Act(ion)s of Faith

0:01 Father, we come to you, and we just thank you for your goodness and your mercy. Father, we thank you for your loving kindness that we have seen from generation to generation, and we thank you, father, that even in this congregation, we see that your kindness continues to move forward from Rabbi Marty to Rabbi Ari. Father, as he has prepared this week, as he has studied your word, we ask that you would use him mightily as a tool to proclaim your good news to us. As we listen, open up our hearts, open up our minds that we may receive and be directed by your word. And the mighty name of Yeshua we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Marcus.

0:49 I wonder if you can join me in just for a, for just a couple moments and come before the Lord with a, with a heart of prayer that we can just come before him today, a Venus sha may our Father in heaven. Lord, we come to you, Lord. You know, all you see, all you hear all, Lord, we ask that you would draw us near to you on the Shabbat. Lord. We ask that you would prepare our hearts, Lord, to hear from you. Lord, we ask that you would watch over us, that you would be near to us.

1:37 Lord, we look to the day when Yeshua will return. But in the meantime, Lord, just as your your word says, Lord, we standed firm Lord, as we walk about in this world that is not ruled by you, Lord, we stand firm in your truth. Lord, we recognize that you are in control, Lord, that you watch our comings and our goings. And

2:23 Lord, we ask that you would continue to watch over us today. We thank you and we bless you in the name of Yeshua, our Messiah. Amen. Before I get into my message, I wanted to, I wanna show a short, uh, clip to you, but before I show the short clip, Uh, If, if, let me, let me say this. Well, I've been saying it for 11 months. The world we live in is not a kind world. The world we live in celebrates

3:09 what happened on October 7th. The world we live in, rejoices in chaos and murder. They don't call it chaos and murder, they call it actually the opposite. But it's the world that we live in, the world we live in refuses to condemn and demand the release of the remaining hundred plus hostages. The world we live in. Refuse to enable Israel to find

3:56 the six that were murdered two weeks ago in time. I don't know if you were, if you, how much you paid attention, but Israel was very close within a kilometer of finding those six hostages. In fact, they were so close, the hostages were 65 feet underground. They were so close that they heard the pistol shots when the six were executed. That's how they found the tunnel. They were able to pinpoint where the pistol shots came from, and then they found the tunnel entrance.

4:41 So I have a, it's about a four minute video to show you, but I, I'm just gonna recommend if you are sensitive or have a very sensitive spirit or have a child in here still who has a sensitive spirit, I recommend you just take five minutes and go use the restroom. Uh, but I, this is one of those moments That I, I believe truth brings clarity about how we can pray. So can you guys show that video

5:26 In the next couple of minutes? We're gonna go down into the tunnel shaft 20 meters below. We, the hostages were murdered. The tunnel shaft was in a children room in a house. Those are the walls of this children room with snow white and Mickey Mouse on the wall and a tunnel shaft where hostages were murdered downstairs, 20 meters below the ground. Hamas used those letters in the tunnel and there was a hiding floor. All he needed to do is to break the floor and then go out through the children room inside to the street and go back into the tunnel.

6:14 This is how Hamas built this tunnel. The shaft goes down about 20 meters into the ground using four separate letters there. It connects to a narrow tunnel with no rooms. That is so low, you can stand up straight in it. The tunnel is about 120 meters long and ends in a blocked iron door. This short block part of the tunnel is where the hostages were held and murdered. We know that between two to six terrorists, we're here with the hostages. We are gathering all the stuff here for forensics, for intelligence. We can see magazines an AK 47 magazine chargers all

7:02 by the, used by the terrorists. Quran books a hairbrush. We need to, we need to check. We used it, but there were women here in the tunnel. This is their blood. This is the blood of Hir. And then Carmel, URI, almo and Alex, they were heroes and they were here in this tunnel for weeks or days, we will find out. But they were here in this tunnel in horrific conditions where there is no air to breathe, where you cannot stand.

7:47 And they survived, but they were murdered by terrorists. And there's still hostages 101. Some of them are alive in the same conditions in tunnels like this in Gaza. And we need to do everything we can in all means, in all the means we can to bring them back home alive. Why murder innocent people, women, young men. They were all in the music festival and Carmel was at their home in the kibbutz. Why murder them in a tunnel after they survived 11 months in horrific condition? We pray and think in our hearts and minds,

8:34 and we will keep on doing everything we can, everything to bring back home, all the hostages. It's, it's a stark video that shows the reality of what is going on today. 65 feet below ground. I don't, this week I was, I was telling Mar or I think it was this week, telling Marcus about it. And Marcus goes, that's, that's a basically a seven story building.

9:22 I never really thought about it in terms of a seven story building, but just think about that. To go down 65 feet To Have a, a tunnel, that seems to me for a singular purpose, it's a dead end tunnel. It's there for a singular reason. I recognize it has been 11 months, and after 11 months, we Americans tend to move on and find something else to focus on. But can I take a moment and encourage you, this is not

10:09 the time to move on. 40 Americans were taken on October 7th. 41 of them was murdered two weeks ago in cold blood. I haven't heard anything, uh, in terms of an outcry, an American, let's, let's just set the other five Israelis aside for a moment. I haven't heard anything in America about the one or the 40 for that matter. It's been 11 months. Now is the time

10:59 to not let up. Today is the day, as is every day, to hit the floor every morning and pray. It's important to pray for the release of the hostages. It's important to pray for protection for those who are seeking their release. It's important to pray for the spiritual redemption of those who are persecuting the people of Israel. And it's important to pray for the spiritual redemption of Israel herself. It's important to pray

11:44 that the Lord will step in as guardian of Israel, even as a much larger threat looms to the north and to the east. Today is not the day to stop. It gets dark and it gets difficult in times of war. In fact, I think in my own life, this is probably the closest I've ever been to war.

12:30 Now I know some of you are older than me. Some of you have been deployed, some of you have served. And, and for that, I'm extremely grateful. But for me personally, this is probably the closest I've been, maybe maybe early in the two thousands during the second Intifada also, um, it is a very dark day that we live in. But don't focus on the darkness. Recognize it and speak to speak truth to it, but don't focus on it because the darker the day gets, the brighter, a single light shines a single light.

13:18 There is a movement now of spiritual awakening, awakening through the Muslim world where there's dreams and visions of Yeshua appearing to people. These are things that we need to be praying for because just like Paul, Paul sought the destruction of the body of Messiah. He was walking down a road or riding on a donkey, however you interpret the story. He was on his way to persecute the body of Messiah. And Yeshua appeared to him in person.

14:03 Now, I recognize acts as a little bit unclear and we can talk about that, but I'm, I'm working toward the message right now. Yeshua appeared to Paul. Paul was stopped in his tracks. In fact, to the point that Paul fasted and prayed, it seems for at least three days. And then his eyes were opened. Was that in last week's? Was that in yours, Sean? Or was that, is this one in mine? The eyes opening? I think it's in mine. Oh yeah, it's in mine. This week we talk about Paul's eyes being opened. It's not just his physical eyes, it's his

14:50 spiritual, spiritual sight. He had been spiritually blind to what the Lord was doing and how the Lord was raising up the followers of Yeshua, the body of Messiah. And he was there persecuting. He was blind to it. And when he was blind to it spiritually, he all of a sudden became blind physically when the Lord appeared to him. And then the Lord removed his blindness and he saw spiritually what the Lord was doing. We can pray the same thing for those who persecute Israel today, for those who persecute the body of Messiah. Today we are here in Acts chapter nine.

15:40 Well, I just, I just summarized where we were, where we have been. Paul's set his plans for persecution of the community. Yeshua interrupted him while he was on his way, and then Yeshua interrupts Ananias. By the way, if you, if you change your perspective from a Paul perspective to an Ananias perspective, Ananias is interrupted in whatever he's doing. When the Lord says You need to go pray for Paul, Ananias is interrupted. And then we talked about, are you be, are you open for the, for correction from the Lord? This is where we ended last week. So Ananias left here. In here. We are in in chapter nine, verse 17. So Ananias left and entered into the house laying hands on, on, on Saul.

16:27 Uh, lemme just take a moment. Not in my notes, but I, I've done it twice now, and Rabbi Sean did it last week. I just want to point out, Saul, Shaul and Paul are all the same person. It's all renditions, kind of of the same name. It's not Saul, the persecutor of the body of Messiah. And Paul, the great hero who brought the gospel to the Gentiles, it's Shaul, his Hebrew name, which is rendered Saul like King Saul from the Bible, and Paulis was his Greek name. So you'll find it often in occasion to who his audience is

17:17 as to what name will be utilized. Again, Saul's not evil and Paul's not good. It's just one name versus another. And it's often, I think Rabbi Sean used his last week. His Hebrew name is Yohannan Sean. See, the, the equivalent would be Sean Evil. Yohannan good. It's not that way at all. It's not that at all. It's just one is his Hebrew name. Okay? So just I know that is that, that is just in ingrained in in what we've been taught from young age. It's not true unin it, and that's not a word, not a word,

18:02 but just go ahead and unin that. Okay, here we are. So laying hands on Saul, he said, brother Saul, the Lord Yeshua, the one who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming. By the way, this is how I know Yeshua appeared in person in the Acts text, using acts only not using even Paul's descriptions in another one, because Aniah says the Lord, Yeshua, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the akha kodesh. And immediately something like fish scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight and he got up and was baptized and he took food and was strengthened. Now, for several days, he was with the disciples

18:48 who were in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Yeshua in the synagogue saying He is the son of God, Ben Elohim, all those hearing him continue to be amazed and were saying, is this not the one who in Jerusalem destroyed, uh, those who called on his name and have come here and, and had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests. But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding those who lived in Damascus by proving this. Yeshua is the Messiah. When many days had elapsed, the Jewish people there plotted together to do away with him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were also closely watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death. But his disciples took him at night

19:33 and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket. So here we're going to, we're gonna look at the first, uh, three of those verses. First Ananias left and entered into the house laying his hands on Saul. He said, brother Shaul, brother Saul, the Lord Yeshua, the one who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the kodesh. So I wanna make a couple points here in this verse. First of all, my overall heading for this, for the, for these verses, the idea here that's encapsulated is allowing the Lord to minister

20:19 or to prepare you where you are. You see the Lord prepared Paul, by the way, I'm just gonna use his name, Paul, because to me Paul is by far what he's known more as. And so I'll just use Paul. The Lord is, is there preparing Paul while he's blind? Paul has been blind for three days. I can only imagine what Paul has been thinking and praying about during those three days. Paul has been set, Paul, by the way, presided over the execution of Timothy. Oh, of Steven, wrong one, sorry.

21:06 Paul presided over the execution of Stephen. At the end of chapter seven, Stephen finishes, Stephen presents the gospel to all what, well, what we would call the gospel, the good news of Yeshua to all of the Sanhedrin and Stephen finishes, and he looks up into the heavens, and the heavens open up, and he sees the glory of the Lord in the form of Yeshua there in the heavenlies. And Stephen then proclaims that I see the glory of the Lord. And, and it's from that, that he's stoned, that he's executed by Paul.

21:53 Well, Paul presides over it. He oversees it. I just want you to think that we don't know if this is the next day, six months, 10 years. Uh, I would presume it seems to be relatively quick, maybe within a year after that, maybe, maybe not. But it seems to me that's not a moment that's easily forgotten. I can just imagine Paul there fasting and praying repenting of his sins, going back and remembering Stephen and Stephen's last action was so similar to Yeshua's last action of father forgive them for they know not what they do.

22:40 And he's going through that going, oh my goodness, what did I do? And he's, he's digesting all of the different times over the, over the last season that he has persecuted the followers of Yeshua. And he's sitting there praying, going through every one of those. I don't know how many of you have ever had those moments where you're like, oh, man, I just sinned and now I have to go back and repent. By the way, sin, you don't just repent to the Lord. If you against someone else, you repent

23:25 to the other person also. But you start with the Lord and you're going through all of those moments. Oh my goodness, I did that. And then the Lord shows you something else and I did that. And then the Lord shows you something else and you and I did that. Lord, can you stop showing me things that I did? Please, Paul is now recalling all of that while he's in this state of blindness. He's unable to see, just as he's been spiritually unable to see up until this point. He was confounded by the presence of Yeshua when he appeared to him, and it blinded him for the purpose of bringing him sight spiritually.

24:20 So how is the Lord? The Lord first has to minister to Ananias, by the way, before Ananias can minister to Paul. I don't know if you've ever considered that the Lord has to have a conversation and a, and a ministry just for Ananias his sake, so that Ananias can go to Paul. It's not an easy thing when you think about someone who Has presided over the murder of your fellow, uh, followers of Yeshua who's been persecuting all the others who believe the same way you do. And now the Lord says, oh, by the way, you need to go pray for him and he's blind, so he's not gonna see you coming. You have to have a lot of faith that he really is blind

25:07 and not gonna see him coming in order to actually show up. So the Lord has to minister to Ananias. An Ananias is a follower of Yeshua in the diaspora community. I presume, no, this is my presumption. So don't, don't put too much on this, that he traces his faith back to one of two places, either A, he was one of the early followers of Yeshua who then after persecution was dispersed, or B, this is the more likely that I think he was one of those who came, made pilgrimage up to Jerusalem and was at the Temple Mount when Peter got got up and said, it's time to repent. To me, that's the far more likely answer, is that he was one

25:55 of those who repented early on in the Book of Acts. And then he went back to Damascus. And now here the Lord is telling Ananias to go and pray for Paul. This is what we discussed last week. And Ananias is arguing with God. By the way, just as a side note, if, if you, somebody in here probably needs to be released for this, feel free to argue with God like it's good, argue with him, get passionate with him, and then finally do what he says. Exactly. But don't hold it in and say, I can't argue with God because he's God and he is not gonna like me if I argue with him.

26:41 That's not the way our God works. By the way, you can argue with him, you can yell at him, you can write all sorts of psalms that you're like, where is He? And then they can be recorded in the Bible so that everybody else can be encouraged. It's, I'm not the only one who feels so desperate and alone and without God, and I'm arguing with him all the time. It's all through the scriptures that we argue with the Lord. So don't be ashamed to argue with the Lord, but don't get stuck there either. Allow him to, to, to minister to you and then to change your heart. So here anani is arguing with the Lord, and in essence, the Lord is telling him to go and pray for his enemy. As I already said. The Lord says he's blind.

27:29 Go pray for him so that he can have sight again. And Anani goes, first of all, I have to trust that you mean he's actually blind so he doesn't see me coming And doesn't murder me in the process of coming. Secondly, you want me to do what? Restore his sight so that he can see all of us and then take us back. This is Ananias. He's, he's arguing with the Lord. And finally the Lord says, yes. Oh, lovely. He, he can come up here. That's fine.

28:18 Hey bud, you wanna come see me? Come Say hi. Come here. We went outside and played. Got a little Hot. Alright, can you take a breath for me? Alright, so here we are, Anne and I finally has gotten all of it out, all of his arguing out with the Lord. And now he says, okay, Lord, I'll go do what you've called me to do. And he comes to Paul and he appears to Paul and he says, brother, I, I just want you to think about that brother Paul.

29:06 First of all, brother in this light is a term of endearment. It's, it's an acceptance of one within the community. Now, it could be utilized as a term that he's among a recognition by Ananias, that he's among the followers of Yeshua. Or it could also be a recognition that he's a brother from, from the tribe, if you will. We're not entirely certain. Oh, you're look a little sleepy bud. Why don't you just lay your head there. He says, brother, brother Shaul, brother Paul Yeshua, who appeared to you on the road has sent me. So you might regain your sight and be filled with the ruakaka Kodesh. I I just wanna, wanna make note here for all of our sake,

29:56 Ananias does not tell Paul about his objections and his argument with the Lord about coming to Minister de Paul. It's just it. That's something that's not helpful for Paul to hear. What happens here is he refrains from that. Why? Because now he's a hundred percent in line with Yeshua, with what the Lord has, has told him to do, and the objections are no longer relevant. So he doesn't have to share those objections. Now he says, this is what the Lord has called me to do, and this is what we're going to do. Also, sometimes, I don't know if you ever have this moment,

30:44 but my mom, my grandmother, no, this is my grandfather's favorite verse, but I don't know, sometimes I don't know if you ever have those moments where you feel like you have to explain everything for someone else's sake. I I just want you to remember Proverbs chapter 10, verse nine, which says, when words are many, sin is not lacking. So he who controls his speech is wise. So here we see that the Lord is minister to Ananias and now is using Ananias to minister to Paul. Ananias overcomes his reluctance to participate with the Lord in building the mess, in building up the body of Messiah through someone he didn't trust.

31:31 Now, let that sink in for a minute. The Lord is using Ananias who has overcome his reluctance to participate with the Lord in building up the body of Messiah through someone that he doesn't trust. To be frank, it doesn't matter if you and I trust someone else, it matters if the Lord does. Now, if our trust is broken with one another, there are ways to repair that trust and there are processes by which to go through. But by persevering through these struggles, an Ananias is finally able to pray for Paul to regain his sight. And it seems to me his both his physical

32:16 and his spiritual sight, and to be filled with the rah, with the spirit of the Lord, Paul's spiritual sight coupled with his being empowered by the rah is is for him. It, it's this is all happening for the mission that the Lord has set before him to go and minister to the gentiles, to the nations. But I also wanna point out, James also writes about this in James chapter five. He says, the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. So confess your offenses to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.

33:05 This here we get to witness an Ananias is the righteous person who is praying for Paul, and his prayer is effective. Paul regains his sight scales fall from his eyes. And, and Rabbi Sean mentioned this last week, and I'll mention it again, but there is some scholarship to show that the scales falling from his eyes. Perhaps they didn't, his sight wasn't maybe fully returned or, or perhaps he just struggled with his eyesight for the rest of his life, uh, and that that was something he just struggled with. How do we know this? Because he writes in, in Galatians and in another letter, I can't maybe Corinthians, he says, see, I write this by my own hand. It's, it's in large print, and you write in large print

33:51 because you can't see to write small. Uh, there's also a, a mention, I think it's in second Corinthians, I can't remember the verse. Anyways, he then Paul now is, is awakened his, his eyesight is restored, his spiritual sight is, is is opened up. And here he is. He remains with the other's disciples for several days. We could view this actually as a season of training for Paul to better understand what it meant to be a follower of Yeshua. I don't doubt that Paul knew what it meant to be a good Jew. In fact, Paul probably knew what it meant to be a good Jew, better than almost anyone else.

34:36 But what he needed to be taught was how to be a good follower of Yeshua and what does that mean and how does that look? And what does that, how does that affect every my everyday life? So then we move on to verse 20, acts nine, verse 20. Immediately he began proclaiming Yeshua in the synagogues saying, he is Ben Elohim, the son of God. All those hearing him were amazed. They're saying, isn't this the one who made havoc in Jerusalem for all those who call in his name and hasn't he come here to bring them as prisoners before the ruling priest, the ruling kohanim, but Saul kept growing stronger and he was confounding the Jewish people living in Damascus by proving that Yeshua is the Messiah. Here he is. He's actively sharing his faith. He's taken this time of being built up to now step out

35:22 and to walk and to put his, uh, his faith into action. He's proclaiming Yeshua in the synagogue. This, by the way, is the pattern of Paul's ministry from this point onward. He proclaims the name of Yeshua in the, the synagogue. And if he's not, uh, if he's rejected, he then goes out to the nations of that, of that area. It's fascinating because we actually can see this part of acts confirmed in Paul's letters and Paul's, uh, letter to the Galatians and also his letter, uh, I think it's to the Corinthians where this timeline of, of what happens is, is verified. Paul talks about, in Galatians chapter one,

36:08 Paul talks about his ministry to the Gentiles. But when we couple it with this passage, we understand that Paul has a ministry to the Gentiles that starts with the Jews. He starts in the synagogue, and then he goes out. In fact, he goes out in this, in this area. Uh, we've, we read, I think it's in Galatians, that he goes to Arabia for a period of time. Secondly, what is the thing that what that Paul does? How does he talk about Yeshua? He declares that Yeshua is the son of God or Ben Elohim. It's fascinating because so many things, different things have been made over the different terms, son of God, son of man, uh, over history.

36:57 But it, it's fascinating that here Paul chooses to utilize the term Son of God. According to my turn, according to Dr. Daniel Bo Boyan, the Son of God, title was a title that was used for the King of Israel. So the son of David, son Solomon, would be called a son of God. That was his, his title as king. It was indicating the rightful kingship or the anointed one, if you will, because the anointed one was the next king of Israel.

37:44 In other words, what Paul is doing here is Paul is declaring that Yeshua is the son of God. He's saying the Yeshua is the promised Messiah, the king of Israel. You see, Messiah means anointed one. The king of Israel is, there's, there's a day to come where there the King of Israel, where his reign will be unending. And Paul says, this is Yeshua, the son of God. Now he's saying he's the promised Messiah, the rightful king of the Jewish people, the king of Israel. I the people who hear Paul, the text tells us they are amazed. Now in this regard, you can think about this. Paul's in the synagogue. He's, he's teaching.

38:31 The people are amazed and then they, they, they rise up against him. It sounds strikingly similar to the, to the, to what we see with Yeshua. When he first enters into his ministry, he comes to the synagogue. He says, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. The people are what? They're amazed. And then they rise up against him to throw him off a cliff. It's the same progression that we see with Yeshua. Paul, the people who hear Paul, they're amazed because they're remembering Paul's past actions and now they're seeing what he's doing and what he's declaring. And, and they're, they're kind of in a dilemma by the way, of what to do. Paul is sharing his faith with others.

39:17 His faith continued to go stronger. Why is Paul's faith growing stronger? Hey bud, can I put you down for a minute? Nope. Okay, there we go. How about we just switch arms? Oh, this actually is my point right here. When you exercise a muscle, it grows stronger. Literally, he's proving my point. When that muscle is faith and you exercise your faith by sharing your story and by telling others what the Lord has done in your life, it it not only strengthens them, it strengthens your muscle so that the next time you share the story,

40:03 the next time you share your faith, your muscles are even stronger, your faith muscles are stronger and you can share a little bit more. This is the way muscles work. The more you do things like hold heavy objects, the stronger they get so that you can continue to hold heavier objects as they get older. When you experience a little pushback in your story, it's a little bit of advers, uh, uh, adversity. When you have a little bit of adversity, you have two options. I dunno if you guys have ever thought about this.

40:48 If you experience a little bit of adversity, you have two options. One is to say, you know what, I'm just gonna sit down here. I can't hold the weight anymore. That's option number one. Option number two is ironically what Paul writes about in Romans chapter five. We also boast in suffering knowing that suffering produces perseverance. In other words, holding a heavy object when you push through, it produces perseverance. And perseverance produces character. And character produces hope.

41:35 And hope does not disappoint because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has given to us. This is why it's so important to exercise your faith. Now, I know you've heard this story multiple times. I'm just gonna share it briefly, but Rabbi Sean, when he came to faith, uh, was his family was not impressed with his coming to faith. And so what they did is they called a very well known, um, anti missionary who helps talk people out of their faith. Like that's his job. And in that process, rabbi Sean asked his mentors,

42:20 I think you shared this story, recently even asked, his mentors asked all these people, and they all said, don't listen, don't, don't even engage him. And in fact, he told me this story and I told him, if I would've been your mentor, I would've told you the same thing. Don't engage him. But he felt some deep conviction that he had to, and in that process, he, he went to one of his mentors and said, I understand that I, that you think I shouldn't, but I have to. And his mentor said, then let me prepare you. You see his preparation for that, uh, maybe I'm putting too many words in your mouth. His preparation for that is what has ma what has helped him hold onto his faith for the last 20 years?

43:09 Because he prepped so hard to receive all of the counter arguments that he knew it wouldn't shatter his faith. So here we come to the last part of this, uh, passage. When many days had passed, verse 23, these Jewish people plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Paul. They were watching the gates day and night to kill him. But the disciples took Paul by night and let him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket. Sometimes the Lord will redirect you when you're ministering to him, uh,

43:56 when you're ministering for him. We saw this with Philip in Samaria. The Lord said, oh, okay, that's enough here. It's now time to go here. We saw this, uh, we've seen it numerous times and we see it again here with Paul. Paul's been been successfully sharing his faith and confounding others. And the Lord says, okay, time to go. And I don't know if you can imagine being lowered in a basket. Seems to me a rather humbling experience for someone who has more training than just about anybody biblically mentioned. But Paul becomes aware of this plot to kill him.

44:45 You know, I just as a side note, I don't think Paul is phased by the plot, by the way, because if we take all of the other plots that we see through, through acts, Paul is never phased. Paul just knows this is the way the Lord's called me to go and I'm gonna continue to follow it despite whatever the plot is. So here in this case, it means that he has to escape in a basket. But later on in acts when there's a plot that comes to to fruition, he doesn't escape in a basket. In fact, he heads right into it Knowing full well what the consequences of this plot will be. Here we have Paul's disciples. They take him by night

45:30 and they let him down over the wall in a basket. First of all, I want you to note in the matter the span of six verses. We've gone from the disciples to Paul's disciples. I don't know if you notice that in the text. It goes from the disciples to his disciples. Paul has built a following here in Damascus. This passage could span several years. We're not entirely certain, but Paul sees the prudence in the leading of the Lord in this method of departure from Damascus, and he chooses to follow the Lord. So what does this mean for you and me?

46:18 I've got a couple questions and a couple points. First of all, where are you? You have to be able to evaluate where you are physically and spiritually. Are you Ananias who is in his, who is a, a mature, we seem, seems to indicate a mature follower of Yeshua? Or are you Paul who is on the war path with murderous schemes? Where are you? Are you a long time follower of Yeshua? Might he be challenging a particular view you have to overcome at this moment Or overcoming a bias about someone who's new to the faith? Or are you new to the faith

47:04 and you're being challenged to deal with the consequences of your previous actions? Now, I will also say, if you're not new to the faith, you also will be challenged to deal with the consequences of your previous actions. Okay, time to switch arms. Bud. Building my strength here. Paul had to deal with the consequences of overseeing the murder of Steven. And if you look, Paul is never truly given the opportunity to minister in Jerusalem. Do we know that the consequence of his actions? We don't. But I would. I if I had to put some money, if I had to go down and put some money on it at the local

47:51 bedding shop, I don't know what those are called, but apparently I don't do this very often. But if I had to put, if I had to call my bookie and put some, there it is. I I had to think of, I had to think of movies now if I had to put some money on it, Paul is not permitted the opportunity to minister in Jerusalem, perhaps because of his actions with Stephen Enough. Okay, you seem like you're acting much better and you wanna go sit with grandma. Okay? Secondly, you need to understand where you are. Secondly, you need to put your faith into action.

48:39 If you just stay where you are, that is what I would call inactive faith. And it means very little. You have to put feet to your faith. James says this in James one, know this my dear brothers and sisters, let everyone let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger for human. Anger doesn't produce the righteousness of God. So put away all moral filth in the excess of evil and receive with humility the implanted word which is able to save your souls, But be doers of the word and not hearers only diluting yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer. He is like a man who is at, who looks at his natural face in a mirror.

49:26 For once he looks at himself and goes away, he immediately forgets what sort of person he is or was, but the one who looks intently into the perfect Torah. The Torah that gives freedom and continues in it. Not becoming a hero, but forget, but forgets not. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. Not becoming a hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts. He shall be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks he is religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, that person's religion is futile, pure, and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this. To care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

50:15 Oftentimes, this is one of the things I learned from Elder Dave. Oftentimes, putting our faith into action means doing the next right thing. It's as simple as that. Finally, be ready for the Lord's redirection in your life. He doesn't always work according to our plans. In fact, we know that his ways are often at odds with our ways. He may call us to be humbled and escape from a situation in a basket like Paul. Or he may call us to lay down everything for him like he does with Paul later in Acts. We don't know what he's gonna call us to do today, but we have to be ready for the Lord's redirection in our

51:02 lives each and every moment. May our Father in heaven. Lord, I thank you for Paul. Lord, I thank you for this scripture that, uh, that you have allowed to come to be, uh, passed on to us. To Lord, I just pray that you would minister to us today. Lord, allow us to, to wrestle with you and to, and to argue with you. And, and, and Lord, I just ask that your will would prevail over ours. Lord, we bless you and praise you and Yeshua his name, amen. With the onic benediction.

51:48 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. Oh,

52:41 in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua.