YOUR DESTINY, YOUR CHOICE!!

TEXT:  ESTHER 4:16 (CHRIST OUR ADVOCATE) (He will deliver His people)

This book is about the “great deliverance” of the Jews from extermination during the time after the Babylonian captivity.

Have you ever given thought to why you were born or what your role is in life?  

During my childhood, I had thoughts of what I would be professionally when I grew up.  I wondered who I would marry and have children with, etc.  So I began to plan my life out.  

• Proverbs 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.  

We may make our plans, but God has the last word.  

• Proverbs 16:9  A man’s heart deviseth his way:  but the LORD directeth his steps.  

You can make plans, but God directs your action.  Despite your plans, God has His plans for you as well.  It’s called “destiny”, meaning your future or pre-ordained path of your life was ordered beforehand by God!  

Proverbs 16 lets us know that everything the LORD has made has its destiny, and the destiny of the wicked is destruction.

• Romans 8:29: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  

It is not just that God knew that you would exist or knew some facts about you; it was people/persons whom He foreknew – those He thought of in a personal saving relationship.  He “predestined” meaning that He planned they (you & me) would ultimately be like Him, conformed to the image of His Son.

God has a plan for you and me.  He puts us in the right place at the right time to serve Him and accomplish His will.  At the same time, let’s be clear that Satan has a plan for you too.  He hates God and His people and is always on the scene.  He lurks about so as to steal, kill, and destroy your influence and stop you from achieving God’s intended purpose for your life.  But “it’s your destiny, your choice”.

It’s no accident nor coincidence that you are here.  It’s no accident in relation to the job you work, where you live, relationships you encounter, or friends you meet.  It’s no accident the president-elect is who he is (Donald Trump); it’s provident.  

Our text shows how God uses teamwork to shape the nation.  Mordecai and Esther were summoned by divine subpoena for this time and for this task.  When a subpoena is issued, you don’t have a choice in the matter.  “Teamwork works”!  This success of their individual roles, even their very survival, depended entirely upon their unity.  It also showed how God destroys those who try to harm His people.  Be reminded that God is faithful to destroy Satan and His sovereign purposes will prevail!

The King Ahasuerus (a title used by King Xerxes) threw his big party and summoned his wife Vashti to present herself there wearing only her crown to show off her beauty.  She refused and the king’s advisers urged him to dethrone her.  Then they made another lead decision and foolishly promoted Haman to a higher seat as Prime Minister.  He was a pagan man, godless and evil.  He was affluent, successful and wanted to decide whether or not to exterminate God’s people, the Jews.

The King commanded all other officials to pay honor and bow to Haman.  But Mordecai, a God fearing man, refused to pay honor or bow to Haman, and it infuriated him to the point he plotted to kill Mordecai.

Haman devises a series of mixed truths to present to the King (but the letter didn’t identify Haman as the source):

(1) There are certain people scattered abroad in your kingdom:  

(2) Their laws are different from ours (half-truth) - making the king believe they’re disloyal:  

(3) They do not obey the king’s laws, especially not bowing to him (Haman).  

The King trusted Haman and didn't see through the smoke screen.  Lastly, the smell of the gas-chamber was already in the room, and he states, “This doesn’t profit the King to tolerate such a people”.

“Master propaganda at work”, and Haman persuades the King that the Jews should be destroyed with the King not realizing that his new Queen, Esther, was a Jew.  So Haman is given freedom to do as he pleases, and a decree goes out that all Jews throughout the land will be killed.  Cold-bloodedness of the decree was more gruesome by setting the date this catastrophe will take place, signed in the name of King Xerxes, and sealed with his signet ring. The King and Haman celebrated the signing over a drink.  “The handwriting is on the wall”!  “The verdict is annihilation”!

The Jews are devastated!  Mordecai rents his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes.  When a response to a decree calls for “sackcloth and ashes”, it’s big!  Sackcloth symbolizes an uncomfortable state of mind – “mourning”.  Sackcloth was made of coarse material and goat hair - it was uncomfortable to wear.  The “ashes” represented desolation and ruin.  Ashes accompanied with sackcloth means you’re talking about a “national disaster”.

Mordecai made no bones about the way he was feeling about the decree.  He walked about the city wailing loudly and bitterly (Esther 4:1-2).  He wasn’t the only one grieving.  In every province to which the edict and order of the King came, there was great mourning among the Jews; fasting and praying over the land.

Sounds like America today when candidate Trump promised as president that all Mexicans would be shipped out of this country in his first one hundred days of office and build a very high wall to keep them out.  The Muslims are under scrutiny because the Isis band is believed to be a derivative of that nation.  He wants Blacks back in Africa.  I and my family and many, many others were born here in AMERICA, AND IN AMERICA WE WILL STAY!  For the other “part” America, he has brought the KKK nation into the White House as president-elect.  America is mourning today.

In the Old Testament, when God’s people were in trouble, God had a deliverer waiting in the wings.  Haman may have rolled the dice thinking the spirit realm will decide the fate of the Jews.  

• Proverbs 16:33: The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.

We roll the dice, but it’s God who determines exactly how the dice fall.  My point is this:  God is over Satan.  Yes Haman was rolling the dice, but God was controlling the dice.  No difference today.  President-elect Trump, a man of arrogance and clearly one with the “I”, “I”, “I” disease is rolling his dice, but God will determine how they fall!  Your destiny!  Your choice!

God put Mordecai and Esther in the right place at the right time for such a time as this.  I’m not sure if Mordecai and Esther understood God’s plan for their life.  It really didn’t matter because God had purposed them to deliver the Jews out of their enemy’s hand.  Their job was to trust God, obey God, and walk in Him daily.

THE TOOLS NEEDED FOR GOD’S MISSION:

Preparation Time:  God is a God of order.  When He gives an assignment, He doesn’t leave it for you to manage it your way.  He’s there to guide, instruct, equip, and empower you with His Spirit in order that you succeed.  He’s exact, and when you cooperate with His plan, He will accomplish His work through you.

God’s prep time is not over night.  It can be long and very trying.  Moses’ journey through the wilderness was for forty years.  David was anointed as a teenager, but he wasn’t king until about 30 years later.  “Grooming takes time”!

Esther, a young Jewish girl raised by her cousin, was already brought up to reverence and fear the Lord.  Now, ushered into a place inside the palace which was unfamiliar and unexpected, she accepted her plight engaging in the beauty contest.  She’s in the King’s palace for one year among his harem of women she knew nothing about.  She ate with them, slept among them, learning their ways.  Here she is an orphan - reserved, humble, a radiant beauty.

Self-Control:  Esther followed Mordecai’s order not to reveal her true Jewish identity at this particular time (Esther 2:10).  

• Esther 4:8  Mordecai gives Hatach the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people.  (Verse 14)  For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed:  and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, positioned himself outside the palace so as to keep watch over Esther because he loved and cared for her.  When Mordecai overheard the plot of two men to kill the King, he forwarded that information to Esther and saved the King’s life (Esther 2:19-23).  He also informed her of reasons for great mourning because of the decree to extinguish the Jews (Esther 3 & 4).  Esther’s informant was a reliable source.  He was informing her, and she was informing the King.  She was put in the right place at the right time to enhance God’s plans for saving the Jews!  Mordecai didn’t hide truth, exaggerate it, estimate it, scratch his head, nor did he stand by and say nothing.  Are you a reliable source for passing information?  Do you communicate facts or fiction?  

Mordecai’s position was no accident; it was orchestrated by God!  He couldn’t stand by and do nothing.  A British politician once said, “All that’s required for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing”.  

• Proverbs 11:12  He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor:  but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.  

In other words, you can’t be neutral when human lives are at stake!

No doubt Esther was uncomfortable.  That’s God.  He will put you in places that may be uncomfortable and difficult for you at times, and you may want to try and wiggle your way out of that place, but God won’t let you.  There’s something God wants to teach you in that place!  You may feel you’re not ready for the challenge or unprepared for life’s pressures, but if you “hang in there”, it will grow you, shape you in godly character, and make you useful to God for His kingdom!

Situations in life are not always to your liking - places you must stay, people you have to associate with, and problems you encounter.   But we must remember:

• Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

I remember all too well when God was drawing me out into His service.  I felt inadequate, uncomfortable, and nervous.  It was devastating to be called upon to pray in service or to help in the leading of praise and worship.  But I couldn’t abandon ship.  I had to continue in Him, taking that step of faith, and my development process began to take shape.  Your destiny!  Your choice!

Neither did Esther abandon ship:

• Esther 4:16  Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan,  and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law:  and if I perish, I perish.

ANOTHER TOOL NEEDED FOR GOD’S MISSION:

God’s Favor:  Favor and grace are from the same Greek word charice (khar’ece), meaning graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (literally or figuratively or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in one’s life; gratitude); thanks; liberality; pleasure; acceptable; benefit; joy; gift.  Synonyms for “favor” are:  approval; backing; kindness; service; permission; leniency.  “Favor” is the “power of Christ”.  “Grace” is the empowering presence of God that enables us to be what we were created to be and to do what we are called to do!  God gave Esther “grace” to enable her to do what he called her to do.  Favor is acceptance, blessings, to be pleased with, and it belongs only to “the elect”.  Favor rested on Abraham – not on his family;  favor rested on Jacob – not on Esau;  favor rested on Joseph – not on his sons.

If you are a child of the Most High God, you’re in line for the outpouring of divine “favor”!  It comes by God’s anointing and is triggered by faith and not a result of luck but obedience!

BENEFITS OF THE “FAVOR” OF GOD:

Brings supernatural increase and promotion:

• Esther 2:17   And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

God’s “favor” is worth more than money!  It brings prominence with preferential treatment!  God gave Esther “favor” in sight of the King’s chamberlain, in charge of the women and all who saw her.  She was promoted from “rags to riches”!

• Esther 8:2  And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

Mordecai was promoted to the position of being over the house of Haman.

• Esther 10:3  For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.

He was next in command to the King!!

• Romans 8:31  What shall we then say to these things?  If God be for us, who can be against us!

Favor granted petitions and fulfilled requests even by ungodly civil authorities:

• Esther 5:1-8  Verse 8  If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to morrow as the king hath said.

Favor causes policies, rules, regulations, and laws to be changed and reversed to your advantage.

• Esther 8:1-5   Verse 1  On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen.  Verse 5  Esther said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king’s provinces.  Further reading:  Verses 6-17.

Favor will restore everything the enemy stole from you.

• Joel 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

Favor will win battles for you.  You won’t even have to fight because God fights them for you.

• Esther 9  Haman and his sons were hanged on the same gallows he built for Mordecai and the Jews.  Verse 25  When Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his (Haman’s) wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

Favor surrounds you when you get up in the morning!  Anticipate the favor of God going before you!  Anticipate the favor of God surrounding you!  Expect God’s favor to open doors every day!  Expect those benefits of favor to manifest in your life!  These benefits are not just for Esther.  They are for you and me as well!  It’s for all of us who believe!  Believe it – it’s for you!  Well, one may say, “I find it hard believing that His favor is for me personally.  It sounds good, but it doesn’t work that way for me.  I believe in God, go to church, but I still don’t experience God’s favor”.  Yeah there are those who “believe in God’s favor”, but they don’t “believe for it”.  

Believing has two parts:  

• Hebrews 11:6  Without faith it is impossible to please him:  for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him:

(1) We must believe He exists!  It is God’s will for you to experience His favor.  Every promise He makes is for you.  

(2) According to your faith so be it unto you

• Matthew 9:29  Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

Confess favor:  Favor is not found following a formula.  We’re not changed by what’s in our head but what’s in the heart.  Let me remind you,

• Matthew 12:34  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.  

When you expect and believe for “favor”, it affects both your heart and your speech.  Guard your speech.  What you say has the power to unleash God’s “favor” in your life.  

• Mark 11:22-23   And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Your background doesn’t hinder your future with God!

When you apply for a job, a background check will be done.  Your background determines whether you get hired or not.  The employer may ask you all sorts of questions reflecting background information during the hiring process.  They want to know your work history, education, criminal record, financial history, use of social media, contact references – someone vouches for you.  If the information is positive the job may be offered, but if it’s negative – good riddance.

But when God employs you, there’s no need for background checks, no application needed, no interview needed, and you certainly don’t need references.  His hiring process is based on His own knowledge of you!  He already knows you!  He created you!  

• Psalms 139:13-15  For thou hast possessed my reins:  thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:  marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

He knows every little detail about you.  He knows how many hairs you have on your head, for He has searched you.  He knows when you sit and when you rise.  He knows your thoughts afar off.  He knows of your going out and coming in and is familiar with all your ways.  Before a word forms on your tongue, He knows it completely.  He knows your work history, your financial status.  You can’t flee from His presence.  He knows your likes and dislikes.  He made each of us unique!  There’s no one created exactly like you in the whole world.  Our value to God is not based on beauty, popularity, or athletic ability.  It’s based on you glorifying Him.  Don’t think it’s an accident or co-incidence that you are here.  God’s not frustrated by your moral or marital downfall.  He doesn’t exclude His people from high places because of handicaps or hardships.  

• Romans 8:31  What shall we then say to these things?  If God be for us, who can be against us?  
• Isaiah 41:10: Fear thou not; for I am with thee:  be not dismayed; for I am thy God:  I will strengthen thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

So don’t look anxiously about you, for I am your God!!

God didn’t allow Esther to perish.  When Mordecai asked her to go before the king on behalf of the Jews, she responded in fear for her life, especially going without an invitation.  But her cousin reminds her that the issue is not saving her own skin, and she would be as much endangered by her own silence as by her intercession.  He let her know that the Jews would be saved whether or not she met the call at this moment or not.  He let her know that her own salvation was at stake as well, depending on whether she accepted the unique opportunity, but the choice was hers.  

• Esther 4:14  Mordecai said to Esther, Who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Esther realized a decision had to be made, but “her destiny was her choice”!  Realizing her spiritual conflict, she armed herself as only a child of God can.  Note: she didn’t just say, “Okay, I’ll do it”, but rather she said that she would put herself in the Lord’s hand, and if I perish, I perish.  (Esther 4:16).  This is what’s called “MOTIVATION”!!!

My question:  Are you motivated today?  Are you ready to take a stand for what’s right?  Are you ready to pick up the ball and start running?  

Esther ran to God in fasting and prayer and commanded Mordecai and all Jews to fast on her behalf – no food/drink for three days, night and day.  She and her handmaidens did the same.  On the third day, Esther put on her royal robe and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, opposite the king’s hall.  The king was sitting on his royal throne inside the palace, and when he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she found favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter.  She had done something illegal, but the king pardoned her.  She approached and touched the top of the scepter:  the king granted her request and even half of the kingdom.  Esther touching the “scepter” was “grace touching or connecting to “love”!  Gold is the “divine nature” of God.  The “scepter” – ruling authority -  typifying the “new birth” (new nature) – over-riding or overruling the “old nature”, connoting the king.

In summation God succeeded in His mission to save the Jews.  Esther and Mordecai’s relationship with God freed the Jewish nation from annihilation, and so are we free as children of the Most High.  We can’t lose with God on our side!  

• John 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.  
• Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.  

IT’S YOUR DESTINY!  IT’S YOUR CHOICE!

~  Evangelist Brenda Hansley