A.S.K. (Part 2)

0:01 This time, I, it's my pleasure, my joy to invite Rabbi Ari up to the stage so we can hear what the Lord has done with him and his preparation. Father, we just thank you so much for the servant that you have put here. We thank you, father, that he continues to study, to show himself approved that as he opens up his mouth, that your blessings full forth. Father, we pray that our ears would be open, that our eyes would be attentive to your word, that we would be transformed more

0:46 and more into the image of your son. We thank you for using Rabbi Ari. We thank you for gifting him, and we thank you for all that you continue to do in through and around him. In the mighty name of Yeshua we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Before I get into the message this week, I just want to take a couple minutes again to refresh our memory, and perhaps we have forgotten, but there still remain over a hundred, uh, Israelis who are, uh, being held hostage in Gaza. Um, it is thought to be that only about 50

1:31 are remaining alive and the rest are being, that are being held hostage, are, are dead bodies. I'm telling you this because I want you to know, well, one thing above all else is the war is not just between Israel and Gaza. The war is a spiritual war that occur, that occurs in the heavenlies, but beyond that, it actually, it's not just a war between Israel and Gaza. Don't be fooled. The war is actually a proxy war between Iran and Israel. And I'm telling you that because another development happened yesterday,

2:18 if you missed the news, uh, a drone made it through from, from, uh, the Houthis, which are a proxy agent of Iran armed, funded and developed by Iran as our Hezbollah in the, in the north. But on Friday, uh, I think it was Thursday night or Friday morning, a um, a drone made it through to Tel Aviv, and in the midst of Tel Aviv exploded. And if my memory serves, I think one person died and eight were injured, or five were injured, something like that. But I, maybe my memory is serving wrong, but I think that is the first time since

3:04 Hussein launched Scuds in 1992, that they've reached Tel Aviv. That's a long time. Tel Aviv is, Tel Aviv is in the middle of Israel as far as you can get from either end. Not only are they being attacked from Gaza, and the war continues in Gaza, they're being attacked from Yemen, from the Houtt rebels. They're being attacked from the north and getting over a hundred rockets often a day. Now, in fact, I, I think there was also this week, I think there was, uh, a massive rocket hit in the north.

3:51 I can't remember the details on that one, but I'm telling you this because Israel is being constantly attacked and also told to stand down and not fight back, and don't defend yourself. Israel is constantly being told there should be a ceasefire regardless of your citizens. And, and may I caveat here and say at least five of them are American citizens also that are being held hostage. So Israel is being told in America hasn't done anything to help the American hostages that remain in place. I'm telling you all of this because you need to continue to pray for strength for Israel to do

4:40 what I would say is to see the job through. Because as long as there remain hostages, there remains a reason to go into Gaza. I don't know, some of, some of you are too young to remember. I am not, Which Now, I guess puts me in the old camp. Israel actually had military jurisdictional control of Gaza in my lifetime, actually in Stephen's lifetime, who's, who's younger than me. And in fact, if you are 20 years old, has been in your lifetime, you just don't remember it.

5:26 Israel had jurisdictional control. They had military outposts. They had, they had farms, they had, uh, um, what do you call them? Um, we call the areas that are enclosed, uh, uh, greenhouses, thank you. They had greenhouses. They had everything flourishing. And then in 2005, they acquiesced to world pressure. And Ariel Sharon removed, uh, the military control and also the milit and ordered the military to forcibly remove all of the Israelis who were living within, uh, within a, a particular perimeter. So they vacated these, these, uh, these farms, left amazing farms, left every piece of equipment.

6:17 Now, I don't know if you've ever been farming, but equipment is expensive. They left all the equipment, and Hamas and the PLO came through that next day, and they burned everything, set it on fire, destroyed everything. I'm telling you that because that's the mentality. The mentality is not let's let Israel live in peace. The mentality is not we can be here successful in our space, and they can be successful in their space.

7:04 The mentality is we can never be successful until they're dead. And I know that's a, that's a drastic statement, but it's at the core of the Hamas charter, which says they will fight for the, for all of the land. By the way, when you hear, when you hear the chant from the river to the sea, it means, I don't know, I don't know if you guys have ever seen those videos where somebody goes out, do, you know, says, what river, what sea? And nobody ever knows It's from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. And the following words are, will be Jew free. That was a catchy rhyme. But what that means,

7:52 let me just spell that out for you. What that means is the extermination of the Jewish people, and it doesn't stop in Israel. That's step one. And then it's to everywhere. So despite world pressure, what Israel is doing now is holding back a tide that will sweep through the world of murder, war, hostages, whatever it is that you see right here in the microcosm of this war between Israel and Gaza is a just a sample of what will be If Israel breaks.

8:42 So you need to continue to pray. We are continuing on in the book of Acts X. Last week I told you that I had to split this section in two because I knew I couldn't cover the full 14 verses in, in, in my allotted time, and apparently I couldn't even cover four in my allotted time. So this is, is part two. Last week, we, the message was, uh, was called your Faith diet. So this is your faith diet part two.

9:27 And I, and I've actually entitled it, ask Capital A Periods, you can just make a mental note and ask the question, what does that mean? And you'll find out I want to do just a little bit of what I did last week and remind us, because we're in Acts chapter eight, Remind us just a little bit of what has happened and where we are contextually. So in Acts chapter one, verse eight, uh, the disciples hear, they hear from Yeshua and Yeshua says, but you'll receive power from the Kodesh, uh, when the Rokos has come upon you,

10:12 and you will be my witnesses. So this sets the trajectory for the whole book of Acts. You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem through all Judah Samaria and to the end of the earth. This is the trajectory for the spread of the good news concerning the Promised Messiah of Israel as recorded in the Book of Acts. The question that should be asked initially, which we didn't, but we're, we're doing now, is, was the Messiah of Israel just for the people of Israel. Now, I know the answer is here

10:58 because it says Jerusalem, Judah, what's next? Samaria and to the end of the earth. So obviously the answer is they're embedded in the text, is the Messiah of Israel is not just for Israel, it's for all of the nations, the Messiah of Israel. In fact, you may think that this is something new in, in biblical history that here we are, uh, Jesus has come on the scene and he has decided that, that he's shifting gears from calling the people of Israel for a particular purpose. And he's shifting gears and saying, you know what? Let's leave them behind. It hasn't worked.

11:44 Let's go to all the nations. Now, if you think that I, I just, I'm not going into it, but you can go listen to last week's message, but I will say that this is nothing new. How can I say it's nothing new? Because if you have spent any time with Cheryl, you know that Isaiah 49, 6 says, is it too trifling a thing or too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved ones of Israel? In other words, it's not enough For the Messiah to be for the tribes of Jacob and the preserved ones of Israel. And so he says, so Isaiah continues, so I will give you

12:32 as a light for the nations that you should be my salvation. Where to the end of the earth, ah, we have some, some textual overlap here all the way to the end of the earth. Lemme just tell you something about the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah was written approximately 800 years before the Book of Acts. So here we have well into early history of, of Israel, something that shows us that the, the Messiah, the re the promised one, the redeemer is going to come, and then salvation will be for all of the nations.

13:22 This is already a concept central in Judaism, whether or not it's recognized. That being said, let me ask a question. Wouldn't it be so much simpler, so much easier if redemption or if salvation in required everyone to become a part of the nation of Israel? It would be so much simpler. If you think about it, you found the Messiah great. You do these things and become a part of the people.

14:07 It makes you different from everyone else. Now, we're a set apart people. It's super simple and super easy. If that were true, if everyone who came to faith in Yeshua were simply required to live the same way, eat the same foods and follow the same regulations, it would be so much simpler. But I just want you to think about the beauty that would be lost.

14:52 Now I'm thinking here, I I I'm challenging you to think about the beauty that would be lost. I haven't even talked about some scriptural evidence that points the other way. I just want you to think about what is lost. If every everyone comes and becomes the same homogenous, they become the same in the people of Israel, our God, the creator, God who created everything, didn't really do anything, simply, did He. It's all quite complex. In fact, I once heard, uh,

15:37 I don't know if I wanna give that example. Nevermind, I'll, I'll give the example. I, I once heard someone say that the chances of the creation of life without God overseeing and directing it and just evolving into us is the same chance as having all of the parts for an F 16 in a hangar. And one of the tornadoes that comes through tornado alley coming into the hangar, and then afterward the fighter is assembled.

16:24 Our God is a complex God, and he creates complex beauty that resides in all of his creation. So beyond the loss of beauty, if we were, if, if it was necessary for everyone to become a part of Israel for the purposes of salvation beyond the loss of beauty, it actually violates the central tenet of Judaism. Now, we say a prayer in the m mornings and in the evenings, twice a day. We've already said it here in service Twi, uh, once at least

17:14 that has become the foundation or the, the cornerstone upon which monotheism is built. Monotheism directs directly comes back here to this scripture in Deuteronomy six, which says, SHA what? Hero Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is what one, if God is one. Well, let me before I, before I get into the explanation, let me say this, it was common. And, and I think it, it, it's weird, we're coming back to some similar, some similarities to ancient times. It was common in ancient days for every people group

18:00 to have their own God, you know? So if you were a part of the Amorites, you'd have an amorite God. If you were part of the Moabites, you'd have a Moabite God. If you were part of the, all of the different, its, you'd have all these different gods. Egyptians had, gods Israel had, had God, Everybody had a God. And when you went to war against each other, whoever prevailed what it was or what it was assumed was that God became victorious over the other one. Now, it's interesting because it often represented either the destruction or the elimination or the minimization of that God, of that people. But when you see Israel succumb, um, excuse me. When you see Judah succumb to Babylon

18:47 and go into exile, something happens, and it's in the scripture. I don't know if you ever have paid attention who goes into exile with the people. God, it says that the, the the whole, the the shaina, the the, uh, the cloud that was over the, the temple went with the people and followed the people into Babylon. I'm telling you that because it's interesting. Our God doesn't behave like the other gods

19:32 when the, when with here, with the Shama, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is said to be one God the Lord arga, the Lord is one. This is the established establishment, as I mentioned of monotheism. There is only one God, not many gods of different nations. It doesn't mean, by the way, that there are not spiritual entities that carry power in those nations. I'm not saying that those don't exist. I'm saying that there is only one God over all Those other ones. We call them pretenders or something like that, or, uh, we, we could go into lots of different things, but that's not the focus of my message by saying that there is only one God. It actually means this.

20:18 The God is both the God of the Jews and the God of the Gentiles. That's what's saying, there's only one God means if God is only the God of the Jews and not the Gentiles, then that means that by necessity, that there must be a God of the Gentiles, which by necessity actually means our God isn't God and he isn't one because he's not God of both. So if our God is one, and if he is the creator God, then he's got to be God of everyone. So therefore, if salvation or redemption necessitated a change from being a gentile to being a Jew, then it negates

21:07 the lordship of our God. Do you understand if you're required to go from one to the other either way, because now both are, both have historical precedence. Now, either way, negates the lordship, the overseer ship, the kingship, the almighty ship, whatever ship you want to call it, except for the enterprise, It, the Starship, our God is God of everything, and therefore necessitates that you don't have to change to the other in order to follow him as God, as king, as ruler, as savior, as redeemer of your life.

21:54 And that is a central tenet of Judaism be why? Because the Shema is a central tenet, or I would say the central tenet of Judaism. So here I, why do I give all of that? Because here we are witnessing the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Yeshua beginning to have effect. Where? In Samaria, outside of the house of Israel. Now, I recog I recognize that you can make an argument that there's, that there's some blood relation historically, but regardless of historical evidence, they are considered to be outside of the house of Israel by all of the House of Israel.

22:40 During this time, they're considered to be beyond the limits of Israel. Thereby what we're seeing is the expansion of the kingdom of God and the name of Yeshua beyond just the house of Israel. And it's, and, and it's considered here to be an intentional development in the spread of the good news. Why do I say it's intentional? Because we'll see in just a moment, the emissaries, the apostles come down to bless the work. Well, first they come down to verify the work, and then they end up blessing the work and continuing the work.

23:27 So it seems to me that it's an intentional expansion or development in the plan of God to go beyond the barriers of Israel. And so last week we discussed Simon, the Magician. We discussed magic signs and wonders and how it all compares to what Philip is doing. And we finished with Simon believing the good news, being immersed and watching the signs and wonders that are happening. So now we continue on and I'll read the whole passage just so we have everything in context. We continue on. In fact, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna start back a couple verses so, so that we don't miss anything.

24:16 Acts chapter eight, We'll start in verse four. Now, those who have been scattered went around proclaiming the word. Philip went down to the main city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah. To them, the corrals were playing close attention, paying close attention to what Philip was saying, as they both heard and saw signs that he was doing for unclean spirits were coming out of many who were plagued, shrieking with a loud voice. Many paralyzed and crippled were, were healed also. So there was great joy in that city. Now, a man named Simon who had been practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria saying he was someone great, they were all paying special attention to him saying,

25:01 this man is the power of God that is called great. And they kept paying attention to him because for a long time he had astonished them with his magical arts. But when they believed Philip proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of the Messiah, Yeshua, both men and women were immersed. Even Simon himself believed. And after being immersed, he continued with Philip and he saw great signs and great miracles happening. He was continually amazed. Now, when the emissaries in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the message of God, they sent Peter and John to them. They came down, prayed for them to receive the ruakaka kodesh, for he had not yet come upon them.

25:47 They had only been immersed in the name of the Lord Yeshua. Then they began laying their hands on them and they were receiving the ruakaka kodesh. Now, when Simon saw that the akko was given through the laying on of hands by the emissaries, he offered them money saying, give this power to me too, so that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the kodesh. Peter said to him, may your silver go to ruin and you with it because you thought you could buy God's gift with money. You have no part or share in this matter because your heart is not right before God. Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord if possible, the intent of your heart might maybe pardoned

26:35 for I see in you the poison of bi bitterness and the bondage of unrighteousness. Simon replied, pray for me so that none of what you have said may come upon me. So when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem proclaiming the good news to many Samaritan villages. So here we are in verses we're gonna start with verses 14 through 17. We'll, we'll chunk through these. Here we are. The emissaries have heard it's during a a, a time of great persecution and, and during this time of great persecution, I would presume that they didn't discuss, Hey, you know what? We're all suffering. We're gonna send you here, we're gonna send you here, Philip,

27:20 we're gonna send you to Samaria. Have fun down there. Uh, I presume that's not what happened as what happens with persecution when it comes upon you. Everybody just kind of scatters. And it seems that Philip went to Samaria and Philip is there In In, in talking about the good news of the Lord in the, in the name of Messiah, Yeshua. And now what they, they begin to hear about it, about what's happening in Samaria under Philip's oversight. And they know that they need to go and affirm that this is the will of the Lord. So they send Peter and John, by the way, this is a pretty typical pairing. Peter and John. They, this is,

28:06 this is not the first time Peter and John have even been paired in the, in the Book of Acts, Peter and John. And just as a, as a tidbit, I know I've mentioned this before, it's my opinion that Peter and John are both the oldest and the youngest of the group that Peter is. Well, we don't know Peter's age, but we do know that in the gospel accounts, Peter is at least 20 and none of the rest of the disciples are yet 20, uh, because Yeshua has to pay temple tax for himself and for Peter. And yet all the disciples go. So Peter and John go, we often think, I don't know, if I were to do a quick poll and say who out of Peter and John who's the fiery

28:51 and impulsive one, I'm pretty sure I'd come back with about a 99% vote that it's Peter. But I just, I want to, I wanna say John, though, he's often known as the loving disciple or you know, the beloved one. He also carries a little fire in him in the book of Luke chapter nine. Uh, in fact, I'll just read it. Chapter nine, verses 51 through 54. This is when they're walking with Yeshua. When the days were approaching for him to be taken up, Yeshua was determined to go up to Jerusalem. He sent messengers before him, and they went and entered a Samaritan village to make his arrangements,

29:37 but they did not receive him because he was focused on going up to, to Jerusalem. In other words, we don't want you here because you're going to Jerusalem, get out of our town. When his disciples, Jacob and John who John saw this, they said, master, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Those are battle words. And if that doesn't strike up the image of one Kings, Uh, 18 or 19, I can't remember which one it is, where Elijah is on Mount Carmel and, and, and he's,

30:24 and he says, Hey, all of you, pray to your God all 850, you pray to your God. And you know, let's see which God, which one of our gods drops fire on our offering to consume the offering. By the way, that is one of my absolute favorite stories. You should, you should definitely go read that story. But it reminds me of that John says, let me call fire down upon him and consume them all. This same, John is the one that has now been dispatched with Peter as a restraining force to go to Samaria. So he goes to Samaria and, and to witness what's going on.

31:14 And it's interesting because actually what happened, or what happens is the first, well, the first time that we have recorded John goes, goes there and he wants to call down fire on the people for not accepting Yeshua. This time, if I can, he calls down a different kind of fire. He calls down the Holy Spirit to fill the people and to, to consume the people. It, it's, it's a slight variation on fire, but it's a still a consumption of the people. So here we should ask a question, why are they going down to Samaria? Well, the text tells us. The text tells us that they hadn't received the,

32:01 the Holy Spirit, the Ko yet. And so, you know, commentators make a a a different different comment about this all over the place. But what happens? They come down, they pray, they lay their hands on the people and the Holy Spirit fills them up. Could it be that God is confirming the work in Samaria because it's questionable in the Jewish mindset, we're outside of our borders, we're outside of our, of our family, of our level of familiarity. Not even that we're kind of with some enemies who have a different religion and they worship on a different mountain. It could be that God is confirming visibly what's going on

32:50 for the sake of everyone else. Yes, going to the Samaritans is exactly what I wanted you to do. Let me pour out my spirit upon them so that you can see that I'm approving of that. It could be that he waited for the emissaries. We don't know what is known or what I can tell you about this circumstance is that this is a descriptive Passage, not a, I learned this from Marcus prescriptive passage, which means it's describing what happens, not telling you it has to happen this way all the time. In fact, you can go through the book of Acts and investigate all of the times that the spirit of God is poured out, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon people.

33:37 It's quite different throughout the entire book of Acts. In fact, I wonder if Acts is partially to give us a, a, an understanding of the variability or the variation of how the Spirit of God comes upon people, and that it's not always the same way. You don't always have to do A, B, and C to get D. It could be a different way. By the way, if it's always A, B and C to get D, then that sounds strikingly similar to what I said about magic last week, which is we always do one and two for a result of three.

34:28 So here, let's move on in verses 18 through 24. Now, when Simon saw that the ruakaka kodesh was given on, uh, well, excuse me, was given through the laying on of hands by the emissaries, he offered them money saying, give this power to me too, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the ruakaka kodesh. Peter said to him, may your silver go to ruin and you with it because you thought you could buy God's gift with money. You have no part or share in this matter because your heart is not right before God. Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent

35:14 of your heart may be pardoned for I see in you the P poison of bitterness and the bondage of unrighteousness. Simon replied, pray for me so that none of what you have said may come upon me. Here we have noted Simon's reaction. So I want you to remember Simon did what he believed the kingdom of God in the kingdom of God in the name of Yeshua. And he then did what he was immersed in the name of Yeshua, we would presume in the text. And now he sees what's going on and he says, I, I want that power not so that God may be glorified.

36:00 He sees this power coming through the laying on of hands by the emissaries. It to me that by, from the text, it seems that his old self has not truly changed yet because his response to them and as a, as an after action of seeing what, what happens with the power, his response to them is, let me buy that. Here's some money if you will just let me do that. Uh, through the laying on of hands, One issue here that strikes to me, he is still working for his own glory. He's not working for the glory to be given to God. He says, let me buy it so that I can do that.

36:49 He doesn't say so that I can give glory to God. He doesn't say so that the Lord may be known among all Samaria. He wants it so that he can be known. Peter's response tells us that there is a physical consequence for the stance of one's heart. In this case, Simon, what Peter says, Simon will have no share of the kodesh because his heart is not right before the Lord. And in fact, Peter's kind of flabbergasted. I I would presume some of some of us would be the same if,

37:36 if we saw someone saying, Hey, let me, uh, lemme get in on some of that power action. I I'll give you some money. I'm pretty sure half, at least half of us would go, okay, you stay over there because that's where lightning's gonna strike and I'll just stay over here. I just wanna watch, because it's a, it's an absurd response to think that the spirit being poured out in someone's life would bring glory to us. It's an absurd response. And in fact, I just wanna point out

38:25 the spirit being poured out in someone's life is God's free gift, which is what Peter says. He says, this is God's free gift and you are trying to pay for it. When you try to pay for something that's free or that's a gift of God, you are now diminishing the value. It's kinda like those, um, MasterCard commercials. You know, this costs this much money, this costs this much money. This is priceless. Well, it's either priceless or it's worthless. It's one of those two, In this case, it's priceless. It's a gift that's given free. It doesn't cost anything, but he's trying to, trying to shelve some money out for it. And, and that's not the way it works, by the way,

39:12 that's not the way it works in any of our lives. God's gifts to us are just that. Now, we, we might be able to develop them, you know, if we're an artist, we might be able to go take some artist classes or if we're a singer, we might be able to take some, some voice lessons. Or if we're a musician, we might be able to take some music lessons. We might be able to develop it, but we can't buy the gift. I wish I could because then I could sing for you guys and, and all of you wouldn't just run out. Although I did think I probably could have opened up with the national anthem for the, uh, for the, for the home run, for the home run derby the other day. Sorry,

39:59 I'm just saying I wish I had that gift, but I don't, and I love the fact that some of you do because y'all lead me to places that I can't lead myself. So Peter's reaction, he strongly rebuked Simon, and he says, your wealth is gonna go to ruin. Your flesh is gonna go with it just because you wanted to buy something which is free. And he says, you will have no part or share in this matter. Why? Because your heart is not right. And then he says, he offers Simon another chance. By the way, I just wanna point out, this just shows all of us have another chance. He says, he says, repent

40:46 and pray to the Lord that the intent of your heart may be pardoned if possible. He doesn't say that. It, it will be though. I, I suggest if we approach the Lord in the right manner, the Lord would forgive us. But he says, pray that the intent of your heart may be pardoned if possible. Peter sees the content of Simon's heart, the content being, he points out two things. One of them is poison of bitterness. Reminded me of a few scriptures, one from Deuteronomy 29 17, which says, beware in case there is among you a man or a woman or family

41:32 or tribe whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God to go serve the gods of those nations. Beware in case there is among you a root producing poison and a bitter fruit. In other words, when there's a a root of bitterness, it's because the heart has already turned to go serve different gods. Now, it's hard for us in, in Western America to think about serving gods that are not. Uh, It is just hard for us to think in terms like that. We're gonna go serve a different God. No, we don't really think about that. We think, you know what? I don't really need to believe in God. I'm gonna put my time

42:19 and my energy into building up my legacy into working so that I can support my children and my grandchildren, which by the way, is a biblical principle from the Book of Proverbs. But I'm doing it so it, it supports my legacy. Or maybe sometimes I just wanna support my legacy. Forget my children. I just want my name to be out there that God, by the way, is called self. Now, there are other gods, and I would challenge you, one of the ways you can find out which Gods you serve is by investigating your credit card statement

43:06 and seeing what commonality you, where you spend the most of your money. Now, I'm not trying to condemn you or anything, I'm just telling you, when you look at where you spend your money and where you spend your time, what Yeshua says is where your treasure is there, your heart will also be. He doesn't say where your heart is. You're gonna put your money. He says where your money is, that's where your heart's gonna be. So if you go find where you spend all your money, you'll find where your heart is Or where you spend all your time. Hebrews 12 says, see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and see to it

43:53 that no bitter root springs up and causes trouble. And by it many be defiled. James three 16, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there will be disorder into every vile practice. All of these things you're talking about, the bitterness that comes or, or the root that produces bitterness. That and, and when it exists. What are the other things that happen if we allow jealousy and selfish ambition to exist within ourselves? It causes bitterness and then it spreads through loose lips. You ever hear the proverb, blue slips, sink ships? It is not from the book of Proverbs.

44:38 I don't, I don't know what, I don't know where it comes from, but it comes from somewhere. But what we see here in James also is it will cause disorder with the community immunity. So when there is a root of bitterness, what the evidence is, is you'll see disorder emanating from that person. Everyone that they, they interact with will come. There will be disorder that that surrounds it. And you will also see vile practices. Simon's response, I have a question for y'all, you don't have to answer it, but is Simon's response, right?

45:26 He intrigues Peter to pray for him so that none of these things would happen. It seems to me a good response when we first look at the text. Peter says, your money's worthless. How dare you buy the, the free gift of God? Repent all of these things. And and Simon says, pray for me that these things don't happen to me. Sounds like a good response, right? I'm gonna tell you it's a bad response because he doesn't do what Peter explicitly tells him to do. Peter says, repent

46:15 by the way, when you say pray for me, that these things don't happen, zero of that is repentance, regardless of whether it's repentance or not. Peter says, pray to the Lord and he comes to Peter and says, pray for me. It's not bad to ask someone to pray for you, but when the Lord has told you something and revealed something in your life, if you don't repent and pray to the Lord, you're responding incorrectly. If our reaction is to you, pray for me, Then I'm gonna tell you, you have the same reaction that Simon has here and it's not the right reaction. I'm happy to pray for you.

47:01 I have no problem praying for anyone. But when the Lord tells you to do something particular and that exact thing, don't come to me out of rebellion and say, pray for me, because it doesn't matter if I pray for you or not, I can't stop what's coming because you haven't done what God said, which is repent. Repent. And I'm gonna tell you, this should be this. This can be for almost any instance I can think of. I didn't, I didn't pre-plan this part. This can be for anything in your life. Your response should be repent and pray to the Lord. It doesn't mean you don't bring someone else alongside.

47:46 Hey, listen, I've got this struggle. You know, I've been robbing banks dressed as a desperado. I dunno, did you guys hear about this? Like this guy going around robbing banks, wearing a mask like with a, in a full suit with a, some hat, some hat on in a, in a covid mask and a hands gloved, like he looks like he's protecting against covid and he just goes in and says, gimme your money and walks right out. I can't. I got so distracted. What did I, uh, Rep, rep Repent, thank man. Sometimes I just go down these trails.

48:35 You can repent for everything that you do wrong in your life. I'm gonna tell you, you can repent. You can go to the Lord and say, Lord, please forgive me. You can even say, please forgive the intent of my heart. You may or may not know, by the way, the intent of your heart, because the heart is widely, uh, deceptive. You can repent for the intent of your heart, and then you can say, you know what? I need somebody to make sure I don't do this again. And, and then you can go to that person and say, listen, I just repented to the Lord. I, uh, asked him to, to forgive me. I confessed that I was this bank robber, and, and,

49:24 and I need you to make sure I don't rob any more banks. And that person may go, well, first let me, let me call the police and tell them who you are. No, I'm just playing kind of. You could always have someone that's walking with you through your struggles. That's not what I'm talking about. You cannot rely on that person's repentance for your own forgiveness. It doesn't work like that. God requires a heart change in us. By the way, even with Simon's response,

50:11 it seems like all he's doing is wanting to avoid the consequences of his actions. I dunno, if you ever have someone confess after the situa situation, this happened to me all the time when I was a child, my dad would come to me and go, did you do this? Oh, dad, I'm so sorry I did that. I've been meaning to tell you at that point, confession really doesn't mean quite so much because you're avoiding consequences at that point. So here we come to verse 25. So when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, proclaiming the good news to many Samaritan, villages,

50:57 the emissaries, Peter and John in particular testified concerning the validity of what the people had already heard through Philip. They're there to confirm what God is doing. And the confirmation comes through the evidence from the pouring out of the Spirit. When they're done there, they be, they return to Jerusalem, and on their way back, they stop in other Samaritan villages to share the kingdom of God and the Messiah, Yeshua. And so we see that the growth into Samaria is supported by the Lord, and also it shows us that with the expansion of the good news or the kingdom, uh, of the kingdom of God, also it goes back to Jerusalem.

51:43 So what does this mean for us? I'm gonna leave you with four primary questions, but I got a couple, uh, extra ones. Also. First of all, is anyone lacking an element in their faith walk? You see what ha the reason Peter and John go down is because the, the Holy Spirit hasn't been poured out on them. Is there something in your faith walk that you're lacking? Let me encourage you what Yeshua says in Matthew. Chapter 70 says, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be open to you.

52:28 A SK ask, put that into your faith diet. How do you react in different situations? Do you allow a root of bitterness to appear in your life? Do you share that root with others through conversation? Oh, I'm just talking about my experience today. Just be careful what you just talk about and see whether it edifies the Lord or not. When confronted, do you check the intent of your heart or can you even see the intent of your heart? I challenge some of us. No, I lemme rephrase. Most of us, if not all of us

53:16 at least sometimes don't know the intent of our heart. So don't jump to assume that you know the intent of your heart until you've gone with the Lord and said, Lord, I just want you to take your, your flashlight, your Holy Spirit and, and just point anything out to me that's not supposed to be there. And when you do that, by the way, the, if you ask the Lord, he's faithful to do it. Don't get upset when something gets pointed out and you're like, oh, didn't know that was there. Then the response is, Lord, I'm sorry. I didn't know that was there. Please forgive me for the intent of my heart. And guess what? The Lord is gonna be faithful to forgive you

54:04 because when you ask, it will be given. And when you seek, you'll find, and when you knock, the door will be open for you. My third question is, is how can we help the good news return to Jerusalem today? You see, we're gonna get into this way more, uh, beyond Acts 10, acts 15, and really toward the end of Acts. So perhaps next year, um, we'll get into it way more. But the reality is, is with every expansion of the kingdom of God, there also is a move back to Jerusalem. Now, what we have been in

54:51 for the last 1900 years is an expansion of the good news of the Kingdom of God in the name of the, of Yeshua, our Messiah, to the end of the earth. That's where we are in history. And yet what it seems to be is over the last perhaps 75 to a hundred years is there's maybe, maybe even 150 is there is a move back to Jerusalem. By the way, I don't know if you realize this, Israel is one of the most unreached people groups in the world in terms of the gospel.

55:39 And I, I think the number, Terry, maybe you remember this number, I think I got it from you guys, is, is I think the number's less than 1%. It's like a half a percent or something of Israel has even heard the good news. I'm not talking about per following Yeshua with our lives dedicated. I'm talking about or hearing it. Israel is one of the most, we think of the unreached people groups being like Pap Pua New Guinea, or you know, like Malaysia or Indonesia, like, you know, those in the far East because we just don't, we don't, we don't think about that. But Israel is one of the most unreached people groups in the world.

56:25 It astounds me actually considering that at least our, well, I don't want to anyways. How can we help, how can we participate in the Lord's strategy concerning the good news going back to Jerusalem, back to all of Israel? What is it that we can do to help it reach its full potential? So let me just leave you with this. What is your faith diet? And ask, ask about it. And I don't mean just ask, but I mean, ask, seek, knock. The Lord will reveal it to you, our Father in heaven. Lord, we thank you, uh, for, for this passage. Lord, I thank you for, for those disciples

57:13 that are here, Peter and John. Lord, I just thank you for, um, for Peter's life and John's life and as they are such examples for us and how to live Lord. And, and I just ask that you would, that you would reveal yourself to us this week, that you would draw us near to you and that we would be near to you in Yeshua's name. Amen. You

58:15 Yeshua, in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shabbat.