It's not about me! Esther 7&8

Read Esther 7.
At the second banquet the king again asks Esther what she would like. What does she ask for this time?

Clearly angered by what happened the king asks: who did this?

The king walks out to the garden, maybe to control his anger, maybe to figure out what to do. Either way, what does he see as he walks back into the room?

What does Harbonah tell the king?



Read Esther 8.
What does the king give to Esther and Mordecai?


Esther goes before the king another time and falls at his feet begging. What is she asking him for?

What does King Xerxes do and then say in response?


What does the edict/letter say about the Jews (or give them permission to do)?


So how about this story?? It’s been quite interesting, hasn’t it? 

 In chapter 4, Mordecai gives Esther this pivotal piece of advice that we didn’t really talk about. In the ACV (Amber Carter Version) Mordecai says, “It’s not about you! You can chose to be the person He uses to save the Jews. But if you don’t they will be rescued by God somehow. Maybe the whole reason you became queen is for this moment.” The chapter ended and we didn’t know what Esther was going to do.
Now we’ve read what happens. We know she does risk her life to go before the king and plead for the salvation of the Jews. That resulted in Haman being destroyed, but not the salvation of the Jews. Esther risks her life a second time in chapter 8 to again plead for the salvation of the Jews. For a second time, the king reaches out the golden scepter and grants her her request.
Esther realizes “It’s not about me!” and does what she can to save her people. She put aside the very real danger she faced to do what she could.
Sometimes we make long-term commitments to live for Christ and not ourselves. Sometimes it’s commitments that require some sacrifice to put others first. But sometimes it’s a big risky commitment. Esther faced death and still decided to live for God and not herself.

 It’s hard to apply this. You are not queen of a country. You don’t have life or death choices before you. We never know when that sort of situation may come up. When I was in 10th grade, there was a school shooting at Columbine High School that I believe is still the deadliest shooting that has occurred in the US. There were two girls who were Christians that were killed and with guns to their head were asked if they believed in God. They could have easily said no to save their lives and didn’t. That was like the go-to example for a message like this when I was in high school. That could happen - how would you respond?

 I think a more likely situation is being faced with decisions where we risk leaving our comfort zones. Do you stand up for what’s right when there is risk involved?
Write about a time that you chickened out of doing what was right because you thought it was too risky.



Write about a time where you did what was right even when it was risky.




 .




So today is our last day and we are basically at the end of the story. There are still two chapters left though. In the next few days, read over them and see what happens. Basically we are just told about when the day arrives that the Jews are to be killed and how they protect themselves and fight back and then about the festival/feast set up to commemorate that day. But seriously take the time to read them so you can get God’s version of how the story ends instead of mine!




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In August, we spent a week at Word of Life in New York doing some work projects. These are devotionals on the book of Esther and the theme "It's not about me!"

It's not about me! Esther 3

Read Esther 3.
Who is Haman?

What did Mordecai do to make Haman angry?

Because he is mad at Mordecai, what does Haman decide to do?

What year of King Xerxes reign did this happen?

And Esther was selected to be queen in the _______th year, so this is _______ years later.

 Does the king ask Haman any questions before giving approval?


What day were the scribes summoned to write the letters for the couriers to deliver?

Lev. 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD's Passover. 
Passover was the biggest celebration of the Jews all year. The day before Passover they got a letter saying they were going to be killed on a particular day basically about a year from then. Can you imagine getting a letter on Christmas Eve saying next December you and all of your family are going to die?! That would certainly put a huge damper on all the Christmas festivities. I imagine that’s very much like how the Jews would have felt about this news right before Passover. (This has nothing to do with our theme, it’s just crazy to me! What awful timing!)

 What did King Xerxes and Haman do while this news was being delivered to the Jews?

In the introduction to Mordecai in this chapter we yet again see him making a decision that is right but could come with some consequences. We should not be bowing down and worshiping any one or thing besides God. Mordecai knows that, and also knows that there could be consequences to not bowing down if Haman finds out. 

 I bet you already figured out that Haman is a bad example! Haman is so full of himself. He gets promoted to a pretty powerful position and just lets it go to his head. Seriously, he decides to annihilate all of the Jews because one Jew doesn’t bow down and honor him.
Haman is not portrayed as being very likeable. One time when we were teaching this story in Sunday School, the teens all booed or hissed every time they heard his name mentioned. But he didn’t start out as a bad guy. In order for the king to have promoted him to his position, I think that he had to have been doing things right. He had qualities that King Xerxes recognized and made Xerxes think this guy should be promoted.
But at some point that changes and Haman starts thinking “It’s all about me!” He has people start bowing down to him, sure it’s at the king’s command, but Haman didn’t have to let that happen. And he gets irrationally upset when he isn’t bowed down to. It isn’t normal to get upset at one person and then decide to eliminate their entire race as a result. He’s so insistent upon it that he also offers the king a huge bribe to be sure Xerxes will approve it.
I think the craziest part of everything he does is that he sits down with the king to drink. While the Jews all throughout the land are learning about their pending destruction, Haman sits and has a beer with the king. 

 Much of what we learn not to do from Haman in this chapter is similar to what we discussed about King Xerxes about pride and humility. Something different though is that if we realize “It’s not all about me!” we should not take things personally and forgive people. Haman took offense to what Mordecai did and as a result made bad decisions. The Bible is full of commands for us to love others and to forgive others. The only way we can do those things is if we recognize “It’s not all about me!”
Write about a time that you tried to get revenge instead of forgiving someone.



Write about a time that you forgave someone even though they hurt you..



1 John 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

 Eph. 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

 Phil. 2:3-4 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

 Matt. 6:14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
What do these verses tell us about “It’s not all about me!”?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In August, we spent a week at Word of Life in New York doing some work projects. These are devotionals on the book of Esther and the theme "It's not about me!"

It's not about me! Esther 2

Read Esther 2.

So some time has passed since King Xerxes had his party and disposed of Queen Vashti. More than likely he had been off battling in Greece (history tells us he was defeated in battle around this time) and was now home and longing for his queen.
How is a new queen selected?


Who is Mordecai?


Our main character, Esther, is introduced. What do we learn about her?





What year of King Xerxes reign is Esther selected as queen?


Look back at 1:3. What year of King Xerxes reign is the party where Vashti is disposed of as queen?

Easy math: How many years have passed then?

Where was Mordecai when he overheard the plot to assassinate the king?

Who did he report it to?


Mordecai seems to be a guy who realizes “It’s not all about me!” The first spot he demonstrates this is in verse 7 where he takes Esther in as his own daughter. This isn’t just babysitting on occasion. This is putting aside his thoughts for how his life would be and taking in his cousin to raise as his own. That’s a long term commitment! It can be tough to get enough volunteers to commit to a week of VBS or to even giving up a week to come on this trip and here Mordecai makes a commitment to raise his cousin.
Right now you’re not in a situation where you would have to make a commitment to raise a kid, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other lifelong commitments you could/should make.
Have you ever come to the point where you realized “It’s not all about me!” and given your life to Christ? Yes or No? Hopefully you all circled yes for that and if not, put this down and go find a leader to talk to about that right now! But beyond giving your life to Christ and knowing that you’ll be in heaven one day, have you really committed your life to Him long-term?

At some point in high school, I realized that although I had gotten saved when I was a kid that I didn’t really do anything about it. I knew I was going to heaven and just kind of did whatever  I wanted. Nothing real crazy, but I didn’t really live out the things I learned at church. In order to be committed to Christ long-term, there should be fruit (evidence of Him) in my life. I should be reading my Bible daily, praying constantly, attending church regularly, serving and constantly applying the things I learn to be more and more like Christ. Why? Because it’s not all about me. It’s all about Him!
So again, have you really committed your life to Him long-term? Why or why not?




The second time where Mordecai shows he knows “It’s not all about me!” is when he stops the attempted assassination. Mordecai could have ignored what he heard and been fine. It wasn’t his responsibility to protect the king. However, it was the right thing to do and so he reported it regardless of the consequences it had. 
Sometimes we just ignore things because they don’t make an impact on us one way or the other. You see trash on the ground, but walk by cause you didn’t drop it. You hear a kid getting picked on, but just watch and do nothing. You see food on Pastor Rob’s face before he’s about to preach, but don’t mention it. There is definitely a right thing to do in each of these scenarios if you realize it’s not all about you, and put the needs of others above your own. 
James 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Write about a time that you ignored something because it didn’t really affect you.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In August, we spent a week at Word of Life in New York doing some work projects. These are devotionals on the book of Esther and the theme "It's not about me!"

It's not about me! Esther 1

Like Autumn said, this week we’re going to read through the book of Esther. Make sure you actually read the chapters so God can teach you through His word. His word is way more important than anything Kirsten, Autumn or I have to say.
After you read the passage, there will be some questions to help you remember what you read and the story overall. Answer them, reread if you need to.
Then we will spend some time discussing how the chapter relates to our theme for the week, “It’s not all about me!”

Read Esther 1.

So depending on what version you are reading the King is either named Ahasuerus or King Xerxes. He’s the same guy; don’t be confused when we talk about Xerxes if your version says Ahasuerus. What does King Xerxes do for 180 days?


Right after that he invites a bunch of people for a banquet which lasted how many days?


What does King Xerxes ask Queen Vashti to do?


Does she do it?


King Xerxes then asks his wise men what the law says he should do. What do they tell him?




Interesting first chapter, huh? The king has a weeklong drinking party and asks the queen to come do some scantily clad dancing for them. She says no. And as a result, the king’s counsel tells him to replace Vashti as queen and also make it a law that wives need to honor their husbands. This first chapter (along with some of the others we are going to read) leaves me scratching my head thinking, “What just happened?!”

As we read through Esther we are going to see some people who are good examples of understanding, “It’s not all about me!” and some bad examples as well.  In this first chapter we definitely see bad examples!
King Xerxes starts off with 180 days (6 months!) of showing off his riches. Clearly he’s rather prideful to need to do so much showing off. He wanted people, whether it was his own people or foreigners, to see his riches and to be impressed by it. It boosted his ego to have people impressed by his stuff.
When we forget that “it’s not all about me!” we can easily become self-centered and prideful. We want to show off the things we have, whether it’s new clothes, new phones, or some other new fancy gadget. Or we make sure people know how lucky we are that we get to do fun experiences. We try to make ourselves feel better by showing off so we get praise from people.
Sadly this is something we all do from time to time. Write about a time you tried to show off new things or talk about fun experiences just to get praise from people. 



The next bad example that we see of “It’s not all about me!” is King Xerxes asking Queen Vashti to come into a room of drunk men to display herself. He again is thinking only about himself. People who are all about themselves are not all about other people. Not once did King Xerxes think about the impact this would make on Queen Vashti. When we focus only on ourselves, we don’t think about the impact our decisions are going to have on others. Pride puts others to make ourselves feel better. Write about a time you made a decision that negatively impacted someone else.




The other people in this chapter who don’t realize “It’s not all about me!” are the wise men the king gets advice from. When King Xerxes asks them what to do about the queen, they think about themselves. They think their wives will start rebelling against them. So out of fear they tell the king that a law should be made saying women must honor their husband. Because they want it to be all about them, they fear it won’t stay all about them. Pride doesn’t let us share the spotlight with others. Write about you a time you tried to keep the spotlight on yourself instead of sharing it with others.



We all forget at times that “It’s not all about me!” However, the Bible warns us in many places about the dangers of pride and tells us to be humble.
1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world.

 Prov. 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. 

What do these verses tell us about “It’s not all about me!”?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In August, we spent a week at Word of Life in New York doing some work projects. These are devotionals on the book of Esther and the theme "It's not about me!"