Divine Opportunity

5/8/04 and 5/9/04

In our lives we are given opportunities to do something significant for God and the world He placed us in. It is our first service in part of our new sanctuary and mother’s day weekend. It is a fitting time to look at the story of the book of Esther. Let’s look at her story and then see how it relates to each of us.

Someone has said, “Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.

Are we ready for a Divine Opportunity if God where to give it to us? Are we preparing personally and as a church to meet the opportunities God gives us?

Introduction

The story of Esther takes place about 480 years before the birth of Jesus in the Persian Empire. You may recognize that place; it is the modern country of Iran just across the river from Basra, Iraq. The people of Judah are in captivity in Persia because of their disobedience.

King Ahasuerus is having a long banquet/party to show off all of his stuff. He drinks too much wine and decides to have his beautiful wife, Vashti, show up to show off her beauty and make him look good. (Her name meant “beautiful woman”.) She is busy and wants no part of the drunken monarch. She tells him no way is she coming. So all of the brave men of the kingdom advise Ahasuerus to do something about this or else all of the women in the kingdom will revolt against their husbands! So he passes a law and banishes her from his presence. He doesn’t know what to do for a new queen so they have an idea to select virgins from all over the kingdom, get them ready for a year and then bring them to the king one by one until he finds his queen. The king says, “I LIKE THAT IDEA”!!!

This is where Hadassah, Esther comes in. She is a Jewish orphan living with her cousin, Mordecai. She is taken to the king and she is the one he selects. She is called in the Bible; “lovely in form and features”.

“Trouble arises when Mordecai refuses to honor Haman, a high Persian official. Rather than punish Mordecai alone, Haman plans a vendetta against all the Jews. At his suggestion, the king condemns all Jews to death on 13 Adar (the twelfth month), but Mordecai urges Esther to plead for their lives before the king. Curious twists of plot soon snare the unlucky Haman in his own conspiracy. When Ahasuerus finds Haman romancing Queen Esther, the king has him hanged on the very gallows Haman has erected to execute Mordecai. Under Persian law even Ahauserus himself cannot repeal his edict against the Jews. So, at Esther’s urging, the king decrees that on 13 Adar the Jews may defend themselves.” That is how we got the holiday Purim. That holiday was March 4th of this year. Mordecai is promoted and God’s people prevail.

-That is the story, how does it relate to you and I?

1. Everyone is given a divine opportunity

-The one thing you know if you see a turtle on a fencepost, he didn’t get there by himself. Someone else placed him there.

-We have DIVINE PLACEMENT for some reason.

Acts 17

26 /From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ [1] /

-God gave Esther an appealing face and figure. She had nothing to do with that.

-We should complement people for character and hard work, not things that God gave them like beauty or brains.

-We are supposed to recognize our talents and gifts as from God and use them to help others.

-Esther’s position allowed her to use her influence to save others.

Esther 4

12 /When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” [2] /

-Mordecai was saying that help was coming from God somehow. Esther could choose if she was to be the vessel of God’s deliverance.

-All of us have an influence. All of us have a calling.

-You as an individual have a world that God wants to use you in.

-As a church we have been placed by God in a position of influence in East Central Missouri.

-That is true for all of us as a body.

-We are here on time and on purpose. God is up to something and I want to be a part of it.

-I want this church to bring a smile to God’s face.

-The Bible says; Find out what pleases the Lord.

-There is just no telling what God is going to do in the next several decades with some of those we influence as a church.

-There is a door that God opens that no man can shut.

-Remember, Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.

2. Seeking God Diligently Aligns you with His Plan

Esther 4

/1When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. 2 But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. 3 In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes. [3] /

15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa/, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” [4] /

-Even though Mordecai told Esther to go see the king, they both knew that only God could help.

-He will use a channel to change circumstances but He is the source.

Psalm 20

1 May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;

may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

2 May he send you help from the sanctuary

and grant you support from Zion.

3 May he remember all your sacrifices

and accept your burnt offerings. Selah

4 May he give you the desire of your heart

and make all your plans succeed.

5 We will shout for joy when you are victorious

and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the Lord grant all your requests.

6 Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;

he answers him from his holy heaven

with the saving power of his right hand.

7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. [5]

-In order for you and I to reach our potential individually and as a church, we must seek the Lord diligently.

-We have been very busy and distracted with the building.

-I want us to begin to set aside some time to fast and pray while we seek God.

-We are having a church-wide fast in the fall. We may have more as well.

-I recognize how easy it is to slip into the automatic pilot mode.

-God’s purpose is much bigger than a nice facility and a new building.

-Esther made sure that she had sought the Lord before she asked the king.

-Your solution is first heavenly, then earthly.

3. It is going to take Courage

-Esther knew that she wasn’t to appear before the king unless invited.

-If you entered the king’s presence and he didn’t stretch out the scepter to you; you were dead. Literally.

-Every step you take will take courage.

-Traveling overseas takes courage.

-Reaching out to people takes courage.

Esther 4

/I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” [6] /

-Don’t be a criminal, do be a radical.

During his years as premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin. Once, as he censured Stalin in a public meeting, Khrushchev was interrupted by a shout from a heckler in the audience. "You were one of Stalin's colleagues. Why didn't you stop him?"
"Who said that?" roared Khrushchev. An agonizing silence followed as nobody in the room dared move a muscle. Then Khrushchev replied quietly, "Now you know why."

Today in the Word, July 13, 1993.

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.

Eddie Rickenbacker, Bits & Pieces, April 29, 1993, p. 12.

-I’m sure we will face some challenges in the future.

Hebrews 10

38 But my righteous one c will live by faith.

And if he shrinks back,

I will not be pleased with him.” d

/39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. [7]/

4. Our Future is Bright!

-Your future is so bright in God that it blinds your eyes.

· There is a Haman spirit in the land

-This is the anti-Christ/anti-Christian attitude.

-The Jews have always experienced that.

· Your enemies are in God’s hands

-Don’t be overcome by evil, overcome evil with good.

-For those who please the Lord He is able to make even their enemies to be at peace with them.

-If God is for us, who can be against us.

-God surrounds the righteous with favor as with a shield.

-Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews prevailed.

-Haman was hanged from his own gallows.

-What satan means for evil can be used for good.

-He prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

-I have decided to live the rest of my life completely positive.

-CNN and the news is wearing me out.

-I want to be filled with the joy of an optimist instead of the despair of a pessimist.

The winner glories in the good; the whiner majors in the mediocre. Winners' thinking processes differ from other people's. As part of their normal, moment-to-moment stream of consciousness, winners think constantly in terms of I can and I will. Losers concentrate their waking thoughts on...what they should have done...would have done...what they can't do. When the mind's self-talk is positive, performance is more likely to be successful. The huge majority of our negative doubts and fears are imaginary or beyond our control.

Denis Waitley.

-I want to be a winner instead of a whiner.

I read about a schoolboy who brought home his report card. It was heavy with poor grades. "What have you to say about this?" asked his father. "One thing for sure," the boy replied, "Dad, you can be proud. You know I haven't been cheating!"

Morning Glory, August 12, 1993

Two boys who were twins, one an incurable optimist, one a pessimist. The parents were worried about the extremes of behavior and attitude and finally took the boys in to see a psychologist. The psychologist observed them a while and then said that they could be easily helped.

He said that they had a room filled with all the toys a boy could want. They would put the pessimist in that room and allow him to enjoy life. They also had another room that they filled with horse manure. They put the optimist in that room. They observed both boys through one way mirrors. The pessimist continued to be a pessimist, stating that he had no one to play with. They went to look in on the optimist, and were astounded to find him digging through the manure. The psychologist ran into the room and asked what on earth the boy was doing. He replied that with all that manure, he was sure there had to be a pony in the room somewhere.

Source Unknown.

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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ac 17:26). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Es 4:12). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Es 4:1). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[4]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Es 4:15). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ps 20:1). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[6]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Es 4:16). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

c One early manuscript But the righteous

d Hab. 2:3,4

[7]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Heb 10:38). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.