Well, if you have your booklet, get it out, get it ready, and you'll notice it's on Esther, and probably you've already guessed where the text will be. It's in the book of Esther. Esther chapter 1, starting with verse 1. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, this is Ahasuerus, which reigned from India even into Ethiopia. over 127 provinces. That in those days when the King Ahasuerus sat at the throne of his kingdom, which was then Shushan, the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him. When he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even 104 score days, 180 days. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were white, green, and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble. The beds were of gold and silver. on a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another, and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king. And the drinking was according to the law. None did compel, for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house that they should do according to every man's pleasure. Also Vashti, the queen, made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, and when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mahuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with a crown royal to show people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains. Therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment. And the next unto him was Karshina, Sethar, Admitha, Tarshish, Maris, Marcina, Mimucan, the seven princes of Persian media. which saw the king's face, and which sat the first in the kingdom. What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to the law? Because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains. And Mimeucan answered before the king and the province, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, to all the people that are in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported. The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. Likewise shall the ladies of Persian media say this day unto all the king's princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen, thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath, if it please the king, Let therefore go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written, because of the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all the empire, for it is great, all the wives shall give their husbands honor, both to great and small. And the saying pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Mimucan. For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, and to every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people." Now that lays the groundwork or context of what's about to happen in the book of Esther. In the book of Esther, there are a number of people that we need to recognize. First of all is the individual Esther, who the book is named after. So if you're taking notes, you may want to write down these key individuals. First of all is Esther. Esther was a beautiful young Jewish orphan. She was raised by Mordecai, her cousin, and later, after Vashti is taken off of her role as queen, she is the one that is brought in to replace Vashti. And so she becomes very powerful, very important, but yet being with a Jewish background, very important for the Jewish nation. So her Persian name means star. Her Jewish name, Hadassah, means myrtle. So there is Esther. Then there's Mordecai. Mordecai, of course, was the cousin of Esther. He obviously was older than her. And he was a prominent Jew in this major city of Babylon, Shushan. And he's the one that raised Esther. And so he was a very important figure in all that happened. And I'm going to try to say a little bit about him first. before we go into Esther. So, here are some of the characteristics that we'll see about him. Now, remember, he was very prominent. He was in the king's palace. Frequently, he would go by where the women were kept. It says, he sat in the gate of the palace. Chapter 2 and verse 5, 19 and 21 tell us so. So, he was very important. Now, keep this in mind. I think this is important to put everything in context. This is toward the very end of the Old Testament before the 400 years of silence and then the New Testament begins. So it's toward the end of all the things that are recorded, the end of prophecy. So the Jews were taken away into captivity. They were conquered and they were judged. Jeremiah prophesied they would be 70 years in captivity. So, 586 BC, no one here is old enough to remember that, 586 before Christ was born, the nation of Israel, or Jerusalem, or Judah, was defeated. And most of the people were taken out of their land and brought to Babylon, which today would be Iran, Iraq, and that area. So, they were taken away and for those years, they were not in prison. They bought homes, they lived, they were educated. Some of them intermarried with some of the Persian people. So, they found jobs and had businesses but by the Persians doing this, it took away any threat of Israel. So, Israel now has just a handful of very poor people living in it. The majority of people are taken away. There were about two or three times when people were taken away. Probably about 20 years before was Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They took the finest of the young men, those who were best educated. They wanted to bring them in and train them in the way of the Chaldeans so that they would not be a threat to them, but they would be used of them. Esther was also, and Mordecai, part of that group more than likely that's taken away. So here they are toward the end of the captivity and not long from now they're going to go back to the land of Israel. People are going to go back to the land of Israel and reestablish themselves and that's where Ezra and Nehemiah come into play where they went back with a handful of people, several thousand people, and they're to rebuild the wall and the temple, and then it sort of prepares the way for the New Testament. So, as we think about what has happened, they're in captivity, but they're living sort of affluent lives. A lot of people are pretty happy there, but the tide's about to turn. There's another person that's going to come into play, and we'll mention him in a moment, and that's Haman. But let's talk about Mordecai now. Mordecai was important. He sat in the gate of the palace. That was an important position. He was able to come close to the women's court, chapter 2, verse 11, so that was important. He came before the king's gate in sackcloth, so he was in a prominent position. Also, he was loyal to the king. He was loyal. He heard of a conspiracy of some of the leaders under King Ahasuerus, and he warned the king, said, there's a conspiracy, it was found out, and it was squashed. So he was loyal to the king. You know, that's an important thing. This man Mordecai was a good man. He was a godly man. Not only was he loyal to the king, he was loyal to God. He was loyal to God's people. He followed their promises, chapter 4. And he believed that God would protect the nation of Israel. He really was a man of faith. And we see how he brought the Jewish people together. He had to be a leader of the Jewish people. Chapter 4 tells us how he got them to come together and pray and fast. So here's someone, Mordecai, who was well-known, he was prominent. Someone, no doubt, who had great character. He was a hard worker. He was loyal to those that he was under their authority. He was faithful to help those that were under his authority. So Mordecai was a good man, a godly man. He was interested in more than just his own well-being. He was very interested in God having his way in the nation of Israel. So Israel was more prominent to him than his own life. Then we have King Ahasuerus. So we have Esther, we have Mordecai, and then we have Ahasuerus. Okay, he's the Babylonian king, probably through history, better known as Xerxes. And he held this great feast. First he showed all of his kingdom, his riches, and all the power that he had. Think about this for a second. He resided over a hundred and twenty seven provinces all the way from northern Africa to India. Now if you look at a map that covers a lot of territory. Now he wasn't in each one of those places but he had people there. They had control through their government, through their soldiers and Babylon had become the place You can read about the Babylonian hanging gardens and what a wonder, a magnificent thing that they had built and the wealth that they had attained. So Ahasuerus was the man of all the world at that point. He was the leader. He was like the President of the United States would be through all the world. He was that prominent if not more so. So Ahasuerus was the king over a huge huge number of countries and languages. And then Vashti, we've mentioned, we'll not say much more about her. We don't know a whole lot about her, but she was the queen to Ahasuerus. She was unwilling to come before the king's court and basically, I believe, be exploited. The reason the king wanted her to come is to show her beauty. Now, I don't know what he wanted to do, but it was uncommon what the king did, that they were happy with wine, they'd been drinking, you know, it was not a good situation, and normally I believe that the women would never be present when that type of thing happened. And so even though he called her in, she refused to go, and whether that's right or wrong, we just have recorded what she did. She said, I'm not going to do it. So it really made a dilemma for the king, which he created himself. You know, the king was interested in building himself up. He wanted to be even more prominent. He wanted people to speak of his wealth and see how powerful he was. And so it was a slap in his face by the queen. It put him in an awkward position because what they said would happen All the provinces are going to hear about this, and all of our wives are going to say, we don't have to listen to our husbands either. And so it created a political upheaval. You know, politics is a tough business. And you know, when it's not godly and not right, it never works very well. And when people don't honor the Lord and seek Him first, it creates problems. So, sometimes the government says, I'm going to help you and unfortunately they don't help you. They make it worse. Sometimes they serve a good purpose, sometimes they don't. In this case, he didn't. It was a mistake and so he created this awkward position. Now think of this, out of that situation came something very good, the protection of Israel and eventually sending them back to their homeland, rebuilding the temple. So, we have Vashti and then we have Haman. So, write that down in your syllabus. Haman was a deceitful, a covetous and a jealous man. He was planning, scheming, conniving. He wanted to be in a high position. He wanted to be recognized by his friends and his family and say, look at me, look at how powerful I am, look at how great I am. And his own conceit was his downfall and that brought about his demise. So we see the setting and we see the people that are together. We know Mordecai was a man of conviction, a man under authority, a man who responded to those under his authority. But here is a situation now where God had to begin working because there was a scheme and a plan to destroy all the Jews. Haman plotted and planned that, using the pride of the king, that he would get orders to go around and kill all the Jews, because he hated them. And it was, I think probably, there's something about it through all ages. Godliness somehow exposes sinfulness. And because the nation of Israel stood for something, even though they're in captivity, no doubt there were some godly people there, it was a slap in the face to someone wicked like Haman. So, what are they going to do? They weren't sure how they could survive this. It looked inevitable that they were all going to die. Now, to fulfill the story so that we can go back and learn from it, The plan was, now Esther was found. She was a beautiful woman, Jewish. She was brought in as the queen and had a high position. And though Jewish, she would also be vulnerable to be killed, though in that position. Mordecai recognized for all the Jews they could be killed. And so he thought, the way I'm going to deal with this, I'm going to appeal to the king through Esther. So Esther had to make some decisions. She's put in the middle of all of this because God had put her there. Now think about this for a second. Esther had an opportunity and we will have our opportunities. God put her there for a reason. God put us here for a reason. God will give every one of us opportunities. For every young person here tonight, I want you to think about this. God has given you an opportunity to be saved. I mean, you hear the gospel over and over again. At the very least, you hear, you ought to be saved. There's an invitation given to every service, you need to be saved. Probably your parents talk about it. If you're in a Christian school, they talk about it. You hear it over and over again. It's possible to get it up here, but not have it there. There is always that opportunity where the Holy Spirit convicts someone, convicts you, and you realize, I need to be saved, and I know I'm not saved. So, there's an opportunity for salvation. Now, Esther had an opportunity for the salvation of her nation, herself as well as others. So, there's always that opportunity. And it's important to take advantage of that. Do you know that you're saved? Are you sure that you're saved? Think of some of these verses. 2 Corinthians 6.2 says, Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now, let me explain that verse. You say, well, tomorrow it'll be the day too. Whenever that's stated, that's the day. Now's the time. So what's the difference? Here's, I believe, the difference. When the Spirit of God speaks to someone and you understand the gospel, you better respond. That's the time. Now, a young child may not fully understand that. It may not somehow really click. There may not be that conviction of the Holy Spirit. So they hear it, and they say, oh yeah, I want to do that, and I want to please my parents, the pastor, I want people in the church to know that I've made that decision. But when the Holy Spirit conviction, you say, you know, I understand the gospel. I've got to get saved or I'm going to hell. If I don't get saved, I'm in trouble, and I might die tomorrow. I need to get saved, and I know Jesus will save me. When all that comes together, when all that clicks, that's the accepted time, and you better not reject it when it happens. I remember a young lad that he was getting ready to go to school and he lived on a state highway. And he'd been in a revival meeting and heard the gospel and boy, God was speaking to his heart. He knew he needed to be saved. He knew he wasn't saved. But he didn't go forward with the invitation. The next day, he's waiting at the bus stop on that state highway. He was so afraid he was going to get hit by a car and die before he had a chance to get saved. I mean, he was under conviction and that night he went forward to make sure before he got hit by a car on the highway waiting for a school bus. He said, I've got to get saved. So, it's not something you want to neglect. You don't want to put that off. I've heard some young people, teenagers especially, they'll say, well, you know, someday when I get old, when I can't do anything else or have any fun, you know, then I'll get saved. But you know what this verse testifies of? there's no guarantee that you'll ever have a desire to be saved when you get that age. That says now is when you better get saved. And if you put that off, there's no guarantee of tomorrow. And I can give you a lot of illustrations of people I've witnessed to, and they said, I'll put off tomorrow, another day, another year. And later in life, they had no desire or interest whatsoever. See, I think God just said, all right, you're not interested, then I'm going to leave you alone. When the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart, you better respond. There is an opportunity for salvation. Hebrews 2.3 says, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Hebrews 2.3. And Revelation 3.20 says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me. And so, as God knocks at your door, Just like in Revelation to this church, it was preparing them. You better respond when God knocks, when God speaks to you. So there is an opportunity for everybody to be saved. He's not willing and he should perish, but all come to repentance. If you're not saved and it's not really settled, then you ought to get it settled before it's too late. Second thing I see is there's an opportunity to serve the Lord. Not only an opportunity for salvation, but an opportunity for service. Every person has a place where God can use you. Think about this. If there was no purpose for you here on this earth, why would you be here? If you're saved, I don't know why God wouldn't just take you home. You're no longer serving a purpose. We're not our own, we're bought with a price. And we're to glorify God in our body and our spirit. If we're not doing that, I'd see no reason God would allow us to live here on this earth. And if you are alive, I believe God has a purpose. He has a plan for your life. So whatever age you are, you could be a child, you could be old, up in years, you might be on a hospital bed in a nursing home. If you're alive, God has a purpose. We are here for a reason. For all of us, there's an opportunity. There may be the opportunity to go to Bible college. There may be that opportunity to respond to the call to a mission field. to full-time ministry. There may be an opportunity to get certain training that God has for you, to be in a church, to be in the services, in the house of God, to be in a ministry, in the choir, to be in the Christian school, to be involved in the bus ministry. There may be that opportunity to serve. And there is always something for every single person. God has a plan for your life. I do not believe it's God's purpose for you to get saved, sit and do nothing. I think we ought to be in church and we ought to hear the Word of God, we ought to sing the songs. But there's more for every single person. How can you get involved and what can you do? He has a plan for service. We are here to do the will of God. I think sometimes we don't even see the opportunities. I've never had that problem. Everybody fears when I go away on vacation, I'm going to come back with all these ideas and things that, you know, we're going to do. But some people have a problem seeing opportunities. You know, if you think about this for a second, you think, wow, we've got, and this is true, we've got great volunteers and workers, leaders, staff in this church. I mean, there's no question in my mind, I know enough churches, we really do have a great staff, and we have great young people. I mean, there's a lot of people who are doing something for God. But I can think of ten times more than what we are doing, what could be done if there were labors, if there were people willing to do it. Things that just, we don't have enough people to do it. There are people who need to be discipled all the time. There are not enough people to do it. There's room in the choir that somebody could sing and they're not there. There's opportunity to run more bus routes than what we have. There's opportunity to reach more people in various ways and to get involved in our community. I mean, there are just so many things that could be done. There's just not enough laborers to get it all done. There is always an opportunity, but everybody doesn't see it. Everybody doesn't see what can be done. We just think the ceiling's still up, the air conditioning's on, there's a pew with my name on it, everything's fine. You know, the greatest or the saddest tale is what could have been done but wasn't. You can look at the past and you say, well, God's been good. Look at His blessing. Look at all that's happening. Look at the people that have been saved, called to ministry, out serving the Lord on the mission field. But what could have been done? Someone asked Dr. Robertson, just very near toward the end of his life, Dr. Robertson, if you had it to do over again. Now, he built a great college, a great church, influenced thousands, thousands of people in the ministry. books, radio, I mean, just numerous ways God used him. And he said, Dr. Roberts, if you had it to do over again, is there anything you would change? And here's what he said, I believe I should have more faith. He was known as a man of faith, a man of vision. And so the person asking him, he said, but Dr. Roberts, in all the things you've done, he said, yeah, I realize that. There are so many things that we missed, what we could have done, but we didn't. So it's real easy to sit in the background and not really get involved and not really see their lost souls out there, people in need, and we lose that vision. It's right in front of us. How far do you have to go to find a lost person? How far do you have to go to find somebody in need? Not very far. And everywhere you look, there they are. There are so many things that can be done. I'm just saying, young people, there's a place for you to serve the Lord. There's a way to get involved, and you don't have to wait until you graduate from Bible college. There is a place to get involved now. In Revelation 3a, it says, I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. John 9, verse 4 says, I must work the works of him that sent me while today. The night cometh when no man can work. You know, time goes by. You know, you're young and you think, time is not really relevant. You know, I've got so many years in front of me. And one day you'll look back and say, where did the time go? We've got to do it while we can. We've got to do the works while we can. I just talked to a preacher a few moments ago. He was a saying a high tenor, I remember hearing him preach when I was in Bible college, still serving the Lord. And he asked me the question, well, you know, how long have you been there? And I get asked that question. I never used to get that question asked, but, you know, you've been there a long… you're still there? Yeah, I'm still here. And I just thought, okay, 40 years, 41 years, it's going to be 50? It's going to be 60. There's an end to this. For you, just count up your years and look in the Bible in Psalm 90 and it says the days of man are three score and ten. Seventy. You're on borrowed time, some of you. Some of you are approaching that date. We don't know how long we have. We do know this that it's going to end. Have we done our best to serve Him? Have we taken advantage of every opportunity? Esther had an opportunity. She had an opportunity to stand up for the Jewish people, to come before the king, and she did. Secondly, she not only had an opportunity, she accepted responsibility. She saw this as her duty. She said, this is an important statement, make sure you have this written down, it's right out of the scripture. She said, all right, I'm going to go before the king, and here's the part you write down, If I perish, I perish. That's a famous statement. If I perish, I perish. She didn't see this as futile. She saw this as a dedication and their only hope. She said, I will accept the challenge, and if the worst happens, so be it. I'm going to give my life and dedicate my life to what I have to do. She realized the position she had, the opportunity. She accepted the responsibility. She said, I don't care about anything else in the world. I'm going to follow the will of God. That's an important step, accepting responsibility. Do you realize today that we have a blight, a blight in America of people that will not accept responsibility? people that will not work, people that will not follow through with any commitments that they make. I mean, it is a serious problem in our country, in our culture. She accepted the responsibility. She said, I will do this. Sometimes doing the will of God is not easy. Sometimes doing right is not easy. Others might laugh at you. There may be some loss along the way, it may not be to your benefit, but if it's right, then it's right. So she said, all right, I'll go before the king and I'll seek and request before the king that he would listen to me and it's possible that if he doesn't hold out his scepter, they could have me killed. Without the king calling her in, without an appointment, without her called in, it was a great risk. But she went in and we know the story and how it ends that the king said, what is it you want? I'll give you whatever you want to have the kingdom. God had worked on the heart of the king. Even though he was a prideful man, a double-minded man, God prepared his heart because God was interested in getting his people back to that promised land. So Esther didn't know how it would turn out. Mordecai did not know how it would turn out, but we see this picture. Esther lived her life in submission to Mordecai, to the king, and to God. She said, Lord, I'll do your will. To Mordecai, I'll follow your guidance. And to the king, I submit myself to whatever you decide. Submission worked for her. She did it the right way. If we have that same submissive spirit, and if we die to our own desires, if we are willing to go wherever God wants us to go, we also will see that God will bless us. So obey God, do what is right. Galatians 2.20 says, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And keep this in mind, sometimes it'll be difficult to take a stand. But Esther was among the minority that said, I'm going to serve God no matter what risk. Number three, we should ask God for His guidance and blessing as we try to accomplish His will. Prayer is a key element. You notice what happened? Mordecai said, we're going to fast and pray, and Esther said, I will fast and pray. There are some issues that are big issues in life. When you face a big issue, it may call for fasting and prayer. We should not make decisions frivolously. If there's a big problem, it may call for fasting and prayer. For a parent that has a rebellious child, for a marriage that's been broken, for serious financial reversal. It may call for fasting and prayer, going without food and spending a concerted effort. You see that she needed to die to her own desires. She realized she needed God's help, His wisdom, so that she could do the right thing. She needed God's power. She needed God to work. You know, there are some times where we think, I don't know how this is ever going to work out. How am I ever going to get through this? only by the hand of God. There are some things bigger than us, some situations that are beyond our control. We have to realize God's still in control. He's still on the throne. Esther and the Jews had to face Haman. And as we know the story, Haman built the gallows. He's ready to destroy the Jews. But somehow God worked in the heart of the king And it reminded him he couldn't sleep and he was reminded of Mordecai and that he had warned the king about those who were trying to conspire against him and kill him. And so he asked his helpers, he said, has there ever been anything done for Mordecai for his good deed? And so they said, no, nothing's been done. Haman comes in and he said, what should the king do for one who he would like, who he would please to honor? And Haman thinks he's talking about him. He said, why wouldn't the king honor me? Look at how great I am. He was filled with pride. And he said, well, you know, let him ride on the best mule and take him around through all the city and show the people how great he is. And Haman's thinking, he's going to go around and everybody's going to brag about him and look at him and honor him. Instead, he had to lead Mordecai, the one he was trying to kill. Boy, what an amazing turn of events. Think about that. Here are all these people praying, seeking the face of God. They're saying, God, you have to do something because we don't know how this is going to turn out. And boy, did God do something. Wow. Imagine how they felt. They had to be in awe. Can you believe what just happened? And then we know the story how Haman is brought back in and Esther set up the feast and had him come back to another feast and there he was exposed and he was hanged on his own gallows. Wow. You know that story is a real story. It's evidence of how someone who said, I'm going to do right and God blessed them for doing the right thing, seeking God. And when we die to ourself, that may seem dire for a while, but we will see the blessing of God. We need God's wisdom. That's why we pray. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. So the key is we have to decide that we're going to do the will of God. That has to be your decision. Whether you're a teenager or a young child or an old person or a young person, you have to say, I want to do the will of God. And Esther said this, if I perish, I perish. If you have that attitude, it's pretty scary, because you just don't know how it's going to turn out. But it will always be within the will of God, and you will see God's purpose. If we could give a subtitle to the message, it would be, for such a time as this, God put her in a place for a specific time. He has put you in a place with a family, in a church, in a state or a community for such a time as this. We are here for a reason and a purpose. It is important that we surrender to the will of God. If we will do that, God will provide for us, our family. He will meet our needs. There may be struggles. There may be challenges. But through it all, God will be with us and provide for us. Joel made a statement that sort of reminds us the importance of decisions. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. We all have decisions to make. To make no decision is to make a decision. To say, I'll do nothing, that's making a decision. Making a right decision says purposely, I will do the will of God. Esther's life is given to us in all her testimony. to remind us that we have to consecrate our life to Him and at such a time as this, right now, there is a purpose for you and for me. Let's bow for prayer.