What Do You Apply?

0:00 We are finishing. chapter 12 of The Book of Luke today if that's believable. We have been in the Book of Luke now for nearly 12 months. Basically, we're averaging about a month per chapter. So if you guys are missing out on the Wednesday night classes, you're I'm just gonna say you're missing out and you can try to come another time when they resume. As we as we turn here to the last of the book of chapter 12 of The Book of Luke. I just want to remind us

0:47 a few things that we that I remind every time I every week that I speak from The Book of Luke and that is first of all the author of the book is is Luke in the purpose of the book. He gives in Luke chapter 1 verses 3 and 4. Therefore your excellent Excellency, he's speaking to Theophilus if you remember from the first couple verses and we had a whole discussion on who Theophilus is whether he's a real person or if he's a general entity so that all of us can understand this encouragement, and and I think Well, it's been a while since I've shared my opinion. I think Theophilus is a is a real person who Luke

1:33 was writing to but I also think that in this it it's understandable and even permissible for us to receive encouragement from Luke for this reason because he writes at Theophilus and he says Therefore your Excellency since I have carefully investigated all these things from the beginning. It seemed good to me that I too should write you in an accurate in ordered narrative. So you might know how well-founded or how for sure. These things are about which you have been taught in other words. Luke is a Believer or a follower of Yeshua. And perhaps he's having a moment of Doubt perhaps he's injured a period of trial who knows but Luke is writing to Theophilus to

2:20 strengthen theophilus's faith. How often is that even applicable for us? It happens to us all the time we go through these moments moments of Crisis and and we well, I don't know about Yeshua. I am writing to you so that you know for sure. About the things which you have already been taught you see Luke is writing a Theophilus. But also I think it can be understood as we can be some recipients here as well. In this book Luke is is addressing the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. You see when the king returns? There's the kingdom that comes with him.

3:07 But also when the king returns in order for the kingdom of God to be present, thank you. And in order for the kingdom of God to be present the people have to be bringing their lives back into alignment with the King. You see so there's this this downward motion from above of the Kingdom of Heaven as Matthew calls it the kingdom of God coming to Earth but also for us on Earth bringing ourselves into alignment with the King. For for when his kingdom is fully here. You see it's here, but it's not full yet. It's or stated in another way. It's already but it's not yet full. Does that make sense? You see the kingdom of God is is here and Yeshua talks about this through his Parables. It's already here and

3:54 it's and it's growing among us as each one of us. Bring our lives into alignment with the King. But when Yeshua returns is when the kingdom of God will be fully here and established and he'll be sitting upon his throne in Jerusalem raining. you know and then Zechariah tells us every Nation will come up to Jerusalem to Worship the Lord and if they don't there's consequences. So this is what we're seeing is this two-fold operation of the Kingdom of Heaven coming down in us and us coming into alignment with it. And we see throughout the book instances of

4:40 both of these both the Kingdom of Heaven coming down in instances of us bringing our lives and by us. I mean the people in the text bringing our lives into alignment with what Yeshua is saying, We also see instances of people. Refusing to bring their lives into alignment, which is what we're going to talk a little bit about today. So we're here. We're going to cover the last. six verses of the chapter 12 and they read as follows then to the crowds. Yeshua says starting in verse 54 when you see a cloud Bank rising in the west at once you say that a rainstorm is coming. and when the wind is from the south you say

5:26 there will be a heat wave and there is hypocrites You know how to interpret the appearance of the Earth in the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? Why don't you decide for yourselves? What is the right course to follow if someone brings a lawsuit against you take pains to settle with him first. Otherwise, he will take the matter to court. And the judge will turn you over to the bailiff in the bailiff will throw you in jail. I tell you you won't get out of there till you have paid the last penny. So let me it's been a while since since we've Sen, Yeshua, and in the first line is key is Yeshua is now addressing the crowds.

6:12 the first line of verse 54 so it's been Well, let me let me before we go how long it's been who is in the crowd. First of all, I would like to. premise, I don't know if that's the right word but in the near are the talmadin. The disciples those who are immediately around Yeshua. The secondary layer are others who are following Yeshua now if I can if I can say this those would be what we would call positive followers of Yeshua. This would include the women who are often mentioned and others who who come and they surround the talmadin they follow Yeshua and they're they're serving him and they're and they're and they're looking to him for instruction, but they're not

7:00 The 12 if that makes sense, so you have the 12 and then you have another group. And then you have another group and and this is this group. I'll call others and these others are either indifferent. to Yeshua and they're just coming to see what's going on or their antagonistic to Yeshua. So you see Yeshua has those who are I think Rabbi Sean referred to them last week as a special ops unit. or in the lead unit the 12 Yeshua has the 12 and then he has other followers and then he has what I would call representatives of the everyone else. Those who were not yet to believe and those who will never

7:46 believe because they're very antagonistic to him. This is the crowd that Yeshua is addressing. You see for the last 30ish verses I use the word is here on purpose because it's about 32, I think. The last 30-ish versus Yeshua hasn't been addressing the crowd. He's been addressing his 12. And in verse 54, he turns his attention back to the crowd. The last time he addressed the crowd. He was responding to someone's statement about having their brother share his inheritance with that person. so this has been I think maybe three weeks since we covered that that section.

8:33 but Yeshua uses that moment this person in the crowd says I need you to be the judge and to tell my brother. To divide my our inheritance and share it with me. And I know that Rabbi Sean said at multiple times and I have also it's a dangerous thing to try to tell you what to do. and Yeshua responds And in his response, he addresses greed. And how it serves in opposition to the inbreaking of the Kingdom. You see when when greed is is at rain. It's the opposite of us bringing our lives into alignment with the King. It's us diverging from the King.

9:21 This person is indicating that they want their Earthly inheritance. And really they only need Yeshua to adjudicate the matter and they didn't in it and they don't acknowledge the Eternal implications of what Yeshua is instructing the crowd at that time. They said you're sure we just I just need you to divide make sure that inheritance divides for me now. I want it now. I don't. Want to come in alignment with you and what you're teaching and I want to I'm now I'm putting words into this person's mouth. But I think it's pretty close to say I don't I don't want to come into alignment with your teaching. I want what's mine, and I want it now.

10:07 I feel like sometimes we live in a society today that's like that. Yeshua by the way again when you try to tell Yeshua to do something. the the return fire never misses and Yeshua returns and says he gives a parable about a man who's extremely blessed in his Harvest so much so that this man tore his barns down. Because it couldn't hold the Harvest and he built new barns. So that he could hold all of the Earthly Harvest. This man wanted to store up and keep for himself all of the abundance that he was blessed with.

10:54 He never questioned whether God blessed him for the purpose of blessing others. He just wanted it for himself for now. And Yeshua says at the end that the Lord. Well, Yeshua asked the question would this man have been have done something different if he knew that he was going to die that night. I don't know. I don't know if he would have actually. Both of these people that mentioned both the one who is in the crowd and the one in the parable. Both of these people need what Yeshua has to offer. They needed to make Eternal

11:41 deposits. They need to make deposits into their Eternal bank account. By the way, you sure uses this words. That we have an account a Heavenly account and that we make deposits this way. We can make deposits into the Eternal account. Yeshua says by feeding the poor by taking care of those who are needy. That is a deposit in the account. I don't know how many of you get deposits probably now most of us get direct deposits and we never actually go through the process of okay. Here's the check. I here's the deposit slip and go to the bank and I need this much cash back or whatever to pay for this week's groceries. Most of us use direct deposit and a credit card. so I'm just gonna this is not my notes. I'm going to take a moment and just just say

12:27 one thing. Share with you and I can't and somebody can tell me somebody can correct me once I go and I'm done with the story. But there was a story and I think my I think my wife told me about it or I was listening to the radio to a financial advisor. One of those two. And they hooked a man up to a pain monitor. And he went to the grocery store and he paid with a credit card and it registered no pain. And he paid with a check and it registered some pain and he paid with cash and it registered a lot of pain. So I'm telling you that if you want to stay within budget you pay with cash because your body doesn't like

13:12 pain. Because how many of us have just gone up? swiped that credit card and you don't even know what the total is. That I shouldn't say all the time that happens to me sometimes. More often than not let's put it that way. But if we're really trying to be good stewards of what we have here on Earth, then we got to watch what we spend and then so that we can watch what we spend then we can bless others with our abundance and why do we have an abundance? This is totally Off Script and we'll come back to my message a minute. Why do we have an abundance? We have an abundance because the

13:58 Lord wants to bless the people here through us. and when we do that he says oh good. There's a good and faithful Steward. Let's give them more. Because God will then trust that we're going to do what he wants us to do, which is bless others. Which is exactly what this man missed this man who said I'm gonna tear my barns down and I'm going to build bigger ones so that I can just sit here on my couch. For the rest of my life. I don't need to interact with anybody ever again. Because I have enough to live on my own.

14:43 This man was looking at only himself. You see it's interesting. I was talking about the the Heavenly account or the Eternal account. We Lay Up Treasures in Heaven is what Yeshua says when we take care of the needy so the opposite is also true when we lay up Treasures on Earth. We are removing. We are withdrawing. from our account in heaven to fill our account on Earth Does that make sense? When we give to others we're depositing in the Heavenly and account. And when we are taking only for ourselves we are.

15:29 removing from the Heavenly account for our Earthly accounts sake let's move on to verses. Not let's move on. Let's start. Starting with verse 54 then to the crowds Yeshua said so you now have the context of where we are. That was Yeshua addressing the crowd before and this now Yeshua has come back to the crowd. Yeshua said to the crowds when you see a cloud Bank rising in the west at once you say there's a rainstorm coming and when the wind is from the south you say that there is a heat wave and there is you see what Yeshua is saying here is that they have knowledge. Of the physical world of this Earth.

16:16 They have knowledge that. When there's clouds in the sky to the West we all have almost the exact same knowledge when we look out west and we see clouds. We think here comes a storm. We're going to get we're getting a little rain. in this case, the clouds would have been coming from the Mediterranean Sea where they would have gathered up moisture and they come and move over the the land of Israel and they dropped the moisture for the benefit of of the land and those in the land And when the wind is from the south from the desert, it comes from Over the desert. It's dry. It's hot in Israel. Then it would have the same effect. So there's a there's this cause and effect. What I call Common Sense realities that

17:01 the people are aware of these people by the way living in agrarian society. They they grow their food. They have flocks. They shepherd the flocks. They're they're very aware of what's Happening. in the weather the elemental realities that occur daily weekly monthly Etc. Why is this important if there's a rain cloud coming or or a heat wave because in both of these cases to be out in the rain or in the sun you might end up in some physical Danger? And so the people would know to seek some short of shelter. Oh I've got I mean, I don't know if you guys you guys have lived here

17:48 in Texas long enough you look out and you're like, oh that's that one's moving fast. I'm gonna have to get inside within the next 30 minutes and then, you know 29 minutes later. It's just it's like when on Thursday morning, I looked out my window. It was nice. It was like 44 degrees 45 degrees. Like 8:30. and and all of a sudden I look out my window and my neighbor behind me has a flag. And all of a sudden that flag whipped the opposite direction. And was like Full Tilt horizontal. And I was like Oh, no, I got to get to the store. Because I already knew what the weather was going to do. And by the time I got to the store, it had already dropped like eight degrees.

18:36 You see even even today we're able to recognize the weather signs. Let me I'm gonna give you like three or four of these. Signs to recognize some of them are self-deprecating like this one. I have a key for our minivan. and for the last month My minivan has been telling me you need to replace the battery in your key. Here's your sign what did I do? I waited I want to get the maximum use out of this battery. You know, it's kind of like when you go on a road trip and you're like I still have eight miles left on the gas tank.

19:23 And I'm and I'm gonna push it. I waited of course I ended up. at the post office in the 18 degree weather and my key battery finally gave out. and the sun was setting you know, which means it's even getting colder. Thankfully I was nearby and I called my parents for some help. And then I win changed my key battery. I'm watching a let me give you another example. I know something sometimes you don't need so many examples but I like these are these are kind of great examples, I think. I'm watching a western right now. and in the western there's this this group of

20:10 I guess they're called Pioneers who are who are moving across the United States moving through the plains. They get must be in Oklahoma or Kansas area. And they see the storm. And they're like we got to do something and you know, it's basically flat. And all of a sudden they see this nice little funnel just come down. and you know, they got to unhitch the horses. I never really thought about what you had to do as a pioneer. You know unhitched the horses find the lowest ground. all those things and Sure enough. There's a tornado that comes right over them. But you see they didn't know what to expect. It was

20:57 the people who were already there in the land who showed them what to do because they recognized the signs. because signs need to be interpreted by those who were experienced and or wise enough to know what the practical application means. You know, we can look out to the west and be like oh. That just looks nice. There's some wind out there. But the practical application on Thursday was you need a really thick jacket. And maybe some you know, fleece lined pants or something like that. Especially if you're going to ignore the sign on their key in your battery for your car. But Yeshua is talking to the people here.

21:42 And he says they can see the storm on the horizon. and they understand how to apply that knowledge for a practical application that will generate a positive benefit in their Earthly lives and/or accounts and yet they miss Him who's standing right in front of them and they miss his message and they can't even judge. What is right? I'm getting ahead of myself 56 Hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of the Earth in the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? Why don't you decide for yourself? What is the right course to follow? As I just mentioned they seek and see what's happening in the weather and they

22:28 make appropriate adjustments, but they don't know what to do with Yeshua who's right in front of them. In chapter 11 of Luke Yeshua says to the people who are crowded around him that the sign that they would be given would be the sign of Jonah. Which I think let's see that was on a Wednesday night. I think Casey talked about it. But also Daniel talked about it. A year ago here. I think something like that. Give a message up here on the stage about the sign of Jonah. In the sign of Jonah in it's even here in this passage in Luke 11 is that Jonah goes to Nineveh and tells the people to repent. In the same is true with Yeshua in his coming the people need to repent you see this is the the context that

23:15 we're dealing with and Yeshua says why can't you judge? What is the right course to follow? The right course would be to recognize what is in front of them the signs and to repent this is the application of what is seen at hand and turned into a deposit in our Earthly in our Heavenly accounts. So we move on to verse 58. If someone brings a lawsuit against you take pains to settle with him first. Otherwise, he will take the matter to court in the judge will turn you over to the bailiff and the bailiff will throw you in jail. I tell you you won't get out of there until you have paid the very last penny.

24:01 I want to I want to say these verses we'll talk about them in a couple different ways. But these verses should be understood within their context and perhaps Yeshua is is just shifting metaphors along the way so that the crowd can better understand what is happening. You see yeshua's already been talking about not being able to recognize the signs of what's going on in repenting. and when we start Luke 13 in two weeks on Shabbat. Spot in two weeks. Yeah, when we start Luke 13, you'll see that Luke 13 is happening right after Luke 12, you know surprise surprise. 13 comes right after 12, but it's almost the same moment and he's dealing with the people at that moment in terms of repentance.

24:51 So if he's dealing with repentance before and he's dealing with repentance after it seems to make sense to me that he's dealing with repentance the need for repentance right here. so if this is the case dealing with repentance when a lawsuit is brought it is like the cloud that's on the horizon. You see Yeshua just went from weather. And now he's talking about lawsuits. The lawsuit would be like the cloud on the horizon. And that person needs to settle the dispute before the matter comes before the court. So in other words before the cloud comes here and drops a whole rainstorm on the people. It has to be settled. Once it gets to the court, it's too late to settle full restitution

25:37 will have to be paid before any release. If the case is not settled. Then the only winners of the lawyers in the courts as Rabbi Sean mentioned last I think those last week. The Only Winners in this scenario are the courts because they take your money and the lawyers who make money from you because they have to be paid to argue for or against you. So they're the winners, not you and not the other person. And not only does all the money go to the courts. But your relationship with that other person is now worse off than it was before. Because you've gone to court over it. And you couldn't settle beforehand. And then we get to this point where Yeshua may be referring to

26:23 himself as the judge in this scenario and the one who comes up short. Did so because they didn't give any thought to the weight of yeshua's instruction when they were right there in front of him listening to him. And he says you're gonna have to pay every last penny. So that's one way to look at this, but I want to in light of going to court and being offended and and conflict. I want to share just another application. It's really for for us in a communal setting. And I recognize not everybody who's in our communal setting is here today.

27:08 In fact, I realize when we went out for the fire drill and when we came back in all of a sudden like we doubled in population. I don't know. Maybe it's You got out there so cold. You're like there's two of me now. anyways Let's talk about this for just a moment when there's a conflict by the way. I just want to point out. How many people have a family and I mean by Family a parent of a sibling a child. Everybody's hand should be raised. How many of you realize that in a family there is always conflict.

27:54 Doesn't matter it just it just exists. And I'm gonna say Brooke Hashem. We're like a larger version of that. and because we have lots of families represented we end up with lots of More conflict why because there's lots of people in here. you see you're not perfect. You're not perfect. You're not perfect, and I'm not perfect. and because of that when we bring all of these imperfect people together We end up with an imperfect opinion and judge others too harshly because we're judging them based upon viewing ourselves in a perfect light. So when we come together. There's often. But what happens and I've mentioned this before but let

28:41 me give you a very good principle to keep. You know in your back pocket or whatever it is. Don't get offended on someone else's behalf. When we're in a community. Person may have a conflict with another person. And and they can have their conflict all day long. But if I witness that conflict. And I start judging one of those people and all of a sudden I'm offended on behalf. Let's just want to use names. I I all of a sudden I'm like, I'm gonna come to defense of this person because that person is wrong, but I never get involved you see I never get involved.

29:27 All of a sudden those two, maybe they make up maybe one of them says, you know, what brother or sister? I am so sorry. Like I just last week. I was having a rough time. And and I don't know what happened. I just I spoke out of line and I apologize. I'm sorry for for treating you that way in that poor of a manner and that person says great I forgive you. No harm done. You see the conflict between those two people has been resolved, but I'm still upset. Because I was never a part of that conflict and yet I took an offense on behalf of one of them. The person who did the wrong never knows to come to me.

30:12 Because it wouldn't make sense to come to me and apologize because I wasn't a part of the conflict. and in that case when we carry an offense on behalf of another person. The only person who's hurt by It Is Us. And sometimes I don't know if you've ever had one of these moments, but sometimes it just begins to eat at you and it eats at you and then all of a sudden you begin to have shaded colored glasses every time you have an interaction with that other person that other person has no idea. That you are upset with them.

31:00 And they have no idea for even what reason? Sometimes they know that you're upset, but they don't know why. But you know. in Seasons or in times of conflict this week's Torah portion and next week's Torah portion are the perfect Torah portions for us to come to and by the way, this is the perfect season to have talks about conflict because everybody's having family parties right now. And everybody's enjoying themselves. But you see Joseph and his brothers. Now that's a conflict. His brothers sold him into slavery.

31:45 Now, I don't know about any of y'all, but I don't think any of your siblings have done that to you. Maybe I'm wrong and you can tell me I'm wrong, but I sure hope I'm not. Joseph has some real reasons to be upset. and he actually walks through this whole process where he he investigates with his brothers by his own interactions with them to see where they are in life now and see if they've changed. And the Beautiful Thing and we're going to talk about this next week. Because this last week's store portion this week's store portion and next week's store portion. Basically, the story of Joseph was one of my favorite stories. this it I always get called out on this when I give you a

32:32 favorite book of the Bible or favorite passage, like my favorite book I can tell you was Genesis. My favorite parts of Genesis. Are is this story right here? Because this is the story that speaks to how all of us live together. Or how we should all live together is maybe what I should say. You see because Joseph goes through this process of checking to see if his brothers has changed. He even goes to the point. of potentially enslaving his full brother Benjamin because he wants to see what their reaction is. You see because he knows that Benjamin is now the favorite of his father because he's gone.

33:19 And he was the favorite and he wants to see how the brothers treat Benjamin in this recreated situation. That was just like him when he was younger. And next week we're going to talk about this. I'm just I'm giving you kind of like the groundwork into it. He tests and tests and test them in the brothers respond in humility especially Judah Judah and fact leads the the charge and I was just reading the Torah portion was either last night or this morning. And somebody can tell me if I'm wrong. but I went back several chapters and I see the sons of Jacob listed or the

34:06 brothers went before Joseph, but it's not until The end of this week's tour portion in the beginning of next week's where it says Judah and his brothers. Because now is when Judah. Is extended preeminence because of his actions? And he comes to Joseph. in humility You see when we come to each other when we have an offense. I'm going to I'm going to say most commonly. It's not in humility. Most commonly is because I know that I'm right. And I need you to acknowledge that. When in the reality?

34:55 I'm not always right. And if you question that you ask my wife. I'm not always right. And it would be who all of us to understand that we are not always right. In fact, I could probably say we're very rarely right a hundred percent of the time. We may be right we may be 50% right 50% of the time. But it always does better when we come to one another in humility to correct an offense. And we need to go through an extra effort. to do that, especially in our community as brothers and sisters in the Lord

35:40 so this is where I'm gonna end. Because next week, I'm going to pick up on this with the Torah portion. Partially because we're having a bar mitzvah next week and partially because I love that tour portion. Just thinking about if you can just imagine. Judah coming before his brother and he doesn't even know it's him. and extending himself as an offering on behalf of his other brother. Okay. Well, I got to stop now. Otherwise, I'm just gonna like carry into next week. You know some of us. Were able to see the coming cold this week. And prepare for it.

36:27 But do we recognize? The other signs of the times in which we're living. Do we recognize the current in Breaking of the kingdom of God? Or do we only recognize the Earthly burdens that grow and grow every day? you see When you focus and you read the news all the time, I'm not saying it's bad to read the news. But when that's your primary input. You know what you're going to get you know what they're paid to do. They're paid to give you bad news. So that it Riles you up.

37:13 You barely very very rarely have great news coming through the newspapers or through well through news agencies. Because we don't respond as as Humanity. We don't respond as with enough with as much energy. When it's good news. We're like, oh, that's great. Let's move on to what's the next bad thing? Wins the next time the FED is going to review and talk about raising interest rates. Too soon. When's the next time when's the next time we're gonna have all of this bad? Do you realize? That God is working today.

37:59 in a way that I don't know if he ever has before. People are becoming more and more open. People are getting visions and dreams in countries where they're totally Persecuted and separated from anything that has to do with the Bible. And it's in these places. where Yeshua appears in dreams and visions and begins to minister to the people God's doing things that are crazy. I mean like crazy good. Like this is the inbreaking of the Kingdom of Heaven as people are beginning to bring their lives into alignment with

38:44 him. And sometimes we just need to look at that and stop looking at everything else. Because you know what Peter? Peter gets a bad rap by the way Peter is in the boat. I can't remember the stories in Luke or not. But I know it's in the other gospels Peter's in the boat, and he sees Yeshua walking on the water. And what does Peter do? He jumps out. Well, first of all, he says Lord command me to come to you. And then he jumps out. Do you know who else jumps out? nobody none of the rest of the disciples jump out. They all saw Yeshua. Peters the only one who jumps out and he goes I'm coming. I'm coming.

39:31 And then he begins to see the waves, you know, they're in a big storm and the Galilee. I don't know if you ever been to the Galilee, but it's just like that the storms will rise up. they come down the valley and just like it's like if you know through Texas storms, it's very similar come down and you're out in the water and you get caught in it. The waves are huge waves. And Peter's like I'm coming going up this wave. I'm going down this way. I'm coming Lord. And then he begins to see the waves the reality of the waves and he goes. Oh, no. What is you what did Peter just do? He diverted his attention his his eyesight from looking at Yeshua. And focusing on the on the tests and the trials and the ups and the Downs of everything that we have

40:17 in this world. All right. I need to finish that just give you like 25 sermons in one but this is this is a season where where we are we end up with all these tests and trials. Let's stop looking at those and let's look and see what Yeshua is doing and let's join them. Like let's see where God is working in the world and let's join him and do all this great stuff and number one our number two, you get to take deposit coins and put them in your bank account in heaven. When you do that. May the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you. And give you peace.

41:11 Give our recognize they should Mar. ath Ah, yeah, I don't I fun of Alexa movie who know? God ye sarunai panavaleka. There's some left-ha. Shah alone be sure in the name of our Messiah Yeshua shabbat shalom, haxamaya