The Importance of One
Notes
Transcript
One tree can start a forest
One smile can begin a friendship
One hand can lift a soul
One candle can wipe out darkness
One laugh can conquer gloom
One touch can show you care
One life can make a difference
Be that one today!
I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the Something I can do.
(Edward Hale)
History clearly shows that one person can make a difference in the world. It’s not rare for a single individual to have a significant impact through extraordinary opportunities, actions, and/or situations.
While the question is on the right track, there shouldn’t really be any doubt as to whether or not a person can make a difference in the world. The basic principle of cause and effect would suggest that simply existing alters the shape of your environment.
Sir Nicholas Winton
Sir Nicholas Winton was named by CBS News as “proof that one person can make a difference.” Winton’s remarkable actions saved 669 children from the horrors of the Holocaust. He never sought recognition for his efforts and it wasn’t until 50 years later that his heroism was uncovered by the BBC.
Winton was a London stockbroker before the outbreak of the Second World War, but nothing about his personal finances or career made him any more suited for saving children from Nazi Germany than anyone else at the time.
His efforts began after he planned to take a ski trip to Switzerland. As fate had it, he altered his plans to visit a friend in Prague who was working with the British Committee for Refugees. His friend showed him the conditions of the refugees. He was so struck by what he saw that he set up an organization to find families and housing for the children fleeing Germany.
From a humble office situated at a dining room table in a hotel, Winton was able to successfully coordinate the rescue of 669 children. Among the children, many would grow up to become notable mathematicians, politicians, filmmakers, authors and more. His willingness to take action had profound effects on the lives of these children as well as society as a whole. His contributions will be felt for generations to come.
David Brainerd: Pioneering a Legacy in Missions
Born in 1718, David Brainerd was one of the first missionaries to translate and carry the good news of Jesus to the Native Americans of New Jersey in their own language until the day of his death in 1747. His faith and passionate pursuit of God’s holiness has inspired countless missionaries such as William Carey, Adoniram Judson, and Jim Elliot. His story is still being told today to rekindle the beating heart of missions that every Christian should have: That the love of God would be made known to every lost soul on earth.
The purpose of Esther is to demonstrate the providence of God
Providence – from the Latin “videre”; means “to see before”. Speaks of God’s divine intervention in the affairs of men.
He might be out of our sight, but we are never out of His
“Behold He who keeps Israel shall never slumber nor sleep.” Psalm 121:4
“My Father has been working until now and I have been working.” John 5:17
Sometimes God’s Hand is unmistakably evident
Moses
Moses
Met Moses at the burning bush
Parted the Jordan River for
Joshua
Joshua
Appeared in
Mary’s manger
Appeared in
Mary
Mary
manger
While the name of God is not found directly in Esther, His work is seen on every page of Esther.
Consider the following occurrences which at face value appear to be inconsequential:
• Vashti refuses to be “displayed” at the banquet.
• The king begins the process of “interviewing” for a new queen.
• Esther is an orphan being raised by her uncle.
• Mordecai “by chance” discovers a treasonous plot to kill the king.
• Haman listens to the counsel of his wife and friends on how he may vindicate his honor..
• The king tries to deal with his insomnia by reading the court minutes.
Each of these seemingly insignificant details is essential in the development and outcome of the plot.
Each key figure in the narrative has their true character increasingly revealed and solidified as they face difficult decisions
In the Esther narrative, as in all of history, God’s providence is carried out through an act or decision performed by an individual. The decisions made by people are decisions which are agreeable to their nature, character and wishes.
Vs14—
The verse is spoken by Mordecai to Esther, when urging her to her perilous patriotism. He sees that if she selfishly refuses to identify herself with her people, in their calamity, the wave that sweeps them away will not be stayed outside her royal dwelling;
— he knows too much of courts to think that she can stand against that burst of popular fury should it break out.
But he looks on as a devout man believing God’s promises, and seeing past all instruments; he warns her that ‘deliverance and enlargement shall arise.’ He is no fatalist; he believes in man’s work, therefore he urges her to let herself be the instrument by which God’s work shall be done. He is no atheist; he believes in God’s sovereign power and unchangeable faithfulness, therefore he looks without dismay to the possibility of her failure. He knows that if she is idle, all the evil will come on her head, who has been unfaithful, and that in spite of that God’s faithfulness shall not be made of none effect. He believes that she has been raised to her position for God’s sake, for her brethren’s sake, not her own.
‘Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’ There speaks the devout statesman, the court-experienced believer. He has seen favourites tended and tossed aside, powerful and beheaded, kings half deified and deserted in their utmost need. Sitting at the gate there, he has seen generations of Hamans go out and in; he has seen the craft, the cruelty, the lusts which have been the apparent causes of the puppets’ rise and fall, and he has looked beyond it all and believed in a Hand that pulled the wires, in a King of Kings who raiseth up one and setteth down another.
So he believes that his Esther has come to the kingdom by God’s appointment, to do God’s work at God’s time. And these convictions keep him calm and stir her.
We may find here a series of considerations having a special bearing on this missionary work.
Use our God-given position for God’s glory.
Use our God-given position for God’s glory.
In most general terms.
- No man has anything for his own sake-no man liveth to himself. We come to the kingdom for others. Here we touch the foundation of all authority; we learn the awful burden of all talents, the dreadful weight of every gift.
—No man receives the Gospel for his own sake. We are not non-conductors, but stand all linked hand in hand. We are members of the body that the blood may flow freely through us. For no loftier reason did God light the candle than that it might give light. We are beacons kindled to transmit, till every sister light flashes back the ray.
— Our position in the world is for the conversion of the world. We are set to be the ‘light of the world.’
Like the Lord we must go to the wanderers, we must find them as they lie panting and thirsty in the wild wilderness. Therefore Christian men must make special earnest efforts or the work will not be done. They must be as the ‘dew that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.’
For such a Time as this!
For such a Time as this!
‘Such a time as this!’ Was there ever such a time?
If we neglect the voice of God’s providence, harm comes on us.
If we neglect the voice of God’s providence, harm comes on us.
When you have a ‘Christian’ nation not using their position for God’s glory, they are using it for their own sakes; and that indicates a state of mind which will lead to numberless other evils in their relation to men, many of which have a direct tendency to rob them of their advantages.
The history of the Jewish people is not an exception to the laws of God’s government of the world, but a specimen of it. When they began to think that they had the truth in order that they might be different from other people, and forgot that they were different from others in order that they might first preserve and then impart the truth to all, lost the light and heat of it, stiffened into formal hypocrisy and malice and all uncharitableness, and then the Roman sword smote their national life in twain.
Whatever is not used for God becomes a snare. Whatever stands in the way will be mowed remorselessly down, if need be. Helps that have become hindrances will go. The kingdoms of this world will have to fall; and if we are not helping and hasting the coming of the Lord we shall be destroyed by the brightness of His coming.
Though we be unfaithful, God’s purpose shall be accomplished.
Though we be unfaithful, God’s purpose shall be accomplished.
‘Deliverance and enlargement shall arise from another place.’ He loves the heathen better than we do. Christ has died for us! The Gospel is fit for all men. The Gospel is preached to all men.
This is as certain as the efficacy of a Saviour’s blood can make it, as certain as the power of a Comforter who shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment can make it, as certain as the misery of man can make it, as certain as the promises of God who cannot lie can make it, as certain as His faithfulness who hangs the rainbow in the heavens and enters into an everlasting covenant with all the earth can make it.
Consider what God accomplishes in the account of Esther. Meek little Esther pushes for a one day extension for the execution of the Gentile anti-Semites until finally 80,000 are killed!
Only God could allow Medo-Persian Gentiles to pass a law which would permit captive Jews to legally kill 80,000 Gentiles who were anti-Semitic. Think of it, a pagan king allows Jews in his kingdom to legally round up and execute every known enemy of theirs.
The truly amazing thing is how God did it. He brought it to pass by first allowing an irrevocable law to be passed that called for a total Jewish genocide (3:13). But God turned the tables, and He did so through a Jewish orphaned virgin whom He brought to the throne of a world empire.
The first decree that called for the destruction of the Jews was necessary in order to bring out of the woodwork every enemy of the Jews. The second decree reversed the whole situation in a moment of time, for suddenly the victims become the judges.
Only those who believed in the God of Scripture understood the might of God’s providential dealings. Both Mordecai and Esther understood that God had ordained her rise to queen in order to rescue the Jewish nation from its bitter enemies (See 4:13,14).
Decide for yourself, what share you will have in that marvellous day. Let your work be such as that it shall abide. Work for God abides and outlasts everything beside, and the smallest service for Him is only made to flash forth light by the glorifying and revealing fires of that awful day which will burn up the wood, the hay, and the stubble, and flow with beautifying brightness and be flashed back with double splendour from ‘the gold, the silver, and the precious stones,’ the abiding workmanship of devout hearts in that everlasting tabernacle which shall not be taken down, the ransomed souls builded together, ransomed by our preaching, and ‘builded up together for a temple of God by the Spirit.’