Episode 64: Hidden Favor - podcast episode cover

Episode 64: Hidden Favor

May 15, 202435 minSeason 1Ep. 64
--:--
--:--
Download Metacast podcast app
Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episode description

In this episode, Brenton and Chris discuss his sermon from Esther 2. Chris begins by discussing the role of Eunuchs in the Persian empire. They then discuss the role of God’s providence in light of human sin. They wrap up by discussing what our culture values and how they relate to the story of Xerxes.

Email us at further@harmonybiblechurch.org

If you have a question that you'd like to be discussed on Further, send us an email at:
ask@furtherpodcast.com

Listen to last week's Sermon:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Visit our church website at:
harmonybiblechurch.org

furtherpodcast.com

Transcript

00;00;02;17 - 00;00;22;20
Brenton
This is further a weekly show for the people of Harmony Bible Church, where we seek to revisit and expand on Sunday sermons with the goal of growing deeper in biblical truth that transforms our lives. Welcome back to Further and Britain Grimm. We're back with Chris Carr. How are you doing today?

00;00;22;23 - 00;00;31;17
Chris
I'm a little under the weather, so, you know, these harmony people seem to regularly want to share their germs with me. So these days.

00;00;31;17 - 00;00;33;20
Brenton
So yeah, I get it. I'm always sick.

00;00;33;27 - 00;00;39;21
Chris
So maybe it's just that I have little children around me again for the first time in quite a while.

00;00;39;22 - 00;01;06;02
Brenton
That'll do it. I found that out. All right, well, we're going to, we're going to slice right into this, so we're we're probably all familiar with, you know, the defining characteristic of a unique. But I want to talk about what what their role was in, in the Persian Empire. Why was it necessary for them to be eunuch hated?

00;01;06;04 - 00;01;07;20
Brenton
It's it's a real word. I looked at it.

00;01;07;22 - 00;01;43;09
Chris
Okay, well, I'm not familiar with that word. So this is the first time I've literally ever seen or heard that word. But I didn't believe it either. Yeah, well, in the terms of the eunuchs being in charge of the Haram, they were eunuch. I guess, because they were around a lot of beautiful women and they were the kings women, and no one was allowed to, you know, have any type of physical relationship with somebody that the king had had a physical relationship with.

00;01;43;09 - 00;01;56;19
Chris
And so they, you know, they you indicated them again in order to take any desire away from them that they would have to do so. So that was the the main reason.

00;01;56;19 - 00;02;03;15
Brenton
Interesting. So so there was a lot of them right at that point. They were serving Serving the king. Okay.

00;02;03;16 - 00;02;32;27
Chris
Yeah. Well, and and so you have Haggai, who's in charge of the first Haram, and then Josh, guys, who's in charge of the second Haram? They're both eunuchs. But anyone, again, who was who had been with the king could not be within any other man. And there was a little bit of a power play again on the part of these rulers.

00;02;32;29 - 00;02;39;10
Chris
And so one way to ensure that was to to make sure that that was not a a risk factor.

00;02;39;14 - 00;03;06;13
Brenton
Okay. I did not know that. It's good to know. okay, so one, one topic that comes up often in this conversation of Providence, which I think is, you know, seen clearly in this chapter, is how God uses our sin to accomplish his purposes. This can certainly be a contentious topic and quickly gets back to God's sovereignty versus human freewill.

00;03;06;19 - 00;03;21;06
Brenton
And we discuss that that that some in the Roman series. But I have two questions here. The first one is what other examples in Scripture show God using his people sin in a specific way to accomplish his purposes?

00;03;21;08 - 00;03;55;08
Chris
Yeah, I think we've got a number of them. In fact, in many ways we can see it all throughout the Old Testament. So you take Jacob, for example. Jacob deceiving his father into giving him the birthright, and God use that to really fulfill, you know what Scripture said, that the the older would serve the younger. And God's plan was obvious for obvious for obviously for Jacob to be the one through whom the Messiah would eventually come.

00;03;55;08 - 00;04;28;14
Chris
And that's that's the line. And so Jacob, you know, he was a deceiver, He was a manipulator. That's almost his entire life story in many, many ways. And yet God uses that time and time again to fulfill his purposes. You talk about Jacob's favorite son, Joseph, and we all know that story. At the end of Joseph's life, Joseph says to his brothers, at least at the end of Genesis, he says, His brothers, what what you meant for evil, God, use for good, the saving of many lives.

00;04;28;14 - 00;04;57;02
Chris
So the sin of his brothers that led him into slavery and into a lot of hardship God use for that. You take the story of Ruth, which maybe can get missed sometimes, but Ruth is a mobile and you know, her husband in marrying her was rebelling, sinning against God. So she was that she would have been an unbeliever and a non-Jew.

00;04;57;04 - 00;05;26;23
Chris
And so it was her husband and her brother in law and her her father in law. They they leave the land of Israel and they go. And the two the the the two boys, Ruth's first husband and her brother in law, they marry more by women and clearly prohibited. And yet God, God's plan was for Ruth's to be in the genealogy of Jesus and to be Jesus.

00;05;26;23 - 00;05;53;08
Chris
Great, great, great, great. You go on and on. There, grandmother. And so, you know, Boaz is is mentioned in that genealogy of Jesus and in Matthew, as the New Testament is opening Boaz his wife that there was was was Ruth and so you know there was that situation they were completely you know, completely out of God's will and what they're going on and and God still still uses that for for a lot of good.

00;05;53;08 - 00;06;16;20
Chris
And so, I mean, you can even talk about Moses. I mean, Moses murders an Egyptian and, you know, wouldn't very clearly be not what God intended on him standing up for his fellow Jewish. You know, brother's good, but to murder somebody that I mean, that's clearly not what God would desire. We know that from just a little later on in Exodus one, the Ten Commandments.

00;06;16;20 - 00;06;23;05
Chris
And yet God uses that works through Moses his life. And we see, as, you know, time and time again.

00;06;23;08 - 00;06;45;18
Brenton
Yeah, yeah, those are good examples. I think one of my favorite examples of it is in Acts four, starting in verse 27 four, truly in the city, they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilot, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand in your plan had predestined to take place.

00;06;45;18 - 00;07;03;22
Brenton
And so we see that, you know, both Herod and Pontius Pilot and all the other people involved in Jesus crucifixion, all of that was under under the control of God or, you know, God was still sovereign over that situation. And that's how we come to have the gospel.

00;07;03;27 - 00;07;27;21
Chris
Yeah, Yeah. Well, that's a great example, really. All these but that one, there's a great example of how we can see human responsibility and God's sovereignty kind of working hand in hand. It's not one or the other. Like those those people who had Jesus crucified were responsible for what they did. You know, God had planned and purposed that his son was going to be put to death so that we could be saved.

00;07;27;21 - 00;07;41;12
Chris
That doesn't mean that they're off the hook and like it's okay for them to do what they did. It's just that God is sovereign over even this, the sinful choices that human beings make. Yeah.

00;07;41;15 - 00;08;07;13
Brenton
Yeah. Well, I specifically those people, I mean, they had, they had their reasons for why they did what they did. And so it was mostly just selfish reasons, right. To get a get ahead politically or whatever. We all have our own reasons for sinning, but God behind the scenes is providentially working all that out. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess we've talked about it a little bit, but how, how should we think about this topic?

00;08;07;13 - 00;08;19;17
Brenton
You know, God hates arson, but we also see story after story of redemption because or at least through our disobedience.

00;08;19;19 - 00;08;48;24
Chris
Well, I think one thing that is helpful here is for us to just recognize that there is some mystery in this and I think we can get ourselves into trouble when we try to to to think or believe that we have to understand everything that God is trying to do or all the reasons or purposes that God might have in allowing certain things to happen.

00;08;48;27 - 00;09;17;19
Chris
And I think we've got to go back and start with the position that he's got him or not. He's infinite. We're finite. He's all knowing We are very limited in our knowledge. And if if we want a God who, you know, is fully understanding, well then essentially he's no greater than we are. If I can understand everything about God, well, then he's not so great.

00;09;17;22 - 00;09;48;08
Chris
And that's not the kind of God that we need. We need a God that is greater than us. And so I think we a lot of times in the church today are not very comfortable with mystery. And and I can understand this mystery is not always comfortable. And yet I think we've got to try to get a little bit more comfortable with it is is like you know and and also trust that one day we are going to have a much fuller understanding than we we currently do.

00;09;48;10 - 00;10;17;15
Chris
That doesn't mean we're going to understand it all or whatever. But I think when we get to heaven, we will be able to look back and we'll be able to see much more clearly, you know, all the things and ways that God was working and what he was trying to do and what he was accomplishing. And so owning that, there's going to be mystery with a with an infinite God being finite people, and then also trusting that eventually we'll be able to see how he has worked all things for our good.

00;10;17;17 - 00;10;42;14
Chris
So, yeah, I mean, it's I mean, there's uncomfortable things, you know, in this passage and I tried to be open with him. And so Esther, who's really raw and we're not done with I mean, we're we got a lot of murder coming up and killing and all of that kind of stuff. And it can be uncomfortable for us to look at like, why did why did God allow what is God allow this?

00;10;42;14 - 00;11;12;16
Chris
These kind of things happen like these evil people to do what they to to do what they do and that's not just in the Bible times. It's like even going on today, I, you know, really struggle. I have studied World War Two and especially the Holocaust, a fair amount and been to the Holocaust Museum in in Israel and just one here, two in Washington, D.C., but the one in Israel.

00;11;12;16 - 00;11;34;29
Chris
I've had the opportunity to be at a couple of times and just like, why? And you're like, why? And there's no good there's honestly there's no good answer that I have for that. And it's hard, it's difficult, it's ugly. And yet we can I think we see this in the story of Esther about like how God still is working in the middle of human evil.

00;11;35;02 - 00;11;56;28
Chris
And we we are right to the question and to cry out because the scriptures actually we see that in the Psalms in particular. Why? Why is this going on? And you know how long the Lord and and they don't always get the answers, you know, so they don't always end in an answer of for a why but where they they do in in is hope and trust in the Lord.

00;11;56;28 - 00;12;20;19
Chris
And you know in Joe we go to Joe the whole book of Joe Jobs asking why why why and he never actually gets the why answer. But what he does get is he does get more of God. And that's ultimately what we what we need. And again, one day, yeah, we will not be seen dimly anymore. We'll be seen face to face.

00;12;20;19 - 00;12;25;22
Chris
And I think that that day will have a lot more of these questions answer for us.

00;12;25;24 - 00;12;50;05
Brenton
Yeah, well, we certainly have, you know, the advantage of being able to look back over these stories and even, you know, specifically Esther and see what was going on. And we get to see story after story of God working through all these things. So we I think in some way probably more more than them even back back 2500 years ago.

00;12;50;05 - 00;12;59;26
Brenton
We can see so many examples of God being faithful through through all those things. And so it should give us hope in our in our current circumstances.

00;12;59;26 - 00;13;29;22
Chris
Yeah. And like you let us move on from this point without saying, you know, we we don't know why God allows these things to happen, but it can't be because he doesn't love us and because God is not only a sovereign guy, but he's a suffering God. And he proved that he loved us, you know, 2000 years ago when he sent his son to experience the greatest evil that's ever been perpetrated.

00;13;29;25 - 00;13;56;10
Chris
And he did that so that there might be a day where evil is no more. And so we've got lots of questions in the in between. Yeah, yeah, right. And week after week in our church, you know, people are going through really, really, really difficult things and we can't minimize those things at all. And sometimes they're evil things, sometimes they're just really, really our situations are really suffering.

00;13;56;15 - 00;14;13;17
Chris
We don't to minimize them at all. But but our hope there is is that God's not immune from suffering like he is a suffering God himself. He's not standing off and he he's experience and done what's necessary so that there might be a day where that is. That is no more.

00;14;13;19 - 00;14;39;16
Brenton
Yeah. Yeah, that's really good. yeah, it's, it's encouraging as we kind of suffer through what we're going through today, or if we just, you know, look around the world, there's, there's so much going on and so, I think we can take heart in that. Yeah. Okay. You, you pointed out that both Esther and Mordechai assimilated into, into the Persian culture.

00;14;39;18 - 00;14;50;28
Brenton
what would that have look like? Were there, like, specific, simple practices that they would have taken on? Or was the problem really just that they separated from their Jewish culture?

00;14;51;01 - 00;15;21;25
Chris
Yeah, I mean, some of this we've got to kind of into it from, from what we're seeing there. But in not identifying themselves as Jews, it probably means they weren't going to the synagogue, assuming there was a synagogue, but they're not gathering with God's people. There's no outward expression of worship because that would easily identify that There have been no question as to them being Jewish.

00;15;21;28 - 00;15;45;21
Chris
and it would seem, you know, I didn't actually bring this up because it's just a time, but even Mordechai being in the Citadel, so he's not living in a Jewish ghetto, he's actually like, he's in this the, the see the power. He probably has a position in the Persian court which isn't necessarily a problem in and of itself, but it seems like he's, you know, he's got the Persian name.

00;15;45;21 - 00;16;09;08
Chris
He's going by the Persian name. It seems like he just is. He's all in there. And so when when again, a faithful Jewish reader reads a Jew living in Citadel named Mordechai, they would be like, horrified, like this guy has, like, completely sold out. What in the world is going on here? And so and then we see Esther go in and she she doesn't like Daniel.

00;16;09;08 - 00;16;42;09
Chris
Shadrach, Michigan and Bendigo say, I'm not eating your food. Give me, give me kosher food. She she partly participates in it clothing and then obviously all the stuff with Xerxes and so it just wouldn't they they were likely even before this eating foods prohibited it would seem that they were likely, you know, not practicing their faith in in any significant way that anybody could actually observe.

00;16;42;11 - 00;16;58;22
Chris
And, you know, they were not identifying themselves as God's people, which was, yeah, clearly that causes people in the Old Testament entity to be separate to to stand out, to be identified as, as to who they are.

00;16;58;25 - 00;17;10;17
Brenton
Okay. So yeah, they're just kind of implicitly there's a lot of things that they're going to miss out on that they were do they were commanded to do as just part of Israel, right. Being being sent into here?

00;17;10;22 - 00;17;21;04
Chris
Sure. Yeah. I mean, like, I'm guessing they're not practicing the Sabbath. I mean, because that's an easy way for Jews to be identified. So.

00;17;21;07 - 00;17;54;19
Brenton
All right. So you spent a little time on Sunday comparing the cultures of ancient Persia to our to our culture today. You spoke specifically about our value systems, how the how the value of men dependent on their power and wealth and, and a woman's value was really based off of her beauty and sexual allure. So, are there, are there any other similarities that you've seen as you were studying that you kind of came across?

00;17;54;22 - 00;18;30;21
Chris
well, just the way that Xerxes and the other rulers, the leaders of the Persian Empire, just used the power authority that they have and how they use it in a kind of a self seeking or self-serving way. And I think that's blatantly obvious that that's just a real tendency of anybody in power in our culture. or maybe anybody's, maybe not fair, but how it's just a tendency for those who are in power.

00;18;30;21 - 00;18;46;25
Chris
And what's the old saying? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I mean, it it you know, there's some truth in that. I don't think it's completely true. But that would be that would be a big one for sure. Yeah.

00;18;46;27 - 00;18;58;19
Brenton
Yeah. Well, I think there's probably just a lot of similarities of, you know, it's it's still human beings in in, in positions of power going to, you know, essentially do the same things. Right.

00;18;58;25 - 00;19;30;07
Chris
Yeah. Well and you know, there's we haven't quite got this yet, but there's racism that's coming and it's coming this week. We're going to begin to to get into see that. And there's just I mean, you have to know a little bit about the culture. And we've actually seen this in Esther, but certainly the way that that there's different classes of people and they're treated differently.

00;19;30;09 - 00;20;12;20
Chris
And so that's that's very similar to what happens a lot of times in our culture. But yeah, I think that the the power and wealth and and the beauty and sexual or and and then the way that people are using power and the way we're treating different people instead of it really, if you think about it this way you know it really comes down to is are we are we valuing people because they're made the image of God and because therefore they have inherent value and worth, regardless of what they look like, where they come from, what their background is, and, you know, or are we using those, you know, those kind of things as

00;20;12;20 - 00;20;42;26
Chris
a way to justify ourselves, the way to to separate ourselves, to to make ourselves like better or, you know, and to to actually cause divisions amongst people and to lorded over people. And it's just not it's not very different today from that. We're more sophisticate. It'd, we're more technologically advanced. but the human heart here's the thing. The human heart hasn't changed.

00;20;42;29 - 00;20;50;18
Chris
Yeah. And because the human heart hasn't changed, we see the same type of ideals and the same type of sins coming out.

00;20;50;21 - 00;21;18;17
Brenton
Right? Okay, So, so speaking of, you know, the the men with with power and wealth and women with beauty. And I know, you know, it's kind of a probably a broad brush, too, to paint with here. But why why do you think we find value in these superficial things? And you and I spoke a little bit earlier today and and I don't think you can say across the board that that's all we value.

00;21;18;20 - 00;21;35;23
Brenton
No, but but those things are still relevant to our culture today. And I think that, you know, a lot of things are depend on those things. And so why do you think that superficial things have so much pull in our lives?

00;21;35;25 - 00;22;13;24
Chris
Yeah, I mean, this is a could be a big topic. I think that for one, there are just echoes of the garden here where God made mankind to rule, you know, because let them have dominion. And we were created to actually subdue creation and to, to, to steward it, to to lead it into to exert a healthy form of power.

00;22;13;29 - 00;22;47;07
Chris
Power is not in itself bad or wrong. We were actually created to exert a healthy degree of power. And at the same time we were created, we were created beautiful. And I know that were for men to like the word to be considered beautiful. But we were we were created to, you know, to have a beauty. And and so that there's there's still echoes of that in in us.

00;22;47;10 - 00;23;19;29
Chris
But then because of the fall, now we don't have a healthy sense of our internal beauty and our internal, you know, this this power that God has given us to steward, we don't maybe talk about our identity. It's an identity crisis is like we the fall has has taken away or robbed us or we we experience at least have been robs for this identity.

00;23;19;29 - 00;23;46;29
Chris
Yes of I was created to steward this power that God has given me. And yes, I am beautiful because I'm made in the image of God. And those things were and were more of an internal internal just kind of like. Yes. And now because of the fall we've lost, we feel guilt and shame, that's all. Like for lack of a better word, gone wonky, so to speak.

00;23;46;29 - 00;24;10;15
Chris
And so what was largely to be an internal, you know, something that we just held closely and identified with as this is our identity. No, because we don't feel that experience that I don't know why. Explain it as well, hopefully, but it becomes this external thing. So we've got to strive for these things. We've got to try to grab for these things.

00;24;10;18 - 00;24;35;00
Chris
And, you know, I just think about the beauty thing is like the reality is, is were made in the image of God. And so every person is beautiful. And that doesn't mean that everybody externally is as is as beautiful as is every other person. But I, I would say that beauty standards are different across cultures, across different times.

00;24;35;00 - 00;25;06;25
Chris
So it's even that, you know, gets gets, you know, difficult here. But I just think we're just trying to grab for what we've lost. And because it's not an internal thing, we make these external things be really in many ways, they they be our idol because we're not worshiping God. And as we're worshiping God. So here's that. If we're worshiping God, then we're going to use the power that he is rightfully given us and we're going to steward it well.

00;25;06;27 - 00;25;27;29
Chris
And if we are worshiping the Lord, then we're going to see ourselves as, as as inherently beautiful, regardless of what we look like on the outside. And and so and it's not a like an an either or like it's either or. A lot of times it's a you know, we can do both things. We can worship the Lord and also struggle with these things.

00;25;28;01 - 00;25;31;21
Chris
I think that's probably true for everybody. But I don't know if that makes any sense at all.

00;25;31;21 - 00;25;58;22
Brenton
But yeah, so, so essentially it's a perversion of the original gifts that God gave to, right? Sure. So yeah, yeah. I think that's actually a really helpful way of explaining that, that we we've lost something in ourselves, or at least it's, it's perverted. And so in a way, we're trying to come back to that. We're trying to have dominion over over the world.

00;25;58;22 - 00;26;02;03
Brenton
But we do it in a very destructive way sometimes.

00;26;02;06 - 00;26;35;18
Chris
Yeah, Yeah. And that's why the gospel is so important, because as we grow in the gospel, the gospel allows us to be transformed so that we are have the ability to be able to steward our power well and to be able to find our identity in Christ and not in these external and these external things and enable us to be able to see that what ultimately matters is not external beauty, but internal beauty.

00;26;35;18 - 00;26;58;24
Chris
And that's what God cares about. And not that again, there's nothing wrong with being externally beautiful. And for a male or a female, like either male or female, to want to to look good, that's I think is a natural like a natural thing that God creates in us. It's just that that can so easily go sideways and it so often does.

00;26;58;24 - 00;27;03;24
Chris
And our, our culture prays on that. Yeah.

00;27;03;26 - 00;27;29;15
Brenton
Yeah. Well, yeah. And I think there's, there's almost expectations on you to be, to have certain amount of powers or a certain amount of power or to have a certain amount of beauty or whatever. Right? So there's external forces on you as well. Yeah. Okay. So with that said, you know, I think none of us can really relate to being Xerxes in this, in this situation.

00;27;29;17 - 00;27;55;03
Brenton
But as you were talking this morning and one of our meetings about kind of the things that you you've been studying, one thing kind of stuck out to me and, and you had said that, you know, we all have some sort of power or influence, right? So the question isn't really do we have power? It's how are we stewarding the power that we have?

00;27;55;06 - 00;28;01;03
Brenton
And so can you kind of talk about that a little bit, just what you were discussing this morning?

00;28;01;05 - 00;28;37;22
Chris
Yeah, I'm I was yeah, really referencing how the fact that regardless of who we are or what position we have, we all do have a degree of power, whether it be in our home, our workplace, whether it be in relationships, we all have relationships and we all have people that we, we influence. And you know, I just talk about some of the the husband and wife dynamic is, yeah, the husband.

00;28;37;22 - 00;29;04;05
Chris
We've talked about this in week one. The husband is called by God to be the leader in the home. But that doesn't mean that the wife doesn't have any influence or power. In fact, a godly husband will, you know, listen to his his his wife and her wisdom and will actually seek that out. And so and I think in all marriages, women do have influence over their husbands.

00;29;04;05 - 00;29;28;21
Chris
And it might be different in the way that the husband has it, you know, with the wife. But and certainly parents with children. But but but children even at times, you know, children have influence with their parents. And and certainly in our workplaces and in our friends, with our friends and all of those kind of things like our people listen to our words and they watch our actions.

00;29;28;21 - 00;29;52;28
Chris
And and so we this is given to us by God. And and the question is not really how much we have or nor should we be seeking more, though I don't think that there's anything wrong with it necessarily, necessarily wrong with seeking more influence. It depends upon, again, why, why, why do you want that? What are you seeking to do with it?

00;29;52;28 - 00;30;25;18
Chris
And really, the point would be to to steward it well and to do it well means to view it as an opportunity to serve, to serve others, and to serve the Lord just to serve the kingdom. So a reference mark ten where, you know, the disciples are arguing and getting upset at each other about who is going to be on Jesus, right hand, the left hand at the kingdom and Jesus, you know, don't Lord it over one another like the Gentiles do.

00;30;25;20 - 00;30;49;00
Chris
And those leaders like they're using their power to to be like Xerxes in some ways, like I've got power and I can use it to get you to do what I want to have to be self-seeking in that he says that's not the way it is to be with you, my followers. And he says, And the reason is, is because the son of man came to seeking to save the lost like he didn't even come to lorded over.

00;30;49;00 - 00;31;32;01
Chris
He he came to to serve. And he says, so be like me. And so again you know today whether it's, you know, with critical race theory or critical just critical theory, there's this idea that power is is in itself bad, right? Wrong, evil. That's not the case at all. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that we actually were created to wield power, but we were we were given it and created it to do so in such a way so that creation flourished.

00;31;32;04 - 00;31;53;17
Chris
That's originally. But then we obviously see sing comes in and all of a sudden that just goes, you know, South really, really quickly. And so now in from the very beginning think it can enable that first story, you know what's going on there. Well King's got power and he has to kill his brother. And that's the history, a lot of the history of the human race.

00;31;53;17 - 00;32;17;24
Chris
But that doesn't mean that that power is wrong. And we can see, like even with Jesus, Jesus had power. He has all power, all authority. And so he he temporarily sets that aside to come in to serve us. But then at the end, the very end of Matthew, he says all authority and heaven and earth is given to me as a none of us are saying, well, that's a bad thing.

00;32;18;01 - 00;32;39;08
Chris
Like it's bad that he just has authority. Paranoia deserves it. You know, he it's it's rightfully his. But again, since that is the case, what's the point? We'll go now. Authority is being given to me. So now you go out and in my authority because we we actually as followers of Jesus, when we were going out or proclaiming the gospel in the Scriptures, we have his authority.

00;32;39;08 - 00;33;02;02
Chris
We are under his authority, as long as we are faithful to to the word, it's not our authority, it's his. And we're just we're just proclaiming that we we're we are using stewarding that authority that he has given us to bring the gospel to people and to see them hopefully come to faith and to be saved.

00;33;02;04 - 00;33;41;06
Brenton
Yeah. I really appreciate you bringing up Mark ten there, because I think Jesus is teaching a really important lesson, and I think I would encourage you guys to to read through that section and just kind of think over, especially as we've learned some about Xerxes in the way that he used his power. I think that we should, you know, on a much smaller scale, we should really examine who we have influence over, who we affect in our in our decision making and just examine how we're how we're stewarding that in light of Martin.

00;33;41;12 - 00;34;04;24
Brenton
I think I think that that would be a a good exercise to do coming out of this this week of Esther. So I appreciate you you bringing that up this morning. All right. I think we will end it there. I appreciate you, Chris. Thanks for thanks for talking through this. And we will be back with Esther for chapter three next week.


Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android