series: Ancient Cliff Notes
title: Esther
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: September 30, 2018
scriptures: 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Esther, 1 Samuel 15
As I was working on this sermon and thinking through this story, I was just feeling like “man… I don’t want to ruin everyone’s childhood memories by sharing what really happened in the stories that Veggie Tales doesn’t always give all of the details on.” I fear that I have done that for some of you with a few of these stories in this sermon, and this one will be no exception.
this sermon will paint a picture for you that quite frankly is dark and gruesome and unexpected, its cinematic, its bizarre. its violent. and its sexual, because its telling us what happened even though just about all of it is NOT GOOD!
and before you watch or listen to this sermon, I want you to ask yourself the question that we started the sermon with, and I want you to keep this in your mind this entire sermon:
Do I trust God?
Really… truly… deeply… FULLY.
Do you believe that God can do anything? That He can work through anybody… and that He can overpower even the biggest empires and overcome even the worst circumstances?
Because this story is a story about a God who can do anything, even though it appears like he is not there at all.
if you have no gauge on what is important, then you have no way to measure whether or not you are on the right track. That is what Core Values do… they keep us disciplined… they keep us on mission… they give us something the bounce whatever it is we are doing, off of, and see… IS THIS FURTHERING THE MISSION?
The world is watching how the church will continue to respond to the issue of racism that is so evident in our world today.
Ancient Cliff Notes