it is indeed a privilege to have this opportunity to share the infallible holy
word of god with you this morning i always tell people that they should excuse my african accent
but i am sure the holy spirit will help you understand what the lord want to communicate
to us this morning the passage has been read and i'm thankful for the reader was fluent and
i'm sure you understood it clearly as i was reading through this part of esther i come up with the
heading or my sermon topic embracing the purpose of god in you embracing the purpose of god in you
and the verse 14 according to me is a text verse or key verse let me also read it to us
for if you keep silent at a time at this time relief and deliverance will rise for the jews from another
place but you and your father's family for the house will perish and who knows whether you have
not come to the kingdom for a time such as this now a i looked at a few points that i want to focus on
from this passage to me it is send us on trusting god and if someone trusts god the person live faithfully
if a person trusts god look up to god even in times that are distrustful
with the hope that god will make it if someone trusts god the person fulfills the purpose of god in and
through him or her now i have got what i call the big idea we tend to summarize everything in case you may miss
what i want to say but this summary will be enough for you this is what that african guy was trying and
failing to say god has a purpose for you and for all of us in his mission we need to embrace it with joy
god has a purpose for for us in his mission so you and i need to embrace that purpose with joy
everything that we are doing is to cooperate with god in his mission with the peoples of this world that
they may all come to know him as the only god worth of worship and praise now if you look at the book of
esther it does not mention the triune god in any way god father son and holy spirit you don't find it in
any part of esther but the deliverance the hand of god is clearly seen and for the jews after this
deliverance they had a feast they were celebrating in susa which is called the parim
in remembrance of the remembrance of the deliverance that god had done to them so if we look a chapter
before that's chapter three and beyond we find that esther after the the queen disobeyed
the king the king was displaced and esther finally landed in the king king's palace as the new queen
so all those we may ask ourselves how can a foreign jew become the king in the queen in a foreign land
it's all in god's providence and design that she ended up being there and god has a purpose
which these people the jews were not aware of but we are aware because everything is now put together
for us to see but for them they didn't know otherwise they even asking why is esther ended up in the in
the kingdom of this foreign land uh in chapter three we are told that her man has been elevated above all the
the king's nobles and the king ordered that her man should be respected people should kneel before him
and honor him this was happening to everyone in susa including the royal um
um guys at the gate when her man was passing through they would kneel down in honor of him but there was one
one guy the jewish guy modekai could not do that his fellows talked to him
want to encourage him to respect her man the highest guy in susa but her man could not instead he told them
that he was a jew what was it important that he told them of his identity being a jew was separate
to to to him and to to modekai because a jew was were the people of god who only worship god and not any other
of god and to modekai kneeling for her man and owner him was idolatry which was forbidden and is
still forbidden for us as the church of god so he could not do that and was not even aware of the
consequences but could not go outside the guidance and the will of god
the word we can see also in babylon that there are some boys also from jude from judah daniel and his
three friends they faced almost the same scenario in the early days of exile they were supposed they
were cohesed to worship the king in daniel's case and for his friends the statue that the king
has put in place but they couldn't even if they were foreigners in the foreign land they kept their
identity otherwise it is an encouragement for us as christians who are foreigners in this land we are
sojourners on this world that we should keep our identity as christian no matter the challenges that
might surround us no matter what the world will say let us keep our identity even if it comes with a
challenge some of which is very painful but if we can listen to what the three friends of daniel says
they said god is able to save but even if you may choose not to save them they were not going to kneel
before an idol the jews who were faithful to god knew that idolatry was against god and they didn't want to
sin against god in the same scenario even in our in our time today there are some laws that are against
the will of god how are we going to respond to them as christians are we giving in because we are citizens of
the land are we going to live in the land are we going by the floor because everyone else is doing it
more the guy alone could not kneel before haman and it had the consequences when haman saw that
well haman was told that look this jewish guy is not respecting you as the king ordered that you should
and he was very very upset and he wanted to do away with modekai and the extent of his anger and hatred
also spelled off to the other jewish people he wanted to destroy the entire jewish people in the
127 provinces of susa so as the highest noble of the king it was easy for him to go and convince the
king that the jewish people that the jewish people dead should be told should be said that they should be
destroyed completely from susa and the king agreed and gave me him a signet ring to make that decree
or a law which was irrevocable in persia so in other ways the jews were meant to be destroyed completely
and he offered to give 10 000 talents to the treasury i tried to find out how much could it be in pounds
and it is around the three million pounds for the destruction of the jewish people we can imagine the
hatred that he had this came to note modekai and he saw the decree that they were as good as dead
because the deity was set for them to be destroyed modekai thought of a that esther could help but
surprisingly enough modekai did not go to esther straight he tore his clothes and humbled himself
before the lord putting sick clothes wailing loudly
and he was in ashes
the same thing applies to all the other jews who saw this decree they did the same looked up to god
they trusted god even if the irrevocable decree has been put but god has the power sorry to reverse it
so they did looked at god
after looking at god and the medicare was in the same clothes
the clothes esther's eunuch saw him and he reported to esther it did not go down well with esther why did
my cousin in the same clothes and ashes so she thought of an idea of doing away and bringing
modekai new clothes but that was not the answer to modekai instead modekai did to tell them that he could
not take the clothes then he attack attack attack was sent to go and find out the reason why modekai was in
say clothes
and modekai told
attack everything and he even gave a cup of the decree to make sure that esther could see that they
were really in danger they are about to be killed instead instead they were as good as dead as dead
because they're dead they were only waiting for the dead for them to be destroyed so they were just good
as dead people but when esther had this she had also a dilemma that no one could go to the inner court
without invitation doing so would result in someone being killed unless the king extends his
he saved them that someone is is said to leave otherwise going to the king without invitation
was calling for one's death also so esther sent back
to the king without a doubt to the answer but yeah even if she felt sorry and had seen the degree
but it is very difficult for her to go to the king fearing for her own life
but modekai did not back off he kept on pressurizing esther to go and stand in between in the gap for the
the jews to be spared of death
if we look to the key verse that i read
verse 14
there are two important things that modekai got clearly
that no nothing can stand in the plan of god with his people so he's telling esther that if esther could not
intervene god's plan to save the jews will come to pass in the other way which he might not even know
so but he was sure that god will save his people but how he was not clear about it
and he goes on to say and to talk about god's providence that esther's being in the palace was in god's
providence at a time as they were facing now god knew the end from the beginning so he had prepared
esther to be an object that he would use to save the jews god has done that before i just want to read
from exodus 3 verses 7 and 8a when god was talking to moses he said then the lord said i have surely been
i i have sure the lord said i have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in egypt and they have
heard their cry because of their taskmasters i know they are suffering and i have come down to deliver
them out of the hand of egyptians now the lord is talking to moses he said he has come down and he's
going to deliver them but who is going to deliver the israelite that the people see it is moses so god
works through people in his providence whom are his instruments to perform his purpose with the people
this was the same thing that mordecai was telling esther that you are in the office of the queen for a
time as this so if you don't go that being disobedient to god
because god had prepared you for a time as this we are trapped in death we are about to be killed but
you are the only person who can come to our rescue as you can reach the king as the queen but unfortunately
esther is saying 30 days has passed before she was invited into the palace so it was again a threat but
they could not back off i looked again in some parts of scripture and see the providence of god which is
timely like it is now with esther if we look at joseph joseph was sold by his brothers and it took quite
some time for him to go into the high post in egypt but he only got there at the appropriate time to save the people
also david his father sent him at the appropriate time to go and fight for the israelites so god is
the way of doing things is the way of doing things is timely
and he uses the people at the appropriate time if we look at genesis 50 verse 20 david is telling
his brothers that when they were selling him they used it for evil but usually god used the same thing
they used for evil for good that he would save the people from a hunger as the same as also with david
he had gone to the helpless uh israelites including saul the king and his brothers but god uses david to
go and help the useless and helpless people of god all this was pointing towards our lord jesus christ
who came to save the trapped sinner who was helpless to help himself or the other one
so jesus came to help us from death that is awaiting us because of sin we were all trapped in sin but jesus
came and showed and made a way for us back to the father because being away from the father is equal to
death if you can look at jim look 15 the parable of the prodigal son the father said let us make merry for
this my son was lost and is found he was dead and is alive so being away from the father is equally dead
so jesus came to make way for us back to the father and he demonstrated it to us through that love on the
cross when he was crucified and he did his part and what did he say as the father sent me i also
sent you as i said earlier on that god calls the people and prepared them for a particular time to intervene
and save the trapped people who are trapped in sin right jesus did it and he gave us the responsibility
from the great commission it is not the pastor's role it's every christian's role to participate
in the church in the church today what is happening today might not have happened because we were not
there you and me what is happening with the church today is happening because you and me are there whom
god has prepared to stand in the gap for the church what is happening in your family with regard to christianity
was not today but is happening today because you are there in your family what is happening in your
neighborhood is happening because you are there for god what is happening in scotland is happening
because you are there to stand for god of course there might be consequences but we should always
stand in the gap god wants you and me to fulfill the purpose yes with the people
normally people would say we don't have resources to reach out we don't have the capacity to go and share the gospel
but today you can reach the world from where you are there are people from different parts of the world next to you
they are different from different parts of the world at your workplace we cross paths from with
the people from different parts of the world who do not have christ but god's purpose is having all peoples
come to worship him and to realize him as the god worth of praise i was checking through the joshua project
on the number of unreached he said there are totally 17 446 people groups in the world of which 3 000
are unreached 3 000 is equal to 290 million people that are unreached by by by unreached they mean the people
that are unengaged these are engaged and unreached then the joshua project goes on to define the unreached also
as less than 2 percent of evangelical christians is also regarded as unreached in this amount to more than a billion people
so we have a responsibility brothers and sisters to share the gospel with the people in the different
ways that god lies on our hearts we are all properly positioned god has already done the groundwork in our lives
and we have a responsibility to take other people to the same savior through the proclamation of his word
and our lives as well the way we live should always reflect christ how much of christ do i show to the people
i i talk to how much of christ do i reflect in my family i was talking to the students one day and to say
if we want to go and evangelize who are comfortable that we go to the neighbor to their neighborhood and
share the gospel with they loved and they say i know the answer the people back there your life and
their life is just the same how can you go and evangelize somebody who sees you doing the other side
of the story than what you say you are
i was looking at a quotation which is presumed to be from saint francis of assist that we must always
proclaim the gospel and if possible use the words we must always proclaim the gospel of christ
and if possible use the words meaning to say our life speaks more than what we can do with our mouths
one day in korea i met somebody in a coffee shop and i wanted to share the gospel with
then she said to me what christianity are you telling me our neighbors are christians
she was buddhist she said they are life in our life there's no difference so what is i telling me
what difference is that christ going to do in my life which i'm not seeing in my neighbors
so we might be obstacles to taking peoples back to god we are having challenges in doing so
some of which can be even the constitution of the land some of which could be
material things which might not be having some of which it might be to keep friendship
because if you tell the truth to a friend the friend may not receive you well
so it comes with challenges and consequences but how are we going to deal with it
are we going to respond to the surrounding are we going to embrace what is within us and not and forget
to follow our our lord and his desire whom we are participating with in his mission to making the peoples of the world know him
just think for a moment the opportunities that the lord has for you to share his truth
the world
if his word is the truth as it is you and i have got a responsibility to do where we are at the moment
and god has given us the capacity to be his instruments to achieve that normally we look at other people and say this is the work of the elders
the elders can do this and look at this story
this is esther a lady who is saving the lives of the entire jewish people the example i gave with
um david his brother is when we undermining why did
with the woman with the woman with the woman to do live there's a little sheep of our father they wanted
him to go back but he didn't back off because he wanted to fulfill his mission
the man to do it joseph the same we could tell that the the route that david took until he gets the top position in egypt
but he followed it faithfully and made it the life if for david when he wanted to even um made king
the father did not invite him when samuel wanted to annoy the king because that young boy what can he do
so we may also take that for ourselves who am i in this congregation i am just a lady i am just a
student i am just a foreigner i am just i don't have any office in the church but you have christ
who wants who has come down on you to use you to get to the people that you want to get to you
may we consider as we are sitting there
what god is saying to you as an individual where god wants you to make a difference
which gap god wants you to stand in to connect him with these people to connect him with the people
who are still in the dark to connect him with the people who are trapped in sin
it is not about you or me it's all about him i was telling the people in the general assembly that when
i was made principal at dumissani in the situation that i was surrounding there i said this is too big
a task for me but the sermon that was preached by david marideth turned my perspective he preached from joshua
and as i was with moses my servant so i will be with with you so the same thing with you brothers and
sisters there is a need for you to take a step and reach to those people who need christ
christ some people do not even know christ some people say they are christians in court but they
are not evangelic evangelical we need to get to those people with the true gospel of god so that together
we become evangelical the people who people through whom people the world will see christ
christ
right i'm leaving you with this challenge that today try to identify
the purpose of god in you and you trust god with that purpose and take the first step
even if you may have challenges esther said if i perish i perish she had given it to
herself to die for the purpose of the jews
god's people you and i are god's people his instrument to reach out to the unreached
the truth his instrument to rescue those who are trapped in sin so that the world will be filled
with the knowledge of god amen
let me pray father god thank you for reminding us