Elements City Church
Building Bravery - wk1 (God in the background)
We're beginning a series in the Book of Esther in the Bible. Esther is a story where God seems silent, yet His sovereignty is incredibly active. It’s a story set against impossible odds. Esther’s story highlights the incredible potential of brave and faithful people and their power to impact society and situations. It’s a story that calls us today to integrate culture and not hide away. A story that calls us to be strong and seek to have influence within the culture around us. All the while we're to stay faithful to following God, his principles and allowing Him to build bravery within us for our moment in history.
Locations & Times
Elements City Church
1825 N Alvernon Way, Tucson, AZ 85712, USA
Saturday 5:00 PM
Thanks for joining us...
We pray that tonight would be encouraging for you. If you're a guest here with us, we want to INVITE you to our 10 Minute Party immediately following service. We'd love to meet you and we have a free gift just for you. Click the link below to see THE WEEKLY - our digital announcements/info for all things happening in and around Elements...or find everything ya need in our app.
http://elem.cc/weeklyKeep that in mind as we begin a series in a book of the Bible that is so much centered on God, His activity and sovereignty and yet He is never mentioned once in the book.
*this is about kings and queens, politics, elaborate wealth, hidden agendas, death (lots of impaling), trickery, good and evil; it involves sex, power, pride, tragedy and triumph == and God’s hand guiding and overseeing it all.
It is set in the Persian Empire around 480 BC
Q) now, how many of you have thrown a party before?
Birthday party, celebration of some kind – how many of you are tired after 5 hrs, or a day of that? Well – if you thought yours was elaborate…consider this:
Archeologists have uncovered inscriptions in Susa, in which the king referred to himself as: “The Great King – King of Kings – The King of the Lands occupied by many races. The King of the great Earth”
Xerxes certainly didn’t struggle with an inferiority complex. By all looks and appearances – king Xerxes is large and in charge. But as we look into this story; we’ll begin to see the invisible ink that is written into this book by the ONE who really is fully & completely in charge of all things. God himself.
King Xerxes
Queen Vasthi (only in the story in ch. 1)
Mordecai
Haman
and the star: Esther (becomes the new Queen)
Her time comes to meet the king and suddenly she is chosen to be queen!
**outsiders glance: she’s kind of the Kim Kardashian of the Old Testament.
But what we begin to see developing within her story is a heart of bravery; it's not blazingly visible at first, but God is at work building bravery within her; her character and soul is becoming stronger throughout this story. She is growing into a person who will wield her influence for the good of others beyond herself. And she will be used by God in mighty ways…
This information probably reinforces Esther’s position, but Mordecai isn’t recognized at all in this protective moment. His good deed seems to go unnoticed. (or does it?)
God’s control cannot be calculated, God’s solution cannot be anticipated and God’s plan cannot be thwarted, because no one person has all the information and no one person has the control that they think they might.
Xerxes believes and acts as though he’s the one who possesses this.
Haman will begin to act in the same way – His pride growing…
But it is the unmentioned ONE who ultimately is SOVEREIGN: God himself. He alone is sovereign over all. He alone has ultimate providence.
In conformity, assimilation works. You adopt the worldview, ethics, and way of life of the surrounding culture, and you experience deep change inside and out.
In isolation, you hedge yourself into closed communities where the culture can’t get in and your own culture can’t get out.
They are equally paths of ease. It’s easy to conform, and you’re richly rewarded for it. It’s also easy to hedge in and protect yourself and isolate.
But both ways lead to failures. Assimilation is a failure of nerve, and isolation is a failure of heart. Assimilation fails to resist; isolation fails to love.
To not drift toward assimilation - nor isolation!
To live a 3rd way, if you will.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Jesus’ priestly prayer in John 17: 15-18
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by[d] the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
Matthew 5
Jesus calls us to be SALT AND LIGHT – he doesn’t tell us to duck and cover. We’re to have influence into this world, even as we will be at odds with it as we follow after God.
“Even when God seems silent during your trials, He's still with you---as close as ever. …Teachers are always silent during the test."
-Caleb Kaltenbach
At times, God may seem silent, but He is never absent.
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