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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Esther & End Time Events

Today's message is entitled Esther and end time events Esther and end time events How many people were here last week raise your hand?

Okay last week We began a study in the book of Esther today We'll conclude this two-part series in the book of Esther and we're gonna be taking a look at end time events and the book of Esther Why don't we bow our heads for a word of prayer and thank the Lord for those showers of blessings?

We want to thank you for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Lord this last Wednesday we were learning about the early rain and our need of it, as well as the latter rain.

God, you said, not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.

We need what only you can truly give that you may be glorified through our weak lives.

All right, make sure you have your Bibles for today.

Many of you guys know that I take a few classes at Stan State and I had to take a class this semester It's required for my major.

It's called gender and sexuality with reference to The Middle East I didn't want to take the class.

And so I ended up having to take the class unfortunately this semester.

And so I took the class and it was so interesting.

He is somebody who does not believe in God and he lets people know that.

He also is somebody that's been on the Bill Meyer show.

Maybe it's still the same name, but he is somebody who's an atheist as well Okay, and so this teacher is actually well known He's considered 1 of the most foremost authorities on the Middle East still to this day and he teaches at Stan State of all places And so anyways, he asked a question yesterday, yesterday, and this was his question.

He says, today I'm going to be talking about Islam.

And he said, I'm going to be discussing how in Islam and not just Islam, Christianity and Judaism, how the male picture of God found in these religions encourages the sexism that is still present today.

And he said, what do you think about that?

And it's at these moments that I just start praying and I put my head down and I said, Lord, guard my mouth right now.

And I sit way in the back like a bad student, okay?

I sit way in the back and I'm like, it's better for me not to talk, okay?

Now imagine if a teacher said that to you and you were in that class and he says, I want you to talk about how the maleness of God encourages the sexism that is present today.

Now before you answer, many of the students immediately raised their hands and said, that's absolutely right.

Many people said 1 of the reasons why there is sexism today, there is a gender bias, That's why males are considered greater than females in our current society why they're suppressed is because of religion And they begin to go after this religion and that religion in this religion and they begin to go after Christian religion and it's that moment that I'm sitting in the back I'm like And I'm listening to this and finally I raised my hand I said, okay, I'm gonna raise my hand now I can't hold anymore Open my mouth and I would say Lord be with my mouth and I said these words I said, you know, it's very interesting when you actually study out the Old Testament, you find there are actually female attributes that are given to God.

And I said, regardless of the Attributes that have been given to God found in Scripture people have chosen to emphasize solely the male attributes of God To encourage sexism and I said I do agree with that part unfortunately people take Characteristics of God without taking the whole picture of God and they can use it sometimes in a very very negative way And then I give them another example.

They have female goddesses Female gods and yet sexism is still takes place there.

It's how people are interpreting the data and then what they're choosing to emphasize on.

And so as soon as I finished with my long tirade, everyone was looking at me, I was like, this is so awkward right now.

He's like, everyone wants to come out with their feminist Christianity version of the Bible.

And then somebody raises their hands, okay.

They raise their hand and they say yeah, I don't agree with that You and you actually take a good look at what the Bible says The Bible says God says I will make a helper for Adam Eve came out of the rib of Adam Showing that God really promotes sexism and I was like only in the English It says help me.

Okay, and I started raising my hand and I said, did you know when you read that word helper in?

The book of Genesis when God says I will make a helper for Adam 16 times that's appears in the Old Testament as military aid.

And then he, the teacher said, well where else do you see these female characteristics of God?

When you read Genesis chapter 1, what does the Bible say?

Male and female, he made them in the image of God, he made them, right?

In fact, when you actually study out the Holy Spirit, there is in the Hebrew certain words that have more of a female attribute.

And so I was sharing this, and then somebody raises their hand and they said, yeah, when you read 1 Corinthians, it says that women should not be able to teach.

And then the teacher turned to me and says, what do you think about that?

And I made this kind of smirk remark I said I feel like I'm in a Bible class and everyone started laughing.

So anyways so at that moment I said well when you take a good look at holy writings any holy writings It is incorrect hermeneutics to take a verse and make it a doctrinal teaching.

I said anybody who studies out the Bible understands this concept.

You don't just take a verse and say this is now a doctrinal teaching of the church well it went back and forth and finally I did something I really believe the Lord led in here led in this moment I took out this book That we have been required to read it's called guests of the sheik and it describes an American woman that lived in an Iraqi village and what she encounters she encounters some of the same prejudices and norms and Dynamics in that society that are that were present probably during the time of Christ as well.

And so I said, when you take a look at this book, even Jesus in his uplifting of women probably violated the dynamics that are in this Middle Eastern culture.

I said, when you take a good look at the life of Jesus, notice how he interacted with women.

He did so many things to uplift women from the way current society taught how they regarded women.

Think about the woman that was about to be stoned.

I said in that culture, where was the male who was caught in adultery?

I said you think about Mary Magdalene when 1 of his own disciples rebuked her Because she decided to spend her wealth on honoring Jesus And I brought up these very very examples and it's that moment that the teacher stopped talking about Christianity You know and I realized something, you know Unfortunately, we do have to deal when we're defending the name of Christ.

We do have to deal with a lot of medieval Christianity that's mixed in to Christianity of the Bible, right and Sometimes we always have to just navigate and say no that's not what the Bible teaches this is the truth but when you begin to present the picture of Jesus amen you present the picture of Jesus he is the ultimate example and that's what I told him I said look when you want to look at the founder of Christianity look at him and he would have violated the norms even in this book and I want you to understand something this is so amazing we follow somebody Who set the example and that's Jesus Christ.

Why am I bringing this up because it was very relevant when I came across this quote that I shared last week This is what Ellen White says right here Daughters of God in ancient times the Lord worked in a wonderful way through what?

Consecrated women who united in his work with men who he had chosen to stand as representatives.

Women to gain great and decisive victories more than once and in times of emergencies.

Front and worked through them for the salvation of many lives.

Through Esther the Queen the Lord accomplished a mighty what?

And women can you say amen to that it should be louder from the women by the way in that class I forgot to mention this 0.1 of the other students who happen to be either a Muslim or Christian, I'm not sure, towards the end, and she says, she kind of brings it up, it was kind of irrelevant at the moment, we were talking about something else, and she says, oh, and by the way, did you know that God created Eve last because she was to be the best and part of creation?

And I was like, oh, I accept, I'll work with that, you know, she's on my side, you know, anyways.

But here's the thing, sometimes there's a time to keep shut And sometimes there's a time to open your mouth.

Especially when the name of the Lord is at stake, right?

Now we're going to continue with our message today again.

It's called Esther and end time events here we see how God used a woman like Esther.

Remember last week we learned 2 important facts about the book of Esther.

Number 1 the word God is not mentioned anywhere in the book of Esther.

And number 2 we learned that Esther is the most widely mentioned female in all of scripture.

Number 1, no mention of God in the book of Esther.

Number 2, Esther is mentioned more times in the Bible than any other female.

And so when we go to the book of Esther, We begin to see what God is really doing Sometimes God works in a very noisy loud way and then sometimes God works in the shadows behind the scenes God is an unsung hero and he is changing and guiding events to take place and so when you're reading the book of Esther you see this remarkable providence over and over and over again and what we're going to be doing is we're going to be taking a good look on how the book of Esther is symbolic and parallels end time events and what that means to us.

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Esther & End Time Events

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