The Stressless Life | Dont Stress and Let God Bless
Do You Struggle To Let Go Of Your Stress And Trust God?
Darrell Ingram
Apr 23, 2023 35m
We all experience times when it's difficult to let go of your stress and instead trust God. When we learn how to let go of the stress and start trusting God, then He can step into our lives and bless us instead. Video recorded at Pineville, Louisiana.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Darrell Ingram: [00:00:01] Hey, I found my other pair of glasses. I got glasses all over this place. Wow. There's my glasses. I was looking for them earlier because I was going to be blind up here, but now I have two, so I'll be doubly good. I'm telling you. Hey, what do you think about the name of Jesus? Huh? I'm telling you, that song, His name is Power. His name can overcome anything in our lives. Man, I'm so blessed that Pastor James gives me the opportunity to come and the opportunity to speak on his behalf and use his pulpit. And you know, him and Mrs. Debbie, they're enjoying it. They're in Utah. He's taking pictures, some pictures that I want to take eventually one day. He took one of the Milky Way. And I'm telling you, it's so glad. I'm just so, so ecstatic to get to come up here. And I'm going to get stressed out here in the middle, but it's not going to be stressed out like what you think. I'm going to be going real fast and I'm going to be preaching the name of Jesus. Pastor James introduced to us last week the Stressless life, introduced to us the stressless life, and I want to bring it to the next step. It says, Don't stress and watch God bless. You've got to learn when we stress, we've got to allow God to step in and not stress so that God can begin to bless. And if you want to bless, if you want to be blessed, then God let God do the rest. This is what happened in Esther chapter 1. We're coming out of Esther. This is what happened during the time of Xerxes. I like that name Xerxes. If I had another kid, I think I would have named him Xerxes. He was powerful. Xerxes that ruled over 127 provinces searching from India to, stretching from India to Cush. Let's pray. Father, I thank you. I thank you for your goodness, for the opportunity. Lord, hide me behind the cross. I know I'm broke. I'm a broken individual. I sin. I fall short. But God, your Word says that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Darrell Ingram: [00:02:12] So, Lord, I'm asking you right now, give me the strength to honor. Give me the strength to glorify you and you alone. Father, right now, just bless this time. In Jesus' name. Amen. You see, the book of Esther is centered around this king, this King Xerxes. He's mean. He's a pagan. I mean, he's ungodly. And nothing about him has anything to do with the Lord, has anything to do with God. He is just who he is. And one day, in the scripture it says, and one day he asked his Queen, whatever her name, it starts with a V, Vashti, you know, to come in and do a vulgar dance. And she refused. And the Bible says that he removed her from being the queen. We don't know what he did. We don't know if he killed her or if he banished her. But whatever he did, she's never heard from again. And she was going to be replaced. She was going to be replaced by some beauty queen. So they had a competition, a beauty contest, and all of the land that Xerxes was in charge of, all the 127 provinces and the prettiest girl was going to be the one that became the queen, the new queen. You see, it's not bad to do your best, allow God to do the rest, because when you do your best, you're being your best for the Lord. And so it's no problem. So you just continue to do your best. So the king wanted to find the very best woman, the very best person to be his king. As God would have it, there was a little orphan girl and her name was Esther, and she was in one of the provinces and she was beautiful. And she was nominated to be one of the potential choices for the king. I'm telling you, she was not out. I mean, just like ram, beauty. And you know, it's all about, it was all about the swerves. It was all about the curves. It was all about the hips. It was all about the lips. And they all wore these church dresses. Lo and behold, yeah, they wanted to catch the king's eye.
Darrell Ingram: [00:04:39] They wanted to make sure that the king had his eyes on them and that they would be picked to be the queen. But lo and behold, what happened is, Esther, he picked Esther out of all these beautiful women and all of his kingdom. He picked Esther. Oh, that had to tell me right there how beautiful she was and how God created her to set forth a new plan, to set a next, another step or a new direction. She was terrified, as everyone was, of this man, of this king, of this Xerxes. He was brutal. Life meant nothing to him, and she was afraid to even go into his presence without being invited because she was afraid that he would take her life, you see. So there was no joy in this marriage. There was no relationship in this marriage. There was no love in this marriage. And guys, there was literally no romance. Hey, baby, you just come here. You're mine tonight. That's the way it was. So there was no romance. And then we move and I'm giving you a whole outline of it. Then we move into chapter 2. Her parents had been killed, and so she's an orphan. But she does have a relative. And that relative is Mordecai. And Mordecai sits at the gate. He monitors the gate. And it's not by chance that Mordecai is at this gate, you see, because God is working, He is orchestrating things out for the good. God is orchestrating things in your life. It's not just a fluke that God is working in your life. He is orchestrating something wonderful, wonderful and mighty in each and every one of our lives. So you just got to sit back and let God do what God does. So Mordecai overhears this conversation between these two bodyguards, these two eunuch bodyguards of the king, and they were really at the doors of his, they would guard the doors of his room and they were plotting to assassinate him. They want to go and they want to kill the king. So, Mordecai, what he does because it's actually his relative, Queen Esther, he goes in and he tells her. He says there's an assassination attempt about to be made on the king and you need to warn him.
Darrell Ingram: [00:07:02] You need to go and tell him. And she was afraid to go in and personally tell him. So she tells somebody, We're not told who it is. We don't know who it is, don't care who it is. But they spoil the assassination attempt. And all these guards and everyone that was conspiring to kill the king, they were put to death in probably the most brutal ways possible. And Mordecai was never given the credit that he had went to Esther, King Xerxes' Queen, to save him, to save him. And then we have this dude. This dude come in. I don't know. I like the name because. Haman, Haman, Haman. Comes in and Haman is just as evil. Y'all got that? Finally, huh? That's why when I walked by you and I said, Hey, man, remember Haman. Okay? Haman is King Xerxes' prime minister. He's actually the second in command. He's just as brutal as the king is. And the king is pleased with Haman. And all the people were taught to bow down as Haman would walk around, you know, they would say, Haman. And then they would bow, Haman. And then they would bow. Except for this one dude, this old Jew, Mordecai. Mordecai wouldn't bow down. And Haman despised Mordecai. He wanted to exterminate Mordecai and all the Jews. Haman tells the King, Hey, the Jews are getting, they're getting so big that they're becoming a threat. And he thinks that, I think you ought to go ahead and kill them. And of course, the king says, okay, fine with me. What's for lunch? That's how brutal they were. They didn't care about anybody else but themselves. Anybody. And here's Haman. He's on the top. I mean, he's like hog heaven walking out. He said, Man, I can't wait. I can't wait to kill that guy Mordecai who doesn't bow down. And then all those other people, all those other people that are like him. I can't wait. And what we need to understand is we don't need to stress about anything that's going in our lives because God has put you here for a time like this.
Darrell Ingram: [00:09:23] You see, Mordecai, here's the story. And he goes to the palace again and he talks to the Queen. In Esther 4:14, it says, He tells her, I have come and God has placed you in this kingdom for a time such as this. You have to go and you have to speak up for your people. You have to speak up for me and everyone. Mordecai had this genuine concern and he told Esther that God had placed her there for that particular time, for this particular reason, so that she would step in and speak up for him and all their people. It's not what Esther, it's not what Esther will do, but it's what God will do through Esther. Can you imagine her anxiety? Can you imagine the stress that was piling up on her? Here she has, she has Mordecai, her cousin over here and all the children of Israel, all the Jews. Then she has the king over here along with Haman. And she's like literally caught between a rock and a hard place. Doesn't know what to do. Have y'all ever been stuck like that? And you don't know what to do? Oh, I know. I have been time and time and time again. And that anxiety and that stress just built up, built up and up and up. She could have, just like Pastor told us last week, she could have carried that burden. She could have buried that burden. And to carry that burden along in your life, it becomes this monkey on your back and it weighs you down. You don't need to be carrying those burdens in your life. Or you can bury them. But once you bury them, the wind's going to come. And guess what? What you buried is going to come back up. Or you can marry them and you can walk around and they can become a part of who you are. And you can always be down. You can always be depressed. You can always have this stress that's in your life. But she decided, and I love this, she decided to share them with the Lord, the one who is in control.
Darrell Ingram: [00:11:45] And she asked all the Jews to pray and fast for her, pray and that she can express her dependence on God through what she does and what she's going to accomplish, that God would ultimately get the honor, that God would ultimately get the glory. She's a normal person like us. She was plucked out and she was placed into a situation that brought stress and stress, and she was filled with it. And she asked the Jews, Pray for me. Pray for me. Pray for me. Don't eat. Pray for me. Give me, give me, give me the courage. Pray that God will give me that courage. And her courage got worked up enough that she was like a little mouse. And she was walking by the entrance of the throne and the king sees her and he holds up his scepter and she comes in. And he says, Esther, why have you approached me? Why have you come in? Why have you come to me? She could have spoke up at that very moment of the situation that's in her life and all her people's life. But she didn't have the courage yet. She said, I want you and I want Haman. I want y'all to come to this banquet that I'm preparing. She could have cut straight to the chase and said, Let me tell you something about that dude right there, that Haman dude. But she didn't have that courage. She didn't have the courage. Remember in 2 Timothy 1:17, it says, God did not give us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. You see, God will give you whatever strength you need, whatever power you need to push through the situation that you may be going through this very moment, God is there and He's not against you. He is for you. You see, He's wanting to help you. He's wanting to lead you. And can you imagine that Haman coming? And I don't have my, Haman coming and Haman is looking at, look at me. The Bible tells me he's kind of, you know, he's kind of just, you know, kind of like I used to be, kind of like, look at me.
Darrell Ingram: [00:14:05] Look at me. It's all about me. That he was taking selfies with the queen and the king, and he was posting them on Instagram and TikTok and Snapchat and Facebook and Instagram. And he even had an artist come in and draw him with the king and queen and put it on a carrier pigeon so that everybody in the country would know that he was with the king and queen and no one else had been asked to come. It was a big deal for him. It was a big deal for everyone. And as he came out, the paparazzi was there and the news was there and they were all there. And they were all saying, that's Haman. That's Haman. And they bowed down. That's Haman. That's Haman. And they bowed down except for that one Jew. Let me do a sidebar here. Whatever God has convicted you to do, you stand on those principles because God will lead you. He will guide you and He will not allow you to fall. So here is Mordecai. He's not going to bow down to that. There's only one that he bows down and that's the Lord God Almighty. Many of us stress out over and over again, and it goes through our mind. These situations, you know, you often hear that thing, you're making a mountain out of a molehill. It just goes over and over and over and it's rewind. Rewind in your mind over and over and over until a point that we're ready to step, throw in the towel. But if you just wait a moment, if you just wait a moment, that next step, that next step is a big one. Because if you learn not to stress out about it, God's going to begin to bless. It's all about the blessings that God could give. We come to Esther chapter 6. This is where I was working too. So that was an introduction. That's why I said I got to speak fast. This is where I've been working, too. This is amazing how God is always at work in our lives, even when we thinks He's not.
Darrell Ingram: [00:16:27] He's always at work. Listen, that night, King Xerxes could not sleep. He had insomnia. He was walking to and fro. And he asked them, Bring out the books, the chronicles. Bring them out. And everything is bad at this moment. Everything is piled up. Everything is messed up and it's getting worse and everything is hopeless. Everything is filled with anxiety and everyone is stressed out to the max. Have you ever been stressed out to the max that you're about ready to crumble? They were facing annihilation. They were facing slaughter. Esther was scared to death. And the only thing that saved the lives of the Jews, Esther and Mordechai, is the king could not sleep. The king could not sleep. Y'all got to see this. Can I preach a little bit right here, huh? Look, look. Make sure y'all look up at me. Esther is stepping into. And this is what we need to. Man, it was so powerful when Pastor James shared it last week. I've been claiming it all week. Esther was fixing to step into the unforced rhythms of God's grace. She was fixing to step into that rhythm that God has for each of us. Each of us. Because here's the thing that happened. That reader just happened to turn to the page where Mordecai saved the king's life. And the king says, Wait a minute, wait a minute. What has been done to reward this man? This man. And that he was read and he was saying nothing? No, sir. You mean we didn't reward him for saving my life? No, sir. My goodness. He didn't want anything. You mean he did this without a motive and we didn't reward him? He got off the throne. And had his Louis Vuitton robe on and his Versace slippers, and he was walking around and he was pacing. He didn't know what to do, and he was just. Y'all ever been like that before? You don't know what to do, and it just overwhelms you and you can't go to sleep. And listen.
Darrell Ingram: [00:19:02] That was me last night going over this message. Lord, I don't want to, I don't want you to see me. But I want y'all to see the Lord. Because He's high and lifted up. And so he's walking to and fro. Here he is, the king walking back and forth and the sun's coming up. And Haman just so happens to walk up and he's freshly shaved and he slept like an angel, slept like a baby, and he feels good. And he walks in and he says, tonight's going to be a good night. It's going to be exciting. I get to be there again. And the king has these black eyes and you know, these bags under his eyes. And he says, Hey, Haman, I want to ask you something. He said, What would you suggest if there was a man in the kingdom that I want to honor? And Haman with his old egotistical self like, Oh, I'm fixing to humble myself right here. So the king calls on me. It's kind of like that. Y'all know what it is. It's that humble brag. Oh, it's not me. No, yeah. Thank you. But it's not me. And that's the way Haman was. He was thinking, Oh, man, that he's fixing, he is fixing, I'm fixing to be even somebody more. Because I'm fixing to step into this honor that this king has and he's fixing to make a big deal of me. And he says, Sir, I humbly suggest, I think you ought to take your robe off. And I think you ought to put it around that person's shoulders. And I think you ought to take the horse that you ride and put it on him. And God then, the person got him around and with the trumpets blowing. Say this is the man who the king honors before you. Instantly, the king says, That's a brilliant idea. I love it. Here's what I want you to do. I can imagine what Haman was thinking. I'm fixing to get on that horse.
Darrell Ingram: [00:21:10] I'm fixing to get that robe. People are fixing to throw things at me that are nice, that are flowers and maybe jewels. I'm fixing. Ooh, I'm thinking I've been there, guys. Ooh, I'm fixing to. But he says, I want you to do it. I want you to do it. But I want you to do it for this person. Mordecai. Can you imagine how Haman felt at that moment? Now he's got to, he the second in command, the prime minister, he's got to lead that horse and trumpets before him, and he's got to cry out the man who the king on Earth. How often do we get so high on the horse that eventually God brings us down a rung? When we start thinking it's about us. When it's not really about us, it's about Him. And so he had to go around the man, the man. I don't know who I'm preaching to this morning. I really don't. But the stuff you're worrying about, you've forgotten who your God is. The stuff you have, you've forgotten who God is? The stress that you're going through, you've forgotten how powerful God is. You've forgotten that when He speaks, seas open. When He speaks, mountains move. When He speaks, the devils tremble. You've forgotten that the enemy, what he plots against you will not be successful because God is fighting for you. God is fighting for you. Whatever you're going through today, God is not against you. He is for you. He is for you. He is for you. And we got to leave out here, if anything, you hear today, know that when you step out, no matter what situation you're in, God is for you. And then after that, the queen has them both in and, you know, they're playing and they're doing this little thing and they're doing this partying and having fun. And he said, Really, Esther? Why did you really invite me here? Why did you really have me come? And she said, sir, there is a conspiracy in this land to kill Mordechai, the Jew and all his seed.
Darrell Ingram: [00:23:51] And I don't know if you know, king, but I, Esther, am a Jew as well. The king was enraged. He stands up. He's still in his Versace slippers. He stands up and he knows he didn't sleep well. Hey, y'all know people, when they don't sleep well, what they look like. Hey, husbands, turn to your wife and tell her, Hey, I know what you look like when you don't sleep. Wives, turn to your husband and say, I know how you look all the time. You see, God is at work in our lives. And no matter what's going on, no matter how much we stay, no matter how much we stay awake, no matter how much we pace, God is there for us. Man, if the king could spit, if he would have spit, he would have killed the grass. That's how mad he was. So Haman follows, the king leaves, Haman follows Esther, and Esther sits down and Haman falls down and sits right there and lays right there. And he's begging for, it's because the tables have been turned. And in walks the king with Haman laying by her thinking, Oh, I was trying to figure out what to do with this dude. This dude that's been with me. I was trying to, What will I do? And he said, Now, I know. He said that spiked pole that he prepared for Mordecai, you take him out right now and you impale him right now on that pole. Now, let me finish. Let me finish. Here's really what I came to say. You came to Journey Church this morning. And this old story, it's not just a piece of history. But it's a reminder of what you need to hear, of what I need to hear, that you have a king, that you have a God that has intentional insomnia, that he stays up. And in Psalms 121:1, it says, Help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and earth. Indeed, who watches over Israel. I neither sleep nor slumber.
Darrell Ingram: [00:26:19] He said the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will watch over your coming and the Lord will watch over your going forever more. He said, I, God will not, God can't, He said, God will not. God can't. He said, I will not sleep nor slumber. Our God is always up to something in our lives. He's not asleep. He chooses to be awake and know every situation in our lives. He's active and He's active and He's active, planning those plans for you and making it, making it right. I don't know what you're going through, but there are families here that I know that are represented that maybe have been through a heated argument and unkind, cruel words have been spoken. It may have been last night. May have been the last month, last year, ten, 20, 30 years ago. Looked like the enemy has gone wild in your family. I had to come to the point with my wife, Beverly, to give certain situations in our lives and our family over to the Lord and trust Him. And God reaffirmed it as I was going through this message and writing it. He said, You've got to trust me. You've trusted me with your life. You trusted me with your salvation. Now, trust me with your family. Trust me. You see, there may be someone here that's going through a medical scare, and you dread going back to the doctor, and you don't know what the real problem is. And you're worried and you have this anxiety and you have this fear. There's some parents here that are agonizing over their teenagers that are making crazy decisions in their lives. You fix one thing, and then there's something else that comes up. How do I know? Because I've raised two wonderful boys. You got one thing fixed, and then another thing happens. But I'm here to tell you that God, my God, your God has intentional insomnia. No matter what's going on in my life, no matter what's going on in your life.
Darrell Ingram: [00:29:31] He's up and he's walking around and He's planning for you a future, a hope, not calamity. He wants to give you peace. Some of those things may be internal or they may be external bothering you. Maybe it's an internal disease that you might have and something is going on internally. But there's only two times that you will stress: something that's inside causing you to do it or something that is outside causing you to do it. It may be your family. It may be a job. It may be relationships. It may be certain people that are stressing you out, and it's all piling up. And you don't know if you're going to make it. You don't know if you're going to throw in the towel. And that's where Jesus stepped in, and He began to speak to me. He said, Darrell, come unto me. You're weary, and you're heavy laden. Cast those worries. Cast that stress on me. And you will find rest. But it's not just the kind of rest that we find when we go to sleep. It's so satisfying to know. And God is going to give you that rest. What you need to understand and what I need to understand is that He loves us no matter what. You're His bride. I'm His bride. I'm a child of the King. I'm a friend of the King. It's wonderful to know that God knows me. And that God hears my prayers and my prayers, God usually exceeds the prayers. I'm praying and He hears my cry. He hears your cry. And He's wanting you just to lay it down at His feet and let Him be God. Let Him be your Lord. Let Him be your savior. He exceeds everything that you and I could ever imagine. Listen, I'm going to ask you to stand and bow your heads. I don't know why you came to Journey Church this morning. I don't know why the Holy Spirit drew you here. But I know the Holy Spirit drew you here on purpose for a purpose.
Darrell Ingram: [00:32:21] And maybe you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Nobody's looking. Everybody's eyes are bowed. You don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You haven't trusted Him wholly, and your life is filled with pain, with brokenness, with stress. And you don't know how to overcome it. And Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father but by me. Man, if you are here this morning and you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I'm just going to ask you real fast, no one's looking, raise your hand. Raise your hand. Keep it up. Maybe you need to get baptized following that next step. Maybe you gave your heart to the Lord, but you haven't taken that next step. And that next step is to get baptized, to show the world what you've done internally. Maybe you want to rededicate your life. Maybe you want to come and pray with this prayer team up here. They're wanting to pray with you. They're wanting to help you. They're wanting to encourage you and lift you up. Maybe you want Pastor James and all the staff to pray for you and lift you up and encourage you. Put it on a next step card and say, Pastor James, I want you and I want the staff to pray for me, for my family. But listen, on the real-real, don't walk out of church without leaving your problems here and letting God be God. Don't step out without allowing God to change your lives, whatever it may be. There are people up here that are willing to help, willing to pray, willing to guide, willing to direct. I want you to repeat after me, everybody. You know, some of y'all raised your hand. Some of y'all are in your heart. So y'all just repeat after me. Say, Dear Jesus. Come into my life. I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I ask you to be my Lord and Savior and trust you to take me to Heaven when I die. Thank you for saving me. Amen.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
Darrell Ingram: [00:02:12] So, Lord, I'm asking you right now, give me the strength to honor. Give me the strength to glorify you and you alone. Father, right now, just bless this time. In Jesus' name. Amen. You see, the book of Esther is centered around this king, this King Xerxes. He's mean. He's a pagan. I mean, he's ungodly. And nothing about him has anything to do with the Lord, has anything to do with God. He is just who he is. And one day, in the scripture it says, and one day he asked his Queen, whatever her name, it starts with a V, Vashti, you know, to come in and do a vulgar dance. And she refused. And the Bible says that he removed her from being the queen. We don't know what he did. We don't know if he killed her or if he banished her. But whatever he did, she's never heard from again. And she was going to be replaced. She was going to be replaced by some beauty queen. So they had a competition, a beauty contest, and all of the land that Xerxes was in charge of, all the 127 provinces and the prettiest girl was going to be the one that became the queen, the new queen. You see, it's not bad to do your best, allow God to do the rest, because when you do your best, you're being your best for the Lord. And so it's no problem. So you just continue to do your best. So the king wanted to find the very best woman, the very best person to be his king. As God would have it, there was a little orphan girl and her name was Esther, and she was in one of the provinces and she was beautiful. And she was nominated to be one of the potential choices for the king. I'm telling you, she was not out. I mean, just like ram, beauty. And you know, it's all about, it was all about the swerves. It was all about the curves. It was all about the hips. It was all about the lips. And they all wore these church dresses. Lo and behold, yeah, they wanted to catch the king's eye.
Darrell Ingram: [00:04:39] They wanted to make sure that the king had his eyes on them and that they would be picked to be the queen. But lo and behold, what happened is, Esther, he picked Esther out of all these beautiful women and all of his kingdom. He picked Esther. Oh, that had to tell me right there how beautiful she was and how God created her to set forth a new plan, to set a next, another step or a new direction. She was terrified, as everyone was, of this man, of this king, of this Xerxes. He was brutal. Life meant nothing to him, and she was afraid to even go into his presence without being invited because she was afraid that he would take her life, you see. So there was no joy in this marriage. There was no relationship in this marriage. There was no love in this marriage. And guys, there was literally no romance. Hey, baby, you just come here. You're mine tonight. That's the way it was. So there was no romance. And then we move and I'm giving you a whole outline of it. Then we move into chapter 2. Her parents had been killed, and so she's an orphan. But she does have a relative. And that relative is Mordecai. And Mordecai sits at the gate. He monitors the gate. And it's not by chance that Mordecai is at this gate, you see, because God is working, He is orchestrating things out for the good. God is orchestrating things in your life. It's not just a fluke that God is working in your life. He is orchestrating something wonderful, wonderful and mighty in each and every one of our lives. So you just got to sit back and let God do what God does. So Mordecai overhears this conversation between these two bodyguards, these two eunuch bodyguards of the king, and they were really at the doors of his, they would guard the doors of his room and they were plotting to assassinate him. They want to go and they want to kill the king. So, Mordecai, what he does because it's actually his relative, Queen Esther, he goes in and he tells her. He says there's an assassination attempt about to be made on the king and you need to warn him.
Darrell Ingram: [00:07:02] You need to go and tell him. And she was afraid to go in and personally tell him. So she tells somebody, We're not told who it is. We don't know who it is, don't care who it is. But they spoil the assassination attempt. And all these guards and everyone that was conspiring to kill the king, they were put to death in probably the most brutal ways possible. And Mordecai was never given the credit that he had went to Esther, King Xerxes' Queen, to save him, to save him. And then we have this dude. This dude come in. I don't know. I like the name because. Haman, Haman, Haman. Comes in and Haman is just as evil. Y'all got that? Finally, huh? That's why when I walked by you and I said, Hey, man, remember Haman. Okay? Haman is King Xerxes' prime minister. He's actually the second in command. He's just as brutal as the king is. And the king is pleased with Haman. And all the people were taught to bow down as Haman would walk around, you know, they would say, Haman. And then they would bow, Haman. And then they would bow. Except for this one dude, this old Jew, Mordecai. Mordecai wouldn't bow down. And Haman despised Mordecai. He wanted to exterminate Mordecai and all the Jews. Haman tells the King, Hey, the Jews are getting, they're getting so big that they're becoming a threat. And he thinks that, I think you ought to go ahead and kill them. And of course, the king says, okay, fine with me. What's for lunch? That's how brutal they were. They didn't care about anybody else but themselves. Anybody. And here's Haman. He's on the top. I mean, he's like hog heaven walking out. He said, Man, I can't wait. I can't wait to kill that guy Mordecai who doesn't bow down. And then all those other people, all those other people that are like him. I can't wait. And what we need to understand is we don't need to stress about anything that's going in our lives because God has put you here for a time like this.
Darrell Ingram: [00:09:23] You see, Mordecai, here's the story. And he goes to the palace again and he talks to the Queen. In Esther 4:14, it says, He tells her, I have come and God has placed you in this kingdom for a time such as this. You have to go and you have to speak up for your people. You have to speak up for me and everyone. Mordecai had this genuine concern and he told Esther that God had placed her there for that particular time, for this particular reason, so that she would step in and speak up for him and all their people. It's not what Esther, it's not what Esther will do, but it's what God will do through Esther. Can you imagine her anxiety? Can you imagine the stress that was piling up on her? Here she has, she has Mordecai, her cousin over here and all the children of Israel, all the Jews. Then she has the king over here along with Haman. And she's like literally caught between a rock and a hard place. Doesn't know what to do. Have y'all ever been stuck like that? And you don't know what to do? Oh, I know. I have been time and time and time again. And that anxiety and that stress just built up, built up and up and up. She could have, just like Pastor told us last week, she could have carried that burden. She could have buried that burden. And to carry that burden along in your life, it becomes this monkey on your back and it weighs you down. You don't need to be carrying those burdens in your life. Or you can bury them. But once you bury them, the wind's going to come. And guess what? What you buried is going to come back up. Or you can marry them and you can walk around and they can become a part of who you are. And you can always be down. You can always be depressed. You can always have this stress that's in your life. But she decided, and I love this, she decided to share them with the Lord, the one who is in control.
Darrell Ingram: [00:11:45] And she asked all the Jews to pray and fast for her, pray and that she can express her dependence on God through what she does and what she's going to accomplish, that God would ultimately get the honor, that God would ultimately get the glory. She's a normal person like us. She was plucked out and she was placed into a situation that brought stress and stress, and she was filled with it. And she asked the Jews, Pray for me. Pray for me. Pray for me. Don't eat. Pray for me. Give me, give me, give me the courage. Pray that God will give me that courage. And her courage got worked up enough that she was like a little mouse. And she was walking by the entrance of the throne and the king sees her and he holds up his scepter and she comes in. And he says, Esther, why have you approached me? Why have you come in? Why have you come to me? She could have spoke up at that very moment of the situation that's in her life and all her people's life. But she didn't have the courage yet. She said, I want you and I want Haman. I want y'all to come to this banquet that I'm preparing. She could have cut straight to the chase and said, Let me tell you something about that dude right there, that Haman dude. But she didn't have that courage. She didn't have the courage. Remember in 2 Timothy 1:17, it says, God did not give us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. You see, God will give you whatever strength you need, whatever power you need to push through the situation that you may be going through this very moment, God is there and He's not against you. He is for you. You see, He's wanting to help you. He's wanting to lead you. And can you imagine that Haman coming? And I don't have my, Haman coming and Haman is looking at, look at me. The Bible tells me he's kind of, you know, he's kind of just, you know, kind of like I used to be, kind of like, look at me.
Darrell Ingram: [00:14:05] Look at me. It's all about me. That he was taking selfies with the queen and the king, and he was posting them on Instagram and TikTok and Snapchat and Facebook and Instagram. And he even had an artist come in and draw him with the king and queen and put it on a carrier pigeon so that everybody in the country would know that he was with the king and queen and no one else had been asked to come. It was a big deal for him. It was a big deal for everyone. And as he came out, the paparazzi was there and the news was there and they were all there. And they were all saying, that's Haman. That's Haman. And they bowed down. That's Haman. That's Haman. And they bowed down except for that one Jew. Let me do a sidebar here. Whatever God has convicted you to do, you stand on those principles because God will lead you. He will guide you and He will not allow you to fall. So here is Mordecai. He's not going to bow down to that. There's only one that he bows down and that's the Lord God Almighty. Many of us stress out over and over again, and it goes through our mind. These situations, you know, you often hear that thing, you're making a mountain out of a molehill. It just goes over and over and over and it's rewind. Rewind in your mind over and over and over until a point that we're ready to step, throw in the towel. But if you just wait a moment, if you just wait a moment, that next step, that next step is a big one. Because if you learn not to stress out about it, God's going to begin to bless. It's all about the blessings that God could give. We come to Esther chapter 6. This is where I was working too. So that was an introduction. That's why I said I got to speak fast. This is where I've been working, too. This is amazing how God is always at work in our lives, even when we thinks He's not.
Darrell Ingram: [00:16:27] He's always at work. Listen, that night, King Xerxes could not sleep. He had insomnia. He was walking to and fro. And he asked them, Bring out the books, the chronicles. Bring them out. And everything is bad at this moment. Everything is piled up. Everything is messed up and it's getting worse and everything is hopeless. Everything is filled with anxiety and everyone is stressed out to the max. Have you ever been stressed out to the max that you're about ready to crumble? They were facing annihilation. They were facing slaughter. Esther was scared to death. And the only thing that saved the lives of the Jews, Esther and Mordechai, is the king could not sleep. The king could not sleep. Y'all got to see this. Can I preach a little bit right here, huh? Look, look. Make sure y'all look up at me. Esther is stepping into. And this is what we need to. Man, it was so powerful when Pastor James shared it last week. I've been claiming it all week. Esther was fixing to step into the unforced rhythms of God's grace. She was fixing to step into that rhythm that God has for each of us. Each of us. Because here's the thing that happened. That reader just happened to turn to the page where Mordecai saved the king's life. And the king says, Wait a minute, wait a minute. What has been done to reward this man? This man. And that he was read and he was saying nothing? No, sir. You mean we didn't reward him for saving my life? No, sir. My goodness. He didn't want anything. You mean he did this without a motive and we didn't reward him? He got off the throne. And had his Louis Vuitton robe on and his Versace slippers, and he was walking around and he was pacing. He didn't know what to do, and he was just. Y'all ever been like that before? You don't know what to do, and it just overwhelms you and you can't go to sleep. And listen.
Darrell Ingram: [00:19:02] That was me last night going over this message. Lord, I don't want to, I don't want you to see me. But I want y'all to see the Lord. Because He's high and lifted up. And so he's walking to and fro. Here he is, the king walking back and forth and the sun's coming up. And Haman just so happens to walk up and he's freshly shaved and he slept like an angel, slept like a baby, and he feels good. And he walks in and he says, tonight's going to be a good night. It's going to be exciting. I get to be there again. And the king has these black eyes and you know, these bags under his eyes. And he says, Hey, Haman, I want to ask you something. He said, What would you suggest if there was a man in the kingdom that I want to honor? And Haman with his old egotistical self like, Oh, I'm fixing to humble myself right here. So the king calls on me. It's kind of like that. Y'all know what it is. It's that humble brag. Oh, it's not me. No, yeah. Thank you. But it's not me. And that's the way Haman was. He was thinking, Oh, man, that he's fixing, he is fixing, I'm fixing to be even somebody more. Because I'm fixing to step into this honor that this king has and he's fixing to make a big deal of me. And he says, Sir, I humbly suggest, I think you ought to take your robe off. And I think you ought to put it around that person's shoulders. And I think you ought to take the horse that you ride and put it on him. And God then, the person got him around and with the trumpets blowing. Say this is the man who the king honors before you. Instantly, the king says, That's a brilliant idea. I love it. Here's what I want you to do. I can imagine what Haman was thinking. I'm fixing to get on that horse.
Darrell Ingram: [00:21:10] I'm fixing to get that robe. People are fixing to throw things at me that are nice, that are flowers and maybe jewels. I'm fixing. Ooh, I'm thinking I've been there, guys. Ooh, I'm fixing to. But he says, I want you to do it. I want you to do it. But I want you to do it for this person. Mordecai. Can you imagine how Haman felt at that moment? Now he's got to, he the second in command, the prime minister, he's got to lead that horse and trumpets before him, and he's got to cry out the man who the king on Earth. How often do we get so high on the horse that eventually God brings us down a rung? When we start thinking it's about us. When it's not really about us, it's about Him. And so he had to go around the man, the man. I don't know who I'm preaching to this morning. I really don't. But the stuff you're worrying about, you've forgotten who your God is. The stuff you have, you've forgotten who God is? The stress that you're going through, you've forgotten how powerful God is. You've forgotten that when He speaks, seas open. When He speaks, mountains move. When He speaks, the devils tremble. You've forgotten that the enemy, what he plots against you will not be successful because God is fighting for you. God is fighting for you. Whatever you're going through today, God is not against you. He is for you. He is for you. He is for you. And we got to leave out here, if anything, you hear today, know that when you step out, no matter what situation you're in, God is for you. And then after that, the queen has them both in and, you know, they're playing and they're doing this little thing and they're doing this partying and having fun. And he said, Really, Esther? Why did you really invite me here? Why did you really have me come? And she said, sir, there is a conspiracy in this land to kill Mordechai, the Jew and all his seed.
Darrell Ingram: [00:23:51] And I don't know if you know, king, but I, Esther, am a Jew as well. The king was enraged. He stands up. He's still in his Versace slippers. He stands up and he knows he didn't sleep well. Hey, y'all know people, when they don't sleep well, what they look like. Hey, husbands, turn to your wife and tell her, Hey, I know what you look like when you don't sleep. Wives, turn to your husband and say, I know how you look all the time. You see, God is at work in our lives. And no matter what's going on, no matter how much we stay, no matter how much we stay awake, no matter how much we pace, God is there for us. Man, if the king could spit, if he would have spit, he would have killed the grass. That's how mad he was. So Haman follows, the king leaves, Haman follows Esther, and Esther sits down and Haman falls down and sits right there and lays right there. And he's begging for, it's because the tables have been turned. And in walks the king with Haman laying by her thinking, Oh, I was trying to figure out what to do with this dude. This dude that's been with me. I was trying to, What will I do? And he said, Now, I know. He said that spiked pole that he prepared for Mordecai, you take him out right now and you impale him right now on that pole. Now, let me finish. Let me finish. Here's really what I came to say. You came to Journey Church this morning. And this old story, it's not just a piece of history. But it's a reminder of what you need to hear, of what I need to hear, that you have a king, that you have a God that has intentional insomnia, that he stays up. And in Psalms 121:1, it says, Help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and earth. Indeed, who watches over Israel. I neither sleep nor slumber.
Darrell Ingram: [00:26:19] He said the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will watch over your coming and the Lord will watch over your going forever more. He said, I, God will not, God can't, He said, God will not. God can't. He said, I will not sleep nor slumber. Our God is always up to something in our lives. He's not asleep. He chooses to be awake and know every situation in our lives. He's active and He's active and He's active, planning those plans for you and making it, making it right. I don't know what you're going through, but there are families here that I know that are represented that maybe have been through a heated argument and unkind, cruel words have been spoken. It may have been last night. May have been the last month, last year, ten, 20, 30 years ago. Looked like the enemy has gone wild in your family. I had to come to the point with my wife, Beverly, to give certain situations in our lives and our family over to the Lord and trust Him. And God reaffirmed it as I was going through this message and writing it. He said, You've got to trust me. You've trusted me with your life. You trusted me with your salvation. Now, trust me with your family. Trust me. You see, there may be someone here that's going through a medical scare, and you dread going back to the doctor, and you don't know what the real problem is. And you're worried and you have this anxiety and you have this fear. There's some parents here that are agonizing over their teenagers that are making crazy decisions in their lives. You fix one thing, and then there's something else that comes up. How do I know? Because I've raised two wonderful boys. You got one thing fixed, and then another thing happens. But I'm here to tell you that God, my God, your God has intentional insomnia. No matter what's going on in my life, no matter what's going on in your life.
Darrell Ingram: [00:29:31] He's up and he's walking around and He's planning for you a future, a hope, not calamity. He wants to give you peace. Some of those things may be internal or they may be external bothering you. Maybe it's an internal disease that you might have and something is going on internally. But there's only two times that you will stress: something that's inside causing you to do it or something that is outside causing you to do it. It may be your family. It may be a job. It may be relationships. It may be certain people that are stressing you out, and it's all piling up. And you don't know if you're going to make it. You don't know if you're going to throw in the towel. And that's where Jesus stepped in, and He began to speak to me. He said, Darrell, come unto me. You're weary, and you're heavy laden. Cast those worries. Cast that stress on me. And you will find rest. But it's not just the kind of rest that we find when we go to sleep. It's so satisfying to know. And God is going to give you that rest. What you need to understand and what I need to understand is that He loves us no matter what. You're His bride. I'm His bride. I'm a child of the King. I'm a friend of the King. It's wonderful to know that God knows me. And that God hears my prayers and my prayers, God usually exceeds the prayers. I'm praying and He hears my cry. He hears your cry. And He's wanting you just to lay it down at His feet and let Him be God. Let Him be your Lord. Let Him be your savior. He exceeds everything that you and I could ever imagine. Listen, I'm going to ask you to stand and bow your heads. I don't know why you came to Journey Church this morning. I don't know why the Holy Spirit drew you here. But I know the Holy Spirit drew you here on purpose for a purpose.
Darrell Ingram: [00:32:21] And maybe you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Nobody's looking. Everybody's eyes are bowed. You don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You haven't trusted Him wholly, and your life is filled with pain, with brokenness, with stress. And you don't know how to overcome it. And Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father but by me. Man, if you are here this morning and you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I'm just going to ask you real fast, no one's looking, raise your hand. Raise your hand. Keep it up. Maybe you need to get baptized following that next step. Maybe you gave your heart to the Lord, but you haven't taken that next step. And that next step is to get baptized, to show the world what you've done internally. Maybe you want to rededicate your life. Maybe you want to come and pray with this prayer team up here. They're wanting to pray with you. They're wanting to help you. They're wanting to encourage you and lift you up. Maybe you want Pastor James and all the staff to pray for you and lift you up and encourage you. Put it on a next step card and say, Pastor James, I want you and I want the staff to pray for me, for my family. But listen, on the real-real, don't walk out of church without leaving your problems here and letting God be God. Don't step out without allowing God to change your lives, whatever it may be. There are people up here that are willing to help, willing to pray, willing to guide, willing to direct. I want you to repeat after me, everybody. You know, some of y'all raised your hand. Some of y'all are in your heart. So y'all just repeat after me. Say, Dear Jesus. Come into my life. I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I ask you to be my Lord and Savior and trust you to take me to Heaven when I die. Thank you for saving me. Amen.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
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