Amen. Thank you guys for praying. It's good to see you.  We're going to continue our work Verse by verse through the book of Judges Tonight we find ourselves in Judges chapter 7 as the Lord is preparing Gideon and the nation of Israel for war Judges chapter 7 This will be our first night in Judges chapter 7. We'll spend a couple of sermons here and So I want to read the chapter together then we'll get into the beginning part of this text So this is Judges chapter 7 verses 1 through 25 our sermon title this evening is strength through faith strength through faith Hear the word of the Lord beginning in verse 1 Then Jerubal that is Gideon and all the people who are with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Herod So that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Mora in the valley and The Lord said to Gideon the people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands Lest Israel claim glory for itself against me saying my own hand has saved me now therefore Proclaim in the hearing of the people saying Whoever is fearful and afraid let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead And 22,000 of the people returned and 10,000 remain But the Lord said to Gideon the people are still too many Bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there Then it will be that of whom I say to you this one shall go with you the same shall go with you and of whomever I say to you this one shall not go with you the same shall not go So he brought the people down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps you shall set apart by himself Likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink and the number of those who lapped Putting their hand to their mouth was 300 men But all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water Then the Lord said to Gideon by the 300 men who lapped I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand let all the other people go every man to his place So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands And he sent away all the rest of Israel every man to his tent and retained those 300 men Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley And it happened on the same night that the Lord said to him arise Go down against the camp for I have delivered it into your hand But if you are afraid to go down go down to the camp with Pura your servant You shall hear what they say and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp Then he went down with Pura his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp Now the Midianites and the Amalekites all the people of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts And their camels were without number as the sand by the seashore in multitude And when Gideon had come There was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said I've had a dream To my surprise a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian It came to a tent struck it so that it fell and overturned and the tent collapsed Then his companion answered and said this is nothing else But the sword of Gideon and the son of Joash a man of Israel into his hand God has delivered Midian in the whole camp And so it was when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation that he worshipped He returned to the camp of Israel and said a rise for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand Then he divided the 300 men into three companies and he put a trumpet into every man's hand with empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers And he said to them look at me and do likewise watch when I come to the edge of the camp You shall do as I do when I blow the trumpet I and all who are with me Then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp and say the sword of the Lord and of Gideon So Gideon and the 300 men or Gideon and the hundred men who are with him Came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle of watch Just as they had posted the watch and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers They held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing and they cried the sword of the Lord and of Gideon And every man stood in his place all around the camp and a whole army ran and cried out and fled When the 300 blew the trumpets the Lord set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp and the Army fled to Bet Acacia toward Zerera as far as the border of Abel Mahola by Tava And the men of Israel gathered together from Naftali, Asher, and Al Manasseh and pursued the Midianites Then Gideon set messengers throughout the mountains of Ephraim saying Come down against the Midianites and seize from them the watering places as far as Bet Barah and the Jordan Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering places as far as Bet Barah and the Jordan And they captured two princes of the Midianites Aureb and Zeb They killed Aureb at the rock of Aureb and Zeb they killed at the winepress of Zeb They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Aureb and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan This is the word of God. Amen. Amen. Let's say go to the Lord in prayer and then we'll look at this text together Father and heavy heaven. Thank you so much for our time together tonight Thank you for the blessing and the privilege Lord of Going through this book together on Sunday night Sunday evenings, and we're grateful for our opportunity to be here Grateful for those who are tuning in online at home. Grateful Lord for our fellowship together and you the spirit of God Joining us together one Lord one faith one baptism. We praise you and thank you for our unity praise you and thank you for our fellowship We rejoice Lord at what you're doing among us in our church and just Our hearts Lord pour out praise to you and gratitude to you for who you are and what you've done be with us now As we consider this text Lord we want to consider our own weakness consider your mighty power and Consider all the many reasons that we have to put our complete faith and trust in you and everything that happens in this life We are yours a sheep of your hand And we know Lord that you are Powerful and mighty to say that you through great providence Lord direct all your decrees And execute all your plans No one can turn your hand or thwart your decrees and we rejoice Lord in knowing that you are faithful to your word Help us Lord often as our faith is weak just to simply trust you in all things We thank you for the example that you give us here in your word to do just that We love you and pray that you'll be with us now as we study your word in Jesus name. Amen Again the title of our sermon strength through faith judges chapter 7 beginning in verse 1 As we set the stage we set the table for what's going on in Israel at this moment The Midianite menace with the Amalekites the people of the east are once again Marauding in Israel They are in camp to their spread out in the Jezreel Valley and they're like locusts the Bible says Devouring the land they've been doing this for the past seven years straight Destroying crops stealing cattle wreaking general havoc on the people and ordinarily when the Midianites the Amalekites the people of east sweep down across the land Israel is found fleeing into the hills into the mountains and hiding out in the caves These enemies of God have been a Devastating plague on the people of God Judges 6 described that the nation is physically impoverished because of the Midianites this plague People have been literally starved out. They are small in number They've been systematically killed off by this pagan tsunami It's been encroaching every seven every year for seven years But this physical oppression that we see the Israelites under this physical oppression is the judgment of God All right, this plague is the judgment of God God sold them into the hand of Midian in chapter 6 verse 1 When they once again did evil in the side of the Lord and that evil time and time again has to do with the wicked and deplorable sin of idolatry They have abandoned the true worship of God for the worship of Baal and the asheras and so they're devastated and destitute physical condition as bad as that may be and it is certainly really really bad It's merely an outward depiction of an inward spiritual rottenness that is eating away at the nation from the inside and we're to Take a lesson from this aren't we right all of this has been brought upon them because of their disobedience They did not heed the word of the Lord and because of their faithlessness They have abandoned the Lord for Baal and the asheras and this frankly is a good depiction if you will a good lesson for us to see we're to learn from their example of The spiritual rot that begin can begin to set in in our own hearts and minds when we begin to Disobey the Lord and depart from the living God when we disobey when we fall into disobey disobedience Faithlessness unbelief then spiritual rottenness begins to take root in our own heart We've got to constantly dig that out by obeying the Lord trusting the Lord Learning from the Lord in his word. We have to follow him in faith to keep that rottenness out of our own bones But here we see it just eating away at Israel from the inside out now of course It's the physical pain that physical oppression that causes the children of Israel to remember the Lord right remember Baal hasn't Rescued them out of their oppression. So what do they do? They cry out to the Lord Ultimately, they know the Lord is the one who can deliver them So they cry out to the Lord for help and what does the Lord do the Lord is faithful to his covenant promises Faithful to his word. He remembers Israel He wants them to remember him and Because he wants Israel to remember why they're in the mess that they're in and to remember the Lord He doesn't deliver them right away. He sends them a prophet, right? He sends them a prophet to remind them of his word to them Essentially, he says to Israel look I've delivered you. I am the Lord your God and you have not obeyed my voice That's why you find yourself in the mess that you're in and then in mercy once again God is in a bounding in mercy. Is he not a bounding in patience time and time and time again? God raises up a deliverer raises up a judge a warrior savior a warrior governor To deliver them out of the hand of this hellish pagan menace And as we've seen so far as we've looked at Gideon now Gideon isn't exactly what you might expect The weakest man from the weakest clan Gideon isn't fearless as we might expect Gideon is fearful Gideon isn't faithful as some have portrayed him to be Gideon is faithless and unbelieving however It will be through the weakness of Gideon and the weakness of the nation That God has determined to show his strength and his power in delivering Israel and we saw that last Lord's Day in chapter 6 God delights to demonstrate his great power through our great weakness however He often determines to do that not apart from means but through means God often determines to do that through the means of our faith not always right God can operate entirely apart from us if he decides to do that if he intends to do that, but God Often operates through the means of the faith of his people John says Whatever is born of God Overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith So Gideon and the people they're gonna have to learn how to trust the Lord This lesson is going to teach them to trust in the Lord to turn back from their sin and turn to following him And the Lord has sovereignly raised up this very circumstance to teach them this lesson Why have the Midianites been in the land every year for seven years marauding? It's because the Lord has orchestrated these very circumstances for their good to teach them this very valuable lesson So we come then to chapter 7 Gideon so far by the Lord has been taken by the hand so to speak The Lord being very patient very Merciful he looks upon Gideon with pity and he patiently Endures all of Gideon's doubts and questions and Gideon's testing He reassured Gideon time and time and time again and now finally it appears that Gideon is ready Where he's torn down the idolatrous altar of his family He's blown the Trump the trumpet the troops have rallied to him Gideon has put away his fleece God has promised to deliver the Midianites into his hand. Gideon and the Israelites are ready for war I'm not so fast Not so fast. We would think that would be the case, but we're gonna find that's not exactly the case The one who searches the heart knows that there's far more far more at work That needs to be done in the heart of Gideon in the heart of the people Before he leads them to victory through a God glorifying faith Gideon and the people are powerless They are weak in and of themselves spiritually weak physically weak Think with me about a couple of points relative to that one. They cannot win without the Lord They can't do it They've not even been able to lift a finger against the Midianite men menace for the last seven years They cannot win without the Lord for them to go off into battle without the Lord would be like the Israelites who? Went up the mountain after they refused to go into the promised land, right? Bible says they went up presumptuously Because they went up without the Lord and men were killed They cannot prosper without the Lord their corpses would be strewn across the Jezreel Valley Just like the corpses of that faithless first generation in the wilderness one. They cannot win without the Lord to if the Lord provides the victory in their current state of Faithlessness and unbelief Chapter 7 verse 2 surely they would say my own hand has saved me and they would claim glory for themselves You see the the double punch that that is One they are powerless Entirely weak and they will lose apart from the Lord. They will not prosper Secondly if the Lord did give them the victory and they're going to take the glory so to speak for themselves Against God, which would be even worse worldly hope worldly security For the glory of God and for their own good worldly hope and worldly security must be ripped From their clenched fist, right? God is going to peel their Stealy fingers off of that worldly hope worldly security the towers of independence the monuments to self And even in their destitute condition that they've raised of themselves must be Systematically torn down the heart of the people the heart of Gideon must be humbled That's because God is worthy and deserving of all glory But it's also for their good that he gets the glory, right? They need to learn to trust in him their strength is not in themselves if they are trusting in themselves They will perish they need to learn to trust in the Lord and so as much as this gives glory to God It's also anything that gives glory to God is good for us, right good for us It's like Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1. He entered a trial or he encountered a trial where they were made to despair even of life And Paul said they encountered that trial so that they would learn to trust in the one who raises the dead We're talking about the apostle Paul So in this text then as we consider the circumstances of the Israelites There must be for the glory of God and for their good. There must be a breaking down There's going to be a breaking down Then there is a building up a building up and then God's provision of strength through faith Think about it in those three parts right a breaking down a building up and then God's gracious and Merciful provision of strength through faith Let's pick up the account in verse one and consider the breaking down. Let's consider the breaking down verse one then Jerubahal that is Gideon or remember that name right he calls him Jerubahal because that's the the name that he picked up from His dad after he tore down the altar to bail and tore down the asherapole that was next to it Gideon is a walking taunt Against bail on the part of God here as long as Gideon is alive and walking around and called Jerubahal it means that Gideon is a living taunt of bail. Here's the one Here's the man who contends against bail. He's a bail fighter a bail contender, right? He's a living taunt So Jerubahal and all the people who are with him rose early and in camp beside the well of Herod So that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moorah in the valley And the Lord said to Gideon The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands Lest Israel claim glory for itself against me saying my own hand has saved me Now notice with me first That the Lord has determined to deliver his people He told Gideon right I'm going to deliver the Midianites into your hand as by one man, right? You'll defeat the Midianites as by one man But that deliverance will come By the strength of his own hand through the weakness of Gideon and the people God has determined to deliver his people And he's determined the means through which he will deliver them so that No flesh should glory in his presence. They need to understand. There's nothing about which they can boast We have nothing Nothing how much like nothing Nothing about which we can boast God has determined that they will not be allowed to boast He is committed to no boasting no boasting no boasting. They cannot be prideful in this. There's no room no room for that That's not for their good There can be no glorying in his presence You see in this situation The problem is not the size or the strength of the Midianite army Is it the problem isn't even the physical? Impoverishment or the smallness of the children of Israel the problem is Israel's pride and unbelief. That's the problem and It's often the problem with us to our shame, isn't it our pride and our unbelief Lord I believe help my unbelief right oftentimes. We simply don't trust the Lord the problem is not the the the size of some project at work or the Impoverishment of your bank account at the building down the street The problem is our pride and unbelief. That's where the problem lies. The Lord can take care of all those other things But notice second with me that any boasting that takes place is particularly Said to be against him Verse to lest Israel claim glory for itself against me now Think of the absurdity at this moment of any pride With their entire army Israel is too weak too impoverished to take on the horde of Midian two week with their entire 32,000 man army. They've been oppressed like this for seven years. They haven't lifted a finger to help themselves They cannot and if Israel had won the victory They would not have acknowledged God one might in it in that fascinating right Israel cries out to the Lord for help They acknowledge the Lord in their need But when the Lord gives them what they want and delivers them they wouldn't acknowledge God one might in it They would claim all the glory for themselves, right? They would have credited the victory to their own strength. How typical is that of us? Right how typical how typical that is pride and unbelief and that pride and unbelief is Against the knowledge of God. God is the one who gave the victory God is the one who provides God is the one who gives us the strength that we need the provision that we need God is the one who gives us breath in our lungs Clothes on our back a roof over our head that money in the bank account that you've got God Supplies the job that you have God has given us everything that we need and yet often we Go about as though it was the strength of our own hand that has given us that and we become Nebuchadnezzar Don't we we become walking Nebuchadnezzar's Small and oppressed and in difficult circumstances They cry out to the Lord for help and the Lord graciously Patiently comes to their aid and then they forget They forget the Lord act as though it's by the strength of their own hand. They've gotten to where they are listen They would say right. I worked hard in that battle Did you see me down there in the valley swinging the sword? I labored I was working hard swinging the sword 40 hours a week in a Thankless battle so we could get food on this table right they would say to themselves. No No, the Lord gave you that job the Lord gave you that sword You're holding in your hand the Lord gave you the strength in your arm to swing that sword The Lord gave you that 40 hours to work praise God the Lord gave you the food the Lord gave you the table Lord gave you the strength to swing the sword with when difficulty comes though when the time of testing the time of remembrance comes So does the worry so does the Complaining and so does taking matters into your own hands when the difficulty comes When the adversity comes so does the worry so does the complaining and so does the iron grip that you think you have on all your Stuff or in all your circumstances So does the twisted pride so does the self-reliance so does the unbelief You're not concerned first with the kingdom of God and his righteousness right we become concerned first With holding on to what is quote-unquote mine When they didn't have it when they didn't have it they were humble They cried out to him for help can you imagine in Israel at the time all the prayers that were lifted up to God for help For mercy for deliverance for a they'd heard all the stories before there were judges before them And then God had delivered Israel out of the hand of their oppressors before this so they knew those stories They knew that God was a delivering saving God and so they lift up prayers to God all the crying out for help They were they were cast down. You could you could say they were they appeared to be humble in heart crying out to the Lord for help But when they did have it They would be prideful Unbelieving boasting into themselves for what they had. It's just a terrible Testimony of the human condition isn't it the terrible testimony of our own faithless faithless unbelieving arts All that boasting is Against him right if that's not an idol boast. It's directly Against God. It's kicking against the goads Often and we learn this over time Often it's only the mature in faith who can well handle prosperity Isn't it like it takes maturity to Handle a long period of comfort or eat. We don't do well in comfort and an ease We don't do well in prosperity Often it's a mature faith that can handle that Paul said Speaking of mature faith Paul said that he learned how to abound and learned how to be a based It's interesting that he would have to learn how to abound But we have to learn how to abound here the Midianites giddy and they have to learn how to abound what happens when they abound They forget God and they trail off into their idolatry Grasping on to the things that they have as though they had gotten them by their own strength All that to say all that to say There must be a breaking down. Do you see a breaking down at breaking down often is good for us It's good for us often when we face loss It's good for us often when we face adversity Difficulty if you're in Christ all things all of those things are made intended by God for our good We must be broken down. There must be a breaking down physically here with respect to numbers but spiritually isn't it with respect to their pride the Sending home now of two-thirds of their army God is breaking them down Breaking down their self-reliance breaking down self-trust breaking down independence breaking down pride breaking down Faithlessness all through Sending home two-thirds of the army They're gonna have to trust God. I look at verse 3 now therefore Proclaim in the hearing of the people saying Whoever is fearful and afraid Let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead and 22,000 of the people returned and 10,000 remained now that is a deep cut right a deep deep cut of the 32,000 troops that rallied to Gideon men of war He just lost 22,000 of them Now this wasn't Unprecedented by the way, this wasn't an unprecedented thing to do There were instructions given in the law that called for this very action turn back with me quickly to Deuteronomy chapter 20 Look at Deuteronomy chapter 20 Let's just look at this from the law This very thing for the Lord Instructed them to do he says this in Deuteronomy 20 verse 1 listen When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you It's a situation. They find themselves in in the Jezreel Valley, isn't it? Do not be afraid of them Why? Because the Lord your God is with you who brought you up from the land of Egypt So it shall be when you were on the verge of battle That the priests shall approach speak to the people and he shall say to them here Oh Israel today you're on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint Do not be afraid and do not tremble or be terrified because of them. Why? Why verse 4? Because the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you Strength through faith right strength through faith the Lord is concerned with our faith in him these faint hearted The fearful are the ones who are faithless here. The Lord is saying I'm the one who fights for you. Don't fear Trust in me look at verse 5 The officer shall speak to the people saying what man is there who's built a new house has not dedicated Let him go and return to his house. Let's see dying battle another man dedicated What man is there? He's planted a vineyard right? Let him go return to his house What man is there verse 7 who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her let him go and return to his house Then look at verse 8 The officers shall speak further to the people and say What man is there who is fearful and faint hearted? Let him go and return to his house same circumstances in it judges chapter 7 Now that has that statement that command in verse 8 has a purpose The purpose is this Lest the heart of his brethren fate like his heart Faithlessness is a contagion Faithlessness is a contagion Lest his faithlessness infect the others Then let him go home send him back to his house, right? We don't need you go back go home Go home Lest his faithlessness infect the others and and so it shall be verse 9 When the officers have finished speaking to the people that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people, right? Lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart lest the lest the fear the zeal The commitment level the fervency the earnestness of his brethren Be like his fear his zeal his commitment his fervency his earnestness, which is entirely lacking. You see Lest his weakness become their weakness Lest his lukewarmness infect them with lukewarmness Faithlessness is a contagion as is fear as is complaining. It's all a contagion. It's a plague. It's a plague, right fear Complaining faithlessness you take a pot Boiling hot water that water is hot, right that that boiling hot water What happens that boiling hot water when you pour another pot of lukewarm water into it? Does the boiling hot water make the lukewarm water boiling hot? No, it loses all its heat and pretty soon you got a pot of lukewarm water, right?  We don't battle against flesh and blood do we but we battle against principalities and powers We have a war that we're waging and you are in the army. You're in the army What are you going to do about it? Listen?  That's the wrong answer, right? That's the wrong answer What is the right answer faith in God? Faith of the Lord Obedience of the Lord commitment to the Lord fervency for the Lord urnuses for the Lord zeal for the Lord zeal for the Lord's People zeal for the Lord's cause zeal for the Lord's victory, right zealousness for God faith in him Don't throw in the towel stay and learn how to fight Stay and learn how to fight commit to the battle faithlessness here is so Discouraging Right lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart Get a bunch of people when Right when it's um, it's easy to get discouraged over a faithless Person who not committed to the things of God and they're just you know all the time, you know it's easy to be discouraged about that and when you've got a Group of people, you know in this case in Gideon's time chapter 7's 22,000 that just went home They were probably tempted to discouragement tempted to fear tempted to faithlessness But let me say this to Fervency zeal Faithfulness commitment Earnestness is also contagious It's also contagious. It will spur us on we can charge one another up That's why the New Testament gives us continuous exhortation to exhort one another even more while it is called today, right? Because fervency faithfulness earnest as zeal commitment devotion is also contagious Can you see from that like how? important it is How critical it is to be committed to a church that is full of committed people Right where the brothers are zealously serving the Lord I've seen it too many times over the years many many many many many many many many many many times over the years where someone The only thing that they were zealous about was getting out of here, right? it's like the cartoon scene when the service is over and You just hear the doors fly open you look up the chair where they were sitting is spinning There's a little puff of smoke above the place where they're sitting and there you hear rubber screeching out of the parking lot Right the only thing they're zealous about is not being here or zealous about I'm gonna live my so-called Christian life in this faithless non-committed devotionless way And because you're not gonna bend and come alongside me in my faithlessness in my Disobedience in my lack of commitment lack of zeal lack of fervency lack of earnestness because you're not gonna come alongside me and be like me Well, I'm out of here then Good riddance if you're not going to turn from that and put your faith and trust in the Lord and serve him with faithfulness And zeal and commitment and devotion We need to be surrounded by people who love the Lord Jesus Christ and obey him heart soul mind and strength We need I need that for my own heart I need that right we need that praise God Praise God for how he's cultivated that in our church, right? Iron sharpening iron men Pushing men and it's just it's a beautiful thing. The Lord Uses that as a means to prepare us for battle prepare us for war to sustain us in the fight Until he comes to get us right We need that the zeal Starts with you The zeal starts with you. All right, how zealous are you how fervent are you? Are you faint-hearted? Are you?  Well when Gideon applied this law this command of the Lord in chapter 7 Two-thirds of his army left 22,000 Imagine his fledgling faith, which is just beginning to get its legs under it was being tested once more May have been a discouragement to Gideon, but this is meant to build him up Do you see this breaking down this breaking down is going to be followed by a Merciful and a gracious and a helpful and a loving and a caring Compassionate building up of Gideon's faith. The Lord often does that with us The Lord may say of Our blessings the blessings that we have here Lord may say what he said of Gideon's army. There are too many of them Too many of them too many of them for me to bear the fruit in you that I Intend to bear in your life in my life. The Lord may look upon us and say there's too many blessings too many blessings for me to build you up For me to strengthen your faith and move too many blessings for me to bear the fruit in you that I want to bear in you Maybe it's too much money Too much money too much health Maybe it's too much health Too much pleasure too much comfort too much leisure in earthly things and What the Lord is concerned with in you and I is a mature faith It's faith trust in him not in those things trust in him that we need This is the wisdom of God is it not and it's marvelous in our eyes. This is the wisdom of God Look at verse four after Two-thirds of the army left the Lord said to Gideon Gideon the people are still too many Still too many Bring them down to the water. I will test them for you there Then it will be that of whom I say to you this one shall go with you The same shall go with you and of whomever I say to you this one shall not go with you The same shall not go Lord is sovereign over all this, isn't he sovereign over at all? So Gideon brought the people down to the water verse five and the Lord said to Gideon Everyone who laps from water with his tongue as a dog laps you shall set apart by himself Likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink The number of those who lapped putting their hand to their mouth was 300 men But all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water Then the Lord said to Gideon By the 300 men who lapped I will save you And deliver the Midianites into your hand that all the other people go every man to his place So the people took provisions took their trumpets in their hands. He sent away all the rest of Israel every man to his tent and He retained those 300 men now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley So the army of Gideon was cut from 32,000 to 10,000 to 300 300 men Now the way in which God chooses the men who will stay it's very interesting What is the reason for this there have been many who have speculated about the reason for this the lapping of the water one who?  There have been some that have made that claim the one who stood on their feet and lapped with their right They're stronger. They're more alert. That's an alertness. God chose the 300 that would be most alert Some physical trait that the Lord was going to use to win the battle with no No, no, no all of that like entirely misses the point entirely. What's the point? I'm going to cut them down to the point where you can't say you won the victory for yourself I'm gonna cut them down by any means. I'm gonna cut them down Essentially the battle is gonna be one without them. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter And I think that's the point the way the fact that it doesn't matter the Lord picks this arbitrary thing about lapping or drinking To make his point listen put crackers in their mouth and the ones who can whistle the song of Moses Those are the ones who go into battle, right? It doesn't it doesn't matter how you're gonna cut them down The Lord cuts them down for the point of cutting them down to where they were entirely impoverished of their own strength The Lord is going to be the one who wins the battle. That's the point So we're at we're at 300 we're 300 men and the whole Valley is full of Midianites They're like locusts upon the land So is this a challenge to Gideon's faith you bet it was hey you bet it was was this a challenge to Israel's faith Yes, it was it was a challenge Verse seven then the Lord said to Gideon by the three hundred men who lapped I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand let all the other people go every man to his place Gideon You're going to have to take me at my word I told you that I would deliver Midian into your hand three times Essentially Gideon tested him and the Lord has said to him I will deliver Midian into your hand Gideon you're going to have to take me at my word It will be an act of faith won't it for Midian to send those men home. It's an act of faith The horde is in the valley and I'm sending home piece by piece by piece my army God says my strength will be yours Through faith strength through faith trust in me like the Lord is saying I will win the victory and the glory will be mine And then essentially says to Gideon. Can you live with that Gideon? Can you live with that? I asked Gideon to believe Reminds me of 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 for you see you're calling brethren Not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God has chosen the foolishness the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty The base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are So that no flesh should glory in his presence But of him you are in Christ Jesus right, but of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us Wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that as it is written He who glories let him glory in the Lord well the weak The very weak and the small the very small 300 We'll go to war next week and we'll see what happens I'm not worried about what's gonna happen. Are you worried? We shouldn't be worried. I we know the Lord is entirely in control. Listen, we shouldn't be worried in our own life either Should we now let's trust the Lord. Let's pray Father in heaven. Thank you for this example from Gideon. Thank you for this example that you have given for our admonition this example that Should teach us Lord that we are to trust in you not to be as they were unbelieving or faithless but our God rules in heaven and Sovereign over all the affairs of our life and we can trust in you You are our God and our savior and our deliverer and in you we will place our trust Thank you Lord that you are our rock You are our refuge and our provider and through even in the midst of our Tremendous weakness you are the one who supplies all strength all the strength that we need Lord Comes from you and that through faith teach us Lord to trust in you. It's a I know a Gracious place to be Lord when we are Fully trusting in you when we rest in you and hope in you and help us Lord as we trust in you and as we rest in you and as we Seek Lord in faith to follow you and to take you at your word Help us Lord in that to be zealous In fervent and committed and devoted as an expression of our faith We trust in you Lord help us to be zealous in your cause We believe in you Lord help us to be faithful and committed and devoted and fervent in our preaching of the gospel We believe in you Lord help us to trust you and to obey you in all the difficulties and the adversities in which we find ourselves Help us Lord to believe in you our great God We pray all these things in the blessed name of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life a ransom for us Who became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross? Help us Lord to follow him into every battle Knowing that it's in him. We've been given victory. We love you. We thank you in Jesus name amen


Leaver Brothers Company, makers of swan, the soap that gives you a wonderful new kind of suds presents Swan with my friend Irma Starring Mary Wilson as Irma and Kathy Lewis as Jane Friendship, friendship, just a perfect friendship When other friendships have been forgot Theirs will still be hot My friend I studied French, Spanish and Latin I always thought Latin was the most difficult thing to understand Then I met my friend Irma I don't get me wrong Because me, Jane Stacey, I love that girl It's only that she... Well, for instance, the other night I was reading the evening paper and I said Irma, honey, imagine a man 84 years old just became a father for the first time And Irma said 84 years? Gee, what a long honeymoon I'll take Latin every time Right now Irma's staring at the calendar Her watch has stopped so she's probably trying to figure out what time it is Irma, what's on your mind? Oh Jane, honey, I just checked the calendar And do you know today is one year since we started rooming together? A year already? Gee, I can't believe it Let's see Oh, of course, the first of December We'd both agree to share this room Mrs. O'Reilly said the rent would be $25 for the two of us And you asked her to please make it $30 Because you didn't know what half of $25 was Well, in those days I was much younger Didn't know as much as I do today Yeah, yeah, honey Yeah, you've come a long way Oh, thank you But Jane, we just can't ignore an anniversary We should have some kind of a celebration I know I'll buy you a present Oh, no, honey, it's not necessary I appreciate the thought, but you don't Hello Hello, Jane Oh, Richard Jane, would you mind doing me a favor? I'm away from the office And I'm going to need some petty cash for this evening So I've asked Peggy, you know, from the accounting department Yeah To drop $100 off at your apartment on our way home Is that all right? Oh, sure, sure, I'll be glad to keep it for you Oh, thank you very much I'll be by to pick up the $100 later Bye Bye, Richard Anything wrong, Jane? No, dear, it was Richard He's coming by later Let's see now, what were we talking about? Our anniversary Gee, Jane, remember the fun we had When we first moved in together?  Well, to me, it just goes to prove That if you don't hold on to your money You can get into all kinds of trouble Come in Hello, Jane Hiya, chicken Hello, Al, honey We were just talking about you Ain't got no time for no chit-chat Working on the hottest deal of my life Oh, Al, not another deal What happened to that wonderful process you had For removing the name from hotel towels? Didn't work Removed too much of the towel In fact, was left with nothing but the name But can't miss with my new deal What is it, Al? Have an invisible ink for printing the answers in school books Can only be read with special glasses But Al, won't the teachers find out? The glasses will only be made in junior sizes Wonderful Gee, Jane, does it any wonder Al's my everything?  Chicken, is there something about us I should know? Oh, not me and you, Al, it's Jane and I We've been rooming together one year today Well, let's call it for a celebration Why don't you girls make me a dinner?  Oh, I think so Of course, so many people wonder how I can keep living with a girl Who thinks President Hoover invented the vacuum cleaner And the DDT is a doctor of dentistry and tea And that sea biscuit was fish bait But then again, I've never in my life met anyone with a bigger heart With a greater warmth and an honesty of character than Irma has I agree with you, 100% Why do you think I want to make her my wife? That's because she's got a job Come in It's only me, Professor Kropotkin Hello, Janey, and Al Hello, Professor, come on in Thank you Hi, Professor Janey, I hope you don't mind my stopping by for a minute You see, the steam in my room is terrible Steam? I didn't know you had steam in your room Well, I haven't had it very long But Mrs. O'Reilly just came up for the rent And she found I couldn't pay her so she started blowing off And I refused to stay in the steam room Oh, Professor Now listen, Janey, in the steam room you get the massage And Mrs. O'Reilly rubs me the wrong way Where is my darling little Irma? Well, she went out to some flour That reminds me, if Irma's going to make a cake I'm going to go to the drugstore and get something to go with it Ice cream? No, bicarbonate I'll see you later Ah, that Jane's a great little kidder, huh? And by the way, Professor, the girls are celebrating the anniversary It was just a year ago today when they moved in here And what a ray of sunshine those girls have been When they first moved in, I was sick in bed And then Irma came up She rubbed my head, held my hand And sang little songs to me You know, to this day I can't enjoy music unless it's off key Oh, hello, Chicken, back already? Oh, Al, look what I found on the street A lady's handbag Chicken, anybody see you pick it up? Al, I don't like the way you said that I told you, I found it I wouldn't think of keeping it That would be dishonest Chicken, you're in the clear It's only dishonest when you find something before it's lost Oh, Al We must find out who lost it so we can return it A good idea Let's open up the handbag and find out who is beyond Okay, empty the stuff there on the table, Chicken All right, Al My, my, look at all the stuff a woman carries in her handbag You know, it's the first 5 and 10 cent store I've ever seen with leather walls This lady's handbag belongs to a man What? Well, his name is right here on the watch Ben Russ, probably short for Benjamin Russell No, Chicken, let's keep looking My, my, look what she's got here Hair nets, hair pins, hair dye, hair ribbons, hair shampoo Well, you know one thing, she can't be a bald-headed woman Now let's see, cigarette case, lipstick Uh-oh, this dame's a dangerous woman Why, Al? She's got a driver's license And here's her name, Mrs. R. L. McLean Gee, Al, look at all the money in this wallet Yeah, and here's her address, Artmore Towers, West End Avenue Classy neighborhood, probably wouldn't even miss the dough Al, I'm surprised at you, would you think of keeping this money? Only for a charitable purpose Chicken, did you ever hear of Robin Hood, the guy who took from the rich and gave to the poor? Yes You think Robin Hood was a bad guy? No You know anybody richer than Mrs. McLean? No You know anybody poorer than me? No What do I have to do? Learn how to shoot a bow and arrow? No, no, we must return it honestly as the best policy Uh, don't you agree, Professor? Well, I can only talk from experience Once I knew a poor street cleaner who found a wallet with $50,000 He took it home and for three nights he couldn't sleep His conscience was keeping him awake Finally, he couldn't stand it any longer So he took the wallet back to the rich man who gave him a reward And he went home and slept like a baby What'd he give him? Sleeping pills Is that the moral of the story? No, no Then he overslapped and lost his job You see, Irma? It doesn't make any difference, Al We must return the money Glad you came through, Chicken Was only testing your character Wouldn't touch the money myself However, if this Mrs. McLean is so rich I'm quite sure there'll be a reward involved So we have to handle it on a business-like basis We've got to make her think we're rich, too Then she'll be ashamed to offer us a small reward Sounds plausible What are you doing, Al? Well, her number's on the card, I'm calling her Oh, hello, Mrs. McLean, please Here, Chicken, you talk to her When I put on a high-class voice, they get wise too quick But, Al, I don't know what to say Well, say something ritzy You were out walking your Pomeranian Because your butler was in the bath You happened to glance in the gutter And there was her purse You got it? Got it Hello? Mrs. McLean? Well, my Pomeranian went for a walk Because I happened to glance in the gutter When my butler was taking a bath in your purse Hold it, Chicken Let me talk to her Mrs. McLean, did you lose your handbag? Oh, you did Well, will you please describe the reward? I mean the handbag Yeah, yeah Well, that's it Yeah, my fians found the handbag And we're prepared to surrender it Yeah, yeah, it's sitting right here Why don't you come down and bail it out? Oh, you're busy, but you'll send your secretary With the reward, good, good Yeah, we're at 8224 West 73rd Street Oh, it's only a block away, fine Yeah, we'll be waiting for your secretary Goodbye Wonder how big a reward a dame like that will come through it Chicken, when she comes, I'll handle it Hello? Irma, this is Jane Oh, hello, Jane, where are you? Well, I decided to pick up my cleaning, honey Listen, has anyone dropped by from Richard's office? No, why, anything I can do? No, no, I better come home and handle it myself Goodbye, honey Goodbye Gee, I forgot to tell her about the reward we're going to get You don't have to, she's got a rich boyfriend Oh, Al, you know, I feel so good That we're doing the right thing Yeah, Al, I want to be honest And I want you to be honest, too, then When we get married and have children, they'll be honest Fine thing to look forward to, a family of street cleaners Speaking of street cleaners I think I'll go up to that fifth floor gutter I live in Goodbye Pardon me, where does Jane Stacy live? Oh, my lady, is something wrong? Oh, no, no, not at all I'm from Mr. Rhineland's office I'm supposed to deliver an envelope here to him Oh, I see, the apartment is 3D Thank you Come in Hello, I'm... I know, you're the secretary with the money That's right I guess you know all about this envelope with $100 $100? It's not the amount, chicken, it's the thought behind it We'll take it, thank you, Miss Anne, here's the handbag Handbag? Well, nothing was said about a handbag Just take it, your employer knows all about it Well, if you say so, I'll take it back to the office with me Goodbye How do you like that? Can't trust help This Dame McLean sends her secretary Gives us the $100 And she don't even want to take the handbag back to her Oh, Al, $100 of my own Do you know what I'm going to do with this? What? I'm going to put it away for a little nest egg for us Ain't interested in birds Let's hatch it now, chicken And now Susie Swan sings to us Listen My advice says Susie You like this brand new kind of lather So be choosy Swan gives you beauty, lather, riches, cream Your skin stays soft as any dream And fresh as dew I swan, do you? Says Susie Yes, Susie Swan And what a bath you get with Swan's wonderful new kind of beauty lather Why, it makes every bath a real pleasure Sure, it's a pleasure the way Swan's new kind of beauty lather feels against your skin So soft, so gentle, soft as a cloud And it's a pleasure too the way white floating Swan cleanses your skin Gently, yet so thoroughly you step from the tub with your skin fairly glowing with cleanliness And you love the way Swan's new kind of beauty lather rinses away So completely your skin doesn't feel all over-soaked Instead it's left radiantly fresh And ladies, no other soap gives you this wonderful new kind of beauty lather Because no other soap has Swan's exclusive super-creamed blend So make your baths a real pleasure With Swan's wonderful new kind of beauty lather It's a funny thing, but when you're in a hurry to get home the distance always seems twice as long Maybe I'm being a little over-cautious, but I'd like to be home just so Richard's hundred dollars won't fall in the hands of Irma and Al by mistake Gee, a hundred dollars Wonder what Richard's gonna use it for Take me out Gee, as I walk along I get a warm glow just thinking about him What a wonderful guy It's too bad he has such a limited vocabulary Seems he just can't say Jane will you be mine But leave here is coming and so help me I'm gonna have a speech ready for January the first Think I'll rehearse it right now I'll say good evening honey And then I'll say sweetheart Will you marry me? Sorry lady I already got five kids try the other side of the street Excuse me I'm sorry Well after that I stopped talking out loud and hurried home I opened the door and called Irma Well they're gone Well I guess I'll just wait around until Richard's secretary arrives with a hundred dollars I think I'll deposit my hundred dollar reward Chicken I'm a little disappointed in you I didn't think you'd be so cruel Cruel? Yeah you know what they say your best friend is the dollar Is it right to take all those nice friends and lock them up like criminals? Yeah I never thought of it that way What do you think I ought to do with the money? Well chicken if you really want to look at it honestly that hundred dollars isn't yours to keep It's yours to enjoy Its purpose is to reward you to make you happy Now does going out with me and having a good time make you happy? Yes And you figured it all out by yourself Oh yes Ed you know what we think together we're a great team Yeah sort of a Spengali and Trilby Huh?  Oh sure you're the engine and I'm the caboose Chew chew chicken Get out that hundred bucks and let's go Oh Jane Oh hello Richard you're a little early your hundred dollars hasn't arrived yet That's funny I called the office and they said Peggy left with the money over an hour ago Oh well it could have been delivered while I was out but I don't see it any place And I know that Irma wouldn't take anything that wasn't hers Well Jane maybe I'd better go back to the office and check up Richard why are you staring like that? What are you thinking? Oh nothing Don't lie Richard you're thinking exactly the same thing I'm thinking Where do Irma and Al fit into this thing? Oh now please Jane I'm not making any accusations it's just that well While I'm generally nervous when they're around but when they're not I get panicky Oh Richard do you think Irma would take money that doesn't belong to her and spend it?  I'm Mrs. McLean secretary Yes? I've come for the handbag I beg your pardon? The handbag my employer described it over the phone for you She did? Of course Now may I have it? This may come as a shock but I don't know what you're talking about My dear young lady I'm here to claim the pocketbook you found and give you the reward Now where is it? Richard would you please tell her that I... Oh you don't have to tell me anything I know what's happened You had a change of heart after looking at the contents of the bag you decided to keep it Well it won't work lady and that goes for your accomplice too I beg your pardon And I'm going to sit right here until I get that handbag There she sits One eye on me and one eye on Richard I don't know how to describe the expression on her face but she could very easily be Peter Laurie with a wig What this is all about is just beyond me and to top it off I'm beginning to feel guilty Richard is shifting from one foot to the other and looking at me as though I'm a criminal I'm trying to look back at him as if I'm not Oh Irma wherever you are won't you and I'll please come back we're trapped by sitting bold Please come in Oh hello Peggy Oh hello Mr. Ryan Lander I've been trying to get in touch with you Why? Well I don't mean to be impudent but does this handbag belong to you? I should say it doesn't that's the handbag my employer set me for So you didn't know anything about it huh? Now just a minute madam I Pardon me am I intruding?  You people have a better set up here than murder incorporated Please Professor can't you help us clarify this thing You see this woman accuses us of stealing somebody's handbag And Richard's hundred dollars are missing and I Professor I don't like the expression on your face I feel a little sick Janey wait until you hear what I have to say you'll have a relapse Here lady take your handbag Now you're being sensible goodbye Professor if you know anything please tell us that So Janey it's simple one Irma found the handbag Two somebody brought her a hundred dollars Three she thought it was a reward Four she's outspending it without Mr. Ryan Lander I'm awfully sorry That wasn't your fault Peggy you go on back to the office I'll see you later Alright goodbye Really how could Irma make such a mistake Janey please don't be so shocked It's not such an impossible mistake Considering the fact that Irma has always believed The flat iron building is a place to take a laundry Yeah but Professor it's Richard's money No that's alright Jane it's just one of those things No no Richard the money was delivered here and it's my responsibility And besides when Irma finds out what she's done it'll just break her heart Richard we just gotta stop them before they spend it all Well where do we look for them Simple where would any normal person go I don't know Well all we got to do is to find out where any normal person will go And we'll go in the opposite direction Let me think a minute let's see there's the opera The art museum Carnegie Hall And of course Coney Island Come on let's go Run I just love them Mary go round Let's go round again Alright chicken the night is still young Sure we haven't even started to spend my hundred dollars yet Well Richard Coney Island is an awful big place Where do we start Your guess is as good as mine Yeah well let's ask that man by the scales Pardon me mister Oh sorry we don't guess ladies' weights anymore Them long skirts is throwing us Well I don't want my weight guess I want to know if you've seen a blonde girl With a fellow with shifty eyes Yeah come to think of it I saw him get on a merry-go-round You did? Yeah I remember because most people look dizzy when they get off She looked that way when she got on Yeah well that's Irma alright come on Richard we're on the trail Richard I think we've picked up their trail I'll give you two to one that Irma just left the archery range How do you know Four people just walk by with arrows sticking in them Come on let's ask the man here right here at the refreshment stand Alright Pardon me sir But did a blonde girl and a fellow in a gray suit Stop here for refreshments Refreshments 10 bottles of root beer Six missionaries Three seven up Five hot dogs Three hamburgers And two taffy apples All that Yep Now let's see what did the girl have I never mind that's them Come on Richard Oh no Oh look there they are going into the crazy house Let's hurry These tricky mirrors are a scream Look how skinny I look And you look so fat and sloppy I beg your pardon Oh I'm sorry lady I thought it was looking glass Come on chicken let's try the echo chamber Oh it's so dark in here Watch this This is out Gee let me try it Gee I broke it Chicken I think your echo is being followed Irma Oh Irma thank goodness I found you Oh hello Jane happy anniversary Never mind that never mind that Before I explain everything Will you answer me one question How much money do you have left of that hundred dollars A hundred and two A hundred and two How come Well Al's got such a talent for counting out change Another evening I noticed Irma doing something very strange Even for Irma And I said uh pardon me for asking But why have you put a compass on top of those cakes of swan soap And Irma said Well winter is here Jane And you know how birds like to fly south And I don't want our swans to get lost Well Jane No matter what Irma says She wouldn't be without white floating swan soap for her baths And there's plenty of reason why a lot of women feel the same way Now you see swan gives you a brand new kind of beauty lather Yes a new kind of beauty lather that's soft and rich That you smooth onto your skin like whipped cream A new kind of lather that whisks away dirt Leaves your skin glowingly fresh and clean And swan's wonderful new kind of beauty lather Means a wonderful new after a bath feeling too Yes your skin is left soft and smooth Not all tight and over soaked Because swan rinses away so completely So how about trying swan's new kind of beauty lather yourself You'll like it for your baths Nothing turned out better than I expected Richard has his hundred dollars back And me I'm in bed And although the mattress isn't moving I'm still spinning from that trip to Coney Island Oh Jane you know after Al and I left the merry go round I went to the fortune tellers Oh you had your mind read Yes and then the man gave me my money back I don't know why Well Irma doesn't know why And Al doesn't know why But you and I know why don't we But we won't tell my friend Irma My friend Irma presented by swan Another fine product of Lever Brothers Company Was produced and directed by Sy Howard Tonight's script was written by Sy Howard and Park Levy Folks next Monday evening Tune in an hour earlier over most of these same stations For the Lux Radio Theater And then stay tuned to listen to Swan with my friend Irma Starring Mary Wilson as Irma And Kathy Lewis as Jane Hans Conreed was Professor Profotkin Mary Wilson can soon be seen In the Eagle Lion release Linda Be Good Ladies listen The shortage of fats and oils is still very serious And it's worldwide So please keep on saving Every single drop of used kitchen fat Your butcher will pay you for every pound Frank Bingman speaking It's news to sing about Sprye with cake improver Gives lighter, finer, richer tasting cakes Than any other type shortening For no other type shortening Has Sprye's marvelous cake improver So for lighter, more delicious cakes That stay fresh longer, try Sprye! Tune in again to my friend Irma Next Monday evening at this same time This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System


What happens at the nano level can have a big impact on the effectiveness of body armor for future soldiers. At the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, material scientists use cutting-edge technology to peer into a world rarely seen. When you see the reconstruction, it's made up of millions of dots. Well, these dots are actual individual atoms that has been captured during the analysis process, and why this is so cool is because if you're actually collecting the atoms itself, you can't get more accurate in terms of chemistry than that. The atomic world is explored at the nano level. Obviously, as Americans, we're not great with the metric system, but basically a meter is roughly a yard. Well, if you can take a meter and divide it by ten to the negative ninth, so we're talking size of the analysis that's done in this machine, think of the end of your hair. It's a thousand times smaller than the end of your hair. Basically, my sample looks like a flying spaceship that will come in and get loaded in right here, so you'll actually see that. This machine gives scientists a 3D reconstruction for a more meaningful analysis, possibly leading to stronger or even more heat-resistant materials. Well, I can give you a specific example of how it's helped our research. We were a lecture depositing copper in a magnetic field, and we found an unknown chemical phase. We weren't sure what the phase was, and it was hard to determine what it was using other methods. But Adam Probe told us quite easily that that unknown phase was two different types of a copper hydride phase, and that's not something that we could have detected using those other methods. It's pretty impressive, because you can sort of see the atoms show up in real time. Again, it's on the nanometer scale, so it's much finer than all of the other characterization techniques that are out there. What I'm doing now is I found the sample that I want to run or analyze today, and I'm pulling it off the carousel. So now I'll move the carousel out of the way. So that's what you're seeing there is the actual sample itself is a silicon coupon with roughly 22 individual tips on it, and each one of those tips is a sample. We get these new materials, and maybe they show some great properties, but how do we ensure that we can do that each and every time with that sample? So this machine allows us to control at the truly atomic level. Certain atoms are sitting certain positions versus other positions. Can we ensure that property is going to occur each and every time? So this machine allows us to measure almost on that scale and reproduce that over and over again by looking at the chemistry. So you really want to try to understand how things work and how things, you know, what the microstructure looks like from a very small level in order to be able to bring that into fruition and eventually use it for the army. When you see things that, in theory, no other human's ever seen before when you run a new material. So yes, it's very cool to think, oh, I'm discovering and help push the envelope of new modern material science, which then obviously is used for the army.  So every time we run a new material, you think, you know, how can I help the soldier with this new discovery?


What's up everybody, once again, it's Brand Man Sean and this video is brought to you by brandmannetwork.com because I signed myself and it's Wednesday people, so we're talking about music, entertainment and pop culture from a business perspective. The concept of today's video is something I covered a couple of years ago at this point, but I have to do it in more detail because of some things that I'm going to be talking about pretty soon. Now let's start with this story really quick before I just state the concept. Have you heard the story of touching the void? If you haven't, it's the story of a man who had a near-death experience in the Peruvian and these mountains. And what's so important about that is when that book came out, it actually did pretty well. It did decent and it had some decent critical acclaim. However, it didn't do great, but the important thing to note about this is 10 years later, a decade later, a book called Into Thin Air came out. And when that book came out, with a bigger platform and bigger push, touching the void actually started to do better. And then next thing you know, people noticed it. The sellers noticed it and they started to put touching the void next to Into Thin Air. They start placing the book just like let's say if you were in a checkout aisle and you'll see those magazines that are right there. So let's say wherever that magazine is, they put this other magazine next to it. And then they watched those sales rise, rise and rise until eventually touching the void, the book that had dropped and didn't do all that great. Well, it did decent, right? 10 years later, actually doubled the sales of Into Thin Air and even exceeded doubling those sales. Why is that so important? Because of something called the long tale that every person who is trying to sell a product or just a song, which is still a nature of a product, has to be aware of today in the digital age because there have been a lot of myths that have been created about businesses or some things that actually have been true based on the past limitations. But having the internet has changed the game completely in a lot of times. The thinking that we approach our business toward today is based on past models. So I'm going to say this before I even get into explaining some of the things. Always be aware of the business models that people are speaking from, right? The context when you take advice because they might be taking advice from a business model that doesn't really apply to your particular situation or they might be speaking from that situation and you should analyze it from that particular situation. And then say, hey, okay, I might not fit that model, but can I find a model that works for me? Now, understanding the long tale is simply understanding this. We're in an era where just having a hit song or just having a hit product, right? Doesn't mean that you cannot make money. Why? Because distribution has lowered in so many ways. So whereas you might have had to pay for all this distribution to get your product to people, let's just say, you know, music, obviously, and you might have had to get CDs pressed and all these things back in the day. Now you can just put it online. It's cheaper. So since the price is cheaper to even get it to people, because it might not be a hit song, but it can get some profit, even if you spent $10 and only made $10. What's important about that part is though, are a few things that are completely going to change the way that you not only think about how you can create a business model, but just how you perceive and understand the quality of music as you know it. And of course, this applies all around. So what I mean by quality, let's get into that part before we get into the mathematics of how it breaks down business model wise. Well, one of the things that people have assumed oftentimes is the masses love this horrible superficial type of content, right? The hit movies, they're superficial. They're not deep or the hit songs, they're all about the same subjects. They're not deep, but that is not entirely so. So many of us have our own preference in some category. We might kind of be that highest or lowest common denominator, right? We might be that person who likes the basic stuff. But in a lot of other categories and spaces, we do also like the more particular things and that goes for every individual. So when you actually play that out into the marketplace, what that looks like is there's a lot of content that we think, yo, this should have way more views than this other content. It's way better. It shows better technique, right? It has more substance in it, whatever we're judging in terms of quality. But the fact is, we identify with this particular thing and then start to judge the masses and how that quality looks and why those things are all the same and why we keep hearing that. But it's not necessarily a result based on everybody's taste. A large part of that is actually people's awareness. People actually underestimate the amount of effect that marketing not only has on demand, but people's taste. And what I mean by that is if you're in a hit-based marketplace, which is what things have been prior to the internet because the limitations of physical space, right? To make the most amount of money as a business, you need the hits, right? You don't have the space to have a lot of content that doesn't really perform highly. And of course, as a business, what you're going to do is two things. One, try to find the product that's going to be able to reach the broadest audience and two, try to market as much as possible to this broadest audience. To one, actually let them know this thing exists. And two, sway them that this thing is amazing. So a lot of what you see is based on the fact that businesses are really trying to go through that model. So when we look at a record label, a record label is pushing those things because they're trying to maximize dollars and they believe that that's going to create the most amount of income. A proof and example of this is basically when you hear underserved audiences say that they can't get a movie made because the industry doesn't think a black movie can be profitable, an Asian movie can be profitable, or whatever segment of movie can be profitable. However, once a product is made in that space and it becomes a hit, next thing you know, it starts to open doors and more and more of these industry heads, whether it's a movie, a studio or a record label, they start to fund more of that type of thing because it's working. It's not always because they're being against a certain type of population or segment. A lot of times it's because they don't think ignorantly so that certain things can be profitable. And that's just to use as a anecdote to understand that that is how these people do approach the business. And when you have businesses actually working through this limited way of doing things and then you have consumers that are limited towards that same way of doing things, then people end up thinking that what the businesses are pushing to make the most money off of are actually based on the taste of most of the population. That is not so. So understanding that will actually put a lot of artists in a far better position. Now the more difficult part of that is the fact that, yo, when these companies are investing so heavily and pushing something as a whole, even if people aren't necessarily judging quality off of that initially, it does have some influence that you can't ignore in creating this familiarity with the public and public starting to believe that this is what they like, right? And they're starting to become accustomed to that and they judge other music and other types of products based on that bar. But it doesn't again mean that's the end all, be all for quality, which means your product and your music can have some sort of space. So this is where we go into part two, which is understanding that business model and just looking at straight up economics, right? Because in part two, we have to understand that once again, with the internet, there's unlimited shelf space. When you're in a grocery store, you only could put so many products in that space. When you're in a record store, you can only put so many records in that space, right? You could put so many CDs in Walmart, but we're on the internet, we could just keep throwing, throwing, throwing more product if it's a digital product, like more content, more movies and songs into the internet. And there's a very little low overhead to actually maintain it and to keep it there, where there's a huge price to keeping physical inventory in the real world. So with understanding that though, now you can look at the fact that the long tail has opened up. Those hits that people currently looked at to make the most money actually does not outweigh the long tail. Now from a certain business model, it might make sense to keep focusing on hits, focusing on hits, but there's actually a bigger marketplace when we actually look at the independent marketplace, when we actually look at independent movies and so many of these other types of niche content that might not be the most common denominator when we're trying to meet the masses, but literally by income or the amount of money that it can generate, it's a bigger marketplace and it reaches more people, it's just harder sometimes to figure out because you have to find the niche. But now, once again, because of the internet, you can look at your own music in that model because just like how we talked about the book and how that new book, that second book, Into Thin Air actually was a completely different author but it still generated sales for the prior author of Touching the Void because it brought interest into that whole category. That same thing works of course as many people have started to figure out when it comes to songs, right? They hear a new song that you came out with that finally blew up and then they start to discover the other music and then you might have an even bigger hit in your old music than this new song that finally started to take off. All that stuff people are really becoming aware of but when we think about a business model, right? The actual money being generated once again, you might have a hit that has 10 million views, right? That might be a hit for you. However, that doesn't outweigh somebody else who might have 100,000 streams on 100 songs. That equals 10 million. So once they get 11 songs with 100,000 streams, they have more streams than that one song and then you might have somebody else that has 1,000 songs with 10,000 streams. They don't have a hit song at all but now they still have the same amount of streams and if they keep going, then their volume is still gonna exceed your amount of streams and likely your profit depending on how they build their model out, right? This is something to really keep in mind. Of course, monetizing fan bases is a huge part of building out your business model but the internet has also opened up different ways of monetizing a business model. We've always looked at things like merch and concerts and things of that nature but the internet also allows you to drop ship merch and the internet also allows you to do things like virtual concerts and have other virtual experiences and games and things like that that people hadn't counted for before, right? So there's so many different ways to approach it that you don't have to be restricted to the idea and thesis of a business model that doesn't necessarily even apply to you. So artist issue and their conflict with this business model still though and why so many people haven't really got into it is the fact that, right, artists are focused on being liked while businesses are focused on making revenue and this business model is high volume and let's make money and it makes sense for a record label because back in the day where they would lose a lot of money on artists that they've invested in but don't really still hit now, well, they can make a lot of money on the long tail and the short end, when we're talking about that hit making artists but for an artist, they're thinking I want to be the hit making artist and it's almost this emotional connection or this emotional idea based on the dream that we see of becoming a big artist that actually is the conflict with the business model which is more so, hey, my music is commoditized. I just want people to like these songs and I can keep throwing them out. I don't have to have a lot of hit songs or have a huge fan base that necessarily even loves me as an artist as long as the songs are churning out money, then I'm good. That's a different way of thinking about your business but you don't necessarily have to be that as well because there are companies that have completely commoditized music. We're just gonna put out a lot of different music, we're gonna do sync deals, we're gonna have it do whatever it does and we're not worried about making hits, we're just worried about sheer volume. If something pops off, cool but for an artist, you can combine the two. This is when we talk so much about getting into a niche and when we get into this niche, how do we approach that? Okay, understanding that I can fulfill this niche again and again and again and when I continue to fulfill this niche, I might have a very loyal fan base that listens to 100 of my songs 100,000 times, right? And now what does that money add up to? Or I might have a loyal fan base, right? That listens to 1,000 of my songs 10,000 times. Whatever that looks like, just understand that if you can find your pocket and hit those same people and double down, it'll still amount to some of these bigger companies or these bigger people's revenue. So monetizing doesn't necessarily have to look like blowing the song up. And this is where we start to get in conflict with that model. Again, where people are telling you what? I gotta have a hit song or I gotta blow this song up to have a fan base as opposed to working, working, working to get a slow roll. It's understood, but again, if you understand the business model you wanna go to, then you have to make different decisions because those are completely different paradigms. And there's some people who do a hybrid of both, but understand the business model you're trying to go after because that's going to dictate how you perceive people's advice, how you perceive so many opportunities that come and how you look to monetize the things that you do. Understanding this will actually help you be able to make a lot of money without having a hit product or hit song. Understand that this is the model that companies like Netflix are built on. That's why they buy so many TV shows and series. And if you check it out, you'll notice there's a lot of content that probably isn't that great. There's a lot of bad movies on Netflix, but they're paying money for them. Why? Because they know the turn of profit doesn't have to be huge if I have a high volume. And now all I need is more storage, which is far cheaper than having to pay for a shelf space which is having to create this opportunity cost. If I have this thing that isn't turned a good profit in the shelf space, then I don't have the opportunity for this other product to be there that could turn a far bigger profit. These companies do not work like that. You can work like these companies. You don't have to work on the old record label model. You don't have to worry about first week sales. You don't have to worry about even a lot of certain politics that come with approaching certain models in so many other traditional paths that people paint out because the long tail and the internet has opened up these possibilities for artists. You're able to find this niche. So again, if we're an artist that might be in conflict with certain types of decisions and thinking I understand, but for somebody who isn't an artist, especially, right? The person who's running the record label, that might be a better decision. If you're trying to build up an indie label, this is something to look at. As if you're managing, this is something to look at and considering. It should be easier to flip into some of this mentality in some way. But understand, of course, there's other people who work on a different paradigm. TDE, top dog entertainment, they definitely worry about quality control. Just like, well, actually, quality control music group, they do the exact same thing. When you look at the Migos and Lil Baby and Lil Yachty versus Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Schoolboy Q, it's less about a high volume, curating slower product we build and then we put our product and get a higher margin off of each artist versus let's do numbers. There's both models, they both do exist and they'll both continue to exist however, the opportunity to do the latter, the long tail model is something that so many artists now have and you don't have to be stuck in failure of a model that requires far more capital upfront, far more resources because of the availability of the access that we get to have with artists. We do the same thing with the product, $10, a hundred times over on one product versus $200 on two products. That outweighs it. You have to be able to look at economics at the end of the day if we want to be business people because the numbers, they don't lie when we talk about the money part. People use numbers to lie but the numbers themselves, they do not lie. Keep that in mind. Again, as always, this video is brought to you by brandmannetwork.com because I sign myself, if you like this video, go hit the like button. If you like it, you might as well share it and if you're not subscribed, you know what to do. 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So, let's get on with the treatment program. After you've taken those summary assessments, right, you can then, or after you've written those, you can then formulate a program. Should you do it? That's the big question. Should we actually go ahead with the program? Because it's going to be a lot of work, all right? And the first question you should always ask is, who is going to benefit from this program? Is it the client? Or is it someone else? So, the client, this gets a little odd to talk about, because maybe a teacher hired you to do some work, all right? But the client is really the person whose behavior you're changing, okay? So, is the client going to benefit from you implementing a procedure, or is the teacher going to benefit? Or is someone going to, is someone else going to be hurt in the process? Who really is this about, all right? And that's kind of a tough question to ask, because obviously, well, it's a problem behavior, so it must be a problem for the kid. Maybe, maybe not. It might not actually be a problem for the kid. Escape from academic tasks is only a problem if you want them to learn. If you don't give two hoots about learning, then escape from an academic task is irrelevant, right? If you don't care if they learn the material or not, then escape from it's just completely fine. So, throwing a tantrum or throwing a pencil or getting up and walking across the classroom to get a glass of water, maybe okay, all right? At the very least, your program cannot be harmful to the client. If it is going to be harmful in any way, shape, or form to the client, stop there. Tell whoever the person is that you're working with that, nope, this cannot continue for ethical reasons or whatever the case may be. Can the problem be operationalized?  Or something like that. Well, they're bad kids. I just, I can't deal with them. They're bad kids. Fix it.  Fix it. All right? If you can't operationalize that bad child or problem behavior, whatever it is, you're done. Okay? Walk away because there's going to be nothing you can do to improve the outcome in this scenario. Because they'll just come up with new behaviors or new examples or they'll say something like, oh, it's just an attitude, right? Attitude doesn't cut it for an operational definition. Oh, the kid has a bad attitude. What the heck does that mean to have a bad attitude? Does my cat have a bad attitude? Does my dog, do I, you know, maybe I do have a bit of a bad attitude about this because I've dealt with this particular issue before and it pisses me off. Anyway, so if you can't agree on those very specific behaviors, if you can't operationalize them, walk away because you will fail, right? And not the sense that you will fail at implementing a behavior change plan, but you will fail in the eyes of the person that's hiring you because the kid will still be behaving inappropriately. Is the problem actually important?  Is this a normal developmental issue? Is it a medical issue? Right? So we've got a kid in class that's sneezing all the time, is disrupting the class, but guess what? Maybe your building is just dirty, right? Maybe it's really dusty in the class or maybe the kid's allergic to something that he's wearing or something in the environment. Who knows what it is? So is the sneezing a problem for everybody in the class? Well, kind of. How would we fix that? Well, we're not going to go to the kid and punish him for sneezing. That's for damn sure, all right? We're going to look in the environment and see if we can find some other solutions. But again, always about this, always getting back to this important thing. Is this really an issue or is somebody just got a burp up their bum, all right? And you'd be surprised how oftentimes people just have a burp up their bum, all right? It is just one of those things that a teacher or a parent or whoever gets something in their head that this kid is being problematic or they're always trying to undermine me, but maybe that's not actually the case when you sit down and actually operationalize things. You never know, but you have to observe, you have to look and find out. Will you need another specialist? Are you going to need somebody else to come in and help you out? Are you going to need a medical doctor? Are you going to need some environmental engineer to address the issues in the classroom with regard to the clean air stuff or whatever it is? The point is that do you need anybody else? Be honest, all right? Your job and our job as behavior managers is simply to manage behavior. We're not out there to address anything else. We don't prescribe medication, we don't diagnose, we don't do any of that stuff. We don't diagnose ADD, we don't diagnose mental health issues. We deal with behavior and behavior alone, all right? Now granted, that's a pretty broad area and it undercuts all sorts of stuff, including mental health issues, but we're not qualified, not trained, and legally not allowed to do diagnosis, especially not in the medical area, but not even of mental health disorders. So maybe you do have a kid that seems to be depressed on the surface. Well, guess what? Call up the school counselor, call up the school psychologist, and get them involved at that point. You don't want to work alone here, all right? In fact, good behavior modification programs are done as sort of a team approach. You're looking at everybody involved, all right? If you're in a school, you've got the principal, you've got the teachers, you've got the parents, you've got the kids, you've got the other kids in the classroom. Everybody should be involved that you can get involved, or that needs to be involved, because that way you're really changing the environment for this kid and actually selecting the appropriate behavior. Can this be easily managed or not?  Who knows? Maybe it's not easily managed. Maybe you need somebody to specifically deal with this kid on a one-on-one basis and it's not going to work in the classroom, all right? Maybe it's something that's happening at home while the parents are away. That's going to be a challenge to manage the behavior. Let's say a teenager that's a latchkey kid comes home, nobody's home, and they're doing inappropriate stuff while they're at home, like starting fires or something like that. Well, that's not going to be easy to manage. You're going to have to come up with some other techniques. You're going to have to implement some other things by that. Maybe the kid would have to go to somebody's house, or maybe you're going to need somebody there all the time to watch the kid. Does the behavior go beyond the program? Can you generalize this stuff beyond the six weeks that you're going to be working with? If not, stop. Your goal is permanent change, not temporary while I'm here change. Again, if you do your job right, you don't need to come back. You don't want repeat clients. That means you failed, all right? And I'm being a bit harsh, but you get the idea that we want to work ourselves out of a job. There's always new kids next year, so you're never really going to be out of a job. But the point is, is that you should be out of a job with that client. Once you're done with those changes, once you've worked with them and programmed for generalization and done all the stuff that we've talked about, then you're going to be able to move on. And hopefully their behavior will be fixed. So it's a fun one. Can you actually get the assistance from other people that you need? Will the teacher work with you? Will the principal work with you? Will the para educators work with you? Will the parents work with you? Will the other siblings work with you? And can you control the people that will stand in your way? You'd be surprised how often a teacher will undermine a treatment program. You'd be surprised how often a parent will undermine a treatment program. You need to be able to control their behavior as well, and a lot of times you won't. Let's say you've got a kid at home that's engaging in inappropriate behavior with his dad, you know, back talking and doing whatever.   And it doesn't have to be dad or mom. It can flip around.  Well, guess what? The kid just got reinforced for, you know, for back talking because dad walked in and saved the day.  And then dad's like, well, it's OK. Don't really worry about it. Let's go out and play Frisbee. Whatever, right? But the point is that there's that undermining going on and it happens a lot.  It's a certain amount of sales, right? You got to sell yourself. You got to sell this program. You got to make the other people believe that if they don't do what you're suggesting, they will ruin it.  And oftentimes this is something that they have to learn that they don't know it offhand because, trust me, a parent going to somebody for help with their kid. That's a hard, hard thing for a parent to do. And when they do it, then there's going to be a bit of a resistance because you're thinking about behavior and analytic approaches. They're definitely not thinking about that. They're thinking about things from a perspective, a day card, a mind, body distinction and desires and wants and needs and emotional issues. And you're going to look at emotion from a sort of biological perspective and then also looking at it from a classical conditioning and operating conditioning perspective. So there's going to be some conflict there and they're probably not going to believe what you're doing right off the bat. So you need to get some successes. And the parents or the teachers or whoever might actually undermine you a little bit. But if you can show that what you're doing works or that they're undermining caused a problem, then you can then demonstrate that what you're doing is effective. And go back and look at those Nanny 911 videos and you'll see what I'm talking about. That's the parents will often undermine the nannies and then it fails and the nannies go in and train them. In fact, one of the big things about behavior model programs are often about training the people that are in direct contact with the child rather than training the child themselves. So more often than not, you're working with the teacher to maintain these behaviors. You're working with the parents to maintain these behaviors as well. Are you qualified to deal with the issue? If you're not, walk away, be honest.  Do you have a set of tools that you think are going to work? Or is this just too much? If you think it's too much, walk away. Because you need to be keeping your professional head on here and not taking on too much. And also, are you available? Do you have enough time? I don't get to do as much of this stuff as I would like. I've done some consulting in the schools. I've done some consulting with families. But I would like to be spending at least a day a week out doing consulting. But I don't have the time. I teach too many classes. I've got too much research going on. I've got too much service work going on from other perspectives. And right now, I don't have the time to be a consultant in this area. And I would love to, but I'm not going to tell somebody that I can work with their kiddo and then drop the ball because I can't be there the three days a week that I need to be there. So you've got to be honest with yourself.