Theological Status: COMPROMISED (Worldly/Sloppy)
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Pergamum
❓ What do these grades mean?
🔍 Biblical Discernment: The 7 Church Parallels
The Cold Orthodox Parallel
Ephesus
Teaching that upholds doctrinal precision yet parallels the loss of the "first love"—the vital, motivating power of the Gospel (Rev 2:4).
The Formalist Parallels
Pergamum
Teaching that parallels churches tolerating the "doctrine of Balaam" through cultural accommodation (Rev 2:14), characterized by weak boundaries, sloppy theology, and worldly compromise.
Why strictly "Mark & Avoid"?
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
🧐 Overview
Sermon Summary: A Mother's Day message on spiritual warfare that highlights Esther's courage but falls short of clearly presenting the gospel, risking confusion about how salvation is received.
Big Idea: Women, especially mothers, are divinely appointed plot destroyers — strategically positioned by God to discern, dismantle, and defeat the enemy’s schemes against their families and the kingdom, not by force, but through prayer, fasting, discernment, and bold, timely action. [00:07:51 ▶️ 📄]
Pastoral Analysis: While the sermon accurately interprets the Esther narrative and addresses important themes for mothers, it presents salvation as dependent on human ritual and spiritual action without connecting these to Christ's finished work. This creates a works-based understanding of grace that can lead to spiritual burden rather than freedom. The church needs to hear that our strength comes from resting in what Jesus has done, not from our own efforts.
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Pergamum — The sermon contains major errors in salvation and sanctification, presenting human actions as contributing to salvation without grounding in Christ's finished work. This aligns with the Pergamum church's compromise of blending biblical truth with worldly practices, similar to the error of Balaam's doctrine. The sermon's emphasis on human action without gospel foundation reflects this compromise.
🎨 The Visual Metaphor
The cracked tablet represents the enemy’s schemes—ancient, buried, and seemingly enduring—yet undone not by force, but by the quiet, persistent growth of grace-rooted discernment. The wildflower, fragile yet defiant, symbolizes the mother’s faithful, prayerful action: small, non-violent, and divinely appointed to restore life where deception seeks to choke it.
📖 How they Handle Scripture & Jesus
- Primary Text: Esther 4:14
- Usage Classification: Anecdotal-heavy with emotional appeals
- Text-to-Talk Ratio: Low
- Pulpit Decorum: ⚠️ CAUTION - Subjective authority claims undermine scriptural fidelity.
✝️ Christological Focus: Minimal
"Behavioral exhortations lacked connection to grace and atonement."
Scripture Saturation: Verses Read: 1 | Referenced: 7 | Alluded: 7
Passages Read Aloud:
-
Esther 4:16
[00:28:21 ▶️ 📄]
"Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise."
Key References: Esther 4:14, Esther 4:16, Esther 9:1-10, 1 Samuel 15:1-9, Genesis 3:1-6, Judges 16:4-21, 1 Timothy 2:9-15
💧 Liturgy & Sacraments
Altar Call / Invitation Observed: Yes
- Theological Conditions: acknowledgment of sin or brokenness in one's life, desire for a fresh start, do-over, or new beginning, recognition of Christ's sacrificial death on the cross as redemptive, inviting God into one's life in the name of Jesus, petition for divine reversal of curse and renewal of all things
- Sinner's Prayer: "Heavenly Father we thank you that you are the original plot destroyer what looked like failure when Jesus was on the cross was literally you redeeming us thank you God for your sacrifice we invite you in today in the name of Jesus reverse the curse make all things new in Jesus name" [00:44:45 ▶️ 📄]
🎙️ Sermon Content & Delivery
Word Count: 4,204 words
📌 Key Topics Addressed
-
Women in Leadership
[00:04:55 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor explicitly defends women serving as pastors and spiritual leaders, arguing that restricting women’s roles misinterprets Scripture and hinders the end-time harvest. She cites cultural context of 1 Timothy to justify female preaching and authority. -
Spiritual Warfare
[00:20:15 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor frames the Christian life as a battle against 'plots' orchestrated by the enemy, with women uniquely positioned as 'plot destroyers' who discern deception, fast, pray, and act with divine timing to protect families and the church. -
Divine Timing and Discernment
[00:26:35 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor emphasizes that spiritual effectiveness comes not from human urgency but from waiting on God’s timing, as Esther did during her three-day fast before approaching the king. -
The Church as Family
[00:31:12 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor argues that the church is the primary spiritual family for believers, and that participation in its life (Sunday worship, small groups) is non-negotiable for survival in spiritual warfare. -
Legacy and Generational Impact
[00:34:41 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor teaches that women’s spiritual influence extends beyond their immediate family to future generations, and that their courage to speak and act can preserve entire communities from destruction. -
Spiritual Warfare
[00:33:30 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor frames Esther’s actions as spiritual warfare, where silence enables evil and vocal, strategic intervention dismantles demonic plots. -
Generational Legacy
[00:35:00 ▶️ 📄]
> Esther’s actions are presented as redeeming a generational failure (Saul’s disobedience), with mothers as key agents in breaking cycles of spiritual and moral failure. -
Maternal Leadership
[00:35:20 ▶️ 📄]
> Mothers are portrayed as divine strategists who 'intercept evil plots,' 'birth deliverance,' and equip their families with spiritual tools to resist destruction. -
Divine Timing
[00:37:25 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor emphasizes that Esther’s success came not from force but from waiting for the right moment, equating spiritual effectiveness with strategic patience. -
Covenantal Redemption
[00:42:21 ▶️ 📄]
> Esther’s victory is framed as the redemption of Saul’s covenantal failure, closing a theological gap by fulfilling God’s original command to destroy the Amalekites.
🖼️ Illustrations & Stories
-
Sermon Illustration
[00:11:50 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor recounts a story of her teenage daughter skipping school and lying about it; through spiritual discernment and persistence, the mother uncovered the truth, using it as a metaphor for how women sense spiritual deception in their households. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:15:54 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor shares how her older children were spiritually disciplined and faithful, contrasting them with her daughter’s rebellious phase, to illustrate that spiritual maturity is not about perfection but about God’s redemptive work through maternal guidance. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:17:40 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor recounts the story of Esther from the Bible: her orphaned background, secret Jewish identity, rise to queen, and her courageous actions to expose and dismantle two plots against the Jewish people—first by the eunuchs, then by Haman. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:33:24 ▶️ 📄]
> Esther, as a Jewish queen, risked her life to expose Haman’s plot to annihilate the Jews, using strategic banquets to gain the king’s favor and timing her plea perfectly. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:39:05 ▶️ 📄]
> King Saul disobeyed God’s command to destroy the Amalekites completely, keeping King Agag and spoils, leading to his rejection as king. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:40:54 ▶️ 📄]
> Esther, from the same tribe as Saul (Benjamin), undid Saul’s failure by enabling the Jews to destroy Haman and the Amalekites, fulfilling the original command 750 years later.
🚀 Calls to Action (Application)
-
Pastoral Charge
[00:28:21 ▶️ 📄]
> Women should fast and pray with their faith community when facing spiritual battles. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:31:38 ▶️ 📄]
> Congregation members should prioritize attending church services over secular activities like sports or cheerleading. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:33:36 ▶️ 📄]
> Women should speak up against deception and injustice, even when silence would be safer or easier. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:04:55 ▶️ 📄]
> Men and the church should honor and support women in leadership roles, rejecting cultural or theological restrictions on their voice. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:43:11 ▶️ 📄]
> Bow your head and close your eyes as the pastor asks the congregation to reflect on destroying the enemy’s plots.
🧭 Biblical Alignment Dashboard
Overall Verdict: Compromised / Weak
| Category | Status | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Gospel Presentation | ❌ FAIL | The sermon focuses on human actions without clearly articulating Christ's finished work for salvation, leading to a misunderstanding of how salvation is received. |
| Soteriology | ❌ FAIL | The sermon presents salvation as dependent on ritualistic prayer ('inviting Jesus into the heart'), which implies human effort contributes to salvation rather than grace alone. |
| Bibliology | ✅ PASS | No errors found in scriptural interpretation or handling. |
| Hermeneutic | ✅ PASS | Exegetical method was sound with no detected errors. |
| Theology Proper | ✅ PASS | God's nature and attributes were correctly presented. |
| Sacramentology | ⚪ N/A | No discussion of baptism or communion occurred. |
| Confessional Depth | ❌ FAIL | Core doctrines of salvation and sanctification lacked sufficient grounding in Scripture. |
⚙️ The Gospel Engine (Confessional Distinctives)
❌ The Law And Wrath: Not observed in the sermon.
❌ Total Depravity And Inability: Not observed in the sermon.
❌ Active Obedience Of Christ: Not observed in the sermon.
❌ The Cross And Atonement: Not observed in the sermon.
✅ Commendations
Scriptural Handling | Accurate Biblical Interpretation
The pastor correctly interpreted the Esther narrative without doctrinal errors in her exegesis, demonstrating sound understanding of the text.
Theological Foundation | Correct Understanding of God's Nature
The sermon accurately portrayed God's attributes and character, aligning with biblical teaching.
Exegetical Method | Sound Hermeneutical Approach
The pastor used appropriate methods to interpret Scripture, ensuring the message remained rooted in biblical truth.
⚠️ Theological Concerns
🟠 Synergism (Human Effort in Salvation)
Root Cause: This error echoes ancient teachings that added human works to salvation, which the early church condemned as Pelagianism (the belief that humans can achieve salvation through their own efforts).
"Heavenly Father we thank you that you are the original plot destroyer what looked like failure when Jesus was on the cross was literally you redeeming us thank you God for your sacrifice we invite you in today in the name of Jesus reverse the curse make all things new in Jesus name" [00:44:45 ▶️ 📄]
Correction: Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). Scripture warns against trusting in empty rituals (Matthew 7:21-23; Romans 10:9-10 emphasizes inward belief and confession, not the mechanical repetition of words).
🟠 Christless Sanctification (Spiritual Warfare Without Gospel Foundation)
Root Cause: This error reflects a misunderstanding where spiritual obedience is disconnected from the gospel, similar to legalism which the apostle Paul warned against in Galatians.
"You stand strong and you face the enemy and you take him out." [00:23:19 ▶️ 📄]
Correction: Sanctification flows from the gospel—believers engage in spiritual warfare not to earn salvation but as a response to the grace already received through Christ's death and resurrection (Ephesians 2:8-10).
📜 Full Sermon Transcript (Audit)
Use the 📄 icons next to quotes above to automatically jump to their location in this raw transcript.
[00:00:00] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:00:05] Amen.
[00:00:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Well, welcome to all of my mamas in the house.
[00:00:53] Do your arms like this if you're a mama.
[00:00:55] All right, even if you're online, come on, let me see your hands.
[00:01:00] Come on, mamas online.
[00:01:02] There you go.
[00:01:03] You know, I think sometimes we don't realize just how huge
[00:01:08] We think that it's just the four corners of this building, but we've literally got all over the world that's watching.
[00:01:16] Let's see, we got Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Wyoming.
[00:01:26] Give it up for everybody.
[00:01:29] Incredible.
[00:01:30] Okay, that felt like a golf clap to me.
[00:01:33] It's Mother's Day.
[00:01:34] We should be a little bit rowdy up in here.
[00:01:36] Let's give it up for everybody.
[00:01:39] There we go.
[00:01:40] There we go.
[00:01:42] Well, I am so excited.
[00:01:45] Thank you guys for honoring me as the spiritual mom of the house.
[00:01:50] I take my job very seriously.
[00:01:52] I am a fierce defender and protector, so just know I appreciate your honor.
[00:01:59] I did want to make sure and honor the spiritual mama of this campus.
[00:02:05] Pastor Stephanie, can you stand up?
[00:02:09] All right, turn and look at everybody so they can all see you.
[00:02:14] Pastor Aaron, could you stand alongside your queen?
[00:02:17] We gotta have the king and the queen together.
[00:02:21] Here's the thing I want you to understand.
[00:02:23] They fight for you.
[00:02:24] They pray for you.
[00:02:26] They believe for you.
[00:02:27] Even when their own house is shaken, they are still believing for your house.
[00:02:34] So make sure that you thank them, that you appreciate them, that you love on them because they fight battles that you would never know about because they keep showing up day in and day out for you and your family.
[00:02:49] So give it up to the Queen and the King here.
[00:02:54] At our central campus.
[00:02:57] And it's only fitting if I take that king and queen example and I talk about the game of chess.
[00:03:05] I think it's very apropos because in the game of chess, the king, I understand, he holds headship and he is the final piece.
[00:03:15] When he falls, it says it all.
[00:03:17] It's all and done, right?
[00:03:20] He stands tall at the center of everything he's majestic he's regal and he's symbolic we love the kings don't we ladies okay we need do i need to preach a different message today all right we need to do some repairing in here we love our kings don't we ladies
[00:03:49] But make no mistake, it is the Queen who holds the power to move on that board.
[00:03:57] She sweeps across the board.
[00:03:59] She's diagonal.
[00:04:01] She's horizontal.
[00:04:03] She's vertical.
[00:04:04] And she is unmatched with grace and with reach.
[00:04:10] There is no piece on that board that is more powerful or tellingly symbolic than the queen.
[00:04:18] Because not only does she look after every other piece on that board, she knows how to protect her king too.
[00:04:29] You know it's interesting to me my husband did a post recently about women and their role and the power that they hold and I was kind of cracking up reading some of the idiotic things that people were responding and I knew what denomination it was but it still cracked me up nonetheless because see actually here at Freedom House we believe that women have a place in the kingdom
[00:04:55] And it's interesting to me that some people would twist the Word of God and I start to think, okay, if they don't understand the power that women wield, they might not have ever read the book of Genesis where Eve, a woman, took down all of creation because she stepped out of her place.
[00:05:18] They might not have ever heard of Samson and Delilah where a woman took down the strongest man that was ever on the face of the planet because she stepped outside of her place.
[00:05:30] So by all means please know the queen is very powerful and she is very strong but she needs to be in her place.
[00:05:40] And sometimes the king puts us in our place
[00:05:44] And we appreciate that because sometimes it's warranted, right?
[00:05:51] Alright, good that you're still tracking with me.
[00:05:57] But I love the fact that we have a king over this castle that loves and appreciates the part that women contribute.
[00:06:07] I am so thankful for that.
[00:06:10] I am so thankful that the feminine heart and the masculine heart are both heard in this house.
[00:06:17] I appreciate more than you can know because I'm literally sitting there online reading all the ignoramus comments of a woman should be quiet in God's house.
[00:06:29] She should be silent.
[00:06:31] She shouldn't speak.
[00:06:33] She has no authority.
[00:06:35] And I'm like, wow, are we misinterpreting scripture right now?
[00:06:39] And then I wanted to say, okay, has your wife ever worn pearls?
[00:06:44] Because see that same scripture that you're referring to that you're taking out of context right now, it says that a woman shouldn't wear pearls.
[00:06:53] It says a woman shouldn't wear gold.
[00:06:55] It says a woman shouldn't braid her hair.
[00:06:59] What they don't understand is in that context right there, there were some women.
[00:07:05] It was Paul speaking to Timothy, a young pastor in a very divided culture who very much of it was Greek.
[00:07:14] And the women were being worshipped as gods, the goddess Diana.
[00:07:20] and He was trying to course correct what was happening.
[00:07:24] And I'm so thankful that the pastor of this house does not look at women as a throwaway.
[00:07:34] I mean, in my mind, why in the world would God want 50% of the population to remain silent when we have an end time harvest that is needed?
[00:07:47] And if I can just be specific,
[00:07:51] I saw in the old testament where he used a donkey to talk so if God wants to use somebody he can use anything he wants to use as long as we are willing that's all I'm going to say on that but I appreciate and I honor the fact that when the queen stands up and she serves alongside of her queen her king we're not that kind of church we're in two queens
[00:08:25] Can I get an amen up in here?
[00:08:29] But when they stand together, something incredible happens.
[00:08:33] The queen covers most of the ground on that board, and she holds most of the influence.
[00:08:40] She can alter the course of a game with one single well-played move.
[00:08:47] And you know what?
[00:08:48] She always shows up right when she is needed.
[00:08:52] Where the king stands firm,
[00:08:55] She's in motion.
[00:08:57] Where he oversees, she protects.
[00:09:02] The Queen does not just play the game, she changes it.
[00:09:09] I don't want us to ever think that the role that women play, and I'm not just talking about doing domestic duties, I'm talking about anything that God has set in front of us to do.
[00:09:21] that we steward those opportunities well because queens, they calculate every move.
[00:09:28] They are not just concerned with protecting themselves but protecting others.
[00:09:33] Everyone else on the board, she looks after and she guards her king.
[00:09:37] She defends the realm to hold the line.
[00:09:41] Her very presence shifts the balance.
[00:09:46] And here's the thing, you lose the queen,
[00:09:50] And you know the king's about to go down.
[00:09:53] If you've played chess, you know that's the truth.
[00:09:57] And it's the same thing in the game of life.
[00:09:59] The king may symbolize the end of the game, but the queen is its life force.
[00:10:07] Mothers, I want you to know today
[00:10:10] I just want to speak and say this sometimes Mother's Day can be difficult for some of us I know before I started having children Mother's Day was a very hard remembering day for me because I did not grow up with a nurturing loving caring
[00:10:31] Mother.
[00:10:32] So it was a hard holiday.
[00:10:33] It brought up hurt and pain.
[00:10:36] And some of you may feel that today because maybe you've lost your mother.
[00:10:42] You could also be feeling that because maybe you're a woman that's lost a child.
[00:10:49] I just want you to know that we love you.
[00:10:53] We are thankful for you.
[00:10:54] And I know there are spiritual mamas in here.
[00:10:57] Your womb may have never even opened for a child, but your heart has opened for countless others.
[00:11:06] And I just want to say thank you for that.
[00:11:11] Thank you for what you do.
[00:11:22] There was a moment where I, you know, there's been moments through the years where I think my kids might have forgotten I was the queen.
[00:11:34] Sometimes you gotta remind them, right?
[00:11:37] Mm-hmm, yeah.
[00:11:39] So I am honored.
[00:11:41] I had one of my girls with me the first service, and I have another one with me today.
[00:11:47] And I thought I would share a little story about her.
[00:11:50] Oh, just a little one.
[00:11:51] I've got many.
[00:11:52] But this was a funny day.
[00:11:56] So both of my girls were competitive cheerleaders, and they also cheered for their schools.
[00:12:02] And I remember, and I know you know what story I'm about to tell,
[00:12:06] I remember going to pick her up from school one day.
[00:12:10] And it was Huff High School.
[00:12:13] And she throws her cheerleading gear in the back of the car.
[00:12:16] She puts her book bag in the back of the car.
[00:12:20] And she hops in with a big smile on her face.
[00:12:23] And something just kind of hit me.
[00:12:26] You know, mom's sense is better than Spidey's senses.
[00:12:31] And I'm like, hmm, I'm feeling a little something-something.
[00:12:35] and you know moms you know even if you don't have like video recordings you just kind of know you don't need the cameras you know something's off or when you hear something in the other room and you walk in and everybody's pointing fingers you knew who done it and you knew how they done it
[00:12:56] You know.
[00:12:56] You know.
[00:12:57] You can just sense those things.
[00:13:00] You can feel those things.
[00:13:02] And so my daughter gets in the car.
[00:13:05] She's got a big smile.
[00:13:06] She's just talking.
[00:13:07] And I'm like, what happened today?
[00:13:13] She's like, what are you talking about?
[00:13:14] Nothing happened today.
[00:13:16] And I was like, are you sure?
[00:13:19] She said, yeah, just drive.
[00:13:22] And I'm like, okay.
[00:13:24] And I start to drive, and I get halfway through the school parking lot, and I said, are you sure nothing happened today?
[00:13:31] Because I feel like something happened.
[00:13:34] And she's like, oh my gosh, Mom, you are being so extra.
[00:13:39] Nothing happened.
[00:13:41] Can we just go home?
[00:13:42] And I was like, okay, okay.
[00:13:44] And you know, for a second, I thought, man, I missed it.
[00:13:52] So I pulled out on the main road right in front of Huff High School and it didn't go away.
[00:13:59] And I'm like, ah, this isn't just mama here.
[00:14:04] This is the Holy Spirit.
[00:14:07] And you know, here's the thing about the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit is a snitch.
[00:14:11] And he is going to out you so fast.
[00:14:14] I don't like something's going on.
[00:14:16] I don't know what it is, but I tell you what, this mama, this queen is going to get to the bottom of whatever's happening.
[00:14:24] So I pull out on that main road.
[00:14:25] I go down for a second and I take the car.
[00:14:29] I'm like and pull off to the side of the road and I throw it in park.
[00:14:34] And she's like, what are you doing?
[00:14:36] And I said, well, I was going to ask you that.
[00:14:40] what happened at school today because i know something happened mom i cannot believe would you just drive oh my gosh this is so embarrassing people are going to drive by okay well we're going to sit here until you tell me what happened oh my gosh i told you nothing and i said okay
[00:14:56] I don't care if it's five minutes I don't care if it's two hours I don't care if it's all night we aren't moving until you tell me what happened and then all of a sudden it's amazing we went from nothing happened to I'm sorry
[00:15:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Oh, skip school!
[00:15:17] I hung out with the friends you told me not to hang out with.
[00:15:21] I went to skip school.
[00:15:23] I went to the gas station.
[00:15:25] I went to lunch.
[00:15:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
And I was like, hmm, okay.
[00:15:29] I put the car back in drive.
[00:15:31] I said, okay, thank you.
[00:15:33] Was that so hard?
[00:15:37] To tell the truth, now when we get home, you're going to need to tell your father.
[00:15:41] You're going to tell your father.
[00:15:46] Now, it was interesting, whenever I would get a call,
[00:15:54] That something needed addressing with one of my children.
[00:15:57] My older two, they, for those of you who I maybe don't know as well, so this one's 24, then I have a 25-year-old girl, and then a 27-year-old boy.
[00:16:12] Now, my older two are married, and this one and her fiancé beside her, yeah!
[00:16:20] Who my husband had threatened very severely when he first started to come around our house.
[00:16:28] He just, what, showed you his gun collection and his muscles, Taylor?
[00:16:31] Is that what he did?
[00:16:32] Yeah.
[00:16:34] so what happened is you know my older two they never even had a curfew because they were doing bible studies and you know my son was 17 and he was preaching on this platform the youngest preacher on our teaching team just brilliant and so if we got a call we were like what did Cassidy do
[00:16:59] And now she will tell you that she went through her phase and the other two are nowhere near as perfect as she is.
[00:17:07] She will tell you that now.
[00:17:13] I want you to know that through the different seasons, when different things go on, God made you to be the queen of your castle.
[00:17:23] To know when things are going on, to know when something's off,
[00:17:30] and to be able to come in and usurp what the enemy is trying to do in your family, in your marriage, in your story.
[00:17:40] And I want to tell you today about another queen who knew when there was trouble that was coming to her castle and her name was Esther.
[00:17:51] And here was Esther with a very interesting background.
[00:17:56] She had literally grown up
[00:17:59] as an orphan her cousin took her in the Jews had been exiled and were living in Persia for quite a while and they could have gone back to Jerusalem some chose to some didn't but here's Esther in a foreign land than what
[00:18:20] Generations we're accustomed to.
[00:18:22] She's a Jew and she keeps her identity a secret because Mordecai, her cousin, said, keep it under wraps.
[00:18:32] And she did.
[00:18:33] And she could have felt all kinds of ways about being an orphan.
[00:18:38] And the Bible doesn't tell us how she got orphaned.
[00:18:40] It just says that she was.
[00:18:44] but what happens with her is she goes through preparations and she ends up in front of the king and he picks her out of all of these other women to be the queen so here she is now doesn't matter what her background was what her story was doesn't matter what she came from you hear me
[00:19:08] She was called to be queen.
[00:19:13] And she ends up uncovering a plot.
[00:19:18] It says, In those days, while Mordecai her cousin sat within the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigfin and Teresh, they were doorkeepers, they became furious and sought to lay hands on King Asherus.
[00:19:36] So the matter became known to Mordecai.
[00:19:41] who told Queen Esther and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name and when an inquiry was made into the matter it was confirmed and both were hanged on the gallows and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king
[00:20:07] What is so incredible is Esther steps in, the queen, and she was a plot destroyer.
[00:20:15] Did you know, moms, that's what you are for your house?
[00:20:21] You are a plot destroyer.
[00:20:24] You are there to annihilate the enemy when he tries to get into your castle.
[00:20:31] The other thing that I think is particularly interesting is you see these two men that are eunuchs.
[00:20:40] Now, a eunuch was somebody that had devoted their life, their entire being, to looking after the king in the castle.
[00:20:54] So much so,
[00:20:56] that these two men were castrated in observance of showing their faithfulness to the king.
[00:21:05] So in other words, they looked the part, but their heart was wrong.
[00:21:15] And Esther didn't confuse it.
[00:21:19] She knew there was a plot there.
[00:21:22] She also didn't even confuse it when it tried to be wrapped up like it was something God ordained because Bickfin, one of the doorkeepers who coincidentally a doorkeeper
[00:21:39] These eunuchs, they were in charge of everyone who would come and go in and out of the castle.
[00:21:46] They decided who got near the king and who didn't.
[00:21:51] They had a very, very powerful, powerful position.
[00:21:56] And from all accounts, it looked like they had given their life to serve the king.
[00:22:04] Bithyn, his name actually means a gift from God.
[00:22:12] So everything looked like he was the right man.
[00:22:16] But Esther knew there was something there.
[00:22:20] She was a plot destroyer.
[00:22:22] And even when it came wrapped up like it was a gift from God, she had discernment to know better.
[00:22:30] And she informed the king and they were both hanged on the gallows.
[00:22:37] Now, plot destroyers are positioned by purpose.
[00:22:45] Like Esther, moms are placed in strategic roles, not by accident.
[00:22:53] but by divine appointment.
[00:22:56] You see sometimes we can get frustrated because of all the chaos that seems to be going on and things that are happening but we are made for the moment to be plot destroyers.
[00:23:10] Don't get overwhelmed by things that try to take out your castle because you were made to be a plot destroyer.
[00:23:19] You stand strong and you face the enemy and you take him out.
[00:23:26] You see, mothers are game changers.
[00:23:29] Her background didn't matter.
[00:23:31] None of that mattered.
[00:23:34] She didn't let the position of these two men or who everybody else thought they were, she's like, no, no, no, they're faking.
[00:23:45] And moms know how to spot when somebody's faking.
[00:23:50] Moms know how to spot it and here's the thing this was not the only time where Esther uncovered a plot there was another evil plot and this time instead of coming after the king this time they were using the king for another plot
[00:24:10] Haman who was the second in charge right underneath the king he was a guy that had a lot of power but he let it get to his head and so he wanted to be worshipped and looked at as the man but here's the deal the Jews particularly Mordecai they only were going to worship God
[00:24:37] They weren't interested in worshiping anybody else.
[00:24:40] They didn't care about rank and position.
[00:24:42] They cared about the King of Kings.
[00:24:45] And so when Haman would come and demand for people to bow before him and Mordecai said no, and he knew that the other Jews were worshiping God, he started to think about a plot to take them out.
[00:25:04] and he came up with one and he goes to the king and he says hey there's this whole group of people that don't honor your kingdom and I want you to to give an official decree that we can just annihilate them and the king gives them his signet ring now once the signet ring goes down on a decree it cannot be reversed for any reason
[00:25:28] The King gave him the ring and there it goes.
[00:25:33] Sealed.
[00:25:35] All of the Jews are now going to be destroyed.
[00:25:38] But understand, Esther has not uncovered at this point that she is a Jew.
[00:25:44] So here she is knowing that her life is in danger.
[00:25:52] The life of Mordecai is in danger and every other family member of hers is in danger.
[00:26:03] But here's the thing.
[00:26:05] Plot destroyers sense the season.
[00:26:09] And she understood the urgency of the hour.
[00:26:14] She understood how spiritually sensitive this moment was and that she needed discernment in order to carry out a plan to overt what the enemy was trying to do.
[00:26:30] She felt the urgency, but she didn't rush into action.
[00:26:35] She paused.
[00:26:37] she waited she knew that this was more spiritual than it was political she waited three days to approach the king because by law she wasn't even allowed to approach approach the king she would be put to death and so she waited three days and she's just pondering what she needs to do
[00:27:05] She was sensing the season.
[00:27:09] Divine timing supersedes human urgency.
[00:27:15] She wanted divine timing.
[00:27:18] She wanted God's divine appointment.
[00:27:23] And in Esther 4.14 it says, This is Mordecai speaking to her.
[00:27:29] Yet who knows, Esther, whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.
[00:27:36] Maybe this whole queen gig is for you right now to save your people.
[00:27:43] Maybe that's what it's all about.
[00:27:44] And see, sometimes if we're not careful as moms, we can feel the pressure of the moment and not realize, hey, my role right now is to be a plot destroyer.
[00:27:58] not not to go why why so much pressure why no no i'm a plot destroyer i will destroy the enemy's evil plans plot destroyers fast and pray and that's exactly what esther did she said go and gather all the jews who are present in shushan and fast for me
[00:28:21] Neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day.
[00:28:26] My maids and I will fast likewise.
[00:28:31] Why?
[00:28:32] Before Esther went to the king, she fasted and she prayed.
[00:28:39] And moms erase plots because they understand spiritual warfare.
[00:28:46] You see, the thing is, is some battles are not won with words, but with weeping, with warfare,
[00:28:57] and with worship and she understood that she was reliant on God she wasn't reliant on her beauty although she was beautiful she wasn't reliant on her courage or her influence she was reliant on God and all of the things that he had gifted her with she would use for the kingdom but she was reliant
[00:29:22] on God.
[00:29:24] Plot destroyers are bold risk takers.
[00:29:31] And here we see her saying, and so I will go to the king which is against the law and if I perish, I perish.
[00:29:45] She was willing to do what it took.
[00:29:49] to save the people that she loved the most.
[00:29:54] Mamas don't think about their own life first.
[00:29:59] They think about everybody else.
[00:30:01] They think about the king and the castle.
[00:30:05] They think about generations.
[00:30:08] That's how mamas think.
[00:30:10] That's how a true queen thinks.
[00:30:14] Plot destroyers also.
[00:30:17] They don't fight alone.
[00:30:19] Esther called on others to fast and to pray with her.
[00:30:25] She went to Mordecai and she asked him to pray and fast with her.
[00:30:30] which denotes an elder somebody with wisdom that she was able to go to she also commissioned all of the jews in Shushan those were her church people those were the people that would literally her faith group that would fight with her that would believe with her i'm going to tell you right now
[00:30:56] There is no way that we are going to successfully make it through the things that the devil is throwing at us as individuals or our household without being planted in God's house.
[00:31:12] There is nothing more important to do on a weekend
[00:31:17] Not a baseball game.
[00:31:20] Not a soccer match.
[00:31:22] Not a cheerleading.
[00:31:23] I'm going to tell you, my girls did traveling cheer.
[00:31:27] They did school cheer.
[00:31:29] My son played football, soccer, baseball.
[00:31:33] My kids were in God's house on Sunday morning.
[00:31:38] They might even have to come dressed in their cheer uniform and we might leave after one service but we are not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together in the house of God.
[00:31:52] The Bible declares that those who are planted in the house of God will flourish.
[00:32:02] If there are areas of your life that are not flourishing,
[00:32:10] Might I suggest getting planted so when you walk through a battle, you can pick up the phone, you can show up at your life group and your faith community will surround you and be there for you.
[00:32:28] It is so important.
[00:32:32] This morning when we were doing the dedications for the babies,
[00:32:39] One of the mamas was a very young mama.
[00:32:43] She was a teenager.
[00:32:47] And she made the right choice to keep that baby.
[00:32:51] The right choice.
[00:32:56] But she has a Mordecai in her life with her parents.
[00:33:01] She also has a church family that came around her.
[00:33:05] We didn't critique her or judge her or point a finger lest we get ten-pointed back at us.
[00:33:15] We are there to cover and protect when we are planted.
[00:33:19] She also, Esther had her inner circle.
[00:33:24] She had the maids and her female attendants that looked after her.
[00:33:30] Plot destroyers use their voice.
[00:33:36] Esther knew she was a Jew and what was declared against the Jews.
[00:33:42] She spoke up when silence would have felt so much easier.
[00:33:47] Nobody knows who I am.
[00:33:49] At least I can look after me.
[00:33:53] The king's ring has already been stamped.
[00:33:58] Nothing I can do.
[00:34:01] Let me let it just happen and I'll ignore it and I'll just save myself.
[00:34:10] Mm-mm.
[00:34:14] No, because she knew.
[00:34:15] She knew the enemy's plot often relies on silence.
[00:34:22] And when a mother, when a queen finds her voice, plots unravel.
[00:34:30] They unravel.
[00:34:32] My goodness.
[00:34:38] Plot destroyers?
[00:34:40] Protect Legacy.
[00:34:41] Esther wasn't just trying to save herself or her cousin.
[00:34:47] She knew there was an entire people group that she might have a chance to save, even if it cost her her own life.
[00:35:00] She was thinking about generations.
[00:35:03] She was thinking about legacy.
[00:35:06] She discerned the plot before it even had a chance to touch her house.
[00:35:17] She discerned it.
[00:35:20] Wow, moms, you intercept evil plots even when the gatekeeper has everyone else fooled.
[00:35:30] Moms, you intercept genocidal thoughts, which I can tell you the last five years, that's exactly what we saw.
[00:35:43] We saw a whole generation that the enemy tried to take out through lots of different means, and at one point even used the government to try to do it.
[00:35:55] But moms, you uncover plots.
[00:36:01] and you save your people.
[00:36:07] Plot destroyers are kingdom strategists, like that queen in a chess game, understanding when to make your move, knowing that timing is everything, knowing that your movements protect the others.
[00:36:28] Moms,
[00:36:29] We don't just react.
[00:36:32] We strategize.
[00:36:35] We come up with plans.
[00:36:37] And Esther was brilliant.
[00:36:41] She knew how to get to the king the same way you get to any man.
[00:36:48] She prepared a banquet.
[00:36:53] You get to the heart of a man through his stomach.
[00:37:01] Three banquets she prepared and then he said, what can I do for you?
[00:37:08] She didn't ask for something of herself.
[00:37:13] You see, spiritual warfare isn't just about what you say, it's about when you say it.
[00:37:25] She waited for the right time because she was strategic.
[00:37:30] Plot destroyers, birth deliverance.
[00:37:35] The king heard Esther that day and Haman, the second in charge, who literally Esther now has removed three men from the palace that could have hurt and harmed the kingdom.
[00:37:56] Haman was hanged that day.
[00:37:59] and the gallows now because his ring was already stamped his signet ring he couldn't reverse the plot but what they did is they let all the jews know in all of the territories that all of the evil men were coming for them and so they gave them weapons they gave them things to prepare themselves
[00:38:28] and so Esther helped prepare the rest of her family so to speak she gave them the tools and the weapons to fight back so they didn't get annihilated now here's here's guys what is crazy to me when I was studying this
[00:38:55] because moms are always birthing breakthroughs.
[00:39:01] Check this out.
[00:39:05] King Saul, hundreds of years before Queen Esther walked the planet, King Saul was a king who had a lot of insecurities and those overtook him.
[00:39:24] And when we don't get our insecurities in check, the very position and place that we've been called to in leadership gets taken.
[00:39:35] And so King Saul was supposed to go and fight this battle and he had a commandment from God.
[00:39:40] When you go into this battle, you are to utterly destroy everything.
[00:39:46] that the Amalekites owned every possession and you are to utterly destroy every Amalekite.
[00:39:55] Keep nothing.
[00:39:57] That was the command.
[00:39:59] But what we know from Scripture is that is not what King Saul did.
[00:40:03] And the prophet Samuel, I believe it's 1 Samuel 15, the prophet Samuel confronts him and says, What is the bleeding of sheep I hear in my ears?
[00:40:14] What have you done?
[00:40:16] And he makes excuses for why he did not obey God.
[00:40:23] and he kept king Agag and some of the other people back and he kept some of the spoils and Samuel rebuked him and said your kingdom will be taken from you fast forward 750 years and here we are with Esther
[00:40:54] King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin.
[00:41:01] Queen Esther from the tribe of Benjamin.
[00:41:09] What you see happen is that when she releases all of the Jews to fight back, guess what lineage Haman was from?
[00:41:24] The Amalekites.
[00:41:27] The people that King Saul was supposed to have destroyed but did not.
[00:41:38] Esther cleans up his mess and when she unlooses the Jews
[00:41:48] The Amalekites that have come from Haman and down through the years that were supposed to have been destroyed but never were.
[00:41:58] Those Jews that day take out 75,800 and completely destroy the Amalekites.
[00:42:09] What am I saying to you today?
[00:42:11] I am saying that what one king left undone, the queen came in and redeemed the bloodline from Benjamin.
[00:42:22] She redeemed it.
[00:42:24] And you no longer hear about the Amalekites causing havoc anymore in Scripture.
[00:42:31] They are done with.
[00:42:35] Can you stand on your feet with me today?
[00:42:40] On this Mother's Day, here's what I want you to do.
[00:42:46] I am so thankful for our plot-destroying, plot-erasing mothers.
[00:42:55] But I can tell you something more important than her getting kudos on Mother's Day.
[00:43:05] She would rather make sure all of her children are right with God.
[00:43:11] you may be here today because you came because of your mom you may be a mom it doesn't matter man woman or child i want everybody in here today to just bow your head and close your eyes as i ask you this question i've been talking about destroying plots and erasing plans of the enemy if today
[00:43:38] And thank you for everyone standing right where you are.
[00:43:41] This is the most important moment of the whole service.
[00:43:45] There is nothing more important than what we're doing right now.
[00:43:54] If today you would say, I know there are things in my life that need to be erased, and today I want those things erased.
[00:44:05] I want a fresh start.
[00:44:07] I want a do-over.
[00:44:08] I want a new beginning.
[00:44:10] If that is you today, man, woman, or child, I want you just to shoot your hand up and say, that's me.
[00:44:16] I need a fresh start today.
[00:44:18] Thank you.
[00:44:19] Thank you.
[00:44:19] Thank you.
[00:44:20] Who else?
[00:44:20] Thank you.
[00:44:21] Thank you.
[00:44:22] Who else?
[00:44:23] Thank you in the back.
[00:44:23] Thank you.
[00:44:24] Thank you.
[00:44:24] Thank you.
[00:44:25] Thank you.
[00:44:25] Thank you.
[00:44:26] Thank you.
[00:44:26] Thank you.
[00:44:27] Thank you.
[00:44:27] Thank you.
[00:44:28] Who else?
[00:44:29] I'm looking over on this side.
[00:44:30] Who else?
[00:44:32] Thank you.
[00:44:34] Who else said, man, I need some things erased today?
[00:44:38] Thank you.
[00:44:38] Thank you.
[00:44:41] Who else?
[00:44:43] I'm going to pray with everybody.
[00:44:45] Who else needs some things erased?
[00:44:47] come on yeah thank you let's all of us thank you thank you let's all of us say this together say Heavenly Father we thank you that you are the original plot destroyer what looked like failure when Jesus was on the cross was literally you redeeming us
[00:45:17] thank you God for your sacrifice we invite you in today in the name of Jesus reverse the curse make all things new in Jesus name
[00:45:39] Amen.
[00:45:41] Amen.
[00:45:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Give it up for all the mamas.
[00:45:49] I mean the loudest shout, the loudest roar.
[00:45:51] Thank you, mamas.
[00:45:53] You are plot destroying, plot erasing.
[00:45:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
And because of that, when you leave here today, you're going to get a gift from me.
[00:46:05] And believe it or not, I found these.
[00:46:07] And it took a while.
[00:46:09] But I found a queen chess piece that is an actual eraser.
[00:46:17] And whenever you think you don't have what it takes, you're gonna pull this out and you're gonna sit it on your desk, on your kitchen counter, I don't care where, on your dashboard.
[00:46:29] And you're gonna remind yourself that you are the queen of this chess board
[00:46:35] and you erase evil plots of the enemy.
[00:46:39] Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:00:05] Amen.
[00:00:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Well, welcome to all of my mamas in the house.
[00:00:53] Do your arms like this if you're a mama.
[00:00:55] All right, even if you're online, come on, let me see your hands.
[00:01:00] Come on, mamas online.
[00:01:02] There you go.
[00:01:03] You know, I think sometimes we don't realize just how huge
[00:01:08] We think that it's just the four corners of this building, but we've literally got all over the world that's watching.
[00:01:16] Let's see, we got Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Wyoming.
[00:01:26] Give it up for everybody.
[00:01:29] Incredible.
[00:01:30] Okay, that felt like a golf clap to me.
[00:01:33] It's Mother's Day.
[00:01:34] We should be a little bit rowdy up in here.
[00:01:36] Let's give it up for everybody.
[00:01:39] There we go.
[00:01:40] There we go.
[00:01:42] Well, I am so excited.
[00:01:45] Thank you guys for honoring me as the spiritual mom of the house.
[00:01:50] I take my job very seriously.
[00:01:52] I am a fierce defender and protector, so just know I appreciate your honor.
[00:01:59] I did want to make sure and honor the spiritual mama of this campus.
[00:02:05] Pastor Stephanie, can you stand up?
[00:02:09] All right, turn and look at everybody so they can all see you.
[00:02:14] Pastor Aaron, could you stand alongside your queen?
[00:02:17] We gotta have the king and the queen together.
[00:02:21] Here's the thing I want you to understand.
[00:02:23] They fight for you.
[00:02:24] They pray for you.
[00:02:26] They believe for you.
[00:02:27] Even when their own house is shaken, they are still believing for your house.
[00:02:34] So make sure that you thank them, that you appreciate them, that you love on them because they fight battles that you would never know about because they keep showing up day in and day out for you and your family.
[00:02:49] So give it up to the Queen and the King here.
[00:02:54] At our central campus.
[00:02:57] And it's only fitting if I take that king and queen example and I talk about the game of chess.
[00:03:05] I think it's very apropos because in the game of chess, the king, I understand, he holds headship and he is the final piece.
[00:03:15] When he falls, it says it all.
[00:03:17] It's all and done, right?
[00:03:20] He stands tall at the center of everything he's majestic he's regal and he's symbolic we love the kings don't we ladies okay we need do i need to preach a different message today all right we need to do some repairing in here we love our kings don't we ladies
[00:03:49] But make no mistake, it is the Queen who holds the power to move on that board.
[00:03:57] She sweeps across the board.
[00:03:59] She's diagonal.
[00:04:01] She's horizontal.
[00:04:03] She's vertical.
[00:04:04] And she is unmatched with grace and with reach.
[00:04:10] There is no piece on that board that is more powerful or tellingly symbolic than the queen.
[00:04:18] Because not only does she look after every other piece on that board, she knows how to protect her king too.
[00:04:29] You know it's interesting to me my husband did a post recently about women and their role and the power that they hold and I was kind of cracking up reading some of the idiotic things that people were responding and I knew what denomination it was but it still cracked me up nonetheless because see actually here at Freedom House we believe that women have a place in the kingdom
[00:04:55] And it's interesting to me that some people would twist the Word of God and I start to think, okay, if they don't understand the power that women wield, they might not have ever read the book of Genesis where Eve, a woman, took down all of creation because she stepped out of her place.
[00:05:18] They might not have ever heard of Samson and Delilah where a woman took down the strongest man that was ever on the face of the planet because she stepped outside of her place.
[00:05:30] So by all means please know the queen is very powerful and she is very strong but she needs to be in her place.
[00:05:40] And sometimes the king puts us in our place
[00:05:44] And we appreciate that because sometimes it's warranted, right?
[00:05:51] Alright, good that you're still tracking with me.
[00:05:57] But I love the fact that we have a king over this castle that loves and appreciates the part that women contribute.
[00:06:07] I am so thankful for that.
[00:06:10] I am so thankful that the feminine heart and the masculine heart are both heard in this house.
[00:06:17] I appreciate more than you can know because I'm literally sitting there online reading all the ignoramus comments of a woman should be quiet in God's house.
[00:06:29] She should be silent.
[00:06:31] She shouldn't speak.
[00:06:33] She has no authority.
[00:06:35] And I'm like, wow, are we misinterpreting scripture right now?
[00:06:39] And then I wanted to say, okay, has your wife ever worn pearls?
[00:06:44] Because see that same scripture that you're referring to that you're taking out of context right now, it says that a woman shouldn't wear pearls.
[00:06:53] It says a woman shouldn't wear gold.
[00:06:55] It says a woman shouldn't braid her hair.
[00:06:59] What they don't understand is in that context right there, there were some women.
[00:07:05] It was Paul speaking to Timothy, a young pastor in a very divided culture who very much of it was Greek.
[00:07:14] And the women were being worshipped as gods, the goddess Diana.
[00:07:20] and He was trying to course correct what was happening.
[00:07:24] And I'm so thankful that the pastor of this house does not look at women as a throwaway.
[00:07:34] I mean, in my mind, why in the world would God want 50% of the population to remain silent when we have an end time harvest that is needed?
[00:07:47] And if I can just be specific,
[00:07:51] I saw in the old testament where he used a donkey to talk so if God wants to use somebody he can use anything he wants to use as long as we are willing that's all I'm going to say on that but I appreciate and I honor the fact that when the queen stands up and she serves alongside of her queen her king we're not that kind of church we're in two queens
[00:08:25] Can I get an amen up in here?
[00:08:29] But when they stand together, something incredible happens.
[00:08:33] The queen covers most of the ground on that board, and she holds most of the influence.
[00:08:40] She can alter the course of a game with one single well-played move.
[00:08:47] And you know what?
[00:08:48] She always shows up right when she is needed.
[00:08:52] Where the king stands firm,
[00:08:55] She's in motion.
[00:08:57] Where he oversees, she protects.
[00:09:02] The Queen does not just play the game, she changes it.
[00:09:09] I don't want us to ever think that the role that women play, and I'm not just talking about doing domestic duties, I'm talking about anything that God has set in front of us to do.
[00:09:21] that we steward those opportunities well because queens, they calculate every move.
[00:09:28] They are not just concerned with protecting themselves but protecting others.
[00:09:33] Everyone else on the board, she looks after and she guards her king.
[00:09:37] She defends the realm to hold the line.
[00:09:41] Her very presence shifts the balance.
[00:09:46] And here's the thing, you lose the queen,
[00:09:50] And you know the king's about to go down.
[00:09:53] If you've played chess, you know that's the truth.
[00:09:57] And it's the same thing in the game of life.
[00:09:59] The king may symbolize the end of the game, but the queen is its life force.
[00:10:07] Mothers, I want you to know today
[00:10:10] I just want to speak and say this sometimes Mother's Day can be difficult for some of us I know before I started having children Mother's Day was a very hard remembering day for me because I did not grow up with a nurturing loving caring
[00:10:31] Mother.
[00:10:32] So it was a hard holiday.
[00:10:33] It brought up hurt and pain.
[00:10:36] And some of you may feel that today because maybe you've lost your mother.
[00:10:42] You could also be feeling that because maybe you're a woman that's lost a child.
[00:10:49] I just want you to know that we love you.
[00:10:53] We are thankful for you.
[00:10:54] And I know there are spiritual mamas in here.
[00:10:57] Your womb may have never even opened for a child, but your heart has opened for countless others.
[00:11:06] And I just want to say thank you for that.
[00:11:11] Thank you for what you do.
[00:11:22] There was a moment where I, you know, there's been moments through the years where I think my kids might have forgotten I was the queen.
[00:11:34] Sometimes you gotta remind them, right?
[00:11:37] Mm-hmm, yeah.
[00:11:39] So I am honored.
[00:11:41] I had one of my girls with me the first service, and I have another one with me today.
[00:11:47] And I thought I would share a little story about her.
[00:11:50] Oh, just a little one.
[00:11:51] I've got many.
[00:11:52] But this was a funny day.
[00:11:56] So both of my girls were competitive cheerleaders, and they also cheered for their schools.
[00:12:02] And I remember, and I know you know what story I'm about to tell,
[00:12:06] I remember going to pick her up from school one day.
[00:12:10] And it was Huff High School.
[00:12:13] And she throws her cheerleading gear in the back of the car.
[00:12:16] She puts her book bag in the back of the car.
[00:12:20] And she hops in with a big smile on her face.
[00:12:23] And something just kind of hit me.
[00:12:26] You know, mom's sense is better than Spidey's senses.
[00:12:31] And I'm like, hmm, I'm feeling a little something-something.
[00:12:35] and you know moms you know even if you don't have like video recordings you just kind of know you don't need the cameras you know something's off or when you hear something in the other room and you walk in and everybody's pointing fingers you knew who done it and you knew how they done it
[00:12:56] You know.
[00:12:56] You know.
[00:12:57] You can just sense those things.
[00:13:00] You can feel those things.
[00:13:02] And so my daughter gets in the car.
[00:13:05] She's got a big smile.
[00:13:06] She's just talking.
[00:13:07] And I'm like, what happened today?
[00:13:13] She's like, what are you talking about?
[00:13:14] Nothing happened today.
[00:13:16] And I was like, are you sure?
[00:13:19] She said, yeah, just drive.
[00:13:22] And I'm like, okay.
[00:13:24] And I start to drive, and I get halfway through the school parking lot, and I said, are you sure nothing happened today?
[00:13:31] Because I feel like something happened.
[00:13:34] And she's like, oh my gosh, Mom, you are being so extra.
[00:13:39] Nothing happened.
[00:13:41] Can we just go home?
[00:13:42] And I was like, okay, okay.
[00:13:44] And you know, for a second, I thought, man, I missed it.
[00:13:52] So I pulled out on the main road right in front of Huff High School and it didn't go away.
[00:13:59] And I'm like, ah, this isn't just mama here.
[00:14:04] This is the Holy Spirit.
[00:14:07] And you know, here's the thing about the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit is a snitch.
[00:14:11] And he is going to out you so fast.
[00:14:14] I don't like something's going on.
[00:14:16] I don't know what it is, but I tell you what, this mama, this queen is going to get to the bottom of whatever's happening.
[00:14:24] So I pull out on that main road.
[00:14:25] I go down for a second and I take the car.
[00:14:29] I'm like and pull off to the side of the road and I throw it in park.
[00:14:34] And she's like, what are you doing?
[00:14:36] And I said, well, I was going to ask you that.
[00:14:40] what happened at school today because i know something happened mom i cannot believe would you just drive oh my gosh this is so embarrassing people are going to drive by okay well we're going to sit here until you tell me what happened oh my gosh i told you nothing and i said okay
[00:14:56] I don't care if it's five minutes I don't care if it's two hours I don't care if it's all night we aren't moving until you tell me what happened and then all of a sudden it's amazing we went from nothing happened to I'm sorry
[00:15:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Oh, skip school!
[00:15:17] I hung out with the friends you told me not to hang out with.
[00:15:21] I went to skip school.
[00:15:23] I went to the gas station.
[00:15:25] I went to lunch.
[00:15:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
And I was like, hmm, okay.
[00:15:29] I put the car back in drive.
[00:15:31] I said, okay, thank you.
[00:15:33] Was that so hard?
[00:15:37] To tell the truth, now when we get home, you're going to need to tell your father.
[00:15:41] You're going to tell your father.
[00:15:46] Now, it was interesting, whenever I would get a call,
[00:15:54] That something needed addressing with one of my children.
[00:15:57] My older two, they, for those of you who I maybe don't know as well, so this one's 24, then I have a 25-year-old girl, and then a 27-year-old boy.
[00:16:12] Now, my older two are married, and this one and her fiancé beside her, yeah!
[00:16:20] Who my husband had threatened very severely when he first started to come around our house.
[00:16:28] He just, what, showed you his gun collection and his muscles, Taylor?
[00:16:31] Is that what he did?
[00:16:32] Yeah.
[00:16:34] so what happened is you know my older two they never even had a curfew because they were doing bible studies and you know my son was 17 and he was preaching on this platform the youngest preacher on our teaching team just brilliant and so if we got a call we were like what did Cassidy do
[00:16:59] And now she will tell you that she went through her phase and the other two are nowhere near as perfect as she is.
[00:17:07] She will tell you that now.
[00:17:13] I want you to know that through the different seasons, when different things go on, God made you to be the queen of your castle.
[00:17:23] To know when things are going on, to know when something's off,
[00:17:30] and to be able to come in and usurp what the enemy is trying to do in your family, in your marriage, in your story.
[00:17:40] And I want to tell you today about another queen who knew when there was trouble that was coming to her castle and her name was Esther.
[00:17:51] And here was Esther with a very interesting background.
[00:17:56] She had literally grown up
[00:17:59] as an orphan her cousin took her in the Jews had been exiled and were living in Persia for quite a while and they could have gone back to Jerusalem some chose to some didn't but here's Esther in a foreign land than what
[00:18:20] Generations we're accustomed to.
[00:18:22] She's a Jew and she keeps her identity a secret because Mordecai, her cousin, said, keep it under wraps.
[00:18:32] And she did.
[00:18:33] And she could have felt all kinds of ways about being an orphan.
[00:18:38] And the Bible doesn't tell us how she got orphaned.
[00:18:40] It just says that she was.
[00:18:44] but what happens with her is she goes through preparations and she ends up in front of the king and he picks her out of all of these other women to be the queen so here she is now doesn't matter what her background was what her story was doesn't matter what she came from you hear me
[00:19:08] She was called to be queen.
[00:19:13] And she ends up uncovering a plot.
[00:19:18] It says, In those days, while Mordecai her cousin sat within the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigfin and Teresh, they were doorkeepers, they became furious and sought to lay hands on King Asherus.
[00:19:36] So the matter became known to Mordecai.
[00:19:41] who told Queen Esther and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name and when an inquiry was made into the matter it was confirmed and both were hanged on the gallows and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king
[00:20:07] What is so incredible is Esther steps in, the queen, and she was a plot destroyer.
[00:20:15] Did you know, moms, that's what you are for your house?
[00:20:21] You are a plot destroyer.
[00:20:24] You are there to annihilate the enemy when he tries to get into your castle.
[00:20:31] The other thing that I think is particularly interesting is you see these two men that are eunuchs.
[00:20:40] Now, a eunuch was somebody that had devoted their life, their entire being, to looking after the king in the castle.
[00:20:54] So much so,
[00:20:56] that these two men were castrated in observance of showing their faithfulness to the king.
[00:21:05] So in other words, they looked the part, but their heart was wrong.
[00:21:15] And Esther didn't confuse it.
[00:21:19] She knew there was a plot there.
[00:21:22] She also didn't even confuse it when it tried to be wrapped up like it was something God ordained because Bickfin, one of the doorkeepers who coincidentally a doorkeeper
[00:21:39] These eunuchs, they were in charge of everyone who would come and go in and out of the castle.
[00:21:46] They decided who got near the king and who didn't.
[00:21:51] They had a very, very powerful, powerful position.
[00:21:56] And from all accounts, it looked like they had given their life to serve the king.
[00:22:04] Bithyn, his name actually means a gift from God.
[00:22:12] So everything looked like he was the right man.
[00:22:16] But Esther knew there was something there.
[00:22:20] She was a plot destroyer.
[00:22:22] And even when it came wrapped up like it was a gift from God, she had discernment to know better.
[00:22:30] And she informed the king and they were both hanged on the gallows.
[00:22:37] Now, plot destroyers are positioned by purpose.
[00:22:45] Like Esther, moms are placed in strategic roles, not by accident.
[00:22:53] but by divine appointment.
[00:22:56] You see sometimes we can get frustrated because of all the chaos that seems to be going on and things that are happening but we are made for the moment to be plot destroyers.
[00:23:10] Don't get overwhelmed by things that try to take out your castle because you were made to be a plot destroyer.
[00:23:19] You stand strong and you face the enemy and you take him out.
[00:23:26] You see, mothers are game changers.
[00:23:29] Her background didn't matter.
[00:23:31] None of that mattered.
[00:23:34] She didn't let the position of these two men or who everybody else thought they were, she's like, no, no, no, they're faking.
[00:23:45] And moms know how to spot when somebody's faking.
[00:23:50] Moms know how to spot it and here's the thing this was not the only time where Esther uncovered a plot there was another evil plot and this time instead of coming after the king this time they were using the king for another plot
[00:24:10] Haman who was the second in charge right underneath the king he was a guy that had a lot of power but he let it get to his head and so he wanted to be worshipped and looked at as the man but here's the deal the Jews particularly Mordecai they only were going to worship God
[00:24:37] They weren't interested in worshiping anybody else.
[00:24:40] They didn't care about rank and position.
[00:24:42] They cared about the King of Kings.
[00:24:45] And so when Haman would come and demand for people to bow before him and Mordecai said no, and he knew that the other Jews were worshiping God, he started to think about a plot to take them out.
[00:25:04] and he came up with one and he goes to the king and he says hey there's this whole group of people that don't honor your kingdom and I want you to to give an official decree that we can just annihilate them and the king gives them his signet ring now once the signet ring goes down on a decree it cannot be reversed for any reason
[00:25:28] The King gave him the ring and there it goes.
[00:25:33] Sealed.
[00:25:35] All of the Jews are now going to be destroyed.
[00:25:38] But understand, Esther has not uncovered at this point that she is a Jew.
[00:25:44] So here she is knowing that her life is in danger.
[00:25:52] The life of Mordecai is in danger and every other family member of hers is in danger.
[00:26:03] But here's the thing.
[00:26:05] Plot destroyers sense the season.
[00:26:09] And she understood the urgency of the hour.
[00:26:14] She understood how spiritually sensitive this moment was and that she needed discernment in order to carry out a plan to overt what the enemy was trying to do.
[00:26:30] She felt the urgency, but she didn't rush into action.
[00:26:35] She paused.
[00:26:37] she waited she knew that this was more spiritual than it was political she waited three days to approach the king because by law she wasn't even allowed to approach approach the king she would be put to death and so she waited three days and she's just pondering what she needs to do
[00:27:05] She was sensing the season.
[00:27:09] Divine timing supersedes human urgency.
[00:27:15] She wanted divine timing.
[00:27:18] She wanted God's divine appointment.
[00:27:23] And in Esther 4.14 it says, This is Mordecai speaking to her.
[00:27:29] Yet who knows, Esther, whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.
[00:27:36] Maybe this whole queen gig is for you right now to save your people.
[00:27:43] Maybe that's what it's all about.
[00:27:44] And see, sometimes if we're not careful as moms, we can feel the pressure of the moment and not realize, hey, my role right now is to be a plot destroyer.
[00:27:58] not not to go why why so much pressure why no no i'm a plot destroyer i will destroy the enemy's evil plans plot destroyers fast and pray and that's exactly what esther did she said go and gather all the jews who are present in shushan and fast for me
[00:28:21] Neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day.
[00:28:26] My maids and I will fast likewise.
[00:28:31] Why?
[00:28:32] Before Esther went to the king, she fasted and she prayed.
[00:28:39] And moms erase plots because they understand spiritual warfare.
[00:28:46] You see, the thing is, is some battles are not won with words, but with weeping, with warfare,
[00:28:57] and with worship and she understood that she was reliant on God she wasn't reliant on her beauty although she was beautiful she wasn't reliant on her courage or her influence she was reliant on God and all of the things that he had gifted her with she would use for the kingdom but she was reliant
[00:29:22] on God.
[00:29:24] Plot destroyers are bold risk takers.
[00:29:31] And here we see her saying, and so I will go to the king which is against the law and if I perish, I perish.
[00:29:45] She was willing to do what it took.
[00:29:49] to save the people that she loved the most.
[00:29:54] Mamas don't think about their own life first.
[00:29:59] They think about everybody else.
[00:30:01] They think about the king and the castle.
[00:30:05] They think about generations.
[00:30:08] That's how mamas think.
[00:30:10] That's how a true queen thinks.
[00:30:14] Plot destroyers also.
[00:30:17] They don't fight alone.
[00:30:19] Esther called on others to fast and to pray with her.
[00:30:25] She went to Mordecai and she asked him to pray and fast with her.
[00:30:30] which denotes an elder somebody with wisdom that she was able to go to she also commissioned all of the jews in Shushan those were her church people those were the people that would literally her faith group that would fight with her that would believe with her i'm going to tell you right now
[00:30:56] There is no way that we are going to successfully make it through the things that the devil is throwing at us as individuals or our household without being planted in God's house.
[00:31:12] There is nothing more important to do on a weekend
[00:31:17] Not a baseball game.
[00:31:20] Not a soccer match.
[00:31:22] Not a cheerleading.
[00:31:23] I'm going to tell you, my girls did traveling cheer.
[00:31:27] They did school cheer.
[00:31:29] My son played football, soccer, baseball.
[00:31:33] My kids were in God's house on Sunday morning.
[00:31:38] They might even have to come dressed in their cheer uniform and we might leave after one service but we are not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together in the house of God.
[00:31:52] The Bible declares that those who are planted in the house of God will flourish.
[00:32:02] If there are areas of your life that are not flourishing,
[00:32:10] Might I suggest getting planted so when you walk through a battle, you can pick up the phone, you can show up at your life group and your faith community will surround you and be there for you.
[00:32:28] It is so important.
[00:32:32] This morning when we were doing the dedications for the babies,
[00:32:39] One of the mamas was a very young mama.
[00:32:43] She was a teenager.
[00:32:47] And she made the right choice to keep that baby.
[00:32:51] The right choice.
[00:32:56] But she has a Mordecai in her life with her parents.
[00:33:01] She also has a church family that came around her.
[00:33:05] We didn't critique her or judge her or point a finger lest we get ten-pointed back at us.
[00:33:15] We are there to cover and protect when we are planted.
[00:33:19] She also, Esther had her inner circle.
[00:33:24] She had the maids and her female attendants that looked after her.
[00:33:30] Plot destroyers use their voice.
[00:33:36] Esther knew she was a Jew and what was declared against the Jews.
[00:33:42] She spoke up when silence would have felt so much easier.
[00:33:47] Nobody knows who I am.
[00:33:49] At least I can look after me.
[00:33:53] The king's ring has already been stamped.
[00:33:58] Nothing I can do.
[00:34:01] Let me let it just happen and I'll ignore it and I'll just save myself.
[00:34:10] Mm-mm.
[00:34:14] No, because she knew.
[00:34:15] She knew the enemy's plot often relies on silence.
[00:34:22] And when a mother, when a queen finds her voice, plots unravel.
[00:34:30] They unravel.
[00:34:32] My goodness.
[00:34:38] Plot destroyers?
[00:34:40] Protect Legacy.
[00:34:41] Esther wasn't just trying to save herself or her cousin.
[00:34:47] She knew there was an entire people group that she might have a chance to save, even if it cost her her own life.
[00:35:00] She was thinking about generations.
[00:35:03] She was thinking about legacy.
[00:35:06] She discerned the plot before it even had a chance to touch her house.
[00:35:17] She discerned it.
[00:35:20] Wow, moms, you intercept evil plots even when the gatekeeper has everyone else fooled.
[00:35:30] Moms, you intercept genocidal thoughts, which I can tell you the last five years, that's exactly what we saw.
[00:35:43] We saw a whole generation that the enemy tried to take out through lots of different means, and at one point even used the government to try to do it.
[00:35:55] But moms, you uncover plots.
[00:36:01] and you save your people.
[00:36:07] Plot destroyers are kingdom strategists, like that queen in a chess game, understanding when to make your move, knowing that timing is everything, knowing that your movements protect the others.
[00:36:28] Moms,
[00:36:29] We don't just react.
[00:36:32] We strategize.
[00:36:35] We come up with plans.
[00:36:37] And Esther was brilliant.
[00:36:41] She knew how to get to the king the same way you get to any man.
[00:36:48] She prepared a banquet.
[00:36:53] You get to the heart of a man through his stomach.
[00:37:01] Three banquets she prepared and then he said, what can I do for you?
[00:37:08] She didn't ask for something of herself.
[00:37:13] You see, spiritual warfare isn't just about what you say, it's about when you say it.
[00:37:25] She waited for the right time because she was strategic.
[00:37:30] Plot destroyers, birth deliverance.
[00:37:35] The king heard Esther that day and Haman, the second in charge, who literally Esther now has removed three men from the palace that could have hurt and harmed the kingdom.
[00:37:56] Haman was hanged that day.
[00:37:59] and the gallows now because his ring was already stamped his signet ring he couldn't reverse the plot but what they did is they let all the jews know in all of the territories that all of the evil men were coming for them and so they gave them weapons they gave them things to prepare themselves
[00:38:28] and so Esther helped prepare the rest of her family so to speak she gave them the tools and the weapons to fight back so they didn't get annihilated now here's here's guys what is crazy to me when I was studying this
[00:38:55] because moms are always birthing breakthroughs.
[00:39:01] Check this out.
[00:39:05] King Saul, hundreds of years before Queen Esther walked the planet, King Saul was a king who had a lot of insecurities and those overtook him.
[00:39:24] And when we don't get our insecurities in check, the very position and place that we've been called to in leadership gets taken.
[00:39:35] And so King Saul was supposed to go and fight this battle and he had a commandment from God.
[00:39:40] When you go into this battle, you are to utterly destroy everything.
[00:39:46] that the Amalekites owned every possession and you are to utterly destroy every Amalekite.
[00:39:55] Keep nothing.
[00:39:57] That was the command.
[00:39:59] But what we know from Scripture is that is not what King Saul did.
[00:40:03] And the prophet Samuel, I believe it's 1 Samuel 15, the prophet Samuel confronts him and says, What is the bleeding of sheep I hear in my ears?
[00:40:14] What have you done?
[00:40:16] And he makes excuses for why he did not obey God.
[00:40:23] and he kept king Agag and some of the other people back and he kept some of the spoils and Samuel rebuked him and said your kingdom will be taken from you fast forward 750 years and here we are with Esther
[00:40:54] King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin.
[00:41:01] Queen Esther from the tribe of Benjamin.
[00:41:09] What you see happen is that when she releases all of the Jews to fight back, guess what lineage Haman was from?
[00:41:24] The Amalekites.
[00:41:27] The people that King Saul was supposed to have destroyed but did not.
[00:41:38] Esther cleans up his mess and when she unlooses the Jews
[00:41:48] The Amalekites that have come from Haman and down through the years that were supposed to have been destroyed but never were.
[00:41:58] Those Jews that day take out 75,800 and completely destroy the Amalekites.
[00:42:09] What am I saying to you today?
[00:42:11] I am saying that what one king left undone, the queen came in and redeemed the bloodline from Benjamin.
[00:42:22] She redeemed it.
[00:42:24] And you no longer hear about the Amalekites causing havoc anymore in Scripture.
[00:42:31] They are done with.
[00:42:35] Can you stand on your feet with me today?
[00:42:40] On this Mother's Day, here's what I want you to do.
[00:42:46] I am so thankful for our plot-destroying, plot-erasing mothers.
[00:42:55] But I can tell you something more important than her getting kudos on Mother's Day.
[00:43:05] She would rather make sure all of her children are right with God.
[00:43:11] you may be here today because you came because of your mom you may be a mom it doesn't matter man woman or child i want everybody in here today to just bow your head and close your eyes as i ask you this question i've been talking about destroying plots and erasing plans of the enemy if today
[00:43:38] And thank you for everyone standing right where you are.
[00:43:41] This is the most important moment of the whole service.
[00:43:45] There is nothing more important than what we're doing right now.
[00:43:54] If today you would say, I know there are things in my life that need to be erased, and today I want those things erased.
[00:44:05] I want a fresh start.
[00:44:07] I want a do-over.
[00:44:08] I want a new beginning.
[00:44:10] If that is you today, man, woman, or child, I want you just to shoot your hand up and say, that's me.
[00:44:16] I need a fresh start today.
[00:44:18] Thank you.
[00:44:19] Thank you.
[00:44:19] Thank you.
[00:44:20] Who else?
[00:44:20] Thank you.
[00:44:21] Thank you.
[00:44:22] Who else?
[00:44:23] Thank you in the back.
[00:44:23] Thank you.
[00:44:24] Thank you.
[00:44:24] Thank you.
[00:44:25] Thank you.
[00:44:25] Thank you.
[00:44:26] Thank you.
[00:44:26] Thank you.
[00:44:27] Thank you.
[00:44:27] Thank you.
[00:44:28] Who else?
[00:44:29] I'm looking over on this side.
[00:44:30] Who else?
[00:44:32] Thank you.
[00:44:34] Who else said, man, I need some things erased today?
[00:44:38] Thank you.
[00:44:38] Thank you.
[00:44:41] Who else?
[00:44:43] I'm going to pray with everybody.
[00:44:45] Who else needs some things erased?
[00:44:47] come on yeah thank you let's all of us thank you thank you let's all of us say this together say Heavenly Father we thank you that you are the original plot destroyer what looked like failure when Jesus was on the cross was literally you redeeming us
[00:45:17] thank you God for your sacrifice we invite you in today in the name of Jesus reverse the curse make all things new in Jesus name
[00:45:39] Amen.
[00:45:41] Amen.
[00:45:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Give it up for all the mamas.
[00:45:49] I mean the loudest shout, the loudest roar.
[00:45:51] Thank you, mamas.
[00:45:53] You are plot destroying, plot erasing.
[00:45:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
And because of that, when you leave here today, you're going to get a gift from me.
[00:46:05] And believe it or not, I found these.
[00:46:07] And it took a while.
[00:46:09] But I found a queen chess piece that is an actual eraser.
[00:46:17] And whenever you think you don't have what it takes, you're gonna pull this out and you're gonna sit it on your desk, on your kitchen counter, I don't care where, on your dashboard.
[00:46:29] And you're gonna remind yourself that you are the queen of this chess board
[00:46:35] and you erase evil plots of the enemy.
[00:46:39] Amen.
