What Is The Need?

0:01 As I've done for about 450 days, I will continue to give a, a, a short report. Maybe it hasn't always been so short. Um, hopefully today will be a little bit short, but if you haven't been paying attention, uh, the Houthis, the, the Rebel Group in Yemen have fired ballistic missiles and drones on Israel this week. Four times one of them hit Tel Aviv. And, uh, on December 19th, a school building in Vermont gone collapsed after being struck by a warhead from a Houthis missile, which led to an Israeli retaliatory strike. And they continue to retaliate as necessary.

0:49 By the way, the Houthis are, are basically the only remaining faction that hasn't been wiped out yet by Israel. The proxy factions of Iran, Israel has decimated Hezbollah, Syria has now fallen, and what what will come is yet to be determined. Uh, and the Houthis remain, uh, very active as the proxy for Iran against Israel. Uh, meanwhile in Gaza, Hamas continues to reject, uh, and refuse, uh, ceasefire proposals. Uh, this recently, the most recent one, they refuse to provide a list of surviving Israeli hostages,

1:35 both living and deceased, that were going to be released as a part of the deal. Whether they review, refuse to provide a list because they don't want to, or because they can't, has yet to be determined. Um, what, what do I mean by Canton? Maybe they don't know. At least some people claim they don't know who remains because they're, they're, they're no longer in contact with one another. The hostages are spread out. Uh, I'm about to say something extremely condemning. So if, if you want your toes to step on, be stepped on. Just go ahead and stay in here for a few more minutes.

2:21 Hamas perpetrated A war crime against Israel. The world has permitted it to continue for 450 days. That includes our government, by the way, the world leaders have the power to stop it. Why? Because it's an international crime to take hostages. It's not recognized by any government in the world as legitimate. And here we are 450 ish days later, and there are still about a hundred hostages, uh, of which we presume somewhere in the range of 40 to 50

3:06 we hope remain alive. They have lived in, uh, conditions that probably most of us or all of us can't even imagine. They have survived traumas that we can only have nightmares about, and still the world leaders, including the un refuse to put any pressure on Hamas to release the hostages. In fact, the pressure now is being put on Israel to stop fighting against Hamas' leadership in Gaza, because there's too many casualties. It seems ridiculous, but it is what it is.

3:52 Hamas continues to prevent Palestinian citizens in Gaza from ref, from receiving humanitarian aid. They hijack the trucks. In fact, I wanna show you a video. Do you guys have that up? Yeah. Can you play just, it's like a 32nd video of Hamas hijacking humanitarian aid trucks under armed guard.

4:54 I know it's brief, but I I, there was a five minute video. Oh, there's a little bit more. There's a five minute video if you, if you use the YouVersion app to follow along with the notes. I've included this link in there, and I put another link of a video that's about five and a half minutes. I thought it was too long to show in the service. Um, but the five and a half minute video shows the, I'm trying to remember how many, the hundreds of tons of humanitarian, um, food and supplies that remain undistributed because there's no one to distribute them in Gaza. Uh, by the way, if, if you think it's Israel's

5:39 responsibility, Israel from the very beginning of the war said, we will examine the humanitarian aid that goes in, but we will not distribute it. That that's not our job. And, and so they, they've continued to do that, and it has continued to build up. And there are hundreds of trucks that are sitting there with supplies. I I encourage you to go watch the video. It is, you know, you hear these news reports, oh, only two trucks made it through today. Blatant lies. You see it in the, you can watch the video. Uh, I can't remember what news agency is this anchor. She said they only let two trucks through in one day. And in reality, they let 600 trucks through that day.

6:25 Uh, and still, the, the real problem is, is there's no, um, there's no one there to distribute the aid in Gaza. Uh, because Hamas is not gonna distribute it. They're gonna take it. What they do is they steal it, and then they, they, uh, create a black market where they inflate all of the prices so that now they extort money from the citizens, which they don't have to get supplies, which the world has given and they should be getting for free. And if that's not bad enough, if you attempt to go and, um, procure some of the supplies yourself, Hamas will try you for theft and execute you.

7:13 In fact, I I, I watched a video. I, and I, I, I just couldn't include it in my notes because if you wanna watch it, you can come ask me for the link afterward. Um, but it's, it's a video of them executing a man who tried to steal supplies for the sake of living and providing for his family, and they executed him on Christmas Day. That's a choice that they didn't have to, they didn't have to execute him on Christmas day. There was a statement to the world, which no one in the world is listening. So that all being said, I want to encourage you

7:59 to continue to pray. Number one, for those who are resisting Hamas in Gaza. 'cause they need all the prayer support that we can give them. Number two, pray for really, all of Israel, because all of Israel continues to be, um, traumatized. They're, they're, they're, uh, suffering from severe trauma. And if we were, if, if they were here in the United States, we would say, you need to go to a shrink, or you need to go to a counselor and get therapy. But the reality is, is Israel's at war, nobody has time for therapy.

8:45 Children have been missing their fathers for 10 months out of the last year, or 10 months out of the last 11 months. The the, they're continuing to be sent in and out of Gaza. And, and, and now, I, there is a, a recognized piece, something up north, uh, whether or not it will hold is yet to be seen. Um, but second of, or third of all, uh, and finally continue to pray for the release of the hostages, the remaining hostages. It, it's, it's quite, the word is not funny, but I don't have another word for it. But if

9:33 Hamas would've released the hostages six months ago, I imagine Israel would've said, okay, enough is enough. Maybe, maybe not. But Now it's becoming a principle thing. And, and at least from the rhetoric that comes out of Israel, Hamas will not remain well, at least as an organization after this war is done. Okay, let's, uh, we are in acts. We're finishing out Acts chapter 11 today, and then we will start Acts chapter 12 in the new year next year.

10:20 Next year is so far off. So we're continuing, we're gonna start in verse 25. And, and, and go through 30. And I'll, I'll just read it here for us then. Barnabas, you remember the Barnabas Barnabas left for Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch for a whole year. They met together with Messiah's community and taught a large number. Now, it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called, or what many of your translations say Christians. Now, in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, one of them named Agabus. He was on the barn bus, but then he got off for the Agabus. Then Aga stood up

11:07 and predicted through the Ruach that there was going to be a great famine over all the world. This took place during the reign of Claudius. So the disciples decided, send relief to those brothers and sisters living in Judea, each according to his ability. This they did, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Now, before I get into the message, I want to start with a joke. I don't do jokes very often. Um, that was my dad's staple, and he was good at it. My jokes generally tend to fall flat. Um, so let's hope this one, uh, arrives at the location is necessary. As the late December flight lands at Urian airport, captain

11:55 Raki makes an announcement. Welcome to Israel. Please remain seated with your seat belts fastened until the aircraft comes to a complete stop. I repeat, do not stand up until the seat belt signs have been turned off. For those of you still in your seats, I wish you a very merry Christmas for those standing in the aisles. Happy Hanukkah, you can process it. If you've ever been to Israel, you'll, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't been to Israel, just wait. When you get on that first flight to Israel and you land, every Jewish person just stands up. In fact, I'm pretty sure on the last flight I took to Israel, we were, we weren't even on the ground.

12:41 And some guy hopped up to, to go forward. And I was like, what is going on here? Anyways, I figured it was, we're still in the appropriate season for a Christmas Hanukkah joke, Just as a refresher to, to bring us back up to the context that we're dealing with here at the end of chapter 11 and chapter 11, we're dealing with the spread of the good news of the Messiah, uh, and, and we're reminded that there was persecution that led to the disbursement of some of the believers who were in Jerusalem during the time of persecution, uh, as a stemming from a result of Stephen's execution. And those people have been sharing the good news with the Jewish people, and they have made their way up to Antioch.

13:28 Also, what has happened with Peter, which was the vision in chapter 10, uh, uh, of the unclean animals, and, and its subsequent application of him going into Cornelius's house, that news has also spread. In other words, if you don't remember what, what the, what, what the conclusion was, Peter said, even to the Gentiles has come repentance. Uh, I can't remember the exact wording. Hold on. We just flip back one page. Uh, let's see. Even to the Gentiles, God has granted repentance leading

14:14 to life, 11 verse 18. That news has also spread. And as such, now there's a growing number who have been led to, to the Lord in Antioch. And so the, the, the disciples, or the, the apostles, if I can use this term, the, the apostles with a capital A. So the 12, they, the 12, and the elders who are in Jerusalem, they send Barnabas to Antioch as their representative to begin to teach the people. So Barnabas has this, uh, uh, if we can call it an explosion of people who come to faith and, and they now need to be taught. And so Barnabas realizes a couple things.

15:00 Number one is that he needs Paul. So here we, we start with our, with our text. Then Barnabas left for Tarsis to look for Paul, uh, for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch for a whole year. They met together with the Messiahs community, and tar taught a large number. Now, it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians or Chris. Um, now let me, I, I know I've done this so many times, it's almost not worth it, but there's almost always someone here who wasn't here before. Let me just make a note here for you mentally. Saul and Paul are both the same person.

15:45 Saul was not the evil unredeemable person, and Paul is not the good Christian. Saul and Paul are simply two different languages. Shaul or Saul is Hebrew. Paul is Paulis from Greek. And so perhaps you've heard that, that when, when, when Saul saw the light and interacted with Jesus, that Jesus said, your name is no longer Saul, and now it's Paul is not true because he's referred. That was, that was in Acts chapter nine, by the way. And we're here in what chapter, chapter 11. And he still called. It's the context that matters and determines which name Paul is using.

16:31 I just be, for sake of simplicity, always call him Paul, so nobody gets confused. So why is Barnabas going to find Paul Barnabas? Seems like he's quite capable of being an encourager of teaching, of even raising up, uh, new leaders. Why does he need Paul? This is a question you should ask. Why is he going to find Paul? Well, there's a few different options here, and if you've ever asked me a question and, and, you know, given me two or three answers, my, my answer is almost always yes.

17:16 So I'll give you two or three options, is I assume that they're all, they all, to me seem to be contributing factors. One of those is, could Barnabas have realized the benefit at this point of now being sent out two by two? You see, if he's there on his own, he's having to field everything on his own, which means he's having to carry all of the work. Could he have realized that maybe I need someone else to help share the burden, the load of what is going on, and I need to go find someone. So why would he go for Paul? Why wouldn't he go back to Jerusalem? Well, Tarsus is about a hundred miles from Antioch as the crow flies. Jerusalem is about 300 miles.

18:03 So just from a simple practicality standpoint, uh, he, it's closer and quicker to go get Paul, who he believes to be in Tarsus. My second option, could this large number that's turned to the Lord need further discipleship and teaching? And could it be that Barnabas realizes he's not the most equipped for that in a large number. Maybe he's good one-on-one. Maybe he understands his own gifts and that he realizes he needs someone else. And he remembers Paul, I don't know if you remember this, but Barnabas was the one who stuck up for Paul in Jerusalem, uh, a few chapters ago when, when Paul came before the elders.

18:49 Paul, is he re he could be remembering. Paul is highly educated. And in fact, the text says in, uh, in Damascus, right after Paul came to faith, and he was there in Damascus, that he had his own disciples. In other words, whatever happened, it was quickly enough that he created disciples that were following him effectively in Damascus. And then he goes to Jerusalem and he does something relatively similar. So Barnabas could be thinking, man, this guy knows how to do it. Let me bring him in and put into action a plan that will be good for everyone that I'm not equipped to do. Now, a third option, could this group of people who have come to faith consisted primarily of Gentiles

19:37 who have turned to the Lord without going through the conversion process? You know, this is the process, the process that was opened up in Acts chapter 10, and then shared by Peter in Acts chapter 11. And could Paul, uh, could Barnabas have known that Paul's calling was a calling to the Gentiles? Even at this point, could Barnabas have known that, in which case it would make sense for him to go get Paul instead of someone else? So he goes to anti, uh, goes to, um, Tarsus and, and finds Paul and brings him back. They meet for a whole year, and they taught a large number of people. As I mentioned earlier, Paul has

20:24 great experience in teaching. It's, it's apparent in the text from the time actually of Steven's execution, Paul had risen to the top of the ranks of, of the, of the students to the point that he oversaw Steven's execution. And it seems likely that he would've continued teaching others. Uh, as I mentioned in Acts chapter nine, he has disciples. The the text specifically says Paul's disciples, not disciples of, of Yeshua. Uh, it doesn't mean that they weren't disciples of Yeshua, but it's referring to Paul. And he has just this extensive education that now can be put into practice. And here they meet together for a whole year.

21:13 Now, I wanna pause and make another side note. Most people think, oh, Paul went from here to, he went from, he went from Antioch to Macedonia, to Ephesus, to Corinth, and Paul just was all over the place, right? You've heard that before, Paul's journeys, he just went everywhere, which he did. But I want you to note that he didn't hop on an airplane and fly to the next place the next day. In this case, in this text, and this happens multiple times, we'll see it throughout Acts. Paul spends a year in one place pouring into those new followers of Yeshua before he relocates. It's not like, uh, there are some ministries today that are built upon this idea of, I'm gonna hop on a jet

22:01 and go to 25 different places in the month of January because I'm so important that the, all these 25 places need me there in my jet. It's not what Paul did. Paul took time to be involved in the community and to pour himself into others. In fact, Paul even uses the phrase, and now I can't, I'm, I'm not drawing the passage. I'm pouring myself my life out like a drink offering. What if he's pouring his life out and pouring it into someone else and or perhaps multiple others? Man, I love days like today.

22:50 So here we come to the, to the last, last part of this section. It was an Antioch that these disciples were first called Christiane or Christians. It could be referencing Gentile followers of Yeshua. It could be a political term that was used to describe the followers of Yeshua as the king of Judea. And and you say, what? That doesn't make sense. It's similar. It could be similar to the term like Herodians, you know, the followers of Herod. Uh, it does seem that if this term was applied in a, in a, um, in a manner such as, uh, the, the Yeshua was the king of the Jews or king of the Judeans, whatever manner it was

23:38 presented, as it seems to not be a manner of aggression or potential, um, overthrow of Caesar at this point, at least. Why? Because there's nothing in the text that talks about Caesar sending in his hoards of soldiers to wipe out the Christians. It, if it was used in that manner, it was used as a, as a title of derision, uh, to, um, to demean them or to perhaps say, your king or your Messiah. He died. So we move on to the next part of this text now in verse 27. Now, in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

24:24 One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted through the RUOK that there was going to be a great famine over all the world. This took place during the reign of Claudius. So here we have in, in, in these days, prophets, they come down from Jerusalem to Antioch. So first, let's talk about prophets. These prophets could have been itinerant prophets who went from city to city, or they could have been sent to represent a very specific purpose from Jerusalem to Antioch to, in, in this case, to warn of an imminent famine. Actually, it's, it's quite interesting that this aligns with the Torah portion, which talks about an imminent famine also.

25:10 But during this time period, uh, in Judaism, prophecy was said to have ceased, prophecy was said, to have ceased following the destruction of the first temple when the last prophets, Haggai Zechariah and Malachi died. And the Holy Spirit de departed from Israel, if you'll remember in, in the reading of e of, uh, Ezekiel, it talks about the Holy Spirit lifting up off of the temple and following the exiles into Babylon, Judaism purports that prophecy ended then. And yet here we still have prophecy and pros. It's quite interesting. The quality of, of prophecy that

25:59 re that, uh, that remained most similar to biblical prophecy was that of the foretelling of future event, uh, of future events. This is what we all think of as prophecy. We think of prophets, you know, it's, it's going to rain in 30 minutes. Well, that could, that's a safe prophecy, because I can hear the thunder. Oh, man, I just love the, just the rolling thunder. It's amazing. That's what we often think of. But a prophet's role was actually to call Israel back into alignment with walking in the ways of the Lord. You can go read all of the prophetic books, and they're all addressing the people of, uh, of Israel.

26:47 I use the term Israel, not to refer only to the north, northern nation and, and exclude Judah, the southern nation, but to refer to all of Israel. The prophets are sent to, to call Israel back into alignment with God's word. And, and you can go through the prophets, and there's so many different ones where the Lord says, I don't even want your sacrifices. They're asension in my nostrils. It's not that he doesn't want the sacrifices, it's that there, he wants the heart, and a sacrifice without the heart is meaningless. He wants the heart. He wants to be in a relationship with his people day in and day out all the time. And to that relationship be growing.

27:32 It's much like a marriage. I could think of several different things. Brittany and I, when we first got married, started out with particular rules for one another. I know it sounds really weird, But the most important thing was not did you clean the kitchen today, or, uh, other things that, that's not the most important rule. The most important thing is that she and I spend time together and grow closer in relationship in that way. The, our relationship with the Lord is much like a marriage,

28:17 day in and day out. We're to grow closer with him. Now, these other things, they keep us from stepping on each other's toes because we all live in a community together. Oh, I was talking about prophets and prophecy. I was like, I can't remember where I was. Uh, you can also remember, or, or let me, you won't remember this, but Josephus mentions that there were some in Koran who were known for their ability to prophesy. And you may remember if you've, especially if you've read ahead and into Acts 15, that there were two in the text calls them prophets. There were two prophets who were sent to Antioch and then abroad. Their names were Judah and Silas, and they were to go with their prophetic gift

29:04 and encourage the community and encourage and strengthen the community. So now I wanna point out, in, in those days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. I know I've said this before, but you'll, you will continue to notice it if you read Luke, Luke uses Jewish idioms or Hebraic idioms all the time. The idea of coming down from Jerusalem isn't just something that someone says it's a reality because Jerusalem is on a mountaintop. In fact, it's seven mountains, uh, seven hills. And, and you, no matter what, from whatever direction you go to Jerusalem, you have to go up.

29:51 But beyond that, it spiritually is the foremost place in Judaism. And in fact, it is the footstool of God himself. And so all the rest of the world goes up to that point to meet with the Lord. So when he goes north, when these, when these prophets are sent north, when is what I would call up, you know, we live in Texas, we would go down to Austin and come back up to Dallas. Uh, I think I might use up to Dallas often regardless. But anyways, Dallas is not the new Jerusalem. It's okay. Don't worry. We do have better barbecue though, for the time being.

30:40 We'll see once the priestly rituals, you know, if they ever come back, we will see who becomes better barbecuers. But just my goal is to make you guys hungry anyways. It's not this idea of going north to Antioch and going up. It's in fact going down because they're coming from Jerusalem and they're going outward. So one of those prophets was named Agabus. Agabus is the Greek, Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word haga, which means grasshopper. It's a rare Jewish name. However, it, it, it, it's, it was a name of a particularly

31:27 prominent family from Babylon during this time period. But it's interesting because Agabus stands up to predict, and, and Luke lets us as the audience know that it's through the Ruach, which means he's proclaiming it to be the word from the Lord or truth, that there would be a famine all over the world, and the audience is likely to know that it actually happened. By the point, by the time Luke has written this, it's, it's actually quite striking that his name means grasshopper. Because what, what is the predecessor? What, what brings famine in most of these time periods, locusts and grasshoppers, they come and eat up the grain.

32:15 It, it's quite, quite fascinating. It, it could just be a coincidence. But Luke also shares the timing of the famine. He says it took place during the rain of Claudius. So for, for all of us who don't have the time to look up when Claudius rained, uh, Claudius rained from 41 to 54, uh, post or, or what, what I would use ce or perhaps you use ad, it doesn't matter. The next chapter, chapter 12, talks about the, it ends with the death of Agrippa. And Agrippa died in the third year of Claudia. So that would be 43, 44 time period, which would place this famine in between 41 and 44.

33:01 So here's the timing of this chapter, and Luke is you're somewhere between 41 and 44. In terms of the, the grand scheme. There were multiple famines under the rule of Claudius Claudius, by the way, when he was installed as emperor, I is said that they showered him with loaves of bread. They just threw loaves of bread at him. I mean, that sounds like a great way to be installed as emperor. I, I could, I could get on board with some loaves of bread, but it's quite ironic because actually his reign is, is, um, is full of famines. There's at least eight famines that occur during his reign

33:46 under, in the, in the empire. Under his rule, uh, there is a, there was a cessation, um, by the way, I'm giving you some, some historical stuff to help understand what's going on at this time. There was a cessation of agriculture in 40 ce, uh, underneath the reign of Caligula ca Caligula, because he planned to erect a statue in the temple of himself. Sounds quite familiar to what, uh, to a holiday that we're celebrating today. He, uh, didn't make it, but there was a, there was a cessation of agriculture. And it is also believed that the sabbatical year fell the year

34:31 after in 41, 42, which would've further affected food shortage. So here we could be somewhere in 42 ish, having not had grain for two years. Uh, and, and the people growing hungry. There was also a crop failure, by the way, Egypt, Egypt was the predominant, uh, wheat supplier of the world at that point. They would ship out just tons. And, and, and I don't mean the colloquialism tons, I mean the literal tons of wheat. And, and Rome was only able to survive based upon the grain that they received from Egypt. But Egypt also had a crop failure in 45, 46,

35:18 and then also in 46, 47. So there's a, an even greater famine going the begins to go on a little bit later. So now we come to the last two verses. So the disciples decided to send relief to those brothers and sisters living in Judea, each according to his ability. This, they did sending it to the, the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul, the disciples decide to send the relief to the brothers in Judea. In other words, they took up a financial offering. Now, why in particular did they send them to Judea? Well, there's a couple different reasons. Number one, based upon the, the famine history and the lack of agriculture, it seems like it was most severe in Judea

36:06 around the year 42, Which could be right around the timing of this passage. And they could be taking up a for a need. Secondly, it's also an offering, and you'll see this as, you'll see Paul do this throughout the rest of the book of Acts and, and through his letters, where he takes up an offering to take back to Jerusalem for the poor and the needy part of that is, in many of these places, they're agrarian societies, and Jerusalem is not. Jerusalem is a big city, and if there's a shortage in the supermarket, you can't just go out to the field and pick some more grain. You have to get it from somewhere. And so there, it's felt more in the,

36:53 in the city than it is in an, in an agrarian culture, uh, outside of the city. But here they are. They take up a, an offering. It seems like this was not just an offering on one Shabbat, it seems like it was over an extended period of time that they, they, they took up this offering much like actually what, what Br Hashem has done, uh, for, for those being affected by the wars in Ukraine and the, the war in Israel. So we've been taking up offerings now for, Is it three years? I think it's three years. My goodness. Which by the way, you're still always welcome to support those in Ukraine or Israel.

37:38 This is not me taking up an offering, but just as a side mention. And then the text says the offering given was according to each one's ability. Some people gave $5, some people gave $500 or $5,000. I'm not, they didn't give dollars, but you understand what I mean. It's each according to their ability. Why is it according to their ability? Because this is a free will offering. It's something that the Lord is opening up for them to them being able to support others. And what does it mean each according to their ability, they are aware of what their ability is. They're agricultural or they know what grain is coming in.

38:25 They know what they can sell, they know what they need to live on. In other words, lemme put it in our terms today. They know what they earn. They know what it takes for them to live. And the difference is what is called disposable income. It requires knowledge and wisdom to track your income and what goes out. If you don't do one or both of those, you have no disposable income. And if you don't have disposable income, the Lord can't use you to bless others. Does that make sense? It means you have to be able to track

39:11 what comes in and what goes out. And also, it doesn't mean that what goes out is always necessary. Once you start tracking it, you realize, especially those of us who live in America, because we are the land of the wasteful, that what goes out probably goes out twice as much as we need it to go out. But we have it. So we just spend it. But if you're tracking it and you know what is going in and coming out of your bank account, let's just use that for today's sake, then you know how much it is that you can bless others. And in this case, bless those in, in Jerusalem. And so they sent it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas

39:58 and Paul here, they have two trustworthy people in their community who had proven themselves trustworthy over an extended period of time. And they send Barnabas and Paul, it's quite, quite interesting actually, Barnabas and Paul are both sent, you know, money often can be misused in, in, in many offerings, stances, uh, places today offerings have been misused, but when you have two people, it's far less likely to be misused than when you have just one. So here we have two Barnabas and Paul that are taking the offering. And I also wanna note Barnabas is listed before Paul, I don't know

40:44 if you ever noticed that in the text. At this point in the story, Barnabas is still of higher prominence, preeminence, whatever terminology you want to use. He was still, if I can use this term, he's still the mentor or the discipler of Paul. Paul still is taking advice from Barnabas. You'll see later in the text after Acts 15 that Luke switches them and then it becomes Paul and Barnabas who gets sent out. It's quite fascinating. So all of that, what, what are, what does this mean in our community? How, how do we apply this today? I have two major questions, which kind

41:29 of break down into a couple smaller ones. Number one, how do you respond when a need arises? Do you look for someone else to help with the work that the Lord has set in front of you? Or do you know that you can just do it all yourself and and have a more productive, uh, task and never interact or train someone else? Why do I say that? We are called to be what? Disciples. We're called to go into the nations and train others how to follow the Lord. The way we do that is by taking someone with us. You can have someone with you all the time,

42:15 and they learn, uh, it's quite fascinating, at least this is, I had a positive relationship with my father, and I spent lots of time with him, and I never realized that he was discipling me. It was just my dad. And if you have a positive relationship with your father, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't, perhaps you've had some other person who's stepped into your life, much like Dave used to do. I, I, I can think of at least a half a dozen people around here who called Dave like a father to them. He, he sat in that role of a father. What is that role? That that role is training you up in the way you should go?

43:03 It is a role of helping shape and guide you in the ways that the Lord has set before you. Has the Lord revealed the person that would be most helpful to you in your particular situation. Has he already revealed that person? You see in Barnabas situation, Barnabas had already met Paul and probably he's there working, doing the work of the Lord or however that is. And all of a sudden the spirit of the Lord stirs within him and he goes, Paul, Paul could do this way better than me. I should go get Paul. I dunno, if you ever have those moments where you're like,

43:50 I have been doing this task for three hours, and I know there's somebody else out there who can do it in three minutes and it's better done by the person who did it in three minutes, then me, who's done taking three hours, that's a good moment to realize you should let somebody else do that task. It doesn't mean you can't grow into it, but it could mean that the Lord has something else for you to do and to utilize your time on. If I shared a story with you, a potential story, just a, a, a random story, fictional

44:36 or non, if I shared a story with you about a Palestinian man Who became a believer, resisted Hamas was tortured, escaped, za was held in a place much like a prison, kind of like Joseph was able to make it to America and get asylum in America, and was at a Bible study where a Jewish person came to attend who wasn't a follower of Yeshua and shared his story and led that Jewish person to faith. If there was such a story to exist

45:24 and you knew that he was in financial need, do you know that you have the disposable income to support him? You see, your challenge is not being persecuted in Gaza. Your challenge is knowing whether or not you have the ability to support someone else. Are you being a good steward of what God has for you and what he's given you? If you're not a good steward, you're actually being wasteful. By the way, that's the story of the prodigal son. Prodigal. It's so funny. I I always grew up thinking prodigal meant someone who wandered away and came back.

46:09 Prodigal just means someone who spins everything lavishly and, and wastefully. That's the meaning of Prodigal. Do you know what your financial ability is to help someone else in need? You see, we are coming, we're in a season right now in America where literally everyone has gotten everything that they could possibly want In terms of gifts and any sort of thing like that. But are you helping those who are in need? And If you're not, do you know if you can, because I bet I'm not gonna make any

46:58 prophecies about the congregation, but I think something statistically around 50% of America has no idea where their money is. They don't know if they can help someone or not, or they know I I can. Oh my goodness, y'all, I'm not trying to be cultural critics. I can tap my phone and give you $10 because I got it on my phone. Do you know that there were studies before money put was put on phones? Do you know that? There were studies where they hook up someone and they monitor their, their pain, what they register as paying when they, when they pay for something and to pay with cash, you register the most amount of pain

47:47 to pay with check. It's, it's less and half of you're like, what's a check to pay with credit card registers? Almost no pain. I'm telling you that because I'm not telling you don't use a credit card. If you can do use it and use it wisely, that's fine. But understand, you're more likely to spend more when you don't have any pain associated with it. When there's pain associated, all of a sudden you're like, Hmm, I think I wanna keep that money in my wallet for another occasion. I don't think I wanna buy x, y, z today. Or you can think of it this way. When you give that money to someone who's in need,

48:34 you're identifying a little bit with their pain because there's some pain associated with it. There's some sacrifice associated. This is the end of the year and starting on Wednesday, everybody's gonna go, well, I gotta go to the gym. I gotta get a gym membership. That wasn't part of my Hanukkah gift. I gotta, I gotta buy a gym membership. I gotta set all of these resolutions. I'm gonna, I'm gonna read the Bible in a year. I'm going to, I'm gonna do all these things. Why? Because this is what we do at the new year. We set all these resolutions. If I can just encourage you in one resolution,

49:20 keep track of your money, because when the Lord calls you to bless someone, you have to know how much you can bless that person. And if you have it in your, in your bank or in your wallet, you know, today the Lord just spoke to me. I need to give this a hundred dollars to this person who I just saw at the gas station. It, you'll be amazed how the Spirit of the Lord begins to move you when you actually listen and have the understanding that the Lord has blessed you, so that you can bless others. The Lord doesn't bless you, just so you can be blessed, by the way, I mean, that's all fine and dandy.

50:07 It's real nice to wear nice clothes and whatever the Lord blesses you. Why? Because he's called us to be His hands and his feet in a world that is sick and dying, And they need to see the helping hands of Yeshua come in the form of you and me. So if you make a resolution, let me encourage you to make a resolution to figure out how much the Lord can use you to be a blessing to others. A Venus Sha, our Father in heaven. Lord, I thank you for this text. Lord, I thank you for the Book of Acts. Thank you for Paul and Barnabas

50:53 and their examples that they've given to us. Lord, I pray that you would continue to speak to us and guide us as we seek to follow you and to be agents of yours in this world. We bless you in Yeshua'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. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

52:11 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shabbat Shalom, I'll see you next year.