Guest Speaker

0:00 well I have a unique privilege. this morning of welcoming a friend to bring the word to us. Nick lesmeister Is the director of Gateway Center for Israel? He is a pastor over church and Jewish relations at Gateway. Nick received a life calling to serve the Jewish people in 2011 while in Addis, Ababa Ethiopia With one of his spiritual fathers Dr. Wayne Wilkes after a successful business exit as an entrepreneur in the finance sector Nick moved his family to Israel where in 2015 he earned a master's degree in nonprofit management

0:47 and Leadership from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2019, Nick led the vision to create the new Gateway Center for Israel as part of Gateway Church and serves as its director. Nick and his wife Tabitha have three children and live right here in DFW, would you welcome with me Nicholas Meister? Can I pray for you Nick? Thank you. I don't know. Any we thank you. For bringing Nick here today Lord. Thank you for what you've placed within his heart for us today Lord. I Thank you for our friendship. Lord. Not not only

1:34 personally, but also organizationally. Between Baruch Hashem and and Gateway and mjbi and the various works that Nick has been part of over the years Lord. We bless your name Lord. We thank you for what you're doing Lord. We pray that you would cause our hearts to be receptive to your word today from Nick Lord. And yeshua's name. Amen. Thanks, Rabbi Sean. Absolutely Shalom everybody. How are you? Good, why what an honor I'm so honored to be here. So Rabbi Sean mentioned this but Tabitha and I and our kids were members here. For about three three and a half years and then a pandemic happened and life kind of sped by and so it's been a few

2:19 years since we've been back. So it's it's really a joy to be with you all and an honor for me to be standing here behind this Pulpit that Rabbi Marty so long held and now Rabbi Ari does I don't feel very fit to be able to teach the word of God to you, but I just Say Lord here. I am send me use me. And so Rabbi Ari called me and let me know that he was going to be taking a break a little vacation. And so it's really a joy for me to step in and help out. And so I want to welcome interview everyone who's walking watching online. Welcome you all here. We're just so glad that you're here at brewish Inn

3:05 this morning. So I mentioned that Rabbi Ari's on vacation. And if you're watching this Ari, you're in trouble. Okay, I'm going to tell on you. Is this YouTube this YouTube channel that sometimes we watch videos to train our kids, you know, like how to love each other and you know not do things kids normally do and embarrass you by all the bad behavior Etc. So it's called a guy named Mr. Brown and he has this this teaching on being responsible for yourself and it's kind of become a little bit of a phrase in our house, but he has this line. Oh telling on you. And so we walk around our house saying that every once in a while, so Ari if you're watching this. Ooh, I'm telling on you. All right, I'm

3:50 gonna tell your boss. So, you know. Everybody needs a vacation, right? We all need a break and Ministry is pretty challenging. So the other day A friend of mine who's been a Ministry for a while sent me a picture. I think the team has to put it up here, but he was he was talking just about the challenges and so here's what it looks like. You know, what do you mean pastoring a church is hard? I'm 42. I feel great. So we don't want rabbi already to look like this in a couple of years. Okay, he's still young. We need him to continue to look vibrant. So he's got to take some vacation every once in a while. So it's great to be with you all. We're going to have some fun this morning. Do you guys want to have some fun while we study God's word? I love

4:36 teaching God's word because I love learning God's word. And to me it's so fun because it's like finding a treasure that you didn't know was there in the amazing thing about the word of God is that you can read it hundreds and hundreds of times. But you come back to it and you read the same chapter you've read so many times and all of a sudden boom something new pops out. And you think that this is amazing. What other book can you do that with? I mean I've got books on my nightstand that I've read once maybe twice but I don't go back to the thing. Oh what's gonna happen next but the Bible is such an fascinating book and Someone to talk a little bit about that you guys have been in a series in the Book of Luke and the Gospel of Luke and if you're here last week, you heard Rabbi Sean talk

5:23 about are you a follower of Yeshua? And he went through some of the things that Yeshua is addressing in Luke chapter 6, which is where we're at now in the book Luke. And talks a little bit about what's it like to follow Yeshua. What does a life? Look like of someone who follows Yeshua. And so I want to talk about that today on the heels of Rabbi Sean's message. as we're looking at Luke chapter 6 and present to you three things followers of Yeshua do So I'm not saying these are the only three things or you know that you should only do these three things. There's not other things. I just want to look at out of the Book of Luke chapter 6 three things that followers of Yeshua do

6:09 And and we're going to just have some fun looking at this. So let's let's do a little context. So if you remember, Luke chapter 6 starts where Yeshua had gone up. To pray all night on a mountain in the Galilee region and he came down. And the first people that he encounters are always disciples remember this and so he pulls all his disciples together and he picks 12 of them out of we don't really necessarily know. How many in this moment there were well, I don't know some of y'all might know especially the scholars in the room, but he picks 12 of them and then it says that they go down to a flat place on the mountain and he begins to teach who he begins to teach his disciples.

6:56 Right, but the Bible says that there's crowds all around Yeshua, they had found out that he was up on the mountain and he'd been doing Miracles. So many people were coming to him and they were looking for healing. And it says in in Luke 6 that they were pressing up on him because they knew that healing power went out from him. So in the midst of this setting I want you to remember this it's going to be kind of important as it relates to some of the things I want to share with you. Get this picture in your head. So yeshu is up on the mountain all night long making obviously a very important decision on who are these 12? He's praying all night. He comes down. There's a large crowd. And he calls 12 of his disciples to be as Apostles and then he began to teach them in the midst of this crowd. Now if it says that they were trying to touch Yeshua, that means that it was a probably a pretty a pretty

7:43 crowded chaotic experience that people were pushing up on him trying to get to you know, Touch the Hem of His Garment and so Just imagine with me for a minute what my have been like as one of his disciples to try to hear. All the things Yeshua then went on to say in the midst of this whole setting but I think that's an important thing for us to remember is who is he speaking to? He's not speaking directly to the crowd. He's speaking to his disciples. This is what it says in the scripture. In Luke chapter 6 verse 20 it says then he turned to his disciples and said so by my count. Again, this is just my count. I'm not a theologian. But by my count he goes on in this in this section Luke's retelling of the Beatitudes to give

8:29 about 30 to 40 distinct specific things. That his disciples should do. And many of them, you know, we're very familiar with right blessed are the fill in the blank for they shall fill in the blank. I mean, the Beatitudes are some of the most well-known scriptures from jesus' teaching. So Jesus is instructing his disciples. So let's remember that setting. All right, we're going to look at then our section for this week is going to be luke 6. :43 through 49 and we're gonna read it here together. So this is Yeshua speaking after he's kind of gone through and given some of his you know, the that which turned into his Beatitudes that that became very famous scriptures for there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit

9:16 nor again does a rotten tree produce good fruit. Each tree comes to be known by its own fruit for figs are not gleaned out of Breyers. Neither are branches or grapes gathered from Thorn bushes. Out of the good Treasure of his heart the good man brings forth good. And out of the evil and out of evil the evil man brings forth evil. For from the Overflow of the heart his mouth speaks. And then he pivots a little bit in verse 46 and says, why do you call me master master or some translations? Say Lord Lord and do not do what I say. Everyone who comes to me? And here's my words and does them. I will show you what he is like or she

10:01 he is like a man building a house who dug deep now some translations. Say who dug and dug deeper. Or Doug and deepened. So get this picture in your head. He is a man like a man who built a house and who dug deep. And later foundation on the Rock and win. not if when a flood came the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it because it had been well-built. But the one who hears it does not do is like a man who built a house upon land without a foundation when not if the torrent verse against it immediately it collapsed and the destruction of that house. Was great. So I want to just set the stage a little bit.

10:48 So the first thing is that's pretty clear here is Yeshua didn't expect floods to happen intermittently, or maybe not maybe once in your life or you know never right? He makes it pretty clear. This is a win event. Not an if event. And I don't know about you all but I feel like the last few years of human existence. There's been a lot of flooding going on. There's there's a lot of wind a lot of rain. I mean, what is a flood a flood is a representative of an external event that is beyond our control that applies on us a certain level of pressure that we aren't either ready for or maybe at that time built to handle. and so whether it's inflation Whether it's social unrest or racial unrest whether it's all the variety of issues that

11:35 seem especially for those of us in the body of Messiah being thrust upon us as the world in large moves away from a Biblical worldview and even moves away from it violently attacking it. Well it moves we're living in a season where there's a lot of floods coming on us as believers. And so this is something that we have to remember. That Yeshua is telling us the floods are going to come. So, how do we deal with that? You know in some ways. You think about the foundation of a house and it's it's the one thing that we don't really see right. I mean, you know, we in Texas are kind of blessed in a way that we don't have to have the foundations in our homes. I grew up in, Minnesota. And just to get a home started

12:22 you have to dig down about 12 feet into the ground to get below what they call the frost line. And then you start pouring the foundation. So you drive by in the street and you don't see what people's basements look like. I mean, some people have nice beautiful finished up basements that they live in some people have like I did as a kid really, you know scary ones that you see in kids horror movies where the furnace comes alive and you know you go down there and you're like was that a snake in the corner? Oh, no, that was actually just a piece of banana. I left down here a couple years ago, you know, so we don't see foundations, right? And I think in some ways. The foundations of our own character of our own Souls. Oftentimes we can go. over a period of time and not notice what Our Own Foundation is like because the foundations for all of us have a

13:09 lot to do with Who We Are what home we were raised in where we grew up the kinds of experiences that we've had. And and these things shape us they begin to be over time the structure. That kind of our life is hung on. And so Yeshua is talking about this kind of a foundation. It's not talking about going out and pouring concrete on a real house. Obviously, we know this is a metaphor. So I think a lot of people have It mostly rightly summarize these verses to say that okay? Put your faith in Yeshua and build your life on him and you'll have a solid foundation. And I think that yes that can be said here. You know, we we all know the old hymn on Christ

13:55 the solid rock. I stand all other ground is sicking sand it's where this comes from. But actually if you look at what your shoe is saying, which we're going to do. He's not just saying it's only putting faith in him. He says in verse 47 the person who does these three things? I'll show you what he's like the person who does three things distinctively is a person whose house is built on a solid foundation that when pressure comes you will be able to withstand it without crumbling. And so I want to present to you the three things. That I see Yeshua saying here. Are here believe and obey.

14:40 So my sermon and ascendants my message in a sentence for you today. If you don't remember anything, you can take a picture of this you can go to sleep after this if you want to okay? followers of Yeshua here believe and obey so A lot of people as Rabbi Sean mentioned I have the amazing privilege of being a pastor at Gateway Church and serving Pastor Robert and and our many wonderful team members. And so Pastor Robert gets asked all the time. What's the secret? What's the secret to Gateway Church being so blessed. How did you guys grow to be so big, how are you doing so much in the world, you know through all the giving and and things that God's doing and so Those of you who are here, you might have heard him say this, but

15:26 he he has what we kind of colloquially call at Gateway. Talked about our secret sauce. That's kind of what people want. They want to know. What's the secret sauce? You know, how does it so good? What are you doing? That's different than everything else. And Pastor Robert is very clear that the secret sauce it gave Way Church is that we believe when Paul said the gospel is to the Jew first. it was That's true. And so Pastor Robert made the Messianic Jewish Community. He made reaching Jewish people with the good news of Yeshua a priority since he started Gateway in 2000 and he truly believes that God showed him. This is why Gateway Church has been so blessed. So I will say that we have

16:11 that part of it, which is a theological immovable truth. That's Pastor Roberts words, not mine. Okay, but when you get into the operational side of the church What is it that we do as a team? Of now, you know, we have I think about 800 full-time employees and maybe around 1200 full and part-time and what do we do as a team? What is the plan? You know, what's the strategy? Right? Everybody wants to know so I'm Gonna Give You Gateway secret sauce. All right, you guys are gonna get an inside look into what is it that Gateway does that that has led to us being blessed? Okay, here it is. We've got a slide up here for it. a Gateway Church We have at the target of everything we do. We exist to bring people into an intimate relationship with

16:58 the Lord. That that is at the center of everything we do. And so if any Ministry activity doesn't touch that. We stop doing it. If it's not bearing fruit, if it's not creating for people an intimate relationship or an intimate with counter encounter with look then we need to stop doing that Ministry thing. And so the way that we do that we call that our engine of change that we feel like if we can get people to an intimate relationship with God it will be a change in their life will be a change in our community. So when you think about this think about it kind of like a hurricane. All right, there's a circle right hurricanes in a circle and the eye wall of a hurricane is very strong. This is where the winds tend to be the most intense. It's very well formed the outer edges of the hurricane can tend to be looser, you know that with the bands of weather but the eye wall is very well formed because as the hurricane spins a

17:45 meteorologically it becomes hardened the eye wall does so this is what the picture that we're thinking as we on the outside of this eyeball of an intimate relationship with God. As we move around and have activity it will create on the inside a stronger and stronger and stronger expression of intimacy with God. So I think the team has a slide here that visualizes this. So the three ways that we drive intimacy with the Lord is here believe and obey. So we just say this what we do a gateway. What is God saying? How can we step into it? And then how can we obey him? And then how can we what we say run that play again? How can we then again go here believe obey. So I think for you guys it's on slide 10 if you

18:31 want to put that up there so you can have a visual of this. Again, thinking about this idea of a hurricane. Y'all have it back there? There it is. See. It's just like an arrow we hear God's voice. We have a we have a choice then to believe. Are we going to do this and we step into it we obey and we feel that when we just keep doing that that this is what will drive intimacy with the Lord. So first point here him remember followers of Yeshua here believe in obey so the first point is followers of Yeshua hear him now, this is probably The number one thing that any of us who are in Ministry get asked. How do I hear God's voice? What's God's plan for my life? You know, how can I know what God is speaking to

19:18 me versus what? I'm just thinking. And it's a very broad topic. And so I brought with me a copy of a book that Pastor Robert wrote a few years ago called frequency. And I've got I think 48 copies of these well 47. I'm holding the 48 out in the lobby. Please take him. They're yours. It's very practical. There's 10 chapters. It goes through really really practical ways that you can tune in to hear God's voice in your life. Through a variety of different things. So I want to encourage you to grab it and if we run out then you can just let somebody around here. No. Hey, I really want to copy of that and I'll send some more over here next week. But you know in Luke 6:47, this is the first thing that Jesus says, right. He says Those Who Come to Me.

20:05 So if you want to hear God's voice, the first thing you have to do is come you have to be around him. You know, I hear people sometimes say I can't hear the lord. I can't hear the lord. Well, are you spending any time with him? Are you are you leaning into him? You know, he's not going to just speak to you through both of lightning. So we know remember this setting in Luke 6, there's people all over you around Yeshua, but he's speaking to the disciples. I mean can imagine again how hard that must have been for them to really sit? You know, I don't know if they had notebooks back then tablets of stone. And you know, I guess it was parchment, right? They weren't like in stone age, but just seeing okay. What did he say? What did he say? I don't know. These guys are being so loud back there you had to tune in you had to get closer to him to here. So getting closer to Yeshua is the

20:50 first step in hearing him and then we know from John 10:27. Yeshua himself said my sheep recognize my voice. How do you recognize someone's voice you have to spend time with them? That's the whole element where you can hear personally. How does Yeshua speak to you? You have to know what his voice sounds like and the only way to learn what his voice sounds like is to spend time with him to get to know him in his word In Worship in the counsel of other people. These are always and I'll go over a couple of these that later here where we can hear his voice. So I think that when it comes to hearing yeshua's voice God's voice that A lot of times people misunderstand and they

21:36 are wanting direction from the Lord. But really the Lord wants connection. Right. So if we want to hear his voice, we need to seek connection and not just Direction. Because so often like Lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. But I think what he wants is a relationship with us. So that he can know that we know how to hear his voice because we're connected to him. I can tell when I'm on one side of the room or on one side of the house or the other if Tabitha. Is I can I can tell what emotional state she's in just by hearing her voice? and we all can if we because we spent time with our spouses, we know that or with our kids if our kids are just saying dad that's different than

22:25 right, but it's but it all has to do with knowing one another. So, how do we hear his voice? I'll give you five real quick ones. The other five are in here this I'm not trying to sell this book because I'm giving it away for free obviously, right? So this isn't this isn't a sales mate. Okay, but I couldn't go through all of them. So, how do we do that through the Bible? Obviously, this is the clearest thing and we know that Yeshua when he's teaching in Luke 6, he's clearly telling them. Hey, this is what I want you to do, right so we can always start there. There's a specific hearing of his voice which we can go into the word and no okay clear as day. He said this that's what he's saying to me and then there is sometimes more of a general hearing of his voice that might have to do with something that isn't written in the Bible. You know, should I take a trip on an airplane to another country? I don't know you're going to get an answer from that reading the scripture It

23:12 Was Written in a time that was a little bit predated from air travel, but we can know that through the Bible we can know that through our thoughts. Now some people get a little bit. Hmm about that. I don't know, you know our brains. I think some pretty weird stuff. And that's true. But let me give you an example. You're walking through the store and I'll said you feel like hey, Nick. Give that guy hundred dollars. Can I just tell you right now to set your mind at ease that did not come from the devil right? And it probably didn't come from you. That is a voice that is most likely outside of you. That is trying to get you engaged in something that is outside of you. So we can hear the Lord through our through our thoughts. He'll encourage someone or or share something from his word to someone we can hear through Kent people or counsel. We

23:59 can hear through. Peace. Sometimes you know there is just a peace in our heart when we're asking the Lord to lead us or asking him to speak into something on us and it's just like I don't know, but I know. have you ever felt that just I don't know. I just have a piece about this and it's not an up here thing. It's an in-ear thing. And then through the last one through people and I want to add. I was thinking about this on the way of your tab and I were talking about it through process, you know sometimes in life You have to just walk through what your life is like in order to hear the Lord and I can't really know here. What's gonna my life is gonna look like over there until I start stepping towards it one step at a time. Right, but I think sometimes we say Okay, Lord, you give me the whole plan right now, and I'm going to go there.

24:47 But I gotta see the whole plan and he's saying No, this is a process. And you're you're going to be shaped by the process and as you begin to move towards this thing, you're going to feel the pressure of it. You're going to feel the blessing of it. And that's going to help you make decisions along the way and so sometimes the process is how God speaks to us. So there's a lot of noise in our world today. And as we think about how do we hear the Lord speak to us? I think one of the easiest things we can do is to turn off the other voices. It's pretty simple, but it's hard to do. I know I get in my truck to drive to work and my initial reaction is turn on the radio. You know, what's on the news or I want to listen to this song this even if it's a worship song.

25:33 And sometimes we're just unaware that those can be moments where the Lord can speak to us. And so we have to be aware even how maybe engaging in and watching the news or being on social media or even having conversations that we don't need to be a part of, you know, maybe we don't need to know certain information. All of those things can help us to hear his voice more clearly because our brains aren't cluttered with this just unending Deluge of information. I think this is shown really well in scripture in proverbs 4 verse 20 through 23 where it says my child pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words don't lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart for they bring life to those who find them and healing to their whole body and then almost all of us know this scripture.

26:20 Guard your heart above all else for it determines the course of your life. And so can I just submit to you if you want to hear his voice more clearly? guard your heart pay attention to the right things and not the wrong things and let the Lord lead you in that. He can show you any place in your life. Where you are listening to an unhealthy Voice or you're tuned up and the volume is too loud. He can show you. All right. I love this line that I think so encapsulates that what this Psalm is saying protect your attention. Because if you can protect it, you can direct it. So what we see if we can protect that and we can make choices say I don't want to see that. I don't want to listen to that then

27:05 you can begin to direct your attention to things that are Life Giving. So the second Point believe him. So we've got here him. followers of Yeshua hear him followers if you believe him so I want to look at our Torah portion for this week parashat shalak. because I think it's just so greatly exemplifies these next two points believe in obey so you know, I would love to take credit for having these merged together from you know, the New Testament scriptures the New Covenant scriptures and the Hebrew scriptures, but this is just how God works right. So we're going to read this. We know that God had already told the children of Israel from moses' recounting of this whole process in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse say he already told them to go and take the

27:53 land. Okay, so we arrive at this scene and that's already been spoken. They already heard God say go take the land go into it and possess it. So they are in this case. They've already got point one, right? They've heard him. So what do they do next? Verse 25 numbers 13, they return from investigating the land after 40 days. They traveled and returned to Moses Aaron in the entire community of benign Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of puran. They gave their report to them and the entire assembly they showed the Lance fruit. They gave their account to him and said we went into the land where you sent us indeed. It is Flowing with milk and honey. This is some of its fruit. but can I just say this? Sometimes your butt gets in the way of your belief.

28:42 but what I heard you say this, but that's a lot of money. I don't know if I should give that. but I heard you tell me to forgive that person but They wronged me I didn't wrong them. I heard you say to go speak to someone and share something encourage them, but I'm scared. This is the case with the spies, but the people living in the land are powerful in the cities are fortified in very large. We even saw the sons of Enoch there amalek is living in the land of the Negev. The Hittites jebusites amorites are living in the mountains in the Canaanites are living near the sea and along the bank of the Jordan then Caleb quieted. The people before Moses said we should definitely go up and capture the land for we can certainly do it. but the men who had gone up with him said we can't attack these

29:29 people they're stronger than us. now I want to before we You know take the bait of just dogging on the ten spies, which kind of can seem a little easy, right? Oh, man. I didn't have faith. I want to put myself in their shoes. And I also want to normalize the fact that negative reality is also reality. And When God says to go and do something, it doesn't mean that you just go. Okay. God, let's do it. Everything's gonna be great. We have to see. The challenges in front of us we have to acknowledge them. But there's a big difference between acknowledging something as a present reality and accepting it as a future reality. Does that make sense?

30:14 Okay. I might know that there's a sickness in my body. I have to acknowledge that's real. I'm not going to sit there and say there ain't no sickness in my body. Yes, there is. But I'm not accepting that that is my future reality. And this is what the spice failed to do. They went in and they didn't they surveyed the land. This is what they were supposed to do, but they came back and they said hey, look there's a lot of good a lot of good fruit. Actually saw those grapes, they're huge. But there's a lot of giants. and I don't think we can do it. They became the judge jury and executioner of their own fate instead of letting God's fate speak to them. And sometimes we can fall into that same trap. We don't have to believe a bad report which means we

31:00 don't have to accept that as what is going to happen to us when we've already heard God say something and it's it's okay to be afraid. The 10 spies were afraid. however They took it a step further and I think this is really where they where they got into disobedience. It's okay to be scared. It's okay to see objectively what's happening and to look at all the challenges in front of you. In fact, that's wisdom. Say man. This is gonna be a tough challenge a lot of tough dudes up there. But you know what God spoke to us and he can speak to us again. And in this process, we believe he's going to deliver us but here's here's the mistake they made. it says verse 32 they spread among benaisrael a bad report about the land. They had explored saying the land through which we passed to explore devours. Its residents all the people we saw there

31:47 are great men of size. Now it's one thing for you to wrestle through with some of the challenges that you might have in believing what God spoke to you. It's another thing entirely to then begin to turn and affect the belief in another person. And I think it can be human nature right when we see something hard. We kind of want someone to understand. and so what we do is we turn around say man, it's me hard, isn't it? Yeah, I don't think we can do it. You think you don't think so, either? No. What we can do it then. And it's easy for two witnesses to Bear bad for him. And this is human nature. You know, it kind of believe the worse in everything right? I mean, I can't tell you I worked in the finance sector for years and I can't tell you every day. I'd read a new Blog the stock market's crashing today.

32:33 For years and years and years. It's you know, it's easy to predict bad news because bad news is all around us and it doesn't take a profit to just predict that something bad's gonna happen in human existence because we're all flawed and messed up and we all make bad decisions and they all have negative effects. But when we start to influence other people this I believe is where God said. Okay, this is enough and so it says enormous numbers 14 1 through 2 all through the night the entire Community raised up their voices. The people wept all beneath throughout grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole Community said if only we had died in Egypt If only we had died in this wilderness. they're just it amazes me and I'm so guilty of it. How fast you can pivot? like that

33:19 how fast group think can just take over and you can begin to panic? You know what? I mean? Like everybody heard God do it. They walked through on dry ground. But you hear one bad report and of a sudden. Oh boy. I don't know. And they weeped all night. and then this is just I guess it's just funny. I don't know it. Maybe it's not funny to you, but it's Funny it's sad, but it's funny. Verse 2 why is that or not? I bringing us to this land to Fall by the sword. Our wiser. Children will be like plunder wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt? They said to each other? This is classic. Let's choose a new leader. And go back to Egypt. What are they saying? They're saying let's go back to what is familiar. And I think familiarity is often the

34:06 greatest foe of faith. When God speaks to us, he's usually speaking something with an action and you know connected to it and that's where belief comes in with faith. right And I think the biggest. tendency or the biggest we can easily just say this way. We can easily just say I'm just gonna stay here where it's familiar because that that's outside of my control. And we don't step in and believe what we heard him say. So then it says the numbers 1411 and the Lord said to Moses. How long will these people treat me with contempt? Well, they never believe me even after all the miraculous sign. I've done signs. I've done among them. Faith is when belief.

34:54 turns into action, you know, there's there's a lot of ways to Define faith, but I think in this case when I say we believed God it means we had Faith to put that belief and say here I go. That's faith. You know, it's like the example of a skydiver. And you go up in your plane and you've got your parachute on and you walk to the threshold of the plane. Is it a leap of faith? When you have a parachute on. Yeah, I guess so. But you also know that parachute is there because it's going to serve you a purpose. Now jumping out of the plane without a pair of shoes. That's a whole other thing. That is a leap of faith, right? But sometimes we get this idea that like believing God and taking a step of faith is just closing our eyes

35:39 saying I hope this works. Instead of saying well Lord. Look, I don't know the plan. I don't know the path, but I know I can do this. I want to step into this and then our faith grows and then we take another step and our faith grows and we take another step in our faith grows, and he leads us all along the way. so I think of an example. Of like a train track. And there's two tracks, right? And you know, if any of you have ever been to Europe or whatever they have these trams that that are they run with an electric wire above them. And if you're in if you're an electrician or you know, you're into electricity, you're gonna know this better than me, but when you've got two wires running side by side, how do you close that circuit you get one to touch the other right? So this in my opinion is sort of like

36:24 hearing God and obeying God what super charges them. What's the connection Point belief? That's when you put the line from one to the other and say here we go. And that's what catapults us into action because God he's not interested in us being robots. Said hey, I said go do this. Yes, sir on it right now. Okay, I did it. What's next? He wants us to be a part of the process. So lastly obey him. So we know what happens next in this story with the spies. God says we just read it this morning. God says he's going to destroy the people with a plague and start over with Moses Moses pleads for God not to do this for the sake of his name God pardons. The people at Moses is request, but then he judges them to wander for 40 years and die without anything land and then the ten spies who didn't believe or kill the play.

37:12 so in numbers 14 later on as we're winding this up verse 39 says Moses when Moses related these things to all of the neaisrael the people mourned bitterly. They Rose the next morning and went up to the high mountains saying look, let's go up to the place where Adam and I promised for we have sinned. But Moses said why are you disobeying the mouth of Adonai that will never succeed. You should not go up because I don't know. I will not be among you and you will be defeated before your enemies. Have you ever found yourself in this position? If you're a parent you've you're you've seen this play out? Hey, son, I want you to go clean your room. Okay, Dad. Hour goes by you go back there. Well, you've been doing Dad.

37:59 I made you the coolest painting. Look at this. Wow, buddy, I love it. But I told you to clean your Room it's still a mess. Oh, but really? Yeah. I just wanted you to obey me. It shows that you love me. You respect me. You're listening to me. I can trust you. and so it can be this tendency then when we feel when we let God down or we disobeyed him or we experience some of these feelings. There's this shame and condemnation that comes on us. And and the enemy comes in and starts judging us. You ever hear this voice? Oh, you dummy you did it again. He spoke it it was clear. You even had the phase of believe it and then you still messed it up. What is wrong with you?

38:45 And I know I'm guilty of this. I get in a moment like that and I'm like, I'm gonna fix this I'm gonna take care of this. I can fix this I can sort it out. And this is what God's saying. Or Moses is telling the people don't do it. You're disobeying him. So instead of choosing to do something in our own volition we can stop and say all right Lord, man, you spoke this so clearly I believed you and I didn't execute. I didn't obey I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Is there anything that we can do to fix this? And you can start the process over again. What are you saying now Lord and just like it said in the Torah reading this morning. He is slow to anger and rich in love. I think if the people would have just

39:31 actually been sorrowful and sat on that. That maybe the next 40 Years of their lives wouldn't be as miserable as they ended up being because they would have shown to the Lord. Okay, we get it. We disobeyed. We're sorry. We want to be humble and we want to hear your voice new. What do you want us to do now? What's the next step? So it says in numbers 14, but they were presumptuous and they went on up toward the high parts of the Hill Country. Even though the Ark of the Covenant of autonai and Moshe stayed in the camp. So that amalakim. The Hill Country descended struck them down and beat them back all the way to herma. Now this word presumptuous just in English. It's a difficult word for translators in the Hebrew and I'll get to that in a minute. But this word in in English presumptuous

40:16 means failing to observe the limits of what is permitted or appropriate. If there's a definition for Parenthood, that's it, right. I mean failing to oblure observe the limits of what is appropriate or permitted. You know, there's an obedience that is permitted. And then there's an obedience. That is appropriate. Right. Sometimes we can do the right thing. But with the wrong motive. It's an inappropriate obedience. And sometimes this is black and white is this wrong? So the Hebrew definition in this though many scholars really have a hard time with this word, but basically a lot of Scholars translated to you acted recklessly and went up. And it illustrates this radical swing in the people's mental state of mind and their emotional state right because on

41:02 one hand, they're panicking. They're like, oh no we screwed. Up. This is not good. What are we gonna do and then what do they do? They step into almost like a heedless inappropriate? over response and they end up getting chased out. And it's bad for them. I feel sometimes like that can be the case in our lives. when we get to a point and we just know clearly man Lord. I I missed it there. I really did you made that one clear and I missed it. And so instead of swing into the other side. If we would just stop and say please help me God. I want to hear you. What are you saying now? And how can I step into whatever this looks like now because you're the great Redeemer and you can make this all work for my good.

41:50 so In closing. How do we deal with? This obedient process in learning how to be obedient. You know we go back to the words of Yeshua and Luke 6:47. He says I'll show you what it's like when someone comes to me. You got to come to Yeshua. It's simple. If you've been disobeying the Lord and you know it or you don't know it and you're becoming aware of it. What do you do you go to Yeshua. That's what he said you come to me. Disciples come to me listen to me and obey me start the process over. All you have to do is come back whether it's for the first time or the second. and lastly, I want to just connect back to this idea of

42:36 these three things lead to What you should describes a house built on a solid foundation. A foundation that has been dug and dug deeper. And I think all of us in our lives. without question There's things in the foundational soil of our hearts that haven't been dealt with some of us don't even know. We're there that they're there. You know when I when I started going to counseling pretty intensely there was stuff in the foundation of my heart and my soul that I had no idea was there and it was causing me to react when pressure was put on me in ways that I had no control over almost. I wasn't even aware of it. And sometimes we need people's help. To go and help. Hey, can you help look at maybe some of the foundations the way I think the way I feel some of my lived

43:24 experience so that I can have a a home like my home of me can be built on a foundation that when the floods rise and when the wind comes I don't get blown all over the place like a tree that doesn't have any root structure. I think of Arab homes in the Middle East, you know the Arab community. We've we've gotten to travel a lot to Jordan in the last few years looking at the Bible ends over there. And I think one of the most amazing things about the Arab Community is the family and Hospitality value structure that they have. and you see these homes and they all have got rebars sticking out of the top of them. You know, they don't look like they're finished. And so our tour guide always tells people that's because what's happens is the parents build the house and then every floor

44:10 up is reserved for the Next Generation. So the kids build on top of the parents and the grandkids build on top of the parents or the kids of the kids build on top of the parents and we've been to a home where this is the case. So you it's a it's a beautiful thing in some ways. I'm very jealous of it, you know in some ways. I'm like, no thanks. I'm gonna live, you know a couple, you know, 100 miles away from my family. Thanks very much. You know, I don't only coming downstairs to get the newspaper in my bathroom and have to talk to my mom, you know. um, but I think it's beautiful because it's a representation of the fact that if those parents didn't lay that foundation for that home well, They're literally jeopardizing the physical well-being of their entire family line. You know, like if if they didn't take the time and say

44:56 we're gonna build this house. Well then as they keep going and now they're great grandchildren are living on the fourth story, but they're like walking like this, you know to go get their food. Or something happens the top floor falls off. This is I think the responsibility of us as individuals. We all want to do great things for the Lord. But we can start with ourselves. We can start with our marriages. We can start with our families and say Lord. I want to build the foundation that is strong that came withstand the wind and the rain I want it to be healthy. I wanted to bear fruit because I want to build on that foundation for my kids for my grandkids for my other family members so that it can be a place of safety when the floods can't come. so Lastly I'll just say what are just I want to just ask you what?

45:42 Taking away from all of this. What are two things one to two things? You think you could do this week this ask the Lord to show you how can you hear him this week? Maybe they're maybe you want to get a copy this book and just start to go through it and just say I'm gonna do one thing this week. I'm gonna try to learn how I can hear his voice a little bit better or maybe there's something you know, he spoke and for you, it's been tough to take that first step of faith. Maybe this week. You can just ask him. Hey Lord, help me help me believe I see all the negative things out there. I don't want to get I don't want to get cynical. I want to believe or maybe there's an obedient thing where you you've heard God say something you you're stepping into it, but there's a choice of oh boy. I don't know if I want to do that. I don't want to go reconcile with that person or I don't

46:27 know if I want to do this or that there's a variety of things just Pick and like I showed that cycle earlier just get on the Wheel. To get on the Wheel. And then let the Lord take control. Say Lord. I just want to hear your voice. I don't know what's gonna come next. That's okay. That's up to you. You're the one who says you will guide me along the best pathway for my life. Not me you will but I want to step into it with you. So I just want to close in prayer. If you all would just join me. Lord I'm thankful for the words of David. in Psalm 139 where he just asks you search me and know me. Point out any offensive or unhealthy way that it's in within me any unhealthy path. That's

47:14 within me and then instead lead me along the path of everlasting life. And I just pray for all these amazing wonderful people here today Lord including me. That this week you would just do that for us. Lord we're all weak. We need you. And we just want to come to you humbling. Just like you said Yeshua come to me listen to my voice and do what I say. I pray this week. We would just learn how to hear how to believe and how to obey and then just repeat the process Lord. We just give you control. And we say holy spirit. Please come and speak to us. Show us how to walk on Paths of everlasting life and you choose name. amen You ever after father ishmaareth?

48:05 Are yeah, I don't know. Oo, you saw the night panability. The Shem Yeshua micheanu in the name of our Messiah Yeshua shabbat shalom.