Live Free with Josh Howerton - Choose Courage Today | Ep. 193 | Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

God will always accomplish His plan and He invites us to be a part of the story. Esther had a choice to make. Would she try to keep herself safe or be courageous and speak up on behalf of her people? God gives all of us opportunities where we must decide whether or not we are going to trust Him. Where is He asking you to be brave today? For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what's up, everybody? I'm Mike, and we have been diving into an incredible mini-series together. It's the real story that comes from the pages of the Old Testament section of the Bible. And man, it is full of intrigue and twist and turns and villains and heroes.

It's the story of a young Jewish orphan named Esther, who has been named Queen to the Persian Empire by a hugely self-centered king named Xerxes. And we hit pause yesterday right after we were introduced to this very evil dude named Haman, Xerxes right-hand man, who doesn't like this really, really good Jewish man named Mordecai, who just happens to be Esther's adoptive father? So in the overreaction of overreactions in the history of the world, he hatches a plan to wipe out all the Jewish people living in the Persian Empire, and he lies to the king to get him to sign off on it, and an edict is sent throughout the land announcing that the Jewish people have 11 months to prepare for their demise. Well, Mordecai sends a message to Esther telling her that she needs to step up and speak to the king about this.

Esther tells him, it's not that easy to go to the king uninvited as a capital offense. This is asking too much of her. And Mordecai sends back this now-famous response, don't think for a moment that because you're in the palace, you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place. but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this? And man, that is such a challenge for all of us.

You know, I'm learning that we can refuse to obey God, we can cower in fear from our calling, and he will still accomplish his agenda. I mean, just like Mordeca said, if you don't do this, it will arise from another place. I mean, God will accomplish his plan. Mordeca remembers that God had made a promise centuries before to Abraham that God would bless the entire world through the Jewish nation. A savior for the entire

world was going to come through them, so he knew that somehow, somehow God would accomplish his long-term plans. But what happens is that we pass up the fulfillment of our own life purpose, and we miss out on an incredible work that God wanted to do in and through our lives. Irwin McManus puts it this way. if you wait for guarantees, the only thing that will be guaranteed is that you will miss endless divine opportunities. We all want miracles, and then we spend our lives avoiding the context in which miracles happen. We all need to take some courage. Hey, if you're a new parent or the parent of an elementary kid, a junior high kid, a high school kid, man, that could be scary. And there aren't a lot of guarantees. There's definitely some uncertainty, but don't back down from that.

Don't take the easy way out. Be courageous because God has placed you in that boy's life, in that girl's life for such a time as this. If you're a boss, if you're a business leader, and things are a little bit scary right now, a little tight, little uncertain with the economy, and there are definitely some opportunities to keep things going up and to the right if you could just be a little bit shady, a little dishonest. Come on. Don't settle for that. Be brave. Perhaps you are that honest leader for such a time as this. If you're a college student, a high school student, junior high school student, and you know that God is asking you to lovingly, courageously stand for him as you head to school, and there might be some ridicule, there might be some exclusion, things might get hard for you,

but don't shrink back. Be kind, be humble, be compassionate, love like Jesus, but be brave. Perhaps you were in that school on that campus for such a time as this. Maybe you've since God ask you to do something that seems like too big of an ask. The time is not real great, it would make things really uncomfortable, there's way too many obstacles, it might create a little chaos in your routine. Listen, don't think for a second that God only ask other people to take risk, that he wouldn't ask something that's risky of you. He would. He does. And who knows, you might just be the man, the woman who was born for such a time as this. You see, Esther had a choice. Courage is always a choice, and you and I can make that choice today.

So I want to challenge you, make it. And I'll see you back tomorrow for episode four. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you,

would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out. For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.combe. Church slash Daily Drive.