#For such a time as this

A big welcome to you and hello to our Hemel and Hatfield site

as well. I'm Tarin and I'm one of the

pastors here. Happy Mother's Day and today as

you can see, we are celebrating all women in this church.

For you have been placed for such a time as this.

And to celebrate today, what we are doing is we are pausing our

impact series just for one Sunday.

And what we're going to do is dive into the book of Esther.

And it's a story of a woman who didn't think she had what it

took, but she found herself standing between a nation and

its destruction. And it's the story of how one

persons obedience can change the course of history.

And it's got more drama in it than a Netflix series, I think.

There's tears, there's sorrow, there's great joy and

celebration, there's feasting, there's fasting, and there's an

awful lot of gore as well. And it's a story really of a

rags to riches, of an orphan girl from a ethnic minority

becomes one of the most powerful and wealthiest women in the

whole of the land. She is the star of the show and

her name literally means *. So before we open the Bible

today, let me paint a picture of where we are and what is

happening up until this point. So there is a king, King Xerxes,

and he is holding a huge elaborate banquet for his

Princess, his nobles, all his officials.

And this banquet, it lasts for an crazy number of days, 180

days. I mean, imagine the waistline,

you know, he is showing off his power, his wealth, his splendor

because Persia was a world power and the king was one of the

wealthiest in the entire world. And at the same time, his queen,

Queen Vashti, she is also holding a banquet in the royal

palace. And it's all going really well

until one day the king, he gets very drunk and he decides to

summon his wife, Queen Vashti, to come.

And she's a very beautiful woman and he wants basically to parade

her in front of all the men so the men can look at her and Ogle

her. And she does what any self

respecting woman would do and refuses to go.

And this, of course, then angers the king, and he's so

embarrassed by this that he banishes Vashti forever from the

Kingdom. And so then he goes about

appointing a new queen, and he's brings in all these beautiful

virgin women from across the empire into his harem.

And from all of them, he would choose just one to become queen.

And out of his entire harem, King Xerxes, he chooses Esther.

And she was a Jewish orphan. She was adopted by her uncle

Mordecai. And the king loved Esther more

than any other woman, and he crowned her queen.

And Esther, she hid her Jewish identity from the king.

Now, in the meantime, the king, he promotes this guy called

Haman, and he promotes him to become Prime Minister.

And one of the very first things that he does is he issues a

decree that whenever he walks by, he expects everyone to bow

down wherever he is. And Mordecai, Esther's uncle,

refuses to do this, which infuriates Haman to the point

where he goes to the king with 10,000 large sacks of silver and

he asks for permission to destroy the Jews.

The king agrees and issues an edict that goes out across all

127 provinces, saying that on the 7th of March next year, in

one single day, every Jewish man, woman and child must be

killed, slaughtered and annihilated.

Now, upon hearing this most horrifying edict, Mordecai, he

goes into mourning. He's wearing sackcloth and

ashes. And he quickly sends word to

Esther that she must go to the king to stop this terrible

decree. But Esther's afraid.

She's afraid to approach the king without being summoned.

And she knows that if she goes to the king without being

summoned, she is likely to face instant death.

But Mordecai can see the bigger picture.

And he sends back this answer to her.

And so if you have your Bibles, we're in the book of Esther, and

we're going to start in Esther chapter 4.

Esther 4 · chapter mention

But we are moving all around this book today.

So we're chapter 4, verse 13. This is what Mordecai says.

Do you not think that because you are in the King's house, you

alone of all the Jews will escape?

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. And who knows but that you have

been, that you have come to your raw position for such a time as

this. And so today, what we're going

to look at is what does it mean for us to stand in the gap, to

stand in the space between heaven and earth for those who

desperately need it? Now, when I read the Bible and I

read books of the Bible, you know, there are like you, I'm

sure there are some parts that I wish I could have been there

for. I wish I could have witnessed.

You know, I would have loved to been there seeing Moses parting

the sea, you know, or Pentecost, The disciples in the upper room,

you know, violent wing, tons of fire.

They're suddenly the Holy Spirit is upon them.

There is an account in the book of Acts I would love to have

witnessed where the Apostle Paul, he is there and he is

talking, talking, talking. He's talking for a very, very

long time. And there is a young man there

that falls asleep as the Apostle Paul keeps talking and talking

and he is about 3 stories up and he's by a window.

He falls asleep. He falls out of the window to

his death. Can you imagine Paul then

suddenly jumping up and he runs down the flights of stairs and

he throws himself over this young man and he comes back to

life again. I mean, it really takes the

phrase boring someone to death to a whole nother level, doesn't

it? And I personally feel quite

comforted that the apostle Paul did that.

It makes me feel a bit better. So many parts of the Bible I

longed to have been part of. But the book of Esther is not

that. You see, the world that Esther

lived in was horrifying. It was the time where leaders

were selfish, immoral and corrupt.

Where human life was seen as cheap and worthless, where

people live for themselves, where they were lovers of

pleasure rather than lovers of God.

It was a time of worldly pomp and show.

It's all about flashing the cash and image and beauty and sex and

power and debauchery of every kind.

I could go on and on. Does any of this sound familiar?

Ester's world and our world aren't as far removed as we may

think. In fact, our worlds are pretty

similar. Just like God called and placed

Esther into a specific time, into a specific place, God has

called and he has placed us at a specific time, into a specific

place for such a time as this. At such a time where men and

women and children are held against their will and they are

forced to become slaves, domestic slaves, sex slaves,

forced to commit crimes, forced into manual labour, where

suicide is prevalent. At a time where thousands and

thousands of the most vulnerable children are living in our care

systems. At a time where millions of

individuals and families are facing poverty.

At a time where homelessness is rising all the time.

At a time where children as young as nine are seeing porn

and they're seeing it as a normal part of everyday life.

At a time where drug and alcohol addiction are wrecking lives and

wrecking families. At a time where millions of

people are experiencing significant isolation and

loneliness, you see, it's clear through the story of Esther that

God's hand and his favour was on her.

Any of those beautiful women in the King's ha room could have

been queen, but God allowed it to be Esther.

And Esther enjoyed all the the favour of the Lord by being

queen. You know, she had freedom, she

had authority, she had agency, she had power, she had

splendour, she had wealth. And we see the favour of God

over Esther's life in Esther chapter 2 verse 15.

Esther 2:15

And it says when the turn came for Esther, the young woman

Mordecai had adopted to go to the king, she asked for nothing

other than what Hagai, the King's eunuch who was in charge

of the harim suggested. And Esther won the favour of

everyone she saw. But we favour comes the weight

of responsibility and stewarding that well.

And we see the responsibility that Esther she needs to carry

because of God's favour that is on her.

And in chapter 4 verse 14, Mordecai says, 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. And who knows, but you have come

to your royal position for such a time as this.

The responsibility and the weight of Esther's task is

suddenly is huge. Suddenly it's immense.

It's so daunting for her. And Mordecai is urging her.

You cannot stay silent. You cannot not do nothing.

He's reminding her that God has put her in this position.

You see, with favour comes the responsibility to steward that

into action. And we see Esther's actions in

verse 15. Esther sends this reply to

Mordecai. She says to him, go gather

together all the Jews who are in Sousa 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.

So Mordecai went away, and he carried out all Esther's

instructions. So Esther, she recognised the

favour of the Lord on her, she understood the responsibility of

what that brings, and then she actioned that, risking

everything. And as Christians we have all

received and we all carry the Lord's favour.

I love what it says. In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

explains what this looks like. He tells us that we are blessed

in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in

Christ. He tells us that we're chosen in

Him before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless

in His sight. He tells us that in love we're

predestined for adoption, adoption to sonship through

Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.

He tells us that we've been lavished with His glorious grace

which He has freely given us in the One He loves.

He tells us that in Him we're redeemed through His blood and

the forgiveness of sins. In Him we're also chosen and

predestined and included and sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Do you see? Do you see what incredible,

unmerited, undeserved, unlimited favour we've we carry, we have

received through Jesus? And because of that, just like

with ESTA, we have this incredible opportunity to make a

difference, whether it's in our homes, our schools, our

families, the universities we go to, our workplaces or in our

communities. Friends, we aren't just there by

accident. We are there to steward that

interaction like never before. God has called every single one

of us in this room and in the rooms of Hemel and Hatfield for

such a time as this to stand in the gap.

And so we see Esther. We see her stand up.

We see her rise up with courage, with faith, with prayer and

fasting. She stood in the gap for the

Jewish nation, her people, God's people.

She stood in the gap for her friends and her family.

She stood in the gap for the people who she knew and the

people that she will never meet. She petitioned the king on their

behalf. She interceded on their behalf.

She was the go between. Esther was willing to stand in

the gap for those who can stand for themselves, for those known

to her and those that she'll never meet friends.

Accepting the call to stand in the gap is one of the most

important things I think we can do as Christians.

You see, things happen when we stand in the gap.

Chains break, light breaks, light shines Into Darkness.

Freedom comes, faith rises up, Peace invades.

Hope beckons. Healing takes root.

Impossible things become possible.

We are not here just to live our lives.

We are here to challenge, to change, to influence our

families, our friends, our community, this city, this

region, this nation, and the whole world for Jesus.

God put his hope in Esther to save the Jewish nation, and He

puts his hope in the church and His church.

It's us. We are the light for the world

in the darkest corners of the world.

We are hope carriers for the hopeless.

We are called to stand in the gap for the abandoned, the

orphans, the hopeless, the abuse, the lonely, the outcast,

the voiceless and say enough on our watch in 2026, this is not

OK. He's calling us not to remain

silent, not to sit back and think, well, this doesn't

directly affect me so I can forget about it.

You see, with favour comes responsibility, and with that

responsibility comes action. To stand in the gap is action to

use our voices. Action to pray and fast and

intercede is action for those close to us and for those we

will never meet. To stand in the gap takes

obedience. And at first, Esther, she wasn't

obedient. She wasn't obedient to what

Mordecai was asking of her to do to go to the king.

In fact, it was the complete opposite of that.

And we see that in chapter 4, verse 10.

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, the king has but one law that they be put

to death unless the king extends the gold sector to them and

spares their lives. But 30 days have passed since I

was called to go to the king. You see, she was more concerned

about her own life than she was for the Jewish nation.

She discounted herself because the road that she was being

asked to walk down would cost her something.

It was not a straightforward Rd. you know.

It was not easy. In fact it felt an impossible

task. And yet just 5 verses later she

says this to Mordecai in verse 16.

I will go to the king even though it is against the law.

And if I perish, I perish. How did Esther go from no to If

I perish, I perish one word, obedience.

You see, her feet went before her heart.

God is looking for those who are willing to stand in the gap in

obedience to Him. Edmund Burke says this All that

is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Esther was willing to lay down her life in order to stand in

the gap for her people. When I was 15, my mum became

incredibly unwell and she went from being this person that was

absolutely full of life and full of energy, running around 100

miles an hour, to just being able to lie in her bed all day

long and do nothing. And she kept going back and

forth to the doctors and they kept saying it's a virus, it's a

virus. And eventually they diagnosed

her with ME and my mum could do nothing.

She could hardly speak, she could hardly eat, she couldn't

lift her head from the pillow. On a very, very good day, she

would sit in the armchair in front of the fire for a few

minutes and that would be her on a very good, good day.

And me and my brother and my family, we experienced the

effects of people standing in the gap for us.

Those who faithfully prayed for my mum's healing, they prayed

that she would get better. They prayed, they fasted, they

interceded on our behalf. They also helped us practically.

They stood in the gap practically for us and over time

my mum did start to get a little bit better.

She could do things but she needed a wheelchair when she

went out, she would need sleeps in the car if she was out and

she would need at least two or three sleeps in the day every

day and our whole body would just be in pain all the time. 10

years later, my mum is not recovered.

She's in the position I've just told you, and we've just had our

first. Their first grandchild and she's

giving thanks for Kaya's life. He's about one at the time, and

she's thanking God for him. Because when I was young, I was

significantly unwell as well. And because of the medication I

was on, I was told I may not be able to have children.

And so she was thanking God for his life.

And then as she was thanking God, God spoke to her and he

said to her, don't you think I can do the same for you?

I'm going to heal you. And so my mum came away from

that moment believing and holding on to what the Lord has

said and she kind of tucked it away within her.

And as time went on, nothing happens.

She kept hold of that word. And those people who were

faithfully praying and fasting and interceding for my mum, they

too kept hold of that word. That word, these faithful

people, they stood in the gap for my mum for years and years

and years. They interceded on her behalf,

sometimes on their knees, sometimes with Thanksgiving,

sometimes with heavy hearts, sometimes with lots of faith,

and sometimes with the tiniest bit of faith.

These dear people committed to bridging the gap between heaven

and earth for me and my family, and particularly my mum.

Let's pick up the story in Esther chapter 5.

Esther 5 · chapter mention

On the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the

inner court of the palace in front of the King's hall.

The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall facing

the entrance. When he saw Queen Esther

standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to

her the gold sceptre that was in his hand.

So Esther approached and touched the tip of the sceptre.

Then the king asked. I bet she's thinking at that

point. Phew, it's not going to kill me.

What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request?

Even up to half the Kingdom, it will be given to you.

So we see here Esther, she goes to the king, Her life is spared,

and the King's pleased with her. And so he says, tell me what

your request is. And so Esther invites the king

and Hayman to a banquet that day.

And as the king is enjoying himself so much at the banquet,

he asks Esther a second time. And he says, like, what do you

want? What's your request?

And Esther says again to the king, I would like to invite you

and Haman to another banquet the following day, where the king

asks Esther again, what is your request?

And she replied in Chapter 7, verse 3, if I have found favour

with you, your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my

life. This is my petition and spare my

people. This is my request.

For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and

annihilated. So Esther, she finally makes her

plea to the king. Can you imagine the tension in

the room at that moment as they're eating their banquet

together, you know, And she suddenly reveals the plot of

what is happening. And the king, he's outraged, and

he demands, what man would dare do such a thing?

Where is he? I mean, he's totally forgotten

that he accepted all that silver.

Esther points her finger and says, an adversary, an enemy,

the vile Haman. And at that moment, I like to

think of Haman. He's just taken a big chunk of

meat and he's chewing and he's stuck here and he's gulping,

gulping, gulping because he knows he's a goner as the king

orders that Haman be impaled on the very pole that he built for

Mordecai. I told you it was gory.

So, so far, Esther has had to go to the king three times.

God's favour is still on her life, her life has been spared,

and Haman is dead. But God's people are still

living under a death sentence. And so again Esther goes to the

king. Chapter 8, verse 2.

Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and

weeping. She begged him to put an end to

the evil plan of Haman which he had devised against the Jews.

Then the king extended the gold sector to Esther, and she arose

and stood before him. The king took off his signet

ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and he presented it

to Mordecai, and Esther appointed him over at Hayman's

estate. Notice here again Esther pleaded

with the king. She fell at his feet, and she

started weeping. You see going again.

It cost Esther something. It cost her her dignity.

It cost her her heart. She forgets about herself,

respect, and she becomes wretched before the king because

her heart was broken for her people.

Not only did she go again through obedience and

perseverance, but she also went again in the breaking of her

heart for her people. And I believe this is a

different side to Esther that we see now.

You see, her heart has caught up with her feet.

God has broken her heart for the Jewish nation.

Now they're not only her people, but she calls them my family.

And we see that in verse 5. If it pleases the king, she

said, And if he regards me with favour and think of 6, it's the

right thing to do. And if he is pleased with me,

let an order be written over ruling the dispatches that Haman

devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the King's

provinces. So how can I bear to see

disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the

destruction of my family? And then the king tells Esther

and Mordecai to write another decree in the King's name to all

the Jews as the first edict. It can't be revoked because it's

been sealed with the King's ring.

And so Mordecai and Esther, they grant the Jews permission to

defend themselves against those who try to harm them, which they

successfully do. The tables are turned, the

Jewish people have the upper hand, and no one could stand

against them. And all their enemies were

struck down. In Esther's obedience and in her

perseverance to do what God had called her to do over these last

three days, she eventually she sees breakthrough.

Even though she was on her own, God was with her every day for

those three days. Esther chose to go again, go

again, go again. God called her, awakened her,

changed her selfish attitude, broke her heart for her people,

her family, to enable her to go again even when the odds were

stacked against her friends. God is the God of again.

He is the initiator. He who bought it will bring it

back. He who did it will do it again

so that we can be people who go again.

People who rise to the Lord's call again and again and again.

People who go again after knock backs.

People who go again after disappointment of not seeing

anything happen, not seeing breakthrough.

People who go again in the face of sickness, in the face of

eating disorders, in the face of addiction.

People who go again when it feels so often like it's one

step forward and two steps back. People who dare to pray and to

expect God to come and minister and bring healing.

When we've seen others die, or we've seen others fall away or

others give in to temptation, we have to go again.

Go again for the people, for the nation who don't know Jesus

right now. For our friends, our families,

our communities. Go again back to the foot of the

cross. Go again back to the threshing

floor of tears. Go again back to His Word.

Go again back to the temple of His praise and His sanctuary of

worship. To finish the story about my

mum, 10 years after my mum heard God say that He would heal her.

They were at a little Christian retreat centre and one morning

my mum went into the Chapel. There was no one there.

Bible was just open. It was open on Isaiah.

And so my mum just looked at the Bible and one sentence jumped

out and it's Isaiah 38 verse 9. And it said this a writing of

Isaiah 38:9

Hezekiah, king of Judah after his illness and recovery.

And she said to the Lord, could that be for me?

I am ill, am I about to recover? The next day my mum had the most

strange and strongest urge to climb a mountain.

Now they were at the foot of a mountain, this little retreat

centre, and my dad thought she was crazy because she couldn't

even walk to the end of the pathway before the mountain even

began. She tried the day before, she

couldn't do it. But being there, faithful and

kind guy that he is, he said, all right, we'll give it a go.

And so my mum started to climb this mountain that the day

before would have been impossible.

And my dad said, I started to panic halfway up when I realised

that there was no mobile phone signal and there was no way I'll

be able to carry her down the mountain if she collapsed.

But my mum walked all the way up the mountain and she walked all

the way down the mountain. She did not need it is amazing.

She didn't need any asleep. She her body wasn't aching.

She woke up the next morning and again, she was full of energy

and she said to my dad, I want to walk into the village and the

village was 2 1/2 miles away. And he's like, oh, no, I think

we need to pace it. You know, there's there's no

way. My mum is pretty stubborn.

She's like, no, I want to walk into the village.

So the condition was they'd walk in, but they would get the bus

back. But my mum walked into the

village, she felt so good. She didn't get the bus back.

She walked back 5 miles, she walked that day and and she did

not pay for it after. And every day she just kept

living a normal life, doing the things that she always wanted to

do day after day after day. And I remember shortly after

that they came to Scotland and we'd gone for a beach walk and

there was some really sheer stairs and it was like on top of

a mound, sorry, a really big hill.

And so my mum is the first up the stairs and then she runs to

the top of the hill and we're all still huffing and puffing,

you know, trying to get up. And she stands there going, God

has healed me, God has healed me.

Thank you, Jesus. It was amazing.

The Lord completely transformed my mum's life.

She's got more energy now than my dad.

Friends. The point is, my mum and dad and

all those supported them, praying in faith for my mum's

healing. They could have given up 10

years before when it looked like God had forgotten to follow

through on what he said He was going to do, but instead they

chose to go again. Go again with faith to believe

what the Lord had spoken would come to past.

Go again, believing that He can make the impossible possible.

To go again, to pray and fast and intercede.

To go again, to trust that God is in control.

To go again. To believe that she had not been

forgotten, that the Lord sees her and knows her and knows

every part of her life. Friends, my mum's healing came

in a tiny Chapel in the middle of nowhere, with no one else

around. Reading one sentence from the

book of Isaiah. 20 years after she got ill, God said go again

Esther. God says go again versa Vineyard

go again, go again. Esther didn't waste the favor of

God, the cool of God, nor the opportunity God gave her to play

her part. He is a God of again, so that we

can be people who go again and again and again.

For how much time is this? Amen.

Amen. Wonderful.