South Iron Baccalaureate: Defining Moments that Determine Our Future

Intro:

Even though we are over a month late, graduation is an exciting time of the year. After over a decade of hard work, the school honors seniors with a graduation.

Baccalaureate is the church’s way of telling the seniors the local congregations of South Iron is proud of their accomplishment and will continue to pray for them.

Today, I want to share a message entitled, Defining Moments that Determine our Future.

Esther 4:14 NKJV

14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Every generation has something unique happen to them that defines them.

For my Grandparents, it was the Great Depression, the attack on Pearl Harbor and World War II. My Grandmother never did quite move beyond living like there was a depression.

For my parent’s generation, it was the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the turbulent decades of the 1960s and the war in Vietnam.

For my generation it was 9/11 and the war on terror. I can still remember the uneasy feeling in our country.

I cannot say with absolute certainty that COVID-19 and the problems plaguing our nation will define your generation, but I do know you have faced what many have not.

In the middle of March, our schedule was upended with a mandatory stay-at-home order. What was supposed to last a couple of weeks, lasted nearly three months.

End of the year activities, sports, banquets, awards ceremonies, and other events were canceled. Baccalaureate and Graduation were postponed.

And as we look at the situations in our nation, hope for the future seems dismal.

In times like these, I find it best to turn to scripture, as I always find an answer to my problems in the Word of God.

As I prayed for this service and studied what I should share, I was drawn to the story of a young woman, around the age of a Senior in High School named Esther.

Though she lived in a different country, with a different culture, her story mirrors what we face in our nation right now. She lived in a time of national upheaval. However, she had a defining moment that determined her future.

Let’s look at three events that determined her future, [A Defining Position], [A Defining Problem], and [A Defining Perception].

Let’s begin

1. A Defining Position

Esther lived in a time where many of God’s people lived in Persia. The king of Persia was named, Ahasuerus (A-Ha-Zju-A-Rus). He was a pretty tough and difficult person.

And after a series of events, he needed a new wife. All of the single women went to meet the king. One of the young women was named Esther.

From the outside looking in, she should not have been included. She was not Persian, she was Jewish. However, she concealed her ethnicity.

When the king saw her, he was immediately interested.

Esther 2:16–17 NKJV

16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Instantly everything in her life changed. She went from living as an outcast in society to becoming the wife of the king of the Persian Empire.

God’s hand was upon her life. However, at this point she did not fully comprehend the depths of God’s love for her and the way He planned to use her.

All she knew as in one defining moment, her position in life changed.

2. A Defining Problem

Not long after Esther became queen of Persia, something catastrophic happened. There was a man named Haman who had influence with the king.

The problem with his influence is he used it for evil. He hated Esther and her people. Therefore he conspired to have Esther’s entire race removed from the world.

Esther 3:13 NKJV

13 And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions.

Haman knew how to manipulate the system. He used his favor with the king to cause him to sign a binding law that would be difficult to revoke.

Furthermore, he selected the day before passover to remove Esther and her people by killing them. That would be like scheduling it on the day before Easter or Christmas.

Haman worked it to where the royal command would reach throughout the entire Persian empire, which covered much of the world.

Imagine being Esther or any other Jewish person upon hearing the news. They knew, unless the order was reversed, it would define the future.

However, God had a plan, and it happened when Esther had...

3. A Defining Perception

When the Jewish people heard their fate, they began to mourn, weep, wail, and bitterly cry. Esther had an uncle, Mordecai, who helped raise her.

He had a plan. He knew Esther was queen. He knew God was on their side. And He trusted that God would help Esther as she spoke to the king on behalf of the Jewish people.

Mordecai saw the potential in Esther. The problem was, she did not perceive herself as a person of power. Instead, she felt insecure, insignificant, and unable to do anything.

She was worried if she caught the king at the wrong time, he would have her killed. So she resorted to do nothing. But Mordecai was relentless.

He continued to send messengers to speak to her. After Esther explained why she could not help, Mordecai said something that shaped her personal perception.

Esther 4:13–14 NKJV

13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Mordecai helped Esther see the bigger picture. Once everyone found out she was Jewish, a fact she concealed, her fate would be the same as every other Jewish person, if Haman’s evil plot persisted.

However, Mordecai also revealed the depths of his faith. He believed God would protect His people. Then he asked a question, but could it be God brought you to the Kingdom for such a time as this?

In other words, could it be that God wants to use YOU, Esther?

He encouraged her not to belittle herself. Her circumstance was less than ideal. Her people faced horrendous problems. But something changed in her.

Upon hearing the words of Modecai, she had a perception change. She stopped viewing herself as less than, instead, she realized her significance in God’s plan for the future.

She made the decision to speak to the king, but she asked for her friends and family to pray for her. She concluded her conversation with Mordecai with simple, yet profound words, I will go to the king, and if I perish, I perish.

To make a long story short, the king was kind to her. What was mean to destroy Esther and her people was miraculously turned around and God spared their lives.

Close:

As I thought about this story, which I have read many times, it hit me, the defining moment in Esther’s life was not when she became queen.

The defining moment was not the problems that plagued her nations.

The defining moment that determined Esther’s future occured when her perception changed.

Once she stopped viewing herself in light of what she couldn’t do, and started thinking of what God would help her accomplish, everything changed.

And as I look across the Multipurpose Room this evening, I see seniors who will graduate on Saturday who are about to have a position change in their lives.

You are about to enter “the real world.” Some will enter the workforce, others will go to tech school, some will pursue higher education.

Regardless of what you will do, your position is about to change. But that is not the defining moment that will determine your future.

As we look at our nation, we find we do not have a shortage of problems. From a pandemic, to protests, to national unrest, we do not know what tomorrow holds. However, this is not the defining moment that will determine your future.

No, the moment that will determine you future is when you allow God to define you. Once we begin to view ourselves from God’s perspective, everything changes.

For I can say with 100% confidence, not one person here is an accident. YOU have been called FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS.

And the moment we understand God has a plan for our lives, then we can face tomorrow.

How then can we come to this defining moment?

The only was we can truly perceive ourselves from God’s perspective is to accept His Son as our Savior and surrender our lives and future to Him.

Proverbs 3:5–6 NKJV

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

When we believe and trust what Jesus promised:

John 3:16 NKJV

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Then we have a defining moment that will determine our future. If we will be ask the Lord to lead us and guide us, He will.

Some might wonder, how will it feel knowing God is leading and directing my life?

It means, He becomes the main character in the drama of our lives. He is always present, He is always available, and He will never leave us or forget us.

Interestingly, the book of Esther has ten chapters and 167 verses. If we were to read them out loud tonight, we would find God is not mentioned one time.

However, He is the main character of the story. He is the one who helped Esther and saved His people.

When we come to Christ, It is not as though we walk around everyday with a bible in one hand and a cross in the other, hoping people will know Jesus is with us.

No, when we allow Jesus to define us, He is always there.

Tonight, God wants to allow each of us to have a defining moment that will determine our future.

Current events to do not define us.

People’s opinions do not define us.

Our plans and dreams do not define us.

Only Jesus can define us, and He has already determined our futures. We must choose to ask Him to walk alongside us, and our future will look much clearer and more promising.