All right, let's pray so we can get into our message this morning. Father, I do ask as you open your word, I just pray that you just set me aside. Father, I don't want to say anything that you don't want said. I don't want to say anything in my thoughts. Father, I only want what comes from you. So I do ask that you just Use me this morning. I pray that there's anything between you and I now that you just cover that under the blood Father I just pray that you help me out to be a stomach block to anyone in here I pray that you'd help me to only say what you have for us this morning Father again, I do ask That you be with pastor and his family. I pray that you just comfort them and Everything going on there. I pray that you just just work there father I just Father, I thank you so much for your Word. It just amazes me that we can go to your Word and we can learn about other people in a different time that we can gain wisdom from and what you've done. Just, Father, how much it can change our lives. I just pray that you help us not to take for granted that we have your Word that we can go to, Father. I do ask again, just meet with us now. I pray that you help us to get something from you. Father, I just pray that you just use this message this morning to help each of us in our walk and get closer to you. In your name, amen. Have you ever felt like nothing's going right? You ever felt like maybe you feel alone, you feel you're just totally beat down, like maybe even that the Lord's not even there. Lord, where are you right now? You're going through life's battles, you're just trying to keep your head above water, but everything's just getting you down. Honestly, I think the world we live in right now, it's kind of just how people are right now. Everything seems to be going wrong. We're all in a valley of life and if you're not there, eventually you're going to come to that point where something's not going to go right and you're in that valley of life where you're looking up and you're like, how do I get out of here? How do I get out of this valley? How do I climb up this hill that seems too much for me? How do I get there? How do I get to the next step in my life when I'm just getting beat down? And hopefully this morning, hopefully I give you some things that will encourage you. I was thinking about how often we're on a mountaintop and we kind of forget God when we're on the mountaintops, don't we? When everything's going good and life's going great, but when we get down to that valley, we get down where things aren't going so good and we're looking up and thinking, well, just things are going wrong. How am I going to get back up to that mountaintop I was on? That's when we reach out to God. I don't know if it's going to help you, but it was helping me visualize. I did a vacation Bible school in Vermont for many years. And one of the guys there found out that I like being out in the woods. I like hiking, stuff like that. And so he says, well, if you like the woods, I'll take you on a hike. I said, OK, that sounds like a lot of fun. And he says, we're going to hike a place called Mount Pisgah. And so I was like, OK, cool. So we set the time up. And as we drove up, he says, well, I'll show you the lake first. So we go to Lake Willoughby. And you stand at Lake Willoughby, and you look, and it's almost like you're in a you're just in a bowl. On one side is Mount Pisgah, and it's way up on this side, and on the other side is Mount Hoer, and it's on this side, and it's just, it looks like straight up. It's just, and he says, yes, that's where we're gonna climb. I said, in a car? I said, how, I am not gonna get up there. He said, no, it'll be fine, it'll be all right. So we're in this valley, I mean, you're literally in this valley, and I'm looking up at this mountain thinking, It is unconquerable. I don't know who brought Everest over here, but I am not going to do this. And it just didn't seem possible. But so often, that's how we are in our life. We're down in that valley and we think, how am I possibly going to get out of this? How am I going to get back to where things are going good? How am I going to get back to that mountaintop where things are good in my life? This morning I'm gonna hopefully give you some things that will encourage you this morning. Hopefully if something's going wrong in your life, something's got you beat down a little bit, hopefully this is gonna help each one of us. Because listen, life is never gonna be perfect. Tough times are going to come. And hopefully this morning what we look at this morning will help each of us as we face those tough times. If you have your Bibles, can you turn with me to Deuteronomy 31. Deuteronomy 31. Still here a few pages turn, I'll give you a second. Deuteronomy 31 verse 8 says, Now what we have here in Deuteronomy is you have Moses talking to Joshua before the children of Israel. And Moses is giving Joshua a charge. Moses is saying, listen, I'm old. I'm getting to the point where I cannot lead anymore. You're going to be taken over. And he gives Joshua this charge. But I want you to see what he says to Joshua. He says, And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee. He will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee, neither fear not, neither be dismayed. And so we see this charge, but what I want us to understand is that same charge, or that same thing that Moses told Joshua, that, listen, the Lord is going to be with you whatever you go through. The Lord's going to be with you before you head out. The Lord's going to be with you, you don't need to fear. is the same Lord that we serve today. Do you realize that? You know, sometimes I think we kind of lose that sight. That God that we read about in the Old Testament, that God we read about that did things throughout the Bible, is the same God that we serve today. But we forget that. We forget that. You know, we read, oh, look what God did here, look what God did there. God, where are you in my life? God, why do I not see that power in my life? Why is it that when I'm in the trials, why is it that when I'm in the fires, I just don't have that? And hopefully today I can help us get a little bit closer to the Lord today so we can see that that same God is still working in our lives today. I wanted to look at Joshua. He's one of my favorite people in the Bible. I know I have too many favorites. But instead, as I was starting to think about that, I thought of somebody else I want to look at instead. So if you would go with me, you can keep your finger there, keep a marker there, because we are going to get back to Deuteronomy, I promise. But I want you to turn over in your Bible to Judges. Chapter six, Judges chapter six. We're gonna look at somebody else this morning who probably is pretty familiar to most of us, but it's somebody that I see that faced some valleys, faces a pretty tough time in his life. And as we go through this, hopefully you'll see what he was up against. And listen, we're all gonna have those times in our life where we're up against something that doesn't seem like we could do it. And you know what, I'm gonna be honest with you, you can't. You can't. We cannot face the problems of life on our own, but we can with God. If you're with me, Judges 6, verse 1. We'll start in verse 1 today. Now we're going to see the story of Gideon. A lot of us know the story, but I do want to lay a little bit of groundwork for any that may not. And so we're going to see a little bit about what goes on in Gideon's life that leads up to where I want you to see today. It says, we're going to read verses 1 through 16 to start. Hold on, I'm in the wrong book. All right, so Judges 1. Did I say Judges? Okay, just making sure. I went to Joshua. Judges 1. See, I wanted to talk about Joshua. Judges 1, verse 6. It says, Judges 6, verse 1. It says, and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. And because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains and the caves and strongholds. And so it was when Israel had sown that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them. And they encamped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth, till they came unto Gaza, left no substance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude. for both they and their camels were without number, and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up out of Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage. I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of them that oppressed you, and drave out from before you, and gave you their lands. And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice. And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak tree, which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash, the Abbazerite. and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. An angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, Lord, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befalling us? And there be all these miracles which our fathers told us of. saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? And now the Lord hath forsaken and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites. Just real quick before we read those last two verses, Gideon's saying, I read about all these things, I heard about all these things that happened to our fathers. Lord, why are you not doing this nowadays? God hasn't changed. God didn't change from his fathers to Gideon's time. God hasn't changed from Gideon's time to us. We serve the same God, verse 14. And the Lord looked upon him and said, go in thy might, that thou may save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least of my father's tribe. Verse 16, And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. So we see here, just to lay a little bit of groundwork, we see that, verse 1, we see the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. I always wonder why it is God did so many things for them over and over again and they always turn away from God. And you know what? Truthfully, we're the same way. You know, God does so much for us and we put God on the shelf, we don't pick up our Bibles, we don't have the relationship we should. And so we see that, so God decides, you know what, I'm gonna, you guys wanna go your own way, I'm gonna turn you over to the Midianites. So we see in verse two, the Midianites prevail against Israel, so Israel goes into hiding. Verses three through five, we see that the Midianites come down, they destroy everything that Israel has. I found this really interesting. If you look in verse five, it says, and they came up with their cattle in their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for the multitude, for both they and their camels were without number, and they entered into the land to destroy it. So I thought, I've heard the analogy of grasshoppers before, but I never really stopped to really think about it. You know, we see grasshoppers all over the place, or locusts. They're only these little tiny animals. So I decided to look up a little bit about grasshoppers. And grasshoppers and locusts are the same family. Locusts are a little bit smaller grasshoppers. And we might think, you know, really no big deal. A single grasshopper will eat its entire body weight a day. So whatever, I mean, you just say, okay, well, that's not really a big deal. But think about it in comparison wise. I'm more than a grasshopper, 200-something pounds. I could not picture eating 200 pounds a day. A grasshopper will eat its body weight in food a day. A swarm of grasshoppers can be in the billions. And so I thought, well, like one billion? Up to 40 billion or more grasshoppers in a swarm. It can cover over 400 square miles. and it will devour 80,000 tons of food a day. Grasshoppers. The sound of an approaching swarm can be heard up to six miles away. And they literally will destroy everything. They'll eat it all, all the crops gone. They'll eat it all. And I thought, what an analogy of what's going on to Israel. It says that media was coming down as grasshoppers, just totally destroying everything they had. And this has been going on and going on. And I thought, wow, just how beat down they must have been. So finally, they've had enough. Verse six, they cry unto the Lord, and the Lord says, you know what? I'm still here. I know you guys have turned your back on me. I know you guys have gone your own way, but I'm still here. And so God says, you know what? I'm gonna take care of you. Verse seven and nine. The Lord is still with us in those tough times. The Lord, he hasn't gone somewhere just because the times got tough. And we see Israel, they've turned against God, but God hasn't turned against them. He's still right there. They call out to him. He says, I'll take care of this. I still will take care of you, just like I always have. You know, why is it that we, kind of like Israel, have that same mentality, that genie in the lamp mentality? You know, we got our lamp and it's set up on the shelf somewhere, and everything's going good, I don't need my lamp. But as soon as something starts to go bad, as soon as something doesn't go right, as soon as I'm facing a trial in my life or a testing in my life, something that I know now I can't deal with, I'm gonna take my lamp down, I'm gonna rub my lamp and ask for my wishes. God, I need you now. I know I haven't talked to you like I should be, I haven't thanked you for the good times I've been having, but now I have a problem. So I take my lamp down and I rub my lamp asking for my wishes. You know what the thing is? Even though we don't deserve it, the Lord's still there. Even when we don't do what we're supposed to do, verse 10, if you look at verse 10, it says, and the Lord said unto you, And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, fear not, the God of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But ye have not obeyed my voice. See, God's still there. He says, listen, I know what's going on. I'm still with you. So let's see what happens with Gideon. I want to get to the end of the story here. So verses 11 and 12, we see the Lord comes unto Gideon. He says, I find this kind of interesting. At the end of verse 12, he says, thou mighty man of valor. You know, this is just free. I'm just going to throw this in. So often God sees something in us that we don't even see in ourselves. Mighty man of valor. You look in verse 15, Gideon says, Lord, who am I? I'm nobody. I'm the least in my family's house. We're poor. I'm a nobody. And God says, no, you're a mighty man of valor. Listen, God sees something in each of us. God sees something in each of us that He can use, and when He sees that, make sure you take advantage of that. That has nothing to do with our message. It's just, I want to make sure you get what you paid for this morning. I'm throwing that in for free. So, verse 13, Gideon, like us, questions the circumstances. I want you to see verse 13. It says, And Gideon said unto him, O my lord, if the Lord be with us, then why has this befallen us? And where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us from Egypt? And now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of Midianites. Like us always, Lord, if you're there, why am I going through this? Lord, if you're really there, why am I dealing with this right now? Lord, why do I have this struggle in my life right now, Lord? If you're really there, why? We always question Lord, don't we? It hasn't changed since the beginning of time. We always question the Lord's motives, and we might not ever know the answer, but we can know that there's a reason for it. God had this all lined up, and we're going to see what happens through all this. God shows His hand mighty. Verse 16, it says, and the Lord assures Gideon that he's with him. So verse 16, it says, and the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. So we see Gideon says, listen, Lord, you know what's going on here. You know we're in a valley. You know that the Midians are attacking us, and you want me. You want me, the lowest in my family. You want me, the poor Gideon. You want me to lead this army. You want me to lead this, to try to get us out of this, Lord. Do you not see what we're up against? You know, do we really think that the Lord doesn't know what's going on sometimes? He knows what's going on. You know, and like I said, I just find it interesting that we're the exact same way as Gideon was, questioning what's going on with the Lord. So we know the story about Gideon. We know that the Lord says, I'm going to be with you, and Gideon's like, I really need to make sure, Lord. So I'm going to put some fleece out. I'm just going to test, just to make sure we're good. And the Lord takes care of it. I'm not 100% sure, Lord. One more time. Again, the Lord shows him, listen, this is what I want. I don't know what, do you need neon lights? What do you need? And so Gideon finally says, OK, I give in. That's fine. I'll do what you want me to do. Now I want you to see what Gideon was up against. This is where I really wanted to go this morning. So the Lord is gonna show himself mighty, but he's gonna do it his way. You know, so often we're in that valley, so often we're in that trial life and we think, you know what, this is how it needs to happen. This is how I need to get out of this. But sometimes the Lord just says, you know what, I need to get you to a place where you're gonna have to trust me. I need to get you to a place where you stop relying on yourself. I need to get you to a place where you cannot do it. You look at the story of Gideon and there's no way that he can do this. Let's look at where this goes this morning. We're going to go to chapter 7. Chapter 7 verse 1. It says, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him rose up early and pitched beside the well of Herod, so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Morah in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give to the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand hath saved me." So the Lord says, listen, I'm going to do this for you, but it's going to be my way, and I'm going to show that I'm mighty through this. So we need to make some changes here, Gideon. So now, therefore, go proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead, and return to the people twenty and two thousand, and there remain ten thousand." So Gideon started with 32,000 people. He's like, we're going to go to battle. I got my 32,000 troops. We're ready to go. And the Lord says, no, no, that's too many. Let's get rid of some. And so he gets his army knocked down to 10,000. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. When you look at the grasshopper analogy and what the Midianites were doing, I don't think 32,000 was enough. And now the Lord says, no, we're going to do it with 10. And then let's read down a little bit further, verse four. And the Lord said unto Gideon, the people are yet too many. Bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there. And it shall be that who I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee. And of whosoever I say unto thee, this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go with thee. So he brought down the people into the water, and the Lord said unto Gideon, everyone that lappeth the water with his tongue as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself. Likewise, everyone that boweth down upon his knee to drink. And a number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men. But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink. And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped, will I save you and deliver the Midianites into thine hands, and let all the people go, every man to his own place. So the Lord says, I know you have ten thousand now, but You still might think that this is you that's gonna do this I want to show you that it's me and so he narrows that 10,000 down to 300 300 he went from 32,000 troops down to 300 to 300 troops now if I was getting I would think you know what Lord is This just went from bad to worse. It's not bad enough that I have to go against the Midianites, and I only had 32,000 troops, but now you want me to go with 300? Lord, do you realize what's going on here? That's us, isn't it? Lord, do you realize what's going on in my life? It just seems like things are getting worse. God has a plan. God's gonna work mighty. Verse 16. Verse 16, it says, and he divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hands with empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. So you see these 300 men, Gideon's about to divide them up, and he arms them. Can you imagine being in Gideon's army right now, one of these 300 guys? All right, we're going to go to battle. Let's go get our supplies. Let's get our gear. You're thinking, I hope I get to drive a tank. I hope I have a plane. This is going to be awesome. I got M16s and grenades. And you go up to Gideon, and he says, here you go. Here's a picture and a lamp, and here's a trumpet. So you gave me a flashlight and a whistle. What am I going to do with this? But this is what God's taking him to. God says, listen, I need you to see that it's not gonna be in your mights. You can't do it in your power, but I can, and I'm still here. So most of us know the story we see in verse 17 through 21. We see that they blow their trumpets, they smash their pitchers, and what ends up happening is God confuses the Midianites and they end up fighting each other and killing each other instead of Gideon having to do anything. Verse 22 is what I want us to see. It says, And the three hundred men blew their trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the hosts. And the hosts fled to Beth Shida, in Zerath, in the border of Abel, Mahola, unto Tabith. So we see that the Lord gives the victory. Gideon was standing there thinking, how am I supposed to do this, Lord? They're like grasshoppers. They come and they decimate our entire crops. They do everything. We're just getting beat down all the time. And the Lord says, you're right, Gideon, you can't do it. But I can. I can. Church, I don't know what you're going through today. I don't know what any of us is going through. I don't know what struggles you have in your life. But hopefully, in the next couple minutes, we can take just a couple minutes that will hopefully help each of us as we're in that valley of life to know that we're not by ourselves, that God's with us. Turn back in your Bibles, just like he was with Gideon, turn back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 31, where we started this morning. Gideon facing overwhelming odds, and it just kept getting worse and worse. Lord, it's not bad enough. It's not bad enough, Lord, that we're having to deal with this, but now I have to go and fight them with 300 men, with only pitchers and lamps and trumpets? Lord, are you serious? But that's us. Deuteronomy 31, verse eight, where we started this morning, He it is that doth go before thee. He will be with thee. He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee, neither fear, neither be dismayed. I want to just give you five things this morning and we'll be done. Here's the first thing. The Lord is before you. Now, I want you to think about this. Whatever you're going through in your life, whatever you're going to go through in your life, the Lord is before you. He knows what's happening to you right now. He knows what's going to happen to you in your future. It's not like all of a sudden he's gonna be like, well, I never saw that coming. I didn't realize that that's what they were gonna go through. I didn't realize that he was gonna lose his job. I didn't realize that she was gonna get sick. I didn't realize whatever. It's not a surprise to God. He goes before you. He knows what's gonna happen in each of our lives. It's already laid out, and you know what? I think sometimes he lets us go through these things so that he can show himself mighty like he did to Gideon. He brought them to the lowest point so that he could say, you know what? I'll help you now. Now you know that you can't do it on your own. Now you know that you can't climb out of this valley. but I can reach down, I can pull you up. That's what I'm here for. You're not gonna go through something that's gonna be a surprise to God. What you're going through now is not a surprise to God. He goes before you. Let me give you the second thing. Not only does He go before you, He is with you. Listen, church, this should be one of the most comforting things to think about. No matter where I am, no matter what's going on in my life, He is with me. That God of the Bible, that God that protected Gideon, that God that brought that victory, we could go through story after story in the Bible of how God did mighty things is the same God working in our lives today. He's the same God that wants to help us get through our trials of life today. But so often we forget that He's even there. He says that He's with us. He it is that doth go before thee, he will be with thee. Keep your finger there and turn over to Joshua 1.9. Joshua 1.9, have not I commanded thee, be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be dismayed, For the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. Wherever you're gonna go, whatever you're gonna deal with, whatever trial in life's gonna come, God's gonna be right there with you. And as we just said, he already knows what's gonna happen, he goes before you. It's not gonna be a surprise to him, and he's gonna be with you through that whole thing. Not only is he before you, and not only is he with you, but he will not fail you. God will not fail you. Let me ask you, has anybody, don't raise your hand, because I think the answer would probably be yes, but has anybody ever let you down in this life? Anybody you thought you could count on, somebody let you down in this life, I think, we probably all have our hand up, right? At some point, someone has let you down. Someone you thought you could count on, maybe it was a friend, maybe it was a spouse, maybe it was whatever, they let you down. Can I tell you today, God will never let you down. God will never let you down. He is never going to fail you. Keep your finger to Deuteronomy, Psalm 121. Psalm 121 verse 1 and 2. It says, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Now, I want you to think about this right here. My help cometh from the Lord. People are going to fail us. People are going to let us down in life. Things are not going to go right, but my Lord will never fail me. My Lord is my help. He's who I can count on. He's who I can lean on. Just like Gideon says, you know what? There's no way we could do this, Lord. Lord says, I know I can. I'm not going to fail you. I'm still going to be here with you. I'm still going to help take care of you. He will be with thee. He will not fail you. Let me give you the next thing. He will not forsake you. He will not forsake you. Just because the going gets tough, the Lord's not going to leave you. The Lord's not all of a sudden gonna be like, this was way more than I was expecting. I didn't realize you were going through all this. You're gonna have to figure this one out on your own. The Lord's not gonna all of a sudden just be like, you know what, I'm done, I'm outta here, you're on your own. The Lord will not forsake you. Man, that should give us such comfort. That should give us such comfort. People, they might forsake you. The world definitely will forsake you. but the Lord never will forsake you." Isaiah 43 verse 2. I'll read to you because we're getting short on time here. It says, when thou passest through the waters, I'll be with thee. and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. What an awesome description. You think about just those floods coming, floods of life just overtaking you, and the Lord says, I'm right there with you. I got you covered. I'm gonna make sure you get through this safely. I'm gonna make sure you get through this. You know, if you're saved in here, The absolute worst thing that you can go through on life, I don't know what it is. But you look at, if I went through the absolute worst thing on this earth, if I'm saved, I know what's on the other side. I got heaven. Heaven awaits me. I have my mansion. I'm going to be with the Lord. That's the absolute worst case scenario, that someday I get to spend eternity with the Lord. And I think so often we get so wrapped up in everything going on here that we forget that there's a bigger picture. He will not forsake us. No matter what you're going through, he's not going to forsake you. So you have, in the Lord, in the Lord, he it is that doth go before you. He goes before you. He knows what's going to happen. He will be with you through whatever you go through. He will not fail you. He's never going to let you down like so many other people do. Neither will he forsake you. He's not just going to leave you alone. You're not going to have to be by yourself. Let me give you the last thing. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Psalm 23 verse 4. Psalm 23 is probably one of, most people have memorized it, it's probably one of the most known portions of scripture, I think, even those that don't go to church, a lot of them know parts of Psalm 23. So Psalm 23 verse 4 says this, it says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. What an awesome statement. Can you imagine Gideon's, he's walking through the valley of the shadow of death. I mean, 300 men up against the Midianites and God says, I'm with you. You don't have to worry, I got you. You know, I read that and I think that God, that same God protects us. That same God. But you know what I noticed? Maybe I've seen this before, maybe not, I don't know. But I want you to see, I'm gonna read it to you again. It says, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, whatever I'm going through, whatever I'm going through in this life, that valley that I'm in, he's gonna be with me. I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Listen to this. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. It says, thy rod, thy staff. Not mine. Not my rod, my staff. I can't get through life trials on my own. I can't get through some of this stuff on my own. But thy, God. God will get you through it. God's gonna protect you. Not yourself. I saw that and I thought, what an awesome picture. That, you know what, I have a God. that knows what I'm going through. He knows what's before me. He knows what I'm going to go through. He's not gonna leave me in my time of trials. He's not gonna forsake me like so many others. He's not gonna, I don't have to be afraid because he's with me. He's protecting me. His rod, his staff, they comfort me, not mine. I can't do, I can't get through the world on my own. I can't get through my trials without God. Church, I said, I hope this is hopefully encouragement to each of us today, that you know what? We're all gonna go through something in life. There's gonna be those times where things aren't going perfect, but God's not gonna leave you. He's not gonna forsake you. He's not gonna all of a sudden be like, this was way more than I thought they were gonna go through. He's gonna be with you the entire time. Listen, try not to be like Israel was. We do it so often where when things are going fine, we forget about God. But then when we get to that trial, it's like, oh, Lord, I need you now. We need to thank the Lord for those mountains in our lives, those good times, those high times. Because when that valley comes, and it's going to help us remember that, you know what, I've been in a valley before, and the Lord's pulled me out. And he's put me on that mountaintop. I want to make sure that that's who I go to, that's who I stay close to, so that when those trials of life do come, I don't have to go seek the Lord. I'm already right walking with Him. I don't have to go looking for Him because I walked away. Because He didn't walk away. He didn't change from Israel. He was still there. They're the ones that walked away. Verse 1, they did evil in the sight of the Lord. Church, like I said, I don't know what anybody's going through. I hope that this is an encouragement to each of us today. And I just want to leave us with a poem, a story. And probably most of us heard this before. But it just kind of made me think about what we talked about this morning. It's called Footprints or Footprints in the Sands. Most people probably heard it. It says, one night I dreamed a dream. As I was walking along the beach with my Lord, across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sands. One belonging to me, one belonging to the Lord. After the last seed of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sands. I noticed that at many times along the path of life, especially at the very lowest, saddest times, there was only one set of footprints. This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it. Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I noticed, during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don't understand why. When I needed you the most, you would leave me. He whispered, my precious child, I love you and I will never leave you. Never ever during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you. Those times when we're alone, those times where we're beat down, the times where we say, you know what? I can't get through this. Just like Gideon, you can't get through it. But God can get you through it. He's going to go before you. He's not going to fail you. He's not going to forsake you. We have no reason to fear. Let's pray. Father, I pray that I said what you wanted said this morning. I pray that you just help us to realize what an awesome God we have that's not gonna leave us in our time of trials. Whatever we go through, you know what's happening in our lives. So often we are the ones that walk away, but you never leave us. Father, I thank you for that. I'm sorry for the times that I've walked away from you and not followed you as close as I should have. Father, I pray if there's anyone in here that is going through some struggles and some trials in their lives, Father, I pray that you show yourself mighty. Show yourself mighty in their lives so that they can see that you're still working, you're still on the throne. Father, I thank you for your Word that we can go to and get our lives changed and get closer to you. Father, I just pray that now as we have this moment of invitation that if you worked in anyone's lives in here that they take a minute to either thank you for the times that you've gotten them through other things or just to pray to you about you helping them get through trials that they're going through now. Father, I just pray that we just take this moment to talk with You and to deal with You, Father. Father, I just thank You so much for Your Word. I just want to tell You I love You in Your name. Amen.