For Such A Time As This

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Who knows, perhaps you have come to the kingdom

for such a time as this.

– Esther 4:14

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

POSITIONPREPARATION

PURPOSE

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

“Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.”

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

POSITION– condition with reference to place; location; situation.– situation or condition, esp. with relation to favorable or unfavorable

circumstances– status or standing: He has a position to maintain in the community.– a post of employment

PREPARATION– to put in proper condition or readiness

PURPOSE– the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.– an intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Position: For Such A Time As This

Meet Esther:• An orphan• Her mother and father had died• Adopted by her cousin• From a persecuted minority• Placed in a harem

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Position: For Such A Time As This

• Drama, Drama, Drama!– 1:10-12 “On the seventh day of the party, the king,

high on the wine, ordered his personal servants to bring him Queen Vashti resplendent in her royal crown. He wanted to show off her beauty to the guests and officials. She was extremely good-looking. But Queen Vashti refused to come, refused the summons delivered by the eunuchs.”

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Position: For Such A Time As This

• King Xerxes was seeking a new queen after Vashti disrespected him.– 2:2-3 “The king’s young attendants stepped in and

got the ball rolling: “Let’s begin a search for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint officials in every province of his kingdom to bring every beautiful young virgin to the palace… and to the harem… to put them through their beauty treatments.”

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Preparation: For Such A Time As This

Esther’s Preparation • Mordecai’s wisdom and encouragement

– 2:10-11 Esther didn’t say anything about her family and racial background because Mordecai had told her not to. Every day Mordecai strolled beside the court of the harem to find out how Esther was and get news of what she was doing.

• A time of waiting, loneliness– 2:12 - Each girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes after she

had completed the twelve months of prescribed beauty treatments—six months’ treatment with oil of myrrh followed by six months with perfumes and various cosmetics.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Position: For Such A Time As This

• Chosen as Queen– 2:17-18 Now the king was attracted to Esther

more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Purpose: For Such A Time As This

More Drama!• Haman = highest ranking official in the government• Haman plotted against Mordecai & against Esther’s people

– 3:6 Meanwhile, having learned that Mordecai was a Jew, Haman hated to waste his fury on just one Jew; he looked for a way to eliminate not just Mordecai but all Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

– 3:8-9 Haman then spoke with King Xerxes: “There is an odd set of people scattered through the provinces of your kingdom who don’t fit in. Their customs and ways are different from those of everybody else. Worse, they disregard the king’s laws. They’re an affront; the king shouldn’t put up with them. If it please the king, let orders be given that they be destroyed. I’ll pay for it myself.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Purpose: For Such A Time As This

Esther had to decide what to do:– 4:8 Mordecai also gave [the eunuch] a copy of the

bulletin that had been posted in Susa ordering the massacre so he could show it to Esther when he reported back with instructions to go to the king and intercede and plead with him for her people.

– 4:11 “Everyone knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited: death. The one exception is if the king extends his gold scepter; then he or she may live.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Purpose: For Such A Time As This

• Stay silent, or act?– 4:13-14 Mordecai sent her this message: “Don’t

think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

For Such A Time As This

• Esther was courageous and wise– 5:2-4 When he noticed Queen Esther standing in

the court, he was pleased to see her; the king extended the gold scepter in his hand. Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. The king asked, “And what’s your desire, Queen Esther? What do you want? Ask and it’s yours—even if it’s half my kingdom!” “If it please the king,” said Esther, “let the king come with Haman to a dinner I’ve prepared for him.”

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

For Such A Time As This

Patience and planning…– 5:6-8 As they were drinking the wine, the king

said, “Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn’t too much to ask! Just ask.” Esther answered, “Here’s what I want. If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I’ll give a straight answer to the king’s question.”

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

For Such A Time As This

• Haman bragged…– 5:10 Haman continued, “Queen Esther invited me

to a private dinner… And she’s invited me to another one tomorrow. But I can’t enjoy any of it when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King’s Gate.” His wife Zeresh and all his friends said, “Build a gallows. First thing in the morning speak with the king; get him to order Mordecai hanged on it. Then happily go with the king to dinner.” Haman liked that. He had the gallows built.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

For Such A Time As This

• The Plot Thickens…– 6:1-4 That night the king couldn’t sleep. He ordered the record

book to be brought and read to him. They came across the story there about the time that Mordecai had exposed the plot of two royal eunuchs who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.

– The king asked, “What great honor was given to Mordecai for this?” “Nothing,” replied the king’s servants who were in attendance. “Nothing has been done for him.”

– The king said, “Is there anybody out in the court?” Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king’s palace to talk to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had built for him.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

For Such A Time As This

• 6:6 When Haman entered, the king said, “What would be appropriate for the man the king especially wants to honor?” Haman thought to himself, “He must be talking about honoring me—who else?”

• 6:10 “Go and do it,” the king said to Haman. “Don’t waste another minute. Take the robe and horse and do what you have proposed to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the King’s Gate. Don’t leave out a single detail of your plan.”

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

For Such A Time As This

2nd Dinner (Patience!)– 7:1- So the king and Haman went to dinner with Queen Esther. At this

second dinner, while they were drinking wine the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what would you like? Half of my kingdom! Just ask and it’s yours.”

– Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it please the king, give me my life, and give my people their lives. “We’ve been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed—sold to be massacred, eliminated. If we had just been sold off into slavery, I wouldn’t even have brought it up; our troubles wouldn’t have been worth bothering the king over.” King Xerxes exploded, “Who? Where is he? This is monstrous!”

– “An enemy. An adversary. This evil Haman,” said Esther. Haman was terror-stricken before the king and queen.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

For Such A Time As This

• 7:9-10 Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, spoke up: “Look over there! There’s the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai, who saved the king’s life. It’s right next to Haman’s house—seventy-five feet high!”

• The king said, “Hang him on it!” So Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai. And the king’s hot anger cooled.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

For Such A Time As This

• 8:1-2 That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, archenemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king because Esther had explained their relationship. The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther appointed Mordecai over Haman’s estate.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

For Such A Time As This

• 8:7-8 King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew: “I’ve given Haman’s estate to Esther and he’s been hanged on the gallows because he attacked the Jews. So go ahead now and write whatever you decide on behalf of the Jews; then seal it with the signet ring.” (An order written in the king’s name and sealed with his signet ring is irrevocable.)

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

POSITIONPREPARATION

PURPOSE

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

POSITION

• You have a unique position God has placed you in with purpose… Right now!– 1 Peter 2:9-10 - But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for

the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you - from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. (MSG)

• No matter where you are, or what you’ve done.– Psalm 103:12 And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has

separated us from our sins.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

PREPARATION

• Esther had someone to encourage her (Mordecai)– Proverbs 27:17 - You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend

sharpens another.

• Can be a lonely, silent season – Job 23:8-10 “I travel East looking for him—I find no one; then

West, but not a trace; I go North, but he’s hidden his tracks; then South, but not even a glimpse. But he knows where I am and what I’ve done. He can cross-examine me all he wants, and I’ll pass the test with honors.

• Submit to the preparation– “Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is

made in the small ones.”

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

PURPOSE

• All of us were created with a specific task to accomplish.– Ephesians 2:10 - For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for

good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

• God is able to do things in our lives, through the power of the Holy Spirit, which are far beyond what we can imagine.– Ephesians 3:20 - Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all

that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

PROMISESJoshua 1:9• ...Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be

discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. (NIV)

Romans 8:28• That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love

for God is worked into something good. (MSG) Jeremiah 29:11• "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to

prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Who knows, perhaps YOU have come to the kingdom

for such a time as this.

– Esther 4:14

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS . 01.2011 WOMEN’S BREAKFAST

Next Tentative Date:Extraordinary Women’s Breakfast

SATURDAY, APRIL 910:30 am

EMF-Racinewww.emfellowship.org