Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
What are the odds that an outnumbered tribe of people could survive a genocide sanctioned by the government’s most powerful forces? The chance a lone woman have of saving her entire people? In this message, Pastor Jim Fleming shows they're great odds when you remember God.
The episodes are the weekly sermons from 922 Ministries campus in Appleton, WI. St. Peter is in the north part of Appleton. The CORE is our downtown Appleton campus.
Gods Odds
Week 2 - St. Peter
Pastor Jim Fleming
Good morning to you. Once again, those joining us online to our second message in our sermon series God's odds.
If we were to rewind the clock and go back three years to 2019, Who of us could have imagined that we would have experienced some of the things that we have.
Who of us ever thought that we could experience a worldwide pandemic, that would touch so many different lives in different ways and too many families individuals, bring sorrow and hardship. What we look at the world events, there is a war going on, in Europe, Ukraine. And maybe we thought to ourselves World War I, World War II, I can't believe that. Now there's another war in Europe after all these years. Haven't we learned anything? Or maybe we look at our world as some of the natural disasters that are going on global warming. You know if you believe in that the Southwest is drying up Lake Mead, Lake Powell, the Great Salt Lake. You look at the forest fires just wonder where are things going for our world and some of the things that we see happening But maybe we can think to ourselves not really pointing a finger at garbage is more like, wow, what, what is going on at happening? Because some of these things just seem to be inconceivable to me. And yet, they really shouldn't be. Jesus talked about them. Matthew 24, 25, 26. Jesus talked about the last times said, just going to be natural disasters, it's going to be famines. There's going to be War. You look at Revelation chapter 6, the horses that go running, there's the horse of famine, the force, the horse of drought, the horse of War, all we see it. All Jesus said it's coming disciple. John said it's here. And yet, for many of us for so, long life was so good. Some of these things were just beyond our imagination, inconceivable that they could happen. That was certainly true for the Israelite people. The Jewish Nation about 2500 years ago Inconceivable that it could happen that that a king would actually make a decree for the genocide to wipe out to exterminate the Jewish people. Is this really even possible? And yet it was true and it was a decree and it was written out. And that's what we're going to look at today and to follow up on from last week or Pastor Tim and Pastor Mike talked about God's Providence and God's purpose in that you have a purpose. But today, more so we focus in on the thought to see that God is in control and to explore that truth of scripture, which is a comfort and encouragement to us. When we see things going on in our world, but also in our own lives when we struggle with.
Met a guy named Xerxes. He is the King of Persia a very, very powerful man Empire that stretched all the way from India, over to Asia Minor, Turkey, down south to Egypt, 127 provinces, Xerxes is a powerful ruler probably in history, he's best known for the Battle of Thermopylae and that probably doesn't mean much to you. But if I say, 300, 300 Spartans, took on the Persian army that that we remember, we know that, that is the Xerxes. Xerxes is a womanizer, he’s a chauvinist and he is a party guy and he is ruthless.
That was a Xerxes that we met last week and then we met a guy named Mordecai. Mordecai is a loving and caring man. He adopts his cousin Hadassah or Astor takes her in. He raises her takes care of her, it seems that Mordecai is also an official of some type in the Persian government, and he serves there with finances. And finally, what we see with Mordecai is that he isn't an upstanding citizen. Even though he's in a foreign country, He hears about this plot to assassinate Xerxes and instead of letting it go to get rid of this wicked King. He defends Xerxes, he reports it and Xerxes is delivered. So that's our guy Mordecai. He's got character, he cares. He loves Esther. And then she made a stir this young woman. She is as wise as she is beautiful. And she has this winning away about her. She's kind of like Joseph, you know, in the Book of Genesis, like everything, Joseph touches his kind of turns to Gold. Well, this is Esther and she just has this winning way about her with people. And so she uses this we're going to see with the people around her. And finally with King Xerxes, we've met those three people and we
One, now, we meet the stinker. The problem child, a man named Haman, who is cold-hearted? He is prejudiced discriminatory he doesn't hear anything about anyone. He's a party guy and he's the second in command. He's like the vice president. And Xerxes legs his Haman to get together and celebrate and do things. And he says, hey man, I'm going to do you a favor. Anyone everyone who comes to you, they need to bow down to you. It's pretty excited about that. Thank you, good deal. People have to show me respect. Well, here comes the rub, here comes the first tension point in the Book of Esther because we're going to read it, see, is that Mordecai would not bow down to more. That Mordecai would not bow down to Haman. So, this is chapter 3 verses five and six. When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down, or pay him on, or he was enraged. Having learned who Mordecai's people were, he's scoring the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead, Haman looked for a way to destroy all of Mordecai's people, the Jews throughout the whole Kingdom of Xerxes.
Xerxes, Haman, got together. Haman swings a deal. I'll give you lots of money. Xerxes signs off 11 months later. The plan is to exterminate the Jewish people Because of this disrespect, in a sense in humans View and humans view because of Mordecai. Now, it's interesting. We're not really told why. Mordecai would not bow down to Haman because you look at the Bible and there are many examples of people bowing down to other people to show them respect. You see this? Even out of Abraham and others and yet it seems there must have been some spiritual reason. Some reason for Mordecai not to do that. It's interesting and kind of a side note in this story. It seems that maybe this man came in as an Amalekite. I sent a descendent of a guy named a gag, which doesn't mean much to you, but when you look at the Old Testament, there was historically racial hostility between the Jewish people and the Israelite people that went back 1,000 years and some scholars speculate. If that's true? Then this man Hammond wants to take revenge, not only against this
You Mordecai, but to revenged all this history when Israel had caused so much difficulty to the amalekites. If that's the case, that truly is, that truly shows who this man Haman is. He's full of hatred, he's full of anger and he's going to go after Mordecai and the Jewish people, Prejudice discrimination genocide. This is still part of our world. We see that this is something that Satan uses behind the scenes to cause difficulty. Here, the goal is not only the annihilation of the Jewish people but You take out the Jewish Nation, you take out the ancestors of Jesus, you take out the Messiah. So, he sees Satan working behind the scenes here, to do that because of racial hostility. Jesus dealt with this. In his day, he tells a parable of the Good Samaritan, we know it. Well right to say to the Jewish leaders of. Yes, the Samaritans are your neighbors, love them, take care of them, which was a shock to those Jewish leaders. Rachel has two. Jesus day. And we still experience this today in our world Prejudice discrimination and sometimes even we see genocide Maybe you've experienced that in your life. I can tell you a little story about when I experienced that. When I was discriminated against my friend and I were driving down from Farmington, New Mexico to White River. He's a Navajo guy and we decided to stop in Gallup, New Mexico. And we're going to go to the KFC to get some chicken because we are both Chicken Lovers. I got to have you meet, but we go in and my friend. Aaron says, I'm going to get the three piece chicken dinner. I'm hey, that looks good. I'm going to get that too and so it's mostly Navajo people in this restaurant. I think I was probably the only white person and so my friend Aaron, he gets his chicken dinner and he's got three whopping big pieces of chicken on there. Looks really good. And then I get my plate and I had really three small pieces of chicken on my plate and I kind of looked at him and he looked at me and he goes kind of smiley says. Well now, you know how I feel. Right? But that's something I experienced that was severe, you know? Terrible was awful. No, it was not, but I was on the receiving end of that. Like, here's a white guy and I'm, you know, I'm not going to take care of them for one reason. Right? Maybe you've been there but have you been on the other side of it? Have you been a Halen?
I mean Jesus says go and make disciples of all Nations, baptizing them. Father sent him Go Make Disciples. We Jesus not not that ethnic group. But not that person because they're different. And there's a stereotype for this reputation or maybe individually in our lives. We bump into someone and we see that they're different in some way because of skin color or background or language, or their Customs were the food that they eat, and the things that they do and we treat them differently. Then we might treat someone else and the world. Maybe we've done there. This is simply a reminder to us that Satan is Alive. And Well, he is active in the point of takeaway for us is simply this: That saves still uses racial hostility is that our first takeaway uses racial hostility to divide people. To divide people. Satan. Does that just as he did, in Esther's time to try and cause difficulty for the Jewish people and ultimately to the Savior. So how does Mordecai react to this? What does he do? This is how we're told Mordecai reacted.
We're told when Mordecai learned of all that had been done. He tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and Ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.
It was a great morning among the Jews with fasting weeping and wailing. You're not a Bible person, maybe you're not familiar with this thing with the ashes and tearing your closing. Why would people do that? It's a custom. It was not something that God commanded his people to do, which is kind of a custom. And basically, the focus was that they people were seeking God's mercy. God, I need your help. I need your strength to get through this seeking God's mercy. I will see examples of this in the Bible. We think about the people or think about the man's job.
We're told in Job at this Job got up tore his clothes, his robe and shaved his head. And he said, among the ashes, you know, Job's life lost his health, his wealth, his children, his friends didn't really support him. God, Lord, help me. I need your strength to get through this grief and this loss, and this trouble and this physical pain and emotional pain. I'm going through Lord, I'm seeking your mercy. Put on the sackcloth and Ashes or another example the Book of Jonah we are told the people of do the declared a fast, all of them from the greatest to the least put on sackcloth
The prophet Jonah goes there. Forty days and Nineveh is going to be destroyed. God is going to burn you up and the people repent. We have sinned, we have turned to Idols were turning away from them were turning to the Lord. The worship of Jehovah they put on sackcloth and Ashes God. Turns from his anger. And forgives them. It shows them forgiveness in their life to them. God, I need your help. I am seeking your mercy.
Familiar to us. When's the last time you put on sackcloth and Ashes understand what id,
Maybe like Jonah. Excuse me, like Job. There's been just some situation, grief and loss physical pain. Difficulty you've been going through Lord I need your mercy. I just need your help to get through this because I know I can't do it on. I'm just struggling. If we think of Jonah or who we think of Job, right board, I'm seeking your mercy of seeking your help to do this. Or maybe like the people of Nineveh. It's been an idol in our life of some type. We've been living a sinful way, or there's that pets in. I just can't seem to get past his frustration, and there's anger on our part and I cried out. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I need your forgiveness. Lord, I need your help and I need your mercy. And in the sense we put on sackcloth and Ashes, we come to our god with a repentant heart and this leads us to our second takeaway today. Excuse me, our second passage here in second chronicles, we see that the people of Israel, the Jewish people did that,
They sought the mercy of God. Which surprised us in a sense because for the Jewish people, many times in their history, they didn't do that. In fact, they turned to Idols, they turn to Four Kings. They turn to their money, they turn to their own Wicked Kings to try and find relief from a certain situation. They did not seek God's mercy. In fact, in Chronicles, we're told this, the Lord, the god of their ancestors sent word to them through his Messengers again and again because he had pity on his people and on.
Wrong place, but they mocked God's Messengers. They despised his words and scoffed At His prophets, until the Wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people, and there was no remedy. He brought up the king against them, the king of Babylons who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary. Did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. And irony. And what should surprise us in the most welcome way is to see the Jewish people, the Israelites across the Empire. Many of them, put on sackcloth and Ashes turn to their God, lord, we need your strength. God, we need your help. Your mercy to make it through this situation.
Things. Go. God answered that prayer. It was going to use a woman named Esther. And this brings us to our second, takeaway. That we appeal to God's mercy, we appeal to God's mercy, just like Mordecai in the Israelite people. So Mordecai turns to God. But he also takes things into his own hands and so he sends a message to Princess Esther and says, who knows that you have come to Royal position for such a time as this We've named the series Gods odds. And we think about what we see Happening Here, shouldn't surprise us. We are shocked when Seaboard acai learns about this thing. He works in the government serves, in some way we see Esther in a position of power and authority to influence the king. Should that surprise us now? There are passages that are wonderful and encouraging for us. We look at F the book of Ezra and we are told this about that, in the first year of Cyrus, the King of Persia in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by. Jeremiah the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus King of Persia.
God used an unbelieving, Wicked King to serve his people, and to serve his church, and to serve the promise of a savior. God did that and he influenced his heart. New Testament. A man named Paul is giving a sermon to a bunch of Greek philosophers and he makes the same point to them in his sermon in Athens. He said this He said from one man, he made all the nations that they should inhabit, the whole earth and he marked out their appointed times in history. And the boundaries of their lands.
God moves people to the times and the places where they could influence each other and help each other. God moves Esther, God moves Mordecai, God, moves Xerxes and other people into the places and times that he desires. There's a truth here. We want to understand and I tell you another story about another friend here for a moment. My neighbor love the guy super generous very helpful to our family, but he loved a certain news outlet that was rather conservative. And he watched it all the time and his place of work, he would have it going in the background because he was self-employed when he came home, he would have it on his house. And sometimes when we would drive to go fishing, he would have talk radio on in the background. And when we got into the boat, I said, Dennis, no, we're not listening to the radio in the boat while we fish, we're not doing that. But probably once a month for an hour and a half, I would have these conversations where I would have to process with him because he would watch these things. Do you realize Jim? This government leaders trying to do this in this political group is trying to do this. In this foreign, power is trying to influence. This do this in, this is happening in our local government and he was emotional and he was concerned and he was involved in this like
God is in control. It's okay. He influenced the heart of Cyrus. He puts people in places and determines the boundaries of their land. God is still in control of the world and is not going to hell, right? This moment. It's okay.
You see God's time and we see God's power. Brothers and sisters those things joining us on my you know the greatest way we see this something called the Pax Romana heard that phrase the pox Romana, the Peace of Rome Galatians 4:4 when the time had fully come Do you understand that the time that Jesus lived in? It was a time. Unlike the world had ever seen historians called the Mediterranean Sea, a Roman Lake. Do you know why? Because the Roman government controlled all of the Nations around the Mediterranean Sea. Do you know what that meant? Peace. People that the Roman government built roads and you could travel from place to place, there was Commerce going on. There was trade, there was relative safely that you could travel from place to place and not worry about getting robbed. The Peace of Rome. And so God in his plan when the time had fully come moves rulers and people to create a world. And a time, when Jesus could say to his disciples go, Go and make disciples of all Nations and they could go in Freedom. To share the gospel message and they did the Peace of Rome. When the time had fully come, God is in control. And brothers and sisters. We are recipients of that. Today, we're gathered here, I am here, a staff, and a place to the ministry called 922, and God has given us. The gospel message first for ourselves, To say God. Thank you. But I'm part of your kingdom, that I am your child. That you show me, mercy. But you've given me faith. That you give me all of these blessings. The blessing of freedom to come in worship. You have touched my life so much more Jesus. Thank you for that laugh. And then the control. To live each and every day to no one understand. God is in control. He has my back brothers and sisters. We know this truth. But we want to remember this truth. Our third takeaway is this.
God is simply in control. God is in control. We see that when we look at Mordecai talk to Esther and Esther now comes up with her body. What she's going to do. Maybe you know the story, he's going to go see the king. She's gonna go see Xerxes this, this womanizer, this chauvinist, this wicked King with his drinking buddy came in. But there's a problem and there's a rub and so tension, the suspense in the Book of Esther builds, because she's going to go see the king, but you can't go see the king.
Unless he invites you and if you go and see the king, and he's in the bad mood, he doesn't want to see you. And so this is the tension point for Esther. And she makes the interesting comment after she decides she's going to go, they fast and they pray. And she says, if I perish, I perish
It's an interesting comment on her part. She makes some great statements of faith like Peter died, will never disown you. If I perish, I perish. Is that what she says? Or she is despairing.
It's over. We're done for Xerxes. Get this amount of money, the plans and place anything I try is going to be used as she is despairing if I perish, I perish. I think there's a third possibility. I think she realizes she turns to God and says, God, I'm going to pray, I'm going too fast, our people are doing that. We're seeking your mercy and now God, it's in your hands we're going to send.
She is saying, your will be done, will be done. I think it's like Jesus. Jesus Is In The Garden of Gethsemane, the situation is even worse than genocide, it's his suffering, it's his passion. The sins of the world are upon him. Lord, this cup can be taken from me yet, not my will but your will be done in Jesus. Does that say what I'm willing to accept? And I think that is where Esther's at
She simply says, God, I'm going to do what I can but you will be done in this. Again, I think there's a takeaway for us. We look at our world. A war, a famine, the things that are going on, maybe there's been grief or loss in our life, in some way, maybe in some friends, maybe we struggle in some way with this sin. And, and we're overcoming it. We're doing better. Lord, your mercies are new every morning. Can we say your will be done? I'm going to pray, I'm going to trust your promises to God, but in the end for my life for the Ministry, for our world, the things that we see, your will be done.
Lord willing, we can Because that's where Esther goes in our savior. And that's our final takeaway for us today. And that's where we're going to leave it for today. So it's suspenseful. That's just going to go.
But you're going to have to come back next week to see what happens. Now, let's close in prayer.
Lord, we were reminded of a simple truth that you are in control and pray, Lord. As we look at our world, we understand, you are working for our good and the good of your church. Oftentimes when there are difficulties, when there are troubles, there's an opportunity to show your love to touch the life with support in some way with words of encouragement to help to share that gospel message to say that there's something greater than this life coming here.
Lord with you bless us as a congregation. A church body is individuals, as we reflect on this truth and go to all nations in Your Name Lord Jesus. We ask this, Amen