sermonette: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Jarod Ritenbaugh
Given 29-Nov-25; Sermon #1848s; 13 minutes
In nature, there is a relationship that's closer and more trusting than about anything you can imagine. One, where two very different organisms come together for mutual benefit. It's called symbiosis or a symbiotic relationship. This can come in many different forms. One where one is actively harmed while the other receives benefit. And another where one gets more benefit than the other. But I want to focus on the mutually beneficial version of this relationship. Possibly the most recognizable example of mutually beneficial symbiosis is in the relationship between the clown fish and the sea aneey. The clonfish eats small invertebrates that are harmful to the enemy and provides nutrients with its fecal matter. In turn, the enemy protects the clonfish within its stinging cells, to which the clonfish is immune. Separate, they are vulnerable, but together they cover each other's weaknesses and keep each other safe. You can take my word for it, or you can go watch Finding Nemo and see this relationship in action. Now, we are going to take what feels like a complete turn into left field, but I want you to keep this idea of symbiosis in mind, as it will weave into my conclusion. I'm going to give you a little spoiler and tell you my purpose statement for this message. I want to examine our conduct. Especially our conduct when we live in a worldly setting, versus our conduct during our, what I'll call
Sabbath lives from here on out, meaning amongst brethren, on the Sabbath, at the feast. When we are out to dinner with brethren, you get the picture. Are you the same person on a Tuesday that you are on a Saturday? Is the person who mindlessly stumbles into work day after day, speaks with clients or coworkers the whole work day, and goes home, eats dinner, maybe works out, maybe spends time with their family or friends, the same person who shows up to church and interacts with their spiritual brothers and sisters. Maybe it's less mundane than that. Maybe after church, we go out, bar hop with our friends, party wildly. Well, mere hours ago we were sitting in church, putting on the good Christian facade. Before we move forward, I want to disclaim that there is nothing inherently wrong with either of those things as long as they are in moderation. My point lies in the inconsistency. So let's take a look at two characters from the Bible as an example of conduct amongst
the world. Both these people took very different approaches to it, and neither is wrong. But I want to focus on the consistency and how they presented themselves. They both lived in very worldly societies. They were both very much the oppressed minority for their beliefs at the time. And both were very prominent people in these societies. The first we are going to look at is Esther. We know her story well, so we will not be dwelling on that too much. I just want to take a look at a few scriptures to really get an idea of how she conducted herself and what the people around her thought of her. So if you would, please turn to Esther 2. We will start in verse 8, but we will be jumping throughout the book a little bit. So here we are. Esther 2, verse 8. So when the king's order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in Sousa, the citadel in custody of Hagai, Esther also was taken into the king's palace and put in the custody of Hagai, who I charge of the women. And the young woman pleased him and won his favor, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her portion of food and with the seven chosen young women from the king's palace and advanced her and her young woman to the best place in the harem. Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. And dropping down to verse 15, we will go through 17 verse 15. When the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abel, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter to go into the king, she asked for nothing except what Hagai, the king's Enoch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. And when Esther was taken to King Ha Hasherris into the royal palace in the 10th month, which is the month of Tebbeth, in the 7th year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. And then jumping over to chapter 4. Verse 11 is where we will start. We're jumping right into Esther speaking. All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces. Know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law to be put to death, except the one whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come into the king these 30 days. And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther. Do not think that to yourself that the king's palace in the king's palace, you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place. But you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to this kingdom for such a time as this. Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Sousa and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for 3 days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. And then finally, chapter 5, we will get 2 and 3. Here verse 2. When the king saw that Queen Esther was standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached, touched the tip of the scepter, and the king said to her, What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you, even to half my kingdom. Well, there is not a, a lot of obvious statements about her character in these verses, it's abundantly clear she was an incredible person. Everyone she interacted with absolutely loved her. Xerxes even offered half his kingdom if she wanted it. And all this without saying a single word of what she believed in until it was, there was no other choice. This is not to say she did not integrate into Persian society. It's pretty clear she attended these multi-day feasts with copious amounts of drinking and partying, but it's also clear she never let herself get swept away by it. We can go to Chapter 7 with her feast with Haman and Veres again. To see an example of that, but she never let herself lose control and allow her conduct to be compromised. So while she might have participated, her actions spoke for her, not her words, and they spoke louder than any words possibly could have. We'll not linger on Esther any longer, and we will move to our second character. And we will take a brief glance at Daniel, who notably marks the other side of the coin to Esther, which we will see in Daniel 6. We'll be jumping throughout the entire chapter and Daniel here. But we will start here in Daniel 6 verse 3. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and sat traps because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the sat traps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his
God. And then we will drop down to verse 14. We know Daniel continued to pray with the windows open 3 times a day. He gets caught. So starting here in verse 14, then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. He labored till the sun went down to rescue him, and these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and the Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you. And then dropping down. Verse 18. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him. Then at the break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions? Drop down, we will catch just verse 23. Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no harm was found on him because he had trusted in his God. And then finally, 25, we will read down through 27. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and languages that dwell in the in all the earth.
Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in all my royal domain dominion, people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is. the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed. His dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions. As the other side of the coin, Daniel did not hide his
faith, and he was persecuted for it. He unwaveringly stood firm and peacefully and consistently continued practicing his beliefs. And Darius loved him, even knowing those stark differences. Why, it says so again. Verse 3. An excellent spirit was in him. He was a great worker and I'm sure very pleasant to be around, and that drove the high officials and sack traps to jealousy when he succeeded. But God rewarded Daniel for staying the course by putting someone like Darius in charge, who cared greatly for him. We are to be
ambassadors for Christ. II Corinthians 5:20. Lights to the world, Matthew 5:14 to 16. And the way we do it best is not with our words, but by our actions. I said we'd get back to symbiosis. Here's where it comes back around. So many of us live our lives with a barrier between our conduct during the week and in our Sabbath lives. Sometimes we aren't the same person on a Tuesday that we are on a Saturday. Maybe it's even unknown to us. But others who see both sides of us do notice it. They see it as hypocrisy when our conduct slips, or we make a compromise and do something that we probably shouldn't or previously said we wouldn't. This is where we need to endeavor to create a symbiotic relationship with these aspects of our lives. When we go out into the world, we should be conducting ourselves as we would around our brethren, learning from that experience so that we can grow and improve ourselves, so that when we come back on the Sabbath, we can be better to our brethren. Meanwhile, while we are living our Sabbath lives, We should always be learning and growing to improve our conduct that we show to the world, to shine that light just a little bit brighter. We can sum all this up by reading one final passage in Romans 12. There is no need to turn there. I'll read it out since our my aforementioned turkey trout partner Bill was just here a couple of weeks ago. We could really read all of chapter 12 and 13, but we will only read verses 17 through 21. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought. To do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, with peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the
wrath of God, for it is written. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. We should always be growing in some way. And that is not just limited to showing up at church and treating our brethren with decency. But all people. We're not going to convince anyone that we are children of the Almighty God with our words, but we just might, with consistent conduct that we are always trying to perfect at every opportunity. Lights aren't loud, they shine.