For Such A Time As This

For Such A Time As This

Esther 4

Janice and I were newly married and I had taken a temporary job landscaping (something I knew nothing about) while I looked for a more permanent job. Winter was approaching and I really didn't want to be landscaping through the winter so I was desperately trying to find another job, and at some point I called a help wanted listing working for a oil heating company doing inventory in their warehouse. I talked to the owner, and after asking me a couple questions he asked me to call him after they had closed.

I was encouraged and called him shortly after 5pm expecting him to interview me on the phone or set up a time for me to come in and meet with him personally, but what I didn't expect was the question he immediately asked me when he got on the phone. “What do you want to do with your life?” What do you want to do with your life? As much as I wanted to job, I couldn't in good conscience say that my dream was counting inventory in an oil heating company. He was looking for someone who wanted to invest their life in the oil heating industry and he could tell I wasn't that person.

What do you want to do with your life? It's an excellent question and a question I think we all ask ourselves at some point. What do I want to be, what I want my purpose in life to be?

But I think a more important question to ask is: what does God want to do with your life?

What we want to do with our lives and what God wants to do with our lives may not be the same thing, and God's plan is always better! Esther comes to a turning point in her life in chapter 4. Up to this point she's been doing what she wants to do with her life. She has been queen for five years now, and that's how she plans to live out the rest of her days. But suddenly Mordecai confronts her with a different plan and asks her "And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Maybe this is what God had planned all along. Esther's plan for her life and God's destiny for her life collide and she has a choice to make: will it be my plan or God's plan? What does God want to do with your life?

This morning I believe God wants to remind us that He has a good plan for each of our lives. Jesus not only saved us from our sin, he saved us for his glory. He saved us so that we wouldn't have to settle for decent, or good, or even better, but we could have the best, like Joel reminded us last week. God has a pathway, a plan, a destiny for each of us to be instruments in His hands. Ephesians 2:10 says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Like Esther, God has a plan for you. Esther was called by God to make a difference in the kingdom, we are called by God to make a difference for the kingdom. God has prepared good works for you to do and those good works will make an eternal difference in lives. God has a destiny for your life.

Chapter four is a turning point in Esther's life because it's here that she learns of God's plan and destiny for her life and there are some spiritual steps here that we can apply to our lives as well as we seek God's plan and purposes for our lives. Destiny is a big word, and we can think that destiny's are made in big, decisive, life-changing steps - like the one Esther is facing. But the truth is, most of God's providential work in our lives, most of the good works He has prepared for us to walk in, are walked out in the ordinary, small steps of everyday life. Most of life isn't comprised of "giant steps", most of life is comprised of small steps and so God uses small steps as well as giant steps to work out His good plan in our lives. What does God want to do with your life? Here are three steps of God's providence that apply equally to our lives in the big moments and in the small moments.

1. God opens our eyes to the needs and opportunities around us

As chapter 4 opens, Esther really is clueless - she has no idea what was going on in the kingdom. Her people are facing extinction and she has no idea. It's not her fault - she has been insulated from what's going on because no bad or sad news was ever allowed to enter the kingdom - the king only allowed happy thoughts in his presence. Mordecai wasn't allowed in the kingdom gates because he was dressed in sackcloth and ashes - the Jewish symbol of deep sorrow and grief. There was desperate need all around her but she couldn't see it.

Chesty Puller is the most decorated Marine in American history. He fought in World War II and in the Korean War. When he was a commander in the Korean War at one point his unit was frontally engaged in a fire fight with a North Korean unit when word came to him that some of the enemy had slipped around to his right flank. A few minutes later, another scout brought the news that the enemy troops had also moved onto his left flank. Not long afterward news came that North Korean troops had also established a position behind Puller's unit - he was completely surrounded. When Puller heard this he said, "By God, they won't get away from me this time!"

We might wonder where is there a need or an opportunity that God wants me to see? The truth is we are surrounded by needs and opportunities - they are all around us! We forget that every person we meet is an eternal soul that needs Jesus and needs to hear about the amazing love of God that we've experienced firsthand.

Whether you're a school teacher, a carpenter, a stay at home mom, a businessman, an entrepreneur, or whatever, there are needs all around you - we need to ask God to open our eyes to see the needs AND the opportunities for the kingdom that surround us. Not that we're supposed to do everything or meet every need - and we'll talk more about that in just a minute - but it's easy to live insulated, self-absorbed lives that are unaware of both the needs and the opportunities that are all around us and what we need is for God to open our eyes to see beyond our front yard, beyond our own needs or interests.

There's a movie called Room. I haven't seen it and I'm not recommending it, but the premise is about a mom and her five year old son who are trapped in a 10 x 10 room. It's all the boy's ever known and as they plan a daring escape his mom tells him he's going to love it. He asks "what?" She says, "the world". God wants to break us out of the 10 x 10 rooms of our self-absorption and near-sightedness so that we can see the world from His perspective, seeing the needs and the opportunities that are all around us. Getting eyes that see the needs and opportunities around us is an important first step in walking in the destiny that God's planned for us. God wants to open our eyes to see the needs and opportunities.

2. God calls us to take action to meet a specific need or seize a specific opportunity

God knows that we can't do everything, so as He gives us better eyesight to see and care about what's going on around us, He then calls us to take action in a specific way. Word comes to Esther that Mordecai is dressed in sackcloth and ashes and it really rocks her world. She loves her cousin, he's been like a father to her, but notice that the first thing she tries to do is fix the problem without even knowing what the problem is. Look with me at verse 4: When Esther's young woman and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.

She doesn't even ask why Mordecai is in such sadness, she probably doesn't want to know. She just wants to make the problem go away - here, put on some new clothes. Sometimes we can do that - we see a need but don't really want to get involved. Esther chooses the easiest action to remedy the situation but Mordecai refuses to take off his sackcloth and ashes and that forces Esther to ask him what it is that has him so distressed. Mordecai tells her about the king's edict, even sends her a copy of it, but he doesn't stop there. Esther is probably ready to pray for her people but Mordecai goes a step further. He commands her to get involved, to use her position as queen to plead with the king for her people's lives. Esther protests that anyone who approaches the king without being called is put to death, unless the king holds out the golden scepter to that person. And the king hasn't called for her in 30 days. That implies that, for whatever reason, Queen Esther seems to have fallen out of favor with the king, which means this wouldn't be a good time to approach him uncalled for. To do what Mordecai is suggesting would be very dangerous. It could easily cost her her life.

Mordecai warns Esther that she can't insulate herself from this forever. We can't insulate ourselves from the problems and needs around us forever - eventually they will land at our doorstep. If Esther keeps silent God will raise up deliverance for the Jews some other way but He will bring judgment on Esther for remaining silent when she had the power to speak. But then Mordecai comes at it from a more positive angle: he appeals to her sense of faith and destiny. What if this is God's destiny for you? What if this is why God allowed you to become queen - not so you could live a peaceful, comfortable life, but so that you could make a life or death difference in millions of lives? Isn't that a better plan for your life? Could it be that what God wants to do in your life has perfectly intersected with what you wanted to do in your life?

A lot of times - maybe even most of the time - what God wants to do with our lives doesn't mean a change of location so much as it means a change of perspective. God has brought you to the place you're in right now, God brought you to the season you're in right now but maybe for a bigger reason than you are aware of. That bigger reason is the invisible work of God's providence but it doesn't happen automatically, it means getting involved in the work of the kingdom in a specific way. It means taking specific action and as we do, God guides us through that action into the destiny - the good works - that He has prepared for us to walk in.

This is where we need to be led by the Spirit because we can't do everything and the Lord doesn't call us to do everything. We need to say yes to some things, but we also need to say no to a lot of things. Jesus said no as often as he said yes. He left towns just as ministry was really exploding because the Father was calling him to the next town. It was physically impossible for Jesus to meet every need and so he had to be led by the Spirit, and the same is true of us - we need to be led by the Spirit. When we say "yes" to one need or opportunity, we're saying "no" to ten other needs or opportunities. "No" is as important in the Spirit-led life as "yes". There is no formula, rather the Lord invites us to be Spirit-filled, to walk in close relationship to the Father, listening for His directives and direction. These good works aren't about making us worthy to be God's children, He has already done that through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. These good works are the result of our being sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. If there is a formula - and it really isn't a formula - the ingredients are trust and obedience. Like the old hymn, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

As we seek to live a Spirit led life the Holy Spirit simply won't allow us to live in an insulated castle where we don't have to see or get involved in the needs or opportunities for ministry that are around us. When we follow Jesus, we follow him where people are, where needs are, where ministry opportunities are. We need to ask God to open our eyes to those needs and opportunities are and then ask the Lord to guide us in specific ways we are to get involved. But this brings us to a third step and it's the most decisive step of all:

3. We come to the crossroads of choice: will we choose God's plan for our lives or refuse God's plan for our lives?

Esther's eyes have been opened to the great need. She has been challenged - commanded - to take action, but now she comes to a major crossroads - a crossroads of choice. If she steps into God's destiny for her she will risk losing everything she has, her position as queen, the favor of the king, maybe even her life. There is a fork in the road between what she wants to do with her life and what God wants to do with her life and she must choose which road she'll take.

That doesn't mean she has the power to mess up God's sovereign purposes by choosing wrong. None of us have that power. God can and will raise up deliverance from another direction if Esther refuses to step into God's destiny for her. Her choice is whether she will be the instrument God uses or not.

I'm amazed at the power of our choices. The choices we make everyday have a tremendous effect on the trajectory, not only of our lives, but often of the lives of others around us. Sometimes we make huge choices, like the one that Esther has to make. But most of the time it's the small, daily, seemingly unimportant choices that really affect our destiny. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny."

Choices really change the trajectory of life in powerful ways. This small choice today leads us down a different path that then results in another choice tomorrow that then leads us down a different path again - and we find we're in a totally different place than if we hadn't taken that first, maybe small, choice.

Some might think that we can't miss God's plan for our lives, that God has sovereignly preordained everything we do. God's word teaches otherwise. Luke 7 writes this tragic epitaph over the religious leaders of Jesus' day: but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him [John the Baptist]. They couldn't stop the unstoppable purposes of God from rolling forward, but they rejected those purposes for their own lives. Esther, on the other hand, embraced God's purpose and plan for her life with a deep resolution. She calls upon Mordecai to lead the Jewish people into several days of fasting, and on the third day she will go into the king's presence. Some think that when she says "If I perish, I perish" she is fatalistically resigned to accepting the probability that her mission will fail and she will die. I don't think so. I think it is a statement of determination - she will step into what God is calling her to do and she is willing to give her life to that end if necessary. She's burning her boats - there's no turning back - she is going to trust God and if that means perishing, she is willing to die for what she believes in.

There is always risk in obeying the Lord - that's why we need trust. At the crossroads of choice we have to deal with fear and risk and what -ifs. But God is faithful and His plan for our lives is always best. Trust means believing that God can do a better job with our lives than we can. So we choose to trust God's path for us rather than our path for us. It might not mean a change of location or job or season of life, it might just mean a change of perspective: we are looking for, and choosing the good works that God has prepared for us to walk in.

Conclusion:

As we close I hope it's clear that this doesn't just apply to those major crossroads we face in life, this applies to every day of our lives. God's good plan for our lives is mostly walked out on our ordinary days. The destiny God calls us to is forged in the furnace of the small, every day choices we make. A sermon like this is only good if you know what to do with it. What action is this calling you to? Three possible places you can be:

1. God has been speaking to you about some specific action He wants you to take. It might be sharing the gospel with someone you know, helping out someone in need, or getting involved in a particular form of ministry. Maybe you don't know the next five steps, but you're pretty sure you know the next small step. If you feel the leading of the Holy Spirit, take that step. Commit yourself to God and choose to take the action He is putting on your heart. That choice is the most important step and I think you'll be amazed at what God unfolds as you obey Him.

2. Or maybe you don't feel like God has been speaking to you about any particular thing. Don't fret it. Esther was queen for five years before this moment came. God had been putting everything in place as she lived her life. What I mean is that your life is precious to God - not because you're always doing something "great" for God but because He loves you and has your life in His hands. Just do this: ask God to help you see more needs and opportunities around you. Ask Him to help you be more aware - not to be insulated from the needs of others and the ministry opportunities that surround us. There are people I admire that are always seeing and seizing opportunities to meet needs, to reach out to people, to befriend and care for others. They see opportunities that I miss because I'm too often in my 10 x 10 room. Ask God to help you see as He sees, and as you do, He will lead you to specific action steps to make a difference for Christ.

3. I want to talk to those who aren't followers of Jesus Christ. God has a plan and a destiny in mind for you too. He wants to do amazing things in your life and through your life. And all of that starts, not with your taking action, but by believing in the action that God has already taken on your behalf. Jesus came to save us because we needed saving and we couldn't save ourselves. He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins so that we would never need to. The first step God calls you to take is to simply believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. To ask him to be the Lord of your life. To restore you into a friendship with God again by forgiving and cleansing you of your sins. The Pharisees rejected that for themselves, don't reject Jesus for your life. Accept him now as your Savior. As I pray, pray with me.