Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - When God Doesn’t Give You Details | Esther: Part 3

Episode Date: August 16, 2026

Feeling stuck? There's a decision or change you need to make. But you're waiting until it feels certain. Sometimes stepping into God's purpose means moving before you have all the details. How do you do that? Let’s find out in this message.  NEXT STEPS Have you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means: https://go2.lc/podcastcommittochrist ABOUT THIS MESSAGE Have you ever looked at your life and wondered where God was? You’re not alone. In the book of Esther, God’s name doesn't appear once, but His fingerprints are on every page. In this series, we'll learn how God showed up in what looked like an ordinary story—and it might change the way you see your own. A Simple Overview of Esther’s Story: https://finds.life.church/esther-bible-story-explained/ Start the Bible Plan Esther: Trusting God When You're Running on Empty: https://www.go2.lc/plan ABOUT LIFE.CHURCH Wherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app/download FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.church Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.church TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurch YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.church CONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIG GROESCHEL YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschel Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschel Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschel TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/35447748/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, we are in the book of Esther, and we're going to continue on with what we talked about last week, this week. And I will start with the question, and I want full participation. I'm going to ask for a lot of full participation today. How many of you like to know everything expected before you do something? Raise your hand if you're the plans. God bless you all. I see those hands. You can type in the comment section.

I like details. I like details. Most of us, we tend to want certainty before we act. I'll tell you a little confession when I was growing up, before I would ask any girl out, I lived in the day when you actually asked them out. You didn't just slide up in her DMs. You actually had to go up to them and say, hey, you want to go out. And so before I would do that, I would always ask a friend to ask her friend if the odds were good

that she'd say yes if I asked her out. Anybody else do this back in the day? Yeah, that's how I did. Some of you, you'll ask anybody out with a pulse. That's like a different spiritual gift as to others of you. But that was how I did. I wanted some form of guarantee until God brought me my dream girl, the story of how I met Amy. There was a girl that was making fun of me for my faith.

And she was making fun of Amy for her faith. She had never met Amy. She'd only heard about Amy. And she said, you should go out with this girl named Amy. She's weird like you. She's overboard for God. You're both overboard for God. You should just go be weird together.

I had never seen a photo of Amy. This was pre-social media. I couldn't stalk her. I didn't know what she looked like. All I knew was that when she said I should meet this girl that was overboard for God and her name was Amy. I literally wrote down her full name,

felt prompted by God. This is who I'm supposed to marry. Crazy I know. I don't recommend you do that. It probably won't work for you. It worked for me. I went and looked her up in the phone book. Now, some of you don't know what a phone book is.

You can just chat, beat, TBT, and chat TV, but you will lie to you and tell you something that it's not. And I looked her up in the phone book, and her name was there because that was the day when you could. I dialed her number, and I actually recorded the call. Why? Because I was weird like that. And I thought, maybe I could play the call at our wedding. I recorded the call.

She did not pick up. I got her answer machine. If you don't know what an answer machine is, You can ask chat, if you beat you that, then chat, she could do a lie to you. She can tell you this is true. I got her answer machine, and I left this voice message. Now, this was in the era of Top Gun. You remember Top Gun?

Hey, Big Stud, take me to bed or lose me forever. So I said, hey, you're Christian, babe, take me to church or lose me for it. I did this. It really happened. I really happened. And then I quoted the Bible verse, and now these three remain, faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. Amy, not if that's true.

That's true. I recorded that and then I called her back later. Thankfully, she did not hear that recording when I called her back later on. But at our wedding, I actually played that voice message and I called her without any guaranteed just a prompting from God and a step of faith. Most of you are like me.

We want certainty before we move. But God often asks us to move before he gives us certainty. That is what we're going to discover this week in Esther chapter four. Esther is going to face the biggest decision of her life. It is a massive risk. And she's going to want some details, maybe some kind of guarantees. We're going to see that God doesn't give her any of that stuff.

He just asked her to trust him with the very next step. And this message will speak to some of you today because so often we are stuck where we are waiting for guarantees and when God instead is asking us for faith. I'm going to show you in his word that he rarely ever will show you the whole plan. In fact, that's why you don't need the whole plan to take the next step. Let's review. If you missed the last few weeks, maybe you're just now back with us because your kids are now back in school.

Welcome back from the lake. Let's review where we've been. There are five main characters we've covered in the last few weeks. weeks. The first one we have, the drunk king. Remember King Xerxes throws a big party, why he's probably insecure, has a long party, and he wants to show off his wife, Queen Vashti, and he says, hey, go get her so she can come in here so I can show everybody how amazing she is. She says, I'm sick of being objectified. She says, no, I'm not going to go. He gets embarrassed, he gets mad. He banishes the queen. They do a nationwide search to find a new queen. Enter Esther. The book is named after Esther. A Jewish girl,

important, a Jewish girl, not Persian, a Jewish girl who has to keep her identity secret, is then put through a bunch of beauty treatments into the end of the year. She's chosen to be the brand new queen. Then there's her cousin, Mordecai. Mordecai was a guy that raised Esther because Esther was an orphan. He loved her like his own. He overhears a plot to kill King Xerxes. So he reports the plot, saves the king's life. It's recorded in a book and then apparently forgotten. Last week, the music changed. Remember? The scary music played. And who comes along? The bad guy, what's his name? His name is? Good. Three of you remember. His name is Haman. He's the bad guy. Mordecai doesn't bow down to honor Haman. And so Haman gets very, very mad and doesn't want to just kill Mordecai.

but he convinces and essentially tricks the king to kill every Jewish person in the empire. Now, what is Esther? She's Jewish. We have a problem. We've seen now in these chapters, and through the whole book of Esther, amazingly enough, God's name is never mentioned in the book of Esther. But God's presence, his power, and his goodness is on every single page. Chapter 4 is where we pick up today.

Esther, her cousin, Mordecai, he's out by the palace gates. And he hears about the decree. He realizes, hey, they're going to kill every Jewish person in the empire. And so Mordecai is devastated. This is his people. This is his cousin, the queen, Esther. They're talking about his God. And so we see in Esther 4, verse 1, this.

When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes and he wore sackcloth and ashes. He went out into the city, whaling loudly and bitterly, but he went only as far as the king's gate because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. So he hears the news. This is horrible. They're going to kill all the Jewish people, and so he tears the clothes and puts on sackcloth. These are outward invisible signs of grief and profound sadness. And so he's not hiding his emotions.

He's telling everybody, I am beside myself with grief. over this, he's wailing. And the word reaches the palace and Esther hears about it. Your cousins falling apart. So verse four tells us what happens. When Esther's eunuchs and female attendants came and told her about Mordecai, Mordecai's going crazy, he's so sad, he's so upset. She was in great distress and so what did she do? Watch. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. He tears the clothes. He's wailing in grief. He puts on sackcloth, and she does the very same thing we tend to do. She wants to make it better without even knowing what went wrong. Side note for marriages.

If you've been married for 17 minutes, you've had this happen to you. And here's how it always goes. I'll personalize it. Amy says, I'm upset about something. And I say, I'll fix it. And she says, I don't want you to fix it. I just want to talk about it. And I say, why do you want to talk about it if you don't want to fix it? We've been married for 35 years. And I have not learned yet she likes to talk about broken things.

It's a marriage thing. And this is Esther. There's a problem. Let's just fix it. Let's just deal with the symptom. Let's not get down to the root. And essentially, we do the same thing. A lot of times God's trying to do something in us, and we don't want to change.

We keep distracting ourselves. We keep ignoring the problem. We deal with the symptom instead of dealing with the root. In other words, like, we'll do anything rather than face what God's really asking us to do. We'll scroll. I mean, we'll do things that look religious, because if we really face what he's talking to, about, then we might actually have to change. So she says, let me fix what is obvious. Let me send some clothes. And he said, no, no, no, no, no. He sends a clothes back. In other words, almost like he's saying,

you can't cover this. You're going to have to face it. You're going to have to deal with it. And today, what I'm going to try to do at some points is really slow it down and just give you the opportunity to listen to what the Holy Spirit might say to you. Because I really believe that for some of you, God wants to speak to you in a very, very real way today. And I want to tell you, and I want you to believe me when I tell you that God loves you too much to let you keep managing what he wants to heal. If you're just looking at the symptom, God wants to get down to the root, and God wants to do a healing work in your heart. And we're going to give them time to do that today. And so Esther tries to fix the problem. He sends the clothes back. And so I see, why, why do

to do that. I don't understand. Now she's going to get to the root of the problem. So she sends messengers, go find out what's going on. Why is he doing this? And Mordecai tells the messengers everything. There's a big plot and they're going to kill all the Jewish people. And when she hears this, this hits her hard. This is her people. And she realizes this is her. And here's what scripture tells us. All the king's officials and all the royal providences know that if any man or woman who approaches the king of the inner court without being summoned, that king has but one law. She's telling Mordecai this. She says that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their life. So Mordecai is like, you have to do something about this. She says,

if I go before the king and he hasn't called me, he can strike me dead at that very moment. She says, 30 days have passed since I was called to go to the king. In other words, if you want me to go to the king, even though I am the queen, he don't play. If you're not called into his presence and he hadn't called me for a month, she tells Mordecai, if I go in there, I am risking my life. This is a weighty decision that she has to make. Verse 13, Mordecai sends the answer back. He says, do not think that because you're in the king's house, that you alone of all the Jews escape. He says, but you and your father's family will perish. Mordecai says, don't you think just because you're the queen, you're going to live through this. Every Jewish person will be killed, all your loved ones, all your family, including

you. And then he says the verse that most people know from the book of Vester. He says, this. And Esther, who knows? But that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this. Who knows, Esther, that maybe God chose you out of an ordinary life as a Jewish person and elevated to you to the place of being the queen, married to the only guy who has the power to stop this. Who knows, Esther? If God hasn't chosen you for such a time as this. And this is the part that I want to slow down and say for some of you, maybe you're at a moment, it's something in your life. It could be for your marriage. It could be for your health. It could be for your relationship with someone else, with a child, it could be your faith in God.

Who knows if all sorts of things haven't been moving toward this moment today, not everybody, but some of you, where you hear this word, and God speaks to you and says, you are not here by accident. But God wants to do something through such a time as this. It may be that God gives you the faith to start a ministry or a business, or a business, or to stop something that you shouldn't be doing, confess your sin, or to speak out on behalf of someone that needs help, or to ask out a Christian babe,

or to break up with a Christian done. Because, you know, you can't marry the right one if you're dating a wrong one. I don't know who that's for, but if you're the wrong one, don't get mad at me. You shouldn't have been the wrong one, right? And I'm kind of joking, but I'm really not, because maybe, maybe you're hearing this message for such a time as this. Maybe God put you next to a person who needs to hear a conversation after this. Maybe God's going to put someone on your heart for you to reach out to.

Maybe there's something God wants you to do. Sometimes it's big, like the divine moments are big. Other times, the promptings are just something that happens on a Thursday afternoon. like when Amy and I were at a pastor's conference a while back, and we were in a different time zone. And we had about three hours in the afternoon off. And so we took about a 20-minute walk to the beach. We're so excited to get to the beach.

When I got to the beach, I felt prompted to call a friend of mine, this heavy, weighty sense that I need to call him. But my phone was back at the hotel 20 minutes away. And that's what do I do? And Amy's like, well, if God's prompting you, need to go back there right now. Don't stay on the beach. I'll stay here and you go back. Shouldn't have got your phone, dummy. Can you fix this? Let's talk about it. So I went back, all the way back, got my phone because I felt prompted by God. I need to call him. Well, I forgot about

the time zone change. And it was afternoon where I was. It was about midnight where he was. and my friend picked up the phone, his voice was shaking, and he said, why are you calling me now? And then I'm like, oh, it's midnight. And I said, I'm so sorry. I felt this heaviness, this like I was supposed to call you. And he said, why now? His voice was shaking. He said, why now? And I said, man, I think I was supposed to call you. Well, I knew he was in a bad place, and I knew he'd, I knew he was in a bad place. And I said, are you thinking about taking your life right now? And he started crying. He said, I am. And I said, are you holding a gun in your hand? He said, because I knew he was, he carried. I said, are you holding a gun? He said, I am. And I talked

him through it. And so we're going to go over to your neighbor's house because I knew he knew the neighbor, knock on the door at midnight, give the gun to your neighbor, talk him through all that. And when we got through all that stuff at midnight, I said, do you realize how much God cares about you, that I'm in another part of the world for getting the time zone, prompted went all the way back to call you at this moment because God has so much more for you. And he sobbed and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. And that was just a prompting when I wanted to be on the beach. It didn't feel like for such a time as this. It just was the prompting. Call a buddy that you care about. Honestly, it felt inconvenient, a long walk back to the hotel. But God knew what I didn't. God knew at that moment

there was someone that he loved that needed hope and prompted me to go give him a little bit of hope. And sometimes such a time as this, it doesn't feel like a burning bush. It feels like a nudge. It feels like an inconvenience. But the good news is that God knows what you don't. He knows all things, and he puts you where you are for his divine purposes. Esther recognizes this. She feels the weight of the situation. She's the queen, married to the only person that has the power to stop this, and her people could die.

She may be the only one alive who can do something about it. So what does she do? I want to show you what she did. She goes to her community and she asks them to fast and to pray for her. She goes to her people. She goes to her people and asks them to pray. Look at the text. Esther 4.15.

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai. Go gather together all the Jews. Go gather my people who are in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendance. We're going to fast and we're going to pray and seek God just like you. And when this is done after my people have prayed for me, I will go to the king even though it's against the law.

And watch what she says. If I perish, I perish. Fast for me. Pray for it. The first thing she does is she goes to her people and ask them to pray. I'm going to ask you right now, do you have your people? Do you have the people in your life whenever you're prompted to go and take this step of faith that you can immediately text, immediately call it and say, I need prayer, I need prayer.

I'm going to tell you right now. I have had one of those weeks where I preach whether I want to preach or not. Weekends come, and it don't matter what's going on on the outside. And you stand up and you preach. I texted two of my people and said, pray. Pray. Why? Because I got my people and I need prayer. Do you have your people? Do you have those people? I'm telling you, if you don't, I'm saying it week after week after week. You need those people. Those people need you. Christianity is not a solo sport. We best experience the power in the presence of God together.

And going to church and just sitting in rows is not the same as sitting in circles with your people. If you don't have your people, find your people. Esther, she didn't have any guarantee. Approaching the king could cost her, her life. She didn't feel ready. Listen, when God prompts you, for such a time as this, make the call. For such a time as this, start the whatever it is. For such a time as this, apologize and ask for forgiveness.

For such a time as this, reach out to the person who doesn't know you. For such a time as this, you're not going to feel ready when God calls you to do it. And you're going to have a choice. stay stay safe stay silent stay still or simply take the next step one step i'll go do it i'll go put myself before the king if i die i die if he extends the step after i live this is what god put on my heart, I have to take the next step. And this message is so heavy on my heart, because so many right now, you're stuck. Like you love God, and you're just stuck. And the reason why so many people are stuck is this, while you're waiting for clarity, God's waiting for trust. You want details,

and God just wants you to take a step of faith. And again, this isn't everybody. but this is some of you. Maybe God's been positioning you for longer than you know, and every detail is actually leading toward this moment. And I promise you, he is not asking you to have it all figured out, and you don't have to have all the details. Sometimes you just got to look her up in the phone book,

make the phone call, and believe that God might do something through your crazy voice message. God is just asking you to take. the next step. And so what I want to do is I want to ask you, like, what's your next step? And I prayed about this, and I didn't know whether to do it or not, but I decided we're going to do it.

I'm just going to come down here and kind of get with you guys. There's a little card on your seat. Can everybody grab these cards, if you don't mind? Just grab these cards? All right. Let's grab them. As your pastor, I'm going to love you today. I'm going to push you just a little bit.

Everybody wave your cards at me if you can. Very good, good work. Okay, you guys in Wichita, let's make sure you're doing it. Mansfield, let's make sure you're doing it. Albany, let's make sure you're doing it. Arkansas is doing it. Hey, Papillion, Omaha, very good. Okay, got your cars, good.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to ask you, and I'm just going to lovingly push you. I've given you enough categories here where your next step is somewhere here. And what I'd love for you to do is just to grab a pen, give us your name and a contact, and the reason is because we want to pray for you. and you say, oh man, that's invasive.

Absolutely. I mean, absolutely. Like, I just, you just, I can't let you come to church and leave without letting us love each other together. Fair enough. And so what I want to do is just give us a chance to pray for you, reach out and just say, how can we help in any way? And I want you to think about what is your next step.

And I'm going to ask everybody to do this here. You say, I'm not a Christian. Great, I don't really care. Let's all do it together. Staff, do it. I'll do it. You do it. What I want you to do is just tell me what's your next step. And I'll give you some categories and your next step is on here somewhere. Attend. Those of you that just came back because you haven't

been here all summer, let's just, let's make church every time we're in town, a regular part of what we do. You're not going to grow spiritually if you're not in the presence of God with God's people. Church is not just someplace we go. This is, this is, it's a body. It's who we are. And we don't just go. We serve there. And so some of you say, well, it's actually time that I serve here. You drop your kids off and someone else loves on them every single. week. You bring your kids to switch. Someone else loves someone every single week. You're gifted by God with spiritual gifts to make a difference in his body. If you're not doing something, there's something he wants to be done that's not being done. Sir, Tive. God's been speaking to some of you. You know it. It's

time to take that step of faith. You don't have all the details. You take the, God says, test me in this. Try it. Find community. I've been talking about this a lot, and the reason is because it matters a lot. It matters a lot. You will never become a fully devoted follower of Christ without the people that God wants in your life to pray for you, love, you, support you. and you need to love and support them as well. Find community. Take a step of obedience. And this is big enough for anything for you.

It's that conversation that you've been avoiding. It's confessing that sin. It's a child that you need to fight for. It's someone that you need to invite to church. It's someone you need to be a witness to. It's the person that God is prompting you to forgive and you haven't forgiven them yet. It's the walk across the beach to make the call.

something personal for you. Get baptized. There are those of you that you've never been baptized. This is part of being a follower of Christ. We publicly declare our sins are been forgiven. We put you in a pool that symbolizes your sins are being washed away. If you've been really bad, we put you under for a long time. We give you a little extra wash in there.

And you need to do that. Some of you're like, well, I did that when I was a kid, and I don't remember. So maybe you decide to do it. tell us that and we'll help you do it next time and then some of you your next step is to stop living for yourself and to live for the one who gave us life for you to follow Jesus and what I want you to do is just be real prayerful about it you've got the card and I would love for everybody to do this and maybe your prayer today it'll sound a little bit like esters but God I don't know the details I don't know how this is going to end but I believe you put me here for this moment to hear

hear from you and to take a step. And so I'm going to trust you with the outcome. I don't know where this is going to go, but God, I'm going to trust you. And so what I'm going to ask you to do is if you do trust God is just fill this little thing out and then just say it with me. Just kind of just say it. Just say, God, I trust you. Let's try it again. All of our churches just say it. We'll do it. We'll do it. We'll do it. Count of three to make sure together. One, two, three. God, I trust you. And now real slowly, just kind of from your heart. I'm going to count to three and then just at your own pace. When you just think about it, what's God calling you to do? What's your next step?

Scary? Take some faith. Listen, if you're living in that secret sin, you haven't overcome it yourself, let's confess it. Let's confess it. If your relationship's not where it's supposed to be, let's not pretend like it is. Let's talk about it. If you drifted from God and you know it, let's just cry out to him, step back and say, I want to be close to you. What is your next step?

Let's report it. And then when you're ready at the count of three, just say, God, I trust you. One, two, three. God, I trust. So Heavenly Father, we do trust you. You're faithful, you're good. Your word is always true. And God, I pray that the power of the Holy Spirit would help us individually take

one step forward and then corporately, God, that our church would be stronger because together we're all stepping toward you. Holy Spirit, show us all. What is our next step? God, we'll talk about it in our life group. We'll talk about it over dinner. We'll talk about it over lunch. God, if there's someone here that needs that community, God, I pray that you would surround us by the right people. Give us the courage to reach out, to make an ask, show us where to serve. Give us the faith to tithe. That draws close to you. Whatever you call us to do, God.

If I perish, I perish. If you're faithful, God, we're going to see your faithfulness. We believe you will be faithful as we take the next step. As you keep praying today, just give it kind of a holy moment, just sit in the presence of God and just kind of wait on him as he speaks to you. speak to us, God. Speak to us, God. We need you. Guide our steps.

God, we know you won't show us all the details, but God will trust you with the next step. As you keep praying today, for some of you, your next step is to step away from your sinful nature and step toward the grace of God. And I'm going to try to make this just as clear as I can because it is the best news I could ever share with you. The bad news is that we've all messed up.

You know you've done it. You've told lies. You've hurt people. You've done things you're embarrassed by. The Bible calls that sin. It's not a popular word. It's a biblical word. It's a real word.

And we've all sinned. I have, you have, we all have. And our sin separates us from God. But the good news is that God's gift of salvation is not based on our good works. And our sins can be forgiven. by the grace of God through faith in Jesus. Scripture tells us that,

that we're not saved by our own works, but by God's grace, by putting faith in Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the perfect, sinless son of God, who died on a cross to pay for the price for our sins. And three days later, God raised everyone in the dead so that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name, would be saved, transformed, forgiven.

there are those of you that God brought here today for such a time as this. And you know it, you can sense it. You're tired of doing life on your own. You're tired of wondering where you stand with God. You're tired of feeling guilty for your sins. When you call in the name of Jesus, he hears your prayers, he forgives your sins, he makes you brand new and fills you with the spirit of God. So now you have access.

You can come boldly before His throne of grace to find help in your time of need. You are not here by accident. What you feel in your heart is the divine providence of God. He brought you here for this moment for such a time as this. Step away from your old life. Step into your new life at all of our church today. You recognize that's you today. It's the day of your salvation for such a time as this.

I choose to follow Jesus. I give my life to him. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. Lift them up high all over the place and say that's my prayer. Right back over there. Praise God for you. Others of you right back here and over there as well.

Oh, my gosh. That's great. Others today say yes, Jesus, I surrender. Be the Lord of my life, right back over here and over here as well. Right back up there. Oh, church, can we praise God. Others today say yes, Jesus, I surrender. Online, you can just type in the comment section.

I'm surrendering my life to Christ. Would you all just pray together? Let's just pray together. Heavenly Father. Thank you. That I'm in your presence. When others come to know you, forgive all of my sins.

save me Jesus be the Lord of my life first in every single way Holy Spirit fill me so I could know you and take the next step show me step by step so I can follow you

so I'm walking with you showing your love doing your will my life is not my own I give it all to you give me wisdom to take the next step give me faith

to take the next step. Help me to glorify you by taking the next step. You have all of my life because I trust you. In Jesus' name I pray. Come on church. Let's give God praise today. Come on church.