Influence in Exile

guys thanks for joining us this morning at midtown glad you're here imagine with me that you're waking up on a sunday morning in november in phoenix it's sunny it's crisp and it's actually cool outside which i know sounds insane given what's happening october right now i will be a voice crying out in the wilderness friends things are going to get better things are going to get cooler please lord come soon cool days but imagine this particular cool sunday you're planning on going to the church in the morning as you often do but then after church you're actually really hyped because the rest of your sunday is completely free of plans you have no work to do you have no errands to run no homework to complete you've just got an amazing day of rest ahead of you and so to kick off your day of rest well you decide that on your way to church you want to pick up your favorite iteration of our culture's drug of choice that seven dollar latte from your favorite coffee shop is calling your name so you swing by you walk inside you make your way to the counter you put your drink order in and then you wait and it's a super fun way to get to church and it's a super fun way to get to church and it's a super Sunday morning which means not many people are up so the barista is the only one there with you and instead of it being awkward they decide to spark a conversation with you and they ask you the casual and easy question that all of us have heard at one point or another what are your plans for the day what are you doing and as soon as they ask you that you can feel your chest start to tighten up a little bit you feel attention arise in your mind about how you might answer that question because you could say something like i'm going rock climbing with friends you could say something like i'm going to brunch with my family you could even say i'm going to the park to practice mindfulness breathing and raise my vibrations so i can follow my bliss you can say any of those things and the barista will be super supportive super happy super encouraging

but what if you told them the truth what if you said it's sunday so i'm going to church today every sunday morning i gather in a room of people who proclaim that a palestinian rabbi named jesus from the first century lived and died and rose again and is alive now we sing songs together some of us raise our hands others of us jump or laugh or cry a part of us cry a part of us cry a part of us cry a part of us cry a part of us cry a part of us cry a bunch of us especially my pastor sing off key but it's always in worship of jesus we drink juice and eat bread that is mysteriously his real presence his body and blood and then we hear from ancient scriptures written in dead languages that teach us how to embody the news that he is lord over us in our city in our world that's what i'm doing today also can i get oat milk in my latte please

you guys if we go to a coffee shop and proclaim to someone that we're going to church or in many other public places we say we're a christian in our world things often get immediately awkward people start to avoid eye contact and we start to avoid eye contact and we start to avoid eye contact they don't know how to respond it's a great way to shut down a conversation and that's largely because of how christians are seen or thought of in our culture superstitious anti -science hypocritical judgmental narrow -minded and so forth and the barista might not say those things to you but it might be that they're thinking of and what's fascinating is that that dynamic those presumptions about christianity and the church in our world it's actually pretty new for most of western history europe and america we've lived in a culture quite different than the one in which we now live historians and sociologists have referred to this as christendom be a history nerd with me for just a second when the church started out it was this really unimpressive minority back in the day it was made up primarily of slaves and women and folks who had little social or political status and in those days followers of jesus were regularly persecuted and in spite of that persecution and in spite of having no cultural political power they grew rapidly historians who have studied this are confounded like this doesn't make any sense they had no power and yet they grew all over the place

and eventually as they grew there's an emperor in rome his name is constantine he figured hey i could take advantage of this this could be politically advantageous for me and so he signed a little document called the edict of milan in 313 and he made violence against followers of jesus illegal the persecution stopped and christianity soon became the state religion which meant it became wedded to political power and that was the beginning of christendom for right around the next thousand years or so christianity was the dominant cultural framework that most people in the west affirmed christian ethics and the bible and the person of jesus were at least things people were acquainted with familiar with and the church had power and influence in the public sphere it was central to all of western culture which is why many of our american major universities yale and princeton and harvard were founded by christians and centered christianity in their teaching hospitals and public services were often focused on christian teaching cities were built with the church at the center and by and large christians were trusted they had meaningful voice in the world

but there were cracks in christendom that were pretty obvious many historians and i tend to side with them on this many historians said that christendom might have actually been the worst thing for a real following of jesus because people would start to say they were christian because it was socially advantageous or politically advantageous for them to do so but their lives their speech their actions didn't look a lot like jesus and the church's connection to worldly power often led to all sorts of warped theology and abuse and the rest and so there's a period in the 1600s called the age of enlightenment where they started shift and there was a bunch of skepticism that started to arise around the church and around major assumptions involving faith and the bible and the rest and the dominant posture of our culture shifted from being of faith to being of skepticism and doubt and christianity while it still spreads all over the world today has continued to decline here in the west particularly among the marginalized and oppressed christianity grows but here in europe and america and wealthy europe and america we're increasingly moving into an era called post crescendo

and the stats actually bare this out gen z is the first ever majority unchurched generation in american history according to a recent pew research study if current trends continue that by prep 2070 christians will be right around one -third of the population in the u .s which is less than 50 percent of what they were a hundred years prior and as that shift is happening christian morality and ethics and belief have been removed from the public square People will say you can believe whatever you want, but you've got to keep that to yourself. You've got to keep that private. You don't let it inform your public life. And most importantly, rather than being seen as trustworthy and moral exemplars, Christians are actually seen as relics of a bygone era. And their ethics are considered outdated at best and immoral at worst. That's the culture we live in.

There's a theologian named Lee Beach who describes it this way. He said the church is one of those former power brokers who once enjoyed a place of influence at the cultural table but has been chased away from its place of privilege and is now seeking to find where it belongs amidst the ever -changing dynamics of contemporary culture. And I don't know where all of you are at in this room. You might be new to this whole church thing. If you are, welcome. We're really glad you're here. You might have been doing this for decades. But one thing is clear in the U .S. today. Christians have become exiles. And that's a word that most of us, especially those of us who have enjoyed lives of privilege and ease, aren't used to using. But it's actually a great way to describe the Christian condition.

In the simplest sense, an exile is someone who has been forcibly displaced from their home and now has to live in a place that is not their home. So refugees, asylum seekers, they're exiles. They're fleeing danger from their home countries. And the exile experience for them is utterly disorienting. It means they have to live in a culture without much or any public influence. It means a ton of social barriers. It means the dominant values run counter to theirs. It's a brutal experience. But exile, it's actually more than just displacement. There's a Jewish man who was a Jew and a Jewish -Hungarian author named Paul Tabori who says that exile can also be the feeling of, quote, being an outcast within one's own.

And that is, in many ways, what the experience of Christians is like in the U .S. today. We're not, by and large, actively persecuted or actively oppressed. But our views certainly run counter to the dominant views that this country is running on. It's as if, for most of Western history, culture was this river flowing in one direction. And being a Christian meant you could just float along with the current, for better and for worse. But it's not just that. But now, the river has started flowing in the opposite direction. And to be a Christian means you've got to fight, fight the current in all sorts of ways. Which means we're the sort of people who wrestle with a question. How do I swim upstream? How do I live as a Christian in my workplace, in my neighborhood, in my school?

Like Tom mentioned earlier, you may be getting a couple texts about this, but there's an election coming up. How do I show up informed more by Jesus and less by elephants and donkeys? We're all wrestling with the same thing. How do we live as exiles? How do we live as exiles in our culture? And thankfully, we're not the first people to ask this question. In fact, learning to live as exiles is a central theme that runs through the whole of scriptures, both our Christian scriptures and also the Hebrew scriptures. And so here at Midtown, we want to learn from those who have come before us, from those who have been faithful to God in cultures where they've lived as exiles.

And that's why we're starting this series here. We're looking at one book of the Bible that this is a central theme in. It's called the Book of Esther. The book is set during a time in Israel's history when the Jewish people had been exiled from the land of Israel. They were exiled from their homeland and were living in dispersion in the largest empire in the world at that time, Persia. They were a religious minority in a culture with moral values very different than theirs. And they were forced to reckon with really challenging questions. How do we respond to this culture? Do we withdraw from culture so that we stay completely pure? That feels kind of impossible, like we still got to live in the world. Do we fit in? Do we suppress our faith and ethics? Well, that doesn't really seem right, especially when there's injustice or brokenness around us. Do we fight against the culture? Do we start a culture war and try to dominate our enemies through political or social power? That doesn't seem charitable or loving or much like God.

And so in order to navigate these sorts of questions, the book follows the story of a character named Esther. She's a young Jewish orphan girl living on the outskirts of her society. And her journey in this book is remarkable. She navigates a completely male -dominated society, rises in that society through shrewdness and wisdom to respect in her culture, and ultimately becomes a vehicle of powerful social justice and change. It's an amazing story. It's got drama, and it's got scheming. It's got vivid characters. It's got descriptive settings. It's an amazing story to enter into. And I think what we'll see week after week in this story is that exile is precisely the place where God is most at work. It might just be that, like Esther, God has gifted each of us for such a time as this in our own cultural moment.

So friends, let's dive in. We're going to be in Esther chapter one today. If you're flipping in your Bibles, Esther is just before the book. We're going to be in the book of Job, which comes just before the book of Psalms. Job and Psalms are big books. So if you flip there, just keep flipping a little bit farther in your Bible, you'll find Esther chapter one is where we're going to be. If you don't have a Bible, by the way, that's all right. The words are going to be behind me on this screen, so you can follow along there. Esther one, starting in verse one.

This happened in the days of King Ahasuerus, the same Ahasuerus who ruled over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia. In those days, when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers. The army of Persia and media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were present while he displayed the great wealth of his kingdom, the splendor and pomp of his majesty for many days, 180 days in all. And when these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in the citadel of Susa, both great and small, a banquet lasting for seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace.

There were white cotton curtains and blue hangings tied with cords of fine silk and white cotton curtains from fine linen and purple to silver rings and marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother of pearl, and colored stones. Drinks were served in golden goblets, goblets of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished in accordance with the bounty of the king. Drinking was by flagons without restraint, for the king had given orders to all the officials of his palace to do as each one desired. Furthermore, Queen Vashti gave a banquet for the women in the palace of King Ahasuerus.

And on the seventh day, when the king was married, he commanded Mechumen, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Karkas, the seven eunuchs who attended to him, to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing the royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the officials her beauty, for she was fair to behold. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command, conveyed by the eunuchs. At this, the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him. Then the king consulted the sages who knew the laws, for this was the king's procedure toward all who were versed in law. And those next to him were Karshina, and Shavar, and Adnatha, and Tarshish, and Maris, and Marsena, and Memuken, the seven officials of Persia and Media, who had access to the king and sat first in the kingdom.

According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed by the eunuchs? Then Memuken sat in the presence of the king and the officials. Not only has Queen Vashti done wrong to the king, but also to all the officials and the peoples who are in the provinces of King Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen will be made to the king, made known to all the women, causing them to look with contempt on their husbands since they will say King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him and she did not come. This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's behavior will rebel against the king's officials and there will be no end of contempt and wrath.

So if it pleases the king, let a royal order go out from him. Let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be altered. That Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than him. when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, vast as it is, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike. And this advice pleased the king and the officials. And the king did as Memucan proposed. He sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, declaring that every man should be master in his own.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me, friends?

Father, we come before you, man, with so many different scattered observations, experiences, living in our 21st century world in the way we do. I pray this morning your spirit would speak through your word, that you would give us ears to listen, that our heads, our hearts, our hands would be receptive to what you have to say about how we can show up as your followers in our own time today. May we learn from your word, by your spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Our story opens with a rager of a frat party. That's what's happening. That's what's happening. We're introduced to a Persian king, Ahasuerus. Some of your translations may say Xerxes. It's referring to the same guy. And the text goes to great lengths to talk about how powerful he was in worldly terms. He ruled over 127 provinces that stretched from India to Ethiopia. To an ancient Jewish audience, that was the way of saying he ruled everything that we know in the world. And when you're a king that powerful, what do you do? You show off your power and influence to all your bros.

That's what's happening. He throws a banquet to display the great wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and pomp of his majesty. And

just to make sure you get it, the author describes it in great detail. The decorations of the party are described. White cotton curtains, blue hangings tied with cords of fine linen and purple and silver rings, marble pillars, couches of gold and silver that sat upon a mosaic pavement with the finest stones. Everyone is drinking out of golden chalices and the wine, people. Oh, the wine. It is flowing freely. There's no limit, it says, to what people are drinking and eating. And he has so much stuff, so much to show off that it takes him 180 freaking days to get through it all. Imagine having the wealth and possessions that would enable you to throw a nonstop six -month party. Frat boys, eat your heart out.

And it's interesting. The sort of detailed description that's given here is actually really rare in the Hebrew scriptures. The only other settings described with this sort of opulent detail are the Garden of Eden and the Tabernacle and Temple in the Old Testament. In other words, spaces where God resides. To an astute reader who's hearing this, the story opens essentially like this. Once upon a time, there was a king who had the whole world in his hands. If ever there was a god among men, it's King Ahasuerus. He's him.

Yeah, I knew a couple people would appreciate that. And after all that partying, we learn the king is drunk. Which, to be honest, after 180 days, who wouldn't be? And in his drunkenness, alongside all his buddies, he has a brilliant idea. Let's bring my beautiful wife Vashti to show herself off to us. The name Vashti literally means beautiful woman. She was fair to behold, the text says. And so the king sends for her to come before everyone wearing the royal crown. What's interesting, there's some Jewish commentators who speak on this. It just says that she'll come before them wearing the royal crown, which some people have interpreted to mean she's only wearing the royal crown. In whatever case, it's really clear. These men want to use their power to ogle and objectify this woman. I mean, can you imagine a political leader doing something like that? Oh my gosh.

But then, in a shocking interruption to the story, Vashti refuses. Yes, queen. Yes, queen. But seriously, this is a brave move that she's making. To refuse a man like this, to refuse a man with this sort of power, required real bravery. And in shock, he can't believe this would happen. The king gets his advisors all together. It goes to great lengths to describe all their names intentionally. It's a bureaucratic nightmare. He can't make a decision without, like, 20 people around him. And remember, they're all still drunk when they're making this decision. And one of the officials speaks up. Imagine what that would have been like. My lord, the king, this is bad news. If word about her gets out, soon all the women are going to think they can do whatever they want. Soon my wife and all of our wives will start acting like this. This is not good. We need to do something. We need to keep Vashti's actions under wraps. Am I right? Yes, you're right.

And so he comes up with a brilliant idea. Let's write into law that Vashti must be expelled from the palace and that all husbands must be married. And so Vashti decides to make a policy decision while completely drunk, which actually, we learned from the famous historian Herodotus, was exactly how Persians made decisions back in the day. When an important decision was to be made and a policy is supposed to be written, they had to be drunk when they discussed it. It's hilarious. And here's the ironic part of it all. Their primary concern is that word about Vashti gets out and that women will be inspired by her. And their solution is to make sure that word about Vashti gets into every house and every home through an edict. They're supposed to be seen as dumb in this passage. We've got to keep this under wraps, so let's make sure we proclaim it to everyone in every household. The author wants us to see the ineptitude of these men who think they have real influence and power in their world. They're really bumbling fools drunkenly stumbling through their work. And this story here, it serves as a sort of prologue to the rest of the book. Remember, we haven't even met Esther yet at this point. But I think it still says a lot to us about what real influence in the world looks like, particularly as exiles. It shows us how we really ought to show up in the world, how we can really swim upstream in a culture that runs counter to Christianity. It does this, I think, by showing us three things, three things we need to do. One, we need to resist the world's obsession with appearances. Second, we need to seek real influence in small faithfulness. And third, we need to remember that God is always at work in spite of appearances. First, resist the world's obsession with appearances. The king. The king. In this story. And Persian culture in general believed that real influence in the world was all about appearances. That's why he's throwing this party. It's to show everyone around him that he is wealthy and that he's a man that matters because of his wealth. He makes a difference in things. He has influence in the world because of his outward appearance of wealth and power and control. That's what made a man a man in Persia. And the same obsession with appearances carries over into the assumptions that all those men have about Vashti. Notice, when he wants to show off his queen, he doesn't demand that she come and give a really robust explanation of global politics. doesn't demand that she come and impress the men with how remarkable her character is. No, he assumes that her appearance is what matters. As a woman, she only has influence in the world because of her sexuality and her beauty. So in Persian culture, the most important thing about a man was his wealth and power. The most important thing about a woman was her sexual and physical beauty. Aren't you glad you don't live back then?

Wouldn't that just be terrible to live in a culture like that?

You guys, our world hasn't changed that much. According to a study published in the Journal of Economic Psychology, people deemed attractive by our cultural standards earn significantly more income over the course of their lives and get more promotions than people deemed less attractive. Multiple studies have shown that people with more wealth are seen as more successful, more influential, and more intelligent than people with less. We spend endless hours and dollars obsessing over trying to be like athletes or celebrities or the wealthy. And even though we don't often want to acknowledge it, America is just like Persia. Our culture tells us that externals, that surfaces, that appearances matter most, which means all of us are in the position of Queen Vashti here. We're being told by the powers of our empire that appearances are what really matter. And it's so embedded in our lives that we don't even notice it often. We just go with the flow of the culture all the time. Think about it in your own life. Who do you spend the most time with? Are they people who are viewed by the world as less than? Or are they people who sound and look and act influential or important or impressive? One of the most pervasive forms of our obsession with appearances is in our social lives. We often only want to be around people who make us comfortable, whose appearances and behaviors match up with our own. What are you spending your money on? Are they primarily things that are focused on appearances? A better house, a better car, better food or drink, social events with friends, more clothes or makeup to look a certain way, more conveniences to keep up with others? How often do you feel like you just need a little bit more in order to be safe and happy? How often when you get a bonus or promotion do you immediately think about how you can use that money for things that contribute to your appearances? Do you immediately think to give it away to those in need? We're all obsessing over appearances. And I'll say it for myself. You guys, it's usually, for me, educational accomplishments that get me caught up in the obsession with appearances in our culture. I'm not usually that impressed by all the trappings of wealth. It's cool. Sports cars, mansions, great. Never really a temptation for me. But when someone writes a book, oh, man, they've got life figured out. They've got it put together. When they've got a doctorate on a subject, oh, my gosh, they really matter. They have influence in the world. And then I start to think to myself, how could I really ever be influential if I don't have a platform? How could I ever make a difference unless I've written a book? How could I call my life successful if I haven't accomplished as much as them? My shadow side will always get in the way. When I let it win out, it will always get in the way and convince me that appearances, accomplishments, and achievements are the things that give me real influence. When I lived the worst days in my 20s, that's what it looked like. Got to get the promotion. Got to get the job. Got to get the degree. Got to get the book. Got to get everyone to think that I'm the most well -read or the funniest or the most well -cultured and so forth. But you guys, that mentality, it's a lie. All the appearances in the world don't actually mean you have a good or meaningful or worthwhile influence on anything. That's what this story wants us to see. The king, despite how remarkable his power is, he can't even influence his own life. He can't even dictate what's going on in his own house. In this story, the person who looks like they have the biggest influence in the world is the one who is completely inept, because appearances aren't what matter. Real influence in the world is measured by the content of. I read a quote in this devotional book that I read in the mornings that's just an amazing collection of all these great authors and thinkers and writers throughout history. But there's a Mother Teresa quote that stuck out to me. I wanted to share it with you guys that I think illustrates this well. She said, at the end of life, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we've received, how much money we've made, how many great things we've done. We'll be judged by, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.

Our obsession with appearances, friends, is a lie. There's an illustration that might be helpful on this. I've used it before. shirts, if you don't already know this about me, I'm a big shirt guy. Love a nice button down, short sleeve, long sleeve, doesn't matter. And I love shirts, especially if you have cool designs on them. Our missionary that we sent to Edinburgh, Caleb Shockley, is a good friend of mine. He developed a terminology for this. He knows how to define a Clint shirt from a non -Clint shirt. Every once in a while when he's in the store, he'll send me a picture. He's like, Clint shirt, found one.

But it's not just that I like shirts. You've also probably noticed this. If you've been around Midtown at all, I wear my shirts with a certain style. I button every button. No button left behind policy. That's how I wear my shirts. And this choice has proven divisive in a lot of close relationships with me. My brother hates it, so naturally I keep doing it all the time. And I care about all of you people. I value your input. So I actually want to invite you into this divisive topic and allow you to have say into how I ought to wear my shirts. So I've got a poll question. Two parts to this poll question. Everyone in the room, you've got two options. Option number one, should I continue wearing my shirts buttoned to the top? If so, raise your hand. OK. I will not be asking this. This is the second part of that poll question. Thank you so much for participating.

We'll end the poll there. Now, here's the point, you guys. I can wear my shirts like this all I want. I can show up to church with my shirts clean and pressed and buttoned all the way. But what if I didn't shower for six months? What if I didn't brush my teeth for six months? Pretty soon, you'd stand next to me like, what is going on? And if you knew me well enough, you'd be like, hey, bro, go take a shower? Brush your teeth one time, maybe? In short, you'd tell me that appearances aren't what really matters. What really matters is what lies underneath.

You guys, you can button up every part of your life. You can keep your appearance immaculate. You can go with the flow of our culture. But none of those things will give you real influence. None of those things mean your life will matter. Because what really matters is the person you're becoming. Real influence in exile is measured by your heart and the way that your heart shapes how you show up in the world. The scriptures tell us this. The Lord does not see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. I love this. I love this quote from Henry Nouwen that captures it well. He says, in our society, we are inclined to avoid hiddenness. We want to be seen and acknowledged. We want to be useful to others and influence the course of events. But as we become visible and popular, we quickly grow dependent on people and their responses and easily lose touch with God, the true source of our being. Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness, we find our true selves. Friends, we need to resist the world's obsession with appearances. And that actually leads to the second point here about how we ought to show up as exiles and have influence in the world. It comes through small faithfulness. That's what Vashti shows us. She refuses to give in to a culture of appearances. And her refusal in this story seems completely insignificant at first glance. She is banished from the story, and we never hear from her again in the book. This decision costs her everything. And at first, it seems like it doesn't matter, but we have to see the larger story. It's only because Vashti does this that the story can continue. Unless Vashti is faithful, in this small instance, we don't get a vacancy in the throne, which would mean we don't get chapter two, when the king calls for this really twisted beauty pageant and brings Esther into the story. Gabi's going to preach on that next week. Which would mean that Esther would never actually be able to fight against Persian oppression and save her people. God's liberating power in the story happens all because of one hidden faithfulness in Vashti. It's opened the door for this long chain to begin towards redemption. Without her, we wouldn't be able to get Esther. Without her small and brave choice, we don't get Esther. Without her small and brave choice, we don't get freedom from oppression in the story. Good never comes. And what's most wild is she never gets to see the results of her choice. She doesn't. She's banished. It looks like, to her, nothing matters. But it does. She's an essential link in this long chain of God's redemption. You guys, the world will tell you that your little actions don't make a difference. And that's another lie. In reality, the small things are the only things that really matter. The choices you make every day.

The things to love. The prayers you pray. The clocking in and clocking out that you do. The actions you take. The ones that you prioritize. The thoughts you think. Those are the things that have real influence in the world.

Anybody in here heard of the guy named Edward Kimball? Exactly. That's the point. None of us have heard of him. Edward Kimball was an ordinary public school teacher who lived in Boston back in the 1800s. And he was part of a small church congregation that at that time voiced that they needed help in the youth ministry with teenage boys. Can't imagine why they need help with that population. But he said, sure, I'll give it a go. And so one day in Sunday school, after somehow getting the boys to settle down, he asked all of them to turn to the Gospel of John. And all of them did, except one boy who had no idea what the Gospel of John was. So he just opened his Bible to page one, and the rest of the boys started to laugh at him and make fun of him. But not his teacher, Edward. He smiled. He graciously went to him and said, that's okay, son. Here's mine. And he gave him his Bible, opened to John. And then, after a year of showing up to teach Sunday school with these raucous teenage boys, Edward Kimball reached out to this one boy. He said, hey, could I come bring you lunch at work? Ordinary shoe store. That's where this boy worked. And they had a casual conversation. And that day, the boy ended up choosing to say that I want to give my life to Jesus. I want Jesus to shape everything about who I am and how I live in the world. And that boy was Dwight L. Moody. He became maybe the most powerful evangelistic voice across the world in the 19th century. People estimate that he proclaimed the news of Jesus' redemption and restoration to more than 100 million people, and that right around a million people likely came to Jesus.

than a million people were transformed, healed, forgiven because of one Sunday school teacher who saw a boy who needed compassion and showed it to him. It didn't appear impressive. He didn't do it to make an impact or to catalyze an exponential movement or to start a revolution. He did it because in his small life, he saw a need he could fill. And his choice caused a ripple effect far beyond anything he could have anticipated. So what's it look like for you, friends? What does faithfulness to God look like in your life right now? What's the simple work you go to tomorrow? How could your budget or your time or your energy influence the world around you in ways that image Christ's kingdom? What would it take for you to start each day with the prayer, God, show me who you need to send me to in love today?

Friends, it's precisely there in your ordinary days under these ordinary skies that influence can really happen. Eternity is only ever shaped by an eternity of small moments.

And despite having no power or clout, despite being exiled for her choice here, Vashti is the one who influences the story most. That's what exile influence looks like. And I know that's easier said than done. Especially in a world where it seems like our prayers don't always get answered. And all our work doesn't seem to make a dent in things. Daily faithfulness like this is often discouraging. And so that leads us to the third and final thing we need to remember about influence and exile. We need to remember that God is always at work in spite of appearances. You may have noticed as we read this chapter something curious. God is never once mentioned in the story. And as we keep reading Esther, you'll notice God, faith, religion, and prayer are never once mentioned throughout the entire book. Which is weird. It's in the Bible, which is kind of about God. this isn't an oversight. It wasn't like the author finished Esther and was like, ah, crap, I forgot the God stuff in there.

No, they're intentionally showing us something crucial about reality. That God's work is often hidden underneath a multitude of seeming coincidences. They want us to read Esther with the imagination open to the fact that God might be at work even when it's not immediately obvious to us. Think about this story. No one would have looked in the moment at a patriarchal Persian king getting drunk and thought, ah, God at work. There he is. But God is moving underneath the surface of the story. And all the coincidences that start here and continue, they add up to this big picture of a remarkable work of God's redeeming power. When God seems most absent, when only empire and oppression and patriarchy and ugliness seem to win the day, we find that God is actually weaving a different story. We may not see it in the moment, but it's happening. God is there. He's just in disguise. That's actually a central theme that the Jewish community has for centuries pulled out of this story. Every year, there's a festival called Purim where they retell this story and reenact this story. They throw huge banquets. People play the different characters, and everyone dresses up in costumes and disguises. It's called Jewish Halloween. But it's not just for fun. They disguise themselves as a reminder that God is in disguise in the stories, that God is at work in hidden ways in the moment. And it's only afterwards we can look back and say, oh, my gosh, that was God. That person, that interaction, that thing that happened, that was God leading me to him. That was God redeeming and restoring where I never could have seen it in the moment.

So as we live in exile, friends, where it often seems like the things we're doing don't make a dent or a difference, we need to learn to read our lives the same way we read Esther, through eyes of wonder. And there's two parts to that. First, we have to learn how to reflect well on our lives. We need to look back on our lives consistently to honestly notice and name where God was at work, where we see it now, where we didn't see it then. Soren Kierkegaard said it brilliantly. He said, life can only be understood backwards, but it must be understood. It must be lived forwards. You can only understand the truth of what God was doing by looking backwards, but you can only continue to live forward. So you have to build good reflection into your life to see what God is up to. But the second way that we live with eyes of wonder is seeing each continuous moment in our lives as packed with possibility. Because we know that through our lives, God's work has often been hidden in the moment, we need to see each continuous moment as packed with possibility, even if we can't see it right away. Every interaction you have, every workday you endure, every diaper you change, every cry you answer, every tear you cry, every laugh you bellow, every failure you endure, every meal you share, every dignity you extend, every person you serve, every moment of your life is being woven together in God's grand plan of redemption. We need to learn to see our lives packed with that kind of possibility.

There's an image that's been helpful for me to kind of conceptualize this in my own life. I've got a collection of words that I want to throw up on the screen for you guys. I want to ask you, what do you see up there? Shout it out. God is nowhere, right? Anybody see something different? God is now here. Everyone see both of those?

God is nowhere and God is now here. Friends, in every moment of God's hiddenness now, in every moment that it feels like God is nowhere, we will one day recall God is now here. In spite of appearances, God is always at work. And truthfully, this morning might be one of those moments for you. I don't know where you're at on your spiritual journey right now. I don't know what you stumbled in here with. I don't know what griefs or doubts or joys or questions you have, but I do know that there's a God at work right now, whether it's obvious to you or not. I know the words of this text have changed lives. I know the simple prayers we pray have healed wounds and burst the chains of shame and softened the hearts of the hardened. I know this bread and juice have filled the hungry and quenched the thirsty for centuries. And I know God is at work because I know the story beyond Esther. Friends, even in the ultimate moment of God's hiddenness, where it seemed like all hope was lost, in the moment where we took the truth and crucified him and put him in a grave, God is at work. Whenever we forget, whenever we doubt, look to the cross. For it was there that God was shouting through the hiddenness. It was there that Christ said, I know what it's like to feel like God is nowhere. And I need you to know that I'm with you. I need you to know that I hold you. I need you to know that death is too real and that I have died too and I've been exiled in the worst way possible. And I need you to know I did that for you. I went into the darkness, I went into the hiddenness so that you wouldn't have to. And I emerged on the other side so that you would know I have the last word. All that is now hidden will be made known. All that is now broken will be made new. So look to me and I'll give you eyes to see. I'll give you a heart to understand. I'll give you a love to extend in every little moment. Don't look to appearances, look to me.

Fellow exiles, look to Jesus. Be faithful to him in the small things. That's where true influence is found. That's what can really change the course of things. Let's pray, friends.