Esther, For a Time Such as This

I'm not sure which one we fall under. This is the first time Jay and I have done something like this, a joint effort that would be presented to. The many that we see here this morning. And it is a blessing to see all of you here. It's not that we haven't teamed up together on things to decide. We've done things like on Jay's day off, where do you want to go to lunch? We've teamed up on that. Also, our family night is Monday night. So we say, what are we going. To do for family night tonight? These kinds of things. Then we've had to deal with even more stretching experiences. Like when we left, God felt we were to leave the church at Memorial park five years ago, and North Way had not come into focus as of yet. And we looked at each other and said, you know, well, what do we do now? So we are being stretched, but this is probably the most stretching we've had at this point. But, you know, the topic really does excite me. It comes at a time in my life when I am facing change. I am looking forward, along with you, to be in chat, to be motivated to that challenge and to be motivated to change. I only see one thing wrong with this that's very lopsided in your favor and not in mine. If you are married, your husband is not here hearing what we're going to be saying in the next five weeks. Mine is. And I feel like the accountability is certainly much more lopsided than my disadvantage. But as they say, those who teach and prepare learn an awful lot more than those who listen. So I'm excited about that and I'll take what consequences come from that. I'd like to ask you a question. Have you considered that there are seasons in your life? Have you considered that those of you who are older can understand that more. Than those who are younger? I know that was a revelation to. Me when it was shared with me. That your life goes along not at the same pace, not at the same degree of intensity all the time. Whether you desire it or not, it is not able to do that. And what I'd like to share with you this morning, some of the seasons of my life to this point, that's what I can share most firsthandedly. And some of the things that we're learning through that, if you haven't realized by now, we have changed the title of these five weeks. This is title number three that we have gone through. You will see it on your questions. And I think what happened as we were thinking about life in the balance and priorities and scheduling all these things. Jay and I kept moving it back further and further. So what does that really mean? What is the bottom line of how do you schedule your life and order things? And so the title that we have chosen for these five weeks is called God's Destiny for His Women for a Time such as this. And we hope that in the midst of that, your questions and your concerns will be answered. You will have opportunity to give questions to Jay and I that you'd like. For us to cover. Not. We may just read them. We may not have the answers to them. We don't certainly profess to have that at all. We are growing with you. I hope you understand that we are not here presented a little package that's all together at all by any means. As I look at seasons of my life now, for some of you, this will follow pretty much the way your life has gone. For others of you, you may need to change it, add in some things or whatever. But I think what I'd like for you to see is that there are times in our life when we need to come before the Lord and say, God, what is your purpose? For me, during this period of time, if we aren't doing that, then we get in trouble with our priorities and our scheduling and balancing things out. So I think my point for doing this is so that you can see that there are stages and that we do need to see a purpose in each one. For me, the first, as with everyone, we're at home now. My home is in Virginia, which has a little nicer climate than Pittsburgh. But I'm flexible. I can live most anywhere. I was trained by my mom. My dad died when I was very young, so my sister and I were under the exclusive training of my mother, which, praise the Lord, she was a Christian. And that training, obviously, has benefited me all through my life. That was a very dependent time for me and for you as well. I'm sure it was limiting, but increasing in responsibility, we want to not just stifle our children and tell them what to think, what to do, but we want to increase that responsibility so that as I move to the next stage, and for me, it was going to college, that was my first big step of independence. It was there that I had to decide, is what I learned at home, is it really going to benefit me here? Was the foundation really strong enough to carry me through the things that were going to hit me when I hit the campus? I went to a school in Virginia, but it was, you know, Five hours away from my home. So it wasn't practical to call home and say, mom, what would you do in this situation? And if you knew my mother, you wouldn't have to call anyway because you would know. So there was a bar, there was a problem there. Our next session is how to get along with your mother in law. And we're. It will not be taught by Jay. At college, I found that I did have to do some thinking on my own, which probably it's not my strong point. I'd much rather have someone say, here's the idea, let's go. It. I'm not the creative one to say, let's do this and then go gather the people. I made some good choices in college. I made some bad choices, but I learned an awful lot. And I don't regret that time at all. But it was very crucial in starting to shape who I am inside and on my own. After that, for me, I sort of combined, as BJ sort of intimated, working and getting married was all pretty much in the same unit year. I taught first year in Lexington High School as their gym teacher. During that same year, Jane and I were also married. And that, I think was the beginning of not knowing in my head that this was a new stage. Knowing that it is, but not really putting it together right. But seeing that we were having to balance, you know, getting to know one another. Because if you were calculating what BJ was saying, that our first date was New Year's Eve, we were married seven months later. You know, you, you don't know someone that well in seven months. And he was in the Marine Corps at the time. We saw each other on weekends, so you know each other even less. But we figured this was the right time. I don't recommend it. We do not counsel people to get married in seven months. You might want to know that Kristen and Fred were also married seven months after they met. So if you don't want to go. Into ministry, wait at least a year. Before you get married, you might do that. That was the beginning our married life. We had tremendous decisions. Jay did not know he was going to be in seminary or even be a pastor before we married. It was business all the way. He had been accepted at business school. And so we were sort of thinking along those lines. Well, it was in that year, that first year of marriage, that we realized that was not the direction God had for him. That mainly took the shape when he worked on for a short time in a clothing men's store and realized after about two minutes that this was not for him. So he decided that God must have something better. So we went to California with the earthquakes and everything else and figured that had to be better than selling suits. But it was during those years and how well we balanced that, I don't know. I think what we did come out of that time of seeing that our relationship was very important. Being in California, it lent itself to getting away and going to places really exciting here. When we go away, we go to Uniontown. And that's not nearly as exciting as going to San Diego or San Francisco or something like that. But we realize the limitations of the area. But anyway, no, we do enjoy that. But it probably wasn't until our children came and we had been married five years. I think this was God's grace for Jay and I that we had that time of five years before our children came. Because it was during that time that I think all the feelings of my purpose came to the forefront. I may have had expectations to do this over here, but with someone this little over here, you don't necessarily do this over here. The feelings of being a victim of a circumstance, and you may feel these things too that we're talking about. And during these next five weeks we would like to expound on some of the feelings that we have that keep us from knowing what God's purpose is for us and from seeking that. It may feel unimportant or inadequate during those times. And it doesn't have to be because of children. It may be because you have a job and you have to be out, you'd rather be at home. It will vary with every person that's here, what it is. But for me at this time, it happened to be because of the children that it had to change. And during this time also I had to deal with what the world was saying. All the world, how thankful we are for the world and all the nice images they give us of what we are supposed to be. And you know, if we don't know what God wants us to be, we will flip flop from image to type to whatever, you know, just blown back and forth. And during this time there was a commercial and every once in a while you might see it, but it's been out for a while of this young, wonderful looking gal in three different stages of I can bring home the bacon, I can fry it in the pan and I can make you feel like a man. Well, you know, I looked at this and I get to see Irma Bombeck saying, anyone who could do all three of those things Longer than the length of that commercial would be a basket case by the end of the time. And look like that. You know, it just. It was unrealistic for that to be. But, you know, for women who don't, and young girls especially, who don't have the benefit of older ones to say, listen, this is really not the way it is. You need to, you know, you cannot. Mold yourself into someone else to put yourself into someone else's mold. You've got to find out what God wants from. For you, and that is designed especially for you. And then I can look at that commercial and say, fine, but that is not me. You know, that kind of thing. There is security in knowing what God wants for you. Now, the stage that I'm coming to now is as of next year, I will have a whole school day to myself. I knew this day was coming, you know, and for years I've been thinking about, you know, what am I going to do when all three of them are in school from nine until three? You know, this is kind of like a holiday. I've even enjoyed it. Just having Jonathan in kindergarten in the afternoon, that has been a tremendous relief. But having all of our children so close together, it gives me the benefit of looking forward to this time. And now my stage is going to increase a longer period of time. My stages have been fairly close together here, you know, and sometimes I am about a stage behind what I should be as far as what my attitude should be and my motivation and where I should be in that. But now I'm really looking forward to what God has for me in this time. And I hope you do, too. As you know, you're in a stage now that you'll be there for a while or maybe you're just entering it, that you will be excited about what God has for you. Because as we learned last fall with Mimi and her names of God, God is so committed to you, so totally committed to you, that he has a destiny. And I think what. Impressed me so much. Is that God will love you no more than he does right now. So not sure why that came away. As we talk the next five or four weeks now, we will be looking at Esther and at a period in her life, at a season in her life, and how God used her and. How she dealt with that. And I think we'll find this will be the other overhead there, that as we want to be fulfilled in God's destiny for us at this particular time, we'll find that. That fulfillment. And I'm just going to briefly I'm just going to flash these up here. And we'll talk about it more as we go. That that fulfillment is graduated and progressive. A tree does not bear fruit 12. Months out of the year. There is a time for growth. There is a time when that fruit does not come. It is a necessary time. It doesn't mean it's not doing anything. But it is a necessary time. Fulfillment, we'll find is often along the lines of our own unique composition. God wants to work with that which he has put within you already, if we're willing to seek him on that. And I think we'll also see that it requires diligence. There is something to this. God does not. For some reason, I'm sure he's got his. And we could think of some right off the top of our head. Does not just lay our whole life in front of us and say, this is it, Carol. Go to it. A, B, C and D. It's all planned. It is for us to pursue it and to be diligent about it. So my question to you and to myself is, are you motivated to know what your destiny is for God from God and for his kingdom for the season that you're in right now as you identify it? Okay, Jay is going to come and let us know a little bit about estimating. Wrap it up then. I don't think I can add a whole lot to what Carol shared in terms of, as we discussed, where we wanted to go together in this time. Our goal is for Carol to give the insight from a woman's perspective of those things with which you're dealing. And. And I really think that if you keep praying for us, that's going to work beautifully together. My role is just simply to bring the biblical foundation and the input from the Word of God, which, after all, is the strength on which we build, isn't it? I mean, it's not just what happened to Carol or what happened to any of you that matters, is that it's what God says about our lives and what His Word promises that gives us the real basis for change. Right. Are you all real comfortable? Why don't you stand up then? Go ahead. You need to stretch a couple of us. Here we go. One nice thing about being a little chilly is it keeps you hopping. All right. Praise the Lord. If you're near someone that you don't know, front or back or side to side, introduce yourself and be seated. Turn to the book of Esther. Alright. I told Carol this morning that she hop right off and get us launched. And she's really done that. And I hope that you caught the main point that she was saying was that what we want to look at, the reason why we're not coming to you with a list of well, here's eight ways to get your daily schedule in order, is because you may have no motivation beyond just a feeling of guilt to get your life in order, and that's the wrong motivation, and it won't last. But we're here today to give you a deeper and more profound motivation to believe God, to use you and your life wherever you are. And I think we're going to see some fascinating things from Esther, A book. How many of you know what the Book of Esther is about? All right, about 70 or 80%. Most of you who know something about the Book of Esther probably have a few questions about why it's in the Bible, don't you? Do you know that the Book of Esther does not contain the name of God? And there are some who wonder, Martin Luther among them. He said the book of Ecclesiastes, I think it was, and Esther are a pain in the neck. That was his term. You can't figure out why God let them be in there, but there they are. And I'll tell you why they're here. You're going to see today that Esther has a message for us and there's something about her life from which we can really benefit. Now, I'm going to move along very quickly. Just a little bit of background for those of you who aren't familiar with it. The story takes place about 480 or so BC the Kingdom of. Judah and. Israel had already been divided, and David had already been, you know, had died long since, and all this kind of thing had already taken place. There had already been the Babylonian captivity, so that the Jews had been captured and sent off to Babylon, and they'd been there for some 70 years. We're at a point now in the story where the Jews had already, in 586, been restored to Jerusalem. Now, that's a very important point as we're going to see. And so what we have left here is a small group, relatively speaking. We don't know the exact number of Jews who were remaining in Persia. Now, Persia is the area that we would call right now the Middle east area. And Susa, the capital where this story takes place, is about 300 miles east of what we would know today to be Jerusalem. So it's off in the east there, roughly in the area of Turkey and Jordan, that general area, Jordan to be more Specific and there's a few main characters we want to get. If you're all there in Esther, let's just catch the names of these characters because we're going to be referring to them throughout the rest of the, the weeks we're together. We're just going to lay a foundation in the days of. Let's all say that first name together. All right. In some Bibles it's Ahasuerus. Now that's the correct way to say that name, Ahasuerus. But the Greek pronunciation or translation I should say of that word is Xerxes. X E R X E S. That's not really that much better, is it? So we have, any way you want to look at it, an unusually named king. But you need to know that Xerxes was the dominant figure of history in that day. Persia was battling with some others, the Medes and so on, for dominance in the world. You couldn't really say they controlled the whole world, but they were right up there and they had battled the Babylonians and so on. And so Xerxes was a powerful king or Hasuerus as he is called here in the Hebrew. He reigned in the capital of Susa and all this took place around 480. We have those three facts together and those are important background facts. Now let's look at this story. In the third year, verse three of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his princes and servants, the army chiefs of Persia and Media, and the nobles and governors of the provinces being before him. Very important. Alright, just another background king. Xerxes calls together all of his army officers, all of his governors, princes, all of the top dogs in his kingdom, says let's have a banquet. Why was he doing that? Well history records that this was just about three years prior to his invasion of Greece to try to take over the kingdom of the Greeks. And this was a three year warm up celebration. And really what he was doing was he was setting up his army corps, getting them ready for this invasion which would cost most of them their lives. But they always started with a banquet. They celebrated a little bit in advance and so he brought them all together. You have to get the picture. This was a heavy serious attempt to make a real impact on these leaders, to help them to see that well he had things under control, get the setting right. All right, so here's this party and they go on and we can leave out a lot of this. He brought together a great banquet of people and so on. And verse 7 drinks were served in golden goblets and all these kinds of things are taking place. And on verse 10, the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine. What's that mean? He was drunk. He commanded the different names of his eunuchs there to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown in order to show the people and the prince is her beauty. What does that mean? Well, you read between the lines, all right? Doesn't just mean what, okay, he means show them all of her beauty. So he's in the process of just about to, in his merry state, bring his wife into probably some significant abuse is what we're getting the picture of here. Now, Vashti is no dummy. She refused to come to the king's command because she recognized what had been going on there for the last seven days. And she wasn't about to go expose herself in front of all those people. And the king liked that idea. End of verse 12, was enraged. His anger burned within him. That means he was downright mad. Okay, well, he recognized he had a problem on his hands. And his counselor said, if you don't do something here, just Skip over verse 17. This deed of the queen will be made known to all women, causing them to look with contempt upon their husbands, since they will say, King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vasht to be brought before him and she did not come. You have to understand, there wasn't a whole lot of communication going on between the sexes in those days. And basically the female role was terrifically subservient. Absolutely nothing like what we have here in America today. Much more like what is currently in the Middle East. And if you've watched TV pictures, as I'm sure you have, you still see women walking behind, veiled and all the rest. And it was 10 times worse back then. And so these princes and all these army generals, everyone were saying, if you let this go by without dealing with it, you're going to have all out revolt with these women. You could tell they were real secure and their identity as men, and they wanted this squelch. And the king said, it's a great idea. Vashti's demoted. She's no longer my queen. Now all that is just background to bring us to the place where Esther becomes the principal character of the story. Three or four years go by after Vashti is demoted and Esther arrives on the scene. Now, a little bit about Esther and beloved. This is where we get into some very important foundational understanding of this person so that we can go on and find our Destiny for a time such as this, Esther was a Jew. To be a Jewish in the kingdom of Persia was to be a leftover servant or slave from the Babylonian empire. I want to give you five descriptive characteristics of Esther's life that may wring something loose in you or draw up in you some identification with this woman that God used powerfully in just a few short weeks in the story. Well, actually, from where we meet her here, to redeem a nation. Actually, it took about a year and a half, but we'll see it. She redeemed a nation. Her destiny in God became a profound occurrence. And let me just say to you, without Esther, there would be no Jews, and with no Jews, there'd be no Messiah. She was a woman of destiny. The first insight into Esther was. I'll try move very quickly here. She had not returned to Jerusalem with the remnant. Let me say it again. She had not returned to Jerusalem with the remnant. The decree of Cyrus, which allowed the Jews to go back to their homeland in 586 had started slowly but began to snowball. And most of the Jews who were really Jews had already gone back. In fact, the temple had been somewhat thrown together. The reconstructed temple you know about. And then of course, the walls around the city which indicated their identity and their protection. Most of the Jews who were Jews at all had gone back, but Esther was left behind. Secondly, Esther had little or no formal training or education. I already commented on what the condition of male female relationships was in those days. And beyond that, being a Jew was akin to being a Christian in our culture. I mean, on our generation in communist Russia, Christians are denied education. They're not allowed to go to college or hold positions of influence. Same with the Jews in the Persian kingdom. They had no right. They had no availability of education and training. The only thing that Esther really had going for her in verse seven of chapter two was that she was beautiful and lovely. That's not bad. It's a decent asset. Unfortunately for Esther, that also became her ticket to oppression. Number three. Esther was taken against her will. Chapter two, verse eight. To serve the king in his harem because she was fair and lovely to look at. Now, beloved, don't think for a minute that this was some sort of a glamorous. You know, we get these ideas from Hollywood that being in the harem was. A cute little thing. We just ran around. No, no, you were restricted. You were cut off from other relationships. You were told what to do, when to do it, what do to. To eat. And if you look and we don't have time, of course, to read all. But look, just look at the perfuming procedure here, would you? Chapter 2, verse 12. When the turn came for each maiden to go to the king after being 12 months under the regulations, there's the word for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying. Six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments for women. They must have a real problem there with body odor or something, I don't know. Six months of each. So the king was concerned that things smelled good, if nothing else at that time. You just need to see, though, the point is that she was suffering degradation. And I believe quite strongly that she was put in custody. In other words, that gives the indication that she was put there under the confinement of Hegai, who was the chief eunuch. And so there she was, those three things off the bat, not in Jerusalem with the Jews, really. No advancement or opportunity, without any education or training, taken against her will to serve in the harem of the king. And fourth, really, Esther was not a very spiritual woman. I already told you, there's no mention of the name of God. We have no indication that to this point at all of any vital relationship with God. We know from chapter two, verse nine of Esther that she ate the foods that were brought in to the concubines. What does that mean? What did all true Jews do? They followed the Jewish law. They ate kosher foods. We don't get any indication at all that she said, well, I can't eat that much. In contrast to some other Jew who served in the king's court. Remember him? Daniel, right, who refused to eat the king's wine and meat. And beyond that, look at verse 10 of chapter 2. Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to make it known. In addition to all that I said, her identity with the Jews was so weak. I get what I'm saying, that she would not even let it be known that she was a Jew. And that doesn't reflect deep spiritual commitment. Has it? Finally. You may not know, but Esther was adopted. On top of all this, she didn't have parents that she could turn to. Her husband, I mean, her father, Abihail either died or left or something. And Mordecai was her uncle. And so she suffered from the possible internal turmoil and conflict of not having parents, not having a background, not having a secure home that she could look to and say, I know what's important and what values we Have. Now, let me just take the next five minutes and conclude by showing you, one at a time, how I believe these five characteristics describe where many of. Us. Many women, many men as well, but many women cut themselves off from God's purpose and destiny in their lives because of a particular relationship with one of these characteristics. First of all, I wonder if you feel left behind by the good things of God. Remember what I said about Esther being left behind while the others went to Jerusalem? Do you ever feel that way? Do you feel that somebody next to you is always going on in God and you're staying in the same place? Do you feel like sister so and so is always able to go to the meetings and do the things that are fun to do and you're stuck at home? You ever watch the TV and wonder where these women get their testimonies? Where do they get the time to be in intercession? Three hours a day? You ever hear a woman talk about the fact that God so miraculously changed her husband from a drunkard no good to this wonderful man of God? And you're saying she. I've been praying. You ever feel left behind? You ever feel left out of what God's best was? No support group, no miracle in your life? No link with the things of God except what you hear now and then? North way, maybe. Do you feel that God's passing you by? That you've been left behind while the rest of the kingdom of God has gone on to Jerusalem? How about the second one? She had no training. Do you feel ill equipped to do what God would have you to do? No schooling, no Bible training, no real experience. You don't even have enough money to buy the books that you want. Let me encourage you. First of all, I'm telling you that it seems to me that the people that God tends to use most dramatically in these days are the ones who don't. Because most schools you go to just get you downright confused. You can all say Amen to that. Fred and I are about as confused as you can get sometimes. It comes from getting so much of this cerebral kind of stuff and not enough heart training. But I need to tell you, I don't think there's any reason to be untrained in this day. Gals. There is so much. You have an absolute veritable smorgasbord of input from, you know, you just name it. You can go almost anywhere and get training and specific. You can get tapes, you can get TV programs. 80% of all broadcasting in America is evangelical religious broadcast teaching the Bible. But you may not feel that you have any training. What can I do? I can't sing like music ministry. People play the piano. I can't speak up front. We're going to see some things that. God might have you to do. Third, she was taken against the will to the king. I know some of you feel like you don't have any say in the matters of your life. Your role is to raise your kids and that's the end of the line and you don't have any time to do anything else. Or perhaps maybe you are a working gal. I met with a gal a couple of weeks ago. Mother of two, 113, 1 7. Goes. To work at 8, gets home at. 5. Brings home the bacon, fries it. Up. Takes her kids to less and band practice and all the rest and collapses in bed every night exhausted and gets up the next morning, does the same thing. Really no mind of her own. I mean no control of her circumstances. She has to do that to survive. Do you feel that way? Do you feel that you are in a rut, sister, and day to day is just getting on enough to make it to the next day? Esther felt that way, I'm sure. Fourth. Maybe you don't feel very spiritual today. Maybe you don't feel that you really know anything about God the way you should. We have a number of gals with us this morning. I know maybe for the first time, maybe all of this to you is just something you're testing and trying to find out. You don't really know where you are with God. I want you to see that Esther wasn't this great. You know, she wasn't to Kathryn Kuhlmann of the fourth generation BC or something. She really wasn't that spiritual. And I've already indicated that she didn't even want to be recognized as what she was. And I wonder, gals, do you sometimes feel kind of unworthy of being used by God? I mean, if you're really honest, you'd say, jay, I don't think God wants anything to do with me. And if you knew what I thought in my thought life or what I did when I leave church on Sunday for the rest of the week, you'd know why God didn't want to use me. We're going to talk in the coming weeks a little bit about how God deals with your image and what he has to say in Christ Jesus about who you are. There are some wonderful things, gals that most many gals have not yet granted grabbed a hold of and men substitute Their own images for God's image of them. So that's no better. In fact, it's probably worse. They have to undo. But women tend to not have any substitute. They just simply, as Carol hinted, have no concept of what God wants them to be. And therefore, they're just blown about. Esther wasn't really very spiritual. And you know what that results in. Usually drawing back into your shell, not doing anything. I don't know how many women just basically don't have anything that they'd say is worthwhile in whatever stage they're in, except just surviving, doing what they're supposed to do. Finally, some of us have problems. With. Our background and our past. Esther was adopted. Maybe you're not adopted. That's. Maybe some of you have been adopted, adopted as children. But you have scars from your past. You have an im