Well, turn with me and your Bibles to the book of Esther. If you don't have a Bible with you There are some of the seats in front of you We encourage you to pull one of those out and on the seats in front of you That those Bibles and that Bible's on page 493 and so you can be following along We're going to be an Esther chapter 8. I have a confession to make. I was supposed to wrap up the book of Esther I told Mike I was going to do 8 through 10. He did the life group studies on 8 through 10 and I lied I'm only going to do chapter 8 so we've got one more week in the book of Esther So sorry life group leaders. I apologize for the confusion. I don't feel real sorry I just feel like I had to say I'm sorry, but we're going to try to caught up at some point The book of Esther Explains why the Jewish people celebrate that the festival of Purim and that's coming up on March 4th and 5th and And those you get together in your life groups this week will be talking about that We'll talk about that a little bit more last next week, but it's a it's a great festival as they celebrate God's protection and for them And the way that God's proven it's really cared for them So turning this week. I was thinking about the whole issue of justice and it reminded me of something that happened to me a while back I was pulling out of the church parking lot here and if you go right across Rouse Road That there's a road there called the Khanatosa. It's just one mile long and it takes you up to Alephair trail It's a great little road to cut through the problem is the speed limit is 25 miles an hour and there's speed bumps along the way And so as you go up there's an elementary school on your left then there's a high school then there's lots of college student housing with lots and lots of college students Well, the speed limit is 25 I said and it's got a double yellow line and I'm cruising up there towards Alephair Mining the speed limit because I'm a pastor and so I'm going 25 miles an hour and suddenly this little sports car Just whips around me on the double yellow And I just get I don't know those things anger me now I don't know why it's not a righteous anger It's not like they're breaking the law and I'm so concerned about that I think the reason I'm angry is because I can't do that, you know I have to be a respectable adult but I'm angry and I'm mad and he goes on by and I still put along at my 25 miles an hour Well, you get up the road a little bit and right there parked by the high school Orange County's finest Orange County definitely just steps out in front of the car like this Ways them over to the side and as I drive by I make eye contact with a driver in a way I don't know why that was so much fun But but that that made my day. I came back to the office. I told everyone here I got home that night so first thing I told my family. How is your day? Let me tell you what happened. There's there's something about that we get pleasure When when someone gets their just desserts when someone finally gets the justice that they they ought to get and And this is something I think we all enjoy Well as we're reading through the book of Esther for the past few months today As we're drawing near the conclusion the story We see that finally Heyman this evil character that we've been reading about guesses just desserts And and everything begins to change here as the as a story moves towards conclusion Now the story of Esther takes place 2500 years ago. It's in the Persian Empire and for those of you who haven't been here It's a story about a young Jewish girl who becomes queen and through her position of power is queen through her influence with the king She ends up saving the Jewish people from annihilation this evil man named Heyman has become second in the empire And he is insecure and there's one man named Mordecai who just happens to be Esther's uncle who offends him by not bowing down to him Heyman becomes so angry that he wants to kill not only Mordecai But he decides he's going to annihilate the Jews And and so he puts this whole plot in motion It looks like there's no way to stop him and as we saw two weeks ago that Heyman ends up being hanged on his own gallows And I don't know if I should mention again, but they didn't actually hang people on gallows they They made just a box out of them and those 75 feet high and so Heyman dies and we still have this problem There still is this edict this law that has been passed that allows for anyone to kill any Jew that they want and take take the property You don't have to have any reason it's like there's one day. There's a hunting season open season on slaughter of the Jews And so something has to be done about that and so turn with me to Esther chapter 8 as we see How this moves to conclusion Esther chapter 8 beginning with verse 1 That same day King Zerkshi's gave Queen Esther this state of Heyman the enemy of the Jews and Mordecai came into the presence of the king for Esther had told how he was related to her The king took off a signate ring which he had reclaimed from Heyman and presented it to Mordecai And Esther appointed him over Heyman's estate Esther again pleaded with the king falling at his feet and weeping She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Heyman the Aga guy Which he had devised against the Jews then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she she arose instead before him If it pleases the king she said and if he regards me with favor and thinks that it's the right thing to do and if he is pleased with me Let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Heyman son of Hamadetha the Aga guy devised and wrote to destroy the Jews and all the king's provinces For how can I bear to see disaster follow my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family King Zerkshi's replied to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew Because Heyman attacked the Jews I have given his estate to Esther and they have hanged him on the gallows now write another decree in the king's name and behalf of the Jews as seems best to you and seal it with the king's signate ring for no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked At once the royal secretaries were summoned on the 23rd day of the third month of the month of Sivan and they wrote all the Mordecai's orders to the Jews and the Saitraps and governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Kush These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language Mordecai wrote in the name of King Zerkshi's sealed the dispatches with the king's signate ring and sent them by mounted Couriers who wrote fast horses especially bred for the king The kings edic granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves to destroy kill and annihilate any armed force of any Nationality or province that might attack them and their women and their children and to plunder the property of their enemies The day appointed for the Jews to do this was in all the provinces of King Zerkshi's was the 13th day of the 12th month of the month of ADR A copy of the text of the edic was to be issued as law in every province and may known to the people of every nationality So that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves of their enemies This is God's holy and inspired word Well, you see what happens here as we um look at this and I had three points and I'm down to one Is um as we see how God protects his people We see God protecting his people We see where where Hayman and the previous chapter is killed His property is turned over to his mortal enemy Mordekai Eventually through Esler and then Esler pleads with the king to ride a new edic now and counteracting Hayman's decree Mordekai uses the same signate ring that that Hayman had used and he Authorizes what amounts to a civil war So what it happened is Hayman are written a law saying that anyone could kill any Jew for any reason You didn't have to ever reason and steal their property. It was open hunting season on the Jews And so that law though because there's a law of the Meads and the Persians could not be overturn Now there's some question whether or not the laws and Meads and the Persians really cannot be repealed But we know this for fact that the kings tend to be rather egotistical and they don't like to scratch out a law That they have made because it makes them look like they didn't know what they're doing the first time And so what it they so he doesn't want to repeal his law He can't do that and so they write another law and what Mordekai does in this law He says okay then the Jews have the right to assemble to gather together their own armed force And to kill all the men and women and children who attack them And so the Jews now have open season on their attackers And it's and then the Jews have the right to take the plunder from these people which by the way they they never do They never take the plunder and so what Mordekai really in a sense is authorized is a civil war He's allowed this ethnic group the Jews defied against anyone who attacks them and it's and so really it's a legalized civil war So here we are nester with what is a familiar theme throughout the Old Testament and that's the theme of war and conflict And and we have to ask ourselves why is that why is this theme of war and conflict so predominant In the Old Testament and even in the New Testament to some degree why is why is God seem to be such a bloody vengeful God Well to understand that we really need to understand how this fits in with the whole Bible now back in November When we first started the series of Esther I did a little bit explain to you how Esther fits in the story of the whole Bible We're gonna do that again and in about ten minutes We're gonna look at the entire Bible the story of the Bible and the reason this is important As as you read the Bible as you read any story in the Bible David and Goliath Daniel the lion's then know it in the flood The best way to understand that story is to realize the Bible is not a whole bunch of stories It's not a it's not like a book of virtues The Bible contains one story and every story in it is a subplot in that grand story that great story that great narrative that is going through And so the best way to understand every little story in the Bible is as where does it fit into that great story Well, what's the big story about Well the big story is about ultimately. It's about redemption It's about how God saves his people from destruction ultimately. It's about Jesus But let's let's kind of go through it a bit by bit and understand it a little bit more Rapt in this theme of redemption is a theme of conflict and war and this Runs through the Bible from the beginning to end and through all of human history and even to the end of the world as we know it So let me give you a quick ten minute overview first thing you see in the Bible was the first thing you read about the Bible chapter 1 of Genesis Creation creation God created the world and it was all what Very good. It was all good. It was all very good when he got through did it stay that way No, okay, so next we have What's it called the fall we see the fall destruction enters Adam and Eve sin against God Because they sin against God by disobeying his command sin death evil Archive all these things enter the world conflict everything comes into the world as as part of the the the Donning of sin into the creation So we see the world suffering the effects of sin now after the fall the next thing we begin to see is the whole theme of conflict And we see this theme of conflict established in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 We refer to quite often here God is speaking and he's pronouncing a curse because of the cause of the sin of Adam and Eve And here's the the curse that he pronounces he says To first he pronounced a curse on the serpent on the woman and on the on the man and he says here first to the to the serpent He says I'll put enmity between you and the woman between your offspring and hers He will crush your head and you will strike his heel Now the word enmity is it's a word very few people use In fact, I looked at several translations of the Bible almost every translation I had and I've got a bunch of them on my computer almost everyone uses that word and I don't know why it means It means hatred it means they are enemies you see how the word enemy comes from that So he says this can be hatred there's gonna be enmity between the serpent the woman her offspring and your offspring And eventually says the serpent will bruise the heel of the offspring of the woman But the offspring of the woman will crush the serpent's head and the answer to every Sunday school question You know the answer to every Sunday school question right Who is the person who crushes the serpent's head Jesus right, okay, it's always the answer right and so here he's saying there's gonna be this this conflict this war That's going on between good and evil That's going to go on throughout the ages until finally the offspring of the woman comes and crushes Satan and crushes evil once for all Well, we see that conflict we throughout the Bible. It's turned to the next slide You see a chart that goes on first we see the conflict first between the serpent and the woman Then right after the curse Adam and Eve move out of the garden of Eden. They have children their children two boys their names are Can enable and what happens you can say it louder. It's okay Cane Till's able right so cane killing able the conflict we see is starts off right away It's as soon as out in the garden as soon as they have children as soon as the boys are are all not the to hate each other They do and they begin to fight can There with the serpent killing able there with the woman turn on a little bit further We see the conflict continue with the next episode. We see Several things happening. We see Noah and the flood Satan's trying to destroy the world through evil God delivers them through Noah and then finally you get to Genesis chapter 12 And God calls a man named Abram and he says to Abram and goes I'm going to be a god to you and your descendants after you Then here in Genesis 12-3 God says to Abram he says I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you What God is saying he says remember that promise I gave back to Adam and Eve and he says that I'm going to to To rescue you through a deliver who's going to crush the serpent's head He says that's going to happen through you all of the nations of the earth are going to be blessed through you And so because of that because of that I'm going to I'm going to protect you I'm going to bless those who bless you curse those who curse you So now because God has promised us through Abraham the whole conflict then centers on Abraham's descendants That the serpent now is bent on destroying the children of Abraham the nation of Israel the Jews And so through the rest of the Bible up to the birth of Jesus We see this conflict continuing as Satan seeks to destroy the Jewish people So skip ahead You can go through a lot of the conflict there through the book of Genesis But then finally you get to the book of Exodus and you get to the book of Exodus You have that the Hebrew slaves living in Egypt and and who's there trying to destroy them Yeah, Pharaoh. So we have Pharaoh in the Hebrew slaves That the Hebrew slaves have grown numerous and so Pharaoh is is concerned and he tries to squash them He tries to oppress them But God eventually delivers them through uh through through Moses. So we have the the ten Ten flakes we have the crossing of the Red Sea we have the Exodus Well then as soon as they get out and they finally escape from Pharaoh Here's a little known group. You may not have heard of we meet the Amalekites The Amalekites And go ahead and put up their Malekites in the Israel Israel there the Amalekites Where a nation when Israel got out here they are they're tired. They're just escaped They are they're exhausted. It's just they have no trained warriors the Amalekites see them come out Their Malekites attack them and try to annihilate the Israelites as soon as they escape from Pharaoh Now the reason that's important is Later on their Malekites would have a king and his name was a gag Because the Amalekites tried to destroy the Israelites God delivered them Israel from the Amalekites But God made a promise there he said one day I'm going to wipe the Amalekites from the face of the earth And so God promises he's going to destroy the Amalekites Fast forward a little bit Israel is now in the land they have the first king the first king's name is Saul The prophet Samuel comes to Saul and says God has a word for you Remember what the Amalekites did to Israel when they escaped from Egypt Remember how they way laid them in the land says you're to go and you're to wipe them out And so Saul goes and he says by the way, Saul don't take any plunder kill them all don't take anything just kill them all Saul partially obeys He takes some of the plunder and he leaves the king alone He takes the king as a hostage the king's name was a gag Now why is this important? Because in the book of Esther Esther is called an Agagite That he is he's being linked either physically or or metaphorically probably physically to this king agag as a descendant Agag their Malekites who tried to destroy the Jews Hayman is on that line Well then we move on to the New Testament And in the New Testament we find Jesus is born And we see Jesus is born there in Bethlehem Herod is king Herod is a 70 year old old man king. He is near death And yet he hears that this baby has been born in Jerusalem and when he hears this born in Bethlehem And when he hears this baby has been born in Bethlehem Herod becomes so maniacal No other way he just becomes a maniac that he sees this baby as a threat to his kingdom. So what does he do? He orders the slaughter of all the baby boys around Bethlehem and his attempt to kill Jesus Now if you look at this they say what was Herod doing here? Well you begin to realize that Herod really wasn't acting on his own Herod was part of this great conflict. There's been going on throughout all of history It's not just that Herod was a was a tyrant and a despot and he was crazy That wasn't it He's part of this great story that is going on as as this war between the serpent and the woman continues throughout the Throughout the Bible Well then we go into the rest of the New Testament the church has started and what happens We find the Roman Empire trying to squash the church All part of this conflict and so we even see that today Even today Long after the the early church age we still see the powers this world at times seeking to extinguish the church You're traveled to places like Sudan. I even saw the Arabia Pakistan Other places where China were Christians because their Christians are being persecuted now. Why is that? It's because it's not just because a political intrigue and the politics that are going on It's because there's a greater spiritual battle that's happening behind the scenes And so so the whole story of the Bible and really in in many ways the what's going on in human history is the story of this conflict Well, finally, let's turn to the very end In the very end of the Bible the last book of the Bible. We have this book of Revelation and in Revelation chapter 12 We have this image in in Revelation could be very confused because you have all these images but in Revelation chapter 12 We have this image and you have this dragon who's seeking to devour this woman And she's he's seeking to devour her offspring the woman has a child The dragon is not able to kill the child and so then he turns his attention to all the other offspring of the woman And then John tells us who those offspring are he says those offspring are the ones who hold to the testimony of Jesus So he says the dragon then is making war against the church. So who's the first offspring that he's not able to destroy The answer is always Jesus and so the dragon then we see is attacking the woman He can't get to her offspring to her her original son the one who's gonna crush his head And so he attacks that attacks the church now who is the dragon? Well the dragon of course is the serpent from Genesis chapter three you say mark how do you know? Well the image is the same You see the the word Hebrew word for serpent and the Hebrew word for dragon are very very similar And we think of dragons you think of like puffed the magic dragon You know four-legged creature walking around or the Hebrew image of dragons more like a Chinese dragon like a snake But but really even without that We would know that the dragon is the serpent because when you finally get to the end of the Bible revelation chapter 20 John makes it very very clear He says and they took the dragon they cast him into the lake of fire that dragon Which is here's a quote which is that serpent of old which is Satan or the devil in other words He's making it explicitly clear that revelation chapter 20 is the fulfillment of Genesis chapter three Okay, that's the whole Bible every story in the Bible fits in to that great story So here we are in the book of Esther and we have Hayman trying to kill the Jews And you think why is this book in the Bible it doesn't mention God it doesn't mention prayer It doesn't mention worship because it's showing that all the time this battle is raging And even though we may not see miraculous events or angels or prophets or anything else This battle is raging against God's people and God is protecting them God is at work protecting his people against the dangers that are here So the story of Esther is not just a random story And it shows how God through this this young lady God towards all the machinations of the great empire And when Satan brings the entire forces of the of the empire Persia against the Jews God is there protecting Just like later on in the New Testament when the whole force of the Roman Empire is bent on crucifying Jesus to destroy him God is at work in that as well So what we begin to see then is that that we are like Esther and mortickeib We're living in the middle of a story We don't see any signs of God around us You know, I've never seen a miracle Never once. I've never once had an angel show up to me and tell me anything I've never seen anything that I could not look at and somehow explain But through natural ordinary causes You know sometimes even the things that are the most vivid answers to prayer for me If I were to tell you those answers to prayer A skeptic would look at me and say well Mark how do you know God was in that couldn't this had just happened naturally through ordinary events and my answer would have to be yes That is true But what we see in the book of Esther is that God is working through the natural ordinary human events He's working in everything and what we see here then is Esther and mortickeib when they have the entire Persian army Bearing down upon them the whole whole force of Persia is about to exterminate the Jews And they begin just to realize this and it looks like there's no hope and they don't see any way out in the middle of that story They don't know the gods at work. They can't see him. They don't know what's going to happen They are terrified because they don't know the ending But God cares for them anyway in the same way. It's just like that for us We are living in the middle of the story and sometimes you don't see how God is at work But we do know he's at work because he promises to do so And you know God still won the day and Esther and you'll still win the day today Now how many of you have planned to watch that game next week Super Bowl next week anybody here Indianapolis fans Anyapolis how many Indian how many Chicago Okay, well, I'm sorry Chicago people, but anyapolis last week Was playing in the and the the the championship championship game They're playing against the new England Patriots Indianapolis never has been able to beat the new England Patriots in a big game Never the new England Patriots never lose a big game They're ten and one and playoff records with Tom Brady Which is if you're not a football fan that's amazing Amazing incredible at halftime. Do you know what the score was at halftime 21 to 6 new England's winning the odds of Indianapolis winning At halftime we're like Zilch If no one would have even taken the bet it was so it was so bad There's no chance no one has ever lost a playoff game when they're up by that much as much as new England was And certainly Indianapolis was not going to beat Tom Brady in a big game wasn't going to happen Well, you know the rest of the story Through an amazing series of events great football You know Indianapolis turns out to win Now imagine You're at that game and you're an Indianapolis fan and you're or say you're watching this game on TV Now I imagine it at halftime a lot of people turn their TV off I imagine I said I can't watch anymore. They've done it again and and you you're discouraged and you quit and you say Why bother and you you just walk away and say NBA season turn it on. Oh great. It's just the Pacers But you know you you you you you turn you turn it off because you don't see any hope at all Now imagine your attitude how it would be different if you taped that game And you watched it and you're watching it with a friend who doesn't know the outcome and all of a sudden It's halftime and your cults are down and they're down 21 to 6 and you say but I know they're gonna win and your friend says They can't win. They're down 21 to 6 to the Patriots. They can't win. They have no hope What are you crazy? What makes you think they're gonna win? You say I just know it. I just know it Yeah faith and a dollar will get you half a cup of coffee, you know It just doesn't do you any good? You may know it, but it can't happen. It's impossible the deck is stacked against them But you're confident. Why? Because you know how the game ends and the same way as Christians right now You see a world where the conflict is raging it looks like at times that the church is losing that that that that you know Seems like evil wins the good good lose and it doesn't seem any hope of turning that around and you can get very Very discouraged in that because you don't see God anywhere You don't see any miracles. You don't see any revival. You don't see God at work anywhere And so you begin to look at this and think there is no way anything good can come out of this You're at halftime you do know the end of the story You know a lot of people disagree about different things in the book of Revelation And we know this everybody agrees on this and the end God wins I mean that that is the bottom line and so we as we look at this Story of the book of Esther it reminds us that we are like them caught up in this drama And we don't know what's gonna happen. We don't know the outcome But we do know that God wins and ultimately God protects his people now now. What does that mean for us? Well I think it has lots of implications for us It's to change how we live in every single way it affects every single thing that we do If you know that ultimately the kingdom of God is gonna be victorious and the kingdom of this world is passing Then it is foolish to align yourself with the kingdom of this world Now those who are aligned with Heyman end up in the next chapter dying Those who are aligned with Esther and the next chapter end up prospering And so the question is where are you aligned? Are you aligned with the kingdom of this world that will meet destruction Or are you aligned with the kingdom of God that will prosper and win in the end You know the writer of Hebrews talks about it this way and Hebrews chapter 13 Verses five and six yet it makes a very interesting application of this point He says keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said Never will I leave you never will I forsake you So we say with confidence the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Now I find this interesting He says keep your lives free from the love of money You think he's gonna say because greed is wrong Greed is bad bad bad bad. Now that's where you expect him to say that's not what he says He says the reason you to keep your lives free from the love of money is because God is in charge and he's caring for you Now what's the connection between greed and understanding God's that's providence and God's sovereignty? Here's the connection We believe that in order to be secure In order to be happy in order to be content with life in order to feel like things are under control. We just need enough money Boy don't you think that way? I mean I can prove most of us think this way. What things do you worry about the most? What do you worry about the most? I mean for for many of us for many of us Although it is money because money is a way to control our world If I have enough money then I'll be able to get the medical care that I need if I have enough money Then I'll have the retirement. I want if I have enough money I can make sure my kids get the things that they need and they want if I have enough money I'll be able to enjoy the things I want to enjoy and so money is a way of control And so we look at that way of controlling what the writer of Hebrews is saying is money will not give you control And the way to free yourself from that is to understand that God is a good toll And so we as God's people he's saying are to rely and to trust upon him Is that mean we don't manage our money well? Don't worry about it not at all Bible addresses that elsewhere. That's not our point here The point is what are you looking for for your security for your happiness for your pleasure And ultimately he says what we're to be looking for is God God says never will I leave you never will I forsake you the Lord is my helper I will not be afraid what can man do to me Psalm 20 verse 7 takes the same theme and puts it this way He says some trust and chariots and some in horses But we trust in the name of the Lord our God Where are you putting your trust? Where's your hope is If it's in anything other than God then you're building your life and your hope on a foundation that will not endure the storms of life You may think that money will do it. You may think the position will do it. You may think that power will do it But it won't we see in the story of Esther that ultimately it's God who protects and God who cares Well, how do we know that we can trust God against all odds? How do we know this is ultimately true? How do we know that Esther just wasn't a series of coincidences? Well the story of Esther Ultimately is a story about reversal of fortune That's the major when the major themes throughout the book Heyman's in power Esther Mordecai are not he crushes them But then suddenly at the end the whole thing reverses Well the greatest reversal of fortune that we see in human history is in the conflict between the serpent and the woman and it takes place in the cross Whose idea was it to put Jesus on the cross? They're there's several right answers There's God's idea There's also Satan's idea Remember what the Bible says says that Satan entered Judas and convinced Judas to do this In other words, Satan was at work and getting Judas to betray Jesus. Why? Why did Satan want Jesus on the cross? Because if Jesus is on the cross, if he could crush and destroy the offspring of the woman before he crushed his head He could win the day And so Satan is looking at the cross as the way to finally win, to get rid of the redeemer And if the redeemer is gone then he will win, he will rule But what happens on the cross? Here's the irony is by putting Jesus on the cross that Jesus was actually able to win The writer of Hebrews says this by facing the cross Jesus was able to face sin and death and conquer sin and death And he who holds the keys of sin and death and ultimately win the day Is through the cross which looked like the greatest defeat in human history The greatest defeat in in world history, spiritual history It looked like the greatest defeat and yet it turns out to be the greatest victory Because through the cross Jesus won the day for us all And so we see Jesus who's defeated sin and death And in the end we know because of that he wins He wins Now if that's the case then the only hope that any of us have is in Jesus Christ Any of us have Now those who align themselves with Christ find life Those who align themselves against Christ Not with Christ find death And so the call of scripture the call of God to us then is where are you putting your hope? Where are you aligning your heart? Are you putting your hope in God? Are you putting your hope in something else? And anything else ultimately he says leads us to destruction So God calls us put your hope in him trust in him And if you've never put your hope in Jesus Christ Maybe you you've been skeptical about this Or maybe you just don't see how ultimately God can be in control And God's simply saying it's half time I'm in control I win the game in the end And he calls all of us to put our hope and our confidence in him Let's pray Our Father we do thank you For the hope that we have in Jesus That Jesus has won the victory for us That Jesus has has turned the tables And because he is victorious We who are united with him can be victorious as well If you're here today and you've been looking to find your security Maybe you've been finding it it could be money but it could be Job it could be popularity it could be Your health it could be any number of things where you've been looking to find your security You begin to realize now that That those things will not last Did ultimately the tables will be turned And so God is calling you today To put your hope in him To realize that Jesus Christ Is ultimately the king He came and he lived a perfect life He died on the cross And on the cross he He paid the penalty for the sins and took the judgment for the sins for everyone who had put their hope in him So that anyone who calls upon him Can be saved from destruction So invite you now put your hope in him simply say Lord I know that I've been aligning myself with the wrong side all along and I know that ultimately you win So I ask you to forgive me forgive me for going my own way And ask you Lord Jesus Christ To to come and be my king So I might follow after you And Lord I know that in this world as you promise we'll continue to have troubles The battle will continue to to to rage But I know that ultimately you win And so I'm trusting you with my life and I'm trusting you to be my king And for all of us Lord we confess that at times we we wonder we wonder if evil is going to win the day We ask you to forgive us for our lack of faith Forgive us for our doubts But we cry out Lord we believe just help us in our unbelief Help us to trust you more and may we live by faith as we live here today We pray all this in Christ's name