Faith

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Sometimes we just got to talk about faith, though. Is that okay? I want feedback. Faith. Up to you. I'm okay right here. Sometimes life is hard. Can I be real? We love history, and I love doing these teachings that, to be honest, some of the messages that I do here, I don't feel they really edify people. They don't grow you closer to God. They help you have a more stable biblical foundation in searching after God. But as far as your relationship with God, sometimes we just need to kind of take a step back and figure out what is it that we can actually apply today and lean on today the examples in Scripture that assist us in having a stronger relationship with our God. But I want to start off with a funny story.

A Disrupted Plan

You guys know Jenny and I are traveling a lot recently, and we had to go to Dallas for Revive, and that's a big old airport. You ever been to Dallas airport? There's a train station around the airport. And when we went to Oklahoma, we actually landed in the very same terminal that we left to get our connecting flight to Oklahoma and flew back. And it was interesting because as we're walking around, I noticed this family. It was a mother and a toddler and her husband, and she had all this luggage, all these bags, and they're running. Obviously, they're running late for a connecting flight, right? And her toddler is running with them.

Go, boy, go. We got to catch this flight. And he's about 15, 20 feet in front of her. It was kind of a little bit too long, but they were all running together. Just a little toddler. And so you guys know how airports work, especially after 9-11, the security was heightened, right? And so if you walk past the security gate and go out of the terminal areas, you can't turn around and get back in. In Charlotte Airport we have a police officer standing there. Once you pass that line you can't turn around and go back. You gotta go through TSA security again. Where in Dallas they have something different.

See, this is the baggage claim gate. Beyond this one-way rotating door, if you step on the metal, the arms go off and it'll freeze, all this stuff. These are the baggage claim areas and there are TSA agents there. And so if you just want to exit the terminal area, you just walk through this rotating door and you're in the baggage claim area. And if you want to get back in the airport, you're going to have to get your luggage, go through TSA and so on and so forth. Where this little toddler ran up to this door as it was rotating and thought this was the coolest thing since bottled milk. And he began to walk and push on the door.

A sensor activated. His mother began to scream, no! They're trying to catch another flight. They can't believe what's he doing! The door rotates! And now the child is officially in Dallas, and the mother is standing at this door with all of her luggage and everything, her husband screaming. What is she gonna do? Is she gonna walk through with all of her luggage? Leave her luggage there? Maybe leave her husband there? What do you do in this situation? Your child is now walking away from the door. If she proceeds through the door, then she's going to be late for her connecting flight. May miss it, right?

She's going to have to go through... TSA isn't right there. You've got to go through baggage claim, go back up the stairs, go around and go through the security area.

When Plans Fail

And so what is she going to do? And I had to take a picture. I didn't actually get them in it. But it's amazing because this woman had a plan. And her plan for that day was to land at Dallas International Airport, grab the bags, get her kid off the plane with her husband, run to the other gate, hop the flight, and go to her final destination. And she, when she made this plan, she was very secure with her plan. You ever make plans? You ever think what could possibly go wrong? This is bulletproof, right? This was her. She was upset because all of her plans were destroyed in that one instant when something happened that she didn't plan.

Everything that she planned for her life for that day was completely undone. And I started thinking, I'm like, wow, this is the story of my life, the story of your life. Every one of us here is somewhere in this story. We're either just getting off the plane and we have a mission and we're going towards our goal. Maybe some of us are banging on the glass, wondering if we need to walk through the doors to get our toddler, which of course she has to do. In that freak out mode where you realize that everything in your life that you planned for, everything that you did not think was going to happen is now happening.

Stress level is through the roof. Everything's falling apart in my life.

Or maybe some of us are holding our child, getting our bags, sitting down on the flight and exhaling. I'm glad that whole day was over. Now we can get back home. Anybody understand? No? Maybe some of you.

Faith and Security

It's interesting because I started thinking about what faith is and an applicable circumstance. I know Hebrew says, but faith has a lot to do with security. It's not quite the same thing as security and it's not quite the same thing as trust, but they all kind of go together. And I started realizing that while security forms trust, right? When you feel secure, that is when you gain trust in someone or something as we'll see in scripture. And that is fueled by faith. That is fueled by hope. Can we fully trust in God? If we do not have the fuel for that trust, and if we cannot fully trust in God with our lives, can we really feel secure in his arms? You know, Peter felt secure in his own abilities when he was on that boat. See, the boat is interesting. We're going to read the story, but when Peter was on the boat... He probably either helped build the boat or bought the boat. He did something with the boat that allowed him to trust it. He knew it was going to flow down in water. So we got in it every day, fishing, so on and so forth.

Peter Stepped Out of the Boat

If you turn with me to Matthew 14, we know what's going on here. Yeshua was doing his ministry, and NLT, I think, says it was around 3 o'clock in the morning. But the disciples look up, the apostles look up, and they see what they think is a ghost on the sea, right? We spoke about this in the afterlife a little bit. But then they realize it isn't, right? And so Peter looks up and he sees Yeshua walking on water. This is a big deal. And then Peter called to him, "Yeshua, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you by walking on the water." How many of you guys think Peter had bumped his head or hadn't gotten enough sleep at this point in time?

Would you? I mean, we always see this story as like an inspirational story. Like, wow, that would have been cool to walk on the water. Would you have done it? I mean, you see your master walking on the water. What in your mind would possess you to say, "Hey, I want to do that too"? No. Yeshua's skydiving? I'm not going to let him skydive. No. Come walk in the water. So what's Yeshua say? "All right, come." Come on, brother. So what does Peter do? He has enough security and faith in Yeshua to what? Go over the side of the boat and walk on the water towards Yeshua. That's incredible. So what was he doing?

He jumped over the side of the boat. Crazy. But he has his eyes set on Yeshua. That's where his trust is, right? But when he looked around, when he lost sight, when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified. Yeah, that's what happens when you get out of a boat. He was terrified and he began to sink. And then what's he say? "Save me, Lord. Yeshua, Yeshua. Save me, Master." So Yeshua knew what was going to happen. Instantly, Yeshua reached out his hand and grabbed him and the first thing he says is not "I saved you." Almost drowned, didn't you? Pulls him up and says, "You don't have much faith, do you? Why did you doubt me?"

Where's Your Boat Now? See, I find this interesting because Peter built the boat, maybe, or he bought the boat, or he'd had experience in the boat. He knew that the boat was secure, and so he had faith in the boat, right? That fueled his trust in the boat, and that fueled his security in the boat. But when he got out of the boat, he left that behind. Good faithful move. He's going to depend on my Messiah. Got out of the boat and started walking towards Yeshua. And when he saw the waves, the instant that he saw the waves, he was terrified. Why was he terrified? Because he was no longer in his boat. You ever feel like that?

God ever call you out of the boat and you jump out the boat? And you're all fun and games until you realize that you're not in your boat anymore. His faith in the security Yeshua had to offer was lacking. He believed more in the boat, so he sank. Fine, where's your boat now? It's interesting. When I worked at the hospital, I didn't realize it until about three days ago. I worked at the hospital, and my job, I felt like I was the only one that could really do it. And I trained for my job, and I got certified in my job. And I never really delegated anything for my job because I enjoyed being the only one that could fix things in the hospital.

Walking on Water Toward Faith

And because I felt valuable in my position, I created my own security and my trust in myself and my own abilities at this job. Anyone ever do that? It's what we do at our jobs, right? If you're the only one, they'll never fire you, right? You're going to be there forever. And so at one point in time, I was called. Confirmation. Confirmation by the Father. Jenny, same thing. Matt, time to step away from this job. Time to step over the side of this boat and walk towards me. And of course, when you get a confirmation from the Lord, I'm not talking about one of those things in your stomach when you're praying—I could be gas. I mean, I'm talking about legitimate confirmation from the Father to the prayers that you're asking, the things that you're seeking in his kingdom. You get excited, right? And I was excited. And so I left my job. I left my boat. And I started walking on the water towards Yeshua. And it was great! This is awesome!

Testing Faith in the Waves

But the further I got away from my job, after a couple days you can look back, maybe go back and beg for your job back, something like that. And you're talking, once you get a couple weeks, couple months out—once you start getting away from the boat to where you absolutely cannot grab it back and jump back in it—your faith gets tested. How much fuel did you put in that tank? And so it's incredible because I was at a point where I'm in the water looking at Yeshua. All right, I'm walking this way, Father. And the wave started to scare me a little bit. And I screamed, Father, save me. God save me. And I didn't want him to save me from waves that were going to drown me or take me over.

It was more of the fact that I realized that my faith was not quite as strong as I thought it was walking out on the water. Any of us ever been guilty of that? Master, save me. I should have more strength than this. You ever jump off a really high diving board into the water and you can feel the water hit your feet like it's supporting you for that split second before it busts open, right? It's amazing. It's a good feeling. Belly flop. I landed. Right? Just an incredible story when you can see the mechanics of what's going on.

The Woman with an Issue of Blood

How about the woman with the issue of blood? You guys know that story, right? Of course we do. We have a scenario of a woman, Mark chapter 5, and Yeshua was walking around and a synagogue leader, Jairus—his daughter was sick. She was fixing to die. And so he went to Yeshua, "Yeshua, come on, please heal my daughter." So Yeshua's going, "Alright, well let's go heal her." Right? And so he's walking through the street and all this crowd of people's around him, bumping into each other. They're just trying to get through. And I know Jairus, he's kind of nervous because his daughter is like on a ticking time bomb here. She's gonna die any second and Yeshua should be running, but he's just kind of walking along. The crowd's around him holding him back. "Come on, gotta get to her." And then this woman comes out of nowhere.

We have, "And Yeshua went with him," synagogue leader, "and much people followed him and pressed around him. And a certain woman which had an issue," I love the King James Version for this specific message, "she had an issue of blood for 12 years and had suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had and she was nothing bettered." If anything, she grew worse. "She had heard about Yeshua," she had what? She heard about him, okay. So she came up behind him through the crowd and touched the fringe of his robe. Most translations say the hem of his garment. Very important. For she said, if I may touch but his clothing, I will be made whole.

Made what? Whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Yeshua immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out from him, turned about and said, who touched my clothes? And his disciples said to him, all this crowd is pressing around you. How can you ask who touched you? Everybody was touching you. And he looked around to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, daughter, your faith, her what?

Has made you, what? Whole. Whole. Go in peace and be whole of your plague.

Twelve Years of Suffering and Restoration

So she had an issue for 12 years. Now, there are a lot of theories. We're not really sure what it means that he felt virtue go out from him. Some translations say he felt power go out from him —like he's Superman and just got hit with kryptonite. Some teachers say that he felt his status changed from clean to unclean because she made him unclean. I don't know. But I find it interesting, despite all the doctors, despite all the suffering, her issue was not removed until she fell to the feet of Yeshua. Once she made the choice to fall at the feet of Yeshua, reach out and touch his clothing, at that moment she was healed.

All the money she spent on doctors and physicians—all the money she spent on all the other things to help solve her issue—was void when she fell to the feet of the Master. But let's just look at it. It's a real story. I believe it happened. This woman was suffering for 12 years. Anyone ever had a bad week, right? Been sick for a week, been sick for a month, right? Something really bad. Been in the hospital maybe for six months, a year maybe—this is rough. 12 years. And then she went to the doctors and she gave them all of her money, all of her money, and she got worse.

You guys realize that it was more than her just being diseased, having an unstoppable flow or whatnot as Leviticus would call it. This would have been a situation where she would not have been able to formally worship God in the temple. She wouldn't have been allowed in—constant uncleanliness. She wouldn't have been allowed to celebrate with her friends and family at the feast. She wouldn't have been allowed to touch folks. She was viewed as someone who could contaminate other people with uncleanliness, as we read in the Torah. And so whenever she went anywhere, people would stay away from her. No hugging, no hey, high fives, fist bumps, none of that. Ostracized by your own people because of a disease that you cannot get rid of no matter how much money, and then she touches the Master.

The Hem as Covenant and Covering

Notice she grabbed the hem of his garment. Now I know we know the hem of the garment is where the tzitzit hang. Numbers here in a minute. And, traditionally, we teach this story that she grabbed the tzitzit of the king, right? Because we know Numbers. The hem of the garment contained the tzitzit and this is very important because it represents the commandments of God and it represents the Torah and he was the living Torah. And so she grabbed hold of the covenant of God and was healed via faith, right? Do you guys know what other significance the hem has? I love history, right? So in the Near East at least, before the first century, most likely during the first century as well, banks did not exist.

How many of you guys know that you couldn't go to Wells Fargo to put your land deed in? If you got a family seal or something, maybe some gold, maybe a dowry if you're a wife, you got a dowry—you can't go down to Wachovia and just deposit it in your little box. Where do you keep it? You can dig a hole in the ground and put it there, but what if you leave your tent? You really gonna leave all your stuff in your tent? It was a common practice throughout many kingdoms for men to have their outer coat, outer garments—this would be like your social status, who you were. Remember in middle school it was real popular to wear like Tommy Hilfiger or American Eagle or whatnot.

Your outer garment, it was the social status. When people saw your outer garment, they knew where you were in society and who you were and so on and so forth. Joseph got a coat of many colors, right? And his brothers were jealous, that's why.

The Wallet in Your Hem

And so what you would do with this outer garment, at the hem of the outer garment, you would sew in your land deeds, little pouch maybe, your seals, maybe your gold, the things of value that you have with you—be like your wallet. Before they had the little leather billfolds, you would sew these things in the hems of your garment. Women, we have stories about women who would have a dowry, right? And they would sew that into the hem of their garments. You ever wonder why it's such a shameful thing if a woman was accused or caught in adultery? What would they do? Rip it off. Oh, that was just to expose her nakedness. Maybe it's a very shameful thing to do, but also she doesn't get her dowry now. It's ripped from her. It's no wonder why God said, listen, at the hems of your garment, the four corners, once you tie these things—because guess what? They're going to remind you of me and my commandments and everything that you are that's kept in your hand will always be a commitment and covenant with me. Right? So we have a quote here, an incantation from a Babylonian inscription.

Babylonian and Assyrian Examples

It's Babylonian, I know. We're just trying to do comparative research, see what all the other cultures believed. So let's see what they talk about. Oh king of heaven and earth, I have sought after thee, I have turned to thee, like thee Sisictu. Sisictu is a Babylonian word, it means the hymn. The hymn where you keep all your valuables. So this is someone addressing Shemash, Babylonian God, saying, listen, your hymns, that's what I've seized. I serve you. I'm in covenant with you. If the God had a hymn and inside the hymns of their garments they had all of their power, all of their symbols of authority, everything their status was, and you grabbed hold of it, you were submitting to who they were in a covenant standard.

Grab the hymn. That's just one example. We've got two. I had like 10 and I knew I didn't want to make the message like an hour long. So a message from Shamshi Adad. He's an old Near Eastern Assyrian king. Okay, let's see what he says. He's speaking to a vassal, a rebellious vassal. And this vassal, a lower king who had submitted to him, had grabbed his hem at one point and declared this. Verse 1. In other words, this king is agitated because ever since this vassal declared loyalty to him by grabbing the hem of his garment, he didn't really take any taxes from him. I didn't take anything from him. I let him keep everything because I was a good king to him.

But look, he grabbed the hem of my garment, made a declaration, and now he has rebelled against me. Many, many quotes on this. A great resource. If you ever want to go see the extent of the whole hem of the garment thing, Ryan White at rootedintory.com does like long teaching on this. Has tons of quotes, pictures, inscriptions. Highly recommend that. But I love this because then we come to—oh wait, I got another one. I love my quotes. Got to prove it, right? This is a quote from Pharoah Stevens from Ancient Significance. "We may picture the supplant as before the statue of a god."

The Hem of the Garment Across Cultures

So this is a pious worshiper and he comes to a statue of a pagan god, right? And they're looking. "Placing his hand upon the representation of some portion of the god's garment or possibly grasping some part of an actual garment in which the statue may have been clothed. This practice of grabbing the hem of someone's garment was frequented all over the Near East." Remember when David tore the hem of Saul's garment? That's a big deal. It wasn't just random. That was a big deal, right? It's a big deal when Jacob made Joseph the coat. So then we come to Numbers, and God's talking to Israel. We're all familiar with this. Always good to review. So Numbers chapter 15, verse 37. And the Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners, on the hems of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.

The Meaning of the Tassels

In other words, listen guys, at the corners of your garment, the hems of your garment, every time you put your garment on, you're going to see these funky looking tassels that are hanging there. And you're going to know that they're attached to everything that you are. Not that you should take everything that you have made, all the security that you built up in your life, your land deeds, your seals, your power, your money. You should take all that and go whoring after your own ways. No, you're going to look at this and you're going to remember the covenant that I am your king and that you have everything that is in the hem of your garment because of me. It's a big deal. Tassels were not done in Israel alone, but that's another message. Lots of nations did tassels. It's an elite, a sign of eliteness, if you will, because the blue is so expensive. It's unheard of to see a whole nation walking in with blue threads. Who are these guys? These are the sons and daughters of the king. It's incredible.

The Woman with the Issue of Blood

When we discuss the woman with the issue of blood, we now have a little bit better understanding of what she was doing. She heard about Yeshua, but it was only when she fell at his feet and reached out for that garment that she was healed and made whole. She heard of Yeshua, but she's going to have to crawl through and push through all this big crowd of people. Is it worth it? Why? Because she had an issue. Issue of blood. I'm going to take that word and I'm just going to focus on issue. How many of us have issues? Do we have issues? We have issues. Physical issues. Maybe something the doctors haven't been able to resolve in us. Financial issues. Every single time the bank account dips under that limit. Oh no! Social issues. Maybe you're dealing with problems in your marriage, your family, your kids. Spiritual issues. Maybe you have sin in your life that's weighing you down, put it back in the box in the closet, shut the door. Maybe no one will ever know. Everybody has issues. Maybe they've been going on for more than 12 years. Maybe not.

Finding Relief from Our Issues

When did this woman find relief from her issues? She found relief when she fell down at the feet of Yeshua. Seems to be a good starting point for relief from issues, right? It's interesting because if this woman made Yeshua unclean, that's what some teach. Don't disagree, don't agree, it's not enough details in the text. If that is the case, then in a way, he took on her uncleanliness because she was made whole and healed. I love that because at the point that she fell on the ground, reached out, touched the hem of his garment, that was a full representation of what the gospel was all about. When she fell to her knees, grabbed the hem of his garment, she wasn't just touching his clothing like his clothes had miracle powers. She was submitting herself in a covenant manner to him. You are my king, and she was healed, or she was made whole. That's exactly what Romans 10 talks about, guys. That's the gospel. When we proclaim that he is our king and believe that God raised him from the dead, we have the salvation. We have the redemption.

God's Plan Without Details

Sometimes it's hard trusting a God that does not care about details. Anyone ever consider that? Maybe he doesn't care about details. When was the last time he gave you a detailed letter telling you this is what's going to happen in your life? And it's going to seem rough, but here are all the details of everything that's going to happen, and this is going to happen, and this is going to happen. It's going to be really complicated because I'm God and I can do that. He does not share those things with us because for some reason he doesn't feel like it's relevant for us to know all the details of his plan for us.

At least he doesn't want to discuss it with us at times. Wouldn't it be great if God could just send us an email? Like, listen, one of those rotating door areas in your life where your kid's going to go, it's going to ruin your whole day. That's going to happen like tomorrow, just to give you a heads up. Now, don't worry. This isn't going to happen. This is going to happen. You're never going to, at any point, as a follower of mine, as a vassal of mine, you're never going to question, God, what's going to happen next? Because I'm going to let you know all the details. No, he doesn't do that. It's quite frustrating at times, but for some reason he enjoys it.

It's amazing because we know that God had a plan. We know that God had a plan for Abraham before Abraham's father ever died and was ever approached by God. He had a plan for Peter before Peter got out of that boat. He had a plan for Noah to build the ark before Noah had any idea family needed saving. He had a plan for Joshua when he wasn't even back from Canaan with the other spies yet. Isn't it amazing that he has a plan for us and that he has the details, he just doesn't care to share them with us sometimes? The more I started thinking about me jumping out of my little boat, which seems insignificant now, but it was a big part of my life.

One thing I've learned, he has a plan to fulfill every single accomplishment in our lives right now. When you feel lost and hopeless, not knowing what is going to happen next, that's the purpose of God's plan for you.

Trusting Without Worrying

Check this out. We all know this one. We hate reading this verse. I do not like this chapter, right? Because this chapter forces me to stop giving all my resources to doctor anxiety and worry and stress. And sometimes we don't like that because we like our doctors. We like our doctors. We love to give them all of our resources, but we wonder why our issues are just getting worse. So we have Matthew 6, verse 25. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life. I hate this chapter. What do you mean don't worry about it? Who's going to worry about my life? Yeah. Do you know why he says clothes and storing away food and what you're going to eat?

Because these are things that provide us with security in our lives. These are things that we feel like we have control of. And so if we have a closet full of clothes, if our kitchen is full, we feel like, okay, great. I'm secure. I got my boat. Yeshua's trying to wean us off that, guys. There's responsibility in life. He's trying to let you know, listen, your boat's gonna crumble one day and you need to know that you can walk on the water. You need to have that faith that you're gonna walk towards me on the water when your boat's sinking. Don't rely on that stupid boat. It's a nice boat. You've made a good boat for yourself.

Look at the Birds

Boat's not gonna last forever. I made a comment about birds. Jenny and I have chickens. Stupid birds. It's funny because they don't look too bright. They're not bright. The bird brain's what? Vicious little creatures. So I saw some article—maybe it was just a meme online—that spoke about the T-Rex being an evolutionary product of the chicken. I totally believe that. If I'm an evolutionary guy, it's incredible. I've seen the chickens eat snakes and just tear them up. Stupid little birds. They don't store up worms. We let them out of the fence and the worm pops out of the ground and they eat it and they go back in their coop and lay me a nice egg.

God makes the worm pop out of the ground for them. This is the promise of what Yeshua is saying. The Father makes the worm pop out of the ground for the stupid chicken. And you're worried about your clothing. You're worried about your bills. You're worried about your life. You're worried about your food. You're worried about all these things—all these details about what's going to happen to you. Oh, my boat is breaking. What's going on? Look at these stupid birds, naked, flying around, loving life. Doesn't this irritate you because you can't really say anything against it?

Your Garden Is Your Life

I want to show you guys something interesting. You guys know what that is? A green box inside of a big square box. That's your garden. This is your yard. Now, if I said, you have to plant things in a garden so that you can eat throughout the year, and that's your garden. This is your whole yard. That's your garden. I know this is a different type of message. That okay? A little different type? Okay. That's your garden. This is your yard. I'm going to be upset when only three tomatoes come in for the whole season. True story. Brad has a big old garden—good life. We got a little four by eight, two four by eight beds.

Three tomatoes this year. Like a boss. That's right. This is someone who is very wise and took full advantage of the resources that were given to them. They planted their entire yard, every single thing that they had, so that they could be fed throughout the year. Do you guys realize that that's what God expects from us? Do you guys realize that the entirety of every single thing that our life produces should be open for Him? In other words, are there areas of your life that you don't give to God? Are there areas of your life that are your boat and you refuse to give to him? What would happen if we were no longer worried about our clothes, our food, our boat—all these details of our life?

What would happen if we actually lived and walked by faith with our God? And with every single blessing, we knew it came from the Father. With every good thing that happened in our life, we understood that the Father had put it there. Wouldn't it be a wise decision to open that garden up? Father, this is yours. I know you're going to bring the tiller in here. I know you're going to till everything up. And then you're going to plant in this garden, in this area. This garden should be your life. This garden should be the things that you meditate on throughout the day. This garden should be your focus. This garden should be your faith.

Made Whole Through Complete Faith

The woman was made whole after she demonstrated her faith to Yeshua. The woman was made whole when she decided to open up her entire yard for her faith to work in. If we refuse to sacrifice the entirety of our lives to Father, then we will never be made whole through Him. That's a lesson I've had to learn recently. If we refuse to give up the entirety of our lives to Him, we will never be made whole through Him. It seems that worrying about something that's completely out of your control is like robbing God of the opportunity to work in the most fertile ground in your life. You ever think about that? Robbing God by keeping areas of your life away from him so that he cannot plant in them, so that you cannot devote that area of your life to strengthen your faith in him. It's incredible.

Which Doctors Do We Serve? We talk about doctors, right? For the issues. Do we have doctors for our issues that we invest in, that we give money to, that we give resources to, that we give the land to instead of giving God the garden? Dr. Alcohol? Dr. Pornography? Dr. Gossip? Doesn't it make you feel good to talk about someone else behind their back? How about Dr. Stress, Worry, Anxiety? How much do we give to these doctors to try to fill and resolve and heal the areas in our life? And for some reason, we're left wanting and wondering why our issues have grown? Why are they getting worse? We are spending all we have on these doctors. I see it in churches, synagogues, messianic fellowships—it's all the same. We are spending more on these doctors than we are giving to God.

Elijah and Mount Carmel

I said all that to build up to one of my favorite stories in scripture: 1 Kings chapter 18, about Elijah. Elijah had some issues. Don't get me wrong. You can see some issues with Elijah, right? Last prophet on earth. Last one for Yahweh. Why? Because this crazy lady Jezebel killed everyone else. He had a breakdown. Later in the chapter, he has a breakdown, crawls into a cave, just tells God to kill me. Just issues.

But before that, we know the situation. The chapter starts off with Ahab. He's the seventh king of Israel after the whole Jeroboam split thing. And he has a wife named Jezebel. And she likes Baal. Now, if you don't know much about Baal, they call it the cycle of Baal. I'll explain that another day. Basically, Baal was like the comic book character equivalent of Canaanite mythology in the day. I've read the epic of Baal, and in the stories that people spoke about him, he was comic book-like, a mighty warrior. He was a storm god. He also had a lot to do with the vegetation because he could send rain for your food.

Security, right? And so you had 450 prophets of Baal. You had Jezebel, essentially the queen of Israel, worshiping Baal, and she's out killing all the prophets of God. So Elijah gets a little agitated, goes to Ahab. He's like, listen, man, what's up with your wife? How about this? You send the 450 prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel and we'll see who God's going to choose. And you guys know the story, right? They build an altar. He builds an altar. It's going to be a burnt offering. Fire comes out of heaven—not only eats up the sacrifice that Elijah prepares but also eats up all the water that he poured on top of it—and the whole altar was just gone.

Before this event, right before this event, he gathers all the people of Israel around the mountain, along with the prophets. And you know what he says? "I have sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel."

Jumping Between Two Branches

Now, Baal represents the world. Baal represents a false security that we build around ourselves. Anything outside of God for your security is faith in something other than God. How long will you limp between two opinions? So I was looking at "limping between two opinions"—what does that mean? I started looking at the Hebrew, and I noticed one of the words could be "opinions," but it had a root from "branches." According to John Gill's exposition of the entire Bible, in the Greek this literally means "leap ye upon two branches." In other words, you have a tree planted in a garden, right? You have a tree and you have two branches.

And he's looking at Israel and saying, how long are you going to be jumping back and forth between these two branches? You got one branch, it's God, Yahweh, right? And this is a big branch. This is an awesome branch. This branch was designed to carry all of the weight in your life. And then on the other side of the tree, you got this itty-bitty, itty-bitty branch that was never designed, never designed to carry any load whatsoever. How long, Israel, are you going to be jumping back and forth between these branches? Jumping on the big branch just long enough to jump back on the small branch. See how long you can stand there until it breaks.

Then maybe jump back. Let your branch be your stability. Let the branch be the foundation of your faith. If you keep jumping back and forth, you're always going to be wavering. You're always going to be fickle-minded, and that's going to hurt the heart of God, and every single day that you do that. Which branch are you going to jump on? Incredible. You guys ever wonder why Yeshua was all about faith, believing, faith, hope, faith? Paul, same thing. It's because you're never going to be able to experience the Father in the fullness of what He has to offer until you understand the strength that can be fueled by faith.

Psalm 20: The Chapter to Remember

I wanted to conclude with chapter 20 of Psalms. This is an awesome chapter. You might just want to write this down: Psalm 20. If you ever get to one of those places in the airport where the door is rotating and you think your life is falling apart, this is the chapter that I would go to. This is beautiful. It's not quite as blunt as Yeshua. Don't worry about anything. What are you talking about? Life's in shambles. What are you talking about?

Cry Out in Times of Trouble

Psalms 20, verse 1. For the choir director, a psalm of David. In times of trouble, may the Lord respond to your cry. May the God of Israel keep you safe from all harm. May he send you help from his sanctuary and strengthen you from Jerusalem. May he remember all of your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings. May he grant your heart's desires and fulfill your plans. May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory, flying banners to honor our God. May the Lord answer all of your prayers. I prayed that more than once in my life.

Knowledge and Faith

Where are we at? When we keep Torah, we love Torah. When we love studying, I love studying. I love the books I read and finding out the knowledge and understanding scripture, which is extremely important. But what happens when we don't open up our entire lives to what God has to do in us? What I mean by that is what about faith, right? Do we have so much confidence in our studies, right, that we forget about the faith and the strength that God is waiting for us to just simply acknowledge him, simply reach out, touch the hem of his garment, grab it, and declare that covenant of your Messiah, of your master, of your king. What would happen if we had the knowledge of Torah and the understanding of the constitution of Israel, which we were grafted into, and the understanding of every single thing that God has promised us? What would happen if we had that and we could walk on water with the faith in our king? Be unstoppable. Be absolutely unstoppable.

Open Up Your Entire Life

Guys, that was the message that was on my heart this week. I'd invite anyone, listen, if you're standing there at that rotating door, frozen in your life, trying to figure out which branch you should jump on, wondering where the details of God's plan are in your life, guys, I'd love for you to come up after we sing Shemaul. Jason and I would love to pray for you guys. Getting our understanding back of opening up our entire life to God would make us unstoppable in his kingdom, and it would make his kingdom unstoppable. A blue thread supposed to be on our hymn. Everything that we are is supposed to be represented by him. We can't do that if we're not willing to give up all four corners.