Faithfulness

0:00 At this time, I'd like to invite Rabbi Ari caught me off guard. This time you just start walking. Father, we come to you and we just thank you for your goodness and your mercy. Father, we thank you that you'll continue to work and to will to do your good pleasure in Ari Waldman. Father, I pray that you would use him mightily today. All the preparation. Father, even the struggles throughout this week, father, that you would use those, that you would bring him together, that he may proclaim the goodness of your word. Father, give us eyes to hear. Give us ear. Give us eyes to see. Give us ears to hear the proclamation of the good news as it comes forth. In the mighty name of Yeshu we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

0:47 Thank you Marcus. Really would love some of those eyes that can hear. I, I, it'd be super beneficial. Just realized I forgot to refresh my technology this morning. Make sure I had the most up to date PowerPoint. But let me, let me get started as I have every Shabbat really for, well, every Shabbat that I've been here for the last

1:33 15 months maybe, are we at 16 months? We're somewhere right around there. 16 months there remain 59 hostages in captivity. Some alive and some not. Amass has rejected any extension of the first phase of the cease fire, which has now concluded, and they will only consider according this is what they said, they'll only consider a complete withdrawal of the IDF and an end to the war before they return any more hostages. They would like to point out that it is

2:18 to me significant to remember that before October 7th, 2023, there were no hostages and there was no war, and then they invaded This week. I mean, I, I, I like just to give you some, some news headlines that, that come across, uh, whether or not you, you get your, your news from a newspaper or you get it on your feed. And if you know that language, then you know what I'm talking about. And if you don't, well you don't. That's fine. Wherever you get your news, I highly, I tried to find things that may or may not make it across your news platform.

3:06 This week, I suspect this probably made it across many of them. But this week, the Israeli Air Force and the United States Air Force conducted a joint exercise that saw an Israeli F 35 I and F 15 I fighter jets fly alongside a US B 52 strategic bomber. By the way, that's one of the biggest bombers that America has. And, uh, I suspect it's probably a, maybe a little bit of a warning, warning shot across the bow. Um, whether or not you re you didn't, perhaps you didn't realize it. I didn't realize it until right before service last Shabbat. But, uh, Ramadan started Friday, a week ago, Friday night,

3:53 a week ago, as have all of the movements in Jerusalem for Muslims to prey on the Mount, The Temple Mount in an, in an Oval office briefing on Thursday, president Trump said, if the hostages are not released, action will be taken. And I don't know if you saw that he was pressed by the press, he was pressed to, to say whether or not American action was, was going to be taken. And I don't know that he quite answered it forthrightly. Um, but he did say in a, well,

4:40 I guess it's not called a tweet, whatever his post on Truth, truth, thank you. Uh, he said, Shalom, Hamas. And then he said, Shalom means hello and goodbye. You can choose which one you want. I'm paraphrasing. Now you can choose which one you want it to be. I received a note, I think it was yesterday, could have been Thursday, that it looks like Syria is descending back into civil war again. The Turks are fighting the Kurds up north, the as. Those are the, those who are faithful to, um, the, the previous dictator, uh, who is now in Russia

5:27 are fighting the Jihadists, the Alawites, which is a sect of the, um, Shiites are fighting the Sunnis. And in all of this, I don't know this, this one to me was quite amazing in all of this. In fact, let me, I I would like to mirror, uh, projection. I'm gonna go ahead and cast attempt to cast here maybe in the southern part of Syria as this is working in the southern part of Syria. There is what is called,

6:17 is that playing? Can you guys, uh, no. Maybe my device tells me it is. Oh, just go to slide one if you want to pop it up there for me. Oh, here we go. Perfect. This is a map of what's happening currently in the southern part of Syria. You can see there's two green elements. It says Drews and InBetween. It says the autonomous Drews territory. This is for all intents and purposes, most of southern Syria, almost to the gates of Damascus. And the Drew's autonomous zone has requested

7:04 for Israeli military backing and to be underneath the protection of Israel. And I don't know if you remember, uh, maybe it was two months ago, I think, I can't remember, but the where the, where the top little green section is, is those six villages that I mentioned. They, they got together and they made a petition to the Israeli government to be, um, brought into the, the land of Israel because they want to be reunited with their family who live on the other side of the line. And now these two, the Drews have taken over southern Syria and they are asking to be in alliance with Israel's. Quite a fascinating, when you just look at geographically

7:51 what it, what it represents, it's quite fascinating. Russia, as of yesterday, landed a stealth jet in Iran. And then this morning I woke up to the news that Lebanon's president has now met or is meeting with today. I I, there was a picture, so it was already passed at that point. Um, met with the Crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and and you say, why is that important? Because Saudi Arabia and Iran are at war. It was very quiet, but they're enemies of each other. So when you're a friend of one,

8:36 you're the enemy of the other. And Lebanon has been housing Hezbollah, which is a political party in Lebanon and actually even voted into rulership. But with everything that happened, starting with the beepers, however long ago that was, Hezbollah has, their reign of power has been shaken, and now they have been greatly diminished. And to the point that the president of Lebanon feels it's okay to outrightly go against Iran, the this is like, I don't know, just think about the, the, the alliance that was across all north of Israel.

9:23 It was Lebanon, Syria, northern Iraq and Iran, all underneath the influence. And then also you have the Houthis in the south all underneath and, and backed financially by Iran, Which I, I'm gonna say one more thing because it's not just Iran. And, and this, this one gets ignored in America because they are the funders of most American universities. But Qatar is one of the biggest funders of Hamas in the world, and they're also the ones who are in charge of the negotiating the peace deals. So think about getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar while negotiating peace

10:11 concerning the cookies. Anyways, I wanna show, I, I wanna show one more video. I wanna show a video, a brief video. I think it's about a minute. Maybe it's two minutes long. Um, because I, I've give been giving updates on what's happening in the Middle East, but I never watch 'em because I, I think it's an echo chamber now. Uh, but this last week we had the Oscars, and, and I want to, I want to play a, a, a video commentary on a video that won best documentary. I feel like that's an important piece of information to have when you have a, when you have this sentiment that is prevalent now in the United States.

11:00 So we are going to finish Acts chapter 14 today. Let me get my notes straight up here. The problem with having an iPad also, okay, acts 14, by the way, just for those of you who have difficulty counting, when we finish Acts 14, it means that we're gonna launch into Acts 15, because 15 comes after 14 and 15 to me is a, an important chapter for us,

11:46 uh, today also. So what I want to do for you is actually read all of chapter 14 so you can hear everything in context as, as the narrative is flowing. Actually, 13 and 14 are, are, are an actual unit. So if I were to be totally true to the text, I would read all of it, but that's a lot. But let's, so let's start in chapter 14. Now, in Iconium chapter 14 verse one, the same thing happened. They entered as usual into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a large number of Jewish and Greek people believed, but the Jewish people who would not believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So they stayed there at considerable times,

12:31 speaking boldly in the Lord, who was testifying to the message of his grace granting signs and wonders to come about by their hands. But the population of the city split. Some were with the Jewish leaders and some were with the emissaries. Now, it happened that an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jewish people, along with their rulers to abuse and to stone them. But they found out about it and fled to the Ian cities of SRA and derby and the surrounding countryside. There they proclaimed the good news. Now, a man was sitting in Leister without strength in his feet, lame from birth, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking, when Paul looked intently at him and saw that he had faith to be healed, he said,

13:17 with a loud voice, stand right up on your feet. And the man leaped up and began to walk around. Now, the crowd seeing what Paul had done, lifted up their voices saying, in Laconian, the gods have become like men and have come down to us. And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the main speaker, the priest of Zeus whose temple was before the front gate of the city, brought bulls and garlands. He wanted to offer a sacrifice with the people. But when the emissaries, Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out among the crowd, crying out and saying, men, why are you doing these things? We too are human just like you.

14:04 We proclaim the good news to you, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them. In past generations, we, he allowed all the nations to go their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without a witness. He did good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with joy and gladness. Even saying these things, they barely restrained the crowd from sacrificing to them. But Jewish people came from Antioch and Iconium, and after they won the crowd over and after they won the crowd over and stoned Paul, they were dragging him outta the city, supposing him to be dead.

14:50 But while the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went back into the city. On the next day, he left with Barnabas for Derby. After proclaiming the good news to that city and making many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to I, Iconium and to Antioch. They were strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to per them to persevere in faith and saying, it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God. When they had handpicked elders for them in every community and prayed with fasting, they placed them in the care of the Lord in whom they had put their trust. Then they passed through pisidia and came through pedophilia. After speaking the message in Perga, they went down to Alia.

15:38 From there, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been entrusted to the gracious care of God for the work now completed. When they arrived and gathered together Messiah's community, they began to report all that God had done in helping them, and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed quite a while with the disciples. As I was reading this text, I just realized, I forgot to say one more thing at the end of my news update. Um, and, and it, I was reminded in the text because it talks about, it says, um, in the past generations, he allowed all the nations to go their own ways. We're, by the way, seeing that today, all of the nations going their own ways.

16:25 And when you read the news, that's what you're getting. You're seeing all of what's happening. But let me encourage you, I was listening to a podcast yesterday, and this, this gentleman used this terminology and I loved it. And he said, I have the news in one hand, and I have this in the other. If I only just read this and study this, your, your life with the Lord will, will be good. But you won't, you'll have very little interaction with everyone around you. You'll end up as a monk in a, in a, in a place, monastery. Thank you. That was the word. If you only do this, the news, you're gonna end up in despair. But when you couple them together, this allows you

17:11 to better understand what's going on in the world today. And to me, it seems more true today than it, than it did even 20 years ago. Uh, or I don't know, maybe, I don't know. Maybe it's just 'cause I'm getting older and, and seeing more, or think I see more. Anyways, it's always good to have a balance. Don't get, don't get sucked into the news too much. Allow the news to inform you to, uh, you know, point out prayer needs, and then let, let the scriptures work inside of you and let the word of the Lord go forth, because the Lord, the Lord's Word will never return void. Okay, here we are.

18:00 Acts 14, I'm entitled this message faithfulness. And you'll see why if you're faithful to listen to the end, The Jewish communities in Antioch and Iconium were probably larger Jewish communities. And I say this because in the text, there's synagogues associated with them. And then the communities, the Jewish communities in Lystra and Derby are, are smaller at a minimum, if existent at all. Uh, I would say there's, there's gotta be at least some Jewish community because we know Timothy, uh, comes out of Lyra, but they're very small. They may not have been organized, and they may not have even had a formal synagogue. And so you can see the Jewish people,

18:46 this is at the beginning of our text, the Jewish people from the others towns, they come over. By the way, it's not like, it would not be like us going from here and walking to Richardson, you know, like it's a five, that's a five minute drive from Antioch to Lyra is about a hundred miles, and you have terrain. And so it is probably four, four to a week's travel time period. So you have to be, you have to, you have to mean what you're doing when you go on that kind of walk. Uh, it, it would be, what, what's a hundred miles from here? You get almost to Abilene, Abilene's a little bit further, I think. I think Abilene maybe 200. Oklahoma, you get to Oklahoma border in a hundred miles.

19:33 If you want to go to Oklahoma, I'm just playing. I'm just playing. I always like to see how many people I can irritate when I'm up on the stage. I'm just playing. I'm just kind of playing. Anyways, the people in the Jewish, people in Antioch and Iconium, they were so upset by Paul That they came to RA to stand against them. They're so upset. Imagine that they, they walked a hundred miles through mountainous terrain. That's how upset they were. It's not like one of us who get upset. And you know what? I'm gonna go to synagogue this morning. I'm gonna drive 20 minutes. Like you have to be real.

20:18 Oh, yeah. Or even if you're sitting at your keyboard and you get super upset and, and right online, I hate what this person is doing. Do like, it's not that level of involvement. It's a lot more, you gotta get up and actually do something about it. That's how irritated they were. They get up and they walk To Lyra. I imagine that they probably started in Antioch. They made it to, to, um, I iconium They realized Paul's already gone. And then they started, you know, listen, when, when angry people start consulting with angry people, guess what happens? They get super peaceful. They, they, they just decide everything's okay. No, it's not what they do at all. They get even more angry.

21:04 And now anger is, is now, now from light, from I iconium to Isha is, is much, is much shorter. It's about 20 miles. So it's, it's a day or two journey depending on, i I say 20 miles. All of us are like, you can walk 20 miles in a day. They could back then, because they didn't go through fast food restaurants every day. And they walked every day instead of driving every day. So this is what they did. So here, the, here's the super irony involved in all of this. They're getting upset and they are coming against Paul. And Paul is there preaching monotheism to a polytheistic culture.

21:52 I want you to think about that. The Jewish people are getting upset. The only monotheists in the world are upset with Paul for preaching monotheism to a bunch of polytheists. You know, people who worship all sorts of gods, and they get upset to the point that they come and they stone him. Now, I want, now what you don't, what you don't normally mentally recognize is that what happens is the monotheist Jewish people align themselves with the polytheistic, civil, gentile people. I don't mean civil in terms of their demeanor. I mean civil in terms of the city. Those in the city. And they align themselves for the purpose of persecuting Paul.

22:39 Uh, primarily Paul's the one who stated in this case. So they win over the crowd. Apparently, they come across Paul while he's got a crowd in Lyra. They win over the crowd and they stone him. By the way, stoning is an appropriate punishment for blasphemy according to Leviticus. Could it be that the, that the monotheists think that he's blaspheming the, the creator of the heavens and the earth? And now ironically enough, they're aligning themselves with people who don't believe what they believe for the purpose of overthrowing this one. But if you really listen to what Paul said in his feet, in, in his message, and what everything is going on,

23:25 they're trying to worship Paul as a God to the point that Paul and Barnabas, they tear their clothes, which by the way is, is the Jewish reaction to mourning or, or God forbid this ever happened. They tore their clothes. In other words, the accusation of blasphemy, they have, they, it's actually false because they, they go out and go beyond defending themselves that they're not even gods. They could have sat out there and said, well, you know, we're not Gods, but you do whatever you want because that's what you do in your culture. But they go out and they say, stop. Don't bla the Lord. They don't use those words, but that's, that's the action that they're doing.

24:15 Paul is defending the name of the Lord, not blaspheming it. So they drag him outta the city after he's, after they've stoned him, and they're supposing him to be dead. He was only mostly dead. They checked his pockets. No, I'm just playing. They supposed him to be dead. It's quite interesting the way the, the, the way the text reads, because if he was being stoned or blasphemy, then the Jewish people would've made sure he was dead. So there, there could be a little bit of an argument to be made that the Jewish people incited the crowd, the mob.

25:02 The mob did the action, and then he went down and they left. And then the Jewish people now go up and they're supposing him to be dead. But, but because he's in the city, you can't bury the, the dead in the city in Jewish tradition. So you have to take them out of the city. So they're, they're making this attempt to take him out of the city. It could mean it could indicate that it wasn't an execution for blasphemy, but, but just the riled up crowd that happens. This is what, when mobs, when mobs move, doesn't matter what the origin was, the mob rule takes over and you can't control it, uh, until it's gone.

25:51 So maybe they, in, in, maybe they tried to stir it up, but they weren't really, don't know. We we're not sure. Maybe it wasn't a, a, a blasphemy, uh, um, accusation. All of that to say, Paul, by the way, speaks about this occasion to Timothy later in, in, in two Timothy three verses 11 through 13. He says, you, however closely followed my teaching manner of life, purpose, faithfulness, patience, love, perseverance, as well as persecutions and sufferings that happened to me. Where in i, in Antioch, Iconium and Lyra, what persecutions I endured. And the Lord rescued me from them all. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Messiah,

26:38 Yeshua will be persecuted, but evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. That's what Paul tells Timothy and second Timothy. So here are the disciples surrounding Paul's on the ground. You can imagine he's, perhaps he's unconscious. Maybe that's why they suppose him dead. He's not moving. And it could be, we're not, we're not told that it could be a mixed group of disciples around him. It could be non-Jewish disciples who are checking on him, who have been impacted by his testimony, whatever it is, they thought he was dead and they're surrounding, they're surrounding him, and he like pops up. I really wanted to bring one of the jack in the boxes in here as an, as an illustration.

27:23 I thought it was maybe not a good idea, but Paul pops up and goes right back into the city. I I just want you to think about this. Even if it's little pebbles that he's getting thrown at him, which it's not, that's not what stoning is like, even those hurt. But just think about all of the rocks and boulders and everything that's been thrown at him. The, the state that he's probably in. He's unconscious on the ground, I would assume he's bleeding from any number of places. Perhaps he even has a broken limb or two, or finger or something.

28:10 He probably has a head wound, which is why he's unconscious and he's probably bleeding from his head and he pops up and walks right back into the city. I'm telling you, if I was one of those disciples, I would just go, He goes back to into the city. Why does he go back into the city? Well, for, we have a couple practical, uh, um, conclusions that we can draw. One, they needed a night, a, a place to stay that night, you know, it's too, too far to walk to the next city, and it's too dangerous to travel at night. So they need a place to stay. He's presumed dead.

28:57 So maybe the, the town doesn't see him come back in. The other is, is an interesting option, is it could be that he pops back, pops up and goes back into the city as an, as a, um, an exercise of his faith and showing what his faith does, uh, to, to the other disciples who are in the city. You know, James talks about faith without works is dead. You show me your faith. I'll show you my faith by my works. That's what James says. This could be some of that. Paul pops up and says, I'm putting this back into action. Let me go inspire. He could be inspiring courage and fortitude, which is necessary

29:44 in the following of the Lord. And we find out later, Paul said, or, or we've just read it in, in two Timothy also, that, um, All who desire to live a godly life in Messiah, Yeshua will be persecuted. Maybe he's helping them come to an understanding of what it looks like after being persecuted. What do you do? My question for us is how do we worship or serve the Lord in our woundedness? Because the reality is not one of us walked in here today without a wound.

30:33 So how do, how is it? What is it? What do you do in a community? What do you do in communal life when you're wounded and you come to worship? How do you worship and serve the Lord while being in, in a, in a wounded state? I don't have an answer for you. I'm asking you because this, that answer is up to you. After proclaiming, we're moving on to verse 21, after proclaiming the good news to that city and making many disciples. So here they, they spent the night in Lystra, and now they moved to derby. In fact, oh, I have a map for this. These are just all, this is the, the what the journey so far. I just wanted to make sure we all were aware

31:19 of everything that had occurred. Here we are Antioch to I, Iconium, this is what it looks like in modern day. I iconium to Lystra and Derby. They go to light to derby. And here after proclaiming the good news in Derby, they make many disciples, they return to Lystra, into, I iconium, into Antioch. So they go, they retrace their steps, they retrace their steps, and they go back from derby to Lystra to Iconium and then back to Antioch. So they now have reversed what they, what they set out doing. They were strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in faith

32:04 and saying, it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God. When they had handpicked elders for them in every community and prayed with fasting, they placed them in the care of the Lord in whom they had put their trust. They continued to share the good news in derby. I I, I just want you to remember at least maybe you're different than me. When I read the text and I see that they stoned Paul, and he was basically unconscious, and then he pops up and he goes on. I'm like, oh, he's, he's fine. Like, God obviously restored him to a hundred percent immediately. I, I don't think that's actually true. Once I now really sit and ponder and meditate on the text,

32:51 I think Paul is looking like a beat up dude, and he's walking to Derby. He's bloody he is got matted blood on him and his hair. Maybe he cleans himself up. I I'm not saying he doesn't clean himself up, but even when you break a limb, it's evident in the recovery process for several weeks when you get knocked unconscious and you have wounds. I don't know how many of you guys, like perhaps you skinned your knee, you know, playing some, doing some game with your children on the sidewalk and you fell and you skinned your knee, or better yet, you're doing it in the house

33:36 and you get a rug burn. Yeah, rug burns. I hate rug burns. How long does that rug burn stay on you? Too long is exactly correct. I just want you to think about, Paul is doing all of this after he's been left for dead. Think about what he would look like coming into a community. I mean, maybe half his head is swollen, maybe he got a rock to the head and it's, it's just big. And I don't know if you ever have those, one of those like black and blue eyes, but literally it turns like green. Like it usually turns green around week three.

34:23 So I want you to think about that. He, week three, he's coming back through probably something like that. He's coming back through. Now he's encouraging all of them in their faith to persevere. And he's a like, just think about visually what they're looking at. Despite his circumstances, Paul and Barnabas continue to make many disciples. This leads us to two options. Option one is people are inspired by his dedication and they're like, man, I want to be more like that.

35:10 I option two, people could be terrified by what could happen to them if they follow the way and say, I can't, I can't do that. Those are really the only two options when you see someone look like how I'm picturing Paul looking and speaking about what he's gone through, and he's coming through encouraging you and strengthening your faith. And, and, and I'm just thinking at this moment, I have two directions to go. Either a, I'm hopping on board because this is the real deal, or number two, I'm not, because this is too much for me to bear. And I want you to think about that because every single one of the disciples,

35:59 with the exception of John, suffered a horrific death. So here Paul is he re returns to Lyra where he had literally just been stoned by the crowd and then to Iconium and Antioch where he had been kicked out and they were trying to stone him. And it says that they were strengthening the souls of the disciples. How is it that souls are strengthened? Well, I'm gonna tell you here in the text it says, Paul encouraged them to persevere in the faith. So you should be like, I, I don't really understand. What does that mean? Persevere in the faith.

36:48 It, let me, let me define it this way. And I know there's other ways you can define it. I'm not excluding those, but to persevere in the faith means to remain faithful through all things to God. So remaining faithful through persecutions, through all of these things, Paul is actually showing them what persevering into the faith looks like. Now, I know that there's, we can flesh it out and, and, and use some other definitions, and I'm okay with that, but faithfulness to God is really what the Lord is looking for on our part. So how is it that their souls, their souls are strengthened, they're encouraged to persevere in faith. Paul shares with them that it is through many persecutions

37:35 that we must enter the kingdom of God. You should be like, how does that strengthen someone's soul? If I told you right now, if you weren't a follower of Yeshua, and I told you, if you become a follower of Yeshua, everything for the rest of your life is gonna be amazing. It's gonna be the best. You will have no more trials and struggles. And then you get to your first trial, guess what happens? You're out. Paul hears, says on the very front end of the conversation, guess what? The kingdom of God is entered through persecution. He is being as blunt, as blunt can be.

38:26 So there their souls are encouraged through the, uh, through perseverance and faith, through knowing that persecutions are coming. Which if anybody's told you persecution, iss not coming. Let me just rewind the tape and tell you that's not true. If we are literally walking in the footsteps of our Messiah, that's all that's ahead of us. What it looks like that that's yet to be seen for some is one way. For some it's another. I don't, I don't know what the persecution looks like, but also their souls are encouraged because Paul and Barnabas, they pick elders for the community. Why is it important? Because in the structure of a community, when you just have everyone, every man from himself,

39:12 you don't understand what's gonna happen. But when there's elders in the community, it can actually help the community grow and, and move in a particular direction. So they, they're encouraging them through that. And finally, I'm gonna tell you, they're encouraged. This is, this is the hardest one for me to tell you. They're encouraging them through prayer with fasting. I'm telling you, it's the hardest one for me because I like brisket. I like bread. Oh my goodness, do I like bread? But that doesn't, that's, he doesn't say they encourage the community through bread and brisket.

40:00 They encourage the community through prayer with fasting. Now, let me tell you, as being someone who doesn't like fasting, you know, for all intents and purposes, I usually fast once a year. Yeah, you can chuckle because that's Yom Kippur. Like that's the one I'm gonna fast on. But can I tell you something? Uh, fasting, what it does in you is it forces you physi physically and psychologically to die to yourself.

40:45 Because when you fast, now, if you fast long enough, you will begin to to die because you're no longer sustaining after a day, you're just hungry. I know all of us are like, oh my God, I'm so starving. You, You're not really dying to yourself after a day. I mean, I I'm gonna say when you start one meal, you, you that like, that's dying to yourself because that's just what you can handle mentally. But fasting is the denial of what, of what our flesh is urging us to do. And when we succumb and we give in

41:31 and we follow what our flesh tells us, you know what it does, it makes it harder to follow the Lord because it's like that muscle of faith, you know? So in our society is really, we live in a weird world, by the way, where we glorify going to the gym and we also glorify those who should have been going to the gym for the last 30 years. But all of that has to do with what we do for our body. When we go to the gym, we discipline our body because we wanna look good. Or maybe I'm, maybe I'm too vain for you.

42:16 Maybe that's not you. Maybe you're into like half a percent and I'm doing it for my health, but mostly we wanna look good. All of that I'm telling you is not for the Lord. Now, it's good to be healthy, that's for the Lord. But when we go to the gym, what we do, oh, we exercise, we, you know, we, we lift weights, we do whatever things we do. How many of you, on day one, You walk into the gym and you look over and there's some dude, and he's got biceps to the size of my head, and he's over there with, you know, like a hundred pound

43:02 and he's just, he's just doing this with a hundred pounds. And you're like, I could do that. And you go over and you're like, why? Why does it look so easy for him? Because he started with something a little. And when you start with something a little and you, you slowly do it over time, it actually strengthens you. This is what fasting does with prayer. You start the very first time, like I'm telling you, that's your one pound weight. Y'all are laughing, but that's your one pound weight where you're just doing reps. I'm just doing one pound here. That's your fasting from your snack.

43:49 Oh, I'm not gonna snack tonight. That's your, that's your, you are fasting from your snack. Then you move and you're like, I'm gonna fast from breakfast. That's your, that's your five or 10 pound weight. You're like, Ooh, it makes my day a little harder, but I could do this. And you, you do that for a while. Guess what? Your muscle getting stronger and getting larger. All of a sudden you're like, I think I can try breakfast and lunch. And you, you move to the 20 pound weight and you're like, Ooh, ooh, that's, I could feel that one. I'm telling you that because the way you fast and pray, it's just like your muscles. You have to exercise them.

44:37 And, and once a year is a good place to start. Let's start, let's say that once a year is a great place to start and then you can move on. But they're encouraged because what happens, lemme tell you what else happens. When you fast, all of a sudden you realize that your sustenance is not from you. When you fast and you pray and, and you take the time when you would normally eat and you read and you pray and seek the Lord, you realize that it's actually the Lord who's sustaining you during that season of no food. And what that does is it increases or strengthens your faith

45:25 because our faith and the Lord is really, if I can define it this way, our trust in him to care for us. And if he, if he's able to care for us with one meal, he's able to care for us with two or three or more. But it starts with a little bit. And so when they're, this is how they're in, they're, they're strengthening the faith of these disciples. So here we're gonna continue on. They passed through. Oh yeah, we're still on the same side. They passed through Sidia, came to Paraphilia after speaking the message in Perga, they went down to Italia. From there they sailed back to Antioch where they had been entrusted to the gracious care of God for the work now completed.

46:11 Just so you know, physically what's going on, they go from here, Antioch, they go, you see it says Sidia here. They go through Sidia, which Antioch is called Antioch sidia, to, to, to, uh, delineate it or distinguish it from a different Antioch. So they come through Pisidia, paraphilia, they go to Perga and they share the good news in Perga. And then they come over here to Italia and do the same thing. And then they catch a boat, it goes all the way over here, and you end up in Antioch, which you can't quite see. It's off off the side of the map.

47:01 This time period of going through these different places. It allows them to, if you will, wind down from, from the work that they've been commissioned to do. In fact, it says that they were in, in Antioch, that's where they were entrusted to the gracious care of God for the work which is now completed. You see, Luke is saying the work was now completed. When they came back, the work was completed. So we're gonna move on in the text of verse 27. When they arrived and they gathered together Messiah's community, they began to report again, we're in Antioch, they began to report all that God had done in helping them, and that he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

47:47 And they stayed quite a while with the disciples. They arrived back at their sending congregation Antioch, and they reported to, they reported all that God had done in helping them. And they reported how God had opened the door to the Gentiles. And it says they stayed there quite a while. It's interesting in Acts chapter 11, when Paul went there, it says that they, they met for a whole year together with the Messiahs community, and they taught a large number. So Luke uses the, the, the time period of a whole year in Acts 11. In this time period that they've been gone, we're not actually given a defined period. One commentator suggests the whole journey of Acts 13

48:33 and 14 took somewhere around two to two and a half years. But here they are reconnecting with their sending congregation. It could be that this, they stayed here for quite a while. It could be that they remained for like this for up to a year or somewhere in that time period. But the process of coming back to the beginning reporting, and if I can call it this, closing the loop, is a very healthy practice. There are five stages in project management. Ooh, I didn't, I meant to draw this out and I forgot, and that's where I meant to draw it out. There are five stages in project management. If, if you guys can bear with

49:18 me, I'm just gonna draw it on here. Something, something about like that. Is that, does that look good for you? Five stages. First one is the initiation. This is, you put all of your, all of your hard work into this one and, and, and you, and you start to like build the project up. Your next one is planning. So you're going along, you're doing, you're great. This is great execution. This is, this is really, this is what your goal is. You, you've been planning this whole project and we're now, we're launching the project. By the way, this, these first three, three phases are really

50:06 like, um, encouraging for all of us. And, and I mean that it's also, it, it's what happens in in the chemicals in our body also, um, are are good for this. And, and, and it encourages us to continue onward and to work hard. But we get to this, we get to this part here toward the end, um, called stage four monitoring and control. So you've launched the project, now you're monitoring it to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. You are like, okay, this is great. But here, what we have is the final stage, which is closure. And I'm going to tell you, as human beings, this is the most difficult stage for us.

50:54 Closure. When it comes to closure, we don't necessarily like the feelings or the emotions that are associated with closure. It's not the excitement of starting something new. It's not the putting into practice something new. It's not even the monitoring To see if what you, what was supposed to be done is actually being done. What it is, closure is the death part of the cycle. It's where we realized that something we enjoyed has now come to an end. Closure, I'm telling you, is extremely important.

51:44 This final part of the cycle, what we do as Americans, lemme show you what we tend to do as Americans. We start a project, we get it to the point of monitoring. So let's just say it, it levels out here. We're watching it, but we don't like the feeling of closure. We don't want that project to come down. So what we do, we start another project. We never actually close that first one. We let somebody else close it. And if you're the boss, you are

52:29 like, Hey, you go close that project. I'm starting another one. I like the feelings that come with starting a project. I like the excitement that comes with it. And we do this over and over and over again. And we never allow our body to go. It's a physical process by the way that's necessary for the body physically to go through that cl act of closure. But we don't do it. We don't actually, we don't, we don't allow it to be done. It, it is really, this is, this is the hardest thing for us

53:15 because we don't like to feel those feelings of uncertainty, those feelings of death, those feelings of finality. We like to feel like we're infinite, which we're not. So now I'm gonna move to the next question, which is what do we, what, how does all of this impact us today? And I feel like I have something else on my PowerPoint, but I can't remember what it is before I move on to the, so what this

54:00 by the way is the Roman road system that I wanted to show you last week. And you can see how all the roads connect. It's quite amazing. So how this is, this is what I want to leave you with For what do we do today? Number one, how do we disciple today? And you're like, I don't understand what that means. Well, that's what this, this passage is talking about. Paul's going around and discipling others. So my question is, are we number one being discipled? Number two, are we discipling someone else? Do you ever think about it? Do you always, if I can put it this way, you always have one hand reaching forward, holding onto somebody who's gone before you. And one hand reaching backward,

54:46 bringing up someone who's coming behind you. A wise man once told me, don't ever make fun of someone who is either where you were 10 years ago or where you will be in 10 years. Because those are your two options. Either you are ahead of them or you are behind them, but you're gonna walk a very similar journey. How do we strengthen one another? Today in our, in our text, do we encourage one another to persevere through trials? Uh, I, we live in America. I think not. I think we avoid trials as much as we possibly can. And the what happens when we avoid trials,

55:34 what's the result is you quit and leave. You either can go through or you can quit and leave. But those are the two options with the trial. Do we pray with others with fasting? In other words, do we really place our trust in the Lord for our own care and provision? How do we manage our lives? Those circumstances that we were sent out to accomplish with a mission? Do we take the time to report back what has happened? See, this is part of that closure process is quite fascinating.

56:23 I will tell you, the most difficult thing for me to do is to have a meeting and then write up my notes afterward. What are my reflections on, on what happened? This is, this, this is is the most difficult thing to me, to the point of what I do is I go from meeting to meeting to meeting. So I don't ever have to write the notes afterward. I'm telling you that's not healthy. So don't do it. Don't do what I do and help me not to do what I don't want to do. It sounds like something that Paul says, but do we take the time to report back when the mission has been completed

57:08 to bring a report? And then do we allow the Lord to bring closure to that particular season in our lives? How do we deal with death closure or a simple no? Do we ignore it? Is is the closure or the death of the project? The end? I'm here to tell you it's not the end. But if you don't allow the Lord to close that one loop, it becomes far more difficult for the Lord to open another. Yeshua says in John 12, truly, truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth

57:53 and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. He who loves his life will lose it and the one who hates his life. And this world will keep it forever. I'm not telling you to go die, but I'm telling you to allow the Lord to bring closure. And sometimes it takes a little bit of death to ourselves. Because if we don't allow death to ourselves, we remain alone. Just what Yeshua says here, we remain alone. We don't wanna be alone. I don't know if you've realized this, but we're created with a, with a yearning inside of us that is a God shaped yearning.

58:39 We fill it with all sorts of things, brisket, bread, drugs, alcohol, sexuality. We fill it with all sorts of things. It's never satisfied with those things. Why? Because that's not what it was created for. We were created to be in relationship with the Lord. And when we're not, we are always left wanting, There's always a little bit left empty.

59:24 The act of allowing yourself to die to yourself, like the seed that drops into the soil is a difficult act because it's everything about us is for, is created for self-preservation. But when we want to live for the Lord, it's no longer about self preservation. It's about, Lord, what do you want me to do? How can I follow you? What is it? What is it in this particular circumstance today, this persecution, if you will, that you want me to learn from? Really, it's always a good question to go when you go into a a, a particularly difficult moment,

1:00:11 what part of me today has to die, Lord? 'cause that's really almost always true. And when you get married, you find out it's more true than it was when you weren't married because all of a sudden dying daily to yourself becomes quite real. And then you think, oh, I, I got a hold of this. I think this is good. I'm, I'm, I'm becoming a master of dining myself. Guess what? God gives you a child. I'm just telling you, there's always a little bit more to learn. There's always a little bit more. But if I can leave you with one thing, it's this,

1:00:56 in all things remain faithful to the Lord. You're gonna go through all sorts of trials and persecutions. I'm not going to, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it for you. You will, you're gonna have all sorts of problems, but in all things remain faithful to the Lord. Ve may our Father in heaven. Lord, we come to you. Lord, I thank you for Lord, I thank you for Luke and and and this book of Acts that we've been studying for so long. Lord, I just thank you for the encouragement that it is for each of us. Lord, I pray that you would continue to encourage us, continue to guide us. And Lord, we just ask that you would speak to us today

1:01:44 that you would illuminate in our own lives. How is it today that we're to remain faithful to you? Lord, we bless you in Yeshua's name I. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

1:02:52 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua, my children.