[0:00] So we are in Psalm 46. I probably bit off more than I can chew, but we're going to attempt to get through all this. So in Psalm 46, can we stand together? I'd like to read these 11 verses. Verse 1, Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, Selah, there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her.

[1:23] The spear in two he blames burns the chariot in the fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, say law. Lord, again, we thank you for your word to us. And we just ask that you would have your way in our hearts, that you'd give us a hearing ear, that we would embrace those things, Lord, that you have for us individually and as a church and in our community and in our families, we ask for your blessing. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. You can all be seated. And so, the title of the message today is A Present Help. And how many how many of you will often turn to the Psalms to read the Psalms you know I know I always do and and so how many of you turn to the Psalms often two of you that's great.

[2:42] I guess we're not used to like raising our hands here. But, you know, and I'm just joking. But anyway, it's incredible because we gain incredible insights into the situations of life. And many times, wherever I land, I just happen to land in that perfect place as I read the Word. And just like the Lord just speaks to my heart. And I'm thinking, oh, man, I'm just so glad for that word because of whatever it is I'm dealing with at any given time. The Lord is so faithful to minister, kind of like just what the doctor ordered, you might say. And I've heard it said that Psalms is a hymn book, H-Y-M-N, and also a hymn book, H-I-M. You know why because it's interesting of the 219 old testament quotes in the new testament, 116 of them are from the book of psalms and so many of those they prophesy about Jesus his first coming and his second coming the gospels that would be Matthew mark Luke and john tell us that Jesus went to the mountain to pray. Well, the Psalms tell us what he prayed.

[4:11] And the Gospels tell us Jesus was crucified, and the Psalms tell us what he was thinking when he was upon the cross.

[4:23] The Gospels tell us Jesus went back to heaven. The Psalms tell us what he's doing in heaven. So we gain precious insights as we read the Psalms. And this Psalm 46 today is a psalm of celebration. It is a psalm of rejoicing in God's faithfulness to deliver from the enemy. And even when the situation seems hopeless, we must remember.

[5:00] Is there anything impossible for God? And of course the answer is no. And the Bible tells us that as we see God accomplish so much throughout the scriptures, but one verse specifically, Matthew 19, 26, but Jesus looked at them and said to them, with men this is impossible but with god all things are possible and so we learn from the scriptures that god can supersede all natural law because he's a god of miracles he's made natural law and so he's a god of miracles and so in this psalm 46 it can it can be divided into three Three sections. And those three sections are in verses 1 through 3. We see that the things that are being dealt with are external. And then in the second part in verses 4 through 7. We see that God is dealing with the internal in this section. And then in the last section we see the outward. Dealing with the outward and.

[6:22] And if time permits, I want to circle back to the first section there, verses 1 through 3, because as I was going through there, I had a flood of memories of God working in the external and how he was working in my own life, building my faith and my family's faith and strengthening our marriage through trial and through difficulty and then how God would work his miracles in the midst of all that. And then also God does use our experiences and our testimonies as an encouragement to one another. We see that throughout the Scriptures in just three places in Acts. We read in Acts 14.27, Now when they, that would be Paul and Barnabas, had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. Hey, let's all get together and have fellowship. We want to tell you what God has done. In Acts 15.4, and when they, again, Paul and Barnabas, had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders and they reported all things that God had done with them.

[7:46] That must have been so exciting to hear the testimony of all that the Lord had done. And then, even more specifically in Acts 21-19, when he, the Apostle Paul, he was in Jerusalem, had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. So he didn't leave anything out. He meticulously told them everything that had happened. And of course he would who wouldn't and so we do when we have opportunity and so here in these first three verses we see the external circumstances the extreme conditions, the challenges they're laid out here you know god is our refuge and strength a very help Help in trouble.

[8:45] So in turmoil, when we're overwhelmed, when all the odds seem against us, statistically things look bad, the scenarios are grim.

[8:58] He's a present help in troubled conditions. And it's interesting because that word trouble means when you're in a tight spot. I've been in plenty of those tight spots. Lord, how are you going to work things out here? I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place. There's no way out. And so, you know, as a new believer, I remember especially it was like the Lord would go out of his way to get me out of hard places. That were supernatural interventions of the Lord that was evident. And he showed his presence very clearly. And I remember one time as a new believer, just months old in the Lord, heading to the Colorado River with a friend, and we were going to ride the rapids. We were going to get on the Colorado River, and we were going to ride west and take it as far as it led us. And so we found out first thing there at the offices there at the top of the Bright Angel Trail, hey, so where do we get on the river? They took a look at us and said, what are you talking about? Do you have a permit? No.

[10:17] Well, it takes a year for you to get a permit to get on the water. Do you have a license to ride a raft? raft no well and then they started laying everything out the raft had to be like 18 feet long you had to have a license that qualified you to be on the river on and on and on you know we had traveled from southern California to here with our backpack and our eight foot raft stuck in our backpack and our oars and we were going to get on the river so at 18 years old you know just after After getting saved and walked out with a buddy who was also a Christian, I go, we're not taking, no way we're not getting on this river.

[11:02] So down the nine miles, Bright Angel Trail, get to the bottom, just about dusk, and there was watchtowers. And they had people manning the watchtowers, so we were able to sneak behind the bushes, roll up our raft. And just as it got a little bit darker, sneak on, went around the first bend of the river, set up camp. So now we're out of sight. So, yeah, of course, foolish, right? Yeah, I know, you're looking at me like, you know. But this is how sometimes you learn things the hard way. So we put a stake in the ground put our raft out there turns out that in the morning i woke up because I felt something hit the bottom of my sleeping bag and it was our raft that was a long ways away from us in the river suddenly came up and was bumping my thinking like oh so the river rose so that means everything in the river rose well we didn't know we came in at the river above the Horn Rapids, which on 1 to 10 was a 9.

[12:06] That some of the people would just go around it, some of the raft guys, and then they would just take the raft in themselves because it was too dangerous. We found out later that it was just a crazy place to go. So we got in our raft and got everything buttoned down and started heading down the river a little. We started hearing a roar. And then we started seeing a mist coming from around the corner that looked like a fog so when we turned the corner we hit what was like 20 foot walls of water, and we would disappear and we'd have nothing but water around us and then we hit like a whirlpool and we went and as we spin it around the whirlpool we're looking down to the bottom of the river, and then it kicked us out the other side instead of nether loop we were done and then it was It was amazing because instead of going around this last turn, it's called the River of No Return. It was like our raft went backwards against the water and then went over to the side. So we didn't go around the next bend. Long story short, after four days of being stranded.

[13:16] We made a plan, and we got out of there. I'm not going to tell you that. This is a half an hour story. Bottom line is, is after we got out of there, and we headed up the nine miles after not eating well for four days, because when we hit those rapids, everything got wet and thrown overboard and busted oars and everything. It was crazy.

[13:37] So we made it back out and devoured a loaf of bread and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and then we didn't have nowhere to stay. Some guys said hey where are you guys staying tonight and we don't know hey you can come to our camp okay so we got in their station wagon they're from New York we headed out at night through the desert for like 15 20 minutes didn't have a clue where we're at and then we pull up in a big circle of young people that were in a big circle with two lanterns in there and we got out and walked over there sat in a circle my buddy was about six people from me and it said found out it was just a big drug circle and they were passing around hash pipes and and we're like okay we don't have a clue where we're at we're out in the middle of desert with, about 30 young people so this is going to be a big party right and then so you know the joint would come or the pipe and you know pass it like this and I'm looking at my buddy over there and we just keep passing it and passing it and about 15 minutes goes by and all of a sudden out of the the darkness put your hands on top of your head you're being arrested in the state of Arizona for possession and usage of narcotics so it's like our hands go up policemen come out of the darkness completely surround everybody start cuffing them resting them and one of the fellows come over to us and said hey call your buddy call him Paul call him over we've been watching watching.

[15:06] What are you guys doing here? They knew we didn't belong. And we told them the whole story. He says, I'll set you guys up. And then everybody else went away in vehicles. We went in his, and he set us up with a campsite. It was like we were praying, Lord, help. That's called a tight spot. The Lord is faithful. But it's interesting because.

[15:34] Time would not permit me to tell all the things that God did to build my faith up in trusting him in crazy situations. And it says there in verse 2, Therefore we will not fear. So if you're in a tight spot, we will not fear. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 1.7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So this is what God gives us. because we know that he could do what he's done and he will do what's necessary so we trust him the only things that are going to work out is what he allows nothing is off his radar nothing catches him by surprise and oftentimes we get fearful because we're self-inflicting that fear and also because the enemy is actively trying to get us to fear and we buy into it rather than trusting in the lord even though the earth be removed and so in other words in the most extreme crazy situations you're not to fear even if the earth gets removed you know and then as it continues it gets carried off in the midst of the sea and the oceans and talks about the waters and and the mountains shake with the swelling. See, I grew up in Southern California where there was earthquakes frequently.

[17:00] Some of them were smaller than others. But I remember, even as a child, growing up in elementary school, thinking, you know, I thought it was ridiculous, these earthquake drills. Thinking like, oh, okay, we're having an earthquake drill. Go ahead and get under your desk. And I'm thinking, that's dumb.

[17:25] You know the earth's gonna swallow me and my desk up you know, but you know of course we got under our desk and so forth but it's interesting because you know sometimes you know men have their drills that are supposed to bring comfort you know like for instance if you're flying in a jet you know the the stewardess or whoever they have to give the spiel about, okay, this is what you do in case of a problem, you know, the little oxygen mask comes down and make sure your seat belts are on and, you know, and they describe all of that, right? But that's only for a slight disruption. That's all it is. Because guaranteed in a crash, crash none of that matters that's no help whatsoever absolutely none oh good I'm breathing better as you know we're crashing into the earth and secure for the crash.

[18:30] You know and and so but that's really when you you think about it that's all that men can do is they give you you know kind of you know a good word and as long as there's not too much of a disruption because outside of that there is no help only god but god in the in most ridiculous situations absolutely no problem for him nothing nothing is a problem and so we have that next section the internal experiences this is this is describing it says there is a river whose stream shall make glad the city of god the holy place of the tabernacle and so that speaks of God's presence, the holy place and the tabernacle. It's a place where when you're experiencing the presence of God, there was peace, a place where God dwelled, a place where the people went to worship the Lord, prescribed by the Lord as a place to go, and the Levite priest would go, and in a prescribed way would enter the holy place. And it's interesting, one of the things that the priests were not allowed to do in the holy place was sweat no sweating.

[19:53] In the work of the lord so they dressed him in cotton they made sure that they didn't do anything that sweat that they had to sweat you know it's like the expression no sweat you know like hey this is easy no sweat that was the idea well you're going to go in there and you're going to serve the Lord in his presence, no sweat.

[20:16] No sweat. If you're in the presence of God, no sweat. That was the idea. And that was the message that was communicated. I remember years and years ago, I was about 23, I was working with an old-timer. I can call him an old-timer then. He was probably younger than me right now. But I was working with an old-timer who was on the painting crew when they were building Disneyland.

[20:41] And he was out working, and then Walt Disney was walking across with businessmen and crossed the yard there right close to where he was working and coming his way. And he thought, oh, I'm going to impress Walt, Mr. Disney. And so he started really working really hard to get his job done. And he caught the attention of Mr. Disney. And he stopped, walked away from the guys he was with, walked over to him. And he said, nobody sweats in my employ like that. This is the happiest place on earth, right? And, you know, he wanted to set precedents. You know, you go to Disneyland, you notice everything's always in perfect order. That's because all night long they're working to make sure if there's a flower that's wilted, they change it. They have a whole underground system there. When we went to Disneyland, my son Anthony was just a little guy. We were telling him, okay, we were telling him because he was rambunctious and energetic, and we told him, no, make sure you don't climb on anything you're not supposed to. So as soon as we get in the park, he climbs on the metal railing and falls backwards and splits his head on a brick. Man, did they rush us off of the scene, because this is a hurt kid, into their office, their first aid office or whatever. And then they brought us out the back door at Disney.

[22:06] And that was the end of our day. They didn't reimburse us. They didn't give us nothing. They said, you're out of here. It's the happiest place on earth.

[22:18] That was wrong. I don't care how you slice it and dice it, but we didn't complain. But anyway, and so here, you're coming into the holy place, the tabernacle. You're coming before the dwelling of the Lord. And so in that place, God will accomplish his work in us. No sweat.

[22:42] Don't get worked up over it. You're serving the Lord. He's going to accomplish his work through you. No sweat no sweat and god doesn't sweat doing his work through us god works go untarnished god never strains himself to do his work through us that was the message now we do the physical realm but that's not what this is pointing to this is pointing to the spiritual realm, the holy place where God dwells. And so we enter into that place. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her just at the break of dawn. And that's often the case, just at the last minute. Oh, you know, you pray, pray, pray. When's this going to happen? Hey, God at the last minute, but the perfect timing. That's what I've coined a long time ago, because that has played out over and over again. Lord, when are you going to take care of this months go by years go by all sudden God takes care it's like it's about time I don't say that but in my spirit I do and God knows it so I might as well say it and so you know sometimes we feel that way you know Lord how long the nations are raging the kingdoms were moved you know it speaks about the chaotic world around us it's crazy none of us would argue that point.

[24:08] But God will just speak a word one day, and guess what? It's all going to be done in his perfect timing. See, we're still waiting for those to become believers all around us. Now, we're impatient, but God isn't, fortunately. That's probably why you're a believer today, because before us there was almost 2,000 years of believers saying, Lord, come now. And he's going, no, I have so-and-so in mind. All of you who believe were in mind. Good thing. Well, there's still some, you know, that are going to be raptured up with us. And so in God's timing, so we have to wait for it. You know, he's the Lord of hosts. That's Lord God over the angels. Heaven's army is what that phrase means. The spiritual realm, that we can't even, we can't do anything against that spiritual realm and that battle that rages around us in Ephesians 6. 12 and 13 it speaks of it for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities and against powers and against the rulers of darkness of this age against spiritual host of wickedness and heavenly places therefore take up see that takes some initiative take up the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand and it goes on to talk about the armor in that passage but we're to take up.

[25:37] The battle is not against flesh and blood although it will appear to be don't be deceived that's not who's behind it he uses people he uses material things absolutely but that's not but this is speaking of who's behind it it's a spiritual battle so we're to by faith follow by obedience the lord and then we have the victory that you may be able to withstand and so there's no other path to victory and so we're to trust in the lord in the battle we cannot fight this battle with AR-15s, with grenade launchers, with F-16s. None of them have any power against that battle.

[26:33] And in Isaiah 54, verse 17, No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. It is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. So no weapon shall that's formed against you shall prosper until it does i want one.

[27:13] Like special forces army guy that would just he was decorated and i can't remember his exact quote he goes but he was a believer okay let's go into battle no weapon formed against us shall prosper until it does, until it does. It'll be all according to the will of the Lord. That's the correct understanding. We are invincible until we are not. But we are for an eternity, but not in these physical bodies. It is God who calls the shots in our lives. The duration and direction of our life is not random. It's God who's numbered our days. and we can rest in that and we can be very very bold in our position taking our stand in that regard and so he's the lord of host over heaven's army he's the he's the commander of the angels and heaven's army but.

[28:19] The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Now, that's an interesting contrast because that speaks of earth's issues. Needing God's grace because the God of Jacob is the God of a guy who did everything backwards oftentimes and needed the grace of God to cover him because he was in the promise of God and he was in the line of Christ and he would mess up over and over again and God would cover him and he would wrestle with God and then he would eventually yield. And he was, the God of Jacob is our refuge. We need God's grace. And, you know, I'm no angel, but I am Jacob-like. So he is the lord of the host but he's also god of Jacob and the god of grace and he watches over us and he guards us he takes care of us and I'm and I only say good thing to that amen to that that he does take care of that so so I rest say law consider that think about that those terms, you know consider that.

[29:40] And and then we have that third section and that is speaking of the outward god is in control come behold the works of the lord so the works of the lord are observable look around come behold look look around you that's what's saying check it out who has made desolation in the earth he makes wars cease to the end of the earth so god is intricately involved on a global scale of all these skirmishes and things that we just shake our head and think oh my goodness, He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two and burns the chariot in the fire. But now that same principle includes all the modern weaponry that exists. The chariots of old were the tanks of today and so forth. God just does away with all that stuff as he chooses, when he chooses.

[30:39] And then with that in mind, God's sitting upon the throne. Look around at all of what's going on. You see it going on today but notice verse 10 be still so in the midst of considering all that be still and and know that I am god I will be exalted among the nations i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of Jacob again is our refuge and so double down on that to conclude the psalm be still in other words we're being told to chill out rest that's what that means you know chill out in rest in the planning and timing of the lord in your life, I mean we're anxious oftentimes and we're impatient and lord give me patience but hurry.

[31:38] You know that's sort of our attitude freaking out getting stressed being anxious being unsettled, and that's our propensity that's where we end up oftentimes high blood pressure affecting our physical person you know not trusting in the lord like we should but yet the bible tells us he's with us. So this knowledge, the Lord of hosts is with us, and God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah. Again, consider this. You know, this knowledge that we have, we are to trust in God with all of our hearts.

[32:19] And I would say, don't condescend to the truth. We do that, you know. Oh yeah, God says He says this, but you condescend, you don't believe it. You don't trust him. You know, of course, not trusting him, that's not good. You know, that puts us in trouble. Knowing he will never renege on his promises ever, he tells us, what he tells us for a reason.

[32:53] And God is our hope and our glory. The Bible tells us in Colossians 1.27, To them God willed to make known what are the riches of his glory, of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And so it's by God's will for us to know these things, to experiencing his working in our lives. And then in Philippians 2.13, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is God. It is God who's doing this. And so I know that that's put sort of in tough terms, but don't condescend to these things. You know, this is what the Scripture tells us, despite how you might feel about it. But that's not what gets us in trouble is how we feel about it. But we get in trouble by not trusting or believing in God. And believing, you know, is called faith. Trusting in the Lord by faith. And so it's by His doing.

[34:14] I want to share a few things here. First, I have to pass up about 17 years of experience, amazing experience of how God developed faith and things in my own life and certainly being a slow learner, but God never gave up on me.

[34:35] And you know we as married couple have experienced incredible things that brought us to a place of where we're at today only by god's grace by his faithfulness by his supernatural intervening on our behalf and you know just to give you some examples it's oftentimes a step of faith to do things that the lord's called us to do and if we step into the water so to speak then the water parts as the lord we begin to hear the lord still small voice and we trust him my wife and I both got saved in 1975 in a separate situation but the same girl that ministered the gospel to us and it was you know while the big revival down in southern California was going around and she was headed she was in the tent and she'd hear the word she'd come share it with us so she was a friend of Alejandrina and a friend of mine I never even said a word to Alejandrina in high school four years and she was cheerleader I was a football player and I only knew her from a distance but after we got saved you know then the lord you know began to work things out and then we got married 1978 I skipped all kinds of situations there and then skipping from 1978 you You can imagine from 1978 to 1992.

[36:01] Through all kinds of trials.

[36:06] I mean, amazing, incredible trials in how God brought us to a place where he said, I want you to go to Central Oregon to plant a church. Well, can you imagine what happened from 1978 to 1992?

[36:21] That would ever prepare you to come to a place like this to plant a church? Planting a church, you get hit hard. You get hit very hard. and you wouldn't last if you didn't already know certain things in faith about the lord because you're challenged at every single side and when we moved up in to Oregon in 1992, if you remember so that's 32 years ago so I have 32 years in Oregon 32 years in California and four years in New York. That's some total of my life right there. So I'm about to supersede that in Oregon. 32 years, and just so happened that it was the worst winter since I don't know when that hit Oregon. 120 days, the snow was on the ground, very, very cold temperatures, very harsh weather, and I just thought, well, this is Oregon. I wouldn't know the difference. it's my first winter and so after we were here for a few months we had to go back to southern California to get all of our belongings all of our keepsakes that was in storage and so I it was in the winter and we loaded up the 16 foot trailer with I built the wooden sides on it it was a flatbed trailer we loaded it up estimated about six or seven thousand pounds.

[37:48] Two-wheel drive Suburban with California tires. I'll leave that to your imagination. The trailer had no brakes.

[38:01] California tires, and we headed to Oregon in the winter, in the worst winter that Oregon has seen, with two-wheel drive Suburban, with a trailer, the trailer was heavier than the truck, for those of you guys who can figure that one out. So it was no sooner did we hit 97 coming out of Klamath, it was bad. And then when we got around, I don't know, 10 miles out of Crescent, I think it was, my cousin was driving and he goes I have no control he goes look he went like this to the steering wheel we're going down the highway he steps on the brakes turns the steering wheel nothing so we just crossed our arms and waited see what was going to happen and fortunately it drifted to the right there was nobody on the road they weren't that stupid.

[38:54] And we're from California i had no clue how to drive in any of this stuff and then it just started drifting and then went to the right instead of cross traffic went through the snow just kept on going and then boom against a farmer's fence and here we are buried in snow, going now what barely open the doors on the truck and get out and all of a sudden here comes this trucker with a heavy load I think I was a hundred thousand pounds and he stops now you couldn't stand on the highway because I had already come up to the highway you could not step on the highway You cannot stand on the highway. It was about three inches of clear ice and you couldn't even see it So you couldn't stand on it. He stopped with his load backed up got out.

[39:40] Talked to us he goes he said I can get you out and he hooked up a cable to us like I said nobody's on the highways nobody's coming down or whatever and he backed up his truck he pulled both our trailer and truck out onto the highway again with his big rig it was amazing it was god sent.

[39:58] So we instar way to crescent pulled into the parking lot and thinking okay we'll wait till the weather warms up well the weather wasn't going to warm up the high of the next day was is going to be like 30 or something you know and and so I happen to be talking to a trucker that stopped at crescent I go yeah we're going to wait till like 10 or 11 o'clock we're going to go and he goes why this is two truckers i really appreciate he goes I'd rather go at zero degrees, than 30 and I'm thinking like see this isn't computing in my head that is better to go at zero than 30 because the sun starts affecting it at 30 you know the street the blacktop but at zero man you're good to go so i go okay so we headed out but we by the time we hit Chemult, we're all over we went off the road into the parking lot we went into a store i go that's it we're done i hung up that trailer and just left it in the parking lot at Chemult store, and headed with just suburban which was bad enough all the way to Prineville and do you know that nobody would go, I asked around, nobody would go back to Chemult to get that trailer.

[41:11] Two months it sat there. We didn't have any clue, all of our belonging, all of our keepsake, everything was in that trailer. It had a tarp over it.

[41:22] And when finally somebody at the church said, hey, I'll go up and get it, we went together, and he had a truck, not four-wheel drive. The roads were still bad, but he went up there, we had to dig it out when we finally got it back to Prineville long story short we took that tarp off and it was so cold the entire two months that I was up there not one thing got wet in the trailer and everything was encased in ice we had to bust the ice loose to get to our photos and nothing was ruined nothing was tampered with for two months sit in a parking lot in front of of a store in chemo the can't the canvas was still over the trailer and I'm thinking like what if there was big old angels or something just watching over that all that time, you know or certainly was no homeless population I'll tell you what up there, but and.

[42:20] I'm going to conclude this, even though I have a whole bunch more. But what I want to say is that, you know, even though we didn't have any idea of any of that stuff, God knew ahead of time, and He worked miraculously with the whole driving and stuff, because I drove that whole winter in my Datsun pickup with California tires, two-wheel drive from Prineville to Bend almost seven days a week, because I was helping plant Calvary Chapel Bend at the time. Almost seven days a week through that whole winter and never lost traction never had chains never lost traction in that dots and pickup now I didn't know that that was amazing miraculous, but I found out later it was amazing and miraculous that I could do that but god knew and then later again I was going to do a paint job that the whole time you know I was using that that Datsun pickup, turns out that there was a couple in the church that her grandfather had died and left them with a four-wheel drive vehicle and they already had vehicles, didn't need it. Pastor, we see what you drive, they said to me.

[43:27] I have a four-wheel drive vehicle that we can't use. Would you like it? You know, a truck. I go, sure. They gave me the four-wheel drive truck. The very next job I did required a four-wheel drive truck to get to it or you couldn't do the job. And it's like I shook my head just thinking, you know, it is amazing how God is so faithful to keep us alive. Now, would I tell you to pray that you could drive like that and that kind of conditions and not slip? No, I would say just the opposite. Don't go. I would say get good tires. I would say drive a four-wheel drive. I say have chains. pains. I'd say, you're crazy if you try and do that, is what I would pray, because, you know, that's an unusual circumstance. And so, you know what we're going to do here?

[44:21] Is I think we're going to come back and revisit this whole thought next Sunday because there's just too much to communicate right now. But I think it's important because we are going to be getting into 1 Timothy. And this is just a little brief window in the Psalms, but there's a thought here I think is important to communicate. So part two next Sunday, okay?

[44:48] All right, let's stand together. other lord just thank you so much for loving us and and lord just all that you do in our lives lord you are so faithful and and so lord I just ask that you would continue to have your way in our hearts and in our lives lord I just pray for the congregation today I just ask lord that you just take away the pressures and the anxieties that might be experienced here and I just pray Pray, Lord, that we would learn to trust you in faith, that we would look to you, that we would pray to you, that we would know that you're a present help in time of trouble, Lord, that we can call upon your name. Lord, we just ask that you would have your way in this church family. Lord, we just thank you for providing, for being previous to every situation, for just blowing our minds with your goodness, Lord. And I pray for everybody here that you keep us mobile, Lord, until you're done with us, until you call us out of here. Lord, we're just so excited about all that you're going to do, knowing that it's important, Lord, also to know that you're going to be coming back soon. And that gets us excited, Lord, to give us new bodies that we're going to be with you forever.

[46:07] And so, Lord, just bless each of us with that that anticipation, that blessed hope, Lord, that it would be front and center in our hearts and in our lives. And so we want to thank you for your faithfulness, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great day. God bless.