Behind the Veil - A Journey from Hidden to Risen – part 5

What follows is a transcript of Pastor Gina’s message from our Sunday morning gathering. We share these messages on our blog for those who appreciate the opportunity to read the sermon again—whether for deeper reflection, personal study, or a quieter moment of prayer and introspection. As you read, we invite you to linger with the words, notice what resonates, and remain open to how God may be speaking to you through them.

by Pastor Gina Johnson

So last week Esther entered the throne room and she knew what it could cost her but she prayed and she fasted and she went forward.

And yes, the king lowered the scepter to her and he asked her he says, you know, what is it that I can can do for you and in that invitation is where we start today. So in Esther chapter 5 beginning in verse 3, then the king asked what is it Queen Esther? What is 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 Hammond come today to a banquet. I have prepared for them bring Hammond at once the king said so that we meet we may do what Esther asks.

So the king and Hammond went to the banquet Esther had prepared as they were drinking wine. The king again asked Esther now, what is your petition? It will be given to you. And what is your request even up to half the kingdom? It will be granted Esther replied my petition and my request is this if the king regards me with favor and if it pleases the king to grant my petition fulfill my request let the king and Hammond come tomorrow to the banquet.

I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king's question. Hammond went out that day happy and high in spirits, but when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence.

He was filled with rage against Mordecai nevertheless Hammond restrained himself and went home calling together his friends and Zeresh his wife Hammond boasted to them about his vast wealth his many sons and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above all the other nobles and officials and that's not all Hammond added. I'm the one's been invited along with the king tomorrow. I'm the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the queen to the banquet she gave but all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king's gate his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him have a gallows built 75 feet high and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it then go with the king to the dinner and be happy this suggestion delighted Hammond and he had the gallows built and that concludes our reading of the word.

And so as you see the problem here is they're at the banquet and the king says, okay, you know, I've come to this banquet. You've said what is your request and he tells her even up to half my kingdom. It can be yours and it sounds like in this moment.

This is the right time anything Esther wants. She is going to receive but instead she holds off. She says, you know, if it's all right King if you really honor me, then you'll come again tomorrow and I will make my petition known to you.

So at this point in time, the truth has not been revealed. Her request is not made known and I'm sure there is still tension for the Israelites who are not sure what is in store in the future for them. But meanwhile, there's Hammond and Hammond leaves that banquet feeling like he is the stuff.

He is amazing. He is the one that that the king is just so pleased with the most. I'm the most noblest the king has chosen me and hey and his wife Queen Esther asked me to come to the banquet.

Not anyone else. And so he's elated. He's so happy but the you know, he can't even be present in that level of happiness because the minute he sees Mordecai all of a sudden he's done.

He says nope everything that he was saying means nothing. He goes to his wife and his friends and he says yet all of this gives me no satisfaction as long as Mordecai is sitting at the king's gate as long as that man will not bow to me and kiss my butt. I am not going to be happy.

It's amazing how so much joy so much opportunity so much grace can be showered upon us and we can let one little thing get in the way. So he speaks to his wife and he speaks to his friends and they're like, you know, here's a solution have him hanged. You know, the king loves you.

He adores you you get to take his ring. Whatever you want. You say you're his favorite.

So, you know, just build a gallows and build it really high so everyone can see it. And then when you hang Mordecai, what a statement that will make and it'll also set a message for what's coming for the rest of the Jews. And so they tell him this he says, yeah, that's a great plan that'll take care of all of my problems.

And that's exactly what Hammond does. But at this point the story has not yet taken the turn for the better. We're sitting here wondering, okay, so if he's going to build that gallows and have him hung in the morning before the banquet, what's going to happen? Because Esther is not aware of this.

Esther doesn't know what's going on. And there's something in this story, at least for me, that definitely feels familiar to me. It's that aspect when everything is going well, where there are a lot of things falling into place and you think, you know what? This is great.

Everything's coming together. The work I've put into this, the planning I've done, everything is coming along perfect. And then just one thing sets everything off.

It could just be the tiniest thing, but it wasn't what you expected. Maybe for some you didn't get the acknowledgement you expected. Maybe things aren't arriving on time.

Maybe the people that you thought were going to come along aren't there. Maybe there was something that you meant to go a certain way and it just didn't. But instead of rolling with it, instead of trying to find the solution and being present to where you are, you let that thing consume you.

You let that thing be louder than anything else going on. You'll be sitting at home later that evening and even though it occurred first thing in the morning, it's still on your mind and it damages your night's sleep. It damages your interactions with people through the day.

You can't even focus on what you were originally working on because this one thing has now got you offset. So what do you do? What do you do when you have that moment? I'll tell you what we do. We replay it over and over again and we spin it in all kinds of directions to try to make it worse.

And if we're honest, sometimes, you know, we don't think about it. We put it down for a moment and we work on something else like building the frustration we're feeling. So we're no longer even thinking about what happened this morning.

We're thinking about what we're going to do about it, how we're frustrated by it, and we're thinking about what other stories come with it. Why did that happen? And we start to create stories that put the blame on other people that start to make things even worse than we are, than they are, excuse me. And it just so happens that when we do things like that, when something comes along, you know, it could be if you're a kid, it could be missing the school bus in the morning.

You know, it could be something where you plan this great dinner and then you go in the fridge and you realize you missed that one ingredient. Now I got to change everything. Now it's not going to come out the same.

And I would send you to the store, but you were running late. So now you can't even help me. And isn't it funny? Because then it spirals to all the other times.

This didn't go right or this went wrong. But then what if it's those bigger things, those things we didn't get like that promotion or how certain costs continue to increase. And they told me that there was a chance it would increase, but they said, no, there's a good chance that, you know, we'll be fine for the rest of the year.

Or maybe it's that person who said, you know, don't worry. I'm always going to be here beside you and something's happened where they're no longer beside you. You know, there are these things whether they're this small or they're this big that come into our life.

And instead of going to God and seeking God, how, how are you going to show up in this? Because I know you're going to. How are you going to show up in this broken relationship and this financial hardship in this health issue that I didn't see coming? God, how are you going to remind me of who I am because of you and lead me in confidence and love and grace? But instead we just let that one thing control everything. We let that one thing give birth to more fears, more doubts, more frustration.

You know, it's always a great example when you're driving down the road and someone cuts you off, you know, in our class Wednesday night, someone had mentioned road rage and how, how it can cause, you know, quite, quite a challenge. Well, you know, sometimes someone cuts you off and despite what we think, okay, despite we wave high, except it doesn't look like that, right? And despite we start praising God at the top of our lungs, but maybe not so much. It's like a different kind of God something, you know, but the thing is they might not have even realized that they did anything because they're so caught up where they're at.

But then what happens in the next moments while you're driving you're, you're tense and you're angry and you're squeezing that wheel. And then guess what happens about 20 minutes later? You're still thinking about it. You're still talking about it.

And then you get to your arrival like, oh, hey, how was your day? Well, my drive was great until this and you're just going on and on and on and it just sticks with you. And if you're honest with yourself, you're being a little bit too much. You know, you're a little more irritated than you should be yet.

We're just going to hang on to it because that's what we always do. And it's funny. It's funny to use that example because I see some of you all smiling and you guys can relate to how someone cutting you off in the road can just mess up your entire day.

But the thing is, it's also very telling. It's very telling of how the smallest thing can be something that we hold on to and make it into something so big. We let the smallest thing steal our joy.

Well, I thought we had enough of this or I thought this was going to go this way, but you said it would be like this. What do you mean you're not going to be there? If you're not there, how is this and this going to happen? So what's really getting ruined here? What's really getting damaged? Because if we know, if we understand who God is, there is nothing that can stop God in God's work. And so in our day-to-day lives, even when things don't go our way, even when things are not as we expected them to be, why do we lose hope in our mighty God? Why do we lose hope in who we are in God? Why do we forget to see us ourselves the way that God sees us? Why do we forget that there are always other options if we can just pause and be still and don't let our pride get in the way? I used to always think about pride as that arrogance, you know, that very loud kind of pride, someone who walks around as if they know it all and they have it all together and they have this haughty sort of attitude and they're always going to correct everything and it's always going to be about them because they are prideful.

And if you try to rise above them, they're going to squash you right back down. But you know, pride isn't always that way. Sometimes pride can just be the way that we torture ourselves.

Sometimes our pride shows up in the way that we beat up ourselves and that we give ourselves a hard time over something so small. Sometimes our pride kicks in when we think someone else by their mistake or by not showing up or by something falling through is now going to ruin everything. This is going to mess up everything.

And it's like, you know, if we're that great, if we're that solid in our faith, if we're that close to God in relationship, how is that ruining everything? It's amazing when kids are little, especially they say, you have no idea. This is going to just change everything. You're just going to ruin.

Oh, I'm so many times my children would say something, you just don't get it. I hate my life. I'm like, you're like seven.

Like what life have you lived thus far? You know, come and tell me that again. We probably will next week anyway, but come and tell me that later. But you know, I get it when you're that little because you know what that is your dollhouse and you did set it up perfectly and your brother did come in and start driving at cars in it and knocking it over.

But again, that's seven or even 10 or maybe let's go a little higher. You know, you are 14 or 16 and you're in high school and you thought we'd be together forever and it didn't work out, but you don't need to go home and cry in your bed and tell your parents. I'm not going to eat.

I'm not coming out of my room. It's over or perhaps you practice and practice and practice and you knew you're going to win that game and the whole team is counting on you and you know, what's worse when you miss the shot or you miss the goal or when the coach says, oh, you know, I was thinking I'm going to have you sit this one out. I'm going to put him in this time and you're like, but I practice Ivan, you know, he can't even do it.

And then all of a sudden as your pride is damaged, you're going to look to hurt someone else. You know a quote that's often credited as CS Lewis says that pride gets no pleasure out of having something only out of having more of it than the next person. It's interesting.

In other words, it's not about what we have. It's what about it's about what it looks like when we compare it to the person beside us and it really changes your image of pride when you realize, you know, I do spend time wondering how I'm seen, how I measure up, how this is going to make me look or what people are going to think about me. If I don't do it this way or that way, like I said, pride doesn't always have to be loud.

Sometimes pride just shows up when things don't go our way and we don't remember how old we are and we want to be throwing our fist in the air, kicking our feet, screaming that everything is coming to an end. And so when we look at the story, that's what we see in Hammond. We see that Hammond's pride is now building reactions.

It's now leading to assuming things and it's now going to create a great distance between him and the king. He's just not aware of it yet. He's so caught up in his pride that he's having those gallows built and he's ready not recognizing that pride comes before the fall.

Yeah, that's right. And it's not because God, don't mistake that with God. God is not waiting to push you down because you've gotten so high up and prideful.

No, pride can build something and it can look strong, but it's not steady. It's not stable. It's not something you can rely on and that's why it comes right before the fall.

You know, the contrast in the story of Esther here is Esther too is building something. She is waiting. She could have said something to the king then but she's waiting.

She's following the spirit. She's trusting what God is doing. She's building trust just like before she went into the king's throne room.

She waited. She prayed. She fasted.

So Hammond is over here building something out of frustration and the need to control and the need to look better than everyone else. While Esther is building something here out of trust and love and knowing who God is and knowing how God feels about her and her people. This is usually where the turning point comes in.

This is the time where we recognize we don't have to take control of anything. We don't have to prove anything that everything will come together. A lot of times in our life a situation is going to arise that we could not control and it's going to make a difference just right there in that split second.

We're going to have to decide what am I going to do right here in this moment? Not how did this happen? Why did this happen? But right in that present moment, not great. Now it's going to happen later right here. It's what am I going to choose to do? How am I going to take this disruption whether it is missing the bus, forgetting an ingredient, being a little bit late to work or whether it is something larger, a promotion you didn't get, a diagnosis you weren't expecting, a relationship not going quite as planned.

Whatever it is, what are we going to do in that moment? Because we all have those moments arise. Things will not go all the time as we expected. But if your expectation is to see God in everything, is to see love and grace and mercy and provision and everything, then that will always be there.

You just have to be willing to get still enough and open your eyes and your heart and your mind wide enough to see it. Because if you allow those moments to build frustration, to tear down your trust, to tear down your faith, but to build fear, to build distance, to build stories in your mind, if you continue to walk that path, your fate will be very much like Hammond's. Or you can be like Esther.

You can build on trust. You can take a pause, take a breath and recognize that God is always working, even when we can't see it. And so if we look at the echo over to the Jesus story, the parallel, you know, Jesus, I told you all last week, he's heading into Jerusalem.

And as he comes in, which we will hear next week, boy, there's quite the crowd and quite the expectation. We won't go there yet. But you know, people who've heard of Jesus and anticipate his coming, because this is the time of meals and celebrations.

Everything is taking place as it should in their tradition. There are going to be those people there who are watching him even more closely. There was a group of religious leaders who are conspiring when the moment is right, when the crowds are away, when he's alone, we're going to get him.

We even have one of his very own to work with us in this. So we're going to finally get rid of that rebel Jesus, that troublemaker, that problem-causer. We're going to take care of it.

And so right now it looks like everything is in the hands of those who hold all the false power. It looks like Haman is going to have his way. It looks like the religious leaders and the government authorities are going to have their way.

But the story is actually moving closer to what God has planned. There is a turning point right around the corner that we may not see yet. But if we continue to have faith, to have hope, to have trust, it'll appear right before us.

And that's the message to our own lives. No matter what situation you're facing, whether it's as an individual, whether it's with your family, with your community, whether it's at work or at home or in your church or some other place, there is a turning point. There is that moment where you really release and surrender unto the grace and the trust that you give to God.

And in that moment, you will start to see, you know what, this isn't actually going to turn out the way I thought. And I mean that in a good way. Because when something doesn't go as planned, we automatically start to plan the worst to follow it.

But when we say, no, I know that God always has something wonderful in store for me. And I can take a moment and look at this situation and see that this once again is another lesson, is another opportunity to see how my relationship with God, how my faith in God, how God's love for all of his children is going to prevail. Hammond thinks he's securing his future through his insecurity.

Esther is waiting patiently, placing her trust in God. Jesus continues to walk forward knowing who he is and what he is here to do. So next week, we will return again to the table.

We will see what God has in store to remind us that this isn't about everything always going our way and being perfect and our pride having the last word. This is about trusting in the one that we call our father, the one that we call God and recognizing that when everything looks like it may not be working out in our favor, that's the moment in the story where something is about to change. Please join me in prayer.

Our most gracious and loving God, we are so grateful that you are always beside us. We are so grateful that your word is given to us as a lamp unto our feet, a guide unto our path. We are grateful that your spirit as it moves in us, it speaks as our advocate, as our counselor, as that voice of wisdom that reminds us who we are.

God, we are grateful that even when things do not go as expected, when we trip or fall or fail, that that is not the last word. That is not the end of the story. And so God, as we are here in this moment, remind us of who you are and who we are in you.

Let us take the story of Esther. Let us take the story of Christ Jesus and let us stand confidently in knowing with you behind us that nothing can stand against us. It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.