Encouraged and Emboldened

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On this 14th Sunday after Pentecost, Aug. 25th, 2024, Rev. Matt Sapp focuses on what we're aiming for at church, what we're trying to do, and who we're aiming to be together, both with one another and with God. We've talked about doing the will of God together as we wrapped up our summer series on the Sermon on the Mount. We've discussed the shared experience of God, something we pray for every Sunday in worship, and explored this in the context of the tabernacle and its central place in the lives of the Hebrew people. Last week, we talked about discipleship and baptized 5 new believers. This week, we're focusing on the great story of God through two stories from scripture: the parable of the prodigal son in Luke and the story of Esther from the Old Testament.

We use storytelling formulas to view our own lives through these biblical stories. One formula is the Pixar storytelling spine, which follows a structure like 'Once upon a time... Every day... Until one day... Because of that... Until finally.' Another is Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, which fits the prodigal son story perfectly. These formulas help us reflect on our own life's disruptions and low points and contemplate what God's 'until finally' will be for us.

In exploring the story of Esther, we see a Jewish orphan who becomes the queen and eventually uses her position to save her people. The prodigal son's story is a classic hero's journey—demanding his inheritance, wasting it, hitting rock bottom, and finally being welcomed back home by his father. These narratives resonate with our personal stories, reminding us that our individual stories are part of a larger, divine narrative.

We also shared a modern story from the Olympics, where British triathlete Alexander Yee won the gold medal after hearing an encouraging shout from his mentor. This exemplifies how our stories are enriched and empowered by sharing and support from others.

Our final takeaway is that individual stories are great, but the real power lies in sharing them together. Our faith's magic happens when we recognize that God is weaving our stories into a greater tapestry. Let's pray for the courage to be faithful representatives of our church and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Chapters

(00:00) Welcome and Purpose of Worship

(00:39) August Reflections and Church Aims

(01:26) Exploring the Great Stories: Prodigal Son and Esther

(02:01) Reading from the Book of Esther

(07:41) The Story of Esther: A Deeper Dive

(08:34) Pixar Storytelling Spine

(10:17) Hero's Journey

(14:21) Connecting Our Stories to God's Narrative

(17:02) The Power of Shared Stories

(18:22) Closing Prayer and Encouragement

Esther 2:15-18
When the turn came for Esther (the young woman Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.

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• where all generations worship, grow, and serve together.
• where women and men have equal opportunities for leadership.
• where traditional worship is engaged with excellence.
• and where diverse approaches to Christian faith and theology all find themselves at home under the lordship of Christ.

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[00:00:01] Matt Sapp:

We have gathered for worship this morning not because we have seen fit to choose Christ, but because Christ has seen fit to choose us and called each of us to be his own. Good morning and welcome to worship at Central Baptist Church. I'm glad each of you is here.   We gather for worship   and for bible study every week at Central because we believe that the shared experience of God here in this place has the power to transform us. So my prayer for you this week is as it is every week, that God would use this time we choose to spend together here to change our lives.   This is the last Sunday of August.  

During this back to school month, we've kind of been broadly focused together on what we're aiming for at church.   What we're aiming to do and who we're aiming to be together, both together with one another and together with God. We've talked about doing the will of God together as we wrapped up our summer series on the Sermon on the Mount way back in that 1st Sunday of August.   We've talked about the shared experience of God, something we pray for every Sunday in worship. Right? The shared experience of God. We talked about that in the context of the tabernacle and the central place it held in the lives of the Hebrew people. Last week, we talked about the growing call of God in our lives as we talked about   discipleship and baptized 5 new believers. And this week, we're talking about the great story of God as we look at 2 great stories from scripture,   the parable of the prodigal son in Luke, which we've already read and worship, and the story of Esther from the old testament.  

We're looking at these two stories together this morning as a way to get a view to our own stories. We're gonna use a couple different storytelling   formulas that you'll find inside your worship guide. We're gonna use those storytelling formulas as lenses through which to view our own lives. Let me read for us from the book of Esther. Esther chapter 2 verses 15 through 18. You've got your bibles with you. I want you to open them please to the book of Esther and I hope this is another reminder. I hope you'll start bringing your bibles with you every week. If you aren't already doing that, I know we've got our bible passage printed on the back of your worship guide, but there's something different about flipping your bible open, finding the right passage,   seeing it all together in context.  

Something helpful about learning how all of our scriptures fit together in our bibles.   My bible here has footnotes in it and introductions and little explainers and maps and all kinds of extra information   that help me understand scripture as I read it. I bet your bible does too and you can't get all of that on the back of the worship guide.   And there's one other reason I want you to start bringing your bibles. I want you to start bringing your bibles so that you can start putting this bookmark in them. You're all about to get a bookmark on Sunday September 8th. I want you to have your Bible with you every week so that you bring your bookmark with you every week as we start our 48 hour challenge together. I've talked a lot about that 48 hour challenge.   24 Sundays a year, 2 hours a Sunday, 48 hours on Sunday mornings together over the course of the next year. I've talked a lot about it the last 2 Sundays. We're gonna talk even more about it on Sunday, September 8th, when you each get your bookmarks. So I won't talk about it anymore this morning. But please bring your Bibles with you to worship. Start doing it if it's not already a habit for you now. This is Esther chapter 2 verses 15 through 18.  

When the turn came for Esther, the young woman Mordecai had adopted   the daughter of his uncle Abihail,   to go to the king.   She asked for nothing other than what Haggai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested.   And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her.   She was taken to king Xerxes and the royal residence   in the 10th month, the month of Tebeth,   in the 7th year of his reign.   Now the king was attracted to Esther   more than to any of the other women   And she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins   so he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.  

And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality. Esther is a   Jewish orphan. She's living in the Persian Empire. That means Esther is kinda just a nobody.   She's an ethnic minority, part of a tiny people group tucked off in the corner of 1 of the forest flung provinces   of the greatest empire the world had known to date. Queen   Vashti was the great queen of this great empire,   but queen Vashti had displeased the king. King Xerxes,   the most powerful man in the world at the time.  

King Xerxes, the king had had thrown a great big party for himself and for all of his friends.   Days and days, scripture says, of feasting and drinking. It really is like a Vegas bachelor party turned up to 11 right there in our pages of scripture.   And Vashti, his queen, was very beautiful   and King Xerxes wanted to show her off to all of his friends after those days of partying.   So he asked Vashti to come see see him and all of them   wearing her royal crown. And most commentators think that that instruction might have carried the connotation with it that she was to come before them wearing her royal crown and not much else.   And king queen Vashti refused.  

She said, I'm not going in there to be leered at by all these drunken men.   Well well that sent king Xerxes into an uproar. He was the most powerful man in the world. He had armies arrayed off all over most of the known world. Armies at his command. It wouldn't do it all for his wife to not obey him.   So he banished Vashti. He banished the queen. She would no longer be his queen and he launched a nationwide   search for the next queen. What becomes in the pages of scripture an empire wide beauty contest.   The king sent couriers and messengers and criers out to every city, every town, every village to the farthest reaches of the farthest flung provinces of the empire.  

And the criers and the couriers and the messengers were sent with this instruction.   The king is seeking a new queen.   Send the most beautiful young woman from your hometown to the capital city for the king to review and she may become queen.   The message reached Esther's little village and Esther was very beautiful and she was sent to Susa as her town's representative.   As all the young women from all over the empire were gathered into the capital city, they were pampered for months,   given special beauty treatments,   generally given everything they needed to look and feel and be at their best before being presented to the to the king. This is kinda like The Bachelor's. Even even better. Right?  

Eventually, Esther has her time with the king   and the king loves Esther   more than any of the others.   And she becomes the queen.   A Jewish orphan,   who by the way had hidden her Jewish identity in order to rise to this position. A Jewish orphan   becomes a great Persian queen.   Later in the story, God uses Esther's position in the empire to save the Jewish people from the from the vengeful wrath of one of the king's advisors   as her uncle Mordecai, her her first caretaker, as her uncle Mordecai secretly advises and encourages her at every step along the way. That's the story of Esther. What a story. Right?   The the whole story is a is a Cinderella fairy tale and a Shakespearian drama all rolled into one. When you read the story in the pages of scripture, there's great humor in this story when you read it. There are extraordinary   reversals of fortune and in cases of hidden identity and mistaken identity and literary irony. It's just a fantastic   piece of literature.  

And it just hides kind of demurely   right in the middle of our old testaments in a spot where very few of us can find it.   In your worship guides, you'll see an insert with 2 storytelling   formulas   on it. I want you to I want you to look at the Pixar storytelling   spine first. This side.   This is how nearly every Pixar movie you've ever seen, those animated movies, this is how they all play out.   That think about Finding Nemo or Toy Story.   Once upon a time, there was a toy cowboy named Woody.   Every day, Woody and the other toys in the bedroom would go on great adventures together.   Until one day, a new toy showed up in the playroom,   Buzz Lightyear.  

And because of that right?   And because of that,   until finally. That's that's how the story goes.   Or once upon a time there was a fish named Nemo.   Every day, Nemo enjoyed playing with his family and friends in the safety of the reef.   Until one day, Nemo wandered a bit too far from   home. And because of that,   and because of that,   until finally.   Right? Once upon a time there was a Jewish orphan named Esther.   Every day she enjoyed growing up with her loving uncle Mordecai in their little Jewish village.   Until one day she heard an announcement that the king was looking for a new queen.   Because of that, she was taken all the way to the capital city of Susa, where she was judged to be the most beautiful in all the land.  

And because of that, she was chosen to be the queen.   Until finally, God used her position of power to save her people, including her loving uncle Mordecai.   You see how the story structure works. Right?   Now most of you are more familiar with the story of the prodigal son that we've already read in worship. It's a classic hero's journey. Joseph Campbell's   hero's journey. The second storytelling model on the other side of your sheet.   The prodigal son story, by the way, can be summed up in one of my favorite quotes from, from American actor and comedian, W. C. Fields. W. C. Fields achieved great fame and fortune in the early 1900 with the advent of of TV and film,   but he died nearly broke.  

Near the end of his life someone asked him how he lost all of his money and W. C. Fields said, well I spent half my fortune on liquor, gambling and wild women   and the rest I just plain wasted. That's his quote.   Well that's the story of the prodigal son. Right?   He demands his inheritance early from his father. He takes his new found fortune. He leaves the farm behind. He heads off to the big city and he spends every last dime he has on liquor, gambling and wild women.   Until finally he's penniless and hungry.   He's just eaten alive, swallowed up whole by the big city.  

He finally decides to head back home with his tail between his legs, hoping beyond hope that his father will have him back even if only as a ranch hand.   But as it turns out, the father's been worried sick about the boy the whole time he's been gone.   Wondering if he's okay   watching and waiting for the day he might come home. And the father sees the son coming down the road from the top of the rise in the hill.   He runs out to meet him. He shouts to his servants, go get my best robe now. Put a ring on finger and shoes on his feet. Slaughter the hogs. We're having a party.   My son was lost and now he's found. Was dead and he's alive again.  

This is Joseph Campbell's hero's journey to a t. Right?   A coming of age story.   Our hero leaves home on a quest leaving what's known and venturing out into the great unknown.   Things don't go as planned.   The hero faces great struggles and and challenging enemies until the hero finally returns home, back to where he started. But as a changed man, a a different person, that's a a classic coming of age story.   So here's the question.   Which narrative formula best fits you?   And where are you in the story?   If if you're Esther for example, what's your life's great disruption?   What's your until one day something happened moment in the pixar outline?  

That moment could be 20 years behind you or it could be happening right now. It doesn't matter.   The important question to ask is what will God's until finally   be for you?   And if you're the prodigal son,   what's your life's great low point?   If this is your story, you'll know what it is.   What's the moment when you finally came to yourself and decided the only thing left to do was to try to make it home again?   Maybe that moment was moment was decades ago or maybe you're really just in the thick of it right now. That doesn't matter.   Either way, the big question for you is who will you be when you get back home?  

The bible is full of these great great stories and the story God is writing for each of us, for each of you is no different at all. Each of our lives is an extraordinary   adventure.   Part comedy, part tragedy, part fairy tale, and together our stories make up the great story of God. Just this grand narrative that God is writing for creation.   Here's one more story.   And I know, by the way, that I've been telling a lot of Olympics stories   from this pulpit over the last several weeks. So I promise this is the last one I'll tell for at least 4 more years.   The men's triathlon at the Olympics this year came down to 2 men.  

A British athlete, Alexander Yee, and New Zealander, Hayden Wilde.   The Olympic triathlon is is a grueling event. It's a a mile long swim and a 25 mile bike ride and a 6 mile run.   These are relatively short distances, by the way, for these highly trained athletes. They're able to complete them at extraordinary   paces.   So it's like an hour and a half long sprint through these three events for the for the competitors.   With just one mile to go in the run, the New Zealand competitor, Hayden Wilde, began this kind of heroic surge. Just an acceleration   to pull way out in front of Alex Yee.  

Wilde looked sure to finish with the gold medal. The crowds were cheering loudly and going going wild as the 2 men forced themselves forward toward the finish line.   Until British triathlete Alexander Yee heard one voice rise up above the other shouts in the crowd on the sidelines.   He was behind now and a and a bit demoralized by this New Zealand competitor, Serge and Alex Yee heard the voice of Alastair Brownlee.   Alastair Brownlee is his mentor and his training partner, a 2 time Olympic medalist himself.   He's now balding with gray hair. He's he's well past his prime in competing but there he was on the sidelines cheering his friend on.  

Alex Yee heard the voice of Alastair Brownlee rising up above the noise of the crowd as he ran by shouting in this British accent, anything can happen mate.   Anything can still happen.   With that refrain ringing in his ears, Alex Yee made a surge himself.   He closed the gap and won the gold medal.   Wherever we are in our stories, they're not over yet. Are   they? There's still time to make a surge.   Anything can still happen.   But here's what I really want you to remember.   Our individual stories are great.   They are.   But how much better are our stories   when we tell them together?  

What's the story of the prodigal son   without the father to welcome him home?   Or the story of the father without the son?   Sometimes it takes the prodigals in our lives to reveal what's best in each of us. Doesn't it?   Or what's the story of Esther, the the Jewish orphan without uncle Mordecai to take her in?   Or the story of uncle Mordecai without his orphaned niece?   What's the story of Alex Yee   without Alastair Brownlee to cheer him on?   Our individual   stories are great.   But can you imagine your story   being told in isolation   with no one to take you in?  

No one to welcome you home?   No one to cheer you on?   Our individual stories are great,   but all the power,   all the power   is in the sharing.   And your story being told with mine   and my story being told with yours.   The real magic of our faith happens   when we understand that God is writing our stories   together.   Let's pray.   Heavenly father, we're grateful for your presence in our lives. We're grateful for the way you you write our stories.   Make us faithful to follow your leads, to fit into your narrative wherever we are   in the story right now.  

And remind us that our stories by themselves are just a just a small slice, a single thread of the the great tapestry you are weaving.   Remind us the real power of who we are and where we're headed   is in the idea that we're all in this together.   We offer our prayer to you in Jesus' name.   Amen.   I hope we leave this hour of worship encouraged and emboldened to be faithful representatives, not only of this church, but of our lord Jesus Christ.