Esther 3 & 4

Christy Duff teaches through chapters 3 and 4 and draws out two words that anchor the passage: peculiar and purpose. Under "peculiar," she traces both the eerie pattern of one man's wounded pride escalating into a desired genocide of an entire people group (a pattern she observes is far from ancient history) and the calling of God's people to be genuinely set apart — not in performance or virtue-signaling, but in the quiet, countercultural obedience of following God's what before we understand His why. Under "purpose," she unpacks how Mordecai's willingness to stay awake to the world around him and speak purposefully into Esther's comfortable, sheltered palace life is exactly the role God calls each of us to play — waking up the sleepy Christians in our sphere, keeping our own ears open to what God is doing beyond our bubble, and ultimately arriving at the place Esther reached: a settled, surrendered "if I perish, I perish" that is only possible when we truly believe God is sovereign and good. The session closes with a call to 31 days of corporate, Easter-focused prayer — asking the church to seek God's favor together the way Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews fasted and prayed, trusting that God has placed each of us here, in this city, at this moment, on purpose.