Turn with me and your Bibles to Esther chapter three. Esther chapter three. I know it says Esther chapter four in the bulletin and I keep meaning to get to Esther chapter four and every time I try I don't get there. So I planned it last week and then this week I was just going to touch on Esther three and go to chapter four and I got caught up in chapter three and never got there. So we're in three. And it's also printed excuse me if you don't have a Bible with you you can grab the one in the seat in front of you and pull it out. I forgot the page number but it's written in your bulletin and what page number that is. You know when I started the study of Esther I planned just to hit the highlights and so I was just going to cruise on through and then at chapter three I was going to just mention what happens here and go on to chapter four because it's when the plot really begins to turn but I want to show a little bit how Esther fits into really the whole story of the Bible because it's I think it's important to us to understand where we fit into the whole great story. And one of the things that we learn about people and we know about ourselves is that people are amazingly resilient. We're able to really take a lot to endure a lot of hardship to make it through trials and able to bounce back and there's a little bit of energizer bunny in every one of us. We can just keep going and going and going. And when bad things happen to us oftentimes most of us sort of adopt that Marine Corps motto which is adapt and overcome. And so we take the the hardship and we're just going to adapt and we're going to overcome and we're going to conquer. But in everyone's life there comes a time when you cannot adapt and overcome. There comes some sort of hardship, some sort of trial that looks so big and so overwhelming and no matter how far you look it doesn't seem to be any way out of it. It just seems like it's dark. It seems like everything is lost. And the question is what do you do in those situations when it seems like the wheels have come off. The plate has been shattered when there's nothing going to be restored. What do you do then? As we look in the book of Esther I think we're going to find out just some ways which we can deal with those situations. You know trying harder just doesn't cut it. It doesn't work. Well as we look at this though we're going to be and as we go through the book of Esther we're looking at some areas of theology. And I know many people think why look at theology because theology is you know dried has no relevance to us. But hopefully one of the things you're seeing is you learn scripture better the more we understand about God the way he works about things of theology the more helpful it is to us. A couple of years ago I went with our children's ministry team to a children's ministry conference and they're talking about the importance of teaching our children sound biblical doctrine theology and if you go back to our children's classes they're learning things that will amaze and astound you in our children's classes the doctrines and things they're learning. And the reason we're doing this they're told us this is this conference which I think was just right on is you can't learn theology in the middle of a crisis. Once you're in the middle of a crisis in the middle of a trial in the middle of a hardship it's too late. You can't all of a sudden say okay now I want to understand who God is and what he's up to because the crisis is there it's going to overwhelm you. The time to learn theology and understand the character of God is before the crisis happens so that when a crisis happens you're prepared for it. And so that's why we as a people need to need to understand scripture understand doctrine because it has real life application when life is going tough. And we see this here again I believe in the book of Esther now if you're just joining us we're studying the story of Esther. The story of Esther is the story of a a young Jewish girl her parents have died and she's raised by her cousin Mordecai. Mordecai is like a father to her and she grows up in his home and then through a series of events that are explained in chapters one and two which you can go back and read. Esther becomes queen this little orphan girl becomes queen of the entire Persian empire the the greatest empire the world had seen to that day. And so she is queen of the empire but this little cat she has not told anyone that she's Jewish. On Mordecai's instructions she's not told anyone about her national and ethnic identity and yet here she is as queen of the empire. Well as we pick up in chapter three here's what's happened. Esther is now queen she has been queen for five years the honeymoon is clearly over she hasn't seen her husband and over a month. Her husband is seeing other people during this time just not her and they and she's not even allowed to go into his presence without being summoned. Mordecai her cousin who's like a father to her has uncovered a plot to assassinate King Xerxes. He reports this to Esther Esther reports her to authorities and the plot to kill Xerxes is thwarted. Mordecai's name is written in the annals of the king but he is never rewarded for that good deed that he did for the kingdom. And as we understand that then we turn to chapter three and here as they say the plot thickens. In any great story you always have an evil villain you always have a bad guy. Well you're about to be introduced to the bad guy and Esther and his name is Heyman and later on Heyman is so evil he almost turns into a parody of himself but here we just get a sense of how evil he is. Esther chapter three beginning with verse one and we'll read through chapter four verse one. After these events King Xerxes honored Heyman son of Hamadatha the aga guy elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Heyman for the king had commanded this concerning him but Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor. Then the royal officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai why do you disobey the king's command day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Heyman about it to see whether Mordecai's behavior would be tolerated for he had told them he was a Jew. When Heyman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor he was enraged yet having learned who Mordecai's people were he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai instead Heyman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai's people the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes and the 12th year King Xerxes in the first month the month and the son they cast the poor that is the lot and the presence of Heyman to select a day and month and the lot fell on the 12th month the month of eightor. Then Heyman said to King Xerxes there's a certain people disperse to scattered among the peoples and all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from all of those other people and who do not obey the king's laws it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king let a decree be issued to destroy them and I will put 10,000 talents of silver into the royal treasury for the men who carry out this business. So the king took his signate ring from his finger and gave it to Heyman son of Hamadetha the aga guy the enemy of the Jews keep the money the king said to Heyman and do with the people as you please then on the 13th day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned they wrote out in the on the script of each province and the language of each people all Heyman's orders to the king's say traps the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of various peoples these were written in the name of kings Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring. The smashes were sent by courier to all the king's provinces with orders to destroy kill and annihilate all the Jews young and old women and little children on a single day the 13th day of the 12th month of the month of aater and to plunder their goods a copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so that they would be ready for that day spurred on by the king's command the couriers went out and the edict was issued in the city a citadel a susah the king and Heyman sat down to drink but the city of susah was bewildered when morticae learned of all that had been done he tours clothes put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the city wailing loudly and bitterly this is God's word as you see the the story takes a very dark turn here a morticae and as they're kind of going along their business as there's hidden her identity she's blending in well she's thriving in the Persian Empire she is now queen and suddenly morticae offense Heyman who's now seconded command to the king and because he offends Heyman they're now is about to be the annihilation of the Jews it can't get any darker than this it seems like everything is going wrong it seems like there's no way out of this and so the question is what do you do when you face a situation where it seems like nothing can go right there's no hope there's no escape what do you do in those times we're gonna look at three things I think can help us when it seems like the wheels are coming off in our life three things that we can see in the story the first point that we need to see is the story behind the story the story behind the story this I was going to skip over this in my study of Esther but I want to bring this out because I think it helps tie it all together you know the Bible is one book and while it contains many different stories it really is about one story it's the story of a great conflict a cosmic battle between good and evil between God and Satan as it were it is Satan's attempt to destroy the plans of God and God carrying out his plan to redeem his people now God and Satan are not equals in this story but the conflict is real and the conflict is there we see the beginnings of the story way back in the beginning of the Bible if you turn to Genesis chapter three Genesis chapter three very first book of the Bible third chapter as we turn to Genesis chapter three as that you open up that chapter we find that Adam and Eve has sinned against God remember they ate the forbidden fruit they did the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because they sinned God placed a curse on them he said he said to Adam he says work it's going to be difficult he says that it's going to that you're going to be frustrated by it he says to to Eve he says child birth is going to be painful marriage is going to be challenging the the earth itself is going to be under a curse it's going to grow thorns and thistles and it's going to everything about it the world's me broken sickness sin death all of these things enter because of sin and then God turns to the serpent remember this the serpent who tempted them to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and he places it pronounces a curse on the serpent and in Genesis 3 15 he says this I'll put enmity that the word enmity means hostility or hatred I don't know why it is every single Bible translation that I could find except for the new living translates this enmity when nobody ever uses the word enmity but either way I'll put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel now what's God saying he's saying I'm going to put hatred between the serpent and the serpent is whom who's the serpent in the garden of Eden could it be Satan yes it could okay it's Satan they're in the garden of Eden okay Satan is tempting them and he's the serpent God says I can put hatred between you and the woman between your offspring and her offspring but eventually the woman is going to have an offspring she's going to have a child and that child the serpent Satan is going to bruise on the heel but he's going to stop Satan on the head now if this is Sunday school the right answer is always the same so who is the child the woman that's finally going to defeat the serpent Jesus the right okay so you got Genesis 3 15 down and Genesis 3 15 then is the story says the rest of the Bible and the rest of the human history in fact is the story of this conflict where Satan is seeking to destroy the people of God but God has a plan to redeem and rescue the people rescues people from destruction and so and understand that even more fully if you turn to the very end of the Bible Revelation chapter 12 Revelation chapter 12 we're not going to read this but in Revelation chapter 12 we have this this grand vision and in this vision John sees a dragon now let me pause here for a moment we don't like to study Revelation because it's so confusing to us and we think you know why study it it doesn't make sense we'll remember that that the title of the book is not hiding its revelation it reveals something and what Revelation does is it takes the veil off and it can't let's see behind the curtain of what is going on in the world and so as you take the veil off and what's going on behind the curtain he says there's this great dragon and just so you understand who the dragon is in the vision John tells us the dragon which is that great serpent of old who is Satan what's he doing he's saying remember the serpent in Genesis 3 this is the same one and the connection here is even stronger the word for for serpent in Hebrew and the word for dragon are very similar they're very they're very similar words when we think of a dragon the image that comes to most of our mind is something like you know puff the magic dragon or or Shrek the dragon is Shrek it's kind of like a dinosaur that breathes fire well with Eastern you know Eastern cultures they think of a dragon think of a Chinese dragon it's more like a snake and so the dragon here is just like it is a snake that's who the dragon is he's the snake who's breathing threats and so in in Revelation 12 he says the serpent from Genesis 3 the snake is seeking to devour the woman echo back to Genesis 3 and he's seeking to devour her offspring she has a child a male child and she seeks in the dragon seeks to kill that male child who's the male child again Jesus but he isn't able to kill the male child and so he then goes out and makes war against the woman's children and he says the woman's children are all those who hold to the testimony of Jesus so again let's back up what's the saying he's saying throughout history Satan has been making war against the woman that is the person who gives birth to the to the to the Messiah he's making war against the nation of Israel against God's people and he makes war against the woman when he then he tries to kill Jesus at Jesus birth and then when he fails to do that he makes war against the people of God and so what are you saying then is we look at the whole history of the Bible the Bible is the story of the serpent trying to snuff out the people of God now once you understand Genesis 3 and Revelation 12 now you read the whole Bible in that light and it all the sudden certain things start to make sense that maybe didn't make sense before why is it that the nation of Israel is always under attack why is it that people are always trying to destroy them I mean you read about ham and wanting to exterminate the Jews and that sounds vaguely familiar doesn't it now why is that why is it that they're always under attack why is it that that you know think of this we have in in in Genesis 12 God says that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham and so so we all know that the salvation of the world is going to be a descendant of Abraham it's going to be a Jew and so then you turn to Exodus and the book of Exodus we find that Pharaoh is trying to exterminate the Jews he's killing all the baby boys why what do you say well it was a form of population control well yes it was a form of population control he wanted to keep the slaves down but he also see that Pharaoh is part of this great hellish conspiracy against the people of God you you turn on when they when they keep going on when Israel flees from from Egypt finally gets escapes the Egyptians their malikites who by the way a hamin is connected with them their malikites attacked Israelites unforbought why are their malikites trying to exterminate the Jews we'll say it's just wars it's what people did back then yes that is true but it's all so part of this demonic conspiracy to exterminate the people of God why does bail him the prophet remember bail him in the donkey look it up and why does bail him the prophet tried to tempt Israel to stray away from God it's all part of Satan's plot to destroy them you go on through scripture the the caldians the Syrians the Philistines even get to the New Testament what what happens opening the New Testament Jesus is born in Bethlehem what does King Herod do King Herod was to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem in the surrounding area remember that's how the crystal story begins killing all the baby boys in Bethlehem why well King Herod was a a maniacal dust fight he was a tyrant he saw his throne being threatened by it that's part of it but there's something more going on here Satan is seeking to destroy the people of God and so what we see then is you open the book of Esther and you see this over the top reaction Heyman a man doesn't bow down to Heyman and Heyman simply doesn't say kill Mordecai what does he do just kill all the Jews now doesn't that seem a bit extreme why the over top reaction because Heyman is acting on his own he is a man who's deeply insecure obviously he wants to be honored and the only way people honor him is because the King makes them honor him remember why do people bow down King says you have to bow down so he's a man he has no respect and set the respect that comes through power but Heyman besides being insecure is part of the divine story part of the great story of the war and the conflict or Satan is seeking to snuff out the people of God if the Jews are eradicated Jesus is never born if Jesus is never born there is no salvation there is no hope so there's more to the story than what's going on now now so as you begin if you begin to think about that and begin to realize this what's going on we see then that Satan is still at work and Revelation chapter 12 it says after he fails to kill the offspring of the woman the dragon then turns his attention to actually fails to get the male child he turns his attention to those who hold to the testimony of Jesus and so what he's saying here is that Satan is still at work seeking to destroy the people of God uh first Peter first Peter chapter 5 verses 8 and 9 this is the apostle Peter he writes be self-controlled and alert your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour resist him stand firm in the faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering here's what Peter is saying you know he's saying that Satan is alive and well in the persecution and the suffering he's writing to a group of Christians who are suffering for their faith they're being persecuted by the Roman Empire and he says you know you're being persecuted by the Roman Empire and that that is the mighty Roman Empire but realize behind the mighty Roman Empire if you peel back the curtain and you're looking to history you see the dragon and the woman you see the battle going on there's more here than meets the eye your suffering is coming from human agency it's coming from the the Roman government but recognize that there's a spiritual conflict in this as well the Satan is seeking to discourage you to crush your faith to discourage you from trusting in God he wants to derail you and your suffering as part of the plan now you know I know who I'm talking to it's is the year 2006 we are modern people most people today 90 something percent believe in God but most people today if you mention Satan they think you're a little fruity right I mean you know if you go if you've got to work tomorrow and say man Satan is at work what are people gonna say to you I mean I mean you're gonna be laughed out of the office I mean you're gonna say you sound like a crazy person what have you been what have you been watching on television you know I mean just and we have this image of Satan that is unbelievable and part of it is because Satan has been so parodied in TV and movies and different things and even in religious circles is made to be so unbelievable that it seems ridiculous and so we don't want to talk about this as being true but what we're simply saying is there spiritual forces at work behind the scenes of everything think of it this way in the pre-modern era before the enlightenment before you know scientific age people explain things through superstition if you got sick you had the demonous sickness you know if you if if if something went wrong it's because you didn't appease the gods even even among Christians in the dark ages so things are very superstitious about why things happen they attributed everything some superstitious or spiritual cause well then the enlightenment came and we began to understand if you got the flu you must have a virus there is a logical natural explanation for this and so we don't look for a demon behind every disaster do we I mean if something goes wrong you say I'm sick it's because cancer I've got a virus I got a bacteria if if I lost my job it's just Adam Smith's the invisible hand at work their economic forces and so there's a natural explanation for everything but what we begin to see then if you understand scripture and understand how scripture and science truly work together you begin to understand that it's not either spiritual forces or natural causes but this Satan actually works through and God actually works through natural events the book of Esther is a great example of this because nowhere is God mentioned nowhere is spiritual forces mentioned but we see the hand of God working and so the same time we see the hand of evil at work as well and so Peter tells us to be alert and to be self-controlled because your enemy the devil is about now what's he saying look under every rock see if Satan's there you know he's not saying watch out for the Stephen King novel you know he's not saying carry is out to get you or or any of those things kujo is on the attack that's not what he's saying he's not he's not going to do this sorts of extremes what he's saying is he's subtle he's at work and when you're beginning Peter's saying when you're experiencing suffering and persecution that's not just a physical attack on you it's a spiritual attack and you need to be careful that you don't lose your faith you need to be careful to cling to it you need to pray that's and so we need to be we need to recognize when you're going through economic hardship losing your jobs a family trouble physical trouble all of these things you need to be on your guard because these things can ship wreck your faith and if you don't realize this more going on in fact Satan can even work through good things wonderful things to distract us and so the idea is it's most of us tend to go through life and just we're kind of floating along forgetting that there's a battle going on around us a battle where where lives are at stake and so we float along as if we're at peace and what Peter's saying realize you're wartime there's more going on the meets the eye and so be on your guard watch out guard your soul be careful in these situations so not looking for demon under every rock is just realizing that Satan can work with a world to flesh the devil this unholy trinity to ship wreck your faith well that's the first point so he too long so let's go quickly to the next two next one is see that you're in a story this more going on that meets the eye be on guard secondly when hardship comes one of the things we need to do is we need to learn to lament learn to lament you know we are we are not good expressing sadness in our culture we we don't know what to do with our pain in fact for most of us we like to put on the brave face and sort of stuff the pain notice what Mordecai does here Mordecai hears that because of his offense not only is he going to be killed but the the entire Jewish nation is going to be annihilated now this is a very real threat when Haman gives this order he gives the order with the king's signet ring it's that means the full authority of the king is behind this which means the full might and power of the Persian Empire is going to be geared at the extermination of the Jews Haman offers all this money it ends up being 300 tons of silver he offers to pay into the treasury to see that the Jews are exterminated and so this is no idle threat and remember as the book earlier says when the law is made by the by the king it's the laws of the knees and the Persians they cannot be revoked and so the king is not going to go back on his word and so once the king has said this is going to happen it is set in motion it cannot be stopped and the full might of the Persian Empire is now aimed at the destruction of the Jews and so it's dark it's terrible what does Mordecai do he goes out into the town he tears his clothes and he puts on stat cloth and ashes he grieves now in their culture people grieve very publicly now that the sort of thing probably wouldn't pass master in Orlando today but in their culture that was how people express grief we find it other places in the Old Testament we find people when terrible things happen cheering their clothes putting on sack cloth and ashes but it wasn't just a Jewish thing even in Persian remember I told you last week that King Zerxes was defeated by the Greeks terrible defeat and when he was defeated the people of Susa tore their clothes and put on sack cloth and ashes so this is a this is a very normal way for people to grieve they expressed their emotions publicly and they did it very very visibly and but as we look at that I think one of the things we see is this the importance of grieving in our day and age I think that among religious people I think we think it's a sin to grieve it's wrong to be sad and so in fact if you're if you're really sad and you're depressed about something that has happened you see and you see that terrible things have happened you know some well-meaning Christian is going to come up to you and they're going to say this and here's what they're going to say they're going to say oh cheer up God works all things together for good now this is okay you don't need to be sad and you have my permission to tell them go jump in the lake now say whatever you want biblically speaking yes that's an important concept we're going to come to that but biblically speaking it is important to know how to grieve how to lament the word lament is used throughout the Bible it's it literally means to complain we have a whole book of the Bible called lamentations where Jeremiah is complaining to God about what God has done and he's crying out and tears and one of the things that we see throughout scripture is that people oftentimes are complaining now there are occasions when their complaining is sinful but they're most occasions where it's not it is okay to complain we were so used to saying don't be a whiner but it's okay it times to whine because sometimes the things to whine about this world is broken it is messed up and when you begin to look at the brokenness of the world it ought to cause you to weave God weeps over the brokenness of the world we should join him in that weeping but there are times too when you're not just complaining about the brokenness you're really complaining about God your problem isn't just that things are going bad your problem is God's not doing his part have you ever felt like God isn't coming through for you I mean anybody who's known God for any length of time has gotten very angry at God because it feels like he's not doing his part you ever felt like I'm doing my part I'm serving you I'm doing what I'm supposed to do and God you are letting me down ever felt that way if you haven't you haven't known God very long anybody who's known God for any length of time has felt that way read through the Bible everybody who's gotten to know God well has been disappointed with him at one time or another Abraham he was very disappointed Job he complained he took it too far maybe at times but he complained Moses David Elijah Jeremiah Habakkuk Peter Mary Martha even Jesus even Jesus complained against God remember he's in the garden or gets summoning he's about to go to the cross he says Lord please there's any other way let this pass for me he gets on the cross and you remember what he said on the cross he said my God my God why have you forsaken me now I know if there've been some well-intentioned Christians around at that time they would say Jesus shut your mouth you can't say that don't watch out now was Jesus and sin when he said my God my God why have you forsaken me was he was he wrong or maybe Jesus is just fulfilling prophecy he's just uttering words but he doesn't really mean it so Jesus was disingenuous when he said my God my God why have you forsaken me do you think that's it he wanted and sin and he wasn't disingenuous Jesus truly felt abandoned by God and was crying out to God in his hurt in in his pain that the official song book and prayer book of the church are the songs largest book in the Bible 150 chapters and you read through them many of the songs are what called laments they're complaints and here's how they go how long oh Lord how long where are you oh Lord will you forget me forever you know where where why is this happening or other places you'll see the complaint they'll go something like this why are the wicked at prospering and the righteous suffering God something's wrong you're not doing your part here it's okay to complain and to cry out to God in fact God wants you to God calls us to lament tearing your clothes and donning sackcloth probably didn't work in our culture but don't feel like you have to put on a smiley face either we need to learn to sing sad songs well let's don't stop there you need if you can deal with hardship you need to understand where we are in the story number two you need to learn to lament but finally you need to not lose hope don't lose hope don't lose hope you know we're in the middle of a story we're not at the end of the story well it's one of the great advantages is we read the story of Esther we know how the story ends Mordecai's living it he's in chapter three he doesn't know what happens later on he doesn't know the end of the story right now all he sees is the Persian Empire is crashing down upon him it's because of something he's done millions of people are going to die and all he knows to do is to cry out and so he doesn't know how the story ends in the same way we don't know how our story ends we can read Esther and we know you know whenever you're watching a movie it's something really bad happens to the main character you know they're going to make it right I mean Superman does not die spider-man finally wins in the end you know you know the hero always makes it because Hollywood doesn't make movies where the hero doesn't make it in the same way you read the story of Esther you know he's going to make it well in some ways you're in the middle of the story and you don't know how it ends but God is writing your story and he knows how it ends and there may be lots of suffering hardship even death it's it's going to be part of your story but that's not the last chapter it's not the last chapter there's more than he's writing Mordecai even has this confidence next week we're going to look at chapter four he's going to go to Esther and he says he's going to ask Esther to intercede with the king and Esther is afraid to go talk to the king because she's afraid the king will kill her if she tells him she's a Jew and that you know wants to spare the life so she's she's afraid to go and so Mordecai says you got to go and she goes I don't she says I can't go I'll die you know that I'll die if I go and then Mordecai says this in chapter four verse 14 he says if you remain silent at this time relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place Mordecai is mourning he's sad he's upset he's torn his clothes he's weeping and wailing but he still believes that God somehow is going to work this out why because Mordecai even though he may not have been a good Jew he understands that God has made a covenant a covenant is a binding promise and God has bound himself to the Jewish people and he said I will bless you I will protect you and out of you all the nations of the earth will be blessed and so Mordecai understands this that God has to be faithful to his promises and so he knows if God is going to be faithful then all the Jews cannot die and so he realized a deliver must arise from somewhere he's not polyanna yet at the same time he's not in the grips of despair because he knows that God is going to keep his promises in the same way God has made a covenant with the sun Jesus Christ he's made a covenant with the sun and he's saying that all who are in Christ he says I will care for I will protect I will never leave you nor forsake you I will not abandon you you're not on your own you're not alone and even though you cannot see what I'm doing if you look behind the curtain my hand is still at work in your life even during these hard times there's a great hymn writer a number of years ago many years ago named William Cooper spelled like Calper but it's Cooper and he has a man struggle with deep depression but he wrote some beautiful hymns and one of his hymns as tall called God moves in mysterious ways and he talks about how you know while you're living in the middle of the story God is at work and you can't see how it works until you get to the end of the story and then he writes this line he says judge not the Lord by feeble sense but trust him for his grace behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face you're right now you may be living in the middle of the frowning providence but God is at work and the way we know this is because we've seen God do this before on the cross it looked like all was lost for the disciples seeing Jesus die it looked like there was no hope yet it was through the death of Jesus the most hopeless event the darkest event in human history that our salvation came that God brought about the greatest gift for all and we consider what Jesus has done for us in the cross then even in our dark days we can trust him behind a frowning providence no matter no matter how dark your day may be God is hiding a smiling face for his children and that's our hope let's pray father we do thank you that you are our hope that you are our confidence and Lord we pray that you'd give us the courage to complain to lament that we would we would grieve because this world is messed up it is broken and then we will grieve because we don't always see what you're doing and we are confused as we live out our stories but father even in our grief we pray that we would not grieve as the rest of the world this men who have no hope because we do have hope so we pray that we grieve that we grieve with confidence and hope even in our confusion we would cling to the fact that if God is still on us thrown then all hope is not lost it cannot be and so Lord may we may we always remember that even in our darkest days that you are still there and may no matter how deep the pit gets or how dark the night we pray that we would not lose sight of that one hope that you are still there that you still love us and you've proven it through your Son we pray all this in Christ's name amen