 Mercy said, no, I would have been killed, but mercy said, no, justice demanded that I would die, but mercy and grace said, no, let him live because the blood has been shed. I'm getting ahead of myself, but I just like to say, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing, nothing but the blood. I wasn't good enough. I wasn't smart enough. My parents weren't saved enough. It took the blood of Jesus. Verse 11, it said, and it came to pass an angel of the Lord and sit down under the oak tree, which was in Oprah. Oprah was back in the Old Testament. She'd been bawling a long time. That potato to Josh as bears right in his son, Gideon. Gideon thresh wheat by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. And so Gideon, he's down here thrashing wheat. He's thrashing wheat by the wine press and he's hiding from the Midianites. Are you hiding from the enemy? You don't have to hide from the enemy. But he was hiding so the enemies wouldn't find him and take his wheat. I don't know about you, but I don't want the enemy to eat my lunch. I want to eat my own lunch. So he's hiding says, and the angel appeared him to Gideon says, get in the Lord is with thee, the mighty man of valor. Now Gideon is out here hiding thrashing wheat, but God calls him a mighty man of valor. See, God often sees greatness in us that we don't see in ourselves. God said that we are mighty men and women of valor because he knows what he's going to place in you to do the work of God. But doesn't that that angel appeared unto him and get in, he replied, Lord, if you're with us, why are we living like this? And where are the miracles that we read about in the Torah? See, but that sounds like us sometimes we moan and complain to the Lord and we tell him, Lord, nobody knows the trouble I see. Nobody knows my sorrow. But the angel said unto him, Gideon, stop having a pity parting, stop sitting there crying, get up, get up and go out and save your people from the Midianites. Have you ever noticed how God will tell you to do something that's impossible for you to do on your own? But God knows, hey, you're not by yourself, you're not on your own, I will be with you. Verse 15 said, and he Gideon said unto him, unto the Lord, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. So Gideon said, oh Lord, how can I save Israel? My family is a poor family in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. If he were here today, I believe he might say something like this, hey Jesus, hey, check this out, Lord, how can I do this? I'm just a poor black boy from South Central trying to make a living in a white man's world. I even dropped out of city college. Really, you really want me to do that? Tell your neighbor, really? And here it is, here it is, here it is in verse 16, and I believe verse 16 is the most important verse in this text. It says, and the Lord said unto him, surely, surely, without question, without doubt, without concern, I will be with thee. And that shall smile the median eyes as one man. I like that, he said, surely, hey, surely, he says, I will be with you in the story. See what you need to know, what you need to understand, God with us makes the impossible possible. Let me say that again, God with us makes the impossible possible. The Bible said, and with God, all things, all things, all things, no matter what you're facing, all things, no matter what you're going through, all things. I know he broke your heart, but all things, I know they took your money, but all things, all things are possible to them that believe. Do you believe that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or think? And I'm going to ask you to read the rest of the story on your own time, but you'll see Gideon, he gathered an immense army of 32,000 men. And God paired the number down to 300 men so that they could understand it was God who gave them the victory. When you look back over your life, if you look close enough, you will recognize that it was God that brought you through and brought you out. It wasn't your smarts, it wasn't your education, it wasn't your money, but God brought you through and brought you out. And people said, how did you make it? And you'll have to say, I don't know. All I know was God brought me through it and he brought me out of it. I wanted to give up. I wanted to throw in the towel, but God said, keep on going. Now I said all of that to say this. Yes, I know you've been going through tests. Yes, I know you've been going through some trials. Yes, I know you've been facing some situations, but I'm here to tell you today, don't worry, don't trip, don't faint. But you can rejoice. I said, you can rejoice because he is on your side. Romans said, what shall we say to these things? What shall we say to these tests? What shall we say to these trials? What shall we say to these problems? The Bible says, but if God be for us, hey, if God be for us, not Boo Boo and Ray Ray and Mama and him, but if God be for us, who can be against us? If God be for us, the enemies defeated. If God is for us, we have the victory. If God is for us, we have our healing. If God is for us, we have the breakthrough. If God is for us, we have the blessing. If God is for us, we win. Dear somebody, we win. The children of Israel, they're being delivered about of Egypt and they're running from Pharaoh. And they're having their Red Sea experience and they're running through the Red Sea. And God says, now what I want you to do is stop for a second and look back at the enemy that's chasing you right now. Get a good look. Check them out because the enemy that you see right now, you ain't going to see him no more. You may see some other enemies, but you're not going to see this enemy anymore. And God told me to tell you, look at your enemies that you're facing right now. Get a good look at them because you're not going to see these enemies no more. No more. No more. It's over. It's over. Tell your neighbor it's over. The test you're going through, it's over. The trials you've been going through, it's over. The nights you've been crying all night, pillow wet with tears. Make them running all down your face. Hair all over your head. It's over. God said to tell the people, it's over. It's over. Tell somebody I'm done with all that because I know for a fact that he is on my side. The Bible said, hallelujah. The Bible said greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. The Bible said in all these things, we're more than conquerors. Not just conquerors, but more than conquerors. The Bible said and they overcame him, they overcame him, they overcame him. Him who the wicked one by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. See something about that blood, that precious blood. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. The blood is so powerful. You can go down in the blood dirty in red blood and come up washed white. There's no, it's something about that blood. The Bible said without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Hey, there is no forgiveness of sin. Someone said my sins were many. They were like scarlet, but he washed him white. There's snow. Isaiah said, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon that's forming against me. No weapon that's forming against you. No weapon that's forming against us. Shelf posper, no weapon. I don't care what it is. I don't care who it is, but no weapon. Shelf posper, tell your neighbor it won't work. It won't work. So no matter what you're facing in life, no matter what the struggle is, no matter what you're going through, what you need to know is that he is on your side. He is on your side. He's Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. In other words, I got your back. Someone said he's a lily of the valley. Someone said he's a bright and morning sun. Someone else said he's a bridge over troubled water. Someone said he's a waymaker, a miracle worker. He's a promise keeper. He's a light in the darkness. Sometimes we don't know where to go. We can't see our way, but he's a light in the darkness. He opens our eyes. He tells us where to go. He tells us what to do. Have you ever been through your house with the lights out and you stub your toe? But he's a light in the darkness. But the point I like about it best if I say he's my God. He's my God. He belongs to me. He's my God. He's your God. He's your God. He's your God. He's our God. That's who he is in our life. He's a miracle worker. A miracle worker. See, sometimes we need a miracle worker. But like he says, not only that, but he says I am the prince of peace. See, sometimes we think we need stuff. We think we need money. We think we need another hamburger. We think we need another piece of cake, but what we need is Jesus. I remember I was growing up and my mother told me, she said, look, if you eat something and that doesn't satisfy you and you eat something else and that doesn't satisfy you and you drink a coke and that doesn't satisfy you. She says, what you need is Jesus because he brings peace. Peace. He brings peace that stuff can't fix and money can't fix it. People can't fix it and sex can't fix none of that can fix it. But Jesus, he's a lover of your soul. So when trouble comes, when the enemy attacks you, when your kids are acting crazy like they lost their mind and when your boss is on your case you don't need to worry, you don't need to fret, you don't need to trip, you don't need to give up, you don't need to throw in the towel what you do, you need to know you can rejoice. You can rejoice. You can rejoice because he's on your side and he will bring you out. See, just praise your way through. See, praise is what I do. See, I praise him when I feel like it. I praise him when I don't feel like it. I praise him when I'm up. I praise him when I'm down. I praise him when I've got money. I praise him when I'm broke. I give him praise because he says, I want to have it, the praises of my people. And when God shows up, everything has got to change. When God shows up, the enemy's got to back up. When God shows up, everything is going to be all right. I praise him because I'm coming out. I've been in this test long enough and I praise him because I know he's going to bring me out with victory. He's going to bring me out with a song. He's going to bring me out with dance. See, I learned through it all. Through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all. Through it all. Through all the tears, all the pain, all the heartache, all the storms, all the rain. I've learned that I can depend upon his word because you cannot separate God from his word. God is not a man that he shouldn't lie. Nor the son of man that he should repent. So remember, whatever you're facing, whatever you're going through, you can rejoice. You can celebrate him. You can worship him. You can give God praise him because you're not in this thing all by yourself. But God is. God is. He is. He is on your side. He's with you. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. You've got the victory. God is on your side. God bless you. Come on, give God praise. Give God praise. He's worthy of our praise. What a wonderful, wonderful, encouraging message on this morning. God wants to assure us. The Lord has assured us that we're not defeated. There's an adversary of our soul who wants to cause us to feel sorry for ourselves because perhaps we've made a mistake. He's saying, you're defeated. You can't win. God is not on your side. But I want to encourage you. This wonderful message of the Ross Broad. He helped us to see that God is for us. And if God is for us, he's more than the whole world against us. God on our side is more than any adversary that we can come in contact with. The scripture said in the 16th verse, it talked about the Lord. The Lord said, I will be with thee. When God says, I will, it is done already. No matter what you've gone through or what is happening in your life, don't worry about it. It's going to turn around because God said, I will be with you. And we tried this and we tried that. It didn't seem to affect our outcome because we couldn't see far enough down the road. But I want to say, when you've tried everything and everything has failed, try Jesus. Jesus said, try me. He said, you just put your trust, put your faith in me and see won't I do it? Hallelujah. I suggest that you try Jesus. If you don't know Jesus in the part of your sin. If you've not been baptized in water in the name of Jesus or the remission or the removing of your sin, you need to try Jesus. Jesus made a promise that he can keep. We have people that promise us from time to time and with the best of intentions, they promise us and they can't follow through. But Jesus Christ the righteous. Jesus Christ who is the king of kings and the Lord of lords who holds all power in the palm of his hand. He said, I make a promise and I can stand behind it. I'll never fail you. You belong to me and I promise you. And so you know what comes to my mind is the song that says, my hope is built on nothing less. I don't have hope in anything in this world to give me victory. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood. The blood that was shed at Calvary's cross for the remission of my sins, for the removing of my damnation. My hope was built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but holy, holy, completely. I lean on the name of Jesus. There's power in the name. There's healing in the name. Salvation in the name of Jesus. You need to try Jesus. You need to try Jesus. Everything has failed. Try Jesus. When you try, you need to try him. You need to try and promise. And he will never fail to keep his promise. He'll turn your darkness in today. Come on, somebody. Yes, you've been in darkness, but the Lord said, I'll take your darkness away. I'll give you light. I'll give you eternal light. Lord, bless you and keep you. If you have the need for baptism, we invite you to come down to 4934 Long Beach Boulevard in the city of Long Beach. And there's a church called Shield of Faith. That's who we are. We're the shield of faith. And we have someone to baptize you in water for the remission, for the removal of your sins. And the Lord is here. I said he's here. He's here every Sunday. He's here every Monday. He's here every Tuesday, every day of the week. He's right here. The Lord is waiting, and he's waiting to fill you with a precious gift of the Holy Ghost. I said a precious gift. Not a white elephant. Not something that you don't want so you pass on to somebody to get it out of your hand. He's ready and willing. He wants to give you a precious gift. The precious gift of the Holy Ghost to abide in your heart. And to cause you to walk right before God. And so you can see his face in peace, in heaven, throughout all of eternity. Won't that be a great day? Great day when we walk among the saints in the presence of the Holy God throughout all of eternity. I want to see him. I want to see him too. Oh, I want to see him to look on his face. There to sing forever of his saving grace on the streets of glory. Let me lift my voice. Cares all past. Home at last. Ever. Ever to rejoice. God bless you, and the Lord keep you. All right, at this time, come on, Deacons. We're going to receive our offering and tithes on today. Thank the Lord. Glad for each of you who are here. Whether you're here in person with us in the flesh on the parking lot, whether you're with us through the media, we welcome you and we thank the Lord for your presence with us. The Lord is going to bless you. We've heard from heaven today. Hallelujah. We yield ourselves to the word of God. The Lord will make the difference that we need. Come on and bring your offering at this time. While we're receiving the offering, I'll just have a few words. We're coming along very well with the update on our facility. And what I'll do is take this opportunity to thank those of you who have been faithful. You've stood by us in this pursuit. You've been faithful in your tithing, faithful in your offering giving, and this is a church that loves to give. I can tell. It's obvious. I thank God for that that you've done. We're going to be very, very comfortable. We're going to be very happy when it's time for us to go back into our facility at rededication. We're going to rededicate this facility to the Lord. And so I want to encourage you. Don't get discouraged at this point. Today the sun is not even shining on the parking lot. But when we get inside, it won't make any difference whether the sun is shining or not. Amen. And the Lord is helping us and you're going to be well pleased. I'm not kidding you. You're going to be well pleased when we get back inside of our facility that the Lord has blessed us with. So let's be encouraged. It's coming soon. We don't have a date yet, but it is really soon. All right. God bless you, Mr. Merlin. Yes, sir. Give us something. Well, let me see. How is that? Is that it? It's failing me. We'll just close out with our usual determination song. I'm going to write it down. We're going to sing that next week. Amen. Because it came to me this morning and I didn't have a pencil. Okay. Amen. All right. I'm determined to walk with Jesus. Yes, I am. I'm determined to walk with Jesus. Jesus, yes, I am. manque of power, I'm determined to walk with Jesus. Yes, I am. Walk with me. Walk with me. I want to say as we have going to closing as you continue to keep First Lady of this church. Amen. Pastor Bobby in your prayer. Amen. She's doing well. She's doing very well. Praise God. The Lord is performing a miracle in her body. Amen. Praise Lord. And we thank God for it. Yes Lord. And we're gonna ask the Lord to raise her up so she can be back in service with us soon. Amen. Amen. Amen. Father in the name of Jesus we come. We thank you oh God for your tender mercy for your loving kindness unto us your people. We thank you oh God that you loved us with an everlasting love. Thank you because you called us unto yourself and Lord we thank you even more that we heard you when you call and we thank you that we gave our heart over to you. Oh Lord we ask you to continue to work in us. Continue to work on us oh God. Give us everything that we need as you have promised Lord and we trust you. We have faith in you and we believe it. We believe the true report that we've received on today that you're going to make the difference that we need. Go with us from this place oh God. Give us safety in our travels as we go to and fro in the city through the streets oh God. Thank you. Bring us back to your house at the appointed time with new victory. Hallelujah. With new victory. New victory. A new testimony of your saving grace. Yes. Oh God help us to be a witness unto you throughout all the community oh God. Yes. That men and women will come unto you and receive the salvation that is so free. Yes. We thank you and praise you right now. Thank you Lord. We give you glory and honor in Jesus name. Jesus name. Amen and amen.