GraceLife Sarasota GraceLife Sarasota

Raise your hand if you have ever made an unwise, foolish, or just downright sinful decision. Have you experienced earthly consequences from those choices so severe that you felt there was no way back? Have you ever wrestled with the potential earthly, spiritual, and eternal impact your own free will has had on others? When we make bad choices, can our choices disrupt God’s plan of salvation not just for us, but for others? This concept has been one of the most polarizing, controversial theological debates within the church for 2,000 years. The human heart has this natural desire for independence & autonomy. But free will comes with a cost as well, right? We all cherish human free will don’t we? The right to make our own decisions, to choose our own path. Every follower of Jesus has struggled with the burden of how our decisions bring consequences on us and others. It’s the tension of trying to grasp how human free will can exist within the framework of God’s sovereign grace. Today’s passage from Esther can be a comfort to every believer who has made bad choices. Yes, even you Scotty!

How many of you have ever played chess? What are the two most important pieces on the board? The King & Queen. These two pieces are all-important; everything centers around them, and where they are dictates the flow of the game. These two pieces on the chessboard are controlled by the players, who move, direct, & use them for their own strategies. But outside the game, off the chessboard, they are pointless trinkets with no power or value. Imagine playing Monopoly, trying to use the queen to move to whatever property you desired, without the dice. It would be absurd, right? Your opponent wouldn’t allow it because the queen has no power in the game of Monopoly. Do you realize that’s exactly what earthly power and authority are really like? Like a chess piece under God’s control? Just as the queen is powerless in Monopoly, earthly rulers have no ultimate power outside their own realms. Earthly rulers like the one we will learn about today, may seem powerful within their own kingdoms, but their power is limited and doesn't extend beyond their specific context. Like chess pieces on a board are controlled by the players, Even in their own realms earthly rulers are controlled by God. They are all subject to God’s plans, purposes, and the orchestration of His sovereign plan for our redemption!

Have you ever felt like God was missing? You believe in God, you have faith, but you can’t see Him in your situation? We have faith, but we can’t help the fact that we feel this way as if God has gone silent & He’s nowhere to be found. We’ve all been there. We’ve been perplexed, suffering, frightened, in pain, and maybe even devastated by loss & pain. It’s one of those moments in life you just can’t see what God is doing. Even praying doesn’t seem to help ease it. Usually, because we cannot see the big picture, God is doing things beyond our comprehension. But we also know from God’s Word, He IS there! He knows how every detail is part of His grand plan of redemption. That’s the essence of the Book of Esther, a cherished story in Jewish history that’s overlooked by church leaders. There is a profound message of God's presence, hidden, but working behind the scenes to ensure His will is fulfilled. It’s a story about the precious fabric of our faith, woven by a God who’s always in control, even when He seems silent. We will learn that being faithful requires us to know there is far more going on than what we can see at any given time. We will learn how God's hand is always at work, guiding us, protecting us, and fulfilling His purposes through us.

Before we begin our new series in Esther, I wanted to take a week to talk about GraceLife’s stance God’s Word. With so many new faces, I think it’s important to take one week to explain why we do what we do here. A biblical church is characterized by unwavering confidence and trust in the Bible as the ultimate source of truth. A biblical church, which there are several in Sarasota, believes God’s Word is supernaturally inspired and infallible. Any good, biblical church will declare that they believe scripture is inspired, reliable, accurate, and preserved by God. But our belief and trust in God’s Word should be based on more than just blind faith. After all the stakes are high. If we’re going to have complete trust in God’s Word, shouldn’t we understand why? This isn’t the Easter Bunny There are compelling reasons why God's Word is reliable, miraculous, and worthy of our hope, trust & reverence. In fact, the Bible, the Word of God we have today, is just as miraculous as the resurrection of Jesus!

Look at the person next to you. Imagine for a moment you saw real signs this person was clearly drifting from God. Maybe you became aware of obvious signs of sin or immorality. Maybe gathering with us had become sporadic. If it's someone in recovery, perhaps you are seeing evidence their recovery is shaky or wobbly. Maybe you have witnessed very inappropriate conversations or relationships with members of the opposite sex. Maybe you’ve had theological discussions with them where it seems they are drifting away from the one true Gospel. Most of us would act one of 2 ways....we mind our own business, or we get arrogant and respond too strongly. My question for you is this. How far would you be willing to go to try to bring your wandering brother or sister back? How committed would you be to help them be restored to obedience & full community with God’s people? Did you know your willingness to help restore a wandering brother or sister is a critical test of your ropes of faith? Restoring straying Christians is one of our highest priorities because we are, in fact, our brothers’ keeper. In fact, even if your ropes of faith pass every other test in James we’ve studied, if it fails this one, it’s a serious problem.

Do you know people who just seem to have a special gift and commitment to pray for other people? If you’re like most of us, like me, several names quickly come to mind, and one of them isn’t your own! These are people we turn to, because it just seems they take prayer seriously. Their prayers seem to have power. They always seem to be much more interested in praying for others before they pray for anything for themselves. Why are some people better than others at prayer? Are they just special, more spiritual, more godly than the rest of
us? I have never met someone who has this gift of praying for others that was always angry or fighting with other Christians. I’ve never heard “He/she really loves praying for other people, but man they sure are mean when they aren’t praying!” I haven’t met many people like this who were cocky about their prayers, bragging about how powerful their prayers are. People like this just seem to understand how their prayers don’t start with them. They seem to give God that credit. People with this kind of prayer life are critical to building up the church and healing relationships. We need them! So, what does James have to say about this? How can we all tap into a powerful prayer life? In chapter 5:16-18, James addresses the power of prayer and its connection to our relationships with one another.