The Times Square Church Pulpit Series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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My message today is entitled, Standing and Prospering
in an Evil Time.
Standing and Prospering in an Evil Time.
Will you join me in prayer?
Father, I do give you all the glory,
because Lord, you are the Lord of glory.
Lord, you've come in this place and you've
gathered a people.
And I pray, O God, that you would
reveal yourself in the way that we need
to understand you today.
Holy Spirit, come and lift up Jesus Christ.
Lord, strengthen us now.
Strengthen us and give us the ability, O
God, to be what you've placed in our
hearts that we are longing to be.
And that is a light for you, a
light in a dark hour.
I thank you, O God, for those that
don't know you in this place, that Lord,
you will shine a light and you will
be heard and loved in this place.
And we will give you all the praise
and all the glory, for it belongs to
you alone.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen and amen.
I'm always amazed when I read scripture and
the Holy Spirit quickens to me just how
up-to-date and how relevant the Old
Testament is.
And I would like if you would turn
with me to the book of Esther and
around chapter 4 in the Old Testament.
And the Lord has dropped into my heart
a truth from this book.
And I see it so clearly today.
I have spoken from this book numerous times.
In fact, this is one of the messages
that I spoke in Italy.
And yet even since coming back, the Lord
has added to this word.
And it is a book that talks about
how God triumphs over evil in perilous times.
But it's much more than that.
You know, we've heard a lot about perilous
times.
We hear a lot about an evil time.
I would like to give you my definition
of what I think evil times is.
And we'll see if that's maybe a time
we're living in now.
But I believe that a perilous time is
when evil seeks to dominate men's life.
When it seeks to kill and crush and
destroy and hide all that is right and
true and all that is godly in a
society.
An evil time is when it starts to
speak to the hearts of men and women
in it that good is evil and evil
is good.
And that the only way to prosper and
the only way to get ahead is when
we must be a partaker of darkness around
us.
That in other words, it is foolish, it
is naive, it is being hopelessly simple to
think that right or righteousness or godliness can
prevail in the hour that is among them.
It is a time when if anyone takes
a stand for righteousness in so many places
you would stand alone and you would stand
opposed.
We've visited, we've had the privilege of visiting
many nations and we truly have been to
places where intimidation and violence is the way
of life.
But I think that what is happening in
this nation in North America is kind of
an insidious evil time.
Because part of being the evil time is
that it is such a mask and a
cover-up.
It will seek to explain itself in a
way that doesn't look evil, that doesn't look
as corrupting, that doesn't look as vicious, doesn't
look as god-corrupting as it is.
And in the book of Esther, it is
a picture and it is a time of
a time that you and I live in.
And the characters in this book, I think
we're going to see ourselves in them very
clearly.
Because you see, in the book of Esther,
it talks about a king having a vast
kingdom with unchallenged power.
And the scripture tells us that his queen
is a believer but that is unknown to
the king.
And the scripture tells us a man named
Mordecai who is kinsman to the queen.
And he is a godly man, he is
a man full of faith.
And we can see on one level the
story of Esther as a woman who's chosen
to be queen for her beauty.
And that's a type, you know, of a
Christian where Christ comes into our life, gives
us another spirit and makes us desirable and
sets us apart as different from others.
But she was counseled for a season not
to reveal that she was a believer.
And Mordecai, her kinsman, is a godly man.
And at that time, the scripture tells us
clearly that an ungodly man, Haman, rises up
and he becomes counselor to the king.
And this man represents all that is evil
in a society.
His name is Haman the Agagite, means the
fiery one.
And that fiery one, in his rulership, in
his dominion, he wants to quench out everything
of life, everything of faith, everything of light,
everything that pertains to god-fearing people in
a god-fearing nation.
He is against.
He hates and opposes everything of the spirit
of God.
And the scripture tells us that this man,
Haman, in a picture of what it is
to live in an evil society, he wants
everything and everybody in this kingdom to bow
to him.
And the scripture tells us in the book
of Esther that Mordecai, the man of faith,
would not bow.
That this man, Mordecai, he could recognize evil
and he could resist evil.
And as I thought about this man, I
realized that the only way that anyone can
recognize or resist evil is through faith.
But when I began to understand, Lord, faith,
faith, that surely is the call, the high
call of a believer to live in faith
and move in faith.
But Lord, how do we get faith?
And I think by examining my own heart
and looking at the lives of those around
me where I see a sincere faith, a
growing faith, a faith like Mordecai, I could
honestly say the one common denominator is that
that faith has in back of it an
honesty and a sincere heart.
Because you see, beloved, there are lessons of
faith.
And Christ is going to, if we follow
him and if we allow him to bind
us to him, he's going to take us
down roads that we don't understand, but it's
all lessons of faith.
And he's going to bring us through to
triumph.
He will cause us to triumph.
But lessons of faith are an incredible thing.
And I know that Mordecai, to be able
to stand in an evil day and not
be intimidated by the spirit of his age,
went down a road of faith and learned
some lessons of faith.
And I'm sure I know one of those
lessons can be summed up in the Psalms
where it says, when my heart and my
strength fail, then God is the strength of
my heart.
When my heart and my strength fail, you
know, beloved, we are going to get to
that point where that happens to us.
We're in all our good intentions and desire
of wanting to stand among our coworkers or
stand in our family.
And yet a faintness of heart will come
upon us.
And yet the scripture clearly tells us through
the spirit of God, by the pen of
David, it says, when my heart and my
strength fail, I can hear David say, let
them fail.
Let them be proven for what they are,
that my heart and my flesh can only
take me so far.
But the lesson of faith is when my
heart and my flesh and my faint heart
of this fail, then I'm going to come
to a clear understanding that God is the
strength of my life and my heart.
And that is one giant forward step in
faith.
When we walk and we feel that we
are not equal to the task of faith,
we remember God in my own understanding or
in my own wanting faith, it will fail
me.
But as I cry out to you with
an honest heart and say, I cannot God
be the strength of my heart, we become
people of faith.
Scripture says when my heart condemns me, God
is greater than my heart.
This is a very necessary lesson in the
walk of faith, because our heart is going
to condemn us.
If we have been touched by God and
we want to walk the faith that we
are going to feel our failure and our
lack very keenly.
We are going to have an open door
because we have a tender heart for the
enemy to oppress us.
But the scripture says that when my heart
condemns me, God is greater than my heart.
And we learn to say, God, you have
given me an honest heart for you, a
sincere heart, and I'm not going to live
in anything but the truth.
And when this heart comes to condemn me
and underline my failure, I'm going to say,
God is greater than my heart.
And the salvation that he has provided for
me is full and complete.
And I'm going to trust in that salvation.
And that God, if you're not condemning me
because I have a heart that wants you,
in spite of my fear and my failure,
you say that is enough, that I cover
you and I see no failure.
God, you're greater than a heart that wants
to condemn me.
That was a very necessary path.
That's a very necessary road down the journey
of faith.
I know that Mordecai would have had to
experience and be able to stand before him
and the truth in the scripture where it
says that God shall teach him in the
way that he shall choose.
Beloved, there is so much that we need
to understand and learn in this journey of
faith.
And the only way we learn the lessons
is when, God, we say you have to
choose the path of my learning.
You know what issue to bring up when.
You know what it is that I need
to face, and I'm going to trust you
in it.
I'm going to think, I can sometimes think
that this needs to happen.
If only this could happen, Lord, then I
could move ahead with you.
But when we realize the truth and that
he shall teach him in the way that
he shall choose, and we say, God, what
is the issue in my life now is
of your choosing for me to see, for
me to deal with, for me to bring
it to you, for me to keep bringing
it to you, for me to trust you
in places I've never trusted you before.
This is a walk of faith.
When we say, God, you have so ordained
my path, my steps are ordered because I
have come to you in a simple faith.
I have come to you to ask you
to be Lord of my life.
I have come trusting that my sin is
put away, and God, that I'm walking in
a way that will please you.
And the enemy will say, I don't please
you.
And my own heart will say, I don't
please you.
And my understanding of things will say, how
can this please you?
But I'm understanding that you choose the path,
you choose the issues, and you're building into
me a life of faith that's going to
be able to stand in an evil time.
Scripture says, many sorrows shall be to the
wicked, but he that trusts in the Lord,
mercy shall compass him about.
That scripture says that sorrows come to the
just and the unjust.
The scripture says that many sorrows shall be
to the wicked, but it's saying that those
that are learning to trust God is saying,
Lord, I'm going to see you compass me
in mercy in the midst of all my
sorrow.
That, Lord, you're not going to let me
fall down and not rise again.
That, Lord, your mercy is going to compass
me, and when I seemingly could be overcome
by the sorrow that's in my heart and
the anguish in my mind, you say that
mercy will come and surround me and pick
me up and cause me to take another
step forward in faith.
When it is absolutely impossible for my own
heart, my own flesh, my own reasoning, my
own desire even, to allow me to take
another step, your mercy will come in the
midst of my sorrow.
You will compass me about.
And that's a step forward in faith.
Beloved, ultimately every man or woman of faith
stands and declares it is by grace I
stand.
It is by grace that anything in me
that can trust him in an impossible time
is because he has been merciful to me.
He has been compassionate to me in my
fear and in my failure, in my stubbornness
that never deterred him from keep reaching out
to me.
It never brought me to a point where
he did not reach his hand out and
say, I'm God, I'm bigger than this in
you.
Because if we have an honest heart and
a sincere heart, God says I will never
stop extending my hand.
I'll show you when you stand in faith.
It is because I have given you grace
to stand in that place.
And that ultimately is a man or a
woman of faith.
And we see that Mordecai stands in an
evil time because he has learned these lessons.
He has learned and he knows now the
truth of the scripture, the Psalms that says,
oh, how great is thy goodness.
How great is thy goodness, which you have
laid out for them that trust you before
the sons of men.
God's saying that I am building in a
faith because ultimately those that know they stand
by grace, by mercy, when I have kept
reaching down to them in their lowest point,
in their highest point of pride, in their
deepest rebellion.
I did not stop reaching out and said,
I'm a God that can even conquer what
pulls you away from me.
Will you trust me in that?
And all those that with a sincere heart
said, yes, Lord, I want to trust you
in that.
God stirred a faith.
God created an ability to trust.
And the faith they have, they know it
is now by the son of God, if
we're New Testament believers.
And ultimately God is putting a faith in
us because he says that he wants men
to be able and women to stand in
an evil time before the sons of men,
confident of this one thing.
That God will never put to shame those
that will stand for him.
That God will never cause the enemies of
those that put their trust in him to
triumph over them.
Never.
God says, I needed a man and a
woman that I have brought on that journey
of faith and so understand that it is
by grace in the faith that they stand
that I can put them fearless, not because
they are fearless, but they have a testimony.
They have a history.
They have an experience with God that has
taught them that he will not fail them
who at the bottom of their heart saying,
God, I want to trust you with all
my heart, all my soul.
And because that cries in their heart, God
gave them a history and now they have
experience with God.
And there comes a time there is a
Mordecai people that can stand in an evil
time before the sons of men, before evil
men and women and stand.
Unintimidated.
Now, Haman, second only to the king, intimidated
by fear, intimidated because he seemed to have
everything going his way.
And everyone would bow except this man who
had a history, who had a real experience
with his God that caused him to stay
on his feet when others would bow and
rightly related to God, truly sown in him
that God will never hand a man of
faith over to the will of his enemies.
This man stands out.
He's able to stand alone because at the
bottom of this confrontation, God wants to provide
a contrast and God wants to bring a
victory.
God knows that in an evil time, he
has a plan to triumph over that evil.
And those that have had a history that
know that their faith is by grace and
know that their God won't fail them.
And they're standing in an evil time.
They're going to start to have an understanding
of things.
And the first thing is that they don't
have to bow.
And so they stand upright.
And the scripture says the righteous are as
bold as a lion in the day of
abounding fear.
The righteous are as bold as a lion.
And their history now causes them to say
that I know for many of you, some
of your most favorite verses is Psalm 27,
where it says, the Lord is my light
and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
But only those that know their own light
is small, their own strength is almost non
-existent in an evil day and have drawn
on the power and strength of their God
can say these words truthfully.
You know, there is a time and it
says it in Psalm 27, there is a
time in the time of trouble.
He shall hide me in his pavilion.
There is a time in a day of
trouble where God says, I will make those
that are mine.
I will cause them to be invisible.
I will cause them because of my time
and my reasonings and my understanding where their
enemies can't even find them.
But then there is another time.
And that is the time where it says
he shall set me upon a rock and
my head will be lifted up above my
enemies.
There is a time and it's an evil
time where God starts to say, this is
what I want to do with those that
have a history with me.
This is what I want to do.
I need someone that will follow me now,
that will trust me now, that I may
set you up on a rock.
And I say to you, your head will
be lifted up above your enemies and you
will be able to see things others cannot
see.
And you, because I have built into you
a life of faith, little by little, experience
by experience, after failures and fears and rebellion
and pride, you found out I was still
faithful to you.
And you will learn and we will learn
not to bend.
And because he was willing to stand and
not bend, Haman set his eyes upon him
and his mission became to destroy Mordecai.
His mission began to be Haman, that all
that Mordecai stood for was a direct affront
to him.
And he was consumed with destroying this man
and destroying all the people of Mordecai.
Beloved, when this happens, so often, even the
believers, fellow believers, begin to wish the Mordecai
people would bend a little.
There is a time where those who are
not as well taught in the things of
faith, or are resisting that path, those that
will stand, those that will in an evil
time speak, they will feel that the Mordecai's
are the troublers of Israel.
That charge was put to Elijah one day,
when he who had a living word, who
was going to lead his people out of
bondage, he was told, you are the problem.
You are the troubler of Israel.
There would be those, even among fellow believers,
that would say, be quiet, soften, sidestep.
You are the peril to us, not Haman.
If you would bend a little, it would
be well with us.
And beloved, an evil time is a time
of confusion.
It's a time where there's no understanding, even
among people of light.
Because if we will not walk a path
of faith, we will not have light.
And there's so many opinions, there's so much
confusion, there's so much accusations where men begin
to lean on their own understanding.
And those that will stand in the light
look like they're the problem.
But beloved, God has created this time.
God is the one who is calling Mordecai
to stand in a faith and a trust
in him.
Because God would deliver his people in perilous
times.
This is of God's orchestrating.
This is a God-appointed time.
Now the scripture tells us in Esther 4
.1 that Mordecai perceived all that was done.
He's understanding now that Haman not is only
seeking his life, but he sends a decree
throughout all the land and he is now
hunting for the life of every believer.
That he wants to shut down, shut out
all of God in his society.
Mordecai represents one of many and he is
determined now that everything within his power, he
will kill and destroy the light in the
land.
Scripture says Mordecai perceives all this and he
goes and he cries in the city.
The scripture says he puts on sackcloth and
his life before it is his testimony of
faith that is speaking and now the anguish
in him and the anguish in him when
he's putting on a sackcloth is adding emphasis.
And he's crying out to a city.
And in Esther 4.4 he sends word
to the queen and the scripture tells us
that the queen is exceedingly grieved and she
sends Raymond to take away his sackcloth.
And I thought about this woman.
maybe she's embarrassed, you know, maybe she was
saying, you know, I was told to keep
quiet, Mordecai, from you and now here you
are in the midst of the city and
this weeping and this wailing.
I wonder if she wondered in her own
heart she didn't see him and is a
particularly great threat.
She could have said, I live in the
palace and I don't see it like you
see it.
Maybe she thought I personally don't care for
the man but the scripture tells us that
Mordecai perceived the hour and I believe that
her reaction to him says that she did
not understand the hour in the time.
She did not understand what was at stake.
I began thinking about this man Mordecai because
when he went to the king's gate and
he went to send word to this woman,
it was because Mordecai was realizing God was
asking him to speak to this believer, Esther,
with this level of understanding and he was
going to send her a word that in
this hour of trial she was to be
the deliverer.
You know, in my own understanding and I'm
sure in your own understanding, we could say
God sent Mordecai.
The man knows the times and he has
the anointing.
He has that history of faith.
He knows what he is in you.
He knows what you're about.
But God is sending this man of God
with a word to a woman, to a
people, to a church age with no perceiving
of the hour they live in and saying
you must be the hope.
Doesn't a Haman time require the confronting by
a Mordecai type of believer?
That stature and that anointing but the scripture
tells us in Esther 4.8 that Mordecai
sends word to Esther to charge her that
she should go in unto the king to
make supplication unto him and to make requests
before him for her people.
And her answer in 4.11 and 12,
she basically tells him, don't look here for
help.
She tells him in Esther 4.11, she
says all the king's servants and the people
of the king's province do know that whosoever
whether man or woman shall come into the
king into the inner court who is not
called there is one law of his to
put him to death except such to one
whom the king shall hold out the golden
scepter that he may live but I have
not been called to come in unto the
king these 30 days and they told to
Mordecai Esther's words.
This is where Mordecai needed probably every ounce
of faith ever taught him or deposited in
him to stand.
But these were kinsmen.
I believe that you know the scripture tells
that Mordecai was her uncle and I believe
that's a picture.
They shared the same heart.
That Esther did have a sincere and honest
heart.
But Esther was Esther.
And I got to thinking who is that
woman?
And who in the 21st century where you
and I live, what is she saying to
us?
And I believe that when we look into
Esther, we look at her circumstances, beloved, we're
going to glance into our own souls, male
or female, when we hear this woman speak.
If we are not Mordecai in our faith,
then truly if we've been touched with God,
we are Esther.
Esther, you know, speaks to me of a
person who has been beautified by salvation.
And they live a life of there's a
desire to do good works and a desire
to live right and to be kind.
To say, God, I want to live a
life that is unselfish in motives.
And these are needed things.
But there comes a point where there's a
line drawn in this life.
And there is no declaration in this life.
There is no saying a line has been
crossed in live or die.
I am the Lord.
It's a faith.
But it's a faith that wants it to
tell it to me on the bright side.
Give me faith and give me examples where
I don't have to declare myself and stand
apart and stand alone.
It's kind of a faith and a walk
that sometimes wants to see itself as the
beauty queen, but not the warrior.
It says, you know, my faith has brought
me to a good place.
My faith has brought me to a blessed
place and I'm enjoying my salvation.
And beloved, that's true with many.
And wanting to have a life of good
works, that's a good element and that's a
needed element in our faith.
But there is a resistance in this kind
of immature faith that says, I don't want
to be moved to the front where the
enemy lives.
I don't want to be moved to the
front lines.
I want to stay support staff.
I want to be a spectator in an
evil time.
I want to stay sidelined in an evil
time.
I want to stay where I am.
You know, Esther also speaks to me, of
me, of many, that at times in their
life says, the king has not called me
in 30 days.
It speaks about a prayerless life, a largely
prayerless life.
Where for many, Sunday is the only connection
to God, the only vital one.
There could be prayers on the run.
There can be devotionals read while eating toast
in the subway over it.
But it's more to pacify our conscience.
It's not a vital connection.
And that which was to be our lifeline
and that which would be our life, our
source of supply, that which was to feed
our faith, we are cut off from.
And it's been 30 days since I know
what it is to stand in his presence
and hear a word from him.
Esther can also be that Christian that feels
broken and defeated because forsaken, because I'm not
called, bind them up.
There is such a spirit of rejection.
There is a spirit of oppression on them.
And it's like the gospel can't be preached.
The truth can't be preached.
You cannot preach to them except they hear
everything through a spirit of rejection or oppression
that says, I'm not called.
I'm not worthy.
I, I, I'm not vital.
I'm not needed.
Let Mordecai do it.
I cannot.
It's an evil time, but I'm afraid I
am powerless.
I am sidelined.
Esther says, Mordecai, not me, not now.
I'm powerless.
And there's Mordecai.
And I would risk too much by stepping
out.
I would risk too much.
But beloved God's messenger has lived his message,
Mordecai.
And God's plan is that he is going
to raise up men and women of faith.
Who are going to live the life.
Who are saying, you can look into my
life and you can look to me because
it's my grace.
I am what I am.
I am because of who he is.
I do what I do because it's his
power in me.
It's because when he speaks the word, he's
given me grace to latch onto it.
That he says my head will be lifted
up around my enemies and he will give
me strength to stand in an evil time
before the sons of men.
And that I will not be triumphed over
evil because God, your plan is to destroy
evil.
And you will give me the grace to
stand when even no one else can, even
though I will be reviled and misunderstood by
those in whom I'm actually fighting for.
And God, if you're asking me to go
to an Esther that seems so fainthearted, that
seems so incapable of standing in truth, I
will go because God, that's your heart for
her.
You're going to ask her to look into
my life and you're going to say, Esther,
I'm no different from you, but I am
farther down the road in faith by grace.
God said, I'm not sending a Mordecai.
I'm sending Mordecai with a message to you,
Esther.
Because I'm calling you to be the deliverer,
to stand maybe for the first time and
understand that those that will put their trust
in me in places where they could never
trust before, but will let my word to
them be a source of life and be
a source of strength and be a source
of power for the first time.
Look to me, Esther Mordecai, I'm a man.
I'm a one like you are.
I stand by grace.
And if you will believe it, so will
you.
And God's messenger, bold and unintimidated.
He obeyed God by not bowing, but now
he was going to obey God by delivering
the complete message to her.
And the complete message to her in Esther
four, verse 13 said, then Mordecai commanded to
answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou
shall escape in the king's house more than
all the Jews.
For if thou altogether hold us by peace
at this time, then shall their enlargement and
deliverance arise to the Jews from another place,
but thou and thy father's house shall be
destroyed.
And who knows whether thou art come to
the kingdom for such a time as this.
Beloved, you may not recognize that's one of
the greatest grace messages we've ever heard.
But God is saying to her that you,
I want to use you.
And that even in your state, even where
I find you now in the palace, so
cowed down, so at times unbelieving, so wanting
to serve me yet feeling so incapable, so
intimidated.
He's saying, but I'm reaching out to you.
And he is saying that I can still
use you.
Your fear, your failure does not limit me.
But he's also saying, Esther, understand something.
When I bring light to you, you must
deal with the light you have.
And I tell you it is an evil
time.
And the evil will consume all those that
will not stand in truth and will not
trust me.
He's saying it's such an evil time that
deliverance will come.
Deliverance has to come to my people.
Enlargement will come.
But he said, for those that are understanding,
I'm offering you through my grace, through my
compassion, through my mercy, the offer to stand
and the offer to trust me because I
will not fail you.
He's saying when I put out my hand,
know that if you refuse, the hour is
so evil that those who will not trust
will be swallowed by their compromise.
It is such an evil time that those
that choose compromise, that choose fear, that choose,
Lord, I can walk this walk of faith
my terms, my way.
God says in an evil time, those and
their house will be destroyed.
But he's saying, Esther, listen to me.
Deliverance is coming.
Enlargement is coming.
Are you in or are you out?
And I can use you in it.
Such a grace message.
And I love her response because when she
heard that word, a woman with a true
heart, a woman with an honest heart, that's
me.
A woman with a sincere heart.
The word of God comes and it is
light to her.
The scripture says unto the upright, there arises
light in the darkness.
If we don't close our eyes.
Unto the upright, there will arise light in
the darkness for everyone that has a sincere
and honest heart and says, God, in an
evil time, I cannot stand, but I want
to stand.
God, my mouth has been closed for so
long.
God, there's so much in me that keeps
me back from fully trusting you.
But God, in the bottom of my heart,
you know, I want it.
And I hear your word and I hear
the grace in it.
And I hear that you're painting, you're telling
me the whole truth.
And I have a decision to make.
And the scripture says that word stirred her.
Mordecai's life stirred her.
And there was starting to be hope and
light in this.
And the scripture says, I will go to
him.
We will fast.
We will pray.
I will go to the king.
And if I perish, I perish for every
Esther in this place.
And I speak to myself, God has said
something to me.
He says, Teresa, something has to perish.
But when I come to him and I
come to him with an honest and sincere
heart, I see it's my lack of trust
that will perish.
I will see it's my fear.
I will see it is my own ways.
And feeling I have, I'm so wrapped around
it.
But God, if I'm willing to trust you,
something will perish.
And that which kept me back from believing
you and trusting you and following you and
being able to be willing to stand in
an evil time, that's what will perish.
You know, she didn't want to go because
going at one level meant risking everything.
But when the word of God came to
her, she could see very clearly, really, what
am I risking?
By risking, by obeying him, by risking, by
trusting him with everything.
What were the alternatives?
He said in an evil time, all those
that will not trust you, your house, the
people you have influenced, the people that I
would send you to, the ministry I would
put into your hand if you would obey
me, all that will perish.
But he's saying those that will say, God,
whatever has to perish in my following, you
let it perish.
God's not asking the successful to stand and
the powerful to stand and the anointed to
stand and the uncompromising to stand.
He's asking the Esthers to stand alongside the
Mordecais.
And then he said, did I not bring
you to the kingdom for such a time
as this?
Did I not bring you?
Did I not bring those that have not
this wonderful history of faith?
Did I not bring you to the kingdom
that I may show myself, God, to the
society around when the Esthers stand up and
say, if I perish, I perish, but God,
I've heard your word and it's created something
in me, a longing to trust you no
matter what the cost.
And she went forward.
Hallelujah.
And she goes to the king and she
doesn't receive just your life, but she receives
an abundance of mercy and an abundance of
grace.
And that's what happens when we go.
The enemy will paint the picture.
Yes, you go and you will perish and
he will paint the blackest picture.
But I remind you, fellow believers, he's the
father of lies and you can be sure
everything he will say to us at the
bottom of it, at the root of it
is a lie.
And so she goes and she finds abundance
and grace, abundance and mercy.
She finds that God can use her.
She finds that she can lift up her
voice for her people.
She finds that she can lift up her
voice for her household and herself and the
ministry God has entrusted into her.
And she gets nothing but grace, nothing but
favor, nothing but fulfillment of all that she
asked for.
And she unmasked the plan of the enemy.
It was not a Mordecai because that was
not God's plan.
God's plan was an Esther.
God used Mordecai, but God's plan was an
Esther to unmask the enemy at this evil
time.
And God wants to use us, you and
me, to unmask the enemy in an evil
time.
He can be unmasked.
It doesn't matter how evil the days get.
There is an abundance and there is a
prosperity in those that will trust the Lord.
And we found unmasking the plans of the
enemy if we would but trust and follow
him.
Haman never thought his threat was from Esther.
He thought it was from Mordecai.
He never thought there was a cry in
the heart of this woman and everyone like
her, if I perish, I perish, I'll trust
you.
And she unmasked the plans of the enemy.
If you turn with me in Esther 8,
verse 7 and 8, it says, I have
given halfway in the middle of that verse
of verse 7 in chapter 8, I have
given Esther the house of Haman.
I have given Esther the house of Haman
in an evil time where she was supposed
to be part of those who were destroyed
by her trust.
God says that I not only cause you
to stand, I'm going to cause you to
prosper.
I'm going to cause you to spoil the
enemy's goods.
He's going to cause people who have an
honest heart and say, I'm a man, I'm
a woman, very little faith.
But God, that does not stop your hand
from creating in me a heart that will
follow you and a heart that will trust
you.
You are not limited by my littleness.
God, I'm going to trust you.
Oh, the little I have, I bring it
to you.
The little I am, I bring it to
you because that's what Esther did.
And Esther was given the house of Haman.
And it also tells us in verse 8,
write ye also for the Jews as it
likes you.
It was given to her now because she
had an abandonment to her God.
It was like, rewrite the story.
Would you like the chance to rewrite the
story of your family?
Would you like the chance to rewrite the
story, our history in God?
Do we want the chance?
Do we want the grace given to us
to rewrite, write it as you like the
King says, because those that will abandon themselves
to me and will trust me in places
they've never trusted me before.
God says, I'll bring them a history of
faith and I will allow them to come
to me because they have a clean heart
and abandoned heart to me.
And it says, rewrite what you like.
I will give it to you.
Will the Mordecai's, those with the people of
faith, allow themselves to know that their lives
are having an influence more than they know.
And that the Mordecai's many times when those
who are called to teach and preach, really
the message is a faith being built in
to cause the Esther's to stand.
Mordecai's don't be sidetracked.
The way has been rough.
The path has been sorrowful.
At times you have never understood what God
was doing, but in an evil time, in
the darkest of time, that light will shine
the brightest and have the greatest influence.
Now, beloved, the Lord gave me three scriptures
at the end that I didn't understand when
I wrote this message, except I just wrote
them in faith.
And I will just give them to you.
I feel that God is saying for many
that are rising up and saying, God, I
hear you.
I'm Esther, but I hear you.
And I want to trust you in those
hardest of places because you're going to get
the glory.
You're going to do things that are beyond
my thinking and knowing.
And God, you know who I am and
you know my consistent ability to fail you.
But God, I'm entrusting it all to you,
everything that's in my heart.
I'm going to give it to you every
day and I'm going to see you create
faith and you're going to cause me to
stand alongside of the Mordecai's.
You're calling, you've got a ministry, you've got
a call on my life.
And the scripture in Colossians says, take heed
to the ministry that thou has received in
the Lord that thou fulfill it.
Take heed.
This is not a light thing.
This is not a message.
This is truth.
This is reality.
God's saying that those that I can stir
that have an honest and sincere heart, I'm
putting the ministry into your hands.
There are some here that God is calling
you to go and preach in nursing homes,
to preach in campuses, to preach in schools,
that God is saying now I've deposited things
in you and you know you are a
humble servant.
And I can entrust you to stand now
because you'll not be preaching yourself, you'll be
preaching me.
He says, stand in an evil time, no
matter who is against you.
Know that it is my word and that
I will bring it forth.
But the word that I felt that God
was wanting me to close with is in
Colossians 4.5, where it says, walk in
wisdom towards them that are without.
Walk in wisdom towards them that are without.
And also let your speech be always with
grace, seasoned with fault, that ye may know
how ye ought to answer every man.
And I feel that so many are going
to accept what God is calling them to,
and many here have already.
But beloved, there is a disconnect because having
and hearing the word of God and Him
creating faith in us, when we get out
among unbelievers, when we get into places where
we're among family that say they're believers, and
with our head being lifted up because we
are becoming people of faith, we can see
things they cannot.
And yet our speech is not being seasoned
with fault, that we're beginning to speak.
And you know, this was so confirmed by
the message this morning, where God was saying,
out of what spirit are we speaking?
But we who are the people of faith,
do we have the spirit of God when
we speak?
That so often we can have so much
deposited in us, but when we get out
there, God says that there is a multitude
He wants to reach and will reach and
touch if the people of faith will have
a speech that is seasoned with grace, seasoned
with fault.
Beloved, Mordecai's words had such impact because I
believe he understood who he was.
He didn't see himself as some great tower
of faith.
He saw himself as a man that God
had never forsaken, that God had not turned
His back on, and that God, because He
was gracious to him, taught Him lessons.
And when He spoke, and He had the
ability to speak the truth to Esther, but
to stir her, that His words had an
ability, they had a grace in them that
was full of hope, it was full of
entreaty, it was full of pleading.
Beloved, when those, you know, our speech is
called to have salt.
We're called with our speech to heal, to
preserve, to make the conversation, to make the
spirit in your mouth, to make your mouth
sweeter, flavorful, to cause thirst.
Beloved, if we are determined to have speech
like this, then when we go to the
office, we may be the only one speaking
falterly.
Don't back down.
Don't back down, Mordecai.
Stand.
Let our words, let the weight of God
be in our words.
So often, we go full of faith, but
when we get out, and it's like the
evil time overpowers us, and we get intimidated,
and we back up.
And all of a sudden, our speech starts
to betray this backing up, and this intimidation.
And God is saying He wants the people
out in this world whose words, whose speech
will mean something.
It will be a certain sound, and it
will not be intimidated.
That God will give us the grace and
the wisdom what to say, and when to
say it, but by the grace of God,
we need to say it.
And then among ourselves, let us have this
grace.
Friday night, I was sharing in a class,
and the Lord just so impressed that with
so many times we use words as clubs
with each other.
We take the word literally as a sword
and run each other through, because a little
bit of Bible is a very dangerous thing.
And as we heard this morning, if we're
not living it, be careful when we speak
it.
God will not be mocked.
Yet, there is such power in words full
of grace and seasoned with salt.
Such power.
When words are full of grace, there's a
humility in them.
Ourselves, we know who we are.
But when our words are graceful, there is
a confidence in God.
When there's a grace in our word, there's
a caring for those we're speaking to.
We're not soapboxing.
We're not preaching to them.
We're asking the spirit of God for the
key to their heart and their mind.
We know who we are, but we are
confident in our God.
It's one thing to be stirred to faith.
But when Esther went before the king, her
words were few.
And as God was unmasking the evil, the
plan of Haman, she said, come, I would
like to offer you a banquet.
And when they got there, she said, would
you come again tomorrow?
Because that very night, Haman was building the
gallows for Mordecai.
And when she unmasked the enemy, the next
day, all she had to do was point
to the gallows and say, see, everything I'm
telling you about him is true.
Look there.
There is a time and a grace.
And I just want to close today by
saying, I saw the power of gracious words
in a very unusual way when I was
in Nigeria this past trip.
And I'm not boasting.
I just tell you the truth.
I saw a grace on my husband when
he spoke.
In the pulpit, it was an anointing.
But I saw grace when he was called
to banquets, when he was called to stand
before kings and governors, when he was called
to stand and receive applause.
I saw grace upon him.
And I heard such a grace in his
lips that astounded me.
And I saw that even those that were
maybe not one with us in the mission
or those that were skeptical of us, I
saw their hearts turn.
I saw how they became one with us.
I saw how God softened the hearts and
brought down the walls through right words.
I saw how the kingdom of God was
advanced because the words in them contained an
incredible confidence in God, but a humility from
the vessel and a caring for those they
were speaking to.
And I saw miracles happen through gracious words.
Beloved God is calling us to faith and
a right speaking.
Hallelujah.
Would you stand with me?
As the musicians come, God wants to minister
to those that are hearing in this, God,
I want to trust you where I've never
trusted you before.
In my point of failure, these altars are
open for those that are saying, God, I
need you to get a hold of my
lips.
I want to have an answer.
I want your words and your spirit upon
me when I speak to those that you
say you will give into my hand, to
those that you are calling, because through my
words, you will awaken them just as Mordecai
awakened Esther.
But God, I want to commit my lips
to you.
I want to commit, oh God, that ability
to entrust you in this area of my
life.
And for those that say, God, I want
an abandonment to you that I'll say, if
I perish, I perish.
But knowing that those that from the bottom
of their heart have that cry, God says,
that's how I prosper you.
That is the path to power.
That's the key to Haman's house.
And rewriting the history is an abandonment to
me.
Those that are so little in faith, who
are poor in spirit, the hope, the promise
is made to us.
I can make you mighty in me.
If you can trust me, allow this word
to become your reality.
Allow my word to be the truth to
you.
Grip onto me.
Beloved, those that have come to the altar,
God is asking great things of you and
of me.
He's asking us to believe us that he's
going to cause us to stand in an
evil time.
And he's going to cause us to prosper
in an evil time.
God says, all those that are mine know
the end is victory.
Everyone that is mine, the end is victory.
Beloved, by faith, by our very little faith,
we're going to trust him.
And he's going to cause us to stand.
And we're going to be able to do
things that we never thought we could do.
And we're going to be prosperous.
And the things that God puts us into
our hands, we're going to spoil the goods
of the enemy.
We're going to rewrite our history.
And we're going to give all the glory
to God.
Of salt, of seasoned speech, with a way
to our words, where before we were confounded,
we did not know what to say.
We are now going to believe God.
He's going to give us the presence of
mind when not to speak, when to speak,
what to say, how to say it.
We're not going to allow the enemy to
second guess us and say, you shouldn't have
said that.
We're going to learn to tell the enemy
to shut up and ask God to open
our mouth.
Now let's give him the praise.
Lord, we come believing stood before
us.
So God, we ask you to strengthen them.
We ask you Lord to bless them.
We ask you to continue them on a
path of faith.
Oh God.
And we ask you to give them grace
to keep speaking into our lives.
The Esther's Oh God, for you have determined
to put deliverance into our hands.
Oh God, into our families, into our worlds,
into our testimonies, into our ministries.
God, we thank you for this.
Lord, we look not to ourselves, but we
look to an awesome God that cannot fail.
Now, Lord, we give you our praise and
our joy.
It's a sign that we've heard you and
we believe you in Jesus name and give
him the glory.
This is the conclusion of the
message.