In this heartfelt sermon, Todd and Patty Asaad share their personal journey of faith, referencing the biblical story of Esther. They discuss themes of courage, faith in adversity, and trusting God's plan. The Asaads share the poignant challenges they faced with their son’s addiction and their granddaughter Charlotte’s health issues, ultimately underscoring the power of God's presence and guidance through crises. The sermon exhorts believers to embrace courage and conviction, epitomized by Esther’s declaration, 'If I perish, I perish,' and to trust that God will turn danger into destiny.

00:00 Welcome and Personal Reflections

00:16 A Testament to Friendship and Influence

01:54 Life Updates and Future Plans

02:48 Introduction to the Lesson: Courage in a Dangerous World

03:38 The Story of Esther: A Tale of Courage

06:04 Personal Struggles and Overcoming Challenges

13:48 Faith in Unsafe Conditions

18:32 Esther's Courage and Faith

20:35 Esther's Wisdom and Favor

21:53 Patty's Testimony of Faith

25:54 Charlotte's Miraculous Hearing

27:34 God's Timing and Miracles

29:26 Reflections on Faith and Challenges

31:21 Esther's Courage and Conviction

37:56 The Power of Obedience and Trust

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OC Church of Christ

Thank you, um, Greg and Kathy.

2

Uh, so encouraging to be here with

Orange County and all of our friends and

3

visitors that are here with us today.

4

A lot to say, uh, in a

short amount of time.

5

Uh, do want to say a

couple things really quick?

6

Um, you know, Greg and Kathy, we go

back to Dallas days, I don't know,

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25 years ago, 23, 25 years ago.

8

And I think, uh, our relationship,

what I would say is, is an incredible

9

testament to God and his love for us.

10

Um, I think Greg and I, um, you know,

we didn't have a great relationship

11

in, in Dallas, but because Greg is a

disciple and I trying to be a disciple

12

is we've worked on our friendship

over the last 15, 18 years and I could

13

absolutely say beyond a shadow of a doubt.

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Um, that Greg is a great friend of

both Patty and I and Kathy, and I'm

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just so grateful for men and women

like that, that are still standing,

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uh, in their convictions of God.

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And I have nothing but profound

respect for Greg and Kathy and what

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they've done and what they're doing.

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Uh, one thing I'll add is that Greg

got me to do something that no one

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was a ever able to do in my life.

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Um, as he mentioned, I'm a

chiropractor by education.

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I went to college for seven

years to get my doctorate.

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Uh, I was done with school.

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I was tired, I was burnt out.

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Uh, I was finished completely

and Greg was such a huge

26

proponent to go back to school.

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I mean, he wouldn't, he wouldn't nag

me, but he would talk about the value

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of it, and eventually he got me to

go back and get a master's at a CU.

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And I'm incredibly grateful

again for that because I learned

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so much, um, over the years.

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Um, and because of his influence in

my life, I'm very, very grateful.

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So Pat and I, uh, we've been married

almost 40 years, uh, baptized.

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I was baptized in Chicago.

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Uh, she was in Missouri,

university of Missouri.

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She's a journalism.

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Okay.

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Um, we've been outta the

ministry now for three years.

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Patty will share a lot about

what's going on in our life.

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Um, I'm now in real estate in Dallas,

so if you move into Dallas, let me know.

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Uh, yeah, so, and Patty's gonna

share a little about our blog.

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Uh, we might move here someday.

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I don't know.

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I know all the real estate agents and

their hearts just dropped a little bit.

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Great.

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Another agent in Dallas are in

LA but we'll see what happens.

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Our oldest son and daughter, uh,

daughter-in-law, uh, they're in

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Dana Point now, maybe San Clemente.

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We'll see how long.

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Um, taxes and politics.

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Keep 'em here.

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Um, and maybe they go back.

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I don't know, but we'll see.

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So, amen.

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Surrender.

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Amen.

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So the title of the lesson

here is, if I Perish, I Perish.

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It's about Courage in a Dangerous World.

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And I know that, you know, we think

about it is like, what lesson do you

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do between Christmas and New Year's?

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Well, a lesson on Esther is the way to go.

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Um, now you read this

book, it's a few chapters.

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If you haven't read it lately,

literally you can go home and

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get it done, um, in, in literally

half an hour if that 20 minutes.

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Uh, and it's an incredible,

powerful story, but it's over

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a span of time of 10 years.

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You read it and you're

thinking, oh, it's a weekend.

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It's, it's a couple days.

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No, it's 10 years.

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And we have this statement.

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If I perish, I perish.

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Uh, it's not that for a time such as this.

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It's like, no, no.

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We're gonna talk about

if I perish, I perish.

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Having courage in a dangerous world,

you know, we don't live in a safe world.

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It's uncertain, it's unpredictable,

and often it is unfair.

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And in our nature, we want long

for and even demand safe places.

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Oh, and I know probably a really good

example is this Bucky's men's bathrooms.

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How many of us in this room

have ever been to a Bucky's?

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All right.

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Some of you have been blessed.

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Many of you will be because

they're taking over.

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It is the amusement park of gas stations.

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120 stations, they go in there

Christmas time, you can't walk.

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I mean, you're like walking like this.

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And they have Bucky nuts, they

have brisket, they have everything.

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It's blow away.

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And, and I was here to Bucky's and,

and you know, this is the expectation.

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You walk in the bathroom.

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It's wide.

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It's open.

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You got pictures.

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It's beautiful, it's clean.

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This is what I expect in my world.

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But see, but then you have reality.

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And this is the women's restroom.

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I'm sorry, this is the end of the

line for the women's restroom.

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And it was all the way down zigzagging

all the way to the back of the wall.

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And I was like, oh, I gotta take a

picture of this because this is reality.

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So in the Book of Esther,

you see power abused.

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Yes.

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You see, truth was twisted and God's

people were under threat, and in

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that environment we have a faithful

young woman, probably a teenager,

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beginning this walk, responded

with courage and a dangerous world.

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Yeah.

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Esther didn't wait for the world

to calm down before she stepped up

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and she made this simple statement.

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If I perish, I perish.

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In other words, what she was

saying is that I may not survive

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this, but I won't stay silent.

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So Patty's gonna share,

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Patty Asaad: you know, for years

I've known the world was a dangerous

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place, but until it hit my family,

I didn't really think about it.

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But before I go any further, I have to

give a shout out to Emily Alexander.

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She is our babysitter in Dallas, Emily.

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Todd Asaad: Oh.

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Patty Asaad: She gets kind of, you try to

stand up, Emily, just to mess with you.

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I love it.

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And she comes over to our house.

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She's over at our house several times

a week and we hang out and she's

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helping out with our granddaughter.

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I just had to give her a shout out because

I love, but back to Esther, I knew the

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world was a dangerous place, but for the

most part I was going along, just living

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my life, having a good time, pretty much.

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And I didn't realize how

quickly things could change.

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I mean, when my boys, we have two

sons that are grown now when they

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were in high school, it was just fun.

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I remember sometimes at dinner

time we would be laughing so hard.

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It would be hard to get someone to stop

praying long, laughing long enough to

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say our prayers so we could go on eating.

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We were just having a good time.

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Well, when our younger son went away to

college, we knew he wasn't doing well, but

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we didn't realize how bad he was doing.

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He was, he played college rugby.

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And just loved it.

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But he had some injuries and when he had

injuries, you know, they, they put him in

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the hospital and he was given opiates, and

he felt like it flipped a switch on him.

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Some people, I guess, are just more

prone to that and his addiction.

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I, I have his permission

to share all of this.

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He got hooked on the opiates.

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He just loved it.

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It never occurred to me in a million

years that he would love the.

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Because I don't, when I have

surgery, I just wanna get off

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of 'em as quickly as possible.

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And it became so expensive, you know,

having this addiction, trying to keep

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it hidden that a friend told him, oh,

you can get high on heroin for about

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10 bucks and stay high for a couple of

days, and he became a heroin addict.

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Never did.

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I think I would be the

mother of a heroin addict.

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And it's such a dark, ugly, shadowy world

and I was trying to count it up and I know

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of now of 19 friends of his who have died.

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I mean, we're talking suicide, murder.

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I mean, a lot of us, I didn't

know anyone who had been murdered

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before, um, suicide or overdosing.

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But there for a while, I was to the

point, every time he was living in

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Austin, Texas, we live in Dallas.

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Every time the phone rang

from Austin, I would jump.

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If I didn't recognized the number, I was

so afraid we were gonna get that call.

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And he's been in and out of

rehab right now, actually.

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He's doing well.

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He's been clean for about a year

and a half, but it has been a long,

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long, long process and because

of the consequences of addiction.

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We are raising his daughter.

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Um, the mother has addiction issues too.

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We've had her since she was

about six, six months old, and

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our life changed overnight.

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All of a sudden we'd been

empty nesters for years.

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We were in the ministry doing

all kinds of things, traveling

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all over the place, doing, just

living our lives, a lot of freedom.

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And then all of a sudden we had a six

month old baby with special needs.

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Because she was born with a heart

defect, severe heart defect.

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She had her first open heart surgery at

three weeks, and right after we got her,

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we had to start making long trips down

to Austin for her to see her cardiac

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team there because she was going to need

another heart surgery, and they were

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hoping they would be able to repair it.

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But her issues were

very, very complex and.

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So we, she got the surgery, um, it

was not successful and 'cause of

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complications after that surgery, she

had to be on a feeding tube and it was

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something I never thought I could do.

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I mean, going back to raising

a baby again, I'm in my sixties

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and I'm chronically ill, I have

lupus, and I thought never in a

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million years could I do this.

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But God had made it so clear by

the time we were asked, Todd and

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I hadn't even talked about it.

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The person said, would you be

willing to keep her long term?

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And we both in unison said yes.

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Because sometimes God just calls

us to thinks we have no idea how

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we're gonna be able to do it.

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We never saw it coming, but

that's what we need to do.

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And I'm not gonna say it hasn't been hard.

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I'm gonna be talking about that.

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So after her surgery, she had

to be on this feeding tube.

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And I remember when they

told us that, I just cried.

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I was afraid of that.

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We had to learn how to drop a

tube from her nose all the way

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down her stomach to her stomach.

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And some of you may be medical

people and think, oh, that's easy.

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That's just an NG tube.

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Well, I'm not a medical person.

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I know it was difficult and we were

always so afraid we were gonna hurt

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her, and we had to learn to drop this

tube and then perform tests on it to

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make sure that it was in her stomach

and not her lungs, because if it

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was in her lungs, we could kill her.

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I was scared to death, and

this is a tip by this point.

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She's 10 months old.

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She is a 10 month old baby.

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Todd's fingers were just too big.

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He couldn't do it.

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So he would hold her down and,

'cause this was the only way she

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could eat and I would have to feed

this little tube through her nose.

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Hope, hoping it's going down to her

stomach every, they trained us in the

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hospital, but for some reason, when we

got home three hours away with all the

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stuff, it was a different type of tubing

and we didn't, we kept having mistakes.

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I don't think the first

two weeks we had a single.

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Um, feeding time that went well.

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I mean, she would throw it up and we, we

had, we were feeding it to her too fast.

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I remember I was, we were trying

to, I thought I'd gotten the tube

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in 'cause we'd always be shaking

and lay things out ahead of time.

218

We thought we got the tube in and

then all of a sudden she opens her

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mouth and screams and it was all

wadded up in her mouth and all these

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wires started coming outta her mouth.

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And I mean, I was probably this

close to hysteria and so Todd was

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thinking, well pull the, the tube out.

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And after something like

that, it's traumatic.

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You wanna just kind of go recover.

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But she still needed to eat.

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So we had to start all over again.

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And this went on for weeks,

for, until eventually it ended.

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But you know what I learned from that?

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It was something I didn't want,

never thought I could do any of this.

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God gets us through the hardest times.

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Amen.

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Somehow he gets us through it

and I'm gonna talk more about my

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struggles believing all that when I

get up next, but Todd's getting up.

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Back up now.

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Todd Asaad: Amen.

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So this is Charlotte now.

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Um, she's had three open heart surgeries.

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And so that was her at church, I don't

know, a couple months ago, maybe, uh, St.

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Patrick's Day and, and, uh, October here.

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Halloween.

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And so, um, faith doesn't

wait for safe conditions.

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Now, one thing about Grant, Patty

mentioned our youngest son, he's

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actually at church this morning.

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Um, you know, he loves the body.

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He loves people in the church.

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Um, so I'm very encouraged,

uh, where he's at and what, how

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he's trying to grow and change.

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But faith doesn't wait

for safe conditions.

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You know, the city of Susa where this

is happening was not a safe spot.

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Um, Persia was not a safe place.

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The king and the king's

palace were not safe places.

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You know, here in Esther, in chapter

one, it says, and, and this is, they

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had like a, um, like two or three month

long celebration, basically a festival.

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And this is one of the king's edicts,

he said it in verse eight, says, and

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drinking was according to the edict, to

this edict, there is no compulsion for

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the king had given orders to all the staff

of his palace to do as each man desired.

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I mean, imagine living in a society.

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Imagine, you know, we start like in then

Halloween, you know, and say, Hey, all

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the way from holiday or Halloween, all

the way to maybe Martin Luther King Day.

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Hey, it's just a party.

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And you're gonna have all the

food, all the drink you want,

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and there's no compulsion.

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Imagine the environment that you would be

in, in that city, in that nation, that,

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that empire, you know, we want, we hope,

we pretend that this is a safe world.

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I remember, you know,

just a few months ago.

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I, uh, Patty and I, we live

in, in Louisville, it's

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right off or not Louisville.

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We live right off of Lake Louisville,

and it's about a mile to the lake.

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And, and I was walking to the

lake and, you know, my, my

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philosophy is I love to read.

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I have to pray.

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I love to read, but my sanity comes

from my walk with God because my

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communication is not good enough.

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And people's ability to

understand is not good enough.

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So the only one I can talk

to, even if it's in grunt

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noises, is God, I love to read.

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I have to pray.

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So I'm out there and I'm on prayer walk

and, and I'm walking and, and I'm, you

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know, talking to God and I'm coming up

this little ridge and I'm coming up to the

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lake and I hear commotion, I hear yelling.

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And I'm like, what the

heck is going on there?

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And I get closer and closer and I,

you know, I, I look there and, and

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I come close and all of a sudden

now there's three boats and, and

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they're just right next to each other.

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And they're, these two guys are literally

yelling, screaming at each other.

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And you can see the wake, the

wake around him is, is the guy

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in the one boat on the right.

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Literally did like a donut

around the other two guys.

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And they're just like screaming, yelling.

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And I did what any American

would do is I pulled out my cell

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phone and I started videotaping.

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And so they're yelling each other and,

and evidently the guy on the right who did

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the donut around them did something that

really ticked off the other two boaters.

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And I'm like, my goodness.

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And the last words I

heard across the lake.

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And that's why Jesus preached on off

the, the, the lake a lot of times.

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'cause he as clear as glass.

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I heard the guy in the middle

boat say I'm going after him.

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'cause the other guy took off and

sure enough he went after him.

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And, and I'm walking down along farther

down the, the peninsula I was walking.

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And sure enough the other guy found him.

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I mean, this was, these, these

guys, they had their boats.

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They had their trucks, they had time

to get away and get on the lake,

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and they made it unsafe.

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You would think of all the places

in the world, this would be a

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safe environment, but it wasn't.

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How about driving down the five?

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Is that a safe place?

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So Esther, chapter two, verse one, 10.

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Esther had not made, known her people

or Kindred for Mordecai had commanded

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her not to make it known here.

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The, the issue is, is that, is that it

was so dangerous that Mordecai said,

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Hey, don't tell anybody who you are

and where you're from, your people,

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because it's not a safe spot here.

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And so in this, we see Esther, a

teenage girl stepping up into the middle

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of danger, but not when it's over.

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But during, and, and if you know

the story is that, you know that.

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The Vasti, the, the king's, um, wife

basically got kicked out from being

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the queen, and somebody came up with

a grand idea like, oh, let's go get

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all the virgins in Persia, the really

beautiful ones, and let's bring 'em in.

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And you get to pick from this group

of women and you get to pick one.

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But all the other ones, they have to stick

in the harem for the rest of their lives.

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That's bad guys.

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Yeah, that's really, really,

really bad for everybody.

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And so God never promised safety,

but he did promise presence.

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The safest place was not in the palace.

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It rather was in the purpose of God.

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So when we talk about faith, you

know, it's not about avoiding danger.

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It's about advancing through it.

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And we're not talking about a

weekend, we're talking about like

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over 10 years this story unfolded.

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You know, imagine, think about the last

10 years of your life where you were

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10 years ago, and everything that's

happened, you know, 10 more years from

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now, it's gonna be the same thing.

335

It's gonna be crazy.

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In 10 years from now, your life is

gonna be dramatically different.

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Courage comes from calling, not comfort.

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And see, we see in the story of

Esther, that she wasn't fearless.

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She wasn't like this little

pit bull that go in, went in

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there like, I'm taking charge.

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No.

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It's like she was faithful and she knew

that she was living in a dangerous world.

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Verse nine.

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I think it kind of helps us understand why

Esther succeeded when other girls didn't.

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Verse nine, it says, and

the young woman pleased him.

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He's talking about the the eunuch who

is in charge and won his favor, and he

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quickly provided her with her cosmetics

and her portion of food, and with seven

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chosen young women from the King's

Palace and advanced her and her young

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women to the best place in the harem.

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And in verse 15 B, it says,

now, Esther was winning favor

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in the eyes of all who saw her.

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And if you look at this, it says,

there's actually eight times in

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the book of Esther winning favor.

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She was winning favor.

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What does that mean?

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It means that she was

living a life of wisdom.

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It's her, her actions, her

demeanor, how she spoke, how

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she responded, how she engaged.

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She did it in wisdom.

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She wasn't flippant, she wasn't

rash, she wasn't, she was wise.

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She listened to Mordecai,

her uncle or her cousin.

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She listened to the eunuch,

said, do this, do this, do this.

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She did it.

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She engaged.

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She didn't react.

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Patty's gonna come up and share more.

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Patty Asaad: It's amazing how

God gives us what we need.

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When we need it.

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You know, I mentioned earlier all

of this stuff that's happened.

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I'm gonna get into more of it in just

a minute, but it's revealed the gaps

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in my faith and the things I needed to

learn and, and for that I am so grateful.

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I mean, with like what I shared

about the feeding tube earlier,

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I think about the scripture.

374

It says God gives in Isaiah 40 29,

he gives strength to the weary.

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It increases the power of the week.

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I mean, he's taught me how to do

things I never would've thought I

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could do, but it seems like early

on when Charlotte came to us, I went

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through a long season where it seemed

like God wasn't answering my prayers.

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Anything I prayed, it felt like,

I'm not saying this is accurate, but

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it felt like he did the opposite.

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Our church was having this thing

where we were all doing, you know,

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10 impossible prayers and people at

midweek, they're sharing about it.

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They're practically dancing in the aisles.

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Every one of my 10 prayers had gotten

worse and I was just discouraged,

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and this went on for a while.

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Then after Charlotte's second

surgery, a few months later, we

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had to get her hearing tested and,

and it turned out she was hard of

388

hearing and needed hearing aids.

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And I was so discouraged.

390

It was one of those times I had prayed.

391

I thought, this little girl has enough.

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God, please don't let her

be deaf on top of it all.

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Please, please, please.

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And then it turned out she was,

and it seemed like this was just

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the last, in many prayers like that

where I felt like I just said no.

396

Like when her, her heart was

not fixed during that second

397

surgery, and I was so discouraged.

398

Well the next year how it works when

the child has to have heart surgery is

399

they want 'em to get as big as possible

without it being completely dangerous.

400

And so we had to watch

Charlotte's blood oxygen level.

401

We're having to take it all the time.

402

And when it got down into the low seven.

403

Is when they were gonna do the

surgery, and that's really, really bad.

404

She was turning blue all the time.

405

It was very scary to watch it, and

it was just a very difficult time.

406

Well, we got this.

407

She was gonna get a

third open heart surgery.

408

They had told us that a

repair would be impossible.

409

This was gonna be another

stop gap measure we thought.

410

But it's amazing how God works things out.

411

We kept having, they kept having to

delay the surgery for different reasons.

412

At one point, Charlotte had

a virus and it's a, um, a, a

413

very, they do, uh, transplants.

414

And so a lot of it, several times

they had to cancel our surgery.

415

It had gotten canceled six times before

we finally had it, and that may not

416

sound like that big of a deal, but

this was very, very risky surgery.

417

Todd and I were both afraid she was gonna

die on the table to be honest about it.

418

And so we would have to gear ourselves

up emotionally, be praying about it.

419

The last time it was canceled, we had

made it, we'd unpacked in our Airbnb,

420

we'd driven to Austin where her team was,

which is three and a half hours away.

421

We'd unpacked.

422

We were in pre-op, and again, they tell us

they're gonna have to cancel the surgery.

423

This was only about a year ago, almost

exactly a year ago, and Todd and I,

424

I don't think we could have been more

discouraged and with all the moving the,

425

the surgery around, I was also in the

middle of cancer treatment for breast

426

cancer, and it was affecting that.

427

We were having to move all that around

and we were just so discouraged.

428

I don't think we said more

than a few words to each other,

429

all the way back to Dallas.

430

We didn't even unpack.

431

And I was supposed to go to a, um, well

Charlotte had an audiology appointment.

432

I thought they were just

gonna adjust her hearing aids.

433

I'd meant to cancel it 'cause I thought we

would be still in the hospital in Austin.

434

I'd forgotten to.

435

I thought we might as well

go pull myself together.

436

We'll go and I take her in there and

they're like, we wanna do a hearing test.

437

And I was still struggling so much.

438

Honestly, I was mad at God.

439

I was ashamed of myself for that,

but I was, and I just was stuck.

440

I felt like I couldn't work through it.

441

And so we're there and they decide, well,

we'll just give her a quick hearing test.

442

I'm sitting there in the booth

with her and I could hear what

443

they, they're saying to her.

444

She's following all the directions

that they're giving her.

445

All through earphones and I could, I

could hear it from where I was sitting

446

and she said, I didn't even know at

that point she could follow directions.

447

But anyway, it meant she

was hearing everything.

448

I mean, I'm sitting there with

tears streaming down my face.

449

She could hear we weren't even

supposed to be at that appointment.

450

And remember, they're done with that.

451

They send us out to the waiting room and

they didn't even know what to tell us.

452

Finally the doc, they were all

conferring with one another.

453

All the different doctors, they go,

we've only seen this happen once before.

454

Her hearing loss was neurological,

not because of blockage, and all

455

of a sudden she could hear a can

and I just couldn't believe it.

456

I mean, as we're leaving the hospital,

I'm telling strangers even she can hear.

457

We just found out today the

strangers were very happy for us

458

and, but I just couldn't believe it.

459

And that night, because I.

460

Was probably one of my lowest of low days,

but I think about when I had been trying

461

to work through my anger with God and all

of this, and we get some more good news

462

from her speech therapist on the way home

while we're in the car, and then her other

463

grandmother was keeping her that night.

464

As I drop her off that night, I look

at Charlotte to say goodbye and I

465

didn't even know she knew this sign.

466

She goes, I love you.

467

And I mean, after that day, God had

been with me all along, but I felt

468

it that day and I think God knew that

was what I needed on that day because

469

I had just done everything I could.

470

I was just done.

471

But God gave me the miracle I needed

and it got us through the next week,

472

her neck surgery, even though we'd been

told it could never happen, that the

473

surgeon was able to repair her heart.

474

Wow.

475

And we only got this to surgeon

because of all the delays they

476

had to switch surgeons on us.

477

I, I thought the picture was, we

have a picture of Charlotte with the

478

surgeon after the, um, he saved her

life basically after the, the surgery.

479

But God has taught me so

much through all this.

480

Sometimes I am hurting so bad I can,

I can't see where he is working.

481

But he still is working and all the

time, and I had trouble believing.

482

I knew God.

483

Just sometimes I wondered if he

was really good because things just

484

seemed so dark, and then when he

let us have that miraculous day.

485

I saw God is always good.

486

I tried to work through it before, but

then it just went deeper than ever and

487

we're still in the middle of all this.

488

Honestly, Charlotte was diagnosed

with autism just a few weeks ago.

489

We're trying to get her into new therapy.

490

She's in children's ministry right

now as we speak, and she's adorable.

491

She's a little sweetie, but she's still

nonverbal and she's four years old now.

492

She's wonderful.

493

But I think about everything God

has taught me about who he is, about

494

seeing the gaps in my own faith.

495

I wouldn't trade this for anything.

496

So many times when we're putting

Charlotte to bed, it's been a hard day.

497

We're exhausted.

498

But Todd looks at me and says, we

wouldn't want it any other way.

499

And it's so true, and that's only because

of God and all the lessons he's taught us.

500

And I'm sure we'll have more dark

days and he will teach us new lessons.

501

But I've learned in a way like

never before, how God is always

502

working and he's always with us.

503

Todd Asaad: Good job.

504

Amen.

505

So that's a picture of Dr.

506

Frazier there.

507

Um, this is like six weeks after

the, the, her third surgery.

508

There is a possibility she could

have another open heart surgery.

509

It depends, uh, her heart is restored, but

they left her procedure, uh, in her, um.

510

Glen g Well, it's called a glen line

and they might take it out, they might

511

leave it, they don't know, but that'd

be number four if she had to have it.

512

It just depends on the

pressure in her lungs.

513

So pray for Charlotte if you get a chance.

514

You remember that.

515

But this guy was like the guy and um,

he was training someone that actually

516

went to, um, Vanderbilt to open up a

heart surgery, pediatric heart surgery.

517

So he actually ended up having to do the

surgery when we moved back up to Dallas.

518

Um, our new heart cardiologist,

pediatric heart, um.

519

Sorry, pediatric heart surgeon

basically had a man crush on this guy.

520

He's like, oh, Dr.

521

Frazier.

522

I mean, it is like,

it's like quick gushing.

523

Stop it.

524

You know?

525

So he, um, this guy, that's,

that's how impressive this guy is.

526

So, back to Esther.

527

So long story short, um, Mordecai,

her cousin reminds her or reminded

528

her that her calling was, you know,

you were born for such a time as this.

529

And I think, you know, for, for

us, I think as disciples, you know,

530

we can forget that, that literally

we are in places for a reason.

531

And Esther was reminded that

you were born for this time.

532

And I think courage doesn't

come from confidence.

533

It comes from conviction.

534

You know who you are in God's eyes.

535

And before I get, and I'll show a QR

code of Patty's Substack that Greg

536

talked about, which I really appreciate.

537

Um, but this is Patty,

Patty aside@substack.com.

538

That's, and I'll put a QR code

up there if you wanna follow her.

539

Um, what's that?

540

Patty Asaad: It comes out weekly.

541

Todd Asaad: Weekly.

542

Thank you.

543

So Esther knew her position

was not an accident.

544

And she risked her comfort for a cause.

545

God didn't put you where you're at.

546

For you to play it safe.

547

He put you there to make a stand.

548

You're not stuck, you're stationed.

549

So the last thought here is

when you move, God moves.

550

When you move, God moves.

551

Esther, chapter four, verse 16.

552

How does God move?

553

Well, we know Esther's moving.

554

Mordecai is moving.

555

How does God move?

556

Well, verse 16, here we see Esther talking

to Mordecai and she goes, go gather all

557

the Jews to be found in Suse and hold

a fast on my behalf and do not eat or

558

drink for three days, night or day.

559

I and my young women

will also fast as you do.

560

Then I will go to the king and

though it is against the law,

561

and if I perish, I perish.

562

Mordecai then went away and did everything

as Esther had ordered him to do.

563

You need to think about that.

564

When was the last time you

had a really big decision?

565

Something really massive, uh,

a decision you had to make?

566

When was the last time you called all

your friends, maybe all your Bible

567

talk and says, guys, I need you to

fast with me for the next three days.

568

For me to make a a, the best decision.

569

I don't know if I've been in the

kingdom like for 40 plus years.

570

I don't, I can't think of one

time anyone's ever done that.

571

And I'll just, let me throw

a, a freebie at you here.

572

A little tidbit when we talk about

job and his friends, you know, we

573

could sit there and do a belly laugh.

574

Oh, job's, friends.

575

When was the last time someone sat with

you for seven days and didn't speak a

576

word because your suffering was so great.

577

You know, theologically, they might have

been off, but man, to have friends like

578

that that'll sit with you for a week and

not say a word because they're grieving.

579

Because of your grieving.

580

That's intense.

581

Yeah.

582

So when you move, God moves.

583

Esther moved.

584

Here it is.

585

Do this.

586

Once Esther acted, God began

turning everything around.

587

The decree reversed.

588

Haman was exposed, God's

people were protected.

589

Literally, in one act of courage

became the spark that saved a nation.

590

Chapter six, verse one.

591

It says on that night,

the king could not sleep.

592

And he gave orders to bring the book

of memorable deeds, the Chronicles,

593

and they were read before the King,

and it was found how Mordecai saved

594

the king's life like 10 years ago.

595

And he forgot.

596

I mean, you read about this

king, it is like this guy.

597

He, he, he, he drank all the time

and he listened to the wrong people.

598

Yeah.

599

And we're, if someone saved your

life, do you think you would

600

remember that like every day?

601

Oh, they saved my life.

602

They saved my life.

603

I, I got a good friend

of mine, Mike Ostrom.

604

He used to be here in, in,

in Ca, California, in the

605

ministry for a long time.

606

And my youngest son, grant that

Patty shared about actually when

607

he, the, um, Ostrom's son, when he

went, he dove into the deep end.

608

He couldn't swim, fell into the deep end.

609

My son Grant jumped in

there, saved his life.

610

Every time I talk to Mike Ostrom, Hey,

tell you Grant, tell your son Grant,

611

thanks for saving my son's life.

612

So here, the king just couldn't sleep

and, and we, you know, Hey, I can't sleep,

613

so hey, let's, let's read something.

614

Hey, get the book of memorable deeds.

615

And they just turned it to

where Mordecai saved his life.

616

And then a little bit later, verse

four, it says, and the king says,

617

'cause he wants to honor Mordecai

now that he realized what happened.

618

He goes, oh my gosh, I gotta do something.

619

I, I need some advice again

from the wrong person.

620

And it's the king says,

who's in the court now?

621

Haman, who's the bad guy?

622

And it's really cool if you ever

go to this, uh, uh, pur is like,

623

they, they had celebrate this,

this festival still in Israel.

624

And, and whenever Haman's name

would come up, all the little

625

kids that were dressed up as their

favorite actors would start hissing.

626

Oh, Haman.

627

And it was like a little

theater for the kids.

628

And, and when they act this out, and

so Haman, when he entered the outer

629

core of the King's Palace to speak to

the king about having Mordecai hanged

630

on the galas that he prepared for 'em.

631

So Haman was in there all excited, happy.

632

He is gonna walk into the

King's president, Hey, king,

633

I need you to do me a favor.

634

I need you to kill this

Jew named Mordecai.

635

Well, before he can get those

out of his mouth, those words out

636

of his mouth, the king is like,

Hey, I need to honor somebody.

637

And Mor or Haman thinks

it's obviously it's him.

638

And it wasn't.

639

It was Mordecai.

640

And when he realized after telling

the king what he should do to someone

641

like him, if he wanted to praise him,

he realized it wasn't for him, it was

642

for Mordecai, and now he is petrified

and we know that he was killed later.

643

So what's the encouragement of all this?

644

You know, your faith doesn't have

to be massive, it just has to move.

645

Yeah.

646

When you take one step in obedience,

God opens doors that no one can shut.

647

Wow.

648

You know, I've had a number of people

tell me like, man, I'm so glad you

649

didn't call this lesson for such a time

as this, because it's, if I perish,

650

I perish, I'm gonna have conviction.

651

That if I die, I die.

652

But my conviction's based upon

God and his way and not my way.

653

You know, the world's still a

dangerous place, but this is your

654

time, just like it was Esther's.

655

You don't need to have all the answers.

656

You just need the courage to

say, if I perish, I perish.

657

Because when you trust God in dangerous

times, he turns danger into destiny.

658

I don't know what challenges you're

facing right now in your walk with God.

659

I don't know what environment

you are living in right now.

660

It's no better or worse where we're at.

661

It's just what it is.

662

But at the end of the day, God's

kingdom isn't gonna move forward unless

663

more and more people are willing to

have that attitude of, you know, if

664

I perish, I perish, I'm gonna do it

God's way and not the world's way.

665

This is Patty's Substack,

what just happened?

666

That's a QR code.

667

If you want a follower,

there's a free version.

668

You know, you can just read up and it's

very helpful and I appreciate Greg's word.

669

But again, this is an honor for us

to be here to spend time with you.

670

It's so encouraging coming in and

I'm seeing people El Paso Albuquerque

671

here, and I'm like, good night.

672

I love the kingdom.

673

So I love you guys.

674

Thank you very much.

675

Amen.