A Tale of Two Sinners

0:00 It is a, it is a sad thing. What is happening in Israel has happened and is continuing to happen. Uh, the war that, by the way, I, I, I'm pretty certain the wars have always been declared against Israel, at least in the modern era. Israel's not out for a fight. Israel would prefer to, to be prosperous and to live in safety and not to have rockets come and hit cities and hospitals and places of business.

0:45 But the problem is the rockets come and they come often, and I know I mentioned it last week, but we live in, we live in Texas. The I, it just seems to me if Oklahoma decided to throw some rockets at us, if I know Texans well enough, there would be some rebuttal more than just the Red River rivalry. But the reality is, is we don't live in situations like that here. We don't know what it's like to have a neighboring country or hostile neighbors who their number one objective in

1:31 life is to see the absence of a Jewish state, and not just the absence of a Jewish state, but the absence of Jews. We don't live in a situation like that. We don't live with bomb shelters. We don't live with places where you have to go and run on, In case there's a rocket attack. We don't live with that level of anxiety or stress here in the United States. So you can continue to pray for Israel. You can continue to advocate among your circles, the circles of influence that God has given to you

2:17 on behalf of the state of Israel and its future existence. We'll continue the book of our series in the book of Acts Today we are in Acts chapter one, verses 15. We're going to, we're gonna go verses 15 through 22. I I, I was ambitious when I originally, um, subdivided this. And I, and I went through the end of the chapter through 26, and I realized I need to know my limitations, Uh, and, and I know that I can't get through that many verses on a Saturday in, in, in the amount of time that we have allotted. So,

3:05 uh, we're gonna go 15 through 22. Uh, in fact, I'm just gonna, I'm going to go back and start in 12 so that you have a little bit of context here. Then they return to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. In fact, maybe I should go back even just a little bit more. Um, Yeshua is speaking. I, I'm, I'm gonna summarize a couple verses. Yeshua is speaking to those who are fo his followers, and he gives them the, uh, the order that to go and be witnesses in Jerusalem through all Judah and Samaria into the end of the earth. And then in verse nine, after saying all of this, while they were watching, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight while they were staring into heaven. As he went up, suddenly two men stood up with them or stood with them in white clothing.

3:53 They said, men of Galilee, why do you keep standing here staring into heaven? This Yeshua, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Then they return to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a Shabbat state journey. When they had enters, they went into the upper room where they were staying. Peter and John and Jacob and Andrew, Philip and Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew Jacob, son of Alpheus, and Simon, the zealot and Judah son of Jacob. All these with one mind were continuing together in prayer along with the women in Miriam, Yeshua's mother and his brothers. In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters.

4:43 The number of names of all together was about 120, and said, brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Kodesh foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judah, who became a guide to those who seized Yeshua, for he was counted among us and received his share of this office. Now, this man, Judah bought a field with the reward of his wickedness falling headfirst. He burst open in the middle and his intestines splattered out, and it became known to all those living Jerusalem. So in their own language, that field was called AK, uh, a kma that is field of blood for it is written in the Book of Psalms. Let his dwelling place become desolate and let there be no one

5:32 living in it, and let another take his position. Therefore, one of the men who have accompanied us all the time, that the Lord Yeshua went in and out among us, beginning with his immersion by John until the day he was taken up from us, must become a witness with us of his resurrection. So we're gonna start, and we're just gonna go verse by verse through this in those days, and I, and I went back and reread the context for us so that we understand what are those days. These are the days after the ascension, the days before they were to go up to Jerusalem in celebration of Shaul, but they're already in Jerusalem. Why? Because Yeshua said, go up to Jerusalem and wait.

6:20 So they're in the days after his ascension when he told 'em to go to Jerusalem. They're there in Jerusalem waiting. But before the celebration of, of Shavuot, These days were days of waiting for the purpose of the waiting upon the pouring out of the kodesh. The question I have for us is what does it mean to wait? Like what do, when it says that they're waiting, what does that mean for us? Were they sitting on a couch watching Netflix? Well, probably not. 'cause they didn't have TVs or, and or Netflix at that point. Um,

7:07 I'm not saying you can't sit on a couch and want net net watching FLS occasionally, but when we talk about waiting for what the Lord has promised, there's a, there's an element of what we would, or what I would call active waiting. In other words, you're not just sitting there. You're, you are, uh, you are preparing for preparing yourself for what the Lord is about to do. And, and so as we prepare ourselves, some of us take more preparation than others, but also it takes a little more activities than others.

7:53 So while they're there, they're waiting. And, and really, if I can stress this one aspect of active waiting is actually going back and listening to the last thing that the Lord told you to do, and see if you accomplished it, Because he's not actually going to speak to you again unless you've done what he's already told you to do. Why? Because how is he gonna trust you with another task if you haven't completed what he's already asked you to do? So part of this act of waiting is, Lord, did I do,

8:38 did I finish everything that you last told me to do as I'm waiting for? What is that you're about to next provide for me? That's just a, a, a quick application, um, for us. These are also the days when this group that's mentioned when they were of one accord or one mind. In other words, they were unified before the Lord in prayer. And Peter stood up. So this is the, we continue reading in those days. Peter stood up. We can understand by this that Peter is actively now taking leadership of the group. There's about the text informs us that there's about 120 people here, of which 11 of them were named, uh,

9:28 named disciples or followers of Yeshua, uh, as a part of the 12. And one of the, the one who's missing is Judah or Judas, as you may know him. But Peter now, he stands up and he takes leadership of the group. I, I have a quick question. Is Peter the natural leader of the group? Well, I have two answers. One is yes, and one is no. Yes, he is the natural leader because that's his personality. Peter's the first one to jump out of the boat when he sees Yeshua. Peter's the first one to say, let's go do this. Let's go do that. Peter jumps a lot and, and takes charge a lot. But is he actually the natural leader of the group?

10:14 Because you know what? He didn't listen to Yeshua very much. Yeshua says, get behind me, Satan, to Peter. Yeshua says, let me wash your feet. And and Peter says, no, don't touch my feet, which I get. I'm like, feet are kind of, you know, Peter says, no, don't touch my feet. And Yeshua says, if you don't let me wash your feet, you can have no part of what it is that I'm here to do. And Peter then says, Lord, not just my feet, my whole body. When Yeshua was arrested,

11:01 Peter responded with violence and lopped off the ear of the servant of the high priest. And then I just wanna remind us, it's only been six weeks since when he was following Yeshua, and Yeshua was seized and taken into the household complex of the high priest that Peter then subsequently denied his knowledge and relationship and connection to Yeshua himself. Three times in the period of, of what I would assume is about four hours, Is it natural for Peter to take the leadership position?

11:51 He has failed over and over and over and over again, and yet he knows that this is his position, and if he walks in it according to the guidance of the Lord, and in submission to him, that it's actually his position of leadership, partially because Peter's the oldest in this group. So Peter now stands up, he takes the leadership and he jumps into seeking out what it is that the Lord wants them as a group to do. He addresses the group. He says, uh, men and women, he, and the very first thing that he does, again, I wanna remind you,

12:37 it has been six weeks. If, if, if this is at all helpful today, we are six weeks to the day from Rosh Hashanah. So if that helps you in terms of a timeline of what, what has happened in the last six weeks, that's about the time period that Peter is at. He stands up and he says, listen, let me tell you about the elephant in the room. What's the elephant in the room? There's one that's not there. Judah, or you, you may know him as Judas is not present. And he proceeds to say Judah was counted among us, and he received his shares of the office, and now he's vacated that office.

13:25 And because he's vacated it, someone else has to be chosen. And then Peter re uh, presu, uh, not presumes, proceeds to remind everyone there the 120 about how the office was vacated by Judah. So this is what we call, uh, well, I'll get into that in a minute. So we move on to verse 18. Now, this man, Judah bought a field with the reward of his wickedness falling headfirst. He burst open in the middle and his intestines splattered out, and it became known to all those living in Jerusalem, so that in their own language, that field was called a kalima, which is field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms.

14:14 Let his place become desolate and let there be no one living in it, and let another take his position. This is a dramatic rendition of what has happened. Is it necessary? I don't know if it's necessary or not to, to be so graphic in the language, but it's what Peter is doing. And this, what we have here is a, it's a dramatic interlude. It is also called a digression. So a digression is where you, you go away from the main point to, to explain why that point has happened. Uh, so in this case, there's a vacancy in the office. Let me give you the, the details of how there's a vacancy and we will move forward.

15:02 It's pretty descriptive, and it leads the language, leads us the readers and the hearers, uh, to a deeper understanding of the gravity of what Judah did the act of. Uh, and I'll get into that in a minute, actually. But before we move forward in the text, I want to pause for a moment and, and I do this when it becomes applicable in our context today, I wanted to make a note that the, the text has what we would recognize as an anti Judah sentiment. The problem is, is that anti Judah sentiment over time has often

15:50 become an anti JW sentiment. In other words, all the Jews did this when in fact, it's actually, the text is really just talking about Judah. We are living in a time when it's becoming not only culturally permissible, but also culturally desirable to blame bad things on Jews. So let me, let me give you a couple. The Israelis that were murdered by Hamas three weeks ago were murdered because of the Israeli government's poor treatment of the inhabitants of Gazo. Do you see, do you see what the language just did there?

16:36 It places the blame for the murder of Jews on the Jewish people. It's a very slight twist of the tongue, but it carries great ramifications. Let me, let me give you another one. The inhabitants of Gaza are dying because of an unjust Israeli government that enjoys persecuting these poor, downtrodden people. Uh, these are, these are real examples, by the way that I've read in, in, in newspapers and, uh, and, and other reportings. It's not that Israel enjoys it. Israel hates it

17:22 because Israelis die every time they enter into a conflict with, with Gaza. But the reality is, if you had lock rockets lobbed over into your backyard, and every time that happens, it puts your wife, your children, your grandparents in danger of dying. Now, one of the things that we don't think about in America is, well, one of the things well, that we talk about, well, Israel has the best defense system in the world to protect themselves against rockets. Yes, that is true, but it's not something that they should have. They shouldn't have to have the best defense system in the world against incoming rockets, but they have it because they have incoming rockets,

18:11 and nobody allows them to do anything about it. What we also don't think about are the people who, well, let's get very personal. We don't think about, my dad had, who was asleep, and then when the rocket air raid rang, had 90 seconds to go down three flights of stairs after just waking up. Has anybody, anybody woken up, not had a cup of coffee yet, and tried to run down three flights of stairs, huh? 20 Seconds, 20 seconds, 20 seconds,

18:56 20 seconds, not 90 seconds. I just want you to think about that. Some of us are like, man, I can't even roll out of bed without a cup of coffee, or at least the smell of it, which is why my spouse goes in and makes the coffee in the morning. But this is not done just once. It's done over and over and over and over and over and over and over again year after year after year. And it has been that way for nearly 20 years since what happened. Israel said here, Gaza, you manage your own people. We think it's a great idea for you to be your own stewards of that land. We'll remove everything that we do,

19:42 and this is what happens. Okay, let me, let me, let me go. Let's, let's keep going. Again. We're living in a period where it's becoming not just permissible, but desirable to blame bad things on Jews. You know what I read this week that a Jewish professor was pushed down a staircase just because he was a Jewish professor at a, at a university. One of the students came and, uh, you can take a guess as to which one of the students and what organization they were a part of, but came and pushed him down the staircase. They didn't know if he was pro-Israel or not. They just said, he's a Jew. We're gonna push him down the staircase.

20:30 You may or may not, but I would presume that most of you have heard the chant that has been going, certainly over the last week. But it's, it's not a new chant. And the chant says something like this. It will either stop in the middle or it will continue to the end, and it says, from the river to the sea. And it will either stop there or it will continue and say, Palestine will be free. Now, it sounds like a harmless chant, doesn't it? Like it sounds pretty harmless unless you really begin to think about what they're chanting. And what that is, is that not just that they'll be free to have a state, but that there will be no Jews. But it's not just a no Jews in Israel. It's a no Jews across the entire world.

21:18 Because if it's, if they stop in Israel, there's always the chance. And what we also don't take into consideration is that the context of that statement comes from the Quran. And the very next thing says that every rock will, in that day cry out if there's a Jew hiding behind it and say, there's a Jew here, come murder him or her. That's the context of the statement from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free. And yet we hear, I, I can't even say thousands. I think it's gotta be even more than that around the country. Our country, not Israel, but around our country, our city every week. And I do mean our city Dallas.

22:11 This is a chance advocating for the murder of Jewish people everywhere. The Australian Jewish Association, uh, nearly two weeks ago, recommend issued a recommendation that all Jews stay home from the city or, or re refrain from entering the city of Sydney. What, in what world is that a permissible edict? You shouldn't go into New York, which I, I also think is kind of dangerous at this moment. There's a, i, i think it's, is it, today there's a call for a march in Brooklyn,

23:00 which by the way, is one of the highest concentrations of Jews in the world. A march where the chant will be from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. And by the way, it's gonna include here in Brooklyn. I know that's, those are just my, my editorial comments. On October 8th, about three weeks ago, there was a protest in Sydney where the crowd was chanting gas. The Jews f the Jews, you can fill in the blanks. I'm, I'm a very, um,

23:48 how shall I call myself? I hate engaging with opposition on social media. That's, that's the shortest way I can term it. I got so fed up this week. I, I texted Steven and I was like, dude, I just, I just decided to engage. And, uh, and I did, and I engaged because one of the comments, uh, on a, on somebody that I follow, they decided to post a, a video. And then there was a comment, and it said something to the extent of Jesus was a Palestinian Arab,

24:39 and all Jews are Christ killers. Now, I, I will say, I, I have for the large part thought, the Christ killer accusation has been gone for a while. Apparently, I've been reading the wrong sources. I, I wrote on there, I, I, I replied, and I said, number one, you're biblically incorrect. Why? Actually, that's not what I said. I said, who nailed his hands to the cross? Who nailed his feet? Who put the crown of thorns on his head? Who beat him as he was on the way to the cross? I don't hear you saying death to Italy and all of Rome or the

25:27 Vatican, Why they were Italian. Well, we presume they were Italian, so they could have been soldiers from anywhere, but they were Roman soldiers who did it. They weren't the Jewish people. And then I wrote, you're biblically incorrect. You are also historically incorrect in terms of facts. And then I said, and even if you were correct, what were his final, some of his final words, father, forgive them. Why? Because they don't know what they're doing. And I said, so either you don't believe and don't follow Jesus and what he said, or,

26:14 well, there's not an or. It's if you're advocating for this position, then you can't possibly follow Jesus and, and, and advocate on his behalf, because he made statements to the contrary. Anyways, that's my, I just, I, that was my digression. That's my digression from Luke's digression in the text. And in this digression that Luke makes, he talks about, Peter talks about the reward for his wickedness. What was the reward for the wickedness? It was 30 pieces of silver. It's interesting. It happens actually to be the same amount, uh,

27:02 that was paid for an accidental death when gored by an ox in the Torah. In, in the, in the Book of Exodus chapter 21, the, the value is approximately 120 Denari, or, uh, in, in our language, up to about four months of ages. The reward for his wickedness, according to this text, was given in this life. There's also a reward in this lifetime. And that reward was a terrible, terrible death. And Peter goes into it, he says he fell head first into the field and burst

27:49 open in the middle, and his intestines splattered everywhere. Like that is some graphic language, y'all. But it also is relatively similar, uh, when you begin to get into the elements of King Agri as the death, uh, who comes a little bit later in the Book of Acts, um, he was eaten from the inside out by worms, I think if, if I remember the, the Luke and text. But Josephus also talks about this in Josephus writing. And he says that King Herod Agrippa came out in, in some clothing that's shown, uh, brilliant in the light. And everybody declared this is, this must be God, let's bow down and worship him. And he didn't say no. And then because of that, this is both in Josephus and, and, um, Luke, because of that,

28:39 God sent a plague upon him. Why? Because he presumed God's glory to be his own. And he took it and named it as his own. Peter then proceeds to mention two Psalms, and he says, he says, let their Psalm, uh, the first part, let their dwelling place become desolate and let there be no one living it. It comes from Psalm 69 26. Let their encampment be deserted, let none dwell in their tents. The Psalm continues onward to talk about the recompense of those who persecute the servant of the Lord. Now, when we get into servant passages, both in, in Isaiah and, and here,

29:27 there's I, I think that there could be a, what, what we would call an abundance of meaning. In other words, yes, this could apply to the one who persecuted, thus servant Yeshua. But when we think about it, when we think about the servant, and who is the servant in the Tanakh, the servant is often, I say often I think it's always Israel. So could there be an abundance of meaning, number one, that the, those servant Yeshua, the one who persecuted him or led him into, uh, his trial, that person would be cut off. But also could it be the same thing with those who lead Israel into persecution? Now,

30:15 today that looks like you shouldn't go into Gaza. You should hold back. You should restrain yourself. You should allow all these other things to happen. And I'm saying all of this, not because I hate Palestinians, by the way, it grieves me the death of every single one of 'em. It grieves me because they are all create included, by the way, the agents of Hamas, they are all created in the image of God. The problem is they continue to destroy or attempt

31:03 to destroy the image of God and others. And at one point, It becomes enough to where the damage to the community is no longer worth it. Now, I I think about, um, in Genesis and Exodus, and I've, I've said this before. God permits his people, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be enslaved for 400 or 430 years, depends upon how you want to measure it. He permits his children to be in slavery. By the way, have you ever thought about that? He permits his children to be enslaved. Why? Because he's trying to give an allotment of grace to the inhabitants of the land

31:52 of Canaan. And their sin hasn't come full yet. But when their sin became full, God says it's enough. I want you to think about he allowed the enslavement of his own child, Israel, Yeshua, whichever one you can fill in the blank, either it applies in either case, he allowed the enslavement, the beating, the destruction of his own flesh and blood because he has enough grace that he wants to extend it to others. But then there's a season where the time is complete.

32:44 In my opinion, the time is complete with Hamas. It doesn't mean they shouldn't try to save as many lives as possible. And it doesn't mean we shouldn't grieve because we should, and we should continue to pray for those who persecute us, even as Yeshua tells us. But it doesn't mean that you don't take action. What's happening here? I don't know if you catch the subtlety. There's some interesting subtlety that Peter stands up in front of the group, and there's a slight comparison, if you will, between Peter and Judah. Both of them have walked away from Yeshua. Both of them have betrayed Yeshua to a degree.

33:33 And Peter's saying, now, let his days be few. Let another take his position. And he recognizes the immediate application of this verse is that they need to fill the vacancy caused by Yeshua's, uh, caused by Judah's departure. But still, there's this comparison between Juda and Judas going on. We continue on in verse 21. Therefore, one of the men who have accompanied us all the time, that the Lord Yeshua went in and out among us, beginning with his immersion by John until the day he was taken up from us, must become a witness with us of his resurrection. So now they have to choose a replacement for Judah

34:23 in that choosing process. They need to have what they recognize. They need to have the full number that Yeshua has already appointed, which that number is 12. Now, it's interesting because there's some in some underlying, um, tones here in the text, uh, and connections both with the establishment of the people of Israel. Why? Because there were 12 tribes. Where did the 12 tribes come from? From 12 men who were the children of, of, uh, of Jacob? So the 12 tribes of Israel are built upon the foundation of 12 men who happen to be the son of Israel. There's also a connection here with the 120 that Luke has already mentioned.

35:10 12 is a tithe of the 120. It's a 10th, a 10, 10% in the establishment of Israel, the the people group. There's also a tithe that are presented to the Lord, and that tithe is known as the tribe of Levi, and that tribe becomes consecrated to the service of the Lord. So there's some connections going on with these 12 who are, who are a, um, are being consecrated for the service of the Lord. And that 12 has to be full for the purpose of when the Lord pours out his spirit.

36:01 The re the replacement, the, uh, for Judah needs to be one of those who was with Yeshua, starting with Yeshua's immersion by John and ending with his ascension, which just happened a few verses earlier, by the way. And once complete, then there would be 12 of them for the purpose of being witnesses concerning the resurrection of Yeshua, our Messiah. And we're gonna stop there and we'll, we'll continue next week in the, in the text. But what does this mean for us today? I've pulled out a few things that I think we can, we can draw and, and apply in our own lives. Number one, it's often that we find ourselves actively waiting.

36:51 Now, I can say, well, I, I think that up until this morning, we can say that Israel has been actively waiting to go in to Gaza. Now, I I, I recognize that a few things may have changed this morning, um, and, and that there's a, a slow progression, but there's, when you're actively waiting, it's not always just sitting, taking a nap. Now, it sometimes requires you to take a nap so that you can be fully prepared and rested for what the Lord has in for you. But there is a season of preparation that has to happen, and that's what I call actively waiting. We see here in this passage what I've called, I've entitled this message a Tale of two Sinners.

37:42 We see a striking contrast between Judah and Peter. Peter stood up, he, and it seems that he has turned from his betrayal of Yeshua and recognized it, and now is entering fully into the community. And he stands up and takes leadership, takes ownership. And so my question is, for all of us, how do we handle when we fail the Lord? Now, I say when, not if, because it's inevitable that all of us at some point in our lives will fail the Lord. I'm not trying to be pessimistic.

38:27 I'm not trying to be like to discourage you. I'm trying to help you gather and create a plan for your own life, for when that moment happens. If it hasn't already, I assume it probably has in everybody's case, but when the moment happens again, what are you going to do about it? Are you gonna take your money and leave the group and leave the, the community and go buy a field deserting the community, deserting everyone who's held you accountable? Or are you gonna come back to the community and say, listen, I screwed up, but this is what we need to do to move forward, not just me, but us. Peter stood up

39:17 and stepped into the moment that the Lord had created for him to become the leader of the community. At this point, he only does that because he's recognized what's happened. He's repented, he's acknowledged his failures. He's stepping into his community, and he's now taking the opportunity to lead. But I'm telling you, if he hadn't acknowledged it, we don't have the text that says that. Peter says, Hmm, I screwed up. We don't have that text. But I tell you, it exists. The, the it the fact of it happens because otherwise he would've ended up like Judah. Because when you begin to isolate yourselves and say, I betrayed everyone.

40:02 I left everyone, let me get out and lick my own wounds, all of a sudden you are isolated. And do you know what happens when you become isolated and you're away from your community? You become an easy target. You see, our adversary doesn't like to attack strength. He likes to pick off those weak ones who exit the community or, or push themselves away, even if it's only for a time. So how do you respond when you fail the Lord?

40:50 There is a reward for wickedness, but if we are righteous, does that mean that we have to celebrate and cheer when the wicked re reaped their reward? No, it doesn't. It means that we grieve because there was another image of God that was just lost. Finally, we collectively and individually must be a witness to the resurrection of Yeshua. This is what we have been tasked with. We carry on that witness. And how do we witness it? Because we have experienced Yeshua.

41:39 If you haven't experienced Yeshua, then I, I, I would highly recommend that you, well, we'll do this in a minute that you pray and seek for an experience with Yeshua, because when you have that experience, your life changes and everything about you changes. The scriptures say that we die to ourselves, that we become new living beings when we have that experience. And if you haven't had that experience, you can pray in a few minutes and you can come talk to us later. But we are called to be a resurrection to the, to the, uh, excuse me,

42:26 to be a witness to the resurrection of Yeshua. How do we do that? We do that in our lives. We do that through where we live, what we eat, what we do, where we are, and where we are not. We do that in Judah, uh, excuse me, in Jerusalem, Judah and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And what do we bear witness of? We bear witness of the resurrection of our Messiah, Yeshua, the promised one of Israel. He's not the promised one of some other entity. He is the promised Messiah of Israel. And if he is not that, then we are believing in a false God.

43:13 If he is anything other than a, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David, king David the Jewish king, if we are believing in a Messiah, that's something other than that, we are believing in a false Messiah. If we can't acknowledge that, then there is a problem with our faith. There is a problem deep within us if we can't acknowledge that because

43:59 the concept of a Messiah came from Israel when the Bible was like the, this whole story wouldn't exist without Israel. In fact, if we try to divorce this from Israel, it's as painful as trying to rip your arm off with your own teeth. Why? Because it's not simply supposed to happen. You cannot, it's impossible to disconnect our Messiah, Yeshua, from the Jewish people, and from everything that is written in here.

44:54 We live in a day when things are permissible, when things are celebrated that simply are not true. And I, I don't know how else to say it. It just so happens that they're not true. And now it's becoming a pervasive thing everywhere, right? And I'm not just talking about one thing. There's all sorts of untruths. What do you even call them? Lies. That's probably what you call them. I guess that's the definition of something that's not true. There's All sorts of lies that permeate everywhere, but the truth has been written for us. It's actually really handy that we can have in our hand

45:41 something that has the truth in it. Sometimes I wonder if we actually utilize this enough. I I would say probably we don't. Um, maybe we spend too much time reading things about this, reading books that are written about this, which I'm not saying don't read books that are written about the Bible. I think that's great. But you should read this because this is really good stuff. Yeah. Also, there's no Hollywood movie that has ever been or ever will be produced that creates more drama than what's in here. I mean,

46:28 I'm telling you the stuff that, the stuff that we think that Hollywood's like, oh, they're so creative. I'm like, oh, this, lemme just tell you, lemme show you the chapter here. Do you know this? Like, there's all sorts of stuff in here that probably you shouldn't let your five-year-old read. Or if you do, you better have some good explanations. Uh, and if you have good explanations, please come tell me and share them with me because I got a couple that are in that age group. Uh, but anyways, all of that to say When you're outside of here, it's a man. I've seen so many simplistic, um, sayings about the day we live in today.

47:15 And the reality is there's nothing simple about the day we live in. But I will tell you, if we can seek the Lord with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our strength, with all of our soul, and we allow him to speak to us and minister to us, and we read his word every day, the reality is we will get through it. Now, there's two ways through. One ends us in the presence of Yeshua, and one ends up with us hopefully at his, at his return.

48:03 But both, actually, I say both of 'em. They actually both end at his return, but one involves a little more pain and one involves a little less stretched out. I don't know how you describe that. Anyways, don't let me be discouraging to you because we live in a day. It's so amazing. I, I I keep reading all these articles and I really am. I'm, I'm done. But I just read this article, um, by Avner Bosky, fascinating article because he begins to put the biblical names with the people groups that are beginning to assemble against Israel. And it is striking how similar the scriptural accounts are to what we experience today,

48:53 uh, in terms of even the people groups that are assembling around. Anyways, go, go read some not news. Go read some, go read some reports from Israeli believers in the land about things that are happening. I, there are miracles happening, y'all. Like I'm talking about miracles in the land, miracles in Gaza. There are things that are happening that shouldn't be happening, that are being caused to call glory to the name of the God of Israel. Okay? I really am done ave Shaba sha Mayim, our father in heaven. Lord, I ask that you would, uh, be with us today. Lord,

49:40 I pray that if there's anyone in this room who has not had an experience with Yeshua as their Messiah, Lord, I pray that you would embolden them right now, Lord, to seek your face, to ask for an experience with Yeshua, the promised one, the Messiah of Israel, the king who's sitting upon his throne in heaven and is waiting for the day when his throne will be established in Jerusalem on earth as it already exists in heaven. Lord, I pray that you would, uh, minister to each and every person here, and that you would protect those of us, uh, who have loved ones and asked that you would protect all of our loved ones and all of the soldiers who are, um,

50:26 fighting on behalf of, of this, uh, evil that has been thrusted upon Israel at this in this season. Lord, we bless you and we praise you in Yeshua's name. Amen. 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.

51:34 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Sha.