king will accept her, Jesus Christ walks into the throne with God boldly, absolutely knowing he's earned the right through his perfect life and death and resurrection to walk into that throne room. And to ask the king for anything he needs to ask him for on our behalf. Look at what Hebrews 924 says, it says, "For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself. Now to appear in the presence of God, look on our behalf." He marches right in there boldly knowing. And then Hebrews goes on to even encourage us that because we're wrapped in the robes of Christ, wrapped in the righteousness of Christ, we also can approach the throne of God boldly with confidence knowing our heavenly Father will listen to our requests and to our prayers. What a great picture of Jesus Christ in the gospel. Watching Haman rise to power in this part of the story, I can't help but think of our Lord and Savior who was born into a world where Caesar ruled and reigned everything. An unhealthy leader and emperor where Herod was the king of Israel who sought to try and destroy Jesus just on the rumor that the Messiah was being born. He was born into a world where the chief priests controlled the temple where unhealthy people seemed to be prospering. Just like we see with Haman in this story. I think of watching Mordecai have to wait while God works behind the scenes, beginning to turn the tide. I can't help but think of the thousands of years Jesus waited to come from heaven to earth watching things play out on the earth until like Galatians 4 says the perfect proper time for him to show up happened. I don't want to think of the 30 years he waited walking on the earth before he began his ministry. His disciples started walking with him when they were teenagers, maybe early 20s. He waited 30 years before he inaugurated that for just the perfect time. The three years he waited while doing his ministry to come and accomplish his purpose for showing up in the first place, his death and resurrection for the salvation of us all he waited patiently teaching, healing, working until that day arrived. I think about the three days he waited in the ground in the tomb before he was resurrected to bring us the glory and the hope that all of us had that we will be risen with him one day as well. No, Jesus knows what it means to wait for God's timing, his sovereign love to play out in our lives. The thing at that moment where Haman put the king's royal robes on Mordecai and seated him on his horse or the royal crown on his head and marched him through the city square proclaiming his glory to all the people. What a

picture of what we see described in the book of Revelation of Jesus' return in robes of royalty seated on a horse it says. Coming down from heaven to earth and having every knee bow, right? Mordecai's enemy is proclaiming about how great he is. The scriptures tell us in that moment when Jesus Christ returns with his crown and his robe on his horse, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. He will be glorified in that day even by those that have not trusted in him. Esther's such a great story. Not only for what it shows us about us through their life, about what it looks like for us to trust the sovereign loving God in hard moments even in the waiting of it, but Esther is also an incredible story because of how it points us to the better Esther, to the better Mordecai, to the one who all that points to Jesus Christ our Lord. Even when we don't see him fellowship, believe and know, he's working sovereignly to love you on your behalf. Would you proud of me? Have you followed me come before you? We thank you for your word to us. We thank you for the truth of this story of Esther. Lord, I thank you that in real time and space history you allowed these things to play out and recorded them and kept them and preserved them for us to read thousands of years later so that we might believe, so that we might hope, so that we might trust, so that we might take our fears and our anxieties and cast our cares upon you like you tell us to knowing. Even as we see unhealthy people rising to power and prospering, you can change that tide in a moment. You're doing things on our behalf, loving us, behind the scenes. Even we don't know that you're doing them yet. We haven't seen them play out yet, but you're working. God, I praise you that you're that kind of God. And I praise you, Jesus Christ, that you have done what you've done on the cross through your death and resurrection, so that there's no excuse, no reason why the king of the universe would say, no, I'm not going to do that for them. It's you staying there in the throne room of heaven and say, but I've earned it for them.

I've given it to them by my grace. Thank you. May we praise you forever in your name, Amen. - Thanks again for listening to the word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week, through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipare.com/contact. Have a great week. (upbeat music)