The Story of Esther
Owning Opportunities from God
April 24, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 8
When Jesus taught His listeners the value of learning how to turn the other cheek, was He instructing us to never, ever fight back? Is pacifism a pillar of the Gospel? A comprehensive view of what the Bible says about fighting back does not leave the Christian in a position of being a doormat to his or her enemies. There are times when God calls us to protect and defend our lives. Scripture even goes so far as to declare that the Lord is “a man of war” (Exodus 15:3). In the continuing story of Esther and the Jews, there is still a date on the calendar when they will be attacked by their enemies. This message reveals the amazing providence of God and how He leads His children to fight back against a hostile assault on their well-being. We can also learn much about how we are to fight our battles.
The Rock-Bottom of Rebellion
April 17, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 7
When we have been wronged, we all want justice. And we typically want it in a right-now type of action from God. Esther and Mordecai have been patiently waiting on the Lord to bring deliverance to the Jews. Haman has seemingly gotten away with his wicked plans. Yet, God is now going to completely reverse the course of all that is happening. God will balance the scales of justice in an astounding way. Rebellion against God will not go unaddressed, and Haman, a wicked rebel, is about to find out what it means to hit a rock-bottom from which he will never bounce back.
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.
Hungry for Holocaust
February 21, 2024 • Esther 3
By now, we all know that wicked people, deviant cultures, and demonic governments are an undeniable part of our experience here on earth. We would prefer that God remove all of these things because we know they stand in opposition to His heart. Perhaps no wickedness has been witnessed in human history more so than the repeated attempts to eradicate Jews from the planet through multiple attempts at holocaust. This message exposes the immeasurable demonization of a man named Haman, a government official of the king, who crafted a plan to rid the earth of all the Hebrews living at that time. Unfortunately for Haman, he did not know that he was not only fighting the Jews, but also the mighty God of the Jews who would be the defender and shield.
The Silent Seed of Providence
January 31, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 2:19–23
God often moves silently. Sometimes, it seems as if He does not move at all. While God is nowhere named in the entire book of Esther, the Holy Spirit reveals His intentional activity to the discerning reader. God is working in your life in ways that you cannot see and do not currently understand. This message teaches us to look for the invisible hand of God who is frequently planting the seeds of His providence in the normal, unspectacular moments of our lives. On any typical day of the believer’s life, God is silently, invisibly working on countless levels to accomplish His powerful plans for us.
All Eyes on Esther
January 31, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 2:10–18
Sometimes we cannot discern the presence or activity of God working for us. In weaker moments, we might struggle with the possibility of Him having forgotten who we are or where we are. Esther had everything removed from her, and now she was caught in a dangerous, potentially humiliating process that was totally beyond her control. A pagan king demands a night to “sample” her body to see if she met his standards. If he chose her afterward, she would become Queen of Persia. If he found her unspectacular, she would be unmarried concubine for the rest of her days. What would God do to help her? This message takes us on the roller-coaster ride of dark danger and glorious breakthrough. Esther would become the queen.
Born Beautiful
January 24, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 2:1–9
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.
Full Egos & Empty Souls
January 17, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Esther 1
Sometimes, before God does an amazing, earth-shaking work, He allows darkness to grow to an uncomfortable level. Sin will not ultimately prevail, but God has not promised to exterminate all sin as soon as it begins to grow. No, God’s ways often include allowing evil on earth to gain traction before He releases a move that will exterminate wickedness and establish righteousness. This is the case with the beginning of the story of Esther. This heroic woman is not even mentioned in the first chapter of the book which bears her name. Before she is raised up by God, we must stare at the wicked hearts of depraved men who are running the show in ancient Persia. Against the backdrop of their evil ways, God will soon raise up a Queen who will deliver he people. Where there is a need for a hero, there is already the presence of a villain. This is the harsh reality that Esther would be planted in by her wise and strategic God.