REMEMBER WHO IS IN CHARGE!
8/26/09 Esther 6:1-14
1. Always Remember – God IS AT WORK!
a. Paul Harvey - story of God’s providential care
bomber > island of Guam = Kokura, Japan, deadly cargo. clouds covered the target area, circled - fuel -danger point., frustrated - right over primary target yet not able to fulfill decided - for the secondary target. found sky was clear.
Some time later startling info - 1 wk before Japanese
had transferred one of their largest concentrations of captured Americans to the city of Kokura.
"Thank God for that protecting cloud! many American boys would have died without it." John Nelson Darby.
b. Rev. 14:14 I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
2. Once again set the Scene
a. King A-has-u-erus – drunken despot
b. Haman – egomaniac w/kingly aspirations
c. Esther –closet Jew under sentence of death
d. Mordecai –Officer of Kings Court- death
1. SLEEPLESS KING
A. Possible Reasons
1. Case of Heartburn
2. Cares of the Kingdom
3. Convicting Conscience
4. Call of Emptiness
B. Potential Remedies
1. His
a. Could Have Called In One of concubines
b. Could Have Called for a Drink
c. Could Have Called on the Court Musicians
d. Called for the Daily Court Records
2. Ours
1) Ask – “Is it you Lord”
1 Samuel 3:10-11 And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for your servant hears.
11 And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that hears it shall tingle.
2) Review Your Day
a. Missed God’s call?
b. Sinned and not confesses?
c. Person slighted or thing left unaddressed
3) Read His Word
a. Look for a Word or verse that speaks peace
4) Rest In the Lord
Psalms 53:2-5 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that does good, no, not one. 4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God. 5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was:
Psalms 34:4-7 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps round about them that fear him, and delivers them.
1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.
2. STRUTTING PEACOCK
A. Believes His Wants Are All Important
1. Suggestion to Reality – 5:14d
2. Every ones waiting on him 6:4
a. normally King would be asleep
b. did he plan on waking him up??
B. Believes Its All About Him 6:6d
1. Only thing important is him and his wants
2. No one deserves to be honored besides him
3. Oscar Wilde – “Come over here and sit next to me, I’m dying to tell you all about myself.’
4. "My husband and I have managed to be happy together for 20 years. I guess this is because we’re both in love with the same man."
5. Lays it on thick Vs. 7-9
C. Believes No Warning Signs
1. Few quick questions - saved humiliation
2. 1969, - Pass Christian, Miss., - "hurricane party" in the face of a storm named Camille.
wind was howling - posh Richelieu Apts
Police Chief Jerry Peralta just after dark.
Bldg Facing the Beach less than 250’from the surf,
man w/drink in hand -2nd floor balcony and waved. "You all need to clear out of here as quickly as you can. The storm’s getting worse."
others joined the man on the balcony, - laughed "This is my land," one of them yelled back. "If you want me off, you’ll have to arrest me."
Peralta didn’t arrest anyone, but he wasn’t able to persuade them to leave either. He wrote down the names of the next of kin of 20 or so people who gathered there to party through the storm. They laughed as he took their names. They had been warned, but they had no intention of leaving.
It was 10:15 p.m. when the front wall of the storm came ashore. Scientists clocked Camille’s wind speed at more than 205 mph strongest on record. Raindrops hit with the force of bullets, and waves off the Gulf Coast crested between 22 & 28’
News reports later showed that the worst damage came at the little settlement of motels, go-go bars, and gambling houses known as Pass Christian, Mississippi, where some twenty people were killed at a hurricane party in the Richelieu Apartments. Nothing was left of that three-story structure but the foundation; the only survivor was a five-year-old boy found clinging to a mattress the following day.
3. SOVEREIGN GOD
A. Sleepless Night
1. On that night
a. Not just any night eve of Mord. execution
2. “the King’s sleep fled away”
a. Even lost can be turned by God
b. Proverbs 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turns it whithersoever he will.
B. Turned Page
1. And it was found written
a. never lost – just not needed until now!
b. Vs. 2:21-23
C. Missed Reward Vs. 6:3
1. 3 Ways to Be Rewarded
a. Seek it
b. Demand It
c. Trust God
2. What If Mordecai - rec’d 4 yrs earlier?
“God has said he will exalt you in due time, but remember, he is referring to His time and not yours! ---A.W. Tozer
D. Impeccable Timing Vs. 4
4. SUPERB SERVANT vs. 10-12a
A. No Longer A Closet Jew
1. Vs. 10 Mordecai the Jew
2. King had forgotten His sentence
a. God remembered and was undoing
B. For Years Had failed to stand
C. Great Honor did not Spoil
And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate.
Want to be a Superb Servant
be found at the King’s Gate – waiting His Orders
“When all seems lost, it isn’t.
When no one seems to notice, they do.
When everything seems great, it’s not.
When nothing seems just, it is.
When God seems absent, He’s present.”
---Chuck Swindoll
SLEEPLESS KING
STRUTTING PEACOCK
SOVEREIGN GOD
SUPERB SERVANT
