Well, I'm sure that you have all been there, times where difficult decisions have to be made. And for me, one of the most difficult and hard decisions I ever had to make was going to seminary. When I was 34 years old, I already had three kids and lived on a very private ranch at the end of a dirt road. It was a beautiful place to live. I was on staff at a wonderful church. It was a fantastic season of our life. And at one point, the chairman of the elder board sat down with me privately and he said, we think that you need to go to seminary and go be a pastor. And my immediate response was, no way. There is no way. But I told him, I was a good Christian, that I would pray about it. And so three months later, he sat me down again. We had the same meeting. Essentially, he just said things in a much stronger way, a lot more force, a lot more urgency that compelled me to have to think and pray even more. And then six months later, I was driving in the middle of the night. We were driving back from here, actually, from visiting my family, and I was listening to sermons. And it was just this weight that had been on me that I needed to go to seminary just became so clear. And I thought the Lord was calling us to go and I said, no way. But I decided that I had to at least be a good Christian and be faithful to what possibly the Lord could be calling us. And so my wife and I got on a plane and flew to Southern Seminary to look at the campus and spend a couple of days with professors and stuff there. And even on the plane, in my mind, I was thinking, there is no way. Everything about it scared me. And during the first day, I was walking down a hallway in one of the buildings with one of the professors who would later on have a very big impact in my life. And I was just sharing with him my fears. But, you know, as a Christian, I couch them as concerns, right? We don't have fears. We're not scared. But we have concerns. So I was sharing with him my concerns, which he saw right through that, and he stopped me. in the hallway and he turned to me and he said, Shane, the Israelites had no idea how they were going to cross the flooded Jordan River until they obeyed God and put their foot in the river. And it really hit me. I still remember his words well to this day. And at the end of that day as Jess and I were done and we walked out of the building for the end of the evening and Jess asked me, how was it? What were your thoughts? I just burst into tears. It was a long time, almost an hour before I could even answer her as I was sobbing. And then finally, I said, I know the Lord is calling us here, but I have been too scared to say yes. We made the decision right then to go. It was a difficult decision. So how did we make it? Big decisions like that are hard. They're gut-wrenching. They're difficult. And David has to make some hard decisions in his life, and the one that we have before us is possibly one of his most difficult ones. I wouldn't say his most difficult, but it's up there. And from this we will see dependence on the Lord is foundational to good decision-making. So turn with me to 2 Samuel 5. We're going to pick up in verse 17. We covered the first half of this chapter last week. We'll cover the second half this morning. We continue this story that we read through last week in verse 17. Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the valley of Rephaim. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand. So David went to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. And he said, The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim. And they left their images there, and David and his men carried them away. Then the Philistines went up once again, and deployed themselves in the valley of Rephaim. Therefore David inquired of the Lord, and he said, You shall not go up, circle around behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. And it shall be when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines. And David did so as the Lord commanded him, and he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer. Well, last week we saw Israel come and crown David as king, admitting that they knew this was what God had for them and had for David. And so they finally, after seven and a half years, obey the Lord. And then we see David last week conquer Jerusalem for the first time in the 1800 year, or the 800 year at that point, history of Jerusalem. It became a city of Israel. And not only a city, but the capital of Israel. And thus combined, it's a fascinating thing when you look at the Bible and you step back at it from a hole. Last week, we got to see the first king in the line of Judah, the promised Messiah, and the establishment of Jerusalem all within the same chapter. It's fascinating and both ultimately point to Christ and the eternal city of God. We looked at this verse last week from Psalm 2, yet I have set my king, this is God speaking, I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And so as we continue in our text now this morning, the first point you need to see here is depending on God. What does it look like to depend on God? Now we recognize the Philistines, they have been a major force against Israel for a long time. In fact, it's been decades that they have had the upper hand against Israel. And remember, the last place David was before Saul's death was in the land of the Philistines pretending to be their ally, hiding from Saul. And then in the major battle in which Saul was killed, you may remember David was going to go with them and they sent him back because they remembered at one point he had been their enemy and they were worried that perhaps he would turn against them in the battle. Now, it's likely that when they saw David go to Hebron, they weren't all that concerned, especially as they saw civil war break out in Israel. It's quite possible, as they saw David warring against the rest of Israel, though he did not instigate that, as they see that, they likely thought, well, maybe David is our ally. Maybe he is helping us. Look at all the chaos that is now in Israel because David went to Hebron. They may have even thought this is a good thing. But now David has been crowned king over all of Israel and they are very alarmed. Because they remember David has been a dangerous enemy in the past. They do not want him having the full force of Israel now behind him. They have been at war with Israel for a long time. They shared a long border with Israel. And consequently, they respond very quickly to David being crowned king in Israel. Here we should note, sometimes in scripture we need to realize there's stuff going on that we don't even think about. And one of those things is God's protecting hand on the nation of Israel during these seven and a half years that Israel has been at civil war. God has been protecting Israel from the Philistines because the Philistines have already driven far into Israel. And if there was ever a time to take over everything, it would have been And when Israel was going through civil war. And so we're reminded of the many times that God's hand is upon us when we do not see it and are not aware of it. And yet His hand is always there. He continually watches over us. He continually watches over His churches. He really is our protector and our shield. In Psalm 115, that speaks of the glory of the Lord and the protection of the Lord. We read this in verse 11. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. The Lord has been mindful of us. Even at the times that we don't even see it or recognizing it, God is mindful of us. So this crowning of David as the king of Israel is a very serious matter to the Philistines. And consequently they send a massive army so big it is described as, verse 17, all the Philistines went up. They went up, and this language is interesting, to search for David. It's the same language that was used throughout 1 Samuel over and over, often translated seek, of Saul searching for David to kill him. In 1 Samuel 23, 23 Saul is saying, and it shall be if he is in the land, speaking of David, that I will search for him throughout all the clans of Judah. Now here's David, and I think the author is intending us to see, here's David, he can think, oh my goodness, finally peace, finally rest, and here's someone else searching him out. Someone else searching for his harm. Someone else searching to kill him. It's very likely at this point when they go out that they do not realize that he has conquered Jerusalem. And thus when David hears they are coming, we read, he went down to the stronghold. It's difficult to know exactly what the stronghold is. The most likely meaning is David was in upper Jerusalem and he went down to the lower part of Jerusalem in which the original Jebusite citadel or fortress was. That's likely what it is meant here. That's where he went to. And as the Philistines searching for David quickly realized he has taken Jerusalem and so they line up in the valley of Rephaim which is southwest of Jerusalem stretching out. This was a very strategic move on their part because this was a fairly steep canyon and it cut off all of Israel from Judah which was David's primary source of support from Judah because that's where he had been. So in a sense, the Philistines have cut Israel in half. Judah to the south, the rest of Israel to the north. This is a major problem. This is a major threat for David. Though mentioned only briefly, scholars reflect on how this battle is likened to significant battles of World War I or World War II, where the tide of the war was turned, or a battle that if it had been lost, it would have changed the outcome of the war perhaps. This battle is in line with those kinds of battles. You see, David has just begun to reign. His kingdom is not yet organized. He does not yet have a military force that is structured throughout all Israel. And had the Philistines won here, at least from a human perspective, it likely would have destroyed David's ability to reign and hang on to Israel as a whole. Because the nation would be divided now, and the king that Israel had just turned to, and in verse 2 had just said, to deliver us from our enemies, David would have failed at. So this is a critical situation. What will David do? Well, we read in verse 19. So David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand? He seeks the Lord. He gets direction from the Lord. Now, if you remember in 1 Samuel, when David sought the Lord, it was always through the priest, Abathar. And so this is likely how David is seeking the Lord here, using the means in which God had instructed Israel to use. We see this regularly in 1 Samuel of David seeking the Lord through the priest and the ephod. And David here, seeking the Lord, receives an answer from God. He was to go out to battle and God would give him the victory. Now we see a couple of things here in David that are worth noting. And the first one is this. David is standing out here in stark contrast to the men who have come before him, namely Joab and Abner and Saul. These were men who didn't seek the Lord when trouble came and instead sought to deal with the problem as they saw fit. They were take-life-by-the-horns type men, getting-it-done type men who tackled problems in their own strength, in their own wisdom, and according to their own desires and what they wanted the outcome to be. The second thing we should see here is that when trouble comes knocking, David seeks the Lord. David doesn't fly into a flurry of activity trying to solve the problem on his own. So often, that's what we do, maybe throwing up a prayer for help as we flurry around trying to solve our problem. It's difficult for us to stop and make our first response to seek the Lord. It's difficult for us to not do things when trouble comes. But the third thing we need to see here from David is that he does not rely on his own strength and power. You have to remember who David is. David is not a weakling here. He's not Gideon. He is a warrior, and he has arguably never lost a battle. He knows how to handle the sword, and he knows how to handle soldiers. He could have rested in his strength, rested in his experiences, and gone out against the Philistines. So friends, be careful here because we love self-confidence. We greatly value our past experiences, and we talk often of our past successes, and we tend to rely on those as we go into new situations. But fourth and finally, another thing we need to see here of David. David is willing to do the hard thing here. Think about where he is. He is in Jerusalem, the fortified city that has withstood attack for centuries. It would have been easy to remain there and hold off the Philistines. It's safe to assume David was greatly outnumbered at this point. That would have been the human response, not go out and fight. And yet David asks, should I go out and fight? And he has the courage to do so should God say yes, which God does. And receiving his answer, David leaves the comfort of the fortress, the security of the fortress, and goes into the valley to fight the Philistines. And then it's so simple. We just simply read, and David defeated them there. Where's the Blu-ray documentary on this battle? Like, we want to see what happened. But all the author is concerned about here is the outcome. And then notice what David does. He gives glory to God. He said, the Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a breakthrough of water. He praises God. He gives glory to God. He recognizes it's God who has given him the victory. It's not his skill. It's not his strength. And he calls the place Baal Perizim, meaning Master of Breakthrough. Master of Breakthrough. The picture here is a powerful, rushing river hitting a flimsy wall and just blowing it to smithereens. The Lord has broken through is what it means here. And then we read that the Philistines leave their idols, verse 21, and they left their images there and David and his men carried them away. We kind of wonder, well, what was David doing here? Was he doing what most kings would do and he takes their idols and adds them to his? Is he building up a storehouse of idols? What is he doing? Well, we get clarity because 1 Chronicles records this battle as well. And we read in 1 Chronicles 14-12, and when they left their gods there, David gave a commandment and they were burned with fire. So once again, what we see here is David being faithful to God's commands to Israel to burn and destroy the idols of the promised land. We read of this command in Deuteronomy 7.5, So David here is obeying God's commands, his revealed word to Israel. And this is quite significant if we remember this in the storyline of the Bible. If you remember in 1 Samuel chapter 4, when Israel was conquered by the Philistines, the Philistines actually captured the Ark, do you remember this? And they brought it and they set it in front of Dagon, their god. And twice Dagon falls on his face before the Ark of God, breaking off his head, breaking off his hands. And so then the Philistines think something's wrong, and so they move it to another house, and those people get covered in tumors, and they move it to another spot in the land, and they're covered with tumors. And they're miserable. The whole town that the ark is in, they're covered with tumors. And finally, after seven months of this, they send the ark back to the border of Israel, Beth Shemesh. But here in 2 Samuel 5, These idols are just burned because they're nothing. They're nothing. They are no gods at all in any way, shape, or form. And so we're reminded here and warned once again that though we in our culture don't bow down to carved images, We still have idols in our heart, the New Testament says, that we look to for comfort, for security, and for deliverance. And if we had these shaped on our mantles in our homes, some of us would have an idol sitting up there of control. And some of us would have an idol sitting up there of comfort. And some of us would have an idol sitting there of security. We could go on and on the different things that we serve, hoping, looking to for comfort, for deliverance and for our security. But just as these false idols here couldn't deliver the Philistines and were worthless for David to keep, so are our idols, worthless to deliver us. And so we must constantly be striving to serve the Lord and rooting out the idols in our life. I'm fearful that oftentimes in discussions about idols, we're willing to talk about the idols in our heart, and we're willing to say, hey, will you pray for the idols in my heart? But we're actually not willing to burn them. We're not willing to take the steps necessary to deal with them. You see, we must not only identify them, we must war against them. Well, the second point you'll see on your outline is this, we must remain dependent on God. Now, why would we put it that way? Well, we'll see. Look at verse 22. then the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the valley of Rephaim. The Philistines though defeated and driven back seemed to quickly regroup and regather themselves and not to be outdone are lined up once again for battle in the valley. It would seem that this took place fairly quickly. And David's response is shocking. Verse 23, therefore David inquired of the Lord. David seeks the Lord as what he should do. You see, the first time David sought the Lord, it seems like the author is painting us a contrast between David and those immediately around him, Abner, Joab, Saul. But now, this seems to be painting a contrast between David and the rest of humanity. Especially us in our day. Think about this. How easy would it have been for David to be like, all right, they're in the valley again, I've been here, I've done that, I know what to do, I know what God would have me do, so I'm gonna just go do it, I got this. Right? Everything's the same. Same valley, same soldiers. Everything's the same. How easy it would have been for David to rely on his past experiences, his past successes. How easy to assume he knew what God wanted him to do. Yeah, yeah, I remember this. God did this, and so I know what God would have me do here. How easy for him to be confident. and go and take care of business. Because everything's the same. Friends, how often do you and I do this? We face a situation we've faced before and we think, I got this. I know how to handle this. We come across someone that's similar to someone we've dealt with in the past and we think, I got this. I know how to handle this person. I know how to do this. Assume we know what God would want us to do because after all, in this other situation, this is what He wanted us to do. You see, it's so easy to grow numb to wholeheartedly seeking the Lord and remaining dependent on Him. It's so easy to instead be gradually tempted to be self-sufficient and self-reliant. I think I missed a slide there. There we go. It's so easy to go this way. This is our natural bent. We don't naturally go towards dependence. We naturally go towards self-sufficiency and self-reliance. This is a temptation that I must guard against every week. I preach almost every Sunday. I've preached over 550 sermons, and that's just right here. That doesn't count the past churches I was in. And yet, I must seek the Lord every single week. I must ask for him to work every single week. I must ask for his guidance every single week. And so how about you? Where are you tempted to stop seeking the Lord and rely on your past experiences and successes? Where is that for you? Is it in business decisions? Financial decisions? Job decisions? Time usage decisions? Ministry decisions? Where might that be for you? David, though facing what appears to be an identical situation to what he just faced, he seeks the Lord. Now here's what is shocking. God tells David, don't do what you did before. Look at verse 23. He, God, said, you shall not go up. Circle around behind them and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, you shall advance quickly, for then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines." There's something here. This is what we should note. There's something here God knew David did not know. And very often we are in similar situations. We don't know what we think we know. Friends, be wary of thinking. You know how to handle a situation because it's similar to a situation you encountered before. God here knew this situation, though it looked the same, needed to be handled differently. Situations may look similar in our eyes, but not in God's eyes. And likewise, people may look similar in our eyes, but not in God's eyes. You know, there's something David is learning here, I think. And it is something we must learn as well. And that is utter dependence upon the Lord. Depending on the Lord, not just early on, but throughout all of our lives. can be easier to be dependent on the Lord in early situations and we can grow confident and self-reliant and slowly, without even realizing it, drift away from being dependent on the Lord. And we must, like David is having to here, fight to remain dependent on God. We then read that David did as God commanded him and the Philistines were soundly defeated once again. So much so that they are never a serious threat again to Israel. But there's a few things we should note here in God's instructions. First, God was going to use a miraculous and powerful means by which to strike fear in the heart of the Philistines. The sound of an army coming through the trees. Now what this was, we don't know. It may have been that God stirred up a strong wind where the branches sounded as they clacked together like marching. We don't know how he did it. Fear can turn normal into terrifying. Or, God may have produced a miraculous sound we just simply don't know. But whatever it was, we see here God is fully and completely in control of this situation, as He is in all situations. But then second, we should note, David, when he heard this sound, God tells him, you must respond quickly. You must obey immediately. No hesitation. Wholehearted obedience to the revealed will of God. And so David does so and experiences deliverance from the Lord. See, there's a time for waiting and there's a time for action. This is the time for action. When the sound is heard, go. And likewise, we're reminded here of our need to obey God's revealed word immediately. We must resist the urge to be hesitant to obey God's word. And third, and finally, we see a contrast here with why Israel wanted a king and what God desired in a king. Israel, in their demand for a king, wanted a king who would go out and fight their battles for them. That was what caused God to be angry with them. We read of this in 1 Samuel 8, verse 19. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations. and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." You see, this right here in 1 Samuel 8 was a moving away of relying on the Lord to go out and fight battles for them. They wanted to be in charge of that now. They were not content to wait for God to go before them. But here, David, as a king who seeks to faithfully serve God, will be a king who waits for God to go out before him. You see, this was a return to the leadership that was in Israel with Moses and with Joshua of relying on the Lord to go before them. We then read, and he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer. Geba here is Gibeon and this battle is so decisive that the Philistines are driven 20 miles back all the way to their original border. It would seem that this is the first time since 1 Samuel 4 that the Philistines are completely driven out of Israel. They have been creeping closer and closer to Jerusalem for decades. And it would also seem that this driving of the Philistines back from this region is actually what paved the way for David to regain the ark in chapter 6. We'll see next week. It's likely that the Philistines, based on where Saul was killed, the Philistines were in control of the region that the ark was in. And thus, with the Philistines out of the way, as we'll see next week, David's next move is to go get the ark. And so we see a couple of things here as we step back from this. The first we see is that David seeks the Lord and seeks to be led by the Lord, and as a result, he experiences the Lord's blessings. Likewise, we should strive to seek the Lord's will for our lives and resist a continual temptation in our hearts to be self-reliant. We must strive to be dependent on the Lord. And I think this story here should cause us to pause and consider how do we make biblical decisions. I think this is one of the great weaknesses of current day American Christians. We are poor decision making. We are poor at this. We so often rely primarily upon emotion bordering on mysticism. We make decisions on how a decision feels to us, if we have peace in it, and if it feels right. That's largely how we as Christians tend to make decisions. But like David, we must seek the Lord in the various decisions we make, not assuming we know what needs to be done, not assuming we know what God would have us to do. And so as we look at scripture as this story hopefully kind of instigates some discussion in our mind of what does it look like to make biblical decisions. From scripture we see three primary tools God gives us for making decisions and we need to embrace all three of them. And the first that we see here is what we see David doing, seeking the Lord in prayer. But the second thing is seeking God in His Word so that we make decisions that are in line with God's revealed Word, not contrary to His revealed Word. And the reality is, most of our decision making occurs in the principles of God's Word, not in the specifics of God's Word. So for example, if you're looking for a spouse, if you're a single and you're looking for a spouse, you cannot open the Bible and read, Okay, Jonathan, you shall marry so and so. You're not going to read that, but you will read principles of things you should be looking for in a spouse. Most of our decisions are made in that realm of biblical wisdom. And finally, we must seek counsel from people who not only know us, but know our situation. These must be people who are going to be people who will tell us what we don't want to hear. That's who we need to be seeking counsel from. I'm amazed, in fact, one of the biggest areas I have to control my facial expressions is on this one right here. How many times people will come up to me and say, we made this decision, and I ask, who did you get counsel from? Well, no one. I just have a piece about it. It's like, control my face, control my face. It's grievous to me how many Christians make big decisions with zero counsel. We see multiple Proverbs. I'll just share two of them with you. Proverbs 11-14, where there is no counsel, the people fail or fall. But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Proverbs 15-22, without counsel, plans go awry. But in the multitude of counselors, they are established. You see, we so often are like, well, I'm just relying on the Holy Spirit. Did you know that the same Holy Spirit is residing in your brothers and sisters in Christ? And God often chooses to work through them to help you know what to do? It's not like it's a different Holy Spirit in Andy than in me. It's the same Holy Spirit. So we're not going to a different source. We're going to different people with different experiences, with different knowledges, different wisdoms who have the same Holy Spirit. But finally, in looking at this text, what we need to see here is the battle that we see here is under the complete sovereign control of a powerful God. See, the more we wait upon the Lord, and the more we seek Him, the more we will experience His power. Because even when it seems like God isn't active, He's always active. He's always working. And so often it's our flurried activity that keeps us from seeing that. God is not presented here as a timid, inactive God. He is, as David said, the master of breakthroughs. Dale Ralph Davis said this, he said, Yahweh's people have a God who is a smasher and a fighter, a God mighty in battle, Psalm 24, 8, who can therefore defend his sheep and restrain and conquer all his and our enemies. We can rest in the fact that we have a sovereign God who is going to accomplish his plan in our lives, in the life of our church, in the life of our city, in the life of our state, in the life of our nation, in the life of our world. He is bringing about his sovereign plan. The Philistines are just simply another attempt to thwart God's plan. But God's plan for David and for Israel will not be derailed. We should note here that just as we see the first king in the promised line rise up and the city of God rise up for the very first time, we also see the very first nation rise up against it. And that's significant, for this is only the first of countless attempts. The nations still rage against God's King. They still seek to overthrow the heavenly Jerusalem. They still seek to destroy the citizens of God's eternal city. Turn to Psalm 2. We read part of it at the beginning. Let's go to Psalm 2. The order of the Psalms are not unimportant. The very first Psalm, on God's word and living by God's word. The very second Psalm, God's control over the nations and his Messiah. Psalm 2 verse 1. Note the question. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now, therefore, be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled, but a little blessed are those who put their trust in him. You see, the nations rage against God, against Jesus the King, against the people of God, and this will go on until the final judgment, but then it will end. The last picture we see of the nations raging is in Revelation 20, verse 9. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." That's the last time the nations will rage. But right now, we live in the period when nations rage. And so what do we do? We put our trust in the Lord and we flee from self-reliance. Remember how Psalm 2 ends, blessed are those who put their trust in him. So are you trusting in the Lord in the various situations that are before you. Are you resting in him? Are you waiting upon him? Are you running to him? Are you obeying him? Are you loving him? Are you continually seeking him, living in dependence upon him? As the author of Psalm 2 says, blessed are those who put their trust in the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are faithful, that you are good, that you are true, that you are wise, that you are loving, that you are sovereign in control of all things. We praise you that we can trust you. And in this text, we see here. The first nation rise up. Against your anointed king. In the line of the Messiah against the city of Jerusalem, and it's been going on ever since. But Lord, we can trust you because you are always working. And Father, we ask that as David did not trust in himself, but trusted in you and depended on you, that we would in turn do the same. We ask that you would help us in the different decisions that are before us, big or small, that we would seek you in prayer, that we would seek you in your revealed word, that we would seek wise biblical counsel from those who not only know us, but know our situation. And we ask that you would help us, that we would be humble people, dependent on you. And so, Father, we ask that you would lead us, that you would guide us. We pray that your hand would continue to protect our church, that you would watch over us and guard us. And we rest comforted in the fact that just as you had a plan here for David and Israel, so you have a plan for us here at The Journey. And that plan cannot be thwarted. And so, Father, we pray that you would help us to be faithful to you and to live according to your Word. That we would grow in loving you and loving each other. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.