Okay. All right. Well, it's glad to be here and I was here last year and it's just always good to be back. What a great song when we just know that we can go to the foot of the Lord and know that he's always there and he's faithful. When things go wrong, he's always there for us. When things might think, or we might think, hey, is he still there? You know, you're so glad you're worshiping the Lord that doesn't take vacations. You know, sometimes we take vacation and forget about God and all that thing, but he doesn't take vacations. He's always on the throne and he's still there and he's watching over us. You know, and my name is Steve Murilla and I'm originally, I'm from Kenya, Africa. And when I was here last year, I was talking about the ministry that the Lord had laid in my heart and is to build a youth camp in Kenya and planting different churches in Kenya. And since that time, and the Lord has been good, I've been traveling around and just trying to raise support. And by the grace of God, I've always almost raised halfway mark of the support, and I bought two acres of land, and God is just doing great things, you know. So keep on praying, and the Lord is always good to us. So open your Bible to the book of Exodus, When I was here last year, I was trying to teach Brother Kirk some Swahili. I don't know. Congratulations for your new baby. When I was here, he was probably expecting with his wife. We had a good fellowship together last year, and good to see the Say's family here, and it's just a blessing to see people that you know, you know? So, Exodus chapter 4, and this morning I just want to be a blessing to you, and I hope I will try my best to be a blessing. So, Exodus chapter 4, and I'll read from verse 1 to 4, and it says, and Moses answered, if you can send it, and Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice. For they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground. And it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. Dear Lord, I say thank you for this time. Thank you for just giving us another day. And what a great day we can come to you and just serve you and praise you and worship you, God. And I said, thank you for who you are in our lives. Thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us. God, maybe if anybody's here and they're just weak or maybe they're trying to lose hope, God, please just continue just guiding us, God. And I said, thank you for who you are in our life. In Jesus' name I pray and believe, amen. So this morning, I just wanna ask you this question. is in verse two, what is that in thy hand? What's one thing that you can have in your hand and say, God, I'm not a singer. I'm not somebody who can be preaching and telling others about you, but Lord, I just have my own soul that I can just be faithful to you. You know, that's the only thing that the Lord wants. He just wants people who are available to Him. He wants people who are ready to serve Him and worship Him and praise Him and say, God, for all you've done to me, I'm just going to raise my hands and say, thank you, Lord. You know, when things go wrong, just keep on praising Him. You know, one thing about Christianity, When we come to church, sometimes we can be sad, sometimes we can be depressed or wonder what's gonna happen, but you know what? The good thing is when we are Christian, we have joy. You know, you can fake to be happy. You can fake to be happy and you can say, okay, I'm just gonna fake a smile, I'm just fake to be, I'm just gonna fake to be happy. But one thing about Christianity, you can't fake to have joy. Because joy comes from the Lord. When you're weak, you're still praising Lord. When you're stranded, you still say, God, I'm going to thank you. When things are not going well at your house, you're still saying, God, I'm still praising you. It's because you have that joy. It's because you have that peace and only peace that comes from the Lord. You know, our society can't give us peace. Our president can't give us peace. The only peace that we can have joy in it is the peace from the Lord. So this morning and this story here is about the rod, and the rod in this story may be used to represent many things. You know, the road in this message, we are going to let the road represent our own life. You know, each of our lives is like a road, are virtually useless until we throw it down in obedience to the command of the Lord and He makes something useful out of it. The road, we look at, we look at this morning in just seven things, if time will allow me, just seven things that the road can can look at us and say, this is what the Lord has for me. What is that in thine hand? And the first thing, the road is just a common road. It's just a common road. And verse 2, it says, And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And you know when it continues this here, it's just like when you can say, I don't have anything, I don't know how I can, I can be doing something in this church, but you being here is so good because that's one of your rod. You know, you can say I'm just a common person who don't know anything. You know, when Moses, when the Lord gave Moses that road, he was wandering and maybe the road was just used as something that can be used as a balance, something that you can use as, OK, maybe you're old, or maybe you're crippled, and you're wondering, how can I get balance? The rod was used to get balance. The rod was used by, even when you go to several places, you can see people walking with a rod. That's one thing that they wanted to give them balance. That's just a dead stick. And when people go to hike, they have something that they hold so that they can go step by step. And they can go, maybe if they're crossing to a river, they can make sure it's not that deep. And they can use that to take their way home. And the rod can be used to kill something or to defend you. When you're looking for something or you're walking and you see maybe a bobcat, where you're hiking, or you see a coyote, or if you're in Kenya, you see a lion. You can use that road to defend yourself. And people here carry guns. You know, it's for security. You're defending yourself. If somebody come to your family, you'll say, no, it's either you kill me before you get to my family. You're defending yourself. You're defending your family. And this here is just a common road. And sometimes we can go through all these things, and we are wondering, God, I'm just trying to be faithful. But I can't. Things are going wrong. And you know, verse 3 says, and he said, cast it on the ground, and he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent. Now, the second thing here is a cast-down rod. After it became a common rod, it became now a cast-down rod. And the Lord asked Moses, what do you have in your hands? And Moses told God, I'm just having a run. And the Lord told him, just cast it down. And one thing I hate, I hate snakes. The only snakes I like is a dead snake. You know, and some people hear pet snakes and all that, that's not for me. That's just like, if you have snake in your house, please just keep it to yourself. You know, and I'm sure people put snakes, and there you see people who like walk with snakes and put snakes around their necks. No, no, no, that's not me. And I think here Moses was like me. Because when he cast down that road, it became a serpent. And Moses, what did Moses do? He fled from it. He was like, no, that's not my thing. That's just, you know, in our Christian life, we have people who like trying to put us down. And when they see you going to church every day, they say, what is he doing? What is she doing? Why are they going to church every day? No, it's because you want to worship the Lord. You know, it's because nowadays, before, people were very faithful going to church. And the church was one thing that people maybe was coming to worship the Lord and knew that this is a place of worship. Now in this day and age, people are mocking the church. People are putting the church down. Churches are closing down because people are not faithful anymore. What a sad state. What a sad situation. But the thing is you're here today and you just cast down yourself and just say, God, I'm here. Moses obeyed God and when he threw that common road down and he cast it down and he said, God, I'm here. I just cast it down. And you know, because it was God's instruction, and Moses obeyed it. And because of his obedience, he did what the Lord has told him to do. Now what's one thing that the Lord is telling you to do this morning, and you're wondering, am I even going to do it? Am I having victory over this thing? And sometimes we say, I really need victory over this thing. God, please give me victory. You know one thing, we can't have victory if we don't trust in the Lord. The first step comes to victory is trusting in the Lord and say, God, I'm going to trust you in this thing. And after trusting the Lord, victory comes up. And you know, Moses obeyed God, and Moses obeyed God's orders, and he obeyed. And even when it was a serpent, after he fled to it, Moses still obeyed God. And he said, and he put his hand onto the serpent. And verse 4, it says, And the Lord said unto Moses, put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put it forth his hand. You know, Moses knew the Lord that told him to put the rod down is the same God that he told him, hey, just grab by the tail. You know, and if you've studied snakes and all that, and people usually grab the snake on their tail. I don't know anything behind it, but maybe it's just one thing. It started from the Bible. Because Moses here grabbed it by the tail. And I think it was maybe a rattlesnake or something like that. But the thing is here, after Moses God grabbed it by the tail. He obeyed God and he knew I'm not going to do anything but the same God that told me to drop it down, to cast it down, is the same God that I'm going to trust and I'm going to obey and I will take that same rod and I will grab it by this tail. Things might go, things might go hard. Situation can come in your lives and you say, is there a God? Is there a God in heaven? Hey, I'm just gonna be here to remind you that surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. You know, it didn't say just today when you come to church. It didn't say tomorrow when you face tribulation and trials. Say, all the days, all the days of my life. That's the promises of God. You know, it became a cast down road, and after it became a common road, and the third thing here, it becomes a converted road. A converted road, and it was just a plain road, and a particular road. And if we can go to chapter 4, verse 17, It says, and thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. This rod was converted, it was a converting rod because remember the story how it converted everything and this rod was used to part the Red Sea and this rod was used to do all kind of things. It was a converted rod. I can ask you this question, remember the day that you got saved and the Lord cleared everything from you and you were converted from a sinner, from the life of sin and all that and you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior because all the things that He went through, through that cross, all the blood that He shed, you know He didn't do that because He hates you. The pain that he went on and the people were spitting on him, he did that because he loved you. But God commanded his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We didn't deserve anything. Our flesh, we are born into sin. But God and His grace and His blood took us from sin, and we trusted Him and accepted Him as a personal Savior. Do you know Him today? And you can say, God, I know you. I remember the day that I got saved. We were converted through His family. Converted Lord, and after that, now it becomes a conquering Lord. a conquering rod and a conquering rod we can go to chapter 7 of Exodus and we can see how it becomes a conquering rod in chapter 7 verse 9 it says when Pharaoh shall speak unto you saying show a miracle for you then thou shall say unto Aaron take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh and it shall become a serpent And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers. Now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. You know, this become a conquering role because when they went to Pharaoh's house and they told Pharaoh, hey, just let the people go. But Pharaoh was so mean, he was hard-headed, he was rude to them, and you know, God had sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to tell him, hey, just let the people go. But Pharaoh didn't want that to do that because he knew these people are doing everything for free. Why should I let them go? They are building their empires. I'm not paying them anything. They're just doing everything for free. Why should I let them go? But when they went there, he wanted to see, who are you? And Moses said, okay, we're gonna do it. Aaron said, let's do it. And they knew they had a rod, and they put the rod down. And all this, the rod that they had, it became a serpent, and the serpent for Aaron and Moses swallowed all the ones for the magician that Pharaoh had sent. And I'm sure that day, the magician was wondering, what's happening here? And the magician said, maybe they said all kind of things that they were talking about. And they went abracadabra. But nothing didn't work. It didn't work out for them. And I'm sure the magicians lost hope. And they're wondering, we can't do anything about this, Pharaoh. But Moses knew the Lord that he's trusting is the Lord that will take this. Israelites to the promised land. Even when Pharaoh was trying to do all things wrong, Moses still trusted of Jesus. It was a conquering road. You know, in our Christian life, we can have trials, we can have tribulation, but just because we are saved, it doesn't mean that everything is going to be peaches and cream. There sometimes we'll be trying to be down. But God is always on our side. You know, if you read Nehum 1, verse 7, the Lord is good. All the time. God is always good. And He will remain to be good. When things go wrong, praise the Lord, He's there. a conquering road. When people are trying to mock you and wonder what's going to happen next, you're still going to praise the Lord. Don't lose hope because we are more than conquerors. And when this become a conquering road and it swallowed all the magicians, serpents, God was a conqueror right there. He conquered it. And verse 13 of chapter 7 it says, and he hardened Pharaoh's heart that he hardened not unto them as the Lord has said. You know Pharaoh knew that, I don't know what are you trying to tell me. Verse 14 it says, and the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. I'm sure Moses was trying to be hopeless right here, but God strengthened his faith. God strengthened his trust, and after that, after it become a conquering road, now we can say it's a convincing road. A convincing road, and it's in chapter five, if we can go to chapter five, chapter five, verse two, it says, And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let the Israelites go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. You know, some people now that you tell them that there's God, they don't believe there is a God. And you're trying to tell them how great thou art, how God has created all these things and he gives them life, but they say, no, there's not a God. And you're trying to tell them, hey, how is a child born? How is this thing formed? But they still not believe there's a God. You tell them how, look at the mountains, look at the stars. They just didn't happen. There must be a God. There must be a God, and people somewhere, they don't believe it, but they know. They know even in these places that people are just hopeless, and they don't know what to do. They know there must be a God. And here in Exodus, Pharaoh is hiding his heart, and he's trying to see what's gonna happen. And if we can go to chapter six, verse three. and they were trying to convince him. They were trying to convince Pharaoh, chapter six, verse three, it says, and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name, Jehovah, was I not known to them? This is God asking, was I not known to them? Because Pharaoh, he had in his heart, and he had in his heart, but he asked, Was I not known to them? Sometimes you can go and tell people about the Lord, and you go maybe to do soul winning. You're giving somebody a drug, but they spit on your face. They say, no, I don't want it. And you try to tell them about God, but they still know, I can't do that. And I remember when I was 17 years old, and I prayed for my papa to get saved. And I kept praying for him. And I remember one time we went to, like, here you meet during Thanksgiving, and families come together. You celebrate. You eat a lot of food and all that. So in Kenya, it's kind of like that, but in Christmas time. And I remember during that time, I kept asking my papa, papa, are you saved? Do you know where you're gonna go when you die? And papa said, no, I just, kids, you know that phrase that say kids need to be seen when they're on the table? They don't need to be heard. And my papa just said, no, just be quiet. Just eat, just eat your food. And I knew he's not saved. And he said, I'm good. I'm trying to help people around the community. I'm trying to do the best thing I can do, but I don't do anything wrong. I'm just trying to obey the laws. And I said, Papa, no, that's not going to take you to heaven. The only thing that will take you to heaven is accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior. You know, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of life is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. No, that's the only gift that we can get, salvation. And he said, no, son. So we went back home, and I kept doing, I kept praying for him, and I prayed for him, and I had this ministry bringing kids together, playing soccer, and after that I'll bring devotion and all that. So I remember one time I was just playing soccer with the kids, and I came back, I saw a lot of missed calls, and it was from Papa. And I was wondering, what has happened to Papa? Why did he call me for a long time? And he said, how are you doing? I said, I'm doing good, how are you doing, Papa? He said, I'm doing good. I said, why did he call me for all these missed calls? Is there, are you all right? And he said, I just wanna tell you that I just accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. And I'm telling you, I rejoiced, I showered because I knew the Lord has been faithful to listen to my prayers. You know, God's timing is always the best timing. Maybe you have a family here that is not saved. Maybe you have a cousin, an aunt, an uncle, even a son or a daughter, your own children are not saved. Just keep on praying for them. God is faithful. He's faithful. His timing is always the best timing. A convincing role. You know, remember the story about how the water was turned into blood? That was in Exodus 7, verse 14 through 19. That was the same role that was used. Remember how the frogs were brought in Exodus chapter 8 verse 1 through 15. The same rod, that was a convincing rod. They were trying to convince Pharaoh. Pharaoh, can you just don't know, can you just don't see how these things are going? But he still said no. Convincing rod. It changed the dust into lies. in Exodus chapter 8 verse 16 through 19. But Pharaoh kept hardening his heart. Remember that the judgment that they were brought of the thunder and hail in Exodus chapter 9 verse 23. But Pharaoh kept hardening his heart. Remember the lockers and all the lockers, big lockers. Exodus 10, 13, but Pharaoh kept hardening his heart. They begged him, just let the people go. Can you imagine one morning you wake up and frogs in your bed, frogs in your pan, frogs in your pantry, frogs in your fridge, frogs everywhere. But Pharaoh still said, no, it's not going to happen. Locusts everywhere. They're coming to eat your plants that you are spending your time to plant. But Pharaoh said, no, it's not going to happen. Lies and into heads and everywhere. Pharaoh said, no, you're not going to convince me. And God asked in chapter 6 verse 3, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them? I remember one time, and I was in McDonald's, and I was getting a Big Mac and a sundae. I love ice cream. And I was going there, and there was this guy, and he was kind of a tall guy, and he was puffed up, and I'm just a small guy. And he said, he was just talking bad and he was cussing out and he was using Jesus' name in vain. And I said, God, please just help me. This is a big guy. I'm a small dude. This guy might just, I was watching his hands. Maybe one slap will just get me down. So I went to him and I talked to him. I introduced myself. I said, I'm Steve. What's your name? And he kind of looked at me funny. And I said, whoops. This is a slap, or this is the punch that she's coming. And I asked him again, what's your name? And he looked at me funny. And he said, my name is Kevin. And I said, can I join you in your table? It's like, why are you joining me? And I said, you know, do you know Jesus? The same name that you're calling out loud. Do you know what he did for you? He shed his blood for you. He died on the cross for you. He went through all this pain and agony just because of you. And you just don't care, you're using his name in vain. And he stopped what he was doing, he stopped eating. And he asked me, what do you mean? And I had a truck in my pocket, I pulled the truck out, I kept on going through the plan of salvation, and I kept telling him about Jesus. And I said, Jesus loves you. He doesn't care what everything you've done, as long as you accept Him and you believe and trust in Him, He needs you to be in His family. That's a free gift He gave you. And I say, Kevin, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And he started crying, he started shedding tears, and I was wondering, I didn't do anything, I didn't slap him, he didn't slap me, but the Lord put us together. And Kevin ended up getting saved. And he was wondering, why can't somebody come and love me after I've done all those things, after I've done crazy stuff. I'm like, he still loves you. And I put his name there, I say, Kevin shall call upon the name of the Lord. Kevin shall be saved. And we prayed together and Kevin got saved. And I remember the next day, Kevin came to church that day. And I don't know, he's still faithful. He's a truck driver. Still faithful. You know, and I remember he was telling me all stories about maybe sometimes he'll be driving on the road and something happened. And I'm like, that just must be God. That can't just happen from nowhere. God was saving you so that you can know Him. There must be a God and that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ. He didn't send His Son because you're tall, because you're pretty, because you're black, because you're white. He sent His Son so that we can accept Him. Because He loved us. He loved us. A convincing road. then it become a controlling road. Why did it become a controlling road? If you can go to Exodus chapter 14 verse 16, Exodus 14 verse 16, it says, 14, 16. But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on the dry ground through the midst of the sea. You know, there's people who argue about this thing, and they're wondering how deep was the Red Sea. And some people say, oh, it was just a shallow water. If it was a shallow water, how can they Pharaoh's army died on the shallow water. If it was a shallow water, why did they drown and die? Why did their horses drown? Why did they drown if it was a shallow water? This is Red Sea. This was deep. And they had victory over the impossibility of the Red Sea just because of the controlling role. They became Victors over the impulse with rebellious Amulek. If you can see in Exodus chapter 17, verse 8 through 16, this is Amulek. And the same story in Exodus 17, verse 1 through 7, this is a story of the Rock of Horeb. The same story, it was a controlling road. The same road that we are talking about. A common road, a cast down road, a converted road, a conquering road, a convincing road, a controlling road. And finally, it becomes a costly road. This becomes a costly road. Why is it becomes a costly road? Let's go to Numbers chapter seven, verse 13. If we go to Numbers chapter seven, Numbers chapter 20, sorry, numbers chapter 20. Numbers chapter 20. Verse 7, it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water. And thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, so that thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drinks. And Moses took the rod, from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Here now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of the rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice, and the water came out abundantly. and the congregation drank, and they are beasts also. You know, the children of Israel were very, very pleasant. But you know, they were human beings too. They didn't, they wasn't accepting what, they were like, let's say, they knew there's a God, and they knew this God is for God of Moses and Aaron, And when they were going to the land that the Lord had promised them, they went through stages. And imagine they went 40 days without changing clothes. They went 40 years, not 40 days, 40 years without changing clothes, 40 years without their shoes and sandals not getting rusted or getting worn out. They went 40 days with eating manna and quail and drinking water. Sometimes they will say, oh, we need something to eat. And the Lord will give them manna. But the Lord told them, hey, don't save anything for tomorrow. Because if you save anything for tomorrow, it's going to go bad. But some of them didn't listen to that instruction. They saved some, it went bad. And they kept complaining, hey, why don't we have meat? We want to eat meat. Because we are not, maybe we're not rabbits. We're not going to be on diet and eat salads. We want something that can take us through. We want meat. God was faithful. He gave them quail. And they kept walking and they kept complaining to Moses, oh, we need water to drink. Oh, we're tired. Oh, it's so hot. And God was just being faithful. He brought cool weather so that they can walk. You know, in this simple instruction, one time Moses went to pray and he came back and he found out that they were trying to worship other gods that they can't see. But they said Moses was so angry. This was a costly road because Moses was angry when he came back from praying. They said, we want water. But he was angry because they were worshiping other gods, the gods of Egypt and Pharaoh. And it became here in verse 9. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And verse 11 of Numbers chapter 20, verse 11, it says, And Moses lifted up his hand with his rod, he smote the rock twice. And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and there a beast also. Now this became a costly road because Moses didn't obey the instruction of God. God told him just go speak to the rock. But guess what Moses did? He didn't speak to the rock. This was a costly road because his anger, his flesh made him smite the rock. He was mad and he smote the rock and the water came through though, it did. But Moses obeyed the command of the Lord. The Lord told him, just speak to the road. But he didn't. In our own life, things can turn out like that. We don't obey God as we need to. No, his disrespectful address in verses 10, and then his disobedience, his shameful disobedience, the same rod that was used to be convincing and common and all that, now it becomes a costly rod. You know, in verse 12, Moses' death is announced. This was a costly road. And you know what? This is the last time Moses was permitted to use the rod of God. After his willful disobedience, God never allowed Moses to use the rod again. Can you just imagine the very thing that Moses had used to bring great victories for God and the children of Israel now becomes his downfall. He doesn't know what to do. In our Christian lives, may God help us not to abuse that which God has blessed us with so that we can bring its downfalls. The Lord has blessed you with good house. The Lord has blessed you with good riches. But let's not take that advantage and let's not take it for granted what the Lord has blessed us with. Let's be thankful. You know, you might not have great riches, but you have you, your own self, to give yourself to the Lord and say, God, I'm available. Please use me. God, I don't know where my children are. I don't know where my grandkids are, but God, please take care of them. I remember when I was 11 years old, and one time I was just laying down, and I was laying down, I thought, maybe it's raining outside. And I woke up. Remember, my mom was praying over me, and she was weeping, and she was saying, God, please use my son. God, please use him. And she was weeping and crying. And I remember one time, again, my dad was just in church. My dad has planted different churches in Kenya, about 25 churches. And I remember one time, I was just cleaning and cleaning around the church property. And I went inside the church. And I could hear my dad praying and praying over people, his family. his brothers, his sisters, the church, the community. No, you can just say, God, I don't have anything, but I want to be faithful to pray for my friends. I want to be faithful to guide my family, to lead my family, and to see how good you are. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. That's his psalm. He's always good. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Is He good to you? Are you good to Him? Let's always be faithful. You know, Moses was 80 years old when he was surrendered to himself, because he was using that road. You know, this morning I'll just encourage you, never Never be afraid or ashamed of the gospel. Never be ashamed or ashamed of the gospel. Love it. Share it. Proclaim it. Proclaim the gospel. Teach it. Defend it if you can defend it. Defend it. Ask God for his boldness, his courageousness. Defend the gospel. And let's live it. because God is worthy to be praised. Dear Lord, I say thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this rod that we can see and we can just say how good you are to us. God, if sometimes we might be wondering what to do, but your rod is always there. God, we are available to you. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. In Jesus' name I pray and believe. Amen.