A Heavenly Placement

Do you think it's a coincidence that Linda ends up next to Ann at the fitness center? No, it is not a coincidence. That's what we call a heavenly placement, a divine arrangement that God Himself puts together and we too often miss. We too often let go by and don't recognize what's happening. We call a heavenly placement, a God intended and God arranged meeting of two people, one a believer, one an unbeliever. And the same thing can happen, not only at the fitness center, but where you work, same thing can happen across the back fence where you live, same thing can happen with people you see at your kid soccer game or basketball game, or people you see every week at the stores that you shop in, the same thing can happen where you are divinely placed, a heavenly placement in a strategic location where you bump shoulders with an unbeliever. There's another word for that, not just heavenly placement, this is also called the providence of God. And what we mean by that is that God supernaturally arranges the events of our lives so that we come in contact with people that He wants us to come in contact with so that we can reach out to them with the gospel. We believe, I believe, the Bible teaches that God is at work in all the events of our lives. Bible clearly teaches that. Romans 8.28 is a verse that most of us would recognize and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose. Now we usually think of that verse when something bad is going on. We have to remind ourselves that God is at work in all things, working together for good, and we usually think of that verse in times of trial or difficulty. But the verse really is saying that God arranges all the events of our lives, brings all things together for good. And so He strategically places us in places where we need to hear the gospel or someone else, close to us, needs to hear the gospel. Ephesians 1, verse 11 says, in Him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan. Here's what I want you to really see. The plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. So God is at work in everything, using everything in our lives to bring about His purpose and His will. Now what I want us to do today is something a little different to what we normally do. We normally take a passage of Scripture, fairly select passage of Scripture and work through that. Today we're going to, I'm going to preach a whole book of the Bible. Now don't get up and leave. I promise. Not going to be quite as long as what it sounds. We're going to look at a whole book of the Bible. We're going to look at a story in the Bible that is an amazing story of God's providence. God's supernatural placing people where He wants them to be to save the lives of literally thousands of people. And then we're going to take a look at how that applies to us in being lifesavers, how God has strategically placed us where He wants us to be to be lifesavers to other people. So let's open our Bibles to the book of Esther. You can find the book of Esther pretty easily. Believe it or not, if you can find Psalms right in the middle of your Bible and then back pedal a few pages, you'll eventually come to Esther. If you get through Job, you'll come to Esther. So let's look at the book of Esther. I'm basically going to tell you the story this morning, but as we go through the story, we'll look at some very important verses that phrase things in ways that I want us to see. Little background first to the story of Esther. The nation of Israel has been in captivity for 70 years in the land of Babylon. God has used that 70-year captivity as judgment on His people because of their idolatry and other sins they've been guilty of. So they've been in captivity for 70 years. But now Babylon has been overthrown by another world power called the Meeds and the Persians. So now the Persian Empire is the world empire and the Persians are a little more friendly toward their captive nations. And for that reason, they allow people to go back home rather than staying in captivity. So there are three returns of Israelites to their homeland under men like Zerubbable and Ezra and Nehemiah. You may be familiar with those names from your Old Testament. Those were three men that led three different returns of their people to the land. Thousands of Jews went back to the land, but many of them stayed in Persia. And the book of Esther is the book in the Old Testament that tells us the story of those who stayed behind in Persia. It is a riveting drama. It is a story unlike anything that television could tell or Hollywood could produce. In fact, I have wondered for a long time why hasn't someone made this story into a movie? I think it would do well. It's a gripping story. What I want us to do this morning is just look at the story and see this amazing story of God's providence and heavenly placement of people in the right place, the right time. And then we'll see how that applies to you and to me as lifesavers, as people who reach out to others with the gospel. So the book of Esther, it really takes place in three acts. This drama does in three different acts. Act number one, chapters one through three, we see as the danger to God's people. The book kind of sets up the danger to God's people. Now in these first three chapters, we are introduced to all the main characters of the story. For instance, chapter one tells us the story of the divorce of Vashty. Now here's how it works. The King of the Meadow Persian Empire is a man by the name of Zerksys. And Zerksys has this huge banquet, a great banquet that lasts for six months. As another ruler of that part of the world said a few years ago, that was the mother of all banquets. I mean, that's just a huge six month banquet. And the purpose of this banquet was to call all of his major leaders together and show them the excellence of his kingdom, but also they were planning an invasion of Greece. History tells us, and that was one of the reasons why this thing took place. At the end of this six month banquet, he decides to have a one week banquet. This is the banquet to end all banquets, I guess, because it finishes up the six month banquet and for one week they have a drinking feast, basically. Now at the end of that one week feast, that one week party. Let's take a look at what happens in verses 10 and 11 of chapter 1. Verse 10. On the seventh day, when King Zerksys was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven uniques who served him, and then they're listed there. Now look at verse 11. To bring before him Queen Vashty wearing her royal crown in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles for she was lovely to look at. It's quite obvious that King Zerksys was not interested in displaying her keen intellect or her cooking ability. It's quite obvious from the text that's not the issue. Probably what was happening here was it was a very immoral display of her beauty, and so she refuses. She absolutely refuses to come. Well, that presents a bit of a crisis. You've got the King of the whole world expecting something of his wife, and she flat out says, no. And that's a great crisis in this kingdom. In fact, the leaders all get together and say, we can't tolerate this. Just think of what all the other women in the kingdom will do when they found out that the King's wife wouldn't do what he said. And so they do two things. Number one, they depose Vashty. He divorces her. She's thrown off the throne. And then they send a letter. This is classic. They send a letter to every home in the Persian Empire. Look at what it says in verse 22. He sent dispatches to all parts of the kingdom to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, proclaiming in each people's tongue that every man should be ruler over his own household. And I say, amen. Go for it, King Zerksy's. He's concerned that the whole empire will fall apart now that his wife has resisted his stipulations. And now everybody will be emboldened to rebel against their husbands and so forth. And so he wants to maintain this order in the kingdom. But Vashty is deposed of Vashty takes place in chapter 1. That introduces us in chapter 2 to the second main character of the book. First main character is Zerksy's. Second main character is Esther. And in chapter 2, verses 1 through 20, we have the discovery of Esther. What happens in chapter 2 is a nationwide beauty contest is set up to find a successor to Vashty. And so young women from all over the empire are called together to come for this beauty contest. They join the Heram, the Bible says in chapter 2, that they go through a year-long series of beauty treatments. I won't make any comment about what that was needed there. But anyway, they went through a year-long series of beauty treatments and then they appear before the king and the king is going to choose from that group one to replace Vashty and be the queen. Now this is a combination of American Idol and Star Search and Miss Universe all rolled into one. This is a real big contest, worldwide contest. And the one gal who's going to win will become the new queen. Well one of those women who is asked to join the Heram is a young Jewish lady by the name of Esther. And as it turns out, Esther impresses the queen and she is a king and she is chosen, she didn't impress Vashty, but she impressed the king and she is chosen to replace Vashty as the next queen. Then we are introduced to the third main character of the book in a few verses, verses 21 to 23, in a little passage that almost seems out of place, it seems to interrupt the story verses 21 to 23, introduce us to the devotion of Mordecai. Now Mordecai is actually a cousin of Esther. You see Esther has lost both of her parents when she's a young child and Mordecai her cousin raises her and obviously he's done a great job as we'll see in the story of raising her to know and love God. So Mordecai has raised her but Mordecai seems to also have some kind of an important position in the kingdom. The Bible says he was sitting at the king's gate which doesn't mean he was just a loafer that sat out there in front of the city gate all day. City gate was a place of important business. And so he probably has a very strategic important position in the kingdom. He's an official of some sort. One day he overhears this plot. To overthrow King Zerxes, he alerts Esther to that plot and it is of course discovered and the two who are in charge of this plot overthrow the king are arrested and executed. The plot is obviously not carried out and all of this is recorded in the king's journals. Now that's what's important. That'll come up again later in the story. And the reason we're introduced to Mordecai here is because he plays an important part in that happening. The devotion of Mordecai to his king Zerxes is described for us here. That brings us to chapter 3 which introduces the fourth major character of the book and we find in chapter 3 the decree of Hamen. Now, Hamen is another important official. In fact, he's been raised to be one of the key officials in Zerxes' kingdom. Hamen is a guy that kind of goes to his head. In fact, he has such an important position that when he walks out of the king's palace and walks out into the streets, other people stand up and then bow to him. But there is one guy who never bows in his presence. Mordecai. Because Mordecai is a one who loves God and he realizes the only person he is to bow down to and worship and that's how that was seen in that day. The only person he's to worship is God himself. So he will not bow down to Hamen. Well that infuriates Hamen. Hamen is a man of tremendous ego. He's a raging bigot. He's arrogant. His ego is as big as the kingdom of Persia. And when he sees one person that will not bow down to him, it just infuriates him. And so he decides that he's going to destroy Mordecai and not only that, he's going to make a statement. He's going to destroy all of Mordecai's people, the Jews. So he goes into the king, King Zerxes and he says, you know, this is the way he frames it. He says, you know, there are a group of people in your kingdom that don't respect you and don't honor you and don't obey your laws. They need to be done away with. And the king says, well, certainly we need to get rid of those kind of people. Go ahead Hamen. Figure out what needs to be done. So Hamen concocts this plot, drops a bunch of money in the king's treasury and sets a date for the Jewish nation to be destroyed. And people are sent throughout the kingdom to carry the message. It on such and such a date you're to attack all the Jews and kill them. And thus we find act one of this dramatic story comes to an end, the danger to God's people. But this is where the story really gets interesting. Act two, chapters four and five is the decision of God's servant. And what happens here is Queen Esther is faced with a decision she must make. Which is to see how it works out. First thing that happens in these chapters, chapter four, verses one through 14, is Mordecai's appeal. Mordecai finds out about this threat and this plan to exterminate the Jews evidently Esther hasn't heard about it yet. And Mordecai finds out about it and he puts on sackcloth and he starts mourning in the way that people did in that day. And somebody reports that to Queen Esther. And so she sends word to Mordecai, what's wrong? What's happened? Why are you mourning like this? And he tells her the story of how the Jews are going to be exterminated. And then he makes an appeal to her. You need to intervene on our behalf. She sends word back to him. You don't understand. You can't just walk into the King's presence. You have to be invited in. If you just walk in, then you can be executed. So I can't just walk in and notice what Mordecai's response is in verse 12 of chapter four, verse 12. When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer. Do not think that because you are in the King's house, you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And notice the next statement. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this? It's the key statement in all the book. What Mordecai is saying is, I know you are risking your life if you go in and intervene before the King. I know that. But you have got to take action. You cannot remain silent. Who knows but what God may have placed you in this position for this specific time to be a life saver for our people, to intervene on behalf of the people of Israel? Who knows but what you are in this royal position for such a time as this and for this particular responsibility? Well, that evidently made an impression on Queen Esther and we have Esther's answer in verses 15 through 17. Let's read that, verse 15. Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai, go gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, that's the capital city. And fast for me, do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the King even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. Now obviously the intent of this is not just to fast but to pray. Fasting is always coupled with prayer in the Old Testament and so she is obviously asking them to fast and pray for her. One of the interesting things about this book is that God's name has never found in the book of Esther but his fingerprints are all over this book. It's unmistakable that God has at work and he's at work right here. She sends the message out, you know, let's spend three days fasting, pray for me and then I will go into the King and if I die, I die. But I'm willing to take that risk. I'm willing to put my life on the line to no longer be silent and to speak what needs to be said to the King. I'm willing to do that. So Esther's answer is you pray for me, I will go and put my life on the line. I'll overcome my fear and I will not remain silent. I will speak. I will speak to the King about saving our people. Well chapter five verses one through eight describe Esther's audience before the King. Esther does actually decide to do this. Verse one on the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace in front of the King's hall. The King was sitting on his royal throne in the hall facing the entrance. So she dresses up, you know, in her best attire. Esther knows that a way to a man's heart is not through his stomach, it is through his eyes. And so she dresses up, you know, and when he sees her, look at what happens in verse two, when he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he said, Haba, Haba, Haba. That's a loose rendering of the Hebrew. That's not really what he said. I was kind of, that's the King John translation there. But it says in verse two, it says, he was pleased with her. We saw, he was pleased with her and he held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. This was an indication that she was not in trouble. I mean, he could have waved his hand and somebody would rush in and take her away and kill her. It was, you just did not walk into the presence of a Persian king. But when he sees her, he is pleased with her, his heart is moved by the sight of her and he extends the King's scepter, which basically says, I'm sparing your life, come on in. And so she walks in and touches the end of the scepter and the conversation begins and he says, what do you want? I'll give you anything up to half of the kingdom. That's why I know he was impressed with how she looked. You know, he just wasn't thinking right. I'll give you anything. Half of the kingdom, if you want it, you know, I'll give it to you. But she says, no, I got one request and that is, I want you and Hamen to come to a banquet tomorrow. And so she sets up this banquet and they have the banquet and at that banquet she is intending to expose Hamen and his plot. But for whatever reason, she doesn't. Whether she lost courage or whether the opportunity just didn't present itself, we don't know that the scriptures do not tell us, but she did not expose the plot. When the king finally gets around asking you, okay, Esther, what do you want? What is your request? She says, let's do another banquet. Tomorrow we do another banquet. Now that may seem like, oh boy, she's really blowing it here, but you know that was all in God's Providence, too, because something is going to happen between those two events that will be a key part of the story. Esther's audience with the king. And then the rest of chapter 5 ends with a discussion of Hamen. And what we find here is Hamen's arrogance, the end of chapter 5. He leaves this first banquet and walks out of the king's palace and once again, Mordecai does not rise, does not bow. And Hamen goes home humiliated and infuriated. When he gets home, he calls his wife and his friends together and he says, you know, I'm the most important man in this kingdom. I have all this wealth and position and power and in fact, I'm the only official invited by the queen to the banquet. Nobody else gets to go. But one of the greatest days of my life was ruined by this jerk Mordecai. I just hate the guy. And so his wife and his friends say, well, we can get rid of Mordecai very easily. Why don't you just kill him? And Hamen says, good idea. And so he has a gallows built that night intending to hang Mordecai the next morning. By the way, the gallows is 75 feet high. That's about two and a half times the height of this distance from our floor to the middle of our ceiling. I mean, not only did they banquet long, they hung high in those days, I guess, in Persia. I have 75 feet gallows. How would you need that to hang somebody? But that's what he said. This is really dramatic. 75 feet for a gallows is going to hang him the next day. Well, something interesting happens and that leads us into the third act of this story in chapter 6 through 10, which describes for us the deliverance of God's people. Chapter 6 and 7, we find the defeat of Hamen. And how that happens is one of the most fascinating parts of the story. Now remember the scene, Hamen is trying to rest that night while he's having people build these gallows because he's going to hang Mordecai the next morning. Now, guess who doesn't sleep that night? The King. Zerxes does not sleep that night. And in order to try to get to sleep, he says, okay, somebody come in and read me the King's journal. If anything will put somebody to sleep, it'll be that. It's like a reading a history book. So it'll put you to sleep for sure. So he starts reading the King's journal, but he doesn't fall asleep and he keeps reading. He keeps reading. And finally, he reads about this guy named Mordecai who exposed a plot to kill him. And he begins to think, has anything been done? He asks the guy who's reading. Has anything been done for this guy who saved my life? He says no. And so King Zerxes is trying to think of some way to honor Mordecai when just at that moment, early in the morning, Hamen walks in. Hamen is going to ask the King's permission to hang Mordecai. But before he can do that, look at what happens. Chapter 6 and verse 6. When Hamen entered, the King asked him, what should be done for the man the King delights to honor? Now this is great the way this happens. Listen to this. Now Hamen thought to himself, who is there that the King would rather honor the me? Verse 7. So he answered the King, for the man the King delights to honor. I think it all the time it's going to be me. It's going to be me. This is what he says. Verse 8. Have them bring a royal robe the King has worn and a horse. The King has written, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the King's most noble princes. Let them robe the man the King delights to honor. And lead him on the horse throughout the city streets, proclaiming before him. This is what is done for the man the King delights to honor. And then he smiles real big. I'm sure he's thinking, oh man, I can't wait till this happens today. Just think of this. You know, I'm just, oh man, it's going to be so good. Look at verse 10. Go at once the King commanded Hamen. Get the robe and the horse. And do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the King's gate, do not neglect anything you have recommended. Oh, I would love to see the look on Hamen's face at that point. Wouldn't you? I'm sure everything fell about two inches. And he just cannot believe what he's hearing. But he has to obey the King so he does exactly what the King says. He gets everything ready and he spins that whole day, escorting Mordecai around town. Everybody proclaiming the worthiness of Mordecai, not Hamen, but Mordecai, absolutely a horrifying day for Hamen. So he goes home after work that evening. And his wife and his friends give back to him. He says, you know, what happened to me today? And they sensed that this is not a good sign for Hamen's future. And at just about that time, somebody shows up to get Hamen to come to the second bank. But oh, Hamen's forgotten about that. He's been humiliated and horrified on this. He forgot all about that second bank, so now he's someone's had to come to his house and get him and they usher him off to the second bank. At that bank, Queen Esther says to the King, oh King, my people, my people have been sold to be destroyed. And he says, who would do such a thing? Not putting two and two together about the other plan he had approved a while ago? Who would do such a thing? And Esther points the finger right at Hamen, that man right there. And the King is infuriated. He is so angry he has to leave the room. And when he gathers his composure and comes back in, here's Hamen leaning over Esther's couch. They usually would eat reclining in those days. King over Esther's couch, pleading for his life and as the King walks back in the room, he thinks that he's assaulting his wife, the Queen. And so immediately he says, take the man out and execute him. And Hamen is hung on the gallows that had been prepared at his own decree for Mordecai. So Hamen is defeated. Chapter 8 tells us the story of the decree of Xerxes. The Queen continues to make her appeal. And the King says, basically, I can't change the law that's already been passed. You ever heard the phrase, the law of the Meads and Persians? You ever use that with your kids? This is the law of the Meads and Persians. I can't be changed. You'll never... The law of the Meads and Persians, that phrase comes from this incident and the history in the Meadow Persian Empire. A law could not be changed once it was passed. So what King Xerxes does is he allows a second law to be passed. And that is that on this particular day, actually two days, when the Jews were to be slaughtered by the Persians, the Jews are given the authority to defend themselves and kill anybody who attacks them without any reprisal from the government. Nothing will come to you if you kill someone who attacks you. Well that day does come. And in chapter 9, we have the defeat of Israel's enemies. 19 verses tell the story of how Israel's enemies are defeated. Those days come, the attacks come. God providentially protects the Israelites. Not one is... In fact, the Persian officials help the Israelites defend themselves and not one Jew is killed. 75,000 Persians lose their lives and these attacks, not one Jew is killed. God miraculously delivers his people. And then the story kind of races to an end. They institute what's called the days of purim coming from a word for the lot that was used by Haman to decide the day that this attack would take place. The days of purim are a celebration on the part of Israel of this great deliverance. And they feast and they celebrate, they give gifts to each other and it became one of the Jewish festivals in the Jewish religious calendar. And then chapter 10 describes Mordecai's fame. Now he's lifted to an important position in the kingdom and the book ends. Quite a story. It's a great story of God's providence and how God was supernaturally at work, putting people in just the right place at the right time to deliver his people. And that's really the essence of the story. That is that God made a heavenly placement. Esther did not win that beauty contest just because she was the most beautiful of all these women. That may have been true, but that's not the reason why she won. She won because God was supernaturally placing her in the kingdom in a position of influence for a specific time to save thousands of lives. And I think that has some very significant lessons for us as believers in Jesus Christ. So let's move from the story about Esther to the story about you and me. What does it say to us? Number one, I think it talks about the reality of our heavenly placement. And applying this book and this story to us. I think we can see that just like God supernaturally, heavenly, divinely placed Esther at a specific position of influence, he's done the same for us. You see, once we realize that we are surrounded by unsaved people, we have unsaved people around us in many different ways in our lives. And once we grasp the fact of what we saw last week that we are ambassadors, that God has uniquely given us the responsibility to be his representative in this world at any particular place where we are. It will change the way we think about our daily lives. Let me phrase it this way. Why do you live where you live? You say, oh, I like the neighborhood. I could afford the house. And there may be a number of reasons you would give. That's not the real reason. The real reason why you live where you live is God has supernaturally placed you as his ambassador in that neighborhood. That's the biblical view of where you live. Why do you work where you work? You say, well, they would hire me. Nobody else would. That may be part of it. I don't know. I like this job. I've been wanting this job for a long time. Maybe that was part of it. But really from a heavenly perspective, from a godly perspective, a biblical perspective, you work where you work because you are divinely placed. You have a heavenly placement as an ambassador of Jesus Christ to reach out to those people on your job. Now, for those who are going to see, oh, I am going to see tonight's remember, your job is worth working for its own value. God has given you an opportunity to glorify him through your job. Yes. But there are also strategic placements of people in places where we can reach and affect other people with the gospel. Why do you go to school where you go to school? You say, well, they admitted me. They let me in. Or I'm in that school district. Or I like that school. Well, those may be reasons. The real reason you go to school where you go is because you have been given a divine placement. You have a divine responsibility, a heavenly responsibility to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ in that school where you are. That's why you are where you are. The reality of our heavenly placement. God has divinely placed us where we can be lifesavers, where we can reach out through the example we give, the lifestyle we live, and the words we say to share Jesus Christ, you are uniquely positioned to reach out to people for Christ. The reality. What about the reason for our heavenly placement? There's a reason for this. Just like Esther was placed in the position she was placed because nobody could reach the King better than someone who was close to him. And the reason for your heavenly placement is that probably nobody can reach the people you're close to better than you can. You see, there's something about someone, the way they look at you, you're experiencing the same stresses and pressures at work that they are. You're dealing with the same life issues that they are. They see you in the same situation that they are in. They see you working the same schedule, sharing the same life struggles as you talk over lunch break or whatever. And the best opportunity to reach those people will probably come from people that they know and that they respect and that they've gained some respect for because of being with day in and day out. Those of us who have a professional obligation to job, if you will, a ministry, if you will, of proclaiming the gospel, and we try to do that in ways that are clear and will draw people to Christ. But I believe that even preachers do their best work when they're talking with ordinary people about ordinary things in everyday life. We have a responsibility to proclaim the gospel like this, but we probably do our most effective evangelism one on one. Same thing is true of you. You'll do your most effective evangelism. In fact, God has you placed to reach people that I will never meet, that Jim will never meet, that Kevin will never meet, Judd, Jim will never meet. We will never see those people, never get to know them, but you know them. You live beside them, you work close to them. And God has given a heavenly placement for you because they will listen to you before they will ever listen to me. They may never walk in the door of this church and sit down and listen to a sermon, but they will listen to what you have to say because they respect you. They know you, they work with you, they live beside you. Hopefully that means they respect you. See you have an opportunity that I may never have to reach some people with the gospel. You may not feel qualified in one of the reasons for this series. And we'll get to this as we go through it is to help you to train, to understand what it means to be qualified, to know how to share the gospel. We'll get to all that, but you need to see that you are in a responsibility to do that. You're in a position to do that. You're uniquely qualified to do that. Let me tell you a story of a couple. I'll try to do it as quickly as I can. This story goes back over 25 years and it's an ongoing story. When Jeanie and I moved to South Whitley, Indiana, it was 1981. And our middle daughter Ruth was our youngest daughter then. Missy was just a twinkle in the eye at that time. So Ruth was not yet in school. She was only two years old. So Jeanie was not working outside the home and we noticed one day in the paper there in South Whitley, Indiana, an ad for someone to keep, a little six week old baby. And Jeanie called, responded to the ad and was introduced to Teresa Tronor. Make a long story short, Jeanie ended up taking care of that little baby and little child on up until she went to school for the next few years. And that began a friendship with Scott and Teresa Tronor. I got to meet Scott because of that relationship. And Scott, when I first saw him, I thought, oh man, he's a misfit. He does not fit into small Midwestern town in a conservative part of Indiana. He's a throwback to the 60s. He was a Jewish man from New York City who had come to a Midwestern University study journalism. And he's there in a small Midwestern town of 1500 people heading up a newspaper in our area. He had a big Afro, white guy, big Afro, I mean throwback to the 60s. He didn't fit in in our town at all. I could tell that by looking at it in the first time. But I got to know Scott. He was a great guy. Just a great guy. Scott and I found out that we had a lot in common, even though I was a Baptist preacher and he's an Orthodox Jew. He didn't have the little rings down the side, but he had here everywhere else. But he's a strict Jew and his parents brought him up that way. And so we didn't have a lot in common religiously. But we did have some things in common that we did love. We both enjoyed basketball. Now, I know you can't tell, but looking at me, but I used to play some basketball a little bit. It used to be fairly decent. And Scott and I would get together. We'd play some ball. And we used to go watch the Globetrotters whenever they were in the area. Indiana University when Bob Knight was in his prime always played an exhibition game at the beginning of their season in Fort Wayne. We'd go over and see it every time. Scott and I developed quite a friendship around basketball. And we began to explore each other's worlds. And I had the opportunity to share the gospel with Scott. I'll never forget one night we were coming back to one of those games in Fort Wayne. He just bought a new sports car. And that was his baby. And I knew I had his trust when he looked at me and said, would you like to drive the car? And I said, yeah, I'd love it. And so this is late at night. We're on one of those, if you've ever been in Indiana, you know, all the Roger Strait. It's not like West Virginia. All the Roger Strait. We're on a long, straight, straight late at night. No traffic. And I had that thing going pretty good. And it was about that time he looks over at me and he says, now, tell me again what you believe about God. I think it was because of the situation with the car, you know, that. But anyways, tell me again what you believe about God. And so a great opportunity that night to talk to him about Christ. It's a long story. And I don't want to labor the point. But we really developed a close friendship with him. To the point that one of the most interesting events in my life was when their little son was born and they wanted to do a Jewish circumcision ceremony, which is a religious event for Jews. And it's done in a doctor's office where there's a Jewish doctor and a Jewish rabbi present to do the ceremony. And they asked, Geneanon, how to be the God parents. And we still have that responsibility for those children, by the way. Anything happens to them. We take care of the children. And so we went over to this thing, the doctor's office. And the rabbi is looking around for anybody that can read Hebrew because all the ceremony is going to be done in Hebrew. And he asks, Scott, can you read Hebrew? Scott says, I'm a little rusty with it. And he looks at me and he says, he can read Hebrew. And you can read Hebrew. The rabbi looks at me. I said, well, yeah, Scott explained to him. I'm a been studying Hebrew and Greek and all that stuff in a seminary. And at that time I could read it pretty fluently. And so then he began to ask questions. Found out it was a Baptist preacher in the rabbi freaked out. He said, I will not allow any Baptist preacher to read Hebrew in this ceremony. And so I didn't get to be a part of the ceremony. In fact, they made me wait in another room. But you know that was... Seriously. But that was providential because that increased Scott's disillusionment with his rabbi and his Jewish temple. And we became even closer after that. I wish I could say that Scott and Teresa both have trusted Christ as their Savior. I know they know the gospel. They have not yet come to Christ. But we have an ongoing relationship with them. Two years ago, that little girl that we kept in our home got married. She was a student at Radford University. She had been exposed to the Christian faith there. She met and was going to marry a young man who was a believer. And she told her parents, I want a Christian wedding. Okay? And they scratched their head and thought, we only know one preacher. So they called. And Jeanne and I went up and we did the wedding two years ago and had an opportunity there in Fort Wayne again to hopefully be Christ to them in the best way we could. They got two more kids. I'm hoping for two more weddings and some more opportunities. And we're continuing to maintain contact with them and pray for them. And hopefully someday they will come to know Jesus. You know, some people are tough nuts to crack and they're hard to get through to. But we're still praying for them. I do know this, however. I know that Scott Tronor would never have come and attended a Baptist church. No, never. That would never have happened for a conservative Jew from New York City in a small Midwestern town would never have happened. I don't care how many invitations you gave him to come to church. You never would have come. In fact, he never did. His wife came some but he never showed up at church. If a visitation team had gone knocked on his door, he would have slammed the door in their face. He wouldn't have wanted to hear that stuff. He would have thought that was a cult of some kind. But he has heard the gospel and those what it means because someone just became a buddy to him. And that's what all of us can do. You can do that to people in your job place. You can do that to people in your neighborhood. What I want us to see from this book, the book of Esther, is that God has heavenly placements for all of us. He's already put you in a neighborhood in a work situation with groups of people. Maybe people that you see every time you go to a certain store. He's already uniquely placed you as his ambassador. We just need to wake up and be sensitive to that and realize those are opportunities for me to share the gospel or at least show how Jesus would work on the job. Maybe it will go somewhere from there. But recognize, understand your heavenly placement that God has put you in a place where you can reach some people with the gospel and commit yourself to being sensitive to saying, Lord, today, wherever you have me, I want to see it as an ambassadorial type relationship as a heavenly placement. So I want to be sensitive to those people that cross my path believing this is your providence. And I am placed in this place for such a time as this to reach that person somehow. Commit yourself to that. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for trying to story of the book of Esther and what it teaches us about how you place people in certain locations at certain times to save lives. And we believe, Lord, that you've put us in certain locations this time to save people. Not that we can save them, but we can point them to the one who can. Help us to do that. Lord, help us to be more sensitive to the heavenly placements. We all have in our own lives. Help us to commit ourselves to take advantage of those and share the gospel when we can. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.