A call to action!

Sermon notes from Sunday 18 May 2014

Esther 4 verses 13 – 17

God looks down from heaven to the tangled mess we are facing.  Greater challenges than ever before because of the powers of the prince of darkness.  He knows his time is short.  We are living in a day when God looks down with a heart of love, compassion and wants to save sinners.  He is saying “many more could I save if I only had my instruments.”  God could step in and save without us but he has chosen in his sovereignty to use human instruments.  In every generation he has needed instruments.  God raised Abraham, called from a pagan background of Ur of the Chaldees.  Through him he established a nation to represent him to a generation still to come.  Moses was similar.  The New Testament church was the same too.  Down through the generations the great reformers saw it too.  They changed the course of history.  We have entered the second generation maybe even the third.  God is looking for his instruments again.  Esther was a Jewess, an orphan girl who had an uncle Mordecai.  He had raised Esther as his own daughter.  She was brought as a captive from Babylon and now the Medes and Persians were reigning.  She was brought into the palace to be queen.  The decree to destroy all the Jews brought a crisis.  God had someone in the right place before she could become an instrument for God to save the nation.  We can trace God’s dealings with her in her life.

Through Mordecai there was a complacency that needed to be dispelled. He was living in a palace, in luxury and comfort but had no control over the situation around him.  He was oblivious to it, complacent to it, no urge to get involved.  Complacency led to carelessness and it leads to inactivity and stagnation.  Stagnation leads to death amongst many of God’s people.  He wants to use his instruments but there is a feeling of complacency not concern about the situation.  Probably was because of an absence of vision, didn’t realise what was going on, didn’t see the peril.  There is such an absence of vision among Christians.  Somehow they don’t see and understand that we are living in days when all the powers of hell are unleashed against the church of Jesus Christ.  We need to be awake and aware of the day in which we live.  If we do not see the enemy attacking we will feel all is well, not too bad, become comfortable.  Esther needed to get a vision of the peril facing her but also the possibility of God.  God was still on the throne looking for his instruments.  There was an assimilation of the culture in which she was living in.  When she was brought into the palace she fitted in very well with her surroundings.  They didn’t know she was Jewish.  She was told not to reveal who she was.  She went along with all that was happening.  She conformed to the culture all around her and that added to her complacency.  Christians will always be a misfit in the world.  When the Lord saved us he delivered us from this present evil world.  We should not be trying to fit in with the attitudes and cultures of the world around us but rather stand out for God.  Think of another young man before Esther who was also brought from his homeland into Babylon.  He rose to the very top.  His name was Daniel.  He succeeded in being an instrument for God without compromising his principles.  God expects us to be people like that today.

There was a commitment that had to be displayed.  Two things revealed her commitment and personal involvement.  She was in the palace and not over concerned for the situation around her.  God opened her eyes and touched her heart.  She had to sent that message back to Mordecai “yes I will do what is right and if I perish so be it.”  God could save the world without us but he has chosen to use ordinary human beings.  God cannot use us as instruments until first we commit ourselves to be personally involved in the word of God.  In the church of God we cannot expect everyone else to do something but not ourselves.  You can pray, invite neighbours to the gospel service, encourage the pastor and other believers.  No matter who you are there is something you can do for the sake of the kingdom of God.  God is looking for someone to make a commitment.

There has to be a passion to intercede.  Esther said “go gather together all the Jews in Shushan and fast for me.  I also will fast likewise and will go in unto the king.  If I perish I perish.”  Not fatalism but determination.  Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue.

There was a consideration that was demanded.  When she said “I will go into the king he may put me out of the palace, remove me like Vashti but whatever it means for me I will step out and do what I can for Christ”, there was a willing choice.  Mordecai said if you hold your peace you can not do it and God will raise up someone else but you and your faith will perish.  We have a choice – do we give all to God or do we hold back?  A choice that had to be made.  A decision that had to be made.  There was complete surrender – whatever it cost or meant.  It is worth it all to give it all to Jesus.  “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee.”