In this sermon, the speaker begins by expressing the joy and hope that comes from being a follower of Jesus. He emphasizes the fear of growing old that the world has, but highlights the beauty of aging in Christ. The speaker then turns to the book of Esther and discusses how God can transform us in an instant, freeing us from fear, unbelief, and self-pity. He encourages the audience to live selflessly and not be consumed by the selfishness of the world.

This message is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. You are welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends. However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply. What a delight to see that our hope in Jesus is that we're a green tree till the day he takes us. The world fears growing old. The world fears aging. And we have such beautiful examples before us, and it's wonderful to be able to honor them as they honor the Lord and what he keeps doing through them. And it gives me hope, and I know it gives many hope to see that right till the end, Christ keeps us supple and giving. And I thank him for that testimony. Today, I'd like to ask you to turn with me to the book of Esther. The book of Esther. One of the two books in the Bible that's named after a woman. And my message today is entitled, Esther, for such a time as this. For such a time as this. Would you pray with me? Father, I thank you, Lord, that you've gathered us here this afternoon for a very specific word for the time we live in. And I thank you, Lord, that the Holy Spirit is going to come now and open this word, make it living, make it real. Lord, that it's going to find a place not just in our head or in our heart, but right in our spirit. Lord, I thank you that you know what you want to do in your body. You have a plan. And I thank you, Lord, that you are going to bring it forward now. You're going to make things real and clear to us because you're in charge of this church and you love your people and you're in charge of the body of Christ. And so you know what we need. We ask you now to bring it forward. We ask you to make it clear. And we ask you, Lord, to give us a yielded and submitted heart to your word and your spirit. And Lord, we will see you now today. And we thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen. In Esther 4 verse 14, there is a very famous verse that many know, many can quote. And it says in verse 14, the bottom half of Esther, it says, For who should know, who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? But there is a less quoted first half of that verse. In verse 14, for it says, For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. This was a word given to a woman who at that specific time in her life that this word was given was a very ironic word. Might have been a very hard word to hear. Because the Lord is speaking a direct word to her at a time when she probably had very little control over the circumstances in her life. And yet she's being asked to do something so radical. It would be a word that would almost seem to mock her. She lived in a time, and I think we share that time with perilous times. It was when Jews, God's chosen people, faced a battle for their very lives. Not just their spiritual lives, but their physical lives. And there is a season and a time when God's people, God's chosen people, not just in Old Testament times, but I believe the time that we're living in, that we face a perilous time. We face a time where our enemy, Satan, our adversary, the accuser of the brethren, is allowed for God's own purpose and known for his reasons why he is allowed the dominion he seemingly has. But God has a purpose and a time for it. But it's true to say that some days are darker than others. Some days are perilous than others. And God specifically chooses who will be born in those perilous times. He chooses a people specifically for those perilous times. And Esther was a lady who lived in a time, when we read her story, where there was a wicked man, Haman, who became an advisor, who had ear to the king. A murderous man. A time where he felt that he could rule, that he could impose his will, that he could win because he lived in a very special time. He was able, he felt, to have a stunning blow and a major victory over his enemy, the people of God. And he felt that he could dominate through circumstance. That he could stay in control. And because of what his plan was, that he could murder, wipe out an entire generation of God's people. Such was his hatred, such was the rage, such was the un-pacified wrath. Nothing could appease this man or turn this man away from his absolute hatred of God's people. He was dedicated to their destruction. And God's answer to this enemy was a woman at perhaps maybe the weakest and most impotent time in her life. She's been asked to make a choice. She's been asked to be brave and to put others first. When she herself and her life is being dominated by events and people seemingly out of her control. No wonder the enemy feels he has an absolute golden opportunity. He probably feels at this point that his plans can go forward. That he can be able to, what he wants to accomplish, a Satan-like figure to demolish the heritage of God, the testimony of God. He feels he has an unprecedented chance. In the book of Esther, it opens and it's a time when the Persian empire ruled the world. There was a king, Ahasuerus, and he ruled from India to Ethiopia. And almost every Jew that lived, lived under the dominion of this man. And around this most powerful despot, this king, were advisors, some good and some bad. There was a time in his life where they advised him that he needed to get rid of his queen, Vashti, because she disobeyed him. And they counseled him that he must not overlook the disobedience of his queen. And they said replace her with someone better than she. And the scripture tells us that King Ahasuerus did just that. Then it said not many days later that he remembered Vashti. In other words, after deposing his queen and getting rid of her, there was a longing in his heart to have her back. And so these counselors once again came to him and said, we have a plan for you. He said, out of all the kingdoms, search for maidens. And the one that pleases the king, let her be queen instead of Vashti. He agreed to that. And the scripture tells us in Esther chapter 2, and in verse 4, it tells us this very thing. And it tells us, starting in verse 5, that in Shushan, which was the city of the king, there lived a man. His name was Mordecai. He was a certain Jew. Scripture tells us that he was carried away in the Babylonian captivity when Nebuchadnezzar came against the kingdom of Judah in the south. They took all the inhabitants of that land. All God's chosen people, almost to a man, were taken out of the land except for a few poor. And they were brought to Babylon. They were brought to the Persian kingdom. And Mordecai was one of those ones that were brought there. And the scripture tells us in verse 7 that he brought up his niece, Hadassah. That is Esther, verse 7, his uncle's daughter. For she had neither father nor mother. And the maid was fair and beautiful, whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. We begin to see a little family here. Part of a despised captive people living in a hostile land. And now circumstances, now events, seemingly are conspiring to pull them apart. They only have each other. And now the scripture says that she was brought into the court of the king. And Esther with other maidens was taken into the palace. And at that time when those girls were brought in, they were allowed, when going to see the king, they were allowed to ask for something. Whatever they thought they needed, they were allowed to have. Whatever their hearts desired, they were allowed to take with them. And when she was brought in before the king, the scripture tells us that Esther required nothing. But what was appointed unto her. In other words, she was thinking, you know, the events and what's happening in my life, I so don't understand. I can't think really if it was left to me what I need. Maybe it was because she needed so much. Maybe it was because it was a picture that she was saying, God, I need you now as I never needed before. I want you, oh God. You've seen me. You've seen how alone I am. You see how vulnerable I am. God, I couldn't even begin to know what I need. And she's a picture and a type where she says, appoint to me what you think I need. And those that were the keeper, she found favor in their sight. Those that were the keeper of the women. And the scripture says that what they gave her, it enabled her to find favor. And when we see this woman's story that God is saying that in a dark time, that God is going to have a people that he has raised up specifically for a dark time. We're going to see that the cry of Esther's heart. Oh God, I don't understand what's happening. And I don't understand the time of my life. But I say, God, you know what I need. And I'm going to trust you. It could be so easy in times, beloved. And it's typical of our times to make a list and to begin to demand saying, God, this is what I need. And this is what I want you to do in my dark time. But there was a grace upon this woman that says, Lord, appoint unto me. Appoint what I need. And I believe that God so fully answered that prayer. Esther was taken with the other maidens. And it tells us in verse 17 that when she was brought into the king in the seventh year of his reign, that he loved her and he made her queen. And the scripture tells us in verse 17 that the king made a great feast for her. His first wife, Vashti, was deposed three years into his reign. He'd been four years without a queen. And finally, he had one. And scripture says he loved her. He made a great feast. He sent portions and riches unto the provinces. And all the country rejoiced that the king had found his queen. And beloved circumstances favored the beautiful Esther. But now in chapter 3, we're going to see that things begin to change. Esther coming into the king and being chosen is a type of salvation. Not that King Ahasuerus is a type of Christ. But the type when Jesus said that I have chosen you, you've not chosen me. When God says that I've had my eye on you from the beginning. That I have called you, I've chosen you, I have loved you. There is a purpose why I brought you to myself. Beloved, when we come into salvation, some of these things, the Holy Spirit has to begin to work down deep into us. That God does not play with our lives and that he has chosen us for a purpose and a reason. First and foremost, he loves us. Second of all, there is something he sees that he wants to form in us. That he's going to get much glory. And for a season, circumstances favored this queen. And beloved, that's a type of salvation. We come into the kingdom and circumstances favor us. For many of us, we have come from darkness to light. For many the first time, it's a sense of well-being that our sin and the power of sin has been broken off us and we feel a freedom in our spirit. And all things become new because scripture says that. And we ourselves have become new. We've been given a new heart and a new spirit and a new mind. A new ability to live life. Because the death that was reigning in us has been broken through Jesus Christ. Because when we repented and we came to him and we said, Lord God Almighty, I give you my life, he took it. And that sense of a new power and a new majesty and a new dominion for many have been felt in your spirits. Because the power of sin has been broken and we have been made free. Not what we have done, but what Christ has done for us. And all we did was accept it. We were powerless to change ourselves. All we knew was how to sin. But Jesus Christ in his great mercy and his love for us came and saw and chose us for salvation and chose us to himself and says, I'm going to give you a new mind. I'm going to give you a new life. And we accepted it by faith. Not that we understood it, but we accepted it. But then circumstances change because they always do. And the life and the power that we experience so real in our emotions change. We find out we have an enemy. We find out we have an adversary. We find out, and it's a shock to many, that there is a force of evil that hates us and is committed against us. There is a force of evil and there is a power because we are loved by God and we belong to Christ. And the same hatred that it has for him, it now has for us. And it is committed to taking us off the path of life. It is committed, if it can, to kill and destroy us. And it comes as a shock. It comes as a revelation. And circumstances change in Esther's life. And where she was once a loved bride, a cherished bride, a queen, now something is happening also around the throne, not just her presence, but something else. And scripture tells us in Esther 3, chapter 1, that after these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamadephah the Agite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king's servants, they that were in the king's gate, bowed in reverence Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Beloved, scripture is telling us now, it's such a picture. It is a picture of a believer's life. It is a picture of what is real and moves in to the life of a believer. Something dark and something evil. And in this case, there is a man, his name is Haman. Agite means the fiery one. Means a hateful person. And for whatever reason, he is able now to take the ear of the king, and he becomes the chief counselor. And not only is his hold just over the king, but the king comes so under the sway of this fiery one, this hate-filled one, that he now demands all the princes of the realm bow in reverence this fiery one. And now darkness is coming in to this kingdom. And a stranglehold of evil in a very special way is now being able to grip what rules this kingdom. And it is a picture of perilous, dark times. Haman now stands beside the king. In his way, more and more captivating his mind. Haman's thoughts, Haman's desires, what Haman wants, is beginning now to be channeled through that king. It is a dark time. The scripture says, though, that Mordecai, the queen's cousin, would not bow and would not reverence him. The man of faith. A man touched by God. A man with another spirit. Recognized the spirit of the age and the spirit of the times. A man with another spirit now who could begin to see something so deadly and so evil beginning to operate in high levels. And even if he was the one that stood alone, there was something in him that kept him erect. Another spirit kept him erect where everyone else bowed. And it was a contest of light and darkness and so ever shall it be. For those that will live godly in Christ, Jesus shall suffer persecution and tribulation. This story is going to be repeated and carried out for all those that determine in their heart to stand for Jesus Christ in a dark, evil age will know this conflict. And though many will bow, there will still be a Mordecai company that recognize what is trying to get dominion over God's people and will not bow. Scripture tells us that those around him say, Mordecai, what are you doing? You must bow. Do you not know the decree of the king? And the scripture says in verse 3 of chapter 3, Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass when they spake daily unto him, that's Mordecai, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman. To see whether Mordecai's matter would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. Now beloved, there is now a cloud of witnesses. There is a group coming, they're interested in this struggle. There is a group coming, you know, they're half fascinated, half repelled, half horrified by what's going on here. Because there is a man that will not bow. And they gather and they're saying, what are you doing? Don't you know how perilous it is to stand out, to stand up in front of the face of this Haman? But there is another half that would run to tell, to point out to Haman, Look, look, there's a man here who will bend you. There's a man here who will bow to you. They're very interested. They want to see what happens. They like a good fight. They don't want to be part of the good fight. They don't want to be the one standing, but they like to see. And here we have this group gathering around and they want to see what's going to happen. And all knew that he was a Jew. Different from they were, different from they were. And at that moment, it horrified them. That someone so different would be willing to stand out. Because there's a spirit in a man. If you're different, you want to hide. There's a spirit. If you're not like the others, you don't want to stand out. There's a spirit that will bow to the spirit of man and say, Don't look at me. I don't want to be singled out. I will bow. Just don't pay attention to me. I don't want to face the consequence. Of standing alone in a dark age. Verse five. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did in reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone. For they had showed him the people of Mordecai. Wherefore, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus. Even the people of Mordecai. When this man stood out. What everybody feared happened. Because this man stood out. The wrath of this evilness was not just against one man. But against all that he stood for. And his evil and his hatred could not be contained just to one man. He said he had scorn and contempt for just fighting against one man alone. Such was his wrath. Such was his murder. That everything this man stood for. Every place he found it. He wanted it stamped out. Every place he saw it. Every place he recognized it. He was committed to come against it in his full fury and his full murderous force. And he knew he had the power to do it. Mordecai dared to defy him. And so the scripture tells us in chapter 3 of verse 9. That Haman goes to the king. And he begins to tell about a people that are against the king. About a people that need to be destroyed. About a people that keep not. They have a different laws. And they have a different way of living. They have a different view of life. And they're a threat to you oh king. And he says leave it to me. Let me destroy them. But then something so shocking yet revealing. In verse 9 it says if it please the king. Let it be written that they may be destroyed. And I will pay 10,000 talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of this business. He's not just content that he be in charge of overseeing this destruction. He says I will pay and make sure it happens. There is something about him that is so riled up. He is so obsessed with the annihilating of these people. He says I'm going to pay. It'll come out of my hand. It'll come out of my pocket. I am coming to kill, to steal, and destroy. But to make sure it happens he says I'll pay. It was a dark time. It was a perilous time. And Mordecai tells us perceives and grieves with what's happening. Because the scripture says that the king agrees to this. And in verse 13 it says let letters be sent into all the king's provinces. And the letter says permission is given to destroy and to kill and to cause to perish all Jews both young and old, little children and women in one day. And so that letter, that decree goes out to every province, every tongue, every people. There's going to be a wholesale slaughter in this kingdom. And it has the king's approval. And in one day, sparing no one, a nation is to be destroyed at the hands of others. And the decree goes out. And the scripture says that the king and Haman sat down to drink, verse 15. And in chapter 4 it says when Mordecai perceived all that was done, he rent his clothes, put on sackcloth with ashes and went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud, bitter cry. It says that, and he came even before the king's gate, for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. It's politically incorrect, Mordecai, to come into a place, a public place, a prestigious place, a nice place with sackcloth and ashes and renting your clothes and crying and wailing. But Mordecai saw what was happening. Mordecai knew what was at stake. Were those around him saying, Mordecai, you can't do this. Were his own kinsmen saying, Mordecai, don't do this. Can people be so blind? Can God's people be so little perceiving? Can there be so little grief in our prayers that we don't see? And we don't know what is obvious to a praying man. What is obvious to a man who will not bend to the spirit of the age. Who will not be found bowing to another spirit. What is so clear and so obvious to him. But he alone is at the king's gate grieving and wailing. Scripture tells us in the verses follow that throughout the provinces there were Jews that began to wail and weep. There was a remnant. There is a holy remnant. There is a people who know and understand. And they too began wailing and weeping. But in verse 4, chapter 8, the scripture tells us that finally, Esther receives word. Esther in the palace. Finally, in her isolation. Who had been absolutely oblivious to all the decree. Finally, word gets through to her. And she received word through her servant. And she is given a copy of the writing. And she is made known to what this decree is. That her people are being annihilated. That there is a hatred abroad so evil and so deep. That there are going to be people throughout the whole kingdom that are looking forward to this one day of annihilation. One day of mass slaughter. And it's to be her people. And alone, isolated in the palace, Mordecai gets word to her. And he tells her, you should go in. You go to the king and you make supplication unto him and make a request before him for your people. But her answer. In verse 11. Is this. And all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever whether man or woman shall come unto the king into the inner court who is not called. There is one law of his to put him to death. Except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live. But I have not been called to come in under the king these 30 days. Now that's a lot of words to boil down her answer to Mordecai. And she said to him, I hear what you're saying. But I tell you, I am powerless. She's saying I was made queen because of my beauty. But I'm not the only beauty in the palace. She was telling him. And though I wear the crown. I have no access to power. I was once proclaimed and feted. But that was five years ago. I was once loved. But things have greatly changed. Circumstances keep me powerless to change anything or to save anyone. She was probably saying, why is Mordecai telling me this? Why don't Mordecai, you do something. Mordecai, you're brave. You're discerning. You have the spirit of God on you. But Mordecai sends word to her. Mordecai, under the anointing, sends word to her. And he says to her, no, this is your hour. He says, this is your time. He says, who knows but whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. You know, when she first came to that palace, I'm sure she felt very beautiful. Now, five years later, I see a woman full of self-doubt. I see a woman now who has made a tragic mistake. See, this woman was gifted with beauty. She didn't earn it. But beloved, we don't realize it but many times what God has done for us, what God does in us and through us. Gifts, talents, things he has given us when he first called us. Well, we don't realize but we have started to put our trust in it. But there will come a time when it will fail us. When these gifts of these talents have suddenly made their way into the root of our faith. Have made us come to realize that we are favored or what happens to us is something other than Christ. Something other than a gift. Something other than he has ordained for us. And we begin to trust in something that's not worthy of our trust. In something that will work away against our faith. That will work against us. It's like the underside of virtue. You know, some people can have a reputation or be known as good or wise. But if we begin to trust in that, then that which our reputation lays on is where our very danger lies. And Esther, I believe, has begun to trust this beauty has brought me here. But five years later, she found out that this beauty has not kept her. This beauty has not allowed her to be the delight only of her husband. It has failed her because there are others there. She has not been called for 30 days. She is no longer the sole delight of his life. There can be times God and what she trusted in to bring him favor is not working anymore. And now it's beginning to dawn on her that's what she had trusted in. And that what she thought would keep her and sustain her and allow her favor has failed her. And it's failed her at the worst possible time. What happens when we are trusting what we are trusting in doesn't seem to work anymore. Beloved, then we can know that God is at work in our lives. If our what we have been trusting in is failing, how do you know trust is failing? How do you know when you put your trust and I put my trust in a false thing? I'll tell you why. Because when circumstances change, when a hard place comes, our thoughts and our spirits are dominated by that which we had trusted in. And I can see where this woman begins to think, why am I loved anymore? Am I not beautiful enough? What must I do to win his favor back? What must I do? Where have I been rejected? What's going on? And I can see her begin every thought. There's a counter thought. Every move is analyzed. Every word is brought under the light. Everything is brought to be analyzed. And she's preoccupied now. It's beginning to grip her. Her thoughts are dominated. And there is now beginning her spirit, a despair and a realization. I am powerless. I can't even control what goes on in my heart. What's dominating? Don't ask me to come and be a deliverer. When we are moved to a place where our false trust and self-protection, where we begin to feel that my security lies in what I can do for myself and how I can change things. What do I have to do to manipulate? What do I have to do to keep the ground I've got? What do I have to do to keep my security? What do I have to do to be loved? What do I have to do to be admired? What do I have to do to be accepted? Beloved, this is what goes on in the hearts of believers and in perilous times. We are at double peril with thoughts like that. What does it take? When we find out we can't trust what we've been trusting in. When what dominates our thinking is only bringing more fear, lack of peace, more striving on our part. Did she come to say my beauty did not give me what my heart needed? When the light came because of perilous times and those were beginning to call on her, you have a, you, you're the queen. You're in a position where you can help us. When we have a reputation, we know Jesus Christ, that we have light, we have truth, we have power, we have deliverance on our side, but we don't live in it. But we have that reputation that we are, it belongs to the most high God, yet in perilous times they come. And when the light shows us that we cannot deny what our heart and mind are agreed on, that we are grasping for position as much as anyone. We are grasping for security as much as anyone. When Esther was not called to the king, she realized I may be queen, but I'm still grasping for his love position as much as anyone. When circumstances are saying you're not cherished as a wife, you are not honored, you are not preferred, your stability, her stability, has been shaken. And voices and thoughts that once previously could be dismissed, are now given place. Beloved, hear me. That's what happens when we're building a false trust into our faith system, is that thoughts and attitudes of our heart that we could dismiss before, that we would not give place before, would now begin to rise up, because she had a corruptible beauty. And beloved, we have a corruptible beauty, the gifts and the talents that God has given us and adorned us for, were never meant that our faith and our life were to rest on. It can't stand that kind of pressure. The beauty and the talent that we have been entrusted with, beloved, will deceive us if we've been putting our trust there. She could have said, why was I rejected? Why am I so unhappy? Why am I so unfulfilled? Why am I so powerless? Why have I been rejected and why am I so lonely? Why am I so persecuted? Why, trusting in some form of self, I have to strive double hard to be accepted and loved. Why do I have to keep putting my defensive up and try to maintain my place and fight at any hint of failure on my part? I can't hear it. I won't hear it. Beloved, then that's the bedrock. That's the ground where we cannot root out resentments. That's the soil where we begin to brood over other successes. That's where daydreaming about another life can find access into our heart. And then when they come and say, deliver us. You're in a position. You're next to the king. Deliver us. The only answer is I am powerless. Because my situation is overpowering me. I'm powerless to stop the torment and the deep insecurities in my own heart. And what I face today. But beloved, if she's sitting in the palace saying, why am I rejected? Why am I not loved? Why this? Why that? She's asking the wrong questions. She's fighting the wrong battle. There's a Mordecai comes with anointing of God on his life. Anointing of God on his words. And he comes to her with the word of God. And it says, think not with thyself that thou shall escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and my father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And here she is brooding about her situation, the change and brooding about what is going on in her heart and her life. And how, why all the lack and why all the powerlessness? And this word comes and if she'll let it be a light, it's going to say, you got asking the wrong questions. But the question Esther and all the Esther company who live in a perilous time must be. Why have I no power to lay down my life? Why do I have no power when I see the destruction and I understand what's around me? Why is there no power in my life to be able to overcome what is tormenting my heart and saying, God, I hear you. You see me, you know me with all my insecurities and all my failures, but I'm beginning to hear you. And you said you've ordained a time such as this. You placed me in this palace and all that confronts my heart. But God, you're saying to me that you specifically ordained this place for me. And though I don't understand it, you're saying you've raised me up to use me at this time. And God, why can I not respond to it? Your word is telling me you see something. Your word says you've called me for something. You put up your spirit in me for something. You've given me my heart for something and I'm squandering it on the wrong questions. And I'm in the wrong battle and my head is mired in what I don't have and what I am missing and what the lack is. Jesus says that I'm going to give you my life. And beloved, our one and only response is, Lord, I give you my life. Beloved, we have missed the Christian message when we're always coming to say, God, give to me. God, give to me. Beloved, it is not the awesome power of salvation that I have saved you. I have broken the power of sin in your life. I have a home for you. I'm going to walk with you. And our only response needs to be, God, I give you, I give you my life. I give you my future. I give you my heart. If we commit our lives to something, if we say, I give it to you all, direct it as you will, I'll tell you something. We begin to want to hear him praised because we've given our life to him. We want to hear how great and glorious he is because we've given everything and we need constant reassurance he will not fail. But if we come to a meeting and all we know is what we don't have and where our lack is and why I'm not loved and why am I rejected? And they forever go around our heart. We're losing sight of what has really happened. We're losing the fear of God. We're losing the joy of what we have been brought into. We are now down on the enemy's ground where he can oppress us. It's where Haman begins to speak to us. He says, I'm going to annihilate you. I'm going to take you down. I'm going to take you out. And everything in our heart that whines and whimpers and complains agrees with him. This is an hour, beloved, when an unsubmitted mind and an unsubmitted heart to the truth it knows will get devoured. You know, scripture says, Mordecai told her, think not with thyself that thou shall escape in the king's house. Enlargement and deliverance will come. But you, Esther, who can't see beyond your own hurt and your own need and therefore you say you're powerless. Therefore you say how rejected and hurt you are. Beloved, God knows where she was. He put her there. God knows what she was facing. He lived in her. But she's getting deceived. She's bowing down to the spirit of the age that says, I'm lacking. I'm missing. I've come to get from you, God. I've come to get from you, God. And why don't you show up? And why don't you give me what I want? And why don't you hear my prayer? And why don't you do it the way I want? And why can't you do it my way for once? Beloved, that's not the gospel. Amen. When we come and say, God, I've come every time I can to give you my life, do with it what you want. I give you the reign of my life. I give it to you. Maybe it means spirit times. Maybe it feels not understanding. But I'll tell you, deep down is the peace. Deep down is the release. The gospel is, God, you've given everything to me. I give everything to you. We say, I come to give you my life. I come to give Jesus. He says, I'm going to fill you with myself. I'm going to give you me. And we will lack nothing. But we're a church age that has come to get. And we've shut out Christ in the process. And we have thoughts that boil and churn within us, clamoring, trying to tell God why our anger is justified, trying to tell God why just a little revenge, why that area of envy, why my way needs to have, I need to be able to vent. I need to be able to say it. No, we're saying I need to be able to live it. Then God says, you want to live it, then you'll stay powerless. I'm allowed powerless in an evil time. It's a perilous place to be. Mordecai says, don't think because you live in a king's palace, you're going to escape. He's telling her that deliverance is going to come to my people. Enlargement is going to come to my people. And I want to use you. But if you will not hear what I'm saying, you will be destroyed. In an evil time, that's the choice is yield or be destroyed. It is not God's heart to destroy his people. It is not God's heart. And it's not God's will that he takes those that he chooses for himself and fills them with his spirit to have them perish at the hand of a Haman. But beloved, the Lord had a controversy with her. He had a controversy with her. He said, how can you be so blind living in the palace? All that I had done for you and all now that I want to entrust to you, Esther. I will give you a new heart and a new mind. It would lift you up out of that self-pitying spirit, that poverty of spirit where you live continually in resentment instead of gratitude, where you choose every day to look at yourself instead of looking away from yourself. I would come when give you a new heart and a new spirit. And I would use you in this dark age. God say to a self-centered, self-consumed people, I would use you in a dark time. But who can hear? God said, I have Mordecai's ear. I have no doubt that deliverance was going to come through the hand of a man that would not bend. But God was extending his hand to a woman with a very different heart. That's how merciful he is. And that's how powerful he is. He says, you know, your indifference and your weakness and your self-consumed living is still no obstacle for me to use you if you will repent. And beloved, sometimes repentance is survival. Sometimes repentance is survival. That's what it was with this woman. The Lord had a controversy with her. Because when the word of the Lord came to her, she said, don't look here. Don't look to me. I lack. I'm powerless. I'm not loved. I'm not understood. I have competition. I have to fight my way into the king's affection. Don't look here. I can barely stay afloat. But beloved, God had mercy on this woman. He put it to her very straight. He said, you go my way or you and your house are destroyed. See, this is not ordinary times. This is a Haman time. And I will take you and I will take your family. That I had destined you for an incredible plan. Something you could never envision for yourself. Something that I have raised you up for a time like this. And deep down in her heart, she could have thought, God, you could use anybody but me at this time. Because I know who I am. I know how faithless I am. I know what goes on in my heart. I know when circumstances get tough, I'm full of self-pity. And all I can see is what I don't have. But God, if your word comes to me and you say, for such a time as this, who knows if you brought me now into the kingdom. And that word was able to turn her heart. And beloved, she moved from the gospel of what am I going to get from you, God, to I give you. Not what am I going to get, but I give you. And that woman was given grace to give, to be able to lay down her life. The power to lay down her life was given her. And the scripture says in verse 16, she says, Go, gather all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me. And neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise. And so will I go in under the king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. Beloved, do you hear the resolve that has come into a powerless woman? One minute powerless, the next minute a plan, a Holy Ghost plan. She's saying, gather those that can hear. Gather those that are like minded, gather those that understand the days they live in and have them pray for me and have them fast for me. Beloved, I think the days are coming back where God is going to stir his body one more time to pray and fast. And I say, all we have to do is just start. If fasting is impossible, let go of dessert. Just start. God is going to empower his people. And we begin to fast and we begin to pray. Do you think that woman was used to fasting and praying? No. Do you think that that was that woman's habit? No. But the Spirit of God came into her and he brought hope into her darkness. He picked up her head from a self-pitying, I have not gospel to say I have everything in my God. And I've come to lay it all out before him. And whatever the consequences, let them be. But I give myself fully to him and to my people. And a purpose and a power came into her life. And all of a sudden she could say, if I perish, I perish. It became a small thing to her. That who one minute before was so dominated by her life and what she didn't have to the next, she could lay it down. That's the power of the gospel. And where the enemy said in one day, a whole nation shall perish. I tell you, in one moment, one woman changed. One weak woman changed. Want you to know something. She fasted and she prayed and she put on her royal apparel. She put on for us Christ. Began to trust again in the righteousness of Christ, in the beauty of him. That's why we give him our lives. A new revelation. Lord, I don't come to get, I come to give. And she put on that royal robe and she went into the king. And when she went into the king, the king accepted her. And beloved, she went and she stood before him and she said, oh, king, I have prepared a banquet and I want you and Haman to come to it. And they came and the king said, what is your request? Oh, Esther. But this woman is an anointed woman. This woman doesn't live for her own self anymore. This woman has come to say, God, I've given you told myself totally to your purpose. I am prayed and I know you're mine. And she says, I'd like to give you another banquet. Then I will tell you and bring him. And so the scripture says the next day. They came the king and Haman, but I want to tell you something below. Haman had no idea that his deadliest foe was feeding him. Haman thought his biggest nightmare was out in the court. But I tell you something, it was the woman that stood before him. Deceiving the deceiver. That hang, that news that he prepared for Mordecai, his head was going in because this woman was going to expose the plan. This woman, this weak woman who finally got the gospel in her heart. And beloved, I want to tell you something. I believe it started the day when she said, God, going into circumstances, she didn't understand going into a life that seemed inscrutable. God, why am I being separated from those I love? Why do I stand alone? Why must I go to a place? I don't understand why I'm walking with you. Is it a lonely place, a hard place? Sometimes I'm going into an enemy territory, but she said, God, I don't know what I need. You know what I need a point to me, what I need. And because she prayed that prayer, God gave her finally the grace to admit how wrong she had been in an evil time. The grace to see her heart, God had an appointed place in that palace because she thought she was beautiful and she thought she got there and she'd stay there by her beauty. It was a transfer of trust and it was going to take her down. Love. Do we have a transfer of trust? We live in an evil time. And God in his mercy puts us in an appointed place to reveal our heart. But beloved, don't let the enemy win by keeping our heads hung down, living in self-pity, saying what I don't have and what I don't understand. And that's all that dominates our mind and our heart. We can say, I trust you. I love you, God. But God knows the heart. God knows what we think at night. God knows what comes out of our mouth. God knows when the hard circumstances come, how downcast and dominated we are. But God has a word for us today. In a dark time, he uses weak people. Amen. Who have the grace to admit it. And say, God, put the real gospel in me. Give me the grace and the power to lay down my life. Amen. And God will use us beyond all expectation. Will you stand with me? As the musicians come, you know, destruction was determined in one day for the people of God. And in a moment, he turned her heart. Beloved, we have to believe for a now deliverance in our heart. He can do it. In a twinkling of an eye, in a split second, all that has bound us, all that has chained us, the fear and the unbelief and the unwillingness and the self-pity and the circumstances that dominate and crush us, Christ says, in a moment, I can put my spirit in you and change you. I can give you a heart you never thought you would possess before. I can take you from the spirit of this age where everybody bows down and says, what's in it for me? What will I get? But beloved, that just feeds death into our spirit when we live for ourselves like that, knowing truth. If we join that course, we're going to die and perish like they do. Totally selfish, totally given to self, cut off from people, unable to give anything to their generation. And this is an evil time where our generation is dying. But weak people make a difference if for one minute we can believe. Beloved, for those of you that say, God, I want the power to lay down my life, like you've been speaking to me about. I want to lay down my life. And I want to be able to believe you for a radical deliverance in my heart now, at this moment. Would you come? And give our lives to Christ on a daily basis. I mean, we do it on a one time where he takes us and gives us salvation. I'm talking about on a daily thing. God, I come. I start my morning prayer. I give you my life. I give you my day. I give you my future. I give you my pain. I give, I give, I give. It's a prescription for joy. If God's writing a prescription saying, here's a joyful life. And in a dark, perilous time, people can never understand that. But there's going to be a joy, a joy in his church. In that blood-washed church, there's going to be a joy. Because we've not come to see what we can get. We've been turned around to a radical new way of thinking. And I give you, Lord. And we hear Jesus echoing back, and I give you. And then we say, Lord, I give you this. And he says, and I give you. Beloved, it's an incredible way to live. It's not that we don't know darkness. It's not that we don't understand darkness. But beloved, we're given the power not to live in it. We're given the power not to live under it. Beloved, this generation needs to see us. They're going to gather around. How come we're not bowing? And we can't, in our own strength, stay rigid. And not bow down to a selfish, self-consumed age. Except by the Spirit of Christ. But if we dearly say to him, I give you my fear. And I give you my not want-tos. And I give you my reluctance. And I give you my rebellion. And I give you my selfishness. He takes it. And he gives us himself. And beloved, we're going to stand in an evil day. We're going to stand with a new anointing and a new spirit in an evil day. Because we've heard the gospel. This is the conclusion of the message.