After Pentecost | Friday 27 Sep 2024
+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Opening:
O God,
because without you we are not able to please you,
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Mordecai had raised Hadassah,
also known as Esther, his uncle’s daughter,
because she was an orphan.
(Esther 2:7)
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From Psalms: Psalm 124 // He’s On Our Side (Psalm 124) | Wendell Kimbrough (feat. Jason Pears)
Our help has come in the Name of the Lord
The One who formed all the earth and the sky
Behold, He comes to destroy the chains of death
And raise us up to life.
O bless his name for he has given us
Everything we need to fly
Our broken wings, they have not hindered us.
We have the Lord; He’s on our side!
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OT Reading: Esther 2:1-23 (GW)
Esther Becomes Queen
2:1 Later, when King Xerxes got over his raging anger, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what had been decided against her.
So the king’s personal staff said to him, “Search for attractive young virgins for the king. And appoint scouts in all the provinces of your kingdom to gather all the attractive young virgins and bring them to the fortress of Susa, to the women’s quarters. There, in the care of the king’s eunuch Hegai, the guardian of the women, they will have their beauty treatment. Then the young woman who pleases you, Your Majesty, will become queen instead of Vashti.”
The king liked the suggestion, and so he did just that.
In the fortress of Susa there was a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin named Mordecai. He was the son of Jair, the grandson of Shimei, and the great-grandson of Kish. (Kish had been taken captive from Jerusalem together with the others who had gone into exile along with Judah’s King Jehoiakin, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away.) Mordecai had raised Hadassah, also known as Esther, his uncle’s daughter, because she was an orphan. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was very attractive. When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter.
When the king’s announcement and decree were heard, many young women were gathered together and brought to the fortress of Susa. They were placed in the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and placed in the care of Hegai, the guardian of the women. The young woman pleased him and won his affection. So he immediately provided her with the beauty treatment, a daily supply of food, and seven suitable female servants from the king’s palace. Then he moved her and her servants to the best place in the women’s quarters.
Esther did not reveal her nationality or her family background, because Mordecai had ordered her not to. Every day Mordecai would walk back and forth in front of the courtyard of the women’s quarters to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.
Each young woman had her turn to go to King Xerxes after she had completed the required 12-month treatment for women. The time of beauty treatment was spent as follows: six months using oil of myrrh and six months using perfumes and other treatments for women.
After that, the young woman would go to the king. Anything she wanted to take with her from the women’s quarters to the king’s palace was given to her. She would go in the evening and come back in the morning to the other quarters for women. There she would be in the care of the king’s eunuch Shaashgaz, the guardian of the concubines. She never went to the king again unless the king desired her and requested her by name.
(Esther was the daughter of Abihail, Mordecai’s uncle. Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter.)
When Esther’s turn came to go to the king, she asked only for what the king’s eunuch Hegai, the guardian of the women, advised. Everyone who saw Esther liked her. So Esther was taken to King Xerxes in his royal palace in the month of Tebeth, the tenth month, in the seventh year of his reign.
Now, the king loved Esther more than all the other women and favored her over all the other virgins. So he put the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king held a great banquet for Esther. He invited all his officials and his advisers. He also declared that day a holiday in the provinces, and he handed out gifts from his royal generosity.
Mordecai Saves the King’s Life
12:19 When the virgins were gathered a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. Esther still had not revealed her family background or nationality, as Mordecai had ordered her. Esther always did whatever Mordecai told her, as she did when she was a child.
In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, became angry and planned to kill King Xerxes. But Mordecai found out about it and informed Queen Esther. Then Esther told the king, on behalf of Mordecai. When the report was investigated and found to be true, the dead bodies of Bigthan and Teresh were hung on a pole. The matter was written up in the king’s presence in his official record of daily events.
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While I Wait | Lincoln Brewster // Integrity Music
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NT Reading: Acts 12:20-25 (GW)
12:20 Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They were going to meet with Herod. They had agreed on what they wanted to do: They enlisted the help of Blastus to ask Herod for terms of peace. This was because their cities depended on Herod for their food supply. (Blastus was in charge of the king’s living quarters.)
The appointed day came. Herod, wearing his royal clothes, sat on his throne and began making a speech to them. The people started shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!”
Immediately, an angel from the Lord killed Herod for not giving glory to God. Herod was eaten by maggots, and he died.
But God’s word continued to spread and win many followers.
Barnabas and Saul Travel to Cyprus
12:25 After Barnabas and Saul delivered the contribution ⌞to the leaders in Jerusalem⌟, they returned ⌞to Antioch⌟ from Jerusalem. They brought John Mark with them.
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I Am With You Always | Judy Reidinger Music
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+ O God, almighty and merciful, you heal the broken-hearted, and turn the sadness of the sorrowful to joy, Let your fatherly goodness be upon all whom you have made. Remember in pity all those who are this day destitute, homeless, elderly, infirm, or forgotten. Bless the multitude of your poor. Lift up those who are cast down. Mightily befriend innocent sufferers, and sanctify to them the endurance of their wrongs. Cheer with hope all who are discouraged and downcast, and by your heavenly grace preserve from falling those whose poverty tempts them to sin. Though they be troubled on every side, suffer them not to be distressed; though they are perplexed, save them from despair. Grant this, O Lord, for the love of him who for our sakes became poor, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
+ Sovereign Lord: We pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
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- Protect Israel from the fiery darts of the evil one coming from every direction, both within and without.
- Grant your heavenly wisdom to those guiding Israel militarily, politically, and diplomatically;
- Give them hearts to receive, and the courage to do, what’s right in your sight.
- Comfort those who grieve and mourn the loss of loved ones;
- Rebuke those who would use grief for evil purposes.
- Bring swift and certain justice to all those complicit in the October 7th atrocities;
- Deliver the hostages from captivity, and restore their souls.
- Destroy every stronghold of the evil death cult terrorizing the Middle East.
- Strengthen the Messianic communities – Jew and Arab alike – bind them together in love, that they may be a source of help, and healing, and hope;
- Use them in the restoration of your people to their proper place in your Kingdom.
- We pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Thomas à Kempis
+ Our God, in whom we trust: Strengthen us not to regard overmuch who is for us or who is against us, but to see to it that we be with you in everything we do. Amen.
Closing: FaithandWorship.com | John Birch
The Lord bless us, and preserve us from all evil,
and keep us in eternal life.
+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Peanut Gallery 