We're going to look at this next name of God, which is Jehovah Nissi, which is actually something that Moses wrote in Exodus chapter 17. And Exodus 17 is kind of an interesting section because this is where the children of Israel have not been out in the wilderness very long. They've already gotten stuff to eat. The Lord provides meat to them and so forth. Now they're out of water. And what's really interesting is, I had a friend of mine, my former pastor, and one of the things he used to say all the time is, women may gossip, but men murmur. And it's a real interesting expression, men murmur. And that's kind of what I want to talk about a little bit today, is this idea of men murmur, because it goes so much along with this idea of Jehovah Nissi. And so what's happened here is that most of the non-King James versions have taken the word that they use as murmur which is the Hebrew word reeb. And they take and they translate it a hundred different ways. They make it quarrel, they make it grumble, I think, in one of the versions I saw, and so forth. In my version, it's grumbled. In the New American Standard, it's that way. But look at what he says, he says in verse three of chapter 17, he says, but the people thirsted there for water and they murmured, grumbled against Moses. Now, what are some of your Bibles say there? What's the word that y'all see in some? Sorry? Complained. Complained, okay. Grumbled. Murmured. Murmured, okay. I like murmured. Now, all of those translations are correct, by the way. Complained is really the idea behind this, but at the end of the day, murmured is a great word because men do this all the time. Men, they just kind of grumble. And it's really interesting because I believe it's a manly trait to murmur because it's a way to complain without actually saying anything. You know, it's just like, I don't like this, but I don't really want to say I don't like this, so I just kind of... It's a non-committal complaint. This is what's going on. What's interesting is that if you're being the person murmured against, it ticks you off. I mean, would you guys agree with that? And that's exactly what happened to Moses here. Moses is not a happy camper. He's like, I can't take these people anymore, man. It's just like, you know, God starts dropping pheasants out of the sky. He starts dropping manna, you know, out of the sky. He does everything for them. They're like, and they ain't happy. What's up with that? I have never experienced this personally being unhappy. I've always been the most happy person. I've never had any kind of issues with grumbling personally, murmuring personally. So I'm saying this as a third, as an innocent third party, right? Everybody got that? All right, so I just want y'all to know that this is your problem, not my problem, okay? By the way, that is, all right, the point is that's the essence of murmuring. Murmuring is everybody else's got the problem. It ain't my problem. I'm okay. I got this thing worked out. Y'all are screwed up. Okay, that's- It's murmuring against God, but hey, Moses was in the way. He's the first guy to come to- Well, exactly. And you know, it's funny because even though the target was Moses, the real target was God. That was the real target, okay? The real target was, why did you bother to bring us out here just so we can just die, is really the essence of what's going on. And that's exactly what he says. He says, why now have you brought us up here from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock from thirst? And what I find really fascinating about this is that I get it. I totally get it. When it's like, you don't have what you need, you don't think you're going to get what you need, and you obviously go, well, I guess I'm just not going to get this. And what that does is it causes you to be upset, to complain. And rather than just, you know, be this outright shouting and screaming, we just sort of grumble. We just kind of murmur about the whole entire thing. And so that's exactly what's going on. So Moses goes to the Lord, which I think is interesting. And he says, what do you want me to do with these people? Like it's his responsibility. Like he's supposed to do something about it. Like, you know, I think the question that Moses asked here is really a lot more revealing than you think. You know, it's like, and this happens. People start grumbling, people start murmuring, you know, guys in particular start murmuring and so forth. And what's the first thing that men want to do if you're in leadership? You want to fix it. Because that's what we do. Men fix stuff. So we want to fix it. And so he says, what do you want me to do? And he says, and a little more, and they're going to stone me. And this is great. The Lord says to Moses, look at what he says. He says, pass before the people, take with you some of the elders of Israel, take in your hand your staff, which you struck the Nile, and go. In other words, I want you to show them I'm in charge, because that staff represents God. That's the point. When he used that staff, he divided the Red Sea. When he used that staff, he basically turned that staff into a serpent at one time. That staff represented everything that had to do with God, not Moses. Get this? Not Moses. And so what Moses was being instructed to do was, take the focus off of you, Moses, and put it on me. Take the focus off of you and put it on me. And there's too often that we do that. We want to put the emphasis on us. We want to put everything on us. We want everybody to look at us. Look at me. I'm being criticized. I'm the one being called on the carpet here. That's what Moses is doing. I'm the one. As though this is his problem. This is not his problem. Is he taking it personally? I think he's totally taking it personally. I think at this point Moses is not a happy camper. He didn't ask for the job. He got the job when he didn't want the job. He tried to tell God every reason why he couldn't do the job and God just sort of parried every one of his excuses and said, no, no, no, I can't speak. Okay, no problem. I'll have Aaron speak for you. He says, it didn't matter what he said. God didn't care what he said. I'm going to use you, whether you like it or not, really, at the end of the day. I believe Moses was in a situation where he was just frustrated. And so he sees this frustration and now. It goes on beyond that, he says, he says, behold, I stand before you, verse six, behold, I stand before you there on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock and the water will come out of it. and so that the people might drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he named that place Masa, which means testing, and Meribah, which means to complain, which is kind of interesting. And because of the quarrel or the complaint, and the son of Israel, because of the quarrel or the complaint of the sons of Israel, because they tested the Lord, saying, is the Lord among us or not? This is an interesting question. Is the Lord among us or not? I don't know about you guys, but I've asked that question a few times in frustration. You know, God, are you really here? I mean, are you are you in this thing? I mean, you know, my daughter just got diagnosed with a wicked disease. Are you in this thing? You know, my wife just, you know, just had a cancerous tumor removed out of her head. I was talking to John the other day about this. And he's like, man, I can just, I know the Lord's here. You know, so it was an interesting expression. You know, he knew the Lord was there. He knew the Lord was in it. He knew the Lord was there. And the idea of this word Jehovah Nisi, as you're gonna see here in a minute, is that when you're going through all of these situations and you realize that you can't go without God, that's, Jehovah Nissi. I love how Tony kind of refocused everything in a way. It's like he talked about responsibility and it was like, what is God's responsibility to us and what is our responsibility to God? Yeah. And I love how I love how elbow moved right into Nelson's seat. It's true. I love it. He is. So what's also interesting about this section, so we have the water and then God resolves the water issue and then in the same chapter we see this fight between Amalek and the children of Israel. This is kind of like the first of their skirmishes when they get into the wilderness. So obviously they have a little bit of a What would the word be? An army, I guess is probably the best way to describe it. That's being run by Joshua. Joshua is obviously the guy in charge because it says it was Joshua going out there to fight. Amalek was one of the children of Esau. And so it's an interesting, obviously further down the line because Esau hadn't been around for 400 years at this point. But at the end of the day, He is basically of the lineage of the children of Israel. Because you've got Jacob and Esau, right? And so he's of that lineage. And like Tony talked about in the book, you have this quarreling between family members, really, that's going on here and so forth. And what did they do? They went to fight up against them. As long as the staff was being raised, they were able to prevail. As long as Moses couldn't yet keep that staff up, Amalek started to prevail. And then finally, what happened was, is that actually Aaron and Hur came over and raised his arm up. And that brings up a whole other issue, and that is, not only do we need God, which is the first part of this chapter, but we need other people. We need other... That's what I meant by the responsibility. Yeah, we need... God fights the fight, really. We need to also do our part. There's no question about it. We need other people. But it's more than that, Clark. It's really more we need to need. You understand what I mean by that? We need to need. Too many men don't think they need anybody. I got this. How many times have you seen that? I got that. How many times have you heard that expression? I got this. I got this. When they don't got this at all. The fact of the matter is that we need the need. So the reason that we don't ask is because we think if we ask that might show us as being something less than capable or there's a hundred reasons why we don't ask. But the truth is you haven't got any excuse for not asking. because that's what God calls us to do. He calls us to ask. Not only does He call us to ask Him, but He calls us to ask each other. And I think the beauty of this chapter is that not only does it show us having a need for God, which is the first part, but it shows us having a need for one another, which is the second part. And so Aaron and Hur, they're there propping up his arm. What's interesting here is that there's no indication that Moses asked for help. Isn't that interesting? There's no indication that Moses asked for help. Listen to what it says in verse 12. But Moses' hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, one on the other, and thus his hands were steady until the sun set. Doesn't indicate that he actually asked for help. They recognized that he needed help, and they went and they helped him. But there's no... It was Joshua and her that came up with that. No, it was Aaron and her. Aaron and her. Aaron and her. So, you know, we don't know. It doesn't actually tell us whether or not... But here's the deal. James puts it this way. In James chapter 4, he says, you have not because you ask not or you ask amiss. which I think is a real interesting verse. I've always thought that was a fascinating verse. In fact, go over to that real quick. It's in James chapter four. I'm afraid I'll lose you if I do that, but it just is a great picture of how we need the church. I was just talking with somebody, and they hadn't been going to church for a long time, and I just encouraged him. We need you. Yeah. Now than ever. You know, we need everybody come together, you know. Right. Right. All right. So look at what it says here in James chapter four, because I think the first everybody talks about verse two, but they they miss the fact that verse one obviously goes before it. Right. And look what it says. He says, what is the source of and the word there is quarrels in the in the Greek, but it's the same word that is, when they're interpreting the Old Testament Hebrew and passing it into Greek in the Septuagint, when they talked about that word Reb, which is the source of this whole murmuring thing, that's the word. That's the word they used. The same word that's used here in Greek. So this is the same word here being used. And listen to what he says. What is the source of your quarrels and your conflicts? What is the source of it? Which I think is fascinating. He's right at the back. He's not saying what are your quarrels and your conflicts. He doesn't really care about what they are. We all have quarrels. We all have conflicts. We all murmur about something. But what he's saying there is what's the source of it? What's causing it? Is not the source your lust or your pleasure? Actually, the word there is hedonism. That's the actual Greek word, hedonism. So what is the source of your hedonism that wage war in your bodies? Now, isn't that interesting? Or your lust, or whatever word you want to use there. I mean, it's the same idea. The point is that it's all about you. Hedonism is all about you. That's the point of what hedonism is all about. So he says, he says, is not the source your hedonism, your pleasures, your self-desire, it's all about me, which is really what was going on with the children of Israel, right? And then he says, you lust, same word by the way, you lust and you do not have. So you have these incredible desires, but you don't have it. You don't get it. And listen to what he says. So you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain. So you fight and you quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. And then he says, you ask and you don't receive or you ask and you receive not because you ask amiss or with the wrong motives. That's basically the idea of a myth. It's the idea of you're asking with the wrong motives so that you may spend it on your hedonism, on your own self-interest, what you want. And then he says something that's really interesting. He says, you adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy, that's what enmity means, an enemy of God. So the point here is that it's about self-centered. It's about what I want. It's about where we're going. And that's precisely what's going on in this chapter. This is all about me. This is all about what I want. This is where I'm going. But we not only need God, but we need one another. And then at the end of that, so go back to Exodus again, and then we'll finish this up, and then we'll have a little conversation here, because I think this is a fascinating subject. So go back to Exodus 17 again. He says this, he says, then the Lord said to Moses, write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and named it Jehovah-Nissi. The Lord is my banner." And he said, the Lord has sworn, the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation. The Lord is my banner. You know, when I think of banners, banners are, what's the best example I can give you of a banner? I'm sorry? It's identity, yeah, it's saying that we won. That's really what it is. If you ever go into a basketball arena or, you know, there you go. Go into the gym. Exactly, all the championships, right? Do they have any banners of the losses? I was thinking about that. You know, when I was reading this, I was like, You know, you can go into Martin County. That's as good an example as you can probably get. Go into Martin County basketball arena, and they have the banner from when the golf team won, and they have the banner from when the basketball team won. They got the banner from when the football team won. They got all this banners up there and so forth. But they don't have any banners for when a football team lost. They don't have any banners for when the basketball team lost or when a girls golf team was the worst in the state or something. By the way, I don't know that it ever happened. I'm just using that as a... We don't recognize that. We don't put banners up for losing. We only put banners up for winning. And listen to what I wrote. Banners are a visible declaration of an authority that shows who you represent and to whom you have committed yourself to. So, when I put up that banner that says we won the championship in 1973, that's a recognition that we were the best in 1973. And we want everybody to know that. We want everybody to know that. And what he's saying here is that when you put up a banner, you need to put up a banner that it's of the Lord. That's what we should be doing. Go ahead. You're not going to get a banner unless you get 100% participation. You're not going to get a banner unless you get 100% participation. Yeah. I mean, it takes a team of everybody giving 100%. That's what I mean. Of the- To win. Yeah. To win. Yeah. Kings of Oldham went out to war. Their banner went to war. That's correct. Always was in the front. When we think of banners, right, we think of it, I think somebody said it to me earlier, and then we've got these sports awards, and I've got a banner, and I'm proud of it. I think that's the important thing, is that these stories here are about heroes, right? It's about pride, and it's about my pride is the Lord. Like, it's Moses, you have to learn the lesson first. My banner's the Lord. My pride is the Lord, nothing else. The only thing I have any ability to have pride in is that I'm of the Lord. And then, as the group, it's the, we have pride in the fact that we're here to support the Lord. I think you hit on something. I want to try to get across. Because at the end of the day, when they ask the question, is the Lord among us? And you hit it right. and water came out of something solid. Yeah. So let me clarify myself just a second, because you were you were using the banner as a selfish type thing. I was meaning it as the banner for the Lord, you know, because, you know, you were talking about school accomplishments or I mean, like a team accomplishment. And yeah, if you if you think of it that way, it's fully selfish. The point is it's about victory. That's the point. The point is it's about victory. Go ahead. that was showing because something liquid is coming out of something solid, which is unheard of. And the question was- Especially in the desert, by the way. Exactly. And the question was, is God among us? And so God is showing them, I am. So it just doesn't go with the rock. When Moses held up his hand, or his arm, or others helped him. You know, when you ask God a question, I don't think they look at the answer, because God is saying, I'm Jehovah Nissa. I am your banner. And the same way, I know you didn't get that, but Tony got it to the point where he says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and at the end of the day, as Christ said, I'm lifted up from the earth. I'm going to draw everybody to me that believes. So the point being, when they ask the question, is God among us? God just answers. And I think they miss that. They missed the answer. Is he on the wire? They missed it every step of the way. That's the point I'm making. They missed it. And I'm afraid sometimes we do too. But it's like, it's one of those things, right, where he's saying, look, amongst you, of the nothing, I'm going to use a rock to show you I want you. Like, you've got the banner here. You've got it laying on the ground. Pick it up and carry it. Yeah. Yeah, the point of this whole entire thing is the banner represents a victory. That was the point I was trying to make. And the question is, where is your victory? Is your victory in what you do? Or is your victory in what God does and what God does with everyone else's around you? That's the point. That's this whole idea of he needed Aaron and her to hold up his arm. It was God that was providing the victory, but he said, look, we've got to partner this as well. You've got to hold that staff up. Well, I can't do it on my own. That's all right. You've got brothers. You've got brothers that can help hold that staff up. And we're going to put, you know, isn't it interesting? Here's what I find really interesting. They didn't start by holding up his arm. They tried to put a stone under it. They tried to put something in there to replace them. Well, they sat him down. They sat him down and they put a stone, you know, we're going to put something there. It's going to prop it up, but it's not going to be about us. It's going to be about, well, you know, we're just going to, we're going to artificially do this. You know, the fact of the matter is, is that God wants us to be involved. A hundred, a hundred percent. Yeah, I mean, he was. Moses did not ask for help. No. And that's another flaw in man. Totally. Because the point being, when we see that, you know, the first, when we go through trials and tribulations, the first thing we do is isolate. Yeah. That's me. We isolate. Yep. You know, instead of saying, hey brother, just like you did this morning, and I hope you pray for your brother even more so because Just like that, so often, we don't have, we actually, instead of saying, listen, I need your prayers, I got this. I got, or I'm gonna deal with this myself. And that's what Moses did. Now here's an interesting point. He was the one that represented God. Yeah, yeah. And you know what else is interesting about this? This is an aside, but something I thought about when I was doing my notes on this, We throw in the towel too soon. We throw in the towel because we don't ask for help. We think, oh, I can't do it. You know, there's no way this is not going to happen and so forth. Uh, and so what I wrote was, um, some of us throw in the towel before we ever raised a step. In other words, we don't use, we don't even get to point B or point A forget about the point B. We don't even get to point A. Because we quit before we start. And what he's saying here is, Moses, I want you to raise the staff. As long as you raise that staff, I'm going to be there. Moses says, OK, I'm going to do it. He didn't throw it down. That's great. But it was starting to creep down. So what was the first thing they did? Well, the first thing they did is they sat him down. They're still not helping, right? We'll just sit you down here, Moses. Don't worry about it. Oh, and we'll stick a rock underneath you so that, you know, you can hold your arm up on this rock. But, you know, then the arm's still kind of, you know, that's not, no, what they needed to do is they needed to get up there and hold that arm up. They needed to be involved. They needed to get into this thing. And too often times, we don't want to get involved, right? How many times have you seen that? You see a situation, and I'm telling you, this happens all the time. You see a situation, and you immediately start to estimate, how much am I going to have to get involved if I get involved? What's this going to cost me? Do I have the time? Do I want to do this? And we start to actually go through all these gyrations in our brain, writing the script about what's going to happen and this, that, and the other thing, when the truth is, If you see something and you have the ability to help, if you don't do it, it's sin. That's what the Bible tells us in John. So at the end of it, you know, to me, in epistle of John, that is. And so we have this, I don't know what the word is, kind of conflict going on in our brain all the time. Do I get in? Do I not get in? And what happens is, too often, We don't encourage one another. We don't build one another up. We run this course, but here's what's really interesting. We become weary about doing well. That's actually what the Bible talks about. We get weary in well-doing, is what he says in Galatians. And I'm telling you, we forget that, he says, do not be weary in well-doing for in due time, In due time, you shall reap. So the point is, is that, I'm sorry, you shall reap if we do not quit. I don't think it says it exactly that way. That's the non-white version. It says it a little differently. I'm sure it says it a lot more eloquently. There you go. If you faint, knock. There you go. Thank you. So the point is that it's about not quitting. If you faint, knock. That's the idea. The point of this whole entire message, in my opinion, is very simple. We need God and we need one another. It's just that simple. We need God and we need one another. The problem is we don't ask God and we don't ask one another. He does. He's sitting there trying to do it all himself. And he's just overloaded. And he doesn't think to ask if Jethro comes. Yeah, Jethro. Yeah, his father-in-law. No, Jethro's right. Yeah. And he comes in, his father-in-law, and he's like, what are you doing, man? You need some help. Uh-huh. So it's interesting how it immediately reinforces the same point. Because when I was reading it this morning, I like to read the chapter before and the chapter after. Because a lot of times it helps put it in context. And I got the, when you said that at this point, I was like, I got the fuzzies. Cause it's exactly what I heard was we need each other. And then the following chapter, he said it again, you need help, man. You need to ask for it. We need each other to get through this. Isn't that part of being memorable? Yeah. Yeah. Members one, one, one with the other. I think that's so important because that is today beliefs. and yet we're still trying to run away from what he's trying to gather in. You know, because I think that's what God is saying. You do each other, don't isolate. Well, and we do it so naturally, is that the right word? You know, it's, we forget. I think people want us to, we want people to see us in a certain light. Uh-huh. give our problems to others, we're afraid of how that might make us look. We're reluctant to share our dirty laundry. And you do have to be careful about that. You don't just go out there into the world and share it. But we're reluctant in the body. So often, I could have come in here and kept my mouth shut about my daughter. She's mortified. And she knew I said today, oh, she might not talk to me. Seriously. You know, because she's so worried about what people might think of her now. Well, isn't that part of Scripture also that said, confess your fault one to another and pray ye one for another? Right. You know, because I think the more God speaks to us, the more we try to run away. You know, that's why I'm encouraging what you just said, right? Because the point being, at the end of the day, I hear what you're saying, but I have to exercise it by applying it. And I think that's the challenge, because if we're hearing what we're hearing today, we're not speaking on today. I wonder tomorrow if we have issues, would we go to somebody and say, listen, before I leave here, pray. I want you all to pray for my daughter, specifically, for that situation. Or if you're struggling in an area of your life, and you say, hey, I want you to pray. It's amazing how our mind works. Because at the end of the day, it's not about how much knowledge you have. It's how much you apply what you have. And that's what God is trying to get us to constantly do. It's to apply. I love the visual of the staff. Tony started the chapter off with responsibility. It's like God's responsibility is to take care of us. But what's our responsibility is to take care of each other. Exactly, yeah. So we're using it up here. Do unto others, right? Right. And then we'll get blessed by it. You know, holding that thing up. Now things aren't so going your way anymore, you know. No, now my side's winning. Now their side's winning. But eventually, you just can't hold it up there. Your arms get tired, right? on your own, you need someone to help you. So it's like the ingredient is you got to put God up there, but then you also need people to help you because you can't do it. Eventually you're going to, your arms are going to get tired. Yeah. And then all of a sudden the stuff's not going your way anymore. Right. And you can't support yourself. You can't support yourself with stones. That's the other thing I want you to hear. You can't support yourself with stuff. You need people. We get too caught up in stuff. We're thinking stuff is gonna somehow support us. I can't get over how many people asked me when I was doing financial consulting full-time and that's what I was doing, how many people would say to me, well Don, how much money do I need to retire? That's like a famous question. How much money do I need to retire? And the answer I always answer to that is there is no amount of money. that will allow you to retire. Because you can blow through any amount of money. You know, I'm just telling you, I've seen it. You can go through any amount of money. If you don't think that's possible, you ain't been paying attention. So the fact of the matter is, is I don't know what that number is. I have no idea. And no one else does either. And the fact is, is that even if you had the right amount, quote unquote, it could go away. Just ask Chuck. Bob Coley said something to me once in Fort Lauderdale. I never forgot it, like stuck in my head. Financial security is a myth. And it's true. It is a total myth. Yeah, it is. There's no question about it. And it's interesting because the more you tell that to people, the more they think you're nuts. But the truth of the matter is, is that Bob was 100% right, Johnny. You're absolutely correct. It's funny because he and I actually have talked about that. I remember we were up in Orlando together. Bob and I were very good buddies and we were up in Orlando together and And we were riding up an elevator, it's funny, I remember just as clear as day. We were riding up in an elevator, we were at this financial conference. And he looked at me and he said, does this seem like a waste of time to you? And I went, what do you mean? And it was for King of Advisors, he was one of the speakers, I was an attendee. I was not speaking to that conference, I was just an attendee. And he just said, he says, does this seem like a waste of time to you? And I said, what do you mean? He says, well, it seems to me that we're sitting up here talking about all this stuff about how, you know, God's got, you know, kingdom finances and all that kind of stuff. He said, but how do we even know if we're going to have any finances tomorrow? We don't know. And we're, we are, we are just making a God out of, out of money. And I mean, it was just, it just, it was such a, it was one of those moments in time that you have one of those points of clarity. It's kind of what I would call it. Uh, when it was just so obvious that what he was saying was true. Uh, and I think it was right then and there that I made the decision that I was going to go on the course of trying to sell our business and, and, and move on and do other things because I realized at that moment that it was time for me to do other things. I really, and it was Bob that did that. It's interesting, John, that you brought up Bob's name. It's just a fascinating thing. Within six months of that conversation in that elevator, Bob had lost his ministry. He'd lost his marriage. He'd lost all of his money. His life was basically completely flipped upside down. And it was just, it's just a crazy prophetic remark that he made almost about his own situation. And you know, of course he wasn't, he wasn't referring to himself, but as it turned out, it actually impacted him in that way. And it's just tragic. But at the end of the day, who is your banner? Jesus said it this way. Look at what he says. Sorry, not Jesus, but the author of the book of Hebrews said it this way. He says, fix your eyes on Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Now remember, in chapter 11, he did all this about the heroes of the faith and all this other kind of stuff, and they're awesome and you need to look to them and so forth. But he concludes it by saying, fix your eyes on Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of your faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross." Endured it, okay? He put up with it. He endured the cross, and he despised the shame, and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. That's what I think it's all about. And then it goes on and it says, consider him so that you do not grow weary and lose heart, which is exactly what we were talking about before. Hey, I'll come back to the responsibility again. Yeah. Because when you're, when you're talking about that, because my first thought was, well, as you explained your story about how it was, is he restored? So it's like, Well, what is your turf? What is your area of people that you connect with? You know, um, it's like, that is your responsibility. You know, lift your brothers up. Be there for them. Yeah. Encourage them. This is, this is a bump in the road, whatever. And you know, we need to lift Bob up. It's fascinating you bring that up because one of the things that has crushed me. is that I've tried to reach out to Bob and he changed his phone. I don't, I can't, I've got, I don't have his phone anymore. I, his email was disconnected. I mean, I, I've lost complete touch with him. He was, he was shunned. And you can't control that. No, you can't. But, but the truth was But we can pray for him. But we need to restore one another. We need to be doing that. And this is a whole other subject, but I really didn't want to go there. But at the end of the day, we need to understand that Jesus is our banner. Well, that's God's responsibility. When we can't do that, but we can pray for him. That's what Orlando said. Right. You know, we just need to be praying for him. Well, again, I don't want to go down that road. You know, the fact that's not what I wanted to talk about today. What I wanted to talk about today was the fact that we have a banner. That banner is Christ. And the fact is, is that we need to fix our eyes on him. We need to put our emphasis on him, not on other situations, not on other people, not on other things, not on other disasters, not on this, that, not on that, not on wanting water, not on wanting to read. At the end of the day, we need to remember that the most important thing in our life is our banner, and our banner is Christ. Right. I'm totally saying that. We're to fix our eyes fully on Jesus, right? I'm sorry? We're to fix our eyes fully on Jesus. Right. Tony makes a point here. A halfway victory simply means there'll be another battle to fight up ahead, right? This is an important principle, because too many of us are content with halfway victories. We don't mind hanging around with a little bit of evil, or we don't mind if we give visitation rights from time to time to that evil. The problem is with evil is that visitation rights soon become squatters' rights, and soon we're faced with a full-fledged war of whatever that is. Whether it's alcohol, drugs, pornography, you name it, you dabble, you're in trouble. You crack that door at all, and he will come in with cellulose. It's really interesting you mention that because I remember when I was playing sports a lot when I was younger and so forth, Coach Yasko, who was our football coach, had this expression. and it was really an interesting expression. He said, this is a four quarter game. It's a four quarter game. You can win the first three quarters and still lose. This is a four quarter game. Okay. Meaning you gotta be, you gotta be on top of it the whole entire game and you can't, You can't quit at the end. You can't start to waver at the end. This is a four-quarter game. And so it's funny how we forget sometimes how big a deal it is, this idea of finishing, which is really what this is all about. Moses had to finish. He had to keep his arms raised up. He needed help to do that. The people had to finish. They had to get to the promised land. The truth is, is that most of them didn't. Look at the sad example of Solomon. Yeah, he agrees. Started out tremendously well. Yeah. Right? Ended poorly. Early part of his life, he walked with the Lord, by all accounts. Oh yeah. But boy, it sure looked like at the end, he did not. Yeah. At all. And that's where we get lost in this whole entire thing. Jesus is our banner. We need to fix our eyes on him. We need to remember that he is, I love this, the author and the finisher of our faith. He's not just the author of our faith, but he's the finisher of our faith. I'm telling you, the single greatest problem that I see in Christianity is we don't have enough finishers. We got a whole lot of people at start, Not a whole lot of people have finished real well. And that's a frustration that I think. Yeah. That's exactly right. He says that. I mean, Christ was teaching that he didn't do until the end. And then he said, he also said in the scripture, now to him that is able to keep you from falling. as long as you are, and to present you faults. Yeah. Before the president will. Yeah. He's able to keep us if we focus, as Randy said, as him being the finisher of our faith. Yeah, that's good. He's the finisher. We have to be humble. Exactly. It doesn't say we're the finisher. No. He's the finisher. So it's humility. I mean, you look at the humility. I struck this morning just thinking, That's good stuff. All right. Well, listen, let's get out of here. We'll get together next week. This book, man, I'll tell you, this is good stuff. Mikadishkim is an interesting word as well. We're gonna talk about Jehovah Mikadishkim next week and it's the idea that God has, God is the one who sanctifies. God's the one who sets apart, not us. We don't sanctify, he sanctifies. He's the one that sets apart. So, really good chapter. I highly recommend that you read it a couple of times. Second time I read it was way better than the first time I read it. It was really interesting. I encourage you to do that. We'll get that next week. And then we'll be off and running for a couple of, or off for a couple of weeks and before we start running again. So let's end in a word of prayer and we'll get out of here. God, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you that you have made us your, that you are our banner, that we can look to you, that we can know that you are the author and the completer or the finisher of our faith. God, we just pray that each one of us would be willing to look to you, make you the one that we are paying attention to. But moreover, God, we also pray that we can look to each other, and we can support one another, and that we can build one another up, and that we can encourage one another, because that's truly what men need to do. And we just pray that you'd watch over us now on this weekend, As we thank you for Jesus, we pray in his name, amen.