Perhaps more than anything else, the American culture values physical beauty in a woman. With little priority placed upon her character, her intelligence, her skills, or her dreams…America wants to size her up and sum her up by how pretty she is. Is it any wonder that so many women (both the beautiful and the plain) live in anxiety over their value? While Esther is clearly seen in Scripture as possessing physical beauty, that aspect in her story is insignificant compared the power of her character and courage. While her beauty was used by God to give her an entrance into her destiny, it is only spotlighted once in her heroic story. She was so much more. And every Christian woman alive today (whether beautiful or plain) is far more than her physical appearance. God treasures what cannot be seen with the eye.
Born Beautiful
Esther 2:1-9
January 24, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 2:1–9
When God Pummels the Proud
April 10, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 6
Let’s admit it: we get frustrated when the bad guys win and good guys lose. We usually prefer quick justice. Haman, the proud and dangerous anti-Semite keeps on walking in prosperity & victory while the Jews are all about to die. In this message from the story of Esther, we see the sovereign hand of God begin to turn the tide against evil Haman. Fewer things prove to be more satisfying in the book of Esther than the events in this chapter. Just when things looked so good for Haman and so terrible for Mordecai, Esther, and the Jews, God does the unthinkable! We learn here why it is so important to wait on God to take care of our enemies. He may seem to move slowly at times, but it is glorious when His moves begin to make sense.
Humility, Authority & Depravity
March 20, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 5
Flagrant pride in an individual is among the ugliest traits we can witness. The inflated sense of ego, the aroma of self-importance, the insistence on being the center of everyone’s orbit…these are things that repulse us. In Esther’s story, Haman was such a person. This message reveals with no restraints just how nauseatingly arrogant the enemy of the Jews is. As we behold his words and actions, we must be willing to examine our own hearts to see if anything similar might be growing in us. Pride and arrogance ALWAYS have the eventual, inevitable result of God’s resistance and destruction. God exalts the humble as is seen in the life of Esther, but He powerfully resists the proud of heart. Haman’s testimony makes this abundantly clear.
Disturbed into Destiny
March 6, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 4:8–17
Sometimes, a Christian’s most important moments come through his or her most intense challenges. Many people do not realize that the most famous verse in the book of Esther flows forth from her own personal nightmare wherein she was being asked to put her life on the line. This message will reveal that God will sometimes bring about our divine destiny by presenting us with intense circumstantial disturbances. If you are in trouble during this current season, the disturbance you are experiencing may very well be the activity of God bringing you into what He has prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.