Praise the Lord Everyone.
Hope you are all doing good. Its so wonderful to see all of you in this Zoom meeting.
I will share my screen, and show you few Women.
Tell me something what you know about the following Women
1) Serena Williams - Tennis Champion
2) Elizabeth || - Queen of England
3) Oprah Winfrey - Famous TV Host
If I ask you to say something about Esther . we all might say Esther was a Queen. Earlier when we were asked to Identity these women, we Identified them by their Success.
We rarely Identify how that person built their life to achieve that Success. We don't talk about their hardships , their Challenges and their response in their Challenging time.
Today Let us look at the life of Esther.
We know that Esther was Queen. We talk about her success.But we don't talk about how her life was built.
BACKGROUND
I will give a quick background about Esther's life.
a) King Ahasuerus was looking for a New Queen in place of Vashti.
b) All the Beautiful young girls from the kingdom were brought into Custody of Hegai , King's eunuch. Esther was also one among them.
c) Esther was a Jewish girl, brought up by her uncle Mordecai.
This is her background,
ESTHER'S LIFE
A) OBEDIENCE
Now let us read Esther Chapter 2:V 10
10 Esther had not [k]revealed her people or family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it.
GIRLS TALK
Here we see that Esther had not revealed anything about background.
Usually When girls meet together , it is very natural for them to talk about their backgrounds, the place they come from, their roots etc.
we all know that when we women meet, many times we tell about ourselves, our background and our interests.
ESTHER'S TALK
Many people might have questioned about Esther's family when she was brought into Hegai's custody.
It is difficult to NOT talk about her background , especially if she was going to become the queen of the kingdom.
It is easy to speak a lot, but it hard Not to speak.
Especially if someone tells us not to say something, as a woman it is very difficult to keep it in our heart.
ESTHER's OBEDIENCE AND REASON
But if we look at Esther's life, she was someone who was raised under a Covering. that Covering was her uncle Mordecai.
Here Mordecai was a man of God , who can be seen here as a Shepherd in Esther's life.
Esther was an obedient girl who submitted to her authority.
She knows what submission means, she knows what obedience means.
She knows when NOT to speak and She also knows when to speak, because her Shepherd was continually guiding her with his word.
So, this verse 10 says Esther did not reveal her background because She heard the Word from Mordecai and she received the Word and she obeyed the Word.
There is another place where Esther revealed her Obedience
Let us read Esther 4:8 NKJV
He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people.
Here Mordecai sent a Word to Esther to reveal her background before king and Save her people.
Conclusion for Obedience
Every time the word came from Mordecai, Esther has shown her Obedience to his word.
When the Word come to us, obedience will reveal our love towards God.
Esther's life was built on her obedience. She obeyed her shepherd's word before becoming queen, and even after she became queen.
Everyone see the success of Esther as queen, but many do not realize her obedience.
The first aspect that we can learn from Esther's life is her obedience to the Word.
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B) CHOICES
Let us look at another aspect of Esther - how she built her life.
After 6 months of beauty preparations are done for the girls, each of these girls had to go before the king.
and each girl was given a Choice to take with her whatever she desires and go before the king.
For example,
if a girl desires to take ornaments of gold, diamonds etc before the king, she would be given that.
if another girl wants to take expensive and beautiful clothing, that will be given to her.
so every girl can make a choice according to their desires.
ESTHER's CHOICES
Now Let us read what Esther choose to take before king when her turn came.
Let us read Esther 2:15 NKJV
Now when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her.
when Esther's turn came, She DID NOT choose according to her desire ,
She requested NOTHING of her own desires or likes.
She put away her own will when making choices, but she made her choice based on the advice of Hegai.
Hegai knows the heart of king and what pleases the king and Esther was willing to take Hegai's advise.
Hegai represents the role of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit knows the heart of God,and reveals heart of God.
In our lives, we are always faced with situations to make choices.
Some might make their choices according to their desires and own will, but we, as daughters of Most High , our Choices should always be according to the Counsel of the Holy Spirit.
CONCLUSION OF CHOICE - SUCCESS, FAVOR
We talk about Success of Esther as Queen, but we rarely talk about the Choices She made. Her choices were not like all other girls.
The Choice she made, brought favor before all and She ended up being the Queen of the kingdom.
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C) IDENTITY
Now Let us look at the final aspect of Esthers life.
Today many in the world are going through Identity crisis. Many people do not know what their true identity is.
Some are struggling to even know their true gender is.
Some are struggling to see where they belong.
Identity crisis is the one of the biggest reasons of many problems that we see in society today.
Do you know what your identity is?
You may say "I know I am Christian" "I am a believer"
But when you face challenges Is that identity revealed?
Example of President's Children
If we see the children of the president of a Country , they will Carry their Identity wherever they will go. whether it is School, or work place they will Carry their Identity as a president's Children.
The actions of the Presidents children will either bring honor or dishonor to the president.
Similarly, a believers actions or response will either bring honor or dishonor to our God.
Let us read Esther 4:V15
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in [c]Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
Esther's Identity and Responsibility
Esther was in a palace. She was in the position of a queen, and there were pleasures in the palace and She was surrounded by maid servants.
Now when she was faced with the challenge, She did not identify herself with the position or with pleasures , but Esther understood that her true identity is Child of God.
She Identified herself as Jewish girl, with the Jewish people and that identity brought a great responsibility of saving God's people.
Your Identity brings responsibility.
Even though it was a very difficult matter to go before the king without kings invitation, she was willing to risk her life to carry out her responsibilities because she knew her identity.
Believer's Identity and Responsibility
We live in a world where we face constant challenges at schools, home, workplace and in relationships.
One day, a believer girl came to me and asked me, Am I looking like a movie star, then I told her, you are more precious than a movie star.
Many times we try to identify with celebrities, but do we know we are bought by the precious blood of Christ and our identity is in HIM only.
Those who know their Identity, they will know their true responsibility.
Woman's Responsibilities
If we see a Woman she has so many responsibilities.
a) As a Daughter she has Responsibility towards parents.
b) As a wife she has Responsibility towards husband.
c) As a Mother she a responsibility towards child.
As believer and as a Daughter of Most high we have Responsibility to carry his Identity Wherever we are.
The Word says in John 1:12.
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name".
God gave his Identity to us.
*****As a daughter of Most high our Response matters in every situation.
*****Esther Recognized her Identity is Daughter of God.
***** Esther understood her Responsibility is to save God's people.
*****Her response was She did fasting and prepared herself to go before the king.
****Esther responded in godly way.
When we go out into the world, it is our actions that will speak louder about our Identity and to whom we belong to.
As a believer If you know your Identity is in Christ, you will know your responsibility.
Your response in every situation will reveal what your identity is.
Our Godly Response will always Bless us and make Blessing to Others.
so to summarize what we learnt today from life of Esther.
a) Obedience to the Word - Esther obeyed her shepherd's Word before going to the palace and even after she entered the palace.
Place, Position, situations , people did not stop Esther in obeying the Word.
b) Choices Matter - Esther choices are not from her own desires, but she chose nothing except what Hegai advised. What a blessed choice that Esther made.
c) Identity - Esther realized her identity as Child of God. She identified herself with jewish people and that brought a great responsibility upon her and she was willing to even die for her people.
Esther found her true identity.,
Can we also find our true identity. We are the daughters of Most High.
Let us build our lives on the Obedience to the Word, Making Godly Choices and realize our identity and our responsibility.
Amen.
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