This is The Way

0:01 As always, I will continue to give you updates. It's been a little over 600 days now since hostages were taken and there remain in captivity 55 20 of which are living or thought to be living earlier this week. The remains of two Israeli American hostages, Judith Weinstein, Haggai, and Gadi Haggai were recovered by the IDF on on Thursday. And then today the IDF recovered the remains, the body of NATA pong, Pinta.

0:48 Um, So three less, we're now down to 55. We, last week I talked just briefly about the call for a global ada, which has been ringing for about 600 days. And for the majority of that time in America, It Was cautioned as if it's just rhetoric. They're just words. They don't mean anything. We just, we just we're saying these things,

1:33 not meaning any harm to Jewish people. And if you have, if you believe that I've got some ocean front property to sell you in Arizona, zona, because the headlines of the last two weeks have proved otherwise. Last week I mentioned, uh, the, the shooting in Washington DC and then this last Sunday, I am sure, as many of you know, uh, there was a pro-ISIS Israel rally, a pro-Israel rally. Uh, it was a walk. The really, the, it was a walk to bring, um, to bring awareness concerning the remaining at that point,

2:19 58 hostages that were being held. And this walk was, um, terrorized by a terrorist, and he, uh, terrorized with Molotov cocktails and, and other items and sent several of them, or several of them got, were received burns, and two of them required hospitalization. One of them who required hospitalization was a holocaust survivor. To think That That one goes from the fires of the crematorium

3:04 to the fires of jihadi violence in Boulder, Colorado. Another one, which federal authorities were able to stop this one, probably, maybe didn't, you didn't hear about this one. They stopped a horrifying plot to massacre Jewish preschoolers at a local daycare. The suspect had threatened families and attempted to illegally purchase assault weapons claiming he was preparing for God's wrath. The US this week issued sanctions on four ICC judges.

3:55 And it could mean, what this could mean is that, or what it could indicate is that the ICC has issued new arrest warrants for Israelis that are under seal, which mean they're not not known. The other item that happened, Uh, A a few days ago, the FBI and DHS Department of Homeland Security issued a public service advisory for all Jewish places in America that, Uh, Acts of hate are on the rise

4:41 and to be extra vigilant. Now, I don't know that I have a memory of anything like this before October 7th in my life. Maybe I'm not remembering something, but I, I don't remember there being a PSA being issued. But I'm telling you that The Heat has been turned on. It's quite interesting because if you're here, you are at the tip of the spear.

5:29 Most people might find it becoming too dangerous to go to a Jewish event or to a synagogue. So I commend you that if you're here, and if you're not here, I'll commend you too. Maybe, maybe you're homesick. I commend you for staying home sick if you're homesick. But history tells us thousands of years of history tell us that very few people stand with the Jewish people who are not Jewish.

6:24 The times continue to get darker. That means it's our opportunity. I think Marcus said this on Wednesday night, the way we wage war is on our knees. So as it gets darker, Well, We'll talk about this in the message today a little bit. As it gets darker, the more is required for prayer and praise, because the light that comes is an undeniable light.

7:16 By the way, some of the arguments I know, I'm, I'm dwelling a little bit longer than I normally do on, on news. Some of the arguments in Israel or against Israel are that Israel is a colonialist nation. I'm here to tell you that this is not true. Now, you can make an argument that Americans, those of us who come from European are colonialist. I, I, I think that's an argument. I don't know many people would deny, but you want to know something. If you go back and you look, I don't know, pre 1600 was, I think that's pretty safe. Pre 1600, everything that every historical artifact

8:03 that you find in the United States doesn't have English on it. Okay? So maybe we came in and, and and, and that's what happened in America. Do you know what happened in Israel before 1600? I don't know. Let's go before zero. Wait, wait, no, let's go, let's go. Before a thousand bc 3000 years ago, what is in Israel? Hebrew writing in the archeology Evidence of King David, king Solomon, evidence of the tribes being all over the land.

8:53 Israel is not a colonialist power. Israel, Jewish people did not ize Palestine. If there's anything, it's Palestinians colonized Israel. If there's anyone who is into foreign invader of the land, I'm sorry, I'm getting like a little bit stronger maybe than usual. It's not Jews. Jews have lived in the land of Israel for 4,000 years. It's not us who are colonizers. It's the ones who attempt to erase any other history

9:41 that belongs in the land. Any attempt to say that? Hmm, Man, Rocky Rocky's rubbing off on you a little bit. Any attempt to say that Jesus was a Palestinian is It, it's the worst. Hi, rocky. It's the worst type of cultural appropriation possible because what it does or what it attempts to do is it attempts to replace God's chosen people. Okay? Jews, maybe we're not the most faithful to God.

10:30 In fact, we have a whole book about how we have errored in following him. But you want to know something. God's word is not dependent upon us. Thank you, Lord. God's faithfulness to Israel is not because Israel is some great and mighty people, not because Israel is like the most observant, most faithful people who have ever existed to God himself. No, God's faithfulness to Israel is

11:16 because he chose to make a covenant, and it's his word that he will violate. So if there's an opportunity to erase the Jewish people, which therefore will cause God to violate his word, because he hasn't been faithful to preserve them, any opportunity that the enemy has, he will take it, whether it is through open warfare or through deception, through the false claim. Oh, Jesus wasn't Jewish. You know what that is? That's replacement theology. This is a little bit different.

12:02 It's different, a little bit different than what the, than what church history has, but the same outcome is desired. Okay? There's sermon one kids that's not in your notes. Your notes now begin. So we are continuing in Acts chapter 16. Before we begin in this week's passage, I want to just remind us what has happened. We're here in Philippi, Paul and Company, and on, on the day of Shabbat, they went down to the river to pray.

12:49 And where when they went down there, Paul was looking especially to see who would be gathered, and Paul found a group of women, and there amongst the women was a woman named Lydia. And she opened her heart to what Paul was saying. And from that point on, they were traveling daily in Philippi. It seems to me, uh, maybe I'm reading a little too much into the text. It seems to me that they're traveling daily to prayer. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's what it seems like. They're traveling daily and, and as they're traveling, there's a woman following Paul, uh, in company. There's a slave girl with a spirit of divination, and she's following them and she's proclaiming who they are.

13:39 Now, she's, she's hasn't been asked to proclaim who they are. She's just following behind them, wailing at the top of her lungs. These men are from l Leon, and they're proclaiming the way of salvation. And Paul allows us to go, it seems for several days, and we we're not told how many for many days is what it says. And then finally, Paul becomes annoyed or irritated, and he turns around and he casts the spirit out of her in the name of Yeshua and the spirit leaves. And all of a sudden, the girl, the slave girl's masters, though, what they see now is that they've lost their hope for profit. And so they have Paul and Silas arrested.

14:28 Now, what's what, what's interesting, if, if you note in the text, Luke is here in Philippi with the group as they're, as they're doing their, their daily business. In fact, even as they're, they're going down and, and Paul, this occurrence happens, the text still still says we and us. But it, it is interesting. It's only Paul and Silas who were arrested. I can't tell you why Luke is not. But when they're arrested and put into prison, Luke says they or them, and he doesn't include himself as we were in prison. I just find it interesting. But these masters, now what they do is they find a way to incite a crowd against Paul and Silas

15:13 and persecute them because they were Jews. Now, that's not what the text tells the text, that's not what they say. The masters didn't reveal their true intentions because they wanted revenge for the loss of the income that they, or the loss of money that they have, why they were relying upon this slave girl to somehow give words of, of divination or foretelling or something, and they were driving profit from it. And when the spirit is cast out of her, all of a sudden they don't have a business anymore And they can't file chapter 11. So they decide they're going to get their revenge on, on,

16:01 on, uh, Paul and Silas, but they don't say, they don't incite a crowd and, and say, yeah, they took away our source of income. No, they incite a crowd based upon them being Jews upsetting the way of Romans and politics and religion and any, any way of Roman life. And then we talked about what Yeshua says in Matthew 6 21, where your treasure is, there also will be your heart. Yeshua doesn't say where your heart is. There also will be your treasure. And I gave a long expounded version of it last week. But I just want you to know, as good as you think your heart may be,

16:46 the money doesn't follow your heart. Your heart follows the money, and it's nearly always the case. And it's true in politics. It's true in civics. My mom and I were talking about Dallas and Dallas development and, and how some of these properties have been permitted to get developed with. Anyways, somebody's making money in all of these cases, and it's money that is more often than not the driving issue. So this, this, uh, this, these authorities in the mob,

17:32 they strip Paul and Silas and they beat them severely, and then they put them into the innermost part of the prison. So now what I want to do, even though I gave you a recap of what we already covered, I'm gonna read it all and we're gonna read this week's text just immediately following it so you can hear it all, because it's one story. Even though I've divided the story up into about four different weeks, it's really all one story. So starting in verse 13 of chapter 16, on Yom Shabbat. So we're in, we're in Philippi, on Yom Shabbat. We went outside the gate to the river

18:18 where we expected a place of prayer to be. We sat down and began speaking with the women who had gathered a woman named Lydia, a cellar of purple cloth from the city of thi A God fear was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. When she was immersed along with her household, she urged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay with me at my house. And she insisted It so happened that we were going to prayer. Oh, it is in the text. I didn't remember it being in the text. They're going to prayer. We met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination who was bringing her ma master's, much profit from her fortune telling, following after us. And uh, following after Paul and us, she kept shouting, saying, these men are servants

19:05 of l Elion who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. She kept doing this for many days, but Paul was irritated and turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Messiah Shea to come out of her. And it came out of her at that very moment, excuse me. But when her masters saw that the hope of prophet was gone, they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. And when they brought them to the chief authorities, they said, these men are throwing our city into an uproar, being Jewish. See, there's the accusation being Jewish. They advocate customs, which are not permitted for us

19:51 to accept or practice being Romans. Then the crowd joined in the attack on them. So the chief authorities ripped their clothes off them and commanded them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into the prison, ordering the jailer to guard them securely. Having received this charge, they threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly, there was such a great earthquake, the foundations of the prison were shaken immediately, all the doors were unlocked, and everyone's chains came loose.

20:36 When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself. Supposing the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, don't harm yourself. We're all here. The jailer called for lights and rushed in and trembling with fear. He fell down before Paul and Silas after he brought them out. He said, SIRS, what must I do to be saved? They said, put your trust in the Lord Yeshua, and you will be saved, you and your household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his household. He took them at that very hour and washed their wounds. And at once he was immersed. He and all his household, the jailer, brought them to his house and set food before them. And he was overjoyed that he, with his entire household,

21:24 had put their trust in God. And we're gonna pause there, and we'll finish the chapter next week. So let's start. I've, I've divided this kind of really into three segments. The first segment is boils down to the question, but before we get to the question, we, there's this whole section about the power of prayer and praise around midnight. Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns to the Lord. I just want us to think about this. We so often come to a text and we just read, but I want you to think about this. Paul and Silas are Jewish. They're in bondage, and it's around midnight,

22:10 and they're praying and praising the Lord. The most well-known story of deliverance in all of Judaism, really in all of the world, is a story that occurs around midnight. And it's the deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt. Perhaps Paul and Silas s Silas are lifting up their prayers to the Lord and seeking deliverance, the hymns that they're singing. You know, we, we think about hymns. When I think of hymns, I don't think of what they were probably singing. I think of hymns that what I would probably call would be like old school hymns in the church, which may or may not be scripture.

22:57 Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. Sometimes their personal experience is fine, but what their hymns, probably the majority of their hymns are, maybe there's a little bit some personal experience or personal crying out, but their hymns are likely actually the Psalms, the Psalms deal with this. David goes through such great turmoil and he so often is in a dark place, and he's asking for the Lord to deliver him out of a dark place. So it seems that they're probably right in line with that following the hymns. And, and, and the Psalms could be, the priesthood, by the way, was, was, uh, was instructed the political priesthood to offer a praise throughout the night

23:44 in the form of Psalms. So maybe they're, they're walking in this path. Perhaps Psalm 119 comes to mind as they're imprisoned and it says, the ropes of the wicked are coiled around me, but I did not forget your Torah. At midnight, I rise to praise you because of your righteous rulings. Maybe they're reminding themselves that the Lord's rulings are righteous despite the persecution that they're currently in, in the unrighteous rulings that they've received, regardless of what they're feeling, they're in the midst of prayer and praise. And the text immediately says that there at that time

24:33 was an earthquake that shook the foundations of the prison. The text insinuates here that it is a direct result of the prayer and praises. Now, I'm totally fine with it being either or, if it's not the direct result, the timing is uncanny. It's uncanny to the point that only God could direct the timing. And here we have the doors all come unlocked. You can just think about this. You're in the, like, it's midnight. You're in the depth of the prison. By the way, none of us, we, none of us really sleep in like a dark place.

25:20 I don't know if you ever think about this. We have so many electronics and so many outside lights that it's always a little bit light, so we can always see. But when you go into the depths, the innermost part of a prison, you're not gonna have any light. There's, it's not like, Hey, check your cell phone. Tell me what time it is. Or can you, uh, look at your Apple watch? Let's get a little light in here. Let's let that little light shine. Uh, there's no light there, but they're singing, they're praising the Lord. They, the doors all swing wide open. It seems like an answer to prayer. Again, I don't know if you, uh, I, let me, let me zoom out from this text for just a moment.

26:07 In, in, perhaps you might remember. Peter goes through something remarkably similar multiple times, by the way, one of those times in Acts 12, and Angel woke him up, he's there chained between two guards. An angel wakes him up, the chains fall off, and the angel leads him out, uh, of the prison to a place where Peter then can take over the leading job. And, and, and then the angel goes, okay, bye. And Peter's like, oh, I'm, wait, what? How'd I get here? Peter's, Peter thought it was a dream. Peter left the prison. What happened to those guards? The ones who were given the job of watching Peter and uh, and making sure he didn't escape.

26:54 They were killed. Herod said, oh, you failed in your job. The one, the one task I gave you was to make sure this guy didn't get out. And and here he is gone. And so he kills the guards. Paul and Silas, on the other hand, remain in the prison as a witness. I'm not saying one case is better or more right than the other. I'm just saying they're different. Paul and Silas stay there. And, and, and I'm saying this because sometimes our experiences are the same, but God doesn't want us to do the same thing.

27:39 And you have to be very sensitive to what the Lord wants you to do because other people's lives hang in the balance. So I'm left with the question is an open door enough to confirm the will of the Lord? That's for you. Two ponder the jailer woke and he saw the open doors and was about to kill himself because he assumed all the prisoners escaped. And if they all escaped, he was gonna die anyways because he was entrusted with their security, maintain, making sure they didn't get out.

28:25 Now, let me take a side trail for just a moment. It seems that Paul, in his remarkably short time in prison has become a leader in all of the prisoners. Why do I say that? Because Paul number one responds. He's the only one who responds in the text. But number two, he responds in confidence that no one has left, which to me means that he's already checked and said, Hey guys, don't leave. Can you imagine the influence of this man? He is beaten up bloodied, and he has the mindset in an earthquake. First of all, I'm not gonna do a poll

29:12 to see who's from California. 'cause I know some people are. Some of you came before it was fashionable. That's that's okay. No, I'm just saying that because I can't imagine we live in Texas, we don't really have earthquakes. Uh, maybe we have a few now, but I've never been in a place where I've stood and the ground is shaking underneath me, and, and there's really nothing I can do. It's the one thing I think that terrifies me. I could be looking at a tornado and I'd be like, woo-hoo, earthquakes terrify me. But Paul has now survived an earthquake. Everything's shifting. The foundations of the prisoners shaken,

29:59 and Paul has the presence of mind to tell all the prisoners who now don't have chains on them. Everybody stay put. I, I just want, like, the amount of influence he has gained to keep them all there is staggering to me. But sure enough, they're all there. The, the, the, the, the, uh, jailer comes, checks it out, and it, it, again, it's interesting because Paul, who is now in jail and shackled is there because he spiritually released

30:44 a slave girl, and he himself became enslaved or imprisoned because of it. But Paul himself is a slave of the most high God. And now when the bondages are released, when the chains are released, he refuses Freedom. He chooses to stay as a witness for the Lord and to serve others. So the jailer comes into the innermost part of the prison falls down before Silas and Paul. It, it seems to me almost immediately he comes in, he probably is aware that there the rest of them,

31:30 that the rest of the prisoners there, and he just says, SIRS, what can I do to be saved? It is quite fascinating because in Texas we read sirs and it, and it's, you know, we're, we're still in Southern, right? Yes, sir. Yes ma'am. Like, it's, it's a part of our common vocabulary. But sirs here is more than just, yes, sir. It's the same term that's applied to Yeshua. Lord, He says, lords. So the jailer who is master of Paul and Silas comes and, and comes, it seems to me like almost at their feet and says lords. In other words, he's subjecting himself to them

32:18 and to their, their ruling. He says, what can I do to be saved? I mean, it's an immediate realization that he has, that there's a need for salvation. Maybe he heard part of the report, maybe he heard part of the accusation against Paul and Silas from the square. We don't, we're not know, we don't, we don't know that maybe the timing of the earthquake in the presence of all the prisoners has confirmed to him that these men, Paul and Silas, are messengers of the divine, The messengers of the Lord. And his response is, what must I do to be saved? So we move on in the text to verses 31 and 32. They respond.

33:07 Paul and Silas respond. They say, put your trust in the Lord. Yeshua. You see, they're countering. I want you to note they're countering being called lords themselves. And they're countering and they say, put your trust. I'm gonna take a moment and say, not in us, but in the Lord Yeshua, and you will be saved, you and all your household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his household. It seems like his household, if they're all there, must be relatively near in proximity to the, to the jail. So what, what they, he's instructed to put his trust in the Lord Yeshua and he'll be saved him and all of his household. Again, what we see, what we've seen in Acts 10,

33:55 we've seen it in Acts 16 now twice, is that there is a person when there's, when, when there is a faith change in one key person, it brings about a faith change in an entire household. And it's almost immediately, So they spoke then the word of the Lord to him and to his household, Paul and Silas speak to, to this jailer and to his household. What did they teach him? Well, we know it says they teach him the word of the Lord. But let's just take a couple options. Let's just brainstorm for a minute. What did they teach him? What are Paul and Silas's mission that they've been on now for a chapter i, I think it's not a far shot to say.

34:42 They started with the four prohibitions in Acts 15, and they said, look, this is what's necessary. Do you remember the context of Acts 15? Is, do you have to be circumcised to be saved? In other words, if I can change the question, what is it? What is necessary to be saved? That's the same question that the jailer asks. So it, to me, it's not a far reach to say the four prohibitions of the four essentials from Acts 15 are probably the starting point. And if you want more, it might resemble their conversation, might resemble the book of Romans. Why do I say that? Because Paul is the author of the book

35:28 of Romans, and it is his most complete treaty concerning what is necessary, uh, in the body of Messiah, especially now in, in the context of Romans. Is he writing to a Roman community that has lost their Jewish leadership? And so he's writing to them in that context. So here we have a, a, a Roman guard who's not connected with Jewish leadership at all. So you can take some of that same stuff and just roll it on over. And Paul's probably developing this message, which he will eventually then write out as the book of Romans. We move on to verse 33 and 34. He took them at that very hour.

36:14 And the jailer, he, the jailer took them Paul and Silas at the very hour and washed their wounds. And at once he was immersed. He, in all his household, the jailer brought them to his house and set food before them. And he was overjoyed that his entire household had put their trust in God. So this is the aftermath we have. The question that he says, what is it? What do I need to do to be saved? We have the response, put your trust in Yeshua, the, the Messiah and the aftermath is the jailer's response to salvation is to care for Paul and Silas, I just want you to think about it there. They have been beaten, they were stripped and beaten somewhere in the 12 to 18 hour range

37:03 prior to this. It's around midnight. Midnight could mean middle of the night, could mean, uh, you know, midnight proper. We're not exactly certain. Whatever it is, is it seems that in the prior 12, maybe 12, 18 hours, something like that is when they were taken before the authorities stripped and beaten and their wounds, by the way, were never dressed. They went into the jail, beaten wounds, bleeding, oozing, whatever it is that is going on and left. They were shackled in and left there this jailer. What his response to salvation is, is he says, let me clean your wounds.

37:49 It's remarkably similar to Yeshua when he gets down and washes his disciples, feet like that, dirty, gross. What is going on here? Element. And he comes, I mean, they're at risk of infection. I mean, I know we have a lot of nurses and doctors and medical people in here, but just think about that. If somebody was beaten in the, in the middle of the square and then they were dragged, so they've got some open wounds and they're dragged through the dirt and then they're stuck in shackles overnight, like every nurse in here is going, we need to like clean that. Get that stuff. You might lose a leg.

38:38 The jailer washes their wounds in that very hour, is what the text tells us. And it wasn't until I want you to note something. It's quite fascinating. It's not until after the jailer washes their wounds that he's then immersed. His response is immediate salvation immediately prompts him to act, and he sees an injustice at the moment or a wrong, and he addresses that wrong or a need even if you wanna put it that way. He puts his faith into action by caring for Paul and Silas. His faith in that of his household is then confirmed

39:26 through immersion. It's quite fascinating because they're in a jail or they're at least in proximity for a jail, which means that the water used to clean the wounds is the same water that's used for immersion. Same spring, same. Well, whatever it is that's nearby, it's the same in the jailer's reaction after he's immersed y'all. I just want, we don't think about this when we just read the text. We, we get lost in, in our own time, but his life is forfeit if the prisoners are gone. That's why he was willing to kill himself. If the prisoners were all gone, The prisoners are all there.

40:14 He's grateful. He becomes, he finds, he places his trust in Yeshua. Now, what does he do? He takes the prisoners out of prison into his house. You See the, the opposite has occurred. He no longer is afraid of the sentence that would be given to him. If the prisoners are not in his custody in the prison, all of a sudden his priorities in life have changed and he welcomes them into his house and he feeds them, by the way, hospitality and food. Great way to strengthen one another's faith,

41:00 whether you've been wounded or not. The reality is, is all of us have been wounded at one point or another. So hospitality, food, brisket, tacos, beef ribs, I heard it. Yep. All of these great ways that we can strengthen one another's faith. So what is this? What is this passage? I'm gonna stop there because we, we have a few more verses we'll get to them next week. But what does this mean for you and me? First of all, I want you to know, and, and I'm gonna say this, and you're, you're gonna go, yeah, that, that it makes sense, but then I want you to really ponder it.

41:46 Our God can open up hearts just like he does jail cells. And you think, I, I just want you to think, I know you're thinking, wow, that's just our heart. You know, it's like our heart is the most impenetrable area jail in the world. It's worse than Alcatraz. It's worse than some unknown black sight in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And, and if the government's watching me, I don't know what that black side is. Our heart is worse than all of that. We lock it up and we put it away, and then we tell everybody else, oh, we're doing great.

42:34 Our heart is just fine. You know what Proverbs says? Our heart is the most deceptive of all of the body parts, but I want you to know that our God can open up hearts. Just like in this text, he opens up jail cells. Now, I said it once. Does an open door always indicate the will of the Lord? Not necessarily go back and check, Lord, what do I do? But if our hearts are like a jail,

43:21 then our response when the Lord begins to open it up is, what do I need to do to be saved? It's the same question the jailer asks, Paul gives the response. All you have to do is place your trust in Yeshua. The rest will follow. And finally, my final question is, what will change in your life after salvation? What about you will change? Because if, if, if the answer is nothing, Then pardon me for, for being brunt. But if nothing about you changes

44:07 after salvation, are you really saved? Because the reality is all of us Are not walking in the way of the Lord at some point or another. All of us require a humbling from the Lord and to turn to him. And the amazing thing is, is when we do and when we take our priorities and we reshift them, it opens up so much more. Our eyes become open to the needs in front of us. Just like this jailer sees their wounds. Who knows?

44:53 The text doesn't tell us. But he hasn't made a, the jailer hasn't made a comment about Paul and Silas's wounds, yet maybe he never even saw him, but they have to exist. And all of a sudden now he's saved, he's placed his trust, and all of a sudden his eyes are open and he sees the need right in front of him, and he addresses the need immediately. That's the open door. What will change in your life after salvation? I leave you with those questions and we will get to the rest of the text next week. Our Father in heaven. Lord, I thank you for this text.

45:38 Lord, I thank you for your words, for your instructions, Lord, which we can see in this text. Lord, he just asks that you would be with us today, that you would open up hearts here in our midst to see you and to trust in you. And we bless you in the name of Yeshua, our Messiah. 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. I

46:52 in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shabbat.