For Nov 16

Sermon Notes: For Times Such As This

Intro: Do you feel called by God for a particular purpose, or even being given an increasing number of tasks to fulfill God’s purpose in your life? Do you feel God has given you physical and/or spiritual gifts to achieve His purposes for your life? His gifts may be useful within a vocation outside the church, to meet God’s purposes, as well as within His church. God’s calling today may be a means of preparing you for a later purpose. Speaking from personal experience, I found God had equipped my eventual call to pastoral ministry through a series of callings, through the military, business management, teaching experience, and years as volunteer treasurer in a larger church before being led here, where Cathy and felt this is where God wanted us. And known the satisfaction God gives when answering His call.   

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I.  God’s Callings

A. Few people, other than the wealthy privileged, feel they are predestined to greatness, But their path may include trying to buy happiness with money, or finding success in others’ plans for their lives in the footsteps of successful family members. Others, like doctors, lawyers, even pastors may aspire to positions of recognition and power with the special talents they seem to have been given. But unless their goal for success is the spiritual satisfaction to be found in using God’s gifts for His purposes, they may never know the wonder of God’s plan for their lives. Believing Christians, pursuing God’s call on their lives. may face a variety of options. Some may pursue theology to achieve greater positions of authority within the Church, while others pursue training to become missionaries to the needy, such as Mother Theresa. Some may find joy in teaching in academic settings as well as teaching young people in a church. God doesn’t give us all the same gifts, but it takes all His gifts to meet His grand purposes.

B. Take Edward Kimball, for example. Many, like myself, know his story, but struggle to remember his name. He was born in Rowley, Massachusetts, in 1823. He had begun to pursue a career in religious studies as his parents wanted, but illness at the time prevented him. Instead, he became a public school teacher like his father.

C. God seemed to be leading Ed in a slightly different direction, because later, at age 23, Kimball moved to Boston where his business aptitude led to him becoming head of a carpet dealer firm. He also joined a Congregational Church, where he served as a church officer and Sunday School teacher. During one Sunday School class of teenage boys, Kimball asked the class to turn to a specific chapter in the Gospel of John. One newer student, Dwight, unfamiliar with the books of the Bible or the location of John, turned instead to the front of the Bible, resulting in his classmates laughing at him. Kimball, however, handed the young man his own Bible open to the correct passage and asked him to read. Greatly impressed by Kimball's kindness, Dwight continued to attend Sunday School. In 1855, after nearly a year of lessons, Kimball felt a need to visit Dwight at the shoe store where he was working to talk to

him about his salvation. Kimball had paced in front of the store, unsure of what he would say, but feeling strongly drawn to speak to the young man. Finally, during their conversation in the store's stockroom, the 18 year old Dwight L. Moody accepted Christ as his Savior.

D. Not much else is known about Kimball, but Dwight Moody went on to become a successful businessman and a world famous evangelist. He used his business skills and his faith to establish the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago in 1866, which is still a major Christian learning institution today. Their Mission statement is interesting: “Whether you study as an undergraduate or graduate student, in person or online, or are pursuing a biblical, theological, ministry-focused, or aviation education, you’ll graduate ready to serve Christ with passion and excellence—however and wherever He leads you”.

E. Ed Kimball was a very ordinary Christian that God equipped to be a Sunday School teacher at his church, and a carpet dealer by vocation. By responding to God’s call to speak to a teenage Sunday School student, God used him to call Dwight Moody to His greater purposes. Moody’s “direct chain” evangelism resulted in Billy Sunday’s call to become an evangelist, that eventually reached sixteen year old Billy Graham, whose world evangelism, directly and indirectly, would bring also bring countless souls to Christ. Although “just a Sunday School teacher”, Kimball is often used as an example of the influence that one "ordinary" individual can have in God’s purposes.  

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II. Esther 4:1-14

A. The Book of Esther, one of the lesser known books of the Bible, never directly mentions God, but God is seen working throughout it. The Jewish Esther had lost her parents, and was raised by her uncle and adoptive father Mordecai in Susa, the capital of Persia, during the reign of King Xerxes. They were among those who chose not to return to Jerusalem after the exile. As Jews, they were foreigners, but accepted in Persian culture. Mordecai, in fact, had uncovered an assassination attempt against the king, and was welcomed in the royal court within proper royal protocols. Except for one noble, Haman, who was jealous of Mordecai’s status and hated him. So much, that he plotted against all Jews just to get revenge on Mordecai.

B. God had given Mordecai’s niece, Esther, the gift of inner and physical beauty. The reigning Queen Vashti had become disobedient to the king and therefore banished. The king sent messengers to find candidates to become the new queen, and after extended auditioning, Esther is chosen to be queen. But even as Queen, there were limitations. The King was quite fond of young, beautiful Esther, but even she could not come into the presence of the king, unless summoned.. Anyone coming into the presence of the king without permission was seen as a potential threat, and put to death, unless the king extended his royal scepter to them. Like our God extending His mercy to us allowing us into His Presence.

C. Esther had never been identified as a Jew, which was of little consequence, except for evil Haman. Unaware, like the king, that Esther was Jewish, Haman cleverly disguises his hatred for Mordecai to manipulate the king to sign an edict that on a certain day, chosen by Purim, a type of lottery, all Jews in the extensive kingdom of Persia and its provinces were to be killed.

D. Esther is unaware of the edict, until Mordecai clothes himself in sackcloth and ashes, to publicly mourn the genocidal edict, like all Jews throughout the kingdom. Royal protocol forbade contact with the Queen by outsiders, and Mordecai, refusing to set aside his proper mourning in sackcloth and ashes, could not enter the palace. Esther arranges a private meeting outside the palace where Mordecai reveals the plot to her, and appeals to her to bring the matter before the king with the stern warning. “Don’t think that you will be spared as a Jew because you are behind palace walls. But perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.” Had God known that putting her in Mordecai’s care, with her gift of beauty, would lead to this very time to save the Jews from genocide. Now, here’s Esther’s dilemma: How would she see the king without an invite, and even if the King were to mercifully spare her life in such an audience, how could she then change the irrevocable law?  

E. Last week we considered that heroes are “ordinary people put in extraordinary situations that ordinary people deal with in extraordinary ways”. Esther was an ordinary person, until God’s gift of beauty provided another gift of becoming Queen, that seems to have put her in this extraordinary circumstance. Now she would need God’s gifts of courage and boldness to save her people, God’s people. Uninvited, risking death, she courageously goes into the presence of the king. But the king is so touched by her beauty and her boldness that he extends the royal scepter to her, sparing her life. Rather than bluntly laying the problem before the king, she uses that moment of mercy to invite the king, and Haman, to a special banquet for them. Greatly pleased by her gesture, they come.

F. After the banquet, she exposes Haman’s evil plan, and that, as a Jew, she would be subject to death under the king’s irrevocable edict. While the king steps out to think of an alternative, Haman hastily rushes to Esther to plead for her mercy, but falls over her, just as the king enters, and believes Haman is assaulting her. He orders Haman’s death, and gives Haman’s complete estate to Esther. The genocide edict is still in effect, but the king hears and enacts Mordecai’s plan for a decree to be sent out in the king’s name that on the specific date the Jews were to be killed, the Jews would be allowed to bear arms to protect themselves against any attack. in Esther 9:5-6, it is reported that “the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them.” In the capital of Susa, the Jews killed 500, and 75,000 throughout the Persian empire.  

G. Esther had used God’s gifts to fulfill His greater purposes, while Mordecai had used God’s gift of wisdom to legally neutralize the king’s edict, effectively preventing the genocide. God had given His gifts to Esther and Mordecai for His purposes of saving His chosen ones, the descendants of His long standing covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The day is still celebrated annually with the Feast of Purim, and giving of gifts. Purim refers to the day chosen by lots, a type of lottery, to destroy the Jews.

H. We’ve seen God at work, even behind the scenes, to fulfill His plans. But let’s also look at the implications of this lesson that have meaning for us. God gives each of us gifts, not like a Santa Claus or a benevolent charity. He doesn’t create people randomly. He has His planned purposes and calls each of us to participate in His plan. He equips those He calls with His gifts for the purposes He has known all along. Ed Kimball had a gift as a Sunday School teacher that he used to reach young men for Jesus. God even multiplied his gifts by reaching Dwight Moody, and eventually Billy Graham. He can use us, equipping us with gifts, even multiplying them to reach countless other people to accomplish His purposes.

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III. I Corinthians 1:26-31

A. Paul too had been called to God’s purposes. He had gifts of education and speaking ability that were very useful when God called him, especially in ministering to the Gentiles. In our Epistle lesson, Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church, Paul addresses the church by asking them who they were when they were called to faith. The city of Corinth, originally settled by freed slaves, was a booming metropolis with widespread immorality and pagan worship. The church had many problems among the converts resulting from such backgrounds. Not many were wise by human standards, or influential, or of noble birth. The Greco Roman culture valued rhetoric and philosophy, thereby dismissing Christian values as simplistic. They saw the message of the cross, salvation through the shame of crucifixion, as foolishness, so that the power of God would have been seen as weakness. But Paul emphasized God’s use of the weak by worldly standards to demonstrate His power and sovereignty. Like the shepherd David to defeat the mighty warrior Goliath. Eventually God used the marginalized, persecuted church to transform the Roman empire. God’s gifts to Paul were useful, but they were multiplied many times over in the churches he established, the converts he brought to Christ, and even by his passionate witness to the Roman Emperor.

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Conclusion: Earlier I asked you whether you felt called by God for a particular purpose, or even being given an increasingly number of tasks to fulfill God’s purpose for your life. Do you feel God has given you physical and/or spiritual gifts to achieve His purposes for your life? I hope you can now answer those questions by seeing God preparing You to fulfill His purposes with the gifts He has equipped You with. And seeing yourself as part of God’s unfolding plan to fulfill His purposes. Paul urged believers to find their identity and worth in God alone. That our strength and wisdom comes from God alone, not by human effort. As redeemed servants of Jesus, as part of His plan of salvation to reach all people, we receive His gifts to fulfill His purposes, as we humbly proclaim His kingdom and His glorious rule over us all. Amen