Hey, it is great to be kicking things back into gear again. It has been way too long, hasn’t it?
In this weekend’s message, we took a very brief revisit of one of my absolute favorite characters in Scripture, the beauty Queen Esther. This really is one of the best stories in the Bible, and if you aren’t familiar with it, we did a 4-part study through this captivating narrative back in 2017. It was great, and I thought I would re-post it here for you, in case you wanted to take some time to work through it again yourself. Highly recommended. Just click the image below!
On Sunday I talked about what we knew to be “normal” before 2020. What are some of the things you miss?
How has going without those things, or having to modify your behavior affected you?
“Normal is Broken.” What does that statement mean to you?
What can we learn from the Psalmist in the following passage?
Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God.
Psalm 20:7-8 NLT
Those nations will fall down and collapse, but we will rise up and stand firm.
Okay, so maybe we don’t actually trust in horses and chariots to protect us, to provide for us. Instead, what are the everyday, earthly things we did trust in? Do trust in?
Look.. We know we can’t trust in those things, yet we so trust them all the time. To us, some of those things often seem more real than our relationship with God. Why do we so easily drift back into having our faith in all the wrong things?
What does it look like to place our trust in Jesus, instead? Really, though.
(how did it look for Esther?)
“All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.”
Esther 4:11 NLT
(How did it look for the Rich Young Ruler?)
“There is still one thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
-Jesus, Luke 18:22 NLT
(What did it look like for the Apostle Paul?)
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.
-Paul, Philippians 3:7-9 NLT
Does that mean that we trust Jesus to protect us from Covid-19? Or from car accidents? Or from Cancer?
Maybe our best look at what it means to trust him comes from three young boys in the early exile period in Babylon:
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
Daniel 3:16-18 NLT
Trusting Jesus doesn’t just mean you know the doctrines of grace… It means we obey, regardless of the consequences. It means we live like we are called to live. We are on a mission, and we don’t give up on that.
You have a role to play in this mission to bring everything under Christ’s authority. Maybe this week you have a divine appointment with that neighbor, that relative, that friend. How will you trust Jesus and leverage your circumstances for Him?
Are you ready? Now is the time to build a firm foundation and get ready to be used by him in this “New Normal.” We have ways for you to get started coming up in the next few weeks.
As we close, why don’t we pray by name for the people that God has sent us on mission to?