Introduction
This message closes the Waymaker series from Rehoboth Italy, preached in Italian and translated for you here. The preacher returns to Esther, a woman who started with nothing, an immigrant, an orphan, who ended up at the court of King Ahasuerus and saved an entire people from extermination. Her secret was not her beauty, it was the mandate from God she dared to carry out.
The starting point is a verse from Paul: "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God" (Romans 8:19). Not the revealing of your achievements, nor your comfort, the revealing of what God has placed in you. The world is waiting for you. Will you rise up?
Outline of the message
1. Esther: a woman who left everything to obey
The preacher opens with a portrait of Esther: "a determined woman, a courageous woman, a woman who managed to leave everything behind to go do what God was asking of her." An immigrant, a slave, she rises to the top, to the king's court. Why? Because God entrusted her with a mandate: to be influential in order to save her people.
To the world, her quality was her beauty. To God, it was her heart. The mandate God gave her, he placed in her heart, and she carried it out even to the point of risking her life: "if I perish, I perish" (Esther 4:16).
2. Creation is waiting for you
"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God" (Romans 8:19). The preacher stresses the verb: the whole earth eagerly longs for you, as a child of God, to be revealed.
What does it mean to "be revealed"? It is not a show. It is letting God produce through you what he has prepared, whether small or great. "Whatever it may be, what God has given you, creation is waiting for it."
3. Acts 1:8: witnesses first receive power
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8). The preacher highlights the small word at the beginning: "but." There is a "but," so something came before it.
The context: the disciples have just asked Jesus, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). They are thinking about themselves, their nation, their future. Jesus redirects them: "It is not for you to know the times... but you will receive power, and you will be my witnesses."
In other words: stop asking yourself "what's going to become of me?" and start letting yourself be equipped to become a witness. The power of the Spirit is not a gift for you alone. It is given to you so that you give it away.
4. The difference between "me" and the witness
The preacher gives a simple definition:
- The "me" wants to receive and keep for itself.
- The witness is the one who gives, who gives others what he has received.
He shares his own example: as a young man, he played soccer. One day he found himself on the bench, replaced by someone else. His reaction? "I'm going to sulk." For two years, he let himself be carried along by resentment, thinking about himself. "Often we think about ourselves because something happens to us, and we think about us, when we should be thinking about the good of our neighbor."
The disciples did the same thing: "Jesus, are you leaving? And what about us?" Jesus' answer: you will receive power and you will be my witnesses. The witness is no longer centered on himself.
5. Paul: when the Spirit blocks the doors
Second illustration: Paul. After his great conversion, after being set apart, he is sent out on mission. But everything gets blocked. He wants to go to Galatia (the Spirit stops him. He tries Bithynia), the Spirit of Jesus does not allow it (Acts 16:6-7). He ends up at Troas, disoriented.
The preacher notes: "How often do we say to ourselves, 'why is all this happening to me?'" Paul, too, could have withdrawn into himself. He did not. He waited, and God gave him the vision of the Macedonian: "Come over to Macedonia and help us" (Acts 16:9). A man, a country, a people, a calling.
The message: when the Spirit closes doors, it is not against you. It is to redirect you toward the one who needs you.
6. The rich young man and the excuse of burying his father
The preacher brings up two examples drawn, by contrast, from the Gospels.
The rich young man (Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23). Jesus calls him. His answer: impossible, I have too many possessions. He was thinking of himself, of his security. He missed his chance to follow Christ.
The one who wanted to bury his father first (Luke 9:59-60). The preacher explains the context: in the culture of the time, if a son was not present at his father's death, he did not receive the inheritance. This young man is actually telling Jesus: "I will follow you, but first let me collect my inheritance. Once I'm financially secure, I'll follow you."
The preacher's verdict: "As long as we think about ourselves, about our security, we cannot be witnesses. A witness is one who leaves everything behind to bear witness, and who trusts in God's providence."
7. Mary and the perfume: giving what is most precious
Another figure: Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus (John 12:1-8; Mark 14:3-9). She breaks open a jar of extremely costly perfume (the equivalent, the preacher says, of "a year's wages"), and pours it on Jesus' feet.
The disciples think about the cost. Jesus says: "She has prepared my body for burial." Why does Mary do this? Because just days before, she had been broken: her brother had died, and for two women alone in that society, the loss of a brother meant ruin. Jesus gave Lazarus back to her. Her response: everything I have, I give to you. I no longer need security, I have you.
Application for today: Jesus does not ask you to sell your house or to pay out a year's wages. He asks you to give him what you hold most dear today.
8. Witnesses of the character and power of Christ
Being a witness, the preacher explains, plays out on two levels:
- Witness of the character of Christ, that is, the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).
- Witness of the power of Christ, what Jesus wants to do through your life, with the gifts he has entrusted to you.
"Nothing more, nothing less." Not your person, not your name, not your platform. "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).
9. A heart of flesh, a heart that thinks of others
The preacher returns to the image of the "heart of flesh" God promises in Ezekiel 36:26. A heart of flesh is not merely a sensitive heart: it is a heart that beats for others. A heart focused on itself remains a heart of stone, even if it is religious.
Final question: in this season, what is your heart centered on? On yourself, your projects, your wounds? Or on those God places in your path?
10. Esther's mandate, placed in your hands
Back to Esther. She started with nothing, she was determined "even to the point of death" (Esther 4:16), and she went. The preacher concludes: "May our attitude be that same one."
Creation is waiting for you. The Holy Spirit wants, today, if you ask him, to fill you again and send you back into the world as a witness, not of yourself, but of the One who is in you.
Key takeaways
- Creation is waiting for you to be revealed. Romans 8:19 is not a poetic image. The world around you needs the children of God to rise up, with what they have, small or great.
- Power comes before testimony. Acts 1:8: first the power of the Spirit, then the witnesses. You don't launch out empty-handed, you let yourself be filled.
- The witness stops asking "what about me?" The "me" wants to receive and keep. The witness receives in order to give.
- What often blocks us is security. The rich young man, the one who wanted his inheritance first: the fear of losing what we have keeps us from following.
- The fruit of the Spirit is your first sermon. Love, peace, patience, kindness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), the world reads you before it listens to you.
Personal application
- What "mandate," small or great, has God already placed in your heart, that you keep putting off because you think of your security first?
- Where are you with the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, in a lukewarm routine, or in a renewed thirst?
- Who around you this week is waiting for a witness, not a speech, a presence that gives?
- Is there a door the Spirit has been closing for a while? Can you accept that he is redirecting you elsewhere, like Paul at Troas?
- What "perfume" (what thing you hold dear) is Jesus asking you to lay at his feet today?
Scriptures cited
- Romans 8:19 · Creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
- Acts 1:6-8 · You will receive power, you will be my witnesses.
- Esther 4:16 · If I perish, I perish.
- Acts 16:6-10 · Paul, the Spirit, and the vision of the Macedonian.
- Mark 10:17-22 · The rich young man.
- Luke 9:59-60 · "Let me first go and bury my father."
- John 12:1-8 · Mary anoints Jesus' feet.
- Galatians 5:22-23 · The fruit of the Spirit.
- 1 John 4:4 · He who is in you is greater.
- Ezekiel 36:26 · A heart of flesh in place of the heart of stone.
FAQ
What is "the revealing of the sons of God" spoken of in Romans 8:19?
It is the moment when God's children live out what God created them for: bearing fruit, serving, bearing witness, loving concretely. Creation, Paul says, groans and waits for this, because the active presence of God's children brings life back into a world marked by death.
Do you need a "great mandate" like Esther's to be a witness?
No. The preacher insists: "Whatever it may be, what God has given you (small or great), creation is waiting for it." The importance of the mandate is not measured by its size, but by the faithfulness with which you carry it out.
How do I know if the Spirit is stopping me from going somewhere, like he did with Paul?
There is no mechanical formula. Paul understood it through experience: doors closing, a lack of peace, a direction taking shape elsewhere (Acts 16:6-10). What matters is not guessing everything in advance, but staying available, until God opens the "Macedonian" he has prepared for you.
to take notes and ask questions.