Good morning. We are going through a series in the book of Esther and I will ask you in a moment to turn to Esther chapter five. I want to give testimony to the fact that the Lord is good to me as a pastor a preacher in his providence and you know that we go through week by week different Psalms for some meditations and we just happen. I say that in quotes. It just happens. It doesn't just happen. God providentially brought about Psalm 57 in the place where we are today. And in that it's going to under underline some of the truths I've been trying to get at in the message in just a little bit. But we just sang or we just read as well in Psalm 57 a situation where David is being chased. He's being has enemies against him threatening his life. And there we read they spread a net for my feet. I was bowed down in distress they dug a pit in my path but they have fallen into it themselves. In the book of Esther we are at the point where the enemies of God's people through the person specifically of Haman the enemies of God are digging a pit for the nation of Israel seeking to see them destroyed and in response to God's mercy and in response to the people's prayer. They fall into the pit themselves. Hayman especially is going to fall into the pit and this is just one of the portions of scripture that we'll see. I'm going to be quoting several of them today where we see a promise of God really looking at these things as a common experience in the life of a believer where God's enemies are thwarted and God has mercy on his people. In a sense this message today is part two of the last message that I gave a couple weeks ago on prayer and fasting. And as we left that passage last time we saw in Chapter four Esther pleading with Mordecai to rally the Jews rally the people of God to pray on her behalf specifically a means of seeking God in his favor in this time of great distress. We left the situation with the people of God facing a terrible threat a massive genocide. It was a plot to have all of the neighbors of these Jews at one particular day given basically a license to kill them to go in and plunder their homes and do whatever they wanted. Well we left the people of God in Chapter 4 with Mordecai covered in ashes sackcloth. He was wearing sackcloth. He was wandering through the streets mourning and wailing in his sorrow over what was taking place. And he's joined by in that anguish by the people of God throughout the kingdom of the Persian Empire. Esther the queen was beside herself personally she was thinking about what might come of going before the king which she was about to do. She had planned and come to that conviction that she needed to go before the king and lay before him the plight of her people. She would have to reveal that she was a Jew. She would have to make a petition to the king but she knew that in doing that she was going to have to break the law. She was going to have to approach the king when she was not summoned and to do that meant death. So she was beside herself. All this while the wicked Haman is sitting. Do you remember where he's sitting? He's sitting on the porch with the king and they're drinking and Haman is gloating about his wicked plot to kill these people. A wicked wicked man and this is the situation we left it in in Chapter four. If we stop to admit it this is often the situation for believers. David we just got done reading about in Psalm 57 was in a situation where he's in a horrific situation. His life is being threatened all the time. The king is against him. He's finding everything turning away from his hope and his ends. Well in this huge battle of good versus evil going on around us it does seem at times to us that evil is winning. That the enemies of God's people are actually in charge they are advancing while we are falling apart. We may say with the psalmist in Psalm 73 and let me quote some of that. Here's the psalmist who says I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They're not in trouble as others are they. They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. Pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. They scoff and they speak with malice. Loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues strut through the earth. Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease. They increase in riches." Esther and Mordecai might be thinking specifically about Haman who sits with the king in his riches and his power and are wondering about what they can do against them. From our perspectives at times the wicked do seem to be sitting on the porch as it were just drinking it up and gloating over things while the Christian often struggles and moans under the oppression and under the weight of the evil that is in the world all around them. But whereas that's where we kind of left them in the passage last week chapter four two weeks ago actually it was them gloating on the porch sitting there drinking it up over their wicked schemes and thinking about all the things they plan to do to harm the believers. What we found was the righteous sitting in dust and ashes covered in sackcloth, in sorrow and in anguish. But that wasn't the end of the story. That's not the end of the story. That's just the end of chapter four. And I want you to be thinking about that. That's just the end of the chapter. We should also note that we left the righteous people, these people who are in anguish, who are sorrowful and going through hardship, We also left them in anguish in prayer in fervent prayer and in fasting. And that means that we left the people of God in active faith. And that's an important difference. We factor which changes everything. These who are exercising true faith. Jesus said that that kind of faith can move mountains. We are given the promise in James chapter five or 16 that the fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much In other words, it accomplishes great things. It's powerful and effective. And so the story is not over by any means. That phrase, the fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much, you might say it this way, the active faith which demonstrates itself in prayer of the one who looks for righteousness outside of himself in the person of Jesus Christ, that prayer accomplishes powerful things. And there's great power in prayer, even to alter the natural course of events. We said last time, The prayer changes things it really does change the outcome calling upon God himself to turn the schemes of the wicked against them back upon themselves. Well the story of the book of Esther if we look at the whole story standing back and look at the whole story we could summarize it maybe this way it's a lesson in the sovereignty of God the sovereignty of God over all the events of history and the significant role that man plays and he's called to play in God's sovereign plan. Well we witnessed that God has a plan for his people and it's a plan to bless them not to curse them. God promises to do blessing to his people and to rescue them from the wickedness that is in the world and to use their acts of obedience as a crucial part of the great plan itself. In today's passage we're going to see the promises of God regarding faith and prayer. And we're going to see them being fulfilled in a specific situation in the situation where Mordecai and Esther are crying out to God along with the people for deliverance. We will see those promises of God acted out. We get a glimpse into the bigger picture. We can stand back and we see that God yes who has promised that he would bless his people actually does. He has promised that when we pray and seek him he actually does. And it's really important that we stand back and do that at times. Because it reminds us that our discouragement and in our stressful times when we're living in a difficult world fighting a difficult battle that evil is not winning. Evil is not winning the wicked though they may be sitting on their porch drinking and gloating. They are not winning and they are not having it good. God is on our side our safety to secure. He is our lofty, strong tower, a great help in times of trouble. We sang in Psalm 71 those kinds of truths. Now let's go to the Scripture here in Esther chapter 5. We'll read the chapter there, all of 14 verses. And I want you to listen to this story being played out. Beginning at verse 1 of chapter 5. God's Word now. On the third day. Now let me back up. Let me go back to verse 15 of chapter 4. Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai, go gather together all the Jews who are in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. And I and my maids will fast as you do. And when this is done, I will go to the king, even though it's against the law. And if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions. On the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and she stood in the inner court of the palace in front of the king's hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall facing the entrance and when he saw Queen Esther standing in the court he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand and so Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. Then the king asked what is it Queen Esther what is your request. Even if the half the kingdom and it will be given to you. If it pleases the king, replied Esther, let the king together with Haman come today to a banquet I have prepared for him. Bring Haman at once, the king said, so that we may do what Esther asks. So the king and Haman went to the banquet Esther had prepared and as they were drinking wine, the king again asked Esther, now what is your petition? It will be given to you and what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom and it will be granted. And Esther replied, my petition and my request is this. If the king regards me with favor and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them and then I will answer the king's question. Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence he was filled with rage against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him, and how he had elevated him above all the other nobles and officials. And that's not all, Haman added, I'm the only person that Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave, and she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew, Mordecai, sitting at the king's gate. His wife, Zeresh, and all his friends said to him, have a gallows built 75 feet high and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy. This suggestion delighted Haman. And he had the gallows built. In summary as we're looking at the topic of the fruit of fervent prayer and fasting we could say that the fruit we find that God brings about in response to Esther's fasting really along with the people of God was the advancement of the kingdom of God and the destruction of the wicked. That's actually always the result of the prayer of the righteous when they are in line with what God's will is. Esther prayed and God exalted her and her people and he caused the schemes of the wicked to come to nothing. In fact he caused their enemies to fall into their own trap according to the promises that he had said in his word. Certainly there were two things that must have been prayed for by this great nation of the Jews and by Esther and by Mordecai. They must have been praying very specifically in two areas. One they had been charged to pray especially for Esther as she went before the king. Because she was going to go uninvited. And certainly they would be aware that when you do that, you're going to be threatening your own life. And secondly, they would have also prayed for a deliverance from Haman's wicked plot to put them all to death. When someone's going to kill you and you're asking God to intervene, you pray earnestly. You pray fervently. You add fasting to your prayer. Both of these petitions were offered in faith and they were in accordance with the will of God. And because they were in accordance with the will of God, they were powerfully answered favorably. We begin with the first result. A king gives a favorable disposition, a king who is favorably disposed in verses one through eight. They've been praying that he would be favorably disposed. And what happens? God grants it. We read in verse one, on the third day, Esther put on her royal robes. And stood in the inner court of the palace in front of the King's Hall. That's against the law. You don't just do that. But she did on the third day. What's the third day? The third day is the third day likely of that fast that she had called for. The third day of that fast. The fast is coming to an end and now she must act. She can't just pray and sit there. She has to do something. She's going to do an act in obedience. She's going to have to trust that the Lord who holds the disposition of the heart of the king in his hand by the way which is a teaching of the scripture. Proverbs chapter 21 verse 1 says that the Lord holds the king's heart in his hand and he can dispose it whichever way he wants. So they had prayed and asked the Lord God according to his word that he would dispose the king in favor toward her. And he did. The prayer of faith often requires the faith of action as well. And when we pray, we're not suddenly given license to disregard common sense and just act like God's just going to change everything on our own. We need to act in obedience. We trust the Lord and we act in common sense and prudence in our subsequent actions. God's ultimate rule and providence doesn't dismiss our responsibility to be prudent. We can praise Esther for being courageous in going against the law here and really being willing to give up her own life if it were to take it that. We can praise her about that but we ought to praise her also for her prudence in going to the king how she did it because how she did it made a big difference. We read that she put on her royal robes before she did that I think she must have begun to make a banquet because it later on says the banquet she had prepared they went to. So she had prepared the banquet put on her royal robes afterwards and then went to the king knowing that that was a dangerous thing to do. But she had prayed. She had asked the Lord to dispose the king's heart that he held in his hand toward her favor. She dressed appropriately now to do what? What was the prudence here? She dressed appropriately to show honor to her husband. She didn't rush in. She didn't do so defiantly against the law. She showed respect to her husband. And here we see a difference between what Esther did and what Vashti did, the previous wife. Both women here are faced with, in a sense, a ridiculous rule. It's a rule that insults their dignity as humans, in a sense insults their dignity as women. But how one responds to insult and how one responds to injustice tells us a lot about the character of the individual. You remember that Vashti was defiant against her husband in that silly rule when he summoned her. She didn't want to go out there and do what he was saying. It was ridiculous. It was not only ridiculous, it would be shameful for her to do that. And yet she was in no way showed to her husband there was respect for him and what she was doing. She simply refused to come when she was summoned. And yet here Esther is prudent in following as much protocol as she can possibly follow and yet still showing that one act of defiance. This act of putting on her royal robes before approaching the king was a show of respect to him and it proved helpful in altering the king's disposition toward her and toward what otherwise would have been construed as an act of pure defiance. If she just came barging in there on her own and said, now listen, King, I've got some things to tell you. That wouldn't have been the wise and prudent thing to do. Verse 2 says she approached and she touched the top of the scepter. I want you to listen to what Jameson, Fawcett and Brown say about that action. They're going into historical situation a little bit. They know what the Persian Empire was like and they know what the scepter was all about. This is what they say. This was the usual way of acknowledging the royal condescension. And at the same time expressing reverence and submission to the august majesty of the king. So she was showing respect for her husband and for the king in his position. God works according to means. We've said that again and again. And prudence is an act of obedience that constitutes one of his approved means just as prayer is. Prayer in faith, prudence in faith. Now, you remember that previously the king had not been disposed to the queen. We read earlier that it had been 30 days since he had even talked to her. He certainly had not summoned her to be with her in a nice relationship. And yet, yet after fasting and prayer, there's a new disposition. Don't think that that just happened. The fervent prayer of the saints is powerful, it's effective, it changes things. The king is not only willing to have her approach him without the penalty of death. His heart is so disposed now in favor to her that he greets her with these words in verse 31 verse 3. What is it Queen Esther. What's your request. Even if the half the kingdom and it will be granted to you. What. You who wouldn't talk to me for 30 days now want to give me half the kingdom if I ask for it. Now you have to understand that phrase half the kingdom. You have to understand that correctly. It was a proverbial expression not really intended to be taken literally but rather it's used to express from this king to his wife how willing he is to give her whatever she asks for. The king really wasn't at liberty constitutionally in the Persian Empire to give her half the kingdom. He couldn't do it. But he is saying to his dear wife if I could grant you this I will give you whatever you ask for. That's his disposition. It's inclusion in the passage of Scripture following what we just saw in chapter four. Remember there's an order in God's word. He puts things on purpose where he puts them. He puts chapter four where they have just prayed and sought the Lord in fasting and prayer right before this change of disposition so that we see it. It's intended to drive home the point that prayer and fasting have powerful results. The heart of a king who hadn't even spoken to his wife in 30 days now is disposed to grant her whatever she wants. That's the first half of the fruit that comes as a result of prayer and fasting. But then there's the second half. We also see that the enemy is defeated even when it doesn't look like it. Now note my phrase there, even when it doesn't look like it, the enemy is defeated. I say it that way because in chapter five, you still don't see the end of the story yet. It's like chapter four in the sense that we're left with this wicked scheming to destroy the righteous. Heyman ends chapter five by building a ridiculous monstrosity of a death machine to demonstrate to the world the public humiliation of this man Mordecai. He cannot stand. Now I don't know how high a normal scaffolding would be built but it has to be lower than 20 feet. Seventy five feet high. That would be way over this building. I mean You're talking about staircases that go up and up and up and up and up until you finally have this platform with a little hanger up there. The noose. And the idea is to hang this guy Mordecai where everybody can see him. To totally humiliate the enemy and say Haman built that to get rid of his enemies and look what happens. Haman always wins. Not so. Haman does not win. This reminds us that in our lives things may look pretty bad at points which things going very poorly and yet that may be the end of only a particular chapter in your life. Notice that we haven't seen the ending yet. In light of this we are called to pray and we're called to pray and in faith fervently petitioning our Heavenly Father who has ordained that this means by prayer and by fasting there would be change. He's ordained that things don't look good for Mordecai and the Jews yet. The enemy doesn't seem to be destroyed. But what is the reality? Honestly, what is the reality when the people have prayed and put their faith in God? Having sought God earnestly in prayer, we must understand that things have changed. They have changed. God is turning back Israel's enemies in response to his promise. We stand from our vantage point in history. It's a really nice vantage point after the fact, and we can look at it. You don't have that benefit when you're right in the moment always. But we can see that the very gallows that Haman was building to humiliate and to destroy Mordecai, God is going to use to humiliate and destroy the enemy. There's a tremendous irony here and we don't see it in chapter five. All you see is the end. Haman is building this gallows to kill Mordecai and it's coming up the next day, next morning. But you read a little bit farther. From our vantage point, we get to go to the next page. We get to go to the next chapter. And the next chapter says that Haman is going to hang on his own gallows. He's going to fall into his own pit, his own trap that he set for the righteous. He's going to fall into as the wicked. And that's a promise of God that happens over and over again in the scripture. This is in perfect keeping with God's revealed word. And yet, from any given moment of history, You have a difficult time seeing that we can't see the next chapter. We always always know what's going to happen. We look at the circumstances and our weak faith. We fail to see what God has promised if we would but turn to him in prayer and fasting. Well let's take this opportunity to stand back and look for a minute at the big picture as we must do in our own circumstances even though we can't read the next chapter. Let's look at the enemy Haman for a minute. And then look at what God says about the enemies of God and you can apply these to our situation. Haman really stands in the scripture here as the epitome of a worldly man. He is the worldly man. He's a godless man who like so many people even people in our day lives his life for his own advancement and his own pleasure only. He pursues things like money. He wants more money. He wants more power. He wants prestige in the eyes of his of his peers. And he pursues these as his highest pursuits, because he doesn't really know that there's anything else to pursue. He pursues it with a vengeance. Now, here's the reality. What God says in this book, what he says in the Bible is true. It is the foundation for truth. Absolutely. And because that's the case, Those who deny that God maybe exists at all or that he has spoken through the word and many many people say yeah maybe a good book and may have some good moral teaching but it's not God's word. It certainly can't be infallible without mistakes in errant. No no those people who say that who deny that are going to have to ignore what is the truth revealed. And listen to this precious let's just take one example with precious truth of gem from First Timothy Chapter six. Now my mind you Haman didn't have the advantage of the New Testament yet but the truth of it would be still true. First Timothy 6 6 through 9 says this. Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing with these we will be content for those who desire to be rich. fall into temptation into a snare into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. That's a truth that God reveals clearly in the in the New Testament. Is that a truth that wasn't present in the Old Testament. It's present there as well in different forms. God's truth is that man who pursues riches, power, and praise of men are choosing a path of destruction. Note that. Haman is pursuing this. He's clearly interested in the praise of men. At the end of verse 10, he calls them all together, all these friends of his, so that he can talk to them about all of his accomplishments. This is the epitome of worldliness. I want people to pay attention to me. I want you to think that I'm nice, that I'm good, that I'm great. Look at me, everyone. Look at me and see how good I am. See what I've done. See how great I've been blessed. He's a self-promoter. He's boastful. He's full of pride. His tongue wags on about those things his friends and his family undoubtedly already knew. Right? You've been promoted to the king. Number one, I knew that. You have sons? His wife says to him, oh, surprise, surprise, you have sons. I know about those sons, I gave birth to them and so on. This is the kind of thing he's doing. He's just mouthing off about things that are already known. Another portion of the scripture warns, and this is in the Old Testament, about boasting. Proverbs 27.2 says, Let another man praise you and not your own mouth. Let somebody else praise you. Don't be the one who promotes yourself. Don't let your mouth be the one to do that. But also note that for all of his success, He really was number two in the kingdom, this guy. It doesn't matter all of the success that he had in pursuing health and power and fame and money and so on. Haman's still not satisfied, is he? He was temperamental. One moment when he is honored by what he thought was an honor by the queen, the queen had me come to this party and I was the only one apart from the king who was invited. I must be really something. Even though that's going on. He's honored there. He's the happiest man alive. Look at verse nine. He's happy. But that's short lived, so short lived that in the very same sentence, he goes on and he's beats Mordecai in the street as his way out away from the party. He's coming out of the party and there's that guy, the guy who doesn't acknowledge that I'm great. There's just one guy. There's only one who doesn't acknowledge. I could have just don't worry about him. Still, everybody else thinks I'm great. No, even if there's one guy who doesn't think I'm the greatest, it ruins everything. I'm not satisfied. When Mordecai would not rise before Haman, it says, all of his worldly pursuits were valued as nothing to him. I don't care about all those things that I feel blessed about. I want more. I want this guy who doesn't rise. I want him to rise when I walk outside the door. Interestingly enough, what was it earlier that bothered Haman. I said he wouldn't bow down. He wouldn't go down. Now he won't rise up. Well, what do you want, Haman? You're not satisfied, are you? You're not going to be satisfied with whatever I do. For the wicked, even the good things of life, and he has many, many good things. Haman has many good things. But for the wicked, even the good things of life are ruined by pride. He would not be pleased regardless. Now know that here Mordecai did not rise from Haman, he's infuriated. Chapter three, he's incensed when he won't bow down. Nothing's going to suffice. And so he plots the death of Mordecai. He digs a pit for Mordecai to fall into. He sets a trap, he builds a gallows. But from this vantage point, separated from the moment itself, we're able to see something clearly. We remember what God has said about his enemies. Let me give you these four passages that are in your bulletin outline. Proverbs 26, verses 27 and 28 says, whoever digs a pit will fall into it. And a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling. Proverbs 21, verse 12 says, the righteous one, that's God, he observes the house of the wicked and he throws the wicked down to ruin. It's a promise. Psalm 64, verses 2 through 8, hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked. From that noisy crowd of evildoers, they plot against injustice. And they say, we have devised a perfect plan. Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning, but God will shoot them with arrows. Suddenly they will be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin. All who see them will shake their heads in scorn. All who see them will shake their heads. I'm getting ahead of myself, but next week, Haman's going to be hanging on that gallows. And he would have wished he'd built it 20 feet high. Because now it's 75 feet in the air. And all of those who see it will hang their heads, shake their heads in scorn. Psalm 146, verses 8 and 9, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widow and the fatherless. But the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. Word of God says that the wicked are not winning. The promise of God's word is that the Lord plunges the wicked into ruin and destruction. And this he does. In response to prayer. And fasting. Esther is given the favorable disposition of the king and an opportunity to lay before the king the plight of her people. And what's more, the enemy of God's people is plunged into ruin. Even though at the moment God's people couldn't see it. They could not see that he was doing so after they prayed. They don't get to notice all the details of how the Lord is turning back evil. They couldn't see it. So I ask you this morning, this is a very personal application for you, do you have faith Do you have faith? Do you believe with your whole heart that the Word of God is true when it says that the wicked will be destroyed? They will be plunged into ruin. That the righteous are winning. That Jesus Christ sits on the throne of heaven. He rules over all things on behalf of His church. Do you believe it? Do you believe every word that proceeds from the mouth of God recorded in His Word? Because Hebrews 11 tells us that faith I asked you if you had faith. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. We don't see it. We look around the world right now and we say, what's going on? The wicked are winning. God has promised the destruction of the wicked. He has promised to guide you. He's promised to protect you. But I remind you of the central lesson that we had two weeks ago. God has ordained that many of these promises would only be fulfilled through the means of our earnest and fervent prayer. That has some implications. What happens if we don't pray? He's taught us to pray. The Lord Jesus met with his disciples and I was sharing with the men who met for prayer yesterday morning, I was sharing how I can't get over how concise the Lord's prayer is, how simple it is. but how it covers so much in its main thing. But one of the things he said was, you pray this way, your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He's taught us to pray and ask that we would be delivered from evil on this earth. Lord, deliver us from this evil. We look around us and we do see wickedness. We do see a lot of it. But Lord, deliver us from that. Keep us personally from temptation, but deliver us from this thing out here in the world. Are you doing that by faith? Are you praying that prayer? Because Jesus taught us to do it. And it was one of the only things he taught us to pray. Lord, deliver us from this evil. Send your kingdom in the hearts of people all around us so that, in fact, your kingdom comes and the will that's done in heaven will be done here on the earth. Are we praying that that'll take place on the earth? It's important that we pray what he tells us to pray. that he would cause those who practice evil and plot harm to Christians to fall into their own trap. You know that's part of my kingdom coming. It's been said that when the kingdom of God comes that means that the kingdom of Satan and those who are part of it would be destroyed. And that's a hard prayer to say when we don't know who they are. We can ask we honestly pray Lord May you destroy the wicked, whoever they are, and you know those are yours. Are you praying with fervency that God's kingdom would come? Are you praying that we've done now? May God's word over these couple of weeks that we've been studying this impact us and drive us to fervent prayer for the advancement of God's kingdom and the turning back of those who do evil. And the Bible ends with one verse this way in Revelation 22 20. He who testifies to these things says surely I am coming soon. That's Jesus speaking. I am coming soon. And so we echo with the one who wrote that. Amen. Come Lord Jesus. Thy kingdom come and I will be done. Let's pray. Father, we confess to you that we have not taken advantage of the means of prayer that we should. We have not prayed with fervency and with earnestness about this matter of the kingdom coming and your will being done. We get so involved in our temporal things and temporal things is where we live, but Lord, help us not to be so caught up in that that we can't see the bigger picture. and what you're doing in those temporal things. Father, we do ask you, whose name we desire to be hallowed, that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. We do pray, Lord, that you would deliver us from evil. Keep us personally from temptation. Help us to walk in the path that you've laid out for us. But then, Lord, deliver us from the evil around us. We ask this in the name of the one who is coming soon, Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen. All right, let's turn to a psalm that really does ask the Lord to send his kingdom. Psalm 83, Selection C. We'll sing Psalm 83C and we'll remain standing for the benediction. Would you rise with me to sing these four stanzas, please?