Greg Lorry and Harvest Ministries recommend a new resource from best-selling author Max Lucato dealing with your thought life.
So many people have Max Lucato books already in their library, but this is his brand new book to help you learn how to team your thoughts. Our thoughts really ultimately affect pretty much everything. And folks, we want to offer you this book by Max Lucato. Team Your Thoughts. for a gift of any amount at harvest.org.
God gives gifts and talents to each of us that we need to use. God has uniquely equipped each one of us for certain types of service. Pastor Greg Laurie says our strengths are given on purpose. One is a great visionary, but not very good with the nuts and bolts. Another is a detail person.
Everybody has a role to play, and every one of you has talents. And gifts that are given to you by God that you must discover. cultivate and use for his glory. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning.
Of ancient grace, how sweet the sound. But can you hear all the ancients are singing? This is the day, the day will I sing.
Someone said that the only tool you have is a hammer. It's tempting to treat every problem as if it were a nail. It's always best to have the right tool for the job. And each of us is a unique instrument in the hands of God. Today on a new beginning, after Pastor Greg Laurie continues our studies in Esther.
We'll see how Esther was uniquely equipped and chosen to prevent a catastrophic annihilation of her people. and we'll see how we may be uniquely equipped to serve God in a special way in our time. Every day, the day when life begins. Turn to Esther. Chapter two Esther, chapter two, and the title of my message is The Plot Thickens.
Let's pray together.
Now, Father, we're so thankful to be your children. Because of the blood of Jesus that was shed for us at the cross of Calvary. We pray as we visit this story again and look at this heroic young girl. That we will be inspired, both men and women, to make our stand. And speak out for what is right.
So, help us to see how this applies in our life. We commit this time of Bible study to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's pick up where we last left off: King Xerxes.
the ruler of the mighty Persia. He had a lot of women that snap his fingers, and a woman would be there. But apparently, the king wasn't satisfied with just sexual pleasure, he wanted love. He wanted a companion. He wanted someone that actually cared about him.
The king wanted a queen.
So the word went out and all these girls applied. The ancient historian Josephus. I believe there was 400 contestants. And these girls had to be virgins. They had to go through an extensive makeover.
They had a team of stylists there that would do their hair makeup and Help them to become as appealing as possible to the king, and then the winner would be chosen to be the queen. And that's where we pick our story up. Esther chapter 2, drop down to verse 5, and let's read together.
Now at the fortress of Susa there was a certain Jew Nay Mordecai son of Jair, He was from the tribe of Benjamin and was a descendant of Kish and Shemai. His family had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar, along with King Jehoiakim of Judah and many others. This man had a beautiful and lovely young cousin named Hadassah, who was also called Esther. When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her. As his own daughter.
We'll stop there.
So standing up from all of these gorgeous Persian women is the beautiful Jewish girl named Hadassah. She was an orphan adopted by Mordecai, so he became a father figure to her. Most likely, her aspirations in life would have been to marry a nice Jewish boy. Raise a family, serve the Lord, and live in relative obscurity. But God had another plan for Esther.
For such a time as this, reminding us that there are no coincidences in our life, only providence.
So, all of the beautiful women of Persia are paraded before King Xerxes. And he chooses Esther. Look at Esther 2, verse 16. Esther was taken to King Xerxes at the royal palace in early winter on the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther.
more than any of the other young women. He was so delighted with her And he set the royal crown on her head. And declared her queen instead of Bosti. Hmm. God was at work.
Now if this was a fairy tale It would end right here. Poor little girl. becomes the queen. And they lived happily ever after. But this is not a fairy tale.
This is a Bible story. And Bible stories are true. Their history. And so here's what happened after that: the plot. Thickens.
As Esther was made queen, her cousin Mordecai was made a counselor to the queen. And Mordecai made Esther. Promise him that she would not reveal her national identity. In other words, she was not to say to the king or anybody else that she was a Jewish girl.
Now, if that was good or bad, we'll deal with in a couple of moments, but uh. That's the way it was, and she went by that. And one day, Mordecai uncovered a plot by two of the king's guards to kill him. He revealed it to the king, the guards were arrested, they were executed, and he was never rewarded for that or acknowledged for that. And you know, that happens in life sometimes, doesn't it?
You know, we do something for someone and we don't get the credit. Maybe it's your idea, and someone else stole it, and they got all the glory for it. Or at your workplace, you choose the path of honesty and integrity, and you don't advance, while the person who chose dishonesty and scheming did advance. And you're saying, This isn't fair, it's not right.
Well, Hold on now, Buckaroo. It's not over till it's over. As we're going to see in the book of Esther, how things played out in the big picture. Because, among other things, the book of Esther is about reaping what you sow, both good and bad.
So not only was Mordecai not recognized, but a wicked man was elevated instead. Enter the villain of the story. He men. Let's go to Esther chapter 3, verse 1.
Sometime later. King Xerxes promoted Heman, son of Hamadatha the Agagite. Over all the other nobles, that would include Mordecai. making him the most powerful official in the empire. All the king's officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by because the king had commanded.
But Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect.
Now Haman probably fond and flattered his way to This position. And the command is given by the king, you better bow down before him. This is a very insecure man. This is a very ambitious man. Because if you're a good leader, people will follow you naturally.
You have to yell at people all the time or force them to do what you want. You're not a good leader.
So, Haman, you better bow down before me and show me some respect.
So, everyone's bowing, bowing, bowing. And there stands old Mordecai. I'm not bowing. And Haman sees him and says, Well, why aren't you bent? I won't bow before you.
Now you say, Well, why was this?
Well, it's interesting because there was sort of a blood feud between Haman's clan and people. and Mordecai's clan that goes back a long ways. It's found in verse 1. King Xerxes promoted Haman, son of Hamadatha, the agagai.
Now we read that, and it doesn't mean a lot to us, but back in 1 Samuel. It's the story of King Saul. He was told by the prophet Samuel to kill the Amalekites. They were the lifelong enemies of the Jews. And in fact, the Amalekites had attacked Israel after they left Egypt.
So that's how far back this feud went.
So Saul partially obeyed the prophet. He killed most of the Amalekites, but he allowed Agag, their king, to survive. And the Agagites were the descendants of Agag.
So Haman was an agite and Mordecai was a Jew. And so Mordecai is so ticked off that Haman won't bow before him, he decides not only is he gonna die, but all of his people are gonna die. This is payback time. It's sort of a precursor to Hitler's final solution. Anti-Semitism.
Let's destroy the whole Jewish race and wipe them off the face of the earth.
So Haman goes to the king with his wicked plot, and amazingly, the king goes along with it. Says, yeah, okay, go ahead and wipe them out because Haman promised the king a bunch of money in return. We'll get into that next time. But incredible turn of events and a lot more to discover in this book, and we'll get to that later. And so what do we learn from what we've seen so far?
Number one, When God tells you to do something, do it. God told Saul to destroy the Amalekites, including their king Agag. He didn't do it.
Now, Haman is a descendant of that man, and Mordecai is dealing with it years later. You know, sometimes the Lord will speak to our heart and He'll tell us to break off a relationship. With someone that's pulling us down spiritually. Do you know someone like that?
Something that whenever you're around them, they just pull you down. Or worse yet, you're the person. Pulling someone else down. I just saw a wife nudge her husband. I'd like to know what's going on right there.
See, I have eyes, I can see you. I don't know if you know that. I see everything. I see it all. Yes.
Maybe it's giving up something that's taking over your life.
Something you regarded as an innocent pleasure. That's now becoming something of an addiction. It could be a substance, alcohol, drugs, but it can be other things that you just become obsessed with, and that thing or that pursuit is becoming more important to you than God. Maybe it's the Lord speaking to your heart and telling you to take a bold step of faith and do something you've never done way out of your comfort zone. Start that little Bible study at work with just you and a couple of friends and see what the Lord will do.
Go engage that person that seems so hostile with the gospel, whatever it would be. If the Lord tells you to do it, Do it. Coming back to King Saul. The prophet Samuel said to him in 1 Samuel fifteen, What is more pleasing to the Lord? Your burnt offerings?
And sacrifices are your obedience to God. He said. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. In other words, Saul said, well, I'll offer these offerings. It'll be okay.
No, God told you to do something, and He didn't do it. And sometimes they'll say, well, I'll go to church to a midweek service this weekend. I'll give a little more in the offering. I'll receive communion, whatever it is. You think some little thing, some ritualistic thing, is going to take the place of what God really wants from you, which is your obedience?
When God tells you to do something, do it. Pastor Greg Laurie will have more of the insights we learned from the story of Esther in just a moment. Stay tuned. We love hearing from our listeners, whether it's a short word or they take some time to tell us what's going on with them. Pastor Greg, I listen to your podcast every morning and am also thankful to attend Harvest Christian Fellowship.
You have a way of transforming the Bible into something even I can understand. You make it relatable and exciting, and you're also hilarious. There isn't a Sunday that I haven't cracked up at one of your jokes. Thank you, Pastor Greg. Has Pastor Greg heard from you?
Why not drop him an email and let them know? Send it to Greg at harvest.org. Do it today while you're thinking about it. Again, that's Greg at harvest.org.
Well, Pastor Greg is pointing out some practical lessons we can learn from the Old Testament story of Esther. Let's continue now. Point number two. God gives gifts and talents to each of us that we need to use. God gives gifts and talents to each of us that we need to use.
For Reter, it was extraordinary beauty. Not everybody. It is extraordinarily beautiful. are incredibly handsome. I mean, let's just deal with reality.
Some are given these abilities, some are not. I've had to struggle with this my whole life. Uh Well you laughing. Gee, I could have hurt you. No, I meant that as a joke.
Maybe one of the downsides of Being beautiful as a child or a young lady. An older lady, a young man, and so forth. This people always comment on your attractiveness. She's so beautiful. You're so handsome, and you know, they hear that.
And some of these people sometimes can end up being rather shallow because they always kind of got to the front of the line and had some advantages. Early on. And God wants us to develop the inner person too. I've never shared this before, but Uh because it sounds kind of Frightful, but I was offered a very nice modeling contract. It was a Hand modeling contract.
Did you know there are hand models?
So I was contacted, could we use your hand on the cover of our magazine? I quickly agreed. Until I found out the name of the magazine, Old and Decrepit. That was very. The pressing.
I made that up.
Okay.
So Esther had inner character. to match her outward beauty, and she had great courage, as we'll see soon. But maybe you have another gift given to you by God. It's not necessarily beauty, but it's brains. or musical talent.
or artistic talent. Then again, you might be good at crunching numbers. One is a great visionary. But not very good with the nuts and bolts. Another is a detailed person.
We can't have all visionaries running around, and we can't have all nuts and bolts people running. Everybody plays a part, everybody has a role to play, and every one of you has talents. And gifts that are given to you by God that you must. Discover Cultivate and use For his glory. We're told in 1 Timothy 4:14 Don't neglect the gift that has been given to you.
Or, as another translation puts it, keep it dusted off and in use. Use your gift. You might say, well, Greg, how do you discover what your gift is or your gifts are? And as I pointed out before, sometimes it's literally through a process of elimination. Walt Disney, you've probably heard of him.
quite a visionary himself, used to tell a story about a little boy. And as the story went, a circus came to town and they were going to have a parade.
So the bandmaster needed someone to play trombone.
So the little boy signed up. They hadn't marched a block before the horrible rocket coming from his horn caused two old ladies to faint and a horse to run away.
So the bandmaster went to the boy and said, Why didn't you tell me you couldn't play the trombone? And the little guy said, Well, how did I know? I never tried before. You know, sometimes finding out what you're good at requires you finding out what you're not good at.
So you volunteer, volunteer for that job nobody else wants. Since they all do that, okay, maybe that's not my gift. Ah, but another area develops. Trust me when I tell you, I never aspired to be a public speaker. Like most people, I was afraid of speaking in front of crowds.
And I remember a class I had where I had to get up and give an impromptu speech, and I almost had a heart attack. And I got an F in that class, by the way. I like to work behind the scenes. I was more into design and graphics and things like that. But when I became a Christian, God put a call on my life.
to speak publicly. I fought it, I didn't want to do it. But it was something I was sure the Lord called me to do. Maybe it was because I finally had something to say. You know, if God calls you to do that or something else, we want to take these gifts and use them for his glory.
But it might be something unexpected. God will call you to do. Point number three, and the last point: there's a time to speak up and a time to be quiet. Uh verse 10, Esther 2. Esther had not told anyone of her nationality and family background.
For Mordecai had told her not to.
Now is this right or wrong? It can be argued both ways.
Some would say she should have identified herself as a Jew. And by not doing so, she was effectively compromising her faith. There's some merit to that argument, but there's some flaws in it as well, because sometimes. You should speak up and sometimes you should be quiet. It seems sometimes some people almost speak up too much.
You might be surprised hearing me say that as a pastor and an evangelist, you speak up too much. I've seen some Christians like, it's overkill. Everybody they talk to, they feel they have to give a complete gospel presentation to. It's this constant drone, you know, and that is not the best way to do evangelism.
Sometimes one of the best things to do to engage a non-believer is just listen to them for a while and get to know them a little bit better. But then, when the Holy Spirit prompts you, to speak up. But some people are always talking, talking, but the problem is they don't back it up with our lifestyle.
So you want to live that godly life. I'm telling you, it's a huge plus for the church when Christians just go out there and they're faithful to their spouses. And they keep their marriages together. And if they're a single person, they Don't have sex before marriage, and they work with integrity and they work hard. That's a great testimony.
Do that, be that. But then when the moment comes, Speak up. And we have to give credit to Esther. She delivered when it was needed. She put her life on the line and spoke up for her people, and as a result, saved.
the nation. Yeah. She saved the Jewish people. And they needed to be saved because Haman hatched a plot where they would all be exterminated. Why did Haman want to kill all the Jewish people?
I think this is bigger than Haman. This is about the devil. The devil wanted to kill them. Why? Because the devil knew...
That through the Jewish people, The Messiah would come. How did he know that? Goes way back to the Garden of Eden, after our first parents ate of the forbidden fruit. And God said to Satan, there is coming one who will crush your head, but you will bruise his heel.
So the devil knew that Jesus was coming, Messiah was coming, and he would come as a Jew.
So he tried to stop Christ from coming. He inspired The king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, to kill all those Jewish baby boys. He inspired Haman to come up with this plot. To eradicate the Jewish race. And then later on, he entered the heart of Judas Iscariot.
to betray Christ and to Help orchestrate the crucifixion. But you know what? It was all according to God's plan because the Messiah had come to this earth, yes, to love us, yes, to teach us, but ultimately, why did Jesus come? He came to this earth to die for our sins. Because we've all sinned.
And Satan failed, and Christ succeeded. He voluntarily laid his life down for us at the cross of Calvary and took the wrath of God on himself as he hung there in our place. And then he rose again from the dead, and he's alive. And now he stands at the door of each heart and he knocks, and he says And he says, if you hear his voice and open the door, he will come in. If you would like Christ to come into your life, If you would like your sin forgiven, If you would like to be a child of God, He's just a prayer away.
So let's all Bow our heads and pray. And Father, I pray now for any person here that does not yet know you. Lord Jesus, I pray that your Holy Spirit will convict and convince them of their need for you and help them to come to you and believe in you now. We would pray. Amen.
Pastor Greg Laurie. with an important prayer. And if you'd like to make a change in your relationship with the Lord today, Pastor Gregg will help you do that in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. Are you receiving Pastor Gregg's daily devotions each day via email? If not.
Let's take care of that right now. You can sign up today, free of charge, at harvest.org. And you'll receive a daily inspirational thought from God's Word each day in your inbox. Again, go to harvest.org.
Well, Pastor Greg, you've mentioned how someone can become a Christian with just a simple prayer. Maybe somebody would like to do that right now. Could you help them? Sure, I'd love to. A simple prayer is right.
In fact, I would like to just pray a prayer, and I would ask you to pray it after me. You might even pray it out loud. This is a prayer I've led a lot of people in over the years, and I've seen God change lives. There's no magic in this prayer. It's the God you're speaking to who will hear this prayer and answer this prayer.
So, if you want Christ to come into your life, If you want to be sure your sin is forgiven, If you want to be confident that you will go to heaven when you die, just pray this prayer. even out loud, after me right now. Pray these words, Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. But I also know that you are the Saviour. Because you died on the cross for my sin.
And he rose again from the dead. Jesus, come into my life. and forgive me of every sin I've ever committed. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer.
Thank you for answering this prayer, Lord. And I pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that Christ Himself has come to live inside of you. And I have a resource I want to send you.
It's called the New Believers Bible.
So, the New Believer's Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believer's Growth Pact. But let me get this New Believer's Bible into your hands as quickly as possible. Here's Dave to tell you more. Yeah, we'll be glad to send it all your way, free of any charge, if you prayed along with Pastor Gregg to day.
Just ask for the New Believer's Bible when you call one eight hundred eight two one thirty three hundred. You can reach us any time, twenty four seven. Again, the number one eight hundred eight two one three. The 0. or go online to harvest.org and click Know God.
Pastor Greg, we're so thankful for the work God is doing through this ministry. We're touching lives for eternity. And we're really thankful for our friends who see the fruit of this ministry and invest so this work can reach even further, isn't that right? Absolutely. When you invest in harvest ministries, you're investing in the souls of men and women.
boys and girls, and what is the value of a soul?
Well, let me personalize it. What's the value of your soul? What's the value of the soul of your husband, your wife? your son or your daughter. Oh, your mommy, your dad.
Or your best friend.
Well, I would say you probably couldn't put a price tag on it. It's so valuable.
Well, listen, God says all souls are mine. God loves us and sent His Son to die on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins so we could be forgiven and come into a relationship with Him. I can't think of a better investment of my resources, of my money, Than in the work of the kingdom of God.
So we would ask you to prayerfully consider investing. and harvest ministries as we continue on. fulfill the great commission. Yeah, that's right, and you can make your donation right now at harvest.org. or call 1-800-821-3300.
That's a 24-7 phone number. 1-800-821-3300.
Well, next time, more from our studies in the dramatic book of Esther. Be sure to join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins.
