Whom Do You Serve?

0:02 It has been 792 days since Gaza invaded Israel. There remains one hostage, one Israeli body this week, Hama, or I think it was Hamas, uh, they returned the body of a Thai national, uh, on Thursday. Earlier this week, Hamas sent some remains to Israel, but those remains didn't belong to either hostage at that point. They were just sending some remains. I tell you these things to under, so you can help under help you understand who Hamas is.

0:52 It is now, um, public knowledge. Uh, it's been public knowledge for 790 plus days, but three hostages, three former hostages have now publicly revealed that they were sexually abused by their captors in Gaza. The UN this week approved a non-binding demand for Israel to evacuate the Golan Heights. That's the, the part of Israel that touches Syria. Uh, what would that be? That would be Western Syria and southeastern Lebanon. Uh, to, to release, uh, to evacuate the Golan Heights and seed them, in other words, give them back to Syria, which is run by a dictator now named Ani

1:41 Ani, who has in the, in the last couple months, attempted, uh, to wipe out the Drews population of, of Syria. And guess what? That area that, that he wants back is full of Drews. If it were to, to be turned back over, there would be 65,000 Drews that would be, uh, at the tip of being massacred. Now, one of the pros that we can take away from this, this, uh, this non-binding demand from the UN this week, is that there's actually a large number of of nations who abstained and or nohow the vote.

2:30 It's an opportunity for Israel to build inroads with these nations through dialogue. Just some of the nations that voted in favor, uh, for some unknown reason, France, Denmark, India, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Poland. The USA just this week, I think this was maybe Thursday, uh, is now pressuring Israel to remain in talks with Syria, with Ani President Trump. I think he tweeted or whatever he does. Uh, he, he wrote something and said, it is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere

3:16 with Syria's evolution into a prosperous state. The new president of Sirah, Ahmed Alura, is by the way, that's Ani, is, is, is another name, so that you can get confused as to what he's done in the past versus what he's doing now, uh, is working diligently to make sure things happen, and that both Syria and Israel will have a long and prosperous relationship together. This is a historic opportunity and adds to the success already obtain, already attained for peace in the Middle East. Ani this morning, I was checking the news this morning before I, before I, uh, came in Ani this morning, according to CNN said,

4:02 Israel is fighting ghosts. He's claiming that Syria is suffering from Israeli incursion into its airspace. By the way, Israel has incurred into Syria and aerospace. Why, to defend the Drews that are being massacred by him, I mean, among other, among other reasons. So that was one thing that Ani claimed this morning. I, I put into your note, I'm, I'm not to the message yet. I I know I have a long news thing today, but I put links into your, or I put a link into the notes if you're using you version, uh, for a four part article series written by Avner Bosky. And, uh, the, the, it's a fantastic

4:50 series four parts. It'll take you a long time to read. Uh, I think each one is about 18 pages. Um, but it is highly critical of the state of Israel and the way politics works, or at least worked before October 7th. I wouldn't surprise me if it still works this way. One more, one more update. The Guinness World Records, they have stopped receiving world record submissions from Israel post-oc October 7th, an Israeli nonprofit tried to register a historic gathering of 2000 kidney donors and Jerusalem, and they refused to consider it, uh,

5:39 because of Israel. So there's just a few news, uh, headlines that are currently relevant. We will continue in our, our series on the book of Acts. Acts chapter 20. And I would like to remind us, I know I do this every week, and it probably you're bored of it by now, but every week I remind you, don't forget what happened prior to in the text, why it matters. It matters. It helps us understand what this week's test text is. And, and it's especially true today. The last time we were in acts, we were, we were, uh,

6:27 discussing Paul continuing his journey back to Jerusalem. He's gathered a group of travel companions along the way, and we see in the text that Luke joins them in Philippi. How do we see this? Because the text changes from Paul and his companions to we and to us. So when, when, when a narrator changes from a third person to a first person, it's pretty safe to assume the narrator joins the adventure. So Luke joins, uh, earlier in this text. Paul, he's, he's on this trip and Luke has joined him, and they're going by Ephesus. You'll recall from earlier in the text that Paul spent more than two years in Ephesus.

7:12 Paul comes to Ephesus, oh, yeah, thank you. I if, uh, if you need to stay awake for any reason or you have problems following along with the message, we have some handouts that you're welcome to utilize, uh, at least to keep you awake for, you know, while it's nice and warm in here. 'cause when it gets cold outside, it gets warm in here. Uh, just raise your hands and, and, and they'll bring you some handouts if, if you're interested. So Paul is coming. He's sailing by Ephesus, and he says, I can't go into Ephesus if I do, I don't know. I just don't know if I'll be able to leave again. I mean, this is, I'm, I'm putting words into Paul's mouth. So he sends into Ephesus for the elders, the overseers of,

7:59 of the community in Ephesus, and they come and visit him. And the last time we, we covered this, we were encouraged to finish strong, like Paul was intending to do at this point. And so now we're, we're in the middle of Paul's, um, we call it speech, discussion, talk, whatever you want to call it. His, his, uh, what he is communicating to the elders or the overseers and Ephesus, we're right in the middle of it. In fact, maybe I'll just, uh, I'll rewind and here we go. Uh, we we're gonna start so that you can hear it all as a,

8:46 as a single reading Acts chapter 20. We'll start in verse uh, halfway through verse 17, he called for the elders of the community, the community of Ephesus. And when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how I behaved among you all the time. From the first day I set foot in Asia serving the Lord with all humility and tears and trials, which fell upon me through the plots of the Jewish leaders, I did not shrink back from proclaiming to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly as well as from house to house, testifying both to Jewish and to Greek people, repentance to God

9:32 and trust in our Lord Yeshua. And now look bound by the ruak. I am going to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the ruak hakodesh bears witness to me from city to city, saying that bondage and affliction wait, await me. However, I don't consider my life of any value, except that I might finish my course in the office I receive from the Lord Yeshua to declare the good news of the grace of God. Now, look, I know that none of you among whom I've gone proclaiming the kingdom will ever see my face again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all for I do not shrink back from declaring

10:19 to you the whole purpose of God. And here's where we enter into the conversation this week, take care of yourselves and all the flock of which the ruakaka kodesh has made you overseers to shepherd the community of God, which he obtained with the blood of his own. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, even from among yourselves will arise, men speaking perversions to draw the disciples away after themselves. Therefore, be alert, remembering that night and day for three years, I did not stop warning you with tears.

11:08 Now, I commit you to God. And the word of his grace, which is strong, to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who have been made holy. I coveted no one's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have provided for my own needs as well as for those with me and all things I have shown you an object lesson that by hard work one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord, Yeshua, that he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. When he had said these things, he knelt down and he prayed with them all. They began weeping and falling upon Paul's neck and kissing him, grieving most of all over the statement

11:55 that he made, that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. I usually go verse by verse, and I, and I, and I will touch in and out of the verses, but I'm, I'm gonna treat this as a, as a kind of a collective thing. And we're gonna divide it into two elements. Paul is speaking to the community leaders, the, the overseers, the elders, and he's warning them that they need to continue to build up the community. And he separates, uh, in, uh, in my opinion, he separates and says he, he says two things.

12:43 He gives two instructions to them. Number one, you take care of yourselves. Take care of yourselves, of the elders. And, and, and I'll say number two, uh, is take care of the flock, but we'll come back to the flock in a moment. But number one, take care of yourselves. Take heed and beware of, of those who come in among you. There are certain things, by the way, we're gonna be talking a lot about overseers, elders, shepherds, that sort of thing. You may think it doesn't apply to you, so just wait until the end and, and then you'll find out how it applies to you. There are certain things that should not have a place in our lives as elders,

13:30 overseers, shepherds of communities. There are certain things that shouldn't have a place. And Paul says, he mentions perversions in the text. He says, Hmm, oh, here we go. Even from among yourselves will rise, men speaking perversions to draw the disciples away after themselves. So Paul doesn't tell us what the perversions are, but I think it would be relatively simple, knowing the context to derive what the perversions are. First of all, Paul tells us the perversions are that some among them will draw others,

14:17 everyone else away after themselves. In other words, they'll be building themselves up, not building up the community. So when you notice that, that's a perversion of the gospel, but what are these perversions? It could be, by the way, we have books written by Paul that confirm these elements of convert, uh, of perversions. It could be the perversions, could be what has happened in Galatia, a perversion of the good news, which required Gentiles to become Jews for the sake of salvation. Now, we, we, we go through this at the new members class. If you haven't been through the new members class in a long time, you're welcome to sit in. We go through this and, and I mention elements such as

15:06 personal convictions versus communal convictions. So when we talk about this, there are certain communal convictions that are applicable everywhere. That means to everyone in the room, to everyone in our community, Jews and Gentiles. But then there are personal convictions, which we may feel the Lord has burdened us with, which is okay, by the way. But the problem become, the problem comes from when your personal conviction becomes a communal conviction for everyone else. Let's just say for sies, silliness sake, that the Lord personally convicted me,

15:52 that I'm only supposed to be wearing one shoe all the time. And I come here and I say, I'm convicted. That the Lord says, everybody here can only wear one shoe. It sounds a little bit ridiculous, right? But that's exactly what happens all the time. In fact, I got a survey in the, in my, in my email this week, it says, would you consider participating in this survey as a a if you go to a Messianic congregation? And it talks about different theological issues that arise in particular in Messianic Jewish communities. And, and do we notice 'em? And, and how often is it noticeable? And, and do we give credence and all of these different things?

16:39 You know what? All of those things have to do with personal convictions, not communal convictions, but it's the personal convictions that then get laid upon or become a burden for all of the community as a communal conviction. It is a perversion of the good news. It could be. Now I'm going to transition elsewhere here. It could also be we're in Ephesus. You guys remember the, the state of Ephesus at the time? It could be that these perversions are social perversions that were prevalent in society at the time, social perversions, such as

17:24 worshiping other gods, so on and so forth. And you would say, you might say, I don't understand. Why would people be drawn to that? They just left it. And I just tell you, the Jewish people are 4,000 years old, and we continue today to be drawn to other people's gods, to seek, to assimilate, and to, to, to leave our Jewishness behind. It's been a temptation every day for 4,000 years. Why? Well, number one, people don't like to be different. People don't like to feel like we're the odd man out. I've noticed recently, my children always play this game.

18:13 They play it all the time in any circumstance, but let's just, we go to the library and they come outta the library, and they go, they go. The last one to the car is the odd man out, you know? And of course, I'm walking, walking the slowest, and I'm always the odd man out. We get into the car, people put seat belts on and stuff, and we're driving, and they'll say, dad's the odd one out. He's, he's the only adult in the car. Or max, if we, if we only have one sister with us, max will say, well, this sister's the odd one out. She's the only girl in the car. Everybody's, everybody's obsessed with pointing out who's the odd one out? But nobody likes to be the odd one out

19:01 isn't not something we aspire to be. I wanna be the odd person. I woke up this morning, I just decided I wanna be the odd person. I, I don't think any of us wake up like that. It could be that these are social perversions, that we don't want to be the odd one out. And we're within a society that does certain things. And because we don't wanna be the odd one out, we negotiate within ourselves what is acceptable and not acceptable, and we begin to tolerate things and elements within society that the Lord doesn't tolerate. Paul then mentions there are wolves that will come in among you, these wolves,

19:49 when they come in among the sheep, they're not coming in among the sheep. Hey sheep, how are you doing? You're looking really good today. I like that wool. As you're wearing the wolves come in to devour the sheep. Their number one goal is to eat and to kill. And they kill the sheep. And they eat the sheep. They're looking after their own selves. These wol, they're looking to satisfy their own stomach, their own belly, and they're drawing others away after them. This is exactly how Paul describes the leaders may arise among you teaching perversions, and they will draw others away. Why? Those teachers are looking for their,

20:35 they're looking out for their own stomach, for their own sake, their own, call it personal brand and modern lingo. They're looking to build themselves up, not the community. Their goal is to help themselves, not the flock in, in fact, maybe they'll help themselves to the flock. They'll have a little mutton for dinner. A little MLT. Thank you, Amanda. Nothing like a little mutton, lettuce and tomato. Anyways, Paul says, watch out. Be alert.

21:25 I modeled for you what it meant to be a shepherd. I was awake and I labored night and day for three years for the community. That's what Paul did. He says, take care of the flock. You take care of yourselves, and you take care of the flock. What does taking care of the flock, what does that look like? It comes in different forms, by the way. It sometimes comes in the form of guidance to a nourishing source of water. The flock gets thirsty. Ah, here's a nice little pond. Come and drink my flock. Drink some nice water. Sometimes it comes in the form of discipline or correction.

22:11 Hey, there's a cliff. Don't fall off the cliff. You will die. Sometimes it comes in the form of leaving the rest of the flock alone for the sake of the one sheep who has wandered away from the flock. What does it mean to be a shepherd? I, I was reminded the passage in Ezekiel 34. Really, the whole pa, the whole chapter is a really good passage to, to study,

22:56 and it all has to do with shepherds and the shepherds of Israel and the flock of Israel. But I'm just gonna look at for the moment, the first six verses, the word of the Lord came to me, to Ezekiel saying, son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, the shepherds of Israel. Those will be the leaders who are caring for the flock of Israel. Prophesying, say to the shepherds, thus says the Lord, Elohim, oy, not the good. Oy, not the, it's the woe to you. Maybe you're familiar with Matthew's, uh, verbiage in, I think it's in Matthew 23 when he says, woe to you, oh, o to you, o to the world. No, o shepherds of Israel,

23:44 who only take care of themselves. You see, here's the qualifier, the shepherds of Israel, who only take care of themselves. You're gonna receive woe, not woe, but woe. You're gonna receive these should, should shepherds of Israel, not take care of the sheep. Doesn't a shepherd by definition take care of the sheep? Then the shepherds aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing. You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool. You kill the fat ones, but you do not take care of the sheep. You do not strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the broken, bring back the stray, or seek the lost. Instead, you have ruled over them with force and cruelty.

24:33 They were scattered for lack of a shepherd. You see, why were they scattered? Because the shepherd was looking after only himself, not after the sheep. Instead, you, oh, let's see. Uh, sorry. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd. They became food for all the beasts of the field as they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all of the mountains and on every high hill over all the face of the earth. My sheep were scattered. No one searched. No one sought. It goes on, and, and it's, it's, it's relatively, I mean, I don't know if you could pick up the tone. It's relatively negative toward the shepherds of Israel. But we learned here what a shepherd is supposed to do. A shepherd is supposed to strengthen the weak,

25:19 heal the sick, bind up the broken, bring back the stray, and seek the lost. Now, there's a side note. I have a side note for the flock because I'm dealing a lot with shepherds. But let's talk about for the flock for just a moment. The Lord does not relieve all responsibility for behavior from the flock. In particular in this passage in Ezekiel 34. Further on, it says, the sheep shouldn't trample other pastures when they've been given a good pasture. When you have good news and you've been given a good pasture, don't go trampling someone else's pasture. That's a bad flock. The sheep shouldn't trample

26:05 through water when they've been gl given clean water to drink. If you have clean water, drink the good water. Don't trample through it so that others, it becomes muddy for others. Don't muddy it up for everyone else. And th by the way, this is still, this is all further in Ezekiel 34, and the well-fed sheep should not prevent the sheep who need nourishment from coming to the water and or the pasture. Now, some of us may identify well-fed sheep and not welled sheep differently. The first time I read through the passage, I would identify a well-fed sheep as someone in the community in the flock who's been nourished.

26:55 They know what they're doing. They're, they're, they're, they're beginning to, to, um, operate in the, in the way that the Lord would have them in the flock, which may be true. I don't wanna discount that. I think that's, that's an element. But there's another element of well fed sheep, which is they're the ones who receive the most care. And when someone demands the most care, always at some point, it becomes at the detriment of the flock. And they become so well fed and so demanding of time from the shepherd that the shepherd can't look after the rest of the flock. Paul continues in the next verses, we're coming back now

27:42 to, to the Book of Acts. Paul continues in the next verses to model and express how he has modeled caring for the flock. So we start in verse 32, in verse 32, and now, I entrust to God entrust you to God and to the word of his grace, which has power to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I did not covet anyone's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands provided for my needs and for those who were with me in every way, I gave you an example that by working hard like this, we need to help the weak and to remember the words that the Lord Yeshua himself said. It is more blessed to give than to receive.

28:31 So we're gonna kind of go through this almost verse by verse, but I'm gonna skip verse 32. We'll come back to it in just a moment. Paul doesn't covet silver or gold or clothing. It means he's taking care of everything that he has. We all require some level of silver or gold, except it comes in the, in the, in, in a green form, uh, at least in America, plastic. Yeah, you're right, it's actually in a plastic form now. It's, it's almost priceless. We all require some level of money to live. Money's not a bad thing. Living, by the way, is not a bad thing. It's what you do to live

29:17 that helps define whether it's good or bad. And I don't mean working hard or not working hard. I mean, how you get, how you obtain your money. Is it in a righteous way or in not, right? So righteous way, Paul doesn't covet silver or gold or clothing. He somehow seems to be providing for himself. And he says, he says, you the elders, the overseers know that my hands, Paul's hands, he's, he's talking about working here. He's actually not talking by the way about teaching. Paul seems to have taught for all three years that he was in Ephesus. But he doesn't seem, he doesn't seem to indicate that he was reimbursed for teaching. He was reimbursed for, or he, he worked to provide for his needs,

30:05 and even those who were with him. And then he says, I'm encouraging you to work, to work hard. Perhaps there are, it's necessary to have skills beyond ministerial teaching. So many people have a desire to be in ministry and to teach when in reality, I, I, I think I could with, with maybe Sean as an exception, say, everybody in here has a bigger field of ministry than I do. Why? Because you all go to work. Not that I don't go to work. You all go to work in secular jobs. You interact with people who don't believe

30:51 that Yeshua is the Messiah. I'm assuming you work eight hours a day, something around eight hours a day. You can, you can model and you can have conversations in your workplace that I don't get to have. Now, sometimes it's nice 'cause I come to my workplace and I don't have to fight anybody that Yeshua is the Messiah. The problem is, is when you work in an only believing, only followers of Yeshua workplace, and then there's behavior that don't model followers of Yeshua, now you got a problem. You can't say, Hey, I'm a follower of Yeshua. Come, come behave like me. You're like, oh, that's a little bit. I don't know what to do with that. You

31:40 can live your life. And Paul encourages us to live our lives for the sake of others, for the sake of the good news, for the sake of being a model for all of those who can see in your daily lives. Paul says, I set the example. I worked hard. I would assume that he worked hard building tents or something, uh, or, or dealing with leather, something along those lines. He says, I worked hard and, and you should work hard. Why? So that you can help the weak work hard, not just so that you reap the benefits, but so that you can help others. By the way, this is so fundamentally

32:27 grounded in the Torah that sometimes we miss it. The whole element in the Torah is you cultivate your field and then you leave portions of it. For who? For the wheat. For those who can't provide for themselves, it's all in the Torah. And Paul is just taking it and putting it into their, their language. Hey, work hard so you can help others. Okay? We don't have agriculture to, well, I should, I shouldn't say we don't have agriculture. Um, most of us probably don't work in the fields today, for whatever reason. Work hard so you can serve others. So you can let the light of Yeshua shine through you to others so that you can help the weak

33:22 Paul is in, in treating them as I do with you, that you should work hard. By the way, working hard doesn't mean, well, I shouldn't say what it doesn't mean. Working hard means work hard. I used to joke around and say, you know, somebody said, you know, are you working hard and I it working hard or hardly working? You know, it's, uh, you never know which one it is. Sometimes they appear the other way. But Paul is in treating these overseers to work hard for the benefit of serving others. And in this, he uses a proof text. He quotes Yeshua, he says, he says, just as, uh,

34:10 remembering the words of the Lord, Yeshua, he himself said, it's more blessed to give than to receive. By the way, we don't have a record of Yeshua saying these words. I dunno if you ever thought about that. But we do have plenty of records where Yeshua is instructing people to love others as themselves and to care for others to, we have, we have plenty of record of Yeshua himself binding up the wounded, healing the blind, healing the, the, the those who were lame, not with humor, but physically lame.

34:55 We have all of these records about how Yeshua cared for others, and we are to live our lives and model our lives after him. And so now I want to go back to verse 32, because I, I skipped 32. I wanna go back to 32, and Paul says this, and now I entrust you to God and to the word of his grace, which has power to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. This may be one of the finest principles that Paul exemplifies. He entrusts them at this point to the Lord. It's by the way, something very difficult to do

35:44 when you have done your job. And now you hand it over and you say, I'm entrusting you to the Lord. It's now I'm gonna step back and let you, let the Lord take care of you and your needs. Because of the stage of life I'm in, I'm most reminded about how parents are with children. I recently taught my, no, I shouldn't say that. I can't claim that. I recently helped my children learn how to ride a bike, all three of them. And they, they like to, they like to just, you know, ride around in the, I mean, ride around the parking lots

36:30 and in places where there's no cars, obviously. But then one day, I, I took them, we went out. I said, look, we're gonna go go for morning walk. You guys ride your bikes. And as we're riding, as they're riding, I'm going on my morning walk. I'm teaching them the rules of traffic. Cars come to a stop sign. If you come to a stop sign, you let the car go. By the way, I'm a firm believer all cyclists should stop at, stop signs anyways. I can't tell you how many cyclists I've almost hit because they didn't stop at a stop sign. But I told 'em, you wait for the car to go. And even if the car says, no, no, you go, you go, Nope.

37:17 I, I'm letting the car go because that's a, that's a battle you'll never win. 100 out of 100 times the car will win. I said, you let the car go. I said, you stay on the right side of the road so that you know if cars come, you can, you can see them coming in front of you. All, all the different rules of traffic. And guess what? At the end of it, I said, okay, I've taught you. Now I'm gonna entrust you to the Lord. You can ride to the end of the street and go around the block. That's the most difficult part. It's not difficult to teach them. It's not difficult to teach people. Most people like to be taught or like to learn new things. The difficult part is knowing that you've taught them

38:05 and knowing that danger can happen and that they can get hurt with entrusting them to the care of the Lord. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't teach your children and just entrust them to the care of the Lord. You should teach and entrust. If you don't educate them, and then they get hit by a car because you didn't tell 'em to stop at a stop sign. Guess whose fault that is? The parent. It's important for you to teach, and it's important for you to entrust to the Lord and to say, okay, I realize now's the time for me to step back and, and not hover.

38:54 Paul realized that he has given them the necessary instruction, and he can step back from the community and Ephesus and entrust them to the Lord. It is truly the Lord who has the power. This is what Paul tells us. It's truly the Lord who has the power to build them up and give them an inheritance among his people through his grace. And now we come to the final couple verses. And when he had said these things, when Paul had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. They all began weeping and falling upon Paul's neck and kissing him, grieving most of all over the statement he made that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

39:40 Here we come to the closure of this community, and with their relationship with Paul, Paul kneels down and prays for them, and they weep because it's the end of a season. It's the end of an era. Paul will no longer be among them, and they fall upon his neck and they kiss him. It's so fascinating to me that this, this falls on this week's tour portion because Esau, when he comes and he greets Jacob, he falls upon his neck and, and weeps and kisses him. I have missed you for so long. I mean, it's a funny way of expressing it with 400 armed men. But, um, but they have, they, they fall upon him and they kiss him,

40:28 and they're weeping, and they're grieving over not seeing him. And again, and then they accompany him to the ship and they release him, and then they entrust him likewise, to the care of the Lord. You see Paul models for them, and then they actually do it. So what does this mean for us? Where in your own life do you act as an overseer? See, I said we would come back to this. Some of you are like, I'm a I'm, I'm a kid. I don't drive. I live at home with my parents. They feed me. I don't oversee anything. You oversee yourself.

41:13 Even, even, it doesn't matter how old you are. You oversee yourself. You're responsible for yourself. You may learn more responsibility along the way, but it doesn't mean that you don't oversee yourself. It doesn't mean that you can't steward yourself. Maybe you're an overseer in your family, your work, your community, your own personal life. Where do you act as an overseer? And why do I say that? Because how, here's the follow up question. How or in what ways are you working hard to serve others? It's something that we should measure every day, every what are what are we doing to serve others? Is this what the Lord has us to do? I have a third, a third and a fourth question. Third, what would it look like for you? And this is the hardest thing for all of us to do, for you

42:01 to entrust your circumstances and your relationships fully to the Lord. You know, most of us, like, we like to hold on. Well, God, I just wanna hold onto this one for a minute, okay? I'm gonna take care of this one. You go ahead and take the rest. Excuse me. What would it look like for you to entrust your circumstances and relationships fully to the Lord? And finally, have you ever experienced a season like Paul's farewell, grieving the end of one relationship while stepping into a new role or a new journey? Uh, it, it may be one of the most cliche things to say,

42:48 but every ending is a new beginning. We have endings of relationships, but it's also the beginning of something new. What is it that the Lord is doing in your life? How does that look when you're ending and when you're beginning something new? And I realized that as we've been going through this, by the way, we are basically through Paul forming new communities from this point onward. Well, at least from the text that we have in Acts, he's on one final journey, and that's to get to Rome.

43:36 I mean, through a few side, side hustles, if we can call it that way along the way. But he basically is, is on his way to, to Rome. So I, I just thought I've been giving you homework of, of, of books to read, and I realized we haven't read Colossians yet. So I would recommend have some homework read the book of Colossians this week and see what Paul has to say to this community. And then along the way, perhaps we'll also read Paul's writings to Titus and Timothy and, and we did Thessalonians. Yeah. So it's just, I think it's just Titus and Timothy that we have left after Colossians,

44:21 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.

45:16 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shabbat.