Two-By-Two

0:00 The situation is certainly continuing to develop in Israel. Um, and whether or not you are paying attention to the news is continuing to develop around the world as well. Uh, if you missed the news this week, there was, I, I have no other word for it other than the term pogrom, which has basically been out of use for a hundred years, um, in Russia, uh, at an airport, uh, where, uh, a mob of people went out onto the tarmac because there was an airplane coming into, into the airport. And reportedly had, I think the number was 15 Jews on board. And they, in the security video footage of them storming through the airport

0:47 and, uh, all with one intent. The intent is not to save the Jewish people. In fact, it's, it's the opposite us. It, I received a video this morning, which While I was teaching the new members class this morning, and in the new members class, we were talking about who is a Jew. And it was probably one of the most argued about questions maybe ever. Uh, and Ben Gurian had a statement back in the founding of Israel 75 years ago, that, um, one who so identifies as a Jew is a Jew. Why? Because during his time, it was not a, uh, it was not a beneficial thing to identify as a Jewish person. In fact, it was,

1:36 it meant genocide. Uh, and, and I think for the first time in 75 years, I think the statement is now true again, uh, I I, I got a video this morning from issued, it looks like it's from the, the hold on, the National Public Diplomacy Directorate of the Prime Minister's office of Israel, basically advising Jewish people to not travel to any country in the world, and if they have to, to not wear any identifying, um, things that would be able to identify you as Jewish.

2:25 I've never, I've never witnessed an edict like this. I now you do for you whatever you want, but this week I stuck a, we stand with Israel sign in my front yard Because by this point in the war in Ukraine, by a month in, everybody in my neighborhood was decorated blue and yellow. And still, I haven't seen a single blue and white yet. So If not me, who, and if not, when now

3:15 you do for you and your family what you want, I'm not telling you to do that because I recognize that now there is an inherent risk with identifying with Israel and with the Jewish people, an inherent risk that that really, I think has, has been here for 75 years. It just hasn't been quite as, uh, forward as it is today. And it's, it's very interesting to me because this week marks the 85th anniversary of Crystal Knocked the Night of Broken Glass in Germany,

4:01 85 years. I'm not going to ask, but I'm sure there's somebody that's close to that in this room. 85 years. Sorry, I wasn't, I wasn't thinking about you, Billy. I'm sure there's, now, now that I, now that you laughed, I'm sure there's multiple people that are, that in that age range, 85 years, it's within your lifetime, one single lifetime that has come back around. It is a, um, surprising, yet not surprising,

4:47 abhorrent thing to see what is active today. Anyways, that's not what I'm talking about. I mean, I'm talking about it right now, but that's not my message today. My message we're, you can turn with me to Acts chapter one. We are finishing at the first chapter of the Book of Acts As a reminder, the Book of Acts is, is volume two of the author Luke, of his works that were written to the audience of Theophilus, volume one being the name, being the book of Luke, volume two being the Book of Acts,

5:34 Volume one. We understand that Luke was writing to encourage Theophilus to stand strong, and it seems to me as if to stand strong in his faith, uh, in Yeshua. In other words, the Theophilus is already a follower of Yeshua, and that Luke was writing to encourage Theophilus about all of the things that Yeshua truly did, so that it would strengthen his faith and built his faith. And that, and as I mentioned before, that introduction seems to apply to the Book of Acts as well. And then we're given the director at, in Acts chapter one, verse eight, that they will receive power. Those who are there, uh, watching Yeshua ascend. They will receive power when the kodesh comes upon them. Why?

6:20 For the purpose, so that you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judah, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. In Acts chapter one eight, chapter one, verse eight sets the trajectory for the rest of the Book of Acts. And so now we, we, uh, just as a recall for us, we have witnessed Yeshua ascending into the heavens. We've witnessed the 11 Yeshua's followers and other followers going up into Jerusalem. As Yeshua instructed, we witnessed them gathering together and praying in one accord, uh, or being in one accord. And then we witnessed Peter standing up and encouraging the community to consider a replacement for the spot that Judah or Judas, as you may know, him,

7:06 occupied these 12, in other words, couldn't even go out to do the mission that Yeshuas said for them two by two, because they're missing one. It's hard to go out two by two when you have an odd number of people. And so Peter proposes that they should have a replacement for the position. And so we come this week to verse 23 and we'll, we'll continue through the end. So they nominated two Joseph called Barsabas, also called Justice and Mattias. In fact, I'm just gonna read through everything and then we'll come back and they prayed and said, you, oh Lord, who knows the hearts of all men. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take the position in this office

7:53 as Emissary from which Judah turned aside to go to his own place. Then they cast lots for them and the lot fell upon Mathias, and he was added to the 11 emissaries, so they nominated two. Well, that seems pretty easy as I just wanna remind us actually what the qualifications were. The qualifications are actually in last week's message. Um, and, and the qualifications are that they've been with Yeshua or been with the 11, if you will, since Yeshua's immersion by John the I Mercer, up until the time of his ascension, so that they've been there. That's, that's the qualification that they've been there during that time period.

8:39 They've been there witnessing Yeshua going in and out among them. And so these two obviously meet those qualifications. By the way, those qualifications, uh, are in Verses 21 and 22. If you're looking for the reference of chapter one, they nominated two out of this group. Uh, that could be about 120 is what Luke indicates. But those were the spoken qualifications. The question is are, are there other qualifications that were fulfilled? First of all, I want, I want us to notice that the qualifications are, at least the spoken ones are that they were with Yeshua from the time that he

9:28 was immersed by John until the time that he ascended, which was in, in Acts chapter one, just a few verses ago. They're with him the entire time in the fact that there are two that were nominated or put forward as as, um, potential, uh, apostles means that they're both qualified. It means that they're both equally qualified and actually equally able to step into the role. The question is, is which one does God want in that role, and what role does God have for the other person? It's not a matter of one being qualified and the other one not. I just wanna point that out. They're both equally qualified. Are there some other qualifications that, that aren't written or spoken in the text? Well,

10:15 there could be a connection to Exodus chapter 18, verses 20, verse 21, which describes this is when, um, Moses is, is, uh, appointing leaders of groups of 10, 50, a hundred, a thousand, uh, among the people. And those leaders were supposed to be competent, God-fearing, honest and incorruptible. There's another set of qualifications, which, which seemed to be but also applicable listed out in Deuteronomy chapter, uh, one verses 13 through seven, uh, through 17. And these qualifications, if I can boil it down, are they're to be wise,

11:00 discerning, well-known to the tribes, they don't show partiality and they judge fairly. So it seems, these seems like, I don't know about you, but these seem like pretty basic qualifications where if you're not God-fearing, you probably shouldn't be in, uh, in a position where you're wit you're bearing witness to a God. Probably seems pretty normal for us. But I just, these are some of, some of the understood attributes that are here. And I want to talk now for a moment just about the names of the two that are, that are submitted. First of all, there's Joseph called Barvas, also called Justice. This dude gets three names,

11:50 so let's talk about those for just a minute. Joseph was the second most popular male name during the second Temple time period. It would be, it would be like when I was in high school, every girl was named Ashley. When my wife was in high school. Every girl was named Brittany. You can look, you can go look. You find out if somebody introduces you themselves to you and they have a common name, you can basically peg the decade that they were born in based upon what their name is. There's common names, so when there's common names,

12:37 you have to have distinguishers. So you have Joseph also called Barsabas. So it's interesting Joseph with this qualification of Barsabas, uh, it could, this could be a nickname to distinguish him from other Josephs, it could be that bar Saabas is actually a designation that he was born bar son on the Shabbat Barba bar, so that he's a son on the Shabbat. And that would, that would eliminate a quite a few people. If you were born on Shabbat and, and your name was Joseph, it would be easy to eliminate a, a few people. But also it's interesting that his name is Justice. It could be that Joseph was translated

13:22 into Latin. The term justice is as a, is a Latin name, and it could also be partly due to Joseph, by the way, the name Joseph goes back to Joseph, the son of Jacob, uh, all the way back to the, to the Book of Genesis to Joseph being righteous. It's interesting because it also could refer to the just act, the just nature of Joseph Barsabas Justice, that he was a, he was the just one. Now it's interesting because James, well, who we know as James Yako, Jacob, the brother of Yeshua, is also referred to

14:10 as ha saddi, the just, or the righteous one that the Sadik and, uh, so there, there's some, we'll, we'll get to him in, I don't know, a year and a half or a year, maybe a year. So we have Joseph, and then it's interesting, we have this, by the way, this is Matthew Mattias, uh, or it's a variant of Matthew. Um, it was a common name, but apparently not common enough to have a nickname with the 12. It doesn't seem that there's many others in that group. It was a common name during the time period among the wealthier class of Jerusalem, and also as a common name in the high priesthood.

14:57 In fact, if, if my memory serves me, I forgot to double check this, but I think, uh, while I know that there's a high priest who serves from 37 to 41, and his name is Theophilus, and his son also serves as high priest, um, around 60, if I remember right. And I, and if I, I think my memory also serves me that Theophilus had a brother also named, uh, Matthew or me Meta, uh, that part I, I can't remember exactly, but I, I think so anyways, common name, well, I mean, to have two Matthews serving as a high priest in about a 40 year period seems to be pretty common.

15:42 So we come now to verse 24, and they prayed and said, you, oh Lord, know the heart, uh, know the hearts of all men. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take the position in this office as Emissary from which Judah turned aside to go to his own place. The most important thing here To note is that they prayed. You know, elder Dave often says, when you come to a prayer meeting and you're gonna pray, the most important thing to do is to pray. Often we end up talking and sharing, and this is what's going on. And here's, here's the prayer request. This is the 25 things that led up to it.

16:28 This is the 25 things that come as a result of it. And we, and so often we can just end up talking around the issue. And in fact, we just need to pray. So it starts off and they prayed aid this prayer, this coming together as a group illustrates the group's dependence upon the Lord for the right replacement of Judah or otherwise, as we know, as Judas. In fact, it was the submission of their will to the will of the Lord. You know, they probably could have picked one. Yeah, you seem like a good, you seem like a good guy, Joseph. You're called the righteous guy, the just one. We're gonna pick you. Now, I'm not saying he was a bad guy, I'm just saying,

17:17 is that the one that the Lord wants in that role? And so we see in the contents of their prayer, uh, of their prayer, you, oh Lord, know the hearts of all men. It's an acknowledgement of the fullness, of the knowledge of the Lord. It reminds us of, of, or at least reminds me of Psalm 139. The Lord knows all about David, the writer. And David says, search me oh God, and know my heart. There's something about being known by the Lord. And then the Lord saying, this is the one for the position. Jeremiah one says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I set you apart.

18:04 I appointed you prophet to the nations. The Lord addresses Israel and said that he made Jacob and formed him in the womb. In Isaiah 44, there's all of these passages, and I picked three, really, you can go, you can spend weeks finding all the passages about where the Lord knew you or knows you. I just picked three, that the Lord knows us even before we're known by others, and that they ask then show us which of these two you have chosen. It is, this is their presentation of their request. Lord, we have a request. We have a need. There's a need for, for one more Emissary,

18:54 we have this need. Here's the presentation of our request. Show us which of these two, Joseph or Matthew, you would have be. You would have. Take the place, take the position, this is the verse, take the position in this office as emissary, They're explaining to the Lord. They're being very clear. By the way, I, I know most of you know this, but the Lord actually listens to the words that come out of our mouth. And sometimes when we say, I'll never, he chuckles because he knows that's not a true statement. I I had a statement at one point. I will never

19:42 be in ministry leading Brook Hashem. God just laughed. Thankfully I didn't hear him laughing 'cause it would've made me even angrier because sometimes when we're not willing to listen to God and then he laughs at what we're saying, it makes us angrier. But really he knows what his plans are. But also, it doesn't hurt for us to be very specific. When we come to God, God show us which of these two of you have chosen to take the position in this office as emissary from which Judah turned aside to go to his own place. It, there's like three qualifications here,

20:28 just in case God needed to be reminded of the vacant office that he already knows about. Sometimes it's for him, Sometimes it's really for us to be known to know what the need is, and then they cast lots for them. And the lot fell upon Matthew and he was added to the 11 emissaries. Verse 26, casting lots is a recog or, or was a recognized way of ascertaining God's will. We see in Proverbs chapter 16, verse 33, the lot is cast into the lap, but their very decision is from the Lord. The concept of casting lots is in the job profile of the high priest.

21:13 The high priest is equipped, is equipped with the em and the toim and, and it's to help render God's decision and a particular moment. Now, here's the thing, here's the great thing about lots, not lot the person, but lots as in casting lots. Here's the great thing about casting lots. We recognize that we are not in charge of the decision when we cast lots. Now, unless they're weighted lots, then we have problems. Yeah, yeah, you get a weighted dra. I got I'll, I got one, I'll see you at Hanukkah. But, uh, no, I'm just playing. I mean, I'm not playing about having one, I'm playing about playing with it. Anyways,

22:02 lots. We recognize that lots are outside of our control, that we, we, we've put up, we've done what we can do. We've said, Lord, these are the two qualified people. Now we need the decision from you. The reality is, as God is in charge, some of us may think lots are by chance. I don't, I don't think there's much in life by chance. I think God is in charge of just about everything. And if you say, alright, well Rabbi, alright, what's the, what's the one thing that you think he's not in charge of? I don't have an answer. I just always give myself that qualifier, that qualifier, God's in charge of everything. When he, when we cast lots, it's purely up to the Lord. In other words, if there's one person advocating for some, for,

22:50 let's just say for Joseph in this case, and there's another group advocating for Matthew. When the lot comes back, nobody's upset because nobody won because it's God's decision. When we come up, sometimes we, we think too highly of ourselves when we have these decisions that come up and we're like, well, my decision means more, uh, or, or your decision's not like, your choice isn't really as good as mine. In fact, there's a, one of our favorite movies, there's a, a council of rabbis sitting around and they said, should we send him or send this guy or not? And, and they go, go one by one, nobody puts up a hand. And then the head rabbi says, well, I'm the head rabbi and my vote is 51%,

23:36 so we're sending him. Anyways, sometimes it happens that way, but when it does, everybody gets upset. In this case, nobody's upset because this is God's decision. They have done their due diligence and submitted their, their options. Uh, I just, I I just have a question for us. What do we think was going through Matthew at this moment? I mean, you can say Joseph also, but especially when, when Matthew is the one who's designated, what do we think is going through him? You think he's feeling any pressure? Will I fail in a similar manner as the previous occupant of this office?

24:21 Think about that. He's taking Judas office as Emissary and he's going, Peter failed. Judas failed. What's, what am I gonna do? I, That's some pressure right there. By the way, he could be going if Judah failed, Judas failed, and he was handpicked by Yeshua in the flesh. And here I am being picked by lots. If, if Judah couldn't even succeed. What about me? What does that say about me?

25:08 So we, we run into a very interesting question here, which is, what does it mean to be chosen? Let me lemme share with you a little story. All of us, I think have probably played it, but there's this game called duck, duck, goose. You sit around in a circle and one person is chosen to be it, and that person runs around the circle. At least when I was a child, we used to hit each other on the head. It was, it was less tapping, more hitting on the head as we went by and, and going, duck, duck, duck. Which now that I'm thinking about it, you should have just ducked and, and you wouldn't have ever gotten tapped.

25:55 Anyways, duck, duck, duck, goose. And all of a sudden the race is on around the circle to whether or not you're gonna get back to that person's spot before they tag you. What is that person supposed to do? The one who's chosen, they're supposed to get up and run as fast as they can with an objective. The objective is to, to tag the other person. This concept of being chosen sometimes gets morphed into this idea of being special or something. It's not a matter of being special. It's a matter of being chosen to do a particular task.

26:41 And that that's the way it's set. So let me say this, God's desire is to save, provide redemption for all of the nations. All of the nations. The vehicle he chose to utilize are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The people of Israel. The people of Israel were chosen by God for the purpose of bringing redemption to the nations. Does that make sense? This people group was set apart or chosen

27:28 for the purpose of being a witness to the nations concerning the character and the faithfulness of the God of Israel. In Isaiah 49, 6, it says, it is too small a thing or too trifling a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of, of Jacob and restore the, uh, preserved ones of Israel. So I will give you as a light to the nations that you should be my salvation to the end of the earth. We recognize this referring to Yeshua, but do we recognize, we recognize this referring to the call of the Jewish people. Also, You see the Jewish people are chosen to be the vehicle to bring the light to the, to the nations. We didn't do such a great job.

28:20 And because of that, I don't know, maybe for other reasons also, like there's, I should not say because maybe for other reasons as well. Yeshua came. Why? Because he came partially because we failed, but partially also to enable us to go and walk in our mission. You see, when we have failed, often we go, we take on this persona of ior. Woe is me. Oh Lord, I can't do anything. Which it's okay to have a little bit of that view of yourself. In fact, it's, it's probably good to have just a taste of that so that there's no pride that's growing outta that. But also, if that's all you ever think, excuse me,

29:09 that's all you ever think and you never taste the the life of the Messiah, Yeshua, then you'll never do anything. You'll never be empowered to do what God has called you to do. And in this case, God has called Israel to be a light to the nations, and we find that Yeshua came so that we can actually do it. God chose Yeshua to come from the li lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and King David. And when Yeshua was coming to Jerusalem in Luke chapter 19,

29:55 he looked at Jerusalem and he wept. He wept because he saw the destruction that was coming upon his people. I say that because Yeshua is weeping today. As we, as we witness all of us, as we witness this destruction that is happening, Yeshua is weeping as should we, Yeshua chose his 12 disciples. They were also chosen ones, if I can use that terminology to serve the vision that he was putting in front of them. Being chosen does not diminish the value of everyone else.

30:42 It just means these, this is the role for these 12 and everyone else, by the way, I have a role for you too. God doesn't have a role for just some people and say, oh, I forgot about the rest of you. How did I even, how, How did I, How did I not know you there, were there. God knows everything. He knows who you are. You're not left behind. You're not, you're not so unimportant that he doesn't have a role for you. Rather he's choosing this particular way because he's setting the, if I can call it the, um, the system. I don't know if that's the right way. The, the efficient path. I don't know if that's the right terminology. There's, he's setting up the right way for things to work,

31:30 to bring redemption to the world. I can use a lot of different, different verbiage, but He's setting up this path to world redemption. Last night, uh, rabbi Vladimir Pigman spoke at Gateway, uh, at their, at their Friday evening service. And he said, by restoring Israel. So before I finish the sentence, lemme just unpack that by restoring Israel, number one, the restoration comes to the land. We see this in, in Ezekiel chapter 37. The people, there's this valley of dry bones and they're all there. And, and God says to the prophet, prophesied to the bones that they come together and that they come alive and

32:17 they assemble and they're identifiable as the people of Israel. And yet they still have no life in them. And God then says, prophesied to the four winds that the wind can come and fill them up with the life, the spirit of the living God and bring them to life. In other words, come from the Four Winds, ruach album plug, uh, sorry. All I can hear are my children singing the song. Now there's this process of restoration to the land and then

33:02 restoration to the spirit and the land part has been accomplished part, at least in part the spirit part is still happening. I guess it's also in part, but it's growing. There's a growing number of Jewish people who believe that Yeshua is the Messiah and are what I would call coming to life in this. So Rabbi Pickman said last night, by restoring Israel, God is saving the world. It just so happens that it has to happen in this way for the purpose of world redemption. It's not that God forgot everyone else,

33:48 and he's up there going, listen, I just need this, this little piece of land that by the way, has no oil, has really, is really hard to work the land, all these great things that you gotta put your blood, sweat, and tears into it. It's not easy where you can just drop a drill and make billions of dollars. Like if you're in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or wherever. I'm not bitter that we didn't get a bigger piece. No, I'm just playing. There are other ways to make money. But God said he's not just standing there going, okay, I'm only concerned about this, this little piece right here. No, he's looking at everything saying, I want it all, but in order to get it all, I start here. It's the same way. If you, uh, you know, the old, the old adage,

34:36 how do you eat an elephant? Well, first of all, we're Jews, so we don't, but how do you eat an elephant? You eat it one bite at a time. So you start here and then you go everywhere else. This is the paradigm that God has set By restoring Israel. God is saving the world. If you're in an airplane, lemme give this example. If you're in an airplane, I'm, I'm not gonna ask you if you've been in an airplane, but if you've been in an airplane that you always get to the beginning, you're sitting there, you're bored, you're probably reading a book or watching something on your phone, and you hear somebody talking in the background over the loudspeaker and you're like, I don't need to pay attention to this because I've flown a hundred million times. I know everything that they say. Well, what they're telling you is that in the case of a cabin

35:25 depressurization, you do what? Freak out and panic. No, you take the oxygen mask and you put it on yourself. What? First or second? First. Then after you put it on yourself first, then what do you do? You help those who need help, like children or somebody else who can't figure it out. There's an order. Do you know why there's an order? Because if you don't put it on yourself first, you will pass out. How much good are you to the person next to you? If you pass out you are zero, good to the person next to you, You're a negative one, you're a negative help. Yeah. Now they have to help you.

36:14 That's right. By not following instructions, by not doing things in the correct order, you actually become a hindrance as opposed to a help. So I'm saying that because there's an order in this case, the Jewish person, people were chosen to receive the oxygen mass first so that they could help you. Not, not you, but you. Y'all all y'all the, the Texas version, this is the order in which, by which God has set, you can protest it all you want, but it's the order. So what does this mean for you and me today?

37:02 I wanna draw three conclusions from this passage. I know it's only four verses and my conclusions are actually gonna work backward from, from the verses. So I'm gonna start at the end and move to the beginning. Number one, you gotta let the Lord decide. We have to acknowledge our role in the decision process, but in the end, it's his decision. We do our role. And if we do our role correctly, we present the options to the Lord. And we say, here, Lord, you choose, Let me know when you're done so that I, we can move forward. You know, I maybe you don't know.

37:48 We have a security team here at Brook Hashem every week. We have a security team. We have police officers who are here every week faithfully watching out for us as we sit in here. Yes, absolutely. They're constantly keeping an eye out for us. The the nice thing is, is we don't have to keep an eye out while we're sitting here. Because why? Because they're doing it. Now, what I will tell you, and I don't mean to, I don't mean to say this, to scare you, by the way, nothing I ever do or say is ever meant to, to put fear into you other than the fear of the Lord.

38:34 It's always only for the purpose of being aware, of being grateful for what we have and really for the purpose of prayer. So 25 years ago, in 1997, on April 26, we did not have a security team. We did not have police officers in the, at the facility, well, on duty. And on that day we had a gunman come to Brook Hashem. And, and he came right up. This, the courtyard, the same way we all enter, well, some of us enter, uh, came right up, the courtyard came, we were meeting in Hover Hall at that point, came to those glass doors,

39:19 pointed the gun, opened fire. In that process, kind of, um, a cloud came over him and he kind of got, um, I dunno what the confused is maybe the right word, confused, and started backing out. And in the process, he pointed, pointed his weapon at, at two children, two, two little boys, and pulled the trigger. And in all of this, I will tell you, nobody was hurt, at least by gunfire. The only people were hurt, were hurt because they were trying to exit the building through a window. Um, but there was no one hurt by the gunfire. The the gunman backed out, went out to the parking lot. By that time,

40:07 the police were here, laid his weapon down, and, and, um, subsequently served more than two decades in prison. I'm telling you that story because in the end, it's God's decision. We had no security team, no police officers, and still no one was hurt. I'm not telling you that we shouldn't have a security team and police officers to be aware. By all means, let's be aware that's, that's part of our decision making process. But in the end, it is God's decision. So let him have the decision. Some of us, we hold on too tight to that and think it's ours, when in reality it's not. Let's let us, let the Lord decide.

40:57 So my, that's my first point. My second point, how do I respond if I don't receive the position or am not the chosen one? If your name is not Neo, okay, it's about 10 of you. If you're not the chosen one, what does that mean? What does, what does that mean for you? Well, here's the question. Can I be faithful when I'm not the one being recognized? Can I be faithful and not be famous? I also wanna point out that there's, there's a fantastic quote and, and most of you should probably know it, but it, it goes like this.

41:46 Dear God, did you have to send me news like that today? Today of all days, I know, I know we are the chosen people. But once in a while, can't you choose someone else just once in a while? Can't you choose someone else? I just wanna warn you, be careful when you are desirous of another person's position or gift, because this is the same spot that Lucifer found himself in and he chose to exit the role that the Lord had made just for him. Do you realize he had the most glorious position of all outside of

42:33 The Lord and he was not content with his role, with his position that the Lord had given to him? Be careful when you're desirous of another person's position or gifts, we always say it here in the south, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Lemme tell you, that's because their water bill costs more. They decided to spend a thousand dollars and water their lawn this summer when you didn't, and now your grass is gonna come back just fine next year. Finally, this is, this is my final point that I, that I want to leave us with is prayer.

43:18 This Is where we started and this is where we're gonna end. Prayer Is the most important thing that you can do ever. On Wednesday night during the classical music concert, we, we took up a collection for the I idea F soldiers and, and so on. And I said, you know, money is actually not even the top two most important things that you can do. It happens to be the one that everybody asks for, but it's not even the top two most important things. The top two most important things are number one, prayer and number two, being an advocate in your own social circle for what is going on.

44:04 Why is prayer the most important thing? Well, number one, it's the most important thing because it's our submission to the Lord's will. I know that we think about prayer as we bring requests, and that is true, but prayer is our submission to the Lord's will when we pray, it begins to force us to conform our will to his Yeshua taught us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Wait a second. If his will's already at in heaven and it's not here, why is it not here?

44:49 It's because of us, collectively us. It's because all y'all, it's because we have not collectively submitted our will and bent our will to match his yet. And that's what prayer is doing. Prayer is us bending our will and matching it to the Lord's. If we're really praying for the Lord's will to be done, then it necessitates that our will be bent and matched to his not the other way around. In this passage here in Acts, the time of prayer was to designate one person to fill the open spot for the purpose of being a

45:35 witness of Yeshua's resurrection. Inherently, there is a very practical application of going out two by two that is found in this passage. So I want you to know that when you submit yourself in prayer and you allow the Lord to mold your will to his, it's for the purpose of you going out and being a light in Jerusalem, Judah and sumaria and to the end of the earth in two by two. Why? Because God doesn't send you out one by one. He didn't even send the animals one by one. He brought the animals two by two. He brings us out two by two. Why? It just is,

46:22 it's so much better when there's two, you can encourage one another. Lemme sh let me share a quick story. I know I've shared a lot of stories, but when I was in my young twenties, I went on a, on a hiking trip, a two week hiking trip. And in that hiking trip we ended up hiking, uh, a mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was 14,126 feet tall. And in that process, I quit. I was about, well on the path. I was two thirds of the way through, but I quit. I was like, uh, I'm done. And I'll tell you, if I would've been there by myself,

47:07 I'd have turned around and walked down. But I wasn't there by myself in this case. I happened to be with two other people. So I, I recognize the principal's not exactly the same, but you're with another person. And they looked at me and go, you're not allowed to quit, you quitter. And it just happened to be two other guys with whom I'm very competitive. And uh, and I was like, I'm sitting there, I'm going, uh, And I thought, I'm not gonna let them beat me. And I, you know, got up and continued up the mountain. That's what we're here for. We go out two by two to be with each other and encourage each other when the other person is down because the reality is,

47:56 is very rarely are we both down at the same moment. We go out two by two as a safeguard. So I'm gonna tell you, if you happen to put a sign out or wear your kipa out, probably do it two by two right now. I'm not telling you don't, I'm telling you be wise in what you're doing and aware of what's going on around you probably don't use it. And go down to the, you know, 3000 people march that's down downtown Dallas wearing different colors than blue and white. Probably don't do that. Just saying, I'm not telling you you shouldn't be, you shouldn't, well, whatever, go out two by two. But in this process, you should be submitted holy to the Lord through prayer in

48:43 your own life of May, our Father in heaven. Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, I thank you for This book and the, the, the Book of Acts. Lord, I thank you for Luke and, and for all of those who are involved in the Book of Acts that we have this recorded, uh, text of their lives of what they did and how they made decisions. Lord, I thank you for the desire to follow you, Lord. I pray that you would give us each wisdom in our own lives, Lord, how we can submit ourselves to you, conform our will to yours, and then go out and be a witness

49:28 concerning the resurrection of Yeshua, our Messiah, two by two. We bless you and 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. If

50:33 in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shabbat.