“For a Time Such as This”

Good Morning!  On this Feast of Trumpets can we really see how God has prepared the world for “a time such as this”? This phrase has been overused by the mainstream religions but I want to bring out a more authentic Christian viewpoint,  a more biblical theme.

Let’s start with God’s Plan! What is His plan and do we really believe He will take control of this world and are we ready for the Awesome future He has planned for all? Can we see Him working? Can we see the scriptures being fulfilled? Are we recognizing His work in us? Can we see His work in others that contribute to His plan being executed? Are we ready to stand in AWE of His absolute control of the purpose of all life? Can we see that man absolutely cannot shape his own destiny? The world wants to convince us that we have control.

A poster I saw in a health food store says “Caring People Can Change The World” and All good changes in the past have been from caring people. Well, are you a caring person? Are you changing the world? Or is God?

Is God working through you or are you pretending to be Him?

We live in one of the most pivotal ages in the history of man. Scripture reveals we are in the “end times”. What does that mean to us?

What do you do differently than our forefathers? How do we live and produce a different result considering we are in the end times? Are we destined to repeat our parents’ mistakes?

Do we even see our mistakes? Do we even see the pride and arrogance this age provides us?

Let’s break this down a little. Do we understand that our ancestors had no refrigerators, cars, air conditioning, electronic banking, grocery stores, Wal Marts, Amazon, televisions, cell phones, Facebook? Shall I continue?

Our Lives are truly blessed with conveniences! Lots of conveniences: food at our fingertips, fresh and healthy, warm or cool houses to live in.

Our ancestors worried about their sandals wearing out, their water being pure, their crops growing on time and their livestock growing and having healthy fields to graze in. Can we feel that insecure? Are we worried if the rain comes on time, if our sheep copulate and grow, if wolves come and eat them, or the draught comes?

No, we worry if it rains too much, if it snows, if the power goes out, if we lose our job, if our car breaks down – all things this society fixes in time for us.

Do we see how sheltered our lives are? Do we see how spoiled we are? Can we really see and respect how God and Jesus Christ are extending their love, support and life to us?

Life to our ancestors came from the field, livestock and weather. They didn’t just turn on a faucet to pour themselves a glass of water. They had to manually dig a well many feet down, mark it with their family name and pray the dust storms didn’t fill it in.

Am I getting you to see the difference? Do you realize that we must put aside our reliance on the constant sustenance this modern world we live in provides and seek the providence of the living God? Seeking His loving hand, and loving ways!

We solve many of our day to day worries with the sustenance of this world. How can we learn God’s ways, how can we trust His Love?

How in a world governed by Satan? Do we really trust God?

Today I want you to put all the worlds blessings aside. I want you to pretend you have nothing. For some of us that won’t be too hard but please join me in an adventure to see the Great Power of God as it is personally directed to you. Travel with me to see how you are inserted into God’s plan. Clear your mind and join me as we explore How Great God really is on this day of Trumpets.

The first thing on our journey is to realize the importance of time: who created it and who controls it to His plan!

Gen 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;

Psalms 90: 1-12 Lord, You have been our dwelling place[a] in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

3 You turn man to destruction,
And say, “Return, O children of men.”
4 For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night.
5 You carry them away like a flood;
They are like a sleep.
In the morning they are like grass which grows up:
6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up;
In the evening it is cut down and withers.

7 For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And by Your wrath we are terrified.
8 You have set our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
9 For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;
We finish our years like a sigh.
10 The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of Your anger?
For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

God sees a thousand years as a day we are just a small part of that and He owns eternity can we see how small we are and how great He is!!!! He created time!! He owns time!! We are specks in that but He loves us and works miracles in our lives, how can we pay attention to the great miracles he works in our lives?

Rom 8:31-39 God’s Everlasting Love

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can beagainst us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who ishe who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?36 As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”[a]

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s Love for us transcends everything, How can we see His love working?

First, we must put aside ourselves!!

Second we must seek His paths - His ways. God is working with you today, this very minute. What are all the things He has done for you today, yesterday, last week, last month, last year? Do you know? Can you praise Him, Can you worship Him? Can You Love Him? Can we see how He is molding us for use in His future plan? Can we understand His greater purpose for us? Do we know that He prepares people for specific times in history?

Let’s review a few,

How about Abraham and Isaac. Did not God prepare Abraham for the sacrifice of his son and did not huge blessings flow to mankind because of his faith?

How about Joseph? Did not the abuse he went through at the hands of his brothers and his imprisonment for a crime he did not commit lead to the blessing of thousands and maybe millions of people and also the forgiveness and absolution of the crime his brothers committed?

How about Moses and his final ultimatum to Pharaoh? Was not that a time set by God and was not Moses and the people of Israel prepared by God for 430 years for that very moment?

How about the anointing of David? Please remember that God anointed him while King Saul was still in power and wasn’t that a special moment in time for the entire history of the Jewish nation? And, by the way, our future indicates David will be the King of the Nation of Israel in the soon coming kingdom. All these “moments” in history showed one thing - God controls the time and events.

Do you think he has such and important event planned for you? Is there a time God has prepared which He has shaped and molded you for?

Let us go to the scripture and look at the story of Esther, an orphan with a godly role to perform for God and the People of Judah.

Esther 4:1-16  When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went as far as the front of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. 3 And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

4 So Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. 5 Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate. 7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews. 8 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. 9 So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai: 11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days.” 12 So they told Mordecai Esther’s words.

13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

A pivotal point in History

15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in 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!”

So what do you think? Is this one of those moments?? A pivotal Point in History?

Should we see this as God’s hand working with a person? Was she prepared for this moment by God so He could work through her?

This is what Matthew Henry Says:

Matthew Henry - through cowardice and unbelief, she would have reason to fear that some judgment from heaven would be the ruin of her and her family: “Thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed, when the rest of the families of the Jews shall be preserved.” He that by sinful shifts will save his life, and cannot find in his heart to trust God with it in the way of duty, shall lose it in the way of sin. 4. That divine Providence had an eye to this in bringing her to be queen: “Who knows whether thou hast come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” and therefore, (1.) “Thou art bound in gratitude to do this service for God and his church, else thou dost not answer the end of thy elevation.” (2.) “Thou needest not fear miscarrying in the enterprise; if God designed thee for it, he will bear thee out and give thee success.” Now, [1.] It appeared, by the event, that she did come to the kingdom that she might be an instrument of the Jews’ deliverance, so that Mordecai was right in the conjecture. Because the Lord loved his people, therefore he made Esther queen. There is a wise counsel and design in all the providences of God, which is unknown to us till it is accomplished, but it will prove, in the issue, that they are all intended for, and centre in, the good of the church. [2.] The probability of this was a good reason why she should now bestir herself, and do her utmost for her people. We should every one of us consider for what end God has put us in the place where we are, and study to answer that end; and, when any particular opportunity of serving God and our generation offers itself, we must take care that we do not let it slip; for we were entrusted with it that we might improve it

The Teachers Bible Commentary - The arrogant vindictiveness of the politician, Haman, is another study in character, warning us against the folly of egotism. King Ahasuerus represents the despotic and careless ruler who fails to think through his decisions and unknowingly injures others by his acts. The quiet and humble bravery of Esther is the highlight of the story. Mordecai suggested to her in 4:14, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” In other words, “You have attained your royal position as queen for a time like this to use your position and power and prestige to save your people.” How often God may bless a person with opportunity for one reason—so he may use that opportunity for God.[1]

That is my Point. Who’s purpose are we here to carry out? It is Gods Purpose! Are we to endure issues? YES! Do we always see what God is doing? Many times no, but we must walk in faith as neither Abraham, Joseph nor David knew what God was really doing with them. We won’t really know either, but we should be humbling ourselves for His purpose every day.

Here are some simple tips:

1. Don’t lose faith He is always with us
2. Don’t underestimate His ability to bless you
3. Don’t denigrate the challenges you have in life. They are leading you to God’s role for you. Let them have their work on you and God will move you on as He sees fit.

So, today is the Feast of Trumpets picturing a future pivotal point coming to all of mankind – a wonderful and awesome future!

God is planning a pivotal point or points in your history to lead you also to an awesome future – let’s embrace it no matter how difficult.

Let’s all realize it’s the sound of the trumpet that will usher in the change and finally make this a reality for all Mankind!!   

 

 

[1] Dilday, R. H., Jr. (1972). Esther. In H. F. Paschall & H. H. Hobbs (Eds.), The teacher’s Bible commentary (p. 266). Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers.