Well, last week we began a new series in the book of Esther. We saw that the Persian king Ahasuerus has a sumptuous banquet with his advisors, with the princes, and at that feast towards the end of it, he makes a very impulsive decision, a very bad decision, probably under the influence of alcohol. He commands his beautiful wife, Queen Vashti, to display her beauty to all of the men who are there. And to the king's fury, to his anger, she refuses his command. A law is then passed that the queen, Queen Vashti, who after that is just referred to as Vashti, that she will never again be allowed to come into his presence. Furthermore, all of the women throughout the great Persian Empire are to give honor to their husbands.
Every man is to be the master in his own house. So the private humiliation of the king becomes a matter of international policy. And in this very unusual way, Queen Vashti is being removed as queen. King Ahasuerus, this most powerful man, no longer has a queen. Now, we know from history that between Esther 1 and Esther 2, the king is entangled in some unsuccessful war campaigns against the Greeks.
The Greeks are pressing against the Persians. And in chapter 1 verse 1, we read that he is in the third year of his reign, and as we look at chapter 2 verse 16, as we'll see in a minute, he's in the seventh year of his reign, so there's about three years or so between chapters 1 and 2. And maybe coming home after some of these rather unsuccessful campaigns against the Greeks, his anger subsides somewhat.
Perhaps he's humbled by his defeats. And he begins to remember Vashti, his former queen. Now the law of the Medes and the Persians banishing the queen from his presence can't be revealed, cannot be revoked. He will never again see Vashti, his former queen.
Now remember the setting. God's chosen people, the Jewish nation, had the opportunity, as they're held captive, they had opportunity to return to their homeland in Israel. Many of them returned, but a large number of them, such as Esther, remain in Persia, seemingly preferring life in Persia rather than returning to Israel. Is God going to take care of his people in Persia, even though they may have forgotten him or marginalized him? Can exiled Jews stand against the power of the pagan Persia? Are they going to be totally immersed in the Persian religion and culture? And we're learning as we began last week to learn that God's invisible hand is providentially and sovereignly at work. So let's open our Bibles to Esther chapter 2, and we're going to read about a beauty pageant, and there's going to be the election of Miss Persia. Some of you have been in beauty pageants.
I have not. But let's read, first of all, in Esther chapter 2 verse 1, after these things, when the anger of King Hahesioeras had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what had been decreed against her. And maybe in spite of his initial anger, he's missing her.
And remembering beautiful Vashti, coupled with defeats by the Greeks, may have plunged the king into a mood of loneliness and even regret. But his attendants have a brilliant solution, at least they think so. Verse 2, then the king's young men who attended him said, let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. And let the king appoint officers in all of the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to hear him in Susa, the citadel, under custody of Haggai, the king's eunuch who's in charge of the woman. Let their cosmetics be given them, and let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. This pleased the king, and he did so.
You understand? Throughout all of these provinces, 127 provinces, stretching from India to northern Africa, a huge part of the globe, there is this search for all of the beautiful young virgins. They are to be gathered as possible successors to Vashti as queen.
These women, notice the wording in verse 3, they don't volunteer, but they are gathered for this kind of beauty contest. Now to get a wife, the powerful King, King Haggai, didn't need to do what a farmer did on a dating site. He posted farmer wants to marry a woman around 35 years old who owns a tractor.
Please post a picture of the tractor. Now, King Ahasuerus didn't need pictures. He is going to personally choose his new queen.
We don't know how many of them were in this contest, but they come from all over his province, and they're gathered, and he's going to select one as his queen. Now, we saw in chapter 1 verse 19 that the woman must be better than she. That is better than Vashti.
What does that mean? Is she going to be more beautiful, more compliant? In any event, Vashti's replacement must have three essential qualifications. Here's the qualifications for this contest. First of all, they must be beautiful. King doesn't want to marry somebody who's ugly, obviously. She's got to be beautiful.
She's got to be young, and she's got to be a virgin. These women will be taken into the king's era. There's many women there, but there's only going to be one queen. And the dark cloud of gloom that was over King Ahasuerus perhaps begins to evaporate. We read at the end of verse 4, this pleased the king, and he did so. And now we're introduced to this fascinating character Mordecai, and notice the first thing we learned about him. Now there was a Jew.
Isn't that significant? There was a Jew in Susa, the citadel. His name was Mordecai, the son of Jeir, son of Shema, son of Kish, a Benjaminite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives, carried away with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away. He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. She's an orphan. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at. And when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
Here they are. They are Jewish. Their ancestors, and in particular this couple, they were taken in exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.
Remember how he defeated Judah, desecrated the temple, burned it, but now Babylon is defeated. Persia, the means of the Persia is the superpower. Esther is a young orphan girl, we don't know how old at this point, who Mordecai, her cousin, takes into his home and adopts as his own daughter. Now when we read verse 7 that the young woman, that is Esther, had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, we're being set up for the drama which is about to happen. The fact that we're giving her Jewish name, Hadassah, meaning Myrtle, and her Persian name, Esther Star, is a reminder that Hadassah, Esther, is living in a sense in two cultures. She's an exiled Jew, but she's living in Persia. Two names, Hadassah and Esther. We normally know her as Esther, which was the Persian name. And now Esther enters the beauty pageant.
She becomes a contestant. Verse 8, so when the king's order and the edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in Susa, the citadel, in custody of Haggai, Esther also was taken into the king's palace and put in charge, or rather, put in custody of Haggai who had charge of the woman. And the young woman pleased him and won his favor.
And he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and a portion of food. And with seven chosen young women from the king's palace and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem. Now verse 10 is very important. Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. Now remember, Mordecai is like the father to her, and he commands her, we don't know the age difference, obviously older, an older cousin, he commands her not to make it known that she's Jewish. And so here she is, one of the young ladies gathered, put in the custody of this man Haggai in Susa for the king's beauty pageant. She's provided with all she needs, the necessary cosmetics and food and servants. This is a serious beauty pageant.
She's going to need all of that if she's going to win the pageant. Yes, she's Jewish, but the writer of Esther is emphasizing and we'll see this again later in chapter two, that she is not to make it known that she's Jewish. So there is nothing about her appearance, nothing about her clothes, nothing about her way of life to suggest she was Jewish. When Goody and I were recently in Europe, we're talking to a waitress, and she said, I can tell nationalities before they start talking.
I said, really? I mean obviously part of what you think, how would you know someone's nationality before they really spoke? Well their appearance, different colors of skin, different shapes throughout the world, and then their dress. If a man comes wearing a kilt, he's probably from Scotland.
The Europeans dressed very elegantly. There were other people going around with large containers of water, baseball hats, and sneakers, and looking rather rumpled, you might guess their nationality in Europe. And she said, I can tell you. And she thought we were Americans. I said, we are Americans. Goody said, yeah, but originally we come from Europe. But once you start talking, that's another way of getting to know where is this person from?
Our accent. And here was Esther. She has so acclimatized to life in Persia that even by her looks, her clothes, her accent, she'd obviously mastered Persian that no one knows that she's Jewish. And no one in the palace knows her true identity.
This is very key in the story, isn't it? We ask, of course, but isn't she compromising her faith? Shouldn't she be like Daniel, remember Daniel in Daniel chapter 1, who purposed in his heart that he was not going to defile himself in a pagan world by taking the king's foot? Why doesn't Esther protest that she's a worshiper of the living God? She cannot take part in this very immoral beauty pageant.
Why didn't she do that? Interestingly, in the text there's no criticism of Esther. It is emphasized that she's commanded by Mordecai not to reveal her identity.
So there she is, the beginning of this beauty pageant, getting herself ready. Meantime, Mordecai keeps a fatherly eye on Esther. Verse 11, every day he's walking in front of the court of the Hiram to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her.
He's very concerned. How is she getting on in the palace? Now the rules and the regulations of the beauty pageant are clearly outlined.
Verse 9. Now, when the turn came for each young woman to go to King Ahasuerus after being 12 months under the regulations for the woman, since this was the regular period of their beautifying, six months with oil of myrrh, six months with spices and ointments for a woman, when the young woman went into the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the Hiram to the king's palace. In the evening, she would go in, that is into the king, and in the morning she would return to the second Hiram in custody of Shaskas, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines.
She would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her, and she was summoned by name. Each contestant then has to go through a 12-month beauty treatment program. Verse 12, for their beautifying I read that 75% of women color their hair, 22% wear false eyelashes, 38% periodically wear wigs or hairpieces, 93% use nail polish, 98% wear some kind of makeup, and 100% of these women voted in favor of a resolution condemning all kind of false packaging. Women working on their appearance can take quite a while. I'm always amazed when I fish at weddings how long brides take to get themselves ready for their wedding day. The preparation begins, of course, a long time before. They tried a particular hairstyle, a particular makeup, particularly clothes. A long time. The Persians were well known for their perfumes, their aromas, their beautifying treatments which improved the appearance of the skin and apparently removed facial blemishes.
This is a serious contest. You've got 12 months to make yourself look spectacular as you come in for this one night with the king. At the end of the 12-month period, each candidate spends only one night with the king. We read in verse 13 she can dress any way she wants to make herself attractive and desirable to the king. After that one night with the king, she'll go to another part of the harem where she then will wait. She cannot go back home.
She cannot marry someone else. She is totally at the disposal and control of the king. You can remember this is King Ahasuerus, the all-powerful king. Verses 15 through 20, we learn, as most of you know, that Esther wins the beauty pageant. Verse 15, when the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abihel, the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his own daughter to go into the king, she asked for nothing except what Haggai, the king's eunuch, who had charge of the woman, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tabeth, in the seventh year of his reign, remember we began chapter one at the beginning of the third year.
This is now the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the women. The long-awaited night after this twelve-month preparation arrives for Esther. She spends the night with the king.
She didn't ask for anything special. She followed the advice of Haggai, and she was winning favor in the eyes of all who knew her. Again, we have to ask ourselves, why did Esther allow herself to participate in this immoral practice? Why did Mordecai, who had the charge of her, who was like the father to her, why did he allow this? Did they have any choices in the circumstances? Was she glad to do this? Did she do this willingly, or did she feel trapped by the powerful king?
To refuse may well have meant death. Did she realize as a Jewish young woman that God was placing her there for reasons she didn't know? She becomes queen, verse 17. The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her and made her queen instead of Vashti. When the king gave a great feast for all of his officials and servants, it was Esther's feast, a feast in her honor. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity. He's celebrating what's the whole kingdom to celebrate. He gives them a break on their taxes. He gives them gifts. There's a feast. He himself personally puts the crown on Queen Esther. Amazing story.
Of course, as we began to read it, we're not really surprised, are we? That Esther, verse 17, won grace and favor in his sight more than all of the other virgins. The king loved her. She became his new queen.
He crowns her with his royal crown, and a great banquet is given in her honor. And look at verse 20, verse 19, now when the virgins were gathered together the second time Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Esther had not made known her kindred or her people as Mordecai had commanded her, for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him. The writer is emphasizing that she is following the command of Mordecai, who is in a sense her adopted father.
Still, in all that goes on, still no one knows that she's a Jewess. Now in verses 21 through 23, Mordecai uncovers a plot against the king. Verse 21, in those days as Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, not that she's now, not just Esther, she's Queen Esther. And Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai, when the affair was investigated and found to be so, the men were both hanged on the gallows and it was recorded in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king. Mordecai reveals a plot to kill King Ahasuerus. It may be that through the intervention of Esther, Mordecai is in some position of authority.
Legal matters are settled at the king's gate. Perhaps Mordecai has been appointed a magistrate or a judge as a wise man, and when sitting there, he hears a couple of the king's officials conspiring to kill King Ahasuerus. This is treason, and he communicates the details of the plot to Esther, who informs the king, and Esther makes it clear to the king that she got her information, verse 22, in the name of Mordecai. The plot's investigated. It's found to be true.
Both of the officials are hanged on a gallows. And very interesting for the story, the account is recorded in the historical record, in the official records of the kingdom. But Mordecai, rather strangely at this point, is not rewarded, at least not yet.
Now think of a big picture. Here are two obscure foreigners, Jews, living in Persia, and they have access to the king. One directly, Queen Esther, and one indirectly, Mordecai.
Yes, God's hand is at work. Now let me, first of all, say three things, three features of Esther, and then some lessons for us. First of all, about Esther. Esther, to say the obvious, is a Jewish woman. There's much to commend her, but we are puzzled why a young Jewish virgin marries an immoral Persian king. Wasn't her marriage to King Ahasuerus in direct violation of the law? Deuteronomy 7 verse 3, you shall not intermarry with them. Yet, Esther is not criticized in the text.
When Esther is selected as a candidate for this contest, could it be that Mordecai sees an opportunity for Esther to play an important part for the delivery of the Jewish nation in the coming crisis, which he may have got wind of? He does instruct her very clearly, verses 10 and 20, not to make it known, her people and her kindred. Now, neither of them, I believe, have abandoned their Jewish faith, no. In fact, after the marriage, Esther in the text appears to be commended for her discretion in not revealing, verse 20, her kindred or her people. She's a Jewish woman. Is she a godly woman?
In the book of Esther, we have to wrestle, as it were, with some of these ambiguities, questions that we have that are not neatly tied up in the way that we would like. So first of all, she's Jewish. Secondly, she's beautiful. She has outstanding charm and elegance. The rabbis in the writings held that Esther was one of the most beautiful women in biblical history. One of the four most beautiful women in the Bible, which the rabbis believed were Sarah, Abraham's wife, Rahab, strangely the prostitute, and Abigail, who you may recall was married to King David. Most beautiful women in the world, Sarah, Rahab, Abigail, and Esther. Of course, the rabbis hadn't seen the beautiful woman here at Calvary Church. Josephus said that Esther surpassed all women in beauty in the entire habitable world.
The Scripture says that. She was lovely to look at. She had a beautiful figure, was lovely to look at. Her beauty is emphasized. You know, we live in a society where many young women, and probably this is true in history, many young women and not just young women, older women as well, are very unhappy with the way they look.
Now with social media, women, certainly younger women compare themselves unfavorably with the celebrities and others who are on social media. One commentator on Esther writes, the modern cult of thin is beautiful would undoubtedly have been regarded as a bizarre preference in the ancient world. We have this in our culture, thin is beautiful. That's not true of many cultures, probably most cultures. In some cultures, if your wife is on a camel and the camel can't stand up, your wife is said to be truly beautiful. Don't try and picture that. I don't get the idea that Esther would bring a camel to its knees, do you?
I don't think so. What's true beauty? We learned about it in 1 Peter, didn't we?
Are we listening? Sisters, women of all ages. Here's true beauty. Peter said it's the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God. This is what God counts as beautiful. Isn't that more important than what your friends at school or college or your colleagues think, or you look in the mirror, you look at yourself? It's not to say that Christian women should be doubted?
No, not at all. But it is to say that the true beauty which lasts and does not put its primary focus on the external is a beauty which will grow. And the beauty most important of all is precious in the sight of God. Ladies, that beauty is worth pursuing. Whoever you are, I wonder if your true beauty is growing.
You're becoming more beautiful. She's a Jewish woman. She's a beautiful woman. Third, she's a gracious woman. She has an elegance. There's something about Esther. She finds favor with different people.
Look at verse 9. And the young woman pleased him. This is the Haggai who's got the charms of the woman. She pleased him and won his favor. The end of verse 15. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her.
Verse 17. The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight, more than all the virgins. Yes, she was beautiful, but there was more than external beauty with Esther. I believe there was that inner beauty, that beauty which is precious in the eyes of God, which is displayed to others.
May I ask you, not just the woman, but all of us, are you a person who finds favor with others? As followers of Jesus Christ, we believe very strongly on grace, don't we? In fact, our salvation is totally of the grace of God. It is not of ourselves, lest any one of us should boast.
It's not of our own doing, no. So, we believe very strongly in the grace of God, that we have received God's grace in so many ways. In our salvation primarily, but also as we celebrate it today, the grace and the blessing of God in giving us children. What is that grace displayed to others in your home, at your work? Would your colleagues say that you're a person of grace? You're not talking about someone who's weak, but a person of grace. Sad, isn't it, if we as Christians are ungracious, unkind, bad-tempered, complaining, critical, petty, harsh, self-centered.
It's really the very opposite of the Spirit of Christ, isn't it? Paul writes to the Colossians in the first century in Colossians 4, conduct yourself wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious. Your speech always gracious. You say, well I work, John, I work with some really difficult people. All the more need for you to be gracious as a follower of Jesus Christ.
We live in a world that is very harsh, that is where people insult one another, where people are extreme in their rhetoric and sometimes think that means that they're tough and they're outspoken. They just tell it as it is. Don't just tell it as it is.
Tell it graciously. In Luke chapter four, as the Lord was teaching, it said, all spoke well of Him. Now here's our Savior, and marveled at the gracious words which came out of His mouth. That's a testimony where you work, isn't it? Where there's gossip, where there's backbiting, where there's enmity, for you to show a difference as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Esther is a woman of grace. Now, four truths to remember as we wrap this up. First, and we learned this last week and we're going to continue to learn it because it's a lesson we often forget. God's invisible hand is at work behind the scenes. God's invisible hand is at work behind the scenes. Can I say to you, don't interpret, don't draw conclusions solely by what you observe.
We tend to do that. God is in control, not you. Why would a Jewish young woman be queen of Persia, the most powerful emperor at that time?
Why did the king not immediately reward Mordecai for uncovering this plot to kill him? Why? We often ask that, don't we? Why? Why did this happen?
Why this? Esther 2 is a reminder that God is at work. Yes, He's at work behind the scenes. Let God be God. Living by faith means that we trust God even when His purposes, particularly when His purposes are hidden from us. God has, as it were, for each of us, and we prayed this for these little children, God has a map, as it were, of our lives. You say, I would like to know all of that. Well, He's got a map of our lives, a way ahead of us.
He knows the end from the beginning, Isaiah tells us. And if you're like me, you would like to know the root. You would like to know the way. You would like to know what's going to happen if you do such and such.
If I do this, Lord, what's going to happen next? But often, in fact, I would say, usually, God doesn't reveal all of it to us and give you a map with all of the roads and saying, this is what's going to happen to you now and in six months you're going to be there and if you do such and such and you embark on this ministry, this is where it's going to be in four years from now, not at all. The Lord says to Abraham, go from your country to the land I will show you. And the New Testament commentary from Hebrews is this. He, Abraham, went out not knowing where he was going.
The world would say that's utterly crazy. To go out where you don't know where you're going. What's your destination? Paul in the New Testament says that those who are sons of Abraham, you know what characterizes them? Faith. Faith. This is the adventure of faith. This is what it means to live by faith.
We have faith in Christ for our salvation, but we're to live each day by faith. You want God to tell you the whole picture. You want God to tell you if you obey Him how it's going to turn out. God usually doesn't do that. He tells you, obey me. Go out. Be like Abraham.
And I can say, I hope not in a self-serving way, to some extent, I've tried to live like that. Years ago, when Gooden and I left Scotland, we'd never been to Dallas. We'd never seen it.
Never been to Texas. We didn't know how it was going to turn out. We assumed God was going to lead us back to Scotland.
That was my roadmap, as it were. And when we got the offer in my last year at seminary from the little church in Pittsburgh, you know what our initial reaction was? No, not going there. Pittsburgh?
Never been to it. Don't want to go. After months, we don't know.
This is what God is saying. How will it be? Don't even tell me what I'm going to get.
I have no idea of my compensation. That's true, John. I want you just to obey me. Go. Go.
Think of it. What a way of peace. What a way of security. To trust God in all of the circumstances. You trusted Christ for your eternal destiny, didn't you?
Why wouldn't you trust Him for this life? God is at work. His invisible hand is at work behind the scenes. Secondly, God answers before we call. A holocaust is being plotted against the Jews in Persia. We're going to learn about that. And before the crisis comes with its absolute fury and hatred against the Jewish people, God is a way ahead.
He's preparing the solution before the problem arises. Mordecai may have had an indication of the rising tensions against the Jews by some of the Persians, but God is a way ahead of them. Remember the kings of Judah when they're going against the Assyrians that outnumber them?
What are they told? Don't trust in your chariots. Remember this, that God is ahead of you. It's true that God is with us. It's true that God is for us. But I love to think that God is ahead of us. Isaiah says before they answer, before they call, I will answer.
While they are yet speaking, I will hear. Haven't you, Christian friend, discovered in your life that some situation that you never knew about, that God has provided the solution, the remedy for it, a way ahead of you. God has solutions before our problems arise because He knows the end from the beginning. What is our calling? What does an authentic Christian mean?
I'm to be an authentic follower of Christ. By definition, He is ahead of me. Yes, He's at my side.
Yes, He's for me. Yes, He lives within me, and there's a work within me. But in this way, He's ahead of me, dealing with circumstances, asking you to follow Him. Even when the path is difficult, even when you have no idea what you're doing, put your trust in Him. God answers before we call.
Third, I thought of this. What is the greatest unseen answer, at least to the world's standpoint, our sin, our failure? But in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself. Think of the deep, deep problem of sin since the Garden of Eden. How is a holy God going to accept sinful man and woman? No, all of the animal sacrifices, all of your good deeds, all of your giving cannot atone for one sin.
What's the answer? The Lamb of God is slain before the foundation of the world. That God, as He always is, is a way ahead of us. And in the eternal purposes and decrees of God, our magnificent God, our loving God, has provided a way of salvation, which to the unbelievers seems utter foolishness. Yes, says Paul, but to us who believe, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God that here is the answer to my brokenness. Here is the answer to your failure and to the mess you've made of your life. It's not to look to yourself. It's not to look to anyone. It is to look to the cross of Christ, a tragedy to the world, foolishness to the world, but to us who've been to the cross and seen the Christ dying for our sins, being buried and raised again.
It is the wisdom of God and the power of God. Have you been to the cross? You see the Savior? What does that mean to you, to know Him as your Savior?
Here's the final one. Be still and know God. It follows from what I've said, doesn't it? The God who can place a young Jewish woman as the queen of Persia, the God who can allow Mordecai to discover an assassination plot is well able, isn't he, to superintend the affairs of your life? Beyond that, the affairs of this world, so that as we saw last week that all things work together for our good and for His glory. The God who took care of His ancient people in Persia around 479 B.C. is the same God today. I'm the Lord, I change not. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The God who protected His ancient people is the God who still watches over us, working often silently and invisibly behind the scenes. What does that mean if you believe it? Stop worrying. Stop fretting. Stop being anxious. That's the context of be still and know God from Psalm 46 verse 10. Stop your striving.
Stop trying to work everything out by yourself. Be still and know God. There it is. My trust is to be in Him.
It is true there's much I don't understand. There's much in my life that I might have wanted to change, but my life is in the hands of God, this wonderful God who not only saves us, but watches over us in our Christian journey and one day is going to come for us and snatch us to be forever with Him. Meantime, you listening? Be still and know God. Be still and trust God.
Be still and love God and what an impact that will have on your life and in the lives of others that you come into contact with in a world of stress, of uncertainty, of anxiety. We as the people of God can be still and take every burden, every care, and cast it on Him and in return know that peace which passes all understanding. Will you pray with me? And as we pray, will you still your heart?
If you've never looked at the cross, will you do that? Look to Christ, the Savior, the Lord, alive forevermore. Place your faith in Him. Turn from your empty life and your willful way of living and look to Christ and Christ alone. We sang about it in Christ alone. My hope and my strength and my peace are found.
Look to Christ and if you've done that, be still today and know God. We sometimes panic at events. We sometimes are stubborn. We sometimes resist you. Forgive us, Father. Thank you that you're a living God. Thank you that you are greater than us, that your ways are unsearchable, but we trust you. We want to be sons of Abraham, men and women of faith, not basing our lives on the things of this world, but looking to you, the living God. And so we cry to you afresh this morning at the conclusion of this service. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
