Rough draft of what will be happening here at the house at Two or Three tonight.  I did take some creative liberties when writing the stories…:-)

(Opening – pass out chalkboards)  Draw a symbol or picture of what you think you were made to do.  Can be multiple things. Share with us.  Even if you’re not sure what to draw at this point in your life.

There is a longing deep inside each of us to know who we truly are.  To understand our purpose and place in this world.  Somehow life distracts and confuses us and we forget or never find out who we are at our core.  Who God created us to be.

Tonight we’ll look at two familiar gals that had a similar dilemma.

Cinderella and Queen Esther from the bible.

Both of them raised by someone other than their own mothers.

Both of them living an ordinary life.

Both of them took a risk and fought back fear.

Both of them were offered what fit them perfectly – a shoe and a crown.

Both were meant to be royalty and to make a difference in the kingdom.

CINDERELLA:

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Cinderella, so named because she spent her time in the dust and ashes of her home.  Why?  Because she lost her mother, had an absent father and was left in the care of her father’s new wife, her not-so-nice stepmother.   This stepmother brought with her, two daughters, equally as nasty as she was.  Girls that despised their new “sister”.

And so, poor Cinderella was surrounded by voices that told her she was not enough.  That she would never amount to anything.  She was put down, used and abused.  Her tattered rags for clothes were the outward evidence of her difficult life.

Though, no doubt, Cinderella was discouraged, sad and frustrated, she kept her sweet spirit and character.  She went about her work dutifully and respectfully.  Still, there was something in her that wrestled around her heart and mind.  She was made for more than the cinders of just surviving life.  She sensed something bigger, more meaningful.  She dreamed of happily ever after.

One day as her stepmother nagged and her stepsisters chided her mercilessly, a knock came at the door.  A messenger stood there with an invitation to a royal ball.  An occasion for all of the ladies of the land to attend in order for the king to find a suitable wife for his son the prince.  Cinderella’s stepmother snatched the invitation from the messenger and read it aloud with her two daughters crouched around her.  Cinderella’s eyes opened in wonder as she heard it:  “All young ladies of the land are cordially invited….”  But when her stepmother looked up and saw the excitement on Cinderella’s face, she turned her back and whispered the remaining words of the invitation, her daughters giggling at her side.

But Cinderella had heard it…ALL young ladies.  That meant her, too!  SHE was invited to the royal ball!  She might even get to dance with the prince himself.  That thought took her breath away.

Her daydream was interrupted by the harsh voice of her stepmother.  “You don’t think YOU can go, do you?” she screeched and broke into cruel laughter.  “But the invitation said ALL young ladies.  That means I’m invited!” Cinderella said quietly but excitedly.  This brought hideous guffaws from the stepsisters.  “As if….” they teased.  She obviously had nothing to wear and didn’t carry an air worthy of a royal ball.  She would only be mocked and made fun of, they said.

Seeming to change her mind, the stepmother looked at Cinderella.  “Okay,” she said, to the great chagrin of her daughters.  “You can go to the ball if you finish the list of chores that I’ve laid out for you.”  Cinderella was speechless.  “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!”  she said and turned to run and do what needed to be done.

But of course, it was only a trick.  The woman had no intention of letting Cinderella go to the ball.  And though Cinderella finished everything on the list, she handed her another and another, making it impossible for Cinderella to be done in time to get ready for a ball, even if she had a gown.

As her stepmother and stepsisters drove away in the their carriage, they waved mockingly at Cinderella standing there in her dirty smock and bare feet.  “We’ll miss you,” they sneered.  “We’ll tell you all about it when we get back.”  And off they rode to a night of magic.

Tears streaming down her face, Cinderella crumpled to the ground and cried until she could cry no more.  Would her dream of being rescued from this dysfunctional home never come true?  Would she always just be the dusty girl in the corner with no real name or purpose beyond being used by others?

And then she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder.  Her fairy godmother.  She was startled at first.  It had been a long time since she’d seen this woman, but she would recognize that sweet face anywhere.  The face of hope.  Of something new.  She’d felt her touch before but this hard life had erased those memories until this moment.  This wonderful woman looked at her in those tear swollen eyes and said, “I have something more for you.  You were made for this.”  With a wave of her wand, a small pumpkin was transformed into a carriage, the tiny mice into a tall driver and escort.  “But what will I wear?” Cinderella asked, just as her well-worn rag of a dress was changed into a beautiful ball gown.  And out of nothing at all, a pair of glass slippers appeared on her once bare feet.  “Look at you!”  the fairy godmother gushed.  “You’re beautiful!”  And for the first time in her entire life, Cinderella thought that just might actually be true.

“How can I ever thank you?” Cinderella asked as she hugged this dear woman tightly.  “Just go and dance, ” she answered.  “Find your prince and do what you were meant to do with all your heart.  Just dance.  But be back before midnight.”

Cinderella blew her a kiss goodbye and rode off in her new carriage, still in awe over what had just happened.

We know how the rest of the story goes.  She DOES dance with the prince and she knows this is what she was made for.  Though no one recognizes her, not even her stepmother or stepsisters, she knows THIS is who she was meant to be with.  And yet….she was instructed to be back before midnight, before the magic would wear off.  She’s forced to leave the ball quickly, not able to disclose the reason for her abrupt departure.  The prince is left to wonder what went wrong when he finds the glass slipper she accidentally left behind in her haste.  THIS is how he will find her.  If he has to search the entire land he WILL find the girl whose foot fits this shoe perfectly.

Cinderella gets home just before everything goes back to how it was.  The coach goes back to being a pumpkin, her driver back to a mouse and her gown back to sad lifeless rags.  And with the exit of all that beauty went her hopes and dreams.  Her self-esteem.  All of it vanished as if had all just been a mirage.  She quickly went to her room and locked the door, hoping to fall asleep before the others got home and taunted her with their stories of grandeur and entitlement.  She hoped she would fall asleep and never wake up.  To stay in that dreamlike state where she could remember who she had danced with and how perfect she felt in his arms.

But too quickly, they stepmother and her daughters burst into the house and beat on Cinderella’s door, their loud, mean voices ringing in her ears once again.  Reminding her that she was once again not enough and never would be.  She covered her head with her pillow and cried herself to sleep.

Weeks passed and more discouraged than ever, Cinderella lived each of her days as every day before.  Back breaking work accompanied by ugly voices ringing in her ears.  And more than every she was believing those ugly voices.  But every night when her head hit the pillow, she would dream of something she’d had a glimpse of.  The world she knew she belonged in.  The one she knew she belonged with.

One day as she was sweeping the mess left by her stepmother and stepsisters, she heard a knock at the door.  “Cinderella, get the door!”  her stepmother screamed from the other room.  As she did, she was handed a note by an official that looked like he’d come straight from the king himself.  Before she could open it up to read it, her stepmother walked up and grabbed it out of her hand.  Seeing that it looked like another invitation to a ball, she turned to Cinderella and yelled, “Go to your room!”  There was no use in arguing, so she went, wondering what the note could have been about.

As it turned out, the prince was on a mission to look for the girl who had lost a glass slipper.  This messenger had it with him and was told to try it on every girl in the kingdom until a perfect fit was found and that girl would be the prince’s bride.  The stepmother smiled and called both of her daughters into the room.  Each of them was determined to fit their foot into the shoe.  They squeezed and pinched their foot in only to find that only half of it would fit into the tiny slipper.  But it was obvious that the shoe was not meant for them.

“Do you have any other daughters?”  asked the official.  “What about the girl who answered the door?”  “Oh, no.  You don’t want to try it on HER foot.  She is dirty and clumsy.  Not marriage material for any prince.”

“Bring her any way,” said the man.  Begrudgingly, she hollered for Cinderella to come out.  “A waste of time,” she muttered in Cinderella’s ear.  The man explained to Cinderella what he was doing.  That he was looking for the girl whose foot fit perfectly into the glass slipper.  The girl who was meant to marry the prince.  The stepsisters snickered viciously in the corner, but Cinderella smiled.  She knew this was her time.  She knew that this shoe was hers, that her foot fit perfectly.

Gasps of unbelief came from both her stepmother and stepsisters.  It fit beautifully!  As if it were made for her.  Gleaming, the messenger took Cinderella’s hand and walked her out to the carriage that he’d arrived in.  There sat the prince waiting for her.  He didn’t seem to notice that her clothes were dirty and that she was only wearing one glass slipper.  He ran his fingers through her snarled hair and said, “It’s about time.  I’ve been waiting for you.”

And they lived, as they say, happily ever after.

Now let’s look at a girl named Esther…

Once upon a time, a really, REALLY long time ago, there was a girl named Esther.  She was an orphan and was raised by her cousin, a good man named Mordecai.  They were common people and came from a line of Jews who had been exiled from Jerusalem.

The king of their country, Xerxes, was on the look out for a new queen.  Apparently, his queen Vashti had not obliged when he sent for her to come and strut her beauty for his guests.  This didn’t go over well, to say the least, an in an effort to make her an example to rest of the women in the kingdom, he relieved her of her position.

Beautiful virgins were gathered and brought to the king from all over the country to see whom he would pick for his next queen.  Esther was one of them.  But first they had to pass the inspection of his eunuch. Esther made quite an impression on the eunuch and became one of the women that would undergo a 12 month beauty regimen before she would be brought before the king.  At that time she could ask for anything to take with her to the viewing, anything to help her chances of being chosen.  But, unlike the other girls, Esther chose nothing.  She chose to go as just herself.

At the end of 12 months each woman went before the king, no doubt twirling and turning for inspection.  When Esther’s turn came she took her place before the king feeling the weight of his eyes that would determine her future.  Eyes that liked what he saw so much that he placed a crown on her head and asked her to be his queen.  A crown that fit only her head perfectly.

Some time later, Xerxes’ right hand man, Haman began conspiring to kill all the Jews in the kingdom, saying that it was in the king’s best interest to be rid of these people that had such different ways and faith than they did.  He even offered a bribe to the treasury.  He tricked the king into giving him his ring to “seal the deal”.

News of this started spreading throughout the land and people began to panic.  They were so confused by this edict that seemed to have come from nowhere and for no reason.  Mordecai caught wind of the information and got word to Esther that the Jews needed her to use her position to go to the king and ask for his mercy to rescind this plan.

The thought of this terrified Esther.  It was against the law for her to approach the king without being summoned.  Failure to comply likely meant death, unless by some miracle he held out his golden scepter to allow her entrance.  He hadn’t called for her in 30 days, which wasn’t a good sign.  She politely declined.

But Mordecai didn’t let her off that easy.  He reminded her that just because she lived in the palace didn’t mean that her life as a Jew would be saved.  The edict would apply to all of them, including her.  He asked,  “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

He had a point.  And so Esther asked that all the Jews in the land and all of her attendants fast for three days and nights in prayer and preparation for this risk she was about to take on behalf of her people.  She stepped out in faith saying, “And if I perish, I perish.”  The results were in God’s hands.

To make a long story short, God answered those many prayers and the king graced her arrival with the offering of his scepter towards her.  She presented her request before the king, and told him for the first time that she, as well, was Jewish.  The king wrote another edict allowing the Jews to take arms and defend themselves should any nation attack.  The result was that the Jews overcame their enemies.  Esther had saved her people.

It is said,  ^“In every province and in every city to which the (new) edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating” which sounds an awful lot  like, “they lived happily ever after.”

What did these two women have in common?  Orphans, common, displaced, both created for something greater, both fit something, both took a risk.

What would have happened if Cinderella hadn’t tried on the shoe?  If Esther hadn’t accepted the crown?  Cinderella would have still lived with her stepmother and stepsisters just surviving in life.  Esther wouldn’t have been able to save her people.

What could have stopped them from putting on what was fit for them?  Fear of failure.  Fear of disappointment.  Fear of change.

What stops us from putting on our perfectly fitting shoe or crown?  Fear.  Not knowing where or what it is. (Draw a picture of something that holds you back and share.)

It’s interesting that both Cinderella and Esther had to get past fear to actually received what they were being offered.  Cinderella at first ran back to her former life after experiencing a dance with the prince, afraid that if the prince saw her as she truly was, he wouldn’t want her.  Ironic, that he came and saw and chose her JUST as she was and loved her even more.

Esther had to get past the fear of potentially losing her life and trust that God was sovereign and would use her to do what He wanted to do.  He used who she was a queen AND a Jew to change the mind of a king.

Matt used a phrase in church this past week – what would you do if you knew there was no way you could fail?  Do THAT!  If God has put an inclination in your heart, if he has equipped you with the personality and skill set and talent to do something, why are you afraid?  If he has offered you a perfectly fitting shoe or crown, will you put it on and use it, or back off in fear?

He has given us a spirit of courage, not timidity or fear.  2 Timothy 1:7 – For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.  If He equips us, He goes with us to do what He’s asking us to do.  Courage FITS us perfectly.

Pass out pumpkins.

Discussion

Prayer requests.