For Such a Time as This | November 1st, 2026

- Last week, as we continue in chapter two of the Book of Esther, we were introduced to two Jewish people living in Persia at this time. They are Esther and her cousin Mordecai, who has taken Esther in to care for her as his own daughter in the wake of her parents passing. We saw God begin to position Esther and Mordecai for his purposes in two important ways. First, as the king begins to search for a new queen, we see Esther become the apple of his eye and through a series of events that we talked about last week, become queen over all of Persia and not only queen, but the kind of queen that the king truly loved in a door. We also see Mordecai over here applaud by two of the king's servants to harm the king and then get credit in the king's records as the key person who discovered the blood and saved the king's life. Now, the king isn't aware that Esther or Mordecai are Jewish at this point in the story, but we see God position them to be two people who have favored with the king in different ways as the story unfolds, which is where we continue our study in the Book of Esther today. (orchestral music) (orchestral music) - Well, good morning fellowship. And I don't know about you, but I've really enjoyed these introductions

to the Book of Esther. It's just been very refreshing and super helpful. I'm grateful for the people that have been a part of those so far and the ones that'll be a part of it as we move forward together. I do want to welcome those of you that are with us in the chapel and maybe online with us. If you're new to us, my name is Mark. I'm one of the pastors here and I'm thrilled you with us. If this your first time, man, we're so glad you're with us. Would you drop by the connection center after the service today? We have a special gift that we would love to give you today help you maybe get more connected here at fellowship, answer any questions that you may have. If you've been around here, you know that one of the things that we're doing this year as a church, as a people of God is we are trying to meditate and memorize some of God's word and get his word into our minds and into our hearts. And why are we doing that? Because we believe that when we have his word in our minds and our hearts, it just empowers us as we think about our walk with Jesus in living a life of faith. And so the challenge before us has been that each month we'd like to have one verse that we're meditating on and thinking about and trying to memorize as a people. And this month, the month of November is Proverbs 16.9. I'll put it up here on the screen for you.

The heart of a man plans his steps, but the Lord directs his steps. The heart of a man plans his way, not his steps, and the Lord directs his steps. And some of you may have heard that verse, but I encourage you maybe in the weeks ahead be thinking about that, be meditating on that. We'll be talking about that over the month of November. Our hope is that we get to the end of the year and that all of us have digested more of God's word together in our minds and in our hearts. Well, if you've got a Bible or a Bible app, and I hope you do, make your way to the book of Esther, the book of Esther. If you're new to this whole Bible thing, the book of Esther, you'll find it in between the book of Job and Nehemiah. And we're gonna be there today. Now, if you're new to fellowship, one of the things that we do here is we try to study books of the Bible on Sunday mornings. What we try to do, it doesn't always work out this way, but in a given year, we try to study one New Testament book and we try to study one Old Testament book. This past year, we studied through the book of Galatians, and now we find ourselves in the book of Esther. And I don't know about you, but when I was growing up and I was facing a difficult situation, maybe a challenging situation in my life, my parents had a phrase that they would sometimes say to me,

"Maybe you've heard this phrase before." You ever heard that phrase before? Had someone say that to you? I think sometimes as parents, we say that to our kids because we want our kids to understand that in life at times they may face an injustice. That there are moments in life where wrong wins and right loses. And that's where we find ourselves in Esther chapter three verse chapter three and chapter four. Life is unfair. And this is where the story really turns tragic. The music changes. I don't know if you've ever been watching a scary movie before and the music changes and you know because the music's changing something bad's about to happen, right? Well, that's what's going on here in the story of Esther. Esther has been a queen now for about four years. Life has been going pretty well, pretty smooth for her. She's comfortable now in her role as queen. And now her life is about to be turned upside down because of a villain, the villain of this story named Heyman. And Heyman is going to wreak havoc in the story. Everything was going so well for Esther and Mordecai. But life is not always fair. And we are going to look injustice in the face today. And I think this is good news because some of you may be in a place in your own life where maybe a circumstance and situation of your life right now

just doesn't feel fair. And I think this ancient story here can encourage us and challenge us that we don't have to quit or to give up because God is working and helping us even when life seems unfair. So let's go through this story together. Here's what we're going to do. There's two chapters here. There's no way to read all of this text in the time that we have together. So we are going to bounce around a little bit in chapter three and four. But I do want to read through enough of it that we get a sense of what's happening. And then we'll come back, as you can see there. And we're going to talk about some practical takeaways for you and me out of chapter three and four. But let's start here in chapter three verse one says this. After these things, King Ahazuris promoted Haman, the Agai, the son of Hamadathah, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him. And all the king's servants who were at the king's gates bowed down and paid homage to Haman. For the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, why do you transgress the king's command? And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand.

For he had told them he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. And so as they made known to him, the people of Mordecai, Haman saw to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai throughout the whole kingdom of King Ahazuris. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, not Nisan, Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahazuris, they cast per. That is, they cast lots before Haman day after day and they cast it month after month to the 12th month, which is the month of Adir. Then Haman said to King Ahazuris, there's a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different than those of every other people. They do not keep the king's laws. So it is not to the king's prophet to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed. And I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business. That they may be put into the king's treasury, verse 10. So the king took the signet ring from his hand. He gave it to Haman, the agai, the enemy of the Jews.

The king said to Haman, the money is given to you, the people also do with them as it seems good to you. Bumping down to verse 14, it says, a copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day. The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king and the decree was issued in Sousa, this citadel. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Sousa was thrown into confusion. So what's going on here? Well, Haman has risen to power. He is sitting at the right hand of the king. And we are told twice here in this passage that he is an agite. And the agites have a long standing beef with the Jews. It goes all the way back to Exodus 17 where they attacked the Israelites. And so there is this running hatred there between the agites and the Israelites. And Haman has risen to a place of power and prestige in the kingdom. And so everyone is now bowing down to Haman everywhere he goes. Oh, great Haman, man, we love you, Haman. You're amazing, you're wonderful. Except one guy, we're told one guy is not bowing his knee to Haman and his name is Mordecai. Now up to this point, let's remember Mordecai has kept his cards pretty tight to his chest.

He hasn't revealed yet to anyone that he's a Jew and that he worships the one true God. But now that's out in the open. And Haman finds out and Haman is upset because Mordecai refuses to bow down to him and notice at the end of verse five, it says that Haman is filled with fury. And a switch goes off in Haman. And Haman decides, you know what, I don't wanna just punish Mordecai. No, I know what I'll do. I will actually punish and kill all of the Jews. And so he concocts a very evil plan to kill all of the Jews living in the Persian Empire. Now I know you may be thinking to yourself that that sounds crazy, but I would remind you that not too long ago about the Holocaust where some 6 million Jews were killed at the hands of the Nazis. But what Haman is laying out here is entirely possible. And so Haman goes to the king with his plan. The king gets excited about the plan, agrees with it, they roll some dice or lots and sets the date for the execution of every Jew in the Roman Empire. And then the king sends out an edict to the 127 provinces under his rule, announcing the execution of all of the Jews. And I want you to put yourself in their shoes for a moment. Can you imagine being in the city courts

and they announce that in 11 months, you and your family will be killed. The music has changed. This story has turned dark and tragic. And what's interesting is at the end of this chapter, we see in verse 15, notice that after all of this happens, the king and Haman sit down and have a drink together. Like they're sipping bourbon together, celebrating all that's gonna happen here. This story has turned tragic and dark all of a sudden. And the next thing that happens is Mordecai and the Jews begin to publicly grieve and plead with God for His help. Chapter four, verse one, tells us this, when Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes. He put on sackcloth and ashes and went out of the kings gate for no one was allowed to enter the kings gate clothed in sackcloth. In every province, wherever the kings command in his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth in ashes. Now, where is Esther in all of this sadness and desperation? Well, she's up in the kings palace. She doesn't know yet what's going on. She's been shielded from all of this, but she gets word that Mordecai, who she loves deeply, is distressed, and they start exchanging messages back and forth with Mordecai pleading with Esther to step up and to step in to save Mordecai and to save her people. And look how she responds to his request in verse 11. She says, "All the king servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes into the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law to be put to death, except the one to who the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I've not been called to come into the king these 30 days." Now, we're not certain why Esther hasn't seen the king in 30 days. Perhaps it's because the king had a really large harem.

Maybe he's been spending time with other women. We don't really know, but what we do know is that the king of Persia was the most powerful man in the world. And even the queen, even the queen, could not come into his presence without being summoned first. And if you did so and you caught the king on a really bad day, and for some reason if he felt like you were disrespecting him or his authority, he could have you killed. And so what Mordecai is asking of Esther here is to risk her life on behalf of her people. And so she's afraid. Who wouldn't be afraid? I think all of us would be afraid. And look what Mordecai says to her in response, verse 12. And they told Mordecai what Esther had said, and then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you'll escape any more than all the other Jews." For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Now that is the key verse in Esther. This is the money verse right here. If you're someone that likes to underline or circle or highlight in your Bible, you need to underline the phrase for such a time as this. The implication here is that there is a reason that Esther is in her role as queen in Persian. The God has her there for a reason. And what we're going to see in the rest of this story is how this unfolds. That she is there for such a time as this. And look how Esther responds to Mordecai, verse 15. Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai. They're going back and forth with messengers. "Go gather all the Jews to be found in sushah and hold fast on my behalf. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. And I and my young women will fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." And Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. Now what an incredible story. Now by way of a reminder, we've said that the Book of Esther is the only book in the Bible where God is not specifically or directly mentioned. And yet we see the power and the presence of God on every single page in the Book of Esther. We see the hidden hand of God working in this story, the same hand of God that's working in your story and in my story. And I believe this and we're gonna look at four, four big lessons that I think we see from these two chapters. You'll see 'em there on your outline, if you're a note-taker, here's the first one.

Following God sometimes requires us to not bow down when everyone else is. Sometimes following God requires us to not bow down when everyone else is. You know, this story is filled with so many flawed people. But I think it's remarkable that Mordecai refuses to bow down to the powers who command him to do so. I think that's a remarkable example to us. We see this same thing, by the way, in the book of Daniel. When Daniel was asked, along with his friends, to bow down to the king and to the idols of the king, Daniel says these words, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O King. But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods, or worship the golden image that you've set up. You know, there are times that every Christ Father has to have the courage to say that my knee bows to only one King, and that's King Jesus, who, by the way, is the king of kings, and the Lord of lords. I wonder, do you have the courage to not bow your knee when everyone around you is? Do you have that kind of courage?

You know, I think in our day, rarely are we ever asked to bow our knee to a person, or to a king, but a lot of us are bowing our knee to ideologies. You know, we're allowing ideologies to shape our theologies, the way we think about God. No longer as people are we going to the Bible and asking the Bible to help us interpret what life in the world really means. Know what we do is we go to this. And we allow this for 40 hours a week to tell us how we need to interpret and think about life. And then we spend 15 minutes a week in here trying to figure out what is going on in life. And I ask you, who's winning? What are we setting our minds in our hearts, in our thoughts on them? And a lot of us are bowing our knee to all kinds of ideologies that are being shaped. I think one of the ideologies that I see a lot of Christ followers bowing their knee to is the ideology of self that life is about me. It's about what I think, what I want, how I feel. It's about my truth, my sexuality, my identity, my, my, my. And then what we do is we take our identity, our, excuse me, our self ideology and we ask God to rubber stamp it. And it's not just the ideology of self

that we bow our knee to. We're also bowing to political ideologies, cultural ideologies, philosophical ideologies. And we take all of these ideologies and we try to make the gospel the puppet of our ideology. Rather than putting ourselves underneath the authority of God. I'll tell you as Christ followers, we need to stand on God in His word. We don't stand on ideologies. What that means is what God says is sin is sin. What God says is right. What God says is holy is holy. What that means when I stand on God and I stand on His word is that I don't bow my knee to ideologies. Listen closely, I don't bow my knee to political parties. I don't bow my knee to a man. I bow my knee to one person and it is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That's who we bow our knee to, amen? Because Jesus is the only one worthy of our worship and our legion. There's no ideology, there's no thought out there, there's nothing out there that is worthy of our heart and our mind and our legion, but the Lord Jesus Himself. And there are times in your life and in my life where everyone else is gonna be bowing their knee and we will be put in a position

where we must not bow our knee. That we only bow to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What a powerful example we see here in Mordecai. I think a second lesson that we see here in chapter three is this, maybe it seemed obvious as we were working through it, but following God sometimes means that we're gonna face persecution. Let me tell you, when you stand on God and His word and you refuse to bow your knee, there will be suffering and persecution in this world. And we shouldn't be surprised by that. We shouldn't be caught off guard by that. Paul told his apprentice, Timothy, he said this. He said, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, listen to these words, will be persecuted. I don't particularly like those words. It doesn't say if, it doesn't say might, it says will. We shouldn't be surprised. There are gonna be times in this life that we're gonna face suffering and persecution. We shouldn't be surprised by that. Peter, one of Jesus' disciples said it this way. In first Peter, he said, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes up to you to test you. And so something strange were happening to you, but rejoice in so far as you share in Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. Now, when we talk about persecution,

we need to recognize that there are men and women all over the world who have died because of their faith in Jesus. And this has been happening for thousands of years and it still happens even today. Just recently, in the past couple of weeks, 60 Christ followers in Ethiopia lost their lives for the Lord Jesus. So we need to recognize that and we need to regularly be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who face incredible persecution. But I would say that as followers of Jesus in this culture, in the United States, the more you align yourself with God and His word, the more you refuse to bow your knee to ideologies and the things that are shaping our culture. You're gonna face persecution, persecution for doing what is right. In fact, there'll be people that turn on you like Haman turns on Mordecai for no other reason than he was a follower of God. And I think the temptation is when we face persecution, I don't know about you, but it's to fight back. Man, you heard me, I'm gonna hurt you. We go on the offensive to attack with our words or actions, but actually Jesus challenges us to a different way when we face persecution. Here's Jesus' words, Matthew 544. He challenges us to love our enemies and to actually pray for those who persecute us.

That's a whole different dynamic altogether, isn't it? You know, if you look at the early church, they were persecuted and faced incredible persecution. They never fought back. They didn't use the weapons And yet they started a revolution. Do you know how they started a revolution? By using God's word, by prayer, by acts of service and love, by extending kindness to the people who were persecuting them. And it started a revolution that overtook the whole Roman Empire. And that revolution still exists today. It's why we're gathered here. They weren't surprised or called off guard by persecution, neither should we. But we go at that persecution very, very differently. We love our enemies and we pray for those who persecute us. A third lesson I think we see here in Esther three and four is that God doesn't position us for our comfort. He positions us for his purpose. You know, Esther was living in a, in comfort, in a comfort, comfortable castle, a safe life behind the gates of the palace while her own people were under a death sentence. God had a purpose for Esther, but at first she didn't see it because she was too comfortable. And I wonder if that's true for some of us. I wonder if we're living such comfortable lives that we can't see God's purpose for our own lives anymore.

We've got our nice house, our job, our vacations, our hobbies. And none of those things are bad in and of themselves, but they've just made us comfortable. You know, it's easy for this to happen. It's not that we don't love God, but we drift to a place in life where we're just comfortable. Where one comfortable day becomes a comfortable week, that comfortable week becomes a comfortable month, which becomes a comfortable year, which becomes a very comfortable life. And if we're really honest, we just can't even remember the last time that we took a bold, risky step of faith for God. And yet every single Christ follower in this room has been put in a position and a place for such a time as this. God wants to use you for His purpose, where He has you. He has deliberately placed you in your family, in your workplace, in your school, in this church, in this community, so that He can work through you and your life to make a difference in the lives of others. And He wants to do that right now and through you. In fact, I believe, not for all of us, but for some of us in here, I think God wants to do something really big in your life. And maybe the Holy Spirit has been stirring in your heart for a while, but in all honesty, you've been unwilling to take that big step because of your personal comfort, because you know it's going to cost you something. Maybe it's starting a new ministry. Maybe it's a step of faith,

of going on a short-term mission trip. You've never been on a short-term mission trip before. Maybe it's what we were talking about earlier. Maybe it's you opening up your home and beginning to foster kids. Maybe it's you starting a Bible study at your work, or at your school, or on your football team. Maybe it's something like this. Maybe you realize that God sovereignly has placed you in the home that you're living in, to share your faith in Jesus with your next-door neighbor. See, I see a room full of people for such a time as this. God has put you, He has put me in our positions and our places to use us for His glory. He's created us for His purpose, and oftentimes what's holding us back is comfort. Just comfort. Would you be willing today? Would you be willing today? And know that if you'll do that, God can do an incredible work in and through you. And we're going to see that in the story of Esther. She's going to step out of the palace. She's going to step up for such a time as this, and God is going to do an incredible work in and through her. That same God can do that in you. He's created you for this very moment to do something in and through you. Well, here's the last lesson that I think is important for us to see here. And it's this, when life struggles are heavy, we need others who can carry them with us. I mean, I can't imagine what Esther is feeling in this moment, overwhelmed, grit by fear, uncertainty. I mean, she's carrying the responsibility of having to speak up to save her own people at the risk of her own life. And in this intense moment, what does she do? She goes to her people. She goes to her community and she asked them to fast and to pray with her. Do you see that there in verse 15? In all her stress and fear, she goes to her people and she asks them to pray. See, Esther has her people. I want to ask you, do you have your people?

What I mean is that when life is hard and life's crashing around you, do you have people in your life that you can reach out to, that you can call, that you can text, say, "Pray for me. I need your help." Do you have your people? Do you have your community? And I remember a couple of weeks ago, I was going to have to have a really tough conversation with somebody, feeling a lot of anxiety and stress about it, just sent two people a text and said, "Please pray for me." See, I have my people. Do you have your people? And I'm telling you, if you don't, you need those people in your life. Those people need you. We need each other. We need people who will spiritually encourage us, who will pray for us, who will help us, not just in times of trouble, but even in the good times, because life is hard. Life is unfair. Christianity is not a solo sport. It's a team sport. We best experience the power and the presence of God when we are together. So listen, I hope you have your people. If you don't have your people, we will help you find your people. Here at Fellowship, we have small groups. We call those groups discipleship groups or D groups. You sometimes will hear us refer to that. And that is a small group of people who meet in a regular rhythm to do life with each other, to encourage each other's spiritually, to build relationships with each other. And the hope is that in time, you can say, "Those are my people." Those are my people. We all need people in our life who can pray for and encourage and walk with us, particularly when life is hard. Esther had her people. Do you have your people? If you don't, drop by the connection center today. We'd love to talk with you, help you take the next step, get into the D group here, and begin on a journey of possibly finding your people. You know, as we close together, I want to ask you, and maybe you've seen it thus far, this is an interesting book because you see glimpses of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Book of Esther. Even though the name of God is not directly mentioned in Esther, we see the gospel sprinkled throughout the Book of Esther. You know, when Jesus was resurrected, he was walking on the road of Emmaus with some of his disciples, and he said, "You know what? And I'm paraphrasing here, but the whole Old Testament is about me. It's a foreshadowing of the one who's to come, and I am the one." And so, Esther, we see Jesus next week, and I hope you're here next week, chapter 5, interesting enough, Esther will go to the king on the third day. Jesus was raised on the third day. Here in chapter 4, we see that Esther was willing to stand in the the gap for her people, to save her people. "If I perish, I perish."

Well, friends, Jesus did the same. He was willing to stand in the gap for us, to take upon himself all of our sin and to die on the cross to save us. We see Jesus everywhere in the Book of Esther. See, the hero of Esther is not who you think it is. It's not Esther or Mordecai, the hero of the story of Esther is Jesus. He's the one we worship. He's the one we live for. And listen, Jesus is the only one that we bow our knee for. Let's pray together. Jesus, you are the king of kings and the Lord of lords. We give you all of ourselves. We bow before you. We give you the honor that you are rightfully due. Only you are worthy of our allegiance. And we give you all of our heart, all of our mind. We give you all of ourselves. Lord, we thank you that we see you everywhere in the Book of Esther, that you are not just working in this story, but you're working in our story. Your hidden hand is working in our hearts and our lives. And you've even brought us to this point today for such a time as this. And each and every one of us in here that loves and follows Jesus, you have us in the places and the positions that we are in life to use us for your purpose.

So Lord, where we need to step aside, where we need to set aside personal comfort, we make that commitment to you today. We come to you with open hands and an open heart. We give you all of ourselves, whatever it is that you're calling us to do, we want to grab hold of it with courageous faith, trusting in you. 'Cause we are believing that there's no better time than right now that you have brought us for just such a time as this. So use us for your glory and for your honor. In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks again for listening to the word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com/contact. Have a great week. (upbeat music)