Great Is Your Faithfulness!

0:01 Father, we thank you for your faithfulness. We pray that as Rabbi Ari brings the message this morning that you will continue to do what you have always done, strengthen your servants, that they may proclaim your goodness and your mercy. Father, we pray that you would give them strength in this hour, and that as the word goes forth, that we would be willing and obedient to what the text tells us and how it leads us. In the mighty name of Yeshu we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Marcus. Well, I have been giving news updates for nearly two and a half years, and I'm not going to stop now. Um, just a couple, just a couple things.

0:48 Uh, by the way, if you're interested in some notes, uh, to keep you awake during my message, you're welcome to raise your hand. They'll, they'll walk around and bring you some notes. Um, in the meantime, couple things that have been happening this week in the Middle East. You know, it's always, it's always a not busy day, or not busy week in the Middle East. That was very dry humor, and you can laugh. This week, Israel and Azerbaijan signed an artificial intelligence agreement in Jerusalem. I don't know if you saw that in the headlines. The Iranian regime escalated tensions this week on Tuesday, they, uh, sent a surveillance drone, which aggressively approached the USS Abraham Lincoln

1:36 and was subsequently shot down. Uh, also they sent two fast attack boats and an aerial drone to seize an oil tanker in the strait of hor booze. Uh, and they did not succeed. And finally, this one is partially my favorite just because, um, I think it might be an age thing. Um, but Israel is in the Winter Olympics and they're offering a new opportunity for us to support a team called Schul Runnings Feel the Rhythm. That's right. Israel has a bobsled team this year.

2:29 They also have, I, I saw this, uh, by the way, if you, I don't know if you keep up with the Olympics or not, but the Winter Olympics started yesterday. And, um, I I, I'm a little bit partial to the Winter Olympics because I love bobsledding and I was a, I was a young child when Cool Runnings came out. And so it has lasting memory for me, but also Israel is entering a guy. I, I don't, I don't even think I realized that this was an event. I, I think it's called, Oh, I think it's called Skeleton something. And, and it's basically a single man bobsled look like, probably it'll scare the skeleton right outta you.

3:14 Um, but literally you just go down like one dude on his stomach and, uh, but down a very similar route. And, and Israel has a, a man in that one also, uh, or a, a contestant. I, I know I, I I say man, generally not necessarily as man versus woman. Um, that's about it as far as news. I, I just, I, the Schul Runnings was my favorite. I saw so many, uh, video posts this week talking about Schul runnings and, and it's, I guess it's appropriate. I just, my kids and I, we just watched Cool Runnings last weekend in preparation for the Winter Olympics, and because it was a snow weekend in Texas.

4:05 I wanna start with a story. Maybe I'll start with a question then. The story that follows the question. How many of you remember where you were 15 years ago? What year was that? 2020, uh, 2011. This week, 15 years ago. Uh, first week in February, 2011, I was out of town. I was in Maryland. And it just so happened that that same week, all

4:52 of North Texas shut down because we had a really abnormal, um, cold and snow encounter. It also happened to coincide with the week leading up to the Super Bowl, which was that year being hosted in Dallas, And which will never again be hosted here because we don't know how to use snow or ice. I was sitting in a living room. We were, I was part of this group, and we were praying, and I'm now old enough to say

5:38 that 15 years ago, I was not a teenager. Uh, in fact, I was in my mid twenties. I was experiencing like a, a great life. I, I worked, uh, for a hospital in Fort Worth. I would work eight days and then I would get eight days off. And it was just fantastic and full-time pay. It's a fantastic job when you can basically get a week off for every week that you work. Don't ask me how it is at Ham. You definitely don't get a week off for every week you work. But I was out of town with some friends of mine, and we were planning a, a, a gathering.

6:25 And I'm sitting there, I'm supposed to be a, a very content mid 20-year-old. Um, I own my own house in my mid twenties. I, I'm doing well in business. Like I have achieved the job that I had dreamed about since I was 13. And I had been planning for, for greater than a decade. And I'm sitting there praying with some, some close friends of mine, and I was like, I don't even, I don't have the right words to tell you what I was inside other than I was kind of like a teenager.

7:10 You know, everything's wrong, nothing's going right. I'm like, there's pimples everywhere. Um, kind of like, that's just what's inside of me. And I, like, I I, in my, like, I was, I was praying like this because you, I don't know if you know this, but you, in order for the Lord to hear, you have to close your eyes and bow your head. So I'm, I'm there with my eyes closed and, and proverbially am inside me looking up going, Lord, what is wrong with me right now? Like, I, I don't normally feel like this. I normally am like a pretty kind of chill kind of guy, you know, I like bobsledding, and all of a sudden

8:01 I feel the Lord speaking to me. And the Lord said, you're not doing what I told you to do. And I said, what are you talking about? I'm doing exactly what you told me to do. We, we've been planning on this for 12 years. You know, I'm flying airplanes. I'm having a good time. I am serving Messianic Judaism. I'm flying around the country doing all of these things. IWI come on my days off. I would come up here at em, and I would just hang out here and answer phones. And, uh, just because it was my day off and I didn't have anything else to do. I wasn't dating anyone, had nobody to preoccupy my mind with.

8:47 And I was like, Lord, why do I feel like this? And he said, because you're not doing what I told you to do. And I was like, what? I am? And he goes, no, you're not. And I said, well, what did you tell me to do? Well, maybe we should have that discussion, God. And it was at that moment that I felt very clearly, the Lord say, I have called you into full-time a role at em of full-time, senior leadership of the congregation at em. I like, it was very specific. It wasn't like, you know, in Messianic Judaism. It wasn't, it wasn't anything else. It was at em.

9:33 And I was like, okay. Like I, I, I felt like we were on that same page, Lord, but that's not yet. I was like, that's, that's in a, in, in a year or two. And he said, no, that's not what I told you. So I came home and I met with my parents, and I was like, I feel like this is what the Lord is calling me to do. And, and would you guys be willing to, to pray with me and see if this is correct? And my dad said, I don't need to pray with you. It's not right. That's not what the Lord told you.

10:20 It's like, I'm, I'm here to tell you it's not what the Lord is calling you to do. And I said, dad, I understand your concerns. I understand it all. And he goes, no, no, I just, that's not what the Lord's saying to you. And I was like, dad, I'll be, come on. Like, can you just pray with me? Like, just like you don't, just before you say no, just pray with me. And he goes, I don't need to pray with you. And my mom goes, okay, boys, Let's just pray together for let's take the next few weeks. And, and we, we did a, I had this whole plan, by the way, it was 40 days. I knew what I was fasting, praying, and fasting from, and uh, so on and so forth.

11:07 So we went 40 days, and I came back 40 days later and, and I said, I didn't, I didn't hear anything different. And my dad looks at me and goes, neither did I. And I said, oh, okay. And I kind of decided, I was like, okay, I guess, I don't know, maybe I'm hearing wrong. Maybe this is before I had hearing issues, uh, but maybe I have hearing issues. Maybe I didn't hear the Lord. Maybe I, maybe it's the wrong time, whatever it is. And I said, and this is in my mind, I don't think, if you would've asked me that day, this is not what I would've said. But reflecting back, this is what I, um, felt within that. If my dad, who's my father, my, like my physical father

11:56 who is also an elder at em, an elder of the community, and the rabbi, if he wasn't hearing what the Lord spoke to me, especially because it was concerning his job, then either A, I heard the Lord wrong or be, it was the wrong time. And so I said, okay, I don't, like, I got a great job. I don't, what do I need? This, pardon me? What do I need this sewers for? And uh, and I went home, and the next morning I'm having breakfast with my parents, and my dad goes, okay, well, the Lord spoke to me last night. And he said, he says, this is what the Lord said to me.

12:42 He said, the Lord told me that you are his son also. And if that, if he's called you to do this, then I'm to prepare you. And I, and I really wanted to go see, I told you so because that's what any good son does, right? No, but I said, I said, okay, well, what's next? And, and the rest, the rest is really history. But what I was going for is that 15 year mark, because this week I happened to be in the same place on the same day, 15 years later. Uh, the same, I shouldn't say it wasn't the exact same place. It was the same area, same part of the country, same, same state, same general region.

13:29 Um, even with some of the same people, actually, totally different reasons. And while I was there, I felt, oh, it's been 15 years, a lot changes in 15 years. And I, and I began to think, I was like, man, I, I don't even know if I really remember the person that I was 15 years ago. I'm a very different person now. I at least I feel like I am. My sisters would probably say I'm not. But, um, why do I start with that story? Because last week we ended the passage in Acts chapter 23,

14:19 and this is where we're gonna pick up in Acts chapter 23. And we're gonna go back to the final verse from last week. The following night, the Lord stood beside Paul and said, take courage for just as you have testified about me and Jerusalem. So also you must testify in Rome. In other words, whatever circumstances happened from that point, from, from the point where Yeshua revealed himself to Paul there in Jerusalem, to the point where he is in Rome testifying everything is in the Lord's hand. In other words, the Lord knows it's happening. The Lord's knows it's going to happen. The Lord is prepared for it.

15:04 Paul goes through all of these problem circumstances. I just, I'm giving you a heads up for the next four months. Paul goes through all of this, all of these trials, but he goes through it knowing that the Lord told him that this is where he was going to be and what he was going to be doing, and he knew where he would be at a certain point in the future. So whatever circumstances between this point in Jerusalem with Paul to that point in Rome, Paul is assured that the Lord is in charge and working through all these things. That's the introduction to my message.

15:49 I entitled this Great is your faithfulness, speaking about the Lord's faithfulness. And it's, it just is a as. Just to talk for a moment about the way I prepare the title is always the last thing for me. I prepare the whole message, and then I find the title that that's not what happened this week. The title was there. Great is the Your Faithfulness. And I knew what my text was, and I figured I was, I, I decided I'm gonna have to have the Lord figure out how to get from point A to point B, because we already have the title and we already have the text, but I don't see it.

16:40 So let's get into the text. We will, we're going to, we're going to read chapter 23 verses 12 through 22 and have a discussion, and then we will, we'll, we'll wrap up. When it was day, the Judean leaders formed a conspiracy. They bound themselves by an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than 40 who formed this plot. They went to the ruling kohan and elders and said, we have bound ourselves with a solemn oath to taste nothing until we have killed Paul. So now you and the Sanhedrin serve notice to the commander to bring him down to you like you are about to investigate his case more thoroughly.

17:26 But we are already, but, excuse me, but we are ready to kill him before he comes near. But the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush. He went into the headquarters and told Paul, Paul called one of the centurion and said, take this young man to the commander for he has a message for him. So the centurion took him and led him to the commander and said, said, the prisoner, Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you as he has something to say to you. The commander took him by the hand, stepped aside, and began asking him privately, what is it that you have to report to me? And he said, the Judean leaders have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomorrow, as if they're about to investigate more thoroughly about

18:12 him, but do not give into them for more than 40 of them have bound themselves by an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. Even now they're ready in waiting for your consent. So the commander dismissed the young man charging him. Tell no one that you have informed me about these things. Here we have in the first few verses a conspiracy forming the Judean leaders, they form a conspiracy. They bowing themselves together with an oath to not eat or drink until they've killed Paul. And it's more than 40 of them. Now, before I get further in the text, I want to caution, I wanna step out of the text and into modern day.

18:58 And, and, and just so you know, I always do this. I, I look into the text, and when I'm in the text, we're in that context. We step out of the text and we come and we think about our own situations here, and we figure out how the text can apply in our own lives today. But the text is very rarely, if ever, directly applicable in the same situation that we're in today, because it's not the same situation. We're not the same people, we're not the same people living in the same land. So let's take ourselves out of the text for just a moment. And I want to issue a caution about this text. It's important for us to refrain from reading 2000 years of antisemitism back into this text.

19:46 Why do I say that? Because your, your, your translation may something different than the Judean leaders. It may say the Jews or the Jewish leaders, or Judean leaders, or Judeans or, or just some Jews or the Jews. There's a, a vast variety of the way it's translated. And because of the way it's translated, the text has served for many years as an opportunity to lay another weight upon the weight of the Jewish people. First the Jewish people. Well, we killed Jesus. Now we're trying to kill Paul. You know, Paul is, Paul is the creator of Christianity.

20:32 And, and here we are trying to wipe him out before Christianity even begins. I'm saying that facetiously because it's not true. First of all, we're given the number, it's about 40. So even to say the Jews in general is a, is a wrong descriptor. It's about 40 Jewish people, and I would assume Jewish men, it's about 40 Jewish men, which by no way represents all Jews. And by no means does it represent, represent Paul's own opinion of Jewish leaders and the Jewish people in general. Why do I say that? How do we know Paul is not

21:20 using this as an offensive way to help, um, drive people in persecution of the Jewish people? How do we know that? Because Paul uses the same language in 26, 2 through three, where he speaks to Agrippa. But in that, in that text, in that context, he isn't expecting any offense to arise. And he uses the same language in Acts 28. And we will get there in a few months. Don't worry, hopefully before it hits 110 temperature here. Not in the, not in the text, but anyways, in Acts 28 19, Paul uses the same language when he's speaking

22:07 to the prominent Jewish leaders in the, in the Roman Jewish community, not the, not the Jewish followers of Yeshua, but the leaders of the diaspora Jewish community in Rome. He uses the same language. And in, in neither case, is there an uproar that Paul is speaking against the Jewish leaders. They accept what Paul is saying as a testimony, as, as something that occurred, not as something that is encouraging hatred of all Jewish people. So don't let anyone tell you that the Jews plotted to kill Paul. It was about 40, and they were

22:52 zealous in their belief. Kind of reminds me actually of Paul from, I don't know, two decades earlier when Paul went to the, to the high priest and he said, I need a letter so I can go persecute all of the followers of, of, of the way of Yeshua. And he, and he goes to Damascus. Pauls had a very similar demeanor until he encountered the Lord. So these Judean leaders, they went to the ruling kohanim and the elders for their approval of the vow. They bound themselves by a solemn oath to taste nothing until they kill Paul. And the Judean leaders then instruct the kohanim, the elders. This is what the text tells us

23:38 and the Sanhedrin to serve notice to the commander to bring Paul down to the, to them to make it appear if they're going to investigate the case more thoroughly. I want you to understand, I I, I didn't think about having a map. I should have had a map in the temple complex. Where they are is a short walk down to where the Sanhedrin met. And in that short walk, you would walk through crowds, and this would be the opportunity for these 40 men to assassinate Paul, uh, via knife. Um, it, it wasn't, they didn't have the ability to have snipers back then. So like it was a knife. And, and there, these 40 men, they would carry knives and they would, they were willing, I want you to understand this.

24:24 They knew that Paul would be with Romans, and they were willing to sacrifice their own lives so that they could kill Paul. Some of them would get away and some of them would die. It was just the, the inevitability of the situation. And it would all happen there in the temple complex. But the reason they could even get to Paul is because as they were going from one place to the other in the short window, they would, they would travel through, um, areas with, with people just hanging around. So they are, um, rallying some support in the Sanhedrin. But I wanna point something out and,

25:10 and I point this out for multiple reasons. In the prior text, we're we're told who's in the Sanhedrin, that there's the, from last week, the, the high priest is there. There's Sadducees and there's Pharisees. In this text, all we're told about are the Kohanim, the elders, and the Sanhedrin. It actually doesn't mention the name Pharisees being present. Why do I say that again? Let's step out of the text for a moment and into our modern day. And, and you tell me if you've ever heard this, don't be a Pharisee. You know, the Pharisees, lemme lemme give one.

25:57 I I I just had to deal with let, about two months ago. Jesus hates the Pharisees. No, Jesus doesn't hate the Pharisees. In fact, he, Yeshua says, do what they say, but don't do what they do. He doesn't hate them. He hates the fact that they say they are a certain way when inside they're dirty, they present themselves as righteous. And yet inside there is a, a whole realm of unrighteousness. That's what Yeshua hates. That's what the Lord hates. I would say the Lord still hates the same thing today, and that today would be called religious.

26:44 That's the term that we would use in our society. It's not that Yeshua hates Jews or hates the Pharisees at all. It's, he hates hypocrisy. Because when you present yourself as a messenger of the Lord, and then you do something wrong, you have destroyed the witness of God to his creation. And it's very unfortunate, considering the world that we live in today in the missteps by pastors all around the country and all around the world. It's extremely unfortunate because in a way we represent the Lord. We don't, well, at least I don't try to be that. Maybe some do. But whether we like it

27:34 or not, there ends up being an element. And the problem with it is we are human. I don't know if you realize that I'm a human per human being. My wife knows that we are human. And unfortunately, when we make errors and we're in leadership positions, it reflects extremely poorly on the Lord himself. It seems here in this case that the Judean leaders, these Jewish people who were plotting, they're avoiding the Pharisees, or at least the majority of them. So let's continue on in the text. Start, uh, continuing in verse 16.

28:20 But the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush. He went into the headquarters and told Paul, Paul called one of the centurions and said, take this young man to the commander for he has a message for him. So the centurion took him and led him to the commander and said, the prisoner, Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you as he has something to say to you. The commander took him by the hand, stepped aside, and began asking privately, what is it that you have to report to me? Here we have Paul's nephew in the text. First of all, I have a, I have a confession to make. My mom gave me a book about a, I don't know, six months or a year ago, and she said, you should read this book. And I started reading the book, and the book

29:06 was about Paul's sister. And I was like, mom, how do you even know Paul has a sister? Here I am preaching through the book of Acts. And I'm like, how do you know Paul has a sister? And I'm like, looking through the book and it, and it gave me a reference, and it was this reference. And I was like, Paul's sister son, that's a nephew, which means there's a sister. Oh, that's how it works. Y'all. I don't know if you know that when there's a nephew, there's always siblings involved. So here the language in this case seems to indicate that, that this, uh, Paul's nephew is a young man. He's described as a young man. He's even permitted to approach the Roman headquarters

29:51 without appearing threatening. So I would, I would actually presume he was, he was actually quite young. I don't know, maybe, maybe, I don't know, eight to 14. I don't, uh, young enough, old enough to be responsible to give a message young enough to not appear threatening to a Roman garrison or a Roman, um, stronghold. He somehow has heard of this plan to ambush, and then he has the courage to approach the Roman headquarters to go tell his Uncle Paul. Now, we are not informed in the text as to the nature of Paul's and his relationship, or even Paul's relationship with his sister.

30:38 All we know is that at this point, his nephew appears to warn Paul, if this is the first time that Paul is en encountering his nephew, it seems to me that Paul and his sister probably had a strained relationship. Perhaps it was because of Paul's experience on the road to Damascus. Perhaps she knew him as he was being trained in a particular way, and then all of a sudden he has a 180 and he's a different person and she's trying to figure it out and can't figure it out. Whatever the case, the desire now it seems, is to prevent Paul from being murdered.

31:24 Paul, Paul's reaction to this news from his nephew, nephew is, Hey, Centurion, come over here. I need you to send, I need to send you to your boss. I just want you to think about this. Paul's a prisoner technically in Roman custody, but he's gained enough, um, credibility. I don't know if that's the right word. It it's almost like Joseph, when Joseph was in prison in Egypt. He's risen up in terms of responsibility and authority, and Paul summons a centurion and says, you need to take this man, this young man to your, to your boss, to the commander, straight to the commander. The centurion doesn't, doesn't ask Why, doesn't say,

32:14 are you sure doesn't say, I I don't need to listen to you. You're a prisoner. The centurion says, let's go straight up to his boss. This is why I think Paul's gained some influence. Goes straight up to his boss, says, Paul told me to bring this man to this young man to you. Paul understands once he, once he hears about the conspiracy, understands how important it is that the news gets to the commander immediately. So the commander is informed, and his immediate response is to pull him aside

33:02 privately and say, give me the report. I want you to notice the commander even separates himself from his subordinates, the centurions, who, who should be on the same side as him. But we know, or, or we have assumed in the text that Paul has gained some sort of credibility with the commander. And the commander has some sort of, I don't know if you wanna call it soft heart, uh, whatever you wanna call it toward Paul, that he's now almost watching over Paul to ensure his protection so that he dismisses his own people and says, tell me, tell me, uh, what's going on? So the young man reports to him.

33:47 We continue in verse 20, the Judean leaders have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomorrow as if they're going to investigate more thoroughly about him, but do not give into them for more than 40 of them have bound themselves by an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. Even now they are ready and waiting for your consent. So the commander dismissed the young man charging him. Tell no one that you have informed me about these things. The elements of this conspiracy emerged to the commander, and it already begins to change his plans for the sake of preserving Paul's life. The commander tells the nephew to remain silent. Why? He's just a young boy. Who cares if anybody hears him?

34:33 Why does he want him silent? He doesn't want people to know that he knows why, because it takes away a tactical advantage in a, in a, in a military situation. He also instructs a nephew in this way because perhaps people in that time period were very sensitive to Roman sympathizers. In other words, people who go tell Romans about what the Jewish people are doing and that they might actually try to kill the boy for telling the plans to a Roman. So it's actually in part for his own sake, and in part for the boy's sake, that he tells 'em to tell no one. And he wants, the commander wants to implement, uh,

35:21 he wants to be the first. Now I I say this as if he knows, but he doesn't know. He's doing this out of, out of, um, his own inner sense of obligation. But the, the Commander is now going to be the first instrument utilized by, by the Lord to take Paul from sharing his witness here in Jerusalem, like he said in verse 11, to Rome, the commander is the first one to be able to help him along the road. So what does this mean for us?

36:09 You may be thinking, oh man, we're gonna get outta here early this week. My, so what is a little bit longer? So what does this mean for us? I put on your, on your, on your packet, a set of questions. The first is this, do you believe that revelation from the Lord is still possible today? My second question is, in what ways do you see the Lord acting providentially in your own life? In other words, if the Lord does reveal himself to you,

36:59 how does he insert himself into your life along the way as you're doing what he told you to do? Because quite often when the Lord reveals himself or, or, or, uh, you get a revelation from the Lord, it's for the sake of doing something, and therefore things have to be accomplished along the way. Where is he guiding you? What is he guiding you away from? Sometimes when the Lord is guiding us away from something, we look and we're like, Lord, I, but, but do you see that? Like, I, I wanna do that

37:48 sometimes It's for our own protection. If we take this text to be true, if we take the writings of Luke in the, in the form of the Book of Acts to be true, then we must believe that Yeshua chose to reveal himself to Paul in the temple complex after Yeshua died, was raised again and ascended into heaven

38:38 if we believe that. So if you believe this text to be true, then that's what you have to believe. You have to believe that that Yeshua revealed himself, because that's what the text tells us to Paul in the temple complex, post Yeshua's ascension. And if you believe that, then you believe that the revelation of Yeshua is still pertinent in the people of Israel. Why do I say that? Because it's in the temple complex. The temple complex is supposed to be the point of revelation from God. But so often we hear taught well when Yeshua ascended.

39:24 And the disciples said, well, what about the kingdom? Uh, what about the kingdom of Israel? Well, Yeshua ascended, and God has moved on from the, the kingdom of Israel. He doesn't answer the question. In fact, the Jewish people shouldn't even have a land because he doesn't address that either. And yet, the presumption in all of this, not the presumption, the knowledge when you look at it, is the fact that God chooses Jerusalem chooses the temple as a place to continually reveal himself. We see it at the beginning of Book of Luke. Where, where are we in the beginning of Book of Luke?

40:12 We're at Zacharia, is there in the holy place offering offerings. And the Lord reveals himself to Zechariah and says, Hey, you're gonna have a son, Zechariah's old, and his wife is old, and I'm not, I'm not trying to be rude, but maybe it's better if I say they're beyond the years of childbearing age like Sarah. And the Lord says, you're gonna have a son. And he kind of laughs and he says, I don't think that. I don't think you know what, you're, what, what's going on, Lord? Like we're we're past that. We're okay. Like we've, we've dealt with this sorrow for many of years, like, don't get our hopes up.

40:58 And the Lord said, well, you know what? You're gonna be mute until, until he's born and, and, and you accept it. And I, I don't really, I don't know if you understand how miraculous Elizabeth's pregnancy is. It's as miraculous as a pregnancy of a young woman who's never had relations. Why? Because she's beyond the age of childbearing years. Her body no longer does that physiologically, except here it does. And it's at the beginning of the Book of Luke, and it's at the temple. The Lord chooses to reveal himself at the temple. And then you fast forward another chapter,

41:44 and Yeshua is brought up to the temple, and Simeon raises, uh, raises Yeshua up and, and says, this is the consolation of Israel. The Lord told me I would see this, I, I'm, I can die and go home. Now, I have seen what the Lord has promised. The Lord continues to reveal himself in the temple complex. Why? Because he's not done with it. And because he's not done with the temple complex, he's not done with Israel. And because he's not done with Israel, it means that there has to be a place for Israel to be, if the Lord was looking to start something new,

42:31 it would've started here with Paul. If the Lord said, you know what? We don't really need the Jewish people anymore. Like that was good enough. Pre Acts two, which by the way, you can't even say pre Acts two because they're all Jews in Acts two. But those, those good enough for pre Acts 10 or pre Acts 15, or you pick whatever spot you want to try to make that division, except he continues to reveal himself to Paul, who is a practicing Pharisee at the Temple Mount, offering sacrifices to the Lord for himself and other Jews.

43:17 And God still reveals himself to him and says, I'm not done with you yet. Now, by the way, Paul is the perfect opportunity if God wanted to start something new. I know I just said that this is a perfect opportunity. And even some people say, well, you know, Yeshua was kind. He was a good Jewish guy, but really, Paul, Paul created Christianity. If you believe that, or if you've heard someone believe that they, they're not reading the text because Paul says who he is over and over and over again.

44:04 Paul never, if I can call it this, Paul never leaves the faith. And I don't mean the faith in Yeshua. I mean the Jewish faith. He never says, okay, yeah, I'd like my foreskin back, please, I'm sorry if I'm being graphic. Like Paul never does that, he never forsakes his people, And yet he continues to follow the Lord in what the Lord has in store. If you view the Jewish people as a means to an end, then when the end is achieved,

44:50 there's no more reason for the Jewish people. Do you understand what I'm saying? If the Jewish people were only to bring about Yeshua so that the world could get a Messiah, then the, then the, then once that end has been accomplished, there's no more need for the Jewish people. And if that's the case, and really God is only looking for, um, a way out of this sin that has taken over because one man decided to listen to one woman who ate, uh, some bad fruit. And the only way out of it is for, for there to be then a Jewish people and then to be Yeshua,

45:37 and then for Yeshua to, to, to offer himself as a sacrifice. Okay? Now, that's the end of the Jewish people. And, and now everybody else can come in and we can go to heaven and, and well, except if God only wants to end sin, then there's no purpose for us. And I don't believe in a God Who would give us life with no purpose. I'm, I'm challenging a lot of theology, and I understand it, but God wants us for the sake

46:24 of being in relationship with him. It's the same reason he delivers Israel from bondage in Egypt. He wants to be in relationship with Israel. The same is true with us today. He wants to be in relationship with us, but if we only see things for the ends that they bring, then we don't appreciate what God has created. I know you hear this, and I know you say it,

47:09 but I want you to understand it. God is the same yesterday, Today, and tomorrow. If God is the same yesterday, it means that the reason he created us once we get to tomorrow, those reasons have to be, um, what do you call that? Um, consistent. Consistent, thank you. Consistent is the word I'm looking for consistent. Once you go from here to here and, and if you achieve, then this, this is no longer relevant, and yet God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

47:54 So either we found a flaw in God's character or in God himself, or we don't understand it fully enough. I think it's easier to take the latter reason. Uh, it's important for us, for us to understand that God hasn't changed yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Now, this is really where I'm building to. Why is that important? Because I hear all the time, and this is where I got the, the, the title for my message, as great as th the greatest as Your Faithfulness, it comes from the scriptures, by the way, it's not, I just picked something, some random title. It's from, um, Lamentations chapter three. But there's this great song that I love to listen

48:40 to while I study and, and it's called Great as Your Faithfulness, but it's a little bit more of a modern rendition. And and I'm listening to it. And, but here's the problem. We hear this so often today. God is faithful to us. God is faithful. Do you believe in Yeshua? God's gonna be faithful to get to you. He's gonna be faithful to pull you out of your troubles and and, and to get you to heaven. If you're only trying to escape earth to get to heaven, I don't think you have enough information. God's plan was never to escape earth. God's plan was to restore, renew, rejuvenate,

49:26 and to have a planet with people in it, in whole relationship with him, but also in those same sentences, when people are, oh, God's faithful, I, I God is faithful to me. I know it, which he is. I'm not, I'm not challenging that. I'm challenging. How do you know that it's not pure blind faith? I think that's ridiculous. If you tell me, I have faith that God's gonna be faithful to me, I think it's ridiculous. Uh, and I know I just said it publicly. I'll tell it to your face. It's ridiculous. I'll tell you the reason I know God is faithful to you is

50:15 because he has been faithful to the Jewish people for 4,000 years. He's been faithful to keep his covenant word, which he made over, uh, uh, over and around 4,000 years ago. And he remains faithful to it. There's no reason a a people group of 15 million should still be identifiable after not having been in their own land for two millennia, 15 million people. That's like 0.03% or something of the world's current population. There's no reason that 15 million people should be hated by 8 billion.

51:03 It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense that the Jewish people are both too powerful to challenge and yet weak enough that we can beat them up. It doesn't make sense. Why? Because it's nonsensical. It's spiritual. It's not, it's not of this world. There are things that make sense whether you like it or not, or whether even you agree with it. Like, oh, I don't like you, you look different than me. Fine. You know what? Jews don't look different than anybody in the world. Why? Because they look like everybody in the world. You have Asian Jews, you have like, you have all sorts

51:49 of Jews, and, and there's so many good jokes with it, but, but there's no orange Jews. Sorry. The fact is, the fact that was such a bad joke. The fact is the Lord has preserved us, not because he's not done with us. It's not that the Lord has preserved us, and then we we fulfill his word and then we're done. No, the Lord has preserved us

52:35 because he said that we will exist as a people until there's no more creation, until there's no more sun, no more moon, no more stars. In other words, we exist as a people for the sake of communing with him, for the same reason that the nations exist for communing with him. If he is ever unfaithful to Israel, then you should become scared about the Lord's faithfulness to you. If the Lord no longer cares about Israel, then I will tell you, your faith is on sand, not on a rock.

53:23 Your faith is, is ready to be washed away by the next storm. But if the Lord is faithful to his people, then he'll be faithful to each and every one of us forever and ever. Amen. So my final question is, why are you confident that the Lord is faithful? What proof do you have? You should be able to go out into the world, whether to the church world who, who, who don't like Jews or into the rest of the world who don't like Jews.

54:08 You should be able to go into either place and say, I'm confident that my faith is real, and that the Lord is real because he's been faithful to Israel. So he'll be faithful to me because that's the only proof text we have. If you don't believe the Lord was faithful to Israel, then the Lord will never be faithful to you. You're just as good. Oh, uh, shouldn't say it that way. Um, yeah. Well, if the Lord is able to dump the Jewish people at the side of the road at the drop of a hat, he's able to dump you as well. There's no reason that you are any better or more important than someone he's kept his word

54:54 and made a promise to. So this is, you'll get challenged every day. Why is, why do you believe God cares? And I'm telling you the answer is because Israel exists. There's no logical reason that Israel should exist. There's no logical reason that there should be a, an Israeli bobsled team in the Winter Olympics. They, first of all, they have barely any snow up. I mean, you get up to Hermon, sometimes it doesn't make sense, but the reality is, what does Paul say?

55:39 Paul says something like, um, I'm pulling deep here. I gotta find it the Lord's ways, or, or, isn't it Paul? He says, the Lord's ways are vastly different than ours, than man's ways. Oh, is that Isaiah? Oh, well, you know, Paul Isaiah, it is there in the book somewhere. It's there in the book. It's there somewhere. But the Lord doesn't think the way we think and the things that we think make sense, don't make sense to him and the things that make sense to him, we are like, what?

56:25 Why? I'm saying all of this to tell you that the Lord called Abraham at one point and the Lord is not yet done with Abraham. Where were you 15 years ago? The Lord's not done with you yet. You understand that If the Lord's not done with you, then you're here for a reason. And if you're here for a reason, then it's time to get about doing whatever that reason is.

57:11 A Venus sha sha may our Father in heaven. Lord, we come to you and thank you for your faithfulness, Lord, your faithfulness to your people, your faithfulness to Israel. Lord, your faithfulness to each and every one of us. Lord, we just come to you and submit our own plans to you today, Lord. And we ask that you would move us forward in following you, in seeing what you have in store for us. We bless you in Yeshua's name, amen. To summer real quick, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

57:59 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.

58:49 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shalom.