Sermon on Esther

The sermon tonight was on the first two chapters in the book of Esther.  The point of the message was that God is always at work.

Before we meet Esther, Vashti is queen.  The king throws a huge party just to show off how powerful and rich he is.  He displays his splendor throughout the whole empire.  While he is drunk, he calls for Vashti, who refuses to come.  The king gets angry and kicks her out of the palace forever.  What is God doing through all of this?
When we first meet Esther, she is an orphan who has been raised by her older cousin, Mordecai, the man who sits at the king's gate.  She is among many young girls selected to come before the king.  She spends a year in beauty treatments, and then is called before the king.  When the king sees her he loves her more that the other women.  He marries her and makes her queen.  What is God doing in through all of this? 

What's most important is that God works in many ways.  Sometimes it's through miracles, more often it's more subtle and harder to notice.  But God's purpose is not to entertain us.  His purpose is to work in us, through us, and for us, and that requires faith.  And faith is not about waiting for a big flash-and-bang miracle to solve our problems.  It's about trusting God to know what He's doing, and to do what He says and to follow him.