Living on Purpose
for such a time as this • Sermon • Submitted
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What’s your purpose
What’s your purpose
Morning back into Esther this week chapters 5 & 6, what do we need to get from this weeks scripture.
To live a life on purpose, only when we live on purpose, with a purpose, for a purpose will we flourish, because when we have a purpose, we have direction, we know why we are here & where we are going & not going around aimlessly.
We also then have boundaries that we live our lives by & too, we do not cross those boundaries because our focus has gone.
Today in the scripture we will see 2 kinds of people those with & those without purpose or lost purpose.
Someone whose lust for power, a purpose although a bad one, led to his pursuit of wanton destruction of one person & the the obliteration of a whole people out of revenge, his anger was the thing that made him lose purpose.
Don’t live for revenge, it never ends well & can ultimately end with your downfall on the aparatus that you had constructed for the downfall of someone else.
Lets just say this at the beginning. God will use what is meant for harm to bless & build & honour those that love Him.
So here we go, 5 & 6 but first just to remind us from a couple of weeks ago. Mordecai went to see Esther told her about the plot & that she should go to the King.
Esther knowing what could happen if she just turns up without being called by the King is scared & says no, Basically if any woman even the queen went to the King without being called she could be put to death, lets face it King Xerxes didn’t have a good reputation when it came to dealing well with his queens.
But this is where we get that famous line where Mordecai says “and who knows whether you have not come to the Kingdom for such a time as this”.
Okay 5 & 6 Read chapters.
Esther is now living on purpose because she has found her purpose, what was it, to save her people.
it’s important to live on purpose, you may say i don’t know my specific purpose, i don’t know why i’m here & so you live life feeling aimless, but let me say if your a Christian & your listening today. You do have a purpose.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
I didn’t know what my purpose was until i started to serve, asking the question what about me, what am i supposed to do, what’s my calling, the problem i was making it about me & not God. my, my, my. God said serve, just serve.
When i first became a Christian, i would turn up early with my then 4 year old daughter April every week & put out the chairs, no one asked just wanted to serve. I’d go on the door to welcome people to church, i volunteered at our Kids club on Saturday mornings, Youth on Friday nights. It wasn’t my specific call on my life but i loved doing it & ended up doing Kids & youth work for 16 years in London, Lincoln & here in Boston.
They needed people to help so i did, church finance in Lincoln definitely not my gifting but i did it because it was needed to be done. iv’e always felt that God says just serve don’t look for position or title, just serve, in church we didn’t have a drummer so i learned to drum, play bass, i’m not great but i can fill in. to serve costs you, sometime time, sometimes finance. i got asked to sing, to lead worship, to lead meetings, to preach, to be on the eldership. I didn’t ask for position or title i just served. my purpose was & is to serve, serve Jesus by serving His church & the people that make up my world. now i serve this church as the senior Pastor & have for nearly 8 years, i know my call, i live on purpose, with a purpose, for a purpose.
It’s something that is at the heart of this church that has been part of my life for so long, see a need, fill a need. Tomorrow the church needs to be cleaned, we are not using it so much but things just get left around, toilets are not really being used, we are cleaning up church tomorrow, i’ll clean the toilets if need be, i’ll make the teas & coffee for people, whatever the need. Purpose we all need one.
Let me encourage you this morning live on purpose, be purposeful in all that you do, every ship has a rudder (purpose) or it will go round in circles, with a purpose, to see people leave the kingdom of darkness & enter the Kingdom of incredible, wonderful, marvellous light. To have an Eternity with Jesus.
Jesus shone wherever He went, His light went into the darkness & made it light, He loved people, He fed people, He healed people, He Restored people. If my King has that purpose, then that’s what i’m gonna do as well.
We have a purpose, Esther had a purpose even when God was silent, just because He’s silent doesn’t mean He is absent. (Way maker Bridge Lyrics).
Even when i don’t see it, hes working, even when i don’t feel it, he’s working.
Story about god was silent, offered to sell cocaine on the night before live aid.
The book of Esther doesn’t mention God so we assume He is silent, but He is still at work.
Esther put of the request for one more day, promising to reveal her petition at a second banquet on the next day.
Esther 2. Esther’s Request at the First Banquet (6–8)
i. It may be that Esther could not find the courage to present her request, and used the successive banquets as a delaying tactic. “Some of us are very unaccountable, but on that woman’s unaccountable silence far more was hanging than appears at first sight. Doubtless she longed to bring out her secret, but the words came not. God was in it; it was not the right time to speak, and therefore she was led to put off her disclosure. I dare say she regretted it, and wondered when she should be able to come to the point, but the Lord knew best.” (Spurgeon)
There is only one way to know what your purpose is & that is know God.
Haman sought the approval of man, namely the most powerful man in the world, the King 7 he was filled with indignation towards Mordecai because this man would not bow to him & it makes him feel worthless.
Do you ever get that way, someone doesn’t give you the respect that you think you deserve? do you lose sight of who you are in that moment, this is what is happening to Haman.
Haman’s deep seated insecurities & need to be honoured by everybody means that he can never be happy. Are you insecure? do you need to be honoured? your name has to be out there, do you crave acceptance by everyone. It will warp you, it will damage your perspective.
God meant this hunger for acceptance in each of us to be ultimately fulfilled by Jesus, that’s where we find out who we are & what our purpose is.
to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
We are accepted before God because of who we are in Jesus.
To live, to truly live is to know God. I had a laugh, i ad a good time before i became a Christian, got into trouble, but life was never whole until God got hold of me & gave me a purpose. Who knows maybe you are here for such a time as this.