Good morning. You know it's gonna be a good morning when you're wearing the exact same shirt. Justin is. Excellent. There must have been a sale. So the message series is uh we're going through the book of Esther, and Justin started us last week with kind of an introduction, and today we're gonna look at the very first chapter of the Book of Esther. So the theme for the series is this is all about choices. And so the choice we have this morning is choose our king, which is good because uh really we're only gonna meet one main character this morning in the story. We're gonna set the scene and kind of understand a lot more about the city, but the main character we're gonna meet is the king. So choose your king this morning. So as we start, wow, there's a tambourine right here. If I feel that, I'm gonna pick that up. That's awesome. So as we start this morning, uh let me tell you a weird story about how I began my my work career. This is right as I got out of college and just started working. So I grew up at a pretty big church not too far from here, very involved in the music program. And the guy there, the worship director, he took me under his wing, like middle school and high school, kind of like Justin was just describing some of these guys here, and really encouraged me to pursue music, maybe even professionally. And but right as I was uh graduating high school, about to go into college, uh that guy had to resign personal scandal, and it was just a big mess. He's very repentant, it was a great example, but it was just kind of a loss, you know. It's uh when I came back from college, he he wasn't there and as a different person, a couple different guys there, and they sort of knew me, but it just felt like it was a bit of a loss. But I would still help out on occasion. When I got out of college, I tried to pursue uh you know music professionally, and it didn't quite sink, and I didn't know why that was. And occasionally I'd just be pulled back, you know, just like magnetically pulled back here, just helping out. These guys sort of knew me. So, fast forward another church in a different part of town, different denomination I wouldn't normally visit. Pianist there punches his hand through a car window. I don't know, it's just a weird story. I told you it was gonna be weird, and I never asked for a reason, and not wise to do that as a piano player, he just shattered that he couldn't play for months. So they had to have a fill-in on the piano player. So that guy that was the worship director there just happened to go to college with the new worship director at my church, so he recommended me and I filled in there for three months. That led to a recommendation with that denomination for me to be a worship director at a church plant. I'd never thought about doing that, but I prayed through it, took that opportunity, I ended up doing that for like seven years. But the first five years of that, it was like starting a church, and we would rent uh a dollar movie theater and set up sound from the bottom up every single Sunday morning. It was just a tremendous amount of work. My life was going in a whole different way, and I didn't have time to really do much other music stuff. I started the software developing stuff, and it's been 20 years I've done that. And officially everything just didn't look according to plan, but I still kind of felt like I was where God needed me to be. But then finally, one day, I understood light bulb, exactly why God had been moving, and I felt like these circumstances were beyond my control, but there was a reason. But I'm not gonna tell you that reason this morning. Not gonna tell you, because the point of the illustration is I want you to feel that disappointment of the disappointment of an unfinished story, all that setup, and then why? Why is it prove to me that was worth it, and we just don't know. And that's what we're gonna talk about this morning. It's just that feeling of you're bouncing around in life, and it kind of feels like you are at the whim of these arbitrary decisions, or people around you are making bad choices or things you don't understand, and it's just you are left to live in the wake of those choices. You know, some guy uh has a personal tragedy, another guy punches his hand through a car window, another guy happens to go to college with a different guy, and then you know, dot, dot, dot, my life is forever affected. How's that fair? It's not it's not my fault, God, you don't seem to care what's going on. Where do we go in those moments? It's like the lot has been cast, and now this is the way my life's gonna be, and it's a headache. So the story this morning in the first chapter of Esther is about a guy named King Hedach. That's gonna be our nickname this morning. Uh we know him as King Xerxes. Uh, Xerxes was actually his Greek name. The Greeks won, and so they got to name everybody. Uh, but his Persian name, very difficult to pronounce, I'm not gonna even try. His Hebrew name uh was also difficult, ahashwurish or something like that. And there's no specific name for that, but that is similar to their word for headache. So this is king headache we're gonna talk about this morning. Kind of like my opening illustration, king headache. And Xerxes he came to the throne when he was 32 years old. Uh, Esther starts in the third year of his reign. The book of Esther takes about 10 years. Uh Xerxes was the son of King Darius. If you can go back and remember from Western Civ, Darius was the Persian king that tried to attack Greece, totally lost. That was the Battle of Marathon. And so Xerxes, when he comes on the throne, he's one of these guys, lots of guys like this, you know, they seem like they're really strong and big, but they don't really know what what they're doing. He just kind of defines himself by what his dad did, and so all he cares about is he wants to avenge his dad's loss. So that's the main thing in his mind. And uh I don't want to spoil it for you, but he totally loses too. Loses even bigger, like you know, the movie 300, that's him losing big time. And he lost a couple times. So when he starts his his reign, first thing he wants to do is have a war council, sell everybody on going back to war, and let's all lose again. So he decides this is the third year of his reign, and he pulls in and has a huge banquet for uh there's two parts, two-part party. First part is 180 days, and then a second party that's for seven days. So this first party, 180 days, he pulls in all the provincial leaders, military leaders across the entire Persian Empire. So if there are 127 provinces, it's maybe a one of one day was dedicated to each one of these provinces, or something like that. But if if that wasn't the case, then this was like a 180-day-long, just epic party. This is how rich this guy is. Let's just, I mean, who has that kind of job, right? Let's just all get together and party for 180 days and maybe talk about going to war. Count me in. I will do that. And so they 180 days, this big lavish party, and then that's party number one. Party number two is uh for seven days, and that includes everyone in the capital city of Sousa. It's four different capital cities, they kind of rotated with the seasons, and so they were in Sousa, and it's this seven-day party, probably a reward for everyone else, the common folk, that had to serve all the provincial leaders for 180 days. Uh so it all kind of escalates to this big, huge party for the entire city, seven days. And that's what's described at the beginning of the Book of Esther. So at this citywide party, it's an outdoor party in the palace gardens, ornately decorated, and King Xerxes has an open bar the whole time. It specifically says no limits on the amount of alcohol. It had to be rather expensive, but he wanted to show off just how rich he was. And he said all the alcohol should be served in these golden goblets from the king's treasury. So stop for a moment and just imagine how discouraging this is if you're a citizen of the town of Susa. And about 20% of the citizens here are the Jews. And they've been uh dispersed into Babylon when Babylon conquered them. And so the Persians have conquered Babylon now generations later, and they've integrated into society, but you have to pause what you've, your normal life, for 180 days to serve these provincial military leaders on a war that you probably don't want to do. Everybody knows we're gonna lose again. So you're not really in agreement with the whole thing. And then the one week comes when you can finally participate in the festivities, open bar, but then again, you have to carry around this golden goblet all week from the king's treasury. And it's so insulting because it's this is probably represents a year's income for you, or something like that. And the king's attitude is just like, look how rich I am, take a sip and give it right back. I mean, if the king's really so rich, why not? Can we at least keep the party cups? Come on. Have you ever worked for a boss like that? You know? Xerxes was all about Xerxes. Everyone else exists to make me look good. Look how cool I am and rich and strong, and this is the culture you're stuck in. Once a great nation, and now you're holding this rented golden goblet, and you just feel like the choices in your life have been limited and the lot's been cast, and this is the hand I've been dealt. That's the discouraging place that we find ourselves at the beginning of the book of Esther. Now I know this probably seems like a weird scene, this 180-day party and the war council, but we know from outside historical sources uh, like Herodotus, I read Herodotus all the time. I'm just kidding. I don't know what I'm talking about. Uh Herodotus, he said Persian war councils uh typically had this pattern, actually. They would get drunk and debate a key military decision, come up with a decision, and then they would intentionally sober up the next day or two, reconvene, have the same debate. If they came to the same decision sober, then they went with it. If it was a different decision, I'm not making this up. If it came to a different decision, then they were like, back to the drawing board, let's get drunk again. Or if they happened to have this the initial debate while sober, then they would schedule a follow-up, let's get drunk and re-debate session. And and that was their pattern. But it was because they thought the intoxication brought him into closer contact with the spiritual world. So that's even more depressing. This is the culture you are in now. Bad decisions are not just commonplace, they're like systemic. They're built in, they're always gonna happen. This is where you find yourself. So let's pick up the story here in the book of Esther. This is um starting in verse 9. Your crummy job, the poor decisions. So at the same time, Queen Vashti gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes. On the seventh day of the feast, when King Xerxes was in high spirits because of the wine, he told the seven eunuchs who attended him eunuchs one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven. Yeah, I can't do that. To bring, Herodotus could do that, to bring Queen Vashti to him with a royal crown on her head. He wanted the nobles and all the other men to gaze on her beauty, for she was a very beautiful woman. But when they conveyed the king's order to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. And this made the king furious, and he burned with anger. So here we have kind of our one one and only plot point of the day. Queen Vashti just says no. She makes a choice, and this is about choices. Now, unfortunately, we don't really have any information on why she made this particular choice. We can only speculate, so I don't want to try to act like I know. But from our perspective, it seems like this is a good call, you know, because of Xerxes and who he is. But there's so many good reasons why you might say no, that we can speculate. I mean, she might have been requested to come before all these drunken men wearing only the crown. You know what I mean? Or maybe she was just not particularly excited about being paraded in front of a bunch of drunken men. Or maybe she was not particularly excited about going to war against uh against the Greeks again, potentially losing millions of lives, which is exactly what they did. He marches with nearly two million soldiers and comes back with a few thousand. So maybe she said, somebody's gotta say something. Or historically, we know Xerxes had a son the same year of this war council. So she might have been eight months pregnant. I mean, come on. You know, you don't even want to go to the store at that point, much less. You gotta be kidding. Or maybe she was just being petty. We don't know. But this is a great example of just making a choice, and it is really important. And God really uses this, we'll see in the later chapters. And it's just it's so ironic because Xerxes spends 187 days trying to sell everyone on just how strong he is. This is how amazing I am as a man, and I want to arouse your jealousy. And then at the very last day of the seven-day feast that ends this, he wants to crescendo and escalate to a final display of his glory, which is really the glory of somebody else. And then, in a single word, a courageous woman says no. And in Xerxes' mind, it's about all, it's gonna all crumble. His entire empire, he thinks, is at risk, is what we'll we'll see here in a second. So he he looks on the outside at first to be so strong, but really this is a weak and insecure man. So quickly he can fall. So let's pick up the story in verse 13. He immediately consulted with his wise advisors, who knew all the Persian laws and customs, for he always asked their advice. The names of these men were advisors one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven. Practice that at home, you want. Seven nobles of Persia and Media. They met with the king regularly and held the highest positions in the empire. What must be done to Queen Vashti? The king demanded. What penalty does the law provide for a queen who refuses to obey the king's orders, properly sent through the eunuchs? Well, I sent it through the eunuchs, I should be able to say whatever I want. Mamukin answered the king and his nobles. Queen Vashti has wronged not only the king, but also every noble and citizen throughout the empire. Women everywhere will begin to despise their husbands when they learn that Queen Vashti has refused to appear before the king. Before this day is out, because apparently they had Facebook or something, or Xerxogram. Zerxesagram? I was told that joke from Chris. I I just bumbled it. Anyway, before the day is out, the wives of all the king's nobles throughout Persia and media will hear what the queen did and will start treating their husbands the same way. There will be no end to their contempt and anger. So if it please the king, we suggest that you issue a written decree, a law of the Persians and Medes that cannot be revoked. It should order that Queen Vashti be forever banished from the presence of King Xerxes, and that the king should choose another queen more worthy than she. When this decree is published throughout the king's vast empire, husbands everywhere, whatever their rank, will receive proper respect from their wives. The king and his nobles throughout thought that this made good sense for some reason. So he followed Mamukin's counsel. He sent letters to all parts of the empire, to each province in its own script and language, proclaiming that every man should be the ruler of his own home and should say whatever he pleases. Dramatic pause. Really? Really? So it's like it's like there's so much comedy there. Where to even start? Where to even start? So it the King Xerxes, he says, he admits to his advisors, okay, you know, I can't control my wife. We just could be honest about that. If I'm drawing a diagram, you know, and if this represents the circle of influence I have in life, my wife likes to hang out over here. And so what do I do about that? And the advisors say, okay. Well, the important thing is you don't want anybody to know about that because that's embarrassing. Oh my goodness. So what you need to do is send out a written proclamation to every single person in the empire in every possible language, telling them exactly what just happened. So that everyone will know. But it gets even better. Not only that, but in that same proclamation, you need to instruct that every other man do exactly what you've just admitted you cannot do. Control your wife. I mean, that'll go really well, right? As if anyone can be controlled. And King Xerxes is dumb enough to just fall for this. Sure, that sounds like a great idea. Let's just broadcast this. And it's so frustrating. But in reality, these advisors, they probably are just, they just want King Xerxes' position. And so traditionally, wives were picked most often from these seven uh advisors' families. And so they're just thinking it's gonna be one of our daughters that's picked, more power and influence for us, and this will make the king look bad, and hey, win-win for us. And Xerxes, he's so tied in with his ego, he doesn't even see this. He goes along with it. So remember, this is the place where you work, and you're stuck. This is your town, and you just think this is a recipe for disaster. What good could possibly come from this? I feel trapped. I shoved this golden goblet in my hand, the lot's been cast, and I live my life at the whim of a madman. So, how does this story end? Where does this story go? Well, as you might guess, I'm not gonna tell you how it ends. Because that's the theme of the service. I'm just not gonna tell you anything at all. No, the reason I'm not gonna tell you this one is because that's where the sermon series is gonna go in the next few chapters. Justin is gonna get into that in the next few weeks. This seems like a recipe for disaster, but I'll give you a hint. It's not, it's the recipe for something tremendous. And there is a huge reversal of fortune that happens, and it actually ends up to be the most amazing thing, and it's a blessing. It's a blessing so big that they initiate the Feast of Purim once a year, and that's still being celebrated today, thousands of years later. It's an amazing story. So I've changed my mind, and I don't want to entirely disappoint this morning. So let me go back and tell you what actually was the end of that opening story that I gave. You know, when I've first started to work and bouncing around, and I felt like my life was just going between circumstances that I were outside my control and my choices were getting limited. And I didn't see it at the time, but really what that weird story was is that was the story of how I met Amy, my wife. We've been married for 15 years and have two kids. Because Amy just happened to show up one day at that church where I ended up as worship director. Third row from the back, right on the end. I'll never forget. Changed my life. A blessing so big that it easily made every single chess move that preceded it absolutely 100% worthwhile. That's not even a discussion. And the thing is, I had been praying to God free. Years that God would lead me. If he wants me to get married, who is this person? I would say, God, this matters to me more than anything else. Why don't you move? And Amy was praying too. And both sets of our parents also. See, that got a big laugh in the other service, too. Why? Okay. In fact, Amy's parents, before that story really got started, they happened to pray with the pastor of that church in the middle. He was at their home one day and they prayed for a husband for Amy. And that's around the same time that all this started to shift in my life. And so it just kind of blows your mind. God not only answered that prayer, but he allowed that pastor, that pastor's church, to be one of the puzzle pieces in what brought us together. And that allowed me to actually serve that pastor for a while. And so God was always working in this. So the point is, for years I felt like I'm just at the whim of all this arbitrary stuff, and this is just lonely. And where's God in all this? But really, in reality, you know, it's like the backside of a tapestry that just looks like you're awful as a sewer. And then you turn it around and you realize that's beautiful. Because in reality, all those years, God was making choices in my life, and he was using things, and I was on a beeline in the fastest possible way to his best. And I think that was the fastest way. I never got out really dated and all that stuff. God did exactly what his plan was, he accomplished it. And that's what changes, has to change in our lives. When we realize that we actually serve King Jesus. King Jesus is the King that we choose. He's the one with the plan. He's the one that is unfazed by all this crazy stuff in life. Even the bad choices, even all these circumstances that seem arbitrary, God uses it all. God's behind it all. And we're not going to understand it, but he's the one with the plan. Everybody else in life pretends to have a plan, be in control. He really is. And you not understanding that does not make it any less true. That's his providence. That's the theological term in that. That God's working and doing miraculous things even when we don't see it. And even when we think, well, I don't justify God's love or him miraculously moving. He's just got a plan and he's doing it. But the trick is, and this is a this is a big irony, but only when we understand that, I want to try to connect a couple things that we normally think are at odds. But it's only when we when we come to grips with that, God's providence, that I serve King Jesus and He's behind everything that's going on in this world. It's only when we accept that that we're finally unlocked to actually begin making real choices ourselves. It feels like if God's really in his providence, he's running everything, then what's there for me to do? I can't make choices. But that's not at all the reality. It's only when we accept that and know it that we're freed up for the very first time in our lives to really begin to choose. Because it's all these other little small kings, you know, lowercase K in our lives, that they give us, they come to us and say, This is your purpose. And it just crushes us. And it feels like our choices are being limited. But when King Jesus says, This is your purpose, then our response is usually, I don't understand that. It doesn't make any sense. But yet, it completely frees us. And that's the first moment when we can begin to make choices. Because God's always makes choices. So let me illustrate what I mean by this. In Colossians 3, Paul's talking to uh to servants and slaves that are members of the early church. He says, Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you are working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the master you are serving is Christ. So choose your king. Whatever situation you find yourself in, Jesus is the one that's running everything. And the really amazing news this morning is that crazy boss that you have right now, or you've had in the past, that just you feel like you're constantly under their thumb and you're underappreciated and unrewarded. At the end of the day, you and I don't really work for that person. We work for King Jesus. And that's not just a trick of the brain. We really do. He's the one that has the plan. All these other little kings pretend to have a plan, but Jesus has the plan that will not be stopped. No one stands before his army. And so that only when we understand that perspective, and I know to a lot of us that just seems like, well, you're crazy, you're making that up. But only when we have that perspective can we begin to choose. So the idea is if I know I work for King Jesus, then if King Jesus, capital K, tells me to work for a moment under this smaller king, then I can do it. I can do it. And I can do it with joy. Joy not because of King headache, but joy because I work for a king who does see every single thing that I do, every good action, and it's always rewarded in the end. I don't know what his plan is. But if if God had come to me years before and said, here's the amazing woman you're gonna marry, and here's the cost or the life story you're gonna need to go through for a few years to get there, I would have said, Okay, easy enough. It's fine. But yet I probably wouldn't have understood that, you know? And it wouldn't have worked. But God already knew that about me and was already treating me with the respect to be a part of that story. And we are all part of that story. So when we know we work for King Jesus, the person that's always going to see what we do and always reward it, then we can choose for the first time to have joy in what we do. And the joy feels really good because it's joy on one hand, and it feels really good because you get to choose. Because it's no fun to be in a position where it just feels like someone is crushing you. But if you choose something, then all of a sudden now you're in the image of God and you're becoming who God sees you. And it allows us to exceed expectations in our jobs. Do more than we're requested to do. If you're not doing that currently in your job, then you're missing one of the most enjoyable things in life. We should all be doing that. That's what Jesus instructed us to do. And it's it's a painful truth, but if you are not exceeding expectations currently in your job, whatever it is, the only reason for that is because you're choosing not to. For all this talk we have about I don't have any choices in life, you have a choice to do that, and you're choosing not to. And you might say, well, why would I bother? No one would ever see it, and you know, there's no benefit from that, I don't want to get paid anymore. But that's that's the wrong perspective because you think you're working for King Headache. You work for King Jesus, and he does see it. And he asks us to do that not just so we can prove our love to him and be miserable and he likes to see us miserable or something like that. He wants us to exceed expectations because he knows he will reward it, he will guide us on how to do that, he'll make good use of it, and he wants us to start living like people who are free and make their own choices. I know right now you're a slave, Paul says, but you don't have to think like that. You're not a slave. You are free. And a great way to do that is just do more than is requested that you do. Because every time you do that, the joy comes. So if they, Jesus says, if someone says, go a mile, then go up, don't just go a mile, go two. Because when you go the first mile, then that's just King Headache thinking he's getting what he's due. But you go the second mile, and that's you making a choice. And that feels really good. And Jesus says, that's the way I want you to live, because that's a whole new way. And that's the first time in your life you're making choices. And you'll look strange, people think you're crazy. What do you know that I don't? But that's what it's all about. You do know something that unfortunately a lot of people don't know yet. So live in that freedom. And that's what God has for us. So I want us to identify with all those people in the city in that awful position, once a great nation, and holding these golden goblets in their hands, and ugh, my lot in life has been cast. That doesn't have to be our perspective. We work for King Jesus and we can choose to have joy and exceed expectations. And it's not just a job, I use that because it's a common illustration, but this might be in your family or so many other categories in your life. But the other side of this, too, is identify with Queen Vashti in this story. The other advantage of sitting at the feet of King Jesus and marching past every other pretend king in your life, and you sit underneath your true king, the other advantage in that is that at any moment, if King Jesus tells you it's time to speak and stand up and have your Vashti moment to these other smaller kings, then now you have the freedom, the choice to do it. Because you're not under someone. And Jesus will guide you. Only do that if he guides you on how to do it, but it allows you to really begin to make choices. God has a wonderful plan for me, and for you, it's just you're no longer part of that plan. And I can do that now because I serve under a king who provides for me. His very name is provider. That's who Jesus is. And because I really know that, and I've heard that from him, now I can choose different things in my life. So that's our challenge this morning. Choose your king. Step past every other smaller king in your life and sit at the feet of your true king. He's the one that has a plan and it's completely on track, even if you don't understand it. Our king has already gone to war. He's not trying to just drum up a war council. He has already defeated the enemy, and his victory is our victory. And he invites us to his feast. It's not a 187-day feast, it's a forever feast. And he says, You come here and feast with me, because I've won. And the cup that's placed in your hand is yours forever. And the bread is too. His victory is our victory. Let's pray this morning. God, we thank you so much that you love us and you've won the victory in our lives. We know that every single action in our lives is being worked for your purpose and in your providence. Everything is being worked for good, for our good and for the good of those that are around us. And we know that one day we're going to see it. And it's going to open our eyes, and we'll know even more deeply just how good you are. But for now, we we pray that we would come before you and choose you again as our King. Sit at your feet and know. That we listen to you in the Holy Spirit, the gift that you've given us, and that allows us to serve. And Jesus is our example of that. And he took off his outer garments and he wrapped a towel around his waist and he served because he knew that the Father loved him. And he knew he came from the Father, it was returning to the Father, and so he chose to serve. And so we will do the same. We will serve with joy, we will exceed expectations, and we know that you're gonna honor it in Jesus' name. Amen.