 intro. It just makes me feel like running through a brick wall. I just feel like just taking off run. He's got me energized. Hello, everyone. Hope you all are doing well. There are a lot of times in the Bible. I don't know why I said often a lot. Be efficient, Corey. But there are often times in the Bible where you come across different studies and there is so much about the study that you can apply to yourself. There are things that will help you to understand and see some things and we're going to, we're covering judges and I want you all to see something. I think it's going to, I think it's going to bless you, especially if maybe you're, you know, not too sure you're wondering, which is all of us, right? So that being the case, let's go ahead and jump into it where we left off. We left off going into judges chapter four. Well, actually we left off in Ruth, but we're back in judges and this story gets brought up a lot because it's discussing a woman because God forbid a woman can't do anything, right? A woman should be seen, not heard. A woman should be in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant and when she's of age and she can't have any more kids and she needs to be rocking somebody else's kids to sleep, right? That's, that's how some people actually look at women, that women have no place whatsoever, no role whatsoever in God's kingdom. Well, that's false. God created male and God created female and He didn't just create males to be the only ones that are going to serve Him. You're going to have females that are going to serve Him. Now, obviously there are defined roles between the males and females and that's just God's doing. We don't get a chance to go back and say, hey God, no fair. But to act as though God doesn't use women, that would be wrong. God uses women. He uses men. He uses donkeys. He uses whatever He wants to use. As a matter of fact, He can use bread. He can use pictures, which we're going to see later today. God can use whomever and all of His creation. Everything that He has on His planet is at His disposal for His good pleasure to bring about His purpose. Amen. So, that being the case, let's start off in Judges chapter four. Why is my computer not there? So, let's go to Judges chapter four. Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord after a who died. Now, let's back up. What should the children of Israel expect? Now, remember, or I said suspect, expect. Remember, we are putting ourselves in the place of them at that time. So, we're trying to look at things the way they look at things. We are to view things the way that they should be viewed. Remember, they've heard the prophecies. They have seen the hand of God. They've seen these miracles through the different prophets. They've seen God just move. Now, we're speaking all of Israel from the time that Israel was formed up until now. Of course, we have seen God do what He's going to do and we've seen His mighty hand from Genesis on. What do we expect? So far, we know one terrible thing that is going to happen. God has given them the land. As a matter of fact, this is what He told Abraham. He tells Abraham to get out of your father's land, your father's country, into a land that I will show you. And in that place, what did God promise in Genesis 12? He said that I will bless you. I'll make your name great. Make you a great nation. I'm going to bless you. And even when the blesses you, I'll bless them. When the curse you, I'll curse them. So, He promised him this land. He promises in His promise, He promises people because you cannot have a nation without people. He promises land, a boundary because that's the only way that you can have a nation if there's boundaries for that people to be in. And then also implicit in that is that there must be some sort of rule. How is it going to be ruled? Well, the rulership is going to vary. Ultimately, it's still going to be governed by God. But they are told their promise to go into this land. They have gone into the land and they have still not done what they're supposed to do in the land. They were supposed to drive out the enemies. Now, if any of their enemies were to ever recognize that God is God, that the Lord is God, then they could also take part in it, but they wouldn't. They don't do that. Now, there are a few that do. There are a few that do that. If anyone, a sojourner, anyone, a stranger who wants to come and be a part of this and take part of the covenant, they could do so because God is not about excluding people who recognize that he's God. No, he wants everyone to recognize that he's God. He's just using Israel right now. So what has God promised him? Well, he tells them that you guys are going to disobey. He tells us that in Exodus. He tells us that in Deuteronomy. He tells us that in Leviticus. He tells us that in Numbers that you guys are going to disobey. And because of that, what was God's promise to the Jews upon their disobedience? Well, he promises that he's going to put them out of the land. Well, they're in the land right now. So at some point in time in the future, they can expect to be out of the land because of what? Well, because of a couple of things. One, idolatry and just rank disobedience, but then two, because of these Sabbaths that they are supposed to adhere to for the land. Every seven years, the land is supposed to enjoy a Sabbath. They are just, you know, that is when you, when things are going good, payday comes or you get this windfall or something good happens and you want to celebrate and you forget about God. But then God wants to remind you who he is. And so what will God do? God will leave the very people that you want him to get rid of in your life to afflict you, to bother you, to prick at you. Why? To keep you calling out to him or the very thing that you want to get rid of. Why? Because you have not learned not you, but you also and me as well. We have not learned, they have not learned to praise God and to be obedient when things are going well. And so when things go bad and we are suffering, we cry out to the Lord and what happens? Oh, there you are God. And God shows up and delivers this vicious cycle. So the theme of judges is just these cycles that we see over and over and over and over. Same with you. You got them. I've got them. We all got them. Even guess what? Here's what's funny. Even people who are not children of God, they have them because God is yet stretching out his hand begging, come, come, come, come, come. And we're saying, okay, but hold up, God. I got some things to take care of. Well, we're going to learn a lesson, a couple of lessons and a couple of stories. So thank you, Moonstar. Thank you so much. So judges four, verse two, and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, King of Canaan, who reigned in Hazar. And the commanders of his army was Cicera who lived in Hirosheth, Haigoyin. Now, by the way, who sold them? God did. God did. You mean God is going to do bad? God will have the audacity. God will, who loves me, God will send bad things my way or cause bad things to happen to me. You better believe it. Or as they would say, you bet your bottom dollar. Yes, he will. God is not, there's nothing out of his region or out of his disposal to use to correct you, even if it's the enemy. Or even just to remind you to test you, to see, are you going to still go to him? Because you can test your faith by who you go to, when you go to him, when things happen. When something bad happens, who do you go to? When do you go to? Now, is God your last resort? Let's say I went to my friend, I went to my cousins, I went to YouTube, I went to Google, I went everywhere I could, couldn't find answers. Finally, let me go to God. Well, that's not really faith. That's just I'm down to my last option. Well, what else do I have left to try? But also in the flip side also, when things are going well, who do you go to? When things are happening and doing well. Do you praise God for that? Thank you, Lord. Wow. I am so, remember the 10 lepers, even though we haven't gotten there yet, we don't know anything about 10 lepers and we don't know about Jesus, but time out, because again, we have to earn a statement, but just to make this point, the 10 lepers, what happened? They get healed and they're noticing, hey, wait a second, one guy's like, thank you. Wow. Well, what do we do that? And you would think that Christians would, but oftentimes we just don't. We just, you know what I expect there? I'm your son. I'm your son. I'm your daughter. You're supposed to do good things for me. Okay. See if I, see if I do something good for you next time. God didn't want spoiled children. So anyway, so God sells them into the hands of, uh, Javen. By the way, why is Javen even there? Because you all didn't drive them out like you're supposed to. So they're still in your land. They're still in your land because you didn't do what you're supposed to. So the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, verse three, for he had 900 iron chariots and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for 20 years, 20 years. It's a long time to be oppressed 20. Now mine was 13 and mine was self inflicted. This is 20 years and theirs also was self inflicted. That's a long time because let's be honest after 20 minutes, Lord, you need to get this up off of me. I am, I'm hurting. What are you doing? God help us. Don't you know who we are? Care. Or as they say to Jesus, who we haven't learned about yet, carest thou not that we perish and see I use the King James version on that one. So I'm not against the King James version guys, but for 20 years. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lipdoth. What a name, by the way. We can, we know some Deborah's, we don't know any Lapidoth was judging Israel at that time. So we've got a woman who's judging and she's a prophetess. That's going to be a problem for some people. Wait, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. What is this, what is this dame, this broad, this chick, this lady? What is this gal, all these different names? What is this skirt doing? I don't know if they wore skirts, didn't imagine they wore something like that. What is this, what is this, what is this babe doing, being a prophet and judging people? Because God has her doing so, that's why, that's why she used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah. You mean she had her own palm tree? I would like to have my, if I had a palm tree, the palm tree of Corey, of course it probably wouldn't be any leaves on it, it'd be a bald palm tree, but still just I'd have my own palm, I'm going to go plant me a palm tree. But she said under her palm tree, the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment. Well, they obviously know that she is raised up as a judge. How do they know? Maybe we'll find out, maybe not, but we should not assume unless the Bible tells us so. So you're right, Davish, now she's not being a pastor or an elder. My whole point is not to say that she could be and I don't want you to get me confused. I'm not saying that she can be in that particular role, but I'm saying that she can be in this role that God has her in. And also truth be told, if you happen to have a pastor or an elder, that's a woman, that's to your shame also. That is to your shame, just like what she's doing and what she's going to do is to the shame of the children of Israel and she's going to stay so. Okay, so no, so I'm not saying, I don't y'all think that I'm saying that a woman can be a pastor? No, it's not what I'm saying. Now she said, she sent in some in Barak, the son of Abinon, from Kadesh, Naftali, and said to him, Behold the Lord the God of Israel has commanded, go and march to Mount Tabor and take with you 10,000 men from the sons of Naftali and from the sons of Zebulun. I will draw out to you Cicera, the commander of Jabin's army with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishan and I will give them into your hands. Then Barak, not Obama, but Barak said to her, if you will go with me, then I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go. What shall we make of this? That Barak says, I'll go. Listen, fine, no problem, but only if you go. Is Barak being a chicken? Is Barak being, what's up with Barak? Why do you need to take somebody with you? I told you to go. I'm going to, I got and telling you through her that I'm going to deliver a sister and his armies into your hand. So is that, is that what he is? What is it? Is he, as, as Chalyun Kat says, is he, is he a big old chicken? Let's continue. She said, I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take for the Lord will sell Cystra into the hands of a woman, into the hands of a woman. So, so yeah, there's going to be victory for the people, but it's going to be your shame because it's going to sell them into the hands of a woman. Then Deborah rose and went with Barak to Kadesh. Barak called Zebulun and Nathalie together to Kadesh and 10,000 men went up with him. Deborah also went up with him. Now, Haber, Haber, I should have said, I said Haber. It's actually Haber. Haber, the Kenite, had separated himself from the Kenites from the sons of Hobab. These names are wonderful by the way. The father-in-law of Moses and he had pitched his tent as far away as the oak of Zananin, which is near Kadesh. Then they saw, then they told Cystra that Barak the son of Abinon had gone up to Mount Tabor and Cystra called together all these chariots, 900 iron chariots. Remember they didn't want to, they didn't want to, if we go back earlier, they didn't want to get rid of them because they had these iron chariots. They were afraid of these iron chariots. They were afraid of their military might. They didn't just have iron chariots. They didn't just make their chariots of iron and everything else was made of plastic, what not plastic, but wood. No, they had iron equipment and they were afraid of that. But here's the problem. Here is the problem that maybe these Jews aren't paying attention to. They're looking at the fact that they've got, maybe they've got this military might. And by the way, they have more men. Israel has more men than they do. But they're afraid because of their military might. But the problem is, if they just go back and think back and remember, we haven't really been winning a lot of battles because of our military might. No, as a matter of fact, we conquered a city just by shouting. This was God's doing. And so no, it's not our military might, it's been God. Yeah, sort of like tanks. Here we are. We're going to war, the Civil War and these people, they have, they have F-16 fighters. Yeah, well, that looks like it's going to be a bloodbath. But if God is on your side, well, then not one of those planes will take off and fly straight. And that's what they feel that it's almost as though I've got this written down for you and none of you have read it. I know you all weren't there. We crossed the Red Sea and a lot of you weren't there when we crossed the Jordan and I split that too. A lot of you weren't there when we shouted and the walls of Jordan came to them. A lot of you weren't there when we when we avenged the Battle of I. A lot of you weren't there, but you read it. It's there. We've even set up memorials so that you and your children can ask questions and be reminded like today. We weren't there when any of these things are taking place, but we do have the word of God. We can go back and look. And so they're not doing so. Verse 14, Debra said of Iraq arrives for this is the day in which the Lord has given Cystra into your hands, but wait a second. Wait a second. I'm confused. I thought it was going to be delivered into my hands, the woman's hands. Behold, the Lord has gone out before you, which is important. The Lord has gone out before you. So Barat went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. The Lord routed Cystra and all his chariots and all his armies with the aid of the sword before Barat and Cystra alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. But Barat pushed it down so they get into a fight and they're just, they're having their way with these men. You were scared at first. Now you're kicking tail because the Lord went out before you. Not that Debra had to go out before you, but the Lord went out before you because what does Debra do? Is Debra out there actually fighting? No, she's not fighting. It's important. God is, but Barat pursued the chariots and the armies as far as Harasheth, Havelin, and all the armies of Cystra failed by the aid of the sword. Not even one was left. Now Cystra fled away on foot to the tent of Jail, the wife of Haber, the Kenite, for there was pieces, I'm sorry, there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazar, and the house of Haber, the Kenite. Jail went out to meet Cystra and said to him, turn aside my master, turn aside to me. Do not be afraid. And he turned aside to her into the tent and she covered him with the rug. It almost sounds, when you're listening to it, almost sounds like some Rahab type stuff. Like Rahab is hiding the spies and Jail is hiding this man. Looks like she's hiding this man. He said to her, please give me a little water to drink for I am thirsty. She opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink. Then she covered him and she said and he said to her, stand in the doorway of the tent and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you and says, is there anyone here? Then you shall say no. But Jail, Haber's wife, took a tent peg and seized the hammer in her hand and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple. And it went through into the ground for he was sound, asleep, and exhausted. Yes, she's not helping you out, buddy. Nope, I'm not hiding you. Listen to the people are coming and they're not going to get me. And so he died, verse 22. And behold, as Barak pursued, Cicera Jail came out to meet him and said to him, Come, I will show you the man whom you are seeking. And he entered. And he entered with her. And behold, Cicera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple. So God subdued on that day, Jabin, the king of Canaan before the sons of Israel. The hand of the sons of Israel pressed heavier and Harry appointed Jabin the king of Canaan until they had destroyed Jabin, the king of Canaan. Now we'll stop right there. So here's this great victory. And one, Deborah didn't do any fighting. But Barak, we see Barak gets off foot and Barak is pursuing. Hmm. Now that's a pretty good story. That is a pretty good story. There's only one issue I have with that. It's not an issue. There's just something interesting about this story. Here's what's interesting. You all remember in the book of Hebrews, time out, I know we're only in these books and we're not supposed to go forward. But I've got to read something to you. It is very, very interesting, very telling if we go and read. Jeff said, that's why you got to be nervous around a woman with power tools. Jeff's gonna get in trouble. But in Hebrews, there's something in Hebrews, it starts off that by faith and it talks about Abraham, Isaac, it talks about a lot of people by faith. But when we go to Hebrews chapter 32, look what it says. As he's going down this great list of people who have exhibited faith, and what more shall I say, because he's running out of time and space, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, who we're going to talk about later, Barak, Samson, Jeff, that of David, of Samuel and the prophets. Wait a second, wait a second, I get David, I get Samuel, I even get Samson. I get, I get, I think I get Gideon as well. Barak? Why Barak? Barak? Again, not Obama, but Barak. Well, why in the world is Barak's name here? Barak, you were, it seemed to me that you were afraid. It seems to me, Barak, that you didn't have faith. It seems to me, Barak, that you were so scared, you, I'm only going if this woman goes. Why in the, why, why does Barak, first of all, why is Barak get his name there? And how come Deborah, you got ink, you can write down Deborah's name, but why Barak? Well, I want to submit something to you. When you go down this list of people with faith, it is entrusting God that caused them to move. It's not so much what caused them to trust God to get them to move. Why do I say so? Well, let's go back to, let's go a little further up in, let's go a little further up to verse eight. Verse eight, by faith, Abraham, when he was called beyond by going out to a place which he was to receive an inheritance, he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise as in a foreign land. So we're talking about Abraham. Well, I got a problem with Abraham. I actually do have a problem with Abraham. Why would you have a problem with Abraham? Well, first of all, let's go to passage. I want to pull up something real quick. Come back to Hebrews in a second, but I want to go to Romans chapter four, verse one of Romans. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh has found for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteous. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteous. And so, okay, that makes sense. Abraham makes sense being found in this book because this is his faith hall of fame, so to speak. And Abraham is the father of our faith. So we get that. But there's something interesting about Abraham's faith that we don't talk about that much. Let me ask you guys a question. This is for the class. So let me ask you guys, type in here what do you think? How faithful do you think Abraham was? How much faith do you think Abraham had? Do you think Abraham, and I don't know, a scale of one to ten, I don't know, I'm just now thinking of this, a scale of one to ten, one, no very little faith, ten supreme faith. Where would you rank Abraham's faith? How would you score Abraham's faith? Now, we see by faith, he pleased God and he was 11. And then his faith was accounted to him as righteousness. So pretty faithful. Matter of fact, we're told about the faith of Abraham. Okay, I see somebody, wow, Henry gave Abraham a one. I wouldn't go that low. Moomstar 5.5, TT is seven, Cheyenne Cat a nine, God saves a six, Kurt a five, Daven a ten. Okay, Jennifer an eight, Reina a five, Jermaine probably a seven. He lied about where he moved on me. Talk on it. He lied about his wife a couple times. Yeah, that's that's not faithful. Jeff, wow, Jeff is hard. Jeff a two, Lisa, seven, Anela eight. Well, I want to point you out to something. I want to point you out to something that we don't think about. Abraham's faith wasn't all that wasn't even all that highly regarded until something. Until because remember, remember, God even tells him, Hey, listen, you're going to have a son by by this woman. Did Abraham have that? Did Abraham have much faith in that? No, he really didn't. Did he? Abraham didn't have much faith. There's a lot. There's a few times we can say, wait, Abraham, you really didn't exhibit a lot of faith. Let me feast your eyes back to Genesis chapter 15. Let's start in verse one. Then after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great. Abraham said, Oh Lord, what will you give me since I am childless? So Abraham, there's there's some issues of believing even here. What shall you give me until I am because I am childless? And the air of my house is Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, since you have given no offspring to me, one born in my in my house is my heir. Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, This man will not be your heir, but one who will come forth from your own body. He shall be your heir. And he took him outside and said, Now, look toward the heavens and count the stars. If you are able to count them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be verse six. Here it is. Then he believed the Lord. Oh, wait a second. All the other times prior, then he believed the Lord and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. So at that point is when God considered his faithful, his faithfulness to be righteous before him. That's when he started believing. Now, why he didn't believe him fully earlier? Don't know. Don't know. But at that point in time, now, what's the point that you're trying to make? Well, here's the point that I'm trying to make. Your faithfulness in God is never going to be 100%. It's never going to be 100%. And your faith is going to always be dependent upon understanding and knowing something about God. Are you with me? Just like with Barak. Barak did say, I'm not going, we didn't say it that way, but I'm putting words into the mouth. I'm not going anywhere unless you go. You who are the judge and the prophet of God, unless you go, I'm not going because I didn't, I know God is with us. And then when you said what you said about God going before us, okay. And so Barak believed that so much so that Barak joins the fight and goes after Cicera. Now, Cicera is supposed to be regarded as a great warrior as well. And so even, so now after that, what does he do? Sometimes your faith takes a little while to rev up. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer than maybe someone else watching you would like to think. Sometimes, sometimes you're told to do something you don't quite get it. There's a little bit of fear. There's a little bit of trepidation. That's with all of us. That is with all of us. The only person that didn't have that issue was Jesus. But everybody else, everybody else in the Bible at some point in time is going to exhibit some form of doubt. Paul said, we despair even of life itself. John at death is wanting, let me just make sure, is this really Jesus? Are you the Jesus? Peter, what does Peter do? You know what? I'm going fishing. I'm going back to what I was doing. At some point, even the Prophet of God, it's just me by myself. What was at some point in time, you are going to have your faith tested and there's going to be a struggle. But that you actually come around and show your faith, your trust is the most important thing. That's the most important thing. How do I know? Because again, look, I didn't write the Bible. Barak is found in this hall of faith and he had to be prodded by a woman. Abraham, yeah, now God is talking to me. Okay, I'm leaving now by the way, by the way, if Abraham left his land because God told him to, that could be regarded as faith. But remember we read, Abraham did not leave the land of his father because God told him to, he was already leaving his father. And so God reiterated and said, now I want you to leave and go to a place where I'm telling you to go. I don't want to go back over that again, but we, we covered that before. I hope I don't, if someone says go back over that great, I'll go back over, but I don't want to. But we discovered that Abraham was already leaving. His, his family members were already leaving. But so now I'm telling you, God comes to speak to him, get out of this house as you're going to a land that I'm going to show you. Now, there's going to be a deed to her where you thought you were going, Abraham, now I'm going to take you. And so God is speaking to him and he tells him that he'll make a great nation. Okay, God, I hear you. Sounds good. But I wasn't too sure until here we've got God speaking to him, showing him. Now something about God, literally talking to you can do something for you. I haven't had that experience. I haven't, I haven't had that experience where I've literally heard the auto voice of God and he's just showing me stuff. I haven't had that happen to me yet. Now let's go back to the next portion. Let's go to, let's jump to Judges, chapter six. Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So what happened? Here comes his cycle again. Here comes his just like us. Here comes his cycle again over and over and over and over and over again. We do this thing where we feel like we're doing, we're doing good. We get comfortable. We relax and we relax. Let's start sinning. Let's go to sinning. How, how about we do some sinning? Well, then after we sin, we get in trouble and we cry out. So what happens? They did evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Midians. This time not 20, but for seven years. The power of Midian prevailed against Israel because Midian, because of Midians are the sons of Israel made for themselves, the dens which were in the mountains and the caves. And so they fled. Wow. For it was when Israel had sown that the Midians would come up with the Amalekites, Amalekites, who by the way, they should have driven out and the sons of the east and go against them so they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth. So these are just some horrible people too that come up and they just destroy it. They'll take your stuff and destroy what they don't, what they don't take. So as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel, as well as no sheep, ox or donkey, for they would come up with their livestock and their tents. They would come in like locusts for numbers. Both they and their camels were innumerable and they came into the land to devastate it. So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, the sons of Israel cried to the Lord. Amen. Amen. It's what you get. That's what you get. Now let me just say this is kind of housekeeping. Gregory, I have a video for you. Stop asking that question. Okay. I have a video for you. Thank you. Amen. When we're in the class, let's deal with the class. So now it came about verse six, I mean verse seven. When the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel and he said to them, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, it was I who brought you up out of Egypt. That's important guys. It was I who brought nobody else. I, I, I brought you up out of, so therefore focus on me and brought you up out from the house of slavery, delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all the oppressors. By the way, if they actually thought about it, Egypt was far more powerful, a much bigger, more influential foe against them than anybody else they've come against. More than the Malachi, the Jebusites, so whoeverites, more than them. So he's trying to remind them of who he is. Let's see. And, and I said to you, I am the Lord your God verse 10, and you should not fear the God of the Amorites in whose land you live, but you have not obeyed me. And there's a problem. You have not obeyed me. You have not obeyed me. So now I want you to notice here there's some theologically important things that are happening right here in this passage or in this chapter, starting in verse 11. Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Oprah, which, which belonged to Joe Ash, the Abyssite, Abyssite, as his son Gideon was beating out weak in the wine press in order to save it from the meeting night. So he's trying to get this week ready and get it out here for these medians come. But now who shows up? Who shows up? The angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord. Well, who, who's the angel of the Lord? This is just some random angel. No, it's not just some random angel. This is the angel of the Lord. Guys, refresh me. Who is the angel of the Lord? And we've, we've covered this. As a matter of fact, we've covered this every time we see the angel of the Lord show up. We always make it a point to stop, to recognize him. So who is the angel of the Lord? Very important. That's right. She looks God. He is God. Spider monkey Yeshua. That's who he is. The Lord God. Hey, Renee, he got God is here. The king is here. That little intro, they talk about the king is here. The king or the, no, the champ is here. Whatever they say. The Lord shows up. The Lord shows up and you are right. Open your eyes. You're right. But we can't say the name yet because right now they don't know who Jesus is, but you're correct. This is Jesus. This is the pre-incarnate Christ. But we've discovered the angel of the Lord is the Lord. He's also God. He's the angel of God. Cause we're going to see that just a second. So let's keep reading verse 12. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, O valiant warrior. Then Gideon said to him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us saying? Well, first of all, Gideon, why are you asking? Why is all this happened to us? It's happened to you because you are disobedient. You all did evil in the sight of the Lord. Well, what evil? Well, you know, we don't have to go into detail about all the evils, but you know, you have done evil. And so there shouldn't be any reason for you to ask why has this happened? And where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us about? Can you see off? There's a little bit of snarkiness in it. There's a little bit of and where's what's happening? All these miracles that are that the old folks told us about. We haven't seen a miracle yet. Huh? Okay. Gideon, but Gideon is going to use them because remember, remember by faith, what shall I say for the time will fail me if I tell us Gideon. So Gideon is also there in Hebrews 11. So Gideon, obviously things are going to come around, but the point of it is Gideon is like, where's all these miracles we heard about? By the way, look what he says. He calls Gideon a valiant warrior in verse 12. Old valiant warrior. Do you really think that Gideon really didn't know why, because the elders didn't? Could be. But Gideon is of age. Gideon is of age. You know what hadn't happened that too long ago? He probably should have remembered whether I don't know how old he was, but certainly likely old enough to remember what just happened with Deborah and Barak. They've only been sold to the hands of the Midianites for seven years. So I'd like to say, I'd like to believe that he knew he would have to have known. Then getting verse 13 said, Oh Lord, my God, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Which Gideon, you know of the idols and you know of the sin and we're all his miracle. You just saw what you want to see some more. Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? Huh? So there's the answer to our question. You know of that miracle, don't you? Gideon knows of at least of that miracle. So what gives God? You've been doing miracles. What are you stopping? But now, and maybe it was really the question was, why are you now ceasing your miracles now? But now the Lord, and so who's speaking to him? The angel of the Lord, the Lord, but now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of the Midianites. The Lord looked at him and said, go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of the Midian. Have I not sent you? He said to him, oh Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Who me? Who me? How shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh and I am the youngest in my father's house. So notice what he's saying. Notice what even Gideon identifies. First of all, they're struggling against these Midianites. But then also, Gideon understands that I am the least of the people and the least in my own household. How shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh and I'm the youngest. My family's the least of the houses and I'm the least in the least of the houses. I'm going to talk about this one next week about how God always likes to use the least of the least of the least. Matter of fact, we're going to see that even more so. Even more so, we're going to see God use the least of the least and even more so of the least. It is definitely a common thing. Think about all the people that God thus far has used who were the least. Well, first of all, Abrams won. He keeps using the least of the least. That's just what he does. Israel, he says, don't think that what I'm doing with you is because you're a great, you are the least of these of all the nations. There's nothing special about Israel. That's just what he does. So if he can do it with the least, if he can do whatever he wants to do with the least, what can he do with you? Amen? Verse 16, But the Lord said, Surely I will be with you and you shall defeat Midian as one man. There's the key, guys, as long as the Lord is with you, good to go. He's more the... I'm a prophet. I'm going to play the role of a prophet. I prophesy that somebody is going to say something along these lines that if the Lord is with you, he's more than the world against you. Yeah, I'm prophesying that somebody's going to write that down and put it in the Scriptures. I'm prophesying that. Verse 17, So Gideon said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. What happened to all this faith that the writer of Hebrews talks about? What happened to all this faith? Gideon doesn't have a lot of faith right now. Can we at least agree with that? Gideon does not have a lot of faith, at least right here. He's not. So, God, we need you to do a demonstration. Before you give me a demonstration, I want to show you something that's kind of weird. Something's about to happen that's a bit weird. Let's go back to reading. Please not depart from here until I come back to you and bring my offering and let it before you. He said, I will remain until you return. So he's bringing an offering to the Lord. So Gideon is starting to recognize who this is. Are you with me? Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in the basket and and and the broth in a pot and he brought them out to him under the oak and presented. Now, here is something weird. Here's something strange that is getting ready to happen. The angel of God. Oh, the term is shit from the angel of the Lord to the angel of God. Same thing. The angel of God said to him, take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock and pour out the broth. And he did so. Here's a question. Why did God tell Gideon, why did the angel of the Lord, the angel of the God, tell him to pour the broth out? It's odd. It's odd for him to tell him to pour the broth. Why? By the way, if you just do a search, you're going to find some difficulty finding a good answer to satisfy why he tells him to pour the broth out. We can speculate. A couple of things we can speculate about. He had him pour the broth out for really one of two reasons and then there are different variations of each one of these reasons, but one or two reasons either because he wasn't supposed to have it or he was supposed to have it. It could be that he wasn't supposed to have it. And so Gideon just did anything. Because sometimes we want to do for the Lord that the Lord didn't ask to do. Sometimes here, God, this is for you. I didn't ask you to do that. Pour it out. That could be a point. That's not what I asked for. That's not the offering because this is also, now someone said it could be part of a drink offering, but this doesn't fit what a drink offering is supposed to be. Now, it could be that he just wants to have him pour it around. I don't know. We really don't know, but the Angel of God has to pour that out. Now, did he tell him to pour it out a specific way or pour it out as in? Get rid of that. We're not sure. We're not totally sure. Why does it look like God is honoring the lack of faith in those he is using? That is a good question. Why does it look like God is honoring the lack of faith in those he is using? Because the lack of faith that's in them is the same lack of faith that you and I have. It's just like us. Even the greatest of men, the people whose faith is counted high, they still struggle with their faith. So what lesson can we get from that? That is, we will too. At some point in time, you and I will too. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, everybody at some point in time, Moses, but I can't, I can't speak. I don't have a God like I made your tongue. Well, fine. Take your brother with you. Takes his brother with him. Who ends up doing most of the speaking? The very guy that complained about that, I don't have a tongue to speak. I'm not that kind. So we all, we all demonstrate at some point in time a lack of faith. We are not thrown away because of that. Remember Jesus time out. I gotta go earn this point even though I hadn't gotten there. Jesus, who we haven't discussed yet, Jesus is in the boat with his disciples. A storm has occurred. They've seen Jesus's miracles. Jesus is, Jesus is literally the man. And they are, they are crying. They're, they're scared. Again, back to my King James version. Carousel, not that we perish. Jesus gets up and quiets the wind and the waves. And what is Jesus's response to them? It says, though you have no faith. Now these are going to be the apostles of the church and of Israel. Everybody at some point in time, unless your name is Jesus, is going to wane with their faith at some point in time, some degree. Now how much so? What faith really is, guys, is not how quickly you believe them, but it's that you believe. Who do you turn to in your moment of hurt, your moment of distress? Who do you turn to in your moment of glory and success? I trust you. I trust you. That's what faith is. You don't have it in yourself to, to just, listen, I believe God. I trust God. I know, I know for a fact that, that I, I, I believe God. Okay. Oh, you know how you say that too? I used to say that too. Shoot, God knows how, God knows how faithful I am. You can't, you can't test my faith like that. And so what does God do? Test my faith. And I failed. Listen, I failed all sorts of ways. I mean, it's, I can write a book on how, on how lack of faith, on how much of a lack of faith, as I kind of said it backwards, I can write a book on how my faith was horrible. Here I am. Now, now I'm telling everybody that I trust God. Well, I trust God. I trust you. Lord, Lord, I trust you. And then go back on boohoo, Lord, why have you, why aren't you listening to me in front of the church? God, you're also my trust. I believe you. Then when everybody's going just crying out, Lord, where have you forgotten me? Yeah. And since you forgotten me God, since you have forgotten me God, then I've got to fix it myself. Yeah, that's not faith. And guess what? That's everybody. That's everybody in the church. I'm going to ask you, do me something. I've never asked you God. I don't ask you guys to do it. If you agree with that, if you agree with what I just said, please like this video. How YouTube is that? Because I know it's true. I know it's you. Every last one, every last one of you, all of you have that kind of faith. Everybody is strong in the faith in front of everybody else, in front of pastor so-and-so, in front of brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so, deacon so-and-so, in the YouTube chats, the YouTube comments. I've got all this faith. And then when that build comes, that disconnection notice comes, that eviction notice comes, that okay. So what does God want to do? He's got to build your faith because what does He say? The testing of your trial, the testing and your trials are going to produce faith. So I've got to develop faith in you. Why? Because something's going to happen later on. You don't know what's going to happen in five years, in 10 years. You're going to need some more faith. Sometimes you're going to need faith for somebody else. So that's why. Good question. That was O Thompson 1111 or 1111. Excellent question. Excellent question. He uses people just, their faith just wanes sometimes, like all of us. So verse 20. He says, take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on the rock and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord, he goes back from being an angel of God to the angel of Lord, same person. Then the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. I have seen him face to face, Panim, which is to his face, Panim, El Panim, which is face upon face or face to face. The Lord said to him, peace to you, do not fear, you shall not die. Then getting built an altar there to the Lord and named it the Lord is peace. To this day it is in Ephraim of the Azra. I'm sorry. Abe is right. Abe is right. Abe is whatever. Those people. How does that, how is that in the Hebrew? Abih, Hazareen. Okay. It's not even spelled the same. It's not even pronounced the same way in the English. Okay. I don't look what that word was in Hebrew. Weird names. I think a little cheap thing when I was, when I was studying Hebrew, still studying Hebrew, when I was studying, when I go to names, I just, in most cases, it's not right. It's not right, but in most cases, I just go over, I just ignore the names. This guy, this guy right here is not important. This name is not important. So do you think at this point in time that Gideon now has extra faith because he recognized that he was in the presence of God? What do y'all think? Do y'all think that he now, because he recognized that he's in the presence of God? Now he's going to get some more faith. But Jeff says it's Abih as read. Well, let's, let's go back to it. Governor Jeff, it's Abih or Abih, depending on how you do your Hebrew. I have a smooth B sound, IV instead of IV, but mine's kind of a smooth B, IV, high, as read. So it's a high as read. But over here, it's Abih, as, as, as read, whatever, I'm not even, the English, listen, the English is harder than it in the Hebrew. Anyway, here's my question. Now, do you all think that after, after seeing and recognizing that this is the Lord God, do y'all think that that helped out his faith? Do you think that now his faith is strengthened and he's more encouraged and he won't lack faith? What do you think? I mean, meeting God like that, what, what would you do if you come in contact with God face to face? Like he said, Pani apani, what, how would you, what would happen to you? Yeah, that, that would help my faith. That would help my faith tremendously. Bro. Thompson 1111, we're going to see something else about his faith, because if you know the top of this is another man, another scared man of God. That's how I titled, that's how I titled, you know, I can put in a little titles, I can put the name of the scripture or the topic of, I just said, another scared man of God. You'll see why in a second. Now, on that same night, the Lord said to him, take your father's bull and a second bull, seven years old, and put down the altar of Baal, which belongs to your, which belongs to your father and cut down the ashram that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord, your God on top of its stronghold in an orderly manner and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the ashram, which is, which you shall cut down. Then Gideon took 10 men of his servants and did as the Lord had spoken to him. And because he was too afraid of his father's household, the man of the city to do it by day, he did it by night. Wait a second. So big, tough Gideon, and remember the angel Lord called him, oh, valiant man of God called him a valiant man, a warrior, a valiant warrior, but he does it at night. Big chicken, Gideon, you big chicken. Yeah. Or maybe he was just wise. Maybe he just knew better. I'm not going to go out there with all in the daylight. They're going to jump and kill me. Maybe that maybe just maybe he wasn't scared. Maybe he was just wise. But problem is, it says that he was too afraid. So yeah, you were a chicken. You were a chicken. You were too afraid. I'm not going to hate on you and be upset with you because you were too afraid, but you were afraid. Yeah. Again, everybody's using the chicken thing today. They are free with the chicken emoji. I got monkey moves, putting up a chicken emoji and then chow young cat with a chicken. So everyone is everyone is in agreement that you were a chicken Gideon, but it's okay. It's a brave coward. I like that. A brave coward. A tough chicken. Anyway, verse 28, when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was torn down and the ashram which was beside it was cut down and the second bull was offered on the altar which had been built. They said to one another, who did this thing? And when they searched about and inquired, they said Gideon, the son of Joash did this thing. Then the men of the city said to Joash, bring out your son so we can kill him. You're not about to kill my son, but then Joash understands he's outnumbered. Bring your son that he may die for. He has torn down the altar of Baal and indeed he has cut down. Now thank God for a wise, quick thinking father. But Joash said to all who stood against him, will you contend for Baal or will you deliver him? Meaning will you deliver Baal? You got to fight Baal's battle? Whoever will plead for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a God, let him contend for himself because someone has torn down his altar. In other words, if God is all that, if your God is that tough, well let him do something about it. If your God is that tough, you toughies, let him do something. And they thought, you know, it makes pretty good sense. Therefore, on that day he named him Jerob Baal. That is to say, let Baal contend against him because he has torn down the altar. They called him Gideonette. Then the Midians, Midianites and the Malachites and the Sons of the East assembled themselves and they crossed over and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Ha, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Once again, this issue about how the Spirit was on people in those days, we're seeing the Spirit of the Lord was not in him but came upon him and now it came upon him at this point in time, in verse 34, and he blew a trumpet. And here's that word again. Abizrah. Now it's different. Now it's abi, Ezra. No, abi, yeah, abizrah. Abizrah. Now it's a different word. Where's different if it's a different pronunciation. I'm not going to say that word again because my mouth is having problems saying that word. So the abizis, so getting him blew a trumpet and the abizis were called together to follow him. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh and they also were called together to follow him and he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Napali and they came up to meet them. Now, Gideon needs a sign because Gideon is still concerned. Then Gideon said to God, if you will deliver Israel through me as you have spoken, wait a second, God, just want to be clear. If you were really going to do what you told me you were going to do when you came face to face and told me that you were going to do this, if that's really what you're going to do, could you give me a sign? Mr. Full of Faith, Mr. Bold Coward, Mr. Tough Chicken, that's what he's asking God. Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. Matter of fact, not only am I asking you to show me a sign, I'm telling you, ask you, show this sign. Would you show me this sign? Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate that so much. Thank you for super chat. Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that you will deliver Israel through me as you have spoken. And it was so when he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he drained the dew from the fleece of a full bowl. I'm in a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said, God, do not let your anger burn against me that I may speak once more. Please let me make a test once more with this. Wait a second. I just, I just did what you wanted me to do, Gideon. First of all, I called you a valued man, a valued warrior. You keep doubting me. You put me to the test. I said, fine, here's your sign. Now you want another sign. Fine. Do not let your anger burn verse 39 against me that I may speak once more. Please let me make a test once more with the fleece. Let it, let it now be dry only on the fleece and let there be dew all on the ground. So, God did just that. God did just that. And so now let's see what happens. Now I want to show you something that even though he did this, we're going to see something about Gideon that Gideon is still a little bit chicken. Gideon is still a little bit chicken. Then Jerubel, that is Gideon and all the people who are with him rose early in camp beside the spring of Herod. And the camp of Midian was on the north side of them by the hill of Morai in the valley. The lords of the Gideon, the people who are with you are too many. It's too many. Going back to this theme about using the least amount of people. I don't need a lot. I don't need a lot of folks because what's going to happen is all those folks who gets the credit, who gets the glory. God is supposed to get the glory. So not you. The people who are with you are too many for me to give Midian into their hands for Israel will become boastful saying my own power has delivered me. Now therefore, Cumberclain in the hearing of the people say, whoever is afraid of trembling and trembling, let him return and depart from Gilead. So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained. It's a lot of people. Yeah, 32,000. Now we're down to 10. The lords said, guess what? Still too many. Therefore, it shall be that, that he of whom I say to you, this is one shall go with you. He shall go with you, but everyone of whom I say to you, this one shall not go with you. He shall not go. So we brought the people down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon, you shall separate everyone who lapsed the water with his tongue as a dog lapsed, as well as everyone who kneels to drink. Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth were 300, but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water. The Lord said to Gideon, I will deliver you now. There are different statements as to which one, the folks that were doing this way, they demonstrated they were more battle ready. That could be that they were more battle ready. But then again, God didn't need you to be battle ready. Matter of fact, we're going to see that he doesn't need to be battle ready at all. He just needs some bodies, a small number so that he can get the credit. So verse eight, so the 300 men took the people's provision and their trumpets into their hands and Gideon sent all the men, all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained 300 men and the camp of Median was below him in the valley. Now here it is. And this is as we're coming to an end. Now the same night it came about that the Lord said to him, arise, go down against the camp for I have given it into your hands. But if you are afraid, God knows his heart. He said, but if you are afraid, if God says to Gideon, if you are afraid, go down with Pura. Go down with Pura. What's up? That's a wonderful name. Go down with Pura. Okay. Thank you for that super. I'll call you something else. Ciao young cat. Thank you for which I appreciate that. So was Gideon afraid? Gideon was afraid because he says if you are, oh, you were late with that. Gideon, I mean, God said, if you're afraid, take Pura. Take Pura, Pura. So what is, what does he do? Because I'm afraid take Pura. But if you are afraid, go down with go down, go with Pura, you're a servant down at the camp and you will hear what they say and afterward your hands will be strengthened that you may go down against the camp. So he went with Pura, his servant down to the outpost of the army that was in the camp. So he's still afraid. Now the, now he's sneaking down into the camp. Now the Midianites and Amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts and their camels were without numbered as numerous as the sand and sea shore. And when Gideon came, behold a man was relating a dream to his friends and he said, behold, I had a dream. A loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down and, excuse me, to the tent lay flat. His friend replied, this is nothing less than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the sword of Gideon, the sword of Gideon, the sword of Gideon, remember that, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given Midian and all the camp into his hands. So it should never really be guys that the enemies of God are more fearful of God than the people of God that happen sometimes. They are afraid of what's about to happen because guess what these Midianites understand? Guess what the Amalekites understand? They know history. They recall what has happened in the past. They're not stupid. But hey, we're gonna put on a good front. We're gonna hopefully be wrong. Hopefully we're wrong. And so verse 15, when getting heard the account of the dreams and his interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, arise for the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands. Now, by the way, get it. You could have did that when God told you to arise. When God initially told you to arise, you could have just rose then and told the camp. Let's go, y'all. But you had to go find out. I get it. I get it. I get it. But what this is showing guys, and this is the good point that you can see that God can still credit your faith, your faithfulness, even though your faithfulness didn't look so faithful. We've got account after account. We've got it. One, two, three, four, at least four counts of getting, getting, being fearful, being afraid, at least four, possibly five. But what about this faith? Going back to what we said before, sometimes your faith doesn't show up as quickly as you think it will. But if you have, if you do have faith, it will show up. He divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put the trumpets and empty pictures into the hands of all of them with torches inside of the pictures. Wait a second. Hold on. Wait a second. We are going to battle. We dropped from 32,000 down to 300 men. We've got trumpets in one hand, pictures with a torch on the inside in the other hand. I am not a military strategist. I am not. Carol, you were in the military. Does this sound like a winning strategy? It's just, just, just military wise. This doesn't sound like a military strategy. Not a good one. Not a good one. Now, if we're going to a party at night and it's bring your own picture, well then that's fine. Bring your own picture. We're going to fill it up, but it's, it's going to be at night and we're going to do some dancing and some singing. Well, you got all that you need. But a fight, that's not a fight. Who, who does it? Who in their right mind will take a trumpet, a torch on the inside of a picture? God, where's our swords? Where's our spears? What are bow and arrows? Help us out, God. But again, God is going before them. I don't need you. I don't need you to do anything. Matter of fact, I want to make sure that you don't get credit. I want to make sure that you don't get credit. So I'm, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do it. Listen, I don't need your swords. I'll use your little pictures. Verse 17 said, then look at me and do likewise. Behold, when I come to the outsource of the camp, do as I do. And when I and all who are with me, blow the trumpet, then you also will blow the trumpets all around the camp and say, for the Lord and for Gideon, to let them know Gideon's here and the Lord's here. By the way, how much faith do the men have? The men didn't go down. The men that are fighting, they didn't go down with Pura. They didn't see the fleece. They haven't spoken with the Lord. They seem to have a little bit better faith or stronger faith than, than does Gideon, but it's okay. Maybe, maybe they're just being obedient. They're soldiers after all. And soldiers do what soldiers are told. That means we're going to go in a battle. We're going to get killed. Well, then that's what we're supposed to do. That's what I signed up for. I'm a soldier, maybe. So what happens? Verse 19, So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the, of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. And when they had just posted the watch and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pictures that were in their hands. When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pictures, they hailed the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands or the blowing and cried a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Each stood in his place. Remember what the dream, what the guy had the dream? He said the sword of Gideon. That's what they said as well. Each stood in his place around the camp and all the army ran, crying out as they fled. When they blew through the trumpets, the Lord set the, set the sword of one against another, even throughout the whole army. And the army fled as far as Beth Shattah toward Zerirah, Zerirah, as far as the edge of Abel Mohalla by Tabith. These names again. The men of Israel were summoned from Nathalia, Asher and Manasseh and they pursued Median. So now what happens? Gideon causes them to turn against each other. They, the, the breaking of the pictures and the horns, the trumpets, they're in disarray and Gideon comes over them and they start slicing and dicing each other and they start running around. Were they drafted? Well no, they were about that life because that's where they were Jews. Once you, once you're Jew, y'all, once is you always Jew. How about that? And so because of that, hey, if it's time for our, our, our, our tribe to fight, we're fighting. That's what we do. We're not, we're not necessarily good fighters, but heck, all we needed was some pictures and the hand of God. So here's the point, guys. God doesn't need much. God doesn't, now I want you to hear me on this and we'll get ready to go, but God doesn't need much. Thank you, Brandon DeBrull. I thank you for the super chat, but listen, guys, God doesn't need much. We just saw that with Gideon. God doesn't need much and you know why God doesn't need much? Because you don't have much. You don't have much at all anyway. What do you have that you would give him except for your, your attention, your faith, your love, your adoration? Give him that. When getting heard the dream and the interpretation, what did he do? He bowed down and worshiped God. Do that. Give him that. That's the best you can give him anyway. Give him that. And so because he doesn't need much in the way of vessels and implements to fight, you don't even give him that much in terms of faith, but he'll take it and he'll use it. That's the point. Here we've got the tough chicken Gideon. We've got the not so faithful Barak. And let's go back to the end of it. Let's go back where we started off. Hebrews 11 32. Both of these people demonstrated a lack of faith at some point in time. Gideon more so than Barak to be honest with you. And what more shall I say the writer of Hebrews 11 32? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon. Why is Gideon here? You ain't got the kind of faith. Barak clearly. What about Samson when we get to Samson? Samson wasn't that faithful either. Jeff that. Now David was sure. So does Samuel ever exhibit some times where he didn't have faith? He did. But for the most part he's considered to be very faithful. The point is God sees your faithfulness. That is, if you're faithful and it will show out, it will show up and bring about a return. Your faith will do so. God is not looking for you. He would love it. Would it be wonderful for you to have the utmost faith? Never, ever, ever, ever, ever doubting? Yes. Is it ever going to happen? No. So do your best to remember what God has done. Recount those things. Keep reading the Bible. If you trust and believe him, he's a God who hadn't changed the same yesterday, today and forevermore. I have a Lord not changed. Well, then if he, if he's that God, then that he's that God now. So anyway, guys, I hope this has been beneficial. Jermaine, I think that was, I think that was you that sent me the email. Let me pull something up real quick. This bright email. Where is it at? That's not it. That is not it. Hold on. Wrong spot. Wrong computer. Let's go to this computer. If it is, let's go. Hold on. Hold on. Oh, I'm in the wrong email. That's why. That's why. But okay, was you? Okay. Okay. I will respond back to you later this evening. I did. That's why I do want to respond back to you. So anyway, the rest of you guys, God bless you. Thank you so much. God bless you too. God bless you all. I'm going to, after I do a few things a day, I'm going to sit down. I got some phone calls to make. I've got, I'm going to respond to some emails as well. Y'all pray for me with that. Me and emails don't do well because stuff happens. I got a bunch of them doing so anyway. Y'all pray that I can become a little bit more efficient, a little bit more to get my act together, become more orderly. In the meantime, guys, be blessed. I will see you later on.