From Moment to Mission • What to do After You Believe

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

Opening Welcome

Hallelujah. Shabbat Shalom. Welcome to Founded in Truth. If everyone would come in and stand to your feet, we are going to sing a song called God So Loved. Let's worship Him. Come all you weary, come all you thirsty, come to the well that never runs dry. Drink of the water and thirst no more. Come all you sinners, come find His mercy, come to the table, will satisfy, taste of His goodness is one Son to save us, whoever your failures, bring your addictions, come lay them down. Yeshua is one Son to save us, whoever our soul loves, from whom blessings flow of His love. Praise God, praise God. God so loved all your failures, bring your addictions, come lay them down at the foot of the cross.

Yeshua is waiting. God so loved. Praise You, Lord, we love You, thank You for saving us. Bless You, Father. Water in the soul, manna on the ground. No matter where I go, I don't need to worry. Everything I need You've got. There's honey in the rock. Yes, Lord. Praying for a miracle, thirsty for the living well. Only You can satisfy. Yes, Lord. Only You satisfy, sweetness of taste. Only You can satisfy. It's honey in the rock. It's honey in the rock. It's honey in the rock. It's honey in the rock. Freedom! Where the spirit, bounty, ways shattered. Now on the ground, I need You. Honey in the rock. Purpose in Your plan.

In Your head You said it. Everything You did, keep finding. You keep giving, keep providing all that I need. Yes, I do. Just sing that out. And I keep praying. Praise the water in the storm.

How sweet, how sweet it is to trust in You, Jesus. Oh, how sweet, how sweet it is to trust in You, Jesus. Oh, how sweet, how sweet it is to trust in You, Jesus. Scars in His hand, who has broken the power of sin's spawn? And clothe us in Jesus. All the angels sing hallelujah to the Lamb that was slain. Sing hallelujah to the Father who saves. Holy Spirit, let's fill this place. Honor and take heart to the Lamb that was slain. Your kingdom, angels sing. Yes, Lord, just sing that out. To the Father, Son, and Spirit. To the Father, Son, and Spirit. Just lift up your hands. Holy Father, Son, and Spirit. Holy Spirit, yes, Father. Just praise Your name right now. Praise Your Father, Son, and Spirit. One more time. To the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Worship and Blessing

Thank You, Father. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Hallelujah. Bless You. We worship You, Father. Yes, we honor You, Father. God, one God. We worship You. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father. You are worthy of our praise, Father. You're the great I Am. You're the Prince of Peace. You're El Shaddai. You're Emmanuel, God with us. Almighty God. You are the God who heals. You're the God who saves. You're the God who provides. You are in all things. You sustain all things. Oh, we worship You, Father. We declare with our mouth what we know to be true: that You are a faithful God. We're faithful. Oh, we worship You.

Sing Adonai. El Lord. El Shaddai. El Shaddai. Emmanuel. Your name is great. It's great to be, it's great. El Shaddai. It's great, it's great, it's great to be. You're so good, so good, so good. You're worthy of our praise, You're so worthy, so worthy. We bless You, Father, just keep singing it. Oh, we bless You, Father, we thank You. The praises of Your people rising before You, incense before You, Father. Oh, we worship You, God. We bless You, Father, You are worthy. You and You alone. Bless You, God.

Interceding for Others

There's a scripture in the Bible in Isaiah that talks about the Father moving on our behalf before we even know Him. "Before you knew me, I moved on your behalf. I did things to draw you to myself. I spoke into the atmosphere on your behalf, for your benefit. I moved in ways that would make myself known to you even when you didn't know me, even when you were in your rebellion against me." And part of that, I believe, is the power of prayer and the power of interceding on behalf of those in our lives that we know are not pursuing the Father. And part of that intercession is our worship. As we worship, we can stand and say, Father, I'm going to worship on behalf of my daughter today.

I believe that You have said she will be redeemed, and she will be redeemed. And I'm going to praise You as if it is done. Amen? And we all have people in our lives we need to worship for this morning, who we need to present our praise before the Father as if they are praising Him because He has said they will, so they are. We're going to hold the line until they do in the natural. Amen? So I'm going to say, be bold, be of good courage. If you are praying for someone, if you are interceding for someone, if you are believing for someone, I want you to come. Amen. I want you to make this an altar, and I want you to lift your praise to the Father louder than you ever have, because you are on their behalf.

You are saying, Father, they are praising You because You have said they will, and they will praise You, and I will praise You for them until they praise You in the natural. Amen?

For Those We Love

Come and praise for your people. We bless You, Father. Worthy is the Lord. Here I praise God. We sing on their behalf. We lift our intercession before You, Father, for those that we love who don't know You, Father, or who are far from You. We call the prodigal home this morning. Come home. Come home. Receive the love of a Father who's never stopped loving You. Oh, we bless You, Father. We thank You that You leave the one and go. You leave the ninety-nine and go for the one. You run after us in our sin, that You run after us in our rebellion. Oh, and You declare who we are. So we just declare what You say is true. What You say is true.

God's Sovereignty

The spirits, the spirits are in submission to the Father and to the Son. The spirits of the world— let me make that clear. Those who think they have power but have none, and only have what we give them authority to have in our lives, they have no power. They are in submission to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. They have to ask His permission. "Have you considered My servant Job?" They have to ask His permission. This should bring great hope because God is sovereign, and what He has said is what is. So we've got to start walking in what He has said, right? So many times we walk in what we can see, and what we can see is not pretty right now.

It's not the promise He has said. It's the sausage making. Does that make sense? It's the sausage making. And we get our eyes on the sausage making. We forget the product that He has said will come through His process and His timing. It's beautiful. It's perfect. It's perfect, and it will bring Him the greatest glory and the biggest impact. So do not fear God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And then they're going to stand before the great assembly and they're going to give the testimony that brings the multitude. That if they had not walked where they walked, they would not have the testimony, the witness, nor the authority to speak.

Amen. So there is no hopelessness in this, but we are called to intercede and stand in the gap. Amen. And y'all did it beautifully this morning. Amen. Amen. So let's continue to praise. Let's continue to lift up our King of Kings because He is good. Hallelujah. He is good. Thank You, Father. We bless You, Father.

The Word Made Flesh

Stay where you are. Don't feel like you have to leave. Keep interceding. The darkness without hope and without light from heaven came running. There was mercy in Your eyes to fulfill all and prophets to a virgin came the Word. From a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt. To a cradle in the dirt. Sing that again. The darkness without hope, without light from heaven there was mercy and light to fulfill law and prophets to a virgin came the Word. From a throne of endless glory to a grave of dirt. Praise the Father. Praise the Son. Praise the Spirit. O God of glory, majesty. Praise forever to the King.

We bless You, Lord. To a cradle in the dirt. Bless You, Abba. The King, the King of mine. To reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost. To redeem a nation You did not despise. For even in Your suffering, You saw to the other side, salvation. She will, all of heaven held its breath till that stone was moved for good for the by Your majesty. When we get a glimpse, when we get a glimpse of the attributes of You, Lord, You're so good to us. You're so good. You're so holy. Oh, we worship You. Oh, sing majesty. Oh, we sing majesty. Majesty. To fulfill the law and prophets to a virgin came. Come and behold.

Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold.

Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold.

Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold. Come and behold.

Opening Worship

Come and behold, come and behold, come and behold. I sing majesty, majesty, majesty. Law and prophets to a virgin came. Majesty. The throne of endless glory. There's glory to a priest. Majesty. Come and behold. Isn't he fascinating? Get lost in his majesty. Lift our hands and surrender. Majesty. Hail to the King of Kings. We sing majesty. Oh, we love, we love to sing of your praises. Majesty is the Lamb. We surrender, we surrender. Majesty is the Lord. We get lost in the majesty of our King. Oh, we love you. We are awed by the majesty and the glory and the power when we get a glimpse of who you are, of what you do for us.

You saved us. You loved us. How majestic are you? How majestic are you? You tabernacled as a man. You tabernacled among us. You came in the flesh as a baby. From a palace to a cradle in the dirt. You are worthy as a lamb. Majesty, majesty. Bless you, Lord. We bless you. Praise him, praise him. We praise you, Yahweh. Sing majesty. Receive our worship. Receive our praise. We bring you glory. Come and behold, come and behold, come and behold. Get lost in his majesty. We worship. We bow our hearts before him. We surrender. So worthy, so holy. Be glorified in this place. Be glorified in this house. Be glorified in our temple.

Yes, you continue to move in this house, in this place. Your spirit, Father, will lead everything we do, Father. Let it not come from our own flesh, Lord. You lead us that we will be obedient and speak what you have placed in our hearts. Lord, give us ears to hear. The Spirit of the Lord is saying. Hallelujah. Give them a praise. Hallelujah. We praise you, Lord.

Opening Prayer and Teaching

Let's invite Ms. Beverly to the platform for a tour portion this morning. Welcome. Hello. Okay, let's pray. Father, we're just so thankful that we get to be amongst the saints that aren't afraid to praise, that aren't afraid to call out and lift up their hands. Father, I thank you for the power and the passion that I see, that I get to experience here. And we don't take it for granted because we know so many who are underground that don't get to do this. So, Father, I pray that you would bring life to these words you've given me today and let them hit home to whoever needs to hear them in Yeshua's name. And the Jews have a tradition of dedicating their teaching to someone. So today I want to dedicate it to Ruby and Jerry and to Ed and Evelyn who had their home and all those out there who are watching us online.

The Most Dramatic Moment in the Old Testament

This Torah portion, in my opinion, is one of the most dramatic moments in the Old Testament. Its importance cannot be overstated. I will read the first verse to set the stage. Genesis 44, 18. Then Yehudah approached Joseph and said, "Please, my lord, let your servant say something to you privately, and don't be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself." In order to grasp the severity of Judah's plight, let's go back and review what is revealed about him in the past Torah portions. I will present this like four scenes in a play.

Four Scenes of Judah

Scene one, Judah was born the fourth child of seven to Jacob and Leah. His birth order placed him in the middle of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, and Dina. His mother Leah named him Yehudah. The root of the name is Yadah, which means to know intimately, and Yad means hand. So the picture is what we were doing this morning, one of raised hands. Yehudah, praise. Scene two, his next appearance was when he reasons with his brothers not to shed Joseph's blood. He offered another solution for ridding them of the pest. That was to sell him to the Ishmaelites and send him to Egypt as a slave. Scene three, the brothers then returned to their father, Jacob, with the horrible news that Joseph was dead.

Putting it mildly, things turned sour when Jacob became inconsolable. It seemed that after this, Judah couldn't handle the guilt and shame. Judah decided to escape from his family, and he went off on his own. Later, he married a Canaanite woman who bore him three sons. The first son was wicked, so the Lord killed him. Judah gave his widow Tamar to his second son, who was also wicked, and God killed him. Therefore, he refused to give Tamar to the third son to raise up children to continue his son's heritage, fearing he too would die. Tamar had a lot of chutzpah and arranged to be impregnated by Judah.

Judah accused her of being a harlot and sentenced her to death. Fortunately, she proved to him that he was the father. She bore him two sons slash grandsons, and his tribe was preserved. I mean, I don't watch Jerry Springer, but I think this story could have been on there. Scene four, when Jacob tried to decide if he was willing to send Benjamin off to Egypt, it was Judah who promised to keep his brother safe. Genesis 43, 9. Yehudah said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me. And I promised to keep him safe. Send the boy with me, and we will make preparations and leave so that we may stay alive and not die, both we and you and also our little ones.

Myself will guarantee his safety. You can hold me responsible. If I fail to bring him to you and present him to your face, let me bear the blame forever.

Judah's Desperate Plea

Here we have one brother, Judah, drawing near to another brother, Joseph. Judah is begging for his brother Benjamin's life and indirectly begging for the lives of his entire family. If Benjamin becomes this powerful man's servant, Judah will have to bear the news to his father, Jacob, and that will in all probability kill him. Then the family back home would most likely starve to death and all the future generations would die off. Judah bore a very heavy burden as he faced this second most powerful man in the world. He was also at a great disadvantage, an even greater peril than he could possibly imagine.

He was presenting his case to a man who knew him intimately and was fully aware of what Judah and his brothers did to him. Joseph, who was once the helpless young man outnumbered by these brothers, who now stood before him and held their destiny in his hands. Remember, these were the guys who threw him in a pit and were more than happy to let him die there. Knowing their viciousness, Joseph had arranged a complex set of circumstances to secure his brother Benjamin against any possible harm. Can you blame him? If they hated the first son of Rachel and Yaakov, surely when their father died, they will kill the other son.

Now Joseph had to make a decision. This is Joseph, second most powerful man in the world. Judgment or mercy? Imagine the tension in the room.

A Critical Junction

Have you ever reached such a critical junction in your life and the future of your family? Can you relate to Judah? I can. When I was 13, my family disintegrated emotionally, morally, and spiritually. It happened one evening about 58 years ago, just around this time. It was right after Christmas when my older sister went to the senior prom. I will never forget how pretty she looked in her white dress. And back then, the girls used to wear the long white gloves, and she got those for Christmas. She got the beads. She got the shoes. She looked like a princess. She looked like a bride. Later that same evening, I heard a commotion in the living room.

It turned out that she came back home drunk, and my parents were trying to deal with the situation. Next morning, my mom announced that dad would inform her of her punishment. When he came home from work, all day we waited anxiously for the verdict. When he arrived, it was immediately obvious that the outcome would be a bad one. He was furious. He told her, I'll never forget it, you are no longer my daughter. As a result, she isolated herself in a room and became buried in work. For the next year and a half, our household was tense. Being the younger sister, I was afraid that I would also lose my father's favor.

If I ever did something that angered him, what made this all so confusing was that we regularly witnessed our parents, their families, and friends abusing alcohol. Alcohol was the foundation of our social and cultural life. Dad condemned my sister for something he himself was guilty of. My sister fled from our family and eventually ended up living in Germany.

Mercy, Not Judgment

Going back to our Torah portion, Joseph, unlike my dad, chose to be merciful. He forgave his brothers and was able to rescue the entire family and bring them to a safe place in Egypt where they would have food and shelter for the next five years of the famine. Joseph did this because Yahweh had shown him that this was his plan. He saved the family of Yaakov and consequently the whole human race.

Gratitude and the Jewish People

Do you believe that? Let me say right here, I'm thankful that Judah humbled himself before Joseph and begged for his brother's life. It seems to me that those of us who have received salvation through Yeshua owe brother Judah a great debt. And his offspring, the Jewish people. Because of his sacrificial death, my family has been pulled out of sin and separation. And I can stand here and say, my mom, my dad, and I have all been born again. So there's really a happy ending to this story. Unfortunately, gratitude has not always been the track record of the Christian people. Throughout the centuries, Christians have tormented, persecuted, and nearly annihilated the Jewish people in the name of the one who came from that very tribe.

That is Yeshua, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. A few years back, I went to Israel with a group of Christians who wanted to make amends and apologize for these atrocities to a representative group of Jews. Our efforts were, for the most part, accepted as the people saw our goodwill and intentions. But I will never forget one rabbi saying that although we were sincere in our support for the nation and his people, he could not trust that our children wouldn't turn against them. As sad as that sounds, it definitely could happen.

Therefore, I would like to encourage us to teach our children the roots of our faith. Help them to connect the Sabbaths and observances with the Jews who live in our communities, our world, and the nation of Israel. Show them the prophecies that reveal that one day we will be united, echad, one family.

The Vision of the Sticks

Today's Haftorah reading makes a clear picture of this, and that's Ezekiel 37, starting in verse 15. The word of Adonai came to me. You human beings take one stick and write in it for Yehudah and those joined with him among the people of Israel. Next, take another stick and write on it for Yosef, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel who are joined with him. Finally, bring them together into a single stick so they become one in your hand. When your people ask you what all this means, tell them that Adonai Elohim 1 Corinthians says this: I will take the stick of Yosef, which is in the hand of Ephraim, together with the tribes of Israel who are joined with them, and put them together with the stick of Yehudah, and make them a single stick, so that they become one in my hand.

The sticks on which you write are to be in your hand as they walk. Then say to them that Adonai Elohim says: I will take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone and gather them from every side and bring them back to their own land. I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel. One king will be the king for all of them. They will no longer be two nations and they will never again be divided into two kingdoms. Oh, you can shout for that one.

Don't Quarrel on the Way

In conclusion, as we journey through life, let's remember to heed the words of Joseph that he gave to his brothers before they returned to Canaan. Don't quarrel on the way. Thank you, Beverly. All right, I was just going to do it, but I'm going to use the step. When you get to my age, it's wise to use steps. Oh, now I've done it. I need to work out more. Good morning, everybody. Turn that off. All right. Shabbat Shalom.

Welcome and Announcements

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Pete Wilson. I am one of the community pastors here at Founded in Truth. Matt is still in Israel. So I know, right? No, I'm with Jenny on that one. I've booed many times this week. Boo! But let's do a few announcements and then we'll dismiss the kids. All right. Young adult group. Young adult fellowship. I'm not looking for applause, but because I was told I talk softer than Matt, it's made me self-conscious. So I'm making sure that everybody... And it's also weird because I feel as though I'm a very loud person. Maybe I'm not. All right, perfect. Young Adult Fellowship.

Mark your calendars for Sunday, January 8th. That is the homemade cookie and hot cocoa party. Time and location to be determined. It's at the Coen's house at 6pm. Everybody know where the Coen's is? If we could put their address on the... No? Okay. You can reach out to them if you want to go. Women's Retreat. I was looking for the graphic because the graphic is sweet. Women's Retreat registration is open. You have until February 1st to register. For more information, please see the Realm registration or talk to Christy Bush, who is over yonder. Prayer and Intercession. If you are part of the fasting group, you should have gotten a survey.

Please fill out the survey and get it back to Julia so that she can plan for the next fast. The wonder of technology is this can be fixed. Oh, so that's why you realized I was reading the wrong one then. Our next prayer and fasting is scheduled for January 16th, 17th from sundown to sundown. The date may change. We will be meeting at the church and sharing a meal afterwards. If you would like to be a part of this, contact Julia Salvo at juliaatfoundandtruth.com. Women's winter Bible study will begin January 4th at 630 at the church. We will be going through Bearing God's Name by Carmen Joy Imes. Grab a copy and join them.

I've not read that book yet. It has been on my list to read for a while. Carmen Joy Imes is nothing short of incredible, so if you can join the ladies for that, I'm certain that will be amazing. Men's Fellowship is at the Original Empire Tuesday the 10th. Next year, yes. And Jeff needs a few extra hands to help set up after service today. Can we get two or three people to help? I'm specifically not looking at the Bushes. I thought about just saying thank the Bushes for helping Jeff after, but all right, the Bushes. Boom. There we go. Perfect. Thank you, guys.

The Offering

All right. Offering time. We do this every week, and the need does not change every week. But, guys, the truth is we would not be here without the generous support of you sitting here and for all of those who are watching us online. We can't do this week to week without what you guys give. We cannot open these doors. We cannot turn on the heat. We cannot do any of the things that we do without generous support. So pretty please, if this ministry has been a blessing to you, please consider giving to it because we will certainly continue giving back until there's nothing left. And we appreciate every single one of you.

Blessing the Children

All right, let's bless them, bless them kiddos. Once upon a time, I tried to do the blessing the way that Matt does the blessing and I did fail miserably. So I'm just going to do my own this time. I don't want that there. How do I get rid of that? Hey, that's how I get rid of that. Sweet. All righty. If we can get some beautiful folks to hold these hoopas. The hoopas don't fit, but that doesn't matter. We're going to bless these kids anyway because this matters. All right, we're ready to go. Join me, guys. Great and gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for every one of these young people here. Father, every single week we raise our hands, we put them out.

And if you're a parent, every single week you watch your kids jump around and not pay attention and do the things that children do. And Father, we thank you for that. We thank you that they are doing the thing that you created them to do, Father. And we pray that you would make us worthy to be able to lead them so that they can lead the next generation. Father, that we would teach them what it means to bear your image. In a world that does not recognize you, Father, we would teach them what it looks like to be men and women who are sold out subjects of their king. Father, we ask your blessing upon them, and we pray all of these things in the powerful name of your son, Yeshua Jesus.

Amen. All right, we're going to do the Lord's Prayer, and then you guys can go to class. So... Anybody want to start us off? I always struggle with this one too because it's not in the old King James. So I don't know if anybody else is like me, but it's the only thing I do in the King James. But here we go. Our Father in heaven.

Welcome to Founded in Truth

Do you ever find yourself searching for something bigger than you? For a community to be a part of? A place founded on truth and love? A place to worship the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Son of God. Welcome to Founded in Truth, where we're more than just a fellowship. We're a family, so welcome home. I am good to go.

A Difficult Topic

All right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Founded in Truth. As I said before, I am Pete Wilson. Usually I'm with the teenagers. This morning I'm with you guys. I decided to speak this morning about something that... It's the topic that I did with the teens at Sukkot. It's just been condensed into one thing and played around with. To be honest, I didn't want to start the way that I'm going to start because I didn't want to talk about it. But I can't give proper perspective without it. So here we go. Leading up to Sukkot this year, most of you know, and if some of you don't, that's fine, but most of you know that my wife and I had just experienced the loss of a baby, Mabel.

When Sukkot arrived, we were 10 days removed from the news that she had died. Because of life circumstances and because of how planning Sukkot goes every single year, I still had not put together my lessons for the teens when we found out. So I had literally a couple of days to decide what I wanted to teach about and then to put it together and figure it out. We were then and still are now dealing with intense grief. And anyone who has ever been in the situation that we're in understands this. We are not unique. Thinking about preparing an edifying and encouraging message was not a place that my brain easily let me go at that moment.

So this was the backdrop of what became the topic we will talk about today. And at the time, I felt very vulnerable about it, feeling like I hadn't put enough time, feeling like I hadn't put enough thought into what turned out, in my opinion, to be a very important message. And to be honest, I still feel that way. Even with the perspective of months and looking back, and meditation—well, in my opinion—that goes into studying God's word, without that time of meditation, we just don't have the proper perspective to be able to put it into a true application in our lives.

But with that time and with reflection, I have come to see this topic as Yahweh's provision in my life for that time. I couldn't do it. He wanted it done, so he did it anyway. For what seems to me to be obvious reasons looking back on it, I couldn't get the idea out of my head that I should speak about salvation, more specifically the moment of salvation. But I had to admit that something about that moment had been bothering me, and this had been going on for a couple years. And to be honest, I feel like I'm coming to the end of it, but I'm still working this out. Many cups of coffee and many quiet moments—that's how we work out our faith. The decision itself didn't bother me. I understand that. And that was fine as far as my head was concerned, but specifically what comes after. But we'll get to that.

The Moment of Salvation

I want to start you guys off with where I started with the teens all the way back then. And that is that moment, that decision that you make to follow Jesus. It can be called many things: accepting Jesus, following him, asking him into your heart. That's in my tradition growing up, that's what we called it. And all of these things work, no matter what you call it. It will be the most important choice that you ever make: to either follow Yeshua Jesus or not. That thing that he puts forth in the gospels, the good news: Will you follow me? That decision that everyone is forced to make, to choose him or not to choose him.

So we'll talk about my moment and then we'll move on from there. I'm not going to call on anybody, by the way. I won't call on you, Abby. I called on you last time. I won't call on you this time. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest in Portland, Oregon. To be specific, I was born there and I lived there for 30 years. Yeah, that's right. Many, many, many things about me are shaped by where I grew up and the culture that I grew up in. Yes, I am an American, but as many of you know who have traveled, how things are done in different places can vary drastically.

Growing Up in the Northwest

I did grow up in the church. My parents were then and are now very serious about their faith. And they taught that faith to me and my brothers. I grew up going to church like most of you, not all of you, but most of you probably did. And as a young child, I learned the most important thing I could do was what we called in my church tradition, accept Jesus into my heart. In my church growing up and in many churches in my experience when I was a kid, we used to use what is called the Romans Road to salvation as that roadmap for how you make that decision and the thing that will dictate the rest of your life from there on out.

And it was then and still is, I think, a popular evangelicalistic tool to show people through Scripture why you need a Savior. So I want to look at it real quick. I did the Romans study with the teens last year and they learned that the book of Romans is Paul's roadmap to believers on how to live in unity with one another despite what can be massive differences in beliefs, culture, culinary habits, and social status. The focus is absolutely Yeshua, not our personal opinions, and he goes out of his way to make that clear. The Romans Road is a snapshot of the book that shows why you need to accept and follow him.

The Romans Road

So here it is, Romans . I don't have slides for this. I'm just going to move through it. But Romans , for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You move on to Romans 5:8, God provides. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Yeah, that's good. And on to Romans , for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:1, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, but that's the only part we're going to use. We'll get to that in a minute. Romans 10:9, If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It's pretty straightforward, right? I thought so.

My Own Decision

So at the tender age of five—and to be completely honest, I do not remember this—I am told that I gave my life to Jesus. A few years later, when I was nine, I got baptized. In my church tradition, you only got baptized once. That was it. Don't do it twice. That means you need to understand the importance of baptism when you're going to do it. So obviously, for a nine-year-old—someone with an underdeveloped brain—I was supposed to understand and realize the importance. And so I did. I got baptized to tell everybody that I was now a follower of Jesus. And as many of you, I'm certain, won't be surprised to hear, it didn't always look like it. This decision governed many aspects of my life for the next 20 years. And that was my moment. And it was an important moment. In the same way, all of your moments are going to be incredibly important. So I do not want you to misunderstand what I'm saying about the moment. It is vitally important.

What I Didn't Understand

But looking back—and this was the struggle I started with a couple three years ago—I actually had no idea whatsoever about what making that choice meant for my life, about what it meant to follow my king, about what the gospel was. And I've learned over the last few years that I'm, again, not unique. A lot of people struggle with what the gospel is and what a nine-year-old truly can understand—because I'm nearly 44 and I'm still wrestling with it. Without realizing it, my grief was causing me to deconstruct my faith. And it was something that had been coming for a while, but my grief was the thing that caused me to take it to the next step I needed to take. Yahweh, my God, was going to build me back up in a new way. And even though it was taking me some time to see it fully, I was at a place where I had to admit I didn't know what to do next. What am I really supposed to do with the knowledge of saving grace? How is that supposed to govern my life and my actions? And that's what I want to look at this morning.

The Questions I'm Wrestling With

As I said, it wasn't until a few years ago that I really started looking into this next step. I can't even say looking at it in depth because I wasn't even sure what the next step was. I just knew that in my tradition, I grew up to say those words, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. But I was struggling with that as an adult because it didn't feel like that was the whole picture. And I was learning it's not so simple as to tell other people, because this is also what I was taught in my faith tradition, it's not so simple as to tell other people to do the same. All you need to do is accept him as your savior and you'll be saved. And while that very well is true, what's the next step? Because in my experience, I was finding and meeting a lot of people who didn't really care about that first step. They wanted all the other steps taken care of. What kind of an answer do we have for that?

Looking back, I think I was one of them who made the decision, and then their lives just didn't drastically change. They didn't magically turn into something different. I began to wonder what I was missing in Scripture. I've come to believe that if there's a section of Scripture that I struggle to grasp, the issue isn't Scripture, it's me. So I have to work a little bit harder to get my head around an ancient book written in a foreign language to a culture I don't understand. For whatever reason, this is the pathway by which Yahweh has chosen to tell his story to humanity—through humans. And humans are complicated people.

And the story of the Bible shows us that. I began asking a lot of questions. What does Yahweh say about being a covenant partner with him? What does he say about bearing his image here on earth? What did my King Jesus say about that in the New Testament scriptures? What is my mission now? So we're going to go to the book of Matthew, chapter 4, verse 12 through 17. I think I do have one for that. Yep, I'll read it real quick. When he heard that John had been arrested, he, being Yeshua Jesus, withdrew into Galilee. He left Nazareth. He went to Capernaum by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

The Kingdom in Isaiah

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: the land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. If you spend enough time in the Gospels, you will see that Yeshua had a love for the Psalms and for Isaiah. He quotes these two Old Testament books more than any others. And that begins here, telling the people who live in the tribal areas: What does that mean, repent? Because the kingdom of heaven has come near.

The Problem With Familiarity

One problem I have when studying the Bible is when I come to a part of it that I feel like I'm familiar with, I'm in danger because I have a hard time being open to learning more. And this is very true of the gospels and the New Testament letters of Paul that I grew up with—they feel familiar to me in a way that the Hebrew scriptures don't always feel familiar. So I always find it helpful to take a step back and try to see the big picture of what Jesus is saying here and what his audience would have heard, because I feel like that's important for helping me understand it. When Jesus began his public ministry, he lived in a militarized zone. Rome had been occupying Israel for about 70 years at that point.

And to be honest, it wasn't all that long. For the previous nearly 600 years, they had been constantly ruled: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, a little bit of Egypt in there. By the first century, the people of God knew what a kingdom was and what made a powerful one. Military might is what made a strong, successful kingdom. And any kingdom needed to be able to defeat its enemies and then control its people.

The Kingdom in the First Century

So when I hear the word kingdom today, I think of the movies that I've watched or the books that I've read talking about the lovely kingdom of whoever—Arthur, bounding along the countryside being a do-gooder. But when the word kingdom was used in the first century, especially to this people, they understood what that meant: that human rulers rule the way human rulers rule. Have fun remembering that sentence, but it's very true. So when a rabbi from Nazareth came saying, "Repent," it was like he was yelling, "Stop. Repent. Stop what you're doing. Something is happening that is going to require you to make a decision.

It will force you to reevaluate everything you think you know about the world, about yourself, and about Yahweh. It will cause a radical change in your priorities." And that thing is: the kingdom of heaven has come near. Jesus was all about the kingdom of heaven. He mentions it 50 times in Matthew, depending on your Bible. That's about one and a half times per page, depending on the size of your lettering. I realized at this point that I'm into something that I don't know—that I thought I was familiar with. What is the kingdom of heaven?

Heaven Reconsidered

Heaven to Yeshua seems to mean something different than I grew up thinking it was. Heaven was the place that he went to prepare for me, the place that he would go when we die, provided that we had made all the important decisions and accepted him. Heaven to Jesus does not seem here to mean that we are going somewhere, but that somewhere is coming here. So I want to take one more step back to try and illustrate what it would have looked like to me if I was a first-century Hebrew Jew when Yeshua talked about the kingdom. What would have been up in flashing lights, obvious to me, if I had grown up with the Hebrew scriptures like they had?

Kingdom From Genesis

So where does the concept of kingdom—or more specifically reigning, because it's the same thing, a king reigns—where does that concept first appear in the Bible? Does anybody know? Right in the first chapter. Genesis chapter 1 tells the story of a God who is an all-powerful artist who can breathe life into being out of chaos. He is a king, and he installs humans to rule on his behalf. And that responsibility requires humans to make choices about good and evil. As humans, are we going to choose to rule the kingdom as God would, or do we choose good and evil for ourselves, redefining it to fit what we want?

Man's sinful heart is bent towards violence, and the ultimate plot conflict of the Bible is: What will God do? What is he going to do when his image-bearing partners here on earth choose good and evil for themselves instead of for him? He forms a plan to reassert his rule into the world. So God chooses one family—Abraham—to represent his kingdom to the world. This is what Tim Mackey, and if you know me, you know I love Tim Mackey, calls an upside-down kingdom. A kingdom that doesn't make any sense based on the way that human rulers rule. A kingdom that looks really, really funny when we know what the definition of a kingdom is in our time and space.

Israel's Story: Slavery and Covenant

That family grows, and they end up becoming slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh is a larger-than-life ruler that represents everything that is wrong with the human condition. Take all the evil aspects of a bunch of different human rulers, and you have Pharaoh. Pharaoh was that bad. He begins to oppress the people of Yahweh in the most brutal fashion. So he raises up a deliverer, Moses, and sends him in to tell Pharaoh that he wants his people to be freed. Yahweh goes head-to-head with Pharaoh and asserts his kingdom again, liberating his people, and he shows the world that when he becomes king, people are rescued. Yahweh then invites Israel to a mountain for a marriage ceremony. The people enter a covenant relationship with him. The terms are very clear. It begins with 10 commandments, then it expands to another 603. Yahweh makes it very clear what it means for ancient Israel to live as an alternative kingdom among all the other kingdoms of the ancient Near East. So how do they do? They become like Pharaoh, defining good and evil for themselves and ultimately end up in exile again.

The Prophet's Hope

And the Hebrew scriptures end with the writings of the prophets—that one day Yahweh will reassert his kingdom again. And that hope can be seen in poems like this one from Isaiah 52: "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald who proclaim peace, who bring news of good things. Bring news, by the way, is the gospel. Who proclaim salvation, who sets his eye on your God reigns." The voices of your watchmen reign. If you were alive at the time that Yeshua is preaching this message, it's electric. Here is something that all of Israel has been waiting for for over 500 years. So think about this: Since the Babylonian exile in 587 or 586 BCE, you've been ruled by not only Babylon, but Persia, Greece, Egypt, and now Rome. So when Jesus came talking about the kingdom of heaven, it was a big deal, and people noticed.

Jesus and Kingdom Claims

Think about this. And for me, this was a big deal. When thinking about what a human kingdom is and the ramifications of Jesus saying, "I am here to bring a kingdom"—Jesus was not publicly executed because he taught you to love your neighbor. He was executed because he claimed to be a king. And for the human rulers on earth at the time, this was a problem. So if Jesus is a king bringing a kingdom, he needs a people. So in Matthew chapter 4, he walks around a lake until he finds some fishermen and he says, "Follow me." That's exactly what he does. To Ralu, the totally worthless part of the world, but we can go into that later.

He forces them into a decision when he says, "Follow me." Because for those fishermen, when he came preaching, "Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is here"—"Follow me"—he forced them into a decision that was different than the one I thought I was making when I was a child. When I confessed with my mouth that Jesus was Lord and I believed in my heart that God raised him from the dead and I was saved—I was saved in a safe place. I was saved in a culture that let me do that. I was saved in a place where it didn't matter that I called him king. It didn't make any difference to the human rulers where I live. He forces them into a decision, and immediately they follow him.

What Does Kingdom Living Look Like? So what does it mean to live under a king's reign? What does it look like when Jesus takes over the world, reasserting what Yahweh wants his rule to look like? Matthew 4, verse 23 says, "Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people."

There's two parts to verse 23. The first part is explaining: "Now Jesus began to go over all Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the good news." He traveled all around preaching and teaching. For Yeshua, much of his ministry was explaining that his kingdom didn't operate like any other kingdom on earth. And the second part of his ministry was action—healing every disease and sickness among the people. This was a total upending of how the world worked in terms of power, status, value, significance. And he spends the next five chapters in Matthew explaining and showing, in what we call the Sermon on the Mount, how Jesus went where the culture didn't, and no one walked away unchanged. He came and opened up our ideas about what is important in his kingdom, and our response is to follow and live under his reign as an image-bearing partner of him.

The Radical Kingdom

A successful kingdom in any day, as we said, needs to be able to defeat its human enemies and to hold power. Jesus taught that in Yahweh's kingdom, it was the weakest—those who loved their enemies and served outsiders—that were greatest. He announces that he is king, and through one powerful sacrificial act, he would bring about Yahweh's kingdom and conquer sin and death. A powerful kingdom has no humans to destroy, just human nature. So now we must make a decision. Will we follow him and bring about his kingdom on earth, defining good and evil as he does? Will we turn our moment into our mission? Yahweh's response to humans choosing good and evil for himself was to reassert himself into the picture and to reign as king again.

He's chosen to do that through us. His kingdom is an upside-down kingdom where loving those who hate you and care for the poor and oppressed is of utmost importance. Jesus placed a high value in the kingdom on loving, healthy relationships with Yahweh and with people, a transformed heart and mind. No one had ever said anything like this before and lived by it, and no one has said anything like it since who wasn't referring to Jesus. So I want to look at one small part of what Yeshua teaches in the next few chapters. There's no way we can go through the entire Sermon on the Mount, but I want to focus on what is, in my opinion, the hardest thing to do that Jesus teaches we need to do to be his image-bearing partners: loving your enemies.

Remember, the goal is a disciple of Yeshua with a transformed heart and mind. So what does that look like?

Loving Your Enemies

Right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, we come across this, Matthew 5, verses 38 through 48. I'll read that again. Give to the one who asks you and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your father in heaven. For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same.

And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don't even the Gentiles do the same. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. In most of your Bibles, these two sections have two different headings, leading us to believe that they are, in fact, two different sections. But the truth is, I've left them together because they're speaking about the same thing. The question being asked here is: how do you or how would you respond to humiliation and shame? I think everyone here can think of a humiliating scenario. I'm not going to ask anyone to yell anything out.

I think everyone here can think of a time when they felt intense shame brought on by someone else. If I'm being honest, my default reaction when someone treats me that way is to lash out. I'm being subjected to a situation that isn't fair and it isn't right. So I'm going to find some justice. I think many people perceive Jesus to be teaching here that you just don't respond, that if somebody hits you on one cheek, turn the other cheek means, well, just be quiet and turn the other cheek and let them hit that too. But I don't think that's it. That's definitely not the way I would respond. The disciple of Jesus responds with way more.

A First-Century Context

Think about what's being said in the beginning of that chapter. At the time that he was saying this, remember Rome was in charge. And if you're out on a Sabbath enjoying the lake and you're going to walk around the lake, it was not uncommon to come across groups of Roman soldiers. And for them to make you carry something for a while was not only within their rights, but they would do it often. Or if you came in from fishing, the first place you would go out of the Galilee is to the tax collector. First place. Not home, not to clean your catch. First place you went: the tax collector. And if you didn't have enough tax to cover what you had caught, you would be forced to throw some of it back, which is crazy if you think about the suffering of your people. But this is the reality of the world that the first century fishermen lived in. And if the tax collector—let's say you don't have it and you haven't had it for a few times—decides he wants to shame you in front of everyone and he hits you across the face.

The Disciple's Response

The disciple of Jesus responds this way: You look really tired, Roman soldier. Can I carry this another mile for you? You look like you've had a really hard day, tax collector. Can I let you get a little bit more aggression out? There's a word for this, and in our English language, it's translated as love. But the Greek word used here is agape. And love in English is just a very useless word. There are eight different words for love in the Greek language. All of them are used in the New Testament scriptures. And we have one word that is translated as love, regardless of the type of love that you're talking about.

And the reason I say it's useless is: does anyone love pizza? If you're a parent, do you love your children? Those are clearly the same thing, right? Yeah. So it isn't a problem with the translation. It's just a problem with the English language. So this is one of those areas that we have to work a little bit harder to understand. But the word used there is agape. Everyone's heard that word before. It's a popular word in what we do. Love, agape. But that's only one aspect. The response of a disciple of Jesus to evil and wrongdoing is not to do nothing. It is to agape. What does that mean? We'll go back to verse 43.

I don't know if I have a slide for that. Maybe I do. You have heard it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So I'm going to stop here real quick and explain something that existed in the day. And this is a fair question. If what you are being taught is love your neighbor, where did that come from? The Old Testament scripture he's referring to is Leviticus 19.18. Do not take revenge or bear grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. So a debate that existed in Yeshua's day and probably exists today is: who counts?

If I am supposed to love my neighbor, agape my neighbor, and we'll explain that in a minute, who counts? So we need to understand what they were looking at to see how they would have navigated this debate.

Who Counts as My Neighbor? All right, so Leviticus 19.18: do not take revenge or bear grudge against members of your community. All right, members of my community, but something's missing here. It doesn't say anything about hate your enemy. According to Leviticus 19, your neighbor is your people, your community members, the Jewish people. And in the immediate setting, the Roman soldier doesn't count. The tax collector doesn't count. But a few sentences later in Leviticus 19, verses 33 and 34, we find this: When an alien resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You will regard the alien who resides with you as the native born among you.

You are to love him as yourself. For you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. All right, so we have Israelites and immigrants. The Roman soldier still doesn't fit. I don't think a tax collector fits either. This was a real debate that existed at the time. So when Jesus said, you have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, he was alluding to that debate because it doesn't say you have read, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. He said, you have heard it said, and that is what he was referring to: the debate about who counts. In God's economy, to an oppressed people, oppressed by a violent military regime, who counts?

That was a real question. As we noted, for close to 600 years, Israel had been under oppressive military rule. All of them were brutally violent. So for a persecuted religious ethnic minority, who counts was an important question. If Yahweh has called his people to love their neighbor, who is that?

Love Without Boundaries

Jesus picks up this idea in Leviticus 19 and he expands it beyond what any rabbi of his day had ever done. The love that Yahweh commands in Leviticus 19 is a love without boundary. It's for those you love and hate and for those who hate you. Where does that idea come from? Matthew 5.45. So that you may be children of your father in heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. So that you may become children of your Father in heaven is not so much an entrance requirement, but it is about becoming and living and reflecting what Yahweh is like. So what's Yahweh like? He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

God's Generous Character

The scholar Dallas Willard said that Jesus had a God-saturated view of the world. And that shows here because I would never explain to anyone what God is like based on weather patterns because I don't think that way. Yahweh's generosity is revealed in the weather. The sun and the rain are gifts given to us by him in heaven. And he doesn't give them based on how we behave. The sun comes up, the rain falls. Now Jesus does believe that at some point, Yahweh will come and set all things right and hold all of humanity accountable for how we behave. But this right here is what Tim Mackey calls a moment of pure grace and generosity. No matter how people behave, if that's what God's like, and that's the God Jesus has come to reveal, what must the people of the kingdom be like? God is generous to all.

What is Agape? So what is agape? We still have not defined that. In English, love primarily refers to a feeling. I love something. I love pizza. I love my children. They all reference feelings. Warm, fuzzy feelings, usually, because we have different words for those that are not warm, fuzzy feelings. Warm, fuzzy feelings are not what happens to you when somebody treats you terribly.

Agape: Attitude, Mindset, and Action

Agape is an attitude. It's a mindset. And then an action that flows from that mindset. Yahweh has chosen to show acts of kindness and generosity towards people regardless of how they behave. He isn't asking you to generate warm feelings towards your enemy. He's asking you to choose to view them in a certain way. So it's difficult to come up with an analogy for this, but I will try. I do things for my wife and for my children, some things, because I genuinely love to do them. And then there are things that I do for my wife and my children because I love them, but it doesn't mean that I have warm, fuzzy feelings about the thing that I'm doing.

Deciding Before the Moment

In order to operate in that way toward my wife and my children, and don't misunderstand me— you will get a very poor picture of the man that I actually am if you think that I operate like this all the time. But in order to operate like that toward my wife and my children, the decision has to be made long before I'm ever in the moment. Otherwise, I will react the way I react. I will choose good and evil for myself. And in that way, I will teach my children that violence is the way of the world. And while it may be, it's not the way of the kingdom. To choose to view people how Yahweh sees them—a human being made in his image, they are beloved.

This is a decision that has to be made long before you ever have contact with some people that exist in this world. Another quote from Tim Mackey that I love: God has come among us in the person of Jesus to choose to do an act of love on their behalf. I don't have the right as a follower of Jesus to treat someone as unloved when Jesus treats them as loved. In the kingdom, I don't have the right to deny kindness and generosity to image-bearing humans. Some actions we do because we want to, and some things we do because it's a choice. When we are with our own people, like here, it's really easy usually to behave decently most of the time because we're amongst our community. But our mission has become to act as Jesus does, to choose to do this to everybody outside of these walls as well.

Be Complete

The kingdom reflects not how human communities tend to operate, but operates by children reflecting their Father in heaven, which brings us to Matthew . Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. The Greek word for perfect here is teleos. It's more of an idea than it is a word. And in my opinion, perfect works, but a better translation would have been complete. Be complete, therefore, as your heavenly Father is complete. And I like that better than perfect because I don't think that perfection is the goal outside of eternity. But what does society say about me if I'm a complete person?

If I know how to act in all situations—not just certain situations, but all situations. If I know, sometimes based on my culture, sometimes based on my worldview, how to treat people that are around me. If I choose to be complete by practicing agape, regardless of who I come into contact with, I will be seen as a complete person. Be complete, therefore, as your heavenly Father is complete. When I choose to view someone as a human with dignity, regardless of their behavior or what they've done to others and to me, then I can choose to do a concrete act of kindness. That moment is when we are most like.

It's About the Mission

So as you can see, it's about the mission, not just the moment. The moment is so important, but if all we ever have is the moment, we are missing out on the heart of God. The mission becomes denying what seems so natural to our broken, selfish condition and choosing kindness despite our own feelings about it. When men and women rule and define good and evil on their own terms, we get violence. That is not a groundbreaking statement. Just look around the world today or at any time throughout history. It doesn't really matter. God's upside-down kingdom is looking for something different. It's the hardest thing you will ever do. And when followers of Yeshua do this, things happen.

Learning Through Grief

I started down this path of understanding a couple of years ago, but it wasn't until I was able to stand before my king in my grief that I really learned to understand what he wanted, how he wanted me to look at a broken world, how he wanted me to feel when I was confronted with death that I could not change. I couldn't do anything about it. In that moment, I learned what my king wants of me. I never would have got there without it. It took that grief to break down the last little bit of me that was still looking for what it meant to be an image bearer of my king. And I was finally able to see everything—my family, my wife, my children, my ministry—from his perspective. I'm learning more every day what it means to be complete, to show the world around me what it looks like to bear the image of another. And I will tell you it's hard. And ask my wife and my children, and they will tell you I fail at it every day. But it's worth it.

The Weakness of Violence, the Power of Love

Jason, you guys, come back up. I want to wrap up with a beautiful quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sounds like an easy thing, but I've read a lot of him in the last couple of years, and I had never read him before. And I have come to very much appreciate his view on the world. And he summed up the idea that I'm trying to communicate better than I ever could, so I figured I'd just take it. In his 1967 book, *Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community*, he said: > ...the ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.

Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie; nor can you establish the truth. Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. And so it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. I have learned that there is no amount of love that I have for my children—those who are here and those who have died—that even comes close to the love of my King.

So now I get to spend the rest of my life figuring out how to look like him. It will be the hardest thing I ever do. It will be the hardest thing you ever do. But you have to make a choice. Will you follow?

The Invitation

If you need prayer, our teams are on either side of the platform. Feel free. Never forget you met him. *The moment you pulled me out of the darkness Gave me a promise to never thirst again Haunted, my heart has found Tasted like nothing satisfied Found dry, nothing satisfied All that you offer Nothing satisfied For you Fountains are in Hope is built Your mountains are in For you Taste it Nothing satisfies You do Oh, the fowl Nothing satisfies You do I've tasted Oh, and I Tasted Nothing satisfies I'm dry Nothing satisfies You will answer So faithful So good Today's a day Today's a day of rescue Don't wait* Thank you, Father. Thank you that you answer. When you receive him, you are seated in the heavenlies with him.

God, we want that picture. You answer us. You redeem us. And you seat us in the heavenly places. Thank you, Father. We want to be with you. I want to sing the Shema. Shema, Yisrael, Adonai, Eloheinu, Adonai, Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all of eternity. May the God of patience and encouragement grant you to be like-minded with one another in the manner of Messiah, so that together with one voice you glorify the God and Father of our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. And may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.

May the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you his shalom. Hallelujah. Shabbat shalom. Thank you, Father. Shalom. --- We pray this message has blessed and encouraged you in your relationship with God, and we hope that it has made the Bible more beautiful and more powerful in its impact in your life. Founded in Truth Fellowship exists to build a community that bears the image of God and lives the redeemed life only Yeshua gives. If this message has blessed you, or if you see God working in and through this ministry, we invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us so that the message of Yeshua and the truth of God's Word continues to reach all nations.

If you would like to take part in this mission, you can do so at foundinthetruth.com/give, or you can scan the QR code on the screen. These offerings go toward providing resources for both our local fellowship and our online ministry, as well as our many outreach ministries, including our foster care and adoption ministry, local charity outreach ministry, our international online children's ministry, and any future ministries that the Lord would allow us to walk through and impact the world around us with his love and blessing and the bold proclamation of the gospel of King Yeshua. We thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you next time. Shalom. --