A Time As This
Notes
Transcript
Reflect
Reflect
As we begin, I would ask for you all to pretend your whole life, full of decisions and actions and behaviors, thought and thought patterns, growth, mistakes, heartaches, and periods of success as well as failures is written down in a book.
Throughout your book or your autobiography, every action and every word and every thought is recorded.
As an assignment, you are now tasked to highlight the text where you made a decision to plant a seed, or say a word, or perform an action that led to someone else getting to know Jesus for the very first time, or maybe reminding someone long separated from the church about Jesus.
Now highlight the areas in your book that reflect a time period where you never felt closer, never felt more in the Word of God, never felt more strong in your prayer life or as close to God as you felt at that time.
Now, highlight the areas where you were not in the Word, and maybe leading a superficial prayer life, maybe not attending church as often as you could have.
I would ask now that you would compare these sections. Would you be proud of what you find? Would your book be filled with highlights of spiritual strength, of closeness to God, or more so of spiritual weakness and complacency?
Which are you proudest of? Which areas do you think would be pleasing to God?
Esther 4:1-12
Esther 4:1-12
As we dive into our main Scripture today of Esther chapter 4, let’s consider the context.
First, Esther opens with the search for a new queen after Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command.
But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command that was delivered by his eunuchs. The king became furious and his anger burned within him.
Based on the recommendations from his wise men and counselors, he made a decree that Vashti would no longer come to him or would be queen.
“If it meets the king’s approval, he should personally issue a royal decree. Let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be revoked: Vashti is not to enter King Ahasuerus’s presence, and her royal position is to be given to another woman who is more worthy than she.
I want you to note that this king has already shown his willingness to dismiss a queen who did not respond to his desires, or obey or comply with his requests.
The next point I want you to consider is that Esther (or Hadassah) is a Jew, the adopted daughter of her Jewish cousin, Mordecai, whose great grandfather, Kish, had been one of those taken as an exile from Jerusalem during King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in Babylon.
Esther was chosen for her beauty, and she gained favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her.
Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai who had adopted her as his own daughter. When her turn came to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women, suggested. Esther gained favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her.
Let’s pause just for a second here. If you are someone who seems to find favor of those you come in contact with, it’s not without divine purpose.
Consider that God may be setting you up for a specific task, a specific response from you at a specific time and place for a specific person or people.
In chapter 2, verses 16-18, we see the king loves Esther more than all the other women, and she wins FAVOR and APPROVAL from him.
He placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen.
He throws her a great banquet.
Things couldn’t be going any better.
Let’s ask ourselves: Are things just going so great in our lives right now? Do the stars just seem to be aligned and nothing is going wrong? We never knew life could quite be this good?
In chapter 3, we start to see Haman, the king’s right hand guy, become angered at Mordecai for not bowing down to him. He becomes so angry at one man he develops a plan for not only him, but all of his people to be massacred.
When Haman saw that Mordecai was not bowing down or paying him homage, he was filled with rage. And when he learned of Mordecai’s ethnic identity, it seemed repugnant to Haman to do away with Mordecai alone. He planned to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout Ahasuerus’s kingdom.
Now we come back to the main point of this sermon as Mordecai brings knowledge of the current climate to his cousin, his adopted daughter, now Queen Esther.
Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa ordering their destruction, so that Hathach might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and command her to approach the king, implore his favor, and plead with him personally for her people. Hathach came and repeated Mordecai’s response to Esther.
Esther’s first response to Mordecai: “Do you know what you are asking me to do?” “Do you really know what you are asking of me?” “Do you know what could happen to me if I do this?”
How many of us respond to God this way when He asks us to do something?
How many of us respond with “Do you really know what you are asking me to do?” “Do you know what that would do to me?” “I don’t think you know how that would impact me, God.” “God, you can’t be serious”. “God, that is not in my comfort zone.” “God that seems really inconvenient.” “What will others think or say?”
Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to tell Mordecai, “All the royal officials and the people of the royal provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner courtyard and who has not been summoned—the death penalty—unless the king extends the gold scepter, allowing that person to live. I have not been summoned to appear before the king for the last thirty days.” Esther’s response was reported to Mordecai.
Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”
Perhaps some of you were born for such a time as this.
Perhaps some of you were born to fill the church’s need right now.
Perhaps some of you were born to touch a child’s life in youth ministry right now when they need YOU to be there the most.
Perhaps you were born for the men’s or women’s ministry right here and right now.
Maybe you are here at this moment in time to lead in caring for the homeless, the widows, the orphans, or go to the prisons, or to the non-English speaking immigrants we so kindly and gently welcome, or to the addicts, or to the sexually immoral community.
Maybe you’re hesitant like Esther because of the possible outcome. Maybe fear has caused you to take pause. Maybe it seems a little larger than you think you are capable.
Let’s see Esther’s final response.
Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my female servants will also fast in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law. If I perish, I perish.” So Mordecai went and did everything Esther had commanded him.
She says “Go and fast for me”.
She says “I and my servants will fast.”
She says “I’ll go into the dangerous and the unknown”.
She says “I’ll go even if it is against the law”.
She says “If I perish, I perish.”
When Is It Your Time?
When Is It Your Time?
Is this YOUR time?
Is God asking YOU to move?
Or maybe He is asking you through your church leaders. Is there a need in your church that is being neglected and no one else is stepping up to the plate?
Maybe someone else is waiting for you to make a move, to step up, to lead the way, and others will follow.
Maybe it’s not the ideal ministry.
Maybe you already feel tired or exhausted from work, from family, from already participating and feeling you are “already doing too much”.
Let me assure you, there is no such thing as doing “too much” for Jesus Christ.
The word or concept of “burnout” should not exist in the kingdom God has brought us into.
Yes, we can get tired, and yes, we will have periods of needing a short break or rest, but we should never step out for prolonged periods.
The Body needs you, right here, right now.
Who knows? Maybe perhaps, you have come to your position, this place, for such a time as this.
