For Such A Time As This

Peter Voorhees

Longing for a Savior • Sermon • Submitted 10 months ago • Presented 10 months ago

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You are where you are because God is in the shadows, guiding and directing your life. God is in control and He’s placed you in your location for such a time as this because there is something for you to do. There are people for you to minister to, lives for you to touch, and work for you to do. Nothing is accidental to the child of God. Even if your situation seems difficult, the Lord has you right where He wants you to be. He has you right where you are “for such a time as this,” for the sake of the kingdom. Esther’s dilemma is at some time the dilemma of us all: circumstances hem us in and demand that we commit ourselves to act courageously and exercise faith.

Notes

Transcript

Cultural Conversations (Sexuality):

July 30 from to 4 to 5pm we are starting conversations around the things that are “in our face” on a regular basis and we are looking at how we as followers of Jesus are encouraged to think about these things based on the word of God.

As we approach our discussion on sexuality we have to completely reframe the conversation. Many in the sexuality conversation, especially Christians, are approaching this conversation in the wrong way. We have to completely reframe how we are talking and looking at this… in fact I will argue we have to look at it biblically, and often times the church as a whole (specifically thinking of the American church) we have not done well.

The question of sin or not sin is not the question (or at least it shouldn’t be)… that will become clear on its own, it’s a matter of our own soul formation and being formed into the image of Jesus.

“Although sexuality presents an enormous challenge to Christians and to the world at large, it is not a problem to be solved but a territory to be reclaimed.”

– Dr. Juli Slatterly from Rethinking Sexuality pg. 9

These times together we will be looking at who God made us to be. Sexuality is part of the image of God in the way that he made us (male and female), but also how sin has distorted and perverted God’s intent.

“I want to address sexuality as an almost universal human experience that unites us, rather than as something that divides us into multiple different groups.” - Ed Shaw

Jesus prayed that his people would be unified, one. For the follower of Jesus, our sexuality should not divide us but unite us.

The format is an hour long… 20min of Bible, 15-20min of table conversation, and then 20-25min of Q&R

The topics are 1. Why is talking about sexuality so difficult? 2. What is sexuality for? 3. How does the Biblical view of sexuality help us? 4. What does God do to help us?

Introduction

We are continuing our series “Longing for a Savior”.

We are awaiting and longing for Jesus to return… to fully bring to pass that prayer that we have prayed from The gospel of Matthew 6, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.”

Just as we are longing for Jesus to come back and set things right and good, there are those that were looking for Jesus to come… they didn’t know His name, but they called him Messiah, the annointed one. They had these scriptures that God spoke through the prophets, psalmists, and writings saying He would come.

There is a lot for us as we have our Old Testament. Anyone who says we don’t need it, doesn’t know what they are talking about.

We are in the book of Esther again this morning looking at chapters 3-4.

Pastor Josh did a phenomenal job leading us into the book and discussing some really difficult topics in setting us up well in understanding the book and its purpose.

I wanted to show us again the literary design of the book to help us understand some of the larger implications as to what is happening.

Pastor Josh helped us using terminology that we use in our vernacular today to understand the gravity as to what is taking place.

Esther is being sexually trafficked by the King of the Persian empire Ahasuerus/Xerxes. She’s objectified and her only value is her beauty in the eyes of the kingdom.

It would be easy to assume and ask, where is God? He’s not mentioned at all in this book.

The book of Esther takes place 100 years after the return of the Jews to Israel after the reign of the Babylonians… where is God. He can deliver them out of Babylon, where is he in Esther?

That’s why we have this book… this is why we have the book of Job… we are given a glimpse in the most impossible situations where we can’t see God… but this book is given to us that we might have hope. Though we can’t see him, he is there...

There are people for you to minister to, lives for you to touch, and work for you to do. Nothing is accidental to the child of God. Even if your situation seems difficult, the Lord has you right where He wants you to be. He has you right where you are “for such a time as this,” for the sake of the kingdom.

If you have your Bibles, or on your devices, would you stand with me as I read Esther 4:13-17

Esther 4:13–17 CSB

Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.” Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my female servants will also fast in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law. If I perish, I perish.” So Mordecai went and did everything Esther had commanded him.

This is the word of the Lord… let us pray… amen… you may be seated.

Thus far in my life… which I think has been half-lived… I’ve come to one thing that I know, that I know… and it is that God is good. Through even some of the most difficult moments in my life, I know that God is good. I’ve seen it, like I see myself in the mirror. It doesn’t mean life hasn’t had its hard moments… it doesn’t mean that the “why?” question has come up… but I know that I know that God is good.

Which way to choose in difficult decisions… my life has been full of them… some great choices and some have been really hard choices that are still playing out. I don’t know how they’ll turn out.

When I felt God calling me into vocational ministry… not hard

When I had different choices of what to do or where to embark on ministry opportunities… hard at the time.

Health issues with my family… tough

Ministry decisions… some have been no brainers… others I’m still in the midst seeing if it will work out

Relationship decisions… some have been really difficult and others not so much. There comes a time when relationships are just supposed to end. You become grateful for what they were, but you realize it is no longer that, and you move forward. Not easy, but necessary.

Maybe you can relate? There are things you know that you know… and based on that information you are able to filter choices, decisions, and actions through that knowledge… then you might encounter situations where you don’t know what is going on.

It might even challenge what you thought you knew… what do we do with that?

GOD

At the beginning of chapter 3… Haman who is an Agagite is promoted to a position higher than all the officials of the land, he’d become second in command to the king.

By royal decree, everywhere that Haman went, the people were to bow down in homage to Haman for what the king had done for him.

But as he would walk about the city, he would come to the King’s gate where Mordecai was… and like his predecessors in Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Mordecai would not bow down.

This infuriated Haman, so prideful and pig-headed, and so he sought and planned to destroy every Jew within the Persian Kingdom Esther 3:5-6

Esther 3:5–6 (CSB)

When Haman saw that Mordecai was not bowing down or paying him homage, he was filled with rage. And when he learned of Mordecai’s ethnic identity, it seemed repugnant to Haman to do away with Mordecai alone. He planned to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout Ahasuerus’s kingdom.

And then he brings it to the king to make it official… Esther 3:8-11

Esther 3:8–11 (CSB)

Then Haman informed King Ahasuerus, “There is one ethnic group, scattered throughout the peoples in every province of your kingdom, keeping themselves separate. Their laws are different from everyone else’s and they do not obey the king’s laws. It is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. If the king approves, let an order be drawn up authorizing their destruction, and I will pay 375 tons of silver to the officials for deposit in the royal treasury.”

The king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. Then the king told Haman, “The money and people are given to you to do with as you see fit.”

Genocide… trafficking… God where are you? God do you not see?

Letters went out that on the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month, all officials were to destroy, kill, and annihilate ALL the Jewish people.

**Sidenote: Haman descended from the Agagite people. These people were at war with the Israelites back in Saul’s day. The Agagite is reminiscent of 1 Samuel 15, where Saul is reprimanded for sparing King Agag, leader of the Amalekites against whom he was fighting.

Samuel told Saul to kill all the people, but he left one… the king. Would they have been in this predicament had Saul done what God commanded? Are there things that God calls us to kill within our lives that maybe we hold onto and later becomes a Haman in our life? Anger, lust, greed, pride, that relationship that brings us down…

There had been enmity between Israel and Amalek since Amalek attacked at Rephidim (Ex. 17:8–16; cf. Dt. 25:17–19; 1 Ch. 4:43), before the Israelites reached Sinai. But if Mordecai was of the family of Saul, who failed to fight Agag to the death, by contrast in the recapitulation of the battle Mordecai would not fail or weaken. lxx translates Agagite as ‘bully’, so adapting the text freely for Greek readers. (Cf. 9:24, where lxx for Agagite has ‘Macedonian’.)

There is another dimension to Haman’s link with Amalek, who ‘did not fear God’ (Dt. 25:18). ‘Amalek’s was an act of defiance, predicated on the denial of God’s existence, the assumption that chance alone dominates the universe … and so [was] that of Haman, a thousand years later.’ Mordecai shares certain ‘coincidental’ similarities with Saul in that his forefather is called Kish and confronts the Agagite as Saul did.

Baldwin, Joyce. G. (1984). Esther: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 12, pp. 71–72). IVP

Chapter 3 ends with the entire city confused as to what is going on.

Chapter 4 Haman gets word and starts to mourn, puts on sackcloth and ashes upon himself and prays, weeps bitterly. The Jewish people fasted, wept, lamented, and were visibly distraught.

**Then he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. These customs are referred to at widely separated periods in the Old Testament (e.g. Gn. 37:34; 2 Sa. 1:11; Is. 3:24; Dn. 9:3) and are practised by other nations (Is. 15:3; Ezk. 27:30–33) as well as by Israel. Indeed the Persians of Xerxes’ time in Susa are recorded as having torn their clothes in unappeasable grief after their defeat at Salamis. Mordecai was therefore behaving in a way which was in keeping with local practice as well as with Jewish custom in tearing his garments.

Baldwin, J. G. (1984). Esther: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 12, pp. 76–77). InterVarsity Press.

Esther’s attendants saw Mordecai, reported it to her, and she no doubt thought he was robbed or taken advantage of… so she sent him clothes (she had no idea what was about to happen).

There is then this interchange between Mordecai and Esther… and it culminates in our text we read this morning.

Mordecai urges Esther to go and approach the king. To the one who can do something about this.

This could mean death… we’re given a cultural understanding here is that if anyone comes into the court the king doesn’t approve of, it could mean death.

So Esther is facing possible death entering in to the king’s presence without being summoned.

Mordecai tells her, you’re facing death either way… you think you’ll be spared when they find out you too are a Jew?

This statement of bold faith… “Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”

Christian Standard Bible (Es 4:14). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.

For such a time as this… think about that the next time you have God prompt your heart. We are here for such a time as this. Who knows what God won’t do… if we would just step out. If we would take that risk. If we would stand up for that person. If we would advocate for them over there. If we took a stand when everyone else seems to cave.

ILLUS: Mentoring and advocating for Biblical ethics with sex and hooking up in HS

Who knows… for such a time is this… you might be here.

Church, as I look at our elders and those who love us and serve us… for the last ten years as we have encountered things with the church and leadership, I’m in awe of how God has handpicked each one. They are what we needed when we needed them. Not perfect, but by far great for what God had for us.

Think through this next time God moves on your heart… at work, at home, with friends, out running errands. Who knows what God won’t do.

Because Mordecai knows, and Esther is learning… “God’s deliverance will come” … it will be by you or someone else, but there is a plan and God’s plan will not be thwarted.

** It reminds me of Joseph, sold off into slavery by his brothers, but it was this evil act that God used to preserve His people in famine and drought. Joseph, by God’s grace, would be elevated only second to Pharoah but we be used of God to take care of his family and therefore the Israelites. Gen 50:20

Genesis 50:20 (CSB)

You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.

Doesn’t it also remind you of Jesus. Satan in the garden of Gethsemane thinking he won… but though the serpent would bruise the heal of the Son of God, He would crush the head of the wicked serpent. Gen 3:15

Genesis 3:15

I will put hostility between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring.

He will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.

Esther catches the vision… and no doubt emboldened by the truth that Mordecai, says, “I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

YOU

You are where you are because God is in the shadows, steering the ship of your life. God is in control and He’s placed you in your location for such a time as this because there is something for you to do.

Esther’s dilemma is at some time the dilemma of us all: circumstances hem us in and demand that we commit ourselves to act courageously and exercise faith. There are three lines to Mordecai’s argument.

i. Esther herself will not be exempt from destruction under the edict, so in any event her life is in danger.

ii. Mordecai reveals his own conviction that God will not permit the extinction of his people. If Esther fails, God will have another way of saving the Jews, but Esther and her immediate family will be the losers. There is here an incidental reference to one aspect of guidance. God’s purposes are not thwarted by the failure of one individual to respond positively to his leading, and the individual is truly free to refuse it, though this leads to loss rather than gain.

iii. The right way forward is not in doubt. The outcome of Esther’s decision is so far-reaching that without exaggeration she is at the moment when her life’s purpose is at stake.

And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Without explicitly spelling out in detail how he came to his convictions, Mordecai reveals that he believes in God, in God’s guidance of individual lives, and in God’s ordering of the world’s political events, irrespective of whether those who seem to have the power acknowledge him or not.

Baldwin, J. G. (1984). Esther: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 12, pp. 79–80). InterVarsity Press.

By asking that all the Jews in Susa join her in a fast Esther acknowledges that i. she needs the support and fellowship of others and ii. she depends on more than human courage. Though prayer is not mentioned, it was always the accompaniment of fasting in the Old Testament, and the whole point of fasting was to render the prayer experience more effective and prepare oneself for communion with God (Ex. 34:28; Dt. 9:9; Jdg. 20:26; Ezr. 8:21–23)

Baldwin, J. G. (1984). Esther: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 12, p. 80). InterVarsity Press.

Prayer and fasting we are transformed to receive what is necessary for us to do the will of God. Communion and the presence of God is the life-line of the follower of YHWH.

May we be encouraged and challenged. When we don’t see God at work, when we don’t necessarily see His hand in the moment, that we might be conscience of who He is and how he might be at work?

There are fundamental things that God does that we don’t have to guess at (love God, love people, share the good news of Jesus)… that often times can help be a guiding light in the midst of difficult times. That we don’t go at it alone. That we call others to prayer and fasting. That we find boldness in the Spirit of God to lead us when in difficult situations…

2 Timothy 1:7 (CSB)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.

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