That’s right, and you have to because it’s my birthday! (it
was my birthday when I wrote this up)
There is definitely no better way to spend your golden
birthday than in India
preaching at a womens conference. That’s
right, I preached 😉
So.. the ironic part of me preaching was when I was at
training camp I was pretty firm in the idea that preaching would be a man’s
job, and I wouldn’t have to worry about it.
However, I’m not even one month into the world race, and He’s already
changing my heart and my mind of what I’m capable of doing for Him.
It was a few days before, and we were told about the
conference that the orphanage would hold.
We were all asked to prepare a word for the day. I knew that I was suppose to speak because
immediately after we were told, God gave me a topic to preach on. I wrote it out with ease (which is shocking
because I’m not always great with my words).
I asked Kristen to read it and for her to give me her honest
opinion, since it was my first ‘sermon’ I had ever written. Come to find out, she was preaching on
Esther, and she had three points she wanted to make while retelling the
story. She had point one and two, but
was working on point three….and my portion was exactly what she wanted to hit
on for point three! (Precise even in the
aspect that I had referenced the same verses that she had brainstormed about
for point three.
It may have been a good idea for
everyone to get together and discuss what they wanted to talk about beforeeee
writing up what we wanted to talk about.. but at the same time, it was some
good assurance that God wanted us to preach on that topic (especially since
Kelly was going to talk about the same verse that me and Kristen hit on for
point three).
Preaching went really well too! God used us to just preach the word. I don’t know if this was just Him easing me
into this preaching thing, but Him speaking through me really allowed the
occasion to be joyous. My spirit was at
peace, and I wasn’t nervous or anxious before or during. I was just straight up pumped!
I just pray the eyes, ears, and hearts of the women there
were open and receptive to what we spoke about.
I want so badly to help change India, even if it was just one
woman. I don’t want to leave India unchanged when India has changed me so much.
For those who are interested, our sermon:
Fulfilling Your
Destiny
I want to
thank you so much for coming here today.
It is a great honor to stand before you and share God’s word. Today we want to talk to you about
fulfilling your Destiny. There was a
woman in the Old Testament named Esther.
In a time where women were not highly regarded and were placed in low
position, Esther was able to make one of the greatest impacts of her time,
saving an entire nation of Jews, while remaining submissive and respectful in
her position.
As I tell
you the story of Esther, I have three points to make regarding Esther
fulfilling the destiny God has planned for her. The first point is this:
1. Your destiny is not dependent on
your past, but your past can set the stage for your future
Esther was
Queen over 127 provinces stretching from India
to Cush. But she didn’t start out as royalty. In fact, Esther was an orphan. Both of her parents died when she was very
young. She was taken in by her cousin,
Mordecai, who was a Jew sent into exile by King Zebacchenezar. She didn’t grow up with a mother, and living
in exile was very difficult. Her past
was rough, as I’m sure many of you can relate.
But Esther didn’t allow her past to hinder the plan God had for her
life.
When Esther
was a young woman, King Xerxes dismissed the current queen, Queen Vashti, from
her position as a result of her disobedience to the King. In order to replace the Queen, King Xerxes
had the most beautiful women in his entire kingdom brought before him. After much searching, Esther found favor in
the King’s eyes and was crowed Queen.
Esther could easily have let her past stand in the way of being crowned
queen. She was a Jew raised in exile. This was not the ideal past for the future
queen over the entire kingdom. But
Esther rose above her past, and did not allow it to stand in the way of her
destiny.
You may have
a past much like Esther’s. Maybe you
grew up without a mother and father, or maybe you grew up in an abusive home,
but your past does not need to stand in the way of your future. Isaiah 43:18 says, “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past”. Your past and
your future in Christ come from the same root.
In Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord says that he has a hope and a plan for your
life, a plan to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a
future. The Lord has a plan, yes, but
it is up to you to choose to live it out.
Which brings me to my next point:
2. Your destiny is both the will of
God and a choice you make
In Esther
chapter 2, Mordecai overheard a conversation between two of the king’s guards
conspiring to kill King Xerxes. Mordecai
took this news before Queen Esther, who brought it before the King. After these men were killed for their
treason, one of the King’s noblemen, Haman was elevated and given the seat of
highest honor next to the king. All of
the royal officials at the King’s gate were to bow down before Haman, but
Mordecai (Esther’s cousin) was a Jew and refused to bow down before Him. When Haman heard of this, he was
enraged. Yet when he heard who
Mordecai’s people were-the Jews-he did not want to just kill Mordecai, but kill
his entire people. So Haman came up with
a plot to destroy them. He went before
the king and asked his permission to destroy the people who do not obey the
king’s laws. The king agreed and sealed
the decree, which stated that on a single day-the 13th day of the 12th
month, all the Jews in the whole kingdom of Xerxes were to be destroyed,
including women and children.
When
Mordecai heard the news, he sent word to Esther, pleading her to go before the
king and asking him to spare her people.
We’ll pick up the story in Esther Chapter 4:11 with Esther’s initial
response. “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know
that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without
being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to
extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was
called to go to the king.”
Esther’s
initial response to Mordecai was a logical one.
The king had not requested her presence in thirty days, so for her to go
before the king without being called to him was extremely risky. She could lose her life. So she said no. Many times it is more logical
to take the easy road and say no to a call on your life. If the story ended here, no one would have
blamed Esther, and the Jewish people may have been spared another way, but the
point is, the story doesn’t end here.
Mordecai
receives word from Esther’s maid that she does not plan to go before the king,
and this is his response to her in chapter 4:13 – “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all
the Jews will escape. For if you remain
silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from
another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to a
royal position for such a time as this?”
I want to
focus on the last line of Mordecai’s response.
He didn’t tell her she had to, because he knew that if it was the Lord’s
will, the Jewish people would be saved another way, but he simply pointed out
that God had placed her in the exact position, a Jewish orphan becoming Queen
over all of Xerxes’ Kingdom, to fully
expedite his plan, and her destiny. So
when Esther received the word of Mordecai’s response she thought long and hard
about the decision she had to make. This
was her response in verse 16: “Go, gather
together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or
day. I and my maids will fast as you do.
When this is done, I will go before the king, even though it is against the
law. And if I perish, I perish.”
Esther made
a choice here. Was it risky? Yes. Could she have been killed? Absolutely. It wasn’t that she might be killed if she went before the king, but that she might be spared. But her ultimate decision was to choose God,
because she knew that the plan that God had was far more effective, and far
more rewarding than any plan she could develop on her own. So she made her choice to have faith and
trust in God to lead the way. Which
brings me to my third point,
3. Fulfilling your destiny requires
faith in God and confidence that he has ordained your steps.
Hebrews 11,
verses 1 and 3 say, “Now Faith is the
assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen. By Faith we understand that the universe was
created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things
that are visible.”
The author
of Hebrews does not describe faith as a vague hope based from wishful
thinking. But instead he describes an
unwavering confidence in God’s word. A
biblical faith is the assurance that though it may not be seen in your current
circumstances you know that God always fulfills his promises. It is with a faith like this that God leads
you-a faith where you place trust solely in His word and in His promises and
not in your feelings and emotions.
Esther had
faith like this. She was called by God
to believe, to trust in Him and to know that he would come through for her and
her people. God is just as purposeful
about things he does not reveal to us as he is about the things he does
reveal. Ultimately, there is a call to
faith. Esther had to believe that the
Lord was in control and placed her in this position for a reason. Esther didn’t hear a booming voice from the
Lord telling her that everything was going to be okay. No-she was scared. Not only was she risking her life by going
before the king, but her entire people were also at her mercy. God knew Esther would save her people, but
did she know that? No. She acted purely
out of faith.
Imagine a
train with three parts: and engine, a coal car, and a caboose.
1)
The
engine represents the facts in God’s word
2)
The
coal car represents our faith
3)
The
caboose represents our feelings
The caboose
is incapable of pulling the train. In
the same way we can’t follow God with our feelings. We must place our faith in the
trustworthiness of God’s character and the promises He has made to us in the
bible.
In Romans
8:28, God’s word says that for those who love God, all things work together for
good according to his purpose.
God declares
this. All things work together for
good. Maybe things in your life do not
look so good right now, and maybe things in your life don’t feel so good right
now. Perhaps you don’t feel like any
good could come out of your situation.
But
regardless of the situation and what you currently feel and see, know God
promises that it will work out for the better according to His plan.
Esther put
herself in a position to allow God’s plan to be fulfilled in her life. Esther had faith, but she also was confident
that over the next three days, God would ordain her steps according to His will
and His purpose. And he did just that.
So we left
the story off with Esther agreeing to go before the king. After fasting and praying for three days,
Esther dressed in her royal robes and went into the inner courts. Much to her surprise, the king was very
pleased to see her. Esther 5:3 “Then the king asked, ‘what is it, Queen
Esther? What is your request? Even up to
half the kingdom it will be given you.'”
The Queen responded inviting the king and Haman to a banquet that
evening. At the banquet, she asked the
King and Haman to attend another banquet the next day.
Esther was
confident that God was leading her. It
is about God’s timing, not about rushing into the question, so she waited, and
God worked out the rest. With the next
24 hours the following things happened:
1)
Haman
became overwhelmed with anger toward Mordecai, so he built a gallows 75ft tall
next to his house to hang Mordecai on. He planned to go before the king to ask
him his permission
2)
That
same night, the king couldn’t sleep so one of his men read him a story out of
the book of chronicles. He just so
happened to choose the story of Mordecai saving the King from the conspiracy
against his life. So the king decided to
honor Mordecai, and put Haman in charge of it
The banquet
arrived. Esther then presented her case before the King, asking him to spare
her people. He was enraged to hear of
Haman’s betrayal, and Had Haman hung on the very gallows that he built for
Mordecai’s destruction.
The Jews
ended up being spared, and even prospered through the battle, as many of the
people in the kingdom were afraid of the Jews because they found favor in the
King’s eyes.
Esther did
not allow her past to stand in her way, but allowed God to use her past to set
the stage for her future and saved the Jewish people from destruction. By faith she chose to trust in Him and his
timing. She submitted to the call, and
waited in confidence that God would work out the rest.
we are wearing our punjabis 😉
Indian birthday cake for me and Noe (my squad leader- his birthday is the day after mine.. whoop whoop)
me and Noe before cake
if I have internet in the near future another blog should be going up soon!
