Kingdoms in Conflict

0:02 Every week. Well, every week that I'm here, I have gotten up and continue to remind us as a community to pray, because there still remain more than 130 hostages in captivity in Gaza after an unprovoked attack by Hamas. Uh, nearly seven months ago, I, I may be wrong, but I think the US signed a, a, a document with I think seven other nations this week asking for the release of the hostages.

0:48 I, again, I may be wrong, but I think this is the first time America has asked for the release of the hostages in seven months. And I say that knowing full well that some of, some of the hostages are American citizens. I'm telling you that because it's, I, I know that there are Israelis. I know that they're Jewish people, but they're also Americans that are, that are in captivity. There's, there were, there were Thai non-Jewish t that were taken into captivity and held hostage and murdered. This may have presented as an anti-Israel

1:35 effort, but it's not just anti-Israel, because if it was, they would've left the tie alone. It's not just an anti-Jewish people. It, this is a, a not just a physical war, but is a spiritual war that continues to rage. This is a war of rebellion against the God, the creator of the heavens and the earth. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, And those who refuse to admit it and refuse to call for the release of the hostages without precondition are, are actually acquiescing slightly, at least

2:25 to the side that is waging this war in rebellion. I've heard the, the argument, if Israel would just stop fighting, then the, the hostages would be returned. I'll tell you, Israel had stopped fighting that they were in a ceasefire on October 7th. I don't know if anybody realizes that they were in a ceasefire, and Hamas broke the ceasefire. They've stopped multiple times to broker peace deals, and nothing has happened. In fact, I think it was two weeks ago, every Israeli soldier was pulled out of Gaza,

3:13 except the ones that were keeping the humanitarian aid route open. All the soldiers came out, and it was for about a week time period, and there was no fighting going on. And I never once heard Hamas say, oh, okay, well, great, here, we'd love to return some hostages to you, or at least dead bodies. And I know it sounds crass, but they're holding hostage dead bodies. Who does that? First of all, it's gross, but who holds dead body hostage? We live in a time when evil

4:00 Declares itself good and declares good evil. We live in a time when it's permissible to blockade a higher level education university and say, no Jews are allowed here. The last time that happened was in the 1930s in Germany, and we know the consequences of that. I received a text message from a friend of mine today, uh, not today, uh, yesterday, and he said, he said, it's strikingly different

4:46 how Texas has handled the protests on college campuses versus New York and California. And I'll tell you on some level, I'm, I'm glad that Texas has done it on another level. Texas can't hold on forever, and I know that it's the sad reality of the Jewish people that inevitably everyone turns against us. It's just the way it is. And we see how virulent these protestors can be in their nonviolent protests.

5:35 The, I I, I saw a Jewish student get stabbed in the eye, in, in, I think it was in New York. It, it amazed me. I, I, I just, I don't understand what about any of this is permissible. What happened to at least some level of civil decency among everyone who disagrees. But now those people are being celebrated as upholding justice and truth, Not being condemned as racist antisemites

6:21 and those who will use violence and lies to get their way through the world. I'm telling you all of that because I, on the one hand, I don't really know what to do, what to tell you to do other than pray it. It's, I don't know, I I've said this before, but prayer is the least that you can do. It's also the most that you can do it, it, it's, it's odd how those two work. You can pray. You can, you can vote. I I, I'm not entirely certain that voting is gonna do anything, and that's my kind of defeatist attitude, and I'm an optimist generally.

7:07 But that being said, there is a vote that's going on in Dallas. If you're a Dallas City resident, there is a vote. I'm switching topics just for a moment. There is a vote going on. Dallas is asking to approve a, uh, a, a bond. Is it $1.25 billion, $1.25 billion? And Dallas is, remind me, is it the sixth most bond indebted city in the nation at, I think we're at $6.9 billion in bond debt, and we're asking for more. I'm just want to tell you the Torah and the, and the Bible talks specifically about indebtedness

7:53 and that it, it's a form of slavery. And what it is, is it holds you under the rule of those who own your debt. Now, it's not often I take a voting position, but if that's your position from reading the Torah, then, then your vote should be no. Now, am I allowed to say that from the stage there are some decent things in the proposal. I'm not saying that the things that they want to do are aren't good, but when you're bad with money and you approve to give them more money,

8:39 it doesn't make you good with money. In fact, it makes you worse with money because you're never held to consequence. So just in case I'm not allowed to say that, go vote. However you see vote, you should vote. I'm telling you. Yeah, I'm telling you, don't forget that your children are gonna bear the debt. And I think I read the number this week that every Dallas citizen bear the, that bears this debt is bearing $19,000 of debt indebtedness on behalf of the city. Now, that's not counting your student loans, it's not counting your mortgage or whatever else you might have. But

9:27 again, there are good things in the bonds, and I'm not telling you, well stop while I'm ahead. That's what I've been told. You can vote across the board one way or another, or you can choose to be, uh, what do you call it, precise, selective. Thank you. You can be selective in terms of what you're like, oh, you know what? I actually believe that safety in our city is a priority right now. Or, or, or education of our children is a priority or whatever it is. You can be selective.

10:14 That's what our children think about indebtedness. Anyways, before I go too long, I would like to invite my dad, rabbi Marty, to come to the stage Ave Shaima my father in heaven. Lord, I thank you for my dad, for Rabbi Marty and for the, the, the diligence that he has put into studying your word. Lord, I pray that you would, I pray that you would continue

11:00 to minister to each and every one of us. I ask that you would open up our ears, that we can hear from you through Rabbi Marty today. We bless you in Yeshua's name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, rabbi. I thought he was about to get himself into trouble. That was his mother, by the way, who said, stop. He still listens to his mother. Thank God,

11:46 Shabbat shalom. You know, this is, uh, I don't get to speak here very often anymore, but so I'm a little out of shape. But this is a, it's a real honor and a privilege as it always has to, uh, oops. Yeah, we're okay, you know, to speak to, uh, bru Hashem to the whole congregation and, uh, those watching, listening online. And so I just wanna say thanks for the opportunity and for the privilege. I, uh, I consider this time of speaking from God's word, a continuation of our worship,

12:33 of our, of our Lord and our God. And so I pray that, in fact, I'm gonna pray. Lord, I just pray that you would, uh, guide my lips, my tongue, Lord, because we know that, uh, a tongue is a, is a very small part of the body, and yet it can set a whole forest on fire, if not careful. So, Lord, guide my tongue so that it might, it may honor you and edify the keah. Thank you, Lord. We bless you in Yeshu his name. Oh man. So I also, Ari was focusing on Israel for a little while and said he doesn't understand why people can't

13:20 observe a little bit of decency anymore. Well, let me just say back in, in the days of Covid, we finally accepted that there was gonna be a new normal, didn't we? We, we said it. There's gonna be a new normal. And friends, I think this is part of the new normal. Uh, there, something has been loose in, I, I don't wanna sound too mysterious, but something has been loosed in the heavens that's affecting the earth. So I am, I am, I'm very disappointed that there's a new normal that, that reflects what Ari was discouraged about.

14:07 I think the new normal is a lack of respect for one another, lack of respect for human life and dignity. And, uh, and I believe that it, all of this is pointing. There's signs that are pointing us towards the return of Yeshua. Now, we can all cheer and yell hooray, when we talk about the return of Yeshua, just like we cheer for Mordecai at Purim. But you need to know it's a rocky road. That's a rocky road that we're on. It's not gonna all be, uh, cake and ice cream until Yeshua gets here. Uh, so, you know, we, we we're going, we, you know,

14:53 we're gonna have to go through what the Book of Revelation describes as. And, and Matthew 24, thank you, describes as, uh, difficult times, very difficult times. So that's not meant. So I've, I have actually prepared a message that may sound a little more serious, and it is, um, but I'm gonna start off with something funny, not quite yet, but I will be there. Do you know that Moses, Moshe

15:44 is written about more in the scriptures than anyone except Yeshua. Yeshua is the only one who has mentioned more times in the Scripture Than Mosha. I can give you concrete numbers if you like. Mossa is mentioned about a 715 times by name. Yeshua is mentioned a thousand plus times by name. And that's only the New Testament for Yeshua. The, if you were to count how many times Yeshua's name is written in the bri in the,

16:29 uh, Tanach in the Old Testament, then you'd have to, you'd have to add up a little more because his, his name is actually the male version or the masculine version of Yeshua, which means salvation. And it's all through the Hebrew scriptures. In fact, it, if you want a project, it would probably bless you to find all the places. It's like a secret thing that you could find mystery. You could find all the places in the scriptures where Yeshua is mentioned and put Yeshua in that place.

17:17 So it's interesting that Moses has mentioned so many times, it's because the Passover that we are, we just celebrated, but we're in the midst of Pesa week, the week of Passover. It is the greatest and most mentioned and repeated event in the Bible. It's repeated many times, of course, in the, in the Tanah, in the Torah, in the ne and the prophets, in the katu, in the writings, And in the so many references to Passover in the Bri sha in the New Testament.

18:05 In fact, we know from those, from those of us who were, who understand Passover through, uh, the Bri Shah, that the Lord's Supper, the communion, that the bread and the wine comes from this event. And it is the most mentioned event, probably apart from Yeshua's resurrection. Moses is so popular that he's even mentioned 100 times in the Koran.

18:51 That's something you probably didn't know. Yeshua is mentioned there in there also, but only 26 times. So Yeshua and Moshe, believe it or not, are coupled together in many passages of the New Testament of the Yeshua is not co coupled together with anybody else besides Moshe, maybe once with Elijah. And so I wanted to share a little funny story with you

19:38 about Mosha and Yeshua. Mosha. Yeshua and a little old man are playing golf. They get to a particularly difficult hole, which requires them to hit the ball into a, uh, into a little island, onto a little island in the middle of a lake. Mosha goes first and hits his ball into the water. He then pulls out his staff Into the, puts his staff in the water, and it parts, and he walks over to his ball, and he hits it into the hole. And he declares an loud voice. Two, two strokes.

20:30 Next, it's Yeshua's turn, he hits his ball, bam. And it falls into the lake, into the, into the water. And Yeshua walks out onto the water and hits his ball again into the hole. And with a loud exclamation, he says, two, finally, it's the little old man's turn. He hits his ball into the water. A fish swims down, eats the ball, swims to the surface, spits up the ball, and eagle catches, it flies

21:17 to the island, drops it into the hands of a squirrel, and the squirrel deposits the ball into the hole. And the little old man exclaims one, and Mosha turns to yeshu and says, man, I hate playing with your dad. So, Yeshua, Yeshua, and yes, and Moses are coupled together often. In fact, one of the ones I love the best is Revelation chapter 15, verse three.

22:03 This is a, this is a passage when, um, I'll just read it to you. And they sang the song of Mosha, the Bond servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb. Yeshua saying, great and marvelous are your works. Oh Lord God, the almighty, righteous, and true are your ways king of the nations. Now, I want you to remember, God is a jealous God. He doesn't share his glory with anyone. And yet, Yeshua sits on the throne with his father. But now Moses is mentioned with Yeshua

22:53 in the last days, a heavenly song that breaks out, which is called the Song of Moses, the Bond Servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb. So these are tough times that we're living in, even apart from what's happening in Israel. I'm not sure if you feel it or not, but the, it just feels tougher. It just feels harder to find peace. It feels, It, it Scarier.

23:43 And so I wanted to address a little bit of that. Let's see. Can I get the slides up, please? There we go. This is my explanation to you. I believe that we are Experiencing Two kingdoms in conflict. I'm not talking about the kingdom, the United States and the kingdom of Iran, or those are not kingdoms. That's not what I'm talking about. But there are kingdoms in conflict, and they are affecting us, and they are affecting everyone actually in the entire world right now.

24:36 I wanna read this verse to you, you can read along with me, Ephesians six 11, for we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers governing this darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. You've heard that vo, you've heard that scripture many times. You might, you may have even memorized it, you know, talking about the armor of God and how to do spiritual warfare. But taking into account what I just said,

25:21 that we have kingdoms in conflict, and these kingdoms are the kingdom of heaven. With the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of light, with the kingdom of darkness, there is a huge conflict going on and a struggle in the heaven lease. And we can even read about it in Revelation chapter 12. Many of you say, well, what? Wait a minute, rev. We're not there yet. We're in history. We're not at Revelation yet. Well, We might be surprised, but in Revelation chapter 12, there's a huge heavenly conflict between the powers of light and the powers of darkness

26:09 between the angel Michael, who is the angel archangel over Israel, and, and fighting with the dragon, who is also called in Genesis, in, uh, revelation 12, also called Satan, or the devil, or that old serpent. So we're feeling it, you know, before I flip to the next slide, I think it would be appropriate for you to understand at least a little bit of where I'm coming from, Ari,

26:57 every week Ari stands up and talks about Israel and the struggle and, uh, what's happening. And I think we need to be careful not to take our eyes off of Yeshua. And heaven's heart, the struggle is real. The fighting is real on the ground, but it's not only on the ground. There is a conflict of kingdoms, and the kingdom of darkness has pressed, actually shown its hand. October 7th was a turning point for the entire world.

27:47 And I'm not just saying that you'll hear a lot of people saying that, not just a turning point for Israel, but for the entire world. I was in Israel on October 7th. It was a Saturday morning. I was relaxed, and then I heard what I thought was thunder. I was in one of the southern cities not far from Gaza. I heard thunder, and I thought, oh, man, what a blessing. God's gonna give us the blessing of early rain. I hear thunder. And then I heard it again, and I thought, wait a minute, that doesn't sound like thunder.

28:34 And then the next thing I heard was the siren going off, run to the shelter jump. I had to jump out of bed, run to the shelter, and take cover. And I remained that in that shelter in and outta that shelter all week until I found a flight that brought me back here to Dallas. But I can tell you that I have been under the rocket fire from Gaza before. It's never pleasant. But this was different. The town where I was received one quarter of all 25% of all the rockets

29:23 that were sent into Israel, it was heavily bombarded, but that wasn't even it. Yes, I had to stay in the shelter, in and out. But I've done that before for What was, what became weird, and I knew was a real turning point, was when the city told us on the news that there were terrorists on the loose with machine guns. So what's the point of terrorism? What's the point of a terrorist? What's the, to strike terror in the hearts of the people that they're trying to inflict?

30:12 And boy, I can tell you, it struck a lot of terror in a lot of hearts known as immune from that. You may find your equilibrium after the, after you get shocked by the terror and say, okay, I trust in the Lord. But terrorism is to strike terror. And it works. It works. The sad thing today is that we are seeing people, young people in Ivy League schools that are heralding

31:00 and glorifying terror, the group Hamas, I'm not sure they really understand what's happening. I, I mean, I, this is something that would be incredible to me. If they really knew the facts on the ground, that they would still continue to support the terror group Kamas. And they are labeled a terror group by the government of the United States. I know a lot of people say they're freedom fighters, et cetera. They're not freedom fighters. They don't care about the people They use, they use their, the children for human shields, the women and children.

31:47 It's really sad. But anyway, I want to, I want to play this video for you, which is, um, a submission, a video submission that, uh, someone in Israel or Israel submitted to Eurovision. Do you know what Eurovision is? It's like, I don't know how to describe it other than to say it's like the voice, like the idol. Not the idol, but what's it called? The, you know, the singing shows, you know, where you try to win. American Idol. American Idol. So yeah, American Idol. Thank you. Now, let's not worship America Idol. So they submitted, they submit a video, music video.

32:38 It got rejected because they, because it was written by someone who was remembering what happened on October the seventh, and the hostages that were taken and tortured. And so could, do you have access to that video? Yeah, Look, look into my eyes and see people walk away, but never say goodbye.

33:24 So and so, the moon tonight, life, everything is black and white. Who's the fool who sold you? Boys don't cry. And, and life is no game, but it's the time goes wild Every day. I'm my mind holding Mysterious Ride, dancing in, I got nothing To hide. Take It out and leave the world. Be

34:31 nana in a fancy sea. ecs, everything is meant to be you shall pass. Love will never die. And, And this long right goes what? Every day I'm losing mind, holding on. In this mysterious ride in, I got nothing to hide and leave the world

35:24 This Thank you projection.

36:11 I don't know if this was the one that you eurovision accepted or rejected, but it's very moving. If you can hear the words. It's, they're hard to hear, but hard to listen to. But so why, why does so much evil and darkness befall the people of Israel? That question has been ans asked and answered in various ways. But let me just answer it this way. It is because of the conflict of kingdoms, the kingdom of God. And the Lord himself has stamped his name on the people

36:57 of Israel, the one who strives with God. That's what Israel means, the one who strives with God. And so throughout the ages, evil has befallen the people of Israel. Why? Because of the conflict of kingdoms. The kingdom of darkness once to is attempting to snuff out the light. So there are, there's the clash of the titans.

37:44 I know you're thinking what God and Satan, there's no contest, there's no clash. God just speaks a word. And Satan's gone the clash of the titans. I'm just introducing you to the week of Passover from a different perspective. God raised up Moshe as a redeemer, actually as a messiah. Messiah simply means the anointed one. God anointed Moshe to be the redeemer in his day, and to go to Pharaoh and demand from Pharaoh, let my people go.

38:31 Now, get this. Pharaoh at this point in history has the strongest nation on earth, the most powerful nation on earth. And the Pharaoh is the most powerful man on earth. Some people used to say that about the President of the United States, the US is the strongest superpower in the world, and the President holds the most powerful office in the world. Pharaoh was like that. So you can imagine it took some chutzpah,

39:21 and I'm gonna say some holy chutzpah for Moses Mosha to go before Pharaoh and say, the Lord says, let my people go. You gotta have some faith, right? You gotta have some faith. And Moses and, and Pharaoh responds and says, I don't know the Lord, and I will not let your people go. Mosha came to be the deliverer. And with his first attempt, he was pretty disappointed. In fact, when he said, let my people go, he didn't even know.

40:08 But he triggered evil to rise because Pharaoh said, I don't know the Lord, and I'm not gonna let your people go. In fact, I'm gonna make their labor worse, harder than it was before. That's why I happen to say early, earlier, yay. Yeshua is coming His near his. The the day of the Lord is near. Well, folks, it might get worse before it gets better. The people of Israel, the, the, the scripture says in Exodus became despondent. They despaired of life

40:55 because their labor became even worse than it was before. And the, the redeemers here, wow, that's not supposed to happen. Hey, Yeshuas 12, that followed him in the, in the beginning who became apostles, except for one, they followed him fully thinking that he was now gonna restore the kingdom of God on earth in Israel. And when he got crucified, wow, that was a disappointment, wasn't it?

41:40 I mean, okay, we're sitting 2000 years after, and we know about the resurrection, and we know, you know about his second coming. But at the moment, their Messiah, their redeemer was nailed to a tree and died. And their reaction was to go to a room and hide and lock all the doors until Yeshua showed up in his raised body. I love this 'cause I'd like to do this someday. He just walked through the wall, the doors were locked.

42:28 He didn't climb through the window, break down the door. He just walked through the wall and appeared to them. Wouldn't that be a cool thing to do? You have to be careful where you go though. And so their courage began to come back. And so it was with Mosha and Pharaoh. The people of Israel experienced encouragement little by little. As time went on, they were still under severe heavy labor

43:16 and had to be greatly encouraged over and over again. But God brought 10 plagues upon Egypt, 10 plagues. Do you know that there is an Egyptian God named for each of those plagues? Who represents each of those? Whether it was blood, whether it was frogs, whether it was gnats or flies, whether it was darkness. You know, the God of the Son, the son God. This was a real conflict of kingdoms. And God said in the end,

44:04 when Israel was finally delivered, and Moses held out his staff and the sea, the red sea, the the sea split two, and Israel walked across dry land. And When they were across the waters, came back together and drowned all of Pharaoh and his army. But before the actual event, God already said to Moses, I will be honored by Pharaoh and Egypt will know that

44:50 I am the Lord. You know how he was gonna be honored by Pharaoh, by Pharaoh's hard heart. Have you ever questioned why the Bible says God hardened Pharaoh's heart? His heart was already hardened. He hardened it himself. But a number of times it says, God hardened his heart. And it tells us, right in the Book of Exodus, God hardened his heart. He, God says, I will harden his heart because I will be honored. Can I give you a little hint about God? He is gracious, loving, generous,

45:36 but he will not be dishonored. He will not. He can't be, he can't become unholy. He can't do anything that is not righteous. Righteousness is part of his nature. Holiness is who he is. That's his being. Interestingly enough, he says in Leviticus 19, he says, you, Israel are to be holy because I the Lord your God am holy. Wow. Lord, would you like to transfer that to me? 'cause I don't know if I can do it.

46:23 I like to think of holiness in this way. It's not something we do. It's who we are. I want you to be not. I want you to be holy because I am holy is not. I want you to do holy because I do holy, out of holiness comes righteous acts. So Moshe the deliverer, Pharaoh representing evil and darkness, the kingdom of evil. So the real battle was not

47:12 between Moses and Pharaoh. The real battle was between the God of Israel and the powers of darkness. Rabbi Ari mentioned that earlier. But I want to focus on that a little bit because I think it's very important that we understand this. What characterizes darkness? Well, you can read it. Galatians has a whole list of things that we do in the flesh or evil and ul. And after that list says, and no one who does these things will inherit the kingdom of God. So you can read that list for yourself.

48:01 Are those who follow Yeshua immune from doing evil? No. That's why it's so important for us to keep our eyes focused on Yeshua and to follow after him and to do what he does. Do we fail? Of course, we're sinful beings, but we've been washed by the blood of Yeshua, of that sin. So God considers us righteous in his eyes.

48:47 So the real battle and the, and the pressures that we feel now, and we can kind of feel it in the atmosphere, is this raging battle that's going on right now between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world between God, the God of Israel, who is the God of light and the kingdom of darkness with its hoard. Lemme just go, let me turn back the page a little bit and let us, let's read Ephesians again. Ephesians chapter six, and, and get the, let's get the meaning for we are not struggling against human beings,

49:35 but against the rulers that is principalities. Some of your versions say principalities the authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. This is where the battle is raging, and we are feeling it. If we choose to take a side, I hope we choose to si the side that we'll fight with God. This is Ephesians six 12.

50:22 We started out with Ephesians two, one through two. Simply Dec simply tells us that the, that we're living in a world that is ruled by what we, what the Bible calls the prince of the power of the heir, which is another way to say what he says in Ephesians six, the spiritual forces of evil, Or the powers that govern this darkness. So continuing this struggle,

51:08 I just read you Ephesians two, but we read, as I mentioned, I alluded to earlier in Revelation chapter 12, verses seven through nine. Next, there was a battle in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but it was not strong enough to win what was not strong enough to win the dragon so that there was no longer any place for them. The dragon and his angels no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown out that ancient serpent,

51:56 also known as the devil. And Satan, the adversary, the deceiver of the whole world. Friends, he's been deceiving the whole world since the Garden of Eden. This is, he's not new at this. He knows what he is doing. In fact, he, he schemes, he has a war room where he plans and schemes and conspires against God, against his people, not just against Israel. For all those who have drawn near to the Lord through Yeshua.

52:42 So the dragon and his angels were hurled down to the earth. They were all hurled down together. Maybe what we're feeling this conflict, maybe not, but maybe what we're feeling is that he just got hurled down to the earth and he is upset about it. Colossians, Ralph Shaul writes in Colossians one, 13 and 14, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved

53:29 son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin. I hope you love that. I hope you love that. Because we've been transferred from this kingdom of darkness and evil. We've been transferred out of that. You know, the Lord came knocking on my door one day and said, Hey, here's your transfer ticket. You know what? I took him up on it. I took him up on the transfer. I transferred from the power, from the, from darkness to light. I did. I knew it at the time. I transferred from darkness to light.

54:18 So this spiritual conflict, this heavenly spiritual conflict comes and actually activates on the ground, not only after October 7th, not only in October 7th and after, but look at Yeshua When He was born and Herod found out about it. The kingdom of darkness just took over. The same thing that Pharaoh did. He sent to Bethlehem, his soldiers, to kill every boy that was two years old and younger.

55:09 Can you imagine the slaughter in Bethlehem, Yeshua and his family that had already moved to Egypt by then? But can you just hear as the scripture says, Rachel, Rachel Jacob's wife that he loved is wailing and crying because of the loss of her children. Rachel's buried right near Bethlehem.

55:55 So this, this is a real conflict. Mosha was a beautiful baby as he's described. You know, he was born and his parents saw and said, wow, he is beautiful. I know every mom says their baby's beautiful, but there was something special about this. Beautiful, it's just a common word. It's a common word that's just tove. Their baby looked, their baby was good. Maybe they were just, were just good and healthy and strong. Their baby was good. But there's something uncommon about the meaning of it, because with it came an anointing, they saw something on Mosha, which I believe was the anointing and the calling of God.

56:40 I know this is gonna embarrass Ari, but Ari was born at home. And when Marlene was first holding him after he was born, very first thing, I looked at him and I saw an aura around him. I haven't said this in public before, but um, I knew he was called of the Lord and, and was anointed to, to be, to become a servant of the Lord. I never bugged him with it either. Never pressed him. In fact, when, when Ari came to me, he was a, he was, he was a full-time commercial pilot

57:25 and enjoying his job. By the way. He didn't come as a disgruntled pilot. He came enjoying his job. And he says, wow, I feel that. I feel called of the Lord to serve full-time at Ham. You know my response? No, I don't think so, Ari. No, I don't think so. I mean, you worked really hard to get all your commercial licenses. You've been working now for years as a commercial pilot. You love your job. I don't think you're called. I don't think, you know, you're called to. He says, dad, just pray with me about this. So we prayed. We prayed for 40 days

58:11 fasting and praying, not fasting from all the food, but fasting and praying. And at the end of the 40 days, we came together and Ari says, dad, what'd you hear from the Lord? And I said, nothing's changed for me. I didn't hear any change from the Lord. And he says, well, I didn't either. Something's gotta give. He feels called to come to work for em full-time. And I don't, I don't feel he is called. Well that night you hear these kind of stories, you know, that night the lawyer came to me, spoke to me, not physically right in front of me, but he spoke to my heart. He says, Marty, I don't, you know what, I'm just re just realizing now the Lord didn't call me Rabbi.

59:07 He said, Marty, He says, I know Ari's your son. I know you love him and I know you're trying to protect him, but he's my son too. I need you to move over so I can deal directly with my son. Yeah, wow. Hit me between the eyes like a brick. I said, okay, Lord. The next day I told Ari, okay, I told him what happened. So he came in and spoke to the elders, the other rest of the elders. They, they had the opposite of my reaction. When Ari said he wanted to felt called to work for ham fulltime in ministry. They jumped out of their chair. It was like they jumped out of their socks with joy.

59:54 I mean, they were really thrilled. And I said, okay, I missed it, but it got in the end. So that's what counts, right? So this spiritual conflict is really on the ground. God provided for Yeshua's safety, God provided for moshe's safety. And as you read in the book of Revelation chapter 12, he provides for Israel's safety in the end. So I just wanna share this. I wrote it down so I don't forget what I want

1:00:40 to tell you about darkness. Darkness hates the light. Darkness won't come near the light because it will be exposed. We know that from John chapter three, darkness hates the light. Darkness hates God, who is light hates Yeshua, who is light, the light of the world. Darkness hates God's redeemer. Whether it's Mosha for Israel out of Egypt or for the whole world in Yeshua, darkness hates the redeemer.

1:01:26 He hates Israel who bears the name of the Lord, and he hates those who have become co-heirs with Israel and Yeshua, the Messiah. So I'm not just saying he hates Jews or the sons of Israel. I'm saying if you're sitting here and you're not Jewish and you're follower of Yeshua, he hates you. Two, darkness hates you. Most of the time, darkness is not overt like it is now. Most of the time it lures you by something that you like or you desire because it's deceptive. Darkness is full of deception. That's its main tool.

1:02:16 Right now we're seeing overt darkness and all these university campuses, whether it's Ivy League on the East coast or whether it's UCLA on the West coast. I'm thankful, at least for what Ari mentioned, you know, ut Tex in, in Austin at least put a stop to it, You know? And if Ari, you know, if Ari's right and Texas doesn't last being pro-Israel, if then we can always move to the Jewish state of Florida to,

1:03:14 I'd like to read you some research that I found Ari compared what's happening today to the 1930s, which I would also use as a comparison. Both of my parents are Holocaust survivors. Both of my parents, my dad especially lost all of his family through the Nazi concentration camps and Nazi war machine. My mother lost all of her family except one sister. But it didn't start out with the death camps, it started out

1:04:01 with protests. It started out with some, what at first were minor limitations for Jews. They could no longer do this, they could no longer do that. And then it, then it grew. Jews could no longer attend the universities. So that's why Ari mentions the free zones, Jew free zones in the universities. That's why he's liking it to 1930s, because it actually happened in the 1930s. Let me read you a report from AP World News, the Associated Press World News on November 9th, 2023, just this last November,

1:04:49 people across Germany came together to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Crystal Nat, the night of broken glass In Germany. Antisemitic acts against the Jews of Germany have risen to today, not in 1938, have risen today, 310% in Germany. And it's actually risen an average of 300% all across Europe. I don't know what the percentage is here in the United States. It must be very high. So

1:05:34 antisemitic acts against the Jews of Germany have risen 310% in Germany since October 7th, 2023. That's the turning point. That attack against Israel was a turning point. This is the AP World News saying this, not me, I'm just reading their article. The attack against Israel was a turning point for the world, for world antisemitism, just as it was in 1938 Germany after Crystal Nat. So I'm not putting a timetable

1:06:20 or associating this, this is the AP world news, and I don't always like AP World News. I, I think sometimes they're quite biased in a certain direction. On November 9th, 1938, the Nazis killed at least 91 people vandalized 7,500 Jewish businesses, 7,500 Jewish businesses. They also burned more than 1400 synagogues. 1,400 synagogues. No, I'm not getting seen. Now, just to repeat myself, I'm just making it clear.

1:07:06 According to Israel's Yad v Sham Holocaust memorial, these, these, that's where these numbers come from. Up to 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, many of them taken to concentration camps such as Dachau Buchenwald, hundreds more killed themselves or died as a result of mistreatment in the camps years before official mass deportations began, which didn't happen until the forties. Crystal Nat was a turning point in the escalating persecution of Jews that eventually led to the killing of 6 million European Jews by the Nazis

1:07:53 and their supporters during the Holocaust. By the way, they, this is not from the article, this is just from me. They also killed 6 million other people who were not Jewish up to a million and a half gypsies. A million and a half gypsies were put in concentration camps or killed. That number varies, depending on your research could be lower. So what's the point of reading this story that happened last November 9th? The point is this, whether we've come to the turning point like Crystal na in 1938

1:08:41 or not, we need to be aware and we need to notice something has happened and something is happening. The antisemitism is not diminishing, it's not going away. It's increasing. What was the big sin of the church in Germany? Silence. The church never stood up to defy Hitler. Silence. Pastor Ys from Germany, who's been here a couple times, wrote a book about this. And he, he repents for the German people's silence during the Holocaust.

1:09:31 He says, it was our greatest sin, our greatest error. And it may be why some people are silent today. What do you mean? Why? Because people don't want to get, don't want to become a target. If we stand up and we protest the antis antisemitism that's going on right now, we might become a target. You know, if we begin to write government leaders and say, look, we need to do something about the antisemitism. We, our name's gonna be registered somewhere. And people are loathed to do that. People are afraid to do that. People don't want to get noticed. People don't want to become a target.

1:10:27 This is what Pastor Martin Nie Muer German pastor wrote. He's famous for a poem that he wrote. I'm gonna read that poem to you in a minute. But Pastor Martin Eller was a, was anti-Semitic, very pro German, very right wing anti-Semitic until Hitler arose. And he saw that Hitler was not treating the Protestant churches well, he was a Lutheran pastor. And so, you know what happened? He stood up.

1:11:14 He didn't care if he'd become a target. He stood up and he be, he had a radio show he had, he was writing stuff and he, and he spoke against Hitler's treatment of the churches, not the Jews of the churches. And his reward for that was being picked up and thrown into a concentration camp. He didn't die there. He lived because he wrote his poem that he penned in Germany in 1946, right after the war. And here it is. First they came for the communists. I didn't speak out because I was not a communist.

1:12:02 Then they came for the socialists. I didn't speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists. I didn't speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews. And I didn't speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. Today we're living with a double standard.

1:12:49 There's a standard of righteousness that God presents to us in the scripture. And he says, don't deviate from this. Don't take a bribe because you might, you know, if you're a judge, don't take a bribe because you might end up having favor towards the person who bribes you. There's a standard of righteousness. You can't deviate from it. But there's a double standard today when it comes to Israel. Professor Scott Galloway points out the appalling double standard apply to Israel. 2,200 American servicemen were killed at Pearl Harbor.

1:13:36 2200 Americans were killed at Pearl Harbor. We Americans go on to kill three and a half million Japanese, including a thousand, a hundred thousand in one night. What happened to proportionality? Is that what everybody's saying now about Israel? Wait a minute. Only 1200 of your people were killed. Only 250 were were absconded and kidnapped. You know what happened to proportionality? Well, nobody accused America of being out of proportion.

1:14:29 2,800 Americans died in nine 11, in the nine 11 attack. And Scott Galloway goes on to say, and we Americans go on to kill 400,000 people in Afghanistan and Iraq. We weren't accused of genocide, but Jews are not allowed. And Israel is not allowed to prosecute a war. And they are prosecuting a war more humanely than we have done. We Americans have done the ratio, civilians

1:15:15 to combatants is lower than it was in Mosul, lower than it was in Japan, lower than it was in Germany. There is just a different standard when it comes for Jews in Israel. They, Israel are not allowed to win a war. The double standard, well, if we only watch things that are happening in the news around the world today will get depressed. But one of the things that Israel did,

1:16:00 even though they were discouraged at first, but when God provided redemption for Israel, they, they were forced to exercise faith. They were forced to exercise trust. How? Look, God said before, before the 10th plague, God says, okay, everybody take a lamb out. A 1-year-old lamb, that's unblemished take. In other words, take your best lamb out of your flock and kill it at twilight and put the blood on the doorposts and on the lentil where all the Egyptians can see it.

1:16:47 That took some faith. We kind of go over it like it was routine. That's because, you know, personally, I've been doing seders for, well 74 years now, but it was nothing but routine. It was a scary proposition. But they took a step of faith and they did it. They trusted the Lord, faith or trust. I mean, interchanging those two, faith or trust, trust might have a little more impact. Actually, I went to visit a friend of mine who was on the 40, 40, 40 fifth floor

1:17:32 of a building downtown. Didn't think twice about catching the express elevator up to floor 50 45. When I was done with my meeting with him, I came back out to the elevator and all of a sudden I stopped. I said, wait a minute. I have to really trust that this elevator is gonna go down without any mishaps. You know, 45 floors. Well, I took a step of faith, I trusted the elevator and pushed the button and sure enough went down without any mishap. But that's like trusting God.

1:18:18 So during the 10 plagues, Israel had to trust the Lord. And the Lord provided when darkness was over Egypt, there was light in Goshen, the people of God had light. Is that such a surprise? When there's darkness and incredible darkness is coming, the people of God must have the light of God. And God was proving himself to all of Egypt. Egypt shall know I am the Lord.

1:19:03 So they, they were redeemed out of Egypt, and then they took a, they took a, uh, WA march, if you will. They took a march. Let's see if this is a proposed route. Let's see, is this working? Yeah, I don't know if that works good enough. Anyway, the, their proposed route is from Goshen. I won't go through the whole thing, but you can see it down along the Red Sea, which is the Gulf of Suez. There you go. And then across the desert, the wilderness, until they get

1:19:48 To a place by the Red Sea, the Gulf of Acaba. Lemme give you a closeup of that. So they get there and it's hard to tell, and I'll show my my next slide to you. But they stopped. God says, have them park, have them stop between pi and the al, al means the tower, or the high point or the peak. So we, they were in a mountain range. They couldn't go right or left. The only way they could go was straight. They couldn't go back because now the Egyptian army is following after them. So here they are the only place in

1:20:36 that vicinity that actually jets out. It's here. I'll show it to you on this map. It jets out and has a, a beach called the Neva Beach. It's a tourist place now. But here, can you picture two to 3 million people hanging out on this beach, you know, and back, it's a huge beach, by the way. Two to 3 million people hanging out there. And all of a sudden they see all, they see Pharaoh and all of his army coming with their chariots and their iron, iron spears, et and sorts. And they're freaking out. They, they just lose heart.

1:21:24 That's why I I repeat this over and over again from Roman, from, uh, Hebrews chapter 12. Messianic Jews chapter 12, keep your eyes focused on Yeshua. Why? So that you won't lose heart. So God provided the dividing of the sea, and they walked across on dry land, as you can see, and they were headed down back to median, to the mountain of God where Moses foresaw the Lord, the burning bush. And that's where they were going. So it took faith to do all of that. They looked around. By the way they looked

1:22:11 back, they looked back. They were the people of God looked back, they looked back to Egypt, and now they saw the Egyptians coming after them. And they just lost heart. They took their eyes off of the Lord and their faith kind of dwindled. You know, as Moses part of the sea, their, their fear parted their faith and they were living in fear. But Moses, God spoke to Moses and, and God said, have the people do not, do not tell them not to fear. Have them stand firm and be silent.

1:22:59 Okay? That's good advice for us. When we're afraid, let's not continue to voice the fear and give it some ground when we're afraid. Turn your eyes back. Turn our eyes back to Yeshua. Stand firm. Stand firm in the Messiah. Uh, Ephesians chapter six, stand. And when you're done standing, keep standing. You know, if I was the Lord and I heard somebody say, how long do I stand for Lord? The answer of the Lord would be keep standing.

1:23:50 So then Israel exercised faith. They turned around. They were led by a, a, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And that cloud, fire cloud moved to the back of Israel and came between Israel and the Egyptians. Moses stretched out his rod. God parted the sea, and Israel went across. And when Israel was across cross, the pillar left and moved across the sea and began to lead Israel again. And when the Egyptians saw that it was open, one of them had some good sense and came to the Pharaoh

1:24:36 and said, Pharaoh, I don't think we should touch this with a 10 foot pole. And but Pharaoh's heart was hard. And he says, we are gonna get, we are gonna get, we're gonna go and we're gonna kill them. So they run into the sea on dry land and the sea closes up on them. This sea right here that we're looking at, that closes up on them and they all die. Faith is demonstrated by action, by works. And Israel was demonstrating faith.

1:25:27 Yako of James in chapter two, verse 14 says, what good is it my brothers? If someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it Is such faith able to save him that faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions is dead, dead faith. Friends, in order to take, in order to be assured that you are trusting and have faith, you take a step, a step of faith, a step of faith in believing God, believing his word.

1:26:17 That's what faith means. So I just wanna share again, reiterate, faith or trust or faith slash trust is not optional in the kingdom of God. Well, today, I'll believe the scripture tells us about the man who came to Yeshua wanting healing. And Yeshua says, just trust. Just have faith, just trust.

1:27:03 And the man says, I do have faith, but I do believe, but Lord, help my unbelief. I've prayed that prayer myself at times. Lord, help my unbelief. We must walk by faith and not by sight. We must the definition of faith in mess in Messianic Jews or Hebrews chapter 11, verse one is, faith is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see. Walk by faith, not by sight. My friends, I'm almost done.

1:27:51 Some of you're saying, praise the Lord, but don't tell me. When Marlene and I first started em And first felt the call, you know, I lost my job. I was working with another ministry. I didn't lose it. I resigned because I felt called to start em. We had no income. We crashed our only car. And one of the dear brothers who's in this room today, back then, GA gave us his car to use

1:28:39 and we went to the Lord. And by the way, I crashed my car and, and really damaged. I broke my, my knee into pieces and I was laid up for a long time. It gave me the opportunity to seek the Lord even more. But Marlene and I went before the Lord and we began to pray. Lord, we have a savings account. We didn't have much. We were, we didn't have much money, but we had some, it wasn't a savings account, a few thousand dollars. And we said, Lord, we give you our savings account. If you want us to start this congregation, we give it to you.

1:29:33 So we felt the answer was yes. So we started em. 12 months later, we never touched our savings account. The Lord provided every step of the way, whether it was through finances or whether it was through doctors that we had to see or whatever, a car. So we went back to the Lord and we said, Lord, we see, we see that you've answered our prayers for the first 12 months, but we need another, another year. We need another 12 months, five years. Well, at first I think that no, Marlene says she disagrees with me.

1:30:20 So we needed another period of time, whether it was another year or five years, and we, and we, we continued to set, give our bank account to the Lord. Do you know the Lord was continuously faithful to us. We never touched our savings account. We never had to use it. God provided the whole way. But we had to take a step of faith. I didn't use to tithe. 'cause I, you know, Jews don't tithe. Even though we were taught to in the Torah, we don't do it anymore. So I didn't know how to tithe. And Marlene says to me, why don't, why don't you just try tithing, try it

1:31:06 for three months, try it. You like it? Just try tithing for three months. I said, okay, okay. Okay. So I tried tithing for three months and, and our, my paycheck was very small. I would say we needed every penny of the paycheck to just to pay our bills. But I tried it. You don't have to guess. I can just tell you outright the Lord provided for us all the way. And so we haven't quit tithing ever since because the Lord is faithful. He was faithful to Israel. He'll be faithful to us even

1:31:53 during a time of conflict. I wanna share, it's the last thing is the song of Moses Moshe and the Song of the Lamb. And I'd like you to stand up while I read this if you don't mind. This is from Revelation chapter 15, verses three and four. They were singing the Song of Moses, the Song of Mosha, the Servant of God and the Song of the Lamb. This is in heaven, great and wonderful are the things you have done.

1:32:41 Adonai God of heavens, armies, a just and True are your ways king of the nations Adonai, who will not fear and glorify your name because you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you. Your for your righteous deeds have been revealed. All nations friends, we're not living in that time yet, but it's coming.

1:33:27 All nations will come and bow down before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We are living in a foreshadowing of that time because individuals from every nation, including Israel now comes and bow. We bow our hearts before the Lord and the king of kings. But there's gonna be a time when it's not just individuals in every nation. It's every nation. And that's God's heart. Every nation will come and experience the glory of the living God cue that you are God.

1:34:15 You are the only true and living God, every other God is false and idol a false God. Lord, we come before you today thanking you for your encouragement, for for your courage that you instill in our hearts, especially when we keep our eyes on Yeshua so lords, as times of darkness seem to grow and increase, We pray that you'll steady our hearts. Help us to be firm, to stand firm, and to walk forward with you.

1:35:01 Thank you Lord. We bless you and I pray for your grace for each person who is upfront here and each person who has bowed their heart before you, once again resubmitting their lives to you. I pray that you would grace them with your presence. If there are people here, Lord, who are accepting Yeshua for the very first time we pray that you will cover them, protect the word of the Lord that's now in their hearts and encourage them in their spiritual walk. Thank you Lord. We bless you V Yeshua. Oh man,

1:35:49 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 May

1:36:42 in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shabbat alone.