Measure the Cost

0:01 As a quick update, I will just remind us that it has been 603 days that 58 hostages continue to be held captive, 20 of whom are, uh, considered to be or thought to be living, uh, and to continue to pray for those being held in captivity. In far in insofar as news. I I read an interesting, uh, headline, which I don't think has been true for about 24 years. Uh, some of you may remember, some of you may not, uh, maybe it's 25 years ago.

0:47 Uh, but the headline is this, with Israeli intel. Lebanon is dismantling Hezbollah in the South. Lebanon's army has largely disarmed Hezbollah in the southern strongholds, but it's unclear whether the state can impose its military might across the country. Why do I say it's, it hasn't been true in 25 years, because 25 years ago, Israel secured the 10 mile buffer zone, and they re they released it to Lebanese control. And Lebanon very quickly, uh, lost control of the southern part of Lebanon to Hezbollah. But all of this started in, in some

1:33 person's crazy mind who thought to have an operation with pagers. I I say crazy because none of us would ever dream of anything like what happened. But without that, without that occurrence, Hezbollah would be firmly entrenched in southern Lebanon, reigning rockets on Israel continually every day. Uh, in fact, what what is continuing to go on in Gaza would've been the likelihood in in southern Lebanon also, except way worse. That being said, there is a ceasefire deal that is on the table. Uh, I, I don't know that I read Israel agreed to it,

2:21 but I did read that Hamas is probably not going to agree to it. The ceasefire deal, uh, extends a ceasefire for 60 days with the returning of half of the hostages the first week, and then the other half the final week, um, half of the living the first week, half of the dead, the first week and half, and then so on at the end. Uh, but it's likely to be rejected because it does not declare an end to the war. So that's my updates for the week concerning Israel that it's, by the way, it's been a very busy week in terms of Middle East News. Um, we are continuing our, our passage.

3:08 Uh, but before I do, are there any six to 12 year olds that did not get a packet? Nope. Is there anybody who thinks they're six to 12 and would like a packet that I think there's some extra ones on the front table, on the front chairs. Um, we are continuing in the book of Acts chapter 16, but just as a reminder, by the way, kids, if you didn't grab pens, you need a pen. There's also some pens up here too. We're continuing the story of the book of Acts that that has been, uh, moving forward.

3:55 But I just wanna remind us what we've learned so far, because we're in the middle of a story. Paul and Silas are sent forth from Antioch, and they, they travel through a, a land route, and they come to Derby and then to Ra and then to Philippi. And in Ra, Timothy joins Paul and Silas and their journey, and they continue on. And, and, and, and last week, rabbi Sean covered, um, open doors and closed doors from the spirit, and they continue on in the, in the spirit of the Lord says, no, you can't go this way. And so they go a different way.

4:40 By the way, it's quite fascinating if you ever, if you ever really zoom out, most of us get stuck in the, in the forest and we miss, excuse me, we get stuck in the trees and we miss the forest. But if you zoom out and you just take a, a global look, what happens here in Act 16 is Paul wants to go east and the spirit of the Lord says no. And so Paul goes west, and what we see today is that the good news of Yeshua has continued to follow a westerly traject trajectory and is now coming from the east back to Jerusalem.

5:28 So you see there's these massive movements of believers from China, from the far East, who are now burdened by the Lord to send their children on the trek back to Jerusalem. So it, it's, it's as if the good news started turning West with Paul, and it's now 2000 years finally coming back around. It's quite fascinating when you look at the, a very large picture. So when they turn west, they go to a city called Troas. And there, uh, in the text, it, uh, rabbi Sean pointed it out last week. The text goes from a they them, which is a third person

6:14 to a we, which is a first person plural. And what it seems to indicate is that Luke, the author of the Book of Acts joins the company, joins Paul and Silas at this point, and they continue to sail and they arrive in Philippi. And so here now is where we are in Philippi. And so we, we will pick up in chapter 16 verses 13. We're gonna cover 13 through 24. By the way, let me just pause for a moment before we get even further in the rest of the chapter covers Philippi. The rest of the chapter covers the foundation of the community of Philippi, which we actually have a book

7:01 that Paul wrote to encourage this community. So I'll say it again at the end, but I have a homework assignment for everyone, not just the six to 12 year olds who are taking notes, but also for them too. But here's the assignment. While we are studying the foundation of the community of Philippi, let's just as a community read the book of Philippians over and over and over again. And if you read just one chapter a day, you can read the book three times before we finish the foundation of the community or, or the founding of the community, if you will. Philippians, it's a very short book, y'all. It's four chapters. It's really easy.

7:48 You can read it almost twice a week. You get a sense of accomplishment when you finish a book and you're like, ah, I finished a book. So try it, give it a shot. So here we are, chapter 16, verse 13. I'll read through verse 24, and then we'll come back and break it down on Yom Shabbat. We went outside the gate to the river where we expected a place of prayer to be. We sat down and began speaking with the women who had gathered a woman named Lydia, a cellar of purple cloth from the city of thi A God Fearer was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. When she was immersed along with her household, she urged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful

8:35 to the Lord, come and stay at my house. And she insisted. And so it happened that as we were going to prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination who was bringing her masters, much profit from her fortune telling, following after Paul and us, she kept shouting, saying, these men are servants of Elion who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. She kept doing this for many days, but Paul was irritated in turn and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Messiah, Yeshua to come out of her. And it came out of her that very moment. But when her masters saw the hope of prophet was gone, they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace

9:20 before the authorities. And when they brought them to the chief authorities, they said, these men are throwing our city into an uproar being Jewish. They advocate customs which are not permitted for us to accept or practice being Romans. Then the crowd joined in the attack on them. So the chief authorities ripped their clothes off them and commanded them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to guard them securely. Having received this charge, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. So here we are, Paul is in Philippi, it comes to Shabbat. And on Shabbat, he goes outside the gate to the river

10:08 where they're expecting a place of prayer to be. Have you ever wondered why does he go outside the gate to a river to find a synagogue? By the way, I just wanna point out, Paul continues to live a Jewish and a, um, he continues to practice and to live a Jewish lifestyle. And he continues his formulaic approach with outreach, which is he goes first to the synagogue and then to the rest of the city. So he goes, so here we are on Shabbat, on Yom Shabbat, the day of Shabbat. He goes outside the gate to the river again,

10:57 why outside the gate? It seems to me that he's going outside the gate or his, his movement outside the gate indicates that there is no active synagogue in the city. Why would there be no active synagogue in the city? It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a business city. It's an industrious city. People coming to and fro in every industrious city in the world then. And even today, there's Jewish people who, who, who have jobs that serve the rest of the world, uh, because of trade. Uh, to the point, I think I mentioned it two weeks ago, to the point that you go to these small towns in Texas and there's synagogues.

11:43 Now maybe there's no more Jews living in them or, or coming to them, but there used to be why? Because the railroad came through the small towns and there was, there was a place for business. And so Jewish people would be where the railroad stops were. So here it indicates there's no synagogue in the city. So he goes outside the city to the river to pray. He goes down to the river to pray. Sorry, I've got a song in my head. No. Why would, why, why? If there's no synagogue, why would the secondary place or now the primary place be synagogue worship at a river? It's not like we worship the goddess of the river

12:28 or anything that's not, that's not in Jewish custom. Why to the river? Because the river is a source of fresh water. And in Judaism, you have to go into the mikvah, which in the mikvah by definition is fresh water. And so wherever they're going to meet would have to have a fresh water source. So it's gonna be by the river. Now, you can say all of that. You can say, rabbi Ari, again, you haven't given me a reason why there would be no Jews in Philippi. Well, we're given a reason actually. Uh, we're not quite there. But in, by the end of summer, we'll be in Acts 18. And in Acts 18, it mentions that the Emperor Claudius

13:14 expels all of the Jews from Rome. The thing about Philippi is Philippi is a direct Roman colony, which means that Philippi, the city follows the rules and regulations of the city of Rome. So when Jews are expelled from Rome, they're expelled also from Philippine. Does that make sense? So it seems like if Acts 18 is, has Emperor Claudius, emperor Claudius, uh, his, his, uh, window of rule ends at 53 ce. And we know that we're post the Jerusalem Council,

14:00 which some people date somewhere between 48 and 50. And so here we are, we have a window really of 50 to 53 that the foundation of the, of the community in Philippi is, is formed here in act in act 16. It could be that the Jewish expulsion from Rome has already happened, and it's already prevalent or present in Philippi, and therefore there's no Jews in Philippi. Now, I would make an argument that there have been Jews in Philippi, and my argument would be based, because when Paul goes down to the river to find a group of people to pray, he finds Lydia, who's a God fearer,

14:47 and God fearers only existed in the presence of a synagogue. You see, God, fearers had to be trained to be God fearers. So that means there had to be Jewish people at some point for her to learn from. And so he goes down to this place of living water, and he meets Lydia. Lydia, she's the cellar of purple cloth. She's from a city called thi. By the way, just as a total side note, um, thi is also mentioned in Revelation chapter two. Why do I say this? Because I someone, and I wish I had it, I, and maybe I'll see if I can find it again. Somebody sent me a graphic of, if, if we took the Bible and hyperlink the Bible, you know, hyperlink.

15:34 So you, you click a word and it jumps to wherever else that word is, the Bible is the most hyperlinked text ever created, ever. And we're talking about, at least from a, from a literary standpoint, a text that is created or written down or composed over a period of 2,500 years. And it's the most interconnected interweb, uh, document or book ever created. So I want you to think about this. How many of you read news online? When you read a news article? You go down and, and you're trained. Now, I can tell you that if there's a blue word

16:19 with an underline, you click it, it's gonna take you to another link. That's what I want you to think about with the Bible. So here we're reading in the book of Acts, and it says, A woman named Lydia, a cellar of purple cloth from the city of thi click thi. And all of a sudden we're in Revelation, revelation chapter two. Why? Because it's all interconnected. And, and, and sometimes we miss the forest for the trees because we get stuck in the trees, okay? Anyways, by the way, in Revelation, uh, chapter two, thi is one of the seven communities that that is being addressed in the beginning of Revelation.

17:07 So it, the text describes, um, Lydia as a God fearer, and then it says that the Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. What is Paul Paul's saying? Now, I think we could ask this question to a hundred pastors and get a hundred different answers, and I'm going to contradict almost all of them. What do I think Paul's saying? I think Paul is talking number one about salvation, which most pastors would agree with, but I think that he's not just talking about salvation, but he's talking about the ruling that has been come,

17:54 that is coming down from Jerusalem, from the Jerusalem Council, and now Paul is out to deliver the message. So it's the salvation, but within the context of the Jerusalem Council, acts chapter 15, which we spent two months on, Paul is there sharing with her, and she, and, and it's, and the text says, let me get the text, uh, straight so I don't mess it up. The text says, the Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. This is what my dad and I, when we talked about Acts 15, for two months, we were up here and we talked about the response of the people. When, when, when men around the world who are not born Jewish are told,

18:40 you can be saved, and you don't have to be part of me for being graphic, you don't have to be circumcised. Do you understand how much of a release that is? How, how, how, how much? If you, if you just, let me, let me turn the phrase the other way. If I said, every man has to be circumcised, and you're in here and you're a 45-year-old man, or any age of beyond eight days, if you're any age, man, beyond eight days, you are gonna think twice. And you're probably gonna think about a dozen times, not just twice. And then you might go, I don't think this one's for me.

19:28 So you see, when the council ruled, you don't have to be circumcised. Yes, there's a whole lot in terms of you don't have to become Jewish, but there is some real practicality there for men who want to be saved and follow Yeshua who are not born Jewish. So Paul is here talking, and he's talking about the implications of the Jerusalem Council. And she responds to this, and, and she's immersed, and it is quite fascinating. It says she was immersed along with her entire household.

20:13 This sounds strikingly familiar. If you've been following along with the Book of Acts, we have another entire household that gets immersed about six chapters earlier with Cornelius. Cornelius responds, and in fact, in that chapter, Cornelius responds, and the Lord just goes, it's like, you know, the lightning comes down and, and Peter is going, what? God, you didn't even let me finish my sermon. But here, her whole household is immersed just like Cornelius's whole household. Now, I want to, I want to, maybe you don't notice this

21:00 Cornelius's whole household is, is pretty normal for us to think about, but we don't consider a woman in her whole household, certainly not in that time period. So when we, when we read Lydia and her whole household, I actually presume that her husband has passed and that now she is managing her household, and it seems like she's doing a really good job of it. So her household is immersed. But I want to, I want to share one more thing. It also taught this passage. We, we in the west don't think like this,

21:46 but this passage points us to a method of outreach. And in the method of outreach, if you go to the head of the house or to the chief of the tribe and the head of the house or the chief of the tribe accepts and follows the message or, or repents and turns to Yeshua and follows Yeshua, what's fascinating is nine times out of 10, the whole household or the whole tribe will follow the chief's lead. We don't think that way in Texas. Why? Because we're all chiefs. Like we're all here.

22:32 We're, you know, in Texas, I, I did everything myself. And, uh, you've heard me use, I pulled my boot myself up by my bootstraps example. So many times, that's how we think in Texas, by the way, I just want to point out, you can't do that. Like pull yourself up by your, somebody sent me a video last time I said this. It was quite funny to watch. But, uh, anyways, it, it's not possible like to actually do it. It's just the way leverage works. It doesn't work that way. But I have a friend who went, uh, on a, on an outreach trip to Africa, and I think he was in, I think he was in Zimbabwe,

23:22 and he and a few other people went and met with a chief of one of the local tribes. And that chief, after an hour of conversation back and forth with an, uh, with an interpreter, maybe it's two hours, I don't know that chief came to faith in Yeshua as the Messiah. But what happened next? After the chief came and went and told his his, well, he was in the chief in council or, or, you know, the, the council of elders. What happened next was the entire tribe followed the chief. I'm telling you this, because this is how it works in tribal areas. We're not, again, in Texas, we're not that way.

24:10 In fact, in Texas, you just got to, well, nevermind. There's a lot of things you gotta do anyways. But it's amazing when you can think about having a conversation with one person and then 50 in a house, come to faith. Why? Because of the one person or an entire tribe, a hundred, 200, 300, 400 people come to faith because of one person and not the person sharing the person who turns. So here, we, we will continue on in this story. In verse 16, it so happened that when we were going to prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination who was bringing her master's, much profit from her fortune telling,

24:55 following after Paul and us. She kept shouting, saying, these men are servants of l Elon who were proclaiming to you the way of salvation. She kept doing this for many days, but Paul was irritated and turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Messiah Shea to come out of her. And it came out of her at that very moment. Here it is, Paul. And, and let's call it Paul in the gang. They're on the way to prayer. That's what it says. They're going down to prayer. And I want to point out now, before we get too far in, it's not just, Hey, you know what? This week we have Paul in town visiting, we're gonna have a prayer meeting, and Paul's gonna come

25:42 and share with us, and we're gonna have some prayer. It's not a spontaneous prayer. Why? Because it says that they were going daily or regularly. And I say this because again, this supports Paul continuing to live a Jewish lifestyle. Jews even till today, pray three times a day daily. So here they are, they're going to prayer, likely a regular daily occurrence. At this point. It could be that there is a, an abbreviated schedule of prayer. Um, and that, and that schedule is connected to the public reading of scripture on Mondays and Thursdays and Shabbat. So maybe three times a week, but it seems more daily to me.

26:29 But also, just so you know, the daily prayers match the dailys times of sacrifice in the temple. So it's, this is why when we offer up our prayers, we ask that they be received before the Lord like an incense. Why? Because I'm telling you, when we come on Kote the men, and we offer prayers out here all night long during Kote, it's a pleasing aroma of brisket. Amen? But there is an element of an engagement of the senses. And it's not just words, but it that there's a, there's an element that it pleases God's nostrils.

27:16 And it's a weird thing to think of, but I want to say, how many of you, when you go to a pit barbecue place, you, you get within about a block And all of a sudden you're hungry because you can smell the pleasing aroma. Anyways, enough about brisket. I'm getting hungry here. They're going down to prayer and it says, the text says that there's a slave girl who's following them. The slave girl has a spirit of divination. Some, some translations say, uh, a snake spirit. And that snake spirit enabled her to predict the future. Our text says, um, it says a spirit of divination who is bringing her much, uh, her master's much profit from her fortune telling.

28:05 But it's interesting because she has masters. I don't know if you noticed that in the text. It's plural. Perhaps you have two masters. I maybe that's, maybe it's more common in that time period. I don't know. Or maybe her masters were husband and wife, whatever it is. The text tells us very plainly that she is making them a lot of money through fortune telling or future predictions. And here she is following behind Paul's company, Paul, Silas, Timothy, Luke, maybe there's more daily on their way to prayer. And she's there going, these men are servants of Lle who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.

28:52 By the way, I just want to ask a question. Is the spirit that's in her speaking truth or falsity? It's speaking truth. I don't want you to get caught in this idea that, that, uh, spirit, dark spiritual elements or princip and principalities only ever tell you lies. Because I'm telling you in this text, and in the case when Yeshua is out in the wilderness for 40 days and is, and is tempted, he is tempted by text, by word, by by words from the Lord.

29:38 Now, maybe there's a little bit of a difference or a little bit of a, a nuance. Oh, you're hungry. You could just turn the, the rocks into bread because you're hungry. But here it seems that this girl or, or young lady or whatever she is, that she's proclaiming, or she's at the top of her lungs yelling as they're walking through town. By the way, this is, this is what people pay to have a herald. Somebody's walking through town. Oh, it, it, it's kind of like I'm reminded of the story of, of Mordecai and Haman, when, when, when they go, when, when Haman has to lead Mordecai on the horse, and he is like, this is what the king does to his most beloved servant. Like, I just think about it like that.

30:25 But here, this, this woman is, is saying, these men are servants of the most high God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. This spirit knows, number one, who the God of Israel is. And number two, who his son is. The the Spirit knows the truth. I I don't know, maybe the spirit could have said something that was slightly off kilter. I don't know. But I, I can't quite figure out what's going on because in my mind, it would be a gracious thing for Paul to be like, let me,

31:11 do you want to have this spirit be delivered from you like you've been tormented by this spirit? But Paul doesn't do that. He ignores her for days and she's just walking behind him. These are the messengers of LL Leon proclaiming the salvation of God. Paul, finally, the text tells us Paul gets irritated, or another word, he gets annoyed, and he turns around and he says, get out of her in the name of Messiah, Chua, and the spirit leaves. So I, I'm astounded, partially

31:57 because Paul doesn't do it out of graciousness or outta a desire to bring her salvation. He's just irritated and he's tired of being yelled at. And it's really funny to me because here this girl experiences deliverance that is actually probably really healthy for her. But it's not because Paul wants her to be healthy. It's because he is irritated. And I just, I don't know, y'all, I find it very funny. It's very comical to me. But here, the, the spirit of the spirit comes out of her. Why? Because the spirit is obedient to the name of the Messiah.

32:43 Yeshua, I'm telling you this because the Bible tells us that at the name of Yeshua, every knee will bow and every tongue, every mouth confess that Yeshua is the Messiah. But here we have a turn of events. The Spirit comes out of her after. By the way, I, I know I played it off as Paul gets a little irritated and annoyed, actually, the sense in the text is that he's deeply troubled like that. There's something deeply wrong in this circumstance, but it sounds better when you just say that he's annoyed.

33:28 But when her master, so we're gonna continue on verses 19 through 21, but when her master saw that the hope of prophet was gone, they grabbed Paul and Silas and they dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. And when they brought them to the chief authorities, they said, these men are throwing our city into an uproar being Jewish. They advocate customs which are not permitted for us to accept or practice being Romans. So I want to, I want to point out here, this woman has experienced something that is actually really healthy for her. She's been, she's been delivered from an oppressive spirit, and rather than being happy, her, the, her masters are upset.

34:15 Why are they upset? Because their hope is in profit. That's what the text tells us. Their hope of profit is gone. So it seems like whatever their business is, it was based on this girl's ability to predict the future or to be a fortune teller or something like that. And now that she no longer has that ability, they no longer have a hope for profit. And when they don't have a hope for profit, they're angry. You see, this is why our hope should be in the Lord, not in money. So what do they do? They drag Paul and Silas into the marketplace before the authorities, and they report to them, and they say, these men are throwing the city into an uproar.

35:01 Now, I want you to think about this for just a second. What has happened? Paul has commanded a spirit to come out of a girl, and that girl is no longer able to do the business, which made her masters money. So they don't have money anymore. They don't have a hope for money anymore. And the masters now go into the marketplace and they say, these men are throwing the city into an uproar. Why? Because they're Jewish. By the way, that's not, not too far of a, of what you hear today. Why are they, how are they throwing the city into an uproar?

35:47 Because they're Jewish. They're just being Jewish. That's what they're doing. And by being Jewish, they're upsetting everything. I want you to think about that for a moment. Just by being, they are upsetting everything. So the, so the solution to everything being upset is to remove the existence of the Jew. They give a little bit of a further definition. They say, as Jewish people or as Jews, they advocate customs. So first, how are they upsetting the, the marketplace

36:35 or everywhere by being Jewish, but they're also advocating customs, which Romans are not permitted to accept or practice. Now, is this true? There's an element of truth, but the whole statement is actually not true. Why can I say this? Because Paul and Silas, ironically enough, are not advocating them becoming Jews. Why can I say that? Because we're here post Acts 15, and they're delivering this message. You don't have to be circumcised. You don't have to be become Jewish. You just have to do these four things, these four prohibitions.

37:26 In other words, they're not promoting becoming Jews, but that seems to be the argument against them. By the way, those four prohibitions, just in case you need a a memory refresher, are prohibitions against idol worship, eating blood abstaining from things, strangled and sexual immorality. Now, why can I say there is an element of truth? Because in the element of truth in Roman society, all of these existed in pagan worship. And so to advocate for someone not being a part of pagan worship actually does bring a difference

38:13 or an element of, of, um, change into the culture. But I want you to know the same is true today, the accusations. The Jews are throwing the world into an uproar. The Jews are committing genocide in Gaza. And why? See, some people might say, oh, no, we mean the Zionists, not the Jews, the Zionists. Well, that's no longer true. And last week proved it, the calculated murder of two Jewish people in America. I I say calculated murder.

38:59 You can call it an assassination, call it whatever you want, but it's murder and it's premeditated. And why do I say it's premeditated? Because he flew from Chicago to DC to do it. And why do I say it's not just Zionists, it's all Jews. Because he found them at the Jewish museum and, and picked them off. He didn't go interview them and say, what kind of Jews are you? Are you the good Jews? Or the bad Jews? Were the orange Jews? Sorry. There was no interview process going on. He knew that they were coming out of a Jewish place

39:45 and chose to murder them because they're Jews. Why? Because Jews are upsetting the world, because Jews are keeping Palestine from being free from the river to the sea. It's Jews who are responsible for all of that, not Israelis. And the reason I'm, I'm, I'm being very pointed here, because even if they got what they wanted with Israelis, it wouldn't stop. If every, pardon me for being very graphic, and I know the kids are in here. If every Israeli, all 10 million Israelis, Jews

40:31 and Arabs, by the way, there's 2 million Israeli Arabs and, and 8 million Israeli Jews. If all 10 million died today, the fight wouldn't end because then they just expand their scope. And the scope has already been expanded by the murder of the two Jewish people last week. By the way, not that it wasn't before, but it is deeply personal now because the two murdered last week were Messianic Jews, Jewish people who follow Yeshua as their Messiah. And they weren't old. They were young.

41:21 They were about to, they, in fact, they would be getting engaged probably today or sometime this past week. This scope is not just Zionist. The idea of the phrases free Palestine and from the river to the sea indicate a desire for a world that is free from the burden of any living Jew period. I'm saying that because here it is in this context also what's going on? Well, they're being Jewish. They're upsetting everything.

42:10 If they weren't here, everything would be fine. By the way, that argument is never true. If they weren't here, somebody else would be upsetting everything. As my father said when I was growing up, the Jewish people are the canary in the coal mine. Maybe we're too old for or too young for coal canary in the coal mine illustrations. But you would take a canary into the coal mine while mining out a a, a mine. And if there is a presence of, uh, of a lack of oxygen, it would kill the canary first so that you would've time to get out. So the moment the Jewish people begin to be threatened is the moment it's unsafe for the rest of the world.

42:56 But that's not the argument. The argument is almost exactly the opposite. So here, let's keep going in the text, then the crowd joined in the attack on them. You see, first it starts with the, the, the, the, the merchantmen, the, the, the, the people making money who they've lost their money. Now they've created an argument. And what happens? The crowd joined in the attack on them. So the chief authorities ripped their clothes off or stripped them and commanded them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to guard them securely. Having received this charge, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

43:44 The response of the crowd is immediate against Paul and Silas, just like it is today, the response of the crowd against the Jewish people. The crowd has been fooled into thinking that the danger posed by Paul and Silas is a danger against them as Romans. What they don't realize is that money is at the heart of the issue, which the accusers are, are presenting before the crowd. But notice the accusers don't mention anything about money. I'm reminded of Matthew chapter six, verses 19 through 21, uh, 19 through 21, which says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,

44:30 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moss, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal. But here's the, the part of the verse that that is most striking. This is what Yeshua is saying, for where your treasure is there will your heart be also, Yeshua doesn't say wherever your heart is, that's where you're gonna put your money. No, what Yeshua says is wherever your money is, that's where your heart is. I know I've said this before, but if you just took a week and, and just wrote down every, every time you spend money, and where do you spend money? You find out after a week where your, where your heart is.

45:18 And unfortunately, it's quite revealing. So these vocal accusers, they're stirring up a crowd. And I'm ex I want you to exercise a caution here, because when there's someone stirring up a crowd, whether it's a politician, a celebrity, or someone else know this, that the gain or loss of money is almost always the silent partner in these circumstances, you can see the influence of money in our politics today in America. Uh, you don't even have to look hard. You just look and see, well, who's, who's giving us something free today?

46:07 Who, who wants to give me an airplane? Sorry. There are reasons that you are not allowed to accept donations like that, because money is where our heart is. And if our heart is whoever can give me the most money, man, that's, that's not really a good place to be. But here we are in this text, and it's a violent scene. I don't know if you ever think about this. I, it's kind of like watching a mob movie or something. The moment the crowd gets going, they rip the clothes off of, of, uh, Paul and Silas.

46:56 They, they strip them, and then they beat them with rods. I mean, I want you to think about this. Paul and Silas are grown men, and they've been walking all over. So they're not like, pardon me? They're not like some of us who sit on the couch all day and and are lacking in strength, but they have been walking all around the, the, the Asia minor Turkey, and here. Now there's a Macedonia. They're walking, they're strong. They're not, they're not wimps, but the crowd beats them up, strips them.

47:41 I, I can't even imagine. Listen, I got into some school yard fights when I was a, you know, like 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. I think that might have been about where it stopped somewhere in there. It's one thing to be a, a young person, 10 to 15. I'm not saying it's, it's good to beat up a young person. I'm just saying it's one thing to be someone who's 10 through 15 who's getting beat up by somebody. But imagine a grown adult. Imagine me. Imagine if, if you guys, all the crowd and you guys just got stirred up and you just started beating me,

48:27 and all of a sudden, like, my clothes have been stripped off, I've been beaten with Rod. I can't see, I probably can't see out of the, out of my eyes. I probably can't hear out of my ears. Probably blood coming down. Who knows? Maybe I've broken bones. Who knows? But that's what it is to be beaten. And then they're thrown into the innermost part of prison. Not the outer mode, not the outer part, which is, you know, probably like for white collar crimes, but the innermost part of the prison, there's no light in the innermost part of the prison, and they shackle 'em, probably they don't even need to be shackled. They probably can't even walk. But it's strikingly similar to the experiences of Yeshua,

49:16 of Peter in the emissaries in Acts chapter five, and even Stephen in Acts chapter seven, very similar. And we're gonna pause right in the middle of the story, because that's the time that I have. So what is, so we're gonna stop there and, and we're gonna ask a few questions, which we always do. So what does this mean for you and me? E Every person who responds to the message to turn to the Lord is an important person. But I want you to think about it. Are there key people who, by their salvation, will immediately release others to follow Yeshua?

50:03 I'm not telling you that you should bypass everyone, but I'm telling you, if you're in a moment, you identify the key person in a crowd, and that key person will release others to follow Yeshua. By the way, that's this, that's the, the, the foundation of the modern Messianic Jewish movement 150 years ago. It wasn't just one or two. There were a few key rabbis who came to faith, and all of their congregations came to faith afterward. So it's not that this stopped in Acts chapter 16. It still exists today. Secondly, why do we do the things that we do?

50:49 I'm thinking in particular about this woman who is following behind Paul. Sometimes we have to bear with a person until we know what is going on beyond the surface. You see, Paul allowed her to walk for days. I don't know, maybe Paul was trying to figure it out. Maybe at the first he just thought she was irritating, But whatever happened, it went for days and Paul got a better understanding of what was going on. Maybe I can make a side point here. Don't expect that if you are serving the Lord, you won't get annoyed.

51:34 Okay? Do I need to say that again? Don't expect if you're serving the Lord even here at em. Oh, don't expect that if you're serving the Lord, that you won't get annoyed by someone else in here or not in here. That's a, that's an expectation. That's too high. Now, let me give you another caution. Be careful when you mix spirituality, religion, money and politics into a single mixture. Because when you do this, all of a sudden

52:21 your hope is in the wrong spot. You can see this today with those who placed their hope in President Trump. You can see that. You could see this five years ago with those who placed their hope. Pardon me, for stepping on some people who, who placed their hope in a mask? Masks are not bad things. President Trump, not a horrible president. Maybe there's things that he could do better. Maybe there's things that he could do worse, mask, not a bad thing. Could be helpful, could be not helpful. But the moment you place your trust in it is the moment you have placed your hope in something that is not the Lord.

53:07 And that moment, that moment when your hope is somewhere else, is the moment where you will truly be discouraged. And when you get discouraged, because your hope is in something finite, you might break. Because when we place our hope in the Lord, it's the Lord who's unbreakable. Not us, has nothing to do with us. It has to do with the Lord. So don't put your hope in the government.

53:54 Ooh, wait a second. Don't put your hope in the government that the government will do the things that the body of Messiah should be doing. Maybe the government has done it for a while better than the body of Messiah. You know what that says? The body of Messiah is weak. It doesn't say the government is strong. Why would we let the government do what we're supposed to do? That's what we're supposed to do. That's our job as the body of Messiah. These different elements, finally, or not. Finally, finally, in this section, where is your treasure?

54:41 Hmm? Where's your money? Because wherever it is, you'll find your heart also. Now, let me just give you a fair warning. Every single person in this room and every person who's watching online, including me, we are very adept at lying to ourselves. We are really good at it, y'all. We are really good at saying, this is my motivation, not that. But if you can stop for a moment and truly listen and let the Lord speak, and you'll find things that you wish didn't exist in your life.

55:31 One of those is where's your money? Where's your treasure? Yeshua does not promise us a life without pain and suffering. In fact, if we follow his footsteps, there is a high likelihood for pain and suffering because that is what he experienced. Paul writes to the Philippians, so you're gonna get this in part of your homework. Paul writes to the Philippians later on saying, rejoice in the Lord. Always. Again, I will say rejoice, and he continues on. I know what it is to live with humble means, and I know what it is to live in prosperity in any

56:16 and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of contentment, both to be filled and to go hungry, to have abundance and to suffer need. I can do all things through Messiah who strengthens me. That's the context. By the way of that verse. I can do all things. That's not Paul writing saying, Ari Waldman can be an NBA star, That it's not saying I can do anything because God has told me I can do all things. No, it's finding contentment in the experiences that God has you walking through. In other words, Paul says, I have learned the secret

57:02 of contentment both to be filled and to go hungry. In other words, I'm starving and I'm so full, I'm gonna roll off the couch. I can be content in both those places. I can have abundance and I can have nothing. I can do all of these things through the Messiah who strengthens me. So let the Messiah strengthen you in all of these things. I'm gonna give you your homework one more time. Your homework for the next two weeks is to read the book of Philippians a y'all chapter a day. It's super easy. It's like 33 verses or something like that.

57:50 A day. It'll take you four minutes. I'm just, that was a, that was, yeah, that was just a guess take. You may take you two minutes. It may take you 10, but it's not gonna take you an hour. Okay? Maybe reading might be too much for you. Listen to the audio Bible. I hear TLV has a really good app on your phone. Like, listen to you version, listen to something. Just, just do one chapter a day. Let's just see what, what Philippians has in there, because it's quite fascinating when you look at the foundation of a community

58:35 and then you look years later and see what is or is not present an addiction, 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. Whoa, you gotta don't run me over. Yeah.

59:38 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shalum.