Good morning every one. My name is Pastor Peter Lim. I am glad to be here once again to share God's word with you.

Transcription

1 2015: For Such a Time as This Peter Lim Intro: Good morning every one. My name is Pastor Peter Lim. I am glad to be here once again to share God's word with you. I forgot where I read this story, but I remember reading a story about a sunday school teacher who was teaching her class of young children about God. She wanted to explain that God is everywhere. So she asked the question to the class: Where is God? One little boy, who was part of a large family, raised his hand. And he said, "God is in the bathroom at my house every morning." So the teacher was confused and asked the boy, why did he say that. The boy said: In the morning, i would hear my dad banging on the bathroom door and he would say Good Lord, are you still in there? This week, we close out 2014 and look forward to the new year, And as we start 2015, that question "where is God" is a question for us to consider throughout this new year. I will explain more about this later and this will become more clear later. The sermon this morning is called 2015 For Such a Time as This. And that phrase "for such a time as this" comes from a verse in the Book of Esther. So we will be looking at the amazing story of Esther today. And just as God worked in Esther's life, God will be work in your life and my life in this new year. Now I am not sure how well you all know the book of Esther so I'm going spend some time going over the story of Esther. I am not going to go into all the details, but just give a general overview. And then we will look at that verse, "for such a time as this", that that is the crucial turning point in the story of Esther. The time is about 480 BC. The place is Persia, which is present day Iran. About 100 years earlier the Babylonians had captured Israel

2 and took many of them into captivity. But then the Persians conquered the Babylonians and then they ruled over the Jews. The persian king was named Xerxes. He actually had some other names, but we will call him Xerxes. The persian empire was at that time, a great empire and Xerxes ruled with an iron fist. He was absolute authority in his kingdom and what he said must be obeyed. Xerxes had been upset with his queen. So he removed her from being queen and began to look for another person to take her place and become queen. And to find this new queen, he had his solders gather up hundreds of young women and he would pick one of them to be his queen. The women were brought to live in the royal palace and had a year to prepare and learn how to be a queen before they each met the king. It was like a royal beauty pagnent. Esther was one of the women that were rounded up and brought to the palace. Esther was jewish, and many jews had been living in Persia for decades. Esther was poor, her parents had died when she was young and Esther was raised by her cousin Mordecai, who was much older than she was. Mordecai had told Esther to not let anyone know she was jewish out of fear of persecution. And people did not know Esther and Mordecai were related. Anyway, back to the beauty pagnant. Out of all the hundreds of young women, Esther ended up winning the King's attraction and favor. The King chose Esther to be his queen. So at this point in the story, it is almost like a walt disney fairy tales stories. The poor, orphan young girl, who is very beautiful, is selected by the king, rises to the status of queen of a great empire, and lives happily ever after in the royal palace. But there is more to the story. Enter Haman, the bad guy. He rose up through the ranks to become the closest advisor to the King and the second in command. Haman wanted everyone under him to bow down before him. Mordecai was one of the workers at the king's palace and he refused to bow down to Haman. This made Haman really angry at Mordecai and he found out that Mordecai was a jew.

3 Haman's family ancestors had a long history of fighting with the Jews, and Haman inherited that hatred for the jews. So that made him hate Mordecai all the more. He not only wanted to kill Mordecai but all of Mordecai's people, the jews. Haman tells the King about the jews, how strange they are and that they disobey the laws of the empire. He convinces the king that it is not in his best interest to have the jews in the empire. Haman convinces the King into signing a royal, unchangeable decree that all the jews in the empire must be killed. A certain day is picked and the royal declaration is that on that day, the people of the empire are allowed to kill all the jews in the whole empire. When Mordecai and the other jews hear about this, they are shocked and distressed and in fear for their life. Esther does not know about this but she heard that Mordecai was in great mourning. So she sends one of her servants to find out what's wrong. Esther 4: So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king s gate.7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people. 9 Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. 10 Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, 11 All the king s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summonedthe king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king. 12 When Esther s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: Do not think that because you are in the king s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another

4 place, but you and your father s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? That last verse, v. 14 is the key verse in the book of Esther. But before we look at that again, I want to share something unique about the book of Esther. Just like the boy with the large family, who was asked "where is God?" we ask that question about the book of Esther. "Where is God?" No where in the whole book is God mentioned. there is no mention of God's spirit or God's word or angels from God or prophecies or prophets from God. Nothing. All the commentaries point this out. How can that be? What's going on here? How can a whole book of the Bible never say anything about God or even mention God? Even though God is never mentioned, God was at work in the book of Esther. And he is at work in your life and my life. And as we go into this new year, I want to look at 3 truths about God from the book of Esther. And I will also try to finish up the story of Esther too. 1. First, we see God in the circumstances of our life. God in the circumstances of our life. In v.14, at the end, Mordecai says "And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? Mordecai is saying to Esther that God has been working in the circumstances of your life, for just this moment. The whole book of Esther can be seen as God working thru the circumstances, the situations, the events of life. There is a term used in Christian theology called "God's Providence". And that's basically God as work in all of the circumstances and events of life. Up to this point in the story, there has been so many amazing "coincidences" in the story of Esther, that together they reveal the

5 work of God. Esther wouldn't be Queen, if the previous queen "vashti" hadn't angered and insulted the king. Esther just happened to be one of the young women chosen to come to the palace. She just happened find favor in the king's sight. She just happened to be crowned the queen. And, of course, she just happened to be Jewish, one of God's covenant people. And the story is only half over. There are a bunch more "coincidences" in the rest of the story. People who just happen to be in the right place at the right time, events that just happened to occur in the right order. It's amazing. God in the circumstances, the situations, the events of life. Do you ever wonder, where is God in your life? Do you ever think, God is not at work in your life? "where is God?" God seems silent to you... just as silent as not being mentioned in the whole book of Esther. The book of Esther tells us to look closer. To stretch our understanding of God. To get a different perspective on our life. Both the good things and the bad things. Both our accomplishments and our failures. both the things we can proud of, and the things we regret. Look closer, and see God at work in them. That is what Mordecai is telling Esther. Open your eyes Esther, get the bigger picture of your life. Does God always work in spectacular ways, with fireworks going off, with great visions, with a clear voice from the sky? God can but he does not always. Perhaps God regularly chooses to work in the ordinary, routine, everyday things and events of your and my life. Book of Esther, God at work behind the scenes. find a different illustration here? ========================

6 me driving Shirleen to church. ordinary thing. Can God work through something ordinary as that? We fell in love and number of years later we got married. We had a wonderful marriage. 22 years, 3 children. Number of years ago, she died from cancer. God certainly worked through her illness too, perhaps I will share about that another time. But God does work through ordinary good and bad things of life. ======================== 2. Second, we see the call to act for God in the circumstances of our life. There are times when I was working at a secular job when I would ask myself "Why am I at this job? Should I be doing something else? " lady "oh my life is so confusing and stressful" I couldn't forget what the lady said, especially after praying to God, what am I at my job? I knew at least one of the reasons why I was there. I needed to bring hope to that lady, the hope that is found in Christ. She was going on a trip and I got here some short Christian booklets to read on the plane. They had words to encourage her, share hope with her, help her to find Jesus. The lady was very surprised that I was that concerned for her and I would do something like that. She came to know that I was a Christian. So she thankfully took the books and read them. Later, she did not say that she had put her faith in Jesus, but I believe I planted the seed, through my friendship to her and the booklets I gave her. At another company, I worked with a lot of people from India. At Christmas time, I would give out some that explains about the real meaning of Christmas. One Christmas, I had a bunch of my Indian friends over my house for a Christmas party. We had food and we watched a DVD in their Indian language about the true Christmas story. All of them had never been in a church before and they knew very little about Jesus. I was so blessed to share with them who Jesus was and what Christmas was all about and to plant the seeds of truth and salvation in their heart.

7 God puts us in wherever we are for a purpose. We just need to act for God in the circumstances that we find ourself in. Jews had "priests" in OT. But so much of bible history was done not by the priests, but by people in other jobs. abraham a farmer, moses and joseph in government positions, david was a king, gideon a military leader. NT fisherman, tax collectors, Lydia the business woman, and of course Jesus a carpenter's son. God has brought you to your position, or your job, or your family, or your neighborhood, to use you. You and I have contacts in our life and we might be the only Christian person they may know. So Esther, in a royal government position as queen. Mordecai was calling on Esther to action. There was a crisis in the land, her whole people, God's covenant people were in danger. Esther could use her "secular" position for the benefit of God's people. Like Esther, we must willing to act, and to rely on the HS to help us and to give us the courage. We may need to put aside our agenda, our plans --- and follow God's agenda instead. For if you remain silent at this time... you and your father s family will perish. So what does Esther do? She does act. She says Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. Closest thing we see if religious actions, it was fasting... which usually meant there was prayer... prayer to God.

8 Prayer is an important and essential starting point. Esther went to King Xerxes, an earthly king and it was dangerous for her. She went to an earthly king to plead for the life of others. In the same way, when we pray, we can pray for the spiritual life of others. But when we pray, and pray according to God's spirit, we can come boldly before the throne of our Heavenly King. One of the things that Sherry and I started to do about a year and a half ago, was to pray regularly together. We had been praying by ourselves in our daily time with God. But then we started praying for countries of the world, for the Gospel to spread in those countries. We may not see the answers to our prayers but that's where faith come in. We know we are helping to save people and build God's kingdom through our prayers. Legend about Alexander the Great (from Tim Keller) One of his high ranking generals came to him. He told Alexander that his daughter was getting married. And he had a request for Alexander. Before a group of some other high ranking officers, the general asked Alexander for a large sum of money his daughter s wedding. It was an enormous amount of money that the general asked for, way more than was needed for the wedding and everyone there knew it. Alexander looked at the general for a few moments. Then Alexander suddenly became happy. Alexander smiled greatly and said, sure, you have been a worthy and loyal general, sure, take what you request from my treasury. Then the general turned and went away. Afterwards, some of the other officers asked Alexander, why did he give him so much money, it was much more than was needed. And why were you so happy to give it? Alexander said, this man did a great honor to me today. First, he believed that I have that much wealth. And second, he believed that I would be that generous. God desires for us to come to him and ask him in faith the things that

9 are according to his will. But there was danger for Esther. She was actually putting her life on the line. King Xerxes was very worried about assassination attempts. This is even part of the story of Esther. Mordecai worked in the royal palace. Years earlier, Mordecai had learned of an assassination plot on King Xerxes. Mordecai told the King and the would-be assassins were captured and executed. The King wrote this down in the royal documents and said he would reward Mordecai for his loyalty. But the King forgot to reward Mordecai. So Esther was to approached the king, on her own, without his permission. Esther could lose her life, that was dangerous, stressful. But Esther see no other choise, and she says "if i perish, i perish" In 2015, there may be stressful situations in our life or in the life of people close to us. And you and I may be the key for God to work in that stressful situation. What you say, what you do, God can work thru you in that situation. God wants to accomplish his purposes in the world through people. God uses both christian and even non-christians to accomplish his will. We can choose to join in with God or not. If we don't, God will find someone else or some other way. But if we don't join, we will either miss the blessing of serving the Lord, or God will discipline us and keep after us until we surrender to his will. 2 examples: John Mark left Paul's missionary ministry, but God raised up Timothy. Also Jonah refused but eventually surrender to be God's prophet to Ninevah. God is so great that He is soveriegn yet he works throught the free choices of people. One of the best examples of this is with Joseph in the Genesis. When Joseph was mistreated by his brothers, how did God work in that

10 situation? His brother sold Joseph as a slave to Egyptians. Then through a series of events, Joseph rose to become the 2nd in command in Egypt. And when there was a great famine among where Joseph's brothers lived, Joseph forgave them and provided food for them. When Joseph talked to his brothers about their awful treatment of him, Joseph said a great statement. He said: You meant it for evil but God meant it for good. God is so amazing that he can take even the bad intentions and actions of people and make it turn out for good. With Esther, from a human point of view --- everything was against her. There were laws not to come to the king, there was the decree to kill all the jews, and haman, the bad guy, had great political power in the empire. And Esther was a woman and a jew, both which were looked down upon in that culture. But Romans 8:31, "if God is for us, who can be against us?" So it does not matter if the odds are against us, if the situation looks impossible. Question is not "is God in control of the world?" The question is "Is God in control of my life?" Are we cooperating with God to be part of the answer and not part of the problem? 3. Remember God's promises in the circumstances of your life. In this verse we are looking at, there is a very important phrase that is so easy to miss. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, What does he mean when we says "relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place,"? what is going to bring relief and deliverance, what is this other place? Mordecai knew his roots and knew the history of his people. He knew the promises that God made to Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Promises to Abraham that his descendents will be as many as the stars. the

11 promise to bless the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. and the promise that God will curse those who curse abe's descendents. Mordecai knew God's promises to protect them. But Mordecai didn't know exactly how God is going to do that. Often, that's how is it with us. We know God's promises and his will. But we don't know exactly how God is going to accomplish his promises. We just have to have faith that he will. In the Bible, there are 2 types of Covenants. Now a covenant is an agreement or a contract between 2 people or 2 parties. In one kind of covenant, the 2 parties agree to something. It usually goes like this... I will do this... and you will do this. This was the common kind of covenant. The other kind of covenant was special and unique to God. With this kind of covenant, God keeps his covenant, his agreement, even if we don't. even when we fail. Has God kept his promises in your life? I don't mean to say, has your life turned out the way you would have liked it to be. Or the way you planned it to be. Or thought it should be. That is not my question. But has God kept his promises in your life? I know in mine life he certainly has. Back to the story. So the day approached when the Jews would be killed. One night, the king was having trouble sleeping. So he asked of his servants to read from the official documents to him. Probably hoping that it would put him to sleep. The servant just happend to read the part where Mordecai saved the king from the assisination attempt. And the king remembered that he never rewarded Mordecai. So the next day, the king asked haman how the king should honor someone who did a great thing for him. Haman thought the king was talking about Haman. So Haman says "

12 The king agrees and tells haman that it is Mordecai he wants to honor, and that Haman will be his chaufferer. Of course Haman was angry about that. Esther approaches the king and requests a dinner, just for the king and haman. haman was there and again, he thought it was to honor him. He was going to eat at the king's royal table. he is so excited. At the dinner, Esther says It is Haman... The king gets mad and storms out. Haman bows at Esther feet and begs for mercy. The king comes back in and thinks Haman is trying to grab his queen. The king calls the guards to arrest haman and execute him. And they do on the pole that haman had created to execute Mordecai. But the king could not change his royal decree so he made another one. The other decree was that the he gave permission for the Jews to defend themselves if they are attacked. So there was some small amount of fighting but people were now afraid to attack the Jews and the Jews were saved. Not only did she save the jews, but Esther's actions with the other Jews became a witness, a testimony about their God to all the other people in the empire. God exalted the Jews to a high position in the esther 8:17 In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.

13 In 2015, remember that God will be at work in all your circumstances. And the book of Esther tells us to 1. See God in our circumstances 2. Act for God in our circumstances 3. Remember God's promises in our circumstances. Although the jews were saved, Mordecai's words did come true when he said "relief and deliverance will come another place" Centuries later, the greatest and final help did come, in the person of the Messiah. Jesus, our savior. Jesus is our relief... our relief from striving on our own efforts. Hebrews 4 tells of the believer's rest, those to turn to Jesus as they relief, they can rest in Jesus. Instead of their own works, instead of the world's ways, but now rest in him. We can rest because, as Mordecai said, deliverance has come. Jesus is our deliverer, our redeemer. He has delivered us from what we deserve, and given to us, what we certainly do not deserve. He have given us eternal life in him.