I know I’ve got a quite southern accent, but, uh, it’s not that quiet. Anyhow, they put this stool out here for me to stand on, so I, I feel like I’m better height now. Anyhow, um, well, welcome to Victory Lutheran Church. I am Pastor Jenson Bennett, and it is my pleasure and honor to be with you here today. Um, as, as the church as a whole has been working on Esther and I get to, uh, try my hand at finishing this series for you. You’ve done some excellent work so far on it. And I want to begin by asking a question. Have you ever noticed how all great stories begin with a phrase, like a catchphrase, right? Like once upon a time or in a galaxy far, far away. Or maybe in the beginning, you know, that’s a good one too. But I wanted to share a story with you this morning. That begins much like that once upon a time in an English colony in Manhattan, New York, a 16 year old indentured slave girl by the name of Sarah Wells was tasked with leading a group of men into the wilderness of upstate New York.
The year 1712. The expedition was to map out a land patent the Crown of England had given to a group of investors, which included Christopher Denny, who was Sarah Wells owner. Now Sarah, she was a young enterprising woman. And she decided, I’ll strike a deal. I’ll use this moment in time to get my freedom and a better life. You said, she said to Christopher and the group, she says, I will lead this expedition. I will go up Hudson River on a sailboat with six men as a 16 year old girl by herself into the wilderness of the unknown, hiking 20 miles inland into an area that was inhabited only with Native Americans at the time, if you will secure my freedom and give me 100 acres of your land. And this was an unheard of idea at the time, and frankly I think Mr. Denny thought that she would never make it because he agrees to it and off Sarah goes. Well, in that story that I share with you, there is no mention of God. Just an average story of many people that experienced early life in the colonies of the United States, going about daily business, trying to defend and fend for themselves as best as possible. The only part of that story is that Sarah was promised something by God earlier in her life. And so she is living on that promise in that moment. But if we examine that story, we understand that there is no mention of God. There is no divine moments of interaction. There are no angels who appear to show her the way up the Hudson River. There’s no mention at all. Just an servant girl living in a world run by men who steps out in faith, an ordinary person doing extraordinary things in faith. Let us pray.
God, you are a loving father and I thank you for this opportunity to, to come together to share this message of Esther with the wonderful people of Victory Lutheran. I thank you for the entire staff here, for pastors Todd and Susan and Renee, the church council, and the people that make up your church body. I pray, Father, your blessings be upon them. And as we deal with the final message of Esther this morning, that you would move me aside, that you let the words of the people here come directly from you. Father, speak into the lives of your children, into the needs they have, into the lives that they live. Send your Holy Spirit to be alive within all of us here this morning, within this church building, but more importantly, keep it in us as we leave this morning. to go forward into our normal, ordinary lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So just as the story I shared with you about Sarah and the story you’ve been reading about Esther, they share that one thing in common, and that is that there is no mention of God in the stories. In fact, that was part of the reason that Luther and many of the Church Fathers debated whether Esther should even be included in canon. But that’s not an uncommon thought for us today, because I bet there’s many times we go throughout our entire day with no thought of God actively alive in our lives. Sure, we probably pray. We, we read our Bible. You all are good Christians. I know you do these things daily, right? But do we actually really believe that God is working in our lives? Is He actively fashioning His will for this world through what we do daily? Well, He is, because that’s where we find God. We find God in the hiddenness of everyday daily life. I mean, sure, we all believe that He’s there in those big moments, you know, as we’re losing a loved one and we’re praying out and pleading for His mercy, as we’re experiencing the joy of a childbirth or, uh, those bigger moments in life when we see our children grown and married or off to college.
But often we forget that God is there when we’re meeting a friend for lunch, when we’re just meeting at the doctor’s office for a routine visit. When we’re watching children play in the backyard or simply watching television, and often we fail to realize how big of an important part we are playing in the grand plan that God has. So let’s pick up the story of Esther. Now we’ve got a big chunk to cover here, so I’m going to take a little slice of it this morning. If you’re wanting to eat the whole cake, I encourage you to do that, but this morning we’re going to cover just chapter 7 verses 1 through 6. And so the king and Haman went into feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, What is your wish? Queen Esther, it shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Then Queen Esther answered, If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and it pleased the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss of the king. Then King Azarath said to Queen Esther, Who is he? And where is he? Who dared to do this? And Queen Esther said, A foe and an enemy, this wicked Haman. Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. Well, we rejoin the story of Esther this morning right in the most pivotal point, right? I mean, if you want to talk about daytime drama and soap operas, this has got to be one of the best, right?
Right here we have the king’s court, the queen’s there. She’s asking for her life and her people to be saved and the person behind it all sits in front of them. I mean, come on, get the popcorn. This is about to get good, right? You can almost hear the background noise as Queen Esther says, my people are to be killed in dun, dun, dun, there’s the evil man. But it’s this point in time when Esther has to depend solely on her faith, solely on the promise that God has made. You see, Esther wasn’t Persian. She was a Jewish slave originally, which means she had heard over and over and over again, the stories from Abraham. And all the church fathers that we consider today have been passed down orally. And at the center of that was God’s promise to her people. So as Esther moved in front of the king in the most dangerous place to risk it all, she had to stand on one thing, and that was her faith. Queen Esther takes the opportunity that God has prepared for her in Acts. You see, when she was summoned to serve, Esther served. And not only did she serve, She did so in a normal everyday way and you say wait a minute We don’t all eat with a king every day. We don’t all have to plead for our people every day. No, that’s right You probably don’t but let’s review just a little bit about this story
You see the king had pressured Queen Esther to answer his question And at this moment when she actually delivers her answer She’s under even more pressure because she’s revealing that she’s not Jewish. I mean, she’s not Persian. She is actually Jewish She wouldn’t have known how the king would react in that moment because she was admitting to the king that he had made a horrible mistake in measuring, in making somebody queen that was a slave, a Jewish slave. And apparently wine had inebriated the king so much that he had forgot that he was responsible for this order because he turns to her and says, who dared do this? Well, you did dummy. And not only did she not know how the king would react, she had the person responsible for the whole thing setting right there. How might he react when being pointed out as the aggressor in this situation? And furthermore, what would the king do? Would he save his buddy and send the queen away? Esther had to lay it all on the line. It’s a beautiful moment of strength and resolve, a demonstration of true faith, of knowing that God’s outcome would be God’s outcome, and it’s what it needs to be for her and her people. And ultimately for you and me sitting here today because through Esther’s actions when called to serve brought about the coming of Jesus Christ. And all of us are here today because of that.
It also made an impact in her life there because Esther would continue to be impactful for her people going forward and Mordecai would, would get to serve in the King’s court, no longer spending his days outside the gate. This is an incredible story, but it’s all orchestrated by God. By God’s word, by his promise to his people, and then when summoned to serve, she did. Now, what’s this mean for us today? Well, this reminds us that God is very active in all of our lives. No, we’re not, as I said, sitting at the king’s court. We are not fighting for the lives of our descendants necessarily in the way that Queen Esther was, but This story reminds us how active God is even in the most unusual places. If you read more about Queen Esther and the story that she was in, you’ll know that this was not a Christian environment. You’ve heard about how the king partied and how devastation would follow after even this moment in time when thousands would be killed. This was not church mourning. This was not the society that we are used to. But yet God was still at work. He was at work in all these imperfect people to bring about His will. And we can understand that in our day, in our lives, because we have much more, I like to say, ordinary lives. Some of us have lived extraordinary lives, and that may be so, but every day is not always extraordinary, but every day God is there. And you say, well, how do you know that? That’s not written anywhere in the story of Esther.
Well, I want to bring this back. It’s something we haven’t read this morning. This is from Paul in Ephesians. And I want to remind you that the Holy Spirit tells us that Christ is in control. Not only is Christ in control, but the Holy Spirit tells us this, right? If you go to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 18, Paul writes these words, Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe? According to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and seating Him at the right hand in the heavenly places. But the beginning of this, verse 18, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know all those things that Paul writes down. Your eyes have been opened. Your hearts have been opened. We might need a reminder every now and then and that’s where the story of Esther comes in because God is reminding us that His story is intertwined with our story and He reigns over all things for the benefit of who? You. For His believers. For His children. For those who He’s promised. And unlike the big stories of Moses parting the sea and the plagues in Egypt, when our lives don’t have those big interventions in them, we can still be certain that God is at work. If you go back to that story of Esther. You know that Haman winds up in the queen’s lap begging for her, begging for his life, and who knows, maybe he stumbled over carpet if they had such a thing there, but if he did, however he wound up in her lap is certain because God made it happen.
It must be more important about this story of Esther, is that there is no perfect person involved. God uses imperfect people to accomplish His will. Dare I say, we’re all imperfect people. Myself, Pastor Todd, all of us here, none of us are perfect. And in this story, take Mordecai, for example. Why would he be so interested in Esther becoming the Queen of Persia? I mean, of course, it would mean power and prestige for his family, but did he think about what it would cost Esther? How it would affect her faith, that she would have to go before a king and involve herself in an intermarriage that was not God pleasing, that had been taught against for the Jews. Did he think about the weight of responsibility that Esther would feel upon herself as she literally put herself between her people and the king that sought to kill him? Regardless, God used all this For the benefit of his people and ultimately for the benefit of you and me today Isn’t it wonderful Isn’t it great to know that we have a king who can easily overcome the greatest adversary in our life, right? It doesn’t matter who the elected official is today or tomorrow or next week if they’re as corrupt as Haman or as silly as King SRS It doesn’t matter because our lives don’t depend on them God is in control. So don’t be disappointed if we never see an angel walking next to us in a dark street. But in meeting many of you today, I can tell there’s plenty of angels sitting here this morning. Maybe our bank account will never get filled up by God. I’m still praying for that one. But Jesus ascension declares this truth, that He is alive and He is reigning for your benefit. Even over those tiny details in life. Maybe that weird timing of unemployment. Maybe that issue with the insurance company. Maybe that travel delay. Maybe that temperature that’s in the triple digits. I, I don’t get that. Why is it so hot here?
But I guarantee you one thing. Jesus is not setting poolside at His retirement in Heaven right now. Although, does anybody here have a pool I can come to later? But He is actively ruling for us. And because he is and because he likes to use imperfect people like me standing here before you today And I would love to get into my story to tell you more about me later But I’m telling you if he can use me to stand here today. He’s going to use every one of us in this room Because we all have been appointed for a time such as this I Mean Jesus even reminds us if we turn back to what our reader read for us this morning in John chapter 15 Specifically in 15 through 17, Jesus says this, No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all I have heard from my father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, But I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. The King of kings, the creator of all things, has chosen you and appointed you and set your steps in motion so that what you do in your faith walk with Christ will bear fruit.
In the story of Esther, he placed Mordecai and and Esther and Kings, Eunuchs and all these people in place to bring about His will to bring Jesus to this earth to rescue His people. But furthermore, so that you and I could sit here and hear these words today. And not only that, so we can walk out these doors and know that we’ve got a personal relationship with God. That He walks with us and He appoints us to bear fruit for Him. This is wonderful news. The love we share with one another reflects that love that first comes from God, and the promise that He’s given all who believe in Christ. You see, no matter what, in Christ your sins are forgiven. We’re past that. We’re moving on. We’re walking in faith. Because we all have been summoned to serve. No matter your circumstance in life, I once met, I’m going to sidebar for a second, Pastor Todd’s probably going to yell at me later, but that’s okay, I deserve it. Um, I did a part of time in my life when I served as a chaplain in a hospital, and I had a lady that I was visiting, she had terminal cancer, she was in the last week of her life, and as I walked down the hallway, she had requested a chaplain to visit her. As I walked down the hallway, all I could hear was Southern Gospel hymnal. This young lady, in her final moments of life, she was over 70 years old, in her final moments of life, had the nurses in the room with her singing hymns, praising God’s name. Don’t ever think for a moment that your situation in life is not going to be used by God to appoint and to share faith with others who need it.
It was the most sad and joyous occasion I’ve ever been a part of in my life, because God gives us the freedom to stand confident on His Word, that we have been born for such a time as this, and while we’re here, He’s still working with us, right? We never have dinner at a king’s table. But it is fascinating to remember how God orchestrates our lives, how He works through the ordinary things that we do every day, the decisions we make when they’re made in faith bring us back to Him. I want to return for a moment to Sarah Wells, the orphan who was baptized at 10 years old by the earliest Lutheran pastor in the New World at 10. Still standing first Lutheran Church in the new world. But she was baptized at 10 before being sent away to be an indentured servant Sarah would later write this baptismal was a pivotal moment for her her and her four siblings and her mom were all baptized But she would say that this moment changed her from then on she walked in faith of God But that faith led to her decision to go on that wilderness exploration. There she would meet and marry William Bull.
She would have 12 children with him, and they passed their faith on generation after generation after generation. Now, how important is this seemingly unimportant story to your life today? What has this got to do with you here in Mesa, Arizona, right? Well, I hope that the story I shared with you has encouraged your faith some, that you might understand how God works through your lives. That young girl, by the way, would live to be a hundred years old and have a hundred and fifty thousand descendants, including me. You see, Sarah Wells Bull, not only was my ancestor, I’m a ninth generation bull, but she’s my sister in Christ because of her faith that God gave her. When he called her to be his daughter and she passed that faith on. That one day it led from me standing here talking to you. Isn’t it wonderful how our God works, and orchestrates, and appoints? We have all been summoned to serve. On this Labor Day, I want to remind you that we don’t labor in vain, even if we don’t see the results right away. But as Sarah was summoned to serve, and I have been summoned to serve, Christ summons all of us in our every ordinary day life. So as you go today, I pray that the peace of Christ be with you and the will to share his message will be with you all. Amen. Let us pray. All knowing Father in heaven, you are wonderful in the way that you direct our daily lives in ways we don’t even know about. You give us faith and I pray that you give us even more faith to trust you. as we walk daily with you, to lean on the faith that you have given us to serve Christ as He commands, to love one another as you have loved us. And as we go about our daily routines, I pray that you will help us see those who are far from you, to find ways to share Christ’s love with them so that they too will have faith and be summoned to serve you. Maybe not in King’s courts here on earth, but God. We know we will serve in your court in all eternity. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
