Sermon Note (Encounter Night)
- Pastor Prince
God is working behind the scene.
We are in for exciting time ahead of us. God will defend Israel.
Read Ezekiel 38. Will this happen after or before?
God will defend Israel
When things go wrong in your life and you are wondering what is wrong and where are all the promises that God has for us?
God is working behind the scene!
God did not deliver Israel before the red sea. God waited until they saw the problems in front of the red sea, and enemies were behind them and God opened the red sea!
God protect us without us knowing.
Many a time we do not give Him praise and thanks without knowing He has protected us.
We don’t thank Him for a protection we do not know He protects us.
Esther obtained favour. What we want is favour!
There was a man who failed his grades. He was challenged by a leader to memorise the entire book of Proverbs. From failing grades he got straight A!
Whether you are a student a lawyer, whatever profession you are, you touch God’s Word, you touch prosperity
You will make your way prosperous and you will have good success!
Those who meditate on God’s Word day and night, whatever you do, prosper!
His leaf will not wither! This talk about health and renewal of youth!
Spend time with God’s Word you have different visions! As your days increase so shall your strength!
The word of God will cleanse your mind so you don’t accept from the world easily
The name of God is never mentioned in the book of Esther and yet you see God behind the scene!
Many of turning points in book of Esther is supernaturally natural.
Pro-video (in Latin) pro means before. Video means i see.
God sees the needs before hand and God provides.
Before it happens, God provides!
Life to those who find them and health to their flesh!
Proverbs 4:22
For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh.
The bible has cleansing and reviving and supplying and health giving effects!
Grace –
God
Riches
At
Christ
Expense
Yahweh יהךה
If you feel God’s Word leak and did not retain, look at how clean your mind is.
I am that I am.
Psalms 96:11
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;
Heaven must rejoice first and earth will be glad!
God is working behind the scene but you don’t like what you see.
Esther name means star. She is star in the story.
The real star is God
We are still in the time of gentiles. we are in the feet.
Israel supposed to be the nation that leads other nations.
Because of sin, the time suspense
When you see the army surrounds Jerusalem, fled to the mountain. Not a single believer died.
Esther’s parents died and Mordecai took care of her.
Esther 1:1-4
The King Dethrones Queen Vashti
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this was the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia), in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the citadel, that in the third year of his reign he made a feast for all his officials and servants—the powers of Persia and Media, the nobles, and the princes of the provinces being before him— when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty for many days, one hundred and eighty days in all.
180 days of celebration.
On the 7th day the king invited his queen. She said no to him.
Long before evil happened, God already arranged circumstances
Esther 1:19-21
If it pleases the king, let a royal decree go out from him, and let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it will not be altered, that Vashti shall come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. When the king’s decree which he will make is proclaimed throughout all his empire (for it is great), all wives will honor their husbands, both great and small.”
And the reply pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Memucan.
Long before you have a need, God has provision. God sees beforehand.
The king wanted to find a wife
Esther 2:15-18
Now when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast, the Feast of Esther, for all his officials and servants; and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the generosity of a king.
Esther obtained favour in the sight of all who saw her.
Those of you who are good looking, chances are you depend on that to help open door instead of favour. The way to stand out is always God’s favour. God gives favour.
Favour will make a difference!
The women bathed in perfume for 6 months. Very lavish
The king loves Esther more than other women.
Grace and favour!
Put your trust in God’s grace and favour. Don’t depend on your smart or experience.
Depend completely on the Lord’s favour and grace!
God said to Israel never tolerate Amalekite, which means flesh
Haman wanted Moredecai bow
Persian(worship)
Esther 3:5-7
When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus—the people of Mordecai.
In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the lot), before Haman to determine the day and the month, until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.
God is behind the scene! You have favour with God!
God wants faith. Faith will show God we will give Him the praise and glory.
We are believing God for praise and favour.
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
For God’s people, evil days will be turned to celebration days!
Esther 3:12-13
Then the king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded—to the king’s satraps, to the governors who were over each province, to the officials of all people, to every province according to its script, and to every people in their language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king’s signet ring. And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions.
Haman went to the king and said, “There is a group of people in your kingdom but i am concern for you. They practise their own laws and don’t care about your laws. They are the jewish people. Let me annihilate them”
During this time, in the land of Jerusalem, the decree has been made for all the jewish people to return to Jerusalem.
Long before that (annihilate) happened, God prepared someone in the palace.
We look out for big things and missed out the small things in our lives. God will make the wrath of man to praise Him
Psalms 76:10
Surely the wrath of man shall praise You;
With the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself.
If God allows us to be used for doing something, consider it a privilege.
When God ask you to do something, He is positioning you.
Esther 4:14-17
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.
Waiting on the Lord is never a wasted time!
Even the youth shall faint, they that wait upon the Lord shall run and not be weary! The secret is waiting upon the Lord.
God gave Peter net-breaking fish!
When the Lord tells u to do something He is positioning you!
There are leaders who do not want to give up something and seeing other people with the anointing they could have have.
They are something God rewards. Something He gives you the grace it can be in vain if you don’t use it.
If you come to the king’s presence uninvited you die.
Esther 5
Esther’s Banquet
Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, across from the king’s house, while the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house. So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter.
And the king said to her, “What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you—up to half the kingdom!”
So Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”
Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, that he may do as Esther has said.” So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
At the banquet of wine the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and request is this: If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, then let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.”
Haman’s Plot Against Mordecai
So Haman went out that day joyful and with a glad heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh. Then Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king.
Moreover Haman said, “Besides, Queen Esther invited no one but me to come in with the king to the banquet that she prepared; and tomorrow I am again invited by her, along with the king. Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows be made, fifty cubits high, and in the morning suggest to the king that Mordecai be hanged on it; then go merrily with the king to the banquet.”
And the thing pleased Haman; so he had the gallows made.
The health you get back is bigger!
The provision is bigger!
The Lord leads me through the valley. Is through!
God gives sleep!
When you touch the bible you touch provision, wisdom, health!
Esther 6:1-2
The King Honors Mordecai
That night the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
He found out that Mordecai name was not honoured
When you are proud you think everything is about you.
When God turns it around, it is turned!
Esther 6:3-10
Then the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?”
And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
The king’s servants said to him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.”
And the king said, “Let him come in.”
So Haman came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?”
Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” And Haman answered the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’ ”
Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.”
Go higher where God wants you to be.
Esther 6:11-14
So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!”
Afterward Mordecai went back to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.”
While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.
Esther 7:1-5
Haman Hanged Instead of Mordecai
So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. And on the second day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For 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, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”
So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”
This was the first time king knew Esther is a Jews
The very thing devil meant, God turned it and cut off his head with it.
Esther 7:6-10
And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!”
So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.
Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?”
As the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.”
Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.
Many of you are God’s favoured person! We are apple of God’s eyes
The nos of times Jesus said I AM
Esther 8:1-8
Esther Saves the Jews
On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. So the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai; and Esther appointed Mordecai over the house of Haman.
Now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet, and implored him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme which he had devised against the Jews. And the king held out the golden scepter toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king, and said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. For how can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my countrymen?”
Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “Indeed, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke.”
Esther 8:15-17
So Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple; and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor. And in every province and city, wherever the king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday. Then many of the people of the land became Jews, because fear of the Jews fell upon them.
The 13th became the celebration day, The Feast of Purim
God overwrite the situation
Deuteronomy 31:16-18
And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.
God worked behind the scene for their favour.
Hosea 1:8-10
Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said:
“Call his name Lo-Ammi,
For you are not My people,
And I will not be your God.
The Restoration of Israel
“Yet the number of the children of Israel
Shall be as the sand of the sea,
Which cannot be measured or numbered.
And it shall come to pass
In the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There it shall be said to them,
‘You are sons of the living God.’
Romans 9:24-25
even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
As He says also in Hosea:
“I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
Romans 9:26
“And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Jesus came and fulfil !
We have Jesus as our High Priest!
We are now sons of the living God!
When Jesus hung on the cross, the title on top of Jesus was in Latin, Greek and Hebrews
They saw the word Yahweh on the cross.
The Lord is my Shepherd
King of Glory Jesus is coming for us!
To Jesus be all the praise and all the glory!
