For Such a Time as This

April 23, 2017 Speaker: Tara Detiveaux Series: For Such a Time as This

Topic: Seizing the Moment Scripture: Esther 4:1– :14

For Such A Time As This…
Preview of the story (which is read every year to this day by Jews at the Feast of Purim)
There is a kingdom with a powerful kingdom
And he throws a party (180 day party/like a Beyoncé JZ party)
And He calls for His Wife and she doesn’t come which is a problem
So, He gets a new wife
Not really the regular way (he throws a beauty pageant/think of Ms. America on steroids)

Esther 2:5 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah. Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had bought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features.


And to make a long story short she wins the contest but hides the fact that she is a Jew.
And she becomes Queen Esther.
But there is an evil plot by a man named Haman to kill sweet Uncle Mordecai.
Simply because he won’t bow down to Haman.
But then Haman decides that is simply not enough.
Let’s kill every Jew in the Kingdom.
The king agrees and issues a decree to kill every Jew.
And therein lies the problem because Esther is a _____________.

Esther 4
4 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. 3 And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4 When Esther's young women and her eunuchs (these were the people who took care of her, men who had been castrated and women who were not picked) 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. 5 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. 6 Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate, 7 and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. 8 Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction,[a] that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him[b] on behalf of her people. 9 And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. 10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, 11 “All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”
12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”


And here is the crux of Esther’s entire life.
And perhaps she thinks back to when she lost her parents.
Perhaps she thought back to having only her uncle.
Perhaps she remembered that she was the least of the least.
Always picked last. Deserted. Abandoned.
And maybe that’s your story. Never won an award. Not really recognized.
Just barely making it.
Life has taken many unexpected turns. Too many to count.
You are just a mother with children. Or a Father with no influence. No one talks to you.
You are just coming here from another place. Mistreated. Hiding who you really are.
You have been cast down, cast out, used, never promoted, not good enough, lost hope and dream
Because that is where Esther has come from.
You can live always LOOKING for a “Such a Time as This Moment” or you can live WALKING in your “Such a Time as This Moments.”
It stars with “Such a Time as This” in your Family
These moments are all around us. We miss them because they seem so small.
Insignificant. But that is the ploy of the enemy.
Because this is where it starts and where we learn to notice. (Example of Rhian with Verse)
Continues into “Such a Time as This” in your Environment
These moments are all around us too. In our work place. In our schools. Around us.
The problem is that we mostly don’t see them for what they are. Because they seem so small.
And we want to do something big.
But we don’t understand that sometimes the small turns into something big.


Luke 16:10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.


And finished with “Such a Time as This” in your World
And this is the opportunity that Esther had. Truly to affect her world, for God to use her in such a way that they would write stories about her in the bible that are still read to this day for festivals. That’s a big “Such a Time as This.” But I love what her Uncle told her...God will use someone else. His will deliver his people, you just have an opportunity to be used by God.
But here’s what I think she practiced “For Such a Time as This” with her family (with Mordecai)
And continued to practice “For Such a Time as This” in her environment (in the Harem)
And God wanted to use her to affect her world.


15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”[c] 17 Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.


These “Such a Time as This” moments are all around us. Take them.
And you don’t know which one changes the trajectory of your life, your family’s life, your cities life, or the world around you.

More in For Such a Time as This

May 28, 2017

Celebrate

May 21, 2017

Authorized to Pulverize

May 14, 2017

Until Something Happens