Well, thank you, Christopher. It's great for us to be here. We've been looking forward to this for several weeks now and appreciate this church so very much. We pray for you and thank you for praying for us and for your interests in our ministry. I appreciated the opportunity to share this morning in the Sunday school hour and just how God works in our lives. I failed to mention for those of you who were here during that time that the problems that I had with my back and leg disappeared when we got to Zambia and haven't bothered me since then. You figure it out, you know. But again, we're just thankful to the Lord for how he works in our lives. God is a sovereign God. He's in charge. He's powerful. And one of the things that I need to continue to remind myself is that, you know, I need to rely on his promises. I shared those verses about God being with us wherever we go and even God being there before we even get there. And so I'm just thankful for that. And for me, again, I need to recognize that I don't have the wisdom or the strength to do what God is asking me to do. None of us do. None of us do. And oftentimes that's an obstacle because we say we can't do it. And that just negates what God wants us to do. And my motto, which I tell myself all the time, is that life is hard, but God is faithful. And life is hard. We want it to be easy, but it is not going to get easy. In fact, it's going to get harder. Life is hard. Just so thankful for a faithful God. And my wife and I, we're really thankful that at this stage in our life that God wants to continue to use us. For us, it's like, what is going on here? We're supposed to move south and downsize. Instead, we move north and upsize. It's just like crazy. But again, God is faithful. He knows the plan from the beginning to the end. I don't know, how many of you have a swimming pool? Anybody here have a swimming pool, an in-ground pool? Oh man, I'm the only one? I hate pools. It has been nothing but work. That's my wife. When I first saw it, I said, I can't believe it. It's nothing but work. Our granddaughters just love it. And it's heated, no less. I know that because of my electric bill. But they get in the pool and they say, Papa, turn up the heat. I'm like, no. Anyway. We're just thankful to the Lord for moving us to Concord. It was just something that came out of nowhere for us, but we're very, very thankful to the Lord. I believe as I looked back on my, I try to keep a list of where I've been and what I did, because I can't remember like last week where I was. So I know that the last time I was here, unless I made a mistake, we were looking in Isaiah chapter 40. I'm sure you all remember that. And so today we're going to continue in Isaiah chapter 41, just so we build upon what you remember from last time. But I wasn't necessarily planning this, but I just, you know, in my own personal, time with the Lord. I probably shared this when we talked about Isaiah chapter 40. God really, really encouraged me through that chapter when I needed encouragement. I just was like, it was just a down time in our lives. And just, you know, just reading God's word, God just lifted me up. And I kick myself sometimes when I don't take the time, sometimes in the morning. I mean, it's hard at times with our schedule because it's a precious time to spend with God. And I'm just so thankful for that. So I'll refer a little bit in the beginning to Isaiah 40, but we'll look primarily in chapter 41 up to verse 20 this morning. But let's pray first. Father, thank you for your goodness and love and care for us. Thank you for your kindness to us and thank you for how you are sovereign over our lives and you know the plan that you have for us from the beginning to the end. And there's nothing that's going to happen that is going to stop you from working out that plan. And we just pray that you would help us to deal with the things that come up in our lives in a proper way, knowing that you are sovereign and that you desire only our good. And so we just ask for just encouragement and strength and wisdom that we would be able to handle those things that come our way. Thank you for your faithfulness there. and pray that you would speak to us this morning. Encourage us, Lord. We need encouragement. Encourage us today through your word. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Not long ago, I was reading in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. I mentioned this a couple of times already this morning, that I'm not strong enough, I'm not smart enough. And in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse 12, that's where that came from. Same thing, reading this in the morning, one morning. And this was the time that Jehoshaphat was king over the southern kingdom. He was facing a multitude of military people coming against the people of Israel, the southern kingdom. And he had no idea. He had no idea what to do. And he prayed. He prayed. You know, of all things, hey, let's pray. You know, I mean, he prayed. That's what we need to do. And he prayed, and one of the things he said, in verse 12, he says, O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we, and I say I, have no might, I'm not strong, against this great company that cometh against us, neither know I what to do. I'm not strong enough, and I am not smart enough. But what does he say? Our eyes are upon you. Who's the one that's strong enough and smart enough? That's where we have to go. And so, you know, as I look to our lives now, anyone, you never know from day to day what is going to come up. I mean, it's kind of a joke in our home because we say to each other, so what are we going to do tomorrow? And I say, well, I'm going to get out of the bed, and within like a half an hour, my schedule will change. And that's really not an exaggeration. That happens so often. Things come up that change the schedule. And we need to be able to trust God with those changes. Sometimes it's just a minor thing. Sometimes it's a major thing. And we need to be in the right frame of mind, spiritually strong, filled with the spirit, so we can deal with those things that come up like that. And in our lives, we've had a lot of days like that recently. So thankful to the Lord. In Isaiah chapter 40, I mentioned last time, and in reading this chapter the first time for me, I'm like, what is going on here? I couldn't really understand it completely. I really had to study it and look at it and just pray, God, show me what is going on here. But the book of Isaiah up to this point, up until chapter 39, It's all talking about judgment, judgment on the people of Israel, that they were a disobedient people, and God was gonna judge them. Judgment, judgment, judgment. And then you come to chapter 40, first word in chapter 40, first verse, comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. So he changes, changes the message here from judgment to comfort. There's gonna come a time when God is gonna comfort his people. He's gonna take care of his people. And it's talking about the time when Jesus Christ is gonna come. Talking about, in this verse, in this chapter 40, it's referenced to John the Baptist, the voice said, cry, what did he say, which I cry, oh, that's the wrong verse, sorry. but talking about the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, verse 3. And so he's talking about what's going to come about, and then he starts in verse 12 talking about God. Who is God? Who is this God that is in charge, that is their God, the faithful God? Who is he? And verse 12, who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him? Nobody has taught God how to do anything. Nobody. And God is the creator. That's what he's talking about. And then he's omniscient, he knows everything, verse 14, with whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding. So he's a creator, he's omniscient, and also he's sovereign over the nations. Verse 15, behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. The isles, the coastlands, that's gonna come up in verse 41, in chapter 41. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn while the beasts, they're all sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as what? Nothing. And they are counted to him less than nothing in vanity or emptiness. To whom then were you like in God? The answer is no one, right? No one. No one is like God. To whom then will you liken God? I take a lot of solace in God's sovereignty in the times that we're living in today. I mean, if I didn't believe we have a sovereign God, I don't know what I would do. I mean, the world is out of control, really isn't, but you know, it's under God's control. God's working out his plan, but in our mind, it's out of control. It's out of control. And I don't know how people do it that don't know the Lord, that aren't Christian people. How do they survive with all that is going on without being so crazy in their mind? Skip down to verse 25, to whom then will you liken me? Or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? You can't compare God to anyone, he's incomparable. And then verse 26, this really caught my attention back then. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things. Talking about the stars that bringeth out their host by number, he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one fails. All the stars. Not one fails. And what really struck me, he says, he calls them all by name. He knows the names of all the stars. Just that alone is incredible. That alone. But you know what? If he knows the stars' names, he knows my name. God knows what's going on in my life today. Today. God knows what's going on in my life. He knows what's going on in your life today. I look out here, I see people, some I know, some I don't know, but I do not know what is going on in your life. I do not know. You know a little bit about what's going on in my life today, but I don't know what's going on in your life, but I'll tell you what, there's something going on that's challenging you, I'm sure. We all have challenges, physical, financial, family, whatever it is. And God knows that. God knows that. And Isaiah here in chapter 40 is talking to the people of Israel who are in captivity, the Babylonian captivity. Now, I don't understand it all. They are actually, at the time of the writing, they are not in captivity. They haven't been to captivity yet. But he's talking to them as if they were. And he's saying to them, and this was probably their complaint when they were in captivity, He says in verse 27, Why sayeth thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? In other words, why are you saying that God doesn't know what's going on in your life and that he doesn't care? My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment, or my course, my life, is passed over from my God. He doesn't know, and he doesn't care. You can't say that. That's what he's saying to them. This is the God that he just talked about, the sovereign God, the creator of the heavens and earth, that knows the stars' names, that knows our names. And he's saying to them, that God, you can never say that that God doesn't know what's going on in your life. And especially, you can't say that he doesn't care, that he doesn't care what's going on. Praise the Lord that we have a God like that, that cares about us. And I'll just read to the end here, verse 28. Has thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is wary. There's no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint. strength through the faint, and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. God will give us the strength that we need to deal with what has come into our lives. He will help us. Verse 31, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. Those that wait expectantly on the Lord shall renew their strength. We need to be trusting God. We need to be looking to God for help in difficult times, for direction in our lives, even when things aren't crazy. It's going to give us the strength that we need that we think that we don't have, which we don't have. You don't have the strength. I mean, if we knew all that was going to happen with us in moving to Concord, we would never have moved. We would never have moved. Honestly, our lives, I said this before, are not the same. It's not just that we moved from Drake at Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire. We changed our life. We changed our life. We're in a different circumstance now than we were just a few months ago. And that's a challenge. Some of you have been through that. It's a challenge. And we can't do it in our own strength. We need the Lord. We need the Lord. Every time I deal with the pool, I'm like, God, why a pool? But he knows we needed the pool to bring our granddaughters to our house so we could have an influence in their lives and be a help to our daughter, a swimming pool. But on top of that, what did God bring? Deer. Every morning, deer. We look out our bedroom window, and there the deer are. and the wild turkeys, and the fox, all that stuff. God's creation. I mean, it's beautiful. There are hard things in there. And then God blesses, you know, with other things. So praise the Lord for that. God is sovereign in our lives. He's taking care of us. He's working out his plan in each one of our lives. So we come down to chapter 41, verse one. Keep silence before me, O islands, and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let us come near together to what? Judgment. Wow, wait a minute, only one chapter? He's talking about comfort? Now he's talking about judgment again? Well, no, not exactly. He's talking about judgment against the nations. against the nations, not the Israelite people. Keep silence before me, O islands, coastlands. It's translated sometimes. This is verse 15 of chapter 40. We saw this verse. Behold, he taketh up the islands the isles, the coastlands as a very little thing. Essentially talking about the nations of the world. Keep silence before me, O islands, our nations, and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near and let them speak. Let us come near together to judgment. It's almost like he's calling a calling them to court, that, okay, we're gonna talk about this. We're gonna get together. We're gonna talk about this. We're gonna have a trial. And then he presents his first witness, verse two, who, talking about a person here, who raised up the righteous man. Who raised up the righteous, or the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them and passed safely, even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first. And with the last, I am he. I did this, he's saying. He asked the question in verse two, who? The answer is God. I did this. Who raised up the righteous? Man from the East. Who is he talking about? Who is he talking about? God raised up someone who was gonna come against the nations. And he's going to defeat these nations that are against Israel. He's going to liberate the Israelites from their captivity. God is going to do this, but he's going to use an unlikely person to do it. Amazing. Go back to Ezra. Ezra in our Bibles. I can find Ezra, I could not find. I could not find Ecclesiastes in my Bible this morning in Sunday school. I admit it, I admit it. I still don't know where it is. It's here somewhere, I know. Ezra. See, look at that, Ezra. Ezra, Ezra, I'm in Job. You know, something happens when you come up here behind the pulpit. It's just not the same. You just can't find things in your Bible. Ezra chapter one, verse one, now in the first year of who? Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all the kingdoms, and put it also in writing, saying, thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? Has his God be with him? And let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house, of the Lord God of Israel, he is the God which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. God raised up Cyrus. Cyrus. Most people believe that Cyrus was an unbelieving man. I believe that. It refers to him, it seems, in verse 1 of chapter 41 as righteous, on verse 2, sorry, who raised up the righteous man, but raised him up for righteousness, I think, is a better translation. This Cyrus, God raised him up to liberate the people, the Israelite people from their captivity. He refers to Jeremiah, that the word of the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. Does God fulfill prophecy? Amazing. Chapter 25, verse 12 of Jeremiah. Chapter 25, verse 12. It says there, and it shall come to pass when 70 years are accomplished that I, talking about God, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. God is gonna do it. After 70 years, he promised them. In Jeremiah 29, verse 10, Jeremiah 29, verse 10. For thus says the Lord that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end, a future and a hope. God promised and he raised up Cyrus to be the instrument to liberate the people of Israel from the captivity, not only liberate them, but allow them to rebuild the city, rebuild the temple. And he sent them out with goods. People gave them stuff as they went. So they had what they needed to go. In verse five of Isaiah 41, the Isles saw it, We'll say the nations saw it, the pagan nations, they saw this, that Cyrus was raised up to come against them, to liberate the people. The Isles saw it and feared. The ends of the earth were afraid. They drew near and came. So all of these enemies of Israel, they're now gathering together. They're saying, okay, God is going to liberate them. We have to get together. We have to be able to withstand this, to beat this back. They helped everyone, his neighbor, and everyone said to his brother, be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith. And he that smoother with the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying, it is ready for the soldering. And he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved." What were they doing? They were making stronger and better idols. Stronger and better idols to defeat the Lord. Foolishness, right? We think it's foolishness. A lot of people believe in this. You go to the Asian countries, outside every home, they have a statue of an idol. They call it something. I can't remember. Shrine. Thank you. See, I told you. It's in France, so she tells me what to say. A shrine. Every home, honestly, every home is a shrine. And they put food and incense and stuff. The idols. We were in India one time when we were trying to get down a road and we had to stop. They stopped all the traffic and this cart was coming down the road with a statue on it. It was an idol. And the story was that after so many hundreds of years, this god woke up. A statue. It woke up. And so now they were celebrating that this idol has woken up after so many hundreds of years. And they were parading down the street, and people that had nothing were bringing food out for this statue. They believe in this strongly. Satan has blinded their minds. People that we live next to, I mean, in general, Satan has blinded their minds. We live near people like this. You all do. We present the gospel, we share the gospel with them, and we say, this makes perfect sense to me. And they say, this makes no sense to me. Why? Satan has blinded their minds. So they're making these strong idols. Verse 8, but thou, Israel, art my servant. Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend, wow, my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called thee from the chief men thereof and said unto thee, thou art my servant. I have chosen thee and not cast thee away. God is never gonna turn his back on his people, never. I'm so thankful He's talking here, obviously, about the nation of Israel. But I say, well, he's chosen me too. I'm thankful that God has chosen me. I didn't choose God. God chose me. And he is not going to fail me either. He is not going to fail me. He promises me that. It's not going to fail you. It's going to help you. But that's what he says here about the nation. I have chosen thee and not cast thee away. You'll forgive me, but I add a word to my Bible here. Don't tell Pastor Perrant. After verse nine, I add, therefore, therefore, because God has chosen thee and not cast thee away, therefore, fear thou not. Don't be afraid. God's chosen us. Don't be afraid. Be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Wow. What promises from God. Tremendous promises. I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. He's going to give us the strength that we need to do what he calls us to do. I told you in Sunday School, I relied on this promise, these promises from God that he would give me the strength to do what I needed to do. There was no way in my mind I could do that I could go to Zambia in July in the condition that I was in. There was no way I could do it. And sometimes that's what Satan does to stop us from doing that thing that God wants us to do. I know I said that, but that's what happens. I almost didn't go. We believe a thousand people, at least a thousand people heard the gospel during the time that we were in Zambia, in that village, a thousand people. Do you think the devil wanted a thousand people to hear the gospel? Like I said in Sunday school, I don't know how many of those people trusted in Jesus Christ as their savior, maybe none, maybe none. But God encouraged us during that trip in July by telling us that 25 to 35 people from the previous trip are now attending church. So maybe they didn't get saved that time, maybe they're gonna get saved in church. You know the story, one man plants, And other waters? In God what? Gives the increase. We can't be discouraged. People sometimes say, huh, I get things I have to fill out sometimes. And we ask people also to fill out these things. How many people? Have you led to the Lord recently? And it's like, zero. You know? I mean, you feel like a zero sometimes. But, you know, I have a better question. How many people have you shared the gospel with recently? Wow, that's what it needs. That's what we need to do, sharing the gospel. I probably shared this before, but I love to give out gospel tracts. I love to. Somebody said to me the other day, oh, that's, I don't, you know, there's no name on your tract so people can contact you. if you give them a track. I'm like, so that means that it's useless for them to read how they could be saved? You know, I mean, there's always a criticism, it seems like. But anyway, we need to be getting the word of God, the gospel, into people's minds, even from just the gospel track at Dunkin' Donuts every day. One of us does that every day, a tuck of donuts. But anyway, you know, gospel tracts, people get saved through that. Behold, verse 11, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish. When God is on your side, the enemy has no chance. No chance at all. I mean, read the Old Testament. When God is on your side, the enemy has no chance, no matter how big, how strong. God is always bigger and stronger. In verse 12, you're going to look for them. He says, thou shall seek them and shall not find them, even them that contended with thee. They that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. For I, the Lord, thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee." Amazing. I love it when God holds my right hand. I'm probably not aware of it a lot of the times that he's holding my right hand, until afterwards. I'm like, oh, God was holding my right hand then. God was working in my life then. Some of you know our story, my testimony, we'll say. It's really our testimony. My wife was saved almost 14 years before I was, and she had a baseball bat. She kept hitting me over the head with the gospel, and I was, no, she didn't. But she, you know, she just lived Christ before me. And praise the Lord, in 1987, she led me to the Lord after almost 14 years being unsaved as a husband. Praise the Lord for that. At that time, I was joining in partnership with another dentist, and we were spending a lot of money. A couple hundred thousand dollars, which today is worth more. Back then, it was a lot of money, $200,000. At the same time, I was being sued by a woman that worked for me for $9 million. $9 million. And then at home, things weren't so good. And I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. But I knew who could tell me. So praise the Lord, I was saved in March 27, 1987. First thing I did was tell the man I was joining a partnership with that I couldn't, because he, well, I didn't say, you're not a believer, but I knew I could not be in a close partnership with this man as an unbeliever and me now as a believer. And so I told him I couldn't do it. And so, long story short, he let me out of the deal, but I had to basically give him my business, everything, everything we had, all my patients, all my equipment, my share of the building. And I had to agree not to start a business for five years. Not that I wanted to, but in that area. We had nothing. I tell people we had less than nothing. We owed money. I had refinanced my home to buy the building and the renovations. And so when it came time to pay taxes, I didn't have the money because I was out of work then. So we had an agreement with the IRS paying back. You try to do the right thing. You call them, hey, I don't think I can do this. OK, we'll get an agreement. I'm like, OK, that'd be great. Pay so much a month. And I was doing that faithfully. I didn't realize that they have a lien on your property, on everything that you own. You can't sell anything. And so they had a lien on our house. I had refinanced my home. This is in the 80s. And the interest rates weren't like they are today. People talk about the interest rates going up for mortgages today. But I had, at that time, an interest rate, a variable interest rate of 18%. 18%. I had a lien on my home. What that means is I could not refinance my home. So we were one month behind in our mortgage, then we were two months behind in our mortgage, and then we were three months behind in our mortgage. And when you get that far behind, you get a nice letter from the bank that says, give us money, or we're going to take your home. So we just prayed, Lord, what can we do here? We can't do anything. We need to, we need you to help us here." And he did. We got another letter from the bank out of nowhere. The bank says, hey, guess what? The government, the government likes deadbeats like you that are so far behind in their mortgage. The government has stepped in and said because, People have these variable rate mortgages that keep going up. And because they have a lien and they can't refinance, we, the government, is going to essentially refinance for them. And I was able to refinance my home at an 8% fixed rate. And that saved our home. That was the Lord. No one else but the Lord. If you can't see that, that that was the Lord that saved our home, I mean, how else could this have happened? Fast forward to August 2022. We looked at this home in Concord. And we said, there's no way. There's no way we can afford this home. No way. There's no way we're going to sell our home to be able to buy this home. Guess what? We sold our home for $5,000 more than we bought this other home. $5,000 more. Now, sounds like a lot of money, but when you have to pay real estate, you know, like $20,000, $5,000, but anyway. Did we know we were ever going to do that? We did not know. For us, we were going to be in that home in Draco, Massachusetts until they carried us out. But God preserved that house for us. back in 1987. So today, August of 2022, we could sell that home to purchase this one. Not for us, but for our family. God is faithful. He's holding our hand when we don't even see it or feel it. He's right there with us. We can't say, like the Israelites were saying, that God doesn't care. We can't say that, or that he doesn't know what's going on. He knows the beginning from the end. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." He has a plan for our life, and he's going to do everything in his power to make that plan unfold perfectly. That's our God. That is our God. And he's saying this to the people of Israel that are now They're in exile. They think God doesn't know what's going on and that he doesn't care about them. And he says to them, here, don't be afraid. I'm with thee. Don't be dismayed. I'm your God. I will strengthen thee. I will help thee. I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. And then verse 13, for I, the Lord, thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. I want to read from verse 13 to verse 20. And as I read, see if you can pick out a word that is used a number of times. Verse 13, for I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thy worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth. Thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the whirlwind shall scatter them. Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord. and shall glory in the Holy One of Israel when the poor and the needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar that should the tree the myrtle and the oil tree, I will set in the desert the fir tree and the pine and the box tree together that they may see and know and consider and understand together that what the hand of the Lord hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." Did you pick out the word? God is going to take care of us. God is going to take care of us. God is going to take care of you. Does that mean everything is going to be bright and rosy all the time? No. But he's going to give us what we need to deal with what we have to deal with. God is going to do it. God is going to do it. You can look back. I'm sure you can look back and point out times when God was there for you, when you didn't think anything good was going to happen. My wife, we had no money. She went shopping. And this lady taps her on the back and said, hey, you bought this kind of ice cream. I'm going to give you $100 to buy food. Where'd that come from? Not SEAL test. It came from God. It came from God. God, we'll say, is monitoring our situation. How does he do that? I mean, how many people are there? God is monitoring our situation. He's like what goes on now on the internet and everything. He's monitoring our situation. He knows what is going on in our lives. And he cares, and he's going to take care of us. The hand of the Lord hath done this. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. When the people of Israel felt like God was not caring, he was right there. He was right there. The nations of the world felt back then that they could defeat God and God's people. What about today? The nations of the world say the same thing. They say the same thing. We can defeat God and God's people. Our government and the governments of this world does not like Christians. Is that a surprise? I hope I didn't surprise anybody. Does not like Christians, does not like families. If you desire to have a godly family, the government is going to try to disrupt that in whatever way it can. If you desire to stand for God, the government is going to try to attack that in whatever way it can. Be assured of that. It's happening today and it's going to continue. We need God. We need the strength that he offers us to deal with the things that are going to come our way. We fear for our granddaughters as the world keeps going in this direction. But we also know that God is still in charge, and God still has a plan, and God is working it out. And even though it's hard, God is going to be there to help. Can you have a godly family today in our country? Yes, you can. And you should strive for that. God will bless that, and God will help every step of the way. Is it going to be easy? No. And sometimes as Christians, we say it's not gonna be easy and we don't try. We need to do those things that God desires for us to do even when it's hard, even when it's hard. I'm so thankful for a faithful God that still blesses obedience and punishes disobedience. Today, there might be something that you are being challenged with that maybe God desires for you to do this thing. And you're saying to God, this is too hard for me, God. This is too hard. I can't do it. I can't deal with this physical thing. I can't deal with this financial thing, this family thing. I can't do it. Yes, you can. And God wants you to do it. You can. He's going to take care of you. He's going to hold your hand. He's going to make it possible for you to do that thing He wants you to do. Praise the Lord for that. He's got a perfect plan for each one of us here today, and He's going to work it out. I am so thankful to this God. Lest you think I have it all together, I don't. I don't. None of us do. But you know, God has it all together. God has it all together, and when I make mistakes, he picks me up. Helps me. I'm going to do the same for you. So I'm thankful for what we can learn from how God dealt with his people in the Old Testament, and even through the New Testament, how God dealt with his people and the promises that he makes to all of us. God is going to do it, and it's only God that can do it. We can't do it in our strength, and he knows that. And he tells us, don't be afraid. I'm right there for you, holding your hand. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your kindness. Thank you for your sovereignty over our lives. Thank you again for your precious word and how it can encourage us and strengthen us for those things that you allow to happen in our lives. We pray for our country, Lord. We pray that you would bring about revival. We pray that as Christians, we would see this as a time when the gospel needs to go out more boldly than ever and that we would Do it, Lord, that we would not be afraid, that we would not let Satan cause fear to stop us from sharing the gospel with those that need to hear. Thank you again for this church and its desire to teach the truth, no matter the consequences. Pray you continue to bless the word as it goes forth from here. Pray in Jesus' name, amen.