Radical Need, Radical Action, Marks Of A Woman God Uses

You know, Jay and I give very little notice to the small group leaders, or Jan and Susan, in preparing for this time in the morning. But until you do something like this, you really see the goodness of God going beyond what you are capable of doing. For Jay and I to put this together, a lot of times it doesn't come together until the twelfth hour. I mean, not the eleventh hour, I mean the twelfth hour, when you know it's got to be done. Thus, it doesn't filter down to other people that it affects until that time, too. And this morning, the songs that were chosen are just so appropriate for what we're going to talk about today. I should have told Susan and Jan that Most High is one that really is hard for me to sing without shedding a lot of tears, and I should have told her that we should not have ended. On that one. But the hiding place, don't you think Esther was looking for a hiding place in this time? There was none to be found, as we discovered. Just in a little bit of a review of what we did last week, we saw that Esther saw a burden for Mordecai initially. That burden changed into a burden for her whole race of people, including herself. And then she was set on a course of action as to how to deal with that situation, realizing that she was the one that God was going to use. She wasn't convinced of that at first, but Mordecai, in his faithfulness to her, did not let her slip through the loophole of, I can understand how you feel, but he forced her to look at the situation and say, yes, I am chosen. I have been prepared for this time. So today I'd like for us to continue on in Esther's little story here. Once we've discovered, once we've been motivated to do something, once we know that this is what God wants us to do, once we even know what that thing is, what do we do with it after that? And so today we're going to see what Esther did. Do you feel like you're in an echo chamber here? Does it sound that way to you? Okay, I'm sorry. We're going to see what Esther did to see this worked out. We'll see her going from, if I perish, I perish, kind of sentiment that she, you know, it was a 50-50 chance in her mind whether she was going to come out of this with any kind of breath left in her, to being very victorious in how God was going to resolve the situation. First thing she does, if you look in chapter 4, verse 16, somehow Esther knew what to do. Do you get that feel? I mean, she may not have known what to do up to this point, but from here on, sister, she knows what to do. I mean, I think all the training that Mordecai poured into her, any of the overflow of tradition that she may have taken, even if not totally to heart, is rising up within her now to know what to do specifically. She is now telling Mordecai, this is what we're going to do. And she calls the people to a fast. Go gather all the Jews to be found in Susa and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maids will also fast as you do. She calls a fast on her behalf. Does that seem selfish? Does that even seem like what the fast should have been called for? What we'll notice here is that Esther is thinking very logically. She, as I said, drawing on past experience. If you look at the precedent set in fasting, it doesn't say praying here. It doesn't say that she prayed and fasted. But how many of you think that she prayed during this time of fasting? I'm sure she did. If you look at Nehemiah who lived in her time, Nehemiah 1, 4 said that when he was thinking of going to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls in the city there, he prayed and fasted before he ever went to the king to be released to do that. That is a precedent. She may have heard of that and said this is something that we should do. Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20, 3 through 15, that whole story begins with praying and fasting, seeking the Lord. And in this case, it goes beyond to say they heard from the Lord as to what their victory was going to be. The battle is not mine. It's not yours, but God's. So drawing on these, Esther, I think for this, the magnitude of this situation knew that a fast was necessary for her because she needed to go before the king in a life-threatening kind of situation, even before the edict was to be evoked. Her priority first was to come before the Lord. If you think back on things that have been significant decisions in your life, have you come to the Lord first? Even not significant. Maybe the significant ones you did. I mean, the insignificant ones are the ones that I think we tend to forget that God might want to have a vested interest in it. Have you ever put together a child's toy? We're getting through this day. Unfortunately, Jay's dad just loves to relive putting three wheelers together and all these train tracks and race car sets. He loves to do that. So we have been spared a lot of the, you know, if this fails, read the directions later kind of syndrome. But many times, that's the way we approach it. We charge out ahead as to what we want to see happen. And then when things aren't going right, we back up and we say, well, let's read the directions here or come before God. Just recently, Jay and I had just a real small thing that if your house is like ours, it's the small things that can just bug the dickens out of you. And this particular one did. If in your house you have not started preparing your income taxes, it's next month, it's about, you know, less than about three weeks from now, you need to get on it. We started early this year. And we have a joke in our house that we have a desk that is supposed to keep us organized. And it's a big joke. It has a lot of drawers in it. And one of the drawers can be locked. It's been locked for about a year now, I think, since last income tax time. And we need to get into that drawer for any kind of important papers, supposedly, that we have. We could not find those keys anywhere. I mean, just not anywhere. And we have two keys. And we're real smart. We kept the keys together, you know, so that, you know, we're really learning in this. Well, I mean, it was, we had to postpone one time that we were going to do our income tax because we couldn't get into it. And we kept looking for these keys and looking for them. And we never did. And it was to the point where we were going to call someone or just get our own little saw and, you know, just start cutting through this drawer. And I just don't like to see things messed up. So we decided before we did that we would go to the place where we bought it and say, do you have an extra set of keys that we could borrow? We'll bring them right back, you know. We're just real honest people. We just want to see if these keys will fit our desk. I mean, is anybody going to believe this story? No way. So I sent Jay and the boys to do this. And I stayed at home. But, you know, as soon as he left, I was, he was, Jay was frustrated. He was mad at us for being, and I said, Lord, Jay does not need this. I don't need this. You know, we need to be around people who build us up and not tear us down. So I said, I'd really like to find these keys. Do you know that's the first time I asked the Lord about that? The first time? So I went upstairs, and you know how you throw these prayers up sometimes, and they're kind of, you know, you throw them up there, and God catches them. You know, just don't know why he does this for us. So I came back upstairs. Amy and I were doing something. I don't know what it was. And we had this one, of course, a very neat drawer in the kitchen. And I decided to just, you know, if I'm going to put something somewhere, it would be in this drawer. So I said, I'll go through this drawer again and look. And, you know, it wasn't, I mean, less than five seconds, and those keys were just right in front of me. I mean, now I'm in a dilemma. Do I, you know, go and call Jay and say this is it, or do I let him, you know, make a fool of himself in front of this guy? Anyway, I called the place, and I said, this is a long story, but here it is. You know, my husband's going to come, da-da-da-da-da, and the guy's saying, sure. And I said, just if, you know, someone that comes with a name like the hospital, just tell him that his wife found the keys, and, you know, everything is all right. Well, this guy puts the phone down, and Jay and the boys walk in, and Jay starts, I've got this desk everybody. The guy says, hold it, is your name like the hospital? I said, yes, and found the keys. Well, fortunately, Jay came home in a different way than when he left, and I, you know, it was just a little thing, a little thing, but it just reminded me, Lord, you are concerned about everything. And then the point of the whole, not even the point, but one thing that was disappointing, we opened the drawer, and all we found in there was nothing that we needed. But anyway, we have our keys now in two separate places, and the children are, you know, within this part of their life, we're touching either one of them. But I think we need to see that God is just so interested in anything that we do, anything that we do. And fortunately, the big things, it's very easy to come to Him for the little things. We need to be conditioned to that. How many times do we have a headache or feel poorly, or our children feel poorly, and we instantly go for the aspirin or the doctor or whatever, and we don't commit that time to prayer first. And, you know, we, Jay and I, have really learned to do this. It has been a learning process over the years that we want to pray about those things, and then anything that is done after that, we feel like God is ordering those steps. And we don't have that confidence if we don't do that beforehand. So Esther is on the right track here. She has called the fast for the people for her behalf, because the first thing they have to get through is getting her to the king and sparing her life. The fact that if she goes there, there is a possibility that, you know, she will not get the royal scepter pointed in her direction. So that is the first step she wants to call the fast, her priority there. This, we would say, is a radical situation. I mean, the life of a race is at stake. A radical situation requires a radical response. And Esther saw that. She took hold of that and was not afraid to make that radical move of not only the fasting and the praying. That is the easy part. But it's the walking through that, what you have prayed for, changing things in the unseen world before you see them worked out in the reality. And that is a principle that the world does not understand. And it's something that I don't know, we fully don't understand it. We just know that it works. We need to commit those things that we don't understand to the Lord first. Let him do the work up here, out here in the unseen. And then we can faithfully and strongly and confidently walk ahead to what we need to do. There may be a situation in your life, maybe it's not as life-threatening as Esther's where her whole race of people will be wiped out, but it is something just as important to you, a radical situation that you want to see it changed, a going nowhere situation. Does that require a radical response on your part? Are you willing to even venture into the possibility of that? Does it mean that you get up earlier, you change your sleeping patterns to get up earlier to pray about that situation? Does it mean that your TV watching time is cut back? You change one situation for the sake of changing another. And I think if you put it into balance, sleep compared to the life of someone that you want to see come to know the Lord, TV watching compared to what you want to do with your life, there is no comparison, is there? You really need to evaluate and then take those steps. Esther was willing to do it. Maybe fasting would be something that is new to you, a principle that Jay will talk a little bit more on later. If that's new to you, you might want to just investigate that and say, God, is this something that you would have me learn from today for the sake of changing another situation? Next thing Esther did, she was willing to be the answer to her prayer. I think she knew that before she went into it, that she was prepared for a time such as she was in, but she was willing. There has to be that willingness on our part to be used in that way. And how many times do we pray something and never expect God to have us be the answer to it? I mean, we pray it and we're hoping that, you know, sister so-and-so will be, you know, their heartstrings will be tugged and they will minister to someone. But, you know, many times God would have us be that answer to prayer. Those of you who are part of North Way know Roy and June Gunther. Roy is one of our elders. And a few years ago, they decided to build an addition onto their house. Now, if we go about doing that, Sister Jay and I, we would call someone in. We'd probably call Wallace Beck or someone that knows what they're doing. This is what we would like to have. Could you do this? Roy and June, if you know them, do not do that. Roy says, I will do it myself. And Roy can do it. He's an engineering background, and he set out to build this house. Well, June knew, or build this addition, June knew that that was something more than what Roy could handle on his own. So she was praying, God, you need to send someone to help Roy do this. I mean, this is a major. I mean, we're talking, you know, deepening the basement. I mean, extending the basement, this nice little sun porch on the back. I mean, it's not, you know, something that you just put your extra stuff on. I mean, this is living quarters. And she prayed and prayed, and I can remember the day she told me. She said, you know, I prayed that prayer, and the answer came back so clearly. I was to be that person. Now, if you know June, she is not in her 20s or 30s, even her 40s. She's in her 50s, I think. She's older than I am. And for me to undertake building something like that would just be beyond even maybe what I would be willing to do. But, you know, if you ever get a chance to see their little portfolio of pictures of progress, you will see June down here mixing cement. You will see June laying concrete. You will see June up on the roof. You will see June, little June, who is, you know, no bigger than a minute, doing things beyond what she, I know, physically and mentally knew she could handle. And that room is beautiful. It was not done in six months or a year. It took two years, if not longer, to complete that. And she was just so blessed. And many of us have been blessed through that whole example that she had of being willing to be the answer to the very prayer that she was praying. As Esther approached the time, the end of the three days is gone. Her time of praying and fasting is over. She sets out on a course. Now, if this were me, we'll see how far she's come from if I perish. I perish to what her response is. What was her one asset that she had? It was her beauty. And, you know, she did not let that go unadorned as she approached the king. She put on her royal robes. You know, she didn't go in curlers. And she did not go with, you know, anything that would not be appealing. She did all she could to present herself in the king's eyes so that she would find favor. And she also knew, I feel like she heard from God during this time. I don't think she could have done what she did without knowing confidently that God had been at work in the king's heart as well. She goes to the king and stands there. And then the ball is in his court, so to speak. He looks, and he looks up, and he sees her. And I'm sure rushing through his mind is, you know, Esther knows what's at stake here. You know, her life is in the balance. Why would she come? And immediately you sense that the king is intrigued by this. And immediately she finds favor, and he extends the royal scepter. And then she does not faint, which is what I think I would do. You know, she doesn't, you know, say, I can't believe what I'm seeing here. But she goes and she touches the top of the scepter. And then the king says, What is your request? You sense all along with Esther that there was more than an outer beauty there. You really sense that there was an inner beauty that came through. I think that's why the king picked her out above all the other girls that were there. If it was just beauty he was looking for, he could have had hundreds, and he probably did. But there was an inner beauty there because it says he loved her. And I don't get the feel from the word here that he was a king that loved many in the love of the sense that we talk about. So Esther has found favor. She approaches, and then her request, what does she say? She does not blurt out her whole, what she's done the last three days, the last, you know, few weeks of dealings with Mordecai. She does not blurt it out. She is very prepared for what is to take place. And she asks, Will you and Haman come to dinner tonight? Now in our eyes, that might seem like not something to risk your life for. I'm sure the king was thinking that. Why does Esther come just to invite me to dinner at the risk of losing her life? So I think the king is very quickly interested in what this is all about. And if there's anything that we as women have, we can have a mystique about us that can be appealing, a mystique that can cause not just men but even in everything. Sometimes we tend to tell everything. There are times when we need to order what we say. We need to know that what we're saying is going to be what needs to be heard. How many times have you heard, well you probably never have because we're all growing this, but you know when there's a good piece of gossip going around, you know, and you say, and this is what I've heard, you know, and then you add on things that you haven't heard, you know, just to sort of make it better. But Esther did not do that. She takes it a step at a time. And the king, I mean, doesn't sit there and say, well, I'll let you know tonight, you know, or in an hour. He quickly reverses the sin. Verse 5, I think, in chapter 5. So the king says, Bring Haman quickly that we may do as Esther desires. Quickly. I mean, he is ready to find out what this is all about. So Esther comes to the, she's willing to be that answer. She does all that she can do to present herself to the king to be found in his favor. She is received. She is prepared mentally for what she wants to say. She has thought it through. And she has her plan in mind. Third thing Esther does is that she sees that the answer to her prayer, remember ultimately we want the prayer, her prayer is that the people will be saved. The race will not be wiped out. But in that we see that the answer prayer is a process. I'm not sure how I worded that up there. If it were not a process, she would have gone there and said, Do you know what Haman has done? Have you read this edict, you know, word for word that you put your seal on? Do you actually know what you have approved? She doesn't do that. She goes there with a request. She has the feast. She gives God time to work. How many times do we rush in with all the details, all the facts, whether it be to your husband or to another person or whatever, and you've got plan A, B, and C worked out, steps 1, 2, and 3 from beginning to end. This is how it's going to be. And we don't give God time to work. God had a much bigger plan than just saving the people, a much bigger plan. He not only wanted to save them, he wanted to get the very root of the problem, and that root of the problem was Haman. Haman was the one that had the hate for the Jews, for the Israelites. It wasn't the king. You know, he, as I say, he was just sort of given a blanket okay to this. He hadn't really thought it through. But it was important that Haman, that Haman be done away with as well, the root of that problem done away with. How many times do we put Band-Aids in situations, you know, and patch it up here, you know, and put our finger in the dike here so it won't explode, or do this or do that, and we don't get down to the very root of what is causing the problem. And this is what Esther allowed God to do. He allowed God to be at work. She allowed God to be at work, to do a very thorough and complete work for his people. And you know, if we will allow him that time to do that, he'll do that for us. It is in God's character to be complete, to see things through. He doesn't want to just take us so far, and then just leave us there, and then we have to fend for ourselves. He wants to do a complete work. So with Esther today, we see that she was not only physically prepared, she was mentally prepared. She knew what was going on. As I say, I don't doubt that God spoke to her. And she had a confidence. You see a confidence in her now that we didn't see before. You don't see, if I perish, I perish. We see, this is what needs to happen. This is what's going to go. Okay, I'm done. I'm thinking about building an addition. I could just see Carol mixing cement and climbing on the roof. Would you go ahead and put up that outline again, please, Adele? Let me reiterate this, because I feel like it's really at the core of what we're going to just leave here with today. I think Carol really covered this very accurately. Let me step this way. One second on that, Adele. Let me ask you a question, Carol. What do you do when you face an impasse? What do you do when you're in a situation that has not changed? And Esther, again, is just for us a picture. The Bible tells us that these things were given as lessons. So, all right, none of us are standing on the line of seeing the nation collapse. So we don't have to worry about that. But maybe you're in a situation where your family is about to collapse. Or maybe you're in a situation of such frustration personally. You have not seen anything really happen in your life in the last three years. And you are just frustrated with that. What do you do with it? What posture do you take when all of the ordinary routines of things, i.e., watching the 700 Club and waiting for Pat to have a word of knowledge for you, going to worship every Sunday and hoping that just something's going to be said that's going to set you free, what do you do when all the things that you've tried before haven't seemed to work? Now, I just need to say that I think more of us than would want to admit it publicly feel that way in at least one area. Now, we might not feel that way about all of our life, I mean every part of our life, but there's at least one area, and a significant area I'm talking about now. None of us are perfect. I'm not saying perfection, but I'm saying one area where you feel that this just isn't God's best. This isn't what He really wants for me. What do you do? And Esther pictures for us what to do when something's got to change. And she pictures it in a way that's very graphic. And I think Carol spelled out the real order of it. Now, let's look at it again, okay? Number one, the first thing she does is she brings it before God because only He can change a human heart. Alright? There's no point in going on and trying to do the others unless you come to Him first and allow Him the freedom to work. Now, I have prepared a lot of little goodies here about fasting, but I'm not going to go over them because I think that really the issue isn't the details of fasting in our lives today. Really, if you want to learn how to fast, I'll be happy to recommend to you a couple of good, brief booklets. I made a whole list of different things, why's and wherefores, but as far as I'm concerned, until you come to the point of seeing that something's got to happen, fasting's just a nice spiritual thing that only those who really love God get into. And today, that's not what the Holy Spirit is really dealing with. He's dealing with our willingness to confront the things in our lives that aren't changing. That's what He's talking about today. One way to change it is through coming to the Lord in a fast. If you don't understand fasting, all we're talking about is, I'll just define it, the willingness to forsake the normal routine of eating for the purpose of spiritual release. The willingness to forsake the normal routine of nourishing our bodies, of eating, for the purpose of spiritual release. And Isaiah chapter 58 is, to me, the consummate revelation of the release that comes when we fast. And you read that carefully, and you'll see a list of things that God promises will happen when we enter into a fast that He has chosen. And I do think I'll show you that. Isaiah 58, beginning in verse 7, these are the things that are promised. Practical and visible results of fasting. First of all, you'll just have more to share, more food. That's to say that you're going to have more left over from what you had. In other words, if you don't eat, you have something left to give someone else. Now that's a very simple thing, obviously, but it really is a bigger principle. Number two, you'll be developing a genuine concern. In the 58th chapter of Isaiah, it says that you will pour out to the oppressed and the needy. And when you fast, what you'll realize is, God will give you increased sensitivity to the needs of others. Remember what we said the first week? How does a ministry start? How do you come into a ministry? By looking for God to show you one person to care for. You'll see a genuine concern growing for those around you. The next thing that you'll discover is that there'll be an increased flow of ministry. You'll begin to sense that God is using you. A flow of ministry will increase. Number four, you'll see answers to prayer. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. How many of you want the Lord to say, Here I am to you? I'm not talking here, let me say, about a three week fast, necessarily. I'm talking about just taking a day. Getting aside, getting your responsibilities out of the way the day before, so that you can have a day to focus on the Lord. I'll tell you, if you'll do that, you will find God will meet you in some specific ways. And the more you discipline yourself to do it, the more you're going to reap the benefits. Next you'll find that, listen to this, if you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of wickedness, you'll find that God will take away from you judgment and criticism. And you'll find that what you thought was so wrong with, and you put that name in there, you know, your home group leader, your husband, the Lord, you'll find that He'll take out of you that spirit of criticism and that pointing of the finger. Next, you'll find that God will bring personal blessing into your life, and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire with good things. That's verse 11. He'll satisfy you continually and fulfill your desire for good things. And finally, you'll find unity and edification. And that's verse 12. You shall be called the repairer of the breach and the restorer of streets to dwell in. I'll tell you, these are just part of the promises that God commits to those who will fast. Now, that is just one way of getting serious before God. Carol mentioned a couple other ones. How many of you are willing to turn off the TV set for an hour a day just to be with the Lord? You're so desperate to see something change that you'll alter your routine. That's what the Lord's calling for today. All right. The second thing that Esther did that Carol mentioned, and I think we just want to reiterate, was if you're willing to pray, you've got to be willing to be part of the answer. There are too many times that we want God to do something, but we're not willing to be part of it. Never forget when Jesus said to those who were crying out, God, look at all these hungry people. Send them back home so they can eat. What did Jesus say to those disciples? You feed them. And that's the word of the Lord to us, ladies. God, how many of us here today have said, Lord, why don't you do this at North Way? Why don't you send someone along who will do this at North Way? You know what the Lord might be saying to you today? You feed them. You be the one. You be available. Oh, that God would pour out that kind of a spirit on us. Finally, just to reiterate, Carol said that this may not happen this week. And I am more and more convinced, and we're going to look next time, I might mention, at the number of examples in the Bible of how the Lord required of women, uniquely, perseverance. You're not going to like this, ladies. I was kind of, when I shared this with Carol a few weeks back, I was startled. It is very, very rare to see the Lord moving on behalf of a woman the first time she asks. Oh, no. I'm just sharing what the Bible, I mean, you can, we can have a real battle next week if you like. We can talk real straightforward about it. But you know what it's saying to me? God is going to require perseverance. Endurance. And we're going to see that it's a process to getting our prayers answered. Do you want to see change? Those three things. Come to God first in prayer, fasting, commit it to Him, number two. Be willing to be part of the answer, number three. Expect it to be a process. Esther beautifully represents to me the fact that it doesn't necessarily happen the first time you open your mouth. And as Carol said, I see in that a beautiful illustration of God giving her a terrific, well, I'm going to use feminine, well, mystique, I guess that's an alright term. But the strategy that she used was something else. She, I don't know if Carol mentioned this, but what happened between the first feast and the second feast? Did she mention that? What happened between the first feast that Esther called and invited Haman to come to and the second one where she finally told the whole story? What happened? Remember? That's when the king had the dream, the king couldn't sleep and he said, bring me the books and let's see who blessed the kingdom. And it was found that Mordecai blessed the kingdom. And so the king called Haman in and said, what should we do for someone who blessed the kingdom? And of course, Haman said, oh, that's me. And he said, I'd put him on the royal horse and I'd ride him through the town and let him be king for a day. And Haman was just getting ready for old King Ahasuerus to say, that's you, Haman. And he said, that's a great idea, Haman. Call for Mordecai. And put him on the horse and ride him through town. And of course, unbelievable repercussions began at that point. And Haman, as we know later, is totally foiled and ultimately the victim of his own design. So, what happens as the process goes on? God is moving sovereignly. Isn't that great? When you think nothing is happening, that's when God's moving. I'll say that again. When you think nothing is happening, that's when God is moving. If you're waiting on Him, that's when it's happening. Okay? Praise the Lord. Who has a question before we disperse today? Yes. Good. I think that that's right. My sister is saying that when you begin that fast, you have to be willing to let God have His way. You have to surrender to what God wants. And many times, ladies, we'll come to the Lord to fast for what we've already discerned. You know, that this is the way it's got to be, God. I mean, it's got to happen this way or I'm not going to be happy. Well, you may find yourself uncomfortable in the end because God will not be manipulated even by fasting. You need to surrender. Nancy? But I didn't say that. Just erase that from your notes. I didn't say that. You've got to come next week. I told you I'm going to talk about that next week. Next week. Go ahead. You jump ahead this week and just start studying the occasions of women and requests. Would you? Okay. What did I say? No, I don't think she was manipulating. No, I think she was... I think... Remember that. No, that was what she did first. She brought it to the Lord. She laid it before Him for three days. Okay? And all I can think was that she was Spirit-led to move along according to that process. Yes, absolutely it is. Okay. That's right. Now, if she'd gone on and done that, then we would have to have assumed that that was her idea. You said that. I'm not saying any of that. Okay, ladies, be careful. I don't want to be misunderstood. I saw a hand in the back. Remember now, I didn't say anythin