Royalty: Royal Timing PT 2

Good morning. Welcome visitors today. I didn't get to see, but can I see what guest we have was today. Just want to just extend a warm one right there.

I know you're not here. Oh, here. Here, one here. Anybody else, two?

All right. Three. Anybody else? OK.

So at least three guests, visitors, we'll stay. You're here, your family. We welcome you. We love you.

We honor you today. We are so grateful that you chose to worship with us and worship Jesus with us today. So we're just glad to have you here. Just a little catch up.

Pastor Seth launched a series called Royalty just a few weeks ago. And we've done a few messages on that last Sunday. If you weren't here, we did a co-teaching, co-preaching. And it was a lot of fun for me.

It stretched me. And I think he gets a kick out of getting me out of my comfort zone. So I think I did the best I could do sitting down. I'm not a sitter.

I so appreciate Seth. I appreciate his heart for God, his heart for people, and that he continues to challenge me. And I appreciate that. The Bible says iron sharpens iron.

So he pushes me. I need push. No, don't we all need push once in a while? Anybody need a little push today?

Kristen's a great pusher too. Every time she pushes me, she's like, now is your insurance paid up? It's always like the prerequisite. Did you pay the policy?

Before I give you a little shove, I'm thankful to be here today. I love the preach God's word. It gets me so excited. I learned, I probably just preached myself.

I learned so much, God showed me some new things this week. And excited to share with you today. Last week, our message was on royal timing. And when Seth came out last week with the Burger King hat, and said, have it your way, and then we put the robe on, I just felt like there was another message on royal timing that I really want to talk to you about today from the Book of Esther.

We've been talking a lot about David and Solomon, but I just really felt like this one in that instant last week that this is what God wanted us to talk about this week. And when we talk last week, the key verse from Esther is this. You're familiar with it. You really need to read the whole book.

I'd encourage you to do it if you hadn't. So Esther 414 is such an appropriate verse on timing. And four main characters in the Book of Esther. The interesting thing about Esther is it's one of only two books in the Bible that don't mention God in any form.

He's alluded to. His fingerprints are all over the book, but actually not mentioned in the book whatsoever. But you'll find God all through the Book of Esther. And so you have Xerxes the king.

Some translations will say it has to wear us. It's the same person, but Xerxes is probably the more commonly known name. You have Mordecai, who was Esther's cousin. Esther was an orphan.

Her parents died. And Mordecai's uncle was her dad. And so when her parents died, he adopted her, took her, his daughter, and raised her. So you have, obviously, Esther.

You have King Xerxes. You have Mordecai. And then you have this guy named Haman, who eventually became the number two guy in power under King Xerxes. And this is the forming characters in the Bible, or in the Book of Esther.

And so we have this verse in Esther that says this. It says, and this is Mordecai speaking. It says, if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place. But you and your father's family will perish, and who knows, but that you will come to your royal position for such a time as this.

Who knows whether you've come to your royal position for such a time as this? We talked that we have been made royal. Like there's aspects of royalty that a lot of times we don't want to acknowledge. But God puts you in certain positions, in certain places, for certain purposes.

And last week, when we talked about times and seasons and assignments, we looked at Ecclesiastes chapter three, just for a little bit last week, kind of as a launching pad. But it says that for everything under, on the earth, there's a season, right? We go that. It says for everything, there's a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.

That we said within your life, God gives you different seasons. And as that season changes, the assignment changes with the season, a lot of times. And what we saw in David's life was that when the season changed in his life and the assignment changed, he remained in his previous assignment instead of assuming the assignment he was now given. And he actually opened himself up to endure temptation.

There we go. Temptation he was never meant to endure. And so as we look through this, verse 11 says this, I might need to give a different mic, because this one's not sounding right. It says that he's put everything beautiful in his time.

And so I told you this last week that when you're going through seasons in life, if you think about an apple, before it becomes a red delicious apple has a green apple season. That there's a season when that apple's bitter. And there's a season when the apple's green before it becomes red and delicious. And when you're going through that green apple season, all the shouting, all the declaring, all the binding and loosing are not going to take the green apple out of the green apple stage, like that not everything and everybody's life needs delivered from.

Like a lot of times we try to deliver people from things that they just need to grow out of. And that sometimes the season in life is a season of maturing and growing to grow out of the green apple and into the red apple stage. And we sometimes thwart what God's trying to do in somebody's life by stepping in when they just need to grow out of it. And I said that you have to recognize the difference between a God's season and a devil season.

I didn't really like expound on that. But some seasons in your life are God ordained to grow you, to mature you, to develop you, to bring you into what he ultimately has for you to do. There's other things in seasons in your life that come about that the enemy's trying to steal, kill, and destroy and take from you what God's trying to do in your life. And you have to recognize the difference.

And so that in the middle of it, he cleats in the ass these three, verse seven says this. It says, there is a time to what? Keep silence. And what?

Time to speak. So a lot of times we think that just because we're in a certain place we can just say whatever we want. And we want to vindicate ourselves. And we want to defend ourselves.

And we want to say everything we think we're entitled to say. But there's a distinct season that you keep your mouth shut. And there's a distinct season that you actually open your mouth and say something and do something. And what Mordecai says to Esther, he says, if you remain silent at this time or in this season, deliverance and relief will come to the Jews, and it will arise from another place.

But you and your family will perish. So think about that. If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will come from another place. See, when God gives you a platform to speak from, I don't mean this.

But when he weams you into a certain place in life, and you have a place to speak from, a place to give voice from, it's actually something that he has entrusted you with to steward. And Mordecai says this. It says, if you don't speak when it's the time to speak, God's plan will still happen. He's just going to use somebody else to do it.

Do you remember the parable of the talents, Matthew, chapter 25? It says that the master, he said he gave five to one, two to another, and one to another. And the guy who five went out and approved it. And he returned 10.

The person who improved it and returned four. The person with one went and buried it. And when he brought his one back to the master, what did the master do? He took it from him and gave it to somebody else that actually used the opportunity they were given.

And that's what Mordecai is saying. If you don't steward the voice and platform that God's given you, God's plan will still come to pass. They'll just pick another instrument to do what needs done. But you need to know the difference of when it's time to shut up and when it's time to speak up.

That's a skill set. Not many people have. Like, real good at speaking up. Not so good at shutting up.

And so like, Jesus tells a parable on Matthew 13. A lot of kingdom parables on Matthew 13. So in verse 33, just the one verse that says, the kingdom of heaven is like as if a woman could put 11 into three measures of meals. So the kingdom of heaven is like 11 or yeast.

As a woman should put yeast into three measures of dough. And what he's saying, a lot of times 11 is sin, but in this place he's talking about 11 and he's comparing to the kingdom that God weaves people into society. God weaves people into certain places for a certain season. And you might like 11 when it's first sowed, you don't see it.

But what happens over time, it begins to expand and you begin to see the effects of it. And so what God does is he gets you into a certain place. And when you're in that place, you may not be visible for a while. It may be a season of expansion or growth, but there comes a season when your timing is just right.

And if you think about how he took Joseph, and he took Joseph and his brothers betrayed him, but he worked Joseph into a position of royalty in Egypt. Or that he took Moses, who his mother left him in a Nile River as a baby, and he weaves Moses into Pharaoh's house for a purpose. Or Daniel, Daniel is taken with, when they took the Jews captive, and he weaves him into a place where he can be effective and raised to number two in the kingdom. And so that when God weaves you into a place, and God moves you into a place, he puts you into a position for a purpose.

And so there's three things I really wanna look at today. We're gonna have to look at them quick. But I wanna look at assignment, I wanna look at a tire. Let's just, we'll do these one at a time.

So I wanna give him to you a front of a tire. Your royal, let's go back one. Your royal, back up. Assignment, I was saying it tired.

I'm thinking assignment, saying it tired. Your royal position gives you a platform, accept it. That God has positioned you in a particular place to give you a voice for a certain season. Your platform is different than my platform.

We all have a purpose. But you've been given a platform to speak into a certain time and season. A tire, your royal apparel gives you access, where it will talk about righteousness. And then finally, your authority, your royal relationship gives you rank, use it.

And so I wanna look at the story of Esther. I'm gonna try to fill in the blanks we'll pull. I'll try to make it quick. There's so much here.

And hopefully we'll have a good time and we'll learn and we'll leave changed. And we're gonna walk into our destiny. All right, assignment. I've got the NIV up here today.

I'm just, I'm challenging myself. I usually use the new King James, but we're gonna go NIV today. Assignment, I will go to the King. And if I perish, I perish.

So what's happening here? So King Xerxes, he has a wife. And he has this big party. It's a 180 day party.

Imagine that. Has a party for 180, 180 day straight. He's over 127 different kingdoms. And he invites all the rulers and all his high ranking officials to this party for 180 days.

And then he throws another party for everybody that lives in his city for another seven days. And during that seven days, he asked his wife, his queen bash guy, he wants her to come out and do like a little parade for all his nobles. So the men are over here, the women are having their own party. And he wants to like, kind of like put his wife up on a pedestal and say, hey, look what a hot wife I have.

And all that, you know, he just kind of wanted to have his wife get up and kind of parade her around and do the pageant twirl and all that. She refuses. She refuses. And his advisor is like, if you allow her to get away with this, all the women will start doing it.

So you got to do something. So they said, what do I do? And they say, well, let's have another beauty contest find somebody else and we'll make her queen and set your wife. And so Mordecai finds out about it.

Mordecai, who's raising his cousin, Esther says, hey, you need to get into this here. So she gets into it and she gets selected and she goes into this here. And they spend a year getting pampered. Like they have all these massage treatments and aloe treatments and they oil them up like, you know, so after a year, then they go into the king and whoever the king picks is the one that becomes queen.

And so through all that, Esther becomes queen and she takes the actual place. Well, while she's queen, Mordecai finds out about a plot that these two guys are going to kill the king and he gets up to Esther, Esther tells the king. And so they find out that he had enough and they execute them. But Mordecai never gets, he never gets honored for it.

And then this guy, Heyman comes along and he gets promoted and he's like the number two guy for all the territories. And wherever Heyman goes, Heyman, he wants everybody to bow down to him. So he's like the number two dog and when he walks around, everybody's supposed to bow and pay him honor. Well, Mordecai won't.

Mordecai is like, I'm a Jew, I'm not gonna bow to you, I'm standing up. So it's just infuriated, payment. And so he goes to the king and says, Hey, I wanna make this decree that when such and such a date we're gonna annihilate all the Jews. And the king's like, okay, go ahead.

And so he makes this edict that in a certain month on a certain day, all the Jews are gonna be ransacked and done away with. And so Mordecai sends a word to Esther and this is kind of where we pick it up. He's like, Hey, this is, she doesn't know anything about it. And so in verse 12 of chapter four, it says, this says when Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back and this answer, he says, do not think because you're in the king's house, you alone of all the Jews will escape.

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your family will perish. And who knows, but that you have come for your royal position for such a time as this. Next verse, verse 15 says, I'm gonna have to get my Bible and read the King James. It says, And Esther sent his reply, then we're gonna go gather together all the Jews are in Susa and fast for me.

Do not eat or drink for three days or not. My attendance and I will do as fast as you do. And when this is done, I will go to the king, even though it's against the law. And if I perish, I perish, the Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions.

Here's what she says. So there's this rule. So the kings at that time were very protective of their time and safety. And unless the king called you, you just can't walk into the king's palace.

Even the queen just can't like, Hey, I think it's, you know, it's been a couple of days, baby, come on. None of that. Like you just sit and wait. And when the king calls you, then you can come.

But if you think, well, I'm just gonna take a risk. I'm gonna walk into the king's palace. Here's the one law. When it says this was against, he had one law.

And it was back earlier in chapter 14. It says, whoever came unannounced or uninvited, if he held out the golden sensor, like had this like big, like kings, you know what I'm talking about? It's like a scepter. Yeah, the scepter says whoever holds out the golden scepter unless he holds the golden scepter out.

So she's like, well, here's my options. If I don't do anything, I'm gonna die. If I do something, I might die. So I'm gonna go to the king.

It's against the law because the law is, if you're not invited, you're probably gonna die. But I'm gonna go anyway. And if I perish, I perish. See what happens a lot of times is we, when God places a call on our life, when God calls us to do something, when God speaks to us in our inner ear and says, I want you to pray for that person.

I want you to witness to that person. Like their first has to be a willingness to accept the assignment. Like when God assigns you to something, what did David do when it was the time that kings went to war, David stayed in Jerusalem. He ignored the assignment of the time.

And so here's what she does. She says, I'll do it. I'll go to the king. I will take a risk.

I'm willing to commit, even if I die. That's a commitment. See what happens a lot of times is you not only have to be willing to accept the assignment, you have to be willing to accept the outcome. You're a lot of times like, well, how's that gonna play out?

Ooh, I don't know if I like the way it plays out. What if they don't like me? What if they say no? What if I get ostracized?

What if I lose my job? What if? What if? What if?

See, a lot of times we only want to say yes, if I like what the outcome is gonna be. But what we need to do is when we're given an assignment in a particular season, we need to recognize that we have to steward it well, because if I don't steward it well, God will find another way. Do you remember when I told you King Saul was God's first choice? And when Saul didn't obey, Samuel told Saul this.

He said, if you had obeyed, your kingdom would have lasted forever. There would have been no David. But he didn't, and God selected somebody else, a man after his own heart to lead his people. And so when you don't step into the assignment that God calls you to do, he'll find somebody else.

But see, a lot of times we don't step into the assignment. First of all, we don't want to say yes. And then when we say yes, we're like, well, I don't like the way it looks like it's working out. Like when I was a kid, I used to read these books that were called Choose Your Own Ending.

Do you ever remember like, this was back when you actually had to read books, you know? And then you'd read a couple pages and it would say, if you want to do this, go to page 34. And if you want to do this, go to page 51. And you could literally choose, and you'd go ahead and you'd go, oh, I don't like that one.

Oh, wrong choice, I'm going to go backtrack. I'm going to pick a different ending, because I don't like that ending. But that's not what she picked. She said, I will go to the king.

And if I perish, I perish. The apostle Paul picked up on this, until the Philippian church, he writes this famous verse. When he says in Philippians 1 verses 19 and 20, he says, for me to live is Christ to die as gain. If you look at it in the new living translation, next slide, it says this, I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed.

But I will continue to be bold for Christ as I have in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or whether I die. See, it's more important that you honor Jesus with your decision than with the outcome is. When he gives you an assignment, it's not like a debate.

It's not like, well, I'll take it if I like the way it works out. It's like, no, you say yes. And when you say yes, you accept whatever the outcome is. That when he whispers, hey, I want you to pray for that person, do it.

Don't think about it. Don't think about it. What if, what if, what if. Just do it.

That's your assignment. He stepped into her season. She stepped into her time. She said yes.

And she said yes, no matter what the cost was going to be. The attire, it says, it'll say that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace. See, if you go back to this, we're going to look at chapter five. But at the end of chapter four, she says to Mordecai.

She says, I want you to fast for three days. I'm going to fast for three days. My women with me are going to fast for three days. I want all the people to fast for three days.

And after that, I'll go into the king. Three days goodbye. It says on the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace. In front of the king's hall, the king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall facing the entrance.

When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her. The other translations say that she obtained favor in his sight. He was pleased with her, or she obtained favor in his sight. And he held out to her the golden scepter.

Say, that's a good thing, right? Because if he didn't, what would happen? It says he held out to her the golden scepter that was in his hand. And so Esther approached.

Let's go back to that. Actually, let me read through. I want to come back to this slide. Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

Next slide. Then the king said, what is the queen, Esther? What's your request? Even up to half the kingdom it will be given you.

If it pleases the king replied, Esther, let the king together with Haman come today to a banquet I prepared for him. Bring Haman at once, the king said, so that we may do what Esther asked. So the king and Haman went to the banquet. Esther had prepared.

Verse six. And as they were drinking wine, the king asked Esther again. Now what is your petition? It will be given you.

What is your request? Even up to half of the kingdom, it will be granted. Esther replied, my petition request is this. If the king regards me with favor and pleases the king to grant my position to fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet.

I'll prepare for them. And then I'll answer the king. So she says, she goes into the king. Let's go back to verses one and two.

She goes into the king. And he's like, hey, what's your request? Well, my request is this. I want you to come to a banquet.

I'm going to make a banquet for you in Haman. And when they go to the banquet, he says, OK, now, what's your request? Where's my request? I want you to come back tomorrow to another banquet.

And then I'll tell you. And he says, OK. But look at chapter, look at verse one. It says, on the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace.

Inner is the same word that she used to describe the inner room of the Holy of Holies. It's from the word that means peneem and Hebrew means face or presence. And so although God is not mentioned in here, I want you to imagine that she is entering the inner court where the king sits. In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant surrounded by two cherubim where the presence of God dwelt.

And so it says that she entered the inner room. And when she entered the inner room, what did she put on? She put on her Burger King suit. Where did she get her Burger King robe?

She was an orphan. Where did she get her royal robe to put on? It came from the king. She actually puts on the clothes that the king gave her to go into the inner court.

And it says, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace in front of the king's hall. The king was sitting. Let me lose this for a minute. I'm going to get somebody else to put that on.

The king was sitting on his throne facing the entrance. And when he saw Queen Esther doing what? He didn't see her wearing. And when he saw Queen Esther, what was he doing?

What did Mordecai tell her to do? If you read it, he says, you need to go to the king and beg. You need to go to the king and plead. And what did she say?

She says, I want you to fast for me. And after three days, I'm going to go to the king. And it said she put on her royal robes and stood. And when he saw her standing, do you know what?

Righteousness is? Righteousness is not right doing. Righteousness is right standing. It means that I can walk up before I try a three time holy God that he is holy, righteous and worthy.

And I can walk up before him. And I can stand there innocent, ghouless, fallless before God. Not because I have my own stuff. Do you notice she didn't open her mouth when she went before the king?

See, what would most of us have done? What do we do when we go to the Lord? Hey, God, I just fasted for three days. What are you going to do for me?

I just read the Bible through for the 27th time. What are you going to do for me? I just witnessed him, my coworker. What are you going to do for me?

Isaiah 61 10 says this. It says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. He has clothed me with the garments of salvation.

He has what? Covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments as a bride. It dorns herself with jewels. Who covered me?

He covered me. He clothed me. See, it wasn't Paul says this, not by works of righteousness, which I have done, but by his mercy, he saved me. Having not my own righteousness, which is by the law, but the righteousness of God that comes through faith.

See, it's not anything that I do. I can all enter the presence of God to get from him because of anything I've done. I can walk into his presence. The Bible says this, Hebrews 4, 16, it says, it says, come boldly to the throne of grace that you might find mercy and grace to help in time of need.

How do I come boldly? The verse before that says that we do not have a high priest that can not sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin? Because he lived a perfect life, did everything that I needed to do, but he did it perfectly. And he puts his robe of righteousness on me and because he puts his robe on me, I can come boldly to him.

And I don't have to say a word. Isaiah 64, 6 says this. It says, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Every good thing you've ever done, the word filthy rag actually means menstrual rag.

That's what it is. I just fasted three days. I just led somebody to the Lord. I just spent 24 hours in worship.

I just read the Bible. Now, what are you gonna do for me, Lord? You don't want these. See what we do is we come to the Lord with our filthy rags.

They're garbage. See, all I need when I come to Jesus, when I have a need, throw everything you ever did away. Way better. Way better.

And I didn't do anything. I don't need to tell him what I did. I don't need to open my mouth. I just need to come boldly to the throne of grace that I can find mercy and grace to help in a time of need.

It doesn't say come boldly and shoot your mouth off about all that you've done. Filthy rags, nothing. It says that when she, when the king saw her standing there, what did he do? He extended the golden scepter.

Hebrews 1 verse 8 says this, it says, the scepter of your kingdom, oh Lord, is a righteous scepter. The scepter of your kingdom, oh Lord, is a righteous scepter. That when I stand before a holy righteous God, and I need something, I don't have to do anything but come boldly to the throne. And when he sees me standing, clothed in his righteousness, he extends the scepter of righteousness.

But that's too easy. Actually, it's not easy. It's not because we want to open our mouth at the wrong time. See, there comes a time that we need to open our mouth, but when I come and stand, the moment you say something, you've voided it.

Paul said this, he says, I will not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness comes by the law, then Jesus died in vain. I need Jesus, and what Jesus did, and not a thing out. Nothing.

See, we get so into life to try and prove people, to prove by what we do, we end up taking and have to prove to God to who we are. That's not how he operates. He says, I've taken you in as an orphan. I've made you kings and queens.

I've given you royal robes. You don't need that, see, we come to the king with the clothes of a pauper. He says, put on the royal robes and I gave you and stand in my presence and have boldness. And know that, what does Jesus say in Luke chapter 12 verse 32?

He says, my little flock, it is the king's pleasure to give you the kingdom. See, what does King Xerxes say? He says, I'll give you up to half of the kingdom. Jesus says, no, half, I'm going to give it to you all.

He says, it's my pleasure to give it to you. Everything that I've paid for is at your disposal. You just have to stand. He's going to stand in what I did.

Quit trying to work for you. We have our assignment. I'll give you a platform to speak from. We have our attire.

Your apparel gives you access into the favor of God. So you don't access God's favor. Say, when he saw her standing there, he had favor in his sight. Paul says in Romans chapter 5 verses 1 and 2, he says, having been justified by faith, justified means declared righteous.

Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through Christ Jesus, through whom we have access into this grace in which we stand. Through Jesus, because of what he did, and he gave me his robe, I have access into this grace in which I stand. And see, righteousness is right standing. You've got to stay there.

You're made righteous, but a lot of times we want to go back and try to work to stay in God's favor. He's got to stand there. He's already done it. And finally, authority says, I and my people have been sold and destroyed.

It could be destroyed and annihilated. We had been merely sold as male and female slaves. I would have kept on it. This is an important statement.

I'm going to read through this here in a minute. So what happens between the first banquet and the second banquet? Mordecai, I'm sorry, Haman goes home, and he just says this way. This man is infuriating me.

His wife says, make a gallows to hang him on. The back then, it's not like a noose that you hang people on. It's actually a pole that you would impale people, slide them on, and impale them on this pole. It was very gruesome.

And so he makes this gallows to hang Mordecai on. And when he goes into the king the next morning, he's going to the king to say the king, hey, I want to put Mordecai on this gallows. Well, just so happen the night before the king couldn't sleep. And the king said, bring out the chronicles and read them to me.

And he discovers that Mordecai was never honored for thwarting this plot to kill the king. And so he goes, I want to honor Mordecai. So when Haman comes in, he says, Haman, what would you do to honor somebody who the king just really loves? And of course, Haman's thinking, oh, he's talking about me.

He says, well, here's what I would do. I would get out the royal robes that the king has worn. And I'd bring out the royal horse with the royal insignia on his forehead. And I would give those to the most noble person in the land.

And then I'd have that most noble person put the robe on that person, put them on the horse, and then have that person parade him through the street and saying, this is what the king wants to do to the one he wants to honor. And the king's like, wow, that's a great idea. I want you to go do that to Mordecai. And he's like, what?

And so he does. He has to do all this to Mordecai. And he parades Mordecai through the street. And then of course, he's just with Aegon's home to his wife to change his clothes and talk to his life, just beside himself again.

And they said, hey, the king's ready for the second banquet. So now we enter the second banquet. It says this in chapter 7. Oh, that's turned to it.

Oh, it's there. So the king said to Haman, say, the king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet. And as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you.

What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom it will be granted. Then queen Esther answered, if I have found favor with you, your majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life. This is my petition and spare my people.

So she recognizes it's now time to speak. And she said, here's what I want. I want my life back. I need my life.

See, when you recognize that the enemy's job, it says that the thief comes not but to steal, to kill, and destroy. And you've got to say, well, how do I know if it's a god thing or a devil thing? God doesn't send sickness. God doesn't send destruction.

God doesn't send death into your life. And so real simply, if it has those fingerprints on it, it's from the enemy. And she says, I want my life back. I want my life protected.

I want the life of my people preserved. And this is my request. And says, we have been sold. My people and I to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.

Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue. I find this amazing. Here's what she says. She says, if we were sold to be annihilated, but if we'd only been sold into slavery, I'd have kept my mouth shut.

I think they're both bad. But she recognizes that one had a season to say something and one didn't. And she said, if it had only been sold into slavery, I wouldn't even mention it. But since we were sold into being annihilated and killed, I'm going to say something.

And she recognizes the time does not be silent. And she says, although the enemy could never compensate for the king's loss to the king, or has her arias or Xerxes answered and said to Queen Esther, who is he and where is he? Who would dare presume it is hard to do such a thing? And Esther said, the adversary and enemy is this wicked haman.

It's that guy right there. See, there's times in your life when you need to grow out of the season. But then there's times in your life when you've got to say Satan, no more. Enough is enough.

Like you've stolen from me for the last time. You've destroyed my marriage for the last time. You've disrupted my life for the last time. You've brought this thing up and up and up.

And enough is enough. See what happens sometimes when an enemy is not terminated in one generation, it gets transferred to another. If you read this, Haman was an agogite from King Agag. You remember when Saul didn't do his job?

He was the king of the Amalekites. He was to completely wipe them out. He didn't terminate the issue in his season. Mordecai, on the other hand, was a son of or a descendant of Kish.

Guess who else was a descendant of Kish, King Saul. And so something that wasn't taken care of 500 years ago reared its head in descendants 500 years later. See, there's got to be a time in your life when you say this thing and my family stops today. I don't believe in the generational curses because every curse is broken in Jesus' name.

However, there are things that are prevalent and passed down in families that need dealt with. They need stop. And when we don't do our assignment, our generation, that thing can get transferred to subsequent generations until an ester stands up and says no more. He says, is this adversary, the enemy, is this wicked Haman?

And look what he was. He was terrified of the king and the queen. Your relationship with Jesus gives you rank. See, when Jesus said before, he ascends, he says, all authority has been given to me on heaven and earth.

I give it to you. So your relationship with the king of kings as his bride gives you rank. And no matter what the enemy might throw at you, no matter how bad it seems, nothing exceeds the authority that you have in Jesus. Isaiah 54, 17 says this.

It says, no weapon formed against you shall what? Prosper. Every tongue that rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the inheritance of my servants as the Lord and their righteousness is from me.

Their righteousness is from me because I put my robe on them. Every tongue that rises against them in judgment, they shall condemn. So when the enemy sends and says something against you that is condemning, that is judging, that's bringing up things that Jesus has already paid for, you have a right to condemn that thing. When he puts disease in your body, you have a right to condemn it to die.

It's in Jesus name. When she invites them to this banquet, it's a called a banquet of wine. The word banquet is the same word that's first used back in Genesis that says that they brought out unleavened bread in a banquet. Unleavened bread and wine in the same banquet sound like what?

Communion to me. It says that, what does Psalm 23 say? It says that he prepares for me a table in the presence of my enemies. Paul says this, he says, as long as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do proclaim, you do preach, the Lord's death until he comes.

See, sometimes I need to bring the enemy to the table to let him know what he doesn't have access to. You know, it's not that I'm bringing him to my table to be friends with him. I'm not getting friendly with him, but I'm bringing him in to let him know what the blood of Jesus just did. See, I'm having a blood banquet right now.

I'm proclaiming the blood of Jesus over every issue in your life right now that I don't care what he's tried to do, the enemy is defeated in Jesus name. Jesus says this, he says, I give you all authority and all power over everything the enemy will ever do. You can trample in serpents and scorpions and nothing will by any means hurt you. Like that was as true 2,000 years ago as it is today, but you gotta exercise the authority he gives you to use.

We're not gonna look at it, but it's super cool in chapter eight of Esther. It says that the king takes the ring off of Haman's dead body and puts it on Mordecai and he tells Mordecai whatever you say, it's as if I said it, and then when you write it, it's as good as law. Jesus got all the authority. He gives you his ring.

He says, here's my signet ring, you go do what I've commissioned you to do and I'll back you up. You got an assignment. When he gives you his assignment in your season, see your royal position gives you a platform. You gotta steward it.

You gotta use it. You gotta step into it. You gotta step into it no matter what the outcome might be. Like you gotta step into what he's called you to do and say yes, I will go to the king, which is against the law.

And if I perish, I perish. You gotta put on his robe. You gotta put on his righteousness. Your royal apparel gives you access.

When he saw her standing there, he had favor in his sight and he extended the royal scepter. All you have to do is come boldly to the throne when you have a knee. You can come boldly because he's already done it. And don't come wearing your junk.

Get rid of those racks. Put your robe on. Stand like you know who you are in Christ. Stand erect.

Don't come in like this. It didn't say when he saw her hunched over, all depressed, all good, but life stalks. No, when he saw her standing in her royalty, stand up like you're a believer. And then no one to speak.

No one is trying to say enough is enough. No one to invite the anti- come in here. It's gonna look like we're friends, but we're not. I wanna show you my king right here.

His name is Jesus. His blood has been flowing from the day that he shed it on Calvary. And you can't touch me. Whatever you throw at me, he's already defeated it.

And I'm gonna stand in that thing. I'm gonna use my authority. And I'm gonna walk in my royal position. Understand the time to speak.

And the time to shut up.