Page 17, lesson number four is where we're gonna be. And we're on A Messenger Came, all right? We're talking about David. We're in 1 Samuel, chapter 23. And 1 Samuel, chapter 23 has been the story of David continuing on into the second book here. And we talked last week about how that David had met with Jonathan in the wood, and what a friend, what a blessing Jonathan was, just to be that friend for David. And so in lesson number four, we see something that seems kind of insignificant. It's kind of an interesting story, but it doesn't, the phrase just seems a little insignificant, but let's go ahead and read the verses together. 1 Samuel 23, starting in verse 19. Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, doth not David hide himself with us in strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hekelah, which is in the south of Jeshimon? Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul, to come down, and our part shall be to deliver him into the king's hand. And Saul said, blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye have compassion on me. Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place, where his haunt is, and who hath sent him there, and who hath seen him there, for it is told me that he deals very subtly. So Saul says, oh, good job, thanks for telling me. Now listen, he's a real sneaky guy, So go back and spy on him some more and let me know where he's at and what he's doing and then report back to me where he's at. Verse 23, see therefore I and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hieth himself and come ye again to me with certainty and I will go with you and it shall come to pass if he be in the land I will search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah. And they arose, the Ziphites arose and went to Ziph before Saul But David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, they'd moved out as if, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon. And so David and his men, 600 plus, are hiding from Saul's men. And Saul, verse 25, also and his men went up to seek him. And they told David, wherefore he came down into a rock. And there must have been kind of a, they say that that's kind of a dividing place in the rock, kind of a crack or a crevice, maybe a canyon. abode in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain. And David made haste to get away for fear of Saul. For Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them." They had them surrounded. And then all of a sudden in verse 27, there came a messenger unto Saul. That's our whole lesson today. There came a messenger under Saul saying, haste thee and come for the Philistines have invaded the land. Wherefore, Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore, they call that place Sila, whatever. And David went up from thence and dwelt in the strongholds at En Gedi. Now you probably look at this and say, that kind of looks like an old movie I might've seen, you know, or Where, you know, the bad guys are going around this side of the mountain and these guys are going around this side of the mountain. And, you know, where do you think they get their material from? They get their material from God. I mean, He arranged this story and it's in the Bible. So here they are. I mean, they got Him. They know He's in there somewhere. And so they're surrounding Him and they're closing in. It's just a matter of seconds, minutes before they're going to find David and his men and it's all going to be over. And then, verse 27, a messenger came. and changed everything. So that's what we're gonna look at today. And so we're gonna read in our book, page 17, and we'll talk about this, and hopefully this will be something that will be a blessing to you as we go through it. As we begin the next chapter of his story, David's still on the run. He's done no wrong, all right? He doesn't deserve to be treated like this. But he was fleeing from King Saul. David was in the wilderness of Ziph. When the people of Ziph found out David was there, their loyalty to King Saul was aroused. They sought out the king to tell him where David was, so the king could put an end to David's life. So just like the people back in Keilah, we saw a few weeks ago, here the Ziphites are gonna do the same thing. I mean, Saul has so much more power. Saul's got so much more political power, he's got more men, and so it's just smart to go ahead and turn on David and to turn him in and be a tattletale. Ah, we saw him over here, King Saul. He's over here. And so David can't trust anybody other than his men. He can't trust anybody not to squeal on where they're at. And so he leaves Ziph and goes to Mahon a little ways away. We read the passage in chapter 23 and we discover in this passage, in this episode, that we are never out of God's care and that our Lord is always on time. And what seems like a movie is actually something that God does. And God can do it. God can arrange these things. And our Lord is always on time. There are lots of times when he feels like he's not on time. When it feels like he's late and he's not paying attention to what's going on. But God's never late. If something happens to me, I have to realize that God allowed it. There's just nothing that happens to me that God didn't allow. There's never a time where I bow my head and say, Lord, you're not gonna believe what happened today. And he says, oh my goodness, I had no idea. There's never a time where he is surprised by what happens. So if the doctor tells me I have cancer, I tell you this, my God knew about it before the doctor did. And my God can fix it if he wants to. If I have a flat tire, as frustrating as it is, it always seems to happen at the wrong time, you know, but my God knows about it. All right. He knew about it ahead of time. There's never a thing that God doesn't already know about. And so we have to stop. And with patience and with humble submission, we have to say, God's got this going on for a reason. There's a reason why this is happening. Now, sometimes the reason is our own foolishness, but hopefully we'll learn our lesson. I mean, in other words, if you have a flat tire, but you knew there was a nail in it, you know, Well, maybe you need to learn how to fix your stuff. But anyhow, God has a reason for why things happen and why he doesn't stop things from happening. Okay? God's in charge. Verse 27, to the very climax of this whole thing, you know, where the music is playing and your emotions are at the peak level and all of a sudden, here comes this messenger huffing and puffing. The Philistines are here. And Saul had sought David's life. And God's word says, there came a messenger. A messenger came. There are days when we do not realize that God is looking after us. And there are many times when we think that God is not on time. However, from the heavenly point of view, God is always watching out for us. He is never late. I don't have this story memorized, but I got it close enough that I can tell it to you. I've got it in my fat book of stories in my office. There's a lady missionary that was over, I think it was China, I don't remember for sure where she was at, but she came back to America and someone asked her, was there ever a time when you felt like God was not being good to you, where God kind of left you alone and just deserted you? Did you ever feel like God wasn't listening? And she said, yes, there was one time specifically. She said, it might seem small, but it was kind of a big deal to me. She said, my money. Didn't come in back in those days. There wasn't like instant wiring transfer. It was slow boat mail my money didn't come in and She said I had no support. I had no money. I had nothing to buy and pay for my stuff She said I my cupboards were getting bare and I ended up for 30 days. I Ended up eating nothing but oatmeal because that's all I had. I didn't have any money to buy anything No, no credit cards or anything like that back then And so she said, I really got frustrated. I would pray, and I would ask God, why are you not allowing my money to come in? On top of that, I was feeling these horrible stomach cramps. And I was just feeling terrible, and I was sick. And she told this. She said, after 30 days, I never did understand, but finally the money showed up. I had oatmeal for almost 30 days straight. Listen, oatmeal two days straight is hard on this guy right here, OK? And I had it for 30 days straight plus and and a doctor heard her tell this story and he asked her about the stomach cramps and she explained to him and He figured out I don't have the medical term, but he figured out. I think you had this I think this is what you had going on in your intestinal system and She said wow and he said it's quite serious, and he said I want you to know something He said I've seen this a lot, and I figured out how to combat it He said, I always prescribe to my patients 30 straight days of oatmeal. God's not late. He knows what he's doing. He's on time. And sometimes it looks like he's late and it looks like he's not paying attention. But God knows if you're saved and you're crying out to him, he might be wanting you to stop and reflect and see some things in your own life that you're not willing to admit and recognize that you've got some things that need to be taken care of. And maybe that's why he's being silent, because you already know what it is. You already know what the issue is. But he's never late. He is always on time. So we look at David's dilemma on page 18. How did David get into this dilemma? How did he get here? Now, this is a good question. When I have problems, and I have problems. You have problems. We have flat tires. We have stuff that goes wrong. We have things that break. We have things that should never have happened, but it happened anyway. When I have problems, one thing I've got to stop and do, and I think it's a great thing to do, and I hope you'll, is to stop and say, is this my fault? First, number one, why is this happening? There's no money to pay the bills. But I go back 30 days before, and I've got this wonderful gadget toy that I bought. There's no money to pay the bills. It's kind of like the young couple that was so upset because they had no crib to put their little baby in. They had to make a little crib out of the cardboard box that their TV came in. Some people just need to stop and say, all right, what's my problem? Is it me? Am I doing this to myself? Maybe that's why God's allowing this to happen. When I go through that, and you gotta be honest. You can't do a quick check. You gotta be honest. And you go through that self-checklist and you can't find anything and God is not showing you anything that has caused, that you have caused this problem. Then you can say, then this must be something God wants to happen. This isn't just me being dumb. And in David's case, he hadn't done anything wrong. Now he wasn't perfect. But David didn't do anything wrong to cause Saul to want to kill him. David was not wrong. And let me tell you something, in spite of the problem, if you have the peace in your heart that I'm right with God, I'm right with God, that will help tremendously to know you're right in spite of how wrong. You ever read the story of Job? I mean, Job's got three friends telling him how wrong he is, but Job has to do a self-check. And Job probably found some things in his own life, but ultimately, Job knew he hadn't done anything worthy of what was happening to him, all right? And so here's David. He is being chased by someone who wants to kill him, and he was doing good. He went out one day, I mean, I'm minding my own business. I'm taking care of my dad's sheep. And dad says, take some food down. And, oh, before that, I'm taking care of my dad's sheep, and somebody calls and says, I gotta go home, because this prophet wants to anoint you to be the next king. I didn't ask for that. You know, I'm just minding my own business, taking care of sheep. And next thing you know, God anoints me. It's not my fault I'm anointed king. God did that. Then, later on, my dad says, hey, take some food down and see how the brothers are doing down in the army. And he gets down there, and there's this huge giant, and nobody else wants to fight him. And he says, I'm not going to let him blaspheme God. He fights him, kills him. And he becomes a hero. He hasn't done anything wrong. He's just doing what God told him to do. You know, sometimes we get ourselves in a lot of trouble and all we were doing is what we're supposed to do. And when that happens, you just gotta keep trusting the Lord that he's got a plan. So David saved the whole nation of Israel. He obeyed God. He's in the trouble he's in for obeying God. Hey, there's no better place to be than obeying God. Even if it doesn't feel good. And it's wrong. The TV preachers, the radio preachers, the Hollywood Christian celebrities, it's a bunch of baloney. When they give you this idea that if you serve God, everything is just rosy and everybody wants your autograph. It's just not true. All right? Because if you're fighting the devil, he doesn't let up on you. There's an enemy. And so he was obedient to his father. And that's why he's in the, and that's the point. I'm obedient to my father, and look at the mess I'm in. Well, as long as I know I'm right with my father, it doesn't matter about who doesn't like me, all right? All the things that come to us that cause confusion are not necessarily due to sin. The author of confusion is Satan. If you're trying to serve God, there is a devil who hates that, and he hates you just for doing good. 2 Timothy chapter three says, that there's coming a day when people will be despised because they do good. Despisers of those that are good. We're living in that day. People do not despise the bad as much as they do ... Listen, you know who's the most popular preachers in America right now? The liars, the pretenders. the ones who are telling everybody what they want to hear and having itching ears, tickling those ears. Obedience to God is offensive to those who are disobedient. Just like light is offensive to darkness. If you've been sleeping in a dark room for eight hours and someone comes in and flips on the light, it's offensive. Your eyes do not like it because you've been in the dark. And obedience to God is offensive to those who are disobedient to God. And so here is David obeying God and he's offensive to someone who's not right with God. The light of your life can cause people to see their own darkness. I've often, I've often wondered, I've often had people just treat me like, yeah, you know, and most of the time, especially in Custer, people are generally generally pleasant. But there's been people this, and it's like, what did I do? You know what? And then all there's something that they know about me. They don't like, it's not really me. And Jesus told his disciples, they're not going to like you because you are associated with me. He said, and that's it. And so the world does not appreciate the light in Christ is the light. They do not like the darkness being exposed. They do not like what they are doing in the darkness exposed. Because the natural man loves darkness rather than light John chapter 3 verse 19 through 21 Let's just read it real quick. We'll go back to first Samuel 23, but John chapter 3 You know we have John 3 16 But then you keep going a few verses later, and it says in verse 19 and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light and because their deeds were evil. All right? For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Listen, I hope, I hope you understand what I'm gonna say here. I hope you rub people the wrong way. I hope there's some people out there that don't like you. Because if everybody out there likes you, you ain't very light. You're not very shiny. If you're shiny, somebody's not going to like it. Your family, your neighbor, your coworker, there's somebody out there not happy. Maybe it's your own spouse. There'll be somebody that's not happy with your light. And if you're saved, there ought to be somebody not happy. I'm not saying I go around hoping that people might get upset with me. I hope I make somebody mad today. But it'll happen if you're going to let your light shine. Here's David. He's running from an enemy. that he's done nothing wrong to that person. You may be trying to live your life for Jesus Christ and things have just not gone like you think they should have gone. This kind of dilemma comes at some time or other to all of God's children. All that will live godly will suffer persecution. It returns again and again but God knows about it and he's still in control. Honor and obey the Lord And remember, God has sent a messenger to tell you you can bring your burden to the Lord and leave it there. There's a message for you from God. I'm looking for a cough drop because I hear somebody that needs it. Here you go. Yep. God's got a messenger to encourage you or maybe in this case to deliver you, and just trust the Lord. Sometimes we hear just the right sermon that helps us to get through the issue. Sometimes there's something that comes in the mail that's just the answer to the problem. Sometimes there's the most unexpected situation, and God is there with his messenger. Now let's go to Psalm 54. The reason why I gotta go to Psalm 54 is because David wrote this, he said this, right when all this was going on. This psalm was literally written because of what was going on in 1 Samuel 23, all right? In fact, some of you might have this in your Bible. In Psalm 54, right underneath the chapter, before you get to verse one, it says, to the chief musician on Naganoth, Meshul, a psalm of David, when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, doth not David hide himself with us? So this psalm is literally going on in David's heart when Saul is chasing him there at Ziph. And this is what it says, save me, O God, by thy name and judge me by thy strength. You know what? When you're right with God, you can ask God to be your judge. One thing about David is David would always go to God and say, God, I'd rather you judge me than anybody else. Now, if you're not right with God, you don't want God to be your judge. But but he says judge me because I know I can trust you to have good judgment hear my prayer Oh God give ear to the words of my mouth for strangers are risen up against me and Oppressors seek after my soul. They have not set God before them Sila Behold God is mine helper. The Lord is with them that uphold my soul He shall reward evil unto mine enemies cut them off in thy truth I will freely sacrifice unto thee. I will praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good. For he hath delivered me out of trouble, and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies." So David's just trusting the Lord. This psalm is about this whole story, and David's just, he's got a dilemma, like we all do, and he's trusting God. He's saying, I'm going to ask God to save me. I'm going to ask God to deliver me. I just know God's in charge. And so David's just going to God with the whole thing. Save me, O God, judge me, hear me. And then Psalm 18, verse one and two, we heard someone say that. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. David was a mighty man, but he recognized that God is our deliverer. And I've said this before, but David was a pretty popular guy. He was a pretty self-sufficient guy. But God was allowing David to become a very dependent guy. on him. And David was learning this. Now here in the paragraph on page 19, right in the middle of the page, if you think, the box says, if you think God is not interested in you, you're wrong. God is interested in you. Yesterday, Ray and I went out to eat for lunch and our waiter was someone that Henry, who was here a month ago, Henry mentioned him to me. He said, hey, I took my wife down to, you know, restaurant and the waiter was a man and I started talking to him. And he said, he said, I want to ask you a question. If I leave this for you, will you read it? He said, probably not. And Henry said, you know, thank you for being honest. He said, you know, a lot of people leave those things, but they never talk to me. They just, you know, they're too ashamed to talk to me. So they just leave those things. And Henry told me that, and it really spoke to my heart, because I've done that before. I leave a track but not talk to people. And Henry said, well, listen. He told this young man that was his waiter. He said, I got saved reading one of these, and that's why I leave them. And Henry made it personal. And the young man, the waiter, said, you know what? I'm going to read it, since you've talked to me. I'm going to read it. So yesterday, we were there, and I guessed that this waiter was the same guy, because they only have one male waiter in that restaurant. And so I said, Hey, I said, do you remember an older gentleman about a month ago that left you something to read? He said, yeah, his name was like, uh, Henry or something like that. I said, yeah. And, uh, I said, he told me what he told you, what you told him. And I said, I just want to let you know that, um, I have a, a story of amazing grace. I want to leave you, you know, and, and, uh, Ray got to tell him about his testimony. And, uh, you know, I don't think those things happen by accident. I don't think those meetings that we have, I hope that that young man understands that God cares about him, okay? God loves him and God's trying to call out to him. That guy told us that he used to be involved in a different religion and a different church. And I think God's trying to get that guy's attention, all right? It's interesting that he remembered Henry's name too, all right? I think about this young lady sitting over here. I don't think you guys have heard this story yet over here, but I don't know how long ago it was, but she got up one day and said, there's no God. If there was a God, why is my life like this? She went to work. Some random person, she has no idea who it was, left her a tip after ordering a donut or whatever it was, a $250 tip with a note that says, honey, I don't know why, but God told me to tell you that he loves you. And I just was impressed to leave that for you today. I think that started her on a different path and helped her to realize that, you know what, God does care. God sends messengers, you know? By the way, that's what angels are. Angels are messengers. The word angel means messenger. And God sends messengers just when we need, just in the nick. God arranges things behind the scenes that we don't think about at the time. Remember last week I showed you the picture of the crossing of the Red Sea? and how that if you drain the Red Sea in that one finger, there's this land bridge, this one shallow bridge compared to the rest of that Gulf of Aqaba. You think that's just an accident? No, God arranged that because he had a plan one day that somebody's gonna cross it. How about, have you ever read the story in the Bible about Peter and how that he needed, you know, Jesus said to Peter, we need to pay taxes. You know, and Jesus said, Peter, go catch a fish. And so Peter goes fishing. He opens the fish's mouth and there's enough money in the fish. The fish had swallowed this coin and there was enough money in the fish when he opened the fish up to pay for Peter and Jesus on the tax money that they owed. It's in the Bible. Now you think about that. I mean, one day God told a fish to swallow a coin. because we're gonna need that pretty soon, all right? God has ways of, now, we read in this chapter, 1 Samuel 23, we read, but there came a messenger unto Saul. Now, let's just stop here. But there came a messenger unto Saul. This is how most of us read the Bible. But there came a messenger unto Saul, ta-da. Listen, what that means is, that means that the entire Philistine army had to have this idea, hey, let's go take out some Israelites. Well, God had to make that happen. Then so the Philistines get on the move and they're going to go plunder and do their thing against the nation of Israel. So then that happens. And then a messenger has to see that this is going on. He's got to make a beeline straight to the palace, straight back to the throne. And he runs, where's the king? And the king's not there. So now they got to get another messenger because that one's probably worn out. And he's going to run and go find him in Ziph. And he's not in Ziph. Oh no, he's down in Maona. And so all this has to take, all these steps have to take time. And he gets there just the nick of time. You don't think that isn't just a co- that's not just coincidence. That's God. God's doing that. God's sending people on our behalf. I've heard people say that they have prayed for God to do a miracle and they opened up a letter that was the miracle and the postmark was before they knew they needed the miracle. The servant for Abraham prayed and said, Lord, I have no idea how to find a bride for Isaac. But it just so happened to be that the one that was there at the well was the one that got it arranged. There was no understanding when Joseph got sold by his brothers into Egypt. They sold him to these slave owners or whatever, who happened to be going to Egypt, who just happened to then set up the whole thing for Joseph to be the ruler of Egypt. There was this guy named Naaman who had leprosy. And it just so happened that there's this little servant girl that was there in his house that said, you know what? The man of God could take care of this for you. Those things aren't random. God's doing that. There was these people that were young and they were in love. They were going to be married. And they were so excited. And all of a sudden this mean, ugly, selfish, wicked Roman Caesar declared the whole world's going to get taxed. And this young in love couple had to move out of their wonderful place where they were planning to build their nest and go all the way up to Bethlehem. And she's real pregnant. But God made sure that mean Caesar did that. See, God's behind taxes. I know we don't like taxes, but God uses taxes for good things. Because if Jesus hadn't been born in Bethlehem, the prophecy wouldn't have been fulfilled. And so God arranged that. There was a guy named Saul, not King Saul, but a different Saul that was standing there watching Stephen being stoned to death. But the way Stephen died so convicted his heart that he knew that there was something real about Christ and Christianity. Jesus told two of his disciples one time, you guys go in there and find this donkey. He'll be tied, just untie him and bring him. Somebody had to tie that donkey up. And somebody had to go, hey, what are you doing? Oh, this is for Jesus. Oh, OK. I mean, we don't think about that. When we tie things up for the Lord, we need to recognize, hey, if God's told you to tie the donkey up, tie the donkey up. He's got a reason for it. We don't think about the fact that God made sure there was five smooth stones there when David needed them to slay the giant. There's all kinds of things behind the scenes that we don't think about. And here is David. I mean, we're down to the last desperation effort here. And the enemy is just about to close in. And a messenger comes. God's messenger shows up at just the right moment. And David's doing everything he can do. It's all in God's hands now. And God came and delivered him. He took care of him. He brought him out of his dilemma. He sent a messenger to run up to Saul, and Saul had no choice. Your nation's under attack, you gotta go after them. And they had to turn around and leave when they almost had him. And so all of a sudden, David, he's waiting for the final crunch, you know, and it never comes, and he peeks up over the rim, and they're all headed back to Jerusalem. They're not coming after him. And he realizes that God has spared him. What an awesome thing. I'm sure those 600 men with David are like, wow, that was close. I hope, and by the way, the Red Sea Crossing, I mean, that's just another one. We talked about that last week. I hope in your life, I hope your kids, and by the way, mom and dad, this is why it's so important that you do the hard thing. I know Treg doesn't like hard things, because I know he's just like me. Wouldn't it be nice if somebody just came up to you and said, hey, Treg, here's a million dollars? But you listen, you know what? Can I tell you something? You've got some young people in your life that won't get anything out of that. They won't learn about God. But if you'll sit them down every day and say, we don't necessarily have a lot, but we know that God will take care of us if we'll obey him. Those girls will grow up thinking that God's real. Those 600 men with David, when that whole deal was done, they're like, whoa, I think God did that. There's nobody else we can give credit to on that one. David didn't do that. It's not like David radioed somebody. No, God did that. And we need, as parents, we need to remember that these trials that we're in, they're for our kids. Mr. Martinez over here. I have no idea if God wants to use Mr. Martinez to make a great impact in Valentine, Nebraska and Rosebud. I don't know if he does or not, but I know he wants him to make a great impact on the three kids he's got. And you might think you're not much of a whatever, much of a missionary, because you don't have lots of numbers, but if three young missionaries grow up in your home and believe in God and know that he's real, I mean, we got to understand God knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing and he uses things and does things his way so that we know, oh wow, that was God and we trust him. I grew up in a pastor's home and it wasn't a perfect home with perfect people, but it was a home where I knew that God was real and I could trust him. There's no reason for us to live a day thinking that we've been deserted or we've been cast out or forsaken. God will take care of us each day. And David said, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, Psalm 23. I was telling Ray yesterday how that about once a year, I try to preach the sermon, truth and mercy. Truth and mercy. If you're honest with God, there'll be mercy. And right then in this story, David's just, God, as far as I know, As far as everything you've shown me, as far as I know, I can't think of anything. I have searched. There's nothing in my heart that isn't taken care of and isn't confessed and isn't right with you. And so I'm just being so open and honest. And mercy followed. Mercy came. But if you're not going to be open and honest, if you're going to say, well, I'm as good as that guy over there, if you're going to try to compare yourself with other people or you're going to try to excuse yourself or reason it away, that's not being honest. But if you're going to be honest, then truth, when it's followed, mercy will follow you. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. For the child of God every day is a day of God's goodness and mercy when we follow him I don't understand how he made it happen, but he made it happen. I don't know how we got through that one, but we got through it. I don't know how, but he did it. And not only did he do it in the moment, but he taught some lessons to all of us at the same time. That's the blessing. God knows your dilemma, and he'll come and deliver. Just trust him. And praise him, and give him the glory for it all. And talk about how awesome it was, and how he took care of you, and how he met the need. That is what it's all about. And these people with David were growing and maturing along with David. They were saying, hey, that's pretty cool. We shouldn't have lived through that one, but we did. All right, let's close in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the word of God. We thank you for the fact that you have the messenger that comes at just the right time. You have the arranged, prearranged, method of deliverance, the pre-arranged message, you have all that pre-arranged and you have it ready to go at just the right time. You're never late. Help us to trust you. Help us to be exactly where you want us to be, even if it doesn't feel good, even if it's scary. Help us to just trust you so that when it's all done and the dust is settled, we can once again rejoice and others will see that you are God and that you are right and that we follow you, it will be okay. And we thank you and praise you for how you love and how you insert your grace and love and mercy in our lives and how that you want us to see you and follow you. Help us to be encouraged to trust you more. In Jesus' name, amen.