church prayer meeting. We just thank all of our visitors that is here. We just ask the hope that everybody is doing well. Tonight we have a pretty good prayer list that just got done putting together. We'll be getting into that. Tonight I'm going to be going through a little bit more of the I hope it works out and we'll go into that. Thank you so much for joining us. The ministry is growing. God is being good to Brighter Day Baptist Church and both sites and the radio stations. We're doing really good. Please keep us in prayer for everything that is going on. We need your prayers, and we're so excited to tell you that we're getting ready close to hit 5 million people, and it's worldwide, and I have had some people in the Philippines to thank us for going up on, and they're watching us right now in the Philippines, and also in China and the Ukraine. so a lot of listeners out there please comment if you have any prayer requests you can put it at brighterdaybaptistchurch.com at gmail.com or you can just type right on to the Facebook page or in Messenger if you have any prayer requests we will take them all and we will get right back on the next Wednesday night and be praying for you. You know, if you know anybody that needs prayer requests, you can put their name up and we'll pray for them. So let's go ahead and get started in our prayer for tonight. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much, Lord, for all that you're doing, Lord. We are so excited, Lord, about the prayer meeting, Lord, We can just come and put up these requests to you, Father. And we ask you, Lord, for prayer for Travis Proctor with heart issues. I hope that he is doing well. Sammy Kent's brother, Randy Kent, for healing for him and peace of mind for Sammy. We pray also for Chuck Polly and his wife. Give him strength and hope his wife went through the procedure I did not talk to Chuck yet but I hoping to hear Pray for Bridget with her back problems That's my buddy's girlfriend. And Stanley and Ann Proctor, COVID, but they're doing better. And also keep two of our ministries in prayer. And that is Sweatshirt of Hope. And that is people struggling with all kinds of addictions. And that is here in Pennsylvania. And then we also have a Recovery Soldiers Ministry. That's also drug-related addictions and all kinds of other stuff, addictions. They're located in Tennessee. So please keep these two ministries deeply in prayer. we just want to lift them up to you tonight so brother do we'll just start in prayer here that was our prayer sheet but we're going to go into prayer so dear heavenly father we just thank you so much for these what's on this list lord we ask you lord to please bless our listeners tonight lord we ask you lord to please bless my dad's service tonight lord and we ask you it goes well we ask you lord to please lord just to put me aside and ask you lord to uh deliver this small message and i hope it is a blessing to each and one that listens to it we just thank you lord for your love and and what you're doing in brighter day baptist church we thank you father in christ's name we pray amen so tonight we're kind of kind of digging into this uh a little bit here and uh what we're looking at is the Psalms 23 here. I think it's in verse 4, and it says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it says, I will fear no evil. And here's what it, in the red, I put, for you are with me. You know, it's kind of strange that, or not strange, but wonderful that God made us, but he never left us. You know, he could have destroyed us a long time ago with the flood, but he didn't. didn't you know and it's wonderful to see that he never has left us even though a lot of the times we think that he has left us you know and and we struggling but he not left you he right there beside you uh but i just thinking that was a great thing uh that for you for you are with me he says even though i walk in the valley of the shadow of death i mean we walk where so a lot of people are walking in in these valleys right now, and in the shadow, it feels like death, and it says, I will feel no evil, you know, and it says, for you are with me, for you are with me, now, I put in here, your rod, right, and your staff, they comfort me, right, they comfort me, and you know, we look in the Bible that the rod, right, rod is a symbol of power, you know, it shepherd shepherd carries a rod for the sheep and to protect them. The staff, you know, like Moses, lifted up his staff and departed the waters so they could walk across. But his staff was in the air, right? But I want to go into something here. I hope I don't jump off and leave here real quick. I just want to see if this will work. and just give me one minute here. It says your rod was a natural symbol of authority as the tool used by shepherd to connect and guide the flock. Jesus' rod is to protect and show his people protect his people from harm. okay so you know and the staff you know there's there's there's three symbols of the staff alone you know it's to reach out and pull the sheep you know uh it pulls the sheep together you know to keep them from spreading out, you know. And then the second part of that is, what the staff does, is it reaches out and pulls a single sheep out from the herd, and then that way the shepherd can inspect that sheep. You know, I wonder, as I read this, you know, there a lot of things that popped into my mind and is Jesus reaching out pulling on us and inspecting us each day I sure he is you know I sure he pulls us in and holds us tight and to protect us you know and then take that same rod and that staff and he pokes us and he guides us right he guides us down the right paths and keeps us from going into the wrong path, you know. And then, so that led me into something else here. And I definitely wanted to put this up. And let me get this big here so you can see it. And that'll be my next one. And then this is a picture of Jesus holding the sheep and Jesus holding his rod. and you know lots of times when we see a picture it does something to us i love drawing pictures i love doing pictures i think it gives us peace and mind and keeps us from focusing keep from focus on the bad stuff in the world but as as we see here jesus holding that sheep and i go back into that, here we are, where it says, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, right? And we can see here, for your rod and your staff comfort me. And he's holding us in his loving arms. You know, Jesus is love. He's holding you in his arms tonight. And if there's anything, you know, that we can do for you here at brighterdaybaptistchurch.com. We'll be more than willing to do that for you. If you have any concerns or need to talk, please just jot us a line down or email us or messenger us. If you have any needs, we'll be glad to see what we can do to help you and get the help that you need. OK, so let's end in prayer. Just thank you for joining tonight. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much, Lord, for your love. Thank you, Lord, for your message that you comfort us. Lord, your rod is powerful. Your rod moved the water, departed the waters. And Lord, you're working on us each day. We just thank you for that, Father. You're guiding us with your rod and you you protect us with your rod and you love us. You keep us, the family together. And we just thank you so much. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
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