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When the Tables Are Turned .
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In this compelling episode of Bellevue For Humanity, co-hosts Mandrell & Gaines dive into the powerful and thought-provoking theme: "When the Tables Are Turned." Life often presents unexpected shifts where power, circumstances, and perspectives are dramatically reversed. Grounded in biblical wisdom and moral truth, this episode examines how divine justice and sovereign grace operate when human plans are turned upside down.
Together, Mandrell & Gaines discuss how God orchestrates moments of sudden turnarounds to humble the proud, uplift the weary, and fulfill His higher purposes. Whether you are facing adversity, waiting for justice, or seeking to understand the deeper spiritual principles behind life’s unexpected reversals, this conversation delivers practical insights and strong spiritual encouragement.
Key Highlights of This Episode:
The Dynamics of Divine Turnarounds: Understanding how God reverses circumstances for good and brings order out of chaos.
Humility and Grace in Victory: How to navigate sudden shifts in life while maintaining moral integrity and spiritual alignment.
Faith in Times of Uncertainty: Practical wisdom on trusting God's timing when life feels unpredictable or unfair.
Join Mandrell & Gaines for an engaging and insightful conversation designed to strengthen your faith and offer a fresh perspective on life’s biggest challenges.
Be sure to subscribe to Bellevue For Humanity, share this episode with someone who needs encouragement today, and leave a review to help us continue sharing hope across the globe!
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Transcript
Introduction to Esther 9 and Book of James
00:00:01
Speaker
If you brought a Bible and you want to turn with me, I'd invite you to turn to Esther chapter 9 today. And I want to share one final message from this phenomenal book before launching into the New Testament for six weeks. Next week, we start a six-week series through the book of James, probably the most practical book in the New Testament.
God's Hidden Hand in Esther
00:00:20
Speaker
So as we think about Esther today, as you're finding your place, I ask you this, what is the purpose of the book of Esther? Why does it belong in the Bible? The answer, it shows us that God works behind the scenes on behalf of his people.
00:00:34
Speaker
It shows us that God works behind the scenes on behalf of His people. Though His name is never mentioned in the book of Esther, His presence is felt on every single page of the story. And I'm going to teach you the end of the story today. And if you're a visitor, you might panic because you haven't gotten the first part. So let me catch you up.
Esther's Dilemma and Intervention
00:00:52
Speaker
Esther is a young Jewish woman who won a beauty contest, which put her in a position of queen, queen of the Persian Empire. Now once in place, she discovers the plot of an evil man named Haman, who hates all the Jewish people and seeks to rid the nation of them. And so he tricks the king into signing this royal decree, which will set a date for the annihilation of the Jews, mass murder.
00:01:17
Speaker
Now, once that document was signed, the future of the Jews was settled. But as I mentioned last week, Esther's uncle Mordecai seized their salvation through the opportunity afforded to her, Esther, and her sudden unexpected rise to power.
00:01:34
Speaker
So she he urges Queen Esther to use this moment to tell the king what is going on, and this would be risky. For in those days, no one could casually approach the king without permission. You couldn't just enter his chamber. And if you did dare enter without permission, they would be you'd be killed unless he extended the golden step, the scepter.
00:01:55
Speaker
And here's it an ancient stone motif. of the king extending the golden scepter. This was the sign that the king was going to give you permission to show up unannounced.
Reversal of Decrees and Divine Power
00:02:06
Speaker
So in Esther 5 and verse 2, she goes in.
00:02:10
Speaker
And his knees her knees were knocking, her hands were trembling. But it says this in Esther 5 verse 2, as soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard, she gained favor with him.
00:02:21
Speaker
The king extended the gold scepter in his hand toward Esther and she approached and touched the tip of the scepter. So far, so good. She enters and though she cannot muster the courage in that moment to spill all of the beans, she eventually gets there.
00:02:37
Speaker
The king's heart, he hears what is happening and it breaks and he calls for Haman's execution, which we covered last week. Now you would think this would be the end of the story. All is well that ends well.
00:02:48
Speaker
Hip, hip, hooray, Esther has saved the day, but not so fast. There remained one very large problem, which sets up the kind um the conflict for the text today.
00:02:59
Speaker
Under Persian law, a royal decree could not be revoked. So that day on the calendar, that when the Persian people would be attacked, where that would would attack the Jews.
00:03:10
Speaker
It was already fixed. So the only thing the king could do is to sign a second decree, which gave the Jews the legal right to bear arms, assemble an army, and stand up for themselves. And that's what Esther chapter 9 is. It's the culmination of the story in which the Jews are able to withstand their destruction. So let me show you Esther chapter 9 verse 1, how this starts. The king's command and law went into effect on the 13th day of the 12th month, the month Adar.
00:03:40
Speaker
on the day when the jews enemies had hoped to overpower them just the opposite happened the jews overpowered those who hated them Now I want you to stop right there notice the phrase, just the opposite happened if you have ah a pen you underlineing that circle it whatever you need to do that's a significant statement Because for many months, God's people knew the day was coming, like the Jews in concentration camps in the 40s. They were certain they were all going to die. Every single day they felt the day of death approaching. But just the opposite happens.
00:04:15
Speaker
God rescues his people from disaster. And I want you to see something here that's true about the entire New Testament, Old Testament witness of the biblical portrait of God. He specializes in reversals.
00:04:28
Speaker
He loves comebacks. He parts the waters for those who are trapped. He topples giants for those who are intimidated. He raises the dead, who those who fear the grave. It's all through the Bible.
00:04:39
Speaker
God of Scripture specializes in reversals. And here in Esther, He turns a day of destruction into a day of deliverance. And this book was written and it was preserved that we might read it and examine our own lives and ask the question, where am I expecting God to bring a great rehearsal reversal?
00:04:59
Speaker
Where am I believing that what is currently true is not gonna be true
Empowerment through Faith and Spirit
00:05:03
Speaker
forever? That everything sad is gonna be unsad one day. That he's gonna fix it. And so we're called to pray for miracles, to expect miracles and to believe in miracles.
00:05:14
Speaker
And perhaps you walked into this room today feeling defeated in some area of your life. Your confidence in God right now is at an all time low. Or recently you you have found yourself catastrophizing at night, imagining all of the worst case scenarios as if God will never show up and will leave you all to your own. If this is you, i want you to see the principles here in chapter nine of Esther. There's three very clear principles, what to do when you feel like you're down and out.
00:05:41
Speaker
What to do when you feel like you're down and out. Number one, we see it very clearly. Don't assume that today's circumstances are your final outcome. Let me read that again. Don't assume that today's circumstances are your final outcome.
00:05:56
Speaker
Now look at the story of Esther and keep your chin up as you read this. Look, chapter 9, verse 2. And notice this.
00:06:08
Speaker
not a single person could withstand them and notice this fear of them fell on every nationality The reason the Jews were saved was spiritual, not strategic.
00:06:20
Speaker
Not brilliant military commanders showing up. No brave heart figure riding over the hill. The text just simply says, and fear of the Jews fell on every nationality. God changed the way the people saw them.
00:06:36
Speaker
God worked in ways that could not be invented by man or seen by man. All of this happened because of the presence and the power of God's spirit. The same spirit that lives within us as believers today, the same spirit that can change a room, the same spirit that can change a marriage, the same spirit that can change a relationship, the same spirit that can change a church, the same spirit that can change a country, that spirit lives within us today. It's the deposit guaranteeing our our inheritance into heaven.
00:07:06
Speaker
So think about those first disciples with me. Let's jump New Testament in our minds for a moment. Think about how they were before and after the resurrection. After Jesus rolls that stone away, he tells his followers to stay put, don't rush out.
00:07:21
Speaker
Wait, he said, wait for power from on high. Wait until you are cloaked from on high. Wait for the spirit, wait for heaven's help. And they listened and they obeyed and they stayed in a posture of prayer until the day of Pentecost arrives.
00:07:36
Speaker
and you read this in the book of Acts. On that majestic day, the Holy Spirit filled and changed the atmosphere. Those people were suddenly powerful. Not because they went to seminary and got a Bible degree.
00:07:49
Speaker
No, they all became powerful preachers of the gospel because that's what God does. He takes flawed, scrawny people and he turns them into bold proclaimers of the truth. Only God can do that. Only God can change the human heart.
00:08:03
Speaker
Acts 4.31 says this, and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak the word of God. What's the word? Boldly.
00:08:14
Speaker
You catch that? Boldly, not cleverly, not persuasively, not strategically, boldly. That holy boldness is something that God can give to every one of us.
00:08:29
Speaker
And from that moment on, Peter, a proven coward, becomes the rock Jesus predicted he would be. And the same goes for the rest of that motley crew of men. Because of the invasion of the spirit in their lives, they became better people.
00:08:41
Speaker
And you have to believe as a Christian, That when you think about your future and all of the trials out there that are coming your way, it's no use worrying about worst case scenarios because by the time you get there, you will have been made into a better person.
00:08:56
Speaker
The work of the Holy Spirit is ongoing. It is a strengthening spirit. It emboldens us for the trials that we will face. God makes us stronger. And one of the most impactful truths of Esther is that God made the people stronger.
Ordinary People in God's Plan
00:09:14
Speaker
And he will do the same for us. One of the most impactful books in my life early on in my 20s was handed to me. The Master's Plan for Evangelism by Robert Coleman.
00:09:27
Speaker
It's a book that describes the way Jesus changed the world by pouring himself into just a few people. And they were not the few that we would have chosen. And I've always loved this paragraph. Coleman writes this, by any standard of sophisticated culture then and now, they would surely be considered a rather ragged collection of souls.
00:09:47
Speaker
One might wonder how Jesus could ever use them. They were impulsive, temperamental, easily offended, and had all the prejudices of their environment. In short, these men selected by the Lord to be his assistants represented an average cross-section of society in their day, not the kind of group one would expect to win the world for Christ.
00:10:09
Speaker
Let tell you what stands out about that passage to me. The words impulsive, temperamental, and easily offended. I can be all those things on a single day, can't you? i can make snap decisions carelessly.
00:10:22
Speaker
I once paid sticker price for a car without even Googling what it was worth.
00:10:28
Speaker
I can be temperamental. I have days when I'm grumpy for no apparent reason. I'm just grumpy and I don't know why. I have days when the slightest criticism jumps all over me. I'm easily offended and I just stew on it.
00:10:43
Speaker
In high school, a girl asked me when I was gonna get more hair on my legs. I was angry for a week.
00:10:52
Speaker
Little did she know I had been praying the same thing.
00:10:57
Speaker
Ben Mandrell can be just like you, petty and powerless, easily offended, temperamental and impulsive. But my story is one of great reversal.
00:11:10
Speaker
Your story is one of great reversal. Esther's story, one of great reversal. God can take ordinary people and turn them into bold witnesses. And we should never stop believing that.
00:11:23
Speaker
And never stop believing in the power of the Holy Spirit to be active in our lives. Even hundreds of years before Christmas, before Jesus even showed up, God was already proving through Esther that he works behind the scenes of average people, raising them up for strategic purposes. And the other nations that day were suddenly afraid. Do you feel outnumbered today?
00:11:44
Speaker
you feel discouraged today? do you feel like the odds are stacked against you today? If so, be reminded that God specializes in comeback stories. Surely many of you witnessed game three of the NBA finals.
00:11:59
Speaker
One of the greatest comebacks in basketball history, the Knicks were down by 29 points to the San Antonio Spurs. At halftime, the fans sat there just stunned. All the celebrities on courtside seats were speechless. The non-celebrity people were fuming because they paid 10,000 bucks for their ticket.
00:12:17
Speaker
But in the third quarter, if some of you watched the game, you know what happened. In the third quarter, the Spurs played loose and the Knicks leaned in and anyone watching the game could feel the electricity of the crowd was being turned back on. And all of a sudden, the Spurs were the ones that were afraid in their eyes.
00:12:32
Speaker
The whole thing flipped and New York wins and goes nutso and tears the city apart. That's the story of the and NBA Finals. And that game is a picture of how we're called to live as Christians.
00:12:46
Speaker
Don't ever count yourself out. Don't ever give up. Something could happen in your prodigal son's life causing him to return. 1 Corinthians 2.9, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. Don't count God out and what he's planning to do in the future to change your circumstances because today's circumstances are not the final al outcome.
God's Apparent Absence and Faith
00:13:09
Speaker
Live by faith, not by sight. Number two, don't mistake God's patience for God's absence. We see this next in the story. Do not mistake God's patience for God's absence.
00:13:21
Speaker
Now here's what I want you to catch. The Jews rise up. They defend themselves. They are victorious. But when the war is over, there remains an issue. All of Haman's sons are still living. There's a whole bunch of them. And they are bloodthirsty for revenge. They are like ISIS today. They would be like terrorists.
00:13:39
Speaker
There would be no way that anyone who is Jewish could feel safe while they were still alive. So when Esther sees this, she makes a bold, another bold request in verse 13. Esther 9, verse 13, Esther answered, if it pleases the king, may the Jews who are in Susa also have tomorrow to carry out today's law and may the bodies of Haman's 10 sons be hung in the gallows.
00:14:01
Speaker
And the king gave the orders for this to be done. So a law was announced in Susa and they hung the bodies of Haman's 10 sons. The Jews in Susa assembled again on the 14th day of the month of Adar and killed 300 men in Susa, but they did not seize any plunder. And on that day, their fears finally ended. The war was finally over. it was like the end of World War II.
00:14:23
Speaker
Jews finally felt some safety. But I want you to think about it what it must have been like for the months leading up to this moment......when all those Jews who were God's people wondered why God wasn't concerned about their fate.
00:14:40
Speaker
Why He had allowed the thing to happen in the first place. Imagine how their faith would have been rocked to know that there had been a date set for their extinction......and God had sat idly by...
00:14:52
Speaker
The prayers of his people had been hitting the ceiling, and yet all along, we now know at the end that God was at work behind the scenes, but what appeared to be silence was not his absence. God had it all worked out, and they would see with time.
00:15:06
Speaker
And sometimes in life, God seems silent and absent, but we shouldn't confuse his absence for his patience. Now, if you were not alive ah not alive in the nineteen eighty s I feel lit led to give you a little history lesson here.
00:15:23
Speaker
um Back in that day, there were no cell phones.
00:15:29
Speaker
And every house had a phone that had a cord attached to it. And there was no way to put these phones on silent mode. So if you wanted to take a nap, you took it off the hook.
00:15:43
Speaker
That's a phrase we used to use, take it off the hook. And when somebody called that phone that was off the hook, they couldn't get a voicemail, they got a busy signal in your life.
00:15:54
Speaker
It sounded something like this.
00:16:00
Speaker
Nostalgia, right? Here's the spiritual connection I'm trying to make. If you live long enough, there's going to come a season where it feels like God has simply taken the phone off the hook.
00:16:12
Speaker
And when that happens, just know it's a test, a test that we must pass. but Will you trust Him when He doesn't give you immediately what you ask for? And here's the hardest part. What you ask for will be a good thing. These are the hardest ones.
00:16:26
Speaker
Every morning you will rise with the same request. Lord, heal her. Lord, change him. Lord, provide the money. Lord, open a door. You will not be begging for a bass boat or a winning lotto ticket.
00:16:40
Speaker
You'll be asking for something good and you will wonder, God, why are you not listening? And you will pray and you will pray and you will pray and all you're gonna hear from heaven is this. And you know that situation because we've all walked that.
00:16:56
Speaker
Small, medium and large. When Lindley and I accepted the call to Bellevue, we put our house up for sale in Nashville and we felt certain that God had called us to Memphis and that he would provide a fast buyer for our home. It was a great house in a great neighborhood. So every day we prayed, Lord, just sell that house so we can fully focus here in Memphis, Tennessee, where you've called us. Other people joined us in prayer. We trust it.
00:17:18
Speaker
We waited, one month passed, no offers. Then another, no offers. Then the holidays arrived and house showings came to a screeching halt. Then just as the showings picked up in the new year, guess what? The ice storm of the century comes through.
00:17:34
Speaker
snapping trees and creating chaos. Neighborhoods looked like war zones. The market stalled again. And every day we kept praying, Lord, bring a buyer, Lord, bring a brier buyer. And all we got was the busy signal. And eventually, thank God it happened.
00:17:48
Speaker
We received a text message late one night. Lindley looked at her phone right as we were asleep. And a text had come in from our agent. said a solid offer just showed up for your house. Lindley woke me up. We literally stayed up all night celebrating.
00:18:04
Speaker
At 2 a.m. m she started painting cabinets and I wrote a sermon. It was the best one I've written all year.
00:18:13
Speaker
Now that's that's not a life and death story. That's really kind of simple. and And now silly, like praying for a house to sell is not the same as praying for a loved in the ICU. It's not the same thing as facing a cancer diagnosis, but that season for us was such a reminder to me of how fast my faith falls when I don't get immediately what I want.
00:18:37
Speaker
How quickly we doubt the goodness of God when He doesn't respond immediately to our prayers. What we often mistake as God's absence is really just God's patience.
00:18:51
Speaker
Perhaps that's you today. You've been throwing a certain request at God for months, maybe years, showing no signs of answering. The Bible urges us to keep the faith for as long as it takes. And that's what the Jewish people had to do back in Esther's day. They had to believe that when that day come would come, the day of their extinction, that God would come through for them at the last moment. And He did.
00:19:14
Speaker
So getting back to Esther, we've learned these two things. We gotta continue to remind ourselves that his presence is with us, even as we learn patience.
Celebrating God's Faithfulness
00:19:22
Speaker
Look at Isaiah chapter 43 in verse two. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and the rivers will not overwhelm you.
00:19:29
Speaker
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched and the flame will not burn you. Notice what God says there. He does not say you will never face waters. He does not say you will never walk through fire. He says, I will be with you, be patient.
00:19:44
Speaker
And we all have to learn this lesson, which leads us to the final point. When you're down and out, don't forget what God has already done. Look back and remember all the times He did answer prayer and He did come through for you.
00:20:00
Speaker
Now, I love this part of the passage. This is, this is I think, the the height of the passage. It's the most interesting parts because Mordecai, when the war is over, wants to memorialize the day.
00:20:12
Speaker
And a national Jewish holiday is declared, one that Jews still celebrate today. And going to ask you to read with me beginning at chapter 9, verse 23. And there's a lot of verses, so I'm just going read this. Just listen.
00:20:25
Speaker
Chapter 9, verse 23. So the Jews agreed to continue the practice they had begun as Mordecai had written and for them to do. For Haman, son of Hamadathah, the agatite Agagite, sorry, hard word to say, the enemy of all the Jews had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. He cast the purr, that is the lot, to crush and destroy them.
00:20:48
Speaker
Here's the declaration of the holiday.
00:20:58
Speaker
for this reason here's the declaration of the holiday For this reason, these days are called Purim from the word pure because of all the instructions in this letter, as well as what they had witnessed and what had happened to them. The Jews bound themselves, their descendants and all who joined with them to a commitment that they would not fail to celebrate these two days each and every year, according to the written instructions and according to the time appointed. Now, unless grew a Jewish community, there's good chance never attended Purim celebration.
00:21:26
Speaker
family province and city so that these days of purim will not lose their significance in jewish life and their memory will not fade from their descendants now unless you grew up in a jewish community there's a good chance you've never attended a purim celebration i did not grow up in a Jewish community, and it's amazing what you can learn on YouTube.
00:21:47
Speaker
So more than 2,400 years later, Jews around the world still celebrate this comeback story from way back then. The name Purim. Let me tell you about this holiday. is very interesting. The name Purim is from the word pure, which means lot. Why? Because back in Esther chapter three, Haman cast lots.
00:22:06
Speaker
This was the way he decided which day the Jewish people would be destroyed. So the name Purim is a special and perpetual reminder of his failure, that he could not he could not get rid of them because God was on their side.
00:22:24
Speaker
And it is now one of the most joyful holidays in the Jewish year. Now what happens at Purim? The book of Esther is read out loud, as you can see here. They get the scroll out and somebody reads the story. And whenever the name of Haman is spoken in the story, the children and the adults boo, hiss and use special rattles as seen in this man's hand.
00:22:47
Speaker
So the noisemaker drowns out this wicked man's name protesting even today what he tried to do back then. And I found that, isn't that fascinating? It's like Judaism meets Mississippi State.
00:23:00
Speaker
Right? I've always wanted to do this. Come on. I'm gonna count to three, you say Haman, ready? one two, three.
00:23:16
Speaker
And all my Tennessee fans think I just committed treason.
00:23:21
Speaker
But we're we're we're we're told here that there's all this noise that happens at Purim. But it's not just noise of festivities, it's also costumes. It's often referred to as the Jewish Halloween because kids dress up in costumes like Esther and Mordecai. I looked online and if you act fast, you can get a Mordecai costume for $14.99.
00:23:46
Speaker
the Jewish people love this time of year. And you've probably noticed how much fun your kids like to have when they're dressing up in costumes. In addition to these festivities, there's more. At Purim, special gifts of food are dropped off at each other's houses. So lots of little happy treats being dropped off, almost like Christmas cookies.
00:24:05
Speaker
And also, they give generous offerings to the poor during this time year. A great time of charity for Jewish people. And that's all because in Esther chapter 9, you see the people doing this as a way of celebrating God's faithfulness to them. Now, how do we think about that as New Testament Christians?
00:24:22
Speaker
We don't celebrate the same day as the Jews. But on this side of the cross, we're more Christmas and Easter people, and for good reason. But I don't want to miss the principle. The principle is simply this.
00:24:33
Speaker
The Jewish people stopped to remember and not forget how God had come through for them.
00:24:42
Speaker
And I think part of being a Christian as we get older is continuing to tell people the stories of the moments when God came through for you. How many prayers has God answered that you no longer remember?
00:24:56
Speaker
How many crises has He carried you through that you rarely think about? How many times has He provided or protected or healed or guided or sustained you? Don't forget what God has done for you.
00:25:09
Speaker
Many of you remember the old hymn, count your blessings. i always love the chorus. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
00:25:26
Speaker
It's good for the soul. So there you have it. Three things to do when you're down and out. and The third being stop and rehearse and remember all of the good things that God has done in your life. Now, with my time remaining, let me see if I can dig into a few questions that may pop up for those who are listening. Here's
Prayer Challenges and God's Fairness
00:25:43
Speaker
here's a question. Is there a point where it becomes wrong to keep asking God for the same thing over and over again?
00:25:50
Speaker
Very practical question. It's a thoughtful question. I think the answer depends largely on what God has already said to you about that. Take the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12. He talks about a thorn in his flesh, some kind of burden that caused him great pain. Paul says, concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. He begged God to take this away. Over and over again, he begged God.
00:26:13
Speaker
But then God answers. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness. In other words, God was saying, no, Paul, the thorn is staying.
00:26:24
Speaker
What I'm doing through your weakness is more important than through your comfort. And once God made that clear, Paul's posture shifted, not from arguing and continually pray, but accepting.
00:26:37
Speaker
In fact, he says, therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more in my weaknesses. I will tell all other people, I'll tell all other people because I'm living proof that God can work through my weakness and do extraordinary things. One of the parts of Christian maturity is learning to accept there are certain things that aren't going to change.
00:26:57
Speaker
And God is gonna give you the strength to walk through it. But there is another side of this question. Jesus told the parable in Luke chapter 18 of a persistent widow. She kept coming to a judge with the same request over and over again. She wouldn't quit. She kept asking. She kept knocking. She kept pleading.
00:27:15
Speaker
And Jesus ended the story by saying, will not God grant justice to his children who cry out to him day and night? Luke 18, 7. The point of the parable is very clear that God wants us to keep praying until he tells us not to.
00:27:33
Speaker
And so there's the balance. If God has clearly said no, trust his wisdom. If he hasn't spoken, keep praying and keep praying and keep praying, learning that God's absence is not, it very well could be his patience.
00:27:44
Speaker
A skeptic asked me this, so what do you do to so what do you say to somebody who prayed for a breakthrough and never got one?
00:27:53
Speaker
Let's say you have two daughters. One is able to have lots of children and the other one is unable to have children. Why does God give to one but not the other?
00:28:08
Speaker
There are no easy answers here. it's It's something that Christians have to come to terms with, that the Lord does not explain why one person gets a miracle and another gets the sound of the phone off the hook.
00:28:20
Speaker
In fact, there's a well-known writer by the name of Jennifer Rothschild who wrote a book called God is Just Not Fair. In it, she shares the wrestling match she's had with God because of the blindness that became her reality in high school.
00:28:33
Speaker
She lost her sight. And being blind had forced her to rely on God and to accept that this was part of his design for her life. But one time she was told about this other blind woman named Marilyn, that she had miraculously been healed of her blindness. And Jennifer said, I didn't want to listen to her story because I didn't know if I could stomach it.
00:28:50
Speaker
But one day she finally sat down and put the earphones in and listened to her story. And this is what she said. Facing the hard reality that God had healed Marilyn Ford's eyes and not mine, exposed such tender wounds and conflicting feelings toward him.
00:29:07
Speaker
It was so hard to admit that I loved God but was disappointed in his ways. The truth was hard to take that God could heal Marilyn and me, but healed Marilyn and not me.
00:29:21
Speaker
I've always thought the way she describes that is so relatable. Nobody lives in this world for long without being forced to face the unfairness of the world. And it's not ah it's not a fair world. The writer of Ecclesiastes says this, the race is not to the swift.
00:29:36
Speaker
That bad people sometimes win or lesser talented people sometimes get the look. So what do we do with this? Well, the Bible says we have to hold on to this one truth.
00:29:48
Speaker
It's really this simple. That one day you and I are going to get to heaven and we're going to stand before the Lord and there's only one thing we want to hear him say. Well done, my good and faithful servant.
00:30:03
Speaker
And that along the way, between here and then, Caleb said it so well, it's a long journey home. There's going to be ups and there's going to be downs. There's going to times when you're so delighted in God's ways, and there's going to be times you're so disappointed in God's ways. But the question is, will you get to the end with your faith still in hand?
Maintaining Faith and Developing Courage
00:30:21
Speaker
Will you hold on to the faith that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion? And whatever circumstances you've inherited or whatever things happened to you are all a part of God's design and plan for your journey.
00:30:33
Speaker
As long as we can keep our mind on that, we can refuse the the request for discouragement. i I try to think about discouragement like an invitation to a party.
00:30:45
Speaker
And I'm tempted to get discouraged every single day. But when I get invited to a party, you RSVP, you tell them whether you're coming or not. You you say yes or you decline. And on many days when I feel like the devil is trying to discourage me, i just stop and say, I'm gonna decline the invitation.
00:31:04
Speaker
I'm going to reject the idea that God is through with this. He's going to come through. I'm going to keep believing. This is what it means to walk by faith and not by sight.
00:31:15
Speaker
A student asked this, how can I develop the kind of courage that Esther displayed in her life? Most people think courage is something you're born with. And they imagine Esther waking up one morning and suddenly being courageous. But courage doesn't usually work that way. Building spiritual strength is not much different than building physical strength.
00:31:37
Speaker
And so I know many of you have run the St. Jude half or full marathon. And if so, you know the importance of building up mileage. You don't just show up on that day and say, I'm going to try 26.2.
00:31:49
Speaker
Nobody does that who has sanity. What do you do? You run a mile, then you run two. You run two, then you run three. Three becomes four. The secret is not a heroic run. The secret is consistency.
00:32:02
Speaker
And so you see over time, the body's capacity grows with the size of the challenge. And the same principle is true spiritually, that God has so wired us that the size of our courage grows with the size of the challenge. So when David stood before Goliath, for example, he wasn't trembling the way everybody else was trembling. Why not?
00:32:18
Speaker
Because Goliath wasn't the first big monster he had tried to whip. David told Saul this before starting, your servant has been tending his father's sheep. And whenever a lion or bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, I went after it. I struck it down and I rescued the lamb before its mouth.
00:32:36
Speaker
So get this, David's eyesight didn't start with seeing Goliath. It started with seeing a lion. And long before he faced a giant, he'd been facing smaller opponents out in the wild. In other words, God had been training him to be courageous.
00:32:51
Speaker
And that's how courage that's how courage grows. You don't become courageous by waiting for it to show up. You become courageous by obeying God in small moments until you reach the bigger moments. Just a few weeks ago, i was traveling and I pulled off to get some gas. And as I was taking the gas cap off, this man comes walking up, a stranger. he was making eye contact. He wanted something. He said, excuse me.
00:33:15
Speaker
And I said, yeah. He said, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior?
00:33:26
Speaker
And I just sat there there stunned. He caught me off guard. I said, well, as a matter of fact, I do. And he said, well, you know, he told us to tell people.
00:33:41
Speaker
And he just walked off.
00:33:44
Speaker
Started pumping his gas, paid me no attention. He saw he wasn't gonna get a convert out of me.
00:33:50
Speaker
And I just sat there pumping my gas. And even though his style was a little different than mine would be, I sat there thinking, when is the last time I had that kind of courage?
00:34:04
Speaker
to introduce Jesus into a conversation. To go there spiritually with people who don't like spiritual. To demonstrate strength, spiritual strength, for people who know not spiritual strength.
00:34:25
Speaker
You see, that's how that's how courage grows. It's one little step of obedience at a time. And so if you're a young person and you hope to have a story like Esther's, that God would use your life magnificently and that he would call upon your courage, you have to start building it every single day.
00:34:44
Speaker
Every time the Holy Spirit says, I want you to do that, try that, step out there, you say yes. And every little growth, your capacity meets the size of the challenge.
00:34:58
Speaker
How do we grow in courage? By little courageous steps.