Harvest Ministry "A New Beginning" with Greg Laurie's Notes for the Week of Monday, 29 September 2014

Harvest Ministry "A New Beginning" with Greg Laurie's Notes for the Week of Monday, 29 September 2014
UPCOMING PROGRAMS:
FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS (PART 1)
Esther 1:1-3 This is the story of something that happened in the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled from India to Ethiopia—127 provinces in all. King Xerxes ruled from his royal throne in the palace complex of Susa. In the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers. The military brass of Persia and Media were also there, along with the princes and governors of the provinces.
4-7 For six months he put on exhibit the huge wealth of his empire and its stunningly beautiful royal splendors. At the conclusion of the exhibit, the king threw a weeklong party for everyone living in Susa, the capital—important and unimportant alike. The party was in the garden courtyard of the king’s summer house. The courtyard was elaborately decorated with white and blue cotton curtains tied with linen and purple cords to silver rings on marble columns. Silver and gold couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and colored stones. Drinks were served in gold chalices, each chalice one-of-a-kind. The royal wine flowed freely—a generous king!
8-9 The guests could drink as much as they liked—king’s orders!—with waiters at their elbows to refill the drinks. Meanwhile, Queen Vashti was throwing a separate party for women inside King Xerxes’ royal palace.
10-11 On the seventh day of the party, the king, high on the wine, ordered the seven eunuchs who were his personal servants (Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas) to bring him Queen Vashti resplendent in her royal crown. He wanted to show off her beauty to the guests and officials. She was extremely good-looking.
12-15 But Queen Vashti refused to come, refused the summons delivered by the eunuchs. The king lost his temper. Seething with anger over her insolence, the king called in his counselors, all experts in legal matters. It was the king’s practice to consult his expert advisors. Those closest to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven highest-ranking princes of Persia and Media, the inner circle with access to the king’s ear. He asked them what legal recourse they had against Queen Vashti for not obeying King Xerxes’ summons delivered by the eunuchs.
16-18 Memucan spoke up in the council of the king and princes: “It’s not only the king Queen Vashti has insulted, it’s all of us, leaders and people alike in every last one of King Xerxes’ provinces. The word’s going to get out: ‘Did you hear the latest about Queen Vashti? King Xerxes ordered her to be brought before him and she wouldn’t do it!’ When the women hear it, they’ll start treating their husbands with contempt. The day the wives of the Persian and Mede officials get wind of the queen’s insolence, they’ll be out of control. Is that what we want, a country of angry women who don’t know their place?
19-20 “So, if the king agrees, let him pronounce a royal ruling and have it recorded in the laws of the Persians and Medes so that it cannot be revoked, that Vashti is permanently banned from King Xerxes’ presence. And then let the king give her royal position to a woman who knows her place. When the king’s ruling becomes public knowledge throughout the kingdom, extensive as it is, every woman, regardless of her social position, will show proper respect to her husband.”
21-22 The king and the princes liked this. The king did what Memucan proposed. He sent bulletins to every part of the kingdom, to each province in its own script, to each people in their own language: “Every man is master of his own house; whatever he says, goes.”
Here before us is a story that in many ways reads like a fairy tale. There are no fairies, witches, or princes, but there is a beautiful orphan girl who wins a beauty contest and becomes a queen. And 
there is an evil man who plots her destruction and the destruction of her people. But because of her bravery, she saves her people and they live “happily ever after”!
There are so many things we can learn from this wonderful book.
PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES
1. Our lives belong to God. He created us, called us, gifted us, and now wants to use us. 
2. Come out of your Christian bubble. Pay attention to people around you. It is dangerous to live in isolation. 
3. Think about the bigger plan. Instead of being upset with God about your circumstances, ask yourself the question, “Am I here for such a time as this?”
4. There is a time for all things. Ask the Lord to help you know the time to be quiet and the time to speak.
5. People need Jesus. There are people who are lonely, hurting, and waiting for someone to give them hope. Be willing to intercede, like Esther was.
RELEVANT REMINDERS
• There are times when God does not seem to be paying attention to our lives. We must remember, He has promised to never leave or forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5).
• God does not wear a watch. He is above time and works on His own schedule. He is never early or late. He makes all things beautiful in His time (see Ecclesiastes 3:11).
APPLICABLE ACTIONS
Let’s be conscientious about our actions and our circumstances so that we can live a life of purpose. 
Let’s constantly be asking ourselves: “How can I use my Christian influence here?” “How can God be glorified in this situation?” and “What does God want me to say or not say at this moment?”
Monday, 29 September 2014
For Such a Time As This, Part 1 — II
Esther 1:1-3 This is the story of something that happened in the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled from India to Ethiopia—127 provinces in all. King Xerxes ruled from his royal throne in the palace complex of Susa. In the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers. The military brass of Persia and Media were also there, along with the princes and governors of the provinces.
4-7 For six months he put on exhibit the huge wealth of his empire and its stunningly beautiful royal splendors. At the conclusion of the exhibit, the king threw a weeklong party for everyone living in Susa, the capital—important and unimportant alike. The party was in the garden courtyard of the king’s summer house. The courtyard was elaborately decorated with white and blue cotton curtains tied with linen and purple cords to silver rings on marble columns. Silver and gold couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and colored stones. Drinks were served in gold chalices, each chalice one-of-a-kind. The royal wine flowed freely—a generous king!
8-9 The guests could drink as much as they liked—king’s orders!—with waiters at their elbows to refill the drinks. Meanwhile, Queen Vashti was throwing a separate party for women inside King Xerxes’ royal palace.
10-11 On the seventh day of the party, the king, high on the wine, ordered the seven eunuchs who were his personal servants (Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas) to bring him Queen Vashti resplendent in her royal crown. He wanted to show off her beauty to the guests and officials. She was extremely good-looking.
12-15 But Queen Vashti refused to come, refused the summons delivered by the eunuchs. The king lost his temper. Seething with anger over her insolence, the king called in his counselors, all experts in legal matters. It was the king’s practice to consult his expert advisors. Those closest to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven highest-ranking princes of Persia and Media, the inner circle with access to the king’s ear. He asked them what legal recourse they had against Queen Vashti for not obeying King Xerxes’ summons delivered by the eunuchs.
16-18 Memucan spoke up in the council of the king and princes: “It’s not only the king Queen Vashti has insulted, it’s all of us, leaders and people alike in every last one of King Xerxes’ provinces. The word’s going to get out: ‘Did you hear the latest about Queen Vashti? King Xerxes ordered her to be brought before him and she wouldn’t do it!’ When the women hear it, they’ll start treating their husbands with contempt. The day the wives of the Persian and Mede officials get wind of the queen’s insolence, they’ll be out of control. Is that what we want, a country of angry women who don’t know their place?
19-20 “So, if the king agrees, let him pronounce a royal ruling and have it recorded in the laws of the Persians and Medes so that it cannot be revoked, that Vashti is permanently banned from King Xerxes’ presence. And then let the king give her royal position to a woman who knows her place. When the king’s ruling becomes public knowledge throughout the kingdom, extensive as it is, every woman, regardless of her social position, will show proper respect to her husband.”
21-22 The king and the princes liked this. The king did what Memucan proposed. He sent bulletins to every part of the kingdom, to each province in its own script, to each people in their own language: “Every man is master of his own house; whatever he says, goes.”
Esther became queen of Persia . . . not for her own glory, but so God could use her. Pastor Greg Laurie points out maybe God has you where you are, "for such a time as this."
FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS (PART 2)
Esther 5:1-3 Three days later Esther dressed in her royal robes and took up a position in the inner court of the palace in front of the king’s throne room. The king was on his throne facing the entrance. When he noticed Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased to see her; the king extended the gold scepter in his hand. Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. The king asked, “And what’s your desire, Queen Esther? What do you want? Ask and it’s yours—even if it’s half my kingdom!”
4 “If it please the king,” said Esther, “let the king come with Haman to a dinner I’ve prepared for him.”
5-6 “Get Haman at once,” said the king, “so we can go to dinner with Esther.”
So the king and Haman joined Esther at the dinner she had arranged. As they were drinking the wine, the king said, “Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn’t too much to ask! Just ask.”
7-8 Esther answered, “Here’s what I want. If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I’ll give a straight answer to the king’s question.”
9-13 Haman left the palace that day happy, beaming. And then he saw Mordecai sitting at the King’s Gate ignoring him, oblivious to him. Haman was furious with Mordecai. But he held himself in and went on home. He got his friends together with his wife Zeresh and started bragging about how much money he had, his many sons, all the times the king had honored him, and his promotion to the highest position in the government. “On top of all that,” Haman continued, “Queen Esther invited me to a private dinner she gave for the king, just the three of us. And she’s invited me to another one tomorrow. But I can’t enjoy any of it when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King’s Gate.”
14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said, “Build a gallows seventy-five feet high. First thing in the morning speak with the king; get him to order Mordecai hanged on it. Then happily go with the king to dinner.”
Haman liked that. He had the gallows built.
There are some laws that do not change. For instance, the law of gravity or the law of thermodynamics. Another law that doesn’t change is the biblical law of sowing and reaping. Galatians 6:7–8 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life” (NKJV). 
We see this principle clearly illustrated in the dramatic story of Esther.
PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES
1. God is always present and at work, whether we feel Him or not. The Lord is often working through the humdrum, day-to-day circumstances of life. In this story, He worked through such ordinary human events as insomnia, the reading of a book, the anger of a man, and the timing of events.
2. God can take impossible situations and turn them around for His glory. This book opened with: an indifferent king, a wicked Haman, and a paralyzed people. Haman was in power, Mordecai headed to the gallows, and Esther and her people condemned to a certain death by the decree of the king himself. But the people prayed, and God intervened. And how does the story end? Mordecai is in Haman’s position, with all his wealth and power, the Jews are saved and even in charge, and Haman is swinging by his own rope.
3. You will reap what you sow. Or, as we would say in the modern vernacular, “What goes around comes around.” That includes both positive and negative
repercussions to the decisions we make to either sow to the flesh or sow to the spirit. 
RELEVANT REMINDERS
• We all have a “King Xerxes” in our life—someone who totally intimidates us. Perhaps it’s someone in authority over us, like a boss or a professor. You are afraid to even speak to them. It might be a wife trying to reach an unsaved husband. It might be that person who seems so together, so above you, so tough. But no one is unreachable.

• God is never absent nor napping. Man has his will, but God has His way!
APPLICABLE ACTIONS
Every day, from the time we get up in the morning to the time when we lay our heads on the pillow at the end of the day, we have made hundreds, even thousands, of decisions of sowing to the flesh or the Spirit!
• Every time we intentionally expose ourselves to areas we are weak in.
• Who we choose as our close friends.
• What TV programs and movies we watch.
• What books or magazines we read.
• What music we listen to and what websites we visit.
With every choice, we are either sowing to the flesh or to the Spirit! What crop have you been planting lately?
Tuesday, 30 October 2014
For Such a Time as This, Part 2 — I
Esther 5:1-3 Three days later Esther dressed in her royal robes and took up a position in the inner court of the palace in front of the king’s throne room. The king was on his throne facing the entrance. When he noticed Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased to see her; the king extended the gold scepter in his hand. Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. The king asked, “And what’s your desire, Queen Esther? What do you want? Ask and it’s yours—even if it’s half my kingdom!”
4 “If it please the king,” said Esther, “let the king come with Haman to a dinner I’ve prepared for him.”
5-6 “Get Haman at once,” said the king, “so we can go to dinner with Esther.”
So the king and Haman joined Esther at the dinner she had arranged. As they were drinking the wine, the king said, “Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn’t too much to ask! Just ask.”
7-8 Esther answered, “Here’s what I want. If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I’ll give a straight answer to the king’s question.”
9-13 Haman left the palace that day happy, beaming. And then he saw Mordecai sitting at the King’s Gate ignoring him, oblivious to him. Haman was furious with Mordecai. But he held himself in and went on home. He got his friends together with his wife Zeresh and started bragging about how much money he had, his many sons, all the times the king had honored him, and his promotion to the highest position in the government. “On top of all that,” Haman continued, “Queen Esther invited me to a private dinner she gave for the king, just the three of us. And she’s invited me to another one tomorrow. But I can’t enjoy any of it when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King’s Gate.”
14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said, “Build a gallows seventy-five feet high. First thing in the morning speak with the king; get him to order Mordecai hanged on it. Then happily go with the king to dinner.”
Haman liked that. He had the gallows built.
Many of our lives have traveled a long and winding path with U-turns and detours along the way. Pastor Greg Laurie says, could it be that all those experiences have prepared you perfectly for what God wants you to do next? We'll trace the life of Queen Esther of Persia and how God used her in a surprising way.
NO NOTES
Wednesday, 1 October 2014
A Visit with an American Hero — I
His life reads like a movie script. In fact his story will soon be made into a movie. And we feature Pastor Greg Laurie's interview with Louie Zamperini - Olympic runner, World War II hero, and follower of Christ. It's a riveting story of heroism and perseverance.
Thursday, 2 October 2014
A Visit with an American Hero — II
They're sometimes called "the greatest generation." Louie Zamperini preferred "the hardy generation." We feature Pastor Greg Laurie's conversation with Louie about surviving a World War II plane crash, 47 days adrift at sea and two years in a concentration camp. It's a story of resilience, rescue and redemption.
NO NOTES
Friday, 3 October 2014
Memorial Tribute to Pastor Chuck Smith — I
One year ago Friday, Calvary Chapel founding pastor Chuck Smith went home to be with the Lord. Pastor Greg Laurie pays tribute to Pastor Chuck in a special way. We'll hear Greg's message to a large group gathered at Pastor Chuck's memorial service.
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Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie
P.O. Box 4000
Riverside, CA 92514-4000 United States
Phone: 1(800)821-3300
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