How Do You Manage Your Disagreements?

0:00 As I have since October 7th, I will continue to remind us to pray. There are remaining 59 hostages who have been in captivity for 568 days in Gaza. 24 of those are thought to be living. We are in a season now where we are remembering the exodus of our people by the hand of God from captivity in Egypt, and I just continue to pray for the same thing for these 59 remaining hostages for their exodus

0:45 from captivity in the land of Gaza. I have some news. I have, I feel like it's been a while since I've given some news reports, uh, just some news things of, of note that I found this week. Uh, I think I've said this one before, but I actually have the percentage this time, the statistics of deaths in Gaza that, uh, have been reported by Hamas. By the way, just in case you are unaware, Hamas is the ruling political power, not just a terrorist organization, but they're the, they were voted in democratically, uh, in 2005, and then they proceeded to murder all of their political opposition so

1:32 that there could be no more democratic process. They have reported, they have quietly adjusted all of the, uh, ages and genders of those who have died as a result of Israel's incursion into the land of Gaza. Uh, to, to this, 72% of the death count in Gaza are men ages 13 to 35. The significance of that is that those are fighting age men, most of whom are probably Hamas operatives.

2:17 You know, I don't know if you ever, if you paid attention over the last I, what has it been, 18 months if you've been paying attention, it's always the women, the children. There's this, there's mass deaths. Those numbers have all been adjusted now by Hamas and what they reported, these are not Israeli reported numbers or anyone else's. These are the numbers from Hamas. This week, Hamas Rele released a proposal that they would release all hostages at once for a five year ceasefire deal. I just, I, I want to remind us, we were in a sixth ceasefire deal on October 6th. It wasn't Israel who broke the ceasefire. It wasn't Israel who invaded by land, by sea, by air

3:07 and murdered innocent civilians in horrific ways. This week, on Wednesday, early Wednesday morning, about 4:00 AM uh, Haifa, the Haifa region was alerted to an incoming ballistic missile from the Houthis and Yemen. Maybe you don't think, maybe you're like, okay, it's just another ballistic missile. This is partially what went through my mind, and the fact that that goes through our minds is actually wrong. Just think about how many ballistic missiles have been fired in Israel, and Israel hasn't retaliated. I just want to, sorry.

3:52 If America had one ballistic missile shot at it, you better believe that there are gonna be some dire consequences. This ballistic missile, this is the first time Haifa has been, uh, alerted with a ballistic missile. The why is it consequential? Because Haifa, the PHA region holds 10% of the Israeli population, and I don't just mean Jews. The Israeli population is around 10 million Jews and Arabs, and Haifa is a very mixed area, and it holds about a million people, uh, approximately. So the, that, that's the immediate

4:39 what has to do with Israel. I, I found some other fascinating headlines this week. First of all, I don't know if you guys know that saw this, but, uh, not that this doesn't have to do with Israel, but Egypt is conducting military drills with China on the border of Israel. I, uh, made a comment to a dear friend of mine, and I said, well, when there on horses in the north, we got problems. There should be a little chuckle, or you need to go read your Bible. One of the two. Uh, anyways, Jordan, quite fascinatingly, uh, in a very quiet manner this week, banned the Islamic action Front political party from

5:25 operation in Jordan. It is the most popular political party in Jordan. It is also the party that is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, the USA. These are all, I, I know I say this every week, I try to find things that most of y'all don't see. So this one, uh, if you have, if you've seen it, kudos to you. This is quite fascinating. The USA, this week, the US Department of Justice file the letter in a lawsuit against, uh, UN A on behalf of one hun of over 100 survivors from October 7th. The significance of this is, it, it indicates

6:11 that the US does no longer, uh, consider UN a, uh, as operating on behalf or at a principal organ of the un, and therefore their operatives no longer enjoy immunity against litigation. This is the first time the US has ever done this, And that's where my news ended until I just happened to check this morning at 9:00 AM or nine 30, uh, no, it was actually 9 45, and this morning at 9 45, I, well, it was about nine that I got the alert. I just didn't see it. There was a massive explosion at an Iranian port facility this morning in a,

6:57 a port facility that imports chemicals to make fuel for ballistic missiles. Uh, if, if you'll recall, I I maybe, is it been 4, 5, 6 years? I don't know. This is how you, this is how I know I'm now officially in the older population because anything greater than two years and less than 20 is in that time period of about four or five years ago. In that time period, there was a, there was a blast in the port of Beirut, uh, that, that took out a very large portion of Beirut. Uh, and they also had fuel that was being stored, uh, improperly, uh, and, and, and other volatile materials.

7:44 And Israel has already denied involvement in this. Anyways, that one I found quite fascinating considering, uh, the ballistic missiles that have been launched from Iran at Israel. So we are continuing in our study in Acts 15 today, we will be covering Acts 15 verses 36 through 41 after some days. Okay, let me just stop there. I just want to, I wanna remind us of actually everything

8:32 that has happened in the context of Acts 15. Uh, for me, it's actually been four weeks, I think, since I've taught on Acts 15. So sometimes I just like to give us a little bit of reminder. Acts 15 deals with it opens up with this, uh, this dilemma that has occurred in Antioch, which is a congregation that I, I would say is strikingly resembles em in terms of, um, um, diversity, Jews and Gentiles living together in one community. And that there's this, there's an issue that arises, which is, do you have to become circumcised

9:20 in order to be saved? Or in other words, to, to have, find your salvation in Yeshua. And, and Paul and Barnabas attack the issue, and then they take the issue up to Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem, there's a, there's a meeting that goes on, uh, certainly with, with the elders and the apostles and Paul and Barnabas, um, and, and perhaps a few others. And, and we talked for about a month, maybe three weeks in, in terms of what that meant. But then what happens is the, the council, the Jerusalem Council, which mind you, there's nothing like it today. Uh, there's nothing like it

10:06 because really, Jerusalem had authority over the body of Messiah and all of the body of Messiah. I think the closest thing, and y'all please don't, don't shoot me for this, the closest thing that you could have today is a conclave of the Cardinals in the Catholic Church issuing a ruling for Catholicism. And why do I say it's the closest thing? Because Catholicism represents about 25% of the world's population, about 2 billion people-ish. This, right? That, that's by the way, not even all of, uh,

10:53 the body of Messiah, that's just a singular stream, if you will. But this in Jerusalem affects everyone who, who pusses, Maybe I should Maybe This ruling by Jerusalem affects everyone who places their trust in Yeshua as the Messiah. Not one person is left unaffected. And what Jerusalem decides what the elders, the emissaries, what they decide is that there are four things that are necessary, uh, for, for Gentiles

11:39 who come and, and place their trust in Yeshua as the Messiah for them. Uh, and we talked about even in relation, what is it, what is this all in relation to? And most, most re in, in most cases, it's in relation to communal life, you know, coming together, worshiping together. And, and, and I just want you to notice three of those four are food related. Uh, and, and, but you can take a look at all four of 'em, and they all four, if violated, really begin to tear apart at the fabric of a community. Uh, for essence, it, it boils down to worshiping the Lord versus idol worship. What do you eat? And, and who do you have sex with?

12:26 Pardon me for being so, uh, clear. Uh, but those three elements, the violation of any one of those, especially in communal life, has great consequences in, in, in, in tearing apart communal life. So then they, they, they, they issue this ruling and they send out a letter and, and they, they send some accompanying, uh, witnesses with them, and they go up to, up to, they go down to Antioch, excuse me, they go down to Antioch, even though they're going northward, they go down to Antioch and they issue the ruling, and there's great rejoicing and everything, um,

13:12 because it comes in the form of a long sermon. And that's what we talked about last week. This week. Now it's, we've affected Antioch, and now it begins to, it's now gonna go back and affect everything else that has been planted by Paul and Barnabas. Uh, so that's primarily, um, the, the region of Syria ccia. I'll show you on a map in a few minutes, Cyprus, and, and, and really, you're gonna see how far this begins to affect, uh, in a few minutes. But now let's get, let's get to our text. After some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let's return and visit the brothers and the sisters in every city where we have proclaimed the word of the Lord

13:57 to see how they are. Barnabas was planning to take along John called Mark, but Paul was insisting that they shouldn't take him along. The one who had deserted them in paraphilia, not accompanying them in the work, a sharp disagreement took place so that they split off from one another. Barnabas took mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, and Paul selected his Silas and went out being entrusted by the brothers and sisters to the gracious care of the Lord. And he went through Syria, CIA strengthening the communities. So we're going to, I'm gonna chunk this out into three different chunks. First is, we're just gonna handle one verse. This first verse 36, after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let's return and visit the brothers

14:43 and sisters in every city where we have proclaimed the word of the Lord to see how they are doing. By the way, I just want you to think about this. This is a massive undertaking. Paul and Barnabas are not young, uh, by any means, stand by for a moment. They are now attempting to go and to walk or sail, maybe some of it, this area. And now I wanna show you a map, just because we can get, we can look at words and um, and, and, and we can lose.

15:34 We can lose, sorry, trying to do three things at once. We can lose the idea of what's going on. Can you guys pop up? Is that, is it working? Oh, yeah, there's working. Okay, great. This, just as a reminder, this is actually a full picture. I, I didn't intend this part, but this is a full picture of the journey that they take, um, starting here in 1536, uh, acts 15, verse 36, not 15, 36, the year, but, uh, this is a picture of the, of the full journey that they take. And, and just as a reminder,

16:21 this is the area, um, Paul and Barnabas, they left from, come on now. Alright. Paul and Barnabas left from this area, and they went to Cyprus, and they went up here to Pamphylia and then into Galatia, and they kind of went around like this, and then they came back. This is, this is the journey in, in verses or in chapters 13 and 14. So this is what they're talking about, going back and covering the ground and encouraging the brothers and sisters there.

17:07 By Acts chapter 18, Paul and company will have trampled an estimated 3,500 kilometers, which is around 2200 miles, mostly by foot. Now, again, 2200 miles. You're like, that's a lot, but that doesn't, I don't understand how far that is. That's Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida on the, on the Highway 10, that's about 2,400 mile travel. So just think about that. It crosses the entire continental US and they did this mostly by foot. There's, there's some few, few circumstances. In fact, uh, I think the, oh, I don't know if you can see this, but this is each segment broken down.

17:56 Uh, I took a picture of one of my commentaries and he broke the, the, the commentator broke down each segment and how long the minimum time would be, and the normal amount of time would be for each stop and each travel point. So it goes, this trip from now from Acts 1536 until 18, one at a minimum takes 91 weeks. 91 weeks is nearly two years, but that's a, a very minimum. Very few people would argue for the minimum, especially when it comes to Jewish people talking. So a normal amount of time here, you can see on the very bottom right is 201 weeks, which is about four years.

18:45 Can I just want to, just want to think about that? Just go ahead and think, um, how, how can I tell you to think, think like this, when Covid hit here in, in the United States, if you started walking, you would've just finished last summer. That's the tr that's four years, that's the amount of time that Paul and and Silas are on this, on this journey. Okay? I, I'll leave, uh, I'll leave this part up because this is, this is really the area where we're, we're talking about for the moment here in 15.

19:30 I just, just so you can see, let's go that one right there. I just, this is, this is the Mediterranean, Israel, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece is, this is a big undertaking when you think this is a big under undertaking today when you can go by car, but Paul is doing this mostly by foot, just, I, I want you to keep that in the back of your mind, how large of an undertaking this is. It's not just us driving around Dallas, visiting each member of the congregation. Even that would take weeks, if not years.

20:15 The other thing that I took from this verse that I just find as a, as a, as a good reminder is, especially not always, I'm not saying it's only in this case, but especially when you're influential in the, in the birth of something, it's always good to come back and check. And just think about it this way, if you, if you birth the child and just said, have fun in life, how successful do you think that child, child might be? But rather, we, we spend time with the child. We, we, we, we spend an inordinate amount of time with the child. The child gets us sick, and we still spend time with the child.

21:02 And then at some point, the child de decides, I don't wanna listen to anything you ever wanna say to me. And then we still want to spend time with the child. This is like, I think we might have some mental problems as parents, but then at some point, for those of you who might be in that stage, at some point, there's hope because then the child comes back, I don't know, five or 10 years later and says, wow, you guys have learned a lot in the last four or five years talking to the parents. It's amazing how much you've grown in wisdom while I've been away for four years. What that really is, is the child beginning to understand

21:47 how little they actually know. By the way, all of us are on this journey, and all of us think that we always know everything. Uh, it varies rarely true. So when we, when we start something, when we help plant a seed of faith in someone's life, when we, uh, start a ministry, start a congregation, when we start a business, even, it's a general, a good general rule of thumb that we go back and check on it along the way. So this is what Paul is beginning to do, and he proposes the idea to Barnabas, and it seems as if Barnabas is all on board. Uh, our text doesn't say Barnabas agreed, but it does say that.

22:33 He says, Hey, let's take John Mark with us. So we assume that he's all on board. So Paul, uh, so we're gonna move on to the next section. Barnabas was planning to take along. John also called Mark, but Paul was insisting that they shouldn't take him along. The one who deserted them in paraphilia, not accompanying them in the work, and a sharp disagreement took place so that they split off from one another. Now, before we get into this, I wanna, I wanna point out two things. I wanna point out several things. First of all, Paul and Barnabas have a different vision regarding what they're going to do. And I'm telling you this

23:19 because it becomes evident with, with what they consider, with who they select to bring along and, and how they go about the process. The reason I can tell you they have a different vision is, well, I don't wanna get ahead of myself before, before I get into different visions. Um, I just want to point out another couple things. First of all, Barnabas is bringing along John. Mark, I know I've, I've done this so many times. Half of you're gonna go, okay? I can tune out for the next three minutes. Saul is also called Paul. Saul does not equal bad, and Paul equal good, or, and or maybe I can put, say it this way,

24:06 Saul does not equal before his encounter with Yeshua and Paul, his after encounter with Yeshua, how do I, how can I say that? Because he's called Saul after his encounter with Yeshua. So what am I going to say? Saul or Shaul is his Hebrew name, and Paul, or some people might say Paulis is his Greek name or his name. That, that we go around in, in, in, in, uh, what do you call the lingua franca? The, the, the language of of, of the world. That's what they would know him as much like, uh, and I've used this example before. My father, you all may know him as Marty, that's his English name, but his Hebrew name is Mordecai.

24:51 It doesn't mean Mordecai was his name before Yeshua, and Marty is his name after Yeshua. It simply means he has two different names, one in English and one in Hebrew. The same is also true here. We have Yohannan or John as it's translated. Yohannan is his Hebrew name, and then we have Mark, or probably Marcus is, is more likely or his Italian or or Latin name, uh, or it could be Greek. It depends on how you spell it. But anyways, why do I say all of that? I just want you to understand why there's some, some, uh, multiple names in the text. Okay? So why, why do I think that they have a, a different vision? Well, I'm gonna go back to what is Barnabas's reaction to going

25:39 and encouraging the communities? Barnabas's reaction is, let's bring John Mark. So I don't know how many of you remember, because it's been probably six months since we talked about Acts chapter nine. Maybe it's less than that. Well, no, it's about six months. But in Acts chapter nine, Paul comes to faith and he is in Jerusalem, and does anybody remember what's going on? Everyone who's a believer is afraid of Paul. In fact, they, they're not letting him in anywhere. He's like, I'm a believer, I'm a believer in they're, and they're like, no, no, we saw you murder Steven. Like we saw it with our eyes. And Barnabas does what? Barnabas takes a, takes a risk,

26:24 and what I would call a very big risk. He takes Paul and he says, brothers, this is Paul ex. This isn't in the text, but you can, you can read it like this except Paul, as you would me, Barnabas stakes his whole reputation on Paul. Why? I think partly because Barnabas has this ability, a a prophetic ability to see what the Lord has in store for someone. And so he stakes his whole reputation on Paul. And now here we are, Paul is beginning, is is actually really just launching out. And he says, and, and, and Barnabas says, I'm gonna bring John Mark. And Paul says, no,

27:11 and Barnabas is staking his reputation. Why? Partially I, it, it certainly could be because their family, but it also, I would say is because he has a strong understanding of what influence John Mark is going to have in the future. The problem is, Paul has zero tolerance for this. It's, it's so funny to me because Paul was a recipient of Barnabas's grace, but has zero tolerance for Barnabas's grace. It, it's just quite fascinating to me.

27:57 It seems to me again that Barnabas seems to be doing the same thing with John Mark. And Paul insists, in fact, he, he just doesn't even insist. He says, no, I, there's other ways that you could say it in our society, but he says no. And then not only does he say no, he actually gives the reasons why. He says he deserted us in paraphilia, and he did not accompany us in the work, which I'm gonna point out is only partially true actually, because he accompanied them through the, the island of Cyprus, and he went to Paraphilia and then stopped. And, and we don't know why it doesn't say, but we, we could draw some conclusions that,

28:42 that John Mark began to see the consequences of faith and the very real reality of being beaten, stoned, lynched, whatever you want to call it, as a, as a cost, the suffering that was associated with being a follower of Yeshua. And he, he turned around and he left. But here in the text it says, a sharp disagreement took place so that they split off from one another. Again, how do I know they have two different visions? Because when you have one vision and you're operating with one vision, you will endure just about anything. I think Rabbi Sean said last week, uh, what did he say? He said something the hell you'll endure.

29:29 I can't remember exactly what it, what the words were, but when you're going and operating under one vision, you will endure just about anything to support the vision. But when you have two visions, what happens when there are two different visions to move forward? There's division. So either you have one vision moving forward, or you have a parting of ways. So here we have a sharp disagreement. This Greek term indicates great wrath or an angry dispute. It's utilized by the way, in the SubT in Jeremiah chapter 32, where the Lord says, behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and my great indignation.

30:15 This is, this is the, the idea, the of of what's, uh, accompanying this term. So I have a question for you, because all of you have this question, whether or not you know it who was right, Paul or Barnabas? The reason I ask that question is because it's human nature to ask who is right, and really what we're asking is who is wrong, and in some cases so that we can execute judgment on them. It's very rarely about who is actually right, because I choose, I'm gonna choose the right path.

31:03 It is more about who is wrong. So was Paul, right? John Mark had deserted them. He had not remained faithful to the mission. Paul is unwilling to cut any slack or allow him another opportunity to redeem or prove himself. When someone proves themselves or proves their lack of faith, do you accept that proof and move on? I, I think that's a certainly an acceptable way to, to live. On the other hand was Barnabas, right? Barnabas sees potential in John Mark for future use by the Lord and wants to give a second opportunity, and he continue.

31:49 He wants to continue to serve as an advocate for the people that are being overlooked by others. So is Paul, right? He failed us. We shouldn't give him another shot, or is Barnabas right? We should give him another shot because he has great potential. Uh, somebody has listened to me teach. Yes, both are right. So how do we reconcile that? I am pretty sure I just heard somebody back there say, God, I a hundred percent agree with that. Unfortunately, a sharp disagreement arose between the two of them.

32:34 In other words, their anger flared it. It is quite fascinating to me actually concerning Paul. Paul's is the lead student of, of Gam who is the descendant of Hillel. And in a Hillel debate, there's grace, but with the opposing, uh, rabbi at the time, shammai, there's no grace. Uh, in other words, Shamai is really strict and Hillel is like, yes, let's just kind of work together and move forward. And here Paul is trained in the let's work together and move forward and has zero attitude

33:19 that falls in line with that. The anger that arose is what broke the relationship. The relationship between Paul and Barnabas is severed at this point. And in fact, we, there's really only about four, maybe five scriptures that even give us a hint as to things that occurred after this in their, in their relationship. One of them is, is, uh, concerning the future relationship between Paul and Barnabas. In one Corinthians nine verse six, uh, Paul is making an argument and he says, is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?

34:04 He's trying to encourage the community there, and you, you should ask, well, so who cares if Paul asks that question in one Corinthians nine? It occurs after Acts 15, verse 39. It's post, if you will, the, the dispute or the departing of the ways between the two. And here it seems that Paul is standing up in behalf of Barnabas, and it, in fact, it may even be, it seem, may even seem that Paul and Barnabas are doing some sort of work together again in, in one Corinthians nine. But that's about the only record we have of a, of a future relationship between Paul and Barnabas. There is, there's more texts concerning Paul

34:50 and Mark in Colossians four. It says this, my fellow prisoner, Aris Staris, sends you his greetings, as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas. So this is John Mark, you received instructions about him. If he comes your way, welcome him. Now, does that sound like someone who is still at odds with another person? No. If, if he's still at odds, Paul would be like, if John Mark comes your way, run as fast as you can the other direction. Don't welcome him. Don't let him into your community. He's unfaithful. It seems that some sort of reconciliation has happened between Paul and John Mark again, in, in second Timothy four 11. Luke is the only one with me, get Mark

35:35 and bring him with you for he's useful to me for service. So now it seems like there's no, it's not even is there no longer animosity, but now actually Paul, it seems that Paul's work is being benefited by John Mark. And then again, you see in Philemon, uh, verse 24, I'll start in 23. Eris, my fellow prisoner in Messiah, Yeshua sends greetings to you, and so do Mark Aris stares, Demis and Luke, my fellow workers. Again, it seems like Paul and John Mark somewhat mended the, the, the rift and begin to go forward together.

36:23 We don't know how, that's not the, it is not detailed to us. So let's move on to, by the way, I, I stopped in the middle of verse 39, uh, and, and with the last section, I'm gonna go now to the second part of 39. Barnabas took mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul selected Silas and went out being entrusted by the brothers and sisters to the gracious care of the Lord. He went through Syria and Isha strengthening the communities. Barnabas and Mark, if you, if you will recall, let's, let's go back here. In the first journey, they all went to Cyprus, and then they walked across Cyprus, and then they sailed up to Paraphilia.

37:08 Here, what we have is Barnabas, oops, excuse me, Barnabas and, and Mark go to Cyprus and they minister on the island of Cyprus. And, and there's not a lot of other word that's talked about, but there's a little bit. Meanwhile, uh, Paul and Silas go up here into Isha. In fact, I think I have a better map. Nope. So Syria and Isha here, you can see the province

37:53 of Syria here and Isha here. It seems like this is the area where Paul and Silas start. So Paul in this text takes Silas as a traveling companion. Now, I find it fact quite fascinating that if Paul takes Silas, but his protest against John Mark was that John Mark deserted us and he didn't accompany us. And the work, if that's his protest against John Mark, then it seems to indicate that Silas actually accompanied them on the first round. Now, the text is kind of silent, but if you take his protest that he didn't accompany us, and he now then, then selects Silas, it would presume that he did accompany us.

38:39 So he takes Silas and, and, uh, because Silas didn't desert them, but accompanied them through the work in Acts 13, 14. Uh, that's just my, my thoughts. And Paul and Silas go through Syria and CIA strength strengthening the communities. If you'll notice, uh, let's, let's go to the other map. If you'll notice Paul and Barnabas, uh, excuse me, Barnabas and, uh, mark, go to Cyprus, Paul and Yp and Silas go to cia. This is more of what I would call a divide

39:25 and conquer the, the territory or the trip. In theory, actually, you can cover twice as much ground in the same amount of time because now you're in two different groups. That being said, this is how I know in the text that Paul and Barnabas are not the protagonist, but in fact, God is the protagonist because he takes even the little disputes and he uses them for the magnification of his kingdom. Now, what is intended here for division by the enemy is actually used to multiply the kingdom of heaven.

40:13 It's quite fascinating when we begin to think about that. So what does this mean for you and me? I'm taking you three simple points from, from these verses. Number one, it's a good idea to check on our brothers and sisters and see how they're doing. It should be done through prayer and direction with the ak. And you're like, why are you giving a caveat? Well, because sometimes our flesh likes to manipulate a situation and, and, and we'll manipulate the situation, however, when we're doing it through prayer in the leading of the spirit. That's not us. But you gotta be very honest with yourself, by the way, that's, I think our biggest issue as,

40:59 as humanity is, is our lack of honesty with ourselves. You know, there's, there's a lot of, um, hmm, there's a lot of, uh, movement in, in our society today to talk about different generational qualities. You know, the, the silent generation, the boomer generation, the x-ers, millennials, Xers, and now the youngins, uh, or alpha, if you, if, if you so desire. But in the, in the this growing up, uh, group of people, I would say probably most people younger

41:45 than me, they, they will tell you that their most number one desire is for transparency by everyone, by politics, by leaders, by, by everyone. I just have one challenge. I don't think that transparency applies to the self. Why? Because we as people don't like it when we're transparent with ourselves. We don't like what we see, so we look at other people. I mean, this is the whole reason that the, the issue, it says, take the splinter out of your own eye before you take the log outta your brother's. Why? Because we prefer the log in our brother's eye.

42:31 It's far easier for us to deal with that than it is with the little bitty thing inside of us. Well, what I say, little bitty thing, when you actually, if you think about the perspective, a log in your brother's eye is actually smaller than the speck that's in your own, based upon your, your focal, uh, alignment. A speck in your eye actually affects everything that that eye sees. A log in your brother's eye. I mean, if I'm looking here, sorry, Ray, I'm gonna pick on you for a moment. If I can, uh, I can, I can barely see your eyes, Ray, but if I were able to see a log in your eye, that would be smaller than the speck in my own just because of, of perspective. So anyways, it's always good to check on your brothers

43:18 and sisters and see how they're doing. Secondly, a decision made in anger is not a wise decision. That's what I glean from this passage. Do not give, do not in your anger, give the adversary access to spread doubt concerning others within the community. Why? This is what anger does. It wells up within us, and it causes us to do things that we might not otherwise do or say things that we might not otherwise say. Finally, the Lord used the division here, in this case, in this text, to multiply the influence of his followers.

44:05 It could lead us to say, well, the division was justified because the kingdom of God spread twice as much, twice as fast and had, and, and so on and so forth. That may be true, but we don't know what could have happened if Paul and Barnabas handled this without anger, and if they walked together and both mentor John, mark and Silas, and then what would've happened if they said, Hey, you know what? You should take Cyprus and I'll take Isha, but I, I think this might work. Don't justify a divisive attitude because it will spread the kingdom of heaven, rather,

44:50 do not succumb, or in other words, do not succumb to the devices of the enemy, but allow the Lord to preserve relationships while spreading his word. These are the most difficult things for us to, to, to work on. Why? Because they all have to do with me. I don't mean Rabbi Ari, but with the self, the self issues are the most difficult to deal with. In fact, to the point that the gospel of Luke is written all with all of that in mind, Yeshua goes, this has been used so many times to, to, to, to denigrate Jewish people. And Espec, especially Pharisees, Yeshua

45:36 looks at the Pharisees and says, you guys are horrible. And, and as such, we, we take that and we go see Jewish people are all bad. That's not what Yeshua is saying. Yeshua is saying, you do all of these things, but the inside isn't being taken care of. You make yourself look like this so everybody else can see you, but you're not handling what you can see. As such, you need to handle what you can see before you begin to handle what everyone else can see. When you handle what you can see, understand it will begin

46:23 to change from the inside. And then what others can see will actually match what's inside rather than the other way. Saying, I'm, I'm putting myself up like this, but Lord, I know what's inside. I just don't want other people to see that. It's the most difficult lesson to learn of Shabbat May our Father in heaven. Lord, we come to you on this Shabbat. Lord, I thank you for this text for this scripture concerning Barnabas and Paul. Lord, I just pray that you would allow us to learn, to learn from, from what they experienced. Lord, Lord, I pray that you would continue to

47:11 teach us and to train us and to watch over us and to guide us as we follow you. Lord, we bless you and praise you in Yeshua, our Messiah's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

48:21 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shabbat.