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Well, good morning, Providence. It's good to see you. My name is Daniel Savage, and I'm one of the pastors here. And I have the joy this morning of opening up God's word with you. We'll be in Esther chapter four. If you have a Bible, you can turn there. If you don't have a Bible, there should be some in the seats around you. And if you don't own a Bible, you can take one of those. We would love for you to take it and read it and find all that God wants to reveal through it. Before we jump into Esther 4, let me just make you aware of an opportunity or invite you to an opportunity. Over the course of the summer, we're having summer Saturday nights. I've had to check every time to make sure I get those words in the right order. I don't know why, but uh summer Saturday nights. Um if you haven't heard, we have a Saturday service, and uh we'd love for you to try it. This summer, especially in the month of June, they're gonna have some fellowship opportunities right after that service. The service is at four, and then they're doing some things to gather uh people right after that. So they're having some two roosters ice cream one week, some popsicles one week. I can't remember the other things, but I'm sure they're awesome. And um, so it's just every uh Saturday in June opportunity to get to know some people, enjoy some fellowship. Saturday nights is a unique uh opportunity for fellowship, same message, same uh worship that we do here on Sunday morning, but um gathering on Saturday and trying to build community there. So I'd love for you to check that out uh and be a part of it. We are uh gonna jump into Esther chapter four. Before we do that, though, I want to pray one more time, if you don't mind. Uh so let's ask the Lord to help us. Heavenly Father, thank you for again the opportunity to be here this morning and to sit with your word, to linger over it, to consider what you uh are revealing about yourself here. God, we ask that you would fulfill your promise to us, which is that you would lead us into all truth. You'd reveal yourself to us through your word. Uh you've gave you've given us a written word because you wanted us to know you, wanted us to know who you are, your character, your ways. And so we come and humble ourselves before it now and ask that you would teach us. We do not presume to be able to understand you on our own. We are limited and finite. And you are unlimited and infinite. And so, God, would you reveal yourself to us in ways that we could understand? Would you show us your great power and might? And would you draw us to yourself? We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're making our way through the book of Esther. We arrived this morning at chapter four, and really we arrive in the midst of a crisis. Um, the sermon titled this morning is God's Hidden Hand in Crisis. And that's really where we find Mordecai and the Jewish people this morning. If you're been tracking along with us or were here last week, or maybe you missed what happened last week is that uh Haman is uh this court official in the kingdom of Persia, and he's been promoted to this uh place of great authority and power. And um what was happening is that as he was kind of passing through the gate and coming and going into the city, the other officials would bow down and pay homage to him. And uh Mordecai, uh, who is a Jewish man, a worshiper of God, uh, refused to bow down. He doesn't say why. Uh we can make assumptions about maybe he didn't want to bow to someone else, or uh, maybe he just didn't like Haman, we don't know. Um, but he would not bow down to him, and it infuriated Haman. And so what happens is Haman decides that he's not only going to destroy Mordecai, but he wants to destroy all of Mordecai's people. He wants to destroy the entire Jewish nation that lives among them there in Persia. And so he, with this new position of authority and favor, he goes to the king and says, I have a plan. There are people among us who do not respect our laws and do not follow the things that we follow. They need to be um, they need to be dealt with, they need to be exterminated. And so he presents this plan, and the king says, Do whatever you want to do. And so Haman uh writes this edict, and it goes out to the kingdom, and essentially a day is announced when it will be lawful for the people of Persia to kill their Jewish neighbors and take all of their possessions. And that's where the story ends at the end of chapter three, and that's where we will jump in at the beginning of chapter four. And uh the thing that has been so instructive to me as I've thought about this and as I've talked about it throughout the week with other people is uh in so many ways this parallels uh some of the crisis that we face in life. Now, we have, I assume you've never seen an edict from the king that said that you and all of your family members could be killed on the same day, but uh crisis comes into our lives in just this way. So the people of God are living their lives here in Persia, they're doing their normal thing, uh, coming and going, buying and selling, planning for things that are in the future, until all of a sudden this crisis comes. Right? It comes out of nowhere. They had no idea this was coming. They couldn't have seen it coming, and it arrives out of nowhere, and this is exactly how crisis arrives in our lives. You're going around your normal, uh, doing your normal thing, making plans, waking up, going to bed. Each day seems the same until it doesn't. And crisis and trouble comes into our lives this way, and we work really hard to control various outcomes and put safeguards in place, but the reality of life is that crisis is inevitable. We've all seen it, most of us have experienced it. We try not to think about it or talk about it, but there is this looming reality that life is not in our control. And what Esther 4 is about is what we should do when life falls apart. Or maybe more importantly, it's about what God is doing when life falls apart and how we should be responding to that. And so let's read it together. Uh, Esther chapter four, verse one. I have to warn you, this we're gonna go down into the depths. This this chapter starts with despair, but it doesn't end there. Right? We're gonna we're gonna climb out as we go through the sermon, and it's gonna be like the dawn is about to break. Uh, so we won't stay there, but it's gonna be dark in the beginning. Verse one says, When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. And he went into the midst of the city and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting. And many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes. When Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her the queen was deeply distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hatok, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. Hatok went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people. And Hatok went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hatok and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come to the king these thirty days. And they told Mordecai what Esther had said, and then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther told him to reply to Mordecai, Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. The first thing I want you to see this morning as we think through this chapter is that God redeems our crisis to awaken us and invite us to draw near. God redeems our crisis to awaken us and invite us to draw near. These first few verses paint a picture of pain and sorrow. So imagine reading an edict from the king that you and all of your people were to be exterminated on a certain date. In essence, you, your family, and all your friends receive a death sentence on the same day. So Mordecai, when we find him here at the beginning of chapter four, is understandably distraught. He's beside himself. He tears his clothes, he puts on sackcloth and ashes and goes to the center of the city where it says he's crying with a loud and bitter cry. He's clothed in sackcloth and ashes. That was a familiar sign, an external symbol of grief, but it's only for extreme circumstances. This is extreme sorrow, extreme grief. It's the kind of thing that we saw when Jacob thought that his son Joseph had been torn apart by a wild animal. He put on sackcloth and ashes. It's the kind of thing we see in Nineveh when the people there realize that the judgment of God is about to fall on them. They put on sackcloth and ashes. King Hezekiah puts on sackcloth and covers himself with ashes when he thinks that the Assyrians are on their way to destroy Jerusalem. It's when you come to the end of your rope and you are without hope and you're pleading with God. For the Jewish people, especially, it's not just a display of grief, but it's another way for them to cry out for help. It's a way of them confessing that, Lord, this is out of our control. We have nowhere else to go. We are hopeless. In verse 3, the view widens out to the rest of God's people. So it starts with Mordecai and then it zooms out and it says that they're mourning and weeping and fasting and lamenting. Again, they're grieving. It appears they're crying out to God for help. And so what is the Lord doing here? Well, God uses all things together for our good. We know that in Romans chapter 8. And what he seems to be doing here is he's using this current crisis to stir up his people to cry out to him and draw near. Remember, Brian told us in the beginning of the series that these are the people who stayed behind in Persia. The people had been invited to go home. The king of Persia had said, you can go back to your land, you can rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem, and these are the people who decided to stay. They stayed in Persia because life was good, life was comfortable. There was no reason for them to leave. And so God is in this moment using this crisis to stir them and awaken them to their reality that they need God's help. When everything in life is going well, we're cruising through life with relative ease, we can quickly forget. Quickly fall into the delusion that we we really don't need much help at all. We can begin to feel like we have things pretty much under control, but you have to remember that that couldn't be farther from the truth. Any appearance of control in your life is an illusion. You are not in control, you are not safe from all harm. Your savings account is not big enough. Proverbs 18:11 says, A rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his imagination. We love to imagine that we have our basis covered. We love to imagine that we have amassed enough savings or we've built a safety net big enough that we couldn't fall, but that is not true. Crisis and pain come to everyone because that's the nature of living in a fallen world. It comes in different forms, but it always comes. And when it comes, it has to remind us to turn to God. God knows that life is hard, which is why he's invited us to turn to him. The people are weeping and mourning and fasting and lamenting. They're expressing their grief. They're fasting, which is normally accompanied by prayer and crying out to God. They are lamenting. What is lamenting? What does it mean to lament? Well, a biblical lament is a response to hardship that has four movements. You can read through the Psalms of Lament, and you find these movements in each one, and these are instructive, and we need to learn this language. We need to learn this progression. The first movement is to turn to God. And this is a conscious choice that you have to make. When tragedy strikes, you can either choose to turn to God or turn away from God. The second movement is complaint, and this is where we are most unfamiliar. You articulate the crisis, and it's often paired with questions like, How long, O Lord? Or why have you forsaken me? This language is all throughout the Psalms. The third movement is an appeal. You plead with God for help, and the final movement is a resolution to trust. That you settle in your heart, that you're going to trust God, you're going to look upon his faithfulness, and you're going to find a place of trust. Did you know that roughly a third of the Psalms are Psalms of Lament? At least one out of three. And there's sections of lament in nearly 70%. This is because life is hard and it's filled with crisis. There was a long period of my life when I would read through the Psalms and I would get to the Psalms of Lament and I would have no idea what to do with them. Where are the Psalms that are about rejoicing? Where are the Psalms that are about God's faithfulness and his goodness and his power? Bring me, let me find those Psalms again. But as I've gone through life, I've begun to appreciate the Psalms of Lament more and more. Because they give us a vocabulary to go to the Lord when things are hard. They're God's instruction. He gives us a path to follow where we move through these movements. We have to learn to put our trust in Him and draw near to Him when life falls apart. And the first application this morning is let's turn to God when life is hard. Let's create some well-worn paths and learn to pray the Psalms of Lament. Psalm 10, Psalm 13, Psalm 22, dozens more. When life is hard, go to a psalm of lament and work your way through those four movements. Turn to God, voice your complaint or your confusion, ask for his help and work to settle in your heart to trust. And I have to warn you that if you go through something that is very painful, one trip through a psalm of lament is not going to be enough. It's a path that the Lord puts before us that we're supposed to walk over and over again. That we continue to pursue Him by faith, we go down the path again and again and again until we get to the end where our heart is settled in trust. God uses our crisis, he redeems it to invite us to draw near. The second thing I want you to see in the chapter is that God has already been working when crisis strikes. God has already been working when crisis strikes. Esther hears about Mordecai and sends someone to take him clothes, which he refuses to accept. And so she sends someone else to find out what in the world's going on. Well, this is exactly what Mordecai wanted to happen. He goes to the king's gate and he's weeping there bitterly and loudly because he wants Esther to know what's going on. Esther sends Hatok out to Mordecai, and if you look in verse 7, it says, Mordecai told him all that had happened to him. This is why Mordecai was there. He tells the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. And then Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction. He gives him all this detail, exactly what's going on, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people. Mordecai is crystal clear on what should happen here. Mordecai received this bad news and he immediately started to think, what has God been doing? What has the Lord been up to? He does what you and I should do. He looks for God's hand of activity and he seems very certain about what God has been up to. He sees that God has put Esther in the palace and that he's given her this position and the favor of the king for just this moment. But Esther doesn't see it yet. Esther is afraid. She says in verse 11 All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come into the king these 30 days. She's saying, You're asking me to go and lean into this favor that I have with the king, but you don't understand, I don't have that favor. I uh he hasn't called me in 30 days. It's been a month since the king realized I even existed. She's saying, It's not that easy. I don't have the favor that you think. See, favor is one of the most important ideas in this book. And it's highlighted here as Mordecai and Esther go back and forth about whether or not Esther has the favor of the king. This is the great hinge of Esther's fate. Does she have the king's favor or not? And through her will the people of God find favor. And the word favor is used eight times in ten chapters in the book of Esther. It's how the author is subtly describing the providence and power of God. He is not so subtly hinting that God is steering the hearts and affection of the people in the story. As he's talking about favor over and over again, he's pointing to the fact that these people's hearts are being steered by a sovereign God. So why was Esther chosen by the king? Why was she the favorite of the king's eunuch? Well, Mordecai seems to think that it's because the Lord was moving on behalf of his people. He was placing her where he needed her to be to deliver his people. And so if we believe that God has already been working, if we believe that he is sovereign over all things and he's steering the hearts of kings like channels of water, then when we face a crisis, we should look back at what God has been doing already. This is often how God gives direction in our lives, not with messages in the clouds or burning bushes, but with favor. Opportunities, opened and closed doors. And so the question for us this morning is how has God been moving in your life? When you don't know which way to go, you should look back and ask the question, God, what have you been doing to prepare me for this moment? What have you been doing to steer me and to direct me? And so the application is let's become good students of our own history. Let's become good students of our own history. If we believe that God is sovereign, then we can look back at all the pieces of our lives and see how He's been shaping and molding us for this moment. It begins to bring clarity on where we should go if we look back on where we have been. God is working through all the circumstances of your life, and if you have favor in a certain arena, God has given it to you. But the question is, why? Why is he giving you that platform? Why is he giving you that opportunity? Why is he giving you that favor? Up until this moment, Mordecai didn't know why Esther had received so much favor, but now it's clear to him. God was working before they knew they needed him to be working. God is at work before the crisis strikes. The third thing that I want you to see this morning is that God's promises sustain us in a crisis. God's promises sustain us in a crisis. The truth, or this truth, this idea of his promises sustaining us is what's guiding Mordecai in the challenge that he's laying before Esther. Esther's in this moment of decision. Mordecai is telling her that the people are in trouble and that she should go to the king and beg for his favor in their lives, and she's responding by saying, Look, I don't have the king's favor. And if I go to him without being summoned, I will be killed. Mordecai responds with what is probably the most prophetic and theologically robust statement of the entire book. Verse 13, he says, Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Mordecai is saying that this is not a time to sit back, it is a time to act. And he's challenging Esther's instinct, which is to step back and say, this is a problem that I can't do anything about. She's arguing that there are obstacles that she can't overcome, but Mordecai pushes back, and he's doing so with so much force and confidence because he's thinking about the promises and character of God. He is certain that relief and deliverance will arise for God's people. And he tells Esther that if it doesn't come through her, it's gonna come from somewhere else. But how does he know that? How can he be so sure? Because he knows God's word. He knows God's promises to Abraham that he will have descendants that outnumber the stars in the sky. He knows his promise to Abraham that he's gonna have a descendant that will be a blessing to all the nations. He knows the promises that God made to David, that there would be a son who would sit on his throne forever. He knows the stories about how God defended and delivered his people. He knows that God is faithful. And he knows that God will be faithful to his people. He just doesn't know how he's gonna bring it about. It's important for us to note that when he asks, and who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this, that he doesn't know the answer. We read this question in the middle of the story. We know the answer to the question, but he doesn't. He says, Who knows? Whether or not you have come to the kingdom for this moment. It's a question that he's asking. He's presenting her the idea, this could be what God is doing. They can't see the future, and neither can we. They are right in the middle of the story, but what they can do is look back on God's record of faithfulness and trust in his word. And that is what you and I have to do as well. We are right in the middle of our story. And the only hope that we can find is to look back on God's faithfulness, which is a long record. And we put our trust in him. Mordecai looked back on God's promises to Abraham and his deliverance of the people from Egypt, but we have a far greater record of God's faithfulness. We get to look back on the virgin birth and a Messiah who came, the word that became flesh. We get to look back on the cross and see evidence that God is so for us, so committed to our good that he would not even withhold his own son. There is no doubt for us, the people of God, in the New Testament church, that God is with us and for us. We have the evidence of his greatest sacrifice. If he would not withhold his son, what would he withhold from us? And so, what should we do? Well, when you face a crisis of any kind, whether it's a crisis of circumstance or a crisis of faith, you should find a specific promise in God's word, claim that promise, and plead with the Lord based on his word. There are all kinds of promises in the Bible, things that even Jesus said, Matthew 11, 28, he says, Come, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Is that a promise that you need this morning? Or Matthew 6, 33, he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things, he's talking about material things, food and clothing, will be added to you. Do you need a promise about God's provision? John 11, 25, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Or Matthew 28, 20. Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. These are promises that God has made. The first point of application here is let's remember God's promises. Find a specific promise, commit it to memory, claim it before the Lord, and plead with him based on the promise that he has made. This week I've been meditating on Psalm 37, 5, which says, Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act. What an amazing promise. I've been just, as I go for a walk or as I'm in times of prayer, I'm just thinking about that promise over and over again. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act. The God of the universe who holds all things together by the word of his power, he will act. And so, Lord, is my way committed to you? Am I trusting in you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength? If so, I believe you will act, and I'm asking you to act on my behalf. Find a specific promise. Commit it to memory, claim it before the Lord and plead with him based on his word. The second application here is let's look for friends who can remind us or help us remember. Let's look for friends who can help us remember. One thing that I've learned over many years walking with the Lord is that no matter how hard I try, I cannot remember God's promises on my own. When crisis strikes, I am quick to forget. It doesn't matter how strong I think I've gotten, I need people to help me remember. I need them to repeat back to me the things that God has said and remind me to put my trust in Him. That's why you hear it all the time, and we will continue to say it that if you're not in one yet, you need a life group. You need people, you need a people that you belong to. They know you and you know them, and they know when you're walking through seasons of grief and trial, and they can remind you what God has said. Because I know from experience that when crisis strikes, we can be quick to forget the things that He has promised us. You have to commit yourself to regular fellowship, you have to know and be known. So you have to join a group that's dedicated to reminding one another what God has said. The last thing I want you to see this morning is that God invites us to trust in him. God invites us to trust in him. Esther responds by saying in verse 16, go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do, and then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. She's not throwing up her hands here in some sort of fatalistic way, like giving up, or there's nothing else I can do. What she's doing here is putting her life in the hands of God, her loving, heavenly father. Mordecai has convinced her to entrust herself and her future to a faithful, promise-keeping God. She's gonna plead with God, that's what the fasting is about. They're gonna fast for three days and three nights. They're not gonna eat or drink anything as an appeal to God, as a way to beg for his help, and then she's going to act. See, what's happening here is that God is turning her fear into courage by reminding Esther through Mordecai that God is moving and he is faithful. He encourages her to look back and see God's powerful hand at work. He reminds her that God cares about his people and that he has power to deliver them. And then he challenges her not to sit back, but to put the position that God has given her back into the Lord's hands and let him use it. After recognizing God's hand at work, she's able to put her trust completely in God. And I don't think that what she's doing here is some sort of superpower. I think this is the normal fruit that comes when you have remembered that God is faithful, that God is powerful, and that God has made promises to his people. I think as we consider those things and meditate on those realities, our confidence in the Lord grows and the circumstances that we are facing shrink, and our fear becomes courage. This is what happens in our hearts when we remember what God has promised us, and that he is good, and that he is faithful, and that he is the creator of heaven and earth. That he's bigger than anything that we might be facing. Fear turns to courageous faith. And so, last point of application: let's entrust ourselves completely to God. Let's entrust ourselves completely to God. Let's remember his power and his faithfulness. Let's claim his promises and let's entrust ourselves to him. And I have to warn you that this isn't something that we do today and we and we finish the project. This is something that you have to continue to do over and over again as life's circumstances continue to change. As crisis comes one after the other, as hardships flow into your life, you have to decide again to entrust yourself completely to the Lord. You might need to work through a psalm of lament. You might need to turn to the Lord. Articulate your confusion, your despair, plead with Him for help, and then settle in your heart to trust Him. Let's entrust ourselves completely to God. The last verse of the chapter became my favorite verse over the course of this week. It is a stunningly simple verse, and it is sneakily important to this story. It says, Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. And when I first started reading the chapters, reading it over and over again, and it seems like this sort of throwaway verse at the end of the chapter, but the more I read it, the more important it became. In fact, all throughout the story, up to this point, Mordecai gives her commands and she listens. Even in this chapter, he came to the gate to command her to go to the king and ask for his favor and to plead on behalf of her people. But now the roles are suddenly reversed. Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him, and the author highlights it here for some reason. After thinking about it for a week, I'm convinced that what's happening here is that Esther is being raised up as the deliverer. The focus of the narrative is zeroing in on her. She is the one who is going to go. She is taking her place. She had been made the queen, but she wasn't acting like the queen. She was afraid to go to the king. She was still taking orders from Mordecai like she was a child, but something is shifting here at the end of this chapter. Her faith is awakened and she's laying hold of the role that God was calling her to fulfill. God has filled her heart with courage. And we are rightly supposed to look at Esther and say, wow, that is incredible what God is doing. That He has raised her up for this moment and she is embracing it with a heart full of faith and full of courage. But we have to remember that this is pointing to something far more exciting. It's pointing to a greater deliverer, one who would entrust himself to the one who judges justly, a perfect king who would operate with no fear, a deliverer who would stand as a representative of his people, but even more than that, he would stand in our place, take on our guilt, and set us free through his death and resurrection. And if you don't know the deliverer, I'm talking about his name is Jesus. The good news that the whole Bible is pointing to, including Esther chapter 4, is that God wanted to save us from our own death sentence. That he wanted to give us a chance at life, and so he sent his son Jesus Christ to live the life that you and I could never live. A life of perfect, righteous obedience. He followed every command and every law, and he lived in perfect favor with God the Father. And then he chose to go to the cross and die in our place. The death that you and I deserve to die. So that there could be an exchange by faith. That if we put our trust in him, if we believe in him and the things that he has done and what he accomplished, that our sin is removed from us, the guilt that we all have. It was placed on him, and he paid the penalty for that sin on the cross. And his perfect record of righteousness is given to us by faith. It's this miraculous exchange that happens. After three days, he he died, and after three days, he was raised from the dead to prove to us that he was victorious over our greatest enemies of sin and death. And he invites us now to put our trust in him, to turn our lives over to him, to ask for his forgiveness and to rest in the grace that he has issued to us. A perfect record of righteousness. So if you even put your trust in Jesus, then I would appeal to you today to turn from every other form of hope. Cease from striving and put your trust in Jesus Christ. And if you've been trusting in Him for years, maybe you've been walking with the Lord for a long time, then today rejoice in it anew. Remember what God has done and his faithfulness to you. And let it be your confidence moving into the future. Let's pray and then we'll worship together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word, for the promises that it contains, for the hope that we find, that life is hard. And you've promised us that in this life we will have trouble. But you've also told us to take heart because you've overcome the world. God, would you help us to do that? Would you help us to see your power and your faithfulness? And would you help us to understand the realities of your grace and power until they begin to make our crisis seem small. As people in the room are facing all kinds of trials, I pray that you would help each one of us to see your faithfulness, to believe your promises, and to entrust ourselves completely to you because you have proven yourself trustworthy. God give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Give us a heart that is soft to your word. And they are wondering if you are still good. And if they have a mustard seed of faith to draw near to you, God, I pray that you would draw near to them. We pray these things in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.