For Such a Time as This

Anyway, I want to welcome everybody. And as we begin, I do hope that this message will, for a few minutes today, be a blessing to each and every one of us. I hope, in some small measure, that God will allow me to interrupt your lives, have you contemplate, and recognize what an incredible privilege that for such a time as now, that we have an opportunity to be a part of the Kingdom of God.

2,500 years ago, there was a woman who was challenged with a major life and death decision. She was challenged, just as much as you and I are sometimes, to stand up, to stand tall, to step forward, and to keep on standing. It's one thing to stand up. It's another thing to keep on standing for her God and for her people. In that decisive moment between the stimulus, impulse, choice of self-preservation and or personal sacrifice came a message from a kinsman.

I'd like you to share that message with me. Let's turn over to the book of Esther. Let's turn over to the book of Esther and go to Esther 4, verse 13. It's the message that Mordecai, the Jew, sent to his relative, saying this, and Mordecai told them to answer Esther as she sent forth a message. As he sent forth a message, do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all of the other Jews. What was happening was that a decree had gone out, that it was actually to be the greatest perpetration and or the first perpetration of a empire-wide Holocaust to be visited on every Jew from India to the region of Thrace up in northeastern Greece of what we would call that today.

And that news had come to Mordecai. And so he sent a message to his kinsperson who was a queen of Persia. And then he said, for if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place. But you, you and your family, you and your family's house will perish. Yet who knows? Question! Stop and think about it. And yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as now? Another translation out of the New American Standard Version says, or who knows that for such a time that you have attained royalty that this spot is not just about you, but that was planned beyond you and given to you for a purpose.

So which decision will you make as the stimulus, response, impulse, begs an answer? Mordecai's timeless wisdom, and it is timeless, to his relative provocate a righteous action, to Queen Esther, to plead for God's covenant people before a pagan king. A moment had come in time to her and in her way, and she did not succumb to the lament of could have, would have, or should have. But rather she yielded to the call of a greater kingdom beyond the realm of Persia.

And that's where I'm going to take you today, if you'll stay with me for a few minutes today, beyond just simply the kingdom of Persia, beyond the concept of, for such a time as now you have come to the kingdom, yes, we are in this earthly realm, but to share with you that each and every one of us has been invited to a greater realm, a greater kingdom, given incredible opportunity.

That is such a blessing, but yes, indeed, it will challenge us down here as matters come our way, and matters that will stimulate us towards a choice. And there is that impulse as to what we will do. Will it be about God? Will it be about others? Or will it be about ourselves? And what will we do? For a moment, I'm going to give you all the time out. Just think about different matters that have come into your life since God began to call you, began to work with you, began to nurture us by the water of the Word, and has given us so many opportunities when you think about it to make a stand, to stand up, to keep on standing, to stand tall and to step forward.

Or have we shrunk from the opportunity that God gave us? Just think about it for a moment. It may be in our personal lives that God knows. It may be our relationship with our spouse. It might be with our children. It might be with our neighbors.

It might be with our coworkers. It might be with the interaction of God's holy people that sometimes might not be acting holy. Maybe you're not acting holy for the moment, just like what we just heard from Mr. Cook about the cookies. But bigger things than a bag of cookies. But little things lead to big things.

And have we, once it's passed us by, we can't grab it back? Have we had the lament of could have, would have, or should have? That's what we're going to be talking about today, to think about it. How does this recorded event relate to us today as disciples of Jesus Christ? We're going to explore how you and I have come to the kingdom at this time and which and what kingdom you and I have been invited to. Because I'm going to move away from simply the kingdom of Persia or the United States of America or the realm of Canada.

But we're going to talk about the kingdom experience. We're going to talk about the kingdom life, how to walk and talk and breathe and to be able to share the kingdom life today. That's what we're going to be dealing with. So I'd like to give you my SPS, please, and it's simply this. Very simple. For such a time as this. For such a time as this. We might also rephrase it by saying for such a time as now. For the book, God's Word, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament talks about a visitation. And I truly believe that His visitation is upon each and every one of us today.

Not tomorrow, not next week, not when it's going to be convenient. But He has already visited us. He's begun to open up our mind. He's begun to open up our heart. And what will we do to make a difference? Oh, we may not save a half million Jews in the Diaspora, spread throughout the Persian Empire, but we can make a difference in our lives. And that difference in our lives to how we respond can allow God to know, you know what?

They understand. They get it. They got it. They know our relationship. They know that bridge between myself and you, my children, Jesus Christ. And they've responded to it. They, in that moment. Maybe not from Thrace all the way over to India, but maybe out in La Mesa, maybe down in Chula Vista, maybe up in Riverside County, because God is watching.

And God wants you to succeed with the knowledge that He has given you. Let's ask ourselves a question then simply this. What words of wisdom would Jesus, our elder brother, and spiritual kinsman? I thought about that. We know the words came from, of old, came from Mordecai to His kinsperson, Esther. But have you ever thought that Jesus is our spiritual kinsman?

He's our elder brother. We're family. And if Mordecai would send words to Esther on behalf of a godly purpose, doesn't Jesus Christ do that for each and every one of us? Let's just go to Romans 8 and verse 29 to look at scripture to verify what I just said. Romans 8, join me if you would there, please, in Romans 8. And notice the definition that God gives to the Apostle Paul. He says here, For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Spiritually speaking, he's the firstborn and we're brethren. He's big brother and everything else that the scriptures outline. So what words has Jesus brought us to confront the challenges of our day? It may not be walking into the, down the corridors of a Persian palace and Persepolis and going into the courtyard of the king. But let's take the lessons and apply it to our life and to recognize what we are going through. Why am I bringing this to you? And I will probably, to a degree, for a while, keep on hammering down this point for us to recognize the challenge of the world that we live in today.

It is a challenging world. We have a society that has traditionally, over the last 15-20 years, been called a postmodern society. Postmodern society. The next chapter, the next age.

But it's increasingly replicating what I call, and without any dubious thought about it, it is becoming more and more a pre-Christian world. A pre-Christian world. A world of Rome. A world of Carthage.

A world of Athens. A world of Corinth. A world of Antioch. A world of Ephesus.

A different world that does not have the mooring of a Judeo-Christian ethic. We need to think about that. We need to consider that. There are going to be more challenges to come. We're going to see it going back and forth. And just being an observer of the news, we recognize that America is in a flux right now, going back and forth. Here we are in July 4th, weekend. Ask our founding fathers, who were, by the way, men, not angels, but how would they understand the world today? And that America that God used them to develop? And to see where things are going? What would they think? Where would their minds be as to the order of society?

Very interesting. Only you can fill in the blank and I'll allow you. Today we have immorality, sweeping our land. Immorality that ultimately, while humanity can get excited about themselves for a moment, and the key word there is self, at the end of the day it's really based upon fruitless outcomes. And sometimes you and I can say, as others have done down through the ages, can it get any worse? Where is it all going? Why me? Why now?

Solomon, nearly 3,000 years ago, and I think it's in the book of Ecclesiastes, said, I'm about to leave everything to this next generation. Doesn't that sound kind of interesting? Sometimes you've never said that about your kids. This next generation is kind of coming up. And where is this all going? So it's a question that's always been before people. But again, let me come back again simply this. Why me? Why now? And why am I here? We're going to begin to answer that question by defining what ultimate kingdom has come our way. Just to hear Mordecai's words, for who knows whether you have come into the kingdom for such a time as now. But we're going to move it away from Persia. We're going to be talking about the kingdom of God.

And again, let's just think this through for a moment. You. I'm talking to you. I'm talking to me.

We're not just going to kind of go through services and kind of come in and kind of go out. And now it's over. Now I can go to the cookies and I can shake a few hands and go home. No, I'm here personally as a minister of Jesus Christ to interrupt your lives by God's guidance and bring you down to brass tacks of the incredible calling, incredible calling, the magnificent gift of love, the awesome revelation that God has given us that He is coming back.

But for now, He has called you and me to understand what others are going to understand in ages to come. And that should shape our entire life. That should shape, that should give us meaning to recognize that there's a kingdom that has entered our life. Join me if you would in Mark 1. In Mark 1. Join me if you would there, please. In Mark 1.

In the Roman Empire, Caesar's would often send out a herald.

They would send a proclamation through the land. They would actually put their visage on a coin with a tiding that there is now going to be what is called eugelion. Eugelion. That is good news.

Because Rome itself as an empire could conquer the world, but so often it could not conquer itself with all of its civil wars, with all of its civil wars. And yet, when a Caesar came about, it's like, I have arrived. I've got good news. Peace. Unity. All will be well. I'm on the throne.

You look back in history and you ask, well, how did that work? But this is what Jesus Christ did. This is Mark. Mark, who is basically writing to an action-oriented Roman populace. And you notice what it says here in verse 14. Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, as Paul would later on say, when the time had come, when the time was fulfilled, X marked the spot.

The entrance was now. The entrance was now. God being the perfect author of timing, sent His Son at this crucible of time between a Rome and a community of chosen people, the Jews.

And He sent His Son to bear witness. And it says, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God, not a philosophy, not just a book that you take off the shelf, not some esoteric knowledge that somehow you think that you have an understanding to, but the kingdom and who's it belonged to, who is it of the kingdom of God, notice, is at hand. Repent. Believe in the gospel. Amazing.

Jesus came to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. Pardon me. And saying the time has come and it's at hand. Whenever and wherever Christ was, the kingdom is.

The kingdom has landed. I'm not saying the whole kingdom of God is fulfilled right now, obviously, but wherever He was, it is. And we'll bring that down to you in a few minutes.

And it says, basically what He is saying is this, the inauguration of a new world age has arrived.

And I'm Jesus proclaiming it. So get a mind, get a heart that fits it and have full confidence in the one who bids you. Always without hesitation. I'm going to parallel this with Esther. Always without hesitation to come before His throne. In ancient Persia, you walked in on the king.

You were a dead duck. It was over. The king had to bestow his scepter to allow you to come into His presence. But when we read the author of the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews 4, in verse 16, he says that he invites all, it's an ongoing invitation, come boldly before the throne, not of an earthly ruler, not of an earthly ruler that's willing to give your cause for His cause, give your life for His cause, excuse me, but you come before God Almighty. What a privilege that you and I have. It is in this kingdom yet to fully come in God's perfect timing to this earth that we have been called that grants us citizenship in heaven. Join me if you would in Philippians 3, in verse 20. In Philippians 3. Brother, let's this afternoon bury this down deep in our hearts.

This is the great revolution, not just what's happening this weekend with July 4th.

This is a kingdom. This is a realm that is going to be forever, ultimately. And we find in Philippians 3, in verse 20, for our citizenship is in heaven from which we were eagerly, where we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Right now, here we are on July 4th.

We have dual citizenship. We are citizens of the United States of America. And the United States of America has had God's touch on it for 240 years since 1776.

It was not by Yankee ingenuity that created America. It was the blessing of God, pure and simple. People never thought that America was going to work in the very beginning. Nothing had ever happened like this. There had been small republics in Italy on mountaintops with little castles like San Marino. But as this developed against the greatest empire that ever existed, and stretched along a coast for 2,000 miles, nobody thought it was going to work.

We look at it in hindsight and say, wow, isn't this wonderful? But they did. The founding fathers did not know that it was going to even work out from day to day to week to week to month to month. Because there had never been anything like this before.

God was setting the table to show that His blessings were going to be upon Israel. And yet, look how much of our nation today has forsaken that same God.

Now, it's a kingdom that's yet to appear. But it's very interesting if you'll join me in John 17, verse 15. John 17 and verse 15. Verse 18. Excuse me a second.

Yeah. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. And as you have sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified by the truth.

And I don't pray for those alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. If you're daring enough with your pen or pencil, right there it says, who will believe in me through their word. Right where word, you might want to just write down me, because that's who Jesus was talking about. Me, Robin, Laurie, Skip, Aubrey, Bertha, Lance, Ben and Nicole, all of us.

Jesus had that on his mind that night before he was going to die, that we were going to be a part of this. And that's what we need to understand.

So he says, it's interesting, in Revelation 18 and verse 4 it says, Come out of the world, my people, and do not be partakers of our zens. That's kind of an echo chamber coming out of the book of Revelation. But at the same time, Jesus says, I don't want you to take them out of the world. You're going to stay down here.

And you go, huh? This is such good. This, oh, the training grounds down here.

This is where I've got to stay. This is where the Pilgrim people of God for the last 2000 years have had to work out salvation by God's grace and by God's intervention. Yeah, it is.

And what a world that we're in today, brethren, that you and I have to confront. A world, in a sense, as challenging as Esther. Let's talk about the world, this kingdom of man that we have come, as it says in Esther, for do you not know if you have come at the kingdom of this time? But what's the realm of man looking like right now? Let's talk about that for a second.

To recognize the world that you and I are walking in that is so foreign to the Garden of Eden. You know, so often we will say, you know, I just wish that we could. I know nobody has ever said this, or you never heard your parents say this, or grandparents. I just wish that we could go back to the good old days. But you have to think about that. Have there ever been any good old days since the Garden of Eden when man and woman rejected God and to be right there in His presence? But we recognize with time, and I'll say this quite sincerely, we have entered into a new phase and a new chapter that you and I need to be aware of.

And to recognize what are we walking into, that the age that we are existing in, that permeates our culture, permeates our education, permeates our technology, permeates our entertainment, permeates the discussion all around us all the time, 24-7. Consider the age that we live in that tolerates, not only tolerates but promotes without shame, premarital sex, an age that promotes adultery and divorce, an age that promotes people no longer getting married but cohabiting with their and they make it sound so debonair with their significant other members of the same sex, marrying one another, contemplation of euthanasia in some sectors, in some societies, abortion, abortion. When I said Carthage earlier on, I meant to say Carthage.

Even the Romans were astonished by the Punic realm of Carthage, that there was such child sacrifice going on all the time that even the Romans that would become brutal themselves were aghast that people would sacrifice their own children.

And yet every day, a life is made extinct, a life that should enjoy and be in the safest place on earth that God designed for a child.

So, humanity has forgotten that. They call it today with titles like reproductive health care. You give it these fancy titles.

I do not preach that. I do not believe in that. The United Church of God does not espouse that. God weeps over that. That's the world that you and I are faced with.

Today we live in a society in which men, bodies of men, we call it government, are intervening in families, taking over children, educating children, informing children about unbiblical things without their parents' knowledge. This is the society that you and I have come to. And for such a time as now, you and I have got to pray. We have to act. We have to be. We have to be aware and to recognize that you and I also have come to a better kingdom. And that we're in this learning ground now to stand up, to stand tall, to step forward as disciples of Jesus Christ and to recognize that we are in training right now. Where do we go from all of this?

Let me give you some basic things. Now I want to share something with you.

I remember hearing messages like this when I was 11 or 12 years old and going, you know, oh, it's so dark. But let's shed some light on that, okay? Let's get up. Let's get out. Let's get going. Let's keep looking up and understand that as Tennyson said, we must lose ourself in action lest we wither in despair. And we have not been called to be withering in despair. We are to have a joy of annoying of why you've been called, while I've been called, and to recognize that there's a purpose that's being worked out here below. And help is coming along the way. I share this with all of you because again, this is the world that we're immersed in. And we might think, well, we're, you know, we can just kind of go through this and we're going to be okay. But you know, that goes against what it says in Corinthians. He that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.

We are going to need the help of God Almighty. We're going to need the help of Jesus Christ. We are going to be led by their spirit. We need to understand that we are not alone, but to recognize what is coming. Because again, as Paul states in Ephesians 6 and verse 12, we do not fight against flesh and blood. We don't. There's a world out there that is jealous to what God Almighty has offered you and me as far as being his sons and daughters in Christ.

They don't like it. Never have. But God loves us. And God says, I'm for you. And if I'm for you, who can be against you and we do not fight against flesh and blood. Oh, no, we do not fight against flesh and blood. We fight against these powers. But let's remember too. Let's understand that when Paul is writing this, he understood that it was not just the good guys that were the bad guys. The Jews always had that reality that there were different dominions of demons and bad spirits.

But then when Paul goes to Ephesians, he says, and Jesus is now anointed. He's now ascended. And he is above all dominions. He's above all realms. I want to get that into us today. I'm sorry, but we got to get this into us.

That God the Father and Jesus Christ.

That God the Father and Jesus Christ know where you are today, what you're going through.

And to recognize that their plan is not going to be thwarted. Jesus Christ is above all of that.

So two things. We recognize that we do not fight against flesh and blood, but also that Jesus Christ is above all and He's going to carry out His Father's will. So what do we do about all this? I'm going to give you just some very, very simple points here for a moment.

But first of all, let me share Victor Frankel. Victor Frankel, Austrian psychologist, World War II. You've heard me quote him before. But let's understand something. This is what we need to get. Victor Frankel, who survived the concentration camp, psychologist, said this. And you might want to jot this down. Decisions, not conditions, determine what a man is. Decisions, not conditions, determine what a man, may I say in the 21st century, a woman of what they are.

Think of Esther. She could have run down the hall in reverse, but she moved forward because she recognized that a purpose was being worked out here below. Another of Victor Frankel's quotes, life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.

Third quote, everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

He saw this. He'd been in the concentration camps. And he saw there very vividly and very clearly that the battle does not always go to the strong and the valiant and the big. There were people that survived, that did not look like they would survive. They were the small, they were even the weak or the frail as you look at them, but there was something inside of them. There was something motivating them more than the circumstances around. And they made a decision every day to live in that moment, live one step, one step, one step that makes a yard and keep on moving towards life.

That's what's before us. Here's what I'd like to share with you. Just some very basic points. It's going to be very simple. I'm going to just go through them real quickly. Mike Cook, our first speaker, quoted Covey. Stephen Covey, I'm going to make another quote. First point, begin with the end in mind. Begin with the end in mind. Now, Robin, why did you bring that up? Because that's how Jesus existed in those hours on the cross. Because as it says in Hebrews 12, verses 1-2, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Begin with the end in mind. He was looking that it is for this purpose that he came. And he was existing in that moment, but looking at the end and beginning with that end in mind. When we begin with the end in mind, and we do not take our eyes off the ball, God's going to partner with us, and we will not be alone.

We're going to move to a point under that, a sub-point. As we begin with the end in mind, what are the first four words of the Bible? Help me. I know you've hundreds of hours of study of the Bible. What are the first four words? Oh, somebody's listening out there. Let's act like we know it. One, two, three. In the beginning. Okay, here's the goal. Are you with me? It'll be a challenge. Yes, we will fall. We will falter. But as we begin with the end in mind, then as we move towards that picture, begin every moment in your life with God as your partner in the beginning of each moment, of each hour, of each day, in the beginning, in the beginning of every motive that is lodged in our heart, in the beginning with every thought that comes out of that bank of motive, in the beginning with every word that comes from that thought, in the beginning with every action that comes from our words, in the beginning, in the beginning, seeing the, and viewing the end in mind with the deed that is done.

You say, well, in the beginning, wasn't that talking about the physical? You know, in the beginning, you know, he created the world. But now he's dealing with the new creation.

He's dealing with the spiritual creation.

I will tell you this. It sounds so, it's so simple, but it's challenging, isn't it, as a human being?

Can we talk? In the beginning, if you will write that down on your notes and make that a goal, your life will change. If you begin with the end in mind, your life will change.

I believe that so very, very much. Another point that I'd like to share with you then, as we do that, with all of this, to be able to focus on this, to focus on the two aspects that I've just given. Begin with the end in mind and begin every moment in the beginning with God.

It's to recognize that you have to do something else.

This is real simple. I don't know the Hebrew behind this. I'll just kind of take a break. That's it. Ease up. In a sense, I'm not asking you to do this unless you want to. I'm just saying I'm using this cut cable. Cut cable in your mind, in your heart, at least.

Give yourself a break. Follow the rabbi, our heavenly rabbi. Follow our master.

Sometimes there was so much coming at him. What did he do? Time out.

Seen enough crowd today. I'm taking a walk in the wilderness.

Bye-bye. Out. I need to rest. Now, we're all here today following God's instruction about the Sabbath rest.

But we need to rest every day. There is so much coming at us today. There is so much information that is coming at us today. And is the Google world an exciting world? Yes, it is. But you know what? It's information. If we don't take a time out from all of this that's coming at us, infant knowledge without understanding goes nowhere. And understanding without wisdom goes nowhere.

There is... I'm just going to be very honest with you. There is so much fighting... Are you with me? Am I the only one that has this problem? Maybe I just need to turn around and talk to myself. Maybe I'll be the only one that has this problem. I don't think so. There is so much coming at us.

So much information that it's more than our minds can process.

I'm not being anti-computer. It's an instrument. But every instrument can be used either as a tool or as a weapon. And we can have, as the people of God, so much coming at us and just bouncing off of our brain that we don't have time to think. And we are addicted. Addicted to response and click.

Vision and click. And you know it. And I know it. And we need to give ourselves time.

God is the author of time. He is the creator of time. And our creator and his son, our master, says, you and I are going to, if we're going to keep it together here, you know, keep it together, we just can't give God a day. How often have we said that to one of our n... Oh, we give God a day.

You know, we take one day out of seven... No, no, brethren, we need to give God our time.

I'm going to be very serious about this. Our spiritual well-being is determined by that.

How much we drink in of God and hold the world off.

Another one that I'd like to give you is simply this. Scripture. Scripture.

That Bible that's in our laps. That's life. We need more of it to recognize.

In Psalm 119, let's turn to that for a second, Psalm 119. And let's pick up the thought in verse 105, Psalm 119, 105.

Let's notice your word.

Not Fox News.

Not CNN.

Not NBC.

Your word is a lamp to my feet.

It's a light to my path.

I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep your righteous judgments.

I am afflicted very much. Revive me, O Lord, according to my faith. You may much revive me, O Lord, according to your word.

Except I pray the free will offering of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me your judgments.

It says your word is a lamp to my feet.

Okay, let's think this through. This is the PowerPoint. Let's look up here. Okay, your word.

See, you have to open up the word, you know, kind of like your flashlight. It's a lamp unto my feet.

Good. But it's also a light.

No, I shouldn't go there. No, no, I don't think Jesus has gone down that trail.

No, it may fall off.

You see, it's twofold.

The word... I grew up in an institution, and I grew up in Pasadena as well before that, and I walked by a building, and it said that the Word of God is the foundation of knowledge.

The Word of God. It's the foundation.

And if you're going to develop an edifice to the glory of God for you that are builders, and I did as bad as I am with things, I can do a hammer and now I did help build a building, is that everything goes into the foundation. If you don't get the foundation right, everything becomes like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That's where the time, the thought, the energy, and the expense goes. It's in the foundation. Susan and I recently walked, oh, about a year and a half ago we had our granddaughters with her, and they wanted to know where grandma and grandpa were married and this and that, and we're walking through the past. Don't do it that often, even though I grew up on that campus, is that walk by. And it's interesting, even though it's still very, very beautiful in parts and lovely residential areas all around it, but on what we call Ambassador Hall, there's a wonderful witness that is still there up above that door on the backside of Ambassador Hall by the Portico. And it says, the Word of God is the foundation of knowledge. I said, witness, even though witness, it's still there. It does not change.

And that's why I'm encouraging more than ever, time out, cut cable in your mind and your heart, give your time yourself to think without others doing the thinking for you. So important. So important.

Another one. Prayer. Talking to God.

Talking to God. Seeking His advice as you've read His Word. God expects it.

Jesus Himself said this, are you ready for this? He said, when you pray.

When you pray. Not if you pray, but when you pray. That's what a good teacher does. Can I share something with you? Those have been in the teaching world. We have this whole Academy of professionals over here on my right that have been in the teaching world.

Create an atmosphere of expectancy. That, you know, this is not just going to drop off the ledge, but this is something that you're giving this individual that's sitting out there, you're giving them an education that's going to move beyond the moment and is going to formulate and change and develop their life for the better. So Jesus, the rabbi, Jesus, our heavenly rabbi, says, and when you pray, say this. So there was an expectancy to do that.

Join me if you would for a moment in Psalms 145. We're going to wrap it up here in about three minutes. Psalm 145. Psalms 145 verse 17. Notice, please. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth, cause and effect, and He will fulfill the desire of those who respect Him, revere Him, and also will hear the cry and save them.

That's what we can expect.

A question that only you can answer. I know you're here today. Glad you're here. Well, you were here before I was, as we discussed in the announcements. But have you prayed today?

Have you showed up before our God on your own and given Him such great thanksgiving that for such a time as now His kingdom has come to you and to me and to thank Him for it and to cast your cares, to cast your worries upon Him. That's what we need to consider.

And when you do hear His word and His sure word, do you yield and do you obey? Do you know that when you are struck by the Word of God or a message from God, that you've got a decision to make, that you stand still in that hallway with Esther and a message comes to you, not just from a good man, Mordecai the Jew, but from that greater Mordecai, that second Mordecai, the words of Jesus Christ. And before you were going to go this way, but now, having heard that message and been given to it, to stand up, to stand tall, to recognize that the kingdom of God has come to you now, and you turn around and go a different way. Even though your knees will be trembling, your heart is firm. That's what we have to do.

The last thing I'll just share with you, wise and good friends. Wise and good friends are so important for this world that we're in right now. And they can be such a blessing. Let me finish with this story. How does this work in real time? I talked to you about Esther and Mordecai in real time. Let's talk about Daniel and his three buddies, Michiel, Hananiah, and Azariah. Otherwise, you know, an az! Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. That's a whole story about grooming that I've discussed before. You see, when you change culture, you change dress, you change words.

You change names, you change the way that things used to be.

Words have power, and man's society does that. And then when man himself wants to change God's world, he throws things down the memory hole, and it doesn't come up again.

And for those that bring it up again, there becomes a cancel culture, and not just words, but themselves. Daniel was given a situation. I'm just going to finish this story. Daniel was given a situation, called in with the rest of the magi, the sorcerers, and the wise men, and Nebuchadnezzar says, tell me a dream. Tell me about my dream. Give me the interpretation. I want to know. And they said, oh, fine, just tell us what the dream was. Tell us what you dreamt.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I got you all. You have to tell me what I dreamed.

Good luck right on that one. And then you tell me what it means. Great. Or otherwise, I'm going to chop off all your heads. Great.

Daniel's finally confronted. And this will kind of tie in with Mr. Mike Cook. Daniel is finally confronted. And what did Daniel do in Daniel 2? He called time out.

He knew he didn't have the answers by himself. He said, good, kid. Let me come back. Give me a little bit of time. We'll do it.

Brethren, if we're going to survive in this world and exist in the kingdom that has come into our life, I'm going to just share something with you. Each and every one of you, listen to me, please. I'm your friend. It's Robin. All of us need more time outs. We need to be able to breathe and drink in the breath of God, which is holy scripture.

Are you with me? Or are my words just going into the air? We need time out.

Give yourself permission as if your life depends upon it, your spiritual life, because it does.

And then what he did, he went and talked to his friends, the guys, Michelle, Hana, and I, and Azariah.

He shared with wise men the situation that was there.

If we do not have good friends, if we don't have people that we can turn to, ask God to place them into your life. Wise women, wise men, wise senior citizens, good young people that are going through life with you.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 4, it says, Be like a cord that is tied tight with two or three folds.

Don't just settle for your own good looks. Don't just settle for your own wisdom.

In a multitude of counsel, there is safety. Time out! Number one. First step. Number two. Talk it over with wise friends.

Number three. He invited them to pray with him about this situation.

For such a time as now, the kingdom has come upon us.

We have a decision to make. That we walk down that corridor alone, thinking we were alone like Esther, until Mordecai sent a message to her.

Receive that message. And history was changed.

Rather than the Jews being exterminated to the man and the woman and the baby, God's promise that Messiah and Emmanuel would come through the line of Judah.

There were big things that were happening there beyond just that moment in the corridor.

Satan was trying to make a blow to make God a liar.

And he used a woman, a wonderful lady, to make a difference for his kingdom.

Never underestimate how God is going to use you.

Be ready. Be open. Be willing. Be available.

For such a time as now. For this, each and every one of us that has been in range of my voice today has been given a witness. Let's be about our Father's business.