August 19
Esther 4:1-7:10 | PS 26:1-12 | Prov 21:21-22 | 1 Cor 12:1-26
Are you hungry? You can call and pick from practically every type of cuisine, foods that you choose to be delivered to your doorstep. Are you desiring the beach or the mountains to relax in for a few days? You can drive or fly almost any time of year and have it. What do you want to be? Nearly everyone can choose a college or trade of their desiring and become that. All of this and so little joy in this world. We have so much, yet always desire more. Rather than focusing on that which we have, we tend to place all of our attention on that which we don't and walk around miserable and discontented. Most place their hopes and attentions on these things and events. The word happiness comes from the word, "happenstance" which is based on circumstance. If your circumstances fall in line with what you desire then you are happy, for the moment. But joy is completely different. It is internal, not based on externals. Once you have it, it cannot be taken away. It is based on the presence of God within you, the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is why the Christian (not the ones who are Christian in name only, or from the denomination that they were raised in, but the one who has made a personal decision to become one who is in a relationship with our living hope, Jesus Christ), can experience joy irregardless of circumstances. When each of us get married, we state, "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part". When we become the "Bride of Christ" this holds true, except even death does not separate us from the love of Christ as we get to be with Him in heaven. Yes, joy, unspeakable joy, unshakable joy.
We read in the story of Esther of Haman. He is an Amalekite, an enemy of the Jewish people. Not receiving honor from Mordecai, he decides to devise a plan to attempt to exterminate all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire. He deceives the king, and by all appearances his plan is accepted and a date is set to implement the extermination process. From a worldly perspective, this man had nearly everything his heart desired, as we read in Esther 5:11-13, "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.”" As the story unfolds, his plan unravels, and the death he has planned for his enemy, Mordecai, is used for his own death.
Before we point our fingers too quickly at Haman, perhaps we should take some personal assessment. Are we walking around like someone just poured sour milk in our coffee? Why? Is our life, our circumstances, our world, not what we expected? Like many, I see many evils in this world being perpetrated by many in high places. I see our freedoms eroding. But, have we not been warned of this by Jesus, Himself (Matthew 24). We should not be shocked. If our joy is wrapped up in the things of this world there is ample reason to be disheartened. But if our joy is wrapped up in the Person of Jesus Christ, nothing has changed. We are simply moving to a different part of our story together. He promised to never leave us, and He won't. Though the abundances that we have experienced on Earth may evaporate, he has promised us abundances which far exceed those on Earth, in Heaven, as we read in John 14:1-3, "“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: