Central Baptist Church, Portsmouth, Virginia

Recently, the NBA’s Boston Celtics had the opportunity to do what no other NBA team had ever done in the playoffs—turn the tables on their opponent to win the 7-game series after losing the first three games. Sadly, the Celtics were not able to join their city’s Red Sox, Major League Baseball’s only team to ever come back from a 0-3 deficit (and – Can you tell Pastor Steve isn’t writing this email? – it was against the Yankees!); they lost Game 7 to the Miami Heat, and the game wasn’t especially close. It’s stuff like this that makes sports so appealing to us—these kinds of heroic and against-all-odds moments. There is something in us that comes alive when the tables are turned. And in this week’s passage in Esther 9, we see the tables turning in a big way as God works on behalf of His people. There are some great lessons in this passage to encourage us in our mission to make disciples for Jesus.