Well, turn with me and your Bibles to the book of Esther, the book of Esther's. We continue our study in Esther, and I believe if it's a, you have, I don't have the page number printed there, but it's that you find that there in the few in front of you. If you find open your Bible to the middle, you're probably at Psalms and keep going back. And a little bit towards the front of the Bible, and you'll come to the book of Esther. And when Esther chapter four, this is the fourth episode. It is a story and this is the fourth episode in the story. And if you haven't been here for the first three episodes, let me give you a very quick sketch of what's happened. This is during the days of the Persian Empire. Zerxes is on the throne. His father was Darius. His grandfather was Cyrus. Cyrus is the one who conquered the Babylonians. And Zerxes is now on the throne and he's bringing to get, ruling the empire. He was gathering his nobles together for a great feast. Everyone had been drinking quite heavily. He wanted to show off the beauty of his wife, Fasty. And she invited her to come to the party to show off her beauty. She did not want to come. Can't imagine why. And so because of that, he was so angry at this embarrassment that he deposed her as queen. I had a new search to find a new queen in that search that the woman he chooses as queen is a young girl named Esther. She is Jewish. Her parents have died. She's been raised by her cousin Mordecai. And under Mordecai's instructions, she hides her Jewish identity. And she lives there as a pagan in the pagan court. She does not reveal her faith at all. And she, in fact, compromises her faith a great deal in becoming queen. Well, this fast forward, five years later, Esther has been married to King Zerxes for five years. During that time, the book doesn't tell us, but history tells us. He's gone off the war against the Greeks and has come home with this tale between his legs and has been defeated quite solidly. During that time, a man named Hayman has become second in the empire. He has King Zerxes blessing. Hayman is a man who's very insecure. He needs other people to respect him. And so the king has ordered that all the nobles bound down to Hayman whenever they see him. Mordecai, the Jew, refused to do so. And this angered Hayman so much that he decided not only to kill Mordecai, but he was going to kill all the Jews throughout the Persian Empire, which it means virtually to complete annihilation of the race of the Jews. And so he goes to King Zerxes and he presents this proposal to annihilate the Jews. And we find this in chapter three in verse eight. He says this, there are certain people disversed and scattered among the peoples and all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all the other people and who do not obey the king's laws. It is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. And so with that little setup, Hayman then proposes that they set aside a particular day after they cast a lot called a poor. They cast that and picked the day in which they're going to annihilate all the Jews throughout the Persian Empire. Mordecai, who's a noble in the King's court, hears about this and begins to lament over what is about to happen. Now with that in mind, so you got the story, that's just the Queen, she's Jewish. Nobody knows she's Jewish and the King now is about to wipe out all the Jews from the face of the earth. Okay? That in mind, chapter four, verse one. 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. But he went only as far as the king's gate because no one clothed the sackcloth was allowed to enter it. In every province to which the edic in order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes. When Essos maids and Unix came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of a sackcloth that he would not accept them. The Necessus summoned Hathic, one of the king's Unix, assigned to attend to her and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why. So Hathic went out to Mordecai and the open square of the city in front of the king's gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened, including the exact amount of money Hayman had promised to pay the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edic for the annihilation which had been published in Susa to show to Esther and explain to her. And he told him to urge her to go to the king's presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people. Hathic went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. This she instructed him to say to Mordecai. All the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned, the king has but one law that he would be put to death. The only exception to this is if the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life, but thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king. When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer. Do not think that because you are in the king's house, you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows that you have come to royal position for such a time as this? Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai. Go gather together all the Jews who are in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my mates will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions. This is God's word. Here we see a turning point in the story. And as we look at the story of Esther, the first thing we are going to see is that we have a crisis. And here, the first point we see is crisis reveals character. Crisis reveals character. Sometimes there are certain events that come in your life and they show you and they reveal who you really are. They can either form character or reveal character, but the crisis are oftentimes instrumental in this. Now, again, what has happened here is, Heyman hates the Jews because of Mordecai. And because of this hatred he has for the Jews. He has the king's signate ring. Now, what that means is, Heyman has the full authority of the Persian Empire to carry out his wishes. Which means he has the full army of the Persian Empire, the full bureaucratic apparatus of the Persian Empire, which was an amazing thing. And he is going to put all this to use for this one purpose to avenge a personal slight. And for that personal slight, he is going to wipe out all of the Jews. And he has the power to do it. That's the important thing. He has the full power of the kingdom of Persia to wipe out the Jews. And so when Mordecai hears this, he mourns, gets Esther's attention, Esther sends a messenger to him that bringing him clothes to put on. He refuses to close. Esther still doesn't know what's going on, so she sends another messenger. She says, Find out why Mordecai is in mourning. And he tells her about this plot to kill the Jews. And then Mordecai tells her, Esther, you're our only hope. You must go to your husband and plead on behalf of your people. Now, that sounds easy enough, right? After all, Xerxes was quite smitten with Esther. I mean, he seems like he knows she should be able to get him to do this one thing. All she has to do is go to the king and say, you know, king, you're making a mistake. Please don't kill the Jews. Please don't kill my people. Simple enough, right? Well, it's a little more complicated than that. There's several complications. Number one, number one, Esther and King Xerxes have been married for five years. And the honeymoon is clearly over. It's clearly over. Now in those days, with the king, no one could come into his presence without being summoned. It was against the law. There were actually seven people who could. But Esther, his own wife, was not one of the seven people. She could not come before him without being summoned. If she did so, she would die. She would be killed. That was the penalty for coming to the king without being called for. Even though they're married. And so here's the thing is they've been married for five years. Clearly, the honeymoon's over because he hasn't even called for her in over a month. And so, and by the way, it wasn't because Xerxes was going through a time of celibacy. We know this from history that he was not. How's that? And so here, the honeymoon is over. And so she's looking at this thing. I can't go because of that. Second reason. She can't go. Second reason is remember how the story of Esther began. You may not know this if you weren't here. But King Xerxes was married before. Remember, Queen Bastie. And he, Bastie did not come when she was called. And he was so angry that he deposed her. Now Esther, she's going to do the opposite. Come when she's not called. It's the same crime. They got Bastie deposed. And so Esther knows she can't do that. Xerxes has already shown what he does to why she disobey him. He gets rid of him and finds a new one. And so she can't do it for that reason. Third problem. Third problem. It's a biggie. It's a biggie. King Xerxes doesn't even know she's Jewish. She's hidden her identity for all these years. She has not told him. She's hidden her identity. And possibly for some reason she's hidden her identity. She's been living as a, you know, another word for the court. It's not a derogative term. It's just a pagan and a pagan court. She's lived just like everybody else. She's not lived as a faithful Jew. And so all of a sudden now she's going to be saying, I'm Jewish. And there's an edict out by King Xerxes to kill all the Jews. So she goes, says, hey, King Xerxes, I'm Jewish. What's going to happen to her? She's going to be killed. And then so we see three major reasons why she can't go to the king. But there's one more, a fourth reason. The law of the Meads and the Persians. We saw this earlier in the book of Esther and we'll see it again. The Persians were so, I mean, they just really know the word for it. So arrogant, they believed that their laws were so good that they did not need revoking. And so whenever they made a law, they said, this is how it is, and it could not be revoked. So once King Xerxes signed into law or used a signant ring to put into law the annihilation of the Jews, that law could not be revoked. And so Esther has all these reasons. Mordecai says, go see the king. And Esther comes back and says, I can't. She refuses to do so. And she looks at this. She says an effect. You know, I'm sorry about what's happening. It's a terrible thing of what's happening to the Jews. But my hands are tied. If I go see the king, I'm going to be killed. I know for two reasons. One for disobeying and the other for simply because I'm Jewish. So, you know, I would love to help out Mordecai, but I can't help. She refuses to go. Now, you look at her thinking. And you see that Esther, what she's doing, she's engaged in a bit of cost analysis thinking. She's looking at risk and everything else. She looks at the risk, compares the reward. The cost is, if I go, I may lose my life. And the reward is, if I go, it probably isn't going to work anyway. So why lose my life? It doesn't seem to make sense. It seems illogical to her to go. And oftentimes, this is how we make decisions on what we want to do. Confronted with a choice, we oftentimes choose not to get involved because we don't feel like what we can do can really make a difference. You know, think of areas where you see things that are broken or areas where someone needs to get involved, where you choose not to. Think, for example, about caring for the poor. You say, you know, it is sad that there are poor people. But you know, my little bit of money is not going to solve the problem of poverty in Orlando, is it? I mean, is my money going to make a big difference? So I feel bad that there are poor people out there, and that's a terrible thing. I wish we could do something to help. But you know, if I give money, it's going to just be an inconvenience for me, and it's not going to really solve the problem. Or maybe another issue. Maybe you have some friends from work or in the neighborhood, and they haven't yet come to know the amazing love of Jesus Christ, and you've thought about talking to them. But the more you think about it, you're thinking, you know, they're really not interested. In fact, I think they might be offended, started to talk to them about that. So I don't want to talk to them because I might offend them, and I'm going to lose this friendship, and it's not going to work anyway, because I know they don't believe this stuff. So I'm just not going to say anything because it's really not worth it. I'm just going to try and be a good example. You ever use that rationale? That's one of my favorites. You know, it's a great way of looking and saying, it's costing me too much, I don't think it's really going to work. Or about getting involved in them in different areas of ministry, say children's ministry or youth ministry, and you look at that and you say, you know, somebody really needs to be involved teaching our kids. I mean, they really do. I mean, it's very important. I wish somebody would do that. I mean, you know, I can't do it. I mean, I wouldn't be that good at it, and you know, the tea Sunday school that means you like to come twice on Sunday morning, and you're here for like two whole hours, and you know, I don't know if I could do that. It just, you know, somebody needs to do that. And we have our reasons for not getting involved. G.K. Chesterton in a famous quote said, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. By the way, the context of that quote, you know what he was talking about? He was talking about parenting. I thought that was perfect, you know? Because parents don't you feel incompetent? And Chesterton was looking forward to a day when parents might just advocate the responsibility to turn it over completely to professionals, and he said, you know, there might be people who know more about kids than you do, but they still need you. They still need their dad. They still need their mom. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. And I think there's a lesson there for all of us and things. We have excuses for not getting involved because we're saying, this can I make? Can I really contribute? It's only going to cost me, and it's not going to do much. And but if it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. So that's what Esther does. She sees the problem. She's sympathetic to the problem. But then she doesn't think she can do anything about the problem. But notice this, the problem here that Esther's facing is more than just a choice about what to do. Ultimately, what she's trying to decide is who she is. Who is she? Is she Esther the Jew? Or is she Esther simply the pagan woman living in the pagan king's court? Is she really a woman of the faith? Or is she just another Persian girl that lives in the king's court? Karen Jobs has written a wonderful commentary on the book of Esther. And she says this about this. She says Esther really has to decide who she is. And then she writes, after this point in the story, well, Esther was pretending to be a pagan. She was controlled by her circumstances. She had been passive in the story, not initiating action. But following along at the path of least resistance, then comes that defining moment when she's faced with taking responsibility with the life God has given her by identifying herself with the people of God. She was having, she's been bopping along, kind of going with the flow, blending into the culture around her. But then finally, she's confronted with a defining moment she has to decide, am I part of the people of God, or am I just part of this world? Who am I? And every single person ultimately faces that decision. Or you face that decision in the sense of am I, particularly when you're confronted with the gospel, you face this decision, am I going to identify myself with Jesus Christ, or am I going to identify myself with the world? Who am I? Who am I going to be? Am I going to be true to the calling God has put on my life, or am I abandoning that calling altogether? And so we face these defining moments. For some, it comes just at a point in time, just like it does with Esther, you have to make a decision which way you're going to go. And once you make that decision, you're gone down the path. But for many others, it comes in a series of very subtle decisions, where we end up taking the path of least resistance. But the question is, are you going to continue to live as a citizen of this world, or are you going to truly identify yourself with the cause of God? I remember the time I was confronted with that most directly. It was when I was in high school. Anybody here in the 11th grade? High school, anybody in high school? I'll just take high school. Anybody out of high school? Okay, good. When I was in high school, you know, what happens in the 11th grade? You know what happens in the 11th grade? What do you get? You get your drivers license. All of a sudden you have freedom. And so now you can go where you want to go and do what you want to do. Your parents aren't with you. And so you can really go anywhere. And they're not going to know the difference. And now the kids, we have GPS things on your cars. So it's a little different. But back in the day, back in the day, I had my mom's money car low and I could go and I think wherever I wanted to. And no one would know. And you could do what you wanted to do. And so it was a tremendous, it was fun. It was just fun having freedom. So Tuesday night, we had our young life meeting at the high school. We'd all go to that. And Friday night, all the guys would go out and do the things that guys do on Friday nights. That their parents wish they weren't doing. And their parents don't know until they hear the tape. But it's okay. And so Friday nights, I'd be out with the guys doing things that are completely inconsistent. And then Sunday night, I would go to my youth group. And this was my pattern throughout my junior year. And now the reason why I looked at that. And I knew it was inconsistent. I mean, you know, I knew it was inconsistent. But I had a really nice group of friends that I would go out partying with on Friday night. They weren't bad kids, you know, at least by the standards of my older sister. And so, you know, I was able to fly into that radar. And so, you know, they were, you know, they were good kids and did well in school. And everything else just, you know, so enjoying our freedom. Enjoying our liberty. And I began to do this throughout my whole junior year. Different times, doing different things. And not going into details because my kids were here earlier. And so, you know, but then in my junior year, I was starting to realize just how hypocritical. I mean, there's really no other word to describe it. And I remember it being confronted with this because I was a leader in my youth group. And I was out with the guys from pastry high school and Friday nights. And my youth group friends and my school friends weren't the same. And so I could get away with it. And then I got to the end of the year. And I said, you know, either Christianity is real or it's not. I mean, either it's true or it's not true. And either I'm going to follow Jesus or I'm not going to follow Jesus. But this doing both things ain't working. You know, I mean, I could get away with it. And I think I still could have gotten away with it. But I couldn't get away with it with my conscience. And I realized that, you know, either I'm going to follow Jesus or I'm not going to follow Jesus. And so I had to make a decision. So going into my senior year, I determined I was going to be faithful as much as I knew how. And as consistently as I could to the commands of Christ. It helped my best friend that I did all this stuff move away. But what happened that senior year? You know what happened this year? It was boring. My friends were all out Friday nights and I knew I couldn't go. I mean, not because my parents said they couldn't go. I knew I couldn't go. And so I'm making this decision. They're all going out Friday nights. And Friday night senior year, I'm staying home. It was costly. It was costly. But for me, it was a choice of, is this real? Do I believe this is true or not? And what am I going to do about it? By the way, that one, the only time I faced that decision. College. Man, I faced that every college I went to. You know, every time I get there and I get caught up and then I also go, okay, which is it going to be? Which is it going to be? And you make those decisions. And similarly, everyone has to face those decisions about what are you going to do? You can follow Christ or not follow Christ. And by the way, it's not just with, you know, kids. It's the same thing with adults. As we move into adulthood, the defining moments are at the same time more subtle but more significant. And the reason they're more subtle is because you can get away with it. I mean, I read this quote a few weeks ago and I want to read it again because I think it so applies. It's from Lessening New Begin. He says, if you're honest, you have to face the fact that your life is a pretty comfortable compromise with the world. We're not very different from the average worldly man you and I. We're not very heroic in our discipleship. We do not look like the stuff of which martyrs are made. Then he goes on to say, he says, the sins which the church most vigorously condemns are usually the sins of which old people are no longer capable. I mean, you know, we don't go out on Friday nights to out by the Chattahooji River. Listen, we don't do that now, you know? I mean, there's no point, you know? We stay home and go to sleep by 10 o'clock. And so we're no longer capable. He says, the sins which the church most vigorously condemns are the sins which old people are no longer capable. The characteristic sins of the middle age and old, slaw, cowardice and compromise with the world are more leniently dealt with. And so what we begin to see is as you move into middle age and old age, it's not that we've matured, it's we simply exchange the sins of the youth for the sins of the old. And what we do is we, because we can blend in to our culture, I mean, you can be, in fact, you're a better suburban night if you're morally and socially responsible. And so you fit in very well. And so you don't have to have this radical commitment to Jesus Christ to blend in quite comfortably to the world around you. And so because we do that, it's easy for us saying, well, you know, I'm not getting drunk, I'm not sleeping around, I'm not doing these things because I'm too old to enjoy those things anymore. And so we look at ourselves and we think we're doing okay. And yet there's nothing in our life that says this thing is true, that this is real. There's no place where we're living and saying the kingdom of God is what I'm all about because we're selling out to be comfortable in the world around us. Jack Miller, the founder of World Harvest Mission, used to ask people this question, he said, what is it the one thing that you're doing for no other reason than because you love Jesus? And then what's the one thing you've stopped doing for no other reason than because Jesus loves you? Can you answer those questions? Those are hard questions, but it begins to get to the heart. Now let's do we really believe this thing is true. Do we really believe there's a God in heaven who's ruling the world, who's bringing his kingdom, that this world is passing away, that our only hope, our only life is in Jesus Christ and in nothing else, and that this world cannot hold a candle to it, do you really believe that it's true or not? And if you believe it's true, it's going to impact the way you live, which gives me to the next point and we've got to go. The second point, which is what you do is belief determines actions, belief determines actions, what you believe determines how you live. And we see this with Esther and Mordecai. Esther is confronted by Mordecai. Mordecai says, go talk to the king. Esther says, I can't go talk to the king. Mordecai doesn't give up. He comes back at her one more time, and he comes back at her in verse 13. He says, do not think that because you are in the king's house, you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish, and who knows that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this. And Mordecai gives her two motives for doing the right thing. The first motive, he appeals to herself interest. And he says, hey, do you think of all the Jews get killed, you alone are going to live? Now some commentators believe that Mordecai is giving her a very not so veiled threat saying, if you don't talk, you're going to be found out, and I may help that process along. He may be implying that. You're going to be found out to be a Jew, and you're going to die with the rest of us. Or it could simply be, he's saying, don't think you're going to get away with this. Don't think that you alone are going to escape. This is a just world. This is just God. You'll get what's coming to you if you keep your mouth shut. Either way, he's saying, you need to do this to save your own skin. So, little selfish motivation. But then he gives her a greater motivation. And he says, if you don't do this, then a deliverer will arise from another place. What Mordecai is expressing is faith and confidence in God. Now, God never appears in the Book of Esther, but God is all over the Book of Esther. Because what Mordecai is saying, the question that the Book of Esther is answering, by the way, is the question that we often ask is not this way. Is Israel sinned? They've been put into exile. They've been judged by God. Does God still love the people of Israel? Well, God still keeps his covenant. Well, God still keeps his promise to bless them and protect them. That's the question they were asking. Well, is God still for us? And what Mordecai says in this, he says, never says God, but he says, God will keep his promises. If you don't do it, God is going to deliver us. He's going to deliver us somehow. I know he is because God is a covenant-keeping God. And so what we see then is Esther is facing the choice of, do I save my own skin or do I risk my life for my people? Now, if you believe that there is a God who's faithful to you, faithful to his covenant promises, it's going to impact how you live. The way we talk about it here at EPC often is you can either live as an orphan or as a child of God. If you are an orphan, you believe that you are alone in the world, that if you're going to make it in this world, it's going to be up to you. Look out for number one because if you don't, nobody else will, right? And so you've got to watch out for yourself. And so an orphan goes through life, has to be very self-protected, has to always be suspicious and is always insecure because you never know what's going to happen. But a child of God has a totally different outlook on life. A child of God looks at life and says, I have a father in heaven who's mighty, who's strong, and who loves me. And as long as he is watching over me, it doesn't matter what happens to me. I'm okay. There's a sense of confidence and security that you have. And if you have that confidence and security, there's a sense in which you can be bold and reckless in your faith. You know, why are we so timid in our faith? It's because we don't really believe God is looking out for us. But when Jesus talks about a child like faith, think of what that means. Now, my children, my children, when they're younger, particularly, not as much now, they trust in me implicitly. And you'd have a child and you'd put them up and you'd put them up on the ladder or something, and you'd say, jump. And they would assume you're going to catch them. And the thing is, sometimes they jump when you're not ready, and you're not sure you can catch them, but they trust you more than you trust you. I mean, they believe that you would never let anything happen to them. They don't worry about a thing. You know, my daughters have never had trouble getting to sleep at night worried about how we're going to pay the bills. It's never crossed their mind because they have a father who's taking care of them. And when you have a father in heaven who's watching out for you, you can be bold and you can be reckless in living out your faith. And so what happens is the more confidence we have in God's love and commitment to us, the bolder we are going to be in our faith. Now, quickly, last point is not only is this belief determined actions, but our confidence comes, our hope comes in Jesus' faithfulness, not in our own. So our confidence is in what Jesus does, not in our own. Now, if you've been around UPC for any length of time, you know that we do not buy in to Avis theology. You know, Avis, the car company, remember they're slogan? You know what it is? We try harder, right? We try harder. That is, we do not buy that as a theological principle. In other words, the Christian life does not come about. You do not grow in the Christian life by trying harder, saying, okay, last week I wasn't very faithful to God, but this week I'm going to try harder. You do that, you do that, you're setting yourself a failure. You're going to either turn into a self-righteous, irrepressible, horrible church person, or you realize you can't do it. And you're going to be so depressed, you're going to give up all together. Either you're going to condemn people in order to make yourself feel better with your own self-righteousness, or you're going to give up. Those are the only two things that can happen. And so it doesn't work. Instead of buying into the Avis theology, we see that the Bible teaches that life change does not happen through human effort, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit works through faith. Through our confidence in Jesus and what he has done for us, and his life, death, and resurrection. And so the more we look at Jesus, and his love and his commitment to us, the greater confidence we have, and God's faithfulness to us, the greater boldness we have, and living for him. See, the point of the book of Esther is not being Esther. The point of the story in the Bible is not so that you can be brave and do like Esther does. That is not the point at all. The point of the book of Esther is that Jesus is an even better Esther. Where Esther hesitates and is reluctant to risk her life for her people, Jesus puts his life on the line without hesitation. He offers himself for his people. Esther looks at her people who are destined to be killed, and eventually she does the right thing, and eventually she rescues them. Jesus looked at his people who are condemned to death by their sins, and it looks at them in out of compassion, gladly offers himself on the cross. And when we consider the rich love of Jesus, and how faithful he is to us, and we consider that he is watching out for us, he gives us boldness to live for him. See, that is why we come to the Lord's table today. We come to the Lord's table to remember that we have a God who is faithful to us even when we are not faithful to him. Another amazing thing about the book of Esther is with Esther. Here is Esther. She has compromised her whole life. She has hidden her faith. She has not been faithful to God. She has broken every single law in the book. And then Mordecai says to her, he says to her, Esther, who knows, you may be in this royal position for such a time as this. How did Esther get to be queen? She got to be queen through hiding her Jewish faith, through breaking all the laws, through sleeping with the pagan king. That is how she got to be queen. And yet she sinned. That is how she got to be queen. Mordecai says, God may be working through your sin to bring you to this point. The point of this is no matter what you have done. You may look at your life and say, I have sinned so badly, God can't use me. I got to this place because of my sin. It does not matter. God in this province even works through your sin to bring out his good and glorious purposes. Now look at my own life and how God has used my sin for good. I mean think, if I had been faithful to God at all those first few colleges, I never would have been here. God used my sin. Now does not justify my sin? Not at all. But it gives me such hope to know that even when I mess up, God can still use me. And you may be looking at your life and saying, I have messed up so badly. Have you abandoned your faith altogether, gone to sleep with the pagan king and stood by Ily while your people were about to be slaughtered? What Esther did and God still used her. And if he can use Esther, he can use you. But our whole hope and our whole confidence is that Jesus came and he gave his life for us and therefore we can live for him. That's why we come to the table this morning to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us. Let's pray. Our Lord, we do thank You for the rich sacrifice of your life that You gave it for us when You saw that we were under judgment without any hope of escape and a day that was darker than those of the Jews in Persia. You came and you gave your life and in the great triumph of good over evil, of your righteousness over sin, you died on the cross and rose again victoriously. As the Lord, we thank You that now we can share in that victory even as we come to the Lord's table this morning, we can share in what You have done. Because when You died, we who are united to You have died with You. The all the riches that You obtained through Your body, the death that You endured is our death because Your body has become our body. The life that You lived is our life because Your body is our body. Your resurrection and conquering of sin and death is ours because we are partakers of Your body. And so Lord now, even as we go to the table and we eat the bread as a symbol of our sharing in Your body, we pray that it would be more than just a symbol that Your Holy Spirit would bless us and that we would enjoy that mystery of communion that we have with You, but the whole You, the resurrected Christ. And so bless us now as we come, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.