Stepping Out On Faith
Esther 4:1-17
Prayer
Introduction
Many of us say that we live by faith, that we have faith in God to do what He says He will do. But when it comes time to answer that call, to live that life that He calls us to live we fail to completely trust Him. It is hard for us to depend on Him to take care of us. To trust that HE will provide for our needs. We just don’t believe that He will care about us enough that He will provide even the little things we need in our lives, some pastors will even say that God expects us to take care of ourselves. But my Bible teaches that HE will provide for my needs if I am doing what He wants me to do. Just as He provided for Eilijah’s needs so will He provide what we need to carry out our service to Him.
My first assignment 35 years ago was to an inner city parish in Wshington,D.C. Money was stolen from my room; the garage mechanic said my gas tank may have been sabotaged, destroying my engine; one weekend we had 34 windows broken in the school. When a new pastor was sent,the parish held a party and some teenagers left and started a rumble. The civil disturbance unit of the Metropolitan Police had to be called out. One of my priest classmates going to the hospital to visit a sick parishioner, had his car stoned at a stop sign. A group of us in the parish realized that we were either going to make the church into a fortress - more bars on the windows, etc. - or we were going to reach out and try to change the lives of the young people who lived around the church. So we announced a retreat weekend in the country. It was going to be free to any teenager who wanted to attend. The announcement was an a stepping our in faith on our part, since we actually had no money for this event. We simply trusted God would provide the means. Our hearts were touched by the generous response of people. A bus company donated transportation. A priest classmate donated some funds. A group of monks gave us food, etc. The retreat team meanwhile was praying and studying together. We each wrote and reviewed witness talks. The big weekend came and we all found ourselves at this beautiful church camp on a wide river. We enjoyed dinner together; had recreation; a witness talk, prayer session and then "bed time". I fell sound asleep. Many of the teens got up and created chaos. They raided the kitchen and had raw hamburger figts. They threw heads of lettuce at each other. They flooded the bathrooms and broke out screens. The boys raided the girls cabin at 2:00 AM. Next morning the adults were devastated; and a lot of the teens upset. We decided we would have to call the bus back immediately and leave before the place was burned down. Then one man said, "Let’s separate the boys and girls into their cabins and talk to them. It was the only positive suggestion. I will never forget the look of the boys when I walked into their cabin with a parishioner. Their faces looked like hardened steel. They had lived with violence and heard every kind of reprimand. They were ready for anything. At a loss for words, I said the most intelligent thing I may ever have said. I turned to the layman who made the suggestion and said, "Go ahead, Bob." He looked at me, the priest, puzzled; but then he spoke. "You men did a lot of horrible things last night. You upset the women and the girls. You destroyed food shared with us by poor people. You destroyed property that good people trusted us with. You created a mess. But there is one thing you didn’t do and one thing you can’t do." This got their attention. They wondered what they hadn’t and couldn’t do. He continued, "No matter how badly you act, no matter how much grief you cause, you can’t make me stop loving you. I care about you. When you need me I will be there. Nothing will change that." The boys expressions changed completely. They had no defense against this unconditional love. They begged to stay. They promised to be good. We gave them another chance. They spent the afternoon working with the maintenance man. We had no more problems with conduct. We received complete cooperation. The retreat turned out to be very grace filled - all because one man knew what it was like to love others as God loves us!
He expects us to react with love not anger. To be led by Him in what ever it is He has called us to do. Sometimes we say but Lord I can’t do that, or I don’t want to that. Why that is crazy there is no way I would do that. So we ignore the call and refused to do what the Lord is asking us to do. We are comfortable in our lives and we don’t want to take any risk.
Is it worth Risking? It used to be that life was a matter of “this I will risk” but “this I will not.” Risk was something that was weighed on a daily basis. It was a part of life. You picked one thing over another because you had weighed the risk and come to a conclusion that one risk was more palatable than another.
For example, farmers traditionally have walked a risk-filled path in that daily they had to weigh whether this day or that day would be the better one to disc the field. Because the weather was something out of their control and all that they had was their “folk” prognostication and intuition for predicting rain or sun, farming had traditionally been a pretty risky business. Sometimes you decided correctly and others you didn’t. It was a matter of risk and faith and most farmers were attuned to that because that was the only choice that they had. That is, of course, until the advent of modern weather forecasting. Today risk is far less of a factor in farming. The person we once knew as the weather-bitten and feisty guy in the bib jeans who kibitzed down at the mill each morning speculating on whether the skies would be dark by noon or not, is rapidly becoming an image of the past.
Although we live in society that is no less “risky” than in the past, we live under a governing system that has made it its job to secure us from as much of it as possible. Seat belts, helmets, social security, even weather forecasters who tell us to go down to our basements just because the conditions are “right” for a tornado. With all this “help”, it seems we are rapidly becoming obsessed with living safely over living faithfully. I recently read where a bowler who was one pin away from bowling a perfect game just couldn’t bring himself to play the final ball. Instead he silently packed his shoes and ball and walked out -- and never again set foot inside a bowling alley!
Does God want us to take risks? Certainly not foolhardy ones. Yet, when he presents us with situations that require thoughtful deliberation and a faith-filled heart, He isn’t expecting us to back down because there might be risk involved. God once told a soldier named Gideon to confront the risks and pull down the pagan altars in his land. Despite the risk that others would be offended, even moved to attack him, Gideon faithfully obeyed. When God puts us into pressure-filled situations we always have a choice. We can pray for strength and take the risks He has put before us; or we can weigh the risks and decide to walk away. If we walk away we may never know the perfection God has reserved for us. Our “300” game may be only a risk away.
I. Esther had to make a choice stay and follow the easy path or take a risk and possible face destruction.
a. We can run and we can hide but that does not exempt us from what we have to do.
b. We may not want to do what God wants us to do but we are to do it anyway.
c. We may not want to be humble but we must
d. We may not want to be merciful but were are to be merciful because God was merciful to us.
e. We may not want to serve or worship but that is what we were created for.
f. We can develop all the excuses we want and that is just what they are reasons as to why we won’t do something.
g. God calls us to serve. Everyone of us has some ministry, some place in the body of Chirst. We all have a purpose that we are to follow.
h. None are exempt from God’s work. We are all called to the Great Commission. We all to live our life for Jesus. We are all called to be a mirror through which Jesus reflects.
II. God does not need us to accomplish that which He wants but He does want to use us. IF we refuse to do what HE wants He will have another way.
a. God prepares us and a place for us. Often we are the best person for that job. But if we refuse to do it God will provide another.
b. We will miss the blessings and the joy of seeing our mission unfold and succeed if we refuse to do it.
c. Our rewards will be fewer in Heaven because we refused to do God’s wil.
d. Satan and his demons continually strive to keep us from doing God’s work. So when we refuse to do God’s work we are doing the will of Satan.
e. Fear of failure, rejection, or ridicule often keeps us from doing what God wants.
f. Popularity and our desire for it keeps us from doing the Lord’s will
g. Laziness or lack of Bible Study keeps us from doing God’s will.
III. The decision about doing God’s will is our life decision.
a. We can either elect to serve or not
b. God forces no one to serve Him.
c. It is our choice and it does have eternal consequences
i. We must decide to accept Christ’s salvation
ii. We must decide to let the Holy Spirit rule in our life
iii. We must decide to serve and worship God
iv. We must decide to do His will
IV. Esther had to make a decision that could have meant life or death for her or her people or for both.
a. She was afraid
b. She placed her trust in God
c. She stepped out on faith
d. She overcame and served God
V. Conclusion
