Where Are All The Esther's?

For starters, this morning I want everyone to stand up and trade seats with their spouse..or if your by your self today, slide over two spaces to another seat.

Okay now, if everyone is all cozy now..

Let's get started.

I want to describe something to you this morning, it's invisible and warm, it's

safe and secure...it's a place.

Some of us surround ourselves in and with it

For some, it's where we live

For some, were like tourist and only visit their occasionally

But every human being that was ever created, knows it and likes it.

Any guesses, it's our comfort zone!

Is anyone missing the place you were sitting in just moments ago yet?

When we get used to something, or when we have done something in a particular way for a while, or when we just don’t want something to change, those are times when we find ourselves in a comfort zone.

Today I want to talk about letting go of the "comfort zone"

Esther 2:5-7 MSG

5-7 Now there was a Jew who lived in the palace complex in Susa. His name was Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish—a Benjaminite. His ancestors had been taken from Jerusalem with the exiles and carried off with King Jehoiachin of Judah by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon into exile. Mordecai had reared his cousin Hadassah, otherwise known as Esther, since she had no father or mother. The girl had a good figure and a beautiful face. After her parents died, Mordecai had adopted her.

This is the story about Esther, there had been a shake up at the royal palace...

The former Queen had acted inappropriately and had mysteriously disappeared, Esther's life was about to change forever.

By all standards, she had had a tough road in her beginning. She didn't have the comfort zone of a mother and father,

And the one she did have, was about to be changed...because she had been chosen, for something greater than herself.

Did you know, God will never ask you to do something...that He is not ready to go before you and make the way for you?

Even if it means providing a river in the desert..God is ready to step up and help, when you are ready to step out in faith. Amen?

8 When the king’s order had been publicly posted, many young girls were brought to the palace complex of Susa and given over to Hegai who was overseer of the women. Esther was among them.

9-10 Hegai liked Esther and took a special interest in her. Right off he started her beauty treatments, ordered special food, assigned her seven personal maids from the palace, and put her and her maids in the best rooms in the harem. Esther didn’t say anything about her family and racial background because Mordecai had told her not to.

The moment Esther stepped out of her comfort zone in faith, Gods Favor began to shine on her...

When God asked you to do something, He's not going to take you down a side street or a back alley to your destination.

He's going to make a way..it may not always be the way your thinking of..but it doesn't have to be..He's God!

His ways are higher, His ways are better...it may not always be in your comfort zone..but He will always be there comforting you, when you chose to trust Him and listen to the instruction He sends your way!

11 Every day Mordecai strolled beside the court of the harem to find out how Esther was and get news of what she was doing.

12-14 Each girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes after she had completed the twelve months of prescribed beauty treatments—six months’ treatment with oil of myrrh followed by six months with perfumes and various cosmetics. When it was time for the girl to go to the king, she was given whatever she wanted to take with her when she left the harem for the king’s quarters. She would go there in the evening; in the morning she would return to a second harem overseen by Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch in charge of the concubines. She never again went back to the king unless the king took a special liking to her and asked for her by name.

Although this certainly sounds like the ultimate comfort zone...it was out of Esther's normal level of security.. A lot was on the line, she only had one chance...there was no room for error

15 When it was Esther’s turn to go to the king (Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his daughter), she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the harem, had recommended. Esther, just as she was, won the admiration of everyone who saw her.