For Such a Time as This.

So good to see you all. We had a ton of announcements, but again, want to remind you, check out the website if you have questions about any of the things we are doing. We are finishing part two of our four-week series in Esther today. At the welcome table we have printed out a little guide through Esther, and you can also get that on our website. I want to share this, because our hope is that you're reading along throughout the week, even if it's just one day where you sit down and do it all, or you want to break it up. That way you can get a picture of the whole story, because there's a lot going on in Esther. When we open any page of the Bible, we're stepping into a massive story. So our attempts to help you understand a little more are just some reading plans and some questions to process throughout the week.

I want to invite you into that. But we're going to read some scripture today, quite a lot of it, in chapter three. So if you pull out your Bibles, we're going to start there.

Haman rises, Mordecai refuses to bow

After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down to pay him honor. The royal officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, why do you disobey the king's command? Day after day they spoke to him, but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it, to see whether Mordecai's behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet, having learned who Mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead, Haman looked for a way to destroy all of Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

Esther 3:1-6

Okay, it goes on to talk about the plan Haman now has. I want to remind us again of where we're picking up in the Old Testament and God's story: Esther takes place during the Persian Empire. We've read a lot about the Babylonian Empire, but Persia has taken over by this point, around the fifth century BC. Esther and Mordecai are related, and they are Jewish people. What we talked about last week is that there is now a threat against them. Haman is one of the king's right-hand men, and he's about to be elevated even more.

Mordecai, as a Jewish man, is refusing to bow down to him, and this is causing issues. So this is what we're seeing here. Now he says, okay, I'm not just going to kill Mordecai, I'm going to kill all the Jews. Some historians think there could have been a million Jews scattered across Persia.

Persia at this time was no small place, so this was a big deal. This had happened because they were scattered during the Babylonian exile. They were given the opportunity to go back, but only a few of the Jews returned to rebuild the temple, and many of them stayed where they were in the Persian empire.

Mordecai mourns, and sends word to Esther

We're going to start in chapter four, and jump a little bit.

When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king's gate.

Esther 4:1-2

I'm going to sum some of this up. This was a very public way the Jewish people would grieve at that time: when anything happened, they would tear and rip their clothes, and there would be loud wailing, weeping, mourning. What happens next is Esther hears about this.

First she's like, okay, Mordecai is grieving and in distress. Her first step, because she's in the palace, is to try to send him clothing, to say, okay, put your clothes back on, let's get it together, then maybe he could come and help her. But he refuses her help, all of it.

Then Mordecai explains the entire situation to Esther, including Haman's plan. He's sending word to her, trying to get her to understand what's about to happen. At the start of this chapter, Esther is unaware of what has happened. She knows Mordecai, her cousin, is mourning. Then she finds out through letters being sent into the palace what's happening.

This is where we're picking up in verse nine.

Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, all the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned, there is but one law: that they be put to death, unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.

Esther 4:9-11

Essentially, in the letter, Mordecai is saying, Esther, you're in the palace, go and talk to the king, tell him to save all of us. And Esther is saying, Mordecai, we know how this goes. She was the queen and the wife, but she was one of many women who could only go and be with the king when he called upon them, when he summoned them. And this comment, it's been thirty days, at first you think, what does that mean? A lot of people think that would have been a bad sign, if you were the queen and it had been thirty days since your king asked to see you. There might have been some little tiff. There might have been some assumption that he probably doesn't want to see her, that something is wrong. So this is the setting when Mordecai says, but no, you have to say something.

She says thirty days have passed.

When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape.

Esther 4:13

So he's kind of saying, you're not special. Nice encouragement, when all these people are on the line.

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish.

Esther 4:14

Now this comment too, he's telling her and pointing to something, and we're going to see this, as we've mentioned, that God's name is not specifically mentioned in the book of Esther. A lot of people have issues with that, because they ask, where is God in this story? This is another point where we're looking at God, where Mordecai is reminding her, hey, you can do this.

You can be a part of this. But if it's not you, somebody else is going to come along. I think often of the story of David and Goliath, where one of the details we see is that King Saul was supposed to fight Goliath. He couldn't do it. He backs out.

So they bring in David, and David tries to put on the armor, and it doesn't fit. So God, even though at some point maybe that battle was supposed to be Saul's, the armor fits Saul, Saul backs out, and God says, I'm going to take this little shepherd boy here with his slingshot and these stones, and we're going to find another way. It points to this: God invites us to participate with him, but we always have that option, are we going to step in and have the honor of participating, or are we going to back out?

And if we back out, he will prevail. He will do the things he has promised to do. That changes the way we participate with God and his plan, when we understand the honor it is, when he invites us into risk and boldness and all of those things.

Esther's answer, and the verse she made famous

She responds to Mordecai.

Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.

Esther 4:15-16

So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions. This is the story. This is what's happening. Mordecai is pleading, will you do something? And finally Esther says, okay, I'm going to do it. And we've already spoiled the story, because God not only redeems the Jewish people, but through this line we see Jesus come, and all these things happen. Jesus came, he died on the cross, he rose again. We're on this side of history, right?

So, spoiler, that's what happened. What I want to talk about today is the people God used in these moments, and continuing to look at the formation process, the moments they were made for, and what's happening here. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. God, we thank you so much for the ways you continue to speak through these stories that happened years ago.

Even though there are ways we don't fully understand, or can't relate to some of the cultural or historical things happening, your Holy Spirit speaks to us, and you are drawing us closer to you. So God, I pray, would you speak through this text? Would you remind us of the unique ways you have made us, that you have formed us, that you are forming us through everyday moments? Would we leave this place empowered to continue to live and walk closer to you, Jesus? In your name we pray, amen.

So, if you noticed, I skipped over the most famous verse in Esther, maybe the most famous verse people quote all the time when they want a little pep talk, a little motivation, encouragement. It's right at the end of verse fourteen, where Mordecai says:

And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?

Esther 4:14

It's this verse we love to pick out, a beautiful verse: could this be the moment you were made for? Even people who don't follow Jesus, who don't have a lot of religious background, culturally live by this: what is our purpose? What were we made for? Here's where things can get a little tricky. It's good for us to ask, God, what's my purpose?

Why am I here? What was I made for? But when we start to believe it's only one moment, one thing, then when that moment passes, we don't know how to live or who we are anymore. When we understand that we were made for eternity, and we have many moments on this earth that are preparing us and forming us for eternity with Jesus, it changes how we live in the time in between. When I was thinking about Esther and this story, I shared last week that over this series I'm probably going to be really sentimental, because August 20th will mark ten years I've been living in Madison.

Thank you. It's exciting. I thought I'd be here one year, and here we are. I've been reflecting on that, and crying a lot, thinking, wow, God, you're so good. There's grief that comes with it, and there's goodness, and everything in between. I was thinking about some of the moments in my story that, at one point, I would have called what I was made for.

Formed by many moments, not one

The first happened when I was twelve years old. If you've been around, you know a bit of my story, that I grew up going to church. I was a very passionate little girl. One of the first times, there was this altar call, and they said, come and pray and ask God what your purpose is. Now I have some questions about the theology of what was happening.

That's a story for another day. But I went to the altar. I thought, okay, because it was almost like you're made for one thing, and it wasn't quite Jesus. The story that was shared was someone saying, I was made to play baseball, which, cool, but also you were made to love Jesus.

So I go and I'm kneeling, saying, God, show me, show me. And the country of Haiti came to mind. I really believe that was the Holy Spirit. He put it on my heart.

So for years of my life, I was telling everyone, hi, my name's Abbie Sawczak, and I'm going to be a missionary to Haiti. That was it. I coined the term, because I like to lead worship, I was going to be a musicianary, traveling the world and doing music. That was plan A.

That was my purpose. When I was sixteen, there was a men's trip going to build an orphanage in Haiti from our church. Somehow somebody heard, because I told everybody I wanted to go to Haiti. They said, hey, this trip is just for the guys, they're going to build, there's really nothing we can think of for you to do while we're there, except maybe you can watch all the children. But if you can find a female chaperone, because I'm sixteen, a minor, you can come with us. My mom, I think she'd just finished chemo from breast cancer two months earlier, her hair barely grown in, said, okay, fine, I'll do it. My mom and I very quickly raised the money, it was a beautiful thing, and I got to Haiti, and it was awful. It was not what I thought it was going to be. There were beautiful things too, and we've had time to reflect on that.

I came home to the Fourth of July, and all my friends were wasting their money on fireworks. I still had a little passion in me, clearly, and I remember we were having a fun night, and I said, how can you all sit around here and do this when people are dying, and they said, whoa, chill, Abbie, chill. But I didn't know what to do. This was before mental health was something you talked about openly, went to see a therapist for. The only option my parents saw was to bring me to the pastor, because something must be wrong with me. So we're meeting with our pastors, and they're praying with me, and it's like, what is wrong with this girl? I think there was a lot happening, but a big piece of it was that my identity was so wrapped up in this one thing, this one moment, that I was supposed to do this.

And then I did it. And it's like, well, now what? Now what do I do? As I look back on this now, I see what God was forming in me in a lot of different ways. I see how he grew my heart for global missions, and how I've been able to live that out, how our church has partnered with that around the world.

I could go on and on, but I thought it was about a moment, a specific thing, a specific place I was supposed to be at a specific time. Sometimes, if we're not careful, we either spend our whole life worrying we're going to miss a moment, or we spend our whole life worshiping a moment. We forget that every single moment, God is forming us for eternity. We are living for so much more than the specific assignments in between.

Rooms not built for me

I fast forward, and I move here to Madison. That was a whole other story, of leaving all my friends and packing up my car, having never visited. It was so dramatic. But I show up and I'm thinking, yes, God, we're here, we're here. The first pastors' meeting I got invited to, I walk in, and I'm the only woman. And all eyes are like, she's here. Then they acknowledge, we do have some other women here.

They're preparing the lunch in the kitchen. I'm thinking, what, am I supposed to go do that? But I stayed, sit here, sit here, you belong here. You've got this. And the topic was one really meant for male ears only, so much so that the pastor speaking went on several times to say, I'm so sorry, Abbie, that you're here to hear this. By the way, Abbie, I'm sorry, you're the only woman in the room, over and over again.

So I'm sitting there, and I'm thinking, I just told everyone I'm moving here to do ministry, and now I just want to run away and cry. I'm thinking, am I supposed to be here? If I thought this one thing was my moment, or this was my purpose, I would have been defeated so many times. One last significant thing I thought of, and I'll say, the Lord has formed me through these moments. You are witnessing a slightly more refined pastor now, not the twenty-three-year-old who started this church.

I'm sitting with a group of people, all talking about this trip they were invited on, all male pastors, and everyone leaves except the one who was talking about it. I looked at him and said, hey, is there a reason I wasn't invited to go on this? They were all invited to speak at a conference in India. I said, is there a reason I wasn't invited? He looked me in the eyes and said, well, it's all men.

We don't know if their wives are going to be comfortable with it. I looked at him, and I'm not proud of this, but all that could come out was tears. I said, when are little girls going to get invited to the boys' club? He wept, and he said, I'm so sorry. Fast forward, I was somewhere else with the person leading the whole conference.

He said, I'm so excited to see you in India. I said, what do you mean, I'm not going, I didn't get invited. He said, what? He said, I specifically had your name on the list, you were one of the main people I wanted there to speak at this conference.

Somewhere along the line it got missed. I share these stories because I think, in my journey, there were pieces of me that always felt like, God, are you sure about this? Because I don't really fit what I'm supposed to fit. I don't always act or say the things I should, because when he told me about the opportunity, he said, everybody else's trip was paid for, and we don't have any more budget, so you'd have to pay the four thousand dollars yourself. I said, guys, I'm really not proud of this, but I said, I understand.

I won't get things served to me on a silver platter, but I'll take whatever leftovers I can get. Not the kindest, most refined thing to say, but I was feeling the pain of it, and I don't even know where that came from. I was twenty-three. I say those things because there were so many moments where I felt this room was not built for me.

I don't belong. I feel like I'm supposed to be less female, like I shouldn't cry, and not to completely gender stereotype us, but I cry a lot. I'm thinking, I shouldn't have cried in front of that man, I should have done this, I should have done that. And those very same things, when I've met with people, when I've prayed with people, I have seen God affirm: no, those exact things you're trying to hide are the things I uniquely created you to use as pathways for healing and freedom, and to be a part of the greater story I'm writing. Esther tried to hide her Jewish identity. Esther tried to flee from that. She was afraid of it. She wanted no one to know. And her identity, pieces of her story and who she was, God was intentional about that.

He used the very thing she was trying to hide. And I believe that for all of us, we have pieces like that in our story, things you might think don't fit, that you're not the one who should be doing this because of something. Maybe other people have spoken that over you.

But I also believe, as I think about my story, I ended up in rooms because someone did invite me. Different things happened that formed me because someone advocated and said, no, you need to be here, you need to do this, I see something in you. That was Mordecai to Esther, where he saw things in her, saying, no, there's purpose, there's purpose, there's purpose.

The king, Haman, and Mordecai

So today I want us to look at the characters in the story and the different roles, to see how God has created all of us with such purpose. I believe he has positioned us in places, using us to write a story we could never even imagine. But we have to actively choose to participate in that. We have to be people who say yes, even when we don't fully understand.

We have to walk into rooms even when we feel like we might not be as qualified, or have the authority or the power, and trust that God has gone before us, is with us, and will go behind us. We read about the king. He has power, but he lacks self-control. We see this in the beginning of Esther, where this whole beauty contest for a new queen happens because he got mad that his queen wasn't doing what she was supposed to do. He's like, bye, next.

We see he's easily manipulated by Haman. He just folds. He has no self-control. We see some of that even work in God's favor later in the story, when he changes his mind and lets Esther come in and doesn't kill her. But he makes these impulsive decisions.

He's easily influenced, but he has power. What I want to talk about today is that there's a difference between having power and knowing how to use it. We have to recognize this, because just being in power does not mean you're the wisest in the room, or that you have all the authority. We can probably all name jobs we've worked where someone above us made us wonder, how did you get here, how did this happen?

It's not always the title that gives you the authority, or the education, or the credentials. We see this with the king. He has a lot of power. He is positioned, but he doesn't know how to use it. The next thing we see is that visibility does not equal authority.

Think about social media for a moment. Not only as a pastor, but as a therapist, the way I sometimes see things happening online, where someone gets a million followers, gets their little blue checkmark, and now everybody shares what they say as if they're the people with all the wisdom and knowledge. You click on their page and think, you're just somebody who decided to start talking about this or that. That doesn't always mean they're the most educated, or that they have the authority, or that they know what they're talking about. Just because people see it doesn't make it true, and that's something for us to always be mindful of. The king had these things where people saw him.

People saw him. He was visible, but he was not using his power for good. Then we see Haman. Haman comes into play. To me, he's one of the most interesting characters in this story.

I want you to notice what happened in the beginning, when chapter three talks about Haman's plot to destroy the Jews. Haman is out and about, and it says all the people were bowing down to him, but one, Mordecai. He first had a plan to just kill Mordecai.

But when Mordecai kept not bowing down, he got real offended. He decided, I'm going to annihilate everyone. Offense unchecked is so dangerous. What I want us to notice with Haman is this begins with him thinking, why won't this man honor me, and grows into, now I am going to destroy every single Jewish person because of this. Unchecked offense, hurt, anger, is dangerous.

Which is a reminder for us that our feelings are not bad. They're not things to dismiss. They're telling us something. But as we listen, we have to tell them where to go. We have to be the ones to say, okay, I'm offended by this thing, God, will you show me why, why does this hurt me so much? What would have happened if Haman had said, why am I so obsessed with Mordecai right now, what is it about Mordecai that is not feeding my ego, why do I feel the need for people to bow down to me? There's all these different things I share, because I really believe that all throughout scripture there are people who could have had a second chance, another formation story, but we really are formed by the things we fixate on. Which is why, even when we come and sing these songs, and I don't even know if I'm feeling like singing, as we fix our eyes and our gaze and attention on Jesus, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, it's doing something to us. It's forming us more into the likeness of Jesus. As we fix our eyes on him, it matters. And it can be really dangerous when we fix our attention on thoughts we maybe just needed to let pass, on feelings of hurt we needed to bring before the Lord and say, I'm really hurt by this, God, what should I do, how do I move forward with this? Can we pay attention enough, slow down enough, to really sit with our thoughts and feelings before we fixate on them and let them form us?

Our thoughts matter, our habits matter, our attention matters, our reactions matter. It's so much more than just the thoughts that pop up, because our brain says all sorts of things to us all day, and some of them mean something, some don't. But it's when we choose how to interpret those thoughts and fixate on them that we can be so intentional about. Haman was obsessed with the fact that Mordecai would not bow to him, and he became hurt, angry, bitter, and his reaction, after rehearsing it, is so much of just, why won't he bow, why won't he bow, why won't he bow.

Try saying that five times fast. It's really hard. He becomes fixated on it, obsessed with it, and becomes a person of anger, ready to take out all the Jewish people. That's no small thing. He could have just thought, well, that was rude, and moved on. Have you ever been around people where you're in the same situation, and you're offended, and they think it's funny? You're thinking, how is that funny? But I think it's a practice of knowing what thoughts we have to make mean something, and which ones we just have to say, well, next, thank you, come back to you later. Here's the good news though: we are constantly being formed, but we are not finished. We are in the process of formation and becoming like Jesus. That's why I talk about Haman, because I really believe different choices could have led to different outcomes for him. It's important for us to remember that even when we get a diagnosis, when all these different things happen to us and our circumstances, they do not define us. They are not our identity.

Our identity is in Jesus. And to remember, we can constantly be formed. Haman, in Esther chapter three, was not yet this fully formed villain, but his choices, and how he responded, led to that, because he kept choosing the same direction over and over again. When we follow Jesus, we get to move from saying, this is just how I am, this is how I'm always going to be because of something, into, Jesus is transforming me and renewing me every single day. When we're following Jesus, we get to move from I'm just going to stay this way and I'm stuck, into, every single day, practicing repentance and forgiveness, Lord, make me new again, cleanse me, make me whole. So Haman shows us the danger of what happens when we refuse formation, when we refuse to let Jesus transform our lives. Now, Mordecai. I love Mordecai. He shows us you don't have to be the main character, but we love that main character energy, though it doesn't have to be us for our lives to be significant.

When I think about my story, one of my favorite people, one of my best friends, has been a constant behind-the-scenes person in my life. I think for all of us, at different times, we play that role. These people are supporting me, and I'm supporting them, because we're all a part of this bigger story. No role is less significant.

After I'd been in Madison for two or three years, my older brother, Nathan, who was a pastor, joined my staff team and worked for me as a pastor. We'd go places, and people would say things to him like, oh, what's it like working for your little sister, almost like it was some dig. But because of his character, who he is, he'd probably say, it's great, though we did fight quite a bit, you know, we're still brother and sister even when we're pastors. But it was never a thing for him. We always laughed. Why do people see it as weird that you'd work for your little sister? Because we both always saw it as, we're in different roles, same assignment, same mission, different roles.

This is important for us to understand. When I think about my life, and moments where at some point I would have said, I am made for this, I have stories of when I knew, I think maybe I'm supposed to preach, and that wasn't on the radar, and those moments matter, and they form us. But I want to be careful when I talk about it, because pastoring is not my identity. It's my current assignment in following Jesus.

Pastoring is not my purpose. I don't feel like this was my purpose, my destiny, what I was made for. It is my assignment. My identity is Jesus.

My purpose is Jesus. Our call is to be like Jesus and to make disciples of Jesus. Those assignments might look different, but let's not confuse that with identity or purpose. I don't know who needs to be reminded of this today, because what happens is, when we're always looking for our identity, our purpose, what was I made for, is this the moment, is it not, then we fall into those traps of worrying about missing the moment, or worshiping the moment, when we have to remember, we're created for Jesus, for eternity, and every moment is a moment that can form us into people like Jesus, who will spend eternity with him. This is what this story shows us over and over again. Mordecai is saying, who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this, playing his role in his assignment as this prophetic voice, seeing something in Esther she couldn't yet see in herself. His role is not any less significant than Esther's. But in order for this story to happen the way it did, it needed both Esther positioned and ready, and Mordecai using his prophetic voice to influence and to speak, and to see things in her she couldn't see.

So even as I think about this, I think for us today, maybe we need to start listening to the people around us who are saying, I see something in you. And we need to step into being that prophetic voice ourselves, and say, I see something in you. I see something maybe you don't see yet, but God is doing. Because you do not have to be the main character for your life to be valuable and significant. Really, none of us are the main characters.

We were created for Jesus

The main character is Jesus, who died on the cross. That's it. That's who we're living for. We have different roles and different assignments at different times in our lives, but our identity is Jesus. Our purpose is Jesus.

We were created for Jesus. And then let's talk about Esther, her position, her assignment. That was not her identity. She ended up in a place she did not expect to be, all of a sudden in the palace, because of her beauty, because the king was attracted to her, because she won this beauty contest, went through all of these things. We don't know the extent of what happened within her life.

At moments, I'm sure it looked glamorous, and other people were probably looking from a distance, thinking, I wish I was the queen in the palace. But with that was a whole lot of suffering, being a queen and a woman in that time and age. There's nothing glamorous about that. She had to go through that preparation, all the beauty treatments, and we don't know what she endured to get to the spot where she had to choose to say, I too then will perish. Her decision to walk in obedience, as we continue to follow the story, came with a cost, of her having to get to that point to say, no matter what, I will be obedient, and I will put my life at risk for the sake of this outcome. Now, again, we don't see God's name mentioned, but she calls the people to fast, which we know in Jewish tradition would mean fasting and prayer. So we're confident she was aware of what was happening, and knew, if I'm going to do this, I need fasting, I need prayer.

I need people behind me, with me, which also points to her knowing she's not the only one who's a part of this story. Every time we see things happening, lives being changed, healings, miracles, there have been a lot of people praying for a long time to get there and make that happen. Esther's moment was important, but it was not her identity. It wasn't everything she was made for. But when we look at all the people here, we see a king who had position, we see Haman who had some sort of influence, and could have used that for good, but instead turned to anger, we see Mordecai who used his prophetic voice, and we see Esther, who strategically had that access to the king. And God uses these people. So I'm going to invite the worship team to come as we get ready to close today.

For such a time as this

I want to invite you, even now, to start to reflect on moments in your life that have formed you, maybe even moments in your life that at times you worshiped, thinking, was this my calling, is this what I'm made for? I just feel like the Lord wants us to be reminded today that we were made for eternity with Jesus, and we are all called to live in a way that we are making disciples, that we are preaching the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, to everyone around us. The good news is that yes, you have eternity with Jesus, but the kingdom is here, and it's now. That means tomorrow night, and we still need one more volunteer, we're going to go feed people at Enzo, and we're going to provide backpacks and school supplies, and make sure people have the things they need, because that's a part of the gospel, saying, hey, you are worth these things. Jesus died for you to have life.

Part of life is that you have shoes to go to school, and you have these things. That's what we're talking about. But we have assignments in between. We have specific things God has so much intention with, in how he made you, and the places he has you right now. So I want to invite you to start to think about the unique things about you that maybe, at times in your life, you've felt were barriers, that God actually wants to use as a bridge for people to come closer to him.

In the same way that, for Esther, her Jewish identity was a barrier she had to keep hidden, and God said, actually, that's something I want to use as a bridge for people to find freedom and deliverance. You are created in the image of God to bear his image. You are a part, when you say yes to Jesus, of the body of Christ, where we work together. We give of ourselves to one another, in order to see his kingdom come.

I want you to be encouraged today to know that God knows how he made you. So I want to invite you to stand today. Our so-what is that God is forming you through every moment, not just the moments that feel important. And now what: notice God in your story. Pay attention to the ordinary moments, people, and opportunities he might be inviting you into, to become more like Jesus.

So I just want you to take a moment. If you're comfortable, close your eyes, and think, God, what are the unique things you are forming in me? What are those pieces of my story, of my identity? Has God given you a prophetic voice?

Do you see things in people's lives that sometimes it's like they don't see yet, and you don't know what to do with it? Trust that God is forming you. He's refining you. I thank the Lord for how he has refined me, and the gifts he's given me. There are still things I say, God, I don't know quite how to use this.

But as I surrender, as I practice it, he refines it. He's forming us. Maybe some of you are recognizing that there are pieces of your story where you have power and you need discernment in how to use it for his glory. Maybe you're in places of position, and the Spirit is saying, would you show me how to use this power, just like the king had power, would you help me have wisdom and discernment, would you guide me, Lord? I think of Haman. Maybe there are things in your past, mistakes you've made, that have started to become your identity.

I just feel like the Lord is saying right now, you're free from that. You don't have to look there anymore. You don't have to fixate on that. There is freedom when you come before the Lord and say, I surrender to you.

I repent. I turn from my sin, and I turn and look toward you, Jesus. As we look toward Jesus, we fixate on him, we are formed more into his likeness. For some of us, I think it's being humble enough to say, Holy Spirit, would you convict me of ways I have not been living for you?

That I have let offense or bitterness take root, that I've started to react to things because I'm longing for people to see me. And if that's you, where you've been so hurt by longing to be seen, can I just remind you, God sees you. He sees you right now. He formed you in the palm of his hand. He delights in you.

He wants you to participate in seeing his kingdom come. So look to Jesus. Maybe you're like Mordecai, and maybe you struggle sometimes with, what's my role, how do I participate here? I just pray that even now, God would put people on your heart, that he's saying, I want you to go, and I want you to be that voice for them.

I want you to call them back to me. I want you to be that encourager, the one who speaks life, the one who helps people when they're in positions where they have access to things and can make decisions. And even to pray for them, to intercede for them. And then, like Esther, she had that access, and she had to make a choice: was she willing to risk it, to keep walking into rooms that felt like they weren't made for her, to stop denying her identity, denying the things she thought were barriers, and embrace the uniqueness of who God made her to be. Would you say, Holy Spirit, show me the places you have me, that I have access to that nobody else does, and the ways you want to use the unique things about me to help those people be delivered from darkness and walk in the light?

So God, right now I just pray. I pray you would help us to be people who do not fixate and worry about whether we're missing the moment, but who see every moment as a moment that is forming us. God, that we would not worship the moment, thinking there's this one thing we're made for, but that we would continue to look to you, Jesus. Remember, we are made for you, that you're the one who gives us life, who sustains us, that we're living for eternity, and would you help us to have power and boldness to walk in that, in the places you have for us on this side of eternity, that we would not run away but would run toward it, knowing that you are there with us. So Holy Spirit, would you empower us? We're going to head into a time of closing in worship again.

I want to invite you to continue to ask the Lord to show you the unique pieces of your story, of your identity, that he wants to redeem, that he wants to empower, the ways he wants to use you. And as we sing, as a prayer, would we surrender today to what God is doing, in his story that he has been writing for all of eternity? Holy Spirit, we continue to welcome you into this space. We know you're with us. Would you speak, would you move, would you hear our cry and our offering, as we once again have a moment of surrender to you, to say, no matter how much we feel it or not, no matter how much we see you in our story, we know that you're working, we know that you're moving, and that you are worth laying our lives down for. So would you receive this, Lord.