Hard Love #4 – Esther

Esther 4:13-16

Give text early

God has not called us to comfort, He has called us to combat

Faith is not just showing up, Faith requires stepping up

God if you’re still working, I’ll keep waiting

and today.. we will look to understand that

… Today we will look at the story of Esther. Our goal tonight will be to understand that… Your purpose takes courage because you are the only one that can do it.

intro thoughts; confession, only catholic part of me is my football allegiance, football pujols stll playing, I lilove Cincy reds but when they aren’t winning, I struggle to stay tuned in

ME:

In Major League Baseball, every year the teams chase each other for 162 games with the hopes of being one of the top teams that can then make a run for the World Series Championships during the fall months. On Oct. 18, 1977, the Yankees came out on top by winning the World Series best of 7 series 4 games to 2 with an 8-4 win behind the bat of Yankees slugger Reggie Jackson who smashed three home runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Perhaps even more incredible then that, the last 4 times that Reggie Jackson swung the bat that season all resulted in homeruns. These incredible feats earned him the moniker "Mr. October."

After the game, a commentator asked Reggie what it took to perform at such an incredible level in such high-pressure situations. Reggie’s reply was there is no pressure in Baseball, this is just a game we get paid to play. Real pressure is knowing you have 6 kids at home to feed and finding out that you just lost your job.

WE: Many times, pressure is caused by recognizing that there are things in life that only we can do. And the more that other people are going to be affected by how we manage those ideas, oftentimes increases the pressure. A lot of the ideas that only we can handle aren’t so pleasant. Sure, there are things life you can pay others to do, but for the most part we have to clean our own house, take out our own trash, brush our own teeth, wash our own face, and something happens inside of us when the things that only we can do continue to exist or pile up. We become overwhelmed, we become anxious, maybe even afraid. But in our story today we are going to consider the fact that Esther recognized that there was a task at hand and she was the only one who could see it through. We are going to consider how she handled it and see what we can learn from her experience and courage. We are going to consider the idea that

Your purpose takes courage because you are the only one that can do it.

GOD:

In our story this morning a King named Xerxes is ruler over all the land from India to Ethiopia in early 5th century B.C. He is throwing a feast and calls his queen, who is named Vashti, to come out to be with Him at the party. Vashti refuses to do so. Her refusal is seen as rebellion and it is determined that she should be replaced as queen. This sets the scene for the rest of the book and the story of Esther. In order to replace Vashti as queen we see the first ever season of the kingdom’s next top model. As the virgins of the kingdom are brought before the king, a young girl named Esther was selected by the King. Esther was a Jew, and to understand our story as we should, the king is not aware of this fact. Esther was the cousin of Mordecai, a man who would adopt her as his own after her parents died. Mordecai is not particularly popular with a man named Haman who works as an advisor to the king. Mordecai refuses to bow to Haman as other would, and so Haman gets the king to agree to kill all of the Jews. Word of this gets to Mordecai and he sends message to Esther to plea to the king for the sake of their lives. Esther replied to Mordecai that she could not come into the king without his request and that doing so could cost her life. We will pick up the text in Esther 4:13-16 to see Mordecai’s response.

Text: Esther 4:13-16

13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not imagine that you in the king's palace can escape any more than all the Jews.

14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"

15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,

16 "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish."

PRAYER

The story would end with Esther approaching the king, pleading her case, and the king saving the Jews. Just for good measure he went ahead and hung Haman for trying to kill everyone.

Mordecai posed the thought to Esther, maybe you were born for such a time as this?

Esther recognized the great magnitude of her purpose REPEAT, and when she understood this, her only recourse was to call for the people to pray and fast. She called out for a corporate dependency on God. The reason that we become discouraged or fearful, is that we minimize/diminish our purpose to something less than what it is. I don’t matter… what I do doesn’t matter... I don’t count… what I do doesn’t make a difference. We have self-talk like this and we think that the things that we do are insignificant in light of the glory of God. The enemy is happy when we do this because if we see our purpose as smaller or insignificant we then try to accomplish it our own. One of the enemy’s favorite things to do is isolate you. He wants you to miss church this week because he doesn’t want you to come in to a community of believers that might remind you about this God that you serve. Satan’s goal from the garden of eden was to cause us to believe that everything is small enough for us to manage, and that we are great enough to handle it in our own. There’s a good chance that you can take some of the problems in your life and trace the root of them back to the fact that somewhere in your life you believed that you were big enough, strong enough, or smart enough to handle them on your own. And it caused a self-dependency that left God outside the picture. REPEAT Your purpose takes courage because you are the only one that can do it.

YOU: Do you believe that God really has a purpose for you? I am sure of it. God created you for a specific purpose. God told Jeremiah the Prophet, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” You have a purpose. While ultimately it is to bring glory to him, within that mission I am sure that He has placed you here for specific people, specific places, and for different seasons of life. In our story today, Esther was the only Jew that had access to company with the king. And I’m sure that the love that she had established with him contributed to her ability to approach the throne. God had created a unique situation where only she could do what needed to be done and worked through her to accomplish His will. She had specific relationships, in a specific geographical area, in a specific time in history that made her capable of completing this task. 1 year later, 5 years earlier, or 500 miles away from where she was and suddenly this purpose would not have been completed through her.

WE: John Maxwell teaches that we should spend as much time doing what only we can do. I’m the only one that can be Allison’s husband… expound. I’m the only one that can be Wesley, Luke, and Ben’s dad. Most importantly I’m the only one that can fulfill the purpose that God designed me to fulfill. You might say that’s great Jonathan but being a husband, wife, mom, or dad doesn’t really seem as purposeful as saving a nation like Esther did. But consider this about Esther’s recognition of her task then let’s bring it back around to us. Esther recognized in this situation that not only was her life on the line, but the life of an entire nation. She recognized that the matter at hand was a spiritual matter over a physical matter and responded accordingly by asking the entire nation to join her in prayer and fasting for three days. Your purpose is that big as well. The problem is that we make a choice to ignore spiritual warfare, to ignore the bigger picture, to ignore the fact that God wants to use us in carrying out His will. In other words we minimize our role to stay in places of comfort and safety. God might not call each of us to save a nation, but let me ask you this morning, what one life isn’t worth saving? REPEAT He has a God sized plan for all of us, so we must quit diminishing it to some lesser thing that we think we can accomplish without God. Most of us are operating at just about a level where we can control what’s going on without needing God. Instead (we should treat every task he puts before us as significant in bringing glory to Him. When we do that we elevate our purpose and magnify our source of power.) (REPEAT)

PRAISE TEAM

RESPONSE:

We have a high and holy calling that naturally comes with some pressures. However, there is nothing like the presence of God to help us handle the pressures. As you understand what they are and why you are feeling these pressures, do not hesitate to take them to God. And by the way don’t worry about how your purpose compares to others. God doesn’t compare us to others, only we do that. (REPEAT) He created you to be you, and Your purpose takes courage because you are the only one that can do it.

That doesn’t mean that you might not be afraid, but let me offer a fresh spiritual perspective on how I think we should define courage. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it is the absence of self, so God take control. (REPEAT) Give him full control of your life today and watch him reveal the reality of the purpose He has designed you to fulfill.

song:

Lord I need you… this has been the most prominent confession in my life as of late. Jesus I need you, How we need you Jesus. Let me tell you this morning, if you don’t feel like you need him every day and every hour, I have to question if you are chasing after the God given purpose that He prepared for you. Proclaim your need for Him today, let your self-dependency give way to a trust in the one who wrote you story, and wants to see you fulfill it.

OR Blessed Assurance Jesus Is mine, Oh what a foretaste of glory divine, You are an heir of salvation, you have been purchased by God through the blood of Jesus. If you have given your life to Jesus you are born of the Holy Spirit of God who is now living inside of you. Church this is our story, that You have a blessed assurance, Jesus is yours and you are His. You’ve come to far to give up. He who spoke your story into existence is fairly to fufil it so don’t you give up now. Come and ask for a fresh outpouring of His spirit, pray for Him to renew your strength, Plead with the God of the universe to give you the courage to let go of control and hold on to the one that’s holding on to you. PRAY